Newly Listed Skeins and some knitting

Well, my newly dyed yarn is all dry, labels are made, and all 4 skeins are now listed.

Pink Handspun Alpaca Yarn 179 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=581&zenid=8079d0fae3669a79e2be02d90906e82a

Pink Handspun Alpaca Yarn 178 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=582

Kelly Green Handspun Alpaca Yarn 200 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=583

Kelly Green Handspun Alpaca Yarn 195 yds.

http://www.spinningginny.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=152&products_id=584

Once I had all these skeins listed, I sat down and did some knitting on the new Handspun Knitted Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Half Circle Shawl.

I now have 103 1/2 rows completed.  I still have 56 1/2 more rows to go before I start on the border edge.



Its Dyeing Day once again

Its dyeing day again!  I've got my 2 different colors of dyes and my tools set out, so I think I'm ready to play.

The first 2 skeins that I'm going to dye, will be dyed pink.  My dye stock is all ready, I just need to pour it into my dye pot and add the first skein of yarn.  Here we go!

Oh boy!  I just get so excited when I see the yarn absorb the dye so fast.  This is going to be a really pretty pink skein of yarn.  I have 1 more skein to dye in this color, as I like to have at least 2 skeins of the same color.  So when this skein is finished I'll be dyeing up another skein in the same color.

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day! This skein of yarn is fast absorbing some Kelly green dye.  This is going to be a brilliant green skein of yarn.  I have 1 more skein to dye in this color and then all 4 skeins will be dyed up. 

 



Lots of plying yesterday and some knitting today

What more can I say?....should I gloat?....should I rejoice over my success yesterday.  Yep!  I did it!  I finished plying up the second skein, that I had started plying up on Monday.

I wound it off onto my niddy noddy, washed it, hung it to dry and headed back to the spinning wheel and plied up a third skien.

Then I wound it off, washed it, and hung it to dry and headed back to my spinning wheel.  I changed out my bobbins and began refilling the first bobbin.

I did all of this in 2 hours 4 seconds.  I now have 4 skeins (1 was from last month), that I can dye up.  I'm thinking Pink for 2 and Green for the other 2.  What do you think?

This morning I was up bright and early, as I wanted to get back to my knitting on the Handspun Knitted Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Half Circle Shawl.  I finished another  8 rows in 1 hour 51 minutes 3 seconds.

I now have 86 rows completed. 

 

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/

 



#Socks, #Spinning, making #DyeStock, and #Dyeing #Handspun #Alpaca #Yarn

Well, I'm definitely back into the knitting and spinning life! I spent yesterday morning knitting on the Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Dyed - Knitted - Pretty n pink - Alpaca - Adult Ladies Socks - Size 5.

Later I found my way upstairs to the spinning room.  Once I sat down and started spinning, I was in the zone!!  I finished refilling the first bobbin (I think I went a little over board, as it started spilling over into the groove of the bobbin)

the second bobbin was put on the spinning wheel, it was empty,

before long, it was half full

 

I even found some time to make up some dye stock.  These will be used to start in dying up yarn in the future.

In this first picture, starting at your right, I have Royal Blue, Sun Yellow, Scarlet and Fire Red.

In this second picture and again starting at your right, I have Aztec Gold, Turquoise, Violet, and Black.  Then while I still had my dye pot at the ready, I dyed up 2 skeins of handspun 3 ply white alpaca yarn in some beautiful Turquoise dye and this is what the skeins look like now ( I just printed out the labels after rewinding them and figuring out their yardage).

This morning its back to knitting on the socks, well see whether I find my way back up to the spinning room later today.

 

 

 



More Knitting and One Finished Project

Oh boy, I have lots to share today.  Well, really I've been sharing quite a bit all week, but today's a little bit different.

First off, I'm almost done with the Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - White - Alpaca - Adult Ladies Socks - Size 5

I only have roughly 33 more rows to go and then this pair will be finished.

Secondly, I'm still knitting away on the Spinning Ginny Original - Custom Ordered - Black - Alpaca - Infinity - Scarf

Its really starting to get longer now.

Thirdly, I finished the Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - Pink - Merino - Cabled - Hat

 

 

and with the finishing up of this Hat, I started on another one.

This is going to be the new Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - Purple Orchid - Merino - Cabled - Hat



Knitting needles clicking away bright and early, with a little spinning later on

What do you do when you can't sleep?  When I can't sleep, I head into the spinning room and start knitting and spinning.  Today was one of those mornings when I was in the spinning room bright and early, with the knitting needles clicking away.

I started off knitting on the Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - White - Alpaca - Adult Ladies Socks - Size 5.  I finished up the heel flap and heel turn, then started in on the gusset.

Then I changed over to knitting on the Spinning Ginny Original - Custom Ordered - Handspun - Knitted - Black - Alpaca - Infinity Scarf.

As you can see from this picture, the sun was up and shinning in through the window, when I put my knitting down, to go and eat breakfast.

Later I came back and picked up my knitting needles once again, but this time to start in knitting on the Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - Pink - Merino - Cabled - Hat.

I picked up all 68 stitches around and 17 rows knitted for the body of the hat.  I have 5 1/2 inches knitted from the bottom edge so far and need to knit another 1/2 inches, before I start decreasing for the crown.

Now I'm ready to head over to the spinning wheel to finish plying.

Wow, this morning has been truly productive.  I just finished plying up the 6th skein of white alpaca, from Bellagio's fleece.  Here's what my 3 bobbins look like now after plying up 2 skeins.

