Fiber Fool

I know I said in Tuesday’s post that I would be back today with the real meat of the color series. I lied. Actually, blame Emma. Yes, poor sweet Emma. See, on Tuesday night she insisted on waking me up after only three hours of sleep. I was awake though and couldn’t fall back to sleep so I moved to the guest room where I did a little bit of work and then tried to fall asleep watching Gilmore Girls on DVD. I finally fell asleep and 30 minutes later, when Drew got in the shower she decided to open the guest room door which made light from the bedroom flood in and gave her access to lick to my feet and hands. So, yesterday I was running on 3.5 hours of sleep. Apparently I am much, much too old for that. I was clutsy, my eyes burned all day and I literally found myself nodding off while knitting. Given those signs I decided it was best to not try make the numerous graphics required for the next color series installment. I also figured any writing I did would be unintelligible to a well-rested mind.

Here it is a bit after 10am and I got nearly 12 hours of sleep, with only the tiniest of interruptions when Emma was fed and let out and coaxed back in this morning. I vaguely recall hearing Drew give her a talking to about letting me sleep and she must have taken it to heart because I heard not a peep out of her, nor did I get a cold nose sneaking beneath the blankets. I’m feeling much better today so I will be working on that post, but it likely won’t get posted until next week as we have a busy weekend coming up.

In its stead I decided to give you a peak of some of the color I’ve been working with lately. At the top and to the right is some wool (green) and bamboo (gold and espresso) top that I am playing with mixing. I’m trying out different proportions of the colors on handcards so I can work with just a little at a time. It’s a bit of struggle because my postal scale is very coarse and only measures grams in 3 gram increments. But I think I’m getting close to the final proportions I wanted to test for. I have two version fully carded, one of which is awaiting Navajo plying so I can see what it looks like in a 3-ply. The other needs spun. Then I think I also want to card and spin up a bit of the green plain as a test to see how the bamboo has changed the drape and sheen of the final yarn and I think I want to try one with less than 40% bamboo too.

I keep running into references that less than 50% silk in a blend and you can’t see it and I want to see if that is true with the bamboo as well. I’m thinking one could use less because it seems to have a much higher sheen. That, and if you are also color blending at the same time I think that may also help the shininess of the bamboo pop - at least with colors that are lighter than the base color.

I was supposed to meet up with Cathy (get well soon!) on Tuesday to return the drum carder to her so she could do some of her own blending, so over the weekend I had decided I’d like to quickly try pop out some drum carded rolags for spinning self-striping yarn. There was an article in the latest (Fall 1007) issue of Spin-Off by Diane Cutler. The article was not very detailed so it was more of a jumping off point. I did mistakenly only make 6 rolags with 2 per ply with the intention of making a 3-ply sock yarn. However, each rolag only has about 7 stripes in it. I should have made 12 rolags so I had 2 per ply for a 3-ply for each sock, or doubled the stripes on the carder, but I think that would have gotten to muddy. Seven stripes felt as though it was pushing it. If I make socks from the yarn spun from these rolags I’m going to have very broad color changes, with only about 7 stripes per sock. :-/ I may have to rethink the use. A BSJ would work nicely, except I didn’t use superwash and I know of no one (even knitters) would would appreciate a non-washable baby garment. I suppose a BSJ could be wall art, huh? Don’t worry Drew, I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m a long way off from spinning this project up though so we’ll see what the final yarn looks like before I make any rash decisions.

I did take step-by-step photos so once I have finished the yarn and at least a swatch I’ll be able to do a tutorial on how I did it. I’m pretty booked for deadline stuff from now through the holidays though so don’t hold your breath while you are waiting. We’d miss your presence here. In all seriousness I suspect it will be after the new year until I get to post that.

So, that is the state of color in my world of WIPs at the moment. Well, that and my Norwegian Boatneck whose final color scheme I haven’t revealed yet. I will soon though! Oh, and the socks from Deb’s yarn are nearing completion. They could possibly be done yet today, but certainly by Monday.

What is your current state of color right now?