Wheel surgery

A few weeks ago I made a wee list of Holiday Crafting Goals (TM). I got everything set up to whip through my Christmas gifts in record time, got a few done, and promptly turned around a began spinning up a sweater lot of Hello Yarn fiber (Dark and Stormy Shetland, so glorious!). Predictably enough, the Holiday Gift Gods saw my hubris, and decided that it was time to give me a swift kick in the ass, because there I was, happily treadling along, when suddenly, I wasn't...

I don't know if you can see so well in that photo, but my footman and my treadle are no longer connected,

which means no more spinning!

I'll admit, a few tears were shed. And then a bit of money was spent on replacement parts from the lovely Morgaine at Carolina Homespun. After some back and forth about where to ship the parts, they were sent out, and arrived here in London yesterday*.

So this evening, feeling flush about having finished the overseas Christmas New Year's presents yesterday, I took the wheel into Himself's lair for some surgery.

Taking out the first bit of the broken connector was straightforward, involving one screw driver. Then things got a bit more complicated: the second end of the connector is held in place by a screw with a square hole in it.

No problem, thought I, and I pulled out the drawer of small wrenches for all sorts of things.

Apparently I need to rename this "The Drawer of Small Wrenches for All Sorts of Things that Need Hexagonal Wrenches".

No problem, I thought again, I live with a man who has more hand tools then I have skeins of yarn (no joke!). Surely there is something in this garage that will work. Some pawing through another few drawers and, ta da!

A square headed screw driver type-thingie! That is too big...le sigh.

Ok, I needed to bust out the big guns - time for the power tools:

Not one, but two square drivers. One the same size as the above screw driver, and one bigger. Bugger.

Now I am trapped at the point of having a half-way repaired wheel, with a spinning lesson tomorrow morning at 10:30 am, and no way to unscrew this damned teensy screw. The Holiday Crafting Gods are not to be messed with people, not to be messed with...

So I'm going to go drown my sorrows in Peter Pan pantomime (with The Fonz!!!), and see if I can't puzzle this out later. Or maybe just get Himself to do it - I'm sure he can come up with something, right?

* It should be noted that Morgaine sent them out immediately, the delay came from the fact that they went to Houston, then to Himself's office mailroom, and then to Himself (and, by extension, me).

Planning

Because it's always a good plan to start your holiday crafting plans on 18th November, right? Here we go:

We'll start with the fastest first - weaving
one table runner
three wash clothes
set of dish towels
four scarves

Next fastest - crochet
2 scarves
1 cowl

Slowest - knitting
one pair of adult socks
one adult hat
four child hats
one child mittens
one child fingerless mitts
two baby sweaters -- already DONE

Oh dear...

Instead of what I'm supposed to be doing

I've got a couple of samples for pattern releases that desperately need to be knit. However, somehow all my yarn and needles and whatnot ended up in the bag with my spinning wheel after the Small Wool Gathering, which got transported to Basingstoke so that we could fit a fourth person plus luggage in the car on the way back to London. So...instead of working on knitting that needs to be done ASAP, I've been enjoying doing other thing.

Things like a little shawl sample for Allison out of Sweet Georgia CashSilk Lace (quite possibly the most gorgeous yarn in the world, just FYI).

I was also very eager to jump into a new sweater project for me - a few weeks back, Knit Edge 4 came out, with the fabulous Ruth Garcia-Alcantud on the cover in her newest gorgeous sweater design, Automne. I'm usually pretty good about not buying yarn on a whim, but I have to knit this sweater. Immediately. My mother had given me some money for my birthday, which I promptly dropped on a sweater's worth of Berroco Ultra Alpaca in a dark green. It arrived with my parents the week before SWG, and when I got back I started to swatch.

Here's where things went wrong: the yarn that Ruth used is very weird in terms of grist (i.e. how many yards there are in a pound). She used Cephalopod Yarns Beastie, which is listed as aran weight, but comes in at a chunky 140 yds/100 g. And the pattern calls for 3.25 sts per inch on US 10.5/6.5 mm needles. Ultra Alpaca is 215 yds/100 g. Somehow I didn't notice the vast discrepancy in grist when I was in the throes of my MUSTBUYYARNNOW!!! fit (bad spinner! No new sweater!). In any case, there was nothing else to do but swatch. So I did.

I was hoping that blocking would cause the alpaca to bloom, but sadly it didn't work out that way. My stitch gauge is spot on but the fabric is really thin and flimsy - not what I want for a sweater-coaty type thing. Bah!

The following days saw much searching of yarn databases and looking for more appropriate substitutes. Sunday saw a trip to John Lewis for my mother to get some yarn for a new sweater for her, and I grabbed a ball of Debbie Bliss Rialto Chunky to swatch with - at 66 yds/50 gr it is much closer to the yarn used in the original.

