Hey look, I have a blog

Hey look, I have a blog

Oh my goodness, I have a blog. And I've had a few beers. And I'm sure no one will ever read this since it has been many years since I have posted. But I feel the need to let some things out. And maybe it will be a new start.
First, I still knit like a fiend sometimes, but it goes in fits and starts. I knit my fingers into a crippled mass of flesh for Christmas and then took a break. I just finished one of these for a co-workers impending baby because we call him Shrek. He's a big ogre of a guy. It doesn't mean that yarn and fiber still hasn't taken over my house. Sometimes it is simply incredible to me.
Anyways, what else...
I have been married for 16 years and I'm not real sure I want that to continue. There's not really anything I can point to that makes me say that. I just feel not happy about the whole thing. It's strange. And sad. And so many other things I can't even articulate. Right now we are separated because he is in Texas for training. He thinks this will help and give us time to think and figure things out. I think it's a bunch of baloney since I'm the one that's here with the kids running my ass off and not sleeping. One part of me is ready to be done with the whole thing. Another part of me feels I need to work it out for the family. And yet another is just afraid to be alone. Afraid of what it will mean financially and emotionally. I still like him. I still enjoy him. Just not sure I want to be married to him. Ugh.
Well now I'm putting it out there for the world to see and hear. Even if no one does. I think I need to do this blog thing more often. It kinda felt good...

Sewing

Well, I haven't been too productive on the knitting front. Since I last posted, I've finished one pair of socks for a dear friend's birthday- she turned 80!! She said she wasn't going to wear them and I said "But that's why I made them!" "No, now listen. I'm not gonna wear them until after the fair so that I can enter them." Ha, ha, she's so funny. That's one thing that surprised me about my job. It has given me the chance to make all kinds of friends that I probably would not have met otherwise. One of my best friends is a 60 year old lady that likes to tell me how to do everything- she tells everyone how to do things- but she also knows I probably won't listen to her. She has daughters the same age as I am, but she doesn't treat me like a kid. I am an equal to her. Incidentally, she has a great relationship with both of her daughters, too. She has learned to see them as people, not just as her kids. I hope I can have that with my kids someday.

Wow! That went in a different direction rather quickly. Okay, knitting, back to knitting.

I've also been working on the Dollar & a Half Cardi from the Spring Interweave Knits. I had a hard time with the lace pattern at first, but I also started with the sleeves for some reason. Uh, hello!, have I ever heard of sleeves having increases? Duh. So I ripped those suckers out and started on the back. Much better. Now I have the pattern down so I think the sleeves will make more sense. So far, the only thing I would change is to maintain at least two stitches in stockinette on each end instead of the one that the pattern suggests. My selvedge stitches are always a little ugly, so I think it would just be easier to seam with two. I'm using some yarn from elann.com. The pattern suggested a linen blend, but I am always cold, so I went with an Alpaca/Tencel blend. This may not have been the best choice, but it's too late now (it stretches quite a bit). The whole thing might just end up in my ever growing pile of non-worn handmade items.

Lately, though, I have mostly been sewing. I am having some trouble with my right arm- I think I have a pinched nerve in my upper back/shoulder. Whatever it is, it makes knitting more than a few rows at a time a real pain! So instead, I've been sewing. Plus, I don't get nearly the same scolding when I sew at work as when I knit at work. (Yes, I know we sell yarn, and needles, and patterns, but there is no knitting at work! Makes sense to me, not!) So, for some reason I got myself all jazzed up about making myself this skirt. Do I wear skirts? Not usually, but I really wanted to make it in a robin egg blue with little white dots and a cute little bow. I loved every step of the project. I put in an invisible zipper, I did every pleat perfectly, I hand-stitched the facing down, but did I try it on even once along the way? Nope. And now it's done, and it is so much too big that I can wear it over top of my clothes! No wonder I usually stick to kid stuff and quilts! But did I learn my lesson? No, next I'm planning on making this. It's got to be something about Spring that makes me want to make skirts and dresses, even if I won't ever wear them.

Well, that's a bit of a catch up, and next time, there might even be pictures.

Step 2

So I'm on to the second step in my recovery, actually posting knitting content. I was so proud of myself at Christmas. I actually sewed or knit everyone's gift this year! Well, I got my dad a book, but that doesn't count 'cause he always says I'm not supposed to get him anything. I made fleece blankets for the men and my cousin Cassie, and then the rest goes like this:
Grandma- a shawl out of Cascade 220
Sister- a chenille blanket
Mom- homespun sock yarn! (yep, I spun sock yarn and it was perfect!)
Sis-in-law 1- cabled scarf
Sis-in-law 2- fetching mitts
Aunt- chenille backed quilt
The best part was that everyone was super happy with their gifts! Even my brother who never even says thank you! I mean, he still didn't say thank you, but I caught him showing off his blanket to his wife. Of course I'd had much bigger plans, but I ran out of time. That's where the fleece blankets came in. They are super fast and always useful and appreciated. I just finish off the edges on the serger, and voila!, they're ready. I've been hand embroidering lately, so I might try a real blanket stitch on the next one.
Okay, enough about 2 mos. ago, here's what I've been up to lately. That's Starsky, Jr. from the
winter Knitty. It was Abbey's birthday sweater.
And despite the look on her face in that picture, she really likes it. The night I brought it home after finishing it, she wanted to wear it to bed. In fact, I caught her with it on after The Man had gone to work and she was supposed to be sleeping. Crazy kid!

