Yes, There is Spinning

I am spinning some of the fiber I bought at Stitches West.  I split the fiber in half (roughly) the long way and planned to spin one half and then the other half and ply them together for a two ply yarn.

As I spin up the fiber I am rethinking that plan.  I would like to preserve the beautiful hand dyed colors and thought I might be able to match up the colors when I ply each half together, but I don't think that will work out as well as I thought.  I am now thinking a Navajo ply would be the best way to get the yarn I want out of this fiber.  I am hoping for enough to knit a pair of socks.

I had a wonderful Mother's day yesterday, Paul took the boys dirt biking for two days to give me some downtime, it was lovely but I found myself missing them.  PJ and I had a lovely time planting some flowers and jumping on the trampoline. 

Finally, Something Interesting

Meet Arashi, the second kit sent by Abstract Fibers.  You all know how much I loved the purple goodness, how bittersweet the finishing was, I spent several weeks with nothing on the needles.  Then one day a lovely package came in the mail...the rest as they say, is history.

Arashi, you had me at hello, when I opened the envelope and saw the red I was smitten.  It is as if this company has designed their kits and colorways just for me.  This is a larger shawl and will therefore take me longer than the first one, do you think I can have it off the needles in time for the next shipment?  The whole pattern is so much different than anything I have knit before that I don't know what kind of progress goals to set.  I will commit to picking it up and knitting a bit every day, but when those rows get to be 512 stitches long I have no idea how much that will slow me down.  It will grow to a whooping 630 stitches in total. 

I think Shannon has the most experience of all of us with lace.  I bet that beautiful blue shawl was bigger that Arashi.  Shannon maybe you can give me the best guess on time frame.

I am using my smallest Addi lace (US4) one size down from the recommended needle size (I am usually a size down for all my knitting) I think I would like it knit a bit tighter, I am going to try a US3 Addi circular, but it is not a lace needle.  If that needle size works well I may splurge and order a signature circular, I am craving a better point for this project, and enjoying the lace knitting enough to make the investment. 

I am wondering if whomever redesigned blogger has ever actually blogged themselves.  I can't seem to place my pictures where I would like them in my text.  It all just seems a little clunky now, I liked blogger so much better before they "improved" it. 

PJ is surfing on YouTube and just me she now knows how to make a stink bomb.  I am wondering why she is looking that up and surprised the parental controls I have set did not block that site.  She is sitting on my bed with me while she surfs, so rest assured not unsupervised.

Zoom Zoom

I am not sure where the time is going, I can tell you I don't have much to show for it's passing!

I have nothing new on the needles, still just enjoying the feel of purple goodness across my shoulders and not quite ready for a new love.  I am spinning up one of the fibers I bought at Stitches but have no photographic evidence of my work thus far.

Edited to add: Blogger is bugging me!  It ate half this post.  I am going to post what is left to see if it will work. 

Blogger is Eating My Posts!

Testing, will Blogger Eat This?

I Am So Glad You Asked

Shannon, Thank you so much for asking about the lace wrap, I know there was week I did not post any progress pictures. That was kind of deliberate, it looked pretty much the same as the previous pictures only longer and I was pretty close to the grand finale so I decided I would wait until it was off the needles.



I finished it last Sunday afternoon, which means it took me only 3 and half weeks or so to finish. I came in well under my self imposed deadline and I enjoyed every minute of knitting it. I blocked it the afternoon yesterday and my love affair with the pattern continues. I am so pleased with the finished product I am already planning what to wear with it for work on Monday. I am thinking a purple knee length skirt with a plain white t-shirt to show it off, maybe with some boots or flats depending on the weather.



I have to say that since it came off the needles on Sunday I have been wandering around the house feeling a bit restless. Like a break up with a lovely boyfriend, not quite ready to move on but needling something to fill the void.



