Lalala…

Well, here she is.

And to settle Mouse’s shawl issues, I don’t tend to wear shawls as shawls. Any scarf or shawl I have will usually end up thrown over my hair at some point, usually if it’s a bit chilly and misty or to guard against rain (‘cause a lacy shawl is going to do so much). I give you blurry artsy shot.

And less blurry, but still artsy shot.

And how it’ll be worn 80% of the time, as a scarf. No wonder I don’t knit scarves; shawls work so well.

Oh, and that other project (since I just said I don’t knit scarves) was a Mini-Clapper. It’s destined to go to someone for Christmas, I’m sure.

This is some 100% wool HPY that I’ve had for ages and ages. It’s some of my first “real” yarn. This is a sock weight they used to carry. I have no idea how much yarn the scarf took (7” wide x 52” long) as I no longer remember the yardage of a hank. Suffice to say, I used nearly all of it. This was blocked to within an inch of its life and now has the most wonderful drape to it.

Hmm…two finished projects in one weekend. I think I’ll go lie down

Crazy, I know. After months of Kiri, loving the pinks and greens, and then disliking the greens and oranges, I decided to just go ahead and finish it; reserving judgement on the colors until afterward. I was just never able to find another color to match the pink and green already on the shawl. I took the whole thing to a LYS and the owner said she loved all the colors and that I should keep going. I’ve had people say they hate it or they love it. I’m still not sure where I fall.
Well…

I think it might be growing on me.

• Kiri Shawl courtesy of All Tangled Up


• Knit with Madil Kid Seta and various sizes of needles


• 42” across and 18” at the deepest point, unblocked

It’s currently doing a wet cat impersonation while I go help the husband in the garage. He says if I help tape off all the lighting and fixtures, I can play with the paint sprayer.

In the midst of doing lots of this kind of thing (movers show up Friday at 9am, must pack),

I’ve also manages to sneak in an hour or two of this kind of thing while watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

I think I may actually finish Kiri in my lifetime. Stop laughing. While switching to the second color did help out a bit, switching to a larger needle helped even more. I’m debating moving up one more needle size to finish out the shawl when I get to the last color. I believe I have enough yarn for one more repeat in green before the home stretch in that mango-orange. I’m thinking one repeat (maybe) in orange before knitting the edging and I’m calling it done.

The shawl is currently about 40” across and 19ish” long under moderate dry pinning. I’m sure that measurement will increase with wet blocking. Doing the math, I have over 300 stitches on the needles now and still another color to go. I’m trying not to think that if I’d knit Birch instead, I’d be done now.

While fetching more boxes from U-Haul Saturday, I pulled up next to this guy. I cracked up every time I saw him as we drove down the road. (Yes, that’s Stripe, a.k.a. you shouldn’t have fed the mogwai after midnight, Billy).

Sunday was spent shopping for some adult clothes and shoes for the husband at K&G. He is now officially Detective Husband versus Officer Husband. For the first time in 10 years we’ve known each other, I picked out his clothes. Also for the first time in as long, I ironed shirts for him. I’d tell him to find a dry cleaner, but I find ironing relaxing in some sick and twisted way. I’m going to make some lavender water when we get into the house for the sheets, I believe.

Sunday also took us for a drive in the sticks (part of the directions involved passing a swamp) of North Alpharetta to meet up with a woman who had something I was pretty sure I wanted.

It’s a Clemes & Clemes kit wheel from back in the day (1970’s or so). Thanks to Laura at Poor Miss Finch for being nice enough to field some questions from me about the model. The lady I purchased this from bought it from eBay a year ago and never got around to figuring out exactly how it all went together. All of the parts are there, along with 2 1/3 bobbins. (I took the hooks off to flyer so that I could scrub it down with some vinegar and water). The only thing it’s missing is a drive band, which isn’t a big deal at all.

A bit of love and care should be enough to bring it back up to good working order, and a good long soak in some tung oil, followed by liberal coats of beeswax and tung oil to seal it. C&C, while still in business, no longer makes spinning products. There is a Yahoo! group, though, where I’ve found lots of helpful information, including scans of the original assembly instructions. I’ll need another bobbin if I want to ply. I think a lazy kate is also in my future. As much as I enjoyed working with wood from my 3-d Design class, I see myself heading up to Grandfather L’s shop and asking him to show me how to use a lathe to turn some bobbins.

