Cleaning, a Yarn Along, and a Harlot... And Still That Shawl

In rare form, I vacuumed today. I vacuumed more in one go today that ever before. Because of one thing, well 16 really, but one unit... STAIRS. For the first time ever I vacuumed a whole flight of stairs. I know it really isn't that big a deal, but to be honest, I was quite unprepared. My vacuume has a funny little ledge on it that says "handle for stairs" and in my dopey brain that translates to "it is a really good idea to man handle this thing up a flight of stairs followed closely by 2 small children who are "helping" because it has a special handle"... What followed was silently cussing at my puny guns and struggling to keep the children from pulling us all down the stairs in a tangle of legs, vacuume cleaner cords, and more dog hair than Isis had ever lost before.
The good news is that we made it to the top, no one was hurt, and I never even raised my voice. The bad news is that I suddenly feel the need to vacuume all the rooms upstairs, and that today is both Wooly Wednesday and Ginny's Yarn Along.

I'm doing Ginny's Yarn Along, sharing what I've been reading and knitting, first because I know I have all month for Spinspiration. So, here is what I've been reading and working on. It is quite different from last time (when I left the young Antionne she was on her way to Paris to meet her you new husband, they took her dog and Pam's Shawl has run out of yarn.) I don't know if this counts, to be honest, but I can't stop...

I've been reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's The yarn Harlot Blog. From the beginning. I know it really isn't a book, so I have no idea if it is within the rules of Ginny's Yarn Along, but it has all the makings of a great book, and Stephanie is an author and many of her posts are about her books, so I say it counts. This woman is hilarious, she manages to describe extreme knitting mania in a way that keeps me laughing till tears are gushing down my cheeks and my family worries for my sanity. I'm pretty sure we should all be worried about hers. She shares the secrets of complicated knitting- did you know that chocolate, wine, and ignoring one's children is the only way to eek out any knitting time at all and that it is totally fine if you live in a Wool House for every one to go a few days without clean pants? And not only that, she makes me feel like I'm not the only one... although I'm pretty sure thats just her being nice. Her explanation of the reasons for having so many projects on needles was so clear and sensible, I did the only thing her readers can do when they find themselves amazed by her Knit Goddess Logic- I cast on another pair of socks and pulled some of my hand spun off the rack and started looking for patterns. The thing is, when you live far away from your friends and you only have a few who understand the pull of fiber, you need to find understanding relationships, no matter how one sided. I feel like Stephanie "gets" me, the way Blind Melon totally wrote that album just for me when I was in middle school and the lead singer was already dead, yeah, just like that... She understands what it is like to feel stressed out by the world and then find solace in that Happy Place of fiber... Her blog makes me not miss my home so much, it makes me want to go up and cast something new on in every yarn I have ever stashed. And she makes me feel like that is a normal impulse ... well, not normal, but there is a pretty large group of people who feel the same.

Now, I'm not showing you the new socks today, because... well, because I'm still in love with the Martinmas Shawl and we are very happy together. Honestly, I'm loving the way it is coming together. The long color repeats of the Mushishi sort of thru me off at first but then I started thinking about why I knit... or maybe not "why" so much as How I Feel while knitting... When I knit, I do it for the process. For the feeling of the yarn slipping thru my fingers, for the counting and recounting, for the end fabric. The action of tossing the yarn around the needle is really, sort of peaceful, once you sort out the pattern and memorize the repeats. Knitting is the only puzzle I've ever enjoyed solving, you take a long straight line and turn it into something full of loops and twists. When knitting on the Martinmas Shawl, one of the things I find myself fascinated by is the way each row fits on top of the one before it. The YOs move out to form a 'V' all the way until they are right next to the S2K1p, like a fan. I like the way you can tell that the last YO in a repeat is coming next when I knit into the top of the previous row's last repeat. I think it's neat. Is my nerd showing? When I spin, I spin for color, but when I knit, I knit for the process.

While you're thinking about it, go check out Taryn's Yarn Along, she's reading Taproot and I'm a little jealous.

More on spinning later, or tomorrow... I'm going to walk the dog before it gets Hell-Hot. What are you working on?


oh and at the end of the day, The ManChild pooped on my clean carpet twice. I stopped caring at point.

Ginny's Yarn Along: Pam's Shawl and Marie Antoinette

Today I'm joining Ginny's Yarn Along over on Small Things for the first time. I've been seeing Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots do this for a while now and we're finally settled enough that I've been able to read. I've pulled out all my WIPs from before the move so I can get something accomplished, I enjoy having multiple projects to carry around and choose from. I have also been reading a lot. Like in school, when each class has a different text, each room, or project, or mood, has it's own text here too.


This is what my basket looks like. 4 WIPs, 3 Books (only because my new desert gardening book hasn't been cracked yet.)



But this isn't a run down of each... I'm still waiting on Huz's camera... My phone will have to work for this.

The project is Pam's Shawl and the book is Marie Antoinette, The Journey by Antonia Fraser. 

I read this book a few years ago while preparing for a trip to France. I had always heard the typical "let them eat cake" version, and this is not that. I don't remember much, which is why I'm reading again, but I remember finishing it thinking, "Why can't more history be framed in this light? Why is everything a smear campaign?" Honestly, I think in it's own way reading this lead me to question a lot of what I had been taught. Maybe not outright, but certainly in hind sight. Also, when I read it the first time, I still thought I could be a ballerina, and everyone knows France (and Marie Antionette's teachers) were responsible for it being directly awesome. Also, turns out Madame Antione (as she was called as a child) loved loved to dance. She was like a swan. lol

The pattern for the Shawl is The Mistaken Shawl (Ravelry pattern link). I'm kind of loving the pattern, it's like everything I ever did wrong when I was learning knit purl a million year ago in high school... and hating it... only organized and cute. I wish I hadn't put it away, now knitting it makes me hot and I dislike sweaty wool. It goes quickly, but the increase is fast, so at some point before this is over I'll be knitting million stitch rows. well not really, but it'll feel like it. I have my project notes here, but I haven't really updated it... but I think there are better pics of the pattern, and the yarn, and the colors... ooohhh... I really love this yarn.

The yarn is Brown Sheep Burly Spun in Blue Mountain. It's awesome. The stitch definition, the fatness and evenness of the twist... the color. It's turning my wooden needles blue, which probably should be a turn off or at least concerning, but I think it's awesome. 

Any way, you should totally go check out Ginny and Taryn's blog, because they are both pretty rad.

posted from Bloggeroid