W.I.P. Wednesday #2

Oops! I’m a little late on this one. I left SnB early last night to plug away at my to do list, including this post – and promptly fell asleep on the couch. Work is obviously still kicking my ass…

At any rate, it was a semi-productive knitting week. Only one project picture this week (that to do list is still calling, after all). I made a little progress on the sleeve of my Tilted Duster. I finally finished the first of my Blue Note socks. I wrestled with the provisional cast on for the second one for an hour. I ripped back the crochet chain multiple times. I guess its a good thing that my crochet class at Creative Fibers starts next week – though poor Laura has no idea what she’s in for! Unfortunately, I didn’t get beyond the cast on and first row.

I have one FO for this week and its an important one:

This little hat is for my dear friends Carley and Joe’s new baby girl. Talia Jolie arrived on Friday night. I can’t wait to meet her in person this weekend to give this to her! The hat is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and is knit up in Blue Sky Cotton.

That’s it for this week. I’m hoping to finish something this weekend, either a sleeve for the Tilted Duster or a sock.

Dye Days

You know how sometimes every muscle in your body aches, yet you feel great?  That’s how I feel right now.  I spent yesterday and today dyeing – 27 skeins of yarn and 7 pounds of BFL roving.  I hurt all over – its been a while since I used those muscles and I did more than I normally do in such a short time frame.  I feel great – energized and excited.

I’ll post pictures in the next couple of days.  Much of the yarn is going to an order – actually, the first Connecticut yarn shop to carry my products.  The rovings are for Saturday’s guild meeting and to restock my online shops.  For now – back to washing out rovings.  If I stop for too long, I may just crash…

Stress Relief

I had a spectacularly shitty week at work. I won’t go into details here other than to say that it started on Tuesday, lasted all week and will likely continue into next week. It involved a whole lot of nonsense that I have no control over, yet has me (and frankly everyone in my program) stressed and exhausted beyond belief. This evening was the pinnacle of shitty-ness – I was wrapping up work at 4:50, prepared to leave promptly at 5. Then all hell broke loose. I left work at 7:30 even more exhausted and stressed than I had been all week long, swearing like a drunken sailor about all that is wrong with my agency and our state’s mental health system.

Happily, salvation came from the UPS man. I arrived home to find 50 pounds of wool in my sunroom. My order of base yarns and fibers arrived today, the highlight of which is a bump of blue-faced leicester roving – 24 pounds of soft, buttery white wool roving. It arrived looking like this (that’s a 16 oz water bottle placed next to it for scale):

Its basically hog-tied into a highly compressed mass of roving. I cut the ties and it grew into this:

Then I let myself fall into it. I bear hugged it. I felt its amazing softness on my face. I breathed deeply into its soft, wooly goodness for a long, long time. I finally let it all go.

I feel better now.

WIP Wednesday

I’ve so enjoyed reading the Work In Progress Wednesday posts on other blogs that I thought I’d give it a go. I’m hoping that it’ll help keep me going on my current projects too – one more way to keep me honest, I suppose. You might have noticed that I tend to get a little side tracked with projects. In the interest of full disclosure, these aren’t all of my WIPs. That’s one road I’m not willing to go down – let’s just say that I have a “few” things going at once and a “few” projects that are languishing in closets and leave it at that. These are the projects that I’m actively working on right now:

Baby Hat for Carley: Knit in Blue Sky Alpaca’s Cotton; pattern: Children’s Cotton Hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Last minute it is, as the baby its intended for looks to be making her appearance on Friday or Saturday. Hoping to finish this one in time to see Mom and baby in the hospital.

Tilted Duster: I’ve got the fronts, back and one sleeve done. The other sleeve is started. Hoping to finish a sleeve this week – we’ll see. Here’s one other picture – I picked up this great shawl pin to use as the closure on the Tilted Duster (instead of the two buttons)

Last one: Blue Note Socks in The Painted Sock. I’ve been working on these for months. They were to be my work project but now that knitting has been banned during meetings, I’m poking away at them here and there. I’m almost done with the cuff on the first one. This is also an opportunity to show off my new sock blockers – from Chappy’s on eBay. They’re the ones that Cat Bordi used in her latest book. I love them! Very high quality and so beautiful – this picture doesn’t do it justice. Of course, that’s a sheep at the top of them.

