AI- Top 3 Elimination

We open with The Top 3 huddled together on stage- either Syesha is fiddling with her mike pack, or she's dislodging a wedgie. At the judging table, Paula's girls are front and center. Ryan tells us that "the results begin now", but we know better. It'll be a good 50 minutes before we know for sure what we already know.

In the meantime, the kids consult Zoltar, and... OMG! What the hell did Fantasia do to her hair??? She looks like a raspberry flavored Kewpie doll. I don't know which is more amusing, her way over the top performance, Simon's pure horror at watching same, that jumpsuit, or the Balcony Backup Rapper from Fat Albert.

David A's trip home is emotional and overwhelming, much like everything else in his life right now. Syesha's tears (combined with Wee David's, and the Cook tears that I know will follow soon) actually melt my cold, dark heart just a bit. And then we see Syesha's journey and I am reminded of everything that I find annoying about her (and unsettling- her father's sobriety seems awfully fragile). I'm sorry that we don't find out whether or not David Cook throws like a girl.

I am beginning to think that Wee David won't survive another week of this. He looks like he's going to upchuck all over Ryan, both before and after finding out that he's in The Finale. Syesha accepts her inevitable ouster with grace, and has a good singout.

So, this time next week it'll all be over- David will be the new American Idol. Will it be Giggly or Balding? I'm going with Balding (and surely, he'll handle the furor much better), but I'm not betting the farm on it.

Freebie Wednesday- Simple Stripes Fair Isle Sock Pattern

Surprise!

It'll still be awhile before I can get back to regular Freebie Friday patterns, so here's an interim freebie.

I designed this sock for Knit Picks a few years ago. When KP discontinued the yarn, they also discontinued the pattern. The rights have reverted back to me. It has proven to be a popular pattern- I get requests for it all the time. Instead of just sending the file out to people, I decided to post it.

You can use any self patterning or self striping yarn with this pattern- just make sure that the colors contrast sharply with the solid base yarn. If you come across a color section that doesn't look *right* with the background yarn, just cut it and go to the next color in the repeat. You get great shading and none of those pesky ends to weave in.

I couldn't figure out how to put the pdf file as a download here, so I printed out the pages and scanned them.

Do the usual- click on the images to enlarge, right click to save as jpgs, print from any graphics program.

Cormo Down to My Boat Baby...

(... sorry- not only was that a bad pun, but it was a bad pun that only people my age will get)

The darkest wool from the 1lb Cormo fleece that I washed and carded came out to a 2 oz skein with 130 yds. It's heavier than the first 2 skeins (which were both close to 100yds per oz), but they'll still work okay together. It could be that the the white and oatmeal fleece portions were just a bit more fine than the darker. Or it could just be my spinning.

However, it happened, this yarn is only a tad thicker than the others, but it's still beautiful. I'm working on the first bobbin of the medium tan now. There will be probably 4.5 ozs of that yarn, so it'll be the base color of whatever I knit with this yarn.

I'm working on the spindle spun bamboo fiber in spare moments as well. I have the first of the 2 batts completely spun now. I'm still using the gorgeous little millefiori spindle but my singles really are too heavy for it (it's the spinner, not the spindle). I'm doing much better with this fiber on my homemade pine spindle. After I ply this batch, I'll save the millefiori spindle for silk (I have some undyed silk caps that would be perfect for it).

AI Top 3 Performance

Back in January, I would never have guessed that Syesha would be the last woman standing, but there she is, in spangles and heels, next to The Foregone Conclusions.

Mayor Handlebar tells David A that Paula has chosen And So It Goes, which turns out to be a fantastic song for him. From the woman who selected Mack the Knife to prove that Clay Aiken wasn't a lounge lizard, that was a pretty good choice. Way to go, Pauler.

Randy goes totally predictible with Alicia Keys for Syesha, who sounds very good, but it's a blah song. Then again, outside of the smile, Syesha herself is pretty blah.

Simon is playing mind-games with everyone in picking Roberta Flack for David Cook. He works it out though, and hits an amazing high note at the end.

Without the help of his newly banned father, Wee David tries hard to connect with his inner teenager on his personal pick, but his outer 8 year old gets in the way.

Syesha blows her opportunity by choosing a song that proves, once and forever, that she's a Cruise Ship Singer at heart.

As usual, I'm too old to recognize David Cook's song, but he sounds fine, and as he sings, I realize that he is going to win this whole thing. And I realize that I don't hate that idea. I don't love him, but I like him a lot more than Daughtry.

The producers prove that they have absolutely no sense of what songs are right for their own contestants. Wee David is saddled with Longer, a very pretty song, but one much more suited to a 50 year old, which is sure to annoy Simon (it does). Syesha's song does nothing for me (or for her). David Cook blows them both out of the water with Aerosmith, a strange choice (Rocker does not equal Rocker, Producers. sheesh).

The voting may end up being close, but I will be very surprised indeed if Syesha makes it to next week.

Past and Future Spindles

A few years ago, I went through a spindle-making phase, using my husband's drill press, a hole cutting saw and a rosette cutter. I used domestic woods (maple, cherry, pine) a few exotics (cocobolo, purpleheart, zebrawood), and some wheat and soy composites, and made some drop spindles that are pretty well balanced and spin forever (my hardest thing was getting the hole in the center of the dowel for the hook- quite a few shafts ended up shorter than I expected because I had to cut the end off and start over). I haven't made spindles for a long time, but last summer I spotted some beautiful flat, round stones with holes in the center, at a Farmer's Fair while we were on vacation on the west coast. I knew right away that they would make interesting spindle whorls. I bought several, and then forgot about them.

But I've been drop spinning lately, and I remembered the stones, and dug them out. I think they'll work, if I can find the proper grommets (to hold the stones firmly on the shaft). I'm not going into production, and I'm not going to sell any spindles. I will probably just put a few together for my own amusement.

I have no idea what these stones are, but they're pretty (from 1 1/4" - 2" in diameter. The littlest green one won't work as a spindle because the hole is off center. It'll make a dandy necklace though).

Here are some of my homemade spindles. The top pic shows the earliest version- top center is red oak (my granddaughter's spindle now), the middle 2 are pine, and the bottom is purpleheart. The middle pic shows Spindle v2.0, beginning at center top: Butternut (very light, a lace spindle), cocobolo, maple, cedar, and cherry (with the darker stripe). The bottom pic are the composites: the lightest one is a wheat straw composite, and the other 3 are soy composites. All but the Butternut spindle weigh 1oz or more.

I go through phases- I didn't get my wheel out for over a year, and now I spin for a little while at least every day, so it was inevitable that I'd get out the spindles as well.

Sock Book Update

44 patterns designed, knitted, and written up. 31 left to go. 9 weeks until the deadline.

Am I going to make it? Will I survive?

I'm not taking bets either way, but if I am a little quieter than usual, you'll know why.

More Cormo

I got the oatmeal Cormo batt spun and plied last night. It's little- .5 ozs, 45 yds, 2-ply, but it's such soft and pretty yarn. I'm working on the dark tan now- there will be just one skein of that as well, but it'll be easily the size of the first two combined. The majority of the Cormo fleece was the medium tan, which I will spin next.

The range of natural colors from a single fleece always amazes me. Here are the cream and oatmeal skeins.

I think this yarn wants to be a hat, but we'll see what it says when I finish spinning it all up. At close to 100 yds per 0z, I'm going to have about 700 yds total, so it can probably be several hat and mitten sets.