Woolgathering

The Giggle yarn is finished and I got all but the magic 400 yard figure: skeins of 120, 128, and 148 yards give a total of 396, just 4 yards short. Total weight about 4 and a quarter ounces - 124 grams. I wish the skeins had come out more evenly, I could have put them in the Show.

Make no mistake about it, I am pleased as Punch with this performance. It’s not perfect. far from it, but I really am a spinner now, I do believe. I intend to become better and better at it.

I was planning to do some blues next, but I feel a hankering to spin something that reeks of sheep and I think that I may spin up the carded Shetland that J gave me last year.

I decided yesterday to just go for it and complete the knitting of the one project that I seem to be keen to knit on. I picked up my Hamsa scarf and knitted away. And then it happened…

ASIDE: Since I gave up work to run away to Scotland and live the good simple life funds have been somewhat limited. Our new lifestyle includes a conscious decision to wear things out. This is my excuse for constantly looking like a scarecrow, though the real reason is no doubt one of comfort. Yesterday I was wearing my most favourite t-shirt, one that I bought in Edinburgh on holiday about fifteen years ago when I had run out of clean clothes after ten days backpacking around Scotland. It’s the best t-shirt ever and I love it to bits. Literally. It’s dropping apart, hastened no doubt by the bout of hyperthyroidism (which seemed to affect my body Ph and many of my clothes went into holes over last winter.) Not to put too fine a point on it, this t-shirt sports extra good under-arm ventilation.

… I pulled my needle out from under my arm to turn my work around… only the needle stayed put, hooked into the holes in my t-shirt, and just the stitches came away. Of course, I had long since dispensed with my lifelines, as the pattern turns out to be quite simple and not prone to faults (I end almost every row with the right stitch count!) Pulling with quite a jerk, the stitches ran…

I picked up what I could and then tinked back a few rows to make sure that all was well. I knitted on. I examined my work and found an error. I tinked back. I knitted on. The error was still there. I tinked back… I tinked back… and so it went on all afternoon and evening. I kept eliminating the error, knitting on, then finding the error was still there I repeated the process again. And again. And again. In fact, I made no headway at all after lunch yesterday and ended up putting my work to one side to deal with today.

Today I tinked back seven rows, and carried on again and all went absolutely as it should do. I must assume that I was so rattled by the awful realisation of pulling half my stitches off the needle that I just couldn’t regain my stride yesterday.

Anyway, one lesson learned: never think you’re too clever to need a lifeline. Ripping is so much faster than tinking and a lifeline could save hours of work and endless counting.

Spinning: plying the Giggle is taking far longer than expected. I managed two skeins before lunch. About a third remains to be plied. At long last I think I may call myself a spinner - as I do seem to have produced something akin to sock yarn! Seriously, I look close to hitting the 400yds:4 ozs arena. On the down side, I could have done a better job of separating the colours in the roving as the final result looks rather grey and muddy and not at all what I had planned. I shall put a positive spin on it and call it “subtle.”

BSJ: making good progress, and I began the neck shaping last night. That puts me at around the 2/3rds mark, I reckon.

Things are a little fraught chez Woolgatherer and set to get worse still as the car gets MOT tested next week. The sheer complexity of doing this from a base on one of the outer islands is beyond all normal comprehension and the new test rules do not help one jot. The ferry company were less than positive regarding an enquiry about paying the penalty if a booked passage for the car is subject to late cancellation. Let us hope that the car does not have to remain in Kirkwall while we lug the supermarket shopping home on foot… not that we can afford to buy much food, we just had to increase the monthly payment for domestic fuel oil (with a bang!) The world’s going to hell in a handcart and it’s biting into my fibre budget

Some little progress is being made. I am working in short bursts, so finding it hard going and frustrating. Yesterday’s spinning gave me a little fillip and I sat and completed the Giggle spinning today in between doing other things. Just the plying left to do now.

The Ultimate Temptation project still steals my attention - I do love it beyond all reason, and it is half done now. I am already planning a second one in some silver silk that I have on hand. Sky and Water II is making very slow headway, but the BSJ is cracking on and is half completed - it’s a handy knit-in-bed garter stitch project.

Knitty: Summer 2008

I find this v exciting - the notion of a randomly generated pattern. One that changes each time you open it? And it doesn’t matter that it changes? Absolute genius - and the ultimate in the idea of knitted garments being unique to the maker.

A shame that the pattern isn’t ideally suited to a lumpy clumpy old bat liek me, though

Spinning Day this week is hot, hot, hot. So hot that we couldn’t take advantage of my new sitting place outside and had to go spin inside in the shade! Spinning Cake was oaty-fruity-seedy bars that may have started life as flapjacks but were honey-based instead of syrup-based, and a tray of wonderfully spicy, fruity Chelsea Buns. J brought me eggs, both hen’s and quail’s, and R brought me some curly kale. Wonderful island bounty.

I had two loads of washing on the line before spinning and managed to get some tidying and hoovering done as well as doing the baking and a few other wee jobs, so this afternoon I intend to put my feet up and avoid the sun. I had too much exposure on Monday when I was working on my new bit of garden, and had to resort to the anti-histamines yesterday, consequently feeling absolutely dreadful/useless all day. I made a  real mess of my knitting because of that.

The itching subsided sufficiently to avoid medication today and I feel far more perky, so I don’t want to get any more exposure than I have to today and thereby avoid itching all over again. A perfect excuse for stopping inside and getting the knitting out.

An absence of fibre today - but lots of activity. I have been cleaning concrete with the pressure washer, cleaning windows and windowsills of 2 years’ accretion of algae, muck, and mould - and digging up weeds. I also painted (v roughly) my garden bench. Later on I shall be applying Weedol and drilling and filling a couple of garden planters.

