Gripped...

As a knitter or crafter, does this ever happen to you? A project seizes you, sinks it's teeth in and won't let go? Well, I give you such a project.



I give you...the Shaelyn Shawl (pattern name, not mine). A friend (Chicken Betty) sent me a big 'ol bag of fibre, it sat in my craft closet until I obtained a spinning wheel, I spun it all up into a scrummy two ply yarn then let it marinate for a while until I found the perfect project.



Once I found the right pattern, the yarn started to call for me. It started out as a whisper, grew to a dull hum and ended up being a loud annoying, nagging sound that would not leave me be. And once I did cast on, I quite literally could not put it down. The pattern called for five repeats of the lace pattern and I had intended to do ten, but at a certain point I realized that I needed my life back. That and I needed to lay off the muscle relaxers. Whether it was the yarn itself or my obsessive nature, this shawl caused me pain.

S'okay though, because people, I am smitten. It's one of those projects where I keep looking at it and going, 'Really? I made that? From like, scratch?' I spun the damn yarn for crissakes. Next stop; sheep shearing. I've caught the bug.

Now I'm watching MasterChef and it's making me hungry. Until later...

Some thoughts on housework...

Confession time. I'm a lax housekeeper. I see it as one of my primary duties as a SAHM (stay at home mom...took me a while when I first saw that too), but if truth be told, I certainly don't keep up with it with any sort of verve or urgency. This is in direct contrast to how I was raised. My mother, another SAHM, was a committed and devout, details oriented housekeeper. That is, until she finally got to an age where she hired a cleaning lady. Honest to goodness, half of the house I grew up in looked like a magazine spread. It was impeccably decorated and impeccably kept, mostly because no one was allowed in those rooms. You know those houses where they have a formal living room that no one sits in and you're just supposed to hurriedly run through on the way to your room? Yeah, that was my house.

This was my psychic landscape as well. Over the years, it's crept into more and more of my subconscious, taking over those parts of the brain that are well suited to adolescent rebellion and keeping all of your worldly belongings in a heap on the floor. Things really started to change in university, where I roomed with perhaps the most disorganized person I've ever met. In first year I ended up with two roommates in residence, one of whom was prone to walking on her bed with her shoes on (books on a shelf up above and she only 4' 10") and a wide variety of food stuffs to be found in amongst her bedding. Whenever she left for a weekend, my other roommate and I, tidy organized people that we were, would pounce on her third of the room and clean it up. I don't think this ever sat well. In any case, my little corner of the universe at that time was always swept, mopped, be-postered and pretty smelling. It was then that I started making my bed on a regular basis. It just calmed me down to come back from my classes (when I went) to see the quilt my grandma made and the afghan my mom made smoothed out and welcoming me to blow off my reading and instead sit down and watch some Star Trek.

Now I live in an unfinished and in perpetual renovation house devoid of baseboard in most rooms or real flooring in the entire upstairs, half finished moldings around the windows and more dog hair and claw scratches than I had ever anticipated living with...ever. Yet my expectation of my home is to live in something resembling House and Home. Thank you mother. I continually endeavour to lower my expectations. In doing so, I've come up with some basic rules of thumb for me to live by.

1) Whenever I get cranky about having to do housework, which we've already established is not often, I try to remember the kind of effort it would've taken to do 100 years ago and then I calm down about it. I put the clothes in the washer and walk away. An hour later, I come back and put them in the dryer, then walk away. I put the dishes in the dishwasher, set the 4 hour delay button and go to bed. When I wake up there are clean dishes (this NEVER ceases to amuse me). So all in all, it's really nothing to get so uptight about.

2) My benchmark for cleanliness is Hoarders. Have you ever watched that show? These people who are literally burying themselves alive with crap (sometimes, literally)? If I can stave off that particular outcome, I think I'm meeting my quota.

3) Really, no one in this house seems to really give a sh*t about this except me. I'm not counting the little one or the dog, so we really know who I'm talking about here. He never complains, so I guess I shouldn't get so bent out of shape over it.

4) When things get to the point where they start to make MY skin crawl, it's time to break out the Lysol.

5) Other than keeping the kitchen and the bathrooms at peak cleanliness at all times, everything else can wait until I have company coming.

