So It's Not a Three Ply

In order to steel myself for the daunting task of cleaning up the basement studio I sat down to sample my three ply sock yarn made from my stash blend.

Maybe I put too much twist in the singles? I seem to remember someone saying that you need less twist in the singles for a three ply. I could get a yarn that looked good, but all the samples had so much twist in the finished product that I predicted socks that twisted up under the arch.



I finally came up with a winner. The addition of a little mohair gives a nice halo and will help strengthen the yarn, along with making a warm pair of socks.

I spent several hours downstairs going through my stuff. I tried to come up with a system for storage separating ready to spin fibers, fibers for blending, luxury fibers, handspun yarn (all other yarn is stored in the attic) and fabrics, divided between hand dyed, quilting, and clothing. Thinking I was on the road to organization I turned around and remember the bags of washed wool and a few bags of dyed and ready to be carded wool. Believe me, this picture minimizes the pile. There are twenty-one bags with washed fleeces that vary from a 2.5# Shetland to a 5.5# Romney. All dye equipment has been relegated to the bathroom. Today's job is to put up shelves to hold the syringes and measuring tools.

I didn't get Sarah's towels finished for her open house, but I'm on the last one now. While weaving I've been planning my version of a warping trapeze and the next warp to be woven.

My Wish for You

What I've Gained From This Experience

I'd like to think I've gained a few new brain cells, but after my little buttonhole fiasco today (see below) I can honestly say I haven't. What I have gained is a bunch of pounds and and an even fouler mouth! Did you hear me today? The table of contents should have been a breeze. All I had to do was use the first three levels of headings and it's good to go. Yeah. Once I learned how to lock the fields the going was easier.

So the buttonhole problem. You might remember me saying that my new Janome wasn't making buttonholes. It would only do one side and not do the turnaround. I bought this last spring, attempted buttonholes in August, and just got around to trying it one more time before taking it in for repair. I read through the directions ten times and still it didn't work. Then I saw buried in the middle of 27 steps, pull the buttonhole lever all the way down. Oh. That. And here I was complaining that the manual was written for idiots. I guess I'm right.

So here's just two of the buttonholes it can do. Once I finished marveling at my stupidity, I finally got the zipper in on my Zipper Jacket, but stopped working on that and hopped over to the loom.

Sarah just finished redoing her kitchen and I'm making two of the towels for her. Josh painted it when he was home for Thanksgiving and he put a couple of dabs of paint on a piece of paper for me. I haven't seen it yet but she's having an open house on Saturday so I'm hoping to have both done and hemmed by then.



I love this variation on the pattern. That's a purple, let's call it eggplant, on the bottom, then gold, and then a forest green. I did three repeats and after 30" of pattern I'll reverse the order for the other end.

Finished!

Yeah, yeah. There's the abstract, the table of contents, and the appendixes, but the last chapter is done. I'm giving it to my editor (i.e. my friend the English teacher) tomorrow.

So I decided to peek in the fiber storage room to see if anything grew in there while I was otherwise occupied. Oh my! I hear the electrician is coming tomorrow morning while I'm at school. Did I clear a path to the fuse box? Of course not, I got back to spinning the stashblend sock yarn.

Startin' at the Top

I started working on the tweed sweater. I ended up going straight stockinette. There's a lot of texture in this yarn and I wanted a mindless project to have around. I am going to put a couple of short rows in the back now and then again a few inches before I begin the ribbing. The fabric is much more muted than the picture shows. I think the natural grey fibers catch the flash and sparkle. I tried no flash, bu that's not working until I can get home before dark. Maybe next weekend.

I finally made it to my spinning guild on Sunday after finishing up the fourth chapter Saturday. Now that the corrie tweed project is finished I needed something new to work on. So I thought back to Claudia's great Spinning Your Stash class and pulled out some leftovers and headed to the Duncan. I had some brown Romney Merino Cross, some pumpkin colored merino top, and some champagne mohair top. I eyeballed it and blended three batts.



