Spinning a Yarn

New Address

2008-02-11T13:42:00.000-05:00

Hi again! I've been thinking about using a new name for my blog for a while and I finally did it. In the future, please view my ramblings at Wool & Bull. See you over there! Thanks!

The Camera is Back!

2008-02-11T12:08:00.000-05:00

Hi! I haven't been posting because my camera broke and blogging is no fun without pictures. In the meantime, I purchased a NEW camera with twice the power of the old one, but I don't have a card reader for it yet. I suppose there's a way to hook it up to the computer, but it's so new that I haven't figured out all querks yet.

HOWEVER, DH said we might as well have the old one repaired to use as a back up camera and it arrived a few minutes ago by FedEx all repaired and servicable, if not exciting.

Just in time, because I desperately wanted to share the fun I've been having with my fiber sampler. As I explained in previous posts, Susan's Spinning Bunny sells a fiber sampler where you buy small quanities of five different fibers all dyed in the same colorway. That way you get a taste of how each material feels and spins. I'm plying the last one right now, so I'm almost done, but it has been a real blast. There's just enough fiber in each sample to give you a good feel for it, but it's also a very quick spin. There's no time to get bored.

Left to right, the samples are: Targhee, Kid Mohair/Merino, Superwash Merino/Tencel and Alpaca/Merino/Silk. Oddly, the one I didn't enjoy spinning (as much) was the Alpaca/Merino/Silk. It didn't draw as nicely and I had a harder time keeping the diameter even. The Kid Mohair/Merino and the Merino/Tencel both flew through my fingers delightfully.

Now I'm looking for a project to knit all the samples into. . . Something to display the different properties of each fiber. They may all look similar, but you can see the sheen on the tencel and how the different fibers absorbed the dye differently. They also feel different. The Targhee is springy and the Alpaca/silk/merino feels slightly slick. The angora and the mohair samples will also have a little halo once they're knit up and knocked around a little.

While I was waiting to become visual again, I also finished up a lovely scarf I've been wanting to make for a long time. The pattern is from Loop-d-Loop, and I admired it on a lady at Friendship Spinners two years ago. It looks so complex, but it's a relatively quick knit [for SOME people -- I didn't follow the directions correctly, so I had to take it apart and put it back together several times]. I added the seed stitch border at the bottom. I'm thinking it would be a good gift -- even for non-knitters -- I'm looking toward Christmas knitting already.

Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to show you the beautiful gift my friend Lynne got me just for no reason (the BEST gifts of all!). It's for my studio, Wool and Bull, which is slowly but surely coming together. I hauled six boxes of junk out of the basement yesterday (sometimes it's good to have teenaged girls because they attract teenaged boys and teenaged boys can be impressed into hard labor that involves lifting heavy objects like defunct computer monitors). Anyway, the ram is a perfect decoration for Wool and Bull. He looks way more dignified than any real sheep -- I LOVE it.

Visual Aids

2008-01-16T08:08:00.000-05:00

Since the last post was really light on pictures -- none -- I thought I'd add a couple here to show you the yarn I'm spinning right now. I sent Susan of "Susan's Spinning Bunny" a picture of the yarn I made with her Targhee roving in her Hibiscus colorway and she put it on her shop's website. Cool!

I started the Merino/Mohair in the same colorway last night and it's a dream to spin. You could tell the Targhee would make a springy cuddley yarn. This Merino/Mohair is more elegant. It has a sheen and a silky smooth feel. I'm finding that I'm unintentionally spinning it more finely than I did the Targhee. This will be a problem when I try to make a project out of the five different samples!

I also can't wait to dive into the hand dyed baby llama Susan sent as the first installment of "Fondle This," the spinning fiber of the month club. It's gorgeous! So much spinning, so little time.

January Update

2008-01-08T19:35:00.000-05:00

I taught the self-striping sock yarn class on Roc Day at the Weaver's Guild last Saturday. It went fairly well, considering I'd only done it twice before myself. Strangely, four of the seven people who signed up for the class -- which specifically stated that we would be learning to make self-striping sock yarn -- had no interest in making self-striping sock yarn. Two just wanted to dye sock yarn, but not make it self-striping, and two just weren't interested in making socks at all. Nevertheless, we had a pretty good time and everyone seemed okay with the experience.

In an unexpected preparation snag, Knitpicks didn't send the 8 skeins of undyed sock yarn in time for the class and I was running around all day Friday trying to scrouge up some suitable yarn at a reasonable price. The Knitpicks yarn arrived exactly two hours too late to do me any good and now I have 8 skeins of undyed sock yarn in my stash.

I've been spinning the Five Fiber Sampler I got from Susan's Spinning Bunny. I chose the Hibiscus colorway and I've already spun (but not plied) the Targhee. It's beautiful and I think it will make a lovely springy yarn.

Oh! The Christmas update! I got a lot of yarn-related goodness from the DH. He got me the Knitpicks Harmony needle set and the Sweater Wizard software!!! They haven't come in from Knitpicks yet, but I can't wait! He also got me the the Twisted Sister's Sweater Workshop book.

The Ultimate Stash Container

2007-12-04T10:13:00.000-05:00

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!

Christmas gets an early start

2007-12-01T22:07:00.000-05:00

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.

Yipes! Stripes!

2007-11-30T13:55:00.000-05:00

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!

However, I did have a moment of embarassment as I began knitting. I knitted and knitted and the stripes seemed to be coming out about twice as wide as I expected them to be. Hmm ... What could be causing this? I expected some variation, but twice as much? Surely my math wasn't that bad ... Oh, yes, it was.

I put the pegs 15 inches apart thinking that if a row of knitting used 30 inches of yarn, you would wrap it twice for one row of knitting. Does anyone see the fallacy here? The yarn goes TO the peg -- 15 inches -- and BACK from the peg -- another 15 inches -- for a grand total of 30 inches for each wrap. So, each row of knitting would be only one trip around the peg, not two. Oh, well. The proportions will still be the same.

Self-Striping Socks cont.

2007-11-29T13:54:00.000-05:00

I'm ready to start knitting the supposedly self-striping socks. Kate helped me pick some colors yesterday and I dyed the hanks.

The dying process was a little more troublesome than I expected. I think I need to work out a better way to dye the hanks separately while keeping them together. I ended up putting each hank in an old clean spagetti sauce jar and adding dye to the jars. Unfortunately, since I put the yarn in first, it was difficult to stir the dye to blend it and the colors didn't turn out as uniform as they should have. I then put all three jars in a pan in the oven at 200 degrees for an hour. After the yarn cooled, I rinsed it twice in water and synthropol and hung it up to air dry.

There was a significant white space between each hank (about 4 inches) and I dripped a good bit of candle wax at the middle of the white space to prevent the colors from bleeding over. Bleeding over wasn't really much of a problem though, and I ended up with white space and a lot of candle wax that is proving to be difficult to remove. Again, I think I'll have to think up something else next time.

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.

Now I'm ready to knit. I hope it makes reasonable stripes. Stay tuned for further developments!

UFO to FO!

2007-11-28T11:51:00.000-05:00

I've got another finished object! 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've also been busy this morning attempting to make self-striping sock yarn. I used Scout's idea on Knitty Gritty for making a warping board suited to this purpose .., and incorporated ideas from other sources ... and my own. I'm using an inexpensive peg board from the hardware store that has holes spaced 1" apart.

I knitted a 10 row swatch in the round using sock yarn and #2 double points, then I pulled it apart and measured it (not counting the cast-on -- which was not considered a row). Dividing by 10 indicated that each row of knitting consumed 30.8 " of yarn.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to be exact and that 15" is a lot easier to wind than 30", so I rounded down and placed my pegs 15" apart. Winding around the pegs twice would equal 1 row of knitting (approximately).

To have more than one stripe color, though, I needed more than one set of pegs. I set a second and third set of pegs on the peg board in the arrangement below:

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.

Next, I'll choose colors and do the actual dying. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I think I'll drip some wax on the yarn at the place where it changes colors to keep it from bleeding. I tied the skein for each color in three places, but I can see that it will probably be a challenge to rewind the yarn into a skein without too many tangles. Also, as I was winding the skeins, the dowels I used for pegs tended to bend inward, making the distance between the pegs even shorter. I tried to wind loosely, but it may not look exactly right.

Dyeing and Bleeding

2007-11-03T18:58:00.000-05:00

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.

The only problem I had with it was when I set the twist, the yarn bled ... a lot. That's pretty common with red dyes, but I think the color is less vibrant than it was before and that's disappointing.

I'm making progress on the stash chest. I've almost got all the paper scraped off and I already sanded one wall.

The Prodigal Knitter Returns

2007-10-23T10:56:00.000-05:00

Okay, okay ... I haven't totally blog faded. I've been THINKING about blogging -- just not doing much about it. Then, I decided I had too much catching up to do to do it properly. Finally, I was listening to a L&V episode and Lime said she had been putting off blogging for that very reason. She was very sensibly advised to forget about catching up and just start again. So, here we go.

On my needles: I'm still working on the sample stitch kimono. 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.

I recently spun up the second half of the Lime and Violet roving I bought from Vi at Knitter's Connection. The superwash roving I bought was a 2 ounce hunk of varigated blue and a 2 ounce hunk of varigated red. I didn't like the idea of plying blue and red together, so I spun up the blue and plied it with a very thin black superwash yarn. 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.

Now I need to figure out what to do with the shades of red singles. 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've been looking at my blog side bar and noticing how empty the "Finished Objects" category is. It's not really as bad as all that. I've been working steadily on the Sample Stitch Kimono all year but -- by design -- it won't be finished until December (or, more likely, January). 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'm still working on my fiber studio/law office in the basement, which Jeff has christened "Wool & Bull." Progress has been made -- but there's still a lot to do. 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.

A special addition to my studio/office was contributed by my favorite sister, Kathryn. She bought this enormous steamer trunk at an auction by accident for $25. 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.

Thanks for looking in after my long absence from the blog-o-sphere!

Knitter's Connection

2007-06-29T14:40:00.000-05:00

Wow... It's been a long time since I've posted. We've been doing a lot of home fix-up projects and I've been too tired and sore to post. My left hand is actually numb -- which makes it difficult to type. My doctor, Larry, says it's an ulnar nerve thing and nothing to worry about.

However, the past month has not been without fibery goodness! The first week of June, I attended "Knitters Connection" in Columbus, where I took three classes and met some of the illuminati of the knitting world. 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.

The second class I took was "Changing Numbers" with Maureen Mason Jamieson. The idea was to learn to adapt patterns to fit you perfectly. I'm not sure I got a lot out of it. The part that was most useful was common sense and, as a designer, Maureen took the attitude that there are "normal" sizes and "abnornal" sizes. Easy for her to say in her size 8 perfection.

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.

One evening Cat Bordhi gave a lecture on sock architecture and also showed us a bunch of her moebius things. I've got to buy one of her moebius books now. She was wonderful and SO creative.

In addition to the classes, and one of the highlights of the event for me, Lime and Violet did a live podcast from Columbus. 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!

The last night I was there, I attended the Author's Reception, where I got a chance to meet Shannon Okey and Gwen Bortner and hang out with Lime and Violet some more. Shannon was a hoot! 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.

