Weaving In The Ends
It’s a satisfying thing to weave in the ends on a project, specially when it is completed ahead of schedule!
This past 10 days of carding, spinning, dyeing, and knitting has happened in fits and spurts….mostly late into the night. The Olympic coverage is played late into the night too so it has kept me company as these mittens grew. I have started to chart and write the pattern, and will attempt the impossible: test knit another pair of mittens in a commercially available yarn to double check my instructions before publishing the pattern.
As I examine the almost finished product a few things come to mind:
1. The wonderful thing about handspun, or at least about my handspun, is that each bobbin is different. One mitten is thus a little bit bigger than the other due to the thicker wool. I don’t know that it is all that noticeable.
2. This wool is still greasy. My hands have never been smoother! As I spin, and knit this wool, the lanolin has been conditioning my skin. I think I will wash the mittens though, to remove some of it. Maybe the bits of straw will be removed with a good washing too. (Note to self: Card wool 3 times as many times as you think you need to…I thought I removed all of the straw but boy was I wrong!)
3. I have also learned that cables on a cuff are not stretchy at all…maybe knit with larger needles it would be better.
Hope everyone is enjoying the Olympics, and that Knitting Olympics and Ravelympic projects are going strong.
My test knitting begins during the Canada-USA hockey game tonight. GO CANADA!!!
Tags: dyeing, fleece, knitting, knitting olympics, kool-aid dye, mittens, ravelympics, spinning, vancouver 2010