Then laid them on top of each other and tore them down the middle and blended each half.



This is going to be a three ply sock yarn. I got about about a half of a bobbin spun yesterday and I'm really surprised at how the bright rust/orange was softened. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Resleyed and looking good

Not too much time for fiber this weekend, but at least the towels are back on. I didn't get a chance to start on the sweater either, but I think it's going to be raglan, knit from the neck down, with a panel of patterned stitches down the front.

Most of my time this weekend was spent picking up and getting ready for the Thanksgiving crowd - 35 this year. I also have to clean up the thesis room so it can turn back into Josh's room. Last year I finally got smart and made notes about what worked and what didn't so I'm feeling much more calm. That's good, since I have conferences Tuesday night and Wednesday. I'm also in love - I finally got a decent food processor! This thing purrs. I didn't even have to turn up the iPod. I like to make my cranberry relish several days in advance to let the flavors blend together. This year I toasted the walnuts first. It added a nice touch, I think. Tomorrow night I'll make the pastry for the pies.

Oops!

I just found my original notes and it is supposed to be sett at 20 epi. I'm going to cut off and resley tomorrow.



Two more bobbins to go and I'm finished the corriedale tweed I started back in June. The bottom half of the swatch comes in at 4.5st/inch. I need a tunic sweater like Claudia's.

Back to Weaving

Threading and sleying went along with no problems until the end when I realized I was off by 4 threads. No problem. Then I thought it wasn't quite centered in the reed. Turns out I divided by 20 when I was winding the warp but I sleyed 24 epi. So it turns out my towels are only 20.5 in the reed. And to think, just a few short weeks ago, I was happy to find the right dye lot so my towels would be wide enough. Can anyone say "too many irons in the fire"? Oh well, it feels good to be back weaving and they'll be used.

Am I Asking for Trouble?

Here it is, almost a month after I got the warp beamed and it's still not threaded. Now I'm wondering if hanging there for so long is going to cause tension problems.

While there has been precious little fiber news, I did finish chapter three and I'm now outlining chapter four. To keep me occupied I've been listening to Catherine's podcasts. She's put together a great mix of songs, my favorite is one of her first - the ED Circle. Check it out, you don't need an iPod, just download the mp3 file and listen on your computer. I've been enjoying so many podcasts and playlists that I upgraded my mini to the 30GB model. Laura was happy to take the mini off my hands.

Too Pooped

to even start threading the loom, but I wanted to pass on Kathy's thoughts about designing a tapestry. I've always wanted to try my hand at tapestry but somehow it keeps getting backburnered. It would be a good project for that Coopworth.

A glass of wine, a little knitting, and Lost sounds like a good end to the day.

Disco Fever

You didn't really think I bought that yarn, did you? Apparently someone thought I wanted to revisit the 70's. It came with an invitation to "Get Down with Bernat Disco" and three lovely patterns for a scarf, a bag, and a crocheted wrap. Since I didn't finish the Go Eagles socks and homecoming week starts tomorrow I can just wrap that around me for the pep rally!

The second chapter is finished and I've begun work on the third chapter. It's going pretty well, except for those little distractions that have found their way into the thesis room.

Now You Might Think

I've been typing away without any fiber fix at all. Ha! I bought this gorgeous 4.5 lb. Shetland in September.




Today I came home to this lovely white Shetland lamb fleece, just over 3 pounds.




I finally finished winding the towel warp and presleyed the reed earlier this week. Since the weather is not going to be conducive for fleece washing this weekend I should be able to get it beamed and threaded.

Now for the big question, what am I going to do with this?



It looks like a space ship ran into Mae West! Mary Maxim must think this is going to drum up sales. I didn't realize they were still in business. My aunt used to buy these wild intarsia golf sweater patterns from them.

I Must Be Doing Something Right

No school today so I spent the morning working on the thesis. Then I took a drive to the local weaving store and you'll never believe it ... there was a little cone (just over a pound) of Winter White, the same dye lot. We estimated I've got 3400 yards, more than enough to finish the warp. Houston, we've got a warp!

