Twisting the Night (and Day) Away

Spinning content might be boring for a while. Although my initial goal was to spin up 6 oz. of my Rambouillet fleece, I figured that as long as I was in the groove, I might as well spin it all. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? I know I'll be happy that I did it this way in the long run, as my singles are more likely to be consistent if I spin them all start to finish with nothing in between. I'm certainly still enjoying spinning this fiber, but it's not very exciting to show.

Three bobbins are now complete, and I'm working on the fourth. When I start running out of empty bobbins, I'll start winding the singles off using my ball winder and sliding the resulting cakes onto empty paper tubes (my cheap and low-tech storage bobbins). I am hoping to get at least a couple more spun up this week, and it would be lovely to have all the singles spun by the end of June.

In the meantime, I have some excellent motivation to finish so I can move on to some dyed fiber: my April Southern Cross Fibre club showed up yesterday!

Shipping of this club always takes a while, as it's coming across at least one ocean to get to me, but the pandemic has made things even more complicated. David is now unable to ship to a number of countries, and his fiber supply has been affected, limited what he's able to get to dye, so anything that comes to me from this club seems like a huge deal. This colorway is called Hope Springs -- an excellence sentiment -- and it's on grey Corriedale wool. I love the depth of the color on the grey fiber, and I think this is going to be really beautiful spun up -- but not until after the fleece is done!

Three WIPs, Three Books

It's Thursday (right? it's hard enough to keep track these days without a long holiday weekend thrown in), so I'm joining up with Carole and friends for Three on Thursday.

First up, let's look at my three current yarny projects (you know I'm still spinning a lot, but I'll wait until Sunday to talk about that):

1. Rainbow's crochet blanket

I'm continuing to work on this a little every day for the 100 Day Project, and I'm making slow but steady progress. I'm currently on my sixth ball of Felici, with two more from the original amount to go plus the additional four we discovered in my stash that I'll likely add on. At the moment, it's the size of a lap blanket on Rainbow, and I'm pretty sure she wants it to be much bigger (especially because the log cabin sock yarn blanket she's been using is starting to get pretty felted in some spots despite being knit out of superwash yarn -- proof that not all superwash is created equal). It would be nice to finish it this summer so I could count all the yarn for Stash Dash, but we'll see.

2. My Breathe and Hope shawl

This project has come to feel like a bit of a slog. I feel like I've worked on it a ton and yet it's not getting much bigger. I've also made a number of mistakes (which I haven't felt compelled to fix), and I've started to worry I'll run out of yarn. I'm not eliminating the possibility that I will rip this all out and use the yarn for something else, because it really is fabulous yarn, but for now I'll continue to slog on. Feel free to encourage me to continue or rip.

3. Socks for my sister-in-law

I still have quite a stash of sock yarn, despite reaching Sock Drawer Saturation Point, so I figured I'd get a head start on holiday knitting now. This yarn was the full skein that came with the Fibernymph Dye Works holiday mini set last year (the full skein was an optional add-on). The colors weren't really me, but I think they'll work perfectly for my sister-in-law, and she was so excited about the socks I made her last year that of course I knew I'd make her another pair. I'm using my basic top-down stockinette sock recipe for these, with the added embellishment of slipping every other stitch on the first round where the color changes. That requires a bit more attention than a plain sock, but I think it will be worth it. I cast on the first sock on Sunday and worked on it a bit that day and Monday while we were spending time with family, so you can see how quickly it's working up.

Those are all my current WIPs, though the number is likely to increase soon as I still have to cast on my Tegna and the Through the Loops MKAL starts next week.

Next, let's talk about what I'm reading. I used to be a reader who would only ever read one book at a time, and suddenly I find I'm reading three!

1. Practical Magic

It seemed logical after reading "book 0" in the series to read the original. I'm listening to the audiobook, and it's my "listen while running/walking" book. I've got about 3 1/2 hours left, which won't take me that long because I'm listening at 1.25 time. When I finish, it will be filling the Magical Realism box on my bingo card.

2. The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

I started this the other night; it was one of two books that my mother dropped off late last week along with some homemade pumpkin bread. She told me that it was a page turner, and I'm finding that to be the case. I'm not terribly impressed, but it's going quickly and will fill the Recommended by a Family Member square on my card.

3. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Though I've read works by Charlotte and Emily Bronte numerous times, I've never read anything by Anne, so it seemed like kismet when I learned that the next book on the Craftlit podcast (which I've been listening to since 2007) was going to be Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I had several episodes to catch up on because my podcast listening has been way down (I usually listen to them on my commute to and from work and during my lunch break at work), so I binged a bit this week while spinning and am really enjoying it. This will be more of a long-term read as I'll have to wait for each episode to come out, but the added bonus of listening to it this way is that it comes with the added commentary from Heather, the host, who is a former high school English teacher, so it's a bit like being in a class, and using my brain like that is really appealing right now. I'm putting this in the Written Under a Pseudonym square on my card, because of course all the Brontes originally published under pen names -- as Acton (Anne), Currer (Charlotte), and Ellis (Emily) Bell.

I'm hoping to finish up the first two of these soon because I have two library holds that will be available "soon," according to my app. It never rains but it pours!

I'd love to hear what you're making and reading right now. Please share in the comments!

One Little Word, May 2020

Somehow, we've reached the final week of May. This month has flown by, much as I've wanted it to slow down. So I'm glad that I can take this post, at least, to slow things down and join Honoré and friends to reflect on my One Little Word over the past month.

