I finally finished it yesterday. Now I not only have a huge stash, but I have a lovely place to put it -- a place that celebrates the importance of stash in my life. 
Now my goal is to wrangle it down into the basement/studio and only the roving that will fit in it gets to stay! Although the chest is huge, choosing only the wool that will fit in it will be a challenge. 
The stripes continue to be stripey. I can't wait to dye my next pair!
The stripes keep on coming! I think this technique will work well if I can figure out how to dye. I'm excited! 
Today was the Weaver's Guild Christmas party. We had a great crowd and a LOT of goodies to eat. I made springerles like last year. It's almost a tradition because I've got the greatest cookie mold with a lady spinning on it. I saved half the batch to take with me next week to the Friendship Spinner's Christmas retreat at Shakertown.
I've made some more progress on the treasure chest (steamer trunk). The cedar panels are installed in the bottom and 
I bought some pretty reproduction cotton cloth to line it with. 
I don't think I'll use it, but I also found some cloth that actually has bees on it that are kind of similar to 
the pattern on the paper originally lining the trunk. Putting the lining in is the last job and then the trunk can take up residence in "Wool & Bull" and I can fill it with stash.
The stripes are coming! If you ignore the poor dye job and the blobs of white wax, you can see stripes! Since my poor dyeing technique and the unfortunate wax decision don't really have much to do with the outcome I was testing -- the striping effect -- I consider this a success! 
On the positive side, the untangling of the skeins turned out to be fairly easy -- with patience. I laid each skein out in what I hoped was the same position as it had been on the warping board and began to wind it into a ball. With a few snags, much fewer than I had feared, I was able to wind it into a ball and then use my ball winder to make a center pull ball. 
Kate's enthusiasm for the yarn I made with the shades of red roving inspired me to actually complete her scarf right away. I used the Branching Out lace pattern from Knitty. 
It's blocking on the living room floor right now.
I decided how I wanted the stripes arranged and then wound on the yarn (2 rounds for each row of knitting). My pattern was to have 8 rows of color #1, followed by 2 rows of color #2, then 5 rows of color #3, and 2 rows color #2 again -- and repeat. I wanted to use Fibonnacci numbers for all of my rows. 
I decided to ply the shades of red roving from Violet against a red silk thread that I had and it turned out pretty nice. In fact, it received the highest compliment imaginable -- my fourteen-year-old wants me to make her something out of it! She really likes it. 
I'm anxious to see what it's going to look like after nearly a year on my needles. I'm always surprised by the new stitches. I start out not really liking them but, after I've worked five or six inches of the pattern, I decide I love the pattern and want to make a whole sweater out of just that pattern. I'm definately learning a lot of new stitches that I'll want to use again.
I'm also just starting my second sock from a pattern in Charlene Schurch's book, Sensational Knitted Socks. 
The yarn is some that was given to me by Judy Ditmore at Knitter's Connection -- a beautiful and colorful blend of merino and silk. They won't be machine washable, but the yarn is practically edible. 
Off my needles: I've given up on the Secret of the Stole knitalong. I'm just not patient enough to deal with lace yet. I had to rip it out three or four times and start over and -- although I can see it would be very beautiful -- I can't see spending that much time to make a garment I really would never wear. Seriously, I'm just not the gauzy lace type. My time would be much better spent knitting an aran cardigan.
Unfortunately, it wasn't thin enough and the black pretty much overwhelmed the blue. Still, it's pretty yarn and will make some great socks -- it looks better than the picture shows.
I want to keep the end product superwash so I can use it for socks, so I'm thinking of plying it against some silk thread I've got. I'm not sure how that would work out. The matter requires further investigation.
I also finished these fingerless gloves from my handspun merino/silk blend. 
And I made these hats for Ally's History teacher's children. I made a tea cosy, but I still need to needle felt a decoration on it. 
I also made a pink ribbon scarf for a friend of mine who has breast cancer. So, I haven't been completely knit-less. 
I do have my work station up and running complete with printer and scanner. 
I've set up files for patterns and organized my crafting books. I have pictures on the walls and 
I converted my spinning wheel clock to a battery operated mechanism. 
My yarn is ensconced in its cubbies and my spinning and dyeing tools are organized in the dresser drawers. My soap making equipment is organized. 
My overwhelming stash of roving is contained in eight plastic tubs stacked against the wall. Still, there is much left to do.
She never dreamed it would go that low. She brought it home and cleaned it up ... refinished the exterior wood and polished the brass and tin exterior and gave it to me as an elegant stash storage unit. I'm working now on refinishing the interior. 
The paper on the inside was a really nice bee pattern, but it was so old and discolored that I have to remove it. 
After I finish removing the paper, 
I'll sand it out and reline the interior with tacked on cotton fabric. The bottom, however, will be solid cedar! I've already bought the planks. I'm looking at fabric from a company that sells reproduction fabrics, or maybe just some upholstery fabric that looks in keeping with the time period. The only thing I'm on the fence about is the exterior -- the tin and wood are great, but there's a lot of black metal that I'd like to paint a deep blue or forest green to lighten it up a little. I'm afraid that will take away from the authenticity, but I'm the one who will be living with it. I suppose it could be repainted black in the future if necessary. 
My first class was with Candace Eisner Strick and was called "25 Tricks of the Trade." It was an all day class and we learned a lot of helpful tricks for doing things like knitting backwards, making buttonholes, some two color knitting. We had a great time.
