A Life entangled in Thread, Wool and Needles

.. is the name of a exhibition (until 8/17) in the NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf.

And after seeing this photo on a billboard ad….

.. I went there to see more (and get a poster of this photo) and it was really really fun. I will skip all further rambling about it, because most of you won’t be able to go to Düsseldorf to see it. However, if you can I would definitely recommend taking a look at it.

Now I need to find an appropinate place for the poster….

…after I spun up the leftovers of the Lime&Violet roving,…

.. I have no spinning fiber left! I bought some roving on etsy, but I think the customs slows the delivery down. Sadly there are no local spinning stores around here and so I need to wait until I get the shipment. Because of me being horribly impatient, I placed 2 more orders (one at Dawanda because I thought that a seller in Germany would be a better choice concerning the delivery date, but I didn’t watched out and actually bought from a American seller there! So I had a good excuse to buy some roving at a German online shop). I hope that I get no matter what shipment soon!

After noticing that 2 spindles are not enough to do the spinning and plying my father,  offered me to make 3 more spindles working with my spindolyn and a lazykate-like thing for plying….

And yesterday I got them!

When we visited my aunt she told me that she would be completely fine with me taking one of her wheels home to try spinning with it. And the wheel I felt most comfortable with is the one my granddad made for her! It’s so pretty! I really admire the woodworking skills both of my dad and granddad. It’s so incredible what both of them create out of plain wood.

When I sat in the living room of my parents trying out the wheel my dad was already planning to make me one! I didn’t dare to ask him about a black wheel, because I know how he hates to paint wood (he loves the way it looks like it is, maybe a clear finish, but no thick painting…) and he asked about it without a word from me! He thinks of a edgier wheel (I love edgy things) in black with chrome and spikes…. I can’t wait to make the construction plan with him..

But for the next months I will use my aunts wheel because he is at the moment occupied with making a wardrobe, a bed and lots of other furniture for their bedroom. Moreover I want to be completely sure that spinning gets me hooked since I would feel terrible to have him working on a wheel for approximately 2 month and then leave the poor thing standing around without using it.

My first spinning experience with the wheel was kind of depressing (no big wonder, my first attempt on spindling was even more staggering). The treadling was no big deal, because I had a little experience with  old sewing machines, but I still need to get the hang of it when it is enough twist to give strength but not to overtwist it. When I plied my singles together the yarn looked really bad. Partly because I didn’t add enough twist to it. The ratio of the wheel seems to be one suitable for thick yarn, so i was treadling like a idiot because my goal was fingering weight yarn. Happily my father will make a smaller whorl in the next days so that it won’t be that tedious to spin fine yarn.

When I first used the spindle I was really frustrated because I had problems in managing  the drafting, winding and spinning without getting a thick and thin yarn.  Because of forgetting my spinning book at home and being to lazy to look on youtube, I just couldn’t get the hang of it. And after 5 minutes I lost any interest in going on with it. I actually thought that it was a mistake having bought the spindle.

The other day I couldn’t resist and tried it again…. and it worked! I still haven’t looked up if the way I do it is the right way, but to be honest: I don’t care. It looks like the yarn is okay, so I won’t bother trying to do it like whatever picture shows it.

The only thing which was a bit tricky was the plying. Don’t ask me why I bought only 2 spindles…. So I had to unwind at least one spindle to be able to ply anything. I decided to unwind both at the same time on a bobbin I found at the house of my parents to have them assembled and not needing to bother about this when plying.

The plying itself was quite easy, but I had capacity issues. The singles were about 25g each and it was tricky to get it all plied on one spindle. It worked, but it didn’t look like a spindle should look like….

And here it is, my first handspun!

(55g, ca 100m)

I still think that especially the violet could be more saturated, but I like it nevertheless.

Having bought 4 ounces of roving, I have now leftovers. And I started to spin them up into.. whatever. Maybe more yarn

Concerning the spindle-shortage my father volunteered to make me 3 additional spindles which will work with the spindolyn, one slightly wider  to hold more yarn (for plying). He said he will be done with it on the next weekend, so I’m very curious to see them!

I’m so happy! I knew that all my bad feelings about the exam were just my anxiety about the situation but not because of feeling that I wouldn’t feel confident about the things I wrote in my thesis. Both examiners needed to be in a conference at 9, so there was not that much time to ask questions and my presentation went pretty well because we couldn’t find a beamer and so we sat around a table. Sitting while doing the presentation really helped me a lot. It just calmes me down a little bit. I just don’t feel that much stared at. Moreover the questions they asked me were not that tricky to answer.

