Drum Carder has arrived!

And of course, I already jumped right into using it. And on a completely different fleece than the one I'd intended. I used a cream colored long wool, possibly one of the Romneys. I've got three bats carded up. I had teased the fiber pretty thoroughly, so it carded up beautifully in just 1-2 passes, depending upon how smoothly and evenly I fed in the locks. w00t!

I can hardly wait to get more fleece(s) prepared for carding. This is really fun!!! Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

And the Winner Is....

The black Shetland fleece. That's my choice for first fleece to run through the drum carder. I'm getting it washed up now. It's really not that wonderful a fleece. There are some second cuts and some veggie matter. On the other hand, it's a lovely dark color with a decent staple length. I expect most of the veggie matter to fall out when I pick/tease it prior to carding. It's coarser leaves/stems, rather than the finely ground up stuff that *never* comes out. After that, I've got some washed Cotswold locks and a Merino crossbred fleece.

Cleaning Up
I tidied up the studio/fiber room today. I got the boxes of computer parts out of the way, for starters, and put some odds and ends in the closet. I almost have room to put together the sewing table. I can't decide if that will actually gain me space or lose space. I'll be able to stack boxes of fleece/yarn underneath it as well as on top of it. It'll be good to get the sewing machine set up and have some planning area other than in the living room.

Three Hats Done, Two To Go.

Actually I'm about 1/4 of the way through hat number four. The first three hats are simple stocking caps in bulky yarn and should fit a 2 year old (based on the head size of my nephew at Christmas). The current hat is a beret that should fit a 5-7 year old once it's felted. It is taking a lot longer given that it's worsted weight yarn. I think the last hat of the five will be a red and blue striped hat.

Picovoli
I think I'll make this t-shirt as one of my summer projects. I think I have the yarn already in my stash. I have some Cotton Classic in a solid blue and a multicolor blue that would work nicely. I'd been meaning to use it in a nice tank for me, but never did find a pattern I liked. Isn't that how it always works? You have the right yarn, but never the right pattern OR you have the right pattern, but never the right yarn.

Speaking of the Stash....
Now that I have it all catalogued, I ought to go through it and try to match up the yarns with patterns. It would be fairly easy to make up "kits" of yarn with pattern. That would certainly facilitate getting stuff knitted up. What's left over can get de-stashed on Ebay. I suppose I ought to plan out the weaving projects too. I haven't given them much thought at all, probaby because my stash room is so full I couldn't possibly get my loom set up.

Knitting Plan for the Weekend....
I'm supposed to go to a party with some co-workers this weekend. Given how grumpy everybody was today, followed by nearly everybody deciding to gossip snarkily all afternoon, I'm not particularly inclined to go to the party. I'd rather wash and wax my car, re-grout the shower and do all my laundry. And then there's the fun stuff like playing in the garden and watching the Preakness Stakes.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I'm an idiot!

Last night was knitting night at the library. I remembered that just now. Only a day late. Sigh. Now I'll have to wait until next month to knit with people. Sigh. Well, I accomplish quite a bit of weeding in my garden, so the evening wasn't a complete loss....

Double GAAAAAAAAH!
It's only a month until June 15th!! I have a month to make two more hats for the Dulaan Project to complete my five things for them!!! It's taken me a month to finally get one hat done (not that much knitting, but that much time to get around to the knitting). I will *have* to spend at least one hour a week and more on weekends on my Dulaan Hats. I *will* be achieving this goal.

The Drum Carder is En Route
UPS took control of it yesterday. They expect it will be in my hot little hands in a week. Yay!!

I bought a gently used Strauch's Finest, complete with all the extra goodies. I can hardly wait to start using it. There's a holiday weekend coming up this month. I'll have to take the extra day off and get acquainted with the carder. I guess that means I should get some fleece washed and picked. Which means I'll have to figure out which one to prepare. Although I've got a lot of Coopworth picked and washed, I think I'd rather comb that fleece. I do have a couple of crossbred fleeces and a couple of Shetland fleeces which would be excellent candidates for the carder. I'll go have a look a bit later tonight and make a decision.

Red Sock!
Although I didn't knit on the red lace sock while travelling, I did get about an inch knit on it over the weekend. AND I finished the red Mountain Colors sock. Well, the first one, at least.

Darning:
I have a basket of socks to mend. I've been avoiding them. It's not that I have a lot of mending. I just find it tedious. My socks actually wear very well. However, if the nail on my right big toe gets a little long and I wear handknit socks with one particular pair of shoes, I start to wear a thin spot in the sock. I usually figure this out about the time I take the socks off at the end of the day. Sigh.

Actually, there is one pair of socks which needs the toe re-knit, but that's because it was a bit too short.

Perhaps that will be this week's knitting accomplishment: put one pair of socks back into service by the end of the week. I can manage that.

About That Travel Knitting....

I ended up deciding on the red lace sock. And then I never even touched it. I ended up going out with some new friends both nights I was there. Oh well....

Travel Knitting

I am headed out for three days of training this week. I have absolutely no trouble packing clothes or anything else for trips. I have unending amounts of trouble packing knitting projects.

Here are the criteria I need to meet:

• project must be transportable/packable--the afghan or nearly completed adult-sized sweater is probably too big to fit neatly into luggage.
• project must be interesting enough to keep my attention, esp if the cable TV offerings aren't terribly exciting
• project must also be simple enough for me to not completely screw it up if I am mentally tired or try to knit and read simultaneously

Of the projects currently underway, I have two pair of socks which would meet these criteria, but I really don't feel like knitting socks. I feel the need to knit something new. Rather than agonize over it, which I could easily do, I think I will just simply take my two socks in progress (one lace and one fairly plain) and call it good. Sure, that's the easy way out, but I'm too tired to figure out something else to take with me, then find the appropriate yarn, needles and pattern. I'm almost guaranteed to forget one of those three things if I start out new anyway.

Blocked and moving on...

I got the shawl blocked out. I did not, however, manage to take a photo of it before unpinning it. Silly me. It is about six feet from end to end and probably three feet deep. I didn't block it severely due to space limitations, but I could probably get several more inches of depth out of it if I re-blocked it. That will either wait until I wear it enough to wash it or it won't ever happen because I gave it to someone else.

In the meantime, I have knit a nice little hat for the Dulaan Project while watching TV. I'm about halfway through the foot of my current sock too. I haven't any idea when that might get finished. At the rate I've been finishing things lately, it ought to be done around August....

My knitting progress may be slowing down in the near future. You see, I've purchased a drum carder. A friend is picking it up and shipping it to me in a week or so. This should help me get the oodles of fleeces I have ready to spin and then lead to LOTS and LOTS yarn that I will eventually knit or weave into something.

Spinning Planning
I have never quite figured out if I should just spin whatever strikes my fancy at the time or find a project first, then spin to meet the project's requirements and hope that I have sufficient fleece to make all the yarn for that project. The latter is really the only way I have of making sure I will have enough yarn for a given project. Otherwise I'd just have to hope that I had sufficient amounts of yarn already spun up that matched the project's needs. That might work, if A) I got lucky on the quantity and B) I actually kept records of how much yarn I had spun. Obviously I need to work on B regardless. I have several spare notebooks, so I really have no excuse for *not* documenting my spinning. With my McMorran yarn balance I can even figure out how much yarn I have without having to measure every last inch.

To accomplish my spinning goals, I will need to clean out my fiber room and make it functional (meaning I need to get the table put together). That means I will have to finish sorting through my computer parts and move them either to the computer room or to the trash. Which means I need to clean out the computer room too. I'll see how much of that I can accomplish this week. It's supposed to rain a couple of days this week so I won't be able to play in the yard after work. Looks like I know what I'll be doing on the rainy nights. :o)

Okay, Okay. So I did it.

