SpinnySpinny

The Learning Exchange samples are going in the mail, The Boyfriend is off for the long weekend, and work is being relatively tame. I even already took care of my mother’s birthday present. I can hang out and do all the fiber stuff I want.

I’ve started spinning for some legwarmers, but not the kind you think. You see, I like the idea of handknit socks, but I don’t actually like knitting that fine so they fit in my shoes. But it’s Summer once again in San Francisco, so my legs are freezing all the time. I’m going to make just the leg part of some knee socks, out of one of the black lamb fleeces I got last summer. It will probably take a little elastic in the top cuff to make it work, but that’s really no different from the sock variety.

In the I-Have-A-Loom-Now department, I ordered some cotton weaving yarn. One is a big cone of singles blended natural green organic cotton, which I will probably ply with itself the same way I did with the stuff I found on pirns at the surplus craft store. It’s all really fine, presumably intended for weaving sheeting. I now have white, brown and green and I think somehow dishtowels will happen. I just need to get the studio cleaned up.

I haven’t been able to update the website, because our DSL is still not installed. The telco couldn’t get the address right and insisted we didn’t exist. I think our ISP finally re-ordered the circuit to get it correct. So instead of being offline a week, it’s going to be a month. I can still enjoy it from my personal laptop, but that doesn’t help you all that much. All five of you, as best as I can tell. I’ve been wanting to do some promotion for the website but I’ve held off knowing this would happen. I wouldn’t want to get everybody all excited and then have the website down.

But the world of textiles moves on, and as things get settled in the new place I’m getting back to spinning. I signed up for a Learning Exchange program with HGA, basically a sample swap with everyone getting bits of all the yarns. Each one is evaluated by the leader and everybody gets copies of the comments. I wanted to try the program, so I signed up for the Merino exchange. I’ve been spinning Merino for years, so I can explore without worrying too much about it. I know I can always produce some nice yarns just by going back to my normal spinning style. It’s a bit of a nuisance to do it in the middle of moving, but I’ll manage. I have two samples I like so far and I might do a third. There are more participants than the estimated 8 and each gets a fiber sample, small skein and wrapped wpi card. More of those detestable cards to cut, mark and wind. That right there may keep me to two yarns.

The loom is here, but it’s still in pieces. It will be a few more weeks before the place is together enough to start working on it, but I’m already ordering yarn and calling in various equipment out on loan.

More things far too tedious to mention here have been going on, mostly involving housing. But there is good news to report, finally. We have an apartment, one that is not crumbling and larger than a shoebox. Sadly, we don’t get it for another week, but we have signed the lease. There are two bedrooms, two large hall closets and a decent sized living room that will be the textile studio! It means leaving downtown, but you can’t have everything.

And, even better, I have a loom to go in it. It’s sitting in someone’s garage for the moment but I’ve put down a deposit and she is ok with holding on to it until next week. It’s a Leclerc Nilart 45 inch, 12 harness jack loom. It’s big, much larger than the Artisat I had a while back. It’s an older loom and the model isn’t being made anymore, but parts are still available.

Finally the bobbin of purple scarf warp is done. It looks nice but I’d rather be spinning something else. I’ve thought about it and determined that it’s mostly the short staple length that bothers me. I think the 600m I have will be enough, so I can put the rest of this fiber in storage and pull out the black top. That has a longer staple length, so maybe I’ll like it more. I started a page over in Projects for this, and even have a photo up.

Finally some fibery stuff happens around here, in between the coughing and post-nasal-dripping and all that fun stuff. It’s nice to know that when you can’t do anything involving complex thought, there is still fleece to sort. Or something like that. I’m finally getting on with the huge backlog of dirty fleece and even doing a bit of spinning.

I started a mindless project with some Ashland Bay multicolor Merino top, a scarf for The Not-Really-Allergic Boyfriend. It’s all single, with warp and weft of opposite twist. I picked up some burgundy to go with the purplish multi warp, but I think I’m going to end up with black weft. I still haven’t resolvevd the loom question, however. This needs a proper modern multi-harness loom and I don’t think I will survive using the table loom on the floor. But I don’t have to decide yet, I’ve only promised to have it finished by February.

It’s nice to finally do something rather than make samples all day long. And something that isn’t fussy and tedious. It will be a little uneven and that’s ok. I’m enjoying the part where I buy the fiber ready to spin, but not so much the bits I have to pick out of it. I’ve never seen a commercial wool I’ve been entirely happy with, there are always neps or VM or even sometimes lumps of nasty stained fiber. And it’s never as long a staple as it could be. As much work as it is, I will continue to scour and comb my own because the results are so much better.