Hand over the Wool!

Snow Day

It is snowing today, and basically my boss called and said "Stay home, I don't want you on the road today". This is my first real snow day that I can remember since college (I went to Univer. of  Minn - Duluth, we had a lot of snow days there) and it is really quite a weird feeling. I'm used to going wherever and whenever I am needed to go. I'm sure this ordered snow day is due to my pregnancy, and the additional fact that I work for my parents. Did I mention that before? Yeah. It's a blessing and a curse :-) . The family business currently has 2 locations about 13 miles apart and I usually need to do work at both locations each day plus run miles of business errands. Those of you with small businesses know how it is, if something needs to be done you have to usually get it done yourself or manage it to make sure it's done right. I feel like a total slacker not being at work right now while my husband, also working for the company, is on the road making a delivery.

I also drive a CRV and really love it. In 10 years I've never really had problems with weather mostly due to the fact that I'm not an idiot and know to drive carefully in inclement weather (unlike 90% of the drivers out there) and also my vehicle handles weather really well. I dont know what I'll do when this one dies.

On to a more joyful topic: Finished socks! These are the Koigu socks I've been working on for about a year, with time off for when the carpal tunnel issue started up. My left hand was the worst but my right hand also goes numb and will be fixed on March 13 (it's a Friday too!). The pattern is a generic with help from WendyKnits help pages. I used US1 Knitpicks 16" circs for needles.

And here is a side shot, showing the heel flap and gusset. I knit these toe-up.

And after finishing the Koigus promptly cast on my first pair of Monkey Socks! The yarn has been in my stash for about 3 years, and is Opal 4-ply. I started on US2 DPNs but they are not as sharp as Knitpicks needles and I am really missing those pointy points. Might just have to switch over... we'll see.

I finished some of the Mystery Fleece yarn, here's about 12 oz of bulky 2-ply. It might end up as a dog sweater, we'll just have to see how much yardage results when it is all spun up.

Rainer Cherries!

After 3 tries I managed to dyed Merino close enough in color to the original batch. It had been a very long time since the original batch was dyed and I've changed colors in my dye stock bases since then. The reward for my diligent work is:

A box of Rainer Cherries! The real color is a bit more vibrant. No, they actually are little nests of the dyed wool, waiting for their turn on the wheel. Each one is maybe 1.5" across, and are really to big to be cherry size, but the colors and the cuteness just begs to be called cherries.

There's a little more yellow and a little more green and even some purple in this batch of wool. No idea where the purple came from. It is spinning ever so nicely as I used my Superfine Merino (80s Bradford count) combed top, which is the same as I sell in the Etsy shop (see right side bar). I can finally see the end of the spinning part of this project and I'm really excited to start the knitting phase thus producing a finished February Lady sweater just for me. I did finally get gauge on US6 needles but am being a good girl and finishing the spinning first. This delayed gratification stuff is brutal.

I'm finally getting some fleece dyed and posted to the shop. It's Romney fleece hand scoured and dyed with acid dyes.
 

Double Grrr. Too Orange and Too Red

Grrr. I dyed up some more Merino for my Orangy-Red Project. Twice. Still missed the mark. One batch was way too red and the other way too orange. Both were much too saturated in color and not salmon-colored enough. Double Grrr. The pict below shows the too red on the left, the too orange on the right and the just right in the middle.

I did try spinning the orange up and it just doesn't work, you might be able to see the little test area on the bobbin above. Much too bright and vibrant, even though I used green to tone that down. I currently have more Merino pre-soaking for yet another dyeing session. In other news here's yet more knitting on a most neglected second sock. The yarn is Koigu and I'm just doing a generic sock pattern.

FLS and the Orangey-Red Yarn

I have read about finishing handspun yarn in a manner that most of us would consider to be abuse. You know, hot wash/cold wash(repeat several times) beat the yarn, smack it around a little. I was having a little bit of a day yesterday and decided to give it a try. Think of it as a little variation on my normal fiber therapy :-)

Below is a picture of two skeins, the top is underplyed and the bottom is just right. They are spun from the same fibers.

