Take My Locks... Please!

Note to self: rave about the wonders of hand-stitched eyelets on garb all you like... you still hate actually sewing the bloody things, especially on an arming pourpoint, where there are something like three dozen of the little buggers.

And now, on with our not-so-regularly-scheduled blog post.

I've been knitting a little. Very little. I've also been spinning a little. Very little. Erik's green scarf is probably 2/3 finished, the first Trekking sock is into the ankle ribbing (toe-up, so almost finished), the second delft mitten has gone dormant a few rows into the hand, and there's been a little bit of both wheel (charcoal alpaca-silk) and spindle (green finn-cross) spinning here and there.

My focus for the last week has been on not being depressed (not going so well), trying to figure out the unemployment system (I'm getting benefits from Connecticut even though I was laid off in New Hampshire), and making as much space as possible in my itty bitty room so I can empty everything out of the storage unit that's costing me $40 a month that I really can't spare anymore.

In the course of my cleaning I came across a bag of dyed locks that I will probably never use, and I've decided to give it away. It was part of the estate stash that included Brigid, and there's a fair amount of VM in it, but there's plenty of good fiber in there. It's six or seven pounds (yes, pounds) of maroon, purple, blue, and green mohair locks that I'm sure will make someone out there very happy.


click to embiggen

If you'd like it, in whole or in part, drop me an email (lilithparker at gmail dot com) and/or meet me at Webs between 1 and 3 this Saturday, the 21st. If you'd only like a little, bring your own bag.

I'm off to write cover letters, which are my least favorite part of the job-hunting experience. Grumblefish.

Edit: The locks have gone to good homes, so are no longer available. Thank you for the interest!

Another One Bites The Dust

I got some bad news today. Things have been really (really) slow at work lately, so much so that they put all of the production staff (including us welders) on a four-day week late last month. Today my boss took the next step in cost-cutting and laid someone off. Unfortunately, that someone was me.

I think it's time to kick a dormant self-employment plan into action while I look for another welding job. Wish me luck.

Market Day at Birka

The lack of blogging in the last few weeks has been due in part to being busy preparing for Birka, my first SCA event ever. Erik is a merchant at such events, selling his armor and leather goods, and he invited me along to be his assistant. So Saturday morning we got up even earlier than usual and drove off to New Hampshire to see if we could make some money.

The good news is that our cash box was heavier than we expected by the time we packed up. The bad news (for my personal wallet, anyway), was that I found a few things at other tables that I just had to bring home. Beautiful things. Fibery things. Things that I think y'all might want to see.

First, I found a fellow who, though he lacks a website, makes up for it by having the delightfully unwieldy SCA name of Thelonius Hieronymous Erasmus Eostrebunni, and by selling some really neat turned wood items, including hand spindles. Feast your eyes upon the pretty:





It's walnut, one piece, and he has no idea how he managed to do the pretty swirly thing around the center of the whorl. It's surprisingly lightweight for its size, and spins very, very nicely.

Now, I'd brought one of my other spindles and some silk to work on during the day, but ran out of fiber mid-afternoon. Take a quick peek at that before I tell you what else I bought.



The color is a little more blue than the last batch of silk I worked with, but I think it might coordinate well if I work the two in stripes. Anywho, back to Birka. I'd run out of silk, and didn't feel like plying it (I had major stickiness issues with the last batch when I tried to wind it around my hand for plying, so I need to find a better way to deal with it), but I had this brand new spindle... I just needed fiber. Enter Kris Krafts with her Finn-cross roving:



I'm usually more of a merino fan because I'm sensitive to scratchy wool, but the Finn-cross is just soft enough that it tempted me more than the merino and the soysilk she had on the table. It helped that this wool was from her own sheep... I love supporting small farms. As you can see, I started spinning right away, and came home with a small cop of laceweight single.

As I was on my way back from buying the roving, I stopped by The Merry Little Lamb, where two hanks of their natural-dyed handspun called out to me.



They're begging to be made into a pair of striped socks, I think. The purple is a little richer than my camera wants to show, but I think this picture comes close:



While I was talking to the wood-turner, he told me about an event next month in Millbrook, NY: Hrim Schola. It's specifically for fiber people, and by the look of last year's classes, I'd really enjoy it. The only problem is that it's a three-hour drive from here, and I have no idea if it's going to be big enough to be worth the trip. If any of you are SCAdians or know SCAdians who are familiar with this event, please let me know what the turnout and merchants are like.

I'm going to go back to relaxing now... yesterday was really long, and my brain needs a wee vacation before I go back to work tomorrow.

