Silk and self care

After an enforced day off from spinning, because I forgot to stop and my shoulders were complaining, I did a bit more today.

An introduced a snappy new tool into my dizzing array. I'd been using a crochet hook to thread the roving, but noted that some kits come with a wire threader. 

So I searched for my fine gauge copper wire, used for mixed media including wire knitting.

And here's a loop at work

You see the dizzed result in this lovely heap of color, along with the gold and orange rovings yet to be dizzed.

The shreddy yarn on the spindle is Indian sari silk, rescued for spinning, lovely to feel as it glides through your fingers. There was just a scrap of this. I love that it was saved from pulping, or just discarding, to reuse.

 I think the slippery gold and orange colors are probably silk, too, judging from how they feel and handle, and the saturation of the colors. I spun a bit last evening, to try it out. It's partly covered on the spindle by the sari silk.

I'm being more conscientious now about taking breaks and stopping before I get carried away. That's the plan, anyway.

It's time for Liz to diz

The needlework peacock feather motif is done and only needs to be appliqued to the robe, so I'm taking a little break from close work, and since we've had a light frost, I'm spinning.

The connection is that my allergies make it almost impossible to spin or knit or do anything wool related, but the first frost usually sees the end of swollen, itching eyes and sneezing, yay.

So I can start what might be a winter project, dizzing, then spindle spinning, then plying, then knitting a top for which I already have an idea how to design and proceed.

Dizzing is the process of drawing roving, the fluff which eventually becomes yarn, through a fine aperture to make spinning a consistently even yarn easier.

You can spend money getting all carried away buying various sizes of diz for various thicknesses of yarn, or you can just find a handy button and a fine crochet hook, and go from there.

Like this

You can spin from roving or combed top without dizzing, and I have, but I find the extra step gives me a more consistent yarn. It's like predrafting only for me it works better.

So this is where I am. 

The plan is to spin a lot of single ply in one color range, here pink/red/rust, then spin another lot in a different colorway, then ply them together to make a chunky variegated yarn. You spin clockwise, ply counterclockwise.

Plying has been a bit of a comic scene around here, since it's so much faster than spinning, the plies just hurling themselves around each other, it's like being in a speeded up movie. And you can't laugh and ply at the same time. I know this.

 I've ordered a fairly large supply of mixed ends in merino and bamboo from Goats Magosh through their Etsy shop, since they're open for business again. 

These are like what you see above here, plenty of variety in color and texture. 

And shopping for ends rather than a large amount of roving in a pre blended mix is not only cheaper but more interesting, to mix my own color sequence. My experience with Goats Magosh has been good, so why not.

The stitching project is just taking a break. It will return!

And I can now bring some yarn related work to my knitting group.