an ent knits

I have been spinning more.  (Surprise anyone?)  I have also been knitting, but none of my knitting is far enough along to merit pictures.

Here is some new yarn:

That’s all of the ounce of Poppies from my almost-solid sampler, plus one ply of Marigold in the 3-ply.  Both colors are the wool blend.  It’s nowhere near as soft as merino or BFL, but I can understand why it’s Amy’s favorite–it’s really springy. 

For non-continuing stuff, I think (ohpleaseohplease) I won’t have any more crazy late nights at work for at least a little while.  (A couple of us got take-out at 10pm on Monday, ate in lab, and then finally left a little after midnight.  That’s an extreme example, but still.  This is why my fibercrafting has been comfort spinning, what fibercrafting there’s been.)

I want to see if I can get home before 8pm tonight, so my second Shoot a Dozen Days picture will go up tomorrow.  (How is it almost March already?)

on my front porch, last Saturday

I am somewhat less crazy-busy at work (so it’s back to semi-normal grad-student-ing).  I haven’t been doing much knitting–just a bit of adding to the blanket and some swatching that I’ll probably discuss next week–but I’m still spinning pretty much every day. 

Here’s what I’ve finished in the last week or so:

100 yds of kool-aid-dyed wool blend, 60 yds of Boogie merino and BFL 3-ply, and about 20 yards of yarn out of a scrap of roving that my colleague A. had been given as a gift tie thingy. 

I started this 3-ply mostly to clear off a couple of bobbins; the light pink and the blue are the merino I’d used for a couple of other yarns recently, and the dark pink is leftover redwood BFL that I subbed in for the blue and one strand of light pink when I ran out of them.

I think this stuff’s going to be something for Dulaan, but I’m not sure what.

This is my ounce of BFL in Hosta from the almost-solid sampler.  I was thinking about putting it in the green blanket, but I think it might be too bright.  Maybe it’ll be a lacy scarf…there’s about 90 yards of it, which should be enough.  But it’s a little brighter and yellowy-er than I want to wear next to my face.  I love it, though.  And it was soooo nice to spin green after so much blue and pink and purple.  (I can tolerate blue, pink, and purple, even if I don’t like them much, but that was kind of a lot of non-favorite colors.)

Despite, or possibly because of, the insanity that is labwork right now, I’ve been doing a good bit of spinning this week as a way to relax when I get home.  (Especially when I get home at 10 and then need to scrounge some sort of dinner.)   

Here’s some of what I’ve finished:

That’s ten yards of laceweight from my kool-aid-dyed wool blend and forty yards of three-ply, one ply each of merino in Over the Moon, merino in Peony, and BFL in Red Maple, all from Amy Boogie.  I have lots of plans for playing with three-ply and color combinations….plans are good.  I like having plans whether or not they actually come to fruition.

Speaking of plans that go somewhere, though:

This is a closeup (no, really?) of my Peacock Feathers Shawl.  I’m about halfway through the first chart, and I love it.  (I’m also wondering whether the fact that I’m knitting a big shawl on 3s is a sign that my sanity has well and truly fled the scene, but that doesn’t seem so pressing in the face of beautiful green knitting.)

My computer is still not fixed, although I was told it should be ready by Monday.  Work is also crazy-making busy.  So here, a day late, are a couple of photos from last Friday (the 9th), when I took most of the day off to run errands and decompress a bit.

These are both pictures of the Schuylkill, frozen over and partially covered with snow, taken from the Walnut Street bridge.  (The ice has since melted at least some, but I haven’t crossed the river in days, so I don’t know what it looks like now.)

I am not doing well with electronics right now.  My computer is at the shop, hopefully to return soon with its ability to recharge restored.  (My phone is having intermittent problems that resemble the logic board issues that my old computer had, my kitchen light isn’t working (not electronic, maybe, but electrical), my iPod is mostly okay but slowly wearing out of battery, such that it quits fairly quickly in the cold….) 

At least my knitting needles and spinning wheel are still being nice to me.  I’ve been doing a bit more spinning, I’ve added a bit to my freeform blanket, and I’m halfway through the first chart in the Peacock Feathers Shawl.  (The Diamond Fantasy Shawl is stalled as I try to decide how much bigger I want to make it and what to use as a supplement for the original four ounces of bfl if I need such a supplement.)

And I did get to wake up to snow and no public-radio fundraising this morning, even if the snow is already slushy and icky.

Last Saturday, Jill and Ella braved the cold with their cameras and thereby got me out of lab and into the sunshine to join them.  These are a few of the pictures I took, all in the cemetery near my lab.

My upstream handspun-swap pal, Jen, is far more punctual than I–she sent my second batch of yarn already.  I got it on Tuesday morning, which made it a really nice pick-me-up before my committee meeting in the afternoon.  (The meeting went well, and some of my stress has dissipated, but I’m still busy and under a fair amount of pressure.  Which…well…is normal for grad school.) 

Anyway, it’s beautiful, soft yarn, in what I think (if I’m understanding her letter correctly) is a variety of natural sheep-and-alpaca colors, including a fair amount of fiber from her alpaca.  My current plan is to include it in one (or maybe both) of the blankets I’m planning (I’ve started the green and grey one and intend to also make a red, gold, and brown one), but that may change.  (I’m also trying to think of good uses for the frogs she sent.)

I’m still working on my second batch of outgoing swap-yarn, but I’ve finished part of it:

This is from a merino-llama blend given to me by a friendly grad student (H.) from the lab next door to mine, since she doesn’t really spin much and didn’t think she’d use it.  (I know the roving is from her mom, but I don’t know whether the fiber is from their animals.)  It’s really soft, despite a bit of felting, and was really fun to spin.  This is about 65 yards of lace-to-fingering-weight yarn. 

There isn’t much knitting to show; the cuff on my second fire sock is an inch or so longer than last time, but it wouldn’t make for an exciting picture.  With any luck, I’ll have something pretty to show, knitting-wise, sometime in the next week. 

This is another pic from Wednesday, showing the sunlight.