February 24, 2007

As good as a rest

Whoa. Another whole day got away from me there, but I'm much the better for it. Thanks for all your well wishes my lovely knitters, I assure you again that all is well here (or will be) and that the stress I'm dealing with is no more than the stress that we all manage in our lives. That said, I needed to manage the stress in my life, so I went to the wheel. (This was after a dismal attempt at yoga where I was so tense that it ended in an embarrassing string of muscle cramps in various large muscle groups and the suggestion that I might not want to "live in the stress" before I hurt myself. A-yup.) There is a great deal to be said about the meditative qualities of spinning. Even done badly, it's a repetitive act, it needs to be done rhythmically and it slows you down. It's amazing what playing with slow, pretty things does to all the fast, ugly crap in your life.

Dizzystart0223

I rooted this out of the stash. It's a sampler from The Dizzy Ewe (sorry, I don't think she has a link), and it's an 28 grams/ 1 ounce each of five different fibers and blends (merino, tencel, silk) in five different colours. 140g is plenty for a pair of socks, and I imagined that if I played it right, that I could have a pair that were matching and gently graduated from toe to top. After some consultation with That Laurie (did you see her latest sweater? Etherknitter had a wonderful picture of her in a spectacular graduated yarn pentagon yoke sweater. Rest assured it's the topic of a future guest blog.) I divided each of the fibers in half (right sock, left sock) then in half again for each of two plies. I used the handy-dandy scale that I got for Christmas. It measures very small amounts accurately. (I can weigh pennies, and lint, and $20 bills....)

Dizzyweighsin0224

I spun two matching singles, moving through the pile, and not worrying too much about being really, really accurate. If one fiber is merino and the next is merino/tencel, there are going to be differences anyway.

Dizzysingles0224

then plied them together to make a two ply sock yarn that runs from lightest to darkest.

Dizzyspun0223

I feel better.

Dizzyyarnallspun0223-1

Not as good as I'm going to feel when I have two socks worth done and have mailed it off to the friend of mine who loves purple and will make herself a very nice pair of socks....

but better.

Posted by Stephanie at February 24, 2007 1:33 PM