So many hobbies!

The best laid plans...

I had fully planned on attending my first Knit Night tonight and was rather excited about it.  I usually get home around 4:30 and the knitting didn't begin until 6:30.  Oh, sure, plenty of time.  Right!  I had a doctor's appointment at 3:00 to have my eyes looked at and didn't get out of the darn thing until 4:20.  I needed to get a campus shuttle to take me to the bus stop.  The shuttle shows up, I ask if he's going to the stop I need, he says "yes" and I climb on... only to realize that while he would eventually end up at the stop I needed, we'd be taking the freaking scenic route through town and it would be 30 minutes before we got there.  Can you say, "Angry?"  For some reason, I never occured to the driver that I might not want to take a tour and that he should tell me to wait a couple of minutes for the next bus.  I let him know, at length, that this is what he should have done.  Normally, I would suffer in silence but I had a deadline and even the more or less polite me will offer, when smacked up side the head with a load of Stupid, an opinion or two.  Eventually, I made it back to my bus stop, waited for the bus to show up and then slowly crept to my car because we were now in rush-hour traffic.  By the time I got home, it was nearly 6:00, I was tired, freezing and really cranky and I just didn't feel like sharing that with anyone else.  No Knit Night.  I'll try again next Wednesday.

It's a lousy picture but the dark wool is Polwarth, the white at the top is Merino and on the bottom is Rambouillet.

I'm going to bed now.

The heat is on!

Read 'em and weep!  This is one ounce of lace-weight singles.  It's going to hang out on the bobbin for a few days to rest before I wind it off on my niddy noddy.  I may actually be in the running for the longest single thread.  Even if I'm not, I can still spin my own sewing thread.  Who needs JoAnn's?  Ha!

Take 2 of the handspun wrap.  I've got a LONG way to go but the fabric coming from size 11 needles is much softer than before.  I have no idea if I'll actually use the finished wrap but hey, I have to do SOMETHING with all that handspun.

Tomorrow I'll be at my first knit night.  It was organized by a fellow spinner and she invited me.  I'm hoping to start a spin night locally and she wants to join one.  I wanted to join an already-established spin night but it looks like I may be starting and organizing it myself.  The tough part is finding a venue big enough for 10 or so spinners to pull up a chair and set up their wheels.  I've already checked and the public library is a no-go.  I'm considering hosting it at my condo but I don't think I could fit more than 6 or 7 spinners in here, and that's with the couch pushed back to the wall.  My lighting isn't the best either.  It's always an option if we can't find anything else.  And the bonus is I don't have to drive anywhere.

Spotty is spun

I finally finished spinning Spotty.  It turned into a nice tweedy yarn.  About 135 yards worth of tweedy yarn.  It's not, however, my personal favorite so I'll probably put it up in my store.

Not much else going on.  I spent the night getting some gorgeous black Polworth and some light brown Borderdale ready to be washed.  Oh, so beautiful!  I'll post a picture when they're clean.

Hey, guess what?  I really CAN spin lace-weight!  In honor of her birthday, Beth is having a contest:  the person who spins the longest continuous thread out of 1 ounce of fiber wins more fiber and extra bobbins.  I was inspired to try my hand at spinning lace.  I have no idea if I'll be in the running but I'm very pleased with how fine my thread is.  I discovered that if I'm tired, my thread gets thicker.  Too bad I have to go to work first thing in the morning.

Saturday was a full, fun day.  I had a class at the Spinning Loft in the morning then spent the afternoon with my brother, SIL and my two nephews, J1 and J2.  J1 was celebrating his 6th birthday and when I got there, my brother, nephews and two friends were in the back yard building a snowman.  J2 is about to turn 4 and he was constantly eating snow.  I spent the afternoon hanging out with my family and having a wonderful time. 

After the birthday party, I drove to Rita's for her Chinese New Year Dim Sum party.  As usual, the food was fantastic and I got to catch up with friends that I only see a few times a year.  Rita has been making dim sum and hosting dim sum parties for a long time.  My personal favorites are Crab Rangoon (I think they usually call it Crab Cheese in restaurants... Rita's are better) and anything with sweet red bean paste, like steamed bean paste buns.  Yum!  (Hey, I just remembered I have one in the 'fridge!) 

