Friday, November 25, 2011

The importance of rinsing

Yesterday I took a break from all the knitting that is ongoing, and did a wee bit of spinning instead. I tried another new-to-me wool, some mixed English wool that Boo dyed a few months back - same color scheme as her Cheviot socks, but slightly darker colors. However...I discovered that the fiber didn't get rinsed out quite enough, because my fingers turned blue. Oops!

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That's after an hour of plying this morning - last night after a couple hours of spinning the singles, my fingertips were bright blue!  I gave the finished yarn a good soak, so hopefully all the other excess dye is now gone. I guess I'll know for sure when I start knitting with it.

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This wool reminded me of the Cheviot in that it was not terrifically soft, but had a nice grippy feel when spinning the singles. The finished yarn reminds me a bit of the Bartlett yarn I'm using for my MIL's sweater, although not as lofty. It's a very rustic yarn. I'm thinking lined mittens for Boo, to match her socks.

In other spinning/handspun news, I've almost finished off Dev's Sprout sweater.

Almost done!

We went to York last weekend, and my yarn-dar did not let me down. While wandering around the city streets, we happened upon a yarn store. Dev and I went in while Himself and Boo continued on. The yarns were lovely, but nothing I needed to snatch up and take home with me. They also had a nice selection of buttons, so after much hemming and hawing, we brought home these.

Hedgehogs

Perfect buttons for my little English schoolgirl. Hopefully she'll be wearing it by next weekend.

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