Poodlefeathers!

We do not know how it happened, but it did. We opened the garage door to find that Harvey and Grazzi had become bird dogs at last. Sure, the feathers had already been in the middle of their second life as a pillow, but still, they have potential, don't you think?

Rona's Hill is full of surprises. One of the surprises is how far along on it I am already!

It's amazing to me that these six colors, sort of dull off by themselves, can glow as they do. There is very little lavender in the design, yet one sees a soft lavender glow over the whole piece. The Shetland 2000 is naturally dyed, and not always over the lightest color of fleece. This method of dyeing imparts the heathery shading that in turn imbues the knitting with more depth of its own, and now I can see why in the 1920's these naturally dyed fair isle sweaters were all the rage. There is no substitute-- one can't just dye something with a color one supposes is close to madder or mullein and expect to get the same results, I guess.

I am using a 3.5 mm circular needle, but my gauge is 32 stitches and 32 rows over four inches. The resulting fabric is beautiful and firm yet still soft. I may be in love with Ron Schweitzer.

We will not discuss the Case of the Crummy Crepe yarn that I spun up while entertaining my friend yesterday. The basic elements were just fine-- one two-ply sample of cinnamon dyed tussah silk and one two-ply sample of mohair-- but I foolishly plied them together spinning in the opposite direction of correct. We will not talk about how it corkscrews and takes on a menacing aspect of its own while mocking me with its crepey subleties. We do not admit imperfection, we simply suffer it.

Posted by Sheila at January 28, 2005 08:57 AM Posted to Knitting | TrackBack