Listen Closely, can you hear the whirring of my spinning wheel......and new listing

It's 6:08 am here at Spinning Ginny, the light is on in the spinning room and if you listen closely you can hear the whirring of my spinning wheel.  There's a slight squeak now and again as the spinning wheel spins and the white alpaca fiber slowly twists into a single ply strand of yarn on the bobbin.  Sue-chi (who turned 15 on Saturday), is sleeping on the rug.  The first bobbin is getting closer to being refilled, yet again.

I have a new listing today as well, its not much, but its something all the same.  It's a new Dish Cloth.  Its my own pattern and I named it "Aunt Fay's Dish Cloth" after my Great Aunt Fay.  I used Sugar'n Cream Hot Purple Cotton Yarn. 

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=121&products_id=578



Grand day for spinning and laying down cinder blocks

Its was a grand day for spinning

The bobbin is filling fast

and out in the yard my husband

who is bound and determined to work in the yard.

Laying out the cinder blocks for the foundation, that will eventually

house the framing

 

of our future Greenhouse.  Hubby couldn't do more then put the cinder blocks down, due to the very cold wind.  He's hoping for better weather this weekend, so he can get moving on his project.

 



Back upstairs plying and spinning.........New listing

So after spending my morning yesterday dyeing some handspun 3 ply white alpaca yarn, I headed upstairs to finish plying up another skein of yarn.

Then because my 3 bobbins were empty and needed to be refilled once again, I changed bobbins out and started in spinning again.

However, this morning was spent running errands, but once they were done I came home and rewound my newly dyed skeins, made labels, took pictures and then listed them.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=561

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=560



Dyeing Day, New Listing and a little spinning

Before I get started dyeing up 2 new skeins of Handspun 3 ply White Alpaca, I want to share a new listing with you.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=121&products_id=576

I started knitting this up yesterday morning, before the sun came up, then stopped to go and do some spinning.  This morning I finished it just before sun rise.

 

Now I've got all my dyeing stuff set up and I'm ready to get busy dyeing up my 2 skeins of Handspun 3 ply White Alpaca Yarn.

I've brought my water to a simi boil, added my Royal Blue Dye Stock and 1/4 cup of vinegar.  Now its time to add one of my skeins of yarn to the pot.

The yarn really soaked up the dye fast during the first 30 minutes.  Now its in the cooling down stage for 30 minutes.  Then I'll drain it and soak it in the synthrapol for 5 minutes.

 

Now that both skeins are dyed and hanging to dry, its time to head up to the spinning room and finish plying up another skein of Handspun 3 ply white alpaca yarn.

 

 



Did exactly what I hoped today today and more!

I mentioned yesterday, that I hoped to finish refilling the third bobbin today and that's just exactly what I did.

Then I went on to start in plying up the first skein and after 1 hour 37 minutes and 9 seconds, here is where I ended up.

After finishing lunch, I headed back to the spinning room to finished refilling this bobbin of 3 ply handspun white alpaca yarn.

I finished this bobbin up before the 1 hour 37 minutes 28 seconds and started in plying up a second skein.

Then after plying up this second skein, I still have some time left of the clock, so I started in plying up a 3rd skein

Now tomorrow, I'll finish plying up this 3rd skein of handspun white alpaca yarn. Then I'll start in refilling these 3 bobbins once again.  Now to go and wash the 2 skeins I plied up today and hang them to dry over night.

 

Back to the spinning wheel

After taking the last 4 days off from spinning to do some knitting, it was time for me to get back to the spinning wheel today.  I able to spend roughly 2 hours, 20 minutes and 25 seconds at the spinning wheel.  I would have spent more, Monday's are about doing the laundry and going grocery shopping.  Anyways  I came really close to refilling the 3 bobbin once again. 

I hope tomorrow to finish refilling it and start in plying up 2 more skeins of 3 ply white alpaca yarn.

Idea for new pair of Boot Cuffs

This past Wednesday night while relaxing on the couch and watching Little Women LA and Younger.  I came up with an idea for a new pair of Boot Cuffs.  When I finished my first pair of Boot Cuffs, I had planned on doing some more, but I got caught up in my spinning up more 3 ply white alpaca yarn and dyeing those skeins.  Anyways, I started in writing up my pattern, which was originally planned for using size 2 dpns.  However, are working my swatch in the round on my size 2 dpns, I found that my pattern not only needed a few more stitches, but I was going to have to change to a bigger size needle.  So I put my knitting down for the night and headed off to bed.

