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spin span spun


posted 1 December 05 & filed under spinning

first off, check out the brand new spinning magazine spindlicity! janel, one of our local l.a. spinners, has done a tremendous beautiful job. go ahead and look, i’ll wait. ;) there’s a lot of good stuff there – patterns, article and more, including an article by julia perfect for those who want to get into spinning but don’t know where to start. ..oh, and you might see some pics that look familiar in the reader’s gallery section, yay!

in the same spinning spirit, here are some photos from my last spinning rental, mmm. i love how this batch of yarn came out! definitely getting better at the spinning thing and i must say the majacraft rose is a dream to spin on – quiet as a mouse, no oiling in over two weeks of regular spinning, incredible rations, smooth treadling and very pretty to boot.

first off, the gorgeous red and orange roving that was from my stitch ya neck out pal bethieee.
and that’s not all she sent – see that cute handmade cat? she also sent the some pink roving that i wish i’d taken a close up of, it was the prettiest deep pink with this occasional creamy white stripe, so lovely. i was so excited when i got the package, i sat straight down and spun all the fiber up. in my excitement, i totally forgot to even thank her till now! bad me, very bad. thank you bethieee!!

some experiments were done here.. first off, the striped chunky yarn was my first try at spinning thick. some beginning knitters spin thick, some thin, and i’m the latter category. but i absolutely love some thick yarn i see (especially on the excellent live journal ‘spinning fiber’ community)
and so wanted to see if i could spin do it too. it was hard but all in all, i was really happy with the results. and honestly, i was squealing a good majority of the time i was plying, that was so very much fun.

then, some felted soap as you see – ta daa! that’s my soap i talked about a while back – it lathers beautifully, smells very clean ;), but was fugly as can be. so! felted soap it had to be. what a great great way to use up bits of fiber. i definitely will be making more of these, that’s for sure. chicas, if you’re reading this, these are my stocking stuffers for the family – cool, huh? ;) (ten points to anyone guessing which one was the first felted soap..!)

lastly, my pride and joy would be these low twist singles – first off, some hand-dyed superwash from a store in the valley, then slow careful treadling, excited winding on the niddy-noddy, and finally a gentle wash in the sink. ahhh! i love this yarn – and here, unfortunately, the limitations of the web really show, for this yarn is the softest and cushiest yarn there is. i’m biased, but really, it is. love it love it.

i’m once again(!) trying to organize my fotos, and so i set up a spinning album with finished pictures of all my yarn – including these here, check it out..

happy day, everyone ~

Comments

Pride and joy indeed. Your spinning is amazing! I love seeing your creations ;) I suck at spinning!

~ Lolly (Dec 1, 06:39 AM#)

So many pretty pictures!

I think we are all secretly comment whores somewhere on the inside otherwise we’d have password-protected blogs, right? It’s not a bad thing. But thanks for the video, and now I know how to say your name if ever we do get to meet at a library conference or some other thing!

~ Heidi (Dec 1, 08:48 AM#)

You spinning is really amazing! I can not believe relitively how short you have been spinning and are producing such lovely yarns. I am really impressed.

So how hard was it to make the felted soaps? They look like so much fun.

I also love the kitty organized photo set. :)

~ Kitty Kitty (Dec 1, 11:25 AM#)

I love your spinning, the felted sope might just end up in couple of gifts this yearn thanks for the link.

(the first one must be the one in the lower right hand corner.

:-)

~ Katie C (Dec 1, 11:31 AM#)

I love the spinning you’ve done. How much does it cost to rent a wheel? (You’re getting me into trouble!)

I’m also a thin spinner, so I can understand that thick is difficult. I’m especially impressed with your singles. A balanced single is not in my repertoire!

~ Julia (Dec 2, 05:04 AM#)

OHhhhhhhhhhhhhh, your yarn is so yummy! It makes me want to spin spin spin as soon as I get home. (Have a big bag of delicious fiber under my desk isn’t helping matters, either.) Beautiful work!

~ kristin (Dec 2, 08:58 AM#)

Everytime I see your handspun yarn I am inspired to learn to spin! its beautiful!

~ moni (Dec 2, 01:13 PM#)

What beautiful spinning! LOVE all the colors :)

~ Dani (Dec 6, 07:34 PM#)

i love those stripey yarns you spun up (and the others too).

~ karen (Dec 10, 05:34 PM#)

I saw some of the “felted soaps” at the Sheep and Wool festival in NY. I came home and printed out a tutorial and promptly forgot about it! Thanks for the reminder!!!

~ Bookish Wendy (Dec 12, 12:03 PM#)