September 29, 2012

Avoiding The Inevitable

I was knitting happily along on my Kilim sock and at some point I got tired and lost my row count.  Somewhere between knowing that the fate of one of the socks might be in jeopardy and that the second sock is going to require some math - I decided that procrastinating was taking  higher ground.

(If I'd stuck with the sock, this blog would have a decidedly different tone.)

After reading Monika's blog, I ordered some hand cards and they arrived today.  (I love a mailman with boxes!)  I figured today was a good day to learn something new.  She made it seem so easy, I figured it would be a nice break from counting.  


So I dug up the nasty fiber that came from a sheep (I think) that I purchased last year at Rhinebeck.  I rinsed the fiber several times, but it was still greasy and had lots of veggie matter.


This fiber might be merino because the staple is pretty short, about 2 inches:



Since I am exactly and precisely in the dark about carding, I went to YouTube and found a few videos.  Watching them made me a carding genius - NOT!  If you have cards and you'd seen me card this fiber, you would never, ever, ever lend me your cards.  True story.

After about 30 minutes of raking, scraping, jerking and swearing, I got three sticky, tacky rolags:


In the spirit of continuing to procrastinate, I spun them up 'right quick':


I was so surprised to see those three little rolags go so far!  OMG!  I did better than I thought and I still have a whole bag of fiber left.  Maybe now I won't be afraid to spin the pound of raw Shetland I purchased last year from The Woolery.

Now that I'm in a good mood, I think I'll get back to my sock.

1 comment:

  1. Hehe! I think your washed locks might have behaved better if you had put them through a comb first, but you did good anyway! I think I'm going to get some combs in my near future, and will venture into getting a fleece, or part of a fleece eventually. It's a lot of fun, and I'm ready for it now. I even got out a batt I've got as a gift today, and made faux rolags just with my hands and spun that. I never liked spinning batts, but this way it worked nicely. Sometimes it's nice to do something else. You'll like your sock better now. :o) I hope the sock works out, so you don't have to cast on a third time!

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