With tax season in full swing and us experiencing a snowier than usual winter, I've found myself spending every spare minute knitting, reading or spinning. I'm in love with all the projects I'm working on too which contributes to the desire to always have something in my hands.
Reading: On the Kindle, I finished Snow Ball and have moved on to The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse by Leann Sweeney. I've read a few of her Abby Rose mysteries and enjoyed them quite a lot. This book seemed right up my alley, a cozy mystery centered around a cat loving quilter. It took me a good third of the book to really get into it, the main character comes off as a crazy cat lady a lot of the time, but once the murder investigation got going, the book picked up pace and is pretty good. On my nightstand I've got a Nancy Ahterton book, Snowbound. Literally only a page or two in, though. I've been so tired at night I don't think I've read a paragraph without falling asleep!
Spinning: Finished spinning and plying the Fat Cat merino in Chasm. I didn't get my spinning quite as even as I accomplished with the CMF BFL I spun last. Could be the difference in fiber, could be that I wasn't being quite as careful this time. I got to use the new Jumbo Flyer on my Minstrel to ply. What a joy. I was able to get the entire 4 ounces onto one bobbin with room to spare. Well, not quite 4. I ended up with a small bit of singles left on one bobbin and at least one layer of singles on the last bobbin. I hate when that happens. I did split the roving evenly by weight before I started. But as I said, my spinning didn't seem quite as even. I'm thinking that last bobbin may have been the one I spun at the higher ratio and thus was a bit finer than the other two. I think I might use that extra singles to practice navajo plying. Now I'm spinning the superwash merino I dyed the other weekend. It's interesting to see how the colors are coming out. I've decided I need to dye larger patches when dyeing roving. I dyed this similar to how I dye yarn, with relatively small areas of color. In roving, that's just not enough to make a patch of color. It will be interesting to see what the yarn looks like when it's all done.
Knitting: I've finished the knitting on Skully 2 and have the arms sewn in. I still need to sew the side seams, weave in the ends and knit on a neckband. I hate finishing work so it will probably languish for awhile now. Two pair of socks going, plain vanilla socks in Salvia yarn are in the home stretch. I'm halfway down the foot of the second sock. I've also got a pair of 6 ply socks going, just finished the ribbing of the second sock so I'm better than halfway done the pair. I'm also working on the Bitterroot shawl. Now that I'm on the 3rd chart I'm really starting to like the shawl. Lace is just so addicting to knit.
Unfortuneately all this activity has brought on a nasty case of tennis elbow. I'm having to slow down a bit and remember to take more frequent breaks. I've found keeping a pillow under my arm when knitting provides good support as well.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Learning to love ratios
I've been spinning for a little over 2 years now and am finally starting to feel competent at it. Competent, not proficient. I've still got a lot to learn. But I'm getting there. Reading books, watching videos and just spinning all contribute to learning more.
Just about every yarn I've spun has been on the 1st (slowest) ratio. I've ventured occasionally to the 2nd ratio, but that's about as far as it went. Ratios control the number of times the flyer on the spinning wheel turns in relation to the number of times the drive wheel turns. On my Minstrel, I've got 4 ratios. On the slowest ratio, for every time the big wheel goes around once, the flyer turns 6 times applying six twists to the fiber. Each subsequently smaller whorl is a higher ratio, each applying a bit more twist than the previous ratio. So I've read this umpteen times. I get it. But I've never really tried it. I mostly spin worsted range yarns which don't require tons of twist and that slow ratio is ideal for that type of yarn.
But recently, I've been desiring to spin sock yarn. Sock yarn is thin. The thinner the yarn, the more twist it needs to hold together. I successfully spun the Crown Mountain BFL into sock yarn a few months back on the second ratio (8.5 to 1). To achieve the amount of twist necessary to hold the few fibers together to form the fine singles I was treadling 6 to 8 to sometimes even 10. This works, but is labor intensive and takes FOREVER.
I moved on to my next project, more sock yarn, and continued in this same manner. My singles are lovely but I was getting frustrated at how long it was taking. I've got so much fiber I want to spin! So when I got to the last third of this current roving, I decided to give the 12 to 1 ratio a try. <<<>>> The difference was immediate and amazing. I spun through that last third in maybe half or a third the time it took to do the other bobbins. I'm able to treadle only a few times per draw to achieve the correct twist. I feel enlightened and excited at the prospect of actually being able to spin up sock yarn at a respectable rate.
And to top it all off, I've still got one more ratio to go...can anyone say lace weight?!
Just about every yarn I've spun has been on the 1st (slowest) ratio. I've ventured occasionally to the 2nd ratio, but that's about as far as it went. Ratios control the number of times the flyer on the spinning wheel turns in relation to the number of times the drive wheel turns. On my Minstrel, I've got 4 ratios. On the slowest ratio, for every time the big wheel goes around once, the flyer turns 6 times applying six twists to the fiber. Each subsequently smaller whorl is a higher ratio, each applying a bit more twist than the previous ratio. So I've read this umpteen times. I get it. But I've never really tried it. I mostly spin worsted range yarns which don't require tons of twist and that slow ratio is ideal for that type of yarn.