The first bobbin weights 3 3/8 ounces (with bobbin) - 2 ounces (for bobbin) = 1 3/8 ounces

The second bobbin weights 3 ounces (with bobbin) - 2 ounces (for bobbin) = 1 ounce

The third bobbin weights 3 1/4 ounces (with bobbin) - 2 ounces (for bobbin) = 1 1/4 ounces

Total weight is 1 3/8 + 1 + 1 1/4 = 4 5/8 ounces left to spin

Now if I subtract the 3 3/8 ounces, I started out with, from the total amount I have left after plying up the 6th skein, it would look something like this.

3 3/8 - 4 5/8 = 1 1/4 ounces is what I should have in the skein I just finished plying up.   Tomorrow is another day and I think, I just might ply up the 7th skein then.

Knitting and Spinning at Spinning Ginny's

Good Morning!  Lots of knitting and spinning going on here at Spinning Ginny.  I finished up the leg and started in on the heel flap, on the Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - White - Alpaca - Adult Ladies Socks - Size 5

I'm getting closer to finishing up this pair.  I'm really liking how the pattern is drawing in the leg of the sock, yet making it stretchy enough to keep it from sliding down on the leg and yet feel soft.  Also it draws in the top of the foot a little more so that it won't feel so loose and baggy (unless you like your sock to feel loose and baggy, like I do).

Then I picked up the Custom Ordered Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - Black - Alpaca - Infinity Scarf and started knitting away on it.

I've really got this pattern nailed down now, I don't even have to use my computer to look up my pattern.  I truly enjoy knitting this pattern, although there are times were I do make a mistake (especially, when I'm knitting with black yarn).  

After knitting on the first 2 projects, I turned my attention to my new Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - Pink - Merino - Cabled - Hat.  Now originally I saw a pattern similar to this, but the hat was knitted with commercial yarn and also on size 10 double pointed needles.  I really liked the pattern, but since I was going to be using some of my handspun yarn and size 5 double pointed needles (that's the size I know works with my handspun yarn).  I knew that I'd have to write up my own cable hat pattern.  So over the weekend, I figured out part of the pattern and wrote it down, then started in knitting on it.  Today though I finished up the cabled portion of it and now I'm starting in to pick up the stitches along one of the edges.  

  I'm liking how this hat is starting to look.  Hope you do too!

Once I got my knitting done for the day, it was time to head over to the spinning wheel and finish ply up the 5th skein of Handspun White Alpaca Yarn.

It didn't take long though to finish filling up this bobbin, so I immediately started winding it off this off onto my niddy noddy into skein.  Then I washed it and hung it to dry.  Then headed back to the spinning room, where I weighted each bobbin again.

The first bobbin weighted 4 1/2 ounces (with bobbin) - 2 ounces (for bobbin) = 2 1/2 ounces of spun singles

The second bobbin weighted 3 7/8 ounces (with bobbin) - 2 ounces (for bobbin) = 1 7/8 ounces of spun singles

The third bobbin weighted 4 ounces (with bobbin) - 2 ounces (for bobbin) = 2 ounces of spun singles

 Total weight is 2 1/2 + 1 7/8 + 2 = 6 3/8 ounces left to spin

Now if I subtract the 9 3/4 ounces, I started out with, from the total amount I have left after plying up the 5th skein, it would look something like this.

9 3/4 - 6 3/8 = 3 3/8 ounces

is what I should have in the skein I just finished plying up.  Now its time to start in plying up the 6th skein.

Its 5:00 pm so its time to close up the spinning room.  I'll be back tomorrow though to knit and spin some more.

 



This weeks going to be a busy one

As I write this post, I’m enjoying a nice cup of hot tea and writing out my weekly work schedule.  So far its looking like this week will be very busy.  I have 1 more custom order left to knit and that's a Handspun - Knitted - Black - Alpaca - Infinity Scarf.  This I started on over the weekend.

I also need to finish up the Handspun - Knitted - White - Alpaca - Adult Ladies Socks - Size 5

Over the weekend, I also started on a new project,....a Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - Pink - Merino - Cabled - Hat.

 

I will also be finishing up plying up a skein of 3 ply white alpaca yarn, that I started plying up on Saturday. 

This will be the 5th skein of 3 ply white alpaca yarn, when I'm through.  When I'm finished plying up this skein, I'll start in plying up the 6th skein.  I only have 4 big buckets and 1 small bucket left with carded batts from Bellagio's fleece.

 

 

 



2 skeins in the dye pot

Yesterday, the dyes I ordered arrived, so today I get to use one of them to dye 2 skeins of handspun white alpaca yarn pink.  I haven't dyed yarn or roving in a while so, I pulled out my notebook and read some of my notes.

Then I began to fill my dye pot with hot water, put it on the stove and turned on the heat.  I added 1/2 teaspoon of pink dye to the water and stirred it around to get the dye to dissolve.  Then I added the wet yarn to the dye bath and after I got the temperature up to 185 to 200º, I added 1/4 cup of vinegar to the dye bath.  I poured this in on the side so as to not let the vinegar hit the yarn.  Here's what it looks like so far.

After taking this picture, I then put a lid on it and set my timer for 30 minutes.  Then I'll turn off the heat and let it cool down slowly before removing the yarn.  I'll wash the yarn in Synthrapol and then hang both skeins to dry.