Dull Sock to Superhero

This morning I bring to you a sock, because that is all I have got.

It is a sock cobbled together from 3 different skeins of yarn, a full ball of a Kroy, a full ball of a lovely tonal grey Sisu, and the end of a well used ball of Elann A series S01 sock.  You could think of it like a monster sock only with the new balls of yarn, it really isn't.  The black yarn, the Elann, is only there to break things up in an otherwise seriously dull sock.

Sometimes sock yarn is like that - dull.  While it is fine to wear dull sock yarn socks, it is something entirely different to knit. It is dull.  Yet, it has its place.

I was babysitting kids this weekend, and Cassie was telling me that there were bugs outside and they saw a fly on the window.  They wanted to get rid of the fly, but I told them that flies have a place in the world.  Cassie, being 5, in school and completely dubious of the truth of what grandma was saying, called me on it.  I told her a fly's job was to clean up, that if you didn't wipe up the sticky chocolate syrup that you dribbled on the table while eating your pancakes, a fly would come and eat it.  I also told her that people don't like flies because they leave fly dirt (only I called it its rightful name) as much as they eat.  She then asked what mosquitoes do.  I of course replied that they take food from big animals and people and then they are food for birds and bats.  She was pretty impressed and we then started a conversation about batman and heros, because why wouldn't you.

It strikes me that these socks are sort of like that.  They are the fly of the sock world and I have to accept that knitting them might be dull and thrill me as much as fly dirt, but that they do have a place in the world, and that eventually, that place will be on my feet. That is when, even a lowly sock, will be a superhero, keeping my feet warm. 

Dull sock yarn to superhero?  Why not?

I got cocky

I got a little cocky yesterday.  Sigh.  Let me start at the beginning.

I started the day with a full bobbin of Lincoln singles and I was eager to ply it.  I had such a great turn out with the first bobbin that I just had to get it done.  

But before I did that, I knew that my wheel needed some attention.  The last couple weeks, I noticed how loose the drive band had become and the brake spring and band were wonky.  I set out to fix the brake band first and ended up breaking it completely.  New brake band on and i excellent working order. Then I took the drive band off and cut it.  I admit there was a moment there on the drive band where I worried that cutting the drive band was a little cocky, but it all worked out.  Drive band shortened and working most excellently. 

Plying the Lincoln came next.  

 Just sublime.  No other way to say it.  I am pretty darn proud of this skein.  Of both of them.

I am now the proud owner of two skeins of 2 ply Lincoln handspun that is airy and light and pretty much the loveliest thing I ever saw.  Approximately 380 yards of awfully nice yarn.

The second skein is slightly more even than the first and much more of it has the lightly spun soft look I was aiming for.  It was a very rewarding thing to do.

That was when I got a little cocky.  

Buoyed by success tweaking my wheel and plying the Lincoln, I went to the box full of stuff awaiting plying and pulled out the green that I took off the bobbins that went to a new home.  

This happened.

It was going along just fine at first.  Nice and smooth with a really consistent amount of twist.

And then this happened.  I put the single back on my ball winder and wound it a little less firmly and very carefully and this happened again. My feeling is that it happened because the single doesn't have an even twist.  It probably would be wiser to ply it from a kate in two separate bobbins. 

I am going to recover the fibre.  I know I can.  I did it the first time, but it takes a long time.  And then I have to decide what to do with this.

 

Which is the rest of this fibre.  I don't want to go through this again, but will pretty much guarantee it will happen again if I work from this.

I got cocky and chose poorly.  Some things work and some things don't.  Not a bad lesson to learn, I suppose but I really wish I did not have to do so.

    

Beginnings

Here we are, well begun

Swatching was underway yesterday in very short order after I posted.  The yarn recommends a 3.75 mm needle but I thought the fabric was a little too open for my liking.  I chose to go with a 3.5.  I may regret this as I knit because it will take ever such a small bit longer, but there is always a point in knitting a sweater where I wish the thing was a bulky yarn and my needles were size 15. Sweaters take a while.

We also have the very beginnings of the sweater.  This is knit top down of course and right now, to get the effect of the slope along one shoulder, there are lots of short rows which is fine.  I like short rows and short rows in garter stitch?  Well bonus!

I decided to start this with an i-cord cast on edge in my main colour.  It's makes such a clean edge at the start of a garment.  It felt like the right way to start with this yarn.  The yarn has an almost delicate feel totally opposite it's rustic look. It isn't that I worry about it coming apart.  I don't but it just feels so light running through my fingers.  And soft.  It is just lovely to work with.

