I want to tell you just how much I love you

Finished my Honeybee Stole and a quick Annis, both from handspun.





It ended up being about seven feet long. I haven't done an official measurement yet but it's a big MFer.







There are a ton more pictures of both shawls on flickr-see the link on the sidebar.

My next project is another Annis out of the alpaca I spun for last year's Tour de Fleece. And I have a spinning project in the works, with this.



I split it evenly down the length (no idea how I did that, total luck as the weight is only off by one gram) and I'm going to spin as fine as possible then chain ply it and knit socks out of it, one going from yellow to purple and the other from purple to yellow. I love that combination.

In other news, Dylan got his wheelchair and is learning how to use it. We're also learning how to get him in it so it's right. It's a learning curve for all of us.

Here's a video of Dylan before the cart. It's kinda sad. Hence the cheerful music.


And here he is in the wheelchair, doing much better.



He was going to try to roll on the ground and we were all "NOOOOO".



Sorry for the jerky video, it was on my cell phone while I was walking. He really likes the cart.

Bob and I went to Fallingwater on our anniversary weekend, which was last weekend. Loved it. Haven't been there since I was a kid and it's awesome.





Of course while we were down there, we had to stop by Ohiopyle and see Cucumber Falls. It made me depressed that I couldn't go down the hill and walk around closer to the water, though.


By the time we got there I was done in, physically. It was a good day, though, topped off by a great dinner at La Cucina Dolce, a place I've been wanting to try.

Bob had trout with mussels and clams


and I had gnocchi.


The food overall was delicious. The beans and greens appetizer was outstanding. The crabcake appetizer was good, but pretty small for the price. The gnocchi dish I had would have been improved by not having some very assertive green olives battling the pancetta in the sauce for taste domination-I'd recommend they use a milder olive or a milder meat but it was really, really good. The service was good and we got a reservation a half hour ahead of our arrival so that was nice.

That's about it. It's hot and steamy in Pittsburgh this week and I'm broke, so no arts festival yet again this year. Maybe next time.

Come with me, my love, to the sea, the sea of love.

Most of my knitting attention over the last month and a half has been devoted to one project, the honeybee stole by Anne Hanson. I've had my traveling socks of course and I do have another pair cast on and I also have a complicated sock barely started but mostly, it's been this.

I had several false starts. The needle size was all wrong.

Because the pattern was written for laceweight yarn and I was knitting with a somewhat variable fingering weight, I needed to upsize obviously but it took me a few tries because of my inexperience with lace to determine where exactly I should be in terms of gauge etc. So three different starts until I settled on size 8 needles.

Then there were the mistakes. Thankfully I did not have to rip back to ground zero with any of them but I did have to tink back almost 20 rows once, in the car, while we were on vacation. (the vacation itself may be another post but basically we went to Pigeon Forge TN to see my younger daughter. It was an adventure.)



So things were going well. I had a few scares when I picked up the center stitches to continue from the middle to the other side but after agonizing over it for a few days and much careful laying out and aligning and looking I determined it'd be ok after blocking. Not in a delusional "oh, that giant glaring mistake will block out" way but in a realistic way.

This shawl has three sections. You knit all three sections twice. You start in the middle, do the honeycomb bit, do the swarm bit, do the hive bit, do the edging and cast off, then pick up the middle from your provisional cast-on and repeat.





I was on the last 2 (out of 10) repeats on the last section on the second side when I decided to take the stole to a spin night at a local yarn store for show and tell.

I guess there's really something wrong with my eyes, or the light in my living room, because I had several opportunities to see where the problem was, and I did not see it. Can you see it?



No? How about now?


Now?






That really needs a dramatic "DUN DUN DUN" sound effect.



All I can figure is I did a lot of this knitting during hockey games and I simply did not see it at the time. Plus, we use CFL bulbs and maybe I didn't have quite enough light when I was knitting.