Much, much, much, much better. Still drapey, but much more substantial. But I'm not buying 24 balls of DB yarn at £6 a pop because, you know, my husband would divorce me. After several more days of searching and banging my head against the computer screen I finally pulled the trigger on a sweater lot of Elann Highland Chunky (76 yds/50 g) in Spiced Wine. Sadly, shipping to the UK was almost as much as the price of the yarn, so it's going to Maine and I will have to wait (sob!) to knit my gorgeous new sweater until after I go back to my parents' house. Which is likely to be next August (woe!).

So. Now I have a sweaters worth of dark green yarn to figure out what to do with . Therefore, I have been swatching...

This is only the first swatch. I've got about 7 more stitch patterns to go. I do not think this is going to be done by November. And I get all my deadline knitting back tomorrow. Guess I'd better keep swatching!

My inner Yankee is curled up in a ball in the corner of a dark room, whimpering

As the days hurtle by towards 21 September, Allison and I have been spending a lot of time trying to pull together some cool schwag for those brave folks who will be joining us on the Great London Yarn Crawl. And as she is currently on the North American continent, much of the recent outreach for donations over the past week has fallen to me.

This is, quite possibly, my worst nightmare. Ask people for things? People I don't know? You mean, send them an email completely out of the blue asking them to give me, some faceless Internet stranger, something for free? It gives me heart palpitations just thinking about it. This is so far outside my comfort zone, that I have managed to procrastinate for a surprising amount of time on some of these emails, only to be goaded on by Alli sending messages saying "Have you heard back from So-and-so yet?"

But here's the very cool thing I'm finding: for the most part, people are happy to help out, and very often quite pleased to be asked. It's such a lovely surprise to email one of my super-dooper fan-girl knitware designer crushes and have her agree to send us a signed book for a door prize. It's fantastic to email a local designer and have her offer to give us pattern coupons for the goody bags AND donate a pattern for a door prize. It's a serious thrill to see people getting excited about the event.

All of this is balm to my wounded knitter/dyer psyche because I've had a bit of a set back on that front of late. I've been working on a sweater, using some lovely Green Mountain Spinnery sock yarn I dyed a while back. At the time, I was paranoid about dyelots, so I did all the skeins at the same time, and felt pretty confident that I'd managed to get them close enough.

Except, well, no:


And in case it isn't glaringly obvious from that shot:


Excuse my French, but fuck me. And having slogged though the entire stockinette back of this project, my enthusiasm for ripping out and alternating rows to blend the yarns, or trying one of the other skeins to see if it works better is non-existent. This puppy is going on the naughty step for the forseeable future, and I'm starting something new. Something reasonable. Like a lace shawl...

Action plan

This blog is about to become an all-spinning, all-the-time zone, and for those of you with absolutely no interest in yarn making, I apologize! But Saturday is the first stage of the this year's edition of the Tour de France. Which also means that Saturday is the start of my favoritist -along of all time: the Tour de Fleece.

I've been participating in the Tour de Fleece since 2010, and each year I try to set some goals. In 2010, I had a list of fibers I wanted to spin. In 2011, my goal was to spin more fiber (measured by weight) then in 2010. Last year my output was somewhat hampered by the fact that I spent a week actually in the Pyrenees doing spinning of a different sort, so my trend of increasing weight of fiber spun came to a crashing halt.

This year I have again come up with some goals for the Tour de Fleece, and in the interests of accountability, here they are:

1) For Team Hello Yarn/Southern Cross Fibre/Spunky Eclectic, my plan is to spin up my Winter Storage Finn (of which I have 1.25 lbs...)

into 6x100 yd skeins of single colored yarns for Brenda's Now in a Minute shawl.

I will also (for variation and instant gratification amongst the other goals) spin up some more of my Amy stash. Maybe some Shetland in Tundra?

Or this BFL? (The name of the colorway escapes me at the moment...)


2) For my other team, Team Craftlit: spin up my "black"* Shetland fleece into a 3-ply sweater yarn.

All of the fleece is washed, and last night I drove two hours round trip (and a grand total of 40 miles - thanks London!) to borrow a drum carder. And then I stayed up until midnight playing around with said carder, giving me a lovely sleep-deprived day, but that's a different problem**.

I split the fleece into two main colors before washing - black and grey/brown. Probably a third of the fleece was black, and I'm about one third of the way through the first pass on the grey/brown, so this isn't going to be an early player in the Tour for me this year. I still need to decide whether I'm going to keep the colors separate or blend them together. Initially I wanted to keep them separate, but now I'm thinking that I'll need the yardage I'll get from combining them. Hmmm...

3) also for Team Craftlit: some silk top on my new spindle, as a running around, mobile project.



