Starting again

Since I have some time, I thought I'd try to start posting again, but I'm not sure what I want to do with this blog.

I have a lot of FO since I last posted. In all categories--knitting, weaving, and spinning. And all kinds of things--scarves, socks, shawls, skeins, etc.

I recently tried to spin some novelty yarn. I read an article on coils and decided that it sounded like something fun to try. After three tries, I think I've got something that resembles what I was after. I definitely need to try again, though I've moved on to spinning some stuff from my stash.

I'm in the middle of winding a warp on the loom, but it's giving me trouble. It is very fine yarn and is pilling and the pills are making it very tough to wind the warp on. I'm very close to giving up on it, since I keep breaking threads about every 2 or 3 inches.

I'm thinking that I may do some techniques here, and start doing some posts that highlight specific tecnniques that I like or I want to try. Have to think about that some more.

I definitely need to get together some of the photos of FO so I can do something with those. At a minimum, I can post some pictures and talk a little about the projects that were the most fun.

testing...

I think it took the slow boat...

...except that there shouldn't have been a boat involved--oh wait! I live on an island, maybe there was.

Simply Socks is doing a short yarn club for yarns with unusual fibers, and I decided to jump in with both feet, since there were only going to be three shipments over six months. Seemed like fun.

So, when Alison, the wonderful proprietor of Simply Socks sent the notice that the first shipment was sent, I was eagerly anticipating its arrival. And I waited...and waited...and.... You get the idea.

It was sent on February 8th and arrived on March 14th. That's a personal record for anything that's been sent, from the US or otherwise. I'm beginning to wonder if Canadian customs harbors suspicions about yarn.... Except that the second shipment (and my Rockin' Sock Club shipments) got here fine and with no noticeable delay.

I will say that Alison was great through all this. She responded promptly and was quite willing to send an extra skein when it looked like the first was lost to the vagaries of the US and/or Canadian postal systems.

Now I have to decide what to make with the delicious yarn...and it is delicious.

Just because I'm here

I'm thinking about it, so I'm going to post. I don't have too much to report that's different from last time.

I did finish spinning and plying a skein of cottolin. Looks a lot like the last skein that I posted a picture of, but a little darker in color. I have about 2 ounces each of four colors and I figured I would spin them all and then design and knit a bag (maybe to carry sock knitting). I'm thinking fair isle for the bag, but still undecided.

I have lots of ideas of things that I want to knit, weave, and design, but not enough time to do any of them. It doesn't help when I spend an hour playing computer games at night...

I will try very hard to upload all the pictures on the camera and post some stuff this weekend. I have some pictures of a couple of projects that are mostly finished. Maybe I'll even get some weaving content on here.

Sorry it's been a while

But sometimes life gets you like that.

I had an unexpected trip back east, and that threw a monkey wrench into any plans I had for posting. I've been back for a week and a half and I still feel like I'm recovering.

I have made a lot of progress on the knitting and spinning front. I finished one pair of socks, though I don't have a picture of the finished objects...they were for my father and I finished them while I was with my parents, so I left them. Here's the picture that I had of them farthest along (which isn't nearly as far as I thought, I think there may still be a picture on the camera...):















I've also done some spinning. I went to a spin-in last weekend and I managed to get most of the second strand done for the cotton that I'm spinning. I just have a bit more to go and I'll have a second skein of cotton. Just two more skeins to go and then it'll be time to figure out what I'm going to make.

I'm almost done with a vest from Interweave Knits that I started a while ago. I really just need to sit down and spend some quality time with it and I can knock it off. I'm working on two pairs of socks (well...one is really slippers), and I'm definitely feeling like I need another project. But I'm trying really hard not to start anything until I finish the vest. I'll let you know how that goes.

Weird weather and wacky drivers

We had the most bizarre precipitation that I've ever seen today. I think it was technically hail, but when I actually walked outside to look at it, it looked conspicuously like perlite...you know, that white stuff that they put in potted plants. It did change over to actual snow after a while, but it was very bizarre.

