Monday, January 17, 2005

Blaa

It’s sort of a blaa day today. A paid day off and I’m not motivated to do anything. I did spin for an hour this morning along with going through my stash for tomorrows Shop and Swap. It turns out that I’m too emotionally attached to my yarn to get rid of much. I went in with good intentions of doing a slash and burn. Instead I dusted the shelves, rearranged the balls and put all but the most hideous back. The yarn I am willing to get rid of is so ugly that I can’t put a price on it. I think it is all yarn I got free at a Swap & Shop when I was a new weaver.

On the knitting front- I started the aran sweater but disliked the back and forth knitting. I pulled it off the needles to knit it in the round. However, since it was the same set of needles to finish my odds and ends vest I went back to work on that instead. All I have left is the neckline and armhole ribbing. With some work I could finish tonight. I will then be down to two unfinished sweaters and one hat. 3 UFOs! That number is so low I may decide to keep up the trend and finish them all before moving on. Or back to that aran. We will see when the time comes.

Spinning has been on hold. However, this morning I plied up some odds and ends. The now finished skeins of yarn will be easier to store than the energized balls of singles. I have a few more to go before I’m finished. I think I may work on that this afternoon during the news.

Weaving has been on a bigger hold than the spinning. I finally decided what I want to do with the wool tweed for my Siberian parka. I’ll weave it on the larger table loom, hopefully in a hounds tooth pattern. However, the table loom came with a project already on it and the floor loom still sits empty. The last thing I wove on it was handspun so up next needs to be commercial yarn and cotton too since that is what I have so much of in my stash. I could use some towels to match my kitchen. I have been living here for two years now and still using my perfectly functional old towels. However, the late 80’s colors of teal, burgundy, sage, and pink aren’t quite right in the 70’s brown and gold kitchen I have now. I’ll think on it for a while and see if any inspiration hits.

Well at lest I have one thing finished today. It’s only 1:00 and already supper is done. Tonight Himself and I will be dining on home made hummus and fresh baked wheat bread. It may be time for me to go take a nap.

Monday, January 10, 2005

Pretty Good Year

Today I have a sore throat and I think I’m coming down with a cold. What a way to spend my day off. However, last week was a good one. But with everything the bad comes with the good. My Giant Angora Kisses broke her back in the cage. The vet said that sometimes happens to domestic rabbits and we had her put down. Sad but she didn’t seem to suffer.

However, there was plenty of good last week too. I finished my child sweater at our monthly knitting gathering. Then this morning while drinking hot cranberry juice- that’s a dangerous combo- I finished my alpaca seed stitch poncho. I designed it all myself and it looks it. However, it’s soft and warm so it will do. The angora trim I added to make it longer really added and improved the piece greatly.

On Saturday himself and I went shopping. One of his friends took us to O’Fallen outside of St. Louis. Right off the highway is this little shopping Mecca. Right next to Pet Co- the whole reason for this trip is that Joey won’t eat regular dog food so twice a year we dive an hour to get his special chicken and lamb blend. Right next to Pet Co was a Borders so we stopped for gingerbread mocha and I picked up a knitting book, The Best of Lopi. I like the patterns and the seamless knitting in the round. All I have to do now is buy a ball of lopi yarn so I can spin something similar. As we got to the counter himself with his own book suggested we spend the family money instead of our personal dollars for the purchase that day. Well anytime I don’t have to use my money for a yarn purchase, even a book I’m happy.

We then spent the rest of the day buying shoes and looking for work clothes. However in that shopping area there were 3 craft or fabric stores and an art supply store. If a fit of generosity himself suggests I shop in the art supply store while he browsed the fantasy shop near by. Then I looked at yarn in one of the craft store. Some of it was very nice but I didn’t feel the urge to buy any. All and All a very good shopping day.

On Sunday I picked out by e-mail a little English Angora doe. A beautiful blue eyed white doe that also caries the chocolate and tort genes I like so much.

So now the child’s sweater and the poncho are done I can start on the two aran sweaters with a clean conscious. However, I’m strongly thinking of finishing my odds and ends vest first. If I finish it I would only have 2 sweaters left in my UFO pile, and they can easily wait for later. I had hoped to clear out the yarn room today, after all the shop and swap is only one week away, but this cold is keeping me down. Maybe I will feel up to it this evening.

Monday, January 03, 2005

New Year

We made it home safe. Even with 9 days of traveling and passing 4 known yarn stores without one stop I still did pretty well this holiday season. I came home with a table loom, a book on sewing hand woven fabric, a book on designing weaving drafts, 2 bags of yarn, and a book of aran and cabled sweater knitting patterns.

The giving of Christmas gifts went well too. With plenty of furious yarn tucking and burring I was able to finish all presents the night before opening. The handspun scarf did have to make a trip through the washing machine after it was open but everything else made it in time. I am very happy with that scarf and may ask for it back this summer to enter in a few shows

I can’t wait to begin the New Year and the new projects. The aran book has a sweater pattern that the cables interlock in a basket weave. While the sweater is knitted I like how it conjures up images of weaving. I just have to show it to himself to make sure he would wear it before I start. I like it so much that mine will be the same sweater in a different color instead of a different sweater in the same theme as I had envisioned.

The table loom is wide enough that I can finally start weaving the cloth for my jacket. I just have to decide if I want to weave the entire yardage on the table loom or only the front and back panels. Weaving is quicker on the floor loom but warping two looms with the same fabric seems wrong, so very wrong.

As soon as I got home from traveling I pulled out my spinning wheel and started on the second 4 oz of lyocell, cotton, flax blend. This one is bleached white and so much softer than the natural I’m sort of regretting my decision to ply the two together. I have added too much twist to use them as singles so when I get this spun up I’ll do some samples with the plying to see what I like. I can’t wait to warp a loom with the commercial cotton linen blend I have and start weaving the cloth for a shirt. See that is why I don’t want to try up booth looms with the same fabric.

However, before starting new projects I want to take some time and finish some (but not all) of my old. I only have half a sleeve on my child’s guernsey left and my odd and end vest is knitted up to the armholes. Both of those need to be finished before I forget what I’m doing. However, my two other unfinished sweater will have to languish a while longer. Maybe I’ll pick them up next fall.