Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Mother Nature Needs an Attitude Adjustment

Today is not a good day, weather wise. The plan was to do laundry, and spend some time working in the dye room. Well, the laundry never happened. The working in the dye room did, but, not the work I planned.

Thanks to Mother Nature's cranky mood, she dumped lots of water on the New England coastline. Pat went to do a batch of laundry, and found some water. Thankfully, he checked the rest of the basement out. Yep, it was raining in. There's about 200 gallons at one end of the main room and it's going under the wall of my dye room. Luckily, it was heading toward the floor drain he used to connect my sink when he put it in. After disconnecting the sink, we started swishing water. The shop vac helped, but, not much. I moved the plastic bins of fiber and yarn to the dry side of the room. After inspecting the bottom bins, I was relieved to find everything was nice and dry inside. Yippee!! Nothing was lost. The little heater was sitting on the edge of the puddle so I'm not sure if it got wet. The wheel casters might have stopped the water from getting under it. We will plug it in outside later and see how it is. I just hope the stuff in the other room fairs as well. Most of it is in plastic bins as well, but some isn't.

Now if cranky Mother Nature could see her way to calming down, I would really appreciate it so my room can finish drying out. It's going to take us most of tomorrow to finish cleaning up the mess. The weather forecast is for a few days of dry and sunny weather. I hope so. The dehumidifier is also going to be working overtime afterwards. The big braided rug will probably be trashed too. :(

I'm going to make supper then knit or spin for a bit. Enjoy your night. Stay warm and dry.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Surprises in the Mail

A few days ago I got a box from Korea. I knew it was coming, but didn't expect it that fast. During the Ravelympics, I was on Team Plurk. Some of the lovely ladies decided to send out prizes to the people who completed their projects and got medals. My prize was a lovely braid of squishy merino/bamboo from FatCatKnits in some of my favorite colors.Here's a picture:

In today's mail, I got another package. Right before St. Patrick's Day, my friend, bySarah decided to hold a contest. The random generator chose my name for the prize. She made me a fabulous totebag. Thank you Sarah for such a wonderful, thoughtful gift. I can't wait to use it!
Here's a few pictures of it. The first is straight from the wrapping. I had already untied the ribbon before taking the picture, so I just tucked in back in.


These two are from each side. There's a pocket in the center of the green side too. It doesn't show well in the photo.











Of course, if there is activity in my house one of the cats or dogs has to be around to check it out. Here is proof of this:

Isabella (left photo) and Tipper (right photo) inspecting the new arrival:

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Lace Woes and A Nasty Headache

It's been a tough week here in CK6 land. Late Friday night, I was happily knitting away on my Evenstar shawl and was about to start the wonky round 25 of clue 2. For some reason the directions didn't make sense to me. Then I saw it. I had misread the SSK and K2Tog stitches, and switched them as I knit. It wouldn't be bad except I did this on rounds 17, 19, 21, and 23. This meant tinking back 8 rounds and reknitting. Grrrr. I'm currently back to knitting round 20.

Thanks to a nasty migraine headache, which put me flat on my back in bed for about 10 hours, I haven't touched the shawl since Sunday. I don't drink, but, the best way to describe the residual effects is to say it feels like a hangover. I've got dizzy vertigo and nausea if I move too fast or shift the eyes quickly to look at something, fuzzy head, extremely tired, no energy, and not really an appetite. The last part is good. lol. It usually takes about 3 days for me to kick back so I hope I'll be normal by tomorrow, or Thursday at the latest. My dye plans are on hold for at least a couple more days. I don't think working with the dyes or chemicals would be good for my head right now.

Tonight is knit night at Sue's and I plan to attend. Those last 5 rows are calling to me to put them back. I'll take Ditto with me also in case the lace is too much for me to deal with.

I also got a new chart holder from a destash on Ravelry. It's the same as the Knit Picks one only twice the size. It's made by Knit Pro who is not in the US. It has a pocket to hold my pattern and notes, a tab to slide a pen into, and can be set up at 2 angles with a couple of different snaps . I'm loving this new toy.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Discovering a New Spindle andTechnique.... Plugging Along At WIPs

This past week has seen me in still not finished in regards to my spinning and knitting projects. The Masham fiber is almost spun into singles. Evenstar is about half way through clue 2 with clue 3 sitting on the side to be done. Ditto sweater is still in a state of yokeless.

I did go to the Spinners Guild meeting on Saturday and managed to get a bit of the Masham done. My Sonata wheel was squawking at me most of the meeting, so much time was spent searching for the cause. It was determined to be my left treadle. After blowing the dust out, wiping it down, and re-oiling, the wheel was finally quiet.

Sunday was the Happy Hands gathering which was fun as always. I met a lovely woman from Albania who showed us how she spins on her Albanian spindle. It's quite different from drop spindle spinning. Actually, it looks much easier to do. If she is there next month, and willing, I'll try to take a few pictures of her spinning. For now, here is a video I found on YouTube that demonstrates the same technique.

Lately, I've really been wanting to work on my spindle spinning and that is the plan now the sun is shining and the weather is warmer. I will sit in the yard and spin with the new spindle I bought at RI Handspun on Tuesday night. It's a sweet little Cascade Tiger spindle.

Mr. Attitude's fleece is almost all washed. Thank goodness for this. I did get some more colors from Pro Chem, so I can play with some more dyeing in a few days. The beads are here for Evenstar, and, the yarn for the Legolas kerchief and Spruce scarf are on their way from Knit Picks.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Lace Knitting, Enjoying the Warm Weather

A few weeks ago, I signed up for the Evenstar Mystery Shawl from Susan Pandorf. It's the first project/pattern of a multiple pattern series based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The whole series should take about 3 years and include about 6 patterns in each of the three sets. You can find details and sign up for the first set, Fellowship of the Ring, at Susan's blog, A Few Stitches Short. So far, I've managed to get almost through the first clue of the shawl and hope to start Clue 2 in a couple of days.

My Ditto sweater is a bit too short. Seeing as how I had to frog the yoke, I might as well add about 3 inches to the body. It was actually a bit shorter than I wanted it to be. When I measured it before, it looked like it was the right length, but, when it was finished I learned it was too short. The sleeves will be getting a couple more inches with the increases as well.

My Minstrel wheel is actually empty today. I've been finishing up some more of the WIP bobbins and little bits of fiber I had hanging around. There was 1.5 ounces of a pretty blue/brown Falkland fiber I had received as a sample with an order from Into The Whirled. I have a couple of other skeins of yarn I had already spun up in very similar colors. I'm thinking of knitting a shawl, starting with this fiber.

My Sonata has the Masham still on it. I plan to spin some of that up next.

It's been such warm beautiful weather around here the last few days. In the back yard, sits a lovely two seater swing with an awning that is calling my name. I'm tempted to grab a wheel or the knitting and sit in the back yard in soak up some of the sunshine. Maybe tomorrow will be a good day to do this. :)