Monday, December 9, 2013

Jury Duty

Can we talk about something for a minute? It's called jury duty. Sometime in late August (around the same time I stopped blogging) I got called in for jury duty and ended up serving on a trial. A trial that was expected to last for at least 3 weeks. Part of me was excited that I would get so much knitting time and a "vacation" from work. But it wasn't really a vacation since I had to do work anyway and the knitting I did get done was a lot of re-knitting. I did finish some nice armwarmers that are perfect for the weather we're getting right now.

More on these later...
And then something crazy happened - I didn't knit on anything else. I also tried to process a fleece during this time. After that was "done" (I got about a third of one fleece processed), I didn't spin anymore. I was slowly losing the desire to craft. It probably was a combination of how draining the jury duty process was, how busy work has gotten, and how much crafting I had been doing before (I think I was on crafting overload), but I still haven't picked up my needles since I finished those armwarmers and I find that really strange.

So I guess I'm not talking about jury duty so much as I am about my non-craftiness, which is why I've been almost absent from the blog, Ravelry, etc. I'm even behind in all the podcasts I watch/listen to. But I can tell you what I have been doing - cooking. I guess that's some form of creativity, even if it is just following a recipe most of the time, but it's better than nothing.

I've made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies...


and kale and Italian meatball soup...


and spinach and egg pizzettes...


and double fudge chocolate chip cookie dough cookies...


and caramel apple crumble cheesecake...


and snickerdoodles...


and chocolate chip cookies...


So I guess it's okay that I haven't been crafting much, because I've sure been baking a lot.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Tour de Fleece

There's something called the Tour de Fleece that goes on in the fiber world at the same time as the Tour de France. The idea is that you spin fiber the same days the bikers ride (because they're spinning, too, get it?) and you can set goals for yourself and join teams on Ravelry, etc. After watching oh so many podcasters talk about it, I decided I would try it out this year (I joined the Must Stash team) and it was a lot of fun.

Starry Starry Night Art Yarn
I spun most of the days, although not necessarily every day I was supposed to...but that's okay.

Sonic Screwdriver handspun
I did get to practice on my drop spindle a bit (even at the airport!) which was one of my goals for the tour.
 
Sample from Hobbledehoy
Another sample from Hobblydehoy
I even spun up some Mohair during the tour, which was exciting and really fun to spin.

Mohair from Flying Goat Farm
I'd say it was a pretty productive month for my first time participating in the tour. I definitely would do it again next year, since it's super motivating and I went through a lot of my fiber stash (but I also bought more, so I think it about evened out). Now I just want to sit at home and spin all day...