Obligatory Yearly Round-Up, v. 2009

WELL. It has been quite the year, y'all. I graduated from my undergrad and moved into a grad program more quickly than I intended. Despite the alacrity with which I dove back into school, I'm pretty sure that going for a teaching credential is the right decision for me and that it will allow me to put together a long-term plan that I'm happy with. Also I get to eff with the minds of high school kids, which is always fun.

So let's see. I am nearly done with the first part of the knitting for Salina. I have to finish the right front, then block the pieces before I seam it and pick up the collar, sew on the buttons, and then I'm DONE DONE DONE. Except not really because one sleeve is about 2" longer than the other, and both are too short. Chimpanzee arms, that's me. My plan is to pick up from the cast-on edge and just add another couple of inches, probably in seed stitch to match the hem and collar detail. However, I'm debating whether I should rip back the sleeve cap of the shorter sleeve and at least make them even before I seam up the sweater. I SO don't want to, but I'm pretty sure it'll make me crazy if I don't. So maybe the blocking won't happen tonight. ARGH.

Remember my list of things I wanted to finish up from a few weeks ago? I actually finished something!

Red Vanilla Socks

Brown Sheep Wildfoote, "Ragtime"

293 yds.

And now, because it's nearly 2010 and all sins are forgotten when the clock strikes 12, I will confess to having started a new project:

Citron from Winter Knitty '09

Malabrigo Sock yarn, "Lettuce"

I've got 57g left in the ball, so I'm almost 1/2 done. And now that I look at the pattern, it calls for Malabrigo LACE yarn, not SOCK yarn... so my little slice of lime might be a bit bigger than the original. Ah, well! It makes for great mindless knitting and I'm totally charmed by the whole thing.

In terms of the 12-Mile Quest, I didn't make it this year either. However, in standard quest storylines, the heroine must encounter three setbacks before she can attain her goal, so maybe 2010 will be the Year of the Quest. My total completed yardage for the year is 8 miles and 185 yards, which is about 800 yards fewer than last year. Given that I have knitted almost nothing in the last 3 months, that's not terrible! I completed 35 projects over the course of 70 posts and renewed my commitment to 101 in 1001. I also started a podcast (currently languishing, but with plans to rise up off of its' Victorian fainting couch soon)!

In keeping with last year's statement of goals, I am hereby pledging to do the following in 2010:

1) Rediscover my voice. Life is short and I intend to enjoy however much of it I have left. I will never be super-famous, which means that my immortality will end somewhere around 50 years after my own death. Do I want to be remembered during those 50 years as the quiet, mousy aunt who never did anything, or do I want to be the one who was always down, always ready for trouble? I think you know which one I'm choosing.

2) Experiment more. I tried to do this to some extent last year, but certain aspects of my life held me back. I am discovering little bits and pieces of myself that I've let fall by the wayside over the last 6 years, and I'm keeping the bits I liked. I know why I let them slip away, but I don't intend to do so again.

3) Find That Guy. My roommate and I are onboard with a new quest to find the guy I kissed on my birthday. We have decided that regardless of whether we find him or not, the chance to have adventures in new places is worth attempting the journey. Also, he was hot and mysterious.

4) Resurrect The Whim Game. This covers all three of the above pledges. There are super seekrit things in the works for this, and I'm excited to bring them to fruition. Plus, it'll get me three points, which is really what it's all about.

Happy New Year, everyone! I leave you with a picture of THB next to the tree, sipping on a Hendrick's Gin Martini in his bathrobe. He would kill me if he knew I posted this on my blog, but what are big sisters for, after all?

Finished Objects 2009

1/2 - Seeded Rib Scarf #5 - 270 yds.
1/4 - Pistachio Mitts - 160 yds.

1/8 - Seeded Rib Scarf #6 - 331 yds.
1/9 - MIFS Hat - 115 yds.
1/12 - Gauge Hat - 92 yds.

1/29 - No-Purl Monkey Socks - 273 yds.

2/5 - Santa Fe Socks - 315 yds.
2/8 - Seeded Rib Scarf #7 - 313 yds.
2/14 - Gauge Hat #3 - 104 yds.
2/17 - Berries and Cream Socks - 274 yds.
2/18 - Wish You Were Here yarn - 420 yds.
2/26 - Dishcloth #1 - 85 yds.
2/26 - Mismatched R-N socks - 302 yds.
3/9 - Limeade Socks - 247 yds.
3/29 - L/C Yarn - 406 yds.
3/29 - Blackberry Truffle Yarn - 341 yds.
4/15 - Mysterious Mirror Socks - 366 yds.
4/23 - Papa Socks - 361 yds.
4/30 - Scarf #21 - 560 yds.
5/9 - Ivory Coast yarn - 575 yds.
5/17 - Lord of the Mountains yarn - 546 yds.

