R was really grumpy the other day, and when he came home, he brought me this!

Collinette Jitterbug sock yarn in the Jay colorway!

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Last week I took a 3-day spinning intensive course with Judith MacKenzie McCuin, organized through Carolina Homespun.  It was an awesome class.  Judith is really good about demonstrating everything and showing variations on a theme.  I learned a ton of stuff about spinning and prepping a fleece.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that I really want to buy a drum carder and combs and start buying raw fleece.  That’s trouble.  Big trouble.

One of the greatest things about the class was being able to spin SO many different kinds of fiber!!  I’ll try to list them all, with some pictures…. the first day we started out spinning Corriedale, getting our worsted spinning technique down.  I had never spun worsted before, so it was a bit of a challenge, but well worth it.  We were also shown how to spin semi-worsted, or over-the-fold, which I haven’t tried yet. Here’s a picture of my Corriedale singles.  I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with them!

We spun three different kinds of silk: tussah top (wild worms!  they eat anything!), cultivated silk top (aka bombyx, mulberry — they only eat white mulberry leaves), and cultivated silk caps (aka bells, hankies).  I think the tussah was the easiest to spin, although I have spun tussah before, so that might be part of the reason.  The cultivated silk top was definitely shinier, whiter, and smoother.  You really have to pre-draft the caps, and they come out really nobby.

On the bobbin, from left to right, are tussah, cultivated silk, and silk caps. Below are the caps.

Then we were given some 50% merino / 50% silk, which was really nice. I decided to wait on spinning mine, so that I just have white silk on the bobbin. Here it is…

We were also given some bamboo and some ingeo, which I didn’t have time to spin. The bamboo is undyed and the ingeo is blue.

We also had the amazing opportunity to spin some cashmere silk!

The second day we learned how to spin a worsted marled yarn with 4 different colors of merino top. Judith gave us enough merino (3 oz.) to spin yarn for a pair of socks.

She convinced me to try a traditional 3-ply with these singles once I’ve finished spinning them. I think the yarn might be a bit thick, so I might have to knit toe-up socks 2 at a time in order not to run out of yarn. Spinning a marled yarn is a great way to really get worsted spinning down.

We learned about plying on the third day. Judith had us load 3 bobbins with some of her Ramboullet merino machine-spun singles to practice making a 3-ply, and other plying techniques she taught us.  I’m excited about dyeing the plied yarn — it’s really soft! 

After learning a bit more about twist in plying, I’ve decided to re-ply my Sprout yarn before I start knitting some socks with it. I had considered it before, but I’m definitely doing it now. It should be pretty quick and make a big difference.  I also learned that a 2-ply shows off lace well and a 3-ply fills in holes well, so it feels smooth and is great for socks.

Also on the third day we spun some exotics: bison, 3 types of cashmere (brown & white), yak, and camel. We learned how to spin a woolen yarn, and how to full it. There’s a huge difference between fulling and felting, which I never knew. Short fibers full, and long fibers felt. There’s a lot more to it than that, though.

Here’s some of the yak fiber…

Here’s some green bison fiber (dyed green, not from green bison!)…

In this picture, from left to right on the bobbin, you can see some of my handspun bison, brown cashmere, and yak.

After that spinning, I was too tired to spin up this camel

And this camel/merino blend.

As you can see, I’ll be finishing up a bunch of spinning projects from the class over the next few weeks. I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to ply together… or what to knit when I’m done!

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The kitchen sink bag is done!

 I think the extra multi-colored yarn and the green turned out much better than the blue was looking, so I’m happy.  Pattern: Kitchen Sink Bag from Knitty.  Yarn: Sugar n’ Cream.  Recipient: My sister, whose birthday is next week.

I like how the mesh stitch is see-through…
Here’s a shot of the side… I really like the triangles in the handle.