I expect more knitting today, a lot more if I am going to get this done to wear when I need it.  The day will hold knitting.  The day is also going to hold some plying.  I finished spinning up the second bag of Lincoln fibre and  I would like to get that plyed so I can pay some attention to those marvelous bobbins of colour from the Big Ball of fibre. 

Lots to do. But first, coffee.  I didn't start my day with coffee today, an oversight which will be taken care of shortly!

What's Up

Well, after a very busy weekend and a wonderful day spinning yesterday, I am sitting here going ..... (this is me tapping my fingers, wondering what to do)  There is no pressure to finish the sweater.  It needs blocking and steeking and a placket knit, but it won't really be wearable till fall.   I do have a couple things that do need doing with a kind of deadline.

I am going to have to do some swatching today to see if that deadline project  is doable, to see if I can make it work the way I see it in my head.  Sometimes, you get an idea and it looks like a heap of nothing.  You have to start somewhere though and swatching is it.

It starts with the yarn.  When I first saw the yarn combination of Berroco's Remix Light that Prairie Lily had in stock, I had an instant vision of where I wanted to take it.  It happens like that a lot.  I see a yarn and I get a vision of what wants to come out of that yarn.  It isn't really creative.  What I see are based on the many many patterns that I have viewed.  Sometimes I don't actually see the garment in my mind, but I get this really strong feeling that I know it already.

     

When you have only a hint of a memory of a pattern, and you are winging it, you buy just a little more yarn that you might need to be using.  All I knew was that I wanted a gradient.  The soft grey colour is my main colour and the two blues and the cream make the yoke. 

It took a while to figure out what pattern I was thinking of.  I had not favourited it on Ravelry or even a project from it.  In some ways, to do so would be a departure for me because I favourite the things I want to knit and wear and in many ways, this is right out of the wheelhouse.  Only it isn't at all.  I do want to knit this, and use it, but not in the way it was designed.  You see, it was designed as a wearable piece of art by Stephen West.

It would be easy to look at his work and set it aside as just a little too wild for your tastes, but if you look at his work as art rather than just knitting design, you start to understand it and the way he uses yarn and design to make his art.  It is edgy and it is provocative and it is interesting.   

I think it started with Batad.  It is just such an interesting way to approach a shawl/poncho/?  but the first thing I saw in it, was what a marvelous yoke of a sweater it would be.  How dramatic it could be.  My vision ended there till I saw this yarn but Stephen's did not.

Stephen West took it to Enchanted Mesa a sweater based on the same yoke shaping.   Now if you stop at the pattern page you might miss the brilliance of this and you might not see what others have done with it.  If you delve into projects, the whole world of this really, really interesting design opens up. You would miss it's adaptability and flexibility and you would miss how good it looks on a lot of people.  You would also miss how funky it blocks in its original form, which is kind of a hoot.  But it is where everyone else takes Stephen's art that is very much part of this interesting piece.

Like all great art, this piece ends up being about how each individual interprets the work.  If you were looking at paintings on a wall, you would interpret and hold that vision and what it brings to you in your mind.  If you were listening to musical masterpieces, you would play them in a certain way that showed what you hear in it.  If the art in front of you is a knitting design, you can take it and make it your interpretation of it be something you can wear.

Someday, I will knit this piece as it is designed.  It might be one of those perfect sitting around home garments, snuggly and warm or the perfect not a poncho wearable for fall and winter.  This version isn't going to be that.  No.  This version is going to be a pretty staid version of this artwork, maybe a diversion that takes it so far from the original that it could really only be an inspired by,  but the top I plan to knit using this design as my starting place is what I need right now, a nice, dressy top for a summer wedding that I can wear in the rest of my life. 

So, today is devoted to knitting a swatch and then to starting to see if I can take this where I hope it can go. I am going on an adventure and I am taking a backpack full of yarns and needles with me.  Without leaving my living room.

And there was more!

More stuff that is, from the weekend.  It was a wonderfully full fibre weekend.

I finished the ribbing on the bottom of the sweater and then

pulled off the black that I had started the cuffs with, and redid them in lighter colours and more in keeping with the rest of the sweater.

