Commuting fun

As anyone who regularly reads my blog will know I have a pretty long commute each day.  On a good day it is probably about 90mins door to door, on a bad day though that easily hits two hours.  So what's a girl to do to stave off the boredom?  Well of a morning sleep is the obvious answer :) and one in which I quite frequently indulge but of an evening I often just want to use the time to chill out making spinning or knitting the perfect answers.

This week's knitting project for some odd reason seemed to attract more interest than usual.  All I was doing was winding the Black Magic skein into two connected balls so that I could get started on a pair of socks.  Because I tend to do them toe up and two at a time, winding a double ball but not cutting the connecting thread allows me to use up all the yarn without worrying about weaving in ends etc.  Anyway I'm sitting there minding my own business just winding my yarn when I realise the woman opposite me was utterly staring at me.  I'm not sure what it was but she seemed to find the winding hypnotic.  To cut a long story short, I ended up giving an impromptu lesson in how you get from fluff to socks via my tiny turkish spindle (which goes everywhere with me) to winding a skein then a ball to the actual knitting to her and two others who then joined in asking questions.  I swear I must have a friendly face :)  It was good to get people interested though, and one of them who was very enthusiastic bemoaned the fact that she had learnt to knit as a kid but had forgotten.  She got off the train asking where in London she could get some yarn etc to get started!  Enabling is such good fun :)

When I'm not feeling so social though I tend to stick my headphones in and listen to my iPod.  With something mindless on the needles though, I tend not to listen to music as I want something to occupy my mind.  Step forwards aJoyfulGirl and her podcast Spin Control.  Shilo is a brilliant host, combining sewing, knitting, spinning and other crafty things with straight talking reviews and frequently hilarious anecdotes about her family.  With a cast of her DH the JoyfulBoy, her eldest daughter Bird and the littlest daughter IttyBitty she paints a brilliant picture of a crafty (in a good way) loving family facing all the challenges life with kids tends to throw at you.  Shilo, on the off chance you ever read this, you rock :)

Taking stock

Ok I think the theme of the past month or so has been of utter manic energy, and not necessarily achieving much.  That is certainly how it feels.  Either way having got a couple of events out of the way, and with a whole pile of deadlines coming up I decided that now was a good time to clear the decks and create a bit of a work plan, whilst making sure I don't stress myself out too badly.

First up the wip list has been thinned out a bit.  A couple of those projects were sitting there with no hope of me actually getting on with them.  The Zauerball socks for instance are blatantly getting frogged, and the Poppy Shawl, whilst not as finished as I want, is bound off and wearable.  I also went for a couple of easy finishes to get things out of the way and space freed up at home.  A couple of nights spent spinning and the Herdwick is done for now... not sure I'm there on yardage but its enough to be getting on with.  Lama's socks have also come to a very pleasant end.  For a pattern that I didn't overly enjoy knitting and which looked decidedly wonky as a wip on the needles they look really good when on (well I think so anyway :D )


So that's me down to four projects actually on needles at the moment ( I might have cast on the Herdwick bag in a moment of weakness last night).  Next up was deciding in what order to get stuff done!  My commuter projects was going to be Lama's socks but they're now off the needles.  Looks like I might be hoping for enough space on the train to spin up the yarn to finish off the other socks and/or try getting Mum's shawl in my bag... hmm watch this space.  The plan then is to get Mum's shawl done on the train leaving my evenings a bit freer to work on the stupidly complicated In Dreams when I'm at home.

With the amount of knitting I've been doing recently though I definitely need a spin project to keep me sane.  There is, contrary to popular belief (and for goodness sake don't let my DH hear me say this), such a thing as too much knitting.  I pretty much topped out my knitting ability at the end of last week with the rush to get the Poppy Shawl done.  The better end of two weeks knitting on trains, on buses, before work, after work, and it felt like in my sleep... oh and of almost all of that being stst was not the fast way to feed my knitting mojo.  So a spin project is definitely needed.  I've got two spindle projects at the moment which are good for commuting, and I think I'll make a start on the latest instalment from Yarnscape's Year of the Wheel club.  I'm going to shoot for a wheel spun 3ply sock yarn to then knit into the utterly delightful Twisted Flowers socks by Cookie A.

