Bronx Knitter

Joyce Loves Scarves

2012-02-03T23:45:00.000-05:00

Every time someone asks me to make them a scarf, I run for the hills! No joke. All I can think about is a million miles of stockinette, or garter stitches and the never ending mind bending number of rows to make the scarf as long as the person is tall. Oy!

But not Joyce. She has taken scarf making to a high art. Show her what to do, as they do at her LYS, and off she goes, often making more than one or two of the same scarf in short order. She almost always mixes her yarns, and she rarely knows which yarns are which, but she's not intimidated.

Here's a sample of what she's done:

It's a nice blue/purple ruffled scarf which she crocheted in January. It'll be a gift for someone who I'm sure appreciates hand made.

Here's another:

It's an infinity scarf which was also made in January. You can't see it because of my cheap camera, but it's two yarns mixed together and Joyce made it for herself. Lovely. Also made in January, I might add.

Then there's this one:

The cowl around her neck is made with just one skein of chunky yarn. It's gorgeous! I think she's keeping that one. Did I mention she made it in January?

And lastly, she's working on this one:

When I left her on Thursday, she was about to bind off. It's a potato chip-type scarf make in shades of black and white and blue. Lovely, don't you think?

She made two other helix-type scarves in January also. Joyce is the official scarf queen.

The lesson here is that a scarf doesn't have to be two million garter stitches. It doesn't have to be boring and it doesn't have to take a lifetime to finish. I'm going to take a lesson from Joyce and try something different - one day. Maybe I'll hire her to make all of my scarves from now on.

Meanwhile, today I finished my mindfully knitted socks:

Mindful knitting isn't any different than any other type of knitting. I did take the time to read the pattern carefully and I didn't whip through the pattern like I usually, but I made the same types of mistakes I usually do, I rip back the same as always, and mindful knitting didn't teach me a darned thing!

It was a nice thought though, and the socks are pretty cool.

Now that the socks are done, I have to look for my March project for 12 in '12.

Satisfaction

2012-01-28T23:01:00.000-05:00

So, there I was, sitting in my room thinking about all the possibilities for making twelve projects in 2012 and how to keep my commitment to making things for myself for a change. I was thinking about not having deadlines, or worrying about who would be disappointed if I didn't come through in time for a baby shower or birthday.

I have hundreds of balls of yarn to work with, and therefore hundreds of possibilities. I settled on one ball of white yarn, Knit Picks Bare fingering weight, if memory serves and one skein of Cherry Tree Hill Potluck in watercolors (mostly brown) which was a gift from Sojourn Knitter (if memory serves she was generous with the gift of yarn and this time I didn't beg - like I usually do).

I found a sock pattern on Ravelry, Broken Seed Stitch socks. The pattern is a 'recipe' not a pattern, which means there are no specific instructions for making a heel or toe, and you should already know how to knit socks. If you already know how to make socks, this is a crazy easy pattern. I cast on my usual 64 stitches and off I went, being mindful of the fact that I'm going to be a thoughtful knitter and not so speedy, especially since this project isn't due until next month.

With that in mind, I got this far going slow and paying attention:

Oh my gosh, I love these socks! I love the color and the feel and the look of these socks. I love the white cuff, heel and toe:

And though I only have one sock done, the other one started, I've ratcheted the speed dial down and I'm enjoying the stitches and the way the colors are being distributed throughout the sock:

And that's my sock story. US #2 needles and beautiful yarn.

I'm going back to my knitting and I wish you all a wonderful weekend.

12 in 12

2012-01-23T04:02:00.000-05:00

This year I've decided to go easy on myself with the knitting. I need to do some purposeful knitting instead of being a production knitter. I can do that if I just slow down. To that end, I joined a group on Ravelry called 12 in 12: knit and finish twelve projects this year. They can be half done projects (WIPs), or you can start new ones, but you have to finish them.

It was my bright idea to work on the swirl scarf, mistakenly believing that it would be quick. Turns out it's just frustrating to work a project that's so fiddle-y. It's going to be nice when it's done, but I don't see that happening so fast.

To that end, I was scouting around again looking for a quick, satisfying project that I could start and finish in the month of February. Unfortunately, I found it today and cast on immediately:

Problem is I'm going to have to find another pattern for February because this one is going so fast. Let me not jinx myself, but how could I go wrong with a four row repeat? Details will follow, it's just too late to go fishing around for the link.

It snowed in the Bronx over the weekend, not a lot, just enough to cause me to have to shovel and pull every muscle in my back and legs. If I'm lucky maybe I lost a pound. Since my car was kind of covered in snow and I was too sore to clean it off, I took a walk instead. While walking, I came across this house right there in my neighborhood:

It's an odd house in the Bronx that doesn't look anything like the surrounding brick houses. I wonder if they imported it from the French Quarter in New Orleans. Just an oddity in my neighborhood. I should walk more often.

Sorry I Missed Your Call

2012-01-20T22:21:00.000-05:00

We were in a meeting half the afternoon. One that was vital for the team.

We had to put our heads together and brainstorm like crazy!

You may think this looks like fun, but it was hard work! Pay no attention to the plates, and food and ... um ... beverages.

It was a mandatory gathering of the minds. It took at least an hour ... or so.

And my assistant, I'm sure she didn't say "wings and beer". If she did, she meant to say 'do something with my hair'. After all ... we were in a meeting, and I mean, well, you should give her a pass for today.

I'll have her give you a call when the meeting is wrapping up.

Knitting, Crochet Style

2012-01-16T17:54:00.000-05:00

When I crochet, which I do rarely, what comes to mind is granny squares. No matter how I make one, or what colors I use, they all look the same which is why I don't do squares. I also crochet when I want to finish fast, and since I crochet faster than I ever could knit, it's a win/win for me; I get to reduce stash fast and someone else benefits.

So, when I saw the pattern for the swirl scarf at Rhinebeck a few years ago, I thought granny squares (even though the stole is not made up of squares, but swirls). I figured I'd whip right through the pattern. How long does it take to make a 'swirl', well ... depends on how many you can do before you want to yank your hair out.

Here's the pattern, and here's where I am right now:

I'm using Jojoland Melody in MS29 (amethyst/emerald), a superwash merino which is slippery as heck and much thinner than I imagined it would be, hence, the wooden needles. I love the pattern, I like the yarn, but I'm frustrated with how long it's taking to make. Lots of stitches to pick up, lots of swirls to make and lots of ends to weave in which I'm doing as I go.

There are five rows of swirls for the stole, only three for the scarf. It's in the air about which one I'll end up, but I bought five balls of yarn for the stole and I'm only at the beginning of the third row of swirls. Oy!

I'm going to make something else so I don't get frustrated. I need some immediate satisfaction.

In fact, I think I'll go downstairs and make myself some baked ziti. That would be a win/win too.

Variety

2012-01-15T00:09:00.000-05:00

Well, my "three hour" hat is finally done. It's my first project of 2012 and I'm pleased with it, even if it is a little on the large side:

I was going for a slouch and it does slouch, but mostly it looks like a big hat. The back is pretty too:

The pattern is Amelie (Ravelry), the yarn is Madelinetosh, Tosh Vintage in Duchess. The hat was knit up on US #7 and the modifications were a deeper hem and a picot edge. Hat number 2 will fit my head better.

Knitting circle today was a variety show of knitterly goodness. Maria brought in her Innovations knitting machine which her mother gifted her:

She says everything knits up in 8 minutes. Imagine that! What was more amazing is that the machine was purchased from Finger Hut, a business name I haven't heard in years. I'm surprised they're still around.

Nilda brought in some knit good she said she had 'laying around'. Wow!

The striped shawl is the abbreviated version of the Multnomah Shawl. It fits her perfectly and that was not donated, just brought in for show and tell.

Amparo had some items that she donated, but i was most intrigued by her hat which she says is not a hand knit:

However, the preemie blanket she knit was made by her:

How cute is that? She crochet a little angel into the blanket and it looks lovely.

Lastly, we have Mary Jo who learned how to work on a loom today, although she says she's not ready to give up the needles:

It feel wonderful to be back in the knitting mood. Me and my knitting mojo haven't been seeing eye to eye lately, but I think it's here for awhile. I've decided to knit for me instead of making goods for everyone else when I realized I'm a knitter that's never made myself a scarf. In this weather, how is that possible?!

New year, new outlook. It's going to be a good year I can just tell.

Help! I've Fallen ...

2012-01-10T20:32:00.000-05:00

I don't normally blog twice in one day, but I can't help myself. I just have to tell you what happened on my way home from work today.

As I'm walking down the stairs from the train station, I come to the turnstiles and there, under the turnstile, is a man laying down. I'm not sure if he's alive or dead, but I get on the other side and ask him if he needs help. No answer. I yell to the token booth clerk to get help.

A gentleman comes over and also asks the man if he needs help. He must have said yes because the man tries to help him up. Another man comes up and also helps the fallen man up. I ask the men to ask the fallen man if he needs an ambulance, my phone at the ready, but the man says no (I think that's what he said). The two men help him up to his knees, then they help him to his feet. When the fallen man is finally standing, he salutes the two men who helped him up and he holds up a button.

So here's what happened: the fallen man is homeless and drunk. He was wearing a knit hat with buttons on it and one fell off. He got down to retrieve the button that landed on the other side of the turnstile, decided to crawl under the it to retrieve said button, but when he got down he fell asleep.

Clearly he was homeless, and I doubt he had needle and thread to sew the button back on his hat, but he held up the errant button and gave us all a triumphant toothless grin.

The moral of the story is: if you are too drunk to stand do no crawl under the turnstile.

The Cold & The Cap

2012-01-10T13:25:00.000-05:00

On Sunday Joanne called to ask if I wanted to go to Knitty City, I jumped at the chance because what's better than a Sunday at the yarn store? From my window I saw the sun was shining brightly and my house wasn't being battered by wind. It was a good day.
However, within 10 minutes of being outside, I realized the air had a little nip to it. Since I had no gloves I went to the bodega for a cup of coffee. At the bus stop, I realized my head was cold, too. What made me leave without taking a hat? By the time I got to the yarn store it was cold, overcast and the wind kicked up - and I was freezing. Dang!

When I arrived at Knitty City I decided I was going to make a hat to wear home. As if I could knit that fast! I purchased two skeins each of Madeleinetosh's Tosh Vintage in duchess and Cascade 220 in blue heat for a different project. I also bought a pair of US #7 circular needles to facilitate the delusion of starting and finishing a hat in less than three hours; all while chatting in the knitting circle, window shopping from my seat, and thumbing through magazines. Yeh, OK.

As you can see - I did get started on a pattern called Amelie (Ravelry). I made a few modifications: I made the brim longer because I know from experience that the ribbed edge of my hats doesn't last long, and I made the hat with solid colors.

On Sunday, maybe 3 inches:

I got about this far by Monday, about halfway:

And this far by today (almost done):

So my 'one day' hat is taking a few days.

I'm not quite sure I made the right choices: the hat seems rather large and the royal purple I saw yesterday looks like black cherry, blueberry or some variation of brown today. The brim may be too deep (at the moment this is looking like a Precious Moments sleeping cap), but if I make the slouch part long enough I can fold that up.

I'm going to forge ahead because my ride home this evening is supposed to be chilly and I need a hat - and just one more day of knitting.

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T23:55:00.000-05:00

Seems like life keeps getting in the way of my crafting, but I think I'll make it a resolution to catch up on what needs to be done so I can do what I want - craftwise, anyway.

I did a lot of knitting over the holiday, but because I don't know which family member is reading my blog, I couldn't post anything. Too bad I wasn't wise enough to take pictures before I packed it up and handed it off.

What I did get was a picture of Holden Shawlette (Ravelry pattern) blocking:

I wish I could remember the details of this shawl, but alas, at my age just remembering who it went to is a feat. Maybe I should consider a new year's resolution to slow down and pay attention. (If I make enough resolutions, maybe some of them will stick).

And I did get a picture of Nicole's Hootenanny socks:

And a really bad picture of the Rustling Leaves Beret (another Ravelry pattern):

The pattern is from Coastal Knits (lovely holiday gift!) which I understand is hard to get, and made with some alpaca from Yarn Treehouse (which I think is out of business).

And I and fighting my way through the Swirl Scarf which I'm making with Jojoland Melody (color MS29 which is blue/green/purple):

I bought this pattern at the New York Sheep & Wool Festival about 4 years ago and put it in my book. It was always my intention to make it 'when I had time', figuring all of the swirls would be like crochet - quick and painless. True, it's quick, but not painless with all the casting on. The yarn is slippery, so pull out your wooden needles if you use it.

The weather here in NYC is taking a dramatic turn towards freezing, so I think I should make myself a hat. Truly. How is it that I knit everything for everyone, but I don't own a hand knit hat? I need a pattern for chunky wool so I can make it quick. Any suggestions?

Well, happy new year, happy knitting!

Winner!

2011-12-29T07:00:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! I hope your days were filled with joy and good food for Christmas and it will be filled with wine and song to welcome the New Year. Just don't drink and drive!

I was on Ravelry, minding my own business and everyone else's (as usual), and I came across a forum that mentioned contests. So I decided to pop in for a peek. Just a peek.

Now, I'm not one to enter contests. I kind of feel like I have about as much chance of winning a knitting contest as I do of winning the lottery. But that day, the topic was send us your knitting/spinning goofs, mess ups, disasters and mishaps. Because I won a drop spindle earlier this year (Tour de Fleece), I thought maybe my lucky streak would carry over just one more time. So I entered the contest here, and - wait for it - I won!!

Look at what I got:

Now I can knit Christmas balls! And make i-cord, as well as sip from the wine glass that says "Knit 1, Sip 1". LOL! Does that mean I won't have to drink wine out of a grape jelly jar? I can break out my new Takumi interlocking needle set (best gift yet!) and knit up the two kits I got. Merry Christmas, eh?! I've was so lucky! Woo hoo!

Did I mention that I finished the Hootenanny socks?

I fudged* a bit, but the socks came out just right. The little bit of blue showing through the brown toe is the sock blocker showing through. The little owls are the cutest things! If I could change one thing, I think I'd make the heel brown. Overall, I'm quite happy with the results.

Pattern: Hootenanny / US #2 needle / Cascade Heritage in blue and brown.

I've got enough yarn to make the socks again only switching the colors. Of course, my son asked for a pair ... he doesn't care what color socks he wears.

I also blocked my Holden Shawl which was so beautiful that the ONLY reason I was able to give it as a holiday gift is because it went to my mother:

The yarn comes from Spring Tree Road in Slope, which is blue/green . I used US #3 needles and I had plenty of yarn left over. I should have measured the shawl, but I have more Spring Tree yarn (which is so soft) and I'll make another for myself - one day.

Normally I only make New Year's resolutions that I plan to break/not start. This year I'm going to get my life under control - and to that end I've started organizing my knitting system and I've got yarn and fiber hidden in every bag, box and container in every corner and cabinet of my house.

I've resolved to use stash that's been hanging around here since the time of Moses. Some of the yarn has me puzzled, as in 'why did I buy that?', but it's getting out of here one way or another. That's my resolution. Good luck to me.
__________________
* fudged - a polite way of saying I screwed up, but not much.

Aftermath

2011-11-27T22:28:00.000-05:00

Here's hoping that everyone enjoyed their holiday, no matter how you spent it. The weather where I was couldn't have been better; cool and sunny - almost warm, considering how close I was to Canada.

I got a chance to talk with family members I haven't seen in a while, and learned something that made me happy. Several years ago I made a poncho for my Aunt Joan (at her request, I might add). I can't remember the colorway, but I used the Baby Loop yarn and it turned out pretty good. Fast forward to Thanksgiving Day and she told me that she had gotten all the use out of the poncho and put it in an auction to support breast cancer - and got $75 for it. Well bust my buttons, I was tickled beyond reason!

She said the ladies at the auction knew the value of a hand knit item and paid top dollar for it, but the part that had me pleased beyond reason is the fact that the shawl will be enjoyed by someone else and the money will support a really good cause. I hope the next person that gets it uses it and, if it lasts long enough to get passed on again, then that would be icing on the cake.

Next, I finished the Holden Shawl - except for the blocking. I'm pleased with it and I think my mother will love it. The part that makes the shawl, in my opinion, is the picot edge. It's a pain to do, but it makes such a pretty effect.

I'll have better pictures of the shawl after blocking.

While on my mini vacation I also started the Hootenanny Socks.

The instructions are imprecise and her numbers don't exactly add up starting with the heel flap, but if you know how to make socks and the theory of working the heel, you should be fine. I'm using Heritage Sock Yarn (Cascade) that I bought at Knitty City and this yarn is perfect for summer weight socks. Almost feels like cotton, but softer.

Now that Thanksgiving is done, it's time to get with the holiday knitting. There, it's out there - as much as I wanted to keep it to myself.

Yes, I'm going to get something done between now and Christmas. I've decided to take the pressure off myself by not declaring who will get and who won't since I always (and I mean always) fall short of the mark. This year I'm going to make what I make and that will be the end of it. No pressure. Maybe.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T22:02:00.000-05:00

The Thanksgiving holiday is this week and I have so much to be thankful for, not the least of which is my knitting circle of friends.

