Back, and soon to travel again

I know, I know - but even though I have tried to install satellite internet at the farm, it is not working properly. To be really honest, maybe the Hughes net is working, but the wireless router is not, and the cable directly from the satellite is in the not-yet-completed studio, so unless I want to sit there on a folding chair, and risk the sawdust getting in the laptop, I'm still resigned to visiting Neil's Java Jungle in town to do anything much more than getting email. (By the way, the coffee is great, and the guys are nice, if you're ever in the area)

I've been to Sweden, I've been to South Dakota, I've been to Omak, WA, I've been to SOAR, San Diego and Rhinebeck - I think that covers the travels. Of course, it doesn't REALLY cover them, but for now it does. If I get the satellite wireless working, I'll post more about some of them.

For now I'll concentrate on more current events. I've been busily working on the Swedish Bohus-style colorwork that I'll be teaching at the Knitters Review Retreat in about 10 days. Here is a photo of the completed project in the cool colors, for the Friday class-

which is a headband that could be expanded to a hat. The Saturday class will do some swatching, on a smaller circumference, of generally the same pattern, which has been charted in warm brown/orange colors as well as these blues/greens.

I interrupted my prep on Saturday to attend the Aurora Colony Handspinners Guild Workshops Day, and had a very good time. I took a wheel and lunch, worked, ate, and chatted, and then took a needle felting class in the afternoon. Needle felting, you ask? (I haven't ever been too excited about doing needle felting) Well, yes, but look what I made in the class-

It's Tanya, the felted tea cozy! She's a Border Leicester (bet you could tell that, right?) who is named after one of the Philly zoo sheep whose fleece I dealt with a couple of years ago. She's posing on the teapot in the bottom shot, but her normal perch is as above, sitting on top of the fridge watching everything. It was worth the despised needle felting.

I don't have any current photos of the new studio-in-progress, but my only comment is that it may be ready for me to move into by the new year - seriously. I know that contracting is not an exact science, and our guy is good, but why do they always tell you it's going to take about 1/4 of the time it really takes? At least it's now in the stage where all of the remaining work is inside, so rain can't slow it down even more.

Oh, and I also have acquired 3 additional wheels in the past 3 1/2 weeks, which I think is a record even for me. Two are on their way here, one came home in the car from northern WA. Photos and info on them will be making a future appearance.

Interesting Encounter

Last evening we went to the movies, at the local small-town theater that was built in the 40's, where movies still cost $5, and they pop their own popcorn. (Our town even has a drive-in, people drive over an hour in summertime to bring their kids to a real drive-in) I took along a sock, I pretty much always have a sock in my purse or tote, for those little down-times and waiting times.

This theater has been in the same family for it's whole life, and last night they were showing a 30-minute short of movie recordings that the current owner's grandfather had made of various summer parades and festivals. The lights were up, people were arriving and chatting, and I was knitting. Most people know that I am not a sentimental knitter or spinner, knitting is kind of like breathing to me. I can't imagine not doing it, but I don't give it more meaning than as my constant companion, so I don't really get care about getting attention for doing it. Last night was a little different, though.

I was working on a sock bespoke by Jennifer of Spirit Trail Fiberworks. Toe-up, as many of my sock patterns are, and only begun in the morning, before I went to a spin-in.

(notice that I'm not revealing any real design here, I don't know exactly how Jen is going to use the pattern)

I heard a kid-voice say "that's so cool". Right behind me was a 8-9 year old boy, who had moved down about 6 seats from his family to watch me knit.

"I knit, too, my grandma taught me".

That's great, I said, do you like it?

"I really like it, I know how to purl, too. Are you making a sock?"

Yes, I am. I make lots of socks.

"I know how to make a blanket, it's really wide, like this". (he held his hands about 2 feet apart) "I worked on my grandma's blanket, but I know how to do one myself. But socks are so great, you just knit around and around, kind of like a spiral, and it makes a tube, any size you want to make".

