The Thrifty Knitter

With the Harveyville Fair and Fiber School coming up fast, and a pattern for Craft and a freelance web site I have to finish by Monday and an August club batt I just realized I never sent out (because I was out of mailers, then distracted by early visitors), it’s taking all of my will to obsessively  focus on my to massive do lists to keep from succumbing completely to anxiety and procrastination. Eep! Obviously, I’m floundering a little right now, or I’d be on task instead of blathering about my woes.

So, why am I so behind and stressed out, you ask? Besides my usual inability to plan & organize? Well, that’s the good news and bad news.

The good news is: we have a new shower in the grade school! Yay! My dad came out early and stayed a whole week putting it in, which was a real bitch thanks to the heavy-duty industrial nature of the building.

The bad news is: it’s not completely finished–though thankfully, he did finish everything I’m not confident enough to do myself. I still have to sand and paint the drywall and block, and seal the brick, and tile the floor, then edge it and rehang the door. And do a little repair to the shower. Hm. Sounds like more all written out like that. And prime and paint the door. And paint the trim. Hm. Okay, still a lot.

I also need to can tomatoes & some other piled-up produce. I cleaned out the jam-packed fridge today and discovered a ton of wasted food. Probably 2 gallons of miscellaneous stuff for the compost heap and another 2 gallons for the chickies. That stuff, I don’t feel as bad about, as it gets converted back into eggs!

Anyway, with all the looming responsibility, avoiding procrasti-knitting is a huge challenge, so I’m only allowing myself to finish the ball of yarn I’m currently on, and then I have to put away my Rhinebeck hoodie until after Fiber School. The wee dregs of this ball will probably get me through the hood, but that’s it. I guess I can redo the hem and still be within my own parameters, although that wouldn’t really be in the spirit of the thing.

I’m reasonably happy with the reknitted body, though I maybe wish it was a leeeetle bit longer (if I have any extra yarn, it goes to the hem). I did add center back shaping for my swayback/big ass situation, though I could have gone a lot farther with it. Next sweater for sure. This is close enough for me to accept, and the plan was to have a fairly relaxed fit anyway. Besides, I’m feeling so thick and sausage-y and premenstrual right now, so I don’t think I’d be thrilled with the fit no matter how perfect it was.

I’m also really not in love with my choice of edging (alternating rows of K1P1 and knit). I thought I remember seeing some simple hat edging on the hello yarn blog that might be good…. Ah, there it is! Hm. I wonder if it would work on something so much larger than a hat? Only one way to find out, I guess.

Hm. If I had enough yarn, I’d just go with a rolled hem. Jeez, I don’t know. Garter’s bulkier than I’d like. I-cord edging, maybe? Or maybe a bind-off with reverse stockinette picked up? Bleh.

Well with the hood about halfway done, I’m sad to report I’m out of yarn. But this baby is destined to be a hoodie, and I don’t like the extra real estate from where I cast on 5 extra stitches under each pit, so I’m frogging the whole thing back to the yoke (eek!) and taking out the extra stitches, then proceeding just as before for a trim silhouette with no saggy pits. I thought it was going to be tight across the bust without the extra, but I think I was forgetting I have awfully compact tits.

I’m going to count my stitches at the waist and hips because the fit’s perfect there, and also the distance from the pits to waist, because the spacing is just right.

Aside from gaining enough yarn to finish and trim the hood (I think the planned pocket’s a goner), I’ll also gain a much nicer fit. I’m going to add some shaping at the lower back, too. I’ve got a kind of sway back and a big ass, so sweaters always pooch at the lower back. It will be nice to smooth that out while I’m at it.

So yes, a wasted week of vacation knitting, but it’s really not all for naught. Well, I mean, I guess if you want to get technical about it, it really was all for naught–but shut ut, no one likes a literalist. The important thing is that I’m not bitter or panicked. I still have over a month to finish it, and with all the work in the spinning, I may as well make it how I really want it.

