Dizzy

Hello!

I know, I started up this blog and then fell off the face of the earth.  The thing is that I got really sick.  *Really* sick.  I was in bed for 5 days.  For other mothers out there, you know what that looked like; I had to try to parent from bed with a headache, dizzy, nauseated, lethargic, etc.   The second day my eyes hurt so much that I was essentially blind.  (My eyes were strained and looked, and felt like, those cartoons with the torpedo shaped eyes.)  It was a miserable week.  Also, because I was having to parent from bed, it takes longer to recover from an illness as I can't truly rest.  So I was slow going for days afterwords while also trying to play catch-up with all the chores.

Fast forward.

Everything is back to just the normal chaos now.  Trying to get my homeschooler to do his schoolwork.  Trying to get my 1st grader to do his homework and shoo him out the door.  Trying to keep my preschooler from breaking everything in site.  And of course I have a project to focus on to keep my sanity.

My big project right now is a spinning project.  I am part of Spin A Pound, Get a Pound on Facebook.  Essentailly growers and spinners meet in the group, "growers" will offer fiber that needs some work (washing, picking, preping, spinning, dying) and "spinners" will do the work and be paid in a portion of the fiber.  What needs to be done and percentages vary depending each deal and is worked out between the grower and spinner.

I am working on a deal with spinning California Red wool and haucaya alpaca seconds (shorter fibers).  When I got them they were washed and picked clean (all the seeds and grass, etc, removed.)  I then fluffed up the fiber and ran it through the drum carder.  Then I blended the two fibers together to make blended batts.  It sounds fast, but it isn't really.  It took several hours watching tv to open up the matted (from washing) fiber and then several hours in front of the big machine to get the final blended batts.  I then weighed the fiber and separated them into 50g bags.  Each bag I will spin onto a spool and then I will ply two spools together for the final yarn in 100g skeins.

Then I did a little test min-skien.  The first fiber came out too thick (left sample), she requested fingering weight, so I adjusted my wheel and drafting style.  I then came up with the right size (right sample). Then I started spinning and spinning and spinning.  It is hard to describe how relaxing spinning is.  It is very calming, relaxing and meditative.  When watching another spinner working just the rhythm is mesmerizing.  There is a draw back, however.  I found that when I was spinning all day and stopped occasionally for other household chores (entertaining my preschooler, making lunch, fetching the kiddo from school) I was in a sort of trance.  lol  I need to be careful of how much spinning I do during the day! 

Here's what I have done so far.  I'm just about half-way through the fiber.  I already have plans for some of my share of the fiber.  My husband has requested a special geeky dice bag.  When I write up the pattern I will tell you more about it!  I hope to have it done later this month. :)  Now I have to go spin some more so I can get to use my yarn!

 

In other news, I finished another audiobook in my series while I was in bed and later at my wheel.  It was Crossroads at Twilight, part of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.  Listening to an audiobook is a lovely accompaniment to any household chore or creative outlet.  :D  The mind is engaged while the hands are working.  I love the epic fantasies that keep going and going and going...

 

It's my Knitting Anniversary

I just realized that this month is my 4 year knitting anniversary! I started knitting because of several reasons compiled:

• A friend of mine wanted to start summer crafting groups in the park and I wanted a mobile craft
• It always bothered me that I snubbed a chance to learn knitting in girl scouts because I was trying to boast about my crochet skills
• My favorite Project Guttenburg read showed off beautiful knitting on her blog and it look interesting*
• I love textures

The final reason that I did go buy some knitting needles and pick up a book at the library was because I was pregnant and sick.  I felt worthless sitting on the couch not being productive (besides growing my daughter).  I needed something creative to do but also something that was useful to my household to justify the money I'd spend on it (we didn't have much).

I picked up the size 10 aluminum needles suggested in the book (lol yes - huge needles, and it was a kids' book!) and didn't get yarn because I remembered having some in my craft supplies at home.  Well, when it came time to dig all I found was this small ball of red yarn only a couple inches in diameter.  Oh, well.  I figured I'd knit and rip it out a gazillion times until I figured out what I was doing.  So I turned on the tv to something I would half ignore (I have no recollection of what it was now.  A few movies, I think) and got going.

My first knitting; May 6, 2011

The book had me knitting with the yarn in my left hand and it felt oh-so-clumsy.  I had little or no tension but I was determined not to give up.  At first it was a struggle and sloppy and took me a long time to knit through that tiny bit of yarn.  When it was used up, I ripped it out and tried again.  I did that for a few hours and was becoming surprised when the yarn ended.

This was the last time I knit with that yarn.  I was satisfied with my grasp of the loop making and felt ready for a little project.

Shortly after I found knitting videos on YouTube by Knitting Tips By Judy and switched to English style knitting (yarn in my right hand) which was much easier for me!  I was originally trying to learn together with my oldest son but he was getting frustrated.  The first project to do was cast on 20 stitches and make a square.  Repeat and sew the squares together to make a lap blanket.  He was so frustrated that I said to just cast on 10 stitches and make a square.  Well, long story short; he never finished a single square and pretty soon I *HATED* those darn little squares.  So many rows frogged because I'd be on a roll and went too many rows past where I was supposed to stop.  I finally asked him if I could knit strips and fortunately he was okay with that.  Part way through this I was mad and made something for me, just because.  (It was a little pillow foot rest for under my desk.)  Then came the seaming.  UGH!  I think I almost hated the seaming even more.  All those ends to weave in and tiny sides to sew together and nothing wanted to line up.  But I was determined to get it done.  And I did!  I didn't take a picture of it when I finished because I didn't want to see it anymore.  My son really liked it but he is texture sensitive and it was cheap, scratchy yarn.  So it went into the bunk bed and got stuffed in a corner.  We don't really talk about it. lol

The hated blanket in progress.

Then I went on to make small projects with continuous knitting like slippers and hats.  I'm so glad I persisted through that first project because it made me feel like I can tackle anything when it comes to knitting.  And I have!  Nothing has frustrated me as much as that very first project.  Does that mean I've never made mistakes?  No!  I've made hundreds, thousands, of mistakes!  But I've learned from them.  :)  I now have three blue and three red ribbons hanging on my wall, customized dresses, designed my own patterns, and so many hours of enjoyment!

Some day I'll tell you how I got started spinning and designing, too!

My latest project, fresh off the needles!

*My brain is back on.  It's KayRay (Kara Shallenburg) on LibriVox.  Here's a link to her blog.