Mikknit

I finished my first project on Suzie the other day. I found a bag of fiber on top of the fridge, who knows how long it’d been there, but it seemed like it’d be a good candidate for a first project on a new wheel. Mill end fiber, probably wool/mohair from Brown Sheep (but we can’t say for certain, as even the vendor didn’t recognize it!), purchased at Detta’s Spindle a few years ago, probably in 2001 or 2002. The color shown in these pictures really doesn’t represent the true color, which is sort of a dead-grass color (grayish green?) with darker green shot through it. I’m going to continue to play with it, try to get a good representation of the color.

Both skeins in natural light, pretty but the color’s not quite right

Close-up, again in natural light. Still sucky color, but I love the detail. The yarn is under-spun, you can see here.

Indoors, with a flash. This is probably the best color representation I’ve got. Not thrilled.

I started another project practically as soon as this was wound off the bobbin, of course. I mentioned the *other* thing Kerry enabled me into at Detta’s sale - a bag of superwash wool/mohair fiber, white with shots of black in it. It’s asking to be sock yarn, a request I simply cannot deny. It’s spinning up SO nicely, but of course I didn’t take a picture of it. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to spin tonight after the kids are in bed and I can take a picture of my progress then. My wheel is making a clicking sound which was not remedied by having a certain screw tightened, which I was led to believe would work. I may have to take a closer listen and see if I can pinpoint where the noise is coming from - it’s not as easy with this wheel as it was with the Louet. Of course, I spun on the Louet exclusively for nearly 5 years and know its quirks as well as I know my own. This one, I’m still learning. I have to remember that even though I like to think I’m a good spinner and am mechanically inclined enough to troubleshoot things, I’m not intimately familiar with this wheel quite yet. Therefore, I need to cut myself some slack and not get frustrated if I can’t figure it out and need to seek help.

There’s been some knitting going on too, of course - while I was waiting on the return of the little bit of yarn I’d given Kerry, I whipped up a sweater for Arlo out of some Reynolds Signature (color 118) that Grace and I picked up at Three Kittens (their website seems to have gone kablooey). I don’t normally care to work with something with so high a percentage of acrylic, but they were having a huge sale and this stuff was 75% off - I got six balls (three of this color, three of color 108) for just over $8, so not so expensive that I can’t just donate it if I don’t like it. I think it took all of four days to knit the sweater, including having to rip the body back to the armpits once, having to undo the ribbing and lengthen the sweater, and then having to rip out the first sleeve and redo it because I’d miscalculated my decreases. *I* think it’s cute, though I don’t love the colors. Arlo doesn’t seem to want to wear it, but I think it may be because in the first day or two of knitting it I tried it on him several times and then took it right off again - he’s done trying it on, I think. It’s already been through the washer and dryer, though I see that it’s apparently supposed to be dried flat. Whoops oh well. Looks just fine and doesn’t seem to have shrunk or anything. Modelled shot to come soon, provided I can get the boy to sit/stand still for a few minutes.

I’ve got a first blogiversary project cooking (technically my first blogiversary was 9/13, but the first anniversary on THIS site is coming up on 12/6) - stay tuned for details!

I am so loving the new spinning wheel! I got to go to spinning group at Creative Fibers today, which was just what I needed. Got to hang out with Kerry and Shelley, who doesn’t have a blog but really should *nudge nudge*. I filled up the one bobbin I had with me, as I’d forgotten the others at home - Chris put them up on the bookcase to keep them out of the kids’ reach, also out of mine apparently. I decided to ply it instead of winding it off and spinning another bobbin of singles, so I got to discover that there’s a little bit of difficulty in plying on my new wheel. Turns out that I just needed to use the hook on the other side of the flyer, logical really, since it’s turning the other direction. Once I figured that out, it was relatively smooth sailing from there out. The skein is soaking in the sink now, hopefully I’ll have good photography light soon to share it with you.

I’m working on a pair of socks for my sister’s giftmas present out of lavender Silja yarn, pattern from Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Knitted Socks (wonderful book!). I’m about 14 rounds from done with the toe and I’m almost out of yarn. I’d probably have enough but I gave Kerry the extra bit I had from the cast-on to use as a bobbin lead. Thank goodness she’s planning to empty that bobbin soon and can send me the yarn when she’s done! This is so ridiculous!

So in the meantime, I’m going to have to dig out one of my other WIPs to amuse myself. I’m thinking it might need to be the Peace Fleece sweater - it’s getting chilly here and despite the new windows it’s still colder in here than I like, so a sweater would be great. Gotta get on that. Well, I just pulled my slippers out of the washer and apparently the dirt and grunge of 3 years of wear was the only thing holding them together, so I guess my next project will be to make myself another pair. Yay?

In case I don’t get a chance to post again before Thursday (pretty likely), I’d like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have many things to be thankful for and family and/or friends to celebrate with. I’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving with my mom’s family again this year. I’ve got many things to be thankful for, but the one most on my mind right now is my grandma. I’ve had so many good times with her - I used to spend a week at a time at the golf course my grandparents owned and it was a blast. She’s in a fairly advanced stage of Alzheimer’s disease now and in less-than-stellar health. It’s always been her wish that she be allowed to die should she become ill, and we will honor that wish, as difficult as it will be. She was diagnosed with pneumonia the other day and the choice was made to only medicate for comfort and to call hospice in. This may be it, it’s hard to say. She also may pull through and stay with us for a while longer, you never know. I’m thankful that I’ve had so long with all of my grandparents, that my kids have gotten to know these wonderful people, and that they have gotten to know my children. One of the few times my grandma still seems to know what’s going on is when my kids come to visit - she’s always loved kids and it’s nice for me to be able to bring some joy into her life, maybe a little lucidity. I love you, Nini.