I’m changing the edging, too. I had a rolled stockinette hem with a row of purls above it, but I’m going with a broken rib (or whatever it’s called) instead. It has a softer look that pure ribbing and doesn’t roll or pull in, so it should be good for the hood edge, too. And it doesn’t suck up the yarn like garter. Here’s a blurry picture. I’d take a fresh one, but I’ve already frogged it. It’s the stuff at the bottom edge (the top is garter & the middle is seed).

Time to frog…

As of this morning, we’ve got just a spot or two each for Fiber & Felt Schools. If you still want to attend, put a wiggle in it!

I’m really excited that Kansas State Extension is offering FAMACHA training sessions in September. I talked about it a while back. It’s a way of monitoring worm loads by the color of the animal’s inner eyelid. Pale eyelids indicate anemia (likely from a high worm load), so you can treat just animals who are more susceptible to worms & leave the others, thus reducing the overall chemical resistance of your worm population. Neat, huh? The session goes from 5.30 to 9pm an includes a FAMACHA scoring card for $15.

If you keep sheep or goats and you’re not too far from Burlington (9/29 Coffee Co. fairgrounds), Salina (9/22 Saline Co. fairgrounds), or Dodge City (9/8 Ford Co. fairgrounds), you might want to attend. You need to register & I have the flyer in pdf, so if you need it, just leave a comment or email me.

Well, my cross-species hatching experiment was officially a failure. I had to dispose of the last 3 eggs today. When I checked on Zoe a couple hours ago, they were starting to stink the place up, so I decided I better get rid of them before the poor girl got splatted in rotten egg goo.

I candled them one last time to be on the safe side (you’d never guess there were embryos kicking around in there earlier this week–it was just drifting chunky goo), and sent them to egg heaven.

Afterwards, I found this, which had been delivered yesterday & was still outside:

I guess I’ll hang onto it and try again next time. But next time the broody will get her own little ark.

I candled the remaining three eggs last night (I removed #4 yesterday morning–it had a hole but was still and starting to get whiffy), and Pollyanna though I am, I have to admit that only the blindest optimist would still have any hope. Two of them are clearly kaput. And yet (see above) I let her sit on them last night “just in case.” Just in case what? Just in case the duck fairy flies in with her magic wand and turns the clumpy blobs of goo back into a duck embryo? Ugh. Truth be told, they also cooled much more quickly than the should have when I took them out from under Zoe. Clearly duds. And yet. The last one had the right shape, but no motion. So either it was sleeping (ahem), or it’s also a non-duck.

So what happened between Sunday, when they were all alive and kicking, and today, when they should all be hatching? Grant pointed out that since two hatched out on Tuesday (and one of those had pipped Monday night), maybe that’s when any that were going to hatch should have hatched. Which is a good point. Anyway, I’ve all but given up. I mean, really, I have completely given up, but I’ll wait until tonight to take Zoe’s eggs. I think I’ll put her in the permanent coop with the other girls for a slumber party, then move everyone back to the summer coop until after the pinhole camera show, when I’ll sort out what to do with the fence situation.

The fence situation is this: with the perimeter fence finished (and the unfinished courtyard frame temporarily blocked with cattle panels), I’m not nervous about the sheep, and I’m using the portable electric as a pasture boundary without worrying about the mad overgrowth rendering it pretty much shockless. The sheep are accustomed to the fence and respect it even when it’s cool. However, I don’t expect the chickens to be cordoned in by those big, enticing open squares that they could easily pop right through. Even if it was hot, I’m not sure it would contain them, since there’s only one shock per second. If they’re startled by the shock, they’d be more apt to go forward than backward.

So what I should probably do is just let them do their thing and range with the sheep, popping in and out through the fence at will. Or I could be more fastidious about the fence and actually weed around it like I was before so it would stay hot. I suspect the chickens will learn to avoid it almost as quickly as the sheep.

