Thanks, Mom!!!

Posting from my brand-new HP Laptop that my mom bought me for my birthday (in June!) this afternoon. It is so cool and so NEW!! Shiny!!

Hope you're having as much fun as I am right now!

The Long Nightmare is Over!!!

[deleted by blog owner]

But it's still over, yay!

Well, you can kick me when I'm down...

But you can't take this away from me.

Last Sunday's Offertory music was a duet featuring Donald Caldwell, Baritone as Adam and me as Eve from Haydn's "The Creation."



Having some personal conflict issues (understatement) and a lot of worry. Stupid.

I need to focus on the good things, but first I just need to get some sleep. Or knit more. Or both!

Peace.

Basket, Drawer, Bin, Ziploc of Shame

Okay, Rainy is having a Finish-along and I'm in. We have to log our current unfinished objects and then try to finish as many as possible by the end of the year.

Here's my list:

1) Scoop du Jour-needs blocking, buttonbands.
2) October Frost-sleeve 1 almost done, but that's all.
3) OMG, Cul de Sac, I always forget that one.
4) Hypnosis socks
5) Hipply Ripply Retro socks from last year's Sock Madness
6) Must Have Cardigan
7) Wine and Roses mitts (one finished)
8) Handspun log cabin shawl
9) Handspun stripey socks-only need ends woven in, but there are thousands!
10) Tempest

That's enough, even if there are more I can't remember!

Of course, this whole idea does not include Sock Madness III (starts on Thursday) or anything else that gets cast on after today, but maybe, just maybe...

I'm absolutely sure I'll finish October Frost, Must Have Cardigan and Tempest. And Scoop du Jour is way too close to avoid much longer, especially now that the sun has come out again.

Went on a big frogging jag in January, so some of those are gone, too.

Anyway, there you go. Making a record of what ought to get done this year. We shall see.

Peace.

Life as a Balancing Act

No good deed goes unpunished?

When you close a door, God opens a window?

You say potato, I say potahto?

OTOH, although I have not taken ANY new pictures, I have been spinning and knitting up a storm. Too much to have time to take pictures!

Finished the singles of this month's Spunky Eclectic Corriedale, New Day: Doesn't it look like it will be brown? Well, some of it is, I guess, but it turns just the most gorgeous golden autumn colors in the singles. Plying that tomorrow. It's been quite a while since I spun up the Club fiber before the next installment but I have to keep on spinning because IT is almost here.

What is IT, you ask? Don't you know what time of year it is? No, not Daylight Savings Time. Not even Lent. Not report card time nor the rainy season.

No, it is almost time for...SOCK MADNESS!!!!!

Sock Madness III starts on Thursday!!!!!

The best part, honestly, is that the Ravelry group has picked up again and they are such a great bunch of knitters, I've missed them. But soon, very soon, there will be new socks in the drawer, new yarn on the needles, new pictures on the blog.

Meanwhile, I have reached the last chart repeat on sleeve 1 of October Frost (about 16 inches), yay! This sweater will be heavy, but gorgeous, IMO.

Off to have the last weekend for a while with no commitments other than church, yay! Next week we have choir retreat, lots of Girl Scout cookie boothing and T-ball. Tomorrow, however, is PAJAMA DAY!

Peace.

Lots and Lots and Lots of News!

Some of which must remain a mystery...but it's all good!

Even though I was sick and really, really busy with work of many varieties this week, THE YARN FOR THE SWEATER IS FINISHED!! Yes, 1560 yards of beautiful (to me, anyway), fluffy, squishy 3-ply goodness!!! My very first completely handspun sweater is on the way: Started with a sleeve, figuring if the gauge was really off, I wouldn't be so devastated to start over. Yes, I swatched. But as the Yarn Harlot says, swatches lie.

I'm so happy with this yarn, though. It's denser than it should be but I did my best and the cables really pop. It's soft and sturdy and I stop and pet it every few minutes.

Lessons learned:

Sampling is actually fun.
Did not go mad spinning undyed fiber for 7 weeks, amazing.
2 ounces a day is not out of the realm of possibility. Nor 3 ounces.
A Spinner's Control card is not perfect, but it is helpful.

Surely my spinning will improve enormously in the years ahead and someday I will see flaws in this project that I don't see now. But it will be a lovely sweater and fits in perfectly with the International Year of Natural Fiber, who knew!

Since finishing that (I still can't believe it!), I've started some spinning for Sock Madness III. Please understand that, although this is my third year, this year I have NO ambitions to get further than last year and in fact am not in a good place to be super competitive this time out. See super mystery news above. But I will try to stay in for a couple of rounds and try very hard to knit most of the rounds along with the people who are still in it. Hey, who couldn't use more socks? Or gifts? One of the hardest things lately has been NOT knitting any socks after finishing DD's blue socks on Thinking Day (still unphotographed).

Anyway, finishing up this Navajo plied superwash merino that won a Blue Ribbon at the L.A. County Fair in 2007: I have one more ounce of singles to go, hopefully today/tonight:

Then some quick and dirty 2-ply sock yarn from this month's Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club, Corriedale in New Day: Nothing fancy, just random 2-ply hoping to mix the colors.

Wish I could divulge the other news, really! But soon enough...

Peace.