Let's talk Stash

Fiber Output

2009-05-28T20:13:00.005-04:00

As forecast, here is a photo-heavy post with some recent FO's.
(the yarns are FO's for the now - I haven't yet decided what I might do with them)

Finn, handpainted and semi-solid top dyed by Tactile with weld (the yellow) and other natural dyes, spun worsted and then 2 plied each color to itself and against each other. Just over 28 wpi, 2 oz., 411 yards

Light Gray No. Ronaldsey, given to me on my trip to Yorkshire a couple of months ago. Spun woolen, 16wpi, about 1.3 os., didn't measure it but probably about 230 yards.

Wensleydale, spun worsted from top purchased from Stitchjones. 8oz., 14wpi, 482 yards. Isn't it a great green? The colorway is Sligo.

Wool blend roving that has bee in the stash for a while, and was dyed and carded by a mill in upstate NY that's now out of business. A nice squishy 700ish yards of woolen spun fall colored yarn. (about 8 oz.)

And now for some real finished objects. There's a baby shower for my niece this week, but I can't make it because of the NwRSA conference in Tacoma. I'm sending this sweater and hat, along with a gift certificate that can be used for some tiny summer baby things, because the sweater and hat are sized for 12 months. Since the baby's coming in mid-July, they should fit for all this winter and next spring. The yarn is Encore, because I know this 21 y/o mom-to-be will want to put everything into the washer and dryer.

Now I'm ready to decide tomorrow what I'll need at the NwRSA conference in Tacoma this weekend, then pack and be ready to leave the next day.

Aaarrgghh!

2009-05-28T11:31:00.002-04:00

It has never happened to me before, honestly. Yesterday I had a marathon plying session, so this morning I was happily washing up 8 skeins of yarn, and when I took them out of the soaking water - one had come pretty much completely untied. Yes, I had shortcut a bit and only tied it in 2 places, with the ends of the yarn, but the square knots seemed to have just melted in the water.

I lifted it out carefully once I realized what had happened, squeezed the water out, and carefully laid it on a shelf in my drying cabinet. I'll try Darlene's Never-Fail-If-You-Don't-Get-Impatient-And-Rush-It untangling method, learned at GGFI last year once it's dry. Luckily it's from some spun-long-ago singles in an autumnal colorway, so if the yarn gets a little "used" looking I won't mourn too much. If it had been one of the Tactile Finn laceweight skeins I would be much less philosophical about it.

Lesson learned - ALWAYS use at least one waste yarn tie when preparing for washing or dyeing!

On a more personal frustrating note - I've developed lactose intolerance, which is really limiting to me as I've been a big dairy foods fan all of my life. Yogurt is my standard breakfast, cottage cheese a frequent lunch, and fresh cheeses like ricotta used in a lot of recipes. I'm trying to see which hard cheeses I can eat, and cream cheese seems okay, but even goat's milk is a no-go. I've not found any lactose-free yogurt, and have tried making my own with lactose-free milk but even though it works beautifully, it still causes a reaction. Hopefully I'll adjust to this before long!

Also on a frustrating food note, my second breakfast staple, Oroweat Health Nut English Muffins, have been discontinued by the manufacturer. In combination with no yogurt, this has seriously impacted my morning routine. I've had better luck dealing with this, though - I've started making my own english muffins in a reasonable facsimile, and they're very good. I can fork-split and freeze them, and pop them in the toaster oven in the morning. So there, Oroweat! (who didn't respond to my email to them expressing my unhappiness in a very polite way)

Hopefully, photos of finished yarn and finished knitting in the next post.

Historical Knitting

2009-04-05T22:22:00.003-04:00

When I saw the Civil War-Era Sontag in the latest Piecework Magazine, I knew that it was exactly what I needed to wear at the Antique Spinning Wheel Showcase at the Aurora Colony Museum while spinning on my circa 1835 wheel. This event is one of the major ones both for the museum and for my guild, the Aurora Colony Handspinners Guild. This year there were 0ver 30 antique wheels that were brought and spun on by their owners by their owners or other volunteers. The date of manufacture of the wheels ranged from the late 18th century to the early part of the 20th century, and were made in many European countries as well as in the US. All volunteers for the event wear period clothing.

I started the sontag the day after the magazine arrived, about 2 weeks before the event. The yarn used was handspun that I spun about 3 years ago from "mystery batts" bought from Fantasy Fibers at BSG. These are batts of all of the odds and ends in the mill, many colors and fibers but mine seemed to be mostly gray, with green, red, and blue mixed in from time to time. I knew that I had more than enough of the yarn, so I decided that I would make the body of the sontag, then overdye the remaining yarn in a contrast color for the edging. The yarn was a pretty consistent sportweight.

I finished the gray body in a week, enlarging it as suggested in the pattern, which was in one size that was described as a small by the writer/designer. (The enlarging turned out to be almost unnecessary, but I had done it by the time I realized that, and I didn't have enough time to start over) I decided that I would use a scarlet overdye on the remaining yarn, and would also dye some white handspun destined for a future project. I don't have a photo of the gray, but here is the dyed yarn, the gray and the white done in the same pot.

The color is one I mixed, using a combination of warm and cool reds, some slate blue and some black. It is exactly what I was looking for, and I used an immersion dyebath which resultd in a semi-solid application. I didn't use the edging from the Piecework design, I wanted a picot edge so I made up my own edging pattern. It took me a total of 8 days to make the sontag, and used about 675 yards of handspun.

Here is the finished sontag, on a dress form so that it shows the way it is worn.

When flat, the shape looks somewhat like a V with the bottom point squared off, and the vest-like back has cords on the corners which are brought to the front around the waist and tied. Tassels on the ends of the cords are traditional. The "wings" are crossed over the chest, then buttoned to each other in the back, over the back section. Because my sontag is too large, I overlapped the wings and used 2 buttons, as well as turning down the neck edge into a kind of collar.

With a wool skirt and white blouse made from authentic patterns, and a white linen ruffled cap, I was warm and appropriately dressed for the Pioneer period of the museum. The sontag leaves the arms free to spin and doesn't slip as a shawl does while working, walking, and carrying things.

Retreating, UK-style

2009-03-27T18:51:00.006-04:00

I just got back a couple of days ago from attending SkipNorth, a retreat that takes place in Haworth, Yorkshire, England. I last went 2 years ago, and missed it last year because of a guild event here at home. This year was therefore my second time, but the fourth for the retreat.

It has grown to just under 50 people, who arrive at a hostel in the north of England on Friday afternoon to spend the next 2 1/2 days spinning, knitting (the Skip stands for Spinning and Knitting in Public), shopping, teaching, learning, eating and drinking. I may have left something out, but those are the main activities. The hostel is a large Victorian mansion that has been renovated to a comfortable location with large lounges and studies for gathering, a dining room that serves very nice meals, and rooms with varying numbers of beds organized dorm-style. Yorkshire is a county with lots of sheep- that live on pretty desolate hills without a lot of pampering. It's also a county that had many, many woolen mills in the past, but not so many now. It does have some, though, and because of that the yarn and fiber shopping are very good. That's the reason that the retreat started coming to Haworth, and no one wants to change the location.

We did shop, taking two motor coaches to favorite locations. I think the other shoppers were a little dismayed to see us, because it meant there would be long queues for the cashiers.(This was a shop with 3 floors of sewing and fiber tools, buttons, trims and embellishments, needles, and just about everything you could think of except the actual yarn, fiber, or fabric. It's called a haberdashery shop by the locals, I inagine we would call it a notions shop here in the US if we had such a thing)

An additional activity was added to the program this year, a swap. Unlike some swaps that I've participated in at other events, this one is pretty much a large mound on a cleared floor, first with a free-for-all for all who brought things to swap, and a second round for all attendees. This was followed by an individual showing of items being offered to support p-hop, a UK-based campaign to benefit Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders to us yanks), which items were all snapped up with donations being pledged in return. Great fun, and I brought home less than I took, a success.

So the shopping was great, but I held myself firmly in check and only brought home these things:in the empty duffel that I had with great foresight put into the bottom of my suitcase. Yes, some of those packages in front contain Addi Lace needles, which were a steal at under $7 as the exchange rate favors the US right now. The little ball of fiber in the top center is all that is remaining of a lovely ball of North Ronaldsay wool brought to me from Scotland by my friend SpinningFishwife, which is so wonderful that I began spinning it the morning after I got home so that the rest was on the bobbin before the photo was taken.

I was excited to learn that WyeSue and TutleyMutley will be on the Baltic cruise that I'll be going on in August - hopefully no one is thinking it's going to be a sedate cruise. And thanks to everyone that attended SkipNorth, as well as to Alex and Nic, the organizers of the event. It gets better every time.

My last two nights were spent at a farm in Derbyshire, south of Manchester (my favorite UK airport by a huge margin) which was my base for some sightseeing. I spent hours at Chatsworth
a stately home that houses numerous Old Masters, is the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, employs 502 people as staff, and has been used in the filming of a number of major films, including the latest Pride and Prejudice. It also has extensive gardens, and grounds that are occupied by large numbers of sheep. I also visited Bakewell, where it was Market Day for everything you can imagine, from fruits and vegetables to tools, to undies, and livestock. Of course, I had to go to the cattle auction just to see if it was much different from the ones here. Nope, pretty much the same, just some different breeds (now I want to get some Highland Cattle) and somewhat higher prices.

Home again for a bit now, and next time I'll do some catching up on trips, or maybe some FOs.

Shearing Day

2009-03-16T21:46:00.011-04:00

Yesterday was my first shearing day for my two wether lambs (even though they're pretty big, both are under a year old, and will keep growing for another year or so). Not their first time, though, they were shorn at the farm they came from at about 3 1/2 months old, when the ewes were shorn. I forgot to take a picture before we loaded up and let, but here are a couple from a couple of months ago - pretty long wool!

(they are very different sizes, Sven the black boy is Wensleydale/Cotswold/Gotland, and Ingemar the brown boy is 3/4 Shetland/1/4 Gotland)

I took the boys over to my friend Loyce's farm, since she has a small flock too and this meant the shearer only had to set up once. Beth the shearer was great, especially since my boys weren't happy about the process and Loyce's sheep hadn't been shorn in about a year and a half, so they were long and felted, but with lovely usable wool under the outside matting.

The boys are still lamb enough that they were pretty scared about new experiences (traveling and a different barn), though they were good on their leads and in the trailer. Ingemar had started to roo so had to be clipped very near his skin to get the slightly matted rooing ends off - that fleece will take a bit more work for me to prepare for spinning. Since it was raining, windy and sleeting here in between sunny periods, both boys got sweatshirts to wear when we got home-

(which make them look pretty silly, and their heads look ENORMOUS)

They are silly, and doing a lot of chasing each other around the pen type sheep games. Ingemar is even doing some of the jumping vertically type things that I haven't seen in months. They're getting extra rations right now, too, so that they can grow some insulation quickly.

Beth the shearer says that because I have a longwool and a primitive, they should really be sheared 2x a year. This is great- she lives nearby so getting her over won't be difficult, and it means I get 4 fleeces a year instead of 2. I'm looking forward to working with the fleeces, which both need skirting more heavily as we were too busy to do it at the shearing.

Yes, Sven is jet black, with no sun-bleached tips. The lock at right is about 7" long, and other parts of the fleece are over 8". Lucky, aren't I?

New Beginning?

2009-03-12T18:36:00.003-04:00

Well, the thing is, there's just so much to do all of the time, especially when I'm online. There's my email, and KR, and Ravelry, and Facebook, and Twitter, and GoodReads. Of course, there's also real fiber, real yarn, real designing, and real farm chores. Once you let the blog go for a while, it's hard to come back to posting on a regular basis.

We'll see - I'm not promising, but check back in and I'll try to talk about what's been going on in the past couple of months, and what will be happening currently.

Like my trip this week to the Bohus exhibit at the Swedish American Institute Museum in Minneapolis

Like the Antique Spinning Wheel Showcase at the Aurora Colony Museum this weekend

Like shearing my little almost-boys this Monday

Like my trip to Yorkshire next week

Stay tuned, and here's a yak photo in the meantime:

Back, and soon to travel again

2007-10-30T15:27:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-05T15:07:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-19T23:15:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-06-15T12:28:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-10T07:44:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

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?

2007-04-22T10:14:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-16T10:00:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-12T15:11:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-05T13:14:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-22T11:22:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-18T12:18:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-15T13:08:00.000-04:00

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

2006-11-07T19:01:00.000-05:00

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.

Rhinebeck and SOAR

2006-11-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

I went to help in the Spirit Trail Fiberworks booth at the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY the third weekend in November. It was amazing - crowded doesn't even begin to describe the number of people attending this year. We had so many people in the booth and buying on Saturday the line to pay went down the aisle, and folks couldn't get in to look at the fibers and yarns. It was the same way at many other "destination" booths. I was tied to the booth both days, so didn't get a chance to do any shopping or picture-taking. Maybe next year.

SOAR-I had been looking forward to it ever since I sent my registration in, what was it, March or so? It seems silly to say that, but it's tru, partly because I thought then that by late October my life would be all settled down (ha!) and partly because SOAR is really a wonderful week - surrounded by spinners, learning new things, renewing one's energies, staying in a nice place where the food is good and not prepared by onesself, meeting greatly admired experts and finding new inspiration, and more. Now I'm here, and it's everything I was looking forward to. Here's an interim report, halfway through the week.

I drove down, a 10.5 hour drive from northern Oregon. (Not all in one day) This time of year can be messy driving, and Adam loaded up the car with emergency equipment, but the weather was beautiful. I passed by Mt. Shasta in northern California, which still has some snow from last winter.

Tahoe City is on the extreme western edge of California, and the lodge that is hosting SOAR is on the western side of Lake Tahoe. Very wooded - people have seen bears this week!

My 3-day workshop was with Stephanie Gaustad and was on Cellulosics - Cotton, Linen, Hemp, and Ramie. My head and hands are now stuffed with information, and my spinning of these fibers is now much better, and more consistent.

In addition to spinning, we learned a lot about the preparation of the various fibers, what works, what doesn't, and tips on weaving and dyeing with them. (I still don't plan on becomeing a weaver)

Here Stephanie is demonstrating on a reproduction Japanese cotton gin.

Hackling flax and ramie was an interesting experience. I'm much
more inclined to buy prepared fiber, but it's always good to know how to do it. Also, Stephanie warned that line flax (the good stuff) will need to be re-hackled if it is stored and becomes compacted, so there might be a need for a hackle in my future.

We also learned to dress a distaff for spinning the bast fibers (flax, hemp, and ramie. Distaves can also be used for wool and silk, so there are ways to dress with rolags as well as long line fibers. In the pictures below, Phreadde is wearing a dust mask, as the bast fibers often carry a lot of mold spores acquired in the retting process.

I hope that I get used to spinning off a distaff - 2 of my wheels have them, and it would be a great way to keep the fibers up off the floor while spinning. (and tying with ribbons is not optional - in most cultures it was important that the distaves be pretty - maybe to attract the best batchelor?)

It's traditional at SOAR to have a show-and-tell on Wednesday evening of what was done in each of the workshops. Here is our table, complete with a large upright charkha and dressed distaves, as well as many sample skeins-

I promised my classmates that I would do an entire posting on ramie, the most neglected cellulose fiber that we worked with, and a favorite of the group. So that will probably be my next update - to be followed by a review of the Harlot's speech tonight, and more the next few days.

Some Completed Projects

2006-10-25T17:02:00.000-04:00

When I was spending a lot of time resting and waiting for my broken leg to mend, I thought I would be able to get a lot of knitting done. It wasn't as easy as I thought - it's amazing how hard it is to concentrate on anything the least bit complicated when you are taking serious pain meds. My projects that were designs in progress didn't make any real progress until I was back to Advil as the strongest thing I took. What I could work on were items that were mindless knitting, and that could be done in small blocks of time. What that meant or me was socks, and the Lady Eleanor entrelac shawl that had been started and put aside months before. Here are some of the results of my recuperation-

Merino superwash socks, made of a Koigu look-alike that came from a swap table at a retreat. The stitch pattern is a simple 4/1 ribbing, with a garter stripe around every 5 rows. The colors are pretty true here, and yes, they are bright socks, but very soft and comfortable. Knit on size 2.5 dpn's.

