Aug 02 2009
ok, so now it’s August
I’m not really sure how it got to be August, but it is. It happened.
Lately the days just fill up and flow together.
This is not necessarily a bad thing (I can be heard remarking that one of my biggest fears in life is being bored; I certainly don’t need to be concerned about it at all these days).
And, I quite like when there is concrete physical evidence of productivity. As of late, it’s been pretty good around here on that level.
A few notables:
For the past year, we’ve been anticipating some sort of diagnosis for the youngest, given his development is not typical for his age level and hasn’t been for some time. In July, we received a diagnosis of high level autism. This is good. It allows all of us to move forward with confidence we’ve been practicing activities and setting up programs which are going to be helpful for him and have been helpful. We are on the right track.
In the knitting arena, I’ve gotten a few things off the needles in good time (I can’t show you one of them because it’s the design for the September installment of the ETL Club via Woolgirl). I am also dyeing the yarn (still a work in progress) for the same installment. This has been a little challenging this summer (as has been dyeing in general) with our weather patterns in southwestern Ontario leaning towards high humidity and more rain than normal. But, we’re managing.
This, however, I can show you, now that it’s in the hands of its intended:
Earlier in the year, I was invited to participate in this year’s Handspun Scarf Exchange. Basically, the premise is to entice spinners to knit with their handspun. This was good incentive for me; it is the first FO knitted out of my handspun. I have dabbled and dreamed and prospected with my handspun but have never achieved and full, in the flesh, completed knitted item.
I think it came out fairly well.
I really enjoyed the whole process, as well. You receive fibre to spin from the intended owner, and likewise, someone else in the group receives your fibre. You have no idea who you’re spinning/knitting for until the end of the alotted timeframe.
So, I’m not sure who dyed this fibre; I know only it is a merino silk. Very nice to work with. It was spun on the Ladybug at 9:1. My intention was laceweight/light fingering, but with a little bit of bounce, not too drapey but with some ability to show lace patterning. Larkin requested a wider scarf, and not too long and skinny. I found Anne’s Butternut Scarf pattern and it seemed to fit the bill. I think I was also attracted to that pattern in particular because the Anne’s sample was knitted with handspun as well.
Other yarn specs:
Plied 9:1; the roving was divided into 32 smaller ‘nests’ before spinning to spread the colouring around and shorten some of the longer colour runs. Resulting yardage: skein #1 - 2.8 oz/80g/405 yds; skein #2 - 1.3 oz/38g/195 yds. I was hoping for around 600 yds and in the end, that’s exactly what I wound up with.
It really all came together perfectly.
Of course, now I would like one just like this for myself. :)
Anyhow, finally got around to blogging! I have more knitting/spinning to share but my hopes are I will be able to squeeze in another blog post fairly soon.
