sorting things out

yesterday we went up to farm sunday at belgenny farm at camden where we do our sheep herding schools. our instructor was judging some trials there so we went to have a look. they had all these other groovy old time stalls including a bunch of hand made crafts. yes there was knitting and spinning going on. in fact, there were spinning wheels lying around the place, so i went to talk to the ladies about the different types of wheels (i am in the process of thinking about buying this sickinger wheel - it's at least half what a new ashford would cost me and it has all the bits and bobs attached. the fact i have no idea how to use it is irrelevant at this point). anyway they ask about all the knitted things im wearing, my scarf and my jumper, trents lovely green nundle jumper, the first major thing i ever knitted. of course the lovely harmless old lady picks out the one mistake in the whole thing, a half row of weird stitches which i didnt notice until the whole thing was sewn up. trent was previously blissfully unaware of its existence. thanks, lovely old lady.

so on the way home im thinking, its an unacceptable state of affairs to be contemplating ADDING to the fibre working obsession when youre not actually obsessed anymore. of course i am obsessed, i think i just need a new challenge (hmmm, spinning perhaps?). but i decided that when i got home i would reorganise, a la taph, and this would make me feel better about everything.

no more sudokus for me:



ive been doing the easy ones but they arent easy and i usually throw the book across the room. (please note: vincent pencil bought in van gogh museuem, amsterdam when i was there in march this year.)

so i went through the works in progress basket and the stash basket and got rid of stuff i have next to no chance of using or finishing. starting with the inca/loopy blanket, which you may recall from earlier this year.

people at patons, you make some nice things but loopy mohair is not one of them. not only is it not really mohair (or as close to synthetic as mohair can be) its shit to knit with. my needle goes through the loop instead of through the stitch and the black string its plied onto is very weak. and the red doesnt match the lovely inca (of which i approve) so my idea of a warm autumn colour blanket was turning into some kind of freaky gelato striped thing. so it got ripped back. i saved the inca. this is what happened to the mohair:



i wasnt even going to bother trying to rewind that. its in the the bin. i have some more balls of it to give away if anyone wants.

i cleared out the stash basket and put my nice sock wool at the top (theres some hand died angora from india in there too that makes me sneeze everytime i look at it. if i ever get to another snb (sigh) i will bring it along to donate):



you will note there is plenty of space left in this basket for the superfine merino fleece that comes with the sickinger wheel. considering how much time we spend hanging out in paddocks and wool sheds i dont think trent can complain about the smell of fresh wool in the lounge room.

i also cleaned out the works in progress basket - no more blankie, only socks:


which i am pleased to announce are being knit again. a week off and im back into it. i think my issue is small needles actually, i feel like knitting something on big chunky wooden ones again.

i also tidied up 'knitting corner' and trent (clever boy) showed me how to keep my needles upright in this really old tin of his by sticking them into a scrunched up bit of wool i was going to throw out:



this morning i went back to the pool after a week off and did 1300m without too much effort. then grocery shopping.

who knows, i may even get some thesis written this week!

hope all is well with everyone.

k :)

(ignore the timestamp on this, i started writing this post before coffee and only just finished it now at 11.40. i know, its an epic.)