Yes, I say, that's how you make a sock. At this point in the conversation I am thinking that here is a knitter for life, a kid who will combine knitting with little league and science projects. His mom tries to get his attention, but he tells her he's busy and will come back in a minute.

"Wow, you knit really fast, and so little. I've never knit with needles that small. (size 1) No purls, huh? The stitches are so small and tight. Can I see the inside?"

I showed him the inside of the sock toe, and told him that he certainly can knit with needles that small, it just takes a little practice.

We chatted, discussing the type of yarn, and the cool colors dyed by my friend. The lights started to dim. His mom told him he'd miss out on popcorn if he didn't come back, and I folded up my knitting to watch Transformers. Adam was still staring at the boy.

Knitting is cool.

Spectrum Socks

I was asked on KR to post a picture and comment about these socks. I did think that I posted a photo last fall when I finished them, but I can't find anything, so I'll talk about them again.



To start off, I do know that the colors aren't a full spectrum, but I really didn't want to call them Rainbow Socks, just too Pollyanna-ish. They started when I stopped in a yarn shop and saw a display of Noro Silk Garden Lite. I have a weakness for Noro yarns, because of the great colorways and fiber blends, so there is a goodly amount of regular Silk Garden in my stash. Enough for 2-3 sweaters, at least. I've never been tempted by the light weight before, because it is in the same colorways, just a sport/DK version of the yarn. Looking at the LYS display, I realized that I was immediately seeing 2 skeins that looked exactly alike, which in my Noro experience is rare unless one is looking at their solid colors. The colors in the variegated colors have such long repeats that generally the skeins look very different, and it would be hard to have matching socks with going through a lot of yarn.



I'll just mention as an aside that I don't usually care about my socks matching each other, fraternal twins are fine with me. It's just that when I saw those two skeins, I realized that I could have matching socks, in wool/silk, in a great Noro colorway. So I brought them home, and cast on that night. Here they are, with very long cuffs because I like them long and with toe-up socks you can just keep going-

The perspective is a little off, I have size 9 feet and these feet look smaller than that. I used size 2.5 Brittany wood DPNs, and the sock fabric seemed looser than I had expected, probably because of the high silk content. Silk is a great substitute for nylon in a sock blend, though, it wears like iron, and takes dye beautifully.

I've worn these socks a lot since they were completed 7 months ago, and they still look just like new. This yarn isn't machine washable, of course, but I have lots of handspun socks that have to be washed by hand, so this isn't a problem at all.

Fast-forwarding to the current time, I've been working on a few pieces spoken for as pattern sales or for other uses, so I don't want to post pictures here unless/until it's been okay'd. I haven't even photographed the finished pieces, though I'll try to remember to take pictures of the next couple.

I did do some spinning lately, though, and have a pair of socks underway. While its nice doing things that I'll get paid for, I'll be looking forward to being able to just knit anything I want, with no deadlines. What I really need to do is begin to build a portfolio of designs that can be offered up as needed. I'll get the camera out for the spinning and socks soon.

Back, and making it up with cute kid & sheep picture!

Sorry for the gap - I got home from NHSW and Virginia, and then had computer problems. I went off to Fiber in the Forest before I had a chance to figure out the cure. Fiber in the Forest is a long weekend of weaving, spinning, knitting, dyeing, and basketry that takes place in southwestern OR each spring. Anyone in the OR/No. Cal. area should consider coming, it's a fun retreat with a batch of three-day classes, a select few nice vendors, and great food. No cell or wireless service, though, as the camp is tucked in the mountains between I5 and the Oregon coast. I'll blog about it soon.

I got home, figured out how to do a system restore without losing all of my files (and am very proud of myself for getting to this resolution) but then went off to NWRSA conference in Coeur d'Alene, leaving my husband at home with friends from TX. Two days after I got home, I headed to a graduation in southern OR. Now I'm home, back at my local coffe shop with wifi, uploading photos.

