Dunchess Ecstasy

This is the name I picked for

the burlesque doll I made for Alan.

She enjoys her first Chirstmas Eve party, and obviously had too much of the drinks towards the end of the part. But still, she's adorable. =)

My first attempt to knit a doll. The most challenging part is to shape the breast (still don't like the effect that much), and also the hair -- I didn't expect the styling is so difficult. I guess it will be easier if I just want a simple approach of hair-coming-out-from-the-same-spot approach. However, as a good burlesque performer, Dunchess Ecstascy deserves something better.

Merry Christmas!

I Spun It

This is what my first spinning teacher told us after 3 hours of learning how to spin on a spindle -- made your first spinning project into something, so you 'll remember it!

And this is what I had done. Well, not a recent project, consider that I had taken my first spinning class like a year ago. But I finally made it into something. =)

DO NOT ERADICATE COMMUNIST WOOL!

I found this notebook during my trip in China past summer. I always find the communist propaganda art work are naively cute. It is something about the bluntness of making a political statement that make it really laughable and lovely. I imagine that they can work with any themes -- but I mostly appreciate this one as it is fiber-related.

Netbook Cover




I made this netbook cover before I went to China during the summer. This is the first time I used my handspun yarn for a finished project, and the comments on this cover are crazy good. I found the owl embroidery on etsy -- it was a patch work for a card, but I like owl, and I stick it on the cover.

Making of this is easy. I just knit a long rectangular, sew up the sides, added crochet edging and the button holds. If I would have done this again, I will probably do the circular tube and use invisible castoff to finish the closed end of the cover.

Top-down Cardigan


This is an example to prove that how I am becoming a knitting nerd.

Since I heard about the new top-down knitting method to make a sweater, I can't wait to try. I found this pattern in an old issue of knit 1, and BAM -- here I am finished this cardigan in a week. It's not that I am desperately need a new cardigan, but I just want to know how this method work. And it's really amazing -- and I'm so happy to learn some new skills =)

I brought this yarn randomly in China, and they turn out surprisingly good for this pattern !

Scooter

Scooter
Originally uploaded by joylamyy

I'm getting my scooter decorated in knitting theme...and here's the first step. More to come, which actually involve knitting =)

Twisted Lock Alpaca Farm, Sunland, CA



I was so excited to find out that there is an alpaca farm just 15 miles away from home. Last Saturday we went to visit their open days. The alpaca were all so cute. I met Ron and his family who own the farm, and they are all very nice people. Also, Lorainne, who owns another alpaca farm in the Valley. She shared a lot of knowledge with us about alpaca, and most importantly, the spinning of their fibers =).

We got two bags of fiber from Ron. I'm spinning the raw suri alpaca for the first time. They are kind of dusty, and made my hands really dirty after I spun them. The softness of the fiber was tricky too, as when I tried to hand-card them, the fibers tend to fly all over the place. I'm so looking forward to see how the lace-weight yarn turn out when they are plyed and washed.

Check here for the photos

Alpaca = 羊駝 or some says, 「草泥馬」 =)

I want to touch it more....

This is the alpaca lace I've dyed last weekend. When I was winding them into balls after drying, I can't stop admiring the softness and fineness of this yarn. Therefore, although I have started like 3 knitting projects already, I added one more.

I'm not a lace-knitting fans -- since it is rather a time consuming process and usually the lace patterns are too feminie for me. I did an extensive search on Ravelry to look for the perfect pattern -- and here's the one Cobeweb Lace Stole

And why I have to write about this? because the yarn is soooo soft!! Even after few wash and risen during the dyeing process, it's still super soft. I like the feeling how it slip on the needles, and just make me want to touch it all the time. Thus, even I'm suppose to do the analysis for my work, I can't help to take 15-minutes break (constantly! haha!) to knit few rows. It just feels so good to touch it, and now I know how Jati feels when he plays with my yarn =)

Home-made Single-row Wool Comb -- For Icelandic Wool

I've never used a wool comb (nor drum carder, hand carder etc) before. It's until I started to prepare my first fleece for spinning that I borrow my friend's St Blasie double-rows wool comb. After using it for few days, I finally realized that I was using the wrong tool for this fiber -- instead of double-row, I should use a single-row comb for Icelandic wool !! According to Susan Mongod, ' a double pitch comb (with two rows of teeth) will catch and hold the fine thel fiber as waste', epsecially for Icelandicl wool that most of the the finer/softer fiber gathered in the under coat.

