Travel Knitting Again!

I am comfortably ensconced in a hotel room with a belly full of good Japanese food and some mindless entertainment on the television (Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe). I have brought the Kiri and the blue sock for my knitting. I'll see how far I get with the Kiri in the next hour. I'm going to bed at 10pm so I can get up early to workout and have breakfast. If the weather cooperates, I'd like to walk to the training session tomorrow (about 5 blocks) and maybe pick up a latte at the library coffee shop while en route.

With any luck I'll get an uninterrupted evening of knitting tomorrow night too. w00t! Of course, I'll have to also consider what I want to eat tomorrow evening. Decisions, decisions.....

Becoming a Smarter Knitter

I have achieved a new level of knitting intelligence. I figured out that during the 4th quarter of the Illinois-Michigan football game I needed to knit something truly mindless, like ribbing, instead of trying to knit either the Kiri or the Mystery Stole.

Apparently I do learn eventually from having to rip back after making mistakes when distracted by a close game or other equally engaging activity. I did get one repeat of the Kiri knit before the game captured too much of my attention. I might get another repeat done tonight. I think I'll watch one of the Lord of the Rings movies, one of the Thin Man movies or Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

More Knitting!

I have just finished picking up the live stitches on the Kiri (having had to rip back three repeats plus the border to fix the tear in it). I have no idea where in the pattern I'm at now. I'll have a look at that shortly. The working yarn is in the middle of a pattern row.

Fledgling Wing
I haven't quite finished the first repeat on the wing. I dislike having to keep a stitch marker at the end of the row where I turn and knit back. It gets in my way, but I have discovered with this particular pattern it's easier to use the stitch marker than to have to count or examine the knitting and see where the P2tog goes before the turn. Oh well, I'll live.

When I pinned out the stole last week for the picture, I discovered that it will block out larger than I thought. It might actually qualify as a stole, instead of a scarf. Of course, there's no telling how well it will stay blocked once I wear it. Once it's finished and blocked for real, we'll see how big it gets.

Ravelry
I have been slowly building up my Ravelry entries. I'm listed there as morenna if you want to look. I don't have any photos posted and I'm not likely to do so any time soon. I am not really keen on having to start a Flickr account in order to post photos. It would be nice if I could use them off my server instead of having to put them up somewhere else. Oh well.... I'm not sure how much time I'll be spending there anyway since it will, once again, cut into my knitting time.

Knitting!!

I did manage to get some knitting done while I was in Chicago for Marathon weekend. I ripped back the red sock repeat that I'd goofed up the previous week. I even managed to knit a repeat and a half correctly before setting the sock down. I might get the first sock done some time this fall. With any luck the second sock won't take me two years and I can have a complete pair by the spring....

No progress on the Mystery Stole's wing. I thought I had printed out the chart for the wing, but I'm not sure where I put it. If nothing else, I'll put the chart together tonight and perhaps get some knitting done on it tomorrow.

Kiri has not yet been put on the needles for it's re-knitting. That might be a Sunday afternoon job.

More Travel Knitting Coming Soon!
I have two nights of travel next week for work. I hope to spend at least one night just hanging out in my hotel room relaxing and knitting. I don't mean to be antisocial, but after a long day at a meeting it's nice to just drool on myself and do something therapeutic.

No knitting. :-(

I got really busy at work this week and now I'm on the road again (Iit's marathon weekend in Chicago, even though I'm not actually running waddling this year). I do have knitting with me, but I will be really surprised if I get any done. I brought the red lace sock to rip back and the blue trekking socks for actual knitting.
The MS3 stole is still hanging out on the couch after posing for its photo. It really wouldn't have been a good choice anyway, given that it requires concentration and attention to detail, which I'm unlikely to have hanging out with my family and participating in conversation.

Although I'll be in the Chicago area for the next three days, I will not actually be going to any yarn/fiber shops. I just don't have the time or the budget for that. I did buy yarn at Needleworks last weekend though and in Memphis a few weeks before that. I think that will get me by just fine. It's not like I have any shortage of yarn or spinning fiber or fleece. Anybody want to buy part of my 25 pound stash of plain white cotton roving? :-) (seriously, if you'd like some, let me know and we can work out a deal)

Clue 4 Finished! The Wing Awaits!

