Show Me Your Knits

The Spinmaster

I'm in love with my Lendrum spinning wheel.  Deep, serious, passionate love.  Somewhere in the last few days, the spinning coordination thing kicked in and I started feeling more confident and looking less constipated (hopefully) when I spun.  What helped immensely was all the unbelievably fantastic handpainted fiber that I got in the mail from etsy buys.  I tried to get a variety of blends to experiment with.  I ordered this vivid pink/fushia/orange/yellow merino corriedale blend from a seller called Copperpot Woolies and the roving was so incredibly soft and fluffy, it made spinning seem easier than it had ever seemed.  I may even have told my husband, "I am the Spinmaster!" while I was spinning.  (Okay, Dorkmaster is more like it, but it really was pretty exciting.)  I spun up the whole four ounces on two bobbins and you could even see my improvement from one bobbin to the next.  Plying was a bit harder, but I really don't know what I'm doing in that arena, so I experimented a bit.  Obviously, I didn't get the plying as even as it should be, but like my spinning, I figure that it can only improve, right?  Yeah, this skein might be a bit on the ugly bumpy side, but I love it and I'm proud of it.  It's funny, though, because when I was spinning it, I thought I was spinning it very thin, but it seems so bulky when it's plied.  The kid even said it looked really good, which is high praise from a 12 year old.  I've started spinning up some of my other etsy purchases, a merino roving from Enchanted Knoll  in a gorgeous colorway called "Wood Elves".   Yes, I know my photo is crappily out of focus, but trust me when I say that the colorway is well named.  I look at it and want to frolic with Legolas and the other elves and perhaps a hobbit or two, when I see it.  It's very pretty.  This merino seems harder to spin somehow.  Since I'm such a novice, I don't know why that is, whether it's because the roving was prepared differently (the Copperpot one seemed really combed out and easy to spin) or if it's the difference between 100% merino and a merino/corriedale blend.  Any ideas? 

Since I've caught the spinning bug big time, we took a road trip over to Lawrence, Kansas today to visit one of my favorite yarn shops, the Yarn Barn, today.  The boys agreed to this trip because I agreed to go to the bike store in Lawrence and also the big Cabela's sporting goods store on the way home.  I picked up more bobbins for my wheel, plus a niddy noddy, since winding the yarn around the back of the dining room chair got really old really fast.  I may have picked up some more roving while I was there, too.  The roving on the left is a multicolored merino and the natural roving on the right is 10 ounces of a New Zealand roving called Jacob.  I was so dumb that I thought that was just the name of the colorway or something, but the lady ringing me up kindly informed me that it is a breed of sheep.  Who knew?  The owner of the store was so nice, too.  I bought my wheel secondhand from an individual (who actually initially purchased it new from the Yarn Barn) but he spent quite a bit of time with me showing me things on the store's demo Lendrum, like how oil it and all sorts of other questions that popped into my head at the time.  I was very impressed.  And lest you think that I'm all about the spinning and none about the knitting, I made a total knitting impulse purchase while I was there.  The store had a mannequin up with a breathtaking hexagon swirl lace scarf called "Swirl Shawl" from Jojoland in a fingering weight superwash wool called Melody.  It has long color changes, which is what adds to the shawls magic.  I think it was brilliant marketing for the shop to have a sample displayed, because honestly, if I had just seen the pattern, I wouldn't have looked at it twice, but seeing it knit up, it was a total selling point.  In fact, there were two other women there at the same time I was, buying this pattern and yarn.  I'm anxious to start knitting this.  But I'm also anxious to spin up some of my new roving.  That's the only drawback of spinning that I can see so far, is that it competes for my knitting time.