How did it get into the yarn? Well, one of my bobbins had one ply of the pink and orange sock yarn I spun not long ago and I guess I just went ahead and plied that off with the new yarn without noticing at the time. You think I'd at least notice the texture of merino vs border leicester, but no.



So I considered my options, but I knew what was going to happen. Dyeing it might work but I would always know. Ignoring it was not a good idea because, seriously? A big pink stripe? No. I came home from work last night, stuck a long circular needle into the section just below the second swarm section, and frogged it. (there were some knitting errors in the first repeat of the second swarm section that I could have ignored, but I figured in for a penny, in for a pound etc.) I picked up the stitches without further drama and got the offending pink yarn out and got moving on it. I got a repeat done last night while listening to "My Dinner with Andre" which was a movie for which I was definitely not in the mood.

I just didn't want it to suck. And hopefully, now it won't.

It was really embarrasing, though, to pull that out of my knitting bag at the LYS and have everyone going OOH and AAH and then seeing that stripe and the EWW and the UGH (not from them, from me) and the feeling of utter FAIL that happened at that moment.

I hope to start blogging again more but who knows. I'm chairing the Mensa gathering here again and I think I'm going to be pretty busy with that as well as work wearing me out what with this new project I'm on etc. So I can't make any promises.

In the meantime, here's some flowers.

I like to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a

So, we're at Karaoke on Saturday night, which we do on a semi-regular basis. We'd each done two songs, had a third in, it was about 1130. A guy gets up to do a song and before he starts, the KJ, Joanie, (who is usually very awesome) starts talking about how if you're on south beach or atkins or weight watchers if you eat nothing but green beans you can have extra beer. Most of my readers understand my stance on dieting, but I was ok with this much, yeah, funny, whatever, moving on. She continued, however, with how she wanted to look good in a bathing suit and how she didn't want to gross anyone out, and how she'd surely gross people out if she went out in a bathing suit now. This woman is about five ten, probably wears a US 12. Not gross, and even if so, so what? So that started bothering me. Then the guy who was about to do his song piped up about how he and his wife went to Punta Cana where there are nude beaches and Europeans go around in bathing suits with all their fat hanging out and ew. I started steaming. Then he started in on this one guy "who must have been about 280 pounds! he was about six feet tall! ew! he was wearing a speedo! ew!" and how his stomach was hanging over the front of his bathing suit and how gross it was etc etc etc. He must have said "280!!!!!" about six times.

Bear in mind this was karaoke night. All this was taking place on microphones.

Bob was a little worried about me because of the steam coming out of my ears, so when I said "can we please leave" he did not argue. I was very sorry to disappoint him but I was furious. And sad.

Why sad? Because Karaoke Night was one thing I really enjoyed. I felt like the crowd of mostly regulars were okay with me, that I was appreciated as a singer, and that I wasn't grossing anyone out with my horrible fat fattiness. I wonder what arbitrary number they associate with me? I now no longer feel safe, accepted, or welcome at Karaoke Night. I feel judged. And that pisses me off, and makes me sad. I don't know how I'm going to feel next time we go back, if we go back. I love to sing. I love having that outlet. But I fucking hate thinking that when I'm up there singing, people are guessing how much I weigh and thinking how gross I'd look in a bathing suit.

Also, news flash, people mostly put on bathing suits to go swimming, not to appeal to anyone's aesthetics, so fuck you, punta cana-going asshole.

Enough of that. Over the weekend, it wasn't all bad. I made bread.



Nummylicious homemade italian bread NOT done in the bread machine, all done by hand. It was GOOD. And PRETTY.



Here's Bob's sweater in progress. I promise it's a sweater. It will be, anyway.



The yarn is a cotton/wool blend that I got from a ravelry destash. Nice stuff.

Broke away from knitting for a couple of days to get some spinning in.



If this looks familiar, it should. It's the other half of the "london fog" roving for our matching socks. I did not get the same yardage, though, so it must be thicker than the other skein. It's 284 yards.

Finally got around to photographing this.