This, of course, is all just a series of elaborate excuses to create more time for crafting. Hence;



I'm addicted to granny squares lately. I had some acrylic scraps and I broke into them to try out this rainbow-y blanket. This took me two evenings to do, which is why I heart crochet so much. I've used up as much of the scraps as I can for this, so now I can throw the rest away with a light heart.



I can't stop spinning!! Seriously. I think I've done nerve damage. Both my legs feel tingly all the time. But still, I can't stop. Chicken Betty sent me some fiber eons ago and it's so lovely that it practically spins itself. I've spun up about 400+ yrds already and have roughly 5 oz left to do. I think I'm really starting to get a hang of this too.



Little A is really into ballerinas right now, and on my latest trip to the fabric store I found this ballerina themed flannel. Gimme a bunch, please. I had hoped to make jammies and a fitted sheet for her crib, but instead bought enough for jammies and a top sheet. This is her throwing a mild tantrum over Idon'trememberwhat. But she was still for about ten seconds, so I managed to get a photo in.

This last one comes with a warning. Upon viewing, you may be overcome by an insatiable urge to make this. Just sayin'.



I got this through the Martha Stewart Craft a Day email. I pretty much get only newsletters in my inbox anymore. Anyhow, this looked irresistible so I had to try it. Felted sweater teacup pincushions. Really too easy. I raided Frenchy's for all the wool sweaters they had and came up with these two...so far. I still need some i-cord trim for the saucers, but really, in an evening (sans i-cord mind you...I did those another evening), they were done. And adorable. They're from designer Betz White.

Speaking of housework, I've gotta go figure out what to make for dinner. That's a whole other post.

Until later...

In a Spin...

So I bought a spinning wheel. It's the new toy I mentioned a few posts back. A friend of mine was looking to sell hers, so I took it for a test drive and was instantly hooked. I had taken a spinning class (of the wool variety, not the cycling kind) a while ago now, and while I was smitten, I was left with only drop spindles to play with and they really didn't do it for me. I had been contemplating getting a wheel for a long while, but was really hesitant to spend that kind of money on something I wasn't entirely sure I'd be any good at. Enter my knitty friend, who's wheel I had played with before, and was selling complete with lazy kate and bobbins.



There was also some fiber in that deal and within two or three days, my experimentations lead to this. About 175 yrds. of the green and 100 yrds. of the candy cane looking stuff. I really have very little idea of what I'm doing, but it's fun and yeilding interesting results :) Spinning enough yarn to actually knit something out of it, I'm learning, takes a good while.

So naturally, as with any new toy, it's hoarding all of the time an attention. Very little to speak of on the knitting front. I started a sock yarn blanket, just garter stitch miters, and despite the lace shawl and the double-knitting scarf I have on the needles at the moment, the itty-bitty squares are what I seem to be gravitating to. Perhaps it's the appeal of mindless summer knitting.

Since I seem to be up before the baby this morning, I think I'll sneak into the craft room for a little spinning session. Until later...

Tastes Awful, but I hear it works...

I am at the Buckley's stage of a head cold. Do you know of what I speak? A cold that has gotten so entrenched in your body that it's now more like a demon and the only way to exorcise it is to bring in the Father Karras of all cold remedies. If you've never tried it, I dunno what to tell you. It's like pure liquid eucalyptus. It's harsh, but it works like a charm. I avoid taking it until I just can't stand the effects of the cold any longer. To be frank, I don't mind the taste so much anymore. I've taken it since childhood, and I guess I've just built up a bit of an immunity to it.

In my mind, it's in the same category as all other kinds of secret home brew remedies, the kind that families pass down from one generation to the next, as the end all and be all cure all tonic. When someone mentions Buckley's, my mind immediately makes a connection to my grandmothers 'black salve'. I don't know if it had a brand name, but it was this mysterious concoction in a beat up old tin that look like it came from the 1930's (which it in all likelihood did...my grandmother being born in 1910 and all). It resided in the dark recesses of her linen/medicine closet (which, OMG, I just realized that my mother now has the EXACT same set up in her apartment) and any time one of us had an injury, it was black salve to the rescue. I had a bee sting once as a youngster and nothing since has cured something like that so quickly. Freaky. Anyway...

