Rambling
Ahhh. Halloween is over & that means it’s hibernation time. I’d be pretty much content to sit in near isolation and read, spin, knit, read some more, spin some more, and wonder what the hell to do with the yarn now… (oh, wait — when all else fails, I can send it to
Last night I ripped out a wrap I made last summer that was made from yarn I spun of wool in a dusty rose color & unbleached soy silk. It was too wide & not long enough. Now I know how wide I actually want it, and I got that started while M1 was doing her math & spelling homework. Tonight I finally got the last of the real silk plied with a green & mixed color merino/silk blend off the wheel & set — 330 yards, plus another… 180? yards that I spun last spring. Of course, of five skeins I have lying around now, only two of them aren’t blended with silk/soy-silk. And of course I just bought a felting book. I’m pretty darn sure that silk does not felt. I still have the fluffy cloud stuff left to spin. I don’t know if I’m going to blend it, or leave the white & the mixed teal separate… the teal is really pretty not mixed & I’m done with the baby hat… but I don’t know if I have enough of either on their own to make anything with… I guess maybe if I don’t I can use them as accents. It’s dangerously near time for me to visit Weaving Works. I need more stuff to spin. Especially since I have some small projects that I’d like to work on as Xmas gifts. One at least anyway. I think. Mostly I just really need a fiber fix.
My latest knitting annoyance is that I can’t look at any given pattern and know how much yarn I need for it because most patterns, regardless of how much yarn you need, makes sure you have more than enough of each color by listing the exact brand & how many skeins you need of each. Um. It’s really great that the hat requires over 600 yards of yarn because the pattern has three different colors, but that doesn’t really help me because I’m not interested in buying the freaking yarn. Funny spinner stuff. It is funny. I started out by doing a bunch of crocheting, but now I’m all about the pointy knitting needles. I think it must be because my people are primarily knitters when playing with needles. < note to self: next time you go see your parents, ask Mom about the loom, since I'm done gradumacated now... not, I guess, that I really have room for it, although... I might have an idea for where it could go... maybe... > Other than that, knitting is entertaining. I should see how much of the grey stuff I originally spun & maybe rip that project out & use that for knitting then felting M2 slippers. Of the five skeins I have lying around now, three of them are merino-silk blends, and one of them is of the softest merino & it would be a sore pity to felt it…
And reading. I miss browsing in small- or medium-sized bookstores. I never much liked browsing in libraries — I don’t know why. Maybe *too* organized for serendipity to really play as much of a part as I’d like. There’s also the matter that what I want is inevitably checked out so if I’m going to use the library, I may as well just request it & have them let me know when it’s in… I also don’t really like browsing big bookstores either. I get frustrated when I go to sections in them that ought to have certain content which are found lacking. Part of what I miss is wandering aimlessly without children yapping at my heels, and I miss picking up a book flipping through the pages & deciding whether or not this is going to be a book I bring home with me. Reading the reviews at Amazon is distinctly not the same. Sometimes I want it to be between me and the book without any intermediaries. But I rarely have the time/space to access dead tree materials that way, so I make due with my other options. I’m thankful for my other options in accessing books for a variety of other reasons, but I miss the visceral book-shopping experience.
Having taken care of my spinning responsibilities, starting a new knitting project, it must now be time for me to go recline into a hot, bubbly bath with one of my new fiber-related books. I am doing a dismal job with my time-change resolution to get to bed earlier so I can get up earlier and actually accomplish something in the morning.
Hibernation. This is mama-bear lumbering off to the bath…