Woobie's Wool Writings

Shallow Seas

2007-07-26T19:15:00.001-05:00

Finally, a finished object! Well, sort of. At least it is fiber that is finished being spun... It is Shallow seas and it is destined to be a pair of longies for the Fluff Factory auction. I think it turned out pretty well! Here's a photo:

And here's the closeup:

Neither of them really show the colors correctly, but oh well! I had the same problem with Mystic. It seems to be the blue. Last time, the blue hid the purples. This time, the blue is hiding lavendar, violet, aqua, and teal (although if you look REALLY closely you can kinda see it here and there -- just barely! LOL)

But I'm trying to post more frequently, and it's the only thing I've had time to finish!

Our "debut" went smashingly :-D. Lamar, especially, had a VERY good day. I did pretty well too. But I knew many of my items for this time around would be a bit less likely to be purchased. I had more handspun and fiber (shhh.... I was hoping they'd just attract attention to our opening!). I'm never expecting the fiber/handspun to overtake yarn dyeing, just augment it. In the mean time, I'm still dyeing yarn as well! I love dyeing... I have fun regardless of the medium (although I will admit to a certain soft spot for fiber :-D. But that's the spinner in me!)

Grand Opening on Hyenacart!!

2007-07-23T18:34:00.000-05:00

Well, we are finally having our official grand opening on hyenacart tomorrow at 2pm. We will be having free for shipping lotteries, a few types of semi-custom slots, and lots of new yarn!

So what have I been doing other than that? Well, not much! That's kind of been my focus for the past few weeks... but after the opening, I'm hoping to have time to catch up on some of my pending projects. Right now, my biggest priority is finishing up some handspun worsted 2-ply that will be for Fluff Factory. Here's a picture of the fiber I dyed up:

I've always wanted to participate because I've been so impressed with what they do. 2x a year they pick a charity, and have a huge auction of donated items. All of the proceeds then go to the selected charity. It's a great chance to get beautiful handmade items AND support a good cause, all in one.

So what am I doing? Well, I'm actually donating some or all of the contents in 3 different "baskets". The first will be with my partners in crime at TLC. We are going to put together a basket of 6 skeins of yarn, each of us donating 2 skeins. The second I think I'm doing on my own (Colleen might join in, she still has to see...) where I'm going to offer a Learn to Spindle kit. It's going to have a decent starter spindle (specifically, I've just ordered a Greensleaves Barebones), a collection of dyed and undyed fibers to try out, a "getting started" book, and I'm considering creating a DVD that demo's using the spindle (that's still a little up in the air!). I was most particular about the spindle I chose... I did not want to go with one of the usual "student" spindles. I'm not a big fan of the spindle that is usually in these types of kits (they are trying to hook you on spinning, right?!!?) In addition, I was thinking about include "free support", but I'm not quite sure how to manage that one, so I might skip that part. We'll see...

And finally back around to the fiber above. That is for the 3rd basket. I'm spinning up some worsted weight yarn. Then, the amazingly talented Heather (her store is FYF soakers -- definitely go check her out if you need any diaper woolies!) will knit them up into longies. And finally, Steph from Pattynaps will be making a matching diaper as well! :-D

Well, I'm signing off for the moment! I want to do a few more things before our grand opening. Come check us out if you have a moment: http://hyenacart.com/tinyladycooperative .

Can I tell you a secret?

2007-07-17T20:15:00.000-05:00

Hello all! I don't really have any photo updates for any of my projects, but I did at least want to post about the "Tiny Lady Cooperative" hyenacart. We have an official opening date of July 24th. HOWEVER, to thank everyone who has supported and encouraged all three of us on this journey, we are having a "secret prestocking" on July 18th, starting at 12Noon EDT.

How will this work? Well, we've already stocked a bunch of stuff on the hyenacart (http://hyenacart.com/tinyladycooperative). Right now, they all say they will become available on July 24th. But tomorrow at noon eastern, I will switch everything there over to "available" until some time in the evening (haven't quite figured out when. Probably after my daughter goes to sleep, so maybe around 8pm EDT?). Then, whatever is still available will be switched back to preview until July 24th. Then, we will be adding some other items, including a couple of free lotteries, for the Grand Opening Stocking on the 24th.

Did we really think there would be some mad hyena frenzy for our stuff on the 24th? Not really... but we wanted to give our friends and supporters as much of a chance as possible to get anything they've been coveting, just in case!

We've also set up a yahoo group here: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tinyladycooperative/ that people can sign up for. We'll be using it to send out stocking information, special notices and promotions!

So, please, join us for tomorrows pre-festivity, in anticipation of our opening...

Oh, and just because I can't go without showing at least one photo, here's one of my most recent projects. I'm REALLY proud of it b/c it's new and different for me...

...of Legos, Logos and Lemmings

2007-07-11T19:42:00.001-05:00

Well, first, you'll notice a big of a redesign. This is where I'm at right now. Still not thrilled with the design, but I need the rest of the banner first before I can design the whole scheme. For now, it doesn't clash is about all I can say. It just seems a bit too purple for me! But give me some time. Eventually I will come up with a setup I'm happy with. In the mean time, you get a fresh new look on a regular basis! Variety is the spice of life :-D.

So why legos, logos and lemmings? Well, the logo part should be obvious. Meet Woobie... the namesake of this organization. She is my daughter's "lovey". Where did the name Woobie come from? Well, if you ask "purists", I think it originated from the movie "Mr. Mom". But in my husband's mind, it comes from his favorite -- Batman. (Yes, Batman... don't ask! LOL) Somehow, apparently there was a reference at some point in the most recent Batman series of cartoons to Barbara Gordon's childhood lovey, and it was named Woobie, so Mike became attached to the name, and it stuck! Of course, Cassie usually pronounces it something more along the lines of "bubbie" most of the time, but that's her. She is highly offended if anyone else calls her anything but Woobie! :-D And besides, it would loose that beautiful alliteration if it was named Bubbie's Wool!

Where did the legos come from -- well, that was what I used to prop up woobie when I took the photo from which I created the logo! Woobie is WELL loved (well, to be honest, there are 7 of her that are well loved, but that is another LONG and strange story...)! So she's lost some of her "resiliency". Happens to the best of us! So to get a straight photo where everything was set "just so" it required a bunch of legos underneath her. I took that photo, and spend LOTS of time playing with Elements to get something I eventually liked. As a good friend of mine puts it -- give a bunch of monkeys a typewriter and enough time, and eventually they will write Shakespeare! Well, while this obviously isn't Shakespeare, I think I did a pretty good job. But it was definitely the "monkey and enough time" approach!

Here's the original photo from which I worked. As you can see, Woobie has definitely seen better days. But as I said before, that's just the sign of a well loved toy!

And here's the after in black and white:

Obviously, the final result is the picture at the top.

So, other than making a logo, what else have I been doing? Well, preparing for our opening, which is now probably about 2 weeks away, give or take. And also, this brings us to the lemmings! I also decided to join in on the Mystery Stole 3 For those of you unaware, this is an ingenius idea by an amazingly talented designer. Every year she creates a stole pattern and an associated KAL (knit-a-long) on Yahoo. Starting June 29th, she is giving out "clues" (i.e. portions of the pattern). Each week throughout the summer, she will give out another clue. The eventual result is a complete shawl pattern. But for the moment, we have no idea what the theme is, nor what the final product looks like. But there are 6500 of us all joining along for the ride! And, of course, I needed to find a yarn appropriately suitable for such an auspicious event. What won out? Well, my Pomegranite laceweight, of course! It's been slow going b/c I've had limited knitting time, plus I joined a little late (didn't find out about it until 4th of July, and didn't get a chance to start until the 6th -- the day the second clue came out. But I'm hoping to catch up after our first Tiny Lady Cooperative stocking. In the mean time, here's my progress so far (not my best blocking job, but it was a bit impromptu. Besides, it's just to take a photo!):

The other KAL I joined (like I don't already have enough to do?!?!) Is a sock-a-long for the Perambulate Socks. I mentioned this in one of my last posts, but now I have a reasonable enough progress to show a picture:

I LOVE this pattern... it's just so cool! And it looks wonderful with the Lotus Toes Amethyst...

I've also been doing alot of spinning for the opening, but those will have to wait until after I've posted them on HC! I want at least some element of surprise! :-D

That's it for now. Enjoy!

So where are we now? Update Day 4

2007-07-03T19:55:00.000-05:00

OK, so I think I'm almost up to date. Where do I go from here? Well, I'm not completely sure. Woobies Wool will stay on etsy, at least to list fiber. I'm not sure how much demand there will be for fiber on Hyenacart. Tiny Lady Cooperative opens middle to end of this month, depending on how we are progressing. In the mean time, I'm doing all the details of setting up an online store... a banner and logo (which probably means an update to the design here as well...), coming up with ball bands, figuring out how I'm going to handle shipping, etc. All the "fun stuff" of a business. And somewhere in the middle, I still want to dye up a few more batches (I have a couple of colorways I REALLY want to include in one of the first stockings) and spinning more fiber!

I will admit, at this point, I probably won't be adding pictures of some of my stuff until it "debuts" on hyenacart. I want at least SOME of the stuff to be a surprise. However, I do still have a few personal projects I've started working on as well...

I think I mentioned this a few days ago, but I've started a pair of Perambulate socks w/ some Lotus Toes. And there is this ADORABLE skirty that Heather made that I'm just dying to do for Cassie. I have two skeins of Zen String just begging to be used, so now I just have to dye up some solid yarn to match...

And finally, I think I MIGHT have figured out what to do with the Pomegranite laceweight. Someone pointed me in the direction of the "Mystery Stole 3" group. If it fits the bill (I'm going to start going through the group tonight) I may use it for that!

OK, so I think I'm up to date now! YAY!! I'm sure I missed stuff, but oh well :-D

Yes, I'm still updating! Day 3

2007-07-02T13:53:00.000-05:00

I wasn't kidding when I said I was behind! Now you know why it seemed like such a daunting task to catch up... and once you're behind on this thing, it kind of snowballs! :-D

So, today, I'm going to try and explain how I got to that --->
(so, if you aren't reading this when it's the top post, "that" is my etsy store)

Well, I've been doing some at-home dyeing for a little while now. Off and on for about a year. I haven't done much since I started the blog... mainly some solids (or, semi-solids really). But I was never that thrilled with the results. They were fine, but nothing like the beautiful stuff that I saw online. And honestly, I wasn't expecting to be as good as them, just decent enough to be happy with the results and use them. My success rate so far had been about 50/50.