I was so under the weather yesterday that, shamefully, Hank and I missed his graduation from puppy school. I was pretty bummed out, I don't know about Hank. I haven't mentioned it to him yet. Lexa, my partner in puppy crime, told me all about it and it sounded like it was pretty fun. Lots of games and play time, which I'm sure Hank will miss. That and the overload of hot dogs once a week. I just couldn't peel myself off the couch though. This morning has seen me dragging my proverbial behind around the apartment in fine pathetic form. This is the third time I've been sick since Christmas. My fellow Knitterpudlians are crying sick apartment syndrome, and if that means that I am sick of this apartment, then that's what I've got in spades. But there may be something to it. We'll have to see about getting a really thorough spring cleaning done in the next little while.

To make up for missing puppy grad. I let Hank help me out with some frogging. He really does love the hand knits. I was going to pick just one of these photos, but they're all kind of cute.



I started this cardigan about a week or so ago...

(Carmella's Cardigan, Patons Classic Top Down Knits...or something like that)
...when really all I went into the shop for was to check out the new Noro sock yarn. But I had spied this on Ravelry and had been wanting to knit it, although at the time, it said that the pattern book wasn't out yet. Just so happened that the Patons Shetland Chunky Tweeds that was called for in the pattern (and that I wanted to knit it in) was on sale FOR ONLY ANOTHER TWO DAY!!! so I bought seven balls and the pattern and off I went.

When you go on a marathon knitting/cabling binge, you're bound to make a mistake at some point, but how this sweater got so far off the rails, really still mystifies me. I had mentioned it at Knit Nite and figured that I could bring it in for a group salvation session, but when I pulled it out to re-evaluate where I had gone wrong, I could see that only total annihilation (and eventual rebirth) was the only way to go. The top of the yoke of the sweater is knit over 22 sts for 35 inches, which I had no problem with. Then you pick up X number of sts and knit top down, increasing for the sleeves as you go along. Eventually you divide everything up nice and neat for the fronts and the sleeves and the back, come back to the sleeves and knit them later. While I was increasing, things just didn't look right. And when I compared the picture of what the sweater was supposed to look like to the blob of yarn that I had in my hand, I knew I had had some sort of knitting seizure and had no recall of what I had done. I had no cables where there should have been cables. I had increases where there shouldn't have been increases, and vice versa. It was a monstrosity.



So under the watchful (and still goopey, somewhat infected) eye of my esteemed colleague, thus was the sweater frogged and yarn rewound. I reknit everything yesterday/last night and am back to where I was, which was at the dividing round for the sleeves, and a little beyond even. But then I think I messed up the cabling round during CSI, so I have to tink back at some point today.



That's about it on the knitting front. Working with chunky yarn is mucho satisfying at the moment, as it goes so quickly. And I've decided I want a spinning wheel. A new one. Not right away, but I'm ready to check some out, get a feel, start saving up. I like the drop spindle, but it takes a really long time and I find that when I sit and spin with one for a while, my shoulders just scream for days afterwards. I've got some yummy fibres here that I would really like to be yarn in the near future. And trying to ply with little bundles of singles off the drop spindle is, at least in my limited experience, a bit of a nightmare.

Anyhow, I actually have to do real work today, which I've been putting off all morning. Until later...

Meh...

Such is the title for a post where you're not sure what to talk about.

I've been knitting in fits and starts, on a couple of projects, both of which I don't really want to talk about cuz the big reveals at the end are what I am going for. So I'll show you this instead...


Wishing I had given the sink a good scrub before photographing. Please ignore.

I spun up the rest of the dyed pencil roving that came in my little spinning kit that I got at spinning class. Here it is having a little bath before I set the twist. Doesn't it look rather yummy? I'm always quite amazed at my ability to get so excited about yarn. It's string for crying out loud, and yet after I squished out all the water and hung it up to dry, I kept coming back to it over and over just to look at it hanging there, drying. I'd run my fingers over it and just marvel at my handiwork. I spun this was what I kept thinking. Is there any non-knitter out there that gets this weird about something that you enjoy? Please tell me about it...it might help me feel less concerned about my own state of affairs.

I don't know if this picture does it justice, but I got significantly better at being consistent with the spinning. The last little skein that I did was very skinny and pretty even throughout. I didn't get a picture of them hanging up this time...I was too busy fondling.



