Wordless Leftie #3

Leftie #3 Progress

If you count up from the bottom, after the 7th *feather* you can see where the natural white handspun cotton changes into a less white natural handspun cotton. I intend to segue through darker and darker shades for the spacers throughout the shawl. Whether the feathers stay green or not, depends on how long the green lasts and whether I want to spin more or not. I'm playing it by ear.

In the meantime, I really love how this is knitting up.

Boil and Bubble

I'm still in Tahkli Phase, spinning assorted organic cotton sliver colors, and plying them with a commercial yarn (80% cotton, 20% wool, Brown Sheep, fingering weight, on a cone).

This is a little over 4 ozs, probably about 360 yds, of natural colored, handspun cotton yarn. The whitest white is Acala cotton. The slightly darker white is Buffalo (the color name, it's still cotton) from Fox Fibre. The Medium is a stripey Fox Fibre, as is the darkest brown.These hanks had been washed but not boiled.

General wisdom has it that handspun cotton yarn needs to be boiled, both to set the twist and to bring out the color. Fox Fibre specifically is supposed to get darker with each washing. However, I didn't want to bring the yarn to an active boil because the plied strand has some wool in it. Just boiling will will not felt it, but I still didn't want to take a chance on sudden temp changes. That's several weeks of work up there- caution was my byword.

And then last night, I decided to do it anyway. A little Googling told me that Fox Fibre needs an alkaline boil, and my faucet provides all the alkalinity anyone would need. So I simmered the skeins gently. The color changed instantly and dramatically.

Here are the hanks, dry after their hot bath.

Look at the color change! (the little foof is unspun cotton)

The change in the Buffalo color is more subtle, but it's still obvious.

Even the acala darkened a bit.

This sliver is supposed to come out tweedy. It did.

I am really happy with these yarns. And I have no intention of putting the tahkli away any time soon. Next up on the spindle, some Fox Fibre green.

Pretty Picture

... just because...

Improvisation

I wanted another tahkli spindle, but I didn't want to spend another $20-$25 for one- not that the little tornado spinners aren't worth it, they totally are. I just didn't want to spend the money. I have The Hub on the lookout for 1" diameter brass circles with or without a center hole (sometimes, it's handy to be married to a carpenter)(actually, it's alway handy) because I am certain that he could make some for me, but so far, he hasn't found anything. Then my friend Nancie of Badfaerie Designs, from whom I bought my beautiful handpainted spindle, made a throw-away comment on Facebook about needing a bead for her dpn, so she could spin the cotton from a pill jar at her desk.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT!!!!

I searched through my boxes of lampwork beads (note: I haven't fired up the torch for several years. I think I need to, I'm nearly out of beads), and came up with these three goofy center-hole beads. They're amateur, they're lopsided, and they're not really any good for any other project. Perfect for experimentation and improvisation.

And then I rummaged through my needle stash. The holes were the wrong size for any of my metal needles, but I was able to push some Size 2-3 Knitpicks Harmony dpns into place. Unfortunately, not enough of the point stuck through for my style of tahkli spinning (I support the spindle shaft at an angle in a small, squarish plastic tub- The Hub says that using a porcelain bowl makes too much noise... sigh), and there wasn't enough clearance for the little bead whorls (barely an inch across) to spin freely.

Again with The Handy Carpenter suggestion- The Hub said I should just sand the needles a bit. They were wooden, after all.

And Voila! It worked. I was able to sand just a tinch off the needles. Then I shoved the beads up good and tight. I gave one of them a test run, and as you can see, my new spindle works just fine- the bead isn't perfectly balanced (I am purely an amateur lampworker, and it shows), and the spindle itself doesn't spin as fast as a regular tahkli, but it's perfectly functional, and pretty to boot. I did find that the bead fell off during plying though (no worries- no snarl or disaster), so I will have to glue the shafts in place. But otherwise- 3 new spindles at the cost of a couple of extra knitting needles and some beads I had on hand. Woot!

I now have 4.2 ozs of tahkli spun natural cotton (plied with commercial cotton/wool), fingering weight. I didn't measure the yardage of the latest batch, but the first 2ozs added up to 180 yards, and the the rest is comparable in size, so I estimate that I have about 360 yards of yarn already- almost enough for a Hitchhiker Shawl.

I have a few more hanks of white to spin first (and several unfinished projects to get off the needles before I cast on something new). The above is not a great shot, but I think you can see the slight difference in the *white* yarns. The top hank is a Buffalo Fox Fibre white, and the bottom is Pima cotton. The difference is subtle, but it's there, and I like it. I'll spin a couple more hanks of both for the shawl.

And then I might spin some more. I'm sorta in cotton spinning mode at the moment.

Oh, if you have a hankering to build yourself a tahkli, I am pretty sure that you don't need a flat bead for the whorl- all it does is provide a bit of weight to keep the spindle going, and a stop so the yarn doesn't fall off the bottom. Round beads, square beads, probably any bead at all, as long as it has a little heft, should work.

