29 September, 2009

Spinning... more than normal

I am really loving my CPW "Bella" she spins so nicely and quietly that I have found myself spinning much more than normal. Have been sitting down with her for at least 30 mins per day this past week. I think that my spinning may be improving with the practice. ;-)

Plied up the bit of Crown Mountain Farms singles that I spun on Bella, and Navajo plied it on the Babe. Looks like it will be a fairly balanced yarn. I was really, really worried as I had a kinky mass of yarn. Couldn't hardly get it on the swift to wind it into a ball. Of course that might have helped take some of the twist out of the singles as well. hmmmm. Next time I ply the yarn that I have spun on Bella, I am going to release the tension on the drive band and ply it directly on the Babe instead of winding off Bella's bobbin to a niddynoddy then to the swift and then a ball and finally plying. Too many steps in that mess there. There is half a bobbin spun up from this evenings work of the dark chocolate brown Romney (cross?... can't find the information, thought it was in the bag with the fiber.) Feels like Romney, a bit coarse, will see if I get a decent yarn and yardage and may attempt a pair of socks. They should be warm even if they may be a bit itchy.

Knitting news... same old stuff on the needles. A few stitches here and there on the Helmet Liner. A few rows here and there on the DIL Socks, a few rows on the sock yarn afghan... like I said... same old shit. Haven't fixed the stitches on the Ninja Mask yet... I did a rip back and just threaded a smaller needle through. Still have stitches that are mounted incorrectly and a few that I missed in the pick up. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon I will get around to some of that. ;-)

Also have to repair a commercially knit hat for a friend. She brought it to me to work on in late spring early summer and I have just started to isolate the stitches that need repair work. What? It has been too hot to wear a wool hat anyhow... shush! Have run a sewing thread through the rows where there are stitches to pick up. Will duplicate stitch over the "missing stitches" using the sewing thread as a base. Found this neat tutorial quite awhile back and refer to it when ever I have to do fix up work like this. (my mind requires refreshing with stuff I don't do often) It relates to sock darning, but stitches are stitches. It is Judy Becker's blog, Persistent Illusion... check it out. I linked to the tutorial, but do take the time to browse her blog if you are unfamiliar with it.

Gosh... here it is an hour past my bedtime. Yikes! Morning comes far too early!

Happy Knitting!

26 September, 2009

Been Awhile

I need to get a regular posting schedule going I think. Seems like I've only posted once or twice a month for awhile.

Just a recap here of what I have been up to. Left for a week in Hawaii on Saturday the 12th of September. Had an interesting morning at the airport. The fun started at the security checkpoint when they scanned and re-scanned and then sat staring at the x-ray photo of one of my carry on bags. Poor TSA lady had a confused look on her face. I knew what she was seeing and I started to smile... she looked over at me with a puzzled look on her face and said, "It looks like you have pick up sticks in here." "Circular knitting needles and a hell of a lot of yarn" I replied. A smile replaced her quizzical look and she said, "Oh"... scan over.

Stopped at *bucks and got my coffee and then sat down at my gate pulled out my knitting and knit while I waited. A fellow and his wife, probably just a few years older than myself, sat down in the seats next to mine. After getting settled, he went and got his wife a coffee and himself a big bottle of juice. Now I wasn't really watching them, but did notice when he bent down and pulled out his quart baggie of liquids... he was sitting right next to me... pulled out a mouthwash bottle, opened it and dumped the 3.5oz of "Mouth Wash" into his OJ. I could smell that it wasn't mouthwash, LOL, and I also noticed that he had another 4 bottles of the same "mouthwash" in his baggie. He proceeded to drink a total of three more bottles before the plane landed in Maui. They were sitting one row in front of me and on the other side of the aisle. I suppose that is one way to get your "liquids" past the TSA and have an adult drink on board the plane and not have to pay the fee for the alcohol. Luckily he didn't turn into a noisy drunk. He did talk quite a bit more as the flight went on, but he kept his voice down and spoke only with his wife, and was just a bit wobbly in the aisles as we were disembarking after the flight.

Finished up the Babies and Bears cardigan in a 0 - 6 month size. Ends woven in, just needs buttons. Heads up to anyone wanting to knit this pattern, there are a bunch of ends to weave in, one section to kitchner up, but nothing to actually seam up. Knits up fairly quickly and is an easy straight forward knit, all sizes have the same amount of stitches... so gauge in this pattern really does matter.

The Orange Ninja Mask was frogged part way back. Going to base it on the Helmet Liner pattern especially for the face opening area. It was a sagging and a bagging and trying to curl up on me the way I was attempting. Riiiiiiippppiiiiiittttt!

Need to sit down with pad and paper and figure out what all needs to be knit before Thanksgiving and what can wait till after Christmas. Thinking that I need to do this real soon. (I don't do actual Christmas knitting, I don't need the stress that would cause!)

Spent 8 days in Hawaii visiting with my DIL and the grandkids. Had a blast. Didn't want to return home, but alas, work must be done if I want money for yarn and fiber. ::::pout::::

Didn't get as much knitting done in Hawaii as I would have at home, but did managed to knit the Hat for Hat Wars and send it out to my target the morning after the pattern was released. My own Hat "bomb" arrived on Wednesday afternoon. Was fun but short lived, ah well, I wouldn't have had time to keep up really anyhow as I was back to work the day after I got home.

Spinning at the Fair on Sunday, tomorrow, I signed up for all three shifts so 10 - 10. Should be fun. Taking my babe wheel and a spindle and also a small knitting project. Just a bit more fiber to be spun up on this bobbin and then will need to navajo ply. That should go fairly quickly. The fiber is a Merino X in grey. Purchased this fleece last year at the Black Sheep Fiber Festival in OR. It's a nice grey color. Intending to spin up enough for a sweater, hat, scarf, and wrist warmer/gloves. It's a big, big, fleece... ~8 pounds of it after cleanning so no worries about running out.

11 September, 2009

11 Sept - A day of Remembrance.

We shall never forget that day in 2001; the memories we have of where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news will always be vivid and sad ones.

Today on my drive to work I noticed that there was a distinct lack of Flags flying. Unlike in years past very few people had their flags flying outside their homes. Yes, there were the usual few that I pass by on a daily basis that had theirs out, but it just wasn't as prevelant as in the past. In fact I counted them today and including the 2 at the local Firestation I only counted 9. Granted I don't have a very long commute, but still... In the years past I could count past 20 before I drove the 2 blocks out of my own neighborhood.

This I find very sad and dissapointing, and I wonder why the lack of flags this year? Are we as a Nation forgetting those that lost their lives that day? Those in the Towers, in the Pentagon, those on the Planes, the Firemen, are they being forgotten?