Dammit x 2

As expected, I'm out of yarn for Aeolian. Knit and Caboodle doesn't have this color anymore. Evidently neither do any other stores; Wisdom Yarns Poems Sock color #952 is now mostly purple with some blues. I am trying to scrounge enough yarn to finish the last four rows and cast-off. I found one Ravelry member who just completed a shawl in the same color and PM'd her to ask if she had any leftovers. She responded, but I can't open any of my Ravelry messages. Nothing else but the main navigation menus are working for me either, so I can't even attach my blog entries to my projects. I've restarted my computer and restarted Firefox a few times; I'm not sure what the problem is, or if I can even send a message to Casey to ask for help.

So, I decided to finish plying the Corriedale singles on my Fricke wheel. I've worked my tail off all day, and I was finally going to take a break, listen to the most recent Lime & Violet podcast, and finish off this 3-ply at last. Everything went okay for about ten minutes...
That's the connector that holds the treadle on the footman. It snapped in two. I unscrewed the two ends and sent an email to Fricke Enterprises to see if they have any spare parts for sale. I have no idea what this is (other than plastic) or where to go to buy one locally, or how I'd manage to drill the two necessary holes in something this small and rolly. So, the Corriedale gets put on hold as well.

At least I managed to wax my Reeves wheel today. I can't spin on it until the Wood Beams has a chance to soak in, but it's one more thing (very nearly) off my List. I think I'm going to take the CPH (resurrected from Mr. Greenjeans) into the living room and knit for a while. The Significant Other is on his way home from work in a bad mood, and I think I'm going to need the tranquilizing wool fumes this evening.

A Really Finished Object

I started the Pacific Northwest Shawl by Evelyn Clark years ago, too long to remember exactly when. (You'd think an accountant would have better records...sigh). I remember buying the Zephyr wool/silk lace yarn at Myers House in Florissant; I even remember that they just wound off the necessary yardage from a cone. I remember thinking the price was insanely cheap for REAL wool and REAL silk. It was probably my first major project with natural fibers.

The pattern was very entertaining, with its constantly changing motifs; if I wasn't so non-monogamous to my projects, I would have finished it a long time ago. Instead I worked on it a bit here and there, and finally finished it about three years ago. We were on the cusp of the move to our little cottage-with-a-porch, so I set it aside, then packed it away.

Recently I unpacked it while looking for something else. But now I have blocking wires, and enough room to actually lay out my blocking tiles. And so I have taken this:


And subjected it to the tortures of the rack:


To get this weightless bit of froth:



We took these shots by the fountains in the center of town, on the same day a huge motorcycle rally was moving through the St. Louis area. I'm not sure what the riders thought of the crazy woman having a photo shoot with a lace shawl, but any other time I would have been fighting for scenery space with a wedding party or two.

I had to have my husband take this shot as well, just a moment of serendipity thanks to a beautiful September Saturday and the afternoon sunlight:

Sometimes I'm a little too efficient

Knitting lesson #3578:

Forget wild optimism. Try on the garment BEFORE you sew in all the ends.

On the bright side: Evidently I sewed all the ends in on Mr. Greenjeans really, really well.

Short skeins and other knitting disasters

I think I should be worried now:



That's the Aeolian Shawl(ette), row 43 of 46. Note the meager pile of yarn. That is not scrap yarn from another project. That is what I have left to knit 3 more rows (at ~525 stitches per row), then bind off with yarn held double.

Yeah. I'm not going to make it. So tomorrow I will buy another skein of Wisdom Yarns Poems Sock, to knit the last two rows and the castoff. Silver lining: I'll have plenty left over for a pair of socks.

Speaking of catastrophes. I haven't posted much about my Mr. Greenjeans sweater, knit in a very, um, hearty tweed cone yarn from Webs. (It was so rough, I actually split the skin on my index finger while knitting with it.) I finished this sweater, hunted down the perfect pewter Celtic button for it, tried it on and looked in the mirror.

Then I took it off and stuck it in the "do something with this" basket of crap in my office.

The sleeves are huge. The neckline would fit a Packers lineman without strangling. The less said about what the ribbing at the bottom did when I buttoned it, the better.



I think I'm going to like the Central Park Hoodie much more. It calls for worsted weight tweed, at 18 stitches to 4 inches. What a coincidence.



Sweater: "Um, isn't that the ball winder? Why is it sitting next to me?"

SpinningPhoenix: "Oh, no reason."