Black Hole Knitting

I love the Stargate tv series, mostly Stargate Atlantis, but either is fine.  Perfect knitting/spinning tv watching or should I say listening fodder.  There is plenty of techno babble speak throughout the series involving time dilation fields, out of phase episodes, alternate realities, and black holes.  I fear my tv world is turning into a reality.  I swear I'm in the black hole of knitting.  I've been knitting and knitting and knitting and KNITTING on my Atalanta scarf.  Now I love this scarf.  See?  What's not to love. I am much farther than this picture.  YES I AM!  I love the yarn.  I love the pattern.  I especially love the criss crossy border.  However, I'm still knitting on the first skein of yarn.  I actually did start knitting the pattern as if I'm at the half way point.  But I'm still on the same flipping skein!  I look at it each time I start, convinced that today will be the day that it will run out.  The second skein is wound into a cake and ready to go.  Each night when I'm putting it away I look and.... sigh...that little ball is still going strong.  I keep telling myself to just keep finishing each pattern repeat and before I know it I will be able to start the decreases and then WHOOSH!  I will finish it. 

Now I will admit I have let spinning take the forefront in my crafting time.  I finished two skeins of frolic.  I love how it turned out, it is very girlie I think.  There is enough roving to have another 2 skeins so I think I will end up with over 900 yards of Frolic.

The BFL variegated spun up beautifully.  I have two nice skeins of that although they are still waiting for a soak to finish the twist.  But what needs to really happen is knitting some hats out of my handspun.  My goal is to have some hats knit out of my handspun along with kits of the pattern and yarn to sell both at Lila and Claudines as well as at the two upcoming fiber/art festivals I'm participating in this fall.  So black hole of knitting or not, I must put aside my scarf and whip up some cute hats, I'm leaning towards one baby/kid hat and one hopefully two adult hats.  Did I mention the first event is October 1?  And looking at the calendar, that is a mere 5 weeks away.  Oh ya, can't see why I'm stressed over that at all!  Besides what have I got to do other than spinning, devising an oh so clever little pattern or two or three,and knit those clever patterns?  Oh just a full time job, two girls starting school in a couple weeks, shopping for final school clothes for my girls, getting girls and/or mom to various Dr. appointments and finding time to sleep.  No problem. 

If only I could figure out that time dilation field thing where time goes much slower in one reality than the other.  My luck?  I'd whip myself into the time that is moving exponentially faster than now....hmmmmm....maybe I already did!

Spinning Frolic

Since I'm sitting on a MOUNTAIN of roving, I've been spinning like crazy.  So far I've completed 2 skeins of a yummy chocolate brown that is merino and silk.  What should have been a luxurious spin was one of frustration.  I just don't like spinning from batts.  These batts were really soft but as I spun, I could never find a good rhythm and found little nepps hiding in the fiber.  And to top it off, it lent itself to a really FINE FINE spin.  Which meant it took a LOOOONNNNNGGGGG time to spin.  Now that it is done, I like it, but for now at least I'm going to shy away from batts.

Once I was done with the chocolate puddle of yarn I turned to this...the first of the 9 pounds of fiber I selected from Fat Cat Knits.  Let me introduce you to Frolic.  Now you may need sunglasses at the almost psychedelic hues but oh my what a treat.

I spun it into a nice 2 ply, which I think would be great for something for a baby maybe.  You can see the single and if you squint past the flyer you can see a bit of the 2 ply.  Currently the 2 skeins are hanging on the lighting arm of my ceiling fan to dry after a nice soak from last night.

Which brings me to a dream I have.  Currently my yarn is in my bedroom.  Along with my wheel, a large cubby unit that holds ALL my yarn, a dresser, a queen size bed, two bedside tables and a floor Ott light.  This is my present yarn studio.  I don't claim any longer to have a bedroom, I have a yarn room with a bed in it.  My dream is someday I will have a dedicated yarn room or dare I say a studio.  I guess the luxury I have is I can plan and dream and decide what I would have in that studio.  Interweave has a new issue of its magazine Studios out and the amazing organized chock full of crafting goodness just made me long and dream about what mine would like like.  I think one of the things I'd like is some type of island that would have a top that I could use for blocking out my completed knitting.  It would have shelves underneath that I could fill with baskets of roving and yarn.  A practical item but at the same time one that would be a feast for my eyes and yet keep me organized.  I want a place where I could hang yarn to dry as I set the twist.  It would have a wall unit of some type that would be flexible enough to hold skeins of yarn as well as my books and magazines (which would be magically organized so I could find whatever pattern I wanted).  Someday I will have this type of space.  But right now, I'm happy in my version of a yarn room.  It is filled with yarn and fiber.  My girls come in and spend time with me all the time on their own (I know!).  I'm blessed.

