Last socks of the year

So I started these socks in early November, hit a bit of a stall when I wasn't sure how long to make them, and then the disaster hit near the end of November, so they were put on hold.

But I've cleaned up, and to keep my sanity, I worked on the socks. I finished them a few weeks ago, and haven't had the time to post any pics!

These were meant for my Mom. But I don't know her size, and since she wasn't nearby so I could measure against her foot, and since my foot WAS here, I made them my size. So I guess these will have to be for me! I'll make another pair for Mom later on.

These two balls of yarn have been sitting here for years, calling out to me nearly every day that they want to be socks. But I didn't have the right pattern until one day I stumbled across this one. It is called SKYP because you do the cable cross with a YO. It was a fun little manoeuvre, and look quite nice. Because I like to twist thing just a little bit, I made the twists in the opposite directions for each sock, just to be different. You might not even notice!

This is a 75% wool/25% nylon by Patons called Kroy socks, 50 gm ball. I wanted to use it all, with nothing left over, and so I had to do them toe-up. I used my own heel design, knit the leg as long as I could, and when there was just a bit of yarn left, continued with the established 2/1 ribbing until the yarn ran out. I had about 20 cm left after binding off the first sock... and I had just enough to barely make the last stitch on the second sock. It would never hold that way, so I "borrowed" 5 cm from the left over and spliced it in to do the last 2-3 stitches. All's well.
I like the way they fit. They feel very comfortable. I wore them the rest of the day after taking these photos. I probably won't wear them every day, but once in a while, when I think of it.

Now, to find more yarn (somewhere in this turmoil) to knit another pair. Oh, yes, the repairs have been done, I have a new carpet, but they didn't feel they had to rip out the walls, thankfully. I now have to move everything back in from storage, but first I need to sort it out, and get rid of a lot of stuff I don't need any longer, or was too damaged to salvage. This will be very painful.

Best Wishes of the Season

(This should have been posted a few weeks ago. I don't know what happened)

I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to my friends and colleagues, but it is difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on her advice I wish to say the following:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the summer or winter solstice, depending on which side of the equator you live, holiday practised with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practise religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that our country is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee .

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/him or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Best Regards ( without prejudice )

Name withheld ( Privacy Act ).

Oh, the hell with all of this! Merry Christmas!

Disaster!

It's about -20C, and midnight. My stupid dumb idiot neighbour has gone away somewhere, and left her windows open! Idiot, I know! And you know what happens next, don't you?

So the heating pipes burst and started a fountain in her apartment. Of course, because I had the misfortune to live next to her, I have been flooded. The bedroom that is against her wall is used as my storage room, piled high with boxes and boxes of yarn. A flood is not the thing I need.

So the disaster people are here, mopping up at her place and finally shut off the water. They can't get into my place because it is so crowded with "stuff". In order to clean up, I will have to move everything out, and very soon, to get it all dried up before mould sets in. This is NOT something I need right now!

So I've been mopping up the water as it is flowing into my place, trying to keep it confined to the bathroom and the bedroom. That was a joke! It looks like the flow has abated somewhat now, but it is seeping up into my stash -- I can hear it! LOL I needed to cut down, I know, but this is not the way I would have wanted to do it! As long as it is only the acrylics that are at the bottom, but I doubt it. I knew I should have put the useless things on the bottom as a cushion! Will I learn -- for the next time? I wonder.

Oh, the joys of living next door to an idiot!!

It happened!

Yesterday, about noon, I could see this wall of white coming in from the north. I was too busy to pay much attention to it. But suddenly, when I looked out, there was nothing! The building across the street was gone. It was all white. There was nothing!

The wall of white had hit us downtown. All you could see looking out any direction was faint ghost images of buildings that I knew were still out there.

Of course, we knew it was coming -- it is the middle of November after all. It was predicted that we would get some of that "s-word" stuff before Hallowe'en and it almost did. We had a faint sprinkle overnight of Oct 30 which disappeared by evening. And the weather man has been threatening us with that white stuff since the weekend. I knew that eventually he would get it right!

