Another bobbin refilled and............

Well, I did it!  Yesterday I finished refilling the third bobbin.

So after removing that bobbin from my spinning wheel and replacing it with an empty one, I went and reweighted the first and second bobbin (as I forgot what they weighted).  Then I weighted the third bobbin and here's what I got.

5 1/4 ounces (first bobbin) - 2 ounces = 3 1/4 ounces

4 1/2 ounces (second bobbin) - 2 ounces = 2 1/2 ounces

4 7/8 ounces (third bobbin) - 2 ounces = 2 7/8 ounces

3 1/4 + 2 1/2 + 2 7/8 = 8 5/8 ounces of spun single ply yarn.

Now I was ready to begin plying.

Which I did shortly after that.  Two hours later I had this full bobbin of handspun 3 ply white alpaca yarn ( my third skein of yarn from Bellagio's fleece)

 

Today this skein is going to be washed and a fourth skein plied up.  Last night I ordered the pink dye to dyed this yarn for my customers daughters socks, it will arrive next week sometime and then I'll dye up this yarn, wait for it to dry and then start in knitting on another pair of custom ordered - handspun - knitted - dyed - pink - alpaca - adult ladies socks - size 7

 

 

 



Early rising, slow start, but still accomplishing a lot

Yesterday started off bright and early when my 14 1/2 yr. old dog Sue-chi woke me up at 1:41 am.

She was frantically barking and wanting to go outside.  So after she was done the 2 of us headed off to the living room to go to sleep on the couch.  Then 2 hours 34 min. later she needed to go out again.  Then again at 6:04 am.  Poor little girl is getting old and well I just love her so much that I'd give up sleep to accommodate her.

So after all that things started to improve with her, but I was like a zombie for the first half of the day.  I finally managed to make myself go and do some spinning and came very close to refilling the 3rd bobbin.

Then by the time the GOP Debate came on (hubby wanted to watch it), I was just getting my 2nd wind.  LOL  So I pulled out the custom ordered - handspun- knitted - white - alpaca - adult ladies socks - size 6 and started in knitting.  I finished up the first sock during the break of the debate and started in on the mate.  When the debate was over this is what I had accomplished.

So despite the fact that I woke up really early for Sue-chi, and had a slow start with my spinning.  The day still ended with accomplishing a lot!

 





A days worth of spinning and knitting

I spent the morning catching up on my ironing yesterday, then headed off to the spinning room to have some spinning fun.  I finished refilling the second bobbin, with more of Bellagio's creamy white fleece.

 

In Monday's blog I mentioned that the first bobbin was 5 1/4 ounces with bobbin and 3 1/4 ounces with out the bobbin.  The second bobbin now weights 4 1/2  ounces with bobbin and 2 1/2 ounces, so between these 2 bobbins, I have 5 3/4 ounces spun so far.

So after refilling the second bobbin, I started in refilling the third bobbin

I didn't get a lot spun up, before having to go and cook dinner, but I'll be back at the spinning wheel again tomorrow. 

After supper I sat down and knitted some more on the first pair of custom ordered white alpaca adult ladies socks size 6.  I finished the cuff, leg, heel flap, heel turn and gusset and only have a few more rows left to knit on the instep before starting to take off for the toes.

Not a bad days worth of spinning and knitting!



On a Mission to rewind skeins of handspun yarn.

Yesterday morning I was on a mission, to rewind 7 skeins of handspun alpaca yarn.  I managed to get them all rewound, and labeled, before heading out to go grocery shopping.

Top left to right: 3 ply black alpaca yarn 229.5 yards 98 grams , 206 yards 88 grams, 221.5 yards 94 grams, 245.5 yards 102 grams. Bottom left to right: 2 ply black alpaca yarn 125 yards 38 grams, 3 ply white alpaca yarn 232 yards 8 grams, 269 yards 90 grams. 2 skeins of 3 ply black alpaca yarn will be used for a custom ordered infinity scarf and the 2 skeins of 3 ply white alpaca yarn are for a pair of custom ordered adult ladies size 6 alpaca socks.

After we came back from the grocery shopping, I took one of the skeins of handspun white alpaca yarn and rewound it into a center pull ball.  Then I began knitting on the first pair of custom ordered white alpaca adult ladies socks size 6.

I almost have the leg finished, only need to knit 2 more rows and then I'll start on the heel flap.

Today though, I will be back at the spinning wheel, spinning up more of Bellagio's fleece.  I'm hoping to finish refilling the second bobbin and starting on refilling the third bobbin.

 





A Time to Ply and then beginning the process all over again

Friday I finished filling the third bobbin with Bellagio's creamy white alpaca fleece.  This bobbin weighted with 4 5/8 ounces when I finished filling it.  However, if you subtract the 2 ounces that the bobbin weights by itself, there's really only 2 5/8 ounces of spun yarn.

Once I had the third bobbin filled, I removed it and placed it on my homemade lazy kate.  These three bobbin together were 14 5/8 ounces with bobbins included.  When I subtracted the bobbins from this I came up with 8 5/8 of spun single creamy white alpaca.

