Getting side tracked by junk food

Not really junk food I suppose, but I got onto a wristers kick. This started off innocently enough using up the black acrylic for the little one's costume, but then it turned into using up this ball, and now, look, I have some leftover acrylic wool blend from last winter . . .
The linen stitch is still coming along, and once that's a bit closer to done, the stars are getting dug back out.
Oh, and I have an idea for that left over fleece and some old t-shirts, but we'll see if that comes to anything. Sewing and me, not such good friends.

Making slow progress

So, the Iron Matrix is done. I did a better job of blocking than you might think from these pictures, I just chucked the poor thing down on the floor to take it's picture.


And here's the linen stitch pull over. Next row, I cast off for the neck.

Sad

I've mentioned this before, but our house came with a cat, Sneaky.
Sneaky was always an indoor/outdoor kitty. We didn't change that when we moved into the house. He tended to take off for a couple days every fall. We always worried; he always came back.

Sneaky has been missing now for almost a week.

Very sad.

Like he said, prepping for Halloween

JoAnne Fabrics for yarn for fingerless gloves, fleece and felt; $26.00.
Blank truckers hat at meshhat.com to glue the felt cut outs onto; $14.00.
Prepping for Halloween (what my husband called this photo on Flickr) . . .

You guessed it.

Priceless.

The small one has been told (in advance) that no, he can't wear the costume to dinner.

Look at this mess - and some not mess

Here it is - I even spread it out a little bit so you can see what's under the piles. It's really quite the mountain.

And here's the finished spinning. 2 lb. of Gotland and 8 oz. of superfine alpaca. It's hard to take a good picture of black fibers, but I think you can get a sense of how soft this stuff is.
It also comes in chocolate brown . . . . mmmmmm earthtone vest.

Done with the alpaca

That 8 oz. spun up really quickly, and it's so soft and heavy! I love it. 8 oz. isn't enough to do much though.
And I'm too tired to take a darn picture of it tonight.
So now what?
Yeah, I'm looking at more colors for the next color spinning project.
I'm in love with Ruby Merino from Copper Moose. Purple Orchid is lovely too. Together, perhaps not so much, and I've already done that last year. Maybe 1/2 lb. the Ruby or the Purple Orchid as poison with Plum and Navy. Sadly, CM doesn't do 1/4 lb. and it's not in my nature (or within my closet constraints) to stash fleece. . .

What am I doing???
My knitting basket looks like the Knitting Muse barfed in it; I can't buy fleece. I must knit, I must conquer my Don Adams fear of that stupid stars jacket and finish some things.
Yeah, that's what I'll do.
I promise, tomorrow a snap of that completed spinning and my train wreck of a knitting basket. They say you can be a wonderful example or a terrible warning . . . I'm veering into terrible warning territory these days.
:)

Ash

Here's the uncut fleece for the vest - I'm just going to make it a pull over. We have a mesh hat on order and I have some felt to glue the design onto it. I've made the fingerless gloves already (as you can see below) and he'll wear jeans and sneakers and his backpack. I think we can get Piki to stay on his shoulder, maybe with pipe cleaners.
Now we just need a poke ball.

Finally some pictures

So, here's the tunic - if you click on this to get the larger image, you should be able to get a sense of the design.


Poor Yarn or Death (formerly the Mad Crocheter) - she's fighting the good fight with linen. I told her she might not be ready to work with such a non-cooperative fiber as linen, because despite all the needle changes the gauge is still wonky. I told her maybe to try a different stitch, like linen stitch (it must have that name for a reason, right?). I think that if she plays with the linen and does some swatching, she might get the final piece of understanding hand (fiber content + gauge + stitch pattern). I've promised to show her how to do linen stitch in person, because as she pointed out "I've seen it described and it STILL doesn't make sense to me". Like knitting with beads; I get that.
And this spinning - it's the super soft black alpaca. I only have 8 oz. so it should be spun and plied by the weekend.
And for final fun - I get to go to Jo-Anne's this weekend to start putting together this year's Halloween costume. Yup, you guessed it, Ash Ketchem. My wonderful spouse managed to talk him out of wanting to go as Pikachu, and man, that would have been a tough costume to make!

White with blue, looking for a new lace pattern

Maybe I'm inspired by the fact that it's dyed blue, but I like KnitPicks Candle Flame Scarf Pattern. Probably double the size and work the beads up the center of the flames.
Not really branching out, is it?

More bad snaps - think this will go with white?

I'm thinking of a shawl, probably Bare fingering weight in white. These blues make me think of the shadows on bright clean snow. I got 4 of the lighter and one of the darker - for the darkest parts of the shadows - and now I just have to find the right lace pattern. I'm tired of the pattern I've been using for the Matrix.
Feel free to shoot me lace ideas or arguments about the color choices. I'm in love with these beads - I'm such a poor photographer, I really can't do them justice. They're so lively for little pieces of glass. Very fun. Once they're in the piece I don't think the difference in the 2 colors will be as stark as it might look when they're in the tubes.

No, really, I'm still working on stuff

What a busy fall it's been and fall doesn't really start until the 22nd. Here's the Gotland - washing is a challenge, this stuff felts if you look at it funny! - and the Iron Matrix. Not a spectacular picture, but I'm more than 1/2 done.

So very slow

And no pictures either.
Sorry for the large dose of lame - I'm done spinning the Gotland, just going to ply it tonight and then set it. Almost halfway done with the Iron Matrix, everything else has been backseated for those. I sense that I'm close to cresting this project hill I've been on.

