Getting My Groove Back

So, I have fallen behind on my Maiwa course, however I am not really worried about it. I will have some vacation days coming up to catch up on that. There have been some exceptional circumstances, which there always seems to be, as when the windows were installed I had to move all of my belongings around and well away from the windows. This, combined with trying to get some floors installed, means that any organization that I had created has gone to pot. I am trying to look at this as a way to improve my organization and the use of my rooms.

One of the steps that I have taken is to use plastic containers to box up my wool yarn to keep it safer. I also packed up my embroidery machine for right now, as well as having to clear out my quilting room since that is the last one that I needed to pull nails out of the floor and get new flooring put down. Since most of that equipment seems to fit in what used to be my computer room, I am contemplating changing that to my sewing room and the old sewing room into a mini library. I am keeping my computer but I’m using my laptop so there is no need for the PC to be plugged in all the time.

I do have some actual crafting content for this post. I cannot remember if I mentioned that I warped up my large rigid heddle loom with some Cascade 220 yarn to create a wool blanket. I have not gotten too far in actually weaving that off since last week was also Spin Together. The two fiber events I attended this fall were amazing and I had a ton of fun. I do not think I went too overboard in my purchasing and I love how the yarns I created turned out. While I did not spin as much as I would like, there were several long days at work, I did manage a decent amount of spinning.

I love how my art yarn turned out as well, though it is not as complicated as last years version where I added in locks and charms. My total is 1278 yards for credit, which includes the singles and then the plying. I was fortunate to get all of my spinning plied up by that Saturday Morning since I taught a needle felting class on 2-d felting with some mentions of 3-d felting. It went swimmingly since I invested in Living Felt supplies, and had the people purchase the kits from me so I was not too far out of. pocket. Someone from one of my earlier needle felting classes was there and mentioned the needles working better, I explained that the original were from Amazon, and so not bad, but these were from Living Felt and therefore fantastic.

Today I’m teaching a lace class, though I am going to have them create shawls using a formula rather than a pattern, and teaching them various increases and decreases to create patterns. Then on Saturday I will be teaching a Bengala Mud Dyeing class, also at work. This should be a busy couple of days and I look forward to seeing how everything turns out! Until next time, Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Another Week Bites the Dust

I cannot for the life of me figure out where the first quarter of this year has gone.  IMG_2310My first Blossom Sock Pattern in Baker Street colors by Knitpicks is complete!  It is great!  I mean, I need to lengthen the flat part of the heel flap, not decrease as much around the ankle portion and make a bit more of the edging on the second sock, but it is great!  Okay, so I’m still learning how to make socks.  But whatever, the next one will be better and I will keep going after that.

For knitting socks, well that has stalled.  I have my gauge swatch for the sock yarn I got in March’s knitcrate and I am pretty good on row gauge, but on stitch gauge…well I’m an inch off on a 3 inch swatch.  So, I’m thinking that I need to go up a size, more stitches in the inches.  However, I am also using Flexi-Flip needles and at over $20 a set of three I am not that certain I want to knit socks that badly.  I barely purchased the first set, and thought that would be it for a while.  It will be a little while before I decide if I am going to go for it, or work on something else.  Until then, I do have some other projects I am working on.

My Morrigan shawl, okay, so it is now going to be a Boneyard Shawl based on the pattern from Stephen West.  As it happens, when I rip something out five times before I have gotten through the first row of the second of four repeats of a chart I give up on a pattern.  I know, two weeks of knitting and you’re giving up, pfft.  The pattern is probably great for people that have knitted lace before, can follow half of a chart and repeat it, and know how many times a chart should be repeated (off the cuff) when doing the second round.  Since there were 14 stitches to the repeat and there were 28 rows to the chart, but the repeat was repeated on either side of the shawl, this should have meant that the repeat was twice on either side of the shawl…so I’m not sure why I was about 10 stitches away from repeating it three times on either side of the chart, and then I gave up.

The Boneyard pattern is much simpler, very pretty, and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out in my laceweight yarn.

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Above, please find the set up and 12 more rows.  it doesn’t look like much, but with an increase of 4 stitches every two rows it will grow quite quickly.  This pattern is a formula, but I do plan on getting into some slightly more complex lace shortly.

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Finally, I have the first of the two shower puffs in my sibling’s chosen colorway.  I love how it turned out and I am looking forward to getting the second one done.

Until the next time we speak, Happy Easter and remember to live a life A Little More Abstract.