So how has savor been playing a role in my life in May? Much like last month, it's been linked to gratitude. I have been so grateful for our situation and that we're able to carry on with our jobs and our lives without too much trouble. I know there are so many people who have to worry about how they can afford food or rent or other necessities, and we are so very lucky to not have to worry about any of that. This whole pandemic has really brought it home to me how privileged I am in this respect -- I am immensely grateful that I have the physical, mental, and emotional energy to savor anything right now because I don't have to expend that energy on basic needs and how to meet them. Here are just a few things I've been savoring this past month:

• Spending extra time with Rainbow. She has officially finished school now, but even when school was still in session, I've still had so much more extra time with her. She's occasionally joined me for a walk at the end of the day, and we've been doing more cooking together. Now that it's virtually confirmed that there will be no camp for her this summer, we're thinking up ways to keep her occupied at home, and part of that will likely involve some craft projects that we can do together (as my schedule allows).
• My daily crochet time as part of the 100 Day Project. I love having that 15 minutes (minimum) per day when I sit down and focus on the blanket. It's almost become a meditative practice for me at this point. I've allowed myself to work on it longer than 15 minutes if I like, but often I do just that amount of time, and limiting my time has served to make it a habit and something that I fully focus on when I do pull it out. If that's not savoring, I don't know what is!
• Spending time outside. While I've still be running, I haven't run as much as I did last month because I had a sore/stiff neck for two weeks at the beginning of the month. I have, however, been getting outside to exercise just about every day. When I couldn't comfortably run, I was still going for long walks. And though I'm usually listening to an audiobook or podcast while I'm out, I am also focused on what I am seeing. I've watched flowers bud and bloom. I've seen previously bare tree branches full of leaves. I've spotted rainbows and teddy bears in windows and painted rocks in gardens. And of course there are all the animals -- I've seen the usual squirrels and birds (who all seem to be less afraid of me lately), but I've also spotted quite a few chipmunks and rabbits. Yesterday I followed a swallowtail butterfly flitting around for a bit. And with more time, I've gotten more invested in my garden. Rainbow and I have started some seeds and are going to see what else we can grow.
• Playing with beautiful yarn. This is something I savor all the time, but it's been especially welcome during these uncertain times. I lost my knitting mojo for a while, but it's back now, and I have beautiful yarn to thank for it. I mean, who can be bored with their knitting when they have these colors?

I have never been more thankful for a well-curated stash because it's been so inspiring to dig through the yarn and fiber in beautiful colors.

I have continued my pandemic practice of journaling each night to reflect on the day and, at a minimum, jotting down three things I've accomplished in that day and five things that have brought me joy. Some days the first list feels a bit harder to complete, but what I've found is that the second list is always a breeze. There are so many things that bring me joy now; in truth, they've been there all along, but life has a way of getting busy and crazy enough that it's easy to overlook them. Perhaps the thing I'm savoring the most right now is the new pace of life that is slower. There is no rushing from home to work to school. There is no scrambling to get lunches packed and dinner on the table. We have time to enjoy each other's company, to savor (ha!) a meal together, to ease into each morning and unwind each night. And while it's sad that it's taken a global pandemic to get us to this place, I am grateful that we're able to find some joy in it.

About All That Fleece ...

Hi, I'm a spinner, and I have a fleece problem.

Now, to be fair, my problem isn't as bad as some other spinners. But like them, I have a problem with acquiring fleeces that I fall in love with, bringing them home, and then letting them sit. With the extra time I have on my hands these days, and with the weather nice enough to take fiber prep outside, I thought it was high time I start tackling the fleeces in my stash.

The first one was the Rambouillet you saw the beginning of last week. It was one of two fleeces I split with another spinner back in 2012, and it was the easiest to start with because it had been cleaned and carded at a mill. I'd even split up the roving into manageable amounts of about 2 oz. I did not have a ton of extra spinning time this week, but I've managed to spin up one of those 2 oz. balls and gotten started on a second (I believe I have a total of 11 balls).

You can tell how much fluffier woolen-spun singles are by how much of that first bobbin is filled up -- for comparison, if I'd been spinning my usual worsted singles or yarn, I'd fill up about that much of the bobbin with about 4 oz. of fiber. I do feel that as I get more used to this fiber, my singles are becoming a bit more consistent overall, though they're still a bit lumpy-bumpy. I plan to spin up all the singles and then ply, mixing up singles spun at the beginning, middle, and end of the fleece so that the unevenness more or less evens out. I'm planning a three ply, as that is likely to be the most consistent, and I'm hopeful that I will have enough for a sweater, perhaps with some dyed handspun added in for stripes or colorwork if needed.

While this one fleece should keep me busy for a while, I also have some other fleeces that are clean but in need of processing before they can be spun. The one I've been most anxious to get to is Ollie the yearling Romney/Romeldale cross that I brought home from Maryland Sheep and Wool in 2018. Unlike the other fleeces, his I actually washed right away (I think within the month of May that year) and sampled. I ultimately determined that the short-ish staple length of the fleece meant that carding was likely to be the easiest way to process it, so yesterday, when the weather was lovely and Rainbow was willing, I took the fleece and my drum carder out to the porch and we carded up three fluffy batts.

It took three passes through the drum carder to get them to this point, but I know that work will be well worth it. If you're interested, I posted a short video of Rainbow doing the first pass on one of the batts on my Instagram account. There is still quite a lot of fleece to be carded at this point, but I think if I continue to make batts as I'm spinning the Rambouillet, it should be good motivation to get both things done. Wouldn't it be something if I ended the year having spun up most (if not all) of my fleece?

The Unexpected Joy of a Three-day Weekend

With every day feeling the same and time being a strange construct these days, I had completely forgotten that this coming weekend was Memorial Day weekend until I got an email from work yesterday announcing that the "office" would be "closing" early on Friday as it usually does (in today's terms, that means I can close my computer at 3 tomorrow afternoon). It's not nearly as exciting as being able to physically leave my office early on a Friday afternoon, but given that it's been a busy week at work, it's an unexpected joy that I am fully embracing.

The work that's come in this week has meant less crafting time, so my projects haven't progressed too much since you saw them last. The most progress has been on my cowl, which is just about done -- I think I'm going to knit in the texture pattern for about another half inch and then do the ribbing to finish it off. I'm a bit sad about that, if I'm honest, because these colors are making me so happy.

