no more pencils, no more books

Knit? Blog? School's out, dontcha know. There are sprinklers to dance in, trees to climb, bugs to collect. Also, planning the lemonade stand has been using most of my free time. I'm overcome with gratitude for the support from the good people who have visited our little virtual lemonade stand. Your kindness and generosity are a blessing. I thank you. PeeWee thanks you. Little bald kids with cancer who are just like every other kid and simply want to play--they thank you. If any of you gentle readers are new here and are following links from other's blogs, please see my last post for more information about the lemonade stand. Thanks for coming by! I so wish I were really pouring lemonade for you.

There has been a bit o' knitting, though. We have ball games every night, so I get a few stitches done in between yelling "That's okay, buddy. Nice swing!" and trying to sweet-talk PeeWee into thowing away the used sunflower seed shells she finds under the stands. I've been working on a 24-month size of the Presto Chango pattern. I thought I'd try out a few mods--shaped shoulders and sleeves. The shoulder shaping is done by coming out a few stitches from the neck (about 6 rows before the neck is bound off) and increasing on each side. Matching decreases will be done after reaching the summit of the shoulders and coming down on the other side. I've been shaping the sleeves by doing short-rows. I like the shoulder shaping, but the short-row shaping is causing me stress, because I didn't write down what I did as I did it and mirroring the shaping on the down-hill side of the sweater will likely be tedious and nit-picky. (How many stitches was that?!?!?)

I'm going to confuse you with some random pictures of yarn while I talk about something else: RAVELRY!!! Wahoooo! I got an invitation to join in last week--It is SOOOOO COOL. If any of you have put your names on the request list to join and have not heard from them, be patient, it is worth it.

The site designers, Casey and Jess, just put out a message tonight asking for understanding and patience. Apparently some people are getting frustrated with the wait. At the beginning of May when they put up the form for requests to join, they got 3,500 requests within 2 weeks (!!!) and another 1000 in the following weeks. They said that they're up to #1,166 now and working as hard and fast as they can to catch up with demand. There are beta issues they have to take care of before they can open up the site completely, but for now, it's metered merging.

We need one more picture...


Ah...Socks that Rock in Rooster Rock. See the brown and purple? Me loves it!

when life hands you lemons

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my little PeeWee is a cancer survivor. In tribute to our marvelous little fighter, our family is hosting our 2nd annual fundraising lemonade stand to benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF). Our real-life stand will be June 9, but our virtual lemonade stand is up and running and can be found here. We'd love it if you'd stop by for a cup! ;)

I first learned about Alex and "met" her parents through an online support group for parents of children with neuroblastoma. Alex had a dream to raise money for cancer research, so she did what any little kid would do when they want to make some money: she set up a lemonade stand.

"ALSF is a not-for-profit organization that evolved from Alex's front yard lemonade stand to a nationwide fundraising movement for childhood cancer. For four years, despite her deteriorating health, Alex held an annual lemonade stand. Following her inspirational example, thousands of lemonade stands have been held across the country by children, schools, businesses, and organizations, all to benefit ALSF. To date, her national campaign has raised over 10 million dollars for pediatric cancer research."

"Alex passed away in 2004, but her giving spirit remains the driving force behind the foundation she established. Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, guided by Alex’s parents, supports childhood cancer research with a focus on improving the availability of new treatments for children currently undergoing treatments for difficult to cure cancers—such as brain tumors, leukemia, lymphoma, retinoblastoma, neuroblastoma, Ewings sarcoma and Wilm’s tumor—among others." (from the ALSF website)

When PeeWee was diagnosed, I spent a lot of time researching treatment options, and I was surprised by some of the things I learned. One in every 330 Americans develops cancer before the age of 20! Look around, I'll bet you have a family in your neighborhood which has been touched by some form of childhood cancer. Perversely though, funding for pediatric cancer research is scarce. I had assumed that money going into cancer research benefits all ages. But it turns out to be a little more complicated than that since many cancers—such as neuroblastoma—are found almost exclusively in children. Since children make up a relatively small percentage of all cancer patients, childhood cancer gets an extremely skinny slice of the funding pie from government and charitable cancer organizations. Research is crucial to finding new and more effective treatments for cancer. Nobody should have to go though chemotherapy, especially a child. Not only is it dreadful to intentionally pour poison into your baby, it often doesn't even work. I'm convinced that there are better alternatives on the verge of discovery. There are advancements in biotechnology and immunotherapy, for example, that could bring stunning changes to cancer treatment, if we can marshall the resources needed to fund their investigation and application.

