rants – Soapturtle.net

My grrr, he has no face. And while that really fits the mood I’ve been in lately, it’s not the reason he is without. He’s without because he’s already had his first bath and I am waiting on him to dry before filling him in.

My thoughts on the pattern? I’m so glad you asked.

First, I used the single strand version, because the yarn I was using matched the suggested single strand yarn pretty closely, if anything it was a tidge thicker. That being noted, I found the washcloth to be both smaller and thinner than I would have thought based on the pictures shown. You do realize this pretty quickly when you go to cast on and see it’s only 24 stitches, but still, I just expected something larger, thicker, and just having more substance. On the upside, I have already road-tested the little bugger and have plans to make another with the remaining yarn and try it double stranded with another. At the very least, it’s a super quick (only a few hours), super cute knit, that makes a great gift for kids of all ages. Especially if you throw in a nice bar of handmade soap to go with it.

I finished up spinning the hot red (you know, hot pink + red) BFL and believe I have a little over 800 yards of it. I have no current plans for it, so it’s just going into the stash. I have concluded that I just don’t love BFL, and I want to love the fibers I spin, so I probably won’t be getting any more of it.

But I do like the Merino/Silk 80/20 that I picked up at MSW. I’ve started spinning on the purple.

The green will be started almost as soon as the purple is done. I originally planned to do one of those chevron scarfs with these two fibers, but now, I am not so sure. I’ll need to test my sockapalooza sock pal pattern once I get it written up, and these colors would do just as well for a pair of those socks as they would for the scarf. Or maybe even a different pair of stranded socks. Decisions decisions……

MS3 swatch. Red handspun bottom, Elderberry Zephyr top, Addi Lace Needles, US3.

In other news, I’ve signed on for MS3. That would be Mystery Stole, not Mystery Shawl. I’ll never do another Mystery Shawl again after my previous experiences with them. The Mystery Stole however, is run by Melanie. And the result from MS2 is a pattern I purchased a few months back, but just haven’t gotten around to making. (Like everything else I have patterns for I might add.) So when I saw that MS3 was happening, I jumped on it. I don’t know that I’ll get it done on time, or even that I’ll start it when everyone else does. It really depends on how complicated the pattern is. If it’s a small easy repeat, I’m on it. If it’s not, well, I just don’t have the concentration needed for long non-repeating rows right now, so it will have to wait until I do. Other than that, I say if you are interested, come join us, but be warned, the group is HUGE, and the emails produced by the group right now are…. overwhelming in numbers.

And finally, yesterday, I took a class with Lucy Neatby. It on finishing and it was lovely. You haven’t lived until Lucy Neatby looks at your grafting and calls it beautiful. The only negative thing about the class was two women that would just not shut the hell up. And to these two women, I have only this to say…

I don’t give a rat’s ass about you and your health care situation, or who you think is politically responsible for it, or what Oprah says about it. Nor do I think a knitting class is the place to discuss it. Furthermore, stop arguing with teacher dammit. I didn’t pay to hear you talk. I paid to hear Lucy talk. So kindly extend the rest of us the courtesy we have extended you and shut. the. fuck. up.

And honestly, I wish I could have said that to them, but as an employee at that shop, even if it’s just one day a week and every now and then, I can’t. But I can sure as hell think it.

So, after posting Sunday, I decided to go ahead and finish up my scarf. I figured it was just stockinette in the round, I should be able to knock it out quickly and have a fabulous scarf for knitting group on Monday night.

I was so very very wrong.

I finished the scarf, and then went to wash it in the sink. The black banana silk proceeded to produce copious amounts of dye. COPIOUS. AMOUNTS.

This is the 3rd sink full of water.

After 6 sinkfuls, and several stints and just allowing the water to run, I left it overnight to just soak and hope that would loosen the rest of the dye up and then I could go about hanging it up to dry. And then, another sink full of water looked just as ink black as the one above and I said “fuck this” and threw it in the tub. I ran two tub fulls of water. I ran water between those tubs full. All inky black. Finally, I just left it in the tub to work on while I was in the shower. I hate wasting water, but I sure as hell can’t wear the damn scarf if it’s going to pour black all over me when it rains. Two showers later, and it’s still running black. I have given up and put it on top of a load of black T-shirts that need to be washed in hopes that the washer will handle it and all the extra black will help the more faded of the Ts.

What once was a fabulous scarf is now a hated knit item that has not behaved as it should. So basically, don’t buy black banana silk. It’s not pretty. It may seem pretty, and it may feel nice, and you may have neat ideas of simple items done well in it. But don’t give it. It’s lying to you. And just so you aren’t fooled, I dug through the intarwebs and found a picture of the same exact brand I used so you won’t be fooled by it in its natural habitat of the yarn store.

So, yes, I have a finished item, and no, I may never actually get to wear it, much less model it for the blog. Yes, I am unhappy about this, and no, I will never be tempted to buy Banana Silk again.

I can only pass this lesson on to you and hope that you can take this kernel of truth and use it for the good of your stash budget.

Category: rants

Faceless.

Warning: Banana Silk Hell.