Coming back in chaos
Oh my goodness it’s awfully dusty in here…*ducks cobweb, pretends massive spider isn’t glaring at me with murder in her 8 eyes, brushes off the keyboard and prepares to dive in*
It has been quite some time, hasn’t it? A brief rundown of the last 15+ months:
Got ourselves settled in Austin (moving to central Texas in mid-August is Not. Recommended)
Spent autumn and winter dealing with new jobs/new schools/major family health issues
Finally feeling settled in to new city and bam! Pandemic lockdown/cancellation of school/everyone working from home
#BlackLivesMatter/national and global confrontations with systemic racism
State idiocy resulting in skyrocketing COVID-19 cases in real-life
Ravelry redesign and accessibility issues
I’ve spent the last month or so mostly off of or briefly lurking on social media because there just so much and there doesn’t seem to be enough air in any of the online rooms I’ve been a part of. The Tour de Fleece kicking off last Saturday has given me a nudge to dust off Ye Olde Blogge for an outlet, so here I am. And here is my first Tour de Fleece 2020 spin.
Skein 1 for TdF 2020: Porpoise Fur Bluefaced Leicester in “Rita’s Bedroom”
I took this braid and pulled in apart lengthwise into four sections, spun two in the same direction end to end, then flipped the remaining two sections and added those to the bobbin spun the opposite direction. I wound off the singles into a center pull ball after they’d rested for a day or so and plied from both ends of the ball for a 2-ply yarn. Totally mindless comfort spinning.
Final stats:
235 yds/4 oz of fibre
Spun on a Hansen miniSpinner
2-plied, washed and hung to dry without weights
Started: 27 June
Finished: 30 June
Over the course of the spring I’ve been working on a big bag of reddish-purple fiber that was a gift from a London friend, to spin up for a sweater design inspired by Daughter the Eldest. Her version is done, but I’d like to do one in handspun for me (not that I will ever need it here, but I’ll go north eventually!) So that’s likely to be the next project on the wheel, but I’ll see where inspiration takes me.
I have been watching the current situation around Ravelry’s site redesign and the attendant accessibility issues with huge disappointment both in the way it is being handled by the Ravelry team and with my own ignorance and privilege - before 2 weeks ago I’d never thought about how people with different abilities access websites or knitting patterns, or known anything about the historically poor accessibility of Ravelry even before the launch of the new site.
I’m going to do the following moving forwards:
1) Make my patterns available on multiple platforms, including this website
2) Provide future patterns in accessible formats (with feedback from appropriate groups)
3) Update my old patterns and to more accessible formats
4) Review this website and make the changes needed so it is usable for as many people as possible (to start this weekend with the goal of finishing by the end of the summer)
I hope that I’ll be able to work through my old patterns in fairly short order once I’ve sorted out the first few, but I’ll update here and on Instagram as I go. Any questions or comments, please let me know!