Slip stitch sock needs a friend

Slip stitch sock
Originally uploaded by darklordspet

I'm trying my hand at mosaic knitting. It's odd to have two balls of yarn going at once, but it's not as complex as I thought it would be. The next time I do a sock with this technique, I'll use a higher contrast between my solid yarn and varigated yarn. These are two balls of Opal. I love Opal, but it's about $20 USD/100g ball. Imported from Germany, you know.

Red and blue batts

Red and blue batts
Originally uploaded by darklordspet

This is blue and red superwash freshly drum carded and waiting to be spun into something neat. I have a great deal of fiber that needs carding, so I'd better come up with some projects for it.

I was able to do knitting while on the road, so I have two completed pair of socks. Now I need to start spinning that drum carded fiber and making something. I seem to be on a sock kick, so ...

Holiday Socks!

Holiday Socks!
Originally uploaded by darklordspet

I know I haven't posted in a while - after the fun week of working at home due to the fires, we went to Tahoe, and now I'm in San Jose for an eLarning conference. I came home long enough to sleep and repack. In the two weeks before we went to Tahoe, I think I put in over 120 hours. No wonder I'm tired cootie-ful all the time! I've got to start taking care of myself.

Yep, I've been knitting. This is the first of a pair, and is 100% Merino. I've had the yarn forever waiting for me to make honest socks of it, but only this past week did I have time to play with it. I made another pair of Superwash blend while in Tahoe - very quick to knit. If I can, in the next few days, I'd like to post pictures of my "waiting for edging" scarf, "waiting for edging" cape, and the completed pair of socks. Got a shindig on Saturday, but that's fun, not work.

Drumcarding untangles the mind

Green and black batts
Originally uploaded by darklordspet

I worked for about 8 hours today and finally got frustrated enough with not being able to complete my tasks that I played with fiber. Here's some of my B-grade, mill-ends superwash blended on my drum carder. The green is a heathered pale olive and mixed with the black, is pretty depressing.

What may be more depressing is that there are fires East of us. The smoke plume was over the house earlier today making the world an odd orange. It wasn't as bad as a couple years ago when the sky was like blood and the world went dark. Love fire season!

Tencel spice

Tencel spice
Originally uploaded by darklordspet

Tencel is a band name for lyocell, a cellulose-based fiber that's made by extruding wood pulp. It shines like silk, but is far cheaper. This is a sample of some skeins purchased on eBay. I'm playing with a few meters before I get into my project - I plan to make a circular shawl, maybe while in the UK, but I need to figure out how to make a small diameter (9-stitch) circular beginning. I can do socks (24+ stitches around), but with so few stitches, I'm not sure how to get going. And no, I don't own the right sized DPNs.

We still have lots of planning to do for our trip, so I figured I should start with the important things: what to knit, fiber events to attend, museums to visit, and ... football. Yep, our vacations seem to be sports-related or we see a volcano. Kinda odd, but that's us.

Blue batt
Originally uploaded by darklordspet

I also used my drum carder to make a batt of the superwash mill-ends purchased on eBay. (What was life like before eBay?) This is their B grade fiber: clean, pretty, but not roving. Now that I've proved to myself that this is the way to prepare the fiber for spinning, I think I'll drum card some blends using the various colors begging for attention. Then I'll give one of those "custom batts" a go and see if I can spin up something I can use for lace or socks.

I completed the second bobbin of Romney and can begin plying. I'm almost afraid to start plying because then I'll find out if I really spun enough to get started on the Shetland Tea Shawl or if I have to spin more singles. I'm feeling anxiety about this project - it's the first time I've attempted to spin for a project, and now I'm itching to start the knitting. (What am I worried about - spinning is a good thing!)

This weekend I've done very little fiber fun - I tweaked my back on the trip to PA, and re-tweaked it picking up the dog earlier this week. Yesterday and most of today it was so unpleasant, I couldn't focus. I have work I need to do, so even with good drugs, sitting in front of a desk is a challenge! I'm typing while sitting in the family room with my feet up, but I have only one monitor going. For the work I need to do, I need lots of territory to develop content. I have a couple outstanding projects to complete before the end of the week - I'm out for vacation for a week, then in San Jose for an eLearning conference. I can do work after hours while in San Jose, but I really don't want to work while on vacation. Work has taken over so much of my time, I really think it's killing me.

Where have I been?

Pittsburgh, actually, for my niece's wedding. I thought it was going to be cooler than the high 20s and humid we had, so I wore wool. At least the AC was cranked at the reception! (Follow the link on these photos to go to Flickr to see my Pittsburgh and wedding photos - friends and family see special ones.)

Alpaca lace scarf
Originally uploaded by darklordspet

I'm NOT a scarf person, but this pattern seemed easy for travel and so was the backup knitting for my trip. This is a two ply, moss heather alpaca, lace-weight yarn from KnitPicks.com on their Options circular needles. LOVE those needles! My only issue is that they don't have the size stamped on them, so you have to measure before starting a project. Not a project killer, but it would be easier with proper notation. As it is, I tap them together to determine by tone which are pairs, then measure.

Socks for Diana
Originally uploaded by darklordspet

I completed the first sock the day we got there and the second one on the trip back. I'd started the first one months ago, so this was strangely rapid progress - maybe being trapped in planes/airports for most of a day has benefits. Glad I didn't finish the second one too soon, or I would have gone nuts on the flight back. Though I packed the lace as backup knitting, it was in the checked bag on the return trip. Narrowly averted disaster!

My sister's a purple person, so she got the same socks I made for me (in an Easter-like colorway) in her color. This yarn is Merino, so I'll be sure to tell her that they have to be hand washed and dried flat. I've been babying mine, and they're doing well after a few washes, but the soles felted as I wore them. It's not an issue since no one sees the soles and the solid fabric is pretty comfy.

