Return to Knitting

My past several posts about knitting and fiber arts have all been along the lines of “I haven’t been knitting much and I’d like to more,” but this post reports some success.

I’ve been working on things. I don’t yet really have a niche in my life for knitting, still--before, there were things that I always knit during, and now I either don’t do those things, or have gotten out of the habit of knitting during them--but I spun and knit a lot this past weekend: and I got other things done as well. Successes all around!

For starters I spun an entire skein of yarn, and it came out pretty well, or at least better than my last skein came out. I think on the last one I had forgotten that I had been plying using the “scotch tension” of my wheel. While I absolutely adore the double drive for spinning singles, but I apparently like to ply at really high tension. Having remembered this fact, spinning is going well. I have about 250 more grams of this current project to spin, though I did give my mother 100 grams of the project because I think it unlikely that a sweater to fit me would weight all of 2 pounds.¹

After I get done with this project, my mother and I are going to try a tandem spinning project. I have 2 pounds of Corriedale-cross (the cheap but sturdy wool undyed from the Yarn Barn), and we’re going to set our wheels to the closest ratio we can, and we’re going to both go for a sort of semi-worsted sport/dk 3 ply. It’ll be interesting, and I’ll keep you all posted as it develops. We won’t start until I get done with the current project (which I estimate will be in a couple of weeks.)

In terms of the knitting, I’ve made progress on the sweater. I finished the second skein’s worth of the body, and it’s about 8 inches long by now. And I started the first sleeve, which after a false start (too many stitches, I was just guessing,) it’s coming out fine.

As I had hoped, working on the plain sweater has revived my interest in two-color knitting. I knit a couple of rounds on it. The yarn is-- I think I’ve mentioned, heh--very fine, and the kittens have on several occasions managed to attack the yarn between the ball and the sweater and sever one or both strands. Thankfully this yarn splices really well. so it’s not an issue, but it is sort of annoying. I also got full look at it laid out on my desk and I’ve realized that I have more done than I thought. Still not “enough,” but a fair piece. It’s worth something.

Anyway, it’s good to be knitting again. Really good. Knitting is something that I really do enjoy (obviously) even though I’ve been off of it lately, and it’s something that I think I do really well, or at least, I don’t ever find myself questioning my ability to knit, in the way that I find myself constantly questioning my ability to write, or tell stories, or do research, or write code/use technology. That’s a nice feeling. I’ll have to write about that as I ponder this more.

It’s good to be back, at any rate.