Fiber friends are the best

One of my fellow fiber bloggers offered to send me "some fiber". For free. Of course, I said, SURE! What arrived was MUCH more than I expected. Thanks, Qutecowgirl!

Lone Star Arts merino 'Neapolitan'

I think it was Qutecowgirl who first turned me onto dyeing yarn, with her adventures using Kool Aid.

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep to Shoe 'Jailhouse Rock'

Most of the spinning I do is with undyed wool, which quite frankly gets a bit monotonous. Now I have some colors to experiment with. Fractal spinning, anyone?

Timbre Ridge Farm merino

Some of these fibers come from Rhinebeck, a fiber fest I have yet to attend.

Timbre Ridge Farm merino

The label on this chunk from Lorna's Laces specifies that the fiber is for spinning. I am guessing they had some disappointed knitters who got home and discovered their purchase was not ready for the needles. Sort of like accidentally buying whole bean coffee when you don't own a grinder.

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Wool Top superwash merino 'Devon'

Corriedale is one of my faves.

Paradise Fibers Corriedale Cross

I have a Jacob fleece in the garage, waiting for a good scour. Now I have a bit of fiber to play with while getting up the gumption to attack that fleece.

Jenny Jump Farm Jacob

This bit of bright yellow orange is from one of my spinning guild pals. Laura had purchased some roving that turned out to be a bit felted. I loaned her my hand carders so she could fluff it up. She paid me back with a sample of the resulting fiber.

I too have shared fiber with friends. In one instance, the friend was knitting prayer shawls using acrylic and eyelash yarn. I decided I was done with both of those fibers, so it all went from my stash to hers. I hope it sparked joy!

Not much to report

This week has been primarily about tearing the house apart in order to have the carpeting replaced with laminate. We did one bedroom, to see if I like it (and I do!) My daughter talked me into doing the rest all at one time (something about room transitions matching), so two bedrooms, a hallway, the living and dining rooms are all ready for their face lift. New baseboards, too, and probably some paint. So everything in those rooms (except furniture - it can be shifted around) had to go somewhere else. I am really glad I Marie Kondo'd the house a while back. I have a feeling there will be a bit more decluttering as I put everything back, hopefully next week.

Fiber prep: I did manage to finish deconstructing the incomplete sweater, so now I have a pile of curly yarn to transform into something else. These pics may not show just how much difference there is between kinky yarn and curly yarn, but the two feel very different from each other. Steaming is definitely the way to go.

Kinky

Curly

I'm not sure how much fiber stuff I will get done this week while the work is going on. One can only hope.

Sad news

Despite my warnings, granddaughter left Dill on the couch and one of their dogs chewed it up. I haven't seen poor Dill in person yet, but from the pic daughter texted to me, it looks like most of the damage is to the top layer, not the core. I told them to save all the loose fiber - it can be reused. If I can repair Dill, I think he will come live with me, at least until granddaughter becomes more needle felting worthy.

Knitting: The program at last Tuesday's spinning guild meeting was how to waterproof one's knitting using OdiCoat. I applied it to the bottom of the L-Bag.
Needle felting: Work continues on the fairy house. I have been felting leaves for the tree.
Spinning: Still working on the Shetland, although I am having second thoughts about using it for the Main Squeeze cardigan. Maybe I am getting cold feet after the Veronika cardigan. (BTW, my SO claims the color looks *fine* on me but agrees that the style is not my style.)

Someone contacted me on Ravelry about purchasing some yarn in my stash. When I dug out said yarn, I (re)discovered a sweater I had knit from that yarn ages ago. The sweater was never completed - knitting done but not the construction - plus it wouldn't fit me now anyway. I think the yarn could make a nice area rug for my bedroom, so I have been completely undoing the sweater. Of course, the yarn is kinky from being knitted up. Today I tried de-kinking some using a handheld steamer. It worked pretty well.

