So many hobbies!

One more time

Typepad has it in for me. Thursday I tried to publish my post only for my computer to tell me it lost the internet connection. Tonight, I can't upload photos. When I try, Typepad just sits there, telling me it's uploading the photo but it doesn't actually do anything. I'm beginning to think I'm not meant to show those three swatches. I'll try one more time later this week and then I'm giving up. (I just tried to start a new paragraph only to find the cursor won't move. I think Typepad is having a seizure. Okay, I guess I'm going to have a run-on paragraph.) This was a pretty good weekend. I had friends over Saturday and my friend Sheri helped me fix the center-back double-decreases on my shawl. I couldn't figure out exactly when/where to start the decrease stitch and as a result, the decreases were kind of all over the place. Sheri helped me fix the wonky stitches and showed me where/when to start the decrease. I'm now whipping along and should be done with the body of the shawl by the end of the week. Then I'll start the top edging. We went to lunch at Pizza Hut and had a great time. Sunday I went with a friend from work to lunch and then to IKEA. My mission was to decide on the storage boxes that will go in the Expedit bookcases I plan on buying next month. I brought home one of these to see how well the woven banana fiber holds up to use. I'm having a hard time committing to one of the boxes because I'm not really wild about any of them. I like the clean look of the woven banana but I'd prefer it be darker. Hmm, I wonder if I can stain them darker? With that final thought, I'm going to end this paragraphless post and head for bed. Hope everyone has a good week.

Darn computer!

I had a nice post, with pictures, all written up last night but when I went to post it, my computer flipped out and lost it.  By that time, I really needed to go to bed so I traded posting for sleeping.  I'll do yesterday's post (again) on Sunday. 

The best laid plans...

The plan was to post pictures of the swatches I knit from the roving I bought Saturday.  However, I waited too long and Galen was using them as a pillow when it came time to blog.  I just don't have it in me to move the cats when they're being so cute.  Yes, I know exactly who's in charge at my house and it isn't me.  Everyone should be so lucky.

Trial

My Guild had their twice annual Fleece Fair this past Saturday.  I bought 4 ounces of a Polwarth/alpaca/silk blend, spun it up and I'll ply it three ways to see how I like the resulting fabric.  I've plied it on itself and with white so far.  A dark brown Polwarth has been carded but still needs to be spun.  Once all three are plied, they'll get a bath so the yarn can bloom and I'll knit the three into separate swatches.  This stuff wasn't cheap so if I can ply it with something else and get something I love, I may be inclined to buy enough for a sweater.  (Probably not but it's still a good excercise nonetheless.)

Friday I ordered black bean seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange for the summer planting and Weld seeds.  Weld is one of the big three dyeing plants:  Weld, Woad and Madder.  Weld will give me a beautiful, clear yellow.  It should give a brighter yellow than the onion skins I dyed with last month.  I decided against planting Madder because it takes 3 years before the roots are mature enough/big enough to harvest.  As for Woad, extracting the dye is a long, drawn out process that I'm not quite ready to deal with on my own.  I'm hoping to take a class this summer at the Michigan Fiber Festival in dyeing with indigo.  The dye is the same in both Indigo and Woad so the process of extraction is the same (I think).  I'd feel more comfortable tackling the extraction from Woad myself if I've seen it done somewhere else first.

I spent a couple hours today at the bottom of a cat pile, Galen curled up on my side and Tyr wrapped up in my arms.  It was pretty wonderful.

Sunray Venus

I wanted to stay

I walked on the beach every morning and lived the week in shorts.  It was a cruel awakening to come home to Michigan and winter.  I took my camera with me but hardly took any pictures.  Usually, I take a bunch of photos of the sunrises but it was cloudy every morning so the gorgeous sunrises didn't happen.  Still, walking on the beach is fabulous even without a good sunrise.  There was a full moon last week so we had some fabulous low tides.  Sadly, the shelling wasn't very good but we had a great time anyway.  We visited some new beaches which was lots of fun.

I brought two knitting projects with me, mittens and socks.  The mittens I finished and they're great:

They were used today and worked beautifully.  I reknitted the first finger 4 times before I get it right.  Thanks, Gayle, for the direction to cast on some extra stitches for the finger.  I wouldn't have figured that out on my own.  I love how they came out.

The other project I worked on was a shell mirror.  My mom brings her hot glue gun with her every year so I had a ready source of glue.  Part of the shells I glued to the mirror were found on the beach, some I bought in the local shell stores and some I got from my sister.  Here's what I made:

That pretty shell flower at the top was made by my mom.  (Yes, that's the TARDIS on my shirt.) 

We had a great time.  My sisters and I are trying to find a way to buy a house on Sanibel and live there year round.  At this point, though, it's just a really nice dream.  None of us can move to Sanibel for quite a few years.  Anyone want to donate to the Sanibel fund?

The mitten

Sadly, the finger has to be ripped back to the hand because it's too small.  I decided to combine the functionality of gloves with the warmth of mittens by knitting a forefinger and hen knitting the other three fingers together.  This is my first time attempting to knit a finger (as opposed to a thumb) and I was too narrow by 2 or 3 stitches.

I'll be on vacation next week and I don't know if I'll be able to post while I'm gone.  I'm going on my annual trip to Sanibel Island with my sisters and my parents.  I'm so excited to go I can hardly stand it.  I hope the shelling is good!