After a stop at the gym I celebrated the find by having a Cinnamon Spice Latte. Despite the dreary drizzle the temperatures are still not saying autumn, but the spicy latte sure does.

I tried out the Life Expectancy Calculator last weekend. It's pretty cool because it explains why you received a score and what you can do to increase your life expectancy. According to that I'm living to 88, but my personal goal is 105 so off to the gym I go. I've made it three days this week - let's hope I can keep it going this time. The other thing I'm supposed to do is get more sleep. That'll be harder than the gym since I've always considered sleep to be a waste of time.

added 06:00 10/14/05: I don't know what's up with the comments. I'll have to check it out after school.

Here I Thought

I'd at least be able to say I had the warp wound. I ran downstairs everytime I had a free minute. A few turns at a time. This evening I ran down while the oven preheated and BAM! the cone was finished. I have 382 ends out of the 512 I need. I thought I had enough, but now I remember I upped the length of the warp. It's an off white 8/2 mill end. I guess I could get something close and then divide it evenly throughout. No other choice, since 19" in the reed is too narrow for towels.

I moved my Joy up to the Thesis Room and have been sneaking in a couple of treadles here and there. You can take the woman away from the fiber, but you can't keep the fiber away from the woman!

Chapter one submitted four days ahead of schedule. Chapter two is coming along but is not going to be finished before this weekend. Of course that means Rhinebeck is a no go. (sob)

Spinning for Speed

For a great tutorial on spinning for speed see Carolyn's blog. I've watched her do this in person and it is amazing. I was able to get this, but haven't done it in a while so I'm hoping the bicycle analogy is right. She's right about the relaxed thing. Have a drink first!

No, I'm not even finished winding the warp, but just knowing it's down there waiting makes me feel so much better. The empty loom was just depressing.

I'm listening to The Constant Gardener on my iPod. I've never read a le Carre book before and the story is intriguing. The problem is that I only have time to listen before going to sleep and I'm so tired I'm gone before I remember to turn it off.

Back to the grind. Saturday's are for writing. Let's hope it's not as disjointed as this blog entry.

A Little Fiber Time

I was so productive yesterday that I gave myself a little reward today. I picked up The 4th of July audiobook from the library and was able to listen to the whole book while putting buttonholes in my new blouses, carding up some more corrie tweed, and winding a warp (okay, 2/3rds of a warp). I don't have the time to plan any complicated drafts but I really need a warp on the loom so I can throw the shuttle when I get too stressed out. I decided to put on another set of Huck-a-Back towels. I especially like the white ones, with the striped border. They're easypeasy - just what I need right now and it's always nice to have some presents ready to go.

A Quick Check In

I'm back to school, teaching two new courses, and this weekend I started work on my thesis. BUT I forgot to show you the last bookcase I made for the family room, which has evolved into my husband's home office. The stain really is even, but I took it early in the morning when the sun was shining in.



The Viking is still not repaired. I took pictures of the two new blouses but they hung pretty funny without the buttons so I'll just wait and take a better picture when I get the buttonholes done.

You know, it doesn't really matter how old your kids are, you're still going to worry. Just in case I didn't have enough to occupy my mind, Dan bought this on Wednesday night and brought it right over. It is one big, scary machine. That being said, he's promised me a ride as soon as he gets the seat changed. You know there will be pictures of that!



This is what you get when it's too dark to see through the viewer and the display just shows pitch black. I lightened it enough for you to see the basic outline.

August Carpentry

It seems like I always end up building something the weekend before school starts. A couple of years ago it was bookcases for school. Last year I made a cabinet to keep homeroom files and hold my podium. Today it was two bookcases for the new thesis room.





I finished the second one and trimmed them both out. When I get home from school tomorrow I'll stain them, Tuesday I'll poly them, Wednesday they'll make their way up to the second floor.

