The Heathen Housewife

Man, Oh Man...

2008-07-14T22:49:00.002-05:00

I SO want to catch up on blog stuff. I'm going to do it right now even though I didn't even come down stairs from putting the girls to bed till almost 10. And then I spent half an hour catching up with my husband. Some of these photos go back a ways...but at least I'm finally getting around to the knitting and spinning updates!

About a week or so ago, a rare thing happened - the girls both fell asleep in the car. It happened on the way home from the Mall of America - Julie was holding the bag with her new dress in it.

So I had Joe drive us through Starbucks, and we sat in the car for a few minutes and had a little mini-date. And I did some knitting.

Changing subjects, last Thursday we were at a playdate, and one of the girls found a cicada on the ground. One of those giant, creepy-looking bugs. It was a moment in which we were on the brink of having four little girls freak right the hell out. Instead, I leaned over and picked it up, told them a few little factoids about how they spend most of their lives underground and stuff, and before I knew it, Julie wanted a turn holding it.

And then Sophie wanted a turn, too.

Our little friends were a little more reticent about the giant bug, but at least nobody climbed the walls over it.

On to the spinning. I'm still working on the Sheep-to-Shoe kit from Blue Moon. Here's where it stood last week - half done, plus one finished spindle and a second spindle half full...

And here's the status as of last night - half of the yarn, finished in front, two full spindles and one empty spindle, one sixth of the roving left to go on it. That ball of roving looks a lot smaller in the picture than it does in real life. It really amazes me that such a large volume of wool can turn into such a relatively small volume of singles.

I'd really like to finish this spinning project this week. Because - um - I have an appointment for Saturday morning out at Detta's to try out new wheels. Detta sounded super-nice on the phone and I'm really looking forward to meeting her in person. She was all "You really have to sit down and try several out - it's like picking out puppies from a litter - you just know which one wants to follow you home when you play with it."

It sure would be nice to have the spindle project done before my new wheel follows me home on Saturday so that I can focus on the wheel guilt-free. Yay!

Oh, look - it's a finished object - those cotton socks are finally done. They look like crap all unblocked and just laying there in my semimostly-shaded backyard.

But they look pretty happy on my feet, and they're quite comfy. Yay!

I've got another pair of socks started at the moment, but I really don't want to talk about them just yet. If they turn out decently and I finish them in time, they might go to the Fair. Or maybe not. The clock's ticking on the entry deadline of August 13, and I really don't want to pressure myself on a silly ole pair of socks.

Finally, we can't ignore the diamond sweater. I have been working on the diamond sweater whenever I have some quality couch time in the evening with a DVD. That hasn't been happening very regularly, though, and even when I do get an hour or so, it's slow going.

Here's the big-picture view of the sleeves.

They kind of remind me of a giant, wooly jellyfish with their long tendrils of yarn tails. I continually waffle between winding the yarn up into nice little butterflies and just letting the tails run wild. It almost seems like the butterflies are harder to untangle than the unfettered strands.

The thing is, I am adding in new color chunks every few rows, so having to stop to splice more yarn onto an existing strand (usually the grey-purple background color) just pisses me off. So I usually splice in a pretty long chunk. Also, the weaving in of the ends takes for freakin' ever, and there are a lot of ends. Unlike with the mitered square blanket, there is no great place to put a lot of the ends, so I have to get creative.

Yeah, so it's creeping along. I think I need to add a few more rows to the body before it'll be ready for joining at the underarms as well. The sleeves are maybe 1/3 or so finished. I'm not betting on this one making it to the fair, but definitely I'll be wearing it this winter.

Wanna hear something funny? One of my readers messaged me and said

Which made me laugh out loud. I think the internal me is all about sexy librarian. HA! And by the way, I keep meaning to do a post about all the audio books I've been listening to. Does anyone care about audio books?

And finally, I've been having a neighbor kid come over and play with Sophie one or two mornings a week while Julie is in pre-school. J is really good with my girls, we've known him since we moved here a couple years ago, and he is the son of one of my fabulous favorite neighbors. He's only 12, but I'm around the house and available for any help they might need, and I check in on them regularly. Still, it gives me a chance to get a little cleaning or bill-paying done unassisted. Nice!

I snuck this picture through the kitchen window - they are playing with a tub of uncooked rice mixed with some beads that I keep around for digging in, measuring, and generally squishing. Best toy I ever bought! They got bored with the combination of sidewalk chalk, bubbles, bike, and water toys after about fifteen minutes - they played with the rice for more than half an hour!

Whew! That's it. I'm off to spin a little before bed.

I Am...

2008-07-09T21:02:00.002-05:00

...almost at a loss as to what to do with myself since Sophie is asleep at her normal bedtime for the first time in about three weeks.

...going to finish a pair of socks tonight (knock on wood)

...probably going to enjoy a bowl of the Fruit Loops I bought at the grocery store the other day and have hidden in the cabinet so that I don't have to set a bad example for the girls.

...going to catch up on some of the Netflix that have been waiting for me to get an evening to myself.

...totally in love with my family even though they drive me insane.

...without any good pictures to offer tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

And Then This Happened...

2008-07-06T16:51:00.000-05:00

Sunday Afternoon

2008-07-06T16:27:00.000-05:00

We spent most of the day at the Maul of America getting some new shorts
for Joe and a couple of dresses for Julie - all her little friends at
pre-school seem to favor dresses, so now she does too.

It's super warm here today, and the water in the wading pool has finally
warmed up to comfortable temperature, so the girls are relaxing a bit
while Joe digs the detritus of last months' storm from the gutters on
the garage - there are tiny seed saplings starting to pop up from them,
which was our sign to pay them some attention.

As for me, I am cruising along on my stripey cotton socks and resting my
feet in the pool while Sophie teases me"Ribbi Ribbi Mommy" (her floatie
is a frog)

Holidazed

2008-07-05T14:42:00.002-05:00

I'm still in a daze from yesterday's fun. I can't remember the last time I had such an incredibly fun, yet relaxed and relatively carefree day. The girls woke up happy and stayed happy till the very end. Joe was in a pretty good mood all day. I did almost no cooking. And there was fun, fun, fun till I started to feel like I was dreaming. This is a pretty knitting-free post, and quite picture heavy, so if you're not interested in my family saga, move along now and see you next time. Here we go...

We slept in just a little bit, but not too late because the parade was to start at 10, which meant we had to leave the house by 9:30. Joe fed the girls breakfast while I took a shower and got dressed. We made it to the parade site at just the right time - early enough to find a decent spot and late enough that the girls didn't get too restless while they waited. The red wagon worked out pretty well as a vehicle since we had to park several blocks away, and it provided better seating for them than the double stroller did last year - this way they both got front row seats.

I love this parade since it reminds me very much of the parades from my childhood, in downtown Columbia Missouri. It was a lot like last year's parade, but at only once a year and with a few changes it never seems to get boring. There's the fire engines,

The horses (there were many - I liked this one's glitter-painted hooves.)

The men in kilts...

The war veterans...

While I am generally anti-war, I feel a strong sense of pride and gratitude for these men and women who have given so much for our country - the young veterans as well as the old. We clapped for about fifteen minutes straight as the ranks passed us by, and I explained in simple words to my girls that these were people who have done brave things for our country and we should cheer for them.

The girls got stickered up by the politicians - we accepted only the Democrats' labels, of course.

Several flag teams...

and marching bands...

countless clowns...

more horses, or in this case really Icelandic ponies. Ponies having really bad hair days, that is...

A float full of mini beauty queens...

and a pack of tiny cheerleaders...

