o v e r b r e w e d

At least when it comes to knitting, that is.  I currently have 3 pairs of socks, 3 sweaters, 1 regular scarf, and 1 lace scarf on the needles.  Several of these are near completion.  One sweater only needs  15 more rows of garter stitch sleeve.  Yet, what have I been sitting here doing all morning?  Yup.  Looking for a new project.  I tried to defend this compulsion to myself by saying “but I just need something simple and mindless to work on at SnB!”,  but uh.  That doesn’t really hold up, even when I am rationalising to myself.  A garter stitch sleeve!  A sweater back that is  nothing but stockinette for another 13 inches!  Stockinette in the round for 4 inches, then 2 inches of 2×2 ribbing.  Self, it really doesn’t get more mindless than that.  Head, please introduce yourself to the desk, repeat until this fact sinks in.  Sigh.

I think part of the problem is the fact that I want new yarn, but Chris whines every time I buy new yarn without using something I have stashed first.  So then I go dig through my stash, find a single ball of insert whatever yumminess you like, then head to Ravelry to see what I can do with it.  And then, of course, I get sucked into the black hole of pattern browsing, forum reading, and queue building. Which, btw, I think I have cast on ONE single thing from my queue.  It’s an endless cycle, I swear.

And I haven’t even bought yarn for Christmas presents yet.  Yes, I am aware that I am going to be knitting 24/7 in order to get presents sent out on time.  No, this fact has not yet motivated me to get off my butt and get the yarn ordered.  I have more issues than just commitment, I know.

On the not sucky, awesome but scary, and uh, how did I get myself into this side of things, I’ve been asked to teach a drop spindle workshop at our library.  Uhm.  This is my own fault really.  I was talking to the director about knitting and that somehow turned into spinning.  I mentioned that I spin.  I did not mention that I am a mediocre spinner that doesn’t have the first clue how to teach someone else.  I think I thought (kinda hoped) she might forget about it.  However, she did not.  In fact, there was a Learn to Knit workshop at the library last weekend, which my knitting group attended in order to recruit more people, and she pretty much called me out and told everyone I was a spinner and that I would be teaching a workshop.  To make matters worse, I had to pick that day of all days to be knitting a hat out of my handspun, which, to someone just starting out, looks pretty impressive.  So.  Looks like I am stuck, and holycrapwhatdoIdonow.  Seriously.  I am not a teacher.  I don’t spin properly, I just do it and am generally happy with the result.  I mean, it would be awesome to get more people interested in the craft, i’m all for that.  But does the world really need a bunch of newbie spinners taught by someone that can’t even draft properly?  I still park and draft for Pete’s sake.  And what do I teach them to spin with?  CD spindles?  How much fiber for each person?  What kind of fiber?  Too much pressure, brain is going to explode now.

Enough whining!  Ok, on the completely awesome side of things, I will soon be an official indie dyer.  I’ve done a lot of math (blech!) and a lot of plotting, and Chris is convinced.  I’m going to start small…small investment, minimal amount of stock, just to make sure I like doing it full-time, and obviously seeing if my stuff will even sell.  I’m still ironing out details, but by the first of the year, possibly sooner, I will finally be selling some yarn.  Mostly sock and sport, since that seems to be what everyone wants, but i’m also planning some worsted to sell at the local Christmas festivals.  I’m ridiculously excited.

Oh dear.  I think i’ve blathered on enough.  I have more I could ramble about…FOs and dyeing, but i’ll save all that for another post on a sunnier day, so I can add some pictures.

First up? Cars. Last, oh…January or so (I have no real concept of time) Adrian, best friend of Chris, decided he wanted to enter the oh-so-classy world of demolition derby. Chris, being the good friend he is, got roped into helping him get his car ready. After an entire week(!) of working on this beauty, the “Stinkin’ Lincoln” was ready for its debut. It lasted 5 minutes and I had a frozen butt for 2 days.

The day after the derby, Adrian informed me that he and Chris were both going to be entering the next one. I told him no, they ignored me. As usual. So for the past few months everything has been cars, cars, cars. Cars on the weekend, cars during the work day, cars until after dark every. freaking. night. And now, this Saturday, I will be forced into having my eardrums blasted, my lungs assaulted, and quite possibly dying of heat stroke, all so the boys can have wrecks on purpose. I can’t even take knitting with me, because apparently i’m expected to man the video camera. Sob. All I can say is, Chris had better win some money and had better buy me a spinning wheel with some of it. I think I deserve it.
Next subject. I now know exactly what i’m going to look like once I stop dyeing my hair and it goes completely grey. It’s not pretty and I suspect I may turn into one of those obnoxious old ladies that dyes their hair completely unnatrual shades of red or black just so I never have to see it again. I know this because I had to dump baby powder on my head, because once again the water company is frakkin’ up the water lines and we have had no water pressure in 3 days which means my hair has not been washed in 5 and oh god I feel dirty. So now I smell like a clean baby butt and have enough static in my hair to power a small generator. At least it’s marginally clean-er, and it’s a damn good thing I straightened my hair before all this happened. I think I would have scared the cats if they had to see me with dirty Hermione bad hair day hair.

