The Ups and Downs of Life

Well, it happened again.  Just when I thought everything was looking up and that life was turning around I found myself crashing back down and falling to pieces in the process.  There are parts of my job that I love, and there are other parts that are so toxic I block them from my mind whenever I am there.  My boss informed me on Friday that I had "not made the gains they had needed" and thus "I would not be recommended for a contract next year."  For the third year in a row I will be unemployed again at the start of summer.  The first time this happened I felt finding a new job teaching would be hopeless, but family and friends encouraged me to continue with my passion.  My coworkers were shocked that I was let go, so I must have been good enough for them to be surprised that I was "let go."  The second year I was dismissed due to budget cuts within the state and county which was based on my contract level for that year.  I was ready to go back to school and find a new career, surely two years in a row was saying something!  Again, coworkers from the new school encouraged me not to give up.  They felt I had a talent and I needed to be there, especially since they felt I was so good at what I did.  I was rehired at the same school that "let me go" last year and was having what I felt was a great year.  I could see my improvements.  I could see how I was growing within my profession and really having an impact on my students.  Unfortunately the administration did not agree and I have just under three months until I will begin searching again.  Although I knew this could happen, and with the toxic environment at my place of employment I considered quitting on my own, it still crushed me to be told I wasn't good enough for their standards.  I'm looking at the bright side, I'm focusing on things that make me happy and I promise not to babble on and on about my job hunt in the upcoming months.  If anyone has any suggestions for switching careers please do let me know!

Now for what you really came for... the yarn!

I finished something.  Can you guess what it is?

Pattern:  Wingspan
Yarn:  Handspun - Superwash Merino from Crown Mountain Farms
Comments:  I had 700 yards of this handspun and only used up approximately 401 yards to make this scarf/shawlette.  138 grams of yarn.

I LOVE this project!  I have some plans to make more scarves/shawlettes in handspun yarn because I do enjoy it so much!

Since I had so much yarn left, and Knitabulls is doing a Monster Madness March KAL I decided to cast on for a Dot the Dress Up Box Monster by Rebecca Danger.

May I present to you:  A Monster Butt.

Since taking this photo I have finished the main body of my monster and have come to a horrible stopping point.  I have no idea what to do for the contrast color that is needed for the eye patch and the ears.  I want to use handspun and would prefer to keep with Superwash Merino since that is what I have for the main body.  I do have a variety of CMF Superwash up in my stash so I may do some stash diving over the next few days and get your opinions.

Things like this make me wonder if people actually do read my blog.  I started this blog with the intention to help store and track my personal information for my own use.  I assumed that very few people actually read it; however, while watching The Knitting Game Podcast yesterday I thought to myself: "I love this podcast!  I really should remember to join their group!"  Not one minute after this thought occurred the lovely podcastor began going down her list of new members and mentioned my name.  Oh!  I did join!  Awesome!  Shortly after she began talking about how much she enjoyed my blog.  I died of shock.  Here I was convinced no one read my blog. ;)

Oh I have a yarn update too:

Yarn Out:  3954 g (7589 y)

Yarn Destashed:  376 g

Yarn In:  1013 g

Yards Spun:  1907 y

 

The finished scarf is added to my list as well as some "new" fiber that came to live with me yesterday.  I'll post some photos of the new fiber some point this week.

Just Plugging Away.

Work has been very busy as always and unfortunately I haven't been feeling well here myself.  Back in December they stopped making the medication I had been on for over 8 years, and it took three months before I realized the "new" medication just wasn't working at all.  After a miserable night last night I finally realized what the problem was and headed to the doctors this afternoon.  Hopefully she'll be able to find me something to substitute because I don't know how long I'll be able to deal with this!

Oh well, on to yarn talk!

My friend Dori came over on Saturday and we played with yarn.

281 yards, 100 grams of a two ply yarn, dyed by Dori and spun by me!  This took just a few hours to spin up and is sooo soft and squishy.  This was the second braid out of the fiber we dyed up the other weekend.

I'm really enjoying spinning up the stuff we dyed and I'm in LOVE with the new wheel.

I've been plugging away on a few larger projects lately, just trying to make a little dent in them.  One of them was the 12 ounces of alpaca fleece a friend sent me to spin up.  There is one skein all wound up that weighs about 3.5 ounces and my math tells me that if I can spin approximately 2 ounces each week I should be able to have this done before I go home to visit!

Finishing it before I head home means that I can deliver it back to it's owner in person.  Saves me about 6 bucks in shipping, but hey, I'll be spending a few hundred on gas just to get to and from home.  Plus I haven't seen this friend in over 2 years so it's a great excuse to meet up with her again.

Also in the past week I've been working my way through the wingspan shawl/scarf thingy.

