Gina Watch 2007

Look an FO (yes you are reading the right blog, don't be funny), my handspun mitts are done:

The picture of course doesn't do them much justice but I love them and I'm feeling quite full of myself as a spinner/knitter at the moment. They have tons of flaws but last year when I got my wheel I never really believed I could spin a yarn that could be used. Yet here we are. I'm very proud.

Now gather closely because we are about to discuss some secret knitting. Here's the deal, last year my dear friend Gina swore to me that she would pull the needles from my hand if I even whispered of gift knitting this holiday season, but Ian's teachers are so wonderful this year that I really want to do something special for them. This translates into, you guessed it, gift knitting. Now Gina is away at her parents' house until Sunday and she has no internet access. I have three projects to complete. My plan is to try to finish at least 2 and have the third nearly completed by the time she gets back to blogdom. What can she say if it's already done, right?

I've already completed one fingerless mitt for his speech teacher:
I'm hoping to do the other tonight at knitting group. Then a calio-thingy for the para and finally a multidirectional scarf for the teacher. All of the projects will be in Soy Wool Stripes because it's my new all terrain yarn. I love to knit with it and the colors are so amazing.

What do you think can I pull it off? Start placing your bets...

Mondays are for spinning...

Well actually weekends seem to be for spinning but I post about it on Mondays. I was enjoying spinning up by Spunky Club fiber so much I decided to just finish it up and try to actually do something with it. I finished spinning it Friday night then worked on the soaking, beating, drying and winding of it Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday night I had this:



Whoo hoo! It's rough but I gather that's typical of Romney and it's more than a bit uneven but frankly it just reminds me of Kureyon so I am perfectly happy with it. I was enjoying my spinning a little too much to work on poor Cherie but I did get some work in on Rinaldo's sock. I am finally in the heel flap. Hopefully I can get the dam thing done before Thanksgiving.

For those of you waiting with baited breath Ian's parent teacher conference went very well. His teacher said he's doing beautifully and she adores him. His speech teacher says she is amazed and happy with how much he is willing to talk now. He has no problem asking or answering questions. I'm very happy as is he. The thing I found funny with both kids is when we went to Avery's school everyone was thrilled to meet Ian because Avery's talks about him so much and in Ian's school when we looked at his drawings and his stories Avery was in the majority of them. With a 6 year age difference I always felt that weren't that involved with each other aside from living in the same house. It's nice to see how attached they are too each other.

Best get to work. I got in early to get a head start on the day since Mondays I have to leave early.

Since I'm a geek girl at heart so I am supporting the writers in their strike. Joss Whedon the creater of Buffy and Serenity blogged yesterday about a way to show the networks that fans support the writers. Here is the site that explains the Pencils2MediaMogels Campaign.

Have a great Monday!

Temptation, frustration so bad it makes her cry...

The temptation of course is Cherie Amour, sadly the frustration is as well. I finished the body, connected the shoulders and seamed the sleeves. Here is the problem. I suffer from the dreaded tight bind off disease. Now I am aware of this problem and typically seek to offset it's results by binding off loosely or going up a needle size or two when I bind off. If you had asked me I would have said that I had done it loosely, obviously I would have been deluding myself. Now you know what happens when I get frustrated with a project right? Cherie was unceremoniously dumped on the computer desk. Perhaps I will have the patience to do surgery this weekend but I don't even want to look at her at the moment. Here's a look at her before it all went to hell:



You can see I was just living in denial since I had put the sleeve in the hole to see if it would fit. Ha!

I grabbed a sock for comfort. It's as though socks are the husband I always come running back to when my love affairs go awry. Hell I may even cast on for the lady detective hat, hats are comforting too. I need some comfort this week. Rinaldo left for a conference yesterday and I have two parent teacher conferences this week. Last night was Avery's which was excellent but odd. Most of his teachers told me, "well I gave him a 90 but he's really a 95 student. High schools like to see improvement over the year. It shows he's a hard worker." Huh? So we're dumbing down the grades on the first marking period to make his record look like he worked hard at improving rather than that he worked hard at maintaining? Whatever. The grades were excellent regardless. Ian's is tonight. I'm anxious due to my phobia of parent teacher conferences (I was anxious about Avery's last night too) but I talk to his teacher at least once a week and she tells me he's doing very well so I'm sure it will be fine.

Adding to the stash is comforting as well and my Knit Picks shipment came with the yarn for Mirepoix:



I did some color substitutions but I'm happy with my choices. We'll see how they knit up. I know I said I was going to start this in January but I may have to swatch it up sooner. I'm dying to see how they look.

Finally I picked this up over at Yarmando's:



...there now don't you all feel really good about yourselves!

Happy Wednesday all, we're halfway to the weekend...

It came, I saw, I spun...

I joined the Spunky Fiber Club. I decided it was a great way to try different fibers that I would be too intimidated to pick up by choice.

October's was called Goblin Eyes, it's Romney wool. I actually started spinning it last night:




I'm thinking I can actually knit this into some fingerless gloves. What do you think?

A bit of progress to show

I'm in the homestretch on Cherie. I even had Amanda take a picture of me trying it on, see:



I have a few more layers on than I would normally have underneath it. but overall I'm happy with the fit. I'm hoping the bottom opens up a bit more when I block it and it gains some length. Of course I could just lose some weight but whatever...

I ordered the yarn for Mirepoix for some bizarre reason. Well ok it was because I had a gift certificate from KnitPicks to spend. I don't imagine even looking at it until January though. I also bought one of the Harmony needles points to replace my MIA 9 for my set. I figured it was as good an excuse as any.

Nothing much going on overall so I think it's time for a bunch of pointless links:

Damn those Bushs, they seem to think that Knitters
are part of the Axis of Evil.

If you're a geek like me you may actually be interested in what exactly the writer's are striking about here's a blog post by one of my favorite comic book writers who is also a writer/producer for Lost.

This granny blogs but she doesn't seem to knit so I suppose that helps that stereotype.

Finally the news I've been waiting for. I always said I preferred to weigh about 20lbs more than the doctors say I should. Of course I have a bit to lose before I get there;)

Happy Wednesday!