In keeping with the 100 Day Projects, I'm still putting in about 15 minutes a day on Rainbow's blanket, but as the rounds are getting longer, progress is harder to see, especially when that 15 minutes is the only time it gets each day. I'm nearing the end of the fifth ball of Felici, though, so I know it is getting a bit larger.

It will need some aggressive blocking when it's done to square it up, but the color pooling is so interesting to me!

I finished two books this week, one audio and one digital.

I listened to On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous over the course of several days. I really wanted to love this book, as it's gotten so much positive hype, and certainly the writing is beautiful and poetic, especially when read by the author. But something about it didn't work for me. It's called a novel, but it felt more like a memoir to me, and it didn't really have a linear plot. It's framed as a letter a son writes to his mother, but it's really a series of memories of his childhood, presented in no particular order. I didn't listen to this while running because I felt that I really had to pay attention to it, but even so I found it hard to follow. While Vuong is clearly talented as a writer, I was disappointed -- but don't let that discourage you if you want to read it. Be advised, though, that this book contains some very graphic, sexually explicit scenes. I gave it 3 stars and put it in the "Debut" box on my bingo card.

Alias Grace was a much more enjoyable read for me. I'd been meaning to read it for at least the past year, since I watched the Netflix miniseries (which is well worth watching, too!), but it had always had a long wait. So a couple of weeks ago, when I saw that there was no wait for it from the library, I jumped at the chance to borrow it. I really enjoyed it and appreciated Margaret Atwood's talent. I'd originally intended to put it in the "By an author on your previous year's favorites list" square on my bingo card, but when I realized how long it was (546 pages), I moved it to "More than 500 pages." It really didn't feel like a long book to me because it moved quickly. I gave it 4 stars.

I'm looking forward to having three days to myself this weekend, especially given that the weather is supposed to be sunny and warm for a change. I will likely do some puttering in the garden and may finally take my drum carder out to the porch to process some fleece. I'll leave you for today with a shot of our sunflower seedlings, which are beginning to put out their third set of leaves. It never ceases to amaze me how much power and potential there is in a seed.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, full of sunshine and potential!

I'm Ready for the Next Project

It's a new week, one that's shaping up to be a busy one. A big project landed in my inbox yesterday afternoon, so that will keep me busy this week during working hours. And I'm still doing plenty of crafting, of course.

We had a beautiful weekend here, warm and sunny with no rain for a change. On Saturday morning, Rainbow and I planted the flowers and tomatoes we'd gotten on Mother's Day. We have pink impatiens in the front yarn, between the grass and hydrangea bushes. They were pretty small when we planted them and only a couple of flowers have opened since then. In the back yard, we planted a mix of marigolds (I started picking them and drying them last year to use in natural dyeing) and the three tomato plants in our fenced bed. We've got some sunflower seedlings started in a pot planter and have started some peas inside that will be transplanted outside once they're a bit bigger. I know Julia asked to see photos of the garden, but at the moment there's not much to see. Once everything starts growing and blooming, I'll be sure to take some pictures!

Though I mainly did a lot of spinning over the weekend, I've been working on my WIPs as well just about every day. I'm continuing to put in a minimum of 15 minutes a day on Rainbow's crochet blanket, and most evenings I work on my Breathe and Hope shawl. I'm nearly finished with section 3, which I think I've likely messed up a few times, but after ripping it out and restarting it three times, I'm just going with the flow at this point.

My cowl has grown quite a bit, though apparently it requires more attention than I thought because yesterday I discovered a dropped stitch. I laddered it back up and think I fixed it pretty well, but it was a warning for me that I need to actually watch what I'm doing. I'm very pleased with how it's knitting up, and it looks like I'll be writing up the pattern when I'm done (I was thinking about it, so I asked in a poll on my Instagram stories, and the answer was overwhelmingly yes -- so who am I to refuse?).

Despite having these three projects going, plus spinning, I'm getting itchy to start a new project, specifically a garment. I have quite a few sweaters on my 20 in 20 list, and the amount of time left in the year to knit them is only getting shorter. I so rarely seem to get started on warm-weather garments in time to actually wear them in the season they're intended for, so I've decided that my next project will be Tegna using yarn I spun specifically for it:

This yarn was spun from three braids of Targhee/bamboo/silk from Gale's Art. I split each braid in half vertically and used one strip from each braid as one ply in each skein, so the two skeins are more or less identical. I swatched with it (yes, cheating a bit) over the weekend and am now ready to go, but I'm making myself finish up one of the other WIPs first. That said, I am getting a lot of joy out of looking at the yarn cakes sitting nearby!

A Study in Contrasts

Even though my knitting mojo has returned, my spinning productivity really hasn't suffered, and so I'm sure it will come to no surprise to you that I have another finished skein of handspun to share this week. You didn't even see it in progress, as I started spinning it on Tuesday. It took me about a day to finish each bobbin, and I plied the entire skein yesterday.

Here's what the fiber looked like before I started, Falkland from Fibernymph Dye Works in a colorway called Cosmic Vertigo:

I spun my usual three-ply fingering with this, splitting the fiber into thirds and just letting the colors fall where they did. The skein was just washed this morning and is a bit damp still, so I don't have final yardage yet, though I'm hoping it'll be about 350 yards.

I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. I didn't expect the colors to get as mixed as they did, but I'm liking the blending that happened.

The ply and the fiber make this skein rather suited for socks, but I'm not sure if I can justify another pair of socks for myself right now, so this might go into the stash for the time being.

I couldn't let my wheel sit empty for too long, so I reached deep into my stash for the next project. I may have mentioned once or twice that I have a problem with fleeces -- namely that I seem to keep falling in love with and buying them but rarely actually spinning them. I really want to work on rectifying that situation this year, so I pulled out a fleece that I bought back at Maryland Sheep and Wool in 2012 and split with another spinner. It was a gorgeous gray/brown Rambouillet from Roclans Farm that I ended up shipping out to a mill to have it carded. When it came back, I measured out 2 oz. balls of the roving, and it has been waiting to be spun ever since. Today, I finally started spinning it. Here's the fiber beforehand:

And here are some of the singles on the bobbin, which I really wish you could pet because it's so soft!