Should keep me out of trouble for a while anyway!

Impossible Intarsia - update

Up to now I have:

• Knitted
• Followed a chart
• Amended/written said chart up from original sketch
• Tinked
• Ripped out several rows (using of course the very sensible "Agh darn it, I'll just pull the needles out of the lot and go from there" procedure)
• Worked with five cones of yarn all connected to the piece at one time
• Tried and failed at not swearing

on the train during my morning and evening commutes.  Seriously if you see a harassed looking lady working on a black and red intarsia... please give me a smile because this knit is doing my head in!

Impossible Intarsia

I hate intarsia.  Actually I don't think that quite covers how I feel about this particular technique.  I loath it. It drives me nuts faffing about with twisting the yarns on the back, it totally messes with me getting into any kind of a rhythm knitting, and trying to do it on a train....!

So quite why it is I've set myself a near as damn it impossible deadline for an intarsia shawl is slightly beyond me.  You really would think that I would learn wouldn't you?  Not a bit of it :)  A works dinner with my DH needed me to get a new cocktail length dress, and of course having found said dress my next insane thought was "ooh I know what would look good with that in terms of a wrap".  For some reason, I forget what, I'd had the idea to use Habu's stainless silk for something knocking about in my head for a good month or so.  You can see where this is going can't you?  So a quick lunchtime trip to Loop later and I had two cones of the stainless silk, one of BC Garn's Jaipur Silk in black and another in red.  Now you would think that the better end of 600m of each type would be enough really... yeah next time I design from scratch I really need to think that yardage thing through better.  Been back already to get another black silk and another two of the Habu!  Oh and all of this needs to be knitted by 21st so I can block it an pray it dries in time for the 22nd... that last bit might not be happening!  Delights of using the Habu seems to be that blocking isn't really that needed, the steel bits rumple anyway and the silk sections have a really interesting drape all of their own.  Its stiffer than normal silk, but still very drapy... almost like a very fine leather oddly!

So what is this nuts project like?  Well so far it looks like this:

I've started with a single strand of the Habu, then moved to holding two strands of it together, before moving to the most solid area which is a strand of Habu with a strand of silk.  The plan was to create a graded effect which actually shows up slightly less in real life.  The dress itself is black with a lot of red patterning so I wanted something that wouldn't be too dark on my arms, but would have the wow factor of red on black across the back.  That photo shows me just over a quarter of the way through the patterned area, with another graded section at the opposite end still to go as well!  Some how I don't think I'll be getting much sleep next week!

A Perfect Saturday in Spring

Last weekend my DH and I had hoped to get over to Miller's Ark to see the lambing but the weather was absolutely horrendous so we stayed in with a nice log fire instead :)  This weekend though the weather was beautiful so we thought a couple of hours looking at the lambs before a 5 mile walk was a good plan, and boy was it ever!

First up, Miller's Ark.  These guys are based a couple of miles away from me and have a brilliant setup for kids and adults alike.  The volunteers are all amazingly helpful and evidently really care about the animals.  The animals themselves are utter characters!  It is very evident that they've all been raised being used to being handled and as such they are very friendly especially if you have a cup of feed in your hands.

The area you're allowed into as visitors is split up into a couple of well marked areas.  The first is a series of pens with sheep, lambs and goats in them for you to feed.  In these ones are the Angora goats (very nimble at climbing up the fencing to snaffle feed from your cup when you're not watching!) and some very placid Oxford Downs with their lambs... the latter not being half as smart as the goats!

How could you not want to feed this cheeky chappy?!?

