Just a quick post to say that we’re still alive, and we’re completely moved into the new house. We even got a really good start on unpacking yesterday; the three day weekend helped to get things off to a good start. Nothing like crafting happening yet, but I’m sure there will be some soon. Be back then!

Despite the fact that I am a mere 4 days from moving, it hasn’t really hit me that I’m going yet. You’d think that a month and a half of climbing over and living around boxes would have clued me in by now. Or all the goodbyes and “last times.” Or having half our stuff disappear on the first of June. Or maybe the actual, physical act of moving all that stuff into the new place might have given it away.

But no. All I can see are boxes, and yet my brain hasn’t quite latched onto the fact that we’re leaving. On Saturday.

This past weekend, I packed the stash closet, and it only half registered. I don’t think it’s denial, really; I think I’ve just been too busy to actually notice what’s going on.

Tonight, though, I think it may be beginning to sink in. You see, tonight I started to pack what’s left of the kitchen.

When we move, the kitchen is always the last thing to be packed, and the first to be unpacked on arrival. Everything else can wait, but the kitchen must be functional as soon as possible. Tonight, I am packing up all but the dishes I need to eat from for the next few days, and my brain is suddenly starting to accept that maybe, just maybe it’s getting to be time to go. An empty cabinet speaks volumes.

Moving is always an interesting experiment to me. It’s amazing how many things you really can just pack away in boxes for a few months and still keep on living just about the same. There really aren’t that many things that I need to feel “at home.” There’s a subtle feeling of disorder and displacement when everything is piled up or stuffed in cardboard, but it’s only a few very basic things that keep me feeling grounded. Sure, take all the furniture. Move all the books. Empty out the closet, and put away the fragile decorations. Just don’t touch the current craft projects or the spice cabinet, and it will all be perfectly fine.

So now I’m curious: what keeps you feeling grounded in your home?

The secret weaving project has been safely delivered, so now I can show you all what I’ve been up to. (It’s a good thing, too…not blogging about this project was killing me. I’m not sure I could have held out another week!)

Sometime this spring, Becky and I were at a knitting guild meeting, and one of the vendors had a very pretty laceweight yarn. It was a handpaint, with vibrant colors and abrupt color changes. It’s Schaefer Yarn Andrea, in colorway Jane Addams.

The colors were definitely Becky’s colors, but really, what kind of lace could you knit with that and manage to avoid pooling? And what but lace would you knit with a yarn that has 1100 yards in 3.5 ounces? Becky asked me “what would you do with this?” My immediate response was that I would weave with it.

That planted a thought. During the break, a small paper bag was carefully slipped into my backpack.  I was planning to weave it up for Christmas, but then I decided that it would make a good going-away gift, too. And so, I began some deadline crafting.

I had two cones of green yarn that would go with the laceweight. One was a shade or two darker than the darkest green in the yarn, and the other was a couple of shades lighter. (Sorry for the flash…I was in a hurry to get the skein wound into bobbins and couldn’t wait for daylight.)

As you know, I decided on the lighter color, thinking that it would help the colors to “pop.” Instead, it completely overwhelmed them:

So I took the light warp off the loom, and put on a dark one instead. Can you believe the difference?

I finished weaving the scarf on Wednesday, washed it Thursday, and gave it Friday. Again, the photos are a little dark because we took them at night, but I think you get the idea.

Even in weaving, the colors did pool quite a bit, but I really like how they interacted. I’ve found that this is consistently true for me; yarns that I would normally avoid knitting with because of pooling make excellent weaving yarns. The uniform width of the piece and the alignment of the color repeats makes the color changes much more acceptable to my eye, and usually makes a beautiful fabric. In this case, I had to be extra careful to line up the color repeats when I switched from one bobbin to the next so that the pattern didn’t shift, but that wasn’t very hard because it only took two and a half bobbins to finish the scarf. Because the width doesn’t change, I was able to keep the same color repeat all the way through the scarf, giving it an interesting zigzag look.

