A Week in Time

Sometimes I think that I should change my style of writing this blog. Maybe write more about feelings, or do a kitzy essay about knitting, or something along those lines. But then, I thought, really, this is more of a knitting diary, and while deep thoughts have their place, I'd rather keep this as more a journal of what I'm doing at this point in time. So, I think I'll keep it as it is, and if I do decide to do a bit more "creative" writing, I can always make another blog and link it.

Over the past week I've managed to finish the knitting part of Peace in the Hood, which is my version of the Central Park Hoodie. Given that I started it almost a year ago (I was knitting on it during the Bendigo Sheep and Wool show last year!), one might say "About time!" and be perfectly justified. It spent many months in hibernation, and I had it marked on Ravelry as 95% done. HA! Hardly. The hood was a huge square of knitting. Then there was still the button band. Not your average button band, by any means. It went from the bottom front piece up and all the way around the hood and then back down to the bottom of the right side. Three hundred and seventy eight stitches in all, first to pick up, and then to knit the longest 2 1/2 inches in width I have ever knit in my entire life. It took, literally, days. I was so heartily sick of it before I was halfway through. All that is done now, however, and it still needs stitching up. That, however, will have to wait. I have more on my plate right now, and as it's not going to fit me anymore anyway, there's no hurry. It will, however, make a dandy Christmas present when it's finished.





I've been knitting on my Blooming Bloomers as well. I've been doing the legs at work, as they are stockingnet stitch in the round, and you just can't get any easier than that. During these days off, I really wanted to knit a bit on it, so that I could get myself up to the crotch part, where the legs join and you start knitting the body portion, but that was not to be, due to the aforementioned excessively long time it took me to finish the hoodie. So, I will simply take them to work over the next few days, and face that problem when I come to it, which could easily be tonight if things are quiet, tomorrow night at the latest. The join looks slightly complicated, but not terribly so. I'm using my knit picks for the knitting, and my Denise cords to hold it on. I'm taking both sets with me to work, so I should be able to knit them off with no problems.



Just last night, I started another project. It's a market bag for my mother in law, June. I'm calling it "The June Bag". I'm using a pattern I found on Ravelry, called the Saturday Market Bag. I must say I don't like it. I'm sure the pattern is fine, but I'm not terribly fond of trying to do stringy lace with 10mm needles. Nope, it's a labour of love. And the desperate need to make something she might like very quickly. Of course, it's so tedious, I can't do it even while watching TV. Taking it to work is also not an option. But, I have one side almost half completed already, so perhaps my agony will be over quickly. A good thing, since her birthday is next Friday.



I tried to begin with to work it in the round, but that did not work at all. I just couldn't wrap my head around it, so I'm working it now per pattern, which means two sides that are eventually stitched together, although how I'll stitch the stringy mess is beyond me at the moment.

There are a couple of projects in shouting distance of getting started. The first is a scarf for a coworker. I made her a hat last year our of Basics Entwine yarn from Spotlight, a nice bulky yarn, in a creamish colour. This year, she has requested a scarf to match. This shouldn't have been a problem, but it was. Entwine had been discontinued at Spotlight. (It seems few yarns there make it past a years run before they are discontinued). This is where Ravelry comes in, and one of the many things I love it for.

After writing a friend in Whyalla about looking to see if they had any available there, and getting a negative answer, I went to the Australian Knitter's Group on Rav. They have a "in search of" (ISO) thread, so I put the word out that I was in need of some. A lovely Rav member just happened to have some in the colour I needed, we negotiated a price (more than reasonable) and in a few days I had 5 balls in my mailbox.



People on Ravelry are the nicest people in the world. Knitters are always so kind and helpful and willing to help another knitter in distress, and it's this general feeling of goodwill and comraderie that makes knitting not just a hobby, but a way to make, and keep, some really fantastic friends. I've known this for a long time, but just little things like this remind me of what a wonderful community we have in the crafting world, and the knitting world in particular.