Thursday morning came bright and early and after taking my dog Sue-chi out for her morning walk, I started in rewriting my pattern for size 5 dpns and 4 more stitches.  I also decided to do a Long Tail Cast On versus my normal Knitted Cast On.  Now for those of you that don't know I'm left handed and knit a backwards right handed, not the conventional left handed knitting.  Anyways, I started in knitting a swatch once again in the round and found that my changing over to the size 5 dpns was working out so much better and my gauge was 10 stitches = 1 inch with the handspun 2 ply lace weight Sorrel Australian Bond Yarn I was using.  I wanted to do a full cable pattern this time versus the 2 stitch twist cable pattern I used in my last pair of Boot Cuffs.  That's why I needed to add 4 stitches as my original 60 stitches wasn't working out.  I mean it worked out great for the 2/2 ribbing I had at the beginning, but for the cable there just wasn't enough stitches.  So 64 stitches was working out just fine for my new pattern. 

Once I had the right number of stitches and I truly liked how the Long Tail Cast On looked compared to the Knitted Cast On.  I just need to know how long I wanted the bottom cuff to be, the cabled pattern and then the top cuff and how I was going to bind off the top.  I decided 2 inches was enough for the bottom cuff and that the top cuff would be 1 inch, but the cabled pattern I just was going to have to decide that as I knitted.  So once I got all of that planned out, I ripped out my swatch and started in casting on for the first Boot Cuff.  I finished the bottom cuff and started in on the cabled pattern and after 2 twists, I decided that 2 more would be perfect, then with the top cuff it would be just right.

I finished the first pair of Boot Cuffs late Thursday night while watching Project Runway All-Stars and Child Genius.  It took my 7 hours 30 minutes and 29 seconds to knit that pair. 

 

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=153&products_id=575&zenid=5bfc7c6249b7830fd7b5c83ca9ec2d01

I had enough yarn left over so yesterday, late in the afternoon, I started knitting on a second pair.  I finished on Boot Cuff last night and started on the mate before heading off to bed.  I'll be finishing up the mate today and adding it to my store too.  If I knew how to turn my pattern into a PDF File I would do that, but I'm still learning about stuff like that and it may be a while before that happens.



Spinning mood

And I'm still spinning away, just finished refilling the second bobbin of white alpaca.  I love this fleece, there's still 2 1/2 buckets of carded batts from Bellagio's fleece.  The first 2 bobbins are waiting patiently on my sewing box and the third bobbin is now on my spinning wheel.

 

Right now I just can't seem to get enough of spinning, so I am in the spinning mood,  so as soon as I fill up my bobbins, I start in plying up more 3 ply yarn.  Then as soon as a new skein of 3 ply yarn is spun up, washed and hung to dry, I'm back at the spinning wheel refilling my bobbins once again.

 



Tuesday morning spinning, and new listings

Good Morning Everyone!  It's Tuesday and time to get back to the Spinning Wheel, but first I want to share my 2 new listings.

Turquoise Handspun Alpaca Yarn 204 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=556

Turquoise Handspun Alpaca Yarn 227 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=555

I was up bright and early this morning, spinning for 1 hour 29 minutes and 24 seconds, and this is what I accomplished so far.

I finished refilling the first bobbin and then started in refilling the second bobbin.

I'm heading back upstairs now to do some more spinning, hope you enjoy your day!

 



Dye pot's on the stove and Presidents Day Weekend Sale

Good Morning Everyone!  Today I'm pulling out the dye pot and dyeing up 2 new skeins of Handspun White Alpaca Yarn.  I'm dyeing these 2 skeins Turquoise and I'm also making up 2 new dye stocks.  One dye stock is going to be Royal Blue as I'm out of that right now and the other will be Pink.

 

This picture is me just getting ready.  I have my Turquoise all ready, just need to make up the other 2 dye stocks, before I actually start dyeing.

Now that I have the Royal Blue and Pink dye stock all made up, I'm letting them cool down before I screw the tops down.

Now I'm going to take the Turquoise and add it to my empty dye pot and then add 6 more pints of water, bring it to a low boil (I mean low boil were its just starting to get the bubbles at the bottom of the pan) and add my 1/4 cup vinegar.  Then I'll add my first skein of Handspun White Alpaca to the dye bath.

Then I'll let it steep for 30 minutes, when the 30 minutes are up, I'll turn the heat off and let it cool down for 30 minutes.  Then I'll soak it for 5 minutes in hot water and Synthrapol, (speaking of which I need to order some more, as I'm getting low) then squeeze out as much water as I can and hang it to dry.  I'll repeat this process for the 2nd skein.

 

Happy Presidents Day! Spinning Ginny is taking 25% off her entire inventory.

Sale starts 2/13/16 ends 2/16/16!
http://www.spinningginny.com/

 



New skeins are dry, but no dyeing today and Presidents Day Sale

Well, the 2 skeins I plied up yesterday are dry, and I was planning on pulling out the dye pot today.  Unfortunately, I have something else planned for this afternoon.  So I went back into this spinning room this morning to do some spinning, before I headed out.

I came very close to refilling the first bobbin once again.  Tomorrow though, I hope to be dyeing the 2 skeins from yesterday, so stay tuned.

