I've been watching the Olympics. A lot. At first I mostly watched gymnastics. But after a while, it got annoying how much the judges were essentially looking for sameness -- for perfection. It's a sport of deductions, and no one measures up to that perfect 10 anymore. Does this strike anyone else as an exercise in frustration?
So then I started watching more track and field events. There, no one cares much what your form is like, only how fast, how high, how far you go. And man, some of those folks can go fast! Usain Bolt is amazing. I liked how he didn't seem to care about the few more hundredths of a second he could have shaved off his time in the 100 meters -- he just wanted to celebrate! I love watching high jumpers, pole vaulters, you name it.
But a few days ago, my Olympics viewing took a whole new turn when I watched the equestrian portion of the men's modern pentathlon. There had been a torrential rain, and the arena was in terrible shape. This being modern pentathlon, the riders and horses only had about 20 minutes to get acquainted with each other before their attempts at the 12-jump course. (Modern pentathlon, I'm told, is based on 19th-century military experience, where an officer trapped behind enemy lines would not have had the luxury of riding a horse he'd trained with for years.) One rider after another racked up penalties for the horses refusing to jump the gates at all. Several were thrown from their horses. And what did they do? Cry? Jump up and down? Kick the judges? Nope. Mostly they sauntered over to wherever their alarmed horses had ended up, remounted, and went about their muddy business. Sure, a few seemed frustrated, but by and large they they took it pretty well. One rider, after giving up and taking the maximum penalty because his round was already so bad -- and, I suspect, because he wanted to conserve energy and unbroken bones for the run afterward -- grinned and patted the horse's neck repeatedly as he returned to the paddock.
I just have to love these guys. Can you imagine, being good enough to get to the Olympics in your sport and still having an event where getting thrown off your horse in front of millions of viewers is a realistic likelihood? Gymnasts and track athletes do risky things and sometimes have embarrassing falls or get hurt, but those horses seem like a far more potent wild card.
So I got to thinking about the parallels between Olympic sports and life skills like getting the house ready to have friends over for dinner. Can you picture these elite athletes as hosts?
There's Gillian Gymnast, cleaning her house with perfect form and grace, nary a hair out of place nor a splatter on her clothes, using exactly the right tool for each task and getting the house white-glove clean. She cleans precisely as her mother taught her, right down the type of cloth she uses for polishing the door knocker, and her roast chicken is exactly the same (and very good) every time.
In the next house is Tillie Track Star. Unconcerned with her own looks while cleaning or the exact design of her tools, she concentrates on efficiency, getting the house company-ready in minimum time so she can knit, get dressed, and try a new recipe for dinner. Sure, there are a few dust bunnies left hidden under the couch, only the high-traffic areas got vacuumed this time, and the spice rack isn't in alphabetical order, but who cares! Bottom line: The house looks great with minimum stress.
And around the corner, we find Petunia Pentathlete. She cleans by the seat of her pants, using whatever tool or cleaning product is available to do the job. As she wipes the bathroom sink, she is suddenly interrupted by sewage erupting from the bathtub drain. Petunia chuckles, takes a photo to show her friends later, checks an online reference to help decide whether to call the plumber, tackle the problem herself, or hang an "out of order" sign on the door, and then moves on with her afternoon. Maybe the whole house didn't get clean this week, but she did her best and didn't stress out, and still enjoyed the friends who came for dinner -- take-out this time, for goodness' sake!
May your days be as relaxed as Tillie's, but when the wheels come off, may you have the grace under fire of Petunia. Happy housekeeping!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
A Celebration of Omnivory
This week DS turned four months old, which is when most kids get over the food sensitivities that contribute to colic. My DS was sensitive to dairy and soy in my diet, so I cut them out when he was a few weeks old. I also never reintroduced chocolate or citrus after starting my elimination diet.
But this week, I brought them all back, and he's doing great! Yippeee! I got back chocolate, orange juice, ruby grapefruit, Mexican food, Indian food, goat cheese, soy milk (I make my own at home -- soymilk maker, anyone? -- and use the bean pulp to make awesome, fluffy homemade bread)... so many things! I'm loving it. I get to be an omnivore again. (Okay, still not eating beef, hydrogenated oils, or most fish, but those were already off the menu for their own reasons.)
The funny thing is, I wasn't missing this stuff that much for its own sake. It's actually possible for me to live happily without cheese! Who knew?! The hard part was that anytime I went out to eat or ate food provided by someone else (potlucks, parties, etc.), I had to grill them about the ingredients. Do you know how hard it is to get restaurant food without dairy or soy? Oy vay! So, socially speaking, my life just got a lot easier. And less expensive, since I can stop buying packaged rice milk and bread.
Also, I can go back to having more vegetarian meals, now that dairy and soy protein sources are both available to me. Legumes would normally have been a fallback for me, but unfortunately, the food components that make most people gassy also get into breast milk, so DS suffered when my bean intake became significant.
Now that I've made my first post-colic batch of soy milk, maybe I'll continue the celebration by learning to make my own cheese.
Knitting? Spinning? Mostly casualties of the Olympics, which I'm watching in bits and pieces online. Though now that my giant-size DS has outgrown his infant car seat (You know, the one that's supposed to be good until they're 6 months old? And he's 4 months?), which we could bring into the house if he fell asleep in the car, I'm carrying my sock knitting in the car for those times when he falls asleep and I have time to just park in the shade and knit. Unfortunately, when I finished my first sock, I tried to graft off K2, P2 rib from memory instead of looking it up. Now I'll have to take it out and do it over, 'cause that sock is not stretchy enough to make it over my heel. Feh. But you know, making my own cheese would totally make up for it. :)
But this week, I brought them all back, and he's doing great! Yippeee! I got back chocolate, orange juice, ruby grapefruit, Mexican food, Indian food, goat cheese, soy milk (I make my own at home -- soymilk maker, anyone? -- and use the bean pulp to make awesome, fluffy homemade bread)... so many things! I'm loving it. I get to be an omnivore again. (Okay, still not eating beef, hydrogenated oils, or most fish, but those were already off the menu for their own reasons.)
The funny thing is, I wasn't missing this stuff that much for its own sake. It's actually possible for me to live happily without cheese! Who knew?! The hard part was that anytime I went out to eat or ate food provided by someone else (potlucks, parties, etc.), I had to grill them about the ingredients. Do you know how hard it is to get restaurant food without dairy or soy? Oy vay! So, socially speaking, my life just got a lot easier. And less expensive, since I can stop buying packaged rice milk and bread.
Also, I can go back to having more vegetarian meals, now that dairy and soy protein sources are both available to me. Legumes would normally have been a fallback for me, but unfortunately, the food components that make most people gassy also get into breast milk, so DS suffered when my bean intake became significant.
Now that I've made my first post-colic batch of soy milk, maybe I'll continue the celebration by learning to make my own cheese.
Knitting? Spinning? Mostly casualties of the Olympics, which I'm watching in bits and pieces online. Though now that my giant-size DS has outgrown his infant car seat (You know, the one that's supposed to be good until they're 6 months old? And he's 4 months?), which we could bring into the house if he fell asleep in the car, I'm carrying my sock knitting in the car for those times when he falls asleep and I have time to just park in the shade and knit. Unfortunately, when I finished my first sock, I tried to graft off K2, P2 rib from memory instead of looking it up. Now I'll have to take it out and do it over, 'cause that sock is not stretchy enough to make it over my heel. Feh. But you know, making my own cheese would totally make up for it. :)
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Selling My House
My house has now been officially on the market for almost two weeks. No offers yet, though a few people seem pretty seriously interested. The process of getting it ready for showing was truly arduous, especially for someone with my history. There was one room in the house that had never been fully unpacked and set up for use. It was half-full of boxes, files, disassembled furniture, and spinning and knitting supplies. D'you think it's telling that that room is the only room in the house where I have some personal space all my own?? Oy, I loathe the last stages of unpacking. All those decisions -- Do I keep this? Where does it go? And the self-recriminations -- Aargh, I already bought a replacement for this because I couldn't find it! How could I leave this in a box for a whole year? Why do I hang onto so much junk? And so on. Totally paralyzing.
I had to decide, over and over again, not to pay attention to those awful voices in my head. With a lot of help and moral support from my cousin, who is working this summer as my babysitter/organizational assistant, I slogged through the hardest stuff, pitching the junk, filing the files, packing up the craft supplies I won't be able to use before we move. Then in a couple of days on my own, I got through the rest. The room -- a den with my desk in a little nook -- is beautiful, peaceful, CLEAN. And so is the rest of the house.
Getting ready for showing was sort of like a Manhattan project. A Herculean effort to get the house ready to be that special fiction that house-hunters want to see: spacious, clean, uncluttered, and depersonalized, to allow maximum imagination of what their stuff would look like here, and how gracious their life could be in such a beautiful, sparsely furnished home. When I get moved to the new house in a month or two, I think I want to put the same level of energy into getting the house set up for the life we want there. No more of this not finishing unpacking until it's time to pack for the next move stuff. I'm hoping this next house will be a long-time landing place for us. I want every room to be usable. Know what I mean? My cousin says she LOVES unpacking. I hope she has some time on her hands!
Meanwhile, back at the current house, we get calls for showings every few days, often on short notice. That means we pretty much have to keep the place immaculate all the time, which is an extremely foreign way for me to live. Relatively uncluttered, functional, comfortable -- yes, I strive for that and often achieve it. Immaculate and ultra-pared-down? Sorry, that girl doesn't live here.
But then this voice pipes up. She's been getting louder over the two weeks or so of living in a semi-staged house. "Wouldn't it be easier to just clean up the lunch dishes now, while they're fresh, instead of checking email or paying the bills first? Wouldn't it be nice to just relax tonight and not worry about doing cleanup chores after the kids are in bed? C'mon, darlin', just do it now. You won't be sorry." And this voice? It comes from inside my head. I can't blame my Mom, who's hundreds of miles away, or even DH, who's on a business trip again. Sure, I could have internalized my Mom's urgings, but it doesn't sound like her. This is me, folks. Or maybe I'm being haunted by FlyLady.
Do I always listen? Nope. I stopped writing in the middle of that last paragraph to do the last of dinner cleanup, at 9:30 p.m. That gentle urging proved irresistible, albeit belatedly. But you know, in the old days, I'd put off the dinner cleanup and the litter boxes until after 10:30, when I should really be getting to bed -- or hours later on a bad night. I guess the triple pressures of DH being gone, the house being for sale, and the housekeepers we tried to hire for the for-sale period not returning our calls, are doing some good. I can't claim I'm doing all this great cleaning-as-I-go alone: DH and my cousin have also put in a lot of work. But the good news, my friends, is that I am doing it at all.
I had to decide, over and over again, not to pay attention to those awful voices in my head. With a lot of help and moral support from my cousin, who is working this summer as my babysitter/organizational assistant, I slogged through the hardest stuff, pitching the junk, filing the files, packing up the craft supplies I won't be able to use before we move. Then in a couple of days on my own, I got through the rest. The room -- a den with my desk in a little nook -- is beautiful, peaceful, CLEAN. And so is the rest of the house.
Getting ready for showing was sort of like a Manhattan project. A Herculean effort to get the house ready to be that special fiction that house-hunters want to see: spacious, clean, uncluttered, and depersonalized, to allow maximum imagination of what their stuff would look like here, and how gracious their life could be in such a beautiful, sparsely furnished home. When I get moved to the new house in a month or two, I think I want to put the same level of energy into getting the house set up for the life we want there. No more of this not finishing unpacking until it's time to pack for the next move stuff. I'm hoping this next house will be a long-time landing place for us. I want every room to be usable. Know what I mean? My cousin says she LOVES unpacking. I hope she has some time on her hands!
Meanwhile, back at the current house, we get calls for showings every few days, often on short notice. That means we pretty much have to keep the place immaculate all the time, which is an extremely foreign way for me to live. Relatively uncluttered, functional, comfortable -- yes, I strive for that and often achieve it. Immaculate and ultra-pared-down? Sorry, that girl doesn't live here.
But then this voice pipes up. She's been getting louder over the two weeks or so of living in a semi-staged house. "Wouldn't it be easier to just clean up the lunch dishes now, while they're fresh, instead of checking email or paying the bills first? Wouldn't it be nice to just relax tonight and not worry about doing cleanup chores after the kids are in bed? C'mon, darlin', just do it now. You won't be sorry." And this voice? It comes from inside my head. I can't blame my Mom, who's hundreds of miles away, or even DH, who's on a business trip again. Sure, I could have internalized my Mom's urgings, but it doesn't sound like her. This is me, folks. Or maybe I'm being haunted by FlyLady.
Do I always listen? Nope. I stopped writing in the middle of that last paragraph to do the last of dinner cleanup, at 9:30 p.m. That gentle urging proved irresistible, albeit belatedly. But you know, in the old days, I'd put off the dinner cleanup and the litter boxes until after 10:30, when I should really be getting to bed -- or hours later on a bad night. I guess the triple pressures of DH being gone, the house being for sale, and the housekeepers we tried to hire for the for-sale period not returning our calls, are doing some good. I can't claim I'm doing all this great cleaning-as-I-go alone: DH and my cousin have also put in a lot of work. But the good news, my friends, is that I am doing it at all.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Creative Block
I'm in one of those periods where I can't think of anything interesting to write about, and I'm not even in the mood for knitting or spinning much. I'm doing okay with my house and my kids. Maybe it's that I've been rereading the fifth Harry Potter book. Rereading novels doesn't do much for my creative side. But I'm done with the book now, so it's time to jump-start the writing thing again.
