A miracle!!! A post!!!

Wow, sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I had plans to finish another skein of yarn before posting and then I never finished it and the post never went up. So a lot of stuff has been going on around here. I think I'll limit this post to stuff I have pictures of and talk about my new job in a later post because not much has been going on on that front.

So.... I think I'll start with the rambouillet that I finished spinning up. I think it turned out WONDERFUL!
I don't plan to knit the pattern that came with it but I'm not quite sure what I should knit from it. I have a little over 600 yards of thin sock weight yarn. So, I'm thinking socks, toe-up and possibly little anklets. Then I was thinking that I should get a new sweater going because I scrapped the cardigan that I was working on and I was also thinking about knitting this up with that purple-y fiber that I bought quite some time ago. I thought that I should knit up a swatch of the rambouillet so that I could see what the gauge might look like with the purple-y merino if I modeled it after the grey.
I LOVED knitting with my own yarn. I can't wait to be able to make a whole garment out of my own hand spun yarn. Another thing I'm very proud of is this:
Yeah, the yarn has no extra twist at all! It's just laying there quite happily on the floor, in whatever shape I give it. All of this talk about my own yarn is reminding me of why I started this whole thing in the first place... I might just finish it up....

So that second skein of yarn I was trying to finish was the purple. That didn't happen. I have two full bobbins, I just need to ply them but I've really let it slip away from me.
Lets see... I finished the green ankle socks:
I really enjoyed the pattern and how quickly these knit up. But... I hate the yarn and the way these socks have hardly any stretch and the way they feel when I walk around. Apparently, I have sensitive feet. Huh. It's a superwash wool from knitpicks and has great stitch definition but I'm thinking that is it's only redeeming quality and it isn't enough to make me want to knit another pair of socks for myself out of this.
On the other hand, I am really enjoying knitting with the tofutsies. I'm also doing a toe-up sock and finding that I like it much more than top-down. I like how the toe looks and feels and I enjoyed knitting the turn of the heel much more than the other way and now this way I can see how much yarn I have to work with. However, I'm not sure how tall the socks should be so I think I'm going to have to go pick up another set of needles and knit from the other end of the yarn so that I can get the most out of my yarn!

I've been making a lot of progress on my shawl:

I love the way it smells and the feeling of the yarn as I knit it up.

I NEEDED a new sock book... preferably a toe-up book, but that doesn't exist so I had to 'settle' for this magnificent thing!
The plants have been growing, but no blooms. Everybody else's flowers are blooming and mine are just growing taller and green... I'm not if this means I'm a bad gardener but I continue to water them and wait.
I bought a new purse, it's soo cute! And a perfect spring purse to transport knitting around in!
I got a new haircut in preparation for my new job. I thought that perhaps I should try to thin some of the bulk out and look like a person rather than a head with a mop on it:
The other day Michael and I were running errands and we saw this:
It's a little blurry but that's because we were driving and this man was driving his motor cycle and the two cars had a hard time working together. Anyway, strapped to the front of this man is a small dog with rider goggles. Now at first I was shocked and thought that this man must be doing something cruel to the poor dog. But then I realized, if the dog was really that scared he would probably pee all of this man so the whole thing took on a much funnier mood.

And finally, some cute pictures of Fez:

Picture-less update in bullet form

• I did, indeed, trash the white acrylic piece of crap, and had a wonderful time doing it!
• I finished my green ankle-high socks
• I've started a new pair of toe-up socks out of the peachier of the two skeins of tofutsies
• I plied up around 180 yards of the variegated yarn (it's currently hanging dry with a heavy weight - I got WAY too much twist in it and realized it after it was too late)
• I really haven't made too much progress on the shawl.... I can't exlain why. I think I was just in the need of something of the garter stitch nature (read, the new socks)
• I finished spinning up the first half of the Wooly Fiber club fiber and have to spin up the other half before plying.
• I received a bunch of benefit booklets and the like from my new job, I start work on June 4th and my position is officially called 'Research Scientist'!!!
  

Obsession + A Job = Trouble

Sorry I haven't been posting lately... I've been a little obsessed with my new projects. Plus, I had an interview with a company called Bionovo. The description of the position was too detailed for me to get a good understanding of what I would be doing and then they SHOCKED me with a group interview. I was so nervous I was damn sure I had failed the interview. Then I called them and harrassed them a few times because they were taking so long in getting back to me. I was certain they just didn't have the guts to tell me that I wasn't hired. The next day I got an email to go in for a second interview. Well when I got there one of my future coworkers said, "So I heard they offered you a position." Tthat was news to me, but it sure put me at ease! Woohoo!!! They're not sure when I'm going to start working because they have to get corporate in California to send me the necessary paperwork but it sure is a relief to have a job to look forward to. I'll tell you more about it later, perhaps after my first day. This post is dedicated to all my on-going projects.

