Better, thanks. Time for a project roundup!

Thank you for all the sympathy on Wednesday.  I'm glad you all got a laugh from my pain.  No, seriously, I am glad.  In fact, there were moments during the morning, particularly when the dog ran away, when I thought "I have got to blog about this!"  Made it all a little more worthwhile.

Despite rather hyper behavior upon arrival home from school, we had a pretty decent night, thanks to help from my friend Jenn (whom I recently taught to knit, and who is now a major fiber junkie thank you very much).  I used to beat myself up about not being able to do it by myself.  Now, most of the time, I say, whatever--HELP ME!  The more help the better, I think.

Anyway, there has actually been some knitting, a little spinning, and some SEX (Stash Enhancement eXperiences).  Let's go to the pictures!

First, and most importantly, the sockapalooza socks are done!   I liked that little hint Alison dropped that those of us with international recipients should have already sent them out.  Hey!  Nobody told me!  I thought it was a deal where we all mailed them on the same day, not that they were supposed to arrive on the fifteenth.  HELP!  Anyway, now I'm relieved that my recipient is blogless.  I won't have to be shamed by her opening them (on the other side of the world) in April or something.  They'll go out tomorrow, OKAY?  ;)  No, seriously, this was not a full-fledged freakout (I've reserved this week's freakout for the freelance report due next week).  It got me focused and got me done.

I'm in that space right now where I have a ton of projects going on (let me finish--I know I always have a ton of projects going on) AND they're all in the middle of the project.  You know, that point where the novelty has worn off a bit, but the end does not feel right around the corner?  Where you have miles and miles of stockinette or some pattern that you're now accustomed to staring you in the face?  You know that point.  Despite the fact that starting something new FEELS like it's going to make you feel better, it usually makes me feel worse.  It will inevitably get to the same point, and now you've got another project in the doldrum phase.  So finishing is the only answer, and thankfully it was quick and easy to finish the socks.  Off they go.  Buh bye!  I keep forgetting I'm getting another pair in their place.  Cool.

Also in the doldrums is Clapotis.  It's fine, but it just has enough more work to go that I can't get excited about it.  Actually, technically, I should be starting the decreases on the next repeat.  However, a) I have plenty of yarn to do quite a bit more length, b) I feel like it's a bit short to stop now, c) I made it skinnier just so I could avoid running out of yarn (see a) and longer (see b).  I got myself into this, now it's time to knit myself out.  Also, the yarn is a bit fuzzy (hello, I knew it was mohair when I got it!) and will probably not be good to wear with black, which, unfortunately, is the color I wear pretty much every day.  Oh well, it will go with my coat, and um, everything else I'm knitting these days.  And I do love the colors.  Knitting on...

Not Crap: The Fair Isle has achieved approximately another half-inch, so it's photo time, right?  I actually have barely worked on it since the class last week, but it has had a bit of work since the last photo.  I have some slight concern about the fact that I have abandoned the forest green for the last two bands, but I'm reminding myself that I'm fully committed to getting back to it, in the VERY NEXT BAND in fact.  The plan is to go little greenish background, big blueish background, little blueish background, big greenish background, little greenish background, etc.  So it's fine.  And I'm also starting to accept that I'm probably going to hate each band until I finish it.  I haven't decided if I'm going to repeat the designs or just torture myself keep it interesting and do different designs (same color progressions) throughout.

I do have a little regret about this sweater.  For the Master Knitter program we have to use the yarns available at Webs, which is fair because the classes are really reasonably priced.  But Webs does not carry the full range of Jamieson's or Jamieson & Smith, which are the two really classic Shetland yarns for Fair Isles.  I was looking at a color card, and the colors are so much closer together in those yarns, so you wind up with a much less stripey, much more blended effect.  In the end, I think it will end up being not crap, despite all of this.  And perhaps hell won't have to freeze over before I make another jumperweight fair isle.  At least I'll have this sweater to keep me warm in frozen hell while I knit it.

I've squeezed in the odd moment of spinning the bunny blend  roving from the Spa.  Don't let this full bobbin fool you--under the bunny is some llama for test-spinning that was on the wheel when I bought it.  It's probably a couple of layers deep, that's it.  This is the only bobbin I have for this wheel, so I need to wind it off (like, now) to another bobbin and start anew, but again, not really motivated to do it.  So that's kind of sitting too.  This wheel is noisy, and I have been mostly knitting in front of the TV (I heart TiVO, it figured out that I love Dharma and Greg within a week, can you believe it?  I didn't even know it was ON, and I'll forgive it the Elimidate incident, I mean, just because I guiltily watch Survivor, The Apprentice, The Amazing Race, and Project Runway doesn't mean...oh, never mind).  Anyway, it's not great for watching TV.  Though I love spinning on it--it's so fast and smooth.  I'm actually thinking about getting rid of my Lendrum and getting a different portable wheel.  I know everyone loves Lendrums, I'm just not sure it's the wheel for me.  I need to finish spinning for Rogue first.  Another project in the deep freeze.