So here's a meme. It came to me from sockpr0n, who I noticed on Ravelry because of her GORGEOUS handspun socks. I wanna do that someday.
So here's a meme. It came to me from sockpr0n, who I noticed on Ravelry because of her GORGEOUS handspun socks. I wanna do that someday.
- What was I doing 10 years ago? In 1998, I was single, but had begun searching in earnest for a mate. (I found him in 1999.) I spent the first half of 1998 working as a science writer and editor at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and the second half at grad school, in the Master's and Credential in Science and Math Education program at UC Berkeley. I ended up finishing the credential but never finishing my master's project.
- What are 5 things on my to-do list for today? Get my house listed for sale (already closed on the new one, but tenants are there through July); do bedtime for both my kids (DH was out playing competitive badminton this evening); get a neighbor to move the camper parked in front of my house before any potential buyers come looking; do the grocery shopping with my 2.5-month-old son in the front baby carrier; look through kitchen magazines and books for inspiration for remodeling the kitchen in the new house.
- Snacks I enjoy? Date/roasted almond/coconut bonbons my postpartum doula taught me how to make; chips and salsa (SOO glad DS isn't sensitive to corn in my diet, as DD was in her colicky days); hummus and pita/veggies/chips; baked sweet potato "fries," popcorn popped with oil and sugar to make a light, sweet coating...
- Things I would do if I were a billionaire? Go big into microlending as a way to address poverty in developing countries and elsewhere; endow school music, art, and experiential science programs; let DH quit his programming job and do photography, electronic music, open-source software and woodworking in between helping me with the above; start a center where people could learn pre-industrial crafts and survival skills like sewing, knitting, spinning, weaving, gardening, food preservation, woodworking with hand tools, metalsmithing, etc.
- Places I have lived? In order: Dallas, TX; Colorado Springs, CO; Walnut Creek, Oakland, Alameda, and Pleasant Hill, CA; Boulder, CO.
- Jobs I have had? High school physics and math teacher, science writer/editor at a national laboratory, middle school life science and pre-algebra teacher, full-time mom.
- People I want to know more about? Some of my fellow spinners -- do we really have the values and interests in common that I project? My sister -- she's built quite a life, and sometimes I think I don't know her all that well.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Alpaca Madness
Two weeks ago I spent part of a day at the Estes Park Wool Market (Estes Park, CO). DH came along to take care of the kids and bring me DS for nursing as needed. We had arranged this months before DS was born so that I could experience this regional fiber extravaganza. I really appreciated DH's work to make it possible. And next year, I'll leave bottles -- it was challenging for both of us to be there, away from the comforts of home, with two kids who weren't particularly interested in being there.
But oh, those couple of hours I got to myself were fun! The Wool Market features a sheep wool tent; tents or barns devoted to sheep, goats, paco-vicunas, llamas, and possibly other species I'm forgetting; animal judging shows and fun events like the Llama Limbo and sheepdog demonstrations; and a giant tent with market stalls for yarn, fiber, spinning and knitting equipment, and other fiber-related treats. I didn't want to bring home a lot of bulk this year, since we're moving soon and my time for hobbies is pretty limited with an infant in my life, but I found a couple of beauties to bring home:
These are alpaca rovings from fiberinspirations.com, in beautiful natural colors, 4 oz. each. I hope to turn them into some kind of scarf or shawl, and perhaps a hat to match if there's enough. They're so snuggly soft!
I also brought home this 0.5-ounce spindle from woollydesigns.com. I had seen their stuff on the web, but one time trying this spindle in person was enough to sell me. It spins like a beautiful dream. The bent hook on top helps a lot -- why didn't I think of that? The cop of honey-alpaca singles has grown to about four times this much since this photo.
Hooray for small projects! It's much easier to spindle for 5-10 minutes between child-care and house-care duties than it is to get going on my spinning wheel (or write a blog entry...), mostly because the spindle is portable. DS even likes watching it for short periods. Think he'll be a Fiber Boy?
But oh, those couple of hours I got to myself were fun! The Wool Market features a sheep wool tent; tents or barns devoted to sheep, goats, paco-vicunas, llamas, and possibly other species I'm forgetting; animal judging shows and fun events like the Llama Limbo and sheepdog demonstrations; and a giant tent with market stalls for yarn, fiber, spinning and knitting equipment, and other fiber-related treats. I didn't want to bring home a lot of bulk this year, since we're moving soon and my time for hobbies is pretty limited with an infant in my life, but I found a couple of beauties to bring home:
These are alpaca rovings from fiberinspirations.com, in beautiful natural colors, 4 oz. each. I hope to turn them into some kind of scarf or shawl, and perhaps a hat to match if there's enough. They're so snuggly soft!
I also brought home this 0.5-ounce spindle from woollydesigns.com. I had seen their stuff on the web, but one time trying this spindle in person was enough to sell me. It spins like a beautiful dream. The bent hook on top helps a lot -- why didn't I think of that? The cop of honey-alpaca singles has grown to about four times this much since this photo.
Hooray for small projects! It's much easier to spindle for 5-10 minutes between child-care and house-care duties than it is to get going on my spinning wheel (or write a blog entry...), mostly because the spindle is portable. DS even likes watching it for short periods. Think he'll be a Fiber Boy?
Hats Off to Single Moms
The last three days have been DH's first business trip since DS was born 10 weeks ago -- he returns tonight. I have to say, I don't know how the single moms, especially those with more than one child, do it. Just handling bedtime for both kids the last two nights has worn me out. I've had a helper two afternoons, and DD's been at preschool two mornings, and I'm pooped. And I'm not even bringing in an income! If I were, I guess I'd have some kid-free time with the kids at day care, but then there wouldn't be any nap opportunities. Oy.
On the other hand, this has been an excellent exercise in time management. It reminds me of 1996, when I started training for triathlons. I needed to fit in six training sessions per week, two in each sport, and my life already felt chock-full. (I was single and living alone with my two cats then -- I had NO IDEA what a full life was like, my friends.) But I found that having that high-priority, time-intensive commitment forced the rest of my life to fall into place as it never had before. Suddenly I was keeping my house cleaner, eating more healthy meals, getting to bed on time -- things that had been really hard to do before.
There is immense power, for me, in realizing that I have little or no slack in my schedule. I look at what I want or need to do, all of it high-priority, and how tightly it fits into my 24 hours per day. And then I realize that I can either get my s*** together, or I can watch the wheels fall off my life. Business-trip SAHM-hood with two kids triggers the getting-the-s***-together response. I'm eating well, getting the chores done, taking care of the kids (albeit with less quality time for each than I'd like because there's no DH to trade off with, and thank goodness no one's sick...), and getting almost enough sleep. And these things often don't happen as well when DH is around. Of course, when he's around I get more slack, and that slack can feel sanity-saving.
I guess it's time to take another look at what sanity means to me. Time for hobbies and lazy time with the kids, or healthy meals and an orderly house? Of course it's a balance of both. But noticing how good it feels to have the kitchen clean every evening is an eye-opener about how much the orderly house part figures in. It's as if the clean kitchen and cleared floors are a symbol to me, each night alone, that I can do this after all. It's hard, but it's not impossible, and my own character flaws, daunting though they may seem, aren't enough to put it out of reach.
My hat is off to those who pull it off, day after day.
On the other hand, this has been an excellent exercise in time management. It reminds me of 1996, when I started training for triathlons. I needed to fit in six training sessions per week, two in each sport, and my life already felt chock-full. (I was single and living alone with my two cats then -- I had NO IDEA what a full life was like, my friends.) But I found that having that high-priority, time-intensive commitment forced the rest of my life to fall into place as it never had before. Suddenly I was keeping my house cleaner, eating more healthy meals, getting to bed on time -- things that had been really hard to do before.
There is immense power, for me, in realizing that I have little or no slack in my schedule. I look at what I want or need to do, all of it high-priority, and how tightly it fits into my 24 hours per day. And then I realize that I can either get my s*** together, or I can watch the wheels fall off my life. Business-trip SAHM-hood with two kids triggers the getting-the-s***-together response. I'm eating well, getting the chores done, taking care of the kids (albeit with less quality time for each than I'd like because there's no DH to trade off with, and thank goodness no one's sick...), and getting almost enough sleep. And these things often don't happen as well when DH is around. Of course, when he's around I get more slack, and that slack can feel sanity-saving.
I guess it's time to take another look at what sanity means to me. Time for hobbies and lazy time with the kids, or healthy meals and an orderly house? Of course it's a balance of both. But noticing how good it feels to have the kitchen clean every evening is an eye-opener about how much the orderly house part figures in. It's as if the clean kitchen and cleared floors are a symbol to me, each night alone, that I can do this after all. It's hard, but it's not impossible, and my own character flaws, daunting though they may seem, aren't enough to put it out of reach.
My hat is off to those who pull it off, day after day.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Mars and Venus?
I've been thinking about editing yesterday's blog entry to eliminate the somewhat-negative description of my husband's behavior in the second paragraph. But instead, I want to ruminate a bit about it.
DH watched me write most of that blog entry. He explained, in his defense, that the way he was brought up, surprises for things like birthdays were supposed to be magical -- completely mysterious, produced invisibly, and so on. Even to let on that a surprise might be in the offing would be to spoil it.
This correlates with comments he makes about housekeeping sometimes -- comments that really burn my grits. I'll spend all day cleaning the main level, and he'll walk in and say, "Wow, the mess magically disappeared!" He insists that to him, this would be a compliment. I'd much rather hear, "Wow, you really worked hard on this! Thank you -- it looks so much better!" And if he threw in, "I'll be sure to pick up after myself every day to help keep it nice!" well, that would be amazing. And actual follow-through? The stuff of erotic stories, I'm telling you.
But getting back to the main idea here, is this a gender difference? I can't think of a reason men would tend to want to be seen as magicians, at least more than women. Is it a software-engineer thing? DH's work is to design and program the tools other programmers use to make great casual video games. Perhaps the highest compliment you could pay his work is to say that it's totally invisible -- that is, that it makes the game programmer's work effortless because they don't have to think about the tools.
I think the reason it feels like a gender difference to me is that so much of my work, "women's work" (raising the kids, cleaning the house, cooking dinner, etc.) is most noticed when it's not done, or done poorly. Plus, a lot of people who haven't done it look at the life of a stay-at-home mom and wonder what she does all day. So to me, it's a compliment when someone who's not a SAHM notices how much work I've managed to get done in a day with one or more kids to take care of as well. It's really challenging to do the housework and still pay decent attention to the kids, especially with an infant in the mix. I aspire to do both better, and it may be a little easier when the kids are older and can help more.
But a word to the wise: When it happens that the kids are happy and the housework is done, it ain't magic. It's 70% perspiration (skipping the nap is the hard part), 20% careful planning (transitions, anyone?) and 10% dumb luck (no major crises today, thank goodness!).
DH watched me write most of that blog entry. He explained, in his defense, that the way he was brought up, surprises for things like birthdays were supposed to be magical -- completely mysterious, produced invisibly, and so on. Even to let on that a surprise might be in the offing would be to spoil it.
This correlates with comments he makes about housekeeping sometimes -- comments that really burn my grits. I'll spend all day cleaning the main level, and he'll walk in and say, "Wow, the mess magically disappeared!" He insists that to him, this would be a compliment. I'd much rather hear, "Wow, you really worked hard on this! Thank you -- it looks so much better!" And if he threw in, "I'll be sure to pick up after myself every day to help keep it nice!" well, that would be amazing. And actual follow-through? The stuff of erotic stories, I'm telling you.
But getting back to the main idea here, is this a gender difference? I can't think of a reason men would tend to want to be seen as magicians, at least more than women. Is it a software-engineer thing? DH's work is to design and program the tools other programmers use to make great casual video games. Perhaps the highest compliment you could pay his work is to say that it's totally invisible -- that is, that it makes the game programmer's work effortless because they don't have to think about the tools.
I think the reason it feels like a gender difference to me is that so much of my work, "women's work" (raising the kids, cleaning the house, cooking dinner, etc.) is most noticed when it's not done, or done poorly. Plus, a lot of people who haven't done it look at the life of a stay-at-home mom and wonder what she does all day. So to me, it's a compliment when someone who's not a SAHM notices how much work I've managed to get done in a day with one or more kids to take care of as well. It's really challenging to do the housework and still pay decent attention to the kids, especially with an infant in the mix. I aspire to do both better, and it may be a little easier when the kids are older and can help more.
But a word to the wise: When it happens that the kids are happy and the housework is done, it ain't magic. It's 70% perspiration (skipping the nap is the hard part), 20% careful planning (transitions, anyone?) and 10% dumb luck (no major crises today, thank goodness!).
