One lesson we learned this weekend is check to make sure the window A/C works when it’s 75 degrees out because if we don’t, as soon as it hits 90+ degrees outside it will not work. We’ve been without A/C the last several days and it’s been over 90 degrees since Friday. To say we’re melting is a bit of an understatement. Needless to say, the idea of picking up knitting needles makes me feel dizzy. It’s too hot even to look at my knitting. So I’ve been reading a lot. When I find a book that is so engrossing that I’m willing to loose sleep over, I feel I need to share it. Sunday night, I started Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. It’s so great! It’s about this girl, Lee, who is at a boarding high school in Massachusetts and follows her through all four years of high school. I always love coming-of-age stories and I think this one’s going to be remembered, I really hope it is. I’ve been telling everyone I know about it. All of the librarians and circ staff know about it because the library literally can’t keep the five copies we have on the shelves. If you’re looking for a good summer read, I highly recommend you check out Prep.

Sunday we went to Bryan’s sister’s house, I have lots of cute photos of our niece, Paige, and will post some of them later along with a bit more of a description of the trip.

Back to reading and trying to stay cool.

I know I’ve been knitting a lot when I’m having dreams about knitting. The first one was about helping this woman in my knitting group, even though in real life I have no idea who she is, figure out how to make the log cabin blanket into a scarf that she could wear. She already had a decent-sized rectangle but she’d run out of yarn. I told her to go to the yarn store and buy a color that would look good with the colors she already had and knit a long garter stitch piece. Then we’d stitch the other pieces she’d already made onto the ends of the garter scarf.

Then I don’t remember the other knitting dream but it had something to do with a shawl. I’ve been thinking it would be so wonderful to knit a shawl for a knitting friend’s commitment ceremony in about three weeks. I’m not sure if I’m crazy but I’ve read on the KR forums that someone was able to finish a Flower Basket shawl in about a week and a half. So now I’m considering adding that shawl to my list of projects and focusing on it because I’m sure I could get it done in about two weeks if that’s all I knitted on. It’s lace-weight yarn so I may regret pushing myself later on. Should I consider it or do I have too much on my plate right now with the baby blanket? Granted the log cabin blanket doesn’t technically have to be done until mid-July and it’s been so much fun. But I think I’m ready for a bit of lace to work on and it wouldn’t be garter stitch. Bryan thinks I should stick with what I’ve got instead of adding yet another project to my plate. Personally, I don’t consider the afghan square one of my projects and the Snowflake sweater is on hold until next fall. See how I’m trying to justify it to myself. I really should get some more use out of the Barbara shawl that I made last year and wore to Brandi’s wedding. It’s a lovely shawl and is perfect for a commitment ceremony.

After each baby blanket I finish I think “never again” knowing full and well that another cute little pattern will catch my eye and I won’t be able to say no. Any excuse to knit for a baby is a perfect excuse, everything is smaller and I will be done with it in no time, yeah right. That is until I reach the blankie-zone. Those rows that seem to last for ever on a blanket that never seems to grow. You know what I mean. How dare that the idea of a cute baby and a cute blanket sucker me into another blanket. You’d think I’d learn by now, but NO! I obviously haven’t learned from the Pinwheel, Giraffe, Stripes or Clouds blankets.

So what blanket pattern sucked me in, you ask? Well, I completely blame the Mason-Dixon Knitting book. They talked about knitting a log cabin blanket and I thought, “Hey, I can do that.” The whole idea intrigued me since I’ve never been able to figure it out by myself, so I got some lovely yarn and cast-on for the middle square, which I made into a pocket to put a cute little bear into. So I finished my first square and then picked up stitches for the second block. Not so bad, then I picked up the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth blocks and knit them without any problem. Then I got to the seventh block and wham – the blankie-zone hit me. That seventh block seemed to take forever. I finally finished it this afternoon (it’s only 19 rows but it felt like 100) and picked up stitches for the eighth block. The blanket is growing slowly but surely but this is not a quick knit. I don’t know why I ever think a baby blanket is going to be a quick knit because they never are. I guess it’s the idea of a making something for a baby that they will love and hopefully cherish for a long time, and something to curl up with and sleep when they just need their blankie. Gets me every time. And the funny thing is I don’t want to knit anything else right now, that’s how I know I’ve really been sucked in. It’s probably the idea of getting to pick up stitches for another block that keeps the excitement up, I’m easily entertained.