Not sure if you can tell, but I'm using a different method of posting pictures to the blog. I haven't worked out all the kinks, but I upload images to Flickr and "post to blog" from there. The Flickr tool seems to be a little limited, but I'm not afraid to edit the HTML to add photos.

Here's another go. Previously, I went to the photo's details within Flickr where I selected "blog this," and used their tool to create a blog entry that's posted here. Unfortunately, it's a one photo, one entry interface. Not quite what I'm shooting for, so I used the "all sizes" option to generate a link to the small sized pic shown here. (Originally, I used the link to the "large" sized image, and it was too hugerous.) I pasted that into the HTML portion of this page then enclosed it in the the Flickr-generated div defining the float and margin. Now I think I need to try to get the photo title and by-line to appear...

Eh... well, maybe not. That seems to be a little more involved than I want to do today. Creating the text is simple enough, but linking back to the original photo in Flickr is more complex - I don't know what the photo's unique ID is in that system. With practice, I think I'll figure it out, but this is quite the advancement for just a little fiddling.

Anyhow, that bobbin is half filled with Romney that I spun in public the first week of October (National Spinning and Weaving Week). I did demos at work for a few days before we had to leave for Pittsburgh and stirred up some interest. Not enough that anyone signed up on my mail list, but at least I know there are other fiber nuts at work.

I still have to spin another half bobbin and ply - I hope I'll have another 400 m of yarn. With the yarn I made last month and this bobbin, I should have enough for the Shetland Tea Shawl shown in A Gathering of Lace. I always hear that you should spin what you need, plus extra, before you begin your project. This ensures that you have the same fiber and yarn-weight. If I assume most spinners are like me, you might end up spinning a different weight than you stared with and might not have enough fiber to finish the project... can't imagine not having enough fiber.

Final Romney skeins

So, here it is, the results of my efforts. The Romney has been plied, washed, and hung to dry/set the twist. The final skeins have the following total lengths:

112 m (122 yds)

292 m (320 yds)

633 m (692 yds)

It was a tedious process to skein this yarn – that was a total of 567 loops around my two-yard niddy noddy. My arms ached, but at least the process is done. I’ve already begun spinning fine mohair singles!

I’d like to play with the freshly processed Corriedale – it’s amazingly soft and the colors are really neat. I just have to figure out what to make for my sister-in-law and so will know what type of yarn to spin – scarf and hat, mittens, shrug, dense shawl to fight of the winter cold… in a place where they actually get SNOW!!! (Eh, sorry. I’m really sick of sunshine and heat. Did I mention it rained this past weekend?) And that superwash isn’t spinning itself.

We’re going to Pittsburgh for my niece’s wedding the first week in October, so I need something to keep me occupied on the flights. We’d planned to go to Lincoln City, OR at the end of October to scope out potential retirement areas (I like to plan early), maybe do some glassblowing, and just relax. Since we're using our timeshare bonus week, and started planning really late, there's no room at the inns in the area and we're "stuck" in Tahoe, CA. Yeah, ... that's just too bad, such a sacrifice, all those trees, water, ... I LOVE TAHOE! Anyhow, I figure by the end of October, the trade show will be over and I can try to decompress and get healthy.

Speaking of mohair, I plan to scour the remaining raw stuff so I can consolidate my junk. I want to put the last of it in the new plastic containers from Target, rearrange my office, and put my fiber stuff in there. I’ll need to get a flat panel monitor (or two) for my laptop so I can turn my desk to face the walls where the cables exit. Then I can make space for my sewing machine.

Fine spinning

Last night and part of this morning I spun the Romney. It's exceedingly easy to spin, maybe because it was a fairly long stapled fleece and the roving still has the oils from the processing at the mill. I didn't attempt to go for a specific weight of yarn, and for fun, tried to spin as fast as I could. At least two hours of spinning later, I now have a bobbin full of naturally heathered single.

In addition to how to ply, think I actually learned something else very useful at yesterday’s class – how to spin uniform, lace-weight singles! I thought my mohair was pretty nice, but this is just amazing. There are small sections that are thinner and thicker than is shown in the close up, and there's the occasional slub or two, but greater than 90% of it is about the diameter I pulled over the rulers. After I spin another bobbin of the Romney and ply it, I'm going back to the mohair to see what I can produce. (Yes, I have both a metric and archaic scale in the picture for you! The smaller ruler is divided into 10ths and 100ths of an inch, whatever that is. Didn't want to use a coin as reference, not everyone carries my currency in their pockets.)

This has all been done on a double-treadle Canadian-made Lendrum folding wheel. I used to have an Ashford (NZ) Traditional. I go places with my wheel, usually driving a Miata, and having that thing riding shotgun in traffic with the top down, was kinda unnerving. My new wheel fits in the trunk, with room to spare for lazy kate, fiber, and my bag. Since I've had such success with the standard flyer, I think I need to try this again with the fast flyer and see what I get. Lendrum also sells a very fast flyer, but I’m unable to imagine that I’d need anything other than what I currently have to make lace-weight yarn. (Maybe it eliminates the need to treadle like a squirrel on crack, but it does require its own bobbins. For the record, I hate special bobbins.)

I'm not really into the look of traditionally built wheels. Turned wood isn't my thing – I like a Spartan simplicity that's functional, then pretty. Translation: the Babe (US) PVC wheel, though functional, just doesn't make me happy. In some other life, I'd like to have the Schacht (US) Matchless Spinning Wheel (double treadle, of course). It’s sturdy, spins oh so smoothly, and would never fit in my car. The Louët (Holland) wheels are very nice as well, though I believe they were originally designed for medium to bulky yarns. I keep seeing refurbished ones on eBay from someone in Holland, but the shipping to the US makes them a little less attractive. Those little Majacraft (NZ) wheels are intensely cute – especially the Little Gem. I also like that you can adjust the height and position of the orifice, swap out the whorls, and that they flyer arms are ceramic. Maybe when we visit NZ, one will follow me home...

