Pillow, pom & tassel

Remember all this?

…and this?

The stockpiles are significantly smaller now. First, I visited the SoWa Market again with a friend and popped into Grey’s, a fabulous little fabric store. I picked out 2 yards of upholstery fabric in this modern aqua/taupe gray diamond pattern and sewed us a big couch pillow.

It’s stuffed with every last bit of the white fiber, which was too long to process into roving. There’ll come a day that I’m sure I’ll regret not making a fancier (removable) pillow cover, but by that time I might be tired of the pattern and want something different anyhow. It was only $15, much cheaper than the kilim covers I was scoping on etsy.

There…doesn’t it look at home with the others? There’s a faint whiff of alpaca when you put your head down on it, which might offend some but I kind of like.

Second, I spun about 150 yards of the 50/50 alpaca and wool blend (the gray pile in the earlier photo) and 150 yards of Into the Whirled ‘s Wensleydale Combed Top…and was inspired to use them together.

I looked at a bunch of bonnet-shaped hats on ravelry before sketching this and calculating out the numbers. It’s made with sz. 7 needles and the two handspuns held together. I was going to give it to a family member since the colors are vaguely Ohio State, but I dunno now…it’s becoming my new favorite (ravelry notes here).

Christine let me borrow her Norby tassel instructions, which were incredibly clear and helpful. Then I read the Techknitter’s post on how to make a pom, also good (in fact that site is one excellent post after another…bookmark/pinterest/delicious it). I was determined to make a non-wimpy pom with swagger, so I wrapped that little “C” cardboard shape until it would hardly hold any more. BAM! Tell me that’s not a good looking pom.

Navajo plying alpaca fiber

I still have a big bag of cleaned alpaca fiber in my apartment. This is the stuff that was too long for the mill to process. Although the cats know just what to do with a bag of uncarded alpaca, I’m not as sure.

I overstuffed Sam’s dog bed. But it didn’t shrink the bag’s size much.

So I carded by hand yesterday and spun 120 yards of single. There’s slubs, knots, and bits of straw. It’s a messy yarn. I decided this was perfect for experimenting, and tried navajo plying for the first time. I watched some youtube videos – this was my favorite – and then gave it a try.

There was a lot of swearing.

But then it worked! Well enough anyway. Now I’ve just transferred my problem of “what to do with fiber?” to “what to do with 40 yards of petite dirty rope?”

It was a worthwhile exercise, but I think I’ll use the rest of the bag as stuffing. Maybe for those turkish-rug-pillow-covers that I’m in love with. Stuffing a couple of them would go a long ways in using up this fiber.

43 ounces of alpaca fiber…

…cleaned, carded, and ready to spin. I picked up it up yesterday from Still River Mill, just over the Connecticut border. It’s the fiber shorn from Read’s mom’s alpacas that I brought back from Oregon.

The white fiber was too long for the mill machines to process, but it has been washed. I may hand card it. Or stuff a pillow with it. The black fiber processed just fine. Half of it I kept 100% alpaca, and half I’m having blended with merino to make a 50/50 mix. The merino will add elasticity and breathability (alpaca garments are almost too warm).

Here’s the bag of 100% alpaca:

I think it should become a blanket. Maybe a Quilt & Cable, a blanket-sized Kent Gent, or Elm Avenue. I need to make the alpaca’s owners something too.

Now for the big question. Was processing this fiber cheaper than buying roving outright?
I brought in 3.3 pounds of black alpaca fiber. For the simplicity’s sake, I’m keeping the merino blending out of the equation and assuming 100% alpaca for the whole bag.
It cost $12.50/lb to wash and clean it (12.5 x 3.3 = 41.25).
After the cleaning, 2.7 pounds remained. It cost $12.50/lb to turn it into roving (12.5. x 2.7 = 33.75).
So the bag of black roving, which is 43.2 ounces, cost $75.00.

A scan of google shopping results lists  $2.75/oz to $3.50/oz as the market rate for some alpaca roving. I like bargain shopping, so let’s assume I buy a few pounds at $2.75/oz.  A full 43.2 ounces would cost $118.80.

Throw in the half tank of gas it cost to visit Still River Mill, and I may have broke even. Breaking even is actually really good when it comes to this stuff. Of course the alpaca’s owners are my in-laws and they kindly gave me bags of fiber for free. But maybe you know some pet alpacas or sheep whose fiber isn’t being used. It’d be worth taking it to a mill.

Besides, DIY is not always a money-saving venture…which, if you like DIY, I’m sure you know. My friend estimates her chickens’ eggs cost at least 25 cents dollars apiece. Many of the drool-worthy sweater patterns on ravelry call for at least $100 in yarn. And there was that best-selling book called “The $64 Tomato”, the title of which is sadly not hyperbole. So yeah…breaking even is good. And it’s great fun (for everyone? maybe just for a fiber enthusiast) to see something through from animal to finished object.

West coast knitting

This blog’s been light on the knitting lately, so here are some Oregon trip highlights from that department.

My airplane project was this Pinstripe Slouch Hat in some Widdershin handspun.

It looked great for about 3 inches. But then the colors started to pool and stripe, which interfered with the vertical lines of the pinstripes. It was a particularly hard one to frog because I think it ultimately could’ve been okay. But why put in all the hard work of handspinning for something that’s just okay. There’s 457 yards there, which should be enough for a shawl for my mom…something with longer rows to eliminate striping. Do you have any to suggest?

