My precious!

I caved rather quickly and had to go in and get my own wheel. The tipping point was having only one bobbin on the borrowed wheel. It got very frustrating to keep winding it off.

Here she is, a beautiful Lendrum double treadle. *does a happy dance*


What's that on the bobbin? It's some lovely bluefaced leicester from Enchanted Knoll Farm called 'Big Sky' (bought at Loopy Ewe). See?


I'm getting better at even yarn. Serious predrafting seems to be a key component. I had thought I'd divided the fiber evenly, but it sure doesn't look like it!

I had hoped to start plying last night, but we had our first rehearsal of the year. I play violin and James plays viola with the Everett Symphony. It should be a good concert... I'm especially looking forward to the Sibelius violin concerto.

James has been sick all week and he's finally starting to feel better. Still a little short on sleep though, so he begged for an extra hour this morning after I was already up and showered. I couldn't say no, so I decided to start plying my big sky.


I'm not quite sure how thick the yarn is... I'll have to take some wraps per inch measurements this evening when I'm done plying. It varies quite a bit, but I think it sort of averages out at a sport weight or so, maybe a little heavier. It's really pretty, whatever it ends up being. I've already been browsing ravelry looking for a pattern to use with it. I'm leaning towards fairly simple scarf patterns to show off some of the color changes. Stay tuned!

Oh, and those uneven bobbins of singles? Take a look now...


The one that looked fuller seems emptiest now. I have no idea why, but it might be how I packed the bobbin. Or maybe different bobbin tensions? Anyone have any ideas?

Progress

I read through the introduction in Modern Lace Knitting again and figured out how to do the crochet border on the azelea doily. Apparently "5 sts., dc." means to double crochet into 5 stitches, which looks better than 5 single crochets and a double crochet!

Blocking (sorry for the white on white, I was using the paper as a diameter guide):


Finished:


Very dashing. Now it needs a mate (and a couple ends woven in). I hope to brave it soon, since it really wasn't that bad once I got into it (and actually marked the pattern repeats...).

I had my first of two spinning classes yesterday. It was exciting to actually spin on a wheel! Here's my first wheel spun yarn. I had to wind it off the bobbin to keep going and had limited resources in class, so I don't think it would really be this kinky if I were to wash it or ply it


It was interesting, but I'd done so much research beforehand that there wasn't a whole lot of new information. Worth it just to get to use a wheel and borrow it for a week! I worked on a Lendrum single treadle. Here it is out in the wild (otherwise known as my living room).


The fiber is Lorna's Laces that I flashed last time. It's superwash merino and a little harder to get even than the natural colored Coopworth we used in class. I know I'm not a great or even decent spinner yet, but I'm allowing myself to use nicer materials than I think I really deserve. It's not the end of the world if it doesn't make the perfect yarn. (I say this mostly for me, since I tend to worry that I'll waste pretty fiber). Practicing is the only way to get better after all...

I'll stop rambling now and leave you with my first bobbin of uneven merino. So soft!

Recap

Cleaning

Last Saturday was spent helping my parents clean up their old house. Mostly junk hauling from the backyard and my dad's garage. In the midst of it, we found some interesting things.

An old Coast Guard radio.


My dad's old bag when he went out to repair copiers ages ago. It was in pretty decent shape. Pretty cool to stumble on old documents and time sheets.


We were guaranteed that this was the last round, so hopefully I won't have to bore you with anymore of this.

Knitting

In other news, I've pretty much finished the doily except for the crochet cast-off. I've never cast off live knit stitches by crocheting so I need to do some more research before I feel comfortable continuing.


I also picked up my bohus-inspired sweater the other day and finally joined the facing. It's plain stockinette now, but because the yarn is held double, it's still not something to do without paying at least a little attention.


Today is Thursday, so I also snuck in a few rows on the Clapotis. The meeting was a little shorter than normal and there's talk of canceling it more often. I've got mixed feelings though... it's not productive and wastes everyone's time, but, well, I wouldn't get to knit at work on Thursdays anymore. Hrm.

