Just in the nick of time!

I have managed to finish my Inside Outs (February's BMFA Rockin' Sock club selection) just in the nick of time. Sort of. My newest RSC sock kit arrived today when I was one row and the bind off away from finishing my second sock. Of course I've still got two other kits that arrived in the mean time that I haven't started but I decided I'll just leapfrog those for now. I finished my second sock and immediately wound the ball of this new kit and as of the time I finish editing this post, I have already cast on and knit two rows of August's gauge swatch in the called for needles.

The foot portion of my Inside Outs looks a bit long and the leg a bit short when they're empty but on me they're a pretty good fit. The leg is, as others found with this pattern, a bit tight to get on over my instep but not impossible. And it fits my leg well enough since I stopped knitting up the leg just before my immense calves get going.

You can see that the leg portions still striped which is great. And from this I think you can see how one sock had wider stripes in the foot than the other. What amuses me no end is that the sock that had the wider stripes in the foot appears to have narrower stripes in the leg. So now I'm wondering if I was supposed to knit one from each end of the skein to get a perfectly matched pair? (I now have this mental image of knitting on the two socks at the same time until one gets the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp.)

In other knitting news, a while back I started some socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport using Wendy's basic sport weight toe-up pattern for some "quick" socks. I did a toe. Just the one. They've been waiting patiently for attention ever since. I think I'm starting to get a clue why I have so little knitting accomplished. I don't spend enough time on it. (Doh!) I have done a few rows of the FMB and of the Barbie (TM) dress and so on but nothing worth showing yet. And the dog has now chomped both the needles I was using for the Sidewinders so until I get ahold of some more size 1s they are on hold again. Miraculously the yarn appears to have survived the experience each time.

And of course there's always the other reason why there's been no increase, if not a net decrease, of knitted fabric results. I finally admitted that another sock I had started (circa 2001, iirc) was never gonna make it and ripped it back. You can see why in this photo (as almost always on this blog, click to enlarge the photo for details) I think.

I was still blindly following without thinking when I started this sock so I started it with the needles called for in the pattern. The fabric was coming out way too loose. Only I didn't really know enough then to know that it was too loose for a sock. Now I do. So I took a deep breath and leapt into the frog pond with it. I may start over someday but possibly not with that white sock yarn. It's a biggish percent cotton and I'm not sure it has enough stretch for a stockinette based pattern to work well.

I've been wasting a little of the little time I have for knitting time on photographing the stash instead of knitting with it. Partly for putting it on Ravelry and partly just so I would be able to remember which yarn was which when trying to choose the next project (or rather the 32nd next since I've already got a long mental queue in addition to the one on Ravelry). In doing this I discovered that it is very safe to say that I have enough yarn to last my lifetime even if I had as much time to knit (and weave) as I could possibly want. Well, maybe not if my requisition for 36 hour days while the rest of you only get 24 ever comes through. But otherwise, I could just stop buying yarn (and fiber too probably) right now and be totally set. Not that I have any intention of doing that of course. Someday maybe I'll take and post a photo of the entire stash in one spot. Or maybe not. Might be too embarassing... Or, you know, I might never have that much open space in any one room.

I've also had to continue to devote some time to continuing to move things back into the studio from the various places they'd been stored for the last several months while remodeling was taking place. This last week in addition to starting to sort out the yarn stash, I also set up the "antique trunk of jewelry making goodness".

That's the seed bead (which applies for beaded knitting as much as jewelry making of course but "atojmg" is long enough already) drawer. The much deeper drawer below it is for the ongoing projects and tools. And the one below that is full of other beads and findings, and so on. In the process of unpacking my stored jewelry supplies, I discovered that I have over the years managed somehow to collect rather a lot of nice raw material for lovely jewelry pieces. Not to mention start but not finish a number of pieces. So I think I might start making myself some jewelry again soon too. In that copious spare time that I don't have. Maybe after school starts next week.

If I live that long. The last week or so of summer vacation is getting to be a bit too much for me.

If you can't say anything nice...

... or in the case of blogging - interesting, and all that. Since I've had practically nothing to show in the way of knitting I've said nothing. But a month is ridiculous. So in a bit I'll show what little I've got and why it is so little.