I got quite a bit of sewing done this weekend, too. I made the Italian Blouse (short sleeves) in a wine Indian batik. I would have finished it, but it seems that my automatic buttonhole stitch gets stuck half way through. Luckily I tried it out on some scrap material. This is the new Janome 8080 I bought over spring break. The plan then was to take my Viking in to be serviced. Did I? Of course, not. So I took that in on Saturday and when I get it back I'll take the Janome in. It's still under warranty (hopefully I'll find the receipt). So the Italian Blouse waits. I did finish two pairs of pants. One was a gray tencel twill and the other a cotton lycra twill. I hemmed them tonight. This makes the 7th and 8th pair of Cruise Pants. I have navy blue linen and natural linen ready to cut for two more. Cut out, and ready to sew, are the Zipper Jacket (short) and the Casablanca Blouse (shorter version, without the tie).

Cleaning Up

Don't worry, I'm not spending too much time cleaning my house! What I am doing is trying to finish up some nearly done projects that were forgotten when something new caught my eye.

My Coup d'Etat cardigan was done and ready to be sewn together. Unfortunately I see now that one sleeve is smaller, both in width and length, than the other. I think I may have forgotten to change to the larger needle as the fabric seems to be a bit denser too. That's what happens when you knit a project over a period of years. Yes, YEARS.

I started my teal corrie LoTech Sweat last August and took it to school with me. The only time I worked on it was in spare moments in study hall. Those spare moments added up and I brought it home in June with only half of one front and the hood to go.

Throughout this busy summer I have been carding the corrie tweed and spinning it up. This was all measured out in 60 gram bags so it's no-brain work to card up two bags, spin a bobbin from each and ply. I have put way too much time into trying to get a decent picture of this yarn. I think it's because I love it so much but every picture ends up looking like mud. I've tried every exposure setting imaginable and finally ended up pulling the fabric shade down and then using no flash and a cloudy setting. I think the problem was that the window was messing with the meter even though there wasn't any direct light coming in. It still looks rather blah, but then again, blah is often misunderstood.



I painted Josh's old room, now known as the Thesis Room! I finally found the hardware to put the sliding doors back on the closet, so this fabric will be stripped to make a rag rug for the room.



If I can keep to the schedule I've made for myself, I'll be spending every Saturday for the rest of this year in that room. Hopefully the very soothing sage green will not be so soothing that I can't write.

Go Team Socks

Once I got my spelling straight these socks started to fly. I have a lot of this yarn and I think I'll go down to a zero (these are 1s) next time. These are a little loose for socks, but I'll only be wearing them a few times a year so no ripping at this point, plus the two color knitting on the heel makes a nicely reinforced fabric.



I've had a chance to get back to spinning the tweed corrie. I cannot tell you how soft and fluffy this yarn is. I don't care if it's going to pill, I know this will be one of my comfort sweaters. I have enough to make it slightly oversized the way I like my weekend, hanging around sweaters. The skies are clearing up, maybe I can get a good picture today.

Just Keeping Me Grounded

The last I looked the name of my school was N--- Area High School. So why did my Go Team sock read NASH?



I was tempted to keep it that way. I mean who's really going to read it anyway? But the tension was a little funky so I ripped back and did it again.



It's still a little wobbly around the N but I'm hoping washing and blocking will even it out. I didn't remember how tricky it was to do stranded knitting on dpns. You want to give a little tug to keep the stitch from being too loose, but then you don't want to tighten the carried yarn.

While I was redoing the wording on the sock, I spent time rewatching Sara Lamb's Warp Painting. I need to just bite the bullet and cut the warp for the kimono already. You have to understand my apprehension considering my mishaps over the last month. What was that about too many irons in the fire?

At Last

Finally, I got something finished this summer. It's not much, but considering my track record with socks - I'll take it!

My summer classes are DONE. I have one more class in September, but that's an action based research class and the project will be the first chapter of my thesis. I finished my last paper today. Now all I have to do is one more project with a short (4 page) rationale.

