Tag Archives: 2-ply

high.

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You know, like alpine.

alpinemacro1

alpinemacro2

alpinefo1

I absolutely love the way the browns and golds interact with the blues in this skein. So pretty.

alpinemacro3

alpinemacro4

alpinefullskein

203 yards of 2-ply romney, from Hello Yarn, in the Alpine colorway. Romney is not as soft as the other fibers I’ve been spinning lately, but oh, that sheen. I wonder if this should become something sturdy, like mittens.

quiche

Yesterday’s quiche, and legwarmers:

legwarmers

Believe it or not, it was chilly enough to warrant wearing these around the house as I made coffee and rolled out pie crust yesterday morning. People routinely find their way to my corner of the internet by googling “legwarmers” and related terms, so I figured I’d announce that, yes, the mornings are cool enough that legwarmer season is officially open, at least for around-the-house wearing.

More soon, as I desperately need to make more progress on the wedding shawl…

pointillism.

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pointillismpink1

pointillismpinkmacro2

Here’s the pink half of the bump of AVFKW superwash bfl in the pointillism colorway: 106 yds of 2-ply, from 2 oz.

pointillismyellowbobbin

pointillismyellowoffniddynoddy

And here’s the yellow half, spun, plied, and skeined:

pointillismyellowskein1

pointillismyellowmacro2

pointillismyellowskein3

The yellow 2 oz. yielded 95 yds of 2-ply, so I have 201 yards to work with. I’m thinking about not using a constrast color at the start, and allowing the pinks to blend into the yellows in the sweater, and then finding an appropriate color for the bottom ruffle of baby belle if it seems like there won’t be enough handspun.

I’m not letting myself cast on for this until I am solidly into the edging on the wedding shawl. (Finished repeat #2 last night!)

Also, more silliness occurred after I posted yesterday:

boh comforter

bohhidingcomforter2

Sigh. And so it begins: I’m off to campus for a meeting and (yay!) to get settled in my office (and by office, I mean desk in the basement).  Happy Monday!

spinning for something.

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pointillism pink lap

So I’m spinning for something. I’ve been eyeing cosy’s adorable baby sweater for awhile now, and I was thrilled when she posted that she needed some folks to knit these out of handspun. Though I have a large bag full o’ my own handspun, I decided that this might be an opportunity to at least try to knit with a particular pattern in mind, so I dug through the fiber bin and came up with some Verb superwash bfl in the pointillism colorway, which is 2 oz. of lovely yellows, and 2 oz. of pinks and purples.

pointillism pink toes

I decided to preserve the colors, so I split the pink and purple piece into 2 parts, lengthwise, and plied them together.

pointillism pink macro

Here it is, hanging to dry. The pattern calls for 8s, so I’m aiming for a worsted weight, which I’m hoping will plump up and help me get close to the called-for gauge. It looks like I got about 100 yards out of the first 2 oz., which sounds about right. I’m planning to spin and ply the rest today so that I can get started!

Also, I snapped a picture of Mr. Boh, resting atop the comforter.

boh and laundry

This dog really loves laundry day. As you can see, we’re aiming for a mixture of restful and productive on this last day of the final weekend before the semester starts!

woolen spun?

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jacob prewash

First up, here’s a picture of the first skein of the jacob, just off the niddy-noddy and ready for a bath. I love those paws!

jacobfo1

I had to ply this in two parts — the yarn was just too lofty/airy to fit onto one bobbin. This is my first (mostly) true long draw project, which I believe makes this a woolen spun yarn!

jacobfo2

This is 211 yards total: 130 in the first skein, and 81 in the second, of 2-ply undyed jacob wool.

jacobfo3

The spinning method chosen really does determine the character of the yarn — up close, this yarn is completely different from something spun using a worsted technique. This has a lovely halo and an incredible amount of squish to it, but minimal sheen. This is also more thick and thin, which may just be a function of my learning curve with the long draw. One of these days I’m going to at least swatch with my handspun to get a sense for how my spinning is evolving and, perhaps more importantly, to figure out how to start planning knitting projects at the spinning stage.

jacobfo4

Oh, Boh. Even though you spent much of the night growling at things in the yard (and thus, keeping me awake), I still love you. Especially when you make that face.

why hello, skein.