This weekend we had a potluck dinner at the library and Junior (who is a staunch advocate of the knitting circle and especially of the NY Sheep & Wool Festival aka Rhinebeck). He showed up at the potluck wearing the 2 year sweater that his wife made him. Wow!

It only took his wife, Maria, 2 years to finish and it was well worth the wait! Doesn't he look stunning?! What's more, he brought his pineapple upside down cake which is world famous and a circle favorite. Thank you, Junior for showing up all decked out (and for the cake).

And right there, between chicken and baked ziti, Yvonne finished her Hello Kitty hat!

Isn't it adorable? It's even cuter in person. I'm all for finished objects - even if it's not one of mine. Some lucky little girl is going to be very, very happy and very cute too.

I'm only 5 rows away from finishing my Holden Shawlette. All I have to do is tink back three rows, then go forward for 5. It's such an easy little shawl and it's pretty too. It's a holiday gift and probably one of the few I will finish between now and the due date. Pictures to come.

What's next? Well, I'm leaving town on Wednesday to spend time with the family in Wayland, NY. It's been a while since the family got together - we all live so far apart, so I'm expecting the usual family things: good food, lots of laughter and some quality together time. It'll be wonderful.

In case I don't make it back in time, Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Heap O Green

2011-11-13T23:21:00.002-05:00

This is a fly by blog for Tracey aka Anonymous T. I know you think I've been slacking on my Holden shawl, but I have been working on it.

My brain must be muddled because for every 4 rows I knit, I have to rip back 3. Oy! At any rate, progress is being made.

Tonight, however, is a bust because I've been watching (geek alert) The Lord of the Rings. Turns out I can't watch the movie and read the chart at the same time! Duh!

Anyway, here's the heap:

P.S. Thanks to Shameka for mentioning that blogging from my phone was possible and to Sojourn Knitter for making me do it.

Learned A Few Things

2011-11-09T19:02:00.001-05:00

I learned that if you don't know how to buy fleece, then you should meet someone who does know. I bought a small bag of fleece at Rhinebeck and figured it would be good 'learning' fleece since it was such a small amount:

I washed a handful of it without really separating locks and got:

What the heck?! The staple length is just over an inch and I'm sure is came from the sheep's (pardon me) ass. Is this fiber the 'skirt'? I think so. Now I know what second cut means. It smelled like I don't know what (I expected that), it was greasy (I expected that, too) and it was disappointing (I didn't expect that).

Live and learn. Since this is throw away fiber, I separated the locks for the rest of the batch, put it in the lingerie bag and sent it to soak. I'll have pictures of it if I ever spin it - which I will attempt, because that was the point.

I also learned that I like making socks, but I'm no match for the folks knitting with the Tour de Sock on Ravelry. Oy! The first pair of socks for the contest was Calable (available on Ravelry only) and instead of concentrating on the socks, I went to SOAR. No regrets.

It was a 'no-brainer' that I would knit on the overnight train to New Hampshire. Yep. I worked a 10 hour day that day, got no sleep before departing and got to the train station at 1:00 a.m. Was there a chance in HECK that I was going to stay awake for the ride? Nope.

Ultimately, four weeks later, I finished sock pattern #1:

To have finished at all was a miracle, and I like the socks (don't love them). Too much work, too little time.

Needless to say, I'm out of the contest, but I wouldn't have made the socks otherwise. The money I paid to join the Tour de Sock is going to Doctors Without Borders so it's not a total loss. Thank goodness.

I also learned that Sock Pixie has given up the Sock Pixie blog and is now The Color Alchemist. She's been dyeing fiber with natural ingredients and getting the prettiest results. I would recommend that you go to her old blog to see why she's starting a new blog. My best to you and your family, Caroline!

Lastly, I learned where Sticks and Strings in Scarsdale, NY is located - thank you Nicole and Joanne! If I ever dreamed of opening a yarn shop it would be that place. It's bright, filled with yummy yarns and patterns and the store owner was delightful. Their web page is under construction right now, but if you're ever in the area (45 Spencer Place, Scarsdale) you should drop in.

Until next time ...

25 Years

2011-10-18T21:42:00.000-04:00

Me and Oprah Winfrey have something in common. We both completed 25 years of service. Of course, she has made more money than me, but 25 years of anything is a lot of time and dedication to doing the same thing over and over.

I believe it was Einstein who said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting something different". Well, I never expected to be at the same job for 25 years, but I did it and it was, at times, insanity. Still, I am grateful.

Everyone knows where the 'blue box' comes from (Tiffany & Co.), and I was sure glad to get my box. It means that I earned my car, my house, and my yarn/fiber stash, and all of my lovely spinning wheels. It means I earned what I needed to get me where I am.

It also means that if I put my mind to a thing, I can stick it out in both good times and bad. It makes me appreciate more than I can say that I kept a job when lots of other folks did not. I am so grateful.

Yes, hard work pays off. So does dedication. And well, the recognition is icing on the cake.

Rhinebeck 2011

2011-10-16T23:52:00.000-04:00

This year I went to Rhinebeck on Sunday instead of Saturday. The fairgrounds were half full and it was so much easier to get around - to see where you were going instead of being directed by the crowd. It was overcast and the wind made it chilly, but I sure appreciated the space to walk.

We kept hearing music in the park, almost haunting music but we couldn't tell where it came from. We found them playing Andean flute music. It was so beautiful (which I couldn't catch here, but I tried):

I didn't shop much, this is the first year I didn't have a shopping list. I know I wanted to buy some scour for my raw fiber (I heard at SOAR that it was pretty good), but then I saw the booth next door and also bought a 'sample'.

The sample was a 2 ounce bag of Jacob fiber. I saw it, tried to ignore it, but I just couldn't pass it up. It's only a sample, what could be the harm? It was the color that got me. It's Jacob that is softer (and more greasy) than anything else I touched there.

The vendor told me that I should leave some of the lanolin in washing it out would lessen the amount of fiber I would end up with. I didn't understand that, and I plan to wash as much of the lanolin out as I can. I don't want any stains on my clothes when I make my scarf!

Then I shopped for Tracey. Sorry, but Jennie the Potter had no cups or yarn bowls. What she did have was a pad for taking orders. So, instead of coming home empty handed, I did score some of this:

So there you have it. A day at the fair that ended happy.

The sheep in the back sure was scared of us!

SOAR

2011-10-12T22:50:00.000-04:00

I've wanted to attend the SOAR annual retreat for years and I finally went. Yay! I can now cross that off my bucket list. Woo hoo!

The event was lovely - and huge! There were so many people there, knitting celebrities that I've admired and whose books I own and whose work I admire. I met my idol, Maggie Casey and we spoke! I was in heaven!

Janel Laidman sat at my table for breakfast one day, and I could name drop all day and it wouldn't give you a clue about how awestruck I was! Linda Ligon of Interweave Knits sat at my table for lunch and we actually had a conversation! Wow!

I went to a rigid heddle weaving class with Sara Lamb (below wearing her handwoven vest):

There I learned that there is absolutely nothing wrong with making plain weave dishtowels. I don't need a bigger, better loom because I don't want to do anything but what I'm doing now. Great class, and I wish I'd taken pictures of her work - stunning!

I took a cotton spinning class with Stephanie Gaustad - what a wonderful teacher and lady! She did a lot of show and then she explained everything so clearly that I actually believed I could spin this pound of cotton I've had in the fiber cabinet for years.

We could have watched her all day, but she wouldn't let us. It's amazing how fast she spins the fiber and how well hers holds together. All through class all you could hear was the tinkle of everyone's spindle flying across the table.

I took a couple of other classes too: Beth Smith owner of the The Spinning Loft showed us how to use combs to comb fiber locks. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. I never used combs before and they were expensive, but now I know I can spin the two pounds of shetland I bought. Woo hoo!

My last class was with Michelle Boyd who taught us about spinning an even yarn. Everything she said made sense, and when she had us do the exercises in the class, we saw what she was talking about. It worked for me. I just might be able to change my style up a bit to get what I want.

I wish I could show you everything I bought and tell you everything I did, but I don't want to bore you. Suffice it to say I had a really good time.

There was a downside, though. I signed up to participate in the Tour de Sock and, guess what? No time to knit socks - every minute was taken up at the tour. This is all I got done on my Calable (available on Ravelry only, I think):

I didn't get far, and I feel like I let my team down and I'm certainly out of the race, but I still get the sock patterns and my donation will still go to Doctors Without Borders. That makes it not a total loss.

To get to SOAR I had to take an overnight train there and back - and believe me when I tell you, women of a certain age should not sleep on an Amtrak train and expect to feel normal when the ride is over. Not to mention what didn't hurt when I got there.

Lastly, so you don't think I'm a total slacker, I did finish the Hap Blanket:

I'm not overly impressed with the yarn, but the blanket turned out well and it will serve it's purpose for my great nephew. I made it with huge needles so it would go quick, and it did. The pattern is by Ysolde Teague, and I used size 13 needles with Red Heart yarn.

It's going to be hard to get back to my so-called normal life after SOAR, but with everything I learned the event will be a gift that keeps on giving.

What To Do

2011-09-13T22:48:00.001-04:00

My great nephew Tai was born on August 18, and shamefully, I haven't been to see the little tyke.

I didn't want to visit with my hands unladen with nothing but booties and a hat. My mother told me he needs heavier blankets than the receiving blankets my niece is using now. The dilemma, it has to be machine wash and dry. The other dilemma, superwash I don't have enough of to make a blanket with, but I have mountains of Red Heart acrylic.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with acrylic yarn. It comes in many wonderful colors, it's softer than it was way back when they called orlon, and it is completely machine washable. The colors above from Red Heart are called blue (darker) and Turqua (lighter).

I got my hands on the Ysolda Teague pattern for the Hap Blanket from Noble Knits. I went online and saw all the blankets made and figured it would be an easy knit and nothing in the world is easier and faster than garter stitch.

It's really hard for you to figure how far I've gotten since I cast on on Saturday. I'm up to the border. My biggest problem is where to pick up 61 stitches when there are only 59 rows. It's about the hardest thing since in involves math - and you know how I feel about that! Oy!

The biggest disappointment is the needles. They're Addi clicks lace. These points don't look that pointy to me! I'm disappointed in the needles and my Hiya Hiya's have better points. Not that it matters for this project, but do these look like lace tips to you?

I hope to have this blanket finished by this weekend and I hope to work with some wool and really pointy needles immediately after.

Good Night Irene!

2011-08-28T22:55:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Irene was all over the news and any program I watched on TV was interrupted by someone saying I was in the flood zone. Yikes! Sure, it was raining hard, but no wind. Was it possible I could get off so easy. When I went to sleep last night I figured my area would be surrounded by dirty water.

This morning I was not surrounded by water, but I was so scared. Scared to open the basement door where I was sure all my junk would be to the top step floating on 12 feet of water. I braced myself and put on my rain boots - just in case. No water. Yay!

My heart goes out to all the folks who are suffering through flooded houses, flooded cars and had a tree fall on their house and/or car. I swear, if that was me, I'd want to pack my bags and move to the desert. It's very costly damage that water does and I am thankful it wasn't me, but I wish it wasn't them either.

With relief in my heart, I took to the wheel today and did a little spinning on some FatCatKnits merino in Seaside Cottage that was left over from the Tour de Fleece:

It's way prettier in person, and if the sun had shone today I'd have a better picture. I'm almost done spinning it up, maybe by tomorrow, and then I plan to make myself something nice.

I also had time to knit up some mittens from fiber I purchased from Will-Ewe Farm:

The pattern is called Feminine Mittens which I pulled of the Knitting Daily website. I think you have to sign up to get the pattern, though.

These mittens won't keep my hands warm in winter, but they will keep them kind of warm in the fall. There was so little fiber that there was nothing I could make other than mittens, and I like the pattern. Too bad I'm not in love with the color, but I could always dye them, right?

My son starts classes tomorrow. He called tonight to see if I was OK and to make sure that the house was still standing. Wasn't that sweet?

What Will You Do?

2011-08-27T20:51:00.000-04:00

My friends were asking me what I will do now that my son is off to college. Will I be bored? Lonely? Depressed? I miss my son, but I've talked and or exchanged text messages with him every day since Thursday. When he was home he never answered my text messages.

So since he's been gone, the only thing I have to do is housework (and once it's clean, it'll stay clean) and anything else I want to do, whenever I want to do it.

Today was a good day. Mail brought me this Abstract Fiber, BFL in Hopworks purchased from Webs:

And the micro trindle I won for spinning with Team Trindle in the Tour de Fleece:

Wow! Skull heads? I have other 'arms' for the trindle which I can use when my son is home. I think he'll make some wise crack about the Crypt Keeper (me) spinning with skulls! The freebie that came with it is silk hankies from Gale's Art. I couldn't resist working just one. So I separated one hankie (easier said than done):

And I spun it up:

Yesterday I washed this fiber of unknown origin purchased at Rhinebeck last year from Will-Ewe Farm, they don't have a website. It kind of feels like coopworth but softer, and if I remember correctly, the lady at the booth told me it was angora and something:

These were spun up on my regular Trindle and both skeins are singles. I was going to ply them, but it's kind of scratchy, so I think the best thing to do would be to make a pair of mittens, I found the perfect pattern for them.

Hurricane Irene is here in the Bronx. Mercifully the rain is coming down, but there is no thunder or wind. All mass transit if cancelled, and some of the Con Edison transformers were shut off to avoid them from shorting out, so some folks may end up with no electricity. Hopefully I won't be one of them!

My son said it's not raining where he is. My mother is in Maryland and the south has been really hard hit. Lots of flooding there. She's not due home until Monday, and only if Peter Pan bus is running, but she's safe with family so I'm not worried.

Anyway, for you experienced New York knitters, most of you know you can knit by candlelight and some of you can knit in complete darkness so have at it.

Stay dry.

My New Life

2011-08-20T21:52:00.000-04:00

I may have mentioned already (about 600 times) that my son is leaving for college soon. It's not that I'm overly excited about his leaving, but I knew this day was coming and that I'd be a swinging single again, and I prepared for it.

Talking with the ladies in knitting class I announced what I know is going to be my new life. Like on television when the folks come home and pour themselves a glass of wine while they prepare dinner, that is going to be me. With variations, of course.

I will come home from work, head for the shower and slip into something more comfortable (the $12.99 K Mart cotton house dress). I'll slip into my comfortable slippers (flip flops from the 99 cent store) and I will sail downstairs to make myself a fancy dinner (Chunky Soup). I will pour my glass (grape jelly jar) of (Boone's Farm Pink) wine and I will settle in my (rarely used by me) living room on the sofa with my (rot gut) wine, some knitting and watch television while my dinner cooks.

And when the fire department shows up at 10p to put the fire out (soup burned), they will find me clutching the bottle of wine and muttering about my 'new life'.

In real life, I don't drink and my bedtime is 10p. I've been a shining example of a parent for the past 18 years and college is the turning point. For my son it's that place in between living home and visiting home, between parenting and and being a parent. I'm going to have to adjust.

And truly, when you have only one child and 99% of your existence is mothering what do you do? I think I might start following the cat around the house trying to figure out how I can mother her. I might be reduced to putting her every move on video and forcing her to wear clothes I made just for her. I'd better prepare Miss Kitty for her new life as well.

Some new life, eh?

I'd better start arranging to have people come check on me. Yikes! If I don't start defining myself in some other way because if no one does, someone will catch me trying to rig the TV antenna in the window to see if I can communicate with alien life.

Score!

2011-08-19T23:42:00.001-04:00

I did something the other day that I never thought I'd do in a yarn store. It happens so rarely that it's worth mentioning here because I am proof that it can and does happen.

You would be impressed by my restraint (it was miraculous!) considering it was my intention to go in the store and buy 12 skeins of sock yarn because I 'accidentally' signed up for the Tour de Sock on Ravelry. Oy! Like the Tour de Fleece wasn't maddening enough! But I'm a sucker for a cause and the registration fee was a mere $7.50 and $6 f it is going to Doctors Without Borders.

Like I said, I'm a sucker for a cause.

In the face of all that yarn at Seaport Yarns (it truly is a 'yarn candy store'), and the wall of sock yarn staring me in the face (Koigu, Malabrigo, Jitterbug) I only purchased five things and not one skein was sock yarn.

The color isn't true on my monitor, but it's Plymouth Yarn's Ampato (baby alpaca) in green. It's actually gray/green and it's going to be just what I need to make this hat. I'm not used to using yarn in aran weight, but I bet the hat will be done in no time.

Since I was on a roll with 'fat' yarn that is phat (pretty hot and tempting), I picked up these two lovey skeins:

This is Rowan big wool fusion (as if you couldn't read the label), in gray. I don't know what I'm going to make with it, but when I saw the color, I couldn't resist. It's like gray mist, it's mostly soft and why shouldn't it live at my house with it's other yarn cousins?

Lastly, I couldn't resist helping out the breast cancer cause so I bought this:

These ChiaoGoo needles sport a cute pink ribbon and a fine sentiment, 'Find a Cure' for breast cancer. I wish they could:

I adore the pink glass beads on top.