Spinning!

I plied a little bit off my second spindle. I was pulling from both ends of a center pull ball and it was a little awkward. I managed to get them super tangled and one strand broke. So, mini skein. Here's my first yarn with my first plied yarn.


The wool is, well, wool. It came with this very helpful and specific label.


It's actually rather funny how it all came about. I really blame it on a couple slow days at work. I needed something to break up the Java learning so I could let it all soak in. I popped over to the yarn harlot and stumbled on this post that linked to the joy of handspinning. (Kind of ironic that a post about abandoning fiber actually starts me spinning). I spent quite a long time reading and watching the videos.

I was so intrigued that I wanted to swing by the yarn store on the way home to grab a spindle and some fiber. My go-to local yarn store has a bunch of fiber and even wheels, so we braved Friday traffic in the u-district to stop by. They were closed! The sign on the door said it was flooding and they'd open again on Monday. I was devastated!

My lovely husband saved the day and agreed to swing by another yarn store so I could get a fiber fix. That's where I ended up with the mystery wool and the Louet spindle you've seen before. I had an enjoyable weekend, but I was craving some color and a lighter spindle for some finer yarn. And a spinning class. Let's not forget the spinning class. I snuck in a fiber order, but it still had to ship!

I won't go into details, but I was phone phobic about checking on the flooding, so we made two ill-fated trips to the store Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. Sadly, they were still closed both times. I finally bit the bullet and called about the spinning class Tuesday. They were prompt in returning my call and signed me right up. The next two Sundays I get to learn how to spin on a wheel! Yay!

They finally reopened yesterday and we stopped by on the way to work. It was so hard to leave the fiber in the car and go into work! I couldn't resist on the way home and pulled out the spindle and spun some of this merino top in the car. Yummy!


I'm attempting to spin this from the fold. It seems to be going fine, but the joins seems a little awkward (and a bit often).

All that trouble to get to the yarn store and my Loopy Ewe order came yesterday too. So much beautiful fiber! I'm excited to start spinning it!

I knew it'd happen eventually...

First yarn.



Second yarn. This one was actually pretty even when I predrafted it out super thin. I'm working on drafting it in my hand though, so there's been a lot of variation.

Stitch markers

I headed out to the bead store last night so I could make some stitch markers. Man, I could have made so many different kinds! I decided to keep it simple though, making a dozen, with two that were different.


My major requirement was to make sure they opened-- I've become very attached to my little plastic pad locks. I couldn't quite find the clasps I wanted, so I used closing earring loops instead. They seem to be working fine so far. And I really like them! It feels good to be able to put random craft skills to use.

Here they are being used on my doily of doom. Well, not really doom, but ... okay, maybe doom.


For reference, that's a 16in circular. I need to do at least one more pattern repeat and maybe even more than that. I counted my stitches and I'm at over 300 in a round. Sheesh, I feel like I'm knitting a shawl in miniature.

Crinkly yarn

I was so excited to be able to show off my doily on a circular needle with the pattern visible! Instead, you get crinkly yarn. Sigh.


I was on the last repeat of the last pattern round of the second repeat of the second chart (got that?) when I actually took a moment to count and look at the pattern. Turns out I had a vertical row of m3's that shouldn't be there. I tried dropping it down and taking them out, but there was WAY too much extra yarn because of an extra 10 stitches or so that were there. Ribbit.

It was rather time consuming and annoying wrangling all the tiny stitches, but I feel much better about it. I found that I was missing 2 yarn overs, so I had actually increased 12 too many stitches. That'll teach me not to mark pattern repeats. I figured that with just two on each needle it would be easy to keep track of. *Ahem* Yeah, not so much.

It also made me realize that my stitch markers are much too big for this project. I think I'll have to swing by the bead store on my way home and see what I can find. Fancy new stitch markers! Oh boy! If I can find my bead pliers, that is.

New and grumpy

I noticed, so I couldn't help but point it out-- until today, my September posts were all on days that are powers of two! Definitely unplanned, but cool nonetheless.

