It seemed time for a new spring hat, and a cotton blend matched my optimism that the temperature would eventually start warming. It’s been colder than usual in Seattle, with more days of snow than I can ever remember (another 3” this morning, all gone by late afternoon). The yarn I fell in love with (online, not in person) didn’t seem to be available locally without an expedition, so I settled for my LYS’s Cascade Rio, mainly cotton (robin’s-egg blue) with some slubby rayon bits of color (pink and yellow). The slubs liked to split off, but I finished a simple beret in less than a week. It fits pretty well, covers my ears and doesn’t fall into my eyes constantly.
Some of my projects that felt more like chores are out of the way – finished the dust cover for the tile cutter (drawstring instead of elastic at base), made two more cloth bags for my frequent customer’s quilts, cut sashing and borders for the flower basket quilt, and stitched the binding to the top of the Christmas quilt. Finished a charity scarf using self-patterning sock yarn – doubled (strips came out soft, not too blenderized.) Made a charity baby/child hat from a frogged scarf. Also made a label for a crib quilt made long ago from Australian fabrics, for a gift to friends of my in-laws.
Play has been spinning again. I have two bundles of hand-dyed pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms purchased at least 1 ½ years ago, that has been waiting until my spinning skills are more consistent. Half of the colonial top that came with my wheel was still waiting to be my practice fiber. I spun half of the 8 oz. last weekend, and finished it up yesterday. I did my first plying with two full bobbins, and was pleased with the result. Plying was SO much fun I went digging for the top that I’d spun last fall, and was aghast at how different (arty? lumpy? ugly?) it looked than the most recent spinning. Still, it is nice wool, I’ll play with dyes sometime soon, and perhaps make some fingerless mitts since it is superwash. It may have to remain singles though, as the twist is very uneven.
I took pictures of the CMF purple/navy/white roving that I will spin this week, and will post the results, assuming I make more time to play.
