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So my new podcast goal now that things have settled a bit in my life is to record and release one chapter a week, with the release on Sunday evenings.  So, without further ado, here is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chapter 26: The Story Club Is Formed.  Enjoy!

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I got very little sleep Friday night and have been struggling all week to recover. Not enough sleep is yet another one of those things that exacerbates my MD. But the good news is that the bridge was down after Friday and the rest of the weekend has been clean up. It’s been a rough week with cutting back my meds and then the whole bridge business messing with my sleep. Hopefully this week my body will start to get adjusted and I’ll get back on track.

Anyway, on with the knitting! Remember how I said I was almost done with my Embossed Leaves Socks and they were the prettiest things I’d ever made? Well, I frogged them. Both of them completely. I started out with aluminum needles because I didn’t have the size I needed in bamboo (which I prefer) but then I got the bamboo needles midway through the first sock and switched to those but then my gauge changed so I went to needles a size bigger for the next sock but it still seemed too small so I went bigger again. By the time I was nearing completion I realized that, yet again, I was in denial about my gauge issues. One sock was too big, one sock was too small. At least at that point I knew what size needles I needed to use to get them just right (2.25mm for the record). And, knowing myself and that I wouldn’t be able to stand them not being perfect, I frogged them, rewound my yarn, and started over. I’m doing both at the same time since this seems to be the only way I’m capable of making two objects of the same size. Work on one for a while, get to a good stopping point, switch and work on the other for a while, repeat. And now I’m flying through these. This picture was two days ago, I’ve now turned the heels and finished the gussets on both socks so they’re in the home stretch:

They fit, they match, I’m happy. In between the frogging and the restarting, I finished up Stephen’s Birthday Socks:

The pattern is by Sockbug and is called Garter Bars. It’s a nice easy pattern and very gender neutral. The yarn is Tofutsies in colorway “Footsteps” - I love working with Tofutsies yarn and although I don’t care for these colors for myself, the striping was interesting to watch as I got further along. Most importantly, Stephen likes them and they fit, but he doesn’t get to have them till Friday!

Here is Clapotis with two stitches dropped although I’ve now dropped three. It’s such a fun pattern! I’ve decided this will be my birthday present to myself.

I’ve been taking a break from spinning for three or four days now. I had been spinning every day and just loving it but I was getting a lot of pain in my right thumb and shoulder and decided to take some time off rather than aggravate it. I think it’s due to the pinching and lifting the spindle into the air as I draft more fiber before I wind on the spun yarn. I really want a wheel but they’re not cheap so I’m taking a break and looking into a super light weight spindle. But, I do have some newly spun yarn from before this break so I’ll post that soon.

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Anyone who lives in the St. Louis area knows about the construction on highway 40 (aka I-64) that began earlier this year and will continue for the next four years. It’s a huge project and it needs to be done but man is it an inconvenience for people who live near or commute via the highway. My man and I are lucky, we both work close enough to home that we can get there without the highways but we do live very near the highway. In fact, if you walk one block down our street, it dead-ends at the highway.

So far the construction has been mostly a slight nuisance. A large intersection near our home has been one huge traffic jam for months now and you can’t get on the highway going westbound there anymore. Well, there is a bridge about three blocks from our house that goes over the highway. Until one week ago when they closed it, I drove over it nearly every day. Still not a huge problem, detour around a few more blocks and you can drive under the highway. But this is the weekend that the Boland Bridge is coming down, along with two others. Houses in our neighborhood have been popping up for sale like you wouldn’t believe and tonight the reality of it has hit. You see, they do the major construction in the middle of the night so as to have the smallest impact possible on traffic.

So why am I blogging at 2am? They’ve started taking down the bridge. It’s not deafening or even loud by any means, just irritating. Hopefully the work they do this weekend will be the most heavy duty as they take down the bridge. Hopefully the next six months in which they will be rebuilding it will not interrupt our sleep. But if it does, I have good ear plugs.

