It sneaks up on you

When did a full third of my possessions turn into yarn?

Okay, so some of my books and media and stuff are still located up north, but my stash is here (YAY FINALLY WOOT!) and I'm not kidding when I say it makes up at least a third of my belongings. Possibly more if you count that the books I do have are almost exclusively knitting related and one of my two not-folding-chairs is my spinning chair.

It is largely unpacked now, though still pretty much in chaos. Organizing it will have to wait since that's a pretty big undertaking, but I have managed to dig out some yarn and fiber that I've been wanting to work with for awhile now.

I did get new shelves just to house the stash. They are courtesy of Lowes who, if you're looking, has some Container Store InterMetro clone shelves for something like a quarter of the price. They are shiny and sort of post modern industrial looking and fit all my apartment furniture criteria (can be easily moved by one person, come apart into their individual parts and weigh very little). Also I can hang spindles from the sides.

I'll post a pic when it doesn't just look like a rainbow threw up in the corner of my apartment (assuming that ever happens).

Of course, the only logical thing to do when you realize that your stash has gotten well out of hand?

Buy more yarn.

In my defense, I've been abstaining for oh... at least three weeks and it was a Wollmeise update.

Somehow I'm pretty sure that last part forgives everything.

Spinning tools that you don't appreciate enough

I have officially finished half of my sock yarn. I'm going to be cable plying this (don't ask why I thought that was a good idea. There were reasons like "conserving bobbins" and "it sounds cool" and you know what? They're all shit because it took me FOREVER to ply this first bobbin and if this is the best sock yarn in the world its really going to suck because doing sock yarn this way will at least double my production time.)

Anyway. I'm quite proud of how the color repeats lined up. Not perfect - but I wasn't looking for perfect. I also made my first successful andean bracelet to finish off the end. Nice thing about 4-ply is there is very little waste singles.

Something I keep forgetting to blog about is my spinning chair. Because you don't appreciate a good spinning chair until you've both had one and then not had one for awhile. Nobody really thinks about having a spinning chair when they're looking for a wheel, but they should. A good chair is comfortable for long periods, encourages good posture and puts you at just the right treadle height. If you're really lucky it can do double duty as a distaff or toolbox as well.

My spinning chair kind of found me.

It is very old. It belonged to my great-grandmother at one point and wound up at my grandparent's house where it was being used to set boxes on for a long time. I commandeered it when I needed a chair to sit the wheel in front of during the last holiday vacation and when I found out how perfect it was (height - back - seat) I begged a little and was told I was welcome to have it.

Its not in the best of shape - several of the beams are loose and I've had to hammer them back into place and someday when I can stand to part with it for awhile it could benefit from a real repair job with nails & wood glue done by someone who knows what they're doing (not me in other words). It probably started life around a dining table of some kind and considering its age is also probably handmade.

It has really made me appreciate a good spinning chair.

It makes me sit up. It keeps my legs lined up just right. I can treadle for hours before I start wanting a break. It lets me lean back. Just enough that my shoulder's don't get tired, about as far as I want to be from the orifice, but not any farther. It has good places to drape fiber. Someday I'd like to attach some little tool boxes to the sides or maybe the back.

So yeah, its awesome. And people just don't think about that kind of thing.

Respect your spinning chair, peeps.

Stash Deprivation

Moving is hard.

Ignore the trauma of packing yourself up or saying goodbye to friends or in my case the enormous stress of just going somewhere, no job lined up or anything and basically hoping for the best (in my defense - the situation isn't any worse than it was in Kentucky, and at least there are more than Zero job postings in my field here in a given month).

My stash is in storage.

Guh.

I did justify bringing a small bit of yarn with me - two or three rovings, a couple of socks worth and I still have the Feathweight to finish. But still...

MY STASH IS IN STORAGE.

I can't begin to describe how traumatic that is. If I want something and its not something I brought with me I can't just go get it. Its not THERE. Its in a box. Somewhere that is not here. Somewhere that I cannot reach it.

Sure - I could go buy more yarn (if I ignore that budget thing), but its not MY yarn. Its not MY stash. Its new yarn. Its not the same.

I am trying to cope. Yesterday was hard, because I was going down to bookpeople to see the Yarn Harlot and was trying to think what I wanted to take to work on. I wasn't working on any socks, my Deadpool mitts are down to the fingers of mitt #2 (or redoing the duplicate stitching on mitt #1) and my Featherweight is a row or two away from moving the arm stitches to somewhere else. So nothing in a nice position of relative mindlessness that was also easily portable.

