It's been a week

So it's been a week since my last post. A few things have happened that are blog worthy so here we go.

I have been sick. I'm pretty tired of it. I've been sick since Monday April 21. I have a cold, my nose is stuffy and I have been coughing. My voice has been going through interesting ranges and of course I've had to work through it all. On top of all that I've had to train new staff which means lots of talking on my behalf followed by lots of coughing fits. It has not been a good week for work. This is the main reason why I have not posted recently. I'm was just too tired. I've been sleeping a lot which is good to heal but I 'm still sick. Anyway lets hope that I get better soon.

On a different note it was my Birthday on the 23rd. I had a great day even though I was sick. Had the day off work. Dyed some fiber, had dinner at my best friend house and had a generally good day.

I got a gift certificate from my friend to the Stitch Niche and I'm thinking I'm going to buy some yarn to make myself a summer top. I have the Fitted Knit by Stefanie Japel and I've been wanting to make the Drop Stitch Lace Tank. I check this pattern on Ravelry and it looks as though it is very flattering. Really looking forward to it.

I also got some money from my Mom for my birthday and she wanted me to get a DVD player with it and then get whatever else I wanted with the rest. May I say that it is hard to find normal DVD players. Mine died which it why I need a new one and I went shopping yesterday to replace it. I went to a few different stores and had a real hard time. All the DVD players they had were either Bluerays or HD which is way out of my price range or up-converting types which I was informed is a waste on my non-HD-TV. The only place that had a decent normal DVD player was Future Shop and they were of course out of stock. So no DVD player yet...

But I did get something else. I got a digital camera. YAY!!! I've been wanting one for a few years and especially since starting this blog. It will now be way easier to take pictures for this blog. I played with it last night and had a blast taking pictures of my cats. Here are a few of the best.

This is Tygra. She is so cute and cuddly.

I woke up Diamond for this picture. She is not too thrilled.

Was playing with the zoom and got this cool shot.

Now I was going to take some pictures of my newly dyed fiber but something seems to be wrong with my new camera. It's making a weird noise and the the screen is shaking and flickering. It was definitely not doing that last night so I'll have to bring it back tomorrow and see what is wrong with it. I'm recharging some batteries to see it that will solve the problem. So sorry folks no pics of my fiber. I'll post again as soon as my camera is working properly.

Russet, Sky Blue and Emerald Roving All Spun Up

My first hand dyed roving is all spun up!!! The thickness is a lot more even then my first attempt at spinning. Here is a pic:

I spun approximately 50 gr of merino and got about 56 yards. Not sure what category that makes my yarn fall into but I think that it is a bulky yarn. Not sure yet what I will make with it. Maybe a neck warmer or a purse. I'll wait till inspiration hits me.

Right now I am spinning the Polypay pencil roving that I got. I'm not liking it too much. I don't have to draft it since it is so thin already and the yarn is coming out very consistent. But it is too easy. Maybe I need a challenge but I don't think I'm learning anything when I'm spinning this fiber. I'm just going through the motion of spinning. Think I'm just going to spin a spindle worth and then ply it. I'll keep the rest for when I get my spinning wheel. I can use it to learn how to spin with the spinning wheel without worrying how to draft at the same time. Once I have the motions down I can try drafting and spinning at the same time.

On a different note the reason why I did not post my yarn last weekend it because I went out and partied! It was so much fun. We went out to celebrate my birthday which is tomorrow. I went out with my best friend and a friend from work joined us a bit later. We danced like crazy and had way too much rum and cokes and tequila shots. My feet were still hurting the next day.

It made me realize I don't go out nearly enough. I forgot how much fun it can be. There is no reason why I shouldn't go out more, I'm single and still young. Guess it's because I work evenings and every other weekend. My best friend is also married so I don't think her husband would appreciate it if she went out with me all the time. Oh well it was fun anyway.

Dyed Blue Face Leicester

As promised here is the picture of the dyed Blue Face Leicester. It is a mixture of russet, a mixed purple and brown. It is pretty uniform in colour with some areas that are darker.

The colour is actually starting to grow on me. It's not what I had in mind but while taking pictures of my stash for Ravelry I realized the colour is very similar to a ball of Mountain Colors that I have. I bought it a the Kitchener Knitter's Fair last September to make some gauntlets but haven't made them yet. Maybe when I spin this fiber I'll make a hat to go with them. I don't actually own a hat and it might come in handy. ;o)

The name of the colorway of the Mountain Colors is Red Hawk Tail. It's really pretty. I've been looking around for a pattern for gauntlets but haven't found one I like yet. I think I might design my own when I come around to knitting them. Can't think of knitting gauntlets right now. It's too warm. Spring is definitely here.

