7.5 Spinning some Brownie

It looks rather like a poster child for bad craigslist photos of spinning wheels for sale, but for some reason, piling the fiber on top of the flyer keeps the cats from thinking it's a cat toy. Why? Dunno.

This is the next to the last bit of the Fudge Brownie I was complaining about but I finally mastered it. Unlike most of the top I've been spinning for a very long time, this roving has a right end and a wrong end for smooth drafting. Guess who started from the wrong end? On the whole, this was probably not a bad thing as I would have been completely flummoxed had I accidentally started from the right end and then gotten the wrong end the next time I bought some. That would have been worse.

With the right end, this is lovely lovely stuff to spin.

And who would have guessed? With the right prep and the right spinning technique (and the right end!) I too can be one of those people obnoxiously mentioning that this four ounces of spinning only took a couple of hours while I watched a World Cup game. You watch now - the next four ounces will take a week (or more) as I'm shifting to top, short draw, and sport weight.

And we won't at all go into the two ounces of silk that I have been working on for more than four years. Nope, we won't discuss that at all.

This is all that's left - do you suppose that I can finish it this summer?

6.29 Ten on Tuesday (what, again already?)

This summer is scooting on by - one teenager is leaving for a month in 12 days and the other is leaving for 10 days in about three weeks. I'm trying to get everything in order for them to do this, which at the moment seems to involve spending a bunch of money on clothes.

I finished another skein of the malabrigo lace-and-silk. I bought a bunch more fiber I didn't need, but which is yummy.* I got a few more rounds on my newest shawl done. Do I have pictures of anything? I do not.

I got a few more weeds pulled in the flower beds. I'm fighting a losing battle with the asiatic lily beetles, and am seriously thinking of retrenching on the asiatic lilies for a few years. I can't afford to treat all the ones I have with the insecticide. If I reduce the number I have, I might have a fighting chance. Redoing the bed that was dug up for the sewer pipe took valuable weeding time away from the other beds which are all looking rather ragged at the moment, and the beds that have mostly asiatic or oriental lilies look as though they've been hit by the weed eater.

10 books on my reading list for the summer:

1. the Mrs. Pollifax series by Dorothy Gilman. I got started reading those again and will undoubtedly go through them all before I'm done. I read them as they originally came out and they fit into their times well. They were written over a period of 20 (30?) years though, and the elapsed time in the character's life is perhaps 5-7? The political changes of 30 years shoved into 5 makes it a little dizzying and a willing suspension of disbelief goes a long way when reading the whole series in a row.

2. Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravich. A recent recommendation I've got on hold at the library.

3. Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler. Like I need something else to do.

4. The Know-it-all by A.J.Jacobs. I read My Year of Living Biblically a few years ago and have wanted to read some more of his books.

5. The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose. An unlikely book, but highly recommended to me.

6. Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh. The next in a series I've been reading this spring - romance genre with a mix of fantasy/SF. Read the series in order.

7. Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh. This book and the previous one are on order and I'll get them sometime.

8. Repect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont. A belated birthday present, held up with the previous two awaiting publication of number 6.

9. Cast in Chaos by Michelle Sagara. Maybe this summer, maybe some time. Next in another series that I'm thoroughly enjoying.

10. The Sleeping Beauty by Mercedes Lackey. Assuming the library gets it in when it first comes out...

*I've noticed recently (for the umpteenth time) that I seem to go through cycles of attraction to colors. A quick look through the last year's spinning would show almost all variations on red. It would appear the new color cycle will be brown. My current spinning is Fudge Brownie and I just bought a pound and a half pound of shades of brown. I have very little brown in my spinning UFOs or stash, so after that 1.5 pounds, then what will I do? Switch colors or buy more brown? Lay your bets now...

6.22 10 on Tuesday

10 ways to entertain a child

(How old a child? How much space do I have to work with?)

1. Play I Spy. This is good for many ages - for older kids just pick harder things.

2. Play Ghost. This is good for kids who are fairly confident with their spelling, or for those who need practice with their spelling, and has lasted us for many miles in the car after dark.

