Bansidhe’s blog

April went by a little faster than I'd hoped, mostly because after a wonderful visit to DC,  I happened to get sick.
I'm still nursing back to health at this point, though I'm much, much better than a week and a half ago -- I'd been out sick from work since the 16th, and only just got back this past Monday... And sadly, I hadn't been awake long enough to do half the knitting I'd wanted to complete.

Hopefully, May will be better: I still need to finish the hubby's Retrofit sweater, which I haven't touched in far too long, (If I'm honest, it's because I am so intimidated by those little space invaders. I think I'll work on getting the sleeves and front finished first, so it doesn't look so insurmountable when all I have left to finish is the back.)

I'm also slogging through Knit Tricks' Big Cross Top, and I do mean slogging -- I'm working both pieces at once, but have discovered that I have to knit a total of about 90 inches to be finished... And I'm only just past ten.
... It's going to be a long project.

Clearly, I need more short projects to keep my brain entertained: That's the only reason I have for volunteering to make four more short row hats. It's the only logical explanation, right?
(Well, I do like how quickly they work up.)

The completed spindle arrived on the first:

Tiger Spindle

I am pleased. :)

Additionally, I'm also reaching the point of needing an extra set of eyes on a knitting pattern that I've been working on: Currently, I'm polling knitting friends for assistance. We'll see what comes of it!

Time's moving a little too quickly for me these days, it seems: I thought about posting my recent Etsy finds -- two weeks ago, not realizing how much time had actually slipped away.

Hoo boy.

So, I'll be backposting my finds for Saint Patrick's, and I'll just try to be better in the future. :}

First off: I recently joined a fiber and spindle club, from Etsy's Butterfly Girl Designs.
I originally found Butterfly Girl Designs thanks to the Winter 2008 edition of Knitty's Cool Stuff: She's featured in the lower third of the page, if you want to take a look, but it doesn't tell you a single thing about how very cool a person this seller is.  She didn't get irked when I went all bouncy-like and excited about the fiber club that I'd just missed buying -- and she did indeed let me know when the fiber club opened again.
(Also, she writes occasionally to comment on the other spindles I've found on Etsy; it turns out she was giving serious consideration to the Time Flies spindle, too -- though she said she was glad it'd found a good home.)  :)

So, a week ago, my first fiber/spindle club order came in, and this was the result:

Temptation is a blend of cashmere, silk, camel, and merino: And yes, it really is tempting. I'm almost half a mind to asking her to just send more of that so I can spin up a sweater's worth -- but then I'd miss out on all her other lovely possibilities. (And I know they're lovely, since I've bought Blue Morpho, Blackbird, and Tuscany, all merino/bamboo blends  -- with the latter two including firestar for glitz.)

And the Italian Resin spindle is just a happy, lovely coincidence, since I've recently decided square whorl spindles are pretty nifty. :)

And speaking of the Time Flies spindle -- Yorkieslave's another Etsy spindle seller that I can't seem to find enough good things to say to give you the full picture of how very awesome she is. She's actually taken a commission from me, because she had some really interesting Cheetah and Cougar spindles -- but no tigers. (I have a great love for tigers.)

Spindle in Progress, by Yorkieslave

I'm in awe.
Also, yes, that is a very large spindle: I wanted it that way, since my current largest spindle is a little on the difficult side. (No hook. And no, it's not a supported spindle.)

Also, her fiber batts are very creative color-wise, and so, so soft: I bought more of her colorway of Alice,  which is the mini-batt that came with my Tempus Fugit spindle -- mostly because I am a lover of yarns, and soft roving and batts are just an extension of that. :)

Earlier this week on Ravelry, I warned the knitting group that I was bailing due to early work shift-induced unconsciousness. Luckily, after two days of that, I've been back on my more accustomed closing shift  -- so on my way into work, I contemplated retracting my 'not gonna be there' post.