I'm probably going to wait before I spin this fiber. The Polypay pencil roving is really calling me and I want to try it out. My hand dyed merino that I was spinning is done! It is now hanging to dry in my bathroom. It came out really nice. I think it's a little over twisted. Hopefully it will relax abit before I knit with it. I don't know what I'm going to make with it. I have only 56 yards of it. I'll take a picture of when it's dried.

Mister Postman

So my doorbell rings at 8:30 am this morning... It's my package being delivered with my two fibers that were missing.

But 8:30 am... Someone must of been yelled at lol. I mean usually they just leave it outside my door when they deliverd it sometime in the afternoon. This time they hand delivered it first thing in the morning. Interesting...

Anyway I had just gone to bed actually since I had done another night shift so I was not too happy about being woken up just went I had just fallen asleep but it's OK because my fiber is here!!!

The fiber in the front is Polypay pencil roving. It looks like yarn it is so thin. I will definitely only be dying it after I've spun it. In the back is 1 lb of merino/nylon mills ends roving. I'm looking forward to playing with that.

On a different note I got my Ravelry invite today! So I will be busy taking pictures of my stash, FO's and WIP's. I hope my web cam can handle it. I really need to get a digital camera. I also need a cell phone so I might just look into getting a camera phone for now. Later I might invest in a good camera. I want my spinning wheel first. ;o)

Yesterday I also dyed some BFL. I tried a different technique then the first time. It's more of an immersed technique. I'm not too sure if I like it. I wanted a more blended effect then the first dye job I did but it's TOO blended now. It's way subtle. Which is not bad but not what I had in mind. Think I put too much water in the pot. I had poured russet, a mixed purple and brown in the pot. Now it just looks like a reddish brown colour. We will see how it dries. I would post a picture of it but it is drying on my table right now and my web cam does not reach that far. Once again I need a camera. I'll post it tomorrow when it its dried.

Not too happy with Canada Post

So I ordered some fiber from a fiber store in Ontario last Tuesday. I was all excited. I ordered three different fibers: 225 gr of Blue Face Leicester, 1 lb of superwash Merino/Nylon and 22o gr of Polypay pencil roving. The shipment went out on Wednesday and I received it Thursday.

Now here comes the problem. As I was leaving my apartment to go do some laundry on Thursday I notice my package outside my door. The postman did not ring my door bell to give it to me. He just left it there. The bottom of the box looked banged up real bad but at the time I thought nothing of it. I was just excited that my fiber had arrived.

I open up the box and this is what I find.

As you can see there are only two fibers instead of three so something is obviously missing. One of the fibers is pink with a business card of the store and it is unlabeled. The pink fiber is very thin so I am assuming that it is the polypay pencil roving. The larger bag is labeled 225 gr of Blue Face Leicester so I assume that that is correct.

Which means I'm missing the 1 lb of mills end merino/nylon roving. Also I was suppose to get the same amount of pencil roving as the BFL.

I was not a happy camper.

I e-mailed the owner back about my shipment and didn't get a response right away. At this point I'm not sure exactly what I have and what happened. I go do a night shift that night, come home and go to bed. When I get up later Friday morning I check my e-mail and still no response. I'm thinking, "OK she must not of gotten my e-mail yet, she'll e-mail me soon."

Go to work that afternoon and come back home later that evening and still no response. I'm getting a little mad now. I'm wondering if I've wasted my money ordering from this store. I decide I'm going to look more carefully at my package. I take the fibers out and see that white fiber is one complete roving so the fibers are not mixed up. I look at the box and I realize that the bottom of the box that looked really banged was actually riped 3/4 of the way around and taped back up.

My package has been tampered with.

So Saturday morning I send the owner an other e-mail with pictures this time telling her about the box and what is in my package. I go to work again (I'm on a 6 day straight stretch) and come home and there is a voice mail message on my machine.

It's the owner of the shop and tells me that for sure they sent me the three fibers that I ordered and thinks that Canada Post has either damaged the box in the one day that it was in their possession and they did not put the 2 fibers that fell out back in or someone at the post office opened my box and stole them.

She asked me to call her back and that we will resolve it. So of course I call her the next morning. (Which is Sunday morning.) She was really great. We went over what happened and what I got in the box and the condition of the box. We determined that I only got the BFL. The pink fiber is part of her business card. She sends out free samples with all her packages. I should of received 1 1/2 lbs more fiber then what I got. She is going to send me my missing fiber free of charge and make a formal complaint and claim with Canada Post.

I feel so relieved. I knew something was wrong when I saw my package. So I should be getting my new package Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it.

Spinning Away on My Spindle

So I have been spinning away for the last couple of days and below is how my hand-dyed roving is turning out.