This family was sitting right next to us, and they had the candy-whoring down to a science. They were dressed in their gaudiest, glitteriest "patriotic" frippery, and every time a candy-wielding parade group passed by, the girls chimed "Happy Independence Day!" It never failed - every group showered them with hand-fulls of whatever they were giving out. Not that I really wanted my girls to get too much junk, and we did come home with quite our share of freebies, but a lot of people passed my cuties by altogether in the lee of this family, and it irked me just a bit - mostly because I wanted my girls to feel as lavished with attention as those two were.

This guy impressed me, riding his horse this way - and the horse impressed me even more as it didn't even flinch when the other people in the group shot very loud toy guns.

Stilt-walkers...

These two kids in their little toy convertible, with their stressed-out mom who was trying to keep them going at the right speed.

Some hot dogs - this black one in particular - the weather was at least perfect for people this year - neither overly hot or humid like last year.

The Edina swim team with their alligator mascot...

After the parade we came home and I made BLTs for lunch. I had a giant head of leaf-lettuce from our CSA share, and recently discovered Campari brand of tomatoes from the store, which unlike most store-bought tomatoes actually taste really good and are big enough to slice for sandwiches. Yum! Then it was time for Sophie's nap, and I indulged in a nap along with her. Glorious sleep! (She's napping again as I type, but this time I'm sipping on a cup of coffee instead of the sleep that I could really still use today.)

By the time everyone was up, I had just enough time to make a nice berry salad - I like to toss in a little brown sugar, and for the adult version a splash of dark rum for flavor with my strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. MMMM! And we headed over to Joe's cousin's house for barbecue. She made some awesome ribs, and we all ate out on the deck. This time, the kids actually stayed put at their table and ate their food. My girls love ribs almost as much as I do.

Then there were cupcakes, which they all enjoyed, but Sophie especially.

The kids blew bubbles and ran around while the grownups...

played croquet! I haven't played croquet for a very long time, but I've always loved it. That's Joe's cousin John taking a turn.

Joe played only during the first game, while I helped wrangle the kids and clean up. During the second game, I played and he amused me in between my turns by tossing a frisbee. I SO suck at throwing a frisbee. But I still kind of enjoy it.

Here's my croquet ball.

Here's the view from my place on the field ahead of the pack as we finished the game.

For once, I actually won - coming out of a dismal start - I felt like a little kid having way too much fun.

But it was time for the cousins to take a b-a-t-h and we decided to toss ours in with them. Please don't mention this one in the comments or link to it - I'm hoping the creeps don't get their hands on it, but the bubbles are doing a pretty good job here.

It was pretty hilarious, watching them all do their thing, and they loved it.

And then it was time for the fireworks. The girls - Julie especially - had been looking forward to it. I'd promised them we could go if they were up to it and not too tired or crabby. We got there just late enough that there were no parking spots left anywhere close, so Joe dropped us off and drove around while the girls and I sat and watched the show.

I only wish he could have seen the looks of wonder and excitement on their faces. They sat in my lap and watched at first...

And then Julie jumped up and did a little happy-fireworks dance.

And despite an almost-dead cell phone on my part, we managed to meet back up with Joe just a block away and hop back in the van for the ride home. At which point Julie kind of lost it a bit and fell into whinging mode till we got her to bed, but that was to be expected as it was a good three hours past her normal bed time. So I'm calling the day a wild success.

This morning was a little slower, but just as happy. Joe got up and went off to play disc golf, then the girls and I had breakfast before Joining some of our favorite neighbors for a splash in their wading pool that lasted the rest of the morning. The men came home just in time to go back out and fetch sandwiches for our lunch, which we ate out on the neighbor's fantastic deck before bringing the girls home for Sophie's nap time and a break all around.

Later, there will probably be more wading pool action (we had filled ours already when the neighbors invited us over, and it will be warm enough to swim in by the time Sophie wakes up). I also have a rack of ribs thawed in the fridge that need to be barbecued - I bought them before I knew the menu for yesterday's cook-out, but I'm happy to eat ribs twice in a row anyway. Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Happy Independence Day

2008-07-04T10:06:00.000-05:00

(To my American readers)

From the parade in Edina.

Night On The Town

2008-07-01T21:14:00.000-05:00

Me and my two favorite neighbors are just wraping up a girls' night
out...pedicures, chinese food, and ice cream at Sebastian Joe's. I love
the chocolate coyote. Home I go to see if there's any chance both girls
are asleep yet.

Titanium!

2008-07-01T14:37:00.002-05:00

I continue to struggle with finding time to blog or do much anything for myself really. Our days have been happy ones around here lately, and I really have very little to complain about - it's just that we're keeping busy with summery stuff and also that Sophie continues to play night owl. I think she's getting close to needing to give up naps, only she does really well with her nap and gets super-tired without one. But with her nap, she's been staying wide-awake till 10 p.m. or later, though we put her to bed at 8. But I'll just hang in there and it will get better soon, I'm sure.

In the mean time, I have the most awesome thing to tell you about. The knitters are going to be crazy-jealous, so brace yourselves. I mentioned my friend the machinist last week, and teased him about the titanium knitting needles he promised me months and months ago. What crazy timing, because yesterday Joe brought home a package that had arrived at his office - with a letter from our friend dated before my post and with a delicious one-of-a-kind gift inside.

Titanium knitting needles! They measure at about US size 8, and are about a foot long. Here's what our friend had to say:

"Sorry it took so long to make it happen, but I reckon the result is about as high zoot as you'll ever see...These are 6AL-Titanium throughout. Shafts 0.187" shrink-fitted (with liquid nitrogen!) Into holes bored to only 0.185".

If you break them, I'd love to hear how! The length might be too much, but the material is valuable so I did not want to waste what I got. Have fun!"

I don't really understand some of those terms, but they are super-neat, and as our friend went on to say that he's probably not going to make any more sets of these, they will likely remain unique. Thanks, D! Think of something hand-knit that you'd like to have and I'll do my best to fill an order - maybe a little dog sweater? (Joe's idea.)

Let's take some more looks. The tips are nicely shaped, with slightly sharp tips, but a smooth transition to the full diameter of the shaft.

The back ends have largish stops, but I love the shape - it's kind of mod looking!

I had to cast on something right away. I decided to use some of that handspun yarn from my first attempt - I had a pattern in mind, and while these are slightly smaller needles than what the pattern would have recommended, I knit loosely and I think they will work out just fine. I think I'll keep the identity of the project to myself for now - it's so silly and funny - feel free to guess.

The texture of these needles is a little different than any other that I've used so far. The polish is smooth to the touch, but as you pass the woolly stitches over it, you can feel the slight texture almost like you would feel with wood or bamboo needles - not like the uber-slickness of Addi Turbos. They are a bit on the heavy side - but the weight feels kind of good in the hands, and they are pretty well-balanced - more so than I would have expected with the large stopper ends.

The sheer novelty of these needles makes them an amazing tool to own, and the story behind them - coming from our friend, about whom I've already shared as much as I'm comfortable doing, makes them very special.

I hate to add anything else to this post because a) I hate to steal the limelight and b) how could anything I add top it? But who knows when I'll be able to come up for air again, so I'll go ahead and clear out the photo que.

Here's the current pair of mindless socks in progress. I'm past both heels, so I've got a nice supply of mindless knitting ahead of me for the home stretch of this pair. I really haven't spent much time on these as most of my meager free time in the house or yard has been going to the spinning or the diamond sweater project. Still, I've had a few minutes here and there riding in the car while Joe drives, or sitting with friends and chatting, when the spinning is just a little too distracting.

I did finally finish the anniversary socks for Joe, and he tried them on with his usual lackluster enthusiasm. They fit, he likes them, and will wear them when the weather is cold enough.

Really, he prefers electronic gifts over wooly ones, though. These are Dream in Color Smooshy yarn, knit on size 0000 Addi Turbos with the magic loop method. There is K2P2 ribbing up the instep and on through the cuffs, which finish in a 2X2 tubular sewn bind-off.

