Back to your regularly scheduled blogging

Whew, after that last post, I felt like I'd given birth! I know it's long, and it looks complicated - but really it isn't. I had a much harder time with the write up than I did with the actual knitting! I think (hope) other people should be able to create an Angst for themselves with my directions.

Oh - here's a pic of the long sleeved version that I did with my handspun. I'd dyed some roving that I thought would be awful, but actually turned out quite nice when it was all spun up. I didn't have enough of it to do a whole sweater, so I also spun some brown Falkland Island roving to go with...
I don't like it as much as the one that I just finished, but I'm still pretty proud of it.

So what else have I been up to lately... Well - I have a new neighbor, I taught her how to knit last week.

I think I've created a monster.

She's one of those perfectionist types, who is also fairly unsure of herself, and gets upset and stressed very easily. She is loving the knitting! So much she is showing up at my house everytime I come home.

Night before last she wanted to try something a bit different. I started her off with some fairly bulky wool singles in blues and greens. She did a pretty darn good job on it as a matter of fact.

She was not happy with the fact that it was not totally straight, and that parts of the cast-on weren't totally consistent. I pointed out to her that she'd actually done a whole long swath of very even knitting, Just the beginning and the end were a bit wonky - the beginning, obvious, she was just learning. The end - well, that's kind of what happens when you try knitting when you're stoned!

She had made up her mind that she wanted to work with some yarn that "wasn't fuzzy" and red. Not too red mind you - more of a blush brick red. Back into the monstrosity of stash I went. We ended up with some Rowan Wool Cotton that I don't have any immediate plans for. (If I remember correctly I bought it to go into a waistcoat that my ex-husband wanted me to knit for him in autumn colours. I'm not really an autumn colours kind of person.) She offers to reimburse me for the yarn, but I'm having visions of her shopping in my stash on a regular basis! Not only is she a perfectionist, but she's a perfectionist with good taste!

So, we worked on teaching her how to cast on again, and knit... In the meantime my daughter, her boyfriend and my little brother had all come over. And she's still asking questions. Not to mention the fact that she's developed a huge crush on my little brother (he's not so little, but still not even 21 yet - and a very young 21 if you know what I mean).

Last night I haven't even gotten into the house and she's offering to help me carry groceries in - I'm unpacking the groceries and she's asking if I want to spend some time sitting and sewing. Sorry - no, I've got to get dinner started, the dishes done, etc... maybe later ok?

Now - don't get me wrong, she's a very nice person, and a good neighbor. Returns things when borrowed - buys a whole 6 pack of sodas after she's bummed a couple, we do live in very close proximity to each other, and it looks like she's going to be pretty much sharing my courtyard with me. I just have to be firm with my boundaries!

Oh, and after I was done showing her how to knit, I looked down at the rectangle of garter stitch that I'd started, and thought it was a shame to rip it out. What could it become? Sigh - give me land, lots of land and I will cover it in garter stitch.

Oh - and I have actually done a little bit of work on the OCLC. Progress pictures on that might not be forthcoming for just a bit -I'd like to wait until I've completed 12 squares (I just started #11).



What else? I'm still working on getting more of my cabled yarn together. I've spun up a spindleful of the wool silk blend that I used for the last batch, but I can't seem to find any more of it. I didn't think that I'd used it all up, but I decided to use the Garden of Eden colourway from CopperMoose for one of the plies in this one anyway.
I also dyed some silk last night because I'm out of the colors that I had before, so there's no chance in matching any of it up anyway. I'm hoping for something analogous, on the next skein - and then a gradation into more of the Garden of Eden stuff on the skein after that. It's slow going though, seeing as how it's all spindle spun, and mostly just on my lunch time walks at that.

Here's a pic of the Garden of Eden being spun up on my new Copper Moose American Beauty zebrawood spindle.

My daughter is once again amongst the employed! Yippee and hoorah! I sure hope this new job works out for her. She called me today asking how to transfer data from an Excel file into a Word document. I told her basically all you can do is cut and paste. She seemed to want to actually take the Excel file and turn it into a Word file. I couldn't help her with that. If anyone knows if it's possible please leave a comment.

And now for a picture that I took on my walk today....
Enjoy! And have a great week!