Daily Adventures

I should probably cross-post there... hm... been a while...

( Cut for the graphic pictures. )

For reasons unknown to all three of us, Jet has picked up an Outrageously bad British Accent. He's clipping his words and turning them and he's doing it without even being entirely aware of it until we start giggling.

I'll blame the Monty Python Fluxx and the fact that we played it with three different groups during our trip and whenever the "Outrageous Accent" card came up folks would enthusiastically bound into doing really, really bad accents. *laughs* But even Jet says he has no idea why he's doing it.

( Cut for visuals of other things and a huge Jet Burp. )

I was kinda praying it was just an April Fools Joke... but... kathrynt has posted a rather meaningful post on why a handful of my spinning posts that I had in my memories have suddenly disappeared.

To quote her, "Ain't no drama like INTERNET DRAMA cuz internet drama don't stop!"

Sometimes I'll admit that I really, truly, hate some people. I'm not above that, no sir. And, yes, I am going to damned well archive all my other knitting posts somewhere, somehow, comments and all.

... but I started a pair of handspun, singles socks a few days back and I fell in love with the fabric so much that a few inches into the toe-up socks I decided that they had to be mittens instead. Mittens last longer, and this fabric is kind of thin in places, but the whole thing is fuzzy soft and has this gorgeous halo. Plus the colors are coming out even cooler than I'd hoped.

Plus, I'd given both Jet and John mittens last winter, and my hands are cold enough this winter that I think I could use a pair on the way to and from the bus stop. So I am converting to mittens. It was fun to be able to do nearly five inches worth of knitting on the tube before deciding. It's good that my hands and feet are pretty close in size. *laughter*

So, when I checked out the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook from the library, there was a section in there about knitting with "energized singles", i.e. singles that had enough twist to be springy, but not so much they were twine-like. Up until now I haven't been confident enough of my singles to actually knit with them by themselves. One of the great things about two-ply is if one breaks while in use, there's always the other to back it up.

Plus the plying makes the yarn softer, more lofty, and even though the spin is in the other direction, because the two (or three or four...) plies are actually being twisted more because of being together. So that makes it even stronger.

So I haven't really been brave enough to do singles. But I saw a really beautiful example of Dudley Spinner's single ply socks while I was at the Weaver's Guild show, and I'm really, really tempted, now, to just do something like that. I'm using black faced Leicester, as it's strong enough on its own. Plus I'd dyed some really nice fall colors, and then over-dyed it again as the original was too faded for me. So it's really deep reds, greens, and warm browns now. Perfect for socks for me.

So I'm spinning the wool on my spindle and I'm very happy with how it's turning out. I'm also really ruminating over how to build the sock, as I'm not going to have a great idea of the gauge until I try it. Probably use #1 or #0 needles, and I'll likely be putting bits of roving into the parts of the sock that'll be under the heel and ball of the foot as that's where I wear them out first. So few of my every day shoes have heels that the back of my socks almost never wear out.

This should be fun. It's cool to *think* about a sock again.

I got to actually meet Deb, the force behind Dudleyspinner today. She was at the Boulder County Weaver's Guild show, and I called her to make sure that I could meet up with her, and it was great.

The greeter lady at the start asked me whom I was, and said that she'd been given an pass for my stuff. I was bringing stuff in to show her, so that was to the good. Deb really liked the navajo plied yarn I'd done from another of her rovings. Smooth and soft and easy to work with, so it was simple to do. Deb was doing demonstrations of needle felting and some drop spindle work, so I could help a little with the spindle stuff. That was fun. Then I got to shop for a while, and tried to limit myself as I have my huge stash. Yes, it's not all on Ravelry. I haven't even gotten *close* to having it all on Ravelry. *laughter* Especially if you count rovings along with the actual yarn.

But... there was a gorgeous sea blue as well as a fire colored roving that was calling out to me. But... I just got the sea blue and also bought some of the tussah that theredhead was selling there, too. Beautiful acid green and turquoise and blues that went really well with the darker sea blues. I'll have fun with it, and see what I want to make. Something with the silk as an edging and, maybe the sea blues as the body. Hat? Vest? Shell? Scarf? It's only eight ounces of the wool, so probably not a sweater.

Anyway, there were lots of people to show stuff to, and everyone was quite enthusiastic about it all. It was nice to put a face and voice to Deb. Yay!

I am oddly depressed afterward, though, and I'm not at all sure why. I'll probably just show my buys to Jennifer tonight, and that'll help, or something.

Today is John's birthday, so we'll be going out to celebrate and he got all his presents today, so that was to the good.

I was up too late last night.

I don't usually say that. As the Horde can well tell. But, for the first time in a while I was up until 2 am doing the last of the plying, shocking, and blocking of the last few ounces of the camel down I am spinning for Crown Mountain Farms. I'd promised it by early this week, and even though they haven't held me to my promises at all, I do.

( Read more... )

I am just amazed by this.

For those that wanted to see the camel down as it's being spun:

( Cut for pictures. )

Transformation is always the most interesting part of this fiber art stuff... I love how things mutate simply through what work I put into the item rather than any particular property of the item itself.

I did a dyeing and spinning thing just in the last week and I love, love, love the results... even as I'm kind of in the midst of them.

( Cut for pictures. )