A spinner's life

When I dreamed of getting a spinning wheel I alternated from thinking I was crazy to want something that would help me make yarn to the thought of bliss when I could make just the most perfect yarn that only I would have.  Sure I could buy any yarn from my local yarn shop or from big box stores but it wouldn't be that special yarn.  I yearned for a wheel. I bought a hand spindle and started to learn to spin that way.  A slow but soothing process.  Although I never could get the hang out of letting it go for long, I continually had to trap it between my knees and then work the twist up.  I couldn't explain my longing for a wheel to many folks.  I waited a full year from when I first started thinking about it to when I decided I was going to get one.  I bought books and subscribed to Spin Off magazine, all to try and learn before I actually ever sat down at a wheel. 

My family understood, my sister and I have been crafters from the ages of 10 on.  You should see my sister's house.  It is filled with magnificent quilts she has made.  Her work is stunningly gorgeous and last year she bought herself a machine that helps her quilt her colorfull quilt tops into truly works of art.  She understands the longing of that one piece of equipment that will further your desire to MAKE something by hand.  My mom, though more puzzled, doesn't question wanting things like quilting machines or spinning wheels.  She has seen us both labor over projects and appreciates the time and effort they take. 

So last spring I found a way to buy my first wheel.  I've loved it since.  In the last few months I've churned through a pile of roving and am beginning to create yarn that looks like YARN!  So much to learn but that is part of the fun I think.  I"m hoping to take a class in November from the Weaver's Guild here in Minneapolis so I can learn exactly how much I don't know!  But in the mean time, this is what I do.

I'm going to make Emily a hat and mittens out of this hot pink roving.

So I continue to spin, to the point where when I come downstairs from "working" up stairs, my mom tells me to brush off the doghair from my pants...ummm that isn't dog hair, it is bits of fluff and roving.  Darn, she figured out I wasn't cleaning the upstairs like she thought, instead I had plunked down at my wheel to just spin for a bit...so that bit turned into an hour and a spindle full of singles later....but such is the life of a spinner.  Next....

My crazy life

My life at times is weird. I say this knowing it is my life. And I'll keep it thank you. But sometimes, I'm shaking my head at what passes as being normal around here.

I have two daughters, one is almost a teenager, that opens many doors that I prefer to stay shut, but also realize I'm not going to be able to keep them shut. Or keep her at home, with just us, instead she will be going out more and more into the "real" world. She was invited to a birthday party tonight, a slumber party, no big deal, she has done many in the past. But this one is at a hotel. A hotel I'm not staying at. That is hard. But she is ready. She is responsible. She is smart. So after checking out logistics, who is attending, etc., good chaperons, I said yes. My fear is tamped down with the glow in her eyes. I trust my girl. It is just the rest of the world I don't trust.

Then we get to my mom. We all live together. It works out more good than not good. But while I'm at work and the girls are at school, my mom is home. Thinking. Thinking a lot. More than some things need to be thought about. Like garage floors. I have washed that garage floor more than I have EVER washed a garage floor, because really people, it is a GARAGE floor. The van is out there, my old saggy, drippy, solid, drippy, van. It has left its mark. A mark that even with scrubbing is not coming off a basic plain garage floor no matter how many times you wash, how you wash, or what you use to wash it. Those marks are still there. And when my mom thinks all day alone and there is a stained garage floor near by, that is not a good match. But before I totally throw my hands up in the air, our handyman arrives, looks at the floor and tells my mom, it is clean. A really clean floor, for a garage. And short of painting it (painting a GARAGE floor?) it is fine. So what does my mom say? Oh good, thanks. I really need to keep our handyman's number on speed dial so he can repeat things I've said that apparently don't register to her unless it is spoken by a man's voice! smile...


And while the weirdness of my every day life swirls around me, I knit and spin. sometimes I spin in my head, but I really like spinning on my wheel....look what I made...

I think for only having my wheel for less than six months, taking no classes, and spinning sporadically, I'm making pretty decent progress. I'm still a bit inconsistent, but overall this is pretty usable yarn.

And just so you know? Sock 2, me 1

Big Gray Blob

I'm working on a wedding gift for my nephew. He is getting married to his Anna on October 17. I'm about 2 days from finishing the edging, can then block it, and hopefully by the end of this weekend, will have a complete afghan ready to go. Currently it looks like this.

Hard to get a good picture of it, but it is Jared Flood's design of Girasole. Very nice pattern and very nice afghan. It is unique in that it is round, has a nice pattern to it so it isn't boring and amazingly fast. I will say I'm a bit tired of the border, but hopefully will finish it in the next couple of days. In any event, it will be finished before the wedding and after all isn't that the goal? And the joy of knowing my nephew and his Anna appreciate a gift made from my hands and heart make me happy as well.

