I have no idea why these things have started to land in my head, since it’s very out of character, but I’m having fun while it lasts. And making sure I have a small notepad/pen in every jacket and bag I might carry.
It’s a bit fascinating that you can in fact describe your whole day like this, and I’m also intrigued to find out whether I can eventually become any good if I keep it up. My previous experience in these matters is basically knowing one limerick by heart… And now, ever since I had the notion yesterday, my brain is completely set up to think 5-7-5!
********************
Trees groan against grey.
A sea of susurration.
Red boots keep walking.
Fallen giant is now
tree stump troll with hair of grass.
Storm debris in the rain.
Another dark day.
I think the couch is calling.
Too tired to doodle.
Finding my ponies
in a dark and stormy night
is no easy quest.
********************
Both blues are done now.
Working on the purple batt.
Jumbo flyer – lace whorl. 😉
I made G put the driveband on my drumcarder before he left for the day, so I could blend some fibers for my current funyarn project, just a batch of purples that I got out a while ago and never blended. Meant to do it on the hackle – but that requires 2 thumbs as well; I’m beginning to see why dolphins never had an industrial revolution. Apart from being too clever of course. And yes, I’m still p***ed about my thumb progress which has been going backwards this past week – are you all bored to pieces hearing about it? <G> Perhaps I should challenge myself not to speak of it again until it’s completely healed….
Stephen Pressfield has an interesting take on why we get these clumsy injuries – I have to say, it certainly fits well with some of my posts! “Things” always seem to happen “to” me just when I think I’m on a roll, cruising along with the wind in my back, thinking I’ve finally found the sweet spot. Interesting.
Anyway, After carding the two batts for the project, I wanted more. Before I knew it, a couple of hours had passed and I’d been adding all sorts of silly things. When I ran out of obvious leftover bits of top, I got my fluff box (combing waste) out and ran a few chunks through the carder willynilly. I know it’s going to be neppy and tricky to spin, but hey, learning experience, right? Yarn that doesn’t hold up well because of short fibers can be felted…
I’ve wanted to make tweed yarn forever, I even have a bag of undyed silk noil sitting somewhere just for that. So that’s another future project for the carder. I thought perhaps I could use the fluff for tweed nepps first, with some long fiber like Shetland for instance? Right now, however, I need to spin some as part of my attempt at a structured work and study routine. And paint if I can find uninterrupted time, which I need for that. I still don’t know what’s happening with my desire to blog differently, so in the meantime I’ll just blather as usual.
Remember the fiber I bought at the sheep market? I’ve been wondering how I wanted to spin the variegated top on the right, so I decided to get all scientific about it and at least try out all the usual varieties (knowing full well that perhaps in the end I’d have 50g of samples….)
So a split lenghtwise 2-ply, a chainply, a fatter single and a 2×2 cable for starters. As well as knitted swatches!! Then afterwards, depending on the results, I might look into new to me spinning methods…
Well, I got as far a 2×2 cable, real thin, as I thought it might emulate a thicker, longer yarn using the whole top. And realized that all the plying would just make me an orange yarn. (of course I could try 3×3 chain ply, but no, not this time)
Then I thought I was real clever, and brave too, deciding to waste all my yarn on something really different (to me). Never mind all that sampling!
I split it in half, then one half split into a thick rope and a thin. The idea was to try and match the lenghts/colours when plying the two. Well, it works in theory. Except I haven’t spun for ages and I’m prone to underspinning – even when I think I’ve added extra twist. The fiber is superwash. Can you see where this is going? Yes, everything pretty much drifted apart when I tried to ply. Some bits are looking really good, but it’s definitely not the same type of yarn at both ends! I will however try this again some other time as I think it could be a really cool feature in a woven item of some sort.
The other half I spun fairly thin, and then I wanted to make a coiled yarn. Well, duh. After 20 cm or so plying, I learned that to make coils, your single should probably be somewhat thicker than your core unless you want serious corkscrews as well! I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on how to make the coils though, I just have to figure out what to do with a thin, variegated, orange single now….
