the Akamai Knitter

The love affair with my new Suzie has been continuing as I’ve been plying like a mad woman. I have finished plying the last of the Poiple Stuff. I started spinning this back in August so it’s past time that I’ve finished.

And a close-up.

I brushed up on plying techniques with the book Hands On Spinning by Lee Raven. I discovered I was using one of the worst techniques possible to ply so I quickly studied up to try and correct the situation. I think the reason I had never learned another way was because I learned from a center pull ball instead of from bobbins, and it’s easier to hold the two different strands in your separate hands to control the ball. Plying from bobbins is so much easier though.

Once the Poiple Stuff was done, I decided to ply the rest of the Jenny Blue.

I noticed a difference in the quality of the singled I spun from the Schacht and the Suzie. The singles I spun from the Suzie were of a much better quality then the Schacht. The singles from the Schacht were often underspun much to my dismay.

After all this plying, I wasn’t done with the spinning. I decided to break into my stash and start spinning some of this Colonial wool.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get a good picture of this stuff on the bobbin for soon. The pictures I did manage to take somehow made the wool come out an electric blue and that just ain’t right. The poor lighting in my living room constantly makes picture taking a challenge and I don’t fancy towing the Suzie out of the room just for a photo shoot. There are times to draw the line at the crazy things I will do for bloggin’ and that is one of the times. What if the poor Suzie got hurt?!

While I’ve been doing all this spinning and plying, I’ve been listening to Cast On and I now have a schoolgirl crush on Brenda Dayne. That woman’s voice just lulls me into a state of hypnotic state of love and peace. I swear if she asked me to do mad insane things for her in that lovely voice of hers I’d probably say, “Yes, Brenda, anything for you Brenda. Hop on one foot nekkid? Yes, Brenda.”

Then of course there’s the hilarious duo Lime & Violet to also keep me company. I’m a newbie to their show though and I’m still catching up. I have heard though, that the effervescent Violet has a medical fund set up and you can read a little bit more about it here. I wish her all the luck in the world and I’d like to remind all the ladies to get regular breast exams done and if you’re over 40 get those mammograms done too. Okay! I’m stepping off my soap box!
Thanks for listening. Now I’m going to go and dream of podcasting with Wendy M. through some nifty technological wonder gadget that I probably cannot afford.

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Tonight I met up with Barb for an Aloha Knitter’s meeting. She surprised me with a cute little gift of some stitch markers in a little container and my very own black sheep tape measure! You’ll have to excuse the crappy photographs as it is late and there is no good lighting to be had. I’ve made the pictures tinier then usual so as you will not be blinded by the awful flash photography.

I have been wanting one of these cute little sheep measuring tapes for ages but I just couldn’t seem to justify the purchase for myself. The stitch markers are especially cute and in one of my favorite colours, blue.

I hope I was able to express how thankful I was to her because these small things really touched me. They are beautiful little gifts.

While I chatted, gossiped, and had a grand ol’ time with Barb, I worked on yet another Shifting Sands Scarf.

The yarn is a 100% Alpaca from Knit Picks, called Andean Treasure in the colour Summer Sky. Because this is a sport weight yarn, I’m using a size 5US or 3.75mm needle. I really love this yarn and I’m not surprised. So far I’ve been really happy with all of the yarns I’ve gotten at Knit Picks.

I am getting really bored with scarves, but I promised to knit a scarf for my mother so I am knitting a scarf for my mother because she is my mother and I love my mother. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. Luckily this is a really fast and easy knit that I can do while watching TV or chatting with friends.

I also have some socks on the needles. They’ll soon be ready for an FO blog spot. In the meantime, the projects that I am eyeing for future consumption are:

• Monkey Socks
• Tiffany Mittens
• Pirate Mittens
• Squirrell Mittens
• Anemoi Mittens

You’ll notice that I’m particularly attracted to the colour knitting. This is because I’ve not yet done any colour knitting and I feel it’s about time I’ve tried. I need to stretch my wings and try new things and all that.

I’m also toying with the idea of getting the new Stitchionary and designing a knitting bag for myself. I’ve been using the KIPer bags from Knit Picks and while they are practical and they function well, they are also very boring. So in the interest of not draining my pocketbook on a bag that I might get bored with before too long, I’d like to make my own. I don’t have many sewing skills to speak of, but I do think I have some mad knittin’ skills to speak of.