The beauty of using a lemonade stand to raise money for kids is that it makes it so accessible and easy for anyone of any age to help. Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation has a great website with all the information you need if you'd like to host a lemonade stand, too.

I'd be ever so grateful if any of you would like to spread the word about our lemonade stand. Marly, bless her, talked about it on her podcast, but I'd like to repeat it--If we could get a bunch of knitters on the case, I know that we can have a fantastically successful lemonade stand and do a lot of good for little sweethearts like my PeeWee.

pitty-arn!

Here's the latest installment in the series--Pitty-arn III: Strawberry Fields. I love it when PeeWee carries the hank of newly spun yarn around and pats it and loves it. I finished this up last night from Spunky Club fiber for April. It's 4 ounces of corridale that ended up as a sport-weight.

I messed around with all kinds of different drafting techniques and I even (gasp) did a wee bit of long-draw! Long-draw seems so magical to me, pulling out that fiber just ahead of the twist. Ah. Spinning this wool seemed almost effortless after the shorter staple merino that I did last. I'm not so great at it, but I'll keep working on it!

I wanted to hurry and get the Strawberry Fields done because I'm so impatient to see what my weekend dye project will spin into. I'm glad I didn't let it languish on the bobbin any longer. It's such happy yarn! LB wants me to make something for her, but I don't know what--it will need to be outerwear because the corriedale is a bit scratchy. (LB is an alternate nickname for Little Sister, or Leela as she is sometimes called--I think I like LB best; it's stands for Little Bitty which is what Boberly calls her. Who are these people, you ask? Boberly is my 13-year old and LB is my 6-year old. If you look closely in the last post, you can see LB standing next to the table in the picture of undyed wool. She has on one of her many fancy dancy leotards. Ever read the children's book Fancy Nancy? That's LB. End of aside.)

seven things (a meme)

I did it! I started a Flickr group called "Presto Chango baby sweater". If any of you are knitting the sweater, you can post your pictures for us all to see. Yay! And if any of you gentle readers have followed the link over from Jimmy Beans and would like to read the design story of the Presto pattern, it's in the post right before this one--Thanks for stopping by!

Now, since you're all a little tired of me talking about Me and My Pattern, I'll talk about just plain Me! Marly tagged me for the 7 Things Meme, plus I've been pondering my summer knitting list for Ali. Let us begin with 7 random things about me that happen to be on my mind right now. And to liven up all this talk about Me, I'll plug in some pictures of my recent mad dyentist experiments in my kitchen (using Paas Easter egg dye).

1) When my husband is out of town, I usually stay up all night. There's no romantic reason for it, like not being able to sleep without my love by my side--I'm just irresponsible.

2) Sometimes I buy a pint of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia and I save it in the back of the freezer for when Eric is out of town. I eat it all by myself and watch Silverado.

3) I once counted up all the instruments that I've played in a band, orchestra, or ensemble and it was 18--but it's only 11 if we don't count the percussion instruments seperately. (My favorite was the marimba.) I used to spend a lot of time on music; I've let it slide for the past 12 years, though, and it is a regular souce of guilt.

4) While rehearsing the clarinet solo in the 3rd movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony, I figured out how to speed up and slow down my heart rate by thinking about it (13 largo measures without a breath can do that to a person).

5) I'm trying to learn Italian by listening to Italian language CDs in my car. My kids speak it better than I do. They all know how to ask if you're thirsty and if you would like to have a beer.

6) When I was little, my dad would rock me in his La-Z-Boy and sing me tender songs from the 30's and 40's. My kids are perhaps the only ones of their generation who can sing "Mairzy Doats" and "Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer". And has anyone else out there ever heard the "Breathless" song? (If I had a dictionary/ I would read the customary/ complementary phrases/ When I want to sing your praises/ But I'm up to here in trouble/ My adversity is double/ And to make the matter worse/ I'm breathless!) Anyone? Didn't think so. I can't find anything when I google it, either.

7) My best friend when I was a child had a fantastic 14-letter-long Greek last name. I'm still proud of how fast I can spell it. When she got married, she took her husband's last name; it's Jones. She has an older sister--and she's now Smith. Couldn't they at least have hypenated? Then they could have 19-letter last names! The two were often polar opposites in many ways and now as adults, one lives in Alaska and the other in Arizona. Yeah.