So that's it. Hah. Clearly last year's raw fleece failure experiment wasn't enough to deter me from doing it again this year. Or maybe I've just blocked it out...the drum carder should make things move quite a bit faster then the hand cards.

I hope.

Anyone else have truly ludicrous goals for the Tour de Fleece this year? Or am I the only insane one out here?

* I say "black" because after carding a bunch of it, it's really more of a dark, dark brown/grey mix.
** My other problem is that now I want to get the white fleece washed up so I can get it carded as well before I have to give the carder back - aargh!

No more secrets

If you follow me or Allison on Twitter, you might have noticed a very special retweet that popped up on Saturday.

We can now finally reveal The Sooper Sekrit Project we've been alluding to off and on for the past few months. Presenting:

YARN IN THE CITY: THE GREAT LONDON YARN CRAWL

There is some debate about who should take the credit and/or blame for our embarking on organizing this event. Allison swears it was my idea, but that is certainly not how I remember it...to be fair, I don't exactly remember the conversation that took place too specifically (I think it was on the train on the way back from Wales last autumn - I can only claim exhaustion/wool-fume-and-cider-hangover). In any event, six plus months and a lot of research and work onward, and here we are.

On Saturday, the 21st of September, 2013, six intrepid teams will take to the streets (and buses and trains and Tube) of London on a quest to visit four yarn shops over the course of the day (thereby dramatically enhancing their stashes). We are in the process of finalizing the details of the shops and the routes, so stay tuned for more info. You can either check the website, our Facebook page, our Ravelry group or follow us on Twitter as @GLYC. If you are in London, or can get to London, and want to come hang out with a gang of like-minded yarn fanatics for the day, keep your web-ears tuned for further announcements and updates over the next few weeks. We hope to see you in September!

One step forward, two steps back

Fresh off the high of finishing my Whisper Cardigan last week (pictures and post to follow as soon as I get some photos taken), I decided to tackle another UFO lurking next to my couch. This time: my  handspun Stasis Pullover, aka my P3 Today's (not)Sweater.

When last discussed on the blog, I had just come to terms with the fact that my swatch lied to me I didn't swatch properly, and had ripped out the four inches of sweater that I had to start over again with my new gauge and numbers from a smaller size. I managed to get most of the way through the waist decreases on the new version, which then sat in a crumpled pile for about 6 months. Last night I picked it up again, determined to get some good progress made. Then I realised (after referencing my spreadsheet that I was supposed to follow for both stitch AND row counts) that I had completely f-d up the waist decreases. Given my much-larger-then-called for row gauge, I was supposed to decrease every 8 rows. I had managed to ignore that directive entirely and go with the every 18 row decrease spacing called for in the pattern. Fabulous.

So I pulled the body off the needles to rip back to 8 rows about the first set of decreases so I could get them sorted out. And as it was lying in my lap, I had a sudden, terrifying thought: "You know, this looks kind of big..."

So I pulled out my trusty tape measure and checked. Several times. And discovered, in fact, not only was it "kind of big", my spreadsheet-calculated with-my-gauge measurement of 42 inches was actually...(wait for it)...46 inches. W.T.everloving.F!!!????!!!

Now here's the kicker - my gauge is still 6 sts/inch, but the sweater is coming out 4 inches too big. Either I cast on some bastardized number of stitches, or gremlins are coming and stretching my sweater out when I sleep. After much wringing of hands, gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair, I ripped out again, cast on the number of stitches for the size 37, and got most of the way through the ribbing.

This morning, on the train, I realized that I cast on the number of the stitches for the body (240) not the number of stitches required for the ribbing (228).

I am beginning to think that this sweater is cursed. Truly, truly cursed. And I'm not sure it will be finished by October and the next installation of P3/Today's sweater.

But it will make a good story...;-)

Monday random bits

1. I have knitting that I can not share. Knitting in custom-dyed indie yarn even. The trick of alternating between two balls of yarn is working out really well in taking care of dye lot variations (which are quite dramatic). But that's all I can tell you at the moment...

2. I have another secret project, only this one is crochet. And it's a baby present. So no pictures at all, for the time being. Suffice to say that a) I had to buy yarn for this one and b) it's cotton yarn (I may now be convinced that cotton yarn is only good for crochet, by the by...) Both of my daughters have asked for the same item, only in wool. Hmmm...

3. Last week's freezing temperatures and snow may have led me to the "inescapable" conclusion that I needed to make the girls new hats and mittens. With hedgehogs (their request). Which meant I had to get some yarn on Friday when out doing "market research" with Alli. The fact that it is now 7 degrees C out has sapped my will to knit mittens and hats. Ehem. Move along here, nothing to see.

4. My Dirty Porridge yarn is now happily dry and ready to be measured and assessed. However, I have not yet managed to collect it from the towel rack in the downstairs bathroom and make such measurements, nor have I managed to collect the other 8 skeins of yarn that have been hanging over the shower head since early December. Knitter/spinner fail.