I made these socks from some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport that I had on hand, as a thank-you for my aunt who had been such a help when I was disabled. Also done on size 2.5 dpn's.

Plain stockinette socks knit from handspun superwash merino on size 1's. The fiber was dyed by Jennifer (Spirit Trail Fiberworks) in a pink/periwinkle colorway, and I just plied it up as the colors came, so the socks are definitely fraternal twins, not identical. I have enough left over to do another pair of socks, so I might do color work patterning with some purple Lorna's Laces I have left from a project.

The Lady Eleanor Shawl, from Scarf Style. Done in heavy worsted weight linen on size 8 needles. This entrelac shawl was started in November 2005, then put aside at about 6 inches. It is machine washed and dried, though I do tie the fringes in bunches so they don't knot up horribly, and then steam them a little after untying. It is a great shawl for in-between weather, much more comfortable against summer chills than a wool shawl would be. The yarn is from Misty Mountain Farm in Virginia, and the monochromatic colorway ranges from white to turquoise to royal to navy. I like the finished look very much, it works with jeans as well as with dressier clothes.

I will do a short Rhinebeck report on my next post, and have photos of the cardigan I made to wear there, as well as of a shawl I did using up small skeins from a dye workshop.

Moving to Oregon, and Falling

2006-10-16T08:12:00.000-04:00

About the farm...

I am from Oregon, Adam is from NY. I have a large extended family, the result of farming ancestors who had 8-14 children each, many of whom live in Oregon, Washington, California, and Montana. He has only 2 sets of three cousins, and no second, third or "shirt-tail" cousins. My grandmother, parents, 2 brothers and their children live in Oregon, Adam has 2 sisters who moved to Seattle as adults. When we started talking 7-8 years ago about where we wanted to move on retirement, northwest Oregon became our first choice.

Our farm is on a hill, looking west to the coastal mountain range on a clear day, and the nearby hills when it's not so clear. Here's a shot of the view from the back door:

The 30+ acres consists of orchards, pastureland, and timber. This was a strange year, as I couldn't do much with any of the fruit until late September, though I did manage to pit a couple of gallons of pie cherries while lying on the sofa, which were then frozen. It's sad to see so many plums, pears, and early apples fall on the ground, but hopefully next year will go a little differently.

Another photo, this time of the house:

I moved the first week of June, the movers delivered everything the second week of June, and I fell, breaking both bones in my leg, one into multiple pieces. It was definately a summer to learn patience, because after the surgery to put in a rod and screws, I had to stay off the leg completely for 2 1/2 months, and only got the cast off in mid-September. I was lucky, because even though Adam didn't get out here until after July 4th, I have nieces and other family that stayed with me to help out. One of my aunts even came and unpacked a lot of boxes, which was good because all I had done before I fell was 2/3 of the kitchen stuff. The girls had been using boxes as tables, which worked but was a little depressing.

I spent time knitting, reading, and sleeping (it's amazing how challenging it can be to stay awake when on pain meds, not to mention knitting from charts). I am now enjoying the freedom of walking, bending, and even kneeling down to get into the bottom shelves. Today I ran for the first time, and even though it sounds silly, it was exciting!

This is the second time I'm attempting this post, which was eaten the first time, so I'll close her, with another photo. This one is a view of the side pasture, with the morning mist in the low section of the field, and the timber behind.

Overdyeing, or, Fun with Fuchsia

2006-10-08T14:13:00.000-04:00

I started a pair of socks while on the Alaska cruise, with some of the ugliest sock yarn ever seen. This sock yarn is ugly enough that Martha found scads of it on sale for an insanely cheap price last year, and brought it to the KR Retreat in November to share.

Never one to pass on sock yarn, 2 balls were stashed for a rainy day, and then taken along as a quick cruise project. They got a lot of comments from the other knitters while I was working on them, and I began to wonder what the regular non-knitting folks thought when they say me working on them. "Wow, is she one of those rare color blind women?" So, the amazing Sara suggested overdyeing, and of course, she said, fuchsia is the perfect color for overdyeing pretty much everything. I finished the ugly socks, and here they are:

I didn't attempt dyeing while hobbling around in a cast, but last week I got out the Landscape dye, and here is the result:

(I added some of our filberts that had just been gathered, because it is fall and we have a bunch of them) (And, no, the socks really are the same size, I was just taking the picture at an angle so that there wouldn't be a flash glare)

Great colors, right? I will actually enjoy wearing these socks now, because hot pink, pinkish orange, purple and brown don't bother me at all.

A New Old Wheel

2006-09-07T01:03:00.000-04:00

During May of the blog hiatus, I went to 3 Sheep & Wool shows - Maryland, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. I was working with Spirit Trail Fiberworks for the first two, and just playing at the third. When you work a booth at a fiber show, you seldom do much shopping, except to stop by and visit vendors that you know and can count on always having something interesting, and who are hopefully on or near the route to the bathrooms or food.

That's what happened to me at MDSW the first weekend of the month. It was a very busy show, so one of my quick shopping stops was to Lisa at Spinner's Hill. Lisa makes the most beautiful fluffy clouds of fiber, often with silk or alpaca blended in. As I was writing a check for my purchase (kept myself to just one) I noticed a great wheel that was off in the corner. Now, I already had a great wheel, but this one called for a closer look, and no wonder. It is a wheel that was made by Norm Hall in the mid-70's, for the director of an upstate NY historical museum. She had died recently, and after wondering what to do with the wheel it was decided to send with Lisa to see if it would sell.

I fell into wheel-lust immediately. I can spin on my circa 1830 great wheel, but it's really more of a historical piece. Norm's wheel spun so smoothly, even without a drive band, that I was hooked, and it came home with me. Here it is:

And a better view of the flyer:

I couldn't resist playing with it as soon as I got home, and soon had the spindle filling:
As you can see, it's not an accelerating drive, but I measure the ratio at about 75-80:1, so it's still great for many fibers. I was spinning some badger-faced wool that I had carded, and went on to have a great time with a couple of ounces of buffalo down that I had received for my birthday.

It's not together at the new house yet, but as soon as I am out of my cast (maybe next week, I have an appt. with my surgeon) and walking better, I think that this wheel will be good physical therapy.

Cotton, here I come!

Back Again, from a Different Place

2006-09-04T22:16:00.000-04:00

I know, it's been quite a while. During the past 3 months I have:

- Packed a house of stuff into many, many boxes
- Gotten flooded at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival
- Attended the Mass. Sheep & Wool Festival, thankfully with no rain
- Acquired a couple of wheels, one a lucky find and one an orphan that found me
- Sold a house
- Moved across the country
- Fell, broke both bones in my leg a number of times, surgically acquired a batch of steel in my leg, and have been in a cast ever since
- Unpacked a few boxes before the fall
- Cancelled out of doing a Sheep to Shawl a week after my fall
- Finished 8 pairs of socks, 2 rectangular shawls (one lace, one entrelac), 2 triangular shawls (both lace), 3 hats, 2 pairs of fingerless gloves, and a bunch of face cloths (I discovered that it's not a good idea to work on complicated knitting while taking serious pain meds)
- Watched other people unpack boxes in my house while I directed where things should go, which places they generally didn't go into, and now I have only a vague idea of where anything is around here
- Went on a knitting cruise to Alaska (more to follow in a later post)
- Re-read the Lymond books by Dorothy Dunnet

I know that none of these things constitute good excuses for not blogging, but taken together they do explain it. There was also the minor detail that for a while I could not get up the stairs to the computer, and when I could I was not able to sit there for more than a couple of minutes at a stretch.

I have pictures and more details on some of the items above, and will be uploading them soon and posting more.

For now, though, I just wanted to break the ice and get back into posting again.

Free-Free-Free!

2006-05-04T17:51:00.000-04:00

Thanks to B for the title today. It's my second day of retirement, and I've been spending most of the time getting estimates from movers, or really taking movers around the house so they can write everything down and then work on an estimate. It's looking like the move will be happening during the 10 days right after Memorial Day, with 3-4 days of packing and loading, then 5-7 days for it to get cross country. I'll fly out, and Adam will be driving cross country with a family member.

Last weekend I went to a Fleece to Hat weekend in the Catskills, and here is the result. You see the fleece after washing and dyeing, the finished hat, and the leftover yarn. I dyed the gray-brown Romney and white Montadale in Cushings Blue, keeping out some of the Romney in it's natural color. The blue overdyed the gray Romney to a dark color, and the white Montadale to a bright blue. The lavenderish pink wool is more Montadale, which aI popped into the dye solution that had broken a bit, and was not fully exhausted. The wool was carded on hand cards in roughly equal proportions, then spun into a soft woolen 7wpi two ply. The hat was knitted on size 8 needles, and I'll card and spin the rest of the wool in the next couple of weeks. Thanks to Claudia of Countrywool for the great weekend.

Here's the merino/silk/angora of a couple of weeks ago all spun up, and posing on the clock skeiner. It still feels lighter than air, so I'll have to think of something great to do with it. For now, just feeling it every so often is pretty good.

Isn't this great? Claudia was selling bags of carding ends, all different colors and fiber mixes. Most have a little angora in them, and almost all have some Romney, so they might make a wild Navajo-plied sock yarn, going from color to color. I'll have to do this before too long.
I'm off to MDSW tomorrow, to help set up the Spirit Trail booth. I'll be helping out there most of the weekend, so stop by and visit us. No special plans to buy any specific thing this time, though who know what I might come home with?

Traveling With Needles and Fiber

2006-04-27T12:23:00.000-04:00

I have returned from a trip to the farm, where my online capabilities are severely limited, until a future time when we have a full system up and running. (though even then we will have to use dial-up as there is no DSL or cable modem hookup availability)

I took knitting with me, for a couple of projects that are being done for someone, and that I can't really talk about yet. Let's just say, though, that knitting socks on size 1 needles totally mystifies people on airplanes - they can't understand why I would want to make socks at all, much less using toothpicks! My favorite sock needles are the either Crystal Palace or Brittany DPNs, and #1 5" Brittanies do look a little like long toothpicks.

I attended two spinning events while I was out there, and really enjoyed both. The overarching spinning organization in the NW is the Northwest Regional Spinners Association, and I am a member of Area 6010, which includes the northwest part of Oregon, from Mt. Hood over to the coast. There is an evening casual spinning group that had it's monthly meeting while I was there, and the quarterly meeting and spin-in took place in the meeting room at Woodland Woolworks last weekend, and folks came from all over the area. The group was swept up in a wave of enthusiasm to put together a team for the Sheep-to-Shawl competition at the Black Sheep Gathering, and I was recruited as one of the spinners, even though I am not moving out until early June. This will be a lot of fun, I think, and will be a great way to meet and get to know people, so even though the timing is a little challenging it will be a good thing to participate in. I'll be receiving fiber and specs from the other team members to spin for the warp while I'm still in the East. A full report will follow after the weekend of June 23-24th.

I did take some pictures, but with a camera that uses film that needs to be developed, and that won't be done until the roll of film is used up, so nothing to show yet.

This weekend is a retreat in the Catskills, so I'm definately a spinster lately.

No-Name Shawl

2006-04-13T05:51:00.000-04:00

I haven't yet started or made anything from Three-Cornered and Long Shawls, but over the past week I have made this:

It's a small shawl that just covers the shoulders and skims the waist, made of some stash odds and ends (there are 2 bands of slightly different colors at the bottom, kind of subtle differences from the main color) that I made to try out some stitch patterns. Mystery fiber content, since it didn't like to spit-splice much I suspect acrylic, some wool, some mohair, and a couple of shiny rayon threads. Modeled by Janice at our weekly knitting group since I couldn't find a good place to photograph it at home, and Janice was wearing a light colored tee shirt that worked well.

Other than that, I started spinning up the Limeola at a spinning afternoon Saturday at Seaport Yarn. The group was smaller than I've heard it has been, though since it was my first time going I couldn't really tell, and I became the spindle teacher by default. Andrea stocks Grafton Fibers fiber and spindles, so the new spindlers had good tools to learn with. I felt as if I was channeling our own B, who was teaching herself at a festival in Virginia.

I also make slow progress, in between other things, on my linen Lady Eleanor. It's a good thing that it's a summery shawl, because it might get finished and used this summer and fall, since it didn't make the past winter or my trips to the Southwest!

Inspired by a New Book

2006-04-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

I got home late after a dinner last night, and found this in my mailbox.

With the additional benefit of this:

This is the book, and it's translation from the Icelandic, of Three-cornered and Long Shawls by Sigridur Halldorsdottir (I'm leaving out a bunch of letter accents in the name). I've been hesitant to order this for a while, but now I am so glad to have taken the plunge. This is the first collection of lace patterns that I have ever looked at and immediately thought, "I want to make every single one." Every single one - and this from the woman who generally is feeling good if there are two designs in a given publication that inspire me, either to make or to use as a springboard.

The translation looks good so far, and the charts, while using a symbol system that is different from the system that is often used in American and English books, seem to be pretty straightforward. I am definitely going to be casting on one of these after my Lenten "no new projects" fast has ended.

The one quirk, and it's a very small one, is that the photos and models are a little strange. Not "I-can't-see-the-knitted-thing-that-this-is-supposed-to-be-an-illustration-of-clearly" strange, but intensely-staring-into-the-camera strange, or wearing-a-weird-beatnik-era-black-leotard-under-the-shawl strange. I can deal with this, though, and it will not diminish my fascination with the shawl patterns.

What a satisfying thing it is to buy a book, sight unseen, and be so totally happy with it.

Too Much (is this possible?) Spinning

2006-04-03T08:46:00.000-04:00

I think I overdid it this weekend.

Friday was an opera night - boy, am I going to miss New York opera availability when I move! I need to remember to check on a subscription to whatever Portland has and I guess that a good thing is that it will undoubtedly be less expensive!

I didn't get home until 1am, and I need to leave my house at 7am to drive to Enfield, CT for the Nutmeg Spinning Guild meetings, which are the first Saturdays in February, April, June, October, and December. I was SO tempted to skip this one, until I remembered that it might be my last. So I got up at 6, pulled myself, my Gem, a lunch, and some spinning supplies together and was out of the house by 7:10am. And I do love my iPod, because I had a great book to pop in and listen to on the 1 hour 45 minute drive (The Game by Laurie R. King, for any of you who are mystery fans).

A nice time at guild, with an interesting program on solar dyeing by Jeannie Bakridges from Vermont. She will be teaching at SOAR this year, so it was nice to meet her before I have to send in choices. I spun, listened, and chatted with friends until about 3pm, then headed for home.

The spinning I took was some periwinklish purple wool/mohair from Buckwheat Bridge Angoras that I bought 2 pounds of at a TKGA market a couple of years ago. Over a couple of months back then I spun up and plied a couple of bobbins, decided that it was nice spun woolen long draw, then got intimidated by the amount left to spin and put it away. I took it to the Maine Spa in February, and spun up another couple of skeins. So when I was hurrying to put together spinning stuff on Saturday morning, it was with the Gem so I took it along and filled about 3/4 of a bobbin.

I spun some more Saturday night, finishing that bobbin and starting another. Got up and began spinning on Sunday morning, progressing to more bobbins, and started plying in the afternoon. Plied until about 9:30, though I had taken breaks all day for meals, computer time, cooking, etc. And at the end of the weekend, this is what I had:

Over 1100 yards of DK weight 2-ply yarn. When I find the skeins that were done before, I think I'll have about 1600-1700 yards to play with. A sweater's worth!

BUT, I woke up this morning with aching arms, aching enough that I took a couple of Advils before I took my shower. I still have twinges, and I think I've deduced that it is probably from spinning long draw on a double treadle wheel while sitting on the sofa, but it was worth it. Maybe I'll knit the sweater this fall.

And More Spinning

2006-03-28T10:17:00.000-05:00

I have been knitting a lot lately, partly because I was traveling a lot, and partly because I was keeping the house neat and tidy because it is on the market. It's a lot easier to stash the knitting away quickly when the call comes that folks are coming over than to put away a wheel and balls of fiber.

That all changed last weekend, because when I realized how much I missed spinning. I rearranged some things so that I had nearby storage space for the fiber and a corner for my Suzie, and now I've been spinning up a storm.