All in all it was a great time and, considering all the home repair stuff I've been doing, I really needed the break.

Maryland Rocks!

2007-05-09T09:03:00.000-05:00

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.

Friday night, I arrived in Baltimore around midnight and picked up the car for the 30 minute drive to Frederick. At 2 a.m. I was still driving around Baltimore trying to find my way to Frederick. I drove under the harbor tunnel twice (and paid $2 each time for the privilege). I didn’t panic, but I was a mite confused. Eventually, I found my way out of the city and got to the hotel around 2:30, totally exhausted. Barb was so sweet – she’d been worried about me and was glad to see I had made it safely.

Saturday morning, then, I slept in. I got to the Festival around noon and immersed myself in the sights and smells of utter wool abandonment. Too much hyperbole? Not really. It was heaven on earth for the fiberholic.

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!

I can see that the auction is going to be dangerous to me. They had all sorts of amazing eclectic items that you'd never see anywhere else and at amazing prices. They had antique skein winders with clickers (another item on my wish list), and looms and a kick spindle and spool holders and warp reels and carders and combs -- everything you could think of. It was hard to tear myself away.

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.

After the race we went to May's for a crab dinner. I think we'll go somewhere else next year. We were underwhelmed. Even though we had a reservation, we had to wait for 45 minutes and they refused to do separate checks for our party of ten. The service was slow and somewhat surly and there was a puddle of water on the floor that they never cleaned up, even after a waitress slipped in it. The food, however, was good. I guess that's how they stay in business. It certainly isn't their charming atmosphere or excellent service.

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!

I hung around until they closed down the Festival -- irritating the vendors by wandering around the booths while they were trying to put everything away. I just didn't want it to end.

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.

Monday, I made my leisurely way to the airport for my 4:20 flight, which was uneventful and I got home from Columbus around 11:30. 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.

I hope Linda and Sandy made it to airport with Roseannadanna. She was getting a little testy ....

What I've been doing instead of knitting

2007-05-01T09:41:00.000-05:00

The basement/fiber studio is coming along. I've gotten two walls almost completely painted and I need to put together four Sauder (cheap!) bookcases today to line one wall.

Kate helped me pick out the paint, which is NOT white. We decided we (actually I) wanted to make the basement seem warmer and cosier, so we chose green. I wanted a lighter color called "desert cactus" but Kate insisted that "Pesto" would be prettier and I have to admit that I like it. It looks good with the (fake) parquet flooring.

I have a bunch of great ideas for what I want to do with the space, but getting it done is another thing. We'll see.

I've been spinning some of my gray Rambouillet this morning. I'm hoping that it will eventually turn into a sweater.

I'm also working on a pink ribbons scarf out of mohair for a friend of mine with breast cancer. The scarf makes a repeat of ten ribbons but, unfortunately, I did the first one wrong (see second picture for pitiful messed up ribbon design) so I think I'm going to have to rip it back and start again. Oh, boy, here we are again ripping out mohair. Maybe it isn't the crochet that's cursed at all -- maybe it's the mohair!

Back to business

2007-04-24T10:04:00.000-05:00

Now that the vacation to England is over and the Yarn Harlot has returned to Toronto, I guess life needs to settle down to normal.

I've made good progress on the Sample Stitch Kimono (SSK) and caught up with the rest of the group. You do one strip in a different pattern each month and I finished the April strip yesterday. Here are all four in all their glory (they haven't been blocked yet, so they're a little curly). I'm really enjoying this project because the strips are all narrow enough that it's easy to rip back if you make a mistake. The patterns are great and just about the time you're sick of one, it's over.

Return of the Yarn Harlot!

2007-04-22T20:32:00.000-05:00

The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, returned to Kentucky last weekend for the Bluegrass Festival of Books. My sister, Kathryn, drove up from Paducah (4 hours) and I drove down from Edgewood (1 1/2 hours) and we met in Lexington at Mom and Dad's house.

We arrived with our copies of her latest book for Stephanie to sign and waited our turns patiently. Through some trick of her obviously super-human brain, she actually remembered me from last year. I was flabbergasted. I took this picture of her with her green traveling sock. Needless to say, I was totally charmed.

Kathryn and I sat outside at a little cafe table for an hour or so, knitting and waiting for Stephanie's talk at 2:00. Then we made our way into the lecture hall to hear Stephanie. Inside the hall, we found Brooke -- who I met last year -- and Diane, from Friendship Spinners. Diane and I talked rabbits and spinning for a while. She was wearing a gorgeous Shetland shawl in the Fibertrends sheep pattern. She had handspun the lace weight Shetland and it was lovely!

Brooke displayed her new fashion trend, the sweater with only one arm and a wristlet. It was actually a beautiful Donegal tweed green wool and the pattern was a cabled hoodie sweater. It's going to look fabulous when it's finished.

Kathryn proudly displayed her Fair Isle Christmas sweater -- which may actually be finished in time for Christmas this year. The white things will be snowmen when she's done. I can't wait until she has to cut the steeks! If that doesn't make a Baptist drink, nothing will. She also sported a new, layered haircut that looked stunning!

Unbelievably, Stephanie talked for more than an hour and, as usual, was both charming and witty. We sat in the front row and ate it up with a spoon.

Afterwards, she signed a few more books and then came back to knit with all of us left in the lecture hall. She knits so FAST with that knitting needle stuck under her arm. I don't know how she does it. Note, Stephanie is wearing her recently knitted Bohus sweater that we've all seen from cast-on through bind off.

Magpie Yarns, which had sponsored her, held a Knit-In until 5 p.m. and gave away three door prizes. Brooke won one of them: a gift certificate for $50!

The Rest of the Trip

2007-04-15T13:22:00.000-05:00

We arrived back home again yesterday afternoon, but I'm still going to chronicle our travels here -- mostly to keep it fresh in my own mind.

If we had a disaster day, it was Wednesday, although we really didn't get too upset over it. We got a late start (as usual) and took our laundry to be done over in Witney, where I knew there was both a launderette and a yarn store. I had planned to take the car, start the laundry and shop for yarn while it was washing. Jeff and the girls, in this scenario, would have taken the bus into Oxford for a few hours. But, no. Jeff and the girls had to go with me. Then Jeff started complaining about doing laundry at all and wasting our vacation time and why didn't we all just bring enough clothes like he did or why couldn't we just wear dirty clothes. I pointed out that no one had invited him to come on this expedition anyway. Added to this bickering was difficulty in finding the laundrette and going up and down a very narrow and crowded High Street looking for the yarn shop (which, I found later, had no sign at all). In the end, it took about 3 hours to get the laundry done and I did get a chance to visit the yarn shop.

Let me take a moment here to mention that although the Cotswolds are -- or at least were -- the center of English wool trade and that the grand fortunes of the region are built on wool, there are no respectable yarn shops in the area. A search of Oxfordshire yields less than a dozen and, of these, not all are truly yarn shops. The shop I visited in Witney was called the Witney Wool Shop. It was tiny, unmarked, and only carried three brands of yarn -- most of which was acrylic. Half the shop was devoted to sewing and quilting. When I asked the shop owners about roving for spinning they were mystified and told me I'd have to go to Wales for that sort of thing. I ended up buying two balls of English made mohair blended with acrylic and a set of Pony circular needles (which were confiscated at the airport).

From Witney, we drove on to Stratford-on-Avon to see the scottish play, oh, hell, Macbeth. It couldn't have gotten much worse. We drove around and around the crowded streets trying to find parking for the Swan Theatre and ended up walking a vast distance and passing much closer available parking that was not mentioned on the tourist map. We had a bite to eat at the Swan cafe and went in to see the play.

We should have been warned when the director came out on stage before the play and told us that, due to some misfortunes in preparing for the play, they had been unable to have a dress rehearsal and that, as this was opening night, the actors had never actually performed the play together before. In the course of this explanation, Jeff tells me, the director said the word "Macbeth" aloud on stage three times. It was doomed from the start.

Unlike the play as written by Shakespeare, this play opened with the killing of three terrified women and their children. Macbeth stands centerstage, holding a bawling infant tenderly in his arms and then presses it to his chest -- both suffocating it and breaking its neck. The spirits of the dead mothers arise and become the three witches. Okay. We can deal with this. It gives the witches motivation. But the gore just kept on coming.

When MacDuff goes to England to seek Malcolm's aid against MacBeth, he leaves his pregnant wife and two children alone. MacBeth's henchmen not only kill the young boy and the toddler, but attack the pregnant wife and kill her by slicing her womb open -- on stage -- and laying the dead and bloody fetus on her chest. This is not found anywhere in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Later, when MacBeth questions the witches about whether Banquo's heirs will be kings, the seven future kings were portrayed by bloody babies (dolls) with crowns who descended from the ceiling on chains.

The performance was also full of staging problems, as promised by the director. People kept coming in the wrong door, looking confused, and going out again only to come in another door. The best part, though, was when MacDuff was conferring with Malcolm in England and a messenger was supposed to come and tell him his family was dead. MacDuff broke off his conversation with Malcolm, saying "Look, who comes here," and then nobody came. MacDuff peered offstage in the direction the messenger was supposed to come and said, "He's coming from a long way off." The audience tittered and still no messenger arrived. Then MacDuff muttered, "... from Scotland ..." and the whole audience broke out laughing. After a few more minutes of waiting, a stage manager came out and said they had misplaced an actor and the play would have to pause for a few minutes. I've never seen anything like it before.

Last, and not least, the man playing MacBeth was absolutely the worst Shakespearian actor I have ever seen. I think he was trying to play MacBeth as a man driven mad by his ambition -- but it was just stupid looking. He shouted all his lines and kept waving his arms about. Keanu Reeves could have done better, and that's saying something. On the other hand, MacDuff was brilliant and several of the actors playing smaller parts were obviously well trained Shakespearian actors. Still, this performance was not what I expected from the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was, however, certainly memorable.

Thursday, we all took the bus to downtown Oxford. Kate and I went shopping while Jeff and Ally took a long walk, retracing a walk they had taken together several years ago, along the Isis river up to the Trout Inn in Wolvercote. Kate and I looked into Debenhams and Kate was delighted with a store called "Lush" that carries luxury soaps and lotions, etc. We went to the covered market and she bought a new wallet and some souvenirs. I got her a hoody that said "Oxford." After our shopping, we drove over to the Trout and met Ally and Jeff for dinner there. They had had a nice walk and had to elbow by some bulls in one of the pastures, but it was mostly uneventful and pleasant.

Friday, we had to pack up and leave our hotel in Oxford. We were sort of at loose ends about what to do and where to go. Our next hotel was at the Gatwick airport in anticipation of our flight the next morning, so we had a day to drive around. I suggested we go to Bath, so we set off, but when we got there the whole town was so congested it was impossible to find a place to park and we never did find out where the Roman baths were, so we decided to bag it and go on.

My next suggestion was Glastonbury, which we reached just an hour before closing. It was just as beautiful as I remembered though, and well worth seeing. We took a lot of pictures.