So here it is. Most of the time, it was coming in at us sideways. It blew through very quickly -- a matter of a few minutes -- and then was clear. Well, for a short while. Then another wall ran over us. And of course, accompanied with all this, is a very cold temperature with a good wind. Perfect.


There isn't much we can do about it anyway. Perfect weather to sit inside and knit. Or spin. Or watch movies. And I've been doing all of that. I can knit without paying much attention, and getting better at doing a few stitches just by feel. I can spin on the spindle easily enough and that is my usual fall-back activity while watching some old TV or movies; otherwise I would fall asleep! The socks are coming along, and I hope to get them completed maybe by next week. I only get a few moments a day to work on them, and they are taking far longer than I would have expected. But what else do I have to do??

New Socks

It's been such a very long time that I have knit anything, let alone socks, that this is a momentous occasion! I've been wanting to knit something but could not decide on what it was to be. I did want to knit some socks for my mother, who really liked the last pair (the first for her) that I knit a couple of winters ago. She always comments on how well they stay up for her.

I had this blue yarn sitting here, calling out to me that it wants to be socks, and I finally found a pattern that I liked as well. I am doing them toe up, because I like doing them that way. I actually wasn't sure how long to make them, so this seemed to be a sensible reason. As I am now nearing the heel, I need to decide when to start the gusset... and not having my mother near to measure, I am going to guess! I am hoping I will be close enough because fit is extremely important for socks.
This pattern is called Skyp and I found it on the net somewhere. The pattern does look nicer when it is on the foot, and I may have to take a pic of them that way. I am doing both at the same time, working on first one and then the other, trying to keep them at about the same point. When I get to the gusset and heel, I may do each one separately, or do each section on each so that I knit them the same. I have the habit of "adjusting" a few things here and there as I need at the time, forget to do them on the second one and so the socks then are NOT be the same! I will try to avoid that happening with these.

That line of red yarn is my row counter and beginning of round marker. I find these to be the most versatile of all markers I've used, and will continue to use them, until someone can come up with something better -- but I don't see how you can improve on this.

I have quite a bit of spinning done, still some plying to do, and I will show you that another time. I had some idea that I wanted to knit a scarf, and dye it, but now with this very fine yarn, I may have to reconsider. I don't look forward to all that knitting with this yarn for a scarf!! But that is for later.

Test Six

I sure didn't realize I would have to make so many test swatches, just to find out all the possibilities of plying. There are probably a few more colours I could try out, but this will have to do for now.

After doing the white, I realized I didn't try the opposite end of the scale and use black. I have some nice soft shiny black of unknown fibre content which I've been spinning for about a year, off and on. I don't know what to do with it. But it will work great for a swatch.

So I plied a small sample with more of my colourful singles. This is the ply on the spindle.
Again, you can see the barber pole effect and it shows the eveness (or not) of your plying. The colours do seem to be a bit brighter, don't they?

I then knit up a sample swatch, as always. And this is what I got:
You can quite clearly see that the colours are much brighter when put next to the black. The white seems to weaken all the intensity of the colours, while the black will increase whatever colour there is.

For comparison purposes, here they are side by side.
It's a little hard to believe that these are the very same singles, plied with a white and a black. If I hadn't done them myself, I may not believe it either. I've known that white tends to wash out colours, and have seen that in some examples of knitting, but when it is shown like this in side-by-side swatches, you just can't deny it.

Now, the problem is that I am not sure which would be best to use for plying. I had an idea in my mind when I first started this so very long ago, and with all these samples, that idea has become muddied a bit by the results. I mean, there is nothing that is entirely wrong. Each swatch I've done has some redeeming qualities, and depending on what effect I was trying to achieve, and what item I was knitting, one of them would be the correct thing to do.
Here are the other four samples, with (from left to right): grey, blue, red, itself. I am looking at them now, admiring each of them, and can see that each would be quite perfect for a different kind of item. I can't say No to any of them.

So now I have another dilemma -- what is it that I want to make with this yarn? I think it will have to sit for awhile longer, letting them stew for a bit, and one of them will finally jump out at me and tell me what needs to be done.

In the meantime, I've been working on another bag of delicious combed top in another range of variegated colours. Will I have the same trouble again? Let's hope not.