Because the fiber was carded into roving (and not combed into top, which is what I usually spin), I'm spinning this woolen, allowing the twist to enter the fiber supply and determine the grist of the singles. They're definitely uneven, and there are some lumps and bumps in there because no doubt the carding caused some nepps. I was very new to dealing with fleece when I got this one, so I have no idea if the mill I chose was really outfitted to card fine fleeces, but it's too late to worry about that now. I'm letting the fiber do what it wants, and I'll figure out what to do with the resulting yarn once it's finished and I know what weight it is and how much of it I have. That's quite a bit outside my comfort zone, but I think it's helping me to be a better spinner!

Three on Thursday, Book Juggling Edition

First, I have to thank all of you for your sympathy and commiseration on the lice situation. I am determined to defeat the foul "wee beasties" (as Jamie Fraser would say) this time around and am being very thorough in our daily combing. I can only conclude that I missed some nits the last time we went through this, and I don't want to make that mistake again. We've found that it's easier to comb through Rainbow's long hair when it's wet, so we're doing it after she showers now rather than before, and it seems to be going very well. I found only three lice and maybe one nit yesterday, so I'm hopeful (but not wanting to jinx anything) that I'm doing a better job. I know that lice can't cause any long-term harm or disease, but it's one thing that Rainbow shouldn't have to worry about right now -- and it's certainly something that I don't want to have to deal with right now, especially because on top of this I've had a sore/stiff neck and shoulder for the past week and would appreciate one less annoyance!

With everything that Carole is dealing with right now, I'm pretty sure she won't be doing Three on Thursday, but I thought I'd stick with the theme for today's post (and please go give her some love and support if you haven't already!).

This week I'm finding myself in an usual position of being in the middle of reading three books; when it rains, it pours, at least as far as the library is concerned! A week ago it looked like I'd be waiting a while for the next holds in my list, so I borrowed an ebook and an audiobook to enjoy while I waited -- only to have two more holds become available this week! Luckily I was able to delay a hold on the next audiobook (this seems to be a new feature of the Libby app, and I really like it), but I borrowed the ebook because I knew it wouldn't take me long to get through it. So here's what I'm reading right now:

• Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood: I had long wanted to read this, but the last time I'd checked its availability from the library (which, admittedly, was quite a while ago), there was a long wait. When I saw it was available to borrow right away, I immediately jumped on it. I probably did it in the wrong order, but I wanted to read the book because I'd binged the Netflix version of it last year and thought it was fascinating. I'd intended to put this book in the "By an author on your previous year's favorites list" square on my bingo card, but I think now it will go in the "More than 500 pages" square (it's 546 pages but moves very quickly).
• The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman: This audiobook, which I've been listening to while I exercise, will fill the square I originally intended for Alias Grace. One of my favorite books last year was The World That We Knew, and I also enjoyed the previous Hoffman book I read, so I knew this would be a good one. I've got about four hours left in the book (I'm listening at 1.25 time, so I can get through an hour of audio in about 45 minutes, which is usually how long I'm out when I go for a run), and I'm really enjoying it. I very well might read or listen to Practical Magic when I'm done, which will conveniently fill my "Magical realism" bingo square.
• Dead Water by Ann Cleeves (Shetland book #5): This is the book that I got unexpectedly but knew I'd be able to read quite quickly. I started it Tuesday night just before bed and am already more than halfway through; I hope to be able to finish it today. It's a good, cozy mystery.

The knitting is continuing and the mojo seems to be sticking around, for which I am grateful. I did get the shawl pattern put together and off to my tech editor on Tuesday, so now I'm working on two WIPs. First, there's a cowl that I'm sort of designing using some bright self-striping. When you saw this last, it was just some ribbing, and it's grown somewhat since then:

I'm doing a fairly simple stitch pattern, but I think it's having a really cool effect with the self-striping yarn. It requires a bit more attention than, say, stockinette in the round but not so much that I can't knit while also reading. I don't know if it's worth writing this one up or if I'll just knit it for myself and be done with it, but the colors are making me happy right now.

In the evenings this week, I've been working on my Breathe and Hope shawl, which now has two completed sections:

This is the first time I've knit this shawl shape, and it's fun to do something a bit different for a change. Plus, there isn't anything that isn't delightful about knitting with MCN yarn. Even though my neck and shoulder were killing me last night, I couldn't stop working on this -- it was that good.

I am looking forward to a weekend that is predicted to be somewhat rainy but also warm (in the upper 70s!), so Rainbow and I are planning to plant the flowers we picked up last weekend. We've got three types of tomatoes, impatiens for the front yarn, and marigolds for the back. I also got a pot of "Italian blend" herbs -- basil, parsley, sage, chives, and I think oregano? -- that I don't have to do anything with but water, and perhaps we'll also start some seedlings with the butternut squash and cucumber seeds we discovered we still had from last year. I hope your weekend includes at least some sun and some time outside in the fresh air!

I Think I Jinxed It

Remember how on Sunday I said I was hoping for a quiet evening to myself? Yeah, that didn't happen. Rainbow took a shower after dinner and asked me if I'd braid her hair after. As I was combing it back to pull it into a ponytail, I saw something moving. I think you know where this is going -- the lice are back! Clearly we didn't get rid of all of them, so we're now back to daily combing and frequent laundry. Life is never dull, I guess!

The good news is that I was fairly productive over the weekend, before things got crazy again. I bound off my shawl Friday night and was able to block it on Saturday -- and it's huge!

