Up to my Ass in paper


Lately I've been thinking about the "paperless" office. What a concept! No dust, no shredded bits laying on the floor, no bulging sacks of reject paper. It's an occupational hazard this time of year . . . I'm sure the dust in the air represents a health hazard as well!! When I processed returns in the CRA factory one year, I wondered out loud what kind of toxic hazard it represented in the windowless, crowded, security basement. Amazingly, fans appeared, loading bay doors opened & our persistent coughing & sniffling decreased. Really makes you wonder, doesn't it???
Once upon a time I thought I could save the shreds for something crafty but that fell by the wayside when I got involved with natural fibres! Although I've been following the Damselfly's adventures in knitting with paper yarn - I sure don't have the patience for that! And the paper accumulates. I now have two orange leaf bags of shredded & leftover paper. What to do, oh what to do??? I may just spend part of the summer manufacturing handmade paper or paper mache this year - not as durable as clay but still good for pots & decorative vessels. Yarn & paper together! Hmmmm.

I'm looking forward to blowing the dust off the spinning wheel later this month at the Spring Retreat in Cache Creek, too. I've given myself this trip as a Birthday present - 58 big ones on the 16th!! - even though it's in the middle of the busiest time of the year for me. I NEED a break. I haven't spun anything since last summer! After the Fall from Hell & the subsequent split with the BT, I didn't do anything but knit for a while, instead of making yarn. I bought some lovely wild super wash roving in hot pinks & blues from Knitopia last spring for socks - & spotted that wild neon pink to go with it!!! And, Yeah, that's some of it at the very top on the spinning wheel!!

And there's that gorgeous handpainted roving in purples & grey that I got at Knitopia which I intend to take with me to spin. I have fibre I bought years ago that I haven't had time to spin. This summer, I intend to spin a whole lot more of it.


In the meantime, I've started another sweater for myself - in WOOL. Oh yeah . . . but I have all that Briggs & Little Anniversary yarn I bought to knit hoodies. Since the BT is no longer getting one, I have tons of yarn left over. So, I'd like a hoodie but decided I'd use a cardigan more often. I didn't want ribbing at the bottom like every other sweater either so I thought some side vents would make a nice change. So I made the back & two fronts separate for the first 6 inches with 2 inches of garter edging & 2 inches of garter up the fronts & on each side of the vents. Last nite I put all three pieces on one cable so I could knit the whole thing in one piece to the armholes. I'm carrying the garter up the fronts but have ended it about 3 inches above the two side vents. I'm planning on making the armholes quite deep & doing a Moss stitch on the front yokes. I don't know how it will close yet, I'll think about that when it's done! This is just a Free Form knit at the moment!!

I reported I bought MORE YARN at the Knitopia Garage Sale. Well, it was a practical purchase. Honest!! I'm not yet sure what the Eton yarn will become but I have enough to make just about anything. I originally bought 20 balls of the Eton in a light blue to knit a sweater for the BT. He decided he wanted a V-neck sweater instead of the round yoked sweater I'd originally planned so it never got started. Good thing. So I bought a few more balls in the same dye lot and a couple in navy for contrast so I have enough to make something for me. A knit Kimono perhaps???

And I'm seriously thinking of an Adult Surprise Jacket with the Briggs & Little Regal & Heritage I scored for $2 a skein - too good to pass up! I have the pattern & it's easy to knit so I bought all the shades of BLUE - figured I could also use some of the Anniversary yarn with it too. And I want to buy one or two skeins of RED for a surprise touch, LOL! I will be warm for the next winter!!