Swift

At Thanksgiving, DH asked my brother to fabricate him a replacement leg for our teak deck chaise that collapsed. My brother has an extensive wood shop at home, and that could be the christmas present.
So, as ever more yarn accumulates in my stash, I decided to ask for a wood swift from him for christmas. I even made him hold a skein of yarn while I wound it, just to demonstrate the need for such a thing. Fine; his friend even made one of these for some other friend, so there was a reference. I sent along some pics and specs, he asked a few questions, and there I was, hopeful.

Now, my brother is a perfectionist, and may possibly have some issues with finishing; a sadness at the end of a project, an attachment to his creations, I dont know. Christmas comes and we have a lovely day and dinner at my house, but no swift. He's making a few design improvements, waiting on a part, whatever.
In February I email to inquire, and he tells me that it's coming along beautifully, I'm going to be thrilled, almost done. "Almost done" is apparently a relative term, or he and I have differing interpretations, at least. March is a big month for us Malabrigo Junkies, so nervously I prod some more. Cut to the chase, the swift finally arrives and I ignore his instructions to call him first and just set the thing up and wind a ball. With my new ball winder I got for christmas, to use with the swift. Anyway, once I work out the right way to expand it so that it doesn't self-tighten itself to a stop, the thing is AWESOME! Now maybe I have one less reason to procrastinate about trying laceweight yarn.

And, go!

Spring:
-(in temperate zones) the season of the year following winter and characterized by the budding of trees, growth of plants, the onset of warmer weather, etc.
-the first stage and freshest period: the spring of life.

What better time to start blogging than spring?
Longer days, more energy, new ideas . . . more knitting. Let's talk about knitting - I knit alot. In fact, I describe it as having fallen into the knitting vortex.

Vortex: something regarded as drawing into its powerful current everything that surrounds it: the vortex of war.
Or, the vortex of knitting, in this case. I'm swirling in the knitting vortex, and it's powerful enough that it's been sucking in my whole family; my kids know they cant bug me until I'm at the end of a row, and DH writes knitting songs now - well, at least one. The powerful current has picked up too, particularly since March when I've been marathon-knitting virtually with the Malabrigo Junkies over on Ravelry.
Let's talk about Malabrigo Yarn - the softest, most beautiful, hand-dyed stuff from Uruguay. And like so many who have tried it, I'm addicted.

Junkie: a person with an insatiable craving for something: a chocolate junkie.
Which I am, a dark chocolate junkie, as well . . . but if I had to give up either dark chocolate or Malabrigo Yarn, I could find something new to eat. There's a whole group of us Junkies out there, and I'd venture to say most would give up their favorite whatever before they'd give up Malabrigo Yarn. And it's not often you find something, a product, a material, an artistic medium, that is so inspiring to so many. But lucky me, I have found it, and it's calling me into the vortex, and so I may as well blog about that.
This blog will be alot about knitting, and what I make when I'm knitting, and what happens as the vortex swirls -- and not so many definitions, next time.