SpaceJunk's Things and Stuff

Friday, February 25, 2011

Ok seriously....

I really have no excuse at all for not updating since July other than the fact that I just didn't feel like it. It's not awesome. I'm not proud. Typing stuff out is just really tedious for me. Like I always have this idea that I wish I would keep a journal like I used to do when I was growing up. I may write something once or twice, but I always lose interest. Part of the problem may come from the fact that I do so much "social networking" that I feel like I am already doing my updating in other places. But I should try and give some more love to my blog. I figure what I will do is just make a new video update in the near future. We'll see.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Le Tour de Fleece

The 97th Tour de France started yesterday, and alongside it Le Tour de Fleece. Similar in concept to the Ravelympics/Knitting Olympics, the idea behind it is to set personal crafting goals to achieve during the time period that a major sporting event is taking place. Tour de Fleece is all about spinning. As the bicyclists are spinning their wheels, so shall I be spinning mine. This year the tour runs between July 3 and July 25. (I wonder why there is no knitting World Cup this year... I should have started one. But I digress.)

I don't have any lofty goals for myself. My plan is just to make sure that I spin a little bit every day during the tour. Yesterday I spun for about 15 minutes while we were waiting for company to arrive. It had been a while since I used my wheel. The same pastel colored fiber has been on it for months. It is definitely not my favorite spinning project, and I need to finish it so that I can move on to a fiber that I actually enjoy working with. The remaining bits of fiber are all drafted and ready, I just need to put in the work.

In knitting news, I have been knitting a lot lately. Since my last post, I started and finished my Whisper Cardigan in Knit Picks Shadow kettle dyed lace yarn in the color "Jay". I loved this pattern and yarn together and enjoyed knitting it. I would definitely knit this pattern again. Here is a photo of me wearing it.

When I was at my parents' house for our family reunion weekend, I was given a partially completed knitting project that belonged to my grandmother. She was making a sweater for my dad and it didn't get finished before she passed away. So I told my dad that if he gave it to me I would try and work on it and see if I could finish it for him. I received the pattern booklet, the yarn which appears to be Red Heart yarn in "Warm Brown" and 2 sets of straight needles.

After looking through the booklet and examining the pieces for a while I came to the conclusion that she was working on the "Man's Paneled V-Neck Pullover". The stitch count isn't consistent with the pattern and there are some mistakes in the pieces. My dad said that she told him she had ripped out and restarted it several times because it wasn't coming out right. I was having a bit of an emotional struggle with the whole thing, because I knew that I couldn't just continue with it where she left off and have it be a wearable garment. I purchased another skein of what seems to be the same yarn (no dye lot). I used one partial skein of yarn that was given me and her needles and cast on to start from the beginning on the back panel of the sweater. This is how much I have finished so far.

I will just keep going with it and see what happens. I have the choice of buying more yarn and leaving her pieces intact and knitting from the new yarn, or I can rip out some of the pieces she had been working on and use that yarn for this sweater. I am leaning toward the second choice. The sweater will still be her idea and using her supplies, just with my work. I feel that it will still be something that she started and I finished that will have sentimental value for my dad when he wears it. I just hope it fits him when I finish it!

In other knitting, I've been working on the same projects that I mentioned in my last post plus one dish towel since I always need to have one of those or a dishcloth on the needles for in-public knitting. Here are some progress photos of where I stand with these projects as of today.

Lelah Top:

2nd Glynis Sock:

Evenstar Shawl:

Kitchen Towel:

Well I think that's about it for this update. It's time for me to get busy with today's spinning. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

I'm in a slump

So I know that I have not posted an update in quite a while. The reason for that is, well, I just don't have much to talk about right now as far as my crafting goes. I have been working on the same items for what feels like forever.

I started the Evenstar shawl KAL when it came out, and that shawl has taken up at least 90% of my knitting time. In the beginning I was doing well. I was keeping up with the clues, getting one completed just before the next one came out. But now I have fallen an entire clue behind. I am just ready to finish Clue 4, and Clue 6 comes out tomorrow I think. I don't really know what my deal is, maybe I am just a slow knitter compared to other folks. But at 500+ stitches per round I seem to only be able to get maybe 2 rounds done per day when I sit and work on it (and I am not always in the mood to work on it). But all the knitting on it has taken up my knitting time and I haven't been able to work on much else.

I started the Glynis sock from Cookie A's Sock Innovation book when Carin of Round the Twist started hers. I don't know about this pattern. So far I think it is the least favorite sock I have knit. The chart for it is really small, 12 stitches across and 9 rows, but its got a lot of K3tog and SSSK's in it. The yarn I am using is beautiful, my "Velvet Grapes" Malabrigo, but I have a hard time seeing the pattern with it. I will keep going with it, I'm almost to the heel of the first sock, but I am not very motivated to work on it. It doesn't hold my interest like the other socks I have done. So when I am not working on the Evenstar I am working on this.

And I also have my poor Lelah top. No more progress has been made on it. It's still around 7 inches long. I haven't had the time or desire to work on it but I leave it sitting right next to my desk in case I feel like picking it up.

But herein lies the problem: all three of these projects are some sort of lace. I think that's my problem. There is too much thinking required with all of them. Now don't get me wrong... I love lace. Especially lace patterns with laceweight yarn like my shawls. This is because I always feel the need to do something difficult and challenge myself. Like when I decide I want to learn how to do something, I am not satisfied just learning the regular stuff. I want to learn the hard stuff. Take my bellydance for example. I don't just want to be able to dance, I want to be able to do it while playing finger cymbals or balancing a sword on my head. Yeah. I'm like that.

However, I also need to have some kind of comfort project. One that just makes me feel good and relaxed when I work on it. Something fairly mindless and easy. I've got a ton of tv shows that I need to catch up on watching, but if I am too busy looking at my knitting and trying to remember a lace pattern, I am not able to pay attention. I'm thinking maybe I should start on a pair of plain vanilla socks. Maybe I will get some of that self-patterning sock yarn and just knit a pair of socks in stockinette. That sounds really good to me right now. I've been looking at some Vesper sock yarn online. People have been talking about that stuff a lot lately and it would be perfect. Or even some of the sock yarn that I got at JoAnn Fabrics to make my nephews baby socks with.

But that is where I stand with my knitting right now. I am still working on things, just not with any real speed or determination. Things are pretty stagnant right now. Same goes for my spinning. I have some of this pastel colored merino/tencel from Chameleon Colorworks on my wheel. I spun the first 4oz onto one bobbin and had the idea that I would try to navajo ply it. Well that turned out horribly. I just could not get the hang of that plying style and I ended up wasting a good many yards that came out all overspun and tangly looking and went in the trash. It was very frustrating to me and not the least bit enjoyable. So I gave up on that idea and started spinning the second 4oz on another bobbin and I will just 2-ply them the way I normally do. I'm not very jazzed about this fiber. I think I pretty much hate pastel colors. They bore the crap out of me or something and I am just not enjoying this spinning experience at all. I need to just power through it and get it done so that I can move on to something else and get this off the bobbins. I think this particular project has really killed my spinning mojo, and I have barely done any spinning in the past couple months.

Basically I need a new drug. I need a new fiber for my wheel that I really love to work with. I need a new knitting project that I can't seem to put down. 'Cause right now... it's the doldrums.