I took some time out the other day to dye up a few more rovings for Maiden Yarn. Unfortunately, I didn’t think ahead enough, and I found myself with pre-soaked four ounce bundles of roving, and no foil pans big enough to hold them.
I did have one non-disposable tray left, so I used it for one of the batches: this lovely repeat colorway. (You may recognize the color pattern from way back when. I dyed it first on some of the silver-gray Romney roving I bought at the Yellow Daisy Festival.) The fun thing about the repeats was that it braided up with colors to colors, as you can see. I’m really happy with the way that one turned out.
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I just rediscovered my spinning wheels. *insert big mushy heart and ecstatic arm waving here* It’s been so long since I’ve spun just for “pleasure” or on a spur of the moment thing. After working on some silk laceweight, I have Bing Crosby in my head singing, “Once and for always, let’s say that it’s agreed. . .” He sings it to his lady love in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and it pretty much sums up my feelings toward the wheels at this point.
On the one wheel I have this gorgeous stuff. It’s the laceweight silk I promised my sister a year ago.
And on the other I have this. Cinnamon alpaca laceweight that will probably wind up in Filigree Willow Laceweights. (Sorry about the nasty photo. I have concluded that TV rooms are out to sabotage photography everywhere.)
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To lots of people garbage bags carry negative connotations. They symbolize things thrown away, things unwanted, smashed cereal boxes, banana peels, yesterday’s bacon grease, and other smelly things.
But, for spinners there is a magic about garbage bags because, when found in the right places, they usually contain fiber in vast quantities. Quantities so large, your ordinary bag won’t hold them. Sound exciting?
Well, while in Texas I was given an early birthday present. Two garbage bags full of cinnamon colored alpaca. Oh my goodness. Major fluffy soft.
And I even have a project idea for it! But, before I get to new project time, I have to overcome another project. Remember the indigo dyed merino? It’s decided to haunt me for some reason.
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I’m running a sale on spinning batts over at maidenyarn.etsy.com. All the batts have been marked down and will remain on sale until May 1st!
So, yes, I did say I wasn’t going to buy any more fiber until I’d made a significant dent in what I already had. (And I can already hear you chuckling to yourself.) 
But, there are certain circumstances that are just plain not worth resisting. And in this case, it was because I had never heard of nor seen this particular kind of fiber before. Well, that, and because it was shiny.
This is called banana silk. It’s derived from the leaves of banana trees, so it’s a plant-based fiber, and you can see how shiny it is in the pictures. I’d heard of yarn that had banana fiber in it, but it had never registered in my noggin that that would mean there was banana spinning fiber floating around somewhere to be pounced on.
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A few days ago I began a new knitting project, since I had finished the sweater. “Wait!” you say. “You finished and you didn’t tell us?” Well, it’s not finished-finished until it’s blocked, and I’d rather not model it while it’s soaking wet, thank you very much. And pictures of it laying flat on a table get old after awhile.
Ahem. As I was saying. I began knitting my first shawl. The Emily Dickinson shawl, it is called, and it’s available for download on Ravelry. (I’m LoveFiber on there, by the way.) This is my first shawl, my first knitted cobweb lace-weight, and my first time adding beads to a knitted project.
And let me just say it now, knitters have things so easy where beads are concerned! You just pull the loop up through the beads one at a time with no fuss. The last beaded non-knitting project I made required loading the seed beads onto the yarn ahead of time. All hundred and something of them. Then I had to keep scooching them along the yarn until I needed one. Crazy.
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Well, my time with the drum carder ended yesterday, but not before I had carded somewhere in the vicinity of thirty-four batts. Not a bad amount, considering I had the carder for a week.
After the wooly mammoth hide experience (see last post) I did some online tutorial hunting in the hopes of coming up with a way to make less blended, but still great batts.
I came across a very helpful series of video how-tos, although I’m loath to post the links to them, as they’re rather hyper and there is a bit of language. Suffice it to say, I went back to the craftroom revved up and ready to go with my fist full of very helpful notes.
Here is the result. My lovely Rose Garden batt.
I found the success very inspiring. Especially because I could sing the song from Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. “Up from the ashes, grow the roses of success. . . ”
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Alright, everyone. Look out for a really excited spinner. While a good friend is traveling about the country, she volunteered to let me babysit this little beauty for her, and, um, sort of make sure it doesn’t forget how to run.
And I’m making sure! By the end of the first day (Sunday) I had thirteen batts in my possession. And I’ve got lots more fiber to take care of.
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I’ve been mentioning this custom yarn on and off, and now I have a picture to share with you! A wonderful customer came up with the idea of a black yarn with purple and green iridescence, just like a raven’s feathers. Here is the beginnings of that yarn. I’m so excited about it! It’s spinning up quite well. 
Of course, I’ve got my fair share of green and purple glitz tracked all over the house, but I believe it’s worth it.
And yes. That bright pink thing is my make shift drive band. It really dresses the wheel up, don’t you think?
In other news, I finally got to the seed stitch part on one of my sweater sleeves after very carefully increasing way more then the pattern called for. Thankfully the sleeve isn’t too wide, and can therefore be fudged with the greatest of ease.
And my first Creeping Vines sock is finished, except for weaving in the ends. Pictures will be forthcoming.
So I’m nuts. I want to finish my sweater project before the nineteenth. I see many late night efforts in my future.
As you can see, it’s grown quite a bit, and I’m now into my third ball of yarn out of nine. I’ve had to make a conscious effort to knit tighter once I got to the easy part, because the garment was expanding when it wasn’t supposed to. By now I’ve gotten down to the waist decreases, so it feels like I’m making more progress faster. I have a feeling knitting sweaters with heavier weight yarn could become addicting. They’re so quick when you actually take the time to knock out four or five rounds at a time.
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