Actual Blog Update!

You know you haven't blogged in a while when your husband, who has often in the past told you that you spend too much time blogging, tells you that you really need to update your blog.

I realize I still haven't posted goodies from the Sheep and Wool festival and I got some neat stuff, pretty new spindles and pretty new fiber. I'll try and get around and take some more photos, but for now, here's a picture of my newest Golding and some silk I've been spinning with it.

This spindle has to be the best-spinning Golding yet and that's saying a lot. I'm spinning the silk thread-thin and will double ply it eventually. I know, you're shocked because it's neither pink nor purple. It's a lovely blue. I'll show the rest of my goodies later and also show my newest pair of socks which has been finished knitting-wise for a week or so, but still needs some embroidery. Maybe I'll work on that at Sit 'n' Knit tonight.

Still here

It is pretty hard to keep a knitting blog when there hasn't been a lot of knitting going on. I have done about 2 rows on my Kimono Top in the last week and a few rounds on the Longbourn socks, both done at the weekly knitting get-together.

So what have I been doing besides knitting? I've been walking a lot more. Big dogs are really good exercise programs. I've been working on a cross-stitch project that I started a couple of years ago. Here's a picture of the kit. I have the shawl done and most of the top of the dress. I'm working on the bottom of the dress now.

I've also been drawing a bit. I used to draw some and I am sort of decent at it, but I've only been sketching a little bit. I got a new book on painting fairies and mermaids and I've been wanting to work on my drawing skills a bit, possibly working up to watercolors. I've been sketching hands and faces and butterfly wings. (I may post some pictures as soon as I get some. Lighting is awful today.)

I had originally wanted to finish the Kimono Top for the Sheep and Wool (less than two weeks now!), but it's probably not going to happen. Too much else has sidetracked me. Anyone else have way too many competing interests?

WIP

The back of the Kimono Top is pretty much finished. Since it's a three-needle bind-off, it's still on a cord with the yarn still attached, so I have the option of adding a little more to the length if needed. I'm casting on for the fronts and plan to work on them simultaneously.

(I know it's a pretty lousy picture, but you try getting a decent picture with a very exuberant 20-pound puppy who likes to chew anything and everything!) I'm hoping to finish the top soon as I really want to wear it to the Maryland Sheep and Wool (is it really only less than a month away!?)

Pretty much the same with this picture:

I've made it to the heel. The pattern calls for a short-row heel, but I much prefer the way heel flaps fit my foot, so that's what I've done. I love everything else about the pattern though.

And here's a rare picture, Sammy actually asleep:

Nothing but a Hound Dog

We went to the local gardening center this weekend for gardening supplies. Gardening supplies only, mind you. I have some tomato seeds coming soon and I want to get them started as soon as they arrive, so I had to have some potting soil and peat moss, etc.

Well, you know how fairs and such occasionally have adoption tables set up? Our center was having an open house complete with beekeepers and adoption tables. Guess what we came home with.

Sammy is a Plott Hound. He's twelve-weeks-old, nearly 20 pounds, and a really sweet, energetic dog. He had a good vet visit today and he's already very much a part of the family. He's going to be in puppy classes soon, but he seems to be a pretty quick study. Julie seems to not be put-out with our new addition, but she's also not exactly cozying up to him. He's already learning that she isn't interested in playing and if he'll just sniff, she's okay with it. She can't see or hear very well though, so he tends to sneak up on her a bit.

I'll try to get some pictures of Julie up tomorrow. She's very camera shy though; she hears the camera open and she runs (she can't hear much else, but she can hear that).

WIP Wednesday

I've made a bit of progress on the Longbourn socks:

I really like how the colors are working together. I've had the mauve yarn for a while now and just couldn't figure out what to do with it. As for the denim, I already had a pair of socks in that exact color and didn't want another one, but with the mauve it really makes the denim look different. And it look like the cuff fits just about perfectly over my leg.

As for the Kimono Top, I have about 14 inches of the 24 inches on the back done. It's just a matter of working on it. I just needed a little break from all the stockinette and butterfly stitches. (Yes, I realize that the socks are all stockinette, but they are also all knitting.) I'll work on it a bit today.

Personal Sock Club

Note to self: don't have eyes dilated on bright sunny day. Two pairs of sunglasses stacked on top of one another only help slightly.

I've seen the "personal sock clubs" floating around on blogs for a few months now. Honestly, I don't know where they started, but they are a brilliant idea. The basic premise is you pick yarn from your stash, a pattern, throw it into a paper bag. You do several of these and pick them out at random at your own interval. I mean, chances are since you already own the yarn, you'll be happy with it, but there's still an element of surprise. (Really, who remembers every single skein of yarn they own?) So anyway, I started out by dumping some of my yarn and digging out my sock books.

By the way, this is nowhere near my whole stash. This isn't all of what I made into little bags. I went through my sock books, found patterns I liked, wrote down which book and page number on index cards, found yarn I liked to go with the patterns and threw them all into little paper lunch bags. I ended up with probably about a dozen to begin with and I chose one last night and somehow ended up with probably my favorite pattern, Longbourn Socks (if you're on Ravelry) by the super talented Kristi Schueler.

I didn't even stack the deck, uh, bags; I honestly chose this one at random and I'm extremely happy with it. I'll start it just as soon as I can see properly again.

It did make me realize exactly how much pink and purple I have in the way of sock yarn. I never knew there were so many shades and variations of those two colors ;-)

Spinning

I finally got some spinning done. I've been working on a Grafton batt (just scroll down to "C" for "Corriedale") I got a couple of years ago at the Maryland Sheep and Wool (only two more months until this year's!). So, I got around to plying some of it. There's a dime there to show how thin. (You can click on the picture to make bigger.)

It's definitely a laceweight and had turned out very dark pink with hints of black and purple. What I've done here is about 320 yards of laceweight and I have lots more left to spin. I should definitely have enough for at least a triangular shawl when it's all spun and plied.

I finally finished warping for my scarf, but I'm being to think the darn thing's cursed. You may remember I've already had a warp thread break on me. Well, I finally finished warping and started weaving on it this weekend. About an inch into it, I thought it looked a little funny in one area. I realized one of the warp threads wasn't going up and down. Okay, why not? My scarf is supposed to be worked on four shafts and the threading goes shaft 1, 2, 3, 4. Well, in this one area, I ended up somehow threading it 1, 2, 4, 5. So, of course, shaft 5 wasn't supposed to be used, so it wasn't going up and down and the 4 was supposed to be on 3. *Sigh* I think know how to fix it without having to rethread the whole darn thing. It's just frustrating because I'd doubled-checked that I had threaded everything correctly. Darned perfectionist streak.