Fiber Musings

I have the fortune of having some wonderful friends who make sure that I’m never alone during the holidays. I will be joining one such extended family for dinner this afternoon. Tomorrow, I’ll be having yet another turkey meal — the club has a tradition of cruising out to Angel Island for Thanksgiving weekend and frying a turkey on the beach.  I made 4 chocolate espresso pecan pies last night. 1 for today, 2 for tomorrow, and 1 to keep and share with Penny‘s family.

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The fingerless glove used up about half of spun yarn.  I could have made another pair of fingerless gloves, but I was bored.  So, I decided to make a bow-knot scarf to make a matching set.

I’ve lost track of how many bow knot scarves I’ve made.  It’s one of my favorite quick knits when I need a last minute present.

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First the good…

Chameleon Colorworks Purple Rain/Eggplant 2-ply lace weight yarn previously posted.  Here it is in all its glory, post wet finishing and a light block on the skein winder.  Post wet finishing, the resulting skein measures out at 1156 yards (approx. 2300 ypp).  I lost about 12 yards in the wet finishing.  Not too bad.

Now, the not-so-good…

I was itching to spin some mohair boucle.  I found a small bag of mohair locks that had been dyed in peacock blues, greens and purples.  Lovely to look at.  Until I started to prepare it for spinning.  It was tacky.  It was so tacky that I couldn’t fluff the locks.  I zapped it in the microwave with a sprinkle of water to warm up the grease.  Better, but I had to work fast, and reheat periodically.  Spinning it was interesting.  On the one hand, my hands were well lubricated from the grease, but the yarn was still gummy.

Okay, a hot bath of the yarn should take care of the gummy stuff, right?  Nope.  Boiling water and lots and lots of dish soap later, all I got was a faded skein of yarn.  The color continued to come out in each bath, and the fiber remained tacky.  (I don’t remember where I bought the mohair locks from, since there were no tags in the bag.  I wish I did so that I won’t make that mistake again.)

Lower left, the remaining mohair singles.  Upper right, mohair skein, post however many baths I did.  You can see how much of the color had washed right out.  Both piles went out with last night’s garbage.

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And it’s been cold.  Walking the dog now means long pants and sweaters instead of shorts and t-shirts.  My fingers are cold.  I can’t find my fingerless gloves, then I remembered that I left them up on the island for keeping my hands warm while walking on the beach.  It’s time to make another pair.  My eyes fell on the Green Bananas yarn.  It’s a bit thicker than what I like for socks (almost DK weight), but they are perfect for gloves. The first one took nearly a full day, since I was making up the pattern as I went.  3 rip outs later, I’ve got a glove.  The second one went quickly because I just matched it to the one already knit.  Unfortunately, I didn’t measure quite correctly (difficult to see when the lights are dimmed at the club and belly dancers are doing their thing), so it’s slightly smaller than the first.  But they’ll keep my hands warm while walking the dog.  He won’t mind.

Specs:
Gauge: 5 sts/in
Needles: US #4 (3.5 mm)
Pattern: My own, using the wide gusset recipe from Interweave Knits, Winter 2003. Gusset over 2 sts instead of 4; increased to 14 sts for thumb gusset. 3 row picot hem. 32 sts around. Otherwise, fit as I went to determine when/where to start fingers.

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A Womack Butterfly Electric Spinner appeared on my door step last month.  Yeah, magically.  I don’t know how that happened. (If you believe that, I have some prime real estate in Florida for you…)  It really does spin wonderfully.  And it’s quiet!

The wood is spalted maple.  I bought it with the Woolee Winder option.  After all, why go fast when you have to keep stopping to move the yarn from hook to hook?  I requested the flyer on the left because I draft with my left hand.  More importantly, I’m right handed so the right hand is a bit more sensitive when adjusting the speed dial. This way, I don’t have to cross my body when I need to fine tune the speed.

My test spins?

Fiber: 4oz. Spunky Eclectic 100% BFL Green Bananas
Plies: 3
WPI: 11-12
Yardage: 220 yards

Singles spun on the Butterfly, plied on my Schacht Matchless.  I chose to ply on the Matchless because I make frequent stops when I ply to adjust this and that.  It’s easier to make quick stops with the wheel than on the Matchless.

Before I washed it, the yarn was very stiff.  I was disappointed that I may have overspun the singles.  But after a soak, the fiber softened right up.  The yarn isn’t particularly even, by my standards, but I’m quite happy with it,  Another pair of socks, coming up!

Fiber: Chameleon Colorworks BFL, 4 oz. each of Eggplant and Purple Rain colorways.
Plies: 2
Laceweight (didn’t measure the WPI on this)
Yardage: 1168 yards

Purple Rain is variegated, with blues, purples, and a small hint of green (bobbin on the left).  Eggplant (middle bobbin) is a nearly solid that is the same as the darkest purple in Purple Rain.  The resulting yarn (right bobbin) is, unsurprisingly, dominated by the purple.  It’ll be interesting to see how the colors pop out when knitted.  I’m thinking a lace something, either a square or a round shawl.

Again, the singles are spun on the Butterfly, and plied on the Matchless.

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