Veronika cardigan

I'm not sure what it is about this cardigan that I don't like. Even though it came out fine, it just does not look good on me. It may be my lack of boobs makes it hang funny in front. Or maybe it is the color. I have worn brown before but that was before my hair turned gray. Black used to make me look like death warmed over, but now I can wear it; maybe the reverse happened with brown.

Front

Pattern: Veronika Cardigan by Shannon Cook
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers in colorway 9408
Needles: US9
Modifications: None

Back

One of the members in my weaving guild knit this pattern and wore it to a meeting. I could not take my eyes off it. The opposite direction of the pattern between the front and back intrigued me. If others think the color is okay, I might reuse the yarn and knit a regular cardigan incorporating these details. Maybe.

Folded in half

It is not unusual for one of my fiber projects to turn out fine but not look good on me. I get interested in a stitch pattern or a construction technique or something and away I go. Maybe I should stick with bags and rugs and things I can hang on the wall.

I can walk! (sort of)

I no longer use the cane, even when out and about. Huzzah! There is still a bit of a hobble in my gait sometimes, but in general, I am doing better. I turned my dining room table into an exercise table - added the leaf and covered it with yoga mats - so I can do a few more exercises and some gentle stretching without getting down on the floor. I also can lay flat (savasana or corpse pose, for you yoginis out there) to open the SI joint in my hips. Ahhh!

Knitting: I actually finished the Veronika cardigan, mattress stitching the few inches that make this garment a sweater instead of a wrap (separate blog post to follow). It turned out fine... but I don't like how it looks on me. This happens all the time.
Needle felting: I'm adding a tree to the fairy house.
Spinning: Still working on the Shetland. I am also experimenting with cable plying commercial yarn AGAIN (results of previous attempts posted here and here). I'll post about that later, too.
Weaving: Still working on the tote bag. The warp is getting tighter and tighter.

This past week I had a "blue" day, where I didn't do much except sit around and think about Life in general and my life in particular. I think finishing and not liking Veronika brought it on. One conclusion I arrived at is that I like to experiment with fiber. I think that is what draws me to dyeing yarn with natural materials - the result is almost always a surprise - and trying things like plying commercial yarn. Whether I actually create a finish product from my experiments is moot... unless that is also part of the experiment. I am going to keep this insight in mind going forward, in order to stay motivated.

A little progress

I saw my ortho doctor this past week. The x-rays look good, but I am still not putting my full weight on that leg. After the appointment, I realized my leg doesn't hurt when I to try to put weight on it; instead, it feels like the leg won't support me. So I have been putting a little extra oomph into my exercises, to make sure I am engaging the muscles in that leg and hip, especially when doing exercises that use both legs. Also, I think I have been overly dependent on the cane. After just a few days of using it less and less, I am able to get around the house without the cane and with very little limping. Progress!

Knitting: I felted the L-Bag. It was too big to put inside a pillowcase, so I was hoping the filter in the washing machine wouldn't plug up. (According to the manual, it is self-cleaning.) Lambs Pride yarn is purported to be good for felting, and felt it did, but the bag came out really fuzzy. The fuzz was enhanced by blue lint from one of the old towels I added to the mix. Ugh! I spent quite a while trimming the result with scissors. All that convinced me to purchase some nice leather handles for the bag instead of knitting up i-cord.
Spinning: Still working on the Shetland. There is a good article by Jill Moreno on the Mason Dixon site about "grist" - how dense yarn is.
Weaving: I think I worked on the tote bag this week, maybe once?
Dyeing: Two of us from the weaving guild are preparing a presentation for the March meeting about natural dyeing. We met up this week to discuss just what we are going to talk about. She weaves mostly baskets, dyeing the reeds with walnut husks. Our experiences are very different - even our collection of dye books is different - so it should be a halfway decent presentation.

I can't believe it is February already. One sure sign January is over is the tax documents are rolling in. That, and it is gray, gray, gray in Fort Rain, Windiana.