Testspinding
Jeg har gået længe og funderet på, hvad jeg skulle spinde af mit orange fiber fra fåredagen. Spekulerede i mange nye eksperimenter som jeg ikke har prøvet før, lavede en lillebitte test med kabeltvinding, som bare gjorde det hele ensfarvet orange og kedeligt.
Så jeg endte med at finde på noget for mig rigtig vildt og uvant. Og selvfølgelig mislykkes med begge dele, men til gengæld har jeg lært lidt af hvert. Det er lidt ærgerligt, at jeg ikke fik noget direkte brugbart ud af de fine fibre, men sådan er der så meget….
Den ene halvdel splittede jeg op på langs i en tyk og en tynd tot, som jeg så forsøgte at spinde lige lange, så det, når det var tvundet, ville være en tyk og en tynd som fulgte samme farveforløb.
Det virkede også rimeligt i teorien, bortset fra jeg ikke har spundet meget længe og har en tendens til at underspinde. Fibrene er desuden superwash og meget glatte og kan ikke filtes hvis det kniber med sammenholdet! Og ja, det hele skred jo fra hinanden gang på gang da jeg begyndte at sno det den anden vej, ikke?
Godt så, næste lektion bestod i at lave “coils”, kan vi kalde det fjedergarn på dansk? Jeg spandt en tynd single, for så tænkte jeg at det færdige garn ikke blev så massivt. Efter 20 cm tvinding fandt jeg så ud af, at det ikke er en smart ide at kernen er samme tykkelse som garnet, men skal være meget tyndere, ellers kommer der så meget sno på at det ikke bare ligner en fjeder på den ene led, men at selve garnet også er en grisehale. Så nu har jeg en lang tynd single i orange nuancer jeg skal have fundet på et eller andet sjovt til!
I’ve been so amazingly lucky recently that family members have chosen to share some abundance with me. Not only did my mum replace my 10 y.o. camera with a shiny new modern gizmo, I also have a new fiber tool. While being an owner in itself doesn’t ring my bells very loudly, I’m whooping at the thought of all the stuff I can DO with these toys. Never mind that I’ve hardly had any new clothes in a decade, I’m warm, clean and not too offensive.
The large drum is easily removed and replaced, so you have the option of coarse or fine cloths. I’m mordanting the last of my Dorset fleeces to be dyed and then everything gets run through the machine. Among other things.
I’ll be in the wool room if you need me. (aka living room aka paint stoodio)
Kartemaskine
Lykkens Pamjulefis, det er mig! At blive tildelt overflod bare for glæden ved at give og modtage, ikke for ejerskabets skyld som sådan, men alt det man kan udrette med det rigtige værktøj og godt humør. Og nu mangler jeg hverken det ene eller det andet! Den store tromle kan nemt skiftes, hvis man vil have en grov- eller fintandet.
Så hvis ikke I kan se mig, så ved I nok hvad jeg laver… Der er sat en gryde bejdse over med det sidste Dorset råuld og så skal hele balladen ellers igennem maskineriet. Og naturligvis foreviges med det fine kamera, jeg har fået af min mor, da det gamle var ved at stille træskoene.
How the view from my office window distracts me from matters at hand.
What, no plant dyeing post this Monday? Well, yes, I do have a couple in my drafts, but they are rather dull and not very urgent, so I thought I’d find a time where I push the lot out at once “final natural dyeing week at the colour cottage 2013”, like. I do have a few more dye jobs waiting too, but as I’d mentioned, I needed a break, because I feel no urgency whatsoever.
No worries, in fact my entire first page of wordpress posts list are drafts! Surely I can find something else to talk about, right? Except they all pretty much require me to do things that I can show and tell. The knitting, the coughcough tapestries, the WIP paintings, the daily(?) postcards etc. etc. Lots of sketching/designing going on behind the curtains though.