If you make one, send me a pic- I want to see what you all come up with.

More Tahkli Spinning

I'm getting the hang of spinning cotton with the little tahkli spindle (btw, which is the correct spelling? I see it several ways: tahkli, takhli, takli). I like being able to sit back in my chair to spin it (no sore back), and the yardage grows pretty quickly. I can spin and ply about 80 yards in a single evening (plying with a commercial cotton/wool), which is not a whole lot slower than with the wheel.

My singles are becoming more consistent, though there are still some slubs.

This is about 180 yards of spindle spun, 2-ply cotton and cotton/wool. All natural colors.

32 yds of white (from a cotton boll and some I had already hand carded, which means more even more slubs, but still cool), 110 yds of light brown and white mottled, and 38 yards of brown and white. If I spin another 180 yards or so, I'll have enough for a Hitchhiker shawl.

I'm not just using the tahkli- these other yarns were spun with my new painted spindle. 61 yds of orange wool/bamboo, 22 yds of blue Merino, 54 yds of gray, and 46 yds of angora rabbit plied with cotton/wool. These may end up as socks, when I get enough of the orange spun.

I wasn't able to spin the angora on the tahkli the first time I tried, but I'm more comfortable with it now, so I'll give it another shot. I think I'll also have The Hub take a little video of me spinning with it- not as a tutorial, just to show how I've been doing it. I think I'm holding the spindle differently than others do, but I'm happy with the outcome, so it's all good.

Spindle Mode

Ever since I opened this beautiful spindle at Christmas, I've been in spindling mode.

And not just with the new hand-painted spindle, either. I bought a little brass tahkli spindle at SAFF this year, but I hadn't quite figured out how to use it. Bless YouTube- this video taught me something I never would have figured out on my own- that *park and draft* works really well for cotton. And it always takes me awhile to remember to hold the cotton loosely for the long-draw.

It's a teeny little thing, isn't it?

1 oz spindle spun and plied (to itself, Andean Bracelet plying) of wool/bamboo. And whatever was on the tahkli spindle plied with a very fine cotton wool commercial yarn.

I also decided to try spindling some angora rabbit fur. I've never successfully spun it unblended on the wheel. The Angora Spirits were with me, because I got nearly a full spindle of lovely soft and fuzzy singles spun. I'm going to ply it with the same cotton/wool yarn that I used with the cotton on the tahkli.

 Speaking of the tahkli- this is what I got spun while watching Galaxy Quest. I never gave up, I never surrendered.

Handy dandy spindle stabilizer for plying...

And here it is, plied.

I wonder what I'll spin tonight...

SAFF 2013

I never remember to take pictures during my classes any more, but trust me, we had a blast. SAFF, as always, was amazing and exhausting fun. I got a few pics of the general melee.

Here's where I stood for a half day on Friday. My other classes had lots of students, but the steeking class had no takers, so I volunteered as a greeter. It was great fun- and I learned very quickly the most important answer: The bathrooms are that way! Next most: where the workshops were (I knew that without looking it up), and third: What to do with the ticket given at the gate (Answer: nothing, keep it to get back in if you leave the Ag Center Campus). I really enjoyed greeting everyone- maybe there's a career in it for me.

This was the souvenir/real information table. My job was to run interference by handling the easiest questions. Mostly I took this pic because I loved those shawls. SAFF is Shawl Heaven.

Sensory overload. Pure sensory overload. I gasp every year. Not only are there vendors on the floor of the arena, but an equal number around the upper level, and maybe 35 more in a different building.

Want.

Want.

Want. Are you sensing a trend?

My friend Pat, who was on the first cruise, makes and sells these tutus. She's every bit as amazing as this picture.

In the afternoon on Friday, I volunteered to sit the front table at the Fleece Show and Sale.

Man, I wanted to buy this Lincoln/Tunis/Romney fleece- it called my name so very clearly. Only the look my husband would have given me at the baggage carousel kept me from doing it. A very lucky and smart spinner snatched it up almost immediately. It went to a good home. Not mine, but good nonetheless.

Oh, lookie who's on the back of the 2013 Program Book!

More sensory overload.

Sunset, even from the parking lot, is beautiful.

Baby Alpaca!

Oh yeah- I did buy something... a teeny little tahkli spindle for cotton. There is a learning curve involved... (no kidding). I have about 30 homegrown cotton bolls to spin at home, which is not enough to get out the wheel and change all of the adjustments. I thought a little tahkli would do the job- and it will, though there is a definite trick to spindling cotton.

In general, I think SAFF attendance was up, and I didn't see a cranky face all weekend! Volunteering gave me a peek at the organizational side of a huge festival like this- the amount of work it takes to put it together is staggering. I bow to each and every one of the Board members and all of the bazillion volunteers (who did a whole lot more than a single day of work). Brava!