Little Wit Knits – Unplugged

Since my last to do list was actually rather helpful, even if it didn’t appear so on the surface, I think I shall start another one. These tasks are to be done before I head to Maryland Sheep and Wool Friday May 1st.

1. Finish Vivian.
2. Cast on one of the tops with the Shelridge W4. It looks like the Fern Fitted Shell may pull out as the winner there. Unless Green Gable makes a last minute effort to come through.
3. Knit at least 2 more inches on that lace scarf that’s been dawdling.
4. Make a decision about the Belgian socks, to rip or not to rip? Will they fit a normal man’s foot? Are they really that big? Who knows?
5. Pick out the next pair of socks to be knit and cast them on if everything else is progressing alright.
6. Spend at least half a Saturday in the sewing room – clean up and oil the machines and pick out projects for the fabric laying around.
7. Get the indoor vegetables planted.
8. Spend at least 2 hours on the drop spindle to see if I can reclaim that spark.
9. Begin the clean out of the backroom for our guests that are coming this summer.
10. If there’s another free Saturday start piecing together my t-shirt quilt.

Oh and just for something pretty to break up the monotony of the text – one of my recent yarn purchases:

Pretty!

Well if my happiness about my house being mostly clean would fill a blog post I would be done today. However, I don’t think that will sway y’all too much. In other news we finally filed our city tax returns (2 a piece – hooray for moving!) That’s one more thing crossed off our to do list. I am finding it a little easier to complete household chores and such after dinner now that we aren’t sucked into the boob tube. I bet if we really wanted to rid ourselves of distractions we would have to get rid of the Internet. There’s so much that you can get online that you don’t need to pay premium prices for cable. In fact the boy just watched both shows that he missed last night while we were playing cards using Hulu.

In crafty news there has been a moderate influx of yarn to my house. Those will hopefully be photographed and documented soon. I think my next big knitting task will be to get Vivian finished by mid April and then cast on a project with my Shelridge Farm. I keep going back and forth on what I want to make with it. I was going to make these socks but I haven’t cast on yet. Then I contemplated making this top but I wasn’t sure I had a good contrasting yarn for the middle bit. So I have 3 skeins in the turquoise colorway which equals about 600 yds and I am totally stumped as to what to make. Any ideas? I would like to find a project that would use up most of the yarn in a top for me. It’s superwash so no felting. Oh and I would like to also not have to buy more yarn.

One more peek through my queue and it looks like I would have enough yarn to make this shawl. The question is do I truly want a bright blue shawl? Oh and it was originally purchased for this top but I can’t decide if I will wear it. I am such a putz about this yarn. Can’t you see the need for assistance?

Ok two more patterns to consider Green Gable and Fern Fitted Shell. I swear no more posting tonight.

Well that weekend just flew by. We got up early Saturday morning and headed off to the Apple store so I could get my battery replaced, *again* as well as part of my power cord. Fortunately it was all covered under warranties. Then we headed off to Carfagna’s to dig into their meat selection for Saturday’s dinner. While grabbing some sirloin we noticed a decent price on 8oz bacon wrapped filets so we picked some of those up for dinner on Sunday. Then we headed to North Market to get some fresh  veggies for Saturday dinner and of course some Jeni’s ice cream. I was lame and got the same thing again but seriously Pear Riesling is superb and light. Once home we did a thorough cleaning of the kitchen and main level of the house. Then it was time to chop vegetables until the cows came home. Our friends K&J were coming over for dinner and K is sort of vegetarian. So we made do it yourself kabobs with plenty of veggies to go around and fresh sirloin for the carnivores. Dinner was excellent. As was the company. They left about 9pm which was about the same time that we both passed out. (I am sure the alcohol consumed with dinner played no minor role in the sleepiness.)

Sunday involved more cleaning of the house. This time we tackled the upper level. It feels so nice to see the bedrooms freshly swept. Just need to put the summer sheets on the bed. Although since it is snowing tonight, that may need to hold off for a week or so. After we got the bedrooms taken care of I decided to tackle my yarn stash while the boy played some Mario Kart. My cubby for bits and pieces was very full and so I knocked them all on the floor to sort out the full skeins that were hiding in there. Silly yarn. Then I started winding some of the messier skeins into cakes. Before I knew it, it was time to head off to a birthday party for our 2 yr old pal. The party was fun and the cake and ice cream was good. I even wore my party hat. Then we rushed back home in time to beat his parent to our house and get the grill going. We had wonderfully yummy filets, salad and carrots for dinner. Then we played Phase 10 and I lost horribly. I was winning awesomely and then the table turned on me. *tear* Now it’s time for bed bed. Have a g’night everyone!

Last Saturday I  headed over to my friend’s home to have a play date with her Lendrum Double Treadle. I may be toying with the idea of purchasing a spinning wheel in the near-ish future and I wanted to try spinning on a night where I wasn’t completely exhausted and which wasn’t connected to a trip to Germany. She was an excellent teacher and I was off trying to figure out the timing and such. I spent about 3 – 4 hrs and I managed to wind up 50 yards of 2 ply Super Bulky yarn from around 1.6 oz undyed BFL (from Hello Yarn) and 1.6 oz of miscellaneous bits that she let me play with. Being able to see the whole process from beginning to end made a few light bulbs go off with regard to my drop spindling. Like, hey pre-drafting is a good idea and breaking them into manageable strips may help you get through it more easily. Hopefully we will be able to have another play date soon and perhaps go play with some wheels at a fibre shop. And with that I give you the pictures:

my first handspun all plied up

my first handspun in the skein

my first handspun in the hank

The way the colors played together really surprised me. I wasn’t convinced they would all look good together but when they were plied with the undyed BFL they all seemed to just kind of flow. I am well aware this is quite thick and thin but I figure it will make a nice soft cowl for me.

I went to knit night tonight finally after missing the last 3 or 4 weeks. Since the yarn I planned to knit with had been around mothballs I decided to take some darning to finish up until most people had finished eating. When I got all that done I swatched the worsted weight yarn for the top of Forest Vixen and got ready to knit the 3″ of ribbing that stand between me and final product! Alas, the project still smelled way too much of moth balls and the uh Herbal Cucumber fragrance spray that I had sprayed into my knitting bag in the hopes of concealing the mothball smell. woops! Turns out those two smells meld together into one fairly gross smell. I was begged to put my knitting away by my fellow knitters in order to save the innocent patrons at the restaurant who simply wanted to enjoy a good meal. So because of my smelliness knit night let out a little early because I didn’t have anything else to knit. Once I got home I sat down in my decently ventilated basement and began the ribbing. I have 2″ done and am working on dropping a few of the columns of stitches. If all goes well this should be done tom’w!!! At long last. I am so excited. Next up tackling the rest of Vivian!