She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands. --Proverbs 31:13

1/04/2006

Figuring It Out

My cabled sweater had a brief visit to the frog pond yesterday. I kept looking at the cables, something was wrong. Finally I saw the section where I zigged when I should have zagged. Luckily the mistake was after I had made the armhole decreases, so I didn’t have to re-do that. So I figured that out.

I continue to figure out a good process for blending the fibers for my Fair Isle goal. For the final project, I plan on using a Shetland roving that has been ageing in my stash for about a year, but for now, I am using some other wool I have sitting around. I started by blending equal amounts of the primaries. Then I mixed two parts of one primary with one part of the other, to get more one sided blends. I think the experiments came out all right. I am now working on spinning them all up, and then plying.


I am carding the fiber by lightly pulling the dyed top onto the fist comb, first one color, then the other, in whatever parts I am using (1 blue to 1 part yellow, or 2 parts red to 1 part violet, for example). I lightly card the colors, and then roll the fiber from the short end across the card. I then use a short pulling motion to distribute that clump of fibers back onto the card, and then lightly card again.

At that point, I had been rolling the fiber up into a rolag, from the long side. However, experimentation last night revealed that if I roll up the fiber again from the short in, and then draft the fiber out, the resulting yarn is much more smooth, and has less thick and thin spots in it. I tried using the ditz to pull the yarn into a roving off the card, but that didn’t work too well.


Some things are harder to figure out than others. I was born and raised in WV, I lived there for most of my life. I am not from the area that the majority of mining takes place. Nonetheless, I have followed closely the unfolding events of the miners trapped there. Last night, I checked my mail and the news one last time before I went to bed, and rejoiced to see that 12 of the miners were alive. I turned on the TV and watched the rejoicing of the miners’ families and friends as they received the good news. I went to bed, and prayed and thanked God for the miracle of their safe return.

So it was heartbreaking this morning to check the news and find out that it was a mistake. I usually check news online, and I haven’t had the heart to turn the TV to the news station and watch the news reports. My prayers are with the families; I know that the faith that kept them in that church praying for a miracle will see them through this heartbreak now. It's hard to figure out why things like this happen, and so many people question the existence of God because of it. How could a kind and loving God let those men die? Why did the families have to suffer by having te joy turned into mourning? I don't know. I do know though, that the God of all comfort, He that turns the shadow of death into morning, He will be with them, just as surely now in their sorrow as he was when they were praying for the miracle that didn't happen for most of them.


Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. --2Corinthians 1:3-4

5 comments:

Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

Those colours look great! I don't know anything about carding and spinning and whatnot, but it looks to me like you are doing a good job. I guess there is a lot of work that goes into that process...no wonder the hand dyed/spun yarns are so expensive!

It was sad when they found out they made a mistake regarding those miners. Very sad :o(

Judy said...

Welcome to the Christian knitters webring! Love the yarn; wish I knew something about spinning.....

Tracy Batchelder said...

When I read the first sentence of your post, I thought you had to rip out the whole sweater! Then I read more carefully. Glad you got everything back on track. It will be lovely when finished.

Judy said...

The UT game was something else! I'm so happy for the team,especially for the coach who always believed in Vince. Today at work everyone is wearing burnt orange, it's so cool!

Ruth said...

hi jan! i saw your comment on judy's page and followed the link back to your page - i love how your page looks!! (purple/lavendar is one of my fav colors)

yea - i heard about the miners - what a shock. i can't even imagine what sort of emotional roller coaster they have been experiencing. your picture there really represents what i feel too - may God hold them close and comfort them in His loving arms...!

p.s. i see you have a great knitting library there ;)