No, I'm not going around taking potshots at the romantically unattached. I am, however, showing my yarn who's boss. There has been a lot of talk lately on Ravelry, in Spin Off, on Yahoo groups, etc about setting twist in your handspun by whacking your wet yarn against a table or some such to help distribute the twist and energy more evenly throughout the yarn. Jen finally convinced me to give it a try. I'm still on my quest to learn to spin a decent singles yarn. Here is my latest attempt with some corriedale roving I hand dyed. 
As you can see, the yarn is quite energized. There are kinks and coils and the yarn doesn't even begin to hang straight.
Into a sink of very warm water with a bit of shampoo for a half hour soak. By then the water had cooled so I drained the sink and gently rinsed in cool water. I squeezed as much water from the yarn as possible (this helps to minimize mess in the next step). Then I held the skein by one end and smacked it against the shower wall. I did this a few times, then turned the skein and did it again. I believe I did about 8 or 9 whacks in all. Just be sure to get as much water out as possible or you'll get a face full of water! I've heard of people twirling their skein of yarn airplane-style over their head (outside of course) to use centrifugal force to help remove water. I'm going to have to try this one day (when the neighbors aren't out of course!) I hung the skein to dry and here's the end result.
Oh yeah, BIG difference! I am quite surprised and impressed. The twist definitely redistributed itself and the yarn is much more balanced.
I still have a ways to go at achieving the lofty soft twist single I'm aiming for. But this technique transformed a pretty rough looking skein into a lovely bit of quite usable yarn. Thanks Jen for pushing me to try this!!
Since my last post, I have finished the Spa Slippers.
They have been sent on to the one who requested them and thankfully they fit her well. One of
these days I must make myself a pair of these.
I finished spinning and plying the Gryffindor yarn.
I loves it! The picture doesn't do it justice. The burgundy and gold subtly change throughout and the dark brown/black really sets it off. This yarn is destined to be fingerless mitts.
One stash acquisition to show:
This is Pigeonroof Studios superwash BFL roving in Nightshade purchased from a fellow Raveler who is destashing. I adore the colors in this and can't wait to see how it spins up.
On my needles: Jack socks, I'm almost to the heel of sock #1; Darvoset socks, finished sock #1 and just past the toe on sock #2; Milan cardigan, finished both fronts and back, seamed the shoulders and half way up the first sleeve.Although I've got at least a few weeks of knitting left on Milan, I broke down and ordered yarn for Flyingdales. I was going to go with Valley Yarns Sugarloaf, but ended up ordering a new yarn called Country by NaturallyCaron. This yarn looks and sounds very interesting, a microfiber/merino blend. I ordered it from a place with a good return policy, just in case, but I've been happy with most everything I've tried from Caron so I'm confident this will be a worthwhile purchase.
A new podcast to check out...The Knitmore Girls. This is a mother and daughter team who podcast about their knitting. They are delightful.
I've gotten the garden all planted for the year. I changed the layout this year and we removed some ornamental grasses from one bed that we can now use for vegetables, so we are trying some new stuff this year. Here we have onions, peppers, cucumbers and (eventually) acorn squash with a cherry tomato plant in the pot.
This long bed has eggplant, basil, tomatoes and zucchini.
And this little bed has butternut squash and broccoli. 
There's still some work to be done on the beds, the little bed needs edging and more grass patch around the perimeter and I want to get straw down on everything, but for the most part it's done and we need only wait for mother nature to do her thing.
I finally got my Ravelry invitation yesterday. Hooray! Ravelry is a website for knitters and crocheters to post about all things knitting & crocheting. I got on the waiting list as soon as I heard about it (maybe 2 months ago) and thought I'd never get on. They are still in Beta and controlling the number of registrations. As of today, the waiting list is over 9,000! I didn't really know much about it except what others were saying on their blogs and podcasts. Now that I could actually get on the site, I agree. It's awesome. You can track your projects and stash and needle inventory. You can connect with other knitters and see who's knitting the same stuff you are. I envision spending hours over there, just looking at everyone's cool projects. I need to get photos taken and get my profile up too.
I was working in the garden today and lo and behold...
Our first tomato of the season is almost ripe! Everything is coming along so nicely. And with 90+ temperatures predicted the next few days, things should get a boost. We had our first peppers this week and will have eggplant before long. We still have cucumbers coming out of our ears. Anyone want some? Next year, one cucumber plant. Two are overwhelming!
I cast on the Sea Silk this week. Yummy! I decided on the Huck Lace shawl from the Morehouse Farm Merino Knits book.
I haven't had a chance to go through this book real thoroughly, but at a glance it looks like there are lots of cool patterns. I like the Huck Lace shawl because it's very plain looking and I think will show off the colors of the Sea Silk very well. Plus it's not too lacy. I'm not really into lace all that much and it's hard to find shawl patterns that aren't lacy.
I dyed up another skein of Gloss this week.