And then my car started growling and grinding while I turned the first corner in the parking structure. I cursed quietly and anxiously turned into the first free parking spot I could find -- and the Rabbit jerked to a sudden halt two-thirds into the spot.
I almost burst into tears, and did something productive instead: Called up to the co-workers and asked our big guy to come down and help me push the car the last third into the space. Easy, right? Just pop the car in neutral and a little weight does the work for you. Actually, I felt a little silly asking, once I started thinking rationally again, and tried to just give the car a nudge or two into place while I held the wheel to complete the turn.

Only, not this time.

I had one random stranger stop to try and help, and then one of the managers on my floor: My co-worker finally made it down, and though he claims he can bench 800 lbs, we weren't able to get it to budge an inch.
So I hop back in, and in a fit of desperation, try to urge the VW forward again. ("So. Do me a favor and call 911 if I smack the wall and knock myself out, okay?" "... Maybe. I'll think about it." "Jerk. Stand back.")
The front wheels didn't turn at all, he told me, but I was able to get the car to lurch into the space.

And then I went in to work, called my mom, and promptly had a small little jag of crying.
Washed my face, went back to my desk, and started working.

It was a blessedly slow day today, so I was able to put this little munchkin together:

Knitted Kitty

In the end, I guess I'll just have to wait and see on the car's story: It seems to be the breaks, since the Rabbit works just fine in reverse (though the breaks take about three feet to catch on that I want to stop) and locks up completely when in drive  -- The car's sitting in the overnight drop lot at a repair shop, and I just have to wait and see.

I am grateful, however, that it is unlikely to be the transmission.
That would've been REALLY expensive.

In the past twelve days, I’ve had a lot going on in my little knitting world. I’ve been to my knitting group twice, and enjoyed myself a lot: There’s also been a lost stash enhancement package along the way, though I’m hoping it’s less ‘lost’ and more ‘merely delayed’ -- after all, Robyn of the Robyn’s Nest says she has yet to have lost a package, and I would really, really hate to ruin a perfect record. Also, Ravelry has started eating my brain, in parts.

So, to start with Ravelry: I’m becoming more active as of late, writing up what I’m actually knitting -- and what the hell am I thinking anyway, casting on with no less than four projects at once? -- and getting some camera practice in while I’m at it. I’ve joined a Harry Potter group, specifically the House Cup competition, and I’m largely lurking around until the sorting in May. (Well, not entirely true -- I’m trying to come up with a cheer for the Quidditch Cup thread for no particular reason, but mostly lurking.)  
I’ve also joined a knitted kitty swap group, because some of the little stuffies coming out of that group are ADORABLE. (Also, I think I just want the excuse to give the ‘standard’ knitted kitty swap pattern a trial run.)

The rest, well, I think I’ll have to break it down by project.

The Kromski: Three weeks ago, I took my spinning wheel apart for the express purpose of putting a finish on it.  It’s been slow going as unfortunately, it’s not a project that can be properly completed in a single afternoon -- but the good is, it’s coming along nicely. There was a bit of ugly when I went to use the golden oak stain that my father suggested: Luckily, I only stained the matching niddy-noddy before discovering that I don’t really care for the color. (The natural wood itself is SO pretty, really!)  All that’s left on that project is 1) buying my polyurethane and 2) applying it, this coming weekend’s weather allowing.

The Husband’s Sweater: I’ve finally cast on for his long-awaited sweater -- A modified version of Jesse Loehsburg’s Retrofit,  adjusted to include Aija Goto’s Space Invader charts across the back.
And the bad is: Figuring out the vertical placement of said space invaders is driving me BONKERS. I’ve momentarily put the whole idea down to come back to again, although I’ve definitely decided that losing the bunkers on the Space Invaders ‘screen’ is going to take a lot of the crazy off my plate.