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fpp1

fppmacro

fpp2

fpp3

LOVE.

238 yds. of squishy 2-ply worsted weight yarn, from 4 oz. of falklands wool in five plum pie from Hello Yarn.

fpp nply full

fpp nply

I navajo plyed what didn’t fit on the first bobbin — so here’s 28 more yards of practice yarn. This is still overplied, but I’m getting into a rhythm with this technique. It is really hard to slow down my feet!

zucchini pickles

Also, zucchini pickles! I made these on Thursday, but the recipe said they’d turn a lovely shade of chartreuse after a day in the fridge. I know the green of my kitchen is tough to beat, but the zucchini really is absorbing the color of the brine. I’m taking these to a backyard bbq later today!

five plum pie.

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First off, if you clicked through from Joy the Baker’s site because you, too, wondered if roosters wear shoes, welcome! I don’t have any pictures to prove it, but I did use my oven continuously yesterday (zucchini bread, granola, roasted potatoes). And I was barefoot.

(I won an awesome set of Baggu bags, and I can’t wait. In fact, I’ve been doing some serious winning lately, as I was the lucky commenter selected in Jodi’s blogiversary contest over at A Caffeinated Yarn. Yay!)

bob2plumpie

Amidst all the oven use yesterday, I did manage to get a lot of spinning done. I finished both bobbins of the Hello Yarn Fiber Club falklands wool in Five Plum Pie, and late last night, I decided to do a little bit of plying.

full bobbin

Which turned into A LOT of plying. That bobbin is so full that it no longer turns independently of the flyer. I’ll have more pictures of this 2-ply when it is done drying, but I’m really happy with how nicely the colors lined up. Instead of breaking the roving into 2 pieces, I stripped this in half lengthwise, and was carefully to spin them the same way to keep the color progression. In a lot of places, the colors match exactly, and the transitions between colors seem gentle and subtle. Also, not that it needs to be said, but this stuff was incredible to work with — smooth, even, and solid without being compressed. I fully understand the HY hype.

Public Service Announcement: Have you seen this navajo-plying video over at Spin-Off? I found this link through the Spunky Club on ravelry, and I feel moved to share. For folks new to navajo-plying, this video makes it really easy to see how it works and what it looks like. For old pros, the video demonstrates a particular way of holding the yarn and pulling out the loops that is easy on the shoulders and very rhythmic.

For those following my bat saga, Boh and I were winged-visitor-free last night. Here’s hoping it stays that way!

know your parts.

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know your parts

My new favorite shirt: Know Your Parts, from AVFKW. It was a little chilly yesterday when Boh and I stepped out for our morning stroll, so I grabbed Mara, and snapped a photo in the mirror:

mara and t-shirt

I love my Mara, and I realized something incredibly practical about this shawl (and who knows, maybe all wool shawls) — the wool grabs a bit, which means that Mara stayed put on our stroll — a particularly important detail when you’re walking the dog and holding keys, phone, leash, and a certain pup’s “business,” if you will.

indigo plyed

I wore my spinning wheel t-shirt while spinning the second bobbin and plying the 2 together. (See that transition?) I still noticed a difference in the saturated versus the more lightly colored fiber, but this bobbin was easier to spin. My troubles might have something to do with needing to adjust to the incredibly long staple length of the wensleydale.

bohandindigoskein

indigo macro

126 yards of 2-ply wensleydale from AVFKW in the Intergalactic Space Travel colorway. There is something a bit otherwordly about the sheen of this stuff, don’t you think?

boh and indigo closeup

Boh certainly seems to like it.

Time to pour another cup and get to work. Happy Friday!

soul windows and sunset: skeins!

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soulwindows1

soulwindows2

soulwindows3

I am in LOVE. 426 yards of 3-ply, from 4 oz of 90/10 corriedale/nylon from the Spunky Club. LOVE.

