Just another post

Nothing new or spectacular to report. Just more of the same. I feel like I've been busy, but know that I haven't really been. Weird. I think because the last two Saturdays have been spent almost entirely at work, it lends itself to feeling busy - that whole one day off a week feeling. First half of last week was terrible weather, so all events were cancelled. I really think that if we tried to make up all of the cancelled games we've had so far, we'd be playing right through to July. But starting Friday, it got gorgeous!

Seriously?! Eighty degrees at 8:30 pm? In NE Ohio? In April? No way. And it's been like that since. I'm L-O-V-I-N-G it! It can stay this way for the rest of the year and I wouldn't mind. Could do with a little less wind - it's been whipping through. Magnolia tree is practically bare already, seeing as it bloomed late last week.

Yesterday was family day. Aubrey is doing well, I'm waiting for her to look not so fragile and tiny.

She's eating well, so the growing will kick in quickly, I'm sure. Because the weather was so amazing yesterday, I got out the little golf set I had gotten to keep at the house for my nephews. Bought it for Easter, but it was too cold. It was hit, I have a feeling that another of my nephews is going to kick butt at Putt-Putt very soon. Mason was more inclined to bite off bits of the foam covering the shaft of the clubs. He thought it very funny. I did not. Especially not after he'd been eating brownies - gooey sticky chocolately golf clubs are not so nice.

I finally got around to taking pictures of the finished Interlocking Leaves socks - this morning. So excited to start taking outdoor knitting pictures again!

I really love how these turned out - except that they're slighting long in the foot, and being toe-up the toe is extra pointy and just wants to stick way out because they're too long. Oh well, they're pretty, so I'll keep them.

The Sunshine socks are coming along, though not very quickly.

I had the urge for lace last week, and the Mystic Waters shawl is so big and fussy... so I cast on for a scarf. And all knitting time has been sucked into it.It's the Lily of the Valley Scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia and I love it. It's simple enough, but interesting enough to keep me wanting to knit it, which is a feat considering my track record with scarves. I think it might have something to do with the nupps. Pronounced noops, btw. Nupps are what make those cute little buds of the flower, hard to see in the photo, I couldn't get a better shot that showed them up close. So far I'm through 4 repeats, pattern calls for 9 repeats, but I may do a couple more to make it just a bit longer, we'll see. The yarn, if you're wondering, is KnitPicks Gloss Lace in colorway Sterling.

Spinning Away

Happy belated Easter! I survived my week without knitting. Maybe next year I'll have to modify and give it up for longer - maybe not. We'll see when Lent rolls around again. Easter was fun here - I made my nephews go on an egg hunt in the back yard. Holidays are so much more fun with kiddos around.Why yes, that is my Hidcote shawl in use. Still not great at the wearing of shawls, I feel all goofy and don't know how to move my arms, but I'll get used to it.And I have to say, that hiding eggs for toddlers is great - nice and easy. No worries about finding an egg in August that we forgot.

Just to get all the shamelessly cute pictures together, Friday I went out to play with the nephews, I love that it's getting spring-like enough to go outside a bit.

Mason likes to give the goats (who are very friendly and want lots of attention) kisses. He even tries to stick his head through the fence to do so. Cracks me up.

Onto the fiber. With no knitting last week, I was amazingly productive with the spinning wheel. Case in point - the Redwood Forest BFL. Finally done. Well, except for a good soak. I spent most of Friday night plying. Seriously. I spent about 6 hours plying it up. Oi. But, it turned out better than I had hoped for. Definitely a fingering weight (what I use for socks) pending how much it blooms during its soak.

I'll take a wraps/inch measurement after the soak. Should probably re-figure the yardage then too. As of right now I've got 570 yards. I'm pretty dang pleased. This won't be knit into socks however - it's not superwash and I'm not keen on a pair of handspun socks felting with the first wash. So I'll have to figure something else out. I still have some more singles left as well, not sure what to do with them. I might just take the easy road and 2 ply them, won't end up with much but I don't know what else to do. Hmmm.

I also managed to get almost the first half of the Air Fiber spun up. I say almost half, because I split it into 2 equal parts, but the first half didn't all fit onto one bobbin.

That's a very full bobbin. Had I tried to get any more on, it would have impeded the spinning of the wheel. So now I just have get the rest of the BFL single off the bobbins and get going with the second half. PS - it's really really thin!

Last Monday, I spent the night at Bridget's Seamus sitting, so I took along my spindles and the Terminus BFL. Yeah, haven't mentioned that in a while. A long while. Anyway, I managed to ply up the spindle full that had been sitting and waiting patiently for me to get around to it.

And then I wound off the spindle full that I had and started a new spindle full, which I'm hoping is the last spindle full. Today when I went to take the spindle out to photo - tragedy. Tuesday when I was carrying everything into the house, I had dropped the spindle box, straight down. I winced at the time, but didn't really worry too much. When I went to pull out the spindle off plied yarn today... the spindle came apart. The whorl and and yarn stayed behind and the shaft came right out. AAAAHHHH! Mom and I managed to put it back together and it wasn't broken or anything, just heart attack inducing at the time. Reminder to self, be nice to the spindles.

