Wendy posted yesterday that her nearly-5-year-old car’s odometer just turned 10,000 miles. I bought my car last November — I’ve had it 7 months — and it has about 13,500 miles on it. No such public transport here in LA, at least none that will get me to my job 20 miles from home.

Also, I’ve driven from LA to Sacramento and back (400mi each way) seven times since I bought the car. That’s 5,600 miles right there. I won’t be doing that as often in the future, though, thank heaven. Maybe twice more this year.

Even so, I’m on a pace to finish my first year with this car at (gulp) about 20,000mi.  That means I drive about 10 times as much as Wendy!

There is a FO, but I don’t have time to post pix.  I finished the Lady of the Forest shawl over the weekend and gave it to Sis, who loves it.  She modeled it.  Pix probably tomorrow night.  I simply haven’t had a free evening to do it yet.

Working on the Lady of the Forest shawl for my sister.  No photos.  God, I gotta find my damn camera.

No, I haven’t posted much. Because I haven’t knitted much. In like, three years. Especially the last year and a half. Mom was sick for a long time, and finally recently passed away. (Details here, if you really want to read about it; can’t imagine anyone would unless they’re going through the same thing.) Dad went in ‘05. No more family stuff for the foreseeable future.
So it’s back to knitting and spinning. I’m going with my friend Janel to our local knitting guild meeting on Saturday — my first time there in 3 1/2 years.

No photos for now. In fact, I don’t even know where my camera is. Yeah, gotta find that. There is a shawl underway (well, actually, there are a LOT of things underway, but none other that is anywhere near completion) that will be a (probably belated) birthday present for my sister. That’ll get posted at some point. There’s some little bits of spinning I could photograph and post.

Mañana.  Or when I find the camera.

The main reason is I haven’t been knitting.  I realized recently that I have not completed one single thing this year, 2007.  Not one.

So I started the Lady of the Forest Shawl, using some Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted I have.  I have 4 skeins of Ice House, and 2 of, I think it’s called Blackwatch.  I figure I’ll start with the Ice House, and when/if I run out, I’ll use the Blackwatch which will make for borders.  No pix for now.  If I have to post pix, it delays things even more.  (There’s got to be an easier way to do that…)

The shawl will be a gift, and a study project for me:  I like it, but I think I want to do something that looks sort of similar but in a different way.  So once I’ve knitted this, I’ll know what I want to do differently.  (For starters, I want to start at the top.)

Haven’t been spinning either, even though I’m the president of a spinning guild.  In June we had our Dyefest meeting, and when I finished dyeing I wanted to hang awhile, but I didn’t have anything to work on.  So I bought a 4oz. bag of Crosspatch Creations stuff from our local fiber pusher and have two small-ish skeins so far.  I don’t like knitting with frog hair, so I make a concerted effort to spin a little thicker than that.  Actually, unless you run the Crosspatch Creations through a carder again, it’s kind of hard to spin fine with it, with all the multi-colored neps and silk and whatnot.  So I guess it’s about sport weight or so.  Maybe DK.

What’s been occupying my time?  Well, working full-time takes it out of me.  And driving up to Sacramento once a month to check up on Mom, who deteriorates more and more, and sister Val, totally fried from running Mom’s household.  And all the spinning guild stuff — which is much less than I’d hoped to do, because I’ve been so distracted.

You’d think it would have occurred to me before now that having some fiber projects going would help me with stress management.  How many months have I come home from work and stared at the TV, unable to remember my own name, let alone read a pattern?  I can’t  remember the last time I swatched for a new project.  Honestly, I have no idea.

So I’m making an effort to get back into it.  The process is soothing, and the result is very good for the confidence.  I need any way of feeling effectual I can get these days.

My spinning guild sponsored a support spindling workshop yesterday with Gwen Powell, one of the founding members of the guild. We learned some basic tips on spinning with a support spindle, including the interesting point that you must draft with only one hand, which means you really learn how to draft correctly.

We also learned to make some incredible novelty yarns. Gwen spun thick garlands of easter grass and giant gold tinsel as we watched in amazement. I made some “catepillar” yarn by cutting 1.25″ lengths of top, and holding it perpendicular to the leader to spin it. It comes apart very easily in a single, but once plied it’s pretty tough. Also pretty thick. But what fun! Janel made a mohair loop bouclé with a silk binder.

I’m actually not that much of a slug; only when it comes to this blog. I’m busy! Working full-time (albeit temp), driving 20 miles each way to do it; teaching several nights a week at A Mano Yarn Center; going to Sacramento once a month to see my mother (sorry, Mom doesn’t have a blog); working on Spindlicity; various duties for the spinning guild; plus choir starts up again in a couple of weeks so I’ll be even busier.

Unfortunately, my hands are bothering me lately (arthritis, not repetitive stress), mostly my thumbs. Makes all this spinning and knitting more difficult. One day’s not bad, the next is awful. So I have to baby them a little. Tons of Tylenol, and I carry around a piece of malachite. I had to stop before the workshop was over today because my hands hurt too much to continue. Mariko carries sports pads around, and she gave me a couple. They helped, but they smell pretty medicinal, so I took them off when Janel, Theresa, Francesca and I went out to lunch afterwards. We went to Red Lobster and I splurged on the “Lobster Chops” (halved lobster tails, plus some scallops). I hadn’t had lobster in I don’t know how many years. YUM!

Came home, checked email, went into the living room to watch some TV and, for the second night in a row, the next thing I knew it was 3am. I think I’m glad I didn’t go to Sacramento for the long weekend. Looks like I really need to rest a bit.

