Tuesday August 29, 2023

 What I'm knitting ~ 

I have been working on a gray raglan pullover since last fall.  Here are the before and after photos.  It feels so good to be nearly done!  

I'm also knitting a short sleeve little black sweater with some yarn given to me through someone throwing away their mom's yarn after she passed!  I could not let it go to waste.  The gray in the above sweater came from the same place.  The stuff must be 30 years old.  But with a good washing, the yarn is soft and very easy to knit.  

What I'm spinning ~ 

I bought some colorful cotton last year when Buchanan Fibers was going out of business.  It is much easier to spin cotton from a rolag.  Trust me on this. The spindle came from Hipstrings and is by far my favorite spindle for cotton spinning.  

Here is what's being plied from the Malabrigo braid.  It is a joy to spin. 

What I'm reading ~ 

My friend's neighbor recently got rid of boxes of books; here are some of them.  I love to try new authors so I'm enjoying Kathy Reichs' debut novel, "Deja Dead".  Such and easy read and at over 500 pages, it has to be good for me to stick with it! This is where the TV show Bones came from.  

Home & Garden ~ 

We had a fence installed several months ago.  I've dreamed of having a fence since we moved here in 2015.  This has been a game changer!  The yard feels completely different and much more private.  

Fourth of July!

 Hi everyone!  It's been a minute, so let's catch up!  

Here & Now ~

We've been living on the Gulf Coast since 2014 and every so often we comment how much we love living here.  The temps can be hot and sticky in the heat of summer, but let's face it, most people spend their time indoors, except to get out of the car and go inside and vice versa.  Sunday night we went to our town's Independence Day Celebration; I got a gourmet popsicle and DH got a slice of our local pizza parlor's pepperoni pizza. It was so hot (how hot was it??) It was so hot that we left right after! 

Spinning ~

I recently ordered a Malabrigo braid of wool for spinning.  All of it so far has been done on spindles, either Turkish or supported.  It's so portable to grab a little bag with some combed top and a spindle.  I can work on my spinning while watching TV, on a break at work, or riding in the car while hubby drives.  And this particular braid is so beautiful, and easy to spin now that I've loosened it up a bit.  I found it compacted, probably due to storage, but it's spinning up very well now! 

Knitting ~

I had been trying to knit a lace tank with some cotton-linen.  After way too many tries, I let the sweater win.  It was just not fun, and frankly a pain at times.  I threw the whole thing in the trash. :-(  I even burned my hand trying to knit! (JK)

There are a few projects on the needles right now.  One is a tam with lots of fair isle patterning. It is taking forever, probably because the circular needle is not really long enough to handle all the stitches. I'm just too lazy to switch to a longer one. 

  Another project is a small set of gloves. I'm using scraps for them as well and they'll have to go in the "only use in an emergency" basket of woolens. Since I prefer spinning to knitting, there will have to be more knitting projects if I'm ever going to use up my yarn.  By the way, I boldly threw away several balls of yarn recently, just to show everybody who's boss.