Argh July 25, 2009

I’d be posting more if my stupid wheel wasn’t kind of a big snafu right now. For some unknown reason, the wheel is pulling on my single like the brake band is super tight when it isn’t. Color me frustrated, I’ve been battling with the thing for 2 nights now. I did manage to get a second bobbin done, but the third…. who knows.

I also started a pair of Sunday Swing socks (that’s the new knitty pattern from the summer surprises), only toe up. I’m using a skein of malabrigo sock in Caribeno, which I’ve attempted a couple of patterns on before, but this is the first one to really work. I quite like how it’s coming out, in fact I like the yarn better knit up than in the skein.

If anyone’s curious, no, I’m not really WWMing anymore because I finished every project that I had any chance of finishing within the time limit. The socks, since I cast them on prior to July, might count, but there’s no chance I’ll finish them. I’m mostly focusing on the tour now since it ends tomorrow, but that’s difficult with my wheel acting up. I’m going down to Detta’s Spindle with some people today though and I’m going to see if she has any insight.

NOM NOM NOM July 21, 2009

Yep, Matt’s worry hat is done (as seen here on accomodating but not so talented at acting husband, Cory). I made the teeth out of polar fleece, and sewed it down only vertically, between each tooth, to maintain the stretchiness needed. I think it looks a lot better than knit teeth. Otherwise, I followed the pattern exactly. A quick, fun knit. I only hope now that it fits Matt!

(As an aside, my glasses came in. They are, as expected, purple.)

1200 yards July 20, 2009

That’s aproximately how many yards of single, totalling up all three bobbins, that I had before I plied. After, I have 315 yards of nice, soft, sport to dk weight 3 ply.

Don’t blame me July 19, 2009

…if Janelle gets heat stroke. I warned her that if I made her hat in the summer she’d wear it all the time and get horribly overheated, and I was right.

At least she likes it, eh? Anyway, this is my own design, using handspun wool/possum and teal mystery wool. It has wee elephant buttons on the straps, too.

Regarding my spinning project, I did not get 2/3 done with the singles… instead, I finished them.

All three bobbins done (and each weighing in at exactly 1.3oz)! My sudden speed was due to two things. First, practice does in fact make perfect. My technique is improving– a LOT– and my speed has gone way up. All I have to do now is ply, which I’m hoping to do tomorrow between making dinner and podcasting. The second assist to my productivity? I discovered Netflix Instant Play, and they have Mythbusters.

Yes, I did of course already know this phenomenon exists. Lots of people I know have Netflix, and use instant play frequently. However I was under the mistaken impression that the $8.99/month plan was for 1 dvd per month, not one at a time with unlimited dvds per month. That plan I had thought was much more expensive. As soon as I found out, I ordered, because guess what else they have?

Over two HUNDRED MST3K videos. I am a happy, happy geek.

State of the Knitting July 18, 2009

A quick update for those keeping score.

Chain Chomp Hat: the main hat is done, and the i-cord for the chain links is barely started. I’ve decided to use polar fleece for the eyes and teeth.

Wool/seacell blend roving: 1/2 of 1/3 spun up. It’s gonna take at least a couple of days of non-stop spinning to get this puppy done. I have hope that I’ll get 2/3 done overall by Monday. I’m doing a three-ply (it’ll probably end up DK or Worsted weight, though I was hoping for thinner, so we’ll see), it’ll be my first true three-ply and my first use of the tensioned lazy kate I made.

Aeolian: still firmly in the doghouse.

Other spindle projects: …what other spindle projects? No idea what you’re talking about. ::cough::

Tussah silk roving: waiting until I finish the seacell blend before I tackle this again. Gotta figure out how much freakin’ twist it’s gonna take to stay together. Sheesh.

You are success! July 12, 2009

I had an extremely productive and successful weekend.

First of all, this weekend was the Minneapolis “ZineFest”, a zine selling and trading show where my friends Autumn and Tiffany had a table. (click here if you don’t know what a zine is, or here if you want more info) In exchange for sitting with them today and keeping company/helping sell, I got to put my etsy things (crochet cupcakes, Disgruntled Pocket Critters, and cupcake pins) on their table to sell. I came into Zinefest with a $20 bill; I walked out with $25 cash and all of this.

I think I made out pretty well. My favorite purchase is the book on the very bottom, titled “Make your Place; Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills”. It has a wealth of info on making bath and body products, home cleaning products, and even gardening.

