Category: Spin Page 67 of 69

Or not. The sun is shining with a light breeze building. I’d like to do nothing better than to loll about and play with fibers. Unfortunately, the cupboards are bare and the laundry basket is full. Nothing like harsh reality drop you back to earth in a hard thud.

Just to show that I have been able to get a little knitting done. Here’s a picture of the lack of progress I’ve been making on the Breeze Tee. I was at the arm hole decreases when I realized that I miscounted somewhere along the way. I ripped it back to the ribbing and here’s how far I’ve gotten.

On top of that are my Caruso socks. One sock is just right, but the other is too tight. Although they were knitted with the same yarn, same needles, and the same number of cast ons, I was so stressed with the move that I knitted the second sock too tight. The gauge on the socks? 15 sts = 2″ vs. 16 sts = 2″. Just that one stitch per 2″ was enough to reduce the circumference of the sock from 7.5 inches to 7 inches (over 56 stitches). Now, just think what that would do to a sweater? Always, always check your gauge!

Now, I have half a mind to rip, not just the too-tight sock, but both of them, so that I can ensure that I have a matching pair. We’ll see how I feel after I finish the Breeze Tee (and which half of my mind wins).

I’m healing nicely, according to my self appointed doctor. But with all the itching that’s going on, I have the attention span of a gnat. It’s all I can do to sit in front of the boob tube and spin. I can’t concentrate long enough to work on my Pi Shawl.

I did finish these skeins of a wool/mohair blend from Willow Creek Farm. It started as 8 oz of roving. There’s a little bit of turquoise, purple, and yellow. It came out more lavender than I expected from all the turquoise that I saw in the bump, except for the last skein, which is primarily turquoise. The final product is about 556 yds/6.25 oz of fingering weight 3-ply yarn. Perfect for socks. Unfortunately, that will have to wait until I can concentrate again.

That will be a while, since apparently, secondary blisters are coming up behind the healing skin. So, now I both burn *and* itch at the same time! Yuck. Nothing worse than itching but you can’t scratch, I thought, until the pain and burning came back on top of the itch. Yeow!

So, more spinning for me. I’m working on the black/turquoise/red/purple roving that I picked up last fall. Isn’t it gorgeous? I not only love this colorway, and the fiber, but I also love the way that this roving is dyed. It’s not totally saturated with color in the red/turqoise/purple areas. You can actually see horizontal stripes of uncolored rovings. Why is this important? There are some really subtle color changes going on here that is very difficult to describe. The color intensity fades in and out that makes the end result all that more dramatic.

And it drafts like butter. Perfect for someone who can’t focus — and perfect for perfecting the long draw. It just comes out soooo smoothly. You don’t even have to move your hand. Just take all the tension out of the brake, and hold on to the roving lightly, and treadle. No work at all.

I’m taking lots of pictures and notes on the roving. I hope to duplicate it sometime. I’d love to thank the artiste that created this roving but I can’t find the tag that came with this roving. I know it’s around here somewhere. I just need to unearth it. At least I remember where I bought it (fiber shop in Pt. Townsend). I’m navajo plying the yarn to preserve the color transitions as much as possible.

On other news … I went in for my exit interview at my former company today and turned in the old laptop and pager. What a relief. Even though the old pager hadn’t been on (nor had a battery in it for weeks), it’s nice to finally be rid of that thing.

The company in California has rescheduled my interviews for next Friday. So, 3 weeks after THE Incident, I’ll be going back to the scene of the crime. I wonder if I’ll be wearing pants again by then? I’m running out of casual skirts to wear around the house.