i owe you . . .

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will this make it up to you? it’s the first lily bloom of the year, and i opened this morning.

sorry for such a quiet week. actually, i can’t believe four days has gone by. ach, whaddaya gonna do?

i’ve had hardly any time to knit this week either; it’s been dry here and everyone is talking about watering . . . i know i’ve been getting up extra-early each day to do mine.
i think i’m tired.

i finished the golf sock but i don’t have a picture—david said he would model it tomorrow for me.

i’ve been working away on the bee shawl late at night and i finally picked a finish for the bottom edge, but i haven’t started that last part yet, so no pix of that either.

last night we had a little rain so this morning i did not have to water. but since i was up early i did something i’ve been meaning to get to for a while. i’ve had some samples sitting here from the spinning class i took at wooster over memorial day weekend that needed plying and washing.

it gave me a chance to use this skein winder that i picked up used from another blogger recently

how did i ever live without this thing?? it makes such nice skeins AND it counts the yardage as i wind them. this is a far cry from what i had been doing—i was using my yarn swift mounted sideways on the leg of my work table. it was a pretty good system, but i always worried that it would break some day (i tend to crank really fast, and it’s not really made for that).

i never got used to using a niddy-noddy for skeining—it’s so awkward and i’m just a klutz with it. plus, i usually have several (or more) very full bobbins to skein at once, so it is also inefficient for me.

but the skein winder—wow.

anyway, the plying. he-he. i don’t usually wait long to ply yarn—i like to ply it while the active twist is fresh. and these samples were sitting around for a while, slowly losing their twist. ugh—i was afraid.

i set to work trying to ply the singles so that the fibers ended up straight. only i couldn’t SEE the fibers that well; the yarn was fine and white, and let’s face it, my eyes are aging (oh boo-hoo!). i knew this would result in seemingly overplied yarn, so i went with my gut and overplied to the extent i thought necessary.

you can see here that they are twisting severely to the left, which means they have too much plied twist. the sample on the left is my worsted sample, which i couldn’t get to take as much twist as i wanted. it’s hanging straight—which already tells me it’s not plied enough.

the point here is that after a good long soaking, and a spinout in the washer, they will regain their active twist and hopefully be balanced.

i also had one full bobbin that i spun up just the other night in a class i was teaching. that was fresh, and i just plied it normally.

here are all the skeins after washing

as you can see, i achieved mixed success. the fat skein in the middle was the fresh one that i did not have to fiddle with, and it looks great. the others are all now twisting severely to the right, which means they are actually underdone.

so my guess was right, but i did not compensate nearly enough in my plying work. i can run them through the wheel again when they are dry, to learn some more. what really jumps out at me though is how much twist i was putting into the samples in class. i’m not usually so . . . intense in my spinning.

in my default style, these would not have nearly so much twist (the one on the far right is an example; i spun that while the teacher was talking for the first couple of hours).
but because i was “trying” with the others (the two on the left), i overworked them a bit. especially that worsted sample—my gawd.

i don’t generally spin worsted—i’m not fond of the technique and the yarn is generally too dense and heavy for what i want to knit. i love long draw—i love to stretch out the draft really long and watch the fibers get sucked in. sometimes i modify it a bit, or used worsted-prepared fiber with the long draw, but i rarely stray from this method to do short draw. too small and crampy for me i guess . . .

the update on claudia’s ride is that she is surely going to make her new goal, and it’ all because of YOU. thank you to everyone who has contributed and continues to do so, either with dollars or with any number of supportive actions fighting MS (don’t forget the collective karma effort . . .). our reader total as of now is over $7300—wow. that is over 15 times what we raised last year .. .

i need to make one small amendment to the rules of the drawing. i suddenly realized that having it end on sunday, the 24th would mean that i would somehow have to coordinate the fulfillment of the prize awards on monday, which is a real no-go with such an extensive prize list. so i am making the cutoff date saturday the 23rd. this will enable me to notify winners and pack boxes that day, instead of during the week.

well, that’s really all i have today; i promise tomorrow will be better . . . it’s friday after all!

i can show you what teyani sent me though, as a good closer (you should go see her morning glory, it’s beautiful!)

some gorgeous alpaca/merino yarn to design new socks with, and some laceweight yarn to fool around with, too. both are things she sells at her store crown mountain farms, and there are new colors.
this sock yarn is incredible. just what i’ll need for those chilly winter floors.

