Autumn Yarn

I've just finished spinning some beautiful alpaca/merino/silk fiber from Yarn Hollow. It was hand painted in their chai colorway, which is just perfect for autumn. I'm still getting used to the great big bobbins on my Ladybug. I misjudged how much fiber I had left and wound up with about twice as much singles on one bobbin as I did on the other. I went ahead and plied the two together, and I Navajo plied the leftovers. The two-ply came out at about 32 - 36 wpi. The Navajo ply was about 24 - 28 wpi. I wish I would have taken the time to wind the leftover bobbin onto a ball and ply it onto itself because I really like the two-ply a lot better. Of course, maybe I just need more practice Navajo plying... :)

Here is the two-ply:

And here is the Navajo ply:

Alpaca Merino Shawl

I finally finished the shawl I was working on. The draft is an advancing twill from Twill Thrills. The warp was Angel Face, a lace-weight alpaca from Briar Rose Fibers, and the weft was merino wool from Jaggerspun. I used this fiber combination on some scarves a couple of years ago and was really pleased with the results, and I am just as happy with this shawl.

I thought I would share some of my observations from using this yarn as warp.

First, the yarn is sticky. Not sticky, as in I couldn't get a good shed. Rather, sticky, in that little fuzz balls kept forming at the lease sticks while I was beaming the warp. I was continually separating warp ends with my fingers because they were being glued together with all these little fuzz balls. I didn't remember this from last time I used this warp. But that was a warp of narrow scarves, and this warp was a shawl, about 28" in the reed. Probably the width made it more noticable on this warp.

Second, the yarn is fragile. On both projects, I used louet looms with texsolve heddles and the louet raddles. I also used the paper clip temples on both projects. I would hate to try this as a warp on my baby wolf, which has flat steel heddles. When I wove the scarves, the selvedges broke often, so when I planned the shawl, I used a double strand for the floating selvedge. That seemed to do the trick. The only reed I had that was wide enough to weave this shawl was a 6 dpi, and I sleyed five per dent. I had several broken ends throughout the shawl, and I found it interesting that every broken end was one of the outside ends in a dent. I don't remember this happening with the scarves, which were woven with a 12 dpi reed. Next time I use this yarn again, I will use a finer reed and see what happens. I also had broken ends more frequently when I got to the end of the warp, where I didn't have the warp spread perfectly when I beamed it. Next time I will pay more attention to spreading the warp. I'm glad I used the louet raddle because the warp was spread much better than it would have if I had not used it. If you're not familiar with the louet raddles, Cally gives a fabulous explanation here.

Anyway, below are a couple of pictures of the shawl. I wish you could feel it. It is very drapey, very soft, very light weight, and very warm. I just ordered a skein of the alpaca in another colorway and see another shawl in my future.

My Poor Naked Looms

I feel like I've been neglecting my looms lately. I don't feel too guilty, though, since I have a couple of good reasons. First, I bought some awesome fibers at Greencastle a couple of weeks ago.

First was this beautiful silk from Robin Edmundson. She had so many great yarns and fibers in so many beautiful colorways, it was hard to choose.

I also bought a raw Cormo fleece from Westfield Woolies. I decided to process it myself. I have never washed a fleece before. I have washed this one now, and it's still drying. I am going to flick card it since it has a nice long staple. I have already learned one important lesson: Be more careful about skirting. What I have isn't too bad, though, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.
Last, I bought this beautiful roving from Greyside Farm. It is alpaca, shetland, and silk. I have already spun quite a bit of it, and it's turning out very nice. I am going to use the yarn in a project for our guild's straight draw program in June. After the program is over, I'll post more about it.

So that's one reason I've been spinning so much instead of weaving. The second is that I've been spending time trying to bond with my new bunny. She lives in the basement, so I can take my wheel down there and spin while I hang out with her. Iris seems to really like the wheel. If I leave it unattended within her reach, she thinks it would make a fabulous chew toy. This makes me think it would be a very bad idea to take one of the looms to the basement to use while I spend time with her. She also seems to find my spinning relaxing. One evening as I was spinning, she hopped to the end of the room and stretched her whole body across the floor. It was relaxed as I have ever seen her. Another time she sat behind my legs and kept bumping my ankles as I spun. She seemed to think that was a fun game. I wound up with a rather slubby skein that time! Anyway, I think I'll have to keep spinning while she's around because she seems to frighten so easily at any other time and especially when I run the washer and dryer. Hopefully spinning will be a way to keep her increasingly calm and friendly.