WIP - Handsome and Handspun

My yarn stash, as always, overfloweth. After another year of spinzilla, my bin of handspun was getting rather tight! I have always sold the majority of my handspun yarns, but over the last few years there have been a number of small experimental skeins, special purchased fibers, and the leftover small skeins from a big batch that's been divvied up.

And so, I have decided to create a blanket using up all my handspun bits! Some are a true mini-skein or a wee ball, some are simply an orphaned skein with no other plans. All of them are being crocheted into the biggest square they will make (Well, no bigger than 12" or so, extras become little squares.) and will become a blanket! I've got two sizes of hook on hand, and anything too small gets doubled up to make a good thick fabric.

I'll update when I've got a big enough pile to lay out and begin piecing, in the meantime the bin of yarn is becoming a bin full of squares, and I'm realizing that I've got some favored colors...

Spinzilla 2015!

It's a monster! Well, it's been long enough for me to fully recover from Spinning all week, now I can actually sit back and think about what to do with the yarn! I spun 8255 yards, beating last year's tally of 6756! But, last year I ate through 7 lbs. and this year only 5.5 lbs. was eaten up. I spun a bit thinner and more efficiently!

But, sadly, my improvements were not enough to carry the team to victory... We spun less than last year and only came in at 4th place. (Well, top five is nothing to sneeze at, there were more than 60 teams!) 

The top spinner was also an impressive show, over 48,000 yards! No, I did not goof and add too many 0s. We did the math, spinning 14 hours a day, all week long, that would be an average of 5 inches of yarn through the orifice per second! (And people thought I was being weird and crazy with it...)

It's never too early to think about next year. I've been wanting to do a re-build of my wheel for a few years now, and hopefully get it tuned into a maximum speed spinner! I also think I need to plan my fiber. I've been moving through the stash to use up materials, but I might have to actually but roving just for spinzilla next year. The dye pots will come out. The carder will be set up. The fiber must flow!

In the mean-time, I guess I just need to start knitting...

Spinzilla

Spinzilla... it's a monster! RAWR!

This year's Spinzilla challenge was much tougher than previous years'. No, the objective was still to spin the most yards, but now we had a baseline. Goals were set, records prepared to be shattered. Strategies and preparations were made, we got hyped up. While I was going thru my fiber stash I found this little gem, the first yarn I spun on this wheel! It's random wool that came with the machine, and I still haven't knit with it... (let's not talk about my stash problems.)

Since Team Fancy Tiger won last year, we had the pressure to repeat our victory. There was shit talking, well as much as some nice crafting ladies and gents can do...

 My first bobbin, and about my largest! I discovered that my bulky flyer can hold about 13 oz. of sock weight singles, which is way too much for our counting helpers to handle at once! After this I would give smaller bobbins over to them for winding off...

For the most part I was spinning thru a bunch of alpaca given to me by Mr. Crafty, some Gotland greys from New Zealand, and the mystery wool I bought in Ireland. Thus, that pile of finished objects is pretty plain in color. But I did have a few colorful braids given to me!

My final total was 6756 yards, 7 lbs. of fiber. 7 breeds, 2 species, 3 countries of origin, 5 natural colors. Half of the fiber was hand processed by me. One spinner who is looking forward to knitting for a while...

Team Fancy spun over 171,000 yards, which is almost 100 miles of yarn. We have our work cut out for us next year!

Schacht - Can You Dig It?

A few weeks back I took part in a marathon crafting extravaganza known as Spinzilla. We spun for seven days straight, and Team Fancy Tiger created a total of 171,492.6 yards of yarn, that's 97 miles in case you're wondering. That's the distance from Denver to Vail, New York City to Philadelphia, and (so my military historian partner tells me) the range of large artillery.

On the last day of the challenge Schacht, a local spinning and weaving equipment company, sponsored a spin-in and the Denver Art Museum. Between the camaraderie and the shit-talking we struck up conversation with some of the folks from the factory, and they invited us to come have a tour!

Dipping the wood pieces in an oil finish.

Racks of wheels ready to be assembled.

Does this count as a wheelwright? 

Machines neatly cut out flat pieces with very little waste. Some parts are cut from plywood, some from hard-wood planks.

Everything is very carefully sanded to make smooth tools.

The factory is always open for tours, just call ahead first! If you're a fiber artist, and you're in the Boulder CO area,  it's a fascinating experience. Even for the non-spinning-inclined the smell of sawdust and danish oil can't be beat. I personally love seeing how things are made, and many of these skilled workers are a joy to watch at work. Have any of you ever been to a factory?

Spinzilla - It's a Monster!

This year marks the first annual Spinzilla competition to benefit TNNA's expansion into spinning and other fiber arts. Teams of up to 25 spun for an entire week to see who could produce the most finished yardage. I'm ashamed to say that with the preparation for my trip I only managed 1700 yards, but that used almost half a Lincoln fleece! I'll be dying it soon, perhaps with some yummy natural plant dyes...

But my contribution was not in vain, Team Fancy Tiger took home the Golden Niddy Noddy! That is a rather impressive sum of yarn... I really liked getting that push to do some spinning, a dedicated spinning week helped me get back on the wheel!

And our MVS (Most Valuble Spinner) was Laura, who did OVER 9000 (I just love to say that...) and got herself this cute little Rumpelstiltskin award. That's a lot of fiber moved from the spinning stash into the knitting stash. Handspun doesn't increase your stash tho right? Or is that sock yarn...

Did any of you take part in Spinzilla? What is your favorite thing to make with handspun yarn?