January Crafting Update and February Goals
Feb. 2nd, 2024 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeI got SO MUCH done!
January Goals
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
This is 8 ounces of fiber from Wild Hare Fibers, two braids of 4 oz each, rainbow gradient. I spun the singles from the end to end of the braid then plyed them together. I had to do some adjusting of the color repeats as I went, but not too bad. I won bobbin chicken, barely. I had to wind the last layer on by hand since there was too much friction. I probably shouldn't have done that but oh well. This is one of the braids.
THE FLUFF. This is the mohair fleece, all combed up! I started with 44 oz and had 11 oz of combing waste, so probably around 33oz of fiber. I started spinning it and I have almost a bobbin done. It's definitely been a 180 from the alpaca with it's 1.5inch staple and the adjustment has taken a little bit of work. I've been splitting the blobs in half or thirds and spinning very lightly, holding the fiber more in the back of my hand and only letting some of the fiber catch. There's some uncombed lock bits that were too small to get caught by the combs, so those have been a little trouble to work around when I get them, but it's not bad.
Weaving! This is a plain twill, it is going very fast because it's thicker yarn. I've got it warped at 11 ends per inch and that's probably the thickest I would want to put on my loom with the reed I have. There's a good amount of abrasion although the yarn has been holding up. Only two threads have needed fixing so far and that was where they had spliced the yarn or tied it. I had some tension issues that I fixed by winging it and that worked great. I also learned how to wind paper qwills so I could wind 30 bobbins at a go and then I didn't need to wind every couple of feet. The bobbins aren't able to hold a lot of yarn, so they last around four inches, which isn't very much. I'm so happy with how it's turning out. The next challenge will be figuring out how to wet finish 7 yards of fabric.
8 oz of merino blend fiber plyed!
Yarns skeined, measured and labeled, still need a bath! It was very cold during the week I did this, so no baths then.
February goals
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
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
This is 8 ounces of fiber from Wild Hare Fibers, two braids of 4 oz each, rainbow gradient. I spun the singles from the end to end of the braid then plyed them together. I had to do some adjusting of the color repeats as I went, but not too bad. I won bobbin chicken, barely. I had to wind the last layer on by hand since there was too much friction. I probably shouldn't have done that but oh well. This is one of the braids.
THE FLUFF. This is the mohair fleece, all combed up! I started with 44 oz and had 11 oz of combing waste, so probably around 33oz of fiber. I started spinning it and I have almost a bobbin done. It's definitely been a 180 from the alpaca with it's 1.5inch staple and the adjustment has taken a little bit of work. I've been splitting the blobs in half or thirds and spinning very lightly, holding the fiber more in the back of my hand and only letting some of the fiber catch. There's some uncombed lock bits that were too small to get caught by the combs, so those have been a little trouble to work around when I get them, but it's not bad.
Weaving! This is a plain twill, it is going very fast because it's thicker yarn. I've got it warped at 11 ends per inch and that's probably the thickest I would want to put on my loom with the reed I have. There's a good amount of abrasion although the yarn has been holding up. Only two threads have needed fixing so far and that was where they had spliced the yarn or tied it. I had some tension issues that I fixed by winging it and that worked great. I also learned how to wind paper qwills so I could wind 30 bobbins at a go and then I didn't need to wind every couple of feet. The bobbins aren't able to hold a lot of yarn, so they last around four inches, which isn't very much. I'm so happy with how it's turning out. The next challenge will be figuring out how to wet finish 7 yards of fabric.
8 oz of merino blend fiber plyed!
Yarns skeined, measured and labeled, still need a bath! It was very cold during the week I did this, so no baths then.
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
no subject
Date: 2024-02-03 02:16 am (UTC)Muslin.
(People who sew professionally use muslins. I figure there has to be a reason.)
That is certainly a whole lot! Some really great purples in there.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-05 01:43 pm (UTC)I do love purples, they're my favorite
no subject
Date: 2024-02-03 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-05 01:44 pm (UTC)