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Birthday Blues, and the Cure
So I had a birthday. Ever try having a non-decade birthday (I'm in my late 30s) a month after giving birth to a baby, and only a week or so before the other child's birthday? Oh, and while you're on a really stripped-down diet to try to determine what's making the baby colicky? (No dairy, eggs, spicy stuff, onions, garlic, citrus, soy, wheat... the list goes on. For a while.)
Add to this mixture a husband who sometimes appears to forget birthdays and anniversaries. He seldom actually forgets, but sometimes his preparations are obscure enough to make me wonder. The night before my birthday, he actually let me get to tears about feeling neglected before he told me that of course he was doing something for my birthday. Could he just tell me, "Don't worry, I have something planned." Noooo! Well, eventually he did, I guess figuring that blowing the secret that a surprise existed was worth it to avoid further angst and get to sleep.
So on my birthday, he comes home with a pair of earrings (this hint obtained long enough ago that I'd mostly forgotten), and that evening he makes a birthday cake.
Now, did you read that first paragraph?
I'm not going to go into the details of the cake, because you can find them on DH's blog, here. Suffice it to say that it was yummy, had candles, and shouldn't set off DS's colic. And that DH went WAY out on a limb inventing it. Ever try making a cake with substitutions for practically every ingredient? Okay, he used sugar and baking powder. Still, stone soup this ain't. This is baking -- supposedly an exact science.
If that isn't enough to cure the birthday blues, well, I don't know what is. (Okay, okay, I know what is, but it's only been one month postpartum!!)
In keeping with the main theme of this blog, I should also note that two days ago, DH took care of DS and DD both (well, I ended up nursing DS a fair amount, but still...) so that I could host an evening gathering of spinners and knitters at our community house. It was a nice substitute for the monthly knit/spin-in at the yarn store, which will have to wait until DS is either not nursing so often, or can travel better.
Cared for? Yes. Still sleep-deprived? Yes. But that's a different post.
Add to this mixture a husband who sometimes appears to forget birthdays and anniversaries. He seldom actually forgets, but sometimes his preparations are obscure enough to make me wonder. The night before my birthday, he actually let me get to tears about feeling neglected before he told me that of course he was doing something for my birthday. Could he just tell me, "Don't worry, I have something planned." Noooo! Well, eventually he did, I guess figuring that blowing the secret that a surprise existed was worth it to avoid further angst and get to sleep.
So on my birthday, he comes home with a pair of earrings (this hint obtained long enough ago that I'd mostly forgotten), and that evening he makes a birthday cake.
Now, did you read that first paragraph?
I'm not going to go into the details of the cake, because you can find them on DH's blog, here. Suffice it to say that it was yummy, had candles, and shouldn't set off DS's colic. And that DH went WAY out on a limb inventing it. Ever try making a cake with substitutions for practically every ingredient? Okay, he used sugar and baking powder. Still, stone soup this ain't. This is baking -- supposedly an exact science.
If that isn't enough to cure the birthday blues, well, I don't know what is. (Okay, okay, I know what is, but it's only been one month postpartum!!)
In keeping with the main theme of this blog, I should also note that two days ago, DH took care of DS and DD both (well, I ended up nursing DS a fair amount, but still...) so that I could host an evening gathering of spinners and knitters at our community house. It was a nice substitute for the monthly knit/spin-in at the yarn store, which will have to wait until DS is either not nursing so often, or can travel better.
Cared for? Yes. Still sleep-deprived? Yes. But that's a different post.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Who Needs Cashmere?
Have I touched knitting needles since I went into labor?
No.
But I've thought about it. Here's one of my conclusions: When people lust after super-soft cashmeres, alpacas, etc., part of the reason is that they haven't had enough chances to handle a baby's feet recently. Or stroke their cheek against a baby's downy hair for minutes on end while he falls asleep on their shoulder. I haven't felt any fiber that touched that level of softness, and folks, I've handled qiviut within recent memory.
I'll give the fine fibers this: They are a lot lower-maintenance and, even at a king's ransom per ounce for qiviut, less costly than a baby. (This is especially true when the baby in question spends his first week in the NICU -- thank goodness for health insurance! This hospital stay is the sort of thing that could have made life very hard if we had been in a different stage of our financial lives.) Don't get me wrong; I'll take what I have, sleep deprivation and all, thanks! But the fibers may help ease the transition when my babies aren't babies anymore. And they don't need 3 a.m. feedings.
They don't, right?
No.
But I've thought about it. Here's one of my conclusions: When people lust after super-soft cashmeres, alpacas, etc., part of the reason is that they haven't had enough chances to handle a baby's feet recently. Or stroke their cheek against a baby's downy hair for minutes on end while he falls asleep on their shoulder. I haven't felt any fiber that touched that level of softness, and folks, I've handled qiviut within recent memory.
I'll give the fine fibers this: They are a lot lower-maintenance and, even at a king's ransom per ounce for qiviut, less costly than a baby. (This is especially true when the baby in question spends his first week in the NICU -- thank goodness for health insurance! This hospital stay is the sort of thing that could have made life very hard if we had been in a different stage of our financial lives.) Don't get me wrong; I'll take what I have, sleep deprivation and all, thanks! But the fibers may help ease the transition when my babies aren't babies anymore. And they don't need 3 a.m. feedings.
They don't, right?
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Baby Accomplished
Hey there. Not much time for blogging, what with a newborn and all, but here he is:
Nice, eh? The birth was great -- totally unmedicated and fabulous. I would do it again if I wanted another child. Unfortunately, DS had neonatal pneumonia and a small host of other related issues, so we spent a week in the hospital. Fortunately, our local hospital has about the best NICU setup you could ask for. Anyway, now we're home and have the wireless version of our baby. Life is good. Except the sleep part.
Nice, eh? The birth was great -- totally unmedicated and fabulous. I would do it again if I wanted another child. Unfortunately, DS had neonatal pneumonia and a small host of other related issues, so we spent a week in the hospital. Fortunately, our local hospital has about the best NICU setup you could ask for. Anyway, now we're home and have the wireless version of our baby. Life is good. Except the sleep part.
Monday, April 14, 2008
FO: Mittens for Afghans; Charity Knitting
It started to feel a little pointless to work on one more pair of wool socks for myself, with summer coming soon. I mean, it's good TV knitting and all, but who has time for much TV with a baby on the way?
I looked up charity knitting on Ravelry and found that handmade items often don't make it to their intended recipients. Afghans for Afghans, however, kept coming up as an organization that handles this well.
Because it gets quite cold in Afghanistan, and because washing machines are rare, Afghans for Afghans asks for wool items rather than cotton, acrylic, etc. So I mined my stash for wool and found some ball ends of Noro Kureyon. I used a kid-size mitten pattern from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. It was fun to try to make non-identical but still matching mittens. Here's the result:
Mittens knit up delightfully quickly. Good stuff. These were done in perhaps 4 hours total.
This has me thinking about other charity knitting or craft projects. More locally, there's Project Linus, which collects handmade blankets for kids staying in hospitals for extended periods. They take crocheted, knitted, tie-quilted, and other blankets. Different requirements to learn (more emphasis on softness and washability than warmth), but this is a project that could be fun with a group of crafty friends, knitting squares to join, or tying a quilt together.
On the parenting side, my 3-year-old DD has lots of questions about who is getting these mittens. It's a good chance to provide some information about poverty and war, and to try to do it in an age-appropriate manner that educates without overly alarming. This is part of what makes me think about Project Linus -- it would be a chance to see more directly, or even participate in, giving to others we don't know who are in need.
I looked up charity knitting on Ravelry and found that handmade items often don't make it to their intended recipients. Afghans for Afghans, however, kept coming up as an organization that handles this well.
Because it gets quite cold in Afghanistan, and because washing machines are rare, Afghans for Afghans asks for wool items rather than cotton, acrylic, etc. So I mined my stash for wool and found some ball ends of Noro Kureyon. I used a kid-size mitten pattern from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. It was fun to try to make non-identical but still matching mittens. Here's the result:
Mittens knit up delightfully quickly. Good stuff. These were done in perhaps 4 hours total.
This has me thinking about other charity knitting or craft projects. More locally, there's Project Linus, which collects handmade blankets for kids staying in hospitals for extended periods. They take crocheted, knitted, tie-quilted, and other blankets. Different requirements to learn (more emphasis on softness and washability than warmth), but this is a project that could be fun with a group of crafty friends, knitting squares to join, or tying a quilt together.
On the parenting side, my 3-year-old DD has lots of questions about who is getting these mittens. It's a good chance to provide some information about poverty and war, and to try to do it in an age-appropriate manner that educates without overly alarming. This is part of what makes me think about Project Linus -- it would be a chance to see more directly, or even participate in, giving to others we don't know who are in need.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Breaking Out (FO: handspun mittens)
No baby yet, but I had a nice stretch of pre-labor last night, and today I'm 38 weeks, 6 days. Woo hoo! Today I had what I hope was my last prenatal visit to the midwife. Everything looks good. Next stop: acupuncturist, to see what we can do to get my body ready to roll. Medical induction isn't really likely to be an option for me because I had a C-section before, and they don't like to produce extra-intense uterine contractions in women with uterine scars. Fine with me: the mortality rate in cases of uterine rupture is high for me and higher for the baby, so I'll stick with the 1-in-200 (or better, depending on whom you ask) rupture rate with no medical induction. But that means if I don't go by 42 weeks or pretty darned close, it's another C-section for me. So let's go, kid. Time to break out of there. I know you're ready!
Here are a couple more photos of knitted stuff. I recently finished these mittens for me, which are made from my first wheel-spun yarn:
You may recognize the yarn from an earlier post: It's 2/3 brown Corriedale, 1/3 white Lincoln fleece. I like the way it knitted up. These mittens aren't as windproof as my fleece gloves from REI, but they're not bad, being quite firmly knitted, and the sizing is great. I used the mitten pattern from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. I've also made mittens for DD from this book. I can't say enough good things about it, especially if you're knitting from handspun or otherwise wanting to flout the yarn recommendations in patterns more often than you're wanting to follow them. You just knit up a gauge swatch on a size needle that makes a fabric you enjoy, then use the multi-gauge, multi-size tables to produce the garment you want. I've also done a hat for DD from this book, substituting a fluffy brioche stitch pattern from a Barbara Walker treasury, and it worked great. I hardly ever knit from patterns that require a specific gauge anymore. Ann Budd, Jacqueline Fee, and Elizabeth Zimmermann have helped me build the courage to innovate, redesign, tweak, and otherwise break out of the blind-follower knitting role.
Oh, and Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Will I ever knit socks again without adapting them to her techniques? Not so sure about that. My current project is a pair of plain stockinette socks in Trekking XXL. I'll probably do K2, P2 ribbing for the leg. Definitely TV/waiting room knitting:
They never look like much at this stage, but ah, the fit when they're done! I love 'em.
Oh, and these are my first project on my new KnitPicks metal sock needles. I got tired of shredding my bamboo DPNs -- because I'm such a tight knitter on socks, and especially when knitting yarns with cotton in them -- and I've been on a DPN (versus magic loop/2 circular needles) kick for speed and probably nostalgia reasons. So these seemed like the right next step. I got a set of 5 DPNs in each of six sizes (0, 1, 1+, 2, 2+, 3, where each is 0.25 mm bigger diameter than the one before) for Christmas from my dad. I'm doing these on the 1+ needles. I swatched on 1s, and going to 1+ felt like knitting with tree trunks after that, which was nice -- I'm trying to resist knitting at a gauge of more than 10 stitches per inch!
The KnitPicks needles are very pointy, which makes me a little prone to poking holes in myself with them as I knit. But I figure that poking myself that hard has to be a bad habit, so every time I knit something with KP needles, I go a little farther toward breaking the habit. I love how slick and fast they are, how warm they feel (just like Addis), and how little they cost. I'm looking forward to trying the Harmony wood version of the DPNs (thanks, Dad!) on a future project and seeing if they hold up to my death-grip tension better than the Takumi bamboo needles I've destroyed before.
Here are a couple more photos of knitted stuff. I recently finished these mittens for me, which are made from my first wheel-spun yarn:
You may recognize the yarn from an earlier post: It's 2/3 brown Corriedale, 1/3 white Lincoln fleece. I like the way it knitted up. These mittens aren't as windproof as my fleece gloves from REI, but they're not bad, being quite firmly knitted, and the sizing is great. I used the mitten pattern from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. I've also made mittens for DD from this book. I can't say enough good things about it, especially if you're knitting from handspun or otherwise wanting to flout the yarn recommendations in patterns more often than you're wanting to follow them. You just knit up a gauge swatch on a size needle that makes a fabric you enjoy, then use the multi-gauge, multi-size tables to produce the garment you want. I've also done a hat for DD from this book, substituting a fluffy brioche stitch pattern from a Barbara Walker treasury, and it worked great. I hardly ever knit from patterns that require a specific gauge anymore. Ann Budd, Jacqueline Fee, and Elizabeth Zimmermann have helped me build the courage to innovate, redesign, tweak, and otherwise break out of the blind-follower knitting role.
Oh, and Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Will I ever knit socks again without adapting them to her techniques? Not so sure about that. My current project is a pair of plain stockinette socks in Trekking XXL. I'll probably do K2, P2 ribbing for the leg. Definitely TV/waiting room knitting:
They never look like much at this stage, but ah, the fit when they're done! I love 'em.