After knitting, ripping, knitting and ripping rows 405-407 about three times, I have finally finished Clue 4. I used my friend Beading Banshee's modification to carry the border pattern around the top of the stole before the wing starts. I am *not* going to start the wing tonight. It's nearly past my bedtime and I think I'll have to pay a bit of attention to what I'm doing at least for the beginning of the wing area.

Next I'll need to get the Kiri back on the needles, so I can finish knitting it again.

The Cursed Red Lace Sock
Remember the red lace socks? They're knit from red Nylamb using the Lacy Arrow Sock pattern from the Spin-Off Sock Book that came out several years ago. I took them with me to Champaign over the weekend so I could knit on them at Needleworks. I had marked the row I was ready to knit in the pattern, so I merrily knitted away for about 8 rows. And then discovered that I had not apparently marked the starting row correctly. I'll be ripping out the inch of progress I made. It seems like this happens whenever I make significant progress on that sock. I must have knit the gusset area four times. Once I got halfway down the foot before noticing an obvious error in the lace right in the middle of the instep.

Part of me wants to give up since I can't manage to finish even the first sock of the pair. The other part of me wants to beat this darned thing into submission. The sock is beautiful. It's just not cooperating particularly well at the moment.

Yarn Crawl!

I was able to visit my favorite "local" yarn shop yesterday. Needleworks is located in Champaign. I've been a customer of Sharon's since 1986, when I purchased a couple of cross-stitch patterns. Needleworks was primarily a needlepoint/cross-stitch shop then. Now it's mostly a knitting shop. Completely coincidentally they're having an anniversary party and giving discounts on purchases. W00t!

I hadn't intended to purchase any yarn at all, but then I found the stash of Mountain Colors yarns and saw a skein of Weaver's Wool Quarters in the Bitterroot Rainbow colorway that really wants to become my favorite pair of socks this winter. I'll probably use my usual pattern for this yarn--Braided Toeholder by 3 Trails Knitting Designs. There was a similar colorway in another yarn, but it would have ended up requiring three skeins to get a pair of socks and I didn't want to mess with that hassle.

That was going to be the end of the purchases, until I saw a lovely skein of lace weight yarn. It's 1200 yards of superfine alpaca from J. Knits in a pale sage green color called Pueblo. I tried to resist it, but it told me it wants to become the Print O' the Wave shawl.

I'll head back over there today so I can hang out and knit with my yarn buddies. W00t!

An Argument in Favor of a Knitting Journal

Remember the rip in the Kiri? I attempted to mend it today. I decided it was beyond my abilities. Part of the problem is that part of one row was ripped out and while I could fix a simple rip, I don't know how to recreate the missing row from nothing. So I ripped back about six repeats of the Kiri pattern. What does this have to do with a knitting journal? I don't know what needle size I used for the silly shawl. I think it was a size 3. The pattern calls for a 5mm needle, but I'm certain I used a smaller one than that. I have a size 4 out right now, but that seems too big. I'll pick up the stitches in the morning with a size 3 and see how that goes.

This weekend I will work on the Mystery Stole and see if I can get up to the wing section. I haven't got too much house/yard work to do this weekend so I should be able to manage some serious knitting (unless I get bored and too fussy to sit still).

Knitting Night!

I cleaned data until I was brain dead at work today. Now I'm going to brew a pot of lime-ginger tea, plant myself in the comfy chair and knit the night away. If there's nothing good on TV this evening, I have several audio books on my computer to keep me company.

I cannot think of anything I have to do this coming weekend, except mow the lawn and perhaps wash my car. Perhaps I can get the Mystery Stole up to the beginning of the wing....

Re-starting the charity knitting
While the Dulaan Project was running I spent at least a couple of hours every other Sunday knitting on charity items. I haven't done that in a while. I think it's time to resurrect that custom. I have plenty of yarn which would be suitable for hats, mittens, sweaters, scarves and socks. I just need to pick a charity and the relevant projects, then get started!

