How I’ve missed you.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Life got… complicated. *insert whining here. car tires blah, 15 hour days blah, bobbin broke blah, blah blah).

But here I am, still alive more or less. And thus, this will be rather colossally large.

So, lets see…

Squares. We have… depending on how you count, 128 or 134 squares. From all over.

USA Kentucky C-Ville
Canada Manitoba Woodlands
USA Utah Logan
USA Texas Katy
USA Arizona Glendale
New Zealand Unknown Wanaka
USA New York New York City
USA Wisconsin Madison
USA Oregon Gearhart
UK Unknown Unknown
USA Florida Crestview
Norway Unknown Bergen
USA New York White Plains
USA New York Endicott
USA Minnesota Columbia Heights
USA Washington Lacey
USA Maryland Columbia
USA California Redlands
USA New York Binghamton
USA Illinois Chicago
USA North Carolina Hendersonville
USA Pennsylvania Conshohocken
USA Washington Tacoma
USA Oklahoma Broken Arrow
USA Alabama Huntsville
USA Maryland Huntingtown
USA Georgia Acworth
USA Idaho Moscow
USA California La Habra
Canada Ontario Oshawa
USA Oregon Portland
USA Massachusetts Somerville
USA Massachusetts Worcester
USA Wisconsin Madison
USA New York Babylon
USA California San Francisco
USA Washington Renton
Canada Ontario Stouffville
USA Nevada Boulder City
UK Unknown Bedford
USA Ohio Northfield
USA California Oak Park
USA Minnesota Chanhassen
Denmark Unknown Magdelonevej
USA Ohio Cleveland
Denmark Unknown Skeiby Vaenge
USA New Hampshire Belmont
Canada Ontario Oshawa

The afghan layout has gone through a couple changes. Wasn’t sure the corner squares were going to come in, so I did a layout without them…

Then, yesterday, they arrived, so did a layout WITH them…

I’ll likely keep this one. I’m debating a bit on seaming. I can seam in one color (my off white) or I can seam in two colors (cream and a green) to emphasize the color spiral (yeah, didn’t notice that, did you?). Haven’t decided for sure yet. Yes, it needs one more square.

Extra squares that come in will be used either for a pillow or a small lap blanket.

Also with one batch of squares came these

Mmm cookies. They came at a good time, as my mind was melting out my ears from an approaching project deadline (for which I was running 13-15 hour days).

Oh right, another yarn commission. A small one this time, but one that’s been beset by disaster. Pink Spinel, a 2-ply worsted yarn in SW Merino/Cashmere/Nylon. Spinning the single was fine, though the fiber and my fingers really wanted to make frog hair.

No, it’s not dyed yet. It’s going to be a semi-solid so I didn’t see a reason not to dye it as yarn. Since it’s a small amount and I’m going to be dyeing it all one color I thought I’d be brilliant and make sure I could use it all. So I wound it off into a center pull ball.

Unfortunately for me, I wound it too tight, so it doesn’t come out without often dragging other bits of the thing with it. Annoying but not catastrophic. Just slowing me down a bit.

What was catastrophic was my bobbin breaking in the middle of plying. The end popped off, which pressed against the flyer, keeping the whole thing from winding right. Urgh.

After some delay for the aforementioned deadline (Thesis Committee meeting, by the way, it went well even if it did almost kill me to get there), I got some gorilla glue and managed to put the end of the bobbin back on and put it back on my wheel. Assuming (la la la la happy thoughts) that I didn’t glue the yarn to the bobbin, I should be good. Got a little more plied last night. The annoying ball failure is delaying me a lot.

Finally, I made these:

Stitch markers (as you can see). I’m rather pleased with how they came out. Aventurine, garnet, and labradourite. One thing I’m especially pleased with is the lack of edges. They’re made with a solid cast nickle o-ring, rather than a welded o-ring or jump ring. No catchy place. And the end of the wire wrap is also tucked in and protected. I have the supplies, I think I’ll likely make some more in various stones.

I’m going to try to get some dyeing done in the next few days. I have some blending noil, shetland, and bfl to dye. And at some point, some polwarth.

For now, signing off.

~The Gnome

Ok, mostly real. It’s not blocked yet. But still. It’s one thing basically off my list to do.

The lichen mistake rib scarf, finally finished, in need of a bit of blocking.

Made with Gnomespun, Lichen, 2-ply 80% Merino, 20% Alpaca yarn. It’s soft and squishy.

Commissioned, so it’s not for me. I’m overall happy with the way it came out, though I have to say… mistake rib gets remarkably boring remarkably fast. I do like the super-squishy/stretchy nature of the fabric though.

Designed long and thin enough to be doubled and looped if you’re really cold.

Coiled up. Trying to show the greenness.

And just the scarf.

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The easiest way to set up paypal buttons does not, apparently, handle inventory, so that’s out for a shop. I’ll have to do it less simply, which means more difficult. Which means I’ll be staying at Etsy for now. I’ll try to get some stuff up soon. Afghan and my upcoming thesis meeting are limiting my time.

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So I tried to clean a little last night. Did fairly well, got a bunch of slow organizing stuff done. Still need more bins for the creeping fiber matrix of doom.

