February Crafting Update and March Goals

[unicornduke]

February goals

• Spin mohair - three bobbins done, all around 5oz, so I might be halfway?
• crochet mittens - allllmost done, just need to bind off the top of the mitten and do the thumb
• knit sweater - making progress, split at the sleeves and now knitting the back section flat, I have remembered how to knit with both hands, so I don't need to turn it which is nice
• finish weaving project - DONE
• start processing alpaca fleece - started!
• spin more samples - I think I spun all of them!
• Cone winder alpaca, masham, skein rainbow, label - decided to wash the alpaca before cone because it was dirty, I didn't do a great job washing the fleece. Skeined it and gave it a hot wash with soap and it looks waaaay better. Now I need to figure out how to get it onto the cone since I don't have a swift. Probably drape it over my knees and wind it onto my electric wheel, probably good to give it a tiny bit more twist in some areas. Washed all the other skeins and they're now drying
• start sewing jersey - muslin? or just go for it? - made a muslin, working on real pullover now
• tablet weaving project darn it - someday I'll do this

The cloth! It is very heavy, around 6 pounds for ~7.5 yards of fabric that is 30 inches wide. It will become a coat someday, potentially even a really neat fancy one. I have no idea how I'm going to wet finish it, it's so long and heavy. I'm very pleased with it.



Skein washing day. They still aren't 100% dry but they're almost done.



Samples! I bought two sampler packs of fibers when I started spinning from Hearthside Fibers. One was plant fibers and the other was idek sheep of some sort. I did a lot of spinning of the sheep fibers but I didn't really like the plant fibers. So finally back in June, I decided to get them done. Each sample was 25g and I separated them with black alpaca fiber (for most of them I think) so I would know what each type was come now. All of these are top. In reverse order (last spun to first spun) cashmere, Eider, Charollais, Texel, Pineapple, Norwegian, seacell, roseplant, soybean, banana, ingeo corn, mint. Most of them were rayon type fibers, where they basically melt the plant material and extrude fiber, but the pineapple and banana were actual processed bast fibers and lovely to spin. I have no idea what I'm going to do with these fibers. I used to make samples of singles, 2 ply and 3 ply, but ehhh I never really look at them so I don't see any reason to keep more samples that I won't look at.



Pullover muslin, yes I forgot I wasn't cutting it on the fold and made them all separate pieces. It's a muslin, so it didn't matter. I've started the real pullover and am making some progress on it already.



ETA: I took my time winding the bobbin on the reel for maximum rainbow.


March goals

• spin mohair, finishing it would be a stretch
• finish mittens
• knit sweater
• cone up alpaca
• process the rest of the brown alpaca fleece?
• sew pullover
• tablet weaving - make a loom for this?

Comments

[graydon]

That mass of cloth says "blankie!" loudly. All natural, colour-wise?

That's a lot to get done!

[unicornduke]

You know, I'm not actually sure if it's natural colored. It's a wool/mohair 2 ply, no clue on the percentages or any other information. It's probably natural? I do have blanket plans in the near future, alpaca from fleece, with brown as the warp and white as the weft, then I'll seam panels together to get width.

[graydon]

That does seem like the sort of colour "it came from sheep! mostly!" levels of specificity would get you.

That blanket plan sounds lovely.

[ranunculus]

The fabric looks lovely. So does the rainbow.
Banana and pineapple fibers. I had no idea such things might exist. This is lovely information given my allergy to lanolin.

[unicornduke]

There's all sorts of bast fibers out there, most just aren't really widely available since they aren't industrial processed. Hemp might be another option.

[ranunculus]

I looked up banana yarn and will get some to try. Lots of websites reference pineapple, but there wasn't much available for the average crochet project.