But recently, I've been desiring to spin sock yarn. Sock yarn is thin. The thinner the yarn, the more twist it needs to hold together. I successfully spun the Crown Mountain BFL into sock yarn a few months back on the second ratio (8.5 to 1). To achieve the amount of twist necessary to hold the few fibers together to form the fine singles I was treadling 6 to 8 to sometimes even 10. This works, but is labor intensive and takes FOREVER.
I moved on to my next project, more sock yarn, and continued in this same manner. My singles are lovely but I was getting frustrated at how long it was taking. I've got so much fiber I want to spin! So when I got to the last third of this current roving, I decided to give the 12 to 1 ratio a try. <<<>>> The difference was immediate and amazing. I spun through that last third in maybe half or a third the time it took to do the other bobbins. I'm able to treadle only a few times per draw to achieve the correct twist. I feel enlightened and excited at the prospect of actually being able to spin up sock yarn at a respectable rate.
And to top it all off, I've still got one more ratio to go...can anyone say lace weight?!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
All dressed up
As further proof of how much I love my Kindle, I decided to spend my birthday money on dressing it up (thank you family for the fundage!) Although the white color of the Kindle is easy on the eyes I'm afraid it's going to end up getting dirty in no time. I've kept mine in a silicone skin, but discovered dirt was getting under the skin plus it was really ugly. Then someone on the Rav boards mentioned Decal Girl skins and I knew I had to have one. There are hundreds of cool designs over there. I went with Tree of Books.
The skin is made of vinyl and was pretty easy to apply without bubbles (unlike the screen protector which requires something in the line of a Level 4 clean room to prevent dust bubbles). The nice thing about the skin is it gives just a bit of grip - I find the naked Kindle to feel slick and am in fear of dropping it. Plus it's really pretty!
I also upgraded from my standard clip light to a Kandle. The old light worked ok but I found I had to adjust the arm often to get the light just right on the screen. Plus it was kind of bulky and I had to remove it to store my Kindle. The Kandle provides a nice even illumination across the screen and is very light and compact. I can leave it attached all the time so it's there when I need it but is unobtrusive when I don't.
The skin is made of vinyl and was pretty easy to apply without bubbles (unlike the screen protector which requires something in the line of a Level 4 clean room to prevent dust bubbles). The nice thing about the skin is it gives just a bit of grip - I find the naked Kindle to feel slick and am in fear of dropping it. Plus it's really pretty!I also upgraded from my standard clip light to a Kandle. The old light worked ok but I found I had to adjust the arm often to get the light just right on the screen. Plus it was kind of bulky and I had to remove it to store my Kindle. The Kandle provides a nice even illumination across the screen and is very light and compact. I can leave it attached all the time so it's there when I need it but is unobtrusive when I don't.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Big snow
I'm going to join many other east coast bloggers with my pictures from the big snow (aka snowpocalypse, aka snowmagedon). Two back to back snow storms this past week dumped in the neighborhood of 3 feet of snow on us. The first storm hit on Saturday February 6
We ended up with around 20 inches of snow. Thankfully it was the light, fluffy variety and was fairly easy to shovel. Although this also meant it drifted pretty easily. But we dug out from that one and went about our business. Then Wednesday rolled around and dumped another 20 inches of snow on us.
I went out mid afternoon to clear a spot to put out some birdseed and got a yardstick shot. 
It's showing 14 inches but hubby had shoveled the walks once in the morning already and there had been about 5 or 6 inches then. The snow did not stop until after 5. So we and all our neighbors were out in the dark shoveling snow. This snow as also pretty light, but since the existing piles of snow were already quite high it took much more effort to shovel. Once we made it to the garage C was able to use the snow blower to clear behind the garage and help the neighbors unbury their cars. Not that having our cars accessible did us any good since the Borough did a piss poor job clearing the roads. Granted, this was a difficult situation and I'm sure budgets are tight, but we did not see a plow or salt truck from Wednesday morning until Friday morning. Thursday the roads in town were solid packed snow and ice. Thankfully the sun shone on Thursday and Friday and the Borough trucks did get out Friday to salt and plow so the roads were much improved by Friday night. We still have giant mounds of snow at most intersections which I imagine will be here until spring! The weather folks are watching another potential storm for Monday and Tuesday. Forecasts are ranging from less than an inch to over a foot so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what we get. All I know is spring can not get here soon enough!
I've taken advantage of all this cold miserable weather to spend quality time with my Kindle. I'm reading Snow Ball at the moment. It's probably best described as a dark comedy. Enjoyable and engaging reading.
Jen sent me some fiber for my birthday last week. I mentioned I'd like to try my hand at dying fiber again (having been put off by my first rather disastrous attempt a few years back) and she'll happily obliged me with some superwash merino fiber. So while snowed in last Sunday I gave it a try. I followed the directions for hot pour dying in the Twisted Sisters sock book and here's the result
I'm still having trouble with the dye striking too fast and leaving white patches in the core, but the colors are deep, which I love, and the fiber is still lofty and uncompacted. I was careful not to handle the wet fiber much so there was only minor fiber disorientation. I'm excited to try spinning it! I only dyed a portion of the fiber so still have more to play with. I just got Gail Callahan's new book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece in the mail yesterday. Although I haven't had a chance to sit down and read it yet at first glance it looks wonderful. Full report soon.
