SpinnySpinny

MaryJo Lanik, of the Van Wyck Homestead Handspinners and Weavers in Fishkill, NY, sent me some photos from the Knit-Out that I stumbled upon on my visit to New York last month. Here’s one of me (right) teaching drop spinning:

It was fun. You never know when you might find yourself on the other side of the country teaching spinning.

The last of the gray Romney fleece is finally scoured. I sorted out the shorter and more curly bits for carding and the rest is bagged and waiting for me to start on more Peruvian warp yarn. I even washed the rest of that questionable Dorset, although I still don’t know what to do with it. But the more wool I get scoured, the more I can seal in plastic bags and put in the storage unit. After the “M” incident, I’m not keeping raw fleece over there. Now I can start on the black Merino lambs.

I got this idea a few weeks ago that I should finally knit myself a sweater. I’ve avoided it because I’m actually not all that fond of knitting but I like to have handspun hats and scarves to wear. It’s great for small travel projects, something I am always in need of. I determined a while back that I am also in need of a “casual outergarment.” Something to throw on to run outside. I like the idea of a poncho, but I’m so over the whole “Celebrity Poncho” thing that I don’t want to touch it for fear someone will assume that I’m one of those kinds of people. I am decidedly anti-fashion when it comes to anything that involves People or Entertainment Weekly. Maybe in a few years when everyone has forgotten about it.

So, I think, I’ll knit myself a sweater. A nice classic cardigan I can nonchalantly drape over my shoulders. When somebody asks, I can respond “Yes, isn’t the yarn nice? I made it.” But since it will be of my usual 3-ply worsted, it will wear forever, never pill and be immune to the damp San Francisco evening breezes. And then I contemplate my sweater-making skills. Or, more correctly, the complete lack thereof. How will I get it actually fit my narrow shoulders and wide butt? Will I look like a stuffed sausage? None of those patterns have ever heard of bust shaping. I wonder if undertaking a first attempt in handspun is such a hot idea. What if I completely blow it? This leads me to the unthinkable: do I Buy Yarn?

I’m not sure I’m quite ready for this.

Finally some fibery stuff happens around here, in between the coughing and post-nasal-dripping and all that fun stuff. It’s nice to know that when you can’t do anything involving complex thought, there is still fleece to sort. Or something like that. I’m finally getting on with the huge backlog of dirty fleece and even doing a bit of spinning.

I started a mindless project with some Ashland Bay multicolor Merino top, a scarf for The Not-Really-Allergic Boyfriend. It’s all single, with warp and weft of opposite twist. I picked up some burgundy to go with the purplish multi warp, but I think I’m going to end up with black weft. I still haven’t resolvevd the loom question, however. This needs a proper modern multi-harness loom and I don’t think I will survive using the table loom on the floor. But I don’t have to decide yet, I’ve only promised to have it finished by February.

It’s nice to finally do something rather than make samples all day long. And something that isn’t fussy and tedious. It will be a little uneven and that’s ok. I’m enjoying the part where I buy the fiber ready to spin, but not so much the bits I have to pick out of it. I’ve never seen a commercial wool I’ve been entirely happy with, there are always neps or VM or even sometimes lumps of nasty stained fiber. And it’s never as long a staple as it could be. As much work as it is, I will continue to scour and comb my own because the results are so much better.

I finished getting the notes online, plus a little more general housekeeping. Outside the computer, I’ve started taking skeins out of bags and hanging them to dry. The twisty linen told me it was more humid in North Carolina than here, so I thought I’d also air the rest of them. Then the box gets packed up for a while. I volunteered to do a guild program on the COE, but unless another speaker drops out there isn’t an opening until March. So seal it up with a packet of desiccant and off to storage it goes.

I don’t know what it is, I try to sit down and update the website and it’s always something. I came home to find that The Boyfriend lost his keys and locked himself out of the apartment, and in the middle of working our network comes crashing down for a hardware failure. But, no, I’d rather not be in New Jersey. My sister’s place is far nicer than ours, but we have a better Internet connection.

I’m adding comments to the COE pages, both from the judges and my own. You can see how individual items were scored and what I thought about it. It’s amazing how much work you can get done trapped in a flying tin can with nothing else to do for five hours. (Many thanks to United for having a spiffy frequent flyer program that lets me get my butt out of Economy on a regular basis. Although we won’t talk about what happened to my vegan meal. It’s good I only need non-dairy.)