Fiber Monday - Did a little shopping

There is a fantastic fiber store near my mom's house, so of course I had to visit it while I was there. I was paid for the piano judging I did and had a little bit to play with. Here's what I found.

This is what I went in for. It is more of the silk and Polworth wool blend that I bought last year and loved. There were also blue braids, but I've been working with a lot of blue recently and decided to venture out to another color. 

Then I bought some supplies for next year's spinning class. This Jacob wool was fantastic for beginning spinners. I'll dye the white and leave the natural brown as it is. I had also planned on getting these.

Then comes the unplanned purchases. First there are these two skeins of fingering yarn. I don't often buy yarn these days, but these were so pretty and soft, there they were in my basket. 

I'll probably also take a bit of them apart to figure out how they made it... number of plies, how they combined colors, etc. Because I could make more. (Anyone else suffer from the "I could make that" disease? When you spin and dye it just increases the problem.)

Finally, I made a completely frivolous purchase. Yes, even more frivolous than more yarn. What could possibly fit in that category you ask? Another loom. Though this time a very teeny, tiny one. 

See? Frivolous. I told you. But I was talking with the store owner and she showed me some truly spectacular clothing items that she made using hexagons woven on pin looms along with knitting and crochet. And she can teach me her technique over Zoom. I had to buy it, right? 

(Because I need another project.)

There are a few other things to share. I mentioned the silk/Polworth fiber that I spun last year. I've been looking and looking for an appropriate warp so I can weave a shawl with it. I think I found it, and on sale, too.

It's 100% silk and is gorgeous. Because I didn't take it out of the bag, it's difficult to see the sheen on it. I think it's going to look amazing with the blue yarn I spun.

In my head it does, at least. We'll see. This probably won't make it to the top of the project list until summer.

I also finished spinning the third of the color gradient that I dyed. Just one more to go.

No, I still don't have any idea what I'll do with it. This was definitely done more for the process than the product. 

Finally, I did all the math and measured the warp for my next weaving project. 

So about this. My plan was to make ten napkins and then add on enough warp to add on a couple of dish towels. So far, so good. I figure out how much warp I'll need, I figure out number of ends, I figure out how many heddles. So far it's going much faster than the last project I had to do the math for. It took much less time to measure the warp. I happily tell myself that it's because I have had more practice and that's the reason.

Still something niggles in the back of my head. The whole warp just doesn't seem as long on my warping board as I thought it would given the size of the project. I finish measuring, still trying to figure out if there really was something wrong. I even measured the guide string. It is a nine yard warp and I measured nine lengths against my....

Ruler.

Yes, I measured nine lengths, but it was nine feet and not mine yards. This would explain why it just didn't feel long enough. It wasn't long enough by two thirds. Sigh. 

Let's try to see the bright side. 1. I can still use the warp. I'll just weave the dish cloths first as they'll fit nicely on the length I have. 2. I'll get to learn how to tie on a warp to one that is already threaded. (I'm trying to decide if that seems more or less fiddly than just threading the loom again.) And 3. Having made this mistake once, it seems much less likely that I'll ever make it again. You can be sure that all yards from now on will have three feet in them!