Summer

"They" always call Memorial Day the "unofficial start of summer." I know there are a lot of places where school's out by Memorial Day, so for those kids, it really is their summer break. My kids have another month of school before they're out, however. The pool opens for weekends, but during the week they're trapped in school. By this point in the year they're not doing too much learning, either. Standardized testing ends and the remainder of the year is for easygoing review, fun projects, parties, and other end of the year stuff. They pack it full of stuff for parents to attend, too, just when we're frantically trying to get in all the appointments, errands, and other things we need or want to accomplish before the kids are out of school.

I suppose we'll hit the pool tomorrow, grill tomorrow night, and wonder where this whole year went. It's almost time for me to start crying about how I have a son going to high school next year.

Just in time for summer, I finished up Mary Jane, and had a chance to get Mr. T to take some pictures. I really like how this turned out. I modified the pattern a bit, eliminating the puff sleeves and elongating them until they hit just below the elbows. I also eliminated the line of yarnovers at the raglan increase lines, because I didn't want holes there. I raised the neckline about an inch and a half or so, put in a little waist shaping (which I don't think anyone can see, honestly), and cast on 4 stitches at each underarm for a little more movement in that area.




And now I have to put it away for a few months, damn it!

Specs: Pattern: Mary Jane, by Sarah Moore, available through Twist Collective. The yarn is Squoosh Fiberarts' Merino Cashmere Sport, in Oil Slick. For the locals, I hear that Fibre Space is now carrying Squoosh yarns. And I have a GC... hmmm... Anyway -- I think I used just over 4 skeins of yarn for this, including swatches. I knew it would grow, being a superwash yarn, so I accounted for that in my swatching, making sure to wash my swatches to get an accurate gauge. In the end, however, I threw the wet sweater in the dryer for a few minutes on low heat to keep it from growing too much. When it was mostly dry but still slightly damp, I laid it flat, patted it gently to shape, and let it dry. Perfect.

It's been busy here, so there really hasn't been any new knitting or spinning to share. I was hoping that there would be some time for that this weekend, but so far, no.

What I have been doing is summerizing -- getting the handknits washed and packed away for the summer. This is what my bathroom looks like right now:






















You can't see it in that last pic, but there's a sweater soaking in a bin in the tub, too.

Yes, this is what I do with my holiday weekends, sigh.

Doo Dah Dipity

(For some reason, that stupid car commercial with the rapping hamsters cracks me up.)

Serendipity: desirable discoveries made by accident.

Serendipity 3: restaurant in NYC that serves amazing ice cream concoctions. My parents used to take us there as a treat when we were kids. I still remember my shock when I heard my mother describe their frozen hot chocolate as "orgasmic." (A friend of mine once said of my mother, "Beneath her conservative exterior is a very uptight woman," so that will give you some idea of why I was so shocked, besides the fact that I was a teenager and this was my mother...)

I've been spinning up a new braid, slowly. There hasn't been that much time this week to do anything. But this one's very pretty. It's called Leafeater, a very pretty mixture of purples, greens, and grellows. It's merino and it's from FatCatKnits, whose braids I am rapidly becoming addicted to.


The standard bobbin shot. In this picture, you can see more of the colors in the braid:


I'm hoping to spin a nice stripey chain ply for socks.

Then I got my other spinner back from its tune-up, so I grabbed something to test it out and see if it was still doing the things that were annoying me (it is, not as bad, but it is). I went to my Collections Club from last month, because the one ounce braids are perfect for this kind of thing. There was a black and blue mixture that I liked, but I want to take care with it, so I passed on that one. Kelly green? Nah. Don't want that. The third one was a nice purple called "Thistle." I started spinning it.

I spun and spun and then realized that it's a very nice match for the Leafeater:


It matches the darkest purples perfectly. At first I thought I could ply them together, but I only have one ounce of the Thistle, compared to the 4 of Leafeater. So for now, I'm going to have one little purple skein to use for heels & toes with the Leafeater.

Doo. Dah. 'Dipity.

Look -- strawberry harvest:


The bunnies and chipmunks have been spending way too much time near my veggie/strawberry garden. They're cute and all, but they need to stay away from my goodies!

Mary Jane is finished, but I haven't had a chance to get anyone to take pictures for me, so that will come next. I've started a new sweater, Drifting, a summery cardi, but I don't have any good pics of that yet, either. So that's what's coming soon.

