Fiber Fanatics R Us

Updates

2009-01-13T21:59:00.005-04:00

I know you are starting to despair that I've stopped writing entirely....not quite true, there's just so much going on...

First, for anyone who will be in the Orlando area this weekend, it's time once again for our annual Distaff Day event!

5th Annual Orlando Area Distaff Day
Hosted by
“SOCKS” - South Orlando Crocheters, Knitters and Spinners

Date: Saturday, January 17th, 2009
Time: 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location:

Presbyterian Church of the Lakes
4700 Lincoln Ave.
Orlando, FL 32819

Cost: $6.00 – We are being charged for the room this year.

What to Bring:

1. Spinning Wheel, Knitting, Weaving, Beading, etc. (whatever you have put away, or not, and want to work on)

2. Bag Lunch – There is a Publix and Albertson’s close by with a deli if any one forgets.

3. Coffee or Tea mug - The Hosting Guilds will provide the beverage and treats.

4. Item for the “Yankee Swap” Put in a plain paper bag and seal so the contents cannot be viewed. This item should have a value of up to $20.00 and should also be something that if you get you will be thrilled!!! (Because you might!!) NEW THIS YEAR - We have so many talented participants, please put your name inside your swap item, so we can give credit where credit is due!!!!!!

5. Items for the “Sale Table” Just like last year. Items that you have decided you might not want and would like to sell. Put a tag on the item with you name and price.

6. FREE TABLE – Some people prefer just to give things away, so get to the “Distaff Day” early “The early bird gets the worm!!”

7. The Fashion Show /Show and Tell– Bring an item you made this year and share with us your experience and talent!!!!

Second, and on a more personal note, things with Jason have been going VERY well! We spent Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years together, traveled to Macon to visit friends, and Hilton Head Island for a weekend getaway.

Now the new year has begun and it's time to move on to the next step.... He got a job last week, and we're moving in three weeks!! If you happen to have a strong and able bodied man in your life who'd be interested in helping us move, D Day will be Sunday, February 1st. As for the move, it'll be close for me...we're moving to a bigger apartment in my complex.

I have been knitting, but I haven't had any time to take pictures lately. I'm knitting the Elizabeth I - Glorianna scarves for members of my wedding party. The first one is on the needles and about half done!

The BIGGEST news....

2008-11-17T08:01:00.004-04:00

You may recall this statement "New fish opportunity tomorrow...we'll see how it goes!"... Made by me in my last post...about 3 1/2 weeks ago...

So, "the fish" was named Jason. We had a wonderful weekend on that first weekend. And every weekend since then. I'm thrilled to say that I've met that person that I never thought I'd find. The one who is sweet, kind, loving, supportive, a great communicator, makes me laugh... I could go on, but I've been testing too many people's gag reflexes these days, so maybe I'll stop there.

Jason is everything I've been looking for and wasn't sure I would ever find. He's also madly in love with ME! Finding all of those things, then realizing that the feelings are completely mutual...well, it's just AWESOME!

He thinks so too....which is why, on Friday night, he asked me to Marry Him! And I said yes, of course. So here are a couple of pictures for you...

My ring is a pearl, with a small diamond on either side and a twining white gold band twisting away from the pearl.

This was the "scene of the crime".... It's Lake Ella park in Tallahassee. Friday night he brought me out to the gazebo, we sat down facing the rosebushes and lake, and he proposed. This was taken on Sunday when we went back to get a couple of daytime pictures.

And here's a close-up of those roses...

I've been Spinning, Really!!

2008-10-24T20:16:00.004-04:00

I actually had a wonderfully productive weekend of spinning in fact! Friday night, I plyed off the single that was on the antique Saxony. I decided to try a technique several people have recommended - winding the single off into a center pull ball and plying from there. Now, had I held the ball in my hand, perhaps this would have been effective. Since I put it down in a box to free feed, I ended up with a bit of a tangled mess! I only lost a couple of yards, but it was enough to convince me to either stick with Andean Plying, or to be sure to hold the center pull ball in my hands directly. This makes skein #3 from the same bag of alpaca. I think there's enough for one more, but it's not all prime blanket, so I may decide to card it before spinning.

After the alpaca, I did spend some time on the white alpaca that I'm spinning on the Lendrum. I also took a break from that to spin this. It too is alpaca - dark brown Suri, spun thick and chunky with all of the VM still in it! It became the dreds for our Captain Jack pumpkin carving in our pumpkin carving contest. And....we won Best Overall Pumpkin!! I don't have a picture, but hopefully I'll be able to share one sometime soon.

After making the dreds, I came home to do some spinning on the Great Wheel! I had this lovely single, a mint and grey romney roving from Convergence that I'd spun into singles quite a while ago. So, it's now officially complete, and the GW is naked and ready for it's next big challenge!

And speaking of next big challenges. On Sunday I was able to take some time to work on the Minor's head I purchased a couple of months ago. Here's some of the mess from when I took it apart.

You can get an idea of just how much dirt and grime there was. Here's the barrel...half cleaned up.

And, all cleaned up and partially put together, it now looks like this: There are two new replacement parts here - the Capstans - those are the pieces at the top of the posts that the head sits in. I plan to seal the entire thing with Danish Oil to protect the wood.

The only outstanding problem at this point is that the hole in the bottom of the barrel is 1/8" too small for the post on my wheel. Which means I will not be able to resolve this issue immediately, but will need to take some time and do it gently. In the meantime, I'm still hoping to find a way to get the GW into my Saturn... so I can take it out to the Pioneer Days event in Brooksville next weekend. If you're in the area, we'll be there from 10-4!

I won't be working on that tonight or tomorrow though... New fish opportunity tomorrow...we'll see how it goes!

Recipe for an AWESOME Weekend!!

2008-10-14T22:51:00.005-04:00

What do you get, when you mix a professional knitting/felting instructor (Judy Pascale),

A pile of beautiful merino roving, locks, yarn, and silk hankies,

Some "good clean fun", and a bit of elbow grease...

...with seven amazingly creative women? Well, just look and see for yourself! You get seven beautiful, unique, original works of art!

Dry and filled, here's mine:

Here you can see it a little better. The handles are fully adjustable from the cross-body hip length pictured above, to the clutch length handbag shown here.

With the exception only of the interior frog closure, all parts of the bag were part of the original design. Embellishments were added to the wet wool and felted in. An interior pocket and small tab were built in as well. The tab allowed for application of a magnetic closure.

Here's the full view of the back when opened.

The class ended up being nearly a 12 hour class, but I can easily say that everyone who attended had an amazing time, came away with a GORGEOUS bag, designed to accentuate their own personality to the fullest! Even better, Judy's "sample" bag on which she demonstrated some of the techniques for us will be a beautiful "Florida" inspired bag. We had a hard time convincing her to break out and show her inner color, but once she got going.... I hope we get to eventually see how her bag came out!

After leaving the amazing class, I decided to drop by AC Moore to pick up a magnetic closure for it. Since they are going out of business, everything is on sale at least 30% right now. I picked up a couple of closures, a few miscellaneous bits of this and that, some beading wires... Then I dropped by and was looking at the Clearance section of floss. There were a bunch of different types of flosses thrown together in a bunch of bins. I picked out a skein of each of the different types... linen DMC, cotton DMC, silk DMC, #5 perl cotton, #3 perl cotton, etc, and visited with a clerk who was adding prices to things in the area. He gave me the prices, ranging from $.10 to $.89 per skein. So, I went back to the aisle and pulled all of the silk floss, sorting through it on the floor, trying to figure out how much I could afford. The next thing I knew, another clerk, Kathy, came by, mentioned that I was in her department and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I won't name it here, but if you are in the market for floss, interested in purchasing in quantity, and in the area, drop by and see if Kathy is available. I think you'll be happy you did... I know I was:

Dyeing to Show You This

2008-10-08T21:18:00.004-04:00

The Four Corners Fiber and Craft group had a spontaneous meeting on Sunday...we had a Dyeing party! L was kind enough to open her home and 6 of us got together to play! We made up a full range of Procion dyes - Black, Brown, Blue, Purple, Teal, Green, Yellow, Red, and Pink! L also made up a bunch of Wilton's Cake dyes and played with those a bit. Here's me in my glamour shot, dyeing a KnitPick's Sock blank.

And here's the finished blank. It was funny, while I didn't intend it at all, it came out here looking almost like a landscape! Pat brought up an interesting idea when we were doing these...to dye a word into the blank. whispers - she dyed the word 'sock' into hers *giggle* Ok, so I thought it was a good idea. My word, in pink, is wish. And no, like making one a birthday cake, I'm not telling!! (C laughed at me and said I'd spill it in no time, but I WON'T!!) So here's my "ready to cook" blank.

Fast forward past two minutes in the microwave, cooling time, rinsing in water, then vinegar, then water, and two days of drying... And here it is, the final product.

Of course I'll let you know when I get it knitted up...and I suppose in order to make the wish come true I oughtta make it a priority and get right on that.

Threw a few other things in the dye while we were there. This is around 600 yards of laceweight wool boucle, doubled. It was one of the blanks from the dyeing class I took at FLFF last year. We had some yarn leftover, and the instructor happily passed it along. I had three skeins, so I passed it along and shared. This particular one started out a sort of drab light tan color. It was the start of a sample last year, so it had a bit of green and orange dye in it already. So I went Picasso on it...and look what I got!?! I'm actually really excited about this yarn now! Trying to figure out if I can make like a nice lightweight shrug or something out of it. What do you think?

And here's another FLFF stash from last year. This one is a Merino/Alpaca/Silk blend. And it's a LOT of yards.... I think the label said 1000! Thinking maybe even a little shell on this....

