One Crazy Fiber Lady

I know I already posted today, but I just had to post this with more and better pictures.  Not to mention that I’m entering into another spinning phase.  Yes, they have a way of coming and going.  I spin quite regularly for a while and then don’t do it for far too long.  Well, we’re back into the upside of the spinning curve. 

I did have a short phase around my birthday when the Fricke E-spinner arrived.  A spinner I very much like.  I’m ever so glad that I ordered the click on/click off pedal for it.  It spins very well.  I just wish I had known when I ordered it that it wasn’t compatible with the majacraft woolee winder.  I’ll be getting the level wind flyer for it, just not immediately.. well not this week anyway (I just ordered a new video camera but that is fodder for another post).  I don’t remember what broke that nightly spinning phase, maybe it was the going away for the weekend that killed it and I just never got back to it. 

Recently though, I’ve been seeing a lot of beautiful spinning going on around blogdom and the siren’s song of the wheel has been in my head.  I’ve even made some fiber purchases including one that shall be the heart of this post.  Finally on Saturday during naptime, I flipped on the TV and caught a program on King Cotton on the History Channel.  There were many sections devoted to the history of the cotton textile industry and when I watched the evolution of the spinning process, I just couldn’t fight it any longer.  I pulled out my PB&J wheel, my first and beloved, the Lendrum Upright.  There was that reddish colonial roving that I bought at Modern Yarn still on the bobbin.  I did some quick weighing and found that I had approximately half the roving (there’s that half thing again) left in the bag.  Time to change bobbins if you ask me.  Over the course of the weekend, I finished up that roving, plied it and then skeined it off.  I’m pretty sure my niddy noddy is in one of the storage units waiting for construction to end (though it is unlikely to start prior to October as we need a variance before the permit can be issued).  I need to do some googling to see what the longest length is on the winder and then count the laps and do the math.  Yeah soon

As always, click to embiggen the pictures…

Anyway, all that was to empty the woolee winder bobbins for the Lendrum in preparation of this glorious fiber that I had ordered from Chris of Woolybuns fame.  What you see here (and it arrived today woo), is 6 wonderful ounces of Polwarth/Angora blend roving.  Not letting any moss grow under this stone, I broke out the wheel immediately upon closing the twins’ door.  Chris warned me that this stuff wanted to spin fine.  She’s absolutely right! 

I had a spool of standard sewing thread sitting nice and handy in my knitting gadget bag.  Yeah, I schlep it around for when I need to sew on one of the copious buttons I sew. 

Um yeah, not so much.  Anyway, it did prove handy for showing the grist of this single.  The white thread is on the left and the single is on the right.

This is how much I was able to spin in an hour.  Doesn’t look like much does it.  I’m thinking this 6 oz is going to take near forever. While a project designation for the resulting yarn might be a tad premature, I don’t think I’d be going out on a limb to predict a shawl for it.  Maybe a plain pi shawl.  Somehow I suspect I’ll have enough yardage

Craft on!

Depends on how you look at things. I have a number of active projects right now and they all seem to be at some halfway point.

• sundara calla lily socks: halfway through the leg portion on the second sock
• schaeffer anne socks: dead even halfway point. One sock complete and the other is waiting to be cast on.
• Dale monkey sweaters: the major knitting is done for Alex’s and awaiting the digging out of the sewing machine. One sleeve is done for Kat’s. Another half.
• koigu socks: halfway through the foot of the first sock
• alpaca shawl: reborn from ripping out the leaf lace and now half through the 14 repeats of the building chart of the swallowtail shawl. (btw, homey still doesn’t do nupps but will ignore them when I get that far)

I’m not entirely sure what to make of all this half stuff. Maybe that’s where my attention wanders and I am compelled to start something new.

We’re oh-so-close to the milestone now but haven’t quite hit it. Good thing as I wasn’t able to make it to Modern Yarn last week. Mom was recouperating from a bout with bronchitis and after a full day alone with the shorties was done for. While I pouted for a short time, I understood and took charge of my lego weilding munchkins. I did knit after they went to bed and finally finished the body for A’s sweater. I am going this week and will buy prizes then, stash just wouldn’t do for this now would it?

On a completely unrelated note, if anyone has a late model minivan could you give me some feedback as to your likes/dislikes/etc on yours. I’m comparison shopping for when my lease on the stupid Durango ends in November. The front runner right now is the Sienna.

