Masters Monday - 2.24

It's been a very busy week! I had hoped that I would have the finished vest to show this week, but I just didn't have the time. I did get most of the collar done though.

That is a whole lot of ribbing! 14 inches of it with short row turns at the ends of each row.

I'm finished the actual collar section so the short rows are behind me. Six more full length rows remain, each of these going from the bottom of one front edge all the way around the collar and back down to the bottom of the other side. Long, long rows with five buttonholes that need to be evenly spaced. I'm still working out what the exact spacing needs to be.

In preparation for that spacing I knit Swatch 20 last week, which focuses on spacing buttonholes evenly. I still have to sew in the ends and tag this swatch.

The remainder of this week was caught up in a whirlwind of activity. Besides babysitting our granddaughter, shopping for a new fridge, and doing some sewing for a gift that needed to be mailed, I spent the better part of weekend with the Chilliwack Spinners and Weavers Guild at Minter Gardens. The first day I spent combing wool. Although I would have liked to continue with that on the second day, it's tiring work and my shoulder had had enough. I switched to spinning for the second day.


Our location was shady and comfortable on an otherwise hot day. We were part way up a beautiful meandering path through a serene section of the gardens. The small brook behind us provided peaceful background music (in between the more rowdy jazz numbers performed closer to the gates).

I did find the time to walk around and take a few pictures. The big attraction at the gardens on Sunday was the Car Show. Hundreds of unique cars nestled into a scenic background.


It was a lovely weekend. I was very glad to hear that the guild has been invited back to demo again next year.

Pathetic Photo

A long time ago I promised I'd get a modeled shot of the Handspun One-Stitch Cardi, which I sometime refer to as the "Tsunami Cardigan". Well it seems that I'm not capable of getting a photograph that really does the project justice.


You'll just have to trust me that it's lovely, as this is the best photo I was able to get.

From The Trash Bin

I have a big garbage bag full of wool that has been carded on a drum carder. I have no idea who originally owned the sheep and what breed it was. I also don't know who put it through a drum carder without picking out the second cuts and excessive amounts of VM (vegetable matter). I was just asked if I would like to have this big bag of wool, donated anonymously to the guild. I opened the bag and looked inside, and even me, a relatively new spinner, could see that there was trouble.



I took it on the condition that no one would complain if in the end I decided it wasn't worth the effort and threw the whole lot in the garbage. It was obviously not spinnable "as is".

Out came my handy, dandy combs. I discovered that with a lot of time spent combing (just as much as if the wool was uncarded) the VM dropped out quite nicely. The resulting 'nests' spin up into a beautifully soft and springy wool. Of the two samples I tried the thicker one is the nicest.

Fleece Salvage

Shelby, the resident fleece inspector, checks for spots that need more washing. Her report? Loads of VM still present but most of the dirt and all of the yolk and poop are gone. *sigh* (The aromatic poop is her favorite part.)



The comb loaded up with the VM filled wool.



3 to 4 complete passes through the combs and it is looking fairly VM-less.



Dizzing off a roving and picking out any noil that shows up.



The long strip of roving rolled into a nest for later spinning.



It takes me about an hour to do six small nests. Pretty labour intensive, but it saves a fleece that otherwise would have been thrown in the garbage. The resulting roving is soft and springy and should make for nice spinning.



Too bad it takes most of the summer to comb up one fleece! I can only stick with wool combing for about an hour at a time. Even if I somehow found the time to do it twice a day, that's a LOT of wool to get through.

What's Next?

It seems that in one giant heave I got the Master Knitter Level One out the door to be evaluated and then, with a great sigh of relief, collapsed in a corner somewhere never to be heard from again.

Well, that might seem to be true, but in actual fact I've been busy but not much in a blogging sort of mood. PJ asked a question in my comments, and I'll answer her here in an effort to get my blogging mojo going again.

PJ said... ....SO, what's after this? I've enjoyed so much hearing about all this through the weeks/months! Can't wait to see what is next!

Well PJ, when I get my Level One back (and do any necessary corrections) it will be straight on to Level Two. In the meantime I thought I might "...try to make good use of my time getting a few other things finished up." Here is a list of a few of the projects I'm fiddling with:

I have a Dale of Norway kit waiting to be made. I've made two rather unsuccessful attempts at that and it is sitting in time out. I'll look at it again when it decides to behave!

I finished weaving off the Summer and Winter sampler warp at home, so when the second day for the guild to work on it as a group rolled around I spent my time combing a big bag of wool that was given to me. That is still a work in progress, to be picked up as time, weather (best done outside as it is full of VM) and inclination dictate.

On my wheel I'm spinning my way through 6 pounds of superwash merino. I'm findiing it more difficult to spin than many of the preparations I have tackled so far. It's "mill ends" so not all uniform and ready to go. It's also very, very slippery and inclined to spin up less uniform and fine than I am used to. I'm sure it will be lovely yarn when all is said and done, but it is less relaxing to spin than I had hoped.

Just yesterday I started in on spinning some Fleece Artist merino using my spindle. This project will be done in little bits, 5 or 10 minutes at a time as I wait for pots to boil. I like having the spindle near the kitchen for such stolen moments.

Despite having the patterns for several "next up" projects pinned to the bulletin board in my Stash Room (and even some handspun ready to be swatched for them), I ignored all that and cast on for yet another new project, one not even on my official "next up" list. I blame the Dale of Norway kit's misbehaviour. My frustration with it is what lead to me look around for some easy, reasonably quick project that would calm my ruffled feathers and restore my belief in my ability to knit. I found the perfect little project. With some clever little twists and turns and a few color changes it held my attention through 3 days (2 if you consider how late in the day I actually got started) of intense knitting where I was neither bored, nor overly challenged. Perfect! Readers have to wait until after Easter Sunday for details and photos though as it is to be a present for a certain little someone's first Easter.

Another thing I really must get to is an organizing and dunging out of my Stash Room. Being a Multi-Interest Fiber Fanatic does have it's drawbacks when storage space is an issue. Things like looms (I have an 8 harness table loom with stand, a tapestry loom, a rigid heddle loom, and an Inkle loom) spinning wheels, a ball winder, a niddy noddy, a couple of lazy kates, an umbrella swift, a bobbin winder, a large book/magazine collection, and of course all the fiber and project bags that go with the various hobbies. It makes for a very cramped Stash Room and I have a new tool to set up somewhere in there so I can get to learning it's ins and outs. I am the proud new owner of a used Singer 360 knitting machine, with ribber. I took machine knitting in college about 9 years ago and have been wanting a punch card machine ever since. All that's holding me back now is the need to find some room to set it up. Well, that and FEAR. Those suckers are hard to use, let me tell ya. It will put my mechanical aptitude to an extreme test.