It's comming out really nice. The thickness of my yarn is more constant and I really like how the colour changes from red to blue to green. The shades are also gradual where the colour changes and I like watching the colours mix as I spin them.

I still have the other half of the roving to spin to make the yarn a 2-ply. There is more white in the other half so it's going to be interesting how it will differ from this one. Also it will be interesting how the two singles with ply together.

First Dye Job Reveal

In the last post I had dyed my first pot of merino fibers and I was patiently waiting for them to cool. Needless to say that was a couple days ago and I have definitely washed dried them since then. I have been painting my apartment with my best friend for the last three days so I have had no energy to post. But it is all done now so on with the spinning.

So this is what the roving looked like when it is all washed out and dried. There is quite a bit of white still but that is okay. I have learnt a few things with this first experiment.

The first is to look under the roving to see if the dye saturated all the way down. This is why there is still so much white. So note to self: make a bit more dye solution and check underneath.

The second thing I learnt is that when the roving is packaged they fold is in half lenghtwise. I was wondering why the middle was taking so long to dry. When I tried to spread it out I noticed that is was folded. So next time I dye fiber I will open it up and see if it changes anything.

That is it for this post. In the next one I will show off how this roving spun. I am also in the process of ordering more fiber with The Black Lamb so I will have more blank canvases to play with.

First Dye Job

Today I finally took the plunge into dyeing. Below is what I came up with. It is still cooling as we speak and I am trying to be patient and not touch it.

As with anything I decide that I will learn, I read everything on the subject that I could get my hands on. I read articles, books from the library and manufacture directions.

After reading about the many techniques on how to dye wool, I decided that I would follow more or less the instructions in the Knitty article Dye Fingerprint. I first made 2% dye stocks of the colours I wanted and then mixed them with half vinegar and half water solution. So basically I would have 3 parts water and 1 part vinegar in my dye solution to pour over pre-soaked roving. With the lid on I heated the fiber in the oven at 250 F for 30mins. I'm going to let it cool until I come home from work later. So hopefully this way all the dye will be absorbed.

I'm very excited about it. The next post will show the finished roving all ready to start spinning. Yay!

First Post, First Skein

Welcome everyone to my first blog.

I've never blogged before so this should be interesting. The purpose of this blog is to document my experiments with spinning and dyeing. Feedback is definitely wanted and appreciated. I will show my successes and failures and hopefully as I gain skill in both subjects there will be much more of the former then the latter.So on with the main subject of this first post: my first skein.

Isn't lovely?! I'm so proud. So I guess a little bit of background first on how this lovely skein came to be would be a good idea. I have been wanting to learn to spin shortly after I first learnt to knit. I was trying to find the perfect yarn to go with a project I had in mind and I couldn't find it. It wasn't the right colour, the right texture or the right fiber. It was frustrating. I was searching the Internet for ideas and found this little gem of a site called Knitty.com. They have a section in their magazine on spinning and I thought "Wow, that is awesome." It opened my mind to so many options. If I learn this skill then I can make what ever I want. I won't be dependent on what I can find in the store. This is great.

So I started dreaming of learning to spin. I tried to read all articles I could find. Looked in the library for books. I read and I read and I didn't get it. I could kind of see how it would work but I realized that this is a skill at least for me that I would need someone to teach me. Unfortunately I don't know anyone that spins. So my dream was put on hold for awhile.

Fast forward a year and a half later. I was shoping for yarn for a christmas gift project at a new local knitting store and I overheard the owner talking to a customer about drop spindle classes and I thought "Ohhh, I want to do that class!!!" So when they were done their conversation and the customer left I went over and asked about the class. There was one starting up in a couple of weeks but with christmas comming up I couldn't justify spending the price of the class on myself.

Fast forward a couple of months later and I was doing errands near the knitting store and I thought I'll just go in and ask if they were going to be having that class again any time soon. Lo and behold they were planing on having one next weekend! I signed up on the spot. There were to be two classes for two hours each. The second class was last saturday and the picture above is the product of that class. It is very bulky/thin but I love it. The fiber was dyed by the teacher and it is a mixture of orange and pink. I'm not a fan of pink usually but I really like how this one turned out.

As part of the fee of the class I got another braid of undyed fiber to spin and I am looking forward to dyeing it. I just got some dye that I ordered yesturday in the mail so I will probably do my first experiment in dyeing tomorrow. I still need to get some equipment before I get started.

So that is all for my first post and first skein. I do have a question of anyone out there that spins and lives in Canada. Where can you get affordalble fiber to learn and practice on? I don't want to start on expensive/luxury fiber. If anyone knows of a good supplier of medium quality wool please let me know.