And that was it. I managed to get out of the store without spending my usual huge sum. Yay!

Fake Isle Done

2011-08-16T00:27:00.000-04:00

I finished the Fake Isle hat yesterday. I love this hat! I can see myself making a few more of these. The black yarn is Classic Elite's Bam Boo and the multi is my own.

This hat is up there with my all time favorites because the pattern is simple, but the effect is great. I see myself making this hat in various colors and sizes in the near future. Someone is going to have a warm head this winter.

Recently I purchased Autobahn from the Twist Collective site (if you haven't been to their site, take a peek). They have such great patterns - all stuff I wish I had the time to make for myself. Autobahn calls for thick yarn, and I don't have any that isn't acrylic. Not that there's anything wrong with acrylic, it's just that I'd prefer Cascade 220.

I also cast on for a pair of mittens, and last night I finished one:

There's a few wonky stitches which I believe means that a needle came out and I just stuck it back in and kept going. Not good, but not disastrous. What's not good is the boring color. These mittens were intended for a boy, but when I think about it, I've never seen a boy over the age of 6 wearing mittens.

Today when I opened the mailbox I saw a package there and thought it was the micro trindle I'm waiting for. Instead it's the new arms for my regular trindle. Yay! I've been waiting for those too.

The ones on the left which aren't photographed very well are called 'root beer' and the ones on the right are called 'purple chalcedony'. Sadly, they are not nearly as pretty as my old beads, but I'm happy with them and besides, I've got to adapt and move on.

Anyone thinking about holiday knitting? What's on your list of things to make?

Victory at Last!

2011-08-15T02:48:00.000-04:00

After a few false starts and lots of frustration, Winnie finally did it. She made her Nutkin Socks (yay!) and presented them in class on Saturday. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

The satisfaction that one gets when any project is finished is doubled when that project is for yourself. Congratulations, Miss Winnie. You did good, gal!

I finished a pair of socks too. They're for my son who requested I spin this yarn up just for these socks (remember the Frabjous Fibers in high tide?):

The picture shows the striping much better than the real socks. They are fraternal twins for sure. There was no way for me to figure out how to make them match because the colors were all over the place. I still have about 300 yards of it left over, but I'm sure I'll figure out something to do with it.

Lastly, I'm working on the Fake Isle Hat which I tried to make the hat 'jogless', but my attempt failed miserably. Maybe you will have better luck.:

The black yarn is store bought merino/bamboo, I think since the ball band has been lost to history. The multi-color is Louet wool I scored from Sojourn Knitter after I offered (read begged) to help her reduce her stash. I have a nerve to offer help with destashing when I can't even make a dent in my own stash (unless it's during the Tour de Fleece, of course).

One of the knitting ladies, Carol, asked the class if they would knit matching hats/scarves/mittens to donate. It's due on Saturday 8/27 and so far all I've gotten done is one mitten. Shame on me! I'll post my set when is done.

Then & Now

2011-08-10T05:00:00.003-04:00

Knitting is happening, but posting pictures is not because Blogger is having some issues tonight and while I can't be sure, I think it's aimed at me. Yesterdaywas one of those up and down days that skid into neutral by the end of the day.

For instance, I got dressed up in my suit for work, thought I was looking hotter than lava until I saw my reflection in a glass store front. My, how my opinion of cute has changed.

Back then my jeans couldn't be snug enough. Right now, I'm wondering if I can buy jeans that look like the real McCoy but have an elastic waistband.

Back then, I saw and heard everything with my own eyes and ears. Now, I don't hear crap, but I can lip read (if I have my glasses on). And in a few years, I'm wondering how many times I can say "Huh?" before someone starts using sign language to talk to me.

Back then, I could tell you what I wore on April 21, 1985. Now I can't remember what I ate for lunch an hour after I've eaten.

Back then, I did everything at hyperspeed and multi-tasking was my way of life. Now I need a nap after every chore.

Back then I could go up and down the stairs a million times to get what I want or need, now I have to make a list before I go in either direction because I don't have to go more than one step before I have forgotten why I was going anywhere in the first place.

Enough of that.

My son leaves for college on August 25. The common sentiment I'm getting from everyone is that I'll be sad and/or lonely. I don't know if that's true because I swear on a bag of rocks that I will miss him, but sad? I don't think so.*

It means that he is on the way to becoming an independent adult with all of the best teaching I had to offer. It means that all of my hooping and hollering is going to stick or fail and he now has the opportunity to implement or discard what he's learned from me and apply it to the life he is going to make for himself. He is on the way to becoming an adult.

I'm sad to see the 'baby' go, but I'm going to enjoy going through this process with him as he becomes a smart, independent young man.

*Check back in a few weeks. I might be on the news for trying to move onto campus and have to be forcibly removed.

Tour de What?

2011-08-01T23:16:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought it was over, the spinning starts all over again. While the tour is over (and I repeat 'over'), the spinning continues. That hard little stool is hard to resist.

During the tour I committed to spinning 4 ounces of FatCatKnits merino & bamboo in Seaside Cottage on my trindle. Remember this fiber?:

Well, the trindle took a little trip across ~~town~~ my room and got a little boo-boo. Then at the office, an arm fell off and the bead cracked and now the trindle is wobbly - which is a bad thing. As a result of several little 'trips' that caused it to malfunction, I only got this far:

My poor trindle had so many accidents it was like the real Tour de France! I was derailed! It is a sad sight seeing my trindle wobble like that. Now that the tour is over, I'm spinning up the rest of this braid on my Golding spindle.

The second braid still has this much to be spun up:

But now that I'm not in a 'contest' anymore, I cheated:

Today I ordered two new sets of arms for my trindle, and then ... today I went on Ravelry and into the Trindle room and learned that I (the same "I" that never wins a darned thing) won a micro trindle from Team Trindle! Yay! I'm a winner! Never again can I say, my chances of winning are somewhere between 'not a chance' and 'never'. Woo hoo! Pics to follow when the new trindle arrives.

My DS picked some fiber for me to spin (Frabjous Fibers BFL in High Tide) so that I could make him some socks with it. Yesterday I cast on for a pair of no frills short socks (he dislikes socks with 'designs'). Who knew he'd follow in my footsteps with cankles? LOL

No doubt these socks will be fraternal. And I'm looking at the colors and thinking to myself, this fiber doesn't look anything like it did when it was singles. All plied up it became a different animal altogether. I'm still happy with it.

Joyce's socks got finished during the tour also, Dragonfly Socks from Cavyshops on Ravelry, made with Liberty Fibers merino in Forest Walk:

I did not continue the pattern down to the toes because I was lazy, but the pattern is easier than pie to memorize. (Don't ask me what's wrong with this picture. My camera does whatever it wants. Anything to punish me.)

And finally, I used the leftover merino/silk sock yarn to make a basic preemie hat, and when socks and hat were done, I still had a lot of yarn left over.

How does it feel to be knitting again? Wonderful!

Tallied Up and Ready to Go

2011-07-26T23:31:00.000-04:00

So ~~points~~ yardage has been added up and the grand total is 1,729 yards of fiber. Yay! That's more spinning I've done in one three week sitting than I've EVER done in all the three (or is it 4?) years I've owned my wheels.

Here's the loot again:

Here are the stats:
Dripping Fiber Studios (Etsy), polwarth in Garden Gloves, 2 skeins #1-154 yards, #2-45 yards.
The Sheep Shed (MDSW), alpaca/tussah in Chocolate, 197 yards ( comes with a smaller alpaca/tussah/bamboo blend which was not measured).
Greenwood Fiberworks (Etsy), BFL in Persimmon, 146 yards.
Freckle Face Fibers (Etsy), BFL in Purple Poppies, 240 yards
Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio (Etsy), wool and kid mohair in Sands of Utah: 106 yards.
Grafton Fibers (MDSW), corriedale in 103 Stripes, 181 yards
Frabjous Fibers (MDSW), BFL in High Tide, 2 skeins, #1-363 yards, #2-297 yards.

I didn't measure the wool/soy from Sock Pixie because it's lace weight and my meter wouldn't read it.

So now comes the fiber I'm giving away:

First up is the Sheep Shed alpaca/tussah (197 yards of 3 ply fingering weight) that comes with a smaller skein of alpaca/tussah/bamboo which is unmeasured, but let's just say it's three yards:

The second skein headed for a new home is Grafton Fiber's corriedale in #103 Stripes (3 ply and 181 yards):

This fiber is not so soft and I wouldn't wear it against my skin unless you want to do some dermabrasion, but someone interested in felting might enjoy it.

The last to head out is Dripping Fiber Studios polwarth in Garden Gloves which is 2 skeins, and it's both pretty and soft (154 + 45 yards):

How do you get these beauties? Well, the first one to comment on the skein(s) they want gets it/them. You can only claim one skein (no one gets all of 'em) by leaving a comment on this page only, and it's yours for free.

As it turns out, I still have some spinning to do by way of cleaning up the mess I made during the Tour, but you won't be hearing about it from me. No sir! I'm going to stick to knitting for the time being.

Got socks?

Tour Loot

2011-07-25T23:36:00.000-04:00

The last day of the tour has come and gone, and so did the heat wave. I knew that as soon as I didn't have to touch fiber again for a while that the heat wave would end. C'est l'histoire de ma vie. But there is a rainbow at the end of that heat wave.

It's called loot. In three weeks, here's what I amassed:

Tonight I started measuring, and when it's all done I'm going to start my give away. Here's what I'm keeping:

This is Sock Pixie's wool/soy in Willow which I'm keeping because it has a knot in it:

Jason's socks will be made from this fiber. It's Frabjous Fibers BFL in High Tide:

Even though the color is blue and green, the color still seems a little 'girly' for my son, but he's a manly man (at age 18) and not afraid to wear pink socks, so this color will be fine.

And lastly, I'm keeping the Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio merino/kid mohair because it not only has my favorite colors (neutrals), but it was a gift from Sojourn Knitter and I'm sure she'd love to see me wearing some mittens made with this fiber:

So, tally ho while I tally up.

Tour - Day 23 - The Last Day

2011-07-24T22:47:00.000-04:00

Today was the last day of spinning for the Tour de Fleece. I'm sad to see it go, but I like the idea of having some spare time to do what I want to do. Not that I couldn't do that anyway, but it was a contest, and I felt compelled. I feel compelled every year and next year won't be any different. I'll be back!

The last fiber I spun was Frabjous Fibers, BFL in High Tide, 8 ounces that I plied this morning, washed this morning and waited for it to dry - which it didn't. It was so humid today that nothing dried, even the yarn I washed yesterday is still damp! Oy!

At the suggestion of Monika, I made this yarn a three ply and overfilled two bobbins to get what has got to be almost 400 yards. Three ply was smarter than chain ply because there are no lumps, just plain smooth yarn. Thanks for the tip, Monika.

The alpaca and silk from the Sheep Shed and the wool and kid mohair from Capistrano didn't dry either, and I put them up yesterday!

But the still look pretty! I see a fake fair isle hat with these two yarns together. Their colors are so complimentary.

I think I figured out the secret of plying.

Everything I've read says that when you're plying you should stop and let the fiber hang. An even/balanced yarn won't wind on itself. Yeah, OK. That doesn't work for me because my yarn doesn't hang down without plying on itself. Honestly, I'm not going for balance, I'm going for looks. It's shallow, I know, but don't care if my socks lean to the side - as long as they go on my feet. So that was my light bulb moment. Now, if only I can remember that for next year's Tour.

So the tour is done, but I still have wet yarn in the house. I haven't measured any of it and I don't want to because it's still so hot and humid. The only thing that's going to change around here is that I don't have to spin, but I still have lots of yarn work to do. It's not going to happen tonight.

This evening I plan to knit in bed.

Keep cool!

Tour - Day 22

2011-07-23T22:28:00.000-04:00

Today I filled my last bobbin of BFL from Frabjous Fibers. I'd like to thank my friend Yvonne for calling me this evening just at the right time. Chatting with her made the spinning go a little quicker and I got to laugh in spite of the ache of sitting on that hard stool.

And then there were three:

One spool will be Navajo plied, and if that works out then I'll do that for the other two. If not, I'm going to have some mighty fine two ply with yardage galore (I hope).

Tomorrow is the last day of the tour, and thank goodness! I'm wondering if tomorrow will also be the last day of the heat wave. I've got fiber still to be bathed and plying to do, none of which will happen tonight.

My wheel is going in the corner after tomorrow. It needs to cool off and so do I.

Tour - Day 21

2011-07-23T00:10:00.000-04:00

We're nearing the end of the tour and I'm a little sad. Sad that my stash is going down, that is! The tour is 24 stages which includes the 2 days of rest, and now there's only three spinning days left. I still have a mountain of Frabjous Fibers BFL in High Tide left to spin. Yikes! And all the while my stash is going down, down, down.

Today I evened out the second bobbin, and both of them are pretty full:

Plying is where I always run into issues. Are the singles thin enough to make this into a sock weight yarn? Or will these be 'boot' socks? Not that my son will care, but one of these days I'm going to have to figure out the math part of plying. Ugh ... math!

There's still a lot to spin, wash and measure, but I'm going to mash through that tomorrow. Today my hands have had enough.

I knit today at lunchtime and it felt good! I sat in a corner at the air conditioned pizza shop, munched on pizza and knit in between bites. It was so peaceful even though there were a few people around me. I didn't get far, but I did get joy.

Another day down, and only a few more before knitting resumes.

Tour - Day 20

2011-07-22T00:50:00.000-04:00

What can I say? I'm so done with the race and the spinning and that evil little stool! The heat is inhuman and the humidity is unbearable. I have more fiber stuck to my face than there is on the spool. After a short time spinning, it feels like I'm wearing gloves! Oy!

However ...

I'm quite pleased with having (almost) filled a second bobbin of this fiber:

There's not much left to spin, I should be able to finish the bobbin on the left and if I have to I'll fill another one. If I'm lucky, it'll be the right weight to make my son a pair of socks with lots of fiber left over.

Tonight I stopped spinning as soon as they said Andy Schleck won today's stage! Finally!

I'm going to bed now because there's no hope that my spine will straighten out unless I lay down.

Tour - Day 19

2011-07-20T23:00:00.000-04:00

Today I made progress. Today I plied the alpaca and silk from Sheep Shed Studio in chocolate. It was slippery and tricky, kind of like the route the cyclists took today down the mountain:

This yarn is shown pre-bath, I'm hoping that the bath makes the fiber full enough to fill in the 'blank' spaces.

Tomorrow I will spin up the rest of the BFL from Frabjous Fibers which, I believe, will be the last of my Tour spinning. I don't have the heart to pull another braid out of the cabinet even though I just purchased 3 braids that I can hardly wait to get my hands on.

What I learned about my spinning style during this event is that this really is a race. A race to get braids done, to make good yarn and to reduce stash in double time. In real time, it takes me a week to spin one braid, and then it sits on the spool for about a month before I ply it. Jeez, I'm a slacker.

The tour ends on Saturday. By then I hope to have the yardage for all the skeins I spun. That should be satisfying. Last year I spun after work for the entire tour and I spun 5 braids, this year I spun 8. Woo hoo! I did take a week off from work during the tour so that helped.

Until tomorrow.

Tour - Day 18

2011-07-19T23:48:00.000-04:00

Today I got nothing. I got home from work at 8p, sat at my wheel and on that hard stool and spun up the rest of the alpaca/silk. I got more satisfaction that it is gone than I got from actually spinning it. I was hot, it is humid, I am tired and that stool was harder than it's ever been.

I should have plied some yarn, I should have washed some yarn, I should hire someone to do it for me, if that were possible. I wish it was still light outside so I could get a good picture of what I've spun so far in all it's stages of un-doneness. But here's the best I could get:

Looking at them all together, I wouldn't say I have a favorite color although the two skeins that speak to me the most are the persimmon and the purple poppies (skeins #6 and #7 from the left). I'll have the specifics on yardage and approximate weight after the tour is over.

Not a bad haul for two weeks. It astonishes me how much I can get done when there's a deadline.

Tour - Day 17

2011-07-18T23:35:00.000-04:00

Today was a rest day for the riders of the Tour de France, but what was I doing? Sitting on that hard stool adding to my bobbin. There's enough fiber to fill this bobbin, but not enough to fill another. So, to keep the fiber from haunting me until next year I just keep on adding to the bobbin.

This is alpaca and silk from Sheep Shed Studios in chocolate. The silk gives it a heathery look, and if my camera was at least 'adequate' you'd see that. Unfortunately, this is the best I can do.

I may have mentioned that my stash is going down quickly. So quickly that I'm actually thinking of joining a fiber club just to make sure I never run out of fiber, but that would be wrong. What if I get stuff I don't like. So, off to Etsy I go carrying along the codes offered to Tour participants (15% off!).

These came from Unwind Yarn Company:

100% merino in Tiger's eye. Reminds me of some Rambouillet I had once. I'm not overly thrilled with spinning merino, but I couldn't resist this one.

This is BFL in The Great Berry Caper. This color ought to make my friend, Sojourn Knitter, happy. She says I don't have enough purple in my stash. Here's one with many purples! I'm happy.

