Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

     In anticipation of the Boo Knits MKAL starting on October 1st I got out my Dye For Yarn so I could wind it with my new yarn winder.  I quickly found that the winder I chose is a piece of crap.  The yarn guide doesn't stay in place and drops while winding which feeds the yarn directly into the open gears.  The spindle base also isn't large enough to accommodate 100 gram skeins.  It is nice and quiet and it didn't roll backward when I had to stop often because the yarn wasn't cooperating with me either.  The hank was extra twisted and crinkly in one spot so it kept getting stuck on itself and needed to be teased apart.  Overall it was a very negative winding experience.  I just went back to Amazon to read the reviews on the winder to see if it was just my winder.  Nope, each review said the same thing.  I'm not sure why I didn't think to read the reviews before I ordered this one, I usually do.  I have a different winde...

      I finished Liara's hat.  I even washed and blocked it.  The dark blue bled a good bit, but it doesn't look like it re-deposited onto the lighter blue.  I looked through my little stash of swap notes and small items and I couldn't find the note from that Dr. Who swap so I have just my memory to go on for these two skeins of yarn.  I'm not overly concerned but it would be nice to know what the yarn is; it was nice to work with.  Liara is happy with how the hat turned out.  I made it a little longer than mine so she can fold up more of the brim.  I also rounded the top just a little. I immediately started Ronon's hat.  He chose two Malabrigo Sock colors.  He says his favorite color is green when I usually ask, and he had a green picked out; but as soon as I showed him the orange, he very empathetically demanded that his hat be made of that yarn.  I've finished the Terracotta side and am working on the Camaleon side now....

     We had a fairly eventful week; some big firsts for our son.  Ronon started preK as I mentioned.  He's been doing great and has adjusted well to being away from home for a few hours each day.  His fourth birthday was September 12th.  In New York children who are under four have to be transported to and from school by parents, so on Thursday he was able to start riding the bus.  He did great and really enjoys the bus as well.  We also cleaned almost all the random stuff out of the spare room and moved him into it and into the big bed that's in there.  We still need to move his dresser to his room and move my desk to our room.  I now have a good five or six totes of China to go through and repack into totes that aren't falling apart.  I had planned to do that this past weekend but I was really tired yesterday.  I did manage to put all of grandma's knitting books up with mine in the "craft closet" and put all the magazine...

    This has been the week of everything breaking.  On Wednesday, when we were taking Ronon to Pre-K, the dash on the Highlander lit up like a Christmas tree.  We immediately assumed mice had gotten into the engine compartment again.  My husband investigated but he saw no evidence of mice, so that's probably a good thing.  We suspect that it's a sensor.  It has to be inspected this month anyway, so it goes to the garage on Monday to be diagnosed.  I finished the hat I was working on; more on that momentarily.  Liara asked me to make her a hat too.  It took her a bit to choose the yarns she wanted.  When I set up my winder to get them caked up, the itty bitty gear inside broke right off.  I bought the winder when I started knitting 14 years ago and it was a cheap one from Amazon.  So, I would say I got my 6 or 7 dollars out of it.  I've ordered another cheapo off of Amazon to replace it.  I hand wound the two skei...

    I wove in alllll the ends, washed and blocked my Killer Queen-Drops of Spring mash up mitts.         There was a bunch of stockinette hat talk in the Malabrigo Junkies group.  A bunch of people are knitting  YAS Hat s.  I liked the idea of a reversible hat so I jumped in with  Double Thick Hat .  Both of these patterns are free.  I thought a fingering weight hat would take awhile, but it's been rather addicting.  I'm already halfway done with the decreases on the first "side" of the hat. Malabrigo Sock in Dewberry The other half of this is going to be Solis.  If there's enough left I may make a YAS hat out of the remainder for my daughter.       That's it on the crafting front.  I've been plugging away slowly at my class.  The normal schedule is so much more subdued.  This communication class is going to push me very far out of my comfort zone, which I'm not too keen on, but...