Hi there,

My apologies, gentle reader, for not posting more in January. I have about 6 months left before submitting my PhD thesis and as you can imagine this is taking all of my time. I haven't been spinning or knitting as much as I'd like and I certainly haven't had the time to create blog posts.

Well, blog posts worth reading.

I am settling into a routine that will allow me more time to relax (that's the plan, at least!), and I hope to have more to report on soon. 

In the meantime, take care.

Much love,
Maggie

Paintbox V Sequential Tops, Part 1

"How will this spin up?"

My customers sometimes ask me what their fibre might look like when spun up. When working with hand dyed top there are lots of factors that determine how a final yarn, and a final project, will look - from the choices made in splitting the top before spinning (spit it into lots of pieces? leave it as one?) to those made when plying the yarn at the end (3ply, 2ply, single?), it all makes a difference. What I'd like to show here is how the dyeing style, the bit *I* control, can affect how a project turns out.

I'm going to spin up two handdyed tops dyed in different styles and then knit the same project from each yarn. The dyeing styles I've picked couldn't be more different: one top is dyed with random splotches of colour throughout (I call this style "paintbox") and the other is dyed sequentially in repeating bands of colour. In order to let the dyeing shine through I need to eliminate all the variables I can, so I've decided to spin a singles yarn (no plying to think about), and I've decided to knit the same pattern with both yarns (making comparison easy)(hopefully).

Should be pretty cool to see how this turns out!

Here are the tops. Both are Blackbird Fibres. The first is eco-Falkland in the paintbox style, randomly dyed in pale yellow, green and tan. The second is oatmeal BFL sequentially dyed in repeating bands of dark purple, blue and gold.

There are two things dictating this spin - the final knitted pattern (let's call this A), and my dyeing style (let's call this B).

A) The pattern I am thinking of knitting, Citron, is half-circle shaped. The thing about shawls like Citron (and most other half-circle shawls, and triangular shawls too) is that these patterns start off with shorter rows and end with much longer rows.

B) The oatmeal BFL top has even sections of colour throughout, and these sections repeat. The thing about singles yarns spun from sequentially dyed tops is that the singles structure of the yarn preserves the colours of the top as they are, in the order they are, and repeating with the same frequency in the yarn as they do in the unspun top.

Taking these two things together, if the yarn I spin keeps these even sections of colour throughout at, say, 4 inches per colour, then as the half-circle gets larger and the rows get longer, the striping/pooling caused by these sections of colour will shift along with this growth - which means that near the cast on row, there will be large chunks of colour, and near the bind off there will be smaller chunks of colour. I want a visually even disbursement of colour throughout the shawl so, theoretically, I need a yarn that has colour sections that increase at the same rate the rows increase.

In short, if I want even stripes of colour throughout this shawl (which I do) I'm going to have to get a bit tricky with the spinning.

Clear as mud, right? ;) 

Stay with me, I think it will be pretty easy to do.

We've got the theory down - a yarn that has colour sections that grow along with the increase in row length - so, how can we get these increasing sections of colour in the final yarn? I'm going to try splitting the top lengthwise into different sized widths, leaving the colour order intact, but, by changing the thickness of the top, changing the amount of colour. If I arrange these three lengths by size and spin them in this order then I will hopefully have a yarn with sections of colour that increase as the yarn progresses.

I pulled off a thin strip of top, the long way, and then split the remaining top into two pieces, also the long way, with one about twice the thickness of the other. So, I ended up with three long pieces of top - one thin, one a bit thicker, and one a lot thicker.

Here they are.

 

For those following along at home, the ratio I was aiming for was 1:5:8. This choice wasn't entirely random - I looked at the number of stitches in the first section of Citron (33 sts), the number after the third section (177 sts) and the number at the fifth section (273 sts). I divided the second and third numbers by the first to get an idea of how much the rows increased in relation to each other. This told me the relative proportions I need in the yarn, i.e. how much longer each colour section in the yarn might need to be to maintain the same pooling effect throughout the shawl. (FYI, I could probably have looked at area, but my math isn't so strong anymore and it was easier for me to stick with length.) I plan to spin my pieces of top in order from smallest to largest so that my yarn has sections of colour that are in line with these ratios, or, in other words, at my cast off row the sections of colour will be (hopefully!) about 8 times longer than at my cast on row. Fingers crossed, eh!