Bad Gauge

Well, I have unraveled Fawkes. They were going to be huge. Way too big for me. I could probably make them in Claudia's Handpaint if I went down a needle size. (I had started them on size 2 needles.) I might try them again on size 1s. Or I might make myself some ribbed lace socks from Sensational Knitted Socks instead.

So I spent last night with the blue Trekking socks. I don't know if I'll work on them again tonight or if I'll go back to the Mystery Stole. Decisions, decisions....

It's almost border time!

The Mystery Stole is presently at Row 327. The end of Melanie's cat's paw section is at Row 329. Beading Banshee's pattern adds some extra cat's paw sections (she estimates an extra 11 inches, but I suspect that will be shorter at my gauge). I'm printing out the modification now. I don't think I'll be ready to knit the wing by the end of today, but I should be fairly close.

I have found an extra yarn over in one of the cat's paws at the edge of the body, but I'm not going to drop the two involved stitches back and fix it. I might notice the error, but nobody else will. Ordinarily this sort of thing would bug me (I always have to fix lace errors in socks, for example), but apparently it's not an issue with a scarf/stole.

Which brings me to the size of the stole. Unblocked, I have a gauge of about 10 sts per inch in stockinette stitch. I don't think this will be so much as stole as a scarf, which is just fine with me. I seem to be developing a collection of knitted scarves. When I get enough of them, I'll start giving them away.

New Yarn
I decided a road trip was in order and visited a couple of yarn shops yesterday. I almost bought some Mountain Colors yarn at the first shop, but the colorways they had I already own or wasn't thrilled with. The next shop was crowded, but didn't have much in the way of anything in which I was interested. There was a bit of Koigu and some self-striping sock yarn, but I'm not a huge fan of self-striping and never have been bitten by the Koigu bug. I think the Koigu colors are wonderful, but it holds no magic for me. Had I been interested in sweaters of DK to worsted weight yarn, I would have found many things to buy, but that's not what I wanted.

At the third yarn shop, I did pick up a skein of cobweb weight wool (FaRe by Baruffa 1350 meters in 100 grams). I have already picked the project for this yarn--the Cheshire Cat Stole. I won't start it soon, but it's on the list now and the skein is labeled with its intended project.

Today's Knitting
I'd like to get the Mystery Stole done to the wing, but I'll settle for getting the cat's paw section finished and be ready to start the border. I could probably get more done, but yard work and housework need to be done. Much as I hate to do it, I will have to do some laundry and FOLD it today. The pile of clean clothes at the end of the bed just needs to go away.

Ahhhh, the soothing rhythm of the knitting....

Despite being frazzled the past couple of days, I managed to work on the MS3 without making mistakes. I am now about to start Row 303. At Row 335 I start the border that Beading Banshee designed to go between the wing and the body of the stole. I'm getting closer!!!!

Fawkes
Yeah, still haven't frogged that one back. I have, however, printed out the pattern so I can keep track of what row I'm on. Checking things off on the laptop screen just doesn't work very well.

New Shawl Pattern!
My mom e-mailed me a free shawl pattern today. A friend or co-worker of hers knits and had mentioned this freebie yarn company pattern. So she gave Mom a copy, Mom scanned it and sent me the .jpg. I haven't looked at it terribly closely. I don't want to risk becoming distracted.

Last winter's lace scarf
Remember this? It's one of the Elizabethan Scarves from KnitPicks that I knit in their laceweight alpaca yarn. It's a heathered green color. Anyway, the scarf is about two feet too long, a couple inches too narrow and a bit floppy in gauge. The loose gauge actually helps the scarf grow in length and shrink in width as I wear it. I absolutely love the color, but cannot stand the execution of the pattern.

So I am seriously considering frogging the whole thing and re-knitting it at a tighter gauge and adding another repeat to the width. I'll keep pondering that for a while. I have another ball of KnitPicks lace weight yarn in my stash, so I could even knit a new scarf before frogging this one, not that I expect it to be scarf weather before February and possibly not even then. (Let's remember that I've spent the past 20 years living in a place where the high temperature doesn't get above freezing for days to weeks at a time and snow lasts longer than a few hours.)

