Let the spinning wheel turn...
I always thought that song was by Chicago. Blood, Sweat, & Tears, it turns out. My dad would've known. He's a classic rock MAVEN.
I started to blog 1:45 minutes ago. WTF? I've been distracted online every since. The internet is my TV. SUCKED. IN.
Focus, HEJ. We don't have all freakin' day.
First, some bits about spinning. You can skip this if you hate spinning. FO at the end of the post...
In the "better late than never" department, I just saw that Jen mentioned us Athens Knitters with a link to my blog when she and other GA gals went spinning. Yeah, THAT Jen. With La. FAMOUS. Will wonders never cease.
Next time you GA gals go spinning I must come. MUST.
Because: last Saturday I took a class at my LYS to learn to spin on a WHEEL. And, I officially suck at it.
As evidence, I offer:
However, I want to keep doing it so much. I hope to try out a few wheels. I would LOVE to hear comments from those of you who have wheels as to which you like and why. Lemme hear it.
A February Finished Object! Or, It's About Damn Time!
Now, I have next to show you a finished object!
Back:
and the front:
And a gratuitious close up of the tubular BIND-OFF, which was new to me: Click to see the rockin' ness.
Now. You may be asking, "Why have we not heard of this at all? Why has it not been in your sidebar?"
Well, so many reasons. It was made for my dear friend T who is modeling it in the above photo. The problem was, as always happens when I knit things by request, there were troubles from the beginning, and it was too painful to blog about, and it took about 10 days because it was on big needles, so there wasn't really time.
Here, I will sum up in case you are interested.
1) Pattern: The cover shrug from "Knit It!" magazine, spring/summer 2006. (I know, what should I expect?) If you dare try to knit this, you must have experience with knitting math and altering patterns, (or email me), because a) this pattern is FULL of typos and b) the math is all totally off. It took me hours just to redo ALL the math. ALL of it. I shouldn't have to redo every single measurement in a pattern I paid for. REALLY. I think they got the pattern from a designer, and redid it to make it "simpler" and to fit a lion brand yarn, and those 2 things = math disaster.
2) Yarn: Peace Fleece Worsted, which is okay, but not a color I'd have picked (looks great on T, though) and I had to use it doubled, which I HATE.
3) Needles: US 15 (10 mm), which I HATE. I forgot how much I can't stand those big sizes.
The fact T likes it makes it worth it, but I learned or remembered a lot about my knitting self while knitting this shrug, and what to avoid knitting in the future. No more projects on needles bigger than a US 13, no doubled yarn, no jury-rigging patterns. Ok, maybe a little jury-rigging. But just for my sister. ;-)
Oh yeah: GO Steelers!!!!!. The Bus is going home, maybe for his last game. Let it be a good one. UPDATE: THEY WON!!! THEY WON!!!
Keep us togetttttttttttthhhher...
Whatever.... I will... I will... I will... IIIIIIII wwwiiiiiiiiilllllll.... La da da da...
Hello, all. Tomorrow marks High Energy Jenny and High Energy John's 11th weddin' anniversary. We will have officially been married a third of our lives. That's WEIRD.
I could write a crazy long post about all the ways and whys of how I love him, but really, the fact he made me take this picture should suffice:
Help! We've fallen down a bloody big hole!
And also:
When he saw that I had spun this:
He said, "Look at you! You made YARN!"
I love you, High Energy John. Let's rock it for another 11.
Annnnnnnd a feeling that will last all through the year...
Oh, Billy Squire. How you rawk. How I suck, because f**k f**k, f**k, I had this entry DONE and lost it. This is the first time this has happened and WOW DOES IT SUCK THE BIG ONE. I want to throw up. Yeah, my time's not valuable or anything. GRUMPY!
(grump). Klaralund is done.
We are in NC for Christmas which we did early, cause of my work schedule. Therefore, I can know show you the Klaralund I made for my mom.
Knit with Noro "Silk Garden" which despite it's twigs and easy breakability I still like it ok.
Smart Aleck
I came home to find my sister wearing this:
However, the lil stinker gave me yarn for Xmas. Good sister.
I never said I wasn't a follower.
Like everyone else on the planet I'm knitting some Jaywalker socks. I almost didn't, cause they lost their flair being all over the knitblogweb, but I saw Carrie's and AM's in person, so I had to. And if Cara has knit like four pair, well, what does that say?
Uh Oh. We got a spinner.*
I made the teeniest skein of yarn:
This was from random roving sent with my new Charis spindle, recommended by Bobby of the super fabulous Thuja socks. Fortunately for me, I think I got the last one at Kendig Cottage. I love the spindle so far. I am getting better at it. But overall I still suck. This yarn is 2-ply and of course is thick and thin and feels scratchy and uneven, but whatever. I MADE YARN!!!! WOOT!!!!
Here's a pic of it knit up into an ?elf scarf? pen cozy? crappy way-too-thick-to-use-bookmark?
Hope you all enjoy whatever holidays you celebrate! I'll be working through the Christmas holiday. THANKS for the kind words about Madli's Shawl!
* anyone who can tell me what I'm quoting wins HEK blog-reader of the year.