New year yarns

Remember some time in the past, I mentioned that I received a free ball of yarn in the mail. And then I ordered from their flyer --- oh, they are evil enablers! They know I have enough yarn already -- but they want me to have more!

Yesterday, a package arrived with my yarn! I almost forgot about it, and here it was. The package was opened, but all of my order was there. I guess everyone wanted to see what I got! hehehe

And here it is:

The problem with Mary Maxim is that they don't have much at all made of wool or any natural fibre! It's all that plastic stuff, but I did find some Paton's Up Country (100% wool), and only got 3 balls. I really like the colours, so may have to get more of it. And of course, some Regia sock yarn; a sock is already started for my grand-neice -- couldn't wait! Those were the only colours left. They will be alright for children!

And the other yarn I got was some Molash -- a kind of eyelash made with some mohair. It looks like fun, but I only got those 3 balls, and I will incorporate it into something.

I really liked the fast service from Mary Maxim during this busy holiday season, but do wish they had better selection of yarns. I will keep an eye on them, and will get a few more things, when they have another sale.

Looks like I am going to have a very quiet New Year's Eve -- as always. It's just another day for me -- I will finish those socks, and start another pair. I think these will be too small. Oh, and I need to get my fleece washed and samples spun for the class next week -- yah, sure!

To everyone: The very best of all good things in 2006, and may your days be filled with warm fuzzy [fibre] things!

Surprise Package

On Monday, I recieved a small package in the mail. It was from Mary Maxim. Now, I know of the store, and have looked through their catalogue, but have never ordered anything from them. So I had no idea what it could be.

But inside was a ball of Bernat's Disco yarn. Just one. It was a free ball, along with their current catalogue, and a sale flyer. At one time, I had registered for something and forgot about it. Now I recall something about a free offer from Bernat, and this was it. I'm not sure what I will do with 50 gm of this yarn, but it's nice to add to my stash!

One of the reasons I have never ordered from Mary Maxim is that there is nothing of wool in their whole collection! Everything is plastic or acrylic. So looking through the flyer, I see that they have Regia sock yarn, which is only 75% wool, on sale for a good price. These are the self-patterning yarns. I have to look on the website to see the colours; there are only two selections available, and they are not the nicest of choices! But I finally break down and decide to get a couple of balls, enough to make a pair of socks, and they will go to someone.

I also ordered a few other items, and will see what I can do with them when they finally arrive. It's always good to have a few extra things in your collection, right?

Nightmares

I really need to get another pic of our street now. It suddenly turned very HOT and it has all melted, and the sun is shining! What a difference a week makes! Even a day.. it was below freezing one day, but by 10 pm it had gone up to +3 and by 3 am, it was +5. I stayed up just to be sure.

I don't seem to be sleeping well, and suffering for the lack of it. So this morning, without having anything really pressing (it can all wait), I just stayed in bed. I finally decided that I should get out of bed, since I DO have things to do. It's already mid-afternoon, and so half the day is gone. I did sleep most of the time. I would doze, listen to the radio for brief moments, and more sleep. I do feel a whole lot better now. One more day, and I would be back to nornal. Maybe another nap later this afternoon -- gee, better get back to bed, or there isn't time left for a nap!!

I did have a horrible nightmare though. I can't remember how it started, but I was working on the shawl (in the dream) -- that vexing lace shawl -- and for some reason, I had to rip out some stitches. Now, as some of you may know, I NEVER rip anything out. But for some unknown reason (dreams are like that), I pulled and pulled and pulled... not for a long time it seems. I have already started my third ball (odd-- I didn't find the join), but I noticed that I was ripping an odd section, so I stopped to see what was happening. Oh, no!! I had gone all the way back to the end of Clue 3!! That is about 2 months work! I couldn't believe it! I simply stared at it.... what did I do? What was I thinking? I just felt sick! So what do I do now? I really didn't look forward to starting that horrible section again! It was the part that gave me so much trouble in the first place. I liked it up unitl then -- up to the point that I stopped ripping.

