More classes from Carol

On May 27, 28 and 29, Carol H. Rhoads came to Boise and taught some more classes and I took them all. On Saturday, we learned how to make novelty yarns. I really had fun at this class. I learn how to make cabled, thick and thins, boucle, and slubby yarns. We also spent some time on plying. From that class, I took away the confidence to make a better plied yarn, plus some neat novelty yarns. On the 28th, I took the class on spinning for knitting. Now this would seem to be a much easier class after taking the spinning for fine fibers and the novelties. But no, I found this one to be much more challenging. I can spin a fairly even single to make a sport, DK or even a worsted weight yarn. But let me tell you I found it very hard to spin a bulky weight. My first attempt for a bulky I had to use 4 plys to get the size we were looking for. But after some practice I was able to get a bulky with a 2 ply. On May 29, the class was for Bohus knitting. If you have never seen this type of knitting and you love color work, then you are really missing out. Bohus knitting is a type of knitting that was done from the 1930' through to the 1960's as a way for knitter to make extra money. There is a great book out called Poems of Color byWendy Keele. I do believe that it's out of print, but I have seen copies on sale at ebay and even amazon. The thing that makes bohus knitting different than say regular Fair Isle knittng is instead of carrying just two colors on a round you might carry 3 or 4. Also, there are placed in the pattern purl stitch every now and then to add shaping to the pattern. Also, the yarns used were very fine and very nice. Usually a wool angora blend. In the class I took, we made wrist warmers. Again, something I have never made. They yarn is a 50/50 blend of merino wool and angora. I had such fun over the two weekends that Carol H. Rhoads taught class in the Idaho area. I think it will take me quite a long time to process all that I learned. From spinning to hand carding, to plying to knitting. I was very inspired to keep learning and impoving both my knitting and my spinning.