The triangle shawl is moving along. I really have no concept of what the finished size will be. I don't recall from High School how to correctly project that mathematically. (Shh, don't tell Mr. Horn.)

I'm not doing any holiday knitting. I was going to give a sibling some gloves, but considering that their birthday scarf is still sitting around (never came by to pick it up) I don't know if it's worth the effort.

Otherwise, there's not much to report. The head honcho around here gave the whole place the two Mondays off (in addition to the Tues./Weds. we would normally get off for Christmas eve/day and New Year's eve/day) so I'll have a couple of 5 day weekends. Maybe I'll have time to play with the loom - but I doubt it. When my family hears "day off" for some reason they feel "chauffeur" is implied.

In ordering my holiday gifts, I bought a copy of Michael Moore's Stupid White Men for someone. Amazon had a deal on the desk calendar so I got it for myself. I really like my Stupid White Men desk calendar. I'm trying not to read it all at once, although I'm already into March.

Funny, as I was looking up the Amazon links, I typed "Stupid White Men" into the search field. It brought up the book I was looking for, but it also pegged me as someone who might like a Maxim subscription. LOL

I'm the snake print
Doc Marten...
I'm a wild child and I live on the edge baby!

Which Doc Marten are you?
(by *coffeebean*)

Why do we do projects we don't like? The year before last, I'd knitted 3 triangle shawls. I don't really like them because they're not flattering to my figure (like I really need anything to point to my butt) and I get bored with them way before they're as wide as they need to be. So basically, I don't do them.

So what did I cast on for 2 days ago? A triangle shawl. Damn that Emma. The movie's been playing on cable a lot recently and they're all wearing these shawls of various sizes and constructions. Feh. I've also been wearing one of my cashmere shawls ( Truly Tasha's Shawl) a lot at work, and I want one in a different color ... and not in garter stitch. So I'm knitting a very plain triangle shawl in some black Alpaca/Shetland that's been sitting around for a year or so. I had spun it for a sweater, but I don't think there'll be enough. It's simply stockingette - my lumpy bumpy spinning gives it interest. I may border it with yarn of a different color, depending on how big it is. Basically it's cast on 3, selvedge stitch, yarn over, knit (turn) selvedge stitch, yarn over, purl... ad infinitum, until I run out of yarn (I have a pound and a half). Will I have the patience to finish it, once each row starts taking more than 5 minutes to complete? Only time will tell.

Yes, I could have woven it, but I don't yet have the balls to cut up that much of my handspun, especailly when I'm not totally sure I want a shawl. At least I can rip this out again.

I think I'm having a rediscovery of simplicity. Generally when I used to start a project, I'd come up with a design concept, find some yarn to suit my purpose, look for a stitch pattern or draw one, gauge, etc... Now I just sort of cast on and let the chips fall where they may. Hmm, this could be a sock, or it could be a glove, or it could be a shrug ... we'll see. And I'm not feeling any interest in stitch patterns. Every now and then we all need the mindlessness of stockingette. Sometimes I don't even realize I'm doing it - it's just my hands moving - like people who drum their fingers without noticing. Plus I'm having a "function over form" phase. I don't care what it looks like as long as it does what I need.

And sometimes, simple is best. I saw my plain-old boring cashmere scarf again last night. It's not perfect, but it's still the best thing I've ever woven. So I think it'll be a lot of plain weave and stockingette this season for me.

(It's going to be a long winter and I'm going to go through this every damn time I see it. Someone suggested I should just "borrow" it and not give it back. Not only would I not do that, but I think its owner is particularly fond of it, and not likely to let it out of sight. I can't believe I gave that away. I don't particularly regret it, I just don't believe it. Apparently, that was one hell of a crush.)

I hit the wall on Saturday at the garage. I couldn't spin any more. It didn't help that my thumb cracked (dry skin). I don't even have any grease wool to spin as therapy. So I've started knitting the gloves. I have a real problem making things for people who are larger to me. (Luckily, this doesn't come up very often.) I'm following the pattern, but the gloves look odd and they don't fit (me). I'm sure they're fine. The pattern I'm basing them on is one I've used dozens of times.

