Tag Archives: jacob

woolen spun?

Posted on by
4

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.

Advertisement

full.

Posted on by
4

fullbob

In so many ways. Boh and I went out to the lake on Friday night to see a friend who was away all summer, and is heading off to grad school this week. Last night, I attended a mellow housewarming gathering here in town with some of my favorite people. Today, Boh and I are headed home to celebrate my grandma’s birthday with a backyard barbecue.

And, of course, that bobbin of dark, undyed, local jacob is FULL. I’m working on my long draw, and I’m hoping there’s enough twist in these singles. I couldn’t get 2 full oz. on the bobbin, which gives you a sense of how airy and lofty this yarn is. Later on this week I’ll spin up the other 2+ oz. and ply them together.

We’ll be back tomorrow night. Hope your Sunday is filled with good food and family too.

jacob.

Posted on by
4

jacob skein1

jacob skein2

4 oz. undyed jacob fleece from Spot Hollow Farm yielded 358 yards of light worsted/heavy dk weight 2-ply (13 wpi). I played around a bit with my spinning technique (long draw, supported long draw) while using my middle whorl, and my yardage confirms that I was spinning more of a woolen yarn. This had a very airy preparation, and it seemed to want to be spun in a way that maintained it’s lightness. I enjoyed spinning this so much that I dashed out to my LYS (still having that sale) to see if they had any more in this lovely grey. Alas, none of this particular color of natural, but they did have some darker jacob from the same farm, so I picked up 8 oz.

more jacob 8oz

If I spin this in a similar way, I should have about 1000 yards to play with — maybe a striped sweater?

With the jacob off the wheel and hanging above the sink to dry, I dug through my fiber bin for the next project, and decided I was ready to try a totally new-to-me fiber: tussah silk.

tussah braid

This is just a chunk of the braid, which transitions from yellow to gold to melon to orange to a lovely pinky-red grapefruit color. I have a 2 oz. braid of tussah silk, from yarnchef’s fiber shop (yarnchefSpin) in the sunburst colorway, and I am having a lot of fun getting to know this fiber.

tussahbob

I’m trying to keep this as uniform as possible, with the thought that I’ll leave this silk as a single and knit up a simple shawl that shows off these absolutely beautiful color transitions. A question for you more experienced spinners: how do I finish 100% tussah silk? Same soaking and snapping/thwacking? None of that at all? Inquiring minds (you know, like Boh) want to know.

Time for cup o’ coffee #2, some spinning, and oh, right — some actual work!

soul windows and sunset: skeins!

Posted on by
8

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!

treadle, treadle, treadle.

Posted on by
5

cvm bob2

I could not stop spinning yesterday. I finished the second bobbin of this gorgeously rich cvm from cosy, and debated plying it right away. Instead, I set this bobbin aside to rest, and dug through my fiber stash.

jacob roving

This is 4 oz. of jacob wool from a farm just outside of town. I picked this up a few months ago at an LYS nearby. (I have the details somewhere in my fiber bin, but I would have to put down my coffee to look for it. Priorities.)

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I sat down to spin this, but oh_my_goodness. This fiber is incredibly soft, and however this was prepared (I’m still learning all my fiber preps/names) left a lot of air in the roving, which made this wool practically spin itself.

jacob first bob

And here’s the progress I made on the second bobbin(!) last night:

jacob bob2

It doesn’t look like I’m going to finish my KAL socks this month, and I think Boh might be okay with that.

bohlayoncouch

I’m interpreting this to mean that he understands that sometimes one has to spend the day (or the weekend) at the spinning wheel.

bohwithsockprog

Here’s my (our?) progress on the emerald city vanilla sock. I’m really getting the hang of the hiyahiya needle, and I’m finding that I can get more done (when I am not forgetting to knit because crazy things are happening on The Wire) because I do not have to look down to either pick up the other circ or rotate to the next dpn. Here’s a close up:

sockwithpaws

Happy weekend, all! I’m going to finish up this cup of coffee, pour another, and sit down at the wheel.