Insubordiknit

This week in spinning

I'm back in. I adore spinning. Not that I don't always adore spinning, but when you do something full-time like, for a living, you can get in ruts, you can get a eensy bit bored sometimes. You know what gets me out of it? Teaching! Yep, every time I teach someone how to spin or how to do some art yarn technique, it reinvigorates me, teaches me something, puts the love back.

So let's talk about spinning for a minute.

And to talk about spinning, I'll start by talking about knitting. I've never knit a baby surprise jacket, you know, the Pièce de résistance of that knitting mum, Elizabeth Zimmerman? I've never knit one and with Jared's constant talk of them, I'm itchin' to. I've even got a baby that could wear it!

So I decided to spin up 3 hanks of handspun in different but complimentary colorways and get going.

This week I started with the first hank. I about a 1.5 lbs of this merino roving that I must have dyed months ago and not loved because it was stuck back behind my jumbo yarn winder (the one I never use and should get rid of). So I stripped it out and spun in on the smallest whorl of the normal flyer on my Lendrum. I haven't spun skinny singles in so long, I forgot how great it feels, and how automatic and natural -- this is the yarn I wanted to spin when I first put foot to treadle, when I was busy breaking roving, producing lumpy bumpy, and cursing to high heaven. Anyway, after I spun up two bobbins, I kept on going. I made so much of this yarn that I could be 2 BSJ all on it's own! This yarn is seriously beautiful, click on that picture to the left and check it out a little bigger.

I think tonight I'll dye up a new batch of roving for the 2nd and 3rd hanks! I haven't been this excited to knit something in a while. It's got all the elements that get my fire smoking -- handspun, Zimmermania, baby.

Other spinning stoked my embers this week, as well. Check out these halos -- I adore them. I especially adore the super arty picture. I love making halos, perfect loops sprouting out of a straight line of yarn -- they make me smile each time. I think I'll try a yarn that is halo stacked on halo and see how it knits up, I picture it knitting up into some crazy each-stitch-is-a-loop fabric that would look great as the trim on a bag or mitten cuffs.

I also have found a little love for the Monster hats again. For a while I was doing so many that they were making me a bit sick, but after a pretty good break where they just trickled out of my wheel, I'm feeling 'em again. This week is was all about pirates --

Posted by jacey at May 13, 2008 08:49 AM