The Universe Strikes Back

I said I wasn't gong to purchase another ball winder but Amazon had some for twenty bucks and it was hard to resist.  So I gave in and ordered.

It came just when I needed to wind the first of the new colour of CWM Mulespinner yarn and I was off to the races.

Or not.

This is an occasional ball winder issue and the great google does help you sort out how to fix it. The gears are not meshing properly inside.

So I asked Keith to check and in this case, the gears could not mesh.  The teeth of the gears did not match.  So back it goes to the source.

I guess I will stick with my first instinct and wind by hand. 

The only real problem with winding by hand is that the balls like to roll away and my yarn bowl broke a few months ago.

At least I have knitting to console me.

A Sockish Sort of Day

I looked at Linger yesterday but it didn't feel right.  I picked up the other bag that doesn't fit in the WIPs bin.  

I did a couple rows and have really enjoyed it.  I am slowly becoming used to holding the yarns in the same hand.  I tried just going with my fingers but ended up going back to using this.

I found it much easier to control my yarn tension though it is just a bit fussy setting things down and picking it up.  So easy to twist.  But it made the knitting quicker and very natural feeling.

I only had so much brain capacity so though I did work on it, it wasn't for long.  I ended up working on socks.

Cold weather has come.  Fall cold, not winter cold but it is enough that I am looking for warmth. This  morning it is drizzly with a bit of wind and it is only 10 C.  The warm sweaters are out. 

I started the day yesterday thinking about socks because my feet were cold.  I decided a while ago that I need more heavy socks. I am absolutely in love with the work sock pair I made earlier this year out of doubled Kroy, and I have been wearing my Big Fabel worsted weight pair regularly.  

I had another pair of Big Fabel socks on the go but I needed to restart them.  I don't know what I did on the toe but it felt uncomfortable when I tried them on and they were also too big!  The last was a surprise. Too many stitches.  I knew that I had decreased once already, but I was sure I was where I needed to be. The change in my foot size strikes again.  Honestly, it's like having new feet.

I restarted.

I am pretty happy with it and it is a nice tidy 40 stitches on 3.25 mm needles.

I started thinking about other socks in the WIPs bin while I was knitting.  Why am I not knitting socks?  I use them every day.  They are almost revered in my wardrobe.  I didn't find any answers yet, but I did figure this out.

I don't  like what is happening here.

I picked the multi colour yarn because I thought it would give me pretty little socks on the big sock.  I don't  like these.  I love the bottoms but not the little socks on the top of the foot.  I think I am going to restart this pair too.  I love the pattern ( Operation Sock Drawer by the Knitmore Girls, the A Drawer Full  pattern) but I think I am going to use some solid colours and change for each row of socks.   

Anyway, that is enough for today.  I could talk about each pair I have on the go.  I could talk forever about socks and sock yarns but it is time to be knitting.  We shall see what my hands get up to today.  

A Different Grey as Expected.

It arrived.  My extra yarn for my sweater.  I was glad to have it but now I have to decide what to do.  

The new yarn is lighter than the old.  I expected that.  I have one skein of the old and three new.  I have to decide how to work them in.  Do I worry about it at all?  Do I keep the rest of the older, darker yarn to work the upper part of the arms so the grey switches out at the same place as on the body?  I don't know.

There are two rows left to go in the section of grey I am working on and I am debating ripping back and reknitting this part with the new grey.  It may be a good idea if I try to make the grey change at a particular stripe row on sleeves and body.  

Maybe I am too lazy to do this.  I would lose a whole day.  That means more time till I get a new sweater.  Decisions, decisions.  That will be my day.  Till then I will knit on my Linger.  That sleeve is getting longer slowly.

I seem to be able to knit a stripe a day.  I always seem to end up a few rows short each day but since I was those few rows short the day before, I know I have knit a full ten rows.  

I wish I could do more but my hands don't seem to manage it.  All is well but I cannot do the full long days of only knitting anymore. Such is life and I am knitting.  It is enough.

A Home for Yarn

Shhhh.  

I'm busy.

I have spoken about the magic of knitting stripes before.  There is always the next one to look forward to and because of that, the knitting feels fast.