I don't want to spend another hundred plus dollars on the Viking combs that I'll probably only use once or twice a year (or years). Plus, I found out that people DO make their own wool comb, according to the DIY group on Raverly. Therefore, I decided to make myself one. And it's easier than I thought.

Here's what I used:

• a box of 4cm long nails
• peices of scrape wood in the backyard (I think they are peice of the bottom wood rack for shipping)
• two 2' clamps
• 4 nails that are long enough to connect the handle to the board
• Tools incluidng an eletric drill, strong glues, sand paper, a giant clamp installed in the garage table that help to stablize the wood while drilling.

And here's what I've got =) Finished the whole things in 3 hours including cutting the woods in right sizes, sanding them down, drilling wholes and glueing in the nails. Total cost: around $10 (since I didn't really pay for the woods! just the nails and small clamps)

Useful references:

1. Ravelry DIY Tools group (viewable for Ravelry members only, go to www.ravelry.com for detials)

2. Christ Lansdown $15 Wool Comb instruction

Preparing Icelandic Wool

My journey of preparing wool from fleece for spinning begins here with a piece of

Icelandic sheep fleece that Hans brought me from his trip to North Carolina. He was away 3 weeks for a business trip and I stationed at home to look after the house. At first I want him to just bring back some roving, but he thought that it'll be nice for me to try some new things. So here I got a big piece of fleece -- and they DO smell like sheep. Sommer the German Sephred and Jati the big cat were both so excited to smell and see the fleece.

A friend I met in spinning class volunterred to show me how to do the washing process. We met up at the house and had our little experiment on washing the fleece. It was less intimidated than I though -- although the process is LONG. At first I thought that I would just send the rest of the fleec to a mill so that thye can process for me. But to think about how much it will cost ($200 to process a piece of $20 fleece), I don't think it's worth it. So somehow, I decided to wash the wholething myself. In retrospect, there are many things that I would have done differently. However, it's a good experience and I'm glad to learn some new stuff in the process.

What I've learnt:

- process of preparing fiber including washing the fleece to get rid of the dirt and lanolin (i.e. the 'oil' in the undercoat); combing the fiber to get the fine vegetable matters and 'dandruff' of the sheep away -- and this fleece I got had a lot of dandruff in it

- felting the fleece in the process of washing made the combing process really messy and annoying.. I tried to hard to separate the undercoat...

- washing with small container seems less efficient but more effective to get the dirt out

- how to use a wool comb, and evenutally, made one for myself (see here) !!

Washing them

Drying

What I would have done better next time:

- know the nature of the fleece that I'm dealing with better

- save the water to water the plants in the garden from the very begining

- separte the wool more before I put them into the water, which would made it easier to separate in the combing process!!

Useful resources to read more about preparing Iceland Sheep Fleece:

Tounge River Farm -- All About Icelandic Fleece : with info of how to wash and comb

My PVC Niddy Noddy

Working on limited funding, I rather spend my money on nice fibers than tools that I can make. I heard about making a PVC niddy noddy from my spinning teacher before, and here I am finally made one. It's about time. I research a bit on internet and find this page very useful. I used the measure here (18 inches) so that I get the 2-wrap-as-a-yard reference easily.

This thing is very easy to make. All I need to do is to cut up the PVC pie with a wood handsaw in the garage, and collect the pie with T-joint, and that is. I didn't even try to glue the joints as Hans suggested. I can twist the joint easily and it's better for storage.

Picture on the left: materials ready for making a niddy noddy -- including PVC pipe cutted up in one 18 inchese piece , four 6 inches piece and 2 T-joints; Picture on the right : that's how my niddy noddy looks like. Ta-dah~

More fibers, can't stop!!!

This month is the spinning month. I've got so many fibers from the LA spinning guild meeting. And during the past weekend, after we attended Shady and Erin's wedding up in Santa Barbara, Hans and I went up to Solvang again. This time, I got myself some very nice 64 Merino dyed in multiple color. Hans insisted I go back to the shop and asked about the meaning of '64'. As usual, the shop owners were super nice and they

 explained in detials to us how the number represent the softness of the wool. The lady even showed us some of their highest quality wool (120? 150?). In short, the higher the number, the softer the wool is. I think this is one of the reason why I love this guy so much, cos he encourages me to go two steps forward and learn new stuff. He has been very encourage in my spinning adventures. 