The other project waiting in the wings is the Anchor's Aweigh vest, from the book Son of Stitch and Bitch. I found this pattern on Ravelry, showed it to Chris, and he actually said he would wear it. So, as I mentioned in the last post, I ordered the book from Fishpond. It arrived this week, and I set about searching for yarn. I went first to the local LYS, then to a bigger one in town, but 5ply in Australia is quite limited, particularly limited in colour choices, so I wound up going back to Gabrielle at American Yarns and ordering the Brown Sheep Nature Spun 5ply that it called for, in exactly the colours used in the photo below.





The yarn is a preorder, so it will likely take a couple of weeks to get here, but that's fine. The price was reasonable at $5.50Au a ball, but I probably ordered more than I need. Still, I didn't want to get stuck without, and I do need to modify it a bit to make it long enough to suit Chris. Besides, if I have much extra, Brown Sheep can be a hard brand to come by here, so I'm sure I can resell it.

For the past year or so, I've been getting books from Librovox, and listening to them mainly on my rather long commute to work and back, but also while I'm knitting and need to watch my stitches carefully, and sometimes on the treadmill when there's nothing to be watched on TV.

Librovox.org is a free service that provides books in the public domain, read by volunteers and offered to the public as free downloads. Due to copywrite laws, these tend to be the classics, or books written in the early 1900's or earlier. Many of them are British or European, as the US has stricter copywrite laws than the UK or some European countries. I had a great time at first, going thru all the Jane Austen novels. I listened to the ones I hadn't read first, and then listened to the one's I had read. For awhile, I was finding some interesting books, but after 9 or 10 months, this became harder and harder. Not that they don't have many books on there. They have hundreds and hundreds. But of course, like anyone, not all of them fit my taste in reading (or listening, for that matter). But after slogging thru a few questionable titles, and getting a couple that I couldn't even force myself to finish, I started looking elsewhere for something to fill my ipod.

Since Librovox downloads chapters to my itunes in the form of podcasts, I started searching podcasts available. Needless to say, the first thing I decided to search was knitting. I found way more than I expected to find, but the first podcast to catch my eye was "Sticks and String", which came with a little description, something like "An Australian Bloke Who Knits". So I went to the site and eventually downloaded everything he'd ever done, from his first podcast a couple of years ago to the present, put them in order on my ipod and began to listen.

This guys name is David Reidy. You can find his website and podcast HERE. He's got a voice that would melt butter, and his podcasts are very topical on Australian knitting, although he appeals to alot of people overseas as well. He did a tour of ACS (Australian Country Spinners) mills in the Melbourne burbs that I particularly enjoyed, but I do love all his on the road shows.

I'm caught up with his now, but still listen to the latest when they come out. Meanwhile, I've decided to go back and listen to all of Brenda Dane's Cast on podcast, which is also a very professional sounding broadcast, and full of information. It's quite entertaining, although I must say I like David's music better. I'm more into the "mellow" stuff, and even though she plays a decent mix, alot of it is more contemporary than what suits me. When I get caught up with hers, then I'll start hunting up another one.

That pretty much covers the goings on this week, except for buying three knitting magazines this morning. I bought the most recent issues of Yarn (I really need to subscribe to this one), Creative Knitting and Designer Knits. I just went on a magazine buying frenzy, I suppose. I haven't even looked at them yet though. I just tucked them into my knitting bag, and I'm saving them for my breaks at work over the next few days.

I'll be back with more as soon as more happens! Apologies for the terrible pictures, but it's been cloudy or raining here for a week. Not the best picture taking weather.

Playing Cowboys and Indians

Now that the glow from finishing the Bustaroony has started to dim, it's time to move on. Time to finish a pair of desperately needed socks. Yes, "needed". I've worn holes in two of my old pair, leaving me with only one pair of wearable socks. I do know there is such thing as darning, I just haven't found the time to learn how to do it.

