Spinning dervish

For some reason, I am really into spinning these days. Maybe because I am learning some new techniques? Or because I am spinning dyed yarn, so the colors are sucking me in? The only problem with all this spinning is I can't weave or knit fast enough to keep up with all the yarn I am producing.

Knitting: about halfway through the Simple Rules cowl.
Spinning: skeined and wet finished the chain-plied silk/tencel/merino blend; chain plied the blended Polish merino (the plying was more challenging than the silk/tencel/merino blend); working up *more* Polish merino by pairing the four colors with each other
Weaving: I had to go with tiny diamonds for the stars of the "Jasper Johns" flag tapestry, as the yarn is too bulky to make anything but blobs when I tried to weave something larger

Weaving from the back

Viewing front in a mirror

I am still itching to knit a sweater, still want to use up a bunch of naturally dyed yarn. My SO helped me lay out the yarn in a possible order. After taking this pic and turning it into a black and white version, I rearranged some of the colors.

By looking at the yarn in black and white, it is easier to see which colors are too close in tone to be next to each other.

Colors are my Achilles heel. I've been meaning to practice like @gardenercook (which I mentioned here), but just hadn't gotten a round tuit. My granddaughter came over yesterday, though, and the two of us practiced with watercolor. Now that I understand a bit how watercolor works, I feel like I can make some progress learning to mix and match colors. Maybe.

Just doing my job

My "title" with the weavers guild is "Finance and PR". This came about because the guild was oozing money - spending more than we take in. One solution was to raise the dues a bit. Another solution was to bring in new members. That's where I come in. I'm trying to raise the guild's profile in the community and provide non-guild members with the opportunity to learn about us and to learn weaving.

I'm impressed with the relationship the Duneland Weavers Guild has with the Chesterton Art Center. So I approached Artlink with the idea of teaching classes at their facility, classes that would be open to the public. Not only did they welcome that idea, they told me about "clubs" they have that meet regularly to pursue art-related activities, like figure drawing or "mindful mending". I shared this info with members of our guild board, and they think we can work something out here. We'll see.

Knitting: I started another Simple Rules cowl, using the art yarn I purchased at the Chesterton Art Center.
Spinning: I plied and wet finished the roving from Three Moons Fiberworks. The tencel-silk-merino blend is now chain plied and waiting to be skeined and finished.

Weaving: I worked on the "Jasper Johns" flag weaving; about halfway through the stripes.

My younger brother visited this past week, so that had an impact on fiber activities. I'm almost finished installing plants in the yard, so hopefully I will be able to spend more time fibering. The urge exists; there just needs to be more hours in the day and/or more energy in my bucket.

Call of the wild

I have been yardening every darn day this past week, so not much fibering going on. If it would just rain more, I might get something done that didn't involve plants or dirt or mowing. Maybe this week?

Another time suck was the program I organized for the local spinning guild. That happened Tuesday. We had five stations: inkle weaving, rigid heddle weaving, harness weaving, pin weaving, and tapestry weaving. (I led the latter.) The members were divided into five groups and they rotated through the stations, spending about 15 minutes at each one. I wish I could have listened in on the other presenters, but I was busy, of course. All in all, I think it went well. Maybe some of the spinning guild members will also become weaving guild members.

Knitting: I tried knitting i-cord handles for one of the felted bags, but it didn't go well. Now I am leaning toward weaving inkle bands instead, and ordered some Omega Sinfonia yarn, a couple of spools from the Woolery, a couple from Annie's Craft Store. (Neither had all the colors I wanted in stock.)
Spinning: I finished the second bobbin of the Three Moons fiber - ready to ply.

I've been itching to knit a sweater, but I don't know which one other than I want a cardigan. So I check books out of the local library, looking for the defninitive pattern. This book is intriguing on several levels:

Besides the color work pullovers, there was a pattern for this cardigan. I have SO MUCH natural dyed yarn I could use this way.

Some of the patterns included instructions on how to dye the yarn. This one uses madder for the shades of orange, with some yarn dyed in the first and second exhaust baths. Very clever.

And that is about all that happened this week. My brother is coming to visit for a couple of days, but after that, my calender looks (relatively) clear. Projects await!

Lost and found

As I neared the end of the latest L-Bag, I pondered whether there was enough yarn to make an i-cord handle. In my mind's eye, I could see the one I knit for the previous L-Bag, so I figured I could weigh it to see how much yarn would be needed. Thinking the handle was inside the L-Bag, I started a search. And I searched and searched and searched, finally finding it in a plastic bin of inkle bands. But no handle. I looked through my blog, to search for references about the handle, but the only one I found is where I decided NOT to knit a handle. Very puzzling.

While searching, I found a second bag that I had forgotten about, even though it is in my Ravelry project list. It's made from Noro, the pieces woven on a triangle loom and stitched together. *That* one has a woven handle. I felted both the new L-Bag and the Noro one and its handle at the same time in the washing machine, and they came out great.

Drying upside down

Now they need to be lined. There is a sewist in the local fiber group who lines them; she provides the material and will add pockets and zippers, but she won't insert the grommets or provide handles. So I'm debating on lining them myself, at least the triangle bag. I'll ponder that while I decide about handles. And steel my nerves to insert grommets.

Knitting: The L-Bag is knitted and felted. I started a cowl, using 'Jailhouse Rock' yarn I had spun a while back, but I hated how it looked, as the color runs were too short. Also, after an inch or so, I realized it was twisted, so I frogged it. Then I knit up a swatch, to test different stitches. My conclusion is I need to knit something smaller, to take advantage of the short color runs.

Cake of 'Jailhouse Rock'

Before frogging

Garter, stockinette, seed, mistake rib, 2x2 ribbing

Spinning: Finished one bobbin of the fiber from Three Moons, started the second; planning to do the fractal thing.

I attended a spin-in yesterday afternoon, at the Little Shop of Spinning. There was a lot going on this weekend, so not too many of us there. And yet, a good time was had by all.