My Fostering Families Today Article

My article is published and available here. It appears on page 29. :)

New Yarn and Some Dusty FO's

I am the only human home, with three fuzzy companions and a bunch of scaly orange ones. Well, one scaly orange one has a white belly, which I tickled while he was floating upside down last night. I know, I know, protective slime layer and all, but it was too cute to resist.

Richard took the girls to his sister-in-law's house for a birthday party. His nephew is turning 8. Hmm. 8 years old in 2008. His age should be easy to remember from now on. I stayed home due to a massive sinus headache. I wasn't sure I should stay home until Richard asked if I wanted McD's for breakfast (ALWAYS a hit on the weekend) and I just grimaced and said Noooo. I was in bed until noon and have been creeping around the very quiet house since then. Quiet. It's nice, and weird, and not at all lonely, probably because I know they'll all be home soon. If they weren't then it would be quite a different thing I think.

I did take the opportunity to photograph the latest skein of yarn I spun last night. It's a variegated merino plied with a solid corriedale. Lavender Lovely, I think I'll call it.
So there's that. Then there are Elizabeth Zimmerman's Mitered Mittens, below, which I think I got done in February.
I used handpainted yarn from Etsy for those. Very pretty and simple. Then last month I bought this amazing handspun, handpainted yarn from Maisy's and had just enough to do a pair of fingerless gloves. I bastardized a pattern from Kristin Knits so it is well nigh unrecognizable, and love the result. Perfect for just-chilly spring days. I also wore these for raking the yard last weekend and didn't get one blister! Regular gloves chafe me as bad as not wearing gloves at all, so these are a big hit with me. Raina says Hi.
Ok, I'm off to put another heat pack on my head. Richard was a sweetie and went to Walgreen's to get one for me before he left this morning. What a hubby.

Actual Yarn

See here? This here is what we in the knitting biz like to call yarrrn. I'm pretty darned proud of myself.

And here is my next yarrrn project. It's so pretty. Briggitte, all wide-eyed innocence, gives me a yard of the roving and says, here, just try out this merino and see if you like it. Uh huh. The first hit's always free, right? Spin spin spin. Yummy. Gimme 5 ounces of that fine merino gold, Lady B!

Spun, Part II

And behold my second yarn:

It's spun a little better than the blue and green, with both strands being about the same width. Sort of. I need a lot of practice!

So tonight I'll go after the variegated roving, or maybe the purple. I think the purple, because I want to spin the variegated really nicely, and I need some tips so I think I'll wait until class tomorrow night.

Not much happening on the knitting front. I'm almost done with sock #1 of Richard's first pair. I'm about 6 rows into a very ambitious sweater. I should post some pics of FO's I never posted, because I'm just going to have to fake it until I get off my spinning kick.

Richard thinks it's funny that I suck at geography. No, you don't understand. I really, really SUCK at geography. The other night I asked him a perfectly legitimate question, to my mind:

"Is New Mexico a state?"

3-second stare as he deliberates whether or not I'm serious. I blink, waiting patiently.

"Yes."

He snickers.

"What??"

"Nothing."

Spin, spin, spin, SPUN

Oh HO! Behold! My first yarn!Ain't she a beaut? Tonight I plan on spinning the rest of the white roving and then plying the white and green together, below:

Then, I plan on spinning both of the following and plying them together:

By then, it should be Wednesday night, and I'll go off to my next spinning class. I hope I've practiced enough...?

Addicted to Free Rice, Spinning

This is fascinating and informative, which of course means I'm hooked but good. Learning learning learning!

http:\\www.freerice.com

I also spun a whole bobbin last night! It's a gorgeous teal blue but it came out just plain blue in the pic. I'm going to ply the green and blue together, and the red and black together. The red and black will be called Ladybug. :)

Sit and Spin, Baby!

