Knitwith Homespun

Here are the finished shots:

Wide shot of more yarn	Macro of plying
Ooo pretty colors!	Nice browns and tans.
I was hoping to get a bit of blue into each section of yarn. I didn’t succeed but I truly love this yarn.	Light, dark, mud, rain….

I can’t believe this but my Mud Season, 100% merino from Spunky Club March selection is finished. It’s plied and whacked and drying. I think this is a record for me. 8 full ounces spun up, plied, and whacked in 5 days. I am very pleased with it. Here are the pictures of the completed singles. When the plying and whacking were done and the yarn is drying, it was dark so I couldn’t take the picture. I will post those tomorrow if y’all can wait! My double dip fiber of 8 ounces turned out to be 394 yards of 3 ply.  I haven’t measured but it looks about fingering or dk weight.

Now for the other news. The reason I haven’t been doing my housework, hiking, cleaning, cooking, etc is because I went to the doctor last week for the issues I discussed in detail earlier. As it turns out, this isn’t normal and I have had a number of tests that all turned out to be normal as well. However, I am in constant pain since the doctor and it’s not going away with any of the medication they have prescribed for me. I see the doctor again tomorrow to discuss my options and our plan of action. I am frustrated and irritated and frustrated again. The tests show that there is nothing terrible going on. The biopsy was negative and so was the pap. I have had several blood tests and everything is normal there too. So I am good and the likelihood of something bad going on is slim. That’s how you get 8 ounces spun in 5 days.

It was my anniversary yesterday too. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like cooking or even going out to dinner. David was very understanding and made us dinner and it was wonderful. Thank you for being there for me and working stuff out with me and communicating well with me for 18 years. Here’s to another 18 and I promise next year will be better.

Spunky Club March selection is Merino called Mud Season.

I have divided it up evenly into 3 batches of 70 grams each.  I get the double dip of the Spunky club so I got two four ounce balls.  I love the colors here.  This one ball has a big huge beautiful blue section.  There is nothing so blue in any of the other sections so this is why I thought I would three ply this batch.  It cried, three ply so the blue could be spread somewhat throughout the yarn.  I am very excited about this and have been addicted, once again, to spinning.

This fiber, Mud Season, is particularly appropriate for today.  Today, in May, we had a crapload of rain.  In California, we don’t get rain past April at the latest.  Today, we had rain by the bucketfull.  We also had thunder and lightning.  I had a dog and a cat in my lap practically for the afternoon.  We don’t get thunderstorms but maybe once a year on a good year.  Nothing loud.  Nothing to scare an old dog and an old cat.  So, Mud Season it is!  Thanks Amy! I will keep you all posted on my progress.

Here it is all done. Andean plied and beautiful and soft. I was hoping to keep the colors plied this way. I was looking to have some long sections in one color but mostly keep the colors separated by the ply as you see. I am very happy with it.  It’s 170 yards at 10-11 wpi.

David and I made a video for you all. Don’t get excited! It’s about Andean plying and how to use the tool I showed last week. I preferred him not to show my face cause I wasn’t wearing makeup and I hadn’t done my hair at ALL! He wouldn’t do it without showing my face so unless I grow another arm, this is what you get.

Please note I am wearing a Ravelry daily dose of fiber t-shirt from Ravelry’s mini mart. This is a size 3XL and is very soft and really long. I love the heck out of it.

The printout I used to remind myself how to wrap the yarn is here. One thing I like to remember is not to cross your singles on the back or front of the tool. This is how you tangle when you ply. You can still ply if you have accidentally crossed your singles but if you repeatedly do it, it causes big problems. When I first started spinning I did my research and found this page on the internet about Andean plying from Interweave. This link shows how you Andean ply on your hand. I have nothing against this but I like my fingers too much.