But first I need to get my current socks in progress done. No new projects started until the Trekking socks, the red lace socks and the Mountain Colors socks are done. But I can plan while I knit. Oh boy, can I plan. :-)

Well, that worked out well

NOT!

So, the Fawkes socks were started. I got up to Row 10 fairly quickly. Probably because I completely skipped Row 5 (and corresponding plain row 6). I *swear* there was no Row 5 in the chart when I was knitting. Sigh.

I finished the night with a couple of rounds on the blue Trekking socks, then two rows of the Mystery Stole (now on Row 278).

So I'll rip out the Fawkes socks to Row 4 and start again. I will print out the pattern too so I can mark rows off instead of knitting from the computer screen.

Maybe working on the Mystery Stole isn't such a bad idea after all. I certainly don't seem to be less prone to mistakes working on other projects!

I couldn't help myself

I started a new pair of socks. It's the Fawkes socks from Socktopia using my Poppy yarn from Claudia Handpaints. This was part of my purchase from the Garden District Needlework Shop in New Orleans. I'm not entirely certain that I have quite enough yarn for the full pair, but fortunately I have some plain orange sock yarn that can be used for heels and toes. I did change the cuff to K2, P2 from K1, P1, but I'm debating changing it back. I'm not a big fan of K1, P1 cuffs, but that will blend more smoothly into the pattern than K2, P2.

As for the Mystery Stole....
I'm still early on Chart F. The reason I set it aside yesterday is that I ended up knitting the first row of Chart F twice. I had failed to mark it off the list, so I knit it again. I noticed this two rows later. Sigh. I carefully tinked back to the first Row 271 and set it down. I wasn't interested in starting up again and making another mistake, so I started Fawkes.

Of course, I ended up talking in the phone and unable to concentrate on the unfamiliar stitch pattern, so I knit the blue Trekking socks while I was on the phone. It's my usual beaded rib sock and essentially mindless.

I'll see about getting back to the stole in the next few days. I'd like to think I can finish Chart F in a week, but suspect that real life might intrude if I definitely set that goal.

Still Starting Chart F!!!

Yeah, so I haven't done any knitting since I finished Chart E. I got busy and then I got hooked on a book (A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez) and then people kept calling me on the phone and this stole is NOT something I can knit while talking.

But tonight. Tonight I'm going to knit two rows on my stole. Really. I am.

Starting Chart F!!!

Yay! I'm currently on Row 270. Clue 4 ends with row 335 with the pattern as written. I'm not a big fan of the transition between the main body of the stole and the wing portion as the pattern was originally written. A friend of mine, The Beading Banshee, wrote a different transition that brings the border of the rest of the shawl around the end of the cat's paw area before the wing is started. I think this makes for a more elegant join and I've chosen to use BB's modification for my stole.

I need to pin out the stole soon and figure out if I want to add more length to it or not. Right now, the stole appears to be more of a scarf than a shawl. This is perfectly ok with me, but it would be good to know what sort of finished size I might expect.

The Next Project
Now I'll have to figure out what to do next. Several weeks ago I proposed using a calendar system to get projects finished. Then I started the Mystery Stole where the clues were given out once a week and there was some pressure to get things done on schedule so as to not get too far behind everybody else. I discovered that by working regularly on a SINGLE project I can make visible progress over the course of a week and thus stay motivated. The more motivated I stay, the more progress I make. I also made a point of limiting my other evening activities (excessive web surfing and blogging) so that I can have 30 minutes or more of knitting time.

With the Mystery Stole, the wing section will go fairly quickly since the rows are short. I could have the stole finished in the next two weeks. I have some socks awaiting me. The red lace sock has been hanging out either abandoned or ignored for several years now. There are two second socks I need to start: the blue Trekking socks and the red Mountain colors socks. And then there are the toes which need to be re-knit due to wear or being too short.