Craft on!

I have to admit that I really don’t have anything to say. I’ve been knitting and reading, but nothing exciting has been going on. After what happened this spring, that probably isn’t such a bad thing.

Work is going very well and I’m enjoying what I am doing. I look forward to the challenges that this position affords as I rebuild the company intranet. Thanks to the company, I’ve become a bit of a clothes horse, taking full advantage of the company discount. My wardrobe was never this nice before!

The monkeys are doing well. They’ve discovered the joy that is lego (though walking thru their room barefoot has me calling it something else). They’ll happily fritter away an hour playing with those colorful blocks while I sit and knit. Cate was right, it does get easier. That isnt to say that I don’t sometimes look forward to a Monday every now and again.

Work proceeds apace on the two Dale sweaters for the monkeys. No I haven’t yet finished the body for Al’s yet. Though I am halfway through the snowflake on Kat’s first sleeve. I’ll probably take A’s sweater to the Modern Yarn SnB tonight and finally finish the body.

Like I really needed another project (yes I fell off my own WIP Wipeout – any surprise there?), I started something new. The picture is the beginning of the Leaf Lace Shawl in Moss Green Misti Alpaca Lace. I blame this on the store that shall remain nameless where I first met and fondled this yarn. I had to have some. My first thought was the shawl in the new IK, but it has those pesky nupps. Homey don’t do nupps. So I put the yarn back and only bought the koigu (first sock was restarted last night during Project Runway). When I got back to the office I did a little project surfing and decided on the color first and ordered it from The Point. I actually picked it up on Friday when I went for an afterwork shopping excursion that also included J.Crew and Purl. I figured what pattern would be better for a moss green yarn than this one, so I ordered it. I’m pretty sure I started this Sunday night (and haven’t touched it since) but my short term memory resembles nothing more than swiss cheese. So far I’m loving it, though I really do need to finish some WIPs off.

I am about to hit a blog milestone. 2000 comments is around the corner. I’ll be picking up something tonight at MY for two lucky recipients who drops a comment around said milestone…. the first recipient will be the actual 2000th commenter while the other will be randomly selected winner. I’ll post pictures of the prizes tomorrow. You know what to do. Good luck.

Craft on!

Concensus has it, judging by the comments to my last post, that Knit NY is no longer worth a stop regardless of their walking proximity to the office. I need nothing that I can’t get elsewhere at either the same price or cheaper AND get wound into a ball too. I’ve tossed my customer card and shall strike them from the record. No more shall I mention said store.

Alex’s sweater is proceeding very nicely. I have a few more rows and the body is done. That just brings on that scary sew and cut stuff. Shudder.

Saturday I took the kids down to Modern Yarn to pick up the yarn I had them order for Kat’s sweater. Cascade Bollicine Dolly is a great pink amd white. Sadly though it just isn’t the right gauge. I was getting 7st/in rather than the requisite 6. Going up a few needles sizes wasn’t an option as the fabric was starting to feel a tad sleezy. I’ll definitely find another use for it, maybe a self-designed top down stripped cardie for her as the yarn is really nice.

I switched to the Knitpicks Telemark in aubergine and drift. The gauge swatch (aka sleeve) is right on the money. Kat has already declared her love for the yarn. This picture was taken during my commute in this morning. I am now ready to start the main pattern band.

Craft on!

It was only so long before I succumbed to my inner koigu. So yesterday I took a lunchtime field trip and walked up to Knit NY. It was the only one of the 3 koigu sources that I consider walking distance. It was too nice to squander the time by taking the subway. I wish I did.

While the store had a good selection of koigu and yes some came home with me (not to mention the opportunity to fondle first hand Misti Alpaca laceweight – which I orded from elsewhere when I got back), the trip didn’t have the same kind of satisfaction it should have.

First the store had an odor that reminded me of cat pee. Not one of my favorite smells, but as an owner of cats one that I am not unfamiliar with.

Ringing up my sale of two skeins of koigu took an amazingly long time. I complicated matters by changing my mind on one skein of Misti Alpaca and putting it back. The process was endless and it wasn’t because of a line as I was the only shopper there.

What had me really wishing that I had gone to my first choice of Purl was the $1 a use sign on the ballwinder!!! What’s up with that? There was a note on the table that indicated we were chipping in for a new one. Yeah not. I already plunked down my $40+ for one at home. If theirs was falling apart, buy a new one and write it off as a business expense. I think that was my last visit there and I’m not so hip to use that yarn..

