Flying Nessies Attack Tulsa! News at Six!

Aye, she flies with the fierceness of a thousand balloons and her eyes be holdin' the danger of a thousand fierce puppies.

This is the first finished Christmas present of the year. Yup, only finished one. Hahaha! I've started spinning Grandma's scarf though, the experiment of whether or not I could  spin a balanced yarn from singles that were sitting on the spindle for a while and spun at different times turned out rather well. Perfectly balanced, knit up nicely. I took a pretty little photo of it, but the camera corrupted my image after I resized it and saved it back on the camera to upload later. So you get to see Nessie instead (ravelravel)! Another hansigurumi delight.

And so the Winter spinning begins

Sigh, oh spinning how I've missed you. The siren song of my Wildcraft spindle has held me entranced for three days now - though I've promised myself that I need to stop tonight and work on Grandma's scarf tomorrow evening. For this project, I'm actually breaking away from Navajo Ply, it seemed that this yarn was meant to be barberpoled and a little more rustic. I'm not challenging my drafting consistency so much as I am trying to match the twist angle on a sample. I'm still concerned about using freshly spun singles, so I'm Andean Hand Plying at the close of each evening's spinning. Grandma's scarf will be different though. I've worked a little on it through the semester, the idea is that once I have a sample worked up I'll be able to test the "if you match a sample you don't need to worry if your singles are freshly spun" hypothesis. Once Grandma's scarf is spun (and supposedly the freshly spun singles limitation is broken) I plan to return to this yarn and enter into yet another intimidating technique: the cold/warm shocking of yarn during finishing. I look forward to that experience and highly hope I don't end up with felt.

Check out my newest piece of spinning equipment that I got to use for this project, and many other projects to follow. I got this lamp for my spinning at the start of the semester; I realized that since most of my spinning was at night and required more visual concentration than my evening knitting does I needed more light. The lamp was perfect, with a built in end table for equipment and my beverage of choice (here is the beer that reflected "Whoo hoo, school's out!") There is also a storage space on the bottom, it's perfect for tucking away my niddy-noddy, lazy kate, spindle, sample and roving between sessions. In this photo it holds my panda. I love my panda.


Well, one day I realized something about the shape of my lamp. Here I slid the roving back a little so you can see it too. Doesn't that nice bend create the most fabulous distaff? I assure you it indeed does, the roving stays in place while spinning, but a gentle tug will let it rotate freely. It feels much more comfortable than the wrist distaff I was using, and less awkward when I want to put the roving down so I can get up and do something that requires my hands. This lamp was so meant to be mine, the box even showed knitting in the little storage bin beneath.

In other news, I've reached a new level in my spinning and an understanding about my spindle purchases. I did buy several based on the weight of the spindle and the theoretical weight of the yarn they could spin. I purchased them for features on the spindle (like the rings around the Golding or the lightness of my Bosworth) but I am no longer doing this. Obviously I purchased a fiber club with a spindle included due to the fact that my life would not be complete without a few resin spindles with cool stuff in them, and one day I'll purchase a supported spindle to expand my skills, but other than that it's time to see what ranges I can make myself produce on my spindles. In other words, I'm no longer buying lighter and lighter spindles due to spinning lighter and lighter yarns that cause my spindles to fall quite frequently. Now I'm trying to go back up the scale in the weight department and I wish to study the character of each of my spindles more in depth and the range that I can accomplish with them. It's time to stop skimming my spindle's abilities like I skim my textbooks when cramming for a test, it's time to sit down and study with them like I do when I'm in a class that I love.

No more pencils, no more books

No more sexy Air Force eye candy in psych class. Sigh.

I know the blog has suffered, but (due to the fact that I had a stupendously horrid idea) I kinda killed my free time this semester. Tip: if you are contemplating going back to school or you haven't taken algebra classes yet and it has been fifteen years since you've done any real math, do NOT decide to take the five credit hour class that is beginning and intermediate algebra  back to back and in online format. Just don't, okay? I totally should have known better, I figured out the first semester that online classes are really only good if you already know the material and you just need a brush-up before a certification exam or something like that. Lecture classes are seriously better for understanding and benefiting from the professor's experience.

Anyway, my horrid semester is over. I've managed to spin and knit a tiny bit during this Fall. Really tiny on the spinning. Still haven't gotten the hang of spinning on the bus. Tonight however, tonight I get to put the kid to bed, put on an audio book, crack open a beer, and tackle this lovely batch of fiber. That's a Wildcraft spindle, I joined the fiber club at the start of this semester as a special treat to myself. When I received my first shipment, the spindle was smashed. The packaging protecting the spindle was pretty sturdy, something had to come down on it seriously hard to be able to break it the way it did. So, I sent pictures of the accident, was told to keep my fiber shipment (the one in front in lovely birdseed matching tones) and I got a bonus fiber for having the lucky privilege of being her first broken shipment. The blue tones are just beautiful, I don't know what I want to play with first. I won't get to play with them very long though, I've got a Christmas present to spin. Thankfully I've already told the recipient it's likely to be late.

And the title of this photo is...

Raucous Insubordinate Quietude Rests In Urban Setting.

'Cause socks are quiet rebellion right? And these are like, loud socks? It's poetry, y'all! Can I get a snap snap?

Somebody hold me.

I mean, seriously. This semester is kicking my ass. I'm managing to swing As in three of my classes, but barely. I've been so washed out lately I don't have the energy to knit a flipper. Mitered squares and stockingette stitches are being made - slowly. Like, during the bus ride. I don't want to spend my evenings solving complex equations. I want to spin. Stupid semester.

Anyway, just thought I'd give a shout out to show that I'm still kickin'. Whining and kickin', but kickin' is being accomplished.

Someone please send pizza and a maid.