And, of course, this was a very wet snow--the kind that turns to ice as soon as you compress it. The sort-of main street that is just outside my house has a nice little hill on it (very little, hardly enough to notice). This hill rapidly became a sheet of ice. This did not deter a large number of drivers from trying to take the hill in both directions. Very few people were making it up the hill (mostly 4-wheel drive vehicles). Amazingly, during the time we were out shoveling the drive no one actually had an accident. Considering how slick it was, that's something of a miracle.

Apparently it got even worse. I had someone knock on the door and ask to use the bathroom, because it wasn't moving at all. And a bunch of people had taken the road as an alternate to the highway that's less than a mile away (but backs up pretty regularly because of holiday weekends or bad weather).

And, just to prove that there really was snow, a couple of pictures:

Too much knitting, again

I managed to do too much knitting over the weekend again. I know that I have to watch it because I tend to obsess a bit and I will get my shoulder into a state where it needs rest. I've taken the last 48 hours off from knitting, helped by the power outage that was caused by a windstorm on Sunday night. Luckily the power was only out for about an hour, so we didn't have to twiddle our thumbs very long.

I will have pictures of some FOs and whatever is still on the needles this weekend (assuming that it isn't raining the whole weekend). We actually have a prediction of some sunny weather for the next several days, though it's then supposed to go back to typical winter weather here.

My computer that has all my pictures is currently out of commission. It's looking like it has a wonky power supply and I'll have to decide if I want to replace both that and the memory that's gone wonky, or if I want to muddle along like I have been. The most important thing is to get the things that I really care about onto different storage so that I won't have to cobble something together to get things off the hard drive if I decide not to do anything. I hate dealing with computer problems. I'm coming more and more to like the mac that we got for Christmas last year.... It doesn't help that there are a bunch of mac lovers at work singing the praises.

Well, enough for now. I'm off to a spinning and weaving guild gathering to see what I can see.

Disaster!

I pulled out my trusty Majacraft Suzie on Sunday to continue spinning some of the cottolin that I've been working on lately, and, much to my dismay, I found that the wood piece on the front of the flyer was cracked in half. And as soon as I touched it the little thingy (that on an Ashford I would call the orifice, but isn't really an orifice on a Majacraft) fell right out.

I decided to check with Majacraft to see if the thing might still be under warranty by any faint chance. As I was composing the email to them, I realized that I've had the wheel for more than 5 years. I'm not actually sure anymore exactly when I bought it, but I know it had to be more than 5 years ago. My how time flies when you're having fun. Needless to say, they don't extend their warranty for that long on the flyers.

Never fear! I was able to find a somewhat local dealer that can order me one and have it within a few weeks. I really like the fact that I can find out easily from Majacraft's website where their dealers are and that there is one relatively close.

Back to knitting and weaving...or maybe spinning more on my drop spindle. I kinda quit doing that for a while, so maybe it's time to pick it back up...

Knitting and weaving and spinning, oh my!

As I alluded to in my last post, I managed to accomplish a lot in the last six weeks or so. I've managed a number of knitting FOs:


















In no particular order, these include a hat that I knit to include in a Christmas giveaway that my company did, a pair of socks knit using the Naive Socks pattern, a moebius cat bed from A Second Treasury of Magical Knits by Cat Bordhi, a pair of coriolis socks based on the coriolis architecture from New Pathways for Sock Knitters, and a moebius scarf that was from a half skein left over from a shawl and a skein that I got as part of the swag from the Floating Knitting Retreat (and I can't remember what it was...).

I particularly like the color blending in the moebius scarf, and it suddenly became my winter scarf. I'm not known for wearing scarves in the winter, but this one just grabbed me and shook me, so I adopted it.

Technically, the cat bed isn't finished, since it still needs to be felted, but I'm counting it since the knitting's done.

I still have several things in progress, including a pair of socks for my father:









These are out of Tofutsies, and I'm using one of the other sock architectures from New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

I also have a bag that's destined to be felted still on the needles (but only have pictures of it when it was barely cast on) and a vest (that also is, sadly, only pictured as a wee cast-on item). At some point I'll get pictures of them farther along.

I've managed to also do a bit of spinning. I've been spinning some cottolin that I picked up one year at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (probably 2-3 years ago). I've spun and plied one skein:









I've spun the first single of the second skein, and will begin on the second single this weekend. This is a pretty basic two ply...and I can't find the skein or the card where I have the details recorded, so I can't tell you much more about it at this point...