I have the bit between my teeth! (Um, not the drill bit for drilling the planters, I hasten to add - just the metaphorical bit.)

V happy today to have found a home for the old bathroom stuff that is cluttering up the garden.

Not a bad day all round, really. Especially as the household count returned to normal last night (but more of that when my arm is less painful)

Briefly:

• still struggling with a sore appendage
• now also struggling with a lumpy sore throat and temperature
• but unable to leave the knitting strictly alone
• though successful at not spinning for a while
• Sky and Water II on the move again (slowly) (25%)
• Ultimate Temptation going well (30%)
• Tumult of Waves stalled while I make a colour decision at the approximately half-way point
• Merope socks completed and blocked
• Baby Surprise Jacket cast on

Everything going slowly, as I knit-and-rest at sensible intervals.

Much time also taken up with fixing car and preparing the Sherpa for removal. Yay - it’s going! Today, if loading it on the trailer goes well. Thereafter I shall be expending energy on my new piece of garden. I need plants, cuttings, and pots - but I have no money.

It’s Open Gardens day today on the island. I had hoped to go around and see if there were any cuttings for sale but we have a busy day, delivering the van to its new owner (plus, it’s cold and windy and I feel unwell.)

EDIT: The van is on the trailer, my stress levels are through the roof. We have now to secure the van, figure out how to couple up the trailer to the car with all that weight on it, and also how to get some air into the trailer tyres (we forgot to do it earlier.)

I wish Mr L had arranged some help with this project - at least to get hitched up and someone to follow us up the road in case of problems.

I have this lively imagination, see, and I foresee all the potential problems and I stress, stress, stress….

My arm is screaming at me so I am trying to keep computer time to a minimum. This explains the shortness of posting around here of late.

Sadly, the arm is becoming so sore that I need to rest it from knitting and spinning also. Somewhat disgruntled by this, I rejected all forms of common sense and cast on a knit that I thought would tax my limbs less than the other projects in hand are doing. There’s another Morning Surf in production!

It’s spinning day today. I have no car (it’s going to be a few weeks, we think… sourcing parts is a problem and the cost of the job is going sky high), but SpinningGill is chauffeuring me today (thanks, Gill) I’ll take my wheel but if I do spin it will be only in short bursts, I think.

This  means of course that the TdeF is over for me, my goal of an hour a day minimum has scuppered me. I don’t mind. It gave me the impetus to get on and I have made some great progress, even if I have not yet started on my blues - Fire is completed at long last, and I have an Air yarn half done. My other goal, to finally work through all the gifts that I was given last year, is also nearing completion. I shall “soon” be able to scale the fleece mountain in my storeroom… only 1 packet of alpaca, a second packet of the soy silk, and 3 blue rovings to go now - and my spinning stash bin is looking very empty indeed. Extreme financial embarrassment means that I shan’t be stocking it up any time soon. I shall have no choice but to tackle some real sheep.

I’m turning the PC off for a few days now and going AWOL.

The Chantilly Lace roving is almost half done now, and it looks very pretty on the bobbin indeed. I am going for long-and-even (relative term)this time around. Still don’t know whether to ply two bobbins together or whether to chain ply it. Still don’t know what to knit it into.

The Merope second sock has its leg complete and the heel flap is progressing.

Overall, good progress - though sadly still no more work done on Sky and Water II. I might perhaps have made even more progress were it not for the fact that I appear to have been watching too much Masterchef of late. After cycling to the shops and back I got a little creative in the kitchen and decided to make a properly good fish crumble for lunch. It only took two hours :-} Yes - I made a white wine stock to poach the fish in. From scratch. And I cooked the crumble up separately, to ensure perfect crispness. I reduced the stock to make the cream sauce for the fish… I culled fresh chives and parsley from the garden, and I cooked up a medley  of fresh vegetables for an accompaniment, and some local new potatoes.

Was it worth it? I doubt it, although it was delicious. It was a nice reminder though, that I can actually cook a decent meal if I want to. Just possibly a tad OTT for a Monday lunch

I have been thinking about the yarn that I am spinning and, although pink was on the colours for Fire, this yarn speaks more to me of Air. It’s light and fresh and delicate - has a lot of white and grey in it. The pink is far too cool for Fire, it’s not a warm pink at all. So I am promoting this spin to the Air theme - which is, happily, current. It just feels more right to me this way around.

Monday is for:

• cycling to the shops to post ATCs and buy soap powder
• making fish crumble
• spinning
• more spinning
• filling in the mortgage application form
• sock?
• spin a bit more

The car is still only part way to fixing, so we are car-less for at least a week to come. I couldn’t do laundry at the weekend as my remembered two boxes of detergent do not actually exist. I’ve run out of underwear, so needs must - out with the bike! That will at least get me to the post office before the deadline on these “Air” ATCs runs out.

Pollock fillets are thawing for lunch. I’ll put them in a nice sauce, probably with fresh chives, and make a crumble topping with cheese. I’ll add new potatoes and some beans or broccoli and it should be quite tasty and nourishing. The fattening part doesn’t matter, because I am cycling today and that’s a zero calorie balance for the day. No, it is. Really. Isn’t it? *sigh*

Later on I hope to spin up all the remaining Chantilly Lace roving, because I am eager to start on my stash of blues. I’d also like to turn the heel on my sock, but that’s probably a bit too ambitious - there are only so many hours in a day and completing the mortgage application looks like it might take more than a few of those. Wherever did I put my driving licence?