You can just make out the second pen in the top picture which has some Devon(?) Longwools in it.  Their fleeces really are amazingly heavy and I was lucky enough to get chatting to one of the volunteers about them.  Turns out the fast way to get the whistlestop tour is to ask about the breed then say you're a new spinner :)  I'm sure I didn't remember half of what I got told.

The far pens had the real characters in them though, a bunch of Herdwick Shetland crosses!  Yes you did hear me right on the mix.  The reason being they only had ewes of one breed but no ram (sorry I can't remember which way round it was).  As a farm that specialises in hands on kids stuff they try to breed so they have new lambs for as much of the year as possible, and breeding the Oxford Downs with anything else just wouldn't have worked due to the size difference of the animals, so a Herdwick Shetland cross it was :)  From what I remember it also means they get a good sized lamb early on which again helps with them being handled a lot by non-experts.

These guys were utter hooligans, running from one end of the pen to the other whenever they got so much as a sniff of feed.  You can see how they've managed to wear down the wool on their necks by shoving their heads through anything that they can fit through!  When you look at them they have very Herdy'ish faces but the wool is surprisingly soft, very much more like what you would expect from a Shetland.  Funny how the genetics works out isn't it.

Prize for most chilled out sheep though has to go to this little guy...

whilst the "how far down is that?!?!" prize goes to this one...

The award for utter Awwwhhh though has to be split between this bunch of baby rabbits...

and little guy who was less than a day old...

My DH took great delight in stroking, cuddling and petting everything small and furry within sight :)  We'll definitely be back for the sheering though... now I just have to hope that they'll be willing to sell me a fleece or three rather then sending them all off to the Wool Board... Angoras and Herdy crosses I have my eyes on you :)

A five mile walk, several pints of cider just before the end whilst watching the sun go down, then takeaway in front of a crackling fire at home and the day was complete.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday I think you'll agree.

Fiberholics - Disapointed

Before I start, I know this is a pretty crummy photo but it was the best my phone could manage (the camera's battery is currently flat and I'm not sure where the charger is... darned moving house!)

Since learning to spin I've been following the Phat Fiber boxes/blogs/Ravelry postings with no small amount of envy.  Each month they seem to post out little bundles of themed deliciousness but a) the chances of snagging a box are small and b) postage from the US can be long/expensive, so I thought I'd give the UK based Fiberholics a go instead.  Now as I buy my fiber almost exclusively from indi-dyers based in the UK I had high hopes but I've been left feeling rather uninspired, which is really disappointing.

Ok first up colour.  I was never expecting to get 5 out of 5 samples that I fell in love with, but a theme I suspect may have helped here.  We've got the Sunflower sample from HilltopClouds clashing horribly with MandaCrafts fushia offering.  The Crafty n Clothy braid is lovely but is made to look utterly washed out by the rest.  It wasn't a great look as I opened the parcel, which is sad because colour-wise actually I really like 3 of the 5 and one falls into my "that's not bad even if I've no idea what I'll use it for" category.

Next up is the fiber content.  Now my reason, and I suspect a lot of people's reason for buying samplers like this is just that, to sample new stuff be that colour or fiber.  Out of these five we have:

• 2 x 20g Falkland roving
• 20g Merino 64s roving
• 20g BFL roving
• and kudos to HilltopClouds 20g hackle blended BFL, Merino & Bamboo

In other words, one non-bog-standard type of fiber out of the five :(  Part of me gets that the staple for indi dyers is going to be the Falklands, Merinos and BFLs, that this is the stuff that they can get in bulk dye beautifully and make a decent profit on.  That I don't mind, heck I buy a lot of it.  But for a sampler pack?  I want to be enthused, I want to see something different.  If I want pink Falkland quite frankly I'll go to one of the big suppliers because I know it'll be a lot cheaper.

