Feeling like a traitor

Since my post about my attempt to do Spin 365, I've hardly spun.  I finished off the white-nep skein and have nice red hand-dyed fluff on the wheel that I really need to get back to. I have the first bobbin done, but I still have 3/4 of the second bobbin to go.

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However, I'm feeling like a bit of a traitor, I'm more interested in doing embroidery than knitting/crocheting, spinning or weaving.

In the past week I've taken on, and finished, two of the monthly samplers from Dropcloth. I subscribed back in August, but I finally got the nerve to take them on and I'm LOVING doing embroidery.  So much so I'm not really knitting. And I feel like such a traitor.

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Of course this is exactly what my goal was for the year, "Do the projects (knitting, spinning, weaving, crocheting, tatting, embroidery) I want when I want to do them" was allowing for, but I'm struggling with it.

So I'm making myself finish up my current knitting project, a pair of socks for my BIL Jim's birthday (which is next Friday), before I can start my next sampler. I know I'm not exactly embracing the "impulsive" ethos I set for myself this year, but I will get there.

Also, some other big stuff has been going on the last couple of weeks.  The first, and bigger one, is a very cool project that I'm not able to reveal yet, but y'all are going to love it as much as I do.  The other is that Jack (the cat) and I are officially family.  H]e got his neuter on Thursday and I officially adopted him from the Muskoka OSPCA (who are amazing and wonderful).

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He came home from the operation completely stoned, and with a wicked case of the munchies, but otherwise no worse for wear. He has shown no interest in his surgery site so no cone of shame for him.  Although, as part of the operation they gave him a good nail clipping and he has had trouble climbing the furniture (and me!) since he got home. I, for one, am glad he can't claw his way up my body so he may find that I will be more proactive on his nail clipping in the future.

So, am I the only one who feels guilty when I don't knit as much as I think I should, or are there more of us out there?  If you do, lets commiserate, if you don't would you share your tips and tricks for enjoying your hobby without guilt so I can have some new tools when the guilt strikes.

Summer Slump

For the past couple of years I've found myself slowing down with my fiber habits and this year is no exception.  In the past I've associated it with different things, like a new job, always being on the trail, or just starting up with new hobbies, but I think after a third year of this I think I just don't have mojo in the summer. Work has been crazy and the last two weeks particularly so and while the heat from last week has broken, I've been totally listless in my fiber doings.

The one bright spot, is that I'm making some serious headway on Carla's shawl.  I was hoping to have it done by August 1st, but that's unlikely considering the week I have ahead of me, however I do expect it to be done in the next couple of weeks.

Also, my Dropcloth samplers have arrived, and I've been playing around with embroidery, which has been lots of fun.

I've been sorta spinning.  I got a new coffee table (and a television) two weeks ago and I haven't figured out the best spot to spin with the new furniture. But I'm making some headway on spinning Angel.  I want to have it done before our first guild meeting in September so I can show it off to Heather (the shepherd).  I don't think I'm going to make it back to the Rosseau Market this year, so I may have to email her to see if she has fluff for any other of her sheep because they are an AMAZING spin.  Also, there are little bits of VM (vegetable matter, mostly grass) in the fluff which reminds me of where yarn come from and makes me smile.

I also tried to distract myself with a bit of crochet and for some reason I wanted to make the African Flower hexagons.  They are fun to make but my heart just wasn't in it, so now I have some motifs with nothing to do, I might make a couple more and sew them together and give them to my friend Kristen's two-year old daughter Taylor who can use them for a doll/stuffed animal blanket.

I'm hoping to get Carla's shawl/veil done soon because I still need to knit myself a shawl as well as I haven't made a pair of socks in ages.  I've put most of my other knitting on hold to get this shawl done and I have a few things that have been taunting me for ages and stash that is just dying to be knit up.  However, my stash acquisition hasn't been too bad this year (and I've been destashing slowly) so I'm not feeling the relentless push to keep up with my stash this year, which is probably good for my mental health.

Uh, oh here comes trouble

 

Thanks to a few posts by Susan B. Anderson and some tweets I came across Rebecca Ringquist's Etsy shop, and fell down the rabbits hole of embroidery.

I ordered the starter kit, as well as the paisley, colorwheel and the DIY Love samplers. I like the look of embroidery and also, it doesn't really take up much in the way of space (unlike the table loom I'm borrowing right now and is sitting on floor in the corner of my apartment because I don't have space for it).

So today, I headed to Orillia to run some errands and just go on an adventure (including a visit to Target).  One of my stops was at Michaels where they have an amazing wall of DMC threads.

Also they have some amazing pearl cotton and tatting thread as well as six bijillion colors of embroidery floss.  After feeling quite overhwelmed, I started picking the colors that attracted me.  Then I started trying to balance out the tints, tones and shades to get a good mix.  I think I did alright.

One of the great things about having a computer in your pocket (aka my iPhone) is that you can use photo software while you are in the store to take picture of your potential stash and convert it to B&W which will let you know if the colors will play well together in the finished object. I heard about doing this from quilters, but it works great for people interested in color work knitting and all the stitching arts where you don't have a preset color palette.

I'm currently watching the New Girl and winding my floss onto bobbins, it is quite the relaxing way to spend the evening.

My spinning is also going well.  I started spinning Angel after finishing up yesterday's post and I'm already more than halfway into the first 100g bag (which I'm trying to spin all onto one bobbin, so far so good) and her fleece is absolutely beautiful.  There is a bit of VM in the roving, but to me its a great reminder of where fluff comes from, animals.

I'm not going to be able to make it to the Rosseau Market this coming friday, but Carla will be there so I may have to get her to get me more of this roving, there was one sheep who I didn't get any from, and I may have to get it because it is such a joy to spin this fluff.

So my dropcloth goodies are getting mailed out this week so I should have them just in time for the busiest day of the year at work, so hopefully I can get stitch on it on my well deserved long weekend following that event.