Hopefully, Memorial Day weekend will be relaxing for me, with time to knit and spin :)

Fine

"How are you?"

"Fine."

"How are things going?"

"Fine."

Fine. I'm fine. Except when I'm not. I'm fine when I'm at Maryland Sheep and Wool, hanging out with friends. I'm fine when I'm with the family (mostly). I'm not fine when I'm at baseball games. I won't be fine at Colonial Day. Because those are times I spent with Mary. It's hard to be out there and not think of all the times we chatted our way through baseball games. It will be hard to go to Colonial Day and remember how we danced with our boys together, while her husband took video of us. I'm kind of glad that we won't be going to Sr. Jr.'s middle school graduation this year, because it would be very, very hard to watch her son go through this without her.

I think I will start to be fine after this season ends. But right now, it's memories and a whole whack of baseball games and bike races and errands and all sorts of stuff that's keeping me busy.

And not knitting so much. I'm finishing the sleeves on Mary Jane. I started and then frogged the new Cookie A club pattern, because I decided it needed a bigger needle. While I've cast on for that, I've only knit one row. Lame. There just hasn't been too much time.

I did ply up some yarn that I spun a little while back, and then I also spun up some quick singles, just to feel like I was accomplishing something.

This is the Spin A Long yarn from the CTA rav group:



It's Falkland wool from Fat Cat Knits, in the Henry colorway. I spun it up in one long single and chain plied it on itself for a nice, bouncy three ply yarn. It's extremely squishable. I love the Falkland from this dyer, but this particular skein doesn't please me too much. The single broke a couple of times while I was plying it, which is a real pain in the butt. But it's done and it's pretty.

This next skein is a combination of three different mini braids from the dyer Bee Mice Elf, coincidentally, also Falkland wool:


I took the three mini braids and spun them into one long single and chain-plied it up, intending to cut the finished hank into three smaller skeins, one of each colorway. I haven't done that yet, because it looks too cute as it is.

Then yesterday I took one of the Bullseye Bumps that I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool and spin a skein of rustic looking singles. It's a self-striping batt, with dark grey, lilac, silver, a darker lilac toned grey, a dark blue and a slightly lighter blue. I love how it turned out! Can't wait to find a good pattern for it.



And today I started spinning another Fat Cat Knits braid for a spin along in her Rav group. Hopefully I'll get Mary Jane finished soon, too. Knitting and spinning time is looking pretty scarce, however, so no promises.

Respite

The past few months have been tough. A lot of stuff going on, not a lot of down time. Even weekends and school vacations haven't been relaxing. The weather sucked, too. Where was my Spring? Where was the sun? It was getting pretty depressing.

So this weekend was a big aaaaaah. The sun came out. The temps were lovely, in the low 70s. My garden is growing.


Look at how cute those strawberries are! The one little strawberry plant I put in last year has spread like mad, and we're going to have a ton of strawberries. Well, if the little critters don't eat them before we can get to them, that is. There's a chipmunk who hangs out in the garden and scampers away from me every morning when I go out to water. He's cute, but the little bugger better stay away from my fresh food!

On Saturday I took off and went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Last year, it was 95 degrees and unbearable for the Festival. We gave up shopping pretty quickly and just sat in the shade, chatting and knitting. This year, the weather was so beautiful that we didn't give up. While I bought some stuff from Sanguine Gryphon's booth (yay! I hope she gets to come back again), and Loop!, I really didn't buy much. I was happier hanging out with old knitting friends and new ones, too.

I got these cool Bullseye Batts from Loop!:



You spin them from the center out, and they make stripy yarn. I can't wait to give them a try.

I also got some of Sanguine Gryphon's new lace yarn, Mithril. It reminds me very much of Wollmeise lace, construction-wise, but in Gryphon's beautiful colorways.




So pretty. I have slightly too many things on the needles right now, otherwise, I'd be casting on to test out this yarn right away.

I did finish some socks. Not matching socks, mind you, but socks nonetheless.


Finished the first sock with my handspun. I love how this feels on my foot! I started the second sock and got through the heel turn over the weekend, so now it's smooth sailing until the end. Will work on it tomorrow at knitting group.

I finished the long-coming first sock in Yarntini's Don stripe:


I wanted to get this one finished not so I could start the second sock, but so I could free up the needles to start the second installment of Cookie A's sock club. The cuff of that is finished, but I'll wait until I have more knit to show pictures.