I also managed to get a lot done on the blanket for my soon-to-be niece. No pictures until it's gifted though. Need to keep working on it so it's done by her birth day. I plan on her being the only one of her siblings to get the blanket on time. Elliott was born earlier than planned, and I couldn't finish it before the shower the next day. Mason's blanket was delayed by a yarn shortage. So she will get her blanket on time.

Alright, onto the little bit of knitting I got done yesterday. I finished the first of the Rivendell socks, except for the kitchenering of the toe and sewing in the ends.

And then I got through the gussets of the second Interlocking Leaves sock.

I'm feeling the socks right now. Should crank out the Interlocking Leaves sock this week. And now that I've said that it won't happen.

And now I need to go eat lunch and go to work. Baseball game today, it'll be a cold one!

All Stop

So in some kind of weirdness, I decided that I will not knit this week. I know. Crazy. Here's the thing, I didn't give anything up for Lent this year, being that on WW, it's hard to give things up that you like when you're already restricting yourself. Makes for huge binges and what not, and I didn't want that to happen. And I had already put myself on a pretty serious yarn and fiber buying boycott so giving that up wasn't really an option either. Not much in the way of vices were left to me, so I didn't give anything up.

So then, in reading a blog, I saw that someone had given up knitting for Lent. And that just kinda blew my mind. I really don't think that I could ever give it up for the whole 40 days, but Holy Week? I can do that. So, no knitting this week. I am permitted to spin, and to crochet. The only crochet project I have, or am going to have, is the blanket for Perry Niece, who will be arriving very shortly, so I need to get going on it anyway. Alright, there, I have put it out for all to read, no knitting this week. Let's see how crazy I get.

So in the knitting that has been done since the last post, I finished the Monteagle bag. It's great.

I'll probably make another one, may even try to see if I can make it bigger. I'll get a picture with it stretched and holding something eventually, I'm feeling quite lazy today. So with one bag done, I cast on for another one. Using the Everlasting Bagstopper pattern this time around, the yarn is the same (KP CotLin) but in the colorway "Harbor" which is still quite appropriate.

This one, unlike the Monteagle, has a bottom to it. Very easy pattern, as my friend Meagan likes to say, "it's dummy knitting" and that's good to have every now and then.

The Rivendell sock hasn't progressed much since the last you saw it, an inch or two onto the foot, with an inch or two to go before the toe, so I won't bore you with a photo. Friday night, I cast on the second of the Interlocking Leaves socks. And put in a repeat on Saturday while watching the Michigan State/UConn game with Dad. I know, I willing subjected myself to a basketball game. What is up with me? I did not watch the second game. And can I just say, thank goodness it's finally baseball season! Go Indians! Back to the subject of socks, the impetus for finally getting going on this sock? The new Cookie A. book. OMG! So beautiful, I think that eventually, I will end up knitting every single pattern in the book. And the amount of information on designing your own socks - wow. I may even do that. But first, I have to finish the socks I've got going. Look at me, being all good and finishing things.

What's next? I won't show you the Mystic Waters shawl today - I put another 20 rows onto it last week, but once again, hard to tell. So maybe after I do another 20 rows. However, I did enlist the help of the couch to show you how behemoth the behemoth shawl (aka the Hidcote Shawl) actually is, now that I've retrieved it from blocking. Holy hugeness. I love it, I just don't know where I'm going to wear it. Maybe I'll gift it. I don't really know anyone who wears shawls though. Hmmm, tricky. I may just float around in it around the house, pretending to be some very wealthy and eccentric woman who can do what she wants. We'll see.

Last up on the knitting front, 2 weeks ago, I worked up another Thorpe hat. Used some bulky weight yarn so it went super fast, and then I didn't post a finished picture. So here you go.

I've been wearing it at work with all the cold weather we've been having. Have decided that I need to make a cowl with the remaining skein to match. I had never considered a cowl until Saturday, when at the LAX game, with the wind going and me already having a few layers on, and I thought "I wish I had a scarf" but then realized that the scarf would be too bulky and in the way, so the thought of a cowl came then. Maybe next week. Or maybe by then it will have warmed up and a cowl won't be necessary anymore. I'm just glad that there is no sign of the forecasted snow as yet. But it's still miserable for the scheduled baseball and lacrosse games I've got today.

Okay, that's it for the knitting. I really didn't think I had that much. Wow. Saturday night, I finally finished spinning the Redwood Forest BFL.

Tried to even out the bobbins as much as possible, we'll see how it goes when I get to plying it. I had thought I would do that tonight, but I'm off to puppy sit for Seamus so maybe Wednesday night.