6/1 - Begonia 1.0 yarn - 353 yds.
6/17 - Spiderman Blanket - 1692 yds.
6/27 - I'm Still. Big. Red. - 1250 yds.
6/29 - Easter Egg 1.0 yarn - 170 yds.
6/30 - Begonia 2.0 yarn - 104 yds.
7/3 - Easter Egg 2.0 yarn - 64 yds.
7/12 - Asti yarn - 313 yds.

7/23 - Harvest yarn - 340 yds.

7/23 - She's Like A Rainbow yarn - 633 yds.

9/23 - Honeydew BSJ - 377 yds.

9/25 - Shield of Bees - 1681 yds.
10/26 - Vanilla Rib Socks - 292 yds.
11/4 - Underwater Trees Scarf - 386 yds.

12/23 - Red Vanilla Rib Socks - 293 yds.

Just a Bit of Knitting

For whatever reason, I haven't been knitting lately. Partly because of some fundamental shifts in my space - moving to Roseville, making new friends, grad school, none of said new friends being knitting people, etc. - and partly because I've been trying a new thing: knitting monogamy. I've gotten frustrated with the number of unfinished projects looming over my head, so I've been slowly trying to finish things up. Interestingly, this has caused the sheer volume of knitting to go down, possibly because some of the projects aren't as portable as others.

This means I'm clearly NOT going to finish the 12-Mile Quest this year, despite my best efforts during the first 6 months of 2009. But in the spirit of working through my 101 in 1001 goals, I am going to shift my focus and try to finish at least my Salina sweater before the year is out.

To this end, I give you some sleeves:

Roughly 1.5 sleeves, to be exact. After the second sleeve is complete, I just need to complete the front half of the sweater (already more than 1/2 finished), then knit the collar and set in the sleeves and I'm done.Well, almost done - I am pretty sure that I'm going to have to pick up the bottom edge of the sleeves and add about 2" onto them due to my monkey arms. Sleeve knitting is one of two times I bemoan my long limbs; the other is when my new jeans, which have been deliberately purchased to drag on the floor by 3", shrink up to my ankles. Lest my shorter friends poke fun at me because their jeans are always too long, allow me to remind you that you all can get your pants hemmed to the perfect length for about $9, while I am doomed to look like an afficionado of the 80's highwater pants era.

Anyway, sleeves. They're nearly done. And after that, I have a pair of socks that are about 25% finished out of this yarn, which is another colorway of this yarn that made these socks, which I am currently wearing. And then there is the blocking of my Shield of Bees shawl - did I mention that the same day I got my $20-worth of T-pins in the mail from WEBS, I also found my other boxes of T-pins, thus making me the T-pin Queen? Other unfinished projects, according to Ravlery, include:

*Mingus Socks (need to rip and re-start according to original pattern; why the Koigu version was miles too small and the current version is miles too big is beyond me.)
*Norfolk Ramblers (must take picture of Welsh Heel Disaster '09 to send to Emma, then rip and figure out WTF is wrong with my pattern-reading skills)
*Very Happy Scarf (need to rip edging and find another smaller treatment for same. Beginning to recognize a theme here...)
*Honeydew BSJ (sew. on. the. damn. buttons. Will probably take 15 minutes and have been procrastinating for almost 3 months.)
*Great Bebeh Project (perhaps am in the right place for miles upon miles of garter stitch, finally?)

Not being a masochist - at least, not a KNITTING masochist - I don't expect all of this to be done in the next 18 days. But I bet I could finish at least the Salina and the red socks, which would mean I could wear them to my final class of the session in early January. My classmates would get a kick out of seeing me wear stuff I've been working on since October.

And speaking of masochism, I had a great weekend in the East Bay and Menlo Park. Well, a great 24 hours - South Bay friends, don't get out the pitchforks! My step-grandmother was in MP for the weekend and I went down with my Other Brother who lives in Alameda in order to brunch with her. On the way there, I spent Saturday night partying in downtown Alameda with a new friend, Malia, whose name endeared her to me immediately because the only other Malia I know is my beloved soul sister in Oregon (Hi 'Bean!). I didn't run into the kissing stranger from last weekend, but if he's meant to turn up, he will. Like a shiny penny, or something... In the meantime, New Malia knows a LOT of people in Alameda, and has undertaken the amusing mystery.

My life is often like a soap opera, have you noticed?

Still On The Run

If your name begins with an S and ends with -hannon, you need to stop reading this RIGHT NOW. Come back after you've received your birthday present which is pictured here and would thus spoil the surprise I have worked so hard to create. Also, happy birthday!

