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.
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