This fiber turned out much more pinky-purple than I thought it would; I was aiming for purpley-brown with a lot more bluish-gray. I like it though. I'm dying (har har) to get it spun up and see what happens to the colors. I think I'll probably need real fiber dyes if I expect to have predictable results.

Ali, I'm going to save my summer knitting goals for the next post, but I promise I'll get them listed!

prizes, yours and mine

***Long, wordy post, not very many pictures, maybe an interesting story or two...

Who got the frog and the yarn? The handy integer generator at random.org spit out numbers 20 and 14, so that means Laura will get the frog and the mysterious S gets the yarn. I hope you are checking back to see if you won, because I don't have email addresses for either of you! Please email me (see the "contact me" link) and I'll get these items sent to you. If I don't hear from you by next Saturday, I'll pick another number. Fair enough? I'm so sad that I don't have prizes for every one of you. I think I'll have to institute regular prize drawings to help me feel better.

The first installment of my prizes from Jimmy Beans Wool arrived on Thursday. I've spent the past three days chauffering and applauding at various recitals and ball games, so I haven't had the chance to set everything out and take a picture, but I'll do that when the second box arrives next week. I did empty the contents of the white bag onto my bed last night and in the course of settling down to sleep, I might have rolled around in it. (Hey, the yarn smells fantastic and I'm a little lonely; Eric's gone to a show for the weekend.)

In her comment on the last post, Brynne pointed out something else that I had considered along with add-on cuffs for Presto, and that's knitting up a wider panel to accomodate an older, wider baby. (Lately I've been feeling cosmically aligned with other knitters. Is it the position of the stars? Is it the power of the wool? Is it the fact that I read your blogs and then forget what I've read and then read it again and it all seems so familiar? Sorry, what were we talking about?) Then Ali mentioned that the stitches could be pickup up around the cuff and just knit the sleeves longer, perhaps with a contrasting yarn. Good thought, Ali--and then you could knit a new panel in the contrasting yarn!

Also in the comments on the last post, Jen mentioned that the Presto pattern had been mentioned on the Knitty boards. Naturally I had to go see what was being said and a very nice person who goes by "lindydiva" suggested that the body of the sweater could be knit in a multicolor with pink and blue (or whatever) panels--handy if you don't know the gender of the baby for whom you're knitting. So many possibilities! I was thinking of perhaps starting up a Flickr group for all these Presto variations. I would love to see these great ideas coming to life.

Jimmy Beans of Jimmy Beans Wool is actually a lovely person named Laura. We've been emailing back and forth and she asked me what my inpiration for Presto was. I gave her the short version; would any of you like the long version? You would? Okay! (I like having these little imaginary conversations with you. You always say just the right things.) This is already one of the longest posts I've ever written. Let's just keep going!

My precious darlin' PeeWee, who just turned 2, was born with a tumor in her abdomen. Between the ages of 1 and 5 months, she had chemo to shrink it and treat the metastases in her legs. The chemo and subsequent tumor removal surgery did the trick and she is now, blessedly, cancer-free. She does have a few little residuals. They're not major and I do not mind them; they are an easy trade for the priviledge of being with my PeeWee. She's a terrible sleeper--prone to nighmares and easily startled--and she has a very touchy gag reflex. She doesn't throw up nearly as much as she used to, but we still have to be vigilant about foods that don't readily dissolve in the mouth.

Last fall, during one of those long pukey nights, I wished for all of her clothes to have interchangable front panels. Moving her around to change her clothes was often very uncomfortable for her and it would have been so nice to only have to unbutton the front and switch it out. This spring when I read about the pattern contest and saw the prize pack for the pattern contest, I zeroed in on the prize from Lantern Moon: a pair of Exotic Wood Needles, an Origami Bag, and a ball of 100% Silk Gelato. I promptly declared that I was going to enter that contest and win that prize, by gum! (Every day I fight the urge to spend all of the grocery money on Lantern Moon needles, and have you seen the Silk Gelato, have you?!?)

