Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Christmas and New Year over, spin 2009

The holidays were surprisingly nice and satisfying. A relatively quite time with several short pleasant family visits and a very good Christmas mass in Tang church. The turkey was a star, 12 lb. free-ranger with lots of flavor. Apricot and rosemary stuffing was good too. New Year's eve means little to me - never did. Always seems like a forced pretentious occasion so just TV and open the back door to let the old year out and front door to let the new one in at midnight.

New Years day means doing hooves and shots for the sheep and removing the rrams. More about that at Tangtales.
SO, the Galway fleece is all washed now and I'm dieing to card it and spin some more. Can't do that though until Fluffie08 is attended to. Goal is to spin up 1000 meters of worsted from her and then try to spin some at, say 10 ply. I'm assuming 10 ply means 10 fibers intertwined - so should that be a 10 fiber single or 2 X 5 fiber singels plied together?? That will have to wait as I've only spun 400 m so far. I really like it's soft luster. Also, the difference is now clear to me between the worsted and wollen spun. I've 100 m or so of lovely Frekkie08 woolen spun (from Rolags rolled sideways from the hand carders) done at 5 1/2 tpi like the Fluffie stuff and it's VERY white and soft but it's "fuzzier" and has less luster then the worsted spun Fluffie08.

Sun sone old nylon tights inspired by a book my son bought me for Christmas - KnitKnit. It's all mad artistic stuff which I probably will not do but it does inspire me to have a go at various things - such as cutting up and spinning my laddered tights. It works - not sure hwt I would make with it - knitted up a little and it's amazingly regular and smooth. Tempted to ply it iwith some wool - but NO, not until I've got much further with my Fluffie stuff - and Glaway stuff - or until I get bored to heck and want to have abash at something else. Have to remember there are no spining police round here - none at all.

I gave my sister my attempt at a Lumra rug. I covered my ass by giving her another present (beangab tray - I love these). She seemed to like it and plans to put it a farm house she and her husband restored some years ago. I hoped it would look good there. Not sure the synthetic non-slip rug backing is the best from an aesthetic point os view as the "rug canvas" but it is remarkably light and very easy to wash. I may get to see it in it's new home some time - or in the bin :).