Okay, now that she's gone, I can tell the rest of you about what's been going on lately. I finished the Vanilla Rib Socks and then plowed through Anne Hanson's Elm Row scarf for the above-mentioned birthday girl. Apparently I am one of those knitters who likes to give things away because I'm constantly putting off my own projects in favor of those for someone else. This is not, however, a bad thing. I have wonderful friends who deserve to be wrapped in beautiful things, and if those things come from my hands, all the better.

For Shann's scarf, I pulled out the Panda Wool that I got from Jasmin and Gigi's very first goodie bag back at Stitches '09. Yes, you heard me right - I didn't even go buy anything! In fact, to tangentialize for a minute, I haven't bought yarn since the game-changing trip to Babetta's with my mom back in September. Well, I did buy an extra skein of Malabrigo Lace so I can finish up the Very Happy Scarf, but that's because I didn't have enough yarn to finish the project. And I'd like to point out tangentially (of course) that I started the project originally with what should have been plenty of yarn. Damn those inaccurate yardage requirements in VLT!! But anyway, I haven't bought yarn since mid-September. That's nearly 8 weeks, people! And in that time I've been to Lambtown, the CogKNITive Fiber Retreat and sundry other yarny places. Obviously I am awesome and have the proverbial Will of Iron.

Okay, back to the real point. The yarn I used is Crystal Palace Panda Wool in Ultramarine, and while I like the pattern - it was interesting to knit and I never got bored, which is a good thing for a scarf! - it is really the color that just makes this piece. The yarn is 51% bamboo, which adds sheen in addition to drape, and I am in lurve with the whole thing. Feast your eyes on this fairly color-accurate and also fairly artistic blocking shot:


Yep. It's a great color.

Underwater Trees Scarf, "Elm Row" pattern by Anne Hanson Panda Wool "Ultramarine" - 386 yds.

Currently I'm finishing up a Pretty Thing for another friend, and also working feverishly on a scarf for myself - having been informed today that the weather in Portland is not 70 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze like it is in Roseville. And also having left my favorite purple scarf at Crazy Sarah's last... was it New Years? Dang! But yea, I haven't needed one since then, and I obviously need one now. I'm using the same pattern as the purple one (Rav link), but I think I will crochet chain the edges so the scarf doesn't stretch as much as the last one. For this project I broke out the Noro Cash Iroha that I bought at the Commuknity closing sale last year. This is the only Noro I've ever encountered that feels like its price point to me, and I'm liking it immensely. Now I just have to finish about 3 more feet before the end of the day...

I spent Halloween weekend with my mom up in Penn Valley and we had a lovely time watching Firefly and crafting. I took the opportunity to photograph Violet nee Jezebel, whose recovery from her former abusive situation is, as previously titled, progressing apace.
I love the China blue of her eyes, especially against the quilt my mom made. Doesn't she look less... vacant than last time? I do think, however, that she's progressed about as far as she will be able to without being in a one-cat household. Poor dear is still afraid of the other kitties and slinks around as if she's about to be kicked. But when I picked her up and put her on my bed, she purred next to my face all night and followed me around for the rest of my time up there. If I weren't certain that she'd be bullied by my own precious feline, I would have brought her home with me, especially after she chased another one of our cats away from me in a fit of ownership. Honestly, who could resist that little face?

Here's another little face for you to not resist:

Finally, Some Progress!

Things have been galloping apace here at Chez Tika. My dad came to visit for a week and a half and just left earlier this afternoon. In the last week, I've also attended the new student orientation for grad school and gotten registered for all my classes through next spring. That's right, kids - this school allows registration a semester in advance. Needless to say, I am chuffed at that little perk!

I start up school again on Wednesday evening. I'm a little nervous, but it feels good to be traveling in a specific direction again. Also the potential to meet people who could be friends is exciting. My brother's friends are all well-and-good, but at 25 he's among the oldest in the group, and I find that I've outgrown a lot of the drama that ensues in the under-25 age bracket. I am not interested in who has slept with whom, or why So-and-so refuses to go out to a bar at which What's-Her-Name might be. I am also not interested in the martyrdom that goes along with undiscussed, unrequited love - but that's another story for a different day (it has nothing to do with me principally - I am a mere observer and Passer of Judgement).

What DOES have to do with me is the Return of the Knitting Mojo, and just in time if I do say so myself! I finished some socks today in a yarn that one person here at least will recognize:

Vanilla Rib Socks in Wildfoote "Brown Sugar"
292 yds.

