Third Time's The Charm?

I didn't even come close to getting enough sleep to make the drive to Rhinebeck today, so it looks like I'll be going on Sunday after all. See y'all there!

Plans Adjusted

So... that RV trip to Rhinebeck that I was so excited about? Not happening. Between last-minute schedule conflicts and illnesses, it was down to just two of us, which wasn't cost-effective. So instead of the fantastic multi-day extravaganza I was planning, I am only going to be going to the festival on Saturday (sorry, SFF!!!) and then resting on Sunday. I've been doing a lot of multi-hour car trips lately, and between the cost of gas and the stress on my back and legs, I need to cut back.

For those of you going to the festival on Saturday, keep an eye out for my neon pink vest and come say hi.

Pics of recent knitting to come soon!

Cables and Can Cans

Believe it or not, I've actually found some time to knit lately! Granted, one moderately simple scarf took me six months to complete, but the project I cast on as soon as I finished it is going to be finished by Rhinebeck, so I think that makes up for my sloth.

The FO:



This is the Reversible Cable Scarf from Nettie Knits, done on US#9 needles with a worsted-ish acrylic-cotton blend that had its first life as an Old Navy sweater.

On the needles now are Can Cans, a pair of cute mitts from Twisted Loops. This picture was taken as I started the first mitt... eventually I'll get around to pulling out the camera and showing you the finished first mitt and nearly-finished second one.



I tried doing the twisted stitches as written, but had issues (one of the twists wouldn't twist, and it's a critical feature of the design), so I ripped back and tried again treating them as cables. End result: happiness without headaches! I'm planning on wearing these at Rhinebeck, since I need something to show off, and the sweater I'd planned for last year is sitting in my WIP basket waiting for me to fall back in love with it enough to give it a second sleeve.

For those of you going to Rhinebeck, I would be thrilled if you said hi to me instead of waiting for me to notice you, because I have a terrible memory for faces and tend to be in OMGWTFFIBER mode as soon as I hit the fairgrounds. I will be wearing various shades of brown under a neon pink vest. I will be around all weekend, and instead of going through the stress of driving out and back both days by myself, I'm hooking up with a fellow Raveler from Maine who's bringing an RV for the weekend.

Tomorrow I'm off to New York for a great-uncle's funeral, Sunday is a visit to a friend in Burlington, and Monday I have to call managers at various stores and beg them to hire me so I don't have to move back to Connecticut. Why is life always so busy?

Insomnia

It's so late it's early, and I can't seem to be able to sleep, so what do I do? Blog, of course! It's been almost a month since I told y'all what I've been up to, which means yet another apology for not posting as often as I should. Sorry, folks.

I've got a good excuse, though: I was busy breaking up with Erik, trying to stay on good terms, realizing he was just going to keep taking his unhappiness out on me, and finally being forced to threaten him with a restraining order if he didn't leave me alone. It seems like every time I break up with someone in an especially painful way, fate has a way of nudging other people into my path who will make me feel appreciated and healthy again, and this time is no exception. An old flame has reappeared, offering proof of his changed ways and asking for a second chance, and I'm inclined to let him have it... but I'm taking things very slowly, since I'm in rebound territory and don't want to screw up my life by running to the next available bed. I have learned a thing or two in the last year, and I'm not going to repeat past mistakes. My therapist is mighty proud of me.

On the fiber front, there's... not much to talk about. I now have two fledgling knitting groups in these parts: Mondays from 6:30 to 8 at the Townshend Dam Diner, and Thursdays from 7 to 9 at Boccelli's on the Canal in Bellows Falls. I've been lazy about promoting these groups, so membership is minimal, but I'm hoping to whip up some flyers just as soon as I get a handle on all this free time I'm supposed to have.

My not-job learning woodturning is splendid, and some of the skills I've learned are going to be applied to a business I'm thinking of starting. I'm hoping to create a variety of wooden doodads (pendants, coasters, etc.) decorated with pyrography to sell at renaissance faires. I'll let y'all know when I have some products to offer... there might even be some fiber-related stuff! I haven't found another welding job yet, and I'm into the extension of my unemployment benefits, which means I have just a few months left before I get desperate and submit an application at the video store.

