plying after months away.

Posted on October 15, 2017 by barefootrooster

15oct - 5 (WordPress encouraged me to change my theme because I was using something older and now unsupported, so I did that, and now I’m fiddling with image size and some other things — please bear with me.) Also, this is what happens when you sit down to ply after months of not plying: you ply in the wrong direction until you notice that something just doesn’t seem right. I even had to google “which way do you ply” to confirm that yes, I should be doing this in the opposite direction I spin singles…sigh.

15oct - 4 Boh totally knew that I was doing it wrong.

15oct - 3 But then I started again, and see? Pretty pretty. (I think the twist could be a smidge tighter, but these singles, spun in the spring, maybe, are really nice!) 15oct - 6 And I’m excited about the yarn, though I don’t have the label handy to tell you what it is. (My best guess is something awesome from back when I belonged to the Hello Yarn fiber club.) 15oct - 1 I did a little bit of work on the patio yesterday. 15oct - 2 And Boh kept me company. 15oct - 7 This morning he was a ham and a bed-hog. 15oct - 8 Looks like I’m going to have about 176 yards of this squishy 2-ply. It’s soaking as I type. Happy weekend, friends.

february.

Posted on February 16, 2014 by barefootrooster

Hello, friends. This is pretty much what it looks like here at Chez Rooster. Except there’s more snow. (Which means there’s been a lot more shoveling…)

Sweetness from Boh.

A ridiculous outfit I found myself wearing sometime last week, and had to document.

Wrinkles. Snoring. Swoon.

Some mornings, this is the look I wake up to.

And some knits in action. Because if I’m not really knitting right now, at least I should be enjoying handknits, right? (Also, forgive this silly pose. If I want my neck in the picture, which is where the knitwear is, but also want you to be able to see my boots, some awkward posing is necessary. And I’m sure the hand on the hip is thanks to plenty of social conditioning. I cringe.)

I have been wearing the heck out of this handspun eternity scarf. I think the fiber was Pigeonroof Studios merino, and it is so so so soft.

Some grading and editing work at the coffee shop this morning. I treated myself to a dinosaur cookie.

Boh and I are hanging in there — lots of things are up in the air, and the to-do pile grows ever larger. Thankful for a long weekend to try to catch up a little bit. Hope you’re all well — and warm in your knits!

hello, april…

Posted on April 10, 2013 by barefootrooster

Hi folks. Continuing to apologize for rather irregular blogging isn’t what I want to be doing every time I sign on here. But thanks for bearing with me and for reading what I do manage to share. I tried to at least remember to snap some pictures of the non-work stuff going on around here this week, so here’s a bit of that:

Helping.

Dumplings also help.

Tea on the porch.

Boh keeps watch. (And demonstrates his length! I am always surprised when he sits up straight like this.)

Weaving in the ends…finished pictures soon!

More “helping” from Boh.

Spring sunset.

Tuckered out. I love those wrinkles. Happy April, folks!

home.

Posted on March 20, 2013 by barefootrooster

Hello, friends. Thanks for sticking with me through a couple of mostly blog-less months! I’m back at the lake house, and Boh is here too. I’ll spare you the details and pictures of the mess I found when I returned (still dealing with that), and instead, I’ll focus on the good stuff. Things like tea, sunset, and my sweet dog.

Lemongrass tea in a beautiful mug a dear friend gave me for my birthday. And a subtle vanilla candle to help me reclaim my space.

Handknits and a snoring pup. Just as it should be.

Sweet dog.

Last night’s sunset.

Coffee, Jolie Holland playing on the iPad mini, and some yarn for inspiration on the coffee table. So good to be home.

whoosh.

Posted on January 13, 2013 by barefootrooster

That, my friends, is the sound of deadlines passing. I’ve managed to stay on top of the stuff with deadlines set by other people, and I’m working on accepting that perhaps I was too ambitious in setting some deadlines for myself this winter break. Really hard to be in the right mindset to finish up a chapter draft while my house (and let’s face it, life) is in disarray. I do not like being in between. I know this about myself, and I should’ve been kinder to myself about what kind of writing was manageable during this period of transition. Lesson learned (let’s hope). In the meantime, I’ve got a head cold, and I’m mostly packed up. Heading to DC today, and hoping to leave the cold behind. Want to see some pictures from this week?

Boh, contemplating the view from our friend M.’s window and wondering if anybody is going to fix him a drink.

I finally blocked Agnes, and the neckline is more relaxed now (and so much more comfortable). The length is better too, though if I were knitting this again, I’d add a few more inches so that it hits at the hip when I’m not pulling it down with my hand in a pocket.)

More Hudson Bay Inspired Blanket knitting. I love the way this is turning out. Endless garter stitch has been exactly what I’ve wanted to work on lately, so this is definitely coming with me to DC.

Sweet, sweet dog. He’s settled in now at my parents’ house, and it sounds like all is well. The house has been so quiet without him here, and I’ve found myself listening for the padding of paws and the jingle of his collar. I know he’ll be much happier where he is, but this will be the longest we’ve ever been apart.

A stunning sunset. Almost as if the universe wanted to leave me with a reminder of how much I’ll miss my cozy lake house. Fingers crossed that my subletter takes good care of it while I am away.

Time to work through my last to-do list and hit the road. More from DC!

porch life.

Posted on May 29, 2012 by barefootrooster

Reading. With chocolate peanut butter ice cream.

Watching a storm roll in from the porch.

A pinwheel blanket begun. A wedding lap blanket the color of the sea.

I did not take this picture on my porch. What kind of flowers are these? This is a snapshot from a walk I took last week in town.