The Kiri Shawl has been cast off (without any errors in the process!!) and is presently soaking in a warm soapy bath. It's just a bit small in it's pre-blocked state, so it should end up just right size post blocking.

Next, the question will be what to do with it (keep it or give it away). It's not exactly a color I think looks good on me. I could certainly dye it, but I'd hate to screw up the dyeing and end up with a blotchy shawl. I know of at least one person who would appreciate it in the color it presently is. If worst came to worst, I could always donate it some place.

Next Project:
I have two socks in progress at the moment, both of which are the first sock of their respective pairs. One is the lace sock from the cover of Socks, Socks, Socks and the second is Braided Toeholder from 3 Trails Designs in Mountain Colors Weavers Wool Quarters. I could work on either of those. However, I recently was sent a sock pattern to test knit for Jeannie of Townsend Sock Knit Along. I forget the name of the sock, but it's a pattern which would be well suited to the green KnitPicks Essentials I got almost two years ago. I may have to start that project instead of work on an existing one. If I recall correctly, the pattern is written to be knit either toe-up or top down. I have always knit socks cuff down, but might try toe up this time, just to be different. And I think that the pattern looks better in the toe up picture.

Procrastination or Perfectionism?

Well, the Kiri is finished, except for the cast off. It's been like that for about three days. I propose two reasons why it's not done yet. One is that I generally have difficulty actually finishing projects, though I don't think that's the issue here. The second is that I don't want to screw up the bind off and have it be either too stretchy or too tight, then have to redo it repeatedly until it's just right. At the moment, my plan is to add a bind off stitch every two stitches and see if that's stretchy enough. Part of me wants to finish this thing tonight and part of me is just exhausted from two days of training with the CDC to just fall over and go to bed by 7pm. Blah.

I am the stupidest smart person I know (at least on some days). Would you believe that the Kiri pattern actually tells you what the best bind off is? Sigh. I *swear* I read through the whole pattern several times during the knitting of the shawl, just to make sure that I hadn't missed some tidbit of useful information or other tips. Yeah, well, apparently I managed to visually delete that bit until just now. Sigh.

On the other hand, I have absolutely no excuse, other than being relatively brain dead today, to not cast off the shawl tonight.

Two more rows done!

I'm still plodding away at the border. I am intending to get a minimum of one row done each day. What worries me at this point is not the border itself or the blocking after, but the casting off. My casting off tends to be not terribly elastic. I will have to haul out my copy of Principles of Knitting and read what Ms. Hiatt has to say about elastic bind offs.

Remember my green lace scarf?
I am debating frogging the whole thing and re-doing it. It's really too narrow, too long and knit at too loose a gauge. I think I could easily go down a needle size, add a pattern repeat and make it a foot shorter to produce a much more satisfying end product. I don't mind a supple scarf, but not a limp one.

Planning the next project
I have decided to finish the socks I have already in progress (all three of them). Then I will knit at least one pullover for the Dulaan Project using the green and white yarn from my frogged ski sweater. Plus Dulaan Hats, of course. After that perhaps I'll work on finishing the sweaters for me that I've started.

Making Progress.....

I have completed the first four rows of the border. So far I have only had to re-do about 20 stitches due to a mis-counting at the start of the first row. Only seven or eight more rows to go. Yay!! I might even get it finished by the end of the week.

The Fiber Event
This is the first year in about five years that I've missed what used to be known as The Fleece Fair in Greencastle, IN. I had considered going this year, even though it would be a six to seven hour drive one way. However, given my small fiber budget and rather large fiber stash, I really didn't think I could justify collecting more fleeces. If I really really really want another Hidden Valley fleece, I can always call them directly. (Like I need a fifth and sixth fleece from them at the moment....) It sounds like the weather was pretty cold and miserable up there anyway, so that wouldn't have been much fun.

Starting the Border....

I have finished the last row of the last repeat. I am about to commence the border of the Kiri. The end is rapidly approaching.


