So much fiber, so little time

Shawl

The alpaca/merino/tussah shawl is done! No pictures yet, because it's prune-y unblocked. There's a slim chance that tomorrow afternoon might turn dry and just barely warm enough to block it outside. Fingers crossed - I'd really like this completely over.

Fleeces for 2004

These are samples from the white, black and moorit Shetland fleeces I'm reserving. Shearing should be in February. They're crimpy, really clean and not too greasy; in fact, a quick swish in soapy water was enough to wash them. Handcombing would be the ideal processing, but I think I'll settle for pindrafting.

The shawl edging is almost at the three-quarter mark! I got through a whole lot yesterday, and I'm hoping to finish it today. Plus, my thumb is de-sutured and pronounced as healing fast, so I'm back to full fiberness.

This morning I dug out many back issues of Handwoven looking for three specific drafts. Now I have to browse the 8/4 carpet warp stash for the right color or, more likely, order it, and then head out to the fabric store for the right cloth. Not that being in a store today is high on my list of fun things to do ...

Still alive

My thumb is healing, and I'm off the nasty antibiotic (Augmentin: be afraid, be very afraid). I think it's mobile enough for knitting now, although I'm still mightily pissed that I lost last weekend's balmy weather for blocking the as-yet-unfinished shawl.

I have decided that the towel warp on the big loom (sleyed, but unthreaded) is toast. I need that loom to make bathmats for my sister for Christmas, and the old warp is just too inexpensive for me to care about ditching it. I'll probably save the warp chains to use in corduroy or something, but they must go if I'm going to overcome weaving inertia. The next order of business is 1) 8/4 carpet warp color inventory and 2) fabric shopping for the rug rag strips. I'll be leafing through assorted Swedish materials to find the draft I'm thinking of.

Shawl on hold

I've had to postpone work on the shawl and pretty much any other fiber endeavor. This morning, Bear and I collided while we were both trying to grab the cat food bowl. I now have three stitches, a tetanus shot, horse pill sized antibiotics, and a very sore and bandaged thumb. Bugger. At least I can read left-handed.

Blocking weather ahead?

The current weather forecast for Saturday is 53F and partly sunny. That means I'd better hustle on the shawl edging just in case it really does turn out that way. During yesterday's Bloody Awful Meeting, I got quite a bit knitted and now have more than an eighth done. Time to knit the fingers to the bone!

I'm also going to reserve a couple of 2004 Shetland fleeces tonight: a moorit, a black, and maybe one other. Shetland fleeces are so small, you can't buy just one!

Duck and cover

Well, today is the first day of gun-hunting season around here, which is a nightmare for those of us with livestock. To note the day, I always play Tom Lehrer's The Hunting Song while rooting for the bozoids to take each other out of the gene pool:

People ask me how I do it,
And I say "There's nothin' to it,
You just stand there lookin' cute,
And when something moves, you shoot!"
And there's ten stuffed heads in my trophy room right now:
Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a pure-bred Guernsey cow.

Turning a corner

I've turned a corner - on the lace shawl. The picture shows the k1, p1 edging curving around the bottom front, courtesy of a few short rows. Nearly done (sort of), but it will take a good chunk of time to knit off all the body stitches. After that, I either need a break in the weather to block outside, or I have to figure out a way to do it in a very small house with a host of critters.

Detente!

A frabjous day! I've got both dogs and the cat loose in the house, and all is peaceful. Huey has asserted his catness by giving a few mighty hisses, and now Cookie won't even make eye contact with him. Now, I'm not planning to leave the gang together unsupervised, but all our stress levels have certainly dropped.

And I may not warp today after all, because I'm itching to spin instead. Once that's done, maybe I'll start on the towels that are ready to go, because getting the small loom empty would let me do a few scarves, etc, for holiday gifts.

Oh, Interweave seems to be starting with the advisory boards. I got an email with a link to review the winter issue of SpinOff, which is great, but that issue isn't here yet. Nothing yet from Handwoven - anyone else heard about that board?

Weaving weekend

I must make this weekend a weaving weekend. There are several projects in the queue which need the big loom, but it's sitting partially warped. The small loom is warped and just needs the final tension adjustment. My goal is to get both looms nekkid by Thanksgiving so I can rewarp over the long weekend.

One of the queued projects is a bathmat for my sister. I made one for her years ago, but it's finally falling apart. It was adapted from a Handwoven article from the early 90s (?) and used shadow weave in thick and thin threads with rags and carpet warp. I'm still thinking rags for the new one, but in block patterns instead. Time to paw through the back issues of Vävmagasinet - the draft I'm thinking of is in one of them.

Wild day

I got the dogs' semi-annual blood test results today. Bear is OK, but Cookie's got more stuff ahead of her. For one thing, the lab threw out the sample for one of her tests, so she needs to be stuck again. Plus, her parathormone level has finally crossed out of the high normal range, so it's time for another ultrasound. Blech. Let's hope the parathyroid nodules show up this time.

Meanwhile, all the trees are bending sideways in the fierce wind, enhanced with a bit of snow. At least the power is still on, and the furnace, which was inspected and cleaned yesterday, is working nicely. I'm really impressed with the Arm & Hammer furnace filters impregnated with baking soda. They're taking out the smell of the summer accumulation of dust, mold and whatever very well, and they're cheap.

So since I'm at home this afternoon waiting for the water meter inspector to do the five year check, I guess I'll either work on the shawl or spin some more Clun Forest.

Updates

I've made some changes to the photo albums. Somehow, I managed not to upload pictures of one of the Black Ice shawls, of which there are two completed knitted versions and a woven one in the gestational stage (i.e. sitting with a cone of black merino waiting for time, inspiration and a nekkid loom). I also added charts for many of the socks, the square Black Ice shawl chart, and links to three patterns in PDF form. Lastly, there's a new album demonstrating variegated dyeing.

So the lightlink pages are here now. I won't be updating the old ones any longer (note to self, put link to TypePad on old pages), but I don't want to delete them either because that would break links from many places.

Eejits

You know the saying "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life."? Nuh-uh! You just get lots of stupid questions about fishing - and you probably have to take the hooks out too. (See also this.)

Yes, it's a mega-Monday ...

Mucho knitting!

Woo! I got through a whole lot of shawl this weekend - more than 14000 stitches worth. I'm eight rows from the half drop in the pattern, where I'll weigh the remaining yarn, guesstimate the yardage and see if I have enough for the remaining pattern and edging. The shawl will be a decent length (blocked) at the half drop, but it would be nicer if I could make it through one more full repeat.

Stash diving

Tomorrow is the spinning guild's beginners' workshop, so I need to dig out some bumps of roving that I promised. It's a fairly coarse gray Montadale that should be easy enough for a beginner to handle, especially since it won't need much drafting. If I put it in the car tonight, maybe I can drop them off on my way home from the barn in the morning.

I've nearly finished another repeat on the shawl. I'll do another half repeat and then evaluate how much yarn is left. I'd like the shawl to be as long as possible, but I need to preserve enough yarn for the edging. The remaining two skeins of the handspun are very slightly darker, which in a pinch might be OK for the ribbed band, but I'd rather not have the contrast. I'll probably put a lifeline in every half repeat and rip back if necessary.

Sartre was right

Jean Paul Sartre was right - hell is other people. (Nah, you don't want to know.) The only bright spot of the day is that the stain on the ceiling of the spare bedroom is most likely not from a roof leak, but is instead the putrified outline of a squirrel corpse. How's that for optimism?