Stash Dash 2014 Begins!

Not with a bang, as it were--an entire day of knitting. Quite the opposite; I don't think I got so much as a stitch done on Friday. Too busy with work (but much work progress! glee!)

Still, Saturday is my day off, so I spent the morning knitting on the Shipwreck Shawl that is my first major goal for the stash dash. I finally broke into the third ball and got started on the size 10 needles at about the same time. So I've... 20 or so rows to go. Of course there are some odd 400 stitches per row... so it's not quick going. But I am enjoying it again. The next question is, of course, whether I should endeavor to use up the whole third ball or if I should end the pattern where it tells me to end it.

We'll see how it looks when I get to the bindoff. I think I want to add beads to the bind off so I'll have to look into it.

Other than that, not much knitting has happened. I've had a few great evenings with friends that have taken up my non-work time.

Instead, I'm finishing up (nnnghaflkjakljfl) the First Paper and doing data reduction and programming and writing for the Second Paper and working on a fellowship application, wee. so, as always, work is keeping me busy.

Oh! but, a pretty yarn (or yarn-to-be) picture for ya'll. When I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool I got some crazy batts as a gift from a friend. These are Hobbledehoy Compost Batts, which are amazing and textured and crazy and beautiful. I can't wait to spin some art yarn out of these suckers. They're 2.5 ounces so I don't expect a lot of yardage but the texture and color are gonna make them POP.

I'll try to post some more MDSW pics at another time

Three days later and I already want to throw everything out the window

and cast on something completely new.

I recently went through my ravelry stash and sorted it into "will not part with" and "would part with, given sufficient or ample monetary incentive". I've sold $100 of yarn and traded at least as much for new, more exciting things. However, I still have 35 things left in my "trade or sale" tab, and I want them to go. since no one is interested in purchasing them I want to knit them all up. Of course that's 30 odd projects that'd be taking time away from the other things I want to knit... so I'm not doing it. but the urge to throw down these fingering weight, lacy shawls and pick up the neon worsted to make a Fuck Cancer hat is really high.

Still, I am gonna remain committed to the Stash Dash. It starts in 5 days, so that gives me that much time to cast on anything I want before it begins--afterwards, strict monogamy.

I do owe someone a knitted bunny, though, so I suppose I should make sure to cast that on first.

Stash Dash 2014 prep

The Knit Girllls are having their annual Stash Dash. It starts, this year, on May 23rd--a week from today! I'm always excited about this event because I love plotting and planning my own knitting--as you probably know by now.

This year they're doing the marathon style again, which means one joins with a goal of knitting 5000 meters (~5500 yards) from stash. Stash is stash as soon as it enters your home (so new purchases during the event also count). Spinning counts. Crocheting counts. Weaving counts. They usually count sewing as well but I always consider that a bit cheating since cloth yardage is not as directly related to effort put in. On the other hand, it's a cheating-friendly event so who cares? That is, it's open to as many people with as many passions as possible.

I am setting myself a couple of important rules.

First and foremost, I will only work on WIPs during the entire Stash Dash. There is no miracle on earth that will let me finish 12 WIPs in 3 months so I'm not precisely worried about it.

Secondly, I must finish Silver Sea. My sea silk WIP has been in progress for 2 years now. I am, it looks like, just about done with the beading (unless I add some to a further skein) so it's just k2tog YO on different needle sizes forever. I am almost done with my second skein. I have an entire third skein. I need to figure out if a) I want to add the third skein, [aii) if I do, do I want to use the Peridot or get another silver] b) if I do, how much of the third I want to add, c) if I do, whether or not I should add more beads, d) if I do, how I wish to add them. So it's got a bit of thinking going into it.

Thirdly, I must use current stash yarn. The only exception being my Trial Blanket and that's only because it's a test knit so I can't abandon it. I have so many possible projects--I do not need more stash. This includes halting my swapping on the Karma Yarn Swap board.

Fourthly, I will ply before spinning something new. I have been saving my single plys for almost a year, and I can't wait to see how they look when they're finished. I have my first 3 ply waiting! and another navajo ply, and several 2 plys... they're going to be lovely.

