Tuesday, March 29, 2011

To Sum Up

Believe it or not, I'm still alive!

I tend to get distracted. But here are a few things that are going on in this girl's fibery world...

WASHING: I've been washing up my last fleece of last year, trying to get ready for fleece season of this year. It's nearly upon us! Gotta get ready! :D So on Saturday I filled my low Rubbermaid bin with hot hot water from the water heater, boiling water from the stove, and a healthy glug of blue Dawn and submerged two lbs. of unbelievably gorgeous Cormo wool. Oh, Cormo. You make me swoon. I did three washes and three rinses (a dash of vinegar in the 2nd to last rinse). Cormo, with all its Merino content, can be greasy, and I really wanted it prepped just right. It's now outside on my balcony, drying in the sunshine.

I've tried the washing-in-tulle method, but failed miserably at it...all the locks bunched up at either end, I had nowhere to put the drying tulle sack, and ultimately I found it so enormously time-consuming that I went back to my tried and true method. This mostly involves dunking, soaking, and tossing the locks into another laundry basket to dry. I'll be documenting this highly unscientific method on the blog as more fleeces come to live with me in the coming spring. :)

SPINNING: Indigo Montoya (my Ashford Kiwi) has a slim line of the aforementioned Cormo on his bobbin. I handcombed a sample of already-washed-locks with my Alvin Ramer super mini combs and the resulting top was DELICIOUS. Yum. I'll probably ply this sample back on itself via the Andean plying method. Buttercup (my Louet Victoria) has been out and about lately, traveling to my LYS' Spin-in and to Stephanie's house. I just finished spinning two singles' worth of merino/silk/firestar/angelina on her, and plied them together on Indigo's jumbo flyer. Pics soon to come, if I can get my act together.

CARDING: Broke out the handcards for a special project recently...very controlled color blending for a pair of fingerless mitts for a friend of mine. I think I was successful...the finished yarn and mitts show a long, sloooooooow transition of color. Just lovely.

KNITTING: The mitts! I'm using the Churchmouse Welted Fingerless Gloves pattern as a jumping-off point.

DYEING: Not a whole lot lately, after getting all the preliminary dyeing done for the mitts.

TRAVELING: This is the most exciting thing! In just two weeks, I'll be traveling with a couple of fellow fiber fiends to Forks, WA for the Tribal Textile Treasures workshop with Judith Mackenzie McCuin. Yep, I'm pretty much insanely excited.

WEAVING: Finished a set of modified waffle weave handtowels for my mother-in-law. How about a picture? :) Here you go: