"Winter Sea" scarf c'èst finis!

I can't believe it - it's done! Xxxxxxxxx's Morning Surf Scarf (fourth one, for Pete's sake) is completely, totally done. Apparently, I'm almost as bad as the Harlot when it comes to obsessing about a specific pattern. Even blocking the fringe is done (body got blocked first b'c I didn't know how to do the fringe the way I wanted to - I figured I'd better finish what I could). I can't say who it's for (don't know if she reads the blog or not), so mum's the word for now. I hope she really, really likes it!

However, I can describe it (as if I haven't in a previous post - ha!). The moment I saw the fiber on Leah's Yarn Or A Tale site - I KNEW it was meant for X. They were her colors (mostly much paler than those colored words) and not anyone else's I knew. On impulse, I bought the only bag Leah had left, and it was a mere 4 oz. Hmmm - I wasn't sure what I could get from that, because it wasn't suitable for socks, being merino and short, cut silk fibers. Wouldn't hold together well enough for socks, I knew.

I could hear that lonely bag of fiber calling my name for months after I bought it, but I had so many other carding and spinning projects, I just shut my ears to its' plaintive cries. It would not be ignored, so in early December (I think!) I took it out of its' dark and (very crammed) drawer and began spinning it into a fairly thick single, wondering what it would become. I couldn't decide between two scarf patterns, both of which I loved, so I decided to knit a bit of both (see agonized odyssey).

Once I decided it had to be the Morning Surf pattern, I quickly knit it up, switching from one ball of color to the other (okay - so I was being picky - it was a gift!), trying to keep the integrity of the color changes intact. Fourteen freakin' ends later....

Anyway - I knew I wanted something special for the ends of this special scarf. All my other scarves, I just left 'as is' after casting off, but not this baby! So, I thunk and I thunk. For 3 days (at least) my brain overheated as I fingered the small leftover balls and pored over many books, mentally looking at - and discarding - everything I saw. Nothing 'fit' this scarf.

Then...it hit me: just make some simple, varied-length, twisted fringe and hang shells 'n' crap off it! Eureka! It would be simple, in keeping with the scarf's design and whole theme-thing going on: the Sea! So...whaddya think?

Ravelry's power is down - oh, my!

Well, phooey! I'm finally remembering to get onto Ravelry more than once every 2 months (literally), and look what happens: they lose power, or something. I hope everything's okay - I've not heard that there were any major storms this week - wonder what's going on?

SO - I'm here to brag report that the Winter's End Morning Surf Scarf is about 95% done. It's blocking right now, on towels on the bedroom floor. It's so cold back there it'll probably take forever to dry. Better that than the dogs ripping it to shreds, or tromping on it, though. Now all I have to do is the special fringe I'm planning (and hoping it turns out really well).

I've taken my green Golden Lace socks (designer Jeanie Townsend) out of hibernation - it's been well over a year since I started on them and put them away to obsess about learn how to spin. For the socks, I'm using Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino yarn in solids (my favorite). I think the name is "Pesto" for the shade of green I've got. It's certainly not Lime or Loden (which I've also got stashed. Well, no. Lime's all used up - rats!). They're lovely, but I've already made a couple of mistakes and had to tink ('knit' spelled backwards) what I did. Gee whiz - the pattern's not that hard! No, I haven't got a picture of the green ones yet, but will try to get one posted sometime this week. In the meantime, here's a pic of my dd's Golden Lace socks in turquoise, knitted with (what else?!) CTH Supersock, also.

I've been a tad busy, otherwise...

with a stupid virus. My computer's been sneezing, coughing and groaning for a week or longer, and now I know why! I'm just hoping it wasn't a keylogger-Trojan (is there such a thing??) - but it was certainly a Trojan, darn it. Can't remember the name and I can't imagine how it got on my computer considering I have every virus protection/firewall known to man! And they all work together very, very well. Until they encountered an irresistible force...

MY TEENAGE SON.

Of course, no one reading this could imagine what I mean by that...not at all. A foreign concept to most, I would imagine.

:::coff, choke:::

I've had to change all my passwords and cancel my debit card. Still need to go get another one, or I won't be able to buy squat online (no credit card, which is usually a blessing, right?!). All in all, it took me a mere 8 or 9 hours to - hopefully - get things straightened out. Heaven help that boy if I have to lose any more knitting and spinning time! Not to mention, I was supposed to be making more stitch markers for the store that evening. Now that we've started schooling back up - there IS no real time to devote to my relaxing, better-than-Prozac obse hobby.

