For me

So it's my birthday in December (12/12). My sisters have been nagging me (one sister nags the others and then they nag me) about a birthday gift. I kept debating the options and finally decided that the one thing I really wanted to learn this year was how to spin. In order to do that, I needed a spinning wheel. (no a drop spindle does not work for me, way too much coordination required). So yesterday I ordered a new Ashford Kiwi i.e.I can't wait for it to come in.

Next up: my knitting Christmas plans.

Another one finished

Now that I have some time to knit. A new project to occupy my time. A hat for my Baby Brother (fyi he's 3 going of 4): Dotty from Itty-Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson. I changed the yarn to Cascade 220 in superwash merino--a really great yarn fyi. The multi-colored dots were from various yarns that I had around.
Side one:

Side two:


I omitted the red border she has along the bottom of the hat. Mainly because I didn't have time to teach myself how to pick up and knit stitches before someone discovered the hat. He loves it when I knit stuff up for him. It's so nice to be appreciated.
It's my goal to make as many silly/kiddy/fun hats for him while he's still young enough to appreciate it and pull the look off.

The Failed Object

It comes to every knitter's life at some point. The Failed Object. The failed expectations. The disappointment. The secret yearning to squirrel away the Failure and deny any knowledge of its existence. The longing for a working fireplace in your home to .... well you get my drift.

It all started out so simply. A pretty pattern. A new baby to come. A desire to experiment. A lovely combination of blue and white aran weight yarn.

But then the doubts start to filter through the fumes---"You know that white yarn seems a little thicker than the blue yarn...But the labels both say they're aran weight even if they're not by the same manufacturer....I'm sure it'll sort itself out, its so soft and nice to knit with."

A little later you start noticing that you're identical squares are, well, not quite so identical. Is it the pattern? No, you adapted that pattern and have been very careful about following it. "I'm sure it's nothing," you state firmly to yourself (and the three other people in the room who look at you strangely...fyi talking to your yarn is considered strange behavior by some).

Then the day comes. You have finally finished all 20 supposedly 4x4 in. squares. Except the squares are more along the 5x4 in. range...no worry, that will be gone with the blocking. (No, this was not the time for me to start doing the math---5x4 squares cannot be turned into 4x4 squares through the judicious application of needles, water and stretching).

Okay, so its a slight miscalculation. It won't be a square blanket. A rectangle is a perfectly acceptable shape for a blanket. After all, the baby is due in a couple of days--this needs to be finished.

Then it begins...the weaving in of the ends. All 40 of them. The sheer torture of end weaving had me complaining, cramping and cussing. But no worries...its finished. Kinda. Oops forgot to knit the border (thank goodness because the shaping of the knit up squares took a turn towards ugly).

Okay. Four 4 in thick borders coming up. Oops this one is closer to 6 in. But it's okay--I have a plan. The thicker border will go on the bottom of the blanket...it'll provide visual weight for the blanket (if it works for framed images, it should work well to frame the blanket). I'll even thin out the top border for speediness sake seeing as I'm over a week overdue...luckily so is the baby.

Then it's time to sew up the seams. Ugh. More weaving in of ends. Oops, sewed that one on the wrong side. Procrastinate for another week trying to fix the mistake and finish up the borders. By this time the baby has been born. A lovely baby boy. But no receiving blanket. It's okay, this will be a crib/stroller blanket. It can still work.

Then comes the washing and blocking. Then the drying. You applaud yourself for a job well done. The blanket is finished. It's soft and lacy. A little too lacy---your fingers keep getting stuck in the holes. But, it's not my baby and therefore not my problem. Let the mom deal with this.

You feel proud. You finished the stupid, freaking blanket (you choose to ignore your aggressive tendencies and resentful feelings towards the blanket that has sucked hours of your life).

A couple of days pass. You cast on a new project. A cute hat with great yarn and potential. You don't notice the baby blanket hasn't been wrapped, you've made no attempts to gift it. You ignore this.

Then it comes: the day to gift the blanket. You look at it. You really look at it. You turn it over, notice some ends are starting to undo themselves. The shape is kinda odd. The joints are really bend-y. It's pilling (already!?).
You think...a gift card would go really well with that hat I made earlier.
You gift the hat and gift card.
You deny all knowledge of a baby blanket.

That? Oh that's just a blanket for Baby Brother to use when he's cold. It was a practice piece. Lesson learned.

FYI: I know it's not the worst project in the world. Heck my first scarf/blanket was a really, really big mess. I'm just pouting and denying any knowledge of the blanket.

My bad

Apparently the month of November is racing to a finish at about the same rate as October. Next week is Thanksgiving and the menu is just about finalized. This year we've decided to skip the tabbolih/fattoush and just have a couple of cooked veggies at a side. The tabbolih is just way too labor intensive and we always have too much fattoush left over. Aside from that we are going to fry our turkey again this year--I should say we're going to fry up our two turkeys this year.
On the yarn/knitting front I'm going to be dying some more of my nagini colorway--it is a really good combination of greens and it sold out of my etsy shop. I'm debating dying some more of the Fawkes colorway but I may do either a nice blue-snowflake blend for the winter instead.
I took my first spinning lesson the last week of October and needless to say, my talents are rather non-existent. I thought my years of wheel throwing experience would help, but not really. Changing the type of wheel I was using did help though--even though that first one was very pretty. And in case you wanted to see (although I should warn you, just skip over this if you have a weak stomach regarding good roving turned into bad yarn):

On Sunday, I drove up to Lansing for a class on yarn replacement taught by Amy R. Singer (from No Sheep for You and Knitty fame--in case you didn't know). It was a great class and frankly made me wonder who knits with hemp---although I may challenge myself to try it out later. My main reason for taking the class is rather simple. I never use the recommended yarn for projects and patterns that I knit. As far as I'm concerned the suggested pattern is a suggestion not strict guidelines--as if I would ever limit myself to what other people tell me I need to do.