Then I started in beginning to ply up my first skein of creamy white alpaca yarn from Bellagio's fleece.

I stayed up in my spinning room until I finished plying up the first skein.

I weight this full skein of 3 ply yarn and it weight 5 1/4 ounces, with the bobbins weight of 2 ounces subtracted from it, I ended up with 3 1/4 ounces of 3 ply creamy white alpaca yarn from Bellagio's fleece.

Saturday at the Farmers Market, I plied up a second skein of 3 ply yarn and 3 hours and frozen beet red fingers, I packed everything up and headed home.  Once home and after I had unloaded my car and put everything away, I took this picture of another bobbin of handspun 3 ply creamy white alpaca yarn.

Before I started plying up the second skein of 3 ply yarn, I weighted all 3 skeins and I had 3 3/8 ounces left on all three bobbins.  Then I took this picture of the 3 bobbins with yarn still on them, and weighted them to see just how many ounces I had left on them after plying up 2 skeins of 3 ply yarn.

There just happens to be 2 5/8 ounces left between these 3 bobbins. (left to right) First bobbin 5/8 ounces, second bobbin 7/8 ounces, third bobbin 1 1/8 ounces. 

Sunday I refilled the first bobbin again and then weighted it.

  It weighted 5 1/4 ounces with the weight of the bobbin, minus the weight of the bobbin it weighted 3 1/4 ounces.  Then I started in refilling the second bobbin.

 

Then I decided to stop and wash up the 2 skeins of 3 ply creamy white alpaca yarn, that I plied up on Friday and Saturday.  Once those were washed and hung to dry it was time to get ready for bed.

 

 



I did it! Another custom order is finished!!

I did it! Yesterday, I finished another custom order, washed it and blocked it

 

So I rewarded myself with a little bit of spinning!  LOL

I almost had the 3rd bobbin filled by 5 pm yesterday.  I have just a wee bit more to go, which I'll be going and doing here in a little bit.

It's Friday and the laundry and housework have kept me busy all morning,..........that and doing some thinking about my business website and other things.



Short and Sweet

Good Morning!  Yesterday I almost, but not quite, finished filling up the 3rd bobbin with more of Bellagio's creamy white alpaca fleece.   I probably would have had if completely filled but had some errands to run in the morning.  Anyways, here's the picture of the almost finished bobbin.

Today I'll be binding off the Custom Ordered - Handspun - Knitted - Black - Alpaca - Infinity Scarf and doing all the finishing touches on that.

That's about all I really have to talk about today, so see you all tomorrow.



Second bobbin finished and more

Well, if you've been following my blog, you know I've been knitting on a lot of custom orders and most recently starting to finally spin up Bellagio's creamy white alpaca fleece.  Yesterday I finished filling up the second bobbin with Bellagio's creamy white alpaca fleece.

The weight of the first bobbin was 5 1/8 ounces and the second bobbin weighted 4 7/8 ounces, this is of course the total weight of both the bobbin and the yarn.  The bobbins weight 2 ounces, so if you subtract the weight of the bobbins from the total weight, you have..... 3 1/8 + 2 7/8 = 5 8/8 or 6 ounces of spun singles.  Once I had this weight figured out, I started in filling up the third bobbin.

I continued spinning until dinner time, but only managed to get this much spun

I know its not a whole lot more then the picture above, but I needed go and set the table for dinner.  We were going to have Garlic-Herbed Pot Roast and after 10 hours of cooking it was ready to serve.

It was delicious!  Having the leftovers tonight.  Mmmmmmm, can't wait!!

After supper though, sat down and started knitting away on a custom ordered - handspun - knitted - black - alpaca - infinity scarf.

This picture is what the scarf looked like, when I started on it last night.

All I need to do is cast off, sew it together, weave in all loose threads. wash and block it, sew in the label, and print a hanging tag.  I still have 2 pairs of socks to knit up once I finish spinning up the yarn.



Pass the Alpaca fiber please

Good Morning Everyone!  Please pass the Alpaca fiber, its time to spin up some more yarn.  I've just oiled my wheel and I'm ready to start spinning, where I left off yesterday.

I just about have this second bobbin filled, with "Bellagio's" white alpaca fleece.  I've already emptied 1 bucket and I'm about 1/4 of the way through a second bucket.

I was curious the other day, as to just how many ounces I had spun up on the first bobbin.  So I pulled out an empty bobbin (the bobbin wasn't completely empty as it had a leader ont it) and weighted it,...it weighted exactly 2 ounces.  Then I weighted the first bobbin and with it being full and all, it weighted 5 1/8 ounces.  I then subtracted 2 ounces from the 5 1/8 ounces and came up with 3 1/8 ounces of spun single white alpaca yarn.  Its going to be interesting as to just how much this second bobbin will weight when its full, not to mention the third bobbin.  I'll keep you posted though!



