Shiver Me Timbers

I just shivered.  I mean it.  Just now, I literally shivered, and you wanna know why?  Because I just cut through a small piece of knitted fabric on purpose!! Yikes!  I just STEEKED!
Okay, if you're not familiar with the term "steek" or why that would make me shiver, then let me back up and explain a couple of things.

First, the term steek, in knitting means to cut through a portion of knitting just like you were cutting through fabric.  It is intentional, and meant to achieve what the definition implies - to pierce and enclose. 

Second, the reason for my shiver was that I have made a New Years Resolution to learn how to steek, and yup, I just did it! I am so proud of myself.  I got that same feeling in my sock knitting class in Asheville when I completed a little sock ornament.  You probably got that feeling the first time you rode a bike or learned to drive a stick shift.  Small for others, but BIG for you!

So tonight, I started this project by locating a pattern and two colors of thread for the sample.

fair isle patterns with light and dark yarn

Then I cast on the specified 25 stitches for the pattern, plus 5 stitches for the steek, or 30 total stitches. 
I knit in the round following the pattern and on the 5 steek stitches, knit one light, one dark etc. to make 5 little vertical stripes.  The Center Stripe will be cut like unzipping a zipper. Right down the middle. 

Fair isle sample with steek stripes

The center light stripe is the zipper

The last step involves crocheting up, then down, either side of the zipper stripe, pulling the stitches apart. 

Crochet down from cast off edge

And crochet up from cast on edge

Cutting in the ditch

Do you see the ladder stitches?  Like teeth between purple lips!

Finally is the actual cutting of the fabric, and like I said, I literally shivered! Wow, what a cool feeling!

Starting to cut was scary!

Its Done! Like a teeny, tiny sweater!

I must give credit to Elizabeth Zimmermann who always gives me confidence.  That's what she's known for. Encouraging knitters for generations to jump in and face your fears.

 Just DO the thing that scares you to death, and you'll be surprised when its over, how little there was to be afraid of! I also must give credit to this amazing website, for showing in steps how to do everything from start to finish.  Woo hoo!!!!!!  I did it! 

Making Memories

PERSONAL
Another good weekend under the belt - in spite of the chilly weather!  Friday afternoon the kids arrived and we headed to McKay, which is a used book/music store.  You can bring in books and music for a store credit or cash, which makes this a great place for college students and starving musicians to shop.
I picked up a couple of biographies about Anne Lindbergh and a novel, as well as a few children's books.  Super cheap! 

We were supposed to go to Cheekwood Botanical, but it was just too cold.  After the bookstore we hit a few shops nearby and then headed home.  My brother in law and niece  (out of town) got to our house in time for supper. He and my husband are wrapping up things from the sale of my FIL's house, regarding taxes.  So glad that's all been done!  Seems like there's always something more when you're dealing with the tax man.  Exhale.
All ten (okay 9.5) of us had breakfast at my daughter's condo on Saturday morning.  Walking into someone else' house to the smell of frying bacon is one of the best experiences in the world.  Oh my word.  Juice, coffee, cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, eggs and bacon.  Holy smoke, it was good!
And all weekend long I was taking home movies with this:

A gift I got for my birthday in 2009. I don't use it often, but am making a real effort to take videos and use my movie program on the computer. 

KNITTING
With both pairs of footie socks done, and only the ripple blanket on the needles, I am ready to start a new knitting project.  That is absolutely delicious for a knitter.  I have yarn coming out my ears and patterns galore.  The internet, and Ravelry in particular, show no signs of stopping where free patterns are concerned.  I'm telling you, the sky's the limit!  I am inching toward the 2013 goal of learning to steek.  Probably I'll just start with a small sampler or two till I get the hand of it.

SPINNING
There's a lot of carding left to do in the garage, but it looks completely doable.  I fully expect to complete the carding of all wool by the start of summer, and hope to spin everything I own by the end of the year.