Now do you want to hear the story of the pattern writing and submission? Allrighty, then! During another of PeeWee's wakeful nights, I figured out the construction of the sweater in my head and then sketched it out the next morning. I had been wanting to try Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton ever since reading about it on Ali's blog, so I ordered some and got knitting. I finished the prototype on April 28 then spent time on the 29th working out the other sizes. I got the final draft of the pattern written up on the 30th after my kids were in bed, then started trying to email it to Jimmy Beans at around 10:00 PM. I spent the next two hours trying to figure out why my blasted email program (Microsoft Outlook) wouldn't send, finally dissolving into tears at 12:10 AM, having missed the deadline. At 12:17 AM I had a brain wave: I opened up my yahoo email account, copied the entry into a new email and sent it off, telling Jimmy Beans that I'd had "connection issues" and would they please let me know if they could consider the entry for April's contest or not. Then I went to bed. I was sure I'd missed it.

The next morning, I had a reply from Jimmy (Laura) that the pattern had come through just fine and in time. The time stamp on my email was April 30, 11:20 PM!!!! Hooray for Nevada and the Pacific Time Zone! So if you read in their newsletter that I got my pattern in just before the deadline, you'll know they're not kidding!

Wow. That was long.

Edited to Add: I can't believe that I got so busy with telling stories that I didn't say this first-- Thank you so much for the kind and complimentary things that you've said about the Presto pattern. I appreciate it very much!

more Presto

PeeWee: size 24 months; Presto Chango: size 6 months. Marvel with me at the amazing stretch of the knit. Of course the sleeves are rather short--but fashionably so, don't you think? I tossed around the idea when I was coming up with the pattern of putting buttons on the cuffs and including instructions for extender cuffs that could be buttoned on later in a child's life, but I didn't do it. Maybe I should write that up. Any opinions on that?

Yes, the two photos in the last post are of the same sweater, same yarn. The top one is of the sweater on the lid of my piano next to an east window with late morning light. I put a copy of the picture through a Photoshop warming filter before I sent it to Jimmy Beans, but the one on this blog is the unfiltered copy--It's all washed out. The second shot of Kristen's beautiful baby and today's picture of PeeWee (though a little dark) more accurately represent the color of the Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton (#82-Nut).

I think that its time to spread the love. I have two things to share today. Firstly, I saw these little critters on Sheep in the City and I couldn't help myself; I ordered two. One will stay with me and the other one shall be sent out to one of you. They're made by Clover and there are some other versions besides frogs--CUTE!

Secondly, I have a hank of 4/8s merino, hand-dyed by the nice ladies at Yarn Today. It's 560 yards of 100% merino wool in a colorway called "Autumn Twilight". If anyone would like a little froggy case or a big hank of yarn, leave me a comment saying so and I'll pick the recipients with the handy online random number generator.

ETA: I'll pick the winners on Saturday morning (May 19). Yay! I think giving prizes is as fun as winning them!

Presto Chango!

I'm stunned speechless. We'll just have to go with a link or three.

Jimmy Beans Wool

Pattern Contest

Pattern contest winner: PRESTO CHANGO!!!.


And you're right, I didn't have the buttons sewn for the photo shoot, but isn't he beautiful? "No pictures, please!"

This is my first published pattern. I'm a little worried that the directions make sense to me because I wrote them, but will be confusing to anyone else. Anybody want to look them over and tell me what you think? That third link up there takes you to the pattern on the Jimmy Beans Wool site.

And while we're talking about Jimmy Beans Wool, they are a fantastically wonderful online yarn store--Try them out and see! They have a great website, a superb inventory, and lightning-fast shipping and customer service. (No, they didn't pay me to say that, really!)

I've got to go call my mom. She's the whole reason I submitted this pattern, because she always told me that it never hurts to try... I hope I can be as encouraging for my children as she has always been for me. Isn't it perfect that tomorrow is Mother's Day?

way too many pictures of spinning

PeeWee is playing at her little friend's house and Leela (That's not her real name--that's what PeeWee calls her. I'm torn about the whole "using my kids' real names" issue. I think I'm going to go the Precious Nickname route. In fact, I think I'll make sure there are double E's in eeach namee. So we'll have Bebee, Joee, Tedee, Leela, and PeeWee. End of aside.) is off to kindergarten. My plans? I'm going to practice my mad housekeeping skills...in a minute. Firstly, though, Way Too Many Pictures of My Spinning:

We started with 4 ounces of 21 micron merino top called Darling, dyed by the fabulous Adrian of Hello Yarn. I was in a bit of a hurry spinning it, because I'm an eager, impatient beginner, AND I was trying to get it done in time to knit a birthday scarf for my mother. She bought a new red coat this winter, and I know it's spring, but her birthday is in 1 week and I really want to make something for her. Back to Darling... So I didn't spin it as fine as it could, or possibly should be spun, but it is luscious, bouncy, and soooooft. I tended to err on the side of looseness in spinning it and so it's very fluffy. It's probably a heavy worsted weight. I think my mommy will like it.