Earlier this week I went to A Mano for an introductory knitting machine workshop with Tricia Shafer. Great workshop. I’d never used a knitting machine before. It happened to be my birthday, and the gals had a cake for me! Instead of candles, they used a pair of Clover Knit Lite Needles, which were my present. I haven’t knitted with them yet, but what a great idea! I wish they came in smaller sizes. Maybe when smaller batteries become available they can put them in circulars. Not only could you knit in the dark, but they’d be great for working with dark colors that are hard to see. Of course, at the sizes they currently come in (smallest is US6), that’s not so much of an issue, but it would be if they go to smaller sizes. Lighted sock needles! How cool would that be?

I was advised that the new unit is due for delivery today, Monday, via FedEx Ground. I figured that if I hurry home, I can grab the slip they’ll leave on my door and go pick it up before the FedEx office closes. I was so happy last night at 10:59pm thinking, This is the last night I have to spend on this stupid couch.

Ha.

One minute later, at 11:00pm, POOF! Blackness. Silence. And heat, dearies. The quaint living room unit wasn’t off for five minutes before I started sweltering.

After a little while, I heard a neighbor outside (since all windows were wide open at this point) telling other neighbors that she’d reached someone at the L.A. Departtment of Water and Power, who, after listing all the neighborboods in L.A. that were out of power, said they’d get to us “eventually.” Oh, great.

I tried to sleep, briefly. Not happening; I could hardly breathe. Somehow it was easier to breathe sitting up than lying down. So I took a shower and got my hair good and wet, washed out my nightgown and put it on wet (that feels amazing), lit a couple of candles (need some more of those…) and knitted.

Luckily the Mermaid Shawl I’m (still) working on is at a pretty big gauge and has markers galore in it, and anyway I’ve been trying to learn to knit by feel rather than relying totally on my eyesight, which may not always be as good as it is now if I live to be a little old lady. Now the shawl’s getting pretty big, and it is wool, and quite fuzzy, and will be delightfully warm in the winter. You’d think it’d be unbearable to knit. But oddly, it wasn’t. And it calmed me down. I was teetering on the edge of becoming a shrieking maniac otherwise.

After a few public declarations of disgust among my neighbors, everyone settled down nice and quietly this first night. But today’s paper said something about taking 30 hours or more to restore power to affected areas. Let’s hope we can all keep calm tonight. I’ll be sitting in a Starbucks or an IHOP as late as possible tonight before going home. If it goes into a third night, I’ll be looking for a motel room.

Update, 12:30pm: Power’s back on.

No photos; I’m at work. Yes, work. I’m temping at a law firm, back at the old patent secretary business.

I’m currently working on the Mermaid Shawl in some Crystal Palace Merino Stripes, color 34, which is browns and rust. But I have to stop and get some quick Christmas stockings done for a class I’m teaching next week at A Mano.

Sorry, comments are turned off ‘cuz I just couldn’t deal with the spam. If I figure out a better way, I’ll turn them back on.

I’m working with handspun yarn. Some is my own, some is our editor Janel’s. One item is for your coffee, another is for your head (but it’s not a hat). That’s all the hints.

However, I also have some Bartlettyarns Fisherman in Dark Sheeps Gray, which I bought at Schoolhouse Press as “Sheepswool.” I’m dyeing it with Cushings in Turkey Red, which is coming out a deep claret sort of color over the dark natural brown. I have 3 pounds of it, and the biggest pot I have can only take 1 pound at a time, so this is a multi-day process. The plan is for a simple, quick cardigan. But of course, that was the plan for that alpaca stuff, and that’s languishing on the needles. (But I’ll get back to that soon, probably before I start on the Sheepswool.)

I think I’ve finally gotten it through my skull that I can’t live on teaching knitting. Not yet, anyway. I have to go out and get a job-job, exactly the sort I hate. I’m still procrastinating on that, but I can’t much longer because I’m so broke. It looks like I have to try to make a name for myself by getting some designs published in the knitting magazines, while working on my book. If my designs are a hit, then I can probably get teaching gigs more easily.

So I have to write up some of my existing designs, and get some new ones going. And look for a job. And once I get the job, work every day. And work on my book. I’m gonna be one busy broad.

In the meantime, I’m going on the assumption that when the writing is done, I’ll be too broke to hire a book designer and will have to do it myself, so I’m acquainting myself with Adobe InDesign, with Adobe InDesign CS2 Classroom in a Book, which I got with a gift certificate my brother gave me for Christmas, so it was free for me! That’s the way (uh-huh, uh-huh) I like it (uh-huh, uh-huh). My Amazon Wish List (see link in sidebar) now includes some books on book design too. I used up the gift certificate already, so these are for down the road, when I have some sort of income. Or another gift certificate.

Onward.

• Lorna Miser, creator and former owner of Lorna’s Laces hand-dyed yarns;
• Myrna Stahman, author of Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves: Lace Faroese-Shaped Shaws from the Neck Down & Seamen’s Scarves (2000);
• Darlene Hayes of Hand Jive Knits;
• Karen Alfke of Second Nature Design and Churchmouse Yarns & Teas near Seattle, WA;
• Emily Krag of Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles; Kaci Kyler Hays of Blue Moon Fiber Arts;
• Elizabeth Seward, former Waldorf teacher featured in (Bernadette Murphy, 2002), her own site being Zen and the Art of KnittingBy The Work of Our Hands;
• Kevin Ames;
• Erica Kuntz of BE Hosting; and
• Jennifer Lindsay, a knitwear designer with no central website I can point to but she has designs scattered around, such as here and here (Breakfast at Café du Monde Gloves, no direct link), and she’s mentioned here.

The books that will be coming from these people are amazing. I got lots of inspiration, as well as practical information, and (I hope) made some new friends. I think, just maybe, I can do this.