Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm spending the day at home today spinning and watching all these scary shows on cable. Right now "The Haunting" is on Bravo, and although they do re-enactments of actual events (and get a bit melodramatic), it's still a bit scary.

I had a fit of remorse yesterday and wished that I didn't throw away the "bad" bamboo merino I had just spun. It could have been operator error after all. Unfortunately yesterday was trash day and so hasta la vista, Miss B.

Anyway, what was left of the bamboo merino on the bobbin made up this:


Don't you just love the sheen of it? I can't wait to spin more bamboo!

Last week, I tried out a method using the hand cards Jamie lent me wherein I turn some hand carded fiber into a long piece of "roving". After hand carding white wool over and over again, trying to get a feel of the hand movements, I finally graduated to colors and attempted stripes. It would have worked out great if only I had matched both bobbins up - but I didn't.


This morning, I woke up early and decided to start working on some purple wool I had dyed a few weeks ago. I may have felted it in some places but hand carding solved any of my worries. It is purple in most places and blue in some, and after a few rounds of carding away, I came up with a tutorial on how I turn all that hand-carded wool into a long piece of roving.

Yup, you heard it - a tutorial! Click on the image to view the actual size:

I start out by hand carding some fiber. I kinda "stand" up the fiber on a flat surface and continue hand carding some more fiber and line up the next one against the first and so on. I usually will have about 4 to 5 of the handcarded batts lined up back to back against each other (and they will stand up like that). The photo shows the view from above.

I then take the 4 to 5 batts and - if you're working with striped batts, make sure you don't rearrange the stripes - hold all batts as one piece in your hands. I usually lay it on my lap and while gripping both ends securely, making sure that all the batts, especially the ones in between the outside layers gets moved, too. I gently pull my hands apart inch by inch, making sure that the batt remains intact in between. Then I start pre-drafting the batts, starting from the left. My hands are about three inches apart from each other as I grip the batt with each hand. I gently bring my hands apart slowly, predrafting the fiber almost inch by inch.


This is how the batt looks like as you gently pre-draft it. The letters represent the hand placements as you go from left to right, gently pre-drafting the batt as you go. This then turns it into a long piece of roving. It wont' look like commercially carded roving you get, but because it is hand carded, it's more lofty and airy than commercially carded roving.

It's kinda ghetto but it works for me. So today, after all that hand carding and pre-drafting action this morning, I ended up with 3 ounces of purple "nests" or "roving" that, with the addition of some dyed cotswold locks here and there, came up with this:


What do you think?

Fibery Patience Required

You are looking at some beautiful Flawful Fibers bamboo merino that I bought off someone's destash on Ravelry. I had this grand plan for making a Halloween themed yarn inspired by Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride.

Remember her? The movie starred the voices of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and had a very charming story - if you ignore the fact that the heroine is a, well, a corpse risen from the dead. It didn't have the zing of Nightmare Before Christmas, but it was charming nonetheless.

Here's a visual to jog your memory...


However, the darn fiber had other ideas. It refused to cooperate with the spinner, refused to remain spun up and chose to unspin itself every time I tried to ply it with some gorgeous metallic black thread. I tried this three times one night, then three more times the next morning - just to make sure that it wasn't that I was too tired to spin right and thus had a good night's sleep dreaming of spinning bamboo merino.

But no cigar. So off 2/3 of it went to the trash. I was so frustrated it wasn't funny.

I can spin it fine as a fingering yarn, just not as a novelty bulky art yarn. And adding stuff to it? Felted baubles and stuff like that? No way, Jossssseeeee!

I'll be back. I'm gonna dye me some good ol' merino instead and insist on believing it's not me. It's the fiber.

Really.

Some Introspective Cheese To Go With the Whine...

My back is feeling much better these days (thank you for all your well wishes). After a full week and a half of whining and groaning and walking like I had cement in my shoes and a camel on my back, I'm finally walking upright and acting like none of it happened.

Of course, as for my mental state, that's probably debatable.


You see, I think I'm stressed out. To. The. Max.

