Monday, December 28, 2009

Is It Over Yet?

Finally, most of the snow is melted. There are still patches in the shadows, and there are still drifts on the sides of the road. It isn't above freezing temp, so nothing is going to go away easily.
I have been busily keeping the bird feeders filled, and trying to keep some water for them. It is difficult since the water freezes pretty quickly.

I think all the holiday hoopla has died down. I'm not sure since I have only left the house once since Christmas Eve. I decided to spend the time indoors doing my chores and spinning. I downloaded an audible book from NetLibrary, and away we go. I finished the alpaca I had started some time back, and it is waiting until I can get the blocker out of the frozen tundra. I am plying the pretty blue/green/turquoise merino that I purchased in Tacoma last Feb. It is going rather quickly. Then I have to decide if I want to finish the yak/merino, or do I finish the blue/green/turquoise merino. Hmm! I am also going to tackle the baby camel/merino blend pretty soon. I keep looking at it, and I pet it when I get close.

I am knitting a pair of socks with Zauberball. I have never used this yarn before. It was a gift from CF when she went to Philadelphia. I thought I wouldn't like the colorway, but it is amazing. It blends into the next color and so it is not a true stripe. I guess you could say it is a blended stripe. But what I found out is that it smells wonderful. Yes, I am a yarn sniffer. But this has a wonderful scent that is not a familiar scent. I felt it was a little bit scratchy at first, but I love the way it slides on the needles.

I am almost finished with the second glove. The second glove is too big in the hand. ??? I am guessing the ball that I am using is a bigger gauge than the first one. I guess you are really supposed to only use one yarn size when you knit gloves, but I just grabbed these leftovers. Sigh! So it isn't going to be perfect, only better than those awful gray ones. I have a yarn in my sock basket that I think would be wonderful gloves. So those will be destined to be fitted gloves.

Weaving is not progressing very much. I can't get too excited about this project I am planning. It just seems tedious. I am going to make myself finish warping the loom, and just get on with it.

I also never finished my sewing before Christmas. I need to take my machine into the shop to be serviced, and I wanted to finish this sewing first. I checked with the store, and they are backed up until after the first on the year. So I am not in any big hurry.

So I guess spinning is back to being my first priority right now.

I am not a resolutions kind of person. I decide what I would like to do in the next year, and then I either do it or I don't. That sounds rather weird, I guess, when I write it out. I did lose weight last year, and I did do more Fair Isle and charted knitting. My challenge this winter was to learn to knit full gloves. Which I have done already. Well, at least I have mastered the idea and technique of gloves. Now to actually knit a pair that look and fit correctly. I am also going to keep on knitting socks. I love to knit socks. I would like to get most of my spinning stash cleared out this next year. Whew! That'll be a chore. I am not going to go hog wild and buy any more fiber until I get this stash knocked down. Well.... unless someone were to show me some milk, bamboo, or other exotic stuff. I also would like to set up an indigo vat when it is warmer-maybe in the late Spring. I am looking for more blues in my dye stash. I guess I am just going to continue to challenge myself in the knitting department. And maybe I can do more weaving. And more sewing. Hmmm! All I can really count on is that change always happens. I can always count on change. Nothing stays the same-thank goodness. That's part of the challenge.

So I hope you and yours have a blessed 2010. Maybe I will think up some more ideas this week.

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