I've been spinning the fiber from a set of sample fibers that I bought long ago. The fiber came from Hood Canal Yarns, and there are some great exotic fibers and blends in it.
The fiber that I'm currently spinning is yak/tussah silk and the singles are spinning up quite nicely:
I'm going to navajo ply this as well. The singles are fairly fine, and it should make a nice yarn for weft.
I'm thinking that I'm going to weave a couple of scarves where I use all these samples up. I'll make them striped with different combinations of the sample fibers. Of course, that will be sometime after I've managed to spin them all.
I keep trying to plan my next weaving project, but don't quite get there. Maybe that will be tomorrow's project.
I think I've managed to share most of the recent things that I've been doing. I've got two sweaters that I'm working on, the pink socks that I shared the other day, and a pair of Glittens that I don't yet have a picture of. Oh, and an alien from Take Me To Your leader by Knitting at Knoon.
I will take some pictures and post them here, though the weather needs to cooperate too. Today actually has been sunny, but for the last week it's been pretty gray and rainy, so I'm very glad to see the sun finally.
And I think that's all I've got for today.
Towards the end of 2010, I decided I wanted to try spinning coils. There had been an article in Spin Off, and the yarn in it looked like a lot of fun. So, I pulled out the roving that I had from a fleece I had sent off to a mill, since I had a lot of it. The first attempt was kind of pathetic. Couldn't really tell what I was doing, and the "coils" looked like thick and thin yarn. The second attempt was only a little better.
I then switched what I was using for the yarn that is spun thick and thin to make the coils. I don't think this made any real difference, I think it was the experience that was the key. Here's a picture of my last two attempts:
The coils on this look almost like the coils in the pictures that I liked so much. I think a few more practice runs and I will be able to produce something that looks vaguely like what I'm aiming for. Of course, I've gotten sidetracked and am spinning other things at the moment, but I'll get back to this eventually.
I'm finding that I want to spend more time knitting than my shoulder can take. I've had to start a couple of projects that are knit using the continental style so that I can knit a bit more than usual. I'm also pushing it in terms of what my shoulder can take.
One pair finished, one still in progress.
The top pair is using the Leyburn socks pattern. I really enjoyed this pattern, though I did toe up and used one of the Cat Bordhi arch increases. The pattern slips stitches with yarn in front, then you pick up the yarn to make the crossing pattern. It was quite quick and a pretty mindless pattern once started.
While I enjoyed the pattern, I think I fell in love with the yarn. Twinkletoes from Chameleon Colorworks. I'm going to have to get some more of this yarn. It was a dream to knit with and I love how it feels.
The second pair is a pattern that I was playing with using the spiral arch increase from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, and doing some cabling with it. I'm not particularly happy with this pair, and I think I'm going to try doing some more involved cables that work in that increase as part of the pattern. It'll be interesting to see if I have the wherewithall to plan it rather than just trying to make it work as I go (which is my usual method).
Here are the results of some of my recent spinning efforts:
A little blurry, but such is life. The white is yak and the brown is baby camel. The baby camel is what I was spinning in the picture I posted last week. Both are spun find and then Navajo or chain plied.
Working on some socks and a couple of sweaters in knitting. I spun some coils recently, and maybe I'll do another post and show what I ended up with.
Other than that, not much to report.
I'm off to Maryland for a job interview. I'm interviewing for a position as a QA Manager at a small company that creates software to help translational research. What is translational research you might ask? It's the idea that you put together all the clinical, phenotypic, genetic, test results, etc. etc. etc. and use it to draw new conclusions and develop new therapeutics. Right now, it's very messy and no one does it well.
In my opinion, what's needed in software for translational research is an emphasis on user experience and usability. So far, the companies that have tackled it have concentrated on the back end, because of a belief that getting all the disparate data together is the hard part. When really the hard part is in building something that someone who is not a computer expert can use to query and to explore data. I don't think anyone has really gotten that right yet, though I'm going to see if maybe this company is closer than anyone else.
I'm staying a couple of extra days to see friends, so I'll have some fun while I'm gone. Hopefully, something will come of this and I'll be able to get out of here.
...on a Saturday morning.
Sat down to spin and watch a show and the cat decided it was lap time. With the dog and some tea, it was a perfect Saturday morning.
I'm spinning some baby camel from a variety pack that I bought a couple of years ago. I'm spinning from the stash these days, and this seemed like just the thing for a slow Saturday morning.
I managed to finish spinning the baby camel over the weekend. I'll ply it in the next couple of days and post a picture when it's done.