I'll apologize for the crappy picts, you know how hard it is to photograph this color, and I didn't want to set up my light box.

Anyhoo, the picture below is the bottom yarn from the first pict. This yarn started out being round and pretty fluffy as one ply was spun with much more air, more of a semi-worsted single. The other ply was very strictly spun worsted method, with no air in it at all. The texture of the 2 plys together is a little subtle and as you will see in a couple pictures it doesn't show in garter stitch. After the yarn torture and drying this yarn might have been a little more fluffy, and in its new "just a smidge" fulled state was scratchier than the original yarn. This is Merino folks, you have to expect fulling to result from yarn torture. Wait until you knit a swatch before screaming in frustration. Trust me.

Again, sorry for the quality of the pict. The below yarn was the top yarn in the first picture. It was under plied and stringy, and as you can see it is still under plied and stringy but much fluffier. If I had thought about it I should have done before and after WPI measurements. Either way this yarn must have more twist added to it if it will be used for the project. If adding more twist makes the yarn funky there's no problem, as this was a runt skein, maybe 30 yards long.

Look! Knitting! It has not been seen on this blog for months. I can knit with no loss of feeling or tingling in my left hand at all! My right hand still falls asleep but not as fast as it did before going under the knife. I am an advocate of Carpel Tunnel Release surgery, can you tell?

Below is the swatch of the well plied yarn, it has a really nice even texture and wonderful variegation as it knits up. I'm loving knitting. The swatch is for a very popular pattern, February Lady Sweater. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and this yarn varies between DK to worsted weight. Thus I am forced to swatch. Grrr. This swatch was knit with US8s, and after washing was only getting 15 st/4", so more swatching is required to get the 18 st/4" required. But you know what? This sweater is for me! Yay! This will be my first sweater knit for me, as DH has "The-Sweater-that-shall-not-be-named" and Critter #1 has 2 sweaters knit by me. Oh, and remember earlier in this post I said the finished yarn was scratchy? Ha! This swatch is very soft and cuddly. Not scratchy at all. Ya again!

And can you believe this, I'm running out of the solid hand-dyed singles, so I had to dye more. I've got a lot of plying to do before I can start knitting as everyone usually says to finish all spinning before plying. We'll see. This picture might have been in better focus but Critter #1 ran by and snatched the full bobbin and took off in a series of victory laps around the house, the snatched bobbin held high in pride. So you get one very fuzzy picture, sorry.

Post Surgery and Big Shop Update

I did a big shop update last night, FREE SHIPPING thru 2/14!

     

My surgery was moved to 7am on Friday. Which meant I had to be at the hospital by 6:30, no food or drink since midnight the night before. This terrified me more than surgery. No food!? For a pregnant gal!? Are you nuts!?  I did survive, but barely.

If you care about carpel tunnel surgery, read on. If not there is pretty colorful wool at the end of the post, you can skip to it. There is one very small picture of my healing incision, so if you are freaked out about that skim past it.

They actually got me into the OR about 7:20, place the IV and shot my offensive wrist and hand full of Novocaine (which was the most painful part of the surgery), and washed and draped my arm. Because of my pregnant status, Novocaine is the only painkiller my OB and I felt safe with. He thought I could maybe use a sedative too (as he saw me giving birth to Critter#1 with her ginormous head {90th percentile for newborns, poor women who give birth to those babies with even bigger heads!} which was aided with Demerol) but I declined any sedatives, didn't want the risk.

My surgeon came in around 7:40 and tried to tell me every little detail about the surgery as it was happening. Ha! I very politely asked him to keep quiet, and told him "ignorance is bliss Doc!", and I was striving for bliss at that moment, or at least a glimmer of my happy place (anywhere with wool, of course). I don't like needles and I don't like to be cut open when I'm awake and not sedated. I focused on the heart monitor and my deep breathing, trying to not let my heart rate get above 85, and did my best to stay calm as they did not use a tourniquet during the surgery either.