The Tilted Duster: In the past five weeks, I’ve cast on for the tilted duster twice. Why? Well...
The Ugly:  My completed Tilted Duster was made of Main Line in Ink, a green-based black yarn. It looked really good, it had a fabulous hand to it, and I loved wearing that sweater.  Matter of fact, I wore that sweater non-stop. Which was enough time to realize that the main line was shedding like mad -- all over my shirts, my pants, my arms, my car, my purses and knitting bags... My cats didn’t shed that badly, so something had to be done.
The yarn is billed as machine washable, so surprise! I machine washed it. (And I put it in on gentle / slow cycle and cold, but still -- machine washed.)  
And then it turned into a fur coat.
The shedding magnified, the sweater burst into a giant puffball, and eight times of re-washing has not yet convinced the yarn to stop with the damned shedding already.  I’m honestly about to give up on the thing, which is heartbreaking since it took me 3.5 weeks to complete -- but I’m intending to go find a soft-bristled brush and try that on the duster before I give it up entirely.

Honestly. So mad.
Which is probably why I cast on again, this time in a full wool. (I had about 10 skeins, and only need about 6 of them.)

Other than that, I’ve been a spinning fool: Apparently, I only need to take apart my spinning wheel to rile up the urge for it. Thankfully, I have a spindle collection, so I’ve been using those instead. And it’s probably about time I learned how to ply without a spinning wheel, anyway...

Last week, I finished my Tilted Duster in Knitpicks Main Line yarn.
During the next three days of wearing it, I found out that Main Line sheds horribly -- so I borrowed my mom's washer and washed it.
It turned into a poofy, fuzzy mess, and I'm still caught somewhere between severe irritation (Superwash yarn, fer chrissakes!), depression (oh my God, how much work wasted?), and the vague hope that it's all still salvageable. ... I really, really want it to be salvagable, because I'm already well in love with that sweater.
And that's most of what I was doing on Saturday, killing the time in-between by taking apart my Kromski Prelude and sanding its parts.

After two years of going around with an unfinished spinning wheel, I'm finally going to put a protective coat on it. The surprising break in the rain's helped a lot with that: I forgot my two yard niddy-noddy at home for the sanding job, alas, but I can fix that this weekend. Dad's even offered up his workbench for the staining and such -- maybe if I'm really lucky, he'll even give me a hand. I'm opting to use some of his Oak stain, rather than go with mahogany or anything else that's similiar to the finishes available for Kromski wheels: After all, why imitate if I can customize?

I've been playing with a lot of handspindles in the mean time, and while I don't have a serious amount of yarn made yet, I do seem to have a small and steadily growing collection of lace- to fingering-weight singles mounting up. I'm still debating if I want to leave them as singles or ply them: I'm probably going to go with the latter, since I have this abysmal habit of overtwisting my yarn that I haven't yet figured out how to avoid, and plying seems to help keep the yarn from twisting around and around and again on itself, once I've set the twist.  -- It probably also helps that I have two new, lovely spindles, weighing in at .6 oz and 1.2 oz, respectively.

Both were Etsy finds: That site continues to be a huge temptation for me. Really, I just need to start selling some of my knitting up there, if only so I have money for all the pretty things I can possibly find there!

First, from Yorkieslave:

Tempus Fugit Spindle

I'm perhaps a little too amused by the fact that it's a crazy clock-face on the spindle's top: On the other hand, I'm apparently not the only one that thinks Lewis Carroll, since the seller sent along a mini-batt of yummy bamboo-merino fiber in a colorway she calls Alice.

And the other, from Butterfly Girl Designs:

Tigereye Stone Spindle

I have a weakness for Tiger's eye. 

So, since I've been more active on Ravelry recently, I'm making use of my Fuji FinePix S700 and taking pictures of everything -- trying to drag out the projects I still have in my possession, snap pictures, and so on. (I'm still desperately sorry that all I have is a really wonky picture of my Jayne hat, back before I had a better camera.) 

And now I've moved on to my stash.
Which is crazy.

See, I've been very good at putting in what I remembered from my stash -- but oh my lord, I've forgotten so many. I didn't include my Malabrigo worsted in Pearl -- I promise, Malabrigo, I still love you!  And then there was the accidental discovery of two skeins of robin's egg Debbie Mumm Traditions yarn, back when its center core was still black. And so many other things.