I wove the scarf in a 3/1 twill (the weaving yarn goes over three threads, then under one), so the front and the back look a little different. The laceweight weft is dominant on the front, and the warp is dominant on the back.

The warp is tencel and the weft is silk, so the piece has beautiful shine and drape. The fabric is quite light because the laceweight is so fine, and the twill pattern gives it a little extra texture, too. See all those little diagonal lines? That’s the twill pattern. (It’s in your jeans, too…they’re a 2/2 twill, where the weaving yarn goes over two threads and then under two threads all the way across the fabric.)

As it turned out, Becky wasn’t the only one getting surprised on Friday. She gave me this beautiful project bag:

…filled with Pygora fiber! I’ve never spun Pygora, but it is wonderfully soft, and very warm. I’m looking forward to spinning this one; it’s staple length is so short that it will be very different to spin than the longwools that I’ve been using. It will probably become a laceweight, just enough for a small and special project. Another experiment awaits!

If I had only one word to sum up the experience of spinning Polwarth, it would be this: Loft.

Fortunately, I have many more words, including soft, and squooshy, and bounce, and…did I mention soft?

This is definitely going on my list of fibers to spin again. The yarn ended up heavier than I’d expected (diameter-wise), in part because the fiber bounced back so much with plying. I ended up with a little over 600 yards of heavy fingering (10-11 wpi?) from my 8 oz. of fiber.

The unbloggable project is coming on apace, and it’s making me crazy that I can’t talk about it! Fortunately, it’s on track for delivery late this week rather than next, so hopefully there will be pictures to show soon. For now, let’s just say that sometimes “frogging” is so worth it.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been noticing a slow quieting down of the knitting world lately. A shop closes. Someone stops posting to their blog. People stop showing up for knitting groups, or stop working on their projects altogether.

It may be that there just isn’t money to spend on hobbies. Or maybe there isn’t time to sit and knit. But it feels like more than that, to me. People seem restless, eager for something new, almost…ready to move on.

More and more people are talking about weaving, or spinning, but I don’t feel the same excitement surrounding knitting lately. Maybe I just don’t get out enough?

It seems impossible to say this in a city that has the biggest knitting guild in the country, a steadily growing 500+ members, but I see it here, too.

There will always be Knitters, of course. The ones that knit on regardless, just for the sake of making cloth through the magic of two sticks and some yarn. Those of us for whom knitting is a way of life.

But I’m wondering if knitting as a fad is passing on, and if so, what that means for all the people who rely on this robust community for their livelihood.

I have to say that I am the world’s worst supporter of yarn commerce. I don’t want a big stash (though the one I have is plenty large, let me tell you). I haven’t been knitting as much, partly because there simply hasn’t been time, and partly because I find it so hard to sit still in what little time there is. When I do knit, I knit with what I have, and I really haven’t been adding much for the last year or two. It’s not that I’m on a stash diet. It’s just that I have enough.

But I’m wondering how long this bounty of choice will continue. And I’m wondering if maybe, just maybe I should pick up that extra skein of yarn that calls my name; not only to support the businesses that I value, but also to ensure a steady dose of yarn in times of dwindling supply.*

How about you? Are things slowing down in your corner of the knitting world, or are they as bustling as ever?

*Yes, Branden, I know that this is prime enabler material, and that you are reading. I may regret these words the next time I am tempted to buy and self-discipline says that it knows better.

On Saturday, we loaded the truck. On Sunday, we unloaded it. Today, I am sore.

Since we have now covered all of the important details related to moving, I figured I’d show you some pictures of the house.I apologize for their quality. I realized as we were finishing the hauling that it was getting dark and I’d better take some pictures before I forgot. Some of them are crooked, and a little bit blurry. That pretty much sums up how I was feeling at the time, so there you have it.

I may have mentioned that this house is really too large for just two people? Well, if anything it’s gotten bigger since the first time we looked at it.

It’s hard  to see here because of the trees, but there’s a large porch, with a swing that would be wonderful for spinning outside on summer evenings.

When you come in the front door, there is an entryway with a set of stairs on the right, and the dining room on the left.

