Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast - mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Tag: CMF

Life & Spinning

I’ve been exhausted for the past several months. I thought it was burn out from work coupled with lots of traveling and lack of sleep. It turned out that I’ve been severely anemic for the past several months. It’s amazing what a few units of blood will do for your body.

Needless to say, I haven’t felt much like all the activities of blogging: taking pictures, cropping, formatting them for the web, and posting. I’m still taking things easy for the time being.

Hopefully, that will all turn around soon. In the meantime, I’m playing it safe and cancelled my excursion up to Eugene for the Black Sheep Gathering. I’ve given up my class slots and cancelled my flight. What am I going to miss the most? Hanging out with my friends.

I’ve been spinning quite a bit though. I finished the fractals spinning, but I haven’t finished the yarn. (There are 2 spendid articles on both of these techniques in the current issue of SpinOff!)

I also finished a Swallowtail Shawl (Fall 2005 Interweave Knits) in a hand-painted baby alpaca/silk yarn from The Artful Ewe. That was a joy to knit. The fiber and colors were a joy to work with. The pattern was simple for kept my interest. I can understand why everyone in blogland seem to not able to stop at one. I have to admit that immediately upon completion, I wanted to look for more stash yarn for another. It’s a fast knit. I finished mine in under a week of sporadic knitting.

Finishing the spun yarn and blocking the shawl both takes energy that I haven’t had. Hopefully, I’ll get to them some time in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I’m busily spinning up some Crown Mountain Farms superwash wool for a baby blanket. The baby is due in September.

Bonding

Crown Mountain Farms - I Feel Good

I been trying to bond with my new Lendrum. It’s not as heavy nor stable as my Matchless, so it walks when I treddle. However, I do love the jumbo flyer. I can ply like no one’s business on this baby. It can hold up to 8 oz. of fiber. This is about 7 oz. of Crown Mountain Farms’ Superwash Merino in “I Feel Good” colorway. It’s about 400 yards of 3 ply. I navajo plied the remainder. It should make a great pair of socks.

Back to the Lendrum. I find that the jumbo flyer “whangs” a bit each time it goes around when it bobbin is empty. I don’t know how else to explain it. When the bobbin fills up a bit, the whole flyer centers better and the action smooths out.

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