January Crafting Update and February Goals

I got SO MUCH done!

January Goals

• finish alpaca, skein, wash and label new yarns, ply Masham on spindles - Alpaca singles finished and as of 1/31, they were 2/3 plyed and I finished that today (2/2), so the pictures will go in february's update post. I skeined and labeled the yarns, just waiting for a bath. I didn't ply the Masham because I'm going to use it as singles for weaving, not sure what project yet but plying them made them look terrible, so they're sitting around waiting for the inaugural run of the cone winder. I spun 8 oz of combed top from Wild Hare Fibers. I started working on my sampler packs again, got 25g each spun of roseplant fibers, seacell, tencel. Started spinning the mohair fleece and almost a bobbin done! I also plyed 8 ounces of merino blend in purple as a two ply
• finish combing mohair fleece (stretch goal but might happen) - DONE WOOO, started spinning it and it took a bit to figure out the best way to hold it and spin from the blobs I made
• crochet mittens - worked on it
• get weaving project on the loom - on the loom! and 2/3 done weaving!
• work on tablet weaving project - nope
• continue 100 days of spindle spinning - yep and started spinning cotton on my supported spindle! I think I missed two days in January
• wash a fleece? - haha no
• buy more fabric for muslins and find another project to start - bought more actual fabric and then was given a bunch of random fabric, project is a pullover shirt
• Other stuff - got a lot of knitting done on my sweater with all the meetings I've been having, started the arm gussets and had to buy the pattern book again because I lost it somewhere and buying a new one hasn't made it reappear so it's really lost somewhere

Whew, a lot happened.

Alpaca singles! These were hard to spin and have been on the wheel since August. 24 ounces, so a large amount but still not the most enjoyable spin. It required precisely the right amount of pull from the wheel and twist going in as I drafted. It probably would have been fine on my big wheel, but the first layer of the bobbin, it pulls like a work horse and it kept breaking the yarn, so little wheel it was. This will be weft for a blanket with a brown alpaca fleece being the warp. That fleece isn't processed yet, but that's next. This will also be the first run on the cone winder since it's for weaving. I just finished plying these today so those pictures will be in February's post

( lots of pictures )

February goals

• Spin mohair
• crochet mittens
• knit sweater
• finish weaving project
• start processing alpaca fleece
• spin more samples
• Cone winder alpaca, masham, skein rainbow, label
• start sewing jersey - muslin? or just go for it?
• tablet weaving project darn it