Since the weather is expected to be cold and rainy, at least for tomorrow, I should be able to get a good bit of knitting accomplished. I'm even mostly caught up on the housework, so that won't be a distraction. I figure I'll make the usual run to Wal-Mart, library and Lowe's, then fire up iTunes and listen to podcasts while I knit away the day. If I have time, I need to darn two pair of socks as well.

I still have no idea what I'll knit next. I'm hoping to crank out a Dulaan Hat on Sunday evening.

Another ARGH!!!

This one is of my own making. I was diligently working on the Kiri last night. When I was really too tired to be working on it. And I discovered, as it put it down for the night, that I'd dropped a stitch about four rows ago. Fortunately it was along an edge and not in the lace. Then again, I'm not sure I'd notice a dropped stitch *in* the lace. Anyway, I left the knitting as it was last night, knowing I was too tired to figure out fixing the dropped stitch.

Then as I walked away to go to bed I caught my foot in the working yarn. And promptly snapped it in two. Fortunately there weren't any skaters nearby so disaster was averted. (oooooold Yarn Harlot reference)

So tonight I got to spit splice the yarn back together, fix the dropped stitch (which was painless and only involved re-doing a single decrease in the process) and then knit half a row of the final pattern row of the final pattern repeat. Soon, all that will remain will be the border. I might actually get this silly thing finished this week. Then, of course, I'll have to let it sit around for a couple of weeks before washing and blocking it. NOT!!! I really want to see what she looks like all stretched out.

Then I shall have to knit a couple of Dulaan Project hats. And finish my Mountain Colors sock. Once those are done, I'll decide what to do next. If I try to figure out what I'll knit too far into the future, I'll just end up changing my mind.

But I did get the living room painted over the weekend. The entire room is now a single color: "Soft Cream" which is a barely yellow color. Now I'll just have to decide which bits of art to hang on the now completely bare walls.

ARGH!!!!!

Bad CSI! BAD! BAD!
"Angora is processed goat hair."
Um.....no. CASHMERE and MOHAIR are processed goat hair. I think where they got confused is that angora goats produce cashmere. Angora fiber comes from angora rabbits. Which reminds me, I have about 4 ounces of angora hanging around somewhere in my fiber stash. I'll have to run some of it through the drum carder (once I get it) with some of the merino stash I have.

Sigh.

Loong Weekend coming!!
But probably no fiber excitement this coming weekend. I am planning to paint my living room and bathroom instead, starting Thursday evening. I started painting it in November, so it's really time to finish it up. I'm about done with ignoring two of the walls in the living room and the rather uneven painting job I did on one of the finished walls is starting to drive me bonkers.

On the other hand, I might just have to take a break for a couple of hours to catch a movie on TV or DVD and finished that silly Kiri Shawl. No, I still haven't stretched it out to see how big it is, but I have decided that this is indeed the final repeat before the border. So *there*! :o)

Fleecy Pictures!

This is the dark Coopworth fleece I wrote about, spread out on the living room floor. Just looking at it makes me want to go to The Fiber Event and pick up another one (or two) from Hidden Valley Farm. There's not a speck of vegetation in this fleece and very little dirt. The staple length is about 4 inches.


This is an assortment of the other fleeces I have waiting for me. The sample in the bottom middle actually washes up to be white. The bottom left is a pale gray. The bottom right is a dark gray/brown.


Decisions, Decisions.....
Which spinning project or fleece I'll tackle next seems to change every day. Heck, so does the next knitting project. Since I was traveling this week for work, I got very little knitting done and I don't feel much like knitting or spinning this weekend. I'm tired enough, mentally and physically, that I just want to sit in my comfy chair and drool on myself in front of the TV.

Fleecy Goodness!

