][ a wild post appears!

I sort of conceived blogging about my textile adventures as a way to keep myself honest about how much I was (or wasn’t) doing, though of course on the wasn’t side that’s a bit self-defeating... since if I’m not spinning and knitting I have no spinning and knitting to talk about. But I’m doing some things and dreaming of some other things so I figured, may as well talk about that. And then eight months from now when I’ve finished my current project and not touched anything else-- or maybe worse,

On the spinning front: soon I need to make a post documenting the state of my stash, but for now I’ll tell you I am still working away on that green roving. I decided to, as best as I could manage, measure and re-wind the leftover bit, spin an equivalent (re-measured and rewound) bit on the second bobbin, then split the rest of the roving and hope for the best. I think it’s going..... terribly, to be honest. I don’t feel like the second bobbin’s going to have enough and I’m worried the yarn is too thin to stay together to be plied. But I’m soldiering on because I don’t really have a lot of options, and hoping I’m wrong about the various issues. At any rate, all this is a learning experience, which is why I’m using the little curl of kool-aid dyed fluff I got for a couple bucks instead of the huge (and not inexpensive) braids of hand-painted merino or the limited-edition tussah roving or the hot pink bamboo.

That said I’ll still be really depressed if it turns out horribly, or doesn’t turn out at all and just dissolves in my hands when I go to ply it.

After this I think I am going to play around a bit with the interminable bag of hemp roving, and... I don’t know what I will do with it. Yup. I’ve never loved spinning hemp on a spindle, though I sort of had a breakthrough last time I tried, but this roving is a safe “learning” fiber for me, because I won’t cry if I totally ruin it. And I can always get funky and ply it with something else if I really want to in the end. Or dye it. And anyway I’ve never knit with hemp yarn, it’ll be an experience.

It’s not that I believe I will fail, I just don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Some things I have learned, which I will put here so I might actually remember them:

- if the yarn is drafted too thin, don't overcompensate by following it with a thick chunk. That won't help, it will just give you a thick chunk. If the twist hasn't gone into the fiber yet, keep it pinched out and reach back for more fiber. If it has, and you don't want to pause and untwist a couple inches and fix it, giving it a little extra twist to keep the thin spot from unwinding and slipping apart might do the trick.

- slow down. The most important thing is to stay steady. It's not a race, and just like on a bicycle, if you go too quickly you will get out of control and veer off and crash into a fence and mangle your leg and die horribly. Or probably just make some crappy yarn. But! Slowing down means more time to put the twist in, make sure you're pleased with it, and feed it on in to wind on the bobbin. Do that too quickly and you end up way overspun.

- you will overspin things. Plying will take a lot of that out, setting will help even more, and it's handspun. If you wanted perfect yarn you should've bought it at the craft store. As my cousin says, the imperfect spots show where the love is.



I bought some plain white roving too, because I have terrible self-control and when I was trying to buy some extra cables for my interchangeable needles I... well, there were four skeins of chunky cotton, some lace-weight wool, the roving, and a few other bits and pieces in my box, let's just leave it at that.

Anyway. In the name of keeping myself honest here's a knitting to-do list of sorts:

- That Green and Grey Thick Cotton I Bought in a Moment of Weakness: I am envisioning a perfect little checkerboard throw thingie. This means I will need to learn intarsia.

- Socks. Socks socks socks. I might be working on a little something right now (more about that later no doubt,) but I want to knit myself some socks. And I want to knit my mother some socks. To start with I have two skeins of yarn in the closet that want to be socks for me, I think I'm ready to let that happen

- Something Dramatic: every time I go to a fiber festival I'm depressed that I have nothing to wear, as all my knits are pretty... well, warm and wooly. Even the non-woolen ones. I'm eyeing either the shipwreck shawl, which I have been hoarding a skein of Lorna's Lace for, or a sweater... which doesn't help the summer issue, but I think the next thing I might go to is Rhinebeck and that's october so it's okay.

- Other Things.


I wanted to be more verbose but I think I've lost my thin thread of conversation, and I'd better go get dinner started, ooghhh.