Forgive Me Faithful Readers...

Forgive me, Faithful Readers, for it has been five days since my last blogging experience...

I really have no excuse other than life is busy. I've also been spinning like a banshee! Check it out!!!

I am so glad I learned how to spin -- it's very relaxing! The fibre they gave with the class, though, is full of straw and grass. So much time and effort goes into picking out all the little tiny bits and pieces. I'm much too much of a perfectionist to just leave the odd strand of straw in the fibre. You know, to give it that whole organic feel. But it pleases me greatly to spin it all up after picking through it at such great lengths. Although I do feel like I'm in a re-make of the great Shakespearean play, Hamlet, when I start obsessing over all the little microscopic pieces of grass in the fibre. Picture it, folks... there's me, it's mid-afternoon because all efforts of housecleaning have been shoved aside in pursuit of spinning, I have not showered, hair is dishevelled, I'm hunched over on a kitchen chair with piles of sheep fibre surrounding me.

"Out, out, damn grass!" I mutter over and over to myself.

But it all works out in the end and I am ending up with some loverly wool to work with. The last batch I worked on was most impressive. I am learning to spin with lesser amounts of fibre with each pull resulting in some nice singles.The last batch I did turned out much more silver/grey than the skeins I made over the weekend. The twist is much finer than those done on the weekend. But I fondle them all with the same amount of love.

On the knitting front, things are in a bit of a holding pattern. I have not been on speaking terms with my mom's shawl for most of the week. We've had a bit of a ... falling out, so to speak. Things were progressing well on the shawl and the other day I noticed the ribbon was getting pretty close to the end of the needle. Without picking up the needle, I simply pushed the stitches back. When I pushed it back in place I thought, "Gee, there doesn't seem to be as many stitches on my needle." I lifted up the shawl, and to my absolute HORROR, I couldn't help but notice that half of the stitches had fallen off the needle. They had all come off and, with the ribbon instead of wool, I could not for the life of me figure out how to pick all the dropped stitches up. Many of the stitches by this point had begun unravelling themselves to the halfway point of the finished portion of the shawl.

I was a racing car, folks. And I was in the red. Red is danger!

I quietly set the tangled mess back down and simply walked away. That was two or three nights ago. Last night, I unravelled the shawl (for the ninth time, for all those keeping track) and began again. It has become the bane of my existence! I have vowed that I will work practically non-stop on this bloody shawl until it is complete with fringe attached, gingerly packed into a padded shipping envelope, and sent off across the country. It is a beautiful pattern, but never again will I work with ribbon. Never! It's wool or nothin', baby! At least with wool I can recognize the stitches to pick them up when they fall and gingerly guide them back into place.

And with that, folks, I bid you good night! I must go eat pizza with the family, and then set to work on ... THE SHAWL. After my baby girl scoots to bed, I will continue to watch Survivor and CSI and work on ... THE SHAWL. When my eyes become blurry and watery around midnight, I will take my bloodied fingers, administer 2-3 drops of Visine in each eye and continue to work on ... THE SHAWL. Okay, okay. You get the drift, I know. But was it really necessary to roll your eyes so obviously during my melodramatic, one woman monologue? Sheesh!