I promise I'm not going to show a video of every skein of yarn that Emma spins.  But here she is last Saturday, plying for the very first time ever in her entire life...



...using the Corriedale singles she spun earlier that day as shown in the last video I posted.  Note, please, that she is (with great coordination!) plying from both ends of the ball of singles.  And here is the resulting skein.



50 yards
28 grams (1 oz.)

That was last Saturday.  Since then she has filled two bobbins with lovely natural brown Bluefaced Leicester singles.

I may have created a monster...

The bedtime whining I love to hear:

"Moooooommmmmm, I don't waaaaaant to go to bed!  I want to keep spiiiiinnnnnning!"

How about a fiber round-up?  I've been busy recently, and finally got around to taking pictures this morning.

First, though, I want to show this:



Emma's really getting the hang of spinning!  She finished her first full bobbin of singles at Crafty Night this week, and is well on her way to filling a second this morning.  I really can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning than a mother/daughter spinning session.  After all the miserableness of the past year, this brings me so much joy.

Now, onto my show and tell.

This is a project from a couple months ago.  It's special because it is a blend of Corriedale wool and mohair, and the mohair is locally grown.  The goats that grew this fiber live in Summerville, at Pleasant Hill Farm, about a half hour from my house.



I blended the fibers on my carder, 80% wool:20% mohair, and spun a fine singles.  This yarn is a 3-ply, from three batts, and the skein is 340 yards, 137 grams (4.8 oz).  The spinning was delightful, and LOOK at that shine!  It's drapey and smooth and soft and will develop a lovely halo.



I have a pile of mohair left (I went a little crazy when Emma and I were at the farm...) in white, silvery black, and light tan, so watch for more of this yarn.

Next up is the gray-brown Romney wool from Christmas, which I finished off on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day.  Emma and I had a quiet night to welcome in 2012, with our dinner of shrimp, cheese and crackers, clementines, a homemade veggie dip tray, and raspberry lemonade.  This is the second year that we've done this as our "traditional" New Year's Eve party, just the two of us, and I found myself looking forward to it as much as she was.  It was a very pleasant evening of snacking-for-dinner, watching movies, and spinning.



I ended up with about 420 yards of 3-ply yarn, a total of 241 grams (8.5 oz). This will work very well as part of a future sweater with the Christmas Tunis and Friday Harbor Border Leicester-Romney that I have tucked away in the closet.  Some may be dyed, or maybe not. Not a decision that needs to be made immediately; for now I'm just collecting yarn.



Next, here's a Work-In-Progress.  This is the superfine New Zealand Merino that I bought with Emma's wheel.  It's lovely stuff, incredibly soft.  I'm spinning it very very fine (surprise, surprise...) and have finished the first batch.



This is 19 grams of roughly 130 wpi singles, but it's hard to measure accurately.  It'll be easier after plying.



Another Work-In-Progress: I'm still going on the bundle of Fiber Optic merino/bamboo top that I got at Sock Summit.  I have almost three-quarters of it spun, with only 32 grams left.  I'm spinning this very very fine, and savoring every inch.



And one last Work-In-Progress to wrap things up.  This is the Fiber Optic pencil roving from Sock Summit, 50% superwash merino and 50% bamboo (rayon).  I pulled this out after I finished the gray-brown Romney because I needed some color...and just because.



Lovely greens.  The pencil roving comes as a doubled strand, so the first thing I did was split it in half lengthwise and wind each into a ball.  I'll spin each from the same end, and when I ply, hopefully the colors will mostly match up.



I started spinning the first half last Tuesday, at Crafty Night.  I'm drafting this out very very fine (are you seeing the trend yet?!) for laceweight.  I have tentative plans for this to be woven into a scarf, using it for both the warp and weft.  The long runs of color should give a plaid-ish effect when the yarn is crossed with itself.



Whew!  So that's what I've been doing.

So the stage was set...



And then it was Christmas morning!



Going in for a closer look...She likes it!



Later that morning, after all the other presents were opened, we sat down to spin!



This just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Sigh.

How this for a pretty picture?  I really like the simpler, cleaner lines of the older model Ashford Traditional wheels. They're so much more elegant than the new ones that have the fussier turnings.

Emma's new old wheel cleaned up beautifully- finally.  It was a long road.  Sadly, I neglected to take any "during" pictures.  Sorry.

Its spa treatment included complete disassembly (except for the drive wheel; I didn't take the spokes out), then a good hard scrubbing with hot soapy water and a green kitchen scrubbie. This took two evenings.  I doubt this poor wheel had ever been cleaned since it was first put together 35 years ago.  The water in the dishpan turned black. It was disgusting.

