Overheard

 I recently overheard this comment by someone who should have known better.  At an open house a presenter said that they were not getting the new fiber animals with the 1 to 2 micron fiber.  Yes, he did say 1 to 2 micron fiber.  Wait for it….because the hair was too fine and brittle. 

First off to put this all in perspective the average human hair is approximately 70 microns, plus or minus 20 microns.  

I have never seen wool fibers smaller than 15 to 25 microns sell in a retail store, which is considered a finer and softer wool.  In fiber a micron is used to measure the diameter of wool.  Lambs and kids first cuts might be finer but the trade off is a shorter staple length and a slightly harder spin.  The finished yarn will not be as durable either from my personal experience.  So that is why if I get any first cuts I blend it with other fibers from the same breed. 

A micron is a way to measure the size of a particle.  A micron is 1 - 1,000,000 of a meter or 0.001 millimeter  or 1 - 25,000 of an inch, or .0003937 inch. It is also said that the human eye can see objects that are approximately 0.1 millimeters in size.  

So now that you have seen all the geeky math you know why it gave me a laugh when we left the area. 

If you find an error in my math, please know that I relied on a search engine for the hardcore numbers.  Math is also not my forte.  Although I am getting better at math with the amount of knitting that I do.  

Lastly if you are a presenter please know your subject matter a lot better than this.  Also feel free to use note cards for the hard to remember things.  

Early Morning Clarity

 This morning in one of those brief moments of super clarity the thought occurred to me.

Why not weave in the ends of the scarf before I took the scarf off the loom? While the scarf was still under tension.  

So I gave it a try using the technique my friends grandmother taught her. You know, the one I thought of on my own. The one that goes against how they teach weaving in the ends in Tucson.  

Well to make a long story short. It worked. It was easier. I am sharing pictures of both ends woven in.  On my next scarf I will show off the technique.  In the meantime just marvel at how clean the woven in threads look.  I will trim the ends after the hot bath.  

By the way I also wound the yarn on the shuttle from the inside of the skein so that the colors would look very similar to the way I spun the yarn.  Otherwise you would have seen a stark green line next to the purple.  I am breaking rules right and left this morning.  

My New Scarf

 This morning I finally finished a new scarf for me.  I bet you are all surprised.  The scarf is very colorful to say the least.  I designed the scarf with leftover yarn from other projects, my hand spun thread and yarn plus various samples that I have gotten over the years.  I trimmed all the extra yarn after weaving in the ends and washing it.  All I can say is that it is very soft and comfortable.  An added bonus is that John likes it, so I will not have to find a new home for it.  

On the less exciting news of the day. A wasp found its way on to the front drivers seat of my car.so I sat on it by accident   Who ever thinks there will be a wasp on the drivers seat of a locked up car.  Not me.  To say it hurt was an understatement.  John captured the wasp while I went into the house to wash it with warm soapy water. Then rinse it off and towel dry it.  Next came the ice.  Only then did I even google how to treat a wasp sting.  The good news was that without even knowing what I was doing, I got the first steps through icing it done in the correct order.  John did not find the stinger.  Thank goodness I did not have an allergic reaction to it.  It is still sore hours later with a small bump.  Hopefully it will feel better by morning.  

This meant that I did not get my shopping at Target done.  I guess it will be tomorrow.  We also did not get to see the Blue Super Moon because it was raining and hailing at our house.  Never trust the weather forecast. It was supposed to be clear skies tonight, however, I will take the rain any day it chooses to make an appearance.  

From My Work Table

 Sometimes it is necessary to use more than one yarn butler for a project.  Take the picture below. Notice how the black yarn is wound into a cake and the Anne from Circulo is wrapped in a shape as best described as coming off the commercial winder that they use.  They unwind at different rates. That makes it hard to put both yarns on the same yarn butler.  

My simple solution is to have two yarn butlers in use at the same time.  

The colorful scarf is destined for a boarding school on the Navajo Reservation in Northern Arizona.  It has one strand of Anne which is a fingering weight yarn. And one strand of worsted weight cotton yarn in black. They are knit together in double stranded knitting.  It is being knit in the round and will be around 6 feet 2 inches long and 6 inches wide.  If you look very closely you will notice that I am using 2 different colors of Anne, but from 5 feet away you will not notice.  

Behind the yarn busters is my OttLite with a random assortment of stitch markers and a random pen for notes.  

Now is the time to add that extra Yarn Butler to your holiday wish list. Some local yarn stores will keep a list so you get exactly what you want for the holidays. 

Spinning My Wheels

 It was a migraine type of day. So needless to say it was a green tea type of day too.  To relax I decide to do some spinning. I had a 4 ounce package of red Merino and fire star which I spun on my Lendrum DT. Next I plied it with some white Merino for a Barber Pole effect on my Louet Victoria.  I will skein the yarn tomorrow and then do the hot bath.  

It’s time to call it an early night. So TTFN.  

5.04 Miles

 I walked 12,063 steps or 5.04 miles. 130 minutes was in my fat burn zone.  That was on top of a very bad nights sleep last night. No caffeine was consumed today.

One Old Pueblo Knitting Guild meeting where we learned the magic loop knitting trick. I am still not a huge fan, but it works well for a lot of knitters   So watch a YouTube tutorial and give it a try. Then decide for yourself   

Then lunch with John. 

The off to a new to me club called the Pomegranate Guild.  I don’t do stitchery with floss. So I worked on a pounder charity scarf. 

Then a walk around Tucson mall, because it is still to hot for me to walk outside except just after sunrise and right before sunset. 

I was too tired to eat dinner so I had mixed vegetables, goat milk yogurt with raspberries and lots of water.  

I am hoping for a good nights sleep.  

TTFN

Can we forget about today?

 Today was not my best day ever.  Cried while I worked my way through the upheaval.  By the end of the day I had a working plan.  That is all that matters.  

Tomorrow will be a better day.