My Spinning Mind
I have been staring at the full bobbin on my Louet now for two days. I am not sure what I will want to do with it, whether I want to ply it with something, and if so, what. If I want to ply it, the next bobbin should be full of that something. I’m a bit stuck with all the wondering and the possibilities.
So of course that means I started another project. Or rather started finishing one I initially started on in October 2001. I took the first yarns I made on my Ashford wheel (before it was adjusted, so the twist varies greatly from big fluff to small overtwist) and connected one to another in a rainbow gradation of color. (That is, lime to emerald, to varying turquoises, to bright teal, to purple mixed with cobalt, back to teal, turquoise, emerald and lime. I wound this larger skein onto my niddy-noddy and then set the twist on the whole kit and caboodle. It’s drying right now.
It is very imperfect but I love it. The colors were all (except the purple) made with Kool-Aid drink mix or food coloring. I dyed the wool initially for a feltmaking project I did, The Fabric of Friendship in August of 2001. (See picture of me holding felt piece my mother and I created together.) This was my first excursion into dyeing wool, when I did not yet own a stockpot to use for commercial dyes. It was over 90 degrees the week I dyed the wool in my very hot kitchen, and yet I was more interested in the magic of dyeing the wool with Kool-Aid than how hot it was.
Have you ever dyed animal fibers? It is almost magic. You add together wool and dye (and sometimes a few other things such as detergent and/or vinegar), and leave it in some sort of heating process for a while, usually between 30 minutes and overnight. When you return to the pot, all the color has attached itself to the wool, and the water it was soaking in is clear. This is called exhausting the dye, and I am quite in love with the idea.
Anyway, I did the feltmaking project (which used a LOT of wool) and then still had piles and piles of loose wool rovings, dyed in many colors. So when I got my wheel in October, I tried out the wheel with those fibers. I’m told it’s harder to start spinning with combed fibers called top, which is what I had. Some people use fibers that are crossed every which way (carded rather than combed) and they find this easier to spin. Of course, since I started with combed fibers, I find them easiest for the most part.
My Ashford wheel was missing a piece when I got it, but I did not know it. The wheel functioned, but it would not adjust well. This meant I got designer yarn, thick/thin yarn with undertwist in places and slightly overtwisted other places. Two weeks after I got the wheel, I took a class for 4 hours at Old Mill Yarns in Eaton Rapids, and I was off and running. (While I was there, Linda found me a part for my wheel and adjusted it for me.) And my yarn was vastly better from that point. But I’m still in love with the first enthusiastic Kool-Aid dyed yarns I made in those first two weeks.
I set the twist tonight (Friday) and wound off a huge ball of loopy off-white mohair boucle yarn I was given by my friend Luann Udell of Durable Goods. I am going to knit one strand of artful early yarn and one strand of loopy mohair, together as one, and make a rectangular stole. I think the mohair will echo the loopy overtwisted parts of the early yarn, and also camoflauge some of the imperfections just a bit.
I am still working out details on this project, because I only have 214 yards of the artful colored stuff. I think I will make the stole rectangular and then add fringe made of just the mohair boucle, since I have at least 300 yards of that. Now to figure out what needle size, what stitch pattern (probably garter or seed stitch to show off the yarns) and how many stitches to cast on. I will cast on the long side, I will enjoy the color changes more that way.
I have two other stoles in my head… more brainless knitting for Foster Center computer labs. Right now I have my Peace Fleece rug there, 2/3 done. I can’t knit on that very long though, because I’m allergic to something about the yarn. The mohair I’m working with today also seems to be sort of animal-smelling a tiny bit, so I’m crossing fingers I can knit with it for longer before my eyes get scratchy. Typically after I wash these semi-processed yarns, I am just fine. It’s just finishing the object that is the challenge. Since I don’t sit totally still at Foster while knitting, it is sort of the perfect place for this sort of yarn.
I did rip out Brian’s Regia Stretch socks back to the gusset pick up this morning (Friday) while waiting at the doctor’s office. I knit on them at Foster a little and the auto body shop, and at dinner at Altu’s. (It was her younger daughter’s birthday today.) It was busy there, which was a wonderful bit of news. Usually they are dead slow on long weekends. They are closing up Saturday so that she and Charles can take a long weekend like many others. They might as well, since three-day weekends typically bring minimal business. It’s a big treat for a small-business owner to get a weekend of that type. I’m happy for her.
I now have regained the knitting I ripped this morning (Friday), and even with much smaller needles I am past the gusset decreases now. I am fascinated with this yarn, it is so very different from other sockyarns. I wish I liked the colorway more (it has a lot of gray and a good smattering of brown) but I think Brian will wear them because of the green that is in it (plus the solid green yarn which I also chose for rib, heel and toe).
I’m contemplating either a road trip tomorrow (Saturday) or a dyeing day. If I don’t dye tomorrow I’ll go down and play with the wool and colors on Sunday for sure. Tomorrow night I might go to Dearborn and watch a friend dance at one of the Lebanese clubs there. A bunch of us thought we’d go (from Habibi Dancers) so if it all comes together, it could be a very good time.
I was up until 3:30am last night and got only 5 hours of sleep plus a nap. I am used to getting a full night’s sleep. Time to crash so I don’t get sick. Goodnight!