One person's treasure is another person's yarn ball...

(I will see if I can convince the phone to put up a picture on the blog tomorrow of my gloves, but don't hold your breath...)

I had some fiber I bought from a lovely lady, since retired, (WAAAAHHHH!!!), ahem, anyway, she had put white, blue, green, red, yellow, and some sort of burnt orange color in the batt.  And there was quite a lot of it, 8 ounces or so.  I finally managed to spin it all, I would just grab hanks and spin, not separating the colors, just seeing what came up.  And it came up looking blended, with random stripes.  Now this was so funny, I fell in love with it because... The wool, and the color blending just reminded me of my Great Grandma's wool rug.  She was the bane of the family for a while, from what I understand, if she even SUSPECTED something was made of wool, she wanted it for her rug.  Now, this was a rug that covered her entire living room.  I was a small kid at the time, but even now, I seem to remember that it had to be about 10 to 12 feet on the long end, and... 7 or so feet the other way?  (It was a flattened oval.)  I can't remember for sure what happened to it, I seem to remember it became someone's 'junk' in a garage and was eventually tossed for being a mess, but I remember all the colors, and how tremendously large it seemed to little me... A big colorful island, of sorts. 

So I finished the spinning, and unlike some of my spinner friends, I don't plan, oh, I need this fiber for this project.  Which could be why I don't get picky about most fiber, I just enjoy the spinning, I will figure out what to do with it...

Eventually.  a-HEM...

I went to the doctor, (hang in there, this IS leading somewhere), and I was talking about my Rosacea.  I have given up chocolate, not fun, but it helps, a lot.  But I told him, please don't think I am crazy, but when I go outside, and it's cold and windy, I get terrible flare ups.  He laughed, and said, not only are you NOT crazy, that's actually a pretty common cause.

It is?  Huh... So, after getting a cleanish bill of health, I remembered to ask about the wind.  Would some kind of barrier to the wind work?  He said sure, as long as it wasn't a latex or polyester, which won't breathe, causing the problem to worsen... (Too bad, that means I can't get this. =:) ), so he recommended a balaclava, or scarf.  He mentioned a few places to buy them, and I said, I knit, would that work?  He grinned, and said, absolutely, you would know what bothers you and such, make yourself something nice!

So, I have the doctor's permission to knit. : D

But what?  My eyes fell on the "Grandma's Rug" yarn I'd made.  I had a pair of gloves and a skinny scarf I had knit a while ago for myself, but, with time, and my less than careful handling, on occasion, they were getting a bit scruffy.  So, I have commenced to knit a pair of gloves, now finished, and a scarf, which I have just cast on for.  I am still working out what pattern I want to use, but it will be a fairly basic, maybe more open looking scarf, so it will keep me warm, but I can breathe, without a wool filter blocking each nostril... (Ewww...)

So, January's 'selfish' knitting continues.  I need to work on some leaves, too... But, I want to make the scarf first.  Please ignore the socks, and at least two other "portables" I have going in the front room.  And no, I have no idea what all those projects are in my craft room.

Cough...

You know you are a yarnaholic when...

The In-Laws are here for a visit.  They were sitting, and I had just come back from helping with a volunteer project. 

We who do the stuff, are often volunteers for various groups.  That day was no exception.  I arrived, and one of the gals who helps out at the hospital, as well,  buttonholed me to show me some yarn.  Turns out, the hospital can't use wool yarn, and so she thought of me.  Read: having the yarn in a bag, handing it to me, THEN asking if I wanted it, and 'sweetening' the deal, by telling me the yarn was real Irish wool.  (This doesn't impress me as much as it should.  I bought some VERY expensive Irish wool one time, the gal had the gift of Blarney.  She told me it was the very best wool, and it would wash up wonderfully.  I think it was spun without being cleaned, it was incredibly scratchy, and didn't do much when washed but make the washer a mess.  I think it was the wool equivalent of Irish soccer hooligans... Her store didn't last long, either.)  But this was nice, and came with some lovely short wood needles, so I figure, fine!

So, I took it, and when I came home, I put the wool in the freezer.  This isn't nearly as crazy as it sounds.  Leaving it in the freezer kills any moth larvae, which hatch and make a giant mess of your wool.  I found out this the hard way.  So, after plopping it in, I go and sit, making chit chat with family. 

Without thinking of the repercussions, during a lull, I told Husband, "I put some yarn in the freezer."
He responded, "Good thing I just cleaned it out for you, huh?" 

Very rarely are my In-Laws at a loss for words.  They just looked at the two of us, mouths open, then shut, and with a look and shrug, they changed the subject.

YES!  My crazy yarn lady cred is intact!!!

Hairball! No, wait. Worse!

I received a LOT of yarn from a friend who's spouse had recently died.  He had no use for it, and said he'd just chuck it in the burn pile if I didn't want it.  Avoiding such sacrilege, I came home with something like 6 or so boxes of yarn.

This is good.  Quite good.  Except they were stored... Not so well.  They were dusty, and some were covered with grit, among other things.  (We jokingly say it's back of the barn fresh...)  I really didn't want to have the stuff be in the craft room with all the dust. Huh.  So, wonder if I can wash them?  I start looking online, in a couple knitting forums, and find out, yep, they can be washed.  I figure, okay, I have a batch I will put into a couple pillow covers, and Voila, clean yarn.

Ahem.

Now begins the tale of one woman's decent into madness...

On the forum, there was a definite agreement that it COULD be done.  Several different methods were mentioned.  I decided that putting the skeins in a pillow case, and using safety pins, lock them in, and wash, and dry.  (There was some debate about whether they should be dried, some thought it would damage the yarn.  I don't happen to have the faintest idea about what you are supposed to do with the yarn once it's washed if you DON'T dry it!!)

So, I get my pillowcases, place several yarn skeins in, and close with pins.  Big pins.  Pins that could cause severe pain and puncture.  Of which I did at least twice, on two fingers.  With prodigious and creative epithets following.  Fortune would have it, I was alone in the house, except for Ding.  She did look a little oddly at me, and decided it was probably a good time to go in the other room...

I put the bags in the wash, along with a pillow, to balance the load out.  Wash.

Then I pull out the bags.  White puffs? Huh?  Oh, urk.  There was a hole in the pillow, and the washer quite literally beat the stuffing out of it.  So, remove stuffings that are all over the washer, the outside of the pillow, outside of the pillowcases...  And then note, one of the yarn skeins has come partway out of the pillowcase.  Stuff back in. 

Well, that wasn't great, but not as bad as I had feared.  Dry.

Then I take out the nice, clean, fresh smelling, OH MY GOODNESS WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED???!?!!!???

Where I had several nice skeins in the bags, I now had a large, colorful, amorphous mass.  A highly TANGLED amorphous mass. 

So, the next two days were carefully (for the most part, patience won out with one, and I just pulled it until it broke so I could finish) untangling, and rewinding or rolling up skeins.  I was not a happy camper.  Husband tried to tell me about a way that might prevent it happening again.  I have decided that I will indeed wash more yarn. (See, nutty as a fruitcake.)  The next one will be ONE skein per bag, and perhaps a victim loving Husband will pin the darn things shut...

5 more boxes to go...

 Whimper...