Must go scrub toilets. Then I'll get started on the scarf. Any suggestions for pattern? I considering linen stitch--I'll have to swatch and see. (Swatchency, isn't that just north of Trenton?)

I am glad for many things

Yes. I am glad for many things. It's not just a song, it's a way of life. Call me Pollyanna if you will, but this morning I woke up to the wonderful sight of snow on the mountains! I love spring snow! That's a shot of the mountain behind my house. Isn't it beautiful? Doesn't it make you want to dye some yarn? Ooooo or maybe some spinning fiber. :D

Enabler Monica of my local fiber shop opened an account with Henry's Attic (wholesaler of undyed yarn and fiber). She offered to let her regular customers have a substantial discount on the initial order so that she could have enough for the minimum first order. I now have an embarrassingly huge amount of white yarn and spinning fiber hiding in my closet. I want to try to replicate the combination of that purpley-blue-grey of the snow on the mountain with the spring greens. I bought 20 boxes of PAAS egg dye after Easter, and I'm hopeful that there's some purple in there that will look better than grape Kool-Aid. I've also been wanting to see what purple-copper-brown colors I can achieve. Yes, I'm still in love with purple and brown. So what's my point? I'm going to dye some fiber today and I believe that I will use the view from my backyard as inspiration! See the crab-apple tree that's ready to burst into bloom? Voici le beau printemps...

I won a contest! Brynne sent me a ball of Opal sock yarn because I had the best guess for when her new baby would be born. Thank you, Brynne! (I just guessed my own birthday and luckily for me, that's the day he made his entrance.) He is one adorable baby, and the handknits that boy has?! Beyond cute.

Last week Marly sent me a FULL BAG (that's 10 hanks!!) of Noro Blossom as a thank you for her blog buttons and banner. Thank you Marly! I didn't even know that Noro made such a yarn! I think I'm going to make something like this with it. Marly started a podcast at the end of last year that is so fun. Marly can tell a story like no other and she has a great voice. (Love you, Marly!)


Did you see the bit of sweater peeking out in that last photo? It's a sweater that I submitted to the Jimmy Beans Wool pattern contest. I think they're running it as a monthly contest with deadlines for submission at the end of each month. I got this little sweater done just in time and submitted at 11:20 PM on the last day of April. If they don't pick it, I'm not sure what I'll do with the pattern, but the sweater is going for Kristen's new little sweetie. I got to hold him on Saturday and he's so angelic. Mmmmm. New babies are yummy! No, I'm not baby hungry. I'm quite certain that five is enough.

Besides, I still have this precious darlin' and I'm treasuring every moment with her. You'd never guess what she's been through, would you? (Stage 4 neuroblastoma, diagnosed at 4 weeks of age, treated with chemo and surgery between the ages of 1 and 6 months; she's now off treatment and only has quarterly physicals with blood and urine tests. I am very glad for this particular thing.)

darling

Here you see some merino top from Hello Yarn. It's called "Darling" and it is intruiguing. I'm still very amazed at how hand-dyed fiber changes completely when spun. My photos today are rather dark, but compare the ball of top with the singles on the bobbin. What a difference!

It's not all spinning around here. I do still knit. See? I've been working on this baby sweater meant for my PeeWee. I have knit, frogged, and reknit this left front 7 times. I've finally solved my little cable pattern problems and I think I may finish it in time for Kristen's new baby to wear in another year. Yes, you heard me, Kristen has a darling little baby boy! Yay!!!!

this time there's actually a picture

That will teach me to walk away from the computer in the middle of typing a blog post. I typed those few silly sentences, not actually intending to leave them, and then had to jump up and take care of something (we had a Bodily Function Day yesterday). Sometime later that night, I noticed that the Blogger window had been closed, but I figured that one of my helpful children had just exited the program. I didn't think that he or she would be ambitious enough to publish before exiting. I have such nice children. ;)