It was supposed to be sock yarn. It's more a sport/dk weight. It's going to be socks anyway. This was a weird spinning experience. I started with a batt, broke it up into thirds, and spun randomly into three plies. While I was doing the singles, I was not liking the yarn much. When plying it, I started liking it more. Then, I loved it when I wound it off the bobbin. Then, when I washed and hung it, I didn't like it again. Now that I've split it off into cakes, I like it a bit better. I was originally going to do something seasonal, socks or fingerless gloves with peppermint candy or candy cane cables or eyelets or something but I think it'll be too confused looking with the colors.



So I think I'll go with something textured and simple. This will be a sock for size 3 needles so it'll go fast, and yes, it'll be for me too.

The green socks are moving along, I didn't photograph them but I'm up to the ankle on the first one, and moving fast. I'm happy with them. Maybe I'll get some photos later but frankly, it's been a busy week and it's not going to slow down any time soon.

More later in the week probably. Any input into the karaoke situation will be appreciated!

another one rides the bus

I’m a transit knitter, always working on a sock. I carry my little sock bag (courtesy of Messie Craftie) inside my purse and pull it out once I get situated and knit until I’m almost downtown. The first thing I saw when I got on the bus today was another knitter, also working on a sock.
Instead of falling over in excitement, I smiled and tried not to geek out too much. I got out my sock and quipped that they’d have to rename this bus the knitting bus, haha, feeling like a total dork. I asked what she was working on and what the yarn was. She said it was a sock, and I was like, “I know, I have a sock too, hahahaha”. (it was “Online” self patterning in a plain stockinette pattern on DPNs, looked like size 1s.) She wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as I was about seeing another sock knitter on the same bus, so I shut up and just knitted the rest of the way into town. It was pretty awkward.
Really, it’s very tough for me to talk to strangers especially since my appearance is so bizarre lately what with the crutch and the being a fat lady who dresses for comfort (not for speed, hahaha) and the comfy shoes with the bright hand-knitted socks. When I got off the bus, I said good bye and happy knitting, and tried not to be too embarrassed that I’d even said anything in the first place.
It’d be different if there were as many knitters on the bus as, say, MP3 listeners or phone-talkers or readers but this is literally the first time I’ve ever seen anyone knitting on a bus in Pittsburgh besides me and it was really, really cool. So, anonymous sock-knitting lady, I’m sorry if I alarmed you or made you uncomfortable, I was just happy to see someone else knitting a sock!

Here's some photos of my awesome sock bag-it's reversible, very simple, no fancy pockets or anything inside or outside but it was inexpensive, it's washable, and it won't break my heart six ways if something were to happen to it. It does the job.

Blue side...


And flowery side.


My current travel sock is “daughtersocks Mark II”, the red Beaded Rib. I’m using a suspected Trekking Handart (got in a destash very cheaply with no ballband). It was advertised as XXL but the colors match a Handart colorway called Feuerland. It feels a lot like the Handart I used to make my Hederas so I’m about 90% sure that’s what it is.

I don’t know why I can’t seem to make myself finish the damned Koi socks. I did get the heel done and worked a repeat down the foot when we went to the OTB for the Breeders Cup Races last week but I haven’t picked it up since. Got about another two repeats on the Woodland Shawl done too and nothing further. The wheel takes all my attention lately.

In other crafty news, I’ve finished the first braid of London Fog merino. 350 yards of a heavy fingering/light sport. It needs to be washed and hung out to dry before I get a WPI but it looks pretty good. I’m trying to make this into matching skeins to make Bob and I matching socks. It’s my first attempt at double-drive on the Kromski and I have to say, the yarn is very consistent. I also got into the chapter in Alden Amos about plying, which is really making me rethink the amount of thought I give to the process. To me it’s always been plyplyply as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the frenzy-ply wo-man! Well, plying this one, I slowed down, gave more distance between kate and me, and between me and wheel, and am being more mindful. It’s frustrating, but it’s going to be well worth the effort as the yarn is a lot more consistent and no snarls or overspun bits. This skein is the best yarn I've spun yet, except for the end bits that I chain-plied and I just don't like the way that looks but I didn't know what else to do with the leftovers. But the attention to plying paid off in a big way overall. Dammit, Alden, why must you make so much sense?! I’m actually trying to figure out a way to make a bobbin-winder and invest in some storage bobbins, which only cost a buck each or something.
Here's some photos of THAT.
The freshly-plied yarn on the Babe. The outer layers are chain-plied leftovers so you're not getting a very good look at the yarn itself here.