The stairs have become something of a joke for me. When the landlady posted the apartment on Craigslist, she included only two pictures of the inside of the house, and one was of just the stairs. Forever after, this became known as “the one with the stairs” while we were trying to keep apartments straight during the house hunt. They are lovely, though.

Here’s the dining room:

All of the stuff that we brought with us on this half of the move fit comfortably behind me while I was taking this picture. You know when you go to a furniture store and the couch seems small, but then it’s huge when you get it home? Our pile of boxes was like that, only in reverse.  Except for the fact that it was just as heavy and we could still count up all 24 book boxes, I’d swear that pile shrunk between Madison and Chicago.

The dining room unexpectedly came complete with a table, which is much larger than the one we have now, and should be just about the right length for a table runner made out of the purple cloth I took off the loom a couple of weeks ago.

And then there’s the kitchen (most important room in the house, and therefore the first to be unpacked):

And it even has a pantry. (See all those boxes? I think I know what I’ll be doing with all this space, at least!)

There’s a finished basement downstairs, which even has a sink and counter (and a handy drain in the floor in case of spills). Besides needing to be careful of the linoleum, this will make a great dye studio.

I really wish that we had this house in Madison, because this basement area would be perfect for hosting the spinning guild for our monthly meetings. There’s another half that you can’t see here, and that will probably become the guest room.

Upstairs, we have the master bedroom, which, as Branden puts it “has a closet that’s big enough to have its own closet” in the back. I have my eye on that “closet” for a yoga studio.

One of the smaller bedrooms will be Branden’s office/workshop, with ready access to the attic upstairs for things involving sawdust.

And the other will be my craft room and the library.

Don’t you love that color? I am constantly finding that I absolutely love colors on walls that I really wouldn’t like anywhere else. Go figure. This will be a wonderful room to sit in in the middle of November, won’t it?

We debated who would get the orange room. It has a great closet, which would be good for either Branden’s office or the craft room, but Branden’s office is really going to be more of a workshop, and we eventually decided that this room should probably be able to be shown off a bit, and so a craft room/library it became. Won’t it look great with a wall of bookshelves, and a comfy chair? (There may or may not also be a soft pillow…)

Outside, there is a small perennial garden in need of some TLC. If it got more sun, I’d be pining for some vegetables, but maybe I’ll look into herbs and dye plants instead.

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There’s also a fairly large backyard.

And that’s about all there is (ha!).  We will be swimming in space here, but it does mean that we’ll have lots of places to put people who happen to stop by Chicago for a visit (hint, hint). And I have a whole month to dream up uses for that craft room and dye studio…

The past year and a half have been relatively quiet, a period of stasis between the rush of teaching and getting a degree and whatever rush there will be in the rest of life. It’s been almost frustrating at times how little things are moving ahead, but now suddenly everything has become unpaused.

We got an apartment. We went on vacation (no, we haven’t even had a chance to look at the pictures yet). Branden is moving in two weeks. The badass project is ramping up. Check it out if you haven’t been there in a while. There are some truly amazing interviews up over there. My boss and I are in the crunch of paper writing that comes with finishing any position in academia. And now, there’s even a chance that I will have a job; one I thought I didn’t want but am suddenly realizing that I do.

Lots of change. Out of the static and into the dynamic. (I’m not complaining.)

And, amidst all this rush and bustle, the traveling sweater continues to travel, growing slowly day by day while I ride the bus to work and back.

Some things never change.

I love the fact that it is 8:00 and still light out. Realizing that the sun was still up inspired me to ply the BFL singles in time to take pictures. (As if I needed an excuse.)

Didn’t it spin up nicely? I love the way the colors work together in the final yarn.

It’s not my most even spinning job ever, but in this case I like the texture that comes from the unevenness. I think this is likely to be a weaving yarn, and a little extra texture can add a lot of interest.

I had split the singles onto two bobbins, and when I finished the 2-ply, I still had  some singles left over.

