Fleece, progress, and I’m still not sure I can knit a sweater that will take me a year

I got a fleece in the mail last week that I completely forgot to blog about.  I had ordered it last December, I think, and spring came and went and I wondered about it.  It finally arrived.  I got it because it was coated, and the other fleeces I ordered from strangers over the internet [...]

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Peer preshur, I haz it

I loathe knitting the same things everyone else does. I want something original. But every so often, I give into the pressure. When I saw the striped Noro scarf on Brooklyn Tweed’s blog, I didn’t think anything of it. I mean, it was beautiful, but I wasn’t compelled to knit it. [...]

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Controversial spinning topic #538

To predraft or not predraft.
There seems to be a bit of controvery surrounding the concept of predrafting.  I think the reason this controversy exists has to do with different definitions of predrafting that are floating around out there and also the differences between types of fiber prep.
The definition of predrafting
The definition of predrafting that I [...]

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Like the tortoise

Well, I haven’t been knitting as much because I ended up with a new toy (an ocarina) which absorbed me for a while, and then I fell ill.  When I’m ill I’m not good for anything involving brain power or energy, like knitting or reading.  I just sit and watch videos (I don’t have a [...]

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Yet more fiber prep!

I need to get off the internet!  I just bought some washed fleece…Gulf Coast sheep.  I’d never heard of that breed before, but I’m intrigued.  I got three pounds.  Two pounds of a cream color, and one pound of a dark grey.  All the fun of working with fleece without the mess of washing it!
I [...]

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More fiber prep

I am buying another fleece! A Rambouillet cross. The majority of Deirdre’s fleece is still unwashed sitting on a sheet in my bedroom. These fleeces are going to give me hours and hours of entertainment.
This time, I know the sheep’s name…Curly. I think I need to invest in a couple big [...]

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Time well spent

I have been thinking more about this whole doing-things-by-hand-and-taking-it-slow thing. For me, the major difference is that the one way fosters a relationship, and the other turns everything into a commodity.
I’ve always said that I have a relationship with all the items I have handmade. I don’t have relationships with store-bought sweaters, but [...]

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I love carding

I am totally embracing The Way of the Slow™.  I love the slowness of spindle spinning, and I am really grooving on this whole carding thing.  I love the way I can take a dense clump of locks, and after teasing and carding, it is this light, lofty, scrumptious bit of fluff.
I guess technically my [...]

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A nursery rhyme

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your fiber stash grow?
With sliver, batts, and combed top,
And pretty rolags all in a row.

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Give fleece a chance

In a previous post, I mentioned a fleece that I had bought. I have been washing it in small batches in the sink. I didn’t even have hand carders when I bought the fleece. I love using commercial roving and especially top. But I thought it might be fun to [...]

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