Still wet, but really pretty. I made the alpaca lighter on purpose. There’s more dye if needed, to darken it. Here’s a mediocre picture of my drying rack under fluorescent lights.

What colors would you add for tweed? I have some blues. Greens could also be nice. Multiple colors?

I thought Clark was all better, then he woke me up at 2 am to tell me that he’d thrown up again. We went to the doctor this morning, and he said that in kids Clark’s age, a stomach bug can increase lactose sensitivity until they build back their enzymes. Or something.

So my son who prefers cheese to any other food on the planet has to go lactose free for a week. This is NOT going to be fun. When we had to take Abby lactose free at age 3 1/2, she was very aware of the fact that some foods made her stomach hurt really bad and you couldn’t have force fed her things like ice cream, cake, pizza… She was almost scared of it.

Clark isn’t going to be so reasonable. So I’m gearing up for being screamed at a lot this week. Even more than I normally am, having a 2 year old. I’m feeling dour.

I keep saying that today is the day I will dye. And it keeps not happening.

I’m really going to try to dye a big pot of purple things today. Once it’s dyed and I see what shade I ended up with, I’ll decide on colors for the tweedy bits that’ll go into it.

Perhaps, since this is a very boring post, and since I don’t have any pictures, I’ll update this post throughout the day with dye progress and photos. That’ll get me going. I’m off to weigh and soak fibers.

1st update-

So here we are soaking 2 1/2 pounds of fibers

and I really don’t know how it’s going to turn out. I’m using a dye that I haven’t sampled, but being completely tired of sampling, I’m just going for it. It’s difficult to commit my beautiful, hand selected, aligned and washed locks of wool to something. As ridiculous as it sounds, I’d be more comfortable just hoarding it in all its fleecy goodness and never doing anything with it. At this point, the point of dyeing, I have so much time and care into my wool already… it’s…. just hard to do something that could completely mess it up, and further, leave me with less wool. Which just means I could go and get more, and that certainly has appeal.

I just have to get over myself. I’m a lunatic.

Moving on, here’s a paper towel with some dye dripped on it.

My wool will not be that dark, most likely. I was going to add some red to it, but it looked a bit reddish already so I’ll leave it alone for now. I can overdye if need be. Perhaps we’ll want it a little more blue?

Update #2-

Here I am in my dye apron, waiting for my wool to soak, and for the laundry to be ready to rotate, practicing my scales. The camera is balanced on my music stand and I think this is the first time I’ve used the timer.

Oh, and in looking at the photo, I must say that the words all over the apron ARE cooking words that I see now were unfortunately placed. That’s kind of embarrassing.

Update #3-

Here we are, not up to full heat yet.

I put it on 3 and went downstairs to exercise for an hour, since Clark was asleep. It barely got warm, so I’ve turned it up.

And look! It’s three freaking different colors! I’m cursed. But still think it’ll card up nicely. It had better.

Update #4-

As usual, the alpaca dyed up much nicer.

I used too much dye on the wool I think. It’ll be interesting to see how it looks washed and dry.

And that’s it for me today. The kids are home now and are in costume, dancing around to the Fantasia soundtrack. I need to corral them into homework and figure out dinner.

I can’t. I thought it was gone. Gone, gone. I found it last night as I was digging around the bottom of this

looking for a tape measure. Because my back is hurt and I’m trying to rest, I forced myself to pick up Clark’s sweater again, determined to knit that stupid sleevecap. I’d been working out of the bag all day, but when I couldn’t find a tape measure last night, I pulled out all the yarn and sweater parts and there was my ring!

I had the knitting bag with me on election night at my in-laws, though I don’t remember taking my ring off. But I must have, because the next morning is when I noticed it was gone. I guess I was extremely distracted at that moment, and knew my knitting bag was a safe place.

So, I’m very, very happy today. Despite being in a lot of pain.

I finished the first sleeve last night

My goal for the day is to knit the second.

Tonight we’re putting up Christmas decorations in the foyer of a retirement home. I’m so excited for the Christmas season.

