Fiber Friday 3/14/2008

[jazzturtle]

Yay!!  It's friday!! 

I have a few to share this week.

I tried my first ply with feathers.  It was fun once I got the hang of really securing the feathers.  It's from Feb's spunky electric FOTM club
1.5 oz, 56 yards
plied with invisible thread and feathers
Spring Chicken



I spun a yarn to work with this, with the rest of the 4 oz roving from Spunky Electric..
Burst of Spring,
2.5 oz, 72 yards
spun thick thin, plied with gold thread with coils and beehives


Together


I had some wonderful batts from mandalinn, of rainbow goodness.  I spun that thick thin with sections of creamy white bamboo.  Then I plied with white crochet thread and made fun Supercoils with the bamboo.
Rainbows on a Cloudy Day
2 skiens total 5 oz
54.15 yards, one skien
61.4 yards, one skien




I also made my first felt beads!  Fun stuff!


Happy friday everyone!

[PurpleHeather]

Wow jazzturtle - all your yarns are gorgeous.  Spring chicken is fab - how did you secure the feathers?  I love the Rainbows on a Cloudy Day - from a way off the colours remind me of the seashore.

[subloke]

My contribution this week:



The colors are not "me" at all, but it was fun to see how they all spun up.  100g of 2 different Fleece Artist colorways (50g each). 

[inle_rah]

jazzturtle, I love Rainbows on a Cloudy Day.  It's gorgeous, and the felt beads are awesome, too.

I have 2 new yarns this week.  The first is "Diamonds and Pearls"

This is a small skein of only about 48 yards.  Superwhite faux cashmere plied with pearl metallic thread which was strung with Swarovski crystals and faux pearls.

Next is "Morning Magic"

About 212 yards of merino plied with black metallic filament.

[Star217]

Okay I have one to share this week. Merino/Romney X blend 1 oz spindle spun then plied with metallic thread and beads. 45 yards
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/2331773375_d5728d8ddd.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2057/2331775633_f496b94f69.jpg
Sorry for all the pics I just got a new camera and I'm smitten.

[astormorray]

Yay fiber friday!  I've not been spinning recently... I've been picking and carding fiber in prep for dyeing (and then there will be more picking and carding and even drum carding before actual spinning again.

I love the feathers, jazzturtle.  I have two questions: how do you secure feathers?  And how do you make felt beads?  I've been trying to make felt balls out of the remainders of plies, but I get impatient, then they unwind, and in desperation, I just sewed them up.  The cats use them as toys, and they have a tendency to unwind otherwise, and once I found one rolled out and knotted around my wheel!

Yay plying with beads!  I love the pink and gold combo, star217.

I love that white with beads too, inie_rah.  How do you like that faux cashmere?

[la_chrystelle]

oh my there are so much beautiful yarns, want me to learn knitting or crochet! can't choose a fav they are all very pretty!

[inle_rah]

I love that white with beads too, inie_rah.  How do you like that faux cashmere?

Thanks.  The faux cashmere was slippery and took a little getting used to, but it is so soft and shiny and pretty, that it was a real pleasure to work with.

[Flowers and Lemons]

Yay for fiber friday! This is my second enty 
First a simple red single, ashford corriedale wool;

And one I'm actually quite pleased with;
Icelandic wool, plied with a very thin, white-yellow-blue coloured thread.
Looks very.. special. 

I'm sorry for the dark picture.
I hope you like my creations.
Tonight I'll buy my own spinning wheel! 

[grayling40]

Everything looks really great! The felt beads are cool.

I've got a few this week... They're all wool/nylon blends plied with transparent thread.

"Matador"



"Muse"



"Follow"


Have a good weekend!

[Lufah]

Congrats on the impending wheel, Flowers and Lemons!

Grayling, I love Follow!  And I love jazzturtle's yarns and inle_rah's Diamonds and Pearls.  So much good stuff already this week!

I only have one skein.  It's called Applejack and is my first attempt at spinning with fabric.  5 1/2 ounces and 128 yards:



Also, here's some pics of armwarmers I knit up from a skein of viscose yarn I spun last summer:

[SensiblyTacky]

Okay! So I finally bought myself a wheel. After trying a few out, I purchased a brand new Ashford Traditional. I waited for what seemed like forever (a week), stained it, and waited some more to put it together.

Finally at last I have my wheel. I haven't stopped spinning since.

I have a lot to show but I haven't taken pictures of everything yet. Here's a few to start with..!!







Sarahan Symphony
MIll Ends from Sheep Shed Studio
Self-Dyed Hand Painted roving with wiltons
240 yds
2.5 oz
not sure of the wpi...