And finally....hope for spring
My onion and tomato seedlings are sprouting, hooray! I've had some difficulty in the past starting seeds. Our house is small with poor natural light. I've got a nice big grow light, but the only place I have room to set it up is in the (unheated) basement. This year I invested in a seed germination heating mat. Boy has it made a difference. It feels only very slightly warm to the touch, but apparently that bottom heat must make a world of difference. The seedlings are thriving.
We ended up with around 20 inches of snow. Thankfully it was the light, fluffy variety and was fairly easy to shovel. Although this also meant it drifted pretty easily. But we dug out from that one and went about our business. Then Wednesday rolled around and dumped another 20 inches of snow on us.
I went out mid afternoon to clear a spot to put out some birdseed and got a yardstick shot. 
It's showing 14 inches but hubby had shoveled the walks once in the morning already and there had been about 5 or 6 inches then. The snow did not stop until after 5. So we and all our neighbors were out in the dark shoveling snow. This snow as also pretty light, but since the existing piles of snow were already quite high it took much more effort to shovel. Once we made it to the garage C was able to use the snow blower to clear behind the garage and help the neighbors unbury their cars. Not that having our cars accessible did us any good since the Borough did a piss poor job clearing the roads. Granted, this was a difficult situation and I'm sure budgets are tight, but we did not see a plow or salt truck from Wednesday morning until Friday morning. Thursday the roads in town were solid packed snow and ice. Thankfully the sun shone on Thursday and Friday and the Borough trucks did get out Friday to salt and plow so the roads were much improved by Friday night. We still have giant mounds of snow at most intersections which I imagine will be here until spring! The weather folks are watching another potential storm for Monday and Tuesday. Forecasts are ranging from less than an inch to over a foot so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what we get. All I know is spring can not get here soon enough! I've taken advantage of all this cold miserable weather to spend quality time with my Kindle. I'm reading Snow Ball at the moment. It's probably best described as a dark comedy. Enjoyable and engaging reading.
Jen sent me some fiber for my birthday last week. I mentioned I'd like to try my hand at dying fiber again (having been put off by my first rather disastrous attempt a few years back) and she'll happily obliged me with some superwash merino fiber. So while snowed in last Sunday I gave it a try. I followed the directions for hot pour dying in the Twisted Sisters sock book and here's the result
I'm still having trouble with the dye striking too fast and leaving white patches in the core, but the colors are deep, which I love, and the fiber is still lofty and uncompacted. I was careful not to handle the wet fiber much so there was only minor fiber disorientation. I'm excited to try spinning it! I only dyed a portion of the fiber so still have more to play with. I just got Gail Callahan's new book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece in the mail yesterday. Although I haven't had a chance to sit down and read it yet at first glance it looks wonderful. Full report soon.And finally....hope for spring
My onion and tomato seedlings are sprouting, hooray! I've had some difficulty in the past starting seeds. Our house is small with poor natural light. I've got a nice big grow light, but the only place I have room to set it up is in the (unheated) basement. This year I invested in a seed germination heating mat. Boy has it made a difference. It feels only very slightly warm to the touch, but apparently that bottom heat must make a world of difference. The seedlings are thriving.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Kindle resources
As previously mentioned, I luvs me my Kindle. And I like to feed it regularly. To be honest, it gets fed new books WAY faster than I'll ever be able to read them. But that's beside the point. With the dubious ebook price increase rumors flying around and increased competition from Apple's iPad, I'm always on the look out for free/cheap books to stock my library. Thankfully there are some great resources out there. I hope to get these into my sidebar one of these days, for now it's easier to put them in a post.
Even if you don't have a Kindle, you may want to check these sites out. You can read the books on your computer (with Kindle for PC) or iPhone (with the app). Plus, many of the free books are only free for a very limited time (some only for one day). If you even think you'll want to read it someday and might maybe possibly be considering a Kindle of your very own, get the book while it's free. (Just last week I preordered a book for free and the next day Amazon raised the price to $8.49. Because I ordered during the free window, I got it for free.) Even if you never read the book, you aren't out any money.
Ok, so here we go....
Kindle Nation Daily
Stephen Windwalker's blog for all things Kindle. He wrote an excellent book on using your Kindle (so worth the buck it costs). He often posts a few times a day with Kindle related news and free/cheap book listings.
Books on the Knob
Mostly the same free books listed on KND but without the news and tech talk. Also lists books for other ereaders (like Sony and Nook) and freebie online games.
Project Gutenberg
Source for free public domain books. Be sure to download the Magic Catalog to your Kindle. You can search from your Kindle and download ebooks directly to it. I've only scratched the surface of this service, but it does work. Magically.
Jungle Search
One thing I find immensely frustrating about Amazon's Kindle store is it is very difficult to search for books by price. Jungle Search allows you to search on umpteen different levels (price, subject, keyword, reviews) and takes you right to Amazon with the results.