A major reason for my near-panic in dealing with my laptop was that the problems were focused in a couple of areas - the wireless connection and the audio/iTunes. These are both pretty important to me, blogging, and my listening pleasure while traveling, knitting or spinning, so I have a little excuse for the lack of blog posts, as well as my crazy schedule. Now I'm home for a little while, except for a couple of days and nights at Black Sheep Gathering, so I'll hope to make up for it.

So for now, here is a shot of cute kids and sheep at the NH Sheep and Wool Show. As soon as I pulled out my camera, they went immediately into "show mode", as if I was a 4-H judge. Heck, I was never even in 4-H!

In closing for now, the view from the back porch last night. We're seeing sunset at about 9pm these days, and they've been nice lately. (I'm up for sunrise, too, but the hills on the other side block the good views)

More spinning, knitting and weaving (!) posts to come soon.

Short Notes on MDSW

Just a quick post as we (Jen of Spirit Trail Fiberworks and me, her booth help) are getting ready to hit the road for the next show, New Hampshire Sheep & Wool.

Maryland was bigger and better than ever - better because there seemed to be more people that were having a great time and were in a good mood (maybe because the weather was a little cooler than the last couple of years?), the food lines were shorter, and there were more "facilities" scattered around.

We set up the booth-

Martha and Bess were also booth babes at MDSW, and here you see them in their elements, Martha handling the checkout table, and Bess attracting newbies with her spindle and Jen's rovings.

We're at the far end of the Main Building,
but the shoppers and browsers came in droves, and we pretty much sold out of sock yarn and mohair (is this a knitting trend we hadn't heard about?). The photo is before opening on Saturday, and Jen is still think about what we might have forgotten (nothing important).

There wasn't a lot of time to shop for me, but I did get a couple of things that were on my "must buy" list, a couple of bobbins for my new Victoria from Carolina Homespun,

And a shed stick from Woody of Woodchuck Products , which is made of purpleheart and feels really good. It was joined by a pair of Brittany walnut size 5 needles, to replace the set at home that has a broken one. Woody somehow had a large container of these long-discontinued needles, and was selling them for the original price ($8.50!).

Last but certainly not least, I filled a bag with "end pieces" from Spinner's Hill, which are wool/mohair/silk and carded into the most beautiful clouds imaginable. I can't resist getting some every Maryland, my fix until next year.

That's pretty much it - no wheels, no fleeces, no splurges. I'm happy with the weekend, Jen was happy with the weekend for Spirit Trail, and now we're loading up the rig for the next show.

Speaking of Spirit Trail, check out the new yarn and sock clubs that Jen is taking sign-ups for. These are starting to fill up, and if you love knitting either socks, or luxury fibers, you will be interested.

Weaving at Asilomar

I went to the CNCH conference last weekend at Asilomar Conference Center, near Monterey, California. This is a wonderful conference center that is part of the CA Parks system, and has many buildings (including the one I stayed in) that were designed by Julia Morgan and built in the late 19th century. Don't worry that I was roughing it, though, they have been thoroughly updated. Here's the main lodge-

All of the buildings were designed to fit into the dunes, so that the view from the beach is still wonderful. Here's the beach

which turned out to be a great place to sit and knit (a Monday morning activity).

I took a 2 1/2 day class on Knotted Cut Pile, and my last post showed the yarn that I had spun and dyed for the class. I also did a design, though none of this was a prerequisite. The instructor was Sara Lamb, a very talented weaver and great teacher. Everyone in the class enjoyed it, from experienced weavers to absolute newbies (we had a brave man in the class who was not a spinner, weaver, or knitter - his only textile experiences had been as a quilter - more on him later).

First, we built our looms

from copper pipe and other hardware store materials. We put feet on them so that they could stand up for warping.

Now, I'n not a real weaver because I hate warping, but even I did not mind the warping process on this loom. I was almost the slowest warper, though, because I found at the end that I had done a cross incorrectly and had to take 3/4 off and do it again. This didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, though, because I was having a good time in general. A warp this size is just so much less tedious than on a larger loom. We used string heddles, and I learned to do continous heddles, which worked well for me and enabled me to get back on track, time-wise. I didn't mess these up, thankfully.