First, I spun up some of that merino from morehouse. I'm not sure if you can tell the difference between this picture and the previous one but I really haven't put a dent in the fiber.
The wool actually has a little too much grease in it and I'm losing almost half of the fiber to preparations but its spinning up very strong. I'm forced to spin it a little thicker than I would like because it snaps on me if it's any thinner. But now that I see it in the picture, perhaps it's plenty thin. I plan to navajo ply it and knit up some socks for both Michael and my mother.
When I first got this wool I was using Fez's cat brush to prep the fiber and for some reason I decided that I needed something more appropriate for the project so I went out and bought this:
It wasn't until I got home that I realized this was a direct violation of the yarn diet... I really have no explanation as to why the diet completely slipped my mind. But I was VERY good in the yarn store, Michael was with me and he made sure that I only got what I went in for. I was sidetracked several times and each time he wacked whatever I picked up out of my hands. It was quite humorous and I'm sure the other women in the store heard my laughing.

I also received my first allotment of wool from my spinning club. It's 4 oz. of Rambouillet.
I've already spun up a decent chunk of the first ball before taking this picture.
Here's the yarn:
I'm quite enjoying spinning with this! I'm not sure if it's the fiber or the fact that I don't have to spend an equal amount of time prepping the fiber before spinning it. This I'm also having to spin up a little thicker because it's already been washed and doesn't have any grease in it to help hold the fibers together. But again, this is certainly something I love!

Last night I went to Michael's softball game and brought along my jaywalkers. The weather was a little chilly (even with me in my sweatshirt) so I thought that it would be a perfect time to get some work in. Also, I need to turn the heel on the second Hedera and I'm not confident enough in my skills yet to not keep referencing a pattern. Anyway, I was sitting there, watching Michael and his team warm up when I got recruited to play for another team on another field cuz they were short one girl. MAN I forgot how much I used to love playing softball. They said that they could probably use me every week so I'm thinking about doing that! The league runs through early June and then I'm thinking about joining a more local league in the fall (which is August through October)!

I made some good progress on the Jaywalkers last night while watching the X-files we received from netflix:
Since we're discussing socks, here is the progress of my second Hedera. And I really don't think I've got second sock syndrome with this. I've just been obsessed with other projects lately....
For example, here is the progress I've made on my shawl. And those of you who look close enough will notice that the pattern is not at all what I decided on in the last post.I was having such a hard time working out the way that it was supposed to look that I just gave up on it and found that I really liked the pattern on page 68 called 'A knitted veil in Pyrenees wool.' I like the fact that I don't have to think too much with it and should be able to have a nice end product. Don't get me wrong there is some necessary concentration when knitting the pattern, but it's not like I took several pieces of other patterns and tried to make them fit!

And last, but certainly not least, I treated myself to a visit to the yarn store in celebration of my recent employment! I got two skeins of tofutsies because they are quite cute and something I haven't knit with before. I was only going to buy two skeins of sock yarn, but then I spotted an older yarn harlot book and snatched it up!
This picture shows more accurately the peachy shades in the skein on the left.
Now I know that they are very similar in shades and colors, but they were really the only ones that I saw that I liked! Oh well, I'm quite certain that I won't be knitting them back to back. I really think that I'm going to just be knitting these in a simple ribbing or striping pattern as something that I can use to keep my hands busy when I can't fully concentrate on a pattern.

Also, I haven't done any more work on the two sweaters. I'm really contemplating ripping back the neck shaping on the front of the cardigan and making into something more 'me.' And I'm not too worried about finishing Rachel's sweater in time. I've just got the sleeves left and seaming, that shouldn't take too long with the way it's shaped and pattern for the sleeves.

Say what?!

I got a delivery today from Morehouse Merino..... Gorgeous!
Since I love to spin in the grease I can just sit right down and get started! And to think, just last night I almost broke my fiber diet because I was really craving some dark wool to spin.
Only, I just realized that I don't have anything to card with. But at the same time I remembered that I prefer to spin up the individual locks. I still need to flick the ends, loosen up the fibers a bit. I do have several cat brushes and Maggie was talking about using a dog comb to flick the ends... I'll have to give it a shot.

On the other hand, last night I caved and decided that I'd had enough sweater knitting and was working out a pattern for a new shawl out of the dusty rose yarn I already bought. If anyone reading this has Victorian Lace Today I decided to go with the border from the Diamonds and Triangles shawl on page 150 and use the Trinity Stitch center panel from Half Square on page 126. I hadn't gotten to calculating gauge and how many stitches of the center panel I would need for the edging before the gorgeous fleece came.