Inkmesh
Another search engine that helps you find the best price across the web for ebooks. Search by title, author, keyword, whatever. You can narrow your search on many criteria as well...price, type of content (ebook, audiobook, etc), even by device.
Smashwords
I believe this site is mostly all indie published books. I've not checked it out much, but it looks like they've got a good selection of free/cheap books if you aren't looking for big name authors.
Fictionwise
This store sells books in all eBook formats so you have to be careful to get Kindle compatible books. They've made it a bit easier by opening a Kindle dedicated site, but it doesn't offer a wishlist and some of the other features the main site does, so I tend to stick to the main site. They have lots of features I love including a wishlist, user ratings for books, book length references and tons of discounts. If you sign up for the mailing list you get a weekly newsletter with new releases tailored to your interest and most every weekend there are discount coupons. You can also join their Buywise club for even bigger discounts. I've been very happy with this source.
Calibre
My final recommendation isn't a store or search engine. It is a software program to manage your ebook library and facilitate getting books onto your Kindle. If you get all your Kindle content from Amazon, this is probably unnecessary, but if you are like me and get content all over the place, Calibre is fantastic. You can take ebooks in any non-DRM restricted format and it will convert them to a Kindle friendly format and copy them to the device (via USB cable). I've done it with pdf files (no having to go through Amazon's conversion process) and prc files and it has worked flawlessly. It also has a news fetching utility so you can get newspapers and such without having to subscribe through Amazon (yes that means free). The trade off is your Kindle has to be connected to your computer and Calibre has to be running to download the news, whereas with the paid Amazon subscription it's delivered automatically via Whispernet. You can also grab single issues of newspapers, which is what I tend to do. Calibre also has a built in book reading utility so you can read your ebooks all from one reader. It's a pretty cool piece of software.
Even if you don't have a Kindle, you may want to check these sites out. You can read the books on your computer (with Kindle for PC) or iPhone (with the app). Plus, many of the free books are only free for a very limited time (some only for one day). If you even think you'll want to read it someday and might maybe possibly be considering a Kindle of your very own, get the book while it's free. (Just last week I preordered a book for free and the next day Amazon raised the price to $8.49. Because I ordered during the free window, I got it for free.) Even if you never read the book, you aren't out any money.
Ok, so here we go....
Kindle Nation Daily
Stephen Windwalker's blog for all things Kindle. He wrote an excellent book on using your Kindle (so worth the buck it costs). He often posts a few times a day with Kindle related news and free/cheap book listings.
Books on the Knob
Mostly the same free books listed on KND but without the news and tech talk. Also lists books for other ereaders (like Sony and Nook) and freebie online games.
Project Gutenberg
Source for free public domain books. Be sure to download the Magic Catalog to your Kindle. You can search from your Kindle and download ebooks directly to it. I've only scratched the surface of this service, but it does work. Magically.
Jungle Search
One thing I find immensely frustrating about Amazon's Kindle store is it is very difficult to search for books by price. Jungle Search allows you to search on umpteen different levels (price, subject, keyword, reviews) and takes you right to Amazon with the results.
Inkmesh
Another search engine that helps you find the best price across the web for ebooks. Search by title, author, keyword, whatever. You can narrow your search on many criteria as well...price, type of content (ebook, audiobook, etc), even by device.
Smashwords
I believe this site is mostly all indie published books. I've not checked it out much, but it looks like they've got a good selection of free/cheap books if you aren't looking for big name authors.
Fictionwise
This store sells books in all eBook formats so you have to be careful to get Kindle compatible books. They've made it a bit easier by opening a Kindle dedicated site, but it doesn't offer a wishlist and some of the other features the main site does, so I tend to stick to the main site. They have lots of features I love including a wishlist, user ratings for books, book length references and tons of discounts. If you sign up for the mailing list you get a weekly newsletter with new releases tailored to your interest and most every weekend there are discount coupons. You can also join their Buywise club for even bigger discounts. I've been very happy with this source.
Calibre
My final recommendation isn't a store or search engine. It is a software program to manage your ebook library and facilitate getting books onto your Kindle. If you get all your Kindle content from Amazon, this is probably unnecessary, but if you are like me and get content all over the place, Calibre is fantastic. You can take ebooks in any non-DRM restricted format and it will convert them to a Kindle friendly format and copy them to the device (via USB cable). I've done it with pdf files (no having to go through Amazon's conversion process) and prc files and it has worked flawlessly. It also has a news fetching utility so you can get newspapers and such without having to subscribe through Amazon (yes that means free). The trade off is your Kindle has to be connected to your computer and Calibre has to be running to download the news, whereas with the paid Amazon subscription it's delivered automatically via Whispernet. You can also grab single issues of newspapers, which is what I tend to do. Calibre also has a built in book reading utility so you can read your ebooks all from one reader. It's a pretty cool piece of software.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Another catching up post!
Oh my, it has been forever since I posted! So much to catch up on.
The holidays were fantastic. We had such fun visiting with family and relaxing at home. It was wonderful having Christmas and New Year's both fall on weekends. We all enjoyed our gifts. I gifted myself with a Kindle and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I debated the purchase forever. Big price tags warrant such debates. I was really afraid I'd end up with buyer's remorse since I'm not as avid a reader as the rest of my family. However, I have not regretted the purchase for a second and highly recommend the Kindle for anyone who enjoys reading on any level.
