Saturday, December 26, 2009

My over thinking strikes again

So if you have been reading my blog for any amount of time you can feel my pain of spinning and knitting something and not totally please with the end results. One of my big goals at SOAR this past fall was to learn to spin and knit a sweater that doesn't weight 10 pounds. So I took a class from Maggie Casey on American Long draw which was great. If you ever have a chance to take a class from her DO. I have been spinning only long draw sense. I think I have gotten to the point where I can spin a really nice soft and light weight 3 ply. Which should be perfect for a sweater.
When the Winter issue of Spin Off came in the mail I fell in love with Amy Kings' Oatmeal cardigan. I have a vision of a darkish blue one.
One thing that would like to do this next year is learn more about different breeds of wool.With that in minde I am trying to make things with different breeds. While I was at SOAR I bought some really nice BFL that is cream with streaks of med. brown in it. My plan is to spin and re knit a sweater that I knit earlier this year but weights over 3 pounds. I also have plans for a cardigan the pattern was in an older issue of Ashford's Wheel magazine. By the way if you have never checked out this annual you should its a really good one. I have picked up some really nice Shetland from my girl friend for that one. I will be talking more about that as the Olympics gets closer.
So with wool from BFL and Shetland already for sweaters I wanted to use something different. I totally on faith bought a bit over 2 pounds of Romney from Paradise Fibers. http://www.paradisefibers.net/Raw-New-Zealand-Romney-p/973.htm. Well I am happy to report that is wonderful. I have washed it and I'n thinking it will work out well for this cardigan.
So now here is where the over thinking begins. In an effort to make sure this will work out. I found some Romney in my stash. Now I know that a dyed roving will not be exactly the same as spinning from the locks. What I was looking for was will Romney be OK to wear. Now because its a cardigan it won't be next to skin but close so I want something that not horrible scratchy. So I decided to spin up a ounce on both my Matchless and the Sonata to see how they came out. I then knit up a swatch to see how they feel. Well I have to say I really like the yarn its some what soft and I think it will make a nice 3 ply. When I was knitting it didn't feel all that soft so I was a bit worried but after the swatches were washed and blocked they felt fine under the chin.
With that test done I have decided to get started. So last night I flicked a shoe box of locks so that I could get to spinning today. I really wanted to get started on the first but I just can't wait. Like I said I also am thinking about over dyeing the yarn a med. blue, I don't want to waist any of the locks to make sure I have enough for the sweater. The pattern calls for 1550 for my size which I think it way more then I need. I usually use 1000 for a top down sweater. Anyway I took some of the wool that came out of the dog brush and dyed that with some Gaywool dye in the color of bluegum. Right now its drying but I'm thinking its a little to light. I am thinking I want more dark blue, but I will decide that later.
Yes I know I am way over thinking this whole thing and its even beginning to drive me a bit batty but I really want to spin and knit more of my projects this next year and I want them to turn out so that I will want to wear them and not just in my house. More to come....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!