I already showed the superwash merino from the weekend, and now I'll do a little show and tell of the current spinning. This is merino/angora/silk blend, in cotton candy colors (from Spirit Trail):

This ball is one of two, as I have separated the fiber into two lengths and fluffed the fibers. On thing that I noticed as soon as I started to spin is that the angora was making it "sticky" to draft, and as I sampled I noted that this was not a fiber that I wanted to spin into a thin yarn. I am naturally a lace-to-fingering-weight spinner, so I think it's a good exercise for me to spin worsted-to-bulky-weight sometimes. This will be one of those times.

I then determined that it spins much more quickly and easily when I adopt a Deb Menz technique - stripping the fiber into pencil roving-type pieces, then spinning quickly with little additional drafting and relatively low twist. My feet really wanted to treadle faster to put more twist in, so it's even more of a good exercise - lower ratio (8:1 or so), slower treadling, lots of take-up on the Scotch tension to pull it in quickly. I was happy with my test plying, so I proceeded to spin singles that look like this:

I finished a couple of ounces last evening, and will do the rest over the next couple of days and ply it up.

And for a little excitement and temptation to a lot of folks out there (and you know who you are), here is my next spinning project:

It's a gloriously greeny green that's named Limeola, and the fiber blend is a Merino/Rayon from Bonkers, purchased at the Fiber Factory in Mesa AZ during my trip earlier this month (the Lenten resolution did not extend to fiber, remember, just yarn). The 30% rayon is shimmering in the photo, and the fiber is very soft. I'm not sure what it will be yet, other than beautiful yarn, but there is the possibility that it wants to be a SoapTurtle. Hmm, we'll see...

Self-Indulgent Fiber Weekend

2006-03-27T06:31:00.000-05:00

I did pretty much exactly what I planned this weekend - I had a Saturday all to myself (Adam was at a conference) and I stayed in sweats all day, read, knit and spun, ordered Chinese take-out delivery, read, knit and spun some more, and watched Little Women and Calendar Girls on DVD. It was my birthday, and I had a really great time!

And this is what I spun, though I finished spinning and plyed it on Sunday. It's 4 oz. of superwash merino, dyed in periwinkle and rose by Jen of Spirit Trail, which when done had become 440 yards of 17 wpi sock yarn. When I have a nice hand-painted top or roving, one of my favorite ways to spin it is to split the entire length in two, then spin a bobbin from each half, then ply together. This usually results in softly changing colors that match up as much or more than they barberpole. I find that when I just spin from the roving or top, the colors get more blended than I like as I draft, so I also separate each color section as I spin, allowing less intermingling of the colors. This particular top was spun worsted style and 2 plied.

Addiction!

2006-03-23T08:26:00.000-05:00

I have every good intention of not starting new projects for Lent, I really do.

But I've realized that I am addicted to knitting while on the train during my commute listening to recorded books on my iPod, preferably working on socks. This is the perfect way to pass the time in my opinion. Could I be catching up on work reading? Blech! Could I be reading a novel? Sure, but my fingers would be twitching, and then I'd have to be carrying a book with me, which is heavier than knitting and an iPod. So when I finished the 2 pairs of socks that I had started previously, I felt frustrated - I didn't have any commuting knitting.

Imagine my glee to find, in my overnight backpack that I haven't used lately, this:

It's a sock toe. Knitted with mystery yarn from the KR November Retreat swap table that feels suspiciously like Koigu or some other fingering weight merino, in very Shelia-like colors of aqua, hot pink and magenta. Already started before the beginning of Lent, so it qualifies as eligible for Lenten knitting. The second ball of yarn for its mate is also wound up, with the appropriate needles stuck in the ball (there's a reason that I can't always find the needles I want in my needle organizers, but that's another story). It was quickly put into my briefcase, and I happily listened to a Laurie King mystery and knitted on the train today.

The real project that I am working along on right now is the linen Lady Eleanor entrelac stole. I love the yarn, and the colors, and I like the interesting mindlessness of the entrelac. Why did it get put away in November? I could say that Christmas gift knitting took over, which wouldn't be entirely untrue, but there's also the undeniable fact that I am a starting slut - give me some great new yarn and I'll be tempted to start something new. I've learned to live with myself, and eventually lots of things do get done.

Here's Eleanor in progress:

I have been surprised how much I like knitting with the linen (worsted weight from Misty Mountain Farm) and am looking forward to the softening when it's completed and tossed in the washer and dryer. I like the idea of a non-wool wrap as well, for those cool summer and fall evenings when wool would be just a little too warm.

No spinning lately - hmm, maybe this weekend? I've been avoiding having spinning things out while the house has been on the market, because it is difficult to hide them away when it's being shown, but if the offer we have accepted gets signed, the wheel is the first thing that will emerge, and the drum carder will be the second!

Home, Finally! (and knitting)

2006-03-20T09:30:00.000-05:00

I returned from Arizona late Saturday, and was too tired yesterday to do much more than unpack, start laundry, read mail, and knit while watching Tivo'd programs with Adam.

Here are the Opal socks that I finished before I left, made with the yarn that had all of the short pieces in the middle of the ball. There was still plenty to make the long cuffs that Adam likes:

The colors are pretty true, a dark navy patterning with stripes of reddish magenta and reddish orange. He wanted bright socks, he got bright socks, and he is really happy with them.

I had started a pair of Lucy Neatby's Fancy Feet socks for the Olympic knitting, and have already confessed that real life (i.e. selling a house and work) got in the way of finishing. I had taken a progress picture during the first week of the Olympics that I never posted, so here is the beginning stage (two beginnings, as I like to work on both socks at the same time):
You can see that the garter stitch cuff is knit to length, then grafted into a circle, and then stitches are picked up from the selvage to continue on with the leg, which has a row of bobbles just below the garter stitch. The yarn is Koigu, with a solid and a multicolor stranded throughout. I knit these on size 1 Brittany dpns.

The completed socks are pretty nice, and have already had their first machine wash and tumble dry, right after the pictures were taken. They came through with flying colors, and will probably be my new favorite socks, at least for a while:
Here's a detail of the stitch patterns:Some patterns were nicer to do than others, but the only one that I would change if I did these socks again would be the openwork pattern, right below the bobbles. I get cold ankles, so I don't like holes in wool socks, even planned holes.

I did knit a few rows of entrelac last night on the long-neglected Lady Eleanor, and am liking the pattern and linen yarn as much as I did when I began it. I'm up to about 2 feet in length now, so I just need to keep doing a couple of rows every day or so, and it will get done before long. Maybe I'll do a progress picture sometime if I think of it when I have the camera around.

No FLAK progress, I'm stil playing with the choice of pullover or cardigan, and type of neckline. This is the next project to get back to, soon!

Leaving for Warmth and Sun

2006-03-07T09:02:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to say that I had a wonderful weekend knitting and spinning, but doing enough talking and eating that I don't have much to actually show for it! I was lucky enough to have some lovely friends come to my house for one last visit before I move, and my only bit of unhappiness is how quickly the time passed - I miss you all.

The aforementioned house has already been sold and unsold in the past 6 days that it has been on the market. Here in NY an offer, even accepted, is not final until the lawyers draw up the sales contract, and in the meantime one of the buyers has gotten chilly feet. I'm not really worried, there will be other buyers to come along, there's plenty of time, but boy, it would have been nice to be able to relax the vigilent polishing and straightening.

I did finish socks for Adam on Sunday night - the Opal socks with all of the short pieces of yarn in the center of the skein- but forgot to take a picture last night, because I was busy packing. I'm off to AZ for 3 different business meetings and conferences, which is fine because my parents are just outside of Phoenix for the winter. I'll spend the weekend visiting them, so won't be back for almost 2 weeks. Hopefully I will have more finished projects to take picture of in addition to the socks when I return.

Thanks to Catherine for this:

You Are Scooter

Brainy and knowledgable, you are the perfect sidekick.
You're always willing to lend a helping hand.
In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going.
"15 seconds to showtime!"

The Muppet Personality Test

I'm taking my laptop, so will be reading blogs, etc. while I'm gone. Maybe I will even post if there is travel news of interest, otherwise I'll see you when I'm back.

Penances and Resolutions

2006-03-02T08:47:00.000-05:00

I know, no pictures yet again. Soon, hopefully.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and I must have looked totally steeped in sin to the priest, because the amount of ashes he put on my forehead was enough to make people stare at me in amazement the rest of the day.

Anyway, I had to decide what to either do, or give up, for Lent this year, and since a lot of my time and attention has been given to cleaning up, organizing and tossing out, I decided I needed to do something to further the goal of reducing possessions. After a lot of heart-wrenching thought, I decided that I would do two things:

1. Start NO NEW KNITTING projects. The corollary of this resolution is of course that I will have to work on UFOs for 6 1/2 weeks, which is a good thing.

2. Buy NO YARN. This does not mean that I can't buy other supplies as needed, such as patterns, notions, and needles, but no yarn, even if it's on sale.

I announced this last night to my Wednesday Night Divas knitting group, and after the laughter ended and they picked themselves up off the floor, they agreed to be witnesses to my penance. I've now announced it here as well, so I don't think I can hide from myself.

On a happier note, I'm looking forward to a weekend of knitting and spinning with good friends, in my spotless on-the-market house (boy, anybody coming to look at it will get more to see than they imagined, probably most of them have never seen a spinning wheel or drum carder). I also have another little treat coming to me in the mail, though I doubt it will be arriving in time to be introduced to my friends. Don't worry, even if the purchase hadn't happened before yesterday it still wouldn't be violating my Lenten resolutions. And that's all I'm going to say for now.

Anyway, hopefully there will be photos of WIPs and FOs starting soon, though some of my projects are a lot further from being done than others. I'll also have to be shoveling snow later today, I think, because the forecast is for 5-8 inches and Adam is out of town. Weird winter this year, and hopefully this is the last snowstorm for us of shoveling depth.

Dragon Quiz

2006-02-28T14:47:00.000-05:00

I am a A Spirit Dragon!

I took the http://dragonhame.com online Inner Dragon quiz and found out I am a Spirit Dragon on the inside.

In the war between good and evil, a Spirit Dragon tends to walk the fine line of Neutrality....
When it comes to the powers of Chaos vs. those of Law and Order, your inner dragon is a risk taker and answers to no one....
As far as magical tendancies, Magical spells come as natural to the Spirit Dragon as breathe from it's body....
During combat situations, a true Spirit Dragon prefers to defeat opponents by the use of spells and other tactics....
The spirit dragon is a true creature of chaos, it is very nomadic and goes wherever it pleases. Due to its non-corporeal nature, a spirit dragon moves freely anywhere and everywhere.'
A spirit dragon is a living mystery. They are barely visible to the naked eye, as their bodies are formed from the ghost-like material of the soul.'
A Spirit Dragon is nearly impossible to harm except by means of powerfully enchanted weapons and magical spells. The spirit dragon has no physical substance and cannot manipulate the physical world without the use of Spells and Magic. However, be warned that this does not mean the spirit dragon is of no consequence. They are masters of magic and take a large part in the happenings of the mortal world around them. They are often seen as puppeteers behind the stage of reality.
'
This Dragons favorite elements are: Soulstone, Hematite, and Wind

http://Dragonhame.Com

(another fun quiz brought to my attention by Catherine, and in this case I have to say that I agree with what I came out to be, though of course I don't get my way by casting spells - at least most of the time)

I think I'm a Jamaican Bobsledder

2006-02-24T08:38:00.000-05:00

I am starting to think that I may not finish my Olympic Knitting project, the Fiesta Feet Socks. I have completed through the heel on one, and am beginning the heel on the other, but there are only about 54 hours left, and I do need to sleep some of those hours. I also have to clean out my closets, and the sleeping porch (I live in an old house, and it has a sleeping porch off the master bedroom) before the house officially goes on the market on Tuesday.

I kind of knew, in the back of my mind, that entering the OK was a little crazy, with everything going on, but I really wanted the enthusiasm to carry me along with this sock pattern, which I've had for a couple of years but put off ever starting because of the overall patterning, with many and varied patterns. The importance of the house prep greatly outweighs the OK socks, I know that, and have used my time in the right way, i. e. not on the socks. My stash/sewing room looks amazing, and I have stacks of packed boxes in the attics and basement. We filled up a dumpster with stuff from the basement and garage, and all of the curtains throughout the house have been washed, ironed, and re-hung. There is NOT ONE SINGLE thing on the floor in my bedroom, and all of the bathrooms are spotless.

But my poor socks are not finished, not to mention the FLAK that still has no front started. And the closets are still needing clean-outs.

I feel like the Jamaicans, or maybe Eddie the Eagle - doomed to lose from the start, but hoping that a miracle will happen.

Maybe I can mess around with the time/space continuum?

Two Heart-Filled Days

2006-02-14T08:39:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

And tomorrow, Adam and I will have been married for 20 years. Amazing, huh? I really can't believe that we've been married that long, because it means I've known him for over 25 years. I certainly can't imagine being married to anyone else - probably would have been a "true" spinster if we hadn't met. The date is great, because we can always get a reservation at any place we want to go on the day after Valentine's Day. I do remember, though, that when I was planning the wedding, the florist told me that hopefully I didn't want roses for the wedding, because there wouldn't be any to use!

Back to fiber stuff next time,

Oh, no, I bought more yarn!

2006-02-13T08:56:00.000-05:00

Friday the painters were supposed to come, so one of us had to stay home. I decided that I could work from home more easily, so I continued the clearing out of kitchen, laundry room, baths, and bedroom that was mostly done. Finally at 9:45 (too late to go into work on the train) they called, weren't going to make it because the truck was dead. So, what's a person to do? Go to the LYS that has everything 25% off for a going-out-of business sale, naturally.

It was a sad pilgrimage, I've been going to Goldman's Yarn Store since I graduated from college, over 25 years ago. Mr. Goldman told me that his family had been in the business, first in the Bronx and then up in Westchester, for 85 years. Their children aren't interested in continuing the business, so they will just be closing down and liquidating the inventory. I did my part, scoring some nice basic Galway, Candide, Donegal Tweed, and sock yarn.

I also remembered that I had received a card for a sale from another LYS, with the tempting words "50% off sale yarns", so while I was out I went over there. Turned out that even the non-sale yarns were on sale (Kid Silk Haze at 25% off!), so another bag went into the car. For someone who is moving in a few months, I sure have trouble in not feeding the stash monster.

I am totally frustrated with my house, the painters did come on Saturday, and now whole rooms are empty, spackled, and draped in plastic. The kitchen is either packed to move, or sitting in open boxes in the dining room. Everything echoes! The only couple of rooms that look and feel good are on the third floor, and luckily one of those rooms is my sewing/yarn room. I spent most of Sunday moving yarn stash tubs into the attic, packing up fabric and notions, and throwing out old magazines, wrapping paper, and stuff that I can't remember why I was saving. It looks great now - too bad I don't keep it this way all of the time.

And magazines - why is it I can't part with sewing, food, gardening, and knitting magazines? Do I really want to move all of these - well, yes I do, but does it make sense? Especially with all of the books that will be moving, too. This is a decision that I'm going to postpone for a month or two.

I started my Fiesta Feet (Lucy Neatby pattern) Knitting Olympics socks, the first is done to the bobbles, and the second is 3/4 through the sideways garter stitch cuff. I'll take pictures soon. No real progress on the FLAK, I will be taking these two projects to SPA in Maine this weekend, so hopefully I'll do better on it there.

FLAK Update

2006-02-07T08:13:00.000-05:00

It's about time that I finish and post the upper back of the sweater, now that the next installment of the directions has been posted, so here it is:

The color is really off, it is actually a sea-green, with little flecks of brighter green and aqua. The pictures on blog entries from last month are actually much closer to the true color.

Here is a close-up of the cable details:

I'm just about ready to have it finished and will then put the back on a holder and cast on the front. One thing that is still open for decision is whether to make a pullover or a cardigan. I'm not sure that pullovers are my favorite type of sweater, but there are definately advantages to knitting a pullover in that it goes faster - and I don't dislike pullovers, they just are a little less versatile in the wearing. I'm going to have to decide this week, so that I can get started on the front(s?).