This years Winter Roundup, our annual big Western Action shooting event was a success. It was (and I don't say this lightly) the best one yet, for me at least. Our posse (that is what our group of shooters are collectively called) was run by a husband and wife team, and things ran so much more smoothly than they have in the previous few years. We got thru the matches in record time, and even had a few minutes to sit and BREATHE between the matches on Saturday and the fancy dress get together on Saturday night.

Below, a picture of Chris in his civil war cap mom sent him from the states:


And me on the range Sunday, waiting to shoot. It was quite chilly, so the poncho stayed on until the last minute:



and shooting, minus the pancho because I'm dreadfully afraid a pistol will get stuck under it and I'll shoot my foot off:



That's "Coyote" behind me, husband in the couple who were our posse leaders/range officers for the shoot. Just wanted to give him and his lovely "Violet Rose" a two thumbs up for a job very very well done.

Now, most (if not all) of the shooters attending hadn't seen me since, at the very latest, last November. While Western action goes on all year round on a club level, most of the interclub shoots are done in the winter, so my weight loss was more than evident to them all. Twenty seven kilos gone is hard to hide, assuming I would even want to, which of course, I didn't. Consequently, I got lots of kind comments and congratulations on my weight loss, and that was fantastic.

Friday morning, I got two books that I had ordered in the mail from Colonial Lake Books. One was Victorian Knits Today, and the other was Colour in Spinning. Both were books I'd been pining over. Victorian Knits today is just pure sheer joyous eye candy, with the most exquisite pictures, equal to any coffee table book for sheer "flipthruability". As a bonus, it also contains stunning lace work patterns, and the only downside is that they are all so beautiful, how do you choose which one you want to knit? It has occured to me to start with the first one and work my way thru, which would take, ohhh, probably the rest of my life.



Color in Spinning is more of a text book on dyeing and using colour in fibre, and how to play with, blend or change up color during fibre preparation, using combs, hackles or carder. It's an older book, and it had been out of print and quite expensive if you could even find it, but has been put back into print as a paper back, and if you are a spinner, you should definately read this book. I had no idea I knew so very very little about color, and I'm only up to the third chapter.

I also took along just two projects. The first was my "Peace in the Hood" (CPH) hoodie, which I got next to nothing done on while there. The second was my Indian Corn socks. On the way there on Friday afternoon, I realized it was time to start increases for the gussets. They are being worked top down, with a Widdershins heel. Otherwise, they are plain ole stockingnet stitch and easy as pie. So, getting there at roughly 2 in the afternoon, I figured I'd have plenty of time to do the gussets and heel on both socks. HA! I did very little Friday night other than knit on those darn socks, and still was only just reaching the first heel by the time it was bedtime. I worked on them during my spare time over the weekend, which was minimal.

I wound up finishing the second heel on Sunday afternoon at the awards presentation. There were about 150 people in the room, sitting at long tables, and crowded all around me. The light was dim at best, and here I sat trying to pick up the short row raps and finish the second heel practically in the dark. This from a woman who, a mere 6 months ago, waited until I was alone, took the phones off the hood and found a quite corner to meticulously work the heel with no distractions.

Consequently, and it's no wonder, I did make a couple of boo boos on that heel that I had to paste up last night when I finished the socks. But all in all, I just wanted a pair of socks that were wearable until I could figure out how to darn the wholey ones, so they will do for their intended purpose.



In spinning, I've actually gotten quite a bit done. I spun up the merino and glitz batt from Wooleywombat, mentioned in the last post:



I plied, washed and set it yesterday, and it's now beautiful and dry:





I like to let my bobbins "relax" for a few days before I ply them, so after I got it all spun up, I went digging thru my fibre stash for something to put on the wheel next. I had in mind some alpaca, but when I went exploring, I found a second roving from Kathy's Fibres in the exact same colourway I had spun up before, the one I called "Navidad" when finished.