A touch of black, a touch of red.  I find it very amusing that the black, which I was not at all worried about running out of, is the only colour I came close to really running out of.  By taking off the black cuffs as shown here

everything else became just that much better plus there will now be enough black remaining to make mittens or a hat with a bit of colourwork in it.  Not that I want all matching accessories but sweater leftovers do seem to make the perfect yarns for mittens and wristwarmers and hats.

As shown here! 

I am pretty pleased with this little wristwarmer too.

One side to show the world and the other more practical side to be the working side.  I am pleased with the way my thumb intarsia worked out.  It gave me one extra thumb stitch which this really did not need, but a little magic sewing up the one small seam will deal with it nicely.  Just a note, the pattern doesn't call for this thumb intarsia.  I did it because I did my colours in the wrong order. Even that worked out to my advantage with the darker colours on the palm of my hand.

I still have finishing on this one, and the second warmer to knit but I think I am calling these a win!

What a wonderful thing two working hands is.  

A Late Monday Post

I was out really really early this morning to babysit grandchildren, 4:30 early.  One of my daughter in laws is a firefighter and she was out on a call for about 15 hours.  I went over so mommy could sleep.  

There was not a lot of knitting today, just a lot of chasing of small people and sleeping on my sofa when I got home.  But there is plenty of cool stuff.

Cool yes?  I am so pleased.  Really, really pleased.  I counted my plying treadles and you know what?  It could use even a bit more, which is really really interesting to me.  Part of it is because I couldn't change to another whorl. I ought to have gone down to a smaller whorl to get more twist per treadle.

The drive band is too loose.  I need to do a little bit of fancy footwork, but everyone says that these bands (the stretchy black cord kind) are so easy to shorten And if that doesn't work, I can put on another sort of driveband.  People do it all the time.

But this skein is a win.  It feels really nice and it looks really nice and the size is pretty consistent too.  And it feels just like it ought.  

Spinning!

Now that I have only 3 bobbins, I feel compelled to start, spin, and ply in short order, so I can begin the next.  Or maybe it is because I really want to ply the singles from that Big Ball of fibre but not in public and my free bobbin is now filled with another single. 

👵

When I was heading out to spin with my friend, frazzledknitter (do check out her stunning version of Humulus), I knew that I did not want to ply.  Plying still intimidates me, though thanks to that selfsame good friend, I am getting more comfortable with it, but I am not ready to try in public yet.  Not at all.  So I grabbed a couple 100 gr packages of Lincoln fibre from the stash and off I went.  

It's been compacted a bit in the bag, perhaps well stuffed is a better way of stating it, and stored for the last several years.  It is a washed and carded prep but is very low processed.  There is a bit of plant material in it, as you see.  I debated about carding it again before spinning it and while that probably would have been a great idea, I did not have the time.  

What I did opt for instead was generous pre-drafting to open it and pouf it out. 

 I am spinning this woolen long draw and I have to say, I think long draw and I were been born in the same place, but at different, distant times.  The fibre and twist feel so natural in my hands, as if this is what I was meant for.  As the twist sneaks into the carded fibre, pulling each tiny strand of fibre, it speaks to me, whispering all the things I saw in spinning that very first mystical moment when Cynthia from River City Yarns showed me what spinning was about.   

I was wondering how differently it would feel to spin the Lincoln but I am not sure if my finding is the prep or the fibre.  What I do know is that before the second bag is spun, I am going to make the time to card it so I can give this lovely fibre its proper due.  It is very nice to work with but I think the single would be much more smooth and consistent, if I had.  As it is, with it's lovely, lanolin rich, lightly processed heart, and its mildly compacted nature, it is making this lovely rustic looking single.

I took a sample off the first day I was working on it, and am pretty pleased with it so far.

I already know that I am two plying this by making it into a ball on my ball winder and plying from both ends.  I really enjoyed that technique and this is a great time to practise it.  

The current plan is to ply this bobbin tomorrow. I will card as well, so that the next bag will be ready for spinning on Tuesday.  I want to see how much difference the re-carding makes while my hands are still familiar with the first bag.   And I can't wait to see how the two different bags are in finishing!  Will it make a huge difference or not?

Spinning games are at hand and I am sitting here with a silly goofy grin on my face.  It really just doesn't get much better than this. 

No spinning talk today

No spinning talk today.  I forgot I have to babysit today!  And I have to be off shortly.  

I thought you would like to see how it looks now.  