Oh, and these are my first project on my new KnitPicks metal sock needles. I got tired of shredding my bamboo DPNs -- because I'm such a tight knitter on socks, and especially when knitting yarns with cotton in them -- and I've been on a DPN (versus magic loop/2 circular needles) kick for speed and probably nostalgia reasons. So these seemed like the right next step. I got a set of 5 DPNs in each of six sizes (0, 1, 1+, 2, 2+, 3, where each is 0.25 mm bigger diameter than the one before) for Christmas from my dad. I'm doing these on the 1+ needles. I swatched on 1s, and going to 1+ felt like knitting with tree trunks after that, which was nice -- I'm trying to resist knitting at a gauge of more than 10 stitches per inch!
The KnitPicks needles are very pointy, which makes me a little prone to poking holes in myself with them as I knit. But I figure that poking myself that hard has to be a bad habit, so every time I knit something with KP needles, I go a little farther toward breaking the habit. I love how slick and fast they are, how warm they feel (just like Addis), and how little they cost. I'm looking forward to trying the Harmony wood version of the DPNs (thanks, Dad!) on a future project and seeing if they hold up to my death-grip tension better than the Takumi bamboo needles I've destroyed before.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
FOs: Shining Violet Sweater, Menschkin Baby Blanket
Long time no blog! I've been busily preparing for DS's arrival (due any day now), getting our taxes done, and so on. But part of the preparation has been finishing some knitted items!
For DS, there's the Menschkin Baby Blanket. This is an original pattern -- I unvented the border and hope to post a pattern for it sometime soon. It took a lot of experimentation to get it to lie flat (neither folding over nor puckering) and have no holes to snag tiny fingers. The corners are a little hit-and-miss depending on what I tried at each, but I'm pretty pleased with it. Here's the whole blanket after a wash and light block:
And here's a close-up of my favorite corner:
You can see the miters, which I did using k1-through-front-and-back to give the blanket a bit more texture. I used that a lot in the border, too. The yarn for this project is KnitPicks' Swish Superwash (100% superwash wool) in worsted weight. I love how soft it knitted up and how nicely it washed (front loader, in large lingerie bag, dried flat). So DS will have something nice and snuggly to bundle up in when he chooses to make his appearance!
I wanted DD to have something new, too, so I finished up her Shining Violet sweater, in KnitPicks' Shine Sport (cotton/modal blend), color violet. Here's the whole thing after a wash and block - it got kind of creased in the washing-machine spin cycle, and since I didn't put it in the dryer (though that is okay for this yarn), it stayed a little creased.
And here's a detail of the dear little strawberry buttons DD helped me pick out for it:
The details of how to make this sweater are aggregated in a past post, here, in case you'd like to try it out. DD hasn't let me photograph her in it yet, but she loves to wear it. It fits her slim 4T-or-so body great with either nothing or a small shirt underneath. I tried for more growing room, but it didn't work out that way.
That's all for now -- perhaps more soul-searching text on motherhood another time, but for now, actual motherhood calls, as DD is up from her nap. Ta ta...
For DS, there's the Menschkin Baby Blanket. This is an original pattern -- I unvented the border and hope to post a pattern for it sometime soon. It took a lot of experimentation to get it to lie flat (neither folding over nor puckering) and have no holes to snag tiny fingers. The corners are a little hit-and-miss depending on what I tried at each, but I'm pretty pleased with it. Here's the whole blanket after a wash and light block:
And here's a close-up of my favorite corner:
You can see the miters, which I did using k1-through-front-and-back to give the blanket a bit more texture. I used that a lot in the border, too. The yarn for this project is KnitPicks' Swish Superwash (100% superwash wool) in worsted weight. I love how soft it knitted up and how nicely it washed (front loader, in large lingerie bag, dried flat). So DS will have something nice and snuggly to bundle up in when he chooses to make his appearance!
I wanted DD to have something new, too, so I finished up her Shining Violet sweater, in KnitPicks' Shine Sport (cotton/modal blend), color violet. Here's the whole thing after a wash and block - it got kind of creased in the washing-machine spin cycle, and since I didn't put it in the dryer (though that is okay for this yarn), it stayed a little creased.
And here's a detail of the dear little strawberry buttons DD helped me pick out for it:
The details of how to make this sweater are aggregated in a past post, here, in case you'd like to try it out. DD hasn't let me photograph her in it yet, but she loves to wear it. It fits her slim 4T-or-so body great with either nothing or a small shirt underneath. I tried for more growing room, but it didn't work out that way.
That's all for now -- perhaps more soul-searching text on motherhood another time, but for now, actual motherhood calls, as DD is up from her nap. Ta ta...
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Counting Down, and Some Real In-Utero Interaction!
I just read an article on BabyCenter about "mamakus," six-word memoirs of motherhood. How about this:
Baby coming -- packing -- oops, more laundry.
Today is a laundry day, and much of it is baby stuff I've dragged out of storage, purchased, or gotten back from those who had borrowed it. Washfest. I got DH to put together the changing table (please understand -- I'm a perfectly handy person myself, but everything is twice as hard with this monster belly, so I get help where I can), so I have a place to store some of the mountain of baby wash that's already done. More exciting is the first wash for the Menschkin baby blanket, which I finally finished! Pictures when it's washed and blocked. Maybe a pattern later on -- I invented a nice border.
Now, anybody want to start a pool on what day I will actually pack my suitcase for the hospital, now that I have 3.5 weeks to go to my due date? This is proving difficult to start. At least now I have a list, having compared a couple of lists of suggestions on what to pack. Maybe today, after my things are clean, it will be easier to get it done. But I have a knitting circle at my place tonight, so maybe tomorrow...
The real excitement lately was a bit of honest-to-goodness, two-way interaction with DS-on-the-way last night. He was doing his usual stretches, pushing a foot waaaay out on my right side while I lay on my left. I decided to see if I could feel the shape of the foot or which way the toes were pointing. Not only could I feel those things, but he seemed to enjoy the little foot massage! Normally he pulls his foot back in after a couple of seconds, but when I was rubbing in little circles to check out his foot, he left it pushed out for 30 seconds or more.
There are lots of ways a pregnant mom can communicate TO her baby-inside. There are a few ways the baby-inside can communicate to the mom. But this is the first example I can remember of a two-way interaction where I was pretty sure I knew what was going on. Loud music and he kicks? I can't really tell if that's enjoyment or distress. But this seemed much clearer. I just lay there with a big grin on my face, rubbing that little foot, until he got tired of the game and went back to sleep. I wonder if he'll enjoy foot massages after he comes out.
Baby coming -- packing -- oops, more laundry.
Today is a laundry day, and much of it is baby stuff I've dragged out of storage, purchased, or gotten back from those who had borrowed it. Washfest. I got DH to put together the changing table (please understand -- I'm a perfectly handy person myself, but everything is twice as hard with this monster belly, so I get help where I can), so I have a place to store some of the mountain of baby wash that's already done. More exciting is the first wash for the Menschkin baby blanket, which I finally finished! Pictures when it's washed and blocked. Maybe a pattern later on -- I invented a nice border.
Now, anybody want to start a pool on what day I will actually pack my suitcase for the hospital, now that I have 3.5 weeks to go to my due date? This is proving difficult to start. At least now I have a list, having compared a couple of lists of suggestions on what to pack. Maybe today, after my things are clean, it will be easier to get it done. But I have a knitting circle at my place tonight, so maybe tomorrow...
The real excitement lately was a bit of honest-to-goodness, two-way interaction with DS-on-the-way last night. He was doing his usual stretches, pushing a foot waaaay out on my right side while I lay on my left. I decided to see if I could feel the shape of the foot or which way the toes were pointing. Not only could I feel those things, but he seemed to enjoy the little foot massage! Normally he pulls his foot back in after a couple of seconds, but when I was rubbing in little circles to check out his foot, he left it pushed out for 30 seconds or more.
There are lots of ways a pregnant mom can communicate TO her baby-inside. There are a few ways the baby-inside can communicate to the mom. But this is the first example I can remember of a two-way interaction where I was pretty sure I knew what was going on. Loud music and he kicks? I can't really tell if that's enjoyment or distress. But this seemed much clearer. I just lay there with a big grin on my face, rubbing that little foot, until he got tired of the game and went back to sleep. I wonder if he'll enjoy foot massages after he comes out.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
No, really, keep your head down!
Life has been busy this past week or so. If you've been reading my last few posts, you know the baby I'm due to deliver shortly was head-down. Well, over the past week and a half, give or take, he's been flipping head-up quite a bit. I've been doing exercises at home, getting chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture, and getting him back head-down at the end of most days. Now he finally seems to be deciding that maybe staying head-down is a good idea. Based on my results so far, the chiropractic and exercises seem like the most helpful factors. After each adjustment at the chiropractor, baby fairly dives into my pelvis, which was apparently quite kinked up and is getting more spacious with adjustments. My back is feeling generally better, too. This is my first time working with a chiropractor, and I have to say it seems good so far.
The exception to my back feeling better comes from my still-growing belly. Sitting still and upright or standing still for extended periods is getting quite uncomfortable. I get breathless and panicky, probably because my uterus is pressing on a major blood vessel. That makes wheel spinning, driving more than 10 minutes, using the computer, and several other activities pretty tough. So today I'm home from church (25 minute drive) and hoping to find a carpool for future weeks. I'm rediscovering our local bus system, which is good for lots of things, but unfortunately takes about two hours to get to church. :(
So blogging is probably going to slow down for a while (see "using the computer" above). I did finish the Shining Violet sweater, but it's already been worn once and gotten food all over it, so photos will have to wait until it's clean. You can see full directions for it in the "Gory Details" entry a few entries ago.
Take care, y'all. I'll blog when I can. Wish us luck for a healthy, natural birth.
The exception to my back feeling better comes from my still-growing belly. Sitting still and upright or standing still for extended periods is getting quite uncomfortable. I get breathless and panicky, probably because my uterus is pressing on a major blood vessel. That makes wheel spinning, driving more than 10 minutes, using the computer, and several other activities pretty tough. So today I'm home from church (25 minute drive) and hoping to find a carpool for future weeks. I'm rediscovering our local bus system, which is good for lots of things, but unfortunately takes about two hours to get to church. :(
So blogging is probably going to slow down for a while (see "using the computer" above). I did finish the Shining Violet sweater, but it's already been worn once and gotten food all over it, so photos will have to wait until it's clean. You can see full directions for it in the "Gory Details" entry a few entries ago.
Take care, y'all. I'll blog when I can. Wish us luck for a healthy, natural birth.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Bobbins and Bobbins and Bobbins, Oh My!
I'm now two weeks into my four-week Spinning II class -- I'm trying to squeeze in all the learning I can before DS arrives, hopefully next month -- and our teacher is keeping us busy! We're learning about spinning to various standards (wraps per inch and bumps per inch being the key ones so far), and tomorrow's class is on plying, including Navajo plying. I'm hoping I'll learn a thing or two to enhance my Navajo plying experience so far. So here, without further ado, are some spinning images:
Our assignment to prepare for the plying class was to spin three bobbins, one fuller than the others, in any weight we liked, as long as a 3-ply of it would fit through our orifice. I like spinning fairly fine, so these are my singles. They're from carded wool roving (breed unknown), provided in class, spun woolen-style, mostly long-draw, and as you can see, they're fire-engine red. There were several other colors available, but the red was getting neglected by my classmates, and it called to me forlornly, "You like wearing warm colors! Spin me! Spin meeee!" I'm thinking the 3-plied red yarn might pattern nicely with the natural white and brown yarns I've been spinning, neh? Or maybe it will make a nice hat or mittens mostly on its own.
When I'm spinning my own fiber on my own time, this is what happens:
This is some of my Cormo, perhaps 15 rolags' worth, spun into singles as thin as I can manage on my Lendrum fast flyer (also woolen, some long- and some short-draw) without breaking more than a few times per hour of spinning. And now I have evidence that these singles do, in fact, 2-ply up to a nice laceweight. Here's the "happy yarn" from my last post, now washed, hanging out with some friends:
The sewing bobbin at the bottom is for scale -- it's a Singer bobbin, in case you're keeping track. The white mini-skein is my test 2-ply Cormo laceweight skein, and I think it will work beautifully for what I want to do, which is a lace stole. More on that later -- perhaps much later, since spinning up that much laceweight might take a few, oh, years. :) The brown yarn is Corriedale, spun in the grease on a drop spindle and 2-plied on a wheel, and then washed on the stove for extra heat. There are about 100 yards there, and it's worsted weight, more or less. (I am too lazy to get out my wraps-per-inch tool right now.) The purple yarn is from a batt I blended from more anonymous carded wool toward the end of my Spinning I class. I Navajo-plied it, and I'm pleased. There's not enough for more than a doll hat or so, but fortunately, DD adores purple and has dolls in need of warm things.
And yes, I still knit sometimes:
Shining Violet is almost done. I've grafted one underarm and woven in most of the loose ends. I just need to pick up the neck stitches and make some neck edging (I haven't decided between ribbing and garter yet) with one more buttonhole in it. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but there's a short placket that will have a total of two buttonholes in it, to allow for DD's uncommonly large (even for a preschooler) head. DS-on-the-way has a pretty big head, too, as do DH and I. Wish me luck in labor!