It then dawned on me that I had bought two rovings, and seeing more potential in having 200 grams of yarn rather than 100, I decided to spin that up in the same way as I'd spun the first one. I got one bobbin finished before I plied Wooleywombat's batt, and have the second bobbin now started on the wheel.

Yesterday morning, I recieved one of two books I ordered recently from fishpond. I really needed "Son of Stitch and Bitch" for a vest pattern in there that Chris actually likes. It's called Anchors Aweigh, by Kim Hamlin, and not surprisingly, has little anchors all over it. It's been a long time since I did stranded colourwork. By long time I mean I tried it once 20 years ago. To be frank, at the time, I didn't like it and moved on. But I'm all keen to try it again, and it's a project that Chris actually LIKES (oh, I mentioned that already, didn't I??)!!

The only way to get the pattern is to buy the book. I checked the local bookstores and Ebay.au, no luck. I checked the destash pages on Ravelry. Still no luck. So I went to the online book sellers. Now here in Oz, the online sellers list like bazillions of books, but in reality, they only keep the most popular in stock. Most of the books you order, they then order from overseas and ship them on to you. Consequently, delivery time can be tragically long. Thus my search in "other places" for something more expedient.

Fishpond offers free delivery for orders over $50, and their prices are reasonable, so I went with them. The Son of Stitch and Bitch Book was around $28, and I figured if I looked thru their knitting books, I'd find something else I wanted. Well, I found lots, really, but settled on Elizibeth Zimmerman's "Knitting Without Tears", which is a classic that I just didn't own. Fishpond must have had it in stock here in Oz, cause it arrived yesterday.




I haven't really had time to look thru it yet, but I've heard wonderful things about it. There's probably a lot I already know, but alot I don't, as with most knitting books I buy.

Sadly, the book that I actually need for the Anchor's Aweigh pattern is on that apparently fishpond didn't have on hand here in Oz, and it's likely to be another week before I get the book and the pattern. I've already been sourcing yarn though, and Gabrielle from American Yarns can get the Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport the pattern calls for. I've thought about trying to source yarn here, and still might, but Bendigo Woolen Mills is the only place I can think of that has multiple colours of 5 ply wool. Hummm, well, we shall see. I'll likely go with the original yarn in the original colours, as it just looks so darned spiffy in the picture.


Ah, there's something I meant to write about in the last post, but forgot, so I'll include that now. On Mother's Day, we went to my inlaws house for lunch. My mother in law went digging around and pulled out a lovely cardigan she had bought over a decade ago when visiting Scotland. It's an Aran cardi, and I believe the wool is Shetland but I'm not positive. I'm really thrilled to death with it.



The trouble is, it has a few holes in it now, and I need to figure out how to repair them. I will need some similar yarn, but I think it will be worth the effort.



I also started a new project. Saturday, I realized that I was nearing completion of the Indian Corn Socks, so I went to Ravelry and looked thru my queue for my next project. I decided that I would cast on the "Unmentionables" pattern from Knitty spring 07. I decided to use the yarn called for by the pattern, because drape and stretch seemed important in this pattern, which was Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. I ordered the yarn from American Yarns up in QLD a few weeks ago, so I was all ready to go.



The cast on was a bit tricky, for me at least, since I'd never done one like it. It was a crochet provisional type cast on, where you made a crochet chain with waste yarn and then picked up and knit the stitches thru the back loop of the crochet chain. I've started on the stockingnet part of the leg, and then will come back later, pull out the waste yarn and have live stitches to use for the ruffle at the end of the leg.

I was really in a bit of a hurry to get it started though, because we had a boat trip planned on Sunday, and I was afraid I would finish the socks on the trip and not have anything simple and reasonably small to knit on while out on the boat. Turns out, I didn't finish the socks until Monday, but I did get a dozen or so rounds done on the Unmentionables (mine are called "Blooming Bloomers" on Rav) while out on the boat.

