I am very much a process maker. For me there is a lot of happiness and joy to found in the journey. I very often also love the finished product and don't want to part with it. I have been working on one shawl, a wedding ring shawl since 2010 and am just past the half way point of the body. There are many reasons for this, one time, two not getting it dirty, three not wanting to speed through it, just to name a few.
The reason of time is simply because I don't choose to use my time on it very often because of reasons 2 and 3. The yarn is a very fine weight wool in an antique natural white color. I have to be careful where I work on it. I do take it out of the house to work on but I need a table, as the lace pattern is on both sides and I need my pattern handy. It is not something I work on in the van as I don't want it dirty from all the dust in the van. Mostly, I just love working on it so much, and honestly have no practical use for it when it is finished that I am just going to continue to take my time and enjoy the project a couple of times a week or so.
In being a process maker I learn and, to use a word from Elizabeth Zimmerman, "unvent" many things that are new to me but are most likely not new. Recently during a test knit, this one, I was having a problem with one increase spine with the little holes being larger than the holes in the other increase spines and I didn't like the look of it. In some situations I will take a picture of the problem, rip and try it in a different way. I had many rounds to go on this and it wasn't extremely noticeable because of the hand painted yarn, so I took a picture and tried something different right in the middle of the piece. I take a picture for future reference, either to see if the new thing I tried is any better, in case I have a similar issue in another project or for teaching opportunities.
The first thing that I tried to fix the spine didn't work. In this particular pattern there is a spine directly next to the beginning of the round and I thought maybe that having the increase there was making it looser than needed. I was working on 4 double pointed needles and not having this problem in any other areas. So instead of increasing on the increase round, I acted like I had missed it when I got back to that point on the plain round after, and made it up by pulling the stitches tighter. Not much change really, if any. At this point it was close to time to change colors, so I decided to move the beginning of the round to the middle of the side. I thought maybe the transition from a knit round to a purl round and back to get the garter look might be the problem. I cut the hand painted yarn, removed my beginning of round marker and slipped stitches from one needle to the other with out knitting them or changing their orientation to about the middle of that side. I then picked up my heather yarn and started knitting.
After a few rounds I knew I had found the solution, this was it. It was the combination of changing the stitch method at the start and increasing all at the same time. This is that same increase spin after I shifted the start of the round to the middle of the side.
This is new start of round. While it is still visible, I think it is less noticeable than the holes being larger. The picture below shows all the sides. The one with the new start of round in it is on the lower right hand side.
I continued with this until the piece was finished and am very pleased.
I got a new toy this week! It is my first e-spinner. It is the Electric Eel Nano from Dreaming Robots. I love this little guy. It is very quiet and runs very smoothly. It is much louder in the video than for real because it is sitting so close to the microphone.
I washed two fleeces this week. Both are from our small farm here in Deer Trail, Colorado. One is from the ram we lost this past year, Whitney. He was a Leicester longwool. The other is from my first ewe, Chloe. She is a Rambouillet, Shetland X. I am also processing her lamb fleece to become a Surprise jacket for me.
Here is the water after I have added a generous amount of Dawn dish soap. I like it ot be slippery from the soap. Dawn binds with the lanolin that the hot water has melted from the fleece. I use the hottest water that the tap will give. If I have a really oily fleece I turn up the hot water heater, but that isn't very often. I recommend about 1 1/2c of Dawn per 3 gallons of water. In that amount I will wash 4 mesh bags with 8oz of raw skirted wool each. For these pictures it was a bit more water and soap with a total of 6 bags of wool.
Here is the wash water after the wool has been in there for 20 minutes. I don't leave it to sit longer because if the water cools too much you risk that lanolin becoming friends with the wool again.
Here is the water after 3 rinses. There are no more suds but some dirt is defiantly still there. I do 3 rinses after 1 wash. Each rinse has less hot water than one before, with the final rinse being all cold water and some vinegar. I don't go until the water is clear because that would take quiet a while. I get it to a livable amount of dirt for me and then spin out the remaining water and put it on the rack to dry.
I said I'd detail the current test knits I have going. I'll start with the oldest, my Sparkling Leaves sweater from Jill Karina. I finally finished the yoke, tried it on and it fits nicely. I finished the ball of yarn I was on for the body and them paused there so I can work on the sleeves. Jill has some sleeve shaping that she wanted tested and I said I would. Here is a picture of where I currently am.
A couple of weeks ago I started the Bonfire Poncho from Wendelika. As I stated before, I am working this from unmarked stash yarn, except I did find a tag on one of the balls of main color. It is from Mirasol on their Hacho base which is 100% merino in shade 308.
I have almost completed both of the cable panels, in black and have now started on the main part in the rainbow color way.
Shortly after that I started the Journey to the Cape Sweater from Annie Lupton. This one is made of an very yummy worsted weight yarn that is a 50/50 blend of alpaca/merino. The majority of the sweater is worked in moss stitch, which is a new one for me. The front is cabled with all kinds of different cables and a wrap that is also new to me. I have finished the bottom ribbing and started into the cable panel.
When doing a test knit I always do a swatch. I don't always photograph the swatch, I'll be better about that, but I do always make one. This swatch helped me to know the obvious as to whether or not I was getting gauge, but I also learned what moss stitch should look like and how to count it. When I finish with a swatch some times I rip it out, other times I don't, this time I did and reclaimed the yarn. Swatches I don't rip out get stored in a baggy with the project info for future reference and repairs.
I will be hard at work on these knits for the next couple of weeks and starting a new outfit for Dolores for Utah.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Happy making!
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