Bears and Butterflies

Well, I've been a little social butterfly this week!  On Monday I met with a friend who's learning to crochet.  She had some instructions for a variation of a granny square baby afghan worked on a large crochet hook with thick, bulky chenille yarn.  She had ripped everything out a few times and was ready to try once more.
After a bit, she began to crochet like a soldier doing a rifle drill.  Determined, steady and very rapid for a beginner - she got through a few rounds while we sat together, and by the next day, had finished the baby blanket!! Good show!  Atta girl!  I could not have been prouder, and am super excited to have another stitcher walking the streets!

Roslyn's baby blanket

KNITTING
Yesterday we had to run some errands and I grabbed this silly little sock to work on in the back seat of the car.  It has been mindless knitting - moving down the foot in 1x1 ribbing.  (Knit 1 Purl 1)

Lavender footie socks!!

Will do the kitchener stitch toe tonight and break the yarn. Looking soooooooooooooo forward to my next project.  I worked on it a heck of a lot last night while watching Breaking Bad on Netflix.  Oh. My. Word. Gritty and edgy, full of scary, violent moments.  This is the kind of show that will make you afraid of even smelling drugs, let alone trying them or hanging out with anyone who does them. What a dangerous world it is to mess with dope. Yikes.

SPINNING
I finished another skein of the watermelon roving, this time plying a little differently so that the colors mingled and the whites held together at times.  Pretty in a different kind of way.

Watermelon Roving spun/ 2 Ply

And I can't remember if I shared the wool I dyed last week. Sun Yellow and Blue.  Great primary colors for blending and I carded enough now for simple spinning.  I could comb either batch and have a very upscale yarn.  Good stuff!

Blue and Sunny Yellow dyed wool

READING
I've started a new audio book by Louise Penny called Beautiful Mystery, and I'm working on my lone paperback, Defending Jacob.  Both are well written and recommended! 

PERSONAL
Today I went to get a haircut and my hairdresser suggested we grab some lunch!  Was I up for it?  Is the Pope Catholic?  Do bears potty in the woods?  YES!  And as a result of this meal of fortune, we decided on a time to meet for a craft night next month.  Extra woo-hoos all around.  Crafters are coming out of the woods, maybe because of the bears going potty... 

March Winds!

PERSONAL
The weather this week has gone full tilt from sunny, warm and inviting to windy, chilly and angry. Wow!  March winds today for sure!

MARCH Winds!

I had a wonderful weekend, starting Friday when my husband took me out to eat at a local sandwich place, then to a large mall nearby for a leisurely walk. Very nice day, but we didn't want to come home yet, so we stopped at a Mexican restaurant in the mall and grabbed an appetizer and a glass of tea.  Such a nice day and plenty to look forward to on Saturday morning.  Babysitting our granddaughter while her folks helped some friends move into their new house. 

I brought this spinning along to pass the time while our little girl slept.  The colors are so beautiful, and since green is my favorite color, it kept me interested, wanting to keep spinning more and more.  I love when projects do that!

Hand-Painted Bamboo Roving

I love when you get so into something so good, and you just don't want to stop.  Some things in life have to be endured, but the fun ones are as good as gold!
 Today I'm heading out into the weather to teach an old friend how to crochet!  Now this will be one of those golden occasions.
Yesterday was also gold; family all over for Sunday dinner - ham, black-eyed peas and yeast rolls! Photo shoot amongst the flowers and making plans for more of the same!

KNITTING
I've taken this with me a few times lately, but mostly I'm just enduring the last bit of knitting.

ARE WE THERE YET?

Its a soft and pretty sock, but I'm frankly tired of it now.  Ready to be done and ready to start something new.... my short attention span is showing!

GARDENING
A few weeks back I planted seeds for all kinds of greens in the back yard, right before I left on my trip to NC. Kale, Collards, Spinach, Turnips and Lettuce!

Spinach for my guns!

Itsy Bitsy lettuce leaves

the last few turnip seeds tossed at the end of the row

Lettuce sprouts!

 With all the warm weather we've had, they've already sprouted and given me hope for the months ahead! 

