Rock Day, 2012

I am attempting to fire up the blog again and what better way than to tell you about all the fun we had on Rock Day, January 7.  This is our first customer of the day with her drop spindle!
Rock Day, otherwise known as St. Distaff's Day is the day after Epiphany and was traditionally the day that spinners in Europe took up their spindles again after the Christmas holiday.  In the last few year, spinners have adopted January 7 as a holiday to celebrate our craft.
It has taken me a few years to get on the bandwagon, but this year I put it on the calendar and I hope to make it an annual event.

We had beginner spinning lessons throughout the day.

I was so excited about the kids that came out!

These two are going to be fine spinners!

                                                     

I demonstrated the wheel while others brought their own.

And others got to try a wheel for the first time!

We even made drop spindles out of random things.

FYI, a bamboo skewer stuck through either a fingerling potato or a radish makes a really slick drop spindle but a brussel sprout doesn't work as well.  Too leafy and not solid enough, I guess.

All in all, we had a great day and will definitely be celebrating again next year.

There Hasn't Been Much Going On

I just looked at the date of my last post and it's been over a month!  I think that's a reflection of two things.  One is that my knitting hasn't been that interesting, just a progression of stockinette stitch socks.  The other is that the shop is starting to get busier so I have less free time.
I'm still in sock land.  I'm getting ready to mail my cousin's wife a tape measure in hopes that she will finally get back to me with some measurements so I can start his vest.  Meanwhile, I've done my Christmas knitting list.  It's not as extensive as last year's but I still need to hit it hard.  The first things I need to complete are the things for my friends Andrzej and Kathy.  They live in Hong Kong and it's going to take about a month for their presents to get there.  I'm making Andrzej a pair of grey socks (sad face).  Andrzej used to be the guy I could count on to wear any kooky, colorful pair of socks I made him.  Now that he's in Hong Kong, he's teaching at a temple where the guilding teacher wants everyone to dress in monastic clothing.  He's had to put away all his fun socks in favor of white and grey.  So, I'm knitting him a pair he can actually wear.  I had some left over grey alpaca from a scarf I knit for a monk friend of mine last year so I'm going to knit Kathy a lace scarf with that.  That, at least, should be fun and she'll be able to wear it at the temple.  I think I'm going to use the Fiber Trends Estonian Flowers pattern.
In addition to those gifts, I've got another vest, eight pairs of socks, several hats, a neckwarmer, a baby sweater and another sweater for my sister (she promised to pick an actual color this time).  It's a big list but I'm pretty sure I can get it all done, if not by Christmas, at least by mid-January.

Overheard in the Shop

I was in the front room knitting while a couple of women with an infant and three year old were browsing in the other room when I heard, "Mommy, can we move in here?  'Cuz then we wouldn't have to drive all the way here when we wanted yarn."

Samples

Sorry for the lapse.  I'm knitting a bunch of shop samples right now.  The vest for my cousin is still on hold until his wife gets me some measurements.  I just finished a baby set out of the Cascade 220 Superwash Paints (photos coming soon) and a hat out of a new super bulky Platino.  I'm knitting a hat out of the Malabrigo Rios even though our supply of that is pretty low.  Hopefully, we'll be getting more soon.  I ordered it.  It's now up to Malabrigo to send it and we all know how that goes.
It's always great fun working with the new yarns!

Next

The next UFO I've dug up is a vest from handspun that was a victim of the great knitting stoppage of 2009.  This happened last year in October when I irritated a nerve in my shoulder and had to stop knitting for a couple of months.  What I learned from it is that I cannot continue knitting past the point where my shoulder begins to hurt.  I need. to. stop.  If I do that, I can knit again after a break.  If I don't, bad things happen.
Unfortunately, the stoppage came right when I was in the middle of my Christmas knitting.  I've almost caught up from it in time for this Christmas!

This is the yarn I'd spun so far and the remaining fiber.  I also had a couple of bobbins full of singles that just needed to be plied.  I've since plied what I had and spun and plied the last of the fiber.  I've got nine skeins of two ply yarn that are about 4oz each and will probably knit at around a heavy worsted weight.  I might knit them a bit tight since it is for a cousin of mine to wear when he's working outdoors in the winter.  This is my cousin who got pneumonia two winters ago so I'd like to get this done for this winter.  There's one fly in the ointment, though.  I've lost his measurements.  I emailed his wife and she said she'd get them but she's got two children under four so it may take her a while.  I must remember to never write measurements down on little pieces of paper.  I inevitably lose them.  I have a measurement book for a reason.  I've got to always use it!

Meanwhile, I really should wash all this yarn and I can always swatch while I wait for measurements. 

Stripey Sweater and Fall Yarn

Boy, the blog got away from me for a bit, but I'm back. 

I had a lovely visit to NYC though it was so hot that if I never have to go back there in July, it will be too soon.  What I mostly did was go out to eat and then hide inside and knit.  We made it to the aquarium and on the Staten Island Ferry but that's as adventurous as we got.  Really, not so bad when you think about it.  I got to spend a lot of quality time with my friends Melissa and Andy

and got a lot of knitting done. 

I finished the sleeves of the stripey sweater on Sunday morning.

You can see at the top where I ran out of the lavender and white but they don't look bad overall.

Then I spent Sunday afternoon putting it together and sewing in the ends while watching the World Cup final with Andy (Melissa took a much deserved nap).  I really like relaxed vacations.  I'm just not much of a tourist.

Here's the finished sweater

and a fairly bad picture of me wearing it.

I really need to block the front a bit.

Meanwhile, this is the time of year when all the new yarn starts arriving in giant boxes that we refer to as "Annie Boxes".  Why Annie Boxes? 

Because, they are so big that Annie could use one for a studio apartment!

Train Knitting

I'm still working on the sleeves of the striped sweater.  I've completely run out of the lavender and will be out of the white shortly so I'll need to start getting creative with the row pattern.  I'm almost to the top so it shouldn't be too noticable.
I don't usually take a sweater project on a trip but I'm so close to being done with this that I'm taking it with me to NYC.  I'll have a total of eight hours on the train and if I can't get it finished in that amount of time, I'm doing something wrong.  I'm bringing everything I need to finish it completely and with any luck, I'll have finished object to bring back with me.  I'm also bringing a pair of socks as a back up.  I feel like I'm show a great deal of self restrain in only bringing on pair of socks with me to work on.  Usually, I'd bring at least three.