The wonkiness you see in the bottom edge is just from my impatience to take a photo -- it does hang nicely in a near half circle. High atop my to-do list for this week is to finish writing up the pattern and take some decent photos so I can get it to my tech editor later in the week. This pattern was meant to be done months ago, but the pandemic killed my desire to work on it. That's not to say that I'm not completely happy with it, because I am, but after having it in progress for so long, I'm ready to move on.

I rewarded myself for that finish by casting on two new projects over the weekend. First, I started a cowl with the Fibernymph Dye Works ninth anniversary colorway, and you'll notice that the yarn looks a little ramen noodle-y because this is actually my second attempt at a project with this yarn.

I'm really enjoying the bright colors in this, and after initially failing to count to two successfully, I'm on my way. Once I have enough ribbing for my taste, I'm going to throw in some slipped stitches and see how I like it.

The other project is very much in the vein of "treat yo'self" -- my Breathe and Hope shawl using Fiber Optic Yarns MCN. There is nothing that is not a pleasure about knitting this.

I've only managed to work on this for short snippets of time, but it's easy and relaxing, which is exactly what I needed. Rainbow is already threatening to steal the finished shawl (she jokingly "stole" the skeins of yarn when they first arrived), so if any of you had doubts I was raising a Knitter, I think you can now dismiss them!

Two Heads Are Better than One

This past week, I've been spinning an old shipment from the HipStrings Synergy fiber club. I think I only spun one shipment when it actually arrived, so I have a few left to spin yet. This one had two 4 oz. bags of combed top with the same blend of fibers -- 75% dyed wool, 12.5% tussah silk, and 12.5% flax -- but the difference was the type of wool. One bag was Corriedale and the other Merino. These wools aren't too dissimilar, but the point of the fiber study in this shipment was the difference in how they'd take the dye and thus have slight differences in appearance. The colorway of the fiber was Janus, after the two-headed Roman deity -- seems appropriate!

I decided to spin both bags exactly the same way -- worsted, relatively fine, and end to end -- and then ply the resulting singles back on themselves. The first bobbin of singles spun up very quickly (because work was pretty quiet at the beginning of the week), but it took me a bit longer to get to the second batch of fiber. Still, by the weekend, I had two matching bobbins (and I should note, for anyone who is curious, that in the two following photos, the Corriedale singles area on the left and the Merino singles are on the right):

To ply from both ends, I wound off the singles from each bobbin using my ball winder to get a yarn "cake." I did that earlier this afternoon, though the Merino cake didn't cooperate quite as well as the Corriedale.

Plying from both ends of a center-pull ball like this is a bit tricky because there's a tendency for tangles to form, so it's a matter of taking it slow and, I've discovered, holding the yarn cake sideways so that the outer end can be pulled cleanly off the outside while the other end pulls from the center.

I'm hoping the other ball is a little less messy when I get to it! I decided to ply the Merino first because it looked less tidy but also because I knew I had overspun some parts of the singles, so as I ply, I'm taking care to get out that extra twist. It takes some extra time, but I like how it's plying up:

I was kind of hoping to have both skeins of yarn done by today to show you, but given that I was dealing with 8 oz. of fiber total, I think I did pretty well!

It's hard to believe that another weekend is already almost over, but this was a pretty good one. Yesterday we got to meet some friends' newborn daughter via FaceTime. Today we picked up plants for our garden and visited with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law at a safe distance. It was definitely a big strange and sad not to have our usual Mother's Day brunch, but I am thankful to at least be home with my immediate family and to know that the extended family is all safe and healthy. I've requested that my family give me the Mother's Day gift of letting me watch my Sunday evening PBS shows in real time for once -- I am easy to please! I am hopeful that the week ahead will be a good one, with better weather (would you believe it snowed here on Friday?) and more time to craft. I know Mother's Day is a hard day for many people, and no doubt this year it's difficult even for those of us who usually celebrate it happily, so whatever the case may be for you, I hope you were able to to find some joy and relaxation today.

Three Blocks Filled

I'm joining in with Carole and friends for Three on Thursday, today with three blocks I've filled on my Stay at Home Bingo card this week. Somehow the powers that be all aligned and I was in a spot to read a lot this week, so don't think this is a regular occurrence!

First, my library hold came up on the fourth book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series, Blue Lightening. These books are good, and they're also a very fast read. I managed to get through this one in two days. I enjoyed it -- 4 stars. It got put in the "Thriller" box on my bingo card.

Next up was Nine Elms, which I'd gotten as an Amazon First Reads freebie a while back. I started reading it to fill the "Number in the Title" box on my bingo card. It started off promising and was a page turner, but in the end I found it a little too graphic for my taste (I much prefer my murder mysteries to spend more time describing the food the detectives eat, as in the Gamache books, than the state of the bodies). I gave it 2 stars.

Finally, the winner of the three books finished this week was Ask Again, Yes, which I loved. It was the book I've been listening to while I run, and I finished it up after yesterday's run because I had only about 10 minutes yet. I enjoyed this much more than the last Mary Beth Keane book I read, and I especially liked how parts of the story were told from the point of view of different characters, so it really felt like I was getting a complete picture of the whole story. I gave it 5 stars.

I now have nine squares filled on my bingo card, though no bingos yet, and have started thinking strategically about how to fill the rest. I went browsing in my library app last night for my next read and next listen, so I've started Alias Grace and have The Rules of Magic queued up on audio for my next run. I'll have to think about where to put them, because both could go in two or more squares on my card.

I'm still crafting quite a bit while I read. The shawl is still on the needles but is closer to completion now that I've moved on to the border, but the rows are quite long (they take about 15-20 minutes each now). I have absolutely no idea how big the shawl will be and will need to wait until it's bound off and blocked to find out.

I've also continued to work on Rainbow's crochet blanket for a bit each day, though it doesn't look much different from the last time you saw it. Yesterday I got a bit distracted by some other crochet.

This is the Churchmouse Yarn and Teas Half a Granny Square Shawl pattern that I adapted to kerchief size, which I've seen several people do lately. I used some leftover handspun and managed to whip this up in a couple of hours yesterday. Of course Rainbow is now demanding one of her own, so I expect you'll see another one of these soon!

