Old News

Hey Megan,

Congratulations again on passing all of your exams.  Woo hoo!!  But, no matter how pleased I am for you, you’re not getting my yarn.  Sorry… it’s just not going to happen.  How about this… when you find the cure for cancer I’ll cough up a skein of something.  Deal?

Speaking of handspun, I have new stuff to show off, but I haven’t managed to get the yarn, a camera and some decent light all together in the same place, so it’s sitting on my coffee table waiting for the photographic stars to align.  I hope for pictures soon.

In the meantime, I do have this…  It’s actually old news now.  I finished it last week and sewed the buttons on at knit night.  But… better late than never, right?  Right?!

That’s Liesl, from Ysolda Teague, worn over a very unfortuate choice of tee-shirt.  Rest assured, it looks awesome when paired with a black shell.  As a sweater, I highly recommend it.  It was a very quick, and satisfying, knit and the end product both fits and flatters.  Can’t ask for much more than that! The yarn is Malabrigo worsted.  I know this is not a surprise to you, but that stuff is absolutely fabulous.  And it worked out very well for this particular pattern.   Another shot of the finished object, just for the heck of it:

Hope you’ve enjoyed your second horseback riding lesson.  Bet you’re gonna be sore tomorrow!!

-Natalie

Craziness (or is it laziness?)

Hello friend Natalie!

So, as you can see from the title, I’m blaming my lack of posting on either craziness or laziness.  I have been working about 10 hours a day, and I start around 6 so I think craziness is definitely applicable, but I do finish between 4&5 and starbucks and caribou coffee with free wifi are very close so it shouldn’t have been too much trouble to get to one of them and post …

I started horseback riding lessons also, which takes away one of my evenings (and then the next evening because I’m soaking my poor, sore, battered muscles in a hot bath).  I had the first one this past Tuesday, and it was wonderful, but then I was SO sore.  I took a bath when I got home in the hopes of giving the muscles enough of a rest that they wouldn’t be so painful, but I didn’t have any luck with that.  I was in pain when I sat down all day yesterday, and today it’s painful to walk.  I think they’ll get better just in time to be abused again in the next lesson, and I’ll go through the whole thing again!

Today is also day 4 of 12, so I’m trying to take it easy and pace myself so I’m not burned out by next Friday.  Next weekend is going to be spent laying around and doing as little as I can possibly get away with!  I might make a trip to a yarn store to enjoy the yarn and buy something for weaving.

Speaking of which, I got the loom out when I got home today, took off the mess that is my first project and picked out some nice stash yarn to make purple placemats.  I started warping the loom, then decided I need to go out and do something because I PASSED ALL MY LICENSING EXAMS!!  That’s right, I am officially licensed to practice pharmacy in two states.  I’m excited!

I did take pictures (I swear!) but in my hurry to leave the apartment before my bed or the couch called too loudly to my sleep-deprived brain I forgot both the camera card and the cable to transfer them.

So just trust me that I finished the blanket for the friend who has a baby due in August (that’s right–August of THIS YEAR.  Not next year.  Joyce should be so proud and Jill should be shocked!)  And I started a new sweater (believing that doesn’t take much at all, I start new projects more often than I do dishes or laundry).

I love all the projects and spinning!!  I would like to get some of this handspun yarn as a ‘congratulations, you’re licensed’ present.  What’s the chance of that happening?  Less than zero?

Great find with the magazines!  What great projects/articles have you found?  I bet you have a lot of stuff in there to enjoy, it will keep you busy for awhile!  I would like a picture of the finished sweater complete with buttons as soon as possible.  If I had internet (or if there were any unsecure networks in my building) I’d totally post pictures.  If I could do it from the comfort of my home it would be so much easier.  But, I’m trying to save yarn and horse money by not getting internet and cable.  It’s going to be a long year!

I think that’s about all I have to update now.  I better get some work done so I’m not at work until 7 on a Friday night!  I want to be at home, curled up and watching movies with my knitting to relax before my first weekend working at this job!

-megan

Score!