So, a little over a month ago, I decided to try and do some new dyeing experiments. I had been doing some research, and I began to realize that maybe my problem wasn't the colors I was using, but rather how I was approaching dyeing. Whether you can tell or not -- I'm a very logical person. Sometimes a little TOO logical, sometimes to the extreme of being a bit of a control freak. And in this case, that's where I was running into problems. I was approaching this in too logical of a fashion, trying to control the results too much. Not that this is necessarily is bad, especially in the hands of an expert. But I needed a better understanding of how the colors interacted before I could start using some logic. Basically, I just needed to let go a bit! So I did. I took hold of "kettle dyeing" and when bananas! I rummaged through my (embarassingly large) stash for anything and everything undyed, and started with a few experiments. Again, using many of the colors I tried in the past... but this time, I used them in a kettle instead of painting them. And from that, out came stuff like this:

and this:

And I realized that some of these were pretty good! So I kept going... this time being a bit more adventuresome. And ended up with this:

and this:

Like I said, this is not the full selection, just a few highlights. But from these results, I was getting alot of complements from friends on some of the boards I frequent.

So why did I start all of this? Because of some beautiful work I was seeing from an online friend, Lamar. I just loved the stuff she was coming up with, despite the fact that she was relatively new to the yarn dyeing world. And I began to realize that, while experience is important, a good eye for color is even more so. And I've been told that I have that. The experience with dyeing comes with time and, well, experience. The more I play with the colors, the more I push myself to try new and unusual things, the more tricks I learn, and the better I understand how the colors interact.

Of course, the question becomes, what the heck am I going to do with all this yarn and fiber?!?!? I can only knit so much, and the time I had available to knit was significantly more limited as I spent more time spinning and dyeing. It's an odd conundrum, really. I spend more time spinning and dyeing so I can have all the yarns that I imagine in my head. But then I don't have time to use them all! So I decided to start putting a few of them on Etsy, to see what happened. But the idea of doing much more scared the living crap out of me!

Well, around the same time, Lamar was coming to some of the same conclusions, as was another online friend, Colleen. So I sent an email to them suggesting that maybe we could try doing this together in one collective store... and Tiny Lady Cooperative was born! (Colleen gets credit for the name! :-D) We are still working on getting ready for our grand opening (right now scheduled for mid to end of July) but in the mean time I've continued dyeing up a storm. My work is going to be under the title "Woobies Wool" (inspired, for those that don't know, by my daughter's "comfort object" aka "Woobie" -- a pink and purple stuffed horse.) I know, a bit odd. But my husband came up with it for my blog, and this way, I feel like I'm including both of them in my endevor by naming it such...

In the mean time, I've even sold some stuff!!! My first sale was the fiber in the first picture -- Sandstorm. I still don't know who she is, but if you ever read this, thank you!! I'd love to hear what you think of the fiber and see what the results were. I sold a few skeins of yarn along the way too! I think one of my most popular so far has been Starry Night (the dark one with the yellow highlights).

Also, I had a wonderful day with my spinning guild. It was fun regardless of selling fiber. I always love attending them. It's so nice to hang out with people who don't think I'm looney for loving spinning so much! Plus, I usually learn at least a few things each time. So, on the guild leader's suggestion, I brought what I had dyed. I didn't go intending to sell stuff (although the guild leader had expressed interest in one! :-D), just get opinions. But I walked away having sold 5 braids of fiber! WOW!! It was the greatest ego boost... several people I respected greatly actually liked my work enough to buy it! Also, I got an inspiration (again from Karen, our leader) for a new colorway... Just Peachy:

Since then I've done stuff from the unusual:

to the complex:

to the earthy:

and the vibrant:

And tons more in between.... if you go exploring through my flickr account, you can see a bunch more.

I've even done some interesting stuff with natural dyeing. The goal is to use it mostly for an "environmentally sustainable" (aka from a farm that follows organic standards, but can't afford or isn't willing to pay to get the "official" designation), but I've also tried it on sock yarn as well. So far, I've done, Madder, Alkanet root, and Indigo, with my favorite results being the indigo (the picture on my flickr account isn't the greatest b/c at the time it was still damp. I'll try and upload the better photo that I used for Etsy later). And, apparently, someone else really liked it as well, but she was rather disappointed when there was only one skein. Luckily, I found out through another board posting that a friend alerted me to.(It's a board I don't frequent as much anymore b/c it's VERY oriented towards all the pretty CD's on hyenacart... and I just find it too sad to see all that pretty stuff and not have a reason to buy it for my currently potty training daughter!) Since she wanted it for a shawl, and that was on sock yarn, I suggested she try it on another yarn I had that is softer and much nicer for shawls. She agreed, and this is my most recent dyeing results:

I'm quite happy b/c it turned out exactly the way I wanted it to. Hopefully she is as pleased!

OK, that's all I have time for now. I'm almost caught up at this point! Hopefully today's picture heavy post doesn't overwhelm! Tomorrow, I'll spend time on where I'm going from here....

Enjoy!

Still updating.... Day 2

2007-07-01T13:26:00.000-05:00

OK, so I'll start my focus on knitting, but there's only so much of that b/c I've been so busy dyeing and spinning... So I'll probably start on the dyeing experiments as well, if only b/c that'll probably take a few days. YES, there really is that much!

First, I did miss one thing yesterday related to spinning. This month's Zen String Fiber club:

I know I've said this before, but it's always true! I just can't get the colorways to take photos that do them justice. The dark color is actually a forest green, and the blues are acutally a bright turquoise and blue. Also, it's got purples and bright yellow to gold. Her inspiration for this was the self-striping sock yarn from Spin-Off. They go through a whole detailed explanation from dyeing fiber to finished sock. And I believe I may go with that suggestion. These would just make the coolest socks! Originally, I was thinking I might try practicing my navajo plying to do this, but I'm worried the stripes won't be long enough, and I'd have to spin it thinner since it would be 3 ply, so I think I'm going to go with the procedure explained in Spin-off. We'll see how it turns out!

Next, the knitting. I've been continuing in the pursuit of washclothes. I finished up my second one.

Again, it's one of Smariek's designs. I figure I'll just go through all the ones of hers that I like, then I can start looking elsewhere. Well, with one definite exception. Carole had a WONDERFUL Butterfly pattern mentioned on her blog a few weeks ago that is getting done next. I'll try and find the author's name so I can give proper credit. But since I haven't even started yet, I don't feel too bad! But Cassie LOVES butterflies, so I just couldn't resist. She was kind enough to forward me the pattern. So that'll be my next washcloth.

I'm also working on another Sophie Bag for Cassie (the other one was actually for my niece, but I was attempting to keep it a surprise -- my sister does occasionally read my blog!). But nothing too exciting to show. It's just a partially knitted large sack that will eventually become a cute bag!

And I'm FINALLY going to knit with some of that yummy Zen String yarn I got in a co-op a while back. I am about to start the Perambulate Socks using this yarn:

This is the Amethyst colorway. I was originally going to use Lufaloo (if you clicked on the link to the socks above, it's the colorway used for the main photo), but my dh convinced me to use this instead. According to him, it is "....so you!" (meaning me, of course). And to be honest, I like that one just as much and was having a hard time deciding, so I gave in and switched to Amethyst instead.

Like I said yesterday, I'm just starting a stole with that beautiful Pomegranite laceweight I made. I'm still on the fence as to which to use. We'll see how I feel when I get back to it, which probably won't happen until after the Grand Opening of Tiny Lady Cooperative.

And finally, while not knitting, it is still related to knitting. The most exciting event of my week... I had a WONDERFUL treat in my mailbox yesterday! It was a trade with a friend, Erin. She is going to become a foster mom soon, and is trying to accumulate all the necessary stuff. She fell in love with the LTK Hybrid Rib, but she isn't a knitter. So, since that is my favorite soaker pattern, I readily agreed. Other than the fact that it was fun, and that she's going to be a foster mom, so she deserves all the help she can get, why would I do that? Well, she makes these needle rolls... and they are just the greatest thing since sliced bread! So the deal was, 1 soaker for 1 needle roll. Here was my part (sort of -- you'll see what I mean in a minute). I dyed the yarn to her specifications, and knit up this adorable little newborn soaker. So much fun!:

And, well... I kinda cheated a bit, simply because I loved knitting the first so much. I had some leftover hanspun from last year (less than 2 oz) that seemed perfect for a second soaker. Of course, I was an idiot and forgot to take a picture of that one before I sent it to her (it was a surprise). I tried delaying the shipment a tad, in hopes that she'd get it after she already sent out the needle roll, but no luck. She was a little delayed from catching up after a vacation (we all know how hard that can be!) But you can see a picture of the other on her blog here: http://lookwhaterinmade.blogspot.com/2007/06/one-final-trade.html And you can see that she ended up cheating in return and making a second travel one -- despite my plea for her not to do so! Bad Erin ;-) But I'm not complaining!

I'm sure you saw the pictures on that link, but here you can see them with my knitting bag, and in action!

First, both rolls with my bag:

Now the main roll, obviously being well used!

You can definitely see my sock DPN obsession... the first 6 sets are all of my sock needles (0, 1, 2) in several varieties. And this doesn't include the metal 1's and 2's I have that just slipped down (hence the 2 "empty" looking slots).

And finally, the travel roll.

There isn't much in there right now simply b/c I was having too much fun filling the other one! But it will be perfect for going out and about, because, as much as I love my knitting bag, it really is just one giant sack. So having a place for all of my tools will make life much easier! THANK YOU ERIN!!!!

OK, one last item of business... I still needed to Tag five others for the WikiMeme. For those who are tagged, if you didn't see the previous post, the goal is to look up your birthday on Wikipedia and then post 3 events, 2 birthdays, and 1 holiday that all fall on your birthday. I have a feeling a few are going to be a tad annoyed (sorry!), and Sarah may not have time b/c I know she's due REALLY soon, but I am going to go tag (later today -- Cassie is waking now):

Crafty Carole
Sarah Easter
Erin

And my two partners in crime at Tiny Lady Cooperative
Colleen (aka "Spiffy Knits")
Lamar (aka "...a time to dye")

Which also reminds me, I need to go add Lamar to my favorite links list...

Starting tomorrow, I catch up on my other new obsession... dyeing! That one will probably take a while. There is no way I can post everything, but I can at least do a summary of how I got to this point, and some of the highlights! But if you want to check out my flickr gallery, it's here:

Enjoy!

2 in one day... this may be a record! :-D

2007-06-30T19:59:00.000-05:00

OK, so I'm finally trying to catch up on my blogs, and was a bit oblivious that I was tagged! Sorry Annalea, I'll use that it was early in the morning as my excuse :-D Oh, and happy belated birthday!

