Fiber Musings

I’ve spent the past couple of evenings messing about with my blog setup. First, it was a botched upgrade to the latest MT release. Once upgraded, I decided to fiddle with the templates. Yes, not much visible difference for the number of hours that I’ve spent on this instead of knitting.

So, I’m officially throwing in the towel. I won’t finish the two WIPs that I had hoped. Even though I have the day off, I have a dinner party to put on! Well, not me alone, but I need to run out to Half Moon Bay and pick up the crab for the club’s New Year’s Eve Crab Feed. That and getting the club ready for the paaah-ty, I’m not going to have time to finish up the sweater. The sock, perhaps. Sweater, definitely no.

Have a safe and happy New Year, everyone. Remember, call a cab if you need to.

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There are 3 more days in the quarter. I’ve been trying to tackle all the WIPs to cut it down a bit in order to come close to my quarterly goals. I’m one sleeve plus 3″ from finishing one sweater, and most of a sock to go. I don’t know if I’ll make it.

My optimism went out the window after I bought yarn and started a holiday sweater vest for moi! the evening before the party that I wanted to wear it for. And the following day was a work day. Needless to say, I didn’t wear new duds for the party.

Overall, the vest took about 10 hours to do. I might have made it if I didn’t have to work that day. Once deflated, it sat in a corner until Boxing Day.

In any case, my shoulder is hurting again, and my left thumb is hurting from the way I hold my left needle. Yes, I can change my style for something more ergonomic. But that means slowing down. If I slow down, I don’t meet my self imposed deadline…

Some beautiful rovings came in the mail from The Dye Pot. I really want to play with it, but I have to focus on finishing this sweater.

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Want to know how you can help in the aftermath of the 9.2 earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the surrounding countries? Send money. No blankets. Not knitting/knitted items. Just money. We are talking survival now. Relief organizations need cold, hard cash to buy food, water and medicine. It costs people and money to process non-cash donations. See Red Cross’ statement on why they can’t process donations of goods.

Here are a few organizations that are taking your donations:

• Red Cross is looking to raise $6.7 million dollars over the course of the next 6 months for relief to the region.

• Doctors Without Borders is a wonderful organization.
• World Vision is another wonderful organization. I’ve been very impressed with them. (Disclaimer: I did a short consulting engagement for them several years ago.)

San Jose Mercury News has a more complete list of agencies and organizations that are accepting contributions for earthquake and tsunami relief.

And once you’ve made your donations, check with your employer. Most companies will match your donations to charitable organizations. You might be able to double your donations.

Need more incentive? If you are in the US, just remember, if you donate before midnight, December 31st, you can write it off in your 2004 income tax.

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Celebrate the Solstice!

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I spun up about 1,600 yards of 2-ply sport weight moorit merino a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been in recovery ever since. Not only was that a lot of spinning, but it was spinning a darkish wool (red brown) in the evenings, but I was attempting to do it all with a long-draw to keep as much loft in the yarn as possible.

Well, obviously, I was doing it wrong. My 2 wheels are both castle wheels, which means that I sit directly in front of the orifice. When you draw out to the side…well, let’s just say that my rotator cuff has been in a lot of pain.

Toward the end, I tried sitting at 45 degree angle to the orifice, and treadling with only one foot. This allowed me to draw to the side, using my elbow, instead of draw backwards, using my shoulder. That was much better, but the damage was done.

I’ve been getting chair massages 2-3 times a week to try and get it to stop hurting. It’s mostly healed now.

But, this past weekend, I’ve been hunched over my navajo loom, working on the sampler that I’ve been working on since August. I made a lot of progress this weekend — about 4 inches worth. But then, I must have unwoven about 4 inches too. I’m nearly at half way point. Once I get there, I will take a picture, and play with my photo editing software to see what the completed sampler will look like. In theory, the second half is just the mirror image of the first half. I’ve had to do a lot of tweaking on the pattern. More on that later.

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