These fraternal socks are a simple 60-stitch, top-down pattern that I winged (wung?) based on my toe-up Santa Fe Socks. Maybe I'll toss this pattern in a .pdf; I have narrow, petite feet for my size and it's tough to find sock patterns that are small enough to fit me properly. Sixty stitches over size 1 needles seems to work best, but apparently 60 stitches is a difficult number to work with; 64 is much more usual, and that extra 1/2 inch of fabric all around makes my socks just a little bigger than I'd like. I'm thoroughly pleased with these socks, despite their fraternal nature. About an inch into the second sock, I double-checked the skein bands to see if they were actually the same dye lot. The bands say yes, but the color pooling coupled with a few random forest green flecks in the not-pooling sock say differently. I toyed with the idea of ripping back to the drawing board and knitting 2-3 rounds from each skein, and then decided I didn't care that much. Score: Tika, 1; OCD, 0. At least this time.

It's a good thing I have regained my patience for knitting. I realized last night while cruising down the foot of Sock #2 that I leave for Portland in a week and a half, at which I am celebrating two birthdays (one only 4 months late!), and I had NONE of the planned gifts even considered, much less started. Sarah, your socks are coming, I swear! I have the yarn picked out and everything!

So that's the State of the Knitter. I'm a little concerned about the 12-Mile Quest, but if I even manage to get closer to completing it than last year I'll be pleased. For those interested, I do intend to participate in National Sweater Knitting Month by finish my neglected Salina sweater. Once I return from Portland, I'll pull it out and get restarted. That one should afford me a good chunk of mileage at the very least!

In terms of the 101 in 1001 update, I have completed the following things this week:

Lifestyle: I tried a fish I've never had before: barramundi fish from Australia. It is a flaky white fish with a smoky flavor, and I wasn't super-fond of it. But still, it was worth trying and I'm always interested in new seafood! I also tried a ratatouille, which it turns out is NOTHING like what I thought it would be. Eggplants remain on my not-preferred list of vegetables. And lastly, I tried a new kind of tea: a honey-pear tea that had the cloying taste of roses on the first taste and then resolved into the expected sweetened pear flavor on the second. It went perfectly with my brownie-and-cinnamon-gelato sundae, and perfectly ended the evening's dinner at McCormick & Schmick's with my dad, THB and our friend Karly.

Education: I finished "reading" Jane Austen's Mansfield Park in audio format. This book is not my favorite of Austen's 6 major works, but I did enjoy the familiar story and the narrator was excellent. Next up is Persuasion, then Northanger Abbey (my favorite) and I'm done with Austen for awhile.

Entertainment: I got my priest up to level 80! /geekflag

Craft: I finished one pair of socks (see above).

That's about the size of things at the moment. A few tick-marks toward the larger meta-goals of foods, books, and knitting; and an actual strike-out in the Entertainment category. Not too shabby!

Finish and Begin Again

Sometimes my knitting seems like a burden. I know, what an overdramatic statement, right? Perhaps it is, but everyone with a creative passion knows what it's like to hit a place where you can't begin something new because what is nearly finished is hanging over your head.

I hit that point with both the Honeydew BSJ for the Murloc and the Shield of Bees. On the former I ran out of yarn and had to wait to buy more down at the (no longer) LYS in Los Altos, and the latter hit a point where it was too complicated and gigantic for company knitting.

Thanks to a trip down to San Jose for Jer And Eliz's Murloc shower, I grabbed another skein of yarn for the BSJ. The knitting part is now done, it's been washed and dried, and it's waiting on just the adorable duck buttons I bought for just this purpose:

Baby Surprise Jacket
Nashua Creative Superwash, 377 yds.

The Shield of Bees - in addition to being completed about 3 months later than I anticipated - took a bit more time. I enjoyed knitting it, but towards the end... whew. It seemed to grow faster than I finished repeats, and now if I hold it doubled it's nearly as long as I am tall. That puts it at around 10 feet long, unblocked. Oy! It's difficult to photograph by myself, but here's as much as I could cram into a photo:

Honeybee Stole

Knit Picks Shadow, 1681 yds.

The color is horribly off. It's actually green, not grey, but my camera doesn't seem to like this particular shade and I haven't been able to get a proper picture yet! My T-pins are hiding in a safe place somewhere in my garage, probably with the pegs to my swift. I had to email the nice lady at Knitting Notions, who quickly sent me replacements at an extremely reasonable price. The bonus here is that I'll have an extra set of pegs when I find the originals! I did dig through the garage and put all my knitting books/magazines/patterns on a bookshelf; I'm trying to do a little every day to get the garage tidied and move my things into the house, but it's definitely a touch-and-go process.

I'm stoked to add the yardage to my 12-Mile Quest total; these two finished projects put me less than 1 mile shy of my entire total for last year, and I've still got 3 full months of knitting and spinning to go. I may actually accomplish my goal this year, but it'll be a tight squeeze. Perhaps finishing projects that are already started would help...

