Making Me Crazy

Opportunity abounds.  Sometimes too much so.  I see more than I can take advantage of.

Classes at the LYS, through the city, through the Guild…

And that is just locally.  It makes me really crazy.

I want to take…I want to learn…I want to know how…I want I want I want…

To take classes offered at the yarn shop offered by well known authors teaching about fixing mistakes and knitting socks from the toe up.  (I have only signed up for one…)

To take classes from local experts teaching soap making, photography, and other miscellaneous interests. (I have not committed to any of these…)

To take workshops offered by the guild, again by well known authors on spinning and lace knitting. (Again, I have only paid for one…so far)

I am also thinking about the knitting guild and a quilting guild.

I might just be crazy.

Catching My Breath

Volunteer sunflower

…just a little.

The Bebe Mommas have put in orders for custom-made hospital gowns for their ‘confinement’. My plan was to sew on Youngest Daughter’s this weekend. Friday it appeared that Grandbebe Two might arrive on the scene a bit earlier than expected.


Well. That was going to save me the trouble of making at least one!

Wonderful Guy's Raspberries

Not so. False alarm.

And with a ‘buy’, there was nothing for it but to think of it as a second chance that had to be taken! One custom made gown is now fait accompli. And delivered...so to speak. But I completely forgot to take the intended photo. Oh well.

Monarda's doing fine this year!

Before the sewing time, there was yard time. Time spent trimming, deadheading, weeding, in general maintenance and re-acquainting…seeing what was blooming, doing well, what was spent, what needed thinning. I picked up the iris rhizomes I ordered in June, and will plant them after the Grand-pup leaves, who we are watching for just a few days for Only Step Son.

Feverfew from ~Wunx

I quilted. The hoop has been removed. I am finishing up quilting on the edge of the quilt with a bit more to do. Next task will be the binding. Good progress there, and I will post photos, but am going to wait until it is finished.

Comfrey

So yeah. Lots done and feeling good about it. Still some things on my ‘To Do’ list, but there always will be.

Just catching my breath.

I’ve Been Busy

I have started a project with my first handspun yarn. It is not the finest, but it is the first, and it is sort of cool looking, too. I am making a ‘Handspun Scarf’ by Monica Gomi (Two Left Needles). I feel a need to knit up some yarn I have spun.


I have one Grown Up Sock complete, and cast on the second with not a problem. I have completed the cuff and am now on the leg. Very exciting stuff, this knitting of socks. (I have heard it is the crack of the knitting world.)


I plied the ‘hot tamale’ wool/silk roving with some orange merino last week, which resulted in this. There is about 3 oz, maybe 4, and some of it is very nice. Parts of it were spun ‘early in my career’ and are more inconsistent. It surely looks pretty in the morning sun. If I was to name my yarns, I might call this on 'Flame On'. Of course, now I am reading about ‘balancing’ the plying and spinning twist. Hmmm….maybe too late for this stuff.


I finished this yarn yesterday. It is an alpaca/silk blend, plied with wool top. I bought the wool top as waste from Brown Sheep Co. I carded it to loosen it up, then spun the single. I plied this with a high twist. No telling what it will look like knitted up!


I started carding some of the cleaned alpaca last night, some little parts that were dry, just to make sure it worked, and I hadn’t felted my investment. I am learning as I go on this, as much as I want to research all I can, knowing all there is to know before starting. I have chosen to jump in and get the feet wet, armed with some knowledge, convinced I will learn more as I practice.

So far, so good, I guess. I mean it’s like just now learning about high twist/low twist and matching it up between the singles and the plying. I suppose I could have waited until I ‘knew’ everything, but then I probably would never have started. Most of what I have learned about gardening, I learned as I went. I will keep reading and learning and practicing and listening.

Next up…dyeing!

And It’s The End of the Week!

I started a ‘knitting socks’ class yesterday, again with Young Co-Worker. We are learning the ‘magic loop’ method. I have watched videos on the internets, and read directions, but somehow the…magic…eluded me. I knitted Grandbebe Girl’s christmas stocking, so know the general techniques of sock knitting. However, that was a ginormous sock, and I was able to use a 16” circular needle for most of it. When using dpns, I tend to have loose stitches where the needles meet. I have tried many tricks to avoid such, but to no avail. I am hoping the magic loop method will help with this plight of mine. My project is bebe socks for Grandbebe Girls 1st birthday!

Monday, I am taking a vacation day (Yes! Another!) for a field trip to the Brown Sheep Company in Nebraska with Spinning Co-Worker, Spinning Neighbor, and other Knitting Peeps. Local scuttlebutt has that it is quite the place to see…and shop. Makes for another short workweek, and we have Friday as a holiday the week after. Yea for short weeks!

