Filling the Gap

It feels like this has been a super-productive weekend. Besides teaching a spinning class at L'Ourse Qui Danse ranch, I managed to finish off and deliver two fairly large projects. The first was a sweater going to a client of the ranch, so she will get it in time for her birthday next week.

Pattern base was Pioneer from Knitty, with mods to account for different gauge, stitch pattern, and sleeve length. It makes life so much easier when the client has measurements close to my own - so easy to try on and check things. Especially when it's a large, fitted item like said sweater.

Came home from the ranch yesterday and knitted all evening, and finished off the second project, a lace shawl (#28 lace shawl from Vogue Knitting Early Fall 2012). Yarn, an alpaca/silk laceweight dyed with blackberry canes. Blocked it before bed, and it was dry in the morning, photographed after breakfast, and delivered this afternoon.

I normally block lace on the bed or the carpet at the apartment, but since I was out at the parents', it wasn't an option. Beds were all in use overnight, and there's no carpeting. Mom had the brilliant idea, though, to block on the TV room rug. Not only is it the only rug in the place large enough for a shawl, but the TV room is right above the kitchen and the woodstove, and heat rises. It's the warmest room in the house, so the shawl dried quickly, even sandwiched between towels and flannel sheets (I covered it to prevent any feline 'help' overnight, especially since Gail has taken to misbehaving in baskets in the TV room).

Now I have a few days' gap to poke at projects that are not commissions, and it feels a little peculiar. First time since early November I haven't been knitting a commission. Thursday I'm meeting with someone to choose patterns and colours for a couple pairs of mittens. Until then there will be spinning, and some work on a pattern I've been promising myself will get done soon, especially since I have a couple test knitters lined up already. And I want to start this year's quilt square for the fair - Mom and I chose fabrics this afternoon, and I think I know the pattern I want.

The Fight Against Distractions

I'm falling behind on the spinning...there's some kid mohair on the wheel, and I do a little every day, but not much.

Nominally, that's because I have a knitting deadline coming up. A sweater, in bicolour half-linen stitch, which I want to be done by Saturday. The first sleeve was finished this morning, so one sleeve and the neckline trim left (the picture was taken a couple days ago).

But half-linen stitch, in fingering weight, is, um, boring after a while. And I should be spinning when I need a break, I know, but I have another distraction. I'm puzzling. I like doing puzzles, and I got this one for Christmas.

So I do a bit of that when I get tired of knitting...then a little more....and the time slips away too damn fast. (I told you about the time I got so caught up in a puzzle I let the woodstove go out, and sat there wondering why it was so cold in the house, right?) Next thing I know, an hour's gone, my tea is cold, and the knitting isn't getting done. Time to exercise some willpower (and set a timer). Because when that puzzle's done? There are more. A friend of a friend was destashing, and several of her puzzles came home with me...

More Spinning

I'm feeling reasonably productive with the spinning. The beige cria/silk for Johanne was plied Friday afternoon, washed Saturday, and dry and measured this morning. Total of 287 yards of 2-ply in beige (the two skeins shown) and 532 yards in the brown.

The third skein in the picture is yesterday's work. I spent the day picking, carding, and spinning a small skein of mohair from some fibre I was given on commission. I lost a lot in the picking process that was too felted or too short to salvage. It turned out to be only 68 yards of 2-ply in the end, maybe sport-weight, but at least it is enough for the owner to do something with it. And it is very nicely white and shiny, even if it wasn't the softest mohair. I was thinking I could add some mohair from my stash if necessary - if it looked like there wouldn't be much to spin after picking. But I didn't, so I guess today's spinning can be some nice kid mohair roving...

Old Year Out and New Year In

We did have our dusting of snow before Christmas, just in time to cut the tree - then a meltdown and the rather astonishing fact of Christmas eve being something like 16C, warm enough to go out without coat and mittens after dark, warm enough to not need the stove on at all. And warm enough to find a few flowers in the garden and have a tiny bouquet on the holiday table, something new in my experience. I mean, really, who expects flowers here in late December? But the lamium was blooming and the hellebore in bud.

