All of us knitters have been there – the Black Hole of Knitting. Sometimes it's sleeves, sometimes it's endless rows of stockinette. You put down your knitting and when you come back, it almost seems as if you've made reverse progress! And without any frogging. This shawl border has been that way. I could swear after putting it down in the evening, when I pick it up the next day I have twice as far to go as I did the day before. Theoretically I know that's not true. I have 16 repeats to complete out of 56. I really, really would like to have this finished before I leave on vacation. It is definitely NOT plane knitting. Can you imagine hundreds of little beads rolling around on the floor of the plane?? So I continue on.
I did finish some spinning that I wanted done before I left, though. This was the April Mixed Blessings fiber from Fat Cat Knits. I spun the two braids separately. The red I split vertically into about 4 long pieces, the purple I broke up into random chunks, both vertically and horizontally. This is what I came out with:
Then I plied them together. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how in the world this would come out to anything remotely resembling usable yarn, but lookie:
After spinning mostly neutral yarns, I was just tickled at the wonderful colors. As I was spinning I was getting a little nervous. There were stretches of almost fluorescent pink, olive drab and it seems just about everything in between. How in the world did it come out to something this pretty? I guess that's what makes Ginny a dyeing genius. Alas, I only have about 320 yards of fingering weight, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Any suggestions? A small scarf or shawlette would be great, but the ones I've been interested in take about 400 yards.
Hubby wanted to do a garden this year and I talked him into giving Square Foot Gardening a try. We decided to go with just one and see how it worked before committing ourselves. So far, so good:
We've planted spinach, lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets, onions and strawberries. Everything except the carrots is doing great. In fact, we harvested some spinach to have with our salad last night and it was so tasty – tender and sweet. And we have lots and lots of little baby strawberries. Hubby built a critter cage to put over it – we have deer and rabbits. It seems to have done a really good job of keeping them out and it's lightweight and easy to remove for harvesting.
I finally had my last dental appointment yesterday. The permanent crown was placed and it really was a piece of cake. I love this dentist – after your appointment you can have fresh baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and a cappuccino. But I will be glad not to see him again until my check up in November.
And speaking of dentists – the woman who replaced me as office manager has quit. Sad to say, most of the staff is looking for new employment. It's a little discouraging to see all that you have spent years building up going down the drain, but I comfort myself in knowing that I can be really proud of all that I accomplished while I was there. And pat myself on the back that I am retired!!! It is such a relief to know that I don't have to deal with any of it.
missouristar 
Lovely yarn. You could always do color work with it. I am horribly color-shy, so you can imagine what I experience when working with Ginny’s fibers sometimes. Ones I pick out of her shop are always more “calm” shall we say. She really does have some beautiful offerings.
Your garden is looking great. DH gardens, and there’s just nothing like getting fresh veggies out of the garden for dinner. Course by August, he’s lost his mojo, and the heat gets the best of him, so it gets pretty weedy. But this time of the year, he really enjoys it.
Beautiful handspun! And so glad to hear the whole tooth ordeal is over. Hubby’s garden is going to provide you with tasty veggies all summer. And what a surprise about the new office manager! I’d say you got out in the nick of time! Yes, you can surely be proud of your accomplishments there. It ran like a top, I’m sure.
Boy do I know what you mean about the black hole. I’m only on clue 4 of Evenstar, and since that last increase row, each row takes forever. I may never get to the beads on this one.
Try a Baktus scarf. I did the lacy version with about 500 yards of yarn, and it turned into a huge shawlette. With a couple hundred yards, it would make a nice little scarf.
That yarn is so pretty! Maybe if you make a 400yd scarf narrower? or shorter?
Love your garden too. Glad the critters aren’t bellying up. 🙂
I may borrow your garden ideas and try square foot gardening and crop covers, now that we have pesty chickens.
I wonder if the new dentist realizes what he is doing to drive staff away. Sounds like he needs therapy and/or a Dale Carnegie course.
That is some pretty yarn. 320 yards isn’t much but I’m sure you’ll find the perfect pattern for it.
Still laughing about the mental image of you trying to bead on a plane with beads rolling around all over the floor. I’m not a plane knitter for even something simple. I board, stick my nose in a book, and don’t come out again until the plane lands.
I started out with Square Foot Gardening, and you can get very nice yields using that approach. Even though I have more gardening space now, I still use some of the spacing advice in that book, as well as the ideas about succession planting. So long as you can keep the animals at bay, you should enjoy what you grow. If you encounter bug problems, try to put some spun row covers over the chicken-wire cage.
I think every project has a point where you knit and knit and feel as if you’re getting nowhere, and then it looks like you’ll be done in no time. When the shawl is done, you will forget about all this (and then act surprised when the next project seems to be progressing at a snail’s pace)–that is what happens to me.
Dorothy – I need your new email address. i’m cutting and pasting a message I sent Beth.
Hey, Waite women – I want to float an idea with you. There are 11 weeks before Justin and Katrina’s wedding. I am wondering if any of you would be interested in contributing your time and talents to a wedding afghan for them. I have always loved the pattern listed below:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/squeakyweasels/tree-of-life-wedding-afghan
If you are not on Ravelry, here is my description: The afghan has a large tree motif in cables in the center. There are 3 squares of a simple tree motif across the top and bottom. Running from top to bottom on the sides is a leaf motif. These motifs are filled in and around with several cable patterns. I have the charts for the trees. I have the yarn (15 skeins of Wool-Ease worsted weight in Fisherman colorway). I plan to do the trees. Would any of you be willing to do some of the cable panels? I realize time is short and we are all very busy people – so please be very honest with me. Have I left out any family knitters?
I am allowing myself the option of giving it to them on their 1st anniversary – in which case, I could probably complete it on my own.
Waiting to hear from you – Deb
The Calais Shawl takes 382, and it looks like an easy pattern to shorten. PDF available http://purlbumps.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/calais-shawl/