Last, but not least is BFL in Buttered Toast. Yum! It's making me hungry!

And not to be outdone, also in the package was a lovely smelling sachet and two stitch markers.

I love freebies!

Tour - Day 16

2011-07-17T19:11:00.000-04:00

The first days of the race, I was fresh and ready to go! I love the Tour de France race and I watch it while I spin which makes me sit on the evil, hard stool longer than is sane. Of course, I also had visions of wheedling my stash down to a reasonable amount and having lots of yarn instead of fiber.

The second week, after watching a week of carnage during the race (man tumbles over handlebars and lands on face, man crashes and ends up in a ravine and when they pull him up they believe his pelvis is broken, car crashes into rider, who crashes into another rider and man #1 goes skidding down the pavement and the other rider crashes into a barbed wire fence OMG!), I'm not so fresh and I feel road weary for the riders. It's hard to cheer for anyone when so many have been taken out of the race due to injury (the Tour officials call it 'abandoning') it makes my aching hands, back, butt and neck seem minor.

Tomorrow is a day of rest and my first day back at work. That means my spinning time will be abbreviated and the knitters who read this blog will finally see some knitting again. I'll be just as relieved.

Today's offering is alpaca and silk from Sheep Shed Studio purchased about 3-4 years ago at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. I purchased 8 ounces and spun some of it up last year - which I gave away after the Tour.

Pardon the photo quality, my son took the picture under protest.

Tomorrow I'll ply it up and see if I can get something better than chunky weight. Maybe it'll be enough to make something like a hat. Maybe.

What will I spin on Tuesday? I have no idea and I don't want to think about it. I'm just trying to get to the end of the race.

Tour - Day 15

2011-07-16T16:03:00.000-04:00

Today's post is a drive by since I'm on my way out to dinner with family.

Capistrano Fiber Studio Limited Edition, merino/kid mohair 70/30 (who knew it could be this soft?!), 2 ounces in Sands of Utah:

Even before the bath, this fiber is wonderful! I'm going to have to scour Etsy to see if I can find more just like it.

My stash cabinet went from 3 shelves to 1 1/2, so I feel some fiber shopping coming on. I need at least double what I have to live happy.

Tour - Day 14

2011-07-15T20:51:00.000-04:00

I haven't been using the drop spindle because of my sore shoulder (it even hurts to knit!) so I've been doing all of my spinning on the wheel. Now my back hurts! Oy!

Yesterday I spun up the blue/green BFL, but today I couldn't even look at it because there's so much more of it to spin. Instead, I pulled out some fiber generously donated to me by Sojourn Knitter. It's 2 ounces of merino/kid mohair 70/30, in Sands of Utah from Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio.

It spun up lickety split and turned out as soft as butter! I only wish there was more of it because two ounces isn't going to get me very far. It didn't even fill up a bobbin.

The handsome young man holding the bobbin only posed for the picture because he wanted something. Goodness knows when I need him for help with pictures he always runs in the other direction!

He quickly lost interest in what I wanted to do as soon as he found out that there wasn't enough fiber to make him a pair of socks! LOL

I also made another attempt to spin 100% bamboo, but my skill at spinning does not extend to slippery fiber that's too shiny to make anything with anyway. I'll figure out what to do with it while I pray someone has some helpful hints for me. Help!

Tomorrow is another day of spinning, so tonight I'm going to prep something.

I was off from work this week and I totally enjoyed spinning every day (and squeezing in some chores). This is the life! It'll all come to a screeching slow down on Monday. I'll be spinning at 8p and posting at goodness knows what time.

And to my non-spinning readers, thanks for putting up with all of this. Knitting is coming soon.

Tour - Day 13

2011-07-15T00:50:00.000-04:00

Meet the enemy:

I spend hours sitting on this hard little stool and now that my butt is about as flat and pointy on the ends as Sponge Bob's, I'm wondering why I don't find a nice stool with a soft feathery cushion so I don't have to brace myself before sitting. Oy!

Today I put more BFL from Frabjous Fibers on the spool:

And I plied up the Corriedale from Grafton Fibers:

And then I got that fiber ready for the bath, but it hasn't been bathed yet so it's still a little 'curly':

I wonder what will happen to the yellow when it soaks with the brown. More of the issue is that this fiber isn't soft. I'm hoping that will change after the bath.

Lots of fiber has been spun up over the past 13 days and my fiber stash is going down, down, down. I'm so happy to have spun up some of the older stuff, and even though I still have the fiber as yarn, I miss the fiber crowd in my cabinet.

Participating in the Tour de Fleece has one serious perk, a lot of the fiber vendors are offering their goods at a discount! Woo hoo! I feel a shopping spree coming on! (I do need to prepare for next year's tour, you know.)

Tour, Day 12 - 12 Days To Go

2011-07-13T23:43:00.000-04:00

Today I didn't get much done because Mom had to check into the hospital. Stress caused her blood pressure to go out of control, so she was in hospital from 10 this morning until 10 this evening. She's home now, resting comfortably, and has to return to the hospital tomorrow morning. I'm sure everything will be fine.

On the way home from the hospital I saw this:

The rainbow was so vivid! I haven't seen one that strong since I was living in Endicott, NY. There were actually two rainbows, but my camera only caught the one which was good enough.

Today I did more sock knitting than spinning because a sock is portable and my wheel is not. I got in a few more rows of Joyce's sock done and I spun this much Frabjous Fibers BFL:

This fiber is a little neppy, but it still has good character. I'm hoping I can do it justice. It's not much, but it's as thin as eyelashes in the hopes that once it's 3-ply it'll make some socks for my son, Jason. Honestly, any hand knit socks are just socks to him. If these socks turn out to be thick as 10 ply, lumpy and itchy, he'd still wear them. He only cares that they are hand knit. Period.

Tonight it's too late to spin, so I'm going back to the sock. Pictures will come as soon as I get further along.

Tour - Stage 10, Day 11

2011-07-12T22:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a day of (much needed) rest for the cyclists of the Tour de France and me. I slept past 7a and after a cool shower, loads of laundry, and heating up the house cooking dinner, I finally got a chance to sit and knit.

I knit up two more preemie caps, to add to the others I did before the tour started:

These caps are going to Tracey who has made a personal dedication in memory of baby Remy. You can find out about it on Ravelry.

During rest day I tried to work on Joyce's sock, but even that felt like a huge job for a day of rest. Joyce has the smallest feet I've ever made socks for and I'm halfway done with the second sock, but alas, the humidity was just too much:

Today it was back to business. I skeined up the polwarth from Dripping Fiber Sudios in Garden Gloves:

The top skein is 3-ply and the bottom is what was left over after I was out of the third ply, so it's a small two ply skein. I don't have yardage because my meter is missing. Oh boy.

I also spent some time with the trindle and the day of rest did not help my shoulder pain, but I trindled on:

Two ounces and I'm only halfway done. How do drop spindlers do it?! I'm torn between wanting to tear my arm off or setting the fiber on fire (but it's too darn hot for fire)! I will spin on, but I don't expect much. What you can expect is to be seeing this fiber until your eyes glaze over.

Moving on. I finished spinning up the Corriedale from Grafton Fibers in yellow/orange/brown. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one too. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to ply it up by color, if I don't screw it up.

Lastly, my son picked out the next colorway:

Seriously, 8 ounces in this heat?! He said he'd spin it up, but I haven't seen him since he pulled the fiber out of the cabinet. He wants a lot of socks to take with him to college. Yeah, good luck with that.

Tour - Day 9

2011-07-10T21:22:00.002-04:00

I'm so ready for a break! Tomorrow is a day of rest for the Tour de France and I plan to do some knitting because I truly miss my needles. Not that spinning yarn isn't a lovely thing to do, it's the pace I'm having a hard time with.

Today's entry is some Corriedale from Grafton Fibers purchased at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival a few years ago. How it ended up in my basket is a mystery to me since I don't like spinning batts, but the color was interesting. Anyway, here it is all wrapped up:

It's about as pretty as a picture all bundled up and contained, and like I said, I loved the colors:

Then I opened it up and the beast was loose (that's a yardstick above the fiber):

I have no idea how to work this fiber. The colors could not be separated easily, the orange is in the yellow, the brown is in the orange, you get the picture. So I separated and prepped them as best I could:

And today I spun up the yellow to orange:

There really is no orange part of the fiber, but the 'middle' section will probably produce some kind of tweedy orange. There's not enough of all three colors to make this a three ply yarn, maybe I can Navajo ply it by color. At this point I can't even think about it.

Now, since tomorrow is a day of rest, I fully intend to rest by taking up my knitting needles - if I can lift my arm, that is.

Tour - Day 7 & 8

2011-07-09T22:41:00.000-04:00

On day 7, I posted my progress for day 6, so today on day 8 I had some progress I'm pretty proud of.

First I plied up the Freckle Face Fibers BFL in purple poppies (bottom), washed it and hung it out to dry and today I have skein:

The top skein is Greenwood Fiberworks in persimmon. Both skeins are still a little damp thanks to the humidity, but they didn't mind making their debut today. No yardage yet, but I'll get to it. Persimmon is Navajo plied and Purple Poppies is a two ply yarn.

Then I got to the trindle and after spindling for a week I made, so far, two skeins of the singles from FatCatKnits in Seaside Cottage:

It seems like a little bit of fiber, but spindling fiber takes for-EVER, and there's still another braid of a different color to go. Sheesh! You can count me out of any further spindle groups for the Tour de Fleece! I swear it feels like my arm is going to fall off!

Lastly, I got three mostly even bobbins of Garden Gloves polwarth from Dripping Fiber Studios:

I plan to make this a three ply yarn tomorrow and will hopefully get some pretty good colors out of it. It was such a pleasure to spin, but I think I say that about everything.

My pledge this year for the tour was to spin five braids. Four are done, the fifth is on the drop spindle and will likely be there until the end of the tour. Since we are only one week into the tour, that means I have to find some more fiber to spin for Team Lendrum. It would be so easy to quit now, berate myself for quitting, and then start up again after pieces of my body stop hurting. Ultimately, I will go on.

Did I mention the weather? It's so humid! I keep eyeballing my neighbor's pool and wondering if an alarm would go off if I snuck in a little dip. Fortunately, my neighbor Marisol came out while I was taking pictures and I got her to pose with my yarns. She said if I didn't show her face she'd let me swim in her pool, so ...

I'm going swimming tomorrow!! Thanks Marisol!

Tour - Day 6 Washout

2011-07-08T13:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday on day 6 I was at work when I should have been home spinning. Every hour that went by my anxiety grew, and as the 11p hour came up, I just threw in the towel. But if I had been able to do the work I set out to do, you would have seen this:

Freckle Face Fibers BFL in Purple Poppies. This morning I plied it, washed it, whacked it and hung it out to dry. Not to shabby for a day of work.

It came out of it's bath looking pretty good. I love the way it fulled after it's bath. What I'm looking forward to is the 'sproing' after it dries.

Stage 7 which is today, will see me working up some of Dripping Fiber Studios polwarth in Garden Gloves:

I've never worked with polwarth before, but I've heard good things and I hope I can do right by it.

It's even prettier when drafted and ready for the splits:

So, I'm still in the race, unlike poor Bradley Wiggins.

Oh, and there's still spinning on my trindle which I swear is going to take as long as the Tour de France to finish! Oy! The silver lining in all of this - I'm on my fifth braid and we're only one week into the race. Yay!

If I can spin 5 braids in a week, I should be able to spin five more before the race ends, right?

Tour - Day 5 - Help!

2011-07-06T23:01:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to figure out which hurts more, my knee or my shoulder. Oy! Don't the cyclists in the Tour de France ever take a day of rest? There were a lot of crashes today on the Tour, and today I feel like one of the cyclists who crashed.

I finished spinning two mostly even bobbins of BFL:

I hope to make this into a two ply yarn tomorrow while I pray it keeps the colors after plying. No matter how good singles look, after plying I pray it won't look like mud.

Today at work I did some trindling:

Not bad for an hour at lunchtime, eh? While spinning, one of the arms went flying across the room. What the heck? Then the trindle went flying, not once, not twice, but three times. I think the trindle was trying to escape! I'd better step up my game before the trindle grows legs and leaves me for good!

So, at the end of the day I have this to show for my efforts:

And tomorrow I'll hopefully have yarn! Plying is spinning, right?

There are two braids left in my 5 braid commitment and honestly I need to pace myself. Clearly it's going to take the whole race for me to finish trindling, but the wheel spinning is going pretty quick.

Tour de Fleece - Day 4

2011-07-06T00:19:00.000-04:00

Today I feel like I fell off a bike at 20 miles per hour! First the humidity makes touching akin to sticking my hand in the oven when it's on broil. Yikes! Second, there are fewer things on my body that don't hurt (like my hair, it only looks painful to others) than things that do hurt. Oy!

Today's entry was spool #2 of Freckle Face Fibers BFL in Purple Poppies. I thought I'd have 3 spools for a three ply yarn, but I'm going to fall short of the mark so this will probably end up being 2 ply:

Just ignore that skein in the background, it's just there to prop up my skeins. Spool #1 was spun yesterday, and today the bobbin on the left was spun. I got home from work tonight after 8p and the race was on to get spun and posted.

To add to the drama, spool #1 was put up - and you know what that means. It was lost. I spent half an hour looking for it. I have got to stop putting stuff in places where I know I won't find them later. Jeez!

So, the end result is that I spun for Team Lendrum today and got nothing done for Team Trindle. I hope the don't kick me off the team.

Tour Up - Day 3

2011-07-05T00:33:00.000-04:00

I could sit here and tell you that I plan to spin up a new braid every day until the end of the tour, but that would be a lie. I'm tore up! Shoulder, hip, back and hand pain, the kind you can't rub out or shake off. Yikes! Is it age or hours spent sitting on a hard stool?

The only reason I don't quit the race is because of my dear, sweet friends. If I'd quit, they'd have to listen to me complain. I'd go on and on about how much I could have gotten done if I'd stayed in the race.

So, for day three, here's where I am with the FatCatKnits merino and bamboo:

And here's where I am with my Freckle Face Fibers BFL in Purple Poppies (where's the purple?):

Before I could even get started spinning today, I had to skein up this mystery fiber (lost the tag):

It's not part of the tour and I'd say it's worsted weight, great for a hat.

I also ran out of bobbins (more like I can't find them) so I had to skein up yesterday's tour entry:

Sock Pixie's wool and soy in Willow, 2 ounces. I was thinking this would be a great give away, but it's got a couple of knots in it so I'll keep it. Probably make myself some darn pretty mittens with it. I held back the other 2 ounces for another shot at lace weight.

Next year I'm joining one team. And I'm buying stock in Aleve just for that occasion.

Day 2 - Ouch!

2011-07-03T23:17:00.001-04:00

What in the world made me think I could spin lace weight? Who knew that it would take twice the amount of time to spin which meant I spent twice as much time on that hard wooden stool?! Mercy, let me tell you about the pain! But - it was worth it.

Today's entry is Sock Pixie's wool and soy in Willow. So far I was able to spin only one small spool and one half spool of the laciest lace weight I'm capable of spinning:

It took all of my strength to draft this fiber, I was pulling and tugging, but once again, Sock Pixie does not disappoint. After drafting, the fiber was so soft, silky and the colors so pretty it had to be lace weight. I've never been able to spin lace, but I made a few wheel adjustments so now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed.

Yesterday's entry, Persimmon, turned into a nice skein of yarn too. Here it is, unwashed and unmeasured, but those details will come later:

It's more pink than I thought, but it's still very pretty.

And today I made another attempt at spinning with the trindle. Lord give me strength, it takes forever, and I hardly feel like I'm getting anywhere. A Ravelry member told me it looks like Easter eggs. She's right:

I am hoping for the best with this yarn. Spinning with the trindle is like real work. Once started, you are committed. It's not like I could change my mind or something because spinning the rest of the fiber on a wheel wouldn't be anywhere near the same weight. Oy! (Besides, wouldn't that be cheating?)

Now I'm off to finish spinning my second spool of lace weight, and then I can get to the trindle. And if the sun isn't up by then, maybe I'll get to prepare tomorrow's entry. Save the Queen, my shoulders hurt!

Tour de Fleece - Day One

2011-07-02T19:35:00.000-04:00

I had every intention today of sleeping until noon. As exhausted as I've been lately, noon is early. Instead I was awake at 7:30 a.m. and remembered I hadn't set up my wheel for spinning during the race. It took all of 5 minutes and I had time to make myself some coffee before the race started.

It would be easy to tell you who won the first stage, but today's race will be broadcast all day long and I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone.

I watched the race while I spun my fiber, and four hours later I had this BFL from Greenwood Fiberworks in persimmon, all spun up:

It'll sit for a day before it becomes yarn, but it looks pretty good on my overstuffed spool. I like to Navajo ply my yarn because I can never get 3 bobbins full without having fiber left over and it's such a waste.

After grocery shopping and light housework (which should have been heavy duty housework), I took to my trindle. Not sure what to spin, I decided it had better be a short fiber (merino) because the long fiber would take forever.

