Thursday, March 22, 2007

safety first

It's been a while since I posted. I just haven't the heart (or apparently the brains to save back up copies and thus alleviate frustration) to retype lost posts after the computer decides that something untoward is occurring and all Internet access must be immediately terminated! (save draft)

You see, I have a teenage daughter. I have a pre-teen-who-thinks-he's-just-as-mature-and-capable-as-his-teenage-sister son. They have been repeatedly warned of the dangers of chat rooms. They chose to disregard the warnings and were apprehended in the course of chatting! Something about being irritated and trying to sound authoritative makes me go all formal and multi-syllabic. (save draft)

A very vigilant and jumpy net-nanny program has been installed on the computer. It's killing me. It shuts me down mid-post about every 3 minutes. I've been avoiding confrontation and just not trying to blog in the past week, but I'm suffering withdrawal. I've simply got to expose my dirty laundry to the world and maybe some knitting, too. (save draft) You know, I could compose this in another program and then copy and paste! A-ha!

All right. I've typed up the rest of my say, and now--careful there--I'm gingerly pasting it in... Yes.

Knitting. It has been slow going with one stitch forward and 3 stitches back. I’ve been doing some of the frogging myself, and I’ve had some help from tiny friends. Look.
Can you read that baby body language? The picture is a little dark, so I’ll translate for you. Sis, in front, is saying, “Oh no. I think she’s mad at me. Maybe if I don’t look at her…Hmmm. Is that a goldfish cracker over there?” PeeWee, in back, is saying, “Ooooo, you are in trouble! Don’t you know you’re only supposed to pat the yarn?” Two disastrously paired events occurred to bring about this unfortunate mess: 1) I was foolish enough to leave the in-progress Sweet Pea sweater and two balls of beautiful Sublime yarn artfully arranged in a bowl on my coffee table (I don’t have cats and PeeWee has been trained since infancy to respect the knitting); 2) I had the audacity to make a solo visit to the potty. Five minutes of negligence lead to 2 hours of untangling. No, I could not pitch it—it’s SUBLIME, darn it!

Spinning. I bought some kinda garishly dyed roving a week ago, a little rough but with a nice long staple length, for some serious practice on my wheel spinning. I’m amazed at how the colors change as the fiber is spun. I started out thinking that this roving was a little ugly, and know I really like it! I’m excited to see what the plied yarn looks like—maybe I’ll try doing chained singles (aka Navajo plying) with it and then use it for a Fake Isle hat. That would be cool. The beautiful Elfin Snow Forest roving is buried underneath the purple/teal/lime-green on the bobbin, patiently waiting to by plied. I’m avoiding plying it because I’m afraid that I didn’t put enough twist in the singles and they’re going to come apart when plied. I’ve got to suck it in and just do it. I don’t think the honeymoon with spinning is going to end any time soon. I love it more and more every time I sit at the wheel. I’m so anxious to get my own lovely Schacht. Come soon to me, my darling matchless one!

P.S. I have a Secret Pal!!! (Hi spinaddict!)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Talk about caught in the act! They look cute though. It's probably hard to stay mad. Thanks for all the kid tips! The best part of this weekend is that we'll be watching them on their own turf with all of their 80 million toys just within reach. And tv. Lots of tv. ;-)

YarnThing said...

I once left my FINISHED poncho on the sofa over night next to my knitting bag only to find it the next morning with a BIG CUT right in the middle of it. Apparently, my daughter thought using mommies scissors was a great idea and it was an even greater idea to test them out on mommies new poncho! Talk about depressing!

So, I feel your pain!

Marly
www.knitthing.blogspot.com

Kristen said...

Oh, Valerie! The pain! Does it help to have a ball winder with a mess like that? Is there anything left of your sweet pea sweater?

The spinning is absolutely gorgeous! I'm so curious to see how it looks plied, so you're going to have to get your courage up!

Jean said...

Eaten posts and tangled yarn...Oh, the humanity! Good thing the spinning is coming along beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Oh man! I don't have little, sneaky fingers but my pooch has a thing for chomping on my wooden needles. All projects have to be put away even for a trip to the loo. They also have to be out of reach of the cat, who will bat them onto the floor so the pooch can chomp my needles. I can't decide if they're in it together, or if the cat is just trying to get the dog in trouble.

Anonymous said...

I love your spinning. Hey... I just got a brand new Schacht Matchless too. How did you learn to do the Navajo plying? I would love to know how to do that.

Valerie said...

Diane--I haven't yet figured out the Navajo plying, but I'm planning on trying it as soon as I have my Schacht. Have you looked at the Joy of Handspinning website? They have some very helpful little video clips.

Kim said...

Ok, you'll have to teach me how to teach my wee ones to respect the knitting. My son LOVES to knit, and sadly it is always with whatever I am working on! That picture is hilarious though! :)