Tour de Fleece DNF*

Fail. I wrecked my shoulder (again) last week, and I know from experience that I have to let it rest. There's been no spinning, and very little knitting or sewing, for me this week. I'm glad I at least got the first batch plied, and I've started the second batch of singles, so it's not a complete disaster.

The little bit of stuff I have been working on is the ongoing Colette sweater, a pair of mittens for the knit-along I'm leading at Pacific Fabrics, baby quilt projects, and a quilt for my mom (not a surprise, although she may be surprised to hear that it's actually in progress now).

Random notes:

To women who wear low-rise jeans: if you choose to wear these jeans to an outdoor concert, and you sit on the ground, be aware that if your shirt is short, the nice folks behind you are totally staring at your ass. Way, way too much of your ass. Please, for the love of all that's decent, pull up your pants or wear a longer damn shirt.

To Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings: you totally rocked. Zoo Tunes is cool and all, but I'd love to hear them in a club where I could actually SEE Sharon Jones (she's tiny, and we were well back in the crowd), and where she didn't have to worry about keeping it family-friendly.

To Gardenburger: please resolve your production difficulties so that our beloved sizzling soy sausage patties return to a nearby freezer case. Boca breakfast patties aren't nearly as good (plus they're weirdly proportioned for breakfast bread products such as English muffins), and I really don't like Morningstar that much either. I've been cranky since I'm not getting my protein for breakfast.

*DNF = Did Not Finish, fyi for those of you who don't spend as much time as Trent and me following cycling coverage.

My job is cooler than your job

I can't stop giggling. For various reasons which are difficult to recreate, I set out to make a very silly apron as a work project. Here's the result modeled by my lamp:

It's reversible!

Check out that amazing rolled hem (which I did with a sewing machine, not a serger):

I even created the martini embroidery design from scratch. If you embigify, you'll see that the pink fabric has tiny martinis. This, friends, is the joy of working at a sewing store.

Tour de Fleece
I've been hard at work spinning. I plied. Here's 3 3/8 oz, about 700 yards:

I tried to take a close up, but my photography skillz are lacking. It now has a baby brother skein (I had too much singles [too many singles?] to ply onto one bobbin) now, so I think I've spun and plied just over 4 oz. I forgot to weigh the baby skein before I washed it, and it's still wet. Please note that I already had a bobbin and a half spun when I started this challenge. But given that it took me months to do that, I'm not really sure how I'm going to produce a comparable amount during the remainder of the tour to meet my 8 oz goal. Ah, well.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

1. I no longer work for that corporate university where I toiled for the last 5 some-odd years. I cut back to part-time, then I asked to not be scheduled for classes. It's not exactly like quitting - I have to option of going back if I ever want to. That's not a foreseeable future right now, but you never know. I now work mainly at Bernina Northwest, selling sewing machines and teaching people how to use them. I'm having a blast and learning a lot. We also sold enough sewing machines last year that I earned a trip to Switzerland (!) for a big Bernina event, so I'll be headed to Zurich in August.

2. We bought a real sofa. It's being delivered Wednesday. Good bye, dear futon. You've served us well.
'

3. I'm knitting up a storm these days. It doesn't seem like I'm finishing a lot, but that's because I'm rotating between several projects. I did finish some socks out of handspun BFL:

And I'm making great strides on the Colette sweater:

And I'm making another Spring Lace scarf, this time out of some well-aged linen.

4. I signed up (late) for the Tour de Fleece.

I recently finished up a batch of Romney (from Maria, as discussed here) that had been languishing on the bobbins of my Ashford Joy for ages. I can't face continuing with the Romney right now, so my Tour goal is to conquer 8 oz of the pound (!) of Reflections farm blue wool that I've been slowly spinning into lace weight since last winter. So, 8 oz lace weight singles, 2 plied.


I've just about got a second bobbin equal to the first, so I could ply some, just to break up the monotony. I'm not sure how many ounces I've spun into singles, but since it has to be plied, I'm counting it as TdF spinning.

5. Speaking of spinning wheels, I need to sell the Ashford Joy (portable, single treadle, with bag and 3 bobbins, $400) and my Louet S-10 (single treadle, 3 bobbins, skein winder, $225). I'll provide a starter spinning lesson with either. Contact me at m k morrow at yahoo dot com with interest/questions/etc.