And I finally finished threading, tying on, etc. and started weaving the placemats that I started a looooong time ago:
There's not much to say about these. It's a summer and winter design, but I'm not completely happy with it. These were destined from the beginning to go into a charity auction anyway, so as long as they look ok, I will be happy with them. It was an interesting exercise in designing summer and winter, and since then I've read more about designing summer and winter, so I will definitely take that learning into account when I do the next design attempt.


And now, onto my reward for all this industry. I'm going to play a game for a bit!

Recipe box contest

I thought I'd start the year with a post responding to the recipe box contest over at Mason-Dixon Knitting.

Here's a picture of my (oh so boring) recipe box:









And a recipe from it that's from one of my great grandmothers. I got this from a cousin of my mother's quite a while ago. I always lose track of that part of the family, because both great grandparents were widowed at least once and had children from more than one marriage (if I remember right), so there are all these half siblings to try to keep straight. This is exacerbated by the fact that there was a large age difference between my great grandmother and great grandfather (I think it was at least 40 years).

Marilla's Thanksgiving Cake
Cream 1 cup shortening and 1 cup sugar together. Add 1 cup raisins, 1/2 cup shredded coconut, 1cup blackberry jam, 1 cup nuts. Combine 4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon allspice and add this alternately with 1 cup milk into which 1 teaspoon soda has been stirred briskly until it foams to the creamed fat and sugar. Bake in a greased pan until it tests done in a "moderate" oven. Frost with Boiled Frosting (1 cup butter, 1-1/2 cups milk, 2 cups sugar boiled to soft ball stage stirring constantly, beat while cooling to spread consistency).

I will post a disclaimer that I have not tried this recipe, which should be evident by the fact that I haven't put an actual value on the oven temperature. My knowledge of baking makes me think that "moderate" from the early part of the 20th century should be about 325-350 F, but feel free to do your own research to confirm this.

I have much progress to report on knitting, spinning and weaving, but I'm going to save that for another post. I've had the last week off, so it has given me a bunch of time to get some things done and make good progress on others.

Happy New Year!

A picture from the top of the hill in the park near my house in Victoria, BC. Happy New Year to all, and I will post more next year!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night

'Tis the season

It's definitely Christmastime. This weekend was my work Christmas party and it cut into my knitting time. I usually manage to knit for a while on Saturday night while we watch a dvd of some type, but I had to go out and be social.

It was a fun party, even though the activity (a funny money casino) wasn't exactly my first choice of things to do. The food was most excellent. Some of the tenderest lamb that I've had in a long time...I'm drooling just thinking about it.

I do have knitting and spinning progress to report. I just haven't managed to get pictures off of my camera yet...I'm quite happy that I got the pictures taken while there was actually decent light on Saturday.

And to make things even more fun, I'm trying to treat my dog's paws with an over the counter remedy recommended by the vet. She keeps licking them to the point that she's hurting herself and I haven't been able to get her to quit. It seemed like allergies at first, but antihistamines didn't help, so I'm trying this. The vet did prescribe something that worked very well, but I don't want to pay for another visit if I can avoid it. Not sure if that's going to happen.

Ah well...the dog wants something. I guess I'd better go see what.

Wild Cats

I seem to have two wild cats running around the house. I keep hearing these mysterious sounds behind me that seem to be running feet or thunking into various pieces of furniture (or maybe walls). Those don't bother me so much, but the occasional sound of sharpening claws in the furniture do.

They used to be such well behaved cats and would only sharpen their claws on the cat tree...I don't know what happened.

On the knitting front, I've managed to start lots of stuff, and I've finished one sock that's in the coriolis architecture from Cat Bordhi. I definitely like this architecture. It's from her latest book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I'll have to take a picture when there's enough light outside. Which, given that I'm in the pacific northwest and it's late November might be a challenge. We'll see if I can get enough light this weekend when I'm home while it's actually daylight.

I'm stalled on weaving. I managed to get the warp beamed and tied on, but I haven't gotten any farther. I just need to decide that it's time to do something. Maybe if I had a purpose for the placemats that I intend to make from the warp...it's an idea anyway.

