Friday, July 6, 2012

Besotted with colour

Before I show you the current roving for my Tour de Fleece festings, I have to point out the upcoming Attic 24 crochet holiday in Provence (for cryin' out loud!!)  I'm sure anybody reading Hugs already knows about Lucy's glorious-colour blog; you don't have to crochet to enjoy it, and I must say I briefly considered a/ getting over my fear of flying and b/ learning to crochet when I read Lucy's post about this event

My next thought was: how come there's no knitting holiday?  But then I noticed there is one, once I dragged my eyes over to the left side of my screen.  Even if you, like me, can't manage to get away from home in October 2012, it's soooo dreamy to think about.  (And also, sneaky to tell other people about in case one of them can go and then come home and show you pictures etc.)

* * * * *

Okay: let's talk spinning.  And I do mean the fiber kind because you know what, my spinning supporters have been awesome about watching the Tour de France and I haven't had a chance yet. 

Begin Digression:

Last night I turned on the TV in a state of High Stress, with emergency Chips and Dip in hand, and noticed one of said supporters had set it to the sports network by way of making it easy for me to see some Tour, and it was in fact on at that very moment! 

Me: I should really spin now and eat later.

My Brain: Nope, you need those chips.

Me: but I could watch some Tour!   Who knows if it will still be on later?

My Brain: And... who cares? You've spun this many days without any Tour-watching.

Me: but but but

My Brain: chips chips chips

So I ate chips and dips and instead watched local news and felt grateful my neighbourhood was not having the same massive power outage another part of town was having, and then I settled in to spin and flicked back to the sports network and: yup.  Roll credits.

On the upside, while I didn't see any tour, my choice to watch news did yield the information that researchers suspect that the same diabetes drug everybody I know with diabetes seems to get prescribed has the potential to grow replacement neurons in people with brain injuries, and maybe dementia.  Pretty awesome to get some promising brain health news to talk down my own chip-obsessed brain, yes?

End Digression.


Further to my Evil Plan to spin perfectly sport weight yarn and knit handspun twined mittens for my Olympics-watching project,  I am doing a test run with a small amount of the Stoddart Family Farm Romney/Mohair blend I bought at this year's Knitter's Frolic.  Here are pictures of what that is looking like in its different forms:




I love how this is all the same fiber, and the colour balance changes with twist and position...

... by which I mean, rolled up in a ball or spread out on the spindle.  assuming that tube thing you spin wool onto is called a spindle.  the coffee I just drank to compensate for the four hours' sleep I got last night hasn't kicked in yet so I'm not sure.

I have one more segment of this stuff to spin before I can ply, but I am pretty sure I've spun it too thin and would need a three ply to get sport weight.  That means I'd better do at least one more test run with a slightly heavier weight before I go to the one I want for my mitts, so there's a good chance I'll be spinning Romney/Mohair for the entire Tour.  Except for a little silk blend stuff I've been saving just for a change.  Gotta shake it up a little, right?


Okay folks, I'm off again - today's exciting plans include a little more spinning and a little more work-related study (thankfully, not for a test this time.)  Wish me luck and I will wish the same to you for a marvelous weekend with not-too-hot temperatures and, I don't know, cake?  Some kind of treat anyway.  Take care, see you Monday!

1 comment:

Kathleen Taylor said...

Your spinning is coming along wonderfully!!!! Woohoo!!!!