Progress Halted

I found a boo-boo. The center stitch isn't in the center any more. It looks like I'll have to rip back 3-5 rows. I might get back to where I was yesterday by they end of the night. Here's how things looked yesterday....
Looking more closely at the center of the stole, I'm now not convinced that I goofed. The center yarn over might be where it should be. I wonder if I failed to mark off a row of the pattern and that is why I had "extra" stitches at the end of row 81. I'll have to count and see if that's what I did. I'd be way happier about that than having to rip and redo a couple of rows. Depending upon how I look at things the yarnovers are symmetrical and non-symmetrical. Sigh. Perhaps I just need a glass of wine....

Ready to start Row 81

I'm just not making rapid progress on this silly stole. It's not that I'm having trouble with it. I seem to be lacking knitting time or, if I *do* get knitting time, I seem to be easily distracted by other things like cleaning the kitchen, cooking dinner or reading a book.

On the other hand, I *am* making progress, so that's a good thing and I don't know that I can really complain too much. I still want to finish Clue #1 by the end of the week.

The Knitting Schedule
I had proposed rotating projects pretty regularly so that I would actually get projects finished. I have decided to suspend that plan until I get the Mystery Stole done. Once the stole is done I'll put the red lace sock, the Freedom Sweater and maybe the newly chosen Fawkes socks into rotation.

Holiday Knitting Plan
I haven't decided if I'm going to knit presents this year or not. I might knit toys for my niece and nephew. I haven't a clue which ones. I could make them different animals/toys or I could make the same animals/toys in different colors. I'm not sure which approach would result in the least amount of strife. I've also been thinking that it's time to start the gift sock rotation again. I've knit socks for all the female members of my family, but it's been a number of years. I could knit a pair for each of the four of them again. Not for any particular holiday, just because. It went over quite well the last time and the socks are still being worn! I still owe my sister an Alice Starmore sweater (started it over ten years ago). Perhaps that will enter the knitting rotation after the Freedom Sweater is completed.

Row 77 and counting!

I didn't quite get as far as the end of Clue #1. That would be row 100. But I did get four to six rows knitted. I'll get in another four to six rows tonight and sooner or later we'll get it done. With that said, I still want to get this clue finished this week and start catching up. I'd like to not be four weeks behind at the end of the knitalong. Remember, the next clue appears on Friday!

New Book!
Well, new library book at least. It's called Three Bags Full by Leoni Swann. It's a murder mystery. A shepherd is found dead in the pasture with a spade stuck in his chest. The detectives solving the mystery are the 19 sheep in the flock. I'm only on page 41 and must say that it's pretty entertaining so far. It reminds me a bit of Watership Down in that the sheep look at things quite differently than humans do, as did the rabbits of Watership Down. There is also a cute drawing in the bottom right corner of each page so that if you flip the pages quickly, the sheep appears to be leaping about. So far "God" seems to be a very suspicious character. We'll see how the plot continues to develop.

BlogRing!
I've joined two blog rings, but haven't yet figured out how to add the actual buttons to the side bar. I've got the ring links there, but no images. I may just have to break down and read the directions. Sigh.

In the meantime, I'm off to add a couple more rows to my Mystery Stole!!! And perhaps pondering what Christmas presents to knit this year.

Still chugging away on Clue #1

Yeah, so I got a couple of rows done, then got too tired/unfocused to get it done. I may be the last person to finish Clue #1 for the first time. Yesterday I got sidetracked building a couple of websites. They aren't completely finished yet, but I've got Three Fates Fibers and Desserted Islands launched. I've got some sock patterns on the drawing board too.

Anyways, I'm working on the stole tonight. I've got my schedule cleared and it's past time for a knitting evening!!

Back to the Knitting!

I just finished the last Harry Potter book about 30 minutes ago. No, I'm not going to tell you how it ends. I thought it was good and I'll probably re-read it in the next couple of months.

However, now that I'm done with the book, I'm ready to get back to the knitting. I *still* have not finished the first clue of MS3. Clue #5 is due out in exactly a week. I've got my work cut out for me if I want to stay just 4 clues behind everybody else. Fortunately, it's Friday, the moon is full and there's a darned good movie on the TV. (The Dirty Dozen, if you're interested, and we're just about to start the little war game. Improvise, adapt and overcome!!) I might just get the first clue finished tonight and a good chunk of Clue Two as well! Then again, I might get really sleepy in 45 minutes and quit early. And you know what? That's ok too.

