All This By Hand

Blog Interrupted

I'm not just not blogging, I'm not knitting.  My husband and I both got a nasty infection, then my husband had a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotic.  All energy here is focused on health -- cooking and cleaning and immune system strengthening.  I miss knitting.

What's that I hear?

It's the blissful sound of quiet.  John started PreK today.  Pete is napping.  I'm flitting around doing little bits of everything just because I can.  Ooh, cleaning!  Now Ravelry!  Now blogging!  How about tea time?  That said, I do miss John, even if I have gained untold hours simply by not having to resolve sibling conflicts ALL FREAKING DAY.  (Note to John (if he could read) -- Just let Pete play with whatever toy he has, already!)

Here's John in his natural state.

And John trying to "hold still and smile."

For extra credit, compare to the start of preschool last year. 

I did manage to finish the last of the green roving, but I spun it too thinly.   I think the second and third skeins are my best bet for some matching socks.  This one is really pretty, though.

The roving was called Pickles and I think it looks much better spun up than it did as roving.  Now if I could only find my size 2 dpn's I could start my socks!  I do have another spinning project calling me, though.  I divided up the roving and it's waiting in neat, pretty balls.  Soon...

Last thing is a teeny bit of housekeeping -- to anyone who reads this through a feed reader, I just realized that I was only publishing excerpts as a feed, so now you can see everything without having to click through!  Hooray for speed reading!  I still do love to read comments, though, so come back to the real site on occasion.

Last day of summer

John starts school tomorrow, so it's the official last day of summer at our house.  We've been doing summer things, going to birthday parties, puttering around with nothing much going on.  And I've been spinning.  I finally got up the nerve to go from the slowest drive band ratio (6.5:1) to the middle one (12.5:1) and I love the yarn I'm getting from it. Left to right is -- 6.5:1, first skein of 12.5:1, second skein of 12.5:1. 

I am really happy with that last skein.  See?

I have half of the last bit of this roving spun up and I think I'm going to try to finish it tonight as a goodbye to summer.  Right after I pack John's bag and his lunch and set out everyone's clothes as we start on this new, early drop-off, big kid school adventure. 

Edouard, I hardly knew you

Since my husband's office closed today due to Tropical Storm Drizzle Edouard I was able to finish up my Silk Garden Socks.

Love.  Love love love.

Next project?  Another pair in another colorway.  These socks are so warm as to be laughable in Houston, but I love watching the stripes.  On the coldest minute of the coldest day this winter I'll put them on.  :)

Back home

We're finally back home in hot, hot, hot Texas, but I couldn't be happier.  And while I should be blogging the Shetland Shorty I finished on vacation, I am instead knitting stripes of Noro Silk Garden sock as fast as humanly possible. 

This is color S258.  I love the stripes on the leg, but the foot could have been better.  Still, with Noro I make myself accept what happens as I knit instead of trying to control it.  I can hardly wait until the kids go to sleep so I can start the second one.  Yes, it's supposed to reach 101 degrees today, and I'm knitting the warmest socks ever.  I never said I made sense.

I am also so excited about Twist Collective.   My husband thought the Lissajous socks were sexy, so I had to get those.  Sexy and handknit in the same sentence, how could I resist?   I'm not sure what yarn I'll use, but I'm pretty sure I don't have enough of anything in the stash to do it.  I also bought Lily, which I will be knitting from stash yarn.   I'm not sure when I'll get to either of those, with everything else I have to knit, but  it's even been fun just reading the patterns.  I can't wait to see what they come up with in the future.