The boat trip was as nice as it could be, given the condition of the river. I had never met the couple that came along. She was a coworker of Chris' and her husband worked for the Hills council. Amanda and Bob turned out to be very pleasant guests and shock of all shocks, it seems Amanda spins wool she gets from her parents farm, so we had things to talk about. Here's a pic of Amanda and Bob at the helm:



I also made another major purchase this past week. AustralianS are switching to all these "energy saving" globes. They're all you can find in the shops anymore, and I really, really have trouble seeing things clearly using them, particularly seeing to read or do my crafty work. Some rooms are so dim, the light bulb sort of glows rather than shines. So I bought a Daylight Lamp from Spotlight. I had been looking at them for awhile, and remembered that the distributor was at Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show last year, so I had considered waiting until then and getting one there. But push came to shove, and I got really tired of straining to see, so I broke down, stopped at Spotlight on my way home from work Saturday and bought one.



I absolutely love it! It spoils me though, as I can really notice the difference when I'm knitting at work and don't have it. It gives natural light, just like your working outside in full daylight, and it has a neat magnifying glass attached that you can pull over if you really need a close up look at what you are doing. It's a marvelous piece of equipment.

I also stopped by the LYS last week and bought myself a few balls of yarn. I bought two balls of Sirdar Naturals and one ball of Sublime. The sublime is much like the Cashmerino I've bought in the past, and I'm hoping it works well for a pair of "Fetching" fingerless mitts I plan making someone for Christmas. I haven't got plans for the Naturals yet, I just want to try out the yarn, but it looks as if it would dye well if nothing else.






Well, that's more than I had time for today, but that seems to be a pattern for me when it comes to blogging. I need to renew my vow to start blogging more often, but life just seems to get in the way.

Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week. As for me, I'm working the next 6 days straight, so it's going to be a busy one. Still, when it's all over, I'll have 3 glorious days off in a row. I reckon that's worth waiting for.

Sewing up Blues

I know I've mentioned before that I despise sewing up knitted garments. For the record, I still despise it. I'm quite excited and impatient to finish (and wear) the Bustaroony cardi. None-the-less, I'm still not motivated to sew my fingers to the bone to see it done. It's been sitting on my couch for about a week now, and I sit and stitch up bits at a time. I haven't been allowing myself to knit at home, because if I did, I would never get it done. So it's heaped up on my couch, and whenever I sit there, I sew.

I've sewn in all the ends, which took literally hours, but wasn't particularly hard. I've sewn the shoulder seams. Piece of cake. But now, I'm attaching the sleeves to the body of the garment. This is where things are getting a bit tricky. When attaching sleeves, of course, you are attaching the top cast off edge (assuming you knit the sleeves from the cuff up) to the side edge of the garment. Normally, I do this using an amalgamation of mattress stitch (on the body) and fake grafting (on the sleeve), which makes a nice smooth seam. However, the textured patterning in this garment, when working on it from this angle, seems to go every which way, and there are few nice neat easy bits to stitch.

Terrible picture, but here is the sleeve lined up to the body for stitching. Maybe you will see what I mean.

As you stitch along, because of the patterning, particularly in the tree patterned bits, stitches are heading in diagnal directions right up to the edge of the fabric. I'm doing ok, a bit of wobbling around but nothing I can't live with. It's just a bit slow and tedious. The first sleeve is attached, and the seam looks fairly good. I just passed the halfway point on the second sleeve so I'm getting there. Just very slowly. Then come the long side seams, which will at least be fairly uniform for mattress stitch. I will finish this thing someday, I promise.

Im making another one of these as a gift, and when I do, I'm leaving a couple of stiches for seam allowance, no matter what the pattern says, or doesn't say.

Moving on, I've gotten a bit of knitterly things lately. I added a bit to my knitting library, getting the book "Knit Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters" by Lisa Kartus. To be perfectly honest, it hasn't told me much that I didn't already know, but does have a section on altering finished knitting which I might find helpful down the track. It would be a great book for a reasonably new knitter, and as problems arise, even as a more experienced knitter, I might find it more helpful than I did on the general read through. It's written with humour and, for a technical type book, is actually fairly entertaining.