Heading back towards London, we passed by Cadbury and I suggested we stop off and see the hill fort that some people believe is Camelot. We stopped there years ago when Jeff and I brought his mother, but we didn't try to climb the hill because we'd have to leave her in the car alone. This time, the girls and I were game to hike up the hill and, eventually, we were able to convince Jeff too. It was a steep climb and we met a couple and their dog who were coming down and talked to them for a few minutes. They were very friendly and nice. Huffing and puffing, we eventually got to the top and saw a huge meadow opened out in front of us with steep-sided edges all around the rim. The sign in the parking lot below said that the hill had been inhabited since 3000 B.C., and it was clear to see that it had been a substantial fortress at some point. The girls loved walking the edge of the wall all the way around the hilltop. The wind was fresh and cool and we were all alone up there looking out over the valleys and the tiny baaing sheep in the distance. Kate said it was her favorite part of the trip.

As we continued towards London, we passed by Stonehenge and turned off the road to look at it. Strangely, it isn't lit at night. We were on a quiet country road, so we slowed down and strained our eyes into the darkness. Against the dark and the mist, we could just barely make out the huge dark rocks standing eerily on the plain. It was kind of cool in a way that blaring spotlights wouldn't have been.

We arrived at the Gatwick Holiday Inn around midnight and got settled in for a brief sleep. We had to get up around 6:30 am to return the rental car and be at the airport by 8 for a 10:00 flight home. The flight home was long and, fortunately, uneventful.

This must be the longest post in the history of blogs, but it helps me to record my trip with both pictures and description. I apologise for my long-windedness to anyone who takes the time to read it.

Oxford Revisited

2007-04-10T16:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we took a day off from sight-seeing and lazed around most of the day. Late in the afternoon we took a drive down the A40 to see what we could see. On the way back Ally and I pressured Jeff into stopping at a little pub called the Boot Inn that had been recommended for dinner. He wanted to go to "Little Chef," the British equivalent of "Bob Evans," but Ally and I stuck to our guns. It was very "pub-ish" looking inside and the food was excellent. I had monkfish with a lemon ginger sauce and they served a huge platter of vegetables for us to share. The Boot's claim to fame (other than the food) is that it collects shoes from famous people and mounts them on the walls. Unfortunately, most of these famous people are soccer players, so I didn't know many of them -- but they did have the shoes of the BeeGees!
Today, we took the bus into Oxford and had lunch at the Eagle & Child (known to the cognoscenti as the Bird and Baby), the pub where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and the other Inklings met each week for twenty or more years. Ally was a little disappointed I think because, as an aspiring writer, she hoped that just walking in the door she would be struck with inspiration. Instead, it just looked like a quaint pub. However, the food was good. I had bangers and mash and I think everyone agreed mine was the best dish we ordered. I was tacky and took a picture of the table where the Inklings met right next to the fire.
Next, we walked down to Christ Church College. Kate was excited about this because they filmed parts of the Harry Potter movies there. She's watched those movies so many times that she felt quite at home at Christ Church. She kept recognizing things from the movies.
In Christ Church Cathedral, a very sweet guide took an interest in us and led us out a side door and told us the story of Alice Liddel, who was the real Alice in Wonderland. He showed us the garden where she played and the tree that her cat, Dinah, used to climb. In the cathedral there's a stained glass window of St. Catherine where the face of St. Catherine was based on Alice's sister, Edith.
After we left Christ Church we walked down High Street to University College, where I attended a summer program way back in 1978. The sign said the college was closed to visitors, but Ally and I stepped in anyway and I introduced myself to the porter and he let us take a few pictures. Ally couldn't resist his dog, Maggie, and, as the porter said, Maggie was an attention whore. She just lay down and loved being petted and fussed over.
Kate started to feel sick soon after we left Christ Church and we stopped at The Queen's Lane Coffee Shop to get her a drink of water. All the pastries and things looked so tempting that we had to sit down and have something to eat. I ordered cream tea (well, actually, coffee) and shared it with Ally and Kate. Jeff ordered apple pie and custard but when he wasn't looking Ally and Kate stole bites of it from him and he ended up only getting one bite!
After that, Jeff took Kate home where she fell asleep immediately and seemed to feel better afterward. Ally and I stayed to look around Blackwells but, as it was closing in ten minutes, we didn't look around much. The knitting section was particularly disappointing ... only five books. I thought this was freaking Blackwell's -- one of the best bookstores in the world?! I was hoping to find Alice Starmore and an out of print book called Knitted Lace. No such luck.
We're having a great time. Tomorrow I'm planning to do wash during the day and look for yarn shops, then, in the evening we have tickets for the Scottish play at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The picture shows Kate, Jeff and Ally after a long walk in Oxford.

Back in time at Warwick Castle

2007-04-09T05:33:00.000-05:00

For the past two days we've been enjoying the special Easter weekend at Warwick Castle. There are dozens of historic recreators there recreating the War of the Roses. The Earl of Warwick was killed in a battle on Easter Day, so I guess that's why they do it Easter weekend.

It was like attending a medieval festival with all authentic docents who could tell you all about living at that time. Their round tents and cooking fires surrounded the castle. It was wonderful. I met a nice lady who was weaving. She told me she had tried spinning but hadn't had much luck with a drop spindle. She was using scottish blackface and wensleydale and I told her that blue-faced leister and corriedale are a lot easier to learn on. They were also doing kumihimo, but acknowledged that it was actually a Japanese thing, so they had a lucet as an authentic back-up (kumihimo is a LOT easier). I'm not really a weaver, so this may be more common than I think, but the heddle on her simple loom was interesting. It consisted of alternating slots and circles which, when threaded, would make the shed for the weft. I thought it was an elegant design. We saw a bird show called Winged Warriors where a handler flew eagles and buzzards around the crowd. And we also saw a great demonstration of long bow shooting.

There was a Siege in the afternoon. The Yorkists attacked the castle and the Lancastrians defended. The bowmen shot their arrows and then there was hand-to-hand combat. The Lancastrians won (unlike the historical battle) and several Yorkist dead were left on the field and stripped of their valuables. One soldier was even stripped of his pants! Ally and I hung around to see what he would do when he finally had to get up! He was surrounded by three camp followers. A passing priest, who was doing last rites over the dead soldiers, accused them of ravishing him. Finally he did get up and someone gave him his pants back so he and his lady friends could depart from the field.

One of my favorite places, and Jeff's, is the peacock garden. When we brought Jeff's Mother here -- before the children were born -- I remember sitting for a long time on the wooden benches soaking up the beautiful scenery. With her wheelchair, she wasn't able to see much of the castle interior but I know she enjoyed this garden. Jeff is always impressed with the landscape designed by the brilliant landscape architect Capability Brown. I enjoy watching the flock of lovely peacocks strutting around.

We also saw the wax figures meant to show a Victorian house party when Daisy, the Countess of Warwick ruled supreme and allegedly had an affair with Edward, the Prince of Wales. The wax figures were made by Mme. Tussauds (which currently owns and operates the castle) and were stunningly lifelike. The butler startled both Ally and me and we watched him for a long time to be sure he wasn't breathing.

We toured the Ghost Tower where they had a creepy reenactment of the murder of one of the Earls of Warwick by his manservant. Apparently, the Earl didn't adequately compensate the servant in his will and the servant found out about it. The Earl's ghost is supposed to haunt the tower. The chamber had lots of swirling mist and creepy guys jumping out at you unexpectedly. It was fun but no pictures allowed.

The oldest part of the castle is this mound which was originally built in the days of Ethelfreida and was fortified on orders of William the Conquerer.

Today, Monday, we're resting and don't plan to do much. Last night, Easter Sunday, we attended mass at Tolkien's church in Headington and then had a late dinner at The Trout, one of our favorite restaurants in Oxford. We really plan to take it easy on this trip and not just wear ourselves out running all over the place sight-seeing. Jeff really needs the rest and all of us are enjoying just Being in England.

This is a beautiful stained glass window in Warwick castle. I think it was in the Great Hall. It depicts the old law and the new law (at least that's what I think it is).

One problem we've been having is the exchange rate. Everything here costs twice what you would expect. Here in the Holiday Inn, you can order Ben & Jerry's ice cream for $10 a serving. Similarly, a Whopper at the nearby Burger King is $10. Any kind of a sit down meal is running at least $160 for our family of four. So, we're largely living on the surprisingly delicious and fresh sandwiches we can pick up at the local Shell station ... and, of course, cookies (biscuits) and cadbury chocolate. I'll write more later, I need to dive into my biscuit stash.

For more pictures, you can go to my Flickr account at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phiberphanatic

Oh! I almost forgot. We also saw a huge trebuchet demonstrated at Warwick. It was so big that it took four men walking in the round wheels (like gerbil wheels) to lift the weight and load the trebuchet. Then they flung a massive iron ball that had been loaded with gasoline and set on fire through the air. It was pretty impressive.

Wandering around in England

2007-04-07T05:01:00.000-05:00

We've arrived in Oxford! I'm hoping to post some pictures later on. We were pretty exhausted last night, but we'll be having a look around today. Jeff is still asleep -- but the girls and I are up and dressed and anxious for some sustenance.

I've been working on my Sample Stitch Kimono (SSK). I got the first panel done during our flight over and now I'm starting on the lace panel. Pictures soon.

Got to find something to EAT!

See, I'm not the only chauvinist

2007-03-21T12:28:00.000-05:00

I ran across this mockumentary over at Pointy Sticks. It must be seen. The truth will out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZcUjYpjKZs

Triple Joy!

2007-03-16T09:12:00.000-05:00

Okay. I'm ready to stop whining. Good things are happening. First to report: I finished the first sock of this pair this morning. I LOVE this sock. I'm really sorry that I mentally committed to giving it to a friend of mine. Still, it's a gift I can feel good about giving. I think the only solution is another skein in the same color and another pair. My friend and I will have Matching Socks!

Second, Michael really kicked it into gear yesterday and pulled up all the old floor tiles and laid almost all of the new floor tiles. Don't let them fool you -- it's not parquet -- but it does look a LOT nicer than concrete. Seeing how nice it looks makes me ALMOST want to go down there and finish the job and get everything organized.

Third, my new iPod arrived yesterday. I'm so tickled. It works perfectly and now I can get caught up on all my podcast pals and Astronomy lectures ... while I'm organizing the basement.

Warning: not for the faint-hearted

2007-03-13T08:47:00.000-05:00

I ordered a new iPod from an eBay seller -- about $100 less than new. I can't wait for it to get here. I really enjoyed the old one.

Today, Michael, college student, is coming over to earn some money during Spring Break by helping me clean out the basement. This is not a job for the faint-hearted. In fact, we both were a little overwhelmed yesterday when we started on this Herculean task. The Aegean stables look tidy compared to my basement. Michael kept insisting yesterday that we needed to throw out a bunch of stuff and I kept resisting and putting things into piles. Maybe we'll make some progress today. Morituri te salutamus.

I WANT my ipod back!!!

2007-03-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

I've suffered another techno-loss, but, unlike the camera, this time I don't think I'll get it back. Friday night, someone got into my unlocked car, which was sitting in my driveway, and took both my ipod and my purse.