But first by way of a public service announcement: Norma of Now Norma Knits is doing a contest to help support the OFA (Orphan Foundation of America) and the Red Scarf project's new fund. Read about the Red Scarf Project here on Norma's special blog for this year or on the OFA site here. I donated some sock yarn (of which I have an ample supply for my lifetime at this point) to Norma's contest for prizes. But since I know I'd never have made it through college without the support of my folks, emotional as well as financial, I feel very strongly about supporting the OFA and their Red Scarf Project. So I'm gonna run a little contest of my own. If you make/made a donation to the OFA via Norma's blog (she has links to thePayPal donation page for the OFA in several posts) or the OFA site between when they started the fund about the 1st of August and oh, I dunno, lets say the end of September, let me know and I'll enter your name in the list to pull a random number from for this reward for your generosity right here:

A skein of Handmaiden SeaSilk in the Nova Scotia colorway and a copy of Victorian Knits Today for you to find a pattern in for the SeaSilk.

Since I'm sure readership of this blog is pretty low, your odds should be great for this prize. And since I'm a softie, I might even come up with (an) additional prize(s) if I get more than one message saying someone's donated. Mention your donation in the comments or by e-mail (raspberry _AT_ gmail _DOT_ com) - whichever you prefer, and you're entered in the mini-contest for this lovely skein of yarn and book. It really is an excellent cause, so please do consider making a donation.

And now, for the little fiber arts I've accomplished since last time:

I've got proper fitting heels on both my Inside Out socks at last and have gotten one repeat of the leg pattern done on each of them. It seems to go faster now that I'm not trying to keep the tension so tight so I am now starting to feel like I see the light at the end of the tunnel (although not apparently in this photo).

I've got another bobbin of brown romney spun up. Once I get a third bobbin filled, I can't get much further until I can get some more bobbins for this wheel. I'm wanting to make a 3 ply yarn from this so I need at least 1 more bobbin.

The why so little knitting has been accomplished: I've been working on the studio to get it ready for my fiber pursuits etc and more immediately guests. IE my sister-in-law, whose visit early this month somehow resulted in lots of not-knitting time when I had thought I would have at least some. But we had fun so it was all good. When last you saw it, the studio looked like this:

Now it looks like this (well, mostly):

Actually, the bed has already been decommissioned to make room for my loom. But that's not in yet, nor are some other things so I may subject you to further photos at a later date.

This photo is here to show what I do with all that yarn I buy at the Loopy Ewe that I don't seem to knit up. I use it as decoration (for now). I do have lots of knitting plans though.

I've also been employed providing entertainment for the "home from school for the summer" child. Which I find terribly tiring, and she - no doubt - doesn't find as entertaining as either of us would like.

Oh, and best of all, I heard back from my Auntie to whom I sent the Spring Things Shawl and she was very complimentary about it. I think she really liked it rather than being polite. So naturally, I'm all afire to knit her something else. She says she needs shawls to keep her shoulder warm and ward off issues with it. So I'm thinking I'd like to make something warmer for the winter.

Possibly something in this nice Handmaiden 2-ply cashmere would be nice.

Or maybe in this Blue Moon Fiber Arts Geisha.
I can't decide which would be the better choice. My mum is all over the cashmere option just because it is cashmere I think, but I'm not sure she's a good barometer for what my favorite English Auntie would like best. And I'm not sure what would be the best pattern idea. To try and make something up on my own or find a good pattern. I do want to make a nice warm shawl for her. So any and all advice on these matters will be cheerfully received. Cashmere is always nice but there is a lot more of the Geisha yardage-wise. Of course, it's also always possible to buy more cashmere. I'm also not sure which color she'd like best, I'm kind of thinking the Geisha colors might be more her style. This is why it takes me so long to actually finish anything of course...

The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful

The Good: I got my invitation to Ravelry this weekend. I'm raspberry over there if you want to find me. Fortunately for the state of my marriage I didn't get a chance to log into e-mail and discover this until today. After I finished my huge list of Sunday and Monday chores. If I disappear for a month it'll be because I'm wandering through Ravelry in a happy fog. If you're on the waiting list, do what I meant to but didn't get around to and gather the info about all your projects together so that you can pop it all up easily. If you're not on the waiting list yet, go check out the tour and then get on the waiting list. It has the potential to be fantastic. I'm really impressed with what they've accomplished and how carefully they've been adding folks in so they can avoid implosions. It really must be a huge endeavor to manage that kind of environment as it grows. Even when it is growing in a controlled way.

I can't wait to see what all there is and get my projects organized there. Unfortunately, I'll have to. Today was full of errands and tomorrow is my upholstery class which sucks up the whole day.