I'm adding the Team NY Knitting Olympics button to the sidebar - tough choice as to which team to join, but since I'm moving later this year, I decided to go with NY while I still can.

Home Again

2006-02-06T08:14:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a while, but I've been pretty much constantly on the road for the past 2 weeks. Back home again last night, and I don't think I am going anywhere until I drive up to Spa in Portland Maine over the President's Day weekend.

I haven't had much time to knit either, except on planes. Business conferences, packing and unpacking have taken a toll on my free time. I have, though, almost completed the back of my FLAK Aran, and am 2/3 done with a pair of socks for Adam. I'll try to finish those socks in the next couple of days, because on Thursday I'll be starting my Knitting Olympics project, the Fiesta Socks by Lucy Neatby I think the next FLAK installment will go up today, too, and I don't want to get behind on that.

Pictures of the FLAK back to be posted tonight or tomorrow.

What!?!

2006-01-20T08:21:00.000-05:00

Okay, bet you can't guess what this is a picture of:

Yeah, yeah, 11 little butterflies of brightly colored yarn, but that's not really the important answer in this case. What you are looking at is 11 pieces of Opal self-patterning sock yarn, ranging in length from 2 to 7.5 yards, that came out of the middle of my center-pull ball as I was re-winding it into 2 equal balls for 2 socks for Adam. I wound off the first 50 grams (using my pretty-accurate old WW scale), and as I was doing the last 10 yards or so, a 6-yard piece pulled out. Separate and distinct - attached to nothing. No chewed ends, not tell-tale holes on the outside of the ball, just an end that looks cut. I wondered, then wound it on the outside of the new ball (because officially it was part of the 50 grams, am I a little structured in my thinking, or what?) and prepared to wind Sock Ball #2.

Started winding - and these 11 butterflies are what came out. Well, not as butterflies, but as lengths of yarn. Then, wound fine after that, with one knot in the rest of the second 50 grams.

I decided to laugh while this was all going on - rather than scream. This was a ball from a swap table, so it's not as if it was a carefully selected, treasured ball of socks-to-be. I truly don't think it was insect-damaged, otherwise why only the middle 35-45 yards of the entire yardage of the ball? Just really weird, and now Adam gets socks that will be a little shorter than maximum length. Good thing he doesn't have size 13 feet.

Here's the beginning of the actual socks, toe-up on DPNs, done during Dancing With The Stars last night (I'm a dance junkie) to become commuting knitting during the next week or so.

And last but certainly not least, I'm thinking of and sending good energy to my wonderful friend Marfa today - she is one of the sweetest and most caring women I know, and she will be benefiting from a lot of healing thoughts today, I think.

The Aran begins - Saddles

2006-01-19T08:58:00.000-05:00

I actually finished the saddles for the FLAK Aran on Sunday, but just didn't get the camera out until last night. Since the Aran is being done top-down, the saddles are the first parts of the sweater to be done, and here the design-it-yourself part of the KAL begins.

In Step 1 we swatched, and in addition to swatching, took measurements. The shoulder and neck measurements are used to make shoulder saddles that are the perfect length for your shoulder width. Step 3 is knitting the saddles (Step 2 involved knitting a large swatch incorporating all of the cable patterns to be used in the sweater), which I must say is a nice ease-in to the knitting of a sweater. Two little pieces that measure 2.5" by 5" took just over 24 hours, even though I was also knitting away on socks (that's really new for me, right?) and include my favorite cable pattern of the sweater, the woven braid.

These are not yet blocked, I don't plan on doing any more blocking until I get to the end, unless of course Janet recommends it later in the KAL. Even then I'll have to think about it.

Oh, the socks I was working on? I finished them on Monday evening, and they are definitely my new favorite socks, at least for now. I love the feel and fit (Opal sock yarn, and toe-up with short-row heels) and the colors are really pretty. I'm wearing them as I type, and they are a perfect match for my grey pants, light purple sweater, and 62-degree office.

Isn't the identicalness amazing? This was truly accidental, I always separate 100 gram skeins into 2 balls before starting socks, so that I know there is enough for each sock, and it was only after starting the second that I realized that the toes were coming out the same. I this particular patterning, and because of it I kind of like having them matching, usually I don't really care.

Speaking of Opal sock yarn, that's what the next socks on the needles will be - navy/red/cream/gray socks for Adam. Starting them tonight!

Frustrating Thoughts

2006-01-17T09:40:00.000-05:00

I have been less active than usual, because of the bum ankle (which is slowly beginning to get better, thanks for the good wishes). One of the things that I do when I'm laid up is watch TLC and HGTV - especially the home makeover and repair shows. You know, Trading Spaces, Clean Sweep and stuff like that.

One of the shows that I had on was about why the featured home isn't selling, and then the show swoops in with a crew and a couple of thousand dollars, and fixes up the house for an open house, resulting in everyone loving the house, and multiple offers over the asking price, and a happy ending. Now, as someone whose house is going on the market next month, who has lived in said house with her packrat husband for 14 years, who herself is a stasher of yarn, fiber, books, and other important things, and who is unable to stand for more than 1 minute without her cane and is avoiding stairs (did I mention said house is 3 stories, plus a full basement?) - can there be any show more depressing right now?

When Adam came home on Friday and caught the end of one of the episodes with me, he started talking about renting a storage unit to put things into before we try to sell. Are we really going to have to go that far? Can't we just throw out the needless clutter, box up a bunch of stuff and store it in the basement, and make sure everything is squeaky clean? I knew I'd hate the moving process, but didn't think I would start hating it so soon! Or maybe I should take some pictures, and send them off to one of those shows for some help.

YOU ARE CATNIP

What herb are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Hmmm - catnip? I would rather be a calm herb, such as the Queen's chamomile, or a sweet one such as lavender, one of my favorites, but I can't really say that this is wrong. Must have been the independence answer.

Swatching Cables and finished Socks

2006-01-10T16:50:00.000-05:00

I finished the cable swatch for the FLAK aran last weekend - but had no energy to take pictures because I fell and tore ligaments in my ankle. I'm hobbling around now, but time will tell if there is any damage that needs a more permanent solution than just rest and an air cast.
Anyway, here's the swatch, done in Rowanspun DK on # 5 needles:

It's upside down, which I didn't notice until I was uploading the photo, but in the natural light you can see the cables well. You can also see at the top of the picture that I messed up the first cross on 2 of the large honeycomb cables, and that the first couple of repeats of the small honeycombs weren't very well defined. I had been cabling without a needle at that time, and quickly decided that the stitch definition is much better using a cable needle, at least with this yarn. I'm quite happy with the swatch, on the whole.

This yarn will not be making a heavy, firm Aran, but I am happy with the fabric it is making on these needles. I have a few heavy Aran and other wool sweaters, and am looking forward to a lighter Aran that will be more versatile and will pack more easily.

I also finished my NYCO (New Year's Cast On) socks, made of three different left-over balls of sock yarn used in the past. The picture makes them look closer to the same blue shades - really 2 are very similar, but one is a much more lavendar blue, luckily I used it in the instep so it won't show at all.

I'm happy to have another pair of warm wool socks, and there is no temptation to give these away, as they are made of orphan yarns.

I started another pair of socks, this time in Opal from Amie via the KR Retreat swap table, in a Jacquard colorway that has a lot of purple and cream, and I am looking forward to starting the FLAK aran when Janet publishes the next installment. I'm also working on my linen Lady Eleanor, which is now too long and bulky to be carry-along knitting.

Back to the sofa to prop up the ankle!

Buttons, Buttons, I've got the Buttons!

2006-01-05T09:03:00.000-05:00

Corny, yeah, but every time I manage to do something successfully with the blog template, I feel as if I've invented the wheel. I'm not usually dense, and have never had trouble understanding computer stuff, but HTML still has me confused. It's logic is still not penetrating the brain too well.

I have added the FLAK button, and will be participating in the 200-Socks that Amie started. This will be fun to follow, and since I'm always knitting socks anyway, won't be anything extra that I'm taking on.

No cable swatch yet for the FLAK, I went to the opera at the Met last night. Die Fledermaus, it was great, it was funny, and the music was comfortingly familiar, as Strauss always is. I have great memories of being a young violin student, sitting cross-legged on my bed with a book of Strauss waltzes propped up against the headboard, playing them for hours. (probably to the annoyance of the rest of the household, especially in the early days)

Hmm - maybe some Strauss is a good way to use the Borders coupon that I have. And maybe the library has a copy of Die Fledermaus that I can load onto my iPod.

On to 2006 - FLAK and more

2006-01-04T10:56:00.000-05:00

I mentioned the FLAK (Follow-the-Leader Aran Knitalong ) in yesterday's post, and will explain a little today, for those who haven't heard about it. Janet Szabo, the Aran knitting designer and author, has a list called Aranknit, where all things Aran are discussed. Since I have done a couple of Arans and other cable items, and discovered that I really enjoy cabling and pattern stitches, I joined a few months ago, mostly as a lurker.

Janet decided to host a knitalong for an Aran sweater starting with the new year, with the ability to totally customize a top-down Aran or use her stitch patterns and just customize the size and fit. She is an amazing knitter and designer, so this knitalong is a great opportunity to work with her and also (hopefully) finish a sweater.

The first step is selecting and swatching to get the gauge, which was the December set-up. What with the holidays , etc. I decided to save the swatching for New Year's weekend. I had set out skeins of 4 yarns in preparation - Araucania Nature Wool, Rowanspun DK, Lavold Silky Wool (the one I really wanted to use, as I mistakenly bought double the number of skeins in the same color), And Dale Sisik.

I have been really undecided about which to use for this sweater, because I wanted to use a stash yarn, and the recommended yardage for a woman's med-large means that I need 2000-2200 yards. The magic goal gauge set by Janet is 22 stitches/28 rows per 4" with the filler stitch.

I cast on the swatches for my FLAK on New Year's Eve day, and boy, they seemed to take forever, as I was knitting 2 1/2+ inches on each of size #4, 5, and 6 needles, to see which looked the best and had the best hand. I left each swatch attached to the ball for washing, as I planned to rip and re-wind the 3 balls I didn't pick.

I didn't even finish the Sisik swatch - it is just way too fuzzy for Aran patternwork, even though I love the color (cranberry) and feel of the yarn.

After washing and drying, the Araucania was just too large - it's a true worsted weight and didn't want to get down to the gauge, even on small needles. The choice between the last two was tough, but I finally went with the Rowanspun on size 5 needles, because it had a "crisper" feel that I felt would be better for the cable details. Janet has recommended a firm gauge and hand for this sweater, but the DK yarn is a little drapier, which I want to try for this Aran. Also, I love the color, which is "eau de Nil", a slightly heathery sea green that will go with lots of other colors. Here's the washed swatch, done in Double Moss Stitch (my chosen filler stitch for the sweater).

Hard to see the details, but the color is pretty true. I think that I need to work on different lighting, or try outdoors, to get the textures of Aran knitting.

I'll be showing more pictures of FLAK-in-progress over the course of the knitalong. Next step - swatching the cables.

Last Notes from 2005

2006-01-03T09:01:00.000-05:00

Okay, okay, I know that I have been a bad blogger, Amie. I am sorry for my lack of posts, but there were days on end this holiday season that I didn't even get near a computer to read e-mail, and actually writing something interesting would have been way beyond my time capability. To make up for it, this will be extra-long, with lots of FO pictures.

Anyway, Christmas preparation took up a lot of my time and energy; which included cleaning and decorating our 3 story, 6 bedroom, 4 bath Victorian labor of love; buying or finishing and wrapping gifts for many; shopping,advance prep and cooking for 8 people for 2 weeks; finishing up year-end crunch at work, including performance reviews of 6 direct reports; and incidentally sleeping a few hours each night.

We had a really good time this holiday with my brother's family from Oregon here for the holidays. They came for just under 2 weeks, and the four girls (ages 11-15) had a list made up of all of the things they hoped to see and do. I think the only one that went undone was having snow for Christmas, but the relatively good weather we had meant it was easier to get in all of the other things, which included a lot of NYC and Hudson Valley sightseeing.

A number of gifts given this year were handmade, and in addition to things I've already posted here, included the following:

Handspun superwash socks for Adam

Boot socks made of Briggs & Regal "Tuffy" for Adam (which were greatly envied by my brother, guess he'll get some for his birthday next fall)

Fingerless mitts for 13 y/o niece, black (dyed by Maple Grove Farm) superwash merino. Her nail polish was navy, not black as it looks here, not a goth kid (yet?)

In our pre-Christmas sightseeing, we went to the Grand Central Station Holiday Market, looked around, and bought a few things. What we didn't buy were hats that two of the girls loved, crocheted of bulky wool and "fluff", with earflaps and long tails. Priced at $95, they were a little out of the budget. When we got home, we did a shopping trip in Aunt Shelia's Stash, and they picked out color combinations for our versions of the hats.

The first one, made of marled handspun (crocheted doubled) and Crystal Palace Splash

Version #2, Araucania Nature Wool (doubled) and Splash

The 11 y/o niece liked the idea of a hat, but wanted hers "just the same, except knit instead of crocheted, with no flaps or tails, and 2 colors of stripes with the fuzzy stuff in some of the stripes" No problem, found some terra-cotta and orange handspun, and some unknown-maker techno-hair.

Finally, the 15 y/o decided that she loved the orange handspun, but didn't want any fuzz or tails, but needed blue stipes (used some left-over Lamb's Pride) and a long tassel. They were all very happy girls, and the hats were worn pretty much constantly, both in and out of the house. When people admired them, they said that "my aunt made it, but it would cost $95 to buy".

And for myself? I finished the Mountain Colors Beatfoot socks in the Meadow colorway, thereby getting my newbie knitter SIL hooked on Mountain Colors when she felt how wonderful the yarn is. Before the trip, she had made 4 scarves. While here, she learned to make a hat on a circular needle (Mountain Colors Weavers Wool) and had finished a sock in worsted weight on DPNs (Mountain Colors Mountain Goat). I think she's hooked, and we made a second trip back to Flying Fingers so that she could buy more and get the 2006 Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar.

To celebrate the New Year, I cast on socks for myself with the leftover variegated blue handspun, which I'll have enough of if I use some leftover commercial sock yarn in the foot. I was also working on making decisions for the FLAK sweater, which I've almost finished making. More on that in the next post, which I will be making in the next couple of days.

NY Yarn Crawl

2005-12-05T13:57:00.000-05:00

I missed the inaugural yarn crawl of the Wednesday Night Knitters, which happened in September, and visited shops in and around Fairfield County, CT. On Saturday I was around for the second Crawl, which visited Lower Manhattan (anything north of 42nd Street is for a future trip). Actually, we didn't really hit even most of the lower Manhattan stores, because we skipped Downtown Yarns and the Union Square area.

Now, it is an accepted fact that I don't really need any yarn, right? But hey, what's a yarn crawl without some yarn coming home? So I tried to keep it under control, and did pretty well.

First, after arriving at GTC and heading downtown on the Lexington Line subway, we went to Seaport Yarns. This shop is one of my LYS's because I work in the financial district. I try not to go too often, though, because it would be too easy to be buying constantly. I had planned to pick up a book there, filled in my Brittany dpn's a little, and fell victim to a Cherry Tree Hill "Potluck" - over 1600 yards of beautiful worsted wool in shades of blue, dark gray and plum. Since Adam has been hinting pretty strongly for a sweater, and I haven't a clue as to what to get him for his birthday which is in the middle of January - I'll wrap up the yarn at whatever stage it is in by 1/15, and give it to him. All of the Wednesday night crowd were amazed at the amount of yarn in this store, and at Andrea's amazing memory of where everything is!

Postponing lunch, we moved on to Purl in SoHo, by cab now because we were all carrying bags. Purl was really crowded, but most of us managed to get around enough to do some damage to our wallets. This was helped by the 40% off sale bin, which yielded laceweight cashmere (none left when we were done), some "messy" skeins of Koigu (ditto on leaving any) and a bunch of Lobster Pot in blues, greens, salmons, and pinks. We did leave some of the Lobster Pot. I was pretty good, buying only sale Koigu and Cashmere. I also went through the "free to take" pattern box, resulting in some nice additions to my pattern library.