The purse didn't have anything valuable in it. No money or credit cards. But it did have a lot of odds and ends that will be difficult to replace. The ipod, on the other hand, was very valuable and will be expensive to replace. I feel disconnected from the podcast world that I was enjoying so much. I want to hear from Dave Reidy at "Sticks and String" and Andrew at "Geek Farm Life" and Carrie Anne at "BritKnitCast" and Faith, "The Knitting Cook." I want to continue Astronomy classes at O.S.U. with Professor Pogge. I WANT my ipod back!

I spent the weekend on christian retreat at my church. It was a good weekend ... very tiring, somewhat emotional, but I feel refreshed. It's the sort of thing we all probably need to do from time to time. While I was there, I started this sock. I made it all the way to the heel flap and I'm ready to turn the heel. I love the colors in this yarn! They're so rich looking.

Dust to Dust ... er... Mud to Mud?

2007-02-28T09:07:00.000-05:00

On Monday we did the last Adopt-a-School program: Mali Mud Cloth. Judy, who just returned from Africa, was an excellent presenter, telling the kids about the geography of Africa, the chemistry of dye and mordants, and the symbolism of the African art. She even let Barbara and me do our own Mali mud cloths!

Judy suggested to the students that they use symbols from their own lives -- so I made mine symbolic of my fiber hobbies. Of course, there is the central sheep (with an odd hump back -- it must be sickly) and rabbit. I would have drawn an alpaca, but I didn't think I could get it right. The corners are decorated with (crude) knitting needles and balls of yarn. The left and right sides show a spinning wheel flanked by two partially full bobbins. Above the sheep are four drop spindles and at the very top is the symbol for infinity to indicate the longevity of these crafts. The black dye is potting soil and the red is Georgia clay. It was an interesting craft and the kids seemed to enjoy painting with mud.

For the past two weeks I have been doing my penance to the knitting gods. Lo, they were very angry and smote me mightily for picking up a crochet hook. It took me ages and the patience of Job to pull out all that mohair crochet work -- but at last the gods are appeased and the evil crochet is no more. The mohair is happy. It apparently had no intention of becoming a shawl. It has gone into a plastic bag to think about it's waywardness and may one day emerge as a felted hat.

Old man winter blows

2007-02-23T18:54:00.000-05:00

Here's a taste of the weather we've had around here for the past couple of weeks. Ice coated all the trees and bushes, in a lovely but deadly layer. When the sun finally came out, it was a fairyland. Each tiny branch was coated in silver.

The Curse of the Crochet Hook

2007-02-20T12:46:00.000-05:00

O.K. I know when I'm licked. I've finally thrown in the crochet hook on the York mohair shawl. As you may remember, I ran out of blue mohair from York and had to buy some varigated coordinating mohair at my LYS. It actually looked pretty good, although it was a slightly finer yarn.

I finished one end of the shawl with the new yarn and started adding to the other end, when I realized that the second end was MUCH broader than the first end. When I counted the little squares, I found that one end was about 1/3 larger than the other. Somehow I had added crochet links as I went so that the whole thing spreads out like a funnel. It's not really triangular, just misshapen.

This, along with the fact that somewhere along the line a huge hole developed inexplicably, has led me to the conclusion that this project was not meant to be.

The knitting gods are jealous gods and they have cursed my crocheting efforts. In an effort to placate them, I'm now engaged in unraveling yards and yards of mohair. Mea culpa. Mea culpa.

Oh great knitting gods, please let this worthy mohair of distant origin find happiness in a felted hat or bag.

On a happier note, I'm pleased with the fingerless gloves I'm making out of my handspun merino/silk blend. I adapted the pattern from a free online pattern. My yarn was finer than the yarn in the pattern, so I had to cast on 56 instead of 48 stitches, so then I changed the cable to a 12-stitch right hand cable. I also did a 4 inch K2P2 rib at the cuff so it could be doubled over for extra warmth. So, I took the bare bones of the online pattern and changed everything. It's turning out nicely though.

I'm also pleased that I have nearly an entire bobbin full of angora singles. Andy is shedding like there's no tomorrow -- he looks really scruffy, partly bald and partly fluffy with long strings of clumped hair hanging off of him. I've been combing and plucking him and, after carding the fur on my drum carder, I filled a small cardboard box with it. I've been happily spinning away at it for a couple of weeks at odd moments.

A lady on one of my spinning lists was talking about plying angora singles with wool singles and inspired me to try that out. I've got some beautiful dark grey merino/silk blend roving that would look good plyed with Andy's fur. I've also got the blue merino/silk blend and some other nice rovings in my stash to try. Once I get the rest of this angora spun up, it's going to be a plying party!

Why use foresight when you can kick yourself with hindsight?

2007-01-30T16:22:00.000-05:00

The crocheted beaded shawl saga continues. Maybe it's the whole concept of crochet that's unlucky. When Lynne saw that I was using a crochet hook she said I'd turned to the dark side -- maybe the Crochet Gods are trying to tell me something.

Anyway, I've run out of mohair and the "shawl" is only about four feet long. I guess I'll have to use something else to make it a wearable length. I simply REFUSE to frog it again.

One idea I had was to join the two ends and make it a straight-jacket, er, wrap. Then I could put the beaded fringe all along the bottom instead of at the ends of the shawl.

Any ideas?

Once more with feeling

2007-01-22T17:15:00.000-05:00

Remember the beautiful mohair shawl that looked like a starlit sky? Well, I've spent the last two days frogging it. You don't know what patience is until you've frogged 22 rows of mohair!

When I wound the mohair on my ball winder, it made two huge balls and I figured it was easily enough for a shawl. I followed the directions in Lily Chin's book and used the crochet hook she prescribed. After I had crocheted about a foot of material, I could see that I was running out of yarn for the first ball. Moreover, the mohair seemed too dense and didn't feel very soft. Unless I wanted to make a glitzy and fairly rigid shawl for a five year old, something had to be done. So I did it ... I ripped it out and started over.

This time I'm using a huge crochet hook and the fabric has a better hand. I still may not have quite enough for the shawl, but I can add something else on the ends as long as the fabric is draping properly. Onward and upward.

A New Start

2007-01-17T13:19:00.000-05:00

I finally decided on a project for the beautiful mohair yarn that Lynne brought me from York, England. I'm going to do another beaded shawl but this time going in a totally different color direction. The wool is swirling shades of navy, purple, and blue-grey -- so I ordered #6 glass seed beads from Fire Mountain in what they called a "Peacock" color. The beads came in last week and I started on the shawl last night. I'm really liking it so far. It reminds me of a night sky. Mentally, I've invested it with the name "Dark Star of York," but that sounds a little pretensious for a simple crocheted shawl. Unlike the lilac shawl with white beads, the peacock beads glitter darkly and wink with unexpected color as the fabric moves. More as the project progresses ...

My ipod and I are totally connected at the hip. In fact, I need to get some softer ear buds because my ears are sore. I've discovered that the professors for several colleges podcast their lectures. Amazing! I've been listening to Astromony 161 from O.S.U. professor Richard Pogge. Apparently, he started podcasting so that students could catch up on lectures they missed or review them before tests. However, lots of other people are listening in too. Did I mention how much I love the Internet!!!?

P.S. DISASTER! The Orkin man came by today for his routine spraying and when he came near my desk he knocked over my huge jade plant and spilled ALL THE SEED BEADS. What a MESS! Dirt and leaves from the plant and tiny, tiny beads all over the floor ... At least he helped to pick them up and I refrained from using any colorful language. Argh!

First FO of 2007

2007-01-16T18:56:00.000-05:00

I just finished the socks I started for my Dad before Christmas. They're sort of boring man socks, navy blue, but he wouldn't wear them if they were wild looking. The beauty of these socks is in the feel -- they're made out of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino and they feel heavenly.

Recapping the year

2007-01-13T17:29:00.000-05:00

Now that we're well into January, I thought I'd take a look back at the year 2006 -- from a knitting perspective. Strangely, I could only list about four finished items when I thought back. Looking at my blog archives, though, I came up with a total of 10.

Now, that's nothing for Wendy Johnson or Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, but, for me, ten finished items is an accomplishment. So, here they are:

Number 1. The Dachshund Lovers Sweater. This is the sweater I knitted for my Mom's birthday in honor of her little dachshund, Heidi. I've never actually seen her wear it, but at least she knows I love her.

Number 2. Felted Mittens (Red and Green). I count these as one because I did them at the same time. They were really fun and quick to knit and I love the magic of felting. I ran slightly short of yarn for the ribbed cuffs inside the felted mitten body and I was a little annoyed at Knitpicks for that. But they still turned out O.K. I thought they might be good Christmas presents when I made them, but having to substitute some white yarn in the cuffs made me too self-conscious about them to consider them gift material.

Number 3. Felted clogs. This is the Fibertrends pattern for felted clogs. People either love it or hate it. I love it, but it can be a little tricky. These are definite gift material and I hope the recipient -- who has not yet received them -- likes them.

Number 4. Green Knitpicks Self-Patterning Socks. I love these socks. They're comfortable and washable and they match a sweater I like to wear. The only problem with them is, again, there was slightly less yarn in the Knitpicks skein than I expected and I had to finish out the toe on the second pair with another sock yarn.

Number 5. Illusion Scarf "Seeing Red." This is the scarf that I made for the Guild's "Black, White and Red All Over" competition last summer. It's knit in black and white KnitPicks wool and has the word "red" worked into it several times in illusion knitting. This was a really cool and fun project and the Guild awarded me first prize for it. I was so proud!

Number 6. Socks That Rock Socks. These are lovely socks but I think the gauge knits up a little larger than I'm used to and they turned out sort of big. Sloppy me, I didn't swatch it. Still, they're quite wearable and very soft and squishy. Next time I buy expensive sock yarn like Socks That Rock, I'll have to be more careful. Another thing about these socks -- one is paler than the other. As is common with hand dyed yarns, one of the skeins was significantly lighter than the other and it really shows up in the socks.

Number 7. The Shrek II Pillow. I got the idea for this pillow when I ordered some raw Shrek II wool from Elizabeth Ashford. Shrek was part of a group of merino sheep that were lost for about six years in the wilds of New Zealand. When the group was located by helicopter and rounded up, they were sporting six years of unshorn fleece. I ordered a little of the fleece, washed it, combed it, spun it and knitted into this pillow. The Shrek wool is the white. Then I sent a picture of it to Elizabeth Ashford to enter in a competition for making something out of the Shrek II wool. I WON! It was so cool. My pillow is featured in "The Wheel" magazine along with some of my comments about making the pillow. Elizabeth also sent me a pound of her new alpaca blend wool top.

Number 8. White School Socks. I made these for Kate in response to her request for some school socks. I had a really hard time finding any solid bright white sock yarn, either wool or cotton. Finally, I ended up with some KnitPicks sport weight white yarn, knitted them up and she took them with her on her school trip to Washington, D.C. For a long time we thought she only returned with one sock, but the second one finally turned up. Unfortunately, just wearing the socks apparently felted them pretty thoroughly. They look sort of strange now and Kate has never worn them again. When I went by the LYS today, I found two balls of bright white Cascade Fixation and I think I may try again in cotton.

Number 9. KnitPicks Fair Isle Socks. These socks were so fun to knit! They look incredibly difficult but actually you only use two yarns, one solid and one varigated. My sister, Kathryn, made the same socks out of black and jewel tones. Since I usually wear brown shoes, I altered the wool to brown and natural tones. I was afraid as I was knitting them that they wouldn't fit: the fair isle doesn't make a very stretchy sock. However, I was pleasantly surprised and I can wear them.