Yesterday, after spending the day with Kaylee and company, I sat down and started spinning the first shipment from the Elements Fiber Club. March's installment was Air, and it looked like this:

I opted to spin it fine (even though I was really hoping to spin up something a bit heavier just to change it up from the BFL) and will do a 2-ply and hopefully get enough yardage for a little airy shawl, which I think will be appropriate.It's really hard to get the color, what with it being dreary out and the color being so light. It's actually coming out really pretty, and I never would have picked the colorway for myself, which is I guess, the beauty of being in a club and not getting the choice.So in continued bad behavior news, I came down to this scene Saturday morning.I don't know what's up with Miss Maddie (maybe she's upset because Mom is away) but I don't even know where she got this stuff. That's one sock and the alpaca leftovers from the November Ruffle. What's odd, is the other sock and the Cascade laftovers were found in the dining room Friday night on her little rug. I don't know where she found them, they were all together, and, I thought, tucked away. It's baffling. What else is she hoarding? And some leftover spun singles from my room were found in the family room earlier last week. She's behaving very oddly of late.

In real life, please keep my brother Tommy in your prayers, as well as his platoon/battalion, he's deploying to Afghanistan today.

Pleased to no end

I am ecstatic! Remember the Hidcote Shawl? Yeah, the behemoth of lace knitting? Well, here it is:

As of right now, it is exactly 3 rows and the bind off away from being off the the needles! Then it's just a matter of sewing in the ends and blocking it and this bad boy is done. I still can't believe it. I finally forced myself to pick it back up last week, knowing that I had just over a chart left to do. And I did a few marathon sessions with it, and tada!

The reason I picked it back up? I told myself that after the "green season" was done, I needed to pick up the UFO's and finish them. And I am. Example:

That's the November Ruffle. Done. Except for blocking (which will be done tonight). Yay me! Seriously, all this finishing is a bit nutty for me. This weekend was good for all things fibery though. Saturday was a Nora-thon on Lifetime. A few Nora Robert's movies and I get all kinds of things done:

That's the first of the Interlocking Leaves socks and the second bobbin of the Redwood Forest BFL finally done! Yay me again! Although, I am obviously not very good at equally dividing fiber as yet. Hmmm.

There was a little bit of starting that happened last week. After knitting with Meagan and Debi on Monday, I cast on for a little felted bag, the pattern was given to me verbally by Debi.

Doesn't look like much yet, but she made one for Meagan's birthday gift and it's adorable, and I want one too. So I'm using the Mauch Chunky (or as I like to call it, AKA Jim Thorpe) yarn that Meagan gave me for my birthday and some big needles and away we go.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with myself.

And so is Maddie, but then again, she's always pleased with herself.

Some Catching Up

Wow, so it's been a while since I blogged. Sorry - for those of you that read this and actually want to know what's going on. I had pictures ready to go for another post after the Maddie one, but I was overcome by the evil sinus infection that I've been fighting for a month. It's all good now, I've got antibiotic horse pills. I guess that means I'll kinda do two posts in one.

So what's happened in the last week and a half? Officially, basketball season ended last Tuesday and Wednesday. And I haven't really gotten much knitting done, the illness kinda took over for a few days there, as well as the basketball.

Before the last post I had the Ireland socks done. They're amazing and I can't wait to wear them tomorrow (BTW, I've figured out how to guarantee nice weather in March, knit a bunch of woolen things for a specific day, and it'll end up being 60 degrees, like they're predicting for tomorrow).

You saw the state of Kaylee's sweater last time (bad kitty!), and last night, I FINALLY sewed in the ends to finish it while watching TAR (SPOILER, but not about the outcome of the episode - Phil in his skivvies!). Yay it's done! I have to admit that I got to the point where I really really really didn't want to knit it anymore. And then when I forced myself to, there was a bump, but I kept going, I resisted the urge to rip, as I usually would, and just kept knitting. And it's adorable.

Granted Miss Kaylee probably won't get to wear it tomorrow, maybe next year I'll knit her a (eek!) cotton one, and it'll snow. I can't win.

That officially concludes our green knitting season for 2009! Onto other stuff. As soon as I was done with the Ireland Socks, I cast on for a new pair. It's the Interlocking Leaves pattern from the fall Knitty, in some Smooshy called "November Muse". Once again, I'm a bit in love with the Smooshy. It's working so amazing perfectly with the pattern. So here was the sock for the last post:

And here it is now:

It grew a bit in the interim. I'm about to turn the heel, if that gives you any idea as to where I'm at, for you knitting muggles, that means I've basically got the foot done. A close up on the pattern:

Gives you an idea of the color too. It's mostly a russet-y brown, with little splashes of purple and orange and green and red - just beautiful.

I started another quick little project before the last post, some Mitered Mittens by Elizabeth Zimmermann using my handspun.

Of course, they've since been finished (a really quick easy and fun knit). And I love how the handspun looks, this is the first use of wheel spun handspun for me! And they're perfect!Finally, this weekend I picked up the long neglected November Ruffle. After a misstep (the cord on my needle popped right out of the metal end), I got the last few inches of stockinette done, and last night I started the ruffle. Big excitement! 15 inches is A LOT of stockinette. And now that there are more than 300 stitches it's A LOT of stitches. But it's easy knitting for the rest of the way so it should go quickly.See the nice black and white blob?! Hard to tell that the knitting is going around 3 sides.

If you look close enough, you can see the difference. Mostly because the ruffle gets knit in with a bigger needle. Yay! I'll have it done just in time for the warm weather!