Knitwith Homespun

Yesterday’s blog was about whacking your finished yarn. This process is supposed to even out the twist so that your yarn is more consistent and looks softer and fluffier. Does this work? You be the judge:

Whacked

Not whacked

I prefer the look and feel of the whacked yarn. I think it’s softer and loftier. The picture of the whacked yarn is spot on for the color of this yarn. The whacked skein is smoother and much more even. That’s what I notice most about the two photos. Also, when I reskeined this yarn, I gained 6 yards! Go figure! I am very glad I have Ravelry and I am glad I whacked my yarn. I will never not whack my yarn again.

Ok so I was bouncing around on Ravelry and came across a thread about whacking your yarn.  No, this is not a euphemism for anything.  If you are a Ravelry member, go check out the thread to understand.  I’ll try to summarize here.  Spin, ply, set, whack, knit.  That’s the order for the creation from fiber if you are a spinner.  Well I had never whacked and read that thread and decided to whack some of my already set 3-ply that was less than perfect but pretty darn good.  I did as the thread recommends and soaked it, blotted it, and whacked the living crap out of it.  Well during the whacking, I apparently, split one of my singles that was slightly under spun and weak.  This is the reason we 3-ply our yarn; to strengthen the parts of our yarn that are weaker than others.  The other two strands in the 3-ply hold while your weaker single breaks.

Plan:  Semi-spit splice and twist the single.  Try to make sure it holds until it is knit.  If someone knows of something else that I need to do, please let me know.  Thanks for your help!

Southern California Edison is our electric company. They sent me a notice a week or two ago saying they were cutting our power between 9 and 2 today. They said that it could be any time between those times and could be for the whole time or just a portion of the time. So, I arranged for me and my Dad and my Stepmom to be gone during that time so it wouldn’t be annoying. I thought we would go down to the Distrist, a new shopping center in Tustin, where my Dad and could could knit and read and my Stepmom could shop to her heart’s content. Great plan! I shut down the electricity to the computers and turned off all the power strips and everything so my Tivo wasn’t recording anything and the surge when the power came back on wouldn’t be a problem. All set and let’s go.

We get there and sit down and have a great time. I knitted my sidewinders and finished quite a few rows and just about finished the toe shaping with the decreases. I finished the increases last night and now I am decreasing to finish my toe pocket. Here is how that works. Doesn’t it look like a toe of a sock? I think so. So anyway, we are sitting, knitting and reading away. Then we met my sister at Lucille’s for lunch. We ran around a bit more and headed home to pick up Bella from school at the appropriate time.

Before I picked her up from school we had time to go home and we brought in the mail and took our shopping haul into the house. In the mail was a lovely postcard from the dumbass SCE stupid place. They inform me AFTER 2:00PM that they have rescheduled our power outage for another day. They were missing some equipment so they couldn’t do it. My question is this: Couldn’t they have called me? If SCE wants my money and I am late, they can call me with no problem. Clearly, they knew at least a few days ago that this was going to happen because they had time to print up the special notice and all. They have my phone number. WHAT’S THE F**??!! PROBLEM! OK, I’m done. Here’s a picture of my Dad who I love to death.

My sidewinders and coming along really well but I have a couple of problems with them. I think they are super small and I am letting them go. I have already frogged these one time and I refuse to do it again! As the pattern is written, I am half way through this sock.

The funky heel decreases

The pooling and striping.

The toe

These are knitting very quickly and I thoroughly enjoy knitting them while watching TV. I don’t even mind that I frogged them and started again. These are really a nice pattern so far and easier than I expected.

Now for some fiber photography. I recently bought something at a photography class called an expodisc. What this is meant to do is accurately capture the white balance for each individual situation. It’s super easy to use and I don’t know how I lived without it. I want to demonstrate how well this works. I shot the black and white socks in the kitchen under florescent light in my kitchen. I used my expodisc in the kitchen and set my white balance accordingly for those shots. I moved into the living room where my wheel is (no florescent light) and wanted to shoot my silk/alpaca that I am spinning so show that here. I didn’t change the white balance for this first shot and saw that it was clearly bad coloring. The accurate color is displayed after I used my expodisc and set the proper white balance in the second shot. Amazing isn’t it? You can, however, use your auto white balance setting on your camera but this does tend to be more accurate.

I am cleaning the house this week to prepare for my Dad to come visit.  He will stay here for 3 weeks during his visit to California where he visits me, my sister, and some family friends.  This semi annual visit causes things to be cleaned that haven’t been cleaned for quite some time.  We have a 4 bedroom house and only use 2 of the bedrooms.  When Bella was a baby, we wanted her in the room next to us because we were new parents and couldn’t bare to have her that far from us.  Now that she is older, we don’t want her too close to us.    We moved her to the next room over and bought her a bunk bed with a futon below for when she has friends and cousins over (which is frequently as it turns out.)