So I took some merino and bamboo in seaside cottage from Fat Cat Knits:

It turns out to be two skeins of different colors, but complimentary. Four hours later, all I had was this:

Not my best work by a long shot, but I'm going to pray over it and maybe it'll get better as time goes by. I have got to do something about my poor trindle arms, one of which is defective and makes the trindle wobbly. I'm going to visit the Trindleman at Etsy and see what he has to offer.

So that's it for day one, and I'm sure I'm as tired as the cyclists. Tomorrow is another day and another chance to do some good spinning. I think I found the sweet spot on my Lendrum. If I position my feet just right, it stops making noises.

I'm off to get some rest. I need it!

Pre-Tour Excitement

2011-07-01T23:18:00.000-04:00

In the past I spun this:

Who knows what this year will bring? I'm hoping for the best.

Tool of the Trade

2011-06-29T07:00:00.001-04:00

A trindle is a drop spindle and the only one I own will be used for the Tour de Fleece.

I've had to glue the beads on a few times when I sent the trindle flying across the room, purely by accident. It still works, but it might be time to visit the Trindleman on Etsy to get some new beads.

Now I can honestly say that I'm a little closer to being ready, and I'm really excited too!

Is It Possible?

2011-06-27T23:21:00.000-04:00

Getting home late is a direct impediment to my goal of having fiber prepared before the Tour de Fleece. Today I had to go buy a pair of shoes for work. I hate shoe shopping! Things would go so much better for me if they just let me wear sneakers all day long.

When I was growing up I wore clogs. Remember those? Well, when I was growing up they cost $8.99, and today I went to the store and saw a pair of leather clogs that were $130! I must be getting old to have seen the price go from inexpensive to ridiculous.

Now, about the tour ...

It was my intention to prepare some fiber, but all I got to do was separate some fiber:

This is number one on the list, Hand Painted Roving, 4 ounces of BFL in persimmon from Greenwood Fiberworks on Etsy. I love to spin BFL because it's so squishy soft when it's all done up. Half of this will be spun on my trindle (which I still haven't found it - yikes!) and the other half on my Lendrum. I'm nerve wracked but excited.

Tomorrow I'll finish prepping, gather my tools and fiber together in one spot and then seriously consider how over my head I have gone.

Getting Closer

2011-06-26T19:23:00.000-04:00

Today I watched the Tour de France preview show and did a little practice spinning with some fiber that's been on the Prelude for months. It's merino and silk:

I think I must have forgotten a few of my spinning rules, like if the yarn breaks while pulling it through the orifice, then it's not spun tight enough. Clearly I'm going to have to Navajo ply to hold this yarn together.

The Tour's preview show featured all of the top contenders: Andy Schleck (I hope Frank Schleck is there to help him out this year!), Alberto Contador, Marc Cavendish, and some other men who will be racing, but I can't spell their names. Sadly no Lance Armstrong although he had a good run and deserves to rest on his laurels. I hope he comes back to racing one day as a commentator.

When I'm not spinning or doing housework, I'm working on a pair of socks for a co-worker and friend, Yvette. She didn't ask for the socks, I just realized that the yarn looks better in a smaller size than I wear and she's got cute little feet.

And to cut down on the eye-soreness of the colors, I decided to do away with continuing the pattern down the foot. I'm using Liberty Fiber fingering weight merino (75% merino 25% nylon) called forest walk. The reason I'm not in love with it is because it's superwash and it feels a little rough in my hands, but it makes for great socks. Superwash is great for friends who don't like to hand wash their knitted goods. The pattern is Dragonfly, and you can find it on Ravelry.

I must make time to prep some fiber (I haven't had time!), and to find my trindle. I can't be on Team Trindle and not have a trindle. Yikes!

Progress

2011-06-25T14:40:00.000-04:00

Making 10 pairs of socks in a year is a lot for sock knitting semi-newbies. The ladies are still plugging away, the challenge is still on and socks are still being made. Today Carol finished her Little Acorn socks:

I hope these socks look green on your computer because the lighting in our knitting room matched with my camera's inability to change with it's environment, these socks don't look like the lovely green that they are.

Carol modified the single row of acorns with a triple row. She's got skills!

The third sock is going to be Hydrangea by Janel Laidman from the Eclectic Sole book. I love that book!

Carmen is in using the Nutkin pattern to design a hat. She's halfway done with the hat and working out the decreases at the top which we pressed her to write down so we don't have to figure it out for ourselves. She's a designer in the making! Go Carmen!

And not to pass up an opportunity to squeeze in something about the Tour de Fleece, here are the contenders which the ladies in knitting class chose for me:

Of course not all five braids will be spun - there's not enough time - but they are headed for the wheel:

1. Hand Painted Roving BFL in Persimmon
2. Sock Pixie wool & soy in Willow
3. Fat Cat Knits merino & soy in Seaside Cottage
4. Dripping Fiber Studios polwarth in Garden Gloves
5. Freckle Face Fibers BFL in Purple Poppies

Doing five braids (4 ounces each) in two weeks would mean I'd have to spin every day for 16 hours a day, so naturally it won't all get spun, but I'm going to try.

It's going to be challenging, but I'll score at least that many skeins of yarn which would be a beautiful thing. I'm going to prepare one or two braids in advance so I can concentrate on spinning when the race begins.

Anyone else joining the challenge? If so, good luck to you! I'd love to hear your goals and see what you're spinning.

Now all I have to do is pray for skeins with no knots!

Go! Go! Go!

2011-06-22T07:00:00.004-04:00

See the wheel on the right side of my page? You know what that means? The Tour de France is back in town and starts on July 2nd. So will the Tour de Fleece! Yay!

If you're a member of Ravelry then you know what I'm talking about. I signed up for two teams this year, Team Lendrum (wheel) and Team Trindle (drop spindle). I usually only join one team, but I can't spin on my wheel at work, so I'll be trindling by day and spinning by night. With that intention, maybe I'll be able to spin five braids. I have my fingers crossed!

I've been warming up with some fiber that's on the wheel already. That fiber won't be part of the race, but it just might be some that I give away.

I like to watch the race while I spin (the cyclists have perfect form!) and even though Lance Armstrong isn't racing this year, I do have someone to follow so the race will make sense to me - Andy Schleck. Woo hoo! I hope he wins!

Tonight I was staring into the fiber cabinet and thinking about which fibers to spin, but my camera is missing in action. Tomorrow I'll find it and post pictures of my options.

I'm so excited!

The Best Laid Plans

2011-06-13T21:40:00.000-04:00

WWKIP was supposed to happen on Saturday. It rained hard the night before, but I was sure the sun would come out, and we were prepared to dry everything off for a day of knitting in the sunshine. Well, the signs were posted:

And the drizzle started, but we trooped on. Yvonne and Winnie set up their table preparing for the crowd:

And in further anticipation of the sun, we took a group picture of the first arrivals:

Yvonne, Winnie, Carmen and Joanne

Two hours later, every bench in the park looked like this:

And it was raining like crazy! Drats! What a let down! But ...

We took our picnic fare to our usual spot, the library, and we had an indoor picnic. So all was not lost. Yay! There's always next year.

Also, started on June 6 and finished June 12 was the Leafprints Shawlette by Anne Hanson:

The instructions were perfect, easy to understand, I didn't have to flub or guess or rip back which was a miracle. It would have been more perfect if the leaves around the center seam were exact, call it the perfectionist in me, but they seem to go every which way.

Still, it's a darn good shawlette, perfect for a neck warmer in fall or for summer wear in the freezing cold office I work in.

The points at the top were easy to block (thank goodness for blocking wires). Made with Madelinetosh in grove and US size 3 circular needles. Miraculously, I got gauge! Yay!

Now I'm looking through patterns to figure out what to make next.

Tour de Fleece is coming up in a few weeks and I still have to put my wheel together. Oy! I'll get to it. I seem to work better under pressure anyway.

Madeline

2011-06-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

I love how soft Madelinetosh Sock feels in my hands. I am in love with green lately (I bounce between green, red and wisteria). and on a recent trip to Knitty City I picked up this skein of Madelinetosh in grove. Lovely color:

It was my first time at the store and it was men's knit night. There were about 5 men sitting at a table at the front of the store. At the back of the store was about the same number of women sitting at the table knitting and chatting. I guess men's knit night means the men and women don't sit together.

When I bought the yarn, I had no idea what I was going to make, and then while surfing the net and NOT buying yarn, I came across Noble Knits having a pattern sale. Score! And wouldn't you know it, they had the perfect pattern for this perfect color, the Leafprints Shawlette. It should be green, don't you think?

Yesterday I made my yarn pancake, today I cast on and got this far:

There will be no subway knitting on this shawl. I already ripped it back once and it's not going to happen again.

This Saturday coming up is WWKIP (World Wide Knit in Public) day. The shawl won't be there, but I will. While there I think I'll start working on Joyce's socks - the ones with the jolly roger on them. Black socks with pink skulls, made by request. How goth, huh?

Oh, and the Tour de Fleece is coming up. Don't say I didn't give you fair warning that this is going to become a spinning and Andy Schleck blog. Unless, of course, Andy doesn't do well. Then I'll have to find myself another spinning hero. You've been warned.

OK, off I go.

Yeah, I Did It

2011-05-30T07:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I spent the day cutting grass, raking up the cut grass, getting a sunburn on my face and arms while Miss Kitty spent the day up to no good.

Here's Miss Kitty:

Yes, she looks innocent enough, but she has taken destroying yarn to an art form. What you don't know is that Miss Kitty steals more than yarn. She steals mail, socks and little bits and pieces of toys she finds around the house that don't belong to her. She takes them to her secret place which is moved periodically, depending on how often I check the spot (under the sofa).

Don't be fooled by this sleeping cat:

She's not asleep, just waiting for me to blink. She can snap to, steal or chew through my yarn, and still make it look like she's too sleepy to do anything:

Her latest crime, she stole a skein of yarn, hid it, and I can't find it, even though I've checked all of her hiding places. Darn stupid cat. I followed her around the house for hours, but she never led me to it.

"I didn't take it, Mom. I swear!" OK, with that face, maybe I didn't buy two skeins of yarn. Maybe I was going to use ONE color to make a sock with TWO colors. I might be old, but I'm not that old. "OK, I took it. Now what?"

Oh, so you want to go that way with it, eh? How about I trade you in for one of these:

I thought so. Now go get my skein of yarn!!

(She's still holding out on me, stupid cat!)

Oh Yeah, Socks

2011-05-26T22:15:00.000-04:00

There's always something going on around here. If I'm not house cleaning, then I'm knitting socks. And if I'm not knitting socks, then I'm out with the family - or out with the girls. Time flies and before you know it, your computer is broken and you've forgotten what you did and when. It's all a blur. It's a good thing I remember (sometimes) to bring my camera with me.

Here's a pair of socks I made from Cookie A's book, Sock Innovation:

Lovely socks and a lovely pattern made with Blue Moon's Socks that Rock in Korrpi. Looks like eggplant to me. My socks are fraternal twins because I stupidly moved my stitch marker, but what the hay. They fit, I love them and I'm convinced that Cookie A doesn't hate me. LOL

These are BlackRose socks from KnittySpin. Love them! Love the yarn I used too, Madelinetosh with cashmere. Woo hoo! I love cashmere. Winter socks for sure, but lovely all the same.

Little Acorn socks with a cute little mock cable down the side. Made with Cascade Heritage in green - although they don't look green on my screen. Lovely summer weight yarn and how cute is that folded cuff? I made these socks while I was half asleep, that's how easy they were to make.

Did I mention that I had a night out with the girls (and guys)? I've been at my job for 24 years (25 in November!) and a bunch of folks who used to work at the job and folks that work there now decided to have a little gathering so we could walk down memory lane. What a blast! This was the first ever reunion, and I hope there will be many more.

The Tour de Fleece is coming up - in less than a month - and this blog will (I hope) be full of newly spun skeins. I'll be spinning with my new Trindle (if I can find it - oy!), a drop spindle and a Lendrum. Wish me luck - maybe this year I'll win something. Woo hoo! I'll be watching the Tour de France race too, just so I can cheer Andy Schleck on. Go Andy!

Ah, the newness!

2011-05-23T22:23:00.000-04:00

Well, we finally arrived! Or should I say my son finally arrived. He graduated high school and he's college bound. Yay! and whew! Congratulations go to my son Jason who worked really, really hard his senior year and graduated with some pretty good scores on his finals and now a new chapter begins.

My old computer died - mostly. I took it to the Geek Squad and the kindly gentleman behind the counter told me that a new computer would cost less to buy than it would cost to fix my old one. I was kind of sad to see it go, it was so small and compact and easy to carry around. Gone. Just know this, a net book is for really, really little things and will not hold 2000 songs. Get a flash drive.

There's a baby on the way. My niece is having a baby boy in a few months, so I figured I'd better start knitting up a few of the little things he'll need, starting with booties:

Made with Koigu KPPMG left over from my latest pair of Hydrangea (Eclectic Sole by Janel Laidman).

Made with Socks that Rock left over from my Kei Mei socks (Sock Innovation by Cookie A)

Made with Creatively Dyed yarn left over from ... hmm ...can't remember.

Mittens are useful too, but you might not want thumbs since the baby's thumbs will never be in them. This is some left over yarn from School Products that I made many things with and it wouldn't go away. It's finally gone. Karabella Yarn, if I'm not mistaken.

Now that I have a new computer that my son is not allowed to touch EVER, I just might be able to stay in business and keep my blog updated.

Coming up is the assembly of my new spinning wheel - the Elizabeth II which I've been drooling over since I first saw pictures of it. Thank you WEBS!

And I must tell you of the disaster of trying to spin with a takhli. Oh my word! I was trying to get some practice in before I headed out to SOAR so I wouldn't be the dumbest one in the class. I'd like to apologize to my classmates in advance, because in spite of my best efforts, I am destined to be the class idiot. Oy!

Happy knitting to you all. I'll be back.

Busted!

2011-05-18T22:34:00.000-04:00

My computer is totally out of commission. I can't post pictures or even post an entry. The problem has been ongoing and started small, but I didn't take the hint until everything was out of control.

So, until the issues are resolved (or I get a new computer) I won't be able to brag about all the magnificently clever knitting I've done these past weeks.

Hopefully I'll be back sooner than later. So you don't miss me too much, come knit with me in Pelham Bay Park (South) on June 11th for World Wide Knit in Public Day. Bring your needles, crochet hook, drop spindle or wheel and show off your own clever masterpieces. I'm sure your crafty neighbors would love to see your work!

Ciao for now.

Knitting Never Stops

2011-04-09T13:34:00.000-04:00

I knew it was going to happen. The people in my office have been coughing, sneezing and missing work for weeks now, and it finally caught up with me. And here I thought I was immune. Not a chance!

So even though I've a headache, sore throat and joints, headache and various other complaints, I'm still knitting. My needles almost never get a break, poor things.

Kai Mei from Cookie A's Sock Innovation are done. Here they are in Blue Moon Fiber Arts lightweight in Korppi (which looks like eggplant). The yarn bled all over my hand while knitting, but the socks turned out nice enough.

The ladies in the knitting circle asked 'who would want socks with holes in them?', but I guarantee, the lace is only on the side and the top of the foot. Honest.

So now I'm up to the next sock in the 2011 sock challenge: Little Acorn Socks by Joanna Ryan. The pattern is no longer available online.

I started last Saturday, and I'm up to here:

This sock is crazy easy, but there is ONE little thing: when turning the heel, I would suggest on row 2 that you slip one, purl 4 (not 3) and adjust the number on all subsequent rows. These socks are being made with Cascade Heritage yarn which is on the thin side, but they are a perfect weight for summer.

My next pair of socks will be Blackrose which can be found on Knitty's website. After they're made we'll see if they're eligible for the sock challenge. I just happen to really like them.

Lastly, I watched a DVD of Margaret Stove spinning lace and I was gobsmacked! I didn't know where to look first and it was like watching magic happen right before my eyes! Total awe. You should see how far she makes ONE lock of sheep fiber go. Wow! I'm going to try it on my new wheel as soon as I put it together.

What? Didn't I mention that I got a new spinning wheel?

The Sock Challenge

2011-03-28T23:00:00.000-04:00

At he time of this writing, only 3 people have finished the first sock of the sock challenge. Tracey finished first and she whipped through those socks like her needles were on fire! And a great looking pair of socks they are. Yay! And congratulations T.

Then Joanne finished her socks which are being modeled by her daughter, Shakira. With the hand painted yarn most socks are fraternal rather than identical twins, but the socks are bright and lovely, just in time for Spring. Congratulations Joanne.

Also finished are Carol's socks which are as lovely and also fraternal twins:

The socks are warm and soft and lovely and being modeled by Carol herself. Congratulations Carol, you did a great job on those socks!

The rest of the ladies are still on their first sock, but the pattern for the second sock is ready to go. The ladies are working on the Little Acorn Socks by Joanna Ryan. Unfortunately this pattern is in the archives and no longer being offered online, but it's a quick knit so there should be something to show you soon.