If you don’t have, can’t find, or can’t afford an Andean plying tool like the one I have, here is a post about another way you can do it. Since I have shown my plying tool I have had a bunch of tools and options brought to my attention. I didn’t realize that Andean plying wasn’t very widely used. Personally, now that I have a way that I can do it without losing any fingers, I will do it more frequently. I completely love it because you can ply any amount of singles without any waste. Here is another option that I found for you to peruse. This one is brilliant and is my favorite. If I didn’t already own the tool I have, I would go with this option and it’s completely free.

The way the singles look when they are wrapped and ready to ply is here in these pictures.

	You can see how this might cut off circulation to your middle finger.

Next is a video of how to pull the two ends and ply. As it turns out, the only person worse at video taping me than my husband is my daughter. I apologize for this other video since it’s worse than the first. Given the fact that once I started, I couldn’t rewrap and do it again, I had to let it go this way.

I have many attempts at the plying video from the world famous videographer, Isabella, but none turned out very well. She is very chatty during the filming. I might post some of them on YouTube at some point, but here is a photo of the finished plied yarn. There is 170 yards of “Lilac” which is Merino, tencel, and bamboo. This photo shows the end of the ply. I ran these back through the wheel a second time since the ply was a little looser than I wanted.

I was inspired today by this photo by my friend Chawne on Flickr and Ravelry. She always inspires me because we started spinning about the same time. She is much more advanced than me and I love the colors and fibers she uses. I like to think that one day I can spin as well as her.

What inspired me about this photo today was the color and the composition. All the colors and bobbins together look very interesting and fun (for us spinners). Now I am not saying that my little experiment has worked but it was fun nonetheless. I have a book that I recently bought called Photo Idea Index. In this book, it talks about taking ordinary objects and photographing them in a number of ways (100 distinct shots). I thought since I had three bobbins somewhat full of fiber, I might try it with them. I didn’t take as many as I should have and I am not happy with the results. This might have something to do with my half-assed effort. Bella is home from school today and I also am not yet feeling better. One should not try to do something creative when one doesn’t feel 100%! Ok with that said, here are some shots.

	This one has the Hanks in the Hood fiber “Lilac” in the bokeh and I will Andean ply that. the brown and white in the foreground is 50/50 alpaca silk. This was 8 full ounces of fiber on one bobbin, baby! I intend to ply that with the hard to spin alpaca from my post in Ravelry a few days ago.
	This is a better shot of the Hanks in the Hood batt spun up. This was 3 ounces and I was trying to keep the colors separated and will Andean ply them together so it’s somewhat varigated. I want to post a video of how to use my Andean plying tool when I do it.
	This is all three bobbins in clear focus. Did I mention, I love this lazy Kate.
	This one is processed a little differently to make it a little bit higher key.

That’s it for this experiment. I will try more with something a little more mobile later and actually take the 100 shots the experiment requires. Thanks Chawne!

I got this from HobbyZu. I thought it looked like fun.

1. Where is your cell phone? …………..purse

2. Your significant other?…………………racing

3. Your hair? ……………………………………unkempt

4. Your mother? ……………………………..home

5. Your father?…………………………………supportive

6. Your favorite thing?…………………….kitchen

7. Your dream last night?…………………unpleasant

8. Your favorite drink? …………………….soda

9. Your dream/goal?…………………………achieved

10. The room you’re in?……………………living

11. Your ex?…………………………………….unknown

12. Your fear?………………………………….failure

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years?……..here

14. Where were you last night?……….babysitting

15. What you’re not?……………………….thin

16. Muffins?………………………………………outstanding

17. One of your wish list items?………lens

18. Where you grew up?…………………California

19. The last thing you did?………………pets

20. What are you wearing?………………shorts

21. Your TV?……………………………………….on

22. Your pets?…………………………………….fed

23. Your computer? ……………………………overused

24. Your life?………………………………………complete

25. Your mood?………………………………….concerned

26. Missing someone?……………………….husband

27. Your car?……………………………………dying

28. Something you’re not wearing?…….glasses

29. Favorite Store?………………………………Costco

30. Your summer?………………………………busy

31. Like(love) someone?……………………family

32. Your favorite color?……………………green

33. Last time you laughed?………………yesterday

34. Last time you cried?……………………Saturday

35. Who will re-post this?…………………noone

Thanks Zu!

