How I spent my weekend...

Sweater time

I know summer end officially in another week or so but it always feels like summer ended on Labour Day. The first day back at school, no matter what the weather, is the end of summer. It's time to take stock of my sweater situation and think about knitting cardigans and other warm clothing. I spent some time this weekend going over my sweater drawers. It was sad. Sad because not much fit me anymore. I just have to face up to the fact that I'm getting older and my metabolism isn't what it used to be. Either stop eating so much junk food or start knitting larger sweaters, I guess.

I love going over my sweaters. I usually don't knit a lot of sweaters for myself so if I decided to keep it, it's special to me. It's like seeing old friends again. I may not be able to fit them but I love them all the same.

This summer I knit quite a few pairs of socks and a lot of small things but no sweaters. I've started a few but ended up ripping them out. I did visit the new yarn shop, Three Bags Full the first week they opened, to pick up some yarn for the Rogue sweater. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) they were not set up to take debit or credit cards yet. I came across the Fall Cable KAL today. This might be what I need to keep me motivated in finishing a sweater. Time to pick something and stick to it. I've given myself to the end of this week to commit to a project and yarn, whether I spin it or buy it or use something from the stash. Once I pick something, I'm going to knit it through to the end - even if I change my mind about it. There. I've committed myself.


I finished spinning the chartreuse Polworth and I love it! 330 metres of plushy softness! I was thinking of knitting this into a scarf, using plain stockinette stitch to see how the fabric would twist and pull. I did a small swatch and I'm really liking the effect so far.

Cotton is not evil

The white stuff is pima cotton ~ 1" staple. The brown stuff is the Foxfire organic cotton ~ 3/4" staple. The pink stuff is cotton/silk ~ 1" staple.

One thing I've realized is that I will have to spin A LOT of cotton to knit a sweater! Last year, I had thought about getting a charkha but decided to get the Little Gem instead. I'm glad that I did. Both the Suzie and the LG spins cotton beautifully once I got the tension right. Sometimes I think I need more stuff but I really don't. I just need to learn how to use what I have properly. This weekend, I was in the spinning zone.

A slight mishap

I made a batch of liquid shampoo yesterday and I knocked it over today - all over my laundry room floor. In my 20 years making soap, I've been very careful and have not dropped a batch. I was always paranoid that I would do just that! I'll bet you that I have the cleanest laundry room floor around.

A good thing

What's better than a loaf of freshly baked bread? A loaf of freshly baked bread with homemade blackberry jelly. Not jam but jelly. No seeds. My brother loves me. :) He gave me two jars of his homemade blackberry jelly. I finally replace my old bread machine today. The old one was close to twenty years old and the loaves were like bricks. The paddle didn't work properly anymore. It would have cost almost as much for a new one to have the old one fixed. The inaugural loaf was prompty sliced up and slathered with blackberry jelly. Oh, it was absolutely heavenly!