from a sunburned monday

Over the weekend, I spent a bit too much time in the sun and boy howdy, am I paying the price now! This too shall pass, but I honestly don't remember ever getting a burn this severe in April.

In crafting, not much new. The pinwheel sweater of doooooom marches on. It's up to 488 stitches per round now. I think I have about 36 more rounds to go, maybe slightly more, before I can bind off the main body and get ready to do the sleeves. Two rows take me an hour-slightly more than 30 min to purl, slightly less than 30 to knit. So, what's that, 18, 20 hours more of knitting on the body of it? Yeah. If we get some cool nights in May, I might get to wear it...

I cast on a purse from the yarn I posted about last week-the cotswold locks. Just a simple clutch with plastic handles. I'm planning to full it rather than felt it, just to get it denser but still leave some texture and stitch definition. I also spun up the "other" colors, the green/brown/burgundy/peach bunch. It's a photogenic so and so.








Very pretty, but very scratchy. NOT suitable for next-to-skin wear. I'm glad I did the experiment, though, because it made me a better spinner and I learned a lot by working with this type of fiber.

In other news, the cats have thoroughly tested and approved the new furniture. (Last week, we went to Ikea and got Ektorped.)


(I got a little carried away because they were making me die of cute.)










Then Biscuit does this weird thing with his feet all the time...


Lily did get her turn in the chair...

But I think Dylan prefers the couch.



Lily is all like "whatevah!"


I've had Marx brothers movies on all day. Interesting background noise. I'm trying to avoid profound thoughts.

And now, the sunshine is back out!

lightning update

Unfortunately, I had to restart word verification on comments. I had spam!

Somehow that makes me feel kinda validated.

At any rate, sorry for any future inconvenience.

Real update sometime over the weekend.

Spinning from Dyed Locks

Today was my first experience spinning from dyed locks.

Reading a listing of sheep breeds, I was very interested in working with some Cotswold. No luck finding any processed all-Cotswold roving, but I did find raw fleece,and locks. The Sheep Shed, a marvelous merchant, had dyed Cotswold locks at a very good price, $10 for a pound, so I ordered one pound to see if I'd have any luck.

The locks arrived on Wednesday and I couldn't resist trying to spin a little with a drop spindle. I just opened out the ends of the curls and went (slowly) from there, drafting right out of the lock of wool. I've never experienced anything quite like it, nothing at all like roving, top, or batts. The locks were not a disappointment, either. They were lustrous and beautiful, soft but strong and a great mix of colors.







The results of the spindle spinning were promising.

About 26 yards of a DK-ish weight, very soft and knit like a charm.

I'm a bit out of practice with the spindle, but I was still OK with the results, and it gave me enough feel for the wool to be confident working with it on the wheel.

So, I split up the locks into what I thought would be interesting color combinations and divided the first batch into enough to fill a couple of bobbins.



Pretty tough to keep it even. Some of the fiber was practically ready to pull into roving...


And the majority of it that wasn't...

... I simply teased out the ends of the locks and worked through it, drafting it slowly and carefully so it didn't bunch up too much. Not a complete success,but certainly not a complete failure.

The colors are vibrant and shiny and I like the way they mixed in the plying. It's softer than I expected, and I think it'll make a nice scarf or hat. The total of this skein is between 4 and 6 ounces.


The skein is about 145 yards and roughly 12 WPI. There's a little thick/thin variation, but not much. I'm pretty proud of it!

april snow showers

This weather sucks. A high of 40? Last weekend I was sitting out in the yard getting a sunburn, now it's snowing. Ugh.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system...

Many crafty things have occured since last I updated. I finished my mom's Quill Lace socks...


Detail of the lace pattern...


even more detail-I love the colors in the yarn when it's outside.


I wasn't crazy about the striping but it's not that noticeable and it probably only bothers me.

Also made up a pair of simple ribbed bedsocks for my grandmother. The yarn is the handspun in Steeler colors that I blogged about a while back, it made a nice squishy firm sock that will keep her feet nice and warm. Her circulation makes them cold, and since she's not going to be doing much walking in them, it won't hurt that the yarn is both spun more woolen, and 100% merino. I doubt she'll have time to wear them out.




I've made good progress on the pinwheel sweater. I'll be doing the sleeve openings within the next three or four rows.

