Mostly Spinning

It's been interesting working with the Brown Sheep mill ends. I started on the mixed browns a few days ago. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this stuff is a little compressed and benefits from some loosening up. I've been pre-drafting each section before I spin, and it makes a big difference in my results. There are also section with a lot of very short fibers, from where the roving was blunt-cut, and those tended to form clumps unless I took pains to get them out.

This skein is from the first bobbin-full plied back on itself. It's very thick'n'thin and has a real beginner look to it.


A closer look:


I was afraid that I wouldn't like the effect when I got it plied, but I do. It reminds me of a calico cat. I thought I would prefer fiber with more even color distribution and placement, but this is ok.

While I was spinning, I was thinking that it would be nice to have access to a drum carder, so I could blend the colors and loosen up the fiber more quickly. Mr. SABLE looked on Ebay to see what was there. I thought briefly of asking my friend Fern if she wanted to goes halfsies on one, but I really knew this is not something I need and put it out of my head. The next day, I was driving to St Paul with Fern, who also bought a couple pounds of the Brown Sheep mill ends and we were discussing our results so far. Then, she asked me if I might be interested in going halfsies on a drum carder. It must be fate. She's going to look into the choices and let me know.

Here's a picture of the Romney sliver I bought from Paradise Fibers a while ago.

This yarn is pretty hairy and rustic, but I was spinning it right off the ball and doing no pre-drafting whatsoever. It was fun to work with and was spinning very quickly.

In Other News
Yesterday I went to Last Saturday Knitting. We've moved to 2 p.m., which seems to be working out better than the 10 a.m. slot. I tried to work on my Fair Isle project a bit, but I was just starting a new repeat of the big reds and yellows band and I kept either screwing up or thinking I did, so I cast on some new socks instead. I can do colorwork in a social setting once I have the visual cues in place to read my knitting. Maybe next time.

That Fair Isle has seen darn little action this past week. I drove over 1000 miles on the two round trips to St Paul. I had the Lost Wednesday. And a couple of less-memorably lost days in all that. I'm afraid not much knitting will get done until fall, in spite of the fact that I have no aversion to knitting in the summer. It's just that family life has a way of interfering.

I need to make myself another swimsuit. The second one has grown obscenely sheer from chlorine exposure. This happened to the first one. Marji helped me out with finding a source for chlorine-resistant swimsuit fabric, so as soon as that arrives, I'll have my next project cut out for me. So to speak. (If it really was cut out for me, that might simplify everything. Remember the old Frostline kits?) I would just buy a bathing suit, but being both long in the torso and plus size, I kind of need to make my own. Unless I want my butt cheeks hanging out the bottom, or a two-piece with my stretch marks hanging out the middle. Even in my life BC (before children), when I was just tall and not plus-sized, the tall suits were never tall enough. The first time I realized I could sew my own suit and emerge from the water with out any tugging whatsoever was a truly liberating day.

Meanwhile, we're hoping to take the kids and the canoe to Devil's Lake today and I need to find a way to cover my backside. I'm thinking about doing surgery on a suit I got at Target 6 years ago. It's the kind with a dress over a tank suit and the suit part creeps A LOT. I think I might slice off the the bottom around the waist and either serge in a 2 inch strip of stretchy fabric around the waist (it will all be hidden by the dress part over) or cut the bottom off an old Land's End suit that had other fitting issues, and serge that on, adding the needed length. Sounds like I have my agenda for the day worked out.