State of the Union

Well, it's a new year, I'm in a new home, with a new cat, and it's time to figure out my plan for the upcoming spring. So far this winter break, I've gotten the cat fixed, made kebab, henna'd a friend's hair, cleaned and scrubbed the entire bathroom and kitchen, baked a gross of cookies, weeded my bookshelves and sold the extras to HalfPrice (made a good amount, too!), gone through the last of the boxes from when I moved in, sorted my renfest stuff into keepable and unkeepable items (stuff that doesn't fit any more, mostly), had the dishwasher at Casa del PenName replaced, and gotten rid of a bunch of stuff I don't actually need. I even started making the bed every day! What's up with all that, right? It's almost like I'm living like a grownup.

I'd really like to cut down my possessions to the bare minimum this year, and it's time to admit to myself that this may have to involve a significant bit of destashing. Some of it I'll be putting up for sale, but some of it I may be posting here for free, so keep a lookout. Now that I have one completely-cleared-off bookshelf at my disposal, I find myself wanting to store my various non-fiber crafts there. Once there's actually ROOM for everything I own - or, rather, once I've cut down what I own to just what I have room for - I think I might even start decorating. I'd like to finally hang my creepy mask collection, and maybe do a little bit of painting to hang up. If things turn out well, I'll take pictures and show everyone :)

Things in my personal life are going well, too. I've gotten used to living alone, and I'm starting to really enjoy being single. It's fun to flirt, but it's even better to go home to my quiet house at the end of the night. I'm secure in my home and my finances, I've gotten confidence in my ability to take care of myself, and all in all I'm happy. I know part of that has to be the brain drugs, and I'm so thankful that I'm finally on them. My weight hasn't really gone down a whole lot (I waver between 190-195), but I feel good, so it's hard to care that much.

I have another spinning wheel that I got off Craigslist that I'm still in the process of fixing up, but the drive wheel itself is a bit of a mess. I need to figure out exactly which spoke goes into which of 12 spots, so that the come-apart rim will come back together AND fit on the too-loose-for-my-tastes center. Once I've got that figured out, I am gluing that bitch together like you would not believe.

And hey, if that doesn't work, I can replace the whole thing with a bicycle wheel.

Holy Crap, Even More Spinning!

Well, I spun up most of the Roger Caruso from FatCatKnits that I've had for a good long while, and as a reward I let myself buy 4oz of merino/tencel from Fiber Optic in the Black Coffee colorway (I figure if I only let myself buy fiber when I finish spinning something from the stash, I will eventually work my way through the whole thing, especially if I buy 4oz for every 8oz I spin). I also picked up a trio of new bobbins, since all my smaller ones are full of things that require another bobbin to ply on, and I still want to be able to have multiple projects going on at once.

So I got my Black Coffee roving in, and put on a leader, and started spinning on the Babe. Result: Fiber too fine. It wants to be spun cobweb-weight, with plenty of twist, and the Babe just isn't built for that.

Ergo, I turned to my old standard: make something. One small block of stamp rubber and a piece of wire coat hanger later, and I had a tiny takhli spindle just ready to go! This is going to be a crazy long-term project, but I figure if I keep it up at work and do it a little bit each day, I will eventually get it all done. I'm not going to stress about it, I have plenty of time to finish all the projects I want to do, and if I don't, then eventually I will be well-off enough to hire test-knitters and then I can just whip out patterns and watch the projects parade before me :)

Ha! Oh, sometimes I crack myself up.

Spinning, Spinning, and More Spinning!

After finishing up the sock yarn I talked about in my last post, I went hunting in the cabinet to see what I should work on next. I found some merino/bamboo (also by FatCatKnits, in the Roger Caruso colorway) that I'd started spinning up laceweight, so I popped that back on the wheel and got going. Today has been a lovely day of old Star Trek reruns, cat petting, and spinning. Life is good.

In other news, Ripley has decided to help me spin.

