She Drives Me Crazy

Okay, in this case, it's not really a she, it's an it. Unless you anthropomorphize knitting projects the way some men do cars and boats. So I'm totally obsessing over the Vintage Sock. I worked on it all day yesterday, in between eating breaks, showering, and laundry. When I say all day, I mean from about 7:00 a.m. until midnight. I was taking breaks every 45 minutes in hopes of avoiding repetitive movement stress injuries, but that means I'm knitting too much. Also, I took a couple of Advil before bed to lessen any soreness I might have in my hands and shoulders the next day. So you know that's too much. My arms are a bit sore this morning, but my hands are okay, thus far. But in any case, I have about 8 rows left of the main color and then I'll be moving on to the cuff silliness. So it may be possible to finish today. In which case, I'll be needing to find a baby project to do for my cousin Andrew and his wife Katie, as they are due in three months. Any suggestions? They are in Texas, and having the baby in the summer.

This week, I was careful to follow the purple calendar of doom's schedule so that I didn't have to make up any writing this weekend, and could do whatever I wanted to do with the exception of laundry and the dishes. I currently have 74,523 words and 248 pages of the Yet Untitled Novel.  Maybe I'll know what to name it when it's done.  So far this month I have 1,048 of the 8,000 word goal.

 



I also worked on my spinning quotas under the 2011 Yarn and Fiber Stash Reduction Plan and worked on getting some of the newly rediscovered fibers spun up. This is a grey Romney fleece that I hand dyed a hundred years ago (okay, probably at least eight to ten years ago, because I think it was before I bought my Lendrum wheel) because I wanted to see how the grey would take color differently.  This was a fleece I bought at the NH Sheep and Wool and prepared myself on my drum carder.  And I think it was before I got the good one, or I really sucked at drum carding at that time.  This was spun up as a 2 ply at about worsted weight.   

  

I also found a commercial white roving that I hand dyed likely around the same time.  I think the purples are different dyes though.  I have to say, it made a remarkable difference in spinning to have a well prepared fiber, even though I did have to predraft to remove some compacting and matting that occurred during the dyeing process.  This was also a two ply, but I spun it at about a sportweight.  It was easier to spin finer as the fiber preparation was better. 

  

I also found some Optim that I bought to try a few years ago.  I'm about 95% certain I bought it in that yarn shop I found in Vegas during our honeymoon.  If you want to learn more about Optim go here. If you don't, suffice to say that it's a wool that has been subjected to a process to make it finer, and more like silk.  It's interesting so far.  I'm using the laceweight flyer for the Lendrum at the 44:1 ratio.  I'd like to 2-ply it, but I just don't know if I can do it from a center pull ball without ending up with a mess.  I may have to navaho ply it, or actually try to come up with two bobbins with the same amounts on them.  Hahaha. I wish the pictures conveyed how ridiculously fine this is spinning up.

In other news, I've been off my Zyrtec since Tuesday because I'm having allergy testing on Monday and I have to be off allergy meds for it work.  It's freaking killing me.  I want to scratch out my eyes, my whole body itches and I appear to have some little hives for some reason, besides the regular respiratory symptoms.  I'm going to bring a benedryl and a Zyrtec with me and take them immediately after the testing. Not to sound like a Zyrtec commercial or anything. 

Anyway, that's what's been going on this week.  Stay tuned.