Fiber Musings

You know what was the real pisser about not being able to go sailing last weekend?  The cruise out was the entire reason why I wasn’t able to attend Black Sheep Gathering.  I had scheduled my trip north on the assumption that I was going to go to Summer Sailstice Hanse Rendezvous.  When the plans fell apart on Saturday morning, it was a real let down.  And it was rather disappointing to drive north on Monday/Tuesday knowing that I was driving toward Eugene when everyone else was leaving.

Okay, gripe over.

On the happy side, I’m up in Washington now for Janine Bajus‘ Designing Your Own Fair Isle Sweater, sponsored by Madrona Fiber Arts.

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Yarn Specs

Fiber: 3.5 oz (100 gm) Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks, Moody Blues colorway; 1 package of bombyx/merino, and 1 of tussah/cashmere, spun onto separate bobbins and then plied together (I still have some leftover singles on a bobbin)
Drafting method: semi-worsted
WPI: approximately 28 wpi (I was lazy and used the spinner’s tool instead of actually wrapping and measuring)
Yardage: 770 yds
Yarn Classification: 2 ply; this equates to 3,250 ypp, which is definitely in the lace weight category.

I had a plan for this yarn when I started, but unfortunately, I can’t remember what it was now. It was definitely lace. It was definitely for >500 yds, which was why I went stash diving for the second package of Moody Blues colorway, even though it has different fiber content. Sheen, drape, softness, and a slight halo. What more can a girl ask for?

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No Wind. Broken impeller. Not going anywhere on the boat this weekend. Joys of boat ownership.

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I celebrated the day by doing laundry.  No, seriously.  My order for Wonder Wash and Spin Dryer finally arrived yesterday.  So what better way to celebrate the longest day of the year by doing a couple of loads of laundry and putting them out on the drying rack.

I did a normal load of white permanent press in my front loading washer, without the extra spin.  Ran the load through Spin Dryer to see how much water remained.  I had to separate it into 2 spin loads since it was a fairly large load.  I only got about 2 cups of extra water out.  So, the spin cycle in my washer is already fairly efficient.  Since I normally do the extra spin cycle to reduce drying time, I’m not sure that the Spin Dryer buys anything extra on a regular load.  But, it will be great for drying fiber, yarn, and sweaters!

I also did a small delicates load in the Wonder Wash, since my delicates never fully justify a full wash load.  This worked out great.  In under 5 minutes, the load is washed and in the Spin Dryer, even with 2 rinse cycles, and it used less than 1.5 of water for the full cycle (I put too much water in)!  The Spin Dryer spun out about a 1/2 gallon of water.

Everything was almost dry before I had a chance to finish hanging everything out on the clothesline.  Of course, having it be a 90+F day helps.

I can see the Wonder Wash used for a lot of my knitted garments.  Did you know that the WonderWash can fully wet your fabric in less than a minute?  This would be really handy for those spur of the moment dye projects.  No more soaking your skeins or fiber overnight before you can start dyeing!

This weekend is another cruise out — The Summer Sailstice.  I gotta run and get the boat ready!

How are you celebrating the longest day of the year?

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The club is cruising out to our favorite destination this weekend. There will be at least one other knitter in the group who is guaranteed to have her knitting with her. We’ll have a mini-wwkip gathering on our sailboats.

See you when I get back!

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