This weekend we made chicken tacos (fried chicken, lime/chili mayonese, lettuce and tomatos - it's really quite awesome) - my husband made up a great copy of this recipe from our favorite faux Mexican restaurant that involves not having to fry the chicken. The small one suggested that we put it on the internet for others to enjoy, maybe I'll do that sometime.

Ironweed (Vernonia altissima )

Saw a lot of this stuff this weekend while biking. The south seems to have more than it's fair share of pretty purple wildflowers (unlike Kudzu, Ironweed doesn't seem to have a scent). Sort of looks like the purple fall flower I'm used to from NH - purple asters.
Still, it's another thing kicking around in my head for a fall project - maybe a fair isle, maybe something with texture or cables and color?

Some things I learned today

My car went to the shop today (nothing big, in fact so minor the fix was free) so I had an unexpected day at home. And I learned some things about squirrel-proofing your attic:

• I now know how to disassemble and fix a very jammed heavy duty stapler.
• I have a much clearer understanding of how to cut, shape and use 1/2 inch galvanized construction fabric.
• I now know that I can staple said fabric into rafters with said stapler above my head and behind me while lying on my back on a one inch beam and balancing myself so I don't fall down into my own kitchen.
• I know this last one isn't a lot of fun and the insulation makes me cough.
  
• I know my attic reaches 90-plus degrees by 10am.
  
• I know I need more 1/2 inch galvanized construction fabric to finish this job.

I also know I don't want squirrels in my attic. Sigh.
So I'll do something else with my afternoon. I'm almost done with the Gotland. I need to measure these skeins, they must be HUGE. Have a nice day, everyone.

Some things I learned today

My car went to the shop today (nothing big, in fact so minor the fix was free) so I had an unexpected day at home. And I learned some things.
I now know how to disassemble and fix a jammed heavy duty stapler.

No pictures - not much of anything, actually

That's not really true, but I've got too much going at once to make much progress.
I'm still happily spinning on the Gotland, but it's a bit slow - I can spin nice and small, which means filling up a bobbin takes a long time, so I only have 2 skeins plied. I'm over half through it, but I've already posted pictures. But I still love the smell and the feel of this fleece. I've been mulling over pullover ideas for it once it's done. It's very slick and heavy for the gauge, so I think less would be more, patternwise.
I'm also working on linen stitch, and the Iron Matrix shawl. I'm into the second skein of Gloss. Knitpicks' latest catalog has the twinset from the Natural Knitter worked up in Gloss, and it looks lovely. I had a mental note to try the cardigan from that pattern, and I think Gloss would be great. Lots of nice new colors as well. Pumpkin appeals to me - maybe it's wistfulness for fall in New England, 'cause I sure don't look good in orange.
I'm still kicking around the white beaded Matrix version - maybe try the pattern in a big triangle, maybe only do the beads on the outside edge to keep the weight done? I still haven't found size 6 beads that I think would work . . .
And the linen stitch is coming along, I'm alomst up to adding on for the sleeves and I predict that one will slow WAAAAAYYY down when that happens. Maybe I can wear it in the spring.

Some slow progress

The linen stitch top is going well, if not exactly exciting to look at. Or photograph. Sorry, once the sleeves go on it will begin to more interesting. I'm really interested to see if the linen stitch does anything to ameliorate the pilling that happens to most cotton yarn when washed. Guess I could have done a swatch and tested it.
D'oh.
And here's the Gotland plied up. It's shiny and kind of hard, not as hairy as the singles were, and it's HEAVY. It would work best knit into a very plain sweater, I think, otherwise it would be a workout to wear it. But it does spin up nice and evenly, so it wins as the most evenly plied yarn I've ever made. And it smells very sheep-y. Which makes me happy.

I'm back

And spinning up a storm. Or, since school has started and vehicles have been cranky, I've been spinning up some dust.
Fun, at any rate.
Soryu is complete!
And here is the Gotland started. Looks quite different inside and outside, colorwise it's right in the middle. It spins up nicely, easy to work with, but makes a hairy sort of single. I'll be interested to see how it looks plied.
Other fun things lately include making these chocolate chip cookies. Thanks NYT!

Back and front, with pockets

Slow and steady may win races, but it hasn't produced many interesting pictures for this blog lately.
Here's the linen stitch pull over, with some pockets. I like it, not sure about the pockets yet.

I really need to get Soryu finished so I can start on the Gotland. I look at other people's blogs and they are doing all this lovely, lovely very fine gauge spinning in gray and I want to too . . .

Interests are coming crashing together

Pueraria montana

If you haven't been to the American South in late July and early August, you probably don't know the distinctive, grape bubblegum smell of kudzu. The stuff that makes trees along the roadside look like Snuffaluffagus.
We've been biking a lot lately and so I've been seeing, and smelling, kudzu a great deal. It's a fascinating thing, kind of scary, like "the thing" (it grows up to 3 feet a day and according to Frommer's caused the only known plant-induced baseball game delay). But it's also quite pretty in bloom (sort of looks like lupine, I think) and the leaves have a pretty heart shape, while the runners turn into these intricate corkscrews.
Anyway, these images are sort of calling to me to design a sweater around them this fall. Just stitchwork, or maybe colors, or maybe both?

All the other projects are still chugging, slowly, so pics later in the week I guess.