The color behaves differently in the singles, and I liked it both ways, so I decided to leave the last of the singles unplied. I’m not usually a big fan of knitting with singles, so these are the first I’ve ever spun. I think it will be interesting to see how the two different color sets go together.  From 4 oz of fiber, I got almost 200 yards of 2-ply, and about 100 yards of singles. Before I could ply the BFL, I had to free up some bobbins. I plied some of the Shetland that I’ve been spinning for Branden’s sweater the other night, leaving me with a pretty good pile of yarn.

If commercial roving is candy, then this is the wholesome, hearty comfort food that gets you through the winter. It’s turning out to be beautiful stuff. A couple of the mixed skeins seem to have gone missing somewhere in the craft closet, so this isn’t quite everything I have, but it’s close. I think I still need to spin up a few more skeins of the dark brown to get the color balance I want, but I’m about 90% of the way to a full sweater.  Actually, there’s more than a sweaters’ worth of yarn right there; I spun up almost 1400 yards of the light gray before deciding that it was only going to make up a third of the sweater. There will definitely be leftovers, but I don’t mind that one bit.

A friend asked me tonight if it was possible to subscribe to the blog directly. I said yes without thinking much of it, because it was easy and automatic in Blogger. But then I had to stop and think a minute. I’d never seen a function like that in the WordPress dashboard, and I’d never really thought much about it. I’m one of those Google Reader junkies with a million blogs and just as many unread items on any given day, so I don’t think much about direct subscriptions that aren’t through a feed reader. But I know that there are people out there who (probably wisely) avoid the slippery slope of RSS feed readers, so I asked Branden how you could subscribe directly. It took some poking, but there is now a “register” button at the bottom of the right sidebar (just below the archived list of posts). If you want to subscribe that way, you can just click the link and it should set you up with email updates. Let  us know if you have any trouble!

I realized just before we left for our trip to the Grand Canyon that I hadn’t thought about trip knitting at all (!). I don’t usually bring big projects, but the sweater is simple, and it was already in my work bag, so into the luggage it went.

I’m always amazed at people that go on vacation and actually finish their knitting. Or even make progress on it, for that matter. We usually have pretty active vacations, and so my knitting doesn’t usually increase very much on a trip. This time, I knit on the plane and for about half an hour one night in the hotel room. Other than that, the sweater was just tagging along, taking in the scenery. (And yes, it was with me in my bag pretty much everywhere, too. It really did get to see everything.)

After the airplane and the 3 hour layover in Minneapolis (during which we waved to Ellen and regretted not having looked at our schedule sooner), it looks not much different than it did before:

I’m almost done with the back panel, and the arm decreases really are the same on both sides regardless of the picture.

Now that we’re back, I’ve been working on this:

See that spectacularly ugly bobbin winding? That’s a sign that I like what I’m spinning. I get into the rhythm and just forget to change hooks. Whoops!

This is one of the dyed tops from the February Cardinal series that I dyed a while back.

As always, I am amazed and amused at the change that happens when colors mix in the spinning. All those patches of red and green and gray have evened out into some very muted, long color repeats.

I almost hate to say it, but commercial BFL top is my favorite thing to spin. I love, love, love the yarn that I get from a lightly processed local fleece, and it can make for fun spinning in its own way, but there’s nothing quite like the smoothness of a commercially prepared longwool for mindless spinning. It will give me a more compact, almost heavy yarn that will have nothing on the loft of a locally milled roving. For the yarn, I choose lightly processed roving, but for the spinning I love a commercial top. This batch has been a nice break from the ornery Shetland I’ve been working with lately, which has required a lot more active management.

I do have a few bobbins of that ornery Shetland left to ply (maybe today?), so I’m sure you’ll get to hear me wax poetic about the yarn spun from a locally processed fleece in due time. There really is a place for everything in this fibery world, isn’t there?

For the moment, I’m fully enjoying my very commercial, highly processed fiber. We’ll call it dessert, and what else should you use to end a vacation?

(Oh, and there will be trip photos posted, just as soon as we manage to sort through the hundreds of photos that we took!)