After some consideration and picking at the skeins, I think 4 more of the skeins I washed on the 4th are a loss. 16oz of potluck roving in a really interesting coral sort of color, probably gone. Sigh. That's nearly 2 pounds of fiber I spun and cannot use. I found that Paradise Fibers still has the shetland in the same color, and some similar silk and merino blends. Nothing quite like the potluck, but there were a couple of things on there that might be a good replacement, plus they have gotland at a really good price (that's the fiber they used for the Lord of Rings movies), and the LYM would probably love to have a Frodo scarf made out of that.
I speak of replacement fibers for one very good reason...all of these skeins were destined for Christmas gifts, except the shetland, and I'm supposed to be on a fiber diet for the year. After going through my (thankfully diminished) fiber stash last night, I don't have suitable replacements for the potluck or the silk and merino blend, and nothing I can approximate the shetland with. Yes, I have plenty of actual yarn, but again not in the right colors or weights for the people I had in mind. So what to do? Is this little washing machine disaster a good enough reason to break my no-fiber vow, at least to the extent that I would be replacing fibers, not actually buying new ones to add to the stash?
Friday, July 06, 2007
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Fiber disaster!
It's amazing really, I've been spinning for years and yesterday was the first major spinnig related disaster to strike. And given that I'm a huge klutz, this is kind of a miracle.
Anyway...I coulnd't sleep yesterday so I got up at 5 in the morning and decided to wind off all the yarn I had sitting on bobbins. 16 skeins of yarn, all spun up since the start of the year. Then I decided to wash the yarn to set the twist. I put everything in wash bugs, dropped in the landry machine to soak, and walk away, only to discover 10 minutes later that we have the only washing machine on the planet with a soak setting that....agitates.
WTF?!
In what reality does the soak setting agitate?! Really?
So now I have 16 skeins of felt. Well...actually...only 3 skeins are totally hopeless. Tragically, two of them are/were beautiful laceweight shetland I had planned to make a Faroese shawl out of. Four of skeins may be salvagae if I can pick the strands apaart. The rest of them had just enough alpaca or whatever else blended in that while they did felt, it's still useable yarn.
Suprisinly, I wasn't all that upset about the whole sad situation. Disappointed, yes, but remarkably calm all things considered.
My gardening didn't actually go a whole lot better. I got the stupid box hedges out, then we tackeld the awful 8 foot phalluc holly bush. The stump is still in the hole and the flower bed looks like a minuature mine fleid. You know, like gnomes had a trench war or something. Hopefully I can get the rootball hacked up enough that we can get the damn thing out of the hole. I have a bunch of realy lovely plants to put in, and I want to get to the fun part!
Anyway...I coulnd't sleep yesterday so I got up at 5 in the morning and decided to wind off all the yarn I had sitting on bobbins. 16 skeins of yarn, all spun up since the start of the year. Then I decided to wash the yarn to set the twist. I put everything in wash bugs, dropped in the landry machine to soak, and walk away, only to discover 10 minutes later that we have the only washing machine on the planet with a soak setting that....agitates.
WTF?!
In what reality does the soak setting agitate?! Really?
So now I have 16 skeins of felt. Well...actually...only 3 skeins are totally hopeless. Tragically, two of them are/were beautiful laceweight shetland I had planned to make a Faroese shawl out of. Four of skeins may be salvagae if I can pick the strands apaart. The rest of them had just enough alpaca or whatever else blended in that while they did felt, it's still useable yarn.
Suprisinly, I wasn't all that upset about the whole sad situation. Disappointed, yes, but remarkably calm all things considered.
My gardening didn't actually go a whole lot better. I got the stupid box hedges out, then we tackeld the awful 8 foot phalluc holly bush. The stump is still in the hole and the flower bed looks like a minuature mine fleid. You know, like gnomes had a trench war or something. Hopefully I can get the rootball hacked up enough that we can get the damn thing out of the hole. I have a bunch of realy lovely plants to put in, and I want to get to the fun part!
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Pantyhose rant
This is random but I hate, I mean HATE pantyhose. Especially the cheap-ass pathetic excuse for pantyhose sold at Target. Seriously. $6 and you can maybe get two wearings out of them before they shred. Not run. Shred. I know I'm not exactly Kate Moss but really, there's not that much friction going on that these things would shred the second or third time out.
If only I could really be a hippie lawyer like the LYM says I am and stop shaving my legs and wear Birks to work...and maybe also get in around 9:30 instead of 8...
If only I could really be a hippie lawyer like the LYM says I am and stop shaving my legs and wear Birks to work...and maybe also get in around 9:30 instead of 8...
Oh so lazy!
So I have been quiet for way too long. At least the last 4 weeks (ack) of that was not entirely my fault, stupid Cox locked out my web account right after I moved and won't unlock the user name so I had to move to blogspot. Which is probably easier anyway and has prompted me to change my template and all, but still, it's annoying. Having to remember which webrings I was in and find the code for them in a huge pain. At least I think I have that all saved on my machine at home.
Anyway, things are going pretty well. The LYM and I seen to have gotten pretty well adjusted to the cohabitation thing, the animals are mostly ok with each other, and the house is starting to look pretty well pulled together with all of our stuff in it.
I've even been knitting away on my UFO's! I've got about half a sleeve and a roll down collar left on the brown cabled sweater I started last summer and about 3 inches of cuff left on the first of my Liberty socks (Liberty because I got the yarn on sale at Liberty of London when I was there in 1997). In going through the pile of UFO's I did discover that the cat had chewed on a lace bed jacket I'd been working on. Unfortunately the chew holes were all over the place and too numerous to patch, so I scraped the 4 inches I had done. It was only 4 inches of knitting so I think there's enough yarn still to start over with the same project, especially since once I pulled the needles out I discovered the thing was WAAAY too big. We'll see, I might end up using a whole different pattern, there was a really cute kimono jacket in the spring KnitScnene I'd like to make and I think this yarn will work. It'll be a little lighter and more open that would be nice for a light spring/summer wrap.
I promise pictures will be forthcoming! I'm spending tomorrow knitting and gardening and grilling tri-tip (apparently a CA phenomenon that can only be found at Trader Joe's out here)and hopefully starting my first real bonsai project.
Anyway, things are going pretty well. The LYM and I seen to have gotten pretty well adjusted to the cohabitation thing, the animals are mostly ok with each other, and the house is starting to look pretty well pulled together with all of our stuff in it.
I've even been knitting away on my UFO's! I've got about half a sleeve and a roll down collar left on the brown cabled sweater I started last summer and about 3 inches of cuff left on the first of my Liberty socks (Liberty because I got the yarn on sale at Liberty of London when I was there in 1997). In going through the pile of UFO's I did discover that the cat had chewed on a lace bed jacket I'd been working on. Unfortunately the chew holes were all over the place and too numerous to patch, so I scraped the 4 inches I had done. It was only 4 inches of knitting so I think there's enough yarn still to start over with the same project, especially since once I pulled the needles out I discovered the thing was WAAAY too big. We'll see, I might end up using a whole different pattern, there was a really cute kimono jacket in the spring KnitScnene I'd like to make and I think this yarn will work. It'll be a little lighter and more open that would be nice for a light spring/summer wrap.
I promise pictures will be forthcoming! I'm spending tomorrow knitting and gardening and grilling tri-tip (apparently a CA phenomenon that can only be found at Trader Joe's out here)and hopefully starting my first real bonsai project.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)