472m!

Four hundred and 72 meters, thats what I spent my morning plying, setting and drying today. Which means I finished spinning the Milton scrap Merino Silk, I also finished the baby blanket knit in my handspun - so all in all its going to be a handspun filled post, well not all, I played with the indigo vat at work a little last Thursday so I've now got a complete home made lichen and indigo sock kit ready for Nancy Bushes Estonian colour work sock. With only one project on the needles I did start a little footlet in using my handspun sock yarn, but I'm not sure about that. I'll post photos of that project next time, and let you know if that project is a keeper, or rather finisher, or if its timely and sensible to abandon it.


So ... baby blanket finished, I used my favorite i-cord cast off, around the edge. I switched to needles almost twice as big as those I knit the blanket on to stop the i-cord pulling the edge in, I wanted it kept really soft. I was a little worried as I cast off that the outer lace-eyelet panel kept flipping in, but I kept telling myself that it would block out flat and stay flat. My Tig wire welding rods masqueraded quite nicely as the blocking wires they were brought home to work as, and not knowing quite how to block I-cord I just made it up as I went. I threaded the wires back and forth thru the stitches on the outermost edge of the i-cord thus ...


And stretched the blanket out on my blocking mat. Again this is a tool that started life something else, a thin foam pad for a camp stretcher. I got really cheap ones a few years back at the supermarket - don't ask - I have no idea why a food place sells camp stretcher foam mattresses. I cut one of them in half and used the two halves side by side to make a blocking mat large enough to easily pin the blanket out on. I guess that next time we go camping, one of us sleeps without a foam mattress, unless I find a replacement. I guess also that some one might be me?


Finished baby blanket, all 26" across, all soft and warm and light. I totally get the magic of blocking now, after the feather and fan scarf and now this simple eyelet lace panel blanket ... There will be more lace, much more, lace knitters are right, it is addictive.


And the 472 meters of two ply merino silk started the day as two 3/4 bobbins of singles, one brighter and more vibrant in colour and the other more muted. I'd love to tell you I planned that, that I purposely split the fiber into more and less colourful piles when i weighted into two equal amounts. But ... I'd be lying, it was a total accident. I noticed mid way thru the second bobbin that it was filling with a much more muted colour range that the first bobbin had and realised this would even out the colour shifts when I plied it, and it did. You can seee the lower bobbin is a little blander than the top one. Part of me is a little sad not to see the effect of the various brighter colours plied together, the other part knows the yarn probably 'hangs together better this way.




I really wanted to keep this skein in one piece, rather than my more usual accidental practice of a large skein that fits one bobbin, and a smaller skein of what didn't fit. So I plied and I plied and I tried to fit as much as possible onto the bobbin as i could. I think I was probably at the limits of the bobbins capacity here - but I made it to the end of one single. The yarn is not actually touching the flyer, close but not touching and ...





... this is all that was left of the 2nd bobbin once the 1st bobbin ran dry. I'm taking this as a sign that my consistency is getting better. Might not be true, but is my bobbin and I can think what I want.




Finally here is the blue indigo dyed skein sitting amongst the lichen dyed skeins all ready and waiting for me to knit them into a sock. I loved using the Indigo dye vat, something magic about the way the fiber comes out lime-green and oxidizes to blue, and about the sense of history of dying with Indigo.



Well thats me - Bear and Tubs are back from an overnight trip to Christchurch to collect a Trademe purchase, and Pops and I spent a girly weekend together, but now my family is all home under the same roof, and I need to go and spend time with them before we tuck the cubs into bed.

Once last thought, I flew up to a meeting on friday, and sat next to a post grad student and got to talking. She was studying Neuroscience so I asked if she knew Ana - one of our knitters, she did and mentioned how clever and organised Ana was, how she missed her now Ana was doing other things, then said 'but you know its the strangest thing, she knits'. So I leaned over and said 'its weirder, you know she has started spinning as well.... ' evil laugh ...

Take care, Stella