Friday, August 7, 2009

Attacking the Needles

Well, last night I attacked my knitting needles. Actually, I was trying to fix a problem on one of them, but ended up buggering up in one of those "Oh, Noes! -- must laugh calamities."

I was trying to gauge some of my handspun with US 11 needles (as the 2ply yarn is a heavy worseted weight), and realized that the wood bit was coming out of the metal bit. So I got my handy-dandy super glue (coz what girl doesn't have 5-6 types of glue for any given occassion) and added a touch of glue, then wiped off the excess.

Except, the needle was still attached to the cable (I have the Knitpicks Options wood needles that can detach from the cables), and when I wiped off the excess, it was down towards the cable. As such, the cable is now glued to the needle! (Luckily, I didn't do this to the OTHER needle)

Unfortunately, I didn't have any acetone or nail polish in the house. So, I will have to purchase some and see if I can't soak that little metal part in the acetone without destroying the wood or the plastic of the cable. *sigh* I'm glad I didn't use another type of glue that needs somethign stronger. However, I wish I had used my special glue for my fencing weapons as that can be removed with alcohol.

Later that night, I went to try and spin about an ounce of tussah silk that I had for practice. Using my super light spindle, I went to work. OMG, this stuff is so soft and is so fine.....and is completely like spider silk. The fine silky strands get EVERYWHERE. However, the strands are amazingly long (not surprisingly) and it's a little hard to gauge how much to draft it. This is one of those projects that's going to take a bit of time, even though it's only 1 oz of silk. And considering how FINE it's spinning, I'm going to end up with probably a bit of yardage than I first expected.

My knitting for the trip is pretty much packed. FIVE hours on the plane, each way. I should be able to get a lot of reading & knitting done. I'm going to actually play with some of my handspun and make little ditty bags that I'll felt when I get back home. Luckily, my handspun is only about 60 yards so they should be relatively quick in the making.

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