Yelapa

I just returned from a journey down to Yelapa, Mexico. Yelapa is a little fishing village with no automobiles - it's a 45 minute Water Taxi ride from Puerto Vallarta to get down there, and we stayed at the most lovely Casa Milagros, which is a mere 182 steps up from the village. But the views!



The place is all very lovely - there is a waterfall at the edge of the village, and a larger one about an hour walk away. The food was wonderful, the people were lovely, the weather was stunning. My biggest concern while there was avoiding burro crap. Easy enough.

Oh, and I got some knitting done:


I had wanted to take along a lace knitting project, but not wanting to get too involved in charts and really PAYING ATTENTION, I opted to cast on for a Pi Shawl. I followed the lead of brooklyntweed, and went for a simple yo, K2tog row every once in awhile. Keeping it simple. The yarn is from Miss Simone - Grignasco ExtraFine, and it sure is extrafine! I'm knitting this on US4s. I plan on completing it sometime in 2037 or thereabouts.

*They say that getting there is half the battle, but this time around it seemed to be a bit more - the getting out of there was a bit of an issue. Heed these words, my friends: If any of you ever think for one minute about going to Houston, Texas - consider our friendship OVER.

2000 Yards of Lace, 2 Podiatric Garments, A Quilt.

Well, it's been awhile hasn't it?

I've been continuing in my plan to semi-ignore my holiday crafting tasks. Well, sort of.
I managed to finally get around to machine-quilting this quilt-top that I have had kicking around for some time now - next, to put on the binding.It's been easier to work on non-thinking projects. I present to you my variation of the "Azure" socks from the Winter Knitty, made with STR "Cluckers" colorway:
These are on US0, toe-up, blah blah blah. Going pretty quickly.

But I've really been wanting to get another lace project on the needles, so I spent a pre-snowy evening winding up a bunch of lace:That's A Touch of Twist Lace Alpaca in Lavendar, Malabrigo Laceweight in Verdes, and HelloYarn lace in Acid Green.

And while picking up that ball winder, Max also presented me with the Marie Antoinette Honey Bee kits we ordered! We're planning on working these up as a KAL, but Max said sure get to it. So I'm going to do one, and then wait on the second one until Miss Max is ready to go.
So far, I've got the lace cuff done and grafted, and I picked up along the edge.
My notes on this so far: the pattern is EXTENSIVE. It has everything written down and charted, which is great, but mildly confusing (there's just so much there! in so many different formats!). I ran into a very quick brief confusion on the edge lace chart - Row 3 features a BO2, K1, P3.......it turns out that the K1 is the stitch that you loop the second BO over, then go right to the P3. Easily amended. I'm loving the loop pick up thing on this. The yarn is a dream to work with and the color is amazing. It's fun so far, and has a fair amount going on to keep me interested. Well, until I get to a big lace project.

What else is in store for me? More quilting perhaps - I may try and get another quilt done in time for the holidays, but I'm not counting on it. We'll see.

Oh! And cataloging my stash for Ravelry! Max and I plan on Knit-From-The-Stash in 2008 - anyone want to join us? We'll be posting our rules (right, Max?) once we get them solidified.

A Quilt, A Moth, A Hayride

I've got some pictures this time around:



This is a quilt for my father. I finally got around to finishing it, though not in the way that I had originally planned. See, all those little blocks are his old shirts, and they were supposed to continue out to the edge of the top of the quilt. However, they are a drag to cut and sew, I ran into some sort of size issue and had to trim things back anyway, and I just could not bear the thought of cutting more of them. So it got some borders instead.



I machine-quilted the whole thing, which also proved to be a fairly beastly task. But! It's done. If anyone seeks piles of men's dress shirts, let me know - I've got a ton of them left!

Also:


Viva La Moth! A completed - though not in action - Wing of the Moth shawl. I know this picture gives you no sense of scale; this thing is pretty big! I'm quite happy with how it came out, and it feels wonderful. The topmost lace pattern was simple enough to read and remember, but bored me to tears when I was nearing the end of that section - all those increases! Going into the second lace panel (Twin Leaf I think it is called?) I ran into a bit of an issue with how the 2 different lace patterns fell together. They don't......"line up" to a specific point in the top pattern, and my OCD-brain thought that it was a miscount in the knitting on my part. But no - the numbers all add up, just not the way that my brain wanted them to. I'm happy with how it all fits together in the grand scheme of things, but that first row really threw me.

