So Many Things

There are so many things on my To Do Before Being Back on the Boat list that I'm feeling overwhelmed. To ward off panic, I make lists, so here I give you the things I'd like to accomplish within the next 10 days:

• finish and put up an updated version of my Beribboned Wrists pattern
• finish and put up for sale the first in a series of (hopefully) five sock patterns following a particular theme
• work out the design for the second sock pattern in the series
• work out a non-sock pattern (gasp!) to submit to KnitPicks (my first official submission, double gasp!!)
• clean things
• organize my desk
• play with horseshoe crab data/work on science publication
• plan a camping trip with the Fiasco
• go camping with the Fiasco
• search and apply for jobs
• search for a new apartment

That's a hefty list, all of those things take quite a bit of thought/effort/time. Sigh. It's true that none of them must be done before I'm back on the boat, but if they aren't done by then, odds are they won't be done until July because I am absolutely wiped out by the 14-hour field days and I become completely useless in my downtime. In case I haven't mentioned it here, the new apartment thing is because my dear Fiasco landed an excellent job corrupting enlightening the scientific minds of 7th and 8th graders about an hour away from where we currently live in the fall, and my seasonal job is over in August, so looks like we'll be moving again once I figure out where I'll be working next. (Anybody need a knitting ecologist? Talk to me!) Moving always stinks but it's a great job and I'm super proud of him, so I'm excited. :)

In other news, I've been making a concerted effort to exercise every single day, and it's been working well this week (it's only been a handful of days but it's something). I like being active but exercise is usually the first thing I cross off when I'm stressed or have a lot to do. I'm trying to change that and be better about setting aside time to work out parts of me that aren't my brain. Today's exercise adventure was a lovely little 2.5 mile jaunt in the woods for an hour or so after work:

I met a little snake friend. (That one was for you, Rich!)

I saw pretty flowers, I think this is in the laurel family? According to wiki it's toxic, and a common name is 'lamb-kill'. Not cool, pretty shrub, not cool.

I just love the light in the late afternoon...

I would've liked to have stayed out longer but it was getting dark and I was starving so I was forced to leave, but I have a feeling I'll go back there often. Then I came home and made absolutely fantastic crepes filled with asparagus and peppercorn-encrusted goat cheese. If you've never made crepes before, you should, they're super easy and delicious and make you feel like a culinary rockstar. Good times!

So, this entire random post was designed to distract you from the fact that explain why I haven't been knitting much: I'm doing too many other things! Also, the joints in my hands have been hurting quite a bit lately, even ones that weren't attacked by the blue crab, so I don't know what that's about. But I have done a little bit of knitting:

CY Traveller, colorway I-don't-remember-but-I-know-it's-the-horseshoe-crab-Bugga-equivalent

That's the start of the design I'm going to be submitting to Knitpicks. The photo doesn't do the yarn justice, there's a wonderful depth of color going on. Sadly, that's probably the last you'll get to see of this project for a while since it needs to remain a secret for now. Wish me luck!

Inspiration

Inspiration comes from so many places-- nature, music, stories, crafts, artwork-- but I find that my most consistent source of soul-soothing inspiration comes from poetry. Here's a poem my anxious-for-the-future-self really needed to read recently. I love it to bits and hope you do, too:

Dogfish
by Mary Oliver

Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing
kept flickering in with the tide
and looking around.
Black as a fisherman's boot,
with a white belly.

If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile
under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin,
which was rough
as a thousand sharpened nails.

And you know
what a smile means,
don't you?

       ~*~

I wanted
the past to go away, I wanted
to leave it, like another country; I wanted
my life to close, and open
like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song
    where it falls
down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;
    I wanted
to hurry into the work of my life;  I wanted to know,
whoever I was, I was

alive
for a little while.

       ~*~

It was evening, and no longer summer.
Three small fish, I don't know what they were,
huddled in the highest ripples
as it came swimming in again, effortless, the whole body
one gesture, one black sleeve
that could fit easily around
the bodies of three small fish.

       ~*~

Also I wanted
to be able to love. And we all know
how that one goes,
don't we?

Slowly

       ~*~

the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.

       ~*~

You don't want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don't want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it's the same old story--
a few people just trying,
one way or another,
to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind.
And nobody, of course, is kind,
or mean,
for a simple reason.

And nobody gets out of it, having to
swim through the fires to stay in
this world.

       ~*~

And look! look! look! I think those little fish
better wake up and dash themselves away
from the hopeless future that is
bulging toward them.

       ~*~

And probably,
if they don't waste time
looking for an easier world,

they can do it.

A spiny dogfish shark. Photo credit here.

I love so much about this poem: the message, the fact that I totallygetwhatshe'ssaying, the way the poet plays with line breaks, her beautiful imagery ("like the part of the song where it falls down over the rocks"; "I want to listen to the enormous waterfalls of the sun"), and how every word is so carefully chosen, specifically placed. That's part of why I love poetry: the carefulness of it. It makes you slow down, stop, pay attention, feel the rhythm of the words, savor their meaning...What inspires you?

Do-Overs

Don't you just wish everything was easy to do over again when things get screwed up? The nice thing about knitting (as opposed to life) is that you can have such do-overs. The sucky thing is it all takes time, time, time.

VG Bugga, colorway Yellow Fringe Doris

This is the start of my next sock design and it just doesn't work. That big ol' cable in the middle is much too big, it's a pain in the knuckles to work and makes for a wonky-looking sock. I've already ripped back and hit the drawing board again. I've got a different idea now, but no will left to make it happen. My knitting finger is still a bit sore from my blue crab attack, so I'm trying not to overdo it in the first place, but I also just don't want to sit around knitting anymore. It's a beautiful Monday, I have off from work but my Fiasco does not, so what am I to do? Chores are unappealing at the moment, working at the computer is unappealing at the moment, job searching is unappealing at the moment (thought I really should be looking)... There may be a do-over possible for the sock, but not for this day, so I'm going to get up and go for a walk or something. The laundry and dishes and knitting and patterns and jobs will wait.

In other news, I've started on my second cop-full of Bugga fiber:

CY Bugga fiber, colorway Yubaba

Nothing like shiny new silk hankies to motivate one to finish the fiber that is currently occupying the spindle!

What do you wish you could do-over?

Holidays Revamped!

I finally got around to updating my Ribby Holiday Socks pattern! It now includes additional sizing information so that you can knit it at three different gauges with fingering, sport, or DK weight yarn. This came about because I decided I wanted to knit the pattern in Socks that Rock Mediumweight yarn and I realized that the stitch count wouldn't work to fit me in that yarn as written, so I changed it and finished my fifth pair of 2012 socks to boot:

STR Mediumweight, colorway On Blueberry Hill

These were my Gone Fishin' socks, and were perfect for travel knitting while I worked on the boat. I'm already planning my next pair. I revamped the layout of the pattern and changed the way the sizing works. It now includes a table in which you find the gauge that you get with your needles and yarn and the desired fit you want (in circumference around the ball of your foot) in order to figure out which size you should knit. I've often been frustrated with how sock sizes are indicated in patterns and have found which yarn/needle/gauge combos work for me only after much practice and trial-and-error, so I'm hoping the sizing table will take some of the guesswork out of the whole thing, especially for new knitters. No guarantees of perfect-sock-fit-nirvana, of course, since everybody's feet are different, but I'm hoping it will still provide a useful jumping-off point for figuring out what might work best.

Ah, gotta love eye-searingly stripey socks, no? And there's really no need to wait for the actual holidays to roll around before you knit a pair of these for yourself, you know. You could think of them as summer holiday socks, or vacation holiday socks, amIright? Anyway, I'll be spending the rest of my day at a Renaissance Faire partying like it's 1499. Enjoy your holiday weekend! ;)

SS: Finnish

Before I begin discussing the second breed of my spinner's study, let me show you the first breed I spun and finished: Polwarth.

I decided I'm going to spin each 1 oz bunch of fiber separately, so at the end I will have 16 little mini skeins. This plan works better than spinning them in one long skein for logistical reasons and also because I'm impatient and like finishing my yarn. :)

You can see in the close-up view that 1) I'm still spinning thick-and-thin and 2) the twist is not evenly distributed. There are little kinky bits in there amongst the fluff. I haven't spun a singles yarn before, so I think maybe with the next batch I will put a little less twist in. When you ply two or more singles together you want a lot of twist because during plying you lose some of that extra twist, but if you leave it as singles the extra twist becomes little kinks. Lesson learned! Onwards.

Image from the American Finnsheep Breeder's Association

This is a Finnish sheep, a.k.a. Finnsheep or Finnish Landrace Sheep, with her four adorable lambs. In other breeds, ewes tend to have just one or two lambs, but the Finnsheep are quite prolific and can have up to eight babies! Maybe there should be a reality TV show in the works for those extra-prolific ewes.

The breed originates in Finland as one of several breeds grouped into the Northern European Short-Tailed Family in the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook. Some of its cousins are breeds that have gone feral living on remote islands, which is pretty neat. It seems to be fairly well-established as a breed raised in North America. I found the book's description of their wool as "often described as silky, is more sleek than fluffy" to be entirely accurate.

The fibers have a subtle crimp and come off the bunch in long, smooth strips. Staple length is supposed to be 3-6 inches, to my hands it feels like the top I have leans towards the longer side. The average micron count is 24-31 microns, which falls solidly into the 'medium' range wools. Though this stuff is not as soft and fluffy as Merino or Polwarth, it is certainly not rough and has a sleekness to it that I like.

I am getting a really nice consistent single with this fiber, I think because it is incredibly easy to draft. The silkyness helps the fibers slide past one another and they seem to automatically draft out evenly. It's really a pleasure to work with and would probably be great for beginners, it reminds me a bit of the Coopworth wool that came with my spindle starter kit from Golding. All those little ends sticking out have the potential to up the prickly factor, but if loosely spun then it hopefully probably won't be too bad.

So there's our second breed! I'm really enjoying myself with this spinning study, I hope you are, too.

In other news, some jerkwad in the postal system stole the scarf I made for my mom out of the first really pretty yarn I spun. I sent it to her for Mother's Day and the package arrived a week late, empty, and all taped up! Crazy, right? People really stink sometimes.