In spinning news, I have two bobbins of singles ready to be chain plied, but I haven't had the necessary block of time to sit down and do that. I'm NOT starting another new spinning project until all that plying is finished. I don't know when I'll be able to do that -- Wednesday maybe, or Thursday.

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After a nice day wandering around the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and a lovely dinner with the family, I didn't expect too much for Mother's Day itself. I couldn't decide whether to celebrate by spending time with the family, or by sending them all away so I could have time to myself. Ultimately, the wonderful weather did me in, and I made them take me to the National Botanic Gardens downtown. I thought for sure that two young boys would hate every moment walking through gardens and greenhouses, but they had fun!

We started out in the Rose garden out front and wandered around outside for a bit.


The roses were amazing. We then spent quite a bit of time in the main pavilion. We saw some incredible orchids:



And a mother duck and her ducklings (say it with me: awwwwwwww)


And a happy mom (no makeup, hair up, but happy mom):


And if ever there was a year to appreciate being here with my two boys, this is it.

Adrift

For the second time this year, we've lost a friend. For the second time this year, that friend was mother to two sons, like me. This time it was a good friend, someone I was close with. I look at my boys, whom I love desperately, and want to hold on tight, smother them with love, so that if the worst happens, they'll be able to hold onto that. They, however, are at an age when that kind of motherly love is eeew, ick, geez Mom, leave me alone. Yeah, yeah, you love me, blah blah blah, get away you crazy old woman. Sigh.

So I took that yarn that I just finished spinning and started a shawl. No pattern, just whatever I want, whenever I want to put it in there.



So far there's an eyelet row, some seed stitch, and some double seed stitch. I don't know what I'll add next. I'm just going to knit until I run out of yarn.

I've been working on the handspun socks, too --


These feel amazing on my feet, so thick and soft. They're my waiting room knitting at the moment, so they're not going too quickly.

I've finished most of the knitting on Mary Jane. The body is done and the neckline finishing is done. I just need to knit the sleeves. I think I'm going to go with 3/4 length sleeves. When I tried the sweater on, it seemed too warm for short sleeves.

Current spinning is really just palate cleansing spinning, nothing major. I sent one of the spinners back for some tinkering. I'd hoped that with the two spinners, I could work on more than one spinning project at a time, but now I'm back to waiting. With spinning, as with knitting, there are so many projects that I want to do that it's hard to limit myself to one.

I have not cast on for Simplicity yet because I want to finish Mary Jane first.

Today, however, I work in the garden. Jr. Jr. is home sick, and I need to get my veggie plants in the ground. The strawberry plant I put in last year has spread and already has little berries growing:


My camera did NOT want to focus on those little pre-berries.

Off to weed and plant and take care of the sick kiddo.

Forest/Trees

You know the old saying "You couldn't see the forest for the trees." The gist of it is that you get so focused on the little details that you miss the bigger picture.

Like when we get upset when Sr. Jr. seems to have issues handing in his homework, and we forget that he's a good kid, not getting in trouble and still managing to do well in school.

Like when I get cranky about not getting enough spinning and knitting time, when I've got just about the best life possible -- I get to stay home with my kids, we don't struggle with money, everyone's healthy, doing well in school, and enjoying all that childhood has to offer. (Well, I could really do without Mr. T's current state of work overload...)

Spinning is a real forest/trees exercise for me. When I spin, I'm so focused on the little bit of single I'm drafting, or the little span of yarn that I'm plying, that it's hard to step back and visualize what the finished yarn will look like and if it will turn out well.

It started this time with a braid called -- appropriately enough -- "Woodsy." It's a handpainted braid of variegated BFL from the dyer FatCatKnits:


I was a little concerned that all those reds and greens would look a little Christmassy. While I was spinning it, I was so focused on the single -- is it even? Am I being consistent? How is this going to ply up? Will it be clear or muddy?

I finished the two bobbins of singles and started plying. The questions started up again. Do I like how those two colors are barber poling together? Is it muddy? Is my plying even?

I held my breath as I wound the finished yarn into a skein. Just off the bobbin it looked wonderful! I plopped it into a bath for some finishing and hung it to dry.

All those trees, and finally a vision of the forest:




I love it! It's very slinky and pretty damn even. I need to find a good pattern to show it off.