Solution is easy: cast on some socks. Nice easy stockinette socks. Toe up. I can knit them in my sleep (or while laughing like a maniac - whatever). And I know just the yarn - there is 45g or so leftover from my first pair of handspun socks and I'm done with the black section on my DP mitts so I can use that for the heels & toes. Awesome. I go to get the Handspun.

Which isn't there.

Because its in a box somewhere other than where I am.

ARGH.

I settled for casting on with the Wollmeise I had left over from my Porphyria mitts. To console myself the lack of handspun I also took along my longterm spindle project and got about a third of my fourth cop of that spun when my hands needed a break.

Bad camera phone picture of the Yarn Harlot ^

The talk was awesome in spite of my stash-crisis, and the WM sock that got most of a foot finished is pretty (its not handspun but WM is my next favorite sock yarn thing). I'm thinking that its going to end up being a toe-up version of the Flame Thrower Socks, since I have some Campari Orange left from my Rick socks that would look good for that I think (and also so I don't feel bad for doing something boring with my WM). The Yarn Harlot is as funny in person as everyone says she is. And I felt much less OMG WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME after the event than I have all week. Panic has been something of the order of the week for me.

Possibly it was the knitting, possibly it was the laughing. Probably a bit of both.

Anyway, fun stuff. The group that showed up was an eclectic bunch. Old, young, male, female... you name it. We pretty much overran the upstairs of Bookpeople. I don't think they realized how many knitters would show up. I didn't get a chance to talk with many people, but it seemed like a fun bunch. Maybe I'll run into some of them on my quest to find a knitting group in the area.

I got enough spun on the spindle sock yarn to finally start plying some of it:

That's my loverly Kingwood Turkish there. I was originally planning to wait and spin the whole braid of singles before I started in on the finished yarn, but I am slow with the drop spindle and I've been wanting to use this baby for MONTHS. So I wound a plying ball and started. It makes me feel accomplished.

Possibly also spurned by the Stash Deprivation I started spinning some other sock yarn this evening - its from this roving that I dyed:

I've divied it up into fourths and then again in fourths and I'm spinning the spingles now. I may cable ply in two sections to conserve bobbins (some of them seem to have wandered off to join my stored stash). The singles are clocking in at about 40WPI so it will be 4ply one way or another. It is going to stripe in long repeats:

Its not my stash... but its helping.

Supergeek wins over Reason

You ever work on something that just doesn't want to happen?

Or maybe this is just the way designing something from scratch always works.

Deadpool Mitts version 0.9 - the left hand is DONE. okay it needs the ends woven (of which there are a crapload) but the knitting is finished which is a big freaking deal because this is ALL I'VE WORKED ON THIS WEEK. The idea was floating around last weekend, and I ran out on Saturday to get a reasonably correct shade of red and let me tell you there is nothing like hunting down a particular solid color sock yarn at 4:30pm on a saturday when all the yarn shops around here close at 5 >.<

I ended up getting it at Stitche Niche and wound up overpaying for it, but at that point I was so damn happy that someone had it AND was open when I got there I would have paid twice MSRP just to not have to wait until monday or tuesday or god forbid to have it SHIPPED HERE.

Anyway, I started with a pretty basic plan and two shades of Heritage sock and by sunday evening I had most of a mitt done and OK it was like for a men's X-large, but still. Proof of concept, right? I redid some math and my color chart and started again. I was working on the fingers when a friend pointed out that my black yarn? Not black. Crazy dark navy. Not black.

ARGH.

Yeah, not gonna fly.

So I gave the evil unfinished mit away to be lost so I could forget about it and started again.

About 10 hours of knitting today later:


Its not perfect. I wound up duplicate stitching the design because the two yarns I'm using are slightly different gauges and trying to do intarsia kept ending up with ugly holes and uneven stitches. The fit is so-so. They're not my Porphyria that hug my hands all perfect like, but the slightly looser wrist section is kind of nice. Roomy-like. It warants further fiddling, but its not bad for a first (third) try.

I am sort of on the fence about where I ended the black section as well - on the one hand when I make a fist it falls right above the knuckles and looks BADASS, on the other when i have my hand straightened out it looks a little clunky. That's the problem with interpreting comic book stuff I guess. Those guys aren't fashion designers - they don't have to worry about if it looks dorky when the guy isn't standing heroicly because comic book characters ALWAY POSE THAT WAY.

