Posts Tagged ‘Spinning’
Oregon Flock And Fiber Festival was going on this weekend in Canby OR (a little town about 20 minutes drive from where we live) and I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect but Immi and Ashland seem enjoy festivities, so off we went for a little Saturday adventure.
So many people were spinning yarn on the lawn enjoying the perfect weather. And there were [almost] overwhelming number of vendors displaying their beautiful fibers and yarn and all sorts of things crafted from them. (This wasn’t the only indoor area, there were 5 or so of even larger buildings full of various vendors)
There were lots of fiber related animals too, some of them for sale.
I was really surprised by the quality, uniqueness and variety of items offered and I thoroughly enjoyed looking around. Besides, everyone here were very friendly! Next year I’ll have to remember to save up craft fund for this, but we couldn’t leave empty handed so I got some lovelies: a tiny bite size batt, and a bit of purple firestar (for mixing into other fibers to add sparkle), two vintage spools (these were a $1 each, I resisted the temptation to pick up a handful!), and quite a lot of (7.6 oz) super bargain priced mystery batt (it’s multicolor probably because it’s made from left over fibers and such — I actually enjoy spinning batts like this so…).
I was a bit worried that I’d be the only one to enjoy such an event but Immi and Ashland had fun being outdoors and petting animals. Todd even found a totally amazing spindle for himself (he learned to spin some yarn on it when we got home!). I think that it was educational not just for kids but definitely for me too — for someone who enjoys fiber related art, I’m embarrassing ignorant about what fiber comes from which animal and besides, I could barely tell apart llamas and alpacas (I can now!).
Here’s my current spinning project using this fiber. I’ve added small amount (probably about 0.3oz — the main batt is 3.6 oz) of colorful fiber and also some sparkly synthetic fibers (not because I didn’t like it the way it was, but I wanted to have better chance at having enough yarn to make something with it!).
I’ve had really bad migraine for past 2+ weeks (I think it’s finally going away!). And absolutely nothing helped except for spinning this very happy color yarn (because it’s meditative??). My OB prescribed me narcotic type pain meds (supposed to be safe for the baby…) but she told me it’ll make me loopy and I shouldn’t be in charge of kids by myself while on it — since such a solution won’t help me at all, I’ve left the prescription unfilled. It looks like I’m making pink yarn again in the photo, but it’s mostly not pink, I promise!
One of the vintage toys we received in the mail from Immi & Ashland’s grandparents is a little sheep from the Fisher-Price Family Farm set. It’s a strange thing how knitting/crocheting has ultimately made me appreciate sheep as unique and wonderful creatures!
Here’s a close-up. I’m guessing this sheep is about 30 years old.
…And just for fun, here’s a modern sheep toy:
Granted, these two sheep appear to be of different breeds (the first one is a domestic sheep? and second one merino maybe?) its amusing to me how so different they are!
And as long as I’m posting pictures of plastic sheep, here’s some totally lovely fiber I got for spinning:
It’s very soft and fluffy:
And I’m trying to make something with the yarn I finally finished spinning. I guess it’ll be a light scarf since I only have 2 ounce.
I feel like I haven’t finished any crafty items lately. I have some very slow going Work-In-Progress projects. I guess I’ve just been a bit preoccupied and scatter brained!
Here’s the sock. I’m not sure how the rest of the sock will stripe because there’s still a green bit in the yarn that have yet to make an appearance (you can see it in the middle of the ball of yarn). I’m making it stripe by alternating yarn pulled out from center and yarn that’s unwrapped from the outside of of the same ball.
And here’s the scarf. It’s about 1/3 of the way done. I’m hoping to make it long-ish. It’s been chilly enough for a scarf lately, but I’m sure that it will be suddenly hot outside should I manage to finish it anytime soon.
And here’s my spinning project, I only get done about few inches a month it seems (because it requires my full attentions, something I rarely have!). I’m making a core-spun yarn (fluffy fiber is spun around the “core” — I’m using cotton crochet thread for this) that has fluffy thick bits and tightly spun thin bits. This technique seems to be quite popular for yarn spun on a spinning wheel, but I searched through the internet for spindle version of the technique and didn’t find anything. It wasn’t too difficult to figure out how to work it on a spindle but it’s really time consuming process.
I spun this yarn on a top whorl spindle…months ago in Reston. I finally had a chance to set the twist here in PDX 
I had no idea how difficult it was to photograph yarn. The yarn is really shimmery with shiny bits in real life, I don’t seem to be able to capture that in the photo.
I’m a beginner at spinning. It’s a good thing though that I like uneven ‘handspun’ look anyway 
One of these days, I think I might like a spinning wheel, but for now, I quite like the spindle. I think that yarn came out pretty, but of course all the credit goes to the gorgeous fiber I spun.
Perpetuated by:
Socialize & Share:
By Shana
By Shana
By Shana
By Mary (Walker)
By Kimberly Anne King