Perhaps I was thinking that I would re-design the shawl, and do it MY way. But there I sat, looking at it in my hands, and wondering what am I to do now. Then I awoke -- that is the only good thing about nightmares -- and realized that I had better get working on that shawl, and past this unhealthy section. I am halfway through the second run of Clue 4 (I liked it that much!! LOL), and it seems there are too many stitches. Well, of course: I added four more repeats of the 22-stitch pattern!

I am coping with it well, or so I thought. It is not as confusing as it was, but still tedious. Well, all lace-knitting is like that, so I will just plod along, doing one row at a time, and get through this. There is still the sideways knit border, and I'm thinking of making a few changes to that one. I don't like the way others have ended up, so I'm working it in my head to make a few modifications -- just so it looks more pleasing TO ME when it is finally done. And it WILL be done!!

For now, I have to start on my fruit bread. Never enough time!!

That's snow!

We've had a bit of snow before. This is the first real snow for this season. While it may not last long, there will be more. But it's already near the end of November, and it has been unseasonably warm (up to +20 one day), it has now cooled considerably, and it has snowed. This was what I saw when I poked my head out the window at 8:30 this morning! Not really a pleasant sight, so I turned around and pulled the covers up tighter, and stayed there -- a little longer!

Well, I had so much planned for today! As always, and nothing got done anyway. So be it. I needed some sleep I think. One more day would be really great, but I have to go in to work tomorrow. Not that they would miss me much if I wasn't there, I don't think, but I will make my appearance, and do all that stupid paper work that no one really cares about, nor does the fate of the world depend upon. But I will do it.

I worked on that shawl again today. Yah! It's moving along nicely now, and is behaving itself. I am nearing the end of Clue 4, and am thinking of doing another repeat. Why in the world would I do something like that when it gave me so much trouble?! Indeed, why?? Maybe it's to show it that I am not afraid of it, maybe to show that I CAN do it. Maybe it's because I need a few more inches to this shawl! It sure does seem small so far. I know it will stretch a lot when blocked, but still --- it is small!

I have a small bag stuffed with raw fleece in my warm apartment waiting to be washed. I can't just dump it all in the tub and be done with it. No, we have 10 sections from the different parts of the sheep, and have to wash eash seperately, and spin a 6 yard length (2-ply) from each section. So we know that different parts of the fleece produce different kinds of yarn! And then we also have to wash and spin a sample of locks four different ways! I know this is a study of spinning, but some of these things are just not fun!! Ah, well ---- Might be time for another nap.

It's done!

Well, finally, after some interruptions, the socks are done! I'm always so happy to get a project off the needles, the ends darned in, washed and blocked! It doesn't take much to make me happy.

These socks were started quite some time ago. I've enjoyed working on them. The pattern was not that complicated, but for the first several inches of the leg, I had to make sure I followed the pattern so I didn't get lost. It wasn't until after I turned the heel that it began to make some sense. It's really a simple and logical pattern -- something about that confused me!

I did these out of a navy, thinking I would wear it more often than I would one of the self-striping pink and lime green socks! But I found that it was only possible to see the stitches in daylight; even bright room lights didn't seem to help much. That's why it took so long to do, with the short days we now have!

Work on that Mystery Shawl has stalled. It has actually stopped! I have lost all interest in it whatsoever! This has almost never happened to me before, that I recall. I thought if I left it alone for a time, I would come back to it renewed. It may take a long time!

I'm not really sure what happened. I have done a lot of lace. I enjoy knitting lace! It find it exciting to see the designs develop, and they are not that hard to do. But this one --- it is just not flowing for me. There were a couple of minor errors in the design which I could deal with. But this section of the design has pattern stitches on both front and back rows. And I've done this before too! For some reason, it just was not working. Now, looking at it, I can't tell where I am in the pattern anymore! I've really gone and lost myself somewhere. I hate to say it, but I may have to tink a row or two. I NEVER rip anything out; but I will tink! Once I get back on track, I may be alright. I hope so -- I SOOO want to get this done!