During the fest, I worked on a sock I can’t show photos of as I’ll hopefully be publishing the design later. Yesterday, however, I completed Janelle’s hat- the one that I spun up both that possum/wool blend and the teal wool for. I won’t show a full photo yet as I don’t yet have the buttons (you’ll understand what I mean once I have them), but here is a closeup of the colorwork.

This hat’s my own design, but in general shape it’s very similar to my Animal Cracker Hat pattern.

My favorite accomplishment this weekend- particularly since it only took me a few hours, the fastest spinning project I’ve done yet- is this yarn.

4 ounces of bamboo superwash, colorway Frosted Garden, from “Dyeing for Colour” on Etsy. Spun into soft worsted weight singles. Seriously this stuff is so freaking soft.

I’m very, very proud of myself. I’ve never spun low-twist singles successfully before. Admittedly there were a couple of places spun too loosely that broke, but I spliced them back together and all is well. I didn’t count yardage but I’d say at least 200 yards.

A good reason for once July 9, 2009

I didn’t blog last night, it’s true- but not because I was tired or lame or didn’t have anything to say. I didn’t blog because I was up until midnight franticly plying…

This.

It isn’t washed yet, and I think it will bloom wonderfully when I do wash it (tonight). It’s really soft, though I didn’t get as much yardage as I expected- only 162yd, but still enough to make something from. It’s a medium laceweight to heavy laceweight in places.

Failure is always an option July 6, 2009

Well guys, Aeolian is… how should I put this…

In a time out.

A SERIOUS time out. A possibly for several months, you-did-something-seriously-wrong-young-lady-and-I-want-you-to-know-it sort of time out.

After it became inexplicably screwed up for the third time yesterday, I did some thinking. I realized a few things… one, I should not resent my knitting. If I resent my knitting there is Something Wrong and the knitting and I need to take a leetle break. Two, I have nowhere to wear such a jewelled confection as it shall surely, once complete, become (as a caterpillar from a cocoon, I am sure of it), and I’d rather have that deadline of a truly formal event to get me to finish it. Three, no one will be upset with me if I don’t finish it NOW NOW NOW, except possibly Janelle, but she’s wrong. (also it is slightly wrong how difficult it was not to type NOM NOM NOM right there by accident)

So today at work, I did… nothing. Nothing at all. It would have been boring, except that I actually had, you know, work to do. The day still went really slowly, though. After I got home, I spun up a few dozen more yards of the camel down (only 0.2 oz to go! I’m 80% done with the singles!) and started on a seekrit project that I cannot even share with you, dear blog. It is pretty much to replace Aeolian in my WWM queue, since I can’t spin at work and will probably havea  few dead days there before the end of the month (besides, there are two “days of rest” in the TdF so you don’t burn out).

Oh, and podcast episode 13 is up and downloadable. I even checked it this time- it works, promise. 🙂

Day of rest July 2, 2009

I fully intended to spend, if not all of work, at least the entire evening working on my Aeolian shawl. Unfortunately, due to several things, I only ended up getting a few hours of sleep last night. I was dead tired all day long (still am- about to go to bed now) and just couldn’t focus enough to even think about lace. Tomorrow should be better, as I don’t have work and can sleep in as long as I need to to really be refreshed. I’ll post photos once I get a few more rows done.

Instead of knitting, Janelle and I went to her place (after taking care of my sister’s dog and cat- we’re petsitting for the weekend) and played Rock Band 2. There are some neat songs, but the nice thing is that you can (at least on the PS3) upload all the old Rock Band 1 songs to this version and play anything from either game. Kind of a neat feature, that.

Gonna be phenomenally successful July 1, 2009

(homestarrunner reference, guys)

I have already finished, depending on what you count, either one or five WIPs for WWM. One, if you only count actual knitting; however, there are “events” for both finishing and frogging.

Here’s the official one- the knitting one. My leafy mitts are complete!

For the finishing event, I found buttons for those owl mitts.

And frogging… I went a little nuts. I planned to frog just one thing, but ended up frogging two sock projects and the start of my Katarina (I decided to get different yarn).

I’m officially down to 4 knitting projects, one of which is Aeolian and will hopefully be done within a week. Other than that, it’s gonna be all spinning all the time ’round these parts.