I'm taking a break from posting all my yarn crawl stuff to catch up on some of my other projects.
I spun this out of the Corriedale I bought at
Yarnivore. Mom found some online videos about spinning with a drop spindle, and one of them talked about the "park and draft." The park and draft is where you spin the spindle, pinching point where the roving turns into yarn. Then you stop the spindle and hold it between your knees (or in my case, between my feet) and then draft, letting the twist travel up the fiber. I think I'm improving. The yarn above is what I spun last weekend.
This is the yarn I spun last night. I'm not sure if it shows up in the picture, but it's a definite improvement. I even did a little spinning and drafting at the same time last night. (Just a little.)
Mom's Niddy Noddy is getting full. There are three layers of yarn here, the first is the natural white stuff Mom let me practice on, the second is the
vomity autumny Romney and the top layer is the gray Corriedale.
Meanwhile,
Mom saw my blog post on the
Spindolyn and went ahead and ordered one. I'm a little jealous, but hopefully I'll get to borrow it at some point.
I
won some yarn on the
Knitters Scavenger Hunt. I get one skein of
Malabrigo Worsted in "Red Java." I told Jules about the contest, and he remembered Malabrigo from visiting
Gauge and
The Knitting Nest. He was impressed enough by the softness to remember the name of the yarn.
I finally started the socks I promised Mom for Christmas. I wrapped the yarn as a Christmas gift, and I promised I would use it to knit wear around the house. These are supposed to be the beaded rib socks from
Sensational Knitted Socks. However, I realized early on that I screwed up in the second round of the rib pattern. I decided to just go with the uneven looking rib and call them "Mom's I Meant To Do That Socks." I'm also ignoring the wonky looking toe. (The numbers didn't seem to add up onthe short row toe.)
I'm also trying to ignore the hole in the heel. (I'll probably try to sew that hole up at some point.)
Of course, I giving the socks full of mistakes to one of the few recipients who can see the mistakes.
The last thing I want to mention is the Westminster Dog Show. I don't care which dog won. But the leads on these wire stories make me want to hurl.
Start dancin', Snoopy. You're out of the Westminster doghouse. and
America has a new Snoop doggie. were a couple I found from AP. These are the type headlines my former editors wanted. Reading these stories make me both queasy and nauseous at the same time. *shudder*
Mmmmmmm....Handmaiden Sea Silk. *drool*
I finally settled on the Strangling Vines pattern. Here is my crummy swatch. (I was impatient.)
Despite my hasty swatching, I'm happy with it so far.
Mom got her Spindolyn this week, and I got to try it out. I was tempted to buy one when I was struggling. However, now that I'm getting used to the drop spindle, the Spindolyn seems more difficult to use. There isn't much weight on the fiber, and I had difficulty getting enough twist in the yarn. It's definitely for spinning fine yarn.
This is a very unflattering picture of me using the Spindolyn. (Try to ignore the fact that I look like Jabba the Hutt.) I posted it because it does a good job of showcasing the Spindolyn itself.