Progress is slow

I am getting up before the sun these days. That is not right. It is not the natural logical progression of the world. The sun rises; then me. This is what I saw a few days ago when I got up. Yes, there is a lot of construction going on around me now. The colours are beautiful -- I used to be so intrigued by the various shades of reds and pinks and greys and blues of the sunrises of several years ago. I wanted to capture all that colour and create clouds of wool to spin! I'm working on it.

I've been slowly working on the mystery shawl. I am about a third way through Clue 4, and Clue 5 comes out tomorrow! I am not able to spend enough time on it. It has not been easy! There are lace pattern rows on BOTH sides -- and I really had to struggle with them for some reason. This is not the first time I've done lace. I think I can usually work through any kind of pattern, but this one was really difficult! There wasn't much of a design developing, that I could see, so I had to concentrate on following the charts, and would lose my place a lot! I developed a way of isolating only a section at a time, and then moving that little window as I worked the stitches. It's coming along, and I think it will be looking great when done, but there is not much to see right now. As you know, lace needs to be stretched out when being blocked to show off the pattern. So we will see it at the end! I will include a pic here of what I have so far. Looks good, right?

Remember that bag I was felting? Nothing much happened when I rubbed and scrubbed in the sink by hand. It usually worked when I did smaller things. So I threw it in the maching when I was doing my laundry, and let it go through a cylce. It's better, but not felted much yet. The stitches are still visible and there are a couple of holes where it was stretched too much. I think that another run through the machine is necessary. I'm told that sometimes it takes 3 cycles in a machine before it will felt.

But my shawl is not getting done; more to follow.

Three Down ----

You remember that I've been working on a shawl knit-along. There is a new "clue" released every Friday, and we have a week to work on it, before we get more of the pattern. We are not told what shape it is going to be, how large, what the pattern is. It's all a Mystery!

Well, I've completed Clue 3. I now have received Clue 4, and am going to get started on this next section. Here is a pic of it so far:
And yes, it is now off the needles! It is about 35 cm tip to edge now -- that is about 14 inches for you 'Muricans. It's not finished, we can see that; it is just too small. So we knew there was more in store for us. Today, we were told to bind-off that last row we worked on, and to pick up stitches along both sides of the triangle. Ah, ha!! Now we will be knitting downward to the outside edge! Nice plan! This will allow some of us to make it larger, if needed, by repeating a few more rows, or even to introduce another shade of yarn, if we wanted. I like this idea.

There is some confusion in my mind about how to do the bindoff -- it needs to be firm but yet elastic. However, I did find some good ideas of different elastic ones, and choose one that looks good to me. Then -- how do you pick up stitches? Do you knit them up? Or just pick up loops along the edge? And we have to purl the first row, and then start the pattern, on row 2 as the right side row, which is not the usual way patterns are written. Oh, this is testing my openess to new presentations!! I'll work it out some way; probably have to re-write the pattern to suit me! LOL

Dyeing Day

Today was the beginning of a series of classes for me. And on this day, we did some nature dyeing, which was fun and with interesting results. Sometimes, we didn't get what we had hoped for. And that is part of the thrill of pulling out that skein of yarn, not knowing what will come out.

We had several pots going with beet tops, carrot tops, Bee Balm, marguerita, tumeric, onion skins. There were some plants right outside our door! We used alum as a mordant, and some iron. We aren't going to use any of the more hazardous ones, like copper, tin or chrome.

Most of us got shades of green, or yellow, or orange. We don't have a wide selection of different plants to give us the reds or blues, but enough to get a range anyway. They will look good used together in weaving or knitting. Now, I have to cook up nine more pots of colour with different plants or spices!! This can either be a lot of fun --- or not!

It's a Mystery

I have always enjoyed doing lace knitting, but of late, there are other projects that have taken up my time. I heard from one of the ladies in the knitting guild of a group on Yahoo that were working on a Mystery Shawl -- a part of the pattern was given each week, and you blindly followed along with everyone, not knowing the final outcome until it was all done. So I joined.

