A Life of Colour

Vogue, Victorian & Spindle.

Quite a mouthful that title isn't it? LOL! I haven't posted for awhile so I have a few updates this post. First up, I'm excited to announce that Zen Yarn Garden made the Holiday 2010 issue of Vogue Knitting...woot! We are in the World Section under "Made in Canada" on page 30. The write-up is lovely and although my last name isn't spelled correctly (oops!) I love the write-up. Wish I could be so eloquent...where does one learn how to put words together so well? :)

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And in case you haven't seen yet, I'm participating in a lovely new knitting club in 2011 which will include the likes of Anne Hanson, Sivia Harding and Susanna IC as designers as well as 3 other dyers who are fantastic. Won't you join us? The Victorian Writers Knitting Club is going to be a lot of fun and KALs as well as RALs are being planned!  I can't wait for the first shipment in February as Anne is designing a lovely sock to go along with the first theme of Sherlock Holmes. I'm really pleased with the colourway and the yarn we chose is gorgeous too. Drop by the Ravelry group for more details!

And finally, I am spindling! This past week our local spinning group got together after a bit of a hiatus and I took the plunge. I really love it for how different it is from spinning on the wheel. Spindling is a little slower but I find myself relaxing with the spin a little more than the wheel which tends to have a "produce" feeling to it...that could be my own idiosyncrasy as I tend to get caught up in the "get things done" which the wheel seems to promote as it moves faster. Spindling is so much different though - the twist/spin is only as fast I make it so I can relax a little more as I can only go so fast. I can set the spindle on my desk and spin whenever I like as well - love that part - I seem to be picking up the spindle often throughout the day for a little spin, set it down and pick it up again. So fun!

I decided to treat myself to a Golding spindle to start and am so glad I did - it spins with little effort and is well-balanced for a first-time spindler. 

How are you? Hope you're doing well and that the winter season is still very mild in your neck of the woods as it is here...it doesn't feel at all like winter here this year.

1:12.5

In late 2008, I decided it was time to splurge on a new spinning wheel and decided on Louet Julia as my starter wheel. Since then I've been spinning whenever I have a moment and slowly but surely getting faster at it. This spin? I used the 1:12.5 ratio on my spinning wheel for the first time! I love that and I love how quickly the flyer spins and whirs while it does. I do have a few spots where the yarn is overspun but not all the way throughout which isn't too bad given I haven't used this ratio before. There's yet one more faster ratio on my wheel at 1:19 which I hope to eventually try too. I'm just so happy I was able to use 1:12.5 for both spinning and plying this go around without losing control of the fibre...woot! Yay for small accomplishments while spinning.

 

 

For more details on the yarn stats and for more pictures, please visit Ravelry here. Now what to spin next? Decisions, decisions.

Have you seen Abby's new video yet on drafting? I think I'll spend some time watching the video before I decide on what to spin next. I do need to learn more techniques when it comes to drafting the fibre and from what I've been hearing, Abby does a fabulous job of explaining a few techniques as well as making it look easy. Yay Abby!

Yum & Yardage.

One word to describe the joy of spinning these fibres and the other to describe the insights I got while spinning them up...LOL! I've been on a bit of a spinning bug lately and have two handspun to show...so excited!

First up is a lovely superwash merino/silk blend and for this spin, I decided to leave one half of the 4 ounces as a single and to navajo ply the other half just so I could see how the colours blended and looked based on ply choice.

I like both expressions of colour but with the single, I would definitely have to ease up on the initial twist I put into the yarn so it relaxes a wee bit more. However, when I navajo-plied it, the balance on the finished yarn was very good and I hardly had to bathe it to get it to balance. I'm very pleased about this as it seems I am figuring out how much twist to put in while spinning the single and how much twist to turn back when I ply it. Yay for small spinning milestones! For more photos, please see my Rav page.

Second up is a lovely superwash merino/nylon blend and for this spin, I spun the whole 4 ounces and then navajo plied it. Although I was under the impression that my yardage was not that high, a few tweets later I had gathered a lot of great insights as to why the yardage was lower than I expected. I love sending a question out and receiving back fabulous answers from everyone. Thank you!

As I also dyed this fibre I was really curious to see just how the colours would come out when spun. The whole time I was spinning my single I was watching the colours barber pole and thinking "oh no, this just won't work!" but to my surprise and delight, the finished yarn is lovely. I couldn't be more pleased! I will definitely be dyeing up fibre this way again...lots and lots of colours make for pretty handspun! For more photos, please visit my Rav page.

