Fiber Musings

I made the mistake of taking a Claritin-D last night. I was careful by checking my blood pressure before and an hour or so after taking it. No increase in my BP. So far so good. But 4 hours later, I woke up and wasn’t able to go back to sleep. I was wired. BP still good, but couldn’t relax. I had forgotten what the extended pseudophedrine does to me.

So what’s a girl to do? Go to her spinning wheel and experience a little zen.

This is “The Beat Goes On” colorway (discontinued) from Crown Mountain Farms. I sort of followed Teyani’s directions for spinning the fiber, with one difference. I broke the roving into approx 10″ lengths. I ended up with approximately 60 lengths each of light and dark. I’ll be spinning 20 lengths of each onto 3 separate bobbins for a 3 ply yarn. The singles are approximately 40 wpi.

Isn’t it pretty?

And you know what? It worked. My body and brain settled down enough 90 minutes later for me to head back to bed for another 3 hours.

Oh, and you see that bit of fluff where the red arrow is pointing? It was a tip I picked up at SOAR. Remember my complaint of the rattle with the new WooLee Winder? It turns out that it’s because of my spinning method (semi-long-draw). When the tension is taken off of the spun fiber for drawing in, the mechanism has a bit too much play and rattles. By tying a bit of yarn around it gave it just enough cushion to muffle the rattle. It still rattles a bit, but no longer as annoying as it did before.

By the way, look at this! See all those tick marks? Yup. I’m 3 squares from finishing the body of the sweater. I was hoping to finish it by 2008, but I’ll have to settle for finishing the body by 2008.

I think I will seam it up and work the neckline and waistband before starting the sleeves. That way, I’ll know exactly how much of each color I have remaining. I’ll work the sleeves in stripes instead of squares, as shown on the book’s back cover.

The colors are approximate and not exactly me (except the purple, which I bought later when I decided to work this sweater). They worked better for my stepmother, for whom I picked the yarn out for. But it should be a nice cozy sweater for wearing around the house or walking the dog.

To close, here’s a picture of the finished fingerless gloves. As I said earlier, they are dense and warm. A little bit of all the colors in the repeat shows up in each glove to make them definitely fraternal, but not identical. I like.

P.S. I finally signed up for Ravelry. My screen name is FiberMusings. Now I can see what the fuss is about.

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No pictures. I’ve caught a lovely chill from an adorable cherub over Christmas, and am confined to bed.

The fingerless gloves are definitely fraternal, not identical. I’ve already worn them a few times while walking the dog. With the temperatures dropping to the 40s, they have been perfect dog walking gloves. The fingers are free to do what they need to do. The fabric is dense to keep not only the chill off, but also the light breeze.

The finger lengths do not line up because I didn’t do such a great job of counting the rows. But that’s okay. I feel rather bohemian when I wear them. Now, I just need a drafty artist loft in Paris and drink café by the bucket load.

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Michael never had one as pretty as this…

Fingerless glove from yarn leftover from the vest. I used the recipe described in Interweave Knits Winter 2003. The glove is knitted to fit as I go. I’d better finish my notes so I’ll have something to work with for the other glove!

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Go dance naked in the snow or something to celebrate!

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It’s been cold. I just want to wrap myself up in something soft and warm. I can’t stay in bed under the comforter all day, so…

Pattern: Artisan’s Vest by Green Mountain Spinnery (I have both the single pattern and the book)
Yarn: Handspun of unknown source and vintage; approximately DK weight; chain-plied. The fiber is most likely from Dicentra Designs, but I can’t be absolutely positive.
Needles: US #6/4.00 mm and crochet hook E
Size: 40″ (because it’s all about layering)

I followed the pattern exactly as written, even down to the needle size and gauge. The only change is the yarn. It’s a little loud, but it’s soft, and warm. It’s also bright enough to cheer up any gray day…too loud for me to comfortably wear outside the house. No matter.

There are random spots where the color is long, and they happily occurred in the top front areas. I didn’t go looking for them, they just happened. I love it when that happens. I even like the fact that they are not the same colors.

For the crocheted edge, I picked up 3 out of every 4th vertical row. I need to find 5 buttons to finish off the front. Any suggestions on colors? I’m thinking a potpourri of colors. What do you think?

I have enough yarn leftover to make a hat or fingerless mitts or both.

I’m now digging through my handspun stash for more yarn that I can turn into winter warmers.

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