Spinning my wheel...

As you can see, my spinning wheel survived the fire.   One of the contractors was kind enough to give me a mild cleaner and towels so that I could clean it myself, which I did this afternoon.    I need to order some oil and then I will be able to give it a whorl.

In the mean time, we are this close to being in a lovely apartment.   We toured the facility on Friday and really liked what we saw.   The unit is being cleaned today and we will be able to see that tonight or tomorrow.   Then, according to my housing angel at the insurance company, all we need to do is sign the contracts and we are good to go.   Our hosts have been wonderful but we are really anxious to be in our own space and to bring Jack home (he is driving his hosts crazy).

The adjuster tasked with valuing my yarn came on Saturday.   He is writing off the whole stash.   Just watching him inventory my stash was so sad that I had to leave the house (breathing wise I am not supposed to be there anyway).   The good news is that he and the cleaners think that my napping projects might be salvageable.   Almost all of them are in sealed ziplock bags.   There are at least two Koigu projects in there.    Since that is the commercial yarn that it hurts the most to lose, I would be grateful to have a couple of things to work on while I think about how I want to handle my yarn buying from here on out.

Knitting time has been slim.    Hubby's completed sock came through it's cleaning good enough (just a bit fuzzy) so I feel comfortable working on the second one.   My black Simple Joys Shawl is only slightly smelly.   I was already two thirds of the way into the seed stitch edge so I decided to go ahead and cast off.   At that point I can soak and wash it.  That has worked pretty well so far.   The Ridgely was in a ziplock at the bottom of a tote that was right by an open window.   The bag was sooty but the Ridgely looks and smells undamaged.   I have put that into a new bag and will start working on it again as soon as my brain feels less fried.

Wool good....

The last couple of weeks have been very challenging.   Car repairs, family drama (here, which is unusual and in my family of origin, which is not), Hubby's problems at work, health issues and credit card fraud are just the highlights.   I have tried to stay calm and grounded through yoga and meditation but it has been a struggle.

Last night, as the time grew closer to leave for book group, I realized that I was going to have to change my clothes.    The temperature had dropped from the high 90's on Wednesday to 58 degrees last night (and all the way down to 38 while we slept).   The tank top and leggings I was wearing would not do.   I was going to have to either dig out a coat (gasp!) or change my clothes.    Some rooting around in my closet and I was good to go with a long sleeved peasant blouse and jeans.

Since I would be wearing closed shoes, I grabbed a pair of hand-knit wool socks.   As soon as I put them on, I felt calmer than I had in days.    Always willing to run with a good idea, I dove into one of my bins of handknits and pulled out my Landscape Shawl (knit with Koigu).   There I was, with a cold wind blowing, literally and figuratively, but once wrapped in woolly goodness, I felt at peace.

P.S.  The photo above was taken by my talented older son on a not terribly chilly day.

Dipped Infinity Scarf....

Have you ever knit a pattern that you enjoyed so much that you cast on for another immediately upon casting off the original? That is what I did with the Dipped Infinity Scarf.

http://www.cosmicpluto.com/blog/dipped-infinity-scarf/

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dipped-infinity-scarf

As you may recall, I knit the first one with varying shades of Koigu. As you can see, it came out really well. I did wish, however, that the color shifts were more dramatic and that it was a little longer. With that in mind, I cast on another using one strand of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock (Turquoise) and one stand of a vibrant Koigu KPPM (#P160A), using a US 9 needle (The first one was done on a US 8). I love, love, love this combination (check out the top photo). My original thought had been to keep the turquoise consistent through out changing changing only the Koigu every four rows, but I am rethinking that. I am seriously thinking of driving an hour south to get two more hanks of this Koigu and just knitting the whole thing in this combination. The only problem with this plan is that I recieved an email from the designer yesterday (via Ravelry) saying that the pattern, as I downloaded it, had an error in the yardage. So now, instead of having just enough Supersock to make another scarf, I have just a bit too little. I bought the Cherry Tree Hill locally but I am almost certain that I got the last one in that color. On yet another hand, I do live in FL and may not need quiet as wide a scarf as this is meant to be. Still thinking....

NOTE: My apologies for the formatting. Blogger seems to be having issues.