Finished up all of the black alpaca fleece and more

On Friday I left you with plying up a skein of 3 ply black alpaca.  I ended up plying up 2 skeins of 3 ply black alpaca and 1 skein of 2 ply black alpaca to finish off the all of the black alpaca fleece.  I washed them and hung them to dry.  Today I'll be rewinding those skeins and printing up labels.  I'll trying to get pictures of them tomorrow. 

Once I had the black alpaca fleece finished, I pulled out all the buckets of "Bellagio's" white alpaca fleece.

There are 10 buckets in this picture filled with carded batts, from "Bellagio's" white fleece.  One of the buckets though has batts in it that I have for sale.  I just had to show you just how much fleece I have.  This is going to be fun spinning as its so very soft just like the brown, and black alpaca that I've been having fun with.

I even had a little time left in the day to begin spinning up one of the batts (actually 1 1/2 batts).

Then on Saturday at the Farmers Market, spun up a little more, not much as its was pretty windy and I had to keep getting up to pick up items, that the wind blew off the tables.

However, when I got home and unpacked the car, I was back at the spinning wheel spinning up a storm.  I finished filling up the first bobbin and started filling the second bobbin.  I need to spin up 4 skeins of yarn from this fleece for 2 custom ordered pairs of socks ( 2 skeins I need to dye pink)

Also over the week end I finished knitting up the second custom ordered hat, so another custom order is completed.

Now, I'm working on a new custom order, another black alpaca infinity scarf. 

I still have quite a distance to go yet on this scarf.

So as you can see, I stayed busy over the weekend.

 



Time to get the spinning wheel spinning

 Oh what a beautiful morning, we are having!  52º out and blue skies, leaves of various autumn colors raining down all around me.  I'd love to stay out here all day, but I really need to get inside and get the spinning wheel spinning again.

Yesterday I finished refilling the third bobbin with the very last of Joe's Black Alpaca Fleece.  I now have three full bobbins ready for plying.

I even started in plying up a 3 ply skein of yarn.

But I had to stop and go run some errands, so today I'll pick up where I left off.

If things go right I should have 2 skeins of 3 ply yarn hanging to dry, by the end of the day.

So lets get busy and start in spinning!

A little cool this morning............lets go spin!

Good Morning!  Thursday arrived and brought with it some wonderful sunshine.  It was pretty cold this morning ( 31 º) when I got up, but its since warmed up to 40º.  Time to through a shawl around my shoulders and fix another cup of hot tea.  Then its upstairs to the spinning room!

The other day when I was in the spinning room spinning, I finished refilling the second bobbin.

Then I started in refilling the third bobbin.

Today, I hope to finish refilling the third bobbin (as I only have 2 more rolags left to spin)and start in plying up another 3 ply skein of Black Alpaca Yarn (maybe even 2 more).  This is the last bit of Black Alpaca, so the next fiber I'll spin up after this is White Alpaca.



Obsessed with finishing Custom Orders

These past 2 months have been filled with knitting on custom orders and spinning up yarn, to knit for custom orders.  However, as I posted on Tuesday, I'm getting closer to finishing   all my custom orders.  Here's 1 more order that's finished....

 

3 Hand Knitted Cotton Dish Cloths in Country Yellow (left), Overcast (center) and Black (right)

 

Oh and I have a partial order finished too!

 

Spinning Ginny Original - Custom Order - Handspun - Knitted - Chocolate Brown

Alpaca - Adult Hat

 

I am hoping to finish the 2nd hat today.  I still have 2 pairs of socks to knit (after I get the yarn spun up that is and 2 of the skeins dyed pink), and an infinity scarf. 

 



Spinning Time

It's  spinning time here again at Spinning Ginny.  I need to finish refilling the first bobbin again, with some more black alpaca.

 

I only have 10 1/2 rolags left of black alpaca to spin.  This should give me 2 possibly 3 more skeins of 3 ply black alpaca yarn to go with the 2 I plied up yesterday and the 2 I plied up last week (of which I used 1/2 of one to finish off a custom order).

Once I have the black alpaca spun up, I will be able to start spinning up some white alpaca.

 

 

 

Spinning & Knitting

Custom Orders are almost finished.  I still have a few more to get done, but the majority is finished.  I've had a lot of fun though spinning up yarns and knitting on these orders.

 

So far the items I've finished are......... 7 Adult hats and 5 Infant Hats using my handspun

Chocolate Brown Alpaca, Hand Dyed Alpaca and Black Alpaca Yarn.

 

2 Infinity Scarves using my Handspun, Hand Dyed Alpaca and Black Alpaca Yarn

 

3 Adult Hats using my Handspun Pink Merino, Purple Orchid Merino and Chocolate Brown Alpaca Yarn

 

I still have 2 more hats, 2 pairs of socks and 1 infinity scarf to knit.  Then its back to lots and lots of spinning up white alpaca, hand dyed suri alpaca, hand dyed mohair, wensleydale/teeswater cross (wool), natural silvery/black mohair, pink merino, purple orchid merino and white Icelandic.

I will be busy this winter!