Good morning and happy Saturday! I am getting a bit of a late start to my usual Saturday morning activities here at home. My first order of business today was to get a much needed haircut, as I was at least two weeks overdue for it. That may not seem like much to a lot of people, and it may not be for them. For me, however, it is. Maintenance is crucial with short hair. Especially short gray hair. Throughout most of my twenties, I could go anywhere from four to six months between cuts. But as I got older and more gray, I began to see the value in going more regularly. I also like to keep it much shorter than I think I ever have outside of my brief time in the United States Navy in the late 80’s, and a brief period in the late 90’s when I kept it closely buzzed.
Dan has been cutting my hair on a fairly regular schedule for much of the past year, first at the shop in Guilderland that he used to work out of, and since September, at a place of his own, the Center Square Barber Shop on Lark Street. He’s a morning person too, and I am pretty sure he is at the shop well before the posted 7:00 AM opening time. It was definitely well before that when I arrived this morning (and every other visit since he has been open). Visiting your barber first thing in the morning is a great way to start the day, and Dan is a fantastic barber. I leave his chair feeling simultaneously relaxed and invigorated, not to mention fresh and pretty.
Now I am back home and rather than spin or knit or weave, I am taking advantage of the relatively mild temperatures this morning and the milder temperatures this afternoon, to get outside and do a little bit of cleaning up in the yard. It needs it, badly. We have three of our own dogs and doggie guests who come over to play, although much less so in the last couple of months. Halo might spend some time this afternoon at her pharaoh hound buddy’s house too, running and playing in the yard. It has been a while since they have seen each other and it will be good for her to get some exercise. We have dinner plans with friends at their house this evening, and really hope the playtime tires her out too so that she will be glad for some crate time while we are out.
Just to give this post some fiber related content (other than my own hair), this is the Jacob roving that I have been spinning, and the three distinctly different yarns that it became. Their colors are not the only difference. After finishing the spinning for the white singles and well into spinning the gray singles, I began to suspect that I was spinning them differently, and that suspicion grew deeper as I spun the dark brown singles. It took plying and finishing the yarns to confirm those suspicions.
I knew there would be a slight difference in the thickness of the singles between the white and the darker colors, but it didn’t seem that significant. Looking at the final yarns proved me wrong on that. There was still something else different though. The darker shades are much bouncier and stretchier than the white yarn and those qualities are not solely because they are made from slightly thicker singles. The darker singles were spun with much less twist than the white. This is what I began to notice as I was spinning them. All three were plied in the same manner with the same number of ply twists per inch, but the looser twist in the gray and black singles is what gave those yarns their bounce when plied.
My darker singles were also considerably more consistent in diameter from beginning to end than the white singles and I am not sure why as the preparation seemed pretty consistent between the three. So I think I may have to grab some more of this Jacob roving the next time I see it somewhere.
All in all though, I am more than happy with all three yarns as they are exactly the kind of yarn I love to knit with.
That’s all for this morning. Have a great weekend!
Aaron knits...and spins, and weaves. 