I did manage to get into both the Rockin Sock Club from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and the club that Simply Sock Yarn Company is running. I foresee a large amount of sock knitting for me next year. Which is good, because I have a bunch of things that I want to try!

I think I'm going to try to use this blog to record some of the experiments that I try. Sounds like a good way to try to get myself organized.

Continental knitting

A comment has inspired me to post on how I purl in continental knitting. I'm hoping this might help others, since this was my big stumbling block to being able to knit either way.

Technically when I purl when I'm knitting continental, I purl backwards. The stitch ends up on the needle backwards.

Here's the best explanation that I can manage without pictures. With your knitting in front of you, hold the yarn in your left hand in front of the knitting, insert the right hand needle as if to purl. Look at the orientation of the yarn and the needle. Now, it's relatively easy to scoop that yarn up from front to back, but if you have to try to grab it from back to front, you end up doing all kinds of gyrations. The most effective way that I've seen to do this involves holding it at a weird angle with your index finger (which works but isn't particularly fast or efficient for me).

So, when I'm knitting continental, I scoop that stitch up and keep going. By doing this, I actually think that I purl much faster than I knit. The drawback is that the stitches end up reversed on the needles. That's not a big deal, since all you need to do is knit or purl into the back of the stitch.

I was encouraged in this behavior by one of the ladies behind Just Our Yarn, and by Knitting for Anarchists by Anna Zilboorg. I particularly like this book, since it pretty much echoes my philosophy for knitting, spinning, weaving, etc. Do what works for you, don't be persuaded to do something a specific way because they believe that it's the correct or only way.

I do find purling into the back of a stitch to be a pain, and so I often wont use continental for something with a lot of knit/purl patterning (cables for example). I also don't find it as satisfying for my knitting experience (and stress relief), so I usually end up designating fairly simple projects as my continental knits. Knitting continental doesn't bother my shoulder nearly as much, so that is often the motivation I need to cast one on.

I think it's time to go do some spinning.

Too much knitting!

You wouldn't think that would be possible, would you?

I've been doing a lot of knitting over the last few weeks, and my shoulder is complaining about it. I have an old repetitive motion injury that is mostly kept in check with exercise, but excessive knitting can set it off. Too much mouse work on the computer, and certain other things can also set it off, but knitting is definitely one of those things that I have to watch.

I guess it's time to go weave or spin, since I think I'll regret it if I do much more knitting without giving my shoulder some time. Sigh...

I've had a lot of inspiration from the workshop that I took from Cat Bordhi, so that's part of the problem. I have lots of things that I want to try and I don't want to lose the momentum.

Seems like maybe time to try continental knitting again. If I cast on at least one project that's continental, then I can at least knit something when my shoulder is like this. Sounds like a good excuse to start that moebius cat bed that I wanted to do...

Floating Knitting Retreat

I'm just back from a Floating Knitting Retreat that was run by Cat Bordhi of moebius knitting fame. She has a new book out that does some very interesting things with sock 'architecture'. I've fallen in love with this book and I believe that it will make sock knitting a lot of fun for the foreseeable future for me.

The retreat was in the beautiful San Juan islands of Washington state. Just to give you a taste, here are a couple of pictures:
It's a beautiful area, though not very far from where I live. And not too different in the way it looks--different islands and different mountains.

We spent three days riding on the inter-island ferry, the ferry that goes around to four of the San Juan Islands. There's no charge for walking on the ferry, and it made the nicest knitting classroom and gathering place that I've been in for a long time.

We had great weather for the time we were there. It only rained part of one day. For this time of year in Washington, that's pretty remarkable.

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop that Cat ran. She's very low key and is willing to let students do what they really want to do. I found renewed interest in several things, but especially in sock knitting and playing with some different sock shapings. I definitely have a few pattern ideas out of this.

This was the second of two retreats that Cat did this fall and if you want to see what the other one was like, in theory, this link will work. It's currently not working at all (server down or DNS entry not there from the error message), but I figured I would include it anyway.