I’m going to have to take it apart to make some adjustments as the wheel isn’t sitting exactly vertical and leans slightly forward, causing my makeshift driveband to slip off the back almost immediately. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to do anything with the wheel until we’re in the house. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what I’m doing this holiday weekend?

I have been doing a few other things than obsess about the house in the past few weeks, you know (appraisal tomorrow and inspection the next day, then clear sailing until closing). I got in touch with a long lost friend (waves at Kim) from high school in Germany and immediately felt very old to know that her little sister just had a baby. I’m practically positive she’s not old enough to get married and have kids. I mean, she’s what? 24? A child! In the next breath, I realized I had some baby knitting to do.

Here’s a perfectly awful photo of the cotswold I plied from a few posts ago. I should remember that natural light is my friend. I’d take another picture, but I’ve done something very scary and couldn’t get to the yarn. I’ve packed away all the yarn I have not currently being used on a project. Hm…actually, the photo’s not so bad.

I did get out of my knitting funk and have been working on a couple things, like these dishcloths. I believe this is the same pattern in Mason-Dixon Knitting that Jane has just done, but I found the pattern on a site with links to other dishcloth patterns that I can no longer find. Good thing it’s an easy pattern to remember.

I finished the first of some plain jane picot edge stockinette socks in nice, bright colors last night. These were the socks I’d grown to hate at some point. Amazing how quickly you forget things like that.

And here’s the state of the never ending shawl that will eventually kill me Kiri. I’m knitting this up on US 2’s instead of the US 7’s called for in the pattern because I’m obviously insane. This “shawl” is barely larger than a kerchief. I almost got to the end of the first ball, but switched colors just for anything different. That’s right…nearly an entire ball of yarn and I have an over-glorified kerchief. I’m still going just to be ornery.

I also attempted to make some pita bread the other night. Perhaps if I were paying better attention and added the oil with the liquid ingredients instead of while kneading the dough, it may have been a bit closer.

It doesn’t have much flavor on its own, but I devoured it covered in some hummus I made. I think I’ll give it another shot (mostly because I still have hummus and I’m out of crackers as well as any other type of bread). They didn’t all puff up and form pockets, but still tasty.

I’ll leave you with a riot of happy colors courtesy of the flowers I received from a co-worker who was good enough to remind the boss about Admin’s Day last week. She does know how I like my flowers (bright) and remembered how much I love gerbera dasies from the bridesmaid’s bouquet she carried at my wedding.

I shoud be packing. I’m going to make brownies. You know, for strength.

I haven’t exactly been having fun, but you know what I mean. Lots of things have happened in the interim. I finished spinning the Chasing Rainbows bombyx top that I got ages ago and promptly forgot it over at Pixie’s. It got cold (there was snow!) and then it got warm. Then it got cold again (rain!) and began to remind me of silly things where the seasons go wonky and skip around a bit.

I got in a bit of baking as well. I tried out Kestrel’s recipe for challah, but since I’ve honestly never tried challah, I really didn’t have anything with which to compare my effort. I will say that it was tasty. I’m definitely going to experiment some more on it, this time actually bothering to pick up some bread flour. My usual standby of White Lily all-purpose is fantastic for biscuits, but lacking in gluten production for yeast bread. I also tried a honey oatmeal bread, but it looked nicer than it tasted.

Speaking of foodstuffs, did you know that Trader Joe’s is coming to the Atlanta area? It looks like two locations at first with 12 possible stores later. Sandy Springs and Buckhead get the initial offerings, but East Cobb is on the list, too (yippee!).

Moving on…Memaw’s shawl was finished ages ago, and I have a crappy photo for you. Ignore the part where my photographer (hubby) included the trash can. I didn’t feel like photoshopping it out. I got bored and wound my kool-aid yarn into a ball, but refrained from casting on for anything. I did finish my Jaywalkers a week or so ago (currently on my feet ) but haven’t taken any photos.

I’ve also started Kiri from All Tangled Up. It’s going to start out with the hot pink below (it’s actually sitting in my sketchbook. I kinda gave up taking notes in class for a sec to take pictures!), then progress to a lime and end with an orangy mango color. Stop looking at me like that. I will put all those colors together and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!! Mwahahahaha….

I’m better. Here’s photo. I’m off to class.