I've been knitting quite a bit. I finished the Stonehenge handspun BFL socks.
They may just be my favorite socks ever. So soft and warm and the colors are delicious. The fiber was Crown Mountain Farms BFL in Stonehenge (I used 4 ounces for the socks, 3 ply fingering weight). The pattern is Twilight from 2 at a Time Socks.
Nearly finished the first sleeve of Skully (front and back body are both done).
Love the skull and crossbones, hated knitting it though. I don't think I'm cut out for intarsia. The stitches look awfully wobbly. I'm sure hoping once it's washed and fluffed a bit it'll even out. And I just noticed in posting this picture there's a mistake on the right arm of the crossbones that's going to need fixing. The second sleeve is going to be plain or perhaps I'll put a stripe or two of white around the upper arm. I like the idea of asymmetry.
I started another shawl. Bitterroot from the Winter 09 Knitty.
I'm knitting it in Knit Picks Shadow laceweight yarn in Cattail Heather. I've only got a skein and a half of this so I may end up with more of a shawlette. I do have a KP gift certificate (thanks Jen!) so I'm covered if I decide I want a full shawl and need another skein.
Still plugging away on the Vanilla socks in Salvia yarn. Those are my purse knitting and since we didn't really go anywhere in January little has been done on them.
I started a pair of 6ply socks in Fortissima Socka fair isle yarn. This yarn has been in my stash forever. Thanks to the stash diet it's finally seeing the light of day.
Knitters with a weak heart may want to stop here. Remember this sweater?
The one that the collar wouldn't lay flat on and gapped and sagged if I weren't standing still as a statue for a picture? Well here it is now.
Shocking, I know. I frogged the whole thing. Even with washing the yarn is a bit wavy from being knit up but I'm sure it will knit into a fine sweater. I love the color and it is truly one of the nicest acrylic yarns I've used so I couldn't bear to just throw it out. I'm leaning towards Bantam.
Spinning, not much progress. Working on superwash merino for a 3 ply sock yarn. I did switch to a poly drive band and have noticed a huge difference. I kept my hemp in case this one should break, but I have no intention of going back. The poly drive makes treadling effortless and so smooth. Tensioning is a breeze. If you can get a poly band for your wheel, do give it a try.
The stash diet is still going ok. I nearly caved a few weeks back when I found some patterns I wanted in a catalog. I did order the patterns and was tempted by the yarn, but managed to resist. I don't think I have yarn in stash that would work for either pattern I bought, but they will give me incentive to finish what I'm doing so I can buy yarn for them this fall. I did cave on the perfume diet a bit. I bought two designer knockoffs (Mugler Angel and Comptoir Sud Pacific Amore de Cacao). I got 4 oz of the Angel knockoff for soap making and it is fantastic. I had a bottle of the real thing years ago and loved it. Not sure what brought it back to memory lately but I'm glad I was able to find a much more affordable version!
The holidays were fantastic. We had such fun visiting with family and relaxing at home. It was wonderful having Christmas and New Year's both fall on weekends. We all enjoyed our gifts. I gifted myself with a Kindle and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I debated the purchase forever. Big price tags warrant such debates. I was really afraid I'd end up with buyer's remorse since I'm not as avid a reader as the rest of my family. However, I have not regretted the purchase for a second and highly recommend the Kindle for anyone who enjoys reading on any level.
I've been knitting quite a bit. I finished the Stonehenge handspun BFL socks.
They may just be my favorite socks ever. So soft and warm and the colors are delicious. The fiber was Crown Mountain Farms BFL in Stonehenge (I used 4 ounces for the socks, 3 ply fingering weight). The pattern is Twilight from 2 at a Time Socks.Nearly finished the first sleeve of Skully (front and back body are both done).
Love the skull and crossbones, hated knitting it though. I don't think I'm cut out for intarsia. The stitches look awfully wobbly. I'm sure hoping once it's washed and fluffed a bit it'll even out. And I just noticed in posting this picture there's a mistake on the right arm of the crossbones that's going to need fixing. The second sleeve is going to be plain or perhaps I'll put a stripe or two of white around the upper arm. I like the idea of asymmetry.I started another shawl. Bitterroot from the Winter 09 Knitty.
I'm knitting it in Knit Picks Shadow laceweight yarn in Cattail Heather. I've only got a skein and a half of this so I may end up with more of a shawlette. I do have a KP gift certificate (thanks Jen!) so I'm covered if I decide I want a full shawl and need another skein.Still plugging away on the Vanilla socks in Salvia yarn. Those are my purse knitting and since we didn't really go anywhere in January little has been done on them.
I started a pair of 6ply socks in Fortissima Socka fair isle yarn. This yarn has been in my stash forever. Thanks to the stash diet it's finally seeing the light of day.
Knitters with a weak heart may want to stop here. Remember this sweater?
The one that the collar wouldn't lay flat on and gapped and sagged if I weren't standing still as a statue for a picture? Well here it is now.
