Saturday, November 04, 2006

Spinning Saturday

It was a chilly 39 degrees but partly sunny day here. I had the day to myself, being the only human on premises. A good day to spin and knit and just relax. Not, to be necessarily the case.

I spent two hours on this post, or was this post. Bloggerbeta ruined my picture links when I hit spell check. They showed up as links and no longer as pictures. This has happened once before, but I only had one picture at the time so wasn't as big a deal to go back and replace the links. So, I hit "recover post" thinking it would bring post pre-spell check. Instead, I got a post from two days ago. So, now after every paragraph, save post as draft.

I really, really need a laptop. As I think I might have wrote about this before, with my back I have to get up frequently, as sitting here, makes terrible pain. The problem is when I take a break, I'm still in the mode to do what I was doing on the computer. So, I end up going back too soon, and putting myself in worse pain. With a laptop, I could work anywhere, in any position. The goal is looking for the cheapest refurbished laptop, since I really don't need all the bells and whistles.

If you should be a spindle spinner with the good fortune of finally obtaining a wheel, might I suggest you keep your spindling skills intact by spindling every few days. Don't let the speed of the wheel tantalize you into forgetting your spindle. You might just have a need to spindle at a later time only to find you have grown extra thumbs, and lost the fluidity you once had as a spindler.

I decided to continue spinning the rest of the wool from my mother's sweater on the spindle. Didn't think I could duplicate the same singles. My spinning on wheel went to zoom lace weight within weeks of getting the wheel. My default spinning always goes to extremely fine lace even when I'm trying for two ply sock weight. I really should have taken my above advice and not let wheel tantalize me away from the spindle. This week I picked up the spindle to finish the last bit of wool for my mom's sweater. My drafting skills aren't as even as they once were, and I feel like I have grown a few extra thumbs over night.
Below are pictures of said wool, I tried to take advantage of a patch of sunlight. The large dark spot in the first picture is Lexie bunny, she was trying to help with arrangement. Second picture is with flash added, sans Lexie.


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Above is superwash merino, I dyed in what I thought would look like winter camouflage once spun and knit. The second is two ounces of singles being plyed Navajo. This is going to be a hat and pair of socks for my youngest son for Christmas. It's getting to be that time of year again, to plan projects for presents in hopes to have them finished in time. If you're anything like me, the hope is futile and end up out on Christmas eve shopping.

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The first of the above is BFL in a varigated antique rose colorway, I dyed. It was first try for lace weight and ended up being a little heavy with a 20wpi. I think this would make a great winter stole or shawl. I have two skeins of 522 and 582 yards.
The second is one ply of BFL and another of tussah silk. It is a finer lace weight with a 30 wpi. There is 1600 yards in this skein. It's a natural creamy color.
The third is a fine merino two ply with an opal metallic thread added. It is also a fine lace weight of 30wpi, with 1925 yards in that skein.
I'm putting up all three for auction on ebay later this week. I really need to raise the funds for the laptop, more dyes, and adding stock to the store. This past summer really put us behind in our plans for the business.

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On the knitting front: The first footie is halfway finished. I have a life long habit of sitting on my left foot, so my right foot sticks out and gets cold in the winter. Poor, right foot is really wishing I would at least get the first one finished.
I'm almost finished with the heel flap on the second sock of Duane's first annual birthday sock yarn. Nothing new on the other two pairs. I hope have these socks finished soon, so I could back to rotating my knitting again.

1 comment:

Leslie Shelor said...

Lots of lovely yarns and projects. Love the bunny getting in the way!