I'm also up to the part where I was planning to insert a small fair-isle section, for visual interest, but I still haven't charted anything out. (feh!) I'm trying to come up with an interesting design, that isn't too swishy. I guess, I'll just break out the graph paper and doodle. That seems to work best for me. Nothing I've seen in any of my books has really appealed to me. (I was debating on the Greek Key pattern, but it's too recognizably ethnic. It's Greek - y'know like on the diner coffee cups. LOL)

Naturally as I've been going along, I'm realizing I won't have enough yarn, so I guess it'll be back to the spindle.

I nearly freaked because I worked late last night and forgot to bring home some fiber. This mad spinner thing has me ensnared! I couldn't bear the thought of losing a whole hour of spinning time. But I rummaged through my stash and I had brought a couple of lengths of that fleece home, so I had enough to get me through my morning bus ride. (This sounds like one of those insipid {insert list name here} posts.) I've gotten used to spinning for an hour on the way in, filling up the spindle at lunch, plying it off on the way home, and skeining & setting twist when I get in. By the next morning it's dry and goes in the pile. 65 yards of 2-ply a day isn't bad - and I never have to make time to sit at my wheel; it's all done during my commute/lunch. At this rate I'll be done spinning for the gloves on Saturday (260 yards of black and 50 yards of grey should be more than enough), so I guess I should start thinking of a pattern.

So I've been a mad spinner lately. I plied off 101 yards of 2-ply qiviut Monday, I spun 50 yards of grey 2-ply Corrie yesterday, and I've got, I guess, about 65 yards of black 2-ply waiting to be plied on my spindle now. I want to make gloves (just have to figure out how much homespun I'll need ... having a pattern idea first might help). I figure at least 4 spindlefuls of black and one of grey. I can design the pattern when I'm closer to having that amount.

The qiviut came out really cool. It's very fine (the 101 yards probably weighs about .5 oz - my scale at home didn't register it, I'll have to bring it to work to weigh it.) and since the qiviut was combed & I spun worsted, the yarn is shiny. (It will bloom more with some abuse.) So I have 2 more bags of qiviut to comb and spin, but it's gotten pushed aside for this glove fetish.

I think I've finally gotten a picture of that cashmere scarf. It's a group picture, so you won't be able to see detail well, but it's better than nothing. Unfortunately I've still got about 20 pictures left on the roll, so it will be a while until I can develop it. (Bloody thing IS really nice - I can't believe I gave that away.)

I hate looking back on things and realizing I've spelled something wrong in Hungarian - or used the wrong ending because I haven't learned the right one yet. Bloody difficult language, that. And I'm terrible at dictation. I still don't hear all of the vowels properly, so I can't transcribe accurately.

What does this have to do with fiber? Nothing. I'm not doing anything fibery at the moment.

Jaj!

Okay - I'm going to try again. New camera, different brand, different film speed. I took pictures of my brother's plaid scarf over our new living room furniture. Let's see if these come out. I'm also meeting up with the recipient of the cashmere scarf to go riding on Sunday; hopefully I can get pictures then. It may be too warm for a scarf though - they're forecasting mid-60s! In the meantime, I'll send some others off to you guys for some volunteer digital transfer.

At the moment, I'm just working on getting my distaff in the mail on time. :-)

Arrgh!

I went out of my way to make sure I took photos of my friend's scarf before I gave it away. I took multiple pictures, with flash and without. Wouldn't you know that not one of them came out when I had the film developed!!! (However, there's a great photo of my friend posing with Bo Peep and the Rheinbeck Sheep -wearing a different scarf I'd made for myself - but I'd promised I wouldn't post it on the web. )

When I give stuff away, the only thing I ever ask for is a picture of the recipient wearing the article. To date, I have not yet received such a picture from anyone. Jeez!

