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Shepherd’s Vest, 35%

Making pretty fast progress on this. Barring any hold-ups, I think I might have it done in a few weeks!

Bobbin Clearing socks, 30%

This yarn is the plied bobbin ends of 2009. Is a nice “ragg wool”-looking sockweight, so I thought I’d turn it into some standard recipe boot socks. Can never have too many good handknit socks.

Toggle Cowl, 100%!

Don’t remember if I ever posted about this while it was in-progress. Started out as a swatch in Leavenworth. The garter stitch was nice and squishy and mindless, and before I knew it, the swatch became a short scarf. Finally got the toggles attached this weekend. It’s all handspun except the dark teal (Lamb’s Pride worsted from the stash)

And this week’s 3 oz.

Nice silky oatmeal-colored Romney I purchased back in Nov. Sophie is doing a bang-up job spinning it nice and fine now that she’s properly adjusted.

(Scotch tension was giving me a bit of trouble recently, until I realized that the groove in the bobbin needed to be smoothed. Had a few burrs that were catching up the cord and preventing the bobbin from taking up correctly. Also replaced the spring with one that has a little more flex. Now we’re in business!)

and

This is the fiber (shetland and alpaca) I was able to salvage from my SECOND failed dyeing experience with I Dye. It was supposed to be crimson.
Oh well. It makes a pretty decent black cherry-ice cream type shade. But I don’t think I’ll try that stuff a third time.

I probably didn’t get 3 oz spun this week, but I ended up throwing out at least 3-4 oz of accidentally felted alpaca (dyeing mishap).
That counts as stash reduction too, right?

Some time ago, Tina inquired about having me knit a vest for her husband, The Shepherd.

She spent a good part of the last year spinning the yarn of wool from two of their shetlands- and I just got the goods yesterday.

So today, I am making a start.

She sent along a sweater vest that fits him well, that I can use for sizing, and a pattern to work from for the general style.

It’s swatching out at just under 4 stitches per inch on size 7s. And away we go!

In other news, Fleece De-stashing is underway.
This weeks 3 oz-

And I wanted to mention that the WSU Country living Expo is coming up at the end of he month.
Over 135 classes to choose from this year, and a great lunch to boot! Check out the offerings at http://skagit.wsu.edu/CountryLivingExpo/

(I’ll be doing classes on Selecting Fleeces for Spinning, Wool Processing, and KoolAid dyeing.)

Have a great week!

Last weekend, in the spirit of getting everything in order to start the New Year off right, the Man and I undertook a major cleaning and reorganizing of our respective offices.

We swept, and Swiftered.

We sorted and storage-ed (new word).

We preserved and we purged.

It was a great success.

But in the midst of the moving and re-organizing, The Man became aware of the full extent of my wool stash.

And in the heat of the moment, made some sort of general proclamation about “no more wool acquisitions”.  (yes, really. I know.)

Now, to a non-spinner, I can see how the bins and bags and all might seem daunting.

But we’re only talking about 25-30 pounds of wool.

I dare say that this stash is fairly petite compared to those of many fellow spinners.

In fact, I figure that, spinning approximately 3 oz per week (which is totally do-able), this stash would only last me 3 years. And that’s down to the last fiber.

And some of it might not even get spun.

Some of it is probably destined to be felted.

Or gifted

Or experimented on.

(isn’t it seeming more reasonable all the time?)

In fact, to demonstrate my intent to efficiently manage the stash, I have sorted, labeled, weighed and documented the characteristics of all wool that is not yet yarn. It’s in an Excel worksheet. (aren’t you impressed?) 🙂

So I know exactly how much of what I’ve got.

And in the interest of keeping things happy and wool-friendly on the homefront, I’ve resolved to not acquire any more fleece until I’ve used up (or otherwise disposed of) a quarter of what I’ve got, weight wise.

So that’s about 7.25 pounds.

The 2010 stash-buster high-fiber diet!

Someone ought to host a Spinning/Knitting New Year’s Eve party.

Just think how fun it would be to ring in the new year with

good music,

food and drink,

and lots of wool.

Folks could reflect on all the neat projects completed in the past 12 months, and find inspiration to take on new challenges in the coming year.

Maybe they would bring their albatross-like NFOs (“Nevergonnabe Finished Objects”) and offer them up for adoption (one knitters trash….) or surrender them to be ripped out, giving themselves permission to start fresh.

There would be toasts to the shepherds, the shearers, the sheep.

And everyone who makes the craft a joy.

Vows to follow one’s own artistic instincts, and not be cowed by the knitting police, and others that endeavor to curb creative expression.

And spinning. There would be lots of spinning.

Connecting us with the past as we head off into the future.

Hope you all have a very Happy New Years!

(maybe we should start planning for next year’s event)