Thursday, April 15, 2010

Spring and fiber

Well, spring has sprung around here. That means that we alternate lovely warm sunny days with days like today, which has been chilly and windy and overcast. I'm OK with that, but I think some creatures around here would prefer more of the sun. Rick went hiking last weekend when I was out of town, and texted me a picture of this lovely guy, whom he found hunkering down in the sun, trying to generate enough energy to move.
Rick was worried that it was dead, until he saw it blink. It was just absorbing as much sunlight as possible. Tilly, however, apparently thought that there was a bit too much of the bright orb overhead, and sat down to rest.
It's a long habit of hers on hot days to trot ahead to a patch of shade and wait for us there. The monkeyflowers liked the sun a bit more.
I, however, have been enjoying our last several days of fog and wind, especially when I'm hiking on trails with Tilly. Somehow those gray skies make our brief green season seem that much greener. There are a lot of flowers out that only appear for this short window of time.
In fibrous news, I'm still contemplating what to knit with my newly-spun Wensleydale. It's all wound up into a yarn cake, just waiting for me to find the right thing to make.
There's about 260 yards of laceweight there (pretty true to color, for once), and I bet if I wind some singles from one bobbin to another so I could finish them up as a three-ply, I could get another 50-60 yards to match (I may do that tonight). Any ideas? I'm thinking something lacey, and vaguely triangular (in that long shallow way I'm liking), but I could probably be swayed.

I'm also working on the Tibetan Clouds Stole (I promised I wouldn't put it aside, Ellen, and I haven't!). (BTW, if you want to see more lovely spinning, you should check out what Ellen's been up to. And Erica's been tempting me down the path of color and spinning, which I swore I'd never follow. You know, I don't think it's knitting that's a gateway craft; it's knitters who drag us further down the rabbithole.). I finally realized that part of what was putting me off was having to pull out the beads and the beading hook and the pattern and the yarn and the pencil, blah blah blah every time I sat down to work on it. So I cleared out one of the trays in my beloved Japanese lunch box, put everything I need for this project into it, and there it sits, beautifully contained and readily available and moveable.
I only have 16 more rows to go on the center square (it does get larger with every row); then I cast off one edges, put one edge on a holder, cast off the third edge, and start knitting back and forth on the last edge. It'll be much easier to see what's going on then, but here's a bit of a teaser for the time being.
This is one fun knit; talk about always wanting to complete just one more row (or in my case, because of the way I mark up my charts, four more rows). I'll be hard-pressed not to work on this tonight instead of finishing my spinning...

Meanwhile, I'm off for my crazy Thursday afternoon kid-activity run. Rick (for reasons known only to himself) decided to calculate just how much driving I do on Thursday afternoons, and came up with a figure of 45 miles. I think I was happier not knowing.

ETA: Marta, by the time I stopped dithering about the GGFI, registration was full, so it doesn't look like I'll be there this year (sniff). I'm really bummed, so I'll count on you to knit and spin a little extra for me, OK?

18 comments:

twinsetjan said...

I'm loving the colors in this post!

Lynne said...

Lots of yarny goodness.

I'd be happier not knowing too!

Gwen said...

Definitely better not to know the miles. *shudder*

You look to be in a happy yarn/fiber/spin place just now. Good use of the tray!

Bea said...

Look at Tilly! What a beautiful girl she is. (I like the thing up top, whatever it happens to be too.) The Tibetan shawl is looking lovely as well as that gorgeous purple handspun!

Willow said...

45 miles? Yikes! Do you put in an audio book to listen to?

That blue calls to me, as does every blue fiber. I don't suppose there is enough yarn there to make a summer 't-shirt', is there?

patrice said...

One day last year, between school pick=up, piano lessons, sports, church meeting and grocery store, I drove over 80 miles ... and never left Poway!!
I feel your pain :)

Unknown said...

squeeeee! What a handsome horned lizard! He looks so pre-historic. When we were kids we called them horny toads.

twinsetellen said...

Wensleydale - do I love it more as cheese or yarn? I think your work has swayed me. Definitely the yarn.

And I am not making this up - I was just sighing over the Tibetan clouds pattern three days ago, wondering when I'd get to see yours again! It is looking great.

Jane said...

Oh, that Wensleydale is a beautiful colour. Whatever you decide to do, it will be a joy to knit with

Mary Lou said...

And our green is just starting. I keep thinking I'll get out to my 'wildflowers' with the camera, but the mornings before work fly by. Can they be wild if they are in my garden?

lori said...

I called them horny toads, too - and boy did I love them. They used to be everywhere in Texas, but the fire ants came in and ate the red ants, which were the horny toads mainstay. Now it's very are to see them. Billy Burkhardt and I used to spend our Saturdays in 2nd grade going out into a field and filling a shoebox with horny toads, and then his mother took us to lunch; after lunch we released them again. What a weird thing to do, now that I think about it. :) Thanks for the memory push!

And I love the japanese box; doesn't it add so much to the pleasure of handwork, when you keep everything together in a beautiful box? Yours is really wonderful.

lori said...

edit to my comment: Now it's very rare to see them. Plus there should be an apostrophe, horny toads'.

oy, to exhaustion and failing to proofread, plus oy to having a copyeditor's mind.

Nana Sadie said...

I love your little Japanese lunch box, too! I think it's the perfect spot to contain your project, which looks very enticing indeed.
((((hugs))))

Alwen said...

Our alternation between warm & chilly was 77F Thursday to 45 F today. I feel just like that lizard!

Is that 45 miles one way? I used to take the kid up to pre-school 14 miles, drive home, then back again to pick him up. Nothing is close out here!

AlisonH said...

That first picture looked, first glance, like an adolescent punk squirrel that rolled in the crisco to spike its hair.

Linda M said...

delurking to say how much I LOVE your idea of using a bento box to contain your project. I've been using the drawer divider boxes I got at Ikea as project boxes but the bento box idea is so elegant! It gives me an excuse to start looking for a bento box to fall in love with!

Rachael said...

Oh that's a brilliant idea re the lunch box! Thanks for sharing!

EGunn said...

I've been feeling a lot like that lizard lately, but unfortunately I don't look nearly so cool while doing it!

The Wensleydale is just beautiful. I can't wait to see it knit up!

Your flowers are lovely, too...it's fun to catch the ones that come and go so quickly. =)