The snow came two days later, starting as rain. The ground stayed soft long enough for the sad necessity of the day, burying our older dog. He had some sort of attack Christmas night, and lost most of the use of his back end as well as his desire to eat. We helped him drink, and stretchered him outside and held him up for calls of nature for the day after that (two sweatshirts, two hockey sticks, and two or three people required - not the usual use for one's first-aid training), and he didn't suffer much. Sad to see him go, but glad it was fairly quick and calm for his sake. It felt odd, though, having normal life flow on right afterwards, as I was headed to brunch soon after with friends I see only rarely, and then preparing to return to the city the next day.

And with normal life comes the fibre, in my case. Not that that aspect was absent over the holidays, with a pair of leg warmers to knit and ship, and my brother's special glove liners to knit. Oh, the time we had with those liners. He traced his gloves and measured it all - in centimetres, if you please. Only he left out a few measurements I wanted, and a phone call didn't really help, since I ended up with some numbers that didn't add up. So I waited until he came home on the 23rd, did my own dang measuring, and knitted them up. In laceweight black cashmere. But they turned out well, only I didn't think to take pictures. But the sketch will be handy for another time.

I fought with a lined hat next. I always seem to fight with hats. No matter how carefully I measure head and gauge, they end up too loose or too tight. In this case it was the latter, and I had to rip back most of the hat and redo it, since I had started from the crown. Then the brim was flaring and that had to be fixed. But it is now mostly done. (At least, I know what I need to change next time!)

First project of the new year was another (quicker) hat, for a commission, and now there's a shawl (also commissioned) on the needles. I kind of love the hat, because it matches my normal hairstyle and colour.

But my focus is shifting towards spinning for the rest of the month. Heather of hellomello and I decided last fall we would do a little destashing SAL. New Years' revolutions instead of resolutions. And I'm a little slow off the mark, but I have managed to get a bobbin spun and two plied of Jo's cria/silk blend, and the second bag of the stuff is started. Now I just have to see about getting set up on Instagram to share my progress ;)

Avalanche

Second week of December, and it feels more like October - there are dandelions blooming on the lawn, even! But Christmas is coming fast enough...with any luck there will be snow by then.

Last day of (outdoor) work for the season was November 20, after which came the pile of things-to-be-done-before-Christmas. Knitting, mostly. There was a commission of socks and little sweaters for Joan's family holiday:

Got that shipped off and started socks and fingerless mitts for a friend, with some lovely alpaca from this year's Rhinebeck trip:

Now there's a cowl on the needles for another friend, no pictures yet. I did a little spinning also, and the mostly grey Jacob yarn on the left will go in my mother's stocking, for a throw she wants to make with a pile of hand-spun she's been collecting.

The last thing that will need to be done by Christmas is the fingerless glove liners that were my brother's request, and I don't have the yarn or measurements yet. After that - well, apres moi, la deluge, as the French have it. In other words, there's an avalanche of stuff, mostly commissions, on the way. I started a list, and I'm a little dubious about my chances of knitting for myself anytime soon! Two sweaters, a shawl, a baby sweater, and a pair of leg warmers, plus two patterns to sample-knit and write up in the next couple months, plus some spinning...

Well, it'll be fun. And only a couple days until I hit the country for the holidays! Today has been about prep for a cookie exchange tomorrow, so there is sucre a la creme in the fridge and some decadent and festive shortbread on the counter. And tomorrow I also get to take in a concert by a local choir (Harmonia Choir), which I am very much looking forward to.

I Aten't Dead

...as Granny Weatherwax would say. (From Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, which I consider highly addictive.) No pictures today, just a quick post to say I'm alive. (Heck, I haven't managed to get the last four knitting projects photographed and onto Rav yet.)

It's been a crazy fall. Mostly fun and all, but I find myself needing more hours in a day, every day. There's been Havelock Fair and the Roxham WoolGathering,  a dye class to teach, a baby shower, Rhinebeck, the Knitting Guild vendor's night, and now next weekend is the OVWSG Exhibition and Sale. On top of that, work hasn't had the September slowdown we did last year, and it looks like we'll be running another 2 weeks at least, when last year the garden end wrapped up a week or two earlier. I really hope we don't get early snow or really cold weather...