But I sense you are really here for X-TREME BLOCKING:



This is the bottom center. I think it resembles a beetle-snout/nose. The corona edging is mildly more even than it appears in this picture; there was a wrinkle beneath it. The blocking process took a bit - a lot of going around in circles. I pinned out the top first with some blocking wires, and then I worked from the center of each side out in either direction. Each corona got 6 pins. I attempted to make the circles between them even, with even spacing, to the best of my ability. Once fully blocked, the whole thing was dry within 3 hours - ah, lace! Such swift gratification in the blocking department.

Of course, there was some knitting progress as well:



This is the Hayride Capelet I'm reverse-engineering - I've got about 2 more sets of decreases to go and then I get into the top edging detail - this includes some more aggressive decreasing, some eyelets, the usual. This is moving along with shocking haste! It's a simple Horseshoe Pattern - an 11 stitch repeat, with some reverse straight-stitch between the repeats. I'm working the decreases quite blindly, at the first and last stitches of the reverse sections. From the beginning, I cast on for 15 repeats, with 16 stitches between each section, and 10 stitches at either end. After working some garter stitch rows, I got into the pattern repeats, working decrease rows every 16 rows. I've got to check out the pictures some more to see what happens with the topmost section............I'll probably post the pattern for this once I've got it all figured out. It's a breeze to knit and I highly recommend the alpaca........

Moth=Landed

I had planned on taking a bazillion pictures of: work on the needles, work finally off of the needles, work blocked. But, alas! I have very little to show. I do, however, have a bit of a teaser:This is the Moth! Completed! blocked! BUT folded up.........

It was too dark to get any proper pictures of the Moth IN ACTION ( it is XTREME, recall?) but I will work towards that goal this evening. The blocking portion of this project went fairly well; it was the usual pinning here there and everywhere only to return to where I had started from to do it all again. In other words, the usual. It is very glamourous and I cannot wait to show you all.

I also managed to finish my Socks That Rock experiment - I had originally planned on just knitting through half the ball for each sock, but I ended up tearing the first one back a bit (I didn't care for the pooling changes once I added calf shaping). I gotta say, these things are SPROINGY. They're pretty cozy, too. I completely understand the attraction and STR love now. And of course: THE COLORS.

I got back to the wheel for a little bit, trying to finish up my September Fiber from HelloYarn (I'm quite behind, see) and a wee bit of tackling October's Spunky Eclectic Fiber. BUT! My main project this weekend (and this week - hoping to complete this bear soon) is a quilt that I started TWO YEARS ago for my father. It's made out of his old button-down shirts. It's a BEAST, I tell ya. But I need to just git it done already so I can move on to bigger and brighter pastures.

More pics tomorrow, I promise! Oh, and a tale of reverse-engineering! I'm teaching this week, so there will be books too!

Here's another Moth teaser:

In Which I Make Books & Knit & Simone Gets Married!

Here ya go! A week in six pictures......

I was teaching last week. I had a most wonderful Limp Vellum Bookbinding class - 7 students, 3 day class, make great book. I talk about the Red Sox a bunch, and harangue the students. It's great fun! I got a little bit feisty:

(photo by R. Craig Fansler)

This is an example of the sewing technique we were doing - the Herringbone Stitch. We were creating models of a 14th century binding. The sections of the book are sewn around alum-tawed skin, which is held taut on these sewing frames. Yeah, I know - pushpins are not the most 14th-century technique, but, hey, ya gotta go with what works. One of my students posted more pictures of books in action on his blog.

Then off to Vermont I went! For the most lovely (albeit rainy) wedding festivities of Miss Simone and Scott - here is the lovely Simone modelling her contract knitting:

One of the photographers had exclaimed "If you get a chance to touch this thing, DO IT."
The ceremony, the food, the setting, the company, ESPECIALLY the wedding party - all lovely! Miss B also had a handknit garment:

A lovely little capelet (NOT a shrug!), which ended up blocking out all sorts of wonderful.