Before I take a minute to grump, I thought I'd flash some knitting. I've been feeling all sorts of urges to cast on for all sorts of things, including several scarily large projects. So far I've resisted, but I did start one thing.

I blame it on my mom. She's just too easy to make things for. One of the things she pointed out (twice) was that the scarves on her piano are too big for the space. Rebecca to the rescue!


Which should look something like this when it's done.


I am not a doily person. I would not like to have them around the house. But... I'm fascinated. The super thin yarn, the small needles, the time and effort needed to make some of the more ambitious projects (bedspread? really?!? wow.). So, well, I'll take my opportunity to try it out on the small scale, without herculean effort.

I've found it rather fiddly so far. I like double pointed needles, but I'm not used to using three around. It makes sense for this design, since it's hexagonal, but the angles are worrisome. I'll likely have some extra space at their joinings. I'm going to look for a 16in, 2mm (size 0) circular tonight, since I think I'm about to the point where I can switch. That should make things quite a bit easier.

Grump. Our new project at work uses android, google's baby. It comes with all sorts of built in tools to be able to test android code. But! (and it's a big but, let me tell you) The documentation sucks. I mean, largely nonexistent. I want some good, solid examples (that actually run, for heavens sake) so I can get an idea the best way to implement it. Gah! I spent all afternoon yesterday trying to get stupid, simple stuff to work. And eclipse... man, I want to smack the people who wrote it! So not intuitive, even actively saboutaging me it seems. I can't run the main program if there are errors... even if those errors are in the tests that aren't being touched and not in the source code! *Grump* Oh, and if I set the instrumentation runner in the manifest file where it should be, I have to separately tell eclipse that I'm using it, even though it's right there and should be able to find it! And andoid says use another manifest file for the tests, but then eclipse whines about duplicate manifest files. Bah humbug. < /Grump >

Maybe flowers will help...

Fun but busy

Friday night Bill showed up at our doorstep around 10:30, so there was scotch and rock band all around. I watched, so that I could finish sewing down the binding on my mom's quilt and weaving in ends on Beth's shawl. I was actually ahead of where I thought I would be and finished them in plenty of time.

Saturday was my parent's housewarming. I gave mom her purple and bright green quilt, though I should probably still make a label for it.


Beth was also there, so I was finally able to give her her shawl.



Unfortunately, one of my parents cats (probably the one you can see in the window above) decided to run a little wild through the house with it. He managed to pull on a single thread and tighten all the surrounding stitches. Luckily nothing was broken, but I had to take it home for some fiddly work.


Besides the gifts, there was lots of badminton (wow, I'm still sore...) and visiting. My aunt Jan came up from northern California, so it was great to be able to see her. My other aunt and uncle were also there. With family, there was of course the obligatory group photo.


I'm rather impressed that no one has their eyes closed or is making a funny face. (I'm wearing a light blue shirt. )

James and I tried to stay up to see Bill get back from his conference, but I only made it till about one in the morning before I crashed. Turns out he didn't get back until 2:30! Gamers apparently are hardcore. We took him out to lunch Sunday before saying goodbye and I showed good blogger instincts and reached for my camera. Alas, the case was empty. I need to learn to put it away after taking project pictures. I'll get you next time, Bill! (Doesn't work so well without a two syllable name...)

Monday was supposed to be laid back, but a last minute call to help haul junk out of the storage unit (in the pouring rain!) stifled that idea. A little more badminton and the weekend was a wrap.

It's beginning to look like a busy weekend

There had been rumors that Bill, a guildmate of ours, was visiting and might need a place to crash this weekend. So, I did what any good procrastinator would do and figured I'd deal with it when it was confirmed. Well, yesterday we found out for sure. Much cleaning was furiously accomplished, though the kitchen isn't finished.

I made the mistake of thinking I could quick whip up some cookies before I finished cleaning. Um, so, I had a bit of a brain fart with the butter. The recipe called for 1/2 cup of butter, so I pulled out two sticks and went to town. Whoops! Doubling the butter apparently results in super spread out and flat cookies that do not want to let go of the baking sheet when they are cool. *Sigh*. I think the kitchen is actually messier than when I started...

