Kromski Polonaise

I am a blog fader of the WORST kind. I am not a teaching blog, I have nothing interesting to tell the world at large and I am not trying to make a statement of any kind. I just type what I am doing or what is on my mind and I am kind of breaking out of a 10 year, yes.. 10 YEAR.. slump. What a waste of time.

See same complaints, different blog: Conversations with Ancestor's Past

Recently I moved. I moved 9 years ago from my house that I loved and into a crappy apartment that I didn't love. There is the slump marker. I moved from crappy apartment to a nicer place in a very small City that I have always loved going to and actually closer to my workplace than I was. When moving way too much stuff, I made the firm decision that I was downsizing 50 percent of what I own. The recession calls for it.. do I really need all the stuff I own?? (Uhm, yarn/fiber stash is exempt from all downsizing discussions, period. It doesn't count.. this is all my 401yarn plan.) I will confess I decided the spinning had to be downsized and I sorted through all the fiber I have had for 10 years! sitting in boxes and being ignored. All of the fleeces I hand picked and skirted myself then sent off to be processed into pin draft. Moved them twice now and still never been spun. I had 6 huge boxes that I boldly put on Craigslist. (Note: every hair, every fiber is back in their plastic bin with smell good repellent.) I cracked.. I couldn't part with any of it so I did the next best thing. I bought the wheel I have wanted for too many years. A Kromski Polonaise. Couldn't afford it, should NOT have afforded it but I did it... it is now part of that 401yarn plan. *big smile*

I will say that even in a 10 year slump, every first weekend of May I ache for Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I went once, fell in love and every year want to go but why? I fell out of the fiber world, sort of.. knitting is still a struggle, I am not great but I am still doing it! I have never been to Rheinbeck? Why? I live in Rochester NY. Tsk.

So spinning on the new Kromski yesterday, oiling it, aligning it, getting the feel of it as I start to break it in.. I would like to know why that Louet S-90 is so neglected that sits in my living room. Am I back to spinning for the NYS Fair, or Maryland Sheep and Wool? I did pretty well back in the day. Seeing all of the indy dyers out there.. (I have tons of their sock yarn..) I am looking forward to trying their rovings. I am looking forward to being re-introduced to "Dot", the Borderleceister fleece I have three sheerings of and so on...... <~~~ Fiber junkie here, I confess! And so.. beauty.

"Turn Work" - Part 2

So okay, that didn't work either. I do not understand what turn work means in this sock pattern but! I learned how to figure it out and do something I could understand. And, by myself! Of course it took me telling my non-knitting lunch buddies what I was doing and finished with... "Yep, it should work....". They all nodded eagerly and heck is sounded good to me. I ended up knitting a row to get the purl row on the inside of the sock and now my knitting is golden. I have turned the heel. Why is turning the heel so much fun? Is it just fun to knit or you know you are crossing the threshold of being more done with the sock than not? I am contemplating starting the second sock so that by the time I am done with the first one it is just a matter of finishing the second sock, not starting it. /nod

I think I might try this pattern again with a heavier sock weight yarn in the future. I have tricky ankles. I have lymphedema from incompetent valves in my legs. I wear compression stockings by day and am supposed to... yep.. "supposed to" wrap my legs in compression bandages at night. So the swelling in my feet and ankles varies by day and my attention to my leg health. I don't need a drawer full of big "thick ankle" socks but I will need a variety I think.

Back to my sock!

Anatomy Of An Error ~ "Turn Work"

*STRESS!*

That is what knitting errors does to me because I am very new at fixing them. I have been working my current project of Rainbow Lace Socks by Evelyn A. Clark. The cuff went very fast and I found this lace to be easy for me to remember after a few repeats and was knitting along like a pro. Time for the heel. It says... "Turn work; p27 stitches." Hmm... I turned it and looked at it. (You know what I did, don't you?!) Well turning it put the stitch I am supposed to knit on the correct side so there I go starting that heel flap. About 5 rows down, I started looking it. The heel seemed to be wrong side out to me so I studied the picture and looked at the sock, saw where the "right side" was so turned the sock inside out. And the lights came on! I sighed. And I sighed again. So "that" is what "turn work" means. Okay, another damn sigh. Yes, I am one of those knitters that would rather live with her mistakes than fix them. More so, I am afraid to unravel! I have a fear of loosing a stitch and when I do I actually break into a sweat, lol.