Number 10. Lily Chin's Beaded Shawl. I made this shawl for the Friendship Spinner's Christmas exchange at the Shakertown Retreat. It's made of lilac Suri Dream yarn, which is Suri alpaca spun around a core of nylon to make a yarn that looks like mohair, but is much softer. The shawl is crocheted and it has over a thousand #6 seed beads worked into it. It was really pretty easy to make, but a little tedious to work all the beads into it. Nancy Reid received the shawl and she really seemed to like it.

So, that's my year in knitting.

Right now my UFOs are:

a. Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino socks for my Dad

b. My Qiviut moebius lace scarf

c. My red oak leaf lace alpaca scarf (which has been languishing for years ....)

d. The second sock out of the handspun wool won in the Shrek competition

e. My "winging it" rare wools handspun vest needs a back.

And today I bought yarn for two more pairs of socks ....

Roc, paper, scissors?

2007-01-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

We had a very happy Roc day at the Guild house last Saturday. Traditionally, Roc day or St. Distaff's Day is the day after Epiphany and we celebrate it by having a get together on the Saturday nearest to Epiphany with mini-classes and lunch.

I took two great classes. In the morning I learned a little about kumihimo braiding. The picture doesn't show it very well, but we learned how to make a very complex round braid perfect for purse handles and other things where an I-cord might be used.

Then, in the afternoon, I made needle felted flowers. These can be used for all kinds of embellishments. The first thing that springs to mind, though, is a flower on a felted hat.

In addition to trying out my new crafts, I've been playing with my new Christmas toy. My DH got me an ipod and, although I'm still not a pro at using it, I'm quickly becoming addicted. I've learned how many knitting and spinning podcasts there are and I'm downloading them and listening a LOT. I'm trying to find out which ones I really like and which ones I can pass over. So far, I've found at least three or four that I really want to stay current on. It's sort of like keeping up with the Yarn Harlot. People usually do a podcast once a week or so. Anyway, I've got a new best friend -- my little ipod.

I've been up to my elbows in clay for the past two days trying to help my friend Siena put together a class project for Ally's class at school. It's going to be very interesting and artistic -- at least I hope it will. We're making clay tiles for each of the 58 students in the sophomore class and we're going to ask the students to personalize them with paint. After firing them in the kiln, we're going to hang them on an iron trellis with copper wire and beads. It should be a beautiful (and unique) piece of art when we're done. We've got our fingers crossed anyway that it will sell at the school auction in February.

Greetings from sunny Florida

2006-12-31T12:55:00.000-05:00

See, I have a traveling sock just like Stephanie. Actually, it was supposed to be a Christmas present and now it's become a June birthday present. Yes, I'm that slow ...

I'm still working intermittently on the moebius scarf. It sits in the bottom of my knitting bag and occassionally gives me dirty looks.

It's beautiful here in Vero Beach. It's sunny and warm and lovely. All of us are actively engaged in doing nothing at all.

Tonight, in accordance with our tradition, we will walk on the beach at midnight and greet the new year. Happy New Year Everyone!

One more picture, just to make Kate mad. We spent a day at Disney World and Kate had to make the ultimate Disney fashion statement.

Underwater Christmas Tree Decorating

2006-12-17T11:17:00.000-05:00

No fiber today. I just wanted to report on the fun thing the girls and I did yesterday.

Our local dive shop holds an annual Underwater Christmas Tree Decorating Contest. They sink a couple of Christmas trees in their pool and you scuba down and decorate them with plastic ornaments and tinsel. All the fees for the event go to Breast Cancer Research, so everyone benefits. Last year the girls and I were featured on the local news in full scuba gear decorating our tree!

This year there were no film crews, but we had a great time. An underwater photographer takes a picture of each decorated tree and the pictures are sent out to neutral parties for judging. We don't know who won yet, but it doesn't really matter.

Everyone has to bring their own unbreakable treetopper. Here is ours.

That glow up north? It's Canadian pride.

2006-12-12T23:09:00.000-05:00

This post is for Celine, who just caught on to using her wheel rather than a drop spindle.

This is a picture of my first bobbin of yarn ... a lumpy bumpy mess. It's overspun in some places and underspun in others.

Your first bobbin is, by comparison, a masterpiece. Congratulations. I think you and your wheel are beginning a beautiful friendship.

Friendship Spinners Christmas Retreat

2006-12-05T13:50:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Friendship Spinners met for our annual Christmas retreat at Shakertown. It was lovely, as usual, getting together with about forty of the nicest people I've ever met. The creativity and kindness are not to be equaled anywhere.

Naturally, we brought our wheels and we spun ... and we talked ... and we laughed and we asked each other fiber questions. And, of course, we ate. I brought a couple dozen of these springerle cookies imprinted with my spinner cookie mold. They were pretty good.

The highlight of Friday night was the Annual Parade of the Crones, a very touching (and silly) ceremony. We all aspire to be crones someday. [if you don't know, don't ask]

At last, I can share pictures of the shawl I've been working on for the shawl exchange. It's lavender suri alpaca wool spun up to resemble mohair (but much softer). I used Lily Chin's pattern for a beaded crochet shawl and worked several thousand white glass beads into the pattern and as a looped beaded fringe around the ends. Thank goodness, Nancy Reed, who received it, was pleased with it.

There was a slight mix-up with the shawl exchange, but where there's a will there's a way, especially when kind people are involved. I received a beautiful handwoven shawl that was made during a sheep to shawl event. The warp is made of Lincoln cross wool and the weft is Shetland. I LOVE it. It's especially nice because it wasn't just made by one person, it was a group effort.

A lovely time was had by all. I just wish I could spend more time with them.

The prodigal camera returneth!

2006-11-20T23:48:00.000-05:00

LOOK! I'm visual again!
Kill the fatted calf, my camera turned up in one of the side pockets of my computer bag. I was so glad to see it!

I still can't show you a picture of the shawl I'm working on because it's a secret, but I COULD take a picture of it if I wanted to.

The kids were great in the Spinning and Dying class today -- and that's saying a LOT for middle school kids. They enjoyed petting Andy (although he didn't share their enthusiasm) and listened attentively to the history of spinning and passed around all my fiber samples. Later, one of my helpers said she was impressed with my lecture and how I held their attention. That's the kind of positive feedback I could use every day!

Ally finds out tomorrow whether she got one of the big parts in the high school production of South Pacific. Keep your fingers crossed for her. She's only a sophomore and it's unlikely that she'll get a big part, but she'd really like to play "Bloody Mary," the native trading woman who has a comic role but really good songs. Ally's been singing "Bali Hai" around the house ever since she learned that this year's play is "South Pacific." I hope she's not crushed if she doesn't get the part. I'm nervous for her.

DH gets home tonight! Hurray!

Canon may be getting some more of my business...

2006-11-19T22:52:00.000-05:00

Look, ma, no pictures. This is not because I don't want to show pictures, but rather because I am unable to show pictures. My camera has been AWOL since the Morehead trip. I've searched the car and all my bags with a fine toothed comb and still it hasn't turned up. I loved that little thing. I'm still hoping it will show up somewhere unexpected.

So, we will struggle on without visual aids. Actually, I don't have much to show at the moment anyway. I'm making a shawl for the Friendship Spinners gift exchange and I don't want to show it just in case one of the group stumbles across my blog.

I'm looking forward to the retreat at Shakertown in a couple of weeks. In addition to a fiber-related gift exchange, they also have a more structured exchange. Last year, it was hats. I made a felted hat (my specialty) and received a lovely toque-type hat made of alpaca with the words "Friendship Spinners" worked into it. The weavers in the group exchanged woven bath towels -- but, not being a weaver, I didn't participate in that one. This year, the structured exchange is shawls, so both knitters and weavers can participate in one exchange.

My DH is still on the road. He's been in St. Louis since Thursday and should be back very late Monday night. It seems like we've been all girls here for a long time.

Tomorrow I go to R.A. Jones Middle School for the Art Links Adopt-a-School program. I'm showing the kids spinning and then we're kool-aid dying some yarn. In December, another member of the Weaver's Guild will come with her loom and show them how to weave their yarn into a colorful rug for their classrooms.

Ally is making some medieval food for extra credit in her history class. She found a recipe online for what was called a cherry tart. It uses cherries, ricotta cheese, some spices and chopped up "ROSE PETALS." It was a great excuse to buy some roses at the grocery. I can't imagine that the rose petals are going to add much taste, but the recipe specifically called for them and we added them. It smells good anyway and it's about to come out of the oven.

That's all for now. Happy Thanksgiving if I don't post before then.
(picture snagged from the Internet)

On the road again

2006-11-13T15:56:00.000-05:00

No pictures today. I'm in the charming town of Morehead, Ky for the high school choral festival held at Morehead College. Ally's been working hard today learning music for the performance tomorrow, but for me its actually more of a vacation. All I have to do is supply transportation when the kids get out of their music classes, read, knit and watch T.V. Yippee!

God bless WI-FI and the Internet. When I was here last year I pretty much exhausted the tourism possibilities for Morehead, so today I've been online a substantial part of the day. So far I've answered all my email and bought a cashmere sweater on eBay. Life is good.

Depression reigns and we all got wet

2006-11-09T09:02:00.000-05:00

I'm making slow progress on the moebius lace scarf. It's proving more difficult than I had thought. Although the lace pattern is very simple, the qivuit is not smooth and it's so light -- like a spider's web -- that any mistakes are VERY difficult to correct. I've finally adopted a policy of simply moving on. As long as I don't have any gaping holes (and I do mean gaping) I'm just going to call it lace. It's my interpretation of the pattern ... Ha! Qivuit deserves better, but I'd rather complete it imperfectly than never complete it at all.

Another rather depressing project is staring me in the face: my handspun socks. I made the yarn from the wool Elizabeth Ashford sent me plied with camel down. My color sense is completely colorblind. While the yarn itself looks O.K., when knitted up and seen at a distance the whole color scheme turns to mud. What spinning demon made me ply teal blue with cinnamon brown?

To make it worse, I used up all my camel on the two skeins I made and those two skeins are not going to be nearly enough for the socks. To remedy this problem, I decided to put in heels and toes of solid two-ply teal wool. Turns out that the "toes" are going to have to stretch all the way to the instep. Ah, the joys of "winging it" when you start a project. I really ought to know better. Well, I'll be spending my free time in the next few days spinning more teal yarn.

An obsession spanning both time and space.

2006-10-26T22:16:00.000-05:00

I was relieved to read in the latest edition of Spin-Off that I'm not the only spinning obsessed person who is collecting spindle whorls. It's right there in black and white. Other people do it too. Martha Monsson's article "Touching Time," tells about her collection and shows them off. Apparently, she makes shafts for hers and actually uses them to spin.

I bought several whorls on eBay a couple of years ago from an antiquities dealer in Florida. According to the dealer they were from the middle east and about 2000 years old. I put a couple of them on leather straps and gave them to my spinning friends as necklaces. Of course, I kept one for myself and I wear it often. I usually don't share its history though because no one seems to believe me that it's 2000 years old. They all seem to think I was "taken" by a slick eBay dealer.

