I can't believe how quickly Friday has arrived! Tom, Mike and a friend of his, headed up to the cabin a few hours ago to pull the dock out and sadly winterize the cabin, so no more boating for this year. They are also going on a youth pheasant hunt somewhere up there tomorrow. So it's just two of us here for the weekend.
I haven't touched a knitting needle or a wheel all week! So I am cheating by showing my first example of Navajo plied yarn and the resulting beanie cap that I knit last winter. The dyeing of this yarn was great fun. I love rainbow dyeing and natural dyeing because you never know what you will end up with. It's also fun to see what pattern develops as I knit.
This wool comes from my only and oldest ewe, a Corriedale, named Brimble, who was featured here. Navajo plying is a technique used to ply three strands of singles together. Apart from the fact that I have to spin even more to create my yarn, it's a little harder to get a nice even ply. Some prefer and find it easier, I do not. If you look at the yarn, it looks a little like my first yarn pictured here! I wonder if I even remember how to do it. Also, when you three ply instead of two ply, you keep the integrity of the colors. When you two ply, you get a lot of barber poleing going on. That's one of the reasons I chose this year to learn the technique.
I may not be knitting today but I am doing this:
FINALLY. Time to play catch up and get the rest of my wool washed for spinning. The wool in the sink is on it's 2nd wash and still the rinse water in the other sink is cloudy. As I finish this post it is languishing in the sun on the front porch, on my specially designed drying screen.
Technorati Tags:spinning, rainbow dyeing, fleece washing, friday craft club, knitting, hats, navajo plying
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