The car-ride to Vermont? Lots of time for knitting! Experiment Number 194595495: What's the big deal with Blue Moon Fibers "Socks that Rock" yarn? Like, why does everyone LURVE it so? I decided to find out for myself:
Lest you think that I am not thorough in my experiments, I present to you TWO of these dandies:
This is the "Loch Ness" colorway - one of about 3 colorways remaining by the time I got to the booth selling this stuff at Rhinebeck. I gotta tell ya, it's pretty freakin' nice stuff. It's rather sproingy, and I like the striping. It is super NOT splitty, It seems that it will weather and wear well. I think I can undertand now, and I will even go so far as to recommend this yarn to y'all. I'll revisit it, methinks.

I'm going to throw out this teaser:
I'll be back with pictures of my new friend tomorrow ;)

Branching Out & The Potential for Light at the End of the Tunnel

A quick post before heading out to Rhinebeck this weekend, and also very few photos.

Simone received her lovely cashmere shawl this past weekend - I was loathe to give ti up, it is just so luscious, but, alas. I was rewarded with the pattern, yarn, needles, and measurements to craft a little cover-up for Miss B to wear at/during/after Simone's wedding. It's progressing smoothly, though not much to look at yet, so no pictures. Also no pictures: the completed MOTH! I have yet to block it, so at this point it is just another lumpy bundle of green yarn. You've seen it before. Hoping to block it soon soon soon - I mean XTREME block it - but I'm looking for the space - it ends up at some ridiculous size.

I did manage to get some pictures of a quicky Branching Out scarf:


This is using my Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club September offering, "Aspen". It's a merino/tencel blend and has a great sheen to it, which I wanted to show off. I really like the color transitions:



I'm trying to refrain form casting on anything else - I'm hoping to catch a case of Max's Finishitis, and really take a huge stab at my unfinished projects. Or at least make some decisions on many of them. Here are the things that are up for consideration:
- Ugliest Sweater Ever (need to work on collar shaping)
- Assymetrical Light Blue Zippy Cardi - sleeves :P
- some ancient cotton lace scarf thinger (I think i just need to bind off and call it quits on that one)
- Hush! lingerie - dreadfully tedious and boring at this point, but potentially good to have on hand at work for lunch and meetings, etc.

Those are the only major ones that I can think of off the top of my head - those are the ones that have been marinating for quite some time; I'm hoping my gauge hasn't changed significantly. How do you battle YOUR finishitis?

Block Party!

So many things to report! Max headed over this past Saturday for some Moth KAL action and knit-aide, and a mini-spinning lesson. I crawled around on the front lawn with my bum in the wind:


....blocking Simone's lovely Gothic Leaf Shawl. The neighbors have no idea what to think at this point. The shawl, well, it's just lovely! It blocked out evenly and the cashmere plushed up even more.

I was bound and determined to get some spinning time in this weekend, as I had back-burnered all other tasks while working on the shawl. So I picked up one of my bundles of Citrus merino from HelloYarn and got to work! I have (so far - I have 2 bundles, this is the first) about 350 yards or so of the plumpest softest yarn ever. Here it is on top of the rest of the unspun stuff:

Quite thirsty-making, no?

So now it is back to the Moth! Max has completed her first section of repeats - I have some major catching-up to do. I'm already thinking about how and where I can perform X-TREME blocking - she'll be quite large when done, and those baords just won't handle it.

Reunited, And It Really Does Feel So Good

(clockwise from top left: Icarus, Crystalline, Hanami, Gothic Leaf)

I present to you four lace shawls. And the drama surrounding 2 of them.

In early August, I headed down to The Jers to see family and for a mini-vacation. I had just completed the Icarus Shawl, so I brought that, and I also brought along my First! Ever! Lace! Shawl!, the Crystalline Shawl. On my way back up to Boston, I visited with my grandmother, where she promptly kidnapped the shawls to show off to her Bridge Ladies. A week or two after that, I called down to see if she could send them up here - I wanted to enter them into a fair. So to the post office grandma goes!

That was August 23rd.

The shawls never arrived. I had hope (albeit, minimal), but my grandmother was HEARTBROKEN. DEVASTATED. I explained to her that I am a process knitter, it's okay, I still have hope, etc. But I could hear it in her voice every time I spoke with her that this was making her crazy.

On Tuesday she returned home (from bridge) to her envelope of the shawls! With a big sticker stating "Address Does Not Exist"........I have lived in the same place for EIGHT years. My house was built in the 1880s. I receive mail and deliveries.

Anyway. They're back! Here are some individual pics of the two missing shawls (taken at grandma's):

Icarus - knit with Misti Alpace Lace.