Here's a picture, then, of the fantastic Schacht Matchless spinning wheel that arrived on Friday (the 13th--a very lucky day, if you ask me--right Beans?). And here is one of my helpful children. She likes to make it go roundy, roundy. I promptly spun some roving from Wooly Wonka Fibers. It's Colombia/Merino cross wool in a color called "Rain". This wool is so crimpy and fuzzy. It didn't seem to want to be a spun terribly fine, so I went with it. I'm not used to thinking that I have multiple bobbins at my disposal and that I could spin half on one bobbin and then half on the other, then ply the two from the bobbins onto a third bobbin. So I just spun the whole 2 ounces onto one bobbin. I may just let it sit for a while and then use it to learn Navajo plying. Spinning Spider Jenny says that Navajo plying is easier if the twist in your single is set--either with time or steam. I'm the sort that is perfectly happy to let my single sit for a while. Besides I have three more bobbins! I'm going to spin some wool that my son gave me for my birthday next.

look, a wheel!

It has arrived!!! I have my lovely, my precious, my Wheel o' Bliss and Serenity (that's WOBS, or Wobbie if I'm feeling playful).

no knitting, just buttons

There has been no late-night knitting, just graphic design--such as it is. Since I've spent my time on it, I might as well show you. It's for my blogger friend Marly. She asked me to make her a button for her blog. I made a bunch. They're on my test site and tonight, I made a banner graphic. Here it are. Too bad the sheep's face is so small that you can't see the aghast look. Can sheep look aghast? Must sleep now.

dawn of a new day

I am a new woman. PeeWee slept for 7 hours last night. I just might conquer the world today. I'm also back on the computer because I scavenged a keyboard to take the place of the Cordless Wonder keyboard. What happened to the Cordless Wonder? A few days ago, PeeWee threw it to the ground and then jumped on it. Do you think she was trying to send me a message? Hmmm. It worked. I had to go cold turkey and haven't read any knitting blogs since Tuesday! It was very good for me.

About a month ago I asserted that I had developed some self-control and was limiting myself to 15 minutes of reading blogs per day. Hahahahaha. That lasted for about a week. I gradually slipped off the wagon until I was lying on the side of the trail. Thanks to PeeWee's intervention, I sprinted to the front of the wagon train and caught up with the laundry. I CAUGHT UP WITH THE MOUNTAIN OF LAUNDRY! I even had time to knit--and spin! I lived my own life. How about that. I won't bore you with my self-analysis of why I'm avoiding my responsibilities and letting myself spend so much time in other people's "lives" as represented by their blogs. I will just say this: I think that sleep deprivation is at the core of the issue. Is it really that simple? Yes. Why? Because I decided it is.

Now that I've confessed all, I can talk about my sock. My first real sock! I started out with the 2x2 rib sock that's in Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. I don't like knitting ribbing in the round very much, so after 1-1/2 inches, I changed to stockinette in the back and a leafy rib in the front. After knitting the heel, I switched to 2x2 rib on the instep and stockinette on the sole. It's a little slouchy around the ankle--I should have kept the 2x2 rib on the back of the leg. And I wish I'd continued the leafy rib on the instep. I love it anyway. I'm going to knit the second one the same way, much as it pains me to not make the needed improvement on the ankle. I took a gazillion pictures of it with my foot angled every which way. I discovered that there is no flattering way to capture an image of my, um, shapely ankle. I broke it on a skateboard when I was 12. Yeah, it has nothing to do with any subcutaneous adipose tissue. The invisible-high-heel look was my favorite, although it accentuates the baggy ankle.

I finally plied the Elfin Snow Forest merino roving from Nettie and Tuddie. It's just a regular two-ply. (I had thought about doing chained singles--Navajo plying-- but I decided I couldn't wait until I had someone to properly show me how to do it. This little video clip on the Joy of Handspinning website is helpful, but I want to see someone do it in person.) I LURVE IT! If it hadn't been wet last night (to set the twist), I'd have slept with it.

It has some strange, nubbly areas and you can see that my spinning is still quite uneven, though getting finer. I'm thinking of knitting an Argosy scarf out of it, though it might be a little bulky for that.

Or, I could hang the yarn in PeeWee's room by the two Max Hammond paintings at the top of the post. PeeWee likes to hug the yarn, stroke it, and say, "Pitty-arn!" Where does she learn these things?