I’m also excited because I’m planning to hold my breath, close my eyes, and dye a big vat of batt stuffs. Maybe I’ll actually have something to sell in the next month or so?

It could happen.

At the end of the school year last year, I received an impatient from one of the girls, I think it was Veronica. I didn’t have a place to plant it as I was ripping up my yard at the time, so I set it next to my kitchen sink and waited for it to die. It stayed pretty much unchanged all summer long and then a few weeks ago as we hit autumn, it took off. It grew out a few inches in each direction, the leaves got bigger, and it started to bloom. When I saw the first couple of blooms, I thought it would be the last little bit of expended energy before giving up. The only think I knew about impatients was that they’re annuals. But it kept growing and kept blooming and so I looked on Google for some information and found a page that said that impatients can live several years and get quite large as houseplants. I had no idea.

The houseplants I have are a Thanksgiving cactus, two prayer plants (love them*), and three african violets. I know that the cactus and prayer plants can be fertilized from March to October, and my african violets are fertilized year round with a diluted solution every time I water. That’s how I water the others, but only from March to October, so since fertilizing season is over, I called a nursery to ask what to do with the impatient. She said that I can start fertilizing it now and through the winter similar to the violets, but at about a third of the frequency.

A whole lot of babble, sorry, but the point is that I have this very summery looking plant by my sink that miraculously survived in a tiny nursery pot with no food all summer long and is now delicate and filling with flowers. It’s neat. I moved it to a slightly bigger pot today and fed it.

I’ll probably have to pinch it back since it looks a little spindly in the center. We’ll see what happens.

Speaking of seeing what happens, I dyed the sample wool and alpaca for Nate’s sweater back whenever I said I was going to. I used no vinegar ’til the very end to set the color, and it dyed nice and even. I’m doing the same with silk noil today, but it needed a little vinegar to finish taking the color. I think the lack of vinegar in the beginning helped it to take evenly though. Noil has proved tricky for me.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to make a big batch of a couple colorways soon. I keep getting closer.

*So, the reason I love prayer plants, aside from the beautiful red against the lime and dark green, is that they move every morning and night. It took some getting used to, because the whole plant will spontaneously shake now and then and it can be startling, but the leaves point up to the ceiling at night, and lay flat or point down in the afternoon. They seem more alive than any other plant I’ve had. I love it. They’re always growing, and you can cut off a bit that has gotten long and stick it in the dirt to replenish the top. They make me so happy. I have two now. One is about 5 years old and one is almost 3. I’m quite proud of them.

Thanks for the well wishes, but the ring is not found.

I’ve given up on the notion that I ate it.

I still can’t imagine where it could be. I put on a different ring to show Clark and asked if he knew where my ring was. He didn’t.

The girls spent 30 minutes before homework last night looking for it.

So I’m dyeing a sample of wool and alpaca for Nate’s sweater to distract myself, since the last sample didn’t work out. I’m dyeing it a color that went all haywire on the silk and showed no sign of even being related to brown, so I’m heating it very slow, and using no vinegar whatsoever ’til the very end to set the color. In all of my miserable and failed dye attempts (as far as getting predictable results. Most things have been pretty), it seems that the dye is striking extremely fast. Maybe it’s my uber-soft water? That’d explain a lot. I’ll let you know how this goes.

When Clark goes down for a nap, I’ll start laundry. I’ve already gone through the laundry bins and pockets to no avail, but I’m still holding out hope that I’ll find it in the bottom of the washer when I transfer a load.

Let me first start out by saying that I do NOT want a replacement, but I couldn’t help browsing Shaneco.com (something I do a couple times a year anyway) to see if they still have the calla cut diamonds, and they do. Wanna see something pretty?

When I first saw an ad for this ring a couple years ago, I don’t remember where, I went in to the store to try it on. At the time, I remember thinking it was prettier in the picture than it was in person, simply because it sparkles SO much, you can’t really see the flowers/design of it.

They’re amazing diamonds.

I’m curious to try it on again, but it’s pretty pointless. I can’t imagine having nothing better to do with $5k than spend it on a ring.

And I want mine anyway.

