I think I've been cursed.... or something

So my track record over the last couple of weeks has kind of, well, sucked! I am blaming my Off Center Log Cabin. It has put a curse on me for abandoning it. I think it wants me to stay faithful to it until it's done (or the rest of my natural life - whichever comes first).

I put it aside to work on the Icarus thinking that it would be a fairly quick interlude. A shawl - no shaping issues etc.... And we all know what happened there! So then I decided to start on a modular knit tank top - and screwed that up royally as well... No pics - I'm just too disgusted with myself.

So I think to myself - well, self... this knitting thing just isn't working out so well. Maybe you should just try something simple like making some yarn. Well - it would be more simple if I was halfway organised. Exhibit A is at the top of the post. I have 9 (count them) 9 bobbins for my Joy. How many do you see empty? Yeah - there's 1 empty bobbin - it's the 4th from the right... It has a bit of leader on it and that means it's empty (I tend to leave my leaders on my bobbins).

And I want to try my first cable ply... I have two spindlefulls of my silk/wool wound off onto empty UPS label rolls. And a roll with some silk that I spun a couple of weeks ago.

OK - that bobbin on the far right - it can just get emptied off onto the ball winder. It's wool that Boo spun for practice/respite from boredom. The bobbin on the far left I plied with the red ingeo that is right next to it to make more Red Hat yarn. I also had a spindleful of the purple/red merino. Whatta Pain.In.The.Ass! That ingeo - I have more of it to spin. Will I spin it? Probably not! Damn stuff just falls apart off the bobbin. I might be a self-taught spinner - but I'm not totally crap! I tend to over spin everything! I've never had this problem before. I'm blaming the ingeo. And the curse!

So now I have enough empty bobbins to cable ply my wool/silk together, to then ply it with the pure silk. Except.... If I ply two S spun singles together, that makes it a Z spin right? What happens when I try to ply that with another S spun single? I'm not sure I want to find out - sounds like it will be a disaster. I'm pretty sure it'll be a disaster. If I'm wrong - someone please pipe up in the comments! Please!

I stopped off at Dharma Trading Company on my way home from work, thinking that I could pick up the latest issue of Spin Off - It should be out by now, right? Well not at that store. I wandered around drooling after some of the gorgeous yarns - but restrained myself and didn't buy anything - well except this pattern. I love unusual construction methods, and this definitely has them - it's knit in one piece from the top down. I'm not so sure about the whole swing coat part of the thing - but I'd like to try it without so many increases down the body. Might take me some time to get though. Lots and many clever little details that really make me happy - I cord along the front edges - slipped stich edges along the front and back plackets - no seaming... Sounds loverly! Wonder what it actually looks like on a person.


Oh - and I contacted the sellers of my wheel last night to nicely ask about the shipping status. They were very prompt with their response. My little Skipper (That's it's name) was shipped on my birthday last Thursday. How very appropriate! The sellers were very nice and gave me the tracking number and everything. I'm calculating that it should get here towards the end of July - yay!



I'm just loving the new camera chip! I went out today and took a bunch of pictures around the property that I live on.

Aren't these flowers beautiful? I've never seen anything like them before...








Anyone know what they might be called?


Maybe one of these days I'll actually have some progress to post about. I'm thinking that you might just be seeing some more log cabinning going on here soon. Watch this space - and have fun!!

Abi