Random

I like random things.  Random number generators fascinate me.  It's geeky I know, but I'm a geeky girl and I can live with that.

When I decided to call David for the first time (we weren't REALLY dating yet), I flipped a coin.  I found that flipping a coin always helped me make a decision. Not necessarily by "telling" me what to do but by making the choice for me I would react, either relieved or upset, and know what I really wanted to do.  I flipped the coin, it said, "call David."  I flipped again, "call David."  I decided to go 3 out of 5, still got the message to call David.  Thought maybe the coin was messed up so got another, flipped again, went for 7 out of 9, then 11, then 13...at which point I realized that something random was really going on and I called the boy and the rest is history, so to speak.

David and I are traveling somewhere this summer.  We still don't know where because we are compiling our list.  We went through it while at the beach and pulled out the impractical trips (we do only have 1 week, so Australia doesn't seem reasonable) and used the random number generator app on David's phone to help us pick the replacement.  Coolness and fun.  We're going to go through it tonight and decide which trips we really aren't interested in anymore--we have been doing this for almost 3 months now--and do the same thing.  Random number to pick another trip on the list.

And why are we doing this?  Because on SUNDAY we will "draw" our trip.  And I'm very excited.  David wanted to draw early, but I'm holding us to this.  By Sunday we'll have 182 options, some repeats, huge variety, and we'll draw and pick one and that will be our trip. 

So me.

I like to design with randomness too.  Take the banana pudding warp I have on the loom right now.  I decided to use lots of different yellows with an accent of brown as I mentioned yesterday.  Then I pull out my random number sheet that I print out using Excel.  The numbers on it are between 1-9 and I then determine what I want my multiplier to be.  There are a few things that go into that decision:  how thick or thin the thread is, my sett, what I want it to be, and how much I really want one color to show over another.  On this warp I decided that all yellows except for one really bright one would be multiplied by 5 and the brown and the bright yellow would not be multiplied.  I then start winding the warp until I get enough yarn.  I am always amazed at how it works out that I use the different yarns exactly the way I want to.  Randomness is cool.

Here is what I did:  I lined my yarns up, there were 6 different colors.  I use the first number on the page to choose my color.  Let's say it was 7.  I count though my cones until I get to 7 and then pick that yarn.  It wasn't one of the single mulipliers, so I muliplied 7x5 and came up with 35.  I wound 35 ends and put the yarn in another line.  I looked at the next number.  Let's say it was 2.  I counted 2, picked that yarn, decided it it was a single or multiple of 5 and then counted out that yarn, and so on.  When I'd gone through the whole pile of yarn I started over.  I get a random ordering of color, random size of stripes, random placement of the accents (bright yellow and brown) and an overall project that "reads" like banana pudding. 

And I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to weave it with random stripes, or do something different...choices choices.

I honestly can't wait until you can see it, but that will be June, sorry.

In the theme of randomness, I'll show you some placemats I made a couple of years ago.  They were warped using random numbers and woven using random numbers.  I kept a constant of the gold separating the different stripes, just to give that leveling effect that all projects need.  I love these placemats.  I think they look very modern, and quite different than the original design.

Scrap Weaving

About 4 years ago I wrote a blog on scrap weaving.  You can link to it here if you're curious.

When I was seriously quilting, I did a lot of scrap quilting.  I read a book dealing with the issues many people have in scrap quilting and how to make choices so that your scraps ended up reading together rather than a jumbled mess of stuff.  Pattern size, color ranges, variations in light and dark are all very important decisions.  The eye wants to make sense of things, so if you use 30 different reds and partner them with 30 different whites, you'll SEE a red and white quilt, not a quilt using 60 different fabrics.

I employ the same theory in weaving by grabbing many different shades of a color and pair it against something that contrasts.  Yesterday I started on my bee/banana gifts and as I was winding my warp I said to myself, "I've made banana pudding."  I call that a success.  I love creating with color that way.  In fact, I was having so much fun that I just kept winding the warp until I was finished.  I have to work late today, but I'm so excited to see it in the loom I may just take some time and sley it just because I can't wait to see what it looks like all spread out.

Let's see...what picture to show today.  I can't show what I did this weekend, or what I worked on last night, or really much else that I'm working on currently.  And I haven't taken a picture of the lovely sweater that I'm knitting...so it'll have to be a historical picture.

How about me winning the quilt 3 years ago.  I love this quilt.  It hangs in my bedroom nestled up against a turquoise wall.

Happy Endings

I love a books with happy endings.  Lately that's all I can stand to read.  I don't have the slightest attention span for depressing, dramatic or otherwise unhappiness.  I want to read something that I can believe makes the characters and their world better...and me by default.

I want my spring break to have a happy ending.  It has been such a perfect and wonderful spring break...and going to work tomorrow feels like it's going to be harder than usual...so today I will make the end of my spring break happy.  I'm not sure how I'm going to do that, but I will.

A tiny little update on things that have been going on since we left the beach.  Came home on Wednesday to some rather dramatic weather.  It stormed and rained and poured and thundered.  The tornado sirens went off three times in the afternoon/evening.  All were safe and sound if not a little damp and ruffled after the whole ordeal.

