Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Spinning is the new avoidance

I was sick with an ill-timed, weekend stomach virus and after a not-too-successful attempt at getting some gardening done Saturday, I retreated into the house to suffer in silence* and total non-productivity for the remainder of the afternoon.

By late afternoon Sunday my new diet of delicious extra-dry saltines and ginger ale had restored me to a point that I wanted to do something that felt productive but didn't offer too much in the way of personal exertion. I didn't feel like knitting on either of my current projects (and frankly, wasn't up to working on either of them), but my current personal growth rules prevent me from starting a new knitting project. What to do...?

Well, spinning certainly doesn't count as a project as far as I can see.

In fact, it's practically a house chore since I have all this stored fiber cluttering up the house that needs to be processed and gotten out of the way. And I wouldn't be spinning any new fiber! Heavens no, this is old, old fiber from a Black Sheep Fiber Gathering event several years ago and I'm sure it should be spun up before the expiration date. Did I mention it's old?
::cough::

Moving on...

Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either.
I think I was trying to 'buy something different than I usually buy'.
I succeeded.


The fiber:
2 oz of 50% Merino/30% silk/20% angora blend dyed by Dicentra Designs

The colorway:
BRIGHT Rainbow
Official name is currently unknown. (The label has wandered off. I'm hoping it surfaces at some point.)

The goal:
light fingering weight 3 ply (Navajo plied)


I had already spun a healthy sized sample and knit up a swatch with it a few months ago in order to check the length of the color repeats:

extra large swatch

My plan is to use this yarn in a stranded knitting project in the future and the swatch had the length of the color repeats I was looking for, but there's a slight problem. The swatch is knitted flat and the project I have in mind would be in the round so it would have double the fabric and, as a result, the current color repeats would be half the length.

To solve this, instead of splitting the roving I should just spin it as is and problem solved. Unfortunately, I had proactively split all the roving already. (note to self: next time, maybe wait until *after* sampling to make decisions about the roving).

Of course I can still spin it with the longer repeats by splitting out the color sequences, it just would have been easier to do if I'd left the roving as-is until the sample was finished.

Did I say I only wanted to *feel* productive? Well mission accomplished!
Not much to see here.


*my motto is 'I don't mind suffering in silence as long as everyone knows about it first.'

7 comments:

tapmouse said...

Well I would say you succeeded in being restful and productive-all at the same time! Hope you are feeling better!

Spinny Bunt said...

I'm impressed Denise. My navajo plying always looks and feels like ass.

Romi. said...

Hello
Thanks for visiting my blog....I am participating in a SAL where we all are beginners learning patchwork techniques, so I took the idea of making mine in pink from a picture I saw in a book called Quilt pink from Better homes and gardens.

I love your leaf lace shawl, it came out beautiful!

Secret Q. Llama said...

I'm impressed too! Most of my navajo plying turns into 6" of wonderful yarn attached to a gigantic pile of horribly tangled singles. *sigh*

MsAmpuTeeHee said...

I was kinda blinded by the fiber, but knit up? I think it's awesome fun :-)

June said...

Well, I thought the fiber looked like a lot of fun. . . I like the bright colors, especially for socks!

wooliegirl said...

I love the fiber and love your sample. You spin beautiful yarn...I'm envious!!!