So much fiber, so little time

Way too much fun with widgets

The Tiger install went smoothly, and I've having lots of fun with the new features, particularly widgets and smart folders in Mail. I also ported all my RSS feeds to Safari, even though it's not my preferred browser. (It's too bloody stupid about pop-ups. Could I get a choice other than binary please? Yes-or-no is extremely annoying when you peruse many blogs with different commenting systems!) Now I just need to figure out how to get the stickies into the widgets, which I use mostly to keep the list of movies I want to rent from Netflix but don't want in the queue just yet.

I'm still testing third party apps. So far, all my Adobe software (non-CS) is perfectly happy (whew! from the $$ standpoint), and many of my other vendors have emailed with messages saying "download update here" or "you're jes' peachy in Tiger".

Tiger, tiger burning bright

I've spent today running backups, etc. prior to installing Tiger tomorrow, but in between, I've mentally plotted out a Keesmere lace blanket and swatched the newly washed skeins. Still to do are the assorted lace charts, but I really only need to do those one section of the blanket at a time. And I know the stitch/row gauge and thus know how to finagle the picked-up stitches.

Fun with flax

No, not the spinning and weaving kind, but flax flour. I got my latest order from King Arthur, replenishing my pumpernickel and rye flours, and I had ordered some to try for the first time.

I'm using the recipe that KA always includes with ingredients. Let's hope it tastes good, because the ingredient list is seriously crunchy granola - you know, the earnest earth mother's "tastes like and acts as a door stop" loaf of bread. But it is rising, and it smells OK, so I'm moderately optimistic :)

On the other fiber front, I've been spinning more of the darker Storm Clouds fiber. The Storm Clouds shawl isn't blocked yet, because the weather has been playing games. (I've managed to hose off Hermione the snow blower and wash/vacuum Henrietta the car, but I can't count on the rain holding off for long.) And I think I'll wash a few more skeins of Keesmere yarn to start some sort of lacy blanket, perhaps constructed along the lines of a Shetland shawl.

A cure for IFP

IFP is the Infinite Fleece Paradox, where the uncombed fleece appears to expand even as the amount of combed fleece increases. I spent nearly three hours combing moorit Shetland this morning and experienced serious IFP - until I re-vacuumed the Space Bag that the fleece was living in. It shrunk to about half the volume as at the start of combing.

Handcombed top is my favorite spinning prep, so when I have a fleece worth the effort, like the three Shetlands from Twin Springs Farm, it's nice to have any progress reinforced.

In other fiber news, I mailed leftovers from a previous project to SpinOff for the canine fiber yarn feature in the fall issue. Also, I've been contemplating the Webs sale price on the 12/2 cottolin. I bought two cones of it some time ago, and I think they're lonely :)

Storm Clouds, just in time for rain

Here's the shawl in its lumpy, unblocked state, fresh off the needles this morning. Our run of dry weather is supposed to end today with thunderstorms, so I won't be blocking it just yet. Besides, I haven't gotten a table, and since blocking a circle takes longer than blocking a rectangle, I really want to do this one standing.

What to do next? Maybe I'll go back to combing some fleeces. I've got three lovely Shetlands that would weave into a splendid plaid blanket ...

Blocked at last

Here's the beaded alpaca/merino/tussah shawl that I finished knitting late last year. It blocked out to 68" long by 28" wide - too big for Dolly who is a very small mannequin.

Yes, really, there are beads. They are translucent and off-white, running vertically up the center of each motif, but they don't show up well in light showing the overall effect.

I love how blocking changes an amorphous lump of yarn into an ethereal cloud - particularly now that my back, knees and hamstrings have forgiven me for the effort!

Owie!

I really need to get a table for blocking. I just blocked the beaded alpaca shawl, and the kneeling/bending over/etc to insert 192 pins at ground level has made my back, knees and hamstrings very unhappy. I guess it's time to price folding tables, preferably before I finish the Storm Clouds shawl.

I had a near-disaster with Storm Clouds this morning when a large section of stitches slid off the needle. Ack! Fortunately, I'm good at picking up stitches and I know the pattern well enough to be sure I got them all. The final emergency skein dried overnight, and I'm about to wind it off. There's less than 5/8 of the edging left.