If you wondered what the difference between a regular flyer and a fast flyer is, it's all about the whorls. Notice that the regular flyer (still on the wheel) has three grooved rings where the drive band can go. The largest is about the same diameter as a hockey puck. On the fast flyer, the largest is about the diameter of an apricot. The smaller the flyer wheel, the more rotations it makes each time you treadle. I was using the highest ratio (rotations : treadle) on the regular flyer. Now I'll try the Romney using the lowest ratio on the high speed flyer – smaller even than the smallest wheel on the regular flyer. The concept very similar to the gears on your bike, though I'm one of those odd people who insist on using the larger gears, even while attempting to ascend a hill.

There are so many wheels out there, and no one place has them all to try them out... well at least not near me. If I had tried out other wheels before I got this one, I might not have made the purchase. (See, this is where the Internet fails me.) My Lendrum is less stable than the Ashford I had. The drive wheel, flyer, mother of all, ... the main workings of the thing, are centered between the treadles, so as you use it, it wobbles a little. The Ashford had three, widely spaced points of contact with the floor, and you treadle beneath and between those contact points. Since mine was a single treadle, there was even less movement introduced while treadling. I do think that I'll get an additional wheel someday, and maybe even change the type of portable wheel I use, but don't tell my husband. He already cringes when a box appears on the front porch.

What did I learn today?

Today was my first spinning lesson. Ok, so maybe I should've had my first lesson when I started spinning, but hey, I finally got around to it... four years after the fact. All I know about spinning (and knitting), I learned from the Internet. It's a great resource, but some things can be refined only with personal instruction.

I think I "got" how to ply. This is two-ply, lace-weight mohair, and it's plied evenly throughout the skein. Usually, I have over plied and way under plied sections, but this looks like I know what I'm doing. I also worked on improving my singles - making them more consistent, and figuring out what drafting style I should use to yield what end product. It appears I naturally have a modified long-draw, but I need a short draw to keep an eye on things. With practice, I think I'll be able to do yarn of a specific weight on demand. Just gotta keep at it.

I'm trying to do more sock yarn-like yarn so I can... knit socks. (Check out the latest Spin-Off for a whole bunch of neat info on sock yarns! Love the new format and articles!) Since I'm on this lace kick, my natural tendency to spin finer yarn is actually paying off. I think hearing someone other than my spouse tell me my yarn looks fine and that I'm doing what I should be doing was very good for me. She has over 25 years of spinning experience, so she may have some idea of what she's talking about. She encouraged me to keep up what I'm doing and make small modifications - which seemed to have big changes in my yield.

Now what I need is a knitting class! Seriously. It was only this summer that I figured out how to purl correctly, and the first few years I knit only twisted stitches. I'm sure that I'm not knitting/purling yarn overs correctly - I make a hole in the fabric, but when they're stacked yos (appearing at the same place +/- in the fabric over the course of several rows) they don't appear like in the pictures. Mine are horizontal strings while in pictures, they seem to be gently crossed strings. (Yeah, I'll have to take a picture.) This hasn't really been an issue until the edging on the cape I'm still working on. It just looks different, less graceful, than the picture. I know, the level of detail I'm looking for may live on the Internet, but interacting with a human for this info could be useful. (This from the person who loves ATMs, web forms, and email because I don't have to interact with humans!)

How'd I get here?
I don't think I mentioned how I got started on spinning and knitting. My mother was a masterful crocheter - with a pattern, I don't think anything was beyond her reach. When she died, I decided to take up crochet - maybe I thought someone in the family should keep it up. She'd taught me eons ago, but it never interested me. When I tried again, I found it was too easy and restrictive. It is all written out in a pattern and it didn't seem to have the creativity of knitting. So I figured I'd do the "making knots in string with two sticks" thing. My first completed item was a sock. Perfectly serviceable, full of errors, but it was mine. I was hooked.

When I started shopping for nice sock yarn, I realized that the self-striping ones and ones with snazzy fibers were kinda pricey. I figured I could make my own yarn. I bought some fleece on eBay, a drop spindle, hand cards, and quickly upgraded to an Ashford Traditional wheel. (Drop spindles are not my thing.) Spinning on my own, I made some pretty lumpy, fat yarn - especially since I was pretty bad at fiber prep. (And from the post below, you'll see that I'm not afraid to send fleece to the fiber mill!) Not getting what I wanted, I was frustrated, but kept going, kept knitting, ... and found other hobbies. When I eventually came back to spinning, I found that I'd magically improved to the point where I could make lace-weight yarn, not just a few meters, but a whole bobbin full. And after today's lesson, I can make even more consistent singles and ply like I've always wanted.

I wish I had taken up knitting and spinning while Mother was alive. She always used acrylic yarn or cotton so that the complete item was washable, but I'm sure she would have loved having home made yarn to play with. There is this thing called Superwash, so she could have had the best of both worlds: custom yarn that was washable. I like making animal and plant fiber into yarn. It's almost exotic since I grew up with items crafted from synthetics. I think Mother would have enjoyed knitting, or at least receiving a knitted something. She aways said that knitting was too difficult, but I think she sold herself short.

I wish I had more time to work on my knitting and spinning techniques. With all that's going on at work, I can't even relax when I get home. There's too much in my head, and then there's when I have homework to meet deadlines. I really need to workout, to lose weight, but also to siphon some of this stress. Now that I'm feeling better, I should start biking and dieting - don't want to look like a tourist when we go to the UK! I also plan to spin and knit at work - to not only relax, practice, and get stuff done, but to try to draw others into the fold. I started a spinning/knitting email group at work, but I know only one other person who knits (and spins), so the dialog would be pretty limited. I figure I can sit outside at lunch time with a hobby or two and see who bites.