Well, I went to Rheinbeck. Didn't get to meet up with Claudia, unfortunately. My friend came (didn't bring the last scarf I'd made, but wore one of my cashmere scarves instead). I didn't buy much - just a spindle, a Weaver's Craft, some Moth Guard, and some soap. Every year I take $100 to spend. This year I came back with $30. Strange.

At the moment, my soul is bruised, so I've brought out the big guns. I'm spinning combed qiviut (one of the Qs in QQQ) on my new spindle. I need to spoil myself a bit. And I'm KEEPING what ever I make from this yarn. No pissing it away on presents. I don't seem to have good luck with that anyway. (Giving someone a handmade gift seems to be the best way to ensure that I never become romantically involved with them.)

I hope I feel better soon. I'm tired of this.

Phew, I can stop holding my breath.

I was waiting to see how my friend would take the gift. (I knew the mail would get it there either today or Tuesday. Tuesday would have been optimal - it is the actual birthdate, but I would have gone nuts waiting.) I got raves over the scarf! The color, the fringe, the hemstitching, even the pattern (umm - it's plain weave - doesn't get any simpler).

It's nice when your efforts are appreciated - even though I played it down as much as possible: Oh- it was just an extra cone of cashmere I had laying around. They only had one color when I bought it; it was the last cone. The fringe, is just the extra warp twisted. Italian hemstitching is about the simplest way possible to finish a hem. All true...

but secretly I'm very pleased with how the project came out, and relieved that it's found a good home.

Okay, well, without having to stay up all last night (just 'til 11:30), I've finished my ... THE scarf. And, as you can see, I'm having trouble not making it mine. Does everyone go through this? I mean, as a fiber artist, you can't keep everything you make, especially if you're making something for someone (whether or not they know it). But the separation is sometimes difficult. (This is why I give my best stuff to my housemates - I always have access to it.)

I must say this scarf is the best thing I've ever woven. It came out long enough. (I forgot to measure it and it's already wrapped up and set to mail, but it's about 69" + fringe, and 10.5" wide.) I beat a little too hard so it's slightly weft-predominant, but consistently so. It's heavy (dammit - forgot to weigh it too... I did take pictures) with good drape. Even the selvedges are fairly nice. It's a really nice scarf. It's very understated, but it looks elegant. It's definitely a keeper. But that would be bad karma. Whether or not the recipient knows about it, needs it, would miss it, etc., I believe if you're making something for someone, you give it to them. I always have. There was one scarf that took 10 years to get to its intended recipient (who managed to piss me off just as I was finishing it) but it got there.

So with a little regret, I'm off to mail this out. There'll be other must-have cones of cashmere and other to-die-for scarves.

It's all worth it, right? Right?

Itt vagyok! Bocsánatot kérek - nagyon faradt vagyok ... huh .. what? Hungarian was last night? Oh, sorry.

Here I am! Excuse me - I'm very tired. Blogging has been rather far from my mind. And said mind is somewhat fried, between work, home, school, volunteering, hobbies and fruitless crushes. However - this is the perfect ground for fiber activites for the sake of procrastination.

So I finished my small bag exchange and mailed it out. I made about 6 bags - sent 3. The other 3 are lost or defective (much like myself) so I'll hang onto them.

Currently, I'm weaving a scarf which may or may not be for someone on whom I may or may not have a crush. (Decisive, aren't we?) That is to say I used to have a crush - I'm not sure if I still do, but since we are friends I wanted to make a birthday present - but I think I'm running low on weft and a present is by no means expected. (I was never told the birth date - I just happen to know. ) So if the scarf comes out sub-par, I'll just keep it. It's Italian cashmere - why waste it? I can wear ugly defective garments. (And I dare someone to say something to me about them!)