A late lunch at Jane, a bistro on Houston that had good food, a slightly trendy atmosphere, and great prices. We were treated to a plate of Pumpkin Spiced Doughnut Holes, served with Chocolate and Cranberry sauces - I am thinking of making some of these at home over the holidays. Really good!

Our last stop was the Yarn Connection on Madison at 36th, and we again found sales and great yarns. It's always nice to see different things at the various stores, and there are always some good sale finds at Yarn Connection. It was there that I found Dale Freestyle superwash for a couple of baby sweaters, some beautiful handpainted sock yarn by Cheryl, and the 4" ebony glove dpns that I am currently collecting in various sizes.

We had planned on going to see the tree, but because of the extreme crowds, opted to head north for home instead. It was a great day, and the yarns and the company was all wonderful.

Next Yarn Crawl? We're undecided, but think that in March we'll either head north into the Hudson Valley, or go back to Manhattan for the Upper Manhattan stores. We're in no real rush to decide right now.

Catching Up with Life

2005-12-01T08:52:00.000-05:00

Sorry - no pics today. I decided that I needed to post something, even though I haven't downloaded any of the pictures that I have taken lately. Hopefully I'll do that soon (like tonight, or tomorrow).

It has become obvious to me that I am not ready for Christmas, not ready for company (6 people are coming for 12 days over the holiday), and certainly haven't finished all of the gift items that were planned. Folks are arriving on 12/19, so several hats, beaded cell phone holders, felted clogs, and mittens/fingerless gloves are in my very near future. Additionally, I have not yet quite finished DH's 2 pairs of socks, though all 4 socks are at least 3/4 completed. Lest you think that I am a total procrastinator, I should mention that I have already done 3 pairs of socks, mittens and fingerless mitts, a shawl, a scarf, and 2 hats, for various recipients.

A quick aside on my personal take on socks. They are always toe-up, done on dpn's, knitted on 2 sets of dpn's as close to simultaneously as I can do it. This means that every couple of inches and at the toe and heel, I switch to the other sock, resulting in both being done at about the same time, give or take an hour. This also means that I have many, many sets of dpn's in sizes 0-3. My favorites are the Brittanys and Crystal Palace in 5"-6" lengths. I also like Lantern Moon Rosewoods, and Bryspun, even though they are sadly not available in sizes smaller than #2.

When knitting for me and my favorite aunt, socks are usually handspun because that is absolute my favorite sock yarn. When knit for DH, my parents and nieces, and most others, they are of commercial superwash sock yarn. Either type, I generally have at least 2 and sometimes three pairs on the go, especially near Christmas because I need to get some done without the recipient seeing what I am doing. So following this method of sock knitting, you now understand why I have 4 socks going for DH, of which 1 needs only to have the ends woven in, its mate is done through the first 2" of cuff, another lacks only 2" of ribbing, and its mate is done up through the heel. Say, about 75% finished on the batch of 4.

So for now I am going to focus on getting some things done, and done before guests arrive. No more knitting on my KR NBP, no more spinning or de-hairing and carding qiviut. Lots of knitting, and house-readying, and pre-arrival cooking and baking that will be stowed away in the freezer. Am I a little crazy? Sure, but aren't we all this time of year?

(pictures and driving to TX report still to come, in a hopefully not-too-distant post)

Small Projects

2005-11-16T17:59:00.000-05:00

I went to the Countrywool Rip Van Winkle Knitting Retreat last weekend, in the Catskill Mountains of NY state. Fun people, and lots of fun small projects, in fact that was the theme of the Retreat.

I started a pair of fingerless Swedish-style fingerless mitts, and had finished a pair of liced mittens (I posted a picture of these a month or so ago) prior to the Retreat. I also did the following before the Retreat:

and:

Cute, huh?

They are all 2-3 inches in size, and knit from Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb, which I think is fingering weight. I plan on making a few more of each, to put on the tree this year.

Not much else to report on just yet, I am working on Christmas gifts for DH and family, so I will post pictures as I finish, since none of them read the blog. I am also finishing the packing for the moving truck that is going to TX, most of it is done but a few things remain.

While I walked around and helped people last weekend, I continued to knit on the Lady Eleanor stole from Scarf Style. I m doing it in worsted weight Linen from Misty Mountain Farm, which I think they sell at their retail shop called My Favorite Yarn, located somewhere in NW Virginia. Really interesting stuff, this linen, it starts to soften up just from being worked up, so hopefully it will drape well when finished and washed. It's not yet at the stage that looks like anything, though the colorway is gorgeous, so if I get a chance I'll take a picture. I could get hooked on linen, I think.

On the Road & the Retreat

2005-11-09T11:25:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, 11/2

Okay, I've got my stuff packed up, my iPod loaded and charged (it's a 6 1/2 hour drive down to VA) the bills paid (oops, this will cut back on any shopping impulses) and the paper stopped. I'm on my way to the Knitters Review Retreat in Syria, Virginia. This is the fourth year, and there are always folks to re-connect with, close friends to see, and new people to meet and get to know.

This year I'm teaching a session on Toe Up Socks, and I have all of my handouts ready, along with lots of samples, both large and small socks. I will also be taking a spinning wheel and extra fiber, in case there are any people that can be lured into the Dark Side.

"Pssst- hey there, little knitter, want to try your hand at a machine that makes yarn?"

My New Beginnings project? Still haven't decided, maybe a Lady Eleanor entrelac shawl, maybe a cozy live-in-it-all-winter sweater, maybe a lace cardigan that I fell heavily for at Stitches East (who wouldn't fall for a cashmere lace cardigan, but the pattern is nice on it's own, too).

The leaf color is late here, so I'm hoping that it will be a pretty fall season in the Blue Ridge Mountains, most of the leaves were gone last year at this time.

Tuesday, 11/8

The Retreat is history now, and lots of the attendees have already blogged. I am slow because my home computer is not the fastest at uploading pictures, but of course now all I have to do is fill in the blanks of my own experiences, and add some photos.

I do agree with B, it is always different to be on staff at an event rather than just be an attendee. At the KR Retreat I was teaching, and also helping out Jen when needed in her booth Saturday. That meant that what with setting up a classroom, teaching, helping to set up Spirit Trail, weighing and discussing fiber, and helping to break down the booth, I was on my feet for most of Saturday - but it was a great day, even with sore feet! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The drive down was, well, a long drive, though through very beautiful fall scenery. (I drove down 81 through PA, MD, W VA instead of 95, interstate from h***) Arrived at Graves just in time to join everyone at the table for lunch, starting off the weekend in the way it would continue, with good Southern home cooking.
Graves Mountain Lodge:

Wearing its fall colors, with the front porch as welcoming as always. For the first time I was not staying up the hill in one of the "motel"-type buildings, but in the Old Farmhouse:

where I had one of the upstairs rooms, complete with chinked-log walls. It was a fairly level walk to the lodge from here, which is saying a lot at Graves, known for being built on a hillside.

It's hard to describe how lovely it is to be at a knitting retreat (this one has a lot of spinning going on as well) if you haven't experienced it. Surrounded by old and new friends, making and renewing connections, no responsibilities from back home (did I mention that there are no phones or TV's in the rooms, and cell phones and blackberries don't work here?), wonderful yarns and fibers, and people cooking for you - it doesn't get much better.

Anyway, Friday was dyeing with Jen of Spirit Trail

Jimmye and Kathleen

Martha

Jen loading up the steam pots-

And then on Friday afternoon the rest of the attendees arrived and settled in

Saturday dawned with a beautiful autumn sky

Then Clara gave a great presentation on the characteristics and suitability of various fibers and spinning processes of commercial yarns.

The teaching sessions were immediately after lunch. I was very happy with the results of my session, everyone was great, and I was happy to see that most were excited to learn new techniques. My best individual comment was from Rebecca, who said that it was a "paradigm shift" for her in the knitting of socks. My observation on Saturday night and Sunday morning is that there were people trying out some of the things that I had taught on new projects, and that always makes any teacher feel good about their teaching.

Saturday night was another evening of conversation, sharing skills, knitting, spinning, drinking wine or the beverage of one's choice, and generally enjoying the gathering. (the empty chair is where I was sitting)

Sunday and goodbye's came all too soon, and now the countdown for next year starts. This may be the last year we are at Graves, because we have pretty much outgrown the facilities, so I will end with another couple of shots of trees and the sunset (hey, A, how is it that we both took the same sunset picture?).

Stash Expedition

2005-10-28T08:02:00.000-04:00

Next weekend is the Knitter's Review Retreat in VA, and there are 2 things happening there that prompted a full-scale plunge into the stash - a swap table, and a session on new beginnings/starting a new project for yourself. I am also finishing the packing for the trip to furnish our Texas condo, and wanted to fill up the rest of a plastic tub housing my charka with TX-appropriate yarn, for those spur-of-the-moment-need-to-start-a-new-project moments.

So I ventured up to the 3rd floor (this is the home of the yarn stash, fiber stash is in the basement), armed with the 12 pages of my yarn inventory spreadsheet, all printed out nicely, and discovered that some poltergeist has been stirring up the yarn while I wasn't paying attention. It all really needs to be turned out and re-organized so that the inventory is up to date, and has all of the correct bin/tub numbers (did I mention that I'm just a little maniacal about being able to check the inventory and put my hands on exactly the yarn I'm wanting?) and is fully organized by fiber type and/or weight. (Certain types of yarn, such as handspun and sock yarns have their own containers, as they are special)

By now it's 7pm, and I am just starting to pull all of the yarn out of it's containers so that it can be replaced properly, and its looking like this-

and if I turn around and look at the other side of the room it looks like this-

and now I'm starting to realize just what I've done, I've created way more work for myself than I really want to do when I'm going to work at 6:30 am tomorrow, leaving for Washington at 2pm, coming home on Monday , working through Wednesday while I pack to leave for the Retreat at 7am on Thursday. Why did I do this?

Really, I know why I did it. I just love taking everything out of it's hiding place, and looking at it, and petting it, and imagining all of the wonderful things that I could make with it. What at great feeling - I love every one of the 1,432 balls and skeins. (this is not sounding good for the swap table, is it?) I've found at least 5 things for the new beginnings project in the first 10 minutes, so that is not going to be an easy decision.

The good news is that I kept on until almost 10pm, and I reorganized the cotton and other non-wools, and pulled out the things to go in the TX move (though this means that I need to send some needles along too), and I narrowed the new beginnings idea down to two possibilities.

The bad news is that it's going to take me at least another 4 hours to finish up, and another hour to update the spreadsheet with all of the corrected info. I don't have a clue where that time is going to come from before I leave for the Retreat, but I'm hoping to get it done somehow, because I still need to find some swap yarn, or I won't be able to browse the swap table for new treasures.

Knitting and Spinning

2005-10-24T05:28:00.000-04:00

I did (barely) remember to take pictures of the FO's. One of them, I am VERY happy to say, is the pair of never-ending black socks. While taking pictures of black knitted items is not generally very successful, I did my best by taking the photo shoot outside, during the one short bit of brightness yesterday afternoon.

The other FO is 2 skeins of very pink mohair/wool. When I bought the roving at MDSW, it really looked much more like a sunset, with orangey/purpley shades throughout, but even after spinning in a worsted weight rather than a thinner yarn, the shades pretty much evened out and it looks mostly pink now. Not a bad pink, but very pink. Also, the percentage of mohair in the roving was a lot more than had been indicated by the vendor, it's definately at least 50%. I've had a suggestion from Jen and Martha that the yarn would make good slippers, but other than that I'm not sure what it would be. Comments with suggestions will be cheerfully accepted.

Other than these, I spent most of the weekend packing things to take to Texas over Thanksgiving weekend, and cleaning, and tossing things out completely. Why is it that "stuff" always seems to multiply in closets? Why did some of it get put away in the first place? I always say that I won't let it get to this state again, but it always does. I hope that this time I really mean it, and don't let things accumulate.

MEME, finally getting to it

2005-10-21T10:22:00.000-04:00

The lovely Queen tagged me last weekend while I was at Rhinebeck, and since I don't have pictures to post of my finished items (yes, there are a couple, and they'll probably appear in the next day or so), I will go ahead with the meme.

10 years ago: It wasn't a really exciting time - we were spending a lot of time with family as all of the nieces were under ten, in fact, the youngest of the six had just turned one. My job situation was okay but not great, and I had started putting out feelers with other companies (I left about 6 months later for the company I am now with, and it was a great decision). I was doing knitting and cross-stitching, and had joined a couple of book groups that I really enjoyed, one virtual, one face-to-face. I had lost 25 pounds in the first half of the year, so was enjoying being very thin (that lasted about 3 years, then I settled into pretty much the weight I am now, which is okay but should be 10 pounds less).

5 years ago: We were farm-shopping! Adam's mom had died after a long bout with cancer and emphysema, and we decided to use the small inheritance as a down payment on property to move to when we retire. We found a farm with house, barn, and outbuildings, on a hilltop off a gravel road that's 14 miles from the nearest small town. My grandfather had died earlier in the year, but my grandmother was doing okay.

1 year ago: I had found spinning and more fiber pursuits during these 4 years, and had met a wonderful group of friends through this. My first Rhinebeck as a Booth Babe for Jen was just past, and I had my new Norman Hall wheel - very exciting! We had acquired a condo in Houston, planning for retirement winters in the not-too-distant future. Very, very busy at work, but still having a good time.

5 snacks:
-cheese and crackers - sharp cheddar and other strongly flavored cheeses are best
-baked sour cream and cheddar potato chips
-almond, pecan, filbert and dried cranberry mix
-guacamole and anything to dip into it
-dried unsweetened mango slices

5 songs I know all the words to:
Well, according to my nieces I know the words to all of the songs ever played on the radio, so here are some that are a little less well-known that I can surprise them and sing-
-Land of the Empire Builders (Oregon state song)
-Ballad of New Orleans (I had to sing this in Geography class in 8th grade, but got an A and skipped writing a paper because of the singing)
-Si, Mi Chiamano Mimi from La Boheme (Betsy-Tacy book readers will understand why I learned the words to this specific song from one of my favorite operas)
-Oh Holy Night in the original French
-Come onna my House, a la Rosemary Clooney - just for fun

5 Things I’d do with $100 million:
-Rent a really big yacht (20-30 passenger) and sail around the world, stopping to see whatever appealed, and picking up and dropping off friends who could come along for a week, or two, or longer
-Pay off mortgages and debts for my family and close friends
-Fund a charitable foundation
-Set up college funds for the kids in our families
-Make a standing appointment with a hairdresser so that I would never have to wash or dry my own hair again, I love having someone else wash my hair, and really hate holding a blow-dryer for as long as it takes to dry it.

5 places to run away to:
my farm
London
northern New England
Ojo Caliente, NM
Scotland or Ireland

5 things I would never wear:
-Baby-doll anything - pj's, tops, or even a costume
-stiletto heels
-business suit without stockings (yuck, I can't imagine what my feet would feel like in pumps at the end of a day! )
-skin-tight low-rise pants
-midrifff-baring top

5 favorite TV shows:
West Wing
Firefly
The Amazing Race
CSI
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

5 (among my) biggest joys:
Reading
My friends and family, esp. DH
Fiber stuff
Sunsets and sunrises
A great cup of coffee

5 favorite toys:
knitting needles
spinning wheel(s)
drum carder
dye pot
Ipod

5 people to pass this on to: None, because I don't usually pass on these kind of things (I don't like to put undue pressure on people), and also because this was flying around last week and weekend, and I'm probably the last one to do it. I have enjoyed reading other folks' lists, though.

Happy Friday!

Home Again, Happy and Tired!

2005-10-18T08:44:00.000-04:00

It's always sad when you realize it's another 363 days until Rhinebeck comes around again. I had a really great time, but what with working in Jen's booth and saying "hi" to folks you know, the time goes by in the blink of an eye.

So, for all of you who want to know what I brought home this year - I did not buy anything! No shopping for me this time, I did have a few things that I had been thinking about, but since I didn't really look at other booths much I didn't see those things and therefore didn't buy them. Honestly, I'm not sure that I really remembered what they were, because I was so busy.

I did do a lot of enabling - a spinning wheel for one friend, a black angora bunny for another, a couple of fleeces, a drum carder for a woman who I met in the Spirit Trail booth, knitting needles, fiber, and other stuff, and I really had a great time doing that.

