A different spin on the Olympics

The Olympics in Sochi are finally here, and I have begun my self-imposed Olympic Spinning Challenge!  It will be a fun thing to do and after this weird winter that we have had so far throughout the country, I am ready for some self-imposed fun, aren't you?!

If you will recall, I picked out my fiber and colors a number of weeks ago...before Christmas, and after much deliberation, as usual, on my part.  I chose a nice dark brown alpaca roving, and some merino top in four colorways.  Three of the colorways were multicolored blends, and one a solid, and I saw a common factor of brown in their shade or shadings.  

My chosen fibers for the Olympic Spinning Challenge

 I must confess right here and now that I used to think of brown as drab, uninteresting, and only existing when one mixed the wrong colors together, and thus creating a "mistake".  That was more than forty years ago. My opinion began to change when I began to really "see" the various shades of brown surrounding me, beginning with the feathers of the female Cardinal.  

Female Cardinal

As I began to notice more and more of the browns around me, I also began to really see and have a greater appreciation for all of the colors of the world around me, something I had taken for granted up until that point.  What a beautiful world we live in!

Weeks ago I had chosen exactly which fibers in my stash I wanted to work with while watching the Olympics on TV, and how I wanted to spin them and ply them.  I had also decided that I would experiment with learning "entrelac," a knitting technique I have only, so far, admired from a distance.  I am fascinated with the way basic entrelac mimics the over and under of weaving, yet it is knitting!  Remember, I am a weaver as well as a spinner and knitter.  And fellow knitters all say that entrelac looks more complicated than it really is. So I will be ready to find out for myself as soon as I spin up my selected fibers during the next 2 weeks while watching the 2014 Winter Olympics.

I also needed to decide how I would ply the singles once they were spun up.  Did I want to ply them only with themselves, each only with the brown alpaca, some with the brown alpaca and some with each other, etc.?  So many considerations and decisions that it made my normally indecisive head spin!  I took a deep breath and over the next several hours I considered every possible angle and decided that I probably really couldn't make a mistake with the beauty of what I had assigned myself to work with, and then I made my decision.

Next, I decided that I would split each of the four colorways of merino top into five strips and spin them "from the fold" using a modified short draw.  The brown alpaca roving, however, would be pre-drafted and spun from the end, using a modified short draw. By doing this I would, hopefully, end up with a nice balanced semi-worsted yarn for knitting.  This is not important for non-spinners to understand, but it is important for the outcome of the yarns created.  Take my word for it!  

Spinning fiber from the fold

Brown alpaca roving pre-drafted

I began by pre-drafting the alpaca into a diameter about the size of a pencil.  Then I turned to the merino top and realized that the colors in the blend were not consistent across the width of the strips, and if I wanted to include all of the lovely colors in all of my yarns, which I most certainly did, I could not merely strip the top down its length into five pieces as I had originally thought.  I would have to make my "strips" by dividing the fiber into five equal sections across its width.   And that is what I decided to do, because I really did want the consistency of including all the colors in each of the yarns I would be creating.

Light multi-colored merino roving up close

Red merino roving up close

Blue merino colorway up close

Lastly, I decided to go ahead and spin up a full bobbin of the brown since I had 4 ounces of it and only 1 ounce (split into five fairly equal sections) of each of the 4 merino colorways.  And so that is where the spinning is at the moment....all brown, but what a lovely brown it is!  It is dark, luxurious, with hints of natural maroon (it was labeled "Black Cherry" when I purchased it) that I can see as it slips through my fingers to twist and wind onto the bobbin of my Ashford Joy spinning wheel.  It is spinning up quickly thanks to the pre-drafting, and I believe that by tonight I will have my bobbin full of this first leg of spinning, and be ready to decide which of the merino I will spin first.  Oh no, another decision!  HELP!

Brown alpaca roving on the bobbin

Sometimes life has me spinning here on HeartSong Farm!

On a winter Sunday morning

I am at my computer at the dining room table, with a second cup of my delicious Dark Roast Community Coffee that I save for weekends and holidays....sun is shining brightly through the dining room window and birds busy eating at the feeders....Godfrey, the kitten, is stretched out between the computer screen and the keyboard....I have had to move the screen further back to allow him enough space and so that I can type....he started out draped completely over the keyboard!

Godfrey at the computer

Yesterday I worked in my garden...I can see baby turnips!  Exciting...to me, at least.  Can't wait to see baby beets.  I picked a huge container of greens to enjoy this week with pinto beans and scrambled eggs.

A harvest of  homegrown greens

I hand-washed a whole bunch of dishes and washed a load of heavy miscellaneous items, not clothes which are always done on Sunday afternoons.  Then I came in and watched football and sorted through some things that were piling up.

I have decided that instead of making "to do" lists that it would probably be better for me to make a list of what I accomplished for the day or weekend.  That would be less overwhelming and disappointing in the long run.  I find that sometimes I make a list of things to do for a weekend or vacation and it has so many things on it that I end up doing only some of them and doing other things instead.  Yes, the "other things" needed to be done, but not necessarily at that time.  And then what I didn't do, but should have done, ends up on The List again!  It is a very vicious circle sometimes.  Maybe it is my way of being Rebellious?!  I never was as a teenager.  Or maybe it is just that I am easily distracted.

I have also decided I want to either knit or spin something during the Olympics.  Now I have to decide which and what!  I am not really good at making decisions.  I am getting better, but still have a long way to go.  Having a mother who insists on making all your decisions with no input from you as a child or teenager does not teach you how to make decisions easily.   It is good to give children some choices to make.

I spent some time last night looking at some fiber to spin and writing down all my ideas about spinning it, as in what colors to blend together and ply together and also what I wanted to knit with it when it was done.  I really agonized over it!  I was determined I would not go to bed without making a decision.  I think that I must have a bit of Perfectionist in me which is another part of my problem.  I am so afraid of making the wrong choice sometimes.

This is the fiber combination I decided to work with during the Olympics!

I did make a decision and I did get to bed at a decent hour and now it is another beautiful day to do a bit of playing outside in the garden and about the farm.  It is still pretty muddy here from all the recent rains so I will need to wear my rubber clogs.  Football again this afternoon and some more sorting through "stuff" and possibly the baking of some bran muffins and gingerbread!  Oh, and I think that there is one more Guinness in the fridge left over from New Years!  WooHoo!  Hey, I might even have a chance to knit or spin or, if Godfrey or Jessy will stay out of my lap, process some of my llama fiber or card some of my homegrown cotton into rolags.

Jessy, my sweet pea

I have decided that I want to know what it feels like to be proud of myself.  That is what I want for 2014.

The sun is shining on HeartSong Farm!