I am shopping for a memory upgrade for my computer, too. I want my Little Friend to work more better faster gooder smoother when I am photozapping. Always with the speed! It is a learning process, and one that is not straightforward. I suppose life has always been this way, and, if it was not, progress would not be…progressing. I sometimes think I would just like to rest with the knowledge I have in certain fields, like annuities, mutual funds, and healthcare savings accounts, or computer RAM, ghost discs/ backups, and spyware. Bleh. I just want to learn what’s fun to learn. You know, things like spinning, sock knitting, photozapping, my way around Ravelry, gardening stuff, and such like. I do like to learn new computer…things. I just get intimidated by the vast amounts of what I don’t know.

I have the Forest Canopy about ½ done. Alison’s Scarf is languishing at about the same place. And now I have a bebe sock started. I have 1 oz. of roving (merino/alpaca/silk) on the spindle that I want to ply with something. (Maybe the ball of blue merino?) I finished 3(?) oz of the ‘Hot Tamale’ wool/silk that will be plied with itself…or something else? These design questions are difficult for me. Wonder what it would look like with the orange merino? Wonder what I would knit it into? I want to start a scarf for Eldest Daughter out of the ‘Vanilla and Chocolate’, and I have another special project planned for some homespun. And something else I want to try is to measure my spinning for wpi. Will that be rewarding?

Wonderful Guy and I are planning to have breakfast tomorrow with Grandbebe Girl and her parents, and perhaps her aunt will be there, too. I believe the weather this weekend will be nice enough to spend some time out of doors for a walk, maybe up in the mountains even. I will probably even tour the yard in hopes of seeing a green sprig pushing it’s head up.

That Darn Streak of Competitiveness

Young Co-Worker and I went to the lys to practice with the spinning wheels yesterday after work.

She has been practicing industriously on her spindle and has amassed quite a bit of finely spun…stuff. I mean really nice…stuff. I, too, have been practicing, but mine does not look as nice, or is as plentiful. Our instructor, and others in the know, are all delighted, and rightly so, with her progress, where upon seeing my…stuff, they are encouraging…in patronizing sort of way. I called her 'teacher’s pet'!

This state of affairs is not without a motivating influence on me. I may be outdone by this young upstart, but not without a fight. (And some good excuse making, too! She had a head start with a lesson from an experienced spinner, and has more practice time, not being married and all.) I have all but foregone my evening knitting for the spindle. My WIP’s languish without any progress, but by golly, all I have to do is think of Young Co-Worker’s spindle full of ….stuff, Fine stuff, and I reach for the spinning bag over the knitting bag.

So back to the practice session at the wheels last night. I allowed myself an hour, and in that time I gained a lot of ground. I felt more naturally the rhythm of the pedals (read got the wheel going one direction, and maintained that direction), and I was feeling some control of the drafting. There was some overspinning, to be sure, and some underspinning. Sometimes it’s all about averaging things out in the long run. There were actual moments of brilliance, when I could believe I had IT, but then the space-time continuum would be disrupted, and I would lose the rhythm of the process.

Progress, not perfection, right?

In other news, I was one of the winners of the 'Cheetos packages' in the Crazy Aunt Purl Sweepstakes! I was so excited to see my name on the list of winners last November. That meant I could take her book off my Christmas list, as I was getting an autographed copy (an autographed copy). I have been anxiously awaiting notification, and it appears today, that maybe I have missed it somehow. Oh please oh please oh please let the powers that be do their magic and fix this somehow. I do not want to miss out on this particular little win in my life!

Learning Something New...

...and there is nothing more humbling than struggling through learning something new. It is a good reminder to have patience myself with others! This little effort may take way too much coordination and thinking all at once for these old-ish brain cells to adapt to...I was exhausted by the time the lesson was over, and it was only an hour! I would get into the flow of spinning, and think "oh yeah, I am doing it now...." only to completely lose it, and struggle for the next 15 minutes, totally lost.
I am taking the class during my lunch hour with a co-worker, who is about the same age as Youngest Daughter, over the next three weeks. I was very good student, and practiced last night at home, then followed up with some knitting. I felt it important to go to end the day with a sense of accomplishment rather than a sense of frustration!
So WIP photos...first the Maple Seed Hat:

And the Alison's Scarf:Improving photography and photo editing skills are on the list of goals for the year. Note I said goals, not resolutions. Let's see, that makes the blog, acceptance of self (body-wise), photography and editing, spinning...so far a good list. I am pleased with the way the blog is going so far. I am learning a lot, and that, after all, is what it is suppose to be all about.
One more photo...I have two orchids, and this is the only time I have ever had one rebloom. What a gift!