Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Easily distracted ... thats me

Easily distracted, this week I've been contemplating ripping back the ziggady zaggidy top down raglan - the yoke is just a little snug, Not much room for Poppys shoulders. I thought that the shift from the finner guage of the white yarn to the looser guage of the pink would be a nice substitute for the last increase round but its not, I was in denial while I knit the sleeve - but now Poppy has tried it on with one sleeve - I realise I do really need to frog and increase a bit more. Bother Bother Bother



I have been knitting on other things, well one other thing - and so have yet another boring shot of the tangled yoke cardigan. No I've not yet begun the tangles yet, after a bit of a think I realised that as my gauge is finner than the one the pattern is written for, my tangles will not be as tall as those in the pattern so I really should work 4" not 3" plain before the tangles begin. These tangles seem constantly out of reach -- constantly just a few days knitting away, its that anticipation of them, I hope they live up to all my tangled expectations of them. I've copied the chart, enlarged it, got all ready and still I'm knitting the precursor yoke section.




I've also been spinning the pin drafted roving - and am on to the second bobbin now. I have thought about dying half of the yarn and working colour work mittens ... thats the plan. This fiber has luster and strength and a little halo as I spin it, so outerwear mittens seem a good choice - and i want to do some colour work mittens. For Bear not me, but I do love the colour of the fleece so maybe I won't dye it. I'm spinning on the Pippy after a long spell spinning on the Wing. The Wing has that lovely carry handle, so its the easiest one to take out for spinning night - and I realised the Pippy was sitting unused in the corner - apart from the odd plying job because her bobbins hold twice the yarn the Wing can. I love this wheel - the bobbins hold so much and it has a nice balance to it, and its short enough I can comfortably spin whilst sitting on the couch.

And lastly - the thing that distracted me was at Monday spinning, but it wasn't fiber related. Morag showed of her home made soap, and she made it sound so easy I thought about it for most of the next day and then - bam I found myself off searching the web for recipies and off buying supplies. M is right, it is easy - although next time I would line the mold with paper not glad wrap. I ended up with lots of crease and fold marks. I think Paper would leave a smoother finish. This is a almost pure Castile soap using a one quarter scaled down version of this recipe. The mix did all the things it should have and took around 20 minutes all up. Its now cut into bars and I plan to let it dry out for a few weeks or as long as possible, before I am tempted to use it.
ok - Its a spinning day Saturday, 10:30am-3pm, a bit of a fleece info class in the morning and spin-in in the afternoon, so I'm really looking forward to that.
take care, spin, knit or make soap ... like I did
Stella

4 comments:

Knitting Linguist said...

I'm sorry you're stuck in that stockinette portion, waiting and waiting for the tangles to come -- soon, though, soon! The spinning looks great, I can't wait to see what colors your decide to dye the one half. I'm knitting and spinning myself, but I think no soap this week -- too much on my plate!

Anonymous said...

I keep reminding myself not to take up spinning so I maintain time to knit. Now you make me have to remind myself not to take up soapmaking!

The sweater is looking lovely despite the ever-beckoning tangles.

Angelika said...

Talk about distractions. Every post you have something new and exciting to show us. Multitasking anyone?

Linda said...

Nonononono! I can NOT start a new project! I already crochet, knit & spin. No, no, no! You say soap making is easy? hmmmm.....