I also finished sock one of the blue Japanese sock. Actually, I knit it enough times to have a pair of socks, they wouldn't have fit any human I know, so as you know from the previous entry, it was rip it, rip it, rip it....but I now have one good fitting sock. I will cast on soon for the second sock.

I've been on a bit of a spinning binge though. I'll try and take photos soon of everything I've spun up in the last few months. My wheel is one of the best gifts I've given myself in a really long time.

Sock 2, Me 0

The sock I'm working on is kicking my butt. I rarely worry about gage on socks, (bad me), perhaps because I never had to. However, this time, I should have paid attention. I knew casting on 60 stitches using size 1 needles was smaller than the comfy 72 stitches I normally cast on. But heh, I figured there must be a lot of stretch/give in the pattern, it does have a lot of yarn overs, so I'm sure that is why they cast on a smaller amount. I dive in, knitting away, just loving how the pattern and texture look. As each row grows, I'm eyeing the sock, hmmmm, it does look a bit small, but I'm sure if I keep going it will work out fine. I keep knitting, the bumpy texture looking marvelous in the Cherry Tree Hill yarn...still it does look a bit smallish....never mind, keep knitting! I knit.....I try it on, hmmmmm that is really a bit tight, but I have an idea. See how much in denial I was? I will give it as a Christmas gift, I know just the family member, she is petite and this will surely fit her....yup, I'm sure you can see where this is going....why I couldn't see it or more likely admit it, is beyond me. I complete the patterned section of the cuff and before I even start the heel flap I have my oldest daughter who is 12 try it on, sure it is going to slide gracefully on her foot. Nope, she struggled to get it past her heel.....and this was without a heel on it at all. That did it, I numbly realize if I want ANY normal human to be able to wear this sock I'd have to succumb to the screaming inner knitter in me and rip it out. So I did, I ripped a beautifully albeit too small sock completely out. Sock 1, me 0.

I started again, this time, figuring out with the pattern stitch what I would need to increase the count to an amount that will fit over my foot, and cast on, this time I cast on 80, yes a little bigger than my normal 72 when working work size 1 needles, but I'm confident (from experience) that the cuff pattern is very snug so sure the 80 will not result in a stretchy floppy mess wrinkling into a puddle around my ankle. I still love knitting the pattern and am very happy I can keep these now socks for me. So much for my thought of completing a Christmas present! They are all MINE. I knit along and whip through the cuff. Follow the pattern directions for the heel flap, hmmm, the inner knitter in me starts ringing those warning bells again, this pattern calls for a shorter heel flap than I normally do. You would think that I would remember the reason I had to restart this sock, but no....I again, blindly follow the directions, even though holding it up I keep thinking, that is a pretty short heel flap....somewhere my brain stopped after hearing the "pretty" part and ignored the "short" part. I kept knitting, turned the heel and started flying on the foot which is in stockinette....hmmm, because the heel flap was short, there was very little decreasing required on the gussets to get back to the 80 stitches.....inner knitter by now is up and screaming in my brain, jabbing with knitting needles....but sadly yes...I keep knitting, watching each stitch fly off my needle, chortling in delight as it grows...and grows....and grows....not just length wise...width wise as well.....I finally bow to the screaming inner knitter who is clearly hoarse now and I pull on the sock....and it is the saddest ill fitting sock I've knit (other than my first pair which I refuse to discuss). I again look at it and grimly realize if I want to wear these socks, it must be done....and I rip it out AGAIN, but at least only to the heel flap....where I proceed to add nearly 3/4 of an inch to the heel flap....I turn the heel and I'm now seeing the normal gusset amount and I'm also going to reduce to 72 stitches for the foot instead of the 80....and this is what this sock looks like as of today....you can see the crinkly used yarn waiting to be reknit...I will vanquish this sock pattern...and I will relish wearing them....and hopefully my inner knitter will figure out a way to yank my yarn high knitting fingers back to reality next time so I don't waste so much time and effort into clearly wrong directions

Spinning continues

I got my wheel several months ago and I'm finding it is one of my favorite things to do. Now I'm not very good yet, but I'm getting what I feel are respectable sets of yarn. I'm still working on my consistency but I'm getting there. The newest batch I'm working on is a white and black wool and mohair combination.

This is what the remnants of my roving look like. I started with a pound of wool/mohair. And after several nights of spinning, this is all that remains. I found the wool and mohair is very slippery compared to the straight wool I spun previously. But this feels lovely sliding between my fingers...

My singles look like this...a tweedy blend with one section of solid white....I'm going to ply this tonight...waiting the 24 hours after filling the bobbin with singles is hard, but what I'm finding is that I spin first each night when I go upstairs, then after filling a bobbin, I knit the rest of the night. This keeps me from getting bored with either part of the process. and if I can keep myself off the computer perusing Ravelry or sigh, playing mindless computer games, I actually get quite a bit accomplished each night. After plying the two singles together, I'm left with this.....