The great thing about having so many people doing the exact same thing is how different we all approach it. Some have used light yarns, some dark. Some have used fuzzy yarns, some multi-coloured, some lace-weight, and some worsted. It doesn't matter. That is one of the things I love about lace -- that you can do the exact same thing over and over, using different yarns, and it will always look different. We don't have to worry much about gauge, since it needs only to be large enough to cover the shoulders of the wearer. Some of us wanted a warm shawl so are using heavier wool, and others wanted only the experience of working with a lace chart and are using acrylics. No matter.

I was spinning up some luscious Merino/silk for this project, and was behind by two weeks. But the yarn came out too fine (I tried to spin thick!) for this project, so I will use it for something else. I searched through my somewhat ample stash and found this sock yarn that I won't be using for socks, and it would be perfect for a shawl. It is 75% wool from Scheepjes in a strong rose purple. I think it will be fine. (That's a shadow across the shawl)

Well, I have just started on Clue 3 -- it just came out an hour ago! -- and this next section is going to take some time. This thing is now getting larger and there are so many more stitches to do! It ends with four rows in garter stitch -- now I'm curious to know what is being planned for the rest of it. Hmmm ---

The Shrinking Bag

There is a lady at work that has shown some interest in knitting, and we have done a couple of projects together. She has completed a pair of mittens, which her daughter grabbed for herself almost before they were off the needles, and she is now working on a pair for herself. I have shown her a wonderful thrift shop that has needles and sometimes some good yarn. We have been looking for some wool to work with, and she told me the other day that she has some on hold at the store. I went with her to the shop, and to look around myself.

She didn’t have just some wool on hold. She had a huge bag of 100% unspun wool rovings!! I had made a purchase several months ago of 14 wheels of the stuff, and she had even more! What a lucky girl! Of course, if I had found it first, I would have snapped it all up immediately!

So we have decided on doing some felted bags with it. I started working on one myself first, to show her how it would work. I don’t have circular needles large enough, so have to use my straight 10mm needles. As you can see, I wanted to work it in the round, so I had to do some double knitting. For the most part, it is rather easy. I am using three strands of the unspun rovings -- they come apart easily with a bit of tension, but I'm learning to loosen up. There is only one little mishap, but easily fixed. I threw in some colour and may dye it later on for something more. I haven’t decided yet if I will knit a flap for it and if I will make any handles or not. I also don’t know how deep to knit it, because I don’t know how much it will shrink in the felting process. I have done a small bag before, and shrinkage was a factor, but not a lot.

I am still working on those socks. For some reason, I am having a lot of trouble with the heel flap. That is because I ventured off the well-trodden path and was determined to use the Eye of the Partridge heel – for some reason, it is not working right for me. Oh, well.

The Mallard Cloud

Several weeks ago, one woman on a list I am on, advertised that she was clearing out older stock for the new lot coming in. So after a few emails, we settled on the colours and the amount. The real killer is the shipping!!

I got 6 bags of fluff! It is Merino/silk and is Oh so Soft! I have only one bag of Mallard, a kind of green with specks of yellow and maybe blue. I took it out of the bag, and unrolled it… and then unfolded it. It was a large carded batt of the softest wool and silk blend! I had to spin it immediately!

I wanted a soft twist, which is very hard for me to do. I like my yarns spun quite firmly and very fine. But I did it, a small skein, and it is so soft. That is what everyone says when I show it to them.

I tore off a strip off the batt about the width of a hand. I then pulled it out into a roving to make spinning easier. Those that spin will know what I mean; those that do not should know that preparation is everything! Spend time to prepare your fibres well, and your spinning almost happens by itself.

I am spinning this very fine, but with only enough twist to hold together. I will then ply it together, and hope there is enough twist to do this right! It may be too softly spun.

I have joined a Yahoo group that is doing a shawl Knit-A-Long (KAL). The owner of the list sends us a Clue about once a week. It is part of the pattern… we don’t get to know anything more than this. So we are all knitting it, bit by bit, speculating on the outcome, anxiously awaiting the next set of chart, learning a lot along the way. I haven’t started my shawl yet, because I am still spinning the yarn! I tried a sample, but don’t think I have the right needles for it. Oh, it’s all so exciting!

