Can I just say now how cranky hand carding makes me without a drum carder? The mere thought of it makes me extremely cranky.

The first week of high school has gone swimmingly for Josey. His school is amazing, and I was informed yesterday that he wants to play bass guitar. Bass. Rhythm is genetic, I’m sure I read that somewhere (or just made it up) so obviously he got all his good genes from me. Of course, general awesomeness is also genetic (citation needed) so that was from my side of the family too– I knew my baby was too smart to be a drummer.

Deb from Come Yarn Over left a message for me asking if I could make my little sheep with tape measures inside as customers were asking for some. I haven’t called her back yet. First because I wanted to get a tape measure and see if it was possible (it is) and second because I wanted to blog about it.

This is the difference between men and women. Women think it’s a super cute idea and want to know if it’s doable, and if it is what kind of variations are possible. I’m going to paint with a broad brush here but in general crafty women get cerebral about design and want to help troubleshoot.

Men on the other hand (crafty or otherwise) overwhelmingly turn into immature little boys that think all things potentially butt-hole  related are fascinating and immediately suggest that the fob for the tape measure should come out of the sheep’s butt. This idea is generally hilarious to the men folk, and they think it awesome and good. I have no idea why but every single man that has heard about (prior to my prototype) or seen (post prototype) the sheep tape measure project has insisted that the tape should come out the sheep’s ass.

Here’s the deal fellows, if you want a tape measure to come out a sheep’s ass then you can order one ($9 + shipping) from me special. Email me. Otherwise they are going to be nice and not have anything come out the ass.

My singles from the dyed roving are coming out a little fuzzier than I’d hoped. I’m  adding a little extra twist for a harder more defined yarn. Sometimes dying does a little to correct the texture, this time that was not the case– I’m sure I’ll live through it. Pretty sure at least.

Today is Josey’s first day of high school. I think I can say with some certainty that he’s taking the transition from home-schooling to high school better than I am. Pretty much any casual observer could say that, since I’m the one freaking out and he was (as usual) all not freaking out.

While dyeing and drying though I spun up a skein of just plain old 2-ply sock yarn, which I now need to finish plying the scraps left on the bobbins so I can get to spinning the colored stuff.

I’m going stir crazy. Resting is easy, unless I’m absolutely supposed to do it because it’s good for me– then it becomes a huge inconvenience. Suddenly all those books I was looking forward to reading become too pedant and dull to actually describe with words. I start resenting everything, I know it’s irrational but it totally makes sense in the moment.

I decided I absolutely hate it when people tell me to “Take it easy.” Really? Can I please have detailed instructions on how to take it easy? I have no idea, I’ve been taking it hard with chocolate sprinkles– is that not the right way? I’m so confused.

Also, I can’t tell if my camera is taking crap pictures, or if I’m just unable to focus my eyes clearly because I’m in pain. I tried putting my reading glasses on but that didn’t help. I can’t tell if their smudged if I just can’t focus my eyes. I’m not even sure what I’m typing right now.

I don’t actually have a problem plying, except when I’m actually plying. I love the magical way it makes uneven bits disappear, I love balanced yarn, I even love the tweedy effect with blends like this one. I just do not love doing it.

For some reason the task is much more tolerable when I have something else I could be, or should be, doing. In this case I probably should clean out my car, do some laundry and plan dinner.

Oh how I love plying!

I pluck it right from the tiny sheep in my living room. Where he got it was from FiberOptic on etsy. He’s a wise little sheep with very good taste.

My other fiber order got lost in the mail.

This is a 50/50 blend of bamboo and merino, handpainted in shades of brown, deep brown and black.

This is exactly how I like my coffee: Rich and full of wool.

I’m spinning it up as a lace weight because I feel the need to do some lace knitting coming on.

Superstition from FiberOptic.

I just finished the two on the left (the one on the right is from before.) The new skeins are sock weight, and Navajo plied to keep the colors in solid blocks.

I am also working on buttoning up some sewing projects. First there were the needle rolls:

Even though this one has my knitting needles in it, I’m keeping one of the other ones, my needles are purely for display purposes.

I feel so organized.

And then there were my bloomers  and chemise. Those are finished now, but I’m still holding off on the hardware for a corset. Should a busk and boning magically appear on my sewing table that would be finished next, but I’m not going to count on it happening any time soon. I finished my last corset by gutting the hardware from a bustier, for better or for worse, I’m all out of bustiers that I’m willing to chop apart.

So that’s pretty much it for now, at least until I run into some more slightly less than finished projects.

The Black Coffee roving from FiberOptic is almost sock yarn now.

Please excuse the greenish hue, my camera does that under fluorescent lights. The greenish hue doesn’t exist in real life and I’m sure it could be corrected in Photoshop except that my attempts at correcting it turned out far worse than the original.

Note to self: If I *must* own expensive software, I might want to learn how to use it before it is obsolete.

At least I managed to get an accurate picture of the finished Dragon Tile.

I was worried that the red wouldn’t stand out against the gray background but it seems to stand out just enough.

Good lighting didn’t hurt either.

I’m itching to do some botanical dissections in thread. I’m thinking pillow covers.

The above paragraph probably explains why my husband rarely buys me flowers or houseplants doesn’t it?

All I need is tasty handpainted roving.

My family disagrees, for some reason they think its more convenient to have food and running water. I’ll never understand them.

This a sport weight that I made from spinning Moonlightbaker‘s Blue Steel roving.

40/60 bamboo/merino blend. I was sorely tempted to not ply the singles and just use them as is for sock yarn, and I probably would have if I hadn’t added so much twist when I was spinning.

The plan was to do a second Baby Surprise Jacket for Lexi, but I’m debating now– I’m thinking it might be fun to make her a kimono or ballet sweater from it. So many decisions.

Then I spun up some Superstition superwash merino from FiberOptic.

The squish factor is unbelievable. I’m very tempted to knit myself some socks from this yarn but I’m keeping my options open– it seems a shame to hide such pretty yarn on my feet. A new hat wouldn’t kill me. Or a little shrug.

Or I could just put the skein in a gallon sized ziplock bag and tape it to my chest with a note saying “I spun this.” (Yes, fashionable and bust enhancing– all the kids are doing it nowadays.)

Regardless, I decided I needed more of this good stuff and put in another order. I don’t know if I’ll spin up the second batch the same way, but I want to spin more of it.

My books finally came from Amazon. I’d ordered One Skein Wonders and EZs Knitting Workshop– and those are what came in the box so I’m pretty content.

I’m only slightly disgruntled because I was hoping there’d be more in the way of patterns using finer yarns and smaller needles in One Skein Wonders– I’m tired of doing math on patterns in order to get them to fit the yarn that I actually own. Not to mention the book pokes at my rant button; not everything that can be knitted should be knitted, some things really ought not be knitted.

Example: Coasters.

Don’t get me wrong, knitted coasters are cute. I just imagine setting my coffee cup on a poufy coaster and seeing it topple over and poof! The cuteness is gone as the searing hot coffee hits my skin and the loss of caffeine becomes a cold hard reality.

Not to say it’s a bad book or that I dislike it completely, there’s some cuteness to be had– its just that starting out with knitted and felted coasters was a bad editorial decision. Someone should have thought that one through.

I think I’m due for some housekeeping today. My work space tends to turn into a little Wendy-nest full of sheet music, yarn, needles, graph paper, books, doo-dads, and what-nots and a pile of hoodies that end up stacked on the back of my chair. At least until I freakout and tidy every thing up in one fell swoop. I have three hoodies and a cardigan on the back of my chair right now, which is sort of a personal record– since I only own three hoodies.

I feel a feel swoop coming on.

I’ve shocked it in hot water and cold, thwacked, soaked, and snapped the snot out of this yarn so that it’ll be as tough as the hubs of hell.

All the torture has felted and blossomed it just a little, forcing the merino to contract and lock together while the bamboo fibers loosen just slightly and giving it a slightly heathered appearance.

Pardon the extra sheen in this next picture, the yarn isn’t quite dry yet, and my photography skills still need improvement.

Because extruded bamboo fibers are clear (like polar bear fur) when the yarn is completely dry it should look like silk because of the way light reflects through the individual strands (think less like fiber optic cable and more like seeing a crayon through a quartz crystal), but keep most of the insular qualities of merino wool. The drape will be a compromise of the two fibers in the blend.

I probably spend way too much time looking at yarn through my kids’ microscope huh?

I’m saving up for one of those microscopes that I can hookup to the USB on my computer because I’m way too lazy to do sketches and scan them. In case you’re wondering, extruded bamboo fibers look a lot like nylon while bast bamboo fibers are much more interesting (and far less yummy and spinnable) under a microscope because there is a recognizable cellular structure, and when backlit on the slide bleached bamboo bast fibers make pretty rainbows.

Since impulse buying is (part of) what lead to my cluttered life in the first place, that means that staying with Flylady would present way too much resistance. I’m a path of least resistance kinda girl.

I’m not squishy or gooey and don’t fall into purple puddles but the change to my inbox does make me a little sad.

Fortunately I have some gorgeous handpainted bamboo/merino blend roving to console me.

The picture I took came out okay, except the colors are much more vivid in real life.

The yarn when plied is destined to become a Baby Surprise Jacket for Lexi. I know she’s no longer a baby, but it doesn’t take much tweeking to embiggen the pattern to fit a 5 year old.