Monday, March 12, 2007

Better Days?

Today I’m feeling somewhat better but I’ve got a migraine instead. Sometimes you just can’t win. And the sun is out after that weekend of monsoon weather. It turned into spring when I wasn’t looking! There are some blossoms on trees and flowers blooming. Time is flying by and I’m just plodding along. Sigh. Wish I felt up to going for a walk before the rains come back.

The guy in the Brown Van showed up today with my replacement bobbins for my Victoria wheel. There was more packing in that box than the whole wheel was shipped with! The bobbins were individually sealed in plastic bags within a box and that was again inside a larger box with lots of crinkled brown paper around it. They included a gift of a towel in white and sunshine yellow borders with Louet’s logo jacquard woven in the fabric. I think it’s linen because it has the weight and sheen but there’s no tag to say so. How nice! I might use it for my lap cloth when spinning.


There was also another of the additional foam padding pieces for the bag though I already got one from Jane. Maybe I’ll add this one as well. Top or bottom? The top of the wheel has already gotten dented and bottom has its own little feet protectors. Though that would make 2 pieces on the top (including the one that goes over the lazy-kate) and none extra on the bottom where it would get more wear. Decisions, decisions. I’ll have to ask T-Man what he thinks.

While I was thinking spinning, I also finished plying some very ancient rust/red/gold singles that were left over from my overshot coverlet about 17 years ago. I plied it on Klaas the S-90, using it for 2 plies with a 3rd ply of bright violet commercial single and it looks really interesting. (The colour in the photo is somewhat washed out.) I started this combination in one of my classes as a plying demonstration and liked it so much I carried on with the two balls I still had. The resulting yarn is a heavy worsted weight and I have no idea what I’ll use it for. But now I have 2 large skeins! Check out how the relaxed twist from the old singles protested being plied and once it was skeined, corkscrewed all over. The other skein is the one I had done previously and it mellowed out into nice yarn once I washed it. No blocking either. Just shows you the twist energy is still there, it’s just hiding. Makes it easier to handle the singles when plying but it’s harder to tell if you have an even amount of twist in the plied yarn. It goes crazy if you let go the tension and sproings all over. As me auld mum used to say “It all comes out in the wash”.


I don’t know about it all coming out in the wash. Sometimes there are inexplicable events that happen in the wash. Today I managed to dye-stain several of my precious handknit socks in a wash load with T-Man’s Forest Socks which were giving me trouble before. I thought I’d gotten out all the excess yellow-green dye. Obviously not. And then I was missing another sock, looked all over for it, and didn’t find it until I removed the last load of laundry from the dryer (which I had double-checked). There it was — about an inch shorter than its fraternal twin. Erp. Now do I have to dry the other one in the dryer to match? And will they still fit me if I do? I can’t bear to look yet. I’ve had better days. Sheesh. Remind me why I handknit socks, please?

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