Hung Out To Dry

Today I finally got around to setting the twist on a bunch of my hand spun yarn. There are eight skeins being hung out to dry. While I was at it, I blocked a shawl that was recently finished. I'll leave you all in suspense over which one it might be. The Icarus Shawl or Andrea's Shawl.

The other day I was the recipient of a lovely gift. A cute purse I'd been eyeing. Who couldn't love a saddle purse.

And inside was the blue yarn. Mmmm.... yarn. The next day the green yarn showed up on my doorstep. Although, I was expecting that one. The blue yarn is a Mulberry Silk by Silk and Shine. The colorway is Glacier. The green yarn is 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk and 10% cashmere by Stitch Jones. The colorway is Hemlock. Now to choose patterns to go with the yarn.

All the lovely gifts made the memory of being sick last weekend fade a bit quicker. All was not lost. I had a chance to sit down and read. I've been devouring the Anne of Green Gables Series. I'm already on book three.

I did put them aside yesterday though. I made a trip to the thrift store and found this book.

It was a bit chilly out, so while I read the spy book, Scooter opted to sleep under his blanket in his bed. Justin was affected by Scooter's bambi eyes kind enough to bring out the bed.

Clouds and Cleaning

I got Cloud Yarn! The talented Moonrover made it.

I was convinced I could knock out a hat in the very same night that I abandoned the icarus shawl.

I did finish the hat in a night, but I hadn't counted on it being ugly. The yarn is so pretty. How could I have gone wrong. I let it sit in my knitting caddy for a few days before Katya came over and suggested I make a pillow case instead. The hat has since been frogged.

While I was ignoring the cloud yarn yesterday, I planned to clean the house. It has gotten a little gross (except for the bathroom oddly enough. There was a group cleaning effort on that one.) The day went something like this.

10:40: I hear the dog scratching the door. Usually means he wants to go out. But today was my sleep in day, so I ignore him.

10:45: I hear the back door opening. There is no way Brennan is getting a shower before me, so I leap out of bed and claim the bathroom.

11:30: I look at the sink and think that the dishes should be done sometime.

11:35: That sometime might as well be now.

11:50: The laundry needs to be sorted. I found a sock that I haven't seen in 2.5 months. I wonder how long the laundry sorting has been put off.

12:30: Coffee break.

1:00: Finish putting away the laundry and start cleaning up all the junk in my suitcase that has been lying on the floor since mid March.

1:30: Found some yarn I bought in December in a bag under the suitcase.

1:35: Looking for neat patterns to go with the yarn. There has to be a shawl that qualifies for 10 Shawls in 2010 that requires the limited amount of yarn I have.

1:40: Call Mum about who she thinks might like the shawl I want to make. Conversation veers off into how cute Scooter is.

2:40: Looking at fiber magazines that were in the suitcase. Wonder if Borders has this one magazine I'm looking for. The house still needs to be cleaned.

3:10: Walk the dog.

3:20: Walk to Borders.

3:30: Knitting magazine is not there so I walk over to the knitting books only to overhear some dummy 15-year-old insult knitting. I think about giving her an earful.

3:35: Decide against talking to the teenager as I do not have any of my knitting on. Do not wish for her to believe I am "all talk".

3:45: Tell Justin about the idiot teenager. He agrees. She is indeed an idiot teenager.

4:10: Eat lunch, watch America's most wanted.

4:20: Finish lunch, still watching America's Most Wanted. Decided that I should be productive and knit while watching. Print out Andreas Shawl. Finish weaving in ends for Mum's birthday scarf.

4:30: Looking for needles, start cleaning room.

4:40: Find a UFO (unfinished object) that I had been looking for in January.

I spent the rest of the day alternating between knitting and cleaning while looking for certain knitting notions. I stayed up rather late working on Andreas Shawl

Reason's this shawl is going to have serious problems in the near future:

1. I didn't swatch

2. I'm using a heavier weight yarn than the pattern calls for (I've resolved this somewhat by making the "small" shawl)

3. I don't have much yarn to begin with.

Reasons I cast on anyway:

The yarn is variegated. If I run out of yarn, it shouldn't matter what dye lot the yarn was from. Right?