I've been spinning more than knitting, but I'm almost done with the body of my Mary Jane sweater. I have one more patterning row, and then the ribbing. Then I'll do the neck treatment, see how much yarn I have left, assess how much patience I have left, and decide how long to make the sleeves.

I swatched for the next sweater I want to knit, but I haven't cast on yet, because I don't want the new sweater to push Mary Jane off to the side so she doesn't get finished.


Blue! My color trending continues. As you can see, I opted for the more dramatic multi over the safer semi-solid.

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We had a lovely first night of Passover. Normally, since my family is so small and far-flung, and Mr. T's family isn't Jewish, we have seders for just the four of us. It's not nearly as fun as when I was a kid and all the cousins got together. But this year we had first night with friends. The evening was hosted by the Susan for whom I knit those Fiddlehead Mittens earlier this year. Her older son is one of Jr. Jr.'s best buddies. There were two other families there with more of Jr. Jr.'s friends, and a family from another school who we'd never met before. They were very nice, and had two girls slightly younger than Jr. Jr. I think there were 10 kids total, including poor Sr. Jr. who was by far the oldest "kid" there. Although he had no one to socialize with, he made the best of it as the littler kids attacked him and climbed all over him.

Everyone brought things, so the burden didn't fall too heavily on the hosts, and it was a really nice time.

A Nook of my Own

I don't rate a whole room yet ;p

I don't have a dedicated crafting area in the house. Mr. T will tell you that the whole house is a dedicated crafting area, but I really felt like I needed a little area of my own. Most of my knitting is done on the couch in the family room, and that's fine. But I was spinning at the dining room table, and winding yarn on the breakfast bar of the kitchen counter. I wanted to free those areas of clutter and create a place where those activities could have a home.

So, a little re-jiggering and furniture moving, a new table and lamp, and here we are. This is a bump-out area in our bedroom, with a nice big window overlooking a gorgeous plum tree and some evergreens. There's just enough room for the table and another, smaller bedside table, perfect for spinning and winding yarn. All I need now is some pretty stuff on the wall and something like a little iHome or something so I can play music while I spin.

And yes, that's a new addition to my spinning collection on that table. It's a Hansen Mini-Spinner and I am totally in love with it. It's so well-crafted. Such a pleasure to spin with. I spun up an entire strip of my braid yesterday before I even knew it. It's so portable that I'm already planning to bring it with me when we go to Hilton Head this summer. Spinning by the pool!



No spinning today, unfortunately, since I spent the morning doing stuff around the house and waiting for a repairman. Tomorrow! Yes, tomorrow.

And that blue thing on my table? The handspun squooshy sock.


Here she is, all moody and dramatic. She came with me to Westover Woolies on Tuesday, and she'll come with me to piano lessons today.

I'm closing in on the end of the Mary Jane sweater, so naturally I'm thinking of what to knit next. Even though I already have one laceweight sweater on the needles, I think I'm going to start another one. I need something lightweight that I can throw on during the summer, at a cold restaurant or on the beach... who knows? At first I was leaning toward the Featherweight Cardigan, but now I think I'm going to knit Simplicity. Color? Don't know. Part of me wants to use something dark and dramatic, but the sensible part of me thinks I should stick with something that will go with everything, given that it will be a utilitarian sweater.


Sr. Jr. says, "Don't go away!"

Something Blue

Something old, something new, something borrowed...

Yesterday was our anniversary. 17 years. Time flies doesn't it? 17 years seems so long to me. I left for college shortly after I turned 17, so I've been married to Mr. T about as long as I lived full-time with my parents. We've been together for almost 21 years now. That's almost half my life! It seems unreal that we've been together that long. How did this happen? How did I get here? (This is not my beautiful house...)

I have no complaints. Well, very few. Well, no dealbreakers, anyway. Happy anniversary, love :)

What my life lacks at the moment (ok, always) is balance. Some aspect of my life is always suffering for the sake of something else. If I do A and B, then C suffers, and if I try to catch up on C, then A suffers. And so on. So I always feel like I'm failing in some aspect of what I want/need to do. I feel guilty about things I'm not accomplishing. This isn't a temporary thing, like when getting sick throws me off schedule. It's an ongoing issue. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to get all the parts moving at the same time, all the balls balanced effortlessly in the air.

