A Long Time Ago....

I've been having a few health issues over the summer, which led me to stop posting until I got a better handle on myself. Being chronically ill is no picnic. And at the beginning of September, I and several of my co-workers were laid off, which led into a round of all sorts of calls, appointments, and various mayhem.

On the bright side, I've taken some time to bring some projects to completion in between applying for jobs. Spinning and knitting are truly marvelous rehab opportunities! And as usual, my knitting group has been super supportive, which I am forever thankful for. Love you guys!

A while back, Kate asked me to design a couple of pairs of socks for A Hundred Ravens. I finished up pair one and sent that to her last week, and it's really quite nice. I'll post photos after she's sent it to her club. The pattern itself won't be available separately for a few months as it's a club exclusive, but I'm quite pleased with it! Nice textured pattern that looks good in tonal yarns, and has looped stitches which can help break up pooling in more colorful handpaints.

Spinning's been keeping me busy too as I want to bring down the spinning WIP count. So far, so good!

Finished a lovely Inglenook Fibers batt, in colorway Crocus (the purple above). Super sweet, very soft, and will make a nice knitted necklace, I think. It's been quite a joy to spin, and I definitely recommend Mother Macrina's fibers.

Earlier in the year, I succumbed to the lure of a sale at Mad Angel Creations and bought two lovely bright blue and gold batts named Royal Fireworks. Normally I just pull strips from the side of a batt and spin, but this time I divided the fiber horizontally, spinning sections of blue, then gold, and finally plying them together for some sweet barberpole action. :) This yarn is destined to become an Elis cowl, a nifty free pattern on Ravelry by Reiko Kuwamura.

And today, I finished spinning a Wild Hare Fiber Studio superwash wool in a gradient colorway called Midnight Orchid. The feel of this fiber reminded me very much of the Targhee wool I spun last year and gave to Anna. Soft, bouncy, sproingy... it'll make a great shawl. I spun 678 yards in fingering, so I'll have plenty of patterns to choose from.

That'll be the trouble, won't it? Settling down to pick patterns for my handspun. Guess there are worse problems to have though.

June is Busting Out All Over!

I am not a fan of heat and humidity (see what I did there?). Mainly during the summer in Baltimore, I dash from air conditioned car to air conditioned office, then back home from work to my un-air conditioned home.

Central air conditioning is on my list of future improvements to Hampden Place, as it gets progressively less comfortable to sit and work on anything. I move up to my bedroom, where I have a nice portable unit set up, but it's not as comfy as relaxing in one of the living room chairs.

On the bright side, when I'm in my room, I can finish up things that would otherwise be consigned to bins to wait until the weather cools enough that I can face having wool in my hands.

I finished plying the Greenwood Fiberworks BFL and silk I'd done while in Hawaii last month. It's so beautiful, I spend time staring at it. Maybe I'll enter it into the State Fair this year. I measured out 360 yards of sport-weight yarn, which is quite a nice chunk. Right now, it's drying on a cookie cooling rack, a gorgeous display of color and shine.

I've been knitting up a baby sweater, Phazalia's Mitered Baby Jacket, for a co-worker's expectant wife, and as usual, I have spent much time tinking back and trying to figure out where I've gone wrong. :) Looked over all the other projects on Ravelry to see where I might have made my mistakes, and will be taking the project and pattern to knit night tomorrow to consult with everyone.

The yarn is Wisdom Yarns Marathon Socks--North Pole, in Candy Cane Red. I'd forgotten I had this until a nice Raveler contacted me to ask if I'd be willing to sell it to her. As I was on holiday, I told her I'd need to get back home before I could do anything. She later sent me a message that she'd found someone else to buy it from immediately. And since the skein was now uppermost in my mind, I pulled it out of its bin to use for the jacket, which has few seams and looks striking in self-striping colorways.

I hope I finish this before the baby arrives. We shall see!

Post-Holiday Catching Up

Our vacation went quickly and nicely, with my sister and niece, plus my own two little cherubs, spending random hours together. We talked story, slept in, ate all the things (I love, love, love what local kine foods they have at Zippy's), and enjoyed our holiday.

I finished one of my vacation projects, spinning up 4-ounces of a luscious Greenwood Fiberworks BFL and silk roving, using my new Bosworth Moosie. This fiber is fabulous, drafted easily and flowed like water onto the spindle.