By the end of the day we were all, even me, tying our first knots. In the photo above you can see some of the yarn (Paternayan needlepoint yarn) that Sara had brought for people to use. Everyone found colors that they liked, and though I was the only person who had specifically spun for this class, I was not the only person who had done their own design. Here is Jim's abstract design (he is the quilter).

( We have taken the feet off the looms for ease in weaving)

Pretty much the rest of the work we did in class was knotting and cutting the pile. While we did this, Sara showed us some of her work,

which is amazing, huh? She also showed slides of traditional weavings and talked about other books and resources.

Of course, there was time for other activities as well. Sara is on the left, and our friend Sue on the right. It was cool and breezy, but perfect weather for beach walks.

Here is my loom and the amount of knotting that I completed. When the whole piece is finished, there will be front and back pile sections to be joined with sides and strap to make a small bag.

If you want to see our speediest knotter, check out the photo of my tablemate Deanna on Sara's blog. She has other pictures of the class as well.

Maybe a Weaver?

I'm off at the CNCH (Norther California Handweavers) conference this weekend to see if it is possible that there can be a type of weaving that I enjoy. I suspect that even though I don't like weaving on regular looms, mostly because I truly despise the warping process, I will like both tapestry and knotted rug weaving, because they are done on frame looms and the warping process is not nearly as tedious (tastes differ here, I conceed).

Here are the yarns I spun and dyed for my knotted pile sample:

And here is the motif from one of our carpets that I will be basing my design on for one of my 5" x 6" samples:

Sara Lamb, my teacher for the weekend, tells me that I will have to do only part of the motif, as I have an area of 30 knots x 40 knots in my sample. Not so big, but I will still only get about 1" done, she says.

The conference is at Asilomar, a lovely park conference center on the Monteray Peninsula. Beach photos in a future post.

A Spinning Day

Saturday was the quarterly meeting/Spin-in for my area (6010) of the Northwest Regional Spinners Association. The Spring meeting is always at Woodland Woolworks in Carlton, OR, which has the added advantage of being about 12 minutes from my farm. (that can be it's own evil temptation, of course, but I try to resist stopping every time I'm driving that direction)

Diane of WW is a great hostess, providing coffee, tea, water, hot cocoa, and a table of new items to drool over, designed to appeal to spinners of every level and inclination. Folks bring sack lunches, and snacks/treats to share, and we spend the whole day. Sometimes people have to just stop by (as Trish did to drop off a bunch of GORGEOUS merino/tencel door prize and snap a photo) because of other commitments, but most of us try to schedule so that we can be there the whole day.

I always take way too much than I could ever spin in 6-7 hours, especially when I am chatting, eating, and (possibly) shopping. This is what I took to spin-

See the little gap just under the handle? That was home to the small batts that I spun up, though admittedly they were spun at about 40 wpi. What you see are the 31 small bats that I overestimated, took, and carried home. This reminds me of going through a buffet line as a kid - my eyes would be bigger than my stomach. Now my eyes are just bigger than my hands/wheel.

This was the first official outing for my new little Louet Victoria (also pictured), and I really like the portability of this wheel. An added advantage that I hadn't considered is that the footprint is small enough to fit nicely into a crowded Spinning Circle, about the same width as my chair. It doesn't walk or wobble; surprisingly, for the size and weight of under 6.5 pounds, it's very stable. I am looking forward to the lace flyer becoming available, though, the max ratio of 13:1 on the standard flyer is just a tad slow for comfortable spinning, and way too slow for cotton or laceweight. I'm going to call Morgaine to see if she has any inside info on when it will be in. Maybe by MDSW?

A couple of weeks ago I couldn't find the Victoria, and searched all over the house, feeling very puzzled. Finally I asked Adam if he had seen it, and he sheepishly brought it in to the family room about 20 minutes later. Turns out he saw the wheel packed in its case sitting in the corner a few days earlier, and without reading the side of the case, assumed that it was an empty carry-on. These go in a stack on shelves in the basement, so that's where the wheel had been put. Really, that's how small and lightweight this wheel is - he never noticed there was anything in the case.