I'm going to try to go back to bed (if I can evict the dog from my spot), but I'll leave you with some pictures I took this afternoon.




(This one has notes that you can see if you click through to Flickr!)

Trimmed Brunette and Oiled Redhead

I know my Flickr stalkers and Facebook peeps have already seen these, but for the rest of you, here's what I look like now that my hair is a whopping twenty inches shorter:





Cute, eh? The shirt was designed by my SnB buddy Aaron, and is a reference to a reference (yes, a reference to a reference, that's not a typo) to a video game that I've never played. I just like pie.

...I'm sure there's something else I wanted to tell y'all about, but I have Candide on the turntable, and it's distracting me. Wherefore and hence, therefore and ergo...

*ahem*

Oh, right! I was poking around in my storage unit the other day, and was dismayed to discover a thin-to-moderate layer of mold coating quite a few of my possessions, including Brigid, my beloved walking wheel. I pulled her out and brought her to Erik's, where I cleaned her up and have been giving her a new coat of linseed oil every few days. The wood is beginning to look a little less old, and much more colorful... turns out this wheel is more of a redhead than I thought she was.







The oil is showing me that her various parts may be different types of wood, which fits with the evidence I saw when I first got her that she'd been re-spoked. The spokes have a definite redness, while the hoop seems to be much more yellow, and the table and legs seem to be somewhere in the middle.

Any woodworking folks out there want to guess what the various bits are made of? I can spot walnut most of the time, but most other local woods all look the same to me. Keep in mind that Brigid may have been made in Virginia or thereabouts, but she was in Massachusetts when I met her, and I'm not sure at what point during her journey she picked up new parts.

And while I'm soliciting information, are any of you familiar enough with bird species to tell me what this is? (Click to embiggen.)



It looks like a peregrine falcon to me, but I'm no ornithologist, and everything I've heard about peregrines in the last decade relates to them living in cities, not rural Vermont.

Catch-Up

Hi, there. Been a while, huh? There hasn't been much knitting here at the Lair of Lunacy, but there has been some spinning, some moving, lots of drama, and even a little chopping. Let me give you the photo tour of the last few months.

I went to the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair in Cummington and hung out with Jenny and Debbie. We saw a Llama Bus:



And while I didn't intend to walk away with fiber, I ended up with two braids:



That's some BFL from Spunky Eclectic and some alpaca/superwash merino from Abi's Web. The Spunky BFL almost immediately turned into this:



I also went to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival, and didn't buy any fiber. However, I had an amazing dinner afterwards with Jenny and Matt at a restaurant you need a treasure map to find, but is totally worth the effort. (That's Concord Grille at Eagle Square.)

Then, the drama. Things with Erik got to the point where I couldn't live with him anymore, so I mustered the troops and moved into my own place:



A caboose! On tracks and everything! My greyhound loves it.



I'm getting used to living on my own, discovering the joys and pains of paying bills, doing dishes by hand, and visiting the laundromat every week.



Despite living apart, Erik and I are trying to maintain a relationship, and that means going to events together. We set up Erik's merchant tent at Sommer Draw:



And I made a gambeson (the red jacket) to protect him when he competed in the second annual Traditional Chinese Sword League's full-contact tournament:



And finally, something I've been thinking of doing for months and months: I've been growing my hair out for several years, and have grown tired of the upkeep involved in having yard-long tresses, so...



I'll try to get some good shots of the new 'do soon. I'll also try to make time for more knitting and spinning so y'all have something to look at.

Sunny, Soapy Saturday

Saturday saw more activity around here than there's been in a while. The day before, I'd stopped at the hardware store to pick up an inflatable pool so Erik could soak a bunch of tatami mats for the cutting portion of Saturday's sword seminar. This is what they looked like shortly before we drained the pool and loaded the mats into his truck:



Up close:



Once he was out the door, I took a quick shower and headed out to meet up with my friend Alix so we could go down to Connecticut for its sheep and wool festival. I saw most of my SnB peeps, ate a lamb-burger that didn't quite agree with me, and... bought no fober at all. But I did buy soap. Lots of it. See?