I joined four of my wee skeins together and wound it, and then left my first little skein of dyed roving by itself. It will join the undyed stuff that I spun as a pet skein, a reminder of my first spinning endeavours. The ball on the left I'd like to knit into something, but I'm not sure just what yet. I really have no idea of how much yardage I have there. Some of it I wound on my wool winder, which is 2 yds. and a bit and some I wound on the niddy-noddy's at the spinning workshop. To be honest, I don't really care, but I see how this piece of information becomes vitally important when you want to spin with the intention of knitting.

I have another kit just like the one I just worked with, only this time it's deep blues and purples. I bought it some time ago at Have a Yarn, and attempted to teach myself to spin, which only resulted in frustration and fibre tantrums. It's taking a lot of will power to make myself knit on my projects rather than spin more yarn though. I spent most of yesterday completely enraptured in spinning, and my dwelling is starting to show it. Woefully neglected. And seeing as today is Sunday, I don't see that being remedied any time soon.

Anyhow, enough of this gibber-gabber. Off to craft.

Until later...

I'm Going to Learn Jujitsu...

Do you remember the part in the Matrix where they've got Neo hooked up and ready for combat training and he says the following; "Jujitsu? I'm going to learn...Jujitsu?" It's the best line in the movie and a prime example of Keanu acting at it's finest.

Anyhow, that's how I felt on Saturday. I went to a spinning workshop that Heddy organized (if you click the link, you'll see foe-toes...even of yours truly) and learned how to spin straw into gold. No wait, that's another story.

I haven't blogged about it until now for two reasons. One, I've been on the obsession side of things and also consumed with a three day near-migraine. The one might have some correlation with the other, but I'm not willing to concede that just yet.

So yeah...I am now at the very beginning stage of making my own yarn. We started with a drop spindle kit, which had some natural and dyed roving in it, all combed and carded and ready to be spun. Here's the result of my first few attempts.



Three little mini skeins, wherein I am setting the twist in this picture. All three skeins are two ply. The two white or natural ones are plied with themselves, and the one in the middle is the dyed roving plied with the natural, which reminds me of a candy cane or stick, although it doesn't come out quite as yummy in the photo. The two white ones are a little over twisted, one more than the other, and the colour/natural skein was nicely balanced, which I was pretty pleased about.

But I couldn't stop there. I had to see what else I could do. So I spun up a few singles of the dyed roving and then plied those together, and I was so impressed with the result. It's so pretty!



Here is my two ply dyed yarn still on the spindle...



And here is my wee skein that I wound on my antique wool winder . Who knew that would come in handy so soon??!

Anyhow, after this photo was taken, I spun another skein of two ply just like it. So I have a total of five little skeins of yarn, and I still have plenty of roving left over in the kit. I really am not sure of the total yardage. I've wound the skeins around a variety of different apparatti, including my feet, so there may be no way of ever knowing. I didn't measure my wool winder either. I may go back and do that, perhaps re-wind everything to see how much I've got.

I was talking to the lady beside me at the workshop and we've decided that there just simply is no time left over for a job, so the best course of action would be to start a co-op and do some sort of job sharing, so that we can all get more crafting done overall. And I think I heard Heddy say that when she first learned to spin, she wasn't sure if she'd ever knit again. At first I thought she might be a little daft, but now I know exactly what she means. I have a couple of projects on the needles that really do need to meet some immediate deadlines, and all I want to do is spin.

Next week we learn about spinning on a wheel, which I'm both excited and sad about. If spinning on a wheel is like this awesome experience, then I'll be both elated and totally put out, cuz there is no way I can afford a wheel at this point, and I'll totally want one. I've already told the constable that I now MUST HAVE an umbrella swift, ball winder, niddy-noddy (or is it knitty-naughty?) and whatever else I can get my grubby little hands on. He wasn't as enthusiastic as I was about it all.

Anyhow, I've got a free day, which really means that I have a pile of housework that I am going to ignore in favour of spinning and knitting and just generally indulging in things that cause me neck pain. I don't think I'll go so far as to never knit again in favour of spinning, but I'm pretty sure I'll never do another load of laundry.

If you don't see or hear from me in a while, send moths. That oughtta get me moving pretty quickly.