I went to my spinning class last night and it was awesome. Not to be too frat boy about it but DUDE! Fiber is so much fun! I suck at it and it's still way fun! The lady, Brigitte, at Bahr Creek Fiber Studio is really nice. Just about the time you're thinking, hmm, maybe I should just cut off my fingers and grow some new ones that WORK, she tells you how well you're doing and just do this and VOILA! you're spinning. For like 1.3 seconds and then it falls apart and the roving breaks and the little tail end of roving gets sucked up onto the spindle, cackling, and you can almost hear it laughing at you, and you feel like you really should be re-assigned to the short bus because obviously you're not competent enough to drive yourself home.

But it's TOTALLY FUN. I'd recommend it to anybody. I've always been a process knitter though so even when I feel like I'm trying to puppeteer somebody else's heavy clay hands I'm having fun with it.

I bought a wheel. I [heart] my wheel. I tried out 6 wheels altogether and this one felt ... right. It just WORKED. Brigitte was very non-committal about which style wheel she liked, she just kept saying that when you find the wheel you like you just know it, and she was right. It's a Schacht wheel called The Ladybug and it's just perfect. Richard put it together for me last night when I got home (thank you Sweetie!!) and then I completely flubbed my demo for him. I slept like a dead person last night, and dreamt of roving.

I bought four batches of roving in four different colors. My brain was too foggy to think last night so I didn't get pics of the roving, but I did get pics of my wheel. I spun almost a whole bobbin of one-ply last night but left it at Bahr Creek because I'll ply it with whatever I spin this week when I have my next lesson.

Here is my baby. Jezebel approves. Her eyes actually glow with love in the last pic. I know exactly how she feels.

Muriel's Garden

I've just created my mom's Etsy page for the heirloom greeting cards she makes. They're gorgeous and I hope other people love them as much as she loves making them. Find them here.

Spinning

Next Wednesday I will go to my first spinning class. I'm so excited! I hope I like it. I'm attending it at the Bahr Creek Llamas & Fiber Studio in Cedar Grove. I keep looking at spinning wheels and I'm just so clueless as to what I need that I'm really looking forward to learning all about them. Isn't this one pretty?




Description

This is our most popular wheel because it is so versatile. It's easy to use for learning, and you can then buy simple add-on kits that allow you to adapt the wheel to specific types of spinning as you begin to experiment more.

It is available in single or double drive, and if you are left handed we've created a version especially for you. 4 bobbins and Lazy Kate are included in the kit. As you can see, it is also a classically styled wheel made from beautiful New Zealand Silver beech, so it will look great in your home.

Specifications

Wheel diameter: 56cm (22")

Orifice: 1cm (3/8")

Bobbins Capacity: 100gm (3-4oz)

Ratios: 7.5, 10.1:1 & 14:1 bobbin lead

Weight: 8kg (17.5lb)

I have just barely the faintest glimmer of the idea of what all that means. Whee!

Baseball, Socks, and Mullet Man

Richard and I went to a Brewers game on Saturday. The weather was gorgeous and we had great seats. I brought a book and a sock to work on. When the security guy scanned my purse with his flashlight, I said, "Got a book and some knitting - pretty exciting stuff!". He laughed and replied, "Well, I hope it's a better game than that!"

I worked on Richard's sock and got about 3 inches done while we were there. I took this pic before the game started, and before I started knitting on it.

THIS is the amazing and rarely-seen Mullet Man. He was wearing a Harley Davidson jacket and was sporting an absolutely breathtaking, fully gelled mullet. WHAM! was suddenly singing in my head, telling me to wake him up before I go-go'd. I captured both a rearview and a side view, but alas, I could never capture this captivating creature's face.

And these are the socks I'm wearing today. They are the spring ones I was working on a few posts back and are very, very lovely even though they look like K-Mart socks here.

I wonder if there's a Mullet website I could post my pics to? It's rare to see a full, gelled mullet in the wild nowadays without going back to a yearbook or old family pictures. Must investigate.