all photos

Felted animal kit:

January 2008 Spunky Fiber Club (Lopi)

BFL dark brown

Fiber purchases (bad pictures because I did not unwrap them from the plastic and they caught the flash).

And today I dyed roving. It is drying now, but there might be some discussion of that in future.

last week it was the merino, hold the olive. this week needs the martini

social first. I continued my project of interacting with people. A lot of those first contacts I made panned out, with people who responded enthusiastically. Apparently it is not easier for other people to make friends. Today was a knitting group in a neighboring town. So I get credit for interacting with people in person.

knit second. ♦I have started the decreases on the hat-for-me from the handspun. That might be finished as soon as tonight. ♦I finished the knitting for the oven mitt (though the felting still does not look done).

spin third. I did not do a lot of spinning this week in terms of volume. I did the December Fiber Club yarn, and did my first chain ply (Navajo). Then I spun the rest of the fiber club into a single. I plan to ply that today or tomorrow.

Pint of Merino, twisted, no olive

This week:

• I dyed yarn. It was Knitpicks “Bare” superwash+nylon fingering/sock yarn. I dyed a third of the hank with Jacquard acid dyes “Gunmetal” and a third with food coloring (in a warm red+pink range). Despite having tried for solid colors, I ended up with a variegated monochrome for each. I think the idea of mixing the dye in a zip-top bag, then adding the yarn made for some really uneven dye transfer. Since the dye is heat-set, possibly the painting method could be used— then the painted skein could be placed in the bag and sealed for its boil-in-bag setting. I was not disappointed in the results despite them being unanticipated. Serendipity. Plus it was a great learning experience for something I had never tried. I will say that the citric acid powder was significantly nicer to use than vinegar and the resultant yarn was a lot less reeky.
• I have been hard at work on a felted oven mitt that I cross-bred with the Norwegian mitten in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac. The oven mitt pattern came from Knitpicks, sort of. Their 36 stitches of bulky-weight yarn required 2 circular needles or double-points. By adding another dozen stitches, I could freely use a single 16″ circ. I will felt it a bit more and that will be all to the good for an oven mitt which is trying to save someone’s fingers from pain.
• I spun the Pinedale merino heather fiber I bought from Carolina Homespun at a show, it came out well, but could have been nicer if I had waited until I had more experience. Of course one cannot get experience without trying new things. That fiber drafted very differently than anything else I had tried.
• My new fiber from Spunky Eclectic arrived! My black alpaca is here! I also got my first installment of the Spunky Fiber Club. It was an eyebrow-raising color.
• I spun thick singles and super-bulky weight yarn! This is 4 ounces of Spunky Eclectic superwash merino in “Hotrod”. You cannot feel it from there, but it is some of the softest yarn I have ever touched. I should probably have a whole post about this.
• I also made a small amount of triple-ply white yarn. It is lightweight, a sport-weight maybe, so you know how thin the singles must have been. I am impressed by how much rounder the cross section appears compared to the two-ply yarn. I also made more two-ply white. I am starting to need something to do with this stuff.
• I started the Eunny Jang “Endpaper Mitt” and frogged it immediately. I will need different needles.

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Social accomplishments.

• This week I contacted my local spinning guild. They replied and seem accepting of those newly come to the spinning world.
• I contacted a knitting group which has the hope of being populated by creative people instead of the “overly sweetened coffee and cashmere” crowd which take over the “Stitch and B*tch” kinds of knitting groups. (I do not personally mind cursing, but other people have more sensibilities.)
• One of the people I sent wheel advice to wrote back and we are supposed to be doing a knit-along for one of those insanely complex Eunny Jang mitten patterns.
• Someone I wrote out of the blue was very friendly and invited me to spin with her.