What a Knitter Does at the Lake

Yes, beautiful blue skies, clear, clear water, soft breezes, the warmth of the sun -- absolutely perfect conditions for knitting! I took my Golding drop spindle (see above) and my wonderful brand-new size 1 bamboo circular knitting needles, and proceeded to knit up some overtwisted handspun singles. Just to see what would happen.

This is probably why I am not making money hand over fist with my fiber work -- because I'm always trying something new, just to see what happens. And here is what is happening:

Can you see the Z twist in the photo above? (Click on the photo and it should enlarge.) I spun up a spindle full of lace-weight yarn in Z twist, and then I took my second Golding drop spindle and spun up the same weight in S twist. (Why do I have two Golding drop spindles? Because my sweet boxer, Bruno, stole the first one. I couldn't find it, so I bought a new one. Then I found the old one. Oh, and he chewed both spindles, so I had to send them back to Vermont to have them fixed, which Mr. Golding did, beautifully. So I have two, and it comes in handy.)

So as I began to knit with Z twist, it skewed in one direction, just as I had hoped.

My idea is to knit about 3/4 of an inch in Z twist, then  3/4 of an inch in S twist, and continue doing this to create a herringbone kind of pattern. For a hat, all in one color. The roving, by the way, is a combination Romney, Pygora, and llama that I bought from a wonderful place called Firefly Farm in Warsaw, New York. (You can contact the owner, Pat Gesler, at fireflyfarm@hotmail.com. I don't think she'll mind my sharing her email.)

Here's how it's coming:

Very subtle and understated, maybe not for all tastes, but certainly for mine! The pattern just grabs me, for some reason. That's why we knit, yes?