I may be starting a local spinning group.  I sent an email to the area's spinning club asking if there was a local spin night.  There isn't one yet but I got an email from a woman who organized a knit night, which I'll be attending on Wednesday, and she thinks spin night is a good idea.  We're trying to come up with a venue at the moment.  I thought maybe a library might work.  Does anyone have any other ideas? 

Have you had your mammogram?

If you're of the age to have one and you haven't, or you haven't had one in over a year - what are you waiting for?!  For God's sake, make an appointment.  Breast cancer is pretty curable if it's caught in the early stages.  If not for yourself, do it for the people who love you.  I'm proud to say I had my boobs flattened today and the films came back negative.  Woo hoo!   (Honestly, it really doesn't hurt as much as people might make you think.  Personally, I find it rather uncomfortable, but not at all painful, and I'd much rather have a mammogram that go to the gynecologist.  Just sayin'.)

Blue-faced Leicester from a class.  BFL is a long wool and while it doesn't have as much luster as some of the other long wools, it does have some as you can see from the picture.  I have a beautiful variegated gray BFL fleece on reserve from the upcoming spring shear.  I've heard very good things about the fleeces this woman sells.  Hmm, so far, I have a BFL fleece and another Cormo fleece reserved - both blanketed fleeces so they'll be super clean.  I have a sneaking suspicion I may come home with a fleece from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, too.  Possibly.  Maybe some nice brown wool to blend with the llama I still have under my work table.  I may have to buy a drum carder before I buy a new wheel.  I'm looking at the Strauch Petite drum carder for $341.  With the Petite, you have the option to buy it unassembled, put it together yourself, and save nearly $100 on the assembled price.  The unassembled Petite is almost $350 less than the Strauch Finest and since I'll be carding mostly for fun, I think I'll be happy with the smaller carder.  Man, I can't wait for the fiber festivals to begin!

Momma's got a brand new bag

I asked Keri to make one of her great project bags for me.  This bag is fabulous!  It's got a 6" square bottom and it sits up on its own.  There are pockets inside to hold needles and your pattern.  I sent her some of my favorite fabric and she whipped up a bag.  I'm psyched!  Go to Keri's store and shop!  She also makes beautiful battlets.

My one year blogiversary is coming up in a couple of weeks.  I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I started posting.  I've had a lot of fun sharing my projects and obsessions.  The best part is I've made a few new friends that I'd never have met if it weren't for my blog.  Some day I'd like to meet you for real.  In honor of my first anniversary, I've decided to have a contest.  Details will be revealed in the fullness of time.

I'm looking to add another 12 hours to my day.  If anyone can help me with that, please let me know.  I've tried giving up sleep but that turned out to be a seriously bad idea.  So, the 36 hour day.  I could get so much done.  Who's with me!?

It's raining cats and dogs!

Does it make me a bad person that I hope it turns to freezing rain so my car is frozen shut in the morning and I can't go to work?  Would it help if I promised to use the day off to do my ironing and clean the house?  Plus, I have a fabulous Polwarth/Kid Mohair blend I want to spin...

I had a large and unpleasant wrench tossed into the middle of my Quest.  I was informed tonight that you can't bring unprocessed wool into the US.  Nuts!  I wanted unprocessed wool for several reasons, one of which was it would be the easiest on the person sending me the wool.  For now anyway, I'm going to have to restrict my search to the US.  You know, I've been wanting to take a wool tour of the British Isles...

Are you familiar with the Toasted Tomato Sandwich?  You need really good bread and good summer tomatoes.  My cousin lives 2 hours north of where we were staying in Florida and went to a farm and picked tomatoes herself.  Oh, my !  Three days in a row I had Toasted Tomato Sandwiches for both breakfast and lunch.  How to make one?  Put the bread in the toaster, when it pops, put mayo on one slice (or Miracle Whip in my case), top that with thick slices of tomato, salt the tomato and top with the second slice of bread.  Eat!  Pure heaven!  I ordered two books on container gardening from Amazon so I can grow my own fab tomatoes this summer.  (Yeah, I know I totally blew my spending diet but hey!  Toasted Tomato Sandwiches!!)  Now I need to find a Super Target so I can buy some of that fabulous Tuscan bread... 

Update:  Weather.com says it's supposed to keep raining until long after I'm at work tomorrow so I'd better go to bed.  Darn weather!

My first pictureless post.  Sorry.  I promise I'll be pictorial tomorrow.

Knitting, knitting everywhere!