Now, what to spin next? Hmmmmm...do you have a favourite fibre that you enjoy spinning? Do tell!

Navajo plying.

Interweave Spin-Off just sent out their newsletter and low and behold, a new video showing a new-to-me navajo plying technique. Perfect timing! I was just talking about how I broke my single in two spots with my last spin and needless to say, this technique will definitely help me not to do that anymore plus it has a wonderful rhythm to it that will make n-plying a lot more fun! I love it and wanted to share...enjoy!

Spinning again.

I've been spinning! This is always exciting especially since it's been pretty darn hot out there this month. Having the girls over for a wee spin-in does a lot for a girl's motivation though...yay!  I started a project when we got together and just finished it. Now what to spin next? This fibre I particularly enjoy (Serenity Roving) and this time I managed 230 yards for 3.0 ounces. which is my best yardage to date with this fibre. There were a couple of too thin spots that broke while navajo plying but I made a knot and kept on going. Next time I won't spin quite as thin or more than likely, I need a bit more spin in my single. I seem to be keeping up with my next fastest whorl now which is definitely progress too.

Have you been spinning this summer? It's definitely hard to get motivated when it's so warm but once you get going, it's sure hard to stop. No plans on what to knit with this yet so I think I'll just let it sit and when it's ready, it'll tell me if it wants to be knit.

First ever.

I can't believe I finished my first ever handspun sock. What a monumental moment this is...yay! I love how the sock did its own striping and I couldn't be move pleased! Cross your fingers for me as I have 1.2 oz of handspun yarn left to try to finish sock #2. The first sock weighs 1.2 oz so I'm hoping I can eek that second sock from what's left. I really love the feel of this sock too. So squishy. For more photos and details click here (rav link). And yes, I dyed the SW BFL fibre, spun it into a 2-ply yarn and then knit with it. Lots of fun! 

Okay, that is all...I just wanted to document my first ever handspun sock...LOL! Oh, and I just realized my sock matches the colours on my blog...what a shocker that I love all things red eh? If you know me only just a little bit you will know red is my all-time favourite colour and the more the better...LOL

Progress is good.

Where to start, where to start? LOL First off, my website is back! I managed to figure out who was actually holding my domain, renewed it with them and voila, back came my website. Such a relief that has made me super happy! I feel like I can get back to normal activities again. And while my site was offline I did some brainstorming and now I'm working behind the scenes to make some improvements not only to my shopping cart but also to the way I am doing business. All will be revealed in the coming weeks and when I have my store re-stocked, it's time for a celebratory sale! I expect that to happen in the next little while so stay tuned! If you don't have an account with the store nor have signed up for the newsletter, please do so as I'll be announcing the sale by newsletter. You won't want to miss it - I am planning on stocking the store with quite a few yarns! Yay new shopping cart and yay new yarns!

I've been spinning! This time around I'm spinning a new fibre to me called Rambouillet. It's wonderful! It's got a slightly longer staple than merino so it's a bit easier to manage and stepping up to a faster whorl on my spinning wheel has meant producing some really lovely thin singles. I'm so pleased! I'm also delighted I can manage the faster spinning speed and combine that with a finer single since this is the first time I've actually moved onto another whorl...it's very exciting!

I also finished my test knit sock (rav link)! The colourway knit up just as I had hoped. A slightly mottled effect but still a semi-solid. This is a technique I plan to use more often! Oh, and the Serenity Sock yarn? Divine to knit with! I love it. It's my first time knitting with it but the cashmere content, wow, softness.

So, all in all, yay for spinning, knitting and website progress! And apparently it's May already too - when did that happen? LOL

When it rains, it pours.

Why can't things happen gradually? It never can be one thing at a time, can it? It always has to be everything all at once just because I don't know, it's Murphy's Law or something...LOL So not only is my domain down (ZenYarnGarden.com) but also my taxes are due this week. And both of these things don't take 5 minutes to do either. So in an effort to stay positive, I have stocked my Etsy store with a few products for browsing and once my DOT COM is back up and running again, I do believe I'll have a little celebration discount code! Stay tuned for that! I will announce it via the newsletter so if you haven't signed up for that yet, please do so here. If you've already received my newsletters in the past, don't worry, I still have your contact info at my mailing list provider so there's no need to sign up again.

