Pleasure Principle (Habu, Mini Combs, Cormo and Goldregen)

I'm no Spring Chicken. I'm at the point in my life where I want my leisure activity's to be as pleasurable as possible as my "pull date" looms closer. I've found that knitting lace and spinning are wonderful, relaxing and rewarding activity's and I have great fun experimenting with supplies and tools. See above the center for "Goldregen", another Herbert Niebling pattern from Burda E 903. I'm knitting it using Habu orgazine degummed indigo dyed silk (NS-18J, 21d/10x2). A skein contains 1,400 yds for 2 ounces. I'm using US 0000 needles and I'll try to get a better shot once I can get enough stitches to go onto circular needles. The silk is slick, a little crispy in texture and it's best not to drop a stitch as it wants to slither away. Beautiful stuff. However, if you want to get any I suggest you pay the extra money to have it wound onto a cone since it is very difficult to wind into a ball and wants to unwind itself into a tangled mess. Having washed about 2/3 of the Cormo fleece I bought at Dixon, I have a new appreciation for anyone willing to clean it for me, not to mention color it. I purchased the pretty Blue Cormo Lamb fleece from, The Fiber Denn. While the fibers are not as long as the fleece I purchased from Cormo Sheep & Wool Farm they are very soft and should spin up nicely. But first, I have to prep the fiber and that brings me to my new tools. Up until now, I have been using a flick comb to tease a lock at a time to spin from. While it works, it's a little tough on my hands and the amount of fiber I can prepare this way at one sitting is pretty limited. See above the mini combs that my sister bought for me as my birthday is in a few months. Made from Cherry wood(though you can pick whatever wood you like best) , they were made to order from The Wheel Thing and are constructed by a gentleman named Alvin Ramer who lives in Canada. These combs come with a stand that holds the combs safe and secure when not in use. The stand can be clamped to a table and there is a slot where the stationary comb can be inserted, held in place at different angles with a pin so that you can easily comb locks. This set comes with a tool to straighten the tines if one ends up out of alignment and two sea shells with holes drilled into the center to act as a diz. As for how to use these combs, I have looked at a few videos on U Tube which illustrate how to use them. One in particular from Manda Crafts was very instructive though it's on the use of English Wool Combs rather than mini combs. I haven't had time to try out the new toys yet but I'll get a few pictures and let you know how it works out :-)

Salmon Queen (Another UFO Bites The Dust)

Just a quick post to show you pictures of Salmon Queen. This hung around for a long time waiting for me to have time to finish it. I'm really trying to finish off my UFOs so I won't have so much guilt over new projects. The blocking shots look darker because the doily is still wet from washing. As usual, I finished off with steam to set the doily as blocking while wet without use of starch just won't hold the shape. To re-cap. Flora 50 with US 000 needles, Herbert Niebling pattern. The last few shots are of new acquisitions. The roving is a Merino/Alpaca from "Black Bunny Fibers" as part of the "Team B" fiber club, the wooden wrist distaff (by Tom Forrester)and rosewood needle case/inch gage are from "The Wheel Thing"

Washing Cormo (and washing, and washing and...)

Not a lot of lace knitting going on here but lots of washing of fleece while it's warm enough to dry the stuff. We are having issues with drought and so I was looking for an alternative to using a washing machine to soak/spin my half Cormo fleece. It's been years since I've tried to wash a fleece and I have no experience with Cormo in my past. All the information on the Internet told me that I would have to wash it more than once and with very hot water since Cormo has a heck of a lot of lanolin in it. What I found is a great method for small amounts of fleece on a blog called "The Independent Stitch" that involved using a kitty litter system that has a nesting "sieve". No agitation, just soaking the dirt away. I did a total of three washes with 20 minutes of soaking (you can't let it cool or the lanolin re-deposits back onto the fleece). I used a combination of hot tap water and water I boiled on the stove and Dawn dish washing detergent as the surfactant. Two rinses with hot water and drip/dry using a two tier sweater drying system I got at the local Chinese dollar store for $4.00. I must say that the fleece came out really nicely and it has just enough lanolin left in it so the fiber doesn't feel dry or lifeless. If you don't agitate it, the structure of the locks is maintained and you can then either flick card or possibly use combs. Now I don't happen to own any combs but I had my eye on a set of mini-combs that might be very nice to try out. I'd consider larger combs but let's face it. If all I'm spinning is lace weight yarn, there is not really any reason to buy 4 pitch English Combs which are the "Freddy Krugers" of the spinning world. Only 8 more rows to finish the "Salmon Queen" doily so I hope to show that on the next post. Good evening to you all :-)

International Shawl Fini (Hard to give it away)

As promised, here are the pictures of the International Shawl now that it's off the blocking pins. To re-cap-

Yarn: Black Bunny Fibers superfine alpaca lace weight yarn custom dyed in a semi-solid teal color. Needles US 0 needles

Center pattern: "Chrysantheme" German Niebling pattern but in a Japanese knitting book, "Knitted Lace Designs OF The ‘Modern’ Mode" Book 2 by Naoko Ichida. (up to row 53)This book comes with a stitch key in English.

