Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Spinning and the art of macaroni

I've been experimenting with my spinning. The red and tan roving is a mill end and is my first attempt at spinning thick and thin.

Something told me to spin and ply a little to see how it goes and when the fiber was wet it smelled very, very bad. When dry, it smelled fine. Coby had a tip that worked like a dream.


Run VERY !HOT! water and put some Dawn dish soap in then soak the fiber for 5 min. It is important not to move the fiber much to avoid felting. After the soak, run VERY !HOT! clear water and soak for another 5 min. Finally, spin the water out in your washing machine. There was just a tiny bit of fiber here and it squished out between towels.

The fiber smelled fine afterward.


In the meantime, the desire to spin finer weight yarn had arrived. This is angora, merino, and silk from Susan's Spinning Bunny. Originally 2 ounces, nearly half is spun up. We'll see how it goes once the ply has been finished.









A couple of projects made with Briar Rose are around here, too. A Myrna Stahman shawl is on the needles made with Sonoma. Guess is that it is about 75% complete. With increases every odd row, it is difficult to estimate. The rows are nearing 300 stitches and it is apparent that the progress will slow by the sheer volume of stitches.


Finally, this hat and mitten pattern will be carried by Briar Rose. Christy Roosien wrote the hat and a matching scarf pattern that is incredibly adorable. It is knit with 2 strands of Fourth of July on large needles. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year?





One more thing to share. Mother's Day was low-key and that is fine with me. Sunday night, Bugg's boyfriend dropped by with a present.

My very own macaroni necklace! Let me tell, you, the designs have gotten cooler than when they were in Kindergarten - waves!

The kids laugh now, but still think it was pretty cool that I actually wore the jewelry made from food to work (at a bank) when they were little. Just to stick with tradition, I wore this necklace to Bugg's tennis match Monday. The boyfriend smirked a little, but he must have been so proud.

5 comments:

Alpaca Granny said...

Your spinning looks awesome, Kim.
Maple

Anonymous said...

Your spinning is gorgeous - can't wait to see the angora/silk spun up!

Addicted to Knitting said...

Your spinning is great .Love your Macaroni necklace...R u on ravelry ????if so whats your name...

Anonymous said...

I want to learn to spin. waaaah. Your spinning is stunning. SB

Kristy said...

You are spinning now?!?!? Will the breadth and depth of your talents ever be reached? I'm so impressed. When I've reached some sort of satisfactory point in my hat progress, I'm going to try the drop spindle again. I don't have much of an aptitude for it but you continue to inspire me.

And the hat and mitten combo is fabu....of course.