Future Knitting....
Remember the new Poppy colored sock yarn I bought in New Orleans? It's decided that it wants to be a pair of Fawkes Socks from Socktopia. I think the orange color of the yarn will reflect the plumage of Fawkes the phoenix and also the flames that consume and rebirth him.

Fiber for the Birds!

This spring I put some bits and pieces of trashy fleece outside for the birds or other wildlife to use. I never was sure how much of it blew away or was picked up. A month or so ago I discovered that some bird(s) had built a nest in one of the potted ferns hanging at the front of the house. The nest was later abandoned, but you can see that there is indeed quite a bit of wool included in the nest. I'll leave more fiber out this fall, since I certainly will have some leftover "trash" from carding and combing.

MS3 Progress Pic
This is what it looks like after the first chart of Clue 1. Yes, I was lazy. I didn't pin it out so you can see the lace. You'll just have to be patient. Right now, I'm about four or five rows into the second chart of Clue 1 (Row 59 or so). I'll post another picture (pinned out properly) at the end of Clue 1 (Row 99).

There are quite a few people who have finished Clue 4 and are in the row 300+ area. These must be people who have household staff, family to cook/clean and are retired. I have no idea how else they could have gotten that far, unless they also don't sleep. I don't know about you, but when the rest of life gets to be overwhelmingly busy and hectic I often don't feel much like knitting or doing anything else fun. I suppose that's the years of being told that I can't do "fun" stuff until all my homework or chores are done. Imagine my surprise when I got to be a grownup and discovered that there is *always* work to be done. I'm working on allowing myself to have fun despite there being work to be done. And on that note, I'm going to go knit a bit.

MS3 Clue 4!

The fourth clue was posted today. I won't be starting it any time soon. I'm not even finished with the first clue, though I at least started the second set of charts last night. Unfortunately, I think I made an error in the next to last row I knit. I'll be tinking back this evening. Hopefully I don't have to go back more than one or two rows. I have finally printed out the charts, which will help. It's hard to follow along on the computer screen. Goal? To finish the first clue by the end of the weekend.

I'm actually learning quite a bit from this project but none of it has to do with knitting. It has to do with taking large projects and breaking them down into manageable pieces so that progress can be observed. Observable progress seems to be linked to greater motivation to keep working and thus the project gets finished. It occurs to me that I need to break down the larger projects in my life into smaller pieces, write down intermediate goals and have measurable progress toward those goals and the end goal. Looks like I'll be making myself some progress charts this weekend!

No Longer Unique :o(

I thought I was being clever, but it would seem that great minds think alike. It turns out that another person has opened an Etsy shop called Three Fates Fiber. Pooh. Looks like I'll be only selling through my website and blog, not on Etsy. Sigh. At least I had the foresight to register the domain years ago. Of course, I only registered the commercial domains, not the .net versions. Double sigh.

MS3 Progress
I'm starting Charts B and C tonight (the second half of the first clue). I will be a good girl and pay my bills first, then sit down to knit. I've got some conundrums to work out in my head and knitting is a fine backdrop to that.

I'm going to have to put away my new yarn purchases though. The Poppy sock yarn is calling my name. It doesn't know what it wants to be, but it wants me to play with it.

Knitting Happened!

So did yarn shopping!

I'm back from a week in New Orleans with four skeins of yarn and chart A of the first MS3 clue finished. W00t!

I stopped by the Garden District Needlework Shop and had a lovely time. I picked up a skein of Schaefer Anne sock yarn in the Babe Didrickson colorway (dark greens, blue and purple), a skein of Claudia Handpainted Yarn Silk Lace in Purple Earth, which is purples, pale blues, yellows and two skeins of Claudia Handpainted Yarn fingering weight yarn in Poppy. The Poppy is destined to be socks. The lace yarn will be a shawl eventually, possibly even Print O' the Wave.