As for me, I finished one Kai Mei sock by Cookie A:

Don't look at it too closely because I might have used some creative license to make this sock (translated means I screwed up), but the second sock remarkably, has the same error in the same place. I'm remarkable that way.

Cookie A is all about the math and you know how I am with math!! It's amazing I got the sock done at all! I can only count on fingers, and I screw up as soon as I get into the double digits, starting with the number 10.

Maybe you didn't know this, but the World Wide Knit in Public Day (WWKIPD) is June 11, 2011. The knitting circle ladies and I have applied for a permit to have the event at Pelham Bay Park (South) in the Bronx, easily accessible by train, bus and car. Details will follow as we get closer to the date.

I'll be back with pictures of my finished Kai Mei socks and pictures of the new sock as soon as possible.

One Thing At A Time

2011-03-01T22:44:00.000-05:00

The first time I made Nutkin socks, they were a Christmas present for my sister. I coveted them and swore I'd make a second pair for myself. I tried. The second pair of Nutkin socks went to my son, Jason. I don't mind much that he has Madelinetosh Sock on his feet instead of mine or that he's enjoying wearing the socks (clean or dirty - ew!). He loves them, and that's what matters.

I also made him a pair of socks with some Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn (mediumweight) with a pattern I made up. He doesn't mind pink, or flowers, or mismatched socks - as long as they're handmade.

To make it up to myself that in two months I made two pairs of socks and they both went to my darling son, I decided to make myself a pair of socks - for real this time. Wanida socks from Cookie A's Sock Innovation:

Yeah, about that. I'm not having any problems understanding the pattern:

It's not Cookie's issue, it's mine. Totally mine. The pattern is written in English, a language I understand and use daily. It's me. I can read, I just don't always do it because I know everything all the time. Yeh, right. That's why there's these:

Thanks Joanne! The Madeleines are lovely with coffee.

Moving right along. I made and scored some lovely new items just in case my to do list gets less than 200 items on it. New books:

Think Outside the Socks has some patterns in it that have me drooling!

One of my co-workers went on a ski trip at Lake Placid and right there on the premises they had a yarn shop. Imagine that! She thought of me and bought me this:

Woo hoo! Thank your Boriana! It's real yarn and needles and they even included a free pattern with the yarn. If I ever go skiing, I'm going to Liberty's Yarn Shop. She's also on Etsy.

Joyce, my at work knitting buddy felt the urge to purge and I inherited a couple of goodies from her:

It's a pile of Trendsette yarn and a pair of fancy pants scissors (which I honestly needed!). I can never find scissors and these are small enough to carry around in my knitting bag. Woo hoo! Thanks Joyce. While I've never worked with ladder and ribbon yarn before I can't wait to get started.

And I also scored some Cascade Heritage sock yarn from Soujourn Knitter's personal stash. Yay! I have just the pattern for it:

That's Miss Kitty trying to model her 'foot' so she can get a sock out of the deal. Hahaha! Not likely!

Dye Petrified!

2011-02-28T21:26:00.000-05:00

As much as I love yarn, and I really love good yarn, I've often wondered if I would perhaps love it more if I dyed some myself. I've wanted to, I've even knit swatches meant for the dye pot, and then I chickened out. My biggest fear is that my knitted piece would melt, felt, disintegrate, or otherwise be ruined. I was also afraid that I would gas myself, set the house on fire or permanently dye my hands.

With all that fear burning bright inside my head, I took the plunge anyway. I silently prayed that my son wouldn't wake up and find me high on fumes. So, I took my little swatches, one white Lion Brand merino, the other Lion Brand sock yarn (donated generously by Joanne from knitting class). What could go wrong? I soaked the swatches for about 30 minutes:

I wanted to see what the swatches would look like if I dyed them blue:

And such a pretty blue too! So I dunked the swatches and I learned that white yarn/fiber will be whatever color you dye it:

But the hand painted yarn will be whatever it will be:

I don't know what color this swatch is, but now I know not to mess with Lion Brand's sock yarn! I should have soaked the swatch in bleach first.
Now I'm less afraid to dye anything because the hardest part of dyeing is getting the color you want. I'm at the take what you get stage.

Moving right along to the sock challenge - well, let's just say that almost everyone is still on their first Nutkin sock. Seems the heel/toe is a hurdle. Joanne is on sock #2, but Tracy managed to finish both socks. Yay!

I hijacked her picture from Ravelry where I saw she has some pretty clever creations on her page. Wow T! Lovely socks!

My Nutkin socks are done and they spend plenty of time warming my son's feet. I'm jealous that I don't have a pair, but I'm working on Cookie A's Wanida socks (couldn't get a link) for me. I've ripped it back several times and I have one thing to say, "Cookie A - call me." I'm stuck on the math part!! Oy!

I finally found some ribbon in the color I want to finish baby Remy's sweater:

I'm hoping the wrap style means the sweater will still fit her! Yikes! I have to pull out the sewing machine to sew on the ribbons, but it won't be tonight. I got home too late and I need full concentration to sew straight lines. I can't sew for beans.

Well, that's it. Anyone with insight into the Wanida socks, drop me a line. I'm struggling!

Where Ya Been?

2011-02-12T22:14:00.000-05:00

Dear I've missed you, and I know if you weren't inanimate, you'd say you missed me too. A couple of my readers have asked where I've been lately, how come no new posts, but I don't think they realize that all I've been doing is snow management and housekeeping.

I went to the Vogue Knitting Live event at the Hilton Hotel in New York.

Where I heard the Stephanie Pearl McPhee lecture about Your Brain on Knitting. It was technical and humorous, and I showed up with no camera. Lord, spare me my forgetfulness! I also took a class with Meg Swanson and Amy Detjen, and what they shared about fair isle knitting I couldn't have learned if I'd read a thousand books. It was inspiring.

And then the second snow storm came and was it a doozie! I couldn't get out of my front gate! I had to have my son climb the fence and shovel the other side so I could get out.

That was the pits! And there was no way to get to the grocery store since my car was a little buried. The picture was taken from the sidewalk side. You don't want to know what the street side looked like after the plows went through.

A good samaratin helped me dig my car out. A woman good samaritin. All the men drove past me while I was struggling to pile the snow into a bank that was taller than my own five feet. One would think I'd have spent my time being stranded at home knitting, but I didn't. I had some serious housekeeping to do.

The ladies in the knitting circle got farther along than I did. Cynthia finished her Multnomah:

It is lovely! And if you can't beat that with a stick, she got quite far with her Nutkin sock:

So did Winnie:

And so did Carol:

And while Renee didn't get far, she made some serious progress (considering she ripped the sock back and started again:

And last, but certainly not least, Mary Jo made her first sock:

It doesn't fit exactly, but she made it! Mary Jo you done good and you should be proud of yourself. One day you're going to make a great pair of socks.

And so ends the day. I'll have something to show for myself as soon as I get my knitting mojo back. It won't be long now because I can feel the weather changing and I smell Spring in the air. If the snow in my front grass ever melts I might see the first signs of Spring. Oh, I hope so!

Three Socks?

2011-01-06T23:01:00.000-05:00

OK, so I made one Nutkin with US #1 needles and Madelinetosh Sock in the ink colorway. The sock is lovely and the yarn is dreamy. I love the color and the feel and now I want ALL of my socks made with it. I got a gift certificate for WEBS and I'm thinking I could buy lots of skeins of the stuff, I won't, but I could. But I digress.

As I was saying, I made sock #1 and when it was finished I found out that I was one of the stepsisters in the Cinderella story. The sock was tight, way too tight. So tight, in fact that I couldn't even get it past my heel ... so I went straight to denial. I pulled and tugged knowing full well that if something didn't break, then the circulation in my foot was going to be cut off. Still, I pulled and tugged that sock over my heel and up my cankle. Ah, success ... and then I noticed that the pattern was stretched so far that surely something would tear.

It took 10 minutes to get the sock off. Meanwhile, while I struggled to pull from the toe and the cuff and the toe and the cuff and the toe and the cuff, etc. I thought the sock wasn't going to come off and I went into panic mode. Do I wake my son up to help me, do I search for some vaseline or cooking oil to grease the foot? One hot flash and an anxiety attack later, the sock was free and blood started to flow to my leg again. Whew!

OK, I had two choices. Either I give the socks away to someone who could wear them comfortably (unlikely) or I can use a bigger needle to make the second sock and rip back the first sock (most likely). I had to mull it over - for about 5 seconds.

Option #2 won.

Here's where I am so far:

Sock #1 is on the blocker (obviously). Sock #2 is loose but it fits, and the difference in needle sizes is huge! And yes, that blue piece of plastic is a bread tie from the last loaf of bread. It's the best bobbin ever.

Tracy M said she had no problem with the folded cuff and she was most of the way down the leg when she showed me the picture. Congrats T! (I hijacked her pic from flickr):

So, how's your sock coming?

Oh, and Maria from knitting class gave birth to the newest knitting circle member: Adrian Nicholas. He was 8lbs 2ozs of healthy baby boy born on December 11. Congratulations to Maria and Junior!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T11:49:00.000-05:00

This year I welcomed the new year without resolutions. Why? Because there are very few things I can commit to for 365 days other than showering and brushing my teeth.

The knitting circle ladies and I have resolved to make socks this year, 10 pairs to be exact. Joining us is Tracey M. who lives far away from the knitting ladies, but we work together so she'll get all the assistance she needs. Unlike some of us, this is Tracey's first pair of socks.

The first sock pattern is Nutkin which can be found here. I used big yarn and needles to make the socks for the purpose of demonstrating the techniques used. For my real socks, I used Madelinetosh sock in 'ink' which was generousely donated by Sojourn Knitter. Thank you!

Before we get started you should check your gauge. If you get 8.5 stitches to the inch (or 17 stitches for 2 inches), then you're good. Of course, gauge isn't a guarantee, but if you get less stitches per inch, your sock will feel like a girdle on your feet, more and you'll be able to wear them over your shoes. You decide.

I cast on the required number of stitches and joined them in the round. The pattern asks that you use 4 needles, but I prefer 3 so I placed a stitch marker after the first stitch as you should always do so you'll know where the beginning of your sock is:

If you are using 4 needles each needle will have the same amount of stitches on it, but because I'm using 3 needles, I used another stitch marker in a different color so the stitches on needle #2 is divided in half which will represent needle #2 & #3.

I knit 5 rows with white, purled one row with pink, and 6 rows with white:

With the right side facing me, I folded the material at the the purl row:

Now when you look at the cast on edge, you will see the familiar "V" of your stitches which are commonly referred to as legs. Insert your right needle into the first stitch on the left needle and then pick up the outer or upper most leg of the corresponding stitch from the cast on row and knit them together:

When you are done, the front of your work will look like this:

And the back of your work will look like this:

Then knit one row.

Now you can follow the very easy to remember pattern as directed.

Any questions?

Snow Day!

2010-12-27T22:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays to all! I hope everyone had a wonderful day with family, friends, food.

It snowed here last night. A lot. I did a little shoveling last night, but it was useless. The snow was coming down so fast that there was no way to make any headway so I brought myself inside and prayed that the wind would blow it all away.

As it turns out, the wind blew the snow right up to my front door. After I shoveled my way to the front gate, the snow beyond it was almost 2 feet high. Not good. The gate swings out, you see, and I was on the wrong side of it. Oh no!

My son had to climb the fence to get on the other side to shovel a hole so I could open the gate. (You know I wasn't going to climb a fence! Couldn't you just see that!). Anyway, I had hope when I saw that the snow plows had come along and attempted to plow my street.

Unfortunately, the plow did what it always does and as you can see from the picture, I won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Thanks for that snow plow driver.

So after shoveling, I made myself a hot cup of coffee, contemplated going to the local grocery for some snacks and thought better of it. Instead, I came inside to do some last minute (post) Christmas knitting. This is the Palindrome hat and scarf set.

I used 3 skeins of Patons SWS in natural violet, US #7 needles for the hat and US #8 needles for the cowl - which was supposed to be a scarf but I ran out of yarn. Apparently I had only 2 1/2 skeins of yarn. Either way, it's a nice warm set and that was the last of the Patons SWS. Stash down 3 skeins. Yay!

The Soundview Stitchers have agreed to my sock challenge of 2011. It took me almost 4 years to realize my dream of sitting with a group where everyone was knitting socks, and now my dream is finally coming true. They don't have to knit 10 pairs, there are no prizes and the only thing I want them to get out of it is how to tackle any sock pattern.

I've invited any of my readers to join us, and how you can do that is to knit the sock patterns I choose, and when you are done, send me a picture of the socks and I'll post them here on my blog. The knitting circle won't meet until January 8th, but they have the pattern already and they promised NOT to start until after January 1.

The first pattern is Nutkin. It's a fairly easy pattern to memorize, and the only 'challenge' is the folded cuff.

I'll be knitting the socks as well and will provide what help I can along the way on my blog. So join us.

Good Deal!

2010-11-06T22:34:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I went to the Stitches East Convention which was held at the Connecticut Convention Center and Hartford Marriott Downtown in Hartford, CT. The place is huge, like a Costco store with stalls instead of shelves. Huge!

This is what I bought:

It wasn't much, but it made me happy to get my hands on some tatting materials. I saw a woman tatting on the train and I thought how pretty her little 'circles' were and I wanted to try it. It's fairly easy with the needle, but I'm having a little problem learning to use the shuttle, but I'll get it. This is what I learned in just one day:

How cute is that?! I don't know what I can do with it, but for now I'm thinking that I won't be giving up my knitting needles any time soon. I did see some cute little butterflies made with tatting and I think that's what caught my eye.

And look what came in the mail today:

New fiber from Smoking Hot Needles, spun by her, sold in her shop, and in my greedy little hands. I wish you could see how pretty they are, my camera doesn't do them justice. I love them! Thanks Monika!

Now that I'm happy, I can go back to having the flu - which involves lots of fluids, lots of cough drops, tissues and Vicks Vapo-Rub. So in addition to sounding bad and looking bad, I smell like the medicine cabinet. Oy!

Thank goodness the clocks go back an hour tonight. Hopefully the extra hour of sleep will aid in healing.

Critter Knitting

2010-10-27T20:39:00.000-04:00

When someone from my job placed a classified wanting to hire a knitter, several folks from work either called me or forwarded the ad to me. The ad was placed in September and said the job needed to be done by December 1 - two whole months away. That's plenty of time!

But as soon as I saw the ad I had two problems:

If I say 'no', then I'd be turning down a challenge and a paying gig and who would do that?! Everyone that knows me knows I can't say no to a challenge, and I've been knitting since forever and no job is too big or small, etc. and blah blah blah

(OK, like I said before, it's not that I'm competitive - it's just that the lady with the wheelchair competing in Ravelry's Tour de Fleece 2009 set a really high standard which I still feel compelled to live up to). Besides, everyone believes me so capable, and

What if I say 'yes' and then can't finish, or screw it up, or the hirer (my new boss) hates it and the hiree (that would be me) gets fired without pay and he ends up with no garment and I end up with a bad reputation as a knitter? Oy!

The whole thing had me stressed out until I saw the pattern.

Morehouse Merino's Gecko Scarf. made with Morehouse Merino in orange and taupe, and US #7 needles. Total time to make, 10 days out of five weeks. All garter, all the time. The only challenge, staying awake while I knit.

OK, you can stop laughing now.

Baby Surprise Jacket

2010-10-26T22:01:00.000-04:00

It took me a couple of weeks, but I finally knit my first Elizabeth Zimmerman garment, the Baby Surprise Jacket.

Now I understand why it's knit in more than one color, so you can see the direction of the knitting change. I used Rowan Felted Tweed, 2 balls in a blue/gray tweed and US#7 needles. It's longer in the body than I thought it would be and it's going to look like the baby is wearing a dress, but I hope not.

There was no button drama this time, I already had 5 buttons. Yay! And the best part, the sleeves won't be too long (for a change). EZ is a genius and now I understand why.

I got a request from Sojourn Knitter who wanted to see my new Golding Spindle, so here it is:

And so to full out my list of purchases, here are the spools I bought at Rhinebeck:

Just a few more days until Stitches East and I'm hoping to get there, too.

Now before I forget to mention this, the Soundview Stitchers are taking on a new challenge. They will start in January and make 10 pairs of socks in 2011. The sock patterns will be of my choosing and the goal is to make all 10 pairs before year end. The socks will be lacy, toe up, cuff down, cabled, multi-colored and anything else I can find.

My readers are invited to join us for the challenge, if you'd like. All you have to do is make the sock patterns as they come up and when you're done, send me a picture and I'll post them during the course of the year. Imagine your socks [here].

OK, back to knitting or spinning or something.

So, Did You Go to Rhinebeck?

2010-10-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

Right after I rented the bus for the 2010 trip to Rhinebeck, I downloaded the vendor list and the map so I could pick a few barns and tents I had to visit - just a few, mind you.

Then I rented the bus and gathered the Soundview Stitchers, my knitting group, and piled into the bus:

We set off and ended up at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival 2010! Yay! The weather was perfect, in spite of the occasionally chill wind. The scenery was beautiful, if you don't mind crowds.

