Projects in the Mix

While waiting for the twist to sett on the lace weight mohair, I like to leave any newly spun yarn on the bobbin for at least a day before taking it off.

I filled a bobbin of lace weight mohair last night and am leaving it on the bobbin to sett the twist. I like to leave any newly spun yarn for at least 24 hours before transferring it to the niddy noddy, steaming it then allowing it to dry for another 24 hours. I have found this to be the most stable method to insure the fibre forgets it's old memory and learns a new twist.

Before spinning another bobbin I will wait until I can be sure my first attempt at spinning this lace weight is sound, which means another day or so. In the mean time I have ripped out an old project I started.....sometimes I feel I am the Queen of rip, the First Lady of tink. I can be so critical of my work but it was obvious I had chosen the wrong project for this particular yarn. It just was not turning out the way I had hoped.

This particular yarn is the first yarn I have actually worked with that I had not spun up myself. I bought it at SAFF last October. Some wonderful variegated blue/mauve-ish color mohair/silk blend, a color I would not have been able to duplicate dyeing with natural materials.

I thought I would be able to use this yarn for some lace work but what I did not take into consideration when visually inspecting it is that because of the distinct halo properties, one of the beautiful characteristics mohair offers, it can be a little misleading. The yarn itself looks quite thin but the halo actually increases the w.p.i. and that needs to be taken into consideration when planning a project. I have to admit more than a few of my projects, though have ended well, were not exactly as I had intended. I wonder how often that happens to other artists? But then, this is how we learn.

When it became painfully obvious that the project I had hoped to create using this yarn was not truning out as I had hoped, I employed one of my more frequent techniques.....I ripped it out, which is not all that easy with mohair as the halo tends to stick together, you end up with some very fuzzy yarn the more you ripp-it. Instead I have chosen a caplet with larger openwork that will show better even with the halo. I found the pattern at Crystal Palace.

Addendum: If this post seems as if it was not well thought out or ends rather ubruptly may I suggest to take care not to leave the keyboard with a cat in the room. I came back to find nearly half the article missing and something I could not quite make out, as I do not speak cat, in it's place. I had a nice talk with him about editing my work.


He also finds more important uses for my knitting basket.