Spinning Skillz! I Haz Them!

Ok, this is not a single. This is a three ply yarn, and I'm not stretching it. I'm just holding it straight across the dime for scale.

It's a Lincoln Merino Cross sent to me by a wonderful listener. Guess who needs another fleece now!



I don't even know yet what I'll do with this yarn yet. It's thinner than fingering weight even!

MUST HAVE MORE!

Grossness Alert!

But first - I have other stuff. I have no FO's, but everything except My Vivian has been coming right along. My Viv is just on hold for the mo. I like it though.

Soooooooo. .

1. I am on the fifth repeat of the Faux Russian Stole. that means I'm getting pretty close really since there are 5.5 repeats.

2. I have nine rows to go before I hit the heel flap on my first Oak Leaf Sock

3. In order to go to the new HP movie, I had to start a new sock with no chart. I had three projects going and they all had charts. Normally I try to avoid that, but i am not really normal right now. So I started a pair of plain, toe up, fleegle heel, Clowny Opal yarn lookin things. I'll show you when one is done. I just can't sit in a theater for 2.5 hours with nothing in my hands. It's kind of messed up really.

4. My poor viv is not moving.

I almost never have four projects going at once.

Ok, so here comes the grossness.

I have an unnatural level of anxiety. I don't know if it was learned or if its chemical, but I do know that it is not normal. I can only tell by watching other people, but I am sure. Other than that, I am pretty healthy and all.

I work on the anxiety in lots of ways. I knit and spin, I work on cognitive restructuring although that only works if you actually do it. Go figure. Sometimes I am still seriously overwhelmed by anxiety and it's not pretty. I try to act normal, and sometimes it kind of works. Well lots of times. I find that people are not that observant really.

Anyway, that's not the gross part. Here it comes.

There are only a few external things that help at all. The main one is:


This guy. (He's hot too right?) One of the reasons I knew I should marry him is because he has infinite patience and a wife with high anxiety tries that. Plus he looks mean right? I love that. He puts up with an enormous amount of crap, and I don't deserve him. Luckily I am not going to let that stop me from keeping him.

He's great! And did I mention I think he's hot? I'll post some photos of something done soon (i hope)

Because I said So

I said I would post a photo of my Faux Russian Stole today. Cookie said she was interested and seeing one and since it's really thanks to her that I'm even knitting it, i thought I oughta.

See, I had the book this Stole pattern was published in, but I would not have looked at it twice if it wasn't for the fact that she knitted a really beautiful one.

Yes, I knit with old aluminum straights. I think they are just as good as any other fancy needle. I like them. I have had people put them down, but they knit as well as any needle. An artist will create art with whatever's handy ya know? not that I'm an artist.

So I'm about halfway through the fourth repeat of the design (you gotta knit 5.5 repeats and then some edging you attach as you go. I guess it's almost time to pick a new lace project :(





I also finished ALL the singles for the sweater project I am working on for the Tour de Fleece. I even think I might have picked out a sweater to knit - more later.

Tomorrow I'll ply and be done! Woo hoo!

In Case of Emergency

Shake Ass



let's face it. I have no shame when it comes to music. No shame at all.

I'll show a picture of the Faux Russian Stole tomorrow

Not a photographer

My husband takes some really awesome photographs. The banner up there ^ for instance is one of his. It's just a bit north up the shore of Lake Michigan from where we live. Tomorrow, it will be three years since he asked me to marry him, and it's nearly five since our first date coming up next month. Where does the time go anyway?

He also took this


And this - plus a ton more of awesome shots


And although he has corrected my bad grilling habits, he has done nothing to correct my horrible photography skillz. I haven't either, because I'm just that lazy.

Oh well

This is the sweater I've been working on for a few weeks. It's Vivian by Ysolda Teague
I fully intend to make another later.

Of course the color is wrong. See above.

I also did spin up a sample of the fleece I've been prepping recently to give myself a break from the endless red spinning.


It was like butter. I am now pissed that I have to finish the red before diving into this gray. If only I were one of those people who can push a half finished project aside for a new love. Darn the fidelity anyway.

I also cast on for a new pair of socks. It's my last blank. I haven't felt like dyeing lately, but I suppose it's inevitable soon. Whether it's more blanks, or fiber, or just some new sock yarns.

the new socks are Oak Leaf Socks. I'm hoping the stripes on the blank don't interfere with the pattern too much. So far, they look ok, but I'm not really far enough down the leg for YOU to be able to see that.


Oh yeah, and I have gone quite a bit past the halfway point of my Faux Russian Stole too. I guess waiting so long to post has it's perks!

Saturday!

I realized earlier in the week that I had been so excited to start the Tour de Fleece, I forgot to post a photo of the yarn I finished right before.

It was 4 ounces of merino/bamboo in the colorway Pel Mel from Yarnhollow. This stuff was super easy to draft and spin. My 4 little ounces ended up being 1030 yards of a medium laceweight. I don't know what it will become yet. I did browse some patterns a bit. I think I'm leaning towards a rectangular stole right now. We'll see!



Seriously, if you like to spin lace, this stuff was out of this world.

Also, yesterday I had lunch with a friend who got socks for her birthday. (sorry about the blurry photo. You know how I suck)


Andddddddddd I did finish the Bitch Tweeds.



They did end up pretty, but I'm not keepin' 'em!