Other than booth duty in Spirit Trail, I also booth-sat for Gilbert of Robin Wheels as he was doing the booth on his own with no helper. Really smooth, nice wheels, and he had a lot of interested folks, and buyers as well. It was nice to be able to sit down and spin for 20-30 minutes.

I only had time for a few pictures, but one of the nice things was that Purlewe was there, and took a shot of the three of us, Martha, Jen, and me, in the booth. I seldom have any pictures of me on my blog, so here goes-

My favorite Tunis sheep at the festival - she just loved to be petted, and having her head scratched!

And even though the weather looked terrible ahead of time, it cleared up and the crowds arrived on Saturday. You can even see some of the fall color in the background - it's late for peak color this year, at home most of our trees haven't even really started to change color yet.

A last shot of the Sprit Trail Fiberworks booth - it was double the size this year, and still very full of yarn and fiber.

No photos, but my entries in the skein and garment competition did okay, too. The pink socks continued their good run, getting a blue ribbon. 4 of my five entries got ribbons, including the Tunis hat and fingerless gloves from the previous post. It will be nice to finally be able to wear the socks insted of just having them look nice for shows.

I am going to get back to busily finalizing my handouts for the toe-up sock class at the Knitters Review Retreat now that I am home. These should be done in the next few days, and then the weekend will be a massive cleaning and culling exercise. After all, I need the room in case I decide to enhance the stash at the next fiber event, right?

So we're off to the NYS&W

2005-10-14T06:56:00.000-04:00

I have finally taken pictures of the Tunis handspun Fair Isle Hat and Mitts. I am happy with the way they turned out, and I'm looking forward to seeing what other folks have done with Tunis roving and yarn for the featured breed competition at Rhinebeck. I know that Vi is going to be looking at possibly adding a Tunis or two to her flock at the Festival, but since I'm not a sheep farmer I won't be looking at the sheep with an eye to acquisition, just an eye to their fleece.

I'll be leaving with Martha and Jen this morning to set up the Spirit Trail Fiberworks booth, and will be working in the booth most of the weekend. The Yarn Harlot will be signing copies of her new book in the booth on both Saturday and Sunday, and it will be filled with lots of wonderful yarn and fiber, so stop by to chat, or to browse, or both. Hopefully the "chance of showers" will be greatly over-cautious, and we will have cool, grey weather rather than cold, windy, rainy weather, which can happen in NY in October, sadly. Still, this is our biggest fiber fair in this area, and one of the biggest in the country, and going is worth it, even in bad weather.

The black Fixation socks are 95% done, I will show them next week, but don't expect the miracle of blogging photography to be able to make black socks exciting. I'll just be happy when they are finished!

Now, I'm off to make the coffee for the drive up to Rhinebeck - back next week.

Rhinebeck Knitting, and a Spinning Weekend

2005-10-10T08:49:00.000-04:00

Now, just in case you were in any doubt, I am definately not Stephanie, aka Yarn Harlot. I love her, laugh with her, and certainly share her obsession with knitting and fiber, but putting aside the fact that she's Canadian, petite, and naturally very funny (and I'm not any of those things), don't let the title of this blog entry fool you - I would not even attempt to knit a sweater in the two weeks before the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival so that I could wear it to the festival.

Nope, my Rhinebeck knitting is making a hat and fingerless gloves from my Tunis handspun for the featured breed competition. I've never entered anything at this show before, but the Tunis competition gave me a great reason to try out a breed that I hadn't used before, and I have had a lot of fun with it. The dyeing, spinning, and knitting is all done, and I thought I would block on Sunday, but once all of the ends were woven in (I din't mention that these are Fair Isle, did I?), I decided that the bind-off is too loose on one glove, so tonight I will frog the last inch or so and re-do. Pictures in a day or two.

The Rip Van Winkle spinning retreat sponsored by Countrywool on the previous weekend was great fun, and while I didn't get a lot of spinning done, I blended some beautiful sock fiber from dyed odds & ends, with dyed Dorset from the Philadelphia Zoo sheep as a base. I also had way too much fun dyeing, egged on by Claudia and Kirk to use up all of the leftover dyes. There were familar faces, and new spinning friends to meet, with spectacular fall weather and good food.
Almost the whole group is shown here, I think the pictures are a little dark because of the bright window that's in most of them.

Some of the people on the side of the room that aren't in the previous shot, except that I still missed Barbara (maybe she was dodging the camera?)

Claudia and Kirk, Claudia is spinning on her Elizabeth 2, which is a very nice wheel, and is a better "fit" for many people than the first Elizabeth.

Joanne selecting colors for blending on hand cards

Kirk carding angora from his bunny, Butterscotch.

The results of the late-Saturday dyeing experiments that Kirk and I did. He got the idea to spinkle Cushings dye powder on wetted fiber and roving, so we got some interesting results. I think these experiments might have taken place into our second beers.

Anyway, lots of pictures, and Rhinebeck items will be coming soon.

Breaking the Silence Momentarily

2005-10-06T08:57:00.000-04:00

Nothing really much to post, but I did want to just pop on here to say that I will be posting about my spinning weekend and what I am currently knitting soon, but not today. I was just too tired on Sunday night to download the pictures, and on Monday morning I flew to Columbus for a couple of days, and last night was my Wednesday knitting group, so they are still not downloaded.

I could have done them this morning before work, but I really couldn't, because I still have dial-up at home, and it takes between 3 and 5 minutes to upload each picture to Snapfish, which is just too long at 5:25 in the morning (I catch a 6:26 train to Manhattan).

But I have been knitting, and spinning, and blending fibers, and combing the most amazing Icelandic lamb fleece. I've always been a little wary of Icelandic, because it felts if you simply look at it, but Claudia had brought this already-washed Icelandic to the spinning retreat for folks to play with, and there was a bunch left at the end, which soon joined my little stack of purchases (2 books and a few ounces of black alpaca, very controlled shopping for me) and will become some incredibly soft yarn in the near future. Even the tog is pretty soft, but I'm saving it to blend into sock yarn so that the downy thel can be spun alone.

Oh, and last night at knitting night I didn't knit, since I was feeling a little frazzled from the day, so I took along a couple of baggies of qiviut and my cotton cards. I then amazed the knitters by dehairing and carding an ounce of qiviut. As with most carding, this is a really relaxing process, especially when there is talk and laughter and knitting going on around you, just what my frazzled brain needed for a few hours. Well, that and the grande non-fat extra-hot latte, of course!

Pictures of spinning weekend and knitting coming soon.

Dyeing at Stitches East

2005-09-29T09:16:00.000-04:00

I went to Stitches East last weekend, it's last time in Atlantic City as it turns out, and thank the gods for that! It is just not a good venue for a thousand or so manic knitters, and the hotel situation has been pretty poor, too. Anyway, two years ago I said that I probably wouldn't go back again, except that then I heard that Elaine Eskesen from Pine Tree Yarns was teaching a couple of dyeing classes, and I've always liked the way her yarns look, they have a wonderful depth of color. Dyeing is one of those things that I continue to learn more about, and I have found that every master dyer has their own personal style and techniques, so I continue to take classes and hope that eventually I'll be able to do what makes me happy.

Anyway, here is a picture of Elaine demonstrating:

And another that shows people from the class working on their own skeins. Elaine likes to use the "squeeze-bottle" method of hand-painting barely wet wool, for a truly non-repeating application of color.

And here are the skeins I did using her method:

Elaine also taught a class that was not hands-on, and this was not nearly as effective. I imagine that they had asked her to teach it because she has a new book out on dyeing, and she used a lot of the samples and swatches from the book in the class. It was not enough material, though, for a 3 hour class, it would have been a good length for a guild meeting-type presentation. I wish it had been another hands-on class, especially if we had been able to work on other types of fiber, such as silk and mohair. She did have a nifty little kit that she has pro-chem put together for her, with wetting agent, citric acid, and primary color dyes. I know that I am much happier with my dyeing when I mix the colors, rather than using pre-mixed colors, even though some of those are very nice, and also convenient to use. Especially when hand painting, mixing my own colors seems to make them work better together, as the tones and hues are more similar.

A poorly lit picture of me, Fran, and Raina at the Fashion Show banquet-

And, well, I also shopped, but not very much, as there is not really much that I need to get. Some sock yarn, one of Linda's (GraftonFibers) lovely handmade crochet hooks and a bit of her fiber, the new Sally Melville book, a mug with a lace knitting theme on it. I still need to get the Vintage Socks book based on KnitDad's trusted recommendation, but I'll get that from one of the shops that I go to regularly.

Off to spin!

The Cursing Mama/Bossy Little Dog Challenge

2005-09-27T19:10:00.000-04:00

Has anyone other than me noticed that this list is missing #'s 38-47? Should I just make something up here, or ignore the missing numbers? Are there important things about me that no one will ever know because they would be covered by the missing numbers? This has really been bugging me every time I see another blogging friend do the challenge. Someone must have the answer to this, so let's hear it. Anyway, here we go-

1. What is your occupation? financial services/insurance executive (Wall Street type, but only at work, I promise you)
2. What color is your underwear? black
3. What are you listening to right now? construction sounds ouside my building
4. What was the last thing you ate? scrambled eggs and latte
5. Do you wish on stars? sometimes
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? periwinkle
7. How is the weather right now? sunny, mid-70's
8. Last person you spoke to on the phone? one of the managers that reports to me
9. Do you like the person who sent this to you? yes, I've seen it on a few blogs recently, and they're all great
10. How old are you today? 50
11. Favorite drink? Non-fat, extra-hot lattes
12. Favorite sport to watch? golf
13. Have you ever dyed your hair? yes, my hair went totally white in my late 20's
14. Do you wear contacts or glasses? reading glasses
15. Pets? not right now
16. Favorite month? May
17. Favorite food? Mexican comfort food - enchiladas, chile rellenos or chile colorado
18. Favorite day of the year? no one favorite day
19. What do you do to vent anger? shut myself away and spin
20. What was your favorite toy as a child? my dolls
21. Fall or Spring? spring
22. Hugs or kisses? hugs
23. Cherry or Blueberry? neither, I'm a peach or strawberry girl
24. Do you want your friends participate in this? yes
25. Who is most likely to respond? most of the bloggers
26. Who is least likely to respond? don't know
27. When was the last time you cried? can't remember, I'm not a crier generally
28. What is on the floor of your closet? shoes
29. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Steve, we were in the 5th grade together and on through high school, I still see him at times when I go back to my home town
30. What did you do last night? spun, wound up yarn I dyed over the weekend, answered e-mail
31. Favorite smell? newly cut hay
32. What inspires you? people who have achieved their life goals, and who are still warm, caring people
33. What are you afraid of? snakes!
34. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? spicy, with cheese
35. Favorite dog? Norfolk terrier
36. Number of keys on your key ring? 2
37. How many years at your current job? 8
48. Favorite day of the week? Friday
49. How many states have you lived in? 7
50. How many cities have you lived in? 14

Okay, there it is. I'm really wondering about those missing numbers, though.

Oregon Trip, and (guess what?) Socks

2005-09-26T14:03:00.000-04:00

In the past two weeks I've been to Milwaukee, Oregon, Colorado Springs, and Atlantic City. I'm happy to be finally home, so I'll post today, and again later this week, I promise.

I was unable to resist the allure of new projects, so instead of finishing any unfinished sweaters and black socks, I started a couple of new things. Really, sweaters are just too bulky to carry around for this much road and plane time, and black socks impossible in anything other than natural light, right? So I started the Peacock Feathers Shawl in navy laceweight merino (Skacel) and started and finished a pair of socks from some yarn I spun up from fibers dyed at a workshop at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in 2002. I don't remember the name of the teacher, but she was good and the dyes we used were Judith MacKenzie's primary colors, mixing our own color blends. The pink/lavender mohair in the heels and (elongated) toes I plied against Easter-egg colored Columbia roving, and then Navajo plied the rest of the Columbia for the insteps and cuffs. When finished knitting, I had about 40 inches left of the Columbia, and a 1" ball of the mohair.

I know, a little wild and crazy, but what are fibers and yarn from workshops for, anyway? These socks are really warm, and while I probably won't wear them to work, they'll be great this winter.

Since I was out in Oregon, Woodland Woolworks called out to me quite strongly, and I found that this was why:

It's a Reeves Castle wheel, about 15 years old but lovingly cared for, and came with 6 bobbins and a Lazy Kate. It is a really sweet wheel, and spins so smoothly it's totally effortless. Double-drive, and 6 ratios, so even with a relatively small flywheel, it works up a good speed. I'm almost sorry that I couldn't bring it home, but it is a farm wheel, so out there it stayed.

I also went to a newly opened LYS in Portland - Abundant Yarns. It was so nice, large, airy, with separate classroom and another room that is still being renovated, though I think it would be great with pots of coffee and tea, and comfy seating. The store is well stocked and the staff is great, even patiently answering every question that my 12- and 13-year-old nieces had for them. If you're in the area, or even across town, it's worth a stop. And there's a great independent coffee house (with a patio) across the street.

And, lastly, here are a couple of photos of views from the deck of the farmhouse. If you've never been to the Pacific Northwest, go! Even after a really dry summer that has left browned grass in the pastures, it is still beautiful.

I'll be posting about my Stitches adventures later in the week, and this weekend I'll be going to a spinning retreat in the Catskills - I'm really looking forward to it.

Back home with (more) New Socks

2005-09-12T09:54:00.000-04:00

Now, if you are wondering about my sanity, or maybe my predictive powers about the weather, don't. I am a dedicated sock knitter, and I'm not even sure why this developed. It is partly, I suppose, that I am a train commuter for my job, and I also do a lot of traveling for this same job, mostly on planes though sometimes on longer-distance trains. Socks fit in a briefcase, purse or tote bag with no difficulty. It's not any real problem to fit an extra ball or two of sock yarn into a small carry-on suitcase, either, and this is important because once I finished a pair of socks on a cross-country flight, and had NOTHING TO KNIT! This was a major problem, and one that I don't ever want to have happen again, so the extra yarn always goes in the bag. I also knit socks because I love wearing handmade socks, as does my entire extended family, who start begging whenever they see me knitting. There are never too many socks coming off the needles.

Anyway, London was still right there when I went back on Tues. night, after having returned home from London on Sunday. This was a much busier trip, lots of meetings and meals, so knitting time was scarce. I did get over to Liberty to look at the Rowan, and bought - not one thing! The continuing poor showing of the dollar in relation to the pound has resulted in prices that are just about the same as I can get here, so I decided to pass. The Colinette of the weekend before was still about 50% less, go figure. I did make it to one of the bookstores I like, though, so I definitely carried back a few treasures.

So I cast on for a new pair of socks on the ride out to JFK, finished one and started the second on the flight back, and finished it Saturday. I'm not really supposed to be starting anything new, but I'm counting socks as needed preparation for my class at the KR Retreat. In addition to these latest ones, I've made a bunch of little ones, and will be doing more little ones to demonstrate more heel/toe styles.

So here are the latest, toe-up with garter stitch toes and heels, some patterning on the leg, and a rib-with-reverse-stockinette cuff edge. All of this was pretty much made up on the fly, and the short-rowing adjusted on the first heel so that I liked the end result. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock, and I will not use this again - the yardage is low (223 yds) for a pair of socks, and I'm not willing to buy two skeins at $20 each.

I'm now going to dig out one of the sweaters-in-progress, and see if I can get it closer to completion before it gets cold around here. I also need to get my projects together for traveling again, as I head out to the farm this Friday, then meetings in Colorado next week.

Add'l. Fair Photos, and more Socks

2005-09-06T11:25:00.000-04:00

Yes, more completed socks, and a sock pose that is a tribute to the Harlot's sock-on-the-go pictures. Though these socks did not go further than the fence in my back yard for their picture. They did do a fair amount of traveling in their infancy, though, as they were begun on the South America trip, put aside at a couple of inches each because it's hard to knit on dark navy in dim places, and were completed on my trip back from London last weekend. I guess that makes them officially 3-continent socks. Made for AZ, to go with his suits and other stuff, from Regia 4-ply on size one needles, they seemed to go on forever. I should mention that you might think that the legs look long, that's what he always wants so I pretty much just start toe-up and work until there's just a bit of yarn left. These are about 10 1/2 inches heel-to-cuff.