So as I weave, I debate back and forth as to whether or not this will be a gift. It's actually coming out quite nicely. It's just plain weave. (My brain is too fried to manage even a simple pattern like "idiot's delight" - I had to un-weave 6" of it cuz I kept screwing up.) I thought I had gauged the yardages correctly but what's remaining on the cone is making me nervous. A conservative estimate would project the finished scarf at 4.5' - I had warped for a much longer scarf. I'm a big advocate of making scarves as long as one is tall, so I would feel odd giving a too-short scarf as a gift. Although I suppose 4.5 feet would make a functional scarf. I also made it wider than my normal scarf width, at 11". One can't go wrong with extra cashmere around one's neck.

So that's what I'm working on. Oh - and I should mention I warped the loom Tuesday and have to finish it tonight to get it in the mail on Friday. Psycho all-nighter tonight, huh?

I guess that's about it. May you never have to explain, to non-weavers yet, how to warp a loom in Hungarian (as I did last night). Jój!

I'm so flattered to be listed among Claudia's favorite blogs . Especially when this is turning out to be a decidedly non-fiber blog. I just haven't gotten around to doing much lately. I think about it a lot though. I think of whether or not I'll make holiday presents this year ... I design Cowichan sweaters in my head ... I think of which will be my next wheel ... I think - do I really need a portable Navajo lap loom for under $100? I think - what am I going to eat when I've spent all of my grocery money at School Products?

But on the other hand I think of how much braces are going to cost next year, and that I haven't paid for the Thanksgiving trip yet, and whether my free time would be better spent running, biking, reading, volunteering, or just interacting with someone in person, rather than knitting or weaving off by myself.

With all this mental confusion, in addition to a full time job, an evening class, and a fruitless crush to occupy my mind, one can see how I don't manage to get much done. :-)

All quiet on the fiber front.

My back is still tender from all of that weaving Saturday. I offered to show my friend how to weave - I think he thinks I'm nuts. Oh well.

Well, it just goes to show, I produce in spurts. Yesterday I warped the loom with some bulky I'd bought, wove a plaid scarf, then rewarped the loom with some handspun and wove some more plaid for my small bags. My back hurts.

My initial thought was to see how much weaving I could do in a day - I have a friend who wants to learn to weave - with this bulky yarn, it's nothing to warp the loom and weave 2.5 yard warp in half a day, even for such a novice as myself. Once I'd finished that, I came across the evil pattern. I ripped the yarn off, just tore the dangling threads, and wound it on the warping board. I didn't really measure anything - just sketched out a rough diagram of how I wanted the plaid to look. I was able to make two plaid sections. The first one was kinda messed up, so I did another - but messed that one up by cutting the warps too close (duh). So I'm making do with the first one. It's in the washer now, felting.

It's the first time I've woven with my handspun, and it really turned out quite nicely. I tend to spin razor wire, so I didn't have trouble with warps sticking together or anything, and the whole thing is rather consistent. I'm especially surprised because I used my spindle spun yarn (Andean-ply), which I usually don't prefer to my wheel spun yarn (3 ply - I'm a Navajo-ply demon). I had originally been spinning that yarn to make a scarf, but I figured I'd use it for the exchange. I 'll have to keep the scarf project on the back burner; I think it will turn out nicely.

Evil, evil pattern. Like I said, it's not quite fair isle nor is it intarsia, but it is a huge PITA! It's a mess - tangled balls and butterflies all over. And after 5 days I've a whopping ... 3 rows. Everytime I start getting into it someone bothers me, and I can't take it with me on my commute because it's such a mess. I'll play with it once more this weekend before scrapping it.

It's such a bother that I'm doing both sides at once.

I have a perfectly serviceable Navajo-plied bag right across from my desk. Why I don't just make another of those, I'll never know.

Wait , wait, you don't have to tell me. If I rotate the design 90 degrees and rechart it on the graph, it'll come out to be approx. 5" wide and 7.5" high. See, I'm not as think as you stupid I am.