Oh, and we made some little masks over the weekend. Here's Sophie wearing a piggy one. Julie, per her usual, refused to be photographed.

Oink!

Spinning, Sofa-ing, Splashing

2008-06-26T13:57:00.002-05:00

I remain mostly too busy having fun around here to bother documenting the fun. But I'm taking a brief break during naptime to stop by and say hello.

First, let's look at the spinning progress. I finished up the third cop (spindle-full) of singles. And I had a question from a ~~muggle~~ non-spinning friend (Hi, Doug!) about what exacty I'm spinning with, so I think I need to do some basic 'splaining. Here's a picture of my three spindles full of yarn.

The spindles are made of wood, with brass rings around the circle at the top to help balance the weight in the best way so that it will spin longer. The idea is, the spindle acts as a top. You hang the newly-made yarn off it, then start it spinning so you can spin some more of it. Yes, Doug - super low-tech. So low-tech that methods like this have been used for tens of thousands of years.

Now, the spindles are standing in a gadget called a Lazy Kate. It's a tool that you use for plying. Most yarn is made up of several plies, or layers of single-spun yarn. It makes it stronger. The lazy kate holds the spindles for me, I run the three strings through the tension ring like so...

And then I use a fourth spindle to twist the three together, winding up the finished yarn onto the stick as I go.

Once the yarn is all spun, I unwind it off the spindle and onto this:

That's a niddy-noddy. I use it so I can make a big loop with the yarn - sort of like winding an extension cord around your arm. Only faster and neater. Once the yarn is skeined, you tie bits of yarn around it in several places to secure it so that it can be washed. Washing it does something called "setting the twist" which means that it kind of finishes the yarn, kind of like how washing and drying your hair when it's on curlers sets the curl.

And to clarify, spindles are different than spinning wheels - two paths to the same end. And yes, spinning wheels are still mostly made out of wood - there are some versions made out of PVC pipes, some made from old bike wheels, and various other materials, but the most popular styles are still made mostly from wood, with metal fittings and often ball bearings these days. Very old-school

As an aside to my other readers, Doug is a very cool guy. He lives in Hawaii, spends a lot of time sailing, has been to the north pole (wearing one of my handknit hats!), and a while back offered to make me some titanium dpns. Where's my knitting-needle love, Doug?

And a close-up of the finished yarn. I'm happy with how this batch turned out. I still have more than half of the fiber left to spin before I can knit up some socks with it.

In other news, we got the new living room furniture we'd been planning to buy, and now our living room looks completely different.

The couch, chairs and ottoman are from IKEA. The rug is a really nice one that we'd had rolled up in the basement since we moved here. I thought I'd never find a place to use it again, and kind of forgot that we even had it. But when I saw the furniture all set up, I thought it was worth bringing it out and taking a look-see. The colors match perfectly, and although the size is much smaller than I'd wanted, I think it just may work. In any case, I'm going to live with it for a while before I go spend another big chunk of change on a new rug.

I feel like such a grown-up with real matching furniture! All this just in time for a house guest who's arriving tomorrow. One of Joe's lovely cousins will be spending the night here tomorrow night, and I've also been running around scrubbing here and there trying to bring the house back up to a liveable standard. We don't want her running away screaming when she tries to use our bathrooms, and the dust bunnies have been getting a little too assertive lately. Having guests is such a great reason to to ahead and do the necessary cleaning!

Finally, we took our first trip of the year to the splash pad today.

It was a bit chilly, but we had a good time. I was going to fill up the girls' wading pool, but it was cloudy this morning and I didn't think there was enough sun to warm the water up in time for them to play this afternoon. Maybe Saturday will be warmer.

Next time, a knitting update. I have a finished object to report and some small progress in other areas as well.

Quick!

2008-06-19T14:22:00.002-05:00

Sophie is napping (but maybe not for too much longer) and Julie is busy putting on a fashion show with her Polly Pockets - I have no idea where she got that idea, but I'm letting her roll with it. So quick, let's see if I can type out a post to catch up on the goodies going on around here.

The anniversary dinner on Monday night was an overwhelming success. I'd suggested to Joe the whole cheese-and-chocolate-only idea, but it turns out he really wanted to have the meat course. So we compromised with a single serving of the broth-pot fondue along with an artichoke-spread first course and a dark chocolate-Bailey's Irish Creme dessert. It was awesome, but Joe of course complained about his overstuffed tummy for the rest of the evening.

Here's what Joe looked like the first time I tried to take his picture over the main course. He always does this to me when I try to take his picture, and honey, you get what you ask for - the whole Internets gets to see your blech face. Like it's frozen that way for eternity.

Here's his nice, normal happy-to-be-eating-yummy-meat face.

And then the waiter saw us taking pictures and offered to take one of both of us.

Let me just say how nice it was to have an entire meal where I got to sit quietly and enjoy my food without having to deal with my lovely children. It happens so rarely, and I miss it. But anyway, we actually had an adult conversation, we took our time eating, and ended up leaving by 7:30 because we'd gotten there so darn early in the first place. No way were the kids going to be asleep yet at that point, so we decided to go do a little shopping in the hopes that maybe just maybe his parents would get them to sleep and give us a true night off.

So we stopped by Crate and Barrel and shopped for a new rug for the living room to go with the new furniture that's headed our way. I think we found something we can live with, and then we even had time to stop at the book store before heading home. Of course Sophie was still wide awake, and it took me almost an hour to get her down. But no worries. A nice anniversary for another year together. He's a keeper.

A quickie note on the spinning progress. Still no decision on wheel-buying. I think I do need to make an appointment to go out to Detta's, especially after all the comments pushing me to head out there from the last post. Yes, of course I will go out there by myself and take my time. As cute as I think the Schacht Ladybug wheel is, I just read a review on Samurai Knitter's blog that gives me second thoughts. I think I need to make sure I go out there with an open mind and try more than one wheel to get a good feel before I make a decision.

Meanwhile, my blog-reading neighbor came over while I was spinning in the back yard yesterday evening and commented on how the colors of my current project looked a lot different than she'd expected. So I made a point to take a natural-lit picture right then and there in an attempt to give the world a better idea.

Someone asked what colorway I bought - it's Fire on the Mountain. I'm working on my second spindle-worth now, and may actually finish it tonight or so. That will leave me with one more spindle to go before I can ply my first batch. Then I will have to do three more spindles-full and ply those too. And then I'll have to repeat two more times because I wasn't able to fit the full length of my 1/6 split roving onto my small spindles. I know, clear as mud. Sorry.

We were out at the park with some friends this morning - a park with a quite steep hill which Julie wanted to climb. Sure, I said.

And then the little girls wanted to follow. You can just see Julie as a tiny speck at the top of the hill in this one.

I ended up climbing with the little ones up and holding their hands, so here's the view from the top.

Luckily nobody went tumbling down. It's finally warm enough here today that I think I will let the girls get the hose out and play in the water later this afternoon when Sophie wakes up and they've eaten a snack. They've been begging me to do that for weeks, and it's just been a bit too chilly so far. Now look at that - I've posted my pictures and still have a few minutes left to spin. See ya later!

Lots of Cool Stuff

2008-06-15T23:34:00.002-05:00

Wow - it has been so long since I posted and so much fun stuff has been going on that I am in desperate danger of losing track and never catching up. So I am yet again dumping large quantities of information and pictures at your feet. Brace yourselves.

Garage Sale -

When I last wrote in, I was insanely busy preparing for a garage sale. Yikes. I don't think I'll ever do that again. I mean, it was okay, but it was a lot of work and I ended up clearing about $50 for the day. At least it was a nice day outside, and my in-laws took the girls so they wouldn't be stressed out watching their stuff get picked through and taken away. I did end up getting rid of a lot of stuff, but a lot of the big stuff is still hanging around - I need to either list it on Craig's List or Freecycle but haven't had time yet.