The details are that I'm supposed to find 3 events, 2 births, and 1 holiday on my birthday

So, I just went to Wikipedia for my birthday -- Nov 24:

Events:

1859 - Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species.

1947 - Red Scare: After refusing to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of Communist influence in the movie industry, the United States House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10.

1963 - John F. Kennedy assassination: Alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is mortally shot by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas on live national television.

I'll admit, I already knew about the last one. As a history major in college (I know from history major to professional computer geek, now to a budding yarn artist... it's a weird path!) Don't ask me why I picked the Red Scare... I guess because I always think of it as one of the darker moments in our nations history, when the government decided they knew better than our founding fathers. It seemed an appropriate reminder considering how some in our current government seem to be approaching their positions as well...

And, well, to be honest, I just thought it was cool that I was born on the same day that Origin of the Species was published! :-D

Births (I picked the only two, other than a former president, that I recognized!):

1690 - Charles Theodore Pachelbel, German composer (d. 1750)

1864 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (d. 1901)

One Holiday: Well, this one is actually deceptive. I've had WAY too many birthdays on Thanksgiving to not at least mention that one. But technically, it doesn't qualify because it's not on the same day every year, so here's an "official" one!

Roman festivals - in the Byzantine empire the Brumalia (a wine festival) were celebrated from this day until the winter solstice

I'll go tag a few blogs in the am, but didn't want Annalea thinking I was ignoring her!

I know -- shocking -- an actual post!

2007-06-30T07:38:00.000-05:00

OK, so as someone just pointed out to me, I am WAYYYYYYY..... far behind on posting. And I think it's because I'm so far behind that I've been avoiding it! It was just too daunting of a task. So I've decided that, over the next week, I'm going to catch up! Even if it's only a short post, I will post every day, until I'm caught up.

So, the question becomes, what have I been doing that's got me so busy? Well, you can see the link to the right! That's right, I've started an Etsy store. And I'll soon be expanding to Hyenacart as well.

I'm really excited about hyenacart because I'm not going it alone there... We are going to be the Tiny Lady Cooperative. Our store will be a combination of all three of our work... not really a congo, but not an individual store either. Somewhere in between :-D. We are doing this, figuring "safety in numbers"! For those of you interested to see our new site, it's here:

http://hyenacart.com/tinyladycooperative

We don't have any stock, but I think the site is almost completely set up for the look of it. I'd love to hear opinions! The only thing to add is a link to our Yahoo group mailing list, which I'm hoping to have time to do sometime today. This way, people will get notified of our official opening date (once we settle on one! Right now, we are shooting for mid to end of July), stockings, promotions, etc.

So, let's try and catch up on the "good stuff" now, shall we? Hmmm... where did we leave off? Oh yeah, the Icarus Shawl... which, btw, I LOVE and wear whenever I can get an excuse! :-D

Well, since I've been doing more spinning and dyeing, and the spinning takes less time to update, lets start with that! First, I FINALLY finished Pomegranite. And YES, this is the plied version! It is THAT thin...

My guestimate yardage is 1750 yards out of 6 oz. I did figure out the wpi, but can't remember right now, I'll edit later with that. Let's just say ALOT! LOL

What am I going to do with it? Well, I'm still doing a bit of debate since I haven't gotten very far, but I was planning on doing a BEAUTIFUL shawl from Victorian Lace Today -- "A Knitted Veil" (Here's a wonderful picture of one finished: www.flickr.com/photos/fanihi/405729425/ ). But I think I might be getting just a BIT over my head with this one... It isn't the design... I'm comfortable with the intricacy of the lace, if I was using a fingering... it's this yarn! It's SO thin, that I'm having a hard time just doing the k2tog's and ssk's. So I'm considering ripping out the tiny amount I've done so far and switch to Eunny Jang's "Print o' the Wave". Not that it's easy, but it's a tad easier than the other, and I can practice working with this thin of a yarn with something a bit less overwhelming first... We'll see. My knitting time has been so limited lately that I haven't touched it in almost a month! Which is unheard of for me b/c I love to knit lace!

Next up, I finished the Zen String fiber club "Fiore" that you saw in the previous post. Here are a few pictures of it finished:

and a closeup:

You'll notice there is more than 4 oz there! That's because Angelina had a contest -- whoever the first three were to finish 2 oz of Pomegranite, she'd do a drawing for a winner of 8 oz. Well, there were only ever two of us, so instead she VERY generously offered to just split the 8oz between us, so I got 4oz free! YAY! And as you can see, it turned out wonderfully! I don't remember the yardage or wpi right now, so again, I'll update later.

And, finally, I never got to put a picture of the fiber. I just couldn't get a picture that did it justice, and, well the trend continues with the yarn... However, here's what I was able to take:

and

They really don't show all the colors! There are more variations of purples and blues that just don't seem to show up in any photo I take! So this is what you get. I'll check on the yardage and wpi for this one as well. This one also has an assigned project already -- a hat and mittens for Cassie! The colors are just perfect for her (she always looks great in blues!) and her winter coat, which is lavendar.

And finally, a little clue in on my newest project. I'm trying something VERY different. Here's a photo of my sample that I made:

I've finished the first 4 oz, and I probably have enough thin at this point for it. But I want to finish all the Rambouillet I've already got combed (remember the fluff balls?) before I ply.

And finally, I still need to take a picture of this past month's Fiber club -- it is SO cool! Bright cheery colors. I'm still deciding on the approach I want to take for that one. :-D I'll take a picture and post that next.

OK, I've done a decent amount today... tomorrow, I'm going hit knitting, just because it's pretty easy. I haven't finished much! Then, the big task -- my newest dyeing obsession! :-D

Enjoy!

I'm a dyeing maniac!

2007-05-28T22:13:00.000-05:00

I know I'm a bad blogger. I'm so far behind on posting, but I've been WAY too busy lately. Of course, a lot of it is of my own creation, so I can't complain.

First, Pomegranite is almost done! It just needs to be plied. But I wasn't going to take another picture of singles, so you'll have to wait until it's finished. I'm afraid to ask how many yards it's going to be!

ALso, I've gone a little berzerk with the dyeing thing. I'm just having so much fun with it! But it begs the question, what the heck am I going to do with all of it. Well, I decided to try and put some of it up on etsy to see if any of it will sell. We'll see. Eventually, I'd like to set up something on hyenacart, but I'd like to do that right, so it'll take a bit longer. So in the mean time, etsy it is!

I've uploaded all the pictures, but it's late and I my husband is pestering me that it's time to go to bed. So hopefully I'll have time to add them to an entry tomorrow. But in the mean time, just wander over to my flicker photos to see, if you'd like. Or, you can go to Etsy!

Good night :-D

Fire Spirit - Icarus Shawl

2007-05-14T13:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally finished it! I completed the knitting on Saturday and blocked it Saturday night. Just in time so I could wear it for Mother's Day! :-D I was so proud of it. Here are a few photos. Oh, and notice I included the backyard in the background. Just to prove it isn't usually underwater! Plus, you can kind of see our new "addition" to the yard that my daughter is currently obsessed with! LOL

The preblocked size was 25" x 50" and the final blocked dimensions are 32" x 66". Plus, I still have quite a bit of yarn left, so I'd guess I used about 7 oz of yarn (I really need to get a scale!)

In addition, I just finished a sophie purse from Magknits (http://www.magknits.com/warm04/patterns/sophie.htm) that I made for Cassie. But it still needs a tad more blocking, so I'm holding off on the photo. But in the mean time, it did help me discover one thing. Felted wool would make AWESOME oven mitt. How do I know this? Well, I decided to try and iron out some of the wrinkles, figuring it'd have the dual purpose of making the felted fabric a bit smoother too. Since I couldn't get the purse opening over the end of the ironing board, I ended up ironing it... well, on my hand! I stuck my hand in and proceeded to iron. And it worked great! Plus, I could barely feel the iron through the fabric... amazing!

Other than that, I'm still working my way through the Pomegranite. It's slow going b/c I'm making it laceweight, plus I was spending most of my time finishing up the shawl... Hopefully I'll have more time this week and can finish it up by the end of the week.

Next up is a "cleanup round". I have several projects floating around in various states of incompletion. So I'm going to go around, collect them, and hopefully finish some of them up. By then, I should be finished with the Pomegranite and ready to start on the next fiber (probably a worsted weight Fiore BFL, then some white fingering merino tencel I got to make a shawl for my mom). We shall see...

That's it for now. Just wanted to post the pictures of Icarus now that it's finished!

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

2007-05-08T19:14:00.000-05:00

Warning -- the following is photo heavy!

Yes, I know I'm WAY behind in posting this. But between catching up from being gone, helping out a friend who's under the weather, and playing with a new toy -- well, I've been a little distracted!

(Oh, and before I start -- Kristen, if you are reading this, yes, it'll sound familiar... I copied alot from my summary to you for this entry to save time!)

Well, since it finally stopped raining (there were 2 more deluges after the one mentioned in the previously -- bringing us to a sum total of about 12.5 inches of rain in less than 4 weeks!), we were able to go to MSWF without any concerns of more flooding!

How was MSWF? It was wonderful! Cassie and Mike also had a great time. Mike even said he'd like to make this a yearly trip! :-D We'll see how he feels when we get closer to the event next year. The cutest was Cassie's obsession with all the animals! Saturday, she was obsessed with the "baa" She seriously spend over 3 hours (off and on) in the barns alone! Poor Mike was probably sick of the smell of sheep by the end :-D. Along with a cute little girl, I've included many pictures of fuzzy sheep for Kristen -- who wanted to go so she could hug sheep -- but couldn't b/c of work obligations... :(

BTW, it's hard to tell in the photo, but the black sheep in the last photo are some of the most beautiful sheep I've ever seen!

Sunday, Cassie switched her interest to "pacas", which was nice b/c of course they are outdoors There were 3 different vendors she focused on -- 2 w/ actual alpacas, 1 w/ llamas (at first they were the same to her, but by the end she was telling the difference :-D). In between she also enjoyed the Angora goats (which she thought were baa's as well) and "hops" (angora rabbits). She even got to feed the llamas at one point -- she loved it and couldn't stop giggling! She just kept wanting to feed them more -- if she had her way, we would have spent the entire day standing there just feeding the llamas!

We also got to see the sheep dog show, which she had fun at too... That show was just so cool -- it's amazing what they can do with those dogs (border collies in this case).

The only part that I thought she'd like that she was unimpressed with was the storyteller. Mike took her over b/c it was right before my class, and he said she was completely bored by it...

What did I do? Well, I just spent the entire time drooling over all the beautiful yarn and fiber. Interestingly, there was much more yarn here than at Rhinebeck (the only other Festival I've attended). And, of course, there was a huge line outside of The Fold again for the "socks that rock" yarn.