Here are a couple of shots of the happy spinners

Notice the empty chair fourth from the left? That's the invisible me.

See our shortest spinner? And the 5 vacuum bags of angora that was donated to us? Amazing, huh?

Today I've been doing some pruning on the apple trees, because I can now see where there are no blooms opening up. It's a little late in the season, but I'd rather have the trees' energies go into producing apples than supporting un-needed branches and leaves.

(Oh, and for the record - no shopping for me at the Saturday meeting, this time anyway)

Roses in Texas

I am in Ft. Worth while Adam is attending a conference here. This morning I had some choices of activities:

1. Go out to the western wear store and buy myself a new pair of boots (which I do kind of need and want, but I don't want to carry them home in my small suitcase),

2. Work on my knitting project in the hotel room, or

3. Visit the Botanical Garden with a group of other non-attendees.

I chose the Botanical Garden, as it's a beautiful day, sunny, 75-80 degrees, breezy, no humidity. I definately made the right choice, as it's early summer-ish here in southern parts, and it's a nice Botanical Garden, with an extensive rose garden that is just about at peak bloom. I am a fanatic rose gardener, as some folks know, and in the recent past battled the humidity and insects in NY to have roses blooming for the summer. After a few years of fighting the inevitable, I settled on some varieties of heirloom roses that were survivors, enjoying a couple of good weeks before the summer settled in.

I've read that many experts believe that the perfect rose climates, though, are New Zealand and Oregon, so now I'm looking forward to growing lots more varieties, and enjoying them for a longer season. The previous owners had a few, including a notable Lady Banks climber that has grown about 25' up into a pine tree. It was just budding up when I looked at it last weekend, so I will be seeing it's glories soon. Just on the other side of our little town is Heirloom Old Garden Roses, and that's where I will be this weekend. Armed with my notebook and some photos from today's rose garden, I'll be shopping for some beauties for my yard. Some of them may eventually look like this:
And this:

But not like this:

(these are bluebonnets, it's the end of the season here in bluebonnet-crazed Texas).

I'm flying home tomorrow, then I'll start to pack up for the NCHWA conference at Asilomar next week. Sara is going to try to convert me to the dark side (weaving). There will undoubtedly be more on this later.

( and knitting to come, maybe this weekend)

Fleece Activities

I decided that it had been too long since I had processed any fleece, though I had been putting this off because it means disconnecting my washer and hooking up the old washer. My new one is one of those high efficiency "Oasis"-type washers, and they just don't have the ability to soak a dirty, greasy fleece, then spin it out. Really, though, having the old washer is perfect, because then I don't have to mess up my pretty new one with dirt, barnyard deposits, and wool clogging it up.

I had 2 small Shetland lamb fleeces that were a gift from a friend who decided towards the end of last year that if she hadn't done anything with them in 2 years, it was time to pass them on. They are from a highly admired flock, and are dual coated. I generally don't keep dirty fleeces for more than a few days, but since they were already aged, I put off washing them until nicer weather. Both are small, the lighter one under a pound unwashed, and the heavier one starting off at 1.5 pounds.

Washing and drying done, I realized that though skirted, the lighter one had a lot of VM. It must have been a happy lamb, into everything. I decided to pick it immediately, just to see how much I had. It is a pretty oatmeal color, I don't know the official Shetland color name but very nice.

So here it is washed , and then I started pickingand separating the 2 coats (I know in Icelandic sheep it is tog and thel, but what are the Shetland names for the 2 fibers?). There was a good amount of trash, and I didn't keep anything that had a staple length of less than about 1.5", but oh, my, the undercoat is like a cloud, so soft and pretty. The longer fiber is also soft, probably because it is a lamb fleece, so I think it will make great yarn as well.
The undercoat

and the longer fiber

I ended up with 4 oz. of the undercoat, and 1.5 oz. of the rest.