Crystalline Shawl - knit with.........I can't remember :(

I'm glad to have them back! Meanwhile, more lace was made: Hanami (more, better pictures to come), and the Gothic Leaf Stole, for Simone:


I completed Simone's Shawl (well, it still needs blocking) in less then 2 weeks. This was knit with the most luxurious Mongolian Cashmere.

I put everything on hold to knit this up - I know myself enough to know that I would have waited until the last minute otherwise. Expect more posts on spinning soon........I have some catching up to do.

I Make Lace, I Spin, I Block Lace, I Spin More.

Ah, so much to report! First off, a lovely time knitting this past Saturday, where I worked a bit on Wing O' The Moth with Max before setting mine aside for a wee bit. Simone has asked me to knit a shawl for her for her wedding, so I figured best get started on that.


This picture does it absolutely NO justice - the yarn is stunning (Jade Sapphire's Mongolian Cashmere 2-ply) and the pattern (Sivia Harding's Gothic Leaf Stole) is simple enough to memorize and work through. I'm barreling through this (Simone gave me the yarn and needles on Saturday afternoon, here it is Monday and I have 1/3 of it complete).

For some bizarre reason, the warm weather of last week had me spinning a whole bunch. I managed to make it through my August Fiber Club acquisitions:


This is about 170 yards of Lincoln fiber, 2-ply, kind of coarse, maybe sport weight? I'm not good at that part. This is the August selection from the Spunky Eclectic Fiber of the Month Club.



This is Mollusc, the August selection from the HelloYarn Fiber Club. This spun up to about 260 yards of fingering weight.

I've been enjoying these fiber clubs - I'm trying out fibers I don't think I normally would have picked up, as well as learning more about the different breeds. Also, trying out different spinning techniques. Though I find I continue to spin to yarn weight that I prefer to knit with.

My last item today is this poor picture of the completed hanami Shawl, blocking:


I'm happy with how this came out - the yarn was stunning to work with, the pattern was easy enough to follow. I worked the first half of these charts upside-down, then flipped at the mid-point - I wanted to have the leaf pattern on both ends. This went fairly quickly, and I would consider doing it again, though I think I would make it a wee bit wider.

Next up: more pictures of Simone's shawl, some talk about socks, perhaps some UFOs.....

And Some Said It Would Not Happen -

Goblin Socks! TWO OF THEM!
With a lovely little picot edge.I'm thrilled with how they turned out - I had split the yarn cake into 2 equal weight balls and knit them toe-up until I ran out of yarn. They're super squishy-comfortable. Not too much pooling, but some amazing stripery going on there, no?

I was inspired enough by these socks to start up another pair- using my awesome Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club "Celebration" handspun:(These also, believe it or not, are DONE. Like, a PAIR OF THEM. I just need to take some pictures of them.)

And..........more handspinning! This is the lovely "Granite" colorway from Hello Yarn. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, and I still have another bundle of it left to spin up! I did this 2-ply, and managed to get around 417 yards of a (semi-consistent) fingering weight yarn. The colors are just lovely all together-like. I can't wait to knit this up into something, but what? Any ideas? I should hopefully end up with just over twice this much.In the world of lace, well....I'll admit that I have not made much more progress on Hanami. I'm just shy of being halfway through it; perhaps I'll pick it up again this evening. I'm loving the Lacey Lamb yarn - and I had the opportunity to meet the woman behind Jade Sapphire, the importers of Lacey Lamb! She was thrilled to speak with a Lacey Lamb "consumer", and I was able to see a few more colorways that I was not aware of. Man oh man, I cannot say enough good things about that yarn - it is such a treat to work with - buttery soft, saturated colors, just stunning and wonderful in every way. But enough about that - let me show you my Wing O' The Moth!
I cast-on for this shortly after Max did about a week and a half ago. I've completed one pattern repeat (seems easy enough to get it stuck in the brain) and have since set it down. As this IS supposed to be for a knit-along, and the along-ing part has hit some traffic, I don't feel so guilty having not looked at this since I did that one repeat. Let me make a bit more progress on Hanami, then I promise I'll get back to this, okay? Unless, of course, you feel ready to dive back in, Max!

More to come! I just need to take some pictures to get back up to speed. Stay tuned for: Venus the sheep, in which I tackle wool straight form the shearing stage; more lace (of course); more spinning (naturally); my gallery of unfinished/abandoned projects; some quilting (I'll admit that I am posting on that largely to get a cheerleading squad together in order to complete them); and rainbows.

