Mikknit

We got a huge amount of snow Saturday, at least 10″ but probably a bit more. I spent a good while shoveling yesterday - our wonderful neighbor ran his snowblower down the whole sidewalk so at least I didn’t have to do that part, but I did the steps & shoveled out Chris’s car - the snowplow really packs the snow down tightly! But it was a good workout and I’m feeling it today. The kids had fun getting towed around on the sled and I think we may go find a nice sledding hill today. Our front yard has a hill but it’s way too steep for sledding (and mowing, for that matter).

I did a little spinning last night after everyone else was asleep. I’m most of the way though the 4oz of Cotton Candy merino I dyed and am thinking about dyeing up another 4oz to match - I’d love to knit Grace a sweater out of this, I think she’d love the colors. I just have to decide if I want to Navajo ply it or just do a straight 2-ply. After seeing Cara’s yarn today, I’m thinking that the 2-ply would be nice. I do love to Navajo ply, though, so it’d be fun to do. Hard to decide!

Does anyone want to offer a suggestion based on my picture?

I’ve started the heel flap on the second of Chris’s Trekking socks but this sock has been much slower going than the first. Something about having two other active projects at the same time, I think!

Slooooow going but getting there!

Arlo’s Wonderful Wallaby is up to the armpits. I need to wind another skein of yarn and track down my size 5 and 7 DPNs so I can start the sleeves. Maybe I can do that today if the kids can go 20 minutes without trying to kill each other.

I like the seed stitch on the waistband and pocket. Hopefully doing it on the hood doesn’t kill me with boredom…

Thank you all for your happy birthday wishes for Grace! She enjoyed hearing that so-and-so said “Happy Birthday” to her and has asked if any other computer friends sent her more messages. Funny kid!

Four years ago today, my life changed: at 12:09 PM on February 21, 2003, my daughter Grace Elizabeth was born. She amazes me every day with her intelligence and insight, she loves her brother very much and plays nicely with him (most of the time). I am so lucky to have her.

Brand new!

One!

Two!

Three!

Four!

Okay, so it’s not knitting, but I did make the dress she’s wearing in the last picture. (I made the outfit she’s wearing in her 2yo picture too, but that’s ancient history )

I *have* been knitting, just haven’t had the time, energy, or brainpower to do any writing about it. I finished my orange Silja socks last Wednesday and have worn them twice since. I love them, though I could’ve used at least 4 fewer stitches and quite possibly 8 fewer - they’re looser than I like. Still comfy, though!

Silja color 346, 2 skeins minus about 7 yards used. Corded Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks

I think this pair took me about 7-10 days to knit, a lot speedier than the previous pair. I found the pattern rather tedious and dull, but it did go by quickly if I had distractions. TV is good for something!

I’ve only got two more balls of Silja in my stash - lime green. I’m thinking they’ll be pulled out after I finish the current sock project, as it’s quite non-colorful. Socks for Chris in Trekking XXL, color 128. It’s listed as pink/brown/black there but really it’s beige, black/charcoal, and peach. I don’t love it but he seems happy enough with it. I started the first one last Wednesday evening, turned the heel on Friday, and could’ve finished the sock on Saturday night but fell asleep putting kids to bed - I wore myself out at the Knit Out at the MOA (totally lame, BTW). I finished the toe Sunday and then cast on for the next one that evening. I’m about 4″ into the cuff, will probably finish the cuff and start the heel flap tomorrow at ECFE. Yay.

I’ve also started a new Wonderful Wallaby for Arlo - his old one still fits, but just barely. Grace needs a new one sooner or later too, but since she chose purple for her current one and purple doesn’t look good on Arlo (makes him look deathly pale), I started his first. I’ve got Cascade 220 in a lovely rich blue (color 8891). I switched the ribbing to seed stitch, we’ll see how that works out. I think I’ll put seed stitch on the hood and on the placket too. Slightly more interesting than ribbing and/or garter stitch, though SLOW. Good thing he’ll love the sweater! He had no interest in choosing his yarn, so Grace picked it out. I had to steer her away from the pink, but that was the only poor choice. I can tell she’ll probably pick pink for hers, though I’m going to push her toward green - I never get to knit with green.

Still no progress on my sweater. I’m going to wind up some fresh balls of the Peace Fleece and retire the overworked stuff to a kid sweater, I think. Otherwise I *should* be good to go. Just need to figure the waist shaping and such once more before I start. Luckily, this is Minnesota and it’ll be cold enough for sweater wearing for 2-3 more months. *sigh* (Wait, maybe I shouldn’t say that. What if Annie Modesitt sees this and I scare her away? Really Annie, it’s lovely here! Honest!)