This is called Moo Cow. White with black and gray spots. Love it. I'm so into dyeing. Ideas keep popping into my head. With KnitPicks being out of the dyeables that I won't for a while yet, I've still been search for other sources. I found Catnip Yarns and ordered a pound of Treadsoft Superwash. It's a bit different than the Gloss I've been using. The twist is much tighter and the yarn is a bit finer. Unfortunately, I've been having trouble with my swift when I re-skein yarn. I think it's creating too much tension on the bars and the ties keep breaking. It's easy enough to fix, but I don't want to damage the swift. Dad is going to make me an actual skein winder, which should make my life much easier.
It's Memorial day weekend and it sure feels like the start of summer. Our second 90 degree day in a row. The garden is loving it. I must say, I'm quite please with how the garden is turning out this year. I put in fewer plants this year and rotated where things are planted. We put down weed barrier cloth and topped everything with straw. I think it looks pretty, but more important, I'm hoping I don't have to do much weeding when it's stifling hot out. This is the main part of the garden.
In the front row there's a Tom Thumb cherry tomato in a pot (barely visible), Big Beef tomato, Better Boy tomato. Next, between the tomato trellises there is a rosemary and two basil plants, but they are too small to see yet. Next row, 2 Roma tomatoes. Next 2 Sweet Slicer cucumbers. I'm trying a homemade trellis made with steel enforced plastic posts and heavy twine. Those cages just didn't cut it last year. The rest of this bed has onions. 5 rows of Candy sweets (planted from onion sets) and 2 rows of Walla Walla from seed. The Walla Wallas aren't doing so well, but I'm trying to baby them along, keeping my fingers crossed.
This is the side bed where I usually plant my tomatoes. This year I've got a yellow squash (which I'm hoping doesn't spread too much (they can get pretty huge and that bed's only 3 foot wide, YIKES). Next are 4 Big Bertha bell peppers. I've got 3 eggplants after that, but they haven't grown a bit since I planted them a month ago. They haven't died, but they aren't flourishing either. Will have to see what becomes of them. Finally, two rows of radishes and 2 rows of spinach, both of which I was able to harvest some of today.
This week yarn porn...SOCKS THAT ROCK!!!!!!!!
I am so not exaggerating when I say EVERYONE in the knitting blogosphere is raving about this yarn. And has been raving for a good long time. But since I run hot and cold with sock knitting, I've never wanted to shell out the money to get some. Then I saw a skein come up on the KnitSwap list for $12. How could I resist? This is STR mediumweight in Lagoon. It's so soft and pretty. I carried it around with me and left it sit on the coffee table where I could see it for several days. I'm saving it for Summer of Socks. I'm REALLY hoping this sock-jones doesn't where off before then.
I also got this set of sock yarn from a seller on ebay. 
She described the yarn as "so silky you'd swear its half mohair". I beg to differ. The yarn is pretty, although the colors are nothing like what they looked like in the auction picture. But to me the yarn feels coarse. I'm not at all sure what I'm going to do with it. I had thought of knitting Montego Bay from the Summer IK. But after swatching this yarn for it, I don't think that would work. Definitely not going to be socks since it's way to scratchy. I've got about 500 yds total. Any ideas?
The Mister Joe Blanket socks are finished. Although I couldn't get a decent picture for the life of me.
This very unflattering photo at least shows off the patterning and funky heel detail. The socks are incredibly comfortable. This isn't a widely talked about yarn, but I sure like it.
Currently on the needles: I've finished the first of the Regia Bamboo socks and am well underway on sock 2. I've cast on the Katsara yarn using the stitch pattern from the Tube sock pattern from Drops. Do check out their site. Hundreds of free patterns. The search function is kind of flaky, but lots of great patterns.
As you can see, the yarn is quite energized. There are kinks and coils and the yarn doesn't even begin to hang straight.
Into a sink of very warm water with a bit of shampoo for a half hour soak. By then the water had cooled so I drained the sink and gently rinsed in cool water. I squeezed as much water from the yarn as possible (this helps to minimize mess in the next step). Then I held the skein by one end and smacked it against the shower wall. I did this a few times, then turned the skein and did it again. I believe I did about 8 or 9 whacks in all. Just be sure to get as much water out as possible or you'll get a face full of water! I've heard of people twirling their skein of yarn airplane-style over their head (outside of course) to use centrifugal force to help remove water. I'm going to have to try this one day (when the neighbors aren't out of course!) I hung the skein to dry and here's the end result.
Oh yeah, BIG difference! I am quite surprised and impressed. The twist definitely redistributed itself and the yarn is much more balanced.
I still have a ways to go at achieving the lofty soft twist single I'm aiming for. But this technique transformed a pretty rough looking skein into a lovely bit of quite usable yarn. Thanks Jen for pushing me to try this!!
They have been sent on to the one who requested them and thankfully they fit her well. One of
I loves it! The picture doesn't do it justice. The burgundy and gold subtly change throughout and the dark brown/black really sets it off. This yarn is destined to be fingerless mitts.
This is Pigeonroof Studios superwash BFL roving in Nightshade purchased from a fellow Raveler who is destashing. I adore the colors in this and can't wait to see how it spins up.
This long bed has eggplant, basil, tomatoes and zucchini.
And this little bed has butternut squash and broccoli. 
There's still some work to be done on the beds, the little bed needs edging and more grass patch around the perimeter and I want to get straw down on everything, but for the most part it's done and we need only wait for mother nature to do her thing.