Do any of you have a favorite knitting bag that you would never part with? Where’d you get it? I might still be interested in purchasing another one if I find one tempting enough. Ya never know!

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Eeek!
Yesterday I nearly lost my whole blog. Almost. Lost. My. Whole. Blog. Apparently one of my SQL databases decided to act up and stop working with the universe in harmony, so it just shut down my whole blog. Luckily Wendy of the Pointy Sticks, reigning queen of Yarn Porn, worked her fingers to the bone for hours to get this humble blog back up and running back to the state we now know it. This blogger will now backup often. Frequently. Religiously. Gratefully. So if you have a chance, check out one of her blogs, because she seriously rocks my world.

Suzie! I love you!

Back in the material world, I received my Majacraft Suzie last week Thursday but that very day I experienced a 3 hour power shortage which resulted in some clam chowder going slightly bad. Which resulted in my getting sick for a couple of days. So over the weekend I recuperated and all I did was open the box. When I opened the box all I could do was gasp a bit in consternation at all the assembling that the Suzie would require.

My hands don’t have much strength due to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both of them so I called on my handy friend Alan for help. He was coming over sometime this week to help with some things anyway and he said he’d likely come on Tuesday. Only when I talked to him this morning, he said he was swamped with work at his 2nd or 3rd job. That’s right this man has like 3 jobs, so I wasn’t about to gripe at him for reneging on his commitment. I was terribly depressed though at the thought of having to wait till the weekend to spin on my new wheel.

So I got my bitch on and put on some female vocalists that I like and just got to work. After a couple of hours with a screwdriver I finally was able to start spinning on my dream wheel and strut around feeling some macho pride. I did have some problems getting the some of the screws in, but I persevered and I toiled and I sweated bullets, but it was all worth it. Without further ado I give you my Majacraft Suzie in all her glory in her new home!

Assembly Notes

I probably should have edited out my mess, but I’m just too pooped from crawling around on the ground and my hands are pretty tired out too. On the whole though, assembly was a breeze. The instructions were clear and concise. The pictures were well illustrated and a great help and on the whole I’m really proud of myself. I wouldn’t have minded more illustrations to demonstrate what they were talking about since I’m not too mechanically inclined, but really I think that if I could do it anyone could.

Like I said, I had some problems getting some of the screws in, but that was a matter of strength. My hands have nerve damage so anyone with healthy hands shouldn’t have the problems I had. And really the only screws that gave me problems were the 8 at the base of the wheel, after that getting the rest of the screws in wasn’t a problem. The instructions called for a wrench, but I found I really didn’t need it, which was a good thing since I didn’t have one.
There’s still knitting going on, but I’ll have to save that for another post. For now it’s back to my darling darling Suzie. Whee!

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This has been a huge sports spectator weekend for me. On Saturday Duke played Georgetown and squeaked by. Later that day UH played Oregon State and lost, and today the Dallas Cowboys are playing against the New York Giants. Go Cowboys!< /p>

All this time in front of the television provided me with much knitting time, so I finished Lexi’s Entrelac Scarf last night and then I started Grumperina’s Shifting Sands Scarf. I’ll get to posting pictures of Lexi’s scarf once I get it all blocked, but for right now I’m in love with the Shifting Sands because I’m using the most luscious yarn.

It’s Andean Silk from Knit Picks and it’s 55% superfine alpaca, 23% silk, and 22% merino wool. It is so soft. I cannot say enough about how soft this yarn is! It’s a worsted weight yarn, which is heavier then what Grumperina used in her own scarf, so I bumped up my needle size to a 7US. The scarf so far doesn’t look at all like the scarf in her pattern, but I do like the way mine is turning out. I did find her tutorial on how to cable without a cable needle very helpful and so far I’ve been zipping along with the tiny cables.

I am worried that the recipient, my Great-Aunt Eleanor, of the scarf would be disappointed in it because the stitch pattern is so different from the chevron of the original pattern. I had a chance to show her a picture of the pattern and she really, really liked it. I only hope she likes this variation of it just as much.

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