Moth Heaven

Find Your Happy Place

Many many years ago, when I was in high school Mrs. Tobias taught yoga for after school activities, and I always signed up for it although I was never the most serene member of the class.  It has served me well over the years, and I often use the relaxation exercise to lull me back to sleep when nothing else can. You know the one, where you lie there and hold a picture in your mind of a peaceful place, like a lake, or maybe even someplace like this:

Click here to see the whole series on Flickr, found thanks to Marcy.

This is a real photograph, but I can't tell you more about it than what I know Michael of Stocks Photography in the UK says, that it's his grandmother's spinning room. I love the picture, and I also think it's fun that Michael chose to note on his Flickr profile that he's TAKEN.  No marrying into the family for this trousseau, friends.  But you can, like I do, use this for the meditative purposes, and dwell on all that wooly, cozy, velvety sumptuousness.

Housekeeping

Two things, first, I had an email about the singles for the Dinosaur yarn. It wasn't so much a question, but I thought this was the best response.

And second, I have an Ashford Jumbo flyer for single drive, and four jumbo bobbins for sale.  If you're interested, send an email to julia at farwellclay dot com, and I'll send it to you for $50, shipping included, as long as you're in North America.

My Ashford Traditional bit the dust about a year ago, so this unit has been an orphan ever since.

edited to add: the flyer has been adopted!  Thanks, guys.

Tour de Fleece, Stages 1 through 16 Recap

I may not have mentioned it much here on the blog, but I've been taking part in the Tour de Fleece, and my personal goal was to make a big dent in the spinning I have had on the Tina for the last year, so that once I am through with that, I can proceed guilt free to spinning on my new wheel, the Watson Marie.
This is what I've been working on:

It's the Dinosaur colourway from Spunky Eclectic, in merino silk.  If you look ever so closely, you may notice that the two braids above are slightly different.  They represent two different dyelots: three 4oz braids I bought from Amy at Spa 2008, and 3 more she sent to me a few weeks after, so that in all I would have enough to spin for my first sweater.  In the braid, you may not see the difference except maybe in the brightness of the greens.  Pulled out in the little balls I use for prep, the difference is more apparent.  Spa fiber:

Second batch:

The two almost belong to different colorways. Quite honestly, if that second one had been all I had seen on the shelf, I wouldn't have fallen in love with it for itself.  But as one ply of a two ply worsted yarn, I thought it would be fine, especially since I am so enamoured with the intensity of the first batch.So I have been careful to keep the two batches separate as I am spinning.  I fill first one bobbin with batch A, then another with batch B, then ply them together, do a little dance, then start over.  I'm averaging a new skein about every 5 days.

My first skein wasn't the instant hit I was hoping for.  I plied it, counting my treadles as I have learned to do for consistent plying, and when I made it into a skein, it was less plied than I had thought, even though I had checked the twist off the bobbin.  This is what the first skein looked like plied up at 3.5 wpi:

Meh.  So I ran it through again, getting about 4.5 wpi, and I like it much much better.  Now it looks like this:

So far, I have 900 yards of light worsted/dk weight (about 11 to 12 wpi) at 1200 yards a pound.  I'm thinking a simple sweater, maybe another Melissa LaBarre Garter Yoke cardigan, or Ann Budd's Meringue Yoke Cardigan. Today the boys are riding another stage, and I will be plying another skein.

Neck Check

now on to the sleeves, and to play with that overlapping cable up the middle of the arm. I think.

The Vex of the Neck

I'm here with the Serratus Sweater

And "here" means I have to make a decision about how to treat the neckline.  Since this is kind of jacket-like, I am thinking about a collar, knit straight up out of the live stitches, and probably constructed of a k1p1 rib, in twisted stitches, like the button band.  I'm going to knit a little of it, and report back.

A Knitted Bodysuit

When Ysolda was traveling through my environs last month, I had the chance to try on her red Vivian that she has in her personal trunk show (and it fit!).  It was a very flattering sweater, it's true, although I don't have the photos to prove it, and since it is already in the queue, I was happy to see I am justified in having it there to begin with.  But something else happened when I looked at myself in the mirror, that little ping of inspiration that is often just  an accident.  I thought that the cables and twists and traveling chords all articulate something like knitted musculature, and I have been thinking about it ever since.  Combined with the bin of discontinued Annabel Fox Aran Tweed (in Cosmos, a midnight blue) that I have in the stash, I cast on for something inspired by the day.

I think it looks a little like a rib cage, although mine is a bit more tweedy. I've knit the left front a few times now, trying to get the fit right: not too tight, but still following the contours(which the ribbing makes happen without too much work from shaping). I started out thinking I would use a zipper like Ysolda did in Vivian, but now I think it may look a little severe, so I had to re-knit with a button placket.  It goes quickly.

In which the hitherto cat-free fiber blog takes a left turn into the litter box

Xena took up a new role in the household last night.

Critic.

Here she is a spinning lap cat.  She looks content with my single, doesn't she?:

Don't look too closely . . .

there's a slub!

Here, let me work it out for you.  Just a little cat spit and we can felt that baby down.

Treadle slower: less twist! less twist! And you want a three ply?  You gotta let up a little on the grist, human.

(sheesh.  Everyone seems to more about this stuff than I do.)

Tour de Fleece 2009: day 1

The phone rang.  It was Random Kelly (to remind you, I call her Random Kelly because this is her license plate):

She was on a mission.  Kelly has taken a slightly dim (but understanding) view of my neglect of my spinning, mostly because I have (as you may recall) a new wheel which has done little but occupy rug space and gather dust since it arrived in the spring.  So the nature of the phone call was to give a gentle twist of my arm to join her in doing something to shock the system. And not just to participate in the Tour de Fleece, but to join Team Suck Less. And as an extra enticement, I would get a commemorative cling for my spinning wheel cup holder.

I am a bobbin and a half into the Dinosaur Merino/Silk from Amy King that I bought for a sweater yarn last year at Spa, and I'd really like to make a dent in that puppy. 



And a whack of Spinner's Hill to spin on the Watson as well, so my tour itinerary is set.  How much I'll post about it remains to be seen.