No, REALLY...

Today, as the fate of our nation is decided, as great decisions are made, as people give grave consideration to the power of their votes, another debate rages on. It is, perhaps, less important than the U.S. Presidential Election occurring at this very moment. It might even be labeled "trivial," or, indeed, "very silly". But it is a debate, nonetheless, and one that I must personally face every day of my life.

Let me give you a transcript of this debate, which occurs, as I mentioned, every single freaking day.

JENNIFER: We should go to Yarn Barn and get you more fiber.
ME: Oh dear, no, I'm not going to buy any more fiber until I use up everything that I already have.
JENNIFER: You always need more fiber. You have to have a stash.
ME: Oh dear, no, I'm not going to buy any more fiber until I use up everything that I already have.
JENNIFER: You need more fiber to spin.
ME: Oh dear, no, I'm not going to buy any more fiber until I use up everything that I already have.
JENNIFER: I guess I won't get you anything fiber related for Christmas then.
ME: You could get me a Majacraft Suzie Alpaca spinning wheel. It is only $850.
JENNIFER: No, you can't have anything fiber related until you use up everything you have.
ME: But a spinning wheel is a tool to use that stuff up, and I want a second wheel.
JENNIFER: You are a greedy bitch. Also, my cat died so I had to bury him in the back yard this morning.
ME: Sad - I just tried to make an eCard for you but it wouldn't let me finish it without logging in and sending them samples of my DNA and promising them my first born child. The card I was making had some trees and a giant lemon, and the lemon said, "SO SORRY" and then in big scrolling fancy curly text below, the letters popped up, "YOUR CAT IS DEAD", and then underneath I would have typed, "At least you buried him instead of setting him on fire in the middle of your front yard, like my dad did one time."

(Okay, this debate happens daily EXCEPT for the dead cat part. That part was extra.)

I'm going to win this debate once and for all.

First, I have the still unfinished Nuclear Pumpkin sweater. I am not sure about the fit right now; I'm a wee bit concerned that I may have to rip it back. Also, I am not even done spinning all the fiber from this project. I think I have enough to finish knitting the sweater, but there's still more NP fiber. Lots more. I may put the extra up on Etsy to see if I can make a buck.


Next I have the scarf that Jennifer and I each knit as a "Knit Along" sort of thing, and she started and finished hers in like a WEEK, and I've been pattering along on mine for two months. I'll admit that I love the yarn so much that I'm kind of savoring the scarf, though, knitting just a little bit at a time.

Then I have various quantities of fiber projects waiting to be started. I have about a pound of Mauch Chunky roving in two shades of blue. I have about a pound of alpaca fiber that I bought at that Apples and Alpacas farm. I have some flax that I bought at Settler's Farm in Wamego, KS this past Saturday. (A small amount, though; just enough to learn with.) I have some beautiful topaz bamboo roving that Jennifer got me as a present, about 4 oz.
Then I have sock yarn. I have the Patons Kroy sock yarn that I will not start knitting until I am done with all the other crap I'm knitting (shut UP, that is a SWATCH in the photo, not knitting), some Red Heart stuff in NP-ish colors that Jennifer bought me, some yellow Tofutsies...and not pictured, I have a drawer filled with 6,000 other skeins of sock yarn waiting for my attention.
Then I have spinning projects that have been started and not yet finished; the red goatstuff, and Louet brand Karaoke fiber (half merino, half soysilk) in the "Mermaid" colorway.

Then I have this...this TWO POUNDS of fiber that I dyed a couple of weekends ago. It is dyed in one long strip, going from orangey-yellow to mottled greens to chestnut (which broke into deep purples in most places - it looks more brown in the picture, but pretend you're seeing some purples in there, too). It is dry now, and beckoning to me. The photo below shows one of two matching rovings that I dyed. I have not named this fiber yet. Any suggestions? Dug wants to name it Fraggle, but it doesn't look like a Fraggle to me. (Well, maybe Whimbley.) Scott, this is your chance to get me back for "Moopsy Weaselsnard".

Anyway, can we all agree that at this point, I have QUITE ENOUGH fiber? Come on people, back me up here.

Row Counters (or Random Blog Filler)

One astute reader asked me, "Would knitting needles with some sort of counter in them be useful? Seems like you have to count up shit a lot."

Actually, there is an abundance of many kinds of row counters. See this link: http://www.yarn-store.com/row-counters.html

As you can see, there are "kacha kacha" row counters (called that because of the pleasant clicking noise they make when you push the button down), electronic row counters, and little cylinder row counters that fit on to your knitting needles so you just change the count when you reach the counter on your needle.

Recently, someone even wrote an iphone row counter application.

I have the cylinder ones but normally just use the kacha-kacha one (I have the red one). For most things, I don't have to count or perhaps the pattern of the knitting stitches (like some of the socks I've done) marks where I'm at well enough. Or sometimes I just jot it down on paper.