Thank you to everyone who emailed/PMed/Twittered to let me know that the site was down. After some digging I still do own the domain (big sigh of relief!) and I now have the host who carries the domain working on releasing it back to me. That's the good news! What does that mean though on the other side? Finding a new host and quite possibly rebuilding my cart software. Seems horrible really but this may be the time to instal new cart software and give the site some better functionality that I couldn't have before. When life deals you lemons, make lemonade...or something like that anyways...LOL

And let's get to the pretty now shall we? I managed to finish spinning up 2 oz of my Serenity Roving in the last little while too. I can't tell you just how soft this fibre is with the cashmere in it but it's really quite devine! I was going to spin up the other 2 oz but decided to navajo ply the 2 oz I had already finished so I could see what the colours would do when plied. I'm really pleased with it. Click here for more pictures (rav link).

Now onto my other tasks that will more than likely take up the rest of my week! When it rains, it sure does pour! Wish me luck that my domain gets released back to me with little to no glitches. That will make me very happy despite the need to rebuild everything once I do.

Making progress.

Progress is good and making progress on fibre pursuits is even better! First up, I finished my handspun! I'm so pleased with how the merino/seacell spun up. The yardage is 182, ounces is 4 and it's a cable ply achieved through navajo plying. Thanks to my Twitter friends, I just learned that navajo plying creates a cable ply not a traditional 3 ply. Next on my list is to spin a traditional 3 bobbin 3-ply yarn to see what the difference is. Of course I now need to decide what fibre to spin - I'm leaning toward my new Serenity Roving just because, well, it has cashmere in it - how do you resist cashmere? LOL

Next up, I'm about halfway down the foot of my sock knitting! So far, the colourway is doing as I had hoped - not pooling and creating a bit of colour play with a few different colours rather than how a single colour semi-solid would. This is a technique I'm going to use for achieving semi-solids with a few colours in it rather than the traditional semi-solid with varying tones of one colour. It'll be interesting to see just how many colourways I can come up with this technique. So far, I'm really pleased - yay!

And thirdly, I'm not so sure if you know or not but my Dad is a carver! His work is exquisite and I'm trying to talk him into doing custom carved spinning wheels. We'll see how far I get with that idea with him but so far he's said "I'm looking into it" and considering that's coming from a man, I do think I'm making progress with him...LOL I am crossing my fingers he pursues this venture because he's retired and I would love to see him carving more - it's an art that not many can do well and he's definitely one of the best ones I've seen. Okay, ya, he's my Dad but I do speak the truth! Check out that sample photo of his work. He has some wonderful ideas about adding these types of carvings right onto the wheel of the spinning wheel with story inserts of the animals he's carved into the wheels. 

Did I mention he lives on Vancouver Island aka the birthplace of the Cowichan sweater? What a nice way this would be to continue the tradition of the knitting culture of the Cowichan area now that the sweaters no longer exist. So even if he doesn't pursue the idea, I'm hoping I can persuade him to do a wheel for me. That shouldn't be too hard, right? I mean I am his daughter after all! LOL

Name that wheel.

Please help me decide on a name for my new wheel! The winner gets a 4 oz. bump of my new Serenity Roving in a surprise colourway. This fibre is made up of 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon.  It's technically a sliver prep which is just a slightly thinner version of roving. It's what you see on my wheel currently and I am really enjoying it. Nothing like starting out on a new wheel with a luxury fibre! Yum. 

The time change has meant spinning at midnight. I'm so not a morning person so with springing forward, gosh, I have more energy in the evenings so I've been spinning. Not a bad trade-off for having a heckuva time getting motivated in the mornings. Do you spin in the evenings too?

As for her name, I don't know what to call her. I decided she's a "she" because the wheel is so darn cute. To help with naming her, her big sister is Julia and she's definitely Julia's little sister so what do you think? Leave your suggestion in the comments and I'll decide on Monday. All comments should be made before Sunday, March 15, 2009 at midnight EST. One entry per comment please. 

Thanks for playing along! I love to hear other's suggestions - hoping one of them will stand out and fit. Suggest away and happy spinning!

UPDATE: 3/17/09 - Comments are now closed and thank you to everyone who entered! This is not going to be easy - I have a couple of names that I really like so I'll let it sit for a day or two more before I decide. Stay tuned!