3. Play 20 questions.

4. Read them a story.

5. Tell them a story (stories of their parents' adventures as kids seem to be particularly fascinating).

6. Hand them a book.

7. Take them to a park.

8. Share telling a story - each person adds 2 or 3 sentences to the story as it goes.

9. Play cat's cradle.

10. Play My Aunt... and work your way through the alphabet.

Re: The merino and silk - modifying previously spun yarn is not even close to being an original idea. Go for it and have a blast. Merino is one of the fibers that does tend (in my experience) to be stretched out during the spinning process and then to shrink up again when it gets wet. It has an awful lot of natural crimp to the fiber. Silk doesn't shrink much at all, having no crimp, and the combination winds up being a yarn that poofs out on the merino side. I happen to like the effect, but if you want a symmetrical looking yarn it wouldn't be the way to go. It looks sort of faux boucle in effect and when it is knit up.

Alternatively, one could take two skeins of the Malabrigo lace, add twist to each and then ply them together for an all merino yarn, which would possibly be closer to fingering than lace, but I had an odd number of skeins to work with and wanted to keep it in a laceweight yarn.

6.21 Spinning, of a sort

I acquired some Malabrigo lace recently, and as I started looking into suitable projects for it, I realized that there are a fair number of people who are complaining that it felts in the skein, or as it is being knit up. (That is, there are enough people complaining that there are a fair number of people mocking the people complaining.)

There are also a fair number of people who claim they had no trouble and have no idea what the complainers are talking about.

Closer examination of the facts in the case: Malabrigo lace is made from baby merino, is a single, and is loosely spun. As a spinner, I would expect a singles yarn to be loosely spun (it has no balancing force of a second ply (or more) and without the balance, the fabric would tend to bias) but making a singles yarn with merino wouldn't be where I would think to start.

So... I modified it just a bit. I ran it through the wheel and added some more twist (turning it from a low twist single to a moderately twisted single) then plied it back with a single of silk I had laying about.

Part of the skein was felting in the skein, so I'm glad I did it. When I get round to knitting with it, I'll report back on the felting (or not).

6.15 Ten on Tuesday

Ten reasons to do Ten on Tuesday:

1. Gets me off my duff and makes me put something on the blog.

2. Interesting topics (for the most part) that make me ponder a bit.

3. Having pondered it, I'm interested in what other people thought.

4. Having pondered it, I can make my kids read it too.

5. I enjoy reading the comments people make about my lists.

7. It helps me find new blogs I might like to read.

9. It gets me out of my rut, making me write on topics I wouldn't think to do otherwise.

10. It's fun.

6.5 Drive by posting

End of school-year rush continues STOP S away camping this weekend STOP K's recital this afternoon STOP Houseful of people still here STOP No knitting or spinning taking place here STOP Further bulletins as time allows STOP

ETA:: Recital went fine STOP J reports Sewer Line Backing Up AAAAAAGGGGGHHHH STOP

6.2 What do you mean it isn't Tuesday?

Monday holidays always throw me off - I wind up starting the week behind the eight-ball. This week is going to be particularly busy as we work through the end-of-school-year-rush with everything. S has a Track Banquet, a soccer game, a camping trip, another soccer game and a band concert all in the next 7 days. K has late practices with her Show Choir, a choral concert, tryouts for next year's school play. The grandparents (all four of them) are scheduled to arrive today to attend the Concerts and the weather report says we're likely to have heavy thunderstorms, hail and high winds. oh joy. I'm not sure J is going sailing this evening.

I have somewhere between 2 and 7 people to feed dinner tonight.

The tryouts for the play are the beginnings of bittersweet for K - the beginnings of the "last times". The last high school play, the last Winter concert, the last Spring concert, the last Solofest, the last...

So, what do I want to tell a high school graduate?

