Fiber Sprite
  • Blog
  • About
    • Classes
    • Policies
  • Tutorials
  • Store

Fiber Sprite​

Spinzilla 2018

10/9/2018

 
Picture
Spinzilla is a yearly competition to see who can spin the most yarn. There are two categories: teams and  "Rogue" spinners. There are winners in each category, based on yardage spun. It's all a friendly competition, and registration fees help fund the TNNA foundation, which helps to educate the public about fiber arts.

I wasn't so sure I was going to participate in Spinzilla this year. Last year I signed up to participate, and ended up spinning almost nothing. All the emails asking me to submit my yardage were a little depressing, since I was so disappointed with myself. 

This year, I knew I was feeling overwhelmed with other commitments, and thought it would be silly to add one more thing to my plate. Naturally, I signed up! As I had done in the past, I chose to sign up as a Rogue spinner. I don't usually participate that much on forums, and there wasn't a team close by, so "going rogue" seemed like the best fit. 

I decided to be gentle with myself this year. Just spin a little bit in the morning and evening, and don't worry about how much yarn there is at the end. I figured that schedule matched my habits anyways. Plus, I thought it would be interesting to see just how much I could spin in a week without really rushing myself. I often spin for projects over very long periods of time, so using this week's spinning as a baseline for future estimates seemed like a good idea.

Picture
In the end, I spun 1,708 yards of 2-ply yarn.*  Since I don't have many bobbins handy at the moment, I plied as I finished spinning the singles for each colorway. The middle red-orange colorway had one single that was significantly longer than the other, so I plied that with the bits left over after plying on the other colorways, resulting in a few mini-skeins that are slightly different from their "main" color.

The fiber is Dorset Horn top from the Woolery, chosen because it was their "special" Spinzilla discount fiber this year. I bought 2 pounds (4 eight-ounce packages), and dyed each one a different color. The two darkest colors are very similar, and then there is a red/orange colorway, and a yellow/orange colorway. There wasn't really a method to the madness when I started dyeing the fiber - I just wanted to use up some pre-mixed dyes that were on the old side! I had a lot of red, orange, and yellow, so that's mostly what I used. The darker shades also have some purple and black in there to get the color to a deep burgundy.

I used my guild's spinning wheel, a single-treadle Schacht Matchless, to spin and ply all the yarn. This wheel is really one of my favorites to spin on, since it goes so fast. Lately I've been experimenting with double drive as a tensioning system, and really enjoy that setup.

I'm still undecided as to how I'll use this yarn. It's definitely not a soft-next-to-skin sweater yarn, at least for me. In researching the wool, I thought it would be a good rug yarn, and planned to use it in a warp. It might be a little bit sticky for what I had originally envisioned. I've also toyed with the idea of rug punching with it.

Once I took the pressure off myself to break records, spinning for Spinzilla this year was really a lot of fun!

​
*Because of the way Spinzilla gives credit for yardage, this is actually 5,124 yards (1,708 yards of single ply, multiplied by two, plus another 1,708 yards of spinning for when they are plied together). That's just under 3 miles of yarn!

Sneffels Fiber Festival

10/3/2018

 
Picture
Last weekend I had the honor of teaching at the Sneffels Fiber Festival in Ridgway, Colorado. On Friday, I taught a dyeing workshop, and on Saturday, I taught a drop spindle workshop. 

Naturally, I forgot to take any pictures of my classes, but my friend Sharon managed to sneak a few pictures of the dye workshop. You can read her account over on her blog - Day 1 and Day 2. 

The marketplace was open on Saturday and Sunday. I did a tiny bit of shopping Saturday during my lunch break, where I picked up some plying silk and sari silk cloud from Phoenix Fiber Mill. I used some of the sari silk cloud in my blending board project - a little goes quite a long way, and I still had some leftover, but it's such a lovely fiber to work with I didn't want to run out!

I spent a good bit of time scoping out the other vendors, too, but didn't buy anything because I needed to make sure there was room in my car! The only downside to teaching is that there's a lot of equipment to bring, and not a lot of space for extra cargo on the way home!

On Sunday I had an afternoon demonstration of rigid heddle weaving. I think I might have blown a few minds when I described the direct warping process - it really is a lot faster and easier than the traditional warping process!

Before and after my Sunday demonstration, I did quite a bit of shopping. I reconnected with Scott from Corn Creek Fiber Arts. He's the guy who taught me to spin on a wheel! I also picked up a merino/silk braid from them.

I might have gone a little overboard with fleece purchasing...but more on that later!

WIPs for October 2018

10/2/2018

 
Picture
As I'm typing this, I'm watching the much-needed rain outside. It's not the torrential downpour of my youth, but a light drizzle. The ground is so dry it's slurping up every drop. Depending on who you ask, we got either .2 or .4 inches yesterday, and are probably going to get about the same today. Here in the desert, we need every little bit. 

Speaking of rain...when it rains, it pours. I remembered this month just why I started these monthly reviews last year, as a way to corral the overwhelming number of to-dos on my list. Over the summer I wondered why I was still doing them. It felt like I'd finally gotten my list under control, until about a week or so ago when it all hit me like a brick wall. So - here's what's coming up in October:


Rug Hooking/Needlepunch​
  • I have a class coming up teaching rug hooking at Black Sheep Handworx Studio. This month I'm working on getting the kits all ready to go.
  • This might go under sewing, but it's directly related to rug hooking - how many mug rugs does one gal need? I do love the small and quick projects, but how to make them into something bigger? A pillow? A bag? This month I'm working on my sewing skills to make some of my smaller projects up into bags. 

Knitting
  • The end is near for the stash sweater! I brought it along for my trip to Virginia, and got quite a lot done then. Now I just have to finish the neckband (miles and miles of k1,p1), graft the armpits, weave in a few ends, and block it. The weather is indeed turning to sweater weather, so my motivation might pick up here!

Weaving
  • The piece on the Cricket loom is still there...and it hasn't made much progress since last month. 

Spinning
  • The first week of October is Spinzilla, and despite my better judgement, I'm participating. I'm not going whole hog, but I would like to get a "monster mile" in this year. 

Studio Space
  • We've been in our house for just over a year now, and my studio space is DARK. The paint in there is a very dark beige, with two even darker accent walls. The seller was going for "cozy bedroom," but I want a bright workspace. This basically means moving out of my workspace so I can paint. We've been discussing this all summer, and I think I'm finally ready to get the ball rolling. Maybe. 


What are you working on this month?

    Archives

    January 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Affiliate
    Annavestkal
    Bangoutasweater
    Basketweaving
    Books
    Breed Swatch
    Cables
    Classes
    Color Theory
    Colorwork
    Design
    Differential Shrinkage
    Diz
    Dog
    Downloads
    Drum Carder
    Dyeing
    Embroidery
    Ergonomics
    Felting
    Fiber Fix
    FOs
    Freebies
    Knitting
    Konmarie
    Kumihimo
    Lace
    Links
    Log Cabin
    Mending
    Multitool
    Onesockkal
    Patterns
    Podcast
    Ravelry
    Rigid Heddle
    Rug Hooking
    Samplealong
    Sashiko
    Sewing
    Shop
    Slow Fashion October
    Socks
    Spinning
    Spinzilla
    Stash
    Steek
    Swatching
    Sweaters
    Tour De Fleece
    Travel
    Tutorial
    Tutorials
    Upcycling
    Video
    Weaving
    WIP
    Wool
    Wovember
    Wpi

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
Copyright P.S. Kreative LLC © 2015-2021
  • Blog
  • About
    • Classes
    • Policies
  • Tutorials
  • Store