Have a good one, all! I'll be back on Sunday with, I expect, a lot of spinning -- the weather forecast is not looking very good.

Monogam-ish

I've been thinking a lot lately about routines and how we adjust to them. As someone who has a tendency to worry about things, I like a routine and find comfort in it -- and at the same time, I also get very anxious about uncertainty and not knowing what's coming next. So in times like these, when there is so much that is unknown, I've found it to be very grounding to stick to a routine, even though it's not the routine I was used to before the pandemic. We've all adjusted to a new schedule, and I can't say it's been a bad thing. We're all getting a bit more sleep and we're eating more meals together than we used to. Life feels a lot less rushed because we have few obligations and nowhere to be except in our respective work spaces in our house. My work schedule certainly feels a lot more flexible, given that I'm able to sneak more crafting time in (when I'm in the office, even if I'm not busy, I have to have the appearance of being busy, so I'm limited in what I can do, but now I can spin or knit or crochet while attending meetings or in between projects).

Whereas at the beginning of this stay at home time I felt a bit scattered with my crafting and couldn't really concentrate, I feel like things have settled now and I'm focusing on just a few things. One has been Rainbow's crochet blanket, which I'm continuing to work on for at least 15 minutes a day as part of the 100 Day Project. I am now into the fourth skein of Felici of the original eight, and we uncovered six more skeins yesterday while looking for something else. My foot is provided here for a sense of scale.

Now that the rounds are getting larger, the stripes are starting to do some interesting things. I can also tell that the fabric is skewing a bit, which isn't surprising, but I'm pretty sure I can block the blanket out square when it's done. I also know that Rainbow won't be too picky about it.

For my knitting, I've been fairly faithful to one project, the shawl design that has been on the needles for way too long, and I can see that it's almost done by the amount of the main color (the blue) that's left. I have three rows left to knit in the current sequence and will be weighing the yarn after each one to get an idea of whether or not I have enough yarn to complete one more sequence or need to move on to the border. Either way, it's looking like the shawl will finally be off the needles sometime this week.

I know it doesn't look like much of anything here -- with this shawl shape, it's really hard to get a sense of it when it's still on the needles. So I'm very excited to block it and get the full picture.

Reading is continuing at a good pace, and I should finish up two books in the next couple of days. I was surprised on Sunday afternoon when I found that my hold had come up on Blue Lightning, the fourth book in the Shetland series by Ann Cleeves. I got about 50 pages in that day and then read most of it yesterday while spinning; I now have about 50 pages left and expect to finish it this morning. I also have about 2 1/2 hours left to listen to Ask Again, Yes, which has been my listen-while-running book but has been so good that I've also been listening while cooking, folding laundry, and doing other things. I've been listening to it at 1.25 time, meaning I can get through an hour of audio in about 45 minutes, so those 2 1/2 hours will actually probably take me only about two hours. I ran yesterday, so today will probably be a long walk while I listen.

I'm still trying to get outside every day, and the weekend was great for it, but it's gotten colder here again -- I'm wearing a sweater right now, and they're saying we'll get snow tomorrow! I'm hoping the cold doesn't damage any of the plants, especially because we have some sunflower seedlings starting to come up:

That rosemary, by the way, is from last summer -- it gives you an idea of just how mild our winter was because I literally left it out in the pot and did nothing to protect it! The sunflowers are seeds from the ones we grew a few years ago that grew to be something like 7 or 8 feet tall, with positively enormous blooms. We tried to grow some last summer, but our landscapers mistook our seedlings for weeds and pulled them; this year, when I plant them in their final growing spot, I will be very deliberate about labeling them.

I'll have some more plants arriving this weekend thanks to the annual plant sale our synagogue preschool does annually as a fundraiser. I was worried it wouldn't happen this year, but thankfully they're still doing it, with a socially distant pickup on Mother's Day. I ordered impatiens for the front yard, marigolds for the back (I'll continue to pick and dry them for natural dyeing at some point in the future), three types of tomatoes, and a pot of "Italian" herbs. I'm excited to get the garden going again!

The Pandemic Pile Grows

You may recall that in the early days of this pandemic (or least the early days of the stay at home orders), my knitting and reading mojo went AWOL and all I really felt like doing was crocheting and spinning. As a result of that time, I finished my giant granny square blanket and I've been positively plowing through my fiber stash. I've gone through more than a pound and a half of fiber in the past month and a half or so, including about half a pound alone in the last week. I think I've solved the mystery of why my knees have been so cranky with me lately -- too much time treadling! But I have to say that in the case of the most recent finished skein, it was absolutely worth it.

Part of the fiber backlog I've been trying to get through is shipments from the HipStrings Synergy fiber club that Jill was putting together for a while. If you're at all familiar with HipStrings, then you know that what the company is known for is really creative and unusual fiber blends. The club was really thoughtfully put together, offering in each shipment a miniature fiber study of sorts. This one was earmarked in my 20 in 2020 list because I loved the classic simplicity of it. The shipment contained about 2 oz. each of four shades of naturally colored wool that was a blend of 50% Shetland and 50% BFL. It was just begging to be spun into gradient, but rather than spin each color on its own or spin them all in order and chain plying, I decided to do more of a fade by spinning a traditional three ply, with each ply being made up of one section of each of the four shades. Because I am human and not a machine, I knew that the transitions would be gradual, meaning that the color changes would happen in slightly different spots in each ply.

I think if you look closely here you can see a bit of the marling effect where this happened. I'm quite pleased with it and think it will make for a gentler transition when I knit this up.

I'm planning to turn this into a relatively simple top-down shawl, something classic and cozy to show off the yarn. It ended up being about fingering weight and approximately 559 yards according to my estimates (for the mass, I would have expected more, but that's the BFL content for you). This finished skein was large enough that I had to get out my miniSpinner to ply it, and I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd spun on that week -- I actually had to dust it off first! I suppose my knees would appreciate my using it more often now.