That’s it – other than the hat, I’m not sure how much I’ll accomplish in the next week. Something about some dyeing that I need to do…

A Weekend Away

Everett and I just returned from our first weekend away in a year. We went up to my Mom and Dad’s cabin in Vermont. It was wonderful. Its so beautiful up there at this time of year. Their cabin is up in the woods in Chester, VT – near the ski areas, but off the beaten path enough to be really secluded and quiet. It was bitterly cold but not snowy (there was a few inches on the ground) – perfect winter weather. My parents were there and my younger brother, sister-in-law and niece joined us for part of the weekend. My niece confirmed once again that she is one of the two smartest and most adorable children on earth (the other being my nephew, of course). She’s almost 2 now, talking up a storm and into everything – what a great age. It was great to spend time together as a family.

On Saturday, Ev and I headed up to Woodstock, VT – about an hour north – for a little ride, lunch and a poke around the village. Its a classic New England village – built around the town green, quaint and beautiful. There’s some wonderful little shops and restaurants too. One of the highlights of our trip was on the way up – the local 4-H held a demonstration of different horse drawn sleighs. So pretty and fun to watch! Too bad I didn’t think to grab the camera. After Woodstock, we headed over to Quechee Gorge – unfortunately, its a tourist trap more than an actual attraction – we never the left the car. We ended up taking the “scenic route” home by happy accident – it was a perfect day for a long drive in the country.

After spending more time with the family on Sunday, Mom, Ev and I headed to Manchester, VT to do a little shopping. We found fabulous bargains in the Coldwater Creek Outlet – my purchases averaged 87% off! Woohoo! I even got two dresses for special occasions, one winter and one summer – for $10 each! I’m actually kicking myself for not buying more… We went home to watch some great football, especially the Patriots game. I’m actually excited for the Superbowl this year.

There was a bit of yarn shopping too – 4 shops actually! We stopped at Whippletree Yarns in Woodstock, Yarns for Your Soul in Manchester (formerly Yarns by Marilyn Forbes – a welcome change in ownership) and on the way home Not Just Yarn in Brattleboro and Webs. Of the 4, I’d only been to Webs. I was pleased with all of them – small shops with a nice selection and friendly staff. Webs was, well Webs. Nirvana for knitters. It was pleasantly packed – we heard several people say that they drove several hours on the holiday just to visit. Its always nice to see a busy yarn shop.I only bought a little yarn – some bargain bin cotton, a skein of Manos Cotton Stria for a baby hat, a skein of Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton – the “I’ve changed my mind” yarn for the same baby hat and an extra skein of Kid Classic for my Tilted Duster. Well controlled yarn shopping – something about the 50+ pounds of yarn and roving due to arrive on my door step on Friday held me back.

I had plenty of knitting time this weekend too – I pretty much had my knitting with me all the time. I did one sleeve on my Tilted Duster and started the other. I made a little progress on my Blue Note Toe Up socks. I’ve been working on them so sporadically – my “quickie” socks seem to be taking forever. Once I do a quick baby hat this week (my dear friend Carley’s baby looks like she’ll be making her appearance on Friday or Saturday), I’ll spend some time finishing the first sock.

We arrived home last night and are slowly catching up. The kitties seem to be getting over their “trauma” of being left for the weekend. We were a little worried about how they’d respond, given that its been so long since we last went away. They were fine, of course – extra snuggly with the cat sitter when she came by to feed, water and spoil them. Thumper and Maggie have been taking turns being glued to me – leaving for work this morning will be interesting… I’m almost caught up on emails and blogs. I have a lot of dyeing to do this weekend, so I’m trying to catch up quickly on everything.

All in all, a perfect weekend. It was great to get away. I’m very much looking forward to the next weekend away (no family this time, just a bunch of fiber folk!) – SPA Knit and Spin in Freeport, Maine is now just a month away.

Have a great week!

Stepping Away From the Computer…

I’m taking a much needed break for the long weekend. I plan to relax, knit and just hang with the family. I’ll catch up on orders, emails, blogs, etc on Tuesday – for the first time in several months, I’m computer free for the weekend. Its going to be blissful.

Once my little break is over, I’m planning to get back into the dye studio in a big, big way. I peeked at my inventory recently and realized just how low its looking. This week I ordered replenishments of all my base yarns and fibers, including a full bump of BFL (I cannot wait until it comes, just so that I can wrap my arms around it – so yummy). I’m on a bit of a silk kick right now too – I’m exploring getting a 100% silk yarn and roving and I’m researching sources for silk caps or hankies to dye. I love the way silk takes dye. Silk caps and hankies are great fun, since you can spin them or just stretch them out and knit with them. I’ll be dyeing up the first few batches of new stuff next weekend – most likely more Jasmine.

Have a great long weekend! I’ll catch up on Tuesday!