Mortaine’s Blog

Jazz workshop tonight. I practiced a little last night– mostly just scales and getting my head back into keys and such. Not worrying about chords yet. Just remembering which buttons produce which notes. Hahhah.

Also practiced the blues on piano last night. John is probably sick already of hearing C7 to F7, back and forth and back and forth again.

Spinning is going well. I spun some leftover turquoise/green (Kool Aid dyed) with some white, both batts from Lamb Chop’s wool. And then I plied it with an iridescent blending filament I had from cross-stitch– it came out really pretty and sparkly kind of yarn, but only about 20 yards worth (I only had the two batts, so I knew it would be a small amount– perfect for experimenting with filament.) Anyway, last night, I crocheted it into a little shamrock, about 2-3″ across, which I’m going to turn into a pin for next Thursday. Eee. Handcraftyness!

I also ordered a new spindle because I wore out my favorite one. It arrived yesterday with a half pound of “seafoam” (teal) roving. Roving is wool that’s been washed and combed and is ready to spin, basically. A batt is fiber that’s been washed and carded and is ready to spin– the main difference between roving and a batt is that roving is more “ropy” than a batt.

I also have some teal that’s kind of multi-shaded (its primarily teal, but it varies a bit). The roving I got yesterday is solid teal, so when I ply it and the multi together, it should make a very nice shade of teal with subtle variations. Most of my variegated yarn has either been plied with itself, so the colors kind of “wash out,” or plied with something that’s also variegated, so the colors wash together.

I’m working on some yellow roving (”Cheese Omelette” was the name of the dye lot), and I think I’ve just about filled up the spindle on that one. I’ve decided, since it’s variegated, though subtle, that I’m going to use a different plying technique, which basically plies the yarn with itself but in a chain– it preserves some of the color variation a little better, from what I understand.

Along with the new spindle came 2 ounces of “raspberry” roving. I think I want to do something fun with that– spin it nice and thick, and then ply it with something thin that contrasts really well, or white maybe. Anyway– that one will probably end up being just a decoration skein– 2 ounces of yarn is about enough to make a hat, but that’s it.

Basically, my fibre stash now has:

Roving:
2 ounces of solid raspberry
8 ounces of solid teal
3 ounces of variegated green
5 ounces of “Cheese Omelette” yellow/gold variegated (plus about an ounce of thin spun yarn from this roving)
7 ounces of “Banana Strawberry” yellow/reddigh-orange variegated

Batts (washed and carded:
8 ounces of variegated teal
8 ounces of solid forest green

Washed, uncarded:
~8 ounces of white Lamb Chop wool
10 ounces of different colored dyed bits found on eBay (5 ounce tubes that have about 1 ounce of each color, alternating: I got one batch that was bright green, blue, white, and another batch that was ecru, dark blue, dark red, and black).

Raw (unwashed):
Unknown amount, at least a few lbs. of Lamb Chop wool

People always post asking how others store their fiber. Mine is stored in cardboard boxes and baskets. My current project, whatever it is, is in a handled basket with my spindles. The washed Lamb Chop wool is in a large basket that my mom’s college roommate Nancy made by hand (Nancy is the one who showed me how to spin on a wheel, about 20 years ago), with my cards. The prepared roving and batts are in the cardboard boxes they were shipped in, as is the unwashed wool, which I really ought to wash (lanolin gets nasty when it goes unwashed for more than a few months). Maybe I’ll wash a batch this weekend, if it’s sunny out and if John doesn’t get completely grossed out by the smell (wet, dirty sheep wool… how do you think it smells?)

Hey, if you’ve read this far and you’re a local crafty person, let me know if you’d ever want any handspun yarn to knit or crochet or use in a project. I think I’m getting the hang of it, and I like making stuff for other people to use!

Note to self: Remember to clean Zoot’s tank today….