On this sweater, the other magic is watching the Noro colours come to life.  This isn't my favourite colourway of Noro and yet, I am charmed by it. When I worked at the yarn store, this poor Noro was always at the back of whatever Noro was there besides Kureyon and Silk Garden.  It isn't particularly flashy but it is fuzzy and interesting.

 

In the skein, it looked more grey, but once wound, on most of the skeins, the red brown gold sections stands out.  It doesn't take over, but it does demand its space.  

As it stayed on the wall at the store, I would look at it and play my favourite game.  What would I make with this yarn.  I never did figure it out, but they sat there, unloved by all the customers who came by.  

Eventually, just like old books, they came home with me.  I hated those lovely yarns not having anyone to love them.  A fair bit of my stash is my stash because of this.  It made me feel good to give those yarns a home. Like a cat lady, I had a compulsion to buy the yarns no one seemed to love.  

I don't  remember how I came to put the two yarns together, but they made one of my perennial favourite sweaters.  I can feel the pleasure of wearing this new sweater even now, knitting it.

Superlatives

What a weekend!  It was Marcus' birthday and I was knitting something wonderful.  

My saddle shoulder sweater is progressing fantastically.  

I took this photo to try it on to see if I had the yoke long enough and fell in love with this project all over again.  It has only been a few days and I never fell out of love with it and here I was, falling in love all over again.  

I knit a few more rows and joined at the underarm.

I am so happy.  I love everything about it.  I am in fact, taking a long time to write about it because I stop and stare at the way it looks.  

I love the way the two yarns work together.  One, a Japanese yarn with a wide blend of fibres and colours that celebrates the joy of fiber with an inimitable Japanese sensibility and the other, very much a Canadian prairie yarn, stalwart, easy gong and capable of strength and a simple majestic beauty that never shouts its glory but just is.     

One bids you to consider the delicate marvel of a single unique snowflake and the other considers the substance and power of a prairie winter wind.      

 Fall is in the air. The autumnal vibes are strong and that may be part of it too.   Just like all the creatures of my world,  I am preparing for the cold. They are storing seeds and nuts, or are gathering in great flocks to fly to winter nesting grounds while I am making my own cozy warmth for the long winter days ahead.  

I know this post is full of superlatives, almost nauseatingly so, but when I say it was a great weekend...

Hiccups

First thing yesterday morning, I decided to wind yarn off the cone of singles to prepare to knit a sweater.  And then this happened

That put paid to my whole process of thinking about this sweater.  I am not sure I want to replace the ball winder..  Most things in my stash are pre-wound so my need of it is much less than it used to be.  I ended up deciding to order  three more skeins of yarn from Custom Woolen Mills.  Doing that meant that  I  could start working on something now.  

I pulled out my favourite place to start from, when I know I am going to wing it.

I wanted something different than I have worked on for a bit.  It is good excersize for a mind besides being fun.

I decided to go with a saddle shoulder though I am making a simultaneous set in sleeves.  I love that way of knitting sleeve caps.

My number one goal here is to have a back of neck that sits high at my neck.  I always feel cold if I am chilled there.  The second goal is to have a relatively close fitting crew neck collar but not the choking feeling kind. I just joined the two front pieces and have a few rows to knit before I try it on to check if the neck has the right fit.

It feels so right to be working with this yarn.  I already feel cozier. 

The Bad, the Good and the Gosh Darn Wonderful.

I hate when this happens.

I am calling it a day on the Anyday Sweater.

Yup.  I am ripping it all back.  It hurts a lot to say that, but I am never going to wear it as it is.  I picked the wrong size.  It is too wide and the neckline is ginormous.  It is just not what I was looking for.  It is always a bit of a heartbreak to lose all the time and energy you work into a project.  I felt more than gloomy when I faced it on Saturday.  

The only uplifting thing is that it can be taken apart and rewound into yarn cakes and made into what I want from this very nice yarn.

But not today.  Today I am going to work on Linger from Knitty.com.  I tried it on yesterday too, and it fits perfectly.  I am going to focus on what is right and what is hopeful and good.  

It's a lovely cool morning.  The front and back doors are both open and the air is flowing through the house.  It is fresh and clean and is oh so very good.  Out across the ball parks, the fields are turned golden and ripe and almost ready for harvest.  In the evenings as the daylight fades, I can hear the geese and ducks call as they gather to fatten up for their fall migrations.  

It is sweater weather my favourite time of year.