3 ply
SW BFL/Nylon
5.6 oz
Cupcake Fiber Co, naturally.
Birthday gift from Pinky D.
Fucking fabulous!
* Please note that I did not get the fancy CFC tags to use on my handspun. Being a member of the Cupcake Fiber Company family has its draw backs. Thankfully, it has far more perks.
Such a simple question and one that spinners everywhere ask themselves and occasionally someone else more often than most of us will admit.
Who am I kidding? From time to time, spinners ask the internet, too.
Last night, I asked our Joan* that tired question.
The silk, she said.
I may have hurt myself laughing.
You see, my wrist is still killing bothering me and that silk is nearly the size of a rugby ball. There is no way I can even think about spinning something like silk right now. (We won't talk about how 3.2 oz into spinning that beautiful silk I will start to passionately hate all things pink because we know that is unavoidable.)
Instead I am slowly pre-drafting something simpler...
Because, right now, simpler is much better.
Btw, if that fiber doesn't work out, we're calling it crackers. Brace yourselves now.
* * * *
In other news, trying to get FO style photos of a cowl is a challenge when you are not part giraffe and no longer have a cat. There may or may not ever be photos of that cowl. I'm going to give it another go this morning, but don't hold your breath, people.
* It took almost 2 years, but I've FINALLY got her coming out of her shell. People, it's fucking fabulous! Oh, and I NEVER mentioned this to you. o.O
I just can't decide. So y'all get both.
Sunset from last night. Kinda nice, right?
How cool is that?!
& how cool is our Cheryl for finding it and sending it to me?!
People! It's a tape measure! Yeah, yeah, it's a keychain, too, but it's a tape measure! I love it and Cheryl for thinking of me when she saw that big giant head. I'm sure I don't know why she did, but I'm thrilled she did.
In other news, yes, I am having one of those weeks, and, no, we will not be talking about it. Don't feed the crazy, people!
Just nod and smile. ;^)
Our Marilyn asked how knitting with nothing but handspun yarn was going.
I know there hasn't been the kind of production that we've seen in past years, but that's more about my changed lifestyle and not about a lack of love for the yarn(s) I've been using.
Truth be told, I love working with handspun yarn. Both my own and that spun by my darling friends, who love me enough to share their handspun with me.
I guess it's a bit like me and the socks. I'm spoiled because I only wear handknit socks. Now I feel like I'm spoiled because I get to only knit with handspun yarn. Of course, the ultimate is handspun handknit socks, but that's a no brainer.
While not flawlessly perfect, handspun yarn offers something that the milled stuff just doesn't. A realness or truth or honesty perhaps. Handspun yarn started as fiber that was turned into the yarn it has become by a person who (hopefully) spun it with intent. Although, there's nothing at all wrong with the happy mistake yarn. Heaven knows I've made enough of that in the last couple/few years.
There's just something to handspun that's special and living. Something that milled yarn lacks. A spirit or a part of the spinner that was left behind in the yarn. The commercially made stuff just doesn't have it.
Now that is not to say that I'm swearing off milled yarn. I can't do that. I want to knit more Nieblingesque patterns in the future and I will never get around to figuring out how to spin cotton or linen. Besides, I've got that stash of milled yarn just waiting for me to return to it at some point.
I think this year of nothing but handspun has made me even picker about what yarns I'm willing to use. There will be more purchased milled yarn, but a lot more handspun in my future...
This is assuming I'll ever have to time to knit seriously again. Jury's still out on that one.
Oh, and the photo is of a little cat toy I designed for a friend who recently adopted a couple of kittens. The yarn may look familiar as it's been seen here before as yarn and also as socks. It came from fiber dyed by our Jessica, she of the Summer of Socks, Yoga Madness and successful etsy shop.
Thanks to Marilyn for asking her question. I keep meaning to talk about this but there are days when I have trouble remembering I have a blog. Forget about writing for it.
Questions?
I told her that it's more like watching yarn dry because it is, but then I remember Otter's Ocean. I never blogged this because it was a (very late) gift for my darling Otter. The fiber was a custom color order from the Cupcake Fiber Co and the fiber is Alpaca/Merino/Silk.
I have since been given a full size nitty noddy (Thank you, Otter!) and have figured it out how to use it. So 1) y'all can bite me and 2) yardage amounts in this post are totally wrong.
This yarn as a wonderful shine from the silk and maybe from the alpaca and is crazy soft and lovely. This, btw, is coming from someone who does not like alpaca.
Yeah, I hate alpaca.
So?
It still makes gorgeous yarn. That, happily, I don't have to knit with. :p
