New Address

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

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!

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

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

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

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!

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 ....