Considering that my knitting and spinning is primarily done on my commute, this is not a productive time for me. It's bloody cold out here. We've been below freezing for a couple of weeks now, with no end in sight. It the moment, I'm writing to you from the confines of my shawl, wound tightly around me. I have heat here, but the windowsills are cracked, so I get *plenty* of crisp fresh air.
I actually have eye-candy for you today:
Okay - no I don't - seems you can't do pictures on the free service. Will work on that.
maandag, januari 13, 2003
I've been meaning to post for a while, but life intervenes.
I finished my triangle shawl a couple of weeks ago, and, true to form, I don't like it. I'll probably frog it and weave it into a wide scarf instead. For now it's just living on one of my kitchen stools. The yarn is fine, the knitting was fine, but it's not flattering.
Speaking of unflattering, I get to wear a bathing suit today! I'm training for my first open water swim (perhaps). This body was not meant to wear lycra. And the swim cap and goggles make it feel like someone's trying to suction your head. Jaj! We'll see how it goes. What sane person would want to jump into the Hudson anyway?
I finished my triangle shawl a couple of weeks ago, and, true to form, I don't like it. I'll probably frog it and weave it into a wide scarf instead. For now it's just living on one of my kitchen stools. The yarn is fine, the knitting was fine, but it's not flattering.
Speaking of unflattering, I get to wear a bathing suit today! I'm training for my first open water swim (perhaps). This body was not meant to wear lycra. And the swim cap and goggles make it feel like someone's trying to suction your head. Jaj! We'll see how it goes. What sane person would want to jump into the Hudson anyway?
donderdag, januari 02, 2003
My hunch about the gloves was on the money - a total no-show! At least I only knit one.(with the premise of saying I wanted to make sure it fit before doing both.)
Things are pretty quiet here. I'm on my last ball of alpaca/shetland for that shawl. I could spin a little more; I have about 4 oz of fiber left. I'll probably do that. The sucker's getting pretty heavy.
At the moment I'm simply blogging to keep my hands off of the potato chips I foolishly bought. (Impulse buy - I haven't had any in a while.)
Ah - I did sample last night. Sorta. I'm toying with the idea of blending angora and thel - no project in mind. I carded a few blends to see how they spin up (less angora, 50/50, more angora, all angora) and spun them. I also spun a cabled bit of corrie for the hell of it. The samples are dry but I didn't have small enough needles handy to knit them up. I'll have to do that later. I may just scrap it and do some 100% angora yarn.
When I'd first bought the angora, I had the damnedest time spinning it. I couldn't get it to hold together, and when I did, I made razor wire which was also too fine to be of any use. So I put it all aside until my spinning skills caught up. Well, the vendor from whom I got the angora (a couple of years ago) found some samples from the batch she'd sent me, and didn't like the quality compared to what she's producing now ... so she sent me more angora, gratis! I thought that was nice. So now I've dug up the old angora (cuz, of course, the new angora is too nice to waste on sampling) and I've been playing with it. I'm having a much better time of it than before. A little processing goes a long way. I think before I was trying to spin from the "lock", on a scotch tension wheel, on which the take up was probably too tight. But carding and spindling it is going just fine. So maybe I'll just do something in angora. I don't know what. (I'm not a fuzzy bunny sort of person.) Suggestions are welcome.
Things are pretty quiet here. I'm on my last ball of alpaca/shetland for that shawl. I could spin a little more; I have about 4 oz of fiber left. I'll probably do that. The sucker's getting pretty heavy.
At the moment I'm simply blogging to keep my hands off of the potato chips I foolishly bought. (Impulse buy - I haven't had any in a while.)
Ah - I did sample last night. Sorta. I'm toying with the idea of blending angora and thel - no project in mind. I carded a few blends to see how they spin up (less angora, 50/50, more angora, all angora) and spun them. I also spun a cabled bit of corrie for the hell of it. The samples are dry but I didn't have small enough needles handy to knit them up. I'll have to do that later. I may just scrap it and do some 100% angora yarn.
When I'd first bought the angora, I had the damnedest time spinning it. I couldn't get it to hold together, and when I did, I made razor wire which was also too fine to be of any use. So I put it all aside until my spinning skills caught up. Well, the vendor from whom I got the angora (a couple of years ago) found some samples from the batch she'd sent me, and didn't like the quality compared to what she's producing now ... so she sent me more angora, gratis! I thought that was nice. So now I've dug up the old angora (cuz, of course, the new angora is too nice to waste on sampling) and I've been playing with it. I'm having a much better time of it than before. A little processing goes a long way. I think before I was trying to spin from the "lock", on a scotch tension wheel, on which the take up was probably too tight. But carding and spindling it is going just fine. So maybe I'll just do something in angora. I don't know what. (I'm not a fuzzy bunny sort of person.) Suggestions are welcome.