I am on the last section right now, before you do some serious magic for the thumb gusset.  I made a bit of an error following the colour progression but I love how it looks.  By not following her colour progression, I have to do some fancy footery with colour on the thumb gusset.  

So next up, fancy footery, serious magic and spinning.  Isn't that grand?

Always a Quandary

The quandary I was having with my little Log Cabin Mitts has been resolved.  

I did not find the yarn I was thinking of, but I did find the remainder of the Patons Classic Wool in Charcoal left over from my last sweater.  Its heathered look suits this project much better and its gauge is correct without any monkeying around.   I didn't knit a lot yesterday, but I did spin.  Lots of spinning.  More on that tomorrow.

I do have another quandary, but the good kind.  The fun kind.

Lucy Neatby's online shop was having a sale on several specific colours of Kauni 2/8.  At ten dollars a ball, it doesn't really matter what you plan to knit,  Such a good deal.  So I ordered enough to make the front and back of a colourwork sweater.

This colour is EF and while my photo is much darker than the one on her page, I am so deeply pleased with thes warm colours.  I know just the yarn I am going to use with it.  Or possibly I am going to buy new yarn.  That is my quandary you see and I won't know that till I decide the pattern.  \

Which is another quandary. But the good kind.  

More Knitting

It was a busy day.  More knitting.  It was lovely.  This blog may just return to be alll knitting all the time!

I did knit more ribbing on my sweater.  I am just about to do the colour change to insert three rows of colour, black red black.  Once this part is done, I have to go back and rework the bottom of the sleeves.  I need the black for the neck band and placket, so still a fair bit of work to do before I can call this one done.

Yesterday afternoon, while listening to some podcasts, I picked up a bunch of yarns and just played.

I have ends of a few different rustic yarns that I wanted to work up into the Log Cabin Mitts. I came across this pattern via the Mason Dixon Ladies and I quite fell in love with it.

These three yarns were the first that came to hand in my bag of 'stuff'.  It would work but the soft brown natural is an alpaca blend.  It is part of a shawl made several years ago, and if I have anything that could be called itchy, it would be this.  Not all the time, not often but if I get overwarm it can bother me.  A lot of the Log Cabin Mitts is down at the wrist and the way I started out with my colours, the brown would be at the wrist.  If I had planned better, so the brown section was on my hand it would be a go.  Oh well, next pair.

 I know that somewhere deep in my bits box, there is a large ball of a black sport weight woolen spun that would be the perfect match for the blue and natural, but I couldn't find it.

 

I grabbed a yarn end that I thought might work, but I don't like it.  I have got to keep digging for that right yarn.

But that is it for today.  With the weather being what it was the last few days, we moved spinning to today, so I am off spin this morning. I am so excited. First time in a month!  

The 97th of January

I saw a facebook meme the other day that perfectly encapsulates how I feel about the weather this spring.

At this time of year, all it takes for the snow to go is sun.  The sun is just too high in the sky not to make things melt and the air to be warmer.  But as much as this meme is the most funny thing about this kind of cold wet, slush producing spring weather, what it really means is it is sweater weather extended.

And I could not stay away.

It was a rabbit hole that was just lurking, waiting for me to be weak and I was.  I jumped and had the most wonderful time!  And you know what?  No bad results.  In fact, my hand feels better than it has in a very long time.  I didn't knit this in one sitting.  It was a day of knit a row, fill the dishwasher.  Knit two rows, sweep the floor.  Progress, not all at once, but progress at a steady hand strengthening pace. 

When I had to stop, I was in full sweater obsession mode.  It was difficult to fill in my days.  I survived but it wasn't pretty and no my house did not get significantly tidier.  Going back to knitting made everything better.  Even a little bit of knitting made a huge difference to how I sleep, how cheerful I am, how eagerly I look forward to my day. 

In the case of my particular injury to my thumb, I could not have knit another style to help alleviate any RSI that may be part of this sore hand problem, but it does make me much more aware of the importance of knowing exactly what my hands are doing when I knit.

I noticed on Sunday, that my ring and pinky fingers sit just a bit differently when I use double pointed needles than they do when I use circulars.  With double points, the last two fingers on my right hand are supporting a needle and keep it in place.  With a circular, they tend to just sit there.  That fine difference between working and a static kind of tension probably contributed to how the hand problems started in the first place.  It surely didn't help.     

