an ent knits

So… Somehow, I thought I was going to be better about blogging this month. Instead, it’s been a weird few weeks, with additional snow and shovelling, and lots of repacking and moving and reorganizing boxes. And carding, which brings us today’s eye candy.

Red batts (made for Liz) are mill-ends from Brown Sheep plus bits of alpaca/silk, sari silk, mohair locks, wool blend, and icicle. Green batts (made for Jen) are my handpainted superwash merino (from a group dye-day way back in 2008) plus grey bamboo rayon and some gold angelina. (Both sets were swapped for other fiber.)

The three main things that are keeping me from doing more carding are 1. work-related stuff, 2. the poor, lonely cat who’s still afraid to come downstairs, and 3. the weather, since my lovely carding station on the (enclosed) back porch is pretty cold if it’s below 40ºF and not sunny. But it is very nice indeed to have the carder clamped to a bookcase rather than an end table, so I can card while standing instead of while sitting on a footstool. Good thing I wanted to get going on the swap batts before I cleared all the boxes off of the former carding table!

And, yes, he does get lonely when I spend time downstairs, but Mel is enjoying at least some aspects of the new living situation:

He has a window that looks out on a tree and lots of birds! (Even though it’s not the window overlooking all the birdfeeders.)

The title refers both to the fact that I think I’ll be back to blogging more regularly now that I’ve basically finished school stuff and packing/moving stuff (unpacking is a different question, but it’s less urgent) and to the welcome I got from the weather here in Vermont:

That’s looking out toward the deck and backyard, a few minutes ago.

This next photo is from last Tuesday, in Philly:

Just a little different, there… But I don’t have to go anywhere today, so the snow and wind aren’t a problem.

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As far as fiber, I’ve finished a batch of spindle-plying and started a new set of AbbyBatts:

And I finally finished knitting my Hedgerows of Screams:

(Photo taken before moving.)

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Also, thank you to everyone for congratulations on my defense. (WP had some comment-emailing hiccups, and I got caught up in an extra experiment for my paper as well as moving stuffs, but I do appreciate your comments.)