Since I'm nearly done teasing apart the light gray Coopworth fleece, I decided to get out the dark gray fleece. I unrolled it on the floor to have a look at the color. There's not a speck of veggie matter in the entire fleece, hardly any dirt and not much grease either. This sheep was clearly a neat freak who avoided mud puddles. Then again, all the Hidden Valley fleeces seem to come from neat freak sheep. A photo of the dark fleece will come soon, I promise.

Now that I've gotten the dark fleece out and started playing with it, I feel the urge to actually work with one of the cream colored fleeces. I have a cream colored Coopworth also from Hidden Valley Farm, plus two fine-wool crossbreds, a long-wool of some sort and a Shetland. I found some washed Cotswold locks and some washed Romney too. I don't know how they washed the Cotswold, but the tips are still full of dirt/mud even though the lanolin has been removed. Unfortunately the dirt seems to be eating the fiber and the lock structure is somewhat compromised. I may soak the whole lot to soften up the mud and see how much of it I can wash out.

I had a look at the two Romney fleeces I got from some 4-H kids a couple of years ago. These fleeces are fairly clean and not at all greasy, but they got packed hard into the shipping box. It feels as though the compression and probably some heat (from being stored in a non-climate controlled area) has started to felt them together (or else they were washed before I bought them). The lighter of the two fleeces has some veggie matter in it (crushed leaves from hay), but that ought to fall out when the fleece is picked. The darker of the fleeces looks very clean and no second cuts.

If the weather is nice over the weekend, I may take one of the darker Shetland fleeces outside, unroll it and shake out the second cuts and veggie matter. One of them has some VM in it. The other one is clean. The less than ideal fleece is from a less experienced grower, but it's got a nice color and good length.

Speaking of less than ideal fleeces, I had purchased several Friesian fleeces via E-bay some time ago. I think there were two or three of them. Not at all well skirted and full of VM (mostly on the surface rather than worked into the fleece). I had done a cursory sorting job when I first got the fleeces and have several bags of not-so-nice wool waiting to have something done with them. I have decided that the not-so-nice wool will become mulch in the garden. Apparently wool works very well as a mulch for strawberries and for fruit trees. I will definitely be using some of the dirtier wool for mulch.

Anyway, I ought to have the rest of the first Coopworth fleece teased apart by the end of the weekend and then wash it over the following week. I had initially planned to comb it, but I might card it instead since that will go faster (once I get the drum carder, that is). Of course, I can comb it now whereas the carding would have to wait on the arrival of said drum carder which is, as yet, unpurchased.

As far as the knitting goes, I haven't done any in the past few days. I'm out of town for training for three days this week, including two nights in a hotel--always a good knitting opportunity. I'll be taking a sock and possibly the Kiri with me. I might even finish the sock, if not the Kiri. Speaking of socks, I should find the yarn for the second blue sock. Not that I need wool socks here any more. (On that note, a co-worker said she'd had to put on the air conditioning at home because it was hot. It was 73 degrees out today. I can't imagine what she's going to do in August when it's 95 degrees out and she grew up here!!!)

Fibery Rants

Washing wool
*Stop* calling wool a "living fiber". The fiber is actually dead when it leaves the follicle on the sheep. That's why you can cut it off without injuring the sheep. In that respect it's just like hair. The only part of the hair fiber that is alive is the follicle.

Yes, wool is sensitive to extremes in pH, but so are most things. Soap, however, is not evil. Soap is not unbalanced in terms of pH. When soap is made, sodium hydroxide (a strong alkali) is mixed with fats to create the soap. The amounts of alkali and fats are balanced so that all the alkali is consumed. In fact, many soaps have excess fats in them to provide for a more emollient feel. These fats can be left on the skin or whatever is being washed, but are usually rinsed away. In any event, using a soap does NOT automatically result in pH imbalance in whatever is being washed. If a soap was a harsh alkali, it would burn your skin. Not just dry it out, but actually produce a chemical burn. I've used Ivory soap for years (it is 99.99% soap) and haven't had a burn yet.