Now I’m wide awake though so might as well get some stuff out of the way…

1. Chapter 25 of Anne of Green Gables is now available for downloading. I know these have been sporadic these last few months but life has been chaotic. Now that it is settling a bit I hope to release podcasts once a week.
2. Thank you for all your good, and sometimes funny, suggestions for keeping our brick oven apartment cool in the midst of our heat wave. We successfully survived the worst of it with some big pieces of cardboard, black plastic trash bags, and a window air conditioner moved from the back office (which is not connected to the central air but also is almost never used right now) into the living room. That extra bit of AC plus blocking the light has made a huge difference. It hit 105 here this past week so let’s hope that from here on out we will be heading towards fall weather.
3. I am constantly moved, saddened, and encouraged by reading peoples’ responses to and comments on my post about my ongoing battle with Meniere’s Disease. I’m glad some people found what I had to say helpful and for those who are looking for more help or people to talk to, please read this post I wrote on the many resources and online communities that are available for you to investigate further.
4. For those of you who want to know about my health, it is okay. I’m not having vertigo or symptoms at the same severity as I was prior to the Gentamicin injections. However, my balance is damaged and I am very sensitive to visual and aural stimuli and easily go into sensory overload when in the presence of my triggers. I saw my doctor last week and he thinks that my vestibular system has had enough time to rest and it’s time to give it a jump start to get it working well again. I’m decreasing my meds, both to minimize side effects and build up my tolerance. I’m doing some simple exercises designed for people with bad balance. And I am walking a mile a day. Trying to, anyhow. I’ve been wanting to start getting regular exercise and I’ve been lazy about it but now with doctor’s orders to walk a mile a day I’m more motivated. It’s hard with the weather the way it has been and with our local rec center being $7 a visit until I can establish residency but I’m working on making the walk a part of my routine. The good doc says that walking will help improve my balance, energy, and mood. I wouldn’t mind losing some weight while I’m at it of course! So, slowly, slowly, very slowly, I’m fighting my way back.
5. I’m working 12 hours a week at the library doing cataloging and miscellaneous technical services. I set myself up with a laptop in our meeting room and it is quiet and calm and a good environment for me. Besides the not making much money part, working part time is ideal for me right now and I am grateful that my boss is willing and able to let me continue part time when he now has to find someone else to work my old hours.
6. There was more I was going to write but I can’t remember and I think I may be able to sleep through the jackhammering now if I go lay down.

Sorry for the inelegant post but, dudes, it’s late, I know you’ll understand. Knitting and spinning updates coming very soon.

Hmm, no pictures makes for a boring post. Here, look at the mutts being cute:

Oliver: Come out and play!
Rosie: I need my beauty sleep.

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We’re on the second story of a brick house duplex. It is a long and skinny type apartment. The living room is in the front of the house which faces west. The living room has lots of windows. When it is 100+ degrees outside and you have sun shining on those windows all afternoon (regardless of the fact that the blinds are closed), the effect is quite simple. It is like living in a brick oven.

Plus, being on the second story of a brick house, it is impossible to get our apartment to cool down once it gets hot. The last few days I’ve had the thermostat set to 70 degrees and the coolest the apartment has gotten is about 82 degrees. You can feel the heat increase when you walk from the rest of the house into the living room so I’m guessing that with our AC blasting, it is still 85 degrees in our living room. Hence, we live in a brick oven.

I don’t do well with heat. I overheat very easily. I tend not to sweat nearly enough so my body just stores up the heat until I get sick in one way or another. This aggravates my Meniere’s Disease and makes me miserable in general. The last few days I’ve been hiding out in the bedroom which is in the back of the house and thus far away from the afternoon sun and, as a bonus, there is a ceiling fan. St. Louis summers almost always get this bad. The humidity is what makes it unbearable. You walk outside and I swear it’s hard to breathe. But I’m not used to being this miserable even when I’m inside. Last year at this time, I was still living in my parents’ basement. Believe me, I’m very happy to have moved on and to be here with my man but I now see the advantage of living in a room that is 2/3 underground with 2 very small windows.

Okay, enough whining, I know it’s hot everywhere and most of you feel my pain. So, on to the knitting!

