HA, a finished object!

While trying to clear off our giant junk collec....er...ottoman, I moved my gym bag. I moved my knitting bag. I moved couch pillows, a bra and some socks. (All to the couch, now I have to clear that off too, see how this goes?). I started to move a package containing fibery items from a (currently on hold) yarn club subscription through Darn Good Yarn. Oooh, there's some lovely bright silk yarn in there. Didn't that package also include a plant hanger pattern? I should make some plant hangers for my kitchen window. My Meyer lemon trees will need to come back inside soon. Air plant hanger. Not quite what I had in mind. Opened my Pinterest. Jumped on Ravelry. Made some drawings (which I will lose or forget about and not know what the hell it was if I ever find them again). A couple hours later...

Back to the package. The silk ribbon yarn (reclaimed strips of silk sari) came with a bowl pattern, didn't it. Oh, wait. I never got the pattern. I don't think? I went to the website and saw it was on sale, only $0.99. Added a couple things--mystery item? How can I resist? $15 yarn bowl? Oh, why not?-- to my cart, went to pay and realized I'd need to get up and find my wallet. Or, I could sign in. My payment info was probably already there. Um. It was. And so was the link to the bowl pattern that I'd already downloaded back in January. D'oh. (cancelled the order, in case you were wondering) And, hey, I just happened to have 10.5 circular needles sitting right here on my table. The US 8 dpns needed came in the package. So I made a bowl.

Why?

Do I need

 a knitted bowl?

The ottoman is still a mess. But I moved my dry bag and two reusable shopping bags. To the couch. Next to the other stuff I moved (yesterday).

But I cleared off the kitchen counter to take these pics. I felt so productive, I decided to reward myself with some more spinning time on my sweet kitty spindle. And also decided I really love the shaft, made from a US2 Knitter's Pride Karbonz dpn. Warm needle body, slick metal tip. I think I'd like to knit with them. Hmmm...this may be showing up at my house by Thursday. It may be my 4th set of interchangeable needles. I use them all. OK, I start using them, leave them in UFOs and then need new ones when I want to start new projects. Don't judge.

3D printed Kitties!

At Michigan Fiberfest last month, we visited (and by "visit" I mean--after we'd been through everything [I thought] and were getting treats as we prepared to leave, the girls told me they'd seen 3D printed spindles at a couple booths, including one of the booths in the exhibition barn. I missed them. Booths were closing. We were leaving. Um, maybe just a quick trip back that direction to take a look?) Sarah's Bullsheep Fibery booth and fell in love with her perfect (seriously perfect, like they spin so smooth with no gyrations or wobble) teeny little spindles, especially the Kitty spindles.

Emily bought an orange Kitty spindle and Crystal got an all black one. I loved the contrast of her fuchsia whorls on the carbon shaft but Sarah didn't have a kitty spindle in these colors. I couldn't wait to custom order one as soon as she reopened her Etsy shop--BullSheepFibery.This little beauty came today! I haven't been this excited about someone else's spindles since I got my Golding. If you love  wee little (it's 7-8 gms, without [I think?] the beads/yarn balls, which three sets of different colors come with it) perfectly spinning spindles with a super modern twist (3D printed whorls, seriously??), you need one of her spindles. She has larger ones too.

Happily spinning dyed cormo locks with my Kitty spindle...

Finished Object and Some Spinning

I finished, washed and delivered the Sunshine for Sunday's Sibling yesterday. It turns out their baby (a girl!) is due tomorrow. I offered my professional baby holder services any time and hope they take me up on it. Y'all know I love some baby holding.

This was a fun knit. I had a little trouble keeping track of the stitch shifting while knitting in the semi-dark of my daughter's theater class showcase, a band concert and an orchestra concert but it wasn't hard to rip it and get back on track. Turned out a little on the small side but I think that's a plus with cotton, which tends to be heavy. It's a nice size to throw over baby against the chill of a/c.