Right now I have chosen the blue Trekking sock as the next target. Once the blue sock is done, I'll finish the toes to a pair of socks. Then I'll go back to the red lace sock and another pair of toes. Perhaps by the end of October I'll have one pair of new socks and one pair of mended socks. The red lace will take a bit longer.

Holiday Knitting

Oddly enough, I haven't done much knitting. Isn't that funny? I have an extra day to get things done and/or to knit or otherwise goof-off, but I get even less done. This isn't doing much to improve my mood or attitude. It seems like a colossal waste of the weekend to me.

Anyway, I'm up to Row 259 now. I did get a bit of knitting done while on travel. Maybe I'll do more this evening. Maybe I won't. blah.

Progress Continues....

I'm up to row 243 now. That's halfway through Chart E or 1/4 way through Clue 4. I am away at a meeting part of this week, so I don't know how much I'll get done. I ought to get some progress made though, perhaps even to Row 260.

I ended up driving the corporate vehicle today, but I did pack a sock as car knitting. I'll be driving back at the end of the trip too, so it's highly unlikely there will be sock knitting this week.

Now I just need to work on not overeating and on getting up in the morning to use the fitness center. I have all of the Lord of the Rings DVDs with me in case there isn't anything fun on the TV, although Mr. and Mrs. Smith just ended, so perhaps TV will be entertaining afterall.

Slow Going

I did get in a good bit of knitting last night. I don't feel like I'm making much progress though, even though I am still checking off rows in the pattern. I think it's because this is the section where there's a 4 row repeat and nothing new is introduced. I'm up to row 237 now, which is 1/4 of the way through Clue 4. I have just a few non-knitting things to accomplish today, so I might get to row 265 today.

I'm looking for a new charity to send knitted things to. I got used to knitting a hat every couple of weekends for The Dulaan Project. I came across a link to the Friends of the Pine Ridge Reservation in the past week. The site lists various organizations which take donations of clothing, school supplies, knitted or sewn items and craft supplies. Today there were three sewing circles listed which accept donations of fabric, notions, yarn and knitting needles. I do believe I'll be able to clear out some of the yarn I am unlikely to use any time soon as well as some of the fabric I've been hoarding. It's all new fabric and yarn, just not items that I'll actually use because my tastes have changed or because I'm just not going to accomplish all the projects I had in mind when I bought it. Donating these things will help me clean out my fabric closet *and* do something useful with the items at the same time. Yay!

Knitting Night!

The Fellowship of the Ring is on TNT tonight. Of course it's got commercials and it's full screen and it's not the extended version, so I'll put the "real" DVD on in a little bit. But I'll knit my way through the whole movie this evening. That should enable me to add an inch or two to the stole's length. I haven't touched the thing at all this week.

MS4 Announcement
Melanie said that next year's project will start in August instead of June/July so that it won't interfere with the Knitting Olympics. Her mom will actually be the designer. I have seen some of Georgia's other work and I might have to buy a new pattern or two.

Sock Cravings
For some reason I'm starting to angst for a bit of sock knitting. It's certainly not the weather bringing this on. Perhaps I can sense that fall is around the corner. I don't know. I really want to finish the 2nd sock of the Mountain Colors pair. Of course last week I really wanted to work on the Trekking sock. Who knows what I'll want to work on next week.

Miniscule Progress

Just four rows accomplished yesterday on MS3. The good news is that I'm watching My Sister Ilene on TCM tonight, so will have plenty of knitting time. I figure I can get a dozen rows done with any luck. I'm in the middle of the less interesting honeycomb section. In looking at the pictures of finished stoles others have done, I'm not entirely keen on the transition to the wing section, but I don't know that I want to make the symmetrical version either. I think I'll keep on with the pattern as originally designed. I don't have to like it or wear it. I can always give it away. It's still been fun.

I very nearly cast on the second blue Trekking sock tonight while I was cycling on the trainer, but I got distracted by the sweating. I'm looking forward to working on socks when the stole is finished.

Clue 3 Finis!