I feel like I have been super productive lately. I finished a fleece jacket that The Man wanted me to make for him. And when the guy at work saw it, he said I had some "mad sewing skills". Ha, ha! Me, the one that had never sewn until a few years ago. Well, he is a man, and he doesn't sew, but I'll take the compliment anyway. I'm also almost done with a pair of socks for The Man that I started right before Valentine's Day. I'm using KnitPicks Gloss. I kinda like it. I think I might order some more and make myself a pair of socks. The shine it has adds a little something to the plain color.

I also got a new toy. It's an Ashford drop spindle and that's my first spindled skein. It's different, but kinda fun. I've also tried my first boucle, no pictures of that, sorry. It looks okay, but I haven't quite figured out how to lock down the loops with my second sewing thread. My spinning lady said it looked good for having taught myself. Is that a compliment? I keep pestering her about classes. She's really into needle felting right now, but she said she does have a lot of new spinners out there. Hopefully she'll have one soon.

Well, I've gotta boogie. Work beckons.

New Beginnings

I am officially declaring today my new blog-day! This is the re-birth of this poor little neglected blog. It's kinda like the start of the twelve step program for blog ignoring, procrastinating lazy bones. Hey, we've all got our personal demons to work out. I guess I better start by shaving my head.

Granny Squares

Wanna do something good for someone? Go here. I think it would be great if we sent enough blocks for as many blankets as possible. It's not just babies that need blankies, Grannies and Grampies need them too.

Hate mail

I tried to write a post a few days ago about how much I despise Wal-mart and that they are the Evil Empire, but Blogger, I hate you too. You would not let me link to the things I wanted, and you kept doing the BOLD type stuff when I didn't want it and you ate my pictures and , and, and... I really am not in love with you. The honeymoon is waaayyy over. I was willing to overlook certain things at first, you are free after all. But I've had it to my eyeballs with your difficult behavior. You are on notice! I am seeing other people, and we may not be together for much longer...

In other news, I am going to the The Wool Gathering today and I can hardly wait. The kids are also super excited. See how I've corrupted them.

Spin-Aholic

I have to say I did not much knitting this summer. In fact, there were times when I went weeks without knitting a stitch. The reasonable explanation for this is that something else was fulfilling my fiber fetish. This is what I did on summer vacation.
My first dip into spinning oblivion came when I finally found my local spinning shop. I had been dying to spin some merino I had bought from e-bay (purple on left) last year, but my bobbins were occupied and I was too anxious to empty them. This is probably why I have so many sets of the same size needles but can never find a set when I want them. ADD. So originally I was in search of some more bobbins for my Louet. She had some bad news, though. The bobbins I have are the old 2-speed style, and the new bobbins are 3-speed. And you can't just buy the 3-speed bobbins because they have a different drive band. And the two shall not be mixed. Which means buying at least 3 new bobbins ($26.95 each!) and a new drive band ($9.95) and still only having three bobbins. That's a lot of ands. So, I decided to suck it up and finish what I had started. Of course I couldn't help but look at all the yummies while I was there and took home some 50/50 wool-mohair (the green on the right). I hurried home and got to work. The purple was my first yarn that when I showed it to people they said "yeah, it's yarn". Yay! They thought I bought it! Not that I want to completely lose the homey-ness of handspun, but I always find it a compliment to the consistency of my finished product. Anyways, I was hooked and had spun everything I had by the end of that week. Next I started hoarding fiber like I hoarde yarn! I got the blue-ish purple (same fiber as green) and some silk (notice it's not here? not so good at that yet). The green on the left came from Spunky Eclectic (Hosta Almost Solid wool blend). And I've got a whole pile of boxes and bags from various other places, including this. I found this on e-bay from Wooly Treasures.
I have really enjoyed spinning it, waiting to see what color comes next and how long it will last. Now I'm torn. I'm at the point where if I'm going to use it as a 2-ply, I need to start another bobbin. But I don't want to lose the blocking of the colors I've got right now. I know I could navajo ply it, but I not so great at that. I love how squishy and fuzzy it is right now and my navajo plies seem to come out kind of hard. Help? I've thought about leaving it as a single, but I'm not too confident in my singles- it's that whole even-ness thing. I'm probably too picky. But in the meantime, I've actually gone back to the needles. The purple swatch is some of my hand-spun knit up. It's so yummy, if I do say so myself. I have decided what to do with it yet, but it's begging to be knit. The oatmeal color swatch is from a baby gansey for the neighbors across the street. They are due in October. It's mostly done- in fact I'm seaming it up right now. Now I need to wash the swatch to see if it really is washable like the label says. There's also a sparkly sock in there for Abbey. The mate is having some issues right now but will hopefully feel better soon. There's some single of the Hosta wool and that fluffy purple is some locks I bought not too long ago. Yeah, I'm getting brave. I've never spun anything but rovings and slivers, but I couldn't help myself. It was just sitting there all sparkly and cotton candy-ish. It's an addiction, I know. Next, I'm going to the Wool Gathering in two weeks. I'm going to be in trouble, I know. Well, this post has taken forever (thanks crappy blogger picture loading) and I've got to get to work. I'll leave you with a summertime kidlet shot.
Indianapolis Children's Museum, July 2006.