I need your help! Which one is better, cap (left) or flutter (right)?

(Variation instructions here!)

If you’re knitting the collared version, there’s a nice stabilizing trick here.

Last weekend, I embroidered four western shirts, one for each of the boys in Kid Congo and the Pink Monkeybirds. They’re playing the Scion Garage Shows with Hunx and his Punx at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn tomorrow & Mohawk in Austin on the 29th (free w/ RSVP!). Yay, embroidery! Look! Of course, Kid gets the red one.

Kid’s shirt, with his Stratocaster & a guitar amp.

Kiki’s, with his P Bass & a bass amp.

Ron’s Ludwig snare & kick drum pedal. I couldn’t resist throwing in a few sequins because the drums have a sparkle finish.

And Jesse’s Telecaster. The guitar’s colors are kind of blown out in the pictures. They’re a little more subtle in real life.

The French knot guitar tuners and strap buttons slay me.

I hadn’t done any real embroidery since grade school, and I didn’t get the shirts until Thursday night. Ron was leaving Monday morning, so I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pull it off in time, but they turned out swanky. Each shirt has the owner’s instrument and an amp (except Ron’s, which has a kick drum pedal instead), plus a few little sparkles for good measure. Ron drew them all. The instruments are pretty accurate, though the scale of the necks had to be adjusted so they would fit and not look weird. I played around with the amps. I really wanted to emborider their nicknames on the backs, so I think I’ll get Ron to snatch them back after the Austin show so I can finish them. I also need to make on for Jason, who plays with them sometimes.

My only concern is whether they can be trusted to wash them in cold water. They can be machine washed and dried–and they shrank a lot when I pre-washed them–but I do worry they’ll shrink more/fade if they’re washed in hot water. I suspect that boys on tour are in the habit of not doing laundry until everything’s horrifically stinky, then washing everything in hot water. I’ll cross my fingers they won’t be dicks and they’ll just wash them all together as a separate load.

Anyway, I’ve totally got the embroidery bug!

I’m having a ball procrastinating this week! I have TWO, yes, TWO excellent diversions to keep me off track.

First, there’s the That Girl! KAL. I’m very much enjoying my collarless, ultra-short-sleeve/longer torso variation. I don’t have to decide for a while, because I still have a whole ball to knit onto the torso before starting the sleeves, but I can already get a notion of what the collarless/short-short combo will be like. I think I’ll either go with a cap sleeve or a flutter sleeve. Hmmm. Or maybe the mini-tie?

For more sleeve options, see this post. The pattern is auto-sizing for the most part, but for info on a bit more scaling up/down (bbw/kid), see this post.

If you’re participating in the KAL, use the code below to display this badge on your blog!

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/groups/thatgirl_summerjacket/”><img src=”http://cdn.makezine.com/make/craft/2010/07/badge_summerjacket_kal.gif” width=”150″ height=”150″ border=”0″ alt=”That Girl! Summer Jacket KAL” /></a>

In other procraftstnation, I finally, finally finished all the green handspun I’ve hand on the bobbins for fracking ever.

That’s a pound and a quarter, well enough for a nice, roomy hoodie with pocket. I might even go apeshit and make it a lined hoodie, since this stuff is on the scratchy side and that would be crazy warm and plush. The outside would be sturdy medium wool and I could make the inside something yummy soft and not worry about the inevitable mad pilling. If it were lined, I’d definitely make it zipped. Either way, I can’t wait to see how it knits up! I really like the effect of plying the hand-dyed with a solid; it makes the color shifts subtler and I expect it will knit into something a little quieter, which make sense for this colorway. Yay!

Starting out, I had two big bobbins of hand-dyed that I’ve been spinning up VERY slowly over the last several months. I had to spin an equal amount of Succulent, a sturdy heathered wool/nylon blend. That bobbin on the left was really overstuffed. You forget how that extra little bit around the outside of a bobbin really adds up to twice its thickness closer to the core, so I ended up spinning 3 normal bobbins (like the foreground one, above) to be able to finish plying one normal bobbin and one piggy bobbin. All in all, that was about 10 oz of new singles, then plying them with the old. I’d call it a pretty tedious project, but I’m thrilled it’s done!

