And unexpectedly, there are knots.
Knots in my cheapo practise yarn. Pah! I just shrug and hack those out. Knots in my beautiful green Fyberspates wool: I’m postponing tackling those, and have left the messy bundle on the kitchen table hoping that it’ll feel guilty enough to untangle itself. And – gasps – a knot in the precious arctic qiviut! <Clutches palm to brow and faints, melodramatically.>
Knots aren’t usually a problem around here, so clearly the yarn is trying to communicate something. I’ve been trying to work out what it’s saying*. January being a good month for taking stock and forming plans, I’ve been starting to think that there are some knots in my life too, some of which need aggressive attention with scissors, others of which may be safely postponed for now. This will inevitably be a year of change, because the Toddler Twinnage start school in September, and in addition to my two days a week working as a clinical psychologist, I’m going to need to do something more productive/lucrative than missing my kids for the other three days. And you know what? I think it’s going to involve yarn, and writing about yarn. Anyway, nobody’s hiring psychologists round here at the moment.
Anyway, let’s move on to important things: arctic qiviut. I’ve shown you a little yarn porn before, but would you like to see some more, now I’m knitting this beauty up into a cowl? I’ve blogged before about its lusciousness, but I should also tell you that it is only in my possession due to the extreme generosity of my father-in-law, the Gregarious Grandfather. GG, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And if it weren’t for the fact that you’re the sort of person who could comfortably amble round the arctic in a t-shirt, I’d knit you something with this wonderful yarn as a gift.
First, I wound the soft and luscious skein into a ball.
Look at this loveliness! Look at all the colours…
And I started knitting a cowl, the Smokering. After The Problem Of The Knot, I hand-wound the qiviut into a little ball and used a brass witch’s cauldron as a yarn bowl (as yer do). I’d never previously seen much need for a yarn bowl, but now I’m converted. All is running smoothly as I move on from the stockinette to work the rounds of lace:-
Want to know how it feels? Ahhhhh… It wasn’t much to begin with, but once you begin handling/knitting the tummy-fluff of the musk ox, it begins to feel softer and softer and softer. It’s light as a feather and can squash down to nothing, yet is silken-soft and strong. If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve heard rumours of the musk ox’s grumpiness, and the occasional deaths of ox-herders, I’d tell you to go stroke the tummy of your nearest musk ox right now. But I’d hate to be responsible for anyone’s premature demise. Seriously, though, it’s allegedly eight times warmer than wool, so a thin lacy cowl should gently do the work of several scarves.
Meanwhile I’m also knitting and stroking the Yarn Stories yarn: a proper post on this shall follow. And in the background, the Stoic Spouse strums his guitar:-
All is, it seems, well.
* Actually I realized that there was a small and fixable problem with my ball-winder which was making balls of yarn vulnerable to unravelling, but let’s not permit the facts to get in the way of a good, er, yarn.
Looks beautiful. I’ve heard of the amazing warmth of musk ox fur. Some folks actually raise them here in Minnesota.
Gorgeous. Lovely colour too 🙂
Forget smellovision:-)…I want to be able to reach into my computer screen and touch that yarn;-)…It’s so pretty…How does one tame a musk ox again? Kidding, this time…
To quote from ‘Despicable Me’ – ‘It’s so FLUFFY I’M GONNA DIE’ (from happiness). It looks beautiful.
Good luck with future directions work/yarny things. Also like yarn, nothing is ever really wasted.
You have a yarn winder! I have only just heard about the things and you already have one! I don’t need one, but they sound like fun! I’m all for you filling your empty nest hours doing something with yarn 🙂 It sounds intriguing and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear you have been approached by [insert company name here]. Way to go Twisted!!
I love that yarn bowl, genius! 🙂
I will stroke my little dog’s tum instead. It is very soft and silky. 🙂 I expect he would knit up rather well if someone had the patience to spin all the hair that gets cropped when he goes to the groomer. 😀 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiengora
To the title of this post, I say Yes! To you writing more about yarn and life in yarn, I say Yes! And to the post you made that wasn’t very “yarny”…enjoyed that too! Everyday life, yarn, art…its all entwined, knitted together. yes?
The shawl looks lovely and my favourite colour too.
That quivit looks amazing! This year seems to have lots of changes in store for many of us – i look forward to hearing about how things go in September although i don’t want to wish tune away 🙂
So THAT’S what that thing was! Oh bugger…I got rid of mine. I won it in a box of “stuff” at an auction and couldn’t for the life of me work out what the heck it was. I knew it was something to do with wool but not what it was to do with wool so I offloaded it…sometimes I think I might just be an ignoramus…moments like this shuffle me even closer. Oh well, I guess I am just going to have to learn that art of twisting wool with your hands (can’t remember what it is called at the moment but I need to learn it 😉 ). STILL haven’t had the time to get stuck into that alpaca fleece yet or test Stevie-boys drop spindle but one day the garden isn’t going to call me out (in a most forceful “I shall not be denied!” voice) and I will get stuck into spinning. The G.G. is a saint among men and should be knighted for that gift. A man that gives a woman precious fleece instead of flowers is a rare and precious thing. It shows thought and fortitude (as he obviously had to trawl a few sites to find it!) Keep him.
I love that color. And that coaster. And that miniature kettle thingy on the coaster. (I’m sure there is a proper name for it, but I think I’ve established I’m seldom proper.) Oh and I love that guitar. Sadly, there’s only one like button, which hardly seems fair when there are so many lovely pictures to like. On a side note, I’m the terrible knitter that never unknots the yarn. I know, I’m wretched. Shhh, don’t tell the other knitters. I’m certain they’ll banish me to a knitter dungeon somewhere. I just hide them in the knit and keep going. Unless it’s a really giant knot, of course. Then I whittle it down to a more manageable size.
I sure do enjoy the yarns you spin here yer blog. You make learning about knitting and yarning in general fun. 🙂
Your cowl looks beautiful.
A very dear friend gifted me 2 oz of musk ox fiber- the staple is very short, so I’m going to have to blend it with something so my limited spinning skills can handle it – wish me luck.