Deep in the Heart of Texas

This month's Phat Fiber theme is "The Music Box," and I've interpreted my song of choice (Deep in the Heart of Texas) through my fiber content as well as my color choices. But for all the fanatics, here's the song:

The stars at night, are big and bright,
deep in the heart of Texas,
The prairie sky is wide and high,
deep in the heart of Texas.
The sage in bloom is like perfume,
deep in the heart of Texas,
Reminds me of, the one I love,
deep in the heart of Texas.

The coyotes wail, along the trail,
deep in the heart of Texas,
The rabbits rush, around the brush,
deep in the heart of Texas.
The cowboys cry, "Ki-yip-pee-yi,"
deep in the heart of Texas,
The dogies bawl, and bawl and bawl,
deep in the heart of Texas.

My Aunt Betty gave me a music box when I was a child that played the song.

Though not in the song, the heart of Texas, for me, are the cotton fields and cotton farming (as discussed here in the cotton post). And I wanted to feature my uncle's West Texas cotton in my mini batt samples.

Just a reminder what a small (yet huge when it's in your living room) bale of cotton looks like:

And here are this month's samples:

Well, they at least have burlap around them! I had to make them a little prettier than a real bale in order to show off the fibers. And speaking of fiber, here are the ingredients in raw form:

Clockwise from far left are natural cream BFL, blend of turquoise Shetland and turquoise Firestar, chocolate BFL, and a blend of cotton and Peruvian wool.  The final, full-sized batts have twice the percentage of the turquoise as the samples. Here's the full-sized, 2.25 oz. batt:

They'll be available at the release of the video (around Dec. 10) and then again when the boxes arrive on doorsteps!

I'll also have many, many batts available with cotton for sale throughout December. The finished yarn has a great tweed texture, and it's fun to spin!

To wrap up my Texas cotton theme for the month, my parents were in town for Thanksgiving, all the way from Granbury, Texas! And they helped me assemble all the little samples!

Samplings and Techniques

With my first ever Phat Fiber box, I decided to try some new techniques with all the little samples. Here's a review of what I've tried so far:

From Mama Jude's sample:

She had some great fibers in a cone sleeve just like a Christmas tree! And she added twinkle lights for us to play with. Play I did, but my technique is seriously lacking. I spun her fiber thick/thin and then plyed it with some smooth Corriedale/Alpaca I made.

I tried spinning in the lights, and to my credit they are technically in there and not coming out, but they dangle. They're not suppose to dangle. I need to work on my spinning add ins! I think I need to actually get out the book for that one!

I also need to get a flyer that is a little more appropriate for large add ins!

For my second technique try, I decided to follow Jacie Bogg's tutorial from the Winter 09 issue of Spin Off for making coils (or beehives). Here's how it went:

 

 The fiber is from Sky Loom Weavers and titled "Harvest." It's 100% Merino, which is the perfect fiber for coils! It drafted beautifully and was quite the pleasure to spin!

The yarn that is plied with it is from Rocky Mountain Dyeworks and was a 3-ply yarn that I separated into 1 ply for an almost cobweb weight. The colorway is called "Northern Lights" and matched "Harvest" wonderfully!!

I'm giving myself a break from being too critical of my attempt, because even Jacie Boggs says it takes a few trys.

Also, when the thick sections were too thick, they were catching on my flyer and hooks, so maybe my husband needs to make me a new flyer for specialty yarns! (He built my spinning wheel, so he's my only shot at a larger flyer!)

Here are my good coils:

Here are my bad coils:

I'd say it's about 50/50 for the good to bad ratio. And it's very over-spun. I think a few more practice runs and I'll have it down. Now . . . what to knit with beehive yarn? Any suggestions?

Never Say Never!

OK, I'm going to be a teeny, tiny bit spiritual here, and then I promise I'll jump into fiber. Just hang in there!

All my life, the Lord has been whittling away parts of me that are judgmental and opinionated. I think that's a good thing, BUT He really likes to do it by putting me in the exact same position as those I have judged. Not so fun, but an affective way to teach a lesson. I've been through just about everything, and I'm pretty good at looking at about every situation with a very compassionate view at this point in my oh-so-long life.

However, I've just been taught yet another lesson, and it's a fiber-y one!