Wow, babble much Jess?

The spinning wheel sold in less than 12 hours yesterday! I thought I was reaching a little far with my Buy It Now price, but now I wonder if I could’ve pushed it higher. I shipped it off today and learned that I hadn’t put the shipping & handling estimate nearly high enough. *But* I did sell the wheel for a fair bit more than I paid for it, so that makes it a little less painful.

To celebrate, I went and had a cup of coffee at J&S while listening to Lime & Violet and knitting on my orange sock. Heh. I am planning to buy a nice carrying bag for Suzie with a portion of the proceeds of the sale, but the rest is going back into savings, since that’s where the money for Suzie came from. Ah, the joys of responsibility. I would love to buy a Pat Green Triple Picker, but I don’t think I could really justify that. I mean, I probably *could*, but I’m not going to try. At least not now - I might have to pull that card back out next year this year (WTF, did I forget that it’s 2007 already?) if I have an accident at Shepherd’s Harvest.

Thank you for all the comments on the roving I dyed! I started spinning up the Cotton Candy last night at spinning group and it’s better than I could’ve hoped - before I mentioned that it was inspired by cotton candy, someone said that that was what it looked like. Yeah! I’m not 100% sure I like spinning merino, it’s a little too spongy for me, but the colors are incredible. Maybe I’ll dye up the rest of this stuff and sell it to finance something more fun to spin - maybe some BFL or something. Anybody want to buy some roving? Hehehe. I refuse to get sucked into it as much as Scout has, though. Though it *is* fun… No. I like knitting, spinning, and dyeing too much to make it my job.

In addition to selling the Louet, I sent a friendly Freecycler off with two huge bags of acrylic yarn today. There was another box up there but I didn’t have enough hands (or time) to bring it down. I’m going to see if she can come get it, though - she’s making cage blankets for animals at the humane society and possibly another project, I forget. It’s nice to have that stuff out of here and on the road to a more useful existance. I’m also in negotiations to trade my other extra wheel for some upgrades to ye olde blog here. Probably nothing fancy, just some new colors and maybe a new header, we’ll see.

And as for that Peace Fleece sweater - back to the drawing board yet again. For some reason it keeps coming out way too big in the bust despite only having 2″ of ease and having the armholes at the right place. I guess maybe I just need to go for *no* or negative ease in the bust - might as well showcase the boobs a *little*, though I’ll need to get new bras if I wanna do that. I should probably avoid showcasing them in their current home just slightly north of my navel. Of course by the time I get back in the saddle on that, it’ll have warmed up from our current painfully cold temperatures. I’ve been very thankful for my ugly but still warm felted clogs, as well as for my fleece sweatshirts and flannel pants. And blankets. Lots of blankets. Oh yeah, and the fact that we co-sleep - it’s nice to go to bed and have your bed already pre-warmed for you.

Speaking of that pre-warmed bed, I think maybe I should go lie down in it. I am pooped.

Once again, I’ve been lax in my posting. Sorry about that.

The knitting has been pretty unproductive around here, lots of ripping once again. But I did manage to get a decent picture of the Gentleman Socks (or at least one of them!):

Gentleman Socks pattern by Designedly Kristi, in Trekking XXL color 109.

I finally bit the bullet and took a stab at handpainting roving - I bought 2# of merino roving a few weeks ago with the intention of dyeing it and needed to justify the purchase Plus the theme of our spinning guild’s meeting tonight is merino, and I thought I should have something ready to take if I go.

Cotton Candy and Tequila Sunrise, respectively

I used Cushing’s dyes and the techniques from the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, a book I’ve had for years but haven’t really taken the time to read. It was a lot of fun and easier than I’d expected. For once I managed to avoid dyeing my hands strange colors (the gloves only work if you use them!) and wearing a dust mask while mixing dyes kept me from seeing crazy colors when I blew my nose. I’m thinking about what colors I want to do next. I’m thinking about a “C’mon Spring” type of colorway - greens, a touch of yellow, maybe a little brown for the mud? Also a maple leaf colorway I’ve had in mind for a long time - think of maple leaves as they’re changing colors in the fall. So many possibilities!

I also finally got around to listing my Louet S90 on ebay today. I hope it sells! It’ll be nice to have one less thing around the house, for sure!