1. Not knowing at 18 what you want to do for the rest of your life is ok.
2. Even if you do know at 18 what you want to do for the rest of your life, you'll probably change your mind along the way and that's ok too.
3. Life's too short to spend brooding over other people's craziness.
4. Make room in your life for things that matter to you; don't get so caught up in things you "should" do that you ignore the things you need.
5. Don't ignore your health - you won't be 18 and invulnerable forever.
6. Other people will let you down at times. You will let other people down at times. This is a sign of being human; what matters is what they and you do about mistakes.
7. Your happiness is not other people's problem (likewise, their happiness is not your problem). The pursuit of happiness is all we're promised. Sitting around waiting for someone to make you happy is a recipe for unhappiness.
8. Allow yourself to stay open to new ideas and experiences - don't ignore things just because you've "never done that before".
9. Learn new things. College can be an excellent place to do this (as well as helping you get better jobs, etc). College isn't the only place, however, and many people will be happy to teach you about their particular passion if you simply ask questions.
10. Learn to stand on your own two feet - even if you want and have friends and/or partner(s) in life, you will be a better friend and partner if you can bear your own burden and not be one. That is not to say that having friends and partners can't make life sweeter - sharing burdens and joys as you go can be a blessing. Just don't require it of other people or let them demand it of you. Dumping on someone is not the same thing as sharing

And my favorite aphorism: Life is what happens while you're making other plans.

5.27 Dayflower Daydream

Thanks everybody for the nice compliments on Blue Cocoon. It was a good knit - written instructions only, which made a change from the past few projects before it, and a good prep for the current project, Dayflower Daydream, which is both written and charted, but for which I'm finding the written instructions easier to follow.

It's a circular shawl, in eight panels. It starts with Pattern A, which makes a wedge. Once you get to row 40, you continue in Pattern B on the established wedge (which makes a column) and start a new Pattern A in each panel. Once you reach row 80, you start a new Pattern A and continue with two columns of pattern B...

I have this feeling that by the time I get to the point where I have 3 or 4 (?) columns of pattern B I'm going to have a bazillion stitch markers color and size coded for each repeat.

5.23 Cocoon shawl

A friend of mine was a sweetheart and took some pictures for me. Ummm... a month ago, apparently, looking at the date stamp.

I finished it about a week before that (before we left for the Okefenokee).

Blue Cocoon, also known as the Cocoon Stitch Half-Circle Shawl from Martha Waterman's Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls, knitted up using the blue DHF/silk I spun up earlier.

5.20 Been plying...

I've not gotten much spinning done of late, but there has been a bit of plying going on:

Spindle spun BFL (from High Bid Farm)

and

my rustic yarn all plied up, rinsed and air-dried.

That's all there is of the BFL (unless I buy another bit of top, which would be a different dye lot) and I haven't measured it yet. It's fingering weight, maybe.

That's about a quarter of the Cotwold (I have a pound of it), but I haven't measured the grist yet. This one should be sport weight or light worsted, something in that range. It should make a nice vest, lightweight and warm.

5.13 The best thing...

about having a teenager with a license is the ability, as she's heading out the door to take herself and her brother to their music lessons, to hand her a $10 and say "Stop on the way home please and pick up the gallon of milk and loaf of bread I didn't get when I was out earlier."

5.11 Ten places that make me happy

1. The 1000 Islands - On the St. Lawrence Seaway, between NY and Ontario, are 300-some odd islands, known as the 1000 islands. Blue waters, lovely scenery, lots of things to do. I'll never forget the day my (then) 8-yo brother took his little kayak and paddled to Canada and back (crossing the sea lane each way) without telling anyone where he was going...

2. Yosemite - One of my favorite places to visit, as long as one avoids the hordes of people on the valley floor. To visit the valley floor, one should go in the off-off season. There are so many different kinds of places to see there, depending on the season and the height one goes to. We went to a star party on Glacier Point - cold but fun, staring at the stars in the clear night. (Before the sun went down, they were letting people look through the telescopes at a camping party across the valley on Half Dome. That is, they were until a couple separated from the rest of the party, went over the edge out of sight from their own party and started taking each other's pants off. At that point, the star party decided it might be best to concentrate on the rising moon in the sky instead.)

3. Washington, DC by night - Having grown up around DC with parents who liked family outings, we spent many a Sunday afternoon in the Smithsonian and visiting the monuments. I discovered visiting the monuments by night as an adult and it's my favorite way to do so. The numbers of people are diminished and the monuments are more beautiful all lit up at night. It's easier to find parking, too!

4. Mendocino - California coastline at its best. I'm not a big sandy beach person, but I love listening to the waves on the rocks, and the restaurants in town are great.

5. Lac Brompton - just north of the Vermont border in Quebec - a long narrow lake with several islands and a cabin on the shore that has belonged to J's family for generations.