I'm bummed about the sweater's sizing. I was trying for a year's growing room, but it fits exactly right now, which means DD will probably only get to wear it for this spring and maybe fall. I designed it for easy lengthening in hem and sleeves, so if she stays slim, maybe next winter/spring will work -- but it's already more fitted than I intended. Once it's all grafted together and done, I'll have to do a postmortem on my design and gauge and see where I went wrong. I already know I skipped some of the initial, slower-decreasing raglan rows that were in the pattern I was using, making the armholes less deep than they should be. Feh. Ah, well. DD likes it, and that was more or less the point. I've only used 5 balls of yarn (out of 20 purchased) so far, so a second draft is quite doable, even with extra left for alterations.
Our assignment to prepare for the plying class was to spin three bobbins, one fuller than the others, in any weight we liked, as long as a 3-ply of it would fit through our orifice. I like spinning fairly fine, so these are my singles. They're from carded wool roving (breed unknown), provided in class, spun woolen-style, mostly long-draw, and as you can see, they're fire-engine red. There were several other colors available, but the red was getting neglected by my classmates, and it called to me forlornly, "You like wearing warm colors! Spin me! Spin meeee!" I'm thinking the 3-plied red yarn might pattern nicely with the natural white and brown yarns I've been spinning, neh? Or maybe it will make a nice hat or mittens mostly on its own.
When I'm spinning my own fiber on my own time, this is what happens:
This is some of my Cormo, perhaps 15 rolags' worth, spun into singles as thin as I can manage on my Lendrum fast flyer (also woolen, some long- and some short-draw) without breaking more than a few times per hour of spinning. And now I have evidence that these singles do, in fact, 2-ply up to a nice laceweight. Here's the "happy yarn" from my last post, now washed, hanging out with some friends:
The sewing bobbin at the bottom is for scale -- it's a Singer bobbin, in case you're keeping track. The white mini-skein is my test 2-ply Cormo laceweight skein, and I think it will work beautifully for what I want to do, which is a lace stole. More on that later -- perhaps much later, since spinning up that much laceweight might take a few, oh, years. :) The brown yarn is Corriedale, spun in the grease on a drop spindle and 2-plied on a wheel, and then washed on the stove for extra heat. There are about 100 yards there, and it's worsted weight, more or less. (I am too lazy to get out my wraps-per-inch tool right now.) The purple yarn is from a batt I blended from more anonymous carded wool toward the end of my Spinning I class. I Navajo-plied it, and I'm pleased. There's not enough for more than a doll hat or so, but fortunately, DD adores purple and has dolls in need of warm things.
And yes, I still knit sometimes:
Shining Violet is almost done. I've grafted one underarm and woven in most of the loose ends. I just need to pick up the neck stitches and make some neck edging (I haven't decided between ribbing and garter yet) with one more buttonhole in it. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but there's a short placket that will have a total of two buttonholes in it, to allow for DD's uncommonly large (even for a preschooler) head. DS-on-the-way has a pretty big head, too, as do DH and I. Wish me luck in labor!
I'm bummed about the sweater's sizing. I was trying for a year's growing room, but it fits exactly right now, which means DD will probably only get to wear it for this spring and maybe fall. I designed it for easy lengthening in hem and sleeves, so if she stays slim, maybe next winter/spring will work -- but it's already more fitted than I intended. Once it's all grafted together and done, I'll have to do a postmortem on my design and gauge and see where I went wrong. I already know I skipped some of the initial, slower-decreasing raglan rows that were in the pattern I was using, making the armholes less deep than they should be. Feh. Ah, well. DD likes it, and that was more or less the point. I've only used 5 balls of yarn (out of 20 purchased) so far, so a second draft is quite doable, even with extra left for alterations.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Happy Yarn
Just a quick post to show you a tiny test skein of laceweight Cormo yarn I plied last night. Still needs washing to make sure it doesn't bloom up bigger than laceweight, but I am pleased beyond all reason with this little skein of "happy yarn," so called because every time I see it, it makes me happy. What more could I ask of a hobby?
I was at a small spinning group last night. I plied up this baby from singles I had spun before, carded three rolags of Cormo, and then started spinning more laceweight singles. Would you believe that in almost 2.5 hours (including the plying and carding), I didn't even finish spinning all three rolags? I have to say, laceweight makes for a nice carding-to-spinning ratio, given that carding is not my favorite part of the job.
I was at a small spinning group last night. I plied up this baby from singles I had spun before, carded three rolags of Cormo, and then started spinning more laceweight singles. Would you believe that in almost 2.5 hours (including the plying and carding), I didn't even finish spinning all three rolags? I have to say, laceweight makes for a nice carding-to-spinning ratio, given that carding is not my favorite part of the job.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Keep Your Head Down
It's been a while since I posted. A couple of days ago I wrote a rather agonized post, none of it about knitting or spinning, and couldn't decide whether to publish it. Then, in the next day, almost everything I was writing about changed. So I deleted the draft, and here goes with what's still current.
The title is a request/admonishment to my unborn son. He's 32 weeks along now, and has been head-down at my last two checkups. Having had my first child by C-section because she was breech and couldn't be turned by any method known to humanity, I say, Hallelujah! And also, Ouch! I am ecstatically glad that this baby has a good chance of coming out in the time-honored way, 'cause C-section recovery is NO FUN, and early bonding where neither the child nor I is under the influence of narcotics is just sounding freaking beautiful. Sleeplessness, yes, most likely. Narcotics, not if I can help it.
The "Ouch" part is what it feels like to have a fetal head jammed into my pelvis a lot of the time. I know, it will get more intense before it gets easier. For now, it just seems like I'm getting more uncomfortable by the hour. But as some Buddhists say, pain is inevitable -- suffering is optional. I'll happily take the crushed bladder, sciatica, and so forth in exchange for a decent chance of getting this child born without surgery or drugs. Who me, suffer? No way! :)
And hey, I'm actually getting a little knitting done in the midst of all the spinning and childbirth-prep exercises. I have the belly and sleeves of the Shining Violet sweater done and ready to join to knit the raglan yoke. But today I needed some brainless knitting for church, so I swatched up some handspun for mittens. It was my first time trying to do anything with any of my handspun yarn besides look at it and pet it. Here's the swatch, on top of this week's childbirth reading:
The grayish stripe across the middle of the swatch is part of the charm of this yarn (she said, trying to get used to it herself). The brown in the yarn is from a Corriedale fleece that had many soft gray locks in it. I blended them in with the dark brown as I went, but not in all the rolags. That stripe is just a section of the brown singles with more gray than the rest. I'm planning to stripe this marled yarn with some pure-white handspun, so I expect (hope) those stripes will be the most visually striking element of the design.
Knitting with the yarn was nicer than I expected. The ply has only 8 or 9 bumps per inch, so I thought it might be pretty splitty, but the plies felted together just a tad in the final washing, so I'm having no such trouble. Also, it was a total thrill to be knitting with yarn that I've taken from raw, unwashed fleece to fixin'-to-be-mittens. It took some self-restraint not to tell everyone I saw about it. (I did tell a few!)
The title is a request/admonishment to my unborn son. He's 32 weeks along now, and has been head-down at my last two checkups. Having had my first child by C-section because she was breech and couldn't be turned by any method known to humanity, I say, Hallelujah! And also, Ouch! I am ecstatically glad that this baby has a good chance of coming out in the time-honored way, 'cause C-section recovery is NO FUN, and early bonding where neither the child nor I is under the influence of narcotics is just sounding freaking beautiful. Sleeplessness, yes, most likely. Narcotics, not if I can help it.
The "Ouch" part is what it feels like to have a fetal head jammed into my pelvis a lot of the time. I know, it will get more intense before it gets easier. For now, it just seems like I'm getting more uncomfortable by the hour. But as some Buddhists say, pain is inevitable -- suffering is optional. I'll happily take the crushed bladder, sciatica, and so forth in exchange for a decent chance of getting this child born without surgery or drugs. Who me, suffer? No way! :)
And hey, I'm actually getting a little knitting done in the midst of all the spinning and childbirth-prep exercises. I have the belly and sleeves of the Shining Violet sweater done and ready to join to knit the raglan yoke. But today I needed some brainless knitting for church, so I swatched up some handspun for mittens. It was my first time trying to do anything with any of my handspun yarn besides look at it and pet it. Here's the swatch, on top of this week's childbirth reading:
The grayish stripe across the middle of the swatch is part of the charm of this yarn (she said, trying to get used to it herself). The brown in the yarn is from a Corriedale fleece that had many soft gray locks in it. I blended them in with the dark brown as I went, but not in all the rolags. That stripe is just a section of the brown singles with more gray than the rest. I'm planning to stripe this marled yarn with some pure-white handspun, so I expect (hope) those stripes will be the most visually striking element of the design.
Knitting with the yarn was nicer than I expected. The ply has only 8 or 9 bumps per inch, so I thought it might be pretty splitty, but the plies felted together just a tad in the final washing, so I'm having no such trouble. Also, it was a total thrill to be knitting with yarn that I've taken from raw, unwashed fleece to fixin'-to-be-mittens. It took some self-restraint not to tell everyone I saw about it. (I did tell a few!)
Friday, February 15, 2008
See the Fleece!
Here you go with some images at last. First, the fleece in its delivery box, bagged, with all the extra air squeezed out:
When I opened the bag, the fleece puffed up to about twice this size. Then I unbagged and unrolled it:
Here's a closeup of the great crimp:
And here's me and one of my cats with the fleece, for scale:
In the background you can see some of the furniture I had to move aside to be able to roll this monster out. It definitely smelled like ram, or so I'm guessing. I chose the portion in the foreground of the last photo, which I'm guessing is from the hind section of the ram, to wash this afternoon, to put my scouring to the acid test for eliminating odor. (Just to be clear: I'm not seeing dung tags -- the fleece is well-skirted. But that section definitely shows more dirt than the others.) The fleece came out smelling much better. It's drying now.
If you've ever scoured a fleece, maybe you can identify with this: I can't not fiddle with a fleece while it's soaking in the HOT soapy water (perhaps my faith in chemistry falls short, but I just want the whole thing to be underwater, darn it, and fleece likes to float!). And as you may know, heat plus soap plus agitation gives you felting -- not so desirable in fiber you plan to comb or card and then spin! I restrained myself as much as I could. When the fleece is dry and I try carding it with my new, fine hand cards (thank you, DH!), we'll see whether my restraint was sufficient. I may try rewashing part of it: I think I put too much fleece in my mesh bags, and so my washing didn't make much of a dent in the dark tips. Worst case, if I trim them, it's less than a quarter inch of staple lost, so I'd still have at least 4 inches over most of the fleece. Suggestions welcome!
When I opened the bag, the fleece puffed up to about twice this size. Then I unbagged and unrolled it:
Here's a closeup of the great crimp:
And here's me and one of my cats with the fleece, for scale:
In the background you can see some of the furniture I had to move aside to be able to roll this monster out. It definitely smelled like ram, or so I'm guessing. I chose the portion in the foreground of the last photo, which I'm guessing is from the hind section of the ram, to wash this afternoon, to put my scouring to the acid test for eliminating odor. (Just to be clear: I'm not seeing dung tags -- the fleece is well-skirted. But that section definitely shows more dirt than the others.) The fleece came out smelling much better. It's drying now.
If you've ever scoured a fleece, maybe you can identify with this: I can't not fiddle with a fleece while it's soaking in the HOT soapy water (perhaps my faith in chemistry falls short, but I just want the whole thing to be underwater, darn it, and fleece likes to float!). And as you may know, heat plus soap plus agitation gives you felting -- not so desirable in fiber you plan to comb or card and then spin! I restrained myself as much as I could. When the fleece is dry and I try carding it with my new, fine hand cards (thank you, DH!), we'll see whether my restraint was sufficient. I may try rewashing part of it: I think I put too much fleece in my mesh bags, and so my washing didn't make much of a dent in the dark tips. Worst case, if I trim them, it's less than a quarter inch of staple lost, so I'd still have at least 4 inches over most of the fleece. Suggestions welcome!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Gory details: Shining Violet Sweater; and The Fleece Arrives!
My giant Cormo fleece came in the mail! I haven't had a chance to spread it out for a picture yet, but it's huge: 9.27 pounds of Cormo fleece from a ram named Ken. It smells a little different from the other raw fleeces I've worked with so far, but my spinning teacher (who should know, having frequented wool markets for years) assures me the smell is just sheepy, from last spring's shearing, and nothing to worry about with normal scouring. Maybe it's ram vs. ewe. Who knows? I took a hunk of it to my local handweaver's guild meeting this week, and everyone who looked at it said some variation of the same thing: "Wow, that crimp is amazing!" This is a wonderful fleece. It's from Cormo Sheep & Wool Farm in Orland, California. Sue, who runs the enterprise, is great to work with. I'm thinking of trying to spin 2-ply laceweight from a bunch of the fleece to make a lace stole for spring days and cool summer evenings. In about 4 years, when I get all that spun up and knitted while taking care of an infant/toddler. Wish me luck. :) A Norwegian-style sweater or two may also be in this fleece's future. My husband says it's so big, we'll be wearing pants made of the stuff. Can't you just picture him in some nice wool longies?