Zwool, how do I love thee?

Let me count the ways!

Three-way swirl, colored Corriedale x and white Corriedale from my sister-in-law. The white fiber seems to form a glowing halo around the darker fiber, and it looks like the swirl was random, so as I spin up the roving, the yarn will change color. Oh this'll be so fun!

This is so good, let's see it in detail! It's just amazing! I didn't realize that they would blend it like this - I just figured they'd dump it all in at once, so this is thrilling for me. (And yes, I am easily amused.)

Scoured Shetland - I've had this laying around for a while, and I needed it scoured. There are burrs and grass in it, but I can hand pick it out. I figured the mill wouldn't want to take time to do that, and I really didn't want the VM crap evenly distributed throughout the fleece. (Just an observation: they must have some huge washers out there in Michigan. This is the contiguous fleece, not the small handfuls I can do at one time.)

A-may-Zing! Romney roving - I love this so much I've even bird's nested some already! This is more fiber I've had around for a while - purchased directly (via the Internet) from the shepherdess. It had some grass in it, and I just didn't want to deal with the aggravation of scouring and hand-picking it, so off it went to the mill.

But lest we forget our humility, please observe the bag of Shetland. What do you see? Let me zoom in for you.

Yes, condensation! Living in the air conditioned paradise I call my family room, I forget that, when you take a plastic bag of dark fiber into the hot sun, water condenses on the inside of the bag. Why is this bad? Mold, felting, and just plain skanky smell. I'm smarter now, and might even remember that at some point.

I dumped the fiber and am now airing out the bags in the kitchen and the sheep fiber is hangin’ with the mohair.

This is why we need to remodel and clean out the garage. If we had a patio room, I could spin there. If the garage were cleaned out, I could move crap from my office into the garage and move my craft stuff into the office. (Heck, it’s supposed to be a home office, why is it not holding the home business?) I could then clean out the dining room of craft stuff and consolidate in the newly refurbished office (just needs stuff that’s not mine removed and some rearranging). I have this fantasy that, if we can clean up and do the remodeling we’d planned at the beginning of the year (before we both though we were going to lose our jobs and before I caught every cootie on the planet), I’d have more space. Only time, and the completed remodeling, will tell.

I think John may be at the brink of approving the bathroom redo - it'll have to be done after we get back from Oregon (he has to take vacation, we have an unused trip to take, and I really like Oregon) and before we go to the UK. It’ll be nice to have a shower I can clean and sinks that operate properly. Since we’re well in to this rant here’s my list of “wanna have done:”

• Solid surface in kitchen
• New oven/stove (aluminum)
• New kitchen sink (aluminum) and snazzy faucet
• Patio room on back of house
• Solid surfaces in master bath
• Redo master shower
• New sinks/faucets in master bath
• Paint trim on house

The longer we wait, the more stuff ends up on the list. Well, that’s part of the joy of home ownership – in for a penny, in for a pound… of flesh!

Skunked!

As the title proclaims, me, my husband, my house, and Kona stink of skunkass. At 0230 Friday morning, she wanted to go out. My husband obliged, and moments later she ran back in foaming at the mouth. As I came down stairs, I almost gagged. I washed her face and mouth with tomato juice (I know it doesn’t work, but I’m out of good vodka anyhow), and though in the small hours, the Internet provided us with this recipe:

• 500 ml (1 pint) hydrogen peroxide
• 1 small box baking soda
• 4 L (1 gallon) warm water
• Two generous squirts dishwashing liquid

For some reason, I had over a liter of peroxide in my refrigerator (which $230 USD later is now working again, thank you) and about 2 kilos (5#) of baking soda waiting for this emergency. And if you were going to ask, I still have about 20 L (5 gal) dishwashing liquid, too. Hey, I plan in advance.

We washed Kona in the mixture, washed her in dog shampoo, and I retired to bed. John has to be at work by 0630, so he stayed up with Kona and went shopping for air fresheners. I tried putting a perfume saturated tissue over my nose, but that didn’t hide it. I tried a Salonpas patch, and that worked as long as I had it squarely over both nostrils – kinda tricky if your goal is to fall asleep. I eventually got some sleep, though my nose was pretty tingly in the morning. Now my house smells like air freshener and skunkass… and so do I. I was able to keep the house open all day yesterday and after work on Friday, so the stench has diminished. Makes me happy I’m still congested, and I didn’t take decongestant until I was on my way to work.

The skunk must have been on the top of the wall in the back yard and was able to direct a shot at Kona’s head with disturbing accuracy from over 2 m. Today I tried getting the last of the stink off of Kona by rubbing orange cleaner directly on her head (which she seemed to like), but when I rinsed, she got agitated and again smells like a chemical fire. I think we may try Nature’s Miracle skunk deodorizer later today… or just peroxide and more of the orange stuff. Ah, and the stinky little beast is now sitting next to me.
At least her head is pointed away.

Anyhow, back to string
Last week I had a sinus and bronchial thing, and my face hurt almost like when I broke my nose (the second time). I was tired, couldn’t breathe, dehydrated, and kept wanting to faint. With that going for me, I not only did I not make it to work, but didn’t do much knitting. I did a few rounds on my sister’s sock in the MD’s waiting room and at the pharmacy waiting for antibiotics and Albuterol (Salbutamol), but may have done only two rows on my cape. Sad being too ill to knit or spin.

I made some progress on the cape yesterday but you can’t tell by looking at it. I have maybe four rows to go before I’d need to CO for the edging. I just want it to seem “done” before I put it down to do work for work today.

And I got more mohair online. eBay is a wonderland of fiber, and I found someone selling adult mohair at a very reasonable price. I assume it’ll be coarse. If it’s not, I’m up, and if it is, I’ve been thinking of doing a latch hook rug anyhow. Either way, I win.