The scrubbing helped a lot, but there was still a remnant layer of varnish or polyurethane or something that had embedded dirt and had gone somewhat sticky.  Whether the stickiness was from age or from the hot soapy water I don't know, but either way, it had to go.  So the next step was sanding.  I used three grades of sandpaper: 220, 320, and 400.  I used a light  hand and didn't take it down to completely raw wood, just enough to get the dirt and varnish off but keep some of the patina.  Sanding took two long afternoons and an evening.  Sanding all the spokes and curves of the drive wheel was a royal pain!

And then...then came the oil.  I love Danish oil as a finish.  The wood was so beautiful after it was sanded, all velvety and smooth, and I almost hated to do anything else to it.  But I've seen the oil transformation before and in any case, the wood needed to be protected.  Danish oil penetrates the wood and hardens, and makes a beautiful satin finish.  The silver beech wood is gorgeous, and several pieces on this wheel show a lovely wavy grain pattern.  I tried to take pictures of this, but it was overcast today and nothing showed up well in the photos.  I'll try again when the light is better.

I put six coats of Danish oil on the wood, and it sucked it right up.  I just kept adding more oil every half hour until it finally stopped soaking in right away.  When the last coat still showed a bit of an oil sheen on the surface after an hour, I called it good and gave all the parts a hard buffing with a piece of an old towel.  I let everything dry for two days, then put the pieces back together and let it sit for another couple days to make sure the oil was completely cured.

Tonight I tied on a drive band and a brake band, lubricated all the moving parts well, and spun a test skein.  It's lovely to spin on, and almost silent;  just a bit of whirring from the brake band. I spun and plied 70 grams of Corriedale, and after I adjusted to the slow ratio and remembered to spin thicker than my laceweight default yarn, it was effortless and relaxing. It's a different feel than spinning on my Schacht, but wonderful.



I think this 200 yards of yarn is going to become dark green fingerless mitts.



I really hope Emma is as excited about her wheel as I am.  I'm thrilled with this purchase, and can't wait to give it to her.

Pssst!  Don't tell Emma what Santa is packing in his sleigh for her this year!

This is an older Ashford Traditional wheel, made sometime between 1975 and 1980 according to the timeline on the Ashford website.  It's very dirty but otherwise in great condition.  The drive wheel runs absolutely true, and there aren't any cracks or even any major dings in the wood.  It's currently in pieces in my garage, being cleaned up.  A little scrubbing, light sanding, and a couple coats of Danish oil, and it will glow.

The flyer only has one speed, but that will be fine for Emma for a while.  Her biggest problem with spinning on my Schacht is that sometimes the twist gets ahead of her.  When she's ready, I'll upgrade her to the triple-speed flyer.

This wheel is the same vintage as the Traditional that was my first wheel, which I regretted selling almost as soon as I did it.  I think it was about three months from when I sold it until Emma started showing an off-and-on interest in spinning.  I bought that wheel for $300 in 2002, and sold it in 2008 for $300, after I bought my Schacht Matchless for $300 (also off Craigslist). I bought this wheel last weekend for $100.  I am the queen of Craigslist.

Now, for $100, a day trip to Portland, and some loving elbow grease, I get to spin with my girl.  Priceless.

Emma and I had a fun day today, in between the normal weekend housecleaning and after a mysterious 103° fever that she developed in the space of 15 minutes yesterday morning. We were at the Farmer's Market, and one minute she was running around with her friends, then she was back sitting with me at my table, then 10 minutes later she was shivering and goosebumpy because she was so cold (it was 90° out), and crying because her head hurt so much. It was very strange. Luckily Shaun stopped by the market and held Emma while she slept until the market was over, then I tucked her into bed when we got home. She was fine by this morning, and was Little Miss Chatty when she crawled into bed with me at 4:00 am. Childhood fevers are strange.

Anyway, she was rarin' to go this morning, so after we did chores, we dyed some wool for her. This was Emma's first time using acid dyes.



She picked out seven colors, and I did the mixing and she did the pouring. I think she did a great job.



Into the microwave for steaming, then out into the hot sunny day to dry by dinnertime.



This is 50 grams of corriedale top, and I love the way it came out. I may have to get her to make a batch for me.



The motivation behind dyeing some wool FOR EMMA was an event yesterday at the market (before the rapid-onset fever...). I bring my wheel to the market since it attracts attention to my table, the kids (and grownups) are fascinated by watching me, and it gives me something to do during slow times. Emma wandered over at one point, plopped herself down on my lap, pushed my feet off the treadle, put her feet on the treadle, took the wool out of my hands, and just started spinning. It was amazing.