Okay, here's where I use this blog for a purely selfish purpose, though maybe you'll get something out of it, too. I'm recording all the construction details of my current knitting project, a purple sweater for DD made from KnitPicks' Shine Sport in Violet. I have 20 balls of this, but I hope to need only 5 or 6 for the sweater. All this note-taking is in case I like the result well enough to make another one like it later, perhaps for DS or a friend.
I'm using construction techniques based on Jacqueline Fee's book, The Sweater Workshop. I love this book. I have never knitted in the same way since reading it and working the sweater sampler. I'm much more keen on designing my own stuff now, or altering patterns as needed to be more what I want to knit. I recommend it highly.
So, for a sweater somewhere around size 4T or 5T (growing room for DD), I cast on 135 stitches for the lower edge of the sweater on size 5 24" circular needles using a long-tail cast on (my gauge is 5.75 st/in in stockinette). I knit in the round in garter (1st round purl, 2nd round knit, etc.) until I had four garter ridges, ending with a knit round. Then I switched to stockinette. In the first stockinette round (that's the second knit round in a row), I increased 15 stitches, spaced evenly around, to keep the garter from flaring or folding up too much. Then I worked until the length seemed right: about 8.25 inches, to get to within one inch of DD's armpits with some length to grow into. This much took exactly two balls of yarn. I left the belly part of the sweater on a cable to come back to.
I cast on 34 stitches for the sleeve and worked in garter as for the lower edge. (I tried to do this magic-loop style, but found it a pain, so ended up working the cast-on and garter on DPNs and then transferring to magic loop to continue.) In the first stockinette round, I increased 4 stitches, 2 one stitch in from the underarm line and 2 more evenly spaced around the wrist. Then I knit in stockinette, increasing 2 stitches in every 4th round, each increase 1 stitch in from the underarm line. When I had 60 stitches, I knit straight until the sleeve seemed long enough -- 10 inches, though this may need to be rolled up until DD grows a bit.
I unknit 6 stitches from the underarm "seamline" of each sleeve and then placed 12 stitches at each underarm on a piece of scrap yarn. I also unknit 6 stitches at one seamline of the body and then placed 12 stitches at each side of the body on scrap yarn. Then I worked a joining round, working all the non-scrap-yarn-held stitches of both sleeves and the body into one big round. On the next round, I placed markers at each joining point, using a different-colored marker at the right front join to remind me of the beginning of each round. I knit for a total of seven rounds (counting joining round and marker-placing round) with no increasing or decreasing.
Then I started the raglan decreases: as I approached each marker, I would knit to the last 2 stitches before the marker, k2tog, slip marker, k1, and SSK. I did this every other round, with alternate rounds knit straight around. I realized in hindsight that I should have worked 8 rows, decreasing only every fourth row, before starting the every-other-row decreases. As a result, the armholes are more fitted than I intended.
When I had 46 stitches between markers in the front, I started the short front placket as follows: Place a yarn marker at the center front. On a decreasing row, work all four raglan decreases and knit until there are 3 stitches left before the yarn marker. Turn so the inside of the sweater is facing you. Cast 6 new stitches onto the left needle using a cable cast-on. Purl all the way around on the inside, back to 3 stitches beyond the yarn marker, which can now be removed. Turn so the outside is facing you. *Slip one stitch as if to purl with yarn in back. P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, then work a raglan decrease round up to the last six stitches (the placket). For those stitches, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1. Turn so the inside is facing. Slip one stitch as if to purl with yarn in front. K1, P1, K1, P1, K1. Purl the rest of the way around to the last six stitches, then K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1. Repeat from * for an inch and a half or so, then work a buttonhole: as established, except at the beginning of an outside row, Sl1, P1, K1, yo, K2tog, P1, and proceed. This makes a small buttonhole, and you'll need a button that's round or nearly so to avoid catching on the edges. After the buttonhole, proceed as established with raglan shaping until 20 stitches remain between markers on each arm, stopping at the beginning of an outside-facing-you row.
Now start the neck shaping: Work the six placket stitches as usual and slip them onto a DPN or stitch holder. Work an outside row as established above up to the last six stitches. Slip those, unworked, onto another DPN or stitch holder. Turn and purl back around. (There's no catch-up row in this description, but you could work one with a separate piece of yarn to make the placket come out exactly even.) Continue with the raglan decreases and placket as established above, but start each outside row with (Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in back, K2tog) and end each outside row with (SSK, K1) on the last three stitches. Work 8 rows this way, then cut the yarn and secure the end.
I used a K1, P1 rib for the neck. I would have done it on smaller needles, but I didn't have any handy, so I stayed on the 5s. Here's how it goes: Join in a new piece of yarn. Knit the 6 stitches from the DPN on the right front placket onto a size-5 circular needle, whatever size you like. Knit into the slanting neck shaping (I picked up 7 or 8 stitches), then knit the live stitches from the back of the neck to the circ. Knit into the left neck shaping and knit the live stitches from the left placket. Now you have one complete outside row knitted. Turn. Now count the total stitches you have. You're going to decrease some stitches on this next row, and you want the final count to be an odd number of stitches so that there's a knit stitch (looking from the outside) next to each placket. To accomplish this, I knit the inside row of the placket as established, then (P1, K1) 4 times, P2tog, *(K1, P1) 4 times, K1, P2tog, repeat from * around to before end placket stitches. As you approach the placket stitches, if you don't find your seventh-to-last stitch will be a purl, fudge one more P2tog in there to make sure it is. Turn. Work plackets with K1, P1 ribbing in between (knit the knits, purl the purls) for 1 inch, working one more buttonhole on an outside row after the first 3 or 4 rows. Bind off loosely in pattern.
Put the twelve underarm stitches on each side that you held on scrap yarn (actually 12 from each sleeve and 12 from each side of the body) on 4 DPNs, size 5 or smaller. Use kitchener stitch (explained and illustrated nicely here) to graft them together. You may need to darn around the edges of the grafting to avoid holes, but if you worked as I did, you have plenty of ends with which to accomplish this! Weave in the rest of the ends, tack down the bottom edge of the left placket to the inside of the sweater, and sew buttons (after checking they fit well!) behind the two buttonholes.
Voila! If you skipped the same 8 rows I did, you likely now have a sweater that fits a size 4T-or-so kid like a glove for about three weeks. :)
Okay, here's where I use this blog for a purely selfish purpose, though maybe you'll get something out of it, too. I'm recording all the construction details of my current knitting project, a purple sweater for DD made from KnitPicks' Shine Sport in Violet. I have 20 balls of this, but I hope to need only 5 or 6 for the sweater. All this note-taking is in case I like the result well enough to make another one like it later, perhaps for DS or a friend.
I'm using construction techniques based on Jacqueline Fee's book, The Sweater Workshop. I love this book. I have never knitted in the same way since reading it and working the sweater sampler. I'm much more keen on designing my own stuff now, or altering patterns as needed to be more what I want to knit. I recommend it highly.
So, for a sweater somewhere around size 4T or 5T (growing room for DD), I cast on 135 stitches for the lower edge of the sweater on size 5 24" circular needles using a long-tail cast on (my gauge is 5.75 st/in in stockinette). I knit in the round in garter (1st round purl, 2nd round knit, etc.) until I had four garter ridges, ending with a knit round. Then I switched to stockinette. In the first stockinette round (that's the second knit round in a row), I increased 15 stitches, spaced evenly around, to keep the garter from flaring or folding up too much. Then I worked until the length seemed right: about 8.25 inches, to get to within one inch of DD's armpits with some length to grow into. This much took exactly two balls of yarn. I left the belly part of the sweater on a cable to come back to.
I cast on 34 stitches for the sleeve and worked in garter as for the lower edge. (I tried to do this magic-loop style, but found it a pain, so ended up working the cast-on and garter on DPNs and then transferring to magic loop to continue.) In the first stockinette round, I increased 4 stitches, 2 one stitch in from the underarm line and 2 more evenly spaced around the wrist. Then I knit in stockinette, increasing 2 stitches in every 4th round, each increase 1 stitch in from the underarm line. When I had 60 stitches, I knit straight until the sleeve seemed long enough -- 10 inches, though this may need to be rolled up until DD grows a bit.
I unknit 6 stitches from the underarm "seamline" of each sleeve and then placed 12 stitches at each underarm on a piece of scrap yarn. I also unknit 6 stitches at one seamline of the body and then placed 12 stitches at each side of the body on scrap yarn. Then I worked a joining round, working all the non-scrap-yarn-held stitches of both sleeves and the body into one big round. On the next round, I placed markers at each joining point, using a different-colored marker at the right front join to remind me of the beginning of each round. I knit for a total of seven rounds (counting joining round and marker-placing round) with no increasing or decreasing.
Then I started the raglan decreases: as I approached each marker, I would knit to the last 2 stitches before the marker, k2tog, slip marker, k1, and SSK. I did this every other round, with alternate rounds knit straight around. I realized in hindsight that I should have worked 8 rows, decreasing only every fourth row, before starting the every-other-row decreases. As a result, the armholes are more fitted than I intended.
When I had 46 stitches between markers in the front, I started the short front placket as follows: Place a yarn marker at the center front. On a decreasing row, work all four raglan decreases and knit until there are 3 stitches left before the yarn marker. Turn so the inside of the sweater is facing you. Cast 6 new stitches onto the left needle using a cable cast-on. Purl all the way around on the inside, back to 3 stitches beyond the yarn marker, which can now be removed. Turn so the outside is facing you. *Slip one stitch as if to purl with yarn in back. P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, then work a raglan decrease round up to the last six stitches (the placket). For those stitches, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1. Turn so the inside is facing. Slip one stitch as if to purl with yarn in front. K1, P1, K1, P1, K1. Purl the rest of the way around to the last six stitches, then K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1. Repeat from * for an inch and a half or so, then work a buttonhole: as established, except at the beginning of an outside row, Sl1, P1, K1, yo, K2tog, P1, and proceed. This makes a small buttonhole, and you'll need a button that's round or nearly so to avoid catching on the edges. After the buttonhole, proceed as established with raglan shaping until 20 stitches remain between markers on each arm, stopping at the beginning of an outside-facing-you row.
Now start the neck shaping: Work the six placket stitches as usual and slip them onto a DPN or stitch holder. Work an outside row as established above up to the last six stitches. Slip those, unworked, onto another DPN or stitch holder. Turn and purl back around. (There's no catch-up row in this description, but you could work one with a separate piece of yarn to make the placket come out exactly even.) Continue with the raglan decreases and placket as established above, but start each outside row with (Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in back, K2tog) and end each outside row with (SSK, K1) on the last three stitches. Work 8 rows this way, then cut the yarn and secure the end.
I used a K1, P1 rib for the neck. I would have done it on smaller needles, but I didn't have any handy, so I stayed on the 5s. Here's how it goes: Join in a new piece of yarn. Knit the 6 stitches from the DPN on the right front placket onto a size-5 circular needle, whatever size you like. Knit into the slanting neck shaping (I picked up 7 or 8 stitches), then knit the live stitches from the back of the neck to the circ. Knit into the left neck shaping and knit the live stitches from the left placket. Now you have one complete outside row knitted. Turn. Now count the total stitches you have. You're going to decrease some stitches on this next row, and you want the final count to be an odd number of stitches so that there's a knit stitch (looking from the outside) next to each placket. To accomplish this, I knit the inside row of the placket as established, then (P1, K1) 4 times, P2tog, *(K1, P1) 4 times, K1, P2tog, repeat from * around to before end placket stitches. As you approach the placket stitches, if you don't find your seventh-to-last stitch will be a purl, fudge one more P2tog in there to make sure it is. Turn. Work plackets with K1, P1 ribbing in between (knit the knits, purl the purls) for 1 inch, working one more buttonhole on an outside row after the first 3 or 4 rows. Bind off loosely in pattern.
Put the twelve underarm stitches on each side that you held on scrap yarn (actually 12 from each sleeve and 12 from each side of the body) on 4 DPNs, size 5 or smaller. Use kitchener stitch (explained and illustrated nicely here) to graft them together. You may need to darn around the edges of the grafting to avoid holes, but if you worked as I did, you have plenty of ends with which to accomplish this! Weave in the rest of the ends, tack down the bottom edge of the left placket to the inside of the sweater, and sew buttons (after checking they fit well!) behind the two buttonholes.
Voila! If you skipped the same 8 rows I did, you likely now have a sweater that fits a size 4T-or-so kid like a glove for about three weeks. :)
Saturday, February 9, 2008
FOs: Baby Yoda Sweater, handspun; Getting in shape for childbirth
Yes -- the Baby Yoda sweater is done!