I somehow forgot a few pictures from the fair in my rush, so I'll add them here.

Please note the blue card on the oriental-style rug on the left, this was the Best-in-Show entry, and it was truly amazing. Hooked of 3/8" wool strips that had been dyed by the maker, it was really lovely. The other hooked rugs were great, too, I may have to try hooking at some point in the future, in all of my copious free time.

The fleece winners, lovely fleeces with great colors winning many of the top prizes. The grand champion was a black Corriedale X, and the blue ribbon on the top left was won by a beautiful moorit fleece entered by my friend Mary Pat. Her moorit corriedales are really great to spin, and I think I still have a bunch of Butterfinger or Buttercrunch's carded roving in the basement storage. Hmmm, I need to pull some of it out and start spinning.

This rug was made by Matthew, a friend who is not usually a knitter, so getting a ribbon will be a thrill for him, in fact it might be his only completed knitting project. Isn't it great? Garter stitch in superbulky Brown Sheep Burlyspun, I wish I had a rug like this - it might be a good project to dye up some of the zoo fleece for.

I'm off on the road again, taking tiny sample sock knitting with me. These will be for the KR Retreat class in November, and I'm have fun with them. It's amazing how just knitting and taking notes while I'm doing it is giving me good ideas to use in the class, and to send as pre-retreat preparation. I hope to have this all done in the next couple of weeks, so that I can relax and go back to WIP completion projects.

Columbia County Fair - Chatham, NY

2005-09-02T13:04:00.000-04:00

What a great day we had, the weather finally cooperated, and the humidity was much lower. The fair lived up to all of my hopes, though I did skip the ice cream in favor of a new (to me, at least) junk food treat. Frozen cheesecake on a stick! This was so good, I may make some for my next summer outdoor party. Slice the cheesecake into triangles about 2" at the end, stick popsicle sticks into the end, dip in melted chocolate, and freeze. One of the best parts, especially compared to ice cream on a summer day, is that there are no drips as you eat it.

Other than a couple of breaks for food and to look at quilts and an, I was spinning in the wool booth all day, with Claudia (seen above), Wendy (a new friend and great knitter) and a bunch of the local sheepy ladies. The booth was beautiful, with the competition items and the fleeces displayed really well. And how did my items do? Not bad, out of the 5 things I entered in various classes, I got 2 firsts and a third. One of the firsts was also awarded Best Handmade Article, and for this award I will get one of the donated prizes, which will be a fun surprise to receive. Anyway, I did take some pictures, and here they are.

Birch took a first, and was also the Best Handmade Article winner. Kind of surprising, as you can see some of the other very nice firsts surrounding it.

I know, it's geeky, but I even took a picture of the awards wall, showing the Best Handmade Article announcement. Just bear with me here, okay?

And the socks that won a ribbon at MDSW took a first at this fair, redeeming themselves for losing to acrylic and commercial sock yarns at the Mass S&W. I did get a comment there that they had a "different" type of heel, guess there aren't a lot of short rows in Yankee country. They are hanging between Wendy's amazing knit quilt afghan, and a cute Shy Sheep vest (you see it, Anj?).

(the third place was awarded to the fair isle bag featured a few posts ago on the blog, it was hanging on a doorway, and didn't photograph well)

I couldn't resist taking a picture in the Quilt Booth - really wonderful quilts, amazing workmanship, and nice ladies sewing in the booth. Every possibly style, even a couple of autograph and album quilts, as well as one with appliqued butterflies that the maker's grandmother had pieced during the Depression, rescued from an old cigar box found in the attic.

A fun day, nice people and weather, and ribbons - what more could I ask for?

Warm Winter Mittens on a Hot Summer Day

2005-09-01T06:30:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post - the completed mittens-

Lamb's Pride and pencil roving licing (is that a real word, or did I just make it up?). In fact, not even a full skein of LP, this would be a great project for the odd skeins of worsted weight that are stashed away with no purpose.

I'm off to the fair - I'll take my camera, but I'm not really sure how much battery I have left. One of the Elizabeth Peters Egyptian mysteries is all set on the Ipod, so the 2-hour drive should go quickly.

Socks and Mittens

2005-08-30T08:33:00.000-04:00

I did finish one more of the pairs of socks that have been on included in my project list, and I now remember why they have been unfinished for over a year - I hated working with the yarn. It is K1C2 Frosting, and I bought it on sale after I realized that there was a pattern in IK for some crew-style socks knitted with it. Nasty to knit with, it is 75/25% cotton/nylon, and it is nubbly like Fixation, but not soft like Fixation. They softened up a little with washing, but I think I'm going to try running them through the dryer, too and then see what they feel like. I do like the colors, though, but I have about 90% of the ball of the light color left, and am hoping to use it up for something. Oh, and the yarn unravels like a shot, as soon as you cut it. A real pain to weave in, and I wonder how well it will stay woven.

And here's a shot of the current project - Mittens with lice! I don't know if these are officially able to be called lice, but that's what they look like to me. I like the pattern, one of Claudia's new ones, written for 1 skein of Lamb's Pride and a small amount of a contrasting color (she suggests Lush, which would be nice and toasty warm because of the angora content). I used pencil roving, some Columbia oatmeal-y color that I had around, and the yarn is from a raffle at my spinning guild's Christmas party meeting. I'm not a big user of Lamb's Pride, but I like this dark royal blue color, and I like the mittens. The first is done already, but I'm not going to show it until I can show both, this is just to show that I am actually getting some knitting done.

So, completed mittens later this week, probably, and some spinning from the demo'ing that I will be participating in on Thursday at the Columbia County, NY Fair. It's a real old-fashioned rural county fair, just like the ones I went to growing up, and I'm looking forward to it.

Fair Isle Bag

2005-08-21T18:46:00.000-04:00

Here is a bag that is an adaptation of a bag by Beth Brown-Reinsel, adapted partly by Claudia, and further by me. It is done in Louet Gems Opal, which I really like, and bought by the pound at Convergence from the Louet booth. The handle is pretty long right now, I may shorten it, and will probably line the bag, but for right now I am leaving the inside as is so that I can admire the weaving in of what seemed like a million ends.

A detail shot, showing the second pattern and the corrugated rib a little better.

Other items are moving forward as well, and I finished one of the pairs of socks, but no pictures of them yet. I did take time to spin about 8 ounces this weekend, and since I'm a pretty fine spinner by nature, that's quite a bit of spinning. I haven't plied yet, but will take pictures after I do. I have been obsessed by the idea of a laceweight handspun shawl.

And I dyed this weekend as well, and made up some dye solutions. I love turkey roaster dyeing, in hot weather it seems to be the coolest method, at least for me.

Hopefully the heat will break soon, or at least the humidity!

Book Stash

2005-08-17T16:28:00.000-04:00

Immediate Disclosure - no pictures today, so if you're a picture junkie, you're out of luck. I just got back from a business trip.

Books. I will now freely admit to the entire world, or at least to myself and the subset of the world that reads the blog, that I have as little will power about books as I do about yarn and fiber. I buy books, lots of books. I buy fiction, non-fiction, hardcovers, paperbacks, used and new books. And, I am really bad about ever letting go of books, even the ones I don't like. There is one exception to this - the cheap, used paperbacks that I carry when I travel. I buy them at library booksales and rummage shops, usually paying only 25 or 50 cents, and I leave them freely in hotel rooms, on airplanes, and wherever I am when I finish reading them. They are mysteries, sci fi, romances, chick lit, or anything else that looks as if it will keep me entertained for at least a couple of hours (I am a very fast reader, especially when it's light fiction). But the rest of the books take up space - a lot of space.

My husband is a big advocate of using the library. I do use the library, I have been a library user since childhood. I looked forward to the Saturday trips to the county library, and my mother was persuaded to authorize an "adult section" card for me when I was 10, the earliest that they would allow. I volunteered in the school library, both in elementary and junior high. Nothing is better, though than going into Borders and bringing home a stack of books. Or getting a nice big box from Amazon or Overstock. I have lots of bookcases in the house, because I buy another one or two a year. Lately, because I've discovered Audible.com and my ipod, I have slowed the accumulation slightly, so this year it should be only one new bookcase. At some point in the future, we'll have to move, and boy will the movers hate me - books are heavy. I don't think I'll get rid of many, though, because then I won't be able to re-read them all without finding them again, and some would be difficult to find.

Knitting books - these are irresistible, even the ones that if I am honest about, I know I'll never make anything from. I love reading them, and getting excited about the neck of a sweater, or a beautiful color combination, or a clever edging on an aran that effectively disguises "cable spread". I am happy right now because I have recently received two books that I really wanted, Knitting Lace by Susanna Lewis, and The Art of Shetland Lace by Sarah Don. I am so excited, I want to cast on immediately. I have controlled myself, though, by the fact that there are 2 more WIPs that I remembered which need to be added to the list (from my last posting).

Coat in Rowan Felted Tweed, seed stitch, about 1/3 finished
Pullover in Tagliatelli, 1/2 finished

So, since the only thing removed is the Morehouse laceweight that has been frogged, and the work that I have put in on others hasn't quite resulted in completions yet, I am holding back due to the (revised) total of 13 WIPs. No new beginnings, not until I am down into single-digit WIPs.

None.

Not even the gray Border Leicester Laceweight that I am spinning, that would be a beautiful shawl.

Not yet.

MAFA Felting projects & WIPs

2005-08-09T15:48:00.000-04:00

I did take pictures of the felting projects that I did at MAFA, finally, and will now show them to show that I actually came away with more than tiny little sample skeins from the Patsy Z classes.

I decided to take a 3 hour felting class on Friday afternoon, because knew I would be doing lots of spinning in the rest of my classes. I chose one that promised exposure to a number of ways to felt, with some small finished projects. The teacher was Ruth Walker, who does wonderful felted hats and other accessories as well as teaching. I have 3 finished items from the class-

The one on the left is a pincushion (needles are stuck in it) and the smaller one is a ball, with a bell in the center, so it jingles when rolled or shaken. These were made by putting the fiber together with the embellisments, stuffing in a stocking toe, and putting them through progressively rougher washing machine agitations.

This is a small bag that was wet-felted on a form, then finished with hand felting on a textured surface (otherwise known as a dish drainer). It's a good size to hang from a wheel holding a bottle of spinning oil.

Martha asked about WIPs (I prefer to call them this rather than UFOs, I just can't think that UFOs sound like they have much of a chance of ever getting finished). I don't really ever count these up, but I will give it a try-

3 , no 4 pairs of socks, two pair about half finished, one needs to have a sewn bind-off done on the second sock, and one needs to have the toes finished on both
1 Fair Isle Bag - about 1 1/2 inches knitting left, then dealing with yarn ends (hundreds of ends, because there are 7 different colors in the bag)
2 cardigan-style sweaters, one 1/2 done, the other done except that one arm needs to be lengthened an inch, then both need to be assembled
1 Aran pullover, sleeves and body up to armholes, sleeves need to be attached and sweater knitted up to neck and finished
1 gansey, body done, sleeves need to be picked up and knitted down
1 sweater for DH, sleeves and back finished
1 baby sweater (no intended recipient, just knitting ahead), one half done
1 diagonal scarf from Morehouse lace-weight, very boring, I will probably frog this one and re-start in a more interesting pattern

Really, this isn't as bad as I thought! A total of 12 things, and I am actively working on the bag, if I finish this and then frog the Morehouse Merino it will be down to 10. I should be able to get it down to 5 or six by the end of the month, and then it will feel as if everything's back under control.

Birch - Finished

2005-08-08T08:27:00.000-04:00

Okay, here it finally is on display-

Birch, made from the pattern in Rowan 34 and 3 skeins of Douceur Swirls which is 70% kid mohair and 30% silk. I had a hard time taking a photo of this shawl, because it is a light color and I don't have a lot of dark backgrounds in my house. It's just on the dining table here, doesn't really fit but you get the idea. This is a really weightless-feeling shawl, but I imagine it will be pretty warm because of the mohair.

Another close-up shot-

I have now instituted a rule for myself that I MUST FINISH at least 2 of my UFOs before I can start any additional projects. I was starting to get overwhelmed by the number of things I have going, and the lace projects have been way too appealing lately. Helped by the fact that I am taking massive amounts of allergy medicines for a reaction to a minor virus this weekend, I finished a pair of socks that are intended to be a Christmas gift, and am about 10 rows short of finishing a fair isle bag/backpack that has been going since the spring. I really like working on the bag, but I kind of lost sight of it for a while.

I hope I can stick to the resolve, I have a couple of larger sweater projects that won't get finished quite as quickly, but if I can stick to finishing stuff, I'll feel much more organized, and will have new sweaters to wear this fall as an added bonus!

No spinning other than a little on a spindle, my hands and feet are pretty puffy from the viral reaction and spinning is just not going to be comfortable until this is cleared up.

New Template

2005-08-05T10:27:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to acknowledge changing my template - for some reason I was not happy with the original one, but changing it meant I had to tinker around a little. I guess next I have to figure out the links section, but that's for another day.

Also, no Birch photos - I was having a difficulty finding a dark background, and then the batteries on my camera gave up the ghost, so I'll try again this evening.

And for those who know that I don't name my wheels , or my cars, or really anything that is not a living, breathing person or animal, I should explain that Patience is the official model name of the wheel pictured below, not a name that I gave her.

Yeah - it's Friday!

On the Spinning Front...

2005-08-04T08:25:00.000-04:00

This may not look too exciting yet, but it will after spinning and knitting, because it's silk, one of my favorite fibers. Last year at Convergence I spent an entire day on silk, from the worm to the wheel. We learned a lot about silk, using microscopes to look at different types, watched slides and movies on the life cycle of the silkworm and the fiber, reeled silk filaments from simmering cocoons (I am so happy that I do not do this for a living!) and made our own mawatas (silk hankies) by stretching individual cocoons over a frame. In fact, we didn't even begin to do any spinning until after lunch. This all inspired me to buy lots of silk, in different preparations, at the Marketplace. I was tempted into slight insanity by a great sale on dyed silk caps, even though I know that caps are not a prep that I particularly like to spin. Mawatas, yes; caps, no.

So while taking a break from Birch over the weekend, and watching a Colin Firth movie called "Hope" (cute but not worth going out of your way for, unless you really like Colin), I stretched all of the three blue-green caps into roving. All I really need to do now is run it through the wheel and done. I haven't decided if I will leave it as singles, or ply it up. Probably singles, as the fibers are so long I can put in only a tiny amount of twist and it will hold together.

Here are the first singles that I was playing with to make my decision - great sheen, I hope I get enough out of this to make something interesting.

Pictured below is Patience, a Winsome Timbers cherry Saxony wheel that is what the silk is being spun on. I like this wheel very much, and I especially like that it is double treadle. As nice as Normie is, double treadle would make him absolutely perfect. The other nice thing about Patience is that I have a set of fast whorls and bobbins for her, so I can use ratios up to 36:1. This is a wonderful thing when you want to spin cotton on a big wheel.

At the same time I got the blue-green silk pictured above, I bought these caps, mostly because of the great bright colors. I don't know what I'll be doing with them, or even if I'll be doing it anytime soon, but I'm sure I'll have fun with them.

Birch is finished, but it was too dark to get a good picture last night when I unpinned it from blocking. I'll post something in the next few days.

Not A Shawl

2005-08-01T08:17:00.000-04:00

Here is a top that I finished a couple of days before MAFA (middle of July), and I am proud to say that it was entirely from the stash! I don't really remember where I got the yarn, maybe at a shop out in Oregon that was going out of business, a couple of years ago. It is sportweight, 50%cotton, 50% acrylic, so therefore is machine washable which is great for summer things. Even the pattern was a stash pattern (though I did modify it a little) intended for Reynolds Tucson. Unfortunately, I left the pattern in an airplane seat pocket, so I won't be making the version with the short sleeves, LOL. I modified the rib pattern at the bottom to make it non-symmetrical, and the armhole and neck ribbings a little as well. Even if I hadn't intended to modify the arm and neck ribbings, I guess I would have because by then I didn't have the pattern anymore!

Here's a little closer detail, the ribbing is 2-2-6-6, and because it is cotton it only pulls in some, which I like. The colors are pretty accurate - pink, gray, and turquoise, and they didn't really pool at all but did do a tiny bit of zig-zagging here and there. This took about 650 yards of the sportweight.

