Yarn Pirate Shop →

It was my birthday on Saturday.  I’m 29 now.  That seems so strange.  Mostly because I remember my mom’s 29th birthday.  I was 8 years old and I remember thinking “Wow, my mom is old!”.  Luckily I don’t have any little brats around the place to think that of me.  I’m pretty sure dogs have no concept of age.

Birthdays and holidays where I receive gifts seem kind of weird lately.  I think it’s because I’m so content with my life.  When people asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year, I had no answer.  I have everything I want in life — really, more than I ever imagined having.  Well, I could use a few babies, but those will come in due time.  Seriously though, I have an amazing husband who is brilliant and creative and supportive.  We live in a house that I love so much , I smile every time I drive home and see it sitting there on the corner of our street.  I’m doing something creative with my life that allows me to work from home.  I’m really, really lucky.

We went to the Madrona Fiber Festival on Saturday.  It was a long drive just to shop for yarn, but I thought it would be a good chance to see some yarn that wasn’t readily available in stores.  We got a slow start Saturday morning and got to Madrona around 1pm, so I didn’t get to met up with anyone.  Sorry…I wanted Thai food!  There was lots of beautiful stuff there.  Tons of hand dyed yarn, including the STR booth (there wasn’t a line or anything!), beautiful hand dyed rovings, and really amazing hand spun yarns.  I was very restrained.  I mean, I don’t really need more yarn.  I limited myself to things I couldn’t make myself (which ruled out hand dyed stuff) and I told myself I could only buy one thingie of fiber to spin.  Sorry, I don’t know the technical term for a “thingie of fiber” yet.  Do you still call it  roving if you only get a 2 oz bag?  I should ask Sarah.

So, here’s what I walked away with:  a skein of hand spun alpaca/wool (left), a skein of banana silk (right), and this amazing bombyx silk (center).  I couldn’t stop petting it.  I spent less than $40.  The banana silk was a gift from my sister.  She gave me the best gift of all…cash ;).

I did a little more spinning this weekend.  It’s getting easier, which makes me happy.  I figured out that if I spin while I’m watching TV I screw up less.  Maybe it relaxes me or something.  I spun up a couple 2 oz bags of merino that I pre-drafted really, really thin.  I still can’t draft it in my hand while I’m spinning.  I think I made some stuff that’s ply-able though!  It’s overspun, and I still need to set the twist, but look!  It looks like yarn (sort of)!!  The two on the left are merino and the two on the right are merino/tencel.  I’m working my way through a big ball of merino/tencel right now.  I want to have lots of stuff to ply when Sarah and I get together this week.

I couldn’t finish this post without mentioning my new jewelry!  Mr. Yarn Pirate bought me a necklace from a great etsy shop, danaleblancdesigns.  Turns out, I bought myself a necklace from her shop last week too.  I’m really into chunky, natural stone necklaces right now, and Dana’s shop is a good place to find them.  Her designs are so simple and organic. 

My spinning has gotten a little better.  I cannot stress enough that the emphasis is on  “little”.  I’m making stuff that resembles yarn though, so I think that’s a sign of progress.  I still can’t spin anything very fine.  I decided to pre-draft everything into really skinny strips.  It helps, but I feel like I’m cheating.

These are my second, third, and fourth attempts at spinning, which were done on Thursday.  I started with the blue wool.  That was kind of hard, but I got through it.  After that I decided to try a little tuft of merino/silk from Sarah.  She dyed it a cotton candy pink, and it was too pretty to resist.  I thought that one was easier to spin.  I was feeling pretty full of myself at that point so I pulled out a chunk of alpaca.  I’ve always heard that alpaca is hard to spin.  I asked Sarah about it and she said she thought it was pretty easy.  I loved spinning it.  I thought it was really easy to work with.  It’s not like I spun a gorgeous hank of yarn or anything though.  The stuff I spun is so thick it’s like a rope.