And speaking of progress, I've started an adorable Berry Tart hat (Knitty, Winter '03) and discovered almost immediately that I detest making bobbles, despite how perfect they are:

Yep, that's a pie crust on the bottom and the beginnings of a gigantic pile of berries on top. Just the thing for an October baby, don't you think? I've decided to force myself to complete one repeat of bobbles every day until the darned thing is done. It's just a baby hat, thank goodness. Hopefully it'll only take a few more days!

And lastly, I started a new lace project:

This is the "Scarf with Center Pattern" from Victorian Lace Today (page 16). It's just faggot stitch for miles, and then a knitted-on border. I'm about 20% into the center panel already, thanks to Juliet Stevenson's masterful narration of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I'm trying very hard to dig into my entire stash to find project yarns, as I have a tendency to put the newest stuff on top and then only use that. When I packed my bins full of yarn, I knew what was where and which skeins were with which other skeins. However, I'm super-visually oriented, and now that I'm in a new space, it's hard to remember what is where (except what's on the edges, of course, since the bins are clear). I decided that I need to number each bin and mark what is in each one - possibly in Ravelry, as there's a place for "location" in the stash listing. Does the attempt to organize a large collection ever end? Someday, I'll be successful. Really!

In other news, there isn't much news. Today is the last day of my first 101 in 1001, and while I didn't accomplish everything on the list - far from it - I did do the Big Stuff: graduate from college, buy a car, pay off my MBNA loan, and save over $1000 in a bank account. That last, I am extremely glad of, as I'm currently living off of what I saved over the summer!

I'm working up a recap of the 101 in 1001 for tomorrow, along with my new list. Some of it is carry-over and some of it is new, but I'm hoping to both accomplish more on the new list and keep more on top of it.

The Lee of the Stone, Part 1

Well, I've moved. I'm not necessarily moved IN, but I'm moved. However, I'm going to try to take things in the order as they've occurred since the last time I posted anything actually informational.

First, the Tour de Fleece ended in July (ohmygoditsseptember), and I managed to make more yarn than last year with less burn-out. Success! If you recall, I finished the Asti yarn near the beginning of the Tour and started on a Crown Mountain bump called She's Like A Rainbow 3.2 oz. bump of BFL in Harvest from Pigeon Roof Studios. (I can't believe I forgot an entire skein of handspun. Clearly it is time to start using it, if I can't remember it all! Thank goodness I have Flickr to save me.)

Now that I recall it properly, I am totally charmed with this yarn. It's thin and even and soft, and I daresay that if it were a full 4-oz bump, I would have topped 400 yards. Lately, that's been a challenge, so I'm quite pleased with it.

"Harvest" BFL, 340 yds., 2-ply
Pigeon Roof Studios

AFTER I finished the Harvest yarn, I started on the Crown Mountain Farms SW merino She's Like A Rainbow.

Seriously, this stuff spins like butter. It practically flies out of your hands, and I just love it. I love it so much that I may have bought another box during the summer sale and had it shipped to my new house - but I get ahead of myself. Ahem.

When I pulled this bump out to spin, I decided that I would chain-ply it to maintain the color distinction from the original dye job. That meant that I didn't have to weigh it out before I started, which was nice. It also meant that there was no inevitable little bit left over on one bobbin from traditional plying.
Unlike a lot of people, I enjoy chain-plying. I've never struggled with it and it's never hurt my shoulder - a common complaint. Maybe it's the nearly endless crochet chains I made as a child; my muscles know the gesture by heart and just make it a bit bigger. After spinning nearly two full bobbins of singles, I managed 633 yards of a respectable 3-ply:


And that's it for the Tour yarn! Overall, I made 1286 yards of yarn and used up 17.7 ounces of my fiber stash. And in addition to that highly respectable yardage, I am also not burned out on spinning like I was last year. Go me! I like making progress. But don't worry too much about whether I'll run out of fiber to spin on my fancy new wheel (I know SOME of you were worried, and you will be compensated appropriately!) I fell down the rabbit hole known as Laurs' Etsy shop, Bee Mice Elf. Go ahead, say it out loud to yourself; I'll wait.

Is that not the cutest name for a shop EVER? Also, she quoted me a price right off the bat for my special order and told me exactly how long it would take to get to me. And when it got here, everything was perfect and just what I wanted. I highly recommend Laurs for both her professionalism and her niceness - which is apparently a word, as Firefox doesn't put that annoying red line under it.

Since the Tour, I haven't done a huuuuge amount of spinning, but that's due in part to the move. I did start on the gorgeous Pigeon Roof Studios Falklands wool that Wise Colleen bought me at Stitches West. She told me that the colors reminded her of me, and I couldn't agree more. They're just my favorite greens, is all:

"Verbena" 8.2 oz (!!!)

