Get On With It

I’m so glad I don’t have to do any of my passions as a job for money. Judging by the way I’m procrastinating and avoiding working on my lecture, it would take all the fun out of everything that I most enjoy. Here I am considering vacuuming the whole house rather than just getting on with it! Sheesh. I only have one month to finish gathering all the information, preparing the PowerPoint presentation, spinning samples and packaging up and labelling fibres. I love finding out stuff. I love learning new computer programs. I love spinning. I even love sorting and labelling. So how come I just can’t DO IT? Because I have to. Smack me upside the head.

While I was procrastinating I finished T’s slippers:

T-Man’s Slippers

Begun: January 14, 2010

Completed: January 18, 2010

Yarn: Briggs & Little Heritage, 100% wool, 2 ply worsted, red marl, 113g = 215 yds.

Filature Lemieux Québécoise, 100% wool, 2 ply light worsted, black, 100g = 210 yds.

Needles: Crystal Palace bamboo dpns, 8mm (US 11).

Pattern: Family of Slippers by Chris de Longpré, free pattern from Knitting at KNoon Designs.

Mods: Begun on 36 sts. Foot knit 11” before toe dec. Otherwise knit the same as mine, just like regular socks but without ribbing or heel stitch.

Comments: T liked my Pixie Slippers so much that he wanted a pair of his own but without the novelty yarn on the cuff, of course. I used one strand each of the red & black. I ran out of the black wool before the end of the second slipper because I hadn’t actually started with a full ball. Luckily I had some comparable yarn in the stash to finish the toe with.

T also helped with felting the piece for his innersoles at the same time as I was fulling his slippers in the washing machine. Just like mine, it took twice through the longest wash cycle to full the slippers and 400 rolls plus finishing with the washboard to make the felt. After two days they were still damp and it took twice through the longest timed cycle to dry them on the rack in the dryer. Then I was able to cut the innersoles and stitch them in. The finished slippers fit him just right and they’re very warm!

He’s very pleased with them though I noticed he wasn’t wearing them last evening but was schlepping around the house in his sock feet. He said it wasn’t cold enough. Huh! Yes, it actually has been quite spring-like around here. I already removed the flannelette sheets from the bed and put on regular ones because I was too hot at night even with the window open several inches. (Yes, woolen blankets are toasty!) The true sign of it warming up is the fact that I haven’t worn my long johns for a couple of weeks now. Not even a sleeveless undershirt – though I haven’t given up my fleece vest. The temp inside the house is the same but obviously the drafts are much warmer! I am still wearing my slippers however.

Outdoors the snowdrops are showing white buds, the garlic is up several inches and the little mixed-greens seeds I planted in the greenhouse back in the fall have arugula leaves big enough to snip for salads. The poor mizuna that got devastated by the cold snap in December have a few new leaves on the survivors. Sadly my pelargonium geraniums never got into the greenhouse and so didn’t make it. It was a pretty mild winter though especially when compared to last year’s arctic snowfalls. A bit unfortunate for the O-lympical Thingy but they must have contingency plans knowing that this is more normal here. There’s still a couple of weeks for the weather to cooperate. Or not.