I’ll take the subway next time.

I started the first row of the snowflake this morning on the train so Alex’s Fana is coming along. Not going to be able to go to the beloved SNB at Modern Yarn tonight as the folks are away for the weekend and I can’t get a babysitter. Sigh. I have to head there over the weekend though as the Cascade Bollicine in bright pink and white that I also ordered for Kat’s Fana is in. I’m eager to compare the yarns. I don’t much like the Checkheaton I’m using for Alex as it is very splitty though the results are nice.

Craft on!

I snapped this shot of Alex on Saturday night at a restaurant while we waited for our food. I apologize for the less than stellar photography. While the Treo is a cool piece of techno goodness, the camera isn’t quite on par with the Elph. I think you get the gist anyway.

I’m now two stripes away from starting the snowflake pattern on Fana I. Believe it or not, this has been exclusively knit. No other projects have been started or touched. Though I must admit that after 1 day short of two weeks, I am starting to find my thoughts straying. I did toss a skein of sock yarn into my purse in case I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I will admit to placing an order yesterday at Simply Sock Yarn for some Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in two different colorways, as well as a skein of the Cherry Tree Hill potluck in shades of green. There is a little (growing bigger) voice that is prodding for some Koigu KPPPM to play with. Fortunately I can think of at least three stores within lunch range. Field trip today? Maybe. I do have a 32″ Knitpicks US1 in my purse for some magic loop emergency.

That’s about it for today. I’m on the train now bound for the office where a coding challenge is awaiting me. It is so nice to be challenged again.

Craft on!

I’m relieved that my post finally went through. I was really starting to think that the whole TM wasn’t going to work. I stripped the picture out of the post and it miraculously went through. I pondered this and wondered if the picture would be the problem. But wait, I posted that picture of Kat this way so it couldn’t be just the presence of the photo breaking it.

There’s two ways of inserting photos into a post. The first is to use a picture stored on the device and insert it into the post. This was the way I posted Kat.

The other way is to activate the camera from within the Typepad app. I had decided to try that yesterday when posting the progress of Fana. When I edited to remove, the post went without a hitch.

So this posting hopefully confirm mu theory that it is the unsaved picture causing errors. I took this picture of the sweater a few minutes ago and saved it outside typepad. I’ve gotten a bit farther since yesterday.

The Telemark yarn in Drift and Aurbergine arrived today from Knitpicks. While it isn’t pink, Kat is very happy with the color and I am looking forward to trying it out. I picked up the color card just in case

Time to do some knitting while I watch the finale of Hell’s Kitchen.

Craft on!

Well the kids are up and i’m supervising their sandbox activity. Seemed like a good time to try the outdoor shot on the Treo and show my progress on Fana’s body. I have finished pattern I and am now into the second stripe on pattern II.

I read ahead in the pattern and much to my dismay, I will need to knit back and forth in two colors to do the neck area. Blech. There’s got to be a way to do it in the round.
I am also not thrilled with how the buttonband placket is knitted and then sewn (?!) to the front edges. Yeah not my favorite. I’ll probably ignore those directions and knit it on instead. No need to be a slave to a pattern, right? Especially when I have committed myself to make a second one of these!

Next to figure out what to make for dinner and if the grandfolks are coming home from the boat early enough to join us.
Craft on!

Edited to remove photo to see if posting will actually submit now. It has been generating errors now for over 12 hours. The gloss is coming off typepad mobile if you ask me.  PS the it worked without the picture.  I’ll have to experiment more.  In the meantime, I need to get the picture off the Treo and onto my desktop.  Oy.  I’ll edit this post when I get it.

The kids are now napping and I have some quiet time to myself. I did get a good start on the sweater body but don’t have any pictures for you of it yet. I just wanted to post this picture that I took of Miss Kat yesterday on the boat. Needless to add, she was due for a nap.

I think I am going to take advantage of the quiet and nap too.

Craft on!

Being the geek that I am, not to mention that I recently got a Treo 650 from work, I figured that I would try the new mobile typepad. If it works ya’ll might see more posts from me. I still need to get used to typing with nothing more than my thumbs but I am getting better.

We’re off to the boat tonight for the weekend. I finished the second sleeve on the way home from work. I hope to make good progress on the body over the weekend.

Have a good weekend!

Craft on.