Test Five

So one more test that I wanted to try, since I haven't done it yet, is to ply with white.

Now, we all know that if you are using two very different colours, you are going to get a barber pole effect. Not my favourite design in yarns, although I have knit some socks with that kind of yarn, and it actually looked okay. So I am not saying no without at least giving it a try.

I spun up a fine white single on the spindle, naturally. Then I plied them. The neatest thing was the barber pole I got! I liked it! And the thing is that you can easily see how even your plying is when it is lying next to each other -- that angle of the ply really shows itself, and when you have several yarns laying side by side like this, you can see if the angle (therefore your plying) of the ply is all the same. Cool!

Then I knit up a sample tonight with this plied yarn. It's very interesting. Nothing like any of the rest. The white, because of the fine yarns, and the tight ply, produces a speckled effect, and when knit up, it looks quite heathered. The white doesn't interfere too much with the colour of the other single, letting the colour differences show up nicely. The white does tend to wash out the colours a bit, but that is minor in this sample.

So now there is one more sample I need to do. This time, I think this will be the last. No, really. There isn't any more I can do -- after this last one.

Testing Four

Well, I'm really venturing out further and further from my initial vision of what this yarn was to do for me. Someone has asked if I have tried plying with itself. And I have to be honest and say I did not. I wasn't planning on doing that, and hadn't even thought of doing a sample! The obvious, I know, but have not done it.

So now I have plied a sample with itself, just so I know what it will do, and then I could dismiss it as not being what I want. Here it is:
I've knit a swatch from it as well.
I dunno --it's not that bad, actually. Not quite what I was visualizing, but still quite acceptable. There is some variation showing through, it is not all blended together. Who would have thought?

Well, okay, so now I have one more idea. Darn these samples! You can't just have one.

Testing Three

Okay, so now I'm going to get really brave, and spin up some bright red/pink and see what that does. I don't have any. But I do have some orange/red mohair -- it will have to do. This is the skein I got:
And this is the knit swatch:
Quite different, isn't it? So much can change just by which colour is used as the background. Actually, I can't tell which is background and which is the main colour!

Now, that I've done this much, another idea strikes me. Okay, more spinning to do.

Testing Two

Since that last sample tended to produce a rather dull lack-luster over-all tone, I needed something that would pickup one of the colours in my original, without being too strong. I do have some dark blue and spun up a small bobbin, and plied with my purple/pink single. This is the skein I got.
I then knit a swatch to see what it looks like. You can never tell what will happen just by looking at the skein!
This is better. I notice a bit more brightness in the colours now.

Hmm... now I wonder what would happen if I used something a bit brighter. Okay, one more test.

Some testing

There hasn't been an update for some time on the spinning I've been doing. So much has been happening that I have neglected to tell you the latest. So here is a bit of what I've done.

When I was spinning this roving, with all these colours in it, I kept thinking of how to ply it. I didn't want to ply with itself, since I would lose some of the variation of colours. I felt it would all blend together. And, because I only had a limited quantity, I wanted to stretch it as far as I could. At first, I thought I would use another strand of the purple/pink colours, to use as one of the plys and to tie the whole together. But that is not quite a colour that I would use. I had no plans for this yarn either, so what colour it was really didn't matter much!

I did think that a darker neutral colour would work well, since it would not overpower the subtle colour changes in what I was spinning, and a darker colour would tend to let the colours stand out a bit more. A white would make it all quite pale, I felt.

So I was able to spin up a little bit of grey alpaca to ply a small bobbin. The results are below.
I did knit up a small swatch with that skein. I am not quite sure whether this has achieved what I intended. The gray does blend it all together, but the colours are not as bright as I would have liked.

Obviously, more testing is required!

Conference treats

In early June, the provincial conference was held here in the city on June 10-12. I am not a member (yet) but I always like to go to see the public displays and the vendors area. I had decided I needed to treat myself to a really nice spindle. I got a little extra money for my birthday, and I thought it was about time that I got myself something special. I love my CD spindle, but by now I deserve a real fancy tool.

