Fiber Monday - Frogging

If you are a knitter, you might have some idea of what this post will be about. Frogging is a term used to describe undoing your knitting for whatever reason. Frogs say, "Ribbet," which is very similar to "rip it." And that right there describes my knitting this week.

I decided to start Andrea Mowry's The Shift cowl.  I have been intrigued by it for a while and I want to learn the mosaic knitting she uses for it. It's not difficult, so I grabbed some yarn from my stash and cast on. Turn I didn't like how the beginning looked as I was figuring out the pattern, so I frogged it and cast on again. As I worked with the two colors more, I decided that I really didn't like how they looked together, so frogged it again and found another skein of yarn. I cast on again and got a ways along when I realized I had missed an increase so had the wrong number of stitches. I was close enough to the beginning that I decided to frog it again and start all over. This time I got a bit farther, but the longer I worked the more I realized that I didn't like this yarn combination, either. So... you guessed it... I frogged it yet again. 

I think I have finally hit on a yarn and color combination that I like. Here's what I have.


The other thing I've spent time on this week is washing wool. With the colder weather arriving, I'm realizing that I'm running out of time if I want to get these fleeces washed so I can work on them over the winter. 

First up was the merino. Here's the last bit soaking on the back porch. 


You can't really tell how absolutely filthy the water is in there; you'll just have to take my word for it. But it comes out so pretty! Here's the first batch of that fleece all clean and dry.



I spent some time yesterday combing some of it. It is sooo soft that it makes it very fun to comb. 


I was going to finish combing some of the CVM that I had dyed green. I'm very close to being done with it and I would like the bobbin I have half filled back. So I got it out and tried combing it. 

Yuck.

I have definitely improved with my fleece scouring because this fleece I washed last year is not totally clean. I actually can't believe I have processed as much as I have of it this way. You can tell that it just is denser (due to the lanolin still in it) than the merino. These combed nests just do not look nearly as fluffy as the ones above.


So my plan is to grit my teeth and just spin these, but I'm going to wash the small amount of fleece I have left to comb before I try it. I have a much better idea of what I'm doing and I'm pretty sure I can get it a lot cleaner. 

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