I don’t know why I snapped this picture. But I did wear this outfit on Memorial Day too, so I’m sharing.

This one needs no explanation.

And now I’m all caught up on photos! (And I managed to sneak a little bit of knitting in there.) The wedding I attended last weekend was lovely, and some new friends I made there took me sailing — in a race! It was so much fun, and the perfect way to spend the Sunday morning after a Saturday spent celebrating a very dear friend.

I don’t have any pictures of this, but today I took my first swim in the lake this summer. I’m looking forward to a lot more of that. And now I should really get some work done today…

oops.

Posted on May 12, 2012 by barefootrooster

I didn’t mean to just not blog these last few weeks, but it seems that is exactly what I did. Want to see some pictures?

Sweet, silly dog.

Mick told me about green shakes, and I’ve been making them pretty regularly for the last few weeks: some combination of banana, almond milk, green stuff (spinach, kale, etc), something sweet (local honey, a medjool date), and some kind of frozen fruit (mango, berries). They are magical. And delicious.

Lots of walking = happy dog.

Boh and I at a local waterfall, which was roaring the morning after a lot of rain.

Awesome.

A spectacular sunset on the dock.

Boh and a beer: excellent company down at the lake.

Storm coming in at sunset.

My grades are due a week from Monday — so close to summer! Happy weekend!

daffodils, more dumplings, dessert…

Posted on March 29, 2012 by barefootrooster

And some other things that don’t begin with D.

Daffodils coming up near my front steps.

More dumplings.

These delicious Brown Butter Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies from Joy the Baker. (Public service announcement: browning butter can be dangerous. Or at least mine was — my butter did a fair bit of sputtering and spitting as the water evaporated. It was worth it, though.)

Lovely sunset.

Sweet dog.

Cowl knitting and spinach.

And some spinning! This is BFL from the Hello Yarn Fiber Club in “Scorch.” I spun it as a 3-ply, and while I think I began this (long ago) with socks in mind, I’m not sure there’s quite enough yardage. That’s okay, though. I still love it. There were 183 yards, pre-bath. More photos after I’ve set the twist.

And then I just wanted to keep going. This is “Floating Down” from the Hello Yarn Fiber Club, and I’m spinning this luscious BFL/Tussah Silk blend as singles. So, so pretty.

Okay, back to work. On today’s list? Commenting on papers, finishing a conference paper, and writing another page or two of this diss-chapter-chunk. (Later, I plan to reward myself with a movie and a margarita.)

sunset and sweet stripes.

Posted on February 2, 2012 by barefootrooster

On Tuesday afternoon, the last day of January, it was easily in the mid-fifties here. And on my enclosed porch, it was a warm and cozy seventy degrees, due to a handful of hours of direct sun. I put on my flip-flops, brought my teaching prep to the big yellow table, and enjoyed my view of the lake. And when it got too dark for actual work, I just sat and took in the sunset. (And snapped a few pictures of it for you.)

It was a lovely way to say goodbye to January.

And here are the sweet stripes I made mention of: a basic baby hat, modeled on one of the many awesome hat patterns in cosy‘s book, Knit One, Embellish Two. I knit this with grey Cascade 220 and some super soft undyed mystery yarn that I think was left over from something my friend M.’s mom was making. I did more subtraction to turn a child’s hat into a baby hat, and I’m hoping it fits the wee one in question, born on Sunday morning. It went into the mail on Monday, so I’m counting on it arriving today. (I may also be counting on the new parents, one of whom is at least aware of this blog, being too busy to find this sort-of-spoiler alert.) This was so much fun to make that I’ve cast on another. I’m sure I can find a baby to put it on.

I’m reaching back to Monday morning (excuse the artificial light) for this knits-in-action shot of my Idlewood. This is the first time I’ve worn it this year, and I love it just as much as I did when I finished knitting it. I even put it back on as a cozy layer as I was walking out the door to yoga on Monday night, and when it was time for savasana, I pulled the huge cowl up over my head for deep relaxation. I may need to make another. Or at least put it on to help me with today’s tasks: a grant application, a student recommendation letter, and maybe, hopefully, some time spent going through my research.

more booty.

Posted on November 10, 2011 by barefootrooster

Apologies for the blog silence — I headed home for that baby shower (taking an unfinished booty with me), and then took a brief trip to see my grandmother out of state, and then got back here on Tuesday morning to work on a grant application. Whew! Finished that yesterday, and blogging is at the top of today’s non-work to-do list.

Here’s an iPhone shot of the second booty, just before kitchenering, and then the pair, just before wrapping. My cousin seemed to really like them at the shower — let’s hope the baby does, too! I haven’t done any knitting since finishing these on Saturday morning, maybe because I don’t have any knitting that is both portable and free of charts or counting. I should probably fix that by casting on for something new for me, like socks, though I certainly have lots more baby and wedding gifts to knit over the next several months.

None of these are recent FOs, but here’s the pile of handknits I sent to Occupy Wall Street last week. The weather is getting cold, and these handknits can be more useful there than here in my basket o’ warm things. (Side note: I should really consider knitting myself another hat with a pompom.)

And here’s a shot of the lake. The fall color has been absolutely stunning this year, but even so, the transition to winter is sort of exciting because of the way my view is changing. Now that the leaves have mostly fallen, I can see the lake even from my perch on the couch in the family room.

On blog posts and traffic: I noticed that a lot of people (500+) visited my blog last week when I posted about the first booty. Perhaps they were expecting something else? I’ll let you know if the same thing happens today…

barefoot rooster

cockadoodle-doo: one rooster's ramblings

Category Archives: from my front door