In the future, I think I will strive to find new homes for things as they are discovered to be unneeded in ours either by giving them to a local charity, a friend, or listing it on the internet for sale or give-away. Much easier and less stress. But now I've got the experience under my belt.

Spinning News -

I've got one more picture of the red-orange merino to show you.

The three skeins of this yarn turned out really nicely, and within a certain tolerance thickness wise. I'd say the last skein is definitely fingering and the first skein is more like sport/DK give or take, but I can get away with using them in the same project. The only catch is that the last skein I spun (the one in the middle in the picture) turned out self-striping - pretty much on accident. You can see it just by looking at the skein. I had been planning as I spun the yarn to make it into a lace scarf or small shawl, but now I think it will have to be socks. I can use the thickest skein for the heels and toes, switch to the stripey one for the feet and up part of the ankle, then back to non-stripey for the ribbing or whenever the stripes run out. Unless any of y'all have a brighter idea. Unfortunately, this stuff isn't superwash.

More Spinning -

I just couldn't resist digging in to my next project - the Sheep to Shoe kit from Blue Moon. No surprise there, right? You start with this giant pile of roving.

Oops - I should have warned you to don some sunglasses. It's pretty bright. Then you split the roving in half lengthwise to make two seperate balls. Which you then split in thirds lengthwise as evenly as possible to make a total of six balls.

I left one of the big balls (big balls! get your mind out of the gutter!) intact and will split it later.

Eventually I hope to have two nice skeins of self-striping three-ply barberpole yarn. In the mean time what I have is this:

Oh, my this yarn is fun to spin. It is so much fun to watch the colors change. I have been dropping my spindle a little more than I like because the merino is slippery. But that brings me to another angle of the whole spinning-obsession topic. The day I bought my first spindle and fiber at the sheep and wool festival, I ran into a friend from Knitting Camp who lives in Eau Claire. She warned me that spindles have a way of multiplying and to watch out. Well, she was right.

A couple weeks ago, I decided that the Ashford spindle I had started with was really nice but too heavy for the lightweight yarns I prefer to knit with and want to spin. So I looked around the 'net and chose a couple of Greensleeves spindles from the Woolery. I bought two of the Ethan Jakob models because I wanted to try plying directly off the spindles onto my Ashford. They arrived and I liked them okay - they didn't spin as smoothly or as long as the Ashford, but I figured that was to be expected because they are so much lighter.

The only catch was that by the time I had finished spinning a full cop on each of them, they both had big chunks missing from the top edges. I wasn't handling them especially carelessly, but I couldn't help dropping them sometimes, and we have hardwood floors. I was disappointed, to say the least. These spindles weren't exactly cheap - although cheaper than many I'd looked at.

Well. I looked around the internet some more - mostly out of curiosity - and decided that I needed to try some Golding spindles. I know, if I had been a more responsible consumer I would have ordered one and decided whether it was worth buying more. But I got caught up in the enthusiasm, and there is the combined shipping issue, and suddenly I was ordering not one, not two, but three identical ring spindles (so I can make three-ply yarn!) plus - um - this thing...

That's a lazy kate for spindles - for you lay people, it's a contraption that assists in plying, or twisting together multiple strands of yarn that have been prepared on seperate spindles.

I have no regrets so far. The new spindles are really well balanced, and so far seem to spin at least as long and as smooth as the heavier Ashford. Plus the ring around the top edge probably protects it a bit when it falls on the floor. I can't wait to try out plying with the Lazy Kate. If you're at all interested in spinning, you should go check out the Golding website. This guy is an amazing woodworker and produces beautiful fiber tools including spinning wheels and looms as well as gorgeous spindles. I bought about the most boring kind he makes - partly because I like simple lines and partly because I was looking for durability and function. I tell you what, though - if I had $5,000 to spend on a spinning wheel I would so totally buy one of his!

And speaking of buying wheels - Joe made me an offer today. I got him a somewhat lavish Father's Day gift (a flat-screen monitor for his computer) and he had kind of fumbled on my Mother's Day gift (a ~~cheap~~ inexpensive piece of software for my computer that I didn't want and that doesn't work with Windows Vista anyway). I don't mean for him to feel guilty. I wanted him to have the monitor, and I had told him I didn't want a Mother's Day gift anyway because I'd just had a free day at the Sheep and Wool festival where I'd bought myself the spindle as a gift.

But then our anniversary is coming up tomorrow, and he knows I'm kind of lusting after a spinning wheel. So he told me that if I want one, I should go ahead and pick one out and buy it. Yowza! Well. We do have a semi-local store that sells wheels and has a great selection available to try out before buying - I've heard great things about it through word-of-mouth. I am tempted to make an appointment to go out there and do some shopping. But I hesitate because I've just gotten into the spindles and I'm having fun with them. I think maybe I should wait a bit - maybe do a couple more projects on my spindles before I jump into an even bigger investment. Maybe do a little more reading and pondering. I don't think I want this badly enough yet, and maybe I need to evaluate the craft supplies I already own before I go about hoarding more. We'll see.

switching topics to....

Dance Recital! -

The girls had their spring dance recital yesterday, and it went oh-so-much better than expected. I don't want to go into too much detail, but I just have to admit that we've struggled with the whole dance thing pretty much all year. Julie has a love/hate relationship with it, and Sophie has a mostly love/love relationship with it even though she wasn't supposed to be a student in the first place. But Sophie butted right in and by the time they started rehearsing for the spring performance, we all accepted that she was going to have to be on stage too.

So we got her a little costume and she hung out backstage with the big girls waiting her turn.

I watched from the wings, so that I could chaperon them back off to the dressing room when they were done. My girls were in a smaller class because Julie was a little overwhelmed by the bigger class at the beginning of the year, so it wasn't a problem for Sophie to be involved too. The teachers were out there with them, and they danced to one of Julie's favorite songs - the theme from Sleeping Beauty "Once Upon a Dream"

After the performance Joe gave them each a bouquet of roses and we took some pictures.

I can't tell you how proud I am of my girls. Of how hard Julie has worked this year to participate in something that she loves but does not come easily for her, and of my little Sophie who may some day be one of those big girls dancing solos and will be able to tell her friends that she started dancing when she was one year old because she saw her big sister doing it and didn't want to be left out.

The flowers are beautiful and sweeten up the air in our kitchen.

And then of course today was

Father's Day -

Julie had made a picture frame at school and was so excited to give it to Joe she woke up talking about it. We also had a card and I made a giant pile of blueberry pancakes for breakfast. The girls ate more than I could believe would fit in their little tummies, and we all had purple mouths afterwards.

And Sophie had a purple face.

Later in the day I took the girls outside to play so that Joe could set up his new monitor and re-arrange his desk.

Julie found a little green caterpillar in the sandbox, and I was surprised at how willing she was to let it crawl up her arm.

And then we went out for pho for dinner at our favorite hole-in-the-wall, so it was an almost perfect day.

Tomorrow -

Tomorrow is our seventh wedding anniversary. Joe's parents are coming over to watch the girls so we can go out for dinner. That should be interesting for them, putting the girls to bed. We are going to the Melting Pot, and I am really looking forward to it. Not only a meal without having to stop and take a child to the bathroom or cut up their food or wipe up a giant spill or fetch the tenth thing from the kitchen. But a meal consisting of fondue! I told Joe I'd be happy with the cheese and dessert courses only - maybe we could share a salad too. The hot oil course always scares me a bit.

Joe already knows what he is getting - he's tried them on for me...