I’m still trying to figure out what to spin up for my challenge day tonight. My next spinning project is to finish the Uncle Honeybunch 2ply, but there’s no real challenge there.

Oh, I know! How about a 2-part marathon challenge? First, get anything on the bobbins OFF those bobbins, whether that means plying or just winding it off. Then I’ll spin some of my angora I’ve been saving forever! I have a couple of colors I could spin to use in a nice warm headband or bonnet! It’s hard to remember the biting cold during a heat advisory, but I know it will be back before we know it.

I’ll call either part of that challenge a success, actually, because I’m about to head out to go pick up some shirts for the boys. Kid Congo & the Pink Monkeybirds are playing a Scion show with Hunx & His Punx in NY & Austin next week, and if I work my ass off this weekend, I hope to have a little treat for them.

OH! Did I mention we bought a couple AC units? So luxurious. I have AC in my office & bedroom now. It’s absofuckinglutely dreamy.

(much more yellow in real life; like below)

Spinning: Art Club Succulent Wool/Nylon hand dyed & combed top

Watching: Mad Men Season 2 Best-of Marathon

Notes: Man, I love the combed top Zeilingers makes. It totally spins itself, no prep at all necessary. I had to work to go thicker on this one, because I keep wanting to spin as fine as I can, but I needed to match some handdyed combed top I had already spun up for a sweater some months ago, before I took the fine spinning class that cursed me. I didn’t have enough of it, so I’m spinning equal parts of this to ply it. I still need another bobbin + the rest of this one, so I’m guessing another 6 oz or so.

I’ll get a shot of the stuff I’m plying it with tomorrow, assuming dickhole FedEx can be bothered to either knock or actually go around to the front door. (Today, they really couldn’t be troubled to actually make any real attempt to deliver it. Apparently we hicks out in the sticks don’t rate any consideration, even though they’re all too happy to charge extra to “deliver” out here. Deliver in this case means putting a sticker on the back door and beating a hasty retreat. I wouldn’t be so angry if this kind of shit were less common with FedEx. Express is so expensive and it’s shitty they have no qualms about making the absolute bare minimum gesture. I can actually feel my blood pressure mounting, thinking about this. Serenity now, serenity now.)

Future: Will be plied with my greenies hand-dyed medium wool (can’t remember the colorway–I think it may have been some extras of fiber I dyed up for Cuckoobatts Club) to make a worsted. It will become a hoodie with a big kangaroo pocket.

Finished: Laura’s Pygoras Natural-Dyed Local Merino Roving

Notes: Navajo plied

Still spinning: Laura’s Pygoras Natural-Dyed Local Merino Roving

Watching: Terminator Salvation + the first half of My Sister Eileen

Notes: I zapped some with the hair dryer, and while that does make it easier to spin, it’s impractical because it cools off too quickly and I’m not going to spin with a hair dryer in my lap.

Spinning: Laura’s Pygoras Natural-Dyed Local Merino Roving

Watching: Mad Men “The Wheel” + The Daily Show

Notes: Apparently I can only spin fine now. It’s a little irritating. I think I’ll Navajo ply this mess when it’s done. This roving still has a fair amount of lanolin, but it’s older, so it’s kind of sticky. Maybe I’ll hit it with a hair dryer before I spin the next round.

Future: Well, it’s nice and soft, but not a great color for me, so I should probably avoid a hat or cowl, though that’s where it would make the most sense. Or maybe it will ply up into a color I can wear. Or maybe I’ll find something compatible but better on me for a cushy cowl and ply them together. Or maybe I’ll make legwarmers.

Craftzine is hosting a That Girl KAL, yay! We’re getting started next week, and I’ll be posting variation ideas and casting on a version with collar and sleeve variations. I’m very excited–I haven’t do a KAL in ages, and this project works up quickly. If you want to join, cast on in ravelry:

Natalie’s even sending me an extra camera she has so I can get some decent photos! Yay! I have sent my very broken camera off to Sony, and hopefully they’ll call me next week and say, no problem! We’ll fix it right up for you, and for cheap! And not, sorry lady, you are horsefucked. What did you do, drop this thing and then throw it in a puddle? Sigh.

