Pictureless Progress

The vacation was nice. After two nights camping on the beach, we had all gotten our fill of the sand (Anyone else know the Sandra Boynton song that goes something like: "I've got the sand in my toes, the sand in my nose, the sand in my hair and the sand in my face. I think I've got the sand 'most everyplace" Yeah, we all felt about like that.) We took off looking for a new place to camp and we no longer have a tent. (Don't ask!) We spent the next couple nights in hotels, and I think by Sunday, while we had a lot of fun, we had all seen enough of each other for a while. I didn't get as much knitting done as I hoped.

But, this week, I finished another test knit for Barb and Kollage. I knit up a cute little one-skein bag, the yarn and pattern for which I received in a recent swap. And I did a little spinning too.

As the title for this post shows, I have no photos for you though, so it's just a boring list of my accomplishments.

I also need to photograph the labor of love - 4-ply cabled fingering weight yarn, made from Targhee. I worked on it for over five weeks, and now it's just sitting on the table, begging me to take pics so I can post them. It really wants to be loved now, after all the time it spent on my wheel.

So, maybe next post will have some yarn pr0n for you.

Whoot! We're headed to the beach for five days! CAMPING on the beach. I haven't been camping since the summer before S was born. (Remember that trip, Courtney and Carrie?) It's supposed to be in the 70s while we're there. That means that we get to escape the 105+ they're predicting for around here. I wonder how much knitting time I will get. I already know that I'm driving most of the 5 hours there, as J has to work. Hopefully that will be the end of the work while we're on vaca.

See you in a few days! I've been pretty cranky this week. Hopefully I'll be more relaxed and happy when we get back.

A few FOs

So one of my knit-night friends keeps dropping these not-so-subtle hints about seeing the finished socks. And since I've sent them to their new home already, pictures will have to do. While I'm at it, I decided to include a couple other recently finished projects too. Hopefully there is some fun eye candy for you here.

I'll start with the test-knits for Kollage Yarns (and Barb, the designer). I just finished two sets of fingerless gloves in 1/2 N 1/2, which is a half wool, half milk protein yarn. I adore this yarn - it is nice and soft, with great stitch definition. It feels fantastic on my hands! Forgive the self-photography. I'm getting better, but there are only so many angles you can get of your own hand.

These are her Petit Feather & Fan Fingerless Gloves. A quick, fun knit. And who doesn't love purple anyway?

Next are the Spiral Rib & Ruffles Fingerless Gloves. There is a funny story about these gloves. A while ago, I knit a pair of socks in this stitch pattern. Made a mental note to never make anything with this stitch pattern again. About a year later, I was leafing through my book, and decided on this stitch pattern, because it's so pretty. Made an actual note to myself in the book to never make anything with this stitch pattern again. So, along comes this test-knit, and I mentally groaned (OK, so maybe I actually groaned out loud hehe) to be, yet again, knitting this stitch pattern. I don't know if it was the yarn, or maybe the slightly larger needles (at least over what I used previously) but I didn't hate the stitch pattern this time. And I even kind of like the ruffle! It was a fun ruffle to make.

And now, the socks. These are Toe-Up Bayerische, which seems to have vanished shortly after I printed up the pattern. I even had a lot of issues getting to the original Bayerische pattern, by Eunny Jang, when I was looking for further information as I attempted to size up a bit. Boy am I glad I printed it all up when I did! I used Shibui Knits Sock yarn, in Chinese Red. These were fun, even though I just finished a twisted stitch cabled sock, and have another in the works. I guess I'm just a glutton, but these patterns are so PRETTY! This one was a little hard to fathom. My typical socks are 65-75, maybe 80 stitches. These were more like 100! And according to the pattern, were supposed to fit something like a 7 inch foot circumference. I think it fits more like an 8+ inch circ, but I was still amazed that 100 stitches at 9-10 spi pulled in to 8 inches! J nearly stole them, before I shipped them off to my swap partner in Minnesota.

adjusting is hard to do!

