Peace, spinning, & knitting

After many days with overexcited children I am now alone for a few days. They were quite happy to be going back to their dad's, and because of pretty constant bickering... I was excited too.

I finished the EZ BSJ! I was watching the skein of Fiesta Boomerang dwindle (the color is caribbean, not alaska) and hoping I would have enough, but no. I finished off the edges with a little bit of handspun. My fiber of the month from Spunky Eclectic - it's the lovely merino/tencel blend dyed in the Colorado colorway. I spun it into a 3-ply so it's a little more bulky and rumpled the edge a little, but it's blocking right now and doesn't look bad. The shoulder seems were the issue for me. I suck at seaming garter stitch. Others seem to find it easier than I do, if there's a trick, I haven't found it yet (and I've been looking). My solution was to single chain crochet along the top. I only had enough remaining yarn to do the seams, nothing around the neck. Now, I'm contemplating crochet around the rest of the opening. Hmmm. Have to think about that a little more.




After my adventure to my LYS to spend my most generous gift certificate, and a conversation with Anne - yarn goddess - applied I-cord will become the neck treatment. And I found the perfect buttons there, too! I got some Brown Sheep for felted clogs, some Fortissima for Priscilla Gibson-Roberts Scandinavian socks (I got the Vogue Ultimate Sock Book for the holidays too). Some beautiful Hempathy just because I've always wanted to try it, and some Noro Iro.




It has been cloudy for days so I only have relatively crappy indoor shots of Odessa. The lovely top



And the side



I love this hat! It is so soft and pleasing.

My first toe-up sock in Interlacements Tiny Toes. Right now I find it more fiddly than a top-down. Maybe after I get going a bit I'll be more fond of it.



I'm almost done with Bowen's pair of socks and, for the first time ever, I found I have a "bad" skein of Opal! No problems through the fist sock, but I've found four places where the yarn was almost split completely. It's at regular intervals, so it seems to be a machine glitch, but it was pissing me off. I'm saving the scraps for invisible cast-ons. I hate throwing away yarn.

I've started Bowen's sweater. Since it's raining (a good thing, here in the drought) I'm hunkered down with piles of knitting around me. I'll have to do a little housework soon, my parents are coming on Wednesday - which means I'm bunking with Chicky - and her room is a mess. Most of the time I deal with the children's rooms by not looking in them. I may have to go stand in her room for a minute to get motivated.

Staying up late, waiting for my carcass to simmer

Not my own - the turkey breast - for stock. After a very long night of overexcited children not going to sleep AND bothering me while I was trying to wrap presents, I am staying up late for me (past 10 pm),again.

Chicky came and got in bed with me around midnight (I thought she was the only one asleep around 11, but I was wrong). The boys were pure bananaheads. They kept knocking on my door and whining, "We can't go to sleep. What should we do?" I kept telling them to go lie down. I did not tell them that this was great practice for later in life when they would be awake for hours on end with no way to get to sleep, and no apparent cause for the sleeplessness.

I think the neighbors across the street might have the right idea. I'll be honest with you, every year I secretly curse them because they make their children run around from 8-10 pm in the yard. They are between 12 and 16 years old (three of them) and they are very loud. Their loud antics did not help my people and my sleep campaign either. I was playing the Charlie Brown Christmas CD as loud as was sensible, given my plan to LULL the children to sleep, and the neighbors were much louder. Morgan wanted to call the police because they were bothering him. I laughed to myself and told him what they were doing was not against the law, it was merely annoying. Next year, I'm tossing my three into the mix and then I can wrap presents in peace.

The children were up at 7:20 am to open gifts. They were pleased and spent the day in and out of their new sleeping bags (Chicky most of the time with the guinea pig in her bag, too). One of my presents, a lovely hefty gift certificate to my local LYS, I am saving for some time when I can shop without the children in tow. They tolerate a yarn store, but I feel the pressure of their glaring eyes, and hear their weighty sighs. Some treats are meant to be enjoyed alone.

I started Grumperina's Odessa hat on Sunday, my knitting mojo was not with me that day, and I kept repeatedly fucking up the K3, P2 ribbing. I was just not focused enough. Later on that day, I made a very focused effort, and was whizzing along after that. I finished the hat this morning and all is well. It is blocking as I write. Then I immediately cast on for a new attempt at the EZ Baby Surprise Jacket, using Fiesta Yarns Boomerang in the Alaska colorway. A co-worker is due in February and I need to get hopping. So far, I love the colors. Perfect for the new boy baby. Pictures tomorrow.