Last night, I was all bummed about the candling results, so instead of working, I watched the new Mad Men and did some consolation knitting, which also involved some frogging. I ripped back the bottom of the Rhinebeck sweater several inches, because I decided the hip increase was too severe. I’ll probably add one more increase, more widely spaced, and knit down so I have about 4 inches total additional length. The sleeves are extra long and have a 1″ rolled hem with a purl border. I toyed with other hems, but I think the rolled hem fits the over-long sleeves nicely, so I’ll be doing the same thing along the bottom. The problem is that I don’t think I want a rolled hem on the hood, so I’m not sure how to finish the hood. It needs to be equally simple. The yarn has enough color and texture that I don’t really want any competing stitches. I guess I could use the same border from the hood on the kangaroo pocket… Or maybe I’ll change my mind and rework the sleeve hem. I should really swatch a few options…

Bleh.

Boo. Bad news. Everything was dandy this morning, but when I just went to check on the chickens, I discovered one dead and one near-dead (nope, he didn’t make it) duckling cast out of the nest box. There were also two freshly-laid eggs in the box, so I also don’t know if the broodies or the other chickens coming in and out were the culprits.

They weren’t supposed to hatch for another couple days, so I really wasn’t paying much attention. Bah.

There are only two chickens laying reliably right now, so there shouldn’t be any more laying today, and tonight I’m going to move all the other chickens up into what was supposed to be their permanent coop. So if the other chickens were the problem, they’ll be out of the picture. But I don’t know whether to leave both the broodies in there. If I only pick one, which one? Ugh.

I totally geeked out last night and finally cataloged my stash on ravelry, which was an enormous job. It also gave me the opportunity to sort and organize my stash. I really liked how Loopy Yarns, the LYS I visited in Chicago, was organized by yarn weight, so I reorganized my stash from lace out to superbulky, with a sort of sideline area for hand-dyed & handspun.  Since the pictures above, I’ve also sub-organized each section by color. I haven’t actually done any culling yet, and I still have lots of scattered skeins to collect and add, but I do think there will be a big fat clearing sometime soon. To be on the up-and-up, I really ought to sell off enough to pay for my recent vacation extravagance.

But I’m very excited about having a well-organized stash. Now I should be able to quickly match would-be projects with stash yarns! Hurrah! If I were clever, I’d devote a full day each and every week or organizing something new. I imagine my life would be much smoother and more lovely if I weren’t such a pigpen.

On the egg front: last night, I candled all of the remaining 6 duck eggs, which survived my departure. They all looked more or less like what I could find online (most of the candling pictures are chickens, illustrations, or just much earlier in development), and they all showed a little movement. One had a little chip out of the egg, so I thought it might hatch early, but today it was still chipped and unhatched, so I decided not to mess with it.

Tonight, I candled a couple again so Stephanie could shoot a few pictures for me. The first one was very active, but the second one seemed totally still, and I thought I detected the dreaded blood ring. None of the blood ring photos I could find are this late in the game, however, so I don’t have a good guide.

Afterward, I wondered if the ring might have just been the wax pencil ring I’d drawn on all the eggs so you could easily spot a chicken egg in the nest. I decided to leave them alone, either way, because they should hatch on or around Thursday if they’re gonna hatch. I’ll find out soon enough. Although I didn’t actually want 6 ducks, I have to admit I felt a little panicky about the likely-dead one. I’m also nervous about what might happen once they do hatch, what with the two mommies, and with all the other chickens looming about. Luckily, the most aggressive hen is also one of the broodies.

In other chicken news, Kaylee’s definitely molting:

She’s got mangy bald patches and new quills coming in. Watching Bridgette’s feathers grow back in taught me how the new feathers look, although it’s interesting to see the difference between white and colored feathers. Speaking of Bridgette and new feathers, the little lady is finally growing some tail feathers. Hooray! Way to go, Bridge! She’s got a grand total of three, so they look a little daffy right now, but hopefully they’ll fill in before too long.