Until next time, you can find me knitting away in the blankie-zone. I may have to take a break every once in a while to knit a cute washcloth or a baby bib. Oh, those Mason-Dixon girls, it’s all their fault. Yes, I’m still considering knitting myself a bath mat.

Hardly ever do I pick up a knitting book or check one out from the library and want to make more than 90% of the projects. Or want to write an entire post about it. I finally got to the top of the hold list for Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Meador Shayne. I’m ready to break out my larger needles, buy out the local store of Peaches & Cream, order some linen and get to knitting dishcloths, handtowels, a bath mat, a log cabin blanket and even a nightgown.

I’ve never been a regular reader of Kay and Ann’s blog Mason-Dixon Knitting and now I’m wondering, WHY? What has kept me from reading their blog. Time, laziness most likely. They’ve converted me and I plan on finding out what I’ve been missing but maybe in my missing, I was more impressed and more smitten with their book. I have plenty of knitting books but this one is one I plan on buying. It’s done something to me that other knitting for the home books haven’t done, inspired me. Don’t be surprised if you suddenly see me knitting more dishcloths or a bath mat here. It could be perfect light knitting for the summer. And the log cabin baby blanket is an absolute must for my new nephew who is due in August.

Yesterday, I waxed Guenny. When I purchased her, I also bought the Ashford wood wax because I’ve never stained anything before and I didn’t want my first attempt to be on my wheel, plus I love the natural wood a lot. So yesterday afternoon I got out the wax and waxed her up. (I can’t wait to see what kinds of search results that one gets.) Some really interesting characteristics of the wood have really come out with the wax. The treadles look almost completely different from each other, there are swirls around two of the legs and she now matches my spinning chair.

Last night, we also got down to some serious spinning. You may remember this fiber from last year that I spun into the Lemondrop yarn. I still have about two ounces left, so I started split it straight down the middle so that I can have nearly perfect stripes, a technique I learned in Judith Mackenzie McCuin’s class. Then I spinning it quite finely and after about a minute decided to spin it as slub yarn which I’ll do as a 2-ply. I figured that I should start with something I can play with just to get a feel for Guenny and her nuances. Treadling on her with one foot is lovely and I think we’ll have a great time together. Poor Matilda has had several people interested in her but no one has taken her yet. She looks so sad sitting next to her bag, she’s already to go and has come to terms with her leaving. If you have a friend who would be interested in a used Lendrum, let them know that Matilda is looking for a new home. She’ll be a perfect first wheel for someone.
Update: Matilda sold the last week of May. She’s gone to a good home in Minnesota and her new owner loves her.

Guenny is short for Guenevere, a name I’ve always loved. Guenny and I have already been through so much together.
She arrived yesterday while I was at work and had to wait at the UPS place for me to pick her up after 7pm. Soon after that we arrived home and I immediately started putting her together.

I felt like my “training” in putting together my Ikea furniture would perfect for putting this wheel together, but years of Ikea furniture didn’t teach me to rub the screws with candle-wax to make them easier to screw in or to gently sand some of the larger long screws to make them easier to screw into the little metal wing nuts.

I was determined to put Guenny together by myself but sometimes the husband muscles were required for a particularly stubborn screw or for putting the wheel axle through the wheel, which was so much harder than it seems it should have been. After about 2 hours, she was all put together and I started just treadling. It’s so smooth, with a few new wheel squeaks easily remedied with a drop of oil.

Today Guenny and I plan on spending some quality time together and she and Matilda will get to play together a little bit before Matilda goes to a new home. I’m going to miss Matilda, she’s been a fabulous wheel and having Guenny in the house makes me sad because this means Matilda has to leave. You’re probably thinking, she’s only a spinning wheel, but if you’re a spinner you completely understand how attached you get to a wheel. To do anything that you like on your wheel, you have to establish a relationship with it. I know she’ll go to a good home, when we find one and hopefully have other wheely friends to play with at spinning groups.

