Monday, January 12, 2009

27 hours of travel later

I am in Vermont. Getting here was a bit of a fiasco. First, we had to catch a bus at 5am to get down to Seattle for the flight (it is stupidly expensive to fly to Albany from Vancouver). We arrived 4 hours early to Seatac so we checked in, cleared security and waited around. We learned our flight was delayed by 30 minutes and became concerned that we would miss our connection. Turns out that was unnecessary.

So we got on the plane and the flight was uneventful, even kind of comfortable since the plane was quite empty and we each had a row of three seats to ourselves to stretch out and sleep on. We arrived in Washington D.C. with 40 minutes to spare, only to discover that our connection had been cancelled.

To make matters worse, they didn't have any decent alternatives. The best they could do was a flight from D.C. to Philidelphia the next morning, with a connection to Albany that would have us arriving in the late afternoon: about 8 hours of travel to get an hour away. We found a train that left DC at 3:00am (it was around 11 at this point) and arrived in Albany at 9 in the morning. After some consideration we chose this option and did finally make it to Albany.

But seriously, 27 hours of travel? I could have gone to Australia.

A knitting new year

Knitting Goals

I’m not going to make any ‘resolutions’ for my knitting this year. I resolved to do a lot of things in 2008 but due to the wonderful unpredictability of life, a lot of them didn’t happen. That’s okay but this year, I want to approach my knitting vision for the year without an element of obligation.

My first goal is to knit three sweaters. This has already been a particularly cold winter and I would really like more sweaters. However, because I am a knitter I don’t really want to go out and buy a bunch of sweaters.
Knit 10 pairs of socks. I have a lot of sock yarn. I do not however, have a lot of socks. I would like to remedy this.

Andrew has upped the ante on this. I get a prize if I accomplish goals 1 and 2 (I don’t think he thinks I can do it). If I don’t succeed, he gets 2 pairs of socks. I’m going to go about this honestly and state for the record here that these must be ten pairs of adult socks and 2 full sized adult sweaters with long sleeves. My Central Park Hoodie in progress doesn’t count.

Stash mindfully. I’m not going to not buy yarn. That way lies madness. After all, hasn’t the Yarn Harlot herself demonstrated that having a stash comes in handy in case of financial emergency? However, I want to pay more attention to what I’m stashing and why. I would like to consider what sort of project I would make with the yarn (not necessarily a specific pattern). I also want to try to visit yarn stores with a shopping list that takes my queue into consideration. And cut back on the sock yarn.

Spin every day. I’m not going to set a goal of ten minutes a day but I do want to try and spin, even just a little, every day.

Cast on mindfully. When I’m in the midst of a big project, especially a frustrating one, I get startitis and cast on a bunch of things that end up just sitting around until I either decide I don’t want to knit them and rip them out or I finish something and can pick them up again. The result is a collection of barely started WIPs.

Love knitting and remember I love it even when my project is driving me crazy

Blog more

Not quite knitting but related: get a digital SLR camera

Learn to dye yarn.

Keeping my knitting/stash organized both in reality and virtually. Ie, keep WIPs contained and add projects and stash to Ravelry in a timely manner.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

A productive long weekend




I went on a spinning kick this weekend. Suddenly, all I wanted to do was spin. I started with the Yummy Yarn roving in Ianto I bought when I first got my wheel. I spun two singles then plied them. I'm pretty happy with this yarn. I'm getting a lot more consistent, both with the thickness of the yarn and the amount of twist. Yay.



Yummy Yarn Roving Ianto colourway. 4oz

Once that was done, I still wasn't done spinning. I got this urge to spin some superwash wool fibre that I bought from Twist of Fate at Gibsons Fibre Fest. This stuff is just beautiful to spin with, wonderfully soft and drafts like a dream. I spun two bobbins and plied them together, all on Saturday afternoon. This morning my right leg is still sore from all the treadling but it's totally worth it.

Twist of Fate Superwash wool 100 grams

I've also been finishing things this week. I finished the socks for Andrew's mom. 52 stitches on #5 needles, using Dream in Colour Classy. These were a great quick knit and the thick socks will be great for chilly Vermont.


DIC Classy cast on 52 stitches on #5 needles

And I finally finished socks for me. I actually started socks out of this yarn last August. I picked up the yarn from the Unwind Yarns and Gems booth and cast on. I later decided that it would be too big so I frogged it. I cast on again just before we left for Paris and worked on the first sock on the plane. Then my needle tip broke. I glued it back together a few times and managed to finish the first sock but it broke a final time and I couldn't fix it. I recently received a set of replacement tips from knitpicks so I finally finished the socks. Now I have a new pair of warm wool socks. Good thing too since it's snowing again.


Unwind Yarns and Gems Merlot Sport sock yarn. 56 stitch cast on on size 4s