All said and done, it really wasn't that bad. I was stitched up and back in my little recovery room by 7:55. By 8:45am I was at home, prepping for a much deserved nap. Here's the bandage I had to keep on for 3 days:

Then Monday morning I was allowed to move onto my normal brace. I know the thumb can go through the little hole, but then I use my hand too much. This way is better for now. Like this I can still ply yarn.

The incision is barely 1 inch long but looks worse as they stitched it under the actual cut. It really doesn't hurt that bad, and is getting better everyday. By keeping my thumb immobilized I really reduce my ability to over do and cause injury to the healing area.

Of course, there's no real way to keep me totally fiber free unless I'm unconscious. On Saturday I was going crazy just surfing fiber blogs and really needed to do something. I tossed 8 oz of Corriedale pencil roving in to the roaster and went wild with color. Can't wait to see what this looks like spun up!

Bread, Dyeing, Plying, Critter and The Offensive Wrist

Remember the blue batt I paid Karen as rent on the Supercard? Go see what she did with it on her blog posting from 2/3/09. I'm so glad she liked it!

I plied some of the Orange-Red yarn last-night:

And dyed some Merino/Silk top:

And made a loaf of bread for today's meals:

As you can see DH's lunch and our breakfast has been deducted from the loaf already. This bread does not last very long in our house. :-)

And Critter #1 is starting to potty train. The red star necklace under her leg is her favorite accessory and even graces her nightie first thing in the morning. Little honey.

 

And to finish the post out, the last picture of my offensive left wrist before my excellent surgeon spend a very quality 15 minutes (if that) performing Carpel Tunnel Release surgery on it tomorrow afternoon.

It kills me how much the world's shortest surgery costs, but as I'm experiencing nerve and muscle problems and I'm only in my mid 30's I see this procedure as an excellent investment in my future. After not knitting for more than a month, my had still goes numb on the steering wheel and while working, not to mention at night even with a brace in place.

Don't forget! Free Shipping in my shop through Valentine's Day!

Mystery Fleece Meets Supercarder / Shop Update

I finally got a chance to play with the Supercard, and it really does live up to it's reputation. The hands free operation is wonderful, and even though the batt is thinner than the ones off the 405 Finest, these batts are longer and of course, only take one pass to do what takes the 405 Finest 2 passes. In just a little over an hour I used this:

 

to make these:

 

and in the process made this:

 

Wow! I totally thought I had that fleece really clean.

The shop update I did today includes GIANT bumps of handpainted spinning tops averaging about 8 oz each, and luxury 50% Merino/50%Bombyx Silk spinning batts. I did do some dyeing tonight, so more updates to follow in a day or two. Remember: FREE SHIPPING SALE!

       

Retreat Recap and Sale Reminder

Remember, Free Shipping to US on everything in my Hand Over The Wool! Etsy shop thru 2/14/09!

There was food, drink, chocolate, blueberry pancakes and wool. Lots and lots of wool. And alpaca. Ten ladies came to the retreat, ranging in spinning age from 6 hours  to over 30 years. Everyone had a great time and plan to go back next year.

 

 

 

 

Doesn't that look so nice? The last one is Karen, and she gets to be a professional weaver full-time! We are two of the three Majacraft owners in the guild and I think you'd have to fight either of us to the death to pry our wheels from our cold dead hands. Yes, we like them that much.

As for what I got spun up during the retreat:

 

I finished 1.5 bobbins of white Cormo singles, 2.75bobbins of my hand dyed red-orange Merino singles, and 2 very full bobbins of the grey Mystery fleece singles.

What's that in the background you ask? Did I win the lottery? No, silly! That Patrick Green SuperCard is on loan from Karen at the rate of one carded batt per month. This month's payment was carded out of Silk, Merino, Cormo, and Bamboo. Do you like it?