5. I am a bit concerned that I'm going to be stuck in the middle of a big thing at work and be extremely late to meet Devil's bus after school. Oy! FWP for the win on a (finally!) sunny Monday.

Goals for 2013

Happy New Year everyone! We have finally made it back from our whirlwind tour of the Eastern Seaboard in winter, and I can attest to the fact that the Gulf Stream is alive and well and keeping the UK balmy (as evidenced by the fact that we woke up in Maine yesterday it was 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and when we landed in London this morning it was 10 degrees Celsius...). I had a lovely holiday, full of family and friends and food and lots and lots of sitting around knitting, reading books and drinking coffee. Now, I'm in the throes of jetlag and while it's getting on towards 10 pm here in London, my body thinks it's just about cocktail time and maybe I should grab a glass of wine or something. Bah!

So I have an ongoing list of knitting goals that are slowly taking shape in my mind, and now seems as good a time as any to start getting them down on (virtual) paper.

1. I have a group of four sweater designs floating around in my head, loosely grouped around the points of the compass, and inspired by four places in Great Britain. Three of these are cabled (dear God!) and one is inspired by a Penny Straker gansey I knit when I was in college. I have the yarn for all four, and I just need to sit down and get going on them. I'm leaning towards self-publishing these as a collection in the fall, which is going to mean cracking down and getting my butt in gear on the knitting. Because, as we all know, cables are so fast to work...
2. I have a shawl design to submit to Knitty for their fall issue - if it isn't accepted, it will become one of four shawl designs also inspired by the UK. I've got one of the others nailed down, and will need to dream up a couple more. These babies won't be finished until next year I'm thinking...
3. Stripey sportweight sweater, probably also for Knitty First Fall.
4. Spin and knit a couple of sweaters from the sweater lots of Hello Yarn fiber taking up valuable stash space. I've started on one of the sweater lots, and I know the sweater I'm going to knit with one of the others, but haven't started the spinning on that one yet.
5. More weaving.

Hmmm...seems like a lot of designing, doesn't it? If I'm being completely honest, there's two more shawl designs and a couple of other accessory type ideas floating around my head, so that would extend the list. I'm feeling like I need to get a massive whiteboard to hang in my office, just to keep all these things straight. It would probably also be a grand help if I managed to get my ideas a bit more in tune with the submission schedules of various magazines, but that remains a long-term goal.

What about you? Do you make resolutions or goals for the new year for your knitting? Or your spinning? Or just life in general? I find I'm really good at making lists and putting things down on paper with the best of intentions. But then the paper gets buried under something else, and I forget about the general plan, or I loose focus and get distracted by something else. So this year, I think that my goals can be narrowed down to "Follow Through". I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes.

Preparations

In a little over one week, I will be hopping on a train and heading off to the wilds of West Wales for a weekend with about 30 other knitters, headed up by the lovely Brenda Dayne and the fabulous Amy Singer. To say that I'm getting excited would be a bit of an understatement, although the jury is still out on whether I'm more excited to be hanging around with other fiber people or escaping from my everyday life for a while...

In any event, it's getting on towards the time when I have to decide what I'm going to bring to this event. My mental list is enough to qualify for steamer trunks and Sherpas to get it all to Pembrokeshire. Since there is just me, I'm going to have to cut it down a bit, but honestly: how many clothes am I really going to need? (Correct answer: not many - is it ok if I wear the same shirt for four days?)

We have been instructed that we don't need to bring any yarn - there will be goody bags with everything we might require (squee!), or we can buy stuff at the small but fabulous marketplace that will be set up - danger Will Robinson! But if there's something in particular we want to bring, we can.  I do need to bring needles. And some stitch dictionaries. Needles and stitch dictionaries I have in abundance, so there's a good third of the suitcase gone already.

My big question to myself is: do I want to bring my new toy? I am waffling back and forth...I could bring it with me, but am I really going to want to spin? There's going to be so much knitting going on...on the other hand, spinning is a pretty good mindless thing to do while chatting with everyone, so it might work out ok. Hmmmm...I had coffee with a fellow P3-er this morning, who said I should bring it just because loads of people might want to try it out. Maybe Kevin Hansen will consider giving me a commission on new business?

Decisions, decisions. I suppose it will all get sorted out by next Friday, but I'm pretty sure that I will be the only attendee who presents a bag of skeined yarn and a printed out pattern for Today's Sweater.

Double whammy

So, there are a couple of big events coming up in the wooly world, and I'm trying to come up with a plan of attack/list of goals that will not result in me either A) spending copious nighttime hours spinning and/or knitting or B) having a nervous breakdown as I try to spin and knit and move house right in the middle of it all.