6. Powells - the only thing better than a bookstore, is a huge bookstore that goes on for floor after floor after floor.

7. Saturday Market - very few places with lots of people are going to make my top 10, but the Eugene Saturday Market is definitely there. Farmer's market crossed with crafters, along with good food and good entertainment. What more could one ask for?

8. Exploratorium - A wonderful hands-on science museum in San Francisco. We took K&S there several times when they were small. The local science center has a room full of hand-on items loaned from the Exploratorium here in Rochester - not quite the same as having the whole Exploratorium at one's fingertips, but a nice place to go play. It's too bad they've almost outgrown it. When they're in their mid-twenties they might be ready for it again ;-)

9. The Smithsonian - as previously mentioned, we spent many a rainy Sunday afternoon in DC at one or another of the Smithsonian buildings. When we moved back to the East Coast, I seized the opportunity to introduce them to K&S. Doing it from a distance means they've only gotten to each building once, but at this point they've seen most of them, including the big Air and Space museum out near Dulles and the new Native American building.

10. Home.

5.7 Minor question...

Why is it that the day it's convenient for me to go watch S's sporting events is always the day it decides to be cold, windy and rainy?

Watching the 4 x 400 was fun, but not the rain.

5.4 People...

I'd like to interview.

Hmmm.

In alphabetical order:

Natalie Angier - one of my favorite science writers. I started with Woman: An Intimate Geography, which is a book I thoroughly enjoyed, which I've bought or lent to every woman in my family, and which I think every woman should read. I wish she'd a) update it with the latest research and b) write a similar one for men. I want one to hand to my son.

Jasper Fforde - The author of the Thursday Next books, which have such a charming wackiness to them. I want to ask more questions about the Well of Lost Plots.

Lynn Johnston - The cartoonist behind For Better or For Worse. I've lived with her strip for many years and it's given me many, many talking points with my children.

Michelle Obama - I'd love to have a chat with her about domestic matters.

Michael Ruhlman's wife - The author of Making of a Chef, etc. was married when he was going to school and learning to cook, then writing all about it. His married life was just backstory, but I'd love to have her take on it.

Most of the rest of the people I'd like interview would be bad for my blood pressure as most of my questions would start out "What the hell were you thinking when..."

4.30 Out of my comfort zone...

Meet Fudge Brownie. From Nistock Farms, one of our local shepherds, this is Cotswold roving, not the BFL or Merino/silk or DHF fine wool top that has made up the bulk of my spinning for the past couple of years. I'm working on going for woolen yarn, not worsted, and retaining the soft loftiness of the fiber prep. The result is not entirely satisfactory, but that's the fault of the spinner, not the fiber.

I keep getting little slubs where the leading end of the fiber isn't being caught into the twist and it sits there all coiled up and smirking at me, although as the bobbin has gone on I think the frequency of occurrence is diminishing.

I think that we'll have to label this yarn "rustic".

4.29 Finished yarn

I actually finished spinning and plying the darkest skein here the day before we left on vacation, but it was wet and dripping - not good photo fodder. You might recall that this started out like this:

I think I like the way it turned out. I was thinking I would turn this into a shawl, but now I'm not sure. I'm now pondering the thought of a vest. It doesn't really matter at this precise moment, as it's at least three and possible four back in the knitting queue. Plenty of time to think and decide.

4.28 The Okefenokee

A number of people have inquired - why the Okefenokee? Well, because. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and aside from the distance and time to get there and back, it was a good idea.

We did enjoy alligator hunting, and the Okefenokee is unlike any of the other swamps I've been to (actually, each of the swamps I've been to has been different from all the others). There are three entrances to the swamp - we stayed in a cabin in the Stephen C. Foster State Park on the west side. We drove around to the north entrance one day, and K&S went with the g'parents to the east side on the last day of our stay. I've no pictures of the east side which is all 'prairie'*, but will try to get some from K.

The west and north sides have a lot of cypress (bald and pond cypress), loblolly bay and tupelo trees

and we saw a number of different kinds of birds - a pileated woodpecker, several snowy egrets, a great egret, several raptors of various sizes but no identification, swamp turkeys (not related to the wild turkey), and turkey vultures.