Knitting, dying, and fuzz processing

It's been about two weeks since I last posted (sorry). Life often gets in the way of fun. My most recent “life in the way” thing is that my refrigerator is holding steady a little above room temperature. Items in the freezer are still rock solid, so I’m guessing it’s a fan or flapper valve issue. Monday the repair guy will tell me.

I've had time to work on my circular shawl, and I’m just about at the half way point as far as length goes. This does not mean I’m halfway as far as total number of stitches. It’s gonna take forever from here – it’s 56 stitches per section x 12 sections. And then I still have to do the lace edging. Nice progress though.

I have some examples of what mohair looks like during the scouring process.

First some raw mohair:
Actually prettier and easier to work with than raw fleece. Sheep have fluffier fuzz, and it seems to attract filth and VM (veggie material). The mohair is slick like silk and the locks are very well defined, so maybe that allows the filth to fall off.

Now scouring:
I go through the raw mohair to remove second cuts, obvious VM, and any filthy locks that would be annoying to scour. Then I heat water in my dye pot on the stove to between 60° C (140° F) and 77° C (170° F). I dump the water into the sink and add Dawn dishwashing liquid until very blue (I know, I should do a water to detergent ratio, but I’m lazy). I sprinkle the locks over the surface and watch that it sinks. I put another pot of water on the stove and entertain myself for a while (at least 30 mins).

When I’m no longer entertained, I dump the second pot of hot water in the other side of the sink, don my nitrile gloves and cotton liners, and squish the locks a bit under the water – just a bit! My limited observation has shown that the less crimp/coil in the locks, the more likely they’ll entangle and yield a huge fuzz ball. When done squishing, I pull out some locks, squeeze them free of water, and drop them in the fresh water. Repeat until all mohair is removed (this gets kinda complex because the scour water becomes opaque and I have to dredge for fuzz).

After the mohair soaks in the fresh water for about 30 mins, I take it out and squeeze out the excess water, put it in mesh bags, and let it soak in the washer a la the “scouring in the washer” method. Another 30 mins later, I hit the spin cycle, retrieve my bags, and fluff up the mohair on a towel to dry. (This is some I dyed in the wool as well as the new kid mohair I got this past Monday!)

Since the drying photos were so grainy (my camera didn’t do the flash thing, but there wasn’t really enough light in the laundry room), I took some of the Jacquard dyed locks outside so you can see just how bright the color is and what a crazy sheen the mohair has.

I’m planning to dye a few more lots and blend it with another color to spin. I spun some of the more coarse mohair with a definite overspin so that when I ply it, it won’t disintegrate. I really like the fine singles I’m getting, but I think it might be more stable/strong if it were plied.

I’d like to make another item out of Victorian Lace Today – the Cap Shawl. It takes 1700 m of yarn, so I’ll be spinning for quite a while. I might cheat and go to the yarn shop in Encinitas and get a couple hanks of their mohair, but it might be too fuzzy and quite pricy (I’ve said it before, they’re really proud of their stuff). Then again, Rowan Kidsilk Haze isn’t cheap.

Remember how I got some seacell from eBay? It came in the other day, and is very similar to the other non-protein “silks” (Ingeo, bamboo) only it smells a bit like low tide. I’m gonna pretend that will wash out at some point. And the other fiber I forgot to mention is flax (linen). I assume that ramie and hemp would feel about the same, and cotton would be kinda difficult with its short staple.

Non Fiber Stuff
So I might be getting a cold, or maybe the first hints of bronchitis again – a sore throat for a week, an earache for a few days, and some coughing. I really want to take a nap, but the mohair and knitting are such fun. There are a variety of stressers at work, and a few at home, plus I’m trying to lose weight (dieting for a week, but too lazy to exercise), so I have no idea why I would be getting sick all the time.

My passport finally came in! Everyone says it doesn’t look like me – of course not! I actually did my hair and wore makeup for the picture! Figured if I were going to be trapped with that for a decade, it might as well look nice.

And here's Kona:

She's not dead, she's just baking in the sun. Right now, she's savoring the air conditioned bliss of the couch, but I'm sure she'll wake soon and want to bake again.

Lady's Circular Cape - in shell pattern

I stole my Addi Turbo lace needles from my not-quite-begun lace shawl so I could begin the caplet. They're 4.0 mm, so aren't exactly the right size, but that's what I have. It really does go quickly - the stuff on the needles on the left shows all I've done since last night. Too bad damp hands make it difficult to knit with mohair, but I’m still making progress. I figure when I get near the end and it's a 56-stitch repeat, it’ll take forever to do a row. I used a bunch of stitch markers to remind me where the repeats start. That way I can see when I make a mistake before I have to undo an entire row. The purl side is what’s killing me. I hate purling, especially purling YOs. Oh well, the practice is good for me.

Also in this photo is the mohair I dyed blue earlier this week. Notice how it’s uneven? I figure I’ll use it every other row with a skein that:

• I haven’t created yet and
• Has been dyed better.

That way the variations will blend in a little better. Just gotta find time to make more yarn and dye it.

Goat me, big boy

Yesterday I got a package of mohair I purchased on craigslist.org. The fleece is an off white doe’s third shearing, a more wavy than curly, and I promptly felted it during scouring. I did up about .5 kilo (1 lb) – it was pretty clean, little grease, and ended up as two huge fuzz balls. Today, I spent time pulling them apart and was able to salvage about 70% of it. Glad I scour in small lots – the other 1.1 kilos (2.5 lbs) may yet be safe from my touch.

The next lot I do will be to lightly scour and then dye. The second round of scouring will clean it and remove any extra dye – a real problem for me. I dyed the second skein brilliant blue, and the exhaust was almost colorless (yippee!). Of course the dye job wasn’t the best in the world – since it was spun more tightly, there’s white at the core. ‘Sok, for my nefarious purposes, it’ll do.

