Saturday, January 26, 2008

7.5 pounds of wet wool

It doesn't sound like a good time, seven and a half pounds of wet wool, but it depends on what wool, and why it's wet. Check out what I spent 5 hours doing yesterday:




It's hard to tell until it's spun, but on that rack are rovings that will become new batches of Kyoto, Gummy Worms, and Time Held me Green and Dying, as well as a bunch of new colours. Also coming soon, the return of Booberry. I got a couple skeins just right, and four that are too pale -- I'm calling those Son of Booberry.

I'm off to class this morning, and I'm theoretically looking forward to it, but if I had a time machine and could freeze this day a little longer, I'd do it. I have a pounding head, a dripping nose, and a great sense of being very sorry for myself.

Knitting will help, surely. It usually does.

4 comments:

Ashley said...

Wow, that's a lot of wool!

YummyYarn said...

I did once do 10lbs in a single day (I can dye usually about a pound in a single batch), but it was a long day, and my success rate was not 100%. I'm very proud of 7.5 lbs and nothing I felt I needed to throw out. There was one half-pound that I could tell, as soon as I pulled it out of the pot, would need a slight overdye. What is it with brown that makes it tend to that awful baby-poo colour as soon as I turn my back? Overdyeing with a very light violet bath cleared the problem right up though. It turned into extremely yummy chocolate shades.

I also have 5-6 lbs of BFL on the back patio that is frozen solid...not entirely sure what to do about that. I tell you, drying large batches of wool in this weather is quite the process.

Ashley said...

Oh gosh, I was hoping none of it froze :P I guess it all has to come inside somewhere

YummyYarn said...

Theoretically I could leave it outside and it would dry...eventually. I mean, they used to line dry clothes in all weather. And by "they" I mean "my grandparents." Ice still evaporates -- that's why ice cubes shrink in your freezer if you leave them too long. But it's not nearly as fast as the water disappears if you leave that same ice cube out on your counter.

I put half the BFL on the rack in my spare bathroom, the one I keep the heat on full blast. I'm starting to think of that bathroom as the 'wool drying room.' With the heater on and the fan on, it does light work of wet fiber.