I've been listening to NPR straight for almost a year now and while there are times that I just have to shut if off and get some sanity back (they are the most sane of the bunch though), this time, I couldn't turn it off. It was like watching a train wreck all day long. Only this time, I'm listening.

The Dow was down 800 points. The foreclosure rate is climbing. Job losses are climbing. The financial crisis is affecting the whole world's economy. The bail out plan.... Well, you get the picture.

With the financial crisis taking over Main Street and its small alley ways and walk-ways, I think listening to the bleak news day in and day out finally took its toll on me. It's difficult not to get affected by it all. It's even more difficult not getting scared by it all.

So, in retrospect, I think my back simply gave out on me under all that mental and emotional and subconscious fear and strain. No amount of spinning and knitting could have prevented it - especially since instead of listening to some nice piece by Beethoven or Bach, or even jazz while I was spinning and/or knitting, I just had to listen to N.P.R. The news. Not the funny bits and segments. The news.

I still listen to NPR - don't get me wrong, I love them. But I think I'll be learning when to shut it off and let the beautiful world just outside of my little self shine through and allow me to get a hold of my senses - and know that I am safe and there is nothing to fear. Really. (I know it sounds like new age talk, but sometimes we need something like this to remain sane in this insane world.)

Okay, that's my rant for this morning. Thank you for listening. Now I'm off to spin some nice bamboo merino blend that is sure to work better with me now that I'm rested and...calm.

Nice Knowing You...

I'm trying to spin a bamboo/merino blend and it is just not working out. In fact, it's heading straight to the trash bin because I'm so frustrated with it. I wanted to spin some novelty yarn with it, going thick and think and although it looked amazing, it would unravel as bamboo is quite slippery. Worse if you're plying it...or attempting to ply it.

And so off to the trash bin it will go for tonight. That, or I need to go to bed. I must be tired.

On a lighter note, considering that I basically only studied 20% of the time last week for my Physiology midterms, I still got a solid B - right in the middle of the grade (not high B, not low B...just the perfect right in the middle B). The professor said today that the average for the midterm was 62% - results which forced him to create a grading curve.

Otherwise, my solid B would most likely be a solid C. Whew!

Panic

I have officially hit the dreaded PANIC button as the month's end approaches and I have yet to spin my Halloween themed yarn for my swapmate, Studioloo.

That's what I get for procrastinating. I figured I'd let the inspiration flow, get the midterms out of the way - yada, yada, yada. Then my back went out and that was that. Of course I spun some coiled yarn during that terrible time (I should have taken the 4000 mg worth of Motrin that Pam advised - she claimed anything over 4000 mg per day was toxic), and even carded and spun some funky colored yarn - but nothing I've made has ever passed the "swaptastic" level in my book. And now I'm panicking.

Not a good thing...

All the Pretty Colors

Thought I'd open my post today with something I found while surfing:


Interesting, huh? I found this on a rug website, a link I can't find at the moment, but it is very educational, that's for sure.

But before I proceed, some bad news: I threw my back out two Fridays ago, and had to take a break off work for a week (which coincidentally, should have been the time for me to study for my midterms in Physiology). I was in denial for about 2 days, thinking This can't happen to me! I'm a massage therapist, for crying out loud.

But unlike the stages of grief, which begins with Denial, I jumped right into the stage of: Acceptance. Hey, I am not getting younger, you know, and Thai Yoga can get pretty hard on your body (not if you exercise, do yoga, eat healthy - which I don't really do anymore these days - I'm too busy spinning and knitting). But there have been more and more days when I think that the fire has gone out in that department...but that's pain talking so I'm going to move along.

When I returned to work this Friday, I saw only two people - which was enough for me. But as the weekend speeds along, I'm finding that maybe the back pain could be a symptom of something else - like the flu or something, since my joints ache continually until I pop a few Motrin. Not good for someone who prefers homeopathic remedies and stuff. I even missed the Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild yesterday - something I've been looking forward to for months!!! I had been hoping to meet Bee there and maybe check out her Majacraft Pioneer wheel, too. I swear I'm gonna be all cheesed out after all the whining I've been subjecting Leo to!

