spinning « stars like joe.

spun up, snowed up

For very personal reasons, I don’t have the energy right now to be funny or write a whole lot… but I’ve been pressing the picture button these past couple days, so how’s about you enjoy some photos?

from the Frank N. Furter batt by Desert Garden

three sisters to be listed at the shop tomorrow

aaaand… snow in [...]

Sometimes I’m really smug about the fact that I am a Scorpio. There, I admitted it. I can be selfish. I can be dark. I can be mysterious. I like the things that your quintessential Scorpio is supposed to like. We’re quite a smug little club of dirt dwellers. Even the tattoo artist who inked [...]

forest dwellers

I’m really excited about these two skeins and kind of want to keep them all for myself.

skein the first

skein the second

They are furry creatures and I want to put them in my pocket and pet them. I think the smaller one, Number Two, would be happy in a pocket; it seems a tad shy.

Will [...]

soft as Doughboy’s belly

That’s how I would describe this Merino wool. That… and “yum”.these three were dyed in the wool before drafting and spinning:

and this was spun up before being lovingly dyed by the Corn Puppy!

fiery flowers, fiery yarn

I recharged the batteries enough to upload this one picture the camera had been holding hostage:Spot-dyeing roving in the pot and then spinning it up like that has created all these beautiful, subtle colors in the resultant yarn. It’s like looking into a fire. Still no name yet.

By the way, those red flowers in the [...]

dyed in the wool

Dear Small Yet Dedicated Audience,

This is why I haven’t written in two whole days; I’m sure you’ll understand…

the majority of this stuff was either twisted up, dyed or overdyed on Monday or Tuesday night:

and… let’s zoom in on my favorite…

these are handfuls of Cheviot fleece that I’ve processed from scratch! (more on that in [...]

here goes nothing…

This wiggly, wavy, oh-so-soft yarn is my first stab at creative plying. I spun the wool single as a thick and thin, trying to keep the twist to an absolute minimum… just enough for it to barely hold together. Then I plied it with reclaimed silk thread from this project. The resultant yarn is freaking [...]

I binnin’, Mama!

That’s what the Chublet was saying yesterday evening as I was plying my secret new wiggly, sound-wave-lookin’, soft-as-a-cloud yarn. She said it three or four times before I actually looked up… and caught her drift.

I’m spinnin’, Mama!

lessons from the yarn. why i love spinning.

What I’ve learned recently:

Thou shalt not pet thy soft, fluffy roving to the detriment of its loft and fiber alignment.
Thou shalt not jostle the spun yarn during its bath, lest ye felt it into a scrubbing sponge.
Thou shalt breath slowly and guide the fiber with loving hands.

A few nights ago I was petting and squishing [...]

the thinner she gets

I’ve been practicing my spinning. It’s very satisfying to compare the most recent skein (a fingering-weight single) to my very first yarns from only three weeks ago. Those were big and squishy, plying nicely together to make a stable chunky yarn… but with each passing skein I learn more and more… and I’m beginning to [...]