I don't think they'll be entirely finished. They're both nearly done, but I spent a little more time spinning than I should have the last couple of weeks, and I've had the household chores keeping me busy in spades as well. Plus, I have to admit to having fallen asleep over them a couple of times as they are just. so. boring. to knit. But they are turning out beautifully, and they will be nice on his feet come next winter.

And that's about it! See you next time.

Random Bits

2008-06-10T23:52:00.002-05:00

Have I mentioned that we're getting ready for a garage sale? Well, we are, and I am in the midst of gathering and tagging the accumulated crappe from around the house - mostly baby-related crappe, but some of my own as well. And a ton of crappe furniture from the historical days of our single lives. I just know that the moment the sale is over, I will find at least as much crappe again around the house that should have gone in the sale.

I have no idea why garage sales are on Thursdays here in the Twin Cities. I thought it was strange when I moved here more than a decade ago and noticed this bit of cultural trivia. But Thursdays are the main day for garage sales, so that is when we are having ours. Luckily, I'm joining together with one of my awesome neighbors for this crazy thing - using our giant garage and her collection of folding tables. We'll be sharing a couple beers as well, I'm sure.

...

In the mean time, I haven't gotten so very much knitting done in the last few days - just the heel of one of those black socks and ready to do the heel on the second. The spinning continues, and I need to write an entire post about the spinning, but need to take some pictures. I finished some more yummy yarn.

...

Oh, hey! Sock Wars! I finally got my second pair of killer socks sent off on Monday. I came up with some good stuff to include in there, and I hope she likes her package. Unfortunately, I received a package in the mail on Monday afternoon with my own socks-of-death. Worse, they're not exactly wearable. One of them is much bigger than the other, and both of them are really too big for my feet. I can't decide whether I want to send them back to have the bigger one re-knit, or whether I should just be glad I'm done with the game. I think it's going to be the latter. I have other knitting I want to do. I don't think I'll be playing this game again next go-round. :-(

...

Oh, a funny kid story. Yesterday morning I woke up at 4:40 a.m. to Sophie standing beside my bed. "I nee go pah-ey" she said. I need to go potty. I groaned, but she is pretty much potty training herself, and I have to encourage it even if it is only three and a half hours into my night's sleep. I started to roll out of bed and pick her up, and I realized that she had already taken off her pajama bottoms and wet diaper before coming to find me. That little laugh made it almost worth hanging out with my two-year-old in the bathroom before taking her back to bed and trying to sleep for a couple more hours before morning.

Whew! I'm tired. Off to bed. I'll try to have more interesting things to say tomorrow, time permitting. Let's hope that the expected thunderstorms come through tonight and tomorrow so that Thursday can be semi-clear and my garage sale will get some traffic. I've got to unload this junk!

Knitting Ketchup

2008-06-06T21:22:00.002-05:00

I've been having a horrible time getting around to blogging these last few days. It's not in any way for lack of blog fodder - it's more on the opposite of the spectrum in the way that I've been so busy playing with yarn and fiber that I can't seem to pull myself away to tell you about it. I'll warn you right now - it's all about the knitting and fiber this time. If you don't knit, move along now there's nothing to see here.

Let's start with the spinning. There was really no question the other day when I realized I had that felting kit. The fiber in it was luscious merino perfectly-prepared roving, and I needed a fix for my new addiction.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yum. The colors in that first picture are totally off. Here's a more accurate one.

That first skein accounts for a third of the fiber I had, and I got 145 yards out of the 50 grams of roving. I think it's somewhere around sport weight. Of course, this photo is a couple days old, and the second skein is done now and I've just started the third. I'm so spinning out of control. This yarn I've been making - so soft! So shiny! It's gonna make a nice scarf or something.

Moving on, I finished my second pair of Sock Wars socks. I finished them several days ago, and they are still sitting around my office because I've been too busy spinning to get them packed up and sent off to my target.

Also? My target doesn't want chocolate in her package. I don't think I know how to send out a knitting swap package without chocolate in it. I'm trying to come up with something else to stick in there. Something light, because it's going to the UK. Something not too expensive since this is not really a swap any more - I'm on to my second kill and I do have that new spinning addiction to feed after all.

I'm also cranking away on those Smooshy black socks. You can see in this picture that it's not a true, true black, but has some shades of dark blue mixed in there. I love the way socks look and feel with ribbing all the way down the cuff and instep, but it sure slows down the knitting and makes it a little less fun that plain ole stockinette or something more interesting like lace. But these are an act of love, so it's worth it.

Someone asked for details on the pattern. I'm using my standard short-row toe-up pattern - it's available for sale on Ravelry or through a few local yarn stores. Once I finished the toe shaping, I started K2P2 ribbing on the top half of the sock, only in order to center it, I started with P1 and ended with P1. So it goes P1, K2, P2 ... K2, P2, K2, P1.

And finally, we'll look at someone else's knitting - my hat class just ended, and my students were doing great. I especially love the skulls and crossbones.

Excuse me now, I need to go play with some wool.

Horsie Ride!

2008-06-04T10:23:00.000-05:00

Aw, Hail!

2008-05-31T14:48:00.002-05:00

Today was, for the most part, a lovely spring day. Late this afternoon, Joe and the girls were hanging out in the driveway blowing bubbles while I started dinner. And then the tornado sirens went off. Even though the big clouds were way off on the horizon, I waved them into the house, then went on out and helped clean up the toys and junk before we all got inside. Twenty minutes later, the storm hit and it was a doozy!

We hung out in front of the big picture window for a while, and then we took the girls downstairs just to be careful when it really picked up.

That's a quarter.

We took the crank-powered flashlights downstairs with us, just to keep the girls distracted if nothing else.

And then Joe brought down a couple of hail stones...

Sophie said "Ice! Ice!"

The yards were all covered with hail stones, plus bits of twigs and leaves. But at least none of our stuff blew away, and there was no major damage in our neighborhood that I could see.

Bunny!

The storm passed, and the girls and I spent some time checking it all out.

The temperature cooled off pretty quickly, and fog lifted up off the ground.

Of course, there's video.

And here's the fiber-y scoop that I was going to give you before all hail broke loose...

Friday morning I finished plying that last bit of orange wool, then washed it in the sink to set the twist.

And then I ordered a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Fire on the Mountain Sheep to Shoe kit. The one I was drooling over last week. But later that night, I was in my office, and the poor naked spindle was sitting there staring at me.

And I remembered that I already have a bunch of high-quality roving laying around. It's in the felting kit I bought last fall during the shop hop, stuck in my closet and left ignored ever since.

Felting? Spinning? Spinning? Felting? Decisions Decisions....

(Barely) Controlled Chaos

2008-05-28T23:10:00.002-05:00

Oh, how just a few weeks ago I was feeling so satisfied with myself, having focused directly on the Sunrise Circle Jacket from start to finish all in just a couple weeks. I was resolved to the idea of sticking to one main project and getting more FO satisfaction. Amazing how in such a short time that whole scheme can go to the crapper.

Let's take a few looks at the state of things.

First there's the whole spinning obsession. Oh, yes, it's still out of control. Witness -

The niddy-noddy in action

The latest plied skein pre-wash - I'm getting some fairly nice, thin yarn.

I'm still trying to get the whole twist-balance thing straight. This one ended up a bit puckery post-wash.

You can see all that I've spun here, and what's left of that original ball of fiber that once filled up the basket there. I'll have it finished up in the next day or two, I imagine. I've been flipping through spinning books like crazy as well - both ones that I've bought and from the library. Not pictured are a couple more floating around the house now, as well as a couple that I returned today. I have to say, there were a couple that made me laugh out loud with the crazy-yarn pictures

Oh, look what came in the mail*! I spent a few minutes poring through the lots, and it looks like the ones I'm interested in are pretty much the same as last year.