While I am knitting today for sure, but I am also going to do a bit of spinning.  I have some brilliant rainbow colours that need to come off the bobbins so I can have some fun with new fibre.  It is going to be a bobbin clearing sort of day. Here is hoping that all the reading of the last few weeks make a real difference to my plying results!

One of those days

One of those days.  Yes it is.  One of those knitting days.

Good Morning!

Ok, I lied.  There was no knitting Saturday but by Sunday afternoon, there had been a bit of knitting, just a little. There was almost no computing over the weekend, and avoiding the mouse use seems to be a critically important part of healing this.

I took this sock, last seen in January to this:

So, about an inch of knitting. Not all at once, and not in any concerted sort of way but a bit at a time, throughout the day.  

The sock is a monster sock of sorts.  The black yarn is a bit I have left over from other things, but the Kroy with the blue, tan and grey is a new skein of Kroy as is the soft multi greyed Sisu.  It is a bit boring in colour, but the knitting is plain and I thought that might help while my hands get stronger again.

The knitting seems to actually be helping make my hand feel better, stronger certainly.  I am almost using it as a warmup for the rest of the things in my day.  

I frogged the proto sweater I started the other day.  I just did not like the yarn in combination with the pattern.  I really want to make another Leisl, in a wool yarn because it makes a really nice light sweater and the knitting is fun and fast.  Perfect for late spring knitting and great to wear all summer long. But not that yarn.  

I have to ponder a while  about what yarn I do want to use.  I think because of the lace it needs to be a rounder less fuzzy sort of yarn.  I know I have plenty of that sort on hand so it will definitely be a from stash sweater.  It is just that there are several very good options to ponder.

Anyway, for now my knitting is on socks and shawls and things that are lighter in weight on slippy needles. If I go carefully this week, I hope to get to finishing the ribbing 

 

 

on my sweater next week.  I can't wait to see if my monkeying around with yarn weights worked out.  Very excited.  

Still going for physio to learn how to avoid this, but very excited to be back to knitting.

Bernice's Revenge

My hand felt really good yesterday and has for several days.  The thumb injury is no longer an issue and the older ring finger issue is so much much better.  Even first thing in the morning, my hand feel flexible.  There is a very little bit of lingering puffiness that seems to impede regular motion rather than there being pain when I try to move.  Whatever is happening, it changed dramatically since last weekend.

So, I thought to give it a little bit of a try to see if I am ready to go back full bore to knitting.  

Each sitting, if you will was only two or three rows long, but I picked it up several times through the day.  Before each sitting I warmed my arm and hand up.  AT the end of the day, I was left with zip, nada, no stress, no strain, no puffy ring finger.  However, about 4 o'clock this morning, I could feel my thumb, so...

It was completely gone when I got up though.  I had hoped that maybe, if I babied it, it would miraculously be good, but it is not to be.  I am going to give it another week of rest before I try it again.  Well for sure till Tuesday next week, when I hope to be able to do a little bit of spinning.  

I was looking for a video by an Australian lady with excersizes for crafters that really seemed to help and came across something I really appreciated and enjoyed.  The Fruity Knitting Podcast, episode 31, had Carson Demers on as a guest.  It is from a few weeks back.  He had just gotten his book from the printer, but I can tell you, after listening to the interview, I really would like to get my hand on the book.  Without reading it, based solely on this one interview, I feel very strongly that Knitting Comfortably - The Ergonomics of Handknitting should be in every library for knitters.  I haven't seen the book yet so I am not 100% sure it is something I need to have on my shelves, but if it goes digital, I would drop everything and get a copy.   

So, today, I am not going to knit, but I will continue to be sensible and will restrain myself.  It is exactly a month since I injured my thumb and a few days more won't kill me.  It might feel like it will but it won't actually kill me.       

It brings to mind the old Possum Lodge oath, 'I'm a man, but I can change, If I have to, I guess.'  from the Red Green Show.  Perhaps we should call this variation on a theme Bernice's revenge:  I'm a knitter (who doesn't want to stop), but I can change, if I have to, I guess.

Of Cookbooks and Treats

There will be more winding today, besides the ordinary stuff.  I'm not quite sure what I want to wind, but there is always something interesting to work with.  There is also a loom that could be dressed, and it is likely that will happen, but in between, there is all sorts of time.

One of the things I am doing between is playing in my cookbooks.  You thought my only collection of books was knitting books?  No, there is oh so much more.