The choice between soap and detergent depends to some extent on your water supply. Hard water and soap do not work well together. That combination produces soap scum, not only on your bathtub but also on your clothes and the fiber you are trying to clean. In that situation, you can either use a softening agent in the wash water or use a detergent. Detergents were developed to work with hard water situations and do a much better cleaning job than soaps in that situation.

Yes, washing wool to remove the lanolin, dirt and other contaminants can result in the fiber feeling dry. It feels dry because the lanolin and other natural oils have been removed. Your hair does the same thing. You have two options: either don't remove all the lanolin/oils or to replace them with some sort of emollient or oil. In any event, the fault does not lie with the cleaning agent, but with the application of that cleaning agent to the fiber.

On protecting the environment:
Occasionally the bashing of acrylic fibers is done under the guise of protecting the environment. Acrylic is bad because it is not "natural" and is made from petroleum products. These folks advocate cotton or wool because they are better for the environment. Have you ever looked at what goes into cotton production and its impact on the environment? Do you realize that cotton is one of the most chemically treated crops on the planet? Cotton production uses 11% of the pesticides and 25% of the insecticides produced in a year despite being only 2.4% of all the crops grown in the world (Source). The plants are sprayed repeatedly to kill weeds and insects. Prior to harvest, defoliants are used to destroy all the leaves so the cotton won't be contaminated by leaf matter. Some defoliants are organophosphates and have neurological effects on birds, mammals, fish and invertebrates. (As an aside, organophosphates are also used in nerve agents.) Non-organophosphate defoliants are still highly toxic in the environment even if they don't have demonstrative reproductive or neurologic effects in humans. Field runoff still kills fish, plants and aquatic invertebrates.

So perhaps cotton isn't as environmentally friendly as you might think.

Wool Allergy Rant

A topic which comes up regularly on the various knitting list is allergic reactions to wool. A person asking the question "What shall I knit my hat with if the person I'm giving it to is allergic to wool?" is inevitably bombarded with messages telling him or her that said person cannot be allergic to wool because either true wool allergies don't exist or that people aren't allergic to wool itself, but only to the chemicals used in processing or dyeing it. In either event, the knitter is advised to use wool anyway in whatever he or she is knitting.

This aggravates me. A LOT. I post here a rant on this very subject.

Does it really matter if the recipient of the gift is truly allergic or "merely" sensitive to a particular fiber? They have expressed a preference. I would think that disregarding that preference because you think you know better than they do what they like or dislike
serves only to guarantee an unsuccessful gift. This person, in expressing their preference (or their restriction) is giving you a clue on how to come up with a successful gift (eg something they will use, wear or otherwise enjoy). It may not make any sense to you that someone might find the finest, softest Merino processed in the gentlest manner to be completely irritating and scratchy. That doesn't mean it isn't real to *them* and it doesn't mean they don't
have the right to avoid such an unpleasant encounter, particularly since they made sure you were aware of the limitation. Personally, I think it's borderline rude to just ignore someone's assertion that wool (or whatever fiber) is a problem for them.

I've seen a contact dermatitis rash on a toddler that was cause by the wool blanket that someone gave his mother "because babies aren't allergic to wool". (Mom was unaware that the blanket was wool since she had told the knitter that wool was a problem.) It may not be a full-blown anaphylactic reaction (where your airway swells up and your eyes swell shut, etc), but it's certainly the overactive immune response that is generally referred to as an "allergic reaction". Regardless of what you want to label it, the blanket and that child are *never* going to be happy together. I know the toddler was miserable. I have no idea how guilty the knitter felt or if they decided that the parents were rude and ungrateful because the child was never going to use the painstakingly knitted blanket he was given.

