I'm writing this before I put a title on it because I haven't a clue what to call it yet. I usually figure it out by the time I've finished writing because, with my twisted way of thinking and warped sense of linear anything, I never end up where I begin and trains of thought can twist and turn in any direction at any given time.

So, what's new?

Well, I've definitely determined that knitting on dark yarn at night without a strong spotlight is near impossible. I'm working on a pair of socks in Lisa Souza's Shade Garden yarn. It's very pretty in that it mixes purples and greens, but the dark ends of the spectrum are nearly black. And I simply look at the previous row when determining if I have to decrease on a row or not and I can't see it....

Am I getting old and the eyes are beginning to fail or is this a generic problem that I never encountered before? Does it matter is probably the more important question. I'm not one to knit with a lot of dark colors to begin with. I like bright and neon if given a preference, so this isn't an issue that's ever come up a lot in my knitting career. Prior to knitting a lot, I did a lot of crocheting and looking back was never an issue with that because I simply kept moving...

Anyway, so I've determined that this pair of socks will have to be worked on strictly at work during the daylight hours. (The yarn is prettier to my eye in the daylight anyway, so this is probably a good thing. When working at night, you can't see the lovely and subtle variations from dark evergreen to dark purple and I tend to get discouraged and tell myself that I really don't like the colors at all. So this is all good in that I'll have to work it during the day. )

The other thing that's occurred to me in the past couple days is that I want to learn how to spin with a drop spindle and I definitely want a spinning wheel. The latter is going to take a lot of time to save for. (Cheapest one that's caught my eye is the Lendrum traditional which runs about $600, so it'll probably be at least a year before I get my hands on one of those. Get into the higher price ranges -- and these suckers can run in the thousands of dollars -- and I might never see one... ) But you can pick up a drop spindle for about $40 or so. And I adore the idea of taking raw roving and turning it into the yarn for socks (though it's going to take me some serious time to learn to get it even and smooth and small enough to ply two strands into something I'd want to knit into socks ). Anyway, but take the yarn and then dye it myself so I can do my own bright and neon colors.

I'm still hoping to try dyeing. I have some undyed yarn, but the weekends keep flying away from me. I have all the ingredients, but somehow never get the time to do the actual dyeing. Maybe this weekend? Even though I have a meeting on Saturday morning and work on Sunday morning, I'm hoping to plan ahead. The actual dyeing doesn't take any time at all. I just keep forgetting to soak the wool ahead of time and then it'll need time to dry. I can just hang it in the basement for that. It's remembering to soak the stuff first. (And getting dishes out of my sink long enough... LOL!)

Course, you don't want that rant. I cooked last night, so the deal in our house is, whoever cooks doesn't have to wash afterwards. Well, I cooked. YD (youngest daughter) announced that she wasn't doing dishes and walked away. OD (Oldest daughter) said she'd do it after homework, etc.

Uh huh. Dishes still in the sink this morning. I'm NOT doing them. I'm on strike.

Wonder if that'll make a difference by the time I get home tonight...?