(I still forgot about the 4-way symmetry and charted half of the pattern. My mind just doesn't seem to want to work that way.)

Woo hoo! I finally charted it! (Okay, well, half of it, but it's symmetrical. About 70% of the way through, a math professor came up to me and said I could have done just a quarter of it since it had 4-way symmetry. I hadn't noticed)

The next problem is that the size doesn't lend itself to being made into a bag, (At a gauge of 6x8=1", it would be 10" wide & 4" high.) nor is it anything approaching fair isle, or intarsia, for that matter, and it has 5 colors! Tricky, but I'll figure something out.

At least I have the yarn spun already.

Okay - when I get home, today or tomorrow, I am going to rechart that bead pattern and make a bag out of it. That's IT - enough procrastinating. I have yarn, I have a concept - just execute it!

(I'm not really in the mood...)

After plying off the Corriedale, I started spinning some Ramboulliet on one of my large Bosworth spindles. For whatever reason, I was spinning finer than I usually do (boredom, I guess). When I got home and thought to measure it, I was averaging 23 wpi in the resulting 2-ply. I generally don't do fine spinning because a) I find that it always becomes a pissing contest and b) I don't normally work with yarn that fine. I can do it; I've taken Margaret Stove's class on fine spinning, and got some superfine merino down to a consistent single of 8 fibers (under a microscope), but it's not my thing. (I must admit, there wasn't an air of "pissing contest" in the class; Margaret teaches with a sense of 'this isn't difficult and you can do it'. I recommend her classes.) I've never made anything out of my finely spun yarns. I prefer a range between DK and Aran weights. but I digress. My point is, I was stunned to spin finely on such a large spindle. It's 1.75 oz and I usually do heavier yarns on it. But I was able to spin finely, with ease, on the back of a crowded bus in rush hour, yet. I may have to get another one of these at Rheinbeck. I generally buy a Hatchtown every year, maybe I'll have to start getting one of these too. I think I'll need a midi in either black palm or black and white ebony.

I did manage to spin today! I spun for about 15 minutes (after walking 30 minutes to find a cool, quiet, shady spot), then plied off everything on the spindle. It had bad juju. When I started spinning it was nicely fine, then at a pow wow I'd let someone else try spinning (umm, no, that's good, really), and today I was in a bad mood. I knew I wouldn't like that resulting yarn so I just cut my losses and plied it off. I can use it to tie warp chains or something.

I've got some Ramboulliet roving in my bag; I think I'll spin for a hat for my trainer (who's training me gratis).

Off to look up hat designs (before I just design my own, like I always do).

I touched yarn again today (frogged the bag). How pathetic am I? I'm just very busy with other stuff. I may have some time to play with fiber in two weeks. I'll try to get it on my calendar.

Actually, if it's not too hot, I'll take a spindle out today. "Somethin' in my soul done broke" and I need to distract myself.

Okay, so TagBoard seems to be working again today .. but I've got my eye on it, just in case.

So just when I've gotten everything straightened away, TagBoard goes off-line. THAT's IT! Off you go... I'm not in the mood. If any one has a better comments system, I'm open to suggestions.

Phew - that's better. I'm going to explode though. The $6.95 lunch special has 5 items on it. By the time he served the firni, I took a tiny nibble and pushed it away. "Enough! No, no more chai!" It was tasty though. I also went to renew my passport. (I've been using an expired one for 9 years - the caribbean islands generally don't care.) The fees are going up next week, so now's as good a time as any.

Also before I left, I realized that if I had the tag code printed (from simple text) I probably still had the file on the computer. Cut and paste. Everything's copacetic again.

It's a wonder I get any fiber stuff done. (Although I have yet to prove to you guys that I actually do.) It's too hot here this week anyway.

Okay - breathe.

Major blog meltdown today. I've had to reinstall the template, and reinput all of my links, but the TagBoard site won't give me the code for the tag board - blank screen... that's okay I have it printed out here. I type it in and poof - Blogger times me out. I don't have time for this shit. Maybe I'll feel better after some Indian food.