I think I should show a before and after of the mohair, scouring, and dying. I want to dye in the fleece, but I’m not sure how much fleece equates to how much string on the bobbin. Gotta start weighing things out here. That way I could dye enough fiber to produce the material I need to knit. (Now if I were knitting a goat or sheep tea cozy, it would be the circle of life!)

I also bought some Seacell on eBay yesterday from my favorite vendor. I've been looking for this fiber for a while now, and lo, there it was! It's sea weed. So far, I've tried: alpaca, llama, Shetland, Corriedale, Leicester, Suffolk, Cheviot, Romney, Lincoln, Merino, Targhee, Rambouillet, mohair, silk (top, hankies, and caps), Ingeo, chiengora, and bamboo as well as Colonial top (blend of wools) and Superwash. I'm sure I'm leaving something out. I'd like to try Silk Latte and Optim, but they're really proud of those fibers.

One little project that some may find disturbing is my desire to braid a bracelet for my poor spouse from my own hair. He thinks its strange, but is willing to wear it. My hair is past my bosom, so it's long enough. Now that I have a couple books on braiding and kumihimo, I just need to start my project.

Now for some color
Here are the photos I promised earlier. The brown is the chain plied alpaca and the green is the first mohair single. You can really see how fluffy it is by the shadow it casts. The second skein of mohair I did wasn't as long and didn’t have such a nice halo (pix to follow). I think I spun too thick and it was how I abused the first skein to get out the extra dye that made it fluff up so well. Maybe all my mohair will have to undergo a little torture to make me happy. I have about ½ of a bobbin with more mohair, only much thinner. This’ll have to be plied, but at least that’ll give me more practice with the fiber.

I’d like to make a caplet from Victorian Lace Today (ISBN: 1933064072). I think you know the one: twelve segments, knitted on border, fluffy and feminine, … so not my style, but I covet it none the less. Since this’ll be my first go at lace, I feel a little hesitation. The only other lace item (well, besides socks) I’ve tried was a simple rectangular shawl pattern from Folk Shawls (ISBN: 1883010594) that never made it past the first repeat. I bought some smoke Rowan KidSilk Haze to make the caplet, but I’m also hoping that the mohair I’m spinning now will be a good material. I only need about 1000 m(1100 yds) to do it. On the first skein, I ended up with about 390 m (425 yds) and the second was about 348 m (380 yds). I just need to keep my singles fine and consistent across bobbins, and I think I’ll be able to do it pretty easily. This is also my first go at spinning for a specific project. Actually makes it more interesting for me.

Cooties
Well, the GI thing I had is still here. I worked from home one afternoon this week because of it, and today I didn’t want to go too far from home. I’m wondering if my husband and dog are trying to kill me. (I doubt my husband would do anything like that, but the dog …) My hands are swollen and I’ve had a headache all day – I know I’m dehydrated, but I’m having trouble forcing myself to drink. Right now, I’m whipping up a batch of instant oatmeal to see if I can send a cease and desist down the line.

The whole cootie thing had better end soon. I want to visit the UK without obviously looking like I’m not from around there, so I'd better start exercising. Two years ago before I started to fall apart in earnest, I would have been fine. Now, I have a task ahead of me. It’s good to have a goal.

Feeling unproductive

At work, we’re preparing training, creating online help, doing troubleshooting, creating job aids, … for a skazillion projects. All due between now and around the middle of October. I also attend meetings and try to have a life, but that last bit doesn’t work out so well these days.

I volunteered to work this weekend to help fix a problem that could have been avoided if we’d been more coordinated in all phases product roll out. It wasn’t my fault, but I was there to help. Unfortunately, there were … glitches, and it took us 8 hrs to correct only 1/18th of the problem. Had we proceeded as planned we would have done a huge boo boo. Luckily, the team I was working with decided to test the process we were going to implement, and realized it made things worse. So, later this month, I go back to help and lose another half weekend. (Not like I wasn’t going to work this weekend anyhow, I just hoped to make headway on some of my projects.) C'est la Vie.

Before I dive into the whole fiber prep, spinning, knitting, inkle and table weaving thing, I’d like to say for the record, I love the Internet! I live hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles away from my suppliers, and most of my hobby junk shows up within seven working days of online purchase. Does anyone remember getting a catalog and calling in your order? How about mailing a check?

Back to string
Friday, my second box of mohair came, and it was glorious. I completely scoured some, dyed my mohair single yarn (rather splotchy since I wasn’t bright enough to undo the skein before drowning it), and did a little experiment. I soaked a second batch of mohair locks in the original scour water, then rinsed them and dumped them in the exhaust from the yarn dying. I let them soak over night, then really scoured them when I got home Saturday. Not only were they dyed an acceptable shade (I was using Jacquard Emerald), but the scouring pulled out most of the bleeding and I ended up with a “spring green.” (And I scoured another batch of locks in that scour and rinse water and got “mint” as a reward!) I really like this mohair scouring thing – it’s more water and detergent efficient than the “wool in the washer” method I usually use, I can dye in the wool after only a brief pre-treatment, and the final dried-and-ready-to-go locks are mostly dye-bleed free. How can people say this raw fiber is more difficult to process than wool?

I also completed my fiber assignment, sorta – I spun and plied the alpaca, but I still need to wash it (since I spun it “in the grease” as it were) and knit a swatch. Surprise to me, the yarn has a nice halo, but I must the world’s crappiest chain plyer around. And I’m not saying my spinning on this project was anything to write home about either. Maybe I’ll give it another go and see if I can produce something I wouldn’t mind admitting I made. (When I showed one of the ladies at work some of the mohair I spun, I told her I want to make better singles and learn to ply evenly. She said I’m a “perfectionist,” and it looked fine. Well, maybe I am.)

