Weekly spinning

Which is unfortunately, not really weekly, but what the heck... Better than nothing, isn't it? And it can still become a weekly feature... or not, but that remains to be seen.

Remember this carded batt?

  I carded it for a friend, who is having an "I love every color as long as it is lavander" phase...

And spun up some two plied lace yarn out of it. 

 The yarn is intentionally slightly rustic, as there is once again, everything, but the kitchen sink is carded in there, though it is mainly merino, some alpaca, a bit of silk, and blingy, shiny angelina thrown in for good measure :-)

about 120 gramms, 970 meters, two ply.

New Year's sweater

I am playing this game I learned from Angela, for several years now. Since they say, what you do on the first day of the year, you are likely to do a lot of it in the coming year as well, so it is best to spend it with something we like.... in my case this is obsiously spinning and knitting, so it is not that difficult to join Angela's new year lucky sweater project. 

You might even remember the "rules" I set up for myself: as the very first ting I do in the new year, I start a new sweater, and until it is finished (no matter how many projects I have in progress, or whether I have something to do on a deadline) I do not knit on anything else. AND, since red is the lucky color for the chinese, my new year's sweater is red as well.. 

This year I made one other extra step, I spun the yarn, I wanted to knit with. I carded a bunch od different shades from orange through red to purple, mostly merni and south american / Falkland wool, and one part of red bamboo.

Since I wanted to put the emphasis on teh yarn itself, I selected the simplest possible pattern. I started out with DROPS's Take it easy sweater. However, after separating the body and the sleeves, I went after my own head.

As usual added waist shaping, and I knitted it as long as my yarn let me. Also it got a pretty wide garter stitch edging on the sleeves and at the waistline.

I have spun a fair amount of yarn in teh past few years, I even used them for knitted shawls, scarves, a mitten, and I wove with my handspun, but this is the first item I can actually wear.

 I have to admit, I was enchanted with the yarn, while knitting, the tiny changes in its color, thickness, sometimes even the twist, at each stitch...

Photoes: Christopher Laurent Deli.

Black weekend

Two years ago I was sitting in an interpreting class at the university, whrn my phone rung, and a number that was unknown to me called... once, twice, three times. I knew that I allowed Chris to go on an outing with a classmate of his and the other boy's (medical doctor) father... I knew teh phonecall does not mean good. 

The scars will be there forever and he maybe limping all his life from now on (maybe only when he is tired if we are lucky) but he is home, he is with me, and he walks on his own two feet. As high as he fell from, I had nightmares for months what else could have happened. I could have blamed others, the final decision to let him go was done by ME, at the end it was all my fault. The guilty feeling just like the scars and the limping will stay with me forever. 

Sixteen will never go home anymore. I've tried to think of the families' situations and feelings, but my stomach gets into a knot and I feel ill... I just cannot watch a video, and avoid news like a plague, in order not to run into one...

A friend of mine wote she is glad that they did not had enough money otherwise her son would have been on that bus... I  think I am glad for Chris's accident, because it put a lid on any skiing trip... and I can say no to any trip without feeling guilty. I know I cannot close him in, and an acident can happen even between our home and his shcool... I know. BUT, I already let him go once, and he did not come home on his two feet, but he was brough home, the balance between letting him go, and use his wings, and worry... changed. For now at least. Now, after this weekend a little bit even more.

As seen on TV

I can't decide if this year is starting too slow, or to fast... many thing happened, but I still could not get around to do a proper photoshoot of the New Year's sweater...

On the other hand, I would really like to get back to more regular blogging, so you just have to wait a little more for that, and until then make do with things I did before or since that :-)

Like many of you asked me to show the yarns in detail we dyed in the TV studio... Yes, it was really done there I did soak the yarn at home, and took it there wet, but we mixed the colors there and poured over, and set the colors (in a hot oven) in the studio, while we were there. The smell of vinegar does not bother me, but considering that a ton of other people were there, we used citric acid this time.

I had four skeins, two offwhite and two light heathery gray with me, and we dyed them in two  pans... Interestingly enough we got four totally different skeins as a result. If I dye two or more skein in one pan usually the result is a lot more similar to each other.

 I really want to keep one or two for myself, as a memory of the event, and knit something with it. I really like the reddish one and the petroll/purple one... I think maybe something striped... If you have any suggestion, I would be happy to listen and consider them.

Before you ask.. the yarn base is DROPS Baby Merino.

Adventures on National TV...

Well, this was a real adventure :-)
Spinning and dyeing yarn on national television:

Considering the fact that I was (umm, still is) really sick, stuffy/running nose, throat feeling like glass shards in it, and I was stuffed up to the top of my head with medicine, it went rather well :-)

I could not avoid the typical question about the sleeping beauty, but I think that is a small price to pay for being able to spread a little colorful, fibery love.

The whole program is available online:
http://www.mediaklikk.hu/video/csalad-barat-2017-01-14-i-adas/

One sentence

I sweat to god, I wanted to start the year with a post about the new year sweater (yes, I did finish the yarn, yes, I did knit the sweater, and no, I did not knit anything else until I was working on, and yes, I did finish it in about one week), however a surprise attack of whatever cold/flue is making its rounds in the city hit me, and hit me really hard, rendering my face not fit for any picture, and my body not not able to collect enough energy to dress up AND go to a place where there is enough light, and then taking a chance in minus so many C°, modelling the piece without a coat... so you have to wait... I am still debating, since some of you asked if my notion of posting more often lasted only this much, so whether I should show something else (somehow there are always a few stuff I never get around posting), or just continue to muse where all that snot fits into a human's head, and how to make myself presentable for tomorrow,as I have an appearance to make...
And this post ended up being one long sentence... now it is two sentence. Whatever.