I pulled some more HipStrings fiber out to spin up next so I can add to this quickly growing pile of yarn that has been completed since I started staying at home:

I hope that you've had as nice of a weekend as I have. We got really lucky and have had two nice and fairly warm days in a row. Yesterday I went for a really good run and today we met up with my in-laws and my brother- and sister-in-law and nephew (socially distanced, of course) to take a long walk through the woods in one of our city parks. We spotted a deer and lots of chipmunks, and it was great to see everything getting green. I had a couple of nice Zoom calls with knitting friends, and I've had time to work on Rainbow's blanket and my shawl and to read a bit. Of course, under normal circumstances I'd be at Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend, so I'm sad not to be seeing friends I'd normally see at the festival and sad for the vendors who are hurting from the cancellation of this and other festivals and events. I have been ordering from smaller vendors/indie dyers when I can and urge you to do the same if you're able. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Rhinebeck can safely occur later this year!

Three Ways to Pass the Days

Well friends, we've made it to the end of April. It seemed to be a very fast month for me, especially in comparison to the glacial pace of March, but I suppose a large part of that has been all of us adjusting to our routines. Rainbow has school online and assignments to complete, and the past few weeks, they've added "lunch" (a special Zoom session with just a few kids and a teacher), "recess" (unscheduled class Zoom sessions), and even sessions with the specialist (e.g, art, music, library) teachers. She still has her moments, and she's still spending more time in front of screens than I'd like, but she seems to be doing better now that she has of a structure to her day and more opportunities to connect with her friends.

I've also settled into a new schedule of sorts. I've been able to adjust my wake-up time to be a bit later now that my commute to work onlyinvolves walking up a flight of steps to my bedroom, and that also means I've had more time in the morning to enjoy my coffee and catch up on blogs and email. I've been working through lunch most days so that I can take my break at the end of the day, and that when I go out for a run or a walk as the weather allows. I've also been showering before dinner rather than when I wake up in the morning, and I've fully embraced the makeup-free, wild hair look. On the rare occasion that I've put on makeup or blown my hair dry, it feels like a treat.

Today I'm joining Carole and friends to talk about three things that are getting me through these strange days. There is my job, of course, but things are strange there, too, and even when I'm busy, work is only a temporary distraction.

1. Fibery things
My knitting mojo is still here, and I've been working diligently on my shawl design sample just about every evening. I can see progress -- the end is in sight now. I'm also finding a lot of joy in working on Rainbow's crochet blanket for at least 15 minutes a day as part of the 100 Day Project. It's been and excellent project during conference calls, which I have several times a week now. Yesterday I joined in the second color of Felici.

The colors are a little loud for me, at least mixed all together like this, but Rainbow likes them, and that makes me happy. I certainly feel good about using up the stash.

I also finished a pair of socks for her earlier in the week that had been on the needles a while and which I'd kind of forgotten about. It wasn't much effort to finish them up in the end.

These were knit toe up using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel template, though I worked the heel a bit differently, using garter stitch and actual wraps and turns, just to try something different. The yarn is Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in the colorway Gimme Some Sugar (Cookies), which came in the last shipment of Lisa's Just Desserts club last year. It came with a matching mini skein, which I used for the heels and toes at Rainbow's request. I didn't ask her if she wanted the stripes to match until I was starting the second sock, and though I wound off some yarn to get to the same color in the stripe sequence that I'd started the first sock with, it was sheer luck that the stripes matched up so perfectly.

As you've no doubt seen, I've also been doing a ton of spinning, mainly because my "office" is my spinning corner in my bedroom, where I have my comfy chair set up in the corner with my wheel in front of it and my laptop sitting on the end of the radiator next to me. I have found that I'm able to spin while reading a Kindle book in addition to the usual things I do while spinning (watching a podcast or something else online or listening to sometime).

2. Exercise
My job is very sedentary -- I sit at a desk most of the day -- but I live close enough to my office that I've almost always walked to work, which means I was used to getting two 15-20-minute walks a day. Now that I'm working from home, I definitely miss those walks, so I've been making a point to try to exercise every day if I can (the weather doesn't always cooperate with me). I've been running a lot and yesterday officially hit 60 miles for the month, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. But getting fresh air and seeing other people out and about has been just as uplifting as the endorphins, so I feel extra good about making it a priority.

3. Reading
Several weeks ago I was having trouble focusing on books, but I think the key to getting my focus back was reading something really excellent, and my recent finishes did the trick. I haven't gotten a bingo yet on my card, but I'm definitely filling up more spaces.

Right now I'm in that wonderful yet horrible position where I'm reading two books I'm really enjoying -- one on Kindle, one on audiobook -- and am frustrated that I can't enjoy both at the same time. The Kindle book is Apeirogon, which came highly recommended by Kat and is really unlike any book I've read. I'm not even halfway through and can already tell that it's going to be a 4- or 5-star book for me. The audiobook is Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes, which I picked from available audiobooks from the library when I was looking for something new to listen to while running. Though I didn't love Fever when we read it for our virtual book club, I did enjoy Keane's writing and had heard good things about her most recent book. I'm almost a third of the way through it and am really enjoying it as well.

So now you know how I've been getting through these pandemic days, and I'd love to hear what you're doing to keep you sane and calm and healthy.

One Little Word, April 2020

I don't know about you, but I'm in a bit of denial about it being the last month of April. For all that March seemed to last eleven-billionty years, April has flown by. I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not, but I suppose at this point every day that passes is one day closer to whatever needs to happen to get us back to something resembling normal life.

Today I'm joining up with Honoré and friends to look back at how my one little word for the year, savor, has been playing a role in my life over the past month.