And y'know, right after I wrote my last blog entry, I discovered my first few seams were. totally. wrong. I had sewn the left cardigan front where the right should be, and then blithely sewn the right sleeve on. How did I manage such a boneheaded maneuver? Well, I had bound off the neck stitches and left the shoulder stitches live on that side, instead of vice versa (they were right on the other side), and I didn't check the slanting neckline.... Enough excuses. It was just boneheaded. So I undid the incorrect seams and put everything back together the right way on Sunday, in one marathon stretch so I wouldn't give myself an excuse for further procrastination. And now it's complete:
I checked in with my spinning teacher, who works at my LYS, about colorfastness. She said there had been some dyeing issues with Toasty Toes, now resolved, and that I could render this sweater colorfast by soaking it in a strong white-vinegar solution for a couple of hours before I wash it. Good enough.
I now have another project to occupy my idle hands. Having made a hat and scarf for DH, a pair of socks for myself, and a sweater for DS-on-the-way, it's time for something for DD. She's getting a purple spring/fall sweater, from Shine Sport (KnitPicks) in violet (of course). I'm planning a front-placket sweater with the "fancy buttons" specified by DD, along the lines of what Jacqueline Fee outlines in The Sweater Workshop, but with a higher percentage of stitches for the sleeves, to make it fit a child. DD is going on 4, so I'll aim for about a 5-year-old size for growing room, and I'll keep a couple of skeins of yarn for lengthening sleeves or hem later on, in case that will extend the wearability. Right now I'm a couple of inches short of the armpit, working bottom-up:
This is the second most boring knitting project I've ever done. The most boring was a stockinette cowl in pashmina, and there the fiber helped make up for the hours of unbroken stockinette. I asked DD if she'd like some cables or something, and she declined. I told her I might insist on a cable up each sleeve or some such if I'm going insane with boredom by that point.
Also, as promised, here are photos of my first four skeins of handspun, all washed and with the twist set, with pennies for scale:
These have all been described in previous posts. From front to back, they are: white Lincoln, spun in the grease on a spindle and 2-plied on a wheel; white Lincoln, spun clean and Navajo-plied on a wheel; and two skeins of brown Corriedale/white Lincoln, spun clean and 3-plied on a wheel. All but the first came out nice and balanced, though I had to run the Navajo-plied yarn back through the wheel to remove the extra twist from my not being able to keep up while plying. Here are some close-ups:
Mittens, here I come, with the three clean-spun skeins. I'm still spindling some greasy Corriedale to match the Lincoln, and I hope to make a hand puppet of those two.
In our last class of beginning spinning (not counting the dye class, which I'll have to do later, when I'm not pregnant), we learned how to spin worsted from top, predrafted or off the fold. Spinning off the fold doesn't quite click for me yet, but worsted feels pretty good.
In my non-fiber life, I've started a Bradley childbirth preparation class, and I'm liking it a lot so far. It's easy to hear, "Eat well and exercise regularly" from my doctor and not end up doing it. But in the Bradley class, my marching orders are very specific: so many servings of each different kind of food per day or week, so many reps of these exact exercises every day, and so on. And I'm doing well so far -- there's nothing like a daily chart to reactivate my good-student compulsiveness from my school days. The exercises ramp up in reps or duration for the first six or seven weeks of class and then hold mostly steady until the due date. We'll see how I do with the more strenuous demands. But already I'm feeling stronger and more energetic. Besides the exercise and good food, part of the energy is likely coming from getting to bed a bit earlier, since bedtime now involves a nightly 20-minute massage from DH for relaxation practice. Yeah!! I'll go to bed for that!
And y'know, right after I wrote my last blog entry, I discovered my first few seams were. totally. wrong. I had sewn the left cardigan front where the right should be, and then blithely sewn the right sleeve on. How did I manage such a boneheaded maneuver? Well, I had bound off the neck stitches and left the shoulder stitches live on that side, instead of vice versa (they were right on the other side), and I didn't check the slanting neckline.... Enough excuses. It was just boneheaded. So I undid the incorrect seams and put everything back together the right way on Sunday, in one marathon stretch so I wouldn't give myself an excuse for further procrastination. And now it's complete:
I checked in with my spinning teacher, who works at my LYS, about colorfastness. She said there had been some dyeing issues with Toasty Toes, now resolved, and that I could render this sweater colorfast by soaking it in a strong white-vinegar solution for a couple of hours before I wash it. Good enough.
I now have another project to occupy my idle hands. Having made a hat and scarf for DH, a pair of socks for myself, and a sweater for DS-on-the-way, it's time for something for DD. She's getting a purple spring/fall sweater, from Shine Sport (KnitPicks) in violet (of course). I'm planning a front-placket sweater with the "fancy buttons" specified by DD, along the lines of what Jacqueline Fee outlines in The Sweater Workshop, but with a higher percentage of stitches for the sleeves, to make it fit a child. DD is going on 4, so I'll aim for about a 5-year-old size for growing room, and I'll keep a couple of skeins of yarn for lengthening sleeves or hem later on, in case that will extend the wearability. Right now I'm a couple of inches short of the armpit, working bottom-up:
This is the second most boring knitting project I've ever done. The most boring was a stockinette cowl in pashmina, and there the fiber helped make up for the hours of unbroken stockinette. I asked DD if she'd like some cables or something, and she declined. I told her I might insist on a cable up each sleeve or some such if I'm going insane with boredom by that point.
Also, as promised, here are photos of my first four skeins of handspun, all washed and with the twist set, with pennies for scale:
These have all been described in previous posts. From front to back, they are: white Lincoln, spun in the grease on a spindle and 2-plied on a wheel; white Lincoln, spun clean and Navajo-plied on a wheel; and two skeins of brown Corriedale/white Lincoln, spun clean and 3-plied on a wheel. All but the first came out nice and balanced, though I had to run the Navajo-plied yarn back through the wheel to remove the extra twist from my not being able to keep up while plying. Here are some close-ups:
Mittens, here I come, with the three clean-spun skeins. I'm still spindling some greasy Corriedale to match the Lincoln, and I hope to make a hand puppet of those two.
In our last class of beginning spinning (not counting the dye class, which I'll have to do later, when I'm not pregnant), we learned how to spin worsted from top, predrafted or off the fold. Spinning off the fold doesn't quite click for me yet, but worsted feels pretty good.
In my non-fiber life, I've started a Bradley childbirth preparation class, and I'm liking it a lot so far. It's easy to hear, "Eat well and exercise regularly" from my doctor and not end up doing it. But in the Bradley class, my marching orders are very specific: so many servings of each different kind of food per day or week, so many reps of these exact exercises every day, and so on. And I'm doing well so far -- there's nothing like a daily chart to reactivate my good-student compulsiveness from my school days. The exercises ramp up in reps or duration for the first six or seven weeks of class and then hold mostly steady until the due date. We'll see how I do with the more strenuous demands. But already I'm feeling stronger and more energetic. Besides the exercise and good food, part of the energy is likely coming from getting to bed a bit earlier, since bedtime now involves a nightly 20-minute massage from DH for relaxation practice. Yeah!! I'll go to bed for that!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Yarn, Glorious Yarn!
I hope all the photos today will provide sufficient distraction from the fact I haven't finished the Baby Yoda Sweater yet, despite the tone of my last post title... :/ It will get done, never fear.
But meanwhile, the spinning has been glorious! In those two half-days at DD's school, plus an evening and morning at home, I spun enough to have a total of 1.5 bobbins of dark Corriedale singles, and 1 full bobbin of white Lincoln singles, all fairly fine. Oh yeah, and in between those two school days I took the plunge and bought a spinning wheel!
It's a Lendrum double-treadle folding wheel, the same as the loaner wheel I had this week, and I love it. I bought the basic package -- what you see here, plus 3 more bobbins and a lazy kate. I'll probably add the plying head soon. Oh, and if you noticed the Scotch tension band hanging loose, don't worry -- I was just winding off the last of my plied yarn!
That's right -- today in class I finally got some good guidance on plying. I 3-plied some of the singles as two dark, one light. I haven't washed the yarn to set the twist yet, but it's promising in terms of balance. Here are some pictures:
If you're keeping track, this is my second finished handspun. I'm very pleased. I'm thinking mittens. For me, so there. :P
When I got home, I couldn't stop. I split up my remaining 0.5 bobbin of Corriedale and plied some more, same as the first skein (but only about 60 yards):
I had a few yards of Corrie singles left over. They're now wrapped around the center shaft of my niddy-noddy and happily being used as skein ties.
I still had half a bobbin of white Lincoln singles, and I didn't feel like trying to split it equally onto 3 bobbins, so I tried Navajo plying for the first time. (This isn't covered in my current spinning class, though it will be in Spinning II, so once again, no blame to my teacher for these -- though she gets credit for answering my, "I'm sorely tempted to try Navajo-plying my leftover Lincoln" with, "Go ahead and give it a try!") It took a little while to get the hang of it; I broke the singles twice and so have two big, snarly knots I'll have to cut out when I'm knitting. I also had a hard time keeping up with the wheel, even on the lowest drive ratio, so the yarn was quite clearly overplied when I skeined it. Fortunately, I'd gotten some advice on that in class today, so I ran it back through the wheel real quick-like, the other direction, to take out the extra twist, leaving a little to set with washing. Now I love it!
Sorry, I forgot the standard penny for scale. I'll get it into the post-washing pictures.
I'm hoping these two yarns will work together, maybe as mittens with a little colorwork or a few stripes. The white is a bit thinner. I'll have to see how much each yarn fluffs up with washing.
Oh, and that isn't even all! We also blended some colored merino rovings into batts on drum carders in class today, and I've spun up most of mine. Pictures of that will have to wait, though -- my good light is all gone. I don't think I'll have enough yarn to make anything human-scale, but it's hard to be sure yet. My daughter loves the colors (navy, periwinkle, and fuschia blend, chosen because they're her favorites) so much, I may need to buy more of those colors and have another go so I can make her something from it. After this fun experience with drum carding, I was thrilled to learn that joining my local handweaver's guild ($30/year) entitles me to rent a drum carder, the one I used today in fact, for $5. Per month. You can't beat that with a stick!
I'm thinking that the soaking times when I'm washing all this yarn will be a good time to catch up on the housework that's been neglected this week....
I need another knitting project. My hands get all fidgety when I'm waiting anywhere. More on that when I get one going. Happy fiber, everyone!
But meanwhile, the spinning has been glorious! In those two half-days at DD's school, plus an evening and morning at home, I spun enough to have a total of 1.5 bobbins of dark Corriedale singles, and 1 full bobbin of white Lincoln singles, all fairly fine. Oh yeah, and in between those two school days I took the plunge and bought a spinning wheel!
It's a Lendrum double-treadle folding wheel, the same as the loaner wheel I had this week, and I love it. I bought the basic package -- what you see here, plus 3 more bobbins and a lazy kate. I'll probably add the plying head soon. Oh, and if you noticed the Scotch tension band hanging loose, don't worry -- I was just winding off the last of my plied yarn!
That's right -- today in class I finally got some good guidance on plying. I 3-plied some of the singles as two dark, one light. I haven't washed the yarn to set the twist yet, but it's promising in terms of balance. Here are some pictures:
If you're keeping track, this is my second finished handspun. I'm very pleased. I'm thinking mittens. For me, so there. :P
When I got home, I couldn't stop. I split up my remaining 0.5 bobbin of Corriedale and plied some more, same as the first skein (but only about 60 yards):
I had a few yards of Corrie singles left over. They're now wrapped around the center shaft of my niddy-noddy and happily being used as skein ties.
I still had half a bobbin of white Lincoln singles, and I didn't feel like trying to split it equally onto 3 bobbins, so I tried Navajo plying for the first time. (This isn't covered in my current spinning class, though it will be in Spinning II, so once again, no blame to my teacher for these -- though she gets credit for answering my, "I'm sorely tempted to try Navajo-plying my leftover Lincoln" with, "Go ahead and give it a try!") It took a little while to get the hang of it; I broke the singles twice and so have two big, snarly knots I'll have to cut out when I'm knitting. I also had a hard time keeping up with the wheel, even on the lowest drive ratio, so the yarn was quite clearly overplied when I skeined it. Fortunately, I'd gotten some advice on that in class today, so I ran it back through the wheel real quick-like, the other direction, to take out the extra twist, leaving a little to set with washing. Now I love it!
Sorry, I forgot the standard penny for scale. I'll get it into the post-washing pictures.
I'm hoping these two yarns will work together, maybe as mittens with a little colorwork or a few stripes. The white is a bit thinner. I'll have to see how much each yarn fluffs up with washing.
Oh, and that isn't even all! We also blended some colored merino rovings into batts on drum carders in class today, and I've spun up most of mine. Pictures of that will have to wait, though -- my good light is all gone. I don't think I'll have enough yarn to make anything human-scale, but it's hard to be sure yet. My daughter loves the colors (navy, periwinkle, and fuschia blend, chosen because they're her favorites) so much, I may need to buy more of those colors and have another go so I can make her something from it. After this fun experience with drum carding, I was thrilled to learn that joining my local handweaver's guild ($30/year) entitles me to rent a drum carder, the one I used today in fact, for $5. Per month. You can't beat that with a stick!
I'm thinking that the soaking times when I'm washing all this yarn will be a good time to catch up on the housework that's been neglected this week....