So, I figured out how to slide into the prior stitch and pop the tail end out and perfecto, there is my stitch! By the time I unraveled row four, there were 26 stitches instead 27, then suddenly 25. *Panic scream!*

Patiently I studied my stitches. One was very easy to find, the other slid down the line and looked like part of the lace but once I identified it and looped it back up the four undone rows, it looked like it was supposed to be there. YAY! I have this bad feeling that some day I will be proudly wearing my handknit sock and every step I take I will feel another stitch pop as it unravels leaving a trail of yarn behind he. Haha.

Thankfully this was one of those nights where the error was my teacher. I understand "turn work" now. Unraveling doesn't have to be a stressful occasion and variegated yarn can tell you all on its own where the mistake is. I had an extra loose loop. Studying the stitches I saw that there were two pink, one purple and three more pink stitches on my needle. That purple stitch screamed at me "Lady! I do NOT belong with these pink guys! Fix me!" Ah, so easy. *struts, yeah right!* Today, I am a better knitter!

:)

Happy 4th of July!

Ravelry!!!

I will say that every day I have been watching my inbox for my invitation. I read a post somewhere that May 10th had just been added so I popped into Stash and Burns website to see which podcast they spoke about it first, that was when I sent my request for invitation. Every day this week I said... "It HAS to be today!!".

I won the Ravelry lottery yesterday!! Thursday I was in. I logged in to check my mail at work and saw my son had sent pictures of my brand new granddaughter and suddenly I squealed in glee as the next email was my invitation! My co-workers on either side of me thought me nuts when I excitedly exclaimed, "It's here! It's here! I am in Ravelry! Oh yeah and look! Pictures of Natalie too!!!". Bad grandmother, lmao.

I love it, I have cataloged one of my three current projects and I just entered my stash. I see I don't have a very big stash but for me it is a lot to knit for my slow speed of knitting. Now to take pictures of my yarns!

What a nifty community it is, I can't wait to scour it top to bottom. Already I can see it will help me, I feel sort of stalled sometimes unsure what patterns are appropriate for the yarns I have. This I think may help me open the flood gates of a bit more understanding. My mind seems to work like that. I have all this information but unsure what to do with it, then something will click and what I have falls into place with that, "OHHH!! I get it!". Then I start the next level of process.

Ugh!!

My momentum of all my sock knitalongs left me like the rush of air from a deflated balloon! I have not knit on much but my granddaughters baby blanket (she was born June 1st!!). Since my father's passing my attention has been everywhere else. I knit for about 45 minutes a day at lunch during work and that has afforded a snail like progress on this blanket.

The want is there, the energy is not. Everything feels so hard, everything is takes so much effort. Well! There are answers to that. Two months ago I had a physical and blood work. I got a letter in the mail from my doctors office on Saturday with another lab slip. My thyroid test was "borderline normal" does that really mean "borderline abnormal"? So, in July I have to have the testing again. It would explain the incredible fatigue and my brain that just does not want to work.

I am new enough to knitting that I find it hard to get myself started on a project and have two stalled toe-up socks not sure how to proceed with them. I am not sure I understand short rows enough and maybe that is what happens when I get to the heel. I can't seem to figure out how to do the heel the opposite of what little I know cuff down. So with this current fatigue and muddled mind syndrom, well, I tend to just forget it and nap instead of being persistant. This too shall pass??

Projects at the moment... still the baby blanket shown in an older post. It is about 30" now. 14" to go!!

Ohhhh!!! And!!..

