welcome to march!

I’ve decided to start spring a bit early, just on principle. (We all need more Spring, right?)

To signify my readiness for Things to Change and Grow, I’ve changed the theme of this blog so that the overall appearance is cleaner and easier to read. I wanted the background to be less ivory and more white, to show off the colours in the photos better; I wanted a bigger, clearer font and more layout options.

So here it is, the new look for Spring in WiseLand! Let me know what you think. I’m going to be tweaking it a bit in the days to come, so if there’s something that bothers you or that you really like, let me know.

Skein Hunt

When I started thinking about the prayer flag project, I had in mind using up all my little skeins of handspun samples…except that I couldn’t find any of them. I know they’re here…somewhere. GAH. I hate it when this happens.

Of course, I did the Tear House To Shreds routine in search of all the little skeins, and although I still have not located the central lair where most of them are lurking, I have found some of the outliers:

I also found a bag full of partial bobbins, unfinished yarn wrapped around toilet tissue rolls, that sort of thing. I spent some happy time yesterday winding those bits into skeins, soaking them, and hanging them up to dry. Some of them were singles I had meant to ply, but I decided that given the tiny yardages I had, the singles looked very pretty on their own.

Some of the skeinlets were from my very first attempts at spinning about eighteen years ago. I remember how rough the wool was, how I spent hours handcarding and blending fibres, how I struggled to keep those first yarns even without lumps and bumps in them.

Looking at those early yarns, I can see how differently I spin now (even though there were about 13 years in the middle there when I did not spin much at all). I can see that I’m using better quality fibres; I can see that my drafting is more even and my spinning much more consistent. And my default singles have clearly gotten MUCH thinner!

Still, I’m pleased that I have some of my very first yarns to include in the prayer flags. There’s power in the first steps we take in any journey, the power of choosing something new, the power of opening our hearts to learn to see things differently. I’m glad that sort of energy will be part of the prayer flags as they develop and grow.

I’ve got enough motifs knit up, both squares and hexagons, that I had to find somewhere to store them all.

You can’t see it too well there, I guess; it’s a clear plastic storage box with a lid. And here’s some of the squares I’ve knit in the past couple of days:

The square in the lower right corner, the dark blue one, is made from some of my early handspun. The other three are made from the yarn that AnnieBeeKnits sent me.

But methinks there is something else you are all itching to hear about today….

Watch Out: Winner Ahead

You want to know which lucky commenter has won this skein of TARDIS merino/cashmere/nylon sock yarn from Indigodragonfly:

The winner is…btownknitter! Woooooooo! btownknitter, I will be emailing you in a little while to get your mailing information so the skein can make its way safely to your home.

HOWEVER…the rest of you who left all those awesome comments? I’ve got something else up my sleeve. Hold tight while I wriggle it out of my sleeve and out into your hands, OK? All shall be revealed. (Soon.)

Many of you mentioned how much you love this yarn, and expressed surprise that I could bear to give it away, or even stop petting it long enough to blog. Hee. You know me too well…for, indeed, if this skein actually was in my stash, I would find it almost impossible to give away. Luckily, I figured that out before I placed the order with Kim, the mastermind behind Indigodragonfly. I knew that I wanted a skein of TARDIS, but I also knew that I wanted to give away a skein of TARDIS. I decided to just combine the two desires: I got the pleasure of ordering the yarn, and I also get the pleasure of having the skein delivered to the giveaway winner! I’ll never actually touch this particular skein myself, see, so there is no need to pry it out of my wee pudgy little hands. Plus, there will be the added benefit of no drool stains on it. (I’m sure btownknitter will appreciate that very much.)

But rest assured, btownknitter: I’m going to send out a little Sandi sheep card to you separately, just so you don’t miss out on the sparkles that usually come with one of these goodies.

Hat Update

I’m about 22, 23 rounds from the end of the pretty little Rose Red hat I’m knitting out of handspun:

However, there’s a problem. Let’s look at another view of the hat-in-progress.

See the tiny ball of yarn between the needles? That is ALL THE YARN. There’s literally no more left in the entire world of that particular blend of yarn, because I blended it with my own two hands out of about fifteen different colours. There’s no way that’s enough yarn to finish up the 23-ish rounds left in the hat. I could end the hat early, but then it won’t be the deep sort of beret you can tuck your hair into, as I meant it to be.

I actually imagined (for a few brief shining seconds) that it would be possible to blend more of this same colour. I got out my fibre bins and started pulling things out when I remembered that it had taken me days of adding and mixing fibres to get just exactly that shade of sunrise rose.

So now, I’m trying to figure out the fate of the pretty little hat. I could make the bottom section a different colour (ew); I could do a few more rounds and call it done (sigh); I could try to blend more of the same shade or close to it (argh).

Hm. I have one “ew,” one “sigh,” and one “argh.” Of the three, the “sigh” sounds the least pained, so perhaps I will try ending the hat early and see how that makes me feel about the whole endeavour.

Random Goods & Sillies

Just when you think you have seen it all:

That’s a baby toad, perched on a paperclip. Find out more about this smallest-of-the-wee here.

Speaking of the TARDIS…this bar has one as a bathroom. No lie! Go look for yourself.

And finally…who doesn’t want some sheep cupcakes? Canadian Living has a recipe.