Putzing Along

As usual, I've neglected the blog. But that was partly because I was so busy finishing things! Yes! I finished three projects in one day--Saturday, August 1st. That got me on schedule with the "52 Project" goal, so I was quite happy about it. Here are the pics:

Yes, the Girasole is finished, and I absolutely love it. I used Wendy's blocking technique, which worked very well (the instructions are at the end of the post, after the picture of her kitty Lucy.) I think it would have come out slightly larger if I had done the whole pin-blocking thing, but since my back has been giving me fits the past couple of weeks, bending over a king-size bed and using a bazillionty pins for this was a no-go. Next time I'll put the ironing cover on my cutting table and iron it on that. I should be able to stretch it a bit more than I could on the regular ironing board.

If you look closely, you can see the change in color on the border, but Daniele was right. She commented on my last post that it probably wouldn't be noticeable, and it's not. I think that's mostly because the odd skein had to be joined right at the border, and the change of knitting direction and pattern helps hide the difference in shades. If I'd had to use it 50 rounds earlier, it would have been a problem. (BTW, Daniele was also right about my ill-fated attempt at a schedule. How'd you know, D??)

So the Girasole took three and a half skeins of Ranco Multy, at 376 yards per skein, therefore between 1300-1400 yards. If I did it again, I would use one size needle larger (I used a size 3/3.25mm on this one.) BUT. Though I love the shawl, I find round shawls a little awkward to wear. I don't see why it can't be made as a half-circle instead. Yeah, that means purling on the wrong side, but I can handle that. It also means that I have enough Ranco Multy in another colorway to make a half-circle (must...not...start...) BUT. I've made the Girasole, and would like to try something different but sort of the same. Enter Wendy again. She has just finished designing two cool round shawls (here and here), so one of those will be going on the list.

Next item:

This is the 2003 Collector's Heart from Heart in Hand (Celia Turner, designer.) It's another small cross-stitch destined for our bedroom wall.

And we have this:

It started out as this, from Zarzuela's Fibers:

I spun it into a fine singles, and I think it turned out really well. Now I need to figure out how many yards I have so I can decide what it will become. I'm anxious to see it knitted up. I hadn't done any spinning for a long time, and now I remember why I love it. I'm poking around in the fiber stash now, trying to decide what to spin next.

I can't tell you how good it feels to actually be finishing things. (Ok, technically the Tropical Fish yarn isn't finished until I knit it, but it's still progress!) I have to fight the urge to start new things--I think "startitis" will always be an issue with me--but seeing results makes me happy. It's especially true since the fibromyalgia has been flaring up the past couple of weeks, so my life feels very limited at times. I don't get out much unless it's to go to the post office for work, but I at least have something I can do that makes me feel useful. It's not brain surgery or the cure for cancer, but I make pretty stuff, and that has to be worth something, right?

Well, Lookee What I Found!!

First of all, let me congratulate Daniele, because she's the winner of my first comment bribe giveaway. That's nice, because she's been a faithful commenter for a long time. (Of course, that means she didn't need a bribe, but let's call it a reward or something.) I should mention that the winner was chosen by the scientific method of taking five playing cards, one for each commenter, shuffling, drawing, and awarding the bribe prize to the comment number that corresponded with the number on the card. Obviously this works until you have more than 13 comments, but I'll not worry about that just yet. So thanks to all who commented, and stay tuned. I've been cleaning up the stash, so there will be more bribes giveaways in the future.

So, the stash cleaning. Wow. The original plan was not only to inventory, photograph, and list The Stash on Ravelry, but also to get The Room organized and cleaned up enough to actually walk through, instead of creeping sideways through the narrow path to my computer chair. After much moving, shifting, prying open, and dumping of boxes, the inventory commenced. I say again, WOW. I made a shocking discovery:


Eh, so what? you say. Look at this picture:


This is Missy's lace shawl--the one I mentioned in the last post that we started together because she found this faaaabulous lace yarn at Woolgathering. Compare the photos. Yep, it's the same yarn. And even though I stood there at the booth and helped her pick it out, I had absolutely NO recollection that I had bought exactly the same yarn from exactly the same booth at exactly the same fiber fest the year before! What's even funnier is that she was with me last year too, and she doesn't remember it! Scary, huh?

But wait, there's more. See this?


This is a shawl I started for the Spindlicity handspun shawl contest a while back.  (Wow, I didn't realize just how "a while back" that was until I retrieved the link!)  I loved that roving so much, and spent so much time working with it, both spinning on a drop spindle and knitting it. You'd think I would recognize it instantly if I ever saw it again. Nope. Look what I found in a box on the bottom shelf behind the loom:


Again, exactly the same roving, probably bought from exactly the same vendor. The details of both purchases are a blur, but really. Am I going to have to start carrying smidgins of wool everywhere I go so I don't make multiple purchases? Oh well, at least I'm consistent in my tastes!

That shawl never got finished because I started knitting it before I finished spinning the yarn. As I spun, the yarn got finer and finer, ending up like this: 
(Love that classy yarn bobbin!) Unfortunately, the difference was obvious in the shawl, and I pulled it off the needles because I knew it wasn't going to work out. Here are the detail pictures--you can clearly see how the yarn got progressively finer.  The center starting point:

About a billion million hundred rounds later:

I was terribly disappointed, because I so wanted to win the scholarship to SOAR, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I put it away until I could stand to look at it long enough to frog back to where the yarn started becoming a little more consistent, and of course, I forgot about it. I've got so much of that roving now, I could spin and knit 40 shawls with that weight of yarn!

So far those have been the worst discoveries in the Stash Inventory. I am going to get tough, and get rid of some of the leftover yarns I have rattling around. Somebody somewhere can use them. And to show you just how tough I can be...I THREW AWAY yarn I had spun and plyed on a drop spindle. It was one of those projects that was just not turning out well and I knew it, but I couldn't bear to give up on it. I had spun and plyed so much of this yarn--laceweight again--that I tried to ignore the little voice in my head that was insisting that it was scratchy. Really, really scratchy. It was a mystery roving I got from someone else who was destashing, and yesterday as I fondled the thousands hundreds ten little skeins, I realized that wearing a shawl knit out of this stuff would be like wearing an exquisitely lovely hair shirt. So it went in the trash, roving and all (though I think I spied more of that roving peeking out from under some mohair in a clear box I haven't gotten into yet. Maybe it will make a nice...um, well, it could be spun into a thick yarn for...hmm, maybe I could...) Aha! FELT!!

It's been fun (though eye-opening) to go through all my yarn and fiber, but I don't think it will all get posted on Ravelry any time soon. It's just too much! I have been writing down the bare bones information, so I'll probably do a spreadsheet just so I can see what I have and where I've stored it. Pretty much the same idea as Ravelry, but without all the pictures. Which leads me to wonder: how do you manage your stash, if you have one? (If you don't because you're one of those anal compulsive freakish wonderfully disciplined people who only have yarn for the project you are presently working on, I don't want to know about it.) Do the rest of you just toss your purchases on top of the pile, so to speak, or do you post it on Ravelry or use another organizing method? I really do want to know, because besides yarn I have needlepoint, cross-stitch, weaving, and quilting stash and UFOs, and I'd kind of like to keep track of it all. If for no other reason than that I don't need any more purple silk-blend roving!

Trying to Catch Up

As I promised some of my Plurkbuds (y'all know who you are!), here are photos of the sock yarn in "Plurk" colorway that I got the other day:Ok, so that photo was washed out, but I wanted you to see the tag, so you'd know how to hunt it down. But here's a link anyway, because it's hard to see. This is the yarn in all its glory:
For the non-Plurking among us, those are the main colors of the Plurk Timeline when you join up. It's lots of fun--the wittiness of knitters is a blast. Witty knitters. What can I say?

Here are a few photos of other fun stuff I've gotten recently. I wish the true colors would show up better, because this hand-dyed fiber is out of this world. This first one, the teal and bronze colorway, is really different for me. But I absolutely loved it, so I bought all she had. Now I have about 12 ounces of it to spin, and I want to know exactly what I want to knit before I spin it, instead of just spinning it, then figuring out what to do with it. This came from here.

I'm a sucker for pink and yellow together, so this (from here) found its way into my shopping cart:
And then here's a study in blues from the divine Ms. Z:
And then we sidle back to the yellow and whatever side of things for this, from here:
Obviously, etsy is a major trap for me. I have so many shops favorited it's not funny. You'd think that would be enough, but no, last night I did a search for "roving" and just about went out of my ever-lovin' mind! Do you have any idea how much gorgeous handpainted roving is out there, just waiting for my credit card to come a-knockin'? I did escape with ordering only one braid--another pink and yellow, but softer than the one I showed here. That's it. No more. I mean it. ("Yeah, yeah," they all sigh, "just like The Last Purchase sock yarn.") I know, you've read it before.

Speaking of etsy, here's another batch of really fun stuff (notice the quick change of subject?) I've already bought several sets of stitch markers from WeeOnes. That's where I got the cute sock monkey markers that were a few posts back. I wanted ice cream cones and cupcakes for my daughter, who loves both, and these were custom-designed for me:



I wish you could see the real thing because the texture and detail is beyond amazing. Missy keeps raving about what an artist Jillian is, and she's right. I simply have to stay off that site for at least a week or two!

This is what she custom-made for me when I described my Jack Russell Terrier, Boomer, to her:


I think she came pretty close, didn't she? Only the face is a little different, but it's close enough! Here's the real dawg. Is that too cute or what?

And what of SOS, I hear you cry? Oh, I haven't totally given up, but I'm still putzing along on the same pair I started last Friday. I should get them done tonight. I still haven't felt well at all this whole week, and I've been playing the violin more and doing some spindle-spinning as well. I think I just needed a little break, but I feel myself getting fired up again. The competitive urge is coming back, so though I'm down, I'm not out yet! I've had to resist casting on a sweater coat (don't say a word) and so far I've been successful at that. So it's back to socks tonight. And no more shopping on etsy!

Gotta go plurk. And knit.

Storms, socks, and spinning

Still no Internet connection at home, so I'll just stay late at the office and do this.

That was one wild evening. We ended up heading for the basement at one point, because the sky turned that scary green, and when I see that I head for cover. (The Xenia, OH tornado in 1974 passed right over our heads. I don't like green skies.) We don't have actual tornado sirens in our teeny town, but the police were driving through all the streets with their sirens going, so that was good enough for me. We had lost our power, so we had no radio or TV until we found batteries for the portable radio. Yes, I know--that's not good disaster preparedness.

Missy grabbed the baby and some diapers, I grabbed the milk and water from the fridge, and we shooed the dog downstairs. We couldn't find the cats (not a good sign) so we had to leave them to fend for themselves. I also got my violin (couldn't carry the new wheel down there) and Missy got her favorite stiletto-heeled shoes. I can't believe neither of us got our knitting bags! Meanwhile, hubby headed next door to make sure our 94-year-old neighbors were safe in their basement.

The worst part didn't last long, so we ventured upstairs after about 20 minutes. It was still pounding rain, but the cats re-emerged from their hiding places, so I figured all was well. From about 7:30 on the lightening and thunder never stopped all night, even when it wasn't raining. The power didn't come back on until 6AM, saving me from having to take a cold shower, so I was happy. But it was sure hard to knit by candlelight that evening!

In other knitting news, I finished the pink Tofutsie socks. They feel so wonderful on my feet. I do like that yarn, except for the fact that it tends to split, so that can slow the knitting down a bit.

Since I finished those, I've been concentrating on the Dale sweater. I'm done with the hem and the bottom colorwork, and have done three rows of the body. I've been having trouble with it because one length circular needle is just a little to small for comfort, but the next length up is too long. So my hands can't take knitting on it as long as they can on another project. I'm also having trouble getting the gauge right, but it's hard to say with the colorwork. I hadn't done that for a long time, so the stranding was a wee bit too tight on the first couple of rows. I got my hands to relax as they got more familiar with the motions of using one color in each, so by the last color row, things were going fairly well. It looks so nice. I have to spread it out and pat myself on the back every once in a while just because it's so pretty! AND I managed to follow the pattern pretty well. I only had to rip back one row. Did you know that it takes about twice as long to rip back one row as it does to knit it? I didn't. But now I'll really take care to double-check the pattern every row!

I finished filling two bobbins on the wheel with the walnut-dyed roving, and plyed and skeined the yarn. I really love this yarn. Good thing--I'm going to have a lot of it by the time I'm done!

