What's Next?

It seems that in one giant heave I got the Master Knitter Level One out the door to be evaluated and then, with a great sigh of relief, collapsed in a corner somewhere never to be heard from again.

Well, that might seem to be true, but in actual fact I've been busy but not much in a blogging sort of mood. PJ asked a question in my comments, and I'll answer her here in an effort to get my blogging mojo going again.

PJ said... ....SO, what's after this? I've enjoyed so much hearing about all this through the weeks/months! Can't wait to see what is next!

Well PJ, when I get my Level One back (and do any necessary corrections) it will be straight on to Level Two. In the meantime I thought I might "...try to make good use of my time getting a few other things finished up." Here is a list of a few of the projects I'm fiddling with:

I have a Dale of Norway kit waiting to be made. I've made two rather unsuccessful attempts at that and it is sitting in time out. I'll look at it again when it decides to behave!

I finished weaving off the Summer and Winter sampler warp at home, so when the second day for the guild to work on it as a group rolled around I spent my time combing a big bag of wool that was given to me. That is still a work in progress, to be picked up as time, weather (best done outside as it is full of VM) and inclination dictate.

On my wheel I'm spinning my way through 6 pounds of superwash merino. I'm findiing it more difficult to spin than many of the preparations I have tackled so far. It's "mill ends" so not all uniform and ready to go. It's also very, very slippery and inclined to spin up less uniform and fine than I am used to. I'm sure it will be lovely yarn when all is said and done, but it is less relaxing to spin than I had hoped.

Just yesterday I started in on spinning some Fleece Artist merino using my spindle. This project will be done in little bits, 5 or 10 minutes at a time as I wait for pots to boil. I like having the spindle near the kitchen for such stolen moments.

Despite having the patterns for several "next up" projects pinned to the bulletin board in my Stash Room (and even some handspun ready to be swatched for them), I ignored all that and cast on for yet another new project, one not even on my official "next up" list. I blame the Dale of Norway kit's misbehaviour. My frustration with it is what lead to me look around for some easy, reasonably quick project that would calm my ruffled feathers and restore my belief in my ability to knit. I found the perfect little project. With some clever little twists and turns and a few color changes it held my attention through 3 days (2 if you consider how late in the day I actually got started) of intense knitting where I was neither bored, nor overly challenged. Perfect! Readers have to wait until after Easter Sunday for details and photos though as it is to be a present for a certain little someone's first Easter.

Another thing I really must get to is an organizing and dunging out of my Stash Room. Being a Multi-Interest Fiber Fanatic does have it's drawbacks when storage space is an issue. Things like looms (I have an 8 harness table loom with stand, a tapestry loom, a rigid heddle loom, and an Inkle loom) spinning wheels, a ball winder, a niddy noddy, a couple of lazy kates, an umbrella swift, a bobbin winder, a large book/magazine collection, and of course all the fiber and project bags that go with the various hobbies. It makes for a very cramped Stash Room and I have a new tool to set up somewhere in there so I can get to learning it's ins and outs. I am the proud new owner of a used Singer 360 knitting machine, with ribber. I took machine knitting in college about 9 years ago and have been wanting a punch card machine ever since. All that's holding me back now is the need to find some room to set it up. Well, that and FEAR. Those suckers are hard to use, let me tell ya. It will put my mechanical aptitude to an extreme test.