Not So Much Knitting, Because . . .

There has not been quite so much knitting (or spinning) chez Woolie of late. The reason why? Well, here's a hint.

Yes, I am shopping for a new car. Actually not a "new" car, but simply a car. I sold my beloved Honda Accord Wagon when I moved to the island (The vehicle of choice there is typically a golf cart.) and now I need a vehicle for the world of paved roads and freeways.

Car shopping is sooooo time consuming. Tiring too -- the research, the dealer visits, the test drives. And the salespeople – aaargh! Although I must admit that half of those I have spoken with thus far have been amazingly nice and helpful. It's the other half that give the business such a bad name.

But progress has been made and we have some candidates. Maybe a cute, peppy little Honda Fit.

Or a surprisingly luxurious VW Rabbit.

There are a few other candidates yet to be driven. And, of course, the agonizing "new vs used" decision. The process is both entertaining and painful in about equal measure. But it definitely cuts into the time available for fiber frolics.

Yet Another Spinning Mishap

The problem is not with the spinning per se; it's the finishing step. I got carried away and the dye ran and it's all very sad.

It seemed a fun idea to spin laceweight singles -- which is pretty much what I do anyway when spinning the singles for a two-ply fingering. But, instead of plying, I would just leave them as singles. The eight ounces of fiber would generate a LOT of laceweight.

So here's the first spindlefull.

The "Say a Little Prayer" colorway has a few different tones of green and long stretches of plain white. Concerned about smoothing out those twisty singles, I either let the water get too hot or left the yarn in too long or both.

Here's the first skein of laceweight.

See any white? Nope. The green overdyed everything, even turning the light green bits to medium green. There's enough variation that one could probably call it a semi-solid, but that's about it. The end result is two ounces and 700 yards of green laceweight singles. Don't know what I'll do with it, but I'm not making any more.

I've almost finished spinning another two ounces, and these babies will be plied. And ever-so-carefully-and-gently finished.

The plying will be an adventure, because I left my plying box behind on the island. No big deal; it's time to try something new anyway. Various spinning sources are always recommending different ways to ply from spindles (Oddly, no one ever suggests plying directly from two spindles onto a third, as I had been doing. Is that not a good method?). I'm sure a little research will turn up a workable approach.