I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

The recent spate of fiber festivals renewed my interest in spinning. Well, that and the pounds and pounds of unspun fiber that is occupying precious storage space in my basement.

Many years ago, before I even owned a wheel, a friend gave me bags and bags of alpaca fleece from her friend’s flock. The fiber wasn’t the best or the worst, but the shearing job left a lot to be desired. There were a lot of second cuts and the fiber itself was full of nepps. I had it processed by Lynn and, frankly, she worked a miracle on it. She combined it with some Correidale and some silk and then carded it into roving that was completely spinnable.

To be honest, I mostly used it to practice new techniques on the wheel, like Navajo plying or trying to draft with the opposite hand. I thought I’d used it all up, but I found one last bump a few weeks ago.

Now close your eyes . . . .

. . . . and open them again.

Look, like magic the roving turned into yarn right before your eyes. Pretty good trick, huh.

Result: 958 yards of fingering weight singles.
Intended Project: Who knows, maybe a lightweight cardigan. All I know is this hank of yarn takes up a hell of a lot less space than the roving from which it came. Amen.

Since last Friday, I . . .

. . . . observed and documented while the owner of my LYS xeriscaped.

. . . . finished the second Noro sock (specs on Ravelery project page).

. . . . spun a lovely merino/tussah batt from Copperpot Woolies (link to Ravelry stash page).

. . . . found a wonderful use for the cup holder in my new camp chair.

. . . . and attended a party celebrating the first anniversary of Blazing Needles.

Today is a holiday in Utah. No work. Yay!

I rarely, if ever, knit a pattern exactly as it’s written. Although the alterations I make are not mapped out in intricate detail, I usually have some idea of where I’m headed based on my experiences with past projects. I’ve luckily managed to avoid the frog pond, even when I’ve designed large, lace shawls completely from scratch.

Yesterday, my luck ran out.

I’ve been working on a shoulder shawl design using Judy’s lovely yarns. I decided to try a shape I’ve never played with before: a bottom-up crescent. I had a good idea of the rate and placement of the decreases to get the correct shaping and, voila, the prototype turned out perfect.

For the final version, I had the not-so-clever idea to fool with the placement of the eyelets in the upper portion of the shawl. Tossing aside any remnants of good sense, I plowed ahead with my ill-fated scheme, not stopping to knit even a tiny sample swatch.

To my credit, when I was about halfway through I knew it wasn’t going to work. But, hope mixed with denial is a powerful motivator. So I knit on.

Of course it didn’t work.

Instead of a lovely crescent shape, I have a strange hybrid: crescent on the bottom and inverted triangle on the top. It actually looks very interesting when it’s set out flat–a little like an aerial view of a bird with its wings spread–but it doesn’t sit nicely on the shoulders.

I haven’t frogged it just yet. Perhaps I need to drown my sorrow with some yarn purchases first. Or, maybe I should just sit quietly in the corner and admire the skein of fingering-weight singles I spun from Anne’s lovely merino roving in the Silk Road colorway.