More Spinning and Another FO

One of the first things I did with my new wheel was to spin up a batch of Corriedale roving I bought down in Sonoma County last year from the Artisan's Co-Op. I had played with it a little on the old wheel and the drop spindle, but it was a really nice introduction to my Lendrum.

I ended up with five skeins, each approximately 160 yards and worsted weight.



The skein on the far right is the first one I did, and it is noticeably chunkier than the others. I didn't notice until I had spun the second skein, which was much thinner. These two were both Navajo-plied, only compounding the problem. With the next three, I did a standard three-ply which helped to balance out the inconsistencies. These were done with a long backward draw, from the fold.

Last weekend was our local Natural Fiber Fair and I spent most of Saturday there. By the way, while the Fair had its disappointing moments (no Carolina Homespun or Chasing Rainbows this time!) they have a brilliant little thing called the Used Equipment Booth. I brought along my Ashford wheel, put a price tag on it and walked away. A couple of hours later, I returned to the woman running the booth to find that my wheel had sold. She handed me a bundle of cash, I handed her ten percent of it, and that was that. Practically effortless!

While there, I took a workshop on natural dyeing and brought my Corriedale yarn with me. Here are the results:



The one on the left, which is a little more yellow than this in person, was dyed with saffron, the middle is Brazilwood with an iron bath, the right is Cutch with an iron bath. Mine looked much different from the others, most of which were commercial white yarns bought from the workshop leader. I'm not particularly fond of how these colors turned out. I thought the saffron was especially disappointing since everyone else got such nice, bright yellows, but it was a good lesson in how dyes can vary on different yarns.

The process was fun to learn, and it would be neat to do more, but I don't see myself getting into it any time soon. It's quite a lot of work, especially to get predictable results.

Another fiber I played with on the new wheel is some dyed alpaca I bought at the Black Sheep Gathering.



This stuff felt great and I liked the colors, but it bled like crazy on my skin and my flyer as I was spinning.
Here's what I got from the first bundle:





I suppose you would call this a semi-worsted yarn. It's roving, not top, but spun with a worsted draw. I then Navajo-plied it to preserve the color sequence.

I tried to avert the bleeding problem by washing the second bundle of roving before spinning it so I could attempt to fix the dye with vinegar. Sadly, despite trying to be gentle, I felted it a bit, and spinning it is a real bear, so I've tossed it aside for now.

I emailed the company I bought it from with what might have been too gentle a message. I told them how disappointed I was and that I didn't feel confident buying from them any more, but I stopped short of asking for a refund or replacement. I never got a reply.

Here's some pretty dyed top I bought at the Fiber Fair last week.



The woman who sold it to me said it was from a breed called "Colonial," a Merino cross, she said, but there's no mention of it in my copy of In Sheep's Clothing, and Google only turned up references to them as a very general category, not a breed. If I'd been paying attention, I would have noticed that it's really not very Merino-esque. Long staple, not much loft, but pretty colors, and I like the way it spins up.



I've only done a small sample so far. This is a two-ply, worsted draw.



And finally, a non-spinning FO. I don't normally do baby stuff, but this is for an old friend of Max's. I still want to wash and block it before getting it in the mail. I really need to hurry, though, because the baby's already here and will probably soon be too big to wear this!



It's the Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting (Rosie the Riveter added to counteract girliness). I did it in Lion Brand Cotton, color Banana. I used just a smidge more than one ball, but I added some length to the body and width to the sleeves because I'm worried about shrinkage. I also went with buttons instead of the ties used in the original. I though the ties seemed fussy, and it looked like the inner flap of the kimono would sag without something securing it.
Here's a button close-up:



I can now see the appeal of baby projects for their speed and cuteness (I also made a hat for a different baby recently, but forgot to photograph it) but it still saddens me that they grow so fast and can only wear these things so briefly!