Tour de Fleece Continued

Day 2, July 3rd:  I was able to spin yarn for 2 hours today. I'm using my Ashford Joy wheel. Working on a 3 ply yarn using 3 bobbins. I have split the roving into thirds lengthwise and I finished the first third of the fiber on bobbin #1.

Day 3, July 4th:  I spun for 2.5 hours today. Cupcake Wars is a fun accompaniment to my spinning.

Day 4, July 5th:  I spun for another 2.5 hours today. Finished the first half of bobbin #2.

Day 5, July 6th:  I spun for 3 hours today. Working on bobbin #3. Accompanied by Cupcake Wars, Grey's Anatomy and Ian playing Minecraft. A very productive day.

Day 6, July 7th: Got in only 45 minutes of spinning today. Still working on bobbin #3.

Tour de Fleece Starts Today

Ravelry's Tour de Fleece started today. It's a fun tribute to the Tour de France. It's all about spinning. Whatever kind of wheels you have.

Day 1: I spun yarn for one and a half hours today. Yea me!

Unexpectedly I also purchased a folding exercise bike today.

Merino top roving from Material Culture Fiber Arts.

New UFO’s

A new year requires a new list of UFO’s (UnFinished Objects).

• knitting the Central Park Hoodie from Knitty
• knitting the Djoser Shawl by Cassie Castillo
• spinning gold silk from Dreamy Goat Design Studio
• spinning mohair samples for an upcoming class
• Studio 49 Retreat Purple Fiber Exchange project
• crocheting Angry Bird amigarumi birds and pigs for my son, Ian

I must have more projects to add to the list as the UFO baskets and boxes are piled in a big heap that definitely looks like more than just 6 projects. But the list will suffice for now.

This year, like last year, I endeavor to finish more projects than I start.

A Year of Firsts

2012 has been a year of firsts for me. 

• First blog. 
• First time Ian, my son, went to school. 
• First time selling something online in my Etsy store. 
• First time really keeping track of how and when I finish my UFO’s (UnFinished Objects).
• First time teaching spinning to a private student.
• First time (in many years) going to a fiber arts awards ceremony.
• First time processing wool in the grease (freshly sheared) - from washing to combing to spinning.

The first three quarters of the year passed very slowly. Then September came and there has been a nonstop flurry of activities. I write this last post of 2012 to remind myself that life is not a competition. I managed to write 35 out of 52 intended posts. Pretty good for a busy mom!

I also finished quite a number of projects. Even started a few new ones that got finished. 20-some projects have been completed this year. Plus all the little things like making product for my store that I didn’t include in the count.

I’m pleased to have shared this year with you. I hope you have enjoyed my irregular postings.

I wish good things and happy tidings to you in 2013.

Snickering Pigs

I finished Angry Bird Pig #1 a month ago. Here he is (reference blog post Too Busy).

I finished Angry Bird Pig #2 last week. Here he is.

Here they are together. Aren’t they ridiculously cute?!?

Can you tell one pig is bigger than the other? Not sure how that happened but I must have tightened the yarn tension on the second one. It’s probably closer to pattern gauge than the first piggy. Have one more to make.

Ian calls them “Snickering Pigs.”

Bloo Bamboo

Referencing my 2nd blog post Spinning in Madrid, I have finished spinning the indigo-dyed merino bamboo fiber I’ve been working on for more than a year. A UFO (UnFinished Object) no longer!

 The stats:

• 60/40 Merino Bamboo blend - 4 oz.
• 573 yards of 3-ply yarn
• 18 wpi (wraps per inch) - lace weight
• singles spun on Ashford Traditional single drive/treadle standard bobbins
• plied using jumbo bobbin accessory
• the fiber was very easy to spin fine

The yarn is squishy and super soft to touch.

I had always planned on plying from 3 bobbins to see how the colors blended. This is my shoebox Lazy Kate set up at a 45 degree angle. The yarn comes off the bobbins smoothly as long as I keep my guide hand straight up from the kate. No tension line required on the bobbins (although I do have 2 pushpins and an elastic cord ready for tension if I so desire).

Two bobbins had yarn left over so I chain plied the singles for a variation of the straight 3-ply yarn. The colors in the chain plied yarn are more delineated while the straight 3-ply color blended to a lighter blue throughout the skein.

31 yards of chain ply.

I find the color gradation more interesting in the chain plied yarn. But I would still be plying. As it is, it took a week to ply 500+ yards of straight 3-ply.

A 2 year long project is finally finished. Whew!

Reminders

I have been seriously delinquent in posting to this blog recently. I have many excuses but none worthy of writing down. I was reminded yesterday that this blog is important and necessary (if not to anyone else) to me.

My local guild, the South Coast Weavers and Spinners Guild, hosted a presentation by Sarah Jackson, noted weaver, textile artist and member of the guild. Sarah gave a talk on her path as a textile artist and showed slides of her work. The two most important things she said to me were to always label and document your work. She photographs everything and writes her own blog.

As a busy mom with not a lot of time to do my own textile work I always think that I never finish anything. My original goal for this blog was to keep track of my UFO’s this year. To finish more projects than I start. As I said above, I was reminded yesterday that this blog is actually my documentation. That writing and photographing my work is important to me to show my progression as a textile artist. It is necessary to show myself that I actually do finish quite a number of things. 

The documentation does not have to be in a public blog of course. But I find that there is some accountability when I post here. I get feed back from my fellow textile artists. It is fulfilling in the way that show and tell time is at guild meetings.

As a side note, my fellow guild members have loads of talent. Including established and published artists. It is intimidating sometimes to go to the guild meetings but also inspiring. In no way do I include myself in the same class as these artists yet :-) but it is very cool to hang out with them.