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!)

BIG NEWS!!!

Okay, calm down. It's not actually BIG NEWS about me. I'm just thrilling over the news that one of my favorite knitbloggers has just been named the new editor of Interweave Knits!!! Yes, Eunny Jang, that designer-knitter-writer extraordinaire, with her marvelous and brilliant knitting aesthetic will be directing my favorite magazine. I'm pleased, can you tell?

That last post, the one with the glamour shot of a cheese wedge, got the most comments ever! Seven! Is it the cheese? Is it the fact that Kristen commented twice? Is it my incomprehensible obsession with spinning? Speaking of spinning...If you start with this:
Elfin Snow Forest merino roving (3.39 oz) from NettieandTuddy.

Then you kinda pull it apart into strips, roll it up and get this:


Next you take one of these:
Wait--Wait!!! Was that spinning wheel? Why yes, it was. One of the ladies at spinning night on Friday took pity on me and brought me one of her 7 (seven!) spinning wheels to tide me over until mine arrives. How nice is that? Very nice.

Okay, then you take the wheel, give it a spin, stretch out that roving, let it twist, and then you get this:

See? I get to make my own yarn! Next, I get to knit it!! But first, I think there's a load of darks getting musty in the washer...

of course, cheese is always a safe topic

The camera. It went missing again. It has been found, again. This time there was an incriminating 3-second video clip that proved it had traveled covertly to the middle school. The offending camera gremlin has been reprimanded and sentenced to a month of solo dish-duty. She's pretty pissy about the whole affair. Sorry. I used a vulgar word there. I just can't think of a better way to describe a 13-year-old's mixture of outrage and embarrassment. Mom taught me better than that, didn't she Beans? I should be able to come up with something pithy. Pissy. Pithy. Heeheehee. I make myself giggle sometimes, usually late at night when I should be in bed. Oh, like right now! But I can't sleep, you see because I'm thinking about...The Spinning Wheel o' My Dreams!

Yes, a single-treadle Schacht Matchless spinning wheel. (Why single-treadle? I like being able to treadle with one foot at a time, if I wish. Have I already said that?) Only 5 more weeks to go until it's here in my very own home. Tomorrow is spinning night at the Lovely Little Local Fiber Shop--Oh all right! It's Rumpelstiltskin, okay? Now I've named names, I might as well say the the owner is named Monica and she's a lovely woman and a great spinning teacher and all that hooey I said last time that made me sound irritatingly noble about "buying locally" is just so that I can keep going to spinning night without feeling horrible for showing up with a wheel that I could have gotten from her, but didn't. Marly, I am not a better woman than you, I'm just way too worried about what other people think of me. I think we need a change of subject. How about some cheese?

Aged Cardona from Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin. This is a fantastic cheese. It's an aged goat cheese, firm but not crumbly, nutty and sweet and just right. It's pleasantly sharp and has those great crystals that I've noticed in other favorite aged cheeses (most notably Parmigiano Reggiano) yet it feels nice and smooth on the tongue.

I did manage to get a teeny bit of knitting in while PeeWee was sick. She's all better now, which is wonderful. I appreciate her good health much more than I did/do with my other kids. I hate it when she's sick because I tend to run through all the worst case scenarios in my head when she starts looking poorly. Anyway--Knitting! I should post a picture of the sweater I'm knitting for PeeWee, but I'm thinking of submitting it to Knitty and they require designers to keep mum about designs until publication. So since I'm SUCH an optimist, I'm just going to talk about it, but not show it. Boring. I know. Well, I'm done with the back of Sweet Pea. I've cast on for the right front and it's going FAST. I love little pieces--they make me feel like I'm getting a lot done. Monica (who's Monica? see above) mentioned in passing that she only gets about 2 hours of knitting is each day. ONLY! Harumph. I get 20 minutes. Yep. I've been keeping track for the past couple of weeks and I average 20 minutes of knitting per day. On a good day, I can get in a half-hour. It's a good thing that I can see the positive side of things and can mumble "times and seasons" to myself, or else I might be tempted to box lovely Monica about the ears with her favorite mahogany nostepinde.

positive

First off, I found a picure of one of my first knitted baby sweaters. That's Lovey, proudly holding a sweet little design from Debbie Bliss' Quick Baby Knits. The yarn was a cashmere-merino blend that I'm sure got felted years ago by my sweet sister-in-law.