I'm spinning it as thinly as I can, which is pretty thin, actually. It's mostly the Falklands wool though - this stuff seems to desperately want to spin into a super-fine single, and really, who am I to disagree with wool?


It is, however, slow going. Between the move and the fineness of the yarn, I think I've spun up maybe 25 grams so far. But that's a-okay with me now that I've got internet on my computer and can watch Netflix Instant Watch while I spin!

In addition to spinning like it's going out of style (oh, wait...), I've been doing a fair amount of out-and-about fiber exploration. At the end of July, my good friend Cynthia and I took a day to head to the Lacis Textile Museum in Berkeley. Oh, wow. That place made both sides of my heart - the historian and the textile nut - go pitter-pat.

Here are just a few of the pictures I took:

Both the clothes and the wax mannequin head are authentic to the late 1800's

Can you imagine getting married in this? How delightfully you would rustle down the aisle!

Something about all these crinolines floating in the air made me think of jellyfish

I'm telling you, that place is a-MAZ-ing; the rest of my pictures from the trip are here; they didn't turn out too badly, if I do say so myself. And I do, so there.

So that's about it for part 1 in our series of catch-up posts! There is at least one more to go, if not two; the month of August was a little thin on the ground in terms of crafting, but so many things have happened - and more importantly, so many good pictures have been taken! - that I just have to share anyway.

Here's a teaser!

Tour de Fleece, Days 3-11

This week, I have two things to do in which to earn my paycheck:

1) Go to my boss's house and water the outside plants that aren't on the drip line, and
2) bring the Kids over on Saturday for swimming, a movie, and pizza while the Parents have a Grown-Up Party.

I gotta tell ya, this job I have is The Bomb and I'm going to be sad to leave it in August.

In the time off, I've made a list of things I need to do while I'm at home. A large portion of the list consists of "clean out 5 boxes from storage" over and over again; the smaller amount makes me feel all productive when I get to cross it off the list. I'm down to only two check marks to go, although I think there will still be a few more than 10 boxes left. So far, I've tagged probably 85% of the stuff for either donation or trash. It's dirty work and some of it is hard; I found a newspaper article wrapped around a bunch of pictures of a smiling blond teenaged boy, my friend Brian Rudolph. The newspaper article was about his death at sea while on a crab boat a la The Deadliest Catch, and it stopped me full in my tracks. Brian has been dead for nearly half my life, and I hardly think about him anymore. But he was a bright and shining soul despite his troubled past, and I wonder what would have become of my friend if he'd lived.

There were other pictures of people who never made it past their teens, or twenties. Smart, good kids who didn't deserve to be hit by drunk drivers or shot by stray gunfire. When asked, I will claim that I didn't go to my 10-year reunion because I didn't want to explain over and over again why I am not married, pregnant, a mother, graduated, or famous; but a smaller part of me was loathe to go to a gathering of people I've known since kindergarden - my graduating class wasn't tiny but it was tight - and see the empty spaces where my friends used to be.

Anyway, now that my chest is all tight and I'm uncharacteristically emotional, let's move on to some pictures of spinning, shall we?

"Asti" 2-ply cormo/corriedale from Black Bunny Fiber Club 2
313 yds.

This yarn got a LOT softer than the roving was after I washed and whacked it. It smells all sheepy and wonderful, so there must still be plenty of lanolin left in the wool; it'll probably soften up more along the way. If I'd thought about it properly before I started spinning, I would have split the roving down the center and tried to maintain the color progression a bit better, but I like the barberpole effect as well. It looks like beads, doesn't it?

Currently I'm working on this:

"Harvest" BFL from Pigeonroof Studios

It will grow up to be a 2-ply lace. I got this at the spring Color Fiber Festival in Berkeley last May, and originally I was going to ply it with a similar amount of "Autumn Cherry" BLF; however, it's so pretty on the bobbin that I think I'm just going to ply it against itself.

While I was up at Mom's this weekend, I indulged in a little experimentation for my Cherry Matchless. Here is the finished product:

What is that, you might ask. THAT, my friends, is a set of totally removable and washable treadle covers so that this barefoot spinner doesn't sully her new spinning wheel with footprints!

Needless to say, I'm thoroughly pleased with myself.

I'm also pleased because Mom and I went up to her LYS and I came away with one (1) skein of yarn:

Noro Silk Garden Sock

I have a thing for VM in my yarn, and that thing is loathing. I've never really tried using Noro because of the VM, but this skein was very pretty and I couldn't find any twigs with my eyes or my fingers and I figured I should give the (very pretty) yarn a try. It's for sheer scientific research, I assure you.

