Look! Look at that. I almost have the entire foot covered in stripy material. Whoo-hoo!
I took it along to work, and the best part was a small friend’s conversation with me while babysitting.
Sam: “Why does that have so many needles?”
Me: “That’s just the way they need to be to help me knit this sock.”
Sam: “Whoa, that’s a sock?”
Me: “Yes. Wait just a minute (the row needed to be finished) and I’ll show you.”
*time lapse while row is finished and sock wriggled on*
Sam: “Whoaaaaa, that’s cool. If I’d known you made socks I’d have had a pair by now.”
(I don’t know what he was implying by that statement. Just because I made that red scarf for him earlier.)
Anyway, it’s currently giving a great impression of a hobo’s sock, and if I can just figure out where the pattern went I can finish it up and knit the second one. It’s been long enough since I started the first one that I’m not worried about the second being the same old same old. Definitely a bonus.
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The week of fleece washing didn’t accomplish as much as I was hoping, but I did get a pretty sizeable pile of fleece washed. And while there is still a whole garbage bag full of dirty fleece, I think this will keep me busy for a while.
I actually got a pretty fair amount of this carded, but the carded got used in another project before I took any pictures of it and is now hanging out to dry. I did decide to break out of my usual “rolag” carding method and turn the carded fluff into these nice little balls of homemade roving. Not quite as smooth and buttery as store bought, but it’s fun to use and spins nicely.
The pink and purple are from cochineal dyed fleece. Yes, I still have that fleece laying around. Two nice chunks of it.
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Silk tennis ball, anyone?
Behold my first attempt at creating a center-pull ball without the handy winder. I spent most of Saturday spinning the blue silk roving while sitting in on an all-day seminar, and the last thing I thought I would do was finish it. And, what do you know, I finished it after all. A good hour before the end of the seminar.
I had brought along another roving, and my drop spindle, but I didn’t want to try using the drop spindle because I was tired. The silk was between me and spinning time, so, I used the shaft of my drop spindle as an impromptu ball winder and spent the whole rest of my time there making this.
And, once I got home, I realized that I’m going to have to carefully unwind that whole ball onto two thread cones. If you do center pull with silk, the silk tends to collapse as you pull yarn out of the middle, resulting in tangles. I knew that, I just forgot it. It’s going to be a bit of a hassle, but I’m hoping the love of the colors will motivate me.
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The weather has been so nice lately I started carding out on the back porch. (That allows any dust or dye powder to stay off the carpets. A handy feature!) I got a nice basket of the Iowa fleece carded, and it looks great! Some of it is what I dyed with the cochineal.
Fluffy Rolags
I’ve actually been carding it with the dog combs my parents gave me for Christmas. They work really well for this fiber!
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A new year. A time for new projects. In other words, pulling out the bags of alpaca fleece and diving into them. Look at them. Sitting there in that basket. Calling.
Cinnamon Bliss
And I was quick to hear it calling, I’ll admit. Last night, full of hope I grabbed a few locks and sat down in front of the Saxony wheel. I’d read that to get the softest alpaca yarn you need to spin it from the fold.
What this means is that you take a lock of fleece and bend it over your left forefinger so the tip end and the cut end are even. So it’s in sort of an inverted “U” position with your finger running up the middle.
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(Spinning project update!)
Here is the carded version of the wool I dyed recently.
The Hand-Carded Fiber
I’m so glad it carded up well; for a little while there I thought it would turn out to be sort of an electrified skunk color. Although I’m at a loss as to what to call it. It’s too turquoise to be brown, but it’s too brown to be turquoise. I finally came up with “Kelp Forest,” because it’s got the blue of the water and the browny green of the kelp—but does that strike you as a pretty name? It makes me think of long slimy things wrapping around my ankles.
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