Hi Megan,

Check out what I got my hot, little hands on at the knitting guild meeting last night!  These were put out on the give-away table for anyone (me!!) to walk away with -

That’s 9 issues of Spin-Off from the 1980′s and an issue of Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot from 1979.  That last is a real find – it has an article called “The High Whorl Spindle” by Bette Hochberg.  At the time this article was published, the default spindle in the U.S. was a low whorl, and she is introducing this odd, relatively unknown form of spindle to her readers.  Fascinating how the world has changed, huh?  Well, fascinating to me anyway…

In other news, Liesl is blocking at this very moment and, since Kristen helped me pick out buttons last night, I hope to have photographic evidence of my new sweater for you tomorrow.  Ditto for the Scarlet Fleece top that I’ve been spinning.  I’m almost done plying the second half of the singles and should be able to show off my first, finished yarn of this year’s Tour de Fleece very soon.  You’re breathless with anticipation, right?

-Natalie

Aspinneration

Hey Megan,

Success!!  You knew it was only a matter of time:

Kristen is now a spinner.  It was a good day.

Tour de Fleece Update

I have been spinning my little heart out.  I’ve been focusing on the 12 ounces of Scarlet Fleece top.   So far, I’ve spun up about 8 ounces.  The progress looks like this:

You’ll notice that there are three bobbins, plus a full spindle.  Since my plan is a 3-ply… Let the plying begin!

-Natalie

Yay!

Megan,

A great big congratulations to you for passing your Pennsylvania boards! How does it feel to be licensed to sell drugs?

-Natalie

The Tour de Fleece

Megan,

Opening day was Saturday.  Sorry I haven’t posted yet, but I’ve been too busy spinning!  Here’s the goal:

That’s about 24 ounces total, to be spun up during the course of the Tour de France.  So far I’ve gotten through about 5 to 6 ounces.  Wish me luck!

In other news, before the Tour started I made great headway on the blue swatch project.  At the moment it looks like this:

That’s the Liesl sweater by Ysolda Teague.  I’ve gotta say, it’s a super-quick and highly satisfying knit.  I’m still planning to add sleeves, but it’s probably not going to happen during the tour.  Look for updates towards the end of the month…

And speaking of updates, I’m dying for some news on the new camisole project.  Don’t kill me with the anticipation!

-Natalie

Remember This? – Part 2

So… Megan, remember this?

Well… now it’s this:

The light wasn’t very good today, so the colors in the picture aren’t perfect, but that’s 650 – 700 yards (plus a mini swatching skein) of sport or dk weight 3-ply.  It’s about 15 wraps per inch and looks like sunshine in a skein.  Frankly, I’m in love.  At the moment it’s just hanging out in my yarn cabinet making friends with the other hanks while I’m waiting for inspiration to strike.   You’ve gotta help me out… what should I make?!

While you’re pondering, here’s something else for you to think about: 

Can you guess what the swatch is for?

-Natalie

p.s. Congratulations on the exam results.  And best of luck on the next one!!

Remember this?

Hey Megan,

So… pictures!  You must post pictures!  I’m very excited by this whole blending of old and new yarn thing you’ve got going on.  Actually, I’m just fascinated by the idea of you using any stash yarn at all.  Very uncharacteristic.  I’m a little concerned that perhaps the move has unhinged you slightly…  Yes, I really am going to require photographic evidence.

Speaking of… remember this?

I’ll totally forgive you if you don’t, since the last time you saw it, it was about 4 times further along.  It’s Allover Lace from Hemp for Knitting.  Yes, it has resurfaced, ripped and improved, with photographic evidence to prove it.  Once I faced up to the reality of the ginormous tent I was knitting I was forced to frog it and start again.  What you see above is now my third (maybe fourth?) start to this pattern. 

The worst part?  It’s not a hard pattern.  I can’t even begin to fathom why I’ve had so much trouble…  On the plus side, the hemp gets softer each time I rip it, so there’s a glass-half-full for ya.

Looking forward to pictures from you soon.  Your homework is to take project photos AND apartment photos.  Double points if you can get more than six boxes in a single photo.

