Happy Friday, friends. Sometimes I feel like this is getting to be a weather blog instead of a knitting blog! It's continued to be a damp week, though thankfully not as wet as it started out. As of yesterday, we've gotten 4.16 inches of rain so far this month; our average is about 3.5 inches total for all of August. So the grass is looking great and I haven't had to worry about watering the plants, but some of our neighbors also look like they're running mushroom farms.
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| Don't worry; Ruthie hasn't tried to eat any. |
With all of that moisture, I'm not surprised that it took two days for my latest skein of handspun to dry (and it's not like it was dripping after it was washed -- I squeezed a lot out and rolled it in a dry towel and snapped it vigorously). But yesterday it was finally dry enough to measure and photograph.
The colorway is called Solstice, and I think this blurple (that's blue/purple) is a great representation of a winter sky, especially with snow on the way. I know my photos probably don't do it justice.
The fiber was a mix of 60% Merino, 30% silk, and 10% angora. The silk was a bit slubby, and I had to pause and pull it apart in places to get it to actually draft, but the result is that there are some nubby bits where it didn't want to be drafted (you can see some of them in this photo). I think it gives the yarn some character, though a younger version of me would have been more annoyed that my yarn wasn't uniform. After plying and washing, the yarn is in the fingering to sport range, and I've got approximately 433 yards of it in the skein. One weird thing about it is that it gave off a strange smell when I washed it that wasn't the wet wool or wet silk smells I've experienced in the past. Maybe it was the angora? Fortunately it went away when the yarn dried. Don't ask me what I'm going to do with the skein, because I have no plans for it -- all I wanted to do was get it from fiber to yarn!
I similarly have no real plans this weekend, other than hoping to meet up with a knitting friend who will be in town this weekend to move her daughter into college. Tomorrow is supposed to be the one dry day for a while, so I'm sure I'll be outside a lot! I hope you also have some good weather to allow you to enjoy the middle of August.
That yarn turned out beautifully! I do so love a good barber pole! (and I see plenty of mushroom farms on my walks... it is crazy!) Happy Friday to you!
ReplyDeleteYep. It's a good time for mushrooms in the wild, that's for sure. Lovely yarn, Sarah. Very moody-broody. Enjoy your weekend.
ReplyDeleteWe have plenty of mushrooms in our yard, too. When the squirrels nibble on them they get high, stagger around the yard, do somersaults, and act strange. You're smart to keep Ruthie from nibbling them! That yarn is beautiful, even if you don't have any plans for it. I hope you have a good, mostly dry weekend!
ReplyDeleteI like the yarn, including the texture -- maybe especially the texture.
ReplyDeleteI took a course once in edible wild plants and learned that white mushrooms that grow in grass are perfectly safe to eat. I've never been brave enough to have tested the theory, though! I hope you have a nice, relaxing weekend.
ReplyDeleteI love handspun yarn with character. At least with rain, the flowers and gardens won't need so much watering. I'm glad Ruthie will stay away from the mushrooms. Dogs don't always have much sense about what they ingest.
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