Classy bitches spin thin

 I recently splurged and bought myself a pound of Cheviot wool from paradisefibers.com. Naturally I rationalized it as, "I could easily make a profit and this will be the roving that starts my indie spinning/dying business." How am I doing with that?

Oh, you know. Just non-existent. But I did see the inner desire of what this bag wants to be.

I don't know how I came up with this vision, but all of a sudden I wanted to make this huge fluffy bag into lace-weight yarn. Well, that may not be entirely true. Initially I was going to see if this wanted to be a 2-ply or a single. Once I started spinning it, I saw that it had a lovely halo effect and knew this had to be a single lace-weight yarn. (let it be known that I don't know if my spinning buzz words like 'halo' and 'single' are being used correctly. I feel painfully n00bish about all this. Also about my internet slang use of the word n00b. Because I do the internet wrong.)

Apparently the spinning gods do NOT understand that if I want this to be something, it should be easy. I have had a hell of a time making this small quantity. Literally I've down this process (sit down, spin for 5 minutes, have fledgling yarn break, give up, and walk away) happen 8 times.

Today I finally decided to do my usual classy blocking of the yarn (sexy heels that have literally never been worn but have gotten their monies worth by making pretty yarn for me) and decide to see how this fucking obnoxious makes me want to die lovely yarn looks while it's knit.

Because one thing I HAVE been doing lately is reading about spinning. Apparently the good way to do spinning is to spin something, knit a swatch, and..... adjust?

I'm not really sure about the last part. But I did get that I should be swatching.

THICK HEADS BUT THIN YARNS.

Spring Cleaning

I'm pretty sure knitters don't understand how much yarn they have at one time, let alone how many unfinished objects they have (UFOs). Yarn is pretty light and compact so it's easy to think that you don't really have enough and you can afford to buy just one more skein.

Me personally, I haven't bought much yarn in the past year. I have been on a bit of a fiber binge (1 lb of cotton, 1 lb of wool, assorted alpaca), but I've rationalized it by saying that I need it because I don't have as much fiber as I do yarn.

This past weekend I decided to organize my yarn stash.

Because.... Maybe it was a little out of control. But once I started going through my UFOs (unfinished objects for those slow readers out there), I found some things that I remembered the love and remembered the hurt.

Now these two projects above don't look too terrible. But let's microanalyze them. The hat looks quite lovely. It has a beautiful pattern and decent colors... The only problem is that it literally is too big for any normal human head. That entire hat either needs to find a Giant to wear it, or needs to be ripped out so I can reuse the yarn for something that could actually work. Next to it is an almost pair of socks. There is nothing obviously wrong about this project. The yarn is beautiful, the socks fit, the stitch pattern is interesting. The main problem? I ran out of yarn. That means I either have to spend twenty dollars to finish 1/4 of a sock, or rip out most of the first sock to finish the second. There is a third option. I could use some of my assorted leftover sock yarn to construct a not even remotely matching second sock. Which is not really an option.

Then I came across this red and pink mitten. It was a pain to knit. The yarn is much too thick for the needle size I used; which made knitting these like fitting a ham through a pin-needle (a feat I often attempt but never succeed).

Ergo. I have one mitten without a thumb.

Then you come across yarn that has decided to fraternize (yarn sex) with surrounding yarn (slutty yarn). This requires hours of untangling which would lead most mortals to insanity.

Luckily I'm not normal.

I love untangling yarn.


(spoiler alert. I'm a weirdo)

This is a lovely sock that stopped. Maybe I just needed some winding up.

These just need some finishing. And a baby.

This was a test knit that bored me to tears.

Although it's beautiful. and 3/4 of the way finished.

What do I end with? Knowledge that I should NOT buy more yarn until I make at least 30 more things.