Monday, August 24, 2009

Ha. Take that, WIP pile.

I didn't knit anything today. (Not yet, I may throw a quick row into a scarf before I go to sleep. I might get nightmares if I don't knit at all.)
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I did, however, kick some fiber's but. I had a whole fluffy pile of this merino top that I'd got about half done, then walked away from. I've since learned: a) better spinning skills & control with my Turkish spindle than the "other" one b) I don't like spinning top - it's too, erm, bland? The fibers are texturally very uninteresting. c) It's harder to put the wobbles into the yarn than it is to keep them out. (The first half was wobbly because I didn't know any better. The second half has less wobbles, & was much more challenging.) d) It's hard to spin things that are too heavy for the spindle - and that's part of why the first half was such a fight.
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I spent some time yesterday spinning, and some time today*. By 11 am, I'd finished the whole lot off, and had 196g of singles. (Am is teething & is very screamy & uncooperative in general right now; so I spin & talk to her calmly about how she needs to put on pants, or eat her breakfast, or she just asked for that, so screaming that she doesn't want it doesn't increase the odds of my complying with future requests. You know how it goes.) I want to get this yarn done because I want to be rid of it, and move onto new spinning projects (helllllo Sweet Georgia**!) with no guilt. Also, I have this yarn earmarked for a particular project. So I plyed & plyed, and cursed & plyed, and thought that I should really invest in a plying spindle at the very least***.
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And then I wound & cursed; then draped yarn over the man & rewound on the niddy-noddy again. And now, other than whacking my yarn, I'm done! I have 197m of merino top, all nicely spun up. I'm hopeful that the whacking will slightly felt the fibers, & get them to bloom a little; which will hopefully increase the artisanal interest & decrease the "Wow, new to spinning, eh?". I think that beating the yarn against the deck will also allow me to bond with the yarn more.
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So, I'm taking a cookie & going to bed. Whacking updates tomorrow. (We're test-driving a new babysitter tomorrow - is whacking a little too weird? Should I hide my wacking activities?)
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*I also made three meals, roughed out most of two yoga bolsters (now I just need to stuff them - the man said he'd help! Mwa-ha-haha!), pranced about foolishly in my Exciting New Socks (a wholepost about those, oh boy!), and had a nap. And we all went for a walk to the slide & I chatted with the neoghbours, whose names' I remembered.
**Sweet Georgia Yarns - out of Vancouver. Yummy. I'm tempted to join her fiber club (doubled up), but see ***.
***I'm not getting a wheel when I have a newborn arriving soon. I know I'm a little OCD about hobbies; and I know how much sleep I need; & I can roughly extrapolate how much extra time I will have with Am AND a newborn. So, no wheel for now.

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