But I have to say -- the one thing they do much better at MSWF is selling the vendors' whole fleeces. Instead of each vendor having their fleece piled around their all their various stalls, they have a corner of the main building that is dedicated to fleeces. They are all separated out into their different types (fine wools, long wools, primitive breeds, etc) so you can look at them all in one spot. And there is a group of volunteers who just handle the sales of those. And let me tell you -- there were some beautiful fleeces there! I was tempted to get one, but I still have one that I've barely started. But as long as I finish the one I have, I think I'll just wait until I get there to buy one next year...

The other thing I did was the class with Judith MacKenzie McCuin, "Spinning a Fine Thread". Which was WONDERFUL!! I learned so much in that class! All sorts of tricks for being able to spin really fine. I actually got down to the thickness of cobweb weight at one point (even plied!) Of course, it's like the story of the fish that was "THIS BIG!" I have lost the samples in transit. However, I still had a reasonable amount on the bobbin. And they are still definitely lace weight -- about 40wpi plied. The left one is silk, the right one is a merino:

I'm not sure I'll be spinning a large amount in that weight anytime soon, but it was kind of cool that I could do it! :-D She also showed us tons of other stuff. Including a great way to wash fleece while still preserving the locks that is much easier than what I've been doing.

Also, I learned a great trick for working with silk. Usually silk, especially bombyx silk, drives me crazy b/c it just constantly catches on my hands? So she had me rub lemon juice (from a freshly sliced lemon) all over my hands. Once it was dry, I was able to spin bombyx silk top w/o a problem! It was amazing...

But because of that, my only real fiber purchase was a small package of dyed silk hankies. If you remember right, Sarah had sent me a few undyed back a while ago, and I had fun with them. So I figured I'd try out a small package of dyed (only 1/2 oz).

You might ask -- why so conservative on purchases? Well.... My special treat was actually my Mother's Day gift from Cassie and Mike -- a pair of Indigo Hound English Combs! Only I would be asking for something that could be used as a lethal weapon for my mother's day gift! :-D

Why did I want combs? Well, as I'm sure you can tell by the class I took, my newest enjoyment is fine spinning... and one of the things I learned in that class -- it's amazing the difference that fresh combed top makes! Either directly from the fleece, or if you want to blend fibers...

Don't get me wrong -- I'll still card certain fleeces -- such as the CVM fleece I got a few months ago. I'd still like to try and make it into a sweater for Mike. But the 1 lb of Polwarth that I still have left from Rhinebeck last fall is definitely going to be combed! And now that the weather is nicer (and I know an easier way to wash fleece w/o worrying about felting it!), I should be able to start working on them.

The only down side? No maple cotton candy! :( But at least they had funnel cakes!

Finally, not to be outdone... I got my second Zen String April Fiber Club. As always, it is beautiful!

4 oz of BFL in the Fiore colorway. I still haven't completely decided how I want to spin this one, but I'm leaning towards a worsted or heavy worsted to give the colors a chance to stand out a little more since they are lighter. It'd make a beautiful pair of shorts for Cassie! We'll see if I can get it done in time to still need shorts! Ahhh... so much fiber, so little time! But what a wonderful problem to have...

Oh, and I can't forget one of the reasons I was so delayed in posting... I was playing with my combs. One of the fun treasures I got to take with me from the class was a reasonably large sized chunk of raw Ramboullet fleece. So I washed it using my newfound method (involving a crockpot and cooking the locks like they were asparagus), which worked perfectly! Then I used my combs last night to create these:

I know, not much, but I'm still learning. Combs are definitely not as easy as they look!

Well, if you made it through this entire post -- I'm impressed! But it was nice to rave about the festival...

Where's the ark?

2007-04-23T19:15:00.000-05:00

Well, we made it through the deluge! We were definitely lucky. We've since spoken to a bunch of neighbors, and many of them were not so lucky... :-(

We had almost no water in the basement. The only water was one or two "streamlets" that were seeping in through the french drain in the furnace room, which is the lowest point in the house. But they just ran straight to the sump pump that's right there. And it's just cement, so the water doesn't really damage anything. But at one point, that thing was going off every 45 seconds (yes, we timed it!). Of course, 99% of the water going into it was draining in from the side, below floor level, not those streamlets. And, this is the pump that is set to go off when only about 2 pints of water has accumulated in the hole, despite the fact that it can accomodate several gallons. Why it is set that way, I have no idea, but I really don't want to mess with it since it works!

Our only real stressful event? Well, we actually have 2 sump pumps. The other was probably put in when the house was built, and wasn't placed at the lowest point in the basement. So at some point, a previous owner redesigned the setup, and we gained the other sump pump. So the original one almost never goes off. I think it's gone off maybe once or twice in the whole time we've lived here. But it is this huge 50 gallon pit. Well, at one point when I went down to work on the laundry. I noticed it was going... and going... and going. That's not normal. That pump can usually empty out about 30 gallons in a minute or so. Why do I know this? Because it freaked the crap out of me the one time I acutally saw it go off a couple years ago! I was wondering where all the water was coming from. So, anyways, back to the present. I called my husband to come take a look. At first we thought it was dying (this thing is pretty old), but figured we'd try and empty out the pit to see if he could check for any blockages at the bottom. Sure enough, after about 45 minutes of scooping and dumping with pots, we finally got close enough to the bottom for him to reach the bottom of the input pipe. Turns out, a plastic ziploc must have fallen in at some point(which is bizarre considering where this thing is!), was sucked up, and was now partially blocking the pipe coming off the pump into the pit. He pulled it out and low and behold, the pump is working just peachy again :-D.

So how bad was it for us? At the peak of the flooding, about 3/4 of our backyard (and many of our neighbors backyards) were all under water. But we were the lucky ones. Many of our neighbors ended up with flooded basements, so I can deal with a backyard full of water MUCH better than a basement full of water. Of course, it was dark out, so we couldn't take a picture, but here it is the next morning:

And remember, this is the improving version! When we looked at night, it was about 2 feet closer to the house, about up to where the grass gets thin in this picture (the thinning grass isn't not from the storm. It's just some leftover damage to the grass from our deck construction last fall, which should start filling in now that spring is almost here).

Ah, well. Everything is fine and we are safe. That's all that's important now. So back to our regularly scheduled fiber blog...

Of course, while all this was going on, I needed to do something to get my mind off of things and relax me, so I worked on this:

It's 2 oz of the merino-bamboo from the Zen String Fiber club spun up into a laceweight yarn(yes, you heard right -- my first real laceweight yarn! And it actually looks pretty good if I do say so myself.) Specifically, it is about 28 wpi right now, and 400 yards. It still needs to be washed, so that will probably change a bit, but it'll still be within laceweight range. Here's a closeup view, just because I'm so happy with how it's turning out:

Next, I decided that I needed to do a bit of a change of pace. I've been doing too much thin stuff lately, and I needed to do something thicker so I don't get in a rut... So I decided to work a little more on my long draw with some undyed targhee I have. Well, it didn't completely work out as a traditional long draw. It's probably closer to what I've heard described as "supported long draw" but I'm getting a bit better. The end result was this:

A little less consistent than my usual, but that's actually a nice change of pace. I have offered it to someone on a Yahoo group I belong to who was in need of some undyed targhee. We'll see if she decides to take it. If not, I think I'll continue the experimenting in the dyepot and see what comes out! :-D

And, of course, I decided to go back and finish poor Iris. I finished making the singles, and started to try and do the navajo ply. And, well, lets just say it's not going so well! It keeps breaking, what yarn I am making is overtwisted, and I'm frustrated! So I've decided to put it aside for a few weeks, then I'll try again. Why a couple of weeks? Well, that brings me to my other big event of the past week and a half... I entered a lottery to try and get into "Spinning a Fine Thread" with Judith MacKenzie McCuin at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Amazingly, I actually got in! It's only a 3 hour session with 15 people, but I'm sure I'll learn alot! I can't wait!! So, of course, I'm hoping we'll maybe cover navaho ply, or if not, maybe I can still take a few minutes to see if she has any suggestions of what I'm doing wrong. I don't know if I just didn't put enough twist on the singles, or if I'm actually pulling too hard when I'm pulling it through the loop? I think I'll pull out some of my plain BFL to practice on and get it right before I try it on the Iris again. I'd like to have something useable come out of it! It's just so pretty... This will teach me for trying to do my first full foray into navajo plying (outside of some minor playing) with something so thin! And, no, I'm not posting a picture of the results so far... it's just not pretty.

And my final excitement of the week? Well, a few months I signed up for a co-op. Then a few weeks ago, I joined another. And of course, they both came in this week -- the Zen String on Saturday, and the Purewool on Monday. Now, no offense to the Purewool, but the Zen String was definitely the more exciting of the two! Look at this beautiful wool. I'm still drooling over it! :-D And it smells so heavenly:

BTW, don't mind the blur in the corner (you probably also saw it in the previous photo). I didn't notice until after I took the picture that Cassie must have gotten to the camera and put a few greasy smudges on the lens. I've since cleaned it off, but these are definitely yarns that look best in natural lighting, which is a little scarce at the moment.

So, my only problem? I don't know where to start! Another shawl (Ochoco)? The sweater for Cassie (amaretto cheesecake)? More socks (the rest of the Lotus Toes)? Or maybe the quick satisfaction of a couple of soakers for Cassie (the two Nirvanas)? They are all so lovely, I want to start working on all of them right now. But I have to pick one (well, or maybe two...) for when I finish with Icarus. Of course, that isn't exactly a complaint. I should have such problems all the time!

And of course, the Purewool is wonderful as well. It just had the unfortunate circumstance to come in at the same time as the Zen String. But not to be forgotten, here it is (I only grabbed one skein of each -- some have multiples):

The brown worsted in the middle is for my husbands long neglected slippers that I keep promising him (hey, at this point, I have until the fall, don't I?!!? :-D) and the one to it's right will probably be mine (just in case, I got the undyed at the end as a backup if I didn't like that one as slippers). Also, I decided to try their laceweight. I wasn't quite sure how the singles would work out. But it really looks nice! I can't wait to try it.

All I know is getting these two boxes made me realize I have WAY too much yarn at the moment! (I know -- is that really possible?!?!). So this is it for a LONG time for me. I might get a little something at MSWF, just because there is so much to see there. But at the moment, I have such a backlog of stuff I want to make, I need to get through some of them before I get more! Of course, I do still have 2 more months of Zen String club coming to me that will help keep me from going through too much fiber withdrawl ;-)

So where do the rest of my projects stand? I'm happily working again on the Pomegranite Bamboo Merino. That stuff is just WONDERFUL to work with! And I'm still working on the Icarus. Here's a picture, although half of it is wrapped under b/c the needles are only so long (I know, it pretty much looks like the last one, but trust me, ALOT of progress has been made!):

The good news on the icarus? I've gotten past the straight sections and have started on the "feather tips" So I'm getting there! It's been slow, though, b/c I've been a little more engrosed in spinning lately.