And finally, T had some extra Knitpicks Merino/Silk sock yarn (blank Gloss), so I did this one. It's a bit of a color departure for me, but it's actually kinda fun!! We'll see how it looks knitted up.

So here's the whole collection, all in one place. We had a great time, dyed a ton of amazing yarn, and shared some great foods too!

So I know you're probably wondering by now what's gotten into me. Three months of NOTHING, and now four posts in a row!! I can't say it will continue quite at this level, but I am at least trying to get all caught up, and I will continue to try to put out little posts for the various events going on.

Finger Lakes Fiber Festival

2008-10-07T19:19:00.017-04:00

This marks my third year attending the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival in Hemlock, NY. I'm thrilled to report that it was another great year on all fronts. The weather was awesome. Warm on Saturday, a bit cooler on Sunday (so I didn't have to take off my CTH Jacket!).

I took three great classes, and did LOTS of fun shopping! This post will be very picture intensive...hopefully I can organize it in some reasonable manner.

I had a great time shopping. This fleece is from Arvgarden in Pennsylvania. It is a lovely 2# jacketed Corriedale ram named Arne.

This swirly dyed Merino/Viscose Roving is from Winderwood Farms, just down the road from where my parents live.

I was able to spend some time visiting with Susan of Susan's Spinning Bunny. Susan makes some of the most beautiful hand-dyed rovings I've seen, and I've begun making it a practice to drop by her booth each year and pick up a couple of Merino/Tencel rovings for my stash. These are then waiting for me when I need to whip up a sock yarn for a gift or something. They are Tamarack & Spruce and Butterfly Bush.

This was truly a favorite set of purchases. First, I got an Ashford Flick carder for working with raw fibers. Second was a mini-niddy noddy from Kromski. As I take these classes and have bits of yarn, this is great to be able to wind off small samples and make mini skeins. And yes, you might have already spotted THE most exciting item in there...it's a Golding Sweetheart drop spindle!! This is the micro - 0.8oz spindle. Got a lovely ounce of silk to go with it too! I know you want to see it better...so here's another picture up a little closer.

Now check this out....it's one pound of Cotswold roving/batt in a lovely pastel colorway. This is from Nistock Farms, another favorite, in part because it's about a mile down the road from my parents!

I mentioned classes as well. My first class, on Saturday was taught by Erin from Embraceable Ewe, a yarn shop in Hamburg, near Buffalo, NY. It was Meg Swanson's Jogless Jog technique. Erin provided a wide array of colors of Cotton Fleece, and an excellent bit of instruction with lots of other valuable tidbits. And if you are wondering, the hat is pictured with the seam side front and center as photographed. Pretty cool technique, eh? I still need to put a nice big pom-pom on it then it'll be done.

My second class was a Flax spinning class!! It was a great class, and I'm thrilled that I took it. I was able to borrow a wheel and distaff from Wendy who was doing the Flax demos at the festival. You'll see the wheel and distaff in a bit, as I have some photos from her demo as well. But, here's MY first handspun flax. I hope to make my own distaff soon so I can practice this further. Will I ever spin enough flax to weave a dishtowel? Who knows!

In non-fibery purchases, I picked up this cute little cake of beeswax for a song! ($0.75!) Will use it to wax sewing threads for things like blackwork and cross-stitch.

This one wasn't actually from the fiber festival, but i forgot to mention it in my other post, and didn't want to leave it out, as I am totally smitten! I was in a restaurant, washing my hands in the restroom when I found Orange - Clove handsoap and lotion! It was amazing stuff and I just had to find out where it came from. Turns out it was made locally be a very nice couple in Canandaigua. They make all of their own soaps and the fragrances are amazing!! This is a small sampling of the wonderful soaps available from Wick-edly Sent, my new favorite "local souvenir" shop!!

I mentioned Wendy's Flax demo as well. Here are a few pictures. Wendy demonstrating what a bundle of flax looks like when it is being stored and dried.

Using the break to break down the sheath around the flax and expose the spinnable fibers.

Ever heard the term "Flaxen Haired Maiden"?

Wow, look at those teeth! Getting rid of the excess 'tow' to leave only the quality spinning fibers. I also found that the tow worked FABULOUSLY as a fire-starting material with that lovely kit of mine...

Here's the flax wrapped on the distaff. Below it hangs a cup of water to wet the flax as it's being spun. Wet spun flax is smoother and stronger. I talked to a fellow knitter here last night, who is also a potter, about having a dish made to go with my wheel. I'll show you pictures when I get it!!

S-Twist / Z-Twist

2008-10-05T09:29:00.004-04:00

Ok...so after that so all over the place it wasn't funny post that took me over 4 hours to build... Here's a VERY directed post!

I've had a couple of conversations in the past few months about S and Z twist in spinning. How do you know if the yarn is overspun? What will wash out?

I had the great fortune in January to take a spinning class with Patsy Z, and for the first time I can say that I felt like I truly understood S and Z twist! So, without further ado, here is MY attempt to explain this concept in words (and a few pictures).

First you have the twist of your single ply yarn. If you are planning to make a two or three ply yarn, most people will spin several singles, all with the same twist. Often each of those singles will have "extra" energy in them, which you can release and stabilize by plying that single back with another single in the opposite direction (opposite twist).

So when I spin my single, am I doing S or Z?
Look at the top of your wheel or spindle (on a drop spindle, we would be looking at the far side of the spindle). When you turn it, are you turning it clockwise or counterclockwise? Imagine that we put a mark on one spot on the spindle. As you follow that mark around through your spin, are you beginning the letter S (counterclockwise spin) or the letter Z (clockwise spin)? I believe that most people are trained to spin a single Z - with a clockwise spin. At least that's how I was taught, and that's how I always teach. There may be further implications as to which twist you use (depending on your final application of the yarn - some techniques may tend to untwist a yarn, while others may tend to overtwist it), but I'll admit that I haven't reached that level of understanding yet.

Ok, you've spun your Z single. When you immediately finish spinning, if you leave a long piece of single hanging free, it'll kink up on itself, right? That's because there is extra energy in the single. To see what your balanced, plyed single should look like, as soon as you finish spinning, pull 2 to 3 feet of that single off your bobbin, double it on itself, and let it ply up. Now break off this piece as your "control".

Now let's say we're done spinning for today. Tomorrow come back and pull a foot or two of single off your bobbin. Does it kink up as much if you let it loose? Maybe a little, but probably not nearly as much. This is because the single has settled. The energy is still there, but the single has just sort of fallen asleep and isn't really thinking about that energy anymore.

So now let's take a second single. Maybe you've spun it today, maybe you spun it yesterday or the day before. Some people will say you should make sure that both singles have had some time to rest before trying to ply them together. This way they are more matched as you spin them. I'm not sure I have an experimented opinion on that.

Now take your two singles and begin plying them. Now we'll spin the wheel or spindle in the opposite direction to what we did before. So if we spun Z, we'll ply S or counterclockwise. After you get it started, look at a piece of what you are plying and compare it to your control that we pulled off when the Z twist was live and active. This is what your balanced, finished yarn should look like in terms of number of twists, etc.

You're telling me it should be balanced now, but when I loosen my hold on what I'm plying, it kinks up?
Correct. Remember we said that the Z-twist has gone dormant? Well, the S-twist that you are spinning is live and current, so it will dominate the yarn until we wake the Z-twist back up. That's why your control is so important, since you made it when you had active Z-twist and active S-twist, so it's a true estimate of what your yarn should look like.

Ok, so let's say you've plyed the entire skein, and pull it off onto a niddy-noddy immediately because It's DONE! and you are impatient and want to see it now! (I rarely let a two-ply sit for this very reason!) You tie off your hank and remove it from the nod. Wait a minute here....it's twisting! That can't mean it's balanced, can it? So let's look at how it's twisting. When we look at this sock yarn that I spun, we see a definite twist across the middle of the skein.

The bottom is turned 1 to 2 times from the vertical. Now look at the slant across the skein. Is it the vertical bar of a Z or of an S? Whatever the yarn is displaying to you is what it NEEDS. Basically, it is contorting itself to make up for the twist that it is missing.

So this skein is telling us it needs more Z. Ok, but if you think about it, we already said that the Z twist in this skein, put in yesterday to the single, is dormant! So before we start fiddling with the yarn at all, we need to wake that up and see how it looks THEN!

This skein has now been washed in warm water and a bit of soap. I use SOAK, but Synthrapol is a favorite of many, and shampoo works great too. In part the soap actually helps the wool or yarn to absorb the water. It functions as a wetting agent. I blotted the skein dry in a towel, then took it outside and whipped it over my head to loosen everything back up and let it lie the way it wanted to. And here we have my finished skein!

Wow, look at that. It has almost no twist at all anymore! That means that the goal has been attained and we have a balanced yarn.

If, after washing, we found that the yarn was still overplied, or underplied, now would be a good time to fix it. One way to do this would be to put the hank on a swift (turned sideways at wheel height is ideal) and spin it back to the bobbin. You'll have to determine which way to spin it (is it presenting you with an S or a Z? If it presents a Z, it NEEDS more Z, so you will spin it CLOCKWISE.) Also remember, when fixing the ply, you probably want to add or subtract just a small amount of twist to the yarn, so use a low ratio on your wheel and a very quick take up on the brake so that you are making only a small adjustment to your yarn. Wind off to the niddy-noddy, wash, and analyze again. Depending on the usage of your yarn, a small amount of twist in the finished yarn is not a big deal. Also I will often hang the skein over a clothes hanger, doubled in half, which pulls some of that twist out when drying.

There are different schools of thought on weights attached to your yarn while drying. Personally I feel that if you have a balanced yarn, there is no need to attach a weight to it. Occasionally if I am making do with a yarn that I know is not balanced, I might add a weight (usually two plastic hangers hung from the bottom - so a VERY light weight) to straighten it out a bit. Anything more than that and you probably needed to put it through the wheel again...

