Too Short and Too Fine

Gotland
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

This Saturday was a perfect day for washing fleece. The sun was shining and the wind was crisp. It was my second time to wash greasy fleece.

Last time, I asked all of my spinning friends how to wash greasy fleece. Every answer was slightly different from others.
So, I took the easiest way. Put all the fleece in a cleaning net and wash. As a result, I got some very beautiful fiber with crimp with sheen, and some fiber seemed to me washed too much.

This time, I put all the fleece in warm water without cleaning net for about an hour, then put it in warm water with ditergent (we use Monogen, usually) for about 30 minutes. Here I took the cleaning net and put the fleece in it. I put the net in warm water with ditergent and push it gently for a while. I did rinse the net several times, then put it in the spin-dryer.
The result? Well, not so bad as I took a look at condition of the fleece before washing it with ditergent.

However, I have problems to spin this fleece.
The fiber is too short and too fine. It is difficult to hand-card this fiber. It is so fine that teeth of my handcarder don't catch it very well. And it is difficult to spin because it is too short.

I've already washed and spinned some Gotland. I bought them at the same time. And I had no troubles like these with the former fiber.

Now I have some plans: 1. Forget about handcarding and just use flick carder or something, 2. mix with other longer fiber, or 3. forget about spinning and just felt it.

Mondnacht

Mondnacht
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

Finally, I decided to give it a try.

Yarn : Silkwool (wool 70%, silk 30%)
Source : Avril, Kichijoji
Needle : 2.75mm

First, I made a sample of Pattern A. It took me ages to knit only 20 rows or so. It was so difficult to find where I made a mistake when I found out I'd done something wrong.
But, well, it seems that it's not possible for me to knit, especially if only I pay good attention.

Anyway, take it easy and have fun.

Nothing Much to Do

Plied Shetland and Turkish Spindle
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

Again, I haven't done anything much. I knitted a Flame Wave Sock from _25 Favorite Socks_ a bit, and plied Shetland a bit.
The photo is plied Shetland. I love this Turkish Spindle so much but I still can't spin with it very much. So, I just went for plying. And it turned out very pretty! Still I need more practice, it is delightful to use this spindle.

When I bought the fiber, I asked a person at the shop how I could spin Shetland since this was my first time spinning it. I got answers like "it's easy to spin with" and "you can spin it really fine."
I'm still afraid of fineness. While I was spinning the fiber, I thought it would be much more bulkier when I'd ply than I want.
I had a quick ( and not precise) look at the plied yarn and it is about 14 to 15 wpi average. Wow. This is the finest yarn I spun ever.

What I have in my mind now is to spin much more bulkier yarn. I have some scoured Romney. I'm thinking of spin it into bulky yarn.

Got it

I've been mentally inactive. That's all.
I haven't done much of knitting, crochet, tatting, nor spinning lately. More precisely, since last week.
It was a bit scary to me that I wasn't able to write anything at all. My last entries are just like writings of elementary school pupil. Well, not only my latest entires, I know that.

There is a problem. When I'm menatlly inactive, I tend to become addicted to shopping. At the beginning of this month, I was pretty happy with my stash and didn't want to enhance it at all. I used yarns, threads, and fiber from my stash and I was very imaginative just to looked through them.
But not anymore.
I want everything I see. How can I afford them, anyway?

Oh well, I have to wait several more days to get over with this mental inactiveness. It is hard to go along with it, though. It's tough. But somehow I have always been able to muddle through. That's life.

Summer, Almost

It's getting warmer and warmer everyday. Actually, it's not warm. It's hot!!!
That means, the season of wool will soon be over. Maybe it's already been over.

I've started spinning last September. Is it possible to spin wool during summer? I'm afraid I can't stand that.

So, already I've got some silk. I'm thinking of spinning it with Turkish spindle.

Working on Turkish Spindle

It's so difficult. Maybe I spin too fine yarn. Now I'm trying park and draft method. It's getting a bit better.
Anyway, it's so much fun to learn something new. I've never thought I would spin. I've learned and found out a lot of things since I began to spin. I've met quite a number of nice people online and offline since then. I'm really glad that I started spinning.
Oh, I broke the yarn again. But even rejoining it is a delight.

So Lovely

At last, I've received my Turkish spindle!
I've never thought it would spin so wonderfully. I'd never get tired of watching it. So lovely.

Well, I need to get used to it, though.

Still Suffering from an Accident

I still felt dizzy this morning. In the afternoon, I felt a bit better. I just felt strange around that time.
But now, I'm suffering from a severe headache. It's something like twitching ache. I'm badly thirsty and don't want to knit, tat, crochet nor spin at all.