SPINNING
Spinning the Watermelon Wool has been interesting and a learning adventure for me - not having a real true creative bone in my body.  I'm not good with color and I just spun this stuff in regular sequence, rather than haphazard.   But it worked out well. 
You can see, the color sequence was melon, white, green, white, repeat.

Watermelon Watermelon

First little skein of the watermelon (looks too orange in this pic!)

I thought there might be some sections where the melon and green would mix, but the white between every color prevented that!  It still looks good though. Can't wait to swatch it and show you how it looks!

I'm sorry, I wasn't listening

READING
If you've been trying to get my attention lately, I may not have heard you.  For the last couple of days I've been listening to another audio book, only this time, I got it from my local library.  While I have an Audible account, I only get one book per month and it will be another week before I get another credit.  My county library system has a method for checking out audio books online and downloading them to your iPod.  I've used the system with my Kindle and with my PC, but this time I'm ultra-portable and flying through yet another book (in my back pocket).

 This book is called Still Life by Louise Penny, and is the first in her Inspector Gamache series.  She is such a good writer, and I am consistently pausing the story to jot down a memorable quote.  Now that's good writing!

KNITTING
The little Walnut Socks are done and have already been worn and thrown into the dirty clothes hamper!  I sit at my desk with cold feet half the time, wishing I had some warm footies to wear.  Now I'm determined to keep a little drawer full of hand knit socks just for that purpose, right close to my desk.  Of course, by the time the weather warms up will be about the time I get around to gathering up a slew of those warms socks. 
Its the thought that counts, right?

Handspun, Handknitted Walnut Footies

SPINNING
My garage is the perfect place lately for carding, with the temps rising above 50 degrees daily.  Today I even left the garage door open for a bit so that I could card with fresh air, even though I had my little heater on.
I try to get all my chores done (the ones I plan on anyway) in the early part of the day so that I can eat some lunch and spend a little time on my hobbies in the early afternoon.  I also dyed some wool today while I was in the garage carding.  I'll post pics of that soon, but right now its drying.
The carding has been prep work for the dyeing, so I can't really post pics of that either. Dang.
This evening though, instead of working on the sea waves throw, I sat down for a bit with my Kromski and spun a watermelon-looking combo of wool roving.

The green is very much like watermelon rind, and makes my mouth water even when I type it.  And the red is the exact color of the watermelon Bubble Yum gum I used to chew back in the day. (My dentist thanks you, Bubble Yum!)

 PERSONAL
This is the part of the blog where I usually wax philosophical, get deep or even sarcastic.  I wish I were like my husband, who is a professional writer. He's deep and has lots of meaning when he writes.   I am an ordinary person with deep convictions, but very shallow motivations when it comes to writing.  I either like something and write about it, or don't bring it up at all.
However, in this case, I'm going to say something a bit more controversial.  Yes, you know what's coming.  I'm going to talk about television.  Now you may not be a person who watches TV, and I'm sure you've guessed by now that I watch television every day.  And I'm willing to watch, or at least try to watch most programs within reason.  But tonight, I said goodbye to a show I've been watching lately that just crossed the line.  I hate when that happens.  I hate when I've purposely chosen to be open minded and give the benefit of the doubt to something that just flat out lets me down.  C'mon TV show producers! REALLY?  Are we that bad off, that you have to make shows that are so, so pitiful?  Can we just try to take it up a notch?
I realize that Americans have a reputation for putting up with a lot of junk, but even I'm putting my foot down tonight.  Tonight I'm done with a show that started off great, but somehow veered off the road into nowhere-land.  I guess I'd rather not watch television if that's what its come to. Sorry Charlie!

Raise the Flag

If ever there was a time of year to fly a flag, to me, its the time of year when we get back an hour of daylight that some Bozo took from us last fall. Here's to the extra hour of daylight tomorrow!  Woo hoo!!!

SPINNING
Today was beautiful and I spent a long time in the garage.  Its usually super cold in the garage, but today was partly sunny (whatever that means) and I took full advantage of the mild weather.  I dyed wool and carded wool.  Yes!