This brings me to the gift end of the equation: Every year, just before the winter holidays, people begin to ask what to knit various people who are either picky or have stated that they don't like whatever it is hte knitter loves to knit the best. ("My doesn't like or wear hats, but I want to knit him a hat so s/he doesn't get a cold head. What pattern do you recommend?") Shortly after the holidays there will be the ever popular January topic of "The Ungrateful Knitted Gift Recipient" in which the recipient is bashed and the knitter wails about how all their hard work and time and emotional involvement was just shoved into a box and left in a corner. I have often wondered how closely these two things are related.

Why would you knit someone an item you *know* they aren't going to enjoy? Why waste that time, that energy and that yarn? I have seen many people on various knitting lists talk about the horribly ungrateful person who was given an intricate handknit sweater but never wore it. Yet we all laughed about the sweaters Mrs. Weasley knit for Harry and his friends in the Harry Potter books/movies. Somehow that's not nearly as funny when *you* are the knitter, is it? Why set yourself up for failure?

If you *do* knit something that the recipient does not like for whatever reason (and they may never tell you why they don't like it so as to spare your feelings), do NOT get crabby and resentful when the recipient doesn't wear it. If you are going to knit something and have any number of strings attached to it, including whether or not you will consider that person to be worth any sort of civil treatment for the rest of your lives, why bother? Isn't the process of giving and receiving a gift supposed to bring joy? Why not get a head start and give something which the *recipient* might like, not just something that you would like if someone made it for you or something you've been meaning to knit but didn't have an excuse to knit until now? There was one year where I knit hats and sweaters for charity (and donated them in hte names of my family members), then gave NOBODY in my family any gifts other than a small gift card
for each person. They *loved* that idea and everybody was happy. (I do realize this does not work for most families and certainly not with kids, but it's an idea. Feel free to come up with your own creative solution and develop your own tradition.)

I do not deny that there are ungrateful gift recipients out there. There are those who don't like presents unless they have the "right" labels in them (from the "right' designer or store, etc). There are those folks who simply do not like handmade/homemade *anything*. These people may or may not be gracious in their receipt of a gift which is not to their liking. Some people truly do not understand how much time and effort goes into a knitted gift. Some of them really don't care. Let it be. There are plenty of things in the world that each of us doesn't care about that others find to be of the utmost importance. Do NOT just blast people for that or for not liking the gift you gave them. It doesn't matter how long it took you to knit that queen-sized lace bedspread if it's not something that suits your grown son and his wife. Wailing about how long you worked on it and how they refuse to use it is only going to generate hurt feelings on both sides. Think about how women feel when their "clod" of a husband gives them something romantic like snow tires for Valentine's Day. Is it any different to give someone a knitted gift that isn't actually something that suits the recipient?

What I recommend is something I am going to term the "Gift Swatch". Most knitters use swatches to make sure they're achieving the correct gauge so that the resultant item will actually be the desired size. A "gift swatch" is something of a test to find out what sort of knitted item a potential recipient will like. Knitted presents aren't really things that you can just give blindly. You need to have some idea what the recipient will like, if you expect them to ever use it, assuming that USING the knitted gift is your actual goal. You can be sneaky and ask generic questions about hats or sweaters or just ask them to feel a particular ball of yarn. You can tell them that you'd like to knit them something but want to make sure it's something they'll enjoy. Someone else who posted recently suggested giving the recipient a list of possibilities and ask them to pick something out. I have taken my sister to the yarn shop and had her pick out yarn and a pattern for a sweater. It wasn't a complete surprise when she got it, but she still squealed with joy when she opened it because it was *exactly* what she wanted. Someone else several years ago said that in her family one person is chosen each year to receive a handknit sweater. Everybody else gets store-bought gifts that year. I believe the recipient chose the color and had input into the design. There is no rule that a gift must be a complete surprise in order to be successful. I would argue that for some gifts having it be 100% surprise is a great way to have
an unpleasant gift experience on both sides.

Anyway, it's something to think about. I'll get off my soap box now and go back to finishing my socks. :o)

More Knitting!!