My last class was a LOT of fun and memorable, but, again, I'm not sure how much it helped me. It was called "Color Challenges" with Judy Ditmore. Judy was a blast and her class can be summed up very simply: You can put any colors together -- ANY colors -- as long as you use them in Fibonacci ratios. 
She had us prove it to ourselves by putting yarn of various colors on index cards and then by knitting swatches with three colors we like, randomly selected, plus two colors we don't like, randomly selected. Strangely, her theory seemed to work. I made my swatch into a bracelet and I've been wearing it all the time.
Although Miss V had a mysterious illness and spent part of her time in the hospital, she was able to attend part of the time and we got to meet her and side-show husband (who is incidentally a hunk!). 
Miss Lime was charming and hysterically funny. Miss Lime is shown here autographing Gerald's leg. Gerald works for Knitting Merchantile and was hilarious. I really enjoyed hanging out with them. 
I don't know what they'll cut, but they interviewed me for the podcast so I may be on the show!
I introduced myself to Gwen and showed her my progress on the SSK knitalong I'm doing with her. She was so sweet -- she ran up to her hotel room and brought down the original Sample Stitch Kimono so I could see it.
My last minute trip to Maryland was a complete success. Everything just seemed to work out perfectly. I got airfare from Columbus for $144, Barb needed a roommate so I was able to split the hotel room with her and I rented a cool Jeep for the same price as an economy car. We had a wonderful group of 10 from Friendship Spinners all staying at the Fairfield Inn in Frederick: Barb, Nancy, Theresa, Linda, Sandy, Betty and Mark, Carol and Ted, and me. 
The Festival was HUGE, as usual. It took me two full days even to SEE it all. They had everything that a fiber lover could love. 
They had sheep and alpacas. 
These alpacas were especially cute with their funky haircuts. They also demonstrate the difference between Suri and Huycaya alpaca. The alpaca to the left with the dread locks is Suri and the fuzzy one to the right is Huycaya. Aren't they adorable? 
This lady was proudly leading her newly purchased sheep to the truck and let me take a picture. Her only worry, she said, was how to break it to her husband that she was coming home with another sheep! 
This sheep is getting a haircut. I was impressed with the way the shearer, a slim woman, was able to handle that large sheep. 
This woman was demonstrating spinning directly from the bunny. She had some beautiful English angoras. I've tried doing that with Andy and he won't sit still long enough for me to spin anything. He just jumps off my lap. Her angoras were much better behaved!
The auction on Saturday called to my frugal (stingy) tendencies and sucked me in for most of the day and I scored big time. I got a Brother Knitting Machine for $20!!! and, if that wasn't enough, I snapped up an item that's been on my wish list for years: an Ashford lace flyer. They run $180, the primary reason that I don't have one. At the auction, I was able to get one for $80 -- $100 off! I was thrilled! 
The lure of Tess' Designer Yarns, however, was sufficient to draw me to it. I don't know how Melinda does it! It's just yarn and it's just dye -- but she makes it into art. Her booth is just too beautiful to be described. She groups her yarns by colorway, not type and the effect makes you want to swoon. It's overwhelming. And the yarn! So soft, so lovely, almost edible. Unfortunately, it's expensive. I bought two skeins of sock yarn, which were very reasonably priced at $15 each. 
Then I had to buy a skein of her cultured silk and wool (50/50). It was $30 for 200 yards (100 oz.), but so worth it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm glad I bought it. I may just hang it on the wall for inspiration. 
Saturday evening we gathered at the hotel for the annual "Run From the Roses" party. Linda supplied us all with cute little jockey hats and we placed our bets (actually we drew our horses randomly). 
Barb won the pool -- it must be good luck to room with me. I think Lorain won last year. 
On Sunday, I spent more time at the booths. I also toyed with the idea of buying a raw fleece. Carol had bought a gorgeous dark brown fleece and I was tempted to follow her lead. I was looking for Shetland to spin on my new lace flyer. 
They had bags and bags -- some beautiful, some crappy and filled with dirt. I ended up foregoing the "pleasure" of all that preparation (I've still got about five pounds of raw Romney in the basement)
and bought 8 0z. of Shetland roving from Louis at Little Barn. I also bought 10 skeins of his inexpensive worsted weight wool in black. I'm hoping to make a sweater and accent it with other colors, like a stained glass window effect. 
Four teams competed in the "Sheep to Shawl" competition on Sunday morning. They started with a sheep at 8 a.m., sheared it, carded the wool, spun the wool and wove a shawl before 10:30 a.m. The shawls were then auctioned off for charity. 
Another cool thing was the team knitting. A group of four knitters all were working together in a circle on one afgan, which they were going to give to "afgans for Afgans." They gave me a set of instructions -- somehow each knitter knits with one half of two sets of circular needles, so the circular needles go around the outside edges. It's hard to conceptualize, but it worked. 
For lunch on Sunday, I chowed down on a leg of lamb sandwich. I couldn't decide which condiments I wanted, so I put mint jelly on one half and horseradish and pickle relish on the other half. It was really good! 
Sunday night we had better luck with our dinner -- at least for those who were still around to eat it. Nancy and Theresa left at noon and Betty and Mark were gone too. We went to the Red Horse Inn and had a marvelous meal. It was a quiet, relaxing atmosphere. They seated us immediately and were very accomodating about making out separate checks. And the food was incredible! I had a petite filet mignon and a crab cake and it came with salad, potato and asparagus. It was a real treat. 
Here are my purchases (except the Shetland roving, which somehow missed the picture). It was a wonderful trip. I had a great time wandering the aisles at the Festival and a super great time hanging out with a delightful group of spinners. 
