Thursday, August 11, 2005

Not Another Thing?

OK beat me with a wet skein — I started yet another project today. Well this actually one that I promised months ago and was putting off. It's a swap for the Kumi2 Yahoogroup and I need to get it in the mail soon. It's only going to New Westminster (2 cities over) so I've been stalling because I don't really feel like braiding right now. So I decided that I would use wool and try fulling the finished braid for a handle for a knitted bag (one that doesn't exist yet, of course). I found a nice kumihimo braid called Usu Hira Se ("thin flat stream") that uses 12 bobbins and only 4 moves. Simple right? Not. For starters wool is hard to work with. Unlike silk, it sticks to itself and it's stretchy too so the tension is always wacko. I'm trying to make a large braid so 4 strands of 2ply (commercial but dyed by me) per bobbin. Now I discover that the two yarns are slightly different sizes. Soldier on anyway. I keep making braiding mistakes which is silly since there are only 4 moves. The colours keep shifting and putting me off because they don't go back to "home base" for many repeats. I tried to count but I'm still not sure how many! I have to stop often and readjust everything which ruins my rhythm. I still haven't tried fulling this darn thing yet, but I hope it hides some of my mistakes! See the blurry bobbins in the picture? They were swinging around anxiously waiting for me to continue braiding! I fooled 'em and took a break. My brain and my back were both hurting. BTW, this is not my best marudai (braiding stool) — this is one of my "teaching" marudais made from a folding stool with a hole in the middle of the seat.

I've also gotten quite a bit further on the Multidirectional Triangle scarf. It's already considerably longer than the pattern suggests. I like long narrow scarves so I can wrap them around more than once. I might as well use up all the yarn in this one and only skein. No use having yet one more little ball of yarn left over.

Oh goodie! I don't have to cook dinner tonight. My mother-in-law is taking us out to dinner at our favourite Thai restaurant. Well actually we're taking her there, but she's paying! And I don't have to cook but I do have to be careful not to blow the old diet too far. I've lost 2 pounds recently with great difficulty and I sure don't want to put them back on again. Remind me to go easy on the rice.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Louisa
That style of stool is so much better than the wood one I have. The bobbins swing free!
Where did you buy that one?

Susan