I split the yellow top the same way last week and have finished spinning that one already. Since it was dyed in a paintbox style it doesn't necessarily need splitting in the same manner to even out the colours - the colours are fairly randomized anyways - but I am doing it so that both yarns are the same from start to finish. The purple top is dictating the method this time around. Maybe next time I'll let a paintbox top make the rules.

This is the beauty of spinning your own yarns. You want a self-striping yarn that keeps the same thickness of stripes over an increasing area? Totally possible with a little bit of forethought. You want a yarn that gets gradually thicker, or thinner, throughout the skein so that the gauge gradually changes throughout a project? Can't think what you'd use this for (maybe socks that are thicker at the foot than the leg?) but it's totally possible too.
 

I've never spun for the same length colour sections over a changing area before and I can't wait to see if it actually works!

Spin happy,
Maggie

Light

They say the light at the seaside is different. I have to agree. 

For instance, this is a pumpkin. That bit is probably obvious. What's not obvious is that it's sitting on the side table, and that this is just a quick snap with no staging, taken with a not great camera by a beginner-level photographer.  That colour is amazing!

That's the thing about this place we are staying at for Thanksgiving - the light. It's near Kirkcudbright, a town famous for it's association with the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists. I see why they came here. Ordinary things take on a glow, a luminescence, like in this photo of a mossy tree trunk taken on a walk to the beach during a sunny break in the weather. I love moss, and I love the colour of moss, and I must have a hundred pictures of mossy things. On holidays, day trips, anywhere really, I will be the one squatting down awkwardly to get just the perfect shot of some wee mossy thing. But as moss obsessed as I am, even I think the colours in this photo are something special.

 

 Here is a photo of more moss on a stone wall boarding a field nearby the trees in the previous photo. Stunning, no?

And the skies here . . . omg, the skies.

 Incandescent. 

And when the sun isn't melting into the earth in a fiery display of it's most beautiful and peculiar alchemy, it's illuminating seashells like they were precious gems. . .

. . . or just being it's fabulous self. Sun, you are such a show off. Don't ever change. :)

Thanksgiving has been a blast. We were able to spend some time with old friends that we hadn't seen in a year, since last Thanksgiving in fact, and this place by the sea is amazing. It's the perfect setting for good food and great company, don't you agree? 

 

By the way, our turkey was grown on a farm about ten miles to the left of that rise. I don't know if it's the freshness or the breed (we went for Bronze) or simply the fun we had preparing it with friends, but it might have been the best turkey I've had yet.

I hope this Thanksgiving was a good one for you as well. 

Slainte mhath!

 ~Margarete

Sunday blues

It's raining outside and I've a cuppa joe and not-my-cat for company. Oh, and some yarn too. :)

 200g of Wildcraft BFL/silk in "Scottish Seaside": spun semi-woolen, without splitting the top (for looong colour repeats), into a 2ply fingering weight.

100g Pigeonroof Studios Merino/soysilk in "Glade": spun from handcarded batts into a fulled single.

 Another Wildcraft, this time BFL in "Owl Shades": spun semi-woolen and 3plied to aran weight.

 Spunky Eclectic BFL in "Thermograph": split the top four times lengthwise, chain-plied to fingering weight.

 Another Wildcraft, English Wool Blend in "Citrus": spun into a worsted, laceweight single with no splitting to preserve the gradient dyeing effect.

And on the needles is an Elijah from handspun 3ply merino, from Wildcraft in "Buttercups". I carded 200g of different lots of merino into batts, for uniformity, and spun from there.

Lots more on the needles and on the bobbins. But no time for photographs - I'm getting ever-more insistent furry headbutts, which probably means I must go tend to my feline overlord. Or else.

Le sigh.

Maggie
xx

Two hugs and a smile. . .

go abroad!

A dear friend recently lost her father and a few of her knitter and spinner friends got together to make and send wee handmade hearts as a sort of, "we're thinking of you in this hard time" message of love.

When I heard the sad news I was in the States. Therefore, my hearts were begun overseas and, as it turns out, they seem to have a bit of wanderlust built in. 

You see, OH and I had a trip to visit family in Estonia planned, and so as we were packing I quickly wrapped up the hearts ready to be posted before we left.

But wait. . . where'd they go?!

Ah ha! Stowaways!