I need another knitting project. My hands get all fidgety when I'm waiting anywhere. More on that when I get one going. Happy fiber, everyone!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Try Not; Do or Do Not; There Is No Try
If you're a Star Wars fan, you'll recognize the title as Yoda's words to Luke during the latter's training as a Jedi. Yes, the Baby Yoda sweater is nearing completion. I've knitted all the large pieces (still one I-cord tie to go) and have done about half the seams. I don't particularly love doing seams, but they are so satisfying that I don't keep around unseamed items long-term. Thus the Yoda quote. After seaming, I'll just have the neck border to knit, and it's on held stitches, so there's no picking up of stitches to procrastinate about.
(Who, me? Block before seaming? Oops...)
I'm still not in love with this colorway as knitted, though I loved it as skeined. :( But I've had great comments from people who've seen it in progress. Since it's a baby sweater in very non-femme colors and I'm obviously pregnant, it prompts a lot of questions about whether I'm having a boy or a girl. It's a boy, since you asked; but my tendency has been to knit in unisex colors for DD, too, partly to amortize my knitting effort over more children and partly to encourage her to enjoy a variety of colors and ways of being in the world.
The spinning continues. I now have dates to spin in all three of the kindergarten classes at DD's Waldorf school -- more guilt-free spinning time, hooray! I'm doing a lot of hand-carding this weekend so I'll have enough fiber to spin while I'm there -- the carding is a bit tedious, but should be worth it for all that good wheel time.
This week my loaner wheel from spinning class is a Lendrum double-treadle folding wheel, and I love it SOO much more than the Schacht Matchless single-treadle I was using last week. Mostly I love that it starts and treadles so easily and doesn't walk away from me while I spin. This may be mostly a single- vs. double-treadle thing; I don't want to write off Schacht without trying one of their double-treadle wheels, so I'm hoping to try the Ladybug before we're done. Schacht is my oh-so-local spinning wheel producer, so I like to buy what I can from them. But I don't know if I can buy a wheel that doesn't have a large bobbin available for plying, so the Lendrum is a stronger contender at this point. I'd rather have a starter wheel whose limitations aren't immediately apparent to me -- there's not much room in my house for multiple wheels!
I also want to try out the Kromski Sonata, which poses a problem, because no store within hours of me stocks them as far as I can tell. But the other day at my LYS, while I was waiting to ask my spinning teacher a question, she was talking to someone who owns a Sonata (she bought it on the Internet) and was helping a friend shop for a wheel. I brazenly asked this total stranger if I could come try out her Sonata at her home, and she said yes! We have a date in a couple of weeks.
Oh, and I'm ordering a big ol' fleece to work on. I'm hoping this is not serious folly for someone who doesn't yet own a wheel! But I think that if spinning doesn't work out as a hobby for me long-term, both the fleece and the wheel should have good resale value. The fleece is a 9-pound monster from Cormo Sheep and Wool in Orland, California. I'm psyched about having something to spin that will yield yarn soft enough for next-to-the-skin wear by my picky family, me included -- Cormo is the same micron count (fineness) as merino wool, but with longer typical staple lengths for nicer spinning. If only it were superwash. (Sigh.) Ah, well. Still fine for hats, scarves, and probably enough wool for two or more adult sweaters, though I'll have to see how much of the weight washes out as lanolin. And of course all that's in the future, once I actually process and spin the stuff up! I'll probably swatch some of it and try washing it as I do my socks, in a lingerie bag, cold water front-loader machine wash, air dry. If that works, I'm golden. Baby wear, here we come! I'll be sure to post photos of the fleece when it arrives.
(Who, me? Block before seaming? Oops...)
I'm still not in love with this colorway as knitted, though I loved it as skeined. :( But I've had great comments from people who've seen it in progress. Since it's a baby sweater in very non-femme colors and I'm obviously pregnant, it prompts a lot of questions about whether I'm having a boy or a girl. It's a boy, since you asked; but my tendency has been to knit in unisex colors for DD, too, partly to amortize my knitting effort over more children and partly to encourage her to enjoy a variety of colors and ways of being in the world.
The spinning continues. I now have dates to spin in all three of the kindergarten classes at DD's Waldorf school -- more guilt-free spinning time, hooray! I'm doing a lot of hand-carding this weekend so I'll have enough fiber to spin while I'm there -- the carding is a bit tedious, but should be worth it for all that good wheel time.
This week my loaner wheel from spinning class is a Lendrum double-treadle folding wheel, and I love it SOO much more than the Schacht Matchless single-treadle I was using last week. Mostly I love that it starts and treadles so easily and doesn't walk away from me while I spin. This may be mostly a single- vs. double-treadle thing; I don't want to write off Schacht without trying one of their double-treadle wheels, so I'm hoping to try the Ladybug before we're done. Schacht is my oh-so-local spinning wheel producer, so I like to buy what I can from them. But I don't know if I can buy a wheel that doesn't have a large bobbin available for plying, so the Lendrum is a stronger contender at this point. I'd rather have a starter wheel whose limitations aren't immediately apparent to me -- there's not much room in my house for multiple wheels!
I also want to try out the Kromski Sonata, which poses a problem, because no store within hours of me stocks them as far as I can tell. But the other day at my LYS, while I was waiting to ask my spinning teacher a question, she was talking to someone who owns a Sonata (she bought it on the Internet) and was helping a friend shop for a wheel. I brazenly asked this total stranger if I could come try out her Sonata at her home, and she said yes! We have a date in a couple of weeks.
Oh, and I'm ordering a big ol' fleece to work on. I'm hoping this is not serious folly for someone who doesn't yet own a wheel! But I think that if spinning doesn't work out as a hobby for me long-term, both the fleece and the wheel should have good resale value. The fleece is a 9-pound monster from Cormo Sheep and Wool in Orland, California. I'm psyched about having something to spin that will yield yarn soft enough for next-to-the-skin wear by my picky family, me included -- Cormo is the same micron count (fineness) as merino wool, but with longer typical staple lengths for nicer spinning. If only it were superwash. (Sigh.) Ah, well. Still fine for hats, scarves, and probably enough wool for two or more adult sweaters, though I'll have to see how much of the weight washes out as lanolin. And of course all that's in the future, once I actually process and spin the stuff up! I'll probably swatch some of it and try washing it as I do my socks, in a lingerie bag, cold water front-loader machine wash, air dry. If that works, I'm golden. Baby wear, here we come! I'll be sure to post photos of the fleece when it arrives.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
The Handspun Monster Emerges, and Knitting Meditation
Last night I plied, washed, snapped, and dried (with light blocking) my first skein of handspun. I spun this on a spindle (here's the entry with a picture of the singles on the spindle) and plied it on a wheel. We haven't had our plying lesson in the spinning class yet, so my teacher gets none of the blame for this. Here you go:
This is about 1.25 ounces of Lincoln fleece (an award-winning fleece!), hand-carded and spun in the grease, and apparently severely overplied (2-ply). The light blocking? Yeah, without that, even after the hot water wash and snapping, the yarn twisted completely up on itself. I'm not sure if blocking buys me any balance long-term. Something to find out, I suppose!
I'm spinning some dark-brown Corriedale under the same conditions, though probably by the time I ply it, I will have learned a bit more about plying. I hope to make something out of both these "first yarns" that will be some kind of fun. Maybe a striped purse for my daughter. The Lincoln, at least, is too scratchy to want to wear near the skin.
In the meantime, I spun another hour and a half or so today on the wheel, and I'm starting to get the hang of long-draw spinning, sort of. At the end of every rolag, I end up with a ring of fiber and assorted lumps that weren't there to begin with. Hmph. That will be a good question for class.
In current knitting, Thursday I cast on a Baby Yoda Sweater (pattern by Cari Luna). So far the Toasty Toes is not living up to my hopes in terms of how the colors work together, and the dye is getting on my fingers, which I hope doesn't bode ill for washability. Here's what I have so far:
The colors, though kind of muddy when all knitted up together, are much richer than I was able to capture in a photograph.
I'll keep going and see how things shape up. It's not a project that should take a long time, so the risk is low. And I'm using the knitting as a meditation for my mom, who went through back surgery on Friday and is in the painful part of her immediate recovery. Since she's hoping to visit the grandson this jacket is for (my son, due in April) when he's born, and this should be near the end of her period of activity restrictions during her recovery, it seems like the right kind of project for such meditations.
This is about 1.25 ounces of Lincoln fleece (an award-winning fleece!), hand-carded and spun in the grease, and apparently severely overplied (2-ply). The light blocking? Yeah, without that, even after the hot water wash and snapping, the yarn twisted completely up on itself. I'm not sure if blocking buys me any balance long-term. Something to find out, I suppose!
I'm spinning some dark-brown Corriedale under the same conditions, though probably by the time I ply it, I will have learned a bit more about plying. I hope to make something out of both these "first yarns" that will be some kind of fun. Maybe a striped purse for my daughter. The Lincoln, at least, is too scratchy to want to wear near the skin.
In the meantime, I spun another hour and a half or so today on the wheel, and I'm starting to get the hang of long-draw spinning, sort of. At the end of every rolag, I end up with a ring of fiber and assorted lumps that weren't there to begin with. Hmph. That will be a good question for class.
In current knitting, Thursday I cast on a Baby Yoda Sweater (pattern by Cari Luna). So far the Toasty Toes is not living up to my hopes in terms of how the colors work together, and the dye is getting on my fingers, which I hope doesn't bode ill for washability. Here's what I have so far:
The colors, though kind of muddy when all knitted up together, are much richer than I was able to capture in a photograph.
I'll keep going and see how things shape up. It's not a project that should take a long time, so the risk is low. And I'm using the knitting as a meditation for my mom, who went through back surgery on Friday and is in the painful part of her immediate recovery. Since she's hoping to visit the grandson this jacket is for (my son, due in April) when he's born, and this should be near the end of her period of activity restrictions during her recovery, it seems like the right kind of project for such meditations.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Hypnotized
I'm feeling distinctly indistinct. Sort of foggy. I just spun for about two hours, nearly continuously, on a Schacht Matchless single-treadle spinning wheel on loan for my spinning class. Our homework was to spin for an hour straight, to get a good rhythm established. Here's what I spun:
It's Corriedale, which I washed last week and carded yesterday.
I'm finding the wheel difficult, mostly the treadling. Things got easier when I tied it to my chair legs so it would stop running away. But something still feels weird about it. I suspect I will prefer a double-treadle wheel. In my spinning class, we can take home a different wheel each week to try it out. I'm hoping for a Schacht Ladybug or Lendrum DT folding wheel this next week. I want to try out a Kromski Sonata, too, but they don't carry those at my LYS, so I'll have to make a field trip to try it if I don't fall in love with another wheel soon.
My spinning teacher warned us before she passed out wheels that the wheel we have the first week never seems to get a fair shake, because we're still working out our own technique, so anything will feel awkward at first. And I will admit it got a lot easier once I worked out some kinks in my treadling and drafting/feeding techniques. But I definitely want to try the others!
In the meantime, I still have my spindling-in-the-grease project for more portable spinning. I wound my white Lincoln into a ball (a very tight ball the size of a good-size tangerine, almost a tennis ball) in preparation for plying, and I still have the greasy brown Corriedale to card and spin. I bought a Schacht hi-lo student spindle so I could have two spindles at home, because DD (age 3.5, so I'm not holding my breath) says she really wants to try spindle spinning, and I don't really want her to try it in the middle of my first yarn project. :/ I like the Schacht better than the Louet student spindle I was issued in class. I seem to be able to keep the Schacht spinning longer with less trouble, which makes sense to me since the Schacht is rim-weighted and the Louet is evenly weighted.
Can you tell I can't think about anything but spinning right now? Time to break out of the fog and fix some lunch before I expire from the low-blood-sugar effects of fiber fever!
It's Corriedale, which I washed last week and carded yesterday.
I'm finding the wheel difficult, mostly the treadling. Things got easier when I tied it to my chair legs so it would stop running away. But something still feels weird about it. I suspect I will prefer a double-treadle wheel. In my spinning class, we can take home a different wheel each week to try it out. I'm hoping for a Schacht Ladybug or Lendrum DT folding wheel this next week. I want to try out a Kromski Sonata, too, but they don't carry those at my LYS, so I'll have to make a field trip to try it if I don't fall in love with another wheel soon.
My spinning teacher warned us before she passed out wheels that the wheel we have the first week never seems to get a fair shake, because we're still working out our own technique, so anything will feel awkward at first. And I will admit it got a lot easier once I worked out some kinks in my treadling and drafting/feeding techniques. But I definitely want to try the others!
In the meantime, I still have my spindling-in-the-grease project for more portable spinning. I wound my white Lincoln into a ball (a very tight ball the size of a good-size tangerine, almost a tennis ball) in preparation for plying, and I still have the greasy brown Corriedale to card and spin. I bought a Schacht hi-lo student spindle so I could have two spindles at home, because DD (age 3.5, so I'm not holding my breath) says she really wants to try spindle spinning, and I don't really want her to try it in the middle of my first yarn project. :/ I like the Schacht better than the Louet student spindle I was issued in class. I seem to be able to keep the Schacht spinning longer with less trouble, which makes sense to me since the Schacht is rim-weighted and the Louet is evenly weighted.
Can you tell I can't think about anything but spinning right now? Time to break out of the fog and fix some lunch before I expire from the low-blood-sugar effects of fiber fever!
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