Shocking, I know. I frogged the whole thing. Even with washing the yarn is a bit wavy from being knit up but I'm sure it will knit into a fine sweater. I love the color and it is truly one of the nicest acrylic yarns I've used so I couldn't bear to just throw it out. I'm leaning towards Bantam.Spinning, not much progress. Working on superwash merino for a 3 ply sock yarn. I did switch to a poly drive band and have noticed a huge difference. I kept my hemp in case this one should break, but I have no intention of going back. The poly drive makes treadling effortless and so smooth. Tensioning is a breeze. If you can get a poly band for your wheel, do give it a try.
The stash diet is still going ok. I nearly caved a few weeks back when I found some patterns I wanted in a catalog. I did order the patterns and was tempted by the yarn, but managed to resist. I don't think I have yarn in stash that would work for either pattern I bought, but they will give me incentive to finish what I'm doing so I can buy yarn for them this fall. I did cave on the perfume diet a bit. I bought two designer knockoffs (Mugler Angel and Comptoir Sud Pacific Amore de Cacao). I got 4 oz of the Angel knockoff for soap making and it is fantastic. I had a bottle of the real thing years ago and loved it. Not sure what brought it back to memory lately but I'm glad I was able to find a much more affordable version!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Amendment
Hmm, the reaction to my stash diet was not as I had expected. Rather than agreement, I've gotten nothing but grief for my decision. Regardless, this feels good and right to me, so I'm going on as intended...knitting and spinning from stash for the first 3/4 of 2010. I'm going to make two amendments though. 1. Gift certificates, should I happen to get any, can be used freely and without guilt if I feel I need a treat. 2. For each sweater I finish (I've got 3 currently on needles and at least 2 in the wings), I can buy something. But only if I'm going to use it. No stash yarn. Ok, do you all feel better now?
I finished the Charlotte's Web shawl over the weekend. To my abject horror, I discovered a huge hole when I laid it out to block.
It took several hours to dry in which time I was able to screw up my courage and fix the hole. I was able to ladder up the stitches and secured them with sewing thread. 
The fix is not perfect, but it is barely perceptible if you don't know what you are looking for. I wore the shawl to work this week to rave reviews. Promise I'll get a picture of it on sometime soon. I adore this pattern and plan to make more of these shawls. I might choose a different yarn next time. I used the Koigu KPPPM that is called for in the pattern. I used every inch of colors 3, 4 and 5. I've seen some lovely shawls done with Socks That Rock, that might be a someday option. I think it might also be nice done in one color rather than 5.
That being finished, my current projects are as follows:
1. Vanilla socks...3/4 done with the first sock. Made a ton of progress during the excruciating New Moon movie last weekend.
2. Twilight socks...just started the gusset on the first sock. This Crown Mountain Farms BFL is amazing. So so soft. Can't wait to see how these wear. As soft as they are, I hold little hope for longevity.
3. Skully take 2...about to decrease for the armhole on the front (back is finished).
4. Nutkin mittens...nearly done. I'm working the thumb on the second mitten. I don't like the way the first thumb turned out, I messed up the decrease, so I think I'm going to pull it back and reknit the top of the thumb.
A few weeks back I mentioned I applied for a FLP library card. I'm happy to report the card arrived in less than 2 weeks and I had no difficulty getting on the website and finding audiobooks. They use Overdrive rather than NetLibrary and it's taken me a while to get used to the interface, but I've found a bunch of books. The great thing with this system is it lets you create a wishlist. So I can go on when I have time and search for books and then when I'm read for a new read, I can pick something off my wishlist. On the downside, it doesn't look like the eBooks are compatible with Kindle, but I'm still trying to figure out the eBook thing so I could be wrong. Regardless, if you are looking for a source to borrow audiobooks, it looks like Free Library of Philadelphia is a good, inexpensive option.
I finished the Charlotte's Web shawl over the weekend. To my abject horror, I discovered a huge hole when I laid it out to block.
It took several hours to dry in which time I was able to screw up my courage and fix the hole. I was able to ladder up the stitches and secured them with sewing thread. 
The fix is not perfect, but it is barely perceptible if you don't know what you are looking for. I wore the shawl to work this week to rave reviews. Promise I'll get a picture of it on sometime soon. I adore this pattern and plan to make more of these shawls. I might choose a different yarn next time. I used the Koigu KPPPM that is called for in the pattern. I used every inch of colors 3, 4 and 5. I've seen some lovely shawls done with Socks That Rock, that might be a someday option. I think it might also be nice done in one color rather than 5.That being finished, my current projects are as follows:
1. Vanilla socks...3/4 done with the first sock. Made a ton of progress during the excruciating New Moon movie last weekend.
2. Twilight socks...just started the gusset on the first sock. This Crown Mountain Farms BFL is amazing. So so soft. Can't wait to see how these wear. As soft as they are, I hold little hope for longevity.
3. Skully take 2...about to decrease for the armhole on the front (back is finished).
4. Nutkin mittens...nearly done. I'm working the thumb on the second mitten. I don't like the way the first thumb turned out, I messed up the decrease, so I think I'm going to pull it back and reknit the top of the thumb.