When my Dad visits, he tends to spoil her (big surprise).  He buys her big annoying stuffed animals.  This generally annoys us because we have like 5 of these animals of huge size.  Where do you put them?  What do you do with them?  Well when Bella was about 3 she got this crocodile.  She used to sit on it and watch TV on it and she loved the crap out of it.  When she was 4 or 5, we had to get rid of her toddler bed and give her the other bed we had for her which was my bed when I was 5.  It’s a double bed with headboard and foot board and it’s a beautiful antique.  The crocodile sits on this bed in this photo.

Bella doesn’t tend to be frightful of the dark or other things but occasionally it does happen.  She has been sleeping in the dark for many years with only a few minor problems with being afraid or bad dreams.  Once in a blue moon, the question of monsters under her bed or in her closet would come up (you can’t get away from it).  This crocodile came in very handy in this situation.  I put the crocodile under the bed.  I told her the crocodile would protect her from any monsters that would happen through.  It worked like a charm and got the crocodile out of the way forever!  Well now it’s time to clean out the old room and give some things to Salvation Army.  It’s time for the crocodile to go.  I can’t let it go…..help me…….

First thing is that I finished my fiddlesticks. Here they are. They are way way too big. I attempted to felt them a little bit but I think I was too shy about it. I didn’t use hot water, I just used a little warm water. I tried to just agitate the crap out of them and I don’t think this yarn felts. Let’s think that’s what it is. So, let me make one thing really clear. The pattern is written absolutely correctly. The sizing problem is not in the pattern but lie solely with the knitter. I don’t have enough sock knitting experience to know how to knit for my own feet. I didn’t trust what the pattern said but the pattern was right and I was wrong. that’s all there is to it. Here is a close up of the mock cable for this pattern.

I also just bought some stuff from Scout’s Swag including these lovely sock blockers. I bought some other sock blockers that were adjustable but they were not nearly wide enough. They adjusted for length only and I think they were made for really narrow feet because everything is too big on them. I ordered the medium size and it’s all still too small for any of my knitted socks.

The main reason I went to Scout’s Swag is because I got an e-mail from her about her shop update. In it there was a product I desperately needed. These kitchener stitch dog tags. Twice this week I wanted to finish my Fiddlesticks but I didn’t have my Knitting Answer book with me to help with my kitchener stitch. I suck at kitchener stitch and I definitely can’t do it without help. These will stay in my knitting bag or purse and I will never be without them. That’s the plan anyway. I am sure I am wrong about this too!

Next, let’s talk about this beautiful and perfect swatch for my Sidewinders. Ok so I’m like one or two switches long but who’s counting. It was perfect perfect perfect before I blocked it and that it went a little over. I’m going with it though because I am a glutton for punishment. Any way you slice it, I’ve casted on at this gauge so that’s it anyway.

And here they are! Well one of them and only like 11 rows. for anyone who isn’t familiar with this pattern, these socks are knit sideways. I just love how they look with a nice variegated yarn. I am hoping against all hope that mine turn out this way. I saw another pair on Ravelry that were with black and white yarn like mine and they look like metal socks. I can’t find that picture but here is another one that is also very awesome. I have started my heel shaping and I am about to start the calf shaping at the same time. I can’t wait to see how this works up. Wish me luck!

I have a post in mind for tomorrow about the crocodile on my Flickr photostream.

So much to blog about over this weekend. But I will power through.

Friday: 5 mile hike with running. I ran again and it was hard but not bad at all. We were running during our second set of 2 minute running and we were on a paved portion of the park trail. We were chatting and I was complaining to Sandi about how long 2 minutes is and that I can’t run up the teeny tiny hill we are coming up to and I look down and scream. Yes, I screamed. I am not a screamer by any stretch but it surprised me a lot. Sandi didn’t see it until she had passed it. We stopped. There was a snake. It wasn’t venomous but it was about 3-4 feet long. It was completely still and I thought it was dead but apparently, it was just warming up and then started moving across the road. It took a couple minutes for us to get over this and Sandi was truly traumatized because she wasn’t looking and didn’t see it at all. We live in rattlesnake country, and although this snake wasn’t a rattlesnake, it’s scary to think that we weren’t paying attention to this danger as we should have been. Here we were worrying about coyotes and mountain lions and we completely forgot to look for the most likely danger, rattlesnakes.

So we continue on our routine of walking for 4 minutes and running for 2 and our third set of running 2 minutes I see another snake crossing the trail. OH MY GOD! Again! It’s about 3-4 feet and Sandi, again, didn’t see it. It was on the dirt trail this time and it was a rattlesnake! It was fully extended and crossing the trail. The trail at this portion was an intersection and the width was about 8-10 feet so there was plenty of room for us to pass the snake without too much worry. However, we passed the snake and realized we took the wrong path and had to pass it again. Sandi didn’t want to do this so we waited until the snake was all the way across the trail and then passed it. It wasn’t rattling or coiled or anything so I thought it was all safe but I am not an expert YET! We didn’t see any more but we sure did wake up to this danger.

Friday afternoon was Isabella’s school carnival and it was a lot of fun. We had a great time and Bella got to hang out with her BFFs. I am speeding through this portion of our program to illustrate our busy-ness for the weekend.