Hypocrite!!

2008-10-04T19:30:00.016-04:00

Yep, that's me! My last post...nearly three months ago...was all about how I'm not doing too bad on keeping to posting...um...uh, yeah...whatever you say...

I'm sorry it's been so long...I've wanted to sit down and blog a bit here and there, but there's been so MUCH to say that I just couldn't get myself to sit down and DO it! So, I'll try to give you a brief recap of my summer, then a little more detail.

What have I been doing?

Well, you knew about the SCA (Society for Creative Anacronism) thing.

In July L, K, Gwenore and I went to St. Petersburg to the Res Textilia event. It was an entire day of fiber classes! Among other things I learned the basics of Blackwork while there. Also had the pleasure of meeting Francesca who joined us for dinner.

Sometime in here, a friend of mine had a 70th birthday!! Her family decided to have a surprise party for her. Her kids flew in from California and New York, all of her knitting friends, her work friends, her church friends, her family friends... and the amazing thing about it was that the secret was kept perfectly! She had no idea whatsoever and was happily shocked when she walked through the door of her home to find all those people there. She's an avid sock knitter, so I spun this up for her birthday.

At work we had a surprise Baby Shower for my boss. He was having his second child, a little girl. We decided to keep it small, but I made a super quick baby afghan for him. It's just a diagonal dish towel pattern in stripes, then picked up around the outside and finished with a feather and fan edge. I knit that in about a week and a half.

Remember the snowman and scarf that I made back in December? My co-worker made her snowman in Green Bay Packer's colors. Another co-worker, who was a Wisconsinite and a HUGE GBP fan left us to move back home. So for his gift, she brought in her GBP snowman for him. She thought maybe we could make it a joint going away gift from the two of us, so we went out and raided the yarn stash in the back of my car and I whipped up a second snowman scarf.

In August I met a guy and started dating him. We spent a lot of our weekends together, which also precluded blogging :( One weekend we went to Sarasota to Siesta Key Beach. What a great day!

Labor Day weekend I went to another SCA event - Fall Coronation. Witnessed the death of the king and queen

and coronation of their heirs.

Transformed into their new regalia...

And more importantly...I learned to make FIRE!!

Had another blackwork class, learned a bit about Viking Pennanular Brooches (the ones in the class were not nearly that fancy...very simple really - they'd make a GREAT shawl pin!). Made some other new SCA friends that weekend too. Oh, and one scary story...I was sitting in the front row at Court Sunday night with my new friends knitting (on my very non-period CTH jacket!) when the new Queen stood up and stated that she wanted hand crafters to be a more active part of Court. Suggesting that we should request seating and sit up in the front (next to the royals, facing the populace!!) to "entertain" others with our work during court!! :o And yes, she pointed me out specifically since I was in the front.

I meantioned the CTH jacket...I was actually doing edging in court...and finished it later that week! So yes, it's done! I actually think the second one lays flatter and looks much better than the first! I took it home with me when I went to NY on vacation. My mother commented that it would be BEAUTIFUL in Greens and Browns...which is completely true. I was trying to figure out if she was suggesting that I should make one for her... At the rate that she wears the things I've made for her in the past, I really don't see that happening...

So yes, I also went home in September. Got to see my parents, do a bunch of cooking (for 13 people!!) at the cabin, with fresh veggies from the garden (homemade marinara that cooked down all day, zucchini bread, stuffed zucchinis...). Went up to Saranac Lake to visit my brother, sis-in-law, and adorable niece
and saw his new restaurant and the newly rebuilt lodge.with the view of WhiteFace Mountain...

We had dinner there and it was AMAZING! He's the one of the opening team Sous Chefs at the Lake Placid Lodge. Did a bit of retail yarn therapy while I was up there. Visited a little shop in Saranac Lake, a nice big shop in Lake Placid, and an Alpaca Store in Jay.
On the way back from the Alpaca store, I stopped near the base of White Face Mountain to take some pictures of the river that runs off it.

Turned out the day I was there was knitting night at the shop in LP, so I went back and knitted with them! Several people there have been trying to learn to spin, but not having a ton of success. So, I sat with one and taught her park and draft drop spindling. She was thrilled and had great success with it. I had lunch with my sister in law before leaving.

After Lake Placid was the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival!! What a wonderful weekend! Got lots of great stash items, learned a bit, and met and saw lots of people. I'll do a whole post on that very soon. Thought I'd get it done tonight, but this post has taken several hours.

After returning to Florida, I went out this past weekend for the National Alpaca Farm Open House Days at Green Ginger Alpacas in Eustis.

M, D, and L joined me and we had an awesome time!

I got to see Judy's friend OP (see the early April post), recently back from his summer at a rehab home for kids where he was a huge hit!

He has a new career and it all started back with Judy and I in March! He came out to meet the kids several times each day last weekend and was GREAT with them! Talking with Jane after we finished spinning, we are going to offer some spinning classes at the farm in the near future, definitely for basic drop spindling, but possibly also some wheel spinning classes. I'm also thinking of spinning up some novelty yarns in Alpaca to possibly put in her new farm store for purchase!

In other Alpaca news, I was contacted by another Alpaca farm a few months ago who is interested in getting some of their fleece spun in exchange for some of the yarn. Wouldn't you know, my first box of roving arrived on Wednesday!

There's a lovely white roving that spins up with a bit of an oatmeal color to it, as well as a couple of samples from some of the other alpaca fleeces that they have. I started spinning that this morning and it's beautiful!

And yes, I'm single again...as of yesterday. My choice...there were some pretty major cultural differences between us, but it looks like we'll be able to remain friends, so that's a happy ending too! Still fishing though, so we'll see. I think those are most of the highlights...

And if you're wondering how I finally found time to blog, it's because I'm currently sitting in the Tea room (with IM turned off) listening to my friend and her beautiful singing voice! What a lovely - and peaceful - way to spend the evening!

Wow!

2008-07-11T15:17:00.003-04:00

I'd been feeling really bad about my dismal lack of blog posts this spring... Until I did a quick survey of some of the blogs on my sidebar list! There are only 3 or 4 with even remotely recent posts! I don't feel so bad now! Not really a lot to say today, except BUDGET IS DONE! For those of you who normally knit with me or know me locally, you know it's been an all consuming entity for the past month or so... But, it was saved out this morning, so I should be able to have my life back now! Just in time for Res Textilia next weekend!

I'm totally looking forward to it, and can't wait to check out all the great classes! We will be driving down Friday (and I have a vacation day too!!) evening and coming back on Sunday. I have a plan and a pattern to make a chemise and "bloomers"...or something to that extent...to go under my dresses... Maybe I can get the linen fabric washed this weekend, get it cut out, and get the sewing done this week...don't know, what do you think?

Thanks to all who sent cards, came to my party, or otherwise wished me a Happy Birthday...I think I can honestly say it was one of the best ones I've had in years! And I don't even have my Bay Laurel tree present yet!

I finally finished my VERY FIRST skein of Handspun Yarn!

2008-07-05T20:33:00.010-04:00

See? Here it is! Yes, you didn't misread...this is the very first yarn I ever spun. It was spun on a CD Drop Spindle. And it's been sitting...as a single...for 4 years. And so, after all that time, I wound it off to my hand for an Andean Ply, then plyed it up on the same drop spindle it was spun on. The result is about 80 yards of lovely yarn.

And here it is skeined up now that it's dry...

That was actually the LAST thing that I finished today. This morning I went to spinning and finished plying this gorgeous Corriedale that I recieved from a Secret Pal back in January. You can somewhat see the variegation in the colors...I think this will be lovely knitted up. It was over 250 yards.

Once that was finished, I needed something else to spin. The only thing I had was my basket of wool and drop spindle in the car. I started this for an SCA project. A pair of small dog brushes, a drop spindle, some Gulf Coast Native wool from a "local petting zoo", and the best part, a MelodyBasket! This was part of my Christmas present and works perfectly for my drop spindle & wool!! Anyhow, I started this spinning back in May for SCA. Took it out today but kept finding that the cop was sliding down on the spindle. Decided it was time to ply it off. This was actually the first time I ever plyed from the drop spindle! It was what gave me the courage to dig out that four year old single at the top of the page :) So, here's the basket and yarn.

On the left is the unwashed yarn, next to the raw fiber. On the right is the washed. Most of what came out was sand, but the water did get a little dirty as well. I think you can see in the picture on the right that it has lightened up slightly, but the yarn still has a bit of color in it. I think what I'd like to do is spin more of these (it's about 25 yards), and natural dye them to different colors. Then I can use the yarn for small period weaving projects. I don't LOVE drop spindling, but there is some merit to the idea. Enough to keep me spinning on the spindle. Besides, the staple is only about an inch long, so this fiber needs the TLC that drop spindling will give it.

Remember these batts that I got at Convergence last week?

They've been my pet project this week, spinning them up on the great wheel. A little bit here, a little bit there... When I got home from all of my other spinning today, I finished up the last single on there and plyed them up! So here we have two skeins, totally about 150 yards. The batts did spin nicely on the Great, though I'll admit their still very slubby.

This is pre-wash, but you can get a feel for it. If anything, the yarn bloomed even more when it was washed.
And here is the day's haul...ok, it's missing the first skein...which was really the last, and was still wet at the time of this picture.

And in one other piece of info...remember the sheep I got at Convergence? It's found a position of honor in our office!

He hangs right inside the office where everyone can see him and pet him. His name is still pending, but I did catch my co-worker picking him up, petting him, and rubbing him on her cheeks during a conference call last week...

Convergence!

