Good Morning!

I spent last night getting some fiber things done!

I have a Corriedale fleece that has lots of lanolin in it and I had decided to try extracting the lanolin so I can use it to make homemade soap. Since it was much cooler last night I decided to give it a try. I heated water in the largest pot we have to about 140 degrees F. and put a mesh laundry bag full of wool into the hot water. I let that “steep” for a while before moving the wool to another bath that included soap to finish cleaning it. I then too the hot, lanolin filled water outside and poured it into a new, clean trash barrel along with some cold water (to help it cool faster and so I wouldn’t melt the barrel. I repeated the process with a second bag of wool and left it all cooling. Last time I checked on it last night it looked like maybe the lanolin was starting to congeal on top of the water. I covered the barrel to keep critters out and moved it off to the side in the yard. I have to warn DH not to touch it so he won’t accidentially dump it, but I’m hoping by the time I get home tonight be be able to scoop off the lanolin. This is the first time I’ve done this so I really have no idea if it will work, but I had figured, why go to the store and buy lanolin to make soap when I’m constantly pouring tons of it down the drain? Keep your fingers crossed for me!

The wool is now drying in the house on a sheet. Not sure yet what I’m going to do with it but I wanted to get it scoured soon anyway, before it gets all felted from sitting around in this heat. Actually, there are a group of us talking about having a dye workshop of our own sometime late this month or early next month so if I were to spin this up it would give me something to work with then. . . . hmmm. . . .

I also decided to reinvestigate the Off-White summer top that has been living in the UFO pile for a while now. Apparently, I started it 3 years ago!!! I took out the pattern and what I had finished so far and took a closer look at it. I had stopped working on it at one point and had taken the needles out without noting what needles they were . . . . bad idea! When I tried again a few months ago to start working on it I couldn’t find the right ones and there was a noticable difference in gauge. I also think this was something I had knit rather tight and my knitting has improved (or at least loosened) since then. I frogged the 1/2 of it that was only part way done and blocked that yarn. Then I looked more closely at the half that was done. It really isn’t very good. I can see a number of mistakes and some very awkward stitches . . . . so I got out the pattern to see what’s what, and well . . . two things. I had actually not been knitting it right! The piece I had in my hand wasn’t going to do what they had in that pattern, no way! And looking at the finished picture, I realized, I don’t even really like this top!!!!! So now I”m thinking I’ll probably make two tank tops out of the yarn. I want to make one that is kinda slinky to wear on the weekends if we go out somewhere and a second that has a little more to it that I can wear to work. I think I have enough yarn to do both. I took a fresh skein last night and I’ve started swatching it on a size 5 needle, the label says to use a 6 but I think my 6 must be busy right now cause I couldn’t find it . . . . so I’ll try the 5 and see if I like the swatch, if not I’ll just have to go buy another 6 is all . . .

At least I still like the yarn! It’s Plymouth Wildflower in Natural and I do like the feel of it . . . its a cotton/acrylic blend but it seems to have a nice hand . . . . we’ll see what happens with this swatch and take it from there. . . . .

No progress on the purple shawl yesterday but I may try to get a bit more done on it tonight . . . .