Goal progress (subtle)

Gradual change is difficult for me. It's boring. Bore. Ing. One of our 2011 goals is to make the upstairs landing adorable. So, I'm painting it. It's boring. The landing connects with the hallway upstairs and down and we like it in a light color. But painting with light colors is BORING!

See! You can't even see the progress. Snooze!!

It's nothing like making a blue bedroom orange. Or taming a crazy pink guest room with a calming yellow. Or a turning a poop colored bathroom into fresh Irish spring green.

It's changing from beige to...greyish beige. Fortunately, the color change is more visible from some angles, or else I'd go batty. Bat. Tee. (New color on the right)

Also, it's making the current grimy walls all shiny and new. See all that muck on the lower part of the right wall:

That's not new gray paint or shadows. It's old, oily fingerprints. Eww.

In other goal-related news...I drove the truck back from town yesterday! I stalled a few times in the parking lot, and I kinda drive like a cautious old lady. But, I'm still driving.

My February project for the Self-Imposed Stash Club didn't work out. I had some very picky, lovely yarn that refuses to be anything right now but yarn. For March, the randomly chosen project was socks for Bill. This yarn is the very first I purchased at a yarn shop. Never knit with it because it's boring and Bill has very large feet. Nearly two months later, I'm about this far:

April is much more exciting. Another long-held yarn - my first Creatively Dyed yarn. It is becoming Aquaphobia (this is a Ravelry link, but I think common people can get there now?).


And, I'm spinning. I've moved from cheap merino I've dyed myself:


To a merino/raw silk blend dyed by people way better than me.

Shiny!

Don't look!

I've been doing a lot of fibery stuff. But...I can't show you. It's gift-fibery-stuff.

This is all you can see:


And maybe a little of this:


And some of this:


I also finished knitting with some of my hand spun. Now that I have more practice spinning, knitting was pretty nice. I'm keeping the hat.


This is my January self-imposed stash club shawl. I finished it on Feb 28...

January Goal Progress Reporting

This is a serious post about the work we've done this month.

Seriously.

Not really. It's about knitting, natch...and spinning. Knitting, of course, being the most important of the goals for 2011. (Actually, we've also been working on another goal: feeding Sugar homemade food pretty regularly. She mostly gets whatever we're eating - meat and potatoes, oatmeal, waffles. I don't think we're at 25% consistently, but I expect we'll do better in the summer when we have veggies.)

First - I've been practicing my spinning and dying so that I can knit a sweater from yarn I've spun. Here's the rovings from the previous post spun up:



I also dyed some more roving - this is decidedly more girly.


I'm nearly 4/5 done with my monthly mystery package January shawl.


Bill picked a new package this weekend for February. Another ruffly shawl! Tornando dalle Cascine in a Mohair/Wool blend from Rhinebeck.


I also worked on a house goal! We've decided that February is the time to tackle: Make upstairs landing into library nook. Toward that end, I did very important work. I took "before" pictures.

Step one is clearing the landing. Then, we'll paint the walls and floor, make a curtain and install some bookshelves.



But right now, some girly roving is begging to be spun...

Progress on knitting goals!

Yes, it is true - knitting projects were included on my list of 2011 goals so I could feel like I was making progress without having to do anything that actually felt like work. I am totally ok with that.

I dyed my first 65 yards of handspun. It's slightly less purple than the photo - more of a dusty blue. Though I've dyed with plants before, this is my first attempt at powered acid dyes. These dyes contain no heavy metals, but still give the variety and vibrancy of acid dyes.

It became very apparent in the dying process that I need spinning practice. The parts of the yarn that were underspun, or too thick got felty and frizzy.

And this is the progress on my Self-Imposed Yarn Club. I wasn't feeling the pattern until I started the second section of ruching (is that a real word?). Now, I dig it.

Yarn, yarn, yarn!!

I am now addicted to spinning. It just took one lesson and some deep thinking about machines and twist, and I'm addicted. A week ago, I would have told you the spinning wheel was for Bill. Now, I can't imagine when he'll have time to use it.

I spun my first 65 yards of yarn! You get to see it in black and white because the sun is down and CFLs don't make for naturally colored photos.

The roving is plain ole white merino. It starts in the big ball of fluff, and then I spin it to a single ply.

After only 150 yards of spinning, I'm ready to move to colored roving. It's hard to see the twist in white-on-white and seeing the twist is the most rewarding part.

I think I understand the main concepts of spinning and how my hands, feet, arms and eyes should all be working in concert. I just need some practice on keeping the yarn more uniform. Here it is after plying two single strands together:

You can see it's a bit too thick in some places and a bit too thin in others.

