Junior

Tonight I pulled out the llama roving from "Junior" that I bought at Kid 'n Ewe last year and started spinning it.


The roving itself was thick. It naturally wanted to separate into 4 pieces of roving.


It's also very "rustic." This shot against the light lets you see all the little bits of vegetation in this piece of roving. It's tempting to try to pick out every piece as I spin it, but that would take forever. Instead I'm trying to leave it in and make spin a rougher yarn instead.


This is what I finished tonight. (You can see my pink leader.) This yarn definitely has more "grip" than the alpaca I'm working on. It makes the whole spinning process take longer.


Speaking of the alpaca, I've managed to spin all of it into singles. I need to get the other bobbin of alpaca from Mom's house so I can ply them. Until then, it can look nifty on my Lazy Kate in a corner of my house that's actually organized.

Tuesday (or Wednesday) Tens: Ten Gifts I'd Like To Get From Etsy

Last year I took the Handmade Pledge, and this year I'm keeping it going. If you want to get a gift for me (or yourself) here are some ideas.

1. Knitting Needles by Chelle.
I've been drooling over these for a long time. They have several with initials, and I also like the ones with funny sayings like "Knit Wit," "Knit Picky" or "In Deep Knit."

2. Handpainted Yarn from Yarn Oddities.
Beautiful, vibrant colors.

3. A Glass Knitting Pendant like this one from Chauncey Design.
This design always sells out quickly, but they usually restock it. Squidglass also has a nice selection of knitting related pendants.

4. Jewelry made from knitting needles from Saving Nine Creations, Sassafras Creations or Liana Kabel.
Saving Nine has earrings made from the very tips of metal needles that have the needle size, Sassafras uses both ends for earrings, necklaces and more (I think The Knitting Nest carries their keyrings) and Liana Kabel has bangles made out of needles.

5. Novelty Batts from Loop or Terra Bella Spun.
I have one from Butterfly Girl Designs already. After I get better on the wheel, I plan to dig into the novelty batts. I'm excited about spinning novelty yarn.

6. Art Yarn from Bugtussle Yarn.
See number 87 on my list. There are so many to choose from, but Bugtussle seems to have the wildest and weirdest. Bees Knees Knitting, Felt Studio, Pancake and Lulu, Snowberry and Lime, Ozknits and Weird & Twisted also have great selections of art yarn.

7. A Ginormous Knitting Bag from Actual Size Creations.
One of the few bags I've seen that looks like it would fit everything.

8. Alphabetical Stitch Markers from Hide and Sheep.
Sooner or later I'll dig into my Cat Bordhi Book. When I do, these will help.

9. Roving from Zen Yarn Garden.
Must Keep Knitting also has some pretty roving.

10. Knitter's Giftdex from Knit.
You want something nest year, don't you?

Kid 'n Ewe: The Fiber

I did the best I could to tell you about Kid 'n Ewe without pictures. Now it's time to share all my loot, starting with the fiber.


I always make a full sweep of all the vendors before I purchase anything. When I finished my first round, I made a beeline back to Butterfly Girl Designs to get one of her sparkly novelty batts. I'm excited about novelty spinning after reading Intertwined.

The owner (and I don't remember her real name) said this particular batt almost didn't make it to the show. She almost kept it for herself, because it was so pretty. She had a lot of beautiful batts, and I wish I had been able to take pictures. It wasn't an easy choice.

Some had sequins and some didn't. She said we can always just not use the sequins if we want, but I intend to use them. She recommends taking a few sequins off the ends and just spinning them in.

The batt contains 3.5 ounces of Superwash Merino, Bamboo, Merino, Tencel and Angelica.


I bought some good stuff from Rosewood Yarns. They had a booth at the show. This is 4 ounces of naturally colored llama from BR Llama Ranch. (I can't find the ranch online.) The Llama is named "Junior." I think I may spin this on Mom's wheel for more practice.


I also got a couple of silk hankies from Rosewood Yarns. After getting one from Yarnorama, I decided to buy another. Actually, I got two and gave one to Mom as a gift. These were dyed by TexScape Fibers.


Remember my Cookie Monster batt? I've made pretty good progress on it. The batt consisted one ounce of 70% Superwash Merino and 30% Tencel.

Well, I bought another batt from Spinning Straw Into Gold:


This is another one ounce batt, but this one is 100% tussah silk. I decided this shade of mossy green would look good on me. They had stacks of batts in a rainbow of colors, some in the merino-tencel blend and some in tussah silk. I had to get one of each.


It was one of the ladies at The Weavery at Indian Meridian that put it into my head that 4 ounces was enough for a worsted weight hat. (Well, 3-4 ounces.) I wanted a "hat" amount of this roving, enough for a decent size skein of worsted weight yarn, probably with two with plies.

This is four ounces of Merino/Tussah Silk roving from Ashland Bay in "Concord". They had so many pretty heathered colors, many in shades of purple, that I had a hard time deciding which one to get.

I'm not sure if I'll actually make a hat, but it's a good guess.