Then there's the new hat project. I should be casting on for it right now, but it's not going to happen tonight. I wanted to knit along with the class I'm teaching at the moment, but class is tomorrow night and I haven't even completely decided which stitch pattern I want to use. At least I've done the swatch and washed it. Yurg!

Just look at the crazy pile of socks in progress. Dare I even admit that there are more than even this laying around that I am not even going to show you?

Starting with the pink-and-red ones - my Sock Wars Detonators in progress. My current target just bowed out of the game, and I'm waiting to hear back from the Supreme Commander about my new target before I knit any further. Moving clockwise, the plain old Meilenweit cotton toe-ups for me that I'm pretty much ignoring till I need some super-mindless stockinette, and below those are the Opal ones which are screaming "finish us off, already!" but which remain my backup emergency knitting. And finally, those new black ones.

Dream in Color Smooshy. My tiniest needles for super-tight, lovely fabric. Perfectly centered 2X2 ribbing along the insteps. These will be lovely socks, and there is a deadline. This is what I'm knitting on when I'm not spinning right now.

Yeah, sorry diamond jacket.

Sorry Lace-Cuff sock pattern.

Yeah. The knitting part of my life is sheer chaos.

Look what Julie and I have been reading together this week*:

It's so good to start revisiting books I loved as a child. I'm not sure she's understanding the story fully - lots of new-to-her words in there. Luckily the chapters are short, and I make sure to talk through each part of the story before we move on. So far, she seems to like it and keeps asking for more.

Sophie is happy enough about her new bed.

She's sleeping in it no worse than she did in her crib. The first night, Joe put her to bed and thought she was going to stay there. Ten minutes later I looked up from my computer and saw her peeking around the corner into my office with a naughty smirk, having opened the door, scampered down the hall and climbed down the stairs all by herself. She's so tiny in this new big-girl bed. It's so incredibly sweet.

There's another little Sophie story that I've been meaning to share. Sophie watches Julie open the door on her side of the van and wants to do her side "by self" too. Only Sophie can barely reach the handle, and certainly doesn't have the leverage to pull it hard enough to open it. So I've been pulling a little trick on her. I count with her and have her try it one more time, then I secretly push the button on the remote control. The door opens and I get to see that glowing so-proud-of-herself smile.

Now it's 11:43. I have a big meeting to go to in less than 12 hours. One about a family matter, one which will probably leave me with more questions than answers, more worries than reassurance. I think I'd better go get some sleep.

*I really thought Photoshop was going to rotate these for me. Sorry - no time to go back and do it by hand tonight.

Holiday Weekend, A Good Start....

2008-05-24T11:01:00.002-05:00

A few cute family pictures to share...

We were sorting out clothes, making the switch from winter to summer wardrobes (finally!) yesterday. As part of that process, I was digging through giant bags of hand-me-downs we'd gotten from some neighbors. Julie found this blue hat, loved it, and has been wearing it constantly since.

Last night we had friends over for a barbecue. The girls sat together at the little table for all of five minutes before they decided they wanted to sit in our laps at the big table.

Dessert was watermelon.

Julie ate about six pieces.

This morning we're having a video conference with Uncle Dave and Aunt Jinnie in NYC.

In a little while we're going to head over to IKEA and buy a mattress for Sophie's big-girl bed. We'd bought a bunk-bed set when we got Julie's bed, and we'll set up the second one separately for now.

I stayed up late last night knitting on my second pair of Sock Wars socks and spinning another cop of singles. (See how I'm all into using my spinning jargon?) This time I'm going for something much thinner and tightly spun. More knitting content next time, promise!

Jackpot!

2008-05-22T22:39:00.002-05:00

Just a quickie post tonight - I was at the store earlier starting a new session of my two-color knitting class, and now I have a bunch of laundry-folding and other exciting chores to do before bed.

But I had to share my excitement at the windfall jackpot that came my way tonight. One of my coworkers passed along some old issues of Knitters' Magazine that one of our mutual friends from a now-mostly-defunct knitting group thought I would like.

Yeah, baby! These are from the '90s and well before I even knew how to knit, let alone started collecting knitting magazines. I've flipped through a few of them, and I may have to share some pictures of some of the more interesting projects in there. Still, there is some good information and a few patterns that might even be knittable or at least inspiring. Yay!

Also, I decided to knit a hat along with the class I'm teaching. I've had it on my to-do list to knit a new hat to go with my brown coat that I bought last winter, and I've had it in my head to use some purple (to go with my scarf that I knit a couple months ago) and some green. I'd thought I was going to use some of the Creative Focus from Nashua that the store started carrying not too long ago. But when I stood there staring at the wall of worsted-weight yarns, I liked the colors in the Berrocco Ultra Alpaca better, plus it's slightly less expensive and hey! half alpaca and quite soft.

The colors in this photo are not very true, but it was the cutest take of the batch. The one on the middle at the bottom is actually purple. I'll have to dig through my stitch pattern books for some inspiration and get at least a small start on the thing before next week. So much for sticking to my diamond sweater project - I'm still very excited about it, but this needed to be done as well. And the Sock Wars socks, and another project that I'm not going to tell you about till it's done, and my elbow's feeling much better so I'll squeeze in some more spinning. In all my free time, you know.

Oh, Yes I DO Have a Problem!

2008-05-21T13:01:00.003-05:00

I have no idea how this happened.

Well, maybe an inkling. I mean, I was curious about how to ply my new singles yarn into something a little more well-balanced and less twisty-wormy. So I consulted one of the many books on spinning that I checked out from the library last week and ooh it looked so simple. Before I knew it, I woke up from a daze with an overloaded spindle full of newly plied yarn. Did you know that there is a name for the bunch of newly-made yarn wound around the spindle? It's cop. I had a big cop on my hands. I don't even want to think of who might arrive here having googled the words in that last sentence.

So yeah, new yarn. I washed it to set the twist and now it's hanging on the line in the back yard to dry. It's probably mostly dry right now. Because all of this happened before 9 a.m. this morning. Right before some little friends came over to play - their mom needed a sanity break, and Sophie needed some company while Julie was at school. A totally symbiotic relationship - especially since their mom brought me a giant Cafe Mocha from Starbucks when she came to pick them up.

But back to the yarn for a minute. While I was in that wool-induced haze of plying, something occurred to me. I tell my students in my beginning knitting classes something all the time. I tell them that although they are working on a pair of mittens, the real product they should get out of the class is the ability to knit. And they roll their eyes at me and keep swearing under their breath at their mistakes. But I find the thought to be comforting. I'm making some crappy yarn, yes. But I'm learning how to spin, and I'm having a great time doing it.

For those of you out there who are real spinners, can I ask a question? The resulting yarn seems relatively balanced - it doesn't twist up on itself when relaxed. But I wonder - could I have put a little more twist in the singles in the first place, and then a little more twist in while plying it? I was hesitant to put too much twist in the singles because they wanted to worm like crazy as I rolled them onto the spindle. I guess I'll be doing some experiments to figure it out for myself on the next batch - as soon as my elbow stops hurting.

And, in my defense - although my right arm is still sore from rolling the spindle down my leg to start it spinning, it's okay that I did a little plying this morning because you use your other side to ply the yarn - the twist has to go in the opposite direction.

A New Obsession

2008-05-20T13:09:00.003-05:00

I think I may have a little problem. A problem that anyone not involve in the knitting and fiber-related scene will probably not understand. I'm liking this spinning thing maybe a little too much.

The last we saw my new spindle and ball of wool roving it looked like this:

I have to admit that I struggled with the first few tries. I got some crazy-lumpy stuff that really qualifies as yarn under only the loosest of definitions. Then I went back and read my book again and figured out that I needed to fluff up the roving and maybe even pre-draft it before I tried to spin it. And I had an ah-ha! moment. But let me just explain a bit more for those who, like me till just a couple days ago, read the word "pre-draft" on blogs that talk about spinning and either kind of glossed over it or tried to figure out what the heck it meant by context.

