I'm not complaining, really, but boy does my arm hurt today.
First thing I did was some experimental dyeing. You guys are gonna love this:
Super-long color graduations. See how the outer edge of the skein is darker than the inside? It starts at light blue and shades toward a dark aqua, over two hundred (ish) yards. I did two skeins - one for each sock. Then I was having so much fun I did three more sets of yarn in different color graduations - light to dark green, indigo to dark purple, and one experiment that's all murky grays and dark greens and blues.
I finished up dyeing the silk hankies:
Everything I've ever read says that silk takes up dye well and easily. HAH. This little project was just a nightmare. In the future (if I ever work with silk hankies again, see below), I'm going to buy the damn things pre-dyed.
Then the light was good - for once - so I took a pretty good photo of the yarn I spun LAST week:
I think I know what I'm gonna do with this. AFTER I do the Christmas knitting and finish up three or four more projects laying around here. (We shall not discuss the number of things awaiting finishing - mostly sewing up, end-weaving, and blocking. But I can think of three sweaters offhand.)
In the midst of all that (dyeing doesn't really take a lot of brain power, or even much attention - put stuff in pot, turn on, set timer, walk away), I plotted out the basic idea for my mother-in-law's Christmas sweater, with an eye to making a pattern. Came up with a new way to write patterns (at least new to me - I'm sure someone else has thought of it), and trawled the internet for photo inspiration:
Then I got sidetracked, cruising Google Earth for megaliths, and I now understand why the UK pioneered 'salvage archeology' - they've got ancient ruins everywhere you look. Good grief.
Anyway.
Last night I tried to force myself to take a break, again, and the next thing I knew, I was in front of the wheel messing around with the silk:
That's two hours' spinning. Silk hankies are a bitch to work with (or else I have totally missed the boat on how to use them, but I don't think so). I really like the yarn produced (unfortunately), and will persevere since there's nothing else in the house to spin at the moment. Tomorrow.
Today, all I wanna do is take a nap. But as soon as I fall asleep, the Goober will go through the house playing with all the clocks (buttons are her new favorite thing), and I will wake up thinking it's next Tuesday. So I guess it's tea for me.
And probably knitting. I need to get a grip.
9 comments:
it all looks incredibly wonderful and productive. i swear when i finish this master's thesis i am taking time off and just doing fiber things for a week... i get a nice relaxed feeling and a sense of procrastination just thinking about it.
Moderation? What's that? I just counted and I have five newly begun projects, yarn in the wings for three more, and I'm not brave enough to count the "parts" piles in the corner. Pretty yarn, Samurai. I wonder what a "kukmr" is--it's my security word today. Sounds like Eastern European pastry.
Wow! Are you bluuuuuuuuueee? I'm still bluuuuuuuuueee!! Lots of that going around in your house... good thing it's GORGEOUS!! Yeah--my kids pushed my alarm button last night--I almost overslept! (my word verification was 'eyrzzzmy'--speaking of sleep!)
Love the super long colour gradations, and your spinning looks fab.
Yeah, the UK - everywhere you turn you trip over a piece of history (often literally). It's pretty amazing actually.
Wow to all the fiber stuff and the long colour graduations... wow!
And the uk history? We get blase about it (except I can't get the accent over the "e"). I think it's amazing and fantastic and am completely bemused and confused by people who think history is boring.
omg omg omg, I WANT THAT YARN. The varigated blue and the long varigated greens. I have money. I will pay. Or I will come and sneak in and steal it all and the Goober. LOL
Trish
Looks like you are having a blue-tiful time of it. The silk is turning out exquisitely, and oh, that long run dye work is to die for!
The blue yarn is gorgeous. I love the long gradations of color.
Hankies are AWESOME to spin. If you don't like them, send them to me. :D
Here's what I did when my sis-in-law came to visit. I had her pre-draft the hankies as thin as she thought she wanted. Then wrap into a little nest and pre-draft the next one. Once she got a little basket of nests she was happy with, I started her treadling, and off she went. That way she only had to focus on the amount of spin getting into the "roving strips".
How are you having trouble with the hankie? Someone mentioned something to me about 'putting it on a lampshade' or something strange like that. I don't know what's up with that, but if you're trying to draft as you go, starting with a square, you've got stronger hands than I.
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