March Update

Okay, Robin and I are still working on setting up this blog. I had a few relatives out, had a vacation, celebrated my 30th birthday. Gasp! I'm getting old. I had a wonderful birthday with friends and family. It was the first time in 7 years that I got to celebrate my birthday with my parents, so there was much to be thankful for in the last couple of weeks.

After my birthday was over and my parents went home, :-( I was ready to work on the website, but a cold caught me. Robin and I are busy with fiber related things. We just haven't had a chance to write on-line about them.

Robin finished spinning her 100% silk that she purchased from the Silkworker. The silkworker, Carol Weymar, has lovely handpainted silk rovings. Both Robin and I have purchased roving from Carol and love her choices in color. Robin opted for a more brightly colored roving than myself with larger sections of color. I opted for a more blended roving as the yarn will be made into a gift item for my mother. We hope to have pictures of both types of rovings up soon, so you can see how different the colorations look.

Silk is tricky to spin, and as this was my first time spinning silk, I had a hard time. Robin and I started out spinning our silk by dividing each of our rovings in half (not splitting it down the center but into two separate piles) and spinning each half on its own bobbin. The first thing I learned about silk is it is very sticky or tacky. It gets caught on everything! The Silkworker suggests spinning it with a cloth on your lap, but I found my older worn jeans worked fine.

The second thing I learned about silk, unfortunately, is it needs a lot of twist. I say unfortunately, becuase it wasn't until after spinning the first bobbin when I noticed that I needed a lot more twist than what I put into the fiber, so I respun that bobbin. That's right, I respun it. Robin has had a bit more experience with silk than myself, so she had no problem spinning it. We hope to have some pictures of her lovely skein up on the web soon, as well as mine after I ply it (hopefully this week). Well, happy spinning & knitting.

Robin's First Posting

This weekend I finished up the project Annette mentioned I was working on and sent the pictures off to the competition. Now I just have to wait and see! I'll post pictures of the FO once the contest is over (or if I don't get in).
Some current projects are the WIPs in the sidebars. The scalloped mittens were a Christmas present for myself (hey! why not?) and are done in a festive Koigu colorway. One mitten is completed, the second is still in skein form. I got the pattern and yarn from the fellas at Threadbear. The picture on the right shows the true colors pretty well.
I am also working on felted slippers for myself, and a pair for my grandmother, whose feet get cold very easily. My finished, unfelted pair is pictured below, and I am working on the soles of her pair, pictures of that to come. The yarn is Brown Sheep Bulky in Limeade, Aztec Turquoise, and Ink Blue. I love the colors!

The multi directional scarf is for my husband and needs to be started in earnest, since his birthday is at the end of the month. I picked a 'manly' Noro Kureyon colorway for him from the LYS, and he approved of the colors. I'll show picures of the colorway soon.
That's about it for now, I also have spinning projects in progress and hope to have a spinning WIPs board up soon. Check back later in the week for more, and thanks for being patient! I am still learning about web page design. Posted by Robin, not Annette (but she's not yet set up on Blogger.com!)

Update on Robin's Project

Robin has promised to put on pictures of her projects soon. See our Works in Progress section! She sent me her list of current projects. Pictures of her design project got sent yesterday, so she is a bit more free with her time now. Yeah!