My mum gave me a Betty Crocker Cookbook for Christmas when I was 16.  I suspect that she was doing it in self defense, wanting me to get me past endless chili meals (which is pretty much all I ever cooked) and bread which I loved to bake. This collection was started by my mom! 

Before I was married, I was in the old Book of the Month Club, where once a month, they sent a catalogue and you choose a book.  This sort of thing has been utterly supplanted now by online book resources and subscriptions but I dearly loved getting a catalogue of books. For a time, they had an offshoot called the Cooking and Crafts Book of the Month Club and I joined that too.  I was exposed to books I wouldn't have found in my local stores and would rarely have found in my nearest city with it's chain bookstores. 

I have some really lovely cookbooks from those days.  They are the backbone of my cookbook library.

I would have never picked up a book like The Classic Italian Cookbook or The German Cookbook without the Cooking and Craft Club.  Nor would I have found Jane Brody.  These were things of far off places that wouldn't have been found easily in the small world I lived in.

There would never have been a soup cookbook in my house or a book devoted to just pastry or breakfasts.   And yet, I am so happy to have these all.

  

This last picture is my reading for the day.  With the opening of another restaurant in our small town, a coffee and sandwich shop, our bakery is no longer producing sweets and treats. Up until now our sweet tooth has been served very well by our better than the average bakery, but now, well, it's time to pull out the best books and read and be inspired. 

We will still get our breads from the bakery.  It is important to support local small businesses but grocery store baked goods just aren't up to snuff.  So, the cookie jar at this house is going to be back in action.  The cake pans will be caked and the muffin tins will be muffined.   

Not a lot mind.  Certainly not more than once a week. Probably not even that.  There are no kids with high energy here to consume the excess (though there are some grandchildren just down the road).  I think I will start with something different and yet familiar Bread Cake.

The recipe is from The Bread Baker's Manual, by Rosalie Cheney Fiske and Joanna Koch Potee, which is long out of print, but well worth scoring on the used market if you can.  It's a small book, but full of great things.

That pretty much fills my day.

Left Handed

There are not a lot of things I can do using my left hand as my lead hand.  I have one son who is a bit of both right and left handed, but I am quite strictly right handed.  Sadly.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to draft fibre equally as well with a left hand?

When I got up this morning, I was in the middle of a sea tale, To the Ends of the Earth, and I really wanted to finish it.  So, I decided to do a bit of winding while watching.

This large put up took a very long time to wind and is so wonderful a colour.  You can't see the variation well in the hank.

This isn't quite right either.  It is much richer and darker than what shows up here.  This does show you the range of its colours though.

I had so much fun with it, and its lovely BFL 2/8 texture, that I wound up some more.

Isn't that just the prettiest thing?

 Delicate blue, dainty white, and rich, rich cream combine to make something so delightfully pretty.  I could look at it for a long time and not tire.

I wound this up as well.  I wasn't tired of winding yet.  This is Quarry from Quince and Co, in Frost.  I have plans for this. Big plans.

If you can't knit or do otherwise with yarn, winding left is something I can do.  I would love to wind more, but the last thing I need is for my left hand to mirror my right in its aches and pains!

Dreaming Persian Dreams

One of the things I can do while healing, without feeling like I am wasting my time is look at patterns on Ravelry.  Days of shawls, weeks of sweaters, dozens and dozens of months of things to look at that people have designed and knit.  It is forever inspiration seeing all the possibilities.

This morning Jenise Hope's Persian Dreams worsted weight version was in one of the front page ad spaces and off I went.  I have loved Persian Dreams for a long time.  It is a wonderous project.   The designer even made expansion packs of designs for both the fingering weight original and the worsted version,in case you wanted to choose from a broader range of patterns to use. You can spend hours and hours reading each knitters comments, and looking at all the knitted loveliness.  

I'm fascinated by this blanket.  I love the colour work and the broad range of patterns but I am not sure I will ever want to knit a blanket of it.  But pillows.  Oh yes.  I dream of pillows, pillows in blue and white for in my livingroom to coordinate with my collection of little china pieces.

All those pretty pieces set off by these stunning designs.  Sometimes I dream of converting my coffee table to a long rectangular footstool. Perhaps it could use a cover of pretty medallions in delft blues and white.  

I cannot provide any pictures of the knitted projects on Ravelry other than through links, but maybe this will help you imagine your own Persian Dreams too.  Lots of colours, lots of crocheted versions, and plenty of the knitted versions of medallion and tiles and whole rooms in intricate delicate patterns.