I was, however, too lazy to pin it out for you. I'd rather get started on Clue 4, which is twice as long as the preceding clues. I'm on row 200 now. I'll be on row 335 at the end of Clue 4. It'll take me more than a week to get there, I suspect.

On the reading front, I've started Debbie MacComber's third book about the Blossom Street knit shop. I can't remember the name of it. I've read fewer than ten pages of it. I hope that it doesn't assume that I've read the first two books. The library here doesn't have the first two books, just the third one. For some reason that seems to be how book series work at this library.

Clue 2 Done!

I stayed up a bit later than I intended, but I did manage to get through the last twenty rows of Clue 2 this evening! Yay for me!!!

Now I'll have to find my copy of Clue 3. I think I printed it out, but I could be confusing things. I have a good couple of audio books on my laptop. I could get most of the way through Clue 3 by Friday night. If I don't get distracted or knit myself some errors.

Three Bags Full finished!
I've finished the sheep mystery. I know who killed the shepherd. The sheep didn't quite get it right, but it all ended well. And their new shepherd reads them stories just like George did. It's quite a good book and I'd recommend it if you like mysteries. There were a few parts that were a bit slow and I skipped ahead a bit, but I found the characters to be well-rounded and interesting. The fact that most of them were also sheep just made it more fun. Mopple the Memory Sheep ate a bag of marijuana and slept for two days which really confused his flockmates. The flock also entered itself in the Smartest Sheep in Glennkill Contest. They lost, but they put on a good show.

Hurt Shawl Pic

It's really not all the bad if you look at it from a distance. The rip is about 3 pattern repeats (plus the border) from the bottom of the shawl. I did recall correctly that it's 4-6 stitches wide. That's the three stitch garter border, plus the edge yarn over and one or two stitches from the first leaf. What I can't quite tell is if I'm missing a row of stitches in the middle. If I am, it's just one row, but it doesn't look like it.

I think I can do the garter grafting without much trouble. The only thing that worries me is the end of that leaf motif and getting that picked up/grafted neatly. Of course this rip is right on the edge where I'll be looking at it just about every time I wear it. On the other hand, at least it's not in the middle of the back of the shawl where everybody else will look at it. Heck, I'm just glad that it's not smack in the middle of a lace motif.

And on that note, I'll be letting the Kiri rest on the couch tonight while I keep going on the MS3. I really do think that I can finish Clue 2 tonight if I get started soon and stop being distracted by my blogs. Remember, another clue comes out Friday. I am at least not losing ground against

Shawl Shapes
I've been considering the various shawl shapes and which would be easiest mentally to knit. Not such much the technical part of things but which shape would be least likely to result in loss of motivation. I'd like some day to knit a circular shawl from the center out, but can't imagine the seemingly endless rounds once the shawl gets big. I remember talking ot a knitter once who said they had over a thousand stitches. Wow. It'd take a week to get around once. A square shawl from the center out would at least give you four sides to work on and break it down into more manageable pieces, even if the total number of stitches were the same.

Triangles are either slow to start or slow to finish. Casting on hundreds and hundreds of stitches could be a disaster, but you'd be accelerating as you approach the finish. Or you could cast on a few stitches and end slowly. I don't think I've seen any side-to-side triangle shawls.

Stoles are typically the same width all the way across though the ends may be pointed or irregularly shaped. Somehow that seems like it would be boring unless the pattern were challenging. Having knit an afghan in four panels, I know that it can seem interminable. I like the MS3 with the pattern coming in manageable chunks. I may have to divide all my knitting projects in to smaller chunks like that so that I can mark my progress more easily. Even if it's just ten rows at a time. I might have the big solution to my loss of interest in a large project!! Gold stars (or even just check marks) for finishing sections.

I am a bad shawl mommy!

It's true. I am. I discovered today that I apparently wheeled my desk chair over the edge of my Kiri Shawl last week at work. And put a 1 inch rip in the top edge. It's a pretty neat rip as far as rips go. The stitches aren't distorted or fraying at all. Just no longer connected. I think I can graft it back together. I hope I can graft it back together. I won't rip out half the shawl to fix this. If I rip that much, I might as well rip the whole thing out and I'm not going to do that.