The roving I chose was dyed in even horizontal stripes, so I decided to do some fractal spinning. I divided the roving in half lengthwise, spun up the first half, then divided the remaining half again lengthwise. After I spun up half of that, I divided the remaining fiber in half once more. The last two strips were pretty thin, so I didn't split it further.

Sometimes when I spin, there are bits of fluff which cause nepps in the singles. Not so with this roving! I had absolutely no waste whatsoever! And it had divided pretty darn equally, so that I only had a couple of yards left on the original cop. I simply Andean plied it and added it to the ply ball.

As you can see in the photo above, the result is a lovely, shimmering ball of pliable goodness. I've been plying it together since my return home, admiring how the colors shift and meld along the singles. Though I thought I'd use this for socks, I may knit up a shawl instead, especially as I expect to get a lot of sport-weight yardage.

Most Expensive Graduation Ever!

My niece graduates from high school, and everyone in the family is heading over to celebrate.

This is my first trip away as a dog owner, and my goodness, it costs a lot to board a dog! The cost of the week for her to run around and lose what manners she has is half the price of my plane fare. O.o

She'll have tons of fun, though, and so will I. I've packed some spinning, a pair of socks to knit, and my shawl-in-progress. It took me longer to choose projects than to choose my clothes.

For spinning, I'm going to start a fractal spinning project using my Bosworth Moosie and a gorgeous braid of Greenwood Fiberworks BFL and Silk in "Skyfall."

The socks I'm finishing are my second pair of my own Aqueduct Socks pattern, which I've picked up and set down a million times as I'm not knitting them two-at-a-time Magic Loop, but singly on DPNs. This was to enable me to write out clear DPN instructions for the pattern, and also to try out my new Knitter's Pride Cubics needles. Really comfy, and I've always liked square needles as they're easier on my hands. And, for the price, the set was a decent deal.

And then today, I found a couple of 9-inch circular Kollage Square needles at Tuesday Morning. I've never used these, but Veronica bought one when we took our epic road trip to Yarnmarket a couple years back, and she's still using hers (which I believe are Hiya-Hiya). Plus, at half-off, it seemed like an opportune moment to scoop up the sizes 2 and 3 that were left and take them on holiday. Circs are always easier to deal with on a plane, right? :)

My shawl is growing right along. :) I'm going to post this, then finish winding the skein for the border lace. I'm not at that yet, but I will be after flying umpteen million miles tomorrow!

2014 Maryland Sheep and Wool

The weather was glorious for this year's Sheep and Wool festival! Bright, mostly sunny, and relatively low humidity. Whee! If only MDSW had this weather every year. :)

I entered three handspun skeins, and my sample pair of Aqueduct Socks this year, and the socks and one of my skeins won ribbons!

This is a little over 2 ounces of buttery fiber from Kid Ewe Knot in Pennsylvania. Veronica gave the roving to me for Christmas, and I've loved every minute of spinning it. I hadn't yet finished the remainder when I needed to choose what to enter, so the rest is waiting to be joined with this winning section.

Lovely, lovely stuff. Highly recommend the fiber, if you can get your hands on some!

And then, Aqueduct Socks! Squee! I almost didn't enter these as I had made a mistake on one row of the eye of partridge heel, but grabbed them from the table on the way out the door anyway. And lookee! Second Place! The judges comments made me happy, as they commented specifically on how nice the stitch pattern is. Yay!

Since my Aqueduct Socks won second place in the Maryland Sheep and Wool commercial yarn sock category, I’ve put the discount code MDSW2014 on them for 50% off through May 10th. Click through the link on the sidebar to get straight to the pattern store.

My knitting sister Catherine and I had a great time, browsing all the vendors, and then snacking on some funnel cake. I bought a bunch of fiber, including my very first "unprocessed" bits from Feederbrook Farm so I can try my hand at totally preparing wool by myself. Gulp! Good thing the weather's nice. I am totally washing and rinsing it outside.

Anyone else go to MDSW? Share thoughts on your favorite fiber festival!