31 thoughts on “i owe you . . .

  1. That skein winder looks like something I should have; is there a name on it?

    Balanced yarn! Yeah; yours is beautiful.

  2. The lily is just lovely, and summer does tend to draw us all outdoors more I think. With my kiddo’s home 24/7 now it makes my life a little more hectic too, so I knit less. I’ve decided to maybe put morning (glory I call her MG) on hold until fall….but we’ll see. Teyani’s MG is beautiful btw.

  3. I luvs my skein winder – don’t know what I ever did without it 🙂
    Yarn has such amazing “personality” it never ceases to amaze me!
    I’m delighted that you like the yarn – how wonderful.I can’t wait to see what you create with it!!

  4. The lilly is beatuiful! I so love lillies, they are divine. The colour is gorgeous, my sort of colour can we get yarn that colour. The skein winder looks brialliant! I have never seen one like that. Looks sturdy as well as doing a great job. Gotta love that it measures while it winds. Love the new yarn, I need more sock yarn, thank you for the recommendation.

  5. oh how i long for a skein winder that counts yardage! i’ll be saving my pennies!

    i look forward to seeing what kind of socks you’ll be designing with that delicious yarn you received.

  6. I ordered a skein winder weeks and weeks ago from Carolina Homespun. I suppose I ought to check on it’s status. Thanks for the reminder!

  7. it has been a crazy week here too – seems like everyone is a little lax on the blogging recently! interesting to see the different twist severities of the yarn…..

    teyani has some great stuff – you will have to let us know how the alpaca/merino knits up – i have never done socks with alpaca!

  8. I have got to get a skein winder too, It’s so time consuming to count yardage on the niddy noddy.

    As far as the plying twist dead/live energy part of your post: do you ever make a “plyback” sample when you’re spinning the singles and use it for reference when you’re plying? I’ve started really doing that since I took that plying class and it works. You don’t have to go crazy to make sure your fibers end up straight (although I do still check that). You compare your plied yarn to the plyback sample and make sure they’re the same. I go as far as counting “bumps” per inch to make sure my yarn matches the sample.

  9. I have a skein winder on the way soon too….and let me tell you how excited I am going to be not to have to reskein on a niddy noddy….whoo hoo!

    Teyani’s Morning Glory shawl is absolutely scrumptious!

  10. on your small skeins — or any of them — you can weight them down while drying — even with just a towel and they’ll dry straighter. if you really weight them down with horseshoes and towels, for example, like weavers do, then yarn probably won’t have as much bounce but will still knit nicely. (at least mine do!)

  11. Anne, you give so much to others; you don’t owe us a thing!

    My wing o’ the moth is 3 short (oh, who am I kidding!) LONG rows from completion. I want to finish it so badly, but must meet my writing deadline today – one more chapter by end of day so I am through the second section of the workbook in time for my co-author to read over the weekend in prep. for a Monday conference. Ol’ mothy will just have to wait until tonight, I’m afraid (sigh!) I Will post pics on the blog over the weekend, while hubby is home to take them.

    (For a really bad self-portrait, check out today’s posting -up by noon, promise!)

    I think I want to find a yarn in the same colors as your lilly for the Knitting from nature KAL. It looks better than anything in my yard right now. Permission?

    Thanks for inspiring so many of us with your designs. I even tried my hand at it last weekend and am now eagerly awaiting yarn delivery. You have no idea, how many times I went back to your patterns and commentary while designing them for advice.

    Blessings!

  12. What a great post! Interesting, educational, and inspiring. Once again, it makes me want to learn to spin. I’ve read so much about it that surely, by the time I find a teacher, it won’t be too hard, right?

  13. Now you need a yarn blocker. I found one years ago in Spin Off, Summer 1991. It is made of PVC pipe. I know it is ugly, but it is wonderful to block your yarns and set the twist. I went to local lumber yard, and they cut the pieces the length I needed. I showed them the picture with the measurements, and they got all the pieces that I needed. It is amazing that I can have some so-so yarn that just blossoms after coming off the yarn blocker. I also use it when I recycle old yarn from a sweater that I recycle. It blocks the crinkles right out.