I Spin, I Knit, I Block, Repeat..........

I figured the best way for me to learn more about this spinning business would be to sign up for Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club - in which I receive about 4 oz. of hand-dyed fiber a month. It seemed this would be a great way to familiarize myself with different types of fiber, and branch out in the world of color to places I might not usually travel to. Well! I got my first bundle the other day, and had a blast spinning it (wish I had "before" shots, but alas.....):

Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club July 2007

"Celebration"
4 oz / 345 yds.

I'm quite pleased with how it came out - it is, for the most part, consistent in weight and twist, and the colors are pretty awesome - it reminds me of the bright/muted tones of salt-water taffy. Can't wait for next month! In the meantime, I signed up for Fiber Club at Hello Yarn as well. While visiting Hello Yarn, I managed to pick up some of this:

Lovely, no? I split this lengthwise a few times and started spinning - I'm hoping to end up with something similar to the Spunky yarn. I've got one bobbin full right now (sorry, no pictures) and hope to fill up another one tonight. I am a sucker for brown and teal and blue together.

In the world of knitting, I decided to NOT wait 4 -5 - 6 months to block the Icarus shawl; I figured it took long enough to knit, and at this point, I just didn't want ot have to deal with it anymore. So, blocking:


No good full-shots. It is off the boards now, but it was too rainy the past couple of days to get any lovely model shots. Oh well. soon enough! It turned out to be a little bit wider than my wingspan, and the alpaca fluffed up justenough - no loss of stitch definition, and not so fluffy that it gets in your mouth or anything (in general use, not in shawl-eating or any such).

Also: Hanami progress:
This pattern is so freakin amazing and fun to work on. Since it is so organic, it's alright if you mess up a little bit. I know I missed a stitch here or there, moved a stitch or two, but the pattern works with you - and it goes super duper fast! And the Lacey Lamb yarn? Buttery.

I am working only the Cherry Blossoms portion of this shawl (no basket weave). The pattern has you work the blossom charts out to one end, then pick up and knit the other end - so, center out. I figured the whole thing was non-directional enough that I could just flip the charts over and work them upside down. Seems to be working out for me just fine:My handy row/chart marking device? It is a magnetic knife-edge guard for kitchen knives. My roommate-chef left one hanging around and I hopped on it - IDEAL for such things. I just fold up my pattern to fit and snap the magnetics on the row I need. It fits in my bag all handy-like, as well.

Next up: my lace obsessions continue! Max & I should be casting on for Wing O' the Moth on Sunday; I'm already planning my next 4 shawls.

Lace Lace Lace

The Icarus Shawl has been defeated. Well, it's off the needles at least, now I just have to block it. I did not run out of yarn!

Once past the first chart, I flew through this puppy.
Upon completion of bind-off, I immediately cast-on for Hanami:
I'm knitting up Hanami with Lacey Lamb Extrafine lambswool in a Seafoam colorway. This yarn is amazing - it is buttery soft to the touch and has quite a bit of elasticity. It's already proving a joy to work with, and I think the stitch definition is wonderful. I'm using US 3s. The Hanami pattern is originally a basket weave pattern on one end and a cherry blossom motif on the other - the pattern also includes directions for knitting only one or the other. I plan on knitting only the Cherry Blossoms part. The pattern calls for a provisional cast-on and knit one end, then pick up and do the other. I am an impatient, not-into-that-fidgety knitter, and after looking over the Cherry Blossom portion of the pattern - no more than a series of yos, k2togs, and ssks - I figured I'd take a stab at knitting the pattern upside-down. Well, knitting it right side up, but reading the charts upside-down. You know.

This is (so far) a fast fast fast knit. I'm sure my love of this yarn is making it easier. I'm hoping (trying, striving, aiming) to have this done in a quick enough manner that it will not interfere with the Most Knit-A-Long of all Knit-A-Longs that will be the Wing O' The Moth with Max.

I love lace knitting - I like the challenge of it; it keeps me interested. The start of a lace pattern is intriguing, to see how the stitches are going to come together and fall into place. When you can read your knitting and see where things went wrong, see what has to happen next - it's pretty awesome. And, of course, the blocking. Which, in and of itself is pretty boring and annoying, but when you take out hose pins and wires...........Yowzah!

