Maia Spins

Spinning A Good Day

It has been a great day so far.  The weather is gorgeous!  I am out and about in slacks, a T-shirt, and flip-flops and quite comfortable.  Roger and I are puttering in the back yard.  We also went to Annie's Annuals, a local nursery with a great native plant selection.  Those are for the front yard. 

When we got home, I learned that my Yarn Recipe is in the April edition of Yarnival!  Yippee!  It is hosted at Mega(K)nits this month.  It looks like a good edition.  I am so excited, I am telling you before I read it myself.

Two Surf or Not Two Surf
My apologies to William Shakespeare for the bad pun.  Here is all of the Surf roving spun up.  The second skein (at the top of the pile artfully displayed yarn) is slightly lighter weight than the original, but not enough to be an issue.  I am satisfied.  And, I have over 500 yards!  Whoot!

Swatching begins tonight.  I am thinking about a surf themed pattern.  We shall see what the yarn has to say.

When I finished spinning Surf, the pink and yellow roving called to me.  There is only 4 ounces of this colorway, so I am spinning it finer than Surf.  Wensleydale is a very heavy wool an it never seems to have the kind of yardage that finer wools have for the same amount of wool.  I am aiming for a true fingering weight. 

And, as Lauren pointed out, it is in Project Spectrum colors for April and May (as is Surf).   Thank you Lauren.  Since I am always behind on these things; I really appreciate the reminder.

Here is half of it spun up (as always, you can click for a bigger picture).  Posing the bobbin on the roving is inspired by a recent post by Margene.  It is really nice to see the before and after together.

I am calling it Peach for now.  Yes, I do suck at naming things.  Please feel free to suggest a better name. 

Getting Closer

I'm still trying to get to my Latvian mittens. I want to Knit Like A Latvian.  I didn't exactly make it easy on myself (a common theme in my life I'm afraid).  I decided to spin the yarn from some delightful roving (see below for more info.)  I asked the seller to kindly dye some in a steel blue color (Project Spectrum colors - I was thinking two birds with one stone.).  Then I tried to find the book Latvian Mittens.  After 5 weeks I finally found a used copy.  I feel like I have been all talk and no knitting.

I think I have picked out my pattern.  I love the geometric floral design.  We shall see if it sticks once I start swatching (soon I hope, time is running out on these Project Spectrum colors).

I have half of the blue roving spun up and the white on the wheel.  While looking through the book, I realized most Latvian mittens have a contrast color at the cuff.  I decided to make a bit of black and charcoal gray.  I want a semi-monochromatic look.

But let me tell you about the fiber.  It is 60% wool, 40% alpaca roving from Jessie at A Piece Of Vermont.  Here is the white on my wheel.  It spins like a dream!  I think it must have been combed because there aren't any neps, just free-flowing soft fibers.  I am spinning it long draw and it feels like it is flying out of my hand and onto the wheel.  There is a little bit of veggie matter, but most falls out while spinning.  I don't mind a bit of VM.  It is somehow reassuring, like there really was a happy critter romping in a field.

Jessie sourced all the fibers from local (to her) Vermont.  I love that she works with local farms.  I expect the 40% alpaca to make nice warm comfy mittens.  Perfect for the early spring we have this year.  Oh well, there is always next year.

Mitten List
A couple of weeks ago I got a call from my mother.  A few minutes into the conversation this is what she said:
MOM: I want you to put me on the mitten list.
ME: Mitten list?  What mitten list is that?
MOM: You know, the list of mittens you are going to make.

The sneak plied me with talk about how everything I make is so lovely and that I am so talented.  I suspect she may be biased.  I did learn to knit from her and well, she IS my mother.  She hooked me.  Before she was done, I was committed to a pair of mittens and a matching head band to keep her ears warm. 

My mother has gorgeous silver hair; I hope I inherit her hair color.    She is leaving the color and pattern up to me "because I have such great taste" (see how she suckered convinced me?).  While I was making batts for my Latvian mitten contrast color, I ended up with a couple of colors that were too close to the blue.  I decide to make a series of grays in a 60/40 blend of merino and alpaca (similar to the roving from Jessie).  Each one is made only from white and black wool and some naturally black alpaca fleece from my stash. 

I should have enough of the white and blue left over, combined with these grays to make her set.  I think I will use Norwegian patterns.  She learned to knit in Norway as a girl.  It seems fitting; all during my childhood, my sister and I had beautiful handmade Norwegian sweaters.  The least I can do is to put my mother on the mitten list.