We worked yesterday, the first Saturday in a while. Today the apartment is going to be very warm and steamy, fan and open window notwithstanding. Damp socks hanging in the living room, damp skeins hanging on the rack in the bathtub, two dyepots simmering on the stove, and the week's baking (pizza and apple muffins) in the oven. Tags are on the table for writing out whenever I have 2 minutes to spare. With any luck I can get the lion's share of the prep for Ex and Sale done today, (apart from reskeining things once they dry), and do all the other little chores that are piling up (like sorting the recycling, which is also piling up), then I can concentrate on reskeining and packing during the week. I'm thinking the Sale should be pretty busy this year. Carole, the co-ordinator, has arranged an interview on TV this week (Wednesday on CTV Morning Live, I believe) where they will try to teach the interviewer spinning, weaving and felting. Sounds like a fun session!  

...And there goes my timer. One batch of skeins ready to rinse, one dyebath ready to put skeins in, and the pizza's done, so I can start muffins as soon as the next round of pots is simmering.

Man, I'm looking forward to end of season. I want a nap. And then Kristina and I are planning a fibre prep day later in November, and then in the winter, Heather of HelloMello, who I met at Rhinebeck, and I are planning a SAL, like a little Tour de Fleece. I have ambitions to make a serious dent in the fibre stash this winter, and knit a few things for me, and...yeah, need more time again ;)

Summer To Fall

The last of summer is speeding by already. All the signs are here that fall is on the way. Cooler mornings, geese flying overhead, asters and chrysanthemums blooming, and a few early leaves turning. In the veg garden the tomatoes are ripening (there will be bruschetta this weekend!), and I took enough beets and onions out last weekend to put up nine jars of pickles.

Work has slowed down a little, but there's still plenty going on. Last week (yeah, in that heat wave)  we had three of us out to an all-day job, clearing a massive set of stone terraces and steps on a waterfront property. The owner wanted some of the wildflowers left but the massive stuff and the bad stuff (like burdock and nettle and weed trees) gone. We put a good dent in it, but it will take another day's work at least to do it all. And thank goodness he had a burn pile, because that was so much easier than bagging it all - we got the pile to the point where it was six feet tall and at least twice that long. It felt at times like we were clearing Mayan ruins, and we should have had pith helmets and machetes. Yesterday we started another bigger job which will continue Monday - tidying up a property that I don't think has had much care in a year or two, but needs to get to a decent point, after which we will be doing regular maintenance. It's an older house and gardens, and definitely has potential, but some plants, like the day lilies and hydrangeas, have sort of started taking over - I think about 70% of the space is orange day lilies at the moment.

I'm still trying to finish re-skeining all the dyed yarn from the summer's batches. The bag of things to re-skein is slowly emptying (most of what's left in there is pastel shades of alpaca), and the box of things to label is slowly filling.

Only three weeks until the WoolGathering and Havelock Fair, and things need to be labeled and packed, and I'd like to do a bit more spinning and knitting if possible. Just finished a pair of fingerless mitts that are definitely seasonal, though!

The main reason the re-skeining goes slowly is HRH Julia. Standard session goes like this: I have the swift and the reel set up on the dining table, which is pretty much the most convenient spot in the place for me, and start working, then she decides after I get set up that she needs to stretch out right there also. So I shift the reel out of her way, she rolls over and gets whacked with it,

I move her over, she gets grouchy and comments that she's trying to sleep and I'm in her way. I reply that Temptations don't grow on trees and someone needs to buy them for her. I get a little more work done before she rolls over in the way of the reel again, I get up and go do something else, then several minutes later she gets bored and wanders off elsewhere. I go back to re-skeining, and try to get as much done as I can before the next round of need-to-nap-on-the-table-now-plz. Which is where I'm headed now, since the table's free for now...