Getting Out

Yesterday, I gathered up my stuff so I could spin outside. It was a really beautiful day, and I thought I would spin in the sun. You see, we live in a subdivision that used to be really dense woods and is still really shady. Our backyard does not get sun at all, all day, no joke. We can't even grow grass on it.

Sooooooo I was spinning in my front yard (which is weird because you almost never see adults just hanging out in their front yards in this neighborhood. We are backyard folks. Anyway, When my neighbor got back from her day at the marina pool, she decided to walk over and see what I was doing. She was totally fascinated with it. Wouldn't it be fun if I got a neighbor interested and had a spinning friend right across the street?

(yes, it would).



I was listening to a book on my mp3 player and enjoying the mid 70 degree weather, the breeze and the sunshine. (plus the being outside when all the kids are inside thing)

I should also be finishing up the Bitch Tweed socks today. Hopefully a photo tomorrow.

Multiples - I mean POSTS

So OK, first of all. I apparently am answering questions now when I blog that are only in my head. I ended my last post with "I don't know". See in my head I was thinking - what the hell am I doing with this fleece?

Now, I've been spinning for Tour de Fleece. I missed Sunday because we were going down to see Number 1 and our granddaughter. Otherwise I have been doing my spinning every day. I think I mentioned it before. I took some red Shetland that I totally didn't like and blended it with some charcoal Jacob ewe lamb - and came up with enough fleece for a sweater AND I actually like it!

So far, I have about 550 yds of 3-ply (navajo) aran/heavy worsted + two bobbins of singles (approx another 250 yds once plied). PLUS about four or five batts to go. (the reason I don't actually know how many batts are left is because I am spinning a strip off a batt, then a strip off of another so as to further mix up the blending.

My son says the color is spot on, my husband says it's too watermelony.



Trying to fix red is too hard for my dumb photography skills.

Still crabby and so ready for a day off the diet drinking some martinis or somethin!

Laundry Was Caught Up

Honestly - it was. . . And you know what that means!!

I washed a fleece. Meet Laila! She is from a Jacob yearling. I had her sister's fleece last year (her lamb fleece though). This fleece is a real beauty! However, it was a skanky mess before I washed it.

Can you imagine how patient of a man I must be married to? He pulls up to his home and sees a couple of old towels stretched out on the lawn covered in this!



Um yeah, I know that is probably not Laila's best side. She's all jumbled up because I asked said husband to please bring her in. He is so obliging. He bundled her all up, and she got a bit jumbled, but whatevs! She's clean!

I don't know

Oh whew!

I don't want to post a spoiler, but geez. Does it mean you've never been loved if the lover hasn't slaughtered a whole bunch of people just to be with you?

I am embarrassed to say that i was pretty sure it was something like it turned out to be, and I was pretty sure that the accomplice was who it was but mainly because of CASTING which is kind of like a cheat and they totally could have tricked me that way.

Poor Trish
Poor Sully - I really did feel awful for him
Danny - well I didn't like Danny that much. It may have been the "in living colour" hairdo
Phew Jimmy

Even though I had an inkling of where they were going, I still thought it was BIG FAT FUN!!!!

Now I'm sad it's over though. I hope Dexter is starting soon.

Thou Shalt Not Ruin It for Me!

I am settling down to watch the last two episodes of Harper's Island in a few minutes. I have had it narrowed down to either Henry or Jimmy since episode four or so. Then Wakefield showed up, but he can't be doing all of it alone!

I have deliberately stayed off anything that might give it away, so now I'm going to go watch. I cried when Chloe jumped after Cal (and I don't do that too much anymore) so let's see where the end of this takes us, shall we?

Hermitty

I don't have any idea why, but I don't really feel like talking. Nothing in particular is wrong.

I decided to sell all my machine knitting stuff. I just never have quite gotten the hang anyway. I'm going to keep just one to knit up blanks with. I do like to dye me some blanks.

I'm nearly done with the first sock of my second SOS pair. yay me.

I'm about 2/3 done with the third bobbin of my first goal for Tour de Fleece (got that?). I have 11 batts to spin for this project. At first I really didn't like the singles which nearly stopped me spinning, but then I decided to ply and knit up a swatch. Sometimes I find I like the knitting more than I expect to, and turns out sometimes is now.



It's not actually that bright, but you know how hard I try with the photos (not very)and it's for a sweater. You may be wondering why it has six holes in it. It's because my memory sucks and I won't remember what size needle I used if I don't do that. I used a six ya see?

I have seen some really beautiful spinning at the Tour de Fleece group. Makes me feel inferior (which I sort of am. I mean I've only been spinning for just over a year and a half). Even if you don't want to spin, I recommend checking out the photo board in that group. Wow!

Hey for someone who didn't feel like talking, I sure had a lot to say.

Socks - Check!

Ok I finally finished Jack Sparrow's Favorite Socks. I don't like them, but my son does.

I hate afterthought heels. The don't fit our high instep feet right. I should have knit more like 15 rows before I started the stranded part, but ya live, ya learn, ya move on to a pair of socks that you don't hate!



Sooooooo, I went with Cookie's suggestion for the Harris Tweed socks and I'm glad. I hate combing my queue for a sock pattern that won't fight with a colorful yarn, and i get so bored when I'm knitting plain socks that I will pick up lace or cables and my poor socks go ignored.

Ya'll know I have an aversion to having more than one of each project type going right?

Here's the first cuff from the Harris Bitch Tweed Socks!



What do you all think? I can't really decide. I mean I like them, but will I wear socks this wild? Yeah probably.