More excuses and a new goal

It's the same excuse really; I still haven't found my card reader and can't get photos uploaded (though maybe I could make more excuses about why I haven't looked harder for my card reader, gotten another on, taken pictures on my phone and then e-mailed them to myself, or even worked on anything worth taking pictures of, but who wants to read that?). So, yeah, I'm being a bit lazy with the blogging, but rest assured the knitting/spinning/combing is still happening.

Here's the run down of skills and feelings about said skills:
Knitting- Certainly Competent: While I don't know everything there is to know I feel sure that I could quickly learn any technique needed for any desired pattern. I have successfully completed scarves, blankets, stuffed animals, hats, gloves, mittens, socks, and sweaters; lace, cables, and fair isle projects. There is an endless supply of patterns and techniques, and while they might not be the easiest ,quickest, or most fun projects, I do feel I could complete almost any project out there (though I'm sure I would get an interesting set of results if you wanted to "challenge" me with a pattern or two, though no promises that anything would get made).

Spinning- Worsted Fingering- Fairly Adept: I feel I have gotten to a good place with a worsted style fingering weight yarn, even to the point that I have a finished skein of BFL just waiting for some more friends before it heads over to Etsy. Other drafting styles or weights, well that's a different story, but I am working on it with reasonable amounts of progress. That said, I'm not holding my breath for any ribbons at this year's fair now that I'm not a novice anymore.

Dyeing- It's fun, and alot quicker than anything else: I'm still figuring out how to get professional quality dye jobs, but I like what I've made for myself, and my friend that I did some dyeing for liked the results (which lead to another possibly Etsy-worth idea).

So I feel like I can make just about anything I would want for myself (like most crafters I have lower standards for the things I keep than the things I would give or possibly even sell). I am confident that I could keep my family in woolies in a post-apocalyptic world. So what's next? While my current skills are far from perfect, certainly have room for improvement, and keep me pleasantly occupied with wool as often as I want, I can't help but feel that I should try my hand at designing. I have improvised several things, but it would be nice to plan something on paper so that everyone could know what is happening in my head. For some reason I feel like a hat is the place to start. So before my birthday this year, I want to try and design (on paper) a hat, and then see if someone else can make it. The trick will be making it interesting enough for anyone to care while not making it so crazy that nobody understand what on earth I am thinking. We shall see how it goes...

Technology Issues and excuses

For all of those who actually follow this...thanks Mom! I know I was hoping to have new pictures of the blanket up days ago, but it turns out that someone (who may or may not be 5) moved my card reader so now I can't get the pictures off my camera...But rest assured that when I find it there will be photos of the blanket, the new shipment from the PF Fiber Club (spoiler...Cashmere!), comb blending, and dying efforts. Here's hoping I find it soon!

COMBS

Last year I was given many many fleeces from a herder friend who raises a small breeding flock for lamb meat. I still have bags that need to be washed and we are coming closer and closer to this year's shearing season...but now I have a new set of tools to help me get through it all and hopefully not end up with a house full of raw wool.

These are my lovely combs from Paradise Fibers. This picture was actually taken for a friend after she shared that she had had some combs, but as each one was over 2 pounds she lacked the motivation to use them and they were sold. In case you can't see, these are 11.25 ounces together.

They certainly make the wool combing go much quicker. Before I was using sort of similarly shaped dog brushes, and the results were useable, but not ideal. The real combs work much faster, allow me to get out much more veg, and produce those nice little "birds nests" I had heard about when I first started processing wool.

Overall, everything is working better, and as long as nobody gets too close, I can happily comb wool through a whole TV show (as long as I've seen it before, otherwise my attention kind of wanders... :)).

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As far as the blanket goes, I am going to try to get a new picture up this weekend, but little progress has been made this week. Last week was good and I got through the first two borders (37 rows) and started about 6 or so rows of the pattern. However, once I had done those 37 rows and started the first row of the pattern, I learned that I had not actually cast on the required 164 stitches...I only had 150. I was not about to rip out all those rows and start over, and since there were effectively two borders, I just made the inner border thinner...a lot thinner, but it's still there. Hopefully it works out, and my sister-in-law-to-be likes it. Anyway...here's hoping for a new picture this weekend!