Now I'm back to working on some spinning. I've already spun and plied two bobbins of gray merino/silk blend. This is the first of four total white merino/silk bobbins. Two will be plied and stay white, two will be plied and dyed a deep red. This will all be a Lilli Pilli wrap. My friend Bec and I went to a knitting guild meeting (and then never made it back to another this year, oops) and one of the women there shared her finished wrap with us. I fell in love. As soon as I got home that night, I started looking at yarn. And then I realized I already had what I needed, just had to spin it (and dye some). I'm excited to start the knitting but in no real hurry with the spinning. The gray is still on the Scholar from plying. It'll stay there until I finish another bobbin of the white and am ready to ply.

Progress

I haven't been knitting much the past few days but have made some progress on my Sunshine for Sunday's sibling.

Delivery!

Pretty yarn and pretty needles have arrived! Casting on...

(click for big)

Oh, hey, I'm still around

As the weather warmed up, I noticed our neighbors are expecting their first child. So I decided to knit a baby blanket for them. I went to pick up yarn--Bernat Cotton Tots, because it appears this will be a summer baby--only to discover it's been discontinued. :( Surely it can't be gone, gone? I searched the innertubes before finally giving up on that perfect summer baby yarn. (Bernat, bring it back!)  Poked around looking at other possibilities. Settled on Knitpicks Billow in Comfrey (even with the mixed reviews). I'll make a Sunshine Chevron. Checked my needles and really need to replace a few sizes of needle tips. I added 5-6 caspian tips, realized that was going to cost nearly as much as a full set (shut up, close enough! Plus, free shipping, woot!), removed the tips, added a full set of needles and placed the order. Not even noticing I hadn't place an order in so long that my old address (moved nearly 3 years ago) was still listed. By the time I noticed, it had already shipped.

I have been trying to intercept this package ever since. Called the local post office, was told to do intercept online (cool...wait, not cool, it's $12 something plus extra postage?). It won't let me anyway because it was shipped FedEx smart post. Tried to "customize" the delivery through FedEx but the shipped to address does not match my account address. I finally thought I had it--do a new change of address (the previous one expired a couple years ago). That should have caught the package at the post office, to be forwarded. It didn't. I don't know if it was our old mail carrier or a helpful neighbor but someone noticed we didn't live there anymore. Now, tracking shows the package is undeliverable as addressed and will be returned. Called the post office again and person I talked to is going to do her best to get it to me.

I just want to knit a blanket! On pretty new needles!

The dumb thing is, if left alone, the package would be sitting on the steps of the old house (which has been vacant since we moved out) and I could have just swung by to pick it up.

D'oh.

Update:  The post office sent my package back and I've had to reorder. Yarn and needles will be here in 4-10 days. :(

Fork it?

 

This is what I was doing while I watched a movie with the kids and Abi's friend. I had spun yarn to knit my mom a scarf (no surprise, if she managed to find her way here without a direct link from me, she knows I am working on a scarf because she requested it). When I began knitting (reversible cabled brioche), I realized the yarn was more firm than I would have liked it to be. Of course, I kept knitting. Half finished, I finally listened to the voices in my head and stopped knitting. Set it aside. Where I ignored it for months and months. A few days ago, I frogged the scarf and ran the yarn back through the wheel to loosen the plying twist. And then I washed it. And then I threw it--still wet merino/alpaca blend--in the dryer, on air fluff.

In case you missed this,

I. THREW. IT. IN. THE. DRYER.

Over six ounces of handspun, 3-ply, merino/alpaca yarn.

I wanted to fluff it.

OK, so it did fluff it up a bit, just as I wanted. But it also felted a bit. Not the whole yarn, just black fibers throughout the entire (gray) yarn. So now I am untwisting the yarn, peeling apart the sticky black fibers to separate the plies and then adding back a softer twist. I was running the plies between my fingers to separate them but then I spotted Em's violin mute...

This would be even awesomer with one more finger. But a fork works perfect! And it's easier to take breaks than it is with yarn between my fingers.

I had to explain to Abi's friend (who spent the weekend with us and was excited to be shown the whole fleece-to-finished-object process, not knowing any other knitter/spinners) that normal people do not do such things. Y'all don't, right?