06.29.06
Posted in NYC, Spinning at 3:36 pm by delipics
I was exhausted by the time I got home from an evening’s worth of Kool-Aid dying my spinning fibers. Almost twenty-four hours later, all the fibers but the silk hankies are still a bit damp. If you’ve seen any news about the East coast, we’ve been having rain, rain, and more rain. Luckily NYC is being spared the worst of it but it sure is muggy and it’s affecting the drying time. I was hoping I could start spinning but I will have to wait. (I still have that second sock waiting for me.) When the fibers are dry and more presentable looking, I am going to take more photos - I want to document how the colors look dry as opposed to wet and then I will post them.
They say it is going to be sunny tomorrow –
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06.27.06
Posted in Photos, Spinning, Subway, Yarn at 6:36 pm by delipics
My third handspun skein, a blend of merino & kid mohair –
I did not use the whole 2 oz. of fiber I bought so I am curious to how much I actually have here. I am wondering if part of the reason I did not use all the fiber is my spindle is not light enough? I may have to do a little shopping around for spindles.
At Spin Out I met two spinners whose spindles I liked, one from Simple Market Farms and the other from Made By Ewe. I also covet my spinning classmate’s Golding spindle. Any other recommendations out there? Not sure what I should be thinking about when I buy the next one. I know I would like something smaller than my Schacht Hi-Lo so I can carry it in my purse, you know, in case I want to do a little spinning in public. I wonder how that would go on the subway?
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06.26.06
Posted in Photos, Socks at 4:36 pm by delipics
. . . and one more to go!
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06.25.06
Posted in NYC, Spinning, Yarn at 6:13 pm by delipics
Spin On Spin In Spin Out!
Yup, I made it to the event. I braved the downpour. My sneakers and socks were drenched. The humidity was unbearable - but - once I removed my wet shoes and socks, draped my raincoat over the back of my chair, and pulled out my spinning, everything was fine again.
We could not hang-out in Central Park that day but fortunately the organizers were able to move the event indoors at the East 54th Street Recreation Center. We spinners took up half of the gym - on the other end people were shooting hoops. (I wish I had taken photos of the interior. It was actually quite a beautiful building.) There was free swag - I grabbed a pin, a free issue of Spin Off, and got a mini-skein of Spritely Goods. People came with their spinning wheels, others had their spindles, and a group of women were learning to spin on CD spindles. There was some knitting; coincidentally, I think everyone who did bring knitting were knitting socks.
Maria was there spinning away on her new Ashford Joy. I met Ina, the Jersey Knitter, and Jill Ann. Caroline showed up for the last hour. Jill Ann helped me out with my plying, and I fell in love with her beautiful, little spindle. We all got to learn our spinning stories, ask questions, and help each other out. It all went too fast. We only had the place until 3:30. Waaah - I didn’t want to leave! JA helped me pull off my Andean plying bracelet, another woman let me have her paper roll so I could preserve my bundle of yarn and not get it tangled, and then it was time to go home.
Thank you Cara for organizing this — you made it happen despite all the rain. It was a really great event!
Now about those silk cocoons . . .
Here they are about to be boiled. They were boiled for about 20 minutes or so (oh the smell! ick!) until they are soft. Once they are ready, a stiff brush was used to draw out the silk threads. What happens is the threads, that are thinner than hair, are pulled out and drawn into one thicker thread (not that thick, just a tad thicker than hair). Then we wound the silk threads around this tool (the name of which I forgot).
When you cut open a cocoon, you see the little worm:
Afterwards, we learned how to spin silk hankies. Below is the hanky, just as it is about to be pulled apart, and to the right is my mini-skein of silk, spun from one and a half hankies. Next class — Kool-Aid dying!.
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06.23.06
Posted in Brooklyn, NYC, Spinning at 11:08 am by delipics
- I was just reading knit-o-rama’s blog about his beginning life drawing class. It gave me an art school flash back. I used to love life drawing because I felt it kept me loose and lean - artistically I mean. I think the short poses were the best because you had to catch the gesture of the pose in 30 seconds or less. It really made you focus on the line and the form. My favorite materials to use for the short poses were vine charcoal or ink & brush. I liked the thick vine charoal instead of the thin. The thin always broke too easily. Ink & brush was satisfying to use because of the physical movements one could do from the shoulder (instead of the wrist) to draw the body. You could feel the form in your arm as you drew it on the paper.
- I’ve been meaning to link this from Wednesday’s A-Word-A-Day. The theme is this week was professions that exist mainly as surnames:
mercer (MUR-suhr) noun
A dealer in textiles, especially silk and other fine materials.
[From Old French mercier (trader), from Latin merx (goods). Words such as market, merchant, commerce, and mercantile share the same origin.]
Then there is mercerization. To mercerize is to treat cotton thread or fabric with caustic soda to enhance its strength and luster, and to increase its affinity for dyes. The word is an eponym, coined after the calico printer John Mercer (1791-1866) who patented it in 1850.
- Reminder, this Saturday is SPIN ON SPIN IN SPIN OUT.
- And the Mermaid Parade is the same day - I wish I could go to both events!
- Finally, I took photos from my last spinning class where we boiled the silk cocoons to draw out the thread. I will try and post them this weekend. I have been a little busy with fun summer in NYC social events - meaning I have been coming home late and going right to bed instead of writing the blog.
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06.21.06
Posted in Knitting, NYC, Socks, Subway at 7:04 pm by delipics
That was the comment from a cute little girl who I talked to on the subway about my sock knitting.
Little Miss Cutie (maybe about five years old) walked onto the subway train, saw me and all my pointy sticks, and her eyes widened so big! She sat down (with her mother) and started talking to me. I turned off my music and pulled out my ear buds, ready for a kid chat. I learned that her abuela also knits but she only uses two needles. Abuela has knit for her two hats and a blanket when she was little.
I tried to explain why I was knitting with four needles. I told her I was knitting just like her abuela but I needed four needles so I could make something round, not flat. I knit a section so she could see how it worked. I held the sock next to my foot but I could see she still did not understand. So I put my hand through the sock. That is when she told me I could make a puppet. She was absolutely right, I could make a puppet, and Little Miss Cutie was in a puppet show and she told me all about it.
This encounter is one of the reasons why I like to knit in public.
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06.20.06
Posted in Knitting, Photos, Socks at 6:50 pm by delipics
You learn something new everyday . . .
Another sock expert took a look at how I was doing on my sock, and this is what I learned.
First, I apparently knit differently. I think I am wrapping my yarn in a different direction so that when I pull it through the loop, I am twisting it. So instead of the stitches being wavy, they are like loops. Mind you, I had no idea I was doing something different. I did notice I was knitting tighter than usual, but I thought that was because I was using such small DPNs. Also, I totally messed up on starting the heel flap where the round starts. I thought I had done that part correctly, but as you see, the beginning of the round is on the side (see safety pin). I was told my sock is twisted, but I can’t see it.
But you know what? It is all okay because I am just happy that it looks like a sock. To quote The Yarn Harlot in her book At Knits End*, “Knitting is a human activity. It’s okay if it looks like a human did it.”
*My sister gave me that book. Happy Birthday to you sis!
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