2008-06-30T20:28:00.005-04:00

After two months of waiting, and wondering, "Will I be able to go to Convergence??", I finally got the answer....YES!! We left BRIGHT and early Friday morning...around 7:30 actually. Six of us headed down in two cars. We must have arrived sometime right around 9am opening. By the time we parked, found the convention center, bought our tickets, it was open.

I have to say, this was one of the most wonderful days I've had in a while. Convergence is the Handweavers Guild of America convention. It occurs once every two years, and moves around the country. This year it was in TAMPA!! There were many amazing classes in weaving, spinning, knitting, etc, offered throughout the entire week. For those of us who couldn't swing the rather high tuitions, there was a day admission price for vendors and the exhibit hall.

I had decided long before arriving there that there were two things I was interested in... books for some of my new hobbies, and fiber for spinning on the great wheel. I'll say right now, I was highly successful in BOTH goals!

One of the first booths I found was Braiding with Margo, a woman from California who carries extensive Kumihimo supplies and references, as well as many related crafts. I picked up this great braiding book, as well as a foam braiding board, pre-strung for a Laramie braid. The black board here is the braid I started Monday night at the local SCA meeting.

I started working the Laramie braid when we left Tampa Friday evening. I finished it Saturday afternoon while sitting out with a friend at her booth for a craft sale. Here's the board and completed braid!
The other book that I picked up at Tampa is this Tablet Weaving book by Peter Collingwood. I'm THRILLED with this book! It has a great survey of ancient Tablet Weaving finds, both extant textiles as well as a variety of tablets and looms.

Also for the tablet weaving, I picked up several cones of weaving cotton as well.

With the new braiding and weaving obsessions covered, it was time to move on to the existing obsession - spinning! I had already decided that for the Great wheel, I really wanted a nice, loosely prepared, natural fiber. I found the Illinois Green Pastures Fiber Cooperative, through their distributor, Esther's Place. I had heard about the co-op previously, and been given flyers and brochures, but wool is one of those things that you just need to SEE and FEEL in order to find the right one. I could have taken ONE OF EVERYTHING from Esther's Place. I did find restraint somewhere or another...here are two bumps of Icelandic Wool (Moorit & Black/Silver), a bump of Romney (Mint), one of Shetland & Lincoln (Copper), a hand dyed braid of Montadale top (blue, purple, green), and two batts of fluffy light roving (shades of blue - with a bit of angelina)! Oh, did I mention my sheepy? It's a felted sheep cache with lavender in the middle. I'm taking him to work to be our office mascot...and so there'll ALWAYS be wool around for me to pet! ALL of these preps are very loose and fluffy, and I can't WAIT to spin them on the Great! Incidentally, I've put them all up on Ravelry with better individual pictures.

And, for my final purchase/challenge, I bought a pound of raw Merino fleece. Just look at that lovely crimp and detail!

Naalbinding and Fingerloop Braiding

2008-06-22T21:07:00.003-04:00

Surprised to see me back so soon? After a crazy busy week at work, I was very ready for this weekend. Didn't really go far...to knitting Saturday morning - I actually took my Lendrum and the beautiful green Corriedale that I've been spinning for a while. Between Saturday morning, then Saturday night going to the coffeehouse to see L sing, I finished all the singles and made a good start on plying it. Will finish that up soon and show you pics.

Remember this yarn I showed you before? The first yarn spun on my great wheel.

You also might remember that I mentioned a new interest in historical fiber arts, including Naalbinding. Well, I wanted to make something useful but period-ish, so dug out the wool shown above and dove into my first naalbinding project head-on! It turns out, I was in need of an accessory bag for my great wheel. I got a little stuck on how to do the eye-holes to thread the drawstring through, but I sorta improvised. Then there was making the actual drawstring. I decided to learn another very old technique, called Fingerloop Braiding. It worked pretty well, and only took about 15 minutes to create the entire braid once I got moving on it.

Here you can see the bag with the accessories it is designed to hold. The wool finger, a block of rosin, and an oil bottle. And thank goodness FOR the bag....I recently started looking for my wool finger and could NOT find it! It was starting to really worry me, I looked everywhere! Talked to a friend, reviewing all of the places I'd already looked.... and thought of one more...under the stove. Dug out a light and laid down on the floor...and.... there it was! Way at the back of course. Tried to fish it out with the broom handle, but no luck there either. Coathanger to the rescue! As you can see, it is safely back, and now has it's own pouch to be stored in.

And since it hangs right on the wheel, I won't have to worry about losing it!

Now that the wheel pouch was completed and the wool finger found, I can spin!

This is about 2 oz of Holly Birch Fibers "Turquoise in the Rough" - 45% wool, 45% alpaca, 5% silk, 5% tencel, purchased at Hanks Yarn & Fiber in Gainesville.

It's a lovely fiber with a nice hand, including a lot of the natural grease still in the wool. Here's the first single on the great wheel:

Two cops plyed together:

And here it is, the final result! It came out to just over 100 yards for the 2 oz.

Where DID the time go?

2008-06-15T14:38:00.004-04:00

I've thought about blogging many times in the past month...and I know that at least a few of you out there are still trying to read (Hi Maggie!!). It's just that there's been SOOO much going on that it was hard to even drag myself back...

So, this will be the abbreviated version...captions and highlights, to try to get me back on track...

I went up to NY at the beginning of April - this is my adorable niece at 15 mo...

Here's a pair of Baby Surprise Jackets I made for Adeline's "impending twins". I mailed them on 5/14 and they were born on 5/15! A boy and a girl, one of each.

Some yarns I finished in May...the first is from our spinning class in January. It's the first thing that I've successfully Navajo plyed! The second is a skein of merino spun on the Great Wheel.

In Mid April, Judy Pascale came down for another class. As always she was a wonderful teacher and great person to hang out with! The first is a reversible cable bag - LOVE it!!

This is the start of a beaded bag. I'm making it to match my Amazing Techicolor Dreamcoat (which is coming along well).

Also in April I did a lot of cleaning and reorganizing. Bought two awesome shelves from Ikea that have completely changed my living space. The kitties approve. It's not DONE, but it's much better than it was. I also had a yard sale in April to get rid of a lot of stuff that just needed to GO!

Since then, I've joined the Society for Creative Anacronysm, more commonly known as the SCA. In a nutshell it's learning about and playing in the middle ages. I need a persona, which I've started to develop. It's heavily rooted in family history - I'm experimenting with the name Raeghel after my Dutch maternal ancestor in this country, Rachel. I've been to two events, made three dresses, have plans for more dresses. In addition, I've learned Naalbinding, a yarn and needle technique that predates knitting. I have much more to learn about it, but you have to start somewhere! I'm also interested in learning about Inkle Weaving and Tablet Weaving. Here's the Inkle Loom that M, B, and I made last week. Haven't warped it or tried it out just yet...but will very soon.

Also recently got a fabulous book about Great Wheels written by Katy Turner. She has a deep level of respect and love for the Great Wheel, and reading her book has gotten me interested in digging deeper into the exploration of my Great.

I hope you can see, with all that, and knowing that you are getting only the highest level version, why I haven't been here much... But I promise to try to be better about it, now that I've caught up with the past.

Oh, and I'm thrilled to report that I got a new laptop in the middle of that too, which has improved my computing experiences greatly!!

A Day to Spin

2008-04-27T18:28:00.005-04:00

I know it's been a while again...I realized yesterday, as I was sitting at Saturday morning knitting, and today, as I woke up not having to BE anywhere, that this weekend is the first weekend in about two months that I haven't been dual booked for both days!! I have been doing quite a bit of knitting, but my spinning has definitely been left behind. Today I've remedied that.

I was fortunate to receive a wonderful piece of 1/4" thick leather last weekend with which to create new bearings for my Antique Saxony. Last night I made up a new one for the broken back bearing - this morning it was dry and I was able to try it out. The plying (of the Alpaca that I started at the Spin-in in St. Augustine) went ok. The drive band was still slipping off very regularly, but not quite as bad as it's been in the past. I finished up that bobbin and wound off ~155 yards . It was washed and hung out to dry (lovely warm breezy day outside, it dried in no time!). Here's what it looks like:

After that was off the wheel, I took it apart, made a new front bearing, and also spliced a new drive band. The old band had a knot in it that I'd put in to shorten the band because it was outside the tension range of the wheel. I'm hoping that two sturdy new bearings and a well spliced drive band will fix all the ails of this lovely wheel.

Since I couldn't do anything more with that wheel until the bearing dries, I decided to take Phebe for a whirl. Took off the cop of brown/white variegated that I spun on her way back when. Found a ball of not too compacted white wool in a box...nothing special. Spun that up. Removed that cop and decided to get brave and try plying on her. The verdict? I LIKED it! Almost enough that I might think about plying on her more often - even things spun on other wheels. The technique is basically the same one described by Riverrim. You'll notice that the drive band crosses around the spindle. This allows me to continue to turn the wheel clockwise, but the spindle will now turn counter-clockwise.
Riverrim has done some experimenting with tensioning her cops, but I'll admit, I didn't bother. Here's my back-hand and the cops. My index finger is between the two strands, controlling the ply and straightening any of those little overspun knees. The box kept the cops contained pretty well initially, though they did start hopping around a lot at the end when they were much lighter.

Ultimately, the two strands came out pretty even. The white was a few yards longer and I Andean Plyed it. I was not comfortable with this technique, as the hand holding the yarn in an Andean ply can't really tension the yarn at the same time because the yarn is constantly flopping around the hand as it unwinds. I have no problems with Andean when I can tension with my right hand (see the Alpaca from today).