On to my summer. We joined Charlestown Farm this year and we get to pick up lovely produce each week.



Along with the produce we pick up, there are fields for pick-it-yourself crops. We've had strawberries, snow peas, raspberries, and there's always herbs and fresh flowers. This was a bonus last week when we got to pick enough to freeze.



Hopefully I'll get to some fiber.

Somebody please - take my wireless card

I bought a laptop so that I could work continously on my course work and also write the curriculum for the two new classes I'm teaching this year. I think I hit the wall this weekend. How do you know when you are putting off writing? I'll tell you. When you find yourself watching all the news videos on CNN and then start on the "secret" videos of Big Brother 6. Then you start checking for duplicate songs on iTunes, editing tags and equalizing volume while you're at it.

The blog celebrated it's third birthday on Thursday by hanging around waiting for me to do something fiberful. Fat chance. And by the way, thanks Carolyn, you had to link to this.

I'm Just Sticking with Academics for Now

Nice little bag, right? First of all the fabric frays like crazy, so in my zeal to finish this Sunday evening I was snipping at the loose threads and cut into the fabric. Okay, I can live with that - I didn't like the fabric and I didn't like the way I put in the button loop. I should have folded it the opposite way. I wouldn't give it to anyone, but I would use it to store a project. Then I looked inside.



Yes, that would be a lovely 8"x10" zippered pocket sewn upside down. With that, I got my clothes ready for the week, packed up the laptop and other necessities and went to bed. I'm back in class for two weeks. Despite having three pairs of pants cut and ready to go, I'm laying of sewing until I'm not so rushed.

The merino is in the mulch pile, thanks to all the good advice. I always think I can save something, but it's very liberating to just close the book. So, Cassie, is the bag a good lesson, too? I seem to be in the education mode.

Disorder is always in a hurry

Napoleon was right!



I've been sewing so long that I have a tendency to breeze right through directions for something as simple as a bag. Seems like I've put the bag bottom in wrong. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but it will affect the hang of the bag. It's a do over.

I've had some pretty funny sewing mistakes. In my senior year of high school I took a speech class. We had to do a demonstrative speech so I decided to show how to make a dress. I went with something similiar to this. We made arrangements to give my speech in the home ec room. I had parts of this outfit finished in advance and as I gave the speech I finished a facing, a seam, etc. I sewed the last seam together (the seam that went up one leg and down the other) and, with a flourish, gave the dress a shake. Unfortunately I grabbed the wrong sides and the dress looked like it would be just right if I was doing a perpetual split! Everyone cracked up and from what I hear the look of my face was pretty funny. I still got an A. Another time (still high school) I made a dress with a toile fabric. Unfortunately, I placed the pattern going the wrong way. No problem, I cut out a smaller dress for my sister. Made the same mistake with a Holly Hobbie dress for Laura. No cutting smaller this time, Laura was two. When I pointed out the mistake Laura said it was better - she could see Holly better! She loved that dress and wore it constantly (including a family portrait with the in-laws).

Is this worth the trouble?



I bought a pound of merino fleece to try out an ebay vendor. It's very short with weathered tips. I've tried carding and combing and nothing will get all the little neps out. I tried spinning very fine and that helped, but was extremely slow and it still had some neps. I'm thinking I gave it all I could. The color is very blah, not a rich brown, although the yarn is very springy.

Bird Identification

I heard the birds chattering up a storm last evening and when I looked out I saw this on the bench. I was able to get my camera but it still had the manual settings for the yarn pictures and between that and going through the glass I didn't get a clear shot. My niece thought it was a hawk. It was about 24" tall and looked to have a wing span of about 40". The legs crack me up - looks like he has little leg warmers on. Let's just hope he doesn't like fish!

Thanks for the advice yesterday. I didn't go in the attic nor did I weave! I did, however, plan a blanket and looked through my sample books to pick colors for painted warp dishtowels. My niece is up from Alabama. She thought she was escaping the heat and heavy humidity. Ha! She is also excellent at untangling so I set her to work on some badly disfigured skeins of sock yarn - she untangled and I balled them up. I also balled up the autumn yarn and made a swatch.