Up first is my favoritest wool-along ever, the Tour de Fleece. It combines spinning of the fiber variety with spinning of the cycling variety. Spinners set themselves a challenge, i.e. to spin four miles of laceweight cashemere on a Country Craftsman (!), and spend the duration of the Tour de France (30 June - 22 July) trying to meet that challenge. Last year, I spun up 2425 yds/51.3 oz of fiber. In 2012, I spun up 2420 yds/39.4 oz*. You can perhaps see the trend in the weights? So initially (that would be back in August of last year), I thought I'd aim for continuing that trend - could I spin up 60 oz in 3 weeks?

The second event is, of course, the Ravelympics. Knitters choose a challenging project, cast on during the Opening Ceremonies (27 July) and try to finish before the Closing Ceremonies (12 August). The first time I tried this was in 2006, when it was run by the Yarn Harlot from her blog, and called the Knitting Olympics. My challenge was Adamas, my first ever real lace project. Didn't manage to finish. The second time around (2008) it was the Summer Games, and somehow that didn't quite work for me (oh yeah, summertime in Houston = no knitting! Too damn hot!) In 2010, I boldly ventured into Ivy League Vest territory, and yet again managed to not finish within the allotted time.

Given that 1) we moving in July, and Himself and I are bailing out for a week to go chase some guys in spandex through the mountains, 2) I have a tendency to FAIL at the whole Knitting Olympics thingie anyway, 3) I will actually be going to Olympic events (hooray!) and 4) did I mention we're moving? By which I mean some lovely gents will come, pack up all our stuff, drive it three miles and unpack it, leaving us me to sort everything right again, it's safe to say that I will not be spinning 60 oz of anything. I also will not be knitting any lace shawls or steeked colorwork masterpieces. I do, however, have a plan.

To celebrate our three years in the UK/the Diamond Jubilee/London 2012/going to play in West Wales in October with cool knitting people, here are my combined Tour de Fleece/Ravelympics plans (which were actually first voiced in March...).

1. Spin up my Gotland and organic Hebridean fleece goodies into approximately 1200 yds and 200 yds respectively of 2-ply fingering weight yarn. 
2. Knit up said yarn into the Stasis Pullover. Which will then be my offering for Today's Sweater at P3.

That's it. Of course, since what I currently have is about 1.5 kilos of unwashed, unprocessed fleece, there is some serious prep work to be done. But I think this is challenging enough to be worth trying, but not so out of reach that I'm going to be sobbing into my knitting late some dark evening around 10th August.

Do you have goals for the Tour de Fleece or Ravelympics? What are they? Are you doing any prep beforehand? Or just jumping in on the first day, guns ablazing? Post a comment with your challenges for either or both events, and we'll see what everyone's coming up with. Good luck!

PS - between 15th-20 July, while I'm brutalizing myself in the Pyrenees, I will hopefully manage to do some spindling of some of the masses of Hello Yarn fiber I've got lying around, just so I can post something on the team thread. If I can make it through 4 oz, I'll be pleased. And if I finish off all the natural fleece, I'll start on a sweater lot of HYFC I've got lying around. But I'm making no promises on that score...

* I have only just noticed that I spun almost the exact same yardage both years. It's those damn laceweight singles from 2010 bumping up that statistic...

Random bits and pieces

Random bit #1: Having finished the sweater that would not end, and weaving in all the damn ends (!), I am now having a really tough time finding the will to photograph it on Himself. This is unfortunate, because I would like to show you pretty pictures and bask in the glow of having it really, totally, finally finished.

Random bit #2: This has not stopped me from suffering the acute pangs of sweater start-itis. In the last two days I have spent far too much time online looking at patterns and yarns and poking around in my Ravelry stash to see what might work, not to mention getting out the Vine Yoke Cardi yarn and my Timber sweaterlot and fondling them longingly. This trend is not helped by the fact that it is a) raining (again FFS!) and b) 10 degrees out. In mid-May. Thank you, London.

Random bit #3: My swearing I was never going to knit a fingering weight Fair Isle sweater again, ever, has been sorely tested by my discovery of Kate Davies' designs and blog. Actually, I'm currently coveting a sheepy blanket knit in nine natural shades of Shetland. And maybe a matching hat. Would this not be the perfect thing to cuddle under next winter while I'm knitting and watching TV? Le sigh...this might have to be a birthday present this year. Look, there's even a kit!

I have also been enjoying Kate's blogging about textile history and recovering from/living with stroke (she had a stroke two years ago at age 36). And her pictures of everything (flowers, knitting, steeks, yarn, Scotland, her dog) are absolutely extraordinary.