Oh - I nearly forgot to make another brag (a small one). Ravelry asked me if they could use my photo example of the Golden Lace socks! Apparently, no one had entered a Project using that sock pattern, so ... no photo for anyone to see what it really looked like. That's sad; Jeanie is a very talented designer, long past-due for more public recognition. She has her devoted followers (like myself) who eagerly await the next pattern, but more people ought to know about them! She's good - really good - and picky about how well her patterns are written and work up.

Entrelac (garterlac) Scarf done!

Well - it's been simply ages since I posted. The days have just whizzed by. I got this scarf done 2 days before Christmas and got it to its recipient - and forgot to take pictures. As usual!


















The fiber is Falkland from Laughing Rat Studios (thanks, Jenn!)











and the pattern is from Suzanne Pufpaff of Pufpaff Fiber Mill.

She has some really interesting patterns and I wanted to try her simplest one as I'd never in my life done entrelac. It was a weird experience, but I'm so glad I persevered! I changed her pattern quite a bit (mostly making it narrower), but it still looks much the same as her original one. I used size 6 needles (4mm) - and they were the totally cool Kollage square circular needles. WONDERFUL needles!

The biggest changes I made to the pattern was that I only knitted the leaves up to 30 stitches wide, and I changed the entrelac "rectangles" to squares by using garter instead of stockinette. Then, for the number of stitches in the squares, I kept them at just 8 stitches wide, rather than increasing them up to 10 or 11, as the pattern called for. But other 'n' that - it's just the same!

The Most Obnoxious Handspun Yarn...

in all History is now being made into an eye-popping version of the Morning Surf Scarf (my 3rd version!) for my daughter. It's being knitted from one of my earliest attempts at dye-your-own Merino top. SHE thinks it's "awesome". I get headaches just from looking at it. I need sunglasses. It's nearly twice as bright as the photos show:










I'm almost done with my second Morning Surf Scarf. Too bad I didn't spin up enough yarn :-(. I would've if I'd had more fiber, but I'll just have to treat this as a neck-tucker scarf. Darn! Scarves take up more yarn than you might think!

More Eunny Jang! Totally Tubular Cast-On

I love being able to embed these cool YouTube vids onto my blog. Isn't it great? Interweave's Eunny Jang (Knitting Daily) does it again: a super-handy Tubular Cast-On video. I'll bet you've probably always wanted to know how to do it, but never got around to looking it up. It's a very easy-peasy cast-on (otherwise, I'd never have bothered doing one - ever!). Enjoy!



Yes, I am still spinning, but I have had SO little time to indulge in that most-loved pastime. I'm also knitting up that "Morning Surf" scarf again using more of my hand-spun. It's that bumpity, slubby, 50 silk/50 Merino green stuff that kept insisting (in all the photos) that it was BLUE. Well. It's still green.

Morning Surf Scarf

Okay, so I finally located the camera. It was buried under a bunch of junk on the dining table :-/ No, I haven't seen the surface in awhile. The camera was about half-way down through the rubble layer...

I sure wish I knew how to take really good pictures. Because I don't, you can't see the really pretty color gradations in the yarn. There's a heart-breakingly beautiful Montana blue in there, shading from light to dark. I usually don't like blue, but I love this blue. I kept wishing there was a lot of more of it, but mostly I have greens and purples - and they're pretty, too.

Anyway, this scarf was fun to make - and oh, so easy! I used a triple-twist cast-on, which gives a picot-like edge that is very stretchy. Perhaps too stretchy, but that's okay. I haven't blocked it yet, so I'll do that to straighten out the edges.

What's that cast-on, you ask? Oh - well, all you do is make a regular slip knot, leaving a small tail. Then, holding your needle in your left hand, twist the ball yarn 2 or 3 times around your index finger and mount the loop of yarn (over your finger) onto the needle! For a double twist, it's no problem to pull the yarn evenly and tightly. Unfortunately, this Finn really stuck to itself. As I was using a 3-twist loop cast-on, I had to pull very carefully to keep the twists from 'jumping over' each other and making a mess instead of a cute 'picot' bump. But, the extra bit of effort was worth it.

I then used a simple 2-stitch picot cast-off, which matched close enough, imo. I could have done a sewn bind-off - which I usually love doing - and just knotted the yarn around each stitch being cast-off, but I got lazy and eager to wear the thing! Oh, well. It's just a scarf, and it's not like I'm going to enter it into the County Fair or anything.

