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Thursday, June 18, 2009

What's New, Pussycat?

Well! It's certainly been a while since I've updated here. I kind of put my spinning on hiatus after my marathon in the workshop. I was working on a Good vs. Evil yarn that I had intended to enter into a contest, but the deadline came and went, and it never got finished. It's a super fun yarn, though, and I'll post it once I complete it. The material cost was outrageously high for it, so I'm hoping it will sell one day, because I won't have any purpose for it.


I've been working on spinning a SUPER thin silk single. It's slightly larger than sewing thread, but not a lot. It might fluff out once I take it off the bobbin, but we'll see. I intend to navajo ply it once it's finished, but obviously it's taking a year and a day to spin 4 oz of silk that thinly.


Other things.......I finished the doghair socks! I don't know what happened, but I spun the yarn for the first sock heavy worsted, and I spun the yarn for the second sock between fingering and sport weight (and thought that I was doing them approximately equally! That's what I get for not checking before I was finished...). I still have to tuck in the ends and take pictures...I also plan to full them slightly before I give them to my customer, as they are a little on the fuzzy side.

One of my friends has been filling my hands with qiviut. He wants a scarf, and he's paying me ... yes, with more qiviut! I certainly won't argue, since qiviut is a pricey commodity. He also supplied me with some black bear fur that he gathered in some woods somewhere, and I am already plotting. I'll probably blend it with some of that qiviut I've received in payment, and some Siberian Husky fur. I don't know if I'll make a hat or a scarf, but either way, I need to plan amounts and get it together so I can rent the drum carder from my LYS since I don't have one of my own and I want fairly even blending. Thoughts, anyone?


And my latest project...I am making some lovely rainbow socks as a gift to a friend of mine. Crystal Palace Yarns has come out with yarns called "Mini Mochi" in several colorways. The LYS got some of these yarns in and I couldn't stop thinking about making these socks once I'd seen the yarn. I prefer to knit socks on size 3 needles (3.25mm), and these yarns aren't quite thick enough, so I am knitting this Mini Mochi yarn along with a "Kid Merino" yarn, which is also by Crystal Palace Yarns, although I wasn't aware of that at the time, what with me having lost the tag to the Kid Merino when I originally purchased it for strengthening socks. The Mini Mochi is 80% merino and 20% nylon, and the Kid Merino is a combination of merino, nylon, and mohair. I can't remember the ratios on that one, but it's great for making socks stronger, what with a high nylon content and all. Plus, it adds a tiny bit of fun 'halo' to the sock.

So, I need to take pictures of the doghair socks, of the qiviut (the raw fiber, the yarn, and the scarf, once it's complete!), the Good vs. Evil yarn, the silk single, and the rainbow socks. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me!

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