Thursday, September 6, 2018

and then it all went in a handbasket

It started off as a pretty productive knitting summer!

I finished Quicksilver, my Screamin Baby sweater, a small cat, and my night sky socks. I worked a bit on my clapoktus, and did a LOT of work on a brand new Find Your Fade in pinks.

And then I really got into my spinning. I spun and spun and finished the second bobbin by mid june. And then I spun, and spun, and spun, and spun some more, and the third bobbin was done. By halfway through July I still hadn't plied it. and in the meantime, a bunch of travel came up that was going to take me away from my wheel for THE ENTIRE MONTH OF AUGUST. plus five days of july.

I cracked down, put the knitting aside, and put in a couple of hours every night. By the 25th, when I was going to leave---I wasn't done.

so I had to put my wheel away and wait a whole month. Let me tell you, the first thing I did when I walked in the door was call out for my cat and pet her and the second thing I did was sit down on the couch and bring the wheel over! It took an additional week of plying and a lot of effort to cram it all on one bobbin but I finished it! it needs a soak and a block before I can finalize it, but my conservative estimate is it's 680 yards of a 3ply light fingering weight. WHOOOA!  no wonder it took so damn long to spin and ply--this has been in the works since february!

of course I immediately pulled it off the wheel and smacked on my next spin, a brightly colored fat and uneven rambouillet that I want to turn into hat and mittens. I get really impatient waiting to spin what I want to spin next!


(August wasn't entirely bereft of crafting--I finished 2 pairs of socks and a toddler pair as well to polish off one of the skeins.)

progress, progress, progress.

Now that I am back home, the rest of my summer plans look a bit silly. a whole new shawl, and the sweater/tunic? I was supposed to finish that as well as the spinning and the traveling?

oh well, much to knit, not enough time to do it all.

I got caught by the autumn bug and now I'm casting on fall-y witch-y mitts to wear when the weather gets chilly. Maybe with a bit of luck they'll get done before this halloween. And I started a halloween garland--knitted pumpkins, eyeballs, bats and hats. We'll see if I add any more little fiddly things to it this year.

as for all the other projects? psssh. who cares. new shiny things. A baby blanket. fresh socks. A new FYF in purple (I am however sane enough not to start that until the pink one is finished). And I want to knit about 40-hundred hats, too, all of a sudden.


Friday, May 18, 2018

Stash Dash 2018

Stash Dash is coming! It starts May 25th this year and ends... uhhhhh sometime in August. I never remember the ending date, I'm sure it'll be mentioned in another Knit Girllls episode later on.

What do I want to finish this summer?

1) spinning and plying the Muddled Brown Stuff
2) quicksilver
3) night sky socks
4) screamin baby sweater
5) another pair of socks
6) at least an additional 4 oz of fiber
7) clapoktus
8) the silver tunic

that last one is a real stretch cuz it's a huge garment, but it's a good goal.

I also intend to keep my 'new project a month' goal. What's on the list to start this summer?
-witchy mitts
-yellow shawl
-pair o socks
-more socks

busy bee me.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Busy bee

Life and work has kept me quite busy but I'm squeaking in a lot more knitting time in the evenings these days. Or the mornings, before I drive up to work.

Lately the kick has been newborn/baby hats. Why? I don't know. I guess I know a couple of people cooking up offspring, but I usually don't knit these little hats because they can't be used for very long.

I guess it's just a matter of what yarn is in front of me, and what needles, and what I feel like. I'm on my fifth.

Actually it's a very hatty mood around here, because in December I knitted 5 hats and I did 2 in January. So that's probably the reason. Suddenly, hats.

I've a few shawls on the needles as well, concurrent with my 2018 plan. Actually the plan is going pretty well! I've completed a pair of socks from the list, have 2 handspun things on the needles from the list, finished the momcho, finished the hurricane socks too. And I'm working on my second spinning project of the year--though it is slow going.

Webcam is failing me so I'm afraid we're out of pictures today

Sunday, December 31, 2017

New Year, New Plans

Ah, my favorite time of year for knitting--the time to plan and plot and figure out all the new things I want to do and work on! A friend calls this fantasy knitting--you know, knitting in your dreams. I may like it even more than IRL knitting, since there's no dropped stitches or sore wrists.

It's been a crafty few weeks. I finished a bunch of hats and I am working on a poncho that has had some good progress done upon it. But I am taking a break for a few days to get work done and do other things, and maybe make sure my wrists stay in good condition. They were a little achy and they are very important.

It is FUCKING COLD HERE. 25 below zero I am not joking. Can't wait to go back to the east coast, and then Puerto Rico where I belong.