In Which Only Happy Things Exist

My most recent bestest creation and third place finisher at the 2013 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! Eeee! Most exciting revelation: I know how to spin, and am quite good at it. :)
Observe the fine thread. The gloss of silk and the rich rust color of the fiber. I used a drop spindle for this, which is unusual for me as I'd had such trouble with that method of spinning until this year.

Which makes it sound as though I've been spinning forever, but I didn't start until last April or so, borrowing Molly's wheel and then going to The Mannings to pick out one for my very own. Lenny, as he's known, is very dependable and cute, spending most of his time in the living room with me, the cats, and the fibers.

But earlier this year, I decided to attend the Madrona Fiber Festival in Tacoma, combining my love of fiber with a much-needed visit home to see Candyce. There, I learned how to use a drop spindle from the lovely women in the Spindlewood booth, and left the festival with two of their spindles and a considerable quantity of various wools.
I also got to semi-Kinnear the Yarn Harlot. It's not a true Kinnear, as I had to ask her to stand still for a moment so I could get the shot. She's very mobile!

This post is sort of the Memento of my last year, since it starts with my recent spinning achievement and works its way backwards in time. :)

I've done some knitting too, but this past 12-month is really marked by my shift to spinning. I'd always loved watching people spin, and it was so relaxing to let my mind drift while I turned little bits of fluff into something completely different.


And my year isn't all about knitting and or spinning, either. While not a luminary in the game world, I've done a couple of presentations that seemed to be well-received. And while I haven't been in the public eye much while our game was unannounced, I was pleased to be invited by an actual game luminary, Richard Dansky, to come speak at the East Coast Game Conference last month.

I like public speaking, especially on topics I enjoy. My presentation was about creating memorable NPCs in games, and folks seemed to like it, which was nice. I found I missed talking to other people about working in the games industry, people who love games and want to work on them, or learn more about working on them.

Good things happened to me in the past year, and that's been very pleasant.

Not dead. Not yet, anyway. :)

I'm not sure why I stopped posting, but I'll blame games, spinning, knitting, and illness for my absence.

And when I have more time, I will fully explain all my obsessions!

Honest!

Especially spinning. :) It's my latest hotness. I lubs it.

Companionable Mitts

Lazing away, and so glad that these mitts are done (I finished them on the plane returning from my holiday in Seattle) as the temperature has dropped significantly. It'll be in the 30s this week, after such balmy 50s - 40s since November.

Rose Tyler mitts, of which I've knit three pairs, are gorgeous, and these purple ones are for me. They're in Kate's new dk weight yarn, a soft and squishy single-ply superwash merino. It reminds me a lot of Malabrigo in its luxurious feel. Mmmmmm!

But why would I need to make 3 pairs...?

The first pair was for Christina, to whom I'd lent all my Dr. Who DVDs last year. She admired Rose as the Companion, and so I knit a pair for her in a lovely Louet Riverstone, in the aptly named colorway Rose.

In a lovely quirk of fate, I ended up being Christina's Secret Santa at the office, so I left her little things every Monday in December, finally ending up with the packet containing scented handmade soap, and these mitts. She wore them around the office all day, and was completely thrilled. Yay!

The second pair is in Miss Babs Yummy Sport, and is the exact weight called for in the pattern. I started them, thinking I'd keep them for myself. Then Kate accepted a job at 38 Studios, hired away from us by my nemesis, Mr. Moorgard. :(

I've always told Kate that I'd never knit anything for her as she's a great knitter herself. As I knit away on this pair of mitts, Kate complimented their color (which is a lovely rusty punkin), and suddenly, they became in my mind Kate's mitts. And so, I gave them to her for Christmas. They're perfect for her, and she wore them on her vacation to Scotland. I'd suggested that she take pics of the mitts at various locations during the trip, like folks do with gnomes and such, and she did. :) Her album's on Facebook, but for some reason, every time I try to link to a thing today, Blogger's interface messes it up, so no links for you!

But trust me, her mitts had a great time. :)

Later today, I'll do my 2012 tarot reading. I thought about it last night, but was caught up in downloading books from gutenberg.org to my new Kindle, gifted to me by my little cherubs. I only wish I'd gotten one sooner; it's fabulous. I've already finished 4 books on it (Pride and Prejudice; The Secret Garden; Heaven to Betsy, and Emily of Deep Valley), and am nearly done with A Little Princess. Why, yes, I do love to re-read old favorites. :)

I also copied in a knitting pattern .pdf, to see how it would work, and it looks pretty decent. Clearly, this is no iPad, but at the least I can carry around various patterns with me to consult with as I knit. Only 20 years to appreciate technology are left to me (to quote Donna), and I hope to make the most of them.

