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.