Here are both of today's yarns side by side. The alpaca has been washed, the wool had not when this picture was taken, as I was concerned about loosing the natural light that I prefer to photograph yarn in.
I did notice that the wool (about 73 yards) was MUCH coarser than the alpaca. I washed it with a bit of hair conditioner and it is currently outside hanging to dry. Not sure what it might eventually become...but for now it's the very first finished yarn from MY Great Wheel!

ETA: The Antique Saxony is back in one piece, and with a couple of well placed wedges, it seems to be working well!! I had a problem early on, but then realized that one of the wedges had fallen out from the bottom. Since that one had already fallen out twice recently, I replaced it with a piece of balsa wood that is better wedged and shouldn't fall out. And it stayed on track thereafter!! I'm thrilled that it's working well, and will also take the precaution of getting a small portable hammer and taking leather and balsa with me the next time I take it on the road (Going to my first SCA event on Memorial Day Weekend - looking forward to it!!).

Hogwarts Revealed!

2008-04-14T06:58:00.003-04:00

Sorry it's been a while since my last update... I have SOOO much to say here, but know that if I try to write a marathon post, I'll just give up, because there's too much. So, going to try to break it up into a couple of smaller posts.

I know my regular readers have probably seen the various Harry Potter posts over the past few months and said Huh? It was for the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap 4 event that I participated in. While I was away, I got my package, from the lovely Selina Starfire!

Look, Look! I got a BROOM in the mail!!! It's really too bad this came after the deadline for "best package" submissions, because I think maybe the broom might have put her over the top!

There was lots of other great stuff in here too! A real light up wand, a lovely little tin that contains my yarn and BEADS for the socks! Some great candies, including my first package of Bertie Bots...do I dare?
The sock pattern is the Beaded Swirls Socks. These really are lovely! It'll be my first experience with stringing beads... will probably give me that much more appreciation for Judy Pascale's beading techniques!! (More on Judy's classes this weekend in another post at another time).

Also got a great Knitting Stitch Bible, this LOVELY hand-knit/lined project bag, beautiful beaded stitch markers, a copy of Knitter's magazine... What a cool, fun package!
Thanks Selina!!

Final SP Package!

2008-04-01T06:50:00.003-04:00

I got my final SP package last night, from Zimmie! Kind of funny really, since I was HER SP last year! Each of my packages has had a very specific color theme, and today it is BLUE! Blueberry Tea (this looks WONDERFUL!!), chocolate with blueberries, a blue cat tape measure (he's got a cute little tassel-y tail that you pull!), and the best part? Turquoise CTH Supersock! One more option to consider when I decide which skein of CTH I will use for the Judy Pascale bag class next weekend!! Thanks Zimmie, it's all wonderful!

Alpaca Farm Visit

2008-03-30T22:54:00.004-04:00

When I mentioned two weeks ago that we were going to an Alpaca Farm, my friend Judy said "I've never seen an Alpaca!" Well, of course she hasn't, because Judy is blind. However, it sparked the idea that we needed to rectify that! I contacted Jane of Land of Green Ginger Alpacas, where I had spun Alpaca fleece during their National Alpaca Farms Open House in September, to see if we could arrange a farm visit. Jane mentioned that they'd be having another open house today, so we were welcome to come out, and I could even do some spinning! That was perfect, since I had begun spinning a bobbinful of Ginger colored Huacaya Alpaca on my antique Saxony yesterday while at the St Augustine Spin In (I'll post more on that when I get copies of the pictures). So, I hopped in the car (the wheel was already there), and headed off to pick up Judy. For most of the afternoon, I spun, she knitted, we chatted with V who showed up at the same time we did, and had a lovely time. Once the crowds (sometimes 20-30 people at a time!!) left, Jane and Steve went to get two of the boys, put harnesses on them, and brought them out into the yard so Judy could meet them. The first Alpaca she met was Opie - short for Optimus Prime... Here she is just getting to meet him:

Feeling the head and ears to see what his face looked like:

And now down the neck to the back. Opie was VERY patient and SUCH a good boy the entire time he was with Judy. Alpaca are naturally extremely skittish about having their heads and necks touched, because that is how they fight each other, by attacking the neck. So, you can imagine the astonishment while he sat perfectly still:

Judy bent down and touched his legs to see what they were like and he lifted his foot for her without any irritation or stress. Again, their legs are only touched when it's time to trim their hooves, so not a favorite place to be touched. Steve commented that he won't even do that willingly for THEM! Proceeding on, she checked out the tail end of Opie:

And back to the blanket. You notice that hand really digging in to the fleece on his back. A testament to how thick and soft his fleece was!

And back to the neck. See that look on Jane's face? That's utter shock at how amazingly good Opie was with Judy.

Ahhh...and time and again I see in my pictures, Judy kept coming back to that hand buried in Opie's blanket... and yet you can see on his face, he is completely calm and not remotely stressed.

We did visit with a second alpaca... He wasn't quite as keen on the experience as Opie was. While Judy was petting this guy, I gently reached out to touch Opie's blanket and pet him a bit. Even with that simple motion, he shied from me just a little, and seemed somewhat anxious.

After meeting her new friend, Judy came back to pet Opie again. And even though he'd shied from me in the meantime, he was as docile as can be when Judy approached him again!!!

Overall, I would say we both had a WONDERFUL time at the farm. Judy and Opie seem to be fast friends for life! We did try to go in to feed the girls, but they had a lot of attention and quite a few treats throughout the day from the various visitors, so by that time they weren't really having any part of it. So, we'll have to go back again on a day when we can see the girls too!

Final Ravenclaw Quiz

2008-03-19T22:00:00.002-04:00

Who loves containers of all sorts? Esmerelda Beanswallow
Who dyed her fingers blue? Lavender Ackerly
Who is related to William Shakespeare? Celestina Cadogan
Who wants to own an alpaca farm? Victoria Black
Who hates carrots? Selina Starfire
Who is from the Muggle town of Bagshot in Surrey? Patonga Pinkstone
Who was searching for radishes in the winter? Madam Ferula McGonagall
Who got a gift certificate to a LYS from a Slytherin boy for Valentine's Day? Cecilia Kettleburn
Who discovered ghosts and house elves drinking tea in the Great Hall at midnight? Ophelia Hopkirk
Who took an extra credit class called Muggle Fantasy Literature? Selina Starflame
Who attended a Muggle music convention? Patonga Pinkstone
Who taught herself to purl backwards? Sera Starfire
Who sports Ravenclaw Spirit socks? Minee Quickspell
Who would like to work in Muggle Relations after graduation? Allitrya Spelling
Whose Mum is named Henrietta? Avada Finch-Fletchley

New Spinning Tools

2008-03-18T20:49:00.003-04:00

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!!! Spinning tools!! Both items are hand turned, courtesy of Fred. He has an Etsy store, and his wife has a blog.

The first is a spinning wheel hook. Just PERFECT for my antique Saxony wheel! The colors match VERY well. Now I just have to figure out how or where to hang it. The danger is that I can see it as a VERY popular cat toy if I'm not careful...

The second item is what's known as a wool finger. It was used to turn the wheel of the Great Wheel while spinning. Some versions suggest it was to give the spinner additional distance before they had to wind on. Another indicates that it was to prevent oils from the hands from getting on the wood of the wheel. Whatever the purpose, there is documentation dating back to at least the 14th Century of the use of a Wool Finger Luttrell Psalter. This one is a reproduction based on an actual antique.

I love how well the colors match the colors of my wheel! And look at the detailing! I'm not sure if that was the original detailing, or if Fred added the detail based on a photo of my wheel, but it looks GREAT!

Now I REALLY need to get spinning. The frantic cleaning is starting to abate somewhat, although there is still more to be done.

Ooohhh Baby (Alpacas...)

2008-03-16T21:42:00.004-04:00

What a Saturday!!

Left the apt at 8:45 to drive up and meet a spinner, C, who was selling a Babe Spinning wheel. We chatted for 15 min and she showed me the basics of the Babe which is in excellent shape. I put it in the car and headed to the Alpaca farm. Got to Southern Oaks Alpacas by 10:03, parked in the end of their neighbor's driveway - it was a LONG drive and the place was for sale, so it appeared vacant. Sat there, window down, enjoying the breeze, the animal sounds, etc, and knitting, for about 45 minutes until everyone else arrived. The location was gorgeous, hidden under old Oak trees, covered in Spanish Moss, breeze sighing through the trees.

We had a lovely time with the alpacas. Their animals are almost ALL Suri alpaca. They had ONE Huacaya alpaca, one llama, a great pyrenees dog... They had several babies as well, most in the 2-3 month old range.

Oh, did I forget to mention the cats? There were at least two, but this one was definitely the hit. I think we took more pictures of this cat than we took of the alpaca!!

What, you can't see the cat? Ok, well, let's let that white alpaca (who happens to share my birthday!!) take a breather and maybe you'll be able to see the cat better...

Yep...cat just laid there...the entire time we were there, letting the animals eat around him.

Another favorite of ours was Suelita... She was one lovable alpaca! Here she is giving J a kiss! Incidentally, her loving behavior made one thing clear...despite recent attempts otherwise, Miss Suelita was definitely NOT in the family way. Apparently when she gets preggers she turns into a moody hormonal grump! Not that way today, that's for sure!!

In fact, she laid right down on the ground in front of us so everyone could pet her, love on her, and get this great photo op of the whole group!!

I also wanted to introduce you to Twister. Poor baby. He's a little distraught right now, as he is being weened from Mama, and so he's separated from the herd. He does have another little boy in with him, to keep him company. He's not too interested in a friend right now, he just wants his mama. Mama has been relocated to another farm for some "adult time"...so in another year or so, perhaps Twister will be getting a baby brother or sister!

Oops...there goes the guy with the food wagon! Bye, bye alpacas!

