Don't Take Your Love to Town

Okay, I teased you with the sneaky peek picture a few days back. Just a closeup of the stitch pattern as it blocked out in the sun.

Well, there's no sun today, so she's not as pretty as she would otherwise be, but she's done!

Presenting the "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" Bag!

Ruby can take her love, or her knitting, her lunch, or her library books to town in this handy and roomy tote. Made from handspun and hand-dyed (with Kool-Aid!) wool and worked up in a fancy purl-twist stitch pattern from Barbara Walker's first Knitting Treasury, it features pleather handles and an all-cotton lining with an inside pocket.

Now, I saw how this one was coming out and even before I'd picked a lining for this one I cast on for one for myself. I'm using the brown homespun I made awhile ago that just does not want to become a scarf. It's heavy, and with the diagonal demi-brioche stitch I'm using, the resulting fabric is going to be quite sturdy.

In the meantime, whilst knitting up Ruby, I found a whole freezer bag full of the same roving I used for it that failed to get spun at the time. How did that happen? No worries. I'm going to spin it up tout de suite and make something else from it! See how I roll? I can, of course, begin working on a new yarn because I finished the cranberry roving that I was working on. Here's the thing: I had my doubts about this yarn. I broke the roving into two more or less equal hanks and started a-spinnin. I hated the first bobbin all the way from start to finish. It wanted to overspin in the worst way. It fought me; it broke from time to time. It hurt my hands. I wanted to quit. But I got through the first bobbin and started filling the second one and ....what happened? It spun nicely! Even, no overtwist, no breaking, just lovely soothing merino sliding through my fingers.

Musta been a fluke, 'cause check out this yarn.

If only the Interwebs could let you reach out and touch this yarn. SOOOOOOFT. Well, it is merino, after all. Sposed to be soft. I compensated for the overtwist in the singles by overplying them and it worked like a charm. It was almost completely balanced before I set the twist, and after a hot bath and a bit of thwacking on the side of the tub, it's Perfect, with a capital P.

And by perfect, I don't mean machine-perfect. The thing that attracts me about homespun is that it's not eveneveneven all the way through. I can see that as I improve with my spinning that I'll have to make a conscious effort to keep the thick and thin quality that I enjoy. It has character, and that's what I enjoy about it. However, the final yarn is balanced, it's a consistent worsted weight (12 wpi) all the way through, and I got about 200 yards all told (give or take), which should make me some nice mittens for winter. My old fair isle ones have nearly had the radish. They're comfy though, and I lined 'em last winter with more wool.

Speaking of winter, I finished my Malabrigo scarf. It's all for me! I took some photos, but again, it's so effing dark in here today that you can see neither the colors nor the stitch definition, so I'll try again when the sun is out.

Rumor has it it's going to be a triple-H couple of days--Hazy, Hot, and Humid for the uninitiated. Joy.

I've been completely spoiled by the 45F nights we've had all week. I was so hoping that fall was here. I guess Autumn in August was too much to ask for anyway.

But school starts on Tuesday, so we did some school shopping last night. Bug really doesn't need much in the way of clothes because she gets awesome handydowns from my Sister's nieces. But she got two new pairs of shoes, a brown cotton velvet trenchcoat, 10 pair of underpants, and a new lunch bag. She's keeping her old backpack because it's monogrammed from LL Bean and in perfectly good shape, so why get a new one, really? She still needs sneakers (I'll use her Kohl's gift card since the clothes are so ugly, I might as well try for some sneaks), and a homework folder, but other than that, she's good to start. Oh, and probably some tights to wear with skirts when it gets cooler. Target was WAY picked over. Not a pair of tights in the place, and no funky fresh pocket folders either. Unless you're into High School Musical, Spiderman III, or Transformers. Yeah, me either.

Sister spent a mint on two pair of Spongebob PJ's for Bobo, or Bode Ann Miller as we're calling her this week.

Bug is wearing her new brown shoes around the house.

She had two more fillings yesterday. I swear you'd think the kid brushed with sugar packets or canned frosting or something. I promise you with God as my witness that she brushes, flosses, and rinses with flouride twice a day. It's utterly unfair. She goes in on Sept. 17th to get her adult teeth sealed.

Did I tell you that the new dentist wants her to see an orthodontist about braces because her bottom teeth are coming in too crowded? She's SEVEN. Who puts braces on a seven-year old? I understand that moving the teeth now while they're still of a mind to move freely can be helpful, but I just feel that all kids her age have crowded, crooked teeth--for awhile anyway until their jaw grows into the new teeth. I mean, have you looked at a second grade class picture lately? Snaggly! I get the feeling that a lot of the pressure to put kids in braces younger and younger comes from the orthodontist's wish to keep them in the chair as long as possible, you know?

Mr. Poops and I feel that it's a bit drastic for a kid her age to have to deal with. We're going to wait until she's at least 12, or until more of her baby teeth fall out to see what's what. As it is, she's only lost two top ones and four bottoms. And once she has her adult teeth, we think she should wait until she's 30 and pay for it herself.

I'm kidding. Sort of. We're a one-income household. Our dental insurance as it is doesn't cover orthodontics. We can opt for that plan, but it's a lot more expensive than what we have, and we weren't planning on changing to it until both girls were much older. And then there's the crap that goes with it: tightening, gum irritation, lip irritation, retainers, elastics...too much for a kid who stil has mostly milk teeth. Better on a teenager who's already miserable. Or as my Aunt Camille says, better on someone over 21 who can use vodka to dull the pain.

Did I tell you that I still have a baby tooth? My upper right canine is a baby tooth. Never lost it. The adult tooth is still wayyyy up in my gum somewhere, not moving, not coming down, just sitting there under my sinuses. Yeah, they could fix it, but why bother?

It's a conversation starter.

Go ahead, discuss it amongst yourselves. I'll wait.