Technically this is not a mishap in my book, but we’re going to categorize it as one for today. Poor DH, he’s been after me for eons to knit this basic raglan top down sweater. Well, I spun the yarn… lots of yarn. A beautiful light gray Corriedale. It’s gorgeous and soft. At least to me it’s super soft. This is from a fine sheep from a super fine establishment that always sells out of fleeces. I was actually thinking of getting another one as it’s been fun to spin.

Well wouldn’t you know it too itchy for him - poor thing. He can’t help his sensitive skin. At least I found out in the collar. We tested cormo on him - too itchy. Say it ain’t so… he’s so, so sensitive on especially in the neck area,  he’s telling me it has to be cashmerino, which is fine, but there is a boat load of wool in the basement destined to be sweaters. Oh well. Right? Cheer me up folks.

About a month ago my little gang came over for a dye day. Since we have a new spinner in the group (Hi Beverly!), I convinced her to dye wool. (We actually have a couple new spinners.)  Well, needless to say sometimes the studio is more like the mad scientists cave and accidents do happen. Categorizing under mishaps is my latest disaster - felted wool out of my dye pot. Whoops.

This is the lemons - felted bit. I could barely pull bits apart.

Well at least it appears to be felted and I probably would’ve tossed it into the oops pile if Beverly didn’t say to me in passing, maybe you can put it on your carder?

So this weekend while I was fixing up another pot for her Slytherin colorway, I decided I would give it a go, what the heck - there is nothing to loose right. Well to my surprise lemons to lemonade… whohoo!

This is the new dye pot full and I did a hot pour method this time - so the colors strike quicker and are more distinct and vibrant.

It’s still not quite dry in this picture, but will be soon.

The specs on this fiber: This is a special blend of 75% Merino 25% mohair that I had specially made at Spinderellas, whom I can whole heartedly recommend as they have done a fabulous job on all my fleeces. I’ve sent them a few lemons over the last few years and they’ve made beautiful lemonade for me.

 Well, it seems that I knit in the round much looser than I purl back and forth. Whoops! Well, I’ve been trying to decide do I re-work the numbers or go down a needle size. While I like this, I think it would look nicer in a bit firmer fabric - so before a visit to the frog pond I’ll be doing a few rows in another size needle to make sure I’m actually getting gauge.

My old friend Mishap stopped by to see me today. Actually he popped by yesterday too, but since I ignored him and proceeded full steam ahead things really got messy. Somehow failure never seems to stop me, as now it will be be a big laugh for a while and then in the end I’ll be right back on it trying to make it right. Anyway… here’s what happened.

I got it in my head I was going to do some felted slippers for my husband for Christmas. Well, it sounded really good in theory. There is an awful lot of wool to use in my basement and wet felting seems very fun. I read through several books and decided that yes, wet felting was the way to go. Ok - so I really wanted to do wet felting around a mold, but that seemed rather difficult, so why not just make a few pieces of flat felt cut them out and sew them together. Again - great in theory. Well, after the initial craziness of the wet felting - nearly threw my arm out in the hardening stage and sending into the washer, which I read online you can do - I failed to get to the part where you’re supposed to wrap it in an old sheet to stablize it. Again whoops…I probably should’ve went back to the drawing board. Did that happen, well no. Not even when I did have to make more than a few pieces of felt to get it right, but hey… again thought nothing of it. After the felt was done - I proceeded to cut out and attempt a slipper. The initial results didn’t look so bad, but then when I had him try it on it was a reverse flip-flop. Hmm… that wouldn’t work. So I tried to take the stitches out and shorten it a bit - but that got even uglier. So now this is what I have and some very lousy cut up felt I made… oh yeah and a decent laugh. However, felt I’m not done with you… back to the drawing board on this one and more practice in wet felting.

So that’s my tale this fine Christmas Eve… I really should stick to knitting and spinning the stuff, but I won’t. I’m hard headed that way. So have a egg nog for me and wish my friend Mishap well on his way home… hopefully I won’t see him again for a long while, but you never know. Stay tuned it’s just one fiber adventure after another around here. (lol)