Random Musings

Daniel and I had the most awesome lazy Sunday morning yesterday. My pilates class had been moved to 4 PM, so we slept in. I got up around 8 and showered, then knit for a little while. Daniel woke up briefly and motioned for me to get back in bed, so I obliged, and we snuggled and laid there for a long while. Eventually, he woke up and, although I offered to go pick him up a bagel at the store, he came with me. We got back and made breakfast - his bagel was accompanied by 8 oz of bacon I had bought on Friday, and some fruit and yogurt for both of us - and we surfed the internet. Shortly after breakfast, we got back in bed and watched some Discovery channel videos and I sort of half-napped. :) Awesome!! I think Randy and Kris opined it best, that when you have so much to do, that is when you enjoy doing nothing the most. :) The only sad part was that Daniel had to leave at 3 PM in order to go back into work, but that was fortuitous because I had pilates, after which we stopped for dinner at the Elysian brewery.

And here are some WIP pictures for your pleasure.

First up is the progress on my 2nd cashmere sock. :) It is the perfect thing to work on when I have semi-weekly two hour conference calls that start at 7 AM with Rolls-Royce in England. Good lord, those Brits talk a lot!! :) But that just means some good knitting time at work - you can see the lace pattern is well established on the top of the foot.


Next up is the Ms. Marigold vest, from ZephyrStyle. The wiggly-ness you see between the needle tips in the picture is the lettuce-ruffle edging I added to the collar instead of ribbing. I used a ruffle edge from Nicky Epstein's Knitting Beyond The Edge book. The only downside to the ruffle edge is that there are SO many stitches to bind off!!! I am using Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind-off, since it's so stretchy and easy, to boot!



I swatched for the Entangled Stitches gloves, and found that I got gauge with 2.25 mm needles, so that is what I am using. I cast on and had the requisite 68 stitches on my needles, but I found out that I had not been following the charts for the cuff, so I ripped it out and am waiting for patience to strike again. :) That is not a "tv knitting" pattern!!

I am also spinning up my Gotland fleece. I think I'm going to end up with a worsted weight two-ply balanced yarn... at least, that is my goal. Combing the wool is really fun, until you spear yourself on a comb and a large drop of blood barely misses the wool! Ah well.

What else... oh yes, I partially finished processing my Lincoln lamb fleece from... uh... 2006 (guilty face). I washed and picked through over half of it. I have about a pound or so left to wash, but it is a dirty, dirty fleece. Even after picking the burrs out of it and putting it in a bag, I noticed dirt on the wool. The sample that I originally cleaned was Hand-washed in a sink, so I think I took a lo-o-ong time with that little handful (which, of course, came out snow-white). I figure flick-carding or drumcarding will open up the locks, and anything else will either fall out when I am spinning, or when I wash the yarn.

I am also finally working on updating the pictures in the digital picture frame that Daniel got for me last Christmas. It's such an awesome gift, I totally feel guilty about not doing it before. I actually loaded up some resized pictures into it over the weekend, but the slideshow and thumbnail features on the frame weren't working. I'll have to find the directions and peruse them...