Here’s the bottom…

And of course, Siena had to try it on for size…

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He now out-weighs Siena!  At 50.5 lbs, 21″ tall (to the shoulder) and 26″ neck to base of tail, Mojo finally outweighs Siena.  And she knows it.  Sure, she still barks at him and tells him to stop jumping on her head, but she also lets him sniff her butt and sometimes even rolls over belly-up!

Above, Mojo smacks Siena in the face. Below, he falls off the couch. Literally. He does this pretty often, actually.

These are all in sequence, mind you, less than a few minutes apart… back on the couch (it’s amazing how fast he jumps back up there)

I decide I need flash…

And don’t they look happy!

Note that Siena is still taller and longer, but Mojo’s ears are WAY bigger. =)

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Baby Socks, that is!

They weigh 0.8 oz, my envelope weighs 0.3 oz (!), and the card weighs 02. oz, so it’s going to be $1.80 to mail them to Japan. Not bad, although I’m lazy, so I just put 5 stamps on the envelope.  =)

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I haven’t worked on this for a about a week since I finished the ball of yarn I was on and haven’t wound any more of the skeins yet, and I’ve been concentrating on gift knitting.

I, however, did move it to longer needles so you can kind of see the pattern now!

It’s been a realy quick knit. I love the pattern (from A Gathering of Lace) and I can’t wait to get back to it!

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So, I finished the lumpy animal body for my nephew, when I relized that his birthday is at the end of May while my sister’s birthday (his mom) is in 2 weeks. Hmm…

I looked through the list of knitted items she said she’d like (I requested one from each family member a while back, with measurements), and I decided on a mesh bag she can use for groceries or whatnot. The pattern is the Kitchen Sink Bag from knitty. The yarn is Sugar n’ Cream, 100% cotton.

I started out with the red, and then switched to the multi-colored yarn, and it all looked good. Then I ran out of yarn, and looked through the stash for something else that might go with it, and Randall and I decided the blue would go best, but after a few rows, I decided that’s not so good, so I ripped it out yesterday morning, after I went and bought another ball of the multi-colored yarn Tuesday night. They don’t sell the wine color any more… We’ll see how it goes from here.

That’s it for my gifts (for this post), but Randall knit me a hat out of Homespun to match the mittens I knit eons ago.  He didn’t approve of me wearing my blue mittens with the red hat he knit me.

It’s the only Homespun that didn’t go to the Girl Scouts. For some reason, he wanted to see how bad it was to knit with. He agreed giving it away was the right move. It’s just doesn’t have enough give, and as such is a pain to knit with.

Man, my mittens look dirty…

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Maria’s fast!  She spun up some more superwash merino!

This time the colorway is Ocean 2 and it’s a 2-ply sock-weight yarn.

For as much as I love photography, I’m often caught without my camera.  Pauline and Janice posted pics, which I reproduce for you here now: Bobaknit Swag!

This picture of me, Hannah, and Pauline is just too cute.  (I think Pauline needs longer arms to not be blurry…)

And of course, the artistic shot of my bag…

In other random news, my cousin had a baby boy yesterday. I’ve knit one sock so far…

I’m sure I’ll be able to finish the pair and send them to Japan before they’ll fit him!  The yarn is STR in Moss Agate, medium weight, and the sock is 28 sts around on US#2’s.

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I spun up this bulky 2-ply yarn for Tina by request.  I just thought I’d mention that if anyone wants a bulky yarn from one of the colorways that isn’t offered in bulky yarn but is offered in roving, I would be happy to spin it up for you.

Here are the singles…

And here’s the yarn… the colorway is Ocean 1.

Also, speaking of handspun yarn, Marisol bought some Fiber Fiend handspun in Midnight Sky at Stitches and knit up an awesome scarf and hat combo!

Additionally speaking of handspun, Janice spun some amazing sock yarn (her first sock yarn!) with Fiber Fiend Superwash Merino, colorway Mars (currently sold out in superwash merino).

Check out more details on her blog.

Last but not least, Maria spun some amazing Navajo-plied worsted weight yarn with Fiber Fiend Superwash Merino.

By the way, you can see all of this and more in the Fiber Fiend Gallery!

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