Carded natural gray roving with my new button DIZ

Pile O' Shamrock Green roving/batts

Here's some wool dyed with dye that I bought in NC last week.  I was going for more of a yellow-green but I seem to have more green than yellow. I'm a novice at dyeing and I did not take into account that the green would overpower the yellow.  Colors can do that, and people can too.  The strong ones sometimes overdo it when you wish you could hear/see more of the lighter ones!

I am finished with the gun metal blue roving. Here's the last of it spun on my new Bosworth spindle.  The other two skeins were plied on the wheel and that taupe hank in the middle is the cashmere from several weeks ago.  Still looking good, sittin' in the wicker basket like a diva.

Gun Metal Blue spindle spun Angora/Wool yarn

READING
The audio book is done, and I am glad.  An audio book about hallucinations keeps you looking over your shoulder a lot, if you know what I mean.  I'm already a jumpy sort of person, and the constant thought of invisible mind tricks can make you a little paranoid!

KNITTING

Second Walnut Sock Footie almost finished!

The Walnut Socks are just about done - doing the toe decreases this evening while watching Breaking Bad on Netflix.  (If you dare watch it, be prepared.)
These little footie socks are so fun and the ribbing around the foot make it go fast and keeps it interesting. I'm clicking the box that says LIKE.  They need to be washed and blocked for a better look, cause right now they look a little rumpled.

PERSONAL
We watched a dvd last night that my son loaned us, called The Big Year.  Its about three guys who are birders or birdwatchers and they are competing for the most sightings in a single year.  Its a really cute movie and especially good if you're the type to keep bird feeders in your yard. 
I took several pictures today of birds that live in my neighborhood and I'll leave them with you till next time!

Robin next door

Nuthatch? Warbler?

Robin looking for worms

Mourning dove early this morning

Wren, maybe?

Another dove

This, that and the other thing

Lake Lure NC

This past weekend, my husband and I took a trip to the mountains of western North Carolina, where we used to live.  I was extremely excited to go, because it meant a trip to Asheville to my favorite fiber store, Earth Guild.
My husband and our friend Gary write songs together, and have done so for many years.  Their partnership has landed a platinum record, and many years of supplemental income. In the last several years they have worked together to write an album full of songs which they recorded.

Jamie and Gary leading worship

This weekend they performed the songs, and a few others at a couple of churches in NC.  It was a sweet weekend seeing old friends and enjoying some of the most beautiful scenery in the nation, the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Balcony view of Bald Mountain

Saturday was my day to go to Earth Guild in Asheville, with my dear friends Midge and Gary's wife Debra.
Midge always makes me feel like I'm fifteen, whenever I'm around her.  She's the kind of girl who says what's on her mind, and makes me do the same thing, whether I mean to or not. Lovely Debra got caught up in the whirlwind of girl-talk, telling a whopper of a story that I'd never heard before. I really didn't believe it until her husband, Gary confirmed the story.   Midge, Debra and I walked the streets and enjoyed the light snow, smiling, laughing, and snapping pictures. 

Bamboo Fiber

I bought the dye I expected to buy at the fiber store, as well as a bobbin for my spinning wheel, some bamboo fiber, a diz, and elastic thread for sock knitting reinforcement.

 A lady who does all the fiber dyeing for the store offered me an assortment of jars to use for mixing colors.  I wish I knew her name to thank her - what a sweet and generous gift. And Midge bought a DVD on how to knit, and some yarn to get started!! Woo hoo, I multiplied myself!  Debra's also a knitter and she picked up some novelty yarn and origami paper for her grandson.

Debra and Midge in front of Mayfel's

We ate lunch at a place called Mayfel's where I had the grilled cheese. Yum. And I found another yarn store as we were walking back to the parking garage!

Purls Emporium

I listened to quite a bit more of my audio book, and knitted on the second little walnut sock. Its almost done and I will jump right in on the second purple sock as soon as I'm finished.   Socks go slow, and I'm remembering why I don't knit socks more.  They just take so darned long!