I really, really like this scarf! As I was finishing it, it occurred to me that I had never made anything for myself with my handspun yarns! I've hardly made anything with my own yarns, come to think of it. A hat for hubby, is all - I think. Most every yarn I've ever made, I sold or gave as gifts.

My deepest dream (a paeon to spinning)...

in my own little Fantasie Worlde is to be a...

Master Spinner.

(can you hear the harps and Angelic choir in the background?)

I can't believe how badly I want it. I want to learn everything there is to learn about spinning, about texture, about color, about...well, Everything Spinning! I would give SO much to be able to go to SOAR (Spin-Off Autumn Retreat) and take all those wonderful, awesome Workshops and Retreat Sessions, given by wonderful, awesome teachers! I'd be in 7th Heaven; I really would.

That would be by way of learning mostly Specialty Stuff in Spinning, with my "meat" being able to go to the Ontario Handweavers & Spinners (it's a Spinning Certificate Program) for the yearly almost-2-week Summer sessions. It can take 6 years to get through it all, with there being spinning assignments (O Heaven!) the rest of the year. A DREAM, to me!

What would I do with all that knowledge? LOVE IT! USE IT! TEACH IT! I would teach others to love the whole process of spinning yarns; to love the feel of all different sorts of fibers slipping through their fingers; to love yarns for their own sake; to love the end-use of their yarns, whether for knitting, weaving, crocheting, fiber art...whatever!

I would wish for my students to find what I have found: a lovely, peaceful, soul-soothing and actively creative process - very important, that. Some like to describe spinning as the 'new zen', the 'new yoga' (naw), or as being 'better than Prozac' (that's my favorite - lol), BUT...it's ever so much more than either of those things. Sooo much more.

Spinning is certainly soothing. Peaceful. Quieting to the soul. Harmonious and centering, very balancing. At times, far better than a mere chemical anti-depressant.

But what removes it from the realm of the merely peaceful and soothing, (not that those should be denigrated)? After all, wine and a warm bath can achieve that, as well. So...'what' is it? Two words (okay, 3):

(the) CREATIVE PROCESS!

The Creative Process does ... something ... for people who indulge in it. For me, it feeds my soul, releases anxieties, gets me 'outside' myself and into something more interesting than my bummed self. It 'grows' me, somehow. Don't ask - I can't figger it out, either. It just does. I feel as if I can b-r-e-a-t-h-e, move and think more easily. And - if my powers of observation are anywhere near accurate, I've noticed that it seems to do the same for others. When people are creating - no matter what it is - they are...happier...easier. More comfortable in their own skins, maybe.

SO...if at any time, someone can use the creative process to off-set (or even prevent?) depression from getting a toe-hold, or becoming worse - they should immerse themselves! Heck, even if they aren't depressed, dive in anyway!

Well, that's all the time I have for musings. I need to go do some more Creative Processing Stuff. Like...finishing my Morning Surf Scarf! LOL I'm almost half-done, and I'm really loving the...er, 'creative process', so I want to get back to it for awhile before I pick up the Dear Daughter Family Unit from work.

Morning Surf Scarf

is about 1/4th done! I got the pattern from the Summer '08 Spin-Off magazine. The designer is Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer of Heart Strings Fiber Arts. I didn't realize it, but she offers the same pattern for free if you sign up for her HeartStrings Knitterly News email newsletter! She has GREAT patterns! One day...I will own them all. LOL Anyway, here's my progress so far, fuzzy shots and all:










I started it last night, using sz 7's, but decided I wanted a slightly tighter knit, so frogged and went down to a six. Went to bed late and was awakened at 2:50 a.m. by *someone* dinging the doorbell! Scared the dickens out of dd and I, while the MENFOLK snored their oblivious heads off. I made hubby get out of bed and "do something!" We figure it was probably some real jerk teenagers who live in the area. Little nerd-heads.

Finn top c'est finis!

Remember the hand-dyed Finn top in the "Hyacinth" colorway from Laughing Rat Studios (Jenn)? I didn't ask her if I could use her photo of the unspun top, so the link only goes to what I'd done up on my own bobbin. That's what I get for not taking pics before spinning! Well, here it is, all 390+ yards spun up. I was trying to spin 2 thicker singles to get a light worsted weight. Unfortunately, it's more like heavy sock yarn, dang it. I want to make the Morning Surf Scarf from Spin-Off magazine. Sure hope there's enough yarn, b'c I haven't got a clue how much it calls for! I don't want some skinny, wimpy thing that only looks decorative. It's gotta at least be semi-warm!