The Bad: Last night I broke a Lantern Moon Sock Stix needle working on my February Rockin' Sock Club socks so they are on hold until I can replace it. I managed to get one heel finished and start the second so I want to keep going with these rather than switch now. At least the heel knitted with these needles is a better fit than the previous one.
That's one horribly pale foot propped on my other equally pasty leg in order to get a good shot of the heel. I need to enlist a helper for these photos I think. I'm rather annoyed with myself for not using the bamboos instead though. Especially since I knew I have to knit tight to make gauge for this pattern. Only, they were in a different project and I was too stupid to switch them out. And then this morning I cracked (just a tiny one thank goodness, but still) my beautiful David Reed Smith niddy-noddy by skeining a lace weight under too much tension. Sometimes I just want to smack myself upside the head. I'll have to see if I can get a replacement part for it or something. Sigh.

The Beautiful: Possibly I should have saved Beautiful for Ravelry and lead off with this as merely Good but I am so pleased with how this turned out (eventually) to be almost exactly how I envisioned it when I started, that I think it's beautiful. I mentioned last time about dying some yarn for Mystery Shawl 3. Well, I did it this weekend. I started Friday night with what I had in the house. Food coloring. I tried blending some colors and dropping them into the water on the yarn in some sections followed by using the new (to me) black food coloring with which I tried to get a grey fairly evenly over all the yarn. The idea was to end up with a grey backed by hints of other colors (blue, purple and green basically). Well, that didn't work out too well because the black food coloring isn't really black. It just looks black if it is dark enough. Lighter, it's more of a reddish brown or something I think. Which wasn't the look I wanted.

So Saturday I went out and got some Jacquard Acid Dyes and overdyed the whole skein with Gunmetal. And I got this lovely yarn which is not quite as blue as it looks here but it is definitely a blued grey which I think I actually like better than the grey I had initially envisioned.

hand-dyed laceweight arty shot

It felted a little bit in the dye pot because I had to leave it for a bit while doing chores and it boiled softly while I was gone. That'll teach me to not try to multi-task while I'm dyeing. I re-skeined it today while it was still slightly damp (I seem to remember reading some blog somewhere that mentioned doing that with slightly felted yarns to make it easier to separate the strands) and it looks fine. It was only a tiny tiny bit felted together. It pulled apart pretty easily except for a couple of places where I actually had to tease the strands apart a bit. This photo shows the color variation better but the one above is arty.

KnitPicks Bare Laceweight dyed with food colors (blends of regular and neon and Black) and overdyed with Jacquard Acid Dye - Gunmetal

It's still drying right now. But I can't wait to use it. I think I've finally got the right yarn for my Mystery Stole 3. I just hope that 880 yards will be enough. Melanie says it only took her 780 but I'm always convinced things won't work for me even if they do for other people. I need to learn how to color correct my photos I suppose but I haven't time for yet another interest. Especially now that I have Ravelry to explore.

Confession Time

I'd probably get a lot more done if I just concentrated on current projects instead of starting others. And reading about still more others. Only I've been reading these blogs and they all have these cool things they are doing and... Yeah, you know what's coming next. I buy another pattern or yarn or both and futz around with them instead of finishing anything currently on the needles. Plus I keep finding issues and have to rip out the little bit I did get knitted. I'm working on accepting that in the appropriately Zen manner but mostly I'm still swearing and stomping and pulling a Cinderella's step-sister with the sock (or whatever) when I figure out there's a problem. Then after the appropriate mourning period I rip and restart.

The "accomplishments" of the last two weeks are thus minimal.

I ripped the French Market Bag back to the color change and switched which color I was using for the lighter color. I knew in my heart when I started the second color that it didn't seem quite right but I plugged away for a while before admitting it officially. Then I had to wait for a chance to get to the LYS. I like this combo much better though.
But at the current knitting rate, I figure there's at least two weeks before I finish this bag.

My Feb Rockin' Sock Club Socks had managed to get knitted to the appropriate length and get their heels knitted only to have their heels have to be ripped back. I mean really, does this look like it was gonna work out ok to you?
Me neither. It's partly because I forgot to switch back to the size 1 needles from the size 0 needles I think. I may also have not started at the right place. I ran a thread through to use as a lifeline (note to self, do that before starting the heel next time, idgit, it'll be much faster than carefully picking up stitches in the already knitted part) and ripped the heels out. Then I got smart and with the socks on the lifelines put them on and measured and decided I actually needed a few more rows of foot on each one first. That's finished but I haven't restarted the heels yet because I got sucked into the whirlpool.

