Saturday, December 4, 2010

Sit n' Spin

I actually sat down with my spinning wheel tonight, for the first time since early spring. I usually only spin during the winter. When it's warm out, I don't want to sit still for several hours with a lapful of wool.

I finished up a bobbin of gorgeous hand-dyed bamboo silk that I should have finished months and months ago, and which I'm planning to knit into something for myself eventually. I still have another 8-oz skein to spin up, though, and it's slippery. I switched to spinning more Jack fluff--Jack being my uncle's dog, and the fluff being his shed puppy undercoat that I asked my uncle to save several years ago. Last year I spun a bunch of it up for him, but he decided he wanted something made of it so I need to finish the spinning and make him something--probably a scarf which will be 10 million percent too hot for him ever to wear. I have a kerchief I made from my old dog Jasper's fur (Jasper was a Newfoundland with beautiful soft black fur) plied with purple mohair, and even though it's filet crocheted and therefore not very dense, it's still too warm to wear.

And you thought I was boring when I talked about writing!

I watched the new Karate Kid movie while I spun (you know, the one that was titled Kung Fu Kid everywhere except in America, home of the stupid). That's a sweet movie. Tomorrow Mom said I should spin some more while we watch The Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Then Monday we can watch Kung Fu Panda while I spin. My uncle's scarf will be made with love and kung fu movies.

I am covered in puppy fur.

9 comments:

Knit Nottingham said...

Hi, I've never tried spinning dog/puppy fur, I'll add it to the list, still getting to grips with the pack of camel and merino I bought last year :-)

Guzzisue

Aaron Polson said...

What better than love and kung fu? Sounds like the perfect gift.

K.C. Shaw said...

Guzzisue--Depending on the staple, dog fur's actually pretty easy to spin. I've never tried camel, myself (but I can definitely see it in my future).

Aaron--I hope he likes it. Then again, how can you not like something made out of your own dog's fluffy fur?

Chadwicked said...

I don't think I've ever heard of canine-fur fashion . . . I thought that was just a thing for Cruella De Vil. But I guess if it sheds, it can be sewn.

Our town had a festival a few months back in which they had an alpaca and hand-sewn teddybear's made from its fur . . . that is a crazy-soft creature! I never loved petting an animal so much in my life.

K.C. Shaw said...

I love alpaca! It's soooo soft. Kinda pricey to buy top-quality fiber, but worth it.

Fox Lee said...

Don't even get me started on the "Karate" kind. Ying and I watched it on the plane, back from Hong Kong, and couldn't stop laughing. Suffice to say, someone didn't do their homework on Chinese culture ; )

K.C. Shaw said...

Still a cute movie, you have to admit. Definitely not perfect, though.

Free Range Anglican said...

I saw that bobbin of bamboo when I was visiting and admired it greatly. nice work.

Kung fu movies, maybe that's how I could get more handcrafts done. :)

K.C. Shaw said...

It's gorgeous. And you gave it to me two years ago so it's about time I got to work on it! I'm tempted to make a vest out of it. I think there will be enough even after it's plied, if I use an open knit stitch.