About 6 years ago, I remember watching an episode of "Knitty Gritty" with a woman who had combed her friend's dog, spun the fiber and then knit a little purse out of it. My naive 26-year-old, non-spinning self said, "She's crazy" and "that's gross."

Never say never!

Today, my 33-year-old, spinning-obsessed self just shaved our standard poodle and threw his fur in a hot soapy bath. I am now that crazy lady! But all the cool spinners are doing it, and I don't want to be left out. Besides, when you have a great, large, spotted dog like I have, it's hard not to think about all the "what if's" when petting him.

Here's Hunter post-shave (I left a little mohawk for him!)

Isn't he handsome?

He's called a party poodle because of his spots. Hmmm . . . he's a poodle, he's a party, he's shaved, he's got a (temporaty) pink collar: we really don't mean to emasculate our male animals, it just happened that way!

Anyway, here's a shot of his washed locks, still dripping in my studio sink.

That's as far as I've gotten this morning.  I have no idea if this will work, or what it'll be like. My husband wants a hat made out of it. But seriously, what man wants to say he's wearing a poodle hat?! Now he's the crazy one. But just watch, next I'll have pictures of him in a poodle hat!

I have learned a few things so far:

• Dogs smell worse than sheep when wet
• Dogs are as dirty as, if not more than sheep
• I'm more allergic to dog than sheep
• When we get sheep, we may have them in the house, and send Hunter out to the barn. They're cleaner.
• Hunter needs baths more often.

I'll keep you all updated as this saga progresses! AND, I've updated last week's post to include the original batt that Joyce's scarf came from (thanks for the tip Andrea!)

Now go head over to Fiber Arts Friday to get your week's worth of fiber fun! Lot's of great blogs talking about lots of great fiber topics!

Update on Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 11:04PM by Willow Glen Farm

I've learned a few more things while working with this poodle fiber!

• Poodle has guard hairs (you can see it in the photos).
• My son makes a terrible sheerer (a LOT of second cuts).
• If I do this again, I'll only take the very top of the fleece (from his back) and no lower than half-way down the sides. The hair is longer there and more spin-friendly.
• It's not as soft as I thought, but much softer than it looks. I know, it looks like twine!
• If I actually get all this spun into yarn, and make Mike a hat, I'm going to need stock in Allegra (an allergy medicine!).
• My husband is now set on getting a hat. Good grief, what have I started?

Some photos of progress:

Poodle on the bobbinBeauty shot of small sample of 2-ply yarn. I've separated out the dark brown to spin alone.Another beauty shot.

Phat Fiber Samples!

I've decided to join in the fun and send samples in to the Phat Fiber Box. For those of you out side of the fiber world, the Phat Fiber box is a fiber festival sent through the mail to customers.

Independent fiber artists send samples in, and then 200 boxes are made from the samples. Every box is different because each artist only sends in about 20-100 samples (depending on how ambitous they are!). At a secret time every month (but you can get a heads up through the website), the boxes go on sale through the Phat Fiber etsy store. They are sold out in a matter of seconds!

But througout the month, there's lots of fun in the Ravelry group and many prizes through the Phat Fiber blog (a lot of artists send in full-size products to be given away on the blog).

So now I'm going to be a part of it all, and I'm so excited!! I sent my samples off last week, but I want to show them off here! The theme for November is "Seasons of Light."

They're hand-pulled roving wrapped around battery-operated tea lights! I just love them ;)

Here's a few more pics

All wrapped up for the box

A full-sized batt to show off the fibers.

The fibers included are Merino, BFL, Silk, Corriedale, Romney and Firestar. Super soft!!

Pulling Roving and Planning Stripes from Striped Batts

Happy Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday everyone! If you're viewing this as a link from one of my groups, the photos are missing. Please click here to see the post with photos; it'll take you to my main journal page. Below is my latest tutorial, this one on pulling last week's striped batts. I'm behind on everything as usual, so I don't have the second ball of yarn spun up and no, the vest isn't finished.

But I'm publishing this here and permanently in my tutorial section, so when I have the second ball of yarn finished, it'll be added over there. For those of you involved in Fiber Arts Friday or Crafty Friday, and you find pulling wool batts boring, check out Wednesday's post about my adventures with West Texas cotton!

Have a great week!

Most of us that spin from batts know that there are quite a few ways to handle your batt for spinning. This particular tutorial will deal with pulling side strips, specifically to create stripes in your finished yarn from a striped batt. It's also a great method to use if you have a well-blended batt--you just won't get stripes!

