A Poem For You

Sock Quest 2012: Noro Sock #1 is about 85% complete!

Spinning Status: 1 oz of Norwegian Longwool spun - fairly finely

The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams

So much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

It's pretty easy to blog daily when work has not yet resumed. Making hay while the sun shines - here are my updates on a variety of fronts.

Sock Quest 2012: About 85% of the first sock is complete. I hope to finish it today, and cast on the second sock. I have so much sock yarn in my stash...I could easily knit nothing but socks for all of 2012 and still have more. MUCH more. Just ordered Clara Parkes' new book The Knitter's Book of Socks because all my favorite knitting podcasters say that I can't live without it. With that, and Cookie A. and Cat Bordhi, I should be all set for ideas.

Ounce #2 of Norwegian Longwool waits patiently

Handspinning: About 1 ounce (of 4 ounces) of Norwegian Longwool is spun. This is the May 2011 fiber shipment from Spunky Eclectic in Lisbon Maine. The wheel is an Ashford Traveller. I am ignorant as to ratios - just trying to spin this as finely as I can for a (hopefully) fingering weight 2-ply. We'll see. I am (obviously) playing catch-up with Spunky's monthly shipments. This particular fiber's colorway is "Angkor Wat". Very easy and pleasant to spin.

Other Knitting: I splurged (that's putting it mildly) at Stitches East 2011 in Hartford this past October - bought the kit from Ruhama's for Christel Seyfarth's Malthese Flowers Shawl. The first bit was tricky because I was working back and forth in fair isle, which meant purling on the wrong side, but once I had enough stitches on the needle I was able to make a steek and continue knitting in the round. I think this will be lovely when cut, finished, washed, and blocked. Right now it looks pretty lumpy.

Malthese Flowers (yes, the spelling is weird) Shawl

Shetland wool for Malthese Flowers Shawl

Exercise: Today was a weight lifting day, which means approximately 30 minutes of free weights (5 and 10 pound) for biceps curls, military presses, wrist flexion and extension, and "rowing" with an exercise band. This is followed by 20 minutes on the stationary bike (5 minute warmup, 10 minutes fairly fast, 5 minute cool down). Add to that the 2.2 mile brisk walk to Riverton and back (with Zig), and you get a fairly active day!

Food/Water: Healthy breakfast of steel cut oats, walnuts, banana. Lunch of chicken barley soup. Supper of homemade squash soup. Water and tea and vitamins - check.


Reading: Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James. Not one of my favorites, but pretty good. It's on my iPad.