Last month I mentioned that I thought I'd been pretty smart in my choice of word for the year, even though at the time I picked it, I couldn't have known how drastically life would change. I couldn't have foreseen just how much I'd be focusing on small things in life and getting so much joy out of them. Since we started staying at home, I've joined many of you in keeping a "pandemic journal," reflecting nearly every day with a brief entry (and sometimes with a longer one). Following Mary's lead, I've been listing, at a bare minimum, three things I've gotten done that day and five things that have brought me joy that day. Those five moments of daily joy are where I'm finding what I'm really savoring in my day-to-day life now that I'm spending so much of it at home. These have been things like sunshine, working on sewing masks with Rainbow, watching TV with the Mister in the evenings, or joining Zoom calls with other knitters. They seem like such mundane things under normal circumstances, but in the context of my much smaller world, they are true delights.

One thing I know I wouldn't be savoring if we weren't under stay at home orders is running. I've gotten to the point where I truly look forward to being able to get outside every day that I can (provided the weather cooperates). At the beginning of the month, I challenged myself to run the number of miles in a marathon by the time the Pittsburgh marathon (now canceled) would be held on May 3. I don't really consider myself much of a runner, but the Mister and I generally sign up for two local 5K races in the early fall, so when the weather starts to get a bit better at this time of year, I usually start training. Because my weekday schedule is usually packed, I typically only get to run on the weekends, but working from home has actually saved me time because I'm no longer commuting and I can work through lunch and shift my lunch break to the end of the day (4 p.m.), allowing me to get out for a run or walk at that time. I've been tracking my runs the old-fashioned way and here's where things stand as of this morning:

You may need to embiggen the photo to see it, but I didn't just hit a marathon in running miles this month -- I've actually run the equivalent of more than two marathons. If I can squeeze in one more run before the end of the month, I'll hit 60 miles. I also hit a new PR for my 5K time yesterday with a time of 25 minutes flat, which is crazy fast for me. I almost can't believe that it's me who's done all this -- and that I've done it willingly -- but in truth I am feeling really proud of myself, and I know that all this time moving my body has been playing a huge role in keeping me relatively calm.

I have also really been enjoying the time I spend each day working on Rainbow's crochet blanket as part of the 100 Day Project. I spend 15 minutes on it minimum each day, and today I am ready to join in the second colorway of Felici.

Because we are doing okay financially (meaning we're both still working full time), I've been trying to support some small businesses with purchases where I can. Over the weekend I decided to order yarn from Fiber Optic Yarns for the Casapinka LYS Day pattern, and in some small miracle of the USPS, it arrived yesterday.

Did I really need this beautiful MCN yarn? No. Will I savor it as I work with it? You betcha.

Finally, I've really been savoring my reading, especially the past couple of weeks. After reading a few books that were just so-so, the last two have been really excellent. After The Ten Thousand Doors of January, my library hold came up on the next Inspector Gamache book, A Trick of the Light. I finished it yesterday and so enjoyed it. I put it on my SAH Bingo card under "a comfort read" because that's what Louise Penny's books have become for me. I love getting back to those familiar characters and inhabiting the world of Three Pines again. I've already got the next book on my holds list, though it'll be some time until I get it, and I started reading Apeirogon last night. I also borrowed the audiobook of Ask Again, Yes yesterday to listen to while I run, though I had a technical snafu when I tried to start it and only got a few minutes in. I'm excited to get into both of these books in the coming days.

I'm off now to see how the rest of you have made room for your one little word this month. Stay safe, friends!

Anything But a Nightmare

My pile of pandemic-spun skeins has grown bigger in the last few days. After spending a few days spinning up all the singles, on Friday morning I plied them all. I let the yarn rest on the bobbin overnight and then skeined and washed it yesterday. I wish the lighting were better to show you how stunning this yarn is -- these photos just don't do it justice (thank you, rain that will be here all day!).

This yarn was spun from a set of batts that I bought at SSK when I attended back in July 2017. One of the classes I took at the retreat was on spinning batts with the extremely talented (and delightful) Jillian Moreno, so it seemed appropriate to pick up some batts at the marketplace from Liz at Hobbledehoy, who is not only a talented fiber artist but also an extremely nice human being who I became friends with at the retreat. She called this set of batts "Nightmare batts" for some reason known only to her. They contained a blend of organic Polwarth wool, bamboo, yak, silk, and a touch of sparkle. Does anything in that list sound like a nightmare to you? Me, either!

There were three batts in the set, so I spun each onto its own bobbin. The singles were spun long draw, to match the woolen preparation of the fiber, and then plied into a traditional three ply. Fresh off the wheel, the yarn appeared to be in the area of heavy fingering to sport, but then it had a bath and the magic happened: One of the signature characteristics of Polwarth fiber is that it often poofs up when washed, and that's exactly what happened to this skein -- it bloomed into a super squishy DK/worsted.

I love how the fiber prep combined with the method of spinning results in a more rustic yarn that's a little more inconsistent -- I think it adds great character to the yarn. I have about 265 yards, so enough for a smallish project, and I'm fairly certain that a purple-loving 10-year-old is going to claim it for something for her.

I've already lined up the next spinning project, again dug from stash from a couple of years ago. I'm not 100% certain what it is, though I know it was a HipStrings club shipment and I think it's the August 2018 shipment that contained a blend of BFL and Shetland in natural colors. It came in the form of four bundles of fiber, and as you can see, I've split each shade into three portions.

My plan is to spin another traditional three ply and do it as a natural gradient, so each ply will use one bundle of each of the four shades. My splitting and spinning are just inconsistent enough that the transition between the shades is likely to be in a slightly different spot in each strand, which should result in more subtle transitions. I haven't weighed the fiber yet, but I think I have 2 oz. of each shade, so I should end up with a pretty sizeable skein when I'm done (I'll have to break out the long-ignored miniSpinner to ply it all!). I think it'll make a fantastic and cozy shawl -- but first things first. I'm planning to start on the spinning later today, and though I've been on somewhat of a tear through my fiber stash, I think this might take a little longer to get through than recent skeins.