In other, more cheerful news, I finally finished the shawl I've been making for my friend Beth. She threw my bridal shower last October. Yeah, it's really been that long (oh shit! thank you notes! I'm so awful...). I figure I would have finished this sooner, but it was my previous boring meeting/travel project, so it was only guaranteed about an hour a week. My parents just moved and are throwing a house warming party this weekend that I think Beth's coming to. I should be able to hand it over Saturday and hopefully get some pictures of her with it.

Until then, here are some shots to tide you over. For reference, the squares are 24 inches on each side.




Pattern: Madli's shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush.
Time: February 2 to August 6 2009 (blocked September 3rd).
Yarn: Knitpicks Shimmer in Sherry, ~1.5 skeins.
Mods: I used beads for the nupps in the edging, then omitted the nupps in the center section.

If I were making this for me, I might add a few more repeats in the center section to make it a little longer. I think Beth is a few inches over five feet, so it should be the right size for her (at least I hope so).

Ah, motivation

Nothing like posting a long neglected task to give me the motivation to finish it.


120 Square in square blocks sewn, but untrimmed. It only took about 40 minutes to put the yellow triangle on all of them and about the same amount of time to press and cut them apart.

I went stash diving last week looking for US4 circs and came across two old projects. I pulled them out, hoping to finish one and at least take pictures of the other before stuffing it back in a dark corner.

These are James socks that were just waiting for a toe to be sewn up and a couple ends woven in. Easiest finished project ever!


They're just simple socks knit over (* insert quick ravelry check here*) 72 stitches on 2.5mm dpns with k3p1 ribbing and a short row heel. Yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100g Uni/Solid, 7008 colorway.

I always see these cool lace or cable sock patterns that look like a blast to knit, but James prefers simple basic socks. Me? Well... I tend to be hard on socks, plus I don't like long legs. I am intrigued by being able to make a custom toe, since I dislike mixing left and right socks, but that's not enough to make up for the other issues. I think I need to find someone else to knit socks for...

Speaking of socks, the other project I pulled out were Lost socks.


The yarn is super pretty blue/green/gray called 4-8-15-16-23-42 by Yarntini. My friend Emily got James and I good and addicted to Lost, so I couldn't pass this up when I found it. I just don't think the pattern is quite right. I'll have to do some research and maybe find a better one. I hope these will become more appetizing when the show comes back this fall. Wait... early 2010? Really? Whatever happened to normal tv schedules?

No knitting was harmed in the making of this post

Because, well, I didn't knit last night. I found a good book and sat down to read. I did, however, get a wild hair and make dinner rolls from scratch. See? (Please ignore the not quite clean stovetop, where I messily made my first plain old skillet pork chops). I don't do this much anymore, so it was a nice treat.


I first tried bread making years ago and could never quite get it right. Things never came out as good tasting as I wanted them to. Eventually I tried a different yeast and I've never gone back (Bob's Red Mill yeast). Now even the super simple recipes like these 'Dinner Rolls' from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook taste delightful. These look a little funny because I didn't use enough flour when I was shaping them so they fused and then split. So yummy, though.

I did sneak in a little bit of sewing this morning, while James was taking a shower. I'm working on Bonnie Hunter's Double Delight quilt (finished one here), so I'm making hundreds of square in square blocks. The first set is done, but the second set is suffering from missing sides.

First set (untrimmed):

Second set (unfinished, with their butts hanging out):

Besides finishing these, I've still got to make a whole lotta little nine patches out of these strips.


At least I don't need to cut any thing else until I get to the setting triangles. I enjoy feeding piece after piece through the machine, but I get tired of cutting out hundreds of tiny, fiddly pieces after only a short time. Perhaps because I want to be too exacting. The initial squaring up of pieces is always the worst part, especially for fat quarters. Must. Get. Right. Angles. Does anyone else dislike the cutting (she asks her quite likely non-existent audience)?