Six Cats

I'm going to get out my camera sometime this weekend to document them. Four cats currently live in my basement, while Mittens and Melody roam around upstairs.

The basement cats belong to Anna, my new roommate. She and I work together, she knits (yay!), and we're both crazy cat ladies. Although, Anna is twice the cat lady I am, given she has twice the cats.

Melody is not very pleased with the new inhabitants. Mittens goes up to the basement door to converse with them, but when we've opened the door to allow co-mingling, he is less forthcoming. Melody growls at them under her breath. She's apparently scarred after living with Scooter, who tormented her the entire time Dan and I lived together. =\

In any case, everyone will have to get along because this arrangement allows Anna and I to both save money, and maybe even turn on the heat once in a while. The price of my heating oil is more than a dollar higher per gallon than it was last winter, when it cost around $1,000 to heat the house. Aiee!

You can see why it's good that Anna can knit. She will want to cover herself with blankets, hats, and gloves to keep from freezing. Indeed, she may move into the basement herself as it is generally the warmest room in the house in winter.

Ohai, Blog :)

Put on your MovieDude voice! In a world filled with distractions, her blog went un-updated for nearly four months....

What have I done? Where did the time go?

As shown in image one, I saw a buncha sheep. Kate, Catherine and I drove up to Rhinebeck for the New York Sheep and Wool festival. It was a blast! Kate worked both days in Miss Babs' booth, while Catherine and I prowled around separately, fondling yarn and ogling sheep, goats, and alpacas. I ate fabled artichokes, and brought back some maple sugar cotton candy for Veronica (and it was pretty tasty; she shared it at knitting night before becoming slightly ill from having so much... hehehe).

Also in the past three months, the sock pattern I designed for Kate's yarn club went out. It's called Kaguya-hime, and was part of her World Folktales Yarn Club shipment for September. I also wrote the re-telling of the story, and made some little Japanese paper bookmarks to go with the pattern. The pattern will be available for non-Club members in December! Yay!

What I liked about this sock pattern is that it was easy to memorize and customize. I also used a band heel for it, which worked out really well as it's a simple style that's perfect for two-at-a-time Magic Loop socks. At first, I used info on it that I found on the internet, but after doing one pair of socks following the dimensions on those other instructions, I realized that I didn't particularly like how the heel turned out (even though those socks turned out well), so I changed it up to the version in with my pattern.

I also designed another sock pattern as part of Ravelry's Sock Knitters Anonymous June challenge, but haven't written up the pattern for that as yet. My August socks were knit in a cool cotton blend yarn that Donna gave me for my birthday, so I need to do another pair in actual wool to see how well it works. It's an all-over lace pattern derived from the same Japanese stitch pattern book from which I got the Kaguya-hime stitch. Opera Socks (the cotton socks) will be written up and released later as well. Squee!

And, also for Kate, I designed a shawl for a kit she wants to put together for her Etsy shop. It's called Molly's P'shawl, and the first test knit of it came out rather nicely. I made a half-sized version and gave it to Kate's daughter Lili. Super cute, if I do say so myself, and easy to knit, with a gorgeous lace edging. I'll knit a full-sized one later on, but the first p'shawlette, less than 50 grams, took no more than a couple of days to work up. It would have been done more quickly had I actually spent more time knitting.

For lo! The true reason this blog has languished isn't because of knitting and designing patterns, but the fault of Mass Effect, both 1 and 2. O.o I've done three playthroughs as FemShep, and now have MaleShep nearing the end of ME2, after importing him from ME1.

Dude. I've spent hours at this game (well, both), and I love it! And also, I am tickled to death to learn that Chris (my c-worker) wrote Ashley Williams and Thane Krios, as well as all the planet descriptions for the first two games.

I found out the latter fact when I mentioned how writing nearly 400 Operatives descriptions for The Agency, plus corporate backgrounds (which included bios of all their important people) gave me a case of hating biographies, and that I felt sorry for the person who wrote those planet descriptions. Hehehe!