But back to spinning...this is the next batch on the wheel.  It is a variegated BFL and it feels like silk....

Lila and Claudines

This has been a banner week in my spinning/knitting world.  I brought a basket of my handspun into a local yarn shop, Lila and Claudines.  And I heard such lovely and warm compliments on my yarn.  And to my delight and amazement, they bought a chunk of my handspun to have in their store!  Yup, bought it from me.  And asked me to come back and spin at their store and attend an upcoming festival and sell my yarn.  This is one of the most vibrant color exploding yarn shops I've been in.  Take a look!

Doesn't that just read fabulous!  And full of creative and funny people who encourage and guide customers into really exploring yarn to its fullest.  I'm thrilled to be "part of the family." 

The aaaahhhh from up north

We went to Grand Marais this weekend.  It is one of my very favorite places in the world to visit.  The air is fresh and clean and gazing out over Lake Superior is just awe inspiring.  This isn't actually in Grand Marais, but is Goosberry Falls.  The best part is the weather, the temps at home have been in the 90's with high humidity.  To the point you feel like you have to physically push your way through the air.  But in Grand Marais, it is usually 20 degrees cooler.  You are on the lake so the breeze is cool and soothing (at least to me). 

The girls were going to go swimming until they stuck their toes in the water and gasped at the shock of 45 degree water!  But still we played and walked up and down the shore, looking for magical rocks, dragging up driftwood for my mom (which is now safely home nestled among our potted plants).  I was content to laugh and watch as the danced in and around the water.  Emily was the one who would wade out and grab the rocks from as deep as she could reach.  Anna and me?  We picked the rocks actually on the shore! 

Once we returned home, it was back in the humidity and grateful for air conditioning.  Went to work today and what was delivered to me?  But a BOX of roving from Ginny at Fat Cat Knits, I mean a BOX people!  I got NINE pounds of roving.  NINE!  Don't even ask me how long it will take me to spin that up.  I placed the order 2 wees ago and have spun madly trying to clear the way from my stash so I can nestle these beauties in the basket...

Is that not the MOST fabulous pile of roving ever?  There are 8 colorways jumbled together and another pound not pictured of a natural light beigy taupy bfl.  So I'm in heaven and it is the most I can do to not dump out the roving from the box on to the floor of my cube and rolling around in it.  It is a mix of BFL and Merino.  Just can't wait to start it. 

Oh and while in Grand Marais, I found a small yarn shop and Emily picked something out there for my upcoming birthday.  I picked out a book Knit! Swirl!  This is the most beautiful sweater idea I've seen in awhile.  And I'm toying with spinning enough yarn to make it for myself.  Can't think of a better way of showcasing my own handspun at events than to work up something like that. 

Well I better get back at it and NO I don't mean rolling in my roving!

Squinty eye pictures

I need to take better pictures...case in point...my latest spin, Wizard Island...

This looks like the yarn is moving so fast that it is in motion...wait, you mean yarn doesn't move?  So that means my picture taking is well, awful.  In real life this is over 400 yards of beautiful two ply wool yarn.

So lets move on to my knitting project.  Yes I still knit, really I do.  While spinning is taking over more and more of my time, I still knit almost every day.  I found this great pattern, the atalanta scarf I fell hard for this one, the edging just about made me swoon.  I immediately favorited this on Ravelry but kept knitting away on other, now much less worthy projects.  Finally I started it, first in some on hand yarn because I couldn't possibly wait to go look for the perfect yarn.  After a few failed attempts to understand the pattern I got it, and worked away for several repeats until I came to the bitter conclusion that the yarn was too puny.  The knitting was lackluster at best.  So rippppp it went.  My girls love to "help" when something needs ripping.  In seconds they have undone what took me hours to do. 

I went off in pursuit of the perfect yarn to make my Atalanta scarf.  I found a couple skeins of Prism Saki yarn in the Copper Penny colorway.  Perfect yarn I'm telling you.  After another few false starts, clearly I had yet to fully wrap my head around how to execute a six row pattern repeat of the right edging with the eight row pattern repeat on the left edging.  What?  I confused myself again just typing that.  So a slight alteration, ahem, "pattern design" and I was on my way.  Last night I took a picture, laid my shining copper penny scarf on a white t-shirt for the BEST possible picture.  The result?