I tried fair isle for the bottom motif and it was too heavy and distorted. The top one is much better (though the camera angle seems to belie it). It was done with intarsia, two strands of gold and one of rust. The body of the sweater is done in one piece so it will be a little messy for those eight rows, but I'm not using bobbins - the lengths are less than 18" so it shouldn't tangle too much.

Autumn's Here

Yeah, right! I just looked at Accuweather's 15 day forecast and we're hot, hazy, and humid for the rest of the month. However, I finished spinning the autumn yarn (sounds more appealing than the 70's yarn).



The green and rust colors are accurate. The gold looks much more subdued - think blazing gold! I think I'm back to the original plan which was making a barn jacket. Remember Down at the O.K. Corral in Knitting the New Classics? I'm going to make it longer, with pockets and with the diamond intarsia enlarged and centered on the back.

You might have thought I was quiet because I spent my first of two weeks off working on fiber projects. WRONG! I did spend a lovely day at Marie's, sitting on the porch spinning and enjoying the farm. Claudia brought her Norm Hall wheel and I got to try it out. What a beautiful wheel - the workmanship is amazing. Tuesday was back to reality and I started cleaning out my son's room and turning it into a guest room. Those of you who have twenty-somethings moving in and out at an alarming rate will understand why it took me THREE DAYS! I still need to paint and clean the carpet but it was presentable enough for to set up the aerobed for my niece who drove up from Alabama. Someone took off the closet doors (I think that was Laura) and I couldn't find the hardware to put them back up, so here's what happened to one of the tie dyed pieces.

Still no weaving or sewing (unless you count the hemming and sleeve for the curtain), but I did get back to blending a few more batts of the corrie.



Now what will I do this week - weaving or start on the attic? Hmmm.

Rag .....

rug, placemats, runner?



Sorry about the fuzziness, but I was too lazy to attach the camera to the tripod! You can still see how well the colors in the fabric go with the floor. Maybe too well.



I put the camera on the edge of the table, so this is a bit clearer. I like the way it goes with the wallpaper and paint, so rather than have the rug blend in complete with the floor I will make a runner and 6 placemats.

As you can see I have plenty of fabric (I have two of these) to cut into 1.5" strips. I used similar fabric for a rug last year. I like the off white and tan warp with it. The brown warp was for another rug, but there was a sad tale about the rags and I was left with warp to experiment on. The kitchen table is ceramic tile with an oak border and I think there will be more contrast with the placemats.

I ordered samples of rug warp from The Mannings, so this will give me something to think about while my mind rests before one last proofreading.

I Am Here

Just not doing anything except academic work. Not unless you count about 15 rows on a sock as being on a fiber roll! As my mind drifts off in class (I know, I'm a teacher, I never said I didn't understand my students) I have a couple weaving projects I'm thinking about. A couple of rag rugs with the tie-dyed fabric I dyed two summers ago and a painted warp for kitchen towels. I'm also working on a plan for placemats and a runner. I finished one paper last night and I'm halfway through the next. With any luck I'll get it done tomorrow and have some time to wind the warp before it's Tuesday and I'm back to school. It's a little hard to paint a warp if it's still on the cone. For that matter, it's a little hard to weave the rugs without ordering the rug warp.

Not all is lost. I have been getting some time during my commute and breaks to listen to my iPod. I'm working my way through Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs (someone gave me a dvd with all of the mp3s) but I think I'm getting too anal about this greatest song list. I'm keeping the list on my Zire so that I can rank them and keep my comments. I think I better let that go. I enjoyed Lian Hearn's Across the Nightengale Floor and I'm listening to Grass for His Pillow right now. I downloaded Hadassah: One Night with the King thinking it would be similar to The Red Tent.

My Three Day Vacation

What do you do if you know you only have three days between the end of school and the beginning of your summer classes? Make a list! The last two days were spent doing things in the house and garden. Today I'm going to get projects started so that I can have a little fiber fun in the evenings.

