The Busy Bee

Over the last few days, I have been working on creating more wool for me to create items from.  I've done some dyeing, which I outlined in my last blog, and then I did some spinning on my kick spindle and have designed and completed a pair of summery fingerless mitts.

As you can see, I've spun up 3 balls of wool the pale lavender, which I created by diluting the Grape Koolaid.  The ball on the mitts, still needs to be plyed, but it is the palest of the lot, and will create some beautiful plyed yarn, once I get to that.  I spun the blue wool and it came out quite lovely with a lot of variance in the colors.  I have a lovely selection of colors to choose from and now just have to figure out what to make.  I have to also figure out the weight of the wool, whether it`s worsted, Aran, fingerling and so on, and for that I use a little guide I make out of a card and notching out a one inch space. I don`t know if there is a name for this kind of measure, so I`ll just resort to my favorite word and call it a doohickey for today.  

The writing on the left hand side has the wraps per inch and what it stands for.  To make the doohickey, I just used a recipe card and cut a 3 inch rectangle off it.  Then to make it a little more sturdy I fold it in half.  I mark out an inch in the center and using a pair of scissors cut about 1/4 of an inch down, and fold the ends over.  This I do on the cut end, I now have a 1 inch notch with which to wrap my wool.  To make things quick and easy I always put down the table that converts the W-raps P-er I-nch or WPI to the wool weights we know so well like worsted or Aran.  

Now for the table of weights:

Wool Weight Name                            Wraps Per Inch

Lace *************************18

Fingerling-----------------------------16

Sport*************************14

Double Knit---------------------------13

Worsted***********************12

Aran----------------------------------11

Bulky*************************10

When using the doohickey, you have to push the wool up together on the inch end and make sure there are no spaces.  In the picture it's wrapped loosely to show how it works, however, carefully moving the wool over takes this to 12 WPI, meaning it's a worsted weight, a standard and popular weight.  

I also designed a pair of finger-less mitts, they are quite lovely and summery in a fingerling weight yarn in green.  I had a lot of fun making them and they go part way up the arm,  perfect for those nights when a gets a wee bit chilly and all you have on is a t-shirt.  Their lacy pattern also makes a lovely fashion statement. 

I'm including a close up of the pattern.  I found it difficult to take a picture with one hand so it's a little blurry. This closeup should help.  It's called a fan pattern and it's really lovely on.  It stretches nicely and they are airy, so they don't get to warm when you wear them, yet they do provide a little warmth should it get cool.

Now after all I've been working on, I need to tidy up.  Although productive, it's been a messy few days and it's time for me to get some things ready.  Packages to wrap up, wool to label and put away for another day, A few things to price and perhaps if I can get things done quickly enough I can even have some time to make another pair of tiny little Mary-Janes.