August 13, 2010

Half Baked

I've been drifting along in my knitting, working on my socks while I wait for the next big thing to come along.  There's always something.  I see something, think of something, have an idea about something, and this time was no exception.  The muse turned up last week when I was poking through the fibre collection looking for, well.   Something, and I happened upon two big bags of processed fibre that's fall out from an episode I had while with Denny at the Royal Winter Fair last year.  (Hint.  If you think you have enough fibre, don't go anywhere with Denny.) There's a big bag of a lovely grey/brown wool, and an equally large bag of creamy wool of the same ilk, and I had an idea.  (Well, first I had another idea, to spin enough wool for a sweater and take it with me to Portland next week and force ask Tina if she would help me dye it, but really, I leave Tuesday and I must have been hit with a common sense stick because I realized almost straight away that I was being a lunatic.)

What if I spun three bobbins of each brown and white, and then combined them as a three ply in a graduated manner. The first skein would be three plies of brown. The second skein two plies of brown and one of cream, the third skein two plies of  cream and one of brown, and the fourth skein would be the opposite of the first.  Simply three plies of cream.  What then, if I took that yarn to Tina and got her help dying it all one colour? Would that be cool?

The voice in my head thinks it would be.  Mind you, the voice in my head also thinks that books and yarn should be free and that cheese should make you skinny, so who knows if it's to be trusted.  I've started already, and come Monday I should have all four skeins to show you.  At the end of this little enterprise I will have 4 skeins of a  three-ply light worsted yarn... each about 100 metres, all dyed to match, each lighter than the last.   I think that when I knit that up into...

Well. There's the half-baked part.  No idea what I would knit it up into. None. I have this crazy obsession with bringing this yarn into being, and no idea what I'll do with it when it gets here.  I've decided not to worry about it, since I'm helpless in its grip anyway, and leave the ideas to you.  One of you, I don't know which, has just the thing in mind... .don't you? 400m worsted, graduated colour.  Go.

In the meantime, I leave you with this, thoughtfully emailed to me by Catherine M, who thought I would love it.  She was right.

I am a knitter, however not one who had the time to knit all off the sweaters I like to wear during the rather long rainy/cold season that lasts from October to June in Portland, Oregon. This means that I am also a Goodwill shopper, constantly looking for wool sweaters. Naturally, I always check the fiber content, but I had never seen a label quite so...amazing as the one I came across last week.



Not only is this sweater 100% "Virgin Acrylic," is proudly states the fact in gold metallic.

And really... that left me speechless.  I suppose it's technically true, since it's unlikely the acrylics are not virgin (in either the textile or literal sense) but still.  It raises questions about all the other acrylic sweaters and yarn we've ever seen that was NOT labelled as virgin, doesn't it?

Happy Weekend. See you Monday, yarn in hand.

Posted by Stephanie at August 13, 2010 3:32 PM