Were the sun not slipping into the ocean, I’d go outside and photograph my alpaca skein and my skein of splotchy mohair. (Photos for next post.) I’m not upset about the color mishap – I just need to make something with it as is instead of the color/natural barber pole I’d planned. Having abused it pretty well to get most of the dye-bleed out, it’s getting a nice halo. And that’s even after I spun half of it worsted. I’m thinking a simple scarf with a cat’s paw pattern, or maybe print’o the wave to disguise/work with the color changes. Now if I had a yarn meter, I’d know how much I had as I wound it into a ball from the swift and could plan my knitting project. Hmm…

Did I mention I love my squirrel cage swift? I got it last month, and though a whinge-o-matic, it does make winding balls from skeins a breeze. I think a little graphite might mute my rodent pal.

Back on the mohair soap box: I found someone on CraigsList in the Sacramento area who has mohair at a reasonable price! She’ll have a shipping quote for me tomorrow, and I have the check in the mail when I know the total. I suggested PayPal, but it sounds like she doesn’t have an account. Oh well, as long as I get what I want and she gets what she wants, all’s good. So much for online payments!

Vacation plans
We’d like to go to the UK in spring ‘08. My spouse wants to see a Reading game or two, and I want to hit every museum in London (well, not quite, but there are some things in collections I’d like them to pull for me). We should have made our reservations already, and my passport renewal still hasn’t come back. I think I mailed it before my surgery, so maybe I have only another month to wait. The US Department of State sent a nice form letter telling me how to look up the status, but all you get is a nice form web page that says “8-12 weeks from the date of receipt.” I feel special.

Before we go, I’ll have to see what fiber festivals, shearings, … string-related amusement is available. Imagine, Cotswold or Leicester right from the point of origin! Oh, I could purchase whole fleece and ship them home! I'm getting tingly just thinking about it!

In early ’09 my sister and her husband and the two of us would like to go to Hawaii and finally use my timeshare. We have a week there every year, and two alternate-year weeks in Palm Springs. I really wish we’d bought at Tahoe instead of a second in PSP, but as mother would say, “too soon old, too late smart.” I need to manage my weeks so that I can get free weeks when I trade mine. That way I'll be forced to take time off from work! (Only 20 more years to retierment... now I'm sad.)

Dyed silk

Sorry, forgot to post the picture of the Easter egg dyed silk I mentioned last time. Though I soaked it for over an hour before I attempted to dye it, only the outside of the roving was thoroughly colored. Maybe I need to mordant as well as use a surfactant. And a month later, it still smells like vinegar.

Vibrant, no?

Spoke too soon

Last time I posted, I said I was recovering from surgery. I was. Two weeks ago, I got some GI something that was so bad I couldn't go to work and I eventually dehydrated myself to the point where I needed IV fluids. The fluids weren't at body temperature, so I got chills during the process. The blood work and “other sample” came back normal, so we're assuming viral, not a post-antibiotic, “is your insurance paid up” nasty. This weekend, it returned, but I'm trying to drink more, albeit unsuccessfully. It's hot out, so I fear for my Precious Bodily Fluids and have been hiding in the air conditioned comfort of home. My hands and feet are so swollen they ache. Though in a self-imposed cloistering, I've been keeping myself occupied.

Last Sunday I scored big – bunch'o free alpaca fleece from a friend who's coworker is raising them as a business. This was her first go getting them shorn, and the shearer didn't realize they were for handspinners. She offered the skanked up fleece to my friend, and who took the more better-er ones and brought them to the monthly fiber frolic to share the wealth. I got an entire cria and parts of several adult fleece – a couple kitchen garbage bags worth – and my task is to spin a sample of one of the named adults, knit a swatch or two, and return it to the donor so she can see what it looks like. Our feedback will help her improve her flock, so I’m morally obligated to return the favor of free fleece. Since I'm flush with fleece, I split the booty with a spinning coworker.

Last week, I got my latest eBay purchase – mohair from angoragoat.us. I've never worked with it before, and it’s lots of fun, like silk from a goat. It has to be scoured at higher temperature than sheep fuzz, so I've been heating water on the stove and using a meat thermometer to verify I’m keeping the temperature way below 82° C (180° F). Not having nice Nitrile gloves, I scaled myself a few times, but pain is a good teacher. (I am buying gloves online even as I type.) Though it doesn't scour well in the washer, I use it to do my final rinse with hot, and spin it before I lay it out to dry.

My first attempt spinning the mohair wasn't as fluffy as I anticipated, but I'm sure I'll improve with practice. I think I’ll dye (Jacquard acid) the first bobbin and ply it with some natural to try to hide where I attempted to scour my first batch in the washer. I emailed Angora Goat directly asking to purchase more and expected to get an invoice this weekend, but nothing yet. I'll ping them again Monday to see if they got busy or if someone else is now being billed for my order.

I'm taking a spinning class from a local Ashford dealer next month. This'll be my first formal spinning class, and I'm hoping to learn how to make more consistent singles to ply into sock yarn. I'm not sure how they look from the bobbin, but I'm not too keen on how I'm going. I realize that a little practice will go a long way, and with the mounds of fiber around me, I'm sure I'll make headway.

Right now I'm staring a some Merino, Targhee, Cormo blend roving that I dyed bubble gum pink with cochineal last month. In its current state, it kinda looks like loops of gut hanging over my inkle loom. I didn't skirt the fleece as well as I should have before I sent it out for processing, so its has many second cuts in hiding causing slubs every time I spin it. I really should just spin it bulky and enjoy the heck out of it rather than pretending it wants to be fine or sport weight. That way I could spin the rest of that pindraft and its dark cousin, the pindrafted natural Merino, with the same slub problem and get it the heck out of my office.

Later this month, I’m going to the Fiber Fest in Santa Monica, CA. I'm not sure what all I'll do up there, but an outing may be good for me. I'd better not buy any roving or raw fleece, but I'm thinking that combs might be nice. I tried contacting a manufacturer in Canada who makes two pitch combs that fold flat. Their site is up, but they haven't responded to my email.

