Monday, October 18, 2010

All Wool, All The Time...Except When It's Cotton

So let's recap.
Saturday I went to a yarn shop. I won yarn. I bought yarn.
Wanna know what I did on Sunday?


I made yarn! And it soooo ssssoooofffftttt....
Fleece Artist Merino Sliver, 2 ply, spun and plied on my Ladybug. It was really lovely fibre to work with, although it didn't go quite as smoothly as I had remembered the first bobbin going, but that's what I get for taking so long between spinning days.


When I had finished plying the yarn and was tidying up and getting ready to rejoin the family...I once again picked up some fibre that I bought in Haliburton while at the cottage a couple of years ago. Everytime I'm spinning, I pick it up, I look at it, think about it, remember that I bought it so that I could practise, because it's really not a colour way that I'm too fond of. And wonder if I'm ever really going to use it, but something about the fall weather and the fall colours wouldn't let me part with it or put it away. So last night, in bed, while watching "The Next Iron Chef"...


I pre-drafted. Doesn't everybody?

The overflowing basket is even somewhat compressed. One long, continuous piece of fibre....oooohhhhh.

This morning after everybody left I decided that I would just do a little spinning.

I ended up doing two passes on the bobbin and only quit because, 1) I had told myself I was going to quit half-way through the first pass and 2) the roving got away from me and broke; so I took it as a sign that it was a good place to stop for today.

All my other spinning has come from batts or those thick braided type samples that you need to divide and then predraft. I quite enjoy working with this long pencil (?) roving; I'm getting a finer single and I've got hours and hours of spinning enjoyment yet to go!

My plan was to alternate spinning wheels so that I get proficient on both my Ladybug and my Bee....So much for that plan!

I'm going to predraft some "Blood Orange" fibre tonight (today) though, to spin on my Bee tomorrow!


FO ALERT!!

One of my finishing projects that I was whining about on Saturday was this top. Hollyhock Ridge from Knitter's Summer 2010 K99 using Mission Falls 1824 Cotton. (The amounts called for were bang on with just enough left over to make some baby hats, I think.) While my dessert was baking yesterday, (Creme Brulee---it was o.k. I've made better) I wove in all my ends and felt really good about the whole thing, because I wasn't "just" knitting; no siree Bob, I was baking dessert!

Just like now, I'm not "just fiddling on the computer"; I'm doing laundry, and planning dinner, and thinking about dentists appointments, need to get new glasses...

Women make the best multi-taskers.

1 comment:

thatdarncat said...

Well, I'm exhausted just reading about everything you've accomplished. You put me to shame.

As a non-spinner, I don't even know what drafting is. A good topic of discussion for Thursday.

Pretty, pretty yarn.
Oh, and the creme brulee sounds good too...do you have one of those cute burner things to caramelize the sugar?