No, I'm not dead yet

Many apologies for the extended absence of new posts, but life has been a bit crazy of late. For one thing, my kids are now in school, and are completely exhausted/deranged when I pick them up, so computer time is somewhat scarce. And when they finally go to sleep, my only sanity-saving measure is sitting in front of the TV with the wheel or some mindless knitting and zoning out for a while.

You might be wondering why, if my kids are now both in school, I don't just blog merrily away while I'm relaxing at home eating bonbons. And the answer to that is, well, I started working last week.

Only part-time (which I think is going to work out really well), but it's a wee bit draining going back and forth to the end of town, trying to get back in time for tea (or picking Devil up, which occurs just prior to tea). I drop the girls off, hop on the train (I just notice yesterday that the Putney train station has a 4+ parked in a flower bed, in homage to this I suppose), go to Waterloo, get on the Tube, go to work for 5 hours, reverse the trip, pick up Devil, distract her for a while and then pick up Boo and truck everyone home. The last two nights I've voluntarily gone to bed before 11:00, which hasn't happened in 5 months.

Unlike Houston, my commute is much less knitting-friendly. I'm usually standing up, and it's only a 15 min ride on the train and 5 on the Underground, so by the time I've gotten things out, it's time to get off again. So production is certainly going to drop off a wee bit. But I have things to show you, like a finished/blocked Aestlight, an amazing sock book I won in a contest, a new sweater half-way done, and some spinning.

Just as soon as I take the pictures and upload them and write the entries. Hmmmm...maybe by next friday?

Make do and mend

I've been catching up on the latest Cast-On series, the focus of which is reusing and recycling stuff you already have. In that spirit (and because if I buy any more yarn I will move dangerously closer to SABLE territory), I've been doing a bit of recycling myself.

First up is a (gasp!) sewing project. There are a number of clothes lurking in my closet that have not been worn in a shameful period of time, because they don't fit anymore or the style isn't quite right or whatever. One of these was a nice skirt that I've had for years, 100% silk with buttons down the front, which I haven't worn in eons because it was a very unfortunate mid-calf dowdy length. I've been meaning to shorten it for a long time, and last week while Boo ventured off to daycare and it was just me and the Wee Devil, I did just that.

Much better. The picture is courtesy of Devil, who is showing unholy fascination with my new camera. Methinks she'll need one for Christmas so she can fulfill her destiny of being the next Ansel Adams.

The other repurposing project ongoing is the reclamation of 11 skeins of GMS Mountain Mohair from a sweater I knit long ago, and really enjoyed for a while, but put away when we got to Houston. And then I pulled it out and discovered this:

So last week I also turned that sweater into a pile of yarn cakes, which were then washed, dried and are in the process of being reknitted into Indigo Playmate, from one of my recent book purchases.

Blue spaghetti!

I finished the yoke Monday morning while both of my children were at (gulp!) school, and am making good progress on the body. It's stockinette with occasional increasing/decreasing, so it's perfect for TV knitting. So far it's seen "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Oceans Eleven". Quality cinema at its best!

Temptation

Someone (actually, probably more then one someone), somewhere (on the Internet) once said that sock yarn doesn't count as stash.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, after yesterday's oops!

Regia Jacquard and Spindlefrog 75% SW merino/25% nylon

In my defense, the Regia was 99 p a ball at Oxfam, so that wasn't too bad, and I couldn't resist the Spindlefrog, yarn/fiber of the month at the oh so aptly named Stash Yarns. In fact, if I hadn't blown a wad in Amy's shop, I might have grabbed some BFL as well.

I think I will be hiding these for a while. Yarn? What yarn? Although Devil, who was with me, will probably blow it for me...

Fiber Friday on a Monday

I think this is the shortest period of time that any fiber has sat in my stash waiting to be spun up.

Blue Faced Leicester Galaxy in the Jupiter colorway, from Spunky Eclectic's brick and mortar store.

Spun up woolen-style at 9:1. I went down a few ratios because I wanted to experiment with "real" long draw. What I ended up doing was more like double drafting - using long draw to get a single, then going back and drafting out the lumps. I predrafted the top along the whole length, pulled off chunks and fluffed them out a bit more, then folded them in half and drafted out of the middle of the chunk. It was very much like spinning from the fold, but the fibers got a bit more disorganized as the chunk got smaller.

I ended up with some light and fuzzy, but pretty uneven singles! After a few days, the singles were plied at 9:1. One bobbin had a lot more on it then the other, so I waited a bit to let the twist calm down before I plied. This was my first time trying to ply from a center pull ball, and it worked out ok. The final yarn ended up overplied by about 2.5 twists/skein. After a soak in warm water with a bit of wool wash, the skeins were balanced.

This is probably the best representation of the colors

Final stats: 9-14 wpi (mostly 12-14), 258 yds, 3.8 oz/107 gr. A good fingering-sport weight. I think this, knit at a tight gauge, will make some good gloves for someone.

It must be autumn

Because people are wearing sweaters now, and it's not doing good things for my startitis.

Devil and I went to the story hour at our local library today, and I don't remember what we heard because I was so taken with two sweaters there. The first was a heathery pink number on an adorable little girl who was probably 20 months old. It was a standard yoked cardigan, with one button at the very top, seed stitch hems/neck/front bands, and a bunch of eyelet rows in the yoke to give it a bit of interest. I scrounged in my bag for a pen and a receipt and made a quick sketch, probably scaring the crap out of my neighboring caretaker. Turns out that this looks like the exact pattern*, so I won't have to reinvent the wheel. Score!

The other sweater was a grown up one - another cardigan with seed stitch accents, but this one had two buttons, patch pockets on the front, a shirt collar and was knit up in a drapey chocolate brown yarn that looked incredible. I immediately thought of this yarn,

which my mother found somewhere in Maine and sent me several years ago. I've got a whole bunch of it, so when I start swatching this evening, I might whip up some of that and see how it goes. It feels pretty crunchy in the skein, but I'll do up a couple of swatches and abuse them in inventive ways.

Maybe when I go back to work I'll stop with the crazy designing inspiration. I can only hope, because otherwise it's going to put a huge dent on my ability to concentrate on other things!

* I don't think I've mentioned recently that Ravelry kicks arse. Took a millisecond to find this pattern.