I was holding a garage sale that day as well, and it was very cold and windy. Not a good day to be standing out on the street trying to push some yarn!!

By noon, I made my way to the venue, carrying my umbrella because it threatened rain. I finally found the place (they sure hid it well this year) and tried to find the display and the vendors. I ran into an old friend I haven't seen for a long time, so we had to catch up on what we've done for the last few years. And then there was another friend that I hadn't seen for awhile. I've been out of the weaving community for some time, so I have lost touch with many of these ladies.

The public display was rather disappointing. There were very few entries, the prizes were not very obvious -- they used tall wine glasses with fragments of woven material to signify the placement of a prize, but I had no idea which was first or second. There were many entries by the same person, and the others were the usual people who always enter these kind of shows.

The vendors were spread over four rooms. Which meant I had to stop into each one to get a general feel of what was available, and then spend time to find that exact thing I wanted. The first thing I noticed was that I could not find a single spindle in the whole place! In fact, one of the vendors actually asked if I had mine with me, since she wanted to try out some fibre. I was greatly disappointed -- it's not often that I am willing to spend money, and here no one wanted any of it!!

I did find some nice fibre. Okay, I found a lot of really nice fibre! So then I went around touching (we always have to touch) trying to decide which I wanted the most, and the second most. Not easy! And there was so much to choose from: merino, alpaca, bison, silk, angora... and blends of any of these as well! What's a poor person to do?!? It's been quite some time since I bought any fibre, I think I lost any skill I had in that area. I have been spinning up some wool that was sent to me, and also finding bags of nice fibre I got several conferences ago. Now I needed to replenish my stash!

I did end up getting some really great roving, and will be spinning that shortly. I spent all the money I took with me, and so had to leave. I also told myself that when this shopping bag is full, I'm done. But some nice merchant offered to get me a bigger bag!

But I just wanted to show you this. I agonized over this for so long, trying to visualize how I would spin it, and what would I make of it. She had two very similar colourways... of course I liked parts of both. I started spinning this as soon as I got home.. well, to see how it works, naturally, and maybe I would go back the next day and get more if I liked this batch.
Of course, it's so difficult to get the right lighting to show you the exact colours. This is the best I could do.

I'm spinning it quite fine... well, what else is new. That is what it wanted to be! honest! I tried hard to convince it to be a little softer and thicker... but it had other ideas. I am trying to keep the colours separated, but because of how the roving was dyed, I'm not being too successful there. I still haven't decided how to ply this. I had thought of plying it with itself, but I only got 227 gm and that is not enough to make anything substantial. I may want to ply it with one of the main colours in the roving... if I can find some. I still haven't decided which colour yet. I just may have to do that dreaded "s*****", but I didn't say that! I'm nearly finished spinning the whole batch... so I need to decide quickly.

Rainbows

Even on a bright sunny day with blue skies, life will throw you a few rain clouds.

That is what seems to happen to me most often. It’s really hard to say it’s a good day or a bad day – it seems to be a mixture of both, and then I don’t know what to feel!

It seems that for the last several weeks, it has been extremely busy for some reason. There seems to be more and more things that need my attention, and I have less and less time to do it all. Am I really getting involved in too many activities? Is time really getting shorter? Am I only getting older and can’t keep up any longer?

Last Saturday was the 20^th anniversary of the local knitting guild. There was a bit of a celebration with some displays of the past (we soon forget what we have accomplished in our own recent past) and some mini-workshops on a variety of knitting techniques, and a big dinner in the evening. I just didn’t want to get up on Saturday, and it took a very long time to get myself ready and to get to the hall where it was all held.

The guild had arranged for some door prizes to be given away – always nice. I wasn’t there for the 2 o’clock drawing, so didn’t get anything then. I hadn’t yet arrived for the 3 o’clock drawing, and didn’t get a prize then as well.

At the 4 o’clock drawing, my name wasn’t in the basket either, since I hadn’t quite made it to the venue by then. It is a long ride on public transit to get there, plus a long walk, and I was a bit late. I kept thinking to myself that I will NEVER go to another event that is so far from home! By the time I got there, the mini-workshops had nearly all completed, and the prize drawing was done, so I missed all of that. But since I had already purchased a ticket to the dinner, I felt I had to go; otherwise, I’m sure I would have just stayed in bed for most of the day.