In spinning news, there is no news. I haven't been spinning much this week, but I am itching to get back to it. I (unnecessarily) picked up a bit more roving - I'm looking forward to some time to just sit down and plow through a bunch of what I have, really spend some time getting to know what I am doing, getting a better understanding of the fibers and the machine. While I am happy with the results that I am getting, I really want to know more about why why why the fibers behave in this way or that, and the role of the wheel, and the tension regulation, and and and......I want to own this skill, really embrace it, and completely and fully understand it. I know that's a lot to ask. I'm willing to give it a shot though. And everyone that I know who knits will gain the rewards of my journey through random bundles of randomly handspun randomness.

I WILL Defeat This Shawl

And finally, we have real progress! After slogging through Chart 1 of the Icarus Shawl (and I really, really mean slogging - I realized this weekend that I started this right before my cousin's graduation last June), I flew through Charts 2 & 3, and I am now about one quarter of the way through Chart 4 (the final chart).

It seems to be going well enough, though I am living in fear of running out of yarn. If it gets *super* close, I may check out Ravelry and see if I can pawn some off of someone.

But about the pattern, because I know that's what keeps you coming back:
This pattern is very clearly written (so far). However, the first part just goes on FOREVER - with really nothing to hold your interest. Once out of the Chart 1 doom, it went quite quickly and smoothly - I could really power through the rows. The lace pattern repeat is simple and easy to commit to memory - you can get into the rhythm of each pattern row easily. The pattern of the lace - this is in the knitting, not the charted pattern - reads quite readily; you can see it coming into shape and anticipate what will be happening next. All that being said, at this late stage of the game (row 7 of Chart 4), each row is taking me somewhere in the realm of 15 minutes to complete - I'm at 437 stitches, and this bad boy goes up to 523! This, my friends, is the triangular shawl dilemma...........

Nonetheless, I have my next 2 shawls lined up! I'll be working on Pink Lemon Twist's Hanami Shawl (maybe with beads! ooooooooh) and having a Knit-A-Long with Max for Anne Hanson's Wing O' The Moth (Now with X-TREME BLOCKING!!!!). It'll be the most knit-a-long of knit-a-longs ever - we've got the same beautifully green-brown dyed yarn from Hello Yarn to work with.

The nicest birthday present I could have asked for

If you’d been at my house this weekend, you would have seen a lot of this:


You can guess what the book is: the same one everyone else has been reading this weekend. I won’t say more, except that I picked it up and read without stopping, which is to say, on Friday night Joe and I took the kids to the Harry-Potter-themed dinner at Upstairs on the Square at 5pm, the only reservation we could get, and then headed to “Hogwarts Yard” for a great show with Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys, and from there to standing a long time in a long line at the Harvard Bookstore, and then home to collapse, so I picked up the book on Saturday morning, and I looked up sometime on Saturday evening, starving and tearful. The book is a fitting conclusion to the series, and satisfying, and I’m so glad we’ve all had something so pleasurable in our lifetime. Just what I wanted for my birthday! My heart’s full. P.S. I'm still blubbing over it...

That’s our herb garden up there, by the way. It’s growing like Topsy - soon the nasturtiums will bloom...

We come now to the near-end of le Petit Chou. This is the second full bra I’ve knitted with the pattern; the first one was missing an eyelet on the first row, ugh, and I discovered pattern errors in the left bra cup, and was unhappy with my improvised fixes. So I went back to the beginning (well, not the beginning of the beginning, because that would involve redoing the invisible cast-on, and there’s been quite enough of that this summer!) and examined the troubles in a more disciplined fashion. I need to knit the crotch, weave in ends, get some ribbon to lace everything up, and then [perhaps I’ll model] and write up my errata.

I do believe my next project will be Wing o’ the Moth, for which I bought some nice Addi lace needles. Because I am conscientious, I tried my LYS first, which was, as I was prepared for, pretty much out of needles altogether. In resorting to the web I found these fine people: Bob and Nancy of Colorsong Yarn, who shipped the needles at their standard price, with free USPS shipping (so much quicker and better than UPS, at least where I live) included. Thank you, Bob and Nancy!

As I told Stacie, though, I only want to do the Moth if the edge comes out like this. There will need to be extreme blocking.

Progress?

Very little to report. Or it could be thought of as "more of the same".....