We’re now in our fifth straight day of 50 degree weather with rain. A low-pressure system has parked itself on top of us. There are those of you that live in the Northwest where five days of rain isn’t a big deal but it’s really starting to wear on me. I want to be outside enjoying the sun. It’s May, not March. This is obviously payback for having a beautiful April with nice warm temperatures and lots of sun. I know we need the rain but can’t it rain one day, then be sunny the next? Not six days straight.

Fortunately, the rain didn’t stop us too much on Saturday as we ventured out for the first Farmer’s Market of the season. It was the first time we’d been to the Farmer’s Market here but we came home with some great stuff – four small basil plants, a pound of strawberries (YUM), three lovely tomatoes, locally-made raspberry fruit spread (sweetened with white grape juice) and a pound of freshly picked salad greens, which were scrumptious.

Sunday, the rain and cool temperatures were the perfect excuse to bum around, knit and read the entire day. Today, I’m having a serious case of the Mondays and the rain is not helping. Speaking of work, you’re probably wondering what became of the Acquisitions job. The interview went well, but they hired someone with previous acquisitions experience. I received a very nice note in my mailbox at work from the woman who interviewed me. She explained why they hired someone else but another position would be opening up in August and I’m her first choice for the job. When I saw her on Friday, I thanked her for the note and said it meant a lot. She told me that I’m hired for the position opening up in August, unless I change my mind. Things are working out for the better, now Bryan and I can have a leisurely summer after the middle of June. He’s in school for the next four weeks for an intensive summer semester and then he’ll be off for two months.

I’ve made some progress on the Hobo sweater and significant progress on the “Go with the Flow” Socks. I just turned the heel last night.

In my previous posts about my trip to Maryland, I haven’t included photos of the yarn I spun in my Novelty Yarns class with Judith Mackenzie McCuin. (click photos for larger image)
From top
2-ply slub yarn
Cabled bouclé with red thread – fiber 50/50 silk/wool (this was a rescued by Judith)
Marled yarn (3-ply)

Cabled Bouclé with white silk thread

Cotton bound bouclé
My first time spinning with cotton so slubs were very easy to do

I need a bit of practice with boucle yarn but it was really fun to do. Right now I’m just waiting for my new wheel before I start anything new, it should be here in about a week and a half. Last week, I finished spinning the garden yarn on Wednesday. Because I don’t want to start anything new, I respun a hank of the Lemondrop plied yarn so that I can cable ply it to make it stronger. I have one more hank to do and then it’s just waiting for the new wheel to arrive, so that I can wind all of the yarn I’ve spun on Matilda onto the bobbins of the new wheel. I realize that I could wind the yarn onto weaving bobbins but at this point, I can’t afford a bobbin winder and I figure this will be just as easy.

Because I’m in the library so much and in Maryland we were talking about kids’ books about knitting and spinning, we’ve been reading kids’ books in bed to each other before we go to sleep. In the last few nights, we’ve read Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton, Mr. Nick’s Knitting by Margaret Wild, which is out of print and such a wonderful book, and Brave Charlotte by Anu Stohner and Henrike Wilson. All of these books are so beautifully illustrated. Yes, there is a theme here of knitting and sheep. Next on our list are The Baabaasheep Quartet by Leslie Elizabeth Watts, With Love From Grandma by Harriet Ziefert and Deborah Kogan Ray, Mrs. McDockerty’s Knitting by Ruth Martinez and Catharine O’Neill, and Derek the Knitting Dinosaur by Mary Blackwood and Kerry Argent. I found all of these in just a five minute search on the library’s online catalog. There are a lot more that I just didn’t find in those five minutes. We thought it would be a perfect way to get acquainted with more than just adult fiction so that we can be well-rounded librarians.

I’m off to do my volunteer work and then work after that. Looks like we may see the sun on Wednesday. I plan on spending a good part of the day outside!