It was great to get a chance to talk to some people that I don’t see very often. Almost everyone was knitting on something, so of course, everyone was in a great mood! The dinner was excellent. Everything was very fresh and tasty and well-prepared. They used a well-known caterer and everyone was very pleased. After the dinner, there were a few speeches from long-time members about their memories of some outstanding events, and we also remembered many members that are no longer among us. They did the final drawings for prizes since there were a few things left. I really would have liked the book by Franklin Habit “It Itches”, but it went to someone else. And as I sat there, hoping they would call my name eventually for anything, it seemed doubtful they would find my one piece of paper with MY name on it.

Then suddenly, when I wasn’t paying attention, they did call out my name! I had given up hope by then. And I got a book by Lucy Neatby called “Cool Knitters Finish in Style”. This is all about finishing techniques for your knitting. I never learned how to do seams, so all of my knitting was either flat or in the round. Several years ago, I took a class from Lucy on finishing methods, and learned so much! She is a great teacher. This book is based on those classes, with more details, and I will treasure and use it a lot.

I got home early enough to be able to run over to a friend’s house who was having some people over that I wanted to meet. So I was able to be there for a couple hours. When I finally got home and checked on some internet things, and this and that, I was still wound up that I didn’t get to sleep until about 6:30 am! It was a very long day.

I was so pleased with how the day ended finally, that I didn’t mind all the inconveniences of getting there. So even though there may have been a few storm clouds, there also are some rainbows, and that is alright too.

Morning Sickness

This happens every year at about this time. It's not the thing you might be thinking of. And no, it's not that I hate to get up every morning and go to work -- which is beside the point.

Every year, in the spring (usually a little earlier than this), I suffer through this morning sickness for a couple of weeks. I still don't know what causes it. I am fine at home, I get dressed, but as soon as I get outside, it strikes me about half a block from home. I get really nauseous, kind'a upset stomach. It might last nearly the whole day. I am fine by the time I get home in the evening, and the next morning, it starts all over again. Odd thing is, if I stay home all weekend, nothing happens. It's only when I step outside. There must be something in the air.

Man, I can understand why pregnancies are not fun!

This has been going on for quite a number of years, and now I just come to expect it. It happened quite late this year... and is going on now. It's not as severe as it has other years, but still bothersome. There really is nothing to do but wait it out. And this spring is really dragging itself out!

Oh, how I hate mornings!!

Shadows

For over the past three years now there has been destruction and construction going on in the block next to the building where I work. I've been watching with much interest how it was all taken apart, how that huge hole was dug, and then filled in with different construction.

Rather than build another high tower in that space, they have opted to just have underground parking, and then make a small park in that spot. There was all kinds of talk about what they were going to create there, and something about mountains, and it wasn't to be used by the public -- well, you know how people like to create and embellish stories.

They seem to nearly complete now, or at least there aren't many workmen around anymore. Of course, the weather hasn't decided what it wants to do. Last week, the last of the snow was gone, and then the other day, we got more! It was at least 10 cm (4 inches) of wet snow. All I can say is that it does make everything nice and clean and white. For a day, and then people start walking and driving on it, and make a horrible mess of it all.

In this park, there are some interesting sculptures. From my vantage point, all I can see are a thin dark line against the white snow, so I know there is something. When on the ground, I can see them. Honestly, I think they are more interesting from up above! LOL

Today, at noon, with the sun shining nicely on these sculptures, and silhoutted against the white snow, I could clearly make out what they were!! They looked just so awesome!! Well, okay, so maybe I'm easily impressed. But I thought I would show them to you, and see what you think. I tried to rotate the pic horizontally, to make it easier for you to see them, and it just seems to have set my whole world upside down! Rather than give any of you vertigo, I will leave it just as I see it from high above.
I do think this presents a most unique perspective of these very common sculptures, to say the least.

Off the Wall

As you have seen in the previous post, I have been working on some lace. I got tired of spinning, spinning, spinning. Not that I don't enjoy it, but it gets tedious if you do it all the time. Not that lace knitting is not tedious as well, but it is a different kind of tedious.