I joined Mystery Stole 3. I'd have managed not to I think, except my best friend joined up too and after that I was helpless against the current. Of course, despite thinking it over since I first heard about it (sometime around the day signups started, iirc) I didn't actually sign up until practically the last day. (I'm wondering, do I win a procrastination achievement award for that?) So I'm still trying to pick a yarn let alone get caught up. So far I've tried a plain purple extra fine merino which is probably ok but not quite dark enough maybe. And the Midnight Rainbow/Harlot's Peacock laceweight by Perchance to Knit that I got from The Loopy Ewe and I'm still looking for the right answer. I love the Harlot's Peacock but decided I want to save that for the Peacock Feathers shawl. I know, how predictable, but I think it will really look nice in that shawl so I'm saving it for that. Which I just ordered the pattern of - see paragraph one.

So I decided to dye my own for MS3. I have some KnitPicks bare Laceweight merino. I've popped it into a dye pot and we'll see what I can come up with on my own. After all I'm already so far behind that waiting while I dye some yarn isn't really that big a deal is it?

The two inches of ribbing socks are still just two inches of ribbing and the sidewinders are still where they were too. And the Barbie dress, while twice as long as it was, is still indecent even for Barbie so I've nothing to show you for that either. I did start another hat, this time for the neighbor's baby, but quickly put it to one side to finish up closer to the winter holidays. No one needs a hat around here right now!

I did get some more done on my studio but no more pictures of that until it's done I think. I want to display the full effect rather than anymore piecemeal shots. And I did get something done on my chair...
That's the first piece of actual fabric on the chair instead of just muslin underlining or whatever they call it.

To give you an idea of just how exciting it is around here...
... she's watching ice melt.

What? Wait, where did all the time go?

Woosh. I'm not sure how more than a week has passed without me really noticing it. Some knitting has naturally occurred. A little spinning too. Not enough though. Of either. Nothing much to photograph because of that.

In not really knitting or spinning or anything related: I did some more work on my chair but forgot to take the camera. Next time maybe. And the studio has now had most of the joint compound stuff dealt with. I'm not making anymore predictions though about when things will be done because the project stalled a bit this last week and I blame that completely on my boastful statement about when I'd be able to paint.

Knitting-wise: I got through the increases on the French Market Bag and am at the color change point. There's days and days of knitting ahead of me on that before it will merit another photo. I started yet another sock but won't show that either. It's only 2 inches of 2x2 ribbing. Boooooring.

The Sidewinders stalled because the dog ate my knitting needle. No really, she did. I had switched to a pair of rosewood straights because that was all I could find that I liked in the 2.25mm size 1 size in any lys. Anyone who wants a Crystal Palace bamboo in size 1 feel free to ask and I'll send it off to you. I don't like the join. So anyway, I knit a few rows of Act two on these straights and they were working fine. And I go away for a while and when I next go to pick them up I discover the end missing off one of the needles. It turned up with the unmistakable marks of dog teeth on it about two days later. So I couldn't work on my Sidewinders because of the dog. Also, because I was too stupid at first to figure out that by wrapping a rubber band around the needle near the end I could easily render it useable again. And partly because I couldn't figure out how to write the pattern out for myself so even after the doh! moment I didn't start right up again. I think I have got it now though. But since they still look just about the same as last time - no photo of that either.

More rows done on the Feb RSC socks too but again, not enough of a change since last time to be worth a photo. And I started a Barbie(tm) dress for my daughter's dolls but since it still isn't long enough to be decent, let alone finished I'm not gonna photo that either right now*. Those skinny yarn things take forever to show progress. Worsted weight things go much more quickly. Well, as long as they are small things like hats they do anyway.

I did manage to knit a couple of little hats for Sheri's Loopy Q2 Challenge (baby hats for an orphanage in China) and got them sent off in the nick of time (I hope - I don't really trust the post office). They were a fairly fast knit actually (worsted weight and small = fast), and I had fun with them.

I used Knitting Pure and Simple's basic children's hat pattern and then did a little tiny bit of futzing at the top for decoration. On the plain peach I just did an i-cord long enough to make a little loop and then sewed it down. On the multi-color (knit out of the crock pot dye experiment that involved shaking three flavors of KoolAid over the yarn and water to see what would happen) hat I used the method for making decorative little yarn twists that Annie Modesitt showed on Knitty Gritty. I thought they looked kind of cute like that. And better than a pompom because no yarn ends can be pulled through and then eaten by the hat wearer.