The sock? No, it’s not done yet; it is on hold for now. There are just too many other things to do!

To Dye For

Today was one of those really great days. Just doing what you enjoy, with friends that share your passion, without regard for time. These are so very rare.

Once a year, the local knitting guild puts on a dyeing day at a woolen mill, about an hours drive from the city. The mill does commercial processing of wool, and other animal fibres, including some dyeing. Today, they hosted a dye workshop using natural dyes. We used Cochineal, Logwood, Arbutus, Black Walnut, some local burning bush, and pansy, and a few other items. These are all cooked for a long time, then the wool was added, and cooked for a longer time, and finally rinsed.

We were a bit disappointed that some of the dyes didn't take hold on the wool. There may be various reasons, but the colours are not intense. Natural dyeing rarely is, and all our colours today were rather subdued. Here they are all hanging out in the sun, drying.The mill is a working museum. The machinery is quite ancient, collected from all over the continent, and brought to working condition. It is a fascinating experience to see it all in operation. Today, they were all silent. The mill is operated by an unusual couple. They are so laid back! They purchased an old railway station that was being dismantled and moved it to the farm. They have been "fixing it up" for ages; the children have grown up, and are gone. It has a certain charm you will never find anywhere else. And they just take each day as it comes.

While we were waiting for the dyes to cook, we tried our hand at a few other things: needle felting, felting on the felting machine, dyeing with commercial acid dyes in the microwave. It was all fun! Of course, we had to take a run through "the store" -- how can anyone get out of there without purchasing anything?!!

All in all, a good day. Now, to catch up on some of the sleep I missed out on last night.

Mysterious Fruit

Normally, I take the same route to work every day. A creature of habit, I know. But that seems to be the most direct way, and time is of the essence in the morning! I pass a row of crabapple trees along one street. They have been there a long time, and someone is looking after them, since they have been pruned this spring. I have picked the apples for a couple of years; they are the bright red ones, and right now, just after the frost, they are fully ripe and quite sweet. I would make some juice from them, and apple sauce. I still have some from last year -- I will make some muffins from them tonight, so I have room for this years' batch! Some years are not as prolific as others, so I have always learned to make good use of nature's bounty, for it is given to us to use. In other years, there may not be any at all.

There are a couple of tiny apples on some trees interspersed among the others. I think they are of some ornamental variety, have wonderful flowers, and maybe are necessary for the others to produce. They are not edible, I don't imagine. At the very end of this row is one tree not like the others. I have looked at it briefly last year, I recall, but it didn't seem to have any decent fruit on it, either too green or too small. So I normally just ignore it.

This year, I don't know why, I stopped to take a good look at what was on the tree. And it has quite a bit of fruit on it, albeit rather small, but interesting nonetheless. I examined a few of them, and many had already fallen off the tree. They were green, and rather hard -- not ripe, I guess. They had the most interesting shape to them! I picked a few the other morning, and gave one each to the girls I work with. I took some home.

Today, I decided to go and pick a whole bunch more. Since there were so many, and they were falling off the tree, I would put them to good use. So I picked a couple bags of the stuff, along with a bag of the red crabapples, and hung them on my bicycle handle-bars and rolled the bike home. No way was I going to try to ride it and balance these heavy bags as well!!

So I am including a pic here for you to try and identify. They look so familiar! Can anyone tell me what they are, and more importantly, if they are edible. I have a box full of them -- now what to do with them all.

Cable socks

Sometime earlier this year, I heard of a liquidation outlet that had tons of yarn really cheap. I had to run out to the store on my day off (it had to rain, of course) and found that it was pretty well picked over by the time I got there. However, there were still some good finds, and I picked up a couple. Later, I had to dump my armload into a shopping cart.. and so it went.

I searched for any wool or cotton yarns, and found quite a lot. I tried to get all available, and of the same dyelot, although that was not a critical criteria. I ended up with two huge bags and some smaller sundry items. Luckily I had enough cash on me!