Some of the best results of the alligator hunting are:

and

If I remember correctly, this was a pond turtle

These two were having a stare down

but the ranger's opinion was that the turtle was a bit too large, or the alligator a bit too small for anything to really come of it. The alligators replace their teeth rather as sharks do, but the size of this turtle's shell would probably mean several broken teeth that might be uncomfortable for a while.

The north entrance has another state park, which we did not visit, and a nature/amusement park which we did. Basic entrance fee included a wander around the animal exhibits, a herpetology lecture complete with snake handling and a chance to pet a baby alligator, and a train ride with views of past times in the swamp. Their alligator pen contained a large pond complete with bridge, which one of the six in the pen apparently considered prime napping material.

It was rather interesting - the two largest alligators in the pen had staked out a small mound, which obviously got the most sun with the least moving around necessary. This was the third largest alligator here on the bridge. The fourth, fifth and sixth (sizewise) were relegated to spots that obviously had enough sun to spread out in, but equally obviously would require the alligator to shift position every hour or so to remain completely in the sun. While we were watching, one of them, whose tail was now in the shade, skootched forward by rotating its limbs without ever opening its eyes. One foreleg got hung up on a bit of fern and it just stopped with that foreleg braced on the fern and hanging in mid air. I should be able to nap that soundly!

4.25 Swamped!

Back from the Okefenokee - mountains of laundry to do, groceries to buy, pics to upload.

The best day of alligator counting was 23. Big alligators, little alligators, baby alligators...

4.16 Eggs!

One of my favorite blog sites is the Rochester Falconcam. It's a funny thing - I like looking at webcams of various raptors, but the only one I follow is the local one. There's just something about knowing that I could go downtown and watch the falcons in person (although I never really do - the closest I get is scanning the airspace around Kodak Tower when we go down there for other reasons).

I also like to keep track of Quest - one of the two-year's-ago brood. She spent a lot of time on the coast of Massachusetts and then moved inland to the shores of Lake Ontario.

There'll be eyases in mid-May!

4.6 Magazines

Ok - the assignment today is magazines. Do I have 10? Not sure... but I guess we'll see.

1. Spin-Off. I subscribe to this one.

2. Interweave Knits. And this.

3. Popular Science. J subscribes to this one, but I read it.

4. Scientific American. And this.

5. Consumer Reports. I particularly like the last page with the idiotic advertisements outed.

6. Reader's Digest. My MIL subscribes, and I always read them when we visit. Or at the Dr's.

7. For Women Only. An occasional pick up at the grocery store, I never can get over how they manage to juxtapose "Diet this way now" with "A Great Recipe for Chocolate Cake" on the cover. K and I snicker over it and talk about the hidden expectations. They do have occasional interesting recipes.

8. And... and... I'm drawing a blank here. I'm not really a magazine reader. Sorry, just 7 on Tuesday.

4.3 Crocuses

This is the crocuses at their best - sadly yesterday's 85F caused many of them to wilt, poor things.

4.2 A (Sun)Room of Her Own

3.24 Overdyeing results

'Member when I was fussing about the lightest one of these?

I dragged out the dye pot for a shawl I wasn't happy with the color of (more about that later), and while I was at it, I threw the pinky skein in. It's still in the same relative position, next to the medium colored red.

I don't think it's too pink any more.

3.23 10 signs of spring

1. Obligatory crocus pictures from those of us in the northeast.

2. Robins have been spied flitting about and listening for worms.
3. Our precipitation has changed from snow to rain.
4. The incredible 7 foot snow mountain in the front yard has dwindled...

5. ...and the grass is starting to green-up.

6. Indoor track practice has given way to outdoor track practice.
7. Being much more opportunistic, the weeds have started sprouting, although it is still too cold to spend a lot of time eradicating them.
8. Seed and flower catalogs are arriving weekly.
9. Planning for summer activities is starting to kick into high gear.

10. I'm waiting somewhat impatiently for the notice that a particular fleece is available for purchase, although I have no need whatsoever for a new fleece and am not at all sure I'm going to buy it.

(all right, who was that in the back going 'liar, liar, pants on fire'?)