Sock Crazy, the best person on this planet today. The L&V PrOn Exchange is long over and wow! I received another package from my exchange pal today. I will snap a picture here to add to this post but omg.. it could not have come on a better day and was a true spirit lifter. I had already been spoiled to the point I would gush over the nifty things she sent to me to receive yet more. I have to say that it seemed most of the participants were great and it was fun to see what everyone was getting by there enthusiastic posts, it was almost like being there to watch them open their packages. The person I spoiled never said if she got her box, I finally had to email her just to make sure I didn't have to go after the shipper for a lost package. She said she got it but she was busy, that I can understand, and that was the last contact.

Thank you Sock Crazy!!!!

Some Catching Up to Do

I will have to get some picture snapping going on here. I have a third of baby blanket knitted for my newest grandchild that will be born on 6/1. Her name is Natalie Lynn. The knitting slowed the last few weeks. I buried a parent this past Tuesday and I am finding this very hard to wrap my head around. I lack the energy to do much and a friend of mine tells me it is normal and to just take the moods as they come and grieve. Well... okay. I don't like it much to be honest. I spoke to my sister today, my mother, she and I seem to be going through the same thing. We thought for sure getting through my father's funeral was the hard part but we are finding that day three after the funeral is harder, and today is harder than yesterday was.

So, I will knit...

I knit at work on my lunch hour. Yesterday I took my knitting out and found that my cat, the evil "little white cat", chewed on my bamboo circular needle. She chewed a rather large divot into the tip. I filed it with an emory board, filled the hole with polish, smoothed it with wax paper. Nothing works, after a bit of knitting it starts to catch again and the tip just may break off soon. So... I stopped at my LYS and bought a new circular needle. Bad Kitty!

On my needles right now:
A toe up sock I can't figure out what to do next.
the baby blanket
sock #2 - Jaywalker

I feel so incomplete, I don't have enough projects started!!! :)

Sock Crazy x 3!

Lets talk about spoiled. My exchange pal, Sock Crazy, has been just the best. Over the course of the time period I have received packages from her. ::Hugs!!::

Today I received a Symphony candy bar!! yum. And two skeins of yarn from Mango Moon. The black is an acrylic/nylon/spandex mix and the other is Viscose, hand spun in Indonesia. I already have an idea for the viscose, it is so colorful!

This exchange has been great fun and thank you so very much Sock Crazy!

Sock Crazy Strikes Again!!

A surprise in the mail today from my secret spoiler. My FIRST Lorna's Laces!!!! And how colorful. I just love it. Also came a spiral bound notebook perfect for my purse and this will be my "official" knitting notebook. And yum!! A Heath bar. My daughter was already eyeing that but I draw the line at Heath!

Thank you!! Thank you, Sock Crazy!! I feel so spoiled.

Passing of the Ice Dragon

So I went to Ice Dragon on Saturday. It is a SCA event that was held at a nearby Barony (Buffalo) of delightful and enthusiastic people. The day started off with this "nor'easter" and for the sake of description, lets just call it a BLIZZARD!! By the time I made it from my apartment to my car, my wool clogs were filled with snow and my salvars (16th century Turkish pants) which are thin and cottony were wet and I was cold. What a horrible drive into Rochester (I live about 20 miles east of) to the carpool meeting place of my friends house but it is amazing how we will travel for our hobbies! :)

Part of this event is an Arts & Sciences competition and it is really quite amazing to see pieces of art and objects of the middle ages recreated (as close as possible) from the research of a topic. There was mead there, wood working, clothing construction, scribal work, food and of course the fiber arts.

For about a year now I have been talking about getting good enough at the scribal arts to be able to do scrolls for the Kingdom and enter such contests but it amazes me how I have overlooked one huge thing. I am good at fiber arts. I have to learn scribal arts. Why am I not researching period dying, spinning and goodness ... Turkish Embroidery!!??? How blind we can be sometimes. For being such a fiber enthusiast I have missed the proverbial boat. Thank goodness I had a life preserver ::smirk::

So now I turn to what I have been good at for years and instead of marveling at the beauty and my love for the craft.. it is time to incorporate my love of history and blend the two together. I know there is history, I have not studied it much so it is time. :)

www.sca.org