ETA: I thought this was self explanatory, but this is Happy Happy, Joy Joy.

Ok, so I love this stuff.  I was challenged by the content but I fully enjoyed the spin.  Jen sends this stuff out by the pound to me.  I belong to the Pound a month club from her Etsy shop.  She sends me three or four batts (sometimes more) that total a pound of fiber for three months.  May is my last month for this club (I might cry).  I have plenty of her stuff to spin in the next little while but I hope to see her at Black Sheep Gathering.

So I spun up this fiber called Sparkle at the park yesterday with Jerry (Hi Jerry).  After Jerry left, I had trouble with my finger and me wanting to keep it and all so I plied with this tool at home.  What a lovely idea this was. This was the first time I used this tool and it worked like a charm!  Amazing!  There was absolutely no risk at all to my finger.  David was a little upset because he said he could have made me something so his manhood was called into question.  I bought it for something like $15 or so on Etsy.  I will never be without it again.

My one ounce of fiber from Jen spun up to 53 yards of Andean plied yarn.  Here are the photos.  I love love this fiber.  There are bits of metalicy kind of sparkle in the fiber that really doesn’t come out very well in the photos but really turned out nicely.

Today I went to Irvine Park for a spinning gathering that I started on Ravelry. One other person, Jerry, showed up. It was a beautiful day. Sunny but shady where we were. It was just a lovely perfectly temperate day at the park. I learned all kinds of good things from Jerry about his Fricke and all kinds of places to get fiber. He gets it by the pound! You gotta love that! Jerry goes to regular spinning and knitting groups. Part of my problem with attending these gatherings is they are at night. When you are a housewife with a 7 year old, getting away at night is a little more difficult (as a lot of you know). This is one of the reasons I set up this spinning date in the park during a weekday. I will do it again and I had a really wonderful time. Thanks Jerry for coming to spin with me.

While I was there, I had a CF of goofs happening. Sure I planned and I planned and I planned on my outing to the park. I packed a lunch, 4 hanks of batts to spin, purse, knitting, book to read….etc. So I am driving just about a quarter of a mile from my house and I realize, I forgot my iPod. I turned around and got it. I suspected I might be there alone so I thought I might need it. So I finally got to the park at about 10:15 ish or so. I walked around and looked to see if anyone was there and I saw noone. I went back to my car to get my stuff (wheel, fiber, purse, knitting bag, chair, lunchbox, iPod…..) and successfully got it all in one trip. I locked the car and started walking to the pond to set up. Wait…..where’s my bobbin? I left my lazy kate on the kitchen counter! Crap! I had no choice but to get back in the van and go home. I had so much fiber to spin and no bobbins. Went home, got the lazy kate, went back to the park. I got back to the park at about 11:00 straight up. Jerry got there at around 11:30 or so. If I missed any of you, I sincerely apologize.

I spun up a lovely merino/tencel from Hanks in the Hood. I had only 1 ounce of this fiber but it’s sparkley and really fun. I wanted to bring something I had a great shot at finishing today. Merino/tencel was sure new for me to spin and I had a couple of challenges but it was fun and I finished it. Again, with the planning, I had issues. I didn’t bring a spare bobbin and I finished this at around 1. OMG now what? Ok, I’ll andean ply this and use my hand to wrap. I started wrapping but I almost cut off the circulation to my middle finger. I had to unwrap and put it back on the bobbin or lose a finger. I will wrap with my Andean plying tool tonight at home and ply here. I really like how it turned out but I’ll take more pictures when it’s completed.

Here is a duck and her family that were at the park visiting us.

If you are a man, stop reading now! Trust me on this one, you don’t want to continue.

