Spinning and knitting

The Yggdrasil is moving along slowly.  I finished the first side of the final border and rounded the corner!  Ya me!  I've basically got the pattern memorized and can fly along.  In fact the row that I thought was the hardest the first go around has become the easiest for me.  I'm trying to do a side a week, but with all the evening festivities it is more of a challenge than I'd like.  I also took a picture of how all the borders look together.  I'm hoping when I block it will open up the cable and vine border just a bit.  I think that will add to the look of the border.

Yes, I'm standing on my bed taking this shot. With my ceiling fan whizzing mere inches above my head. Who said there isn't danger in knitting!

To take the edge of knitting only on the Yggsdrasil, I'm spinning again.  One reason is I'm planning on spinning enough yarn to reknit Girasole as a baby blanket.  I bought 20 ounces of roving from JulieSpins on Etsy (also saw she is now selling her stuff through The Loopy Ewe ) but in order to get the 1500 yards of yarn I will need, I need to spin it quite thin.  Thinner than I've ever consistently done before.  So I need to practice before I break out the beautiful roving I plan to use for the blanket (and what is it with me and knitting blankets all the sudden?)  So over the weekend I pulled out some roving Emily gave me for Mother's Day.  And after a couple days of spinning I had this

It is pretty, but it isn't nearly as fine as I need.  I haven't spun for several months so I clearly need to practice.  I love the yarn though, it will be a lovely hat or cowl, very soft and squishy.  So I dug through my stash and found some Ashford roving I totally forgot I had.  (bad bad when you don't even remember all the roving you have!)

And this most beautiful deep teal roving slowly turned into the thinnest single I've ever spun yet.  So I'm cautiously optimistic this will help me get the perfect yarn for the baby blanket.  The Ashford roving is the softest smoothest spin I've done in months.  The roving slides through my fingers into the neatest tight single but it doesn't break.  Hopefully it will hold when I start plying.  But one thing with spinning this fine, it takes longer to do.  Both a good and a bad thing.  Smile...but hopefully spinning an hour a night will help me churn through the final borders of Yggdrasil.

Status of Yggdrasil and news on Emily

I'm in the final stages of the might Yggdrasil.  I'm closing in on the first corner of the final cable border.  It is truly a huge blanket and even in summer, I love knitting on it.  But I live in MN, we have had a very cool and rainy June, so it has been quite pleasant to sit with that massive pile of wool in my lap.  So I keep slogging on, target completion date is early July.  Then look out...I feel a huge staritis coming on, be it spinning or knitting...watch for new projects to start soon.  But the last few days I've been grateful to have Yggdrasil to focus on.

My Emily was scheduled to have a surgery done due to her cleft issues yesterday.  Problem is the insurance company is balking at approving part of the procedure as they feel it falls into the "cosmetic" arena.  It infuriates me that it is even a question.  Two years ago after her first lip revision it took me 10 months of appeals and letters and phone calls to get two denials overturned and payment in full made by the same insurance company for her lip revision for the same reason.  Even though she had limited cartilage in the structure of her nose, the work the doctor did to try and build her an internal structure with the small amount of cartilage she had was deemed initially as cosmetic so no coverage.  Really?  On a six year old?  With a cleft history?  But they finally paid for that surgery and I thought we had established her cleft issues clearly.  Last year's revision and further surgery ended with no problem at all.  Then smack here we go again.  I can fight this fight.  But it angers me that my child has to wait because of insurance issues instead of getting all the medical help that is available.  When the doctor tells you they haven't had to get pre-approval for this particular procedure in over a year and a half from any other insurance company nor have they had any denials perviously it makes you just so disapointed in the state of how these things are decided.  I said it before.  I fought for years to adopt Emily.  I thought once I got her home, my fighting days were behind me.  I was wrong.  Well hold on people.  I can endure what you throw at me and I will prevail and my child will have the very best treatment out there.  Because she is entitled to it.  Period.

Continueing with the mesmerizing Yggdrasil

I can't tell you how much I love working on this blanket.  Just when I start to feel bogged down with it, I look at it and just am amazed.  I finished the leaf cable border and was able to lay it out.  And even my older daughter was awed by it.  We were both standing on chairs to take pictures of it.  It just makes me happy.  I almost hated having to put it back on the needles to start the next plain knitted section because I won't see it all laying out flat again until I'm finishe with it!  Can you believe that?  But I now have all 772 stitches on one ginormous 60 inch circular needle to finish the plain section.  Then once again I will work through the cable border and it will be finished.

I can't wait to see how the leaf cable section will look once it is blocked and opened up a bit.  I think it is just lovely.

