Knitting first Spinning later

Well, Friday I after showing off my knitting and handspun dyed alpaca yarn.  I was supposed to go and do some spinning.  However, I never got around to getting into the spinning room, to spin, just to wind one skein of handspun dyed alpaca into to a center pull ball.

Then I came back downstairs and started back knitting.  Not on the new pair of socks with the newly handspun dyed yarn.  Instead I went back to knitting on the Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - White - Alpaca - Adult Ladies Socks Size 5.

I really like how this sock is looking!  I may just start a new trend on my handspun knitted socks.  LOL

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early (4:13 am to be exact) and after taking Sue-Chi out and then going through my normal routine.  I finally sat down and started knitting on the Spinning Ginny Original - Custom Ordered - Handspun - Knitted - Dyed - Pretty n Pink - Alpaca - Adult Ladies Socks - Size 6 (Customer changed mind on sock size and decided to go with a size 6 instead of size 7).

23 rows knitted in 1 hour 35 minutes 55 seconds.  Not a bad start for a Saturday!

Then 7 hours 31 minutes 29 seconds later, the first sock looked like this.

Then Sunday morning I finished up the sock

I had every intention of starting on the mate, but something came up and so I ended up in the Spinning room at 1 pm spinning and almost had the first bobbin refilled again, before stopping for the day.

Quite a lot was accomplished this weekend.  Hoping to accomplish even more this week, so stay tuned. 

 

 

 

 



Early morning knitting!

I was up bright and early this morning knitting away on the pair of socks, that I started earlier this week as an experiment.  I have since finished the heel flap, heel turn, and gusset.  I'm now working on the instep and should be finished with the first sock soon.

But since this is just an experiment and not a custom order it will be put aside now, that I have the yarn dyed up, rewound and labeled for the next pair of Spinning Ginny Original - Handspun - Knitted - Dyed - Alpaca - Pretty n Pink - Adult Ladies Socks - Size 7

Skein on the Left is 239 yards, 86 grams, 23 wraps per inch

Skein on the Right is 216 yards, 86 grams, 23 wraps per inch

They are now ready for me to wind into center pull balls and start in knitting up the socks.

 



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.

 



First Pair of Custom Ordered Socks Finished Yesterday

Oh boy, where did yesterday go to!  First off, yesterday morning started great.  I washed and blocked the first pair of Spinning Ginny Original - Custom Ordered - Handspun - Knitted - White - Alpaca - Adult Ladies Socks - Size 6

Then because I'm waiting on the dye to arrive, so that I can do some dyeing this week.  I took the left over yarn from this first pair of socks and started in knitting on a new pair of socks.  This pair of socks will be different.  You see, I had a customer mention that my handspun socks were a little loose on her feet, even though they were the correct size.  So I decided to do an experiment.  When I first started knitting socks, would knit patterns into them, but it took longer to knit them, even though they looked fabulous.  So I started knitting plain socks and was knitting them up faster and just stuck with it.  I like knitting both types of socks (plain and patterned) and want to please my customers.  Well, anyways, I started in knitting on a new pair with the left over yarn and time got away from me. 

I used the same number of stitches (60), but the pattern draws it in slightly.  I don't know if you can tell from these pictures or not.  The leg on this sock is finished and I have 4 1/2 rows completed on the heel flap.  The pattern I'm using is a 4 stitch pattern with 6 rows that you repeat until you have the length you want.  Since this pair is going to be a size 5, I only knitted 11 pattern repeats, plus 11 rows of ribbing and that gives me 6 1/8 inches for the leg. 

Today I'll finish the heel flap, heel turn, and hopefully the gusset!

 



Plying up the Fourth Skein

Last Friday morning I washed up the third skein of 3 ply white alpaca yarn and while it was soaking, I started in plying up the fourth skein.

After fifteen minutes of plying, I stopped to go and remove the third skein from the soapy water and hang it to dry.  Then it was back to the spinning wheel to finish plying up the fourth skein.  Two hours later I had another full bobbin of 3 ply white alpaca yarn (my fourth skein of yarn from Bellagio's fleece)

Then I proceeded to wind this off onto my niddy noddy and then wash and hang it to dry.  Now I was left with residual singles on 3 bobbins.  I wanted to see just how much was left on each bobbin again (like I did after I finished the first 2 skeins), so I weighted each one and here's what I got.

3 1/8 ounces (first bobbin) - 2 ounces = 1 1/8 ounces

2 5/8 ounces (second bobbin) - 2 ounces =  5/8 ounces

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

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

 

Then I removed the empty bobbin and replaced it with the first partially filled bobbin.  Then I carried my spinning wheel and fiber downstairs to the car so that I could load the car up Saturday morning for the last day of the Farmers Market.

Then I started in knitting again on Custom Ordered - Handspun - Knitted - White - Alpaca - Adult Ladies Socks - Size 6.  I finished up the leg, heel flap, heel turn, and gusset.

Saturday at the Farmers Market, I made my last 2 sales of the market season.  Now its time to finish up custom orders (1 1/2 pairs of socks, 2 infinity scarves, 1 hat), and knit up Christmas presents.  Then start in on spinning up yarn, knitting up items, and weaving up items for my store. 

 

 

 

 

 



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!