Thursday Mom and Dad came for their visit which was just about perfect.  We sat around and talked.  David and Daddy did some gardening.  Mom and me and the girls did some quilting.  Yummy food was eaten, and we all seemed to truly enjoy ourselves.  And now Mom and Dad are almost home...and I'm winding down to get to work tomorrow...but in the meantime I think I'm going to knit on that sweater that I forgot to take the pattern to the beach.  It's coming along very nicely and I love the yarn.  So soft and slippery and sparkly.  I can't wait to slip it on! (and as another part of the happy ending I'm making it a size smaller than I originally intended because I completely intend to be able to wear it by the time it's finished!)

Today's picture is of a hat I knitted last summer.  It's made from Noro yarn and I love how the self striping becomes self-circling in this hat.  I love Noro yarns.  I could spend my life knitting nothing but that if I lived in a colder climate.  As it is, the wool gets to me.

Misdirection and Hexagons

After I posted yesterday I attempted the laceweight yarn.  NO luck at all.  It was very stressful trying to work with it so I've decided it will become a lovely woven shawl.

Then I floundered for a bit and finally pulled out the yarn I used for the hat.  While I wasn't interested in doing another scarf after I'd put the other scarf away, a new scarf was a new pattern and might not be as miserable as the first (I really am a slow learner).  I tried one pattern, but the yarn was too bulky.  Tried another, but the yarn was too smooshy and didn't show any stitch definition.  Then I thought I'd just wing it for a bit...another mistake, so I pulled all the stitching out, put the yarn in the basket and settled in with my wonderful book (finished it this morning.  Thoroughly enjoyed "The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne by Madeline Hunter).

This morning I eyed my knitting bag and there were three projects that I hadn't worked on.  The first was the knitting I do in the car and when I want something to do with my hands but want my brain otherwise engaged and the second was the hexagon blanket.  I loved working on that blanket back a few weeks ago.  Almost thought I couldn't put it down, but I did so that I could finish Big Secret #2.  The third was my lovely purple socks which are a challenge that I am not feeling quite up to today...so, the project #2 won!

How I love this blanket.  The whole construction is interesting, the yarn is divine and the pattern is just difficult enough not to be boring while still easy enough that I can stop every now and then and talk to David.  I sit and do an entire "square" in one sitting, then go do something else.  I can't wait to snuggle under this with David this fall...

My picture today shows all the knitting I worked on while at the beach.  That top left hexagon is really the same color as the bottom right one, but shows up as yellow because of all the lovely tropical pastels in the condo.

I'm a little sad to be leaving.  We've had a perfectly relaxing and wonderful vacation, but it's time to go home and face the real world again, visit my parents (YEA!) and finish off spring break relaxing with my furniture and kitties...

Diligence pays off, but man is it tiresome!

I've been working diligently on the Misty Garden scarf.  I've probably knit 2 feet the past two days. I'm hating it again.

That means that it's going to go back in the bag and I'm going to start something else.  I don't want to be knitting something that I hate while enjoying an absolutely perfect spring break.  (the part of me that's desperately holding onto the fantasy that I live here and have no responsibilities for the rest of my life is slowing backing up and facing reality.  I hate that too).

Anyway, it's very pretty and quite fun to work on in the afternoon because of all the beautiful sunshine coming in the condo, but I'm bored and this picture will suffice to show that I did work on it a lot.   I'm going to start a cowl of some beautiful alpaca and silk lace weight yarn, knitted double so as not to be too terribly slow at moving along...or at least that's what I think it wants to be.  We'll see.  It may want to be this other lovely shawl I saw today...will have to toy around with that idea for a few minutes.

Despite my best efforts...

...I forgot to pack a key ingredient to success with my main knitting project:  the pattern.  I know exactly where it is.  I never even picked it up in the packing frenzy before we left.

I had a moment of panic, then remembered that I overpacked all my knitting projects.  I then had a moment of "not wanting to do any of them" which I quickly shushed.

THEN I got on the computer looking for other free patterns, thinking that that would be all I needed to get myself going using that lovely yarn.  After a while I decided that the beautiful yarn deserves to be what I originally intended for it...

At which point I pulled out all my bags of yarn, looked longingly at the bag full of wound off hanks and put it back in the knitting bag.  I picked out the lovely multicolor merino by Malabrigo and made this hat.

Not a bad use of my Saturday if I may say so.  I can't wait to get it home, wash it and sew the "snail" on the side so that it lays all flat.  I'm already planning the scarf/cowl I'm going to make with the vast amount of leftover yarn I have.  I'm thinking weaving a scarf makes most sense as it goes about 100x faster and I won't hate it before it's finished...

Let Vacation Commence

I'm so excited because in 2.5 hours David will be here to pick me up so that we can check into our condo in Orange Beach, Alabama, at precisely 3pm.  I have a stuffed bag of knitting (and yes, I remembered to get the needles, though as David said they have stores nearby that we can get whatever I forgot), 3 novels, 2 puzzles and 1 gorgeous view.  I have a feeling by Sunday I won't recognize this over-taxed, stressed out girl that I've been for the last few months. 

Deep breaths, ocean breezes, waves crashing, pelicans galore, and hopefully some dolphin sighting.

I cannot wait.

In keeping with the theme, here is the view from my studio window for the next 5 days.  I do hope I make some progress on that sweater I want to knit!