Less than two weeks until Summer of Socks! Gotta keep working on these projects! I'd like to finish at least one more before the 21st, but I'm not sure if I can. It won't be either the Dale sweater or the walnut wool, that's for sure! It's probably a good thing I still don't have access to the Internet at home. Instead of spending so much time on Ravelry, I can be knitting!

Lunacy strikes

This is the yarn I spun from the Fuzzarelly Fiber roving:



Nancy had sent me a selection of blends of different colors, so I blended them from pink to purple to blue. I think it will look really neat knitted up, and I found that the "Wing o'the Moth" shawl pattern calls for 200 yards to make a smaller scarf, so I should have plenty. I guess it's not technically a Finished Project until I knit it, but the spinning part is done, so I'm going to call that a FP. (Hey, it's my blog. I get to make the rules. And break them. Regularly.) Anyway, I've been struggling to not whip out the needles and cast on for this scarf, so I should be proud of myself for that! That would really be lunacy. Ha, ha--luna(as in moth)cy. Get it? Snort.

It was a joy to spin on my new Jensen wheel. Having the orifice on the right-hand side makes things so much easier. I don't twist my body when I spin now, so I can sit back and relax and not get so kinked up. Now that I've gotten the wheel set up and "broken in" I've been doing a lot of spinning with the walnut-dyed roving. I almost finished filling a second bobbin today, so I should be able to ply and finish a skein or two in the next few days.

Now comes the moment when I have to admit that I've gone and done something really idiotic. I blame it all on Ravelry. Really, that place is Danger Lurking As A Friendly Website. Once you get on there, you get sucked in. First you start looking at other people's stashes, then you start reading the forums, and next thing you know, why, you've joined four or five groups! And that's when the crazy begins.

So, ok, the first group I joined was the Summer of Socks group. But I already knew I was going to do that, so it doesn't really count. And the Sock Blankie Mania group kinda made sense. I mean, if I'm going to be knitting all these socks, it's a good way to use up the leftovers. It's mindless knitting, so it can be done while riding in the car or whatever, and there's no deadline lurking. Harmless enough, I'd say.

BUT. The 52 Pair Plunge, I'll admit, is just nuts. As of today, I have a year in which to make 52 pairs of socks. But I figured if I'm going to be knitting socks all summer anyway, they'll count toward the total. And, unlike the SOS contest, I don't have to knit adult socks. Baby socks count. And that's a good thing, because the Rugrat has outgrown the other two pairs I made her a while back. I know, I know--I'm just trying to justify lunacy, but what can I say? It sounded fun. And it's so easy to click on that little "Join this Group" button.

I've got 20 days to work on Project List #2. And then it will be nothing but socks, socks, socks. Unless I have a total meltdown and start twitching at the very sight of socks a couple of weeks into it!

Speaking (or writing) of the Rugrat, here are a couple of pictures of absolute adorableness, IMHO:




Gaaaah. It's just TOO stinkin' cute. I can't stand it!

Sorry. Random Grandma insanity moment...

The Tale of the Walnut-Dyed Fleece (with photos!)

A year and a half ago, I bought a scrumptious Romney fleece at the Woolgathering in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I should have been organized enough to save the sales slip and maybe a business card, but I wasn't, so I have no idea who I got it from. But it was nearly perfect, with almost no VM (vegetable matter--in other words, straw and thistles.) After I washed it, it was a soft light gray. Unfortunately, I can't lay hands on a lock that I was sure I'd saved, so I can't show how it looked. (I have learned from that mistake, and have been saving paperwork and fiber so I can keep track of what I have and where I got it. As mentioned before, I can be taught.)

Anyway, I did wash it, and thought about spinning it in its natural color. But just at that time, our black walnut trees were showering us with hundreds of mushy green/black spheres that were serving no purpose but to stain our shoes. I got the brilliant idea to dye the fleece with the black walnut hulls.

Now, I don't really like dyeing anything. It's too much like cooking, and my family will attest to the fact that, even after almost 27 years of marriage, I can't cook worth a hoot. Oh, occasionally I can whip out the giant artery-clogging breakfast of eggs, bacon, gravy, hash browns, etc. But I wouldn't have the faintest idea of what to do with a pot roast, and I've never successfully fried chicken. So anything that involves measuring, mixing, and timing is not on my Must-Do List.