I've started on a third one as a present for next Christmas for the neighbor's baby girl. I'm just going to get it going so I can remember the plan and then I'm going to shelve it for a bit. If I remember to take good enough notes (or look here) I'll do a matching one for her older sister and something similar but not too cute for their middle brother. And then I'll be in clover with my own daughter who's the same age as the older girl which is always a good place to be.

I find myself puzzled by something I noticed when my June Rockin' Sock Club yarn arrived the other day. I'm really not a big fan of oranges or yellows or even reds. I do like wine/burgundy and the occasional black cherry or even maybe once in a very long while, maroon. But mostly I tend to stay in the cool color half of the color wheel. So why does my "currently easily accessible" yarn pile look like this?

I don't know, either. I know some of them were bought/dyed for the orphanage hats and the colors were chosen partly deliberately to make them look "happy" and partly because there's not a lot of color choice in the KoolAid stash. And my daughter does like those colors so they won't go to waste even if I didn't manage to use them up for orphanage hats this time around. And two of them (the June RSC - that's the one in the front, 2nd from the right, and June Zen String - the one that's still in a skein instead of a yarn cake ) are club yarns where I had no control over the color that arrived. Only I actually like them all - in at least the abstract, even if not for me. And I think the June club yarns will stay mine no matter what.

Does this mean I'm finally getting over that orange outfit I wore when I was twelve that I thought had scarred me for life?

Probably not.


* Actually, I did. It's the thing on the needles in the yarn pile photo.

What I did before Summer Vacation...

Or fun with 2nd graders...

My daughter was in 2nd grade this last school year. In 2nd grade in her school they are "very highly encouraged" (I almost tested this description of the attitude about participation, but I handicap my daughter enough by my other oddities so I figured I'd be nice and go along) to enter the science fair. Being an evil mommy (see above), I decided to subvert this experience to my own ends. So I conned my daughter into deciding to investigate wool dyeing. Specifically the question of whether lemon juice would help set dye as well as vinegar. Cause, after all, vinegar is stinky.

I won't bore you with details about all the scientifically accurate stuff we did. We measured everything carefully, we tried varying amounts of lemon juice and vinegar as well as multiple colors of dye, we tested colorfastness, we tried multiple setting methods, we did a control with neither vinegar nor lemon juice. And we ended up with a lot of 10 yard lengths of dyed yarn in various colors. All of them really strong because the amount of dye we used (we used food coloring) was a lot more than we probably needed to (although it did all exhaust into the yarn).

And now I know I can use citric acid instead of vinegar and it has a good chance of working. I'll have to do further tests for myself with the more common fiber dyes of course but it was worthwhile. Now I just have to figure out how I can subvert next year's science fair experiment to my own ends. Muahahahah!

Not satisfied with this victory over the school system for some reason, I then did the spinning and weaving demo for her classroom that I talked about earlier and they evened the score I think. Because more than one parent (always a bit bemused by saying it, and more often than not, a parent of a boy) mentioned later how their child was still talking about it, and because the kids had begged to have a chance at using the spinning wheel itself, I conned a friend into helping me do spinning wheel demos for them.

She often teaches spinning to kids at demo days around the area and I think is still my friend despite being swamped with 2nd graders for a while. We took wheels into my daughter's classroom and treadled while the kids drafted fiber to spin yarn. Everyone managed to make yarn, and one girl managed to make quite thin yarn so ended up with quite a long length of it. It was fun - though very stressful in a way. I'm not great with kids despite having one. It was particularly overwhelming when they all wanted to try to do both treadling and drafting with not much classtime left. Or when the boys wanted to see how fast they could make the wheel go around. Or when someone would reach toward the wheel while it was spinning. Still, no one was injured so that probably makes it a success from a certain point of view. I think most of the kids enjoyed it. And I do think my daughter will be fairly good at it eventually. I hope we'll do some spinning together this summer vacation.

We're only a week into summer vacation so far so I can't tell yet how much I might be able to get done fiber craft wise. Fingers crossed more than I have the last month or so. In the mean time, this week I did get a few things done.