I have the tables and pots ready to go in the garage. There are a few Sabracon projects (as soon as I get the 10/2 cotton warped) and some warps and rovings I want to paint.

This afternoon I'll card up some more of the corrie tweed. I finished the nugget gold plying - next up is the rust. (For those who commented, the rust is just plain Rust right out of Cushings' envelope)

I'm getting close to the toe decreases for the Chutes and Ladders sock. That's going with me to school for knitting breaks. I've got to clean up around the sewing machine before any kimono work.

Thanks to June's suggestions I was able to get a true picture of the nugget gold yarn. I found the smaller tripod stashed in the bowels of a closet. Then I changed the white balance and suppressed the flash.



I still need to play around with the settings to get a true picture of the tweed yarn. Every picture shows it much greener than it really is. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Spinning and Knitting

No weaving. No time or energy the past week or two for planning out the next project or even to begin sewing the kimono. I won't bore you with all of the details, but our school is making drastic reforms and switching to small learning communities. Along with that we are also changing from traditional 47 minute periods to four 88 minute block. It will be an A/B block with four classes each day. All teachers have to change rooms, regardless or whether their room is in the allocated space for their community or not. Mine was, nevertheless I had to pack all of my stuff and move next door! School was officially over for the year Friday, but we have two Flex Days? for next year that we are being requested to serve on Monday and Tuesday. Since this is a public blog I'll stop here.

I finished a pair of socks! Now that might not seem like such an accomplishment to most of you, but I seem to have a problem finishing socks. These Opal socks have been in production since May 2002 when I started them at MDS&W. The first sock I ever started looks exactly the way it does in this picture . To commemorate my accomplishment I immediately started the Chutes and Ladders sock. I thought I liked the variegated yarn but it doesn't really show off the pattern. I have a mushroomy solid that might work well with this.

Spinning seemed to be a way to wind down and relax this week too. I got another batt of my corrie tweed spun up and then, being too tired to stand at the carder, I reached into this eye burning nugget gold and began to spin a heavy two-ply. Originally I was thinking of a jacket, but now I think maybe a blanket or even a rug. I have equal amounts of silver-green and rust. These were straight Cushings Perfection dyes on Marie's lovely Finn/Dorset cross. Could I get any more 70s?

Spinning Report

I carded the first 60g batt on Sunday but didn't get a chance to spin it until this evening.



I seem to be doing a lot of spinning lately. Probably because I can zone out while I'm doing it. Weaving the bright kimono warp was very relaxing, but I haven't had time to sew the kimono or plan a new warp. (Yes, June, the dark band will go along the neck opening of the kimono)

Here's one of the skeins from the recarded Lambspun.



These skeins were softly spun from a merino batt from Bonkers


So soft and spongy - I can't stop squeezing them. I may need to keep them with me for the next few days. Graduation tomorrow afternoon and then another weekend spent in class.

Ack! The Router Went Down

I was able to check my email with my Budget Dialup but didn't try uploading any pictures to the blog. It's amazing how slow a 55K dialup is after having cable modem for a couple of years. And to think my first modem was 300 baud! After a quick run to Best Buy tonight I'm back in business.



This is actually old news now. I finished the warp last night and it looks great after washing. I'm going to try Sara's kimono directions on some old fabric first to make sure I've got it right. Now to find some time.

Ready to Blend

I carded 400 grams of the natural corriedale on the Louet today and then divided all of it into 20 batches.



Each of these are ~20 grams. Then I added 10 grams each of the four colors I dyed last weekend.



Next up - I'll run each batch through the Duncan. Dan (my oldest son) came by for breakfast and was impressed by how soft the samples were. Impressed enough to hint that this might be the yarn for his first handspun sweater. Hmmm. Maybe I could get it done in time of his birthday in November, but do I really want to acknowledge that I will have a son that's thirty years old? I'll give it to him for Christmas!