Fleece Therapy

I've been spinning a lot. "A lot" is a relative term. 3 hours in the evening is three times more than I usually get. I need it; treadling and watching the fiber slip between my fingers, the rhythm, the gentle white noise. The sense that I am producing something -- for some reasons, spinning is more therapeutic than knitting to me usually, as it brought me fewer disappointments and frustrations so far.

Brown New Zealand Corriedale I bought at Stitches. I spun two full bobbins this week, and I was planning to ply this with the redhead alpaca, which I also spun more of. Then I realized that these two are too different to be spun together -- the alpaca is too good for this particular corriedale, which is not N2S soft. I'm not too sure about the color combination either -- the dark brown and cinnamon seem too high in the contrast. I think I will spin some white merino and try plying that with the alpaca.

The brand-new book called A Fine Fleece arrived! It's a beautiful book.

This is about knitting using handspun yarn, but the patterns are pretty much all Aran sweaters. They are beautiful to look at, but it is a bit disappointing; I don't think I'd be spinning one kind of yarn (and consistently that is) enough to knit an Aran sweater. I have no patience to knit a fancy Aran sweater with full sleeves either, not to mention the skills!

Another disappointment is that the photographs, as much as they are beautiful, don't show the full view or the details of the finished works. There are two vest patterns in the book, but I can't really tell what they are going to look like in reality! There is a close-up shot of a nice cable stitches for one of the vest patterns, but I can't figure out where exactly the stitch is used, from the photo of the vest itself. I may actually try knitting one of them just to see -- if I can spin enough yarn for it.

At last, I give you my apple blossoms! Next post will be about the Japanese Indigo.

Have a nice weekend!