And then I shopped until I dropped!

Polwarth from Into the Whirled

And two ounces of an angora blend fiber.

Say hello to Mom's new sweater! Two skeins of BFL, 660 yards each. Yum! From Maple Creek Farms.

Some lovely sock yarn from Creatively Dyed Yarns, lots of yardage and I see more than one pair of socks from this baby!

I also bought a Golding Spindle, and a Trindle which is this little sweetie:

Cute, right?

I also bought a DPN needle case from Crippenworks, some bobbins for both spinning wheels. I made out like a fat rat! Can't wait until next year!

Deceptively Easy

2010-10-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

I'm working on the Baby Surprise Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman which I have been working on for a couple of weeks now. It's all garter stitch which, for any experienced knitter is a dream pattern. I mean, what's easier than garter stitch, right?

Well ... let me tell you. Garter stitch is easy, so easy in fact that I just zipped past the instructions as if I'd designed the sweater myself. Until I realized that there's a bunch of decreases and then a bunch of increases. I blew right through those rows like they didn't exist and then tinked back about 5 rows.

I love how the sweater shapes itself (if you follow the directions):

I'm using the left over yarn from my Cabled Yoke Sweater, Rowan Felted Tweed in blue gray tweed and US #5 needles. The thing is that this sweater is 'baby' size but the pattern doesn't offer measurements, so it's a crap shoot as to how big or small the sweater will end up being.

Anyway, I'm going to trudge along and read the directions from now until row 97 when I'll be finished - presumably. I only pray that the baby I'm making it for won't be surprised if the sweater is (God forbid!) too big or too small.

Meanwhile, I'd like to thank the commenter on yesterday's blog regarding the hole in my kitchen ceiling. I'd like to think of it as a sun roof (Cozy Town you cracked me up!), but I'm looking up into the bathroom and the only sight I could possibly see is moon shine! And thank goodness I don't see that! LOL

Me, Upset?

2010-10-10T17:14:00.000-04:00

I knew there was cause for concern when something from upstairs dripped downstairs into my kitchen. Fearing beyond belief that it was the toilet and the contamination that could be happening over my stove, I called the plumber and he fixed my loose toilet which he said was loose but wasn't leaking and my tub looked fine. OK. The leak in the kitchen stopped and I assumed everything was fine.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and my son told me that after his shower, he noticed the kitchen floor wet. So I turn on the shower and ask him to wait downstairs to see what happens. In a few minutes he says, "It's raining in the kitchen!" Sure enough the water is dripping from several places. Yikes!

I call the plumbers again and in comes Ricky and Dwayne. Nice enough guys. They showed up at 4-ish and said they would be done promptly at about 10p. Gulp! Guess there won't be any dinner cooked on this night. They went to work.

First they pulled the wood of the soffit to expose the pipe and made a little hole in the ceiling:

Not too bad. How much trouble would it be to replace a couple of tiles? So I went into the living room and tried to ignore the noise coming from the kitchen while I did a little spinning. Until I heard a saw, and heard banging. So I went to have a peek:

Bigger hole and crap all over the kitchen floor and I'm looking up at the bath tub and it's related pipes. OMG!

So, I went back into the living room to spin and tried not to hear stuff hitting the floor and my stove, not to mention what germs were swirling around in the kitchen now. Ugh!

When all was said and done, I ended up with this:

But I was out $1300 bucks, and some of it was my NY Sheep & Wool Festival budget! Drats!

No more raining in the kitchen, but the hole has to stay open until the wood that was below the leak dries, six weeks he said. Six weeks of staring up at my new pipes.

Moving along, I did finish the socks I made for Yvette. They're called Embossed Leaves which can be found here, and made with Koigu KPPMG, 1 1/2 skeins worth because the knitting gods never let me run out of any yarn - ever. I used US #2 for the cuff and US #1 for the socks because Yvette has tiny little size 6 feet.

Nifty little pair of socks and cuter than they look on the blockers.

And as for the spinning, well ... it's not a good idea to spin when the plumbers are whacking away bits of your house and you're concerned about what's falling out of the ceiling, but I managed.

This is merino/tussah from Cloverleaf farms, one of the millions of braids of merino I'm trying to pare down so I can have room in the fiber cabinet for my new stash that I was planning to buy this weekend.

Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm going to function for weeks with the hole in my ceiling. I just pray that there's no wildlife living in there!

Rainy Days

2010-09-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

Because it rained all day on Sunday, I was forced to stay inside and knit (and spin). I recently purchased a fiber 'flower' from Spinning Awesome Good, BFL/Tussah in Moonlight Shimmy, 3.9 ounces:

Which turned into this squishy,soft and lovely yarn which is Navajo plied:

Other than it's obvious beauty, I don't have all the particulars because it just came off the spool today, but I bet it's going to be just great as a little colorwork for a baby sweater or hat. I can't wait to use it.

Saturday was a busy day for me since I had a bout of start-itis. I cast on for socks from Stephanie van der Linden's book (which I have in German, but it recently came out in English). The book is called Around the World in Knitted Socks. I love every pair of socks in the book, but if it wasn't for Monika, these socks would not be possible. Thanks Monika! These socks are called Kilim:

They might look complicated, but they're not. I'm using Knit Picks Bare in fingering weight and Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett in Landscape Fire. Lovely socks and perfect for me and my cankles, but these socks were originally intended as a gift for someone with skinny ankles. Unfortunately for her, she won't be getting these socks ... fortunately for me, I will!

Most of the sock patterns in the book will have you casting on 70-80 stitches for a sock. Even using the smallest needles, the socks don't get smaller, just tighter. That said, this book isn't for everyone especially those of you with skinny ankles - unless you're really, really good at math.

Lastly, I cast on shawl #10 yesterday and I'm already at the halfway mark. The shawl is called Spring Thaw and what I love about the pattern is the finished edge which you can see here, but only if you're on Ravelry. Here's a peek:

This shawl is absolutely going into the dye pot! The yarn is Misti Alpaca Lace in cream, but it looks old and tired and I think a dye job will make this shawl more attractive. I'll let you know how that goes.

Mail Day

2010-09-09T00:27:00.000-04:00

Every day is mail day, but usually it's bills and junk mail and occasionally mail for my neighbor. I think the mailman has the same problem with numbers that I do. In spite of that, today was mail bonus day. All of the mail was good news and most of it was from Greenwood Fiberworks.

There was this 4 ounce braid of BFL in Rosewood:

And this 4 ounce braid of BFL in Persimmon:

And yet another 4 ounce braid of BFL in Huckleberry Truffle:

And Spin Dye Stitch came today too!

And if I thought newness only came in boxes and bags in the mail, I'd be mistaken because this lovely over spun beauty came off my own wheel:

I don't have any stats on it yet, but the color changes are wonderful. It's merino/tussah from Cloverleaf Farm. I'll work it all out on my next post where I hope to display some more of my own handspun. I'm on a roll!

Now all I have to do is cast on shawl #10, the last one, which has to be done by December. I've got plenty of time, but if I keep telling myself that I'll run out of time. I wouldn't want that to happen this close to the end.

Gotta go - Miss Kitty is trying to make a meal out of my fiber!

Happy Dance!

2010-09-08T00:56:00.000-04:00

I've got three reasons for doing the happy dance.

The mini spinning challenge wasn't a complete bust because I got this:

Two skeins of Louet's wool in Deep Jungle. Both are 2 ply, 17 wpi, and the yardage on skein #1 is 193 yards and skein #2 yielded 196 yards. Who knew it could be so good? I see a "fake isle" hat and mittens in my future. Woo hoo!

Then today's mail produced this:

My first flower from Spinning Awesome Good (thanks Shelby!). It's 3.9 ounces of BFL/Tussah in Moonlight Shimmy. OMG! If only you could feel the softness! I'm going to work on this carefully and with thought so I don't screw it up, but I can see clearly that it can't turn out bad because it looks and feels so good!

And my third reason for happy dancing is: SCHOOL'S IN! I'm a working mom and nothing says love like curfew, dinner and bedtime on time!! Yay! My son is 17 years old and the last vestige of control I can exert over him is "You have school tomorrow" followed by some non-specific ridiculous set of instructions that HAS to follow. Can you see my smile so wide it almost cuts my head in half? I've been doing the happy dance since school shopping on Saturday. I'd really bust a move, but I'm afraid I'll bust my hip if I do.

It's a little sad that's he grew up (without my permission, mind you), and when he graduates from high school what will be my new mommy job? Clearly I have come up with other means of control. Tell me how this sounds, "Don't think this dictatorship has suddenly become a democracy because you graduated. This is still my house and as long as you live IN my house blah blah blah." How's that?

For now, I'm still happy dancing.

Not Even Close

2010-09-06T23:19:00.000-04:00

Well ... I tried. I worked as hard as I could and even threw in a few excuses, but no cigar. I didn't even knit all weekend because I was trying to spin 16 ounces of fiber. I got maybe 12 ounces almost done.

This is what got done: Louet wool in Deep Jungle.

And that wasn't all of the yarn, I still have a small bit that needs to be plied.

This is what's halfway plied on the wheel: Marino/tussah from Cloverleaf Farms.

And this is what I had to ply from the Tour de Fleece contest because I needed a spool: 100% bamboo from Xtreme Knitting, an Etsy store that has since closed up shop.

So there you have it. I fell short of the mark, but I had a great time and I even freed up a spool or two.

Sojourn Knitter, thanks for the inspiration to spin. I had a great time and I managed to make a small dent in my fiber cabinet. We should try this again in about six months - after my shin splints and cramped hands have had a chance to recover.

Oh No!

2010-09-06T15:26:00.000-04:00

When I opened my big mouth and said I'd spin 16 ounces of fiber in a weekend, I never imagined that I wouldn't have time to do it. Did I think the house would magically clean itself? Or that I could do all of my back to school shopping in an hour? Oy! (I must confess that I break into a happy dance every time I think about my son going back to school, though. I chuckle to myself so he doesn't see, but the happy dancing has cut into my spinning time in a serious way.)

I finished spinning up the Louet in Deep Jungle:

This yarn is obviously not going to be a 3-ply since my bobbins are so uneven, so I see three skeins of Navajo ply yarn. How long does that take?

So, last night at 8p, I sat down to spin and I spun like the house was on fire. With a little help from Miss Kitty:

I only got this far:

How much is that so far?

Break out the tissues because I'm not going to make it to 16 ounces. I have laundry and a few other unpleasant chores to do before I can sit down to my wheel with any peace of mind.

Hope springs eternal, though, so I'm going to hop to doing what needs to be done and we'll see where I end up by 11p tonight. Sixteen hours from fiber to yarn in 3 days is impossible!

I gotta go find a free bobbin.

Bad At Math?

2010-09-04T22:22:00.000-04:00

If you've ever read my blog, then you know about my relationship with math. I can sure enough count to 10 without a problem, but I can't count to 10 five times in a row without losing count. My mouth says 28, 29, 30, and my brain says 52, 64, 29 ... it's most pathetic.

All of this is to say that I know I'm bad at math, make no mistake, so when I took up the challenge to spin 8 ounces of fiber, I knew I could easily fill two 4 ounce spools. I had a bag of fiber that was labeled as 1/2 pound, which is 8 ounces. Right?

I presume that my spools hold 4 ounces each and you can see that they're really packed, so reasonably two spools would have seen me to the bottom of this huge bag of fiber. Well I filled up the two spools:

And to my surprise, there's this much fiber left over:

I believe that I am the only person on the planet whose fiber and yarn multiplies while I'm using it. That's a whole 'nother spool! Am I really that bad at math? Three spools and then I'm done, right? No, actually. My larger than life mouth committed me to spinning 16 ounces of fiber. Oy!

Well, I couldn't keep mindlessly spinning, so I took a break and finished shawl #9, Calais. It's blocking right now.

Not too shabby for a day's work, eh? I like the shawl, but I wasn't overly thrilled with the yarn I used, Jojoland 100% wool, which is stretchy and a little rough. Not too rough to be against skin, but not nearly as soft as, say, cashmere. One more shawl to go before I've completed my commitment for 10 shawls. Yay!

Seems like the more yarn I use, the more I have left over. I had two skeins of this yarn at 220 yards each (440 yards). The pattern called for 382 yards and I still have half a skein of yarn left over. Why doesn't my yarn ever get used up?

So, I guess I'll get back to my wheel and ply up some yarn so I can free up a spool so I can spin up some yarn so I can keep my ill chosen commitment to spin up 16 ounces. What was I thinking?

2010-09-03T22:48:00.000-04:00

Sojourn Knitter has gathered a bunch of lovely fiber and I applaud her choices, but while she was whiddling down her choices, I was on the fly:

Mind you, the only prize is free space in the fiber cabinet. This fiber is Louet's wool top in Deep Jungle, 8 ounces of lovliness. Four ounces down, four to go and lots of fiber drafting left to do. Oh boy.

Me and my big mouth!

Not that I'm competitive ...

2010-09-03T18:58:00.000-04:00

My friend Sojourn Knitter and thrown down the gauntlet and challenged us to a spinning duel and I, daringly, have taken her up on the challenge. I am going to spin 16 ounces of fiber by Monday (yeah, right!). So in between the laundry, floor mopping, dishes, cooking meals and sweating it out in this humidity, I'm going to spin yarn.

Presently, I have no free spools so I'm going to have to do some plying tonight to get one. If anyone nearby sees smoke coming out of my windows, it's my wheel going at top speed, so please don't call the fire department!

Here's my entry:

I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but I don't care if I have to spin all night. I'm going to get this fiber spun up so I have room for the new stach I'm going to score at Rhinebeck!

If anyone else out there has a wheel or spindle and some fiber they need to spin up to make room for new fiber, please join us so that the if (when) I don't make my challenge I won't have to blog with pictures of me crying!

Shawl #8

2010-08-28T00:50:00.000-04:00

I never thought I'd make it to 10 shawls this year since, to be honest, I'm all 'shawled out'', and finding shawls to make has been something of a challenge. I have all these rules about which shawls I could or would make and I had so much criteria that I almost ruled out ALL shawls. Until this one, that is.

The Swallowtail Shawl was such a quick knit that I amazed my own self. It's amazing how the smallerr shawls knit up so quickly compared with how the big shawls seemed to take forever. I used some yarn from a company no longer inn business called Mystical Creations Yarn and they described it only as hand dyed fingering/lace weight wool, a size US #5 needle, and this is how it started:

This yarn is older than Central Park dirt and the color was still pretty vibrant (loud and screamy, in fact), but after washing and blocking, it toned itself down by a lot:

In fact, most of the turquoise came out in the bath and the shawl is still a little colorful, but in a good way. I was advised by the ladies in the knitting class not to dye it, so I won't.

I'd say I like this shawl enough to keep it, but I don't. I like the pattern well enough, it was pretty easy to memorize, and it was certainly a worth it knit. I'll make it again one day, but I'll probably use a solid color. Now I'm going to have to spend some time looking for a home for it, which is no easy task.

Gotta say, though, I love blocking wires but I only used them across the top this time. I used pins on the points which aren't perfect, but good enough.

And in case you're on Ravelry, the yarn I used is the same yarn I used for the Daybreak Golds shawl:

My yarn magically replaces itself while I'm knitting, I think. How can I make two shawls with one seemingly small ball of lace and still have enough to make another shawl. It's a mystery.

On to the next shawl: Calais. Wish me a speedy finish!

La La La!

2010-08-21T18:41:00.000-04:00

I was going to ~~brag~~ blog about this shawl next month when it was time to enter it into the 10 Shawls for 2010, but I just couldn't wait! I knit this shawl in about 2 weeks and it came out beautifully, if I say so myself!

This is La Cumparsita:

This shawl is for my friend Marietta who put in a special request after seeing the Spring Trellis Shawl. (She doesn't know how that shawl drove me crazy with it's nupps and the hairiness of the yarn!). Still, in the name of destashing, I was happy to comply with her wish for a shawl.

Part of Marietta's request for the shawl she wanted was the color, and her #3 color request was teal. Well ... if you dim the lights, close one eye and tell people it's teal, then it is. Right? People have to believe what you tell them, don't they? What color does it look to you?

That said, the shawl is done, it's pretty and soft, the pattern repeats were easy to memorize and the end result is stunning. I'm just glad I didn't use sock yarn, although if I'd have had my druthers, I would have made this shawl with some tone-on-tone or muted colors.

Sarah's Yarns, 2 ply Mongolian cashmere
US #6 needles, approximately 500 yards
Pattern: easy, it practically flew off the needles

Next up: the Swallowtail which I started yesterday and I've only got 23 rows to go before finishing. Yay!

While Recovering

2010-08-20T21:43:00.000-04:00

This is like one of those 'what I did on my summer vacation' essays I had to do for school. Instead, this is the 'what I did while home recovering from surgery' essay. It wasn't a vacation, of course, but it would have been if I had been able to get my son to cook dinner and my cat to wash the dishes. Oh well. The good news is that I got some knitting done. Yay!

First I finished the Fountain Pen Shawl which I'm keeping for myself. I looooooooooove this shawl!

This shawl is as soft as a bunny!

