Over the weekend I left the Goob and the husbeast to be whiny and cranky with each other, and knit:
This is all I'm working on at the moment (though I should be sewing together the hex jacket). It's the Christmas sweater for my father-in-law. See the stitch holders? Those are the arm pits. I'd like to have the body done by the end of the week but I'm through setting goals for myself. They just make me neurotic. (Those who are new to the blog and don't believe me, hit July, August, and September of 2006, in the archives, for proof. For those who HAVE been around a while... remember the State Fair? 'Nuff said.)
A couple months ago I had that two-pound wad of merino roving lurking... I divided it (or tried to divide it) into four-ounce hunks, and dyed it. Most of the hunks came out to about five ounces, and I wound up with some extra little hunk of wool that I dyed with orange and pink speckles and called "Clown Fish". Over the weekend, I spun it up. It was more for practice than anything else, and then I chain-plied it, again for practice.
No idea what in hell I'm doing with it (there's about a hundred yards there, and it's heavier than the majority of yarns I use), but it kept my hands busy. Which kept me from killing the other humans in my house. So it's all good.
THEN. The big news. Finally figured out how to spin the carbon fiber.
I'm treating it like silk. After reading up on the 'net, I had another go at it this afternoon, and had success! It's fairly even and there are very very few lumpy bits. (I'm picking out most of the slubs as I go, and there aren't many of those, either.) Should make a nice, comfy sweater. I'm afraid I'm going to call this project "Bullet Proof" even though I KNOW carbon fiber isn't bullet proof, just because it sounds amusing. Well. I could name it "Vroom" ('cause carbon fiber is used to make car parts). Hm. I'll think on that a bit.
Anyway, while the in-laws were here I showed my father-in-law the carbon fiber for the husbeast's sweater and my father-in-law couldn't stop laughing. I hope to have enough yarn left over to knit my father-in-law a scarf with it. Maybe with some teflon-treated wool (from Dale of Norway) for variety, and to make him laugh more.
It's good to have hobbies. I don't think any of us would have made it through the weekend, otherwise.
5 comments:
I don't care what the newspaper articles say, plain Tussin (guaifenesin only) clears my head out. I can't take Benadryl unless I want to be unconscious.
Anyway.
Yes. Failing to kill the other members of one's household is a good thing. Maybe I'll hold forth on mead tomorrow.
Not killing grumpy people is good, yes. The carbon fibre looks fascinating and... father in law's sweater reminds me that my dads cabled sweater is probably going to be frogged and restarted in a much more simple form....
Your FIL is a treat! Tell him that if he will get you some steel wool, you'll knit him a muffler for his car. Muggles love that joke.
Ooh, that carbon fiber is mesmerizing.
Sorry everyone is sick, but you've got to admit, the carbon fiber IS uber cool. The FIL sweater is wonderful--and I know EXACTLY what you mean about deadlines!
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