I was so happy to read in Martha's article that these whorls are as common as arrowheads among ancient artifacts and seldom sell for over $20. Of course, I haven't carbon dated my whorls, but I have no reason to believe that they aren't genuine.

I love to wear my whorl necklace and think it of it being used by a woman 2000 years ago to make thread for her family's clothes. It's a concrete link with women of the past and their daily tedious but important work.

So, here is a gallery of my collection to date. My hope is to collect whorls from every continent (except Antartica) and from a wide variety of time periods and materials. So far, I have spindle whorls of stone and clay. I've also seen them made of lead, glass, bone and bronze.

This is the first whorl I collected. It's made of black stone from the Middle East and about 2000 years old. It has a decorative circle around the center hole.

My oldest whorl is the Chinese Neolithic spindle whorl. It is stone and believed to be 4,000 to 4,500 years old.

The youngest whorls I bought recently in a lot. They come from South America and are early PreColumbian fired clay. Several of them have interesting markings.

Many thanks to Celine for encouraging me to post pictures of my treasures. Now I have to find a creative way to display them in my house!

A Minor Setback

2006-10-02T12:22:00.000-05:00

As I sat in my CLE lecture -- attempting to keep utter boredom at bay by knitting on my qivuit moebius scarf -- it became crystal clear to me that the lace was never going to look right no matter how I blocked it. The number of stitches wasn't right and the pattern was full of unintended holes and it was a complete mess.

So, I spent about two hours carefully undoing all my work and rolling the precious qivuit back into a ball of yarn. Then, another two hours to cast on the nearly 400 stitches required for this pattern and make the moebius shape. Well, it gave me something to do while the lecturers droned on about how to do estate planning so that you can claim medicaid coverage when you go into a nursing home.
Now I'm almost back to the point where I had to visit the frog pond and, lo and behold, I sort of see a pattern! I think ripping it out was worth it. I put markers in every 30 stitches so I can see right away when (not IF) I make a mistake and can correct it before it becomes a disaster. Ah, patience is a virtue.

I've been combing the bunny and getting a lot of beautiful angora from him. I even carded up a batch on my Louet drum carder and, as soon as I finish spinning the gray Gottland wool, I'm going to spin up a skein of pure angora. The gray Gottland and the gray bunny go well together -- I may try to make something that uses both.

My stash runneth over ....

2006-09-22T12:45:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday I tried to treat myself by taking a day off and going to the Wool Gathering in Yellowsprings, Ohio. I TRIED. Unfortunately, there was a family "crisis" (with a little c) that only a Mommy could deal with and I didn't get to leave for the 1 1/2 hour drive until about 3:30 -- for an event that ended at 7 p.m. Needless to say, my enjoyment of the fair was limited.

I was able to use my $25 gift certificate from the Weaver's Guild though. I bought a skein of beautiful soft cream colored sportweight alpaca and a laceweight skein of unusual silk/yak yarn. I really love those exotics! I'm planning to make a shawl for the Friendship Spinner's Christmas exchange with the alpaca, but I have no idea what to do with the silk and yak -- I guess that's the purpose of a stash.

Yesterday, my stash grew even more! I went to lunch with Lynne and -- bless her heart -- she brought me a gorgeous skein of mohair from York, England. She carried it home with her in her suitcase for me. It's a dark navy and difficult to see in the picture, but it's beautiful.

Yarns I have loved ...

2006-09-20T10:25:00.000-05:00

Today I'm going to show you a few of the yarns I've spun that haven't gotten any air time. First, here's a picture of some sample skeins I spun just to see what they would look like. The vivid blue one is Andy combings dyed with blue Kool-Aid. I think I might use this as a cuff for some black felted mittens. I was surprised to see how even Andy's worst fur could be made into pretty decent yarn. I'm always afraid to experiment with it because it's so costly -- but these were just combings that came off when I brushed him so I felt like I could play.

Sitting beside the angora skein is a small experimental skein of Rambouillet plied with blue merino/silk top. The Rambouillet came from the first raw wool I ever bought. It was from a gray ewe that was a little older and, I gathered, something of a pet. I had no idea what to do with raw wool and everything I tried resulted in a neppy and unsightly mess. One of my friends looked at it and said to just use it as fertilizer. But I perservered. I tried combing some of it with my english wool combs and, lo and behold, there was lovely solf wool in that mess. So I took the rest of the fleece to a wool mill where the owner assured me he could deal with it. It came back to me last spring beautiful soft pale gray and ready to spin. Granted, it still has some neps, but that's in the nature of Rambouillet, and it's not nearly as bad as when I tried to prepare it. Lesson learned: it's very difficult to properly prepare fine soft wools like Rambouillet and Merino at home. In getting all the dirt out, you very likely will tear the wool up a little, creating all those little unwanted neps. For my experimental skein, I thought I'd perk the gray wool up by plying it with a strand of the blue merino/silk blend wool Jeff gave me for Christmas. I think they look good together.

Next is a skein of alpaca with bits of rayon or cotton "confetti" scattered through it. This was sort of fun to spin. All the little bits add interest. I bought the roving at the Wool Gathering. last year.

The next skein is a cautionary tale. It's a beautiful cream color two-ply wool with a melon color running through it. Unfortunately, I didn't put a tag on it and now I have absolutely no idea what it's made of. It has a little sheen, so if I had to guess I'd say it was mostly cream Romney with melon colored merino and silk mixed in. Oh, well, it's still pretty.

On the knitting front, I gratefully accepted the ounce of lace weight qivuit yarn that Mom discovered in her stash. I ripped out the 3 for 4 inches of garter stitch she had done (Shhh, don't tell her I ripped out her work!) and started on a project I've wanted to do for a long time: a lacey Moebius scarf. At the moment it looks like a total mess but I've been told to expect that with lace knitting. I'm just afraid it will STILL look like a total mess when it's washed and blocked. I done a complete pattern repeat and I still don't see a pattern. Well, at least it's a learning experience ... I keep telling myself ...

Go with the brown flow ... wait, that doesn't sound good.

2006-09-06T12:24:00.000-05:00

I decided to "lean into" the brown with the turquoise and brown alpaca blend that I won. I spun up about 50 grams of the Ashford alpaca blend and then I rummaged around in my stash and came up with 50 grams of camel down. After spinning up the camel (which was a unique experience ... it's a short fiber but not really that hard to spin), I plied it with the alpaca blend. So, we end up with a 2-ply yarn that is 50% camel down, 35% turquoise corriedale and 15% dark brown alpaca. It looks kind of cool. Although I haven't measured it yet, it should be a sock weight yarn and I'm hoping to make socks.

Speaking of socks: Kate took her new white school socks to Washington, D.C. on her class trip and only one of them came back. The remaining sock is looking forlorn on top of the dryer, hoping against hope that its mate will turn up (and NOT after it's been washed and felted inadvertantly).

Speech after long silence ... (Yeats)

2006-09-02T12:20:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted. The girls have gone back to school and I've started my new part-time job. See Stephanie's blog on August 25th for an accurate description of me while I'm working at home. Still, it's sort of fun to be exercising the muscle between my ears a little. I just hope I did a decent job on the memo Joe assigned me this week.

My wool from New Zealand arrived. I chose Lagoon color and I'm not sure it goes too well with the brown alpaca it's mixed with. It look nice and tweedy, though, when it's spun and plied. The alpaca gives it a little halo. I'm thinking of plying it with some soft merino and making socks.

I also finished Kate's school socks. I wish they were superwash -- I'm just sure she's going to toss them in the wash and I'll felt them by accident. I couldn't find any superwash wool in a plain bright white color. And the cotton I found said it needed to be handwashed too. So ... I tried them on and they're very comfortable. Maybe we can avoid shrinking them for at least one winter.

I'm still on the fence about this sweater. Ally thinks the colors don't go well together and I think it's a little garish. I'm not sure I want to spend a lot of time making a sweater I won't wear. Yet, when I pulled it out to take this picture, I thought it looked cheerful and I sort of like it.

Socks on Parade and New Zealand loves me

2006-08-09T10:34:00.000-05:00

I finished my "Socks that Rock" socks. They turned out a little large around the foot, but they're fine. I love the colors. As is common with hand painted yarn, one sock is a lot paler than the other. I found this out when I made my "Koigu" socks. For a long time I thought I had accidently bleached one of the socks in the wash -- or some other accident. Then someone on one of my sock lists mentioned that hand painted yarn rarely yields identical socks. Still, they're very pretty.

The Weaver's Guild's next display is all about socks, so I've gathered together all my hand knit socks for the display. I have to take them in by August 15th. Who knew I had so many socks!

Last, but not least, I heard from Elizabeth Ashford this morning. Yes, that Elizabeth Ashford -- Ashford Spinning Wheels in New Zealand. I WON the Shrek 2 challenge! They're going to send me over a pound of their new alpaca blend wool. I'm so excited!

More socks!

2006-07-29T13:33:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to knitting up the "Socks the Rock" yarn that I got from Toni Neal of The Fold at the Fleece Fair in 2005! Everyone on my sock list has been talking about how wonderful this sock yarn is, so I had to try it. It's pretty nice. I love the colors.

I've finally become a true sock knitter. I can knit a sock totally without a pattern now. If I ever get stranded on a deserted island, I'll be able to make socks. What a relief that must be for everyone stranded with me.

Well, one sock down. I'd better start the other one before SSS hits.

I'm also getting ready to start my Fair Isle birthday sweater now that all the yarn has arrived and the opinions have been weighed and the colors finally decided. More adventures ahead! STEEKS!

Mom's Dachshund Sweater is finished!

2006-07-21T11:45:00.000-05:00

I finally finished the Dachshund Sweater this week. I ordered the last ball of yarn in my order to Knitpicks for my birthday sweater yarn. I just needed about 4 more rows of stockinette to complete the last sleeve ... and now, at last, it's done. I whipstitched the shoulders and sleeves together but I tried the more elegant mattress stitch on the sides. It's amazing how the stitching disappears! This weekend we're planning to go to Jenny Wiley State Park with Mom and Dad and I'll give it to her then. It's a very late birthday present since her birthday was in March!

I took all my birthday sweater yarn to the Guild Bylaws meeting yesterday and got some input about the colors. The general concensus was that the mustardy color could/should be replaced with the carrot orange. The surprise decision, though, was that everyone firmly felt that the light blue was too light (the first color on the far left of the swatch) and didn't fit in at all. So, I'm going to review all the colors again -- and how they are placed with other colors -- and probably end up ordering 2 skeins of a different blue and a second skein of carrot orange. This sweater better be good!!

Do we see a theme developing?

2006-07-14T13:29:00.000-05:00

In the continuing theme of wooly footwear, I've started on self-striping socks from Knitpicks. Kate has been begging me for them; she loves the green color. But considering the way she treats her clothes, I don't think hand knit socks are for her. This time I'm going out on a limb and just winging the pattern. It's a simple 2K 2P rib and I adopted a heel flap from another sock pattern.