The second fleece will remain unpicked for now, as I have a couple of projects that need attention, but here it is, washed

I didn't weigh it, but I'd say it is just over a ound unpicked. The color was marked as Musket, which is a very nice dark grayish-brown. The tips are bleached golden, so I will separate this one as well, to keep the color dark. Sometime....

I had a couple of requests for more animal pictures, so here's our Wooly Guy. He's a little steer that is a nice red color, and has a head shaped like a buffalo, kind of. I am told that he is part Scottish Highland, and part Angus. He is very friendly, coming up and licking me whenever I'm out in the field.

(he is also shedding his winter coat)

Okay, enough for now. It's supposed to get up to 70 today! It's hard to imagine a snowstorm in the Northeast today, but that's spring for you.

Farm News

I know it's not fiber related, but I thought I'd show our newest acquisitions:

Adam has spent the last week or so going over all of the fences, fixing the watering tank, and getting ready for some cattle. A day at the livestock auction yesterday, and these two guys came home with us. We'll be getting 4-5 more in the next couple of weeks, and then hopefully they will all happily spend the summer eating down the pastures before they go back to the auction in the fall, a lot bigger.

We also bought some new fruit trees to fill in the orchard, both the physical spaces as well as the fruit varieties. Adam was tempted into getting one of the "magic" trees that have 4 different varieties of plums grafted onto one rootstock. Hmmmm..., we'll have to see how this one does.

The big trees in the back are some of the pear trees. We have about 15 pear trees, and all are mature and provide a lot of pears, so we won't be planting any of those. The other new ones are a peach, and apricot, and, unpictured, a cherry and a male kiwi. Our old male kiwi vine died about 2 years ago, so even though the female is large and healthy, no kiwis for us. Hopefully we'll get some this year now that we've made a match for her.

Knittingwise, no real things to show as I've been working on some designs on paper and haven't put the needles to work yet. This is a sweater that I made for Adam's birthday in January, adapted from a pattern in Simply Beautiful Sweaters for Men, and made of Rowanspun Aran. The detailing doesn't show well, but the ribs are done in seed stitch (making the sweater a true labor of love!).

He likes it, it is blue, comfy, with long sleeves that he can turn up, and roomy enough to wear over shirts and turtlenecks. His only disappointment is that he can't toss it in the washer. "The washer".... this is Rowan yarn! I don't think he fully appreciates how nice the yarn and the sweater are. At least I put the fear of God into him about what the result would be if he threw it in the washer and dryer. Maybe I'll make his next sweater out of squeaky acrylic so he can appreciate the difference.

Skip North Weekend

A number of circumstances converged, and the result was that I flew to northern England a little over a week ago to attend a knitting weekend in Haworth, Yorkshire. It sounded like a nice, low-key weekend of knitting, some workshops, and shopping. It was all of those, plus a lot of lovely unstructured knitting and conversation, but the shopping did not really qualify as low-key, we were shoppers that found every bargain and discounted treasure, even if not actually for sale yet (more about that later). I met many interesting and talented people, and had a great time.

I flew over a couple of days before the weekend started, to be sure that there was no chance of jet lag marring my experience. After careful consideration, I decided to leave the spinning wheel home, though I did take a spindle and some roving, and to pack an empty suitcase inside my suitcase, just in case I bought too much. Ha - "just in case"!

Haworth is the home of the Brontes, so I did some touring on my free days-

The Bronte Parsonage

Skipton Castle

Sheep on the moors

(I know that I should have been thinking of all of the great literature written about the Dales and the Moors, but I found myself thinking of the Mary Russell books by Laurie R. King. I was a Sherlock Holmes junkie as a small child, and I have been enjoying this series of books about Mary and the much older Sherlock. Oh, well, I am a Philistine, I guess. I did like Wuthering Heights as well, just haven't read it lately)

On Friday morning I joined a few more early arrivals to Haworth on an extracurricular trip to Texere. This is a mill shop in Bradford that has expanded to also carry other yarns, as well as some fiber. It is really huge - two large floors of triple-shelved cardboard bins of yarn and fiber, much of it on end-run cones.

