Fiber continued

So, as I was saying, I was putting the roving into the washing machine when I looked behind me and noticed four large boxes of roving just sitting around in the laundry room. We had acquired them last year, and I had entirely forgotten they were there despite the fact it had been in plain sight everytime I did my laundry.

I also found this:

carders. caching. They might also be dog hair combers, I heard you can use that as well.

In any case, I took out some of the dirt and hay and other undesirable stuff, then washed it in the washing machine with a little bit of soap. I just put it on rinse and spin cycle, so it didn't felt. It's still a little gummy, but I think it's ok, I'm letting it soak in kool aid as I speak, or write. I'm thinking of maybe using it for some needle felting experiments.

The other roving, the one which led to this discovery, did seem to felt, or at least the fibers looked a whole lot different once it was washed. It still seems to spin just fine. Now I'm fiber content.

Back again

So I used to be a happy knitter. Then came the crash, then the vacation, then the craft fair, and now ... nothing. Call it knitting ennui, call it the summer knitting blues (doesn't summer start next month?) But whatever you call it, I have not been motivated in the knitting department.

But I have been itching to spin. Unfortunately I've lost my roving and my good spindle. Lost it. Completely. It is nowhere in my room, nowhere in the living room, dining room, poof, it's vanished. Jessamy lost her glasses too... is it the Borrowers?...

So, finally I got off my rump and decided to brake out my less superior spindle and dig through the closet for harder to spin roving (a birthday present from many months ago). I found that roving, but it was a little sticky/gummy. Not as in sticky from food or gummy from gum (gum isn't really considered a food is it?), but from natural fiber aging. Or at least I think it's something fibers naturally do.

Anyway, I went online, couldn't really find any remedies, but I did find something that seemed to suggest you wash it, then I looked around for another hour (I was determined) and found what seemed to be washing instructions from someone who knew what she/he was doing.

And then, I found something in the laundry room. More on that tomorrow for now I must go to sleep.

Ply away home

I finally got around to plying my second round of drop spindle yarn.

The first time I plyed I used an awkward wrapping-yarn-around-hand technique as seen here:

Yes, my finger is purple. The spindle in the background is filled with yarn I had also plyed yesterday, but using a different method:

Essentially, I put two full spindles of spun yarn into cardboard boxes. I wrapped the two spun yarns over a hook (for tension), then plyed the two yarns with a another spindle.

I've already dyed the small left over yarn with kool aid, there'll be pictures tomorrow, once it dries.

sinister spindle

Our spin your own yarn class is tomorrow, and to commemorate I tried out the top-whorl spindle I got for Christmas (don't worry, not the same kind of spindle in Annie May's kit), only to find out that it wobbles! Woe.

I was able to spin some yarn, and the wobble wasn't that bad, as in it doesn't hit me in the liver whenever I give it a twirl.

Doesn't the spindle look sinister?