The Kauni is hibernating until such a temperature as I can bear to deal with 100% scratchy wool. The second Embossed Leaves sock is nearly finished. I finished the Camo Raglan Sweater a while ago but I don’t have pictures for you yet because of the whole 100+ degrees not going well with 100% wool thing. I’ve been knitting on socks for Stephen for his birthday. These are also my socks for the Ravelry Sock Knitters Anonymous group’s monthly challenge. (Get yourself on Ravelry’s waiting list if you haven’t yet!)

The pattern is called Garter Bars Sock and is by Sockbug. The yarn is Tofutsies in a brown/black/white colorway (737 - Footsteps). Here is a closer look:

It’s a nice easy pattern to memorize and Stephen likes them and they fit well so far so that’s good. Tofutsies is so nice to work with and I’m nearly to the heel flaps so those are going well.

Two days ago I decided to dump my rule of no more than three projects at a time and cast on a very special project I’ve been saving. You see, the Kauni is in hibernation, the Embossed Leaves Socks are nearly done, and I was craving something cool and smooth and shiny to work with. That’s right, there was silk in my stash and it was calling my name. As a graduation gift to myself I bought some La Luz silk yarn made by Fiesta. It is Amethyst, it is shiny, it is luxurious and even a bit decadent. I bought four skeins of it with a specific pattern in mind. I present to you the beginning of my Clapotis:

I’m farther than that now, on to the straight rows and I’ve dropped my first stitch and was highly amused as I unraveled it. I’m working it on 95 stitches instead of 107 because I decided I want it a big longer and skinnier than the pattern calls for. The silk is wonderful to work with and the color is just gorgeous.

That’s in natural light so it’s pretty true to the actual color, at least on my monitor. I’ve never worked with silk before and it is a real treat.

So, that’s the knitting update. I’m off now to figure out some way to block the windows because the heat shows no sign of breaking and I can’t stand this. I’ve had black trash bags recommended by a co-worker and Stephen found some big pieces of cardboard so we’ll see what I come up with. It won’t be pretty but hopefully it’ll be cooler.

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Here are some better pictures of the Kauni, taken with no flash but some shadows due to the late afternoon sun:

As you can see I went with a hemmed edge instead of the ribbing and I like it but it still wants to curl a bit. Hopefully the blocking will solve that. And up closer:

It’s a bit lumpy but it’s all bunched up on the circular. I’ve been careful to keep my strands loose across the back so I’m sure a good blocking will even it out. I’m really enjoying the colors. I’ve decided that for the sleeves I’m going to do just plain stockinette from one ball for each arm. The pattern is a bit overwhelming and I think some simpler but still colorful sleeves will be nice on it.

Here are the results of my first handspun yarn. You can see the first batch is very uneven and the second is more consistent and is plied together. The ply also is well balanced since it hangs (or in this case lies down) loose without twisting back on itself:

And here with both batches wound:

These really are tiny balls of yarn (the smaller plied one is all of 6 yards) so I have no clue what I’ll do with them. These were more for learning than anything else. So, I’ve been spinning the Peachfire Roving that I posted about last time. Here is a spindle full of 2 oz of singles (half of what I bought):

Much thinner, much more consistent, gorgeous colors! Wound onto my makeshift nostepinne:

Yes, that is an old broken baseball bat. Stephen was going through some old childhood stuff and I found some good uses for a few items. Just wait till you see my niddy noddy! But first, here it is back on the spindle in 2 ply yarn, plied from either end of the singles:

For the most part it’s pretty even but I can see some spots where I didn’t put enough twist in the singles to compensate for the loss of twist in the plying process so the singles ply looks a bit slubby. But still I’m thrilled with how well it plied together. Here it is wound onto the niddy noddy I made yesterday afternoon:

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, those are Lincoln Logs. A hot glue gun, some Lincoln Logs with perfect little notches to hold the yarn and - bam! - a perfect 2 yd niddy noddy. The perfect 2 yard part was completely accidental and lucky. So I’ve got about 50 yards skeined up and I just need to set the twist then I’ll start on the other half of the roving.

I’m definitely really into the spinning. It is very soothing and satisfying. Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts’s book Spinning in the Old Way: How (and why) to make your own yarn with a high-whorl handspindle has been my constant guide through all this. What a wonderful book for a new handspinner, I recommend it highly.

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