Dec 18 2006
“oooooooosoft!”
There I was, we had just finished a HUGE project at work and I was baked, burned out and tired but desperately wanting to see my friends. We were supposed to go over to a friends house and play games with a bunch of other friends, but I couldn’t figure out how I could think enough to play any of the games. I thought about going and knitting, but all of the projects I am working on now are on tiny needles and I don’t find tiny needles very relaxing and none of the projects are complete no-brainers. (I know Whine, Whine, Whine—wait
for it there is a happy ending coming shortly)
I was sort of wandering aimlessly around the house, trying to decide if we should go or not, and what I could bring with if we went. Wandering to the stash, I realized that I mostly wanted to curl up in a pile of Grafton poofs and revel in their softness—and then I realized I could just take them and my fairly portable spinning wheel and setup in a corner do something relaxing and comforting and STILL get to socialize. It ended up that there was more than one of us who was in the same mood, so we setup a craft corner and all hung out and knit/spun/beaded/needlepointed/crocheted and relaxed while still getting a chance hang out and be social with all of the game players.
I was apparently in the perfect state of mind to spin a nice fuzzy lofty yarn, which the Grafton bats are excellent for. I had two bats that weren’t quite the same color intensity but were clearly mixed in the same batch. So I stripped each one into thick strips and then tried to even the colors out a bit. It sort of seemed to spin itself, spun on the middle ratio on my Lendrum and then plied on the loosest. The yarn is a nice worsted weight and is very soft and I really like the way the colors spread themselves out from the bat.
One thing that has become very clear is that I need a large Niddy-Noddy. The “sample” size one I bought when I was just starting, was perfect for the quantities of yarn that came off the drop spindle. Now that I have a wheel it the little guy is getting overwhelmed, and the thick short skein that comes off of the little niddy-noddy takes a *long* time to dry when I am washing and setting the twist.
More images of the yarn below the cut:
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2 Responses to ““oooooooosoft!””
Lovely yarn!!! I wanna come pet it! (or you could bring it down, so I can pet it)…
But after this comment, you’ll likely shun me, as I’m TAGGING you for Six Weird Things… (see my blog for details).
Please don’t hate me.
[...] 1. Handspun Scarf, in the “oooh soft” post I showed pictures of the yarn I spun from fiber I got from Grafton Fibers. I knit up a scarf that I love, from my favorite simple scarf pattern. The pattern makes a nice reversible cushy scarf. It also works well with the irregular color and texture of the handspun yarn. The scarf itself is about 5.5 feet long and about 6″ wide. The picture is a bit sucky cause I took it with my phone. [...]