A few weeks back I mentioned I applied for a FLP library card. I'm happy to report the card arrived in less than 2 weeks and I had no difficulty getting on the website and finding audiobooks. They use Overdrive rather than NetLibrary and it's taken me a while to get used to the interface, but I've found a bunch of books. The great thing with this system is it lets you create a wishlist. So I can go on when I have time and search for books and then when I'm read for a new read, I can pick something off my wishlist. On the downside, it doesn't look like the eBooks are compatible with Kindle, but I'm still trying to figure out the eBook thing so I could be wrong. Regardless, if you are looking for a source to borrow audiobooks, it looks like Free Library of Philadelphia is a good, inexpensive option.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Stash diet redux
In late 2007 I went on a yarn diet. At the time I was trying to save money to buy my spinning wheel. I went 4 full months without buying any yarn. Now I'm once again contemplating dieting. Not necessarily to save money, although that will be a very happy side effect of the diet. I'm not an excessive stasher. I don't buy tons of yarn the way some knitters do. My trouble is that I tend to buy yarn for a project but then never seem to actually get to that project. I've got 3 sweaters on the needles that need attention. I've got yarn for at least 2 more sweaters, 4 or 5 shawls, umpteen balls of sock yarn and enough fiber to spin for maybe a dozen projects. It's time to knit/spin this stuff up. So I think I'm going to declare a freeze on yarn & fiber spending for most of 2010. Here are my intentions...
1. I will not purchase any yarn or fiber from January 1 through September 30, 2010. This will take me up to vacation time when I will sure want the freedom to shop.
2. Should I get any gift certificates for yarn shops, I will allow myself to use them for yarn if they would expire before 9/30/10. Otherwise, I'm going to try to hold off using them until the end as well.
3. I'm going to finish (or at least make a good stab at finishing) the 3 sweaters I've got going before starting anymore sweaters.
This diet is also going to apply to indie perfumes. My collection has gotten way out of hand. You've seen the pictures (and the collection has grown since the last pictures). You know. Those tiny little bottles are like crack to me. Well, no more. I've unsub'd all the mailing lists and dropped off the BPAL board. I've got plenty enough perfume to keep me sweet smelling for the duration of the diet, if not longer.
Just writing all this down seems liberating. Knowing I won't be spending money on stuff I don't really need is a relief. I don't think I'll feel deprived (most of the time). I think it will be nice to rediscover all the exciting projects I had planned in the past.
1. I will not purchase any yarn or fiber from January 1 through September 30, 2010. This will take me up to vacation time when I will sure want the freedom to shop.
2. Should I get any gift certificates for yarn shops, I will allow myself to use them for yarn if they would expire before 9/30/10. Otherwise, I'm going to try to hold off using them until the end as well.
3. I'm going to finish (or at least make a good stab at finishing) the 3 sweaters I've got going before starting anymore sweaters.
This diet is also going to apply to indie perfumes. My collection has gotten way out of hand. You've seen the pictures (and the collection has grown since the last pictures). You know. Those tiny little bottles are like crack to me. Well, no more. I've unsub'd all the mailing lists and dropped off the BPAL board. I've got plenty enough perfume to keep me sweet smelling for the duration of the diet, if not longer.
Just writing all this down seems liberating. Knowing I won't be spending money on stuff I don't really need is a relief. I don't think I'll feel deprived (most of the time). I think it will be nice to rediscover all the exciting projects I had planned in the past.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
First snow and knitting round up
We had our first snowfall of the season yesterday. I'm truly not a snow fan, but this was one of the good ones...gorgeous big fluffy flakes that fell gracefully and stuck to the grass and trees but melted off the sidewalks and streets. Just enough to make everything look pretty.
Today is supposed to be sunny and mild so it will probably all be gone by tomorrow.
Remember a few weeks back I posted about my aunt who gave me her Pfaltzgraff dishes? Well, being a knitter, you just KNOW what my thank you was going to be...
The pattern is Monkey (no purl variety) and the yarn is Socks that Rock medium weight in Lagoon. The colors don't come out very well in the photo...they aren't nearly that glaringly bright. The socks have been sent off and I'm hoping they are keeping her feet toasty warm.
Since this blog has been sadly devoid of knitting content of late I thought I'd post some photos of my current WIPs.
First up are the Nutkin mittens.
These had been languishing in the bottom of the knitting basket for months. With winter now here, I decided I better get in gear and finish them. The pattern is quite easy to memorize. It is actually a sock pattern that I'm modifying to mittens. These should be finished in a week or so.
Next are my current socks...
Stonehenge socks.
This is the Twilight pattern from 2 at a Time Socks and the yarn is my handspun Crown Mountain Farms BFL. They are so soft and the colors are gorgeous. I'm in total love with CMF. I've heard people rave about how fabulous their fiber is and I must add my voice to the chorus. I believe the prep is top rather than roving so it drafts like butter. There are virtually no slubs or imperfections of any kind. Plus they give you a generous 8 ounces of fiber.
My other purse knitting is a pair of plain vanilla socks in JL Yarns Savlia.
The yarn was super cheap and is quite fine in weight. I'm knitting them on US 1 since that's the smallest needle I had available. But I'm thinking I might go down to a US 0 for the next pair.