I am 43 years old. Last year in January, I had a period that was what I call violent, and more than heavy. I compare it to the bleeding of a miscarriage and I have had 4 of those. This is worse. I went to the urgent care because I thought it was something seriously wrong and I was very scared. I called David and he came home from work to take me to the doctor. What I found out when I got there was shocking. This is normal. This is something called perimenopausal bleeding. This was my first sign of anything menopausal. I thought I was too young for something like this. Wrong again! This can start in your early forties and can take anywhere from 2 to 10 years! Since then, my periods have been very irregular. Sometimes I get two in a month. Sometimes I have no period for three months. I have had heavier periods than normal but mostly, they are lighter than usual.

Ever since last January, I have been afraid of getting another episode of perimenopausal bleeding. This month is the time. This was worse than last year. This makes me want to cry. Not only does it depress me but it makes me want a hysterectomy desperately. I consider this a violent act and it is very traumatizing. Why don’t women talk about this? Why haven’t I heard about it? Because it’s unpleasant? Because it’s embarrassing? Why? Why don’t we warn each other? I asked my mother about it and she can’t even remember anything. This is why I am writing about it. We should all know about it. I have a high tolerance of pain (very high). Also, I am not squeamish at all. I can watch surgery stuff on TV and eat dinner. It doesn’t bother me at all. This bothers me to the point of severe depression! I imagine this could come from the hormone fluctuations involved here too but it’s too much. As a bonus, after losing so much blood, I get a migraine! Thanks! Do I get to do this 9-10 more times? I don’t want to. I want it all over and gone! Is there anything I can do? I don’t know. I am making an appointment with my OB/GYN for this week and I will ask her. I just want to cry all day! Lucky for me (if that’s even possible), Bella is at a birthday party all day today so I can rest some.

Well I feel a little better getting it out, but not much. My head is throbbing. I consider this my moral obligation met by blogging about it. If you are a man, and you are still here, tell your wife, girlfriend, friend, or sister and I am sorry if you read it all!

Sidewinder 1 done! I am sending this one to the orphanage. Yes, yes I am. There are sooooooooo many things wrong I can’t live with it. However, I completely enjoyed knitting this pattern. It was easier than I thought it would be and I love how they look.  If you are planning on knitting these, and you have limited (I have 3-4 pairs of socks under my belt) sock experience, knit one in the smallest size to practice first.  It’s a good pattern.  It’s very well written.  But there are things that you need practice if you are a beginner or advanced beginner knitter.  Picking up side stitches is a good example.  Kitchener stitch (of 118 stitches) is another.  Grafting with kitchener stitch is now something I am very comfortable with and can almost do in my sleep.  My problem is that I wasn’t practiced when I started and I must have dropped a stitch here or there or both because my numbers were off.  I started with the same number of stitches on each needle and after getting past the heel in the grafting, I had 4 more on the from needle than on the back needle.  Now that I have this much practice, I feel like I could get this done more symmetrically and not run into this problem again.  Another problem that I don’t like is the heel.  On one side the heel is formed with increases and on the other it’s formed with decreases.  During these decreases I used a method that I was more familiar with than the author recommends and my method creates a whole at each row (very small but annoying) where the decreases are made.

The provisional cast on method is more important than she let’s on as well. I will knit these again (probably more than once) however, I will use a crochet chain provisional cast on.  I think this way, I can precisely see where my stitches are and how they should be placed back on the needle after I remove the chain.

I think when I was knitting the slipped stitch edge part of the pattern, I misread it or misunderstood or something because that part of the grafting looks funny too.

Overall, I am thrilled with these.  They are too big.  This is my fault.  I knit the wrong size.  Swatching got me a near perfect match to the proper gauge for the pattern.  I think I need to knit for a size 8 foot instead of 9.  I will err on the side of the smaller size now that I have had two socks come out too big.  Good idea?

When I am going out or when I am knitting in bed, I knit these.  I only have 10 but they are very quick to knit.  Only about an hour (while watching TV) or less if I am focused.  I need 25.  I will be purchasing the next colors for my cloak in the next couple of weeks.  I love how soft this yarn is.