BUT. Walnut dyeing is stupid simple. You break the green hulls off the walnuts (then crack open the walnuts to use for baking if you're a masochist and happen to like the flavor. "No" to both for me, thankyouverymuch.) Break the hulls up into a big pot of water and let them soak for, ohhh, like, however long you want, but before it starts turning moldy. Then you strain out the hulls, throw in the fleece and let it soak for, ohhh, however long you want. You can even warm the water first, or you can just set it in the hot sun and let Nature do its thing. Push the fleece around a bit so it dyes more or less evenly. Drain, rinse, repeat, let dry. Tadaaa! A gorgeous brown-with-gold-highlights fleece!

Wait, did I mention that you should wear rubber gloves during this entire procedure? Did I also mention that black walnut stain is pretty much permanent? Did I tell you how I know this? Could it be because my hands looked gangrenous for weeks afterward because I didn't use the aforementioned rubber gloves? Even when the worst of the dark stain wore off my skin, the crevices around my nails were still almost black. I looked like I'd been digging in the dirt and didn't bother to wash up afterward. 'Twas a bit embarrassing.

The fleece, however, was stunning. I wasn't up to carding it, so I sent it off to Kent and Jenny Ferguson at Ohio Valley Natural Fibers where they carded it for a terrifically reasonable price. I now have a giant box of six pounds of fleece (minus the little bit I've drafted and the tinier bit I've spun.)

It doesn't look too remarkable in the box, but I could hardly wait to start spinning this wool. I wanted it to be thicker that the yarn I usually spin, and I had to retrain my hands to pull out more fiber from the roving so I would get an even yarn at the thickness I wanted. I finally had a sample I liked, so I filled a couple of bobbins and plyed them.

Then I couldn't wait to see it knitted up, so I did a couple of swatches, and was thrilled with the soft scrunchy feel of the swatches. I haven't washed them yet, and I'll probably do a couple more on different needle sizes, but I just love how this wool is turning out. Note the tags on each swatch, showing needle size and wraps per inch. I told you I can be taught!

I wish the photos could show the slight gold sheen on the yarn and the swatches. I don't quite know where that comes from. Is it something about the color of the fleece, or is it a quality of the walnut stain? Whatever it is, it's beautiful.

So now I have about 5 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces left to spin. I'd better get cracking for a couple of reasons. One is that the incredibly-patient-with-the-spinning/knitting/quilting-rubble husband is getting sick of the giant cardboard box in our bedroom. The other reason, well, I'll save that for a later post. But here are a couple of clues: Ravelry and the badges at the upper right of the page. You can probably figure it out.

BTW, if anyone wants walnuts this fall, you know where you can get some. I don't have any plans for them this year!

Two More Finished (okay, I cheated a bit...)

Two more Finished Projects on Saturday! Ok, ok. Neither of them was on the First List, but they were both on the Second List! I'm not sure why it matters exactly, as long as I'm getting things finished. Though the angora blend yarn won't really be finished until it's knitted into something. I ended up with a little over 300 yards, so I have to look through my patterns for something appropriate. I would have liked to have done a shawl, but it's not enough. So I'm thinking about mitts instead.

I hope to have pictures up in the next day or two. I've tried doing pics myself, but I just don't have a clue about how to make them look good. So I need the semi-pro in the house to take them for me, after he gets done with work, grass-cutting, home repairs, and TV-watching. Meanwhile, here's a peek at my gorgeous peonies:
I did manage to take this photo myself, after about 15 tries. (Good thing it was a digital camera! What a waste of film otherwise.) This doesn't really do them justice. The entire shrub is covered with these blooms that look like scoops of vanilla ice cream, with a cherry on top (and the odd ant here and there.) They smell delicious too. The New Dawn roses on the front fence are about to pop soon. I can't wait to see them--one of the first things I planned when we bought this house four years ago was to cover the split-rail fence out front with pink climbing roses. It's taken a couple of years for them to get going, but the biggest one is absolutely packed with buds.

Coming soon: The Tale of the Walnut-Dyed Fleece, and Why Do I Keep Stitching When I Know It's WRONG?