The roving is already prepared fiber - clean, combed, ready to spin. But it's been wrapped up in that ball for a while and the fibers have gotten all cozy with each other. They're tight, they're buddies, those little individual pieces of sheep hair. So it really helps if you simply grab a length of the roving and give it a (fairly gentle) whip-like shake or two. It loosens it up and makes it easier to pull apart just enough to get the right thickness of yarn. And on top of that, you can split the roving length-wise to get it even closer to the right amount. I started splitting my roving in half and then in half again and OMG suddenly it was working out much easier!

I spent a little free time while the girls were playing yesterday spinning it up. I kept saying "just one more strand of fluff" to myself. And then one more and one more. And I noticed that my arm was hurting a little bit and yet I still couldn't stop myself. I am not getting glorious, lovely yarn just yet, but I am getting better and most importantly I am having fun. Here's what it looked like when I took a picture a few minutes ago...

And then, even though my arm is sore today, I picked that spindle up and said "Just one string of fluff" And I spun it, and I wanted to do more even though I have a million other things I need to try to do during nap time today. But I found a scrap of self-control and banished the whole mess up to the top shelf out of sight till my arm is recovered a bit.

I think I have a project in mind for the finished yarn - it is something frivolous and small, something that will be fine knit in crazy thick-and-thin yarn. Something that I will tell you about when the time comes. You'll never guess, so don't even try.

In the mean time, I'm still working away on those purple diamond sleeves. I was sitting in my usual place on the couch watching a DVD and right in the middle of the row the other night when Joe emerged from his office. He's been playing the latest version of Grand Theft Auto, which I find quite horrifying. But we all pick our poisons and he does put up with my fiber obsession and other craziness, so I suppose I can look the other way when he chooses to play murderously violent games that spew language that makes even my potty-mouth face blush. He only plays it when the girls are asleep in their beds.

But he came out and looked over my shoulder to see what I was up to, and when I held it up for him to see, he stepped back in shock and uttered some choice expletives. I guess my choice of hobby is just as wild and crazy as his sometimes is.

It is a little scary looking.

But it's beautiful on the right side, and that mess of tails will eventually go away. I'm so glad I'm knitting these both at once, because knitting one knowing that I would have to go through the whole business a second time would be too daunting.

I'm still on hold for the moment with the Sock Wars business, but I have identified my next target - Emily in Wyoming. I'm waiting for her assasin to be killed off and send me her socks in progress to work on. It might be a few days. Maybe I can squeeze in a bit more spinning in the mean time - and I have to decide whether I want to try plying these wild singles or not.

Oh! and one other tidbit. I was thinking about my wedding anniversary that's coming up next month. It'll be seven years. Joe and I usually try to follow the traditional gift themes at least on some metaphorical level each year. I went and checked out the 7-year gifts, and it's copper or - you're not going to believe this - WOOL! Buwhahahaha.

A Good Day...

2008-05-18T12:13:00.000-05:00

For dandelions and slides at the park by our house.

Socky Socky Sock Socks

2008-05-17T21:35:00.002-05:00

The never-ending parade of socks on and off the needles continues around here. I have no news on the Sock Wars front - my target hasn't received hers yet, and I'm still working my way down the list of targets beyond her to send me some unfinished socks. The last person I talked to is stationed at the US embassy in Beirut, and was going to mail her socks off today. She's not sure when she'll actually be killed since she can't get her incoming mail what with the Hezbollah roadblocks keeping traffic from the airport. Yikes. That is one of the cool things about these exchanges. I never would have gotten to exchange e-mails with this very nice lady in such an interesting situation otherwise.

As for my assassin, I haven't heard from her in several days either, but she's still listed as alive in the database. Tick, tick, tick...will just have to wait and see for now.

In the mean time, I continue my dependency on plain stockinette socks for on-the-go knitting. I took them all out for a little field trip yesterday when we were at the park for our playdate...

Starting at the bottom, the Regia Silk stripe socks that I just finished, then the Opal ones that have been hanging around as backup because I'm not so in love with the colors, and then on top the skein of Meilenweit cotton-wool-nylon yarn that I was getting ready to cast on with next. I had a horribly hard time picking which skein of cotton-blend to knit next because they were pretty much all sitting there begging. I finally did the eenie-meenie-minie-moe trick to select this one.

I knit well up the cuff of one of the Opal socks while I was teaching a class today, and managed to split the new ball into halves and cast on for one late last night.

Here's the glamor shot of the blue stripe socks.

I loved this project. I love knitting with this Regia Silky yarn - it is so smooth and soft. I love the stripes. I love the way they feel on my feet. I used two 50-gram skeins with just a little bit left over from each, but I have size-11 feet and like my cuffs longish. I do tend to knit loosely, and I used this pair of socks to try out my Addis in US size 0000. I loved those too - will definitely be using them for more socks in the future when the yarn is on the thin side of fingering.

Moving on to a quick dose of the cute kids - Julie had her pre-school end-of-year concert on Thursday. Unlike her holiday concert, when she absolutely refused to even step on the platform with the other kids, she participated fully this time and seemed to have a lot of fun.

I let her put on a pretty-pretty dress, and of course Sophie wanted to dress up too then. So we took some pictures...

The songs the kids did were hilarious. I got several of them on video, but for tonight I'll share just one. The video and sound quality are poor, but you'll get the idea.

The Next Big Thing

2008-05-15T13:25:00.001-05:00

For at least a week, I've been meaning to post about the next main-feature knitting project on the horizon now that the Sunrise Circle cardigan is complete. I'm kind of excited about this project - finishing Sunrise as quickly and successfully as I did has given me hope that I can whip out the next one if I just focus on it as well. But then there was the whole Sock Wars thing...

I'm in a lull with the Sock Wars business at the moment - I shipped of my killer socks yesterday morning, and I'm pretty sure my target has shipped off her socks to her target. I'm waiting to find out if my target's target still has socks in progress and whether she will send them to me to finish before my assassin finishes her socks and gets them to me. The whole set of scenarios starts to get more complicated even than that depending on who "kills" whom when, so we'll just focus on the project at hand till definitive information arrives.

Here's the pair that I sent off.

They're not too bad, really. I don't think the stitch patterning shows up very well, and to be honest the Tofutsies yarn wasn't as horrible as I'd expected. I still don't like the way it's spun, but I think it will be soft enough when washed. I didn't bother blocking these because I needed to get them off quickly. And, because I know my target is reading, I'll just mention that I was careful to follow the pattern as closely as possible because that's what I thought the rules required. If I had realized that there was some leeway in the contest rules, I would have added a repeat or two to the cuff and done some more decreases on the toe.

So to get down to business with the "new" project. It's actually a quite-old UFO project which I am determined to get off my back. I started this sweater in February 2005, and put it away for several reasons including a)it was too complicated to be working on with a cranky toddler who never slept in the picture b) we were getting ready to put our house on the market, and I didn't have time to knit and c) I had reached a point in the design process where I felt stuck - in part because I wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn for what I wanted to do.

Well, life is a little bit simpler now. I at least have a couple of hours to myself most evenings these days, and am not quite so utterly exhausted all the time. I pulled that sucker out and did some serious thinking about what I wanted to do with it - either finish it or throw the whole mess away. This is not a good project for frogging and re-knit, as you will soon see.

I decided to see if I could get some more of the main color yarn, which would solve the main part of the problem. Schoolhouse Press to the rescue! I bought this yarn when I was at Meg's knitting camp in July of 2003, and I wasn't sure they even carried it any more. Luckily, the nice lady who answered the phone helped me determine which yarn it was, figure out which colors I needed - I decided to go ahead and order a bit more of all of them just to be really safe. I knew I'd be getting different dye lots, but since this is an intarsia project I think I can live with that.

