Sorry about the pictures being terrible, I should rename the blog "Jennifer's blog of bad knitting photos and piles of wasted fiber on office floor".
The spinning has been slowly going. I got the wheel last Monday night and I finally got to sit down with it late Sunday night. My 1st session was about 45 minutes and I was learning how to spin. I was also learning on how quickly the wheel can yank the yarn right out of your hands. I was mastering that last part quite well by the end of the night. At the end of the 1st session I could tell that 1) I had way too much twist in the fiber and 2) I was doing what's called the "Inch worm" style of drafting. Basically I had a long piece of fiber and was only pulling about an inch out at a time while the wheel was spinning. The little booklet that came with the spinning wheel suggested using the spinning from the fold. Instead of long piece of fiber, you have short piece of fiber and you draft out from the middle instead of the end. I tried that technique the next night and my results were about the same, too much twist and still having the fiber ripped out of my hands. Even though I call (well I must give credit to Carey for the name) my first attempt yarn barf, I did notice one thing I am proud of and that is that the newly fiber was the same thickness throughout. It wasn't as thin as I wanted to get it (that will just take some time) and even though I was getting much better on the drop spindle, I still had thick/thin spots throughout the yarn.
I have managed to complete two baby hats , 1 bootie (with the other on it's way to getting done) and hopefully I hope to have the last baby hat done before Saturday. The K-State newborn hat is a Basic Newborn hat by Jennifer Jackson done in Classic Elite cotton/alpaca yarn. The second K-State toddler hat is a child size Thorpe hat by Kirsten Kapur, which was very simple to do and I may have to make on for myself. The third hat is kind of a joke for the expecting mother. My cousin is having a baby boy and the kid is basically coming into a family of hunting enthusiasts. So I found the brightest, neon orange yarn I could find so the new baby can fit in with the rest of the Harding men. The pattern is actually pretty cute, just a basic ribbed hat and will look cute even in the bright orange. Pictures to come later, I'm still hoping for a good, non-blurry one later tonight.
Your first yarn barf (and actually, I think I stole that term from Amy Singer on Knitty.com) is a lot better looking than my first yarn barf. Yours resembles yarn, for example.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I learned a new stretchy cast on last night that would be GREAT for hats.