I know my tshirt is not new, but it is NOT yellow!  So clearly my picture taking is at an all time low.  I'm sure all of you are ju

I'm getting feed up, this is my third attempt to finish my oh so witty observations on why my picture taking is crappy.  I mentioned melting due to the sun (hence the yellow cast to my white t-shirt).  I mentioned future problems may be due to frost bite (it will snow here again someday).  Believe me it was funny.  Side splitting funny.  not lame at all.  nope not me.  But since neither the blog gods or picture goddesses are with me today,  I'm saving and moving on.  Watch, this will go up without a hitch! 

nope, this is my fifth attempt...maybe the pictures are so embarrassed they are being gremlins and trying to prevent this missive from hitting the world at large.  Ya, get over it, few people will see you!  Buck up buttercup, let your blurry yellow tinged glory stand proud.  POST for crying out loud.

Return of the knitter

We've returned from vacation.  I'm telling you, the last few months have been a bit overloaded and I really enjoyed our time away.  Just look at this....

Is that not the most glorious picture?  We were at Mount Rushmore, it was a beautiful day, I looked up and it felt like God's hand would reach out to me at any moment. 

We were gone for about 10 days, a lot of driving, but I loved the scenery.  We started in Vail, CO where my nephew and his wife live.  While the mountains were gorgeous, I decided it wasn't a place I'd like to live.  Does anyone else do that?  Measure places by deciding if you want to live there or not?  I do.  We had  a lot of fun there including the girls slid down a mountain top.  Yup, I said SLID.  There was still snow up there and combine that with some plastic garbage sacks and they can now claim they slid in July.  smile.  After a few days in Fail, we headed to Rapid City and had even more fun at Mount Rushmore.

Even though I've been here before, you forget how amazing it is until you are standing below the Presidents.  And the story of how they were chiseled out of the mountain is worth the trip alone.  Directly from there we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial.

This I had not seen before and even though is is not finished it is stunning.  And what I think they do better than the Mount Rushmore site, is there is a great museum and informational center right there.  The story of Mount Rushmore is explained in great detail in a museum in Keystone, a nearby little town at the base of Mount Rushmore, but not actually at the site.  Crazy Horse had a great informational center right there.  Now you may notice a difference in the skies, they were taken about an hour apart.  Maybe because in trying to get from Mount Rushmore to Crazy Horse, the driver (ahem, that would be me) somehow ended up going up a road climbing a mountain that was maintained by the Park Rangers.  Yup, that was one interesting ride, full of switchbacks, one lane tunnels carved out of the side of the mountain, and even wild critters crossing the road in front of you....like Bison!  Just an additional adventure on the way to Crazy Horse.  We left the Crazy Horse monument and in 10 minutes were pulled over on the side of the road as torrential rain and HAIL pounded our rental Jeep!  Fun times...the girls had plenty to say about that, let me tell you!

I only found one place on our travels that had yarn.  In a small town near Vail, there was a yarn shop.  I bought roving but was disappointed I couldn't seem to find more wool/sheep filled fun.  I did finish knitting a scarf out of my hand spun, but it needs to be blocked before any pictures can be taken.

But I'm back and have been spinning and knitting as much as I can.  So many ideas are floating in my head!  Just a few more pictures of our time away...

My mom and my girls.  Can't ask for much more than this.

As promised!

And without further ado...here is my Sweetgrass scarf in progress...

Isn't she pretty!  It is made from my handspun...a mix of wool and silk.  The resulting yarn is a bit rustic looking but with a really nice strong yet soft feeling to it.  The pattern is the Seattle Bloom scarf which is found in the Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book.  I love this book, it is where I also got the pattern for my Lettuce Slide scarf.  My handspun is thicker than sock yarn but I don't mind a wider scarf.  Not after last winter that is for sure.  In any event, I love the subtle striping of the scarf.  I'm knitting with my handspun so I can have more samples at my sale tables in the future.  Like that is a hardship.  smile...I love knitting with my handspun.  Although I'm not sure about the yardage, according to the pattern it needed 400 yards.  I had about 440 yards and I left out two repeats, one for chart A and then the corresponding repeat in chart B.  Hopefully that will be enough, since I do not have more roving.  But that is me, always living on the knitting world edge!  Stay tuned.