And I knit up a few pairs or children's socks for charity:

Then I finished shawl #7 which I can't show you just yet, but I can tell you that it's called La Cumparsita and it's already got a home to go to - all the way to Georgia! Marietta, I hope you like it! Here's a sample view:

Thank goodness for blocking wires. They're a pain in the butt to thread through the garment, but they save a lot of time I would otherwise spend pinning. If you don't have any, but want some, I got mine at Knit Picks.

Then I started on shawl #8 which is halfway done, but don't pay attention to it now, I plan to dye it. It's the Swallowtail Shawl, a lovely shawl it is, and easy to make:

I still need two shawl patterns to knit. I've been searching high and low for shawls I like that require 500 yards or less of yarn since I more than made my quota of "big" shawls. Any suggestions?

Off I go to knit something! Happy knitting!

Number 6

2010-08-11T19:55:00.000-04:00

My commitment to 10 Shawls in 2010 is in crunch time. Now I have to make one shawl per month since I just posted shawl #6 yesterday and there's only a little more than 4 months left in the year. Can you believe it?! I'm totally not going to get to holiday knitting any time soon!

So, I had three skeins of Misti Alpaca laceweight yarn in a deep plum color (only used 1 1/2 skeins), US #4 needles and the Fountain Pen Shawl pattern. Honestly, the yarn was so dark that the only thought I had while knitting this shawl was who I can give it to. Not everyone appreciates dark colors, or shawls for that matter. I wracked my brain and still no one came to mind.

The true color of this yarn didn't show up until it was washed and blocked. It wasn't nearly as dark as I thought:

It was oh my gosh light, airy and soft as butter - softer, and I knew that the only person who would love it like the sweet baby it is is ME! I love it and I'm keeping it!

The true color showed up wonderfully and, surprisingly, I didn't make one mistake. I can tell you that Miss Kitty and I got into an almost tug of war over it. She dug her claws in and it turned into a Mexican standoff, both of us staring into each other's eyes waiting to see who would give in first. She didn't pull and neither did I. All I can say is that I won, and no one should ever have to have a stare down with a cat.

So I'm one shawl richer, and I'm happy about it. Yay!

Now I've got only a few weeks to come up with another pattern, knit it up and post it. While I'm doing that, I have to make some children's socks for charity and finish some socks I started for myself and never got back to.

Let the stash busting continue.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

2010-08-04T21:06:00.000-04:00

Can it get any hotter? Oy! It's not the heat (100+ degrees) it's the humidity and on days like this even taking a cold shower doesn't help. It's too hot inside, and the mosquitos make mince meat out of me outside, so there is no respite. I almost wish for Fall - almost.

Instead, I stayed inside (mostly) to knit and rest and knit and rest. Considering the heat, you can imagine how I felt about this mountain of yarn sitting in my lap:

It feels like a volcano on my lap, but I'm almost done with shawl #6 of my 10 Shawls in 2010 commitment. A few more rows and it'll be the Fountain Pen Shawl.

I was content to knit on this shawl until the heat overtook me and I had to find something else to do, so I sewed the buttons on this Presto Chango sweater that I finished awhile ago:

The sweater got washed so many times that the buttons don't match anymore, but I'm not about to rip them off. I could have (and should have) gone with wooden buttons as I originally planned, which would have made the sweater more timeless, but in this heat I didn't think.

Speaking of not thinking: today I received a new sock book, Knit Socks by Betsy Lee McCarthy, that I ordered about a month ago which I thought wasn't going to arrive until September. When it came, I threw everything else down and started working on the cover sock immediately:

Now, these socks are supposed to be knit in 3 colors: cream, mint and blue. So I scavenged around for thin sock yarn in solid colors - couldn't find any - so settled for this baby yarn. Well, I must have had 2 different blue yarns OR I don't know my colors OR I was so happy to have a new pair of socks to knit in all this heat that I didn't pay attention - or all three.

To correct he matter, the stripes on the main part of the sock should be all 3 colors, but they're not and they won't be. Ultimately, these socks will not match, but they're for me and I don't care because I'll wear them anyway. If they fit around my 'cankles' then they're good.

While I was knitting away I got to thinking how pretty these socks would be with a bead at the center of the flowers (not gonna happen on this pair) or if I'd used both blues and skipped the pale green. Well, maybe just dreaming about knitting is better than actually knitting with all this humidity

Anyway, I'm off to finish something and I wish you all a cool breeze.

Recovery

2010-08-02T21:10:00.000-04:00

Well, the Tour de France ended on July 23rd, and while Lance Armstrong didn't win a stage (he came close, though) and he didn't win the Tour - the heavens saw fit for me to attach my Tour dreams to someone new: Andy Schleck. He did an excellent job on the Tour. Not that it was so easy for me to switch my affections, you understand, and Lance will always be my cycling darling, but he's hung up his Tour bike for good, he says.

The Tour de Fleece also ended on July 23rd, and right before the end - I had to go for surgery for an umbilical hernia. It would have been a small issue, and the pain pills did their job, but there was the swelling and the heat wave and the stitches ... it all put me out of commission. So, I didn't win a stage or the Tour either. Unlike Lance, I'll be back next year.

Let me just say this before I put all Tour talk on the back burner: Lance Armstrong, if you think a pair of hand knit socks would be just divine, just drop me a line and I'll whip you up a pair. Nothing says 'retirement' like lounging around in a pair of hand knit socks! OK, I feel better.

Moving along, I do have a skein to give away. It's some lovely alpaca/tussah yarn in what was a lovely chocolate brown with little white bits of silk, but is now (because the tussah is white) a heathered brown:

It is as soft as a baby's bottom, and felt like hair (not mine) before it was spun, soft and silky. This yarn was purchased at Rhinebeck in October 2009 from The Sheep Shed.

Spinning during a heat wave was no fun, and while the package had 16 ounces of fiber, I only spun up about half of it. It was just too darned hot. What you can make with 82 yards (8 wpi) of Navajo plied yarn is a mystery to me, but it's so soft it would be a shame to let it sit around in my house for eternity.

So, the final result is a small skein of buttery soft yarn which would make a good trip on a hat (at least!). It'll surely keep your ears (or neck) warm.

If you think you'd like this skein of yarn, even though the yardage is low, please leave a comment and I will check back on Thursday at 1p Eastern and announce the winner, who will be chosen by the random number generator.

And while all of my spinning is done for the time being, I'm almost done with the Fountain Pen shawl which is shawl #6 for my 10 Shawls in 2010 - only one more chart (of 3) to go. Yay! I'm kind of all 'shawled' out, but I plan to keep going. Any suggestions for shawl 7? Anyone?

The Tour Goes On

2010-07-16T00:54:00.000-04:00

Well, talk about a comedy of errors. First my laptop battery died which kept me from giving a nod to the winner of the skein of yarn, and then if that's not bad enough, the heat wave is back on after days of rain and humidity.

Every braid of fiber I touched felt like hot stones, and a couple of them were none too soft either. Spinning Wensleydale in this heat is like wearing a winter coat while walking in the desert!

It turns out that the 5th person to leave a comment on my blog was Remy Grace who, at less than 3 months old, was clever enough to leave a comment and score this skein for her mom, Anonymous T. So, congratulations on your new skein of yarn.

Here's my Tour progress so far, 2 skeins of Wensleydale:

This one goes from blue to gray and is lovely to look at, but it's rough (softer after it was washed). This fiber would make a great felted something or other, but it's not up for gifting. The fiber was a gift and I plan to use it. The fiber is from Flying Fibers and the colors are wonderful.

Then there was this second skein of Wensleydale from Lisa Souza. Beautiful colors, but hairy and rough:

I wish this fiber was softer because the colors are remarkable. Yum, yum the turquoise and blue get me all excited about spinning. And I didn't do half bad considering that the fiber was not a joy to spin. If you've had a good experience with Wensleydale, please let me know about it. I'd like to get the bad taste for Wensleydale out of my mouth.

Now I'm in the middle of spinning some bamboo, which, if I don't screw up the plying will be up for grabs. Here's what it looks like unspun:

And here's what it looks like spun up a little:

I wouldn't get my hopes up for this slippery yarn from Extreme Spinning on Etsy. It's all pretty and shiny now, but I have a knack for not getting the plying right, so keep your fingers crossed!

Lastly, I've got some alpaca which is just as slippery as the bamboo:

This one will also be up for grabs as soon as it's plied up. This fiber comes from The Sheep Shed and it's worth every penny I spent on it. The fact that its solid chocolate brown with bits of white silk means there's almost no chance of me screwing up the plying. I'm good with solids (kind of).

So, back to the races. I've got 2 more braids to spin to reach my goal before the race ends and I'm spinning as fast as I can.

Stay tuned.

Heat Wave!

2010-07-07T00:07:00.000-04:00

It's steaming hot here in New York City today, but I did not let that deter me from my goal - spinning. We're only up to day 4 and the race ends on July 25th, so I've got a long way to go.

In spite of the heat, I managed to 'whip up' my first skein of yarn and it is gift worthy which means that this skein will go to one lucky reader of my blog. Since I have 5 followers, the person that leaves the 5th comment gets the yarn.

Here are the rules and disclaimers:
You may leave only one comment. I have a cat, so if you are allergic try not to be the fifth person to leave a comment, but by all means leave a comment. Mrs. Sock Pixie, I'm sure you don't want your fiber back, so please feel free to leave a comment (I love hearing from you), but try not to win. Lastly, this is a one and only skein, the fiber is gone, so I can't get you any more of it. OK, I'm done.

This is from day one of the race and while it's not perfect, it's darned good and usable yarn.

This is one skein of BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) from Sock Pixie in the Lady in White colorway. It's about 150 yards (14 wpi) of buttery softness.

There are no knots in the yarn, and my Navajo plying could use some work. It's not perfectly even like machine plied yarn that you see in the store either - it has character. Still I see a nice little neck warmer or maybe a 'fake isle' hat.

This yarn is going to bleed a little, so hand wash only and for goodness sakes, don't put this yarn in the dryer!

Good luck!

A ery special thank you to Mrs. Sock Pixie for providing the fiber in such pretty colors, and for making this fiber a joy to spin.

Tour de Fleece

2010-07-05T20:37:00.000-04:00

Well, don't say you haven't been warned! For the next few weeks this is going to be a spinning blog and maybe a little bit of a knit blog too since I'm working on a shawl, and a pair of socks.

Day 1: choose your fiber: some lovely BFL from Sock Pixie called Lady in White. Let me just say that Sock Pixie has the most beautiful colors and the fibers are so clean and beautiful that I keep them around just to look at. Her fibers never disappoint - ever. Thanks Sock Pixie!

Then separate fiber at top speed because day 1 determines my pace for the rest of the race:

Pre-draft fiber so it spins up faster:

Then spin it up as best as you can because it's now 9p and you don't have much time before the photo has to be put up on Ravelry for prizes. When that was done, I plied it up:

That's the photo that was put up on Ravelry, but in real time, I managed to get it plied, bathed and now it's hanging outside to dry (if a bird or squirrel hasn't gotten to it):

So there you have it. Day 1 and from then to now, I've spun 3 more bobbins of fiber in this blazing heat and humidity. Once the skein is up, I'll determine if it's gift-worthy and if so, it'll be gifted to someone who will leave a comment on this blog.

There's just one disclaimer: I have a cat, and while I don't believe she rolled around on it, and though it's been washed, if you're allergic, you shouldn't want this skein or any of my skeins.

When you see the skein pictured - that's when the counting begins.

Another Challenge

2010-07-03T16:48:00.000-04:00

Ten Shawls for 2010 is probably going to wear me out, but I'm finished with shawl #5. Cascata was a cinch to knit and it's pretty, too.

(A special thank you to Amanda, my unwilling model who
came out and posed. (Where's the rest of your pants, girl?)

The sun was shining so brightly that the picture came out kind of faded, so I took a picture inside:

Too dark, but you get the idea. It's pretty and shorter than I thought it would be, but ti's a worth it knit. The pattern is by Susanna IC and can be found at the Twist Collective site. I used US #7 needles and the project dates: started June 5, finished June 12. If I was going to make a change to the shawl, I'd make it longer.

Shawl #6 is on the sticks.

Now for the moment some of you have been dreading: the world famous TOUR DE FLEECE! See the button on the side there? That means spinning, spinning, cussing, and more spinning. Aren't you excited?

I ran into a little problem signing up, but I think I made it to Team Lendrum (if they don't kick me off the team for being the last to sign up at the last moment!). At any rate, I'm in the Peloton which is open to all.

Meanwhile, I'm going to be knitting and spinning until my arms and legs fall off, and you my reader friends, are coming along for the ride. I'll try to make it interesting for you by giving away certain skeins that I think are gift worthy. Some of them will no doubt be crap, but what can I say to that? Nothing. But I will do my best.

The goal is to clean out my fiber cabinet to make room for more fiber. This is the fiber that fell out of the cabinet when I opened the door:

All that fiber was saying, 'pick me, pick me!'. So I did.

Day 1 results will be posted on Ravelry tonight, but you will get the whole story behind each braid of fiber from start to end. Doesn't that just make you want to ~~hurl~~ squeal with delight?

Stay tuned.

You Knew It Was Coming

2010-06-29T00:18:00.001-04:00

The Tour de Fleece is right around the corner (July 3rd, I think), and to that end I did some practice spinning. Here's 4 ounces of fiber from Cloverleaf Farms, merino/tussah in a gray colorway:

This was the first fiber I'd spun in a long time and all I did was spin it and wash it. No yardage facts yet because I like to do all of my spinning at once - before I lose momentum - or forget that I was spinning at all.

Then I spun another 4 ounces of fiber from Copper Moose in Chameleon colorway (BFL):

I love it! Not only do I love the color, but I didn't draft it at all and it still came out even and the color (which looks gray) obviously has more character than I gave it credit for. It's soft and wonderful and I'm going to have to readjust my thinking about spinning batts. This was a joy.

Then I spun up a little more BFL from Desert Peach Farm & Fiber. I didn't draft this fiber either, and once again, I love it! It came out evenly, looks delicious, I love the colors and I'm going to keep it around on the spool just to look at:

Hmm ... maybe if I leave it as a single instead of plying it, maybe I'll have 437 yards of it. Or maybe I'll find just the right scarf pattern to make with it. Not likely, but there might be a shawlette on this spool.

Lastly, I spun up a little Wensleydale from Lisa Souza. I pre-drafted this fiber and I'm going to blame it on the heat because this fiber was hard to draft, hard to spin and all I kept thinking while spinning it was that it (like me) was having a very bad hair day! I found myself saying out loud, "Gurl, what is UP with your hair?"

Lovely colors, but I'm not touching this yarn until the temperature comes down! Oy! More of this fiber was stuck to me than what made it to the spindle! That's when I knew I'd better take a rest because I was about to do some serious damage to another braid of fiber.

Now, because this is an alleged knitting blog, here's some knitting I did that finally did me in. I spent 3 days making this sweater and it came out beautifully. That is ... until I washed it in some Euclan:

The top of the sweater is green, the bottom is blue/green. I know for sure that the Euclan didn't do this to the sweater. I'm thinking that it was 'fiber failure'. Nobody's fault. So, I have three choices. I could wash it yet again and pray for the best (it didn't work the second or third time I washed it), dye it myself and hope to obtain the same lovely color (impossible!), or I could start over.

You know me - so you know what choice I made. Right?

Oh! Gifts!

2010-06-16T00:07:00.002-04:00

Yesterday during my lunch hour I took a short train ride to Purl Soho in Manhattan. They have a wall of yarn which I couldn't even look at because I went to the shop with a purpose, and if I had touched even one skein of yarn my lunch hour would have been a 'ditching work' afternoon. The shop has a little of everything for the crafter: they have bolts of fabric, squares of fabric, felting stuff, gadgets and what all. I'll have to go back after work one day or on the weekend.

I went to their website and found a couple of patterns I want to make for the ladies in the cancer ward at a local hospital. My friend and fellow knitting circle 'angel' said the ladies often say their head, feet and hands are cold so while everyone in knitting class is making hats, I'm going to make socks. Lucky me, I found these two patterns:

The buttons are for the Presto Chango sweater (I settled), but the finding the patterns made me so happy.

Why, you ask (or didn't ask)? Because following the Yarn Harlot's example, I've offered the ladies in the knitting class a challenge. I've asked them to knit one pair of socks per month for the year 2011. There will be prizes, there will be competition, there will be fun. Being the organizer, all I can do is find patterns for them to borrow that challenges their skills and gets them happy they entered the contest. Woo hoo!

Then, when I get back to my desk there's a note and a bag from my friend Nancy. She found some yarn that someone had 'put out' in the trash room at her building. Whoever it was didn't have the heart to throw the yarn down the incinerator. OK, I read the note and pulled the yarn out of the bag. Drumroll, please ...

OK, why did I let myself get excited? This yarn is older than Central Park dirt, but it'll come in handy for a new knitter. So, I want to thank Nancy for doing the dumpster dive for me. It's perfectly good yarn for the donation basket at the library so it won't go to waste. Orlon AND acrylic, woo hoo!

Thanks Nancy!