Yeah, I know, I’m a little slow on this.

1. Whole bean or ground? Either or, but I’ve been bringing it home in bean form lately and getting comfortable with the coffee grinder

2. Fully-loaded or decaf? I definitely take the high-test stuff. No decaf for me!

3. Regular or flavored? Only coffee-flavored coffee, thanks!

4. How do you drink your coffee? I add a good shot of sugar and then enough half-and-half to make it nice and smooth

5. Favorite coffee ever? Probably the coffee I drink while knitting and chatting with friends at Borealis Yarns on Tuesday nights.

6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? I’m not *that* fussy, but I do like a nice dark-roast coffee from Central or South America.

7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Chocolate, cookie, or a bagel with cream cheese

8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? Hmm… I guess fair-trade and organic are always good, but not absolutely necessary.

9. Yarn/fiber you love? Wool, especially sock yarn (just about any), Cascade 220, locally-produced stuff. Animal fibers preferred.

10. Yarn/fiber you hate? I cannot stand working with synthetic fibers (other than a small percentage added to natural fibers for strength, like in sock yarns) and I’m not a big fan of cotton.

11. What’s on your needles? A sock (of course), the Peace Shawl from Fiber Trends, and a v-neck pullover for me in Peace Fleece. Plus assorted UFOs, which don’t really count at the moment

12. Favorite colors? Red, orange, green, black

13. Allergies? I can’t have anything with MSG, but otherwise no.

14. Anything you really love, really don’t like, or just need to get off your chest? I can’t deal with coconut, artificial flavors or scents, or styrofoam. My second favorite beverage is water. I love pizza with barbeque sauce, chicken, and pineapple. Umm… Guess that’s it.

Whoops.

I may have “accidentally” bought a spinning wheel. Oops.

We went out to Detta’s Spindle today, the last day of her annual sale. I only planned to get some fiber, maybe a book or magazine, maybe some yarn. I got the fiber - a bag of her Woofspun fiber (dog hair blended with wool and a couple other things), a bag of alpaca/corriedale (I think) in a colorway called “Lima Bean”, and a bag of mill end wool (from Brown Sheep) that Kerry so kindly enabled me into buying. From there, I decided that maybe it’d be fun to try out some of the wheels, since I’d been thinking about making a change for awhile. I briefly tried a Kromski Minstrel, which was nice but not really *it*. Then the Majacraft Suzie, which was lurvely. I also tried the Rose, which was nice but didn’t work as well for me as the Suzie. Negotiated a little with DH, promised him that I’d sell my Louet S90, and the Suzie came home with us. It’s waiting until the grabby-handed ones are in bed, then I’m going to get it out and have at it. I’ve got to go back out to Detta’s (oh, the torture) to collect the rest of the bobbins and pay, later this week. She’s going to buy the Louet from me (less work for me, yay!) and we decided it’d be better to just take care of the whole transaction at once. Detta is simply awesome!

Hmm… where’s the pizza delivery guy?

Hi there, welcome to my blog! My name is Jess and I’m the resident knitter here at Mikknit.

What? Oh yeah, that’s right. I’m not new here, just been AWOL for a while. Socktoberfest nearly did me in and our bathroom remodel has driven me to the brink of insanity. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be unable to use your own (and only!) toilet for 4-5 days in a row? Or to be unable to take a shower in your own bathroom for over two months? It’s not fun, we’ll say. BUT! The tile installer told me that the shower will magically be usable at 4:30 tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. I will be in the bathroom with my shampoo, a nice squishy towel, and a bar of yummy WAHM soap promptly at 4:30 tomorrow. Granted, the remodel is not done yet - he still has to come back and do the final sanding on the walls (lots of patched plaster), I’ll need to paint, install/reinstall baseboards, and clean up a hell of a lot of dust. Yuck. It looks fabulous, though, even under a thick coating of dust. For this I am most grateful!

I’ll write more about the Socktoberfest problem tomorrow, as I do have some pictures to share.

There was something positive to come out of that fiasco, though - I discovered that I am completely in love with the KnitPicks Options line of circular needles. I never noticed that the Addi Turbo needles were particularly blunt until after I’d been working with the KnitPicks needles. Now I truly understand why Kathy refers to them as “Blunti Stumpos”. Holy cats! I’ve also noticed that the KnitPicks needles have a much MUCH more flexible cable than the Addis, which is a great benefit when one is using the two-circulars method. It’s not all that noticeable on smaller-gauge needles, but with the US7 needles I’m using at the moment, it’s hanging there like a piece of piano wire - slightly flexible but just barely.

I think my Giftmas wishlist just got its first entry - the KnitPicks Options set would be such a lovely thing to have! Just have to try not to think of the amount of money I’ve spent on the Addi needles…

I’ll leave you with a cute kid picture in lieu of finding more actual knitting content:

He knows he’s cute, all right! He really loves his Halloween costume - it’s getting lots of wear.