So here's what I've got -- 

Sandlewood

Riverstone

I want to make a shawl or something like that with Sandlewood. It's spun up

 gorgeously~~ 

Oh, my sweet boyfriend.... 

Hans came back from his long business trip to Germany. On the way home, he stopped by North Carolina to see his sister and friend. And when he came home, he brougth me this -- a big piece of Icelandic fleece~~ 

It does sleep VERY MUCH like a sheep. A lot of cleaning work is needed to be done. But I'm so excitied to see how this will turn out. It may take me years to do that, but it will happen, somehow~~

Spinning Llama.....

I guess I'm trying to dance before I learnt how to walk here...After a few try with wool, I'm spinning llama and mohair mix -- those the the tons of fiber that I've brougth from PA. When I see that there are pieces of fiber keep poking out and also sticking on my clothes, I know something is not right. It turns out that this is something so difficult to control that make me feel so furstrated with the wheel. I don't want to developed a bad relationship with the wheel, so I stop spinning this. 

Looking at the other 3 lbs of the same kind of fiber, I guess I really should learn how to walk first. 

Learning how to spin on Asford Traditional

In the spinning class, Anna loan me her Asford Traditional so that I can practice at home. 

I finished spinning the first yarn project, with the fiber I brought in PA, in 3 days.... =)

and start knitting a neckwarmer with it. Super cool!

MY FIRST SPINNING WHEEL - Majacraft Pioneer

It all happened so fast. Two months ago, I was still looking for classes so that I can learn how to spin with a wheel. And then the next thing you know (from this blog) is that I had my very own spinning wheel. 

Long story short - I found a class in Burbank, met a very nice instructor Anna and classmate Jamie. Anna taught me how to spin and they both very helpful in giving me suggestions on what kind of wheel will be good for me. And last weekend, when my friend Joy was visitng (yes, another Joy, so many happiness around!!) I took her for a day trip up in Solvang, so that I can visit the famous spinning shop there. The shop owner was super nice, she explain in details what I need to know about choosing a wheel and let me try on a few. I didn't brought right there because of the cost concern....honestly, with the uncertain about the funding situation in summer, I shouldn't really spend few hundred dollars just like that. But the trip was rewarding , since I final know what I really want. 

So one day, when I was checking out my yahoo mail, I found a member from the LA spinning guild post a message that made me jump up from the chair -- she's selling her Majacraft Pioneer.  How lucky I am....since most people don't sell their spinning wheel, and those who sell it may not be the one I want. So I took the chance, met the owner (and also make a crafty friend in the area!!), and brought home my very first spinning wheel. 

(below) Wheel arrived home the first night

I love this wheel. It feels very sturdy. It's designed in the way that there are lot of potential to expand through accessories -- which means I can spin a lot of different kind of yarns with it.  

The only thing I don't like about the wheel is the color. Therefore, I stained it myself. It's a task a lot more challenging than I expected...manipulating the oil-based wood stain is very tricky. It's still drying...but it's looking good so far =) 

(below) Drying wood stain under the sun...looking better now

Fiber crazy during Easter...

Hans and I went to PA to visit his family during Easter. I found out that there's a sheep/goat/llama farm nearby, so I proposed a fieldtrip for the family. Everyone went with me, which is something I really appreciated. 

the farm, the chicken, the goats are cute, the llama are super cute. The llamas all came to us when we approached to the gate, and acted all friendly....at least that's what we thought they were, until the farm owner told us that this is how they protect themselves. And the male llama was all ready to spit on us....

And then, something devastating happened....I brought $100 worth of roving...wait, it should be 'super-gorgeous-roving'. Not just that they are so soft, with mixture of wool, mohair and llama wool (?), but also the combination of color made them so gorgeous. With 4 large plastic bags of roving, can't even hold them on with my two hands.... I realized that I have to learn how to spin on a wheel.

Falling in love with another activities that involve different skills may not be the smartest thing to do right now. But I just can't help. It just feel so great to see my hands creating something. 

So I found a class in Burbank, and I'm going to try it out. spinning on wheel. And I make myself pratice on the drop spindle everyday~~