I also bought the April09 issue of "Knit and Style" magazine, purely because I hadn't bought it before and liked some of the patterns at a glace through. It IS a very nice magazine, with very wearable patterns. You know, things normal people would wear. I think what I liked best was the photos of the finished items. They were great photos, and allowed you to see detail well. Which lead me to my favorite thing about the magazine. The modeled garments look like real knitters knitted them. I found the ever so slight imperfections very refreshing.

I dropped by Needlenook a while back to get some more of the plastic yarn sewing needles I like using (and breaking) and they happened to have their 5ply Heirloom easycare wool on sale, so I bought a couple of 50g skeins. The color is sort of a goldeny brown, and the final intention is to make some thick socks with them, probably for a gift. Hence the "Easy Care", as I've found many gift recipients don't appreciate the special washing handling regular wool often needs.



As mentioned earlier, I haven't allowed myself to knit at home in a few days so I could concentrate on the seaming. But I have gotten quite a bit finished on the Saloongirl stockings at work, and only like a half a dozen or so pattern repeats finishing the second sock. I have cast on the second glove, but have gotten no further than that. As soon as I finish the stocking, I'll dedicate my time to the glove. It will knit up fairly quickly at any rate.

I've been meaning to mention what I've been listening to lately. After running thru most of the books on Librovox that I was interested in, I decided for a change to check out some knitting podcasts. Of course, I'd done this before, but I must have picked the wrong two to try out. The sound quality was miserable, scratchy and rather more irritating than entertaining, so I hadn't really bothered with them in awhile, but not having anything interesting to listen to on my Ipod was getting a bit old. My trip to and from work seemed to be getting longer and longer every day. So I went on a search, looking specifically for Australian knitting podcasts this time, and ran across Sticks and Strings. It's done by a fellow named David Reidy who lives in the mountains outside of Sydney. The sound quality is great, his voice is perfect for "radio" and his topics, on the whole, are very interesting. Even better, he talks at least some of the time about Australian yarns and Australian events. I went back to show number 1, and I'm now at show number 63, which was recorded sometime last year. I'm really getting a kick out of listening, and would recommend the podcast highly.

I finished spinning up the merino I've been working on:



and finally got around to plying it:



I'm very happy with the result. I named it "Navidad" because it has a definate Christmassy look to it.



Sorry, the closeup is a bit blurry...



No plans for it yet. I'm just enjoying admiring it right now. It came out quite thin, and would be thin enough for some thickish socks I reckon, which was my original intention. One can never have to many socks.

That's it for today. Until next time when, hopefully, the Bustaroony cardi will be ready for display!

Cardi, Carder, Combs and Clutter

I just looked back at the date of my last post. Almost a month has passed, and really, I'm almost ashamed I haven't gotten more accomplished in the past month. I has been busy, but there's been nothing "completed" to speak of. Just a whole lot of random "this and that", which I suppose pretty much sums up my existence.

I will start with the knitting, since that will be the easiest subject to cover. I have almost completed the first sleeve of the Bustaroony cardi. Now I started this project in early January. Shameful really. Even though I knew it would take me a long time to complete it, given it's a rather intricate and even a bit difficult pattern, I really didn't count on it taking this long. At times, it was the only project I was working on, and aside from a couple of times, I really haven't "put it aside" all that much (compared, of course, to how long I've put some aside). Add to that, I really really enjoy knitting on it. My only excuse is that I have been quite busy with "other things" besides knitting, and haven't had time off work, a vacation, or other really superb knitting conditions. Anyway, I really wanted to finish the sleeve before making this blog entry, but time is running out, so you will get it as it is right now. However, I only like about 10 decrease rows and about 4 rows of shaping finishing this sleeve. I plan on having that out of the way tonight, and sleeve number two on the needles before I go to work tonight. So here's the sleeve:



And the back and both front pieces lying in "position", to give some idea of the finished look of the cardi:




I mentioned in the last post I was trying to decide what socks to start. Well, I decided on "Betties Lace Stockings" from the Spring09 issue of Interweave knits. They are perfect for western action. I had some Patonyle already in my stash, 3 balls of black, 3 of white. Now from pervious experience, those of you who remember know how I detest knitting black socks. Still, black would be sexy, and match just about anything. But my spinning/knitting friend offered another suggestions. Just knit them in white and then soak them in tea to "dye" them to an "old paper" sort of tannish colour. I loved the idea, off I went knitting them up in white. I started them on March 24th, and even though I only am about halfway through one sock now, they are a quick knit. It's just that I've been working so hard on the cardi I've neglected them. But they have a deadline, and need to be done by the Winter roundup in mid-May, so sooner or later, I'm going to have to dedicate some quality time to them.



Now, to purchases this past month. I really haven't bought much in the fibre department, but I did get lucky and show up on Ravelry in Ixchelbunny's group right as she was doing an update! All her nicer stuff seems to sell out almost the moment it is posted on her blog, so I never seem to get her goods as I'm always a day late and I'm lucky to find anything left, much less something I like. This time was different though, and I'm now the proud owner of this lovely package of goodies. The black and white is the Jacob Humbug, and the green/gold medley is from her Masham sheep, and is called "Tawny Frogmouth". (Who can resist something called "tawny frogmouth"???)



If you've never checked out Ixchel's yarns and rovings, I would highly suggest visiting her blog regularly and buying a sample. If you don't see something you like there, or it's all sold out, email her and tell her what interests you. Not only is it beautiful, but her "bunny" fibre is so soft it will make you cry (for joy, of course). I first experienced her products in Bendigo at the Sheep and wool show last year, where I bought two skeins of cashmere/angora mix yarn that was so exquisite. It's still in my "most prized" stash, but one day I'll find a pattern (or a recipient) to do it justice. If I can bear to part with it that is.

The hugely major purchase this month was my brand new drum carder. Now, for those of you who spin and, more to the point, prepare fibre for spinning, well, you know about how much these things cost. They are by no means a small purchase, but I won't go into details of the price here for fear of shocking my mom, and making her adore my hubby more than she already does for "putting up with me". But, I swear the thing could pay for itself. I'm not saying it WILL pay for itself, because that would require me to quit buying other people's prepared fibre, and that's not something I'm prepared to do right now. I'm only saying that it COULD, if times got tough and I really really needed it to. Besides, anyone who shops on ebay for such things also knows that it's resell value is fantastic. So, I always figured if I don't like it, or don't use it enough, reselling it will be a breeze. So far though, no danger of that.

I bought an Inwood Smith drum carder from Bella's shop in Adelaide (The Walking Wheel Studios). She didn't have one in stock, so she had to order it, and it took some time to get there, but it finally arrived and I went to take possession of my new toy. Now, not having much experience with carders, I didn't really have a huge brand preference, so I decided to buy Australian, as the money is coming out of the economic stimulus check (once I get it, that is), so buying local seemed the patriotic thing to do. So I bought an Australian product from a South Australian shop.

Isn't she lovely:



I had to try it out right away, so I used some of the brown fleece that I've had for ages. It actually came in a basket with the spinning wheel when I bought it, and gave it a go. Here's a picture with the fibre on the drum:



And a picture of the fibre coming off the drum, all lined up and spinnable:



Now those photos shorten the process quite a bit. What you actually do is take your raw fleece, stick it in one end, turn the crank until it picks it up with the small drum and deposits it on the bigger drum. You add fleece, trying to space it more or less evenly around the drum, until the drum is full, then you pull it off. You come up with a pretty nice looking bit of carded fibre after the first run. You tear that into strips and feed it through again. Than, for good measure, it goes thru a third time. Generally three runs is enough, depending on the type of fleece and what you want. It's also fantastic for blending colours too, although I haven't quite got that far yet. But that's in the cards (pun intended) for the next week or so.