I even found some guanaco fiber tucked away, packed in 100 gr. bags for about $6.90. One of the highlights of Texere and some other mill stores is the 1p/gram bin - and at Texere there were several of these bins. It was fun to rummage around and find a couple of cones that would be great for socks, or lace.

SkipNorth started with workshop sessions, short ones so that we could do 2-3 on Friday and Saturday. I started with a vegetable dyeing workshop, led by Liz Marley. Since I have avoided dyeing non-protein fibers, I was curious to see how this could be done in a short session, with only limited equipment. I am a convert to this now. Here are several of the class skeins curing-

and then here is my skein of (not handspun) cotton-

I also took a workshop with Alex Byrne on making stitch markers, just for the fun of it (Alex isn't in this picture)

and brought home these:

I had a lot of fun but will probably not be making a lot of stitch markers in the future, as I don't use them too often, and then only a couple at a time. I'm not a person who marks off each repeat of a lace or cable pattern, just selvedges and beginning of rounds. The other workshop options were Bullion Crochet, which was very pretty but which I didn't get a picture of, and spindle spinning. Both were popular, and several dedicated new spinners have emerged from the weekend.

Our mill store outings began on Saturday, with a hired coach and box lunches. We had made arrangements with Coldspring Mill to open an hour early for us, but they weren't quite ready when we arrived,

but soon we were inside, taking advantage of the bargains in domestic and imported yarns. Coldspring is the UK distributor for Noro mill ends, so we got Kureyon, Silk Garden and Kochoran for 20-25% of the US cost.

We stopped at The Skep, in another village, but they were a discount retail shop, not a mill store. They still had great bargains, on wool fabric as well as yarns. I have a future project for which I need 7-8 yards of wool dress weight fabric, and I unexpectedly found it here, as well as nice sock yarns.

The last stop on Saturday was at the headquarters of the Knitting and Crochet Guild. It is in a village near Holmfirth, where Rowan is based. We didn't get to Rowan, but the KCG was very interesting. In addition to the displayed collections, we

were given presentations by officers and docents of the Collection. There is also a shop, and a used book sale of books donated to the Guild that are duplicates. Almost everyone found a treasure or two in the book room, and the bargains in the shop were also treasures (yarn at 1p/gram, Addi Turbos at 3-4 pounds, and more).

The Collection spilled over onto the walls of the shop area, as with this needlework collage near the door.

Saturday evening was full of knitting, crocheting, spinning, wine, snacks brought from home, and talk. I had brought a couple of spindles, which were used by workshop attendees to continue improving their new skills.

Sunday brought the last outing, to Wingham Wookworks. This is a full service company that provides spinning, felting, and knitting supplies as well as for most other types of needlework. The fiber is organized into 3 small adjacent buildings, one for colored top, one for Merino and Merino blends, and one for British Breeds (my favorite). Here is Anne, one of the new spinners, being enabled in the British Breeds building:

and a shot of the Rainbow Top building

We returned to the Hostel where we had been staying (NOTHING like a US youth hostel, this was a converted Victorian mansion with fireplaces, high ceilings, lots of hot water, and a kitchen that prepared very good meals and hearty box lunches) for a last couple of hours, during which we shared purchase details, finished off snacks, and of course knitted and spun.

It was a lovely weekend, and kudos and thanks to Alex and Nic for organizing it, a much larger task than any of us see, of course. I had another 1 1/2 days to spend before flying home, and had planned to spend the time puttering about in the towns south of Manchester. One of the weekend attendees, Wye Sue, is a sample knitter for Colinette, though, and she suggested that since I would be only 1 1/2 -2 hours from the factory and mill shop for Colinette, it would be a nice fibery end to my trip. The Monday dawned beautiful and sunny, I still had over half a tank of diesel in my little car, and the decision was made - off to Wales I went. Sue had called ahead to let them know an American friend was coming, and they were on the lookout to welcome me to the shop. I love Colinette colorways, but the yarns are just so expensive in the US. Well, not only is the mill shop discounted, but it has a sale room! Thinking of the small mountain of fiber from Wingham and my 2 reasonably sized suitcases, I tried to be restrained, but I still picked up some great yarns. The drive back was very pretty as well, so my day was well spent.