I decided that since the luxury yarns were easier to spin, that’s all I should buy from now on ;).  The Madrona Fiber Arts festival is this weekend.  Maybe I should go to troll for fiber.  I’ve never been to a fiber fest before.  It sounds like it might be fun.  It happens to be on my birthday, so maybe I can use that as an excuse to justify any yarn/fiber purchases (both of which are totally unnecessary).

I’ve got a big pile of superwash BFL listed in my shop, and it’s going fast.  The Blue Faced Leicester wool has a nice sheen to it, which adds depth to the colors after they have been dyed.  This yarn was so wonderful to work with.  I think it’s my new favorite!  It’s very light and airy– it actually floated in the dye pots.  It is a nice, round yarn with a really good twist.  It will knit up into a lovely, squishy fabric.  It takes dye beautifully too.  I dyed it in semi-solids, which was a fun change of pace.  The semi-solid colors will make it perfect for cables and lace, or any kind of intricate work you feel like showing off.

I knit up a little sample last night.  This is the color “Merlot” and the pattern is “Waterfall Rib” from Sensational Knitted Socks.  It’s a fun pattern.  It’s pretty easy and it knits up fast.   

Since I’m out of yarn for a few weeks I decided to mess around with dyeing silk fabric.  My mom came over this afternoon and we did some experimenting on inexpensive silk remnants from the fabric store.  It was fun!  I have no idea what I’m going to do with my finished fabric, but check it out…

I didn’t really follow any tutorial or anything.  I just figured that my dyes work on silk too, so I had fun with it.  Some dyes I diluted down, some I used right from the bottle.  When I was happy with the results I hung the silk to dry in my special yarn drying room.  It was dry just a few hours later.  Have I ever mentioned how awesome it is having a studio in the basement?  Cause it totally is ;).

In the last couple weeks a few people have emailed me to tell me that my website is blocked by some filters at school and work.  It registers as an “adult” website.  As far as I know, there is no sexy content on this blog…unless you count the yarn.  Mr. Yarn Pirate thinks it’s because I sometimes type the word “balls” (ya know, in a knitting/yarn reference).  Then again, maybe it’s because I choose titles like “Big Lumpy”.  I do have something big and lumpy to share with you, and it may be just too sexy for the internet to handle ;).

TADA! That’s my first yarn.  Heh.  I warned you it would be crappy, and crappy it is.  BUT i have a feeling I will get better with practice.  Sarah was a great teacher.  She explained everything to me in a way that made perfect sense and she was very patient.  She also imparted all kinds of interesting spinning history.  Did you know Ghandi was a spinner?  When I learned that it kinda made me feel bad for saying “CRAP” so much while trying to spin.  Sarah is an amazingly talented spinner!  She was working next to me, and I swear it looked like the yarn was just shooting out of the ends of her fingers.  Maybe she’s really Spider Woman.  I think she was spinning a silk blend…

I’m borrowing her little Babe wheel to practice on for the next week, then I’m going to go back and learn how to ply.  Oh geez, the pressure’s on.  I need to make some yarn that is actually ply-able.  I’m going to pack up all the orders from my shop update this morning (thanks everyone!!) and then practice spinning for a few hours.  I’ve got some stashed fiber to wreck practice on.

Don’t forget, I’ll have superwash BFL up in my shop over the weekend.  I’ve dyed it in semi-solid colorways, making it a perfect yarn for cables and lace.  I think I’m going to keep a skein for myself for a pair of monkey socks!

Oh!  Speaking of monkey socks, I’ve put together a flickr set of finished projects made with my yarn.  These are from customers- not me.  I really love it when people email me pictures of what they’ve made (hint, hint).  If you’ve got a picture you’d like added to the set please let me know.  I always give credit to the knitter and I link to blogs if they are available.  At some point the gallery will be on the side bar of my blog, but that is beyond my skills.  Mr. YP is working on it.  It’s on his list.