Also, I did finish the first of the toe up feather and fan socks:

I know -- it looks kinda funky here. Now I now know why people get those sock blockers! Trust me, it does look better on. But I just don't have the guts to show off my awful winter white legs on here! Also, in fairness, I'm still not completely sure I'm happy with the top anyways, so I might frog the top few rows and redo it. We'll see...

Wow -- I think I need to update more often so that these entries don't end up so long! Of course, my rambing on at the beginning about our "great flood" didn't help!

Easter Treats

2007-04-12T20:23:00.000-05:00

Well, I did manage to complete the Easter stuff (just barely!). I started planning on two eggs, but Cassie was having so much fun playing with them that I kept going and made 4. Besides, they were quick and fun, and I still had plenty of scraps left!

So, then onto the peeps (I planned on making two originally). I thought it would be fun to try a boucle b/c then it would look "fluffy", but of course, I didn't think to get one beforehand! So on Saturday, the only real option was Michaels and some cheep acrylic boucle (which, btw, was a PITA to work with!) So, of course, I only had the patience to finish up one of them... I will admit, I think it turned out pretty cute, but definitely not worth the hassle!

So, here are the final results. First, the whole easter basket (including a bunch of plastic eggs -- one of Cassie's newest fun toys!):

And next, just the peep and eggs:

Next, while I was picking up the boucle, I decided to get some sugar and cream to try for a washcloth. I never even thought to try knitting a washcloth until I saw some of Carole's beautiful washclothes. The one that especially inspired me was a lacey heart washcloth (again from smariek's blog). So, now that I finally had pink cotton yarn, I decided to try it out. Again, I used my lovely font that I found to create a chart. Here's the final product:

I think it turned out pretty well. And despite my usual dislike of cotton, this was a small enough project that I didn't mind it at all. Plus, I think it only took 1/2 a skein, so I may be able to get a second washcloth out of it! Not bad for $1.60 worth of yarn! :-D

My next big event -- I received my first Zen String Fiber Club fiber! It is BEAUTIFUL!!! It's called Pomegranite, and it's a bamboo merino blend. Of course, being the callous woman that I am, I cast aside the Iris BFL to try it out. It really is lovely! I have visions of a beautiful fingering weight with the shimmer of the bamboo and the subtle color variations throughout. Here's a shot of the fiber:

And here's the small bit that I've had time to do so far:

All I can say is Yumm!!!

Otherwise, I'm still plugging away on the Icarus Shawl. I've made quite a bit of progress, but nothing really significantly different from the last photos.

Hopefully, this time next week, my Zen String co-op yarn will be at Sarah's, soon to be on it's way here :-D Can't wait!

2007-03-24T21:13:00.001-05:00

Well, I finally finished the Targhee. The 2nd skein was 690 yards, 20wpi. So it's grand total of approximately 1400 yards from 11 oz of fiber. I'm really happy with the way it turned out! Not so much for the weight, but because it's probably the most consistant yarn I've produced to date. 11 oz of it, no less! :-D

Of course, I was rushing out of the house to go on vacation just when I was finishing it, so it got balled and I'm using it right now. So no picture of the second skein. But I do have the shawl in progress. I really like how it's turning out. And since the 1st skein was a bit more of the pinks and reds, and the second skein was more yellows and oranges, I'm using the 2nd skein first. Then, I'll use the 1st skein next. Hopefully the end result is a gradual transition, with more yellow and orange near the top, and more orange and reds near the bottom. Of course, projects don't always go the way we plan -- we'll see what the final product looks like. Here's the current status:

In addition, my daughter's Easter basket is currently going through the wash (so no picture currently available -- I'll add it in the next entry). Also, Carole pointed me towards a pattern for some cute Easter Peeps (obviously non-consumable), so I think I might try making 1 or 2 of them. And finally, I was going to also try and do one or two Curly Purly Eggs. All this before Sunday... maybe!

And, of course, I had to start another pair of socks. I figured for a change of pace, I'd try a toe-up pattern, so I'm using the pattern on Wendy Knits. I'm even doing the Feather and Fan pattern. Hopefully, this will go faster than the last pair! I've actually made quite a bit of progress, but that is partially b/c of being on a flight to and from Florida last week. Of course, I could have accomplished much more than this -- our flight back was a fiasco that involved 5.5 hrs to get from Ft. Lauderdale to Newark, with an unscheduled stopoff in Philly b/c we were running low on fuel (not something you want to be hearing at 30,000 feet!). Unfortunately, Cassie never took a nap. Mind you, her naptime is 1pm and bedtime at 8pm. We got to the airport around 12:30, were supposed to take off at 2pm, were delayed until almost 3:15, then didn't land in Newark until after 8:30. And she never slept! Although I was very proud of her... she was amazingly well behaved despite being stuck in either a carseat or stroller for pretty much 9 hrs door to door. She finally passed out exhausted 5 minute from the house! :-D Ah well, I guess the days of her reliably falling asleep in the carseat are over! It was good while it lasted! Now, just thank god for DVD players! :-D

Oh, so here's the progress on the first sock:

My newest spinning project is an attempt at using navaho ply. It's BFL in a beautiful colorway called "Iris" from Zen String. It is varying shades of purple with small highlights of yellow/orange. But I was worried that the gold/orange colors would be lost in all the purple. So I decided it would probably be best to use navaho ply to preserve the color transitions. The only problem is that I suck at navaho ply! Of course, there was an article and pattern for exactly this on Knity -- Palette . So I decided it was kismet and it's going to become "Palette". Besides, you have to start somewhere.

Here's the current status. Just under 2oz completed. I still have a little over 2 oz to go:

As you can see, it's REALLY thin. I've been shooting for about 45-50 wpi (I got one of those card thingy's for measuring -- I'm not obsessive compulsive enough to actually do all those wraps!) My hope is that the resulting yarn will be about 18 wpi.

And finally, my other new project. I've been inspired by Carole and am attempting my first washcloth. I know tons of people love making them. So I figured I'd give it a try. What's really nice is that it's a relatively short project, so I get the "reward" pretty quickly. I started yesterday, and here's where I stand right now:

It's a very lovely pattern -- I found it here on Smariek Knits. She has quite a few really nice patterns. I'll probably a few other washcloth patterns (I really love the lacy heart pattern) and I really love her Persephone scarf too (what is it with me and greek mythology?!?!) My only problem is that I'm really a "chart" knitter. So, of course, being a computer geek as well, I can't go with the simple paper and pen approach. I can do a chart in Excel, but how to do the symbols? Well, turns out, someone created a font for it! YAY! I found it here at Aire River Designs. So I've created a chart for this washcloth, and now I'm a happy knitter...

2007-03-21T21:13:00.000-05:00

I've been a bit under the weather for the past few days, but seem to be doing better, so I wanted to try and at least put a quick post up. Partially b/c I got some beautiful stitch markers the other day that I wanted to post, plus I finally finished those socks!

First, the stitch markers from Sarah:

Aren't they beautiful! And very well made, which is a necessity b/c of my new lace obsession. Otherwise, I'd constantly have to be untangling. MUCH better than the straw pieces (which, btw, have a tendency to slip under a stitch, which can REALLY throw things off!) Plus , she sent me an extra little treat:

Yep -- silk hankies! I've really wanted to try them, but they aren't the type of thing you can just buy a few of...

Of course, with not feeling well, I didn't get a chance to try them out until today. But that's ok, I spent that time moisturizing my hands to cut down on the snagging. My hands have a tendency to be rough and dry to start with, so they desperately needed it anyways. They really are facinating to work with! It's like what I'd imagine pulling taffy is like. You have to pull pretty hard, but you need to make sure you don't overdo it and pull them apart. I managed to do 2 of them this evening. The first was REALLY slow getting it stretched out to my satisfaction, but the second went much quicker since I had a feel for it already. I think the first one I was just trying to be too delicate. By the second, I realized I really could pull much harder on the stuff. So, this is the results:

Next, the socks. They already look a little stretched out, especially at the top. but that's just because my feet were cold when I finished them, so I couldn't resist putting them on. Of course, I never got around to taking the picture until a day later. The picture doesn't do justice to this colorway -- it's Gold Hill from Lorna's Laces.

And finally, I'm ALMOST finished with the Targhee! There are only 4 fluff balls left. Here's a picture from earlier today, only b/c I thought it looked really cool :-D

Next up, another pair of socks, a new shawl, and a new fiber. I've already picked out the shawl and socks, but I'm still trying to decide which fiber I want to start next. But I'll leave those for another day. I'm a bit tired and want to go to bed!

Flower Basket Shawl Blocked

2007-03-16T19:47:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally got time to block the Flower Basket Shawl. Because I've become so addicted to lace knitting, I decided to try one of the wire blocking kits. I'm really happy with the kit b/c the blocking went MUCH smoother this time. It made it much easier to block it evenly. The last time, there was a bit of an "arc" to the center line. This one is much more even. So, here it is, first a full picture:

Here's a closer shot where you can see what the pattern looks like:

And, finally, a really close up one to see a detailed picture of the pattern. It turned out really nicely!

The other thing I got to do was dye 2 4oz skeins of Knitpicks bare merino lace. I'm reasonably happy with the way it turned out. The color doesn't show up well in picture. And it looks better wound up than in the original dyed skein It's a pale periwinkle color. The only problem is that there were apparently a few bits of blue that didn't quite disolve -- I used some blue that I prepared back a while ago, so it was kind of a jello consistancy. So I have a few specks throughout the yarn. I'll have to see what it looks like in the end. They are REALLY tiny but they are significantly darker. We'll see. But here's a picture of it in the mean time:

Changes I'd make in my process next time. I definitely need to make sure that I reheat "premixed" dyes thoroughly before adding it to the water. I really think that was all the problem was. That, and I probably should have made the water a bit warmer before adding the dyes. Finally, I think I've hit the limit for the crock pot. I don't think it can handle more than 4 oz. I'm going to try and find a larger metal pot that isn't too expensive.

Other than that, I've really just been making progress on projects. Nothing exciting enough to take pictures. First, the second sock that has been sitting there for a WHILE (I finished the first one at Thanksgiving! :-D). And second, the Fire Spirit targhee. I'm about 2/3 of the way through the last 5 oz. So I'm hoping to finish it up this weekend!

