Progress? Not so much.

Here it is, the end of April, and what do I have to show for it?  Not a whole heck of a lot.

Well, now that I think about it, that's not entirely true.  My Stained quilt is coming along fairly well, after overcoming the hurdle that is my sewing machine.  After some thought, I decided to use black perle cotton to hand quilt in the sashing.  This went surprisingly quickly once I got started.  And while it wasn't my first choice for quilting, it turns out that I really like it.  Now, I'm thinking about what else I can hand quilt this way.

No progress at all on my Mystery quilt, and even with the external motivation provided by the My Precious QAL, I haven't made even the tiniest snip into that hoarded fabric.

On the other hand, I have managed to turn this raw cashmere ...

into this.

You can only imagine the amount of picking, teasing, and combing it takes to get this far.  But processing cashmere is a  a very pleasant way to pass the time.  The cashmere was a birthday gift from my son, and he's made it even better by sitting with me and helping to dehair it.  He got it from Treesong Farm in Duncan and it really is lovely.   And having it so close to home means that when I get this lot done, I'll know where to turn for more.  The spindle was made by Lisa Chan at Gripping Yarn and it's amazing.  There's no other word for it.

Starting as I mean to go on

I'm starting the year off by recording a completed project.  An inconsistently spun skein of oatmeal coloured yarn--how exciting.  Okay, the finished product isn't exactly scintillating, but did I ever learn a lot while getting to this point.  First, I learned that Cormo is a very delicate fibre.  I had assumed that it would need careful processing, much like Merino.  I was wrong--compared to Cormo, Merino  is indestructible. 

I began by carefully washing a small amount of raw fleece.  Obviously, I wasn't careful enough.  Even with no agitation and meticulous temperature control, the locks tangled and matted. I tried hand teasing and gently carding with very unsatisfactory results.  I tried putting some of them through the picker--even worse.  Then I tried my mini combs, and met with a bit of success.   At least it was spinnable.  The next step was to try spinning directly from the combs without first drawing off the combed fibre into a top.  This was how I finally managed to salvage the fibre--or at least about half of it.  Even so, it's neppy and very inconsistent.  Not at all the smooth, fine handspun I'm used to producing.  On the other hand, it definitely looks handspun.  And, it's incredibly elastic.  You'd think that it contained lycra.  I don't know if this skein will ever be used for anything, but I'm looking forward to applying all that I've learned to the next batch I process. 

As for the waste fibre, it turns out not to have been wasted after all.  I've been meaning to make some felted balls to use as cores when winding the spun thread off a handspindle.  Starting those balls without using a core or some sort has become much more difficult as my hands get older.  This should solve that problem.