Last Day of School

Today is the kid's last day of school.  It's a half-day, the Tuesday after the long Memorial Day weekend, which seems a little ridiculous, but they had snow days that they had to account for.  Our son says that all they're really going to do today is clean out their desks, sign yearbooks, and pick up their report cards.  He's finishing up sixth grade, which means he's officially done with elementary school and will head over to middle school in the Fall.  I am so glad that sixth grade is coming to an end.  This has been a rough year.  The kid and his sixth grade teacher were a horrific match and the mutual dislike between teacher and student has made for some long school days.  We're going to play up the "fresh start, new beginnings" aspect of attending middle school in hopes of getting back some of his love of school, but until then, I suppose we're going to enjoy a summer full of baseball, swimming, and me telling him to get his feet off of the furniture.  I stopped him this morning from taking a  whoopie cushion to school.  Sigh.  I didn't check to see if he left the fake vomit at home.  (As an aside, I'll never forget the time my husband and I stopped in a magic shop in Las Vegas and he asked the clerk if they carried fake vomit, to which the clerk replied, "The small fake vomit or the large fake vomit?"  Boys are gross.)

On the fiber side, I love, love, love my spinning wheel.  I've been spinning every day and my yarn has progressed from the ugly-ass stuff to the merely homely.  I'm making strides.  I don't feel like I have much control yet.  I hope that comes with practice.  My yarn goes from thick to thin with puffs of nubby fiber that I haven't pinched tight enough and sometimes I overspin it and I get that curly pig tail fiber.  Following the adage of "fake it until it's real" I've been trying to emulate my spinning hero Stacy from Tempted Yarns, and try to look zen-ed out and relaxed.  So far it's not working, as I mostly look a bit constipated instead.  Again, practice, right?  I haven't bothered plying any of the yarn that I've spun yet, because it's just practice stuff.  Mostly, I fill up the bobbin and then I yank it all off and try again.  And again. 

The Cool Cult

Now that I've got my own wheel, I feel sort of cool, like I'm running with a new crowd of fiber people.  I even joined a group on Ravelry called the "Cult of Lendrum", populated by spinners who own Lendrum wheels.  I love this wheel.  I don't have the slightest idea what I'm doing, but I've actually spun some stuff that looks like yarn.  Ugly-ass yarn, but I'm pretty excited about the whole thing.  It actually looks better than the even uglier-ass-ier yarn I spun in the second beginning spinning class I took.  (Yes, I said second beginning spinning class.  I was so totally inept in the first beginning spinning class that I don't think I even made anything that could remotely pass for yarn.)  I've got a wad of natural, undyed roving, so I've been playing with that.  I've spun for about 20 minutes, and I haven't dropped one "f-bomb" or even felt slightly like kicking the wheel.  Quite the opposite, actually.  I'm excited about the whole thing.  But, following the advice I've been given of doing small daily increments of spinning, I'm going to call it a day, put the wheel up until tomorrow, give myself a little "atta girl" pat on the back, perhaps pour myself a glass of wine and pick up the knitting.  Perhaps tomorrow my yarn will be slightly less ugly-ass.

And I totally went on etsy today and ordered two dyed hunks of roving.  I'm not a fool.

The New Baby

I bought it.  A used Lendrum double treadle spinning wheel.  I can't believe it.  It seems like it's in excellent condition and I got it for a great price.  I haven't spun anything on it yet.  So far I've just cleaned it, oiled it, treadled it, and admired it.  I'm waiting till a friend gets through with work, so I can call her and ask her some questions about the bobbins and stuff.  And okay, if we're going to be perfectly honest here, I might just be a little scared of the thing.

Yeah, go ahead and laugh.  It's just a little intimidating.  I've been reading tips on the spinning groups on ravelry.  One of the best tips seems to be to just spin a little, maybe 15 or 20 minutes every day.  That short amount of spinning time, daily, seems to be a good idea.  It's pretty, isn't it?  A little scary, but pretty.  My goal, spinning-wise, is to one day spin like Stacy, the dyeing genius behind Tempted Yarns.  I met her at the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling and she is so sweet and nice and an unbelievable spinner.  Most spinners I've met (and granted, I don't know that many people in person who spin) look a bit tense, with their shoulders sort of pulled up, and their teeth a bit clenched, while they spin.  There might even be a curse word or two in there somewhere.  Not Stacy.  She makes spinning look like the easiest freakin' thing in the world.  It's almost mesmerizing to watch her spin.  That's my goal.  One day I want to hypnotize and amaze people with my spinning skills.  I just need to stop being scared of my wheel first.