Spinning, Socks, and Socialization

Lately I've been spinning more. I got in a 5oz piece of roving from Fat Cat Knits (75% SW merino, 25% nylon), and it's the first thing I've actually finished spinning in quite some time. It's refreshing to remember that hey, I really would have free bobbins, if I just finished spinning what's on them now. I spun this up as a sock yarn, chain plied it, and last night gave it a good soak and let it set the twist of the yarn. Today, I'm starting on the first sock, and I have no idea at this point what it's going to be like.

I'm also about halfway done with the Nudibranch that I owe Hastur from years and years back, which once I started actually working on has been going really fast. In between these two projects, I've been working on PSS Prime, but not nearly as much as I should be.

In other news, I have become completely hooked by Plants vs Zombies. If you have not tried this game, go try it. Right now. I got it from popcap games, and it's amazing. You'll thank me for this later - it's almost as addictive as knitting.

Boring, Boring Person

I am the queen of all boring people, ever. This past week my little brother came to stay with me, and our days have been filled with Warcraft, petting kittens (still working on taming Ripley properly), and watching bad monster movies. I got some spinning done for Tour de Fleece, but honestly, I'm not even close to spinning every day, much less for a set time every day. The roving I'm spinning up is Monica by FatCatKnits, a one-off roving used to pick up the last of the colors from the dyepot. It's pale and colorful and interesting, and I'm hoping it'll spin up nicely into some sock yarn.

One thing I did do this past week, was find a spinning wheel for a friend of mine! I have my google reader set to let me know when anyone in Aggieland, Houston or Austin puts up a wheel for sale on Craigslist, and this week I found an Ashford Traditional for $200! I emailed the seller to see if it was still available (it was), and my friend Megan to see if she was still looking for a wheel (she was), and since she's out of the state right now, if she wanted me to drive up to Austin and pick it up for her (she did). So, long story short, she deposited the money into my paypal account, and I drove and got my friend a wheel :) It came with a lazy kate and 4 bobbins, so I'm pretty excited about it. She's a fairly new spinner, but she's definitely got the touch, her singles are already fine and even and lovely, and I'm so happy that she's going to have her first wheel.

So yeah, aside from that, my week has been pretty uneventful. Me and Ripley napped in the sunshine by the windows, with Heed sleeping on my knees as per usual, and it was nice. But for now, I think I'll get back to spinning, and see if I can't finish up that sock yarn!

Tour de Fleece!

Today was the first day of Tour de Fleece, and I for one find that exciting as all get-out. I've fired up the Babe, and spun maybe a half-ounce of merino hand-dyed in the Sedona colorway by Freckle Face Fibers (she's on etsy, check her out), and then in the mail today came the merino-bamboo roving I ordered from Fat Cat Knits (colorway Plum Possum, also on etsy - I loves me some etsy). I'm almost insanely excited about the Plum Possum. There's a half-pound of it, so I'm going to try and spin it up a little thicker than I normally do, and hopefully 3 or 4 ply will make a DK to worsted weight, because I saw this awesome sweater on Ravelry that I really want to make with it:

*NOTE: THIS IS NOT MY PICTURE, CLICK TO GO TO POCKET FARMER'S FLICKR PAGE*

*NOTE: THIS IS NOT MY PICTURE, CLICK TO GO TO POCKET FARMER'S FLICKR PAGE*
Words. They fail me. Her sweater is based off of the Cobblestone sweater from IK, but in my opinion is much nicer - from what I can tell, those wonky garter ridges down the sides are gone, the yoke ends at a much nicer place for people with boobs, and the use of color is just fabulous. So, of course, I'm going to shamelessly steal her idea :) This will be my first sweater since the Stupid Bobble Top (was that two years ago? holy crap!), and I think I've learned a thing or two since then. I'm hopeful

So, let's formalize this, shall we? My Tour de Fleece Goals:

1. Spin ALL of the Plum Possum roving (8 oz)
2. Finish spinning the Sedona roving (~2.3 oz?)
3. Finish spinning the Sandstone roving for the Irish Miss scarf (~1.7 oz?)

And since I'm a firm believer in extra credit, these goals would be nice to reach, but I won't be as sad if they have to happen later:

4. Ply and set the Sandstone yarn, same as the first two batches.
5. Ply the Sedona yarn, 3 ply
6. Ply the Plum Possom yarn, sample 3 ply and 4.

