Trying to get some projects going …

Well, it’s a long slow recovery here, but I am finally able to sit up and knit a bit… if you really know me, you know I can’t sit still for long.  I always have to be making something fiberish…. hey, I admit it, I am a Fiberholic.

 

So this week I got some socks done!  I use an antique circular sockknitting machine.  I have had a few: a really old one from 1892…  and then a few from 1904, 1908 and now 1925,,, they are SO COOL… but frustrating, finicky, putzy and irritating to no end!  They take a LONG time to learn and adjust and get *just right* before you can even hope to get a sock from it. 

Different yarns will work in one but not another.  Some days they work great, and without touching a thing, the next day they are snarled up and a mess.  ARRRGGH!  

I have been cranking since 1998 and it honestly took over a year before I got a good sock.  I only use good wool and make my own color combinations. 

 

     

 

 

Here are some socks that I got done this week.. .slowly… carefully…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some wool yarns I dye (creatively) and get cool designs like this:

    

 

 

I also dye sheep fleeces, that have been processed into long strips called *rovings*  by Patty Reedy at Rainbow Fleece Farm in New Glarus, WI ….

  (I do these in the summer and drape them to dry all over my back deck, LOL …. my neighbors think I am nuts)

 

And  then I haul out my spinning wheel…..   and spin up these colorful rovings into wool yarn.  I spin at home in front of the fireplace in the winters, and in the summers I take my spinning wheel right along in the motorhome to spin outside in the woods!

 

 

See what fantastic socks I get outta this?   My hand dyed and handspun socks are very special and it takes about 20 hours to complete a pair from beginning to end.  So it’s really not worthwhile to sell them.  Even at a rate of $10 an hour, who would pay $200 for a pair of socks?    So those special socks I keep for myself …   or else my girls swipe them!

 

That is why for the socks I do sell, I use mill-spun yarn that I pick up at a spinning mill here in Wisconsin, on huge cones, to make it cost efficient and worthwhile.  I sell the socks (and my handwoven rugs and towels)   for $20 a pair on my etsy site:   

http://kareninthewoods.etsy.com/

 

So that is a day in the life of a recluse who is fiber-addicted and closed up in her house for the next 6 weeks to finish recuperating from surgery.   Not the most exciting blog post, but it’s something that is a part of me.   Thanks for reading!