Yarn sketch showing how I do not intend to spin this fiber. 2×2 cable.What happens to leaves encased in acrylic painting medium?
There is in fact some knitting. I’m almost, well sort of, back to the same place where I frogged my blue reversible sweater, now in a longer, slightly wider version with I hope a better looking raglan. And I’ve decided to first knit a hat in some old leftover yarns from my stash (needs busting anyway) before I commit some of my handspun, as I’ve never knit a hat before, so sizewise it’s a bit of a mystery. There’s something to be said for small items like this, though. You get it over and done with pretty quick compared to sweaters. Unfortunately I go through a lot of the latter and don’t really use accessories much. I may reconsider of course: The hat looks tiny on the needles. If I end up having to knit it three times, not much time is saved. Or I suppose it could become a Thing-finder pouch, to have something to show for it.
I “accidentally” ordered some more random library books instead of reading the ones on my shelf/ordering from my study list. I did have an ambition to order only one or two at a time, to take my time reading them and perhaps remember more of what they say. Problem is, sometimes they take almost a year, at other times I get 10 in a week. So I need to finish these and then try to be more systematic with my reading, so it doesn’t take away my crafting time because I have a deadline. Twice I can renew – sometimes. And only if nobody else is in line, so I sometimes have just 30 days for a whole pile. Fine for novels, I can do one per day, but the others I need to put down regularly.
Then I thought I did have some really exciting news to share with you, but right now I’m almost afraid to jinx and postpone it even more if I say it out loud. An exercise in patience for sure. Going on three weeks now… And I’m not even superstitious! I need to learn to not agonize over other people’s tardiness and supposed intentions.Do you master calm in the face of “bad” excuses? I seem to be getting better at seeing the logical side of it and not just fret, you could say I stand aside and watch myself do it for a bit. 😉 So while it still distracts me I seem to be getting over it faster, even when things happen in droves, as they are prone to do.
I really should be making apple sauce before we have another frost.
Blandet landhandel
Denne mandag er der ingen plantefarveindlæg, dvs. jeg har et par stykker, men de er kedelige, så jeg regner med at udgive dem i en bunke. “Sidste farverunde i 2013-uge”. Jeg har nogen flere ting jeg vil farve med, men jeg trænger stadig til en pause kan jeg mærke.
Heldigvis har jeg jo masser af blog-kladder, en hel side fuld. Nå, ikke, de handler allesammen om noget der ikke er færdigt til at vise frem. Der sker en masse forsøg og skitser bag kulisserne, men mere om det senere. Lidt spinding, lidt collage og maling og forskelligt andet.
Strikket lidt har jeg også, så jeg kan blive færdig med min ret/vrang omvendetrøje som blev en anelse for smal og kort men for stor i ærmegabene. Nu næsten tilbage hvor jeg var nået til sidste år, og forhåbentlig også en lidt pænere raglankant, jeg fik eksperimenteret lidt for meget sidst. Det virkede i teorien som jeg ønskede, det var bare ikke særlig kønt! Og så forsøger jeg mig med en demo-hue i restegarn – er lidt spændt på den, for den ser godt nok bette ud på rundpinden. Måske det i virkeligheden er en tingfinderpung?
Jeg er “kommet til” at bestille flere tilfældige biblioteksbøger, så nu har jeg igen travlt med at læse faglitteratur på deadline, det holder virkelig ikke. Jeg må prøve at holde fokus og ikke bestille så meget og kun fra min officielle liste, så jeg bedre kan fordybe mig. Romaner sluger jeg hurtigt, men fakta kræver at man lægger det fra sig og fordøjer i ny og næ.
Og ellers har jeg gået et par uger og ventet på at fortælle en spændende nyhed, men den lader vente på sig. Selvom jeg er blevet bedre til at træde et skridt til siden, så lader jeg mig stadig gå lidt på når ting går i hårknude uden min indflydelse og jeg er i tvivl om den anden parts intentioner. Er du god til at sige pyt og fordrive tiden med noget andet imens?