So I have a story about being at Mom's this weekend:

ManCandy and I slept in THB's old room at the end of the house. This particular end of the house has rhododendron bushes right up against the windows that provide some shade all day long but also have a tendency to house wee birdie beasties. Not a big deal for me as I don't mind birds, BUT. On Friday night we didn't realize that Mom had taken the curtains down, so the room got light pretty early. I can usually put my head down and sleep through the dawn, but I was slowly roused by an incessant TWANGing sound above my head and occasionally at the other window by my feet. Eventually I emerged from the covers to discover a beady red eye looking at me from about 6 inches away. This bird then launched himself at the window screen, TWANG!!, clung for a second or two, then hopped back to his branch. A few moments later, he did it again. And again. Andagainandagainandagain. Every once in awhile for variety (I can only imagine it was for variety) he would fly around to the other window and TWANG on it as well. He had no care for tapping on the window, the presence of the very intrigued cats, or the flailing of my arms as I tried to get him to Go. Away. I finally got up at the indecent hour of 6am and wandered into the living room to watch the Tour de France with my stepdad.

Later that morning when the rest of the family was up, I heard the TWANGing again and summoned the adults in to see the phenomenon. They duly agreed that it was annoying, and then Mom started to laugh. It seems that she caught sight of the DevilBird's actually red eyes. She thought I was exaggerating.

This excitement occurred again the next morning, but I am s-m-r-t and resorted to opening the window about 6 inches. Waffles immediately went and sat on the windowsill, and that was the end of the DevilBird - at least until after I got up.

I'm Still. Big. Red.

La Girasole, she is finished!

Blocking

I really enjoyed knitting this. Jared's instructions are clear and simple to follow, and there isn't so much repetition of each motif that I got bored - except on the edging, which is to be expected. One can't expect much variation on the edging.

I ran out of T-pins on the edging, so it'll be a little scalloped. That's fine with me, but if I'm going to make more circular stuff I think I'll need more pins. Usually I can use my lace blocking wires, but with circular shawls, it's all geometry all the way.

Center

I should invent an umbrella-style blocking mechanism. Hmmmm..... that's a thought. But for now, here she is, and just in time to start baby knitting in earnest - the littlest Bean is coming this weekend!

I'm Still. Big. Red.
Pattern: Girasole by Jared Flood
Yarn: Frog Tree Alpaca, sport weight, 1250 yds

A Super Secret No Longer!

Today, I got a text message that said: "We just picked up your box at the post office! Can't wait to go home and open it!"

And then I lost all track of what I was doing because I was waiting to hear how the Super Secret Project was received.

Next came, "OMG I LOVE IT!" followed by a discussion of how the bebeh inside my best friend is indeed destined to be a super hero given the combined powers of the blanket now in his possession and the magnitude of his kicks.

So here it is, my friends. The Super Secret Project:

A nearly full-frame shot, pre-spokes

The biggest shot I could get, post-spokes and totally finished!

The stats: 1692 yards of Knit Picks Swish Bare yarn hand-dyed in scarlet and blue, and pre-dyed black. It's roughly 4 feet across and weighs almost 2 pounds.

May it spend many years serving as a blanket, a fort covering, a comfort, and a cape.

I love you, CoffeeBean.

Knittin' and Spinnin' and Wishin' and Hopin'

Well, not so much with the wishin' and hopin'. But there has been knittin' and spinnin'! And also apostrophes bother me, so we'll go back to using the proper gerund, thankyouverymuch.

Let's see. I have now been in the Black Bunny Fiber Club for lo, these many months, and I've been enjoying myself greatly. However, I have yet to spin up any of Carol's delightful and personalized rovings; something had to be done! And which better roving to choose than the first one:

Begonia, 100% superfine Peruvian merino

I split it up into 4 equal parts, intending to make (what else but) lace. However, I found some amazing sparkly mylar thread at Joann's that threw off my entire game. Instead of thin lace singles, I tried to make chubby, fluffy singles. Then I plied them with the mylar and got this:

Begonia yarn 353 yds. total

Isn't it fun! I've never plied singles with thread of any kind before; I rather like it. I think this lot may become a simple feather-and-fan scarf for Yours Truly at some point - that is, once I've finished cooing over the sparkles.

closeup of the shiny!

This is only half of the roving, but I'm calling it done because I think I may make fluffy 2-ply out of the other 2 bits I have left, and thus have 2 different style yarns in the same colorway - something I've never done before.

