Saturday, August 29, 2009

Birth of a yarn!



I thought this yarn would go fairly quick! Boy, was I wrong! I started off by spinning 2 full bobbins of black Romney wool that I had washed and carded. Next, I realized that I did not have enough beads for all the yarn I had spun so I mixed in some gold glass beads and set out to string on approximately 1200 beads! After spending about 2-3 hours stringing beads on I started the long process of spacing them out on approximately 350 yards of yarn!
There is incredible wisdom in the saying " measure twice, cut once". For spacing beads it would go something like " measure twice, space beads once"! You can probably see where I am going with this... I thought about 6 inch spacing would be good, that is until I got half way through and I was about to run out of beads! So back to the beginning to re-space the beads a foot apart!!

Finally after what seemed like forever I got the beads spaced out and set out to ply the 2 singles together! They seemed a little off, but I just couldn't figure out why! At the end of plying a full bobbin, I finally figured out what the problem was! The single with the beads had lost some of it's twist and I decided the only right way to fix it was to separate the 2 and re-ply the one with beads! My hubby and I spent about 45 minutes undoing the yarn! He is absolutely the best hubby in the world! I redid the beaded single and then plied the 2 singles together again and happily I am done with the yarn! I was a bit surprised that I never started to actually hate the yarn and I have to say it actually came out really nice and fluffy! And Yes! I am starting another beaded yarn! I think it is one of those things that if you don't give up in the middle of what seems like a nearly impossible task, you get to the end and maybe are a little bit better off and maybe a bit wiser for pushing through!

I realize in writing this, how things that we struggle and labor for can become mundane and common to us! Things such as our children, that we have joyed over after giving birth, when they sit there and say mom,mom,mom 20 times when we are tired or a house that we built and were overjoyed with, but now it's been lived in awhile and it's become just where we live! Ihope and pray that we will not loose the joy of the things we have struggled for no matter what they are!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

New Yarns

I have been trying really hard to actually get some yarns finished and here is what I have so far. I am a bit proud of myself because I have done most of these this past week and I feel like I have actually accomplished something! I hope you will enjoy looking at my latest creations!!

This is a single of black Romney wool that I working on. It is spinning really nice. It is really soft and has a bit of a silver highlight to it!I am going to spin another bobbin of it and then ply the 2 together with some iridescent blue glass beads.

This is some wonderful mohair roving from Sugar that I got from Grace at www.larkspurfunnyfarm.etsy.com ! It is so soft and absolutely a dream to spin! I am not quite sure what I am going to do with it yet! I do know that I am not sure I will sell it!!! Oh Grace, just wait until I win the lottery!!

I really like the way this one came out. I started with beautiful white Romney and dyed it and then I plied this with 2 strands of cotton sewing thread! Next time I want to spin it a bit thicker to ply with the sewing thread so it will have a bit more curl to it, but I think it came out nice and I love the colors in it!


This one is Romney wool that I blended with nylon roving that I dyed. I wasn't sure how the yarn would turn out because when I started to blend them together I was worried about the colors looking muddy, but I think that they came out pretty clear!