Two hanks of beautifully blended tweedy yarn that should be warm and is very soft. I'm hoping to do a scarf/hat/mitten set....I'm going to look through my books to see what I can find.

I also completed a pair of socks for my mom last night. They are just plain vanilla socks, but with fall fast approaching, it won't be long before I will have my toes inside my handknit socks for the duration of winter. And I eagerly started a new pair of socks for me last night...remember I said I wanted to make 12 socks this year? Well I've only completed 4 complete pairs and still have 2 singles, so even giving me the lee way of counting mismatched socks as a pair, I'm only on 5. Hmmmm and it is September? Oh well, I'll push on.

For my birthday, I used gift money to purchase books, one of them I've just poured over... it is the first Japanese inspired pattern book I have. I think I will be getting more. I LOVE these socks and patterns. I can see making many of them in my future. I also would like to try and put some of the patterns into other things like mittens. The patterns are very textural and interesting. I've done so many plain vanilla socks lately, this is just what I needed to spark my sock knitting mojo again. So last night I cast on and here is what I have...


The color is spot on, Cherry Tree Hill yarn, but I don't remember the colorway. This color blue just makes me happy...and after spinning so much black and white yarn, this blue just sings to me.

And finally tonight will start the beginning of school year activities. I signed up both girls to be in a gymnastics class, once a week. It is good for them to be active and I hope they enjoy this. It is only for 8 weeks, but I see some prime knitting time as I wait for them each Tuesday night.

Where did summer go?

I have no excuse other than life just got really busy and blogging fell by the wayside. But the knitting and spinning has not. This is just going to be a quick check in. I will write a long post tomorrow night. My nephew and his finacee are picking up my girls tomorrow afternoon and keeping them over night! Be still my heart....I'm taking my mom to see Julie & Julia and go out to dinner. It will be a grown up night...the girls will have fun and I will have a night to do as I wish.

We had some excitement a couple weeks ago, Emily was scheduled for her second round of surgery re her cleft, the day before my mom calls me saying she does not feel well and to please come home. Ended up with her in one hospital with a "slight" heart attack (oxymoron if I ever heard one) while Emily was in a second hospital undergoing her surgery. Thanks to my sister who quickly came down from the north woods and stayed with my Anna while following up on mom, I was able to just focus on Emily. She came through surgery with great results and is thrilled with the outcome. She just gets prettier and prettier. And she is so very strong and brave. Surgery is never easy and to have it on your face is even harder but she just did wonderfully. And mom was able to come home the next day to start her recovery.

July found us spending nearly a week in Florida celebrating my niece's wedding. The location was amazing, I was able to sneak off 3 times to spend several hours on the beach with the girls. And while the wedding was amazing that was my favorite part of our time away. But seeing my two girls all dressed up in their wedding finery made my heart sing. And taking out all 112 bobby pins from Anna's hair later that night left us all in giggles.

In any event, I'll try to post more frequently, but no promises, because life is life...I'll do it as often as I can.

I'm back

Well that month went by in a flash. A long hard flash, but here we are July 1. My office moved, my new space is really nice. We are in a "green" building, we have many windows (which means I can see natural light without having to tiptoe, crane my neck and hope and office door was open), green roofs (glad the weeding job is not mine) and much more open space. I still live in cubicle land but it is much better than before.

I finished many things in the last month which surprises me. The biggest and best is this....my favorite niece is getting married in Florida in two weeks. While the wedding is outside in the steamy heat of a July night on the beach, the reception is inside and will be air conditioned to the max, so I bought a bright turquoise sun dress for the rehearsal dinner and light ivory with blue pattern sun dress for the wedding. So I dipped my toe into the lace shawl arena and boy am I smitten. I did the Wing O'the moth by Anne Hensen. It is lovely. Pattern was well written, it took me just about a month and I only knit a couple hours a day on it. I'm thrilled with how it turned out and am sure I will be doing my lace in the future.

I also finished a pair of socks, they are Claudia Handpainted in the Lipstick colorway. I got one skein for a Christmas present, and that worsted weight yarn only did one sock, so I had to order a second skein online, the dyelots are different but I still like them, and come winter, these bed socks will be perfect to chase the drab doldrums out of my world.

The other piece of news I have is my job is changing, I'm shifting back into a paralegal role from my legal secretary position. Still in the same department, just back into the paralegal world. I'm very happy. I'm totally swamped at the moment, but it will be ok. It is something I've worked towards for several years and I'm proud that I've accomplished this. Posting will be more challenging, but I'll figure out a balance.

So while I'm working on that balance, we leave for Florida soon. To watch my beautiful niece Kristin marry her love, Jeremy. We will have a great time celebrating this new addition to our family.