My little mini-vacation was the perfect mix of loafing, eating, exploring, sleeping, and knitting. Just the low-key refreshment I needed.

Chicago=public transportation + lots of lines, which in turn = lots of knitting! I cast on after lunch on the inbound train (The Southwest Chief), a couple hours from Chicago.

[I just have to give a plug for Amtrak, which I really recommend, especially if you can book early for the best rate. My round trip train fare was $120 after my 10% AAA discount, and adding a roomette on-board was only an extra $110. The roomette is a wee private compartment with facing chairs that convert to a sleeping berth (with another folding berth above, NXNW style). It includes your meals in the dining car, plus coffee & bottled water. You can spread out all your gear and really relax. It would have been a double deal if I had a traveling companion, because you pay per room, not per person–still including all meals for both of you. Waiting until you board to add a roomette can be a bargain, but it’s also a risk–on the way there, I saved about $100 vs. advance booking (though if I’d booked my room when I first looked up the prices, it would have been about the same, but I couldn’t make up my mind until the price went up–the prices increase as chunks of rooms fill up), but on the way home, there weren’t any left, so I had to slum it in a regular coach seat. But it’s a spacious, comfortable slum indeed, mostly quiet and plenty roomy, with seats that go way back and lazy-boy-type leg rests, plus a lounge to stretch you legs or get a snack. I brought my own snacks from a Chinatown bakery, thus avoiding snack bar abominations (except for some beer), and my ipod protected me from both noise and conversation.]

Once in the city, I took my knitting along everywhere. I knit in line, I knit on the subway, I knit watching TV (Jason & Shelly are on season 3 of Lost, doling it out to themselves an episode a night), I knit in the park, and I knit even more on the train home. On the way home, I didn’t have a roomette, so I knit even more.

I’ve got pretty much the full torso (which will be ripped back just a couple inches to spread out the last couple increases a bit more) and a full sleeve. There will also be a nice hood and a kangaroo pocket, if yarn permits (and I think it will). But my big questions are: what trim, and do I want a pullover or a jacket? I opted for a tailored fit, which I think might really want to be a jacket. But I’m not yet sure. I didn’t work in anything extra for a steek, but it should be fine either way.

Besides knitting, I did a little shopping, much sleeping and much eating.

I did a big sin at Loopy Yarns and bought $200 of yarn (and that’s with everything either on sale or with my teacher’s discount!) I absolutely do not need because I was feeling invigorated and expansive and inspired from all the productive knitting and the copy of Knitter’s Almanac I also picked up.

The Shetland will all become a fair isle sweater. I’m planning a Chicago themed motif (I like the notion of souvenir sweaters–this will be my 4th–and I think I should get more specific with them), maybe hot dogs, a skyline, cigars, and parking meters (there’s a current scandal about some shady dealings in council’s privatizing the city’s meters)? We’ll see what I can come up with.

The Lorna’s Lace might be socks or mittens or even a light, sleeveless sweater. The Malabrigo worsted will probably be a cowl. The Noro silk garden sock will probably go ahead and be socks (see how I like to pretend I’m this huge sock knitter whenever I go on a yarn bender?).

The Malabrigo lace….hm… I’m not sure about that one yet… at 470 yds/skein, it may well become something from the Rebecca kid mohair issue.

The frabjous fibers merino will shack up with something TBA from my fiber stash to be a cardigan.

And the Fisherman’s wool and Kroy Sock I picked up at Joanne, with the intention of making the moccasin socks from Knitter’s almanac as a souvenir for Ron after I gave up on finding him something. I’m going to carry them both together for some sturdy, manly winter socks. I have to say the colored Fisherman’s is pretty fucking awesome. It’s not fancy or plush, but at $9 for a half pound, I think it has a future in an aran sweater this winter.

And here are some of the things I ate:

I’m using today as sort of a bonus vacation day. I’ll pay bills and balance by checkbook, but aside from that, I’m just going to relax, clean my room, and organize my stash! Hoorah!