Throw Irritated

I wanted to knit Ryan an afghan. They are daunting, and I am an experienced enough knitter to know that it needs to be small, simple enough not to drive me crazy, and complicated enough not to drive me crazy. I chose the Knit Picks Sweet Dreams Throw. It's just 5 strips sewn together in a bulky yarn and has enough color changes to keep it interesting, and it's not even technically an afghan.

I have long ago finished all the strips. In fact, in the time since I finished those strips my baby has been born, learned to sit up, crawl and is beginning to walk...

I, like most or at least many of the knitters I know, hate weaving in ends. Instead of weaving in the ends as I went along, of course I waited until the end. The other thing keeping me from finishing this project is something that has been nagging at me since I started: What color am I supposed to use to sew these strips togther? There are 3 different colors in each strip. If I use only 1 color to sew them all together, won't the color show occasionally on the blocks that don't include that color? I asked the amazing knitters of Ravelry and the consensus seemed to be that if I properly mattress stitch them together, then the color won't matter because the seam will be invisible. 

It's not.

 I should have known better than to try to knit an afghan. I'm the type of knitter that can only have a few UFOs at any given time. I NEED to finish this blanket, but I can't come to terms with the fact that I will need to change colors while sewing this frick-a-frackin' thing together. Ryan says it doesn't matter and to just sew it all up with one color. He says he can barely tell, and that's what he would do. Well, it's NOT what I would do. I have 3 options here: 1) Seam it with one color and darn it if it shows; Maybe I can say that's part of the design... 2) Hide it somewhere I can forget about it forever and if Ryan ever brings it up again pretend it never existed, or 3) Switch color in the appropriate places, which isn't every square, but does happen several times throughout each strip. 

On top of all this I have fiber coming from two fiber clubs, newly finished handspun that I'm *dying* to knit with, 2 other projects I desperately want to cast on AND the Spring semester is starting and I already have 2 books to read by Monday.

 Arg.

Spotless

I plied and finished my lovely yarn! It is soft and lovely and wonderful. I don't know what I'm going to make with it yet, but I want whatever it is to last forever and ever. The wool was Blue-faced Leicester from Hello Yarn in the colorway "spotless".

Martha, Martha, Martha!

Went to 2 tapings of The Martha Stewart Show in New York. It was amazing to see everything happen in person. The friend that went with me took me to Times Square the night before, which is why I'm slightly bleary-eyed here.

I managed to spin for about 20 minutes on Monday. I wasn't sure if I'd be willing or able to spin after I returned from my trip to New York. It turns out that I was willing, but not able; I was far too exhausted. I've been working on the Bluefaced Leicester I got from Hello Yarn in 2006. It was the fiber that initially started my now-deep love affair with spinning. I am glad I forced myself to spin all the practice Corriedale that I got a Yarn School, because it would be a shame to muck up all this lovely wool. It's turning out nicely, and it's so much more even than I had expected after only having spun 8 oz of the Corriedale. We'll see how it goes, but so far it's going well.

Making a Big, Honkin' Hank

I looked around for a Louet tensioned lazy kate and saw they didn't exist. Rather than drop the cash that I could more happily spend on fiber, I just made my own.

Then I plied away, washed and hung my yarn to dry, and here it is. I made yarn! This is one big, honkin' skein. Well, I guess technically it's a hank now.

I don't think that running out into the streets and showing people would have the effect I want...

Dusting off the Wheel

I have taken a vacation from spinning. I suppose the word "vacation" implies that it was desirable, but really I think I just  got discouraged. I didn't feel like I'd ever be any good at it, and I like to be good at things right away. I was working long hours and living in Hawaii; not very conducive to spinning. Plus, when I reassembled my wheel after Harveyville Yarn School '06 it never worked quite properly. Now I've figured out what was wrong (it was a washer. ONE washer.) and fixed it, and I've been lurking in a bunch of spinning groups on Ravelry I felt truly motivated to spend at least ten minutes spinning each day.

I forced myself to finish some undyed practice fiber I got at yarn school. I started to ply it when I realized that I need a lazy kate that sits separately from my wheel. I washed and dried the sample I had spun (the part I had spun before it got tangled and turned into a mess). And here's what happened:

Hello. My name is Kat...

...and I'm a Ravelry addict.

I got my invitation today. It reminds me a lot of my mom's "The Wizard of Oz" story. She didn't have a color TV, and had only seen it in black-and-white. The first time she saw it in color and realized that it changes from black-and-white to color when Dorothy enters Oz. She had no idea what she was missing, but when she saw it in color it added a little magic to her life. 

So, I'm addicted.