Thank Goodness for Mom!

Mom is awesome.  I've known this for quite some time; she's a pretty well rounded awesome.  But Saturday morning?  She proved her awesomeness once again.  You see, I got this yarn (Cascade soft spun) and it came in hanks.  No big.  I have me a ball winder and usually with a bit of help from the chairs, I can get the hank laid out and wind it up no problem.  But of course, this stuff is 100% Peruvian Highland Wool.  Guess who didn't read the label before she bought it?  Now, if you know anything about natural animal fiber yarn, you know that it sort of..sticks to itself.  There's all sorts of yarn science as to why, and it's the reason it felts up so prettily, but when you're trying to wind it into a ball without the help of a swift?  Yeah, it's a pain in my lily white ass.  But Mom, who hung out in the kitchen because she wanted to see the ball winder in in action, jumped right in to help hold the hanks and make it so that they wound up evenly.  And when the the third hank got all sorts of tangled and was a knot?  Mom to the rescue, with patience she could have only learned from raising an incredibly precocious child (yeah, I'm talking about me).

At any rate, we got the hanks wound into center pull balls and I started Toby's fingerless mitts.

And then I discovered that it's very loosely spun yarn.  I may have mentioned previously that I knit Portuguese style which requires that yarn to be looped either around the neck or on a knitting pin.  I use the pin method most of the time.  And, as I said this is a loosely spun wool.  It's practically just roving.  This makes it lovely and soft and wonderful to touch...but it also means that if I'm not careful it pulls apart!  I was shocked when it happened, just because I hadn't expected it, though I know enough about yarn that I should have.  It's OK, though.  I just need to keep my tension a wee bit looser.  I haven't had it happen since. 

Oh, and I wanted them done by Sunday because Toby will be here and I can gift them but...yeah, I don't know if its gonna happen.  I'll certainly try!