So overall:

• its confirmed that I still love the stuff that Katie from HilltopClouds produces, even when its not in a colour I would ever have picked.  I can't wait to spin up this sample but at the same time its one that has me really thinking how to get the best out of it.  Perfect :)
• ok for £11 plus P&P it didn't break the bank and it has introduced me to 2 dyers I didn't know about before (Crafty and Clothy and Cariad Fiber Arts)
• on the downside though most of the samples were pretty uninspiring and as a whole they hung together really badly.

I'm glad I ordered it at least this once but I think it will be just that, just this once.  The Fibreholics team do do a great job, but this one just isn't for me sadly.

Video night, Samye Dzong style

So Lama Zangmo is away at the moment meaning the weekly "Way of the Bhodisattva" classes are on hold. Namjal though has organised a lovely alternative of watching HH Karmapa's teachings from this year's Kagyu Monlam. Now I've followed the written reports for the last couple of years but have never really watched the teachings. I have to say that I'm glad I went and I will be back next week, but I think I prefer the written. My monkey mind wanders too much between translations and I'm struggling to engage with what's being taught. Some background reading may be needed I think!

As a blogger I offically suck...

... or at least I really am struggling with that time management thing!

Very quick update on where I'm up to with projects etc (and how they appear to be mushrooming out of all control at the moment!):

Knitting:

• Mum's shawl actually has made a lot of progress.  I've finished the L side, and am part way up the R (just past the pocket) but I've got to say I'm hating this knit.  I'm not sure what it is but Mum seems to be a curse on me knitting stuff for her.  I never get the pattern/yarn combination to work out well.  I don't know why because it's not a problem I have any other time, but this and the lace shawl I did her are less than brilliant.  Both are/will be warm and what she wants but there are few things more demoralising that spending a small fortune on yarn and a lot of time, knowing you're not going to be in love with the FO.  Ho hum I live and learn.
• In Dreams is well erm dreaming at the moment.  Leaving the house at 0730 and getting back at 2100 each day is not leaving a lot of braincells for complex lace at the moment... and this pattern needs brains!  Hopefully in some of the bank holiday weekends we have coming up I might get some more progress made on this but till then it is sadly languishing which is making me feel rather bad :(
• 3 into 2 Black Magic socks are spun up but mothballed due to other multiple WIPs being on the needles - I refuse to cast on yet another project till I've got some of these finished!
• Midnight under the Waterfall socks are again mothballed while I spin up some more yarn for them... when that's going to happen I'm not sure.  The original was spun on my IST turkish so they're probably going to wait until I've finished the Unsimple Simple Socks and can spin while commuting.
• Speaking of which, the Unsimple Simple Socks are in the final stages.  The heels have been turned and I'm just working on the legs until I get bored now.  I've got oodles of yarn so that isn't a limiting factor, my love of 2x1 rib on the other hand might be.  A good lesson in patience methinks.  Oh and beware, this pattern knits up long in the foot.  I started the increases where suggested but they're still a little long.  Hopefully they'll block/felt a little shorter :)
• My current panic though is a stole for a formal dinner on the 22nd.  What possessed me to decide to knit it with just less than two weeks to go I'm not sure but I am, and apparently I'm designing it from scratch... in a yarn I've never used before... and I've started on the knitting before I've finished the designing... what could possibly go wrong!

Spinning:

• I've got 400g of Herdwick that I'm currently spinning on my wheel to then knit into a felted bag (hopefully in time for Wonderwool!).  The first couple of skiens are done and its looking surprisingly good.  I've gone for a bulkish 7wpi 3ply that is fairly loosly spun and loosly plied.  Whilst that itself would normally impact on the strength of the yarn I'm hoping it will give me the wiggle room I need to be able to get it to felt properly.
• My tibetian is enjoying the delights of a HilltopClouds buttery yak/merino/silk batt being wrapped around it at the moment.  No 1 is spun, No 2 has just got started on my purpleheart Russian and I have no idea when I'll get round to finishing them :)  That's a nice, slow-time project as and when I get a moment... who am I kidding :)

So all in all utterly manic.  Time short, project rich and with deadlines I can't possibly meet.  Situation normal then :D