Me?  I will dream of delft inspired blue and white.  Good, sweet, happy dreams.

Stuff before the last of my coffee.

I am now the owner of only 1 spinning wheel.  My Julia is indeed gone off to a new home and her owner loves her.  So that leaves me sitting wondering if I can manage with 3 bobbins or if I ought to find some more!  

But that is for another day.  

This retreat marks the end of winter in a way for me and it is time to get on to the things of warmer weather.  (Not that we have warmer weather right now. It is still below average)  

Our town has a town wide garage sale every year and people flock from all around.  Many sales at the same time means more people come to see what owners have up for grabs.  I am participating this year, and seeing how the first nine days of April are already gone, I am going to have to get a lot done before that first weekend in May.

I have already gone through the yarn, and I know what has to come out of the spare bedroom.  Today it is time to hit up the kitchen. When I came to live here, I knew that eventually, some stuff had to go.  We have a lot of cabinets, but no one needs 3 teapots or doubles of toasters and rice cookers.  And really, 2 slow cookers is enough (one to dye with, one for food).  As well as the doubled appliances and things, there are casserole dishes and other bits and pieces too.  I used to use a lot more large dishes when all 3 boys were teenagers.  I just don't need this many large pieces.  There are a few decorative pieces that I had thought I might use, that I don't and pictures that have no home here.  Odds and ends of a life really, things that were perfect for other places and times. 

Time to get on with the things of the day. But first, just one more sip of my coffee.  😇

Off Adventuring We Go

I'm off adventuring this weekend.  It is the weekend of my spinning and knitting retreat at Strawberry Creek.  I love this retreat and it is several years since I was at the last one.  I am looking forward to it, even if spinning and knitting is not really on the cards for me.  

A dear friend gave me back issues of Ply Magasine which is just the most wonderful gift ever and with my winding that I have planned and weaving videos, I am pretty sure that I will be fine.  

I am also doing something sensible this year.  Instead of having everything in various bags and stuff, I am filling up a second suitcase with my assorted bits and pieces, the wheel parts, the fibre, a couple books I want to take along, my tablet and movie drive, the chargers, etc.  All sorts of pieces.  Well, I would like for it to fit as much as possible in that one extra case.  That swift isn't going to fit inside anything though.  Nor the wheel.

But my first adventure of the day is going to be babysitting my grandkids, something I dearly love to do. I look at them in awe and wonder, and I just have to laugh with joy.  All my little kiddies were here for Easter this year, though I dearly missed Isaac, they do fill me up.

So I bid you adieu till next week.

Not Woe or Feeling Pretty Good

Well, all the angst suffered in the winding off of that lovely green merino is done.  When I picked a stand to start with, I must have chosen right.  Everything came off with only 2 knots and one bit of leftovers from the blorfy section.

That small amount wasted is nothing.  I thought I would lose much much more.

That left me with the need to empty one more bobbin and the logical bobbin to empty was one that did not have much on it in the first place.  I wound off the bobbin of two ply that was completed when I lost the end on the single.  I took it off the niddy noddy and plopped it into a bath for a nice soak and then whacked it a few times, and came up with something I am pretty pleased with.

About 100 yards of a fingering weight that is almost well done.  There are underplyed bits but most of it is pretty darn nice.  I will probably run it through again to give the yarn just a wee bit more twist.  I am still a newbie at plying.  I have owned wheels a long time, but somehow never got around to becoming confident with plying.  

The best thing about fibre arts is there are dozens, maybe hundreds of ways to play with it and each and everytime, you learn something new! 

Just Woe

The tale of woe for today is about a single spun before the time of the great ball, aka, the winter before last.In the middle of turning it into a reasonably nice two ply,

(Note that relaxed strand at the bottom?  Reasonably nice two ply.) when one of the singles broke and the end buried itself deep into the rest of the fibre.  

I tried finding it many times since then, with no luck.  So a couple weeks ago, I  pulled a strand and broke it and an taking off the single.  It will be what it will be.

And so far, it is being pretty decent, I must say. It wants to be something grand so it is behaving and is coming off smoothly and not really with any false steps.  That blorfy bit at the end of the bobbin just sits there rather gentleman like and and floops up out of the way when I have single to wind in its path.

It is woe.  It is awful.  BUT, I am making my way through it and it will be just fine.

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