Fiber Monday - Lots to show
It's been a productive two weeks. I'll warn you ahead of time there are a lot of things to share with you.
First off, I finished the scarf I was working on in the weaving class. I loved this class! It was great to learn how to use a floor loom, and I have a much better idea of how to get mine working. What I think I loved even more was working with a group of people. I do so much of my fiber art stuff alone. I don't really know anyone else in real life who spins, so it makes it difficult to do that with other people. I read about spinning guilds where there are a lot of spinners who get together once a month to spin and learn things together and I am pretty jealous. Talking with other people who are interested in learning and doing the same types of things I am was really wonderful. Here is the finished project.
I was happy to note that I had improved significantly from the beginning of the first day to the end of the second day. I can look at this scarf and see it getting better woven. Of course this means that one is a little wonkier than the other, but on the whole I'm happy with it. It was a good learning project.
I also finished a project here at home.
These are two pieces of cloth I wove on my rigid heddle loom. That multi-colored section on each piece is the handwoven yarn I made when I was first re-learning to spin nearly five years ago. It was... interesting? unique? unusual? vaguely ugly?... yarn and it had been sitting around while I figured out what to do with it. It think it works really well in a woven piece. These two panels are going to be sewn together into a large basket that I will use to put skeins of handspun yarn in as I work on a project.
I haven't done much spinning recently. There have been several other projects to work on and I'm finding it difficult to get motivated to spin the last 300 yards for the cardigan project. I did take a break from the endless cardigan yarn and play around a bit with some of the fleece that B. had given for me for Christmas. I had combed a bit and wanted to see what it would be like to spin.
It was a little tricky. It is very fluffy wool and likes to stick together making it a little difficult to draft. I also think I need to comb it a little more because there were still more short bits than I had thought which also made it difficult to spin. Here is what it looks like.
These are both 3-ply (I chain plied them). The very dark brown wool is harder to work with than I expected. I found I cannot wear dark pants while I am spinning because I cannot see what I am doing. You can see how sproingy they look.
Here are the three mini skeins I spun with a little nest of combed wool sitting above them. The next is about three inches across to give you some idea of size. One of those skeins came from a nest the same size. I like the diameter of the yarn. I'm thinking I may turn it into socks. The fleece also had lighter sections of wool which I have separated out. It would be kind of cool to spin it for socks and do some colorwork around the top in the lighter wool. (Colorwork is on my knitting learn-to-do list for this year.) But this really all needs to wait until the cardigan yarn is finished.
The cardigan. Look! I have cast on and am nearly halfway done with the back.
The socks are done! And they fit.
Here's a close-up of that pesky grommet which caused me so much difficulty a few weeks ago.
L. and Y. are now deciding they each need a scarf. L. has even picked out her colors. So, I guess I will be warping the rigid heddle loom and weaving a couple of scarfs for them. But first, I really need to spend some time cleaning up the studio. There has been a lot of making and not much cleaning and I am about at the end of my limit with the chaos.
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