So when I was leaving on a long bus ride on a vacation to see my mother, I grabbed two balls for socks. Usually two 50 gm balls is enough for a pair. I began the socks on about Tuesday, and by Sunday, I had finished one. Before I reached the ball of the foot, I ran out of yarn. I KNEW it was going to happen! I sometimes use a contrast heel and toe, but didn't on this one. I was going to have to be really creative if I couldn't find anything else close!

When I got home, I searched through the bags for another ball. Most of the time, I was only able to find two, so I wasn't hopeful. Eventually, I dumped everything on the floor, and searched through it again... and found one more! What a lucky strike! So I was able to finish the pair with the same yarn.

It's just a simple cable on either side, front and back. There was a bit of a problem with them on the first one, and so had to do the very same thing on the other, and they look like a matched pair. Why do both of them HAVE to be the same, anyway??

I wore them to work last week, and had to pull up my pant legs a lot to show off! It's really too bad that no one gets to see my socks -- I think I may start wearing breeches!

I am now working on another pair, this time in dark blue/navy. I am finding it is hard to see the stitches during the evening, so only can work on them during daylight. They are in a complicated-looking basket weave pattern, but is rather simple to do, once you understand the logic. They will be here soon enough!

A Long Week!

This has been a very long week! I took Monday off from work. It's my Mental Therapy Day -- I went spinning with my friends. On the first Monday of the month, several ladies get together for a day of spinning, and I always enjoy that. When I used to have Monday off, this was perfect. But now that I have to work Mondays, it's a bit more difficult. Since I worked on Friday, I took Monday off instead, and it all works out fine.

It was a bit of a struggle to find a ride but I did it. The lady that hosts this spinning day lives way down in the south of the city, so I need to find a ride down there. Luckily, I have several friends that come from the north and are willing to pick me up. I pack a lunch, take along my small spinning wheel, a spindle, some fibre and some knitting. All this because I'm not sure what I will want to be working on that day! Of course, something that I have finished, for Show and Tell. It was a great day, and good to see everyone since we haven't met since June.

I've been trying to encourage some of the knitters at work to work on a couple projects, but it seems they are content doing whatever it is they do. But I do have one woman that knew a few things about knitting, and needed a bit more help. So I have been pestering her to get working on a few things. We started with a simple hat, knit in the round. This was the first time she worked with double pointed needles, or circulars. But she did very well, knitting two hats. Then I started her on a simple baby jacket... that didn't get very far! Then we talked about doing some mittens. We were going to do this in May, since she was taking some classes earlier and didn't have time for anything else!

It wasn't until July that we got started on the mittens! All she could find was some acrylic, but I accepted that. I keep encouraging her to get some wool, or at least a wool blend, but that is very hard to find at Michael's or WalMart! But I got her to cast on, knit the ribbing, and then the body of the mitten. We did increases for the thumb gusset -- except someone didn't count the stitches, and one thumb ended up being a bit smaller! She is able to knit in the round very well now. I showed her how to do the decreases for the end of the mitten, and then we did the grafting. That was easy.

I showed her how to pick up a few stitches for the thumb, and knit around, and to decrease. She was very excited about that, since it was nearing the end!! Then she darned in the ends, and all is done! Her daughter was so thrilled to have them done, and wore them the next day when it was rather chilly! Now, she is going to work on some for herself. I gave her a skein of my handspun for this project. It's in white wool, and we might do some dyeing when they are done. Little by little, I'm getting her to learn a new technique with each project, and trying things she would never attempt on her own.

But I wanted to show you the mittens! One is slightly larger (don't know what happened there) but are not too bad. This is not my choice for a yarn, but that was all she could find. I have shown her a thrift shop where she is finding some needles for her collection, and some yarn.

I'm off work on Friday. This has been a very long week! I'm exhausted! After I came home, and checked some emails, had a little snack, I went to bed before 9 o'clock! That is the exciting life I lead! I don't need supper EVERY day, you know.

I'm working on another pair of socks. These are in a dark blue, almost navy. I find that I have to work on them in daylight; it's too hard to see at any other time. It's in an interesting basketweave pattern, looking more complicated than it really is, and I'm having fun doing them. They should be quite nice when done -- soon.