Sugar B(r)itches
Fine Merino Wool
Self-Dyed Handpainted roving with Kool-Aid
Not sure of the yardage... but theres 5 skeins total. I'm guessing around 200 yds.
3.9 oz total







Easter Promises hehe
From Spunky's FOTM Club I LOVE IT!!
170 yds.
4 oz.






Random fiber that i spun and hated to spin, but finished to practice anyway...
The gray is my first wheel spun... i think it's romney

the blue is god-knows-what, but i navajo plied it successfully





And finally a sneak peek to next week! some mill ends that i dyed myself...
It reminds me of a soggy spring! You know, like when it's just starting to get fresh and green but wont stop raining

We'll see how it spins up.





Now the thing is... I dont know what to do with all this yarn!  I don't intend on knitting even half of it!?
yikes.
Being a beginner spinner, im pretty proud, but i cant stop!

[astormorray]

hee!  SensiblyTacky, if you really are piling up more yarn than you can use, I'd love to swap for any of your first three skeins there.  I can give you handdyed roving, any color you like.... I use acid dyes.  That is if you can bear to part with your yummy creations.    PM me if you're interested.

[Lotuspixie]

forgive my knitting newbie ignorance:

I looooooove the feather yarn so much!

but what would you make with it?

[bperry042]

Sooo many beautiful yarns this week. I love the feathers, beads, fabric, shimmers, etc!

Congratz SensiblyTacky on your new wheel!!! Your yarns are gorgeous!!! I didn't stop spinning for days either.  In fact.... I'm still spinning every single spare moment I can.

Lufah, your arm warmers are beautiful.  Viscose is soooo pretty. 

Here's my contribution for the week:  Everything is white mill ends from Shep Shed.

My daughters "painted" their own rovings this week using Kool-Aid.  I let them choose the colors and I spun up the yarns.  They are each 3 oz and are approx 200 yards ea.  I still haven't  set the twist so there may be a bit more yardage.  I've decided to leave these as singles to maintain the yardage and colors.  I love how you can see the difference in their personalities with the colors that they chose.


This is also a Kool-Aid dyed one.  I tried a new technique this time.  I got the rovings very very wet and sprinkled on the powered Kool-Aid.  Then I dripped on extra water and steamed it.  I was a bit worried at how muddy the colors looked when it was finished.  But, when I started spinning I totally fell in love with it.  I will definitely be making more like this!!  Approx 4 oz and 320 yrds.

The rovings
 

Still on the bobbin.  The colors are much more vivid in person.  Should I ply this at all?  I'm thinking of leaving it as a single so I maintain all the great color changes. But, I'm not sure.... any advise on this one would be great. 

[jazzturtle]

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

I love the feathers, jazzturtle.  I have two questions: how do you secure feathers?  And how do you make felt beads? 

I plied with thread, so when I had a feather, I would wrap the thread around the base of the feather a bunch of times.  I did it by actually wrapping the spool by hand around the yarn, rather than tredeling, as not to overtwist, and to get a tight hold.  I usually tugged a bit to make sure it was tight.. but you don't want to tug too hard.. it is delicate yarn..  but they should stay in there   It took a bunch of tries to get the hang of it... but it was fun!

For my felt beads I just take a bowl of hot water with a bit of dish soap in it.  I take a piece of roving and wind it into a tight coil.  then submerge the coil and begin to softly roll it between my hands .  as it begins to felt I use more pressure.  When it gets to the size I like, I rinse in cold water and let dry   I've heard you can just take the roving, wet it and then roll it into a ball in your hands as well.  I'll try that technique this weekend

forgive my knitting newbie ignorance:

I looooooove the feather yarn so much!

but what would you make with it?

I don't knit- so forgive me if i don't use the right terms.. but a drop stitched scarf would be lovely, with a really open stitch..  or it could be trim on a bag, or garment.  It could also be woven with.  The feathers are spaced nicely, so they would be spread out.  I spun it with a corrisponding non feather yarn, so the project could be a little larger

Grayling I LOVE follow!!!

Lufah.. My next spin is with fabric! I love how you did yours! How did you find spinning it?  was it difficult to secure?

SensiblyTacky- beautiful!! I love seeing all the different yarns from the same fiber club!!

[Lufahsman]

My first one of the week is Grape Nutz....



199 yds 5 3.8oz The brown ply is Sheep Shed roving and the other ply is superwash hand dyed. I really liked how this came out

Toby approves.




Second one is PINK!  This is  going to be for a friend's wife. 


/


Wow is this pink.  93 yds 3 7/8oz.  About 70/30 BFL/silk blended on the hackle.  Super soft and fluffy

Sneak peak of next week...