Socks and Maybe a Spinning Wheel

These are the socks that I finished several days ago.  They're knit out of a yarn that I've never used before, Artyarns Ultra Merino 4.  It's soft, cushy, and sproingy.  Love it.  Yarndex says that you get gauge for this fingering weight sock yarn on size US 4 needles, which makes no sense, as it is sock yarn.  I used size US 1 needles.  I picked up this yarn at Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks during my last (I think) trip to Portland.  The tag creatively calls the colorway "Avocado/Cream/Black".  No doubt the company stayed up late thinking up that  one.  Uncreative names aside, I really like this yarn.  I knit up most of the pair while at the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling and I could tell the socks were winners, because lots and lots of knitters came up to my knitting, rubbed my socks, and asked me what yarn I was using.  (Although, come to think of it, we all did that to nearly everyone's knitting there.  I don't think my socks were unique in that aspect.)  Anyway, love this yarn.  Love it so much that I've added a few skeins to my yarn stash this week.  Good times.

And speaking of good times, tomorrow I may own a spinning wheel.  Maybe.  One of my girlfriends in my knitting group found a Lendrum DT for sale by a coworker.  I called the woman up and she said that she bought it several years ago and never really got into spinning and can't even remember how to do it, so rather than have it collect dust in her basement, she's selling it.  For a really good price.  A price that will alleviate any guilt I may have spending money on a wheel that I may or may not use very much.  She says it is in excellent condition.  I'm going to check it out tomorrow and see if it really is in good shape.  Cross your fingers.  I hope, hope, hope. 

Hooray, Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.  I hope that you're having as nice a day as I am.  My husband and our son made me breakfast, blueberry pancakes and fresh fruit.  The second pancake had the word "Lucky", our neighbor's cat's name, spelled out in blueberries, but I'll just share the smiley face pancake here.  I also got flowers and the Disney movie, Ratatouille, which we watched as a family today.  (Sort of.  My husband kept wandering off during the movie.)  I got time to knit a pair of socks today (photos tomorrow, maybe) and then I took a nap while the boys cleaned out the inside of my car.  Then we all went out to dinner at one of those Japanese steakhouse restaurants where they cook the food in front of you and toss shrimp in your mouth.  It was a lovely day.

Here are some gratuitous cute niece photos of Bella and Gabbie, that my sister emailed me a little while ago.  I use the excuse that it's because they're wearing my handknits, but it's also because I think they're pretty cute.  My sister said they were taken at the Rhododendrum Garden in Portland, Oregon today.  The little one is wearing a sweater that was originally knit for her older sister, so it's nice to see that the sweater is getting second sibling use.  I miss those kids.  Must get out to Portland soon to hang out with them.

Now for current knitting, it's still booties.  Booties all the time.  (Heh heh.)  I finished up three more pairs.  The two pink ones are the Herringbone Booties from the Zoe Mellor "50 Baby Bootees to Knit" book.  These are knit out of Claudia's Handpainted sock yarn in the Pink Cloud  colorway.  The skeins weren't speaking to me for socks, but they're perfect for baby girl booties.  The blue trim is just a bit of leftover sock yarn from the stash.  Shibui sock yarn, I think.  I love these sweet little girl booties.  One pair go to the Ravelry baby bootie swap and the other pair to my pregnant cousin.  I've got enough pink yarn leftover to knit a third pair of booties if it turns out that my two friends who are expecting are having girls.  The anchor booties, also from that Zoe Mellor bootie pattern book, are just, in my vain opinion, freakin' cute.  They're knit for a person in the Ravelry bootie swap who is expecting a boy and loves marine biology stuff.  I thought they were nautically perfect.  (Of course, after I finished the first anchor bootie, I saw that there were fish booties in that pattern book, so maybe that would have been better, but I was already committed to the anchor ones.   Anyway, these are really cute.)  These booties are knit out of leftover Dale of Norway Baby Ull yarn, one of the most annoyingly splitty yarns I've come across.  Still, cute booties and worth the aggravation.  All these booties look huge to me.  I hope that the babies in this bootie swap have big feet.