The animals were beautiful. We spent an hour or more with the animals, then went to see the owner's workshop. She showed us some of the needle felting she does (most of it is on a fabric base). She also had a beautiful display set up with yarns, roving from their animals, and raw fleece. Her prices were very generous and everyone took full advantage of the opportunity to get some amazing yarn and fiber. I ended up with something over two pounds of raw fleece in a luscious dark chocolate brown.

After the farm we went to a "greek" restaurant right down the road. It had greek, italian, cuban, and creole options... Very tasty. While we were at the Alpaca farm, V said she'd been looking online at directions for making drop spindles and I said I had all of the ingredients plus the fiber available if she wanted a kit. She jumped at it, so I got the spindle together when we went to lunch, gave a demo, etc. Turns out she lives not far from me, so I expect I'll be seeing more of her.

After lunch I headed to Uncommon Threads in Palm Harbor. Was talking to one of the spinners there and had mentioned something about knitting at the pioneer event in Dade City. Then mentioned that we were knitting because there was already a spinner there, but then we went by to visit the spinner and I got to spin on a great wheel... She looked at my quizically and says "What was the spinner's name? I said "G"...and she said "What is YOUR name?" So I told her. She said "There was another person with you, with a drop spindle?" I said "yeah...." She went to a guild meeting FRIDAY and was chatting with G who was telling everyone all about the beautiful yarn I spun on the Great Wheel!!! I had it in the car, so brought it in so she could see it in person. Geez, it REALLY is a small world!!

After I left there, I called D who lives in Tampa. He was out and about. He gave me his $.02 on the directions I had, etc. We talked while I headed across town. He had to hang up to get gas. I then got lost, so called him back to figure out where the heck I was. He walked me through where I was and where I needed to go (I had fixed myself mostly). Got to Knit N Knibble, looked around for 5 min before D met me there. Picked out some needles, then asked the guy behind the counter if they had any CTH Garment patterns... He showed me what they had, which didn't include mine, then he went looking at the books...I said "oh, no, it's not in a book yet". He said "well, maybe we could order it for you"...so I said "well, no, I was actually looking to see if you carried it...it's my pattern that I designed". Then he was intrigued and insisted on knowing more, so I went out to the car to get the pattern and yarn. He came back when he'd finished with his next customer and I showed him the pattern and the back of the sweater... which looks like this now:

He LOVED it! Said he wanted to knit it, (and had enough CTH at home to do it!!), loved that I had photographed the frog instead of doing a drawing... So, he wrote down all the info, and will talk to the owner to see if she'll carry it. They carry tons of CTH, and we both agreed, the ability to sell 10 skeins for a project is a big deal! He helped me with the needles I needed and got me checked out. The good news is that with the needle purchase (and the stitch markers and pattern that I picked up at Uncommon Threads), I have all of the required components for my Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap! Now I just have to pick up a couple of the "optional" add-ins then it'll be on it's way!

After the yarn store, D and I dropped by the mall for a bit, then ran by Panera so I could grab a bite for dinner before heading home.

Grand totals for the day?
Mileage: ~200
Purchases:

2+ pounds lovely raw alpaca
8 oz Ashland Bay Merino in contrasting colors that will be beautiful plyed together
Stitch markers for HSKS4
Sock pattern for HSKS4
DPN's for HSKS4

People enabled: One - V for spinning. She also bought two pounds of raw alpaca for spinning!

Celebrated St. Patty's Day today by making Corned Beef & Cabbage with carrots, turnips, and homemade Whole Wheat Beer Bread! YUM! D came up to share my holiday repast.

And now, it's sad to say, my weekend ends and the new week will begin.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

2008-03-13T09:50:00.002-04:00

The Word of the Day for March 13 is:

distaff \DISS-taff\ adjective

1 a : related through a mother b : inherited or derived from the female parent
*2 : female

Example sentence:
The Solheim Cup pits America's best distaff golfers against the top European women.

Did you know?
A distaff was originally a short staff that held a bundle of fibers -- of flax or wool, for example -- ready to be spun into yarn or thread. Since spinning was a basic daily task customarily done by women, the distaff came to be the symbol for the work or domain of women. This symbolic use of the noun "distaff" dates back to the time of Chaucer and is found in several works by Shakespeare. Eventually "distaff" came to be used for the female branch of a family and then as an adjective, as in "the distaff side of the family."

To sign up for daily WOD emails, go to the Merriam-Webster website.

Quidditch ~ Round Three

2008-03-12T13:32:00.005-04:00

Quidditch ~ Round Three
1. When Rita Skeeter prints a bad article about Hagrid in the Daily Prophet, which Professor teaches Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class while he is away?
c. Professor Grubbly-Plank

2. What was the article Rita Skeeter wrote about Hagrid called?
c. Dumbledore's Giant Mistake

3. When the school champions were being chosen from the Goblet of Fire, whose name came out first?
b. Viktor Krum

4. What is the spell Ludo Bagman says to magically magnify his voice when he commentates?
a. Sonorus

5. What kind of dragon did Cedric have to face in the first task?
b. A Swedish Short-Snout

6. Who raised the trophy after winning the world cup?
b. Troy and Quigley

7. How many bedrooms did Mundungus Fletcher claim to have?
d. 12

8. For what did Moody mistake his birthday gift of a carriage clock?
b. A basilisk egg

9. What did Mr. Ollivander produce for the end of Cedric's wand?
d. Silver smoke rings

10. The dark mark is on Snape's left arm.
a. Yes

Picture Scavenger Hunt
Karkaroff
A Basilisk
Mundungus Fletcher
Amos Diggory
Snape

Disaster

2008-03-11T07:20:00.003-04:00

Woke up this morning...cat yak on the bathroom floor. Cleaned that up... In the living room...more cat yak...but this one was wet cotton string... Wondered what string I'd left laying around, because I really do try hard to pick them all up.... Hhmmm...that cord is braided white cotton...like candlewicking. Quick glance to Phebe - uh oh...no drive band... A further look? Remainder of the drive band stretched across the floor... All I can do is hope that no significant pieces were permanently ingested... :( I didn't exactly measure the length of wet chewed band...

*sigh*

We'd been doing so well. But this is probably my fault, since the food dishes are rather empty right now... NEED to stop on my way home tonight. THEN I'll need to slice and prep a new drive band :(

Ravenclaw Quiz #5

2008-03-06T23:08:00.002-04:00

Okay, Ravenclaws, it's quiz time again! This time I want you to summon up all your creativity and develop a spell for the following situations. Just the name of your spell will do:

1. Do my homework for me. Escribenum
2. Tidy up my bedroom. Organizum (I could REALLY use this one right now!!)
3. Make a delicious chocolate cake. Cocoayum
4. Make my professor stay in bed today. Petrificus Totalis (What? That's already been used?? Nah...)
5. I would like breakfast in bed, please. Ovus Resticus
6. Stick all my Quidditch opponents' feet to the floor. Tarfuticus
7. Give everyone the giggles. Hilarium
8. Dye some yarn in my favorite color. Colorificus
9. Unravel the mess I've made with my yarn. De-spagheticus
10. Knit my Prefect the perfect bag! Sackoloricum

Good luck! A prize goes to one lucky Ravenclaw!

It Has to Get Worse Before It Gets Better...

2008-03-05T09:13:00.002-04:00

Someone made this comment yesterday, and it's OH so true...

The arrival of Phebe has prompted me to make some changes to my space. With all of the yarn, books, etc, it's been rather cluttered.

I made a trip to Ikea on Sunday to check it out, see what they had, etc. I've decided on this shelving unit (probably in Black-Brown) to help me get organized. I'm also going to pick up a couple of these baskets for several of the shelves, to help organize random things that tend to float around.

So, in the meantime, all boxes, books, etc have been removed from the "target area" of the apartment...which means they are stacked in a big pile in my hallway. There are stacks near the utility close that will go up in the top, replacing yarn and fiber which will come down into the "new yarn room". Yes, that's basically what the shelf will be.

L is meeting me at Ikea, we're loading this stuff into her truck, then coming home, assembling, moving, etc. I did take before pics...so maybe I'll share before and after once this odyssey is complete.

Nope, haven't been knitting or spinning in the last two days...too busy trying to get the apartment ready for tonight.

And the verdict is....

2008-03-02T23:36:00.004-04:00

Yes, that's right, this was spun this evening! The Violin Rosin was what put us over the edge. I did tighten the tension a bit, loosened, then tightened the leather straps on the spindle, oiled the leather. (Took your advice and sanded and oiled it, Can you see the shine on the spindle?) I actually had to apply the rosin 5 or 6 times...I think it needed to build up a bit on the drive band. We'll see what it does the next time I sit down to it. Oh, and I think the wool makes a pretty big difference too. The wool I started with is wool that we use for new spinner drop spindle kits... It's kinda sticky and dense. The wool I switched to is a sample that some vendor sent me a couple of years ago with my order. It was much lighter, less sticky, easier to draft, and helped with the spindle issue.

It's definitely a learning process, and it'll be interesting to see how she behaves the next time I stand up to her, since she will have had some time to sit.

I mentioned that K and I spent the day dyeing last Sunday. We had a variety of dyes - some Jacquard dyes that she had, some acid dyes that I had. Everything was hand-painted/space dyed. We laid all of our fiber and yarn out on saran wrap, painted it with foam brushes and/or condiment bottles, rolled up the saran wrap and fiber, nuked for about 4 minutes, rinsed in cold water several times, rinsed in a bit of vinegar, then clear water.

My first attempt was this fiber. It's a Merino/Tencel blend. I found once again that Merino/Tencel is VERY difficult to handle when wet. The fibers will completely pull apart when wet. As you see, it's a little messy...not a nice neat tidy roving, but gorgeous colors!!

A close up! Look how soft that fiber is!!