Yike. It's been over a week since I posted. In the beginning of this blog, I was determined to keep a separate journal for those things (you know, those things) that I wouldn't want on the wordly wibe web, but needed to get in print and out of my system. I have a couple of entries in that journal. The rest of those things have just faded away, and it's just as well because I'm trying to focus on the positive. Here are some examples of how darn optimistic I can be. Are you ready?

1) PeeWee has ear infections and slept fitfully last night--and I slept not at all. Right now she is dozing on the couch because I parked her in front of a Barney video so that I could go take a shower. Barney. Tsk. I know. Positive: I just had a shower! Wahooo!

2)I have often stated that I feel strongly about supporting the little independent local stored in my valley. I had to put my money where my mouth was (is?) when it came time to order my spinning wheel. (Yes! I'm getting a spinning wheel. Wheeee!) You see, websites like The Woolery and another spinning shop in Colorado called Bountiful Spinning and Weaving had the same wheel that I wanted for a GREAT below-retail price, plus bonus fiber just for ordering, plus free shipping with no sales tax, plus the wheel is IN STOCK. My lovely little favorite local fiber shop will get the wheel in 6 weeks for the regular retail price, plus shipping, plus sales tax, plus no bonus fiber. Sigh. The thing is, I just couldn't bear the thought of showing up for spinners' night (hosted by the fiber shop owner) with a wheel that I bought ON THE INTERNET. So. Positive: I'm getting a spinning wheel! I've done my part to ensure the continuing presence of a lovely little local fiber shop! I didn't even brag about what a saint I am for buying my wheel locally. Um--until now. That's okay--you three won't tell, right? ***ETA: Monica, if you ever read this, just don't mention it to me, okay?***

3)I can't seem to get myself to focus on one knitted item long enough to finish it before starting 3 other items. Positive:I have so many fun projects to choose from! I probably have a years' supply of yarn. Yes! I might need more unspun fiber, though. Maybe a sheep or two in the back yard...

camera found!

I didn't realize how much I use my camera until it was missing. Where was it? Hmmm. It mysteriously appeared on my 13-yo daughter's desk in her room on Sunday. Hmmm, again. Perhaps we'll never know where it was in between shooting this on President's Day:

and this one week later:

Awww, Mom! We would never hide your camera! Uh-huh. Such sweet little girlies.

Okay, on with the show. Here's my Sweet Pea chart and yarn (please see the previous post for more detail on this lovely yarn). Aren't those colors beautiful? Yes--sublime, indeed. I cast on to knit it in one piece to the sleeves and knit about 1 1/2 inches, but then decided that I didn't like the way the cast-on row looked. I had done the "proper" thing of following the long-tail cast on with a wrong side row and it just looked smushy. It was also rolling to the knit side severely, even though I'm starting out with a 1x3 (interspersed with a vine rib that's 1x2x1) rib on the bottom. So I pulled it out and changed my first row to a right side row and, yes, I now have little purl bumps on the bottom of the right side, but I like it. I also decided to knit it in pieces (back and fronts) and I'm feeling a greater sense of accomplishment since my rows are now only 74 stitches wide instead of 153. I don't mind seaming that much and now I can make adjustments to the size of the fronts if it turns out that my calculations were off on how much the vine rib contracts. I'll get a shot of the back piece tomorrow. I've actually got about 7 inches of it done--amazing with all of the rip-and-redo action going on around here.

This past Friday was spinner's night at the shop where I took my spinning class. Just look what a nice spinning wheel can help a person turn out! Shall we have an extreme close-up? Yes, I think so. That's some natural brown Corriedale-cross wool spun on a Schacht Matchless double-treadle wheel. It's wound on a toilet paper roll and can you see the difference between what I'm doing now and what I was doing three weeks ago? I want a spinning wheel with every fiber (heh) of my being. I need it. I neeeeeeeed it. I've been researching wheels and I've about come to the conclusion that a Lendrum would be perfect for me. I've tried out every kind of wheel I can get my hands (an feet) on, but I haven't found anyone locally who has a Lendrum to let me give it a test drive. I still think that it would be a good choice. My spinning teacher likes Lendrums (if only she carried them at her store!) and I have found that I like the same things in a spinning wheel that she does. If only I could get myself to stop buying yarn and save some money for a wheel. Hmmm. I have a birthday coming up...