Despite being busy all week, I did get some knitting done. I had taken the MS3 stole and a fairly plain sock in case I needed some simple knitting. I didn't touch the sock. I did get most of chart A done from the first MS3 clue though, so that was good. I might get the rest of Clue 1 finished this week, just in time to download the 3rd and 4th clues (clue 4 comes out on Friday). I haven't really stretched out the bit of the stole that I have finished, but so far I think it looks pretty good. I'll try to take a picture later this week.

Design Plans
I have been having a creative streak lately. I have had several design ideas for shawls and for socks in the past couple of weeks. I have dutifully been writing them in my little red idea book. Flipping through the book and the ideas which have been collecting there for the past several years, I should make the time in the next few weeks to start working up a few of these into actual patterns.

Experiment Aborted

I decided that I needed to work on my conference presentation for next week. I also had to start the laundry so I could pack for my trip. So no sock knitting happened on the 4th.

But I Have Travel Knitting Planned!
I will be taking the blue Trekking sock and the red lace sock with me. I'm also taking the Mystery Stole along. I downloaded the 2nd clue this morning. Then of course, I had to print Clue #1 again since the previously printed copy had vanished. I'll pack it all up and take it along with me, just in case I can get started.

New Orleans LYS!
The Quarter Stitch is within walking distance of my hotel, near Jackson Square. The Garden District Needlework Shop is on Magazine Street and is apparently one of the largest needle shops in the southeastern US. I wanted to stop by the Magazine Street fire station anyway, so that works out just fine. I spent two nights at the Magazine Street station the week after Katrina. The ambulance company I worked for sent units down to help with the rescue/recovery effort. It will be weird to see the place without a national guard unit and snipers.

I don't have any particular purchase in mind, but I might pick up another skein of lace-weight yarn. Something besides red. I already have two skeins of red lace weight. Perhaps a pale blue or black.

Knitting Organization Progress:
Well, after deciding upon my completion "schedule", I haven't actually knit anything. How's that for a bad bit of luck? I hope to get some practice in on the whole knitting schedule thing while on my trip. That's part of the reason why I'm taking three projects.

I have been going through my yarn and fiber stash in my head, however, and trying to think of what each yarn, roving and fleece wants to be. I had already started this to some extent with the sock yarn. I have pattern names written on several of the labels already. With the stash database, this process could be fairly simple. I just have to remember to write down what I decide upon or I'll never remember any of it.

The Fresian Fleece
Is now mulch in the garden. Because it got rained on so much and didn't ever get a chance to dry out, it started to smell pretty funky. Really ripe, actually. I decided that there wasn't likely to be any way that the smell would ever come out of it, so I threw it in the garden. I didn't pay that much for it and it wasn't particularly clean and had certainly not been skirted. I had a total of three fleeces, which ended up being about 2 fleeces of wool clean enough to be usable. Even then there was considerable veggie matter (mostly straw/chaff). It came out easily enough when being flicked and carded, but having been spoiled by completely veggie matter-free fleeces, I can't say I was particularly interested in fighting with it. Anyway, I got enough usable (and non-stinky fleece out of the boxload to make it worth what I paid for it. The rest of it is a learning experience and mulch. I'm completely ok with that.

The Gray Curly Fleece
I have come up with a great idea for this fleece. I had considered turning it into lace weight yarn for a shawl. I've decided that this is indeed what it wants to be. I think I will try dyeing it a pale lavender color, then knit a shawl or stole in memory of my recently departed friend, DZD. She had gray hair and loved purple. Her hair may have been considerably darker than this fleece, but I have always associated silvery gray and purple with her. Pattern/design to be determined later. I can work on that part of it during the carding and spinning process.

A Sock Experiment....

I have tomorrow off, since it is Independence Day. I have a bit of work to do around the house and yard, but there is also a possibility of rain which may keep me indoors. I also have a presentation to revise.

Anyway, my possible experiment is to see how long it takes me to knit a sock from start to finish. My last estimate for a basic sock was 12 hours, though that was a rough measure. I could theoretically spend the whole day tomorrow working on the blue broken rib sock. For entertainment, I could watch the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends marathon starting at 6am or break out the DVDs for the Lord of the Rings movies or The Thin Man movies. I've also got 30 hours of audiobooks on my laptop. The "bad" part of me wants to just knit all day. The responsible part of me says I need to get some work done first. Some days I *hate* being a grown up.

