the stalking begins

I ordered my wheel yesterday!!!

Now, I'm not sure because no one will answer my e-mails, but I heard through the grapevine that they're in stock, so it could come as early as this week. Time to stalk the mailman!

Squeeeee!

The spinning continues...as soon as I have my act together I'll be updating the other blog with spinning progress reports for all you kickin' generous wheel fund donors. There are some photos of finished yarn on flickr here if you care to take a peek...but don't look if you want to be surprised!

spinny SP, how I love thee

Among other things....go here for another pic with a description of my awesome haul!

Lucky me!!

death by Express Mail

Luckily I'd gotten my own socks in the mail five hours before I was taken out...

moving right along

First things first...happy birthday to me! My gift to myself? Letting my kids watch way too much television so I can spin. It's sort of a win-win thing. Everybody's happy.

Had a really productive day yesterday:



By the end of the day I might even be able to start plying this batch. It's a good TV night! In the meantime, I'm just stalking the mailman. My BFL had better come today! Even though I can't spin it 'til I finish my socks...

Speaking of those socks, I realized today that the yarn monkey is in a different time zone...it's altogether possible that the dossiers could go out any time after 6 p.m. today. That would be fab! (Ack, I have to free up those US4s!)

More thanks to my wheel fund donors. We're getting close!! Squee! It's not too late to get in on the fun!

Wheel update

First and foremost, THANK YOU to everyone who has visited, told me I'm not crazy, linked to me, or donated to the wheel fund. I'm absolutely blown away! I've got a ways to go...and I have 650g of yarn to spin...but I don't yet have that "omg, what have I gotten myself into" feeling, which is good. I'm 41% of the way to my starter wheel...or 25% if I get the level-wind flyer. We'll see how much I can sell on eBay this week (yay for cleaning out the mystery bins) to help me along.

I've got freshly plied yarn to put in the mail to Amber tomorrow morning; there are gobs of roving for Robin either soaking, dyeing, or drying in various locations around my house; I'm stalking the mailman waiting for Cate's roving to come so I can start to dye it too....the list goes on.

I'll be spinning my heart out this week because once Friday comes it will screech to a halt for SOCK WARS! I'm dying over the timing here -- Thursday is my birthday, Friday is my daughter's (gulp) 6th birthday and the beginning of Sock Wars, Saturday we're having family over for both birthdays, Monday is the kid party. Hopefully the Int'l Socks of Doom will be simple enough for me to complete on Friday. A girl can hope, right? In my arsenal:



Now, to free up those US4 needles...

dumb or clever?

So I had this idea....

Please go and read it and then tell me if I'm nuts.

Thanks.

Addendum: total crackup...I had a dream last night that when I checked my gmail box this morning, Jenna Adorno had sent me $220. ROFL -- why Jenna Adorno? I've never even knit Tempting. It is a great sweater though...anyway, I was all, "Jenna, I'm going to wait til I get my wheel to start on your yarn if you don't mind, 'cause I want all 1100 grams to be consistent, you know?" LOL.

from start to finish

Well, actually, I'm not finished yet...but you know what I mean.



Also? Jodi, here is the beginning of the yarn that would be yours if you didn't dislike wool so intensely:

soooooo

Anyone have $500 to spare?? (sigh.)

inca cotton

I just dyed a pound of inca cotton. Two days later, it's still drying. Does anyone know if I can tie it up well and throw it in the dryer?? This is getting ridiculous.

And speaking of tying it up...a word of advice...if you ever dye inca cotton, re-tie it yourself. Don't trust the ties that are already there. My skeins are an absolute mess, and I am fearful of trying to wind them.

The process was kind of skeeery (real dye, gloves, chemicals, the whole can of worms) but a good learning experience. Not as purplish as I'd hoped, but no way am I going to overdye it. I don't think I want to dye cotton again any time soon.

the trifecta of irritation

First, Blogger has been unbelievably wonky this week. I'm lucky if I can log in, let alone post. Surprising, as it's been very reliable for me for the past three years.

Second, Photobucket. They changed their upload format, and I get an error every time I try to upload a photo. I'll give it 24 hours...then, I'm outta there. (Can you say Flickr?)

Third, the original reason for this post.



Sigh.

I was on the cusp of knitting the last buttonhole row of the right front of the fab lace inset cardigan when I realized that I hadn't started the armhole shaping at row 43. (Damn those patterns that don't have charts/tell you to "reverse shaping" instead of giving you the instructions for the second side.)

I was going to tink the 15 rows. Really, I was. But in the end I just couln'd stand it...I threw caution to the wind and ripped, praying to God that I'd be able to get it all back on the needles with the lace pattern intact. And I did it!! (No guts, no glory...)

Lesson learned: don't knit anything that requires this level of concentration while listening to a podcast that features the resolution of a slasher-murder-mystery, and therefore contains a ridiculous amount of screaming.

FO #98

Another with my own handspun yarn...look, it's very nubby:



It was spun from about 3oz. of merino/mohair pencil roving. There's quite a bit left so I'll probably make some matching mittens.



The boring stuff:
Earflap Hat, toddler, sized, knit on US10 needles.

FO #97

A little swingy dress thing, it's quite odd:



A bit of a disappointment...it looks cute on the trampoline, but not so cute when actually on the kid. She loooves it though, so that's what's important, right?

The boring stuff:
Swingy-dressy-thing, made up as I went along.
Knit in K1C2 Wick -- 2 skeins Columbine, 1 skein Plum, on US3 (lace) and US8 needles.
Pattern notes: I knit the lace part first, on really small needles so it wouldn't be extremely holey. Then I picked up stitches to knit the skirt and the body.

stream of consciousness

Hm. I wonder if you can navajo ply using a spindle.
*googles it*
Well, lookie here. Some blogger claims to have done it.
Looks cumbersome, but I can try it.
*plies*
Okay, this is really cumbersome.
*plies*
I can do it, but I don't think I ever want to do it again.
*plies and yelps a lot*
Why do people spin 50% more singles just for this? It kind of sucks.
*plies*
Okay, it *is* getting a bit easier.
But I'm still not doing it again until I have a wheel.
*If* I ever get a wheel, that is.
But...wow.
That's so me freakin' cool yarn.



With a quarter for scale:



(I'd totally do it again.)

I don't like DPNs

Just, ugh. It's not that they're hard, per se -- I can use them -- I just don't like 'em. I know, I know, I could make two circs with my Denises but I'm too lazy.

FO 95 & 96

Thanks for the puppy pics, sis. Without further ado...



No, normally I'd just count a li'l set like this as one FO. But since I spun the yarn, I figured this one deserved to be two! (Of course, the colors are horribly, terribly off. I took pics inside and outside, natural light, and none of them came close. Sigh)

The boring stuff:
Earflap Hat and Scrunchable Scarf
Knit in handspun Jacob/Corriedale/Mohair and Merino, probably about 250 yards (started with 330 and there's a bit left over) on US8 (hat) and US11 (scarf) needles.