I'm twisted

When I was reading the Harlot's blog about her sixth blogiversary, I was reminded that I too have celebrated my blogiversary as well. (We do things together, you know) It's only my fifth, but I thought it was longer than that. I don't post as often as she does, if you hadn't noticed, but she is a writer, while my other writing goes elsewhere and you won't read about it here.

I've been really busy lately, with work, and by the time I get home, I'm too bushed to do much of anything I had planned. YoU know how it is -- I write all these wonderful blog posts in my head, while walking to or from work, or at work, and by the time I get home, they are done, so I don't need to actually post them! And I'm always so surprised when I look and find out they are not there!

I don't do much knitting these days, although I have a lot in queue and I doubt I will ever get to them. I just am not inspired to do much. But I do spin a lot. I always feel the need to do something while I am watching a movie or listening to a radio show. And the first thing I grab is my spindle. I have three wheels, as you know, but they are sadly being neglected, and I do feel a bit guilty over that. But it requires a bit more organization for me to sit at the wheel. Of course, the wheel is not conveniently positioned so that I can watch my computer screen -- where I watch all my movies. So the spindle is it.

I've decided that I want to knit some socks, and want to use my own handspun for that. But what I have been doing is 3-ply which is a bit too heavy for what I want. So I am now doing some 2-ply. For socks, I want a firmly spun yarn, so am putting in a lot, and I mean A LOT of twist in my singles. I am doing a fairly tight ply too and getting what I feel is a very nice yarn for socks. I just need to knit up a sample to know for sure, but I'm sure it will be just fine!

I've noticed that the white seems to be a bit finer than the greys, so I need to make some adjustment in how I am making my singles. I wonder how it will work when I knit them together in one piece; I was thinking of white toes and heels, but I shall see yet. I have watched four seasons of Dexter, and am awaiting season 5 to be broadcast. I am addicted! Now I need some other show to watch, as interesting and suspenseful as this one.

But what I want to show you this time, is what happens to my spinning in the process from spindle to sock. Here is a pic of my skeins after plying and just hanging there waiting their turn to be washed. I always wash the skeins after plying, and they are ready to be knit after that. You will note that they are very tightly plied. In fact, my teacher would say they are way over-plied. See all those kinks as they twist back on themselves? If it were not for my ties, I would have a major tangled mess!! However, after the soak in soapy hot water, and rinsing, I roll them up in a towel to soak up most of the water and then hang them up. No weights, just the damp skein hung to dry. You will notice that there isn't any of those kinks that were there before. I don't understand the physics of this, and don't worry about it. I know that the resulting yarn is what I want, and that is it. I know that in order to get to this point, I need to do this and this and this, and I do. After all, it's the final product that will get the winning marks.

So I have lots of these skeins spun, plied, washed and waiting to be made into something. When? well, ....