Friday night: My favorite part of Friday, I went and saw BON JOVI! I was not a huge Bon Jovi fan but I liked him well enough. My friend, Victoria, gave me a ticket to go with her for Christmas. Let me just say, he sang for over 2.5 hours and did a wonderful job. The show was amazing and Bon Jovi is now at the tip top of my list! His smile should be a drug. What a man! He sooooooooo takes care of himself. Google this guy for current pictures if you must, because he has NEVER looked this good, if you ask me.

Saturday: 6:00am wake up and be at school at 7:00am for Brownie Day Camp. Long long long day as I was the chaperon for this little cutie patootie troop. It was a nice day. One of my problems for this day was I took my Fiddlesticks to finish them off. I wanted to cast-on my sidewinders in a black and white hand dyed Hello Yarn number I just love! So, I take out my Fiddlesticks to finish them off. I am so close to finishing them on Sunday that I can taste it. I have about 3-4 rows of decreases left on the toe and then some kitchener (which I suck at) and that’s it! Beauty, eh? NOT GONNA HAPPEN. I can’t find my pattern and I don’t have my Knitting Answer Book that has the kitchener stitch in it so I absolutely can’t do it. Very annoying. So I go to cast on my sidewinders. I had printed out the pattern and I’m ready to roll, right? Wrong! I forgot the yarn. Yep, 2 for 2. Awesome! I gave up and just knocked out a couple Magique Cloak triangles and called it a day.

Sunday: Another 5 mile hike with family members. No snakes. Same trails. Here are some of those pictures.

Today we went hiking in Chino Hills.  Here is a one photo representation of our hike.  Please go over to Flickr to see more if you are interested.

Not the country, the activity! I ran today! Yippeeeee! Sandi has a program that has you walk for 4 minutes and run for 2 minutes. I did this today and ran for a total of 10 minutes! Woohoo! I am getting ready for the Mud Run in June so I need to run more and get more fit. This helps that. We walked for more than an hour though before we started running and that was all uphill.

Also, for the one or two readers I have, I posted yesterday about coyotes and mountain lions and hiking in their territory. Today, we went to Peter’s Canyon where we hike most often. I don’t get paranoid or worry about these animals here because there are so many people that hike this park. You will always see at least 10-20 people on your hike along the same trails. Today at the beginning of our hike, we saw some very wet very big paw prints that did not belong to someone’s dog. We know this because the tracks were wet coming from the creek on the left and moving across the trail into the bushes on the right side of the trail. I thought they might have been mountain lion tracks but now that I have looked it up, these are the tracks I saw. Sandi has actually seen the coyotes that live in this park and she says they are the size of German Shepards. This is very large for coyotes. She has seen three at a time here “frolicking” as she put it. As I said yesterday though, they aren’t dangerous to us. They are likely well fed in this park with all the smaller animals here.

The point I am making today is, I RAN!

What a beautiful location! We have never been to this park before and there are miles and miles of trails here. The skies were very overcast and it was quite cold today (for California). This wilderness park is 6500 acres and lies in Laguna canyon. there is really just one road in and out of here. From this ridge, on a clear day (so the sign says), you can see mountains to the north and the ocean to the south and west. Personally, I wouldn’t know this based on today’s hike.

Sandi and I have decided that with all the trails and natural beauty around here we should be able to hike a new trail once a week for quite a while. This is our new hike this week. In this park, there are so many trails I think we could probably hike 50 miles or so without doubling up on a trail. This is just a guess.

The wildflowers are everywhere right now in California and they will continue to bloom as we are expecting rain tomorrow. The trail we chose was covered with wildflowers on either side along with evergreens, cactus, oaks, and other plants that I don’t know the names of. I took tons of pictures of these flowers today and really enjoyed it. I tried to be meticulous in my focus and point of view. I changed many setting in my camera to be deliberate in my shots and took fewer than I ordinarily would of each composition.

Ok, so here’s the problem I had taking any of these shots. Sandi! Sandi was my problem! Whenever we hike, which is often, we joke about mountain lions and coyotes because we live in their territory and there are sometimes stories on the news about sitings and attacks. Well, we are two women hiking on the trails by ourselves and we tend to get carried away with things. We often joke (half joke) about mountain lions (coyotes are not really a threat because they don’t mess with people much). We take two cell phones with us because if the mountain lion gets the one with the phone, what are we gonna do? How can we call for help? These trails are particularly tricky because there are many many places for animals to hide. There is thick brush on either side of the trail. I would stop to take pictures of wildflowers and I would take my time like my new book tells me to do. I meticulously focus on the stamen on the flower or the hairs on the prickly thing here or whatever. While I am taking my time, and focusing on the curly cue here (this specifically happened), we would hear something in the bushes either behind my subject or behind us. Well in this instance with this curly cue and spikey thing, Sandi took off! That’s right! She said she was leaving me cause she didn’t like the sound of the noise in the bushes. There! I got it out. I feel better! Now on with the rest of the pictures.

Does anyone know what these things are? There are more pictures in my Flickr from our hike. I have posted just 20 so if you like these, feel free to stop by over there. I will post my favorite shot from this series below. I love the contrast and the way that the purple flower (very small flower) looks against the orange. It looks particularly set apart I think and very sharp.