the next best idea

Can you see it?
It's right there--
in the wrinkled, raveled remains

of the last best idea
that wasn't quite right.
Sigh.
But such a relief. 

For the last couple of days
I've caught myself  wondering
​what the yarn would 'really' become
even as I knit on.

​I was, it seemed,  in love the idea of  the sweater,
more than the garment itself. 

Also, I'd put a graft in it, which I was reluctant to undo.
(I quite like grafting, but un-grafting is just not as pleasurable as pure unraveling).

Do you ever have this experience--
 continuing to knit 
occasionally muttering,
"it'll be all right,"
knowing all the while 
​that it is not?

If so, you'll understand my delight
when finally,
this morning,
I realized that I loved the yarn too much
to 'waste' it on a clever concept
 I would never wear. 

The yarn is a 5 ply Cormo:
 local grey and white fleeces
blended in various ways,
spindle spun over time,
and collected as singles on toilet paper tubes
(not archival but never intended to be).

By the time I brought the whole works to my cabin a few weeks ago.
I had a fat pound waiting to be plied.

Unlike the sweater I just decided to reject, 
Plying 5 strands with the Charkha was an experiment that worked, 
but only when I turned it into a two step process
like when plying with a spindle:
​
1. wind the singles together without twisting
​​2. add twist.

While I wouldn't take this extra step with a treadle wheel
where both hands are available,
with the Charkha, the extra step was worth every second
 because there I only have one free hand
many strands to manage
and no tensioned lazy Kate 
 (though my makeshift multi-mug system pictured above was ideal).

At any rate,  I used the Charkha for both steps,
 covering the spindle shaft with paper purns (rolled up squares)
that I could hold in one hand as I turned the crank with the other.

The weather that week was very April --
nice enough to be outside whenever  it stopped raining,
but cool enough to make the cookstove a constant necessity
 for cups of tea
and to dry the yarn after blocking.

You might notice that the drying skeins twist a little --
this is because the yarn sat so long as singles
that the warm water released the stored twist energy
rather than relaxing it has happens when you wet the yarn
closer to the time it is actually spun. 
Kathryn Alexander of Entrelac and Energized Yarn fame.
first brought this phenomenon to my attention.
Check out her work. 
It truly is beyond anything.

At any rate, the finished yarn was/is YUMMY --
squishy and super soft--
and I started knitting with it
the moment it was dry,
used double no less
with gargantuan needles --
​size 9 I think. 

Alas, whatever I had in mind then wasn't quite right--
​or anyway another idea,
the one I decided against this very morning,
took hold and wouldn't let go
until today.

​But the yarn is still waiting--
so yummy I can hardly wait to cast on with it again.

And see --
​there it is--
the new idea--
waiting.