up to mischief, as usual

Spindlewood custom redwood burl spindle; hand-blended batt by Nada Jones. Sam the TapeMeasure by Yes.I.Named.My.TapeMeasure.Sam. Squirrel courtesy of my weird twisted mind.

This post is for Renee, who wrote me such a lovely note last week…I need reminders like that one every now and then! Thanks, Renee.

Up to lots of good

There has been life on Planet Sandi. The sun is shining here in Ontario, and the first day that I had free to go sit out on my porch and spin was glorious…until the workmen from the landlord showed up a week early and proceeded to power-wash and paint the front porch AND the back deck.

However, one can still spin indoors, and that’s what I did. I’ve been working on spinning up the batts I made out of my Birthday Shetland Lamb Fleece, the one that Lynn gave me. (The first part of the story, with photos of the fleece and the first batts, is here.)

I ended up with 117 grams of the Expresso Batts (dark), 224 grams of the Cappucino Batts (medium) and 340 grams of Milky Oatmeal (light); 681 grams in all.

Here’s a small bit of an Expresso Batt.

Expresso Batt and plying ball:

I wanted to spin a yarn very different from my standard thin, shiny, firm, embroidery floss sort of yarn. I wanted thick and bouncy and fluffy…which meant I had to figure out how to adjust both my wheel and my habits for this floofy sort of yarn.

Cappucino Batts:

I switched whorls, I adjusted my treadling, I tightened the drive band, I did this and that. I learned a TONNE about my wheel in the process, and I loved every minute of it.

Milky Oatmeal batts:

At this point, I have one 2-ply skein of each colour:

I just love this yarn. I would spin another Shetland fleece in a heartbeat. Fortunately, I have at least half of this one left to spin and ply.

Milky Oatmeal plying ball:

Vest? I think maybe a vest. For me. Gradual colour shifts, light at the top, dark at the hem.

I’ve been trying lots of fun things, allowing myself to play more than usual. For example, I got this lovely sample in my goodie bag at Stringtopia:

It’s hand-dyed by The Painted Tiger. (Do not click on that link if you have money troubles and also love colour gradients…just a friendly warning. AWESOME colours!) It was only a wee sample, but it was enough for me to use as an experiment in how to spin a gradient. I chose to spin it all, from one end to the other, across the width, so that the singles came out as nearly equal lengths of each colour. Then…well, what to do next? If I plied it back on itself, it would make Unicorn Farts Barf, and while Unicorn Farts Barf can be really fun in some cases, I wanted to keep the rainbow effect.

I looked around for something to ply it with, and realized (ta-DA) that I had a few yards of silk singles left over from the Karmic Sewing Thread. So, I plied the rainbow singles with the royal blue silk singles…and I really love the results.

It’s funny how folks always ask you “What are you going to do with that?” when you show them some pretty handspun yarn. In this case, there’s only 55 yards of it, so truly, the answer to That Question is: I’m going to hang it on the wall and occasionally take it down and unwind it, and wind it up again, and rub my face in it, and then put it in my pocket and touch it until it’s time to hang it up again.

And you thought all of us spinners were rolling in gorgeous handknits made out of our very own handspun yarn…heh. Nope. We’re all just rubbing our faces in the skeins, carrying balls of it around in bags and pockets, fondling and fondling and fondling the lovely pretties that we made with our very own hands.

Handspun yarn, you see, doesn’t need to become anything else. It already IS. And what it is is sufficient unto itself. It is whole, it is complete; it is beautiful, it brings joy and good things into the world.

In the end, what more could anyone want anything to be?

Chispas

I…I…well…there’s this guy…and he has a dinosaur outfit…and oh I can’t. I just can’t even begin to describe this. Just go here.

One for the Geeks And Legos category: Firefly’s SERENITY ship has been made into a Lego kit. It’s not clear to me if one can actually buy these yet. But the story of how it came about is wonderful.

A crocheted turtle cover. Just what it says, folks.

Thought-provoking snippet.  Really, I can’t say more or fire will start coming out of my nose.

Hair styles for the hipster alpaca. About a thousand folks must have sent me this one. How can alpacas be so cute and so funny-looking at the same moment?

We need a cute animal pic, don’t we….hmmmmm….well. I don’t have baby animals, but I do have unusual photos of unusual animals, how about that? Start here, then go here, and maybe look at this, and don’t miss the series on Ramen Noodle. Superb photography with a heart for animals.