Happy Presidents Day!
Spinning Ginny is taking 25% off her entire inventory.

 

Sale starts 2/13/16 ends 1/15/16!

http://www.spinningginny.com/



Lost in my own spinning world

Sometimes I just get lost in my own little spinning world.  Once I get into the spinning room, my thoughts are on nothing but fiber, spinning, carding, weaving and knitting.  Today was not the exception!  I knew that today I'd be concentrating on where I left off yesterday on my spinning.

This bobbin was almost completely full yesterday with handspun 3 ply white alpaca and my goal for today was to finish filling it.....

which I accomplished in the first 27 minutes and 27 seconds of spinning.  I then wound it off onto my niddy noddy, washed it and hung it to dry.

Then I began plying up another skein (22nd) and managed to almost have the bobbin full again in 1 hour.

This is what happens when I get lost in my own little spinning world!  Now that lunch break is almost over, I think I'll go and get lost again.  I so LOVE to spin!

 

 

 

More Spinning and a Sale this weekend

Good Morning Everyone, my spinning wheels been oiled and I have a couple of carded alpaca batts, laying in a bucket next to my spinning wheel.  So I think I'm ready to start the day!  Here's a picture of the third bobbin where I left off yesterday.

Its roughly about halfway filled and hopefully, will be filled by the end of the day.

Remember this weekend I'm having my

Presidents Day Weekend Sale

Spinning Ginny is taking 25% off her entire inventory.

 

Sale starts 2/13/16 ends 1/15/16!

http://www.spinningginny.com/



Happy Presidents Day

Happy Presidents Day!
Spinning Ginny is taking 25% off her entire inventory.

 

Sale starts 2/13/16 ends 1/15/16!

http://www.spinningginny.com/

Happiness is #fiber and a #spinningwheel

Give me some Alpaca, Mohair, Blueface Leicester, Merino, Camel Down, Angora, Shetland, Romney, Jacob, Australian Bond, etc., and my spinning wheel and I'm happy.  I only have a few of these fibers right now, so I'm making do with what I do have.

I just finished refilling the second bobbin and started in refilling the third bobbin.

 

I can't stay long as I want to get back to the wheel and see how far I get in refilling this last bobbin before the day is out.  I would love to have 2 more skeins to dye at the end of the week.......that's my goal anyways.

The list of fibers I gave at the top is my goal of fibers to spin this year again.  So far I've only been spinning Alpaca.  But keep watching I will be spinning up some of these other fibers soon.

 



Busy Weekend!

Wow, what a weekend!  Snow on Saturday morning, roughly 6 inches.  Snow blower bogging down, so only got the driveway halfway cleared.   Sunday the sun came out and we went to the lumber yard to get the remaining lumber for the greenhouse we will be building in the spring.  I did get some spinning done though, over both days.

This was Saturday's spinning.

These three pictures were Sunday's spinning.

Sunday night though, we found that our boiler was leaking, so we turned off the emergency switch, started mopping up 2 buckets of water that had leaked out on to the basement floor, then turned on a fan to dry out the floor.  We slept on the couch last night, under piles of handmade quilts, so that we could go downstairs and check to make sure the boiler wasn't leaking anymore. 

This morning we called the oil company and they sent a repairman out immediately.  He replaced 2 air bleeders and the big 5 gal. air accumulator tank.  Now we have heat once again and its time for the spinning wheel to start spinning once again.

 



Dyeing, Labels

Yesterday, after dyeing up the Handspun 3 ply White Alpaca Yarn a lovely "Aztec Gold".  I just couldn't stop, so I pulled out the other 2 skeins of Handspun 3 ply White Alpaca.  I set up my dye pot, but this time with some lovely "Fire Red" dye and place the first skein into the dye bath.

Around 5:30 pm I had finished dyeing both skeins and had them hanging to dry with the 2 skeins of "Aztec Gold".

Today, though I'll be printing labels, taking pictures and listing these 4 new skeins on my website.  So stay tuned into my shop at:  http://www.spinningginny.com as these new skeins will be listed soon.



Busy spinng the last 2 days, dyeing today #dyeing #skeins #white #alpaca #yarn

Sorry for not posting!  I just got so into my spinning the last 2 days, that I just decided to post pictures instead.  So for those of you, that don't follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, here's some pictures from the last 2 days.

 

 

Today I'll be dyeing up 2 of the skeins that I plied up on Tuesday.  These skeins will be dyed "Aztec Gold",  Here's what one of the skeins looks like in the dye pot.

I'm typing this blog, while I'm dyeing my yarn.  Tomorrow after these skeins are dry and I make labels, I'll take some more pictures and then get them listed.  I might even be dyeing 2 more skeins tomorrow, so stay tuned to see what color I choose to dye tomorrow.