The final project I'm working on is a Charlotte's Web shawl.
I am totally enamored with this shawl. I'm using 5 skeins of Koigu KPPPM as the pattern calls for. This is sock weight yarn so it's a bit heavier than the lace weight shawls I had been working on. Something about cold weather calls for knitting with heavier weight yarns. Lace weight seems to me to be better suited for warm weather knitting! Many folks knit this shawl with Socks that Rock and I do think that would be stunning, but it's cost prohibitive for me at the moment. The pattern is extremely easy to knit and goes fairly quickly despite the nature of triangular shawls with each row getting longer than the last. I'm about 14 rows from the end. I'm going to have to start thinking about what type of edging I want to do. There's a crocheted edging or a fringed edge. I love the look of the fringe, but I hate actually doing fringe so I'm still thinking about it.
Once I finish up the shawl I'm going to go back to the Fylingdales sweater I was working on last winter. I think I'm better than 50% done with it and should be able to finish it up this season. The Colour Your Own Philosopher's Sweater is still hiding in my closet too. That's a much more daunting prospect as I'm only midway done with the first sleeve! But I'm sure it will see action at some point this winter.
Today is supposed to be sunny and mild so it will probably all be gone by tomorrow.Remember a few weeks back I posted about my aunt who gave me her Pfaltzgraff dishes? Well, being a knitter, you just KNOW what my thank you was going to be...
The pattern is Monkey (no purl variety) and the yarn is Socks that Rock medium weight in Lagoon. The colors don't come out very well in the photo...they aren't nearly that glaringly bright. The socks have been sent off and I'm hoping they are keeping her feet toasty warm.Since this blog has been sadly devoid of knitting content of late I thought I'd post some photos of my current WIPs.
First up are the Nutkin mittens.
These had been languishing in the bottom of the knitting basket for months. With winter now here, I decided I better get in gear and finish them. The pattern is quite easy to memorize. It is actually a sock pattern that I'm modifying to mittens. These should be finished in a week or so.Next are my current socks...
Stonehenge socks.
This is the Twilight pattern from 2 at a Time Socks and the yarn is my handspun Crown Mountain Farms BFL. They are so soft and the colors are gorgeous. I'm in total love with CMF. I've heard people rave about how fabulous their fiber is and I must add my voice to the chorus. I believe the prep is top rather than roving so it drafts like butter. There are virtually no slubs or imperfections of any kind. Plus they give you a generous 8 ounces of fiber. My other purse knitting is a pair of plain vanilla socks in JL Yarns Savlia.
The yarn was super cheap and is quite fine in weight. I'm knitting them on US 1 since that's the smallest needle I had available. But I'm thinking I might go down to a US 0 for the next pair.The final project I'm working on is a Charlotte's Web shawl.
I am totally enamored with this shawl. I'm using 5 skeins of Koigu KPPPM as the pattern calls for. This is sock weight yarn so it's a bit heavier than the lace weight shawls I had been working on. Something about cold weather calls for knitting with heavier weight yarns. Lace weight seems to me to be better suited for warm weather knitting! Many folks knit this shawl with Socks that Rock and I do think that would be stunning, but it's cost prohibitive for me at the moment. The pattern is extremely easy to knit and goes fairly quickly despite the nature of triangular shawls with each row getting longer than the last. I'm about 14 rows from the end. I'm going to have to start thinking about what type of edging I want to do. There's a crocheted edging or a fringed edge. I love the look of the fringe, but I hate actually doing fringe so I'm still thinking about it.Once I finish up the shawl I'm going to go back to the Fylingdales sweater I was working on last winter. I think I'm better than 50% done with it and should be able to finish it up this season. The Colour Your Own Philosopher's Sweater is still hiding in my closet too. That's a much more daunting prospect as I'm only midway done with the first sleeve! But I'm sure it will see action at some point this winter.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
audiobook update
I was noodling around on Ravelry the other day and discovered a group for audiobook lovers. Here I uncovered a thread regarding library downloads. Seems I'm not the only one who enjoys the download services offered by libraries. I also learned that there are libraries out there that will allow you to purchase a membership and enjoy their services even if you are out of the area. One such library is Free Library of Philadelphia. They offer a paid out of state membership for only $15 a year. I thought this sounded like a very reasonable price so I clicked over to check it out. Turns out if you've got an Access Pennsylvania library card (and mine is) you can join for FREE! So I filled out the application over the weekend and hope to have my card by next week. This should give me access not only to NetLibrary but to another service called OverDrive that I am unfamiliar with. Fingers crossed it works out. I'll be sure to post how I make out.
For now, since I finished Scarlet Letter (great book btw) I broke down and went to the library and borrowed an audiobook cd. I was disappointed to discover it's the abridged version. Why is this even allowed? I want to hear all of the author's words, not just those the producer picks and chooses. You do get the major points of a story, but it always feels like something's missing.
For now, since I finished Scarlet Letter (great book btw) I broke down and went to the library and borrowed an audiobook cd. I was disappointed to discover it's the abridged version. Why is this even allowed? I want to hear all of the author's words, not just those the producer picks and chooses. You do get the major points of a story, but it always feels like something's missing.
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