One thing I am excited about?  My Shetland roving from a young ewe named Bess arrived in the mail yesterday.  Can you believe Donna crammed 3 pounds of fleece in a priority mail envelope?  She did.  Wow, this fleece?  It's beautiful.  Incredibly clean, like, does this sheep live outside clean.  In between ordering and receiving this fleece I had read a caution in the book In Sheep's Clothing that you should be careful of multicolored locks (not multicolored fleece, like from a spotted sheep, but fleece like this where each lock of wool has more than one color in the individual staple), because the color change usually coincides with a "break" in the wool.  A break is a stress point where the sheep had some sort of problem (feeding, health, other stress--I think lambing can cause a break too), and it weakens the wool which can cause breakage and general poor quality right down the line, from fiber prep to spinning to knitting to the final garment.  I was a little nervous that that might be going on here.  I tested the locks by holding them taught and flicking them with my finger, and got a strong "ping" sound, just as the authors recommend.  Since they sounded wistful about how wonderful it would be to find a fleece with this characteristic that was not damaged, it made me even happier to have found this unique fleece.

Here's a lock right out of the bag (can you see the glistening white section?).  And here's the same lock after flick carding, next to a plied yarn spun from what was left behind in the carder.  Makes kind of a nice laceweight, eh?  In the about five minutes I spent reading about spinning for Shetland lace, I did read that it is primarily from undercoat fibers, so maybe that's not what I should do with the whole fleece.  It's hard to imagine spinning 7" locks that small, but this is where I'm getting over my head with the whole spinning thing.  I'm just starting to learn about different breeds and fiber characteristics, and I have mostly spun from commercially prepared rovings and top, so I haven't dealt with sorting a fleece and whatnot.  So, all that to say, what do you think?  Laceweight for a shawl?   Worsted for a--well it's 3 lbs of raw fleece so I guess it would be for a vest, I probably couldn't get a sweater out of it, though I suppose it won't lose much weight from washing, since it is nearly greaseless.  Or maybe make a lot of socks and hats with it?  I'm kind of thinking I should comb it (more stuff to buy and learn to use)--seems a shame to card these beautiful long locks--or maybe just flick-card it and spin away?  Or just experiment.  Probably what I'll do, and that won't be for a bit of a while.  No rush, though it sure is nice to play with!  I'd love to hear any advice from experienced spinners.

Well, that's quite enough for one day.  I'll leave you with a cute kid picture.   My enthusiasm about the fleece must have rubbed off because as soon as the carders came out the kids wanted to play.  Eleanor was carding, and Henry, of his own accord, and having not been exposed to the concept since last summer, decided to make felt.  And tonight he made up a song that went "spin some yarn, spin some yarn, spin some yarn..."  These kids are either going to grow up to be master fiber artists, or they'll hate every bit of it.  Which do you think? 

Comments

[Lynn]

I did shearing with Kevin Ford last week and there were a couple of iffy fleeces. (He's judging at MASW in May) He said that they primarily have a peach tinge to them closest to the sheep's body. I was really bummed out because one of the ewes who threw a gorgeous fleece last year had the peach tinge this year.

Lambing at the farm starts in about 2 weeks. I'm anxious to see what's coming... they were bred this year with a brown/black ram. Some of the ewes have a recessive dark gene in them so my boss is hoping for some black lambs this year. No matter what I can't wait to meet them. :-D

[Jo in Ottawa]

That fairisle is looking very nice. Stop worrying about it and get on with it (in proper English schoolmarm tone of voice).

My colleague at work has decided that it is best not to have more kids than adults. Not sure what he thinks his partner does all day while he's at work but maybe minimizing the more kids than adults situations can be your goal. Makes accepting help part of the plan.

hat fleee looks nice but what do I know. You'll get me blogging before you get me spinning :-p

[Emma.]

Great socks.Clapotis looks fab - lovely yarn.Great fleece.Looks like it wants to be laceweight to me. ;-]
Your fair isle looks marvellous and your children are beautiful.

:0)

[Snowball]

Teach that boy to knit! I've been working on teaching my eight year old son, but he's still more interested in video games. I'll fix that yet.

That fleece is screaming Shetland Shawl to me, too.

[alison]

Oooh, I'm lovin' how all your projects are in the same color range. Sooo pretty! Your socks look great. I'm sure your pal will love 'em!

I was under the impression that we were all sending out on the same date too, but I started hearing from people that they were sending stuff out like weeks early to get overseas, so I figured yeah, that makes sense too. But seriously, no pressure from me. I just want everyone to get finished socks, so I'm really happy to see everyone finishing up now. Plus, it's so exciting! :)

[Cece]

Hey! Thanks for adding a comment to my blog! I don't usually get many comments. How funny is it that we both are in Ethnic 1 AND Sockapalooza.

I'm adding your blog to my list of must reads - see you in a few weeks!