Now, on to the fiber! I won 3.5oz of silk hankies on ebay about 2 weeks ago, and finally got around to dyeing it this weekend. It sticks to everything, and took for-freakin-ever to soak up all the dye, but oh boy. This is fun and easy to spin, and so. shiny! I’m planning a 3-ply once i’m done with the singles…as fine as it’s spinning up I should still end up with a substantial amount of finished yarn.

Also, I dyed some sock yarn. I’m loving these colors (especially the mossy green!), even if the purple/teal was supposed to be cornflower blue. Stupid Wilton’s. Time to move on to grown-up dyes, I suppose.

Annnnd finally, a new hat. There are actually 2 hats, but my camera crapped out on me before I could take a picture of my Zeebee. No pattern on this one…just stockinette with some garter stitch and a pom-pom for the hell of it. I’ve lovingly named it Jelly Bean Explosion, because it looks like some kid ate too much easter candy and puked on the couch. It’s a fun hat though, and Chris said it suited me which i’m not entirely sure is a compliment. Whatever, I shall wear it with pride once our 2 days of cold weather hits again. The yarn is Lion Wool, hand-dyed by me with Easter egg dye. It was an experiment that I don’t think will be repeated anytime soon, at least not in those colors.

Umm. That’s it. I have to run out to Hobby Lobby and pick up some felt-able wool so I can make drink cozies that match the cars. The joys of being me, I tell you.

My shoulders are killing me. I guess that’s what I get for casting on for Wicked and refusing to stop until I finished the increases. Sheesh. I know I should probably give myself a break today, but I really want to finish this ASAP. I don’t know why…maybe it’s just the thought of finally having a sweater done and not leaving it to marinate in the WIP basket for half a year. I finished up the increases at around 11 last night night, pulled it off the needles and tried it on, and thanks to my mammoth chest, the freaking sleeves are about 4 inches too big. Lovely. I could rip back, do some math and fiddling and fix it, but no. No, No, No. I’ll worry about fiddling when I get to actually finishing the sleeves. I can already tell though, that i’m going to need to make the body a couple of inches longer…I hate short sweaters, and don’t want to spend all my time yanking on the hem trying to get it to sit right. Good thing I bought extra yarn!

Pattern: Wicked by Zephyr Style
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Cordovan (The most perfect heathery brown ever.)
Size: Ha. See above; re: fiddling.

Also! FOs!

Pattern: Two-Toned Ribbed Shrug from Fitted Knits
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Chocolate Brown and Gold (Woo! Stashbuster) 1 skein of each, no idea how I managed but I think the yardage is mislabeled…need to weigh the remaining skeins to see.
Size: 17″ with modifications…shorter sleeves, less ribbing.
Meh. It’s cute-ish. And functional. But. The yarn is, quite obviously, crap. I’ll make it again, but with better yarn and no mods. And probably all one color, so it will be a smidge more versatile.

Pattern: Cotton Baby Hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Bernat Cotton Tots in Berry, not even half a skein. (And another stashbuster, yay!)
Size: Toddler
Oh my gravy. This is one of the cutest, easiest baby hats ever. I love the nubbly, homemade appearance the cotton yarn gives the hat. I will definitely be making this again, once I find a source of mini-humans in need of cotton hats. And i’ll use the recommended yarn next time, because the colors are to die for and the hat is even cuter in solids.

When I ordered my Wicked yarn from Webs, a skein of Malabrigo in Brown Berries just accidentally fell into my cart. Oh. Oh. I see what the fuss is about. I’m currently alternating between wanting to find a project for the single skein and wanting to just unwind it and roll around in it. I don’t care that it’s a smidge pricey…for this level of soft i’m willing to fork out the dough for a sweater I will never, ever want to take off. Chris even wants a sweater made out of it, and he’s not a sweater person. I know what i’m doing for Christmas!

On the spinning front: UGH. How, how, how do you people make such smooth, squishy, wonderful yarns? I spun up 90-ish yards of the Texas Peach merino the other day to see how the colors spun up, plied it, and ended up with around 45 yards of nicely colored fingering-DK weight crap. I know it takes time. I know it takes practice. BUT. But. While i’m getting better at spinning finer yarns, the nubs, slubs, and fuzz continue to haunt me. I’m being ridiculously careful with my pre-drafting, and nothing seems to help. Honestly, the slubs don’t bother me quite as much as the fuzz, although I wish they would go away too. I can’t figure out if it’s something i’m doing when i’m drafting, or what. It’s driving me bonkers and I do not like it, no Sir. This is yet another one of those times when I really really hate living in the ass-end of nowhere, and can’t find anyone to show me what i’m doing wrong. Sigh. I wish (ha. wish in one hand…) I could find somewhere to rent a wheel, and see if the spindle itself is part of my problem, but well…ass-end of nowhere. I’m beginning to think mastering the squishy smooth yarn is not in my future. Hmph. (And sorry about the crap picture…camera batteries went pffft on me.)

Ravelry has eaten my brain, seriously.  I keep meaning to post here, but then I start playing over there, and well…you know how it goes.  Anywho.

