Midwinter full moon

Question: Is it possible to take a half way decent picture of the moon (with my little camera)?

Answer: Not exactly.

Twist and shout

So, my first yarn is spun, plied and knitted. And I learned the following:

• I spun it way, way too much - you do not need to put that much twist in.
• Plying seems to resolve some of that.
• Despite all that, you really don't see it in the knitted fabric - well, you do if you look closely, and perhaps it's a bit stiffer than it might otherwise have been, but, really, it is surprisingly forgiving.
• Andean plying is the most awesomely clever thing and easier than it looks in the diagrams.
• I want a spinning wheel.
  

The end product is a calorimetry, partly because I wanted to make one; mostly because I didn't have a lot of yarn, and I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to make that would only take about 100m.

(And the colour in these photos is probably a bit more true to life than those in the previous post with the yarn on the spindle.)

Right round, baby, right round

The spindles and fibre from Maine Woods Yarn and Fiber arrived in the post yesterday and nearly 24 hours later I have something actually resembling yarn. Certainly more like yarn than what I was spinning last night:


I'm surprised at how quickly you can become, well, moderately competent is probably a fair description. I'm not kidding myself into believing this is great yarn, but I will be able to ply it and knit it into something. It's going to take a little while to work through the 4oz of fibre, although I'm getting a bit quicker with practice. The one thing I can't get the hang of is drafting as I go, so I've opted to pre draft the fibre (courtesy of a very helpful video tutorial), which seems to be working very nicely.

Oh dear, a new addiction.

Making progress

On current pace, I should be finished sometime in early May 2011, but that's actually unlikely. It assumes working 2 squares a day, which is not difficult, nor even difficult to exceed some days. But even if I maintain this all through winter (and don't get distracted by other projects), come the warmer weather, it'll all come to a screaming halt. Also, at some point, I'm going to run out of yarn and the blanket will have to hibernate until I knit (quite a few) more socks.

And the leaves that are green turn to brown

Love this time of year.

Wish I knew what kind of trees these are - the street, possibly half the suburb, is awash with them. They're green and shady in summer, then the leaves start to turn as the weather gets colder and they look spectacular, especially on a day as clear and crisp as this.

By any other name

There was actual blue sky and sunshine this morning - first time in days. Nice while it lasted, but now we're back to overcast skies and the threat of (yet more) rain.

On the positive side, I picked up some roses while I was doing some grocery shopping this morning, and they not only look lovely, but they have scent! So the room, closed up and heated against the dismal weather, now smells of roses.