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I should have learned the first time.

I thought I HAD learned the first time.

But no, I went charging ahead, without checking back in with EZ, thinking “I know what I’m doing. I’ve make sweaters before. I’ll just string these parts together on a big long circular needle, and get on with it.”

And then at some point last week I stopped and picked up the book again.

The percentages. I’d forgotten all about the dag-gone percentages.

And as it turns out, my “eyeballing it” method for the underarm join just didn’t cut it. So I’ve ripped back, and am going for a do-ever. Thankfully I was only about 4 rows into the shoulders when I made the decision. So it doesn’t hurt too bad.

Last time I didn’t realize my mistake until it was too late to rip back- and I had to improvise.

Now, I’m a fairly creative improviser, but I had to undertake extraordinary measures to fix the last EZ seamless saddle shoulder project I attempted. In that case, I had “fudged” the shoulder width a bit. That resulted in the sleeves sitting out too far, and being impossibly wide because they were not properly inset.

I had already cut the steeked neckline before I realized my error, so at that point, to make it wearable by a normally proportioned human, it was either

1. unravel and discard the handspun yarn back to before I started decreasing for the Vneck (!!!) or

2. figure out a way to make a dart in the arm after I’d already gotten to the saddles for the shoulders.

Guess which I did.

Yep. I figured out how many total stiches I needed to remove from the sleeves by the time I got to the shoulders, then I dropped back stitches until much of the upper arms was a mess of crinkly un-knitted yarn, and re knitted only as many stitches in each row as I needed per the rescue plan. ( I should have kept better notes on this process, or documented with photos, but at the time, I was a bit distressed and just wanted to put it behind me.)

Then I gathered up the extra yarn from each row that was no longer taken up with stitches and collected it along the inside centerline of the sleeve, making sure the recreated stitches were all even in tension and such.

Then, I cut each yarn in the center (except maybe the first one or two, which were really quite short) and wove the ends into the neighboring stitches.

Yes. Wove them in.

I don’t even remember how many ends. Too many to count. Both directions. Each row.

So, now the upper sleeves on this sweater are Seriously Reinforced. And the sweater is wearable. Not perfect, but wearable. Which is good, because I spun a whole little border leicester fleece to make it.

It was a painful victory.

And I think I learned my lesson.

I ripped back, didn’t I?

I am still making progress on the Urban Aran. Really.

Slow but steady progress.

I am only about and inch or so from joining the sleeves and working the saddle shoulders- the part I’ve been so looking forward to! But I haven’t been getting that much knitting time in, and I think I’ve going to have to spin up another three or so skeins to finish this baby off- so it’s back to the beginning with another batch of white Romney.

And then there are the new fleeces that are just begging to be spun.

So, I’ve been a bit distracted.

Mariah, Ulla and Gigi are all fabulous- and in different ways. The variety of color and texture in wool never ceases to amaze me. Especially in Shetlands. I think that is what I’ve going to look for in a spinning flock – variety in fleece characteristics.

I was working with Ulla this week. She’s actually the first one I picked out while I was there. There’s only so much you can tell about a fleece when you’re poking around at it in a plastic bag- but I knew right off that I wanted this girl. Her fleece is a really interesting range of colors- cinnamon to light brown sugar to taupe. I haven’t seen much of that around here. I would have taken it on color alone- but it also seemed to be nice and dense, with a pretty good staple length (comb-able, yea!) and a nice crimp. Would make a yarn with good body and bounce.

Turns out it’s super easy to process, too. Combs up so nice.

So here is the sample skein of Ulla:

65 yds of chain plied cinnamon-sugary goodness.

Yum.

And here is a little teaser of what is yet to come-

Gigi!

Mariah.

The black sheep. The wild child. Now, I didn’t actually meet Mariah when I was back in IL visiting, but I feel like I’ve gotten to know her a bit today as I’ve been working with her fleece.

I washed up some of both Ulla and Mariah yesterday, but the black sheep kept calling to me, with her crazy, curly sunbleached tips.

I know some people put coats on their sheep to protect from weathering and veg contamination and all, but I actually really like lightened tips on a fleece, so long as the ends aren’t weak and damaged. It gives the color of yarn more depth and interest, in my opinion. ( But then, I really like a natural, sheepy look.)

Mariah has a double coated fleece- the more “primitive” style of Shetland (as opposed to the two others I brought home, who are the single-coated, crimpier style). Her undercoat is very fine and silky, and the outercoat is longer, and a bit more coarse. They are also different colors.

You can separate them out if you prefer- it’s not terribly difficult. All you really have to do is hold the tips secure and kind of rake the undercoat out with a flick carder or comb:

But I really like to spin the two together right out of the lock. It’s super easy, as the outercoat , being longer, holds together the shorter fibers of the undercoat, so you don’t have to put nearly as mush twist into it as if you were spinning the undercoat alone. And then you get the wonderful, tweedy look of the two shades plus sunlighted tips, already expertly blended together by mother nature.

Here she is, posing with one of my favorite flowers.

Beauty, eh? I’m going for “wool-as decor” kind of thing there-

Denise out.

It was a mighty good trip.

Lots of quality family time, beautiful wedding, lively reception (danced up a storm)

and wool.

Beautiful Shetland wool. (you just knew I’d squeeze that in, didn’t you?)

A post or two ago I mentioned that I had contacted Juliann at Little Country Acres about visiting.

Well, Thursday was the day.

We showed up a bit early (felt bad about catching them off-guard) but Juliann and Tom ( it is Tom, right?) were such gracious hosts. They took us back to meet the sheep, and we talked about all kinds of sheep stuff, “oohed” and “ahhed” over the sweet little lambs, and had a good ole time.

And then I asked if she might have any wool available. Thought I might buy a fleece or two, as a souvenir, you know-

I came away with three! And she wouldn’t take anything for them. Said they were last years and she couldn’t vouch for what kind of shape they were in. I was dumbfounded. But I gladly collected them up in a garbage bag and hauled away my woolly booty.

I just got them in the mail yesterday (mom shipped them back for me) and finally had a chance to really get in there and check them out.

They are really very nice. Soft, crimpy, and in fabulous colors- Ulla is a lovely warm taupe-ish shade, Gigi is milk chocolate, and Mariah is a black with silvery touches and a white spot! So, I will have to do something philanthropic with at least some of this beautiful wool to keep the good vibrations flowing.

Here are the pics-

First Ulla (outside, then underside):

Then Gigi:

And finally Mariah:

And here is my first little sample of yarn (chain-plied):

You can’t really see Mariah represented very clearly in that photo- must have been hiding in the back of the skeinlet. No worries- We’ll see more of her later.

And would you believe, I came home from my trip to find that the man had hooked me up with some freshly shorn alpaca! What a guy. So ,without further ado, here is sweet, soft, silky Mopetto:

Wow. Now I really have to put a freeze on fiber acquisitions.

But man, if feels good to be rich in wool!