I got the yarn in for my birthday sweater. Kathryn gave me a gift certificate to KnitPicks for my birthday and it's taken me a year to pick out the yarn and a pattern I like. The pattern is a Fair Isle cardigan from Philosopher's Wool and looks like this (in their wool and colors). Picking out the colors has been a SO DIFFICULT. I dropped their orange and purple colors and put in greens and blue-greens. The only color I'm really concerned about is the brassy gold color. Somehow it just sticks out like a sore thumb. On the other hand, looking at this picture, it looks like the sea green is the culprit. With the Fair Isle pattern, though, they aren't really supposed to blend together so much as provide attractive contrasting patterns. On the other hand, I'd hate to spend hours and weeks working on a sweater that turned out to be hideous. HELP!

Yesterday we celebrated my DH's birthday. He's so exhausted from the neverending conflicts of litigation that he didn't really enjoy it. We were going to a baseball game but then he didn't really feel well enough -- then we were going to go out to dinner -- and, finally, I ended up cooking steaks at home so he could relax in front of the T.V. with the girls. Kate made him a Red Velvet cake and Ally wrapped all the presents (nothing really exciting but several small thoughtful gifts). We usually don't bother to put the right number of candles on a grown up's cake, but we thought it would be funny since it's his 49th. It took us so long to light all the candles (with all three of us working at it) that we ended up having to pick a lot of blue wax out of our cake. I assured everyone that it wouldn't hurt them if they ate some. I hope I'm right!

By the way, Andy had his summer haircut a couple of weeks ago. So, an Andy before and after should be presented:

Before: Regal Rabbit; After: Bare Bunny

Making Lemonade

2006-07-05T12:09:00.000-05:00

Well, in lieu of going to England, I've been busy knitting and spinning. I spun some silk very finely from a silk cap (each cocoon is a layer in the cap) and then plied it with a very fine strand of Andy's angora fur. It feels lovely, but I still need some more twist in it. Next time I'll use the electric spinner. I think it also needs a better color. I wonder how it would look dyed? Ah, an experiment ...

I've also been at work on my favorite type of project: felting. I had heard about a great pattern from Patternworks for felted clogs, so I tried it. Here is the unfelted slipper next to my pink clog slipper. To the left is a close up of the unfelted slipper.

Next is the felted slipper beside my pink slipper for comparison. What a change! And, last, is the felted slipper on its own. Where is the mate, you say? I was so anxious to see what it would look like that I threw the first slipper into the wash before I made the second one. It didn't occur to me until later that they might not felt the same if they aren't treated exactly the same. So, they may not turn out to be matching slippers at all!

Some finished projects

2006-07-02T20:03:00.000-05:00

I finished my entry for Ashford's Shrek II contest. The challenge was to make something with wool from the runaway sheep, Shrek II. I bought 2 ounces of raw wool, but I didn't end up with a lot of usable yarn, so I decided to make Shrek's wool a "design feature" in a larger work. I made a pillow and the white sheep on it is made from Shrek's wool.

I also finished my Fair Isle socks. These were really fun to make. I love Fair Isle and the self striping yarn makes changing colors unnecessary ... so you just have to worry about two balls of yarn instead of a dozen.

Miracle of miracles, I can actually wear them. I thought the Fair Isle around my calves would be too tight, but they fit!

Finishing these knitting projects is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy world. The combination of Jeff's work demands and Ally's broken leg made us cancel our summer vacation to England -- for the second year in a row. After all the time I spent making all the reservations, it was very disheartening to cancel all of them.

Then, this afternoon, Jeff blew a tire on his way to his after-Sunday-mass meeting. He didn't have time to deal with it, so he limped the car into his office parking lot and called me to deal with it. Now, at 11:30 p.m., I have to go to his office and pick him up -- since he doesn't have a car.

The girls and I recently saw the movie "Click" and I think Jeff would be very hurt to know how strongly the girls identify him with the father in the movie who loves his family, but always puts his job first.

It's too hot to think ...

2006-06-23T13:24:00.000-05:00

I really goofed up. I thought I was doing a GOOD thing -- installing a new programmable thermostat so we could keep the house warm during the day and cool at night. Unfortunately, I fried the thermostat transformer and we were without air all last night. Jeff was not amused. The HVAC guy came first thing this morning, though, and fixed my mistake for $325. I'm not saying it wasn't worth it or that he charged more than he should ... but, golly, I didn't expect this minor household thermostat upgrade to cost us $400 (thermostat plus repairman). At least it's working now and the house is starting to cool.

I'm halfway through my second sock of the Knitpicks Fair Isle pattern. I'm getting ready to turn the heel. Online I found some instructions for wrapping the yarn so that I don't get such big holes in the heel. I'm still not sure I like the short row heel. It looks sort of like a thumb, doesn't it?

I'm planning a project to submit in an Ashford contest. It seems that these sheep ran away and got lost and were out in the wilderness for 6 or 7 years, far from the sheep shears. When they were found, they were huge puff balls and the largest, named "Shrek II," yielded a record 68 pounds of wool (avg. fleece is about 8 pounds). Elizabeth Ashford sold some of the wool in 1 oz. lots and I bought 2 ounces, just to see what it was like. Ashford is having a contest for whoever makes something out of the wool. All you have to do is send in a picture of your item by July 31st.

I'm planning a little pillow that says "Run Shrek II Run!" I'll post pictures later.

Making progress

2006-06-14T12:45:00.000-05:00

I'm making progress on the patterned sock. The heel was the strangest thing. I think it's called a short row heel and it produces a bunch of big holes on one side. I had to frog it once and redo it but I guess it'll do.

I really love doing this patterned work. It really keeps your interest. Unfortunately, the fabric it creates doesn't have much give, so I'm not very optimistic that I'll be able to actually wear these socks. They'll make a nice gift though.

I am so darn clever!

2006-06-11T18:08:00.000-05:00

I finally got my act together and made the electric spinning wheel I've been thinking about for so long. I had an old flyer that originally came with my wheel. Then I bought an old sewing machine at St. Vincent DePaul for $5 and cannibalized it for the variable speed motor and foot pedal. The other parts, the wood and the Ashford bearings, cost about $12. So, I figure I've got about $17 invested in this baby. Check out what electronic spinners normally cost.

The unenlightened at my house -- that would be everyone but me -- say "doesn't an electric spinner defeat the whole purpose of hand spinning the yarn like in the old days?" Well, yes ... but I sometimes like to spin very fine yarns that require a lot of twist and, frankly, it takes too long to pedal the traditional wheel if you're going to do much very fine yarn. I COULD get a high speed flyer for my wheel -- but they cost $165, so you see my difficulty.

So far, I only see two problems with my $17 solution. First, the thick rubber band that I used for a drive band sheds rubber like crazy when you rev it up to high speeds. I'll probably have to invest $10 or so in a real drive band. Second, making the speed consistent is a problem since I'm just stepping on the foot pedal. I can keep a pretty uniform speed at one time, but if I go away and come back to it I'm not sure I would be running it at the same speed. I think I could solve that, though, by placing a shim under the pedal so it would only go one speed when the pedal is fully pressed.

In addition to my mechanical creation, I've started on a sock from the Knit Picks pattern. Kathryn is also doing this sock, but mine will be MUCH prettier (I hope she's reading this!). So far, it looks pretty cool. I hope it will fit me when it's done!

I won the challenge with illusion!

2006-06-05T17:53:00.000-05:00

I'm thrilled! I won the Weaver's Guild challenge "Black, White and Red All Over" with my black and white illusion scarf with the word "RED" in it. The members voted on which project was the best and MINE WON!

Everyone thought it was very clever and a few are even clamoring for an illusion knitting workshop.

I got a $25 gift certificate from the Weaver's Loft as a prize and I can't decide what to buy with it. There are so many options ... a some great roving or a lace flyer for my wheel. I may just hang on to it for a while and savor the moment.

I'm working on a rare wools vest that I'm just faking as I knit ... I figured out the rough perameters and cast on letting the devil take the hindmost.

I knit one side of the front in garter stitch and decided I didn't like it and pulled it out. So now I've finished one side out of stockinette and I'm wondering why I didn't use moss stitch.

This is why people use patterns ... so they don't keep changing their minds.

Anyway, the grey to the left is CVM and, starting with the black line, the wool is three colors of Jacob sheep. It's all my bulky handspun and it looks a little rough, but I think I'll live with the stockinette. I'm hoping to get this done so I can wear it on our trip to England in July. Stop laughing!

Ally got Andy out today and gave him a good grooming. She collected a good bit of fur, so I hauled my wheel out into the sunshine and made angora yarn. Later, when I was giving him a pedicure, he escaped. I've never seen him run so fast!!! He took off like a grey streak! Ally and I stalked him for a while but she finally caught him. Of course, after we captured him we had to groom him all over again because he was littered with leaves and sticks. He's a rascal!

But I have to forgive him -- he's so soft and gorgeous. Look at all this silky fiber!

Four Finished Felted "(F)ittens"?

2006-05-19T10:43:00.000-05:00

I got the ribbed wrist bands done and sewed them into the felted mittens. I'm not actually sure they're necessary because the mittens seem warm enough and tight enough to the wrist without them -- but I wanted to follow the pattern, at least the first time out. I had a little trouble because I ran out of yarn for the ribbing, but I just put the last bits of colored yarn at the edges where they would be seen and substituted white yarn to complete the rest of the ribbing. Well, that's probably WAY more than anyone wanted to know about this project.

I like the way these mittens look and feel. They would make a great Christmas present with a felted hat. Look out, everyone! Let me know if you DON'T want felted mittens for Christmas.

I'm thinking of making a rare wools vest. I've got 8 oz. of California Variegated Mutant (CVM) spun into a bulky weight yarn (seen at right) and I'm spinning 4 oz. of Jacob Sheep wool into a bulky weight (seen below). I think I'll have enough for a vest front at least and I think the wools will look good together. The natural colors are a little drab ... mostly grey and greyish brown ... but these are the natural colors and the whole point of CVM is that is it colored. So, I suppose I'll leave them natural. Now I need to find a good vest pattern for bulky yarn!

I love felting!

2006-05-15T13:25:00.000-05:00

The erstwhile giant mittens are now perfectly sized for normal human hands -- isn't felting wonderful? They're soft and solid and just the right size after only one cycle in the washing machine with a pair of jeans on the "heavy-duty" cycle. Felting is just like magic! Now all I have to do is knit and sew in the ribbed inner part that keeps the chill out around the wrist. I'm so tickled with myself.

Monster mittens

2006-05-13T20:57:00.000-05:00

These mittens are for any giants who happen to wander by. I started working on the red pair in the car on the way to Maryland. They're pretty quick and satisfying to work up. I'm up to the thumb on the second green one and then they go into the washer. I hope they felt down to the more manageable size!!! I love felting -- it's like magic.

Maryland Merriment!

2006-05-11T18:56:00.000-05:00

Lorain and I set off for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on Friday morning with hearts full of hope and a tank full of gas. Some nine hours later we arrived at the Frederick, Md. Hampton Inn and met the other ten members of our party from Friendship Spinners. Nancy Reid made all of us woven flower pins to wear and soon other people at the Festival recognized us as the delegation from Kentucky by our lovely pins.