Knitting: I went to Alison Jeppson Hyde's book signing at Rug & Yarn Hut yesterday and scored myself a copy of her book of lovely shawls, Wrapped in Comfort. It's a great book. As I looked through it I'm pretty sure that the only times I didn't think "Oh, that's pretty," I was thinking either "Oooooh!" or "That's beautiful!" instead. There's both charts and written instructions for each shawl (which is great if you're like me and need both) and little story for each one with a little info about how that shawl came about. I always find it interesting when authors do that. Little peeks into how other people's minds work is always interesting to me. (Probably why I'm enjoying blogs so much now that I've discovered them.) And a section of nice quick explanations for the basic stitches used in the patterns. Which is good for people like me who forget how to put the needles in for a "p2tog tbl" in between times I've done them. I'm the poster child for "use it or lose it" I think. I'm spoilt for choice on which project to do first. And it was lovely to see the shawls in person. I just wish I 'd had more time to look at them closely. I must remember to leave the rest of the family at home next time instead of trying to fit something like this in with the other errands.

I made it almost all the way through Act 1 of the Sidewinders. But I don't see any point to posting a new picture yet. I will at the end of Act 2 but so far it doesn't look a whole lot different than it did in the previous post. Same with the Inside Out socks which have a few more rows on the shorter sock than last time.

Spinning: I'm paused in the spinning of the brown Romney on the Columbine (see below) But, I wanted to play with my new hand spindle so I've been spinning some "almost vintage" fiber. It's a multicolor merino I've had for oh probably at least 3 years, maybe as much as 6 years now. I found it in the recent scramble to find fiber for the teaching of spinning to small children. No I didn't give them this. This is mine! Grrrrrr! Mine! Look how pretty it looks on my new spindle.

Since I took my Columbine to DD's school for the second hands on spinning day for her class, the tension got changed from when I was spinning my brown Romney. If I'd been smart I'd have made sure to note where it was set to before I took it in. But I wasn't smart and the kids got to it. Not to mention I adjusted it myself in order to get a better ratio for the kids. So I decided that before I sat down and futzed with it to try to get it back to the right place for the Romney I'd play with some color there as well. So I started spinning some merino/viscose (another almost vintage fiber) in a nice bright summery color called "Saffron" (I bought it before I saw any episodes of Firefly possibly/probably before the show even debuted but even still, I giggle a bit when I write or type that name now that I have seen it.)
It's a bit slick and I'm having trouble spinning it evenly but I'm gonna persevere. I think it might make a nice bright scarf or something. I've got about 8 ounces of it left I think. Which even allowing for some mis-steps should be enough for a scarf.

Weaving: I took a loom to my daughter's school along with a wheel and cd spindles the first time I did the little talk and teach thing. This is what my loom looked like after I got it back home:

Every one off the ties and only held in by the warp. Sigh. I was so demoralized (I was sure I had put it in the car in such a way as to prevent exactly this mess from occurring and I was also so sure it would take forever to straighten out) that I just hauled it back into the house and put it in a timeout corner. Like it was the loom's fault. Poor thing. Well, Friday I finally sucked it up and fixed it. It took me maybe 10 minutes. Sometimes I'm such a dingbat.

The kids had woven about 11 inches worth of randomness on it during their time on the loom. I'm thinking about weaving another 11 to 12 inches with a feltable wool in worsted or even bulky weight and then felting the resulting strip. The cotton would not felt, obviously, but then I might be able to fold it with the felted half in and stitch up the sides to make a small bag of some kind out of it. Then I could give it to the school next year to auction off in their fund-raiser. This may be a dumb idea. Not the least of reasons why, would be that either it won't sell at all (none of the other parents having any interest in something their kid did the year before) or worse to my mind, I might end up asked to come and do demos in more classes next year when they find out about it. Still, it shouldn't take that long to weave in the wool so I think maybe I'll at least do that before I take this off the loom and start a "real" project. I have to wait for a new reed anyway before I can start that project. Here's an idea, maybe I better go order that reed....

Dyeing: I needed some cheerful child friendly colored worsted weight washable wool and didn't have any. So I got out the dye crockpot and some KoolAid ('cause the studio is still not accessible so it was KoolAid or food color) and made a mess.
When I get it knit up if I don't like the way all that white works in I'll over-dye the finished object, I think. I kinda like the total randomness of it right now though so I'm waiting for the finished object to decide.

Speaking of my office/studio, it's on its way to existence again. Soon I'll have no excuses for how slowly I produce stuff. Well, fewer excuses anyway.