Step 1:

Plan.

Uhg. I know, planning isn't fun. Touching, pulling and spinning fiber are fun. But planning is necessary for a great finished product. If you know what you're going to be spinning the yarn for, all the better! I'm planning to use my yarn for edging at the neck and arms on a vest for my daughter that is knit in the round (all important information). The neck opening is a larger circumference than the arms, and as many knitters have experienced, if you use yarn with the same stripe length for both, the neck will have little bitty rings and the arms will have thick rings (think Noro!).

Now, I know there could be math involved here, but I plan, I don't obsess. The arms are roughly 1/2 the circumference of the neck, so we're sticking with that ratio!

I have two identical batts with a striping pattern (for a tutorial on creating striped batts, click here). They will be A and B (creative, I know). Batt A will be for the neck and Batt B will be for the arm holes.

Step 2:

Pull into mini-batts for roving prep.

Batt A: Split the batt in two horizontally. Put your hands in the middle of the batt, then separate them until you can pull and feel movement. Go ahead and rip it in two! These will be Ball A1 and Ball A2 for you to make singles A1 and A2 which will be plied together for yarn A. Most of the pictures here are of these two mini batts.

Batt B: Split the batt in two horizontally, just as you did for Batt A. THEN, split each of these again. You will have four mini-batts. They will come together into two balls: Ball B 1&2 and Ball B 3&4. You will spin singles B 1 then 2 on the same bobbin, and singles B 3 then 4 on the same bobbin. By splitting each singles into two, you are creating shorter striping areas, and a repeat of the stripes for each roving ball and the final yarn.

Review: Final yarn A's stripes will not repeat and will go purple, blue, red, white from one end to the other (perfect for the neck opening). Final yarn B's stripes will be shorter and repeat once. They will be purple, blue, red, white, purple, blue, red, white from one end to the other (perfect for the 2 smaller arm holes)

If you don't know what you'll be using the yarn for, I recommend following the splitting process for Batt B or even further separating the batts horizontally, depending on how fine you plan to spin. Just make sure you split and even number so that you have singles that match up for a 2-ply.

Step 3:

Pull off a strip of the batt from one side.

Batt A strip

Step 4:

Continue pulling strips across the batt until you have even lenths of color. I do this on a table with no children, cats or dogs around so that nothing gets messed up! If you don't like how the colors lay next to each other, now's your chance to move things around. And you can choose whether you want your colors to be definted, or slightly blended by how you choose where to separate them. I like the section between colos to blend a little and you can see that easily in the purple/blue strip and the red/white strip.

Batt B pulled into strips (notice the shorter length)

Step 5:

Start with your first strip (mine is purple) and begin gently lengthening it just as you do when you pre-draft. When you get to the end, split the last blub (a technical term) of fiber instead of pulling it. Open up the beginning of the next strip in the same way.

End of strip 1 and beginning of strip 2

Step 6:

Lay these into each other, grasp as one, and stretch gently to create a join.

Step 7:

Continue across your strips, pulling and joining as you get to the next length of batt. For Batt B, work across you colors in Batt B1 then join your last color (for example, mine is white) with your first color (purple) from B2. Continue until you get to the end of B2.

Roving all ready to go (notice the color play between the stripes!)

Step 8:

Gently roll the roving into a ball. Here is Batt B completely in balls, and Batt A needs to have the second batt pulled. If you look closely, Batt A is on the left and you can see how thick the white area is. Batt B is on the right (and in back) and the white is thinner because only half the white was used at the beginning. The other half of the white is in the ball.

Step 9

Spin it up.

You'll have four balls of roving, two with no color repeats, two with the colors repeating once. Make sure you ply the correct singles together!! Control your plying so that the colors match up as you go.

Here's my final Batt A all spun up with long sections of color.

And here it is stretched out so that you can see how the colors only repeat once.

And here's what it will look like with the vest it's intended for!

Final Tip:

Pull all your roving at once before you begin spinning. This will keep the thickness of your roving more even for spinning later, AND will help with organizing which rovings go together for plying. I even put matching rovings into zip lock bags together with labels simply because I'm known for beginning a project, and when I get back to it in a year having no idea what I'm looking at. I always assume I'm not going to finish the project in a timely manner and make notes to myself all over the place!

Happy Spinning!

Amanda