Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Voting Day!

These are three little skeins of yarn I just finished for JF. She gave me some roving she bought a LONG time ago, and asked me to spin them for her. It was an interesting batch. The one on the left is 4 ozs of Wensleydale, the one in center is 2 ozs of merino/silk, and the bottom one is 2 ozs of merino/tencel. JF said she thought she wanted to learn to spin, went to a class, bought a spindle and these rovings. I personally would never have suggested merino/tencel for a beginner on a spindle. But......... This is the merino/silk. It took the dye the brightest. The colors really were distinct with the silk.
This is the merino/tencel. As you can tell, it is really shiny. I had little tencel fibers stuck all over me when it was done. It also bled pink when I washed it. But only on the first wash.

These colors are more what I think of for JF. She likes the soft and muted tones of the dyes. This wool was a little bit scratchy. Not really good for a scarf or anything close to the skin. I have never spun Wensleydale before. It is also hairy. I did put some Lanolin rinse on after the wash, but it didn't seem to help a whole lot.


Now this is the newest thing! I have been putting my fleeces, rovings, dyed stuff, etc. in these storage boxes for about ten years. I have lived in cramped quarters for a while. This was the only way I found to store them safely. Since moving to my house, I put all these boxes in the storage shed. Well...... what a treasure hunt this has been.



I have no idea where the blue, pink or some of this stuff actually came from, or how it was dyed. Evidently, and I am sure this is the truth, I would get a spurt of creativity and I would dye a little batch of something. I then put it in a bag and stuffed it into the storage box. This will have to stop now. I can't be guessing this stuff.
But here's proof that I actually used to dye correctly. I found this roving in a bag marked:
Green Hulls, Black Walnut, Iron Water, Gray Wool. It is 2.5 ozs. I carded it up this morning, and it is so lovely. When it is in the sun, there are golden fibers shining through. I am going to spin this up right now. I love it.




I cannot believe that this is finally the end of all this campaigning stuff. I am sick to death of everybody. I have been invited to a party tonight to watch the t.v. reports. But I personally will probably read, knit, or maybe spin during the whole evening. I may occaisonally go to the t.v. to check on progress, but I am not going to glue myself to it. I have no control over the outcome. I have cast my vote, and that's all I can do.
Today is the 4th of November and I am wearing shorts around the place. I was cold this morning and I put on sweats. But while carding up the wool, I got very hot. So I put on shorts. On the 4th of November! A cold front is due tomorrow, with rain, and then we will be back to normal.
I am going to start spinning. Talk at ya later.





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