20% off Nom throughout May 2012, to celebrate the ever-so-distinct honor of Nom being chosen as Jess’ Selection on Ravelry this month! Whoo hoo! I’ve got several new colors in there for you, and I’m continuing to dye out-of-stock colors as fast as I can.

Meet my new spinning wheel!

After changing my mind a thousand times, I decided to sell my Aura and replace it with a Spinolution Hopper. This wheel is small and compact, the craftsmanship is much improved since my old first generation Mach 1, and it has fairly large bobbins plus an optional jumbo flyer head upgrade that I can purchase if the need arises to fit 2 lbs of fiber all in one skein. (Ironically, seeing the jumbo head is what sold me on this model of wheel, even though I opted for the normal head on the one I bought.)

It wasn’t exactly Love At First Spin…  The entire head swayed back and forth wildly while treadling, due to an ill fit where the big, square peg attaches the head to the body. I was able to minimize the movement by cutting up a Kleenex box into a 3-sided shim. And the bobbins each had a spot where they scraped against the wood backing when pressed fully down on the shaft, so I used a cereal box to cut little, circular washers that keep the bobbins spaced further out from the base. The wheel is pretty finicky, as are almost all Spinolutions I suspect, but I really feel like it’s worth the trouble to have a wheel that provides so many things on my wish list. I hope so, anyway. I’ll report back after I’ve used it more.

Here’s the inaugural skein, spun from a semi-felted Wensleydale fleece:

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Why I sold the Majacraft Aura (because I know you’re going to ask): My bad back screamed out in protest every time I had to carry it from one room to another, or heaven forbid up and down the stairs. It’s a large, sturdy wheel and I am a giant wimp. (If you are less wimpy than me, it shouldn’t be an issue for you.) Also, my personal preference is for the flyer arms to have pegs or hooks (for no other reason than because that’s what I’m used to) and I never really fell in love with the squeezy-wire-circle contraption.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Aura and would still recommend this wheel to others. The craftsmanship was impeccable and the wheel is capable of making gorgeous yarn of almost any style and thickness. It just wasn’t the right wheel for me.

I only have one true “complaint”… The large, sharp wire coil that acts as the orifice hook sticks out and gouged into my leg a few times while I was absentmindedly walking by. I wish Majacraft would put some kind of cap on the end, or even just a dollop of hot glue. 

I hope to see many of you at DFW Fiber Fest this weekend! My booth is outside the main vendor hall near the classrooms, I think. Here is a map on which I have conveniently drawn your footsteps:

I’m headed out the door first thing in the morning. All orders placed between now and then will be shipped when I get back next week.

DFW Fiber Fest is coming up (yay!) and I wanted to make a big splash with a few new secret products that are not yet available online. The unfortunate side effect of that plan is that the site updates have been a bit slow going because there wasn’t much left to put in the shop. But I have now remedied that with some handspun yarn, dyed top, & batts!

New handspuns:

New fibers, including camel/merino/silk top (SUPER YUM), corriedale top, and carded batts (soon to be elaborated on in a subsequent blog post):

I discovered a new (to me) hand spinning technique. I planned to make a standard 2-ply yarn but then used a core thread to make it a supercoil. I made a “tutorial” (one picture, haha) to show how I hold my hands to make the technique work.

My left hand holds the core thread and I usually wrap it around my fist once for extra tension. My right hand holds both plies of handspun. I use a grip similar to a long-tail cast on: my pinkie and ring finger grasp both strands, and I use my thumb and index finger to keep them apart. The separation prevents them from twisting around each other so that each ply will wind into the coil smoothly. Then spin a few inches at a time, pausing to pull the core thread tight and scrunch the coils up toward the orifice.

Below are pictures of the two yarns I’ve made with this technique so far. On the left, the yarn was spun using the fractal spinning technique. (I used dyed top. The first half was spun in one big chunk with long color repeats. The second half was split into tiny lengthwise sections for short color repeats. I wound it into a center-pull ball and plied from both ends.) On the right, I combined two yarns from separate bobbins.

Gritty Knits bumper stickers are finally here! The funny part about calling them “bumper” stickers is that if they actually end up on a car bumper, you’ll need a telescope to see my logo. But that’s part of the plan. I figure their main purpose is to advertise your love for knitting, and the website part is more subliminal. I already put one on my laptop, one will go on the car when Adam get’s home, and I’m searching around the house for more things to put them on. Maybe I’ll stick one on the cat.

These are available in the shop with free shipping, I’ll be sending one to each of my fiber/yarn of the month club members, and they’ll be at my booths for DFW Fiber Fest and Yellow Rose Fiber Producers Fiesta.

Here’s more news you can use: many of the colors of Angelina that I thought were gone forever have come back in stock. They arrived a few weeks ago, but due to a “computer glitch” (shhh, that’s secret code for “I don’t know how to use my software properly”) they weren’t showing up in the store. I’ve fixed it, and they are now available.

These include the 6 blindingly-bright electric colors, turquoise, marcasite, onyx, lapis, and copper metallic.

I’ve been building up a private stash of Nomlets ever since I cast on for The Beekeeper’s Quilt a few months ago. I decided it’s time to share the love :)

Sign-ups are now open for the Nomlets-of-the-month club. You can choose to receive 3 or 6 minis each month. Some will be standard colors of Nom and others will be spontaneously dyed, limited edition colors. Nomlets are also this month’s sale item: 2 for the price of 1. Everyone who joins the club by March 1 will receive double skeins (6 or 12) in their first shipment! As with all my clubs, there’s no time commitment; cancel any time. You’re welcome to take advantage of this offer even if you have no intentions of staying in the club long-term.

I know there is some discussion in the hexipuffing community about the yardage required for making a puff, whether knitting or crocheting. In my experience, these 22 yards are enough for exactly 1.5 knitted puffs. The leftovers from 2 Nomlets are usually enough for me to stripe together to make a third puff. If you are a crocheter with concerns about running out of yarn, send your address to natasha@grittyknits.com and I’ll mail you a sample Nomlet for a test-puff.