Speaking of technology, I finally replaced the dead hard drive on my iMac, thanks to the excellent instructions at ifixit.com. I’ve been booting from an external hard drive since it crashed, and I’m going to keep that setup intact in case of another epic failure. But I had pretty much a full day of updating software, re-installing everything, transferring files, etc. Which meant lots and lots and lots of waiting. I’m also thinking of breaking down and buying the Mac Box Set. I only want the software upgrade and I resent that they’re sticking me with all the other crap, but the price is down around $100 on Amazon, and that’s edging into my rationalization zone.

Happily, I have plenty of knitting to conquer while I watched the creeping status bar. I’m working on a Deep Fall submission and I’m very pleased with it. It’s a very simple but also very cute pattern I’ve been meaning to write forever.

And as soon as my new yarn shows up, I’ll be casting on a new variation of the That Girl! Cardi Jacket. More on that when my yarn arrives!

Oh! and Tour de Fleece! I’m a little behind, but the goal is to spin 30 minutes a day, anything I want. But bonus points for spinning last year’s Rhinebeck stash.

I’ve done a few more on the list…. I actually have some banana yarn that Ellen sent me. I should use that right away so I can check that one off, too. Hm. Maybe I’ll make a hair accessory with domino knitting and kill 3 with one rock…

Afghan/Blanket
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental Knitting
Designing knitted garments…im doing it now! or trying anyways
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns…hmm i think so!
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
American/English knitting
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living (sort of…)
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting (who knows what this means?)
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

As predicted, a good deal of hard labor and sweat worked wonders beating back the blahs.

Yesterday afternoon, after I was done whining, I hauled my sulky carcass out to the sheep shed and spent the afternoon finally mucking out the rest of the barn. I don’t even know how many wheelbarrows full of crap and rotted straw I carted out, but in the end, I had a nice, clean, compacted dirt floor again. I brought the chickens in with me to hunt grubs.  When I moved the big fan I keep in there for hot days, I discovered a multi-generational mouse family, which the chickens quickly dispatched. Yes, a chicken will swallow a mouse whole. Field mice are pretty small, though. They’re also pretty cute, with those oversized ears, so it was a little sad to watch them get gobbled up, but the chickens made it pretty snappy. And I had only to think of the mouse poop, disease potential, grain thieving, and the exponential consequences of a species with a 20-day gestation, to console myself.

Then the second round of shoveling began!

After much debate and research, I decided it would be crazy not to go ahead and install the Stable-Grid. I had been toying with putting in concrete and using the grid in the barn yard instead, but, all things considered, it seemed a little nuts to blow a couple hundred bucks and several more days of work (particularly when I’ve been mourning my lack of free time) for a dubious payoff.

Here’s what contributed to my decision:

Cost. $200 minimum just in concrete for a DIY job; $900 to hire someone. (Interestingly, adding the floor of the hay shelter–more than doubling the job–would only raise the price around $100, because then it would be worth trucking the concrete in instead of they guy mixing it himself. But either way, I don’t have an extra grand to drop.) Now, if you were starting from scratch, the grid was about the same per sf as DIY concrete, but I already had it on hand (a Christmas gift from my dad), as well as the sand–free leftovers from the ball field next door–and installation required no new tools and no real skill.

Inconvenience. I’d have to cordon off the animals while the concrete cured, pick up all the concrete, lug heavy bags, mix it in the wheelbarrow, etc. etc. If I decided to pony up for the contractor, or even if I could find someone willing to do it for half that, I’d still have to deal with the animals and work around their schedule. And I’ve got ants in my pants and there’s rain scheduled for the whole week.

