Confessions

I may not have mentioned before that there are some knitting projects of which my mother disapproves. She is frankly worried about my obsession with fingerless gloves, she wants to know why I have so many hats, and she has forbidden me to knit anymore blankets until I get my own place, at which time it is no longer her concern where I stash the profusion of blankets that I am driven, as a knitter, to create. 

Oooops.

See? Doesn't that look like an accident? It totally was. I blame Caitlin's plethora of Lacy Chunky Throws that she has churned out for various family members. They made me lust after blankets again (even if they are strictly prohibited). This time, I'm just making the suggested size. No more of the monstrous blanket indiscretions. I swear. 

Incidentally, I hate the needles I bought for this throw. I didn't have any size 19s, and you can't get them at the regular craft store. I was scouring the local yarn shops for size 19s with a cable long enough for a blanket (one owner suggested that I should try straights. I tried not to laugh at her), but apparently they like to make fixed circs in size 19. 

Or maybe yarn shops just don't like to stock them. 

Either way, I wasn't having any luck. I was talking to the lady who thought I should try straights, and her friend asked me if I had tried a particular brand of interchangeables. I hadn't, because I'm pretty happy with my KnitPicks ones, but apparently they stocked this other brand in the shop, and they had 19s in them, and a long enough cable. I promptly purchased them, because I just couldn't bear having to wait to cast on this blanket. I don't really like acrylic needles in general, and I especially dislike these since the yarn is Bernat Roving and it's snagging on the slightly rough surface of the needles. And the needles are too short for my taste, which might just be a failing of all circs of larger than average girth. (I can tell you that certain people who read this blog are giggling right now). 

Anyway, I'm annoyed with these circs, and the blanket isn't going as quickly as it might, probably because I'm annoyed with the needles. But the blanket will be just lovely, even if I kind of have to work on it when my mother isn't around. 

Oooops.

And now we return to our regularly scheduled program

It's official. I'm done with the long paper for my European seminar. Thank goodness, it was really starting to get on my nerves. Long, boring, difficult to format because I added pictures to make it look longer. I'm sneaky that way. Whatever. It's done, and now I can go back to what I like doing.

Tres fortunate that Caitlin imparted her newly gleaned spinning knowledge to me, non? I've been making great use of it. Well, using it, anyway.

This is some mystery carded fiber that Caitlin had me bring to practice on. It's kind of a pale green. But not mint green. Just... subdued. I bought it a long time ago, and I'm not sure that I ever knew exactly what it was. All I know is that there was a great deal of it. I thought I'd never be finished spinning it. Not unlike my paper. But voila! It is done. Again, not unlike my paper.

I'm a little elated, can you tell?









This was some "sliver" that I purchased at last year's Wool Market. I don't know what was wrong with the camera when I took this picture, but the flash wouldn't go on. The colors are much brighter in person. I'm not wild about the finished product, but it was really fun, and super quick, to spin.





I would show you what I'm currently spinning, but I'm too lazy to go move things around so I can take an appropriate picture. It's some kind of merino roving, I'm pretty sure. I'm spinning it "from the fold," which is an exciting new technique for me, and is making quite a lovely single. I've got quite a bit of the fiber (apparently I have a hard time purchasing just a little bit of fiber), and the color is nice, so hopefully I'll think of something lovely to make with it. We shall see.

In terms of my knitting, not much has been going on. I've been so enthused by the new spinning techniques, or so absorbed in my paper that I haven't made much progress at all. I did, however, manage to finish a thrummed hat. Just in time for the warm weather!

In case you are curious about why I didn't model the hat for this picture, I will just say that the hat is ludicrously puffy, due to my misapprehension about thrums when I started the hat. The top has significantly less volume than the bottom. I'm hoping that it will deflate a bit over time. Next winter, since it's certainly too toasty to wear with the weather starting to turn warmer. Until then, it can reside with the pile of knitted items that are starting to be too warm to wear.

Greetings

It's been a while since I last wrote, I know. I haven't been getting much done. I've been trying to correct my inability to get my homework done before the last minute. Which hasn't left much time for crafting, since I have a fairly long paper due this month, and it's not done... yeah, working on that.

Anyway, this last weekend I had some fun. I went to Golden to see Caitlin, who has been taking a technical spinning class. I brought my fancy wheel (Caitlin says we're supposed to name our wheels, so I'm calling her Tanya), and Caitlin gave me some samples of stuff that she had tried, and showed me the different techniques she had learned. I'm glad she took the class, I'd wanted to learn more about wheel spinning for a while now. It's pretty cool.

I also finished a pair of mitts. They're pretty wonderful, and I needed another set of dark, semi-plain mitts. Let's go with that as an excuse. 

I don't wanna hear it, Caitlin.