It's getting pretty ungainly. I'm already using the 60 inch cable and I don't have a bigger one. In fact, knitpicks doesn't make a bigger one. As is the nature of these type of projects, the further along I get, the longer it takes for each row, so I'm entering frustrationland. It looks like it's going to be a great sweater, though, I'm sure I'll finish it and hopefully within the next week. On size nine needles it doesn't take long and the sleeves should be a breeze.

Anna, my #2 daughter, is in for Easter. We've been doing some productive talking. I'm pretty concerned about her being prepared for real life... somehow I think I've
shortchanged both of my daughters in that regard. Probably a common worry of parents everywhere.

Last week, while it was so warm and sunny, I took some photos of the weeping cherry tree. With this cold snap, I'm surprised it hasn't lost its blooms yet. If it makes another day it will be marginally warmer here. Keep fingers crossed! Anyway, here are some flowers, and some happy insects to close.

The Mini-Vacation hits midpoint

I took Friday and Tuesday off, so I have a five-day break from work. Much needed.

Just some brief news and quick pictures.

My Grandmother is in the hospital again, though she's due to come home today or tomorrow. She's going to be getting in-home hospice care. I keep reminding myself how forturnate I am to have a grandmother still, and how lucky my girls were to grow into adulthood with a living, coherent great-grandmother. Her mind is as sharp as it ever was, which is good. Her body, sadly, is pretty much coming apart at the seams.

That photo is about ten years old, but she still looks pretty much the same. Frailer, much thinner, but still the same. That's my auntie with her.

In other news, the Yarn Harlot (link on the sidebar), Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, was in Pittsburgh to do a book signing and I went. It was so much fun! While we were waiting, I took this photo down the line of chairs-look at all the socks in progress!



Socks everywhere!

Stephanie was funny, charming, and gracious. Also, she apparently does not like hockey. I'll try not to hold that against her.


Here she is holding my sock with hers. She recognized that they were Knitpicks needles. I wanted to say that I really prefer bamboo needles but that the yarn I was using for the pattern of the socks is very elastic and grabby and the bamboo wasn't really working out at all. ("Quill Lace" from Knitty is the pattern, they're for my mom for Easter, and the yarn is Knitpicks "Dancing", which I have 4 more skeins in my stash and despair of ever using up... it's not ideal)


That sweater she's wearing is amazing. The colorwork makes me get tears in my eyes. Someday, someday.

In the meantime, the quill lace socks are finished now, I've gotten a good piece of the Pinwheel sweater started (15 stitches between yarnovers and one color change) and I want to get back to it. I also promised my grandma a pair of socks. I'm thinking squishy, warm bedsocks. I know her feet get cold and I have some great superwash merino handspun I could use for them.

We took my mother to Phipps Conservatory yesterday. I took many photos.
All of them can be found here, but this one is a particular favorite.


And for some reason, these japanese maple buds reminded me of ballet slippers...


(if you prefer viewing through flickr, they're available through the link in the sidebar as well.)

Have a good week!

Pinwheel Sweater-To-Be.

I cast on with the green last night. It was 1)very hard to start on four size eight doublepointers with two stitches on each and 2) very hard to put down. I'm going to alternate solid colors with the variegated as the circle widens out. Should look pretty cool.

I still need to spin up about two more skeins of yarn but I'm close enough to start. I want this done while I can still wear it!

another nota bene

I've finally gotten around to posting my amazon associates link in the sidebar. It's been languishing on an unused comcast user page for the past several years. If you feel the need to buy anything on Amazon, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd start your search there!

Thanks.

Not much new...

Just trying to get by day to day.

The weather's turning and I'm trying to get enthused about the yard.

We got our first daffodils this week, and that was exciting. Quite the little gathering of mini-daffs and crocuses out front.

I sat outside spinning today for about two hours. It was great. The dogs got hopelessly tangled up around the tree at least four times, then I found out that the neighborhood yellow jackets are also waking up and I haven't dealt with their nests yet. So it was back inside. I hate having to get rid of them but I'm allergic-one sting from a wasp of any kind could put me in the hospital and I can't afford that.

