We now return to our regularly scheduled sock
I picked up the Jaywalkers again last night and knit about 6 rounds when I noticed a small loop dangling free about 6 rows down. I thought about tinking back, and actually tinked a full round when I decided that was just too tedious. So I did this.
The extra loops are where I pulled back the rows above the offending dropped stitch on just the one needle. There was no slack in the stitches to just ladder it back up.
In the end, you can't tell what I did, which, I guess, is the point. So much easier than ripping it all out.
Today I embarked on a new fiber adventure. Last summer a co-worker gave me 2 full llama fleeces. Each fills a big black lawn and leaf bag. Once is a beautiful chocolate brown and the other is white/gray. Both are filthy dirty and I haven't had the courage to do much with them. This weekend, I started pulling the guard hairs out of the white/gray fleece. Then I proceeded to wash the first batch. Holy crap - I have never seen so much dirt in my life! I washed it several times and it still is gross. A part of me is determined to stick it out and make yarn from this free fleece and another part of me is convinced that it simply isn't worth the trouble.
I am just paranoid about felting the fleece before I even get a chance to do anything with it. As I don't spin yet (no wheel and no coordination for the spindle I do have), I might just dye it and sell on eBay depending on how it goes. I think it will be quite beautiful once it is cleaned.
Anyone out there know an easy way to remove guard hairs from llama? Right now my current method is to take a handful of the raw fleece and pull the individual smooth and straight hairs out. Is it necessary to remove all of them? While I don't want to end up with an inferior product, these fleece seem to have a TON of guard hairs. What happens if I don't get them all out? I am guessing that it would be a bit like wearing a hair shirt because of the texture of the guard hairs themselves. (Not that I've ever worn a hair shirt myself.)
Stay tuned for the next raw fleece installment.
The extra loops are where I pulled back the rows above the offending dropped stitch on just the one needle. There was no slack in the stitches to just ladder it back up.
In the end, you can't tell what I did, which, I guess, is the point. So much easier than ripping it all out.
Today I embarked on a new fiber adventure. Last summer a co-worker gave me 2 full llama fleeces. Each fills a big black lawn and leaf bag. Once is a beautiful chocolate brown and the other is white/gray. Both are filthy dirty and I haven't had the courage to do much with them. This weekend, I started pulling the guard hairs out of the white/gray fleece. Then I proceeded to wash the first batch. Holy crap - I have never seen so much dirt in my life! I washed it several times and it still is gross. A part of me is determined to stick it out and make yarn from this free fleece and another part of me is convinced that it simply isn't worth the trouble.
I am just paranoid about felting the fleece before I even get a chance to do anything with it. As I don't spin yet (no wheel and no coordination for the spindle I do have), I might just dye it and sell on eBay depending on how it goes. I think it will be quite beautiful once it is cleaned.
Anyone out there know an easy way to remove guard hairs from llama? Right now my current method is to take a handful of the raw fleece and pull the individual smooth and straight hairs out. Is it necessary to remove all of them? While I don't want to end up with an inferior product, these fleece seem to have a TON of guard hairs. What happens if I don't get them all out? I am guessing that it would be a bit like wearing a hair shirt because of the texture of the guard hairs themselves. (Not that I've ever worn a hair shirt myself.)
Stay tuned for the next raw fleece installment.
posted by Kris at 4/23/2006 10:37:00 AM
1 Comments:
I don't know anything about llamas, but your Jaywalkers are adorable. Glad you were able to fix the problem without ripping all the way back. They look great.
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