Border:I placed stitch markers in the corners and selected one stitch as a center corner stitch. I increased on the plain knit row on either side of this stitch to make the corners. As my stitches in the corners increased, I extended the patterns to fill in those spaces. No system. Just eye-balled it.

First set of leaves in the border : Estonian leaf pattern, page 49, chart # 114 from the book "Pitsilised Koekirjad" by Leili Reimann (as many times as you want to make the border as deep as you want with the understanding that there is one more border pattern to go) Stitch key in English available on the internet.

Second border pattern : Shetland Lace pattern, Madeira and Diamond Chart on page 90 of "Heirloom Knitting" by Sharon Miller (as much as you want until you like how it looks)

Edging: Danish edge pattern from a doily page 74 "Rosa" pattern from "Knitted Lace" by Sonja Esbensen and Anna Rasmussen. Unlike some edges, this one is knit directly on the needles with a crochet cast-off at the end to finish.

Pretty. I'm having a hard time giving it away but it's packed now and I'm off to the post office tomorrow. I have one more skein of this color yarn and I'm going to knit myself something I will keep this time! Just a few shots of what I've been spinning. The brightly colored ball of yarn is the Wensleydale fiber that I got from Black Bunny Fibers in colorway "Waltz". Looks like a Hawaiian snow cone. I'll have to think really hard what to do with this one. Below is the Polworth I got from "A Verb For Keeping Warm" in the colorway "Butterfly Wings". Once again not sure what to do with it but sometimes the best inspiration comes with things you've spun for yourself. Short post. Must Knit!

Half A Fleece Is Better Than None / Blocking The International Shawl

When my sister humored me in the 80's and we learned how to spin, our instructor had us spinning "in the grease". I swore then I would not ever spin with unprocessed fiber again and have been happy buying clean and lovely batts, roving, sliver. At least I was happy until I went to Lambtown for the first time in 2007. I was conservative, bought only a precious few ounces of baby alpaca which was very clean and still waiting for a special project to be spun. Then the devil dressed up as Lisa Souza walked up to my sister and me at Lambtown 2008 holding half a Cormo fleece with a staple length that had my jaw dropping. She was there as a civilian, just shopping for the best fiber she could find to feed her own addiction. "Where did you buy that!" I cried, lust in my heart. She pointed to "Cormo Sheep & Wool Farm's" booth where Sue Reuser (I think it was Sue) had beautiful fleeces stacked up so they could be seen, felt, coveted. She remarked how surprised she was that exposure on Ravelry had resulted in so many more people coming to the booth to look and to buy from her. If she only knew! I fondled the fleeces and picked up 3.52 lbs (half a fleece) of a Cormo Ewe with the unfortunate name of "Ho". "I just sold the other half of that fleece." she mentioned, writing up my receipt. "Did you sell it to Lisa Souza?" I asked. "Why yes!" she exclaimed. I should have known. Some of the fiber has a little dirt but I took a lock and washed it and the dirt came right out. I will spin this when I have a few days off in a row. I know just the project for it too :-) As usual, we had to stop at "Carolina Homespun" first where I picked up the yellow merino along with the merino/silk roving so I can ply. I also picked up a braid of chasing rainbow dyeworks "Morning Glory" colorway in a 80/20 merino cashmere and the companion silk in the same colorway to ply with. I also picked up an extra fat core bobbin for the Rose as well as a pretty Rosewood crochet hook. Even though I really don't crochet, I could not help myself. It's handmade and has a beautiful finish. I'm sure I can figure out something to do with it. I then made it over to A Verb for Keeping Warm and bought 6 ounces of Polworth locks that had been dyed in a colorway called"Butterfly Wings". Pretty pastels that I will flick card and spin up, more Indigo dyed BFL and two skeins of alpaca lace weight yarn (1,000 yards each) in "Vermillion" colorway. The tote bag was a bonus if you spent more than $50 at the booth. Not a problem. All told, Lambtown was fun even though there was not much lamb at the food concessions. It's a small show with volunteers trying to put it all together so I'm very grateful for all that effort they put into it. It's worth going as long as you keep your expectations reasonable.

Lastly, I have finally finished the International Shawl and here are the blocking shots. I used superfine alpaca lace to make this so I did not try to put it on the shawl frame since I think this yarn is not strong enough for that type of a blocking. I think it's pretty and will get shots to you all when it's dry. The woman who is getting this has already retired but I showed her the pictures of the shawl in progress. She is a gardener so she was really happy with the flowers, leaves etc. in the shawl.