Monday Morning (my daughter's old bedroom - she moved into my old office/studio - I can't believe I got away with leaving it baby style this long)

Wednesday Morning (no more cracked lath & plaster, Yea!)

Thursday Morning (insulation in place - that'll be nice next week, let alone next winter)

Friday Morning (sheetrock half done)

Saturday Morning (all walls, except one in the closet, sheetrocked and the screws patched)

There's still a bit to do but it's moving along very quickly. I'm so excited I'm squealing inside. I think by next week I might be painting. WooHoo! To clarify any misconceptions: No I'm not doing all this myself. I'm paying an expensive but skilled gentleman to do it for me. If I were doing it we'd still be in the first section of pulling out all the lath and plaster. And we'd be there for weeks probably based on past experience. The painting I will be doing. If I don't manage to con DH into doing it.

Now it's time to go order a reed and then write out my line by line for Act 2 of the Sidewinders so I can keep going on those.

Finished, Started, and Still Slogging Along

Finished: The Spring Things Shawl is finished! Woo Hoo!!! See?
In that photo it's blocking (duh - they can see that, silly) and clearly I need to work on my blocking technique but in my defense this is my first shawl, my first attempt at blocking anything, and my joints were acting up. I blocked it on some 2' square foam blocks made for exercising on. I got mine at Target. I know Wendy got some somewhere else which is what gave me the idea to try it of course.

I used Zephyr and size 4 needles so it ended up a little on the small side with a wingspan of 60" and a drop of 31" after blocking. At the time I started this shawl, I was making it for a nice petite young lady so while I knew it might be smaller, I felt it was fine if it did end up smaller. Now, I shall have to think what I am going to do with it now that it is done. I'm thinking of sending it to my mother's cousin in England (also a nice petite lady) who is very ill and who had done a lot of knitting for my daughter before she got sick. I've been thinking it over for weeks now as I finished the shawl and I have a slight problem. A lot of the time I think it turned out nice enough to be a gift for this wonderful woman but then my inferiority complex jumps out at me and I fret it would be not right for some reason. I tried it on and got hubby to take this photo:
It's not that great a photo, I've got nowhere here inside or out that doesn't look pretty yucky at the moment (that is the least yucky view I think - sad eh?) what with everyone being sick in rotation for months and dead sprinkler systems and remodeling and whatnot. Also, I'm not a model. And also apparently not clever enough to put the shawl on without bunching it at the neck. Still there it is for what it's worth. I'm still not sure what I think about sending it on to my dear Auntie.

When my DD saw it blocking she said "That's pretty, Momma." Then, "can you make one for me, Momma?" I said yes. She said, "Only without the beads?" I said yes again. Then I asked what color she wanted and she asked if I could make it without the lace. While thinking, "Well, yes but then it won't be this shawl will it?" I said I could, and further negotiation ensued. Resulting in, I am apparently knitting her a plain striped shawl in red, white, and blue. I figure if I stall long enough she'll change her mind again so I'll wait for a bit before I go hunting for yarn.

Started: I could resist the call of Nona's Sidewinders no longer and started on my "Snakes on a Strawberry" socks despite still not being finished with my "Inside Out" socks. But I haven't gotten very far. I've already had to rip back once because not only had I started with a larger size 1 than I did my gauge swatch on, I also screwed up one row very early on but didn't realize it until I was almost to the heel shaping. Ok, full disclosure: I knitted an entire additional row while arguing with myself about whether or not I had made a mistake. Despite knowing deep down I had. I do sometimes wonder about myself. Did I think I was going to convince the sock to swap its stitches into the correct pattern on its own just by continuing to knit? Denial ain't just a river in Egypt...
I think the yarn (Spunky Eclectic's sock club yarn - color "Strawberry Fields") is going to look pretty nice in this pattern. I did make one itty bitty change to the pattern because my stitch gauge was a tiny bit off on the smaller size 1 needle but I like the fabric so well for that size needle I wanted to use it anyway. I hope my maths were right and they fit properly when they are done.

Still Slogging along: I'm still slogging along on the Feb Rockin' Sock Club socks (the Inside Out socks) and on the French Market Bag. I'm expecting the June Rockin' Sock Club sock kit any day now and I think to keep from feeling too out of the loop I might start them as soon as they arrive. That will mean I'll have three pairs of socks on the needles at once. There's something scary about that. But then I think, "that just means I have a choice about which socks to work on at any given time and choice is good right?" Possibly I'm deluding myself.