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.