Monday, September 3, 2007

Fiber Follies

It's been a Murphy's Law sort of day for fiber around here.

I was finally forced to admit that the degree of pooling on the first sleeve of Vino was unacceptable. A little pooling doesn't bother me; it's the nature of hand-dyed yarn and part of its inherent charm. But big, noticeable blotches bug me. This is a big, noticeable blotch. Murphy: 1; Yarnhog: 0. So I pulled out the needle to frog...

or maybe I should say I pulled off the needle. The metal join of my beloved KnitPicks Options pulled right off the cable. This is a new one for me. I didn't pull all that hard--just enough to remove the needle from the knitting--and it fell apart. Murphy: 2; Yarnhog: 0.

It was time for a change. Since I had skeined and washed my Molly yarn, I decided to wind it into a ball and swatch.

Can you tell that things didn't go as planned? The yarn is simply too weak to hold together. Not enough twist, I suppose. I mentioned in my last post that I had trouble spinning this fiber because it was pretty short and wispy. I think an experienced spinner could make it work just fine, but as we know, that's not me. The whole mess went in the trash can. Murphy: 3;
Yarnhog: 0.

Rematch tomorrow.

14 comments:

sophanne said...

damn! The woman at the fiber fest was combining wool with her dog hair to make it a little more viable.

Definitely sad to hear about the option problem. It's the needle of choice on the yoke.

I tried to use the #13 on my Boye set last week and the bottom flared out and was completely unusable. I'm a little annoyed but it's always good to have a reason to invest in another Addi Turbo!

Murphy's must not be in the union- he's working hard on labor day.

Anonymous said...

KnitPicks is very understanding about replacing cables that separate from the tip. There is a 31" cable on its way to me right now for that very reason. I tried a super glue repair on the the separated one (drop of glue on the end of the cable, shove it back into the tip, pray) but haven't used the repaired cable yet so I can't report on its durability.

...Sarah said...

Oooohhhh Murphy! I am shaking my fist at you. Who the heck is he anyway? Nothing but a trouble maker.

I suppose Murphy's law #4 is bad things come in three, so you should be good to go now.

What do you do about pooling? Do you have to get another skein now?

...Sarah said...

Aha, that is good to know.

MelissaKnits said...

Fiber hug.
that thing with the options? happened to someone I know also. They sent her a new ASAP, although that did not help the project in progress. But they're fast to respond, I understand.
Very sorry about the molly yarn.

Anonymous said...

crap! I would definitely write to knitpicks for a replacement.

Sharon said...

Blast! I have had days like that, but then there have been days where everything is clicking and I can zoom from one project to the next, no problemo.

Bummer about the needle. I am sure Knitpicks will replace it, they want to keep their customers happy.

Olga said...

Hmmmm, time to start shooting something..
go to dispair.com to see all their way too funnie posters!!!

Haley said...

hope you win the next round.

Quail Hill Knits said...

I can certainly sympathize with the Murphy's Law thing. I got my computer back and somehow just thought I was going to start it up and get back to blogging. It was quite dishearteing to discover that I had to reload ALL of my programs and then load the backups. Talk about time consuming! I finally finished getting it all back up and running late last night. Looking forward to seeing you in ten days!

Mel said...

Harumph! Well, now that all the gooky stuff is out of the way, I'm sure things will go much more smoothly.

Faith said...

Oh dear. Hang in there! You have so many exciting things going on, one of them's bound to turn out halfway decent, right?

Unknown said...

The first image I see this morning and it is this beautiful yarn. Pooling , which I can hardly see, doesn't detract for me.
Pity about the Knit Picks.

Oh, and re your comment on my blog today, I am sure you make up for it in other ways!!!;-)

Lydee said...

Oh my gosh, and are the hormones raging too? Those kinds of things usually happen when I'm PMSing, which makes me want to say words I don't want my children to repeat.