Tuesday, March 16, 2010

It's all coming together

Things are finally coming together on the fibre front. I actually finished a project!
I love the rainbowiness of this shawl...even though I don't wear rainbows...I am not sure what i am going to do with this shawl, I have an image of it in my head looking good wrapped around my neck while I am wearing a jean jacket...except I don't own a jean jacket.

I have been working rather diligently on "the" sweater. I am hoping to be finished in under a week. I have a really crappy picture of it to show you-


Patrick has slept long enough today for me to take on my latest planned etsy project

So far my etsy store has deal almost exclusively in handspun yarn but I am experimenting on expanding (and alliterations it seems). I am now going ot be including some spinnign supplies. Welcome electricbats!
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I am going to do 2 lines of batts, premium electricbatts and econoelectricbatts. I am doing the econoelectricbatts because I want to make sure that I have something that is affordable for everyone. I am also adding an art yarn kit with all kinds of yummy fibres and ribbons if it sells, I'll do more. Eventually I'd like to do an art yarn kit of the month club (there are already a bajillion batt of the month club so why not something different?)

On top of all that I have been getting lots of work done on the research front. All with a minimal amount of sleep!

It feels good to be productive!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Rainbows and Dead Squirrels

So I found the sleeve...well I didn't really find it, I went to the pub for Karaoke and the waitress gave it to me, I guess it had fallen out of my bag-it's a good thing they know me as "the lady that knits" or it could have been lost forever! I haven't returned to knitting the sweater yet because I am just finishing up my replacement-for-lost-sleeve knitting, a rainbow shawl that I will never wear. I don't wear rainbows. But I thought the pattern was cool and I thought it would look cool with the yarn! I'll knit it another time with a blood red Starry and then there might be a possibility that I would wear it.

It looks nifty, no?

The other day Patrick and I went for a walk and had a fabulous find.
A dead squirrel!! Unfortunately I did not have a plastic bag so I couldn't tak it home with me. I was very dissapointed. I was telling this to a couple people I know and they looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently "normal" people don't take dead things home with them. I have a fantastic animal bone collection that includes whale, seal, racoon, deer, coyote and other interesting animals- I really would have love to include a squirrel to my collection-just pop him in the back yard to be exposed to the elements for half a year or so and voila! Squirrel skeleton!

Patrick is growing at a frightening rate and is stretching his 0-3 months clothes to their limits. Since he is only 7 weeks old and was only 6 pounds 3 oz when he was born, this is rather alarming. I keep expecting to find him in the morning grown out of his skin like a snake or something.

My Aunt knit him a fantastic little snow suit and he look adorable in it! He gets lots of compliments when he wears it. It's very soft and as yet it's the only clothing he's actually professed an interest in, he likes the soft fuzzy wool against his skin!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

The best laid plans and all that...

I had this rather triumphant plan for my retunr to blogging. I have been working on the Luminen Sweater by Mairi Munonen for a while now and yesterday should have heralded the connection of the sleeves to the body of the sweater. Now when I say should, it's pretty obvious that this monumental connection did not actually happen. There are a billion things that can cause even the best laid knitting goals to become waylaid-the most common one being the difficulty in estimating rate of knitting vs. time able to knit. This roadblock I have hit is a completely new one and especially frustrating in that there is only one solution to the problem and that solution does not seem to be immediately forthcoming...I lost a sleeve. Yes, that's right...I lost a $(&%#ing sleeve. How does this happen! I have been keeping this one project in on place-an enclosed place even-a cloth bag. 4 days ago both sleeves were in the bag. Yesterday one sleeve was in the bag. This totally fits with my current theory that I ahve "helpful" Brownies in my house causing mischief (including turnin the downstairs TV on and bring skeins of yarn halfway up the stairs and leaving them there.) How does one remedy such a ridiculous situation? One could either find the damn sleeve, or knit a new one. Since I am reasonably sure that I have exactly the amount of yarn I need to finish the project with absolutely no extras (this is not because I didn't plan well, this is because Malabrigo only does so much yarn per dyelot). So my only option is to find the sleeve (oh wait...i could totally knit a vest...yeah...)
So triumphant pictures and no sweater knitting.
Last night I cast on Gail in Mini Mochi...and felt guilty pleasure in knitting something besides and interminable XL long sleeve, long bodied, hooded sweater...