In 2009 I wrote about my first efforts at carding, dyeing, and spinning a small bag of yarn from Read’s mom’s alpacas. There are many seasons worth of fiber stored high and dry in their barn, and Sally graciously said it could be mine for the taking. I picked through it all last week and with space bags and a vacuum, condensed two garbage bags full into three plane-ready parcels. If all goes as planned, it’ll be cleaned, blended, and carded at Still River Mill (and part of it turned into a Christmas present for Sally). I am REALLY pumped.

In Eugene we made a visit to Soft Horizons, my favorite little knit shop. They have this basket of mill ends in the back that always sucks me in. I picked out about a pound of different wools. I also bought a hank of Frolicking Feet in Navajo Sky – maybe it’ll work better for the Pinstripe Slouch Hat.

My homework is knitting Tami (of the Tulum trip) a new hat. She shrunk her last one in the washing machine (Tami!!!!). The shrunk one was awfully cute (see?), but Tami picked out a deep dark eggplant wool/yak blend that just might top it. And I do owe her a birthday present. In fact I better go work on it right now.

Another reason I’m anticipating sunshine

Orangeflower Sketchbook (knitter and yarn-dyer extraordinaire) posted today about getting back into spinning. This made me realize that it’s been a while since I’ve used my spinning wheel (“a while” meaning that last week I had to dust it. ouch.)

You’d think that spinning wool is fitting for the winter months, but my favorite place to spin was always the front porch at my old house… 

A beer, a dog, an owl, and a swan

Handspun “replacement hat”

I have this red hat that I found in a sale bin. It is absolutely PERFECT and somehow I’ve managed to not lose it over almost a decade of winters. Last winter there were some close calls (me ransacking the house trying to find it) and Read suggested I knit a replacement hat, “just in case, Katie.” Sigh. He’s right. When my family bought cell phones on a joint plan the salesman asked if we wanted insurance, “in case someone loses their phone.” Mom, dad, brother – they all turned as if on cue and looked at ME. 

The perfect red hat

 

Alright, so this brings me to the green alpaca yarn that I recently spun. I decided it would be just right for my replacement hat project. I used sz. 8 needles and did my best to copy the red hat pattern. It’s about 78 sts. around at the base, and includes a few inches of ribbing.

Pre-blocking

 

I traced the red hat to cut a cardboard template for blocking. 

Finished! Well...need to weave in the ends yet.

 

Replacement Hat

Spinning alpaca fiber

 

 

All week I’ve been carding and spinning the green alpaca fiber. At first I was worried it would be too furry for my liking. And there was the whole Oscar-the-Grouch-color concern. But after plying a double-yarn, soaking it, and letting it air-dry, I’ve decided it’s really nice. Light and fluffy – and the two green colors blended into something richer than their individual hues.

Flywheel and bobbin

 

Single-ply yarn

 

 I bought my Sleeping Beauty spinning wheel (yeah, that’s the real name) from a woman near Corvallis about a year ago. I’ve noticed that owning a spinning wheel somehow booted me into a higher craft-weirdo-level. Which I suppose I understand. Tell folks you knit or sew and they’re like, cool. But when they catch a glimpse of the spinning wheel in your house, expect maybe a spinster joke or a raised eyebrow. However this is usually followed by some genuine interest and friendly questions. I think it’s fun to watch the process, even for non-fiber-enthusiasts.

Finished skein

Dyeing alpaca fiber

 

Sal the alpaca

 

This week I tried dyeing fiber for the first time. Until now, I’ve been using undyed fiber from Read’s mom’s alpacas, Sal and Pepe. True to their names, their fiber makes a salt-and-pepper yarn. I decided it would make a nice pair of mittens (maybe lined with fleece, for winter bike commuting).

Sal and Pepe: undyed

 

With a few spools of salt-and-pepper under my belt, I decided I was ready for some COLOR. The saleswoman at the Eugene Textile Center suggested I buy just the primary colors and then custom mix. She kindly warned that red is a much more potent color than yellow (i.e. if you mix equal parts of red and yellow – you’ll get something oddly similar to red). Don’t worry saleswoman, I wasted enough muffin tins of tempera paint in art class learning that rule the hard way. 

yellow sun, fire red, sapphire blue

 

I washed the fiber in the sink with a little dish detergent. This got out most of the dirt, but some of the straw bits are very persistent. Has anyone else found a good way to remove them?

Washing the alpaca fiber

 

I filled a pot with enough water to let the fiber swirl freely, and added to it this previously-mixed solution: 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon yellow, 1/4 teaspoon blue, and a pinch of red. My thinking was that only yellow and blue would make a kool-aid kind of bright green, and maybe I could create something more sophisticated. I cooked it at near-boiling for 30 minutes, stirring often.

Heating the dye bath

 

In my effort to avoid a child-like green color, I created a color still familiar to children: Oscar the Grouch. Now, my upstairs neighbor assures me that the color is olive and retro, but she can’t fool me. For better or worse I definitely made a pile of muppet replacement fur. Sam said that if I don’t use it, he has some costume ideas.

They share a thing for trashcans...

 

For the next batch I used less yellow,  more blue, and no red, which resulted in a more pleasant deep teal. Last night I carded them both together and spun some yarn. I will post more about that later. ..

First attempts at color-mixing