We sleep, but the loom of life never stops...*

Spring is in the air, daylight savings is brutal, and time marches inexorably on.  Anyhoo...

Iknitarod

My guess last post was right on the money.  Sure enough, the Red Lantern slid into Nome on the evening of March 15th.**  I'm pleased to report that I finished up the Mink Cardigan with--no joke--around only forty minutes to spare.  I did not purchase the live Iditarod feed so I was not watching the race, but I was watching the message boards in the Iknitarod group on Ravelry and as I was finishing up seaming, people were posting, "The last mushers have left the final check point..."  "They're just ten miles outside of Nome now...." so I was weaving in the many, many stray ends as fast as my poor little fingers would allow.  Whew.  It's done, I love it, but several times during the knitting of it I found myself thinking, "Good grief, this hobby is EXHAUSTING."  (I really, really wanted to go off and play with my loom instead--I have no idea how I suddenly became so disciplined!)  So, without further ado, here are the photos:

Ravelry page.  Thankfully, I was able to talk it out of the hood, but it won on the pockets.  I tried to take photos of the pockets in the finished garment, but they came out looking a little bit too much as though Georgia O'Keefe became a photographer and had decided to stop being subtle.  But here are the pockets before they were sewn in--I basically made them as tiny hats:

A new path weaves back around...

As you know, I am in the process of making the transition from obsessed knitter to obsessed weaver.  So, of course, I have been joining weaving groups on Ravelry and Facebook to feed the urges.

As a side note, it appears that I am on trend--there seems to be a larger movement from knitting to weaving happening right now.  It may just be that I am looking for it, but we have handfuls of new folks joining the Rigid Heddle Weaving Group on Facebook every day.  And I see post after post from folks on Ravelry saying that they just learned to weave and just got/just ordered a loom and how they have fallen in love with weaving.  (The people who have been weaving for decades must be very amused, but are hopefully enjoying the growing focus on the craft.)

Anyway, I joined a weaving group on Ravelry and one of the moderators sent me an invite to another Ravelry weaving group, which I joined as well.  She and I began emailing back and forth and it turned out that she is also a spinner and lives one town over from me.  She ended up inviting me to join a local spinning group that I had no idea existed and I got to meet the group in person last weekend.  We spent a beautiful day at a member's lovely log cabin home, spinning for hours out in the sunshine (it got up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit that day), enjoying great company and a wonderful view.  I even got a gift---one of the members, because she knew I was coming, made me my very own group pendant***:

An added bonus was the chance to see not just one, but two charkhas in action.  I had heard of them, but had never seen one in person.  A charkha is a tool used to spin cotton.  It's difficult to describe, so here is a video.  Charkhas are associated with Gandhi and the Indian independence movement.****

Ack.  Has anyone else noticed that I have started the last few paragraphs in a row with the letter "A"?  There must be some kind of rule about that.*****

Speaking of weaving, I have managed to sneak some in.  I finished the scarf I was working on:

Ravelry page.  I also started another weaving project, but I have mostly resisted working on it in favor of finishing up my knitting challenges.  Here is a picture of it in progress:

And the rest...

I have mentioned that I am working on the "new to me" project for the Yarnathon and the Precious Hoodie, but I have not previously taken any progress photos of them, so here they are:

New-to-me moebius scarf

Precious Hoodie

My plan is to finish up the moebius scarf and then get as much as I can done on the Precious Hoodie.  I don't expect to finish the Hoodie or the big Shetland spinning project by their deadlines, but we'll see where I end up.  With respect to the Mad Dash, I am currently at 2,079 yards, not counting some in progress spinning and the in progress weaving that cannot yet be measured.  If I can manage a couple of good spinning days, I think I will make my goal of 3,000 by the end of the month.

That's all for now.  Until we meet again, may the patterns of your days be woven brightly!



__________________________
*The full quote is: "We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning."  Henry Ward Beecher

**The Red Lantern is the musher that comes in last in the Iditarod (the finish line is in Nome, AK).

***The "pendant" is actually a diz, which is a tool used in fiber preparation to make combed top for spinning as explained on this webpage.  You can also use a diz to create roving from a carded fiber preparation as described here.

****http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wheel#Charkha

*****Fans of the ABC Family show, "Pretty Little Liars," should not read anything into this.