Here it is hanked up with the roving for the other skein and a partial kitty who would NOT move.

And here it is all by itself.




I have to admit, I'm a little bit in love with this yarn.


I bit on another Ravelry destash too. I’ve been wanting to try spinning some cotton for a while and now I have a wheel that can actually do that. (Dunno if I can do it, but the wheel should be capable.) I got three cotton roving braids for five bucks each, plus some bamboo fiber to play with, and a gorgeous set of mixed-fiber batts. The destasher was also sweet enough to enclose an extra mini-batt that looks like that ribbon candy-it’s totally adorable and all of the batts look like they’ll be fabulous spinning. I’ll try to get pictures of the new fiber up soon. Hopefully I won’t be lamenting my inability to spin cotton. The bamboo shouldn’t be an issue; it has a similar staple to silk and doesn’t need the speed that cotton does. I doubt I’ll be getting much bamboo fiber, though, because the process to make it is rather resource-intensive and perhaps not so environmentally wise. Cotton is also resource-intensive and damaging to the environment unless it’s organic cotton and I don’t think this stuff I got is organic, but I’m rationalizing that I didn’t buy it from a vendor, I got it from someone who is destashing so it won’t increase demand. Plus, this way I can see if I can and will spin cotton on a regular basis before spending more money on organic cotton fiber which is quite a bit more expensive. I can rationalize anything, then go on in the next paragraph to whine about money. It’s a problem, I know.

Anyway, I spun up the first ply of one of the cotton braids. Took a while to get the hang of it, as it is a very different feel with the short staple length but once I got going it wasn't too bad. Mostly it just feels weird and tiring on the hands. I think the trick is drafting short and fast and keeping the spin consistent with very little uptake. I did have to go back to scotch tension to control the pull-in, I could not get that figured out with the double-drive. Hmm. Must give that some thought and do some research.
Here's the first of it.

Obviously I need practice but all in all it's satisfactory.

I’ve been doing nothing but spinning, much to my shame. Well, not really. I got a new tool, of course I’m going to use it. But the dread holiday gift-giving season doth approach, and I have a minimum of 2.5 more pairs of socks to make, plus a wine-bottle cozy for one aunt/uncle set, plus something for another aunt/uncle set and another aunt. Plus I have to come up with a gift for my mother and the girls, but probably not all crafted except for the socks. I have ideas for the kids, but not sure where the money’s going to come from. I should get something small for elder daughter’s boyfriend, he looks like he’s going to be a keeper. (after two years) My mom, I have no idea. I guess it depends on how well she takes to spindling. I’d love to get her a nice spindle and give her a pack of fiber samples to try. I think I’m going to talk to Bob about maybe us not getting each other anything major this year. It’s silly. We don’t have the money. Maybe we can just fill up each other’s stockings and call it good. STRESS. ARGH.

A bit of good news, I sold my very first sock pattern. Some kind soul on Ravelry bought a copy of Cucumber Falls. I was unreasonably excited. I also managed to get all of my free patterns converted to PDF and uploaded to Ravelry for download as well, so if you’re over there, feel free to stop by my shop and get a copy.

I’m actually penning this (pixeling this?) at work on an 18 – minute break, of which I get two daily. And now it’s time to go back to work, so I’m going to close and maybe get some actual work done today at some point.
ETA-Now with added pictures!