I managed to complete one of my Mission: Possible 2008 items on my vacation.  I finally finished the Embers socks I was working on last summer.  I got stalled at the toe because I don't know how to graft... and still don't.  I started decreasing for the toe too soon which meant the sock would be too short.  I hate ripping back so I just kept decreasing until I only had a handful of stitches left.  Then I got a needle, threaded the yarn and cinched up the remaining stitches.

The toe:

It looks a bit like a nose, doesn't it?  I have to say, I'm even less a fan of cuff down socks now that this sock is done.  I had a lot of yarn left and the leg of the sock is way too short.  Had I started at the toe, I would have knitted until I liked the length or ran out of yarn.  Plus, I wouldn't have a toe that reminds me of Rudolph.

Here's the wrap before I frog it:

I used the biggest needles I had, which were size 10s, but the knitted fabric is too tight and I don't like how stiff it feels.  I've ordered size 11 circs with a 32 inch cable.  Hopefully the needles will be big enough.  I don't know enough yet to judge these things so I'm winging it.

And here's the fingerless mitt I worked on last week:

I was right:  knitting with fingering weight yarn takes freaking FOREVER!  I finally understand the Yarn Harlot's explanation of the knitting black hole:  you knit and knit and knit and the darn thing never gets any bigger.  I'm not sure I'm going to be a big fan of knitting the fingering weight sock.  Oh, I'll try at least one pair (toe-up, thank you very much!) but I'm not promising more than that.  I mean, hey, I'm not getting any younger here! 

It's good to be home?

As much as I missed Seli, I could have happily stayed another month on beautiful Sanibel Island.  It was warm and sunny all week.  Every morning, my sister and I were on the beach shelling.  Sanibel Island has the second best shelling in the world (the Great Barrier Reef is #1 and the Phillipines is #3).  I always have a project I work on when I'm on Sanibel.  Besides my knitting and spinning, this time I put together a few specimen boxes of Coquina shells:  one for home, a small one to take to work, and one as a thank you for my Seli Sitter.  The trick is to find them still paired:

I wasn't sure if I was going to take my drop spindle with me.  I haven't used it much since I learned to use my wheel.  Friday night before I left, I decided to practice a bit  with it to see it how it felt.  When I couldn't put it down even though I still wasn't packed, I knew it would be coming with me.  I even dug through my stash for another length of roving in another colorway.  Between the shelling, knitting and spinning the first 4 oz. of roving, I never got to the second but it was so much fun, I'll be taking my spindle with me whenever I travel. 

The roving split fairly evenly into three sections (BFL I dyed in the crockpot).  With each successive third, my spinning got finer and more even.  The first skein is on the left and the last on the right:

The best part of my trip was meeting my second and third cousins.  They live in Texas and while I'd met Lynne (who's around my age) once about 20 years ago, I don't remember it.  Her three girls, my 3rd cousins, I'd never met before.  The oldest, Lucy (Hi, Lucy!) has been knitting since she was six and she's 14 now.  She can knit circles around me!  Blindfolded!  Lucy also spins and the two of us, and sometimes Lynne, would get to talking about knitting and spinning and fiber, etc. and my mom would have to give me the cut-it-short-it's-time-to-eat-dinner sign.  It was so much fun to talk to people who understood what I was talking about and even more fun when it was my family.  I'm going to have to plan a trip to Houston to see them.  (Fall, winter or spring guys.  I don't think I could handle summer in Houston.  :-)  When is the big quilt show?  I might be able to get Marianna to come, too.)  Lucy knit this adorable kitten for me.  I think he's all kinds of cute:

   

Before I left for Florida, it felt like I'd been cold for weeks.  I was cold when I went to bed and cold when I woke up.  Cold!  I was warm for a whole week.  It was glorious!  Now I'm back, cold again, and I cast on for a wool wrap.  I don't have a pattern.  I cast on two stitches and I've been increasing one stitch at the end of each row.  I'm using 3 skeins of my handspun and knitting it in garter stitch.  I have no idea if I have enough to knit the wrap.  I'm switching randomly between the three different colorways and if it looks like I'm not going to have enough, I'll dye something that hopefully will match.  I don't have a picture tonight but I'll post tomorrow on what I have done on the wrap, the fingerless mitt I worked on last week and the Embers sock I've finally finished.  Right now, I'm going to go put a down comforter on my bed.