After the fiber, I moved on to some KnitPicks SW Merino/Nylon sock yarn. Here are my two skeins. The first was Ravenclaw colors, the second used all of the different colors we had mixed. I CAN'T WAIT to see how this knits up into socks!! Yum!

The Ravenclaw yarn is actually a preview...of what I'll be sending to my HSKS4 downstream! It'll be a little while before I send it out (still need to make some stitch markers!), so all of you who are drooling and wondering if it's yours will just have to keep wondering ;) Below, your yarn and bag.

May I Introduce Empress Phebe!

2008-03-01T17:18:00.005-04:00

She's here, she's here!!! I'd like to introduce you to Empress Phebe!

Isn't she Beautiful?!? Phebe arrived today and quickly took up her spot in her new home. I've been working on a functional drive band. I have three, but all are slipping a bit here and there. Have been advised to get some violin rosin to help with this, so will try to get some while I'm out tomorrow. Current, and probably final, drive band is a large candlewick band. I think in part because her former band was heavily waxed, that is part of the reason it's slipping.

Here's a closeup of the wheel itself.
And the spindle head. It's a simple spindle, and quite likely not the original, since the spindle wood doesn't really match the rest of the wheel. The leather ties are new, but I've oiled them thoroughly. Once my band is regularly connecting with the spindle whorl, I think all will be well. I've tried it at a variety of tensions, but nothing seems to work.

Another view of the spindle. We did notice that the spindle itself seems somewhat rusty. Suggestions on what I can treat it with? This cop (that's what they call the wrapped up yarn on the spindle!) was the one I spun when we tried it out at the previous owner's home before it was rescued from being furniture.

I'm sure you'll be hearing more stories as we get to know each other over the next few weeks. I can't wait to actually spin on her!

HSKS4 Ravenclaw Quiz #4

2008-02-27T13:06:00.002-04:00

1. What colorless and odorless potion forces the drinker to tell the truth? Veritaserum

2. If the spell to Apparate goes wrong and leaves half of you behind, you have been what? Splinched

3. Who wrote the Standard Books of Spells Grades 1 and 2? Miranda Goshawk

4. What is it called when brother wands meet? Priori Incantatem

5. Name the charm used by Ludo at the World Cup to amplify his voice. Sonorus

6. For what is the charm Aparecium used? To make invisible ink visible

7. What charm requires the use of a Secret-Keeper? Fidelius

8. What color should the Strengthening Potion be? Turquoise

9. What plants are used in preparing a confusing potion? sneezewort, scurvy-grass, and lovage

10. What condition is cured by Glumbumble? hysteria caused by eating Alihotsy leaves

11. What potion makes a werewolf safe so he can keep his mind when he transforms, and what substance makes it useless? The Wolfsbane Potion allows the werewolf some peace, sugar makes it ineffective.

12. When does Fluxwood, an ingredient used in making Polyjuice Potion, have to be picked? During a Full Moon

13. What color should a Shrinking Solution be? bright acid green

14. What potion is made from asphodel and wormwood? Draught of Living Death

15. For what are Jobberknoll feathers used? memory potions and Truth serums

Great Wheel Acquired!

2008-02-23T22:47:00.002-04:00

But not mine...

K had called the guy for the one we saw on Craig's list, and he called back today and asked if she wanted to come see it. So, she, her DH and I piled into their SUV and headed out to the guy's house. It was a beautiful wheel. Very little wood failure that I could see. There was a crack on the wooden disc that the cop backs up to, but that was about it. The band that was on it wasn't optimal - it had a huge knot on it that often had to be guided over the spindle. No Miner's head - she can look for one later if she wants one. Oh, and the wheel support arm would move a bit without too much coersion (backing up or getting that knot over the spindle) and the band would fall off. Those minor issues aside, it's beautiful. So, she got it and we piled it in the car to take home. I haven't seen it since she made the adjustments we talked about, but she's planning to work on that this evening.

Tomorrow we are going to have a dyeing day. We have some Knitpicks sock yarn that we'll dye (I'm thinking I may dye the yarn for my HSKS4 Pal tomorrow!!). I have some Merino/Tencel and also a couple of silk caps. K has some Corriedale I believe... So we're going to have a fun day and dye all sorts of things. And I might try out the Great again while I'm there...make sure the new setup works properly of course...

Will show the results of our dyeing day in a couple of days...

Making slow progress on destashing and organizing too...

SP Package & Trunk Show!!

2008-02-20T23:44:00.003-04:00

I got a great new package in the mail from my SP yesterday....

This was my "purple" package!! A really cool sewn sock bag in brilliant bright colors (including purple!), purple tea (Twinings Darjeeling - never tried Darjeeling before, thanks!), a cool heart shaped ornament in purple, and YUMMY purple wrapped dark chocolate! Oh wait, did I mention the purple packaged kitty treats??

It's funny really....Timothy has had treats a few times when he was a kitten, and occasionally over the past 15 years. He adores them and chows down. It's even more exciting if he has to "catch" it. Smokey? He'll go lick at it a bit and then walk away, leaving it where it sits. I've seen him do this with quite a few different kinds of treats. Strange cat. Timothy loved them though, and was more than happy to eat Smokey's portion :)

In other news, we had a trunk show at our knitting meeting tonight from Blue Heron Yarns! What a wonderful array of yarns! Some were mis-dyes, some were closeouts, there were all sorts of different materials, colors, etc. I took my camera to take pictures, and then I got so preoccupied, I forgot to even get it out!!! Everyone had a great time browsing though, and the prices were excellent. Here's a photo of what I got. These were each "Rayon Metallic" yarns, and about 550 yards per skein.

I think the first two will make for a very nice sweater/shell for me. The blue/navy?...will make a DIVINE shawl... And the black...well, it's not quite a true black (which was why it was in the closeout bin), but it's pretty close...and will make a lovely elegant shawl for evening wear, etc. I've been in need of a black shawl for a while, and this one will be just great!

Fun was definitely had by all!!

Quidditch - Round 2

2008-02-18T16:47:00.004-04:00

Quidditch ~ Round Two

1. With whom does Ginny go to the Yule Ball?
a. Neville
b. Dean
c. Seamus
d. Harry

2. When Harry arrives at the Burrow and Mrs. Weasley makes them all dinner the night before they leave for the Quidditch World Cup, what does her wand turn into?
a. rubber mouse
b. rubber chicken
c. rubber duck
d. rubber cat

3. Since some of the sixth-year girls didn't have any quills on them, what did they think Krum might sign their hats in?
a. nail polish
b. eyeliner
c. lipstick
d. lipliner

4. How old does the Quick Quotes Quill say that Rita Skeeter is?
a. 43
b. 44
c. 34
d. 335.

What color cloak is wormtail wearing in the Riddle house?
a. Grey (Gray)
b. Black
c. Gold
d. Silver

6. What color is "Mad Eye" Moody's magical eye?
a. Green
b. Hazel
c. Brown
d. Blue

7. What color are the robes that Rita Skeeter was wearing when Harry meets her at the Weighing of the Wands ceremony?
a. Lilac
b. Magenta
c. Mauve
d. Cerise

8. What does Sirius Black tell Harry, Ron and Hermione to call him when speaking around anyone else?
a. Tibbles
b. Snuffles
c. Scruffy
d. Padfoot

9. Which team beat Wales, disqualifying them from competing for the Quidditch World Cup?
a. Hungary
b. Romania
c. Uganda
d. Luxembourg

10. What does Madame Maxime say is the only thing her steeds will drink?
a. cabernet sauvignon
b. bourbon
c. single-malt whiskey
d. gin and tonics

Picture Hunt

Goblet of Fire
Madam Maxime
Dragon from first challenge
Viktor Krum
Madame Pomfrey

JOY!!!

2008-02-17T21:17:00.003-04:00

Oh what a JOYFUL day!!!

Yes, that's right, this is the start of the back of my jacket! Some of you may recognize the bright brilliant colors in the center square. With huge thanks to Carla, I was able to obtain yarns in the original dye lots for my jacket. I cast it on today and began knitting it, and the only way to describe the feeling was that of utter joy. I said that and one of the women asked me if that was sarcasm. It totally is not. I felt fulfilled to be able to start this again.

For those who may be new readers, the ultimate goal is this:

The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, designed by me, published by Cherry Tree Hill.

Ravenclaw Quiz

2008-02-13T23:36:00.002-04:00

Here is your House Quiz. How well have you studied the women of Ravenclaw? We'll see, because this is not a multiple choice quiz! Remember, answers are due by Friday, February 15, at midnight. A wonderful prize will be awaiting one person!

1. What is Professor McGonnagall's first name? Minerva

2. Who is the librarian of Hogwarts? Madam Pince

3. What is Madam Rosmerta's job? Owner and Bartender at the Three Broomsticks Pub

4. What is Rita Skeeter's secret? She's an unregistered animagus - a beetle

5. Madam Hooch is instructor of what subject? Broomstick flying

6. Who is Parvati Patil's best friend? Lavender Brown

7. What Quidditch position does Cho Chang play? Seeker

8. What is the name of Fleur Delacour's little sister? Gabrielle

9. Who is professor of Divination? Professor Sybill Trelawney

10. Who wrote "A History of Magic"? Bathilda Bagshot

GREAT Weekend!!!

2008-02-13T21:22:00.003-04:00

I imagine I must have mentioned, if not here then at least in some of my forums, that I would be going to a Pioneer Museum event last weekend. This was something that K found out about and arranged. The deal was, they already had a spinner and didn't need any more, but they were happy to have us come out in costume and knit for the weekend. The venue was the Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City, FL.

