Trenchwork

But it’s a blustery one!

Sorry for the delay, folks; I’ve been a bit under the weather.  And the weather is wild at the moment!  We’ve had about five days of serious wind, and while the temperatures have been all over the map from -16C to +2C, that wind cuts!

Classes have begun, and it looks as if it’ll be a lighter load this term—which is a good thing.  The first meeting was last week, and our reading was Chesnutt’s “Goophered Grapevine.”  If you’re not familiar with it, take a look at it.   It was first published in 1887 and is a frame story with the interior tale narrated in black slave dialect.  The language is spelled nearly phonetically, and the easiest way to understand it is to read it with your best exaggerated Gone with the Wind accent.  Even my stateside students struggle a bit with this one, so to say that the Norwegian students found it something of a challenge might be an understatement.  But it’s really worth the read, because it raises so many issues for discussion.

So, last week we did something I typically never do, and won’t do for any other story this term:  We had a reading hour.  Literally, I read them the dialect portion with a true Southern accent, then translated it into straight English.  It took a fair portion of the class, but since only about a third had understood what they’d read, it was worth it.  Not necessarily exciting, but valuable.  We’ll finish up that discussion tomorrow, then launch into Sarah Orne Jewett’s “The White Heron,” which is a much easier read.  I’m looking forward to seeing what they think of both stories now that they’ve gotten their feet wet.  Beyond that, they have an eclectic reading list:  William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”; Henry James’s “The Real Thing”; Flannery O’Connor’s “The Artificial Nigger” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”; Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man; Louise Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves; Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette; and Edith Wharton’s Summer.  While I don’t expect them to necessarily like all the texts, I’m hoping they like at least some of the stories.  My real hope, however, is that they’ll come away from the course with a sense of the different voices, issues, and histories that are part of American literature—and on the eve of a new President and US leadership, I can’t help but think that carries extra weight.

Between the illness and lesson plans (and really, I’m doing better so don’t worry), there’s been a little spinning and knitting and fibery stuff.  First, this is finally finished:

Fiber: Fake Cashmere from Kendig Cottage
Weight: 15.5 ounces
WPI / TPI: roughly 20wpi, and chain plied.
Yardage: 812 yards
Dye information: Hand-dyed with acid dyes.

Ok, guys, this was some very cool stuff.  It’s a version of nylon, but it’s downright surprising.  It handles very much like soysilk, but it’s incredibly strong.  It took brute force for me to break a laceweight single.  It’s got a long staple and wants to gather static the same way black pants gather cat hair.  Ask DH how many times he got zapped over the past month of spinning this stuff.  No, don’t; he was totally entertained while it was me who seemed to catch the worst of it!  Talk about a charged relationship and electric kisses!  Sheesh!  In a normal humidity, I don’t think it would be a problem.  But our house tends to be dry, and I could power a small city during the winter months.

That digression aside, the fiber took the dye quickly and easily, with absolutely no compacting of the roving.  It stayed light and fluffy.  And yes—the yarn is very soft and has great drape.  This fiber would be simply awesome blended with wools for laceweights and sock yarns.  It would lend both softness and strength, but there’s a surprising amount of sheen here as well.  I’m not certain how it’ll wear, but given the nature of the fiber, I can’t think that it would be tender despite its softness. While most folks would not want the pure synthetic, this particular batch is headed to a friend who’s allergic to wool.  There’s enough for her to knit a project in pure form or knit several liners to other projects, such as hats, headbands, or wrist warmers.

I won’t say the spinning is perfect.  It’s not.  The grist varies a bit along the way, and the chain plying has plenty of features.  The fiber absorbs a lot of twist, and I found myself again wishing for the accelerator head for the Rose.  But I think most of those features will “vanish” when the yarn is put into use . . . and I hope she likes it.

On a knitting front, some of the leftovers from DH’s Cobblestone turned into a simple watchman’s cap (no photo), and he looks like a pretty tough dude in his grey nubby sweater and cap. 

There’s been some carding as well, but I’ll have to hold a bit to show later since it’s destined to go to someone this week.  I’ll post after she receives her package.  The black fibers from the previous post, however, are slowly turning into this:

There’s more than this photo shows, some already on a bobbin, and the photo doesn’t do the fiber justice.  I’ll try and get a better shot when I finish the batch, but for now you have an idea. I’m guessing there will be about 25–30 batts by the time all’s said and done. I am, however, an idiot of the first water. I had what my students would call a “brain fart” and lost my mind when I dyed the silk black. It was normal sliver, and you know you have to open sliver when you dye it in order for the dye to get through to the center.  See those white bits in the photo?  Guess who forgot.  Sigh.  So much for inky black.  But it’s turning into a black, velvety-looking yarn with small flecks of light here and there.  I’ll decide when I’m done what I think about it, but I think it’ll be ok.

And last.  Margaret—lovely, lovely Margaret of lotsofyarn.blogspot.com—sent me this equally lovely neckwarmer:

It’s handspun BFL, soft, and warm, and perfectly timed for someone who’s been coughing her fool head off. I love it, and I appreciate it tremendously.