Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Getting Brave With My Fiber, Craft Room Anticipation

I just didn't like the way my "Inquiry" fiber was spinning up. I tried spinning it straight from the end, from the fold, and even individual colors. Nothing was feeling right to me. No love for the yarn was felt. After a conversation with Sandi, I took out my Louet Jr. drumcarder and went to work. I was like the mad scientist with a "let's see how this works out" attitude. I tore off a piece of fiber, separated the black and purple section, drafted it to the almost falling apart point, put it through the drumcarder, and left it on. Then, I drafted out and put the orange, green, and pink through with the orange on top of the black side. A couple of turns and I took the whole thing off, drafted it out again and put the whole thing through one more time. Here's the results:
Inquiry blended 1 Inquiry blended 4 closeup

I'm very happy with the resulting batts which spun up into this yarn. It's 2.95 ounces, 148.5 yards of Navajo (chain) ply. The photos are prewash. It's drying now:

CJ Kopec Inquiry yarn 1 CJ Kopec Inquiry yarn 3

My plans are to spin enough of this to use in the yoke of a sweater. I'm thinking of the February Lady Sweater for the pattern. The other fiber I want to put with this is a black Coopworth Hogget/Alpaca Cria with a bit of Firestar blend. The "Inquiry" came out dark enough to not be glaring with the black, but, will be complimentary.

In other news, my basement craft room is almost ready for the big move in. Pat is building me a nice table the height of my kitchen island. I won't be bending over trying to dye or drum card this way. He's going to put a shop light right over the table so there will be better light than the current ceiling lights give. Pat wants to paint the floor before we actually put anything in the room. I plan to put an area rug on the floor since they are cement and cold on your feet in the winter. He also found a little white sheep wall plaque in a box of stuff that had belonged to his mom. It will have a place of honor on the wall above the table. Once the table and sinks are in place, I can bring the bins and stuff down. There is a kitchen table and chair set in the main basement room, as well as a t.v., stereo, treadmill, and exercise bike so I can keep myself busy while waiting for steamers/pots to "cook". There's also a rocking chair if I just want to sit and knit.

After moving everything that needs to go downstairs, the loom will hopefully fit in the upstairs craft room and I can clear out the living room. Right now, there is still a lot of stuff around it so the cats can't get under and play with the strings. They don't go in the craft room so this will not be an issue after.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE IT!!!

Donna said...

That looks great Debbie. I am going to tackle February Lady myself over the summer. I am still deciding which fiber I want to spin up for it.

That yarn is going to look great with black.

calicokitty6 said...

I washed the yarn to set the twist and it bloomed very little, just softened up a bit. I plan to card up the rest in the next couple of days and spin it up. Then it's on to the black. :)