smatterings

somewhere there's more

I wish I knew where.  I bought a 2 oz. bag of this gorgeous Foxfire blend of cashmere and silk a year or so ago.  I guess I could check back in my blog entries, but no matter.  Since then, I've spun and / or misplaced .7 oz.  Out of a 2 oz bag, that's quite a lot.  Imagine the uproar if this were a bag of something else.. whew!!  Movies are written with less plot.  There's only me to blame.  Only me.  It's somewhere and hope against hope it hasn't been spun into some other yarn than this light 2 ply.  I've searched through my bags.  The other day I found a small amount in a bag with another spindle, unspun, and added it to this before I plied it yesterday afternoon. 

The remaining 1.3 oz.  192 yards.  Spindle spun.

192.. maybe a stripe?

imagine you're a spindler...

..and a box is delivered to your door.  It isn't unexpected.  In fact, you've been waiting for the box.  Anxiously.
You know what is inside the box, but you have no idea what it will look like.  You open the box.  WOW!

It is everything that you hoped it would be, and more.  Now, suppose again you are a spindler.  A box of spindles from one of the very finest spindle makers arrives at your door.  You open the box and as you unpack each spindle you fall in love, over and over, and over again.  What could be better? 

For a day or two they are all mine.  They will sit on my table, a spindler's bouquet. 

Year's ago, in another lifetime, I traveled through Central America buying and selling wonderful textiles.  At first I wanted them all to myself.  Who wouldn't?  But, as time went on I discovered that to own them for a short time, to hold them, admire and discover them was quite enough. 

The spindles are from Ken Ledbetter.  He is, in my opinion, a spindle master.  His spindles look as beautiful as they spin.  They spin forever.  All are signed.  The weight is noted on the underside of the whorl. 

Saturday, they will be for sale.  Stop by the Ball and Skein booth at the Massachusetts Sheep & Wool Festival.  That's Cummington, for you old timers.  Leslie Wind and I will be sharing one of the stalls.  For those of you who know the fair, it is by the grassy area, just down from The Merlin Tree .

Handspun and Persephone

Putting a bit more twist on the 2 ply spindle spun yarn did the trick.  It still hung straight the way a balanced plied yarn should.  I rewashed it and hung it to dry.  The balance stayed put.  Onward with my plan!  Originally, I wanted to knit Mim's Persephone with it.  The cashmere and silk are very soft. Perfect scarf yarn.  My sister (you know Linda) agreed to knit Persephone, as it is offered in the kit, with my Arbori so that I could go ahead with my original plan.  I'm using the Arbori yarn in the same Purple Haze colorway for my Muir shawl.  The handspun and the Purple Haze are fairly similar in color and intensity.    I didn't need three projects on the needles in the same colors. 

Persephone is a very enjoyable knit.  I do need to pay attention.  Not so much that I can't watch a movie and knit, but I need to keep the chart close and refer to it each line.  ONe repeat down.   

spindling with a Ledbetter

second verse
same as the first..

I love this spindle. I showed it to you last October.  It is from Ken Ledbetter.   To break it in, I decided to spin something special, Foxfires' Cashmere Silk blend.  Last Friday evening, on a motel balcony somewhere in Delaware, the last bit was spun.  Wednesday, I got around to plying.

When I skeined this, I measured out 446 yards.  Impossible!  I have spindle spun two different fibers during the past year, on two different spindles and come out with the same yardage.  Yeah, both weigh in at approx. 3 oz.  I must be on a roll.  There were 6 cops of the cashmere / silk to ply.  Somewhere, there is another ounce of fiber or more little bundles waiting for me to find them.  I bought 4 ounces, not three. 

Thing is, I don't like it. Here is the problem.  As I spun them I worried that I was putting on too much twist.  The single felt hard.  But, as I wanted a solid feeling yarn, I kept at it.  I thought I'd plied it accordingly.  As I plied, I checked it, it twisted back on itself a little bit.  Not too much.  Maybe plying in daylight would have helped, because I really didn't see this coming.  It looks under plied.  The skein hung straight when I took it off the bobbin.

It was still straight and apparently balanced after a nice long soak in very warm water, hung over the line without weight and dried.  Here's a close-up.

   It's going onto the swift to have a little more twist added.