Wash, Rinse, Block, Repeat
So the assignment for the final class of Spinning II tonight was to plan a project. Now, I plan projects all the time. I just haven’t planned how I wanted the yarn to be. Perhaps that’s because I’m not quite up to spinning for spec??
There are definitely areas in the ball that were what I was shooting for. However, I suck at spinning combed tops. I can’t do a worsted draw to save my life, especially with commercially combed top. I can’t keep the twist out of the drafting triangle and on the rare occassion I’m able to do that, I tend to break it. So, this ball is not the most consistent of yarn because I was goofing around with what ratio I needed to have the wheel on and what drafting method was going to work best for me. What ended up working well for me was long draw. However, I must be doing something wrong with that as whenever I do that for more then 30 minutes my left hand cramps up. I find it odd as before this class I was mostly doing long draw and had no troubles and also had a more consistent yarn then. I’m more than slightly frustrated :-/
Even the areas that look like I want don’t feel as I would like. There is very little elasticity to it. I’m not sure if that is due to the 30% ecopolyester fiber or my method of drafting or what. That said, I balled it up this morning and knit up my swatch for a pair of socks. I started on US 1 needles and that was just a little too dense. I like my socks in a tight gauge so they last, but I think a pair of socks knit on 1s with this yarn would be able to get up and dance on their own, LOL! I settled upon US 2.5s. I used about half of the 25 yards and washed the swatch even (though I don’t think there was a noticeable change). It is now hanging from a fan in hopes that it will dry by the time I need to leave for class.
In equally frustrating news the cast-on for Fibertrend’s Leaf Lace shawl (it’s the same as for FBS too) has me stymied. And, I have even consulted what appears to be the only pictoral tutorial of the method on the web. However, I’m not finding it helpful. I think my biggest problem is that those pictures are of yarn on it’s normal sized needle, where as I’m using Zephyr on US 5 needles so it looks sooo different I still can’t tell where I’m supposed to pick up those three stitches. But it doesn’t help that the pictures are generlly quite blurry too.
The directions say to cast on 2 with the provisional cast-on and then knit 6 rows. Check! That’s the easy part. Then the next bit says to “k2, rotate work and knit up 1 st in each of the 3 garter ridges along the side edge.” Firstly, if you knit 2 sts and then turn the work, how can you pick up and knit without getting some wierd string across your work. If you knit 2 stitches and then turn the work, how are the stitches on the right hand needle so that you can pick up and knit those stitches (assuming I knew where to pick up and knit those stitches). Then, assuming I had that figured out how do you pick up garter ridges along the side edge? Garter ridges run perpendicular to the side edge! And, there are two sides, which side am I pick up this garter ridges??? Grrrr!
I suppose it will all come down to my overthinking this, but I’ve tried numerous times and it just hasn’t worked. Anyone know of books that describe this method and what is it called? Does it have a name I can search on? Anyone have any helpful tips?
I’m really in need of some success today and I suspect it isn’t going to happen in spinning class tonight…
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