I did get tired of this scarf. It was not very interesting to do. It was soooo predictable! The decreases all followed a set pattern, and the YOs were all in the same place. I know -- that is what makes lace lace! And it is the repetitiveness of it all that is impressive. I got that. It's still very boring and tedious to do!

I have been working on the Three Sisters Scarves #3. There are two other designs (see her previous posts), and I think I will do at least another one -- maybe all three. They are very simple designs, but because of the repetiveness of the motifs, they are very attractive.

I didn't arrange my scarf as nicely as Monika did hers. I was in a rush to take pics! I completed this on Thursday night. I ran home at noon on Friday, washed it, and took it back to the office to pin it up on my cubicle wall. They are made of some sort of fibre-covered foamboard, and I can stick pins into it. And they are large enough!

Here you can see a pic of my scarf pinned out on the wall. It was dry by the time I left for home.
Because it is stocking stitch based, it does want to curl. I did 2 stitches on the edge in garter, but that didn't seem to be enough to prevent that curl. I might have to block it once more.... or maybe I'll just leave it. When a person is wearing it, no looks to see if it is curling or not.

I used some kind of yarn that I found somewhere. It is very fine, and I used two strands together to knit this scarf. I am assuming it is a wool. I think I used about a 4mm needle -- I never check, I just grab a circular that seems to be about the right size, and just cast on! The knitting went very smoothly, there was hardly a slip-up -- except when I would fall asleep, and just keep on knitting, not watching for the next decrease! So I had to tink only a couple of times and just a few stitches at that. As I said, it was boring to do. It seemed it was never going to end! So eventually, when I thought it was plenty long enough, I came to the end of a pattern repeat, and cast-off.

It's a nice wine colour, and I have no idea what I am going to do with it. Perhaps I'll just put it into my "gift box" so that when I need something quick, I will have something ready to go. Here is a detail of the scarf.
Now, I should get back to my spinning. I have a lot of cops here waiting to be plied. Then I can have more things to show you.

Bumping Along

On Friday night, there was this strange weather with sort of rain/snow coming down. It had been quite warm, and we were warned about a snow storm for Saturday. And it did come, but at first, it was quite wet and wasn't sure what it wanted to be.

That was alright. I had nothing to do on Saturday, and planned to just stay inside, and looking out at the weather rather than be in it. When I got up Saturday morning, I looked out, saw nothing but white, and turned around and went back to bed. Perfect.

It remained white all day. I mean, there was nothing to see so there is no pic here. I didn't even want to take a photo! I couldn't see any buildings in the next block, there was no ground below me, there was no sun... it was just.. well, white. The whole day was just white. I didn't care.

I was working away comfy and cozy in my high tower. I have a lot of spinning to do, as you can imagine. And I've been spinning up a storm. No pics just yet, because you've seen them all before. Some neat colours, but I don't quite know what I am going to do with it just yet. It will come.

Here is some knitting I'm working on. It's a really nice deep wine colour, but that is so very hard to photograph! I've tried it every way, and this is about the best I can get. I hope it shows up on your monitor. Of course, this is an "in progress" pic of lace, and you know there is nothing much to see of the design yet but I'll let you look anyway.
This is of the front on the left, and the back side on the right -- I love those ridges and bumps it creates. I know too that these will be worked out when it is blocked, but is interesting to see the texture it produces right now. It's a scarf, not for anyone in particular, except I was bored from spinning all the time. Now I'm bored of all this knitting!! It's all the same: YO, K2tog, SSK, repeat. Well, lace is like that, I know. I think I'm about ready for something more challenging... now let's see....

The Wonderment Continues

I have just been so pleased with my good fortune that arrived in a little box last week.

Today, I'm even more thrilled -- and dumbfounded -- when ANOTHER package arrived. With this inside:
I was content with getting about three skeins of the purple. And now... What can I say??

Thanks Doc!

First skein

I had to laugh when WillyG commented that I chose the purple to spin first! How could he tell? But that is what I did. There was only one roll of it, and it was on top, so that is what I grabbed first.