The other sock? Yeah, I haven't cast-on for that yet. Oh, but I will! Maybe this weekend. I promise.

I've been working a fair amount on the Icarus Shawl, though you wouldn't know to look at it. This shawl is triangular, and knit from the top center down, with 4 increases every other row. So it groooooows. But at a very very slow pace. The portion of the shawl that I am currently working on is dead boring as well - it has just enough going on that you have to pay a wee bit of attention, but it is not exciting at all. I want to get to the fun stuff! I want to get to the crazy lacey bits! But no - I think I have about 8 more rows to go of this first chart, which doesn't seem too bad, but when each row takes seemingly forever, it could be next month before I get there. I present this photo, which looks very similar to an earlier photo posted, but I swear I have been working on this:I have also hit the point in where I am starting to panic about if I will have enough yarn. This is Misti Alpaca (it is LOVELY to work with) and I think I have *just* what the pattern calls for (okay, just checked - I actually have one yard LESS than what the pattern calls for - 875 yds - but I think I may run out for REAL, not just by one yard) and I have read reports of people having run out. I'm not super concerned at this point - I know where I got this, it's pretty cheap, etc. etc. I just want. to. get. to. the. good. stuff. Dammit!

When not busy slogging through the dreadful boredom that is chart 1 of this shawl (almost as boring as socks!) I've been spinning spinning spinning like a mad woman! I'm working my way through the mystery wool from Amy, and working towards a thinner yarn. I *feel* like I am beginning to understand this spinning business a bit more - like I am on the road to owning it, but that road is very very long. Since this bag of fiber is kind of a mystery, I'm learning a bit about different fibers and how they want to behave for me. What I've really come to believe is the secret of spinning is this: tension. I feel if you can just get the tension of these 8 different things to all work together perfectly, things are golden. You just need the planets to align! And I would like to believe that I am working towards that. I've made a mini-skein of something resembling Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, which, if you have not worked with this yarn it is wonderful, and then I tried out some Navajo Plying which is pretty interesting, and I am pleased with the results of that as well. I can see what I would like to improve on in both of these, and now I just have to figure out exactly how to do that. Max has suggested that I spin at HER place, as she likes the smooth whir whir whir of the wheel. There will be pictures soon - it's tough to get clear pics that will give you some sense of the weight and texture of the wool.

This has all left me even more excited about Rhinebeck this year; I'll try not to come back with any animals.

Block de Force

A beautiful Saturday.......and some taking care of business.
I finally got around to blocking the big triangle shawl that I finished in November (I can't remember the actual name of it; I'll look it up at some point). This was my first major piece of lacey-lace work. Of course, the Mayor was there to help......One of my co-workers passed on these awesomely huge blocking boards to me - it was time to put them to use! Sadly, someone had pushed all of my pins flush into the tomato (pin cushion, that is). So it took a bit of work to get things out, and the blocking itself took a bit of time, but I did it! Pictures of completed piece to come......

Afterwards, I thought about working on the Clown Vomit sweater, but it was curiously unavailable to me.....

So! I figured this would be the finest of opportunities to get going on the Tour de Fleece 2007! I love watching the Tour de France, and I figured what better way to get more involved in my spinning? I have dabbled a bit here and there, and at some point started spinning for what will (hopefully) ultimately be enough wool for a sweater, but I have been rather lax in my spinning duties.......

Enter the Tour de Fleece! First thing, set a goal for the yellow jersey! Starting today (well, in this case, I suppose continuing, as it's basically been a slog up until now.......), I have to complete the spinning of this specific fleece by the end of the Tour de France. So I've got from July 7th until July 29th to get through this pound or so of wool. I started today with one hank (about 125 yards or so, 2-ply, maybe sport weight), and I got a lot done!
I don't know enough about wool to inform you more on what type of animal this came from, only to say that it has been a joy to spin. It's a lovely blend of blues and greens, with a bit of white and yellow highlights. My spinning has been (shockingly!) consistent; the yarn itself seems to be like "real" yarn. Now I just have to spin....well, a ton more. But! But! I have 2 complete hanks (125 yards and 118 yards, or so...) along with 2 bobbins ready for me to ply.

I'll keep you posted with progress - I enjoy watching the Tour de France, and I enjoy the spinning, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue to keep up. Check the side button for other people's progress. I have high enough hopes that I am already thinking about what my goal will be to get the green jersey as well..............