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I've clearly entered my blue period. Knitting with blue, spinning blue. But no blue skies. Just how much rain and grey can Washington have, anyway?


Cute, huh? I like it, but I haven't been knitting on it as much as I could. I've been spinning more.

I had this:


which turned into this:



which I'm now knitting up into socks:


The fiber is an 70-20-10 MCN blend, the first installment of The Sanguine Gryphon fiber club. It was nice to spin, even with all the spinner trouble I have while doing it. I'm amazed the yarn came out as well as it did, given that I spent more of my energy fighting the spinner than I did making sure the yarn was turning out ok. It's very soft and squishy.

I wanted to get the socks started so I could knit on them tomorrow at our Westover Wooly meetup (Tracey - when school's out, you should join us! Sharon - I don't know if your schedule would permit, but you should see if you could come by, too.) It's very nice to have knitters and spinners to hang with in real life, too. I love meeting up with Rav folks when we can, but a regular get-together is nice to have.

I've been working on a little project for meeeeee, and it's almost done. Pictures to come.

In parental news, Sr. Jr. got a Gold Medal for his performance on the National Latin Exam. He was one of only two kids in Latin 1 in his school to get a GM. And Jr. Jr. got straight As yet again. Very proud!

Monochrome (but not Green)

I don't know how it has happened that I've managed to keep my projects all in one color range. I'm not usually the type of person who cares about matchiness, nor am I the type of person to obsess over a particular color to the extent that I will only wear or work with it. I thought the green thing was a happenstance.

Perhaps I was wrong.

After finishing the green sweater and the pair of green socks, I cast on for another sweater. I even posted a teaser last time -- blue! I like blue. I don't love blue. Other than my jeans, I don't even wear too much blue. So a blue sweater might be a good thing. Fill a hole in the wardrobe. So I took the beautiful blue Squoosh yarn and cast on:



I'm a good four inches farther along now than when I took these photos. The pattern is Mary Jane, from Twist Collective. The yarn is Squoosh's Merino Cashmere Sport, in Oil Slick. This is another nice and quick pattern, although I'm making some modifications as I go (e.g., NO puff sleeves, please). The pattern calls for short sleeves, but I think how long my sleeves end up will be determined by 1) how much yarn I have; and 2) how ready I am to move on to another pattern.

Until recently, I didn't really see the point of short sleeved sweaters. If I'm cold enough to wear a sweater, then I'm cold enough to want sleeves. But I'm trying to be open-minded and try new things. Be fashion-forward, as they say. (If you knew me in real life, you'd laugh at the idea of me being fashion-anything.)

And after my frustrated spinning interlude last weekend, the interlude that produced the cute pink and green singles, I've gone back to the spinning project I was working on:



(One with flash, one without.) The return of the blue Bugga fiber. I love this fiber. And look, it's blue! I'm spinning three bobbins of singles, which I will then ply together, hopefully getting a nice, squooshy three-ply yarn that I can use for socks. I didn't do anything organized or scientific to get this ready or to spin it. I just took the length of fiber and divided it as evenly as I could into three pieces. I split each piece in half and then grab off chunks and spin as is, or sometimes, depending on my mood, I split those chunks in half again. There's no color progression that I'm trying to maintain or follow, so randomness is ok.

The fiber reminds me of a sky-study. It has bright blues for spring skies, deep dark summer blues, white for clouds and greys to grey-purples for rainy and stormy skies.

The spinner is still irking me. When I finish the third bobbin and get this plied up, the spinner is going back to the manufacturer for a check-up.

Soon the newest installment of the Cookie A sock club should arrive, and I'll laugh if it's blue.

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I can't believe it's April already. Spring is really sneaking up on me.


(blossom from my plum tree)

Soon I'll blink and the school year will be over. They're going faster and faster as the boys get older. I'm sure there will be a lot of angst and depression this summer as Sr. Jr. gets ready for high school. I'm not ready to have him be so close to leaving the house! I suspect he's anxious about what high school holds in store for him. The gang from middle school is splitting up and there will be a whole new bunch of kids for him to meet and get to know. Some of them will be friends from elementary school, some will be entirely new.

He's definitely pulling away, adolescent-style. It makes me sad, even though I know it's necessary.

Ugh, if I'm this bad now, imagine how I'll be four years from now, when I'm crying about how my baby is going off to college?