Continued Organization.....

So, I've described the immediate knitting projects (the red lace, blue Trekking and red Mountain Colors socks, plus the mystery stole) and the various fleeces to scour and card. I had great plans to work on the Sweater A Month KAL, but I have fallen far far behind the plan. (I'm not sure I've finished a single WIP since January, if you must know.) While bludgeoning my way through my foot tall stack of data entry at work, I mulled over my lack of productivity and how to improve it. Then I had a brilliant idea. Well, actually I remembered an idea that Joan Hamer had a number of years ago on the KnitList (back when it was still hosted at University of Minnesota). She also had difficulties managing multiple projects and making progress. So she assigned each project a day of the week and worked on a maximum of seven projects a time, each on its respective day. I like this plan, with some modifications....

I don't have the time to knit seven days a week, much as I would like to do so. However, I can manage to knit or do fibery things three or four days a week although it may just be for 15-20 minutes. At the moment, the projects I choose to work on are the red lace sock, the blue Trekking sock, the Mystery Stole, the Coopworth fleece and the Freedom Sweater (from Amazing Threads long long ago).

I won't assign days precisely since each week's schedule is a bit different depending upon what other tasks I must accomplish, but I can rotate through projects when I do get knitting/fiber days. The rotation of projects will be sock, stole, fleece and sweater. I'll work on the red lace sock when I have the ability to concentrate on it and the blue Trekking sock when I am tired and likely to make mistakes in lace. So the next day I have to work on such things, I'll pick up the chosen sock and get to work. The next knitting day after that, I'll work on the stole, etc. With regular attention to each of these projects, I should make marked progress. This should keep me from getting discouraged about projects never getting finished. And I might actually get the Freedom Sweater finished by this fall. I started it 8-10 years ago. It's only lacking a sleeve and a half. Even so, it's likely to become my new favorite sweater.

I really need to make a list of my projects in progress on the side of this blog. And maybe a list of projects for the future too. I've been meaning to re-organize things here for a while and spruce them up a bit. Perhaps the re-design will be what I'll ponder in my subconscious at work tomorrow.

Two Socks Darned!

and three toes left to re-knit! Actually two toes and half of a foot. I managed to get a hole halfway up the foot of one sock and it was too big for me to comfortably darn, so I figured I could rip it back and knit it up again.

MS3 Swatch!
I got my swatch done (one repeat at least). I can't decide if I like it or not. I'm debating switching to a smaller needle size. The "solid" parts between the YOs aren't quite as solid as I'd like. I haven't actually measured the gauge, though that's not critical in this pattern. I'm mostly just curious.

Didn't get much knitting done this weekend. Too busy with yardwork and housework. With any luck I'll get the stole started by the end of the week. I'd like to not get too far behind on the clues.

I'll have to pick a more mindless portable project for my trip next week too. I'm leaning toward the 2nd of the blue Trekking socks. I could theoretically get the pair finished while I'm on vacation. It's a mistake-rib pattern on 60 stitches with size 2 needles.

Peacock Delayed!

I've found another "new" project to consider. I've joined Mystery Stole 3. It's a knitalong where the pattern is given out a bit at a time. The first section was posted today.

The recommended yarn color is white (more or less) or black (more or less) in order to fit with the pattern theme (which is to be revealed later). Conveniently, I had purchased a very nice medium gray merino sweater at the GoodWill store for the sole purpose of unravelling it for its lace weight yarn. I have just finished unravelling the sweater and am soaking the yarn in hot water to release the kinks from it. I should be able to get the first skein wound into a ball and start in on the first chart by the end of the weekend.

So the Peacock Shawl goes back into storage for a later engagement.

Darning Pile
It's still there. With the expected rainy weather this weekend, I may have no choice but to actually work on the darning and other mending. I at least will have no excuse to not get it done.

My Five are Done!

I have finally completely finished my five items for The Dulaan Project. And just in time too. They have to be received in Arizona by July 1st. If I get them mailed tomorrow I should just make the deadline. There are three newborn-sized hats, one toddler sized hat (the beret) and one teenager/adult sized hat. Next year, I think I'll try making Wallaby Sweaters. Well, at least one Wallaby and probably more hats.