Of course, I failed to bring said shawl home with me tonight, so I can't even ponder the repair process. I'll put it in my bag first thing in the morning when I get to work. I hope I won't need to wear it at the staff meeting. The conference room tends to be absolutely frigid in temperature. I'll post pictures of my poor little Kiri tomorrow. I know the garter stitch edge is torn and I think the rip goes in a few stitches into the pattern as well. I hope it's not too hard to make it whole again. I'm really not very good at grafting things. :-(

On a happier note, I am on Row 133 of MS3. Clue 2 ends at Row 150. I might actually get Clue 3 started this week! I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

Clue 1 Picture!

Here it is! I can see a few places which might be errors, but might not be errors. In any event, I'm going to ignore them. It would most definitely pass the galloping horse test and that's good enough for me.


Speaking of Lacy Things...
Here's a vintage WIP. It's a back buttoning tank top from a Samuel Charis kit.
I think I probably started it 7 years ago. I did knit the front, but frogged it since my gauge was too tight. This is as far as I got on one of the backs and if I recall correctly, my gauge might have been a bit too tight again and that was why I set it aside. It would be a great summer top if I'd finish it. Perhaps about January I'll start working on it so that I'll have it for next summer!

Knitting Weekend Plan!
The temperature this weekend is expected to be around 100 degrees for a high. This will rather limit what I'll be doing outdoors. There is a Vincent Price movie marathon on Turner Classic Movies tonight. Tomorrow is Doris Day Day. I can think of nothing more fun than to park myself in my comfy chair or on the couch and knit away. I wonder how far I could get on MS3 Clue 2! Clue 6 came out today.

Clue 1 Done!!!

I finally finished it last night. Only 4 clues left to go and I'm caught up! Of course, I'm entirely too tired to knit tonight.

I Have 96 Stitches.

I am not supposed to have 96 stitches. I'm supposed to have either 95 or 97 stitches. I've ripped back two rows and I think I am about to rip back row 93 to check it for errors. Sooooo close to finishing the first clue too. *pout*

This silly stole will *not* beat me. I will finish it!!! Then I'm going to nail the silly thing to the wall like a trophy. Or something.

Good News!!

No mistake in the knitting afterall! It would seem that I failed to check off the last row on the chart that I had knitted. I kept thinking about it after I went to bed last night and finally had to get up to see if I had perhaps just ended up one row past where the chart was marked. I tried to wait until morning, but my brain just wouldn't let me. I was far too tired to keep knitting after I figured out the problem however. So now I'm four full clues and 14 rows behind things. Oh well....

Apparently Yahoo Groups has decided to quit sending my Mystery Stole mail. I'm set up to receive digests, but alas nothing appeared the past few days. It's not in the spam folder. It's not in the inbox. It's AWOL. Of course, given the fuss today, I'm not sure I'm terribly upset. It would seem that the stole will not be symmetrical. This has disappointed some folks. When said disappointed folks shared their opinions about said disappointment, they were called rude. This of course started the de rigeur battle about whether or not differing opinions were allowed or could be considered rude. I guess if you're needing to get your panties in a knot about something, that's as good as anything else. Melanie chimed in and said it was perfectly fine for people to be disappointed with the design and that she had expected that given that you can't please everybody. This might have had a calming effect on the group. I'm not really sure. I had given up following the disappointment thread.

The beginning of the stole is pointed. The end of the stole will be rounded. The theme is Swan Lake. The rounded section is meant to be a wing. I think it'll be fine. I'm not normally a fan of the asymmetrical, but I see no reason to not try it and see what I think. If I don't like it, I'll give it away to someone or even to charity. It'll be fine.

Movie Knitting
It appears to be Mel Gibson war movie night on TNT. The Patriot is on now and We Were Soldiers is on next. Oddly enough both movies feature guerilla warfare, though the firepower in The Patriot isn't quite equal to that see in the Vietnam War.

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.

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)