After I spun the bamboo sample I got last year, I knew I was ready for more bamboo. In fact, I'd like to make a lacy scarf like Strangling Vine.

I've noticed that I seem to have a fair amount of pink in my wardrobe, so I got four ounces of bamboo roving in "Raspberry" from Fiberlady. It should be plenty for a scarf or a small shawl or stole. I'm thinking about spinning fingering to lace weight yarn from this roving.


I also got some hand-dyed flax and hemp from Fiberlady. They had it in open boxes where you could pick as much or as little as you wanted in whatever color you wanted. The one on the left is flax, and the one one the right is hemp. I got just enough to try them out.


This was my last purchase of the day. I decided I needed a little more novelty, so I bought two ounces of sparkly nylon top from Kai Mohair. The label says green, but it looks like what the Ashland Bay website calls "tropic". It looks like a mix of green and red to me, something that would be great for sparkly Christmas yarn.


Like last year, there was an entire building dedicated to Alpacas. I couldn't leave without some Alpaca Roving, and I finally got four ounces from Cibolo Creek Alapcas. I got white, and I think I may try to dye it myself.


Heritage Arts had a nice variety of fibers, and I couldn't leave without a couple of samples.

This is two ounces of bombyx silk. This is the only bombyx silk I bought. The rest of the silk I bought was tussah silk. Bombyx is smoother and more luxurious than tussah silk. (Although tussah silk is still very nice.) I learned all about the types of silk when I took a class with Amy Singer. There are some good explanations here and here if you want to learn more.


I also got just one ounce of Ingeo from Heritage Arts, just enough to try it out. Ingeo is a corn-based fiber.


This isn't fiber, but it belongs here. This is a little Wraps Per Inch tool from Hokett Would Work. This was the same person who made my drop spindle. They came in all sorts of wood, and I tried to pick one that matched my spindle.


Finally, for my parting shot, I have to share my "yarn barf." After the ladies at heritage arts let me use their wheels, one of them gave me the little piece of yarn I spun. I think I'll add it to my recycled yarn ball.

Ginormous Knitting

I've been eyeing the ginormous knitting needles at The Knitting Nest since the store opened last fall. Last night, I finally got to knit with them.

I tried sitting down and knitting with them, but it made it harder to move the needles. Standing up made it easier for the ends of the needles to slide on the floor.

This is Stephanie. I met her for the first time last night. She tried out the needles before I did. Apparently, she actually lifted the needles off the ground while she knit with them.

Stephanie said the key is to move the "yarn" more than the needles. (The "yarn" is made out of strips of t-shirts that are tied together.) I think I did something like that. I focused on moving the tips, not the whole needles. The ends basically rested on the ground, moving very little.

(BTW - Ginormous is actually a word.)

They also have some new roving for sale:

I'm kicking myself for not writing down the brand(s). I do know it's merino, and it's thin. Would you call this pencil roving?:

Now that I've tried to spin Merino, I know thin roving is good.

Yarn Pr0n: Yarn Crawl Booty

I almost forgot the gratuitous yarn (and fiber) shot from the San Antonio Yarn Crawl. Go here and mouse over the picture to find out the specifics.

Yarn (Store) Pr0n: Yarnivore

This is the second part in a three part series on the Meetup group's San Antonio Yarn Crawl. (You would think I was Ken Burns or something.)

After lunch, our next stop was Yarnivore, the place that Titian Knitter recommended for roving.

Here's about half of their roving selection. (Sorry for the crummy picture, the light was at the wrong angle.) They also had some merino and merino/silk blends in another area.

This is the owner, Melanie, weighing Corriedale roving for me. This was one of the types of wool Mom recommended. I thought choosing a lighter shade would make spinning a little easier (they had it in some other natural shades as well.) Melanie said the heathered color would make it easier to see the twist.

Those other two bags contain dyed merino roving in indigo and periwinkle. I bought two ounces of each. When I get better at spinning, I plan to spin them into singles and ply the two colors together.

These were taped to the back of the computer where I checked out. The top is spun out of Melanie's cat's fur, and the other out of a customer's cat's fur.

They're big cat fans at Yarnivore. This needlefelted piece was also on the back of the computer.

Of course, they had yarn as well.

I loved the little "yarn tree." Some of this yarn was dyed by the shop. The furry stuff is UT and A&M yarn that believe is also unique to the shop.

Melanie said they seem to have two types of customers. Those who are crazy for novelty yarn, and those who won't touch the stuff. They try to stock to keep everyone happy.

It's the great wall of Manos del Uruguay!

Yes, it's more Colinette Jitterbug. No, I didn't buy any here either, although I seriously considered it.

I think all the shops we visited put up signs with prices rather than labeling every single skein of yarn. I like the fact that they list price per yard.

I wanted to spend more time, but everyone was waiting on me so we could make it to our next stop before they closed. They had a nice sitting area. I wish I was closer so I could hang out there more often. (They had some munchies too, but we were still stuffed from lunch.)

For our parting shot, here's a piece of artwork hanging in the shop. Melanie said a customer made this for a mixed media art class and gave it to the store when she was done.

You can see all my yarn crawl pictures here.