Batt Pile
This is the short stack of four Coopworth batts I carded up last week. This is maybe 1/4 of a bin of pre-flicked, washed fleece. Once it was teased, it filled up a copy paper box. I have another bin of washed fleece, one bin of unwashed, flicked fleece and probably a bin to a bin and a half of unflicked, unwashed fleece. That ought to be enough for a sweater, right? :o)

I'm not sure that carding is the best prep for the Coopworth. I did find a couple of neps in the batts. It doesn't tolerate being carded too quickly and I really don't want neps and noils in this fiber. I will probably just comb the rest of it. I may try carding the combing waste.

"Washing" Fleece
Well, sort of. I had soaked one of the Fresian fleeces in cold water to get the dirt/mud out of them, then let it sit in my lawn chair to dry. I had left more of it laying in the backyard, waiting to be washed in a bin outdoors. Except that it rained the past three days. The "drying" fleece isn't getting much drying done. However, the previously unwashed fleece is getting washed a bit in the rain. It will still need to be soaked and rinsed thoroughly. A nice hot water wash would be good too, but most of the dirty work is done. The fleece itself is really dry and crunchy feeling. I don't know if that's a function of this particular fleece's characteristics or if the fiber is damaged from heat/storage. With any luck things will dry out a bit in the next week. There ought to be enough Fresian for a box full of hats and outerwear. I bet it would work well as weft in a rug too. Then I wouldn't have to worry about scratchiness so much.

Gaining Focus

Ok, here are a few goals for myself with regard to my fibery habits.....

First, I'm going to finish carding up the gray Coopworth fleece. I have two big bins of teased and washed fiber that will need to be re-teased, then carded. There is another bin of teased, unwashed fiber and probably an equal amount of unteased, unwashed fiber.

Second I'll start on the coarser light gray fleece that I've gotten five batts from already. I've discovered that my initial rather cursory washing job wasn't really good enough. It's really too greasy/sticky to card without a second washing. When I start in on the rest of the fleece, I'll have to flick it a bit before washing it so I don't end up washing everything twice.

Third, I need to decide what to do with the Fresian. It's going to be pretty coarse and have some veggie matter in it. It might be good for felting or outerwear. I'm trying to decide if it's worth my effort, given that I paid very little for it.

Goals on the Knitting Front:
Darn two socks per week until the mending basket is empty.
Finish red lace sock.
Start second blue multi sock.
Start second red/blue Mountain Colors sock

Organizing the Fiber Room
Ok, so the setting up of the table in the fiber room didn't happen. I need to get rid of some things first. I'd end up moving half my stash to the spare room (and thus clutter it to the point of being unusable), so things will stay as they are for now.

Philosophically, I am getting ever closer to decluttering and simplifying my possessions. I have yarn I will never knit. My tastes have changed. My knitting priorities have changed. I have managed to catalogue my yarn and fiber stash. Now it's time to decide objectively what I'll actually use from the stash, package it up with possible patterns and put the rest up on Ebay. I figure I can manage to accomplish that by the end of August. I guess that means I need to go through my pattern and magazine stash and decide what I'll make. Now all I need are some rainy days/evenings so I'm stuck inside.

The Peacock is Out!

The pattern is sitting next to my knitting chair. The yarn is on the table. I'm far too tired to actually do anything with it today, but perhaps by the end of the weekend....

Picking on the Fleece
I've started flicking the Fresian that I soaked in cold water outside. Remarkably the vast majority of the dirt came out without soap and there is little grease. The veggie matter is coming out in the flicking. I can't tell if the tips are weak or not. I may just cut them off. I think this fleece might be a good candidate for dyeing, though I'm not sure I want to start with that yet.

Of course, I should probably just finish the silly Coopworth fleece and get it out of the way, but no....I have to start something new. I can't decide if I have an aversion to finishing things or if I just get distracted by new things. I certainly like it when I do finish things. It's just that sometimes I lose interest before the finishing part.

Decisions, Decisions!

I want to prepare a bunch of stuff all at the same time and I can't focus long enough to decide what to actually work on. I'm *very* ADHD this week.