I have been knitting a little bit on my Plane sock (named after it's job to keep me busy on my plane rides to California and back home again) I have to say it is falling a little short on the satisfaction scale, and not quite filling the knitting void left behind by this lovely shawl. I am going to take some time today to have a look a sweater pattern I have been working on that was tossed the void when this lovely beaded pattern stole my attention.

I am not sure if the sweater will do the trick as the lace portion of it is complete and its knit, knit, knit from here. I will be sure to keep in the loop. I have been ignoring the siren song of the fiber lately...

Wishy Washy

Added to Post Today: I have been writing this post for over a week now. I seem to be a bit easily distracted this past week. I started this post last Monday, I keep bringing up on my computer while I am at work to finish up and then patients come in or paperwork needs to get done, or I get distracted by any little thing and forget I was working on this post. I have a couple more posts in my head I would like to share so I think it's time to wrap this one up and get it out there.

When I was at Stitches West I ordered a set of double pointed needles. I had seen the set for sale here at home, and like the points on the needles but the set was $80.00 I thought that was a little pricey. I saw the same set at stitches, even after they shipped them here I saved myself $35.00 what a great deal.



It's all about the points on the needles for me. I like a nice pokey needle. Here is one of the new needles pictured next to the matching size Signature needle. (Signatures are the gold standard when it comes to points as far as I am concerned). I have not knit with the new needles yet, but they are looking good so far.



I have been in the Spring cleaning mood. I am trying to get back to my 15 minute habit. I think I mentioned it before: cleaning something I really don't want to do but really needs to be done. I Set a timer for 15 min and tackle one thing, these days it seems to be the kitchen cabinates.

Here is the after picture of the pantry, I did not take a before a before, no need to publicly embarass myself!

A Day Late

I took a bunch of pictures yesterday for blog posts this week, but never posted! I have the best reason in the world for not posting, the kids are on spring break and I was playing with them most of the day.

I know this is not looking all that different from week to week, but here is the Tuesday update picture. I was a bit disappointed in myself this week because I only got 8 repeats done. Then I took a moment to think about why I was being so silly and hard myself. Eight after all means I have exceeded my goal for myself of one repeat a day.

I hear what Shannon was saying about rows getting longer as you work on a shawl. My repeats were taking me longer because my rows got longer. I am passed halfway on my shawl, which means with this particular pattern, my rows are getting shorter again, so I should be flying by the end of the week.



It has been really windy the past two weeks, and its a very cold wind. So windy in fact that we have had our BBQ slide across the back deck, hockey nets blow across our driveway and onto lawn, crazy wind.

One day last week as I was driving into our neighborhood, I was driving pretty slow as school had just let out so there were lots of kids around, I saw something blowing along the road. I said to the kids is that a ball of yarn that just blew by the us? I pulled over and a grabbed the suspect item only to discover it was a ball of yarn, a very nice ball of yarn, its Merino, Baby Alpaca and Possum.



What do you do when you rescue a lost ball of yarn. Do you post signs on the mailbox? What if someone lost it and needs it to finish the project they are working on?

Progress

I am going to try to show you my progress every Tuesday so you can keep me honest.

I have done better than I hoped this past week, as of bedtime last night I had 10 pattern repeats done which makes me 3 ahead of my goal. I hesitated to say I am getting the hang of this lace stuff, I don't want to tempt the knitting goddess to humble me quite so early in the game.



I was able to do pattern repeats while watching a bit of TV last night. This is huge progress, normally when I knit lace I lock myself in the bedroom or the kissing cave and have complete silence. Mind you I only kept one eye and both ears on the TV and Paul was okay with me pausing the show a time or two so I could count stitches.



Q is playing his last hockey game of the season as I am typing. He scored his very first goal ever in a tournament last weekend and I just got a text from Paul that Q just scored a goal in tonight's game. What a great way for him to end the season. Oddly he has an evaluation skate on Saturday and then we are all wrapped up with the season for all three kids.

PJ got the most sportsman like award for her team this year. I can't think of a greater compliment. Makes me so proud!

Other than that all is pretty quiet here, I think we all need a bit of time to decompress after the busy season.