Last week an old college chum visited me. We hadn’t seen each other since 1978 when we graduated from the Department of Modern Dance at the University of Utah. Cynthia is still part of the world of dance and she is now a Full Professor in the Dance Department at Hobart & William Smith Colleges. She was in this neck of the woods because she was delivering her daughter to Interlochen Arts Camp for a 2-week stint in a rock music program.
Cynthia and I had a brief but delightful visit. As a gift, she brought me 8 ounces of lovely fiber from Mapleton Farm in the Fingerlakes region of New York. Here’s a picture:
The grey is an alpaca (“Hershey”) – Corriedale wool blend. It has a sturdy feel to the fiber that matches the heathered color. The black is an alpaca (“Hester”) – Shetland wool (“Violet”) blend. This roving is rather softer than the grey.
Oh, and the rock is also from Cynthia. Turns out we’re both big fans of interesting rocks. So, I let her take a bucket full of rocks from my gardens (I have loads and loads), and she gave me this lovely specimen from Lake Ontario. (So, now I have rocks from all the Great Lakes except Lake Erie.)
Back to fiber: I got an idea for the future of this fiber pretty quickly. I want to knit a pair of lined mittens – which I could really use!
I think I’ll spin both yarns into similar thickness 2-ply yarns (DK or worsted weight). I will review the nice article by Mavis Adams that was in Spin-Off magazine, Summer 2008 (“Teresa’s Lined Mittens”) for overall mitten architecture. I’ll use the grey for the outside of the mitten which I’ll knit in a slip-stitch pattern. I’ll use the black for the inside and stick with stockinette stitch. I’m not sure yet what to do with the cuff.
I’ll post more about this project as it progresses.
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