Friday, Friday

You know, that Friday song isn't nearly as bad as Jar of Hearts, which gets lots of radio play. I thought Jar was a prank song the first time I heard it, with all of those horrible rhymes. But that chick is deadly serious. At least Rebecca Black has Stephen Colbert and Taylor Hicks on her side.

Anyway, it's Friday. In desperation, I started taking Zicam, which is nasty stuff (especially for that 15 minutes when you can't eat or drink anything afterwards), but I have to admit that I feel much better. Maybe there's something to it after all. And yes, I read about the loss of smell lawsuits, but that seems only to apply to the spray and swabs, not to the tablets.

My evenings have been Idol, or sneezing and whining, but I have done a little knitting in between. This is another leftover hat, knit with handspun yarns. I love how these colors are coming out. I may keep t his one for myself.

This bobbin of cotton singles has been on the wheel for several days, waiting to be plied. I'm getting better at the long-draw in general, and cotton spinning in particular, but you can see that I still overspin in spots (those are those little corkscrew areas). Luckily, most of that comes out in the plying.

Sometimes I just like to look at the handspun yarns hanging over the railing. I still have no idea what I'll make from these skeins, but it'll at least have pretty colors. Again, all of the colors are natural, organic, undyed cotton, except for the blue, which is made from recycled blue jeans.

My herbs and tomatoes have all sprouted. On the left, are three different heirloom tomatoes (I hope they're different- the packet had several varieties, which I tried to separate before planting). On the right are chives, parsley (which just sprouted yesterday, finally), and lots of basil. When they grow a bit, I'll thin them out, but for now, I'm enjoying watching them grow. Which will be in the house for awhile because...

this is what my world looks like today. Sigh.

Blue jean baby

I mentioned a post or two back, that I tend to overbuy anything connected with any of my obsessions (hence the Yarn Buying Moratorium of 18 months and counting, with still no appreciable difference in the stash levels). Well sometimes, it's a good thing that I stock up when I have the chance.

This is 262 yds of cotton yarn, spun with roving made from recycled blue jeans (plied with my usual commercial cotton strand). I don't know where I got the roving (sliver is the really nicely prepped stuff, this was regular roving- carded and aligned but not combed or smooth), and I have no idea what I paid for it, but I do remember that it was made entirely from shredded blue jeans. The roving still had tiny bits of darker blue threads in it (and here and there, a red thread). It spun up okay, though the yarn has its thick and thin places (well, all of my cotton yarns have thick and thin spots, but this one has more of them... mostly thick).

Last night, I spun up all of the denim roving that I had, and while I'm not looking to buy more (the Moratorium extends to spinning fiber too, as well it should), I did want to post some links to the recycled roving in case any of you want to give it a try.

Guess what? I couldn't find it anywhere. Not on eBay. Not on etsy. Not via Google or Yahoo. I barely found a mention of this stuff, much less any for sale, or any info on how it was made, or how to spin it. It's a Mystery Fiber, I guess. And evidently, I got the very last of it, purchased on a whim, and forgotten for years.

Yay me!

And after I put the wheel away for the night (I can only wrestle with cotton for so many hours before my body shuts down), I finished the slip-stitched honeycomb hat. I like how it came out, but it'll be more effective worked with a solid color for the purled rows.

Quickie Pattern for the Slip Stitch Honeycomb Hat (fits most medium size adult heads, and youth)
Size 3 needles, sportweight yarn (maybe 250 yds- I used leftovers so I don't know for sure).

CO 128 sts, join.
Rnd 1: K
Rnds 2-3: P
Rnd 4-7: *K 6, SL 2*, rep around
Rnds 8-9: P
Rnds 10-13: K 2, *SL2, K 6*, rep around, end K 4

Rep the HoneyComb Pattern for approx 4 1/2", ending with 2 P Rnds.
Next Rnd: Inc 2 sts (130 sts)
K even until brim  measures 5 3/4"
Dec Rnd 1: *K 11, K 2 tog*, rep around
Dec Rnd 2: K
Dec Rnd 3: *K 10, K 2 tog*, rep around
Dec Rnd 4: K
Continue decreasing, working 1 less st before the dec, every other rnd until 10 sts rem.
Cut tail, weave end through loops, tighten and tie off. Weave ends in, wash and block.