All the yarn is great as usual.    Damn jazzturtle with the feathers!  That rocks.

Just cus I can... Beer cupcake yum. 

[Ekioart]

So many cool yarns this week. ^-^

Lufah I love your spun fabric. It's quickly becoming an addiction here.

I'm still spinning the other half of the pile for this one. It's going to be one huge skien. *laughs*

[Lufah]

I have a Fiber Friday addendum!



This is a skein of yarn I spun for Teapotdnky.  I combed a combo of wool, nylon, sparkle, mohair, silk noils, and angora and then corespun it.  I plied it with holographic thread, and boucleed it.  88 yards, 4 5/8 ounces.

jazzturtle, what I found worked out best for me was to tear fabric into skinny strips, and then when I had an area of fat fiber, kind of pull it apart and tuck an end of the fabric strip into it.  I tried to tuck the other end of the fabric strip into the wool too.  Some of them came free at one end, so they kind of look like little fabric banners flapping around, and I had one fabric piece come off while Lufahsman was blocking it (he wound up with blocking duty this week .  But most wound up staying put in the yarn better than I thought they would.  I'm thinking about maybe weaving a scarf using that skein as an experiment - I think the bits of fabric might look kind of cool in a woven scarf.

Ekioart, I'm going to have to have a big fabric shredding day here so I can make more fabric yarn!   

[FairyAngel]

Love all of those yarns... they are so cool.....here are my yarns i spun up:

Easter Splash Cotswold Yarn



Spring Explosion -spun out of various wool, yarn nips, cotswold curls, fabric strips and netting strips..Green yarn -spun out of green brown sheep roving then plied with blue polypay wool yarn



Seafoam blue yarn is spun out of Brown Sheep millend roving.....Seaweed Yarn (varies of blue and green) is spun out of Mystery wools (hairy (possible llama) fiber, soft unknown (possible polypay or taghree)fiber, cotswold wool) that's what i think those fibers are but they seems they are.....Lilac Shell Yarn is spun out of polypay wool..

[Laamissa]

Happy Friday!
Jazzturtle:  Wow on Spring Chicken!
Grayling40:  Colors are Fab! What do you dye with?
Lufah:  Love the fabric strips.  Do you have a good inexpensive source for viscose? and how does it take wiltons dye?
Sensiblytacky:  You should start an Etsy site and sell your yarn!! And I know what its like to wait...I too had to stain my louet before I could use it (multiple coats too!)


"Liatris" (like the flower)  handdyed double ply 98 yards

[craftycavy]

I'm a newbie spinner and this is my first Fiber Friday! I've been a lurker for a long time and I finally spun something halfway decent so..
This is called "Purple Nurples." It's Corridale and was a little hard to draft because it stuck to itself.


This is Cafe a Laut. I spun it in my spinning class. I don't remember what type of wool it is but I don know that it's lambswool.

So that's all I've spun so far. I hope to be as good as you guys someday!

[mullerslanefarm]

You guys really rock!  Such beautiful yarns!!

I finally got finished plying the Brown Shetland & Corriedale that I finally carded and spun last weekend. 

190 yards, 12 WPI

[Ekioart]

Oh the yarns.....I'm so quickly becoming a fiber fanatic. ^-~

I could just snuggle them all.

Lufah, I hear ya! I've got a stack of fabric just waiting to shred, but I've got to finish this silky piece first

[SensiblyTacky]

Everyone's yarns look so great!

I have one more to add today.

This one is called Autumn Kisses, it's really similiar to Saharan Symphony, but the colours are a bit warmer. Theres oranges, red, greens, and yellow as opposed to just different shades of brown.






Autumn Kisses
Mill end roving from the Sheep Shed
126 yards
1.3 oz

I have another bobbin full of the same dyelot, just havent set the twist yet. It should be 3 ounces total when im done

[LizzieMcGuire]

So much beautiful yarn this week!
I'm absolutely in love with "Follow"! Wonderful colours! *drool*
And Liatrias looks really radiant! Oh, must stop here or I'll list all yarn posted... 

[mummy to flo]

ooh  I love them all, especially the one with the feathers and grayling40s ones!

[grayling40]

Grayling40:  Colors are Fab! What do you dye with?

Thanks! I use either Wilton's icing dyes or Kool-aid, but since you really can't get deep and rich colors with them, I sometimes card with fiber that someone else has dyed with acid dyes or just naturally-colored dark fiber. I can get some interesting colors with the Wilton's and Kool-aid, but the yarn is so much more vibrant when there's black or brown or navy blue mixed in there too.

