Thick and Thin

In my last post, I was contemplating which of two sweaters' sleeves I would knit next, Hallett's Ledge or Paper Crane.

I went with the instant gratification:


Between the thin spinning and the thin knitting from finishing up Paper Crane's body, I felt like I needed some big needle, quick 'n eezy instant satisfaction. Hallett's did not fail. So I may actually have this sweater ready to go by next week, depending on how my weekend goes. I guess I need to get some buttons, huh?

The thin spinning continues. I finished up the first bobbin and started the second. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the second bobbin now:


This is actually a new picture, even though it looks like all the others. And I can hear Mr. T in the background, saying "What's with the dime? I don't get the dime." It's for scale, to show just how thick or thin the spinning is.

I really like the singles, but I'm afraid when I ply this it's going to look muddy and crappy. We'll have to see. I admit that most of my spinning and knitting is pretty reserved, colorwise. Sometimes I see some wild multicolor handspun skeins and I think "That's neat, but how would that knit up?" I spin to knit, not just for the hell of it. But often some of the wildest skeins knit up in really cool ways, so I'm trying to push some of my boundaries. We'll see how it turns out.

In middle school news, Sr. Jr. didn't make the tennis team. Now he claims he hates tennis and never wants to play again. Sigh. On the other hand, he's done more bike riding lately, and is still an avid bike racer. C'est la teenager.

I went to the open house at his middle school last night, and for the third year in a row was completely impressed. I became disillusioned with the elementary school administration pretty early on. The teachers there are great, as a general matter, but the principal and assistant principal always left me cold. Not so at the middle school. The principal there seems genuinely delighted with her job, the school, the teachers, the kids, and the parents. All of the teachers were dynamic, enthusiastic, innovative, creative and seemed really committed to what they were teaching. Now I can see why Sr. Jr. seems engaged with school this year.

I'm still slowly recovering from the ankle injury. I'm not running again, but I am getting on the treadmill more frequently and trying to increase distance at a steady pace. The ankle still gets a little sore and achy sometimes, and I try to take breaks when that happens. But I'm really sick of it. I want to get back to where I was! Argh.