Believe it or not, I actually knit on both Saturday *and* Sunday this past weekend. I'm even going to knit tonight!!! I finished up a repeat on the Kiri and fixed that lace boo-boo from last week. Tonight I hope to get one more repeat done and then I think I'll just put on the border. I know I keep saying that, but this time I really mean it. I will have leftover yarn that I'll have to make a scarf or something else with. I don't like having odds and ends of yarn. It seems wasteful somehow to me for stuff to be leftover like that and then I have to go find some other project to use the leftovers in. I'll just have to deal with it.

Fleece!
While I was being productive this weekend, I also washed up the bin full of teased Coopworth and part of a fleece from 2002 or 2003. It's got lots of curl to it, but I have no idea what it is. Some sort of long-wool. The Coopworth is one of three fleeces I have from Hidden Valley Farm, which was featured in SpinOff not too long ago. I have at least one other gray fleece and one or two cream colored ones. My intention with the two gray fleeces (one dark and one light) was to spin and weave myself a Lord of the Rings cloak. I don't know that I'll actually do that, but I might.

I also came to the conclusion that I need to buy a drum carder. I'm not going to ever get around to shipping the fleeces off to be processed, at least not without worrying the entire time about whether or not the fleeces are being handled how I want them handled. Frankly, with the shipping costs both ways, it's not that much more expensive to get the drum carder and then I can amortize the cost over all the future fleeces I'll bring home since I doubt I'll quit buying fleeces. I would also have the option of blending fibers much easier with the drum carder. Right now I'm restricted to hand cards or my English combs. I do have several ounces of soy silk and Ingeo that would be lovely blended in with some fine wool. Conveniently I have just a couple pounds or so of merino roving....

Sweater Picture!
No, I didn't knit on this sweater. I just finally got a picture posted of it. All it needs is the shawl collar knitted onto it and I can call it *done*! I even managed to find the pattern for it this weekend! It's Mexicali Baby Ole from the Summer 2003, Knitters'. I'm using Socknitters' Rainbow from Lorna's Laces. This was the colorway which was going to be sold exclusively to members of the Socknitters group, but somehow ended up going into general production once it became popular. The purple for the collar and center stripe is Socka.

And on that note, I'm going to logoff and knit while watching I, Robot. :o)

Knitting!!

I got to knit!! I got to knit!!

I went to the local knitting group that meets at the library once a month. I sat and chatted for about 90 minutes. There were three other women there. One has been knitting for over 40 years and was working on a baby sweater. Another had been knitting for three weeks and was teaching herself how to do yarn overs. The third is an advanced beginning knitter and was working on a hat. I did a couple of rows on my Kiri shawl. I think I might have goofed up the last row, however, so might be pulling that out later this evening. It was quite comforting for the beginning knitter to see that I had to stop and fix some mistakes. She was convinced that "real" knitters don't do things like that. I was able to reassure her that even knitters with 14 years of experience make mistakes and we laughed about it.

Fiber Weekend Plan
I dragged out one of the Coopworth fleeces last night and started teasing the fiber apart. I am much farther along in the process than I thought I was. There are only a few pounds left to tease apart and then I can just wash it all and comb it. The latter two steps won't happen this weekend, but I can at least get the fiber ready for washing and possibly even get a start on the washing process.

Tonight I'll either tease more fleece or I'll tear out that row of the Kiri. I haven't decided which I want to do.

Update:
YAY for me!!! I fixed the error in the Kiri *without* ripping it out!!! The error involved an area with increases next to a column of yarnovers and I was able to figure it out and make the side with the error match the other side of the mirror point of the repeat unit. The stitches are a bit uneven, but that will sort itself out with blocking. I am on the last row of the repeat. I have decided, given the amount of yarn I have left to do at least one more set of repeats. I could probably do two or three more, but I don't want the shawl to be too large. Tomorrow I need to put it on waste yarn and pin it out. That will require purchasing some pins. I have been completely unable to locate my sewing pins or my measuring tapes. I don't know which box they ended up in, but they're not with any of the sewing stuff.