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Peonies!

My very favorite flower.
I just can’t get enough of them.

So I’ve got them in almost every room of the house right now.

They are here and gone so fast every year.

In other news, the two-handed, ambidextrous colorwork swatch I’ve been working on decided that it wanted to be hat, so I’ve started off in that direction-

And Clem and I have been cranking out batts of many colors and textures.

Yum!

Now that I have a drum carder, I don’t know how I ever got my without one! Its really amazing how much it accelerates the fleece-to -yarn metamorphosis.  Now my fleece stash doesn’t seem unreasonable at all.  🙂

Looking forward to seeing some of you at Black Sheep next weekend!

Denise

Seems like I’ve got quite a bit going on,, but then I sit down to blog, and I can’t seem to organize my thoughts.

So I’m just going to chuck at all out there:

Cold Water Wool washing.

I’ve read a lot about this lately, and thought I’d give it a go. Sounded like a nice low-input way to go, and like it might be easier on the woo than heat and detergent.

So, here is the dirty fleece-

Here are the washing tubs, full of dirty fleece and cold water-

And here is the fleece one week later, rinsed with the garden hose, squeezed to death, and dried in the sun-

Not bad. It is really nice that it gets the dirt out and leaves some of the lanolin in.

Worked pretty well that first time,, so I thought I’d do another batch. This time, though, the weather was really hot all week, and I think this might have affected the wash water. I think it fermented or something, because ….

Whew.

You would not have believed the stink.

Truly.

I couldn’t deal with the wool and that stench, so I dumped the batch, filled the tub again, and let the wool sit for another 3 days.
It’s still drying now,, so I’m not sure of the end result yet.

Will keep you updated.

In other news, I’ve got some new spins-

but no new knits, as I’ve pretty much just been swatching this week, working on the new techniques (see last post).

But I have done a little sewing and embroidery, in honor of our 11th anniversary (not done yet, but it’s the thought that counts, right?)

And last but not least, the question on the week-

Boy kitty?

Or Girl Kitty?

How in the world can you choose between those two?

I’ve always found it really interesting that there are so many different ways people knit.

Even among people who knit in the “standard” direction (right to left), it seems like everyone does it a little differently.

I, of course, do things very differently. I knit “backwards”. It just always seemed more natural to me.

I am aware that some people have very strong feelings about the wrongness of this (though, in all honesty, I really don’t understand why it’s all that upsetting to them)

I am very comfortable with what I’m doing, and happy the results.

(In truth, I kind of think that left-handed knitting is in some ways more efficient and more common-sensical than the other, but maybe that’s just my right brain talking, eh?)

However, I have decided that, in order to be a more well-rounded knitter, that I should broaden my repertoire.

So, I am learning different (new to me) ways to knit.

This is an exercise in “knitting inclusiveness”.

My default knitting technique is probably best described as backwards continental.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLFvn3nWczs]

So, I’m working on

1. Backwards (lefthanded) English
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTwtObwnMh0]

2. Forwards (righthanded) Continental,
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uWpSi4XJNI]

3. Forwards (right handed) English
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2tOmgMIiYM]

It’s a challenge, but my hands are slowing getting the hang of it.

What I’m finding hardest is training my “throwing” hand (whether it is left or right) to keep a decent tension on the yarn so I can wrap it around the working needle.

My goal is to get proficient enough in all these styles to do two-colored knitting (one color in each hand) back and forth without turning.

Here’s how I’m doing so far- left to right:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph675QrTwNE]

and right to left:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv1_vJeyxI8]

I’d been dreaming of, and scoping out, drum carders for a while now.

The thing is, they are a little spendy.

I would get all excited about one, and then talk myself out of it, saying “Oh Denise, you don’t really NEED a drum carder. You have perfectly nice hand carders. Yes, it is slow going- turning washed fleece into perfect little rolags. But isn’t it relaxing? And surely it’s good for the arm muscles”

But in the next breath I said to myself “There have to be old, serviceable drum carders hiding away in people’s attics. I just have to wait for these people to clean out their attics and unload their drum carders on the web.”

So I kept a close eye on Craigslist.

Bellingham
Seattle
Portland
and further.
Much further.

And after a time, I thought that maybe the universe was telling me that I wasn’t supposed to have one.

And I was OK with that.

.

.

.

Then, out of nowhere, comes Clem.

Isn’t he handsome?

Here he is from the other side:

He still needs a drive belt. But I’ve got that ordered from Clemes and Clemes already.

For right now, he’s making do with a double thickness of jute twine.

And here is my first batt. East Friesian wool from Quiet Water Farm. Fluffy and beautiful.