Blessedly cool, drawing and and plying

 Friday morning 

This was lovely, since I was up in the middle of the night trying to get cool and having an early breakfast while I was up.  It cooled off while I slept,  much later than usual, and wondered if I'd missed my walking window. Seemingly not.

So I walked to the pond and saw the first turtles gliding into the water as I got close. Frogs are all splash, scream, swim,  while turtles are slide, leisurely, under water and away. They're the sophisticates of the pond.

 

and home again to the plying process.

 I had made a two ply yarn from the singles you saw earlier, blending a green wool with the silvery sparkle yarn. 

More plying is planned because I have quite a few singles and I can make a warm two-ply from them, so I'll have a good supply for probably warm socks. So many ideas, so little time.

I needed to set up the plying better, because I was getting the yarns tangled. I can do this easily using yogurt containers.  It's better than my usual Ready!  Fire! Aim!  approach. Of course there are beautiful craftmade plying thingies, but sometimes cheapo diy does it.

So here's the set-up. Yogurt containers with a hole punched in the lid for the yarn. The tp holders of spun yarn fit inside, one per container. This way they can't tangle. Then the two threads are fed through the lid and attached to the spindle. Then they're  spun the opposite way from the original spinning. This is how you set up the ply. Then I made the plied yarn into balls ready to use. 

There's a sexist name for this plying setup when it's a fancy tool, so I'm replacing it. 

This is a brainy Kate. Just sayin.

Ply is an interesting word, from the Latin for fold. Seen in plying yarn, making plywood where the folding is lamination, and other meanings. Complicated is an offshoot, and you can see why, layers of meaning or activity.  It's an economical word, containing many meanings in one syllable.

And some drawing happened again. Cool enough to sit outside with a cup of tea and peacefully draw the hibiscus. Just as a point of interest, there are different meanings around drawing and sketching. 

In my usage, a sketch is a preliminary form of notetaking, not the final artwork. A drawing is the freestanding artwork, not a preparation for anything else. So I'm drawing here, not sketching. 

I do sketch ideas for things I'll make, because they're the preliminary ideas for something yet to happen.  None of this is a big deal, just a thought. 

A neighbor who's been away came to visit and make sure all's as well as it can be at this point. This is a nice neighborhood. I gave him a bunch of sage to take home.

Happy day everyone, enjoy what you can.

Spring, and plying

 Signs of spring

Sage in bloom

Roses planted by birds budding up

Thai basil reseeding itself

What I come down to in the morning

Today I woke up thinking about plying, so I thought I'd do some.

I found the heavier spindle I use to ply, then set up a way to keep the threads from tangling. You can get quite elaborate setups for this purpose, but this works fine

I spun these singles clockwise, so I plied counterclockwise, as in z then s. This is how you get plied yarn.

Chunky, as you see. I need to do quite a bit more spinning and plying before I start knitting skirt panels. 

Tomorrow I think I'll set up the warp for the next woven panel. First I find wherever I carefully put the yarn, so as to wind it into balls. 

This afternoon is the knitting group, so that's when I'll get on with that final sock for the current package. After that's gone I'll get into figuring out the knitted skirt panels and even maybe knitting them, who knows.

Life's a banquet!

Enjoy your day, everyone, Nadine invites you to feast on.