  14. Now I see how you got such a long hank earlier. Makes sense. There’s something about the sight of handspun yarn that makes me want to ditch whatever I’m knitting and go sit down at my wheel. Gorgeous!

  15. I have no idea what you are talking about, it has all gone over my head and over the latest glass of Chardonnay I have quaffed this evening. However I stand in awe of you, mastering the art of plying and skeining – I had no idea there were so many factors to take into account.

    On another note, I too have a skein winder that I just love to see spinning round and round making wonderful balls of yarn for me to knit. I must find that gadget that measures the yarn which is all I lack at the moment. xxx

  16. I often wonder where you find the time (to say nothing of the energy) to blog as often as you do! And your posts always seem to contain so *much* progress, too… great big swatches, half a sock at one go, etc. Just thinking about the sustained effort you must put into it makes me tired. 😉 So let there be no talk of ‘owing’. 🙂

    And I really appreciate the plying illustration! I nearly always ply from “set” singles myself, and I’m getting good results with that lately… but if I went back to plying “live” ones I’m sure they’d look exactly like these twisty skeins of yours. I think the moral of the story is “figure out what works for you and don’t deviate from it if you can possibly help it.” 😉

  17. There is a skein winder in an antique store here that I have had my eye on. Hummmm might have to go get it. It is in really good condition.

    I try and ply as soon as I get a bobbin done. I like making a center pull ball and plying it that way. So far it has been a good system for me.

    I have been told many good things about Crown Mountain Farm. I want to order some roving from them.

  18. I have admired the Jenkins Woodworking logo, the creativity without becoming complicated, but it was not until today that I noticed on their website that you are credited with designing it. I am gobstruck by your plethora of talent. You are the bee’s knees!

  19. Thanks for showing and talking about your recent plying experiments. It is a very timely reminder for me, as I’m about to finish spinning some singles and get to plying them. It took me such a long time to spin those singles that clearly the twist won’t be fresh at all when I’ll finally ply them, so the reminder about the necessity to seemingly overply them will be extremely useful.

  20. Hi Anne–I’ve been wondering about your golf socks…as a daughter of an obsessed golfer I instantly wondered where you got the pattern (or if this is one of your own design)? Great blog–I love reading it!

  21. Interesting plying info – thanks! And what great news on Claudia’s fundraising.
    Looking forward to seeing some more pictures.

  22. I just picked up that same skein winder- a Fricke no? I dye sock yarn and it was taking 30 minutes to wind 440 yards. A time suck! I almost peed my pants when the shop owner pulled one out from the back room. It now takes three minutes and it’s counted! The only down side is the size. I wish it could fold up into a pocket size!

  23. Day Lilies lend so much beauty and scent to a garden, gotta love em.

    We’ve had a couple of drizzly days. Kind of nice to have the excuse to spend time inside spinning. Thanks for the looks at your before and after plys. So much to learn!

    Like Rachel C. I’m eagerly awaiting the golf sock pattern. Perfect for a golfing enthusiast FIL.

  24. I’ve been reading the plying series that Abby F has been doing on her website (abbysyarns.com) and your results are interesting with what she has been teaching.

    so are my singles that have been sitting on the bobbins for a long while doomed to a life of a laceweight single or is overplying going to give me a nice two-ply yarn?

    and yes, the flower is lovely.

  25. Fabulous spinning. I’m new to this and it’s good to hear about plying and how to tell if it’s over or under done. The skein winder is really neat. Did you sing “Pop Goes the Weasel” while using it? I read on somebody’s blog last week that you’re supposed to sing that song while using a skein winder to keep track of your yardage. Love the lily.

  26. A skeinwinder sounds like a really good purchase. I lost count so many times trying to figure out the yardage on my handspun last night…

  27. I love your skein winder – I can understand why you love it so. Thanks for the step by step on the plying and twists; very interesting.

    The yarn from CMF is wonderful; you should have some fun with those!

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