I got a few comments/questions about the new lace project out of handspun. The singles haven’t been prepared in any special way. I’ve done nothing more with it than let is sit first on the bobbin and then in the center pull ball since I finished spinning it a few months back. I had a discussion with Cheryl at Mass this year about knitting lace with singles and I’ve been meaning to try it since. Blocking will take care of any biasing that will occur because the yarn isn’t balanced. I’m very happy with the results so far! This isn’t a great picture by a long shot, but you get the idea of where it is going.
I did a little spinning today. I managed to finish off two oz of a merino/tencel blend that I bought from Sheep Shed at NYSW’07. I’ve actually finished spinning the solid pumpkin colored merino but do need to ply it. The two yarns are earmarked for Eunny’s Argyle Vest.
I had a reminder of my past as a prolific sock knitter. You see, I’d run out of clean hand knit socks and well, it was time to wash. Yeah, I hate laundry. Very much. So today, in order to avoid cold foot syndrome during the chilly commute, I decided it was finally time for the ritual washing of the socks. I didn’t realize I had so many until I laid them all out to dry. That’s 6 feet of mat that they are drying on.
I think I have my issues with the editor worked out. I did a little googling yesterday and tripped on the whole shift+enter for paragraph breaks. There’s also an acknowledged problem with using the TinyMCE with Safari on a Mac. Any surprise that I’d been using Safari on my macbook? Yeah, now I’m using Firefox to write this. The proof is in the actual post though.
Last night I had a great deal of fun taking advantage of XBox Live and the ability to chat long distance for naught by my membership fee. Liz and I played games together online. It was way cool! Until I had a brain fart and shut down the xbox before saying goodbye. I was busy chatting with her, finished up a game I was playing and then we decided it was time to call it a night. It wasn’t until the thing had powered down and the headset was now silent that my brain kicked back into gear and I realized my mistake. Chalk it up to being a noob in the online gaming arena. Other than a couple of ass-kickings that I took a bunch of years back playing Quake 3 over dialup with a bunch of college guys (who’d frag me as soon as I’d respawn) most of my years of gaming have been solitary and/or local. The ex-h and I used to play NHL on the Genesis. Yes, I’m dating myself a bit now 
Okay, time to get the crazy monkeys into bed. Tomorrow is a school/work day.
Craft on!
9 responses so far ↓
1 Rosemary // Jan 27, 2008 at 11:30 pm
How sad is it that I looked at the singles on the bobbin and then at the fiber and identified it before I read what it is?
It’s good to hear that I’m not the only person who avoids laundry until my feet are going to be cold on my commute.
2 JessaLu // Jan 28, 2008 at 1:22 am
Beautiful singles – and very nice sock lineup you have there!
ah Quake – something else we have in common. Although, I played it to impress some guy that I met on IRC #Boston (and I totally sucked). ;o)
3 Jessica // Jan 28, 2008 at 8:35 am
Geez… must be nice to have small feet to knit for and be able to crank them out like that.
Love the shawl so far. Thanks for the info on knitting with the singles too. I’ve got a couple of Grafton batts that I’m hoping to get started with sometime soon and I might just have to give this technique a try. The stuff for the vest is looking good too! 
Happy Monday!
4 Ina // Jan 28, 2008 at 9:08 am
Wow, that’s four yards of socks! I bow to you!!
It never occurred to me blocking lace would correct unbalanced singles bias, but that makes perfect sense. Hm….
5 Jazmin // Jan 28, 2008 at 10:30 am
We still need to get the (brand new!) xbox online. It only came home Thursday, I’m not soooo late yet. Of course I’d have to step away from my Rock Band obsession to chat with anyone. I need a microphone stand so I can knit and sing.
6 Lizzy B // Jan 28, 2008 at 11:01 am
Heh, twas fun to play with another girl! Usually I’m playing with the hubby and all our guy pals, so playing games with another lady is always a treat.
We’ll have to do it again sometime Risa!
7 Kim // Jan 28, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Lovely singles. I want to see this lace in person. Sunday is sock washing day at my house. I also hand washed Clapotis and some fingerless mitts. I don’t like doing regular laundry but I do enjoy hand washing my hand knits.
8 Cheryl // Jan 29, 2008 at 9:39 am
That’s a lot of socks! I’m loving your shawl so far, makes me want to dig into my foxfire stash. But I’m in sweater mode right now, and I need to stay there for a while so I have some things finished!
9 Elsie // Feb 2, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Risa, I am a bit behind in reading your posts now that you are posting frequently. I can blame it on the re-decorating we are involved in at the moment. The Leaf Lace looks great and I can”t wait to get started on my singles. At my age, I need to do cut corners wherever I can. I LOL at the toilet paper. I have two felines and I know what it’s like to enter the bathroom and find an entire roll unwound on the floor. Awesome sock collection!