Stowaway

I know, I know,

it's been a while. I know. But I'm here (briefly, before my next short trip) so make the best of it, right?
You know what it's like, having the Photographer over for almost 3 months, his visit coinciding with a big stage production asking for a lot of your time, and then there's the music lessons, multiple national holidays with their festive events, and let's not forget the almost full time job. Writing a blog post worth writing seemed  to end up on the bottom of the to-do list.

Besides, I wasn't knitting anything I could share yet. Some of it I will share soon enough, as the happy recipients of the massive knit project have already happily received their gift. I just need to edit the pictures (and there are a few) so I can share something I'm really proud of.

None of the above has anything to do with the title of this post, but that probably a result of me not knowing where to start on that one, so I'll just go ahead with it anyway.

So we discovered a stowaway.



Uhuh....



Fortunately we found this stowaway fairly quickly after it boarded, so we didn't miss a thing... (even if the Photographer chose denial as a strategy for a while, bless him).


See if you can find it

Right, now I know you can't see it, but you know what I'm trying to tell you, don't you?*

Somewhere in there is out little stowaway, bouncing around all ready to come out in 20 weeks! Yes, we're expecting!!!

We're all in good health, although the Photographer tells me he sleeps extraordinary amounts of sleep. I wish I did too, but that's the way it is I guess ;)

Little Stowaway is doing just fine, growing, bumping around, dancing little jigs on my bladder... I know, we had a check up today, and that's what it looked like!**

I hope you'll share in our happiness, as it's the best thing that happened in at least 6 years!

With that, I have to leave you for now but I promise not to leave it this long again... Hope to see you back too!

*no, I'm not trying to tell you I'm getting fat(ter)***

**and felt like, now if you'll excuse me... 

***I suppose I am, but it's not fat

****thank you, economic crisis, thank you US Immigration for making us feel special and unique

Tour de Fleece - Stage 15

Tour de Fleece - Stage 14

Tour de Fleece - Stage 13

Tour de Fleece - Stage 12

Tour de Fleece - Stage 10

Tour de Fleece - Stage 9

Tour de Fleece - Stage 8

Tour de Fleece - Stage 7

Tour de Fleece - Stage 6

Tour de Fleece - Stage 3

Tour de Fleece - Stage 2

Tour de Fleece - Stage 1

WIP Wednesday: Saturday Leftovers

Writing has been... interesting... to get around to. The Photographer's here and he is linked by umbilical cord to this here laptop. Having sent him off to find new hooks for the spinning wheel, I managed to work on some pictures. You may have noticed they are in greyscale this week, since it may or may not be possible that one or more (or none) are to remain secret for a bit. 

Less than 10 grams left of this skein after finishing a project

About 8 rows worked with this yarn

About halfway done, there is actually now a little less than this on the ball

Just being pretty.

I will try to keep up with the blog, but I won't be able to post regularly on Wednesdays for the coming 2 months. I can't guarantee winning the wrestling every week on time. Don't worry, I still love you all even if I'm not around so much ;)

3KCBWDAY1 - Colour Lovers

Hi all, 

Today is the first time I'm participating in a thingymawhattum called... what it says down there in this here banner. 

It's a thing where bloggers all over the world share their thoughts on the same subjects for a week. Now my week is about to be interrupted by a Photographer showing up, so this may or may not be my only entry this year. We'll see. For now, I'll tell you a little something about colour and my craft. The Stash is a good place to start, it's the base of it all I suppose. I tend to pick a yarn or fibre of strong colours. There is a place for pastels and soft tones. I have some in my stash even, but it tends to stay there for longer than most (indefinitely).

There is more enjoyment for me, working with a strong colour. It doesn't need to be a bright, in your face colour, even though I do like those as well. Natural coloured fibre has a certain something to it. The colour is part of its being, not something added later (which doesn't stop me from dyeing my hair, obviously). 

So strong colours do it for me. It may have something to do with the way they brighten up my wardrobe. There nothing like a colourful shawl to lift the black-top-on-jeans-look, is there?

Windward - Heidi Kirrmaier

Tolovana - Marnie Maclean

Jeweled Cowl - Sachiko Uemura

Pea Vines - Anne Hanson

Rock Island - Jared Flood

Damask - Kitman Figueroa

Echo Flower Shawl - Jenny Johnson Johnen

Annis - Suzanna IC

WIP Wednesday: Unsprung

Ahhhhhhh

There's still something to show you! I haven spun anything since whenever I last told you I did. I guess the white merino/some-sort-of-plastic-mix is just not appealing enough for me right now. Soonish I might get the rescue wheel cleaned and fixed, so I'll have 2 working wheels to keep going. Maybe that will help.*

I'm working with my handspun Sound of Music, and as you can see by the state of that cake, quite a bit of it has found its way into a project. I think I named it Windswept. It's stripy and I'm happy I mixed the length of the colour repeats, as that now means it's messy striped instead of fixed and ruled by the pattern alone. 

It's an interesting pattern, which leads to a shawl/scarf shape by adding different triangles on top of one another. It's different all right, and adding a new triangle after every few repeats (except for the middle part, which has a whopping 13 4-row repeats) makes this stockinette and garter stitch pattern very entertaining indeed. 

Because of the simple patterning, it's really nice for a self-striping yarn. This yarn doesn't need much, because it already attracts enough attention on its own. As much as I love luxury brand or indie dyed yarn, there isn't anything like making something from something you already made yourself. Does that make sense?

Looks like Spring, right? Look closely, I did a little tricksy. Our mulberry tree gets chopped back every Autumn, or it will cover half the garden and the pathway behind that wall. *Some* people who use the path don't enjoy hacking their way through our tree on their way to *important stuff*.** It looks awful like this, but once it starts up, it'll be blocking my way out in no time at all. 

Spot that. That, dear reader, is not dew. It's rain. Good for the garden, yes. I understand that bit.

But it makes our Japanese maple look so sad! We've had a few nights of frost in a row, so I sure hope the leaves will perk up a bit when the temperature gets back to normal. Spring definitely seems unsprung from where I'm standing***

At least the vines are waking up. I thought I should mention that... priorities, right?

 *maybe not
** or whatever
***in full rain regalia, fleece jacket, wool socks, gloves, wool cap.

Simple Sunday: Breidag Highlights, day 2

Disclaimer: Not ALL of that is for me. And I took more pictures, non of which are decent enough to post here. I blame the camera. 

Fibre Friday: Breidag Highlights, day 1

WIP Wednesday: The Pretty

O Hai!

No I didn't forget you last week, I just didn't have anything to tell you and certainly nothing to show you. I do now, on both counts, so here we are again. Nothing much to say really, other than being excited about a new project, started just so I have something to show on the blog!

Secret knitting and everlasting spinning for others has left me less than enthusiastic about everything on the needles and the bobbin. Not that I'm not happy to make for others, but when things end up on a LIST and in QUEUES, something has to give. It took me 2 weeks to find something to use Sound of Music in. 2 weeks of bleh, coincidentally. I'm sure the 2 are related. 

Below some of the things that are good. Yummy good.

Homework

Millefleurs by Dutch Wool Diva

The start of a new something not for me

Sound of Music by Dutch Wool Diva and me

Stockinette 

Garter

I'll be out and about and surrounded by other knitters all weekend, looking for glimpses of Happy!  

Which reminds me, I need to do my knitting homework....