Random bit #4: my grand plans for knitting design domination are going to be complicated not only by the fact that, as Aquaphilic pointed out in the comments, I've only got 7 months to finish them off (and really only 6 months if you count that I want to get the hat collection out in November), but by the sad fact that we are going to be moving at the end of July. Not out of London, just out of the lovely (huge!) house we've been in since we got here. It's been coming for a while, but is now definite. And next week, I get to spend a couple of days with an estate agent looking at new possible homesteads.

Oh joy.

Random bit #5: I am a lucky little shite, because when I checked last night at 8:30, there were 5 spots left for P3. 40 minutes later? All gone. Thankfully,

I am going to Wales in October to hang out with Brenda. And Amy. And a whole host of other people. So. Excited!

A glutton for punishment? Or just plain crazy?

I finally managed to take a browse through the new Brooklyn Tweed pattern collection, Spring Thaw, last week. I always like looking at these just for the photography alone, but the patterns are usually pretty nice, and the yarns are gorgeous. This time through I had a sudden brain wave that pretty much guarantees many future post bewailing the drama of knitting handspun colorwork sweaters (cause you guys haven't had enough of those, right?) (No, I haven't finished weaving in all the ends, thanks for asking) (don't ask again, ok?).

I was very taken with the Stasis Pullover in my initial look through. And I must have been in a somewhat weakened condition, because I suddenly found myself thinking "Hey, wouldn't it be fun to spin up the yarn for that?" Quickly followed by the sound of the clue by four hitting me smack upside the head with "Hey! I've got raw fleece that is the exact right colors for this!"

One kilo of Gotland, purchased at the iKnit Weekender 2010.

And some lovely dark brown/black Hebridean fleece (organic!) that I received in a Secret Santa swap this past Christmas.

What I really need is someone to follow me around when I have these ideas so they can smack me and say "Get a grip woman! The last thing you need is a raw-fleece-to-hand-cards-to-yarn-to-sweater project! Lie down, have a cider, and get back to us when you've renewed your grip on reality." Sadly, such a guardian angel has not seen fit to grace me with her wise presence, so here I am, frantically finishing off my secret knitting so I can begin washing fleece. And getting the handcards ready to go. All the while ignoring the fact that there are two sweater lots of handspun yarn waiting desperately for attention, and at least two more sweater lots of fiber begging to be spun. Denial is my friend, while also being a river in Egypt.

The only upside to this whole plan is that I only need to come up with 1200 yds of fingering weight for the main color, and about 200 yds of the contrast. Totally doable from over two pounds of raw fiber, right? And I don't have to do any dyeing of anything. No problem...(those of you with comments about famous last words can just keep them to yourselves, ok?)

So, the girls get out of school on Thursday, and then it's washing fleece time! I will be sure to document the process for your edification never-ending amusement at my folly. Enjoy!

A blast from the past, aka productive procrastination

So...last week I finished up the first of this year's secret knitting projects, and have it mostly packed up to go out in the mail tomorrow. I'm jonesing to get started on the next secret project (which has a killer-soon deadline - I will be mainlining ibuprofen and icing my wrists on this one I think), but I'm waiting for the yarn to arrive. Thus I entered the weekend with no active projects on the needles. Woe is me!

I rummaged through the active stash (otherwise known as the massive pile of crap next to the couch in front of the TV) and came up with a number of options: 2 different pairs of handspun socks (one for me and one for he whose birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks - eep!), a sweater design that needs to be ripped back to the armholes and redone, a hat for Boo that needs finishing (which seems less serious given the remarkable fact of Blooming Daffodils in February!) - all very worth projects, some with that almost irresistable shine of New! But then I got to the bottom of the pile, and realized that I had something that would suit my requirements admirably. In other words, I had a project that was not-terribly taxing intellectually (garter stitch), was easy to pick up and put down (small modular construction), was in horrific need of being finally finished (started in gulp 2008), and would be perfect for someone who's birthday is coming up quickly (like tomorrow). Behold, I give you, the long lost Sock Yarn Blanket (of Doom).

That was the progress I'd made as of 19 January 2010. When I picked it up on Saturday, progress was more at this stage,

which means I must have worked on it at some point between 19/1/10 and 25/2/12, but I have no idea when. It took me several tries (read: ripping out and reknitting 4 squares twice) before I managed to remember how I did the decreases before. God forbid I go look at my notes on Ravelry and save myself some knitting time, FFS. Anywho, several tries later, I'm now at this stage.

Three more squares to go, a bunch Metric Crapton of triangles (30 to be exact), and a border of some kind. I think I've figured out a plan for the triangles, and the border is just going to be more garter stitch. If Boo is lucky, it will be done by Devil's birthday.

In 2013...poor Boo!

Whiplash

So on Monday, I was pondering as to what I could dress up as a semi-entertaining little tidbit of wooly ether to share with you. And then my brother came through in the most serious fashion with a load of gorgeous photos of him in his new sweater, and suddenly the Monday blog post was taken care of. Ok, I still had to write it, and finish the final pattern editing and get it uploaded to Ravelry, etc, etc, etc (why does that always take so much longer then I remember?).