And the very next day, this box showed up at my door - I'd called in the morning, and Schoolhouse Press is just a few hours away in Wisconsin. Still, that's awesome service!

Here's what was inside. Look familiar to anyone? Probably not. It's Bartlett Yarns wool, which is so very nice and heathery, a little bit squishy and not too itchy. Quite thick, and knits up a little heavier than worsted weight to make a great jacket-type sweater.

And this is what I had at home already. The main body of a sweater, the fronts and the back all as one piece, knit up to the armholes. The nice thing about pulling out a very old UFO is that it's sort of a head-start kind of project. I have only to knit the sleeves, join them up EZ-style to the body, and knit up to the neckline. I'm even knitting in the front edging in moss stitch with the body, so there will be no added button bands and very little finishing at the end.

Here's a picture of how the new dye lot of the main color goes with the old sweater. Quite well, I think. I've got enough of the old yarn for sure to finish the main body part of the sweater. I think I will use the new for the sleeves at least up to the join, and that should take care of things. After the join, perhaps I'll alternate rows or something. But they really are quite close, and with the various-colored diamonds to break things up, I'm confident that I can be satisfied with at least that aspect of the results.

Here's the back side of the main body so far just in case you're interested. I was a good girl way back when I was working on it before and wove in my ends as I went. But that is typical for me. I can't stand any more mess than absolutely necessary.

And just for fun, here is what that main body looks like when it's folded as you'd see it in use.

I had started the sleeves during the previous incarnation of the project, and had to rip them back when I realized (if I recall correctly) that they were a little too narrow and that I had put a color in the wrong place on one of them. That was the true breaking point that made me put the mess away.

So I'm casting out for sleeve island, and I decided to go ahead and knit them both at the same time on the same needle.

It is a big messy mess, but I know that it will be easier for me to slog through them both at the same time rather than doing one whole piece and then doing the same whole thing over again. In my brain, it is somehow easier to do it simultaneously and then when I am done with that part, I'm really done. I kind of like intarsia - love the results, in fact, and don't mind too much the wild yarn-wrangling that's involved. It kind of makes me laugh to look at the giant mess and know that somehow I am going to magically transform it into a thing of beauty.

In the mean time, this is what's piled (in one small spot) on my office floor. We won't even talk about what the rest of the office looks like because it is too scary.

I'll leave you with a cute family moment. Joe's parents were over to watch Sophie for a while this morning, and when I came home they hung out for a while longer so that they could see Julie when she got off the bus from pre-school. Joe's mom was singing songs (in Korean) with Sophie, and Sophie was loving it.

Coveting

2008-05-13T12:48:00.002-05:00

I am busy. Oh so busy. Busy preparing for my class tonight, and also busy - really really busy - trying to finish these damned socks. Quickly, I will just share with you that I had one sock completely done and just waiting to be kitchenered at the toe when I realized that I had royally f*'d up the heel. There are pictures, but I am too busy to load pictures today. Naptime only lasts so long, people. So I ripped that sucker back, and now it is done and I am well past the heel of sock number two. I would reallyreallyreally like to get those sock in the mail tomorrow morning. Why? Because I think I actually have a chance of getting a second pair of socks in my hot little hands before I get killed off, and I think that would be fun. I can't explain why. It is inexplicable. But I do at least have the stitch pattern totally memorized now.

Enough. In the mean time, I haven't really touched my new spindle since I took that picture the other day. But a crack has opened in the dam of "I'm not a spinner" so now I am coveting all kinds of spinny things.

Things like sheep to sock kits...thanks to Cashmere Dreams, who posted on her blog about receiving one. Thanks, beeeatch. (Just kidding, love you dearly but it's still all your fault even though you don't even know me.)

Also? I think I might really want one of these. Because they're incredibly cute, and although I really love the look of those giant old-school spinning wheels, from all the stuff I see on the blogs and around the internet and even in person at the Sheep and Wool festival, people don't have them around all the time and they're really big and not portable. And because Aisha just got one. Again, thanks, beeeatch. And again, you know I'm just kidding. I love you dearly even though we do know each other and I'm at risk of you thinking I'm gonna get all stalky on you, which I promise I won't! Okay, this is getting a little freaky, I think it's because I've been working too hard on those socks.

Finally (not finally, but all I have time for today) And I don't even have time to find a proper link - but I really need a class. Maybe from here. And some time to take it and practice and stuff.

But for right now I've got to go knit some killer socks.

News From the Front

2008-05-10T21:22:00.002-05:00

Hey, so the war is on! It's all been a little confusing because a bunch of the dossiers (including mine) didn't come out when they were supposed to, but the pattern was up on the website so anyone who wanted to could go ahead and start, but there were a whole bunch of whiners making up excuses about why it wasn't fair and how they couldn't start till they knew the identity of their target yadda yadda stupid. There were topic after topic of flames on both the Sock Wars forum and in Ravelry as well. People were spending all day on the computer instead of knitting.

Finally, though, the administrator just put all the assassin/target information up on the web site so that everyone would have it. I got a nice e-mail from a lady in Chicago, who is knitting my socks (Hi, Shelley! Sorry about the size-11 feet!). I sent an e-mail to the lady for whom I'm knitting socks - she's Canadian! And in the mean time, I've been knitting as time permits. Which means not as much as I would like.

I started off yesterday morning thinking that I would take sock pictures as I dragged it around through my day. I took one picture as we were in the drive-thru line at Starbucks on our way to our park playdate, and then I forgot about the idea.

But I did take some pictures at the park.

There was much running around and business yesterday, and I had very little daytime knitting opportunities. So I knit for most of the evening, until I found my eyes closing automatically and then I dragged myself to bed.

Because today was another exciting, busy day. Today I had a class to teach at the store, and then I ran off to Shepherd's Harvest. Yay! I can't believe how big this festival is getting. The vendors are filling three barns now when it used to be just one! And they now have a couple decent food vendors besides the totally-awesome kettle-corn.

I managed to resist most of the lovely wool, although a few things followed me home. The first one I can hardly believe...

The person who bought this must have thought she had a burning desire for copious amounts of overspun thick-and-thin bulky yarn, plus the time to make it. I have no idea what I'm doing here. I do have a book, and I know a couple people who know how to spin, so maybe one day I'll figure it out. My friend Sarah also bought some wool to spin - someone gave her a drop spindle - and she said something about a video someone recommended. C-R-Z-Y crazy.

I also bought some yummy-looking homemade jam from one of my readers (Hi, Karen!!!) and some summer sausage from a guy who was handing out salti-licious samples - I figured I had to bring prizes home for the family.

And of course there was the obligatory skein of sock yarn.

This is a skein from Sandy's Palette, and it is machine washable wool/nylon singles. I knit a pair of Jaywalkers from a skein of her yarn a couple of years ago and they turned out pretty and have worn really well, so I knew I needed to get another skein from her.

And finally, a new giant project basket. This will be big enough to hold all the yarn and parts for that project that I just pulled back out of the naughty corner of the yarn closet. (Cat included for scale.) This came from Handspun by Stefania, who had lots of high-quality baskets that I wanted to buy, not to mention a ton of beautiful roving. If I hadn't already bought a giant ball of the stuff, I would have snagged some from her.

I have to show you my sock wars sock, don't I? It's pretty ugly, I'm afraid.

The sample sock for the pattern on the Sock Wars website did a nice little stripey thing. This nasty pooling does nothing for the stitch pattern, but no way am I ripping back or starting with a different yarn. The clock's a-tickin'! And speaking of which, I must go get to work.