3.17 Add another way...

I've been getting bored with cooking and tired of the complaints that I fix the same old stuff - both of them probably stemming from the fact that I have been in a cooking rut. So, I've been looking for new things to fix. This one was labeled "Bangers and Mash Slimmed Down" but the text of the article says it is similar to "colcannon". Ok - we'll call it bangers and mash since I'm not acquainted with colcannon.

Chicken sausages, split and browned, with a light onion/chicken gravy, served with red potatoes mashed together with kale.

A big hit with everyone, and much to be preferred to corned beef and cabbage, which seems to be the local push for St. Patrick's Day.

3.15 10 Ways...

to celebrate St. Patrick's day. Hmmm....

I've never been one to celebrate St. Paddy's day, as it wasn't particularly a big deal when I was growing up. However:

1. Wear green. This was important, particularly when I was in elementary school, as those who didn't wear green on that day were fair game to be pinched. I wound up with bruises one year...

2. Wish my friend Happy Birthday as her birthday is the day before and I will probably have forgotten until the next day.

3. Listen to one or more of my cds of Irish folk songs, or

4. Put one or more Irish folk song seeds in Pandora and let it roll.

5. Drag out one or more of the Riverdance DVDs.

6. Avoid the St. Patrick's Day parade (although this mostly happens on the Saturday, rather than on the day).

7. Laugh at the guys who bring the green food dye into the German pub to make sure their beer is green on St. Paddy's; laugh at them again when the dye makes the beer go flat; and laugh at them a third time as they try to explain to the English speaking restaurant owner what they are doing so that he can explain to the thoroughly confused waitress. (A five minute explanation on the Americans' part boiled down to a one sentence explanation in German to the waitress: It's just one of those weird things that Americans do sometimes.) (I only did this one year, but it was memorable.).

8. Knit one or more of the green items I should be working on.

9. Dye some more yarn and/or fiber green.

10. Find green clothes for my offspring to wear (see point 1 above).

3.12 Oh, my

After seeing references to it sporadically over the years, I finally requested "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome from the library. Oh, my. If you need a good belly laugh, I strongly recommend this one. Three men (and a dog) going off on a boating holiday on the Thames. I'm only a little bit into it and I keep having to put it down because my sides hurt so much.

3.11 Spring fever

After all that snow we had just a bit ago, the temperatures this week have been in the 40s and 50s.

I have a serious case of Spring Fever.

That is all.

3.7 More spinning

And, some of you may remember this...

a different dyeing experiment. I like this one a bit better, as there's more variation in the color. After flailing a bit, trying to decide how I like it spun best, I settled on this:

this is a two ply from the lightest end of the fiber. I'm working on the middle section now,with the darkest end yet to come. I'm thinking of something like Girasole, but am still pondering the question of whether it should be center light, edge dark, or center dark, edge light. Opinions?

Thanks all of you for your congratulations on our anniversary. We had a nice dinner out last night (through circumstance, we wound up at our favorite local Chinese restaurant, which seemed fitting as the first time we met, we ate lunch at a restaurant in Chinatown, SF.)

3.6 Bright spun

Remember this?

It's turned into this:

The change in shade is not an artifact of the light - it really does change in shade from dark red to peach. The red will be good for Red Scarf Project, but I think the peach end will be too pink-y. I'm really not sure what I'll do with the pink end, but I suppose something will come to me.

3.4 Happy anniversary to us...

21 years ago, J and I were married. It's been a good ride.

3.3 And last but not least

of the wips I finished off during the Olympics:

One Artisan's Vest from the Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book. I really like the color, I liked knitting it, I wanted a vest to keep my shoulders cold (we had just moved to NY from Oregon - in January). I got it all finished, just needed to tuck in the ends, and realized that the mohair content in the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride is too much for me. The ends go straight through whatever I put under it and give me a prickly rash. That completely dampened my interest in finishing it off and there it sat.

It's been an ongoing source of irritation for me, sitting there in the drawer and being useless (because unfinished), when there must be people who could and would wear it just fine. Now I can send it on its way, somewhere, anywhere, and let someone else enjoy it and be warm.