Uncertainty over whether it’s even the best choice. The main reasons I flirted with concrete were better drainage, ease of cleaning, and reduction of vermin (field mice).  But the barns aren’t exactly mouse-tight, so they’d probably keep eating the food but just relocate their nests under the hay rack or water buckets, or in the hay shelter. And I read lots of arguments in favor of dirt floors on sanitation. With a dirt floor, urine just soaks into the ground, and poop filters down through the top layer of straw and mixes with the older straw to compost. Add the extra level of drainage of the Stable-Grid to keep the excess pee from accumulating, and you’ve got a recipe for some wholesome anerobic activity below and fresh bedding up top. I don’t understand why the ground underneath it all isn’t a horrible ammonia-sick mess, but it’s not. Something about the bacteria in the soil, I imagine. Plus it’s easier on their bodies than concrete, and warmer in the winter.

Time, Energy & Mess. From what I could tell, the Stable-Grid would be pretty quick and easy to install, and a lot easier on my body. I wouldn’t need water, the time or muscle to lift and mix concrete; and there would be no clean-up.

So here’s how it went. I would have photographed the whole process, but my backup camera is sad and I was fighting the falling darkness.

First I closed the gate so the sheep would be out of my hair. After I mucked out the barn, spread out a little gravel I had to even out the really low spots, then dumped in 6 or 7 wheelbarrows of sand. I spread it out with a manure fork and smoothed it with a spade, raising it as close as possible to the level of concrete from some of the posts that had been thrown up from several  years of freezes.

The grid is made of a rigid but not brittle plastic, sort of like the stuff milk crates are made of. Sturdy, but with a little give. The sides have little notches which let you lock them together in a sheet. The sides and bottom crosses anchor it well when you fill it with sand.

It comes in 1.5 x 2′ sheets, so figured out the best orientation for the grid, and started laying it down like tile, working out from a corner and snapping it together as I went. It was very easy to snap together. If you put a board underneath it and stepped lightly on the joints, it popped together securely–but was also easy to snap apart again if you made a mistake. There were a couple of posts I had to work around, so I just cut out sections where required with a hacksaw.

After it was all in place, I brought in another 4 wheelbarrows of sand and spread it out so it filled up all the little honeycomb cells. You don’t have to make your base absolutely level, because the sand sifts down and fills in gaps underneath, so it’s somewhat self-leveling, and flexible enough to handle a light wave, which I had under one particularly high concrete chunk on a post. Once full, it felt very stable and solid, but still comfortable to walk on. I think the grid absorbs impact well. I didn’t quite get finished before a downpour commenced and the sheep began griping enough for me to throw down some straw and let them back in.

This morning, I moved the straw aside and brought in one more wheelbarrow of sand to fill in any gaps I missed last night, and then I spread out the excess to allow for settling. You can see the grid here, before I spread out the last load of sand.

I had to move the straw around while I filled each quadrant, but it was no problem. In fact, the grid makes a nice, level surface that’s easy to scrape or sweep. I expected it to want to catch the manure fork, but that really wasn’t an issue. You can see I overfilled it a bit to allow for settling.

Spread out the straw and voila! Dry and snug as a bug!

The sheep were well pleased to come in out of the rain. Don’t ask me why they’re all Blair Witchy. Maybe they’re stuck up. Maybe they’re too lazy to turn around when they walk into the barn. Maybe they just like staring at the wall.

I also gridded the coop. I ordered the grid based on my memory of the measurements, not the actual measurements. But between underestimating the coop and overestimating the sheep shed, I had an almost perfect count–and an almost perfect fit! There’s a little 8″ gap in the coop, but I just bought a couple of 98¢ concrete pavers to do the job. The coop really doesn’t have the ideal layout. I keep experimenting, but I haven’t come up with a satisfying answer yet. The coop will also get  a nice layer of straw, but I was waiting until I installed those last two pavers.

All in all, I don’t think the whole process took more than 3 hours–less time than it took to muck out both houses. And that’s with wimpy me making a lot of wheelbarrow trips because I could only carry the thing about half-full of sand. If I were stronger or taller, it probably would have been faster–that was definitely the slowest part. I’ll report back next time I muck the barn out, but I’m very pleased with the installation ease of Stable-Grid, and its apparent stability and strength. And after a very soggy 4th of July, I can already see a difference in the dryness of the barn! Hurrah!