Knitting Olympics - Day 3

Okay, so remember how I wanted to make socks and a scarf out of that yellow handspun? Well, the scarf is winning out, so I needed something different to make for theolympics! Therefore, I picked up some stash wool (yay stashbusting!), and I'm making some self striping tan-and-brown Jaywalkers on size 2 needles!


...and in my "spare" time, a yellow scarf.

Knitting Olympics - Days 1 and 2

The Knitting Olympics (and I suppose those regular ones) both started today at around 1:30 p.m. At this time, I was at work, with many hours left to go and pouring rain to walk through once I could leave. I got home at six, kissed Sweetie goodbye for the weekend (he's visiting home), and got to work spinning up some yarn for my bright yellow socks. I tried a new technique, from Paula Simmon's Spinning for Softness and Speed, but I don't think I got the hang of it - I certainly didn't get any good yarn out of it that night, and unspun what I had for later use. With such a mighty unachievement under my belt, it was time for dinner, some reading, and bed. Thus starts my trial - not with a bang but a whimper.

Day 2 dawned bright and clear, and I set to work. Today, I will spin. Today, I will fill three - perhaps four! - bobbins with bright buttery yellow goodness. If I spin too much, after all, I can make a Liesel scarf :) Maybe I should do five bobbins, just in case.

More forthcoming.

Golden Apples

Whee! This spinning thing is much more fun than I'd suspected. During the superbowl I spun some yellow Colonial from BlueGooseGlen into a long enough DK single for a whole sock :3 I set the twist, wound it into a center-pull ball, and I've been carting it around ever since, petting it and showing it off to everyone I see. It's got a vaguely apple shape to it, so I'm thinking that with its lovely golden color I should knit a Golden Apple out of it! And then spin more, so I can make some socks. And then I get to play with dyeing!

I've Got You, Babe

Okay, hokey puns aside, my Babe came in monday and I've been so busy figuring out how this whole spinning thing is supposed to work (and, you know, studying) that I haven't posted anything on it!

It was pretty easy to set up, put three tube bits where tube bits ought go and screw in to secure, stick on a flyer, bobbin, and drive band, pop the treadles onto the frame and you're good to go. My first, oh, two days were disastrous - I admit it, I'm not too bright, and it took a lot of "but what is it supposed to be doing that it's not?" before I went over the instruction sheet again, the manufacturer's email again, oiled everything again, and of course, just when I bring Sweetie over to show him what's not going on that should be, something clicks and I start spinning up a storm. I have since volunteered him to be the first victim of my spinning madness in the form of a hat that he must wear and love, regardless of how much like crap it looks. I've spun all the way through the extra fiber Heather sent me (it was very sweet of her) and most of the way through the half-pound of Brown Sheep roving that came with the wheel. That I plan to dye and make into a scarf for me. When I get home from classes today, I get to work on the actual dyed rovings from Heather, and try and practice uniformity of singles.

For now, though, it's back to studying! Cognitive psychology waits for no one.

Mr. Twisty

Just a little side note, I made a top-whorl drop spindle today in my spare time and spun the bit of fiber that one of the Guild ladies had given me. It's maybe a foot long, Z twist, turquoise and plied. I'm very proud of it. I have named this particular spindle Mr. Twisty, and he will be my carry-along friend when I want to make yarn on-campus. As I vaguely remembering someone saying on a forum somewhere, walking around with a drop-spindle totally gives you street cred.

Oh, Man. Oh, Man. Oh, Man.

So, I went to the Spinner's guild meeting the other day... oh, man do I want to learn to spin! And then I saw this website, that's selling spinning wheels for cheeeeeeeap...... Grah! The agony! I want to purchase one! And I'd be able to right now.... Decisions, decisions!

[edit]

O.O

I did it.

I fucking did it.

I ordered a spinning wheel! It's a Babe's double-treadle production wheel, made of PVC pipe and wheelchair wheels, weighing a little over 7 lbs, and it is coming to my house!

[update] Also? Dibs on being the first one to knit a one-eyed kitten pocket warmer :) More details as they arrive.