So much fiber, so little time

The much-ripped hat

Behold the hat that I ripped back to varying positions at least five times. I'm still not entirely thrilled with the brim lining, but it's good enough. I also can't believe that I grafted the entire brim in place, but joining the edge stitches to the inside of the hat with single crochet was just too inelastic and nasty. Knitting on pencils (6 mm needles) was weird too, since most of my knitting is on 3.25 mm needles and smaller.

Over the last two days, I decided to do some spinning. I didn't want to get stuck into a big project, so I grabbed three small bags (maybe an ounce or so) of alpaca that my neighbor had brought back from a North Carolina alpaca farm. One was very dark brown, one was a sandy brown, and one looked like a light brown. I started with the last bag, and I now think it's probably white fiber, given the amount of dirt that stuck to my fingers while spinning it. Since there's not really enough of any one color to use them separately, I think I'll ply all three colors together and use the yarn for a tweedy hat.

My spinning wheel was a tad cranky after sitting idle for a while, so it needed cleaning and oiling first. Even so, the stretchy drive band kept jumping off. That usually means that the non-moving arm of the WooLee Winder has vibrated forward and is knocking the driveband off, but, nope, that wasn't the problem. I had to go to plan B, which is a tip from Woodland Woolworks: put some oil on a tissue and treadle while holding the tissue on the drive band. Problem solved!

Still, I think it may be time to send the wheel back to the mother ship for a tune-up. It has had nearly eight years of high-speed production spinning and would probably appreciate re-alignment and replacement of worn parts.

In other news, last night was the second public meeting on the road reconstruction, which turned out better than I expected. The planned sidewalk on my side of the street will actually be deemed a "walkway". That means that the town will maintain/plow it and assume the liability. So now I need to arrange a meeting with the engineers to have them measure out the different plans and see the effects on my fifty-plus year old ginormous spruces near the road. I really don't want to lose them, because they're the primary buffer of road noise.

The construction will be a nightmare, though. It will start with upgrading and moving water/sewer lines and utility poles next fall, and the road and sidewalk construction will follow in the spring, probably with the road becoming one way for the duration. Since there aren't many cross streets that go anywhere, that will add extra miles to getting home. Ugh.

Grump, grump

I've been knitting a hat requested by my neighbor's mother for her mother-in-law. Because the elderly recipient lives in a nursing home, the hat needs to be machine washable and dryable. The closest yarn I was willing to work with is Encore (75% acrylic/25% wool), and I still don't like that for mobility-impaired people because it will melt in a fire instead of self-extinguishing. Nevertheless, I knitted onwards top down, but unfortunately, I've had to rip it back several times. It was too big on the first pass, and I didn't like the way the brim sat on the second and third tries. At the moment, the hat is sitting peacefully, waiting to be tinked back just one round before redoing the brim. Argh.

Local issues also have me cranky. The county has come up with three separate hare-brained plans to put sidewalks along our road, apparently due to pressure from the local mommies who live on the side roads. My take: if you pee in the gene pool, supply your own damned chlorine. Or volunteer to shovel and repair. Grump.

Dyeing for autumn

Long time, no blog, but nothing was ready to photograph until now. I spent most of yesterday dyeing six skeins of Keesmere yarn in autumnal colors, starting just before 9 am and hanging the last rinsed skein at 7 pm. They're not yet dry, since it started raining during the night, but at least I remembered to bring them inside before I went to sleep! Plus, my cartilage-lite knees have forgiven me for all the trips up and down the stairs with dyepots.

I have also finished two more Keesmere hats. One is fulled with a Greek key mosaic pattern, and the other is a plain hat knitted from the top down and bound off with i-cord.

Still felting

Today, there are three more fulled Keesmere hats drying. The two-color hats are slip stitch patterns, which I do think I prefer for fulling: since they're already vertically compressed, the final fabric is thicker but still flexible. They're also far less boring to knit than  solid stockinette and have fewer ends to deal with than stranded color work.

Speaking of Keesmere, I was disappointed that my Keesmere/Angelina handspun didn't make it into the current Spin-Off. Perhaps it will be in the next issue's continuation, since they were sorting by grist and started with the fat stuff (up to about 14 wpi). Mine was in the neighborhood of 27 wpi.

Dyeing days

There's one dyepot of deep blue Keesmere (for hats) cooling now, and tomorrow I'll dye the Keesmere for the DVD shawl. That will be in a paler color, but I haven't quite decided on which.

Hurricane relief

I won't give money to the American Red Cross, because its overheads are too high, and it most definitely mishandled 9/11 contributions. And while I have a soft spot for the Sally Ann, they fire gay employees. So the little I can afford to send is going to the American Friends Service Committee. (Nixon is not their fault!)

Onondaga County, NY (Syracuse) has offered to take refugees from the hurricane, bless 'em, but I'm guessing there will be a local appeal for warm clothing soon. Just think - moving from the Gulf Coast to one of the most snowy areas of the country. Oy, talk about culture shock!