I'm having a lot of fun taking pictures and rediscovering my stash -- so far, there's only two skeins where I'm going, "Uh, what exactly was this again?"

Guess my memory is better than I thought. ;)

Current Project:  The Tilted Duster, from Interweave Knits (Fall 2007).
I've been working on this thing off and on since the 16th of January -- more off than on, lately, since work's been crazy busy. So, beginning week 3 here, and I'm about half done. (I'm also contemplating hacking the pattern a little bit since I haven't knit up the sleeves yet, and I really, truly hate seaming sleeves -- I may just pick up stitches and work my way down, see how that works out for me. Honestly, as long as I've been doing it, you'd think I might have more patience with finishing than I do.)

But once that's finished, I'm thinking about diving into another sweater -- well. I still have to make my husband's Space Invaders sweater, and that's going to involve getting his feedback on whether he wants me to do little invaders or big invaders, and there's nothing saying I can't make two sweaters at once, right?
I really, really want to make Elann.com's Pinwheel sweater. I want to make it in a kid size for a friend of mine, though that can wait a little while yet: I want to make a larger one in harvest colors for me, me, meee.  (... I am a greedy knitter.)
And perhaps coincidentally, Webs recently threw a clearance sale on their stock of Di.Ve' Zenith. Which is a very soft yarn that appeals to my inner yarn ho, no doubt because of the whole merino wool aspect. So I went and pounced merrily on the sale, picking out the autumn colors I wanted.

Naturally, there had to be a problem.
When I finished picking colors and made the order at Webs, I didn't notice that they only had one skein of the red (color 33086) left in stock before I placed the order... And I needed a total of five.

I've managed to get my grubby lil' paws on three more skeins thanks to eBay: As well,  Avery on Ravelry is about one of my favorite people ever right now since she had the presumably last single skein of 33086 I could find on the web, and she was willing to sell it to me. (Actually, the only reason I pinged her about it was because she'd marked it as willing to sell or trade: She wanted to de-stash a little, and I wanted the yarn. I believe/hope we both got what we wanted.)

Friended a few more people I know on Ravelry, added and adjusted pictures on my stash and my projects -- all in all, the past couple days have been productive on that site, and it makes me smile a little.

Next up: Unravelling the Askew I made a year or so ago and have never worn to recover the yarn for other things...

If you want to look at some of the back entries in this blog, you may notice that they've gone missing: I mean, hey! Where'd the garlic relish recipe go? Or the bagels?  Where's the freakin' Spice Cream?
Don't worry. They're not gone: They've just moved over to my Wordpress blog.

I've been doing some thinking lately, and I want my spare blogs to have purpose: Since this particular spot on Vox has actually been more about knitting than not lately, I've decided to keep with the trend and move the food over there.

And I'm hoping to start updating both spots on a more regular basis: It will probably help that I've joined a local knitting circle (thanks to Ravelry), and I anticipate being so pumped up about knitting on Thursdays that I'll come home and write about it.

So no worries: I'm just gearing up to do more.

... Well, only a partial enhancement, anyway.

I'm going to let you in on a secret.
I love super-soft yarn. And that puts yarns like Trendsetter's Tonalita and Di.Ve' Autumno high on my list.
If I can get the softness of those with machine washable? I am all over it -- which is why I was both elated and distressed to find Di.Ve' Zenith. Soft superwash wool! Oh my goodness!

Since Webs is having a clearance sale on Zenith and I cannot find a reliable source of it anywhere else, I suspect it's been discontinued... Which breaks my poor yarn harlot-y heart.

I need four skeins of Zenith in the red (33086) shade.
Why? Well, I want to make this Pinwheel sweater that Elann has as a free pattern, and I've already got this great spectrum of warm colors... and only one skein of the red when I need five total for the spiral and the arms.

Can anyone help me out, parchance?