3.2 Wips smackdown the fourth

One baby surprise jacket (complete with cat head, because she just can't leave it alone). This was knit from some DHF that I dyed in the bump and then spun about worsted weight in a chain ply. I have finally crocheted the edging, tucked in the ends and washed it. Pre-finishing it looked like this:

and you can see how much it grew with a dunk in the water. The picture post washing is still wet and the colors are much more true in the second picture. Since I have no immediate need for baby clothing in my own family (thank goodness) or in my extended acquaintance (how did that happen?) this one will probably be turned over to Warm Extremities. I knit it to figure out how it was done and I cannot imagine how someone could come up with this. I have a decent two-D visualization, but I just don't do the three-D stuff.

3.1 Wips smackdown #3

I got to the end of the wool peddler's shawl and had a bunch of yarn left over (not surprising since I had started with a little over a pound of finished yarn). So, I knit a scarf. This was the second time I knit Sylvia's cabled rib scarf and I still like it. The cables don't show as well in the variegated yarn (surprise surprise!) but it makes a soft cushy squishy scarf anyway. And then, still having more yarn left over, I knit a hat to go with it. (Why do I never notice things like photographing the hat with the seam side up, which wouldn't be all that bad since my seaming has gotten a lot better, but it is noticeable that the stripes stop and start at one place. This is the back of my head when I wear the hat and I don't care about it then, but it looks funny in a picture. However I am lazy and if I wait until I get another picture, you won't ever get to see it.)

The hat is my standard mindless knitting hat. I cast on a random even number of stitches (wrap the yarn around my head, then triple that length. Cast on an even number of stitches using long-tail cast on until I have about 4 inches of tail left.) Knit in K2P2 rib until the knitting is as long as my middle finger. Put a purl welt on the right side of the turn up. Continue in K2P2 rib until the part above the welt is the length of my hand. Start decreasing (1st decrease row: K2P2tog across. Knit in pattern for 3 rows. 2nd decrease row: K2togP1 across. Knit in pattern for 3 rows. 3rd decrease row: K2tog across. Knit in pattern for 1 row. Repeat 3rd decrease row and return as needed until somewhere between 10 and 15 stitches are left.) Sew through remaining stitches to pull into a circle, sew up side, remembering that the right side will change at the welt for the turn up (something I don't always remember to do).

This leaves one with a seam, but on the other hand, since all the measurements are off my own body, all I need is a ball of yarn and a circular needle, with no switching to DPNs necessary at the decrease.

Since I knit the scarf and then the hat immediately after the shawl, they've all three been sitting 'round waiting for ends to be tucked in. Consider it done.

Well, we wound up with a total of about 19 inches of snow out of the storm. The bird bath was nearly swamped and there were no birds in sight for about 24 hours.

The pear tree is hidden by the mounds of snow on that side of the driveway.



Fortunately, the sun has come out today and things are a little brighter.

2.26 Weather reports

Shall we review the bidding for those playing along at home?

1. NWS yesterday claimed an inch for yesterday, 8-12 inches last night, an inch or two today.

2. The radio this morning stated we'd had 8-12 inches, depending on where you were and an inch or so more today, tapering off mid-morning.

3. The paper this morning stated we'd probably get about 15 inches out of this storm.

4. NWS this morning said another inch or two today, tapering off mid morning.

And, our final results a-a-a-re!

I scraped 2 inches off the drive yesterday evening.

There were 8 inches on the drive this morning. J&I shoveled half of it; K&S&I shoveled the other half of it.

I shoveled another inch late morning.

K shoveled another inch early afternoon.

K&S shoveled another 2 inches mid afternoon.

K&S&I shoveled another inch late afternoon.

It's still snowing.

That's 15 inches and counting...

2.18 Second up on the wips smackdown

The next item on the WIPs list is a cat favorite*. They've loved it since it first came in the house as a part of a fleece:

A Corriedale fleece split between three of us, purchased from Whitefish Bay Farm, I wound up with about 2.5 pounds. It was one of the fleeces that shaded from white through grey to a very dark grey. Using the dog comb shown above, I opened the tips of the locks before washing. It made a nice spring project, sitting out on the deck in the back of our rental house in between trips looking for a permanent one when we moved to Rochester in 2004.

Once flicked, I washed it.

