And here is a photo from the middle of the first crowdleading performance, before they made finals.  I didn't take any pics from the second performance because I was far too busy screaming along with them and watching them all go.

Most of the time I was busy up in the seats knitting and doing a bit of good-natured shit talking on the other teams, providing some much needed comic relief for a lot of very tired cheer moms and dads.  Plus some of the other teams were bastards and totally deserved it.  Just saying.  I got a lot done on Louisa... here's a pic from earlier on in the weekend....

And here it is this morning.  I transitioned to the smaller needles, at which point I was able to try it on, only to find out it's about 4 inches too big on me.  Majorly bummed about that, though of course my mom is very cheerful because it means she'll get to have it when it's finished.  We might get me more of the yarn (in a different color, I think, this one is getting old for me at this point) so that I can make myself another in a smaller size.  Good thing is that this pattern has 5 sizes, and I will be making the second smallest for myself, which is a bit of an ego boost.  I may have lost a significant amount of weight, but I still, in my head, feel like I'm the same size I was two years ago.... that means I overestimate when I chose sizes in patterns, and also probably that my mom is destined to inherit more knitted items from me at some point.

This weekend was also the huge parking lot yarn sale from Newton's, which I am told happens twice a year, and me and my mom made out like bandits.  It's a little daunting, because most of the yarn isn't labled, so I have no idea what most of it is actually made from, but we figure if we dry clean everything it should be safe, and it's all so lovely that we couldn't pass it up.  Here is my haul:

This is a lovely salmon colored yarn, I think theres probably some cotton and nylon in it, just to judge by the feel of it.  Half of it is barber-pole with a slightly darker color, and half of it is just single colored... not sure how thats actually distributed in the skein, yet, but we'll see when I wind it into a ball.

Here is a giant pile of cream-colored cotton mystery blend.  There is a ton of this, 3 giant skeins, but I figure I can make a few different things from it and it might be good for dying.  I might make this with it, if I can get the right gauge.

This stuff is cotton sock yarn, and it was seriously $1 a skein.  Might dye it before I knit with it, but I'm not sure yet.

This is a grey-blue cotton yarn, no idea yet what it will be.

And this is a total mystery to me, fiber wise, but it's a gorgeous tourquoise/blue and bronze barber pole kind of yarn, and I am a fool when it comes to blues mixed with gold or bronze, not sure why.  I don't have a flying clue what I'm going to do with it, it's pretty thin (maybe sock weight, perhaps), and I got three skeins of it because it's so lovely.  Here's the best part.  I got, what, reasonably a years worth of yarn here to knit with, seriously a trash bag full of the stuff, and it came to $25, of which we were only charged $20.  Seriously, ONE of these skeins would cost that much, conservatively.  My mom also got a trashbag full, which maybe I'll take pictures of later.

We also went to Downtown Disney and went to BASIN, which is one of my favorite places.  They have the most delicious bath and body stuff, and they make these grab bags that cost $10 but contain at least $25 worth of their stuff.  I did the math on mine and I think there's at least $35 worth of stuff in it, and it all smells glorious and I can't wait to use it.  What can I say, for the most part I'm low maintenance, but I am still a girly girl, and I still love things that smell nice and feel good.  Can't wait to have a use for the massage bar, lol.

With all the picture taking, Franny was a bit jealous, especially since she missed me all weekend, so I got a picture of her:

Here is the yarn, it's Trendsetter's Love (which I suspect is discontinued, a) because I got it at Tuesday Morning, which is where I got the angora yarn for Liesl, and b) because I can't find it for sale anywhere online to link to.)  It doesn't look too promising in the ball, at least not for a sweater, because it's novelty yarn, and I thought maybe it would make a neat scarf, but holy shit the stitch definition is actually really good, so I went back for more to make Louisa out of.

So, to whoever happens to be reading this, here is my new rule:  I am not accepting any more advice from people unless they have a) been married and divorced themselves, and b) have more general life experience than I do.  Pay close attention to B, because I may be 29, but I probably have the life experience of someone quite a bit older than that.  I guess I should also add C) must be someone I respect.  Otherwise, stuff it and just be supportive.  Besides, everyone has split into waring factions, from "he's a vile scumbag" to "you obviously didn't try hard enough", from "move on with your life and go have a fling" to "you should be sitting in your room, crying, with a black shroud over your head for at least a year before you even think of liking someone else."  So whose crappy advice would I even choose?

