Hello, hello

So, I've been neglecting my knitting and spinning... well, not completely. I have about 100 yds of handspun alpaca, the grey that I talked about before. It's a lovely fingering/lace weight... a bit thick-and-thin but not too bad.

I finished a par of socks in Knitpicks Imagination in a color called Pixie Dust, which I think is discontinued. It only took 1 219 yd ball for a pair! I made the cuffs ~6 inches long, too - which is not short. Granted, I have kinda small feet, so there is that... The second sock turned out slightly smaller. I don't know why. The stitch number is the same, etc. I think the stitches for the sole of the sock ended up being more - like I didn't split them evenly or something... and then I didn't knit quite long enough to the toe. The good thing is, even if they both were the same length, I have confidence that I wouldn't have used more than one ball. Also, you can't tell when they're on! Haha!

The knitting group is planning a yarning trip. We go do all the yarnshops on "The Coast", eat lunch (might be tricky for me; I'm vegan, but oh well... I'll figure something out!), and have fun! It's an all day deal.

This weekend, I'm probably going over to Cindy's to make stitch markers. It's also my birthday, which I forgot when I told her I would be there. It doesn't change anything; we never do anything really big for birthdays around here!

The reason I haven't been knitting so much? Well... I've kind of taken up running...and I've kind of been getting that on track. As a matter of fact, I'm going to start a blog dedicated to running (I've given up on making this anything other than a knitting blog; it just isn't going to happen, I don't think... although 2 blogs might be hard to maintain... oh,well... we'll see).

So, wish me luck with my yarning adventures next month. And if anyone's actually reading this, could you please reccomend a neat, unique, but not crazy, lace-and-cable scarf pattern? Or just something that would look nice in worsted weight Cascade Pride in pink? I love the yarn; can't find a pattern for it...

Spinning

I've been spinning off-and-on for about...a year, I guess. I didn't really spin anything worthy of note until a couple of months ago. The reason? The stuff that I spun wasn't perfect, and I was convinced I was doing something wrong.

As it turns out, I was doing something wrong. I wasn't relaxed. Unless a person relaxes, one can't spin. At least, not enjoyably. The single, at first, doesn't have to be perfect. It'll be thick, thin, overspun, underspun, and everything in between. That isn't bad. In fact, experienced spinners, I've found out, often struggle to get that varied texture in order to create special yarns for specific projects.

So, I began to spin again, without getting uptight because the yarn wasn't consistent. I tried my best and, sure enough, my yarn got better as I went along--not near perfect, but better, smoother and more even.

My first single--which was probably between 20 and 30 yards (I didn't measure) was overtwisted and certainly uneven. I made a case for my mp3 player (a picture of which I will post tomorrow) and am very happy with it--proud of the fact that I spun my own yarn and knit with it.

Now, for my next feat, I will spin a pound (yes, a pound) of silk/mohair that I have and Navajo-ply it. 'Normal' plying doesn't sound near as appealing as using only 1 single to make a 3 ply yarn. Hopefully, it'll be easy enough to do on my spindle. There's no way on this earth that I could afford the lovely Ashfords and the like that are so tantalizingly sprinkled over the Internet.

So, tomorrow will be the day I begin spinning. Right now, I'm working on the 'increase' rows of my first Clapotis. I'm knitting it in a lovely denim-color multi sock yarn on size 6 needles. I want to get the increase rows done tonight so I can really see how wide it is going to be. The origonal pattern calls for worsted-weight yarn and size 8 needles. We'll see how it goes.

Well, it's off to ravelry and to see if the new Knitty has been posted yet.