Dust to Dust ... er... Mud to Mud?

On Monday we did the last Adopt-a-School program: Mali Mud Cloth. Judy, who just returned from Africa, was an excellent presenter, telling the kids about the geography of Africa, the chemistry of dye and mordants, and the symbolism of the African art. She even let Barbara and me do our own Mali mud cloths!

Judy suggested to the students that they use symbols from their own lives -- so I made mine symbolic of my fiber hobbies. Of course, there is the central sheep (with an odd hump back -- it must be sickly) and rabbit. I would have drawn an alpaca, but I didn't think I could get it right. The corners are decorated with (crude) knitting needles and balls of yarn. The left and right sides show a spinning wheel flanked by two partially full bobbins. Above the sheep are four drop spindles and at the very top is the symbol for infinity to indicate the longevity of these crafts. The black dye is potting soil and the red is Georgia clay. It was an interesting craft and the kids seemed to enjoy painting with mud.

For the past two weeks I have been doing my penance to the knitting gods. Lo, they were very angry and smote me mightily for picking up a crochet hook. It took me ages and the patience of Job to pull out all that mohair crochet work -- but at last the gods are appeased and the evil crochet is no more. The mohair is happy. It apparently had no intention of becoming a shawl. It has gone into a plastic bag to think about it's waywardness and may one day emerge as a felted hat.

Old man winter blows

Here's a taste of the weather we've had around here for the past couple of weeks. Ice coated all the trees and bushes, in a lovely but deadly layer. When the sun finally came out, it was a fairyland. Each tiny branch was coated in silver.

The Curse of the Crochet Hook

O.K. I know when I'm licked. I've finally thrown in the crochet hook on the York mohair shawl. As you may remember, I ran out of blue mohair from York and had to buy some varigated coordinating mohair at my LYS. It actually looked pretty good, although it was a slightly finer yarn.

I finished one end of the shawl with the new yarn and started adding to the other end, when I realized that the second end was MUCH broader than the first end. When I counted the little squares, I found that one end was about 1/3 larger than the other. Somehow I had added crochet links as I went so that the whole thing spreads out like a funnel. It's not really triangular, just misshapen.

This, along with the fact that somewhere along the line a huge hole developed inexplicably, has led me to the conclusion that this project was not meant to be.

The knitting gods are jealous gods and they have cursed my crocheting efforts. In an effort to placate them, I'm now engaged in unraveling yards and yards of mohair. Mea culpa. Mea culpa.

Oh great knitting gods, please let this worthy mohair of distant origin find happiness in a felted hat or bag.

On a happier note, I'm pleased with the fingerless gloves I'm making out of my handspun merino/silk blend. I adapted the pattern from a free online pattern. My yarn was finer than the yarn in the pattern, so I had to cast on 56 instead of 48 stitches, so then I changed the cable to a 12-stitch right hand cable. I also did a 4 inch K2P2 rib at the cuff so it could be doubled over for extra warmth. So, I took the bare bones of the online pattern and changed everything. It's turning out nicely though.

I'm also pleased that I have nearly an entire bobbin full of angora singles. Andy is shedding like there's no tomorrow -- he looks really scruffy, partly bald and partly fluffy with long strings of clumped hair hanging off of him. I've been combing and plucking him and, after carding the fur on my drum carder, I filled a small cardboard box with it. I've been happily spinning away at it for a couple of weeks at odd moments.

A lady on one of my spinning lists was talking about plying angora singles with wool singles and inspired me to try that out. I've got some beautiful dark grey merino/silk blend roving that would look good plyed with Andy's fur. I've also got the blue merino/silk blend and some other nice rovings in my stash to try. Once I get the rest of this angora spun up, it's going to be a plying party!