Flower Baskets and Fiber...

2007-03-09T15:15:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a while, mainly b/c life has been a little chaotic. My dh has been working all hours of the day and night, so I'm pretty much on my own taking care of my daughter and the house. So my free time has been a bit limited. And what time I did have, I dedicated to finally finishing this:

Well, actually, almost finished. It still needs to be blocked. It's definitely bigger than the last one. Actually, it's pretty much the same size unblocked (28inx61in) as the last one was blocked. But this is the FiberTrends Flower Basket Shawl. Oh, and see that few yards of yarn on the left? That's how much yarn I have left from the original 8oz. Think I cut it a little tight? Actually, I can't complain. I went into it knowing that I didn't have enough and that I'd probably have to cut a round or two out. Amazingly, even though it called for 1100 yards and I only had 880 yards, I just made it with the full # of rounds! It's not getting blocked tonight... I'm babysitting for some friends, so it's been me vs. 3 kids (4, 3 and 2) all night and I'm pooped! I don't know how everyone who has 3 or more kids does it! :-D

Other than that, I also washed a small amount of the CVM and carded it:

It's got more neps than I'd like... but I did some asking around, and I think it's because I'm using the wrong cards. So I've ordered a pair of fine fiber cards since that's predominantly what I plan on doing. I haven't decided whether I'm going to actually use these still or if I'll just work on my long draw with them. I might try a rolag or two first, see how it looks. I'd like to try and make this into a 3 ply light worsted weight yarn that I can then knit into a sweater for my dh. The nice thing about 3 ply is it hides a whole multitude of sins! :-D I know it's a huge project that will probably take me until Christmas, but I've wanted to make him a nice sweater, and I believe I have just enough of this fiber to do that.

And finally, my newest "aquisition". I swear, I have absolutely no self control when it comes to Zen String! She really does make some of the most beautiful colorways I've found anywhere... if you haven't seen her stuff, I HIGHLY recommend you go take a peak :-D. Here's what I got during her latest stocking:

The first is 8oz of Merino/Bamboo in the Spring colorway, and the second is 4 oz of BFL in Iris. I can't wait until I can try them... I have a few items that I'm considering for the first one, but I'd like to use the second for Palette from the newest knitty. I really think it would look best Navajo-plied. And I've wanted to work on that anyways!

Finally!

2007-02-27T20:49:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally can post again with pictures. We were experiencing "technical difficulties" (i.e. the CF photo card reader fried) and we couldn't find the cord to connect directly to the camera. But my dh did a second search and found it this evening. Yay!

Part of the reason I was so determined to publish tonight was because I was so excited. I received the CVM fleece today, and it's beautiful! It's amazing... I can't see any VM anywhere on it. I'm sure there is a small amount, but I don't see it. She did a wonderful job skirting this thing. It'll probably be until the weekend before I'll be able to have time to wash any of it. But in the mean time, here are a few pictures of it. Both in the bag (sheared side facing out) and unrolled (tips facing up). Oh, and BTW, the browner sections on the sides aren't dirt, that's the color of the fleece at those spots...

As is obvious, I'm quite happy with it!

Now to catch up! First, the Targhee and Romney that Carole sent me. Both were wonderful. And I really liked being able to have small amounts to work with. It gave me the freedom to play alot more than I usually do. I really need to pick certain parts of my fiber stash to do this with more frequently. Granted, it wasn't my best work, but you know what, I finally successfully did a long draw! I've never been able to get the knack of it... but I finally did it! I was so happy. Then, of course, I was sore the next morning... apparently there are muscles in my shoulder that I don't use for other things! :-D Also, I was finally able to do Navaho plying. Every time I've tried in the past, I've gotten a tangled mess. And even this time, it wasn't the neatest job at first, but by the end I was starting to get the rhythym of it...

Here are the rolags after washing and carding the raw targhee. It really was a beautiful fleece. Very clean. Carole did a wonderful job picking it out. The second is the Romney on the bobbin unplied. Finally, the third is actually both the Romney and the targhee. As I said previously, both were done long draw and then Navaho plied.

Honestly, there isn't tons of stuff after that only because I was spending alot of time working on the Fire Spirit Targhee and the Flower Basket shawl. Both of which are progressing. I didn't even bother taking a picture of the shawl. It's large enough now that I can't really lay it out flat w/ the 32" needle, so there isn't much to take a picture of! However, I finally got a decent amount of the Targhee that I wanted to ply. Usually, I try and wait until it's all finished, but I really wanted to see how it was coming out.

Wow! I actually managed to get 20wpi after plying AND washing! And it's at about 725 yards so far. That's the thinnest yarn I've managed to date. And it's reasonably consistant. I even noticed a significant difference between this and the Finn I a few months ago. So I'm quite pleased. And, I've still got quite a bit of fiber still to spin. The bag is 10in in diameter and height. Probably about 4-5 oz left. It was originally about 11 oz. I've already got this earmarked for a new shawl too... I thought it would look really cool as an Icharus Shawl. The colors seemed appropriate to the myth. :-D

And finally, one last item. Not a new purchase, but a new yarn acquisition. There is a wonderful woman in my spinning guild who was giving away yarn her mom used for weaving. Her mom is too old to really use them anymore, and she wanted others to be able to enjoy it. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I just thought these were so pretty, so I decided to bring them home. I already did the usual burn and bleach tests. It did catch fire easily, but actually extinguished itself after only a small portion of it burning. And the bleach test didn't disolve it. It doesn't stretch, and is laceweight (probably around 30 wpi). I'm guessing it's probably mercerized cotton, but I'm not completely sure. If anyone has any better suggestions (or other tests I should do!) I'm all ears!

2007-02-19T15:00:00.000-05:00

So, I've finished turning both the Romney (Fuzzy) and the Raw Targhee into singles. It was really nice to have smaller chunks of both, if only b/c I knew I didn't have enough to make anything out of them, so I could just play w/o guilt of wasting it. So I tried again to do a long draw. And guess what... I did it! Well, I've technically been able to do it one other time, but it broke every few feet, so I just gave up and went back to my inchworm approach. This time I was successfully getting it to spin w/o tons of breaks. Was it the best work I've done? Hell, no. But my first attempts at inchworming were pretty ugly too. And now, I do a pretty good job of producing a reasonably consistant yarn with that method. And honestly, by the time I got to the end of the targhee, it wasn't too bad.... still a bit lumpy and bumpy, but that's pretty much true for me anytime I work with carded fiber . That may be normal, I just don't know.

Now, in fairness, part of the reason I haven't done it much up to now is also b/c I haven't had much carded fiber to work with.... Which really is necessary, I think, when you are starting out. It may be possible to do it with top once you get the hang of it. But I'm definitely not there yet!

The good news? It seems like most of that inconsistancy disappears once you ply. And the more plies you use, the better it's hidden. That's why, until I get a bit better, I'm sticking to 3 ply for carded fiber. It may be more work, but I'm happier with the results.

My First Fleece!

2007-02-17T17:39:00.000-05:00

Well, here's the big news of the day... I finally bit the bullet and bought a fleece! Or, well, almost. I'm just waiting for her to figure out the shipping cost so she can give me the final total.

What is it, you ask? California Varigated Mutant lamb, heavily skirted by a spinner. The colors are mauve and cream mostly. Plus, it's a bit smaller fleece... less than 4 lbs., so it won't be quite as overwhelming, as, say, a ram fleece!

I can't wait to see what it looks like. Originally, before selecting this one, I thought I'd send any fleece I purchased out to be processed, but I've changed my mind. I actually enjoyed doing it last time, I was just REALLY slow. And I was worried that I didn't do the fleece justice (from my inexperience). But I learned quite a bit the last time, so I think I'll do a much better job this time. Plus, the last one was really dirty, and this one seems MUCH cleaner (or at least as much as you can tell through pictures!).

Why CVM? Well, originally I though I'd get a Targhee fleece (my other favorite), partially b/c I thought I'd have a hard time finding a CVM fleece. But then there was a post for CVM on fleeceforsale. Carole even mentioned it to me as well. (My husband is thanking you for that one! ;-). But I decided I had too much fiber as it was, and wanted to work my way through a bit more of it first. Then, I saw another post from her, and just couldn't resist at least inquiring. You can see how long "just inquiring" lasted! :-D

I've had a odd facination with CVM since I first tried it. It wasn't the softest fiber I'd ever felt, but it was so squishy and lofty, and so much fun to spin. In fact, that pretty much fits my description of Targhee as well (it's just softer). But CVM has one thing that Targhee doesn't . It has the most facinating varigation in it's natural color that makes some of the prettiest yarn I've seen.

What am I going to make with it? I have no idea yet. I'm going to let it tell me once I start spinning! I may even try a couple of new things with it, like dyeing before carding, then mixing colors. I think that's also why I want to process it myself. I can try a bunch of things before deciding what I want to do with it.

Mostly, I got my bravery from the fact the both Carole and Sarah seemed to be getting such nice fleeces online. To date, the only raw fleece I'd bought was a few random 1 lb bags at Rhinebeck. Hopefully, I'm as fortunate as they've been. But I did check that she's a "certified" CVM breeder (which are few and far between!), so I feel reasonably confident. I can't wait to get it!

What else have I done? Well, I finished the newest Perfection Pants. I kept straying onto other projects, so it took a little longer than usual. I'm pretty proud of this pair, though. It's the first pair that I made with yarn I dyed myself! And it's BFL from Wooly Wonder's By Nada, so I don't think I'll have the same problem I had last time! I still haven't made a pair out of handspun, partially b/c I already had plenty of yarn, and needed pants badly! The holidays had thrown off my "schedule" for making them. I'll definitely make a pair out of handspun at some point. Although by the time I get to it, it'll probably be shorts!

The only thing I'm not happy about... I knew the end part of the yarn was a bit darker than the rest (I think it was the section on the top of the pot, so it got exposed to the most dye). Originally, I planned on working 1/2 way down the first leg, then switching to the pulling the yarn from the outside. Then starting again from the inside for the second leg. That way, it would have been a more even... an interesting gradation towards a darker dye down the legs. But when I got to the part where I'd switch, I wasn't knitting at home, so I decided to say screw it and keep going. I'm not going to bother ripping both legs out and starting again, since it isn't really that noticeable. But next time, I'm going to stick w/ my first instinct!

What am I working on now? The blue yarn from the other day is now becoming a replacement shawl. Although I decided to challenge myself a bit more this time, and try a slightly harder pattern. The Fiber Trends Flower Basket Lace shawl. It's pretty much the same basic design, but the pattern is a bit more intricate. I can still memorize the pattern, it just took a little longer this time. This is a closeup of the pattern. You can see it's a bit more detailed than the Forest Canopy Shawl.