Now it's Wednesday, and I feel like I've been running as fast as I can on all things fibery and wooly, and I'm still in the same place. I have serious startitis cravings: some folks on the Hello Yarn group are going on about a steeked-striped-handspun vest-along that I am absolutely salivating to cast on. And I've got two test knits ongoing that I'm anxiously looking to for feedback. In the meantime, there's the soaking-dyeing-cursing over-drying of fiber stuff going on, and regular life things (i.e work, school, laundry, more dishes then are really necessary in any universe). Thankfully, instead of feeling overwhelmed, I'm more or less enjoying it all, although my enthusiasm for discussion of said events is somewhat less then existant. So my apologies to those in the real world if I've been less then forthcoming about it all.

Here is the earthshattering revelation that I was going to share on Monday that is now postponed until Wednesday: I have too many sweaters in progress.

One is a vest, two are handspun, and three (of the four) need to be done by Christmas. Ehem. Thankfully, the two handspun sweaters are lacking four sleeves and a neckband. Two of the four sleeves are pretty straightforward (it's a sweater for the 6 year old), but the other two...the less said about them and their attendant neckband, the better. The vest should be pretty quick, but as of this writing, I'm three 9.5 inches* (out of 18) in on my way to the underarms. Not exactly breaking any land speed records with that puppy. Ehem, take two.

Sadly, the sweater that doesn't have a firm deadline is the one that is working up the fastest, on the biggest needles. I started last week, and in three days, I had a sleeve. It's also a side-to-side construction, which I haven't done before, so that's pretty intriguing. It's the thing that I find myself gravitating towards, and it's the last thing I should be working on! Aaaargh!

Sometimes I can't even believe how knotty my problems are! /sarcasm


*Today was more productive then expected on the knitting front. On the work front however...

In over my head

So...it's only the third day of the new year, and I'm thinking I might be in a bit of a pickle. To say the least.

I've got the first socks underway - two thirds of the way down the leg of sock #1. The plan is one repeat (12 rows) or the equivalent (i.e. heel flap/turn) every night. That should get me done by the end of the month, easy, not including knitting on my commute. Sweater #1 (Himself's Christmas present) has sleeves and a back. Front is started, and again - one repeat a night (also 12 rows. Synergy I haz it) should get it done in a couple of weeks. It's a bit of a cheat since it was 75% done before 2011, but it's got cabling on every right side row and 130 stitches. It totally counts.

So everything is going swimmingly until I take stock of the first Really. Huge. Project. That would be number 6 on the Eleven in Twenty Eleven list: the River Run pullover. This is a gorgeous men's sweater - stranded colorwork in nine different natural shades of Shetland wool. Un-freaking-believable. The largest size requires approximately 3400 yds of heavy fingering weight yarn. The grist is 1727 ypp, meaning I'd need 1.97 lbs of yarn. I've been wanting to make this for a long time, but I don't have 2 lbs of Shetland wool in nine shades lying around. What I do have is 2 lbs of white Falkland wool sitting in my lair, and a metric fuckton of dye. So here's my evening schedule for the rest of this month:

1. Knit one repeat/equivalent on socks
2. Knit one repeat on sweater
3. Spin white Falkland until my fingers fall off the bone or I end up face down in a pile of roving, drooling and snoring softly.

At the end of the month, I'll start plying my little brains out, and hope for the best with the dye pots. The original is done in black, white, three shades of grey and four shades of brown. Black, white and grey are all good - I might shift the browns to blues just for mine/the recipient's aesthetic pleasure.

The real pisser of it all is that I've got a deadline for this project: it needs to be done by early March. Seeing as it took me six months to spin my last specific sweater project, I'm not feeling too optimistic. On the other hand, there will only be one plying stage (2-ply vs. 4-ply cabled yarn). I will spin woolen, with a high ratio, in order to bang out as much yardage as possible.  The last time I spun Falkland, I did a pound in approximately 6 days (plying and all). It was a bit thicker, more DK weight then sport/fingering, and I certainly wasn't doing anything else, so I think I could get the yarn spun by the end of January. Right?

Right?

*crickets*

Hmmmm...I'd better get sampling then.

Reporting from the front lines

In the interests of reminding myself that progress is being made, here's the updated status of the Autumn List:

1. Finish, test edit, photograph and publish three winter accessory patterns. One pattern in 90% done (except for reknitting of one of the pair with a different size needle - oops!). The other two are one is in the mental design stage, but I have the yarn to knit them both - I just need to get cracking. Hat done, mitts done (for the umpteenth time), mittens still on mental drawing board.

