Well Done Wool

This weekend the sun was shining and the weather warmed up into the 80s. What’s a girl to do in such conditions but fire up the dye pot? Right?

This was the result. It’s a basket full of Coopworth that I dyed in shades of yellow and blue which became green in spots. The results are kind of mixed. I love the deep blue and there is a really nice yellowish green that you can see at the bottom of the pile. There are unfortunately also a few unpleasant spots. I think that it may have been over-cooked on the stove. I had no idea that was even possible. At least it didn’t felt.

As you may have guessed, the Coopworth will be part of my little fiber exploration. There are 2 weeks until MDS&W and, if I have the time, I’d like to try this Coopworth and the Targhee in my collection. It’s possible that I could get it done now that the last of the Magic Carpet ride is off my bobbins.

I took my wheel outside on Saturday and spun in the fresh air. It felt really good to be outside and I loved the sounds of Spring. All around me there were people gardening, mowing lawns, taking walks and enjoying the day. Stinkerbelle and her friend were running around, doing their best to get in trouble. They did spin-art, played with water guns and who knows what else. Even Frankie, our turtle, got to spend some time outside swimming in her wading pool. The weather was great for most of these activities but it wasn’t great for my spinning.

I think that I may have gotten caught up in the day. The plan was to turn the remainder of the Magic Carpet Ride into chained singles. I stuck to the plan but the results of this second attempt at chained singles weren’t as nice as the first. This time I got knots and twisty bits and a mess. How bad was it? Well, when I took it out of the bath and went to hang it I had to take quite a while untwisting things and applied a bit of weight. It looks ok now but it’s still got a lot of ugly in it.

What do you think of this picture of the 2 skeins? On the left it’s just a simple 2 ply. On the right is the chained singles version. I don’t expect to have many occasions where I ply the same fiber in multiple ways so I took a picture to remember the difference. In all fairness, I should point out that the singles used to do the chained singles started out much more even.

I didn't think that I'd be a huge fan of the barber-poling because I like subtlety in my yarn. There is nothing subtle about the barber poles. Surprisingly, I think that I like both versions of this yarn equally. I can't wait to knit with it.

On another weekend note, the Drama Queen took part in Band Fest this weekend. This has been her first year playing the clarinet. Each student who chose to participate was assigned a piece of music which they prepared in advance. On Saturday, she played it for the judges and got graded on her efforts. On a scale of 1-5 (1 being the best) she got a 1. I'm so proud of her!