This skein made me so excited that I just kept on spinning.

cvm, jacob, kate

Here’s that cvm, waiting to be plied, along with the resting jacob bobbins.

cvm plied

cvm plied…

cvm hanging

hanging to dry…

cvmskein1

cvmskein2

cvmskein3

and skeined.

188 yds of 2-ply, 12 wpi from 2 oz. of cvm from cosy in a colorway called sunset. The color is somewhere in between what you see above — so hard to capture such a rich orangey-red.

boh passed out

Boh is exhausted! (Though not from all that spinning. We took a nice long walk in the woods yesterday, and then went to meet friends at the d-o-g-p-a-r-k.)

Off to pour the coffee — and perhaps ply those jacob bobbins!

two-quart/two-ply.

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2qt

Midway through my dinner — a salad comprised of red lettuce, mustard greens, radishes, harukei turnips, tomatoes, avocado and a homemade vinaigrette, I realized (a)  that I was eating out of a 2-quart metal mixing bowl and (b) that I hadn’t even considered eating out of a cereal bowl.

Ridiculous — and completely awesome.

Something else completely awesome? This targhee 2-ply:

targhee2ply

targhee2ply2

The actual color is in between: not as pink as the first picture, but more vibrant and shiny than the second. It is amazing what light coming through the window will do to the same bobbin! If I’ve done my math right, we’re looking at 327 yards of 2-ply — no wonder it took almost twice the amount of time I had budgeted for plying this morning!

Time was budgeted because today Boh and I are heading to the north country to stay with my dear friend P. and help out in the land of CSA veggies, piglets, and farmers’ markets. We’d be on the road already if it weren’t for the plying that I absolutely HAD to do this morning — that way, the yarn will be dry by the time we return.  (Obsessed? Who, me?)

muffinsforroad

Baked some muffins for the road, washed and hung the yarn to dry, even vacuumed the spot usually occupied by Boh’s box. Time to hit the road! Have a great weekend.

2-ply and pie.

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bohpliedcandle

Yay! My first wheel-plied yarn! Some ravelry forum advice confirmed my decisions to turn this into a 2-ply. My singles are a bit underspun to remain singles, so I’ll try again with something else. I am thrilled with how this looks all plied up — the wheel makes a huge difference with respect to evenness of the twist and the amount of time it takes to ply. This practically flew through my hands on Friday night. Here’s a close up:

plied candle

I’m still working on consistency, but for the most part, this looks to me to be worsted-weight yarn, with some thinner and thicker bits adding a touch of character. My math tells me that this is about 120 yds of subtly shaded goodness. What shall I make?

I believe I promised you pie: peach-strawberry-rhubarb, to be exact.

pie

M and I made a big batch o’ crust and then this delicious pie. Oh, and a big, green salad filled with radishes and beets from the farmers’ market to go with it. (I failed to photograph the salad.)

We had a lovely visit — so nice to have a dear friend here to walk, talk and bake with. Boh loved that she was here too.

Mostly unrelated, but I wanted to be sure to post this so that you know that I occasionally ruin things in the kitchen. Boh was the only witness this time.

beautiful beans

Aren’t these green beans lovely? (More green in my kitchen?!) On Friday I was planning to fix a late meal to tide me over until M’s bus got in around 11:30 pm. I rummaged through the cookbooks, and found a lovely green bean recipe in Supernatural Cooking, by Heidi of 101 cookbooks. The beans are tossed with lemon and lime zest and some fresh chives, all of which I had. I oohed and aaaahed over these as I mixed the beans with the other ingredients, sat down to take a bite, and promptly spat out a mouthful of very pretty beans. I’m pretty sure I grabbed a lime that had turned to the dark (rotten) side, as my beans did not taste citrus-y — just plain bad! I am looking forward to making this again with a lime that is NOT ready for the compost, as it sounds absolutely delicious and perfect for summer. I was so disappointed, but the beans were so pretty that I thought I’d snap a picture for you anyway.

Hope you’re enjoying the weekend. I can’t believe June is tomorrow. Crazy.