Anyway - there will undoubtably be a version 1.5 or 2.0 or 1.89213 or whatever. Probably around when the movie gets released.

In the meantime I think I deserve special Uber-nerd consideration.

I outgeek you.

Srsly.

Geekout

Its a slow day. Slow enough that I actually got tired of knitting and had to go find something else to do for awhile.

Because I am wacky, and because I have access to Excel I gave into the dubious urge to whip up a Deadpool Colorwork chart (yeah - new level of crazy there). its 23sts x23rows and might need some adjusting for gauge (I need to like... find yarn and stuff first).

I'm thinking black fingerless gloves. >D

And also :


crappy camera phone picture of what I'm knitting on today. I love this. Its lovely. Its a lot of stockinette. I need to go start something that's not stockinette soon. Maybe this afternoon.

Surprise!

Wow - okay. So last night was my last time going to the Thursday night knitting group (Needles & Angels) and everyone surprised me with a party and presents. I don't know how my Mom kept it from me - she's usually a bad lier. Of course - I probably should have guessed something was up when she was stalling last night before we left... but oh well, clearly off my game.

This is the group that we did the Dye days with and I've really loved knitting with them and hanging out. I'm going to miss everyone when I leave. I got yarn & cards and a t-shirt and dye and rubber gloves and candy and gift certificates for yarn and pie and cookies and...

Anyway - it was awesome. I am a little embarrassed and a lot honored and flattered... And yeah.

I'll miss you guys. Thanks so much for everything!

Something Old & Something New

I am pretty well a slug when it comes to taking pictures of things, but since I'm sort of involved in packing up a lot of stuff (especially things that qualify as winter wear... like... say scarfs) I managed to snag pictures of some older FOs that I'd never gotten around to photographing.

First that Clapotis Scarf I was working on in WM yarn. I loooooooveee it. Its prettier in person. Seriously. And completely my colors. On the downside, wearing it like a scarf around my neck activates my "AAAAHHHH WOOL GET IT OFF GET IT OFF" instincts somewhat (somewhat equaling - I can last with it for about fifteen minutes before I start scratching). Which sucks. A lot. But its wide enough to wear like a mini-shawl and pretty that way. Proof all over again that animal fibers that touch my neck are bad, m'kay? So no, self, even if the rest of you is just fine with it you're still not making any wool sweaters.

Not that I could wear one in Austin anyway.

My most favoritest scarf that I made is this one - it was the first thing to ever come off the loom and its the awesomeness. Also, desipte being made from panda silk (which does contain a percentage of wool) it doesn't inspire my "GAH WOOL!" reaction. I am not sure if its the low amount or the nature of woven fabric but there you are. Its full of mistakes and has ugly, crappy selvages, but the color matches everything and its soft and warm.

There is also more recent stuff to show & tell:

My Kai Mei socks from last month. These won me free yarn in the April Sock Innovation KAL which is so awesome. Also, the socks are pretty nifty too. I'm passing on this month's KAL since they're doing the Kai Mei pattern (or Pomatomas... which I actually want to do but don't have the presence of mind of deal with this month), but I'll probably do one of the KALs next month with the prize yarn. :)

And finally, I finished this scarf just last week! It was my Mom's present for Mother's Day. It is crazy soft & delicious - bamboo & malabrigo lace merino. Mmm.... I hemstitched the ends, which was new and probably not done correctly (it is holding together just lovely and looks fine to me though... so whatever. Its a design feature).

Steam pressing made a world of difference on this one also. So far I've just been pulling stuff off the flip and giving it a wash, but I pulled out the iron on this one and it really cleaned up the selvages and evened out the weave. Even before that it was a pretty big improvement over what I've been weaving, but the pressing... really polished it up. I will have to do this for all my woven stuff now.

There is a bunch of stuff on the needles right now also - two sweaters (because I'm weird and yeah I've been afraid of starting one so of course rather than just doing a sweater I'm working on two of them now) some socks that I'm not completely sure about (Panda Soy is... interesting yarn, shall we say... more on that when I've gotten far enough to decide if I'm finishing or frogging) and I'm working on a woven band for my laptop bag.

Also there is carbonized bamboo on the wheel that may want to become a Whisper cardigan and yellow blended superwash merino that I am sort of not loving as much as I want to that was going to be socks. It may be going into the pause file soon. Perhaps I will get around to finishing that SW Merino/Tencel finally instead. Or else I will ignore both projects and go dye up some more Brown Sheep superwash. Because that makes awesome sock yarn. Seriously. And I like spinning it.