I thought having several cats with Maine Coon ancestry was bad for a vacuum. Apparently, belonging to a spinner and fiber artist… is worse

My carpet kinda looked like the Muppets had a kegger. My vacuum happily carded it all out of the carpet and wrapped it into a nice punis on the rollers… except the rollers are not open ended flat smooth dowels. Yeesh. That lump is about two fists, or bigger.

~The Gnome

Progress.

Square Count: 71
Squares Needed: 18-20 (Plus the corners, which should be arriving shortly)
Locations:
USA Kentucky C-Ville
Canada Manitoba Woodlands
USA Utah Logan
USA Texas Katy
USA Arizona Glendale
New Zealand Unknown Wanaka
USA New York New York City
USA Wisconsin Madison
USA Oregon Gearhart
UK Unknown Unknown
USA Florida Crestview
Norway Unknown Bergen
USA New York White Plains
USA New York Endicott
USA Minnesota Columbia Heights
USA Washington Lacey
USA Maryland Columbia
USA California Redlands
USA New York Binghamton
USA Illinois Chicago
USA North Carolina Hendersonville
USA Pennsylvania Conshohocken
USA Washington Tacoma
USA Oklahoma Broken Arrow
USA Alabama Huntsville
USA Maryland Huntingtown
USA Georgia Acworth
USA Idaho Moscow
USA California La Habra
Canada Ontario Oshawa
USA Oregon Portland
USA Massachusetts Somerville
USA Massachusetts Worcester
USA Wisconsin Madison
USA New York Babylon
USA California San Francisco
USA Washington Renton
Canada Ontario Stouffville
USA Nevada Boulder City

The current layout. Subject to some minimal changes as the final squares arrive. The corners will be double large white/offwhite squares, and the binding will be off white.

~The Gnome

My good friend the Tsock Tsarina is fond of saying, “It’s the people, stupid” in reference to big events where things are acquired. Because, it is.

And that stretches beyond events, as I’m sure she’d tell you.

It wasn’t the gifts of the holidays that made them good for me, it was the family. It wasn’t the rest, or food, or drinking at New Years that helped, it was the friendship and easy companionship.

And now that I’m back, I come home every day and go to my front door to check for little packages. They’re coming in from all over the world, sometimes with extra notes, sometimes not. And they warm my heart and make it all easier, knowing that this many people all over the world really do care.

If you’ve sent a square, check the photos and location list to see if you’re included. If not, then I’ll add them as they come in and post an ongoing total.

The current square count is 40 Squares
Locations squares have been received from:
Kentucky C-Ville
Canada Manitoba Woodlands
Utah Logan
Texas Katy
Arizona Glendale
New Zealand Wanaka
New York New York City
Wisconsin Madison
Oregon Gearhart
UK Unknown
Florida Crestview
Norway Bergen
New York White Plains
New York Endicott
Minnesota Columbia Heights
Washington Lacey
Maryland Columbia
California Redlands
New York Binghamton
Illinois Chicago
North Carolina Hendersonville

And the squares themselves:

Squares are still coming in, so please feel free to send in the next week.

~The Gnome

An interesting weekend. I was supposed to go in to work, but got snowed in.

I snapped off my diffienbachia, right in the middle. I’ve had the poor thing since before high school. 14 years. ::sigh::

I put the top in a new, well watered pot, and there’s a chance the bottom will sprout a new top. But… still, not the best thing.

Then I broke the clip on the shoulder strap of my work bag. Ugh.

I plied one bobbin of the Dionysus before running out of plying thread. I’ll be finishing that up, setting and drying it tonight. Hopefully photos up tomorrow.

Some new roving arrived. Clun Forest, a downs breed. It’s very different in it’s hand, I’m looking forward to seeing how it behaves. I’ve got 4 pounds. A good contrast to the Polwarth I posted earlier exploding out of the box.

In the evening, the power went out, whee! So, after calling the power company and cursing the fact all my storm lanterns are at my parents’ house in Western MA, I lit my little decorative oil lamp.

And sat down, determined to get some progress on my little Brother’s holiday present.

This is why this is a decorative lamp. My one at my parents’ has glass so it reflects out a lot more useful light. Still, I could have managed, which was nice to know.

Then I remembered I have a coleman lantern for camping. And with the oil lamp handy for illumination, it was easy to light. And much easier to knit by.

Eventually, the power came back on, incidentally just before I went to bed.

Sunday, I got some fiber through the first batch of dyeing, before finishing up the hat and getting some more work done on the mistake rib thin scarf.

Hat for Lil Bro! (A Hat Fit For A Boyfriend)

This is in Plymouth Happy Feet yarn, double-stranded (whee true DK!) So it’s a nice thick, squishy, stretchy hat that breathes well. The idea being that it will be a good hat for my little brother to use backpacking as it can take the wear and won’t be overly hot for his high metabolism. But he still needs a hat for when he’s up in the hills of CA and the west coast backpacking. Hopefully it works well for him.

And more scarf. Still got a ways to go since it’s thin scarf for doubling over.

Tonight I get to bag up all the food I haven’t gotten thrown away from the power outage before I go home to visit my parents.

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome