Cable Redo

Starting the first bobbin, let's try a Cable yarn again.

 

 

 

ITW Fiber Club March 2024, "Brandish and Bluster".

 

Knitters Friend

The Glass stovetop needed a good scrub after the pasta pot's starchy liquid overflowed. I grabbed the Bar Keepers Friend when the first cleaner I used failed to remove the blackened scorch ring.

 

 

The Man saw what I was doing and asked if I had tried using the Bar Keepers Friend to clean my knitting needles.

Earlier in the week I had asked The Man if he knew how to clean the tarnish off brass knitting needles. I explained the tarnish created a drag on the otherwise slick needles. He said he would check.

After wiping down the stovetop I turned my attention to the knitting needles. A little dab of cleaner, a gentle wipe, and the 15-year-old Addi Turbo needles gleamed with a bright golden shine.

The Man was duly impressed, "Wow".

Thursday's Read

 

Library Audiobook

 

Hot Mess

I wanted to spin a Cabled 4-ply yarn. (It's supposed to be great for knitting socks.)

All I needed to do was take two 2-ply yarns and ply them together. Simple.

 

 

 

 

 

The yarn I created was over-plied - which is good - and the yarn was very energized. I figured wet-finishing would calm it down and - yes - some of the energy was released but the yarn still did not look right. 

I checked my Spinning reference books. Oops.

I was supposed to change the spinning direction of the second ply. That is, the last ply was supposed to be spun (Z) clock-wise, to the right, the same direction as the spun singles.

Instead, I had spun Z + S + S.

Cabled yarns are correctly spun:  Z + S + Z  or S + Z + S.

Instead of a Cabled yarn, I had made a Hot Mess.

 

 

Tuesday's Box

 

 

Today's Yarn

 Traditional 3-ply: Singles spun on Lendrum, plied on Hansen miniSpinner.

 

 

Nice but still aiming to make a fingering-weight yarn. 

Clocks Again

I woke up at 1:51 this morning just in time to watch the clock change from 1:59 to 3:00 am.

The only good thing about Spring Forward.

 

Sock Spin

The Spin-to-Knit Socks project is underway and already I have learned a few things.

Sample, sample, sample. I don't usually spin with intent, i.e. a project in mind, so I don't always sample mostly I just do whatever makes me happy. This project is different - creating a fingering-weight 4-ply yarn that I can use to knit a pair of socks instead of using commercial yarn.

I started the Spin by selecting four Bosworth suspended spindles.

 

 

After only spinning a little bit of fiber (3-5 grams per spindle) I wound off onto storage bobbins and plied the singles.

 

 

 

3-Ply. My lazy kate can only hold three bobbins - ahem -  I can only make a 3-ply yarn. Sure I could rig something up to make a 4-ply but keeping control of three thin, twisty, singles was challenging enough so I made a 3-ply sample. I skeined it, washed it, and dried it.

It was terrible: over-twisted, wiry, ropy, it did not feel nice at all.

The spindles are too delightful and special; time spinning on them needs to be savored not rushed.

I turned to the Lendrum Spinning Wheel. The singles still need to be thin - a fingering-weight 3-ply is my goal - and sock yarn needs to be sturdy and hard-wearing.

It took some figuring to find the sweet spot (and that spot is a moving target).

 

 

Planning. Weighing the fiber and splitting it up to spin on three separate bobbins. Attempting a little color management.

I think I am ready to start to Spin for reals.

 

 

 Note to self: Read your new book, "Twist" by Michelle Boyd.

 

Friday Read

 

Library e-book

 

More Cheviot

 ITW February 2025 Club Colorway "Woe's Hollow" Grey Cheviot.

 

 

 

 

Last month I received "Midnight Poutine" Superwash Cheviot and currently I am spinning "Silent Supper", also Cheviot, from July 2024 (Into the Whirled Fiber Club).

 

 

Wary Birds

I keep trying to get a nice flock photo of the Band-tailed pigeons. They won't let me.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday's Box

 

 

 

Monday Read

 

Library Audiobook

 

On Repeat

 

 

 

 

Refresh Again

 My poor neglected yogurt, again.

 

 

 Fortunately, November's batch still looks okay - not pink, gray, or fuzzy. phew

 

 

Making yogurt is going to take two days. A day to refresh the culture and a day to make yogurt using the refreshed culture.

Today is just to feed and coax the yogurt. At the end of today I will (hopefully) end up with floating bits of happy yogurt.

Whole milk steamed in the Instant Pot for 1 minute.

 

 

 Cool down to 116 - 118° before adding one tsp of the previous (November) yogurt.

 

 

Back in the Instant Pot for eight hours.

 

 

Eight hours later I have a wee bit of happy culture that I will use to coax tomorrow's batch of yogurt.