Spring Street

So the sun is actually shining today. There are birds singing. Okay, not here, but you know, they exist. The grass is getting green, and you know what that means - paying the people to mow my lawn again.

What I'm saying, basically, is that it's almost summer, and thank whatever gods may be for that!

Since I work in the school system, my work ends on June 3rd, and I get a few weeks to myself. Of course, I'm working summer school this year, but that's like 6 hours a week for five weeks. So this is going to leave me a lot of time for the knitting, spinning, and drinking. Also, SSK! WOO! I was too late to get in last time, and didn't have the money anyway, but this time, I will be there!

In the last forever since I posted, things have happened. Projects have been started and finished. I've basically stopped taking pictures of finished projects except for dyed fiber for my Etsy shop. That's going swimmingly, by the way. I love dyeing fiber, and apparently other people like dyed fiber. I figure it's a match made in... you know, somewhere with sheep and happy spinning people.

I made this for a swap:

It came out great, and I kind of want to make one for myself. Except, you know, toward the end it made me want to cry and throw it across the room in that special way that lace does. (have I posted this picture before? I'm just so darn pround of it...)

This pile of green is now an actual sweater that I have not bothered to take real pictures of. Or make a Ravelry page for. (That's two horribly composed sentences in a row. Count them, two! Wow!)

It's a Calligraphy Cardigan, in Madelinetosh DK Twist malachite.

Yes, that makes it the most ridiculously expensive, yet plain sweater I've ever made. But it's so pretty, and SO warm. Just in time for summer!

The Harry Dresden Fiber Club, heretofore unheard of in this place, is about to start its second incarnation. I'm pretty excited about it, since I really quite like the way the first one went. It's a little club, but so far that's allowing me to make sure all the details are perfect. Also, with work and school, a small club is all I could do, unless I want to go for an exended stay at the funny farm, which is neither funny, nor a farm. So, no sheep.

Graduating college (for now) on May 18th. Should be excited about that. More relieved, really. And not looking forward to school: the empire strikes back. I really do want that BA, though. The AA just feels a little like it qualifies me to flip burgers. No offense to anyone happy with their AA. I'm just a whiner who will never be happy with what she has. I could seriously have a Doctorate and be whining that it really should be two.

Anyway, before I let my rant take hold and go on about how a 33 year old woman should be finished with school years ago, I think I'll shut up and go knit for a while before tackling the last of my Statistics homework.

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi...

So given the pattern name "My Hope", and the Schmutzerella Yarns Galaxy Far Far Away yarn club offering of "Into the Garbage Chute, Flyboy!", is there any way this particular shawl could not be named A New Hope? I think not.

For anyone who thinks it looks good enough to knit, go forth on Sunday when the pattern is available and buy! All proceeds for the month of July are going to the Make-A-Wish foundation, one of those charities that should be near and dear to everyone's heart. Let's all get together and help grant three wishes this year!

February Who?

So yeah, February is all gone, with nary a single word from me. I'd say people wondered where I went, but for that to happen, you have to show up regularly first. To that end, I am going to attempt to start updating on a regular basis. I am notoriously unreliable on the intrawebz, though, so we shall see how this works out.

Anyway, you remember the wondrous shawl I was working on? Can you guess where it is right now? If you said on my shoulders, you're dead wrong. Yep, it's still right here:

"Why is this?", an interested party might ask confusedly. Well, the truth is that I sort of hit a wall. I'm near the end of the third chart, which is really pretty good. But then I made a stupid mistake, and was faced with the prospect of tinking an entire row. So it sat, unloved for nearly a month before inspiration struck. Leslie of the Knit Girllls has started her own Evenstar as a wedding shawl for a friend. She has been powering through it, unlike me, and I stopped by their forum to whine about my pathetic issues. Pretty quickly, they had me back on track.

Leslie suggested that I tink a few stitches at a time, while interspersing it with simpler knitting that kept me from going bonkers. (Ok, this isn't exactly what she said, but it's the essence of the matter.)

So the row is tinked, and hopefully, more will be finished in the near future.

In the meantime, I've become hopelessly addicted to spinning. It seems to take up more and more of what was once my knitting time, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I tend to burn out on everything, so moving back and forth will help keep me focused. Even if it doesn't, spinning has given me such gems as this:

A Fiber Fancy BFL/Silk mix that spun through my hands as fluidly as the ocean waves its colors represent. It is almost 600 yards of two ply laceweight from 4oz of fiber. I think it deserves for me to make it its own shawl pattern.

A small note: as of the time of this posting, Etsy seems to have lost Fiber Fancy's shop. I'm sure it'll be back posthaste, though, as she has years of good feedback, and is a wonderful seller. In fact, I just finished her Beatles Fiber club, and am now signed up for the next year of her 80's fiber club - thank you, IRS.

And my favorite thing I've spun yet:

That's 550 yards of navajo plied fingering weight yarn, spun up from a Loop batt. If you don't know of Loop from Round the Twist or The Knit Girlls, your probably don't spin or knit, so I don't know why you're here. But in all seriousness, if you haven't checked out Steph's shop, do it. I know the bullseye bumps seem a little expensive, but they're well worth the price. I'm just waiting for the 15th to re subscribe to her bullseye bump club.

I've started a Pogona from this, and so far, it's knitting up very well. This is my first Stephen West pattern, but I'm enjoying it so far. I usually try to avoid knitting the same thing as everyone else, but the shape of this shawl just sucked me in. The yarn is the softest thing I've ever spun by hand, so I'm excessively proud of it. I suspect this shawl is going to get worn to death.

Okay, that's all for now. Hope everyone is having a lovely spring!