-Natalie

p.s. How goes the studying?

First Wednesday night in the new place

Natalie,

It was most definitely a sad night alone.  First of all, I have no friends here.  Secondly, I STILL can’t find all my yarn and books and obviously I would want to start a new project from one of the books I can’t find.  Thankfully, I already made the project once so I knew I had a copy somewhere and I managed to find the copy in one of the 15 boxes still left.  The book must still be at my parents’ place, so that will be something I must look for when I come back.  The project is the Vixen Camisole from Sensual Knits, which I made previously from HandMaiden SeaSilk in the rose color.  However, I thought it should be made again so when I went to Fine Points (the yarn store near me) I looked for something.  Yes, I know the new apartment is going to resemble a yarn store with all the yarn I have accumulated but I still needed something NEW.  So, I walked around for about an hour and finally settled on a dark purple thread like yarn with silver in it.  I know it has a better name than that, but I don’t have internet connection at home yet so I’m at starbucks without all my tools needed to write a proper blog post!  I’ll find the name and let you know.  Anyway, I got 3 cones of it (it comes on cones, but is only 270-ish yards) and I thought I could double it.  Well.  That was a waste.  This yarn, due to the stainless steel component of it (it makes it lightly sparkle, and everybody knows I can’t resist anything that sparkles and shines), is not good for knitting by itself.  So, seeing as how I have a huge stash of yarn, decided I had to have something in a lovely purple that would complement it.  I unpacked and have displayed all the lace yarn I could find (naturally) so it was a simple matter of holding up the cone to the cubes and finding something that matched.  And presto!  I found a match made in heaven.  Except when I got the yarn, I wanted to use it, so I wound it and promptly lost the tag.  So I’m not sure what it is.  I think the word nature or natural is in it somewhere.  Maybe.  I know I got it at Loop in Philadelphia when I went out there for New Years Eve.  If I could get pictures taken and uploaded to the computer, I totally would.  Maybe in the next post?

That was a very long roundabout way to tell you what I knit last night.  But that isn’t all I worked on!  I also worked on the baby blanket for my friend, which is the Pinwheel Baby Blanket from Knitalong.  Actually, the main purpose of the trip to Fine Points in the first place was to get size 9 double point needles to make her blanket, but I obviously got quite distracted while I was there.  And I thought I needed some new yarn since I’m in a new place.  But!  Look, I actually managed to use up some old yarn at the same time I’m using new yarn!  Isn’t that quite an accomplishment for me?  I’m very pleased with myself.  And I like how they tie together … maybe that will work for my life here.  The yarn from my last home is the backbone, and the new yarn is the complementary piece that makes the old yarn even better.

I must be lonely, I’m actually talking philosophically.  I think I need to stop that.  It’s unnatural.

I like everyone’s projects, and Jill, as always, manages to make the rest of us look so selfish!  I’m also making that blanket, but there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell it would be for anyone except me.  That’s far too much work!  Of course, I haven’t even finished the first section of it because I think I want to use different yarn.  Maybe that can be the next trip … but I need to get a paycheck first.  Or several.  I think it would work better in an aran weight yarn instead of a light worsted.  I want that blanket to be warm.

I better study, I still have one exam left.  Or possibly more, depending on if I passed the other 2 I took.  Wish me luck!  I’ll try to take and post pictures sometime in the next few days.

-megan

We Miss You

Hey Megan, it was so strange tonight to have the first Wednesday night knit group without you.  We’re all happy for you as your life changes and expands, but there is a definite piece missing from our little world.

And I know you missed us too.  The phone call was nice, but just not the same..  so here are some visuals.

This is Jill saying hello.  The blue strip in her lap is the beginning of the blanket from Cables Untangled.  Can you believe she is knitting that for someone else?  Amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julia is working on granny squares for her sister’s wedding blanket.

 

 Joyce is back to her green scarf.

And I’m spinning up the last cop of sherbet top.  Note the attractive (finished!) Whisper.

What did you knit this evening?

-Natalie