Thursday, February 26, 2009

More Bahama Blues...

Okay, our intrepid friends may recall that I started out with a rather large bag of merino fluff that has slowly been turning into Bahama Blues yarn.

I think I've finally gotten more than halfway through the bag. ;)



It doesn't look that impressive... But it looks really cool when you look at the end of the spindle!



Just liking that color whorl... :)

Monday, February 23, 2009

Been quiet this week...

It's been a bit hectic at work, so I've been getting home late... And all I've done fiberwise is spin more Bahama Blues (although I *did* make myself a silk hibiscus print dress on Saturday for a party... And I got a prize even though I came in the door after the prizes were handed out, because the hostess thought it was awesome!)...

When I get around to taking more pix of the Bahama Blues I've got on spindle, I'll post them... But in the meantime, I've been getting home so late, I haven't had that much time!

Plus, I've been inspired lately... There's a new group on Ravelry called "What's in YOUR Altoids tin?" The entire group is based around all the tins we have around our houses and what we use them for! Well, I used to decorate tins with Fimo/Sculpey in assorted patterns, and now I'm getting tempted to start doing it again... Although I don't know if my clay is in any shape to work with it!

If I do, you'll be the first to know... ;)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

More Bahama Blues!

So, now that the Mardi Gras yarn is done, I moved on to trying to finish that *huge* bag of Bahama Blues again... So I've got a bunch more of it done!

First, the plying.



Then I skeined it all last night!



That's 194 yards of navajo ply!

Really, I never expected this particular yarn to fluff up so much!





Now I just have to do the other half a garbage bag full... ;)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Mardi Gras is done, plus a little extra on the side!

So, on top of it being Mardi Gras, a friend of mine had her 50th the other day... I decided that since she's a fan of making jewelry and fiber related stuff, I would give her with something to make other things from! :)

So the Mardi Gras fiber was spun, but there was that bit leftover:



So I made it into this:





17 yards of yellow and purple and silver merino/lame blend! She loves the colors! :)

And of course, then there was the Mardi Gras Yarn:





Voila! Almost exactly 90 yards of green/purple/yellow/silver/gold merino/lame yarn! It's a dk weight.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with it... What do you do with 90 yards?

Today has been a truly stressed out day at work. Methinks I'm going to have to go spinning whne I get home... :) More Bahama Blues? Oh yeah, I am *this* close to winning the "want to have it in my stash" yarn for the second quarterly challenge on Ravelry!

Must make more blues... A friend of mine wants it like you wouldn't believe... ;)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Almost Mardi Gras!

Okay, the purple's done, and now all that remains is the plying!

A few months back, someone taught me the secret of the multiple-ply ball to ply from, so you wouldn't get all the tangles while spinning... It's definitely interesting when you have threads of two different types (one a very non-flexible lame, while the others are all a stretchy merino)... But I'm at the plying stage now!



That's all four separate colors, the first three having been spun by me, the fourth being the lame that I want to add into them for a little sparkle!



That's the first four-ply ball. If you see it in the right light, the sparkle just makes it shine, literally! Partway through I ran out of gold, but since I had some silver hanging around, I used that to make up the difference. So I'll have two different sparkles, but since it's mardi gras, all the better!

The green ran out before the yellow and purple and silver did, so I decided to make a shorter ball of just the yellow, purple, and silver.



Maybe I'll get enough to make a cell phone icord for my brother, the ECU pirates are yellow and purple after all. :)

Once I figure out how much yardage I get from the four-ply, I'm going to have to figure out what I'm going to make from it! :)

More pix tomorrow!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

More Mardi Gras spinning!



And the Mardi Gras spinning continues to proceed! I'm thinking of adding another strand to it, though, only not being spun by me. I want to add in a touch of gold lame thread to give it some sparkle!

I've been spinning *way* too much lately. ;)

Monday, February 2, 2009

I've been a busy girl!

So, this weekend, I was busy. Okay, I was busy in multiple ways, since I went to two parties (one going away, one birthday), was supposed to head to a spin-in in DC but didn't quite get the time, cleaned part of my bedroom (this may take a while), and spun more than I really would have imagined at the time. :)

So at the end of January, I was trying to finish off some more "Bahama Blues"... I finished a spindle full of singles, and then moved on to plying. By the way, for future reference, there's only so much you can put on a spindle before it cries "uncle" and keeps slipping off the whorl...



And of course, then the plying started, early Saturday morning:



And the close up for plying, Navajo style (chain plying):




And of course, the finished spindle:



By Saturday night, I'd actually finished the Navajo ply and was beginning on another batch of singles for Bahama Blues. Remember, I had a whole POUND AND A HALF of this stuff, so I'll probably be spinning for the next year and a half! :)

However, I was anxious to start on this month's challenge yarn, "Mardi Gras". I picked up this beautiful roving from WindRose on Etsy. I have never seen roving so nicely carded, it is a dream to spin! It drafts so nicely! I know I posted the four samples I received last month, but just to show you what I'm using for the "Mardi Gras" colors again:



The purple is somewhat more purple than it seems to have come through with, I need to do a color correction on it. However, I was so anxious to get started, I went all the way through the green and already started on the yellow! :)




The second image has the yellow I've started on, but also has the green that I wound onto an empty ZipFizz container to use as a nostepinne. I find with the little snap-tops, they make for a perfect nostepinne, and then you won't lose any twist! :)

Can you believe I only started this on Sunday morning? That's how nicely this stuff spins up! It's four two-oz samples of merino, and it's so soft, and spins so well... I need to recommend this roving for a friend of mine learning spinning, because it'll be so easy for her to draft! :)

Yeah, I was a busy girl this weekend... Too bad it wasn't quite applied to the house the way I would have liked... Got some cleaning done, but not nearly enough!