This morning, there was another injury accident on the same line. This time, I came to know that before I got on the train. I just chose other line and got to the office.
We have too many injury accidents by trains these days. I went to school by same bus and train I take to the office now, but when I was a highschool student, there were few accidents. For three years, I have hardly had hard time with the train accidents. The biggest problem I encountered at that time was an earthquake intensity 4 and all the trains were stopped. We had a long-distance running race on that day and were all too tired.

Well, I'd better go to bed right away.

No Yarn, No Fiber, No Thread

I'm just exhausted. I've been stuck in commute train for 105 minutes. One of the train went before us hit someone and we've all been stuck in messy crowded train. The train stopped compeletly for 30 mintues, or, at least the conductor said so. And usually I'm on board for a little more than 30 minutes.
The conductor told us not to get out of the train. It was so crowded and I was pushed from all sides. There is a passanger who leaned on others. How cruel!
I felt four times that I couldn't stand it anymore. I felt so dizzy. It was cold because the air-conditioning were running, but I broke out in a nervous sweat several times.
I thought of getting off at the next station, but I didn't. The next train would be much more crowded and I would miss the bus if I was too late.

I still feel dizzy. I hope I will not get cramps in my legs while I'm sleeping.

Holidays Over

And my Turkish spindle is not here yet. Maybe customs and post offices are on holidays, too.

But, wait, if so, there would be a ton of parcels and officers would be too busy on Monday, right?
That means it takes much more times to receive the spindle, right?

Oh, dear...

Whitby

Whitby
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

This is my second Whitby from _Knitting on the Road_. My first one was also made with Jaeger Matchmaker DK and I love that pair so much. So, I tried again with the same yarn. I used 2 skeins which I bought them on sale. A skein was 300 yen; at that time it costed 780 yen.
I followed the pattern except toes. I decrease the toes to 8 stitches and graft them. For the neat finish, I grafted the two stitches together at the beginning and the end.

One of the reason I love this pattern is it's made with DK weight yarn. It's really warm. I become to knit with fingering weight yarns more than DK weight yarns because most of the sock yarns are fingering weight. Still, it is much warmer and a little faster to work with DK weight yarn.

Another reason is because I love rib and cable patterns for socks. Rib patterns redeem the cable patterns' un-streatchness. There's a purl stitch diamond pattern in the middle and that tells you where you are.

This was my sock project at home. I usually knit socks on commute bus or train. I knit this at home because I wanted to use double pointed needles. I don't use DPN on the bus and train because it's much more dangerous than circular needles.

And I've already started next sock project at home.

As a Matter of Fact

I'm waiting for my Turkish spindle. I've ordered it last weekend. And it's already on its way.
Hopefull, I can receive it on Saturday.

Oh, how can I wait?

Tatting with Yarn

Tatting with Yarn
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

So, I'm taking a weaving course.
As already written, I've wanted to tat a shawl or a scarf. Also, I've wanted to tat with yarn.
I've tried tatting with yarn several times, but I've ended up with a mess everytime. I pulled the yarn too tightly and that prevented me from tatting a ring.
I once quitted, but tried again, and voila! It turned out fine. Well at least fine with me. It was so fun to tat these motifs.

But these colours don't go well. Mmm...
The yarn I used is Puppy's New 2 Ply. It's made from 100% wool and 215m/25g. Very fine yarn.

Crochet Hat in Progress

Crochet Hat in Progress
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

Around this time of year, I want to make a hat or two. That's because quite a number of crochet hats and caps are put on display in the crafty shops I go. My favorites are hats and caps using Puppy's yarns. This year, I've fallen love at first sight with the hat made with the yarn named Leafy. Leafy is made of Japanese paper.
It's not very easy to crochet or knit, but the fabric is one-of-a-kind. It has a pleasant dry feel and is suitable for a summer hat or cap. Also, you can handwash.

Though I still have sore throat a bit, I can't wait to finish this hat and put it on.

Holiday Spinning

Holiday Spinning
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

These are what I have done on the last two weekends.
The skein is plied Corriedale. I bought scoured fleece last March. Since then, I card a little and spin a little. Sometimes I find a problem or two while spinning, but that's mainly because I can't card well enough.

On the spindle is plied Merino. I spun it a few months ago. While plying, I found out I wasn't so bad at spinning it. I've been thinking my spinning skill got improved after I started spinning Blue Faced Leicester. That's not like that. My skill's been slowly but steadily improved. Some parts of the yarn are thick and some are fine, but over all, not very bad. At least not very bad as I thought. Plying is going smoothly, that's why.

On the niddy is plied BFL. This is the only yarn that I've already decided what I'm going to knit with. I'm going to knit a garter stitch shawl with lace edging. At first, I was thinking of dyeing the yarn (or fiber). As I spin, the warm yellow-tinged white has grown on me.
So far I plied 100g (about 3.5oz). I'm halfway through plying.