It's a great site, and they have a dozen or so buildings which have been rescued from other locations and moved to their little "town". Sadly I did not charge my batteries before going, so I have some pictures, but several that I wanted to take are not here. When we arrived, we were directed to the John Overstreet house, a lovely two story colonial built in the mid 1860's. The porch had a wooden porchswing, a stationary bench, and several other chairs. K and I took up residence on the porchswing end, since we were the first to arrive. She in a chair and I on the swing. We covered our non-authentics (Mickey Mouse tote bag and a Playmate cooler!) with a plaid blanket and sat down to knit.

The residents of the other end of the porch were a corn straw broom-maker and her mother, who was quilting. Each room of the house was set up with a little period display for people to look at as they walked through. Also found in the house, on the second floor, was a Great Wheel. Later conversation indicated that this was a working wheel.

K and I took turns walking around to see some of the displays and such. She went to find the spinner first, and directed me when I went for my walk. The spinner was a lovely lady who lives locally, spinning on an Ashford Traditional in a room full of antique sewing machines and spinning wheels. I took stock of her room while chatting with her...there were three great wheels in various states, and an antique Saxony sitting high on a shelf in one corner. The Saxony was missing the footman, but otherwise looked to be in good condition. There was a Great in the closet underneath it. Wheel was beautiful, but the upright and spindle/miner's head were missing entirely. On the other side of the room were two more Greats, one with it's drive band wrapped around the wheel shaft, the other with no band. Both seemed to have complete spindles. Talked with G for a while - she was trying to get us to bring our wheels the next day and come spin with her...only one problem - it was an hour and a half drive to each of our houses to get wheels. K tried to talk her DH into bringing both her Saxony and Lendrum, but he wasn't having any part of it. Said goodbye to G and that we'd be back the next day to drop in.

Saturday night we stayed in a local hotel...checked in in costume...when we came back from dinner, the desk clerk quipped "Oh, you changed clothes!" On Sunday we were off again. It was a little cooler and downright chilly in the shade on the porch. I decided to see the other half of the compound that I hadn't visited Saturday, so went to visit the church:

Then visited the little red one-room schoolhouse...

Was up in the front of the main checkin building when a man came in to talk to the front cashier, asking where he could find the "spinners"...well, of course my ears perked up, though I didn't say anything since officially I was a "knitter" for the weekend. She sent him around to G's room, so I quickly wandered out and down the path to drop in for a visit...

Turned out he had 300 lbs of Alpaca Fleece, and he was looking for someone who would sit in his friend's antique shop in town and spin it!!! His friend would get the benefit of having a spinner in house for atmosphere, and the spinner would be able to sell the spun yarn in the shop to make a little extra money. Ah, if only it wasn't an hour + drive to get to that town!!!

Anyhow, he left after a bit and I got to talking with G again. I was once again eyeing the wheels, and looking over the Greats. The more I looked, the more it looked like the one with the drive band might actually be spinnable! So, I convinced G to let me/help me turn it around (the spinning side was against the wall). We unwound the drive band and slid it onto the wheel. A turn or two and it fell off. We had already discovered that the wheel pivoted on it's axis....when we turned it around, the wheel ended up at a 30' angle to the base! So, we adjusted the angle a little more to try to keep the band on, and it worked!! G handed me a ball of fiber and I borrowed a bit of spun yarn for a leader, and tied it onto the spindle. Last year I had seen one of these spun very briefly, and had actually attempted to spin on it myself, so I had a tiny bit of a clue what I was doing (but only that!). It was definitely a little creaky, and the spindle didn't want to reverse very well... After spinning on it for a while, it was getting louder, so I borrowed the oil bottle from G and put a couple of drops inside each of the leather straps supporting the spindle, and a couple under the drive band where it connected with the spindle (it was a direct drive, not an accelerated head). Continued spinning and WOW! All of a sudden backing it off was a BREEZE! It definitely needed that little bit of oil!

I did finally go up and get K and let her know where I was/invite her back down. She came with. At that point she took this picture for me...the last one before the batteries died!

The wool is a merino/mohair blend, raised by G's friend in Massachusetts. He handwashes it, then indigo dyes, then combs into lovely lightweight roving. It's got just a touch of lanolin in it (part of G's schtick...getting the kids to feel the lanolin then telling them what it is). It spins great, and was a perfect fiber for the long draw needed for the Great Wheel. K came down to visit with us and hung out for a little while. She brought a drop spindle, so at one point we had a drop spindle, and Great, and a Traditional all going at once. It was fun to talk the evolution of spinning with all of the cool demos going on.

K got tired and went back to the porch (sadly it was a little close in the room...especially with three of us in there spinning). I planned to go back...really I did... The Great just totally pulled me in. G went to lunch...and came back...and still I was spinning. I finally decided to go to lunch, then someone came and asked how the Great worked....so I demo'd again... I did finally go eat...around 2ish! Overall, I think I spent about 4 hours spinning!

Then came the next challenge...what to do with the single that I'd spun?! Since there was nothing on the spindle, I really didn't have any way to slide it off and retain the shape. I wasn't really sure how I would go about plying on the Great either for that matter. I did have a nice sturdy, if somewhat "fuzzy" single. I think the Great lends itself to a more "woolen" fiber, since you aren't guiding/smoothing with the second hand. So, decided to wind it off onto my hand in an Andean style.
I did mention that my camera had died, right? So right near the end of the day this man comes along, asking about what I was doing, etc. He asks me if I read "The Laker"...turns out it's a local paper. For which he works. He asked to take my picture and said it might get published (G said she'd send me a copy if she saw it - since I live totally out of the area of that paper). I agreed and gave him my card so he could email it.

Finally got it all wound off...and it was 3:40. Twenty minutes to ply 180 yards of single into a 90 yard two-ply...spinning backwards on a Great Wheel... I tried it. Really. Plyed about two yards and changed my mind. Wound it back to my hand, slid the whole thing around my wrist (ok, so it was already there), and packed up our stuff. Packed the car, drove an hour back to meet K's DH, sat down at a restaurant and had dinner, then drove another half hour home. Yes, still with my big fat yarny bracelet. Got home, plied it on my antique Saxony (so it was still plied on a period wheel), then wound it off onto the Niddy Noddy. Ended up with right around 85 yards...to 1 3/8 ounces. Here's the skein:

And here's a closeup:

As I mentioned, you can definitely see that this is a more woolen yarn. Now I have to figure out what I can do with 85 yards of fingering/dk weight yarn - and what in a "colonial period" context.

So, what now? G has told us all about the event that they do on Labor Day weekend, which tends to draw a lot more kids. This event was in large part a Draft Horse pull and Tractor pull competition, as well as a quilt show, and therefore tended to draw an older crowd. Even though the temps will be a lot higher in September, the Great Wheel draws to me... I'm very inclined to come out for Labor Day just to spin on it again... We really enjoyed showing people the amount of work I was doing, then comparing that to G with her seated, treadled wheel and flyer uptake.

Oh...and there's something else... I WANT MY OWN GREAT WHEEL!!! This doesn't sound like such a huge request, unless you've seen my apartment...or my car... I live in a studio apt. 450 sq feet. It's small. It's crowded. There's really no way I can spin on a Great in my apt. But... I could take it to demo events and show it off THERE!! And I could hang the wheel from hooks on my wall... So I'd only have to find storage space for the base... Am I insane? I know someone who has a Great that she's been wanting to sell for the past two years...and there's another on Craig's list that looks pretty good too... Oh, and I have even more inspiration since I found this amazing wonderful, inspiring blog.

No more Excuses!!!

2008-02-06T19:35:00.001-04:00

GREAT NEWS!! I got replacement yarn in the mail today to finally make my jacket with!! No, no, not from CTH. As it happens, Carla from Chez Casuelle (now Hanks) had some sample balls of the various colors that she had rolled up for people to play with while the contest was going on. When she sold the store, she retained all of those partial balls...so, I contacted her, because of course THOSE were the same dye lots that I made the original from...and lo and behold, she still had them!! They are pretty much complete skeins, with only a few grams missing from each, so there will be PLENTY of yarn for me to remake the sweater!! Hooray!!!

So, now I have no more excuses not to finish it... well... except for...

I'm in the middle of my bag for the HSKS4 Swap... It's coming along nicely...the pattern is sort of a hybrid between a few things I found online and my own design! It will be felted two color entrelac! (that's a hint, though it'll be a long time before it is received, so this post should have migrated down a bit and will be harder to find...). I'm still trying to get to a decent yarn store to pick out some sock yarn and needles...and I think a friend is going to help me a bit with my stitch markers.

This weekend K and I will be doing period reenactment knitting at the 18th Annual Quilt Show and Farm Festival. It looks like a fun event...too bad they already have spinners... So I'll be casting on a handspun woolen sock on Rosewood DPN's to work on for that event.

Trying to also get information on the St. Augustine Spin-In, which I've been to the past two years. Last year it was March 30th.

Ok, those might be the big things between me and my jacket... I would love to get it done for the Central Florida Fair, but that means completing it in 2 months. That's exactly how much time it took me the last time, but I was knitting REALLY hard to get it done in that time frame. Maybe it'll go into NEXT year's fair...

HSKS4 Quidditch Match #1

2008-01-30T23:01:00.000-04:00

Quidditch Quiz #1:

1. What was Harry dreaming about the first time he woke up with his scar on fire?
a. Voldemort and Wormtail plotting to kill Dumbledore
b. Voldemort and Wormtail plotting to kill him
c. Voldemort and Wormtail plotting to kill Sirius
d. Voldemort and Wormtail plotting to kill Cornelius Fudge

2. What is the problem with leprechaun gold?
a. It vanishes after a few hours
b. It vanishes after a few weeks
c. It's only good in Ireland
d. It enchants you and makes you forget everything else

3. Why did Mad-Eye Moody turn Malfoy into a ferret?
a. Malfoy had said something rude about