My grand 2018 plan hinges on sock knitting. I thiiink I have about 35 pairs of socks waiting for me to knit them. This is down from the 45 or so pairs I thought I had over the last few years (possibly only due to miscount, but shush. let me dream). So if I can get some serious sock knitting done in 2018 I can break the back of that overwhelming chunk of my stash, and also get to use some goodies I've really been waiting on. I just want to give all those pretty yarns I have a chance to get used, and some of them are so buried under everyone else that they're off the radar, you know? and I want a shorter time period between purchase and use, I guess. Whatever. my stash makes me itchy. therefore, reduce and use. And saving money can't hurt either.

I am also going to work on spinning this year. Maybe I can manage that 15 minutes a day thing. I really want a chance to play with some of my fibers, so I'm hoping I can knit up some of my stashed handspun as well. I made three hats this past December out of handspun stash and found it really nice to work with. I am planning as an exemption, if I spin up 4 braids (16oz, one lb) of fiber, I can buy another one. That's usually only 1 or 2 spinning projects (maybe I should lower it to 3 braids... there are a lot of pretties out there I want to get!) so it is feasible. But I don't want to stockpile too much fiber--there'll be plenty of time to buy more of it when I want to spin it, and it would be nice to not have to move as many bins.  Anyway, I'll do this as part of Completely Twisted and Arbitrary's Spin the Bin along thing

Specific plans:

1. Wisdom socks
2. van gogh socks
3. pink find-your-fade like project
4. fortissima socka socks
5. regia jupiter socks
6. kaffe fassett socks
7. witchy mitts and hat out of rowan felted tweed from 4 years ago :P
8. do something with that shibui sock in bright red
9. purple handspun (cowl?)
10. red handspun (mitts?)
11. cheerful play handspun (shawl?)
12. stripey leftover sock yarn blanket for kenny's bed xD

now that is a good list of goals, right? one for each month.

if only it were that straightforward. Instead, I have WIPs and hibernating UFOs.

wips I want to finish:
1. the momcho. It has had good progress so I don't want to lose momentum
2. the silvery tunic. I want to use it before I leave the island! so I need to cast on the second half ASAP
3. the current pair of hurricane socks
4. weaving in the ends on the blanket. I bet with a good effort I could... find it. and work on it. and finish it in 2018. that would be REALLY nice
5. Silver Fruit. Stupid crochet doily. I should probably toss it. It was fun to work on but the yarn is not used up and I do not CARE about it at all. Although is a nice yarn to use up somehow with crochet... and it isn't much available any more. but I only have the one ball. it's not going to become anything I want. and I don't USE or WANT doilies. I just wanted my hands to be busy and to get into the crochet lace book I got at the antique store.
6. Madli's Revolution. I hate laceweight, I hate fiddly knits, and I really hate nupps. This shawl is suffering from all of those things, and remains untouched. Perhaps I should rip it out and knit a huge red square instead. that I might actually wear
7. the cat mittens. Maybe I should just let myself knit the second one for fun. they might fit *somebody*. I bet my gauge'll be different. and I won't make this second one into a convertible mitt, thus making it damned hard to finish/improvise.

... wow I might be able to finish 2018 with NO hibernating objects! or none of the ones that have been hibernating for years. we'll see, don't get too excited. I also want to force myself to finish spinning the silk hankies that are on my spindle. Maybe not so thin :P lumpy thick would be perhaps better than infinitisimally skinny laceweight.

*sigh* so much to do , so little time.

Friday, December 1, 2017

*shniff*

I am a little sick.

also I can't get the chorus from 'Why Can't We Be Friends?' out of my head.

here's a hint, the chorus is 'why can't we be friends?' over and over.

Monday, November 13, 2017

visiting the mainland

I'm in Virginia, visiting the mainland and relaxing for a month or so. I'll be back at the end of November.

Lots of work is happening, writing on a couple of papers and several graphs in progress. It feels slow but that's just how things go.

I spun a couple of braids up during the hurricane. Knitted a bit of a pair of socks --too hot, though, to knit much.

and then when I got here I fell down at my old LYS and bought a bunch of yarn. With a little luck maybe I'll use it up before I leave? I also finished half of a t-shirt I've been knitting (the front and back are knit separately) so there's some major progress there. But I bought yarn for a dog sweater and a shawl. and I've started both of them. New shiny things are new, and shiny.

also still working on my stripey socks.


Tuesday, September 12, 2017

electricity is back

the power is back! so I went home, with the cats.

water is still restricted to tank water, which should refill as it rains. hopefully the mains will come back at some point (since I really haven't the faintest idea what to do if they don't).

my house is a disaster. not from the storm, but from me moving lots of things around to make space for the furniture I dragged in from the balcony and garage, and from trying to get things away from windows in case of leaks. there was only a small damp spot by one window (the northeast-iest window), so no problem there. But it comes to my attention that I haven't swept or dusted in quite some time, and the house very much feels grubby.

If I could I would take a day off to try to get my life back together, but I've got a proposal for telescope time to finish writing, soooo I'm at work. trying to write, to fix things, to make my time requests seem reasonable.

it feels a bit like trying to hammer in a nail using only my skull.