Knitting Experiments

The same basic pattern and a different yarn produces a unique solution.  Here is a scarf knitted again with the vine lace motif from Barbara Walker, but this time with some worsted weight superwash I spun and proportionally smaller needles.  The result is a far less drapey, almost herringbone texture.  And the experiment is over because I am sick to death of that pattern.

Finished Object

It's interesting to see how I balance spinning on my wheel and knitting throughout the course of a week.  When I get home from work, I'm drained.  I leave it all on the field and have to lay down for an hour or two before I can move.  I am mentally and physically exhausted, not to mention stressed out. 

The perfect remedy for this is spinning.  Spinning is utterly mindless and meditative.  The only moment in time that exists is the current one.  This moment, this draft.  At the same time though, it does require some physical activity and can add additional fatigue if I'm not very careful in limiting myself.   Then I knit.  Knitting can be a bit more "thinky" and to be perfectly honest, the repetition of plain garter or stockinette fills my chest with a palpable sense of ennui and frustration.  I need patterns that aren't too boring, but not so complex I'll have to rip back every other row.  The scarf above became a little boring after awhile, but I plowed through, knitting with sheer will rather than hands.  The yarn is my handspun "chocolate covered cherry" from a few posts back.  

Nobody Gets Hurt

Step right up and get in line to view the ultra-laceweight yarn perfect for knitting the latest and greatest in high visibility hunting season accessories.  I call the colorway OSHA orange and think it would be equally fabulous for knitting the most delicate of dainties on an offshore rig surrounded by roughnecks.  Hypothetically speaking, of course. 

If a unicorn farts in the forest and there's nobody there to smell it...

I had a rough day, so you get some super saccharine fun yarn I made on a good day last week.  I got this chunk of roving free with purchase from CCSmile2006's Etsy shoppe and I could not force myself not to whip out my turkish drop spindle and play with the pastel rainbow of wooly fluff.  (I should have taken a picture, but I was enjoying the moment.)  It was just so easter-y, rainbow-y, and fun.  Have a great day!

Stats: 57yds, 9g

Chocolate Covered Cherry

This skein I'm calling chocolate covered cherry.  It's 350 yards of a red merino wool single plied with brown #10 crochet cotton.  I would call it DK weight, but again I can't be bothered with wpi.  I pre-strung red beads on the cotton strand and slid one up to get tangled in place at semi-random intervals.  The key takeaway from my experience on this one was to re wind the cotton thread on a bobbin before plying instead of working off the spool.  It was a pain in the arse trying to yank off lengths while the spool flailed wildly about.