I LOVE this handspun.  I've just started the second ball of handspun right around the start of the 6th triangle.  The second skein is a bit thicker than the first, so I think for future projects I'll be making a better effort to check my gauge more often to get a more consistent yarn.

I do love working with handspun!

Yarn Out:  3553 g (7452 y)

Yarn Destashed:  376 g

Yarn In:  913 g

Yards Spun:  1907 y

 

Had some more yarn destashed too!  Dori used up the rest of the Lincoln I purchased years ago at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival.  Not bad fiber, just not fiber for me.  Also since the blue handspun is being gifted to her (since she dyed it) I have another 100 grams that disappeared from my stash!  It feels so good to declutter!

Another FO!

It's DONE.  DONE DONE DONE!  Last night I wove in every last end to the afghan I started back in December of 2006.  Five and a half years, but I've finally gotten it finished.

Pattern:  Popcorn Ripple
Yarn:  Caron One Pound in Nutmeg, Rose and Lace.
Comments:  I LOVE this blanket.  I made it twice as wide and used the majority of 6 pounds of acrylic.  I wanted a nice big afghan that I could snuggle up in during Ohio Winters.  Of course, I've moved to South Carolina and it's proved very useful here as well.


Since I've finished this, I've been spinning away on the Alpaca hoping to finish that as soon as physically possible.  I've also been knitting on my scarf and socks as well.  Now that this long term project is off the needles I hope to get some work done on my shawl I started back in 2006 as well!  I will get this long time UFOs off the needles!

Yarn Out:  3553 g (7452 y)

Yarn Destashed:  50 g

Yarn In:  913 g

Yards Spun:  1626 y

It's March!

Wow, this year is flying by FAST and I'm still plowing away with my knitting and spinning so far this year!

I meant to update on the 1st of March to wrap up February and discuss my knitting goals for March; however, real life got in the way and I put my post off until the weekend.  Well, today is Monday so obviously I'm a little behind again!

Oh well!

February Goals:

• Knit my February Hat for 12 Hats in 2012  Done!
• Finish the Afghan started back in 2006 So Close!
• Finish the Stripe Study Shawl  Done!
• Make some progress on my Candle Flame Shawl  Haven't touched this!
• Buy NO yarn/fiber! Oops!

I was hoping to finish the afghan but alas, it did not happen last month.  I will say though that last Saturday I completed the last row and tied the stitch off!  Now I just have to weave in all 10000000 ends! *Insert Groan Here*

Since I last updated... I bought a wheel.  Yup, bought a wheel.  Well, technically I purchased it prior to my last post, but it finally arrived last Wednesday!  I put on some of the fiber I dyed with my friend D from work and ended up with approximately 341 yards.

This was Peruvian Wool Roving from KnitPicks.  Dyed with McCormick Food Dyes in the Crockpot and spun up on my new Majacraft Suzie Pro.  I ended up with 3.5oz of yarn which is approximately 341 yards.  It's a fingering weight and will make a lovely scarf or even some hard wearing socks!  This is NOT superwash! (I need to put this here or I will never remember!)

Also for March I signed up to participate in the Knitting Blooms March KAL.  For their KAL, the podcastor picked a yarn from our stash for us to knit up this month.  The majority of my SC yarn stash is handspun, sock yarn, and of course the occasional handspun sock yarn.  We'll she picked out approximately 700 yards of Crown Mountain Farms sock weight that has been in my stash for ages now.

After some careful deliberation and a run through my queue and other ravelry pattern searches I settled on Wingspan.  So far, I'm in love.  I never really appreciated knitting with handspun until recently and I don't know that I'll ever stop knitting with handspun.

I'm so in love with these colors!  I apologize for the bad photos.  Unfortunately I haven't made it home to get some good photos during daylight hours, so I'm stuck trying to get good photos at night.  These photos are very accurate as far as colors are concerned!

March Goals:

• Weave in all those ends!
• Finish Wingspan
• Finish the March Hat
• Make progress on Candle Flame Shawl
• Finish Spinning the Raw Alpaca!

I have lofty goals, but if I don't set goals I won't complete anything!

Yarn Out:  1073 g (2925 y)

Yarn Destashed:  50 g

Yarn In:  913 g

Yards Spun:  1626 y

The Year of Berets?

I think this might become the year of Berets!  I said last Monday I hadn't even begun to think about my 12 Hats in 2012 hat for the month of February, but Thursday night I pulled some handspun out of the stash, and today I cast off on my newest hat!  Technically I guess this is the first hat I've ever finished for myself.

