Twists of Fate

I actually busted out the spinning wheel *TWO* entire evenings in a row. I think I’ll make it a goal this moon cycle to either spin or knit every single night of the week. Maybe once we move past Aries into Taurus I’ll make it the goal to do both every night, and actually put a dent in my stash! For now though, I think one or the other would be good. At least 30 min worth, every night. That should create some measureable progress on both the knitting projects AND the spinning prowess.

For now, though, I’m simply working on filling bobbins. And since I’m about out of bobbins, I really need to put together the tensioned Lazy Kate. I tried plying off the built-in LK on the Traveller, and it was, frankly, a disaster. I need a bit of resistance to really control the fiber, be that the tug of the wheel as I draft, the tug of the spindle as I draft, or apparently the slight resistance of the tensioned LK as I try to ply.

At least, I hope so. I’m not sure yet, and this will remain theoretical until I purchase a simple Philips head screwdriver and put the TLK together. I’m about out of bobbins, and come to think of it now I’m not sure if I have two empties onto which I should ply the contents of two full ones and, um. Oops. Me and Navajo plying are mere acquaintences at this point, though I do hope we’ll get to know each other better in the long run. So, hey, looks like there may be a trip to the spinning store for at least one more bobbin, and possibly replacement drive bands in my future.

Oh darn.

In the meantime, looks like spinning on the wheel is stalled. I shall turn my attention to alternating between spinning up the bunny crack on one of the spindles (favorite right now is the Cascade Little Si), and working on the socks.

Coooooool. :D

I’m still thinking over the Knitting Olympics thing, and things I learned about myself during the period.

1. I don’t really enjoy knitting things to a deadline. It makes me want to dig in my heels and knit slower, just to be contrary. I am a process, rather than a project knitter. I knit for the enjoyment, rather than the end result. I mostly knew that going in, but this really solidified that for me.

2. I really have a hard time knitting one thing and one thing only. If only for basic health of my hands, I need to have a couple of different projects available. Especially if I am doing socks on small needles. I ended up leaving the socks to sit for a day or three during the course of the Olympics to finish the last few rows on a scarf knit on 10.5s.

3. I knit according to my mood. Color, texture, the item I’m making…. What I end up working on is really dictated by my mood. Had a stressful day? Socks are usually out, as the small stitches make me think of small minded people, and I don’t really make a lot of progress. However, on a day when I’m in a good mood or am generally feeling fine, socks are great! When I need comforting, I’ll pick up a scarf on big needles out of a lush yarn, and be pleased that the finished item will help comfort and warm the intended recipient, making the whole thing a big, circular love fest for the universe. I still haven’t been in the mood to make a sweater, like, EVER, but that day will come. Maybe not for myself, but to knit a sweater for my teeny tiny sister? Sure!

Bottom line - I’m going to resent the damn item if I feel like I *have* to knit on it. I like my freedom to choose, period. I don’t know why I thought I’d be different when it came to knitting!

There were other lessons learned, like “always wear your glasses because doing a Figure 8 cast on with Inox DPNs is a potentially eye-losing hazard”, “never knit when tired and project is on size 1 DPNs, for picking up dropped stitches is a total freakin’ bitch”, and “Ben & Jerry are a girl’s best cheerleaders”.

But Godiva is a great stand in for B&J. :D

Who isn’t a lion, but he is being a bear.

My poor brother is out here updating his license for work, and getting ready to ship out for a while. However, the sniffles he picked up from his son has mutated into a full blown cold, and he’s being awfully cranky. Grumpy. Perhaps even a smidge belligerent.

Good times, baby. Good times.

So there hasn’t been a lot of fibery fun the past couple of days. The last thing *I* want to do is come down with this crud, so I’ve been dosing up on Vitamin C like it’s going out of style, and generally vegging liek whoa. I made stew, which has been the one concession to ’smothering’ brother mine has accepted. I’m not really sure how my asking if he needed anything was smothering, but whatever.

If this is the typical male response to being sick, I’m suddenly very glad I’m single.

Today though, it’s more sock knitting. If he’s going to be a grump, he can forget about the companion hat to the seed stitch baby alpaca scarf I finished for him for his combo birthday/$winterholiday present.

So there.

Potential next project? This spindle rack for under $5. I love me some Ikea, and I was just wondering how I was going to display/store my growing spindle collection. And lo, here comes spindlicity to save the day. Niiiiiice!