The Winter Solstice gave us a nice snowfall, a perfect start to the winter.
Three inches of snow makes it really feel like winter has arrived.
It was a good day to stay inside and start with Phase Three of my spinning project.
The first fiber being spun onto the bobbin. This is a couple of hours of spinning. The finer the thread, the longer it takes and it doesn't fill up the bobbin very fast.
Finally, enough fiber spun to start the plying it with the silk thread.
I put both bobbins on a lazy kate, and started making a two-ply yarn. It takes as long to ply the yarn as it does to spin the single. Since I need to ply the yarn the same day I spin it, none of my balls of yarn are going to be very big. There is only so much time I can spend a day to make yarn.
The paper clip is holding the twist in the plied yarn - that way I can wander off and do something else. The paper clip also holds the twist in the yarn when I'm spinning it. A useful tool, indeed.
I spin the yarn clockwise, and ply it counter-clockwise. I put slightly more tension on the bobbin when plying so the yarn is taken up to the bobbin a bit quicker than when spinning the yarn.
A finished bobbin of plied yarn.
The silk gives the finished yarn a little bit of shine and the qiviut is so soft and silky on it’s own. It’s not fluffed up at this point but will get that way as the knitting actually proceeds.
Next step is to transfer the yarn on the bobbin to a niddy noddy (I love the tool names for spinning). Each revolution is one yard of yarn.
Then when the yarn is secured on the niddy noddy, I soak the yarn with hot water by holding it under the faucet in the kitchen sink, and set the yarn in a warm secure place to dry completely. Since the yarn is very thin, overnight is about all it takes. I set it propped up on the red plastic measuring cup, on top of the warming over on the cookstove. This keeps it out of the reach of the cat, in case he decides to get frisky and play with what obviously must be a toy meant for him.
Four days worth of spinning, four little balls of yarn, and a total yardage of approximately 300 yards. Only 4200 more yards to go. I will be doing these same steps over and over again.
Last night we had a really gorgeous sunset, and Dan took pictures as the sunset evolved.
The cloud cover is in the perfect configuration for a nice sunset, so we started paying attention.
The color is starting to intensify and it looks like an orange sunset is what we're going to see, to the south west.
As the sun peeped below the clouds, a bright yellow flashed across the bottom of the clouds.
So pretty.
Swirling winds in the clouds gave lots of texture.
Peaked color, only about 15 minutes from start to finish on the sunset.
Northwest the sunset was all in light shades of rose, which was reflected in the snow on the ground and in the trees.
The final blaze of yellow from the sun, and then the colors faded into darkness.
Happy New Year!
Hi Happy New Year. Here to all things good for 2014. Beautiful sunset pictures. Amazing it only took 15 minutes for all of the sunset to be complete. God does good work.
Not doing a thing but will celebrate the new year with New York. David and son went home today. On the plane now. Gets home about 10pm 7 your time. They had lots of fun. So nice having them here. Take care. Will look forward to the finished knit object. Know it will be great. Love you