I've been working pretty hard, trying to get back into my exercise routine and this morning I did some pretty intense leg work. That might be the deciding factor on how I spend my day!

(Also, I finished the front panel of Rachel's sweater yesterday... but nobody really cares. I know I don't.)

Not feeling too bloggy lately...

Since it is a Friday I thought I'd post some pictures of what I've been up to lately. And then it's straight back to my shawl... I'm trying to have it washed, blocked and ready to wear for my two year anniversary date on April 7th! It still just looks like a bunch of lace... but it has certainly grown. And now, the pictures.

LYS VISIT

So, as you could have bet, I went to the yarn store today. I decided that I didn't really NEED any new books so when I got there I made sure to make a beeline past the books and right to the fiber 'nook'. When I got there I knew for certain I'd have to get some colored fiber becuase they had clearly gotten a shipment of fiber since I last gave it a good look. I almost forgot to get some undyed fiber! In the end, I left the store with a pound of undyed merino top, a pound of purple merino top, and a niddy-noddy.
The purple in this picture has a lot more sheen than it does in reality, otherwise the colors are fairly accurate. I can't WAIT to get started spinning up that purple. But I really shouldn't forget about that reddish-orange merino top I bought a couple weeks ago. Can you see it? CLEAR ... over.... there?

How about now?

It's sitting with two finished skeins... what is it doing over there? I think if it could answer that question, the reddish-orange merino top would say, "Being ignored." I'm going to have to spin some of that up, lickety-split.

Before I took the Lendrum back to Maggie's shop this afternoon, I had to ply some yarn up because some of it was on a Schacht bobbin not belonging to me. This is what that dyed fleece looks like spun up. It feels naked in this form and, thus, does not photograph well. Here you can see the variations from green to dark blue, but it is really not as obvious as it should be.
This picture is of a triple ply between the dyed fleece, a washed fleece, and an unwashed fleece.
The picture is a little blurry, or at least looks that way because of the plying effects. But you can see the white and yellow-ish colors of the two undyed fibers in contrast to the dyed strand. I plan to over-dye this skein with a teal-ish looking green in effort to lighten the over all color of the yarn. I'm really pleased with how this first triple-plying project came out and will probably do more in the future!

I may have made a mistake...

Last night at spinning we learned how to ply our yarns. I really think that mine turned out pretty good, for a first time. I looked like a fool while doing it, what with all the strands getting tangled up and trying to keep the wheel spinning in the counter-clockwise motion and remembering to move the in-coming yarn to a new hook quite often so the bobbin would still be functional. But I'm pleased with the results! Now, I just have to wash it and let it dry before the dye-day (in two weeks or so).















But the mistake that I made was bringing home the single-treadle schacht:

I tried to ply the rest of my yarn the last night........ DISASTER! I finally let Fez take over, he seemed much better at it than me:


Note the incredibly happy look on his face as he lays amongst all that mess, yarn and bobbins and all. That was nowhere close to the look on my face at the time. I decided that perhaps I should fall back and re-learn how to spin the normal uncarded fibers on the wheel first. That is my goal for today: re-learn spinning.

As for closing remarks about the Ashford, which I didn't get to yesterday, I don't like it. As painful as it is for me to say, it's true. I'm in love with the double-treadle Schacht and if I'm spending that much on a wheel, I'd better be in LOVE with it. Wednesday night, with a new bobbin on the Ashford, I let the wheel do what it wanted. Well what it wanted was spider-thin lace weight yarn. I filled up a bobbin with said yarn, simply because it was the only way that the wheel and I could get along. There was no peace for me when spinning with the Ashford. If I tried to make the yarn that I wanted, the wheel fought me every step of the way. If I let the wheel do what it wanted, I was unhappy with the weight of the yarn being produced.

I also talked to Maggie last night, she convinced me that I should get the Schacht too.. :)

Then I convinced myself that I needed to be certain that the double-treadle was the one for me and that is why I brought home that trouble-some single-treadle.... thing.

I also brought home some gorgeous fiber, something with a little color because I felt like I might be losing my lust for spinning because of all the bland white-ness that I was working with.


I don't think you can tell, but there are subtle twinges of orange and yellow amidst all the red that should make for an interesting spin. I, of course, won't be spinning this beautiful stuff until I can get the hang of the single-treadle.

Now, onto a more knitting front: I have finished the front, or back, piece of my Alexander McQueen Knockoff. This piece is so long that it is difficult to get an accurate representation of the whole in one shot, so here are two:




















And I apologize for the somewhat inadequate quality of these pictures. I had to take them quickly because this was coming soon:

He makes things a little more difficult than one might want and I didn't feel like fighting him today. Also, I think that those last three pictures will have to be my entry for Eye Candy Friday. They are quite hilarious if you play the 'movie' in your head.