Grrrr - or is that brrrrrrr?

I woke up just before five this morning when the mogs started bouncing around (seal and blue tabby, whilst I think of it, India) So, of course, I couldn't get back to sleep, could I. Back twinge, chilly feet, extremely noisy DSM. (Most odd - not snoring, that's me or so I am told, but lots of gusty heavy breathing and sighing and snorting and other weird noises) After two hours, I decided that I had been kind enough to him, went off downstairs to feed aforementioned felines, came back up here to the computer to read email, order a little fibre. (Did I really just say that? Did I really just do that?! Er - yes. Christmas present money? That'll do!)

I have been doing a little spinning and knitting the last few days, project for the DSM. What is this ? I am being way too considerate of the dear old chap, maybe I should feel a New Year Resolution coming on....Actually, I have enjoyed this, playing with energised singles. One S, one Z knitted together. This is a stitch he learned in a workshop with Kathryn Alexander some years ago, but I have never attempted it before now and it is rather fun.





The fibre is nice, some merino dyed by Helen Rippin, well, one pack was merino with a little flax. I thought it might make an extra element of difference between my two strands, but I'm not noticing much. I quite like the overall effect of this, and particularly like the handle, which is both soft because of the merino, and crisp, because of the energy in the yarns. Nice. Would make other things - I quite fancy a waistcoat.

Then, at my last AH class, I had come to grief with crepe/cabled yarn. I had in my memory bank that you spun singles with a lot of twist, plyed ditto, plyed again softly. The DSM confirmed this as his recollection, too. Humph. Didn't work. I promised that I would check, experiment, try again. Quite coincidentally, when roaming around the blogosphere, I came across an excellent piece on how too (I'll check for an attribution later). I hadn't heard it described thus before, but this method said spin softly, ply very tightly,ply normally.



Bingo! (Slightly fuzzy, sorry. Well, so am I this morning. No tea yet....)

There is hope for me yet.