Seriously though, the last few days haven't been that terrific.....a summer cold/flu. Ick. So I've had to change my Ravelympic line-up a tad. I started with Whirling Dervish II rather than WDI. The reason for the change in the line-up? Spinning the fiber for WDII is almost like cheating. It's a pencil roving that is already so thin that absolutely zero drafting is warranted, thus totally mindless and each time I sit down at the wheel, once I find the groove, I can do it one handed, if needed, and not even look at what I'm doing. Which is a godsend when one is sneezing, coughing, hacking, and blowing their nose as often as this cold is demanding; an added plus with all the world records being smashed left and right, exceptional performances in gymnastics and diving, and all the underdogs getting their day in the sun I can't keep my eyes off the TV. :o)
Here is what I've spun so far.
442.5 yards of cream
514.5 yards of brown
This is why it is so easy to spin.
The top loop is not drafted the rest of it is. Notice all the pills and nups? It's impossible to draft and spin an even single so instead of fighting it I'm just spinning it as is. Super fast, and super easy. Cheating????
I've often wondered while reading blogs what a person meant by using the word "sprongy" as a fiber adjective. I of coursed could glean what it was they were saying, but couldn't really relate to it. Now I can. This fiber (all of them, cream, dark and light brown) are super "SPRONGY". I'm looking forward to some day getting my hands on some well prepared sprongy fiber, something that doesn't have pills, nups, and lots of VM. :o)
It's been another learning adventure spinning this fiber. Everything I've done up until now has had very long staple length and little crimp. This has a much shorter staple length and LOTS of crimp. I'm not too sure I like this very crimpy fiber but I'm reserving judgment until the day I have some well prepared fiber of this sort.
As I'm sure many of you spinners out there who are spinning just for spinning's sake often daydream while sitting at the wheel as to what the yarn you are creating will ultimately become, so am I. I'm thinking this will make a fabulous jacket. I'm considering a fairly boxy shape with a slip stitch/mosaic pattern, or perhaps a nifty intarsia design, or maybe, just maybe something with some cables. Of course daydreams can only go so far when I have know idea what kind of gauge this yarn is going to work up in, but I'm thinking the gauge will be about 3 to 3.5 stitches to the inch. I'll end up with about 430 yards of the 3rd color for a total of approximately 1300+ yards. Enough to do just about anything actually. :o)
I have also been working on my Hmmmm project. Saturday, the day after the Games began I finally decided on a pattern. It's another no brainer, something I can knit while I watch the Games kind of thing. That of course was one of deciding factors when choosing a pattern for this Ravelympic event, but there were others that were much more important. It had to be something that would "honor" my first handspun, warts and all (cuz no matter how warty it is I'm proud of it) AND it had to be easily executed in a number of yarns that don't quiet match in color. That's a lot of stipulations, but I found the perfect pattern. The Panel Jacket from Unicorn Books. The pattern as written, is worked in garter stitch, I am doing it in stockinette, (garter stitch would hide too many warts) I've got one panel, the sleeves and the lapel/collar to do. I'm skimping a little on the width of the panels, a sweater with a 52" bust measurement would just look silly on me. I'm liking it. A lot. This pattern just might have a few do-overs in it's future.
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