I have started washing up some Friesian wool. This stuff has sat in my garage for a couple of years. It's got some veggie matter in it and it wasn't well skirted, but it's something to practice my carding skills upon. I have used the skirtings to mulch my garden. Surprisingly, the wool is washing up to be a bright white color. I think it might make a decent heavy worsted weight yarn and might be good for felting.

Must Darn Socks!
I wore handknit socks today since I was going to be on my feet all day long. Apparently my toenails needed a bit of a trim. I haven't worn a hole in the right sock, but it came close. Sigh. My darning pile is slowly growing. I really need to quit ignoring it. I also need to quit ignoring the pile of clothes needing folding and ironing, but that's a different story.

Speaking of Socks....
I started a new pair today. Yes, I know, I have one sock in progress and two second socks to finish. I needed something with a small ball of yarn to carry wtih me in the car. So I started the purple socks made with Marks and Katten "Clown". I made a pair of socks for a former professor friend of mine from this yarn, liked how well they turned out and bought more yarn for me. I like that the balls are small and compact.

Shawl Craving
I got a hankering today to start a shawl. I'm thinking about starting the Peacock Feathers Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. I have a cone of Jaggerspun Zephyr in a lovely teal color just the shade of a peacock. I don't know that I need to start a new project given the existing knitting and carding/spinning works in progress, but I might just jump in anyway.

Gone Batty!!

I've now got three batts of the gray coarse wool run through twice. There are three more which have only had one pass through the carder. I think they will end up making two finished batts. I wonder if this wool might spin up into a nice lace weight yarn for a shawl.

Organizing the Fiber Habit
I've decided that I need to put together the work table in the fiber room. Right now that room is crowded enough that I can't set up the table. I think I'll move some of the boxes into the spare room, so I can set up the table. That way I won't have to do all my fibery habits in the living room and contribute to the disorder and clutter in that area. The clutter of the public room in my house aggravates me. I like to be tidy. Right now there are two stacks of waste fiber, one bin of clean, but unpicked fiber to card and two stacks of carded batts. These items are on the floor, the sofa and on top of the stereo. I'd rather have them all in the fiber room, not really out of sight, but contained. I think I'll be more productive with things in the one room as well.

Perhaps this weekend I will put together the table and start the reorganization. I suspect some de-stashing may follow.

Fibery Fun!

Nope, I didn't fall off the planet. I went out of town for a weekend and never got around to getting my laptop back into my usual blogging place (the comfy chair). I decided to fix that today since I'm developing a big backlog of pictures and I miss surfing the Internet while watching movies.

Carding myself silly
The drum carder is about the bestest present I've bought myself in a long time. I finished with the cream colored fleece and immediately jumped into a coarser light gray fleece. I don't think the coarse fleece will spin up into anything which can be worn next to the skin. Might make good mittens though. I also started in on the light gray coopworth fleece. I know I said I wanted to comb that fleece. I think I'm changing my mind. I have to be careful and tease the washed locks thoroughly before carding or I get neps. Already noticed that. I hadn't had any breakage issues with the previous two fleeces, but the Coopworth doesn't care for mishandling. I think it's worth the extra time and effort. I think I'll make myself a nice gansey with the final product.

Tag, I'm it!
So, I got tagged a while ago by sheila. I have waited long enough to respond that just about everybody has also been tagged. In any event, here are the seven random things about me:

1. I taught myself how to knit from a book in 1992. My paternal grandmother knit, but was unsuccessful in teaching me when I was little. I knit her a cardigan before she died.

2. I ride a motorcycle. I actually own two of them, one of which is for sale. If you know anybody interested in a 1977 Yamaha XS650, let me know.

3. My right ankle clicks when I walk, presumably due to the bone fragments in it. I apparently broke my ankle one of the myriad times I twisted it and kept going. Oopsies. I also have a rather high pain tolerance.

4. Everybody says I bake killer chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. My lemon bars have gotten good reviews too.

5. I'm entered in the Chicago Marathon again this year. My goal is to cut my previous best (and only) time from 7:45 to something under 4 hours.

6. I've lived in Australia.

7. I would like to publish some knitting designs in the next year or two. Mostly socks, but I'm starting to get interested in lace as well. Of course, I'll have to write up my Aran sweater pattern too.