Birthday dog

Cookie turned 11 today. She will celebrate tonight with the traditional scrambled egg.

She's also supervising my spinning another little bit of Storm Cloud fiber just to make sure it's done correctly.

All done bar the edging

Of course, there's a lot of edging on a round shawl, so I've still got a lot left to do. At least l short-rowed the front band and started knitting off the body stitches this morning, stopping to photograph the process for the how-to. And I may need to spin a little more yarn to finish, but I'll burn that bridge when I'm in the middle of it ...

And Julia was right. The line was written by Cole Porter, specifically from Paris Loves Lovers in the musical Silk Stockings. In the duet, "an urge to merge with the splurge of the spring" is followed by "bourgeois propaganda".

An urge to merge with a splurge*

I'm merging the new darker yarn into the shawl by alternating a row or two of it with the remainder of the original yarn. So far, so good, although with so many stitches on the needle, it does take a while to see what's happening.

Spring is sort of here (sightings: 1 robin, 1 red-wing blackbird) which reminded me that I need to block the beaded alpaca/merino/tussah stole. That's on my list for tomorrow - at least I can wash it in Elaine's splendid wool wash and block it while we're having such low humidity.

Finally conquered writer's block and got a few paragraphs of philosophy written. I'm letting it ferment overnight to see if I want to add or change anything, but I'll mail the application tomorrow come hell or high water.

(* tip of the needles to anyone who can identify the quote and author)

Emergency skein

I spent yesterday spinning and plying about three ounces from the second Storm Cloud batch. Yes, this has fewer light-colored sections than the first batch, but it's no darker than what's already in the shawl, so I'm happy to use it.

Fortunately, we're having abnormal weather with desert-like dew points. The skein dried significantly in the hour and a half I had it outside last night and was almost completely dry this morning. It should be ready to wind off in a few hours, especially since the temperature is rapidly rising above freezing.

Now I have to write a "statement of philosophy" for a job application. That's a first ...

Storm Cloud shawl is still growing

There are currently about 700 stitches on the needle, and I'm most of the way through the second (and final) ball of yarn. That probably won't make the shawl long enough to suit me, so I pulled out the second bag of the Storm Cloud fiber. That batch is generally darker, but I think I can find sections that will certainly stay in the same range of colors that have gone before. Since I only need two or three ounces to finish the shawl off properly, I don't expect a problem.

No further comment necessary

The name of the upcoming Capitol Steps album is Four More Years in the Bush Leagues.

Bialys!

Charlotte had asked what a bialy was. Well, this looks like, feels like, and smells like a bialy. It's not cool enough yet to see if it tastes like a bialy, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Baking these added another foodstuff to Cookie's bad list. She hates it when the smoke detector goes off, and since the detector lives in the tiny L-shaped hallway outside the bedrooms of my tiny house, any excess carbonization can set it off. Cookie goes off many minutes sooner, no matter what's cooking. (Pavlov's dogs have nothing on her, you betcha!)

OK then, bialys rise with heavily floured towels draped over them (handwoven linen in my house, thank you very much :), and they rest and bake on heavily floured cookie sheets. Once I put the bialys in the oven, I put the floured linen towels into a water-filled basin and set that into the bathtub to soak and rinse out the flour.

Bad moves! In a 450F oven, the flour on the cookie sheets toasted and eventually set off the smoke detector. When Cookie goes into freakazoid "I smell smoke" mode - well before the siren goes off, mind you - she jumps into the bathtub, which today meant jumping straight into the basin of linen towels and water. She then jumped out and trailed large puddles of water all over the house. (Remember that she's a very furry Keeshond and can absorb lots of water!)

Argh! I let her out to pee before she had an accident and then put her in her crate for the duration of the baking, while leaving a fan in the hallway to dissipate the smell of burnt flour.

Moral of the story: next time I  bake these, I'll put Cookie into her crate before the bialys go into the oven. Otherwise I'll need to win the lottery to buy a house with a completely separate kitchen!

Birthday boy

Today is Huey's third birthday. He's enjoying the last beautiful sunny day before we go back to flood stage!

The Storm Clouds shawl is five repeats long (and 400+ stitches wide). I really love the shades of blue in this fiber blend and can't wait to see the whole thing blocked out of its current scrunchy stage.