Sock It To Me

Another FO!



And another new project started, because while I have two mate-less socks waiting for their partners to be cast on, this ball of Trekking called louder than they did.



Not much else is happening in the knitting category, and even less will happen over the next week or two as I dust off the sewing machine and kick garb-making into high gear for an event at the end of the month. I have three garments to complete in the time I would normally take just to design one, so it's going to be interesting.

OMGWTFFO?!??!!!

See, once in a while I do actually finish something. I bet y'all forgot about the LemonEgg shrug ages ago... and honestly, so did I until I was packing for the move and trying to decide what projects to work on this month and what could go to storage for a while. This had an hour or two of work left on it, so I put it in the "work" pile and finished it in front of the fire this evening. It fits well, aside from the sleeves being about two inches shorter than I wanted them to be. Still, it keeps my arms warm, so I'll probably wear it a fair bit this winter.

Now, back to the scarf I'd planned on giving to the boy today... except it's only half-finished. Whoops. Note to self: a scarf knit on size 4 needles goes much more slowly than you think it will.

Delft

I know this is going to amaze all of you (it sure as heck amazes me), but... I do still knit. Look, I have proof!



Okay, I admit that I finished this at SnB a month or two ago, but the stuff I've actually been knitting is not quite so exciting or photogenic. So I'm showing off the mitten instead.



Look how pretty! And I designed it with the cunning use of graph paper! Pretty spiffy, eh? Now if I can just get its mate finished before the weather gets warm again...

Oh, wait, I'm living in Vermont now. No rush. ;)

Yeah, I'm reading all of the CT blogs about how y'all got a whopping 8 or 10 or 12 inches of snow over the weekend... we got about 20 inches up here. It's up to my knees. The boy says I'm becoming a snow snob. This will not surprise some of you at all.

Off to work on mitten #2. Any interest in me writing up a pattern? If enough people want it, I'll post it for free on Ravelry as soon as I finish writing it. Let me know!

Wrapped, But Not Presents

I've been living in Vermont for about two weeks now, and life has kind of been kicking my butt. I haven't been sleeping well (my body is having trouble getting used to sleeping next to the boy on work nights), my computer crapped out and had to be replaced, and this morning I crashed my beloved PT Cruiser into a tree.

Before y'all get worried, I'm okay, no physical injuries to report. My car, however... well, let me tell you the story.

I made the mistake of trying to take the hilly-and-curvy-but-usually-faster road to work this morning, thinking that Vermont snow was just like Connecticut snow and that my car could handle it with no problem. Boy, was I wrong. I was going up a hill, lost momentum, allowed the car to gently slide (sideways-like) into a downhill-facing position, gingerly made my way back down the hill... and lost control (at 15 freakin' miles an hour, mind you) around a turn. I had just enough time to think, "crap, I'm gonna hit that tree," before the crunch. It's a darned good thing the tree was there, too, 'cause if it hadn't been, I would have gone over a 10-foot embankment and landed in a stream.

There are areas totalling about half a mile along my 20-mile route where my cell phone gets reception, and I was lucky enough to be in one of them when this happened, so I placed a surprisingly non-frantic call to the boyfriend and got out to survey the damage. The plastic bumper was ruined, the grille was damaged, and there was a strong smell of antifreeze, but nothing seemed to be leaking or burning, and the hood itself wasn't bent.

One of the cool things about Vermont is that when folks see someone stuck, they pull over to see what they can do. No sooner had I stepped out of my car than a very nice woman pulled up and asked if I was okay, expressing her regret that she lacked chains with which to pull my car off the tree. Once she established that I couldn't back the car away from the tree, but that I had the boyfriend standing by at home, ready to come rescue me with his pickup truck, she wished me luck and went on her way. A moment later I got to meet one of the hardworking West Dummerston plow drivers, who put down some salt just uphill from where my car was stuck so the boy's truck would have an easier time gripping the road when he pulled me out.

Before the boy could arrive, though, another friendly local with a pickup truck stopped and offered to unwrap my car from its tree, and I decided to take him up on it. As he was hooking up the chains, yet another friendly local pulled over to see if he could assist, and between the three of us we managed to get my car back on the road. I headed downhill to a spot where I could safely pull off to the side and get a better look at what got squished, and as I began the inspection, the boy pulled up. We determined that the bumper and grille were beyond repair, and the radiator was probably in bad shape, but the car was still driveable at that point.

You know conditions are bad when not only does the little PT Cruiser lose traction going up a hill on the dirt road that leads to our house, but so does the 4WD Silverado trying to pull the PT Cruiser. We finally gave up trying to get my car home and left it in the parking area at the bottom of the road. I had noticed that the temperature gauge had shot up and the gas gauge had shot down, so I didn't really want to drive the poor car anymore. Then began the phone calls.

Work, half a dozen mechanics, Dad, insurance, work again, and finally I was able to put the phone down and try to relax. The auto body shop sent its tow truck to retrieve the car, the insurance covers all but a $200 deductible and a rental (the boy's letting me use his truck for the duration), and the snow that caused all of this trouble is bloody beautiful.

I'm going to go take pictures of the snow now. And knit. There has been a painful dearth of knitting the last few weeks, and my hands are itching for some fibery fun.

Movin' On Up

A note to those looking for the Greenery Hat pattern: both my webhost and my computer crapped out at about the same time, meaning even I don't have a copy of the pattern right now. As soon as I get my new computer up and running and transfer files from the old hard drive, I'll be listing the pattern as a free Ravelry download. Thank you for being patient. If any of you who already have the pattern would like to help out the folks who need it, feel free to email a copy to me (lilithparker at gmail dot com) and I'll post it ASAP. Thanks!

Edit: Mary saved my bacon! The Greenery Hat is now a free Ravelry download here!

So yeah, this moving thing. Oof. I have five and a half days to move my entire life from Connecticut to Vermont. It's going to be interesting, for sure. A lot of clothes and books will be going to Goodwill, and a lot of yarn and fiber will be sealed up to live in a storage unit for a few months.

For the curious among you (hi, Cheryl!), I'll be living near Newfane, VT, and working in Keene, NH. The new job is full-time, pays better than my current job, and is with a cozy little company that's been around since 1932. It's also just down the road from both JoAnns and Michael's, meaning it'll be a daily struggle not to shop for cheap yarn and fabric on my lunch break.

Oh, and check out proof that I still knit:



Cunning, ain't it?

So yeah, this is my last night in Connecticut. Tomorrow I have a half-day at work, and then the packing and moving begins. Wish me luck.

Big News!

So... I've been looking to get out of Connecticut for a while now, and circumstances have finally arranged themselves in such a way that it's really going to happen. Tomorrow morning I will give notice at my current job. Two weeks from tomorrow I will start moving a bunch of stuff up to the boyfriend's place. Three weeks from yesterday I will start my new job in New Hampshire, making more than I do at my current job, but doing less stressful work.

This Thursday may be my last SnB in Connecticut, and I'd like to see as many of you as I can. Sunflowerfairy, that means you, too. ;)

Life is good.

Shhh!

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. Sadly, this trend will likely continue for a few more weeks, maybe to the end of the year. I have been knitting and spinning, and I even went to Webs the other day. I've just been so busy with other projects that I haven't had time or energy to sit down at the keyboard and put thoughts together. Here are some highlights from the last few weeks:

· I have begun spinning the grey ("black") alpaca-silk from the Rhine-stash. Holy Mother of Mohair, it's dreamy stuff. I want each and every one of you to be able to feel it... so get over here. ;)

· The boy decided that he would probably be okay wearing a Jayne hat (Ravelry link) in public, so I'm making my very first one... with no pattern. Watching me curse at the yarn for not naturally forming itself into the number of stitches I wanted it to (as opposed to the number of stitches I actually worked it into), the boy questioned my assertion that I knit to relieve stress, but he didn't question too loudly because I was waving those #5 circs around in a somewhat erratic manner and I'm fairly sure he didn't want to do anything that would get him pierced.

· So yeah, I went to Webs, picked out yarn and needles for the Jayne hat and for sweater cuffs that my mother wants fixed (the sweater, a thrift store find, is falling to bits at the cuffs, so I offered to knit new cuffs from a coordinating yarn), and thought I was finished... except for that ten-minute wait while I had the cuff yarn wound off the cone it was on. That's when my $30 purchase suddenly jumped to $80 as a skein of white Malabrigo and The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning fell into my basket. I usually have more self-control than that, but... well, I hadn't splurged in a while, and the Malabrigo was soooooo soft. Y'all understand, I'm sure.

· I'm also trying to ply some silk that's being a pain in the rump, so I'm letting it sit in time-out for a while. It's beautiful, and will become lovely lace, but for now it just needs to sit and think about its behavior and decide how many more ulcers it wants to give me.

· I really do knit and spin to relieve stress, I swear!

And now it's time for work. I'll try to get another post in, maybe even with pictures, before the end of the month. Hopefully.