I did it! I spun every day that the Tour rode. No, I didn't spin through all of my birthday Briar Rose haul but I'm still really proud of what I was able to accomplish.
This past week I worked on the second bump of Polwarth, about 6.5 ounces of that lovely fiber. I had finished up the singles by the end of the day on Saturday and this greeted me on Sunday morning:
Plying took about an hour and I ended up with my favorite finished yarn yet. I really need to spin 3-ply yarn more often!
That's 350 yards of dk/light worsted weight. I'm not exactly sure how thick it is since the yarn is still a bit damp. But I just couldn't wait any longer to snap a picture (and you wouldn't be able to see anything if I tried to get a shot while the yarn hung to dry in the bathroom).
So how did I do?
Working left to right, I spun (a) 82 yards of navajo-plied Cormo; (b) 330 yards 2-ply Cormo; (c) 370 yards 2-ply Polwarth; and (d) 350 yards 3-ply Polwarth. That's 1132 yards of finished yarn (and 2696 yards of singles).
Not bad at all.
Things are moving forward on the knitting front, too. I sewed buttons onto Tadpole's sweater last night. (Oh, how I despise sewing on buttons!) It still needs a bath and blocking but I'm getting closer to FO shots.
I also cast on for Damask about a week ago. What Damask? It's not in the project bar. Yup, I frogged it a few days later. I wasn't thrilled with my yarn/needle combination (Swan's Island Fingering on size 6 needles) and the pattern rather annoyed me. There's no key to the symbols in the pattern charts - you have to read the line-by-line instructions, which I don't like to use, to figure out what the symbols mean. This normally wouldn't be a problem but the designer's symbols aren't intuitive (blank squares for purls on RS rows, for instance) and some of the symbols are entirely made up - not something you'd usually find in a commercial chart. I just wasn't enjoying the knit and I wanted something relatively mindless that I could knit on autopilot.
So I frogged Damask and cast on for Citron. I'm sure I'll get sick of the stockinette at some point but for now it's just addictive knitting.
I'm actually quite a bit farther than you can see in this picture (which I only took a couple of hours ago!). Yes, someone managed to take a decent nap this afternoon.
5 comments:
congrats! Wow, those are lovely, what amazing shades.
You are seriously my spinning hero right now! Congrats on reaching your goal. You've got some incredible handspun to enjoy as a result.
I purchased Damask a few months ago, and had the same realization. I'd still like to knit it at some point, as it is a really beautiful shawl. I guess finagling the chart first will be a big help.
So impressed with your spinning progress. ANd, I received my wooly prized from you yesterday - the Oakmoss colour is so lovely, and I can't wait to decide what to make! Thanks again!
Such gorgeous spinning! What a productive Tour de Fleece.
I'm with you re: unusual symbols on knitting charts. Citron is quite a relaxing project! I enjoyed knitting it, and I definitely want to do another just for me. In fact, I trekked up to Windy Knitty last week and picked up some Madelinetosh laceweight (even though it will be a while before I cast on).
I missed the marathon but can definitely appreciate the lovely goodness that came out of it! Beautiful spinning!
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