However, for the good news...I have been busy!

I finished knitting up another slouch hat although this one is meant for a child because a) I used a smaller needle than required and b) I ran out of handspun yarn. But it looks quite interesting. This was my handspun from Copperpot's Beyond the Realm roving:


Now if it had come out just perfect for, let's say, me - then it would have been modeled excellently by "Amanda" my new model-in-residence. Here she is modeling my Don't Be A Slouch hat, and a scarf (well I can't very well have her hanging out in the house naked to begin with!). I think Amanda and I will get along just fine...


I've been meaning to post this photo of a cute drop spindle that Jamie gave me a few weeks ago. It's such a cute lady bug drop spindle and although the dowel is just too light and makes it top heavy, and thus harder to produce a decent spin, it's adorable! Here she is, spinning some carded merino - and she seems be doing quite well.


Yesterday was spent knitting up another slouch using something from my stash, Moda Dea Tweedle Dee in Sagebrush originally meant for hand warmers for my friend Tsuya. However as I knitted away and was on the 11th row of stockinette past the ribbing, I found the end of the yarn. Turns out that although the handwarmer didn't work out, instead of frogging it, I probably simply cut the offending piece (I'm sure it wasn't - just my over-achieving and perfectionist twin not liking it) and threw the remaining ball of yarn into the stash. So now I'm searching for another ball of Sagebrush to complete my slouchy hat!

One thing I did notice is that although I have also lived in Long Beach close to three years now, I still don't know where places are. I could not find a Joann's if my life depended on it - but I can drive you anywhere you need to go in the South Bay still! In fact, that's where I'm shopping for the yarn tomorrow after work!

Today's agenda - have some brunch after Leo wakes up, then head over to the Pantages to see Wicked! If only Kristin Chenoweth were still playing the Glinda...

I Really Should Be Studying...

SO, now that I got that out of the way, let's get back to regular programming! Here's my latest October buying spree. At the top is some roving I got from Etsy. It's really just three different colored roving that's braided together I found out. Nothing spectacular...I could have dyed it myself, but it's done, and I've got it. The other two bamboo looking rovings are bamboo merino tops from Flawful Fibers, which are pretty cool! Then there's the dark roving from Gale's Art. The Gale's Art and one of the Flawful Fibers roving are actually from someone on Ravelry destashing her stash...


I also got a vintage 4" Weave-It loom and I'm so thrilled. I got it for $15 postpaid! I can't wait to make some loom blooms for the holidays with it!

So while in pain yesterday I just had to be busy. Sure, I could have studied for my Physiology exam, but noooo...I had to spin. It got my mind off my pain anyway. And so I tried my hand making this...






As if you haven't seen enough coils in your life, huh? Well, this is my first attempt at both needle felting and spinning coils! I used one of my tough serging threads as the core yarn for the coils and went ahead and coiled a newly spun bobbin of three colors. After almost three hours of work - including spinning the singles for the coils - I ended up with...19 yards!

Can you imagine that???? I still can't believe it myself. But at least I got some neat coils! So I really can't complain.

I also decided to try out the hand cards that Jamie lent me. I used the short ends that were left over from Leo's blending of the roving balls and practiced away. It was awkward at first but after watching a few Youtube videos and referring to my Spin Off magazines and the corresponding photos, I think I got it.

I then went ahead and spun it into this yarn. It's a little course and I guess that's because they're all the shorter staples, and since I didn't combine it with any other fiber, like long stapled onese, it has that halo effect and feels a little scratchy, too. Maybe it'll soften up after I soak it...


So, I guess I better get studying, now that I'm sort off done with my fiber distractions. But wait! Let me show you a WIP. This is from my handspun yarn (from copperpot's Beyond the Realm batt) which I'm currently knitting into another tam. It's coming along really great! Now if I can only study and knit it to completion at the same time, life will be grand!