For situations in which you need to know where in the row to do a decrease, increase or special pattern stitch, you just place a marker on your needles - a store-bought marker made for that purpose, a loop of contrasting yarn, or a safety pin will do. Pretty low tech. I have some plastic stitch markers that clasp and unclasp so you can move them around, but safety pins work just as well.

Maybe I've told you guys this story before, but one time I was knitting something that required careful row counting, and I was using my red Clover "kacha-kacha" row counter. I left off for the evening, slept, went to work, came home, resumed knitting, checked my counter and saw that I was on row 57. This was odd, because I remembered specifically that I'd clicked it to row 8 the night before, and I was pretty sure I hadn't done an additional 49 rows of knitting without my knowledge. I turned to Dug and asked, "Did you click my row counter?" "Yes!" he said triumphantly. "I wanted to play with it!" So a word of advice to female knitters - if there are men in your house, maybe stick with the cylinder row-counters or notebook paper.

Still knitting...

Yesterday I woke up at 7:00. I had some breakfast, made some tea, and started knitting. Determined that I will have my NP sweater ready to wear this Saturday (because Jennifer and I are going on a road trip to a fiber store in the middle of nowhere, and I want to show off), I had already finished the second sleeve and joined both sleeves to the body. I knew I was in for it yesterday, because with the sleeves joined I had 434 stitches on the needle. I had to knit at least 5 rounds of 434 stitches before starting the raglan shoulder decreases. It makes me dizzy just thinking about it.

I knit from 7:30 yesterday morning, non-stop until - I am not kidding - 9:30 last night. (Okay, I took a couple of breaks for food and laundry, but they were really, really short breaks.) I can't remember exactly how many rows of knitting I completed during this marathon...but I think it's around TWELVE, averaging about 1 row per hour.

On the bright side, the very slowest-going rows of the sweater are complete, and I'm well into the decreases now, so the rest of the shoulders should go pretty quick. I could still make it by Saturday! Unless, of course, I finish the sweater and it looks like ass, and I have to rip it all out and start over. It could happen.

On the less bright side, Dug and I had rented Doctor Who from Netflix and were planning on watching the rest of one of the disks tonight...but in my befuddlement this morning I accidentally packaged up and mailed that disk along with some others we were sending back. Whoopsie. Hopefully Dug won't kill me too much, because I'd really like to finish this godforsaken sweater before I die.

On another bright side, however, those of you who are Dusty will be pleased to note that a certain project has been started, and will hopefully be complete by this weekend! :) I just have a button band and two little sleeves to finish up!

Drive-By Gifting

I fell victim to a drive-by gifting yesterday afternoon, but fortunately I lived to tell the tale. I was in my front yard, pushing the lawnmower along the edge of the street, when suddenly a silver car squealed up behind me. Windy and Joe flung themselves out of the running car before I even turned the mower off. They catapulted themselves at me, hugged all the air out of my lungs, shoved something into my hands, and then, engine roaring and tires squealing, they were gone as quickly as they had arrived, leaving me scratching my head and, yes...giggling.

I looked down at my hands and discovered that I was holding a brand new pair of neon green Knit Lite knitting needles.

You know, so you can knit in the dark! Hilarious!! And useful!

(Thanks, Windy and Joe! YAY!)

Guest Yarn: Show-and-Tell

I haven't been updating because there's nothing new - I've just been quietly knitting along on my Nuclear Pumpkin sweater. It's coming along nicely, though! I'll admit that the bottom hem is not perfect but a number of people threatened me with death if I ripped it out again, claiming that "it gives them a heart attack." Fine. (Probably I should not have even put that word "again" in there, because they didn't know about the first two times I redid it. Ahem.)

Anyway, since Jennifer is very busy and shy about starting a blog of her own, I thought I'd feature some of the stuff she's been up to! Jennifer, too, has been spinning her own yarn, using a Schacht spindle (At least I think it's a Schacht; it was actually mine once-upon-a-time, but Jennifer commandeered it when I got my wheel.)

First we have a yarn that Jennifer dyed herself. This picture is not remotely color accurate; the colors are pastels and they are more vibrant and varied. Jennifer called this "Happy Accident" yarn because it didn't come out the way she intended when she dyed it, but she was really pleased with the results of the finished yarn. I believe she was even thinking about entering this yarn in some sort of "Alice In Wonderland" contest, which I thought was perfect - in real life, these colors look like something out of the Mad Hatter's tea party.
When I interview Jen about "Happy Accident", she said, "The wool is a bit rougher than I wanted, but it worked out fine for a hat that I knitted, which looks like a big gum drop. That dye job was the first time I used food coloring and the colors didn't come out right. I was wanting dark colors (greens, yellows & browns); nope, none of that!"

