Socks, Roving, and a Sweater-To-Be

Word from Wisconsin

Here are a few of my current works in progress.

First up for your enjoyment, socks. The roving was white, 80% merino and 20% silk, and just lovely! I want to make my whole life out of it! Lightweight sweater, short sleeved thingamajig, maybe a tank top...and socks. I thought maybe the silk content would lend some strength to the sock yarn. We'll see if I was right about this when we see how fast the heel wears out.

I space dyed some roving; two equal strips with a progression of magenta/purple/blue/turquoise/green, and some more just a couple of shades of blue.

I plied blue with the color progression, and also spun some just-blue for the heels and toes, which are still just a figment of my imagination.

I couldn't get a picture that really showed that the tops (entirely ribbed) actually have green and turquoise and purple in them...you'll just have to trust me that they're not just all blue.

And just in case I want to make another pair just like 'em, here is more of the roving. Turns out when you ply a color progression to a single color (rather than, say, navajo plying the whole thing), you don't need as much of the color progression. Sigh. You'd think I could have figured that out, but I guess its better to have too much roving than too little. Ok, way better.

And now for the REAL work in progress. Such a big WIP that I needed the whole sock project to procrastinate for THIS:
This is a sweater for my mom. The fiber is the most luscious thing ever, a wool/alpaca/tussah blend that is way beyond perfection. Its soft, fluffy, has a nice bloom of fuzz, feels silky....I could go on and on.

The problem is that I almost never dye AFTER spinning because I find spinning white fiber to be tedious. But the color effect I want for this sweater demands that I spin first. This also means I have to spin ALL of the fiber before beginning knitting; this is also tedious. And because it obviously all has to match, I have to spin a LOT of this stuff, rather than risk running out. Usually I use a lazy approach of dyeing first, and spinning as I knit, thereby never having more than a skein of extra after the project is done...just piles of extra dyed but unspun roving, which of course I could use for just anything at all.

Not this time. And I'm also deliberating about pattern. Its going to be a very short sweater, sort of Chanel-meets-bedjacket, that she can get on and off easily while sitting in a chair.

Its becoming obvious to me now that I won't have this done by Mother's Day. (Yeah...Ha. If it wasn't so...well, white, I might have it spun by now, at least) ...but I wonder how far I can get in a week? Maybe if I visit her, dyed yarn in hand, it could SORT of count as a Mother's Day present. Which of course I would then take home with me to knit. Hm. I think I'm probably not the only spinner/knitter that would consider that to be an acceptable gift.