Hand Plying

Remember that spinning I was doing a while ago? It is in the process of becoming a hat for my mean little sister. Sometimes she isn't mean though and that is why she is getting a hat. Actually, now that I think about it she is getting the hat because she is mean: she keeps stealing mine.

So the hat. It is pink Surprise surprise. That is what colour the roving was.
It is progressing rather nicely... it is a Ysolda Urchin beret from the Fall 2007 of Knitty.

So the really cool thing that happened tonight and prompted me to be a good little blog keeper and actually write a post was that I plied the last of my singles. I had given it a bit of a rest, I was more excited about actually knitting with the stuff I had already finished, but as I was flicking through my ravelry groups, I saw the Beginning Spinners group. In the forums was a little thread on what to do when you fill a spindle. Here I came across Andean Plying, a term I have heard but never really grasped what it meant.

A quick google search revealed that lots of people think that Andean Plying is tricky. It also revealed a great KnittySpin article on hand plying, which is pretty much the same thing.

Basically you wind the single in a not very tricky way (unlike Andean plying as far as I can tell) around your hand. Then you slide it down onto your wrist and grab the two ends of the single. Attach them to your spindle and away you go!

Here is the results:





Sorry for the craptastic photo, it just isn't in me to do any editing tonight.
Now I need to get knitting. Well maybe tomorrow. Bed time for me now.

Whoops

Dear Blog
I am very very sorry for ignoring you for the last sixteen days. I am horrible, I know.

Things that have happened in the intervening weeks:

[] The arrival of my totally rad Beards are Sexy tee shirt from etsy seller The Bold Banana

Here is a gross picture taken on my iPhone. The shirt is wrinkly because I took it off to take the photo. Blog, don't worry, because I put my shirt back on. I am not sitting in my kitchen typing into the twilight in my bra.

I also got an equally rad apron from The bold banana, but no photo because the apron is in the wash. Have a squiz round their etsy shop and see if you can find it. It says "Mixin Mamma" on it.

[] The arrival of my lean mean ballwinding machine and its partner the "flies like an eagal" swift. Blog, the pair of them in action is a sight to behold. No photos could do them justice or capture the magic that is evident in their "held together with string" nature or "sounds like a machine gun" dulcet tones. Seriously though, I love them.

[] The financial crisis of my own making following all this rash spending. NEW TOUGH RESTRICTIONS IN PLACE.

[] Above mentioned restrictions and photo managed by/ created on my swanky new iPhone. It is totally unecessary and kinda flies in the face of the finacial restrictions, but the way i see it, I have (and use!) apps to help me manage my money, so it is really helping the situation. Also Mister is very unimpressed. He thinks I have fallen into the cult of iPod's clutches. Little does he know, I've been there since my first gen shuffle and sat longing to be inculcated since the original iPod was released in Australia.

That is all I can think of for the moment. I will be back soon with more nutritious updates

lots of love
Matilda