Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Not Made Much

After finishing the Blue Shawl last week, I took this week off of really working hard on anything. Instead, I decided to finally wind a large hank of worsted wool yarn from Romaxe. This aged skein came from a bag of yarns my grandmother gave me!

As you can see, this is a very old skein

Most of the yarn I got from my grandmother was acrylic or in very small tapestry hanks of around 25-50 yards of cream, teal, or blue yarn. This Romaxe is significantly longer, in better shape, and shockingly soft. I'd say whatever they did to this yarn to make it "Guaranteed Mothproof" worked.

Look at that vintage font!

Man, if only yarn still cost only $1.29/hank! Especially 100% wool!!!

I haven't looked it up yet, but I wonder if the Beacon Supply Co.
still exists in Chelsea, MA?

This color is a slightly cooler, bluer green than my Red Heart Super Saver
in Paddy Green

Yes, all I've really done besides a couple of pokes at thread projects is wind a single ball of yarn and start to swatch it out with a 5.5mm hook. The winding took an entire day and was nowhere near as easy as you'd think for several reasons.

1) I could not use my ball winder because 
2) I do not have a swift, which I needed because
3) wool clings to itself and without a swift, tangling is inevitable.

Seriously, if this skein had been as mistreated as poor Gordon the Gordian Knot, I would've had to slice it to bits.

The wool was very, very clingy, and there was a point about 2/3 of the way through winding it where I had to start pulling from the opposite tail and letting it pool on the floor. This worked out, more or less, leaving me to have to detangle a few obnoxiously knotted sections towards the end. It didn't force me to cut it, though, so this ball of "Meadow Green" "Moth Resistant" wool is now officially wound.

And yes, I have been swatching it with my 5.5mm hook. I tried a 4.5mm hook at first, and it took to the tight stitches well, though it did loose about 80% of its drape. I might try to turn this into some sort of a little bag or purse, because there's only the one ball and I doubt sincerely that 4oz of worsted wool yarn is enough to do much more with. Ah, just looked it up - it's 280 yards or so! That's actually not so bad. Maybe I'll look up some patterns.

It is, of course, the skein of its kind that I received, so anything I make will be monochrome.

That'll about do it for me tonight - totally forgot I had to write the blog lol!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday 304: Dowdy Duds

In Which I Start Something Both Modern And Vintage

I'm sure everyone's tired of Downton Abbey at this point. I know I am! I'm really pleased that the show existed and gave so many people work, but it was getting a little ridiculous, all that hype...

So anyway, a while ago, Lion Brand Yarn came out with some DA-themed yarns, and with those, they came up with some patterns. I am using the "Lady Sibyl Shrug" pattern, but... not the right yarn.

See, by the time I learned about (and saw) this pattern, they weren't selling the Lady Sibyl yarn anymore.

I did, however, have a large ball of a locally farmed, dyed, and spun merino lace in a colorway called "Red Hotdogs"... which is exactly that shade of bizarre red/pink/salmon. It's soft, though, and beautiful.

It's also a lace-weight yarn in a pattern that calls for something far more robust.

But... it's so pretty!

Okay, so what do you do when your yarn is the wrong size (or "gauge" as it's often known)?

You can do one of a few things:

• use a bigger hook so that the individual stitches are still the right size
• add pattern repeats if you're working from a repeated motif
• add extra yarn to bulk out your main color (usually in a similar, neutral, or complementary color)

I've opted for the second option, since using a larger hook on such a fine yarn would look hideous and I don't want to disrupt this strange yet wonderful color.

It's a fairly simple pattern, too!

This pattern is somewhat similar to a shell or fan pattern, but it's so fine and has so many bridges or nets that it's an addictive repetition. There are only four or five repeated rows, and I'll be needing to repeat these rows until it's 16 inches wide. It's much longer than the one they show in the pattern, too, but that's because I have a disdain for short-sleeved outerwear. I don't get it. You're covering your arms to both preserve modesty and to keep them warm. Why not commit?

With my dainty lace-weight yarn, I have a 2.25mm/B/1 hook I'm using.

I'm looking forward to finishing this pattern, since I've been dancing around it since probably 2018 or so!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC