Drop spindles are wonderful

I used my drop spindle yesterday! I really want to get back to spinning and made a conscious effort to spin a little yesterday. I did not get the wheel out - there was too much going on in that area for it to be safe - but I spun for about 30 minutes total on my drop spindle. I am spinning this beautiful blue fiber and it looked so soft and bright in the sunlight streaming in the windows.


This is an older photo and I have 3 times as much singles on the spindle now as I did then. I have just a little more to go and then it will be time to ply. I won't have a lot of yardage - this was 2 oz. of fiber - but I will use it somewhere. It's too pretty to just put it in a drawer somewhere.

I had a mistake in my Honka scarf but I noticed it only 2 rows away. I found a carried yarn thread on the right side of the fabric instead of the inside. I was very nervous about trying to fix the problem (I have struggled with double knitting for along time) and planned to rip back rather than risk making matters worse. On our walk yesterday I mentioned it to Karen and she really encouraged me to try fixing it. She talked me through it and I actually did it last night! All by myself! I fixed a problem in a double knit project. Wow.

I had a KnitPicks harmony Options accident last night that had me holding my breath. I was knitting away on Laminaria, moved my left hand fast to do something (what it was went right out of my head due to what resulted from that movement) and the cable came right out of the connector tip to the needle! Gasp! My lace! My lace was on that cable! About 30 stitches (of a lace row, of course, not a purl back row) were suddenly floating in the breeze. Gulp. No life lines, lots of 3/3 star stitches, the remainder of the approximately 200 stitches are all squashed on the needle part of the circular. I was afraid to breathe or move.

Luckily for me DH came to the rescue, and I was able to stay calm enough to think. DH kept the cat away (she wanted to help) and supported the floating end of the shawl while I slowly put each stitch onto the (very full) needle, one stitch at a time. I then changed cables. Again, very carefully and slowly so I didn't loose any stitches. I had been about 1/3 of the way through my purl back row, so I kept going. when I got to the part that had been floating in mid air, I carefully counted and amazingly enough the only stitch that I lost was the 1/3 star at the end of the row (where you increase by making 3 stitches from 1). I turned the work, re-knit that stitch (a little awkwardly) and turned back to finish the purl back row. I will count stitches today to be sure that I have the correct number of stitches on each side but I think I averted a tragedy.

Laundry was washed and dried on the line yesterday, the living room was thoroughly cleaned (not just a surface cleaning), I assisted DH with a wiring project that will ultimately lead to having a lighting system in the hall closet so that we can actually see what we need to get from there instead of groping around in the dark, found the placemats and table cloths I use for most of the year (they had been put away when I took out the holiday linens but had not yet been relocated after the holidays) and brought them up to the kitchen for use, changed the bed linens and helped with food prep and clean up. Whew!

IT IS SNOWING OUTSIDE!!!!!! These guys came to visit.





Karen and I were supposed to walk at 9:15 this morning. I checked the weather map, though, and thought that we would have more rain while walking, so I called Karen and we agreed to at least delay the walk. I just didn't want to be walking the 2 mile trail, be halfway, and get rained on in 40 degree temperatures. Instead, it snowed. I would have been thrilled to walk in the snow and Karen would have hated it. I saved you, Karen. LOL.

Have you seen the list of instructors for the Sock Summit? Wow! What a list! I wish I could go .....

I am off to get a start on my day - grocery shopping, clean the bedroom, wash another couple of loads of laundry (that will most likely be dried in the drier rather than the line due to weather. bummer.), make a curtain liner, spin (wheel, I hope) and knit. Have a wonderful day, wherever you are.