It rained again today. I was going to take the bike to work, but changed my mind. It was a most unusual wet dreary grey misty day. The weekend should be a lot better, with some sun, and maybe a bit warmer. And I have so much to do!

Long weekends

There hasn’t been much posted here for a long time. It’s like this: I knew I had a blog set up, but couldn’t remember what name I used when I signed up for it. Yup, my own name I forgot! But there are so many sites I have to create a name in order to use, with passwords and all kinds of stuff, that this one just got lost. I have a long list -- a very long list -- of all the sites I have to sign in to, with names, and passwords. But the Blogger site was not listed!

Eventually, I was able to get them to email me with the name I used and my password. Well, what do you know!? I DO have it listed on the list, but not as a blog, so that is why I missed it! But I got it now.

This was a long weekend. I was off work for four days. Yup, that is a long weekend, but actually is about right. I think one more day would be perfect, since I have too much to do, and nothing got done this weekend at all. I haven’t set foot outside my apartment for two whole days. It was nice out, and I wanted to go to the Farmer’s Market, and needed some groceries ---- but you know, it was just too much trouble to get up and out that door. Maybe another day.

I did some spinning this weekend. I have lots of fibre laying around here, waiting to be made into something. So I tried to help them out a bit. Not sure what they will become, but as long as I make an attempt at showing that I haven’t forgotten them, they are happy. I did knit up a sock out of some of my handspun. Just a little baby sock really. It is only about 3 inches tall, and didn’t take me long to do it at all. It might go to someone, unless I decide to make another one for her. I need a few more details on it, I think. Yes, I think there will be another one knit up very soon! (That’s a quarter in the pic, for sizing purposes.)

I got to using newsgroups. Well, I have used it before, long ago, and had forgotten how to do it. Or where. But after some work, it was really simple – once you know the right magic words to use! Cool! I located an Old Time Radio group, and was able to download some shows that I hadn’t heard of before. I will have to keep checking in frequently, since people post different things all the time, and they don’t stay up there for long, apparently. So while I was listening to some of the shows, I knit that little sock. Can’t waste time, now can I?

But tomorrow, it is back to the grind! Oh, I hate mornings like that… I will survive, I suppose, but it’s going to be a rough day. Supervisor has been away for two weeks and it has been a great time. I knew it wasn’t going to last! Oh, I have to be more positive –

New Hat!

I just finished this hat last night. It is a chemo cap for one of the hospitals here in town. They are always looking for hats in the Chemo Department, and are really short of hats for men. This was made with Brown Sheep's Nature Spun, 100% wool, in white and green. This was from a pattern that was given to me by the knitter's guild, but I'm not too sure I like the size. The ribbing is not as tight as I like it, but it is done, and is okay. I really liked doing the design, it was very easy and quick and fun to do. I wasn't too pleased with the way they did the top, but that is how it was written, so I followed their directions. It is okay, but I would have done it a bit different. There is still some yarn left, so I may do another one, with a different design, and do the top my way!(And I did!) The smaller one was started on a trip up to Edmonton, to attend a conference, and to keep myself awake during the presentations, I knitted this one, very quietly, under the table. I can knit FairIsle without looking now -- cool! I only had a little bit at the top to finish when I got back home.

This is the second one I have done for the guild. The first was a very fine yarn, took forever to do, although the pattern was interesting to do. I changed the top and made myself more work, but I do like the way it turned out. Sorry, no pics on that one!

Other than that, I have been doing some spinning. I have some really nice fleece that was supposed to be used for some felting, but I wanted to spin it instead. I am doing it very very fine, because that is what it wants to be! I have already done two skeins, and am working on the third. But since it is fine, it takes a long time to fill the bobbin.

I do have some really nice beige/brown waiting for me as well. I think I want to do a sweater for myself with that. But first I have to get this white off the wheel! And there is a box of other wool waiting their turn too, so I had better get moving on this one! So much to do, not enough time to do it all.

You can see more of them here:

Starting places

In everything that one does, there must be a place in which he starts -- be it a race, a project, getting out of bed. This is where I start.