The next yarn, I believe, was Jen's first attempt at spindle-spinning, using a commercial carded batt. Her FIRST ATTEMPT. Does anyone remember my first attempt at spindle spinning? Yeah, it was scary. But of course JENNIFER comes up with a nice, even, perfectly serviceable, soft skein of gorgeous green-blue yarn. How is that fair?

Next we have a bulky weight heathery-purple yarn that Jennifer spun from Mauch Chunky roving. I love the twist she puts into her yarns; it looks so professional!
Jennifer actually got me some of this roving, too, in two different colors. (You can see them by clicking on the link above; mine are Blueberry Ice and Huckleberry and I'm going to combine them when I spin it.)

I think Jennifer is getting closer and closer to adopting a wheel of her own. I cannot wait! She has her eye on a Fricke wheel that's already equipped with a WooLee Winder at a very good price. (I am going to be so jealous of her, but that's okay; I will just find excuses to "help" her with her spinning.)

DRAT.

I've been floundering over whether to (A) save my money for a second wheel or (B) just pimp out my Kiwi to increase its functionality. I was going to get a WooLee Winder flyer for it. This is a special flyer made by an independent manufacturer, and they make versions for pretty much every spinning wheel on the market. The advantage of this item is that as the yarn winds onto the bobbin, the WooLee Winder automatically moves the yarn up and down the bobbin so that it winds on evenly - whereas normally you'd have to do this manually; stopping the spinning to quickly move the yarn to a new spot on flyer.

Wait, not explaining this very well for my non-spinning friends. Okay, here's a picture of my Kiwi, stolen from the internet. The part with the yarn-filled bobbin fitted into it is called the Flyer, and you can see hooks running along that top arm of the Flyer. The yarn is held with those hooks as you are spinning, and very often you have to stop spinning and move the yarn to a different hook so that the bobbin will fill up evenly. This is not a big deal, but being able to spin without stopping would be really, really nice.

I was all excited because my mom was TOTALLY GOING TO BUY IT FOR ME for my birthday. Except, I was certain that I had read that a WooLee Winder would cost $100, and that is all. But it turns out that it costs $185...AND with my particular wheel you can't use the existing bobbins; you have to use the ones designed for this Winder...AND those bobbins cost $31/each. So I added up the Winder and the extra bobbins and the shipping and it came out to $418. Which is a quite a different number from my originally budgeted $100. This is not to say that the WooLee Winder is not an amazing product and that the price is not appropriate - I'm sure it is - but I just can't justify spending that money on my little Kiwi.

DRAT. I am so disappointed, over this silly little material object. It kind of makes me feel petty/selfish/childish...but I wanted it! [insert temper tantrum here] Now I don't know what to do. Any ideas?

Stained Glass and Pumpkin Progress

While we were staying with Dug's mom, Rhonda (or "Momda," as I like to call her), she was nice enough to teach us a little bit about her current hobby-of-choice: stained glass. You have to understand the level of niceness Momda showed us here: Dug and I, especially I, are clumsy and unfamiliar with the tools and materials, so there was a lot of equipment abuse and glass wasting while we were trying to get the hang of it - but Rhonda was completely patient with us even though I am sure there were moments where watching us blunder through this project was excruciating.

We somehow deleted the photos of the very beginning of the project, but you can see here that the design is sketched out on tracing paper, and we are cutting the pieces to fit and holding them in place with horseshoe nails. Each finished piece is wrapped in adhesive copper foil.
Dug made most of the color choices for our project. I love the amber glass. It's going to look so beautiful when we get it hung up in our window! When everything is assembled, you brush flux (which makes the solder bind with the copper) over the copper seams and solder over them. Dug did all of the soldering by himself. See what a fantastic job he did?

Somehow my Nuclear Pumpkin sweater doesn't seem as lovely in comparison with the stained glass, but I suppose I ought to give a progress report. I finished a sleeve and have a good close-up photo that is mostly color accurate:
The yarn is making a subtle striping effect. I really like it! I'm glad Dug has decided the colors are too "pretty" to be suitable for a tough, rugged, manly sweater. The blues are very "denim" - it's going to look great with jeans. Well, hopefully it will look great; I'm not a very professional pullover knitter yet, and I'm not using a pattern. I read "Knitting Without Tears" by Elizabeth Zimmerman, intending to use her seamless raglan guidelines, but when I actually started knitting I ended up taking the "cast on and knit until it looks like a sweater" approach. The photo below shows how I've started the body of the sweater, but the color is not quite right - picture pumpkin orange instead of brown.
I'm going to do a bit of shaping on the sides so I won't look like I'm wearing a potato sack. I'm fairly certain I'm going to screw up and have to reknit the body, but that's Standard Operating Procedure for me!