[NativeKnits]

I've had a busy week!  I had some Etsy sales and had to replace them.  I hope you enjoy.

Sunflowers - Corriedale -  Colors are deeper in person.  Golds, greens, browns and reds.



Beautiful Day - BFL - Again - colors are much deeper in person.



Strawberry Fields - Falkland Wool



Rich For It - Alpaca/Merino/Silk



My favorite - Fade To Nantucket - Falkland Wool - colors are richer in person



Thanks for looking

[NativeKnits]

I love them all!  Great color choices.

[Marlana]

I love all the yarns this week, especially Spring Chicken and Follow.

I just have one, I've been too busy to spin this week.  Sorry for the craptastic pictures, the light sucked today.

I'm calling this Six Demon Bag (because I was listening to Man Man while I spun it).  It's a bunch of leftover singles plied into coils.  I had about twenty feet of it:


I took the yarn and made a Collier (from Intertwined):

[Eliea]

I haven't spun in a bit but I want to spin my next dolls hair. Anywho I love the spun fabric! Any tips on that guys? How hard is it to spin? It seems like the spinning wouldn't be hard but how do you set the twist? What kind of fabric is it as well?

So many great yarns guys! I love the kool-aide that someone had their girls pick out that's so neat! The "diamonds and pearls" yarn is really pretty too!

I love looking at everyone's yarns! GReat job everyone!

[Ekioart]

Eliea, the first skien I did of just fabric alone I set the same way as any other yarn. I'm still trying to figure out if my second attempt at spinning fabric will set right as its a silky fabric. (Not silk, just not sure what combo of what, lol) I will say that fabric frays a lot so I'm covered in little bitty fibers when I'm done. Not hard to spin so far for me ^-^ I find that its easier to keep a long strand even and going than it was for roving. But its a challenge on its own.

Native, I'm loving Beautiful Day! It just looks like where I'd like to be this week. On the beach ^-^

[the noodle princess]

serious awesomeness goin on!


I finally finished this yarn! it's called Diving Bell.


and I've been dyeing up a storm of roving.
Viola


Lemonade stand


and Egg Hunting


Happy Friday

[kulispel]

Hi guys! I'm new *waves* and I've just spun my first yarn ever! It was spun on a drop spindle and it's 4oz of Alpaca roving. I got a sweet deal on it ($1 oz) and thought I would give it a try. So here it is:


I'm thinking of dying it blue and then plying it with some pretty thread that I have. What do y'all think?

[Jadzy]

Happy Fiber Friday!  So many pretty yarns! My favorites so far are Burst of Spring, Star217's, Follow & Rich for It.
I have two yarns this week 
They are a bit overspun because someone told me I didn't have enough extra twist for plying...
so I tryed to achieve it better this time... these are only my 3rd and 4th yarns.
The first one is Merino in an Amethyst color 4 oz approx 100 yards.


The second one is Fleece Artist BFL 2 oz approx 65 yards.
A friend brought it back from a business trip for me, first time trying BFL. It was pretty nice to work with.


Here is a shot of my overtwist before I plyed... it wasn't too bad to ply.


All in all I'm starting to feel more confident with my spinning and it's becoming more fun 

[goneknitsup]

Loving all the colour blends today. And the beaded ones (they remind me of some stupidly expensive beaded yarn I read about... yarn envy...)

[Eliea]

Eliea, the first skien I did of just fabric alone I set the same way as any other yarn. I'm still trying to figure out if my second attempt at spinning fabric will set right as its a silky fabric. (Not silk, just not sure what combo of what, lol) I will say that fabric frays a lot so I'm covered in little bitty fibers when I'm done. Not hard to spin so far for me I find that its easier to keep a long strand even and going than it was for roving. But its a challenge on its own.

Native, I'm loving Beautiful Day! It just looks like where I'd like to be this week. On the beach

Thanks for the info!

[Zoesmaman]

I do quite a bit of sewing, and always wondered how I could use all the scraps coming out of my serger...... Well, I'm gonna spin them into my wool! You guys are brilliant! I can't wait to try!

[ivycircle]

I love all of the yarns this week. I especially like the colors in Nantucket. WTG spinners! I never can remember to post my yarns on freaking Friday...

[LindsayLuu]

really great week everyone, my favorite is the one with the kitty, really just because it is a fab. photo!  I haven't gotten around to uploading photos yet, next friday I'll show off. 

[SensiblyTacky]

really great week everyone, my favorite is the one with the kitty, really just because it is a fab. photo! 

haha Thanks, he's such a turd. Look at him, acting like the yarn isnt even there.