Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Tell me True

First there was fishing.


(Munch didn't get a hook on the end of his pole - no way no how! - instead he got a rubber worm {he calls it his "wormy"} which delighted him to no end.)


A friend from daycare came along to make the afternoon more enjoyable.


Then this weekend, before the 3+ hour graduation ceremony that I was required to attend for work, there was fiber dyeing. I tried the oven-roasting method this time around.


After everything dried, there was handpainted roving.



There was a peony. Big. Beautiful. Spicy smelling in the most delicious way. (Peonies are my favorite flower.)



'Hive' was finished and left as a single - 410 yards.


A scarf was started with the Hive singles. However, sadly, this scarf will soon be frogged, as the yarn & the pattern Are. Not. Working.


I am grieving over this, but I will survive.


Why will I survive, you ask? Hello Yarn rovings arrived in the mail yesterday.

'Honeybear' - 8 ounces in merino/mohair.


'How to Pick Carrots' - 8 ounces in Wenseydale.


Wenseydale is some HAIRY fiber, lemmie' tell you. It drafts about as easily as puffing a down feather through the air - the speed with which it slides apart is almost frightening - but this stuff? As hairy as Cousin It after a ride in a convertible!

I spun some up last night. Actually, that's not true - I spun up almost 4 full ounces last night. I'll spin the rest tonight and Thursday night and then will ply them together and thrill with the results.

My question to all of the spinners out there - look at the scarf that I started and see how just flat-out horrid it looks. Do you always get such pronounced striping when you knit up handspun? Is there anything I can do to prevent my knitting from striping so badly - some trick in the spinning or drafting or plying to make it less pronounced? Or is it just me and my spinning newness that is causing this? You can be honest with me - I can take it - I'm a big girl when it comes to my knitting and spinning.

I'm not a big striping fan - in fact I might end up dyeing and spinning up a whole new bundle of fiber to cast on again for the Ribbon Lace Scarf - as I really can just 'see' that scarf knitted up in a beautiful subtly-mottled yellow & gold handspun. Just not the stripy handspun that I've currently knitted it with...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The best way I know to avoid the strong stripeyness (stripieness??) is to do a 2 or 3 ply. Not only will it blend the colors together more gently, but it will also produce a more durable yarn. The only trouble with it is you have to spin your singles skinnier if you want yarn that's a definite size.

You could also pre-draft your roving by splitting it down the middle several times before spinning it. This would theoretically decrease the length of one solid color which might make less of a pronounced stripe when its knit up.

Hope this helps!

Lola and Ava said...

Dude! Look at you, Miss Spinner-thang! Completely impressed am I. The "Carrots" roving rocks . . . love those colors, almost as much as that peony (which were the primary flowers at Lola's wedding by the way).

Anonymous said...

I hope the yellow is named 'cornbread!'

Sandy said...

I can't answer any spinning questions, but I can say "Ooooh" to all the pretty colors in this post. :)

Hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend--and that the graduation ceremony went well. I have to sit through one on Friday, which seems late for a college.

Anonymous said...

Be on the look out for a BIG box coming to your door in the next few days... your (temporarily) Secret May Day Swap Pal