The thing about carders is they demand to be fed, so one must keep clean fleece on stock. I had a "nearly" clean Corridale fleece, which I had washed twice already but still needed an extra go as it was still pretty sticky with lanolin. So I washed it one more time, and it came out of this bath more or less perfect. (Although I did run us completely out of hot water and had to take a cold shower before work that night). It seems I've been washing fleece forever.

Recently, on a trip to the Salvo's here in town, I saw this neat sweater drying rack for 50 cents, so I picked it up on a whim. It has became very useful over the past couple of weeks for drying my fleece.



How handy is that?? Particularly with the cooler weather we've been having the past couple of weeks. Not exactly the greatest weather for drying fleece outside, although if it is nice enough, the little screen also fits just perfectly on the top of my clothes rack that I can take outside.

I also took some tips from Bella and others and made myself a homemade rack to wash and dry "locks" for combing. I bought some "Gutter guard" and some clips, and made this contraption, which fits into the bathtub and allows the locks to go through the whole process without getting them out of shape or messy.



I think, for next time though, I'm going to cut it down into small squares, so I can use the utility room sink, and also because the long contraption is a bit hard to handle.

That brings me to my combs. After washing my fleece using the "Gutter Guard", I then set about really giving combing a go. Combs are finicky instruments, and take a bit of practice, but I reckon I did okay for a beginner.

First I took my nice clean locks from the "gutter guard":



Then I loaded a comb:



Then I swiped gently at the bottom of the fibres with the other comb, transferring the fleece over:



(BTW...there's the clutter mentioned in the title)

This process loads the comb, giving it a nice beard:



After repeating this process a few times, switching the fleece back and forth on the combs a few times, you pull the fleece thru a "diz". (My diz is of the homemade persuasion):



And this is my finished roving:



You make the rovings into little "birdsnest" and your all ready to spin:



I have also managed to card up a bunch of this fleece, and have several batts now ready to be dyed. I'd like to make on "biggish" project out of these rovings, but I haven't decided what yet. I was thinking of a vest for Chris (who has been patient with me and my hobbies, after all), and I was hoping to get a good manly colour for him.

So I had to do a bit of test dyeing, using mostly just the basic colours and some 50/50 mixes of them. Since the wool is grey, the colours you get are interesting. They are more forceful than the pastels I tend to get on white roving, but because the grey does change the colour, I wasn't sure of what I would get. So, an experiment was necessary to give me some idea.

Here are my samples straight after dyeing:



And hanging to dry:



The finished products were interesting, and the colours certainly were brighter and less pastelly, but I'm not sure if any of them qualify as "manly".

The first batch is blue, blue/green in the middle, and green on the other side.



The second batch look better in person than in the picture, but still, the dye didn't seem to mix as well. One is orange/green, the other orange/blue (I was trying for a brownish):



The last set has red at the top, orange in the center, and orange/red at the bottom. I really like all of these:



Now all that's left is to make a decision, or do more experiments. Not sure which yet.

As some of you know, I've been losing quite a bit of weight lately. I don't mention it much here, as weight loss isn't really what this blog is about. But for those of you wondering (you know who you are), I will post some "before and after" photos when I get the cardigan done. I began making the Bustaroony cardigan as sort of an incentive. At the time I began it, it would have been about 4 sizes too small, but now, depending of course on the finished product, I should fit into it. When I get to that point, I will "unviel" the weightloss on the blog. But, I will say that I've cracked into the 60's this week, which was a big goal for me. Now onwards to the elusive 55K.

Well, that's enough for this post. Heaven knows, I do need to do entries more often, and save myself from these long long posts. Well, maybe next time. Or not :)