2. Knit the girls each a sweater out of the fiber they dyed. Done, and done!

3. Knit Himself a sweater for Christmas. Swatching, swatching, swatching.

4. Knit a birthday gift for Nana. Done, and even in the mail, to be blogged post-touchdown in ME.

5. Dye and spin the fiber for Nana's Christmas present (requested after she saw mine over the holiday), then knit it. 23/9 - fiber now dyed, rinsed and drying.

6. Spin yarn for sweater for next March.

7. Maybe knit Pas de Valse for me out of some gorgeous alpaca (same as the yarn I used for the Veil of Isis, only fawn colored), or start on the Vine Yoke Cardigan (since I spent all that damn time spinning the yarn for it). I've played with dyeing the alpaca, and I think I've settled on a color (#3).

8. Knit myself an alpaca balaclava/head wrap/scarf thingie for cycling this winter. I'm going to be doing quite a bit of riding over the next ten months, to get ready for my insane venture next summer, and I seem to recall that it gets pretty fucking cold out there in December, not to mention January. Still at the bottom of the priority list.

Things are moving along, slowly but surely. And my kids are getting really good at a) entertaining themselves and b) learning Disney movies by heart.

An autumn plan

I mentioned in my last post that I had a crazy list of projects for the next few months. In the spirit of making myself accountable to someone (or something in this case), I'm going to list out my goals for the next little while in the hopes that having it written down will mean that at least some of it actually gets done. Heh. Maybe...

1. Finish, test edit, photograph and publish three winter accessory patterns. One pattern in 90% done (except for reknitting of one of the pair with a different size needle - oops!). The other two are in the mental design stage, but I have the yarn to knit them both - I just need to get cracking.

2. Knit the girls each a sweater out of the fiber they dyed.

3. Knit Himself a sweater for Christmas.

4. Knit a birthday gift for Nana.

5. Dye and spin the fiber for Nana's Christmas present (requested after she saw mine over the holiday), then knit it.

6. Spin yarn for sweater for next March.

7. Maybe knit Pas de Valse for me out of some gorgeous alpaca (same as the yarn I used for the Veil of Isis, only fawn colored), or start on the Vine Yoke Cardigan (since I spent all that damn time spinning the yarn for it).

8. Knit myself an alpaca balaclava/head wrap/scarf thingie for cycling this winter. I'm going to be doing quite a bit of riding over the next ten months, to get ready for my insane venture next summer, and I seem to recall that it gets pretty fucking cold out there in December, not to mention January.

If I had to prioritize, I'd say #1 first, then #4, then starting #5, then starting #3, then #6. #7 is going to happen this fall if I have any spare time - like if I quit working entirely, and #8 can fit in around the others. Maybe that will be my train knitting. Sigh...goodbye socks, goodbye shawls, hello garments and gifties.

The dreaded C word

That would be "Countdown" of course. Given the topsy turvey nature of the economy these days (and the fact that our retirement accounts have a -28% rate of return for the year - ugh!), we're toning down Christmas this year, family-wide (except for the kiddos of course - hell hath no fury like a 3 year old without her Disney Princess TM stuff). However, handmade gifts seem to be kosher, so my load hasn't toned down at all. It's time to take stock and decide whether I need to start panicking now, or if I can hold off for a couple of weeks before flying into a frenzy.

The cast of family characters who might potentially receive handmade gifts if they keep their noses out of trouble:

TX: Ironman, Devil and Boo
The Massholes: Nana, Grandpa, Uncle J and Auntie Walrus
The DC contingent: Bro and Auntie J
Those VT hippies: Mermaid and Koala

Okay...thats eleven people. Hmmmm...lets dig around back here in the stash cupboard and see what I've got.

One, two, three, number four is on the needles, number 5 is barely on the needles, six needs finishing, seven is a knitter and, as such, can knit her own present. Ooooo, and that thing I finished knitting almost two years ago and never put together can go there, so...

...I only need to come up with three brand-new completed gifties in the next five weeks. That's not too bad. Although if I give Boo that, Devil is going to want one too. And Boo needs a Tomten as well (thank Bob those are fast to knit!). Plus finishing number four is going to be a slog. Hmmmm...

Since I love the strikethrough, let's take another look at the list:

TX: Ironman, Devil and Boo
The Massholes: Nana, Grandpa, Uncle J and Auntie Walrus
The DC contingent: Bro and Auntie J
Those VT hippies: Mermaid and Koala

So, four definitely finished, four in various stages of doneness, and three as yet un-cast-on (or identified in some cases). I think it's fair to say that panic can be postponed until at least after Turkey Day.

I also think it's fair to say that my grand plans for gifties for WHMU(WHSKAL) will have to be put on hold. But hey, I think the gifts will still go over well in, oh let's say, March. You ladies won't turn down yarn, right? Stupid question.