My friend Bonnie and I used this retreat as an excuse to get together and have some knitting time. It was great to see her and I'm very glad that we did this. We then went on to do a yarn crawl on the way back to SeaTac to get her back for her plane flight. I bought way too much yarn on the yarn crawl. Combined with the lovely gifts from the retreat, I had to make far too many trips into the house to unload my car.

And, speaking of all that yarn and ideas, it's time to go do some knitting!

Tagged!

Christine (of Spin, weave, knit, cake) tagged me with a Nice Matters award a couple of days ago. I'm a little behind in my blog reading (not to mention blogging).

This means that I'm supposed to tag seven others similarly...I definitely need to think about this a bit. I can't say that I know who to tag (except perhaps some people already tagged...).

The last couple of weeks have been crazy, and the next couple aren't looking any better. I was out of town last week for work for two days (and ended up on a late ferry because there were too many other people trying to get onto the island, grumble, grumble). This week is swamped because I have to give a bunch of different training sessions (all to people that I work with, not to customers that we sold to). And next week I'm meeting a friend to go on a Floating Knitting Retreat that Cat Bordhi is hosting. I'm looking forward to having some time off and spending a bunch of time knitting. I did have someone at work suggest that I postpone the vacation and that didn't go over very well...

Fiber wise, I still haven't wound on the warp for the placemats. I have managed to finish threading, but haven't gotten any further. I have three things in progress on the needles, and I'm still spinning some cottolin on my wheel. Progress is slow on all fronts, because I've had to spend a bunch of time on work that otherwise would have gone to fiber work.

Oh yeah! I also joined the Knitters Tea Swap 4, so I had to go find appropriate things to send off in my package this weekend. I may send the package while I'm in the states, since my swapee is in the US and that way I can avoid a customs form.

Some day I'll have time to do all the things that I want to do. Right about the time that I don't have any aches or pains or other reasons to not knit or spin or weave...

Snide comments not withstanding

All right Christine with the snide comments...

Yes, it has been a while. Things have been a bit busy since August. Work has been pretty amazingly busy, and that keeps me from being enthusiastic about posting. Somehow, the more time I spend on the computer at work, the less I want to do things (besides read) on the computer at home.

I did manage to finish a couple of things. Two pairs of socks and a felted bag have joined the FO queue. I felted the bag, but it felted unevenly, so I need to see if I can get the side that's too long to felt more if I agitate that side by hand. This is something that I auctioned off at a charity auction, so I need to see if I can resurrect it pretty quickly. Otherwise I may be making a new one, which means I need to find some yarn to do it with...

I do have pictures of both pairs of socks. This one is made with Tofutsies and is a pretty standard cuff down sock pattern (I think I was basically following the Yarn Harlot's basic sock pattern).And this one is made from Panda Cotton, using the Crooked Cable Socks pattern from Sock Bug:

I really like Panda Cotton as a sock yarn. I don't particularly like wool socks, so it makes a good sock yarn for me. Even the wool/cotton blends are not my first choice for socks.

I've now started a new pair of socks and vest from an issue of IK from last year (or maybe it was early this year...). I'm meeting a friend for a knitting retreat at the end of October that promises much more in the way of socks and maybe a moebius project.

Slow Sunday at Bubonicon

I'm having a slow Sunday morning. I've had a good time on vacation and at Bubonicon. Managed to play a good game of Arkham Horror last night, and will probably try to play another game this morning.

Sunday morning of a science fiction convention is always a bit slow. Everyone is tired from late nights on Friday and Saturday and not moving particularly fast.

I've had a good time catching up with friends that I sort of lost touch with. I'm happy that we managed to make it here. We (as usual) have bought too many books. We haven't bought too much else, mostly because of the issues of carting the things back home. I'm still debating on buying one thing as a gift for DH. I'll decide later on today. It would be an anniversary present if I do decide to get it, and it is something that I know he'd like.

I've gotten a bunch of knitting done on two different socks. Unfortunately, I had to suspend knitting on one, because I managed to break two of the needles in carting the socks around this weekend. That's why I prefer metal needles--I am much too hard on my needles and have a tendency to break them. I'll have to order some metal needles in several of the sock sizes when I get home. I haven't been able to find any when I've gone into stores, so it's time to just order them.

I think it's time to go veg out for a while. No one will be stirring for another half hour at least, so I can continue to relax.