I'm also trying to catch up on my knitting. I'd promised a coworker socks to commemorate the Detroit Tiger's 1984 season. I’m not a baseball fan by any stretch, but she's seriously in to it. (If I go, I score the game to keep busy, though I may now take my knitting with me.) I did the cuff in two bands of “lacy” ribbing, one orange, one navy, then separated the leg from the cuff with three rounds of white. In the white, I added beads to show the playoffs: three wins, a win, a loss, and three wins. Now I'm using Opal Tiger for the leg and will try the heel flap in an orange and white lice pattern. I'll continue the food in Tiger, then the star toe in navy. I've only been working on them since before the 2006 season. I'll have a photo when they're more complete.

Work has been evil, thick with deadlines and multiple projects, and my brain is full. I wanna go play.

And no, I didn't go to Pennsic.

Not quite dead

Since my initial post, I've had several bouts of bronchitis, potentially induced by esophageal reflux. The back to back to back bronchitis episodes caused fainting that got me trips to the cardiologist, a stress test, blood work, chest x-rays, &tc. All the testing has simply reestablished that my neurocardiogenic vasodepressor syncope is exacerbated by illness. (Back on ProAmitine and a high-salt/increased fluid intake diet, and all seems good.) My symptoms are induced by hot environments, dehydration, exercise, and if I stand for too long. As long as it's not exercise induced, I can tell far in advance if I'm going to faint, so I can sit or lay on the floor as needed. Twice I've fainted after exercise, and the last time I broke my nose and got a concussion. Not fun, that.

Too bad the CA DMV has to know about it, because they have (once again) threatened to take my license. (Not like I *like* driving, but this state isn't configured for walking and mass transit is a joke.) Monday, I have a phone interview with the DMV to determine - I'm guessing here - if I'm still alive and am therefore eligible to drive. When I had a similar incident a few years ago, I had to take the driving exam over again.

I've also had a couple surgeries: a D&C (Google it, I won't go in to detail) and a week later, a Nissen fundoplication. Back in 2000, I had laparoscopic gall bladder surgery, and was up walking the halls that evening. That was after a 5-day stay in ICU for a blocked common bile duct - pancreatitis anyone? This surgery was WAY more painful, though no one thought to mention that. It was supposed to be a 24 hr, 59 min "out patient" surgery, but the one port they created just under the left rib line was so painful, I was in the hospital for almost three days... with really nice opioids to keep me down. I'd scheduled a 4-week leave of absence - damn lucky I did. This is the end of my fourth week, and I'm still in discomfort, and occasionally in pain. It is my most sincere hope that this will reduce or eliminate my reflux so I don't have more bronchitis, or potentially pneumonia, from it. In two months the otolaryngologist will tell me if it worked, or I need to go back on one or more of the three drugs I was on.

I'd naively hoped that, with all this time off and a quick recovery, I should have some time to relax and maybe do some hobbies I'd been ignoring. Right. It's only within the past week or so that I've been able to knit (lots of baby things for a friend) and the past couple days I've done fiber dying. I tried to do drum carding, spinning, and just ball winding, but that was tiring and caused pain. At least Kona, the ever loyal French bulldog, was here to force me to get up and minister to her needs (open the door, close the door, open the door, close the door, ...) I just want to be all better so I can start my exercise program again and get back to a normal weight... which will also help with the reflux.

Back on topic
Well, my medical history isn't the reason I created this blog, but rather to share my limited knowledge of fun fiber and string stuff. I cochineal-dyed some Merino-blend roving and Easter egg-dyed silk roving yesterday. The cochineal was a stove top affair while the Easter egg dyes are edible, so they did their naughty staining in the microwave. When I figure out the whole photo thing, I'll have to post what I created. Not prize winning stuff, but usable and not aesthetically offputting. (I'm really selling it, aren't I?)

I also forced my mild-mannered spouse to take me to a real yarn shop - The Black Sheep in Encinitas. There, I finally got Addi Turbo lace needles (such a difference they make!) and picked up a few skeins of snazzy yarn. Since I'm making baby items, paying almost $20 USD for 50g of yarn wasn't as painful as if I were actually making an adult-sized garment.

I got a package from my sister-in-law early in my recovery. It was two pounds of Corriedale fleece! I love that breed! I have been hoarding a couple eBay-purchased fleece for a while, and this triggered me to send them for processing. (I buy raw fleece, but never have the time or inclination to scour them in the washer.) In my opinion, Zeilinger Wool Company is *the* company for fiber processing. They now have most of my stash: 3# of Shetland to scour, 10# of Corriedale to make into roving, and 5# of Romney to make into roving. In a couple weeks, it'll be here, and I should be spinning.

Actually, I still have a bunch of silk roving, some alpaca to spin, and some llama to card as well as a small box of Lincoln to scour. And I already have two large bags of white and brown Merino pindrafted and waiting ... and a large box of SUO (Sheep of Unknown Origin) roving taking up space. Oh, and did I mention the roving I purchased from Alpaca Direct or the superwash I got on eBay? Yep, more spinning and knitting in my future!

And after all the spinning, I'll have hanks of yarn to make into center-pull balls. Wouldn't a squirrel cage swift be the thing for that task? I'll see if my kind and wondeful spouse agrees or if he'd like to continue standing around with yarn on his hands.

Not quite on topic
I want to go to Pennsic this year, but with how fatigued I get and how much discomfort I'm in, plus all the stuff I need to do to prepare for the trip, I'm not sure I'm going to go. I didn't buy airline tickets yet, nor have I made any new garb, so maybe my family will see me only in October when my niece gets married. And then there's all the stuff I have to do at work... If I think of this logically, I really doubt I'm going, but I really want to go. Poop.