It's still very muddy out, but Lake Fritz out in the back yard has pretty much dried up. The grass is coming in nice and green now, and you can really tell that everything's waking up. Yesterday, I watched a hawk chase two crows out of the woods. He was honking and quacking almost like a duck, I've never heard a hawk make such noises, but it was definitely him. I wonder if we'll have baby hawks this year? Sure hope so. We have a nest of black capped chickadees under the front porch awning, too. I put a feeder there for them, but the only birds I've seen in the feeder have been cardinals. Bold things. The cats sit on the piano and just watch the birds on the feeder, fascinated. Another case of not having the camera ready when the opportunity arises.

I made socks for the kids for spring. I'm also working on socks for my mother, and spinning the last couple of skeins for the pinwheel sweater. I'm hoping to get it done before it's completely too hot to wear a sweater! It'll definitely be an outerwear type thing, I'm going to invent pockets for it and figure out a unique closure if I can. Might consult my mother on that one.

Here's the kids' socks.

Anna's used the "overlapping waves" pattern.


And Lena's were cabled. They both liked them a great deal.

Saturday was the "baby shower" for the Western PA Wildlife Center. We went for an hour or so, it was chilly and raining off and on.


They seemed to have a decent turnout in spite of it.



Well, back to spinning. No profound thoughts today, just gratitude for the warmth and the flowers and the sunshine and all the things that are good and right in my life.

long past time

Well, it's been a while. And as you can see, I lost patience with the other format. Actually, lost patience isn't quite the phrase I was seeking. What was it again? Oh yeah. Hate. I just dislike this one, active hatred isn't part of it. What makes me upset is all the wasted space over on the right of the screen that could be used as part of my text block, and I'm not 1) competent or 2) resourceful enough to fix. I've sent it to the resident computer expert, AKA Mr. Buttercup, to see if he can do anything with it.

This week has been somewhat hectic. Number two daughter was in for her spring break. I took her to Knit One and let her experience it. I also got her a kit for this.



Cute, huh? She did it in one evening watching television. I told her she can avail herself of some of my sugar and cream cotton if she wants to make another one.

I've been making socks like a crazy woman. I finished my Jaywalkers, finally, after ripping them back three times. (I was doing the double decrease wrong and it looked wonky.) I could not be happier with these socks.



They're heavenly soft, and they fit. The colors are amazing. The pattern is so easy that I immediately cast on another pair, with some modifications.

This is Knitpicks Sock Memories in S'Mores. Instead of doing a knit front and back for the increases, I'm doing yarn overs. It should make for a stretchier leg.

All in all, it's been a week or so of successfully ripping out things and making other things out of them. The lace stole I started is in good progress at being a different, slightly narrower lace stole/scarf, and needs a few more rows before it's worthy of a picture, but it's coming along well. I've also done some spinning, some blue and green for the sweater project, and an alpaca/silk blend that was pure therapy spinning.

Really, though, I'm delighted just to have broken the ice for patterned socks. Not really that hard, after all! So much so, that I started Ostara Socks for the girls.
Lena's got one already made, in a simple cable pattern. I need her to try it on, though, before I make the second one, to make sure it fits.


The actual color falls somewhere between these two.



For Anna's, I'm using the pattern "Overlapping waves" from the stitch dictionary that I have.


I'm doing the heel flap now and haven't decided if I'm going to continue the pattern down the foot or not. I'm kinda doing the math as I go, if it looks too complicated to continue the pattern I'll drop it.


Bob brought me some wonderful roses for International Women's Day on Friday. He's a nice guy. And the roses are spectacular.

Things are waking up in the yard. We had a couple of good "sit outside and go aaaah" days over the weekend. Unfortunately, I'm having some vertigo issues with the change in weather. Not sure if it's allergies, congestion, or what, but I'm decidedly off-balance.

Figment got to spend some time outside, as well.


We've had a good week and a half with Anna. She's pretty good company, when all is said and done. We've watched some good movies, I've cooked some darned good dinners, and we've continued to improve our relationship as mother and daughter. Easy to forget that those kinds of relationships need ongoing work too... how I wish MY mother would remember that sometimes. She never, ever calls me, she says it's up to me to call her since I'm the daughter. It's so hard not to be stubborn with her.

I don't have a whole lot else to say. I'm tired, dizzy, and not looking forward to going to work tomorrow, so I think I'm going to let this Meclazine take hold and go to bed early. Until next time...