A Flock of Duck Feet

I'm a big believer in the theory that buying a new lipstick can make any sort of day happy.  I'd like to add an addendum to that theory.  Not only will a new lipstick make you smile, knitting a pair of duck feet (or three) will cheer up the gloomiest day, too.  I mean, look at these things.  Aren't they ridiculously goofy?  What baby wouldn't want to be laughed at while wearing these?  I had two skeins of gold and one skein of orange Rowan Cotton Glace in my stash, leftover from a project, so I was able to whip up these little duck feet baby booties.  The pattern is in Zoe Mellor's 50 Baby Bootees to Knit, the definitive bootie book in my opinion.  These are quick, fun knits.  The sewing up does take almost as long as the knitting part, but maybe that's me.  Two of these duck feet will go to the Baby Bootie Swap on Ravelry I'm participating in and the third one will be put aside for my cousin who is pregnant, I think.  The two women in the Bootie Swap requested gender neutral booties and one asked for vegan booties, so I figure duck feet know no sexual orientation.  The baby is going to look silly in them regardless of whether it sports boy parts or girl parts.  My one puzzlement with these three booties is that the orange pair is noticeably larger, the big brother duck feet to the little siblings gold duck feet.  Gauge is so freaking weird.  It's the same yarn, same size 2 US needles, just different colors.  My scientific conclusion is sound:  orange yarn knits up bigger than yellow.

Thanks, and a Pair of Socks

Thank you everyone who sent such kind words of sympathy about my father-in-law's passing.  He was a wonderful man and he's really being missed.  The funeral was good.  It was simple and unpretentious, much like my father-in-law.  The minister has known Kenneth and the family for years and it showed during the funeral service.  I hate funerals where it's obvious that the minister or whomever is conducting the service obviously doesn't know the deceased.  It was a perfect Spring day and Kenneth's ashes were buried beside my mother-in-law's ashes in a sweet, country cemetery, surrounded by farms and fields.  It's a nice final resting place.  They had the year of Kenneth's birth engraved wrong on the headstone.  At first, we were a little upset, but then we decided that Kenny would have actually gotten a kick out of being "one year younger" than he actually was.  I doubt my husband pursues having them change the date.  Maybe it'll be our own little family secret joke.  So, thanks again for all the condolences.  I truly appreciate it.

One thing I did learn, is that I'm a lousy packer when faced with grief.  I went out of town for the funeral with about 18 pairs of underwear and one sock.  I also packed enough knitting to last me through the rest of the year.  Seriously.  I have no idea why I felt compelled to pack every possible project and skein of yarn that I could grab, as I knew I wasn't going to be knitting, but I'm assuming it's the same sort of comfort thing that compelled our son to pack literally every piece of baseball equipment that he owns.  I didn't question why he needed to bring two baseball mitts, his batting helmet, and assorted bats, and he didn't question why I needed to bring ten skeins of sock yarn.  Granted, my mom grumbled when she had to share the back seat of the car on the way to the funeral with his batting practice pole-thingy, because it wouldn't fit in the trunk, but that's what we did.

Now knitting:  these are the socks that I've finished, my 11th pair so far in 2008.  I used the River Rapids pattern, which is one of my favorites and easily memorized.  These are knit out of Zen String Yarn in Loopy Legends "Linda's Antique Treasures" colorway.  It was a nice, firm yarn and I enjoyed working with it.  When I blocked the socks the first time, one of the socks felt a bit floppier than the other.  I'm not sure what was up with it.  Maybe I was more relaxed when I knit that sock or something.  Normally, I wouldn't worry about a slight difference between the socks, but since these are meant as a gift, I blocked the floppy sock a second time, hoping it would "tighten" up a bit.  Ehh, maybe it did.  I can't really tell.

Kenneth

My father-in-law passed away this afternoon.  He died peacefully, with both his sons by his side.  We love him deeply and miss him in ways that I can't convey with words.