It's time!

So Christmas has come and gone around here, it was a very wet day, heavy rain from Christmas Eve till Boxing Day, and we have a small house, so for two cubs, two parents, a grandparent, three generations, to be stuck inside for such a long time - it all went smoothly. Perhaps because the local geek tv station (prime) screened over six hours of back to back Dr Who Christmas specials. The few (two) who were not Dr Who fans were smart enought to stand back and let the rest of us indulge.

And as planned I had a new /old spinning wheel for Christmas, and being a sometimes organized kind of spinner I had prepared some fiber earlier all ready to spin. Photo to the right borrowed from one postd by Vintage Purls here because I am not clever enough to remember to make a photo before I divided up the fiber by shade and tone and made rolags.

I split the roving into two lengthwise, and then divided the lengths into bundles of simillar colour. Then I carded small batches into Rolags and laid them out in a gradient, two gradients - one for each ply.

 

Then I Spun it, woolen, and fine. The fiber is Vintage Purls, merino silk (80/20) in the colour way Drama Queen. One of the 2013 fiber club batches. Of course it was more fun than that, there was a sense of excitement with learning how to use the new old wheel. And there was an idiot/genius moment, when I discovered that the second bobbin was fitted so right the wheel was hard to spin on ... And I worked through all sorts of repair scenarios in my mind. I cleaned inside the bobbin shafts until they gleamed, they are brass so do gleam, I polished and measured and then asked my dad if he would make a steel reamer just the right size to clear any debris from the inside of the bobbin. Then I realized that if I moved the whorl out just a tad, it is a push fit, the the bobbin would have room to move. I feel so clever, to solve that problem, and yet so idiotic not to realize that earlier.

So half has been spun, 50 grams, and half to go.

And there has been knitting, Bears socks are done, and another negative pair on the way. The welsh country socks had grey toes and cuffs, and orange leaving enough of the two skeins of yarn to complete a second pair with reverse coloring. And since the first pair was already done in time for Christmas - there seemed to be opportunity to play with the second pair. Over on Ravelry there is a little bit of a buzz around a new sock heel pattern, the Fish lips kiss heel. I've seen the buzz, and watched the discussion and wondered if the heel was as amazing as the converts claimed.

 

 

So I've knit a heel, two in fact, and I'm most of the way to the end of the second sock. Once bear has tried them on and reported how they fit. I plan to review the heel, the fit, and the claims and report my experience. What I can say now is that usually I knit bear a sock on 2.25mm needles that has 68 or 72 stitches, using this method results in a sock of 60 stitches ... And all indicators point to it fitting. I'm intrigued, totally curious.

Hope your holiday was peaceful and full of good things

Na Stella

 

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