We were ready to hit the festival bright and early on Saturday morning. Although we arrived at 8:30 and the festival didn’t open until 9, the cars were backed up a long way down the road waiting to park. A LOT of people came to this festival.

The first order of business was to deposit all the wool we brought with us with the mill representatives. Lorain had brought a few pounds for processing, but Nancy and Cathy brought a whopping 70 pounds of wool in Cathy’s Chevy Suburban – wedging Nancy, Cathy, Theresa, and Betty very tightly on the trip from Kentucky. At least, we reasoned, they’d have been well protected in an accident.

Then, it was on to the shopping! It was almost overwhelming. There was a huge exhibition hall filled with vendors, several smaller halls filled with vendors, AND outdoor booths running the length of the fairgrounds several times over.

There was fiber that had been dyed and spun into yarns of all different textures and hues.

There was fiber of all types that had been carded and dyed and was ready for hand spinning.

There was even fiber on the hoof and paw.

I watched a women spin angora yarn directly from the angora. When I tried this at home later, Andy didn't think it was a good idea at all.

This lovely handcarved loom decorated with swans almost made me want to learn to weave ... almost.

This luscious yarn made me salivate.

I wasn’t too squeamish to chow down on a “lamb-burger”
but even I couldn't face the prospect of eating a deep fried twinkie.

By 4 o’clock we were all exhausted … not to say out of money. Lorain bought a warping reel at the shepherd’s auction and all of us had fiber in tow … and spindles … and books … and shawl pins … and Nancy got a fabulous (and expensive) handwoven jacket.

We met in Nancy and Cathy’s deluxe room at 5 for the annual Friendship Spinner’s Derby party. The flower of Kentucky high fashion, we sported lovely hats in honor of the Derby. From the back row, left to right, we see Sandy, Theresa, Lynn, Nancy, Barb, Betty and me. On the front row are Linda, Nancy, Lorain and Cathy. Nancy made Derby pie and we all had mint juleps. Lorain was the lucky winner of the fabulous Derby pot (I think it almost paid for her dinner). And we decorated a special hat for Carol, who couldn’t be there, so she knew we were thinking of her. Lorain shared the basket of wine and cheese that her husband had thoughtfully packed for her, and I brought brownies.

To cap off the day, we went to dinner at May’s Crab and almost all of us had delicious crab for dinner. Apparently, part of the fun of Maryland Blue Crab is whacking it with a wooden mallet to get the meat out. Cathy whacked hers so hard that it exploded onto Nancy’s new jacket. Oh, well, it had to be broken in some time.

Most of us were dragging by the time we finished dinner, but several of the group had a nightcap in the party room (Nancy and Cathy’s) and watched “Pirates of the Caribbean” (love that Johnny Depp).

The next morning we headed for the fairgrounds again, but this time I had a different agenda: I had a “Novelty Yarns” class. There were 15 of us in the class with legendary spinner Judith McKenzie McCuin. She taught us so many new techniques that I’m sure I’ll never remember it all. It was great fun to play all day instead of tramping around the fairgrounds again. Here is a picture of me with Judith. She actually said I was a good spinner!

While I was busy learning something worthwhile, the others were watching the Parade of Breeds and doing more shopping. Cathy did the most memorable shopping – she bought two live lambs. We pondered long and hard about how she and three other people were going to enjoy that nine hour trip home in a Chevy Suburban with two sheep. I’m still waiting to hear the details of that trip!

Saturday night we went to another crab place, but I can’t remember the name. It was delicious … but still I can’t remember the name.

The next morning Lorain and I loaded up our loot and headed for home. We tried to go by way of Milton, WV to see the Blenko glass factory, but we were too late and had to miss it. It was a long drive, but we were happy and at least we didn’t share our ride with two sheep!

Here’s my shopping:

8 skeins of wool for felting
5 skeins of alpaca for socks
1 tanned lamb hide
1 pair of socks with sheep on them
1 Maryland Wool Festival coffee mug
1 Maryland Wool Festival T-shirt
4 oz. of Jacob Wool roving
1 leather belt
1 leather credit card holder
8 oz. cone of fine 2-ply wool yarn

For another blow by blow account of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival check out Knitter's Review.

Back from Maryland

2006-05-10T19:56:00.000-05:00

It was a long long drive, but Lorain and I made it to and from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I've got lots of pictures and I'll write more later.

Darn it!

2006-05-03T11:55:00.000-05:00

Darn! I thought knitting with Stephanie had elevated me to the ether of good knitting karma. It looked like I was going to finish that dachshund sleeve without having to order another skein of blue yarn. Yet, the knitting goddess has not so favored me ...

I think I'll just wait until after the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival to regroup and place my order for one more measley skein of blue wool. I would just go ahead and place a big order to make it worthwhile but I did that every other time I ran out of yarn and now I have about six projects waiting for me to start. I think it's safer just to order the one skein. Besides, it's not like I'm realistically coming home from Maryland without more wool. I warned Lorain that we may have to make room in her Camry for a whole sheep!

I have been finishing up the beautiful wool/silk blend I've been spinning. I plied it yesterday and set the twist. It looks like something between sport weight and lace weight. I have NO IDEA what I'm going to make with it. Ideas anyone? I've got about 1000 yards.

I Knitted With the Harlot!

2006-04-29T22:23:00.000-05:00

Great knitting day today! I got to knit with the Harlot!

It was a triumph for knitters (and knitting book writers) that among the scores of published authors at the Bluegrass Book Festival, Stephanie had the most loyal following. Sue Grafton and Jane Fonda got some attention, of course, but Stephanie's devotees waited patiently in line to have their books signed and then gathered for an impromptu "knit in" until time for her to speak.

I'm sitting there with my wild Magic Stripes socks and my still unfinished blue sweater sleeve.

I met up with Nancy Reid from Friendship Spinners and she introduced me to a couple of other people. She was working on a pair of green socks in the same Knit Picks yarn that I have waiting in my "to do" basket.

Stephanie was amazing. She took time to speak with each person in line and admire their projects. It must be an odd feeling when you don't actually know anyone but they all feel as if they know you ... dozens of people who know all about your life and you've never seen them before. If we weren't all so charming and lovely, it would be quite intimating.

At 4:00 Stephanie spoke to a packed room, most of whom had knitting in hand. She was so FUNNY! I was a little suprised because a lot of people who are hysterical in print (Dave Barry, for example) don't give good interviews. She has a lot of poise, doesn't take herself too seriously and -- obviously -- has a lightning quick wit.

Even better, after her speech, she agreed to meet some of us (who were hovering around unwilling for the day to be over) for coffee at the local coffee shop. About ten of us sat and drank coffee and knitted with Stephanie for two hours!
Somehow, under Stephanie's magic influence, I began to actually make progress in the unending last sleeve. I think I might actually finish it tonight!

Bless you, Stephanie, and the positive knitting aura that surrounds you. (Note: I did NOT say "Bless your heart.")

I'm Going to See the Harlot

2006-04-29T09:18:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited. I'm driving down to Lexington today where the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl McPhee, is signing books at the Bluegrass Book Festival. I love her books and her blog. I'll report later on the day's events. I hope she's not all tired out -- from her blog it looks like she's been constantly on the move for weeks. Take care of yourself, Stephanie!

A Quick Review for Those of You Who Weren't Paying Attention

2006-04-29T09:04:00.000-05:00

Since the old blog is now defunct, I'm going to re-post some of the projects that were on it so they don't get totally forgotten.

My most recent FINISHED project is the illusion scarf I made for the Weaver's Guild spring challenge. The challenge was entitled "Black and White and Red All Over," so I made a black and white illusion scarf with the word "red" repeated three times down the length.

If you see the scarf straight on, you just see a black and white striped scarf (and a sleepy black and white dog under it).

However, if you look at an angle, the magic starts and the word "red" pops out at you. This project was such a hoot -- I just kept looking at it from different angles sort of like a native with a butane lighter. I'm easily amused.

The Sweater is Mocking Me

2006-04-28T09:36:00.000-05:00

I'm almost done with Mom's dachshund sweater -- only half of one sleeve remains -- but I never seem to make any progress on it. I think I'm just sick of knitting stockinette. Instead, this morning I've been spinning some of that luscious merino and silk roving that Jeff -- wonderful and understanding man that he is -- got me for Christmas.

It's like spinning a cloud. And you can see from the picture how lovely and lustrous the silk makes it.

I've already spun up one skein of about 400 yards, but at sport weight it will probably take quite a lot to make a sweater -- especially for a generously sized person like me.

Strangely, Pat and Bonita at the Guild are both spinning this very same roving. We discovered it when we were all spinning together the other day. We're interested in seeing how each of us uses the same material in different ways. I can already see that Bonita is spinning hers much thicker than I am.

Hey, this is kinda fun!

2006-04-27T10:44:00.000-05:00

This blogging thing is catching on with me. It's sort of fun to pretend that someone else is reading it. I just have to be careful not to say anything bad about anyone ... except, of course, my sister. I TOLD her I was going to write bad stuff so she'd be sure to look at it.

Now for all the bad stuff: My sister is probably the strongest and most self-reliant person I know. She's met unspeakable challenges with a backbone of steel and no discernable self-pity. Where I would be huddled in a corner moaning my fate and cursing the gods, she simply does what needs doing with good humor and optimism. If I had one criticism it would be that she doesn't lean on others enough. We like to feel included.

I finished the back of Mom's sweater last night. Hurray!!! Now I'm down to the last sleeve and I'm halfway through with that. After finishing the back, I gathered up all my stray skeins of blue yarn and I THINK I may have enough to finish the rest of the sleeve without ordering another skein. It's going to be close.

I need a project to take on the road to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I'm really looking forward to the trip. I'm taking a Novelty Yarn class on Sunday from Judith McKinsey-McCuin that should be good. Lorain, my spinning buddy and roommate for the weekend, goes every year and she says it's fantastic. I'm thinking about either dipping into my sock stash for something to knit in the car or starting on the felted mittens I've had on my to-do list for a while.

This weekend Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is signing books in Lexington and I'm hoping to go. I read her blog religiously. It's such a hoot! She gets it ... she really gets it.

I don't have any new knitting to show off since the dog sweater is sucking up all my time, so I'll display an old project. This is a beret I made for Kate with handspun angora blend yarn. I dyed it with Easter egg dye and it didn't dye evenly, but the result was a lovely varigated pink -- much more interesting than an even pink would have been. Serendipity! As an aside, the dye faded a good bit when exposed to light. The inside of the beret is a lot pinker than the outside. I don't think Easter egg dye is one the best dyes on the market.

Still, Kate really loved the hat and wore it almost continuously for about a month before moving on to newer and better style options.

I guess I'd better get off the computer and get things done around the house. Time flies when you're online!

Welcome to the new blog

2006-04-26T14:12:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the new blog. Not much to say today. I don't know how all the other knitting blogs seem to show a new finished item every day. I'm still slogging away on the dachshund sweater for my Mom.

New blog is open for business!

2006-04-24T19:48:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are at the new address. I'll have to learn how to do this all over again, but it looks like Blogger has a lot more features than Bloglines did.

Let's try posting some pictures of the lovely cookies I took to dinner over at Lynne's house: Well, I guess it's not placed exactly where I want it, but it's a start.