I'm even happy with how the corners are looking.  And I'm already looking ahead.  I have two things in mind to work on next.  Both involve my handspun.  One is Sam the Ram, he is so cute and I have enough cream handspun of my own that I can double it up and make a wonderful cable filled sheep of my own, although Emily has already claimed him.  And just because I don't think I'm busy enough, once Yggdrasil is compelte, my next big project involves spinning 22 ounces of fiber into 1540 yards of yarn to create a baby blanket from the pattern Girasole, I think this version is just amazing and I can't wait to work on it.  But during the spinning I see some smaller projects in my head as well, hats and mittens here I come!  well I'll come once Yggdrasil is complete, like in July/August.  Now if only someone could explain to me why I'm working on a massive wool blanket during summer?  hmmmmm

Knitting my way up north

Last weekend we headed up north, for those of you not from this area of the country, up north is used to generally refer to going north and heading to a multitude of lakes and woods in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  You don't even say exactly where you are going, but you simply say, we are heading up north and people nod and smile.  Well our "up north" was to my sister's place on the lake in northern Wisconsin. 

When you are on the deck at MK's, you are surrounded by trees and birds and blue skies.  Just a perfect place.  I spent a few hours trying to card and clean some roving I bought a year ago when I was a real newbie spinner.  I didn't inspect it at all, turns out it was just filled with veggie matter.  I tried carding it, didn't get rid of much at all.  The best solution I found was to hand pick it out, one little piece of grass at a time.  And after a couple hours of work I have a small pile of clean roving.  Did I mention that I really splurged and bought 8 ounces of the stuff?  It was so inexpensive!  sigh...I think this could take me all summer to clean.  But it isn't a hard job, just tedious.  And when I finally do get to sit and spin it, I will remember the hours spent outside, working through it.

The biggest drawback of working on the Yggdrasil blanket is not the cables, love those, it is not the color, I love that as well, it isn't even sitting with a pile of wool on my lap in summer, I'm managing that thankfully to careful positioning of a fan.  Nope the biggest drawback is that it has severly curtailed any pictures of cute knitting.  I'm not sure what I can show you that you haven't seen before.  I'm really happy working on it.  I've gotten to the point where it is relaxing and repetitive and soothing.  But there just isn't anything to take pictures of.  Short of stopping work on it to knit something else just to have pictures, I'm really going to have to get creative in my blogging.  So I'm hoping you will stick with me as I push through the last 2 sections of the blanket.

I can tell you I'm starting to plan what I'm going to work on next.  I feel a hat and mitten binge coming on.  So I'm off to peruse Ravelry for patterns that I find interesting.  Living in MN you can never have too many hats or mittens!  Winter is just around the corner....oh and just to end on a corny joke.  MN is 9 months winter and 3 months road repair.  Trust me, the road repair is going full force...

Running on empty

The last two weeks have been a marathon.  Now if it were a marathon of knitting or spinning, I'd be squealing in delight.  Nothing so fun.  Instead it is the end of school events, this week alone had 2 concerts and a track and field day.  Last week was the fun night at school.  There have been doctor appointments for a few of us.  There was trips to our family home town to visit graves which is always emotionally charged and meetings to resolve issues with my mom's duplex that is now back in her possession after a failed Contract for Deed to puchase fell through.  Just a hard draining couple of weeks.

Tomorrow is Emily's birthday party, she and some friends will head to a nearby salon for manicure's, hair dos and makeup before returning to our house for pizza, cake and presents.  Then I plan on going to my room and curling up for a long nap!  Knitting has been slow and sporadic, but the blanket is moving along.  I'm around the first corner and heading along the second side of the leaf/cable border.  It is becoming very familar and easy which means I have to really watch what I'm doing on the cables or I will make a mistake not to be discovered until I'm around the corner flying along.  I may pull out some roving to spin, maybe this,

It is a merino silk combo I picked up at Shepherd's Harvest earlier this month. 

The Annual Shop Hop event is this weekend here in the Twin Cities.  I've  had great fun the last few years attending, there are 6 shops in the area that promote this event.  You head to each of the shops over a Friday through Sunday and receive little gifties with a purchase or donation for the food shelf.  You get a card stamped at all the stores, at the last store you leave it and next week the owners get together for a drawing.  Six store prizes, one grand prize.  The first year I went I was lucky enought to win a store prize and it was AWESOME.  I won a large quantity of yarn, a beautiful knitting bag, patterns, gift card for the yarn shop and many other beautiful items as my booty.  Talk about fun when I went to pick it up and got to spend the gift card to get even MORE yarn.  smile

But I've decided that I'm not going this year.  I have so much yarn and roving right now that I've reach a level of stash I'm not comfortable with.  Even though purchases are not required to participate in the stamping of the card, I always purchase something at each store (I say that like it is a hardship) so I decided this year to let it go and I will look forward to next year and shop with a vengence!  So to all the yarn hoppers out there, enjoy and good luck! 

