I didn’t do much knitting (again) today. This time, I was not being productive… I was sulking. My sweater is at a stage where each row takes an eternity, and then I tried to knit a third Two for His Heels sock with the optional leg cable, for the pattern, but realized an hour or two into it that I was glad to be done with the second sock because I’m sick of this pattern. Thus, I spent the rest of my workday idly sketching new pattern ideas and sulking at my project bag. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel more inspired to knit something.
After I got home, I made dinner for us. Tonight I made the quite tasty (and alliterative) cauliflower cashew curry.
It was a bit on the salty side and could’ve used some garlic, but it was pretty good. I think next time I’ll add some more green vegetables to it… at least some bok choy or something. The recipe was intended as a side dish, so it was a bit less interesting than main dishes are usually designed to be. I normally do recipes as-written the first time through, and tweak them from there. This means I’m sometimes a bit disappointed, but gives me a starting point to work with.
I’ve spent the rest of the evening predrafting and spinning the second 1/3 of the teal. I thought, since I don’t have much else to say, I’d give you a photo tutorial of how I predraft my top (top is a combed preparation of fiber, and commercially prepared top is often very dense and compact, requiring extensive predrafting).
This is what I start with; about 8-10 inches of top, pulled off of the main coil.
First, I divide that piece in half vertically. It works best to start from the middle.
Starting at one end, I put my hands a staple length apart and pull gently.
I repeat this down the length.
Then, I go back to the original end and do it again. Basically I’m making a long, thin, wispy piece of top from the original short, thick, dense section that I had.
Again, I repeat down the length.
Finally I wrap the top fairly loosely around three fingers, coiling it into a nest-like shape. This keeps the strips of top seperate and stops them from coming apart in the basket.
Tadah! Of course, this all needs to be repeated endlessly again and again and again. Maybe someday if you’re lucky, you’ll actually be able to spin some of it! 
Ok, I kid. I’ve actually got about 1/3 of it spun up already, and it’s only 8 so I’m sure I’ll be half done with this batch by bed.
Something I did yesterday but forgot to add to my post… I’m having a few people (you know who you are) test knit my sock pattern, and I decided that in return for this service, I would give out small sets of stitchmarkers. I have a lot of beads left from a beading stint in my teens, so I put them to good use and made these.
I quite like them, but of course I don’t get to keep them. (I might decide to keep the planet-lookin’ ones. I love them and I don’t have any more hematite rings so I can’t make more.) Nicole already dibs’d the rainbow star ones. I may end up making more… it’s pretty fun. I don’t really have enough of most beads to make proper matching sets, and often I only had enough to do three vaguely matching markers (thus the sets of 3), so I’ll have to get more supplies at some point if I decide to make more.
Tomorrow is Knittin’ Kitten! Yay! Janelle and I plan to attend. I will, of course, provide full account.