Newly dyed roving!  This is destined for socks, either when I get over my fear of uneven spinning or when I talk Chris into buying a spinning wheel and out of his newfound desire to build  one for me, Junkyard Wars style.  Men.  Anyway, 4oz each, merino from Paradise Fibers, and omg soft.  The blue/purple one has no name, the peachy one is aptly named Texas Peach…i’m just so damn creative, y’all.  I used a combo of Wilton’s and easter egg dye, which kind of sucks because I really want to recreate both of these once I have the dye kitchen set up.  Also, my braiding skills?  Yeah.  I know.

New handspun!  I didn’t actually plan on spinning this, as it’s just a measly 1/2oz or so…I just wanted to see what would happen if I literally painted undiluted Wilton’s directly onto the roving.  It works, and gives super-super saturated colors, but it fuzzes the fiber up too much.  I was so happy with the resulting color though, so I spun it anyway.  Approximately 12WPI, 31 yards, colorway Indian Summer (because I will most definitely be trying to recreate it in a more wool friendly fashion).  I’m thinking I can manage to get a skinny, loosely knit headband out of it.  We shall see.

My Rainy Day socks are coming along nicely.  I would have already had this one finished, but Chris was watching Ready To Rumble last night and I had no desire to lose any more braincells, so played on Ravelry instead.  Shocking, I know.  I also got my copy of Charmed Knits in the mail.  Right now i’m kind of eh on it.  I love (most) of the new patterns, but it’s kind of disappointing that there are so many patterns in it that are freely available online.  I do think, however, that the House Elf hat and the Pumpkin hat are quite possibly the cutest things ever.  Where’s a mini-human in need of a hat when you need one?

Alright, I suppose thats it.  I should probably, you know, do some domestic-ish duties at some point…i’ve been neglecting the laundry and it’s starting to take on a life of it’s own.  If you don’t hear from me in a few days, i’ve probably been eaten by the hoards of dirty socks littering my bedroom floor.

Wow, apparently quitting my job lit a fire under me to get tons of things done, craft-wise.  I set up a temporary dye kitchen in the shop this weekend and happily played mad scientist while Chris did sawmill-ish things.  I finally got around to dyeing that Licorice twist yarn I bought ages ago…the handpainted reminds me of a great big striped Easter egg.  I’m not crazy about it, but I figure it will be suitable for mini-humans.  I also handpainted some superwash merino and the last of my Corriedale top.  I’m still in the midst of spinning both, but they refused to be left out of the picture.

Obviously, I was on a springy color kick.  The corriedale is being spun up as somewhat slubby exaggerated thick & thin single, the roving doesn’t really suit an even tightly spun plyed yarn.  The Merino is spinning up at around 8-12 WPI…i’m getting better!  I haven’t checked to see how much yardage I have on the thick & thin yet, but I have around 30 yards of the merino so far…i’ll probably end up with around 120-ish yards when i’m done spinning.

I also have some FOs; I finished the Calorimetry about an hour after my last post, and the Hufflepuff hat later that night.  No pictures yet though; I still need to block the hat and the Calorimetry would require me to put some makeup on and look generally presentable.

AND.  Be proud of me!  Even though i’ve been drooling over yarn almost non-stop, I haven’t ordered any.  I did, however, give in and order 2lbs of ecru merino from Paradise Fibers.  In my defense, I was paging through Spin to Knit trying to explain spinning wheels to Chris and I just happened to land on the pattern page for Forsythia.  Regardless of the fact that A.) I live in Texas and B.) It’s the middle of April and boil your blood weather is just around the corner, I decided I absolutely must. knit. now.  So in order to do that, I of course had to have some fiber to spin, and there you go.  At least I stopped myself before I added 10 tons of other stuff I really don’t need to my cart, right?

Just a quickie picture post before I plop down in front of the tv to work on ornaments.  The holiday cheer is out in full force this weekend…it pretty much hit me overnight as last week I was rather apathetic about the whole Christmas thing.  I have a feeling i’m going to drive Chris bananas before i’m done, heh.

First up, some newly dyed roving.  Wilton Icing Dyes + the dishwasher?  Love.  I like that I could pop them in the dishwasher and let it do its magic while I was out running errands.  This is all going to be ornaments, most likely in the form of felted balls.

Ah, my very first handspun.  It is absolutely horrid, but i’m going to work it into ornaments as well.  Eventually, i’m sure i’ll look back on it with something similar to fondness.

My first batch of kool-aid dyed sock yarn.   This was ridiculously fun to do…I set up a warp board so I could make it self striping then mixed kool-aid packets with wild abandon.  The colorway annoyed me at first, but now the neon eye-bleedingness of it is growing on me.  I can’t wait to knit it up, once I get all 500 yards untangled anyway.  Damn cat.

Speaking of the damn cat, here he is napping on the sock yarn after he tangled it up.  He loves wool more than catnip, and that’s saying a lot, considering he’s an absolute nip-junkie.

Sigh.  Apparently, my purse is his new bed.  If I leave it sitting on the bar for any amount of time, he crawls in and makes himself at home.  He’s a brat.