Fun at Shepherd's Harvest

The sheep festival held yearly at the Lake Elmo fairgrounds was wonderful as usual.  Again it was cold, damp, and drizzly out but that only helped in the knit ware fashion being modeled by all the attendees and vendors.  I had a great time.  And I only went through 2 of the 4 buildings filled with vendors.  I had a set budget and I went through that in the first two barns, the girls and mom were done so we left.  Some year I would like to go alone and not worry about everyone else and really just wander to my hearts content.  But no complaints.  I had a great time.  I already spun up this roving. It is called Atlantis, and the yarn looks and feels wonderful. 

I also bought some great Briar Rose yarn, it is in deep reds to black.  I'm not sure what it will be, probably a luscious shawl, but I'm open to suggestions.  One of the things my girls like best is knowing there will be food there, the kettle corn is the big draw for them.  I also am happy to give them money as we arrive if they need mother's day ideas.  Anna already had her gift for me (which was a lovely wooden heart that she made herself at school, with power tools and everything!)  Emily made me a beautiful card filled with all the reasons she loves me.  Can't go wrong with that.  But she asked for some money and this is what she gave me on Sunday.  It is a lovely poweder blue with pink.  Very soft and lovely.

I took stock of my yarn this weekend and realized how blessed I am.  My handspun is filling the cubbie to the brim.  I have two wheels of roving tucked next to the shelf as well as a LARGE basket overflowing with camel, merino, silk, and wonderful wool ready for spinning.  I have the completed handspun ready for hats and gloves.  I have oodles of sock yarn waiting to be socks or scarves.  And in two weeks, the local yarn hop is looming.  I made a big girl decision.  I'm going to skip it this year.  I have loved going the last two years.  I even won a huge prize the very first year I went.  But I think I'm going to pass.  I don't NEED anything.  And I'm thinking right now that I don't want anything either.  I've bought the books and magazines I want.  I have more than enough yarn and roving to hold me for (lets face it) months.  So instead of going to the shops, I will work on enjoying my stash when it is at its best.  Filled with endless possibilites.  Sounds like a good plan.

And finally, lest you think I've been slacking.  Here is the blanket in all it's glory.  I'm on the cable leaft border.  This will be a masterpiece I think.  I love it.

The silence is broken

The last couple weeks have been a blur.  I traveled to Chicago on business.  While the seminar was intersting, the biggest event was being away by myself.  I got Emily over 6 years ago.  In that time, she has gone on some sleepovers, but I have never left her before.  She had serious sleep issues for years.  Each night was a huge challenge so me leaving her was not an option.  So here I was flying off for 2 1/2 days away.  In a fancy hotel.  Alone.  No one else from my company was there, I knew no one at the seminar.  I sat absorbing knowledge for 2 days.  And had room service meals.  Quiet room.  No decisions to make for any one other than me.  There were some highlights.  Like figuring out how the toilet works.  Now this should not have been a hard thing to figure out.  That is until you look in the bathroom and see this.

Now it looks like a normal toilet in all regards except the flushing part.  (who would have thougtht I'd write about this and have illustrations to boot!).  After some thought (and I'm not saying how much thought) I pressed on one side of the flat metal panel.  Presto chango the toilet flushed.  So curious as to what the other side of the panel did, I pressed that as well.  Even more resounding flushing occured!  I just laughed, water savings at its best.  But all in all the Chicago trip went well.  I knit in my room in the evening, I took phone calls from Emily as she struggled to sleep without me.  But we all managed and I had a nice break from my normal life for a few days.  It may be years before it happens again, but it was just a real nice break for me.

Now you might be wondering to yourself, while the toilet thing is interesting and all, isn't this a knitting blog?  Why yes it is.  And I even spun a bit too.  This is some yarn I keep thinking of carmeled apples when I see it.  I really didn't enjoy spinning it that much however, it was a bit scratchy and coarse feeling.  And it wasn't very smooth at all.  I'm not sure what I will make from it, but I figure you can always learn something from spinning and who knows.  I may come up with just that perfect thing to make from it. 

The blanket is coming along nicely.  I finished the cabled section which is when I should have taken another picture of it, laying all nice and flat.  But no, I couldn't WAIT to get started on picking up all those stitches to start knitting to oblivion.  So that is what I'm doing, knitting round and round and round.  On one VERRRRYYYYY long needle.  But it is lovely, soft, and just amazing.  Mistakes and all.  Because I have mistakes there.  And there they will stay. But I just love this blanket.