I've been working away like a busy bee at the Honeybee Stole from Knitspot:
I'm on repeat 7 of 10 for this part of the pattern, and it's going fairly smoothly. I've finally learned to read the lace, which has helped the last few repeats move much more quickly. I'm still not certain if I'll get it done in time for my Very Awkward Conversation, but I'm enjoying working on it anyway. Here's the artsy shot:


Tomorrow is the annual spinning day at the Retzlaff Winery. This year I will take pictures with more than my cellphone! My friend AuntieSocial and I are planning to find another fleece to split this year; last year we both took half of a gorgeous charcoal grey named Topper and a white merino/corriedale cross named Steve. This year, if Steve's fleece is available again, I think that may be the one we bring home, but I'll keep you posted! Given that the student loans are going to come back to bite me soon, half of a fleece is all I can manage this year, so I'll have to make it a good one.

In the meantime, here are some cute kitty pictures that I just couldn't resist. They show off the boys' personalities to perfection.

Mr. Darcy loves you, and you, and you...

Panza the Dragon Kitty still hisses at the neighbors

And now I'm off to listen to Pride and Prejudice while I work on the Honeybee Stole!

King of the Hill!

I finished washing, thwacking and drying the Crown Mountain Farms "Lord of the Mountains" BFL today:


It came out to 546 yards of 2-ply. I'm not entirely sure what happened to my ability to make 900 yards of 3-ply out of the same amount to yarn, but I suspect it has something to do with patience in spinning thin singles. I seem to have been spinning for speed lately, and it shows.


But then again, I'm happy with the yarn and happy that it's finished. Maybe it's just a phase I'm going through. On the plus side, it's squooshy and sproingy and stretchy - even ManCandy commented on how elastic it feels.

There's nothing quite like squishing a skein of your own handspun and having it respond by bouncing back into shape. There's a very "I DID THIS!" feeling about it, much like blocking lace.

"Lord of the Mountains," Crown Mountain Farms BFL
2-ply, 546 yds.

Ok, now back to the final hours of the proverbial grindstone...

Second Verse

Some pictures of random things happening around my house:

"Soul Windows," April '09 Spunky Club SW Corriedale

Well, Amy did it. This is the third shipment I've gotten from the Spunky Club, and by far my favorite. It's encouraged me to stick around for another shipment, but I'm still not 100% sure how long I'll keep it up. It's nothing against Amy or her dyeing or products; I'm simply not sure how well her taste meshes with mine. But this month? Gorgeous. I love it.

"Ivory Coast" BFL, Crown Mountain Farms, 2-ply, 279 yds (575 total)

I finished plying! And then I soaked and thwacked and measured, and it's only about 20 yards shorter than the first skein - but you'll have to take my word for it because I seem to have misplaced skein #1. ARGH. Well, once school is done the house is due for a major over-haul. I bought clear, 71-quart plastic bins at Target this weekend to help with the stash wrangling, but I haven't had time to organize. Hopefully once I do, the missing skein of handspun will turn up. In the mean time, this pushes me over into Mile 4!

Bobbin #1, CMF BFL, "Lord of the Mountains"

I spent last night working on bobbin #2 while watching nearly the entire season of Castle (SO fun, I loved it!), and there are probably another 2 hours-worth of spinning before I'm done with these singles. I'm excited to ply this project! I'm in that part of the learning curve with spinning where I just have to do it a lot and let my body memorize the rhythm while my eyes and fingers learn to spot potential problems. I think once I feel more comfortable with the actual spinning itself, I'll be able to work on getting slightly thinner singles for better sock and/or lace yarn.

I'm also going to try to finish this one up ASAP because I fell down a little at Bee Mice Elf and ordered 2 braids of beautifully dyed stuff that is on its way to me right now. I'm gonna wait to open the package until the LotM is done so that there's an even ratio of in-to-out, for once. No promises on whether it'll ever happen again!

The Super-Secret Project continues apace. I'm roughly 30 rows from the i-cord bind off, and I've been working on it a lot. It now has about the same number of stitches as Big Red - 640 - and it'll probably end up around 700+. Whew! I've got some ideas as to how to make the knitting a bit more mindless than it is right now - the 3-into-1 decrease isn't very conducive to using stitch markers, but a [k2tog,k1,ssk] would achieve the same result and make the visual line a little cleaner. It's not super-fun to knit, but it is entertaining to show it to people and have them exclaim over how cool it will be when it's done, so I'll probably end up making another one with the new decreases.

And lastly, here's a little experiment that's been happening in my kitchen without my knowledge. I picked up a mesh bag with onions in it the other, turned it over, and discovered this:

Cthulu Onion!

Curious to see what it would do, I just left it there in the shade. It's now about twice as high and reaching for the light from the nearby window. Maybe I'll plant it, since it seems so interested in growing. But then again, we all know how miserable I am at growing things, so perhaps it's better if I just let it do its own thing for as long as possible!

Off to finish up the spinning before I head to work!