Yep, we're adjusting to life with a teenager. She definitely is more mature than last year, but still teenager, through and through. We're working on reinforcing that we have rules, and consequences for not following the rules. The one we're working on now is that everyone has chores. And that we don't ask you to do your chores, you are just expected to get them done. She told J last night that the dishes were done. Um, there is not a free surface in the kitchen, at what point did she think he would realize that was an out and out lie. We also found a dirty plate in the otherwise clean dishwasher this morning. Er, I think we forgot a step somewhere, hon. I get that we need to just let this go. I just am not sure how much more of it I can take!!! And anyone who knows me (SO not the queen of clean. About as far from it as you can get!) understands just how bad it must be for me to be itching to clean up my kitchen!!! He says to leave it. And not ask for her to do it. It's killing me!

On a happier note, with someone else "doing" the dishes, I've had a bit more knitting and spinning time. I'm nearly finished with the first of two test-knits, and still plugging away at that 4-ply Targhee from Time to Knit. I WILL have this done by Sock Summit! And I sure hope that it works out to the right yarn weight for socks!

Ten Years

Ten years ago today, there was a fantastic party. Two 24 year old kids stood up in front of a whole bunch of people in a church and made a bunch of promises to each other. Then a photographer took a bunch of pictures, everyone had a great meal, and they all celebrated together.

We're not kids anymore. And there are more than two of us. We kept our promises (for the most part - hehe, really who is perfection all the time? I think marriage was more work than either of us figured it would be.) And we still have a lot to celebrate! Happy Anniversary honey! Here's to many more decades of wedded bliss.

As promised . . .

Someone asked me to post some finished yarn pics. Some of these aren't going into my Ravelry stash, so they're going here. Enjoy the eye candy!

First up, Merino from HPY. Fruit Salad colorway. My bobbin filled, so I have a large and small 2-ply skein. I would guess this yarn is about dk weight. I measured the wpi at one point, but forgot to write it down.

Next is a Merino/Silk (70/30, I think) that I got from a friend's destash. I really liked spinning this one! I got about 400 yards (pre-finish) and I'd guess it's a fingering-ish weight. It's all wrapped up, so I'm not going to go measure wpi on it. Both skeins 2-plied. My bobbin just filled up fairly quickly, so I ended up putting about a quarter of it on a smaller skein.

This one is a BFL that I got in a swap. Linda dyed the top herself, and it was a fun one to spin. She did a good job dyeing, the top was not noticeably compacted or felted, so it spun like a dream. The big skein is 2-ply, the smaller is chain plied.

Enough

OK, enough with the whining being the last post on the blog. The blog is for venting sometimes, but it wigs me out to have that negative stuff stay on top for too long.

I'm working on motivation these days. Getting things done, no matter how small. Yeah, like unloading the dishwasher this morning. Right on that one (ha!) . . . Maybe this weekend we'll get the garages done! We just have to organize everything that's piled up in the small garage into the (now dry for three weeks) freshly painted garage. then we can have BOTH vehicles garaged! For the first time since the move. That will really feel good.

Hopefully somewhere this weekend, I will also get some spinning done. I'm working on my first alpaca (purchased from royal fibers on ebay). So far, it's going well. We'll see once it gets plied up and washed. I definitely made good progress on my goal this month. I started and finished 8 oz, plus a couple sample sizes, as well as at least half of this alpaca. Taught someone how to spin on their spindle at knit night this week too.

I'm knitting away on my swap socks. Just started the legs. It's a top-down pattern, but I'm using a translation to toe-up. Something got lost in the translation, and I ended up ripping a full inch out. That's a full inch on both socks, which are 90ish stitches each. Ugh. Oh well, they're working now, and looking beautiful, if I may say so myself! (J says so too. I'm not sure how I will get these out of the house!) Good thing I'm such a process knitter, because I could see myself getting attached to these. And you can bet I'm never knitting them again!!