I've decided that spinning should really be called "twisting." Creating yarn seems to be really all about controlling the twist. Keeping the twist in check until I am ready for it to go where I want it to. Also, I believe my role in spinning is to prepare the roving for the wheel to consume. The wheel does most of the work and all it asks from me is that I give it the material prepared to specific specifications. Despite the homesteady nature of hand spinning, my relationship with the wheel feels rather industrial. Like I'm working on an assembly line, contorting my work to the desires of a machine.

Some of yarn is really pretty even. This part makes me feel as if there is hope:

I'm not certain yet about twist and how the yarn will react to being knit. Do I want it plied more twisty or less twisty? I think I'll dye this batch up and turn it into a hat as a test run.

In other yarny news - Bill picked a random package from my Self-Imposed Yarn Club. I bundled up 12 projects (yarn + pattern) from the deep stash and I'll work on one project each month. The first is Citron, a shawl which will be made with a canary yellow alpaca. I've been wanting to start this for ages, but keep getting distracted by other shiny objects (mmm - like spinning wheels).

Tomorrow I cast on!

Plans, plans, plans.

I like scheduling things. Plans give me comfort. I like taking the time to do all the thinking and then - once the planning is done - jump in and get the actual work done with gusto. Just plow through it because the path has been decided.

In the world of Myers-Briggs, I'm a pretty strong J. A scheduler.

So, yesterday, I scheduled 2011.

Well, I made goals. I also made contingency goals, so that if all the initial goals are completed, a back up plan has also been scheduled. The goals are broken into three key areas and are as follows:

Farm

• Get Sheep - Such a simple statement! There is a lot of work involved with this one. The barn needs some repairs and the fence has to be reinforced. Plus, I have to find sheep. The plan is to start with 2 older ewes of any acceptable breed. I'm not too particular at this point with breed, as I don't have much experience and there are so many types it's a bit overwhelming. As these will be practice sheep and we won't be breeding them, to be acceptable, they should be hardy and have a desirable wool. Once we have more experience, we'll be looking for a good dual purpose breed for a sustainable flock.
  
  
• Can 20-30 quarts of veggies - About 95% of the canning around here is fruit. I'd like to put up some beans, tomatoes and other veggies this year.
  
  
• Build raised bed and plant fall greens - Extend our gardening beyond spring and summer.
  
  
• Drive pickup truck - It's time to reacquaint myself with a standard transmission.
  
  
• Kill chicken - Really not looking forward to this one, but I eat the meat and I think it's time I earn it. Plucking is certainly hard work, but it's not fair that I rely on Bill to do the really unpleasant part. This one is going to be hard - but it's a reality I'm (nearly) ready to face. Plus, Aaron Sorkin broke my heart with a ridiculous blog post about Sarah Palin and hunting which made me realize that until I take this step, I'm not really fully involved in what it means to eat meat. Blech.
  
  
• Convert 25% of Sugar's food to homemade - This is related to the chicken killing. Pet food is the major source of CAFO meat in our house. Feeding the dog 3-4 meals a week of homemade food is a pretty easy goal, especially in the summer when the chickens are laying prolifically.
  
  
• Learn to shoot rifle and shotgun - Also not excited about this - I've been promising Bill I'd learn for about 2 years now, but I keep wiggling out of it. However, I am even less excited when a raccoon kills our poultry. The goal is specifically not to learn to shoot well enough to hunt or defend our animals - but just to learn to shoot and not hate it. Small steps. I'll be putting this (and the chicken killing) off as long as possible, I'm sure.
  
  
• Paint and re-roof woodshed (stretch goal) - It needs it but it's a big job.

House

• Make curtains for Bill's Room and Guest Room - I can't think of anything more boring that sewing curtains, but the ratty lace has got to go.
  
  
• Trim 2 hearths - It's just wood and a little bit of grout. I don't know why we haven't done it yet!
  
  
• Paint bedroom floor, decorate walls - Our walls are a spunky orange, but the room is still pretty stark.
  
  
• Make upstairs landing into library nook - Move crap, paint floor and walls, make curtain, furnish.
  
  
• Strip wallpaper in upstairs bathroom (stretch goal) - Yeah, it's just wallpaper, but it happens to be on the ceiling, 12 feet up.
  

Knitting

• Complete 12 projects in Self-Imposed Yarn Club - Based on the brilliant idea of the Yarn Harlot. I took 12 yarns I've had in my stash for 2-3 years, but am still very excited about using, and packed them up with a matching pattern. They are wrapped in packing paper and each month I'll pick a random package to knit up. There is a mix of socks, shawls and other accessories.
  
  
• Knit sweater from handspun, hand-dyed yarn - We had a lesson on our wheel at the knit shop yesterday. I'm feeling confident!