It doesn’t matter how early they get up, or how much I keep on top of it and nag the heck out of them, the girls are still scrambling to get out the door in time for school. It’s so irritating. I tried to get them ready a few minutes early so we could get pictures of mitts before they left. I got a few quick, slightly out of focus, mediocre pictures while Nate was waiting for them in the car.

There’s more color in the Liv’s mitts than you can see in the pictures, but they’re still nice and subtle. The pictures of Veronica’s mitts are quite accurate.

I’ve made batts with the rest of the fiber dyed Veronica’s colors, with half the noil that was in her mitts. We’ll spin that up and see how it looks.

I made up the pattern. It’s handspun semi-woolen 3 ply. Size 3 needles. I used a 32 inch circular and knit the body using the magic loop method, and used double points on the thumbs.

Cast on 35 stitches. Work 3×2 ribbing for 40 rounds, set 7 stitches aside on a holder (I used safety pins) for the thumb, co 7 stitches and continue in the round for another 22 rounds. Bind Off. Retrieve 7 stitches for thumb, picking up an additional 9 stitches around the hole (the cast on for the new 7 stitches). Work one round in 3×2 ribbing, with an extra knit stitch in there somewhere. On second round, knit that extra stitch together with another knit stitch, and continue thumb of 15 stitches for 10 total rounds. Bind off. Weave in ends.

For Veronica, I decreased the number of rounds in each part. Something like, 30 round to the thumb, 16 rounds on the hand before binding off, 6 rounds of thumb. ‘Cause she’s a shrimp.

… get up and do something else for awhile. It’s supposed to break the cycle of trying to get to sleep. It usually works for me.

I can’t sleep. I’m really tired. My alarm is set for 6:45 tomorrow morning, and that’s currently 7 hours from now. Not horrible, but I really do need 8 hours to be a fully functional human being.

It’s been a busy week. I think part of the reason I can’t sleep is that I’m excited about and therefore can’t stop thinking about some of the things I’m doing.

I’ve finished Liv’s mitts.

Carded and spun up yarn for Veronica’s mitts. (I over agitated the wool and alpaca whilst dyeing. They’re a little felted. Plus, there’s too much silk in the yarn, the pink of the silk dulled the green tremendously, but I’m still interested to see how it knits up. Nate thinks it’s pretty. I have more of the dyed fiber to card and spin for a hat for myself at some point. I’m hoping there’s enough).

I dyed mohair, with much fuss, for more wolf yarn.

Carded up and spun a test batt for a sweater with one of the gorgeous gray lamb fleeces I have. It’s so silky. I want to knit with it.

Knit half the neck of Clark’s sweater. I’m going to have to rip and reknit it, because the row gauge is off and the neck doesn’t decrease fast enough.

Read the first Chrestomanci book. It was disturbing and Gwendolen should die a hundred deaths. But I’ll still read the next one.

Met my Health Group goal for the week by exercising twice. I can hardly walk, which means that wretched illness of September had to have eaten me alive. I was in great shape in August, and that wasn’t THAT long ago.

All this in addition to helping out at school Monday and Tuesday as usual. (Ooh, ooh! I saw the bat lady Monday morning. How cool is that? She had live bats. I came face to face within inches of them. They’re SO cute). And two evening school events, and the district Cross Country finals.

But I think what I’m the most excited about is that I’ve started recording music again. It’s soooo much fun. And takes soooo much time. And is soooo hard. I spent a couple hours on it today, and don’t have a keepable track yet. But I’m close. I can’t work on it more ’til next week because I’m going to Portland with some friends for an overnighter tomorrow (Friday). But I can’t stop thinking about it. Hearing instrumentation and harmonies in my head.

There are many pictures I should take and post, but I haven’t had the time, and right now, aside from being very tired and hopefully about to go to sleep… there’s no light.

I hate flash pictures (my own, that is) a smidge more than I hate posts without pictures. (Again, I’m speaking of my own. You all can do whatever you want with your blogs. No criticism from me. But as for me and my blog… I like pictures).

Aaand I need to go to bed. I’m driveling. Have a great weekend! I’ll set up a post to show up Saturday for Health Group in case someone wants to check in.

