And now, back after a long absence, I bring you the reluctant blogger. Sorry about that, everyone. I’ve been just plain lazy, doing odds and ends and juggling work schedules and what not. So, I’m going to attempt to change that. I’m now going to start thinking of projects as “long weekend” things instead of “squeeze them in whenever.” The old “set a goal and accomplish it” ply. I mean ploy. See? It’s working already.
So, here is the first break’s goal.
Two Projects to Finish
Finish spinning and plying the merino/silk batt, and preferably knit it into a scarf. And, since I don’t seem to know when to stop, I also want to knit the shiny red yarn into a scarf for a friend of mine. It’s spun from the roving I dyed with the cochineal. You may have noticed, I used the “k” word twice! Yes, I’m serious about this knitting thing. Therefore, both scarves will be knit as practice for the sweater I’m planning to make. And before you say “
Another sweater? ” let me explain. It will not be another sweater, but a re-do. I’m unraveling the teal Rebecca sweater.
I’ll wait for you to collect your wits.
Are we good now? Okay. Let me explain.
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I did it. I asked my sister for a pair of knitting needles and a refresher course. Another sister claimed I must be really sick. But I wasn’t! It was starting to clear up. (And is practically gone now.) I just wanted something to do while waiting for the merino yarn to dry. So, here is my little practice knitting swatch, knit from the “Thistles” yarn.
A Lengthy Swatch
I’m now keeping one eye open for any easy looking, but not too easy, knitting patterns. There’s a scarf pattern I’m thinking about doing, but I’ve got to get or spin some yarn for it first. My main trouble is that I love lace knit stuff. Anything thin and lacy and delicate. Not good for beginners. There has to be a middle-road somewhere, and I’m trying to find it.
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I never thought I could get out of the habit of spinning incessantly, but somehow I managed it while we had company for two weeks. I am now trying to get back in as fast as possible. Here’s the second bobbin-full of merino. That thing is so soft!
Merino Bobbins
And then I pulled the Walking Wheel out from where it had been buried during the visit (it takes up our entire living room, so we had to move it temporarily) and was planning to start in on the alpaca again.
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Note to self: Dyeing takes at least twice as long as you originally planned, so be prepared!
Yes, I’ve had another long day in the kitchen. All I wanted to dye was the Rebecca yarn.
The Finished Yarn!
The dye bottle was supposed to dye two pounds of fiber. I have a pound and a half of yarn. The instruction sheet for Jacquard dyes recommends a half bottle of dye per pound of fabric. I decided to play things safe and put in a half bottle of dye for the pound and a half of fiber. Well, the yarn turned the color I wanted before the solution even got heated up!
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Norwegian is finished! All thirteen ounces of it spun up into six nice skeins. Don’t ask me about the yardage; I don’t know. This yarn is destined for Kool-Aid dyeing (assuming nothing goes wrong), and hopefully it will find a happy home.
It is now sitting on the drying rack, along with as many other yarns as I could fit. The New Year’s Dash worked great, but I wound up with tons of yarn to set the twist in.
And I’ve started on the merino roving. I’m spinning it into a two-ply sport weight, which I will dye a deep shade of red (using cochineal!) and then crochet into a sweater type thing.
Thin Merino
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Despite the fact that I was in the middle of spinning the brown wool, I went ahead and started playing with the Norwegian roving. It spun up quite nicely! I was pleasantly surprised. It was rather inexpensive, which made me think it wouldn’t have as good quality, but I was wrong. It’s a nice, squishy yarn, with just enough coarseness that I think it will wear well. The first skein wound off at a squeak over 70 yards. No clue what the others wound off at.
Three Skeins
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I have worked with the alpaca and come out on top. I have conquered, and I’m loving it.
A Bobbin of Joy
It’s really weird how different it is from regular wool. I can’t think of how to describe it expect that it’s “buttery-er” than wool. It kind of slides along. I’ve been spinning it on the Walking Wheel.
The original idea was to try for a sport weight yarn, but I don’t know if that’s what this will turn out as. I spun a gazillion little samples to see what the best amount of twist would be. (And promptly forgot which sample went with which amount of twist.) But, the alpaca seems to be behaving, and I’m getting pretty good at separating out the coarser, slippery hairs. Wait, that sounds funny—how can something be slippery and coarse? . . . but that’s really the only way I can describe it.
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Look what is showing through my once-enormous pile of turquoise fiber.
I Can See The Bottom!
This is all I was able to make before running out of purple locks to stick into the thin single.
The Finished Lumpy
Actually, I’m rather glad I ran out. It was getting a little tiring. I have a few chunks of badly felted locks left, but they don’t look as pretty as the ones in the yarn. That enormous skein on the end was what I got done yesterday. Oh, by the way, all the stuff you’re seeing here are things I got done yesterday. It was late when I got around to winding things down, so I didn’t get this up until now. I shall try to be better about that.
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I’m definitely behind schedule today. Christmas cookies took up the morning, and I was tired the rest of the afternoon. I did, however, play around with a little of the red cookie dough. Here’s my three-ply, peppermint yarn ball!
Cookie, Anyone?
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I’m ahead of schedule! Two and half hours on my feet running the Great Wheel has paid off in these five little beauties. They’re right around one ounce apiece!
Five Marvelous Spools
I spun two of them this morning, and the other three while we watched Miracle on 34th Street. I’m so happy that I got ahead! It means that I might not fall behind in the next couple days. I’ll just forget about the fact that my arms and back and everything else are complaining loudly.
And I added two more big fat skeins to the unnamed yarn.
More and More
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