Pattern:  Spring Beret
Yarn:  Handspun from DragonFibers in Peachsicle
Comments:  Great Pattern, loved being able to use my handspun!  I knit the extra slouchy version and it was more of a "slouchy" hat.  Probably because my yarn wasn't the worlds most even worsted.  The yarn was about 8-9 wpi and is sooo smooshy.  It's a 80% Merino/20% Tussah blend and was a dream to spin!

I've been plugging away on the afgahn as well.  About 3 full days left in February and I may be able to finish my goals but it will definitely be close!  With work (and a now sick cat) I'm not sure the blanket will get finished but I sure am trying!

Stash Update!

Yarn Out:  1073g (2925y)

Yarn Destashed:  50 g

Yarn In:  913g

Yards Spun:  1285y

Mid-Month Update: February

I want to update on a weekly basis, but it seems that work has been WAY too busy lately and with the cold I was dealing with, I just never had time to log in and post.  At the beginning of the month I set a few goals, and while some of them are coming along, others are not.

February Goals:

• Knit my February Hat for 12 Hats in 2012  (Have to start yet!)
• Finish the Afghan started back in 2006 (Working on it!)
• Finish the Stripe Study Shawl  (DONE! DONE! DONE!)
• Make some progress on my Candle Flame Shawl  (Haven't touched this!)
• Buy NO yarn/fiber! (I fell down... big time.)

Pattern:  Stripe Study Shawl
Yarn:  Dream in Color Smooshy in Gothic Rose and Deep Seaflower.
Comments:  LOVED this pattern!  I didn't do a gauge swatch because it was a garter shawl.  I figured I would have plenty so I didn't worry about gauge.  (I'm a little lazy too.)  Well I did run out of yarn after doing 11 of the 12 rows.  No worries though because the shawl is plenty big!  I'm not sure that I'd make this again, but I'd love to do some other patterns of hers!

 I also finished some more handspun this past week.  The lincoln that I bought a few years ago at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival is now out of the stash!  There is about 8oz of blue left, but I'll be saving that for a friend of mine to use when she practices her spinning.  This set of green lincoln is 444 yards and approximately 170 grams.)  About 50g of this lincoln was used when a friend of mine learned how to spin a week ago.

I have a stash update for you below, and you'll see I had a big falldown this past week.  I placed a knitpicks order last week because I wanted to do some dyeing with the same friend I taught how to spin.  The adventures of that are still drying and I hope to be showing those to you this week!  Either way, I bought less than I've used so I'm still in the negatives for this year!  (Also, 113grams of that Yarn in was gifted!  Totally not my fault!)

Stash Update!

Yarn Out:  1001g (2792y)

Yarn Destashed:  50 g

Yarn In:  913g

Yards Spun:  1285y

 

There are 9 days left in February...  Chances are I will not meet all of my February goals.  Work has been so chaotic I haven't really had time to think of casting on anything new.  Because of that I think my focus will be finishing up some of these projects I've already got started.  If I find time hopefully I will still get my February hat done.  If not, no loss, it's 12 in 2012, and I still have 10 months to go!

46 days until Spring Break!!! Yes... I AM excited!  I will be making the trip home to see my family, maybe some friends, and pick up the rest of my hobby stuff still living in Ohio.  It will be so nice to have all of my knitting books, and my acrylic stash in South Carolina!  I miss charity knitting and it's so hard to knit for charity when all the yarn you have is handspun and expensive hand wash only wool!

 

Finally some Photos

The first project was finished at the end of January; however, I didn't get around to blocking and taking photos until this past weekend.

Pattern:  198 yds. of Heaven
Yarn:  Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Swimming Pool
Comments:  This was a great pattern, I used up some washcloth cotton I had in the stash and did an extra repeat of the body to use up more yarn and make it a little bigger. I may make more of these in other colors.  It would be great for handspun!

Also I showed you the Llama fiber I had been spinning up.  It's done! There is 8oz of handspun, 576 yards total.  Of course some of that yardage may disappear during washing, or maybe I'll get lucky and the yarn will grow during washing?

I love the colors of this and Llama is SO soft!  It will probably be a shawl or scarf, something that doesn't need to fit and will drape nicely.

Stash Update!

Yarn Out:  817g (2058y)

Yarn In:  0g (0y)

Yards Spun:  841y

The shawls yardage had already been added in since it was bound off for my last update, but the handspun is new!  Another 576 yards added to my handspun stash!  Lately when looking at my stash it feels as if it is shrinking quickly.  Part of me is sad to see the yarn disappearing fast, but another part of me is happy to see these things finally being knit with!  I have big plans for when my stash is gone, but you'll have to wait to see what happens. :)

February Goals:

• Knit my February Hat for 12 Hats in 2012
• Finish the Afghan started back in 2006
• Finish the Stripe Study Shawl
• Make some progress on my Candle Flame Shawl
• Buy NO yarn/fiber!