I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about The Sweater here before. It’s a sweater that my mom some how came in possession of, and passed off to me at least 20 years ago. I loved The Sweater, despite the fact that in addition to one sleeve being significantly longer than the other, the stripes not matching up at the button band (it was a cardigan), and being kind of itchy… it looked horrible on me. I kept trying to wear it. I kept it for many, many years. I’d take it out of the back of the closet every 6 months or so, try it on, look in the mirror, and stick it back in the closet. I now know that the reason it looked so horrible on me is because its main color was entirely wrong for me. It was light, heathery gray. I can’t think of a color that makes me look more frumpy than light, heathery gray. Dark gray is fantastic. Light gray must be avoided, at least by me, at all possible costs.

At some point, I got rid of The Sweater. It was a sad day. There was something so romantic about that sweater. It had a homemade look to it. Not handmade, homemade. But it was charming. Delightful. The kind of thing you’d want to wear around the house on a weekend. You’d want to curl up in a chair and read in it. You’d have your hair up in one of those messy topknots with stragglers falling out here and there. You’d be drinking something warm. You’d feel pretty and cozy and I dare say even sexy despite being, essentially, in the knitting equivalent of sweats.

I want another The Sweater. One that actually looks good on me. When I swatched the wolf spun mohair some months ago, I thought that it would make a fantastic replacement for The Sweater. Not that it would make a sweater at all similar to the original, but I thought it could fill the void well.

The original Sweater was, as I mentioned, light heather gray. It had some stripes of metallic pink ribbon-y something or other in it, as well as a large stripe of dark wine colored yarn in yet another texture. That’s about all I remember.

I’m finished spinning the pound of mohair I bought at Black Sheep.

I have about 600 yards of yarn, and I need 900 +. I have plenty of the coincidentally coordinating roving I used to ply with the mohair to make some sort of yarn that will go with it, but I think it’s too similar in color without being the same texture. I think it’d look off. After talking with Shiori last night and having her examine my swatches, we both concluded that the best thing would be to dye more mohair in harmonious colors and make more wolf yarn.

So, I dug out the lovely first clip kid mohair fleece I bought a year + ago from a delightful lady in Monroe. This fleece is so special, I haven’t dared to use it for anything. I’m nervous. But I’m taking the plunge, and I’m going to dye about 12 ounces of it, to be sure I have enough. 8 ounces are soaking right now in preparation to be dyed.

The Sweater was, as I mentioned, multi textured. That was my initial plan for this new sweater, but I can’t picture it in any way going well. I think all mohair is the way to go, but I’m having trouble picturing how I’ll incorporate the two different colors. And should I spin some of the mohair smooth? And what design?

I really have no idea what to do. I’d hoped that by the time I finished spinning the Black Sheep mohair, that I would have come up with something.

Did something turn out the EXACT color it was supposed to?

YES!!!

This one looks pretty good, too.

I’m dyeing stuff for Veronica’s mitts. The green is wool and alpaca. The salmon color is silk. I have some silk top soaking right now that I’m going to dye mahogany to go both in the green mitts, and to use with my remaining blue fiber to be carded.

Other things making me happy today… my teacups.

As I was emptying and reloading the dishwasher this morning, I noticed the massive movement of teacups. The ones from the hot drinks last night replaced in the cupboard the ones we used for herbal tea this morning. I love it when the weather turns colder. We haven’t turned on the heat yet, so we’re wearing more layers and drinking warm things. It’s very fun. I could continue on like this for some time, but Nate won’t. He’ll be cleaning out the filter in the furnace this weekend, I’m sure, then the heater will come on. He hates being cold.

Last year, I think it was fog that got me waxing poetic and all cozy feeling, excited for winter. This year, it’s the emerging of teacups.

It was chilly enough at the cross country meet last night to put Clark in a hat. I have one cold weather hat that fits him well.

I made it in my early knitting days, when I was ambitious to design my own patterns. This one was for Abigail, and has a fun, swirly decrease pattern in dark blue on the top. It’s cute, but I need to make him his own hat. One without purple in it.