Here's the haul-

Fiber

Yarn (the plastic bag at the top right is a kilo of navy 5-ply Guernsey wool, so a guernsey is in the future for someone in our house)

And here is what I made on the trip, playing around with some eyelet stitch patterns. The yarn is about 450 yards of a worsted weight handspun that I made for a sweater that I finished last fall (the sweater, the yarn I finished last spring back in NY). It's just a little over scarf size, nice for keeping one's shoulders warm in a cool room.

It's really more purple than blue, but still a pretty color.

So now I'm home, with lots of back posts to do. I'll be showing some of the things I've been doing the last few months, though the dial-up connection here is really slow. Oh well, maybe I'll start to be a regular at the local coffee shop with wireless internet.

Back Again

I know, I've been very lax again, but I do think I have been a little crazy with trips and family things. For those of you who know me well, I will just note that my grandmother, who I grew up living next to and to whom I was almost her youngest child, died in mid-February. While not totally surprising (she was 96 and in a care facility), it was rather sudden. This happend in the middle of a 3.5 week trip to Houston, Maine, and Japan. I was in Houston when I got the call, missed Spa in Maine, and joined DH in Japan for 5 days between the death arrangements and the memorial service. It was a lovely memorial service, and after the weekend that it took place, I pulled a few things together and flew to northern England to attend the Skip North Knitting (and shopping) Getaway. After the week in the UK (side trip to Colinette in Wales), I'm back home for 2 days now.

Whew!

I have photos and stories from both of the big trips, and will be posting them soon, but I did just want to check in and say that I'm well and knitting - more about that to come. I also did some stash acquisition on both trips, as well as some wheel de-acquisition and acquisition - now there's a teaser, right?

So check back in a day or two, and there'll be posts.

SOAR - The Rest of the Week

After the first 3 days of the Cellulosics Workshop, it was time to move on to the Retreat session, which includes 1/2 day Retreat sessions on various topics, evening activities, and the Market. I was a little exhausted from the Workshop, even though I did not have homework for my class. Thursday is a low-key day, other than the Market opening, there are no activities until late afternoon, when everyone gets together, and registration for the Retreat sessions takes place. It's an organized free-for-all, which is a tradition at SOAR. After doing lots of spinning during the Workshop, I decided to take other things during the retreat, with mentors (SOAR-speak for teachers) that I know and are good teachers as well as experts in their fields.

The other activity on Thursday evening is the guest speaker, and this year it was Stephanie, our favorite Yarn Harlot. Some of the non-knitting spinners wondered a little at the choice, but were quickly laughing themselves into tears during her talk. The Harlot-

And on the right is Stephanie is modeling her Wedding Shawl- which is amazingly beautiful, though of course in a crowd of spinners, one question asked was if she had spun the yarn for it.




I signed up for 4 classes, and started out Friday morning with Deb Menz, dyeing handpainted yarns. Deb opened with some helpful technical info,
but we soon got our hands on the dyes, and then the fun began .






I was happy with the baby skeins and sock blanks (using the Nancy Roberts dyeing and re-knitting techniques in the fall issue of Spin-Off) that I dyed in the class. I'll be beginning the socks at the Knitters Review Retreat next weekend.

I am happy to say that I have finally had the "aha" moment in cardweaving, thanks to the amazing Sara Lamb. I have about 3 feet of a beautiful strap that I will finish and show when it's off the cards. Here's Sara demonstrating a warping of the cards-
mine didn't look quite this nice and organized.





Alden Amos did a great session on the evolution of spinning equipment, using a giant wheel/flyer arrangement.

The last thing I did was taking a basket-weaving class with Stephanie Gaustad, and I actually finished my woolgatherer's basket.

And so, another SOAR is over, and I'm already looking forward to next year. It is always inspiring.