On the flip side, of course, is that the two pieces of advice that I have received from people who fit those criteria are my knew guiding themes in life;  the first was "don't ever look back", and the second was "take this opportunity to reflect and decide what it is that you really want and need out of a relationship".

So that's what I'm doing right now, trying to define what I want and need, not just out of a relationship, but out of life, too.  I know for sure that whoever I end up in a relationship with needs to be able to appreciate everything I am, not just part of it.  I like to go camping and hike and get dirty, but I also like museums and theatre and getting a bit fancy from time to time.  I like to be looked after, but I can change my own tires and operate heavy machinery on my own, so I don't want to be patronized, either.  I want someone I can have great conversations with - especially someone who has their own opinions, no matter whether they're the same opinions as mine.  I want someone who will see the world with me, but will also be comfortable curling up on the couch and watching a movie sometimes.  Most of all, I want someone who will open up to me, and will let me know whats going on with them, honestly.  

On to knitting, (because it always comes back to fiber with me, lol), I started a sweater last night,  this one, and I'm already at least a third of the way through it.  I love this pattern because it has so many little ways to customize it and make it your own.  I'm knitting it with a delicious angora blend from Elsebeth Lavold.  It's been discontinued, though, and I can't for the life of me imagine why.  It's so soft I just want to sit here petting it for days, and it's knitting up beautifully.  Why would they want to disccontinue something so lovely?  How is it that the pernicious Fun Fur seems to survive year after year, but this lovely find is going extinct? 

Here is Franny darling modeling with the yarn.  She's great about not messing with my yarn or knitting implements, but I still miss Zelda, knitting scourge though she was.

I got the yarn at Tuesday Morning, but of course they don't have a very big yarn selection, so there wasn't enough of just the grey to do much with, so I picked up the lone skein of purple and am adding purple stripes to the sweater.  Normally I'm not big into stripes, but I'm starting to kind of like the way its turning out.

And here's my progress so far.  I can't believe how fast this sweater is knitting up, that represents maybe 2 hours worth of work last night... the size 11 needles help, but at this rate it's going to become my potato chip pattern (i.e., you can't make just one.)  Fortunately, there are enough options for changing the sweater along the way, so at least they'll all look different, lol.

et voila, finished wristband:

 

Here's the basic recipe:

Yarn: about sock weight, not sure on the yardage but it doesn't take a lot.

Needles: I used size 0, which means most people would use a 1 or a 2.

Stitch Instructions: 

C6F = slip first 3 sts to cable needle and hold to back, knit next 3 sts, then knit 3 sts on cable needle.

Instructions:

CO 16 sts.

Rows 1 and 3: knit 3, purl 2, knit 6, purl 2, knit 3.

All even rows: knit 5, purl 6, knit 5.

Row 5:  knit 3, purl 2, C6F, purl 2, knit 3.

Repeat rows 1-6 until the wrist band can be wrapped around your wrist and overlaps itself by about 1/4".  

Place button hole:  

When you get to row 5, instead of cabling place button hole as follows:  knit 3, purl 2, bind off 6 sts, purl 2, knit 3.

Next row:  Knit 5, CO 6 sts, Knit 5.

Finishing:

Next row: knit 3, purl 2, knit 6, purl 2, knit 3.

Knit all sts next 4 rows, then bind off all sts.

Weave in ends, and wet block wrist band.

Once wrist band is blocked and dry, wrap around wrist to determine proper button placement.  Sew on button.  Ta da!

ETA:  the garter stitch along the sides has a shorter row gauge than the cabled center, so in order to make it more even, I added short rows to the sides once for every cable repetition.  Starting with row #1 on the second cable repetition, I knit the first three stitches, turned the band, knitted back over them on the opposite side, then turned again and knit them a third time before going on to the purl stitches.  when you get to the end of that row, turn and knit the first three stitches of the next row, turn again and knit them back the other way, and then turn again and knit that row as usual, including knitting the first three stitches a third time.  If you have any questions about this, feel free to comment or email me.  This is an elementary short row technique, and it puts extra rows into the side to compensate for the difference in row gauge.

First off, I love the color and the feel of this yarn.  It's way softer than it looks in the picture and has a nice body to it.  I would definitely consider using this yarn in the future.

They also sent me a lovely sample of Baby Camel Top in white.

Well, clearly it isn't white, which I knew from the website before I requested it, but I kind of like that it's the natural color of the camel down rather than being bleached.  This stuff is gloriously soft, not the softest camel fiber I've ever felt, but still enough to make any spinner drool in envy.  It has a rather short staple length, which makes it a bit finicky to spin.  I would NOT recommend this for an inexperienced spinner, and after having spun it on a drop spindle, I doubt I would ever try to spin this on the wheel.  I have some camel back in NY waiting to be picked up and spun, and it's in clouds rather than top or roving.  I thought that was what was making it difficult to spin, and that's part of it, but the other part, as I discovered, was that camel just has a short staple length compared to most of the other things I've spun (chiefly wool and alpaca.)  This is not a deal breaker for me, not by any stretch of the imagination.  To my mind, it doesn't make sense to drop serious money on a fiber like this and then rush through spinning it on the wheel.  But then, I'm obviously a process person rather than a product person.

After that, I navajo plied it into a 3ply.  The yarn called for in the pattern, according to Ravelry is 8 wraps to the inch.  As you can see, 8 wraps of the alpaca at a 3ply is about a half inch.  So I went with my mom to an LYS out here and looked at the recommended yarn, and really it's not any thicker than the 3 ply, so I've knitted a swatch and we'll see how it goes.

Here it is in a tiny little skein :)

I tried to take a picture of the swatch, which is currently blocking, but you can't see it against the dark blue of the carpet, so I'll have to take something clearer when its not pinned down to the floor.  At any rate it looks like I'm getting close to the gauge of the sweater pattern, which is good.  If anything, though, I might switch to smaller needles because I'm in between sizes and knitting it a little tighter will give me smaller finished sweater.

Here are some pics of my progress in the room...  Franny, as you can see, has been helping by holding the bed down.  She has also been eating spice.  

The shade I got is awesome in a natural green hempy sort of way, but of course thats totally lost against the dinge of the wall *sigh*.  Oh well, at least I have a slight bit more privacy than I did before, and now I just have to find something to hang on the door so that I don't have to deal with people walking around in the backyard and looking into my room.

To comfort me in my angsty waiting period, my mom took pity on me and bought this lovely alpaca fiber for me from Lorinda the Magnificent so that I have something to distract myself with.  The nice thing about being a spinner when you are so completely broke is that you pay the same amount of money as you would for the yarn, but it keeps you occupied for longer because you get to spin it first.  And it is so effing soft I just want to make a huge pile of it and roll around in it, naked.

I've always thought of drafting as sort of stretching the fibers out, which is inaccurate because you're really just pulling out a small bit of fibers at a time, but this stuff really feels like it's stretching because it's so smooth, and a bit cohesive.

If you recall my first homespun, you will noticed that my spinning has improved immensely in balance, evenness, and thickness.  I worked so hard at spinning to be able to spin fine, and now this seems to be the thickness that everything comes out as, even when I try to spin thicker.  I guess now if I ever want to do a worsted or bulky yarn I'm going to have to ply 8-10 singles together to get there, LoL.

Here's a swatch I made out of a 2 foot length of cashmere I spun... It's 100% cashmere, spun from the cloud, navajo plied, and then knit on size 0 needles.  It's the size of a penny, but it's sooo soft I can't stop touching it.

So, I've been silent for a while (okay, a looong while, really, if we're talking about posts with actual substance - my apologies.)  First, a picture post, and then maybe something a little more in depth.

Not terribly deep, but I cut and dyed my hair recently... I keep meaning to grow it out to it's post-Costa Rica length, but it gets to this irritating stage and I haven't had the patience to make it through that yet... we'll see, maybe this will be the last time I chop it off, maybe not.  At any rate, here's the most recent pic of me in existence:

I've been making spindles a lot lately now that I have access to a drill press.  I'm planning to start selling them at some point, but here's a little window into my process.  Step one is cutting out the whorls on a drill press:

After which the boards start to look like swiss cheese:

The come out a bit rough at first:

So they go back onto the drill press to get sanded, which takes a small lifetime:

and emerge soft as a baby's butt... at least in theory:

Then I give them a coat of varnish before I decorate them:

Anyone want to take a wild, flying guess as to whom I made this for?

This one I painted... not my best work, clearly, but it's not as terrible as it could be...

They are all navajo (3) plied, and all of them are around sock weight, or possibly lighter.  It seems now I've gotten spinning fine mastered I can't spin thicker any more, even when I try.  Coming soon, look for my line of 15 ply worsted =P

I got myself a new journal for detailing my adventures in renewed singlehood.  I'm actually feeling quite optimistic about things, and felt a saucy journal might inspire me to live a little more daring...