And finally, I got to start playing with some of the fiber that Carole sent me. Not as much as I would have liked, but I still will have a chance to do some more tonight and tomorrow. My daughter decided that a nap was optional today, so I didn't have as much time to spin as I usually do! And spinning w/ a toddler running around just doesn't work...

Luckily, I started with the smallest sample she sent me... the Jacob. And I decided to do it on my spindle. Of course, I already had some fiber already on the spindle that I hadn't taken off yet, so I plied those first, then spun up the Jacob. And these are the results. So, in order, these are:

1) CVM -- When I was making my final decision whether to buy the CVM fleece, I wanted to spin some more, just to make sure I still felt the same way about it now as I did the first time I used it. It had been a while and I had learned quite a bit since then. Well, I think I like it even more now!

2) Targhee, dyed by Spinning Bunny. I had gotten this a while ago, and wanted to try it. So I spun a little on my spindle, but never got around to plying it. It's been sitting on my spindle for weeks! So this is the plyed results... The picture doesn't do it justice. There is much more variation in real life.

3) Jacob - Sent from Carole. I really liked this stuff! It's a little different than I'm used to. It's probably the longest fiber I spun with to date. And it was really easy to do just a few fibers at a time, so it's relatively thin. Although since it's a thicker fiber to start with, it's still probably a fingering weight. But it was interesting to see only a few fibers going into the twist at one time. And the natural sheen on the single was amazing! You can't really see it in the picture, but its got a beautiful natural shine even as a plied yarn. And the light to dark grey variation looks really nice plied.

Next up... Fuzzy! I should have plenty of time tonight to actually pull out my spinning wheel so I can do the Romney that Carole sent me. Yay! I'll update with the results.

Bad week....

2007-02-13T08:06:00.000-05:00

WARNING: Frustrated venting ahead!

Well, it's been a bad week. The worst of which involved a fiasco with my mother-in-law's (and nephew's) birthday party. My poor husband, who's been so distracted with issues at work, forgot that it was his mother's and nephew's birthday this weekend. So we switched gears, spent Saturday finding a gift for his nephew (not a small feat since it involved trying to find a controller for the Nintendo Wii), and spent all of Sunday at his brothers for a birthday party. Also, to make life easier, I "sacrificed" the Forest Canopy Shoulder shawl so that we would have a nice gift for his mother. (a woman who returns everything, I repeat EVERYTHING, we give her. Or, I should qualify, she won't return it... she has us return it for her.) And the most frustrating part of it? We were originally supposed to have a relaxing weekend, meaning I'd have plenty of time to play with this:

These are several wonderful samples sent to me by an online friend, Carole. I was so excited when I received them, I wanted to play with them immediately, but it was just too busy of a week. So I was looking forward to the weekend. Obviously, the one in the middle is a sample of some raw Targhee x (one of my favorites!), but the others, clockwise from top, are Lincoln Longwool, Romney (aka Fuzzy :-D), Cotswold, and Jacob.

Plus, she was so sweet, she sent me 3 little chocolates and a wonderful bag of tea with it. Trust me, the way my week was going, it was a WONDERFUL extra treat!

As for the shawl, I wasn't too upset. I had already decided I wanted it larger, and was just trying to figure out who I would give it to. I even didn't mind the fact that I was giving it to someone who doesn't particularly like me. What finally got to me, though, was when she opened it, barely took it out of the bag, said "Oh, how nice, you made it? Thank you." Then shoved it back in the bag w/o even unfolding it. She didn't show it to anyone or even try it on. And when she asked what it was made of (she thought it was cotton, that's how soft this stuff is!) I told her it was wool, some of my handspun. She just looked at me with a scowl and said, well, she usually has issues with wool b/c it's so scratchy, but since it didn't feel scratchy, I guess it'll be ok. That was it. No one else at the party ever saw the damn thing, despite the fact that I was so proud of it. And now it'll probably go into the back of her closet. I even gave her an "out"... if it bothered her, let me know and I'll be happy to make one of cotton or acrylic (God help me if she takes me up on the offer -- with a few exceptions, I hate knitting with both of them!). And all my MIL could do for the rest of the evening was ask me why I don't just use acrylic for all my knitting because "everyone's allergic to wool". And she commented that "I seem to knit alot, doesn't all that yarn cost alot of money?" And I just smiled, told her it isn't so bad, especially since I spin, and turned away...

Sorry to vent, but I guess that's one of the advantages of this thing, I can do that and feel better!

All I can say is -- this weekend really should be a peaceful one. I can't wait to play with the fibers from Carole. It's always so fun to play with new types of fibers. I've never really tried any of them (except targhee, of course, but even those were top, not starting from scratch. I'm curious to see the difference!)

The one thing I did get completed (early in the week while my dd napped) was a bit of dyeing. This was pretty quick since I use a crockpot and it was just a solid. I'm still working on my basic skills, but they are improving. I think my only frustration is that I still have issues getting a more consistant solid. I added salt, but I think maybe I need to add more? Not sure... But this was definitely better than my previous efforts, so I'm getting there! It's just the KnitPicks merino fingering. I think I'll try using this for the new version of the shoulder shawl. I'm just worried it isn't enough since it's only 8 oz. Maybe I'll just try another pattern for now, and save the shoulder shawl for the targhee I'm spinning.

Finally, as I posted previously, I spent most of my time working on this shawl. I really wanted to get it done this week so I could give it to her either yesterday or today. It was really slow going and seemed to be taking an awful lot of fiber. I finally got to 1 lb worth of yarn when I decided enough was enough. Hopefully in blocking it would end up wide enough. I didn't want this thing to be too heavy!

Well, as I cast off, I finally figured out the problem. This thing is now 96" long... hardly shawl length. The picture below is it folded in quarters lengthwise! I even went back and checked my gauge... and I was spot on my gauge. Plus, I decreased the cast on by about 45 stitches b/c their starting length was a little longer than I wanted (I think it was 80"). It must have something to do with the type of yarn... the original was a light Icelandic yarn. I figured it would just make a difference in the weight as long as I was on gauge. Apparently not. Although I have read since then about some others who have had issues with the gauge in this book....

I've decided that this yarn had told me something... it doesn't want to be a shawl, it wants to be an afghan. So now, I'm going to get alot more yarn, call this "strip 1" and take a break. Hopefully, this thing will be finished by the fall! It ought to be interesting, since this is from Cherry Tree Hill Potluck. I'm probably going to get 1 or 2 more sets (depending on what size I want it to be) and stripe it, since they vary signficantly from batch to batch. I'm not bothered by it. It hopefully should end up looking pretty cool! I just can't decide if I should get more of the same "color scheme", or got funky and try some others. If I did that, I'd probably get two, just so it didn't look too strange. We'll see...

That's it for now. I'm making progress on the Perfection Pants (not enough to justify another picture) and I'm going to start on a shawl for the blue yarn. But I still need to decide what to do with it.

2007-02-05T23:29:00.000-05:00

Just a few quick pictures with details. It's late and my hubby is pestering me to go up, but I wanted to get these up!

Just for a comparison, this is the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl (reminder for myself -- I did one extra repeat and would probably make it a few more next time. I'd prefer it a bit larger...)

Slow but steady progress on the targhee. I'm loving the colors. They don't show up that great on here, but I can't wait to see how it turns out. But it is definitely going to be a while! I still have at least 7 or 8 more ounces to go (I'm guessing I've done somewhere between 3 or 4 ounces, and I started with about 11). It still hasn't told me whether it wants to be a two or three ply. I'm going to probably sample it sooner or later to figure that out.

The newest pair of Perfection Pants... I really do love this pattern. And I've gotten it to the point where I know exactly how many stitches I need to get the "perfect" fit on Cassie. This time, of course, I'm using BFL... Wooly Wonders by Nada, even! I don't know their supplier, but they have the most gorgeous BFL I've ever found. I'm also proud b/c this is one of my first "dye jobs" that I'm happy with the results. I started out doing space dyeing, and I just can't seem to get the knack of that. So I switched to crock pot dyeing, and I finally got something I'm happy with!

Finally, my newest project. Another shawl, this time from Folk Shawls. The color came out really sucky in both pictures -- it's blues and greens... it looks like a dark ocean. Here, they look more like grays.

This is destined for a friend. I wanted to make a prayer shawl for her that would also work at keeping her warm. But when I started the "traditional" approach (i.e. 3 knit, 3 purl, flip and knit the purls, purl the knits), I hated how it looked. So I searched for something that said "prayer shawl" to me. And this did -- I'm not sure why, it just did.

This picture is a better representation of the actual pattern. Still hard to see unblocked, but at least it doesn't look like a giant ruffle-y snake!

It's actually the Feather and Fan shawl (from Iceland). Plus the "wave" look seemed to match the blues and greens of the yarn. I'm using Cherry Tree Hill's Potluck bulky 6 pack. I loved the idea of it being a surprise. At first, I thought I'd have plenty leftover for other stuff, but I'm not so sure now! I hope there is, if only b/c I can't imagine a 1.5 lb. shawl!

The interesting part of this shawl is that you knit it from the long edge. All I can say... casting on 350 stitches with a bulky yarn could qualify for the 9th circle of hell!

Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl... the blocked version

2007-01-30T21:10:00.000-05:00

Yay! It's done! It's not the straightest blocking job in the world, but it's done. It took me all of Jon Stewart to do it... Now to figure out how to keep the cat from walking across it overnight and getting a pin in his paw.

I probably should have done it in a room that I could close the door on... hindsight is always 20/20 :-D.

Color Blending Class and the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl

2007-01-29T13:30:00.000-05:00

Sunday afternoon was so cool. I just recently joined the Essex County Spinning Guild, and we had a class on Color Blending with Julie Gerow from Foxcross Farms. It was fascinating! I've played a little with dyeing yarn and fiber (with a few nice results, and quite a few not so nice results! So far, my best results usually involve a crock pot.) but had never really done anything with regards to fiber blending.

It was amazing what we were able to accomplish in just a few hours. Of course, my poor husband may be regretting it b/c now I finally have a need for wool combs! I showed him a picture, and he asked "What kind of medieval torture device is that?!?!?".

After a general overview of some basic color theory, we spend most of the time playing and mixing fibers.

I'll warn you now, the following is pretty picture heavy, but it is kind of cool to see the transitions. So, we got this to start with this:

And turned it into this....

The first picture is obviously a color wheel. All of the lower colors are created just by hand mixing each of the primary colors together.

And the second one is a series of exercises playing with tints, hues and mixing in complementary colors. I still have a few more left in the exercise (plus a few others I'd like to do on my own) for this one...