The result of all this: now I got my diploma in textile technology. Jipee! And I can’t believe that I got a 1,0 both in the thesis and the colloquium

Now I see that all the nervousness about the presentation wasn’t worth it all, but I’m sure it will be pretty much the same when I need to hand in my master thesis. Yes, I will go on studying. I kind of like it

I got the spindolyn today and also roving by lisa souza. I bought it because of the bright looking colors (Lime & Violet) but it is kind of dull now that I see it in person. I’m a little bit disappointed to be honest. But it will be spun into a awful thick-and-thin yarn in my first attempt on spindling. I tried it for half an hour and it was really tricky. Drafting and holding back the twist and adding spin to the spindle was kind of tricky to do at the same time. No, I’m not satisfied with the results right now. But I think I will watch a few videos on youtube and try again. My first attempts on knitting or sewing were also far from perfect so I try not to get disappointed too soon.

I met with my parents for a few hours and my dad is thrilled at the prospect of making a spinning wheel! He’s really into wood working and is now thinking about a electric wheel. But I think I will need to talk to him about what is needed that it will work out…. luckily he is currently working on furniture (for their sleeping room), so I will have enough time to get him on the right way with it.

And before I miss this: Thank all four of you for wishing me luck! It was really really appreciated.

Tomorrow will be my colloquium and I’m incredible nervous. Just needing to speak about it in front of my examiners makes me feel sick .

I liked writing the thesis, but this is absolute horror for me. Everybody is telling me that it won’t be that bad and I know that they are right…. but I’m still nervous! I don’t want to go in there! I’m not one of the “presenting is such a big fun, I really like it” people. Writing exams is no problem, but I feel sick about tomorrow because it isn’t just writing something down. It’s more like people staring at me and asking me questions about the way I did my research or whatever.

I will laugh about my whining tomorrow ( at least after 9 in the morning – yes, my exam is at 8. I will be sleeping my way through it ) but at the next occasion when I need to do something like this it will be exactly the same. Seems that I’m not that adaptive when it comes to situations like these.

After sitting neglected in my knitting bag for a few weeks I picked it up again last weekend and finished it! And I’m happy with the way both the pattern and the color turned out.

It’s about 45 x 200 cm and I only needed 75g of the Wollmeise lace yarn.. I was really impressed.

Pattern: Easy Lace Stole by Arlene

Yarn: Wollmeise Lace

Colorway: Poison Nr. 5

Having finished this project I worked on my gloves today and had to rip back 3 times because

1. I crossed a cable in the wrong way and noticed it after 5 more rows. Oh happy. And because of all the cables it seemd kind of impossible to fix it without ripping back.
2. I started the thumb gusset too late
3. I messed up the thumb gusset and realized it when I tried it on and it was only half the way across my thumb.

I’m just a little little bit frustrated right now

I’m so exited! I will be at Benediktbeuren in September!

I convinced myself that seeing Germanys biggest textile market is quite obligatory for someone working with textiles . And I got rather cheap train tickets, so there is enough money left to spent on lots of wool, books….

.. and enough knitting time (7 hour ride to get there).

By Deva Durham

What got me interested were the scarves on the cover of this book and so I bought it (after I looked it up in ravelry and found a couple of other nice looking designs inside). This is kind of a coffee table book, quite large with a hard cover binding. I like the kind of unconventional but still wearable designs and the way they are photographed. There are patterns for sweaters, scarves, neckwarmers, gloves … some only for women, some for men, some for women and children (about 6 sizes are given on these designs, S/M/L for both children and women).

Most projects are done with bulky yarn and I purchased the wool for one design a few minutes ago. It will be my first attempt on knitting a sweater and because of the huge needles it seems like a relatively quick project.

Another photo of a sweater (kind of), only included in onesize:

I think I would really like it in black yarn but was a little intimidated by the zippers. So I will save this for a follow-up sweater project.

The Rules: each player answers the questions. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 or 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:

I was in highschool. I think I was really into riding and reading Lord of the Rings in these days…

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (in no particular order)

1. phone a friend of mine
2. pack a present for another friend
3. burn a CD with my thesis on it
4. knit a few rows of my new glove pattern
5. meet with my sister to give her the skirts I shortened for her this week

3. Snacks I enjoy:

• Häagen daz ice cream
• peaches and everything with peach in it
• cashews

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

• buy a house with enough room for all my crafty stuff
• get the dragonfly spinning wheel
• go on being a student as long as I like without having to think about earning money

5. Places I have lived:

In Germany, at both the Niederrhein and the Ruhrgebiet

And I tag:

Kaita, AnnaRose, Arlene