After combing the locks again with the dog comb, I spun from the opened up lock, grabbing locks at random to get a nice mix of color:

Once it was all spun up, the spinning project was over, and there the skeins sat. I was in th middle of knitting other things and not ready for a new knitting project. It marinated for quite a while and I couldn't decide what I wanted to knit in a variegated grey. In May of 2006, I gave up on grey and decided maybe a trip into the dyepot would be useful:

It is at this point that one can see the deep interest the cats have taken in the project - skeins covered in cat hair.

Having dyed the skeins, it didn't take too long to decide on a project (only until February, eight months later, ): Wool Peddler's Shawl from Folk Shawls. I've never cared for the flat red the project is shown in, but a variegated red seemed to me to be a possibility. I knit it up and once again it sat. And sat. I was not in the mood for the zillion ends that the small chain plied skeins left me.

When I started looking for WIPs needing finishing, this one leapt to hand. I took it out of the drawer and set it on the counter, where the cats immediately discovered it:

I persevered (this time) and we finally have a completely finished object:

*Actually, it was Bitsy and Snowball, rather than Snowball and Tiger, since this fleece is older than our junior cat, but he moved right into loving this project too. They climb up on it, immediately get that giddy look and start in with the purring and kneading before they fall over and snooze for a while.

2.17 Working on wips

I may have mentioned that I don't ordinarily do -alongs or -swaps. I hate dropping what I'm in the middle of in order to do something to someone else's schedule. Exceptions do occasionally get made, particularly when it's something I was going to do anyway. Ravelympics came along and I thought about how and whether I wanted to do that.

The category for WIPs seems tailormade for where I am right now. I may have also mentioned before that I hate finishing with a passion. Once in a while, I make myself finish things immediately, but often, they get tucked in a drawer to wait until I feel like it.

I haven't felt like it for quite a while.

The stack has been reaching critical nagging mass.

My personal goal for Ravelympics is to reduce the mass, if not to zero, at least to the point where they don't nag me any more (which will be pretty darn close to zero).

And in that spirit, I offer up the first of the items on the finishing line:

One Triangle Scarf.

This is a pattern that I came up with from a description of the technique a few years ago. There was somewhat of a hoohah online about this as I recall, as Person A published a pattern for it, and then got upset when Person B gave a two sentence description of the technique. Person A claimed that Person B had violated copyright (with all of the attendant copyright nonsense that followed). I would probably have ignored the whole thing because I dislike the yarn the scarf was intended for except that the nonsense made me decide to figure out if I could come up with the scarf from the two sentence description.

Obviously, I did come up with a scarf. I've never looked to see if what I did matched the original pattern, because I didn't care whether I did or not. I now have a mindless knitting scarf pattern that I've repeated several times; it's a good pattern for long repeats of color.

This scarf, now finished and blocked, is headed out for my nephew. It should be just the perfect size for an eight year old.

2.16 finally...

I don't know what it is about this shawl. I have taken more awful pictures of this than any other shawl in the history of blogging. This one is about as good as it gets.

It is a comfortable shawl to wear and the pattern was well done. Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark, knit as written for smallest size in Jaggerspun Zephyr.

2.11 Little miracles

I have three amaryllis bulbs that I acquired three years ago. I ignore them. I don't do any of the things one is supposed to do in order to encourage them to bloom again. They don't care, they just keep on going.



And yes, that is yarn framed by the blooms, sitting on the shelf above their heads.

2.9 The magic of blocking

It doesn't matter how many times you've seen the magic trick - it's always a show stopper.

Unblocked:

and blocked:

2.3 Teenagers!

We had two inches of snow today, give or take a bit. Fluffy snow, for the most part. Since K has her license now, I'm not having to pick her up after school every day. I went out and shoveled the drive after I got home, and once I was back inside, the snow plow promptly came by and dumped a 2 foot by 3 inch pile at the end of the drive.

I did have to go pick up S at 5. He came out from track (indoor) practice in his t-shirt and shorts, not even bothering with his hoodie this time. I dropped him at the end of the drive with instructions to put his hoodie and long pants on and then clear the end of the drive before I got back from the grocery store.

When I got back, the end of the drive was duly cleared off.

J helped me with the groceries, and by way of idle conversation said "guess what I found at the end of the drive when I got home?" Me: "What?" (thinking I might have to get on someone's case after all.) J: "Our son shoveling the drive in short pants and a t-shirt." Me: ::headdesk::