Now, I have a plan. Silver Sea will be 1300 yards when I'm done. If I finish my ~2/5 done Lightning on Quaker Ridge shawl, that'll be an additional 1700 yards (holding laceweight double was a really smart move). That's 3000 yards already! My goal is then to finish one of the other big projects--the trial blanket, the mock cornerstone blanket, the takoma sweater--and to ply my singles. That should be enough to hit the goal, and will also be personally quite satisfying.

Of course I have some cheater things lurking around. A hat that only needs ends woven in. Some slippers that just need to be sewn up. A colorwork cowl in bulky. If it begins to look like I will not make it, I may cast on something bulky just to power through it for the satisfaction.

Finally, I have to teach in July. sooooo that may take up a great deal of time :)

Whew

Presentation is over, and it went (decently) well. An entire day on pedagogy is also over, and it was also (fairly) useful.

It feels like Saturday, even though it's Wednesday. I'm having a hard time not tossing aside the day's work for playing with yarn, doing some planting, spinning up my new fiber haul, and reading. But these are joys that must be set aside for another day. I have a passel of bills to pay, new feedback on The Old Paper to work on, and a thousand and one ideas for The New Paper which is still in the frenetically researching stage. Next week I'm spending 4 hours a day prepping my class, so this is the big week to get things done.

Let me set a few goals today:

household: charge phone! call/text victoria/heather! pay all bills. Prep packages to be mailed, and mail them whilst picking up another package. order new tags for car. pick up more cat food and a trowel for planting (plus, maybe more dirt? yeah. more dirt. and a tomato support system). if time and desire, sweep kitchen and put away last batch of laundry. and clean cat litter. (sigh). do not purchase food but eat the food left in the house (plenty!). take out trash.

work: go through Aaron's edits for the paper. Calculate SFR surface density and include it in one of the tables. get more info on internal mechanisms/fueling of smbh, make sure the connection between lirgs-are-cool and here-are-fueling-mechs is clear (if it is). update references. clean up desktop.

work 2.0: re to differentiate between statistical analysis work for clustering and alternate clustering mechanisms. focus on one or the other, not both simultaneously. finish close-pairs program. create a better background estimator program or at least get one started. look up KS test and the other one (???). email K.H. and at least thank her for her help.

self: try not to panic.

Making Your Own

Hmm, just found this post saved in the drafts. I learned to spin in 2011, therefore it must have been written 2 years ago. here it is for your edification whilst I frantically finish a presentation.


I am a n00b spinner, a newbie, a novitiate. I got a drop spindle as a holiday gift in January and have been making little bumps of fibre into little bumps of yarn since then. I don't know if I'll ever be as into spinning as I am into knitting, but it is very interesting and transformative, and frankly the learning process of it is a lot more mechanical. That is, I am coming to understand in a very experimental, hands on way, what happens when I do X, Y, or Z with my spindle and with the yarn.

So this weekend I had a bit of time to myself (only a bit. Busy, busy. Actually I had to steal it from my potential sleep hours but it was worth it), and I spun.

I made another wee bit of yarn. I think this is 2 to 5 yards--really need to get a niddy noddy .It’s from a Lorna’s Laces sampler package from my LYS that cost only $5.50.

A couple of things for newb spinners that I learned from this one:
1) pre-spinning prep makes a big difference.
2) you want your prepped fibre to be as even as possible if you want an even yarn
3) Navajo plying is fun and relatively easy and requires spinning in the opposite direction of the singles

Things I still need to figure out:
1) This leader yarn thing. What type should I use? how much? how should it attach to the shaft? how do I attach the yarn to it for spinning? for plying? do I cut it off when I am done or leave it be?
2) how to not overspin the singles/keep them fluffy (worsted?), without having the spindle unspin them all or having the whole thing fall apart. This one was good practice, though, and has some non-razor-wire-like bits.
3) how to reattach the damned fiber if it’s become separated.
4) What to do when there are still more singles to be spun but the spindle is getting too heavy and they keep breaking; similarly when plying, how to ply if my singles fill the spindle and at halfway through plying them I therefore have a full spindle again?

Oddly enough this is my 4th or 5th bit of yarn (some of them an order of magnitude more than this) and the first one that’s truly unbalanced. Just a bit. I think I overplied it, or simply applied as much ply as I have before but the singles weren’t so overspun this time.

I'll try to snag some pictures--the webcam is really not sufficient.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival part 1

IT. WAS. AWESOME.