a snowball?

well, i managed to squeeze all of the alpaca on the drop spindle, and it doesn't look so much like a drop spindle as a softball with an antennae (or a jack in the box head). i wound it off, skeined it, and fulled it, and now have a lovely bundle of white alpaca laceweight.

i've been playing with the idea of dyeing it a soft aubergine with cochineal, but figured perhaps the white plainness may work in my favor. maybe. just guessing really. not going on any data to back this hypothesis up. we'll know in a month though, won't we?

the muslin sacks are all sewn up, corded, and tagged. it's a good thing i thought of labeling, as they're mostly indistinct from one another. i feel almost like a bank robber with sacks of money; hey, it's what they look like to me.

after picking up some color grown cotton roving yesterday, i'm down to two empty sacks. hmm. luckily i have enough cord and material for several more, and they're quick and easy to sew up.

mochi madness

getting ready for the fair, one of the categories which i am happy about is spindle spinning; which is a favorite pastime of mine. i have a mohair/silk and alpaca chunky yarn i've spun which i've entered; so for a little variety i decided to put my kuchulu to work and have been spinning a laceweight 2ply in white alpaca that i had helped shear.

one of the requirements is that the skein needs to be one to two ounces. which is fine, doesn't seem like a lot. but, when you're using a wee little drop spindle it sure seems like a ginormous amount to spin. each .20 ounce ball looks like little mochi, so cute!

i've borrowed my mothers delight spindle to ply, and i hope i can get it all on there. i have yet to master the joining of two separate 2ply strands (other than a knot). ah, well, something to aim for.

an old one but a good one

my mentor and friend bonnie lent me one of her spinning wheels on friday. it's a lovely old wheel which has a lively history. while visiting england, she stayed with a friend who was in her eighties. this grand lady knew bonnie was a spinner, and decided to pass onto her this spinning wheel. she told her the story of it's provenance; when she was a girl of sixteen her scarborough beau crafted it as a gift of love. sadly though, he soon died, and they did not marry. bonnie brought it back on the plane, and her husband soon had it in tip-top shape. i'm very honored that my friend let me start my spinning on this wheel, and i was able to spin some soft grey alpaca on it today.

this is my first spinning wheel spun yarn, it's a white/color specked merino/silk and grey alpaca. the merino blend i had spun on my drop spindle several weeks ago, and i thought would go lovely with the soft grey of the alpaca. i'm very pleased with the end results!

i'm seeing plaid

one of the projects in weaving i completed, (if fulling is the last step in a woven piece, then i completed it yesterday) a german bird's eye twill. this was an interesting piece which i titledworldly camel, as it contains camel down yarn, handspun bamboo, cotton, and baby alpaca.

the warp was an experiment in using different colors and creating stripes. with the weft, i repeated the spacing of each warp color to create an asymmetrical plaid. i wanted to get as much out of the warp as possible, so the overall length of the piece is longer than planned; but that's okay as it makes a wonderfully soft wrap.

i like the strong blue lines, it makes the neutral cream and brown really pop. i had fun weaving this piece; even with the couple of weaving errors i can spot. herringbone, or as it is known in weaving lingo, twill, is one of my favorite patterns. overall, none too shabby for my first wool piece and my fifth weaving piece. i have three towels which were projects from an issue of handwoven still on a friends loom, and two beginner pieces finished, one a rag rug table runner, and the other a scarf, which i gifted to my mother.