Sunday, October 29, 2006

Small Triumphs, Small Tragedy

There's been progress on the Christmas spinning and knitting front. Here's my mom's feather and fan scarf, just needing a good blocking. This a Grafton Fibers batt, which I spun up and plyed with Zephyr. I love how it turned out!

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Next up: A mistake rib scarf from brother #2, from my handspun Ashlands Bay merino/silk roving. This is about half-done and it, too, is turning out very nicely. Suitably masculine, yet soft and warm against the neck.

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Have I shown these off? Here are 167 yards of bulky weight yarn, from 5.8 ounces of superwash merino roving. I'm afraid I have lost track of the etsy artist from whom I bought this.

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And here are 102 yards of gorgeous bulky yarn, spun from 3.5 ounces of merino roving from handpaintedyarn.com, given to me in the recent Knittyboard swap by the generous and thoughtful merlinthecat. I think I might make myself a Madge hat from this, and any leftovers can go into my Lizard Ridge afghan.

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That is the end of today's good news.

This morning I was skeining up a nifty two-ply - half fiery Grafton Fibers batt, half Sheep Shed Fire colorway Corriedale roving - and the inevitable happened.

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My swift broke, in a totally unmendable spot - the little plastic doo-hickey that actually holds up the swift cracked in half. I guess you really can't expect more than 15 or so years out of a basically cheaply made yet complex tool. I think I'll get another just like it, if possible, so I'll have spare parts. In the meantime, I'm already suffering from swift withdrawal - life just ain't the same if you have to spend it skeining up new yarn around chairs and elbows and stray protruding parts around the household.

6 comments :

Elizabeth said...

Ack! Seeing that swift, the identical twin of mine, lying there like that, makes me panic a bit! I wonder if there's something at the hardware store that can clamp and hold? Might be worth a try. Do you have one of those old-style New England hardware stores with an ancieng guy named Clarence who can fix anything? That's what we had in Henniker when I was a kid. He'll have the part you need and it'll be about $1.49.

Elizabeth said...

ps. gorgeous spinning and knitting! You have some lucky gift recipients.

Anonymous said...

Oh no. Poor swift. If you want something for just skeining, how about a niddy-noddy? I know you'll definitely need a new swift.:(

Your spinning is lovely. I really love the HPY.com roving.I know I told you that at WEBS. Is the stuff in your brother's scarf the stuff you bought @ Webs?

LadyLinoleum said...

Swift withdrawal...not a good thing. Hope you get it fixed/replaced soon! I feel your pain...

The scaves are lovely!

Thank you so much for stopping by blog and acknowledging my weirdness. LOL I love that! I am adding you to my bloglines so I can stop by again...

Anonymous said...

So much gorgeous yarn! And gorgeous scarves - lucky giftees indeed! All of it looks very touchable.

Abigale said...

Good job on getting started on your Christmas gifts already - I wish I was so organised!

What a shame about your swift! But 15 years is a good long time for that one to have lasted. I have one of that type too - and use it a lot. Maybe now you should spoil yourself and get a nice wooden one now?