Spinning Seminar 2011

As usual, the Spinning Seminar at The Mannings was really fun!  This year, there were 7 of us gathered under a tree knitting (3 of us brought spinning wheels but just never totally unpacked them).  I failed to get a picture of the whole crew, but here are a few of us: Allison is winding a skein of cotton-linen yarn she bought in the shop, Heidi is saying something wise, and Julie is looking sage in her corner.

Look closely at the cup holder on Allison’s chair – she brought bunnies!  These are so adorable.She makes them out of scraps.  The ones on either side are made of sock yarn and the one in the little is a bit bigger.  I looked in Ravelry for the pattern and didn’t find it right away (but let me tell you, there are some seriously cute bunny patterns in the database!).

As usual, there were some folks showing how flax is processed.  I’ve read and heard about this before, but it still boggles my mind.  I am amazed that anyone figured out there was a long fiber running stem to root in this plant, and that you had to control the rotting of the plant and beat it up pretty well to reach the fiber.  Here is a pretty good article that describes it if you don’t have The Intentional Spinner on your bookshelf.  The part we saw today was “breaking and scutching.”  Here is the flax brake: You wham that part she’s holding down a bunch of times, and the outer part of the plant falls off (you can see a pile forming on the ground underneath).  Then you run a handful of fiber through this wicked series of hackles, starting at the bigger ones and working you way down to the smaller ones:

You grasp the handful of fiber and throw it down onto the hackles, then pull it through.  I should have taken a video, but here is an action shot: Finally, you spin.  The stick holding the cotton candy bunch of fiber is a distaff, and the spinner dips her fingers into a bowl of water occasionally – you need to control the fiber a bit and water does the trick.  I have better pictures of this woman spinning flax from previous years – this year she was stationed in front of the A/C unit.

There was a nice exhibit showing how to dye different shades of red using natural dyes (cochineal, mostly) – look how many different colors you can get! And another woman had a table set up to demonstrate how to dye blues with indigo: There were a few animals, including these angora goats:Sometimes it’s fun to just listen for a while.  This man was explaining that you can keep sheep and goats together as long as you don’t have unwethered (snipped!) males together.  When male goats get aggressive, they rear up on their back legs.  When male sheep get aggressive, they head butt.  If they are both aggressive at the same time, the sheep can really damage the goat. See, I didn’t know that before today…

There were some other exhibits listed on the event description that I never found.  I wonder if some were inside, perhaps back in the room with the spinning wheels?  I never made my way that far in – the shop was too crowded!

Thanks, Mannings, for another fun year.  We love the Spinning Seminar!

Off season - again

Who knits wool knee socks with temps in the 90s?  Me, apparently!  I finally got past the colorwork section on those knee socks – see?They look awfully big to me, but they appear to stay up.  The top part is 104 stitches in circumference.  It seems to take me forever to knit 104 stitches over 4 dpns.  You can see that I switched back to 2 circulars when I hit the green ribbing again.  My leg doesn’t look quite so colossal in this photo: The decreases are happening quickly at this point in the sock, 2 stitches every other round.  Eventually the circumference will be 64. 

When I knit the next sock, I will use a smaller needle for the very top.  I used a 2.5 mm for the rubbed cuff and the colorwork section, then moved to a 2.25 mm for the first few rounds of green ribbing, and then to a 2.0 mm needle.  I think 2.5 mm is the right size for the colorwork, but everything else should be tighter.

Also, I’m contemplating casting on fewer stitches for the second sock.  Of course, they wouldn’t match (sizewise) but I’m considering it anyway.  I’m sort of letting go of the idea of actually wearing these.  I could always hang them up in my room like art.  They’re awfully pretty! In other news, I did tune up the spinning wheel and get her whirring again.  I’ve just spun 1/3 of this wool/silk/bamboo fiber that I got at MDSW this year: At first I was going to spin the singles all on one bobbin and then Navajo ply them (which makes a chained 3-ply yarn).  Then I saw how contrast-y the gray and green colors are, and decided that I didn’t want to preserve those color shifts.  So I divided my fiber into 3 equal-ish sections (which took some doing, since some of it was already spun) and plan to make a 3-ply the regular way.  The resulting yarn should have a barberpole look to it. Tomorrow is the annual Spinning Seminar at The Mannings!  As long as it’s not too wet (scattered thunderstorms are predicted), I’ll take my wheel.  Otherwise, I’ll knit a bit.

Spinning Seminar 2010

I have been remiss in reporting on the lovely time Kris and I had at the 2010 Spinning Seminar at '>The Mannings back on June 12.  This is an annual event that we just discovered last year.  I’m sure the word “spinning” scared me off in earlier years.  The format is this: many demonstration/exhibition tables set up on the grass outside the shop, a lunch/snack booth run by the local church ladies, some animals on display, some local 4H groups practicing for Sheep to Shawl contests, and free time for spinning or knitting.  There is no charge (unless you buy pie, which we usually do – though this year we went with some good looking chocolate chip cookies, instead).

Here’s my Flickr slideshow of the day.  Double click to open it bigger and see the captions, too.  Enjoy!

Just in case you don’t watch all the way to the end, I want to show off Kris’s version of the Night Gulls sock.  She’s knitting this in a perfectly lovely Cascade Heritage handpaint that is such a great match for the pattern.  Doesn’t it look good so far? Now, who wants to knit dog hair?

A Quick Spin

Remember the batt I made at The Mannings’ Spinning Seminar back in June?  I decided that spinning it would be a good reentry project for me and my wheel.

Here were the fibers before they started on their trip through the drumcarder: Here they are after one pass through the carder: And another pass:I didn’t really think about this project very much.  I just grabbed the batt and spun it.  That worked okay, because the fibers in it were quite different and it would have been difficult to try to spin with great consistency.  I eyeballed the batt and ripped it in half, and ended up with the most even division I’ve ever had.  After plying my two singles, I had about 8” of singles left.

Here is this little skein.  It’s 1.15 oz (32 g) and about 74 yards.  It ended up looking kind of heathery, which I quite like.  I’m not that sure what to do with it.  I’ll probably combine it with other handspun yarn to make a quick hat or something.  Any other ideas?

Spinning Seminar at The Mannings

Yesterday was the 41st (!) Annual Spinning Seminar at The Mannings (description here). This is a demonstration event with a number of tables/booths. No sales (except for the usual stuff in the store). Spinners are invited to bring their wheels and stay awhile. Want to see my slide show? (Open in Flickr so you can read the notes.)



My favorite part was definitely creating my own batt. It's so much fun to have a participatory experience at an event like this. It would be great if more exhibitors incorporated this into their display/demonstration (the needle felter did, but I didn't get pictures of her). For instance, I would have welcomed the opportunity to hackle some of that flax or try spinning it for a few minutes. Same with the cotton.

I also enjoyed seeing how many knowledgeable children were at this event. Some of them were part of a sheep-to-shawl 4-H team who took the day to train for their next competition (there were 2 or 3 teams there, with multiple wheels and a loom each). There were lots of other kids around with various fiber club t-shirts on. I had a lovely conversation with one of them at the batt booth.

Next year, I'll bring a folding chair and my spinning wheel. This year I just had my knitting with me.

I was intrigued by the drumcarder. I wish I had access to one that I didn't have to purchase outright (they are quite expensive). I know some places have guilds with equipment that can be borrowed or rented, but there is none around here (that I know of).