Here is a pic of the first skein:
It's really quite nice to work with. It is wool, not very fine, but acceptable. I put in quite a lot of twist, and did a 2-ply with it. I like them that way! It would work quite well for a pair of socks, I think, since it is fine enough, and it is strong enough. I'm not sure what I will do with it.

There are two more skeins possible with this colour. I will decide later what they will become. I spin first, then let them sit for a while, and then they have time to think about what they want to become.
The colour is quite nice, a little deeper than these pics, I think. I am anxious to finish this one, and then start with the pale blue... or the green, or... well, one of them!

Kindness of others

It still amazes me that there are people in this world that are really good people. You may not find it very strange, but you need to understand where I am coming from.

I work with criminals all the time. All day long, all the people I deal with are accused with some crime or are convicted of some crime. I never see any innocent people. Oh, yes, they all claim they are innocent victims, but in the end, we learn they are not. They are in fact the perpetrators of a crime.

So my view of the rest of humanity is tainted. Everyone I see or meet is painted with the same brush. But now and then, I am reminded that this is not so. Most people are good, and kind, and thoughtful. Really.

Last night, there was a note on my door when I got home that the post office attempted to deliver a parcel to me but I was not at home. No, because I have this stupid thing called a job!! But this morning, I ran out to the postal outlet and picked up the package.

I had been informed a few days ago that I was being sent some wool rovings, since I have expressed an interest in them. I didn't think it would arrive so soon!! Cudos to the Post Office!

And I was so anxious to open it!! Here are the contents of the box:
I'm thrilled!! This will keep me busy for a little while. I've run out of wool to play with... oh, yes, I do have many skeins waiting to be washed and put away, and many more that are waiting to be made into something, but I don't have much more that needs to be twisted into yarns! So this will do for a while. I've already started. Guess which colour!

Thank you, my friend, for sending these to me! I'm amazed. And humbled.

The Great Lull

We have had the strangest weather this winter. It started too early, very cold, and more snow than we normally get. We were in the deep freeze for many weeks, in the -30 most of the time, and it was not fun! Just getting dressed before going out was a struggle, for even a few minutes was enough to really freeze your ... skin. Of course, wearing a scarf over your face is only good as far as it goes, but you need to see! Wearing glasses didn't help-- as soon as you took your first breath, they fogged up, and you were blind anyway!

Here is a pic of the cold. You can actually SEE how cold it was!!
Then this week, it suddenly changed. Quite drastically, in fact. Well, living here in the foothills of the Rockies, we should be used to the Chinooks (I've written about them before). They come every winter, some years have more than others. It is a welcome relief from the bitter cold we can get here too. There is a wall of warm air that comes in. We can see the effect in the sky -- there is a definite clear line where the clouds end. What a welcome sight!! And if you happen to out on the road (in a vehicle), you can actually notice a big change as you drive through this wall. Very amazing phenomena.

This week we were up into +13, and +4 overnight. Since last Saturday, I've had my windows open in the apartment -- it was just too uncomfortably hot. And they have been open ever since! Even at night, it doesn't cool down enough to need more than a light sheet as covers in bed. And this is only January! I'm afraid to think what will happen in spring, when it really warms up.

The mountains were magnificent this week. Some days, I can't even see them. And other days, they stand out sharp and clear, and brilliantly bright in the sunshine with all that white snow on them. Here is a pic:
Of course, that was Thursday. Then yesterday, it all changed. It was cooler in the morning, and by early afternoon, the snow started. It was light at first, there was a light skiff on the cars, but the streets were only wet. However, by 9 pm, up in the hills to the north, there was a nice white covering on everything. I closed my windows; it was a bit cool.

This morning, when I awoke and looked out, we had the white down in the valley as well. It was cold. I was NOT going out! Here is a pic out my window --notice the snow on the windowsill.
I am working on a special project; I may show some pics later. It's interesting, a little boring, and not sure what I would do with it! And I've been watching skins from England. I find it a little disturbing, and yet compelling to watch! Knitting while it is on is a little harder to do. Even spinning has to stop so that I don't miss something important! LOL