She has a drop spindle, but gets frustrated with it easily since it backspins and she finds it awkward to keep it going and draft at the same time. We've done park and draft, but she never really thoroughly got the hang of drafting. She would do OK for a minute or so, but then the twist would get away from her and either run into the fiber mass or the singles would drift apart. She found the spindle very frustrating. She has practiced treadling on my wheel, but has never done drafting at the wheel, and certainly NEVER at the same time as treadling.



The most amazing thing is, I don't think she has even picked up her spindle in over a year, except for one time after I got back from Sock Summit and was so excited about my new spindles. She hasn't tried or even seemed interested in spinning in a year.

Yesterday she just sat down and started spinning. I was flabbergasted. I guess something just clicked after all those years of watching me, and her fits and starts of practicing. Her yarn is lumpy in spots and somewhat overspun, but so is everyone's first yarn. It just amazes me that she sat down and commenced spinning- no fanfare, no struggling, she just did it.

So here, for your viewing pleasure, is Emma spinning on a Schacht wheel:

I'm so proud of her I could burst.

On our way back from Friday Harbor last Sunday, Emma and I stopped off at Weaving Works. Just to, you know, look around. OK, OK, so I had a list. Better to have a list to stick to, though, than to get all delirious and go crazy from the wool fumes.

I got almost everything on my list (they didn’t have cotton punis), and I stayed within my budget of $100. Not bad for an entire summer (and beyond) of entertainment.



That’s 4 weaving bobbins, 8.35 oz of 70% merino/30% silk top in the “Concord” colorway, 2.35 oz of New Zealand top in a very bright royal blue, 0.75 oz of silk hankies, a Cascade Spindle Co. “Tiger” spindle, and a Schacht 2.5” Hi-Lo drop spindle.



I love this picture. It's Emma’s first spindle-spun yarn, and my first spindle-spun yarn.

This is my first “real” time using a drop spindle. Many, many, many years ago, my sister and I – was she in on it, or was it just me? I can’t remember – talked my parents into getting a Learn To Spin kit while we were on vacation in Maine. I was desperate to have that kit, I so very much wanted to learn to spin. It came with a couple ounces of brown wool roving and a drop spindle. That spindle was truly a boat anchor. The thing was huge, and probably weighed 5 ounces. At least. Using it was an exercise in frustration, and I never got the hang of it. Trying to figure it out without knowing what I was doing didn’t help, either. So much for my first attempt at spinning.



These two spindles, on the other hand, are a joy to use. Emma’s Schacht weighs 1.1 oz., and my little Cascade Tiger weighs only 0.3 oz. I’m spinning the silk hankies on it, which is another new thing for me. The hankies don’t make a smooth yarn, that’s just the nature of hankies, but it will be a nice 2-ply. One layer takes about 15 minutes to peel, stretch, stretch some more while winding onto my wrist, and spin. Because there are lots of very long fibers in the silk, my hands have to be about 8-12” apart to draft, and that’s hard to manage while spinning. So I’m predrafting this completely, before any twist goes in, right down to the diameter I want the yarn to be, and spinning without drafting at all. The finished singles are right about 100 wpi.



Laceweight silk as my first spindling. For some reason, I find that hilarious. The spindle makes it easy, though. It spins fast, and keeps going and going.



And Emma – what can I say. SHE asked ME a couple weeks ago if I would teach her to spin. Not to help me spin; she wanted to do the whole thing herself. Since she’s not quite tall enough to use my wheel, I decided to get her a spindle to start out with. If she keeps on with it I’ll get her a wheel, but that’s a bit too much to shell out up front if her interest fizzles. She picked out her own wool, too, from the wall of dyed NZ tops. I must say I was surprised at the color. She completely ignored all the purples and pinks, and wanted only this blue.

I showed her the park and draft technique, and off she went. I started her with the spindle held as a bottom-whorl, but she doesn’t have the finger strength to flick the spindle and get a good spin, and was getting frustrated, so I switched it around to top-whorl mode. This is better, because she can roll it along her leg and get a good amount of rotation, and using the hook is easier to manage than a half-hitch.



I’m so thrilled and proud of her. She’s four, and she’s making yarn! I’m enjoying my spindle, too, and have actually taken it out in public. I spun at the gym while waiting for my spin (exercise) class to start last night, and I spun during Emma’s swimming lesson this morning. I got a lot of attention from the kids! I’ve always been wary of spindling, no doubt tainted by that early experience 25 years ago. It seemed slow and awkward, not as good as wheel spinning. Now, however, I think that (for me) though it’s not a “substitute for,” it’s definitely a good “addition to.” Slower, yes, but just as relaxing.