Then we got to play with the combs and mix colors together. We were brought to a table that had pretty much ALL of the Ashland Bay solid colors and told to pick 4. I was in an earthy mood, so this is what I selected...

Using the combs (which I'm REALLY bad at right now!) and a diz, this is what I came up with in a very short period of time. It was amazing some of the other color combo's that were chosen, and how they came out!

So, last night, I sat down with my beautiful new spindle (since the spinning wheel is currently occupied w/ the tropical targhee, and I didn't feel like moving it off). I'm still a not that great at using a spindle -- it takes a bit more coordination that I apparently lack -- but I did quickly spin and ply a small sample to create a miniskein, to see how it looked. It came out pretty nice, if I do say so myself! (well, excepting the lousy spinning job!)

And finally, my biggest achievement of the week... I finished the knitting part of the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. This is the unblocked version. Tonight, I get to try my first blocking... we'll see how it goes!

Oh and in answer to Sarah's question about the slippers... yes, I did consider using handspun. That was my original plan, actually. But I was in a hurry to get them done, and I've been having too much fun with the Targhee... so commercial yarn it is!

And Carole, yes I did use the LTK pattern for the toddler slippers. I wasn't completely thrilled with the results. They were a little too squared for my tastes. But since I knew no one would probably use them, I wasn't too worried! And yes, they did turn out a bit wide and short. The wide wasn't too big of a deal b/c my daughter has very wide feet, but the short would have been. The one time I got them on her, I could tell they'd only fit for a short time.

I do also have the Fiber Trends pattern, but I think I'll probably end up doing an amalgam. Especially since I found these really cool soles that are fleece lined (http://www.paradisefibers.net/Fleece-Lined-Suede-Slipper-Soles-p/3630.htm). So I really only need to do the tops of the slippers.

And finally, Carole, thanks for the tip on the 100purewool. I already suspected that it would shrink more than usual, so I already did a test swatch first and felted it. Then I'll kind of create my own pattern as I go, using my felted gauge and the other two patterns as guides. We'll see how it turns out! I'm still not quite ready to return to that project.

Next up is another pair of pants (in BFL this time!) for my daughter since she decided to reject the other pair!

2007-01-25T20:32:00.000-05:00

This was a week of good news and bad news. First good news, I've made a lot of progress on quite a few projects over the last few days. My hubby took a vacation to get some projects done around the house. In addition, he gets to spend a heck of a lot of time w/ my daughter as well, so it leaves me to do things I normally don't get much time to do!

Then, there is the saga of my husband's slippers. I promised him I'd make him a pair before Christmas, and of course, he got bumped down on the priority list (poor guy!) So I finally sat down and started working on them. I had a theory that I'd make a pair for my daughter first... knowing full well she'd never wear them. I thought of them as a trial run. Thank God I did this! I was the dutiful fiber addict, and first looked in my stash to see if there was something I could use. I needed something neutral and VERY soft... my hubby has very sensitive tootsies :-D. I found a beautiful merino (Maggi Knits Merino Aran), but apparently didn't look at the label closely enough... Superwash wools ALWAYS say so in big letters on the label. I didn't see anything obvious on the label, so I proceeded to make the slippers... Well, apparently my assumption was wrong. Unfortunately, I didn't discover this until I went to check on their status in the hot wash and saw that they weren't shrinking... oops! I went back and did see that they had the cute little machine wash logo... couldn't they make that thing a little more intuitive, and, well, BIG? Oh well, back to the drawing board.

So on to my second try... IBK's Lindon Merino. I know, a bit high end for felting, but I had some spare trim yarn left over from a pair of shorts... just enough for a pair of 2 year old slippers. Besides, my husband puts up with a lot... the least I can do is make him the perfect slippers! As you can see, they did actually felt this time :-D

The sad part of all of this? Despite this, they still aren't soft enough! So, on to the be all and end all of soft and feltable... 100 Pure Wool. If this doesn't work, nothing will! We'll see... but for the moment, I'm sick of slippers, so I'm taking a break from them and will try again in a week.

Next up, was a Nantasket Basket. I'm apparently on a felting roll! I let my daughter pick the colors herself... I'm just glad they don't clash!

The good news is this turned out well on the first try. Yay!

Next up, the pants. The good news is that I finally finished them. They are a beautiful Targhee from Mosaic Moon in Seadragon. The only problem is that Cassie won't wear them either! In fairness, this is the first time I've used Targhee. Usually I use BFL. Apparently, she's as picky as her Daddy!

I haven't washed or lanolized them yet, so there may still be hope. Lanolizing usually softens the wool. So maybe she'll tolerate them then... but I'm not optimistic!

Then of course there is this... my biggest high point of the week so far. A yarn sale! AND it was kismet that I was there...

I don't like going to yarn shops with my daughter because she LOVES to explore and pull out all the yarn (she makes mommy proud! :-D) So, since my husband is home, I had an opportunity to try going to a new shop I've wanted to visit for a while. When I get there, I find out they are having a HUGE winter sale... I'll admit, I went a little berzerk! There's Claudia's Handpainted sport weight merino, Lorna's Laces Shepherds Sock (2 colorways!), Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and a new patterning yarn I've never heard of -- Universal Yarn's Ditto. I'm so excited!

And finally, a new project... the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl using the handspun finnI finished before Christmas (see previous post). It's hard to see in this picture, but so far, it's turning out REALLY well. It's so cool to be doing this with handspun, too. So far, most of the items I've made with my handspun have been either scarves or small quick items. This is the first big project! As a result of this excitement, I'm a bit obsessed with this project, and everything else has been forgotten for the moment. Ah well, I'll get back to them eventually...

2007-01-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

Just because it shows off the beautiful colors of the Clapotis, I wanted to post this photo. The previous pictures really didn't do the colors justice!

Plus, I am so excited -- this is a photo of my FIRST felted item (while drying). Not so thrilled with the stripe pattern, but that's my fault for winging it... Still, it's so cool to see one item go into the washer, and have this come out! The one part I did like was that I did an alternating slip stitch at each color convert so it has almost fuzzy edges between colors.

Next, I'm going to try an easter basket for Cassie. I got the Nantasket Basket pattern for that, so hopefully it will work out as well. The one thing I have to say is that it has a really cool bottom rim on it. I may have to try it out on this pattern as well in the future!

Right now I'm still trying to figure out which colors to go with for the basket, using leftovers from this project.

This, is the Blueberry Merino Tencel washed and skeined. It is about 10 WPI, and it looks beautiful. I think it is destined to be a cable scarf pattern I found.

Of course, I only need so many scarves, so I now have to figure out who to give it to.

In addition, this is showing off my BEAUTIFUL christmas gift from my hubby! A Golding Spindle... yay! It is so well balanced and spins like a dream. I still love my Rose best, but, of course, it isn't very portable, so this will be nice for going out and about!

As I mentioned yesterday, I figured I'd also post a picture of the other calorimetry hat I did (I actually did two of them, but have already gifted the other). It's made of some of my first handspun I did with some Ashland Bay Colonial in Wildberry.

And, finally, back to current projects. I'm still working on the pants for my dd. I was so excited about the felting project that it kind of got pushed to the side for a few days. But now I'm back to it. Hopefully, I should be finishing it in a day or so. I only have one leg left.

For spinning, I'm starting a new project. This is 11oz of beautiful handyed Targhee I got from Blue Ridge Silk Works (www.dyepot.com) It reminds me of a fruity tropical drink you'd get in the Carribean! This is the thinnest I've spun to date, so it's probably going to take me a while to finish! I still haven't decided whether I'm going to do a two ply (which will make it a fingering weight) or a 3-ply (which, I'm guessing, will bring it closer to a heavy dk or light worsted... not sure yet). I figured I'd get a little further through the first bobbin, then try out both and see. I've been breaking up the roving cord into MANY thin strips to preserve the colors. So far, it seems to be working.

My biggest excitement was that the co-op I'm involved in for Zen String closed. It filled last week in less than 5 minutes -- 200 skeins worth! This past week has been the fun "color negotiation" phase. Now we're just one step closer to the ultimate in "yarn fluffy day":-D . Of course we now have the long wait while Angelina dyes all that yarn. I can't imagine how overwhelming that must be for her. We probably won't get the stuff until mid-March at the earliest. But it's worth the wait... her yarn is beautiful!

My First Post (how original of a title is that!)

2007-01-15T19:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm not really expecting anyone to visit, but if you are here, welcome! This will be a blog dedicated to my knitting and spinning "habit". Really it's just to keep track of what I've done so I can keep track.

Just to test it out, I'm posting pictures of my most recent spinning and knitting projects:

Here's the most recent. I just finished it this afternoon. It's a Blueberry Merino-Tencel blend. I honestly didn't think I'd like this stuff, but figured I'd give it a try anyways... it is so beautiful. It was a wonder to spin.

Lately, I've been alternating thick and thin spinning projects. I'll spin one thin, then the next one I'll spin thick. This is in the hopes that I won't get to the point where I can only spin thin stuff! So far, my plan seems to be working, but we'll see in a few months! This was a thick. The end result is about 7 oz becoming 300 yards. It is dense, though, so it's not quite as thick as it sounds. I've washed it to set the twist, but I'm waiting for it to dry before determining WPI.

The previous spinning project was Finn. I LOVE Finn. This was a dyed colorway from Misty Mountain Farms -- "Golden Harvest". It wasn't quite what I pictured from the website (it never is, regardless of who you order from!) but it turned out really lovely none the less.

I completely forget the yardage on this one, but it's about 14 WPI after washing. It was originally thinner, but it did bloom nicely.

As for my knitting, my most recent completed object was actually done right before xmas. My clapotis. I know -- EVERYONE has already done one. I'm way behind on this trend... but I didn't start knitting until earlier this year, so you'll have to give me a break on this one! It really is a cool pattern. I splurged and actually got Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb for this one, their Mother Lode colorway.

Unfortunately, the table does nothing for this colorway... At some point I'll have to try taking a picture on that shows it off better.

Also in the picture is my newest favorite quick pattern. The "Calorimetry" hat from the Winter 2006 Knitty. This is the coolest pattern for those of us who are always sporting a ponytail. And since I'm a mom to a toddler, that is the only way I usually do my hair -- it's self preservation! This is the 3rd one I've done. I did two others out of some handspun as christmas gifts. I still haven't given the one, so I may still try and take a picture.

Right now, I'm working on a pair of longies for my daughter (Mosaic Moon's Seadragon colorway); a pair of socks for myself (Lorna's Laces Shephard's sock in Gold Hill) and a really cool felted basket/knitting bag that someone pointed me to (just some cheep felting wool).