Monday, August 18, 2014

Spinning and soaking-all good things

It's Monday.  I'm not particularly thrilled about it being Monday; but there's nothing we can do about Mondays.  I was able to knit for an hour this morning, making excellent progress on a hat I owe a friend of my brother's and that made the morning much better than a morning without knitting would be.

I've been reading some blogs in between waiting on hold to talk to people and dealing with the thousand of emergencies that seem to crop up everyday (not any of my own creation-I am just the office guru).  One in particular caught my eye and both saddened and pleased me.

The blog is Mad Men Knitting.  The Man is Gregory.  He lives in Florida and he knits and sells bears to keep himself clothed and housed.  His story is inspiring.  He was homeless.  He fought his way back and now has a place to live and in order to pay for his life he knits and sells bears.  They are beautifully knit bears.  They are hand knit bears.  Meaning he knits them by hand.  This takes time.  The thing that saddens me is that a few people who have ordered bears have been unhappy in the wait for their bear and subsequently been rude and demanded refunds.  Now maybe these people ordered a bear for an occasion and it upset them it didn't arrive in time.  Maybe they are having a hard time.  I do not know.  I do know that I hope that I never treat anyone the way that Gregory has been treated.  I am saddened by the behavior of others.

Other people have heard Gregory's story and made an effort to repair and restore his faith in humanity and paid for the refunds or told him to take his time with their order.  Others have made donations through his site or purchased his patterns or book.  Another woman offered to knit some of the pieces of bears to help him catch up.  I jumped on that and added my willingness to knit some pieces too.  I don't know that that offer is helpful, as he most likely needs to have a particular gauge and we may be making more work.  The point is that for every negative comment, there were double that in positive comments. That made me happy.  I struggle with the negativity that surrounds me.  (Lots of negativity in the law).  So I look for positive things each day.

This past weekend I was able to finish some yarn.  My second (EVER) handspun yarn.  It's Ashland Bay Polwarth.  It's sooooooo soft.

Want to see?

My nifty lazy kate

Plied yarn

On the swift

left overs on the swift

Close up on the swift

Yarn soaking

Ta Da-Look Yarn


Close up

With a nickel for perspective

I made a total of 204 yards.  I think it is much improved from my first attempt and I'm happy about it.  I think that I will be dying the yarn.  And then I need to find a project to make.  Loving this spinning thing...

Have a great week.  And I am challenging you to do something nice for yourself and something nice for someone else.







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