Betsy Phillips's Blog, page 21

Quick, Nice Things

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I made the centers into squares ready for joining onto my afghan.

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I spun these two halves of the same batt. On the right is the single straight from the batt. On the left is what I ran through the drum carder a couple of times. It gives it a more uniform, heathered look. I’m going to ply them together.

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I finally figured out how to make a tie-dye rainbow with acid dye! I can’t wait to see how this spins up.

The Burrito Method

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I like to start with an even, thin layer of something long. This is BFL I dyed at some point in the past.

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Then I stick on little bits of other stuff.

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I keep an eye and make sure that I’m putting the fiber on fairly evenly.

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I add my sparkle. Many people just paint the drum carder with sparkle, but that’s how you end up with thick clumps I’m not good at spinning. I should also add that, even though I don’t normally like Merino, I LOVE it for this kind of thing because it likes to cling to everything. It’s great for making sure all your other kinds of fiber stick together.

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Woo! Evenly distributed sparkles on the drum! I also like to put my sparkles in in the middle, so that there’s a layer of fiber to secure them in.

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Finally, I have a full drum. I take the fiber off the drum kind of like you would for rolags, except I make one huge burrito rolag.

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I don’t have pictures of this next part, but what I do is grab it in the middle and start gently tugging it. I move my way back and forth across the burrito, which is stretching and stretching out into something that looks more like traditional hand-pulled roving. This part you just have to be patient with, because there’s a lot of fiber scrunched into that burrito and you want to tug gently (so that it stays in one piece), even though parts of it are going to feel very firmly stuck.

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Here’s how it looks all pulled out of its burrito shape, ready for spinning.

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Here’s my single.

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My center-pull ball so I can ply it on itself easily.

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My yarn.

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And here’s how it looks as the centers of my afghan blocks.

It’s really hard for me to find the words for how satisfying it is to take something from dying the fiber to carding it to spinning it to crocheting it and every step of the way you kind of know what you’re going to get and also it’s a huge surprise.

Also, I really love these very subtle color changes, where it’s not really clear where one color starts and stops and I’ve been trying to get that just in dying alone, but no, it really works best if you do it while spinning.

And I think the burrito method helps with that, because it kind of smears the colors together as you pull the burrito open.

Murder in Music City cont.

[image error]If this thing kills me, drape it across my grave. It’s earned the right to gloat.

I’m almost done with Murder in Music City and I’ve been thinking how interesting it is in regard to my project because it has absolutely nothing to do with civil rights.

This is how the system at the time “worked.” The baseline of corruption and venality. If it was this easy to deny justice to a pretty, well-loved in her community, blonde white girl, how exponentially easier does it become to deny justice to everyone else?

But I do also think it’s fascinating just in the way that the society had a hard time recognizing and acknowledging women as evil. That clearly comes across in my research, too.

Anyway, I’m enjoying the fuck out of it.

Murder in Music City

[image error]I’ve decided to incorporate the yarn I have left over from the copper blanket. Because I don’t want to spend any more time or money on this evil thing.

I’m listening to Murder in Music City which I bought as a physical book a while back but then just left it sitting on my pile.

It’s good. I have some quibbles with the writing. He’s king of tangents (and that’s saying something coming from me) and he over-identifies some people while not with other people.

But nothing strikes me as implausible about his facts. His research seems very good and he makes a very subtle but clear argument for why his asking questions about this spooks people into revealing themselves–they have kind of come to suspect he might be the kid at the murder scene.

I’m listening with an ear to my own obsessions, but so far I’m not hearing anything that sheds too much light.

The story is just very, very sad and the fact that people are willing to just live their lives, knowing they sent an innocent man to jail, is infuriating to me. That just seems so typically Nashville to me. We simply must pretend that all is well, even when we know it’s not.

I Hate the Afghan So Much It Has Become a Form of Respect

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I don’t have enough yarn to finish this fucker. I had already made my peace with not doing the two outside rows of granny squares, but now it’s clear I’m probably not going to have enough to finish the triangles.

I want to laugh about it. This afghan has kicked my butt at every step. It’s going to continue to kick my butt clear to the end. My plan is to finish up as much as I can to see where I am before I buy any more yarn. If I get farther along than I think I’m going to, then I’ll be happy. If not, I’ll have a feel for how much yarn I need.

I’m still leaving the side panels off, though. It’s supposed to be an afghan, not a bedspread, and it’s already enormous.

Procrastination, Woo Woo

I have to do my taxes today. It’s literally the only things I have to do. I’m guessing I don’t bother to turn to them until late this afternoon.

Maybe I’ll learn to make art yarn…

Or I could decide what photos I want for the book…

Maybe take the dog for a walk if we get a break in the rain…

Chagrin

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The idea was that these two panels would be identical, but I ran out of red when working on the top one and then almost ran out of the acorn.

The real shit, though, is that I don’t think I’m going to have enough yarn for the side panels. Which, on the one hand, means that when I get these three panels done and sewn together, I’m done with this asshole blanket.

On the other hand, of course this blanket is just assholes all the way down.

Chicken

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I’m on slightly better terms with this afghan only because I was playing chicken with this yarn and won! Which is good, because as close as I think all these tans look, when they’re right next to each other, you can see the differences. So, if this hadn’t been enough yarn to finish that triangle, it would have really annoyed me.

I also feel like I’m getting faster at them, which also makes them less annoying. If we count each set of diamonds with their four framing triangles as a block, I have thirty blocks to do. And I already have four blocks done! I may finish this afghan before I’m 90.

Wallowing in My Dislike

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So, each side of the diamond gets these weird triangles, which then get sewn together thusly:

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This is supposed to result in a somewhat straight line. It does not. It may pull straighter once the border goes on, but I have my doubts.

I just sincerely loathe things afghan. I resent how hard it is. I resent how often the directions are just “eh, whatever.” I resent that I have to motherfucking whipstitch things together. I have to do all this piecework and sew?! Do I look like I want to be quilting?

I only hope this part goes quickly.

Alarm

I slept straight through my alarm. It’s really a wonder what having a boss who actually gives a shit about things does for your ability to rest.

Also, I spun up a shit ton of this fiber, which I love:

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I just love everything about it. I love all the bright colors. I love how they twist around each other. I even love how my shitty spinning skills leave me with weird clumpies because, with this fiber, the clumpies look intentional, like I meant to have a cool, decorative lump.

This yarn just does it for me. I can’t wait to put it in my afghan.

Speaking of afghans, this fucker.

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The diamonds are done. That’s about all I want to say about that.

I’m on to the next part. It’s also ridiculously hard, though less so than the diamonds. And I’m like, but how does this give me a straight edge to sew the panels together? Friends, it does not.

I’m glad I’m doing this in wool, which should be a little more forgiving, but there’s no way this fucker lays flat. And when I look at the picture on the pattern, I think it’s draped in such a way to hide that it doesn’t lay flat.