Half A Sheep

Un-Raveled Redux

Still catching up on all that you've missed since I've fallen into the vortex of Ravelry...

've done some spinning...

This is Louet Northern Lights roving in the "Tropical Skittles" colorway.

Spun as a thin single and Navaho plied!  Whee!

I am truly loving my Julia!  The Victoria is great, but very short.  Since I've aged, getting "very short" is on my "Don't even think you can still do that!" list.

This is my baby. She is a truly fine tuned little machine!

I've taken this lovely handspun (a bit overspun, I think) and am knitting the Baby Surprise Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop.

These pictures don't reflect the amount I've gotten done on this.  All that's left to do is the seaming!  I adore this pattern!  The "surprise" really gets you, every single time it folds!  Amazing mind, that EZ!

I've also recruited friends on this particular adventure.  This is Susan's first BSJ (although I hear she's planning another one!)  She gets just as excited about the "Surprise" part as I do!

In addition the the many UFO's that I'm still working on, I've started a new project, just for me!  It's a top down raglan Cardigan made of Brooks Farm "Riata" #93 colorway.

Wool and Mohair and Silk!  Oh, my!

I think it is progressing nicely!

I've made it past the armholes and am now in stockinette purgatory, knitting rows and rows and rows!

I made it a V-neck (I hope).  The arms are waiting on waste yarn, to be knit down later.  The underarm was done with a provisional cast on, which will, I think, be easy to pick up with the arm stitches.

I don't know what I'm going to do for the bottom.  I think I'll just turn it under for a hem.

Oh, and lest we forget....FO!

No I haven't forgotten my Rockin' Sock Club!  May I present Gumdrops, knit of STR lightweight in the "Goody,Goody" colorway!

I loved making these.   The pattern was actually memorizable, and I took them everywhere!  And they feel delicious!

Now that I'm sort of caught up, I guess I'll set my timer for my 10 minutes of Ravelry...or maybe I'll just go knit!

Un-Raveling

I'm looking at you through the glass, don't know how much time has passed... Oh, God, it feels like forever.....

Stonesour, "Through Glass"

And here we are again.

My last post was sometime in July, around the time I did the death-spiral into the whatever-a-longs, and began circling the drain that is the interwebs!

Despite reports that I had vanished (true in cyberspace), died (untrue, ANYWHERE!), or joined some weird anti-fiber cult, which demanded that I give them all my wool (not a bat's chance in Hell!), I have been here all along!  I have proof, as I continue to see boxes of fiber and yarn occasionally show up at my door!  I'm certain that I had to be there to order it.  Actually, I've been doing some knitting, and much spinning, and working an awful lot (nothing new here).

And I've been on Ravelry.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I absolutely LOVE Ravelry with the heat of a thousand suns!  Jess & Casey are my absolute idols!  They have created a cultural phenomenon!  There is absolutely nothing about Ravelry that I am not absolutely enchanted with!  I love to chat it up, here and there with my lovely fiber friends! I love to look at what others are knitting!  I love to plan what I would like to knit next.  I'm positively hypnotized by the number of groups that seem like they were made just for me (my interests are ecclectic and far ranging)!  And I will not mention the number of knit-alongs.

And therein lay the problem.

I was on Ravelry so much, that I had almost no time to knit!

I tried to cut back.  I would allow myself to check patterns only at work, where my computer time is limited.   That lasted for a week.  I tried diversionary tactics.  (PLURK is almost as bad as RAVELRY as a giant time worm!)  I tried reading more, but, unlike Wendy, I can't read and knit at the same time!  (I did get to preview the Twilight series for my youngest daughter, though.)  I even cleaned the house!  Still, when I had five free minutes or more....back to the computer I would slink, to get my Rav-fix.

Now, it's not as if I were doing anything on Ravelry that was even remotely productive, like posting about a project, updating needle or book counts, photographing and organizing stash, or even just writing a comment or two.  No, I was simply oogling each and every project I could find!  My queue has grown to the size of a giant sequoia!  (And that's just the ones I have the patterns for!)  I've coveted....yes coveted my neighbor's yarn!  I have lusted after the luxury of cashmere!  I have yearned for the stitch compositions of Yarnissima!  I have Dreamed in Color!  I have answered the call of the sirens that are sock clubs!  And I have positively lusted after lace, in my heart.

Then, one day, I went to work and left my knitting at home!

Oh, dear fiber friends, how can one face the day when one must give up the thing one treasures, for one's own good?  How can one live without the nearly constant contact with new and endlessly entertaining forums?  How can one close one's eyes to the delight that is a whole whack of new patterns? Every. Single. Day?  Yet, that is what Ihave done this past week.

I allowed myself to get on the computer only for 15 minutes each day, in which I had to check e-mail, and conduct business.  I've actually set the timer on my phone!  The only time I'm allowed to get on Ravelry is "remainder time" from that 15 minutes.  This allows me to quickly peruse the pattern page, make any updates, or answer mail, but not to wander from page to page, willy-nilly, in a fiber-fog!

And, guess what happened!

I'm knitting again!   (Pictures will follow.....promise!)