 

Ah well, who am I to dissuade anyone from traveling? It's only a week, after all, and just think of the adventure Estonia would be for two wee hugs and a smile! So off we went. 

The train there was spent reading the guidebook and pondering the interesting (and sad) history of Estonia, as well as learning all sorts of fun facts about the lovely places we were going (for instance, did you know that the island of Saaremaa, where OH's family is from, is known for it's homebrew? no wonder OH ended up a brewer!).    

Once on the flight, the hearts were very interested in the emergency cards from the seat pockets but  were distressed to learn that the oxygen masks and life jackets didn't come in their size. :( 

Buckle up! Estonia ho!

We landed safely and rented a car to drive out to the island of Saaremaa, where a few of OH's relatives still live.

 The hearts enjoyed the ride out to the ferry to Saaremaa. The scenery was beautiful, with storks and windmills and fields of newly harvested hay, and we couldn't have asked for better weather!

 We swung by Haapsalu, the centre of Estonian lace knitting, and took a wander through the town down to a beautiful promenade along the water.

 We stopped for lunch at a waterside restaurant. The impulsive hugs wanted to go swimming, but the smile spotted a polar bear and they decided against it (the polar bear wasn't real, btw, there *are* bears in Estonia but not that variety). 

Once on the ferry, we settled in and enjoyed the view across the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga. Next stop Saaremaa!

 The first thing the hearts noticed about Saaremaa were the flowers - there were wildflowers everywhere! And bees. And grasshoppers. And horseflies. Urgh.

 

 But there were butterflies too, astonishing numbers of butterflies.

 The hugs wanted to go swimming again, after they missed the chance in Haapsalu, so we headed down one of the many dirt roads that crisscross the island to find the sea.

 It took us a while (there are precious few signposts once you're off the beaten path) but we soon found a beautiful beach.

Worth the trip, no?

The hearts were especially charmed to see swans in the sea.

 There were wildflowers at the beach too, of course. I spotted sea kale and a variety of nightshade. 

The smile also spotted some wee strawberries amongst the pebbles. 

Then, after much persuasion, we left the beach and headed to the meteor crater at Kaali. A performance group were practicing around the fresh water spring that fills the middle of the crater.

 What a magical place!

 We spotted a magical place of a different kind on the way back to the hotel.

 ::sigh::

 After a hard day's sightseeing, we had a wander around Kuressaare and a well earned drink. The more adventurous hug ordered a strawberry mojito. It may have been a bit much for the little guy!

 The next day, we gathered ourselves up and headed back to the ferry for another beautiful ride back to the mainland. We had a great time in Saaremaa, and now we couldn't wait to get to Tallinn and do some more exploring.

 The hearts and the smile started off their first day in Tallinn with a great view. The old city lived up to it's old-e world-e reputation with charming, winding streets full of cafes and boutiques, and intriguing architecture.

 

We started at the top of the old city, and worked our way down. First stop was the gorgeous Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, looking appropriately religious against the blue sky.

 The we wandered down into the heart of old town.

 The old city is a triumph of detail. From the walls,

 to the doors,

to the ironwork doorknockers, 

 to the. . .

Uh oh. Turns out some details are more fierce than others! 

 We stopped at the renowned Beer Haus before heading out for more exploring. The hugs needed something to settle their nerves after that close call.

 Back in the old city we go!

 The hearts wanted to stop by that great view again to take some touristy photos.We got a good shot, but then. . .

. . . wait. . .

. . . who is this?! 

  Turns out the hearts made a new friend, a local, and he insisted on showing them another great view of the city, one that included the walls and towers too.

 Phew! After a full day of walking we all needed a quick rest.

 Then the heart's new friend showed us more of the city. The fading light added a radiant atmosphere to the already beautiful architecture.

We wandered down more narrow lanes, 

 to the city walls,

and through to an unexpected surprise - an exhibit in the Tallinn Flower Festival made up of show gardens, snuggled right up against the city walls.

The gardens were as full of wonderful detail as the city within.

 

::Yawn:: 

It was getting late, so we headed back to get some sleep before catching our plane back to the UK. We had one last present from Tallinn on our walk back to the hotel. 

Tired and happy, and time to go home.

 The hugs and smile have had a good rest and are ready for another adventure. This time, it's to Dorset, and they simply can't wait!