You may think the armholes look a little small, this was done on purpose as I hate cotton tops whose arms sag during the day, and you end up with an inch or two of bra showing under your arms. I now make all sleeveless tops with a shorter arm opening, to compensate, and of course a tight crocheted crab stitch or picked-up edging (as on this top) helps as well.

I was trying to photograph this top, and it looked terrible on every surface I tried. Then I thought of my dress from, lonely up in the sewing room since I don't do seamstressing (or much sewing at all) anymore. Voila - a much better picture, I'll have to do this more often in the future.

Plugging away on Birch in my free time, am now on the 3rd (and last) ball of yarn, so it may get finished this week. Then I am going to try to attack some UFOs and some spinning, provided the AC is working well.

Birch, and New Acquisition

2005-07-28T11:21:00.000-04:00

I have been knitting on Birch when I can, which means when I am in strong AC. It's being made of Douceur Swirls, which is about the weight of sewing thread, and is 70% kid mohair/30%silk. Really wonderful, and the variegated colors are very subtle and beautiful. (So subtle that they only show up so-so in photos)

I think this variegated version of Douceur et Soie may have been discontinued, I got it over a year ago in the sale room at Woodland Woolworks. If anyone is ever visiting in northwestern Oregon, take a detour to this store - the sale room alone will make it worth your while. Great deals on LOTS of yarn, and often in large amounts, some fiber on sale, and generally a bunch of used spinning and weaving equipment that has been taken as trade-ins on new equipment. Of course, they have a lot of great full-price stuff, too, and an amazing 2 walls of needles and knitting essentials.

I probably should mention here that while I am not affiliated with this store except as a customer, it is only 12 minutes (exactly 12 minutes unless you end up behind a tractor or cultivator or horse) from our farm in Newberg, Oregon. This is entirely a coincidence, though I think there are people that doubt this - I did not know exactly where the store was when we were farm-shopping a few years ago. Now that I know exactly where they are, I hope Charlie and Melda and their store are there forever, especially after I move out in a couple of years.

Enough of a digression, here is a Birch-in-progress after 8 days:

I am knitting this on #7 Bryspun circulars, 29 inch length. I love these needles! I have about 8 sets, and plan on getting most sizes in both 16" and 29" eventually. The cables are really, really flexible, and the points are nice and pointy. The join is okay, and I can live with that. Great for lace! The color shows up okay, not perfect but you can get the effect of the taupe base color, with dusty rose and sage green mixed in.

Another recent purchase that I really like, an oak spinning stool that fits me perfectly! No additions to the spinning wheel stash, which may be a surprise to some.

Note the nice curve and the handy handle for easy carrying - this has been going all over the house with me. Don't know who makes these, but I got it from The Mannings booth at MAFA, and other than a couple of little bags of soy silk that were on sale (so I was duty-bound to buy them), it was my only purchase.

More from MAFA soon - I realized that I have fun little felted things to show off from a class I took with Ruth Walker, I'll be taking pictures of these soon and posting them.

Blue Spruce Shawl

2005-07-26T05:52:00.000-04:00

The Bluce Spruce Shawl, my version of the Redwood Shawl pattern from SpiritTrail Fiberworks. The yarn is also from Spirit Trail, and is beautifully soft kid mohair/nylon blend, dyed in blues/purples and greens/blues colorways. I had the blue in my stash since Rhinebeck last year, and was suddenly inspired at Cummington by the pattern to combine it with the green, which was newly in Jen's stock. Hah, it never hit the booth before it joined my stash, and I cast on the shawl on the Tuesday after Memorial day. Since it's mohair, it was done on large needles, 10 or 10 1/2 I think, and took about 2 1/2 weeks to finish. Good thing, too, because it quickly got too hot around here to knit mohair!

Detail of the pattern

And here the variegation of the colors show up really well. I love the look of lace in non-solid yarn, as long as its not too busy to see the lace pattern. The pattern in the blue here is called Fir Cone, and in the original design is done in an orangey-brown. I just really liked the blue colorway, and since Charlotte was done in pink/orange, I went with the blue. Hence, the change from Redwood to Blue Spruce Shawl.

Added a little more to Birch last night. Also discovered that my dress form makes a great tank top model - more to follow on this later in the week.

Weekend Blahs

2005-07-25T09:02:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note - I may post more later with some pictures of my lastest finished shawl of the year (see, I'm leaving myself open here, assuming that I will continue on this shawl binge that I have been on).

Birch is moving forward slowly, I am blaming it on the muggy weather, which makes knitting with mohair-y yarns less appealing than at other times. I will take a picture-in-progress once it is longer than the current 4.5". At the risk of sounding whiney (or maybe I should use that great British term, "whinging" about it), I am feeling that these beginning rows which started with a cast-on of 299 stitches are going on forever. I've memorized the pattern, but as with all lace for me, it still requires some thought and oversight to make sure that the pattern doesn't go off. Stitch markers - nah, I don't use them. I find that I do much better by reading my knitting as I go along. I rarely have to do more than tink 5-6 stitches every inch or so of length knitted, especially since this is a nice short repeat of 10 stitches.

The black socks are moving slowly, they are really just train knitting and will get done eventually, don't need them right now anyway because it's sandal weather. Sandal weather is the only real compensation for the heat, humidity, and afternoon thunderstorms. My advice - if you want to come to NYC for a visit, come in May or October. Or better yet, if you don't mind the possibility of cold, the first week of December when the lights and decorations are all out but the intensity of the holiday season hasn't quite hit yet. The tourists that I am seeing these days look as if they don't quite know what hit them. There's a reason that many city people leave every weekend in the summer.

Charlotte's Web Attack

2005-07-22T16:21:00.000-04:00

Here is a shot of the Charlotte's web shawl that I did in May, draped over my great wheel. While it doesn't show the colors very well, it does a great job of showing the stitch pattern. I didn't really select the colors, they kind of were selected by my Wednesday bookstore cafe knitting group. For the past 2 years, I've been buying a skein of Koigu PPM when I visited LYS' as I travel around, if they carry it. No rhyme or reason, just a skein in a colorway that appeals to me. Fran in the knitting group had ordered skeins from a catalogue to make a CW, and thought she was getting variations of pink. She was unhappy because what she received looked more like variations of orange, with some pink. I offered to bring my 15 varied skeins to the meeting, and she could trade anything of mine into her grouping. While she was finding a batch she liked (with NO ORANGE), some of us could see an orange/pink/peach/brown trend appearing, and the upshot was that I cast on for a CW that evening. I was hooked on lace again, and two weeks later, it was already blocked and ready to take back to show off. This is a little weird, because I am not a speed knitter, and I am generally not a finisher of projects, much more a starter. I did think that the pattern has a good repeating, easy to remember motif, which of course helped.

Anyway, here are some of the colors close-up.

And a better representation overall of the colors, though what looks dark on the last couple of repeats is really medium and dark brown, not black.Not my usual color scheme, but surprisingly I like it a lot. I do have another batch of greens that came out of that Weds. night, though, that look a lot more like me, in general.

I really love Koigu, by the way, but as with all merino, I am not wild about it's blocking properties. In my experience, merino just does not like to hold a blocking, though I have never tried the starch trick. After all, doesn't starching soft, cuddly merino yarn seem to be like making a silk purse into a sow's ear, as my grandmother would say?

So, anyway, when I saw the kit for the Koigu Magique Cloak on sale for 50% off at Patternworks, including 41 (!) skeins of Koigu-dyed beautiful softness, I went ahead and leapt for it. I can very safely say that I will never make the pattern with the yarn, it is just not at all attractive to me, but now I have a collection of 50 (!) skeins of KPPM in my stash (original 15, used 6 for CW, plus 41 new skeins), and I am a happy person about this. See, the stash has a mind of it's own, right?

Oh, and I am letting the wonderful reviews of MAFA by Jen and B say it all for me, too. We had a great time, were surrounded by fiber and like-minded people, and someone else cooked. It doesn't get much better than that.

Current Projects

2005-07-21T09:03:00.000-04:00

I am working on a couple of pairs of socks, but one is black , and one is navy. My Wednesday night knitting alternates between a Barnes & Noble that is very well lit, and a Borders that is very dimly knit. Last night was at Borders, so the dark socks weren't going to work. Neither was the idea of starting a shawl with the plum baby alpaca that I brought back from Peru.

I have been tempted by all of the mentions of Birch, the shawl in Rowan 34 that has become a popular project in the knitting/blogging world. I saw Claudia's at the Alden Amos workshop last month and really liked it. The pattern is written for Kidsilk Haze, but in looking over my stash spreadsheet, I have some Douceur Swirl, the multicolor version of Douceur et Soie, in a light taupe with soft sage, rose, and gold hightlights. I think it will work really well as a substitute for the Rowan yarn. However, I am reserving opinion on working from the long side of the triangle down to the point - casting on 299 stitches was no fun! The only good thing will be that it will go much faster as I get going further than the 3 rows I now have. I will post a picture after it gets to a length that starts to look like something.

Good thoughts are going out to Rosebyany this weekend as she continues her journey - watch a chick flick for me, too!

Normie

2005-07-20T16:08:00.000-04:00

My amazing Norman Hall wheel

And a close-up of the flyer, showing how amazingly large the bobbins are (and how long I can spin without dusting the wheel)

This picture also shows the tensioning system well - it is a tilt-tension, which I think is the easiest double-drive tension system. The screw can be turned as the bobbin fills, in very small increments, so that the tension can be maintained evenly throughout the bobbin.

I have 9 spinning wheels - this is counting the ones that are seldom spun on, such as the charka and the (antique, signed, fully functioning) great wheel. My first wheel was a Majacraft Suzie, and I still like her very much. In fact, I generally like all of the Majacraft wheels, it's just that I have discovered that for my type of spinning, I really like double drive, realtively fast wheels. I have 3 Majacrafts (one's out at the farm, so I'm not sure that it really counts), but they are all Scotch tension.

So, the latest 3 wheels are all double drive, with ratios that are on the higher side of average. I use them all, but for different things. The newest is a Timbertops Suitcase wheel, which is a saxony that completely comes apart for travel - the largest piece being the 18" rim-weighted drive wheel. It is good, but does take a few minutes to put together. I carry it around in a large tote-style basket, and the next time I get a chance I'll take a picture of it in the basket, it's pretty funny looking.

But Normie, seen above, is definately the most pleasurable wheel to spin on for extended periods of time. I don't even mind that he is single treadle, though I am a double treadle kind of girl. For anyone looking for a wonderful wheel about 7-10 yars from now, get on Norman Hall's list to be on the deposit list. Yep, he now has 2 lists, you need to be on a list to get on THE list. But hey, what do you have to lose? These wheels appreciate in value after you have them, and you won't even have to give him a deposit for at least 3-5 years.

Now you can see why the blog is titled as it is - I don't just stash yarn (1348 skeins and 20 cones at the latest count) or fiber (about 90 pounds right now, I really need to set up a spreadsheet for this as I have for my yarn) but I even stash wheels!

South American Snowdrop

2005-07-19T07:34:00.000-04:00

I thought about what to take as a knitting project on the Peru/Ecuador trip for a few weeks before, even consulting with several of my knitting buddies (hi, Claudia, Joanne, and Martha, if you read this!) as to what would work best. Folks thought of socks, because I am a continuous sock knitter, but I wanted to do something a little more interesting. I don't remember exactly when the idea of a lace shawl came up, a slightly unusual thought as I am not generally an enthusiastic lace knitter. Sweaters, scarves, hats, bags, the constant socks, but no lace shawls - not for any real reason that I can think of, I just hadn't done any large lace items. Okay, this would be the perfect time, along with a new pair of socks for a change of pace.

Which lace shawl? I wanted something interesting, triangular, with a knitted-on edging. I considered the Strawberry Pie shawl by Alison Hyde, but it wasn't exactly right for this trip. Then I was reading Yarn Harlot's blog, and noticed her Snowdrop Shawl on the menu. Perfect, interesting but repetitive enough that I wouldn't need a pattern after the first bit, both on the body and the edging. The yarn? I had 1200 yards of Shetland handspun, handpainted fingering weight nicely aged in the stash, from a trip to Scotland, oh, maybe 17 or 18 years ago, in a mauve/rose coorway. Looked good, so I decided to forget about a swatch, and just go for it.

I cast on the initial 3 stitches at JFK, waiting to board the Lan Peru flight (the shawl is knit from the point upwards) and cast off at noon on the last day in Ecuador (14 days later). I was persuaded to wear it, unblocked but ironed a little on the edging, to the farewell dinner in Quito, where it was a big hit. People who had seen me carrying around the "pink stuff" on needles, and who couldn't understand why I would be doing it, were among the loudest in praise of the finished item. Go figure - one even wanted to buy it!

So here it is, blocking at home in NY -

This was done on a double bed, covered with an old mattress pad, which is my preferred blocking surface. It's in the guest room, it's an antique cast-iron bed and is therefore higher than most modern beds, so is a little easier on the back while inserting many, many pins. You can see that the shawl goes from end to end and side to side of the bed. I didn't ever measure the finished size, but I guess if I knew the size of a double mattress, that would be the size of this shawl.

Here's the detail of the patten:

And the finished shawl draped over the corner of the piano, showing the color variagation a little better:

I really liked this pattern (made one mistake, and it is visible on the last photo - can you see it?) and will make it again. It started me on a lace frenzy, and there will be more examples of that coming up. Next time, though, a few comments on spinning wheels.

South America Pictures - Will They Work?

2005-07-18T22:10:00.000-04:00

I seem to be able to post pictures, so even though I am not entirely happy with the template, I will continue with this blog as is for now.

Firstly, I want to let everyone know that this is primarily a fiber blog - knitting, spinning, maybe a little felting, probably not weaving, as I am not a weaver. Will not be a weaver in the imaginable future, I tried it once many years ago, had a loom living at my house for a few months, and never got to like it. And warping! This has to be one of the most diabolical types of torture I know of. (Though I do have a warping board, I got it about 2 years ago for dyeing experiments, to make long color change handpainted yarns, which it does well)

Anyway, I am currently blogging from the road (how weird does that sound?, as if I were a real blogger) so I do not yet have pictures of my in-progress projects to display. However, I really like the Indian woman weaving shown above, so I thought I would post some other fiber-related pictures from our trip to Peru and Ecuador a couple of months ago. It was a great trip, I love the Inca ruins and the Quechua culture, and the mountains are amazing. If anyone wants to see non-fiber pictures, let me know and I'll post a couple.

There was a lot of spinning, weaving, and knitting going on, even in the cities. Done mostly by the Indians and often displayed for the benefit of tourists, it was still very interesting to watch. Once I conveyed, in my poor Spanish, that I wanted to buy spindles, wool, and alpaca, I was treated more as an individual than just as a "gringa". In the local markets out in the country, there was a lot of acrylic yarn, but there was also wool and wool yarn, eagerly purchased by women of all ages. I knitted a lace shawl during the course of the trip, which was always exclaimed over by the locals, they seemed very surprised to see it.

Note: It's now Monday morning, the pictures from the laptop didn't work, so I'm trying again.

A mother and daughter, posing with their alpacas. While the people often wear colorful folk dress as their normal clothing, the alpaca is dressed up in a colorful yarn collar, usually it's just a rope.

This woman is knitting at a bus stop, where she is selling the sashes, bags, and dolls that she has spread on a blanket. She's using burgundy-colored wool, about sport weight, and needles that are probably about #4's.

This Quechua woman is spinning on a bottom-whorl drop spindle, as she is using black wool. The wool is held in her left hand, and the spindle in the right. When she has filled two spindles, she will roll both singles held together into a ball, and then spindle again, adding the plying twist.

Okay, since this seems to work fine from my office, I'll post it as is. Later in the week, there will be some actual fiber content of my projects, including the shawl that was knitted during the South American trip.

Testing, Testing

2005-07-12T16:55:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm going to try this out - but only if I can get the photo posting to work. Otherwise, there won't be much content at all!

Test Photo - Quechua woman weaving outside Cuzco, Peru

Well, let's see how it worked - back later

Okay, I came back, and after editing, maybe it will work now