Well, the found money has become lost. (weaving supplies ... or ... naked men, sigh - no contest.) Actually my friend paid for the show, and I spent my money on toys for her honeymoon. Ah well, easy come easy go.

This morning I remembered that I forgot to do a project I'd committed to. Yikes. I'll have to see if there's still time. I didn't mean to be so irresponsible - it just got lost in the vacation shuffle. It looks like I'm going to have a heck of a lot of spinning in my near future.

Which flock do you follow?

this quiz was made by alanna

Bad blogger! A whole week without a new post - tsk tsk.

Well I have actually touched fiber since the last time I posted. There's an exchange deadline creeping up on me and I should get to it. I started a small knitted bag with some moorit Corriedale I'd gotten from Bennett & Gregor but I think I'm going to rechart the design I graphed. I also want to chart a bag based on a beautiful beaded barette I'd bought at pow wow.

I still haven't decided what to do with the "found money". I'm shocked I still have it. I'm thinking I need a 12 dent reed and a couple of subscriptions. Maybe some cotton or silk yarn for weaving.

My brother has made use of my color pictures; he's been playing with Photoshop and inserting poetry over them. That's more than I would have done in the same amount of time.

I got an e-mail from one of my favorite shepherds. It's kinda neat, in this day and age, being able to reach from urban to rural via the computer.

I see this month's Handwoven talks about using the colors you see around you every day. On my most recent vacation, I'd taken a bunch of random pictures of flowers and whatnot, in which the colors appealed to me in one way or another. I thought great! I'll go home and get some colored pencils and some graph paper and get to it. Then I remembered that my brother (who paints) stole all of my "color pictures" on Saturday. D'oh!

Do I *really* want to spend found money on yarn? That's what my plan was, but I dunno .... When it's hot like this, I can't think about yarn. Unfortunately, my thoughts turn to the opposite sex, which is even LESS constructive. However, I should make it my business to own more than one reed ....

I dragged my one big woven piece out to a pow wow yesterday. That's probably the longest I've ever worn that shawl. It was good. I got some "extra" cash (if there is such a beast) so I think I may buy some weaving yarns and start another project. Time to start thinking about a design and sketching. I should probably look at yarns first, huh?

Well, take this as a good insight into my fiber life. I can go for days and days without even so much as touching a lock of wool. It's always good to remember that there are other things in life. I've picked up 18 books to read in the past 3 days. 5 are on loan from the library, 4 were library purchases and the rest were freebies from the university. And not one of them is even remotely fiber related. I should be finished with most of them by next week. (Some of them I just picked up for curiosity's sake. I'm not sure if I really want to read a book of first-hand accounts from the War of 1812. Or the state of the prisons in England in 1929. But now I can, in case I ever do.)

I've been reading a novel a day almost every day this week. (I couldn't get into yesterday's, and didn't finish it.) The loom will still be there when I need it, and the cat's not interested in my warp chains. It's all good.

Day two. I haven't told anyone this exists. I'm still not convinced that blogging is something I want to do. I still haven't done any fiber projects. Perhaps I do want to blog, but not about fiber. I think that might be the case. Maybe I'll create a non fiber one as well.

I'm really on the fence about this blog thing. I have web space that I never use (except for practice) but I don't know how to best use it. I'm tempted to do the blog just to have something up and let it grow from there. It seems such an exercise in futility. I don't read anyone else's blogs regularly; I can't think of anything I'd write that would be interesting enough for someone to read mine. Plus it's like writing your diary on a bathroom wall.

Well, by way of introduction, I'm a spinner/weaver/knitter. I don't claim incredible competence in any of these endeavors; I do them for my own enjoyment. I've created this web log to discuss my current projects, for whom ever might be interested. Unfortunately, I'm not really working on anything at the moment so I'm a bit at a loss for something to say. But when I start a new project, you'll be the first to know.