Every year, about January, I begin putting off doing things that just need to be done but that I don't have the time for on the premise that I will worry about it when summer gets here. Things like painting the front door and mending. The unfortunate thing about putting off things that need mending when those things are clothes that belong to children is that by the time summer rolls around, those clothes no longer fit. I say "unfortunate" in the "Oh, darn, you mean I can just toss that in the trash after all?" sense of the word. Anyway, the point is, that mending tasks are sort of like yarn projects. There are just those projects that, once begun, are better off put away until either you are able to regain your sanity and composure or until they are so old that you have forgotten what you were working on in the first place during that hibernation period and you can just toss them out.
Well, summer has arrived and I have been a busy bee. Much-needed cleaning has begun (in small doses, however, because I can always clean but once knitting time is lost, it's lost forever), my knitting room has been completely cleaned and re-organized, Honey's office has been cleaned up, the master bedroom has been cleaned and re-arranged, the garden is in full swing and just about ready for a new round of planting, the pool is in and refreshingly ice cold, the deck is 99% finished, the backyard is mostly re-landscaped, AND the mending has been done! (Still need to paint that front door, though.)
You know what else is done? That baby doll sheep spinning project that I began so long ago that I can't actually remember when (I tried to look it up on my past blog posts and couldn't find it, either, though I know I blogged about it!). Yes indeed! 252 yards of 2-ply worsted weight chocolate-brown baby doll sheep is finally spun! Why is that worthy of an exclamation point? Well, let me tell you ...
First, these cute little sheep are, well, CUTE! They look like stuffed animals and you want to squeeze them because they look so fluffy; don't be mislead by appearance. Their fleece is super short and nubby and course. To a fairly novice spinner, these sheep are a curse! (Disclaimer: Well, not these sheep per se, but definitely the sheep from which my fleece came! These sheep, whose pictures were provided courtesy of the internet, bear no definite fault in my months of spinning distress.) What have I learned from this spinning foray? Not all wool is meant for me to spin.
The baby doll sheep spinning project was one of those projects, like the mending, that ended up in perpetual hibernation. After the first bobbin was spun--252 yards--the TINY staple length and the odor of an old wooden chest that emanated from it and the lanolin that made my hands sticky ... these things began to get on my nerves. Spinning this wool became such a chore that I had to do it in small doses. A few yards here, a few yards there ... sometimes separated by weeks of spinning neglect, sometimes by months of spinning neglect. I pretty much stopped spinning altogether over the last 3 months, though I would look longingly at my wheel and contemplate spinning only to be jolted back into the reality that the bobbins were full of baby doll sheep single-ply. But no more! I've spun it all and the finished product was, I have to say, worth all of the frustration. I ended my spinning drama with 252 yards of perfectly balanced 2-ply worsted weight triumph! (insert WHEW!) It doesn't look like much to you, I am sure, but it's pretty nice to check this project off of the to-do list. The only question left is, really, what do I knit it into?
6 months worth of mending AND baby doll sheep project finished in the same day? Sounds like I am on a roll this summer!
Well, summer has arrived and I have been a busy bee. Much-needed cleaning has begun (in small doses, however, because I can always clean but once knitting time is lost, it's lost forever), my knitting room has been completely cleaned and re-organized, Honey's office has been cleaned up, the master bedroom has been cleaned and re-arranged, the garden is in full swing and just about ready for a new round of planting, the pool is in and refreshingly ice cold, the deck is 99% finished, the backyard is mostly re-landscaped, AND the mending has been done! (Still need to paint that front door, though.)
You know what else is done? That baby doll sheep spinning project that I began so long ago that I can't actually remember when (I tried to look it up on my past blog posts and couldn't find it, either, though I know I blogged about it!). Yes indeed! 252 yards of 2-ply worsted weight chocolate-brown baby doll sheep is finally spun! Why is that worthy of an exclamation point? Well, let me tell you ...
First, these cute little sheep are, well, CUTE! They look like stuffed animals and you want to squeeze them because they look so fluffy; don't be mislead by appearance. Their fleece is super short and nubby and course. To a fairly novice spinner, these sheep are a curse! (Disclaimer: Well, not these sheep per se, but definitely the sheep from which my fleece came! These sheep, whose pictures were provided courtesy of the internet, bear no definite fault in my months of spinning distress.) What have I learned from this spinning foray? Not all wool is meant for me to spin.
The baby doll sheep spinning project was one of those projects, like the mending, that ended up in perpetual hibernation. After the first bobbin was spun--252 yards--the TINY staple length and the odor of an old wooden chest that emanated from it and the lanolin that made my hands sticky ... these things began to get on my nerves. Spinning this wool became such a chore that I had to do it in small doses. A few yards here, a few yards there ... sometimes separated by weeks of spinning neglect, sometimes by months of spinning neglect. I pretty much stopped spinning altogether over the last 3 months, though I would look longingly at my wheel and contemplate spinning only to be jolted back into the reality that the bobbins were full of baby doll sheep single-ply. But no more! I've spun it all and the finished product was, I have to say, worth all of the frustration. I ended my spinning drama with 252 yards of perfectly balanced 2-ply worsted weight triumph! (insert WHEW!) It doesn't look like much to you, I am sure, but it's pretty nice to check this project off of the to-do list. The only question left is, really, what do I knit it into?
6 months worth of mending AND baby doll sheep project finished in the same day? Sounds like I am on a roll this summer!
Sounds like you have been getting LOTS done! I should be so motivated!
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