There was actually one more bar, but I gave it to my mother as a thank-you for stopping by. The three on top are from Sleepy Moon Soaps, and the bottom one is from Hampden Hills Alpacas.

On the way home, Alix and I decided to pop into Webs, partly to enjoy the yarn and partly to enjoy the air conditioning. I picked up two balls of super-cheap sock yarn, both by Plymouth.



I'm fighting the urge to rip out something else (like the long-hibernating Clessidra) to cast on with the brown Sockin' Sox. I realized as I was standing in line that this colorway is one I would have turned up my nose at a few years ago. My taste in color has changed quite a bit lately.

Off to enjoy the warm weather. And not get sunburned more than I did yesterday. Owwie.

Spring Spinning

Life hasn't been giving me much crafting time this month, but I haven managed to squeeze in some spinning. Remember that grey alpaca-silk fiber I got at Rhinebeck? I spun that up, forcing myself to go a little thicker with the single than I usually do, and I plied it last week. Here's the result:


click to embiggen

It's delightfully soft, though not as consistent as I'd like in terms of diameter, and I ended up with a little under 100 yards of it (from just under 4 ounces of fiber). I think it's going to be given to a friend at the next SnB.

That's about it, I'm afraid. A few projects are slowly coming along, but nothing is terribly exciting or photogenic. The peepers are making noise in the woods, the salamanders are mating in the pond, and the frogs are laying globs of eggs in the cattails. The last plow pile has just about melted, it's getting into the 60s during the day while dropping to below freezing at night, and the grass is idly considering springing to life in a few select patches.

Oh, and my car's check engine light came on this afternoon. Bugger.

Lambs Are White And Fluffy, Right?

Spring arrived on Friday, and with the temperatures getting up into the 40s and 50s and the snow melting, I actually thought we were done with winter for a while. Then on Sunday, Mother Nature decided to remind us that this is Vermont, and winter isn't over until she says so.


click to embiggen

That's snow. And blue skies. And temperatures above freezing. It was just a 20-minute flurry, but it was enough to improve my day dramatically.

In other news, I have new knitting needles!



One of the new members of that SnB I started is Linda of Grafton Fibers. We got to talking about knitting and spinning and such, and she invited me over to the workshop where she cards batts and her husband Tom turns wood. While I was there, I drooled over their knitting needles, and Tom pulled a set out of the reject pile and put them in my hands. The reason they didn't pass quality control is that a little chip came out of the side of one of the needles, so when it was sanded smooth the needle was no longer the correct diameter in that spot. It's far enough back that it doesn't affect the gauge, so... free needles! They already have a project on them: a grey acrylic-cotton reversible cabled scarf that's coming out beautifully.

Off to get some work done before SnB tonight.

Camel Cowl

I'm in love with this yarn. Erik rolls his eyes every time I hold it up to show him how pretty it is, but he obligingly pets it and agrees with me. There's a certain amount of pride in it for him, too, since he was the one who picked up the braid of roving and said, "you should get this."

I flipped through some lace patterns and settled on one from Interweave/Harmony's Lace & Eyelets. Unlike the last stitch pattern I tried from that book, this one actually worked without editing, and the gauge looks beautiful when worked on my US#7 ebony circs, so in no time I was off and running with this cowl.



I even got the opportunity to show it off to someone other than Erik! The closest SnBs are half an hour from me, and both in yarn stores that will tempt my budget to a painful degree, so I decided to start one a little closer and in a less tempting environment. We had our first gathering last night! Granted, it was just me and one other person (salut, Alix!), but we're going to see what we can do to attract more folks. We're thinking of calling ourselves the Dam Knitters, since we meet at the Townshend Dam Diner (Monday evenings from 6:30 to 8). If you're in the area, feel free to stop by.