Etherknitter

Your vote counts!

The last blog post of NaBloPoMo couldn't get better than spinner's show and tell, followed by audience participation.  I've worked furiously all month to reach this point.  (It is happy coincidence that everything came together today.)

I have two skeinlets to show you.  Each was spun using a short forward worsted draw.  The two skeins were spun from the last part of the Border Leicester roving.  That means that the example given is the most practiced portion of my right handed spinning. 

Each skein was sized by the same number of ballwinder turns off the bobbin.  They were each double plyed from a centerpull ball.

Our contestants are being called Skein #1 and Skein #2 to disguise their identities.  You will see a close shot of each, then a skein view in the poll that follows. 

Tomorrow, I will reveal the identities of our contestants, unblind the results of the polls, and discuss why this is probably the least fair election in recent blog history.

So here is the poll.  Which skein do you like best?

GlowDay.com

Sixth picture file, sixth picture

Louet fiber,  colorway Bouganvillea, 50% merino/50% silk on a month-old Schacht Matchless double treadle. 

Those who would like to exhume old photo files may consider themselves tagged.  I was amused by how white my young Schacht was.

All those sixes reminds me of the world's most difficult tongue twister:  The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick.

Moving on in mindlessness

This the second or third in a series of FOs that demonstrate why I need to move beyond mindless sock knitting.  I have been broadly defining mindless for a number of months now.  I have lots to show for it. 

This is one of the reasons why I love knitting so much.  Mindlessness = productivity.  What other avocational endeavor can boast such a pleasant contradiction?

Yarn:  Briar Rose Grandma's Blessing #8017

Needles:  #2 Crystal Palace bamboo

Pattern:  St st, 20 rows K2P2 ribbing, slip stitch heel flap, kitchener'd toes

I'm going to run out of month before I run out of FOs.  (Yippee!)

I can't believe I ate the whoooooole thing

We ate, we sipped, we groaned. 

All our energy has seeped from our brain into our stomachs, doing the job it has been called upon to do. 

That means one link to leave you laughing.  (There is no thinking possible tonight.)

"Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.*"

In uncertain times, we turn to family and friends and food.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  The origins of my customs are lost in the mists of antiquity.  Mr. Etherknitter and I gather the orphans of the Department for the day.  The day after Thanksgiving is not a holiday for us, so many with family far away are stranded.  We collect as many as the table will hold.

We shop for two days.  Then I cook for two and a half days.   This is what makes me happy:

William Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965

Cashmereaholic

Blogreaders are a tough bunch.  I was simply casting about for a quick title yesterday.  You not only noticed, you called me out and demanded your due.

Ellie's Reclaimed Cashmere is a local knitter.  She deconstructs old cashmere sweaters, and plys different singles together to make interesting yarns.  Her skeins are one-of-a-kind and  idiosyncratic.  All have odd yardages, as you would expect. 

Yum.

Chocolate-dipped Espresso Shortbread

These are subtle and delicious espresso shortbread cookies.  I used Scharffenberger 70% dark chocolate for the dipping.  The recipe is here.  Although the yield is far smaller than promised, that is a very good thing.  You will not be able to stop eating them.

And we aren't saying a word about the cashmere

Really, Officer!  It wasn't my fault!  I was enabled!

I thought I was bringing her out to a yarn store so she could wander the aisles and dream.

I'm the one who came home with yarn.

Pattern:  Candy Cane baby hat from Handknit Holidays
Yarn:  Mission Falls 1824 wool  (from bottom  right to left, clockwise) teal/oyster, raspberry/oatmeal)

Sweet Caroline baby kimono

The baby kimono (IK, Summer 2005, or from Tess Yarns) has been hanging around the house for an embarrassingly long time.  The knitting ended late last year.  Sewing the cute ladybug button took a short amount of time.  (The delay was finding small, clear, simple buttons to buttress from the wrong side.)

I tried Ysolda's sewn button loop.  I used sturdy rug thread, also buttressed with a small wrong side button.  The thread was far too slippery and slender to hold the looped yarn in place. 

Finally, fully aware of the irony, I swapped out one technique that was completely out of my skillset for another technique that is completely out of my skillset.  I chain crocheted a loop, secured it, and called it done.  While not my finest detail work, I think that the soon-to-be-born child will grow faster than the loop can deteriorate.

Sometimes, expediency wins.  I hope that the cuteness of the kimono trumps the good-enough fastening. 

Pattern:  as noted above
Yarn:  Tess baby yarn, colorway unlabeled
Button:  Windsor Button, 2007

Eight more days.  I think I can do this. 

V is for Vieille Vignes

Mr. L has been a member of the wine society forever.  That's partly because Mr. L is as old as forever.  He will be 85 next year.

He retired years ago in name only.  He worked as an engineer.  You know one of his designs:  the HumVee.  Before you curse the gas-guzzling behemoth adopted by the upper class as SUV oneupmanship, I'll point out that he designed it for the Army.  He shakes his head sadly at the thought of his wonderful beast chained to city streets.  Many of his best stories are descriptions of the terrain he drove to try to get the vehicle stuck in the outback.

He always motored on.  It may have been a self-described three miles per hour over V-shaped crevasses, with a wheel on each wall of the ravine, but he always made it home.

Mr.  L has made it his life's work to visit every UN protectorate.  There are 192.  His only remaining trip is to East Timor. 

I sat next to Mr. L two weeks ago at the Annual Dinner.  I got this picture with a crummy digital POS, and sent it to my Photoshopping BIL to sharpen it up a bit. 

This is how to be 84.