Life Goes On
I assure you, it’s not all cancer scare all the time around these parts. We are resilient creatures, and even living in the shadow of great fear, there is much joy.
Joy such as my drum carder arriving.
Isn’t it lovely? It’s a Pat Green Deb’s Delicate Deluxe, and it is both exhilarating and terrifying. Exhilarating because…well, look at it! I have a drum carder, and it’s spectacular! Terrifying because I’m afraid that I’m going to 1) break it, or 2) ruin my fleece. Fret, fret, worry, worry.
Speaking of my fleece, I’ve begun the washing process.
Yet another nerve-wracking thing. I’m afraid I’m going to felt it just by looking at it, let alone trying to get it clean. This is, obviously, only a small portion of it - I’m guessing that it’s going to take me five to eight rounds of washing to get it all clean.
And when I say clean, really I mean getting the lanolin out. Because this is the cleanest damn fleece I’ve ever seen. Almost no VM, no dirt, just beautiful clean, sheepy goodness.
I love it more than words can say. I love the color variation, the clean sheep smell, and how indescribably beautiful it is. And this is how clean it was when I took it out of the bag. Stunning.
The only part I’m worried about is this.
There’s a section of it - about the size of a dinner plate - where the wool seems to be a bit matted. I can only guess it’s at the neck, but it’s hard to tell. I’m not sure if it’s salvageable or not - I’ve separated it out, and plan to wash it and tease it and see if there’s anything I can do with it. Otherwise - it’s perfection.
While I’m washing the fleece, I’m also working on this.
This is (or, will be) a hat knit from my own handspun. I’ve been meaning to make this for quite a while now, and the urge finally got too strong to ignore. The fiber is a Crosspatch Creations Totally Tubular Spinning Kit, given to me by taelixev when I first mentioned an interest in spinning. The ball of yarn on the right includes my very first efforts at spinning, as done on a homemade, weirdly balanced drop spindle. I spun it, then set it aside, and a few years later finished up the rest of the fiber on my wheel. I then plied the original, lumpy spindle-spun stuff with the thin wheel-spun single to make a crazy, bumpy, beautiful yarn. The leftover wheel-spun single was Navajo-plied to make the stripping yarn you see there being knit up. It is beautiful in the way that only handspun yarn can be beautiful, and I am looking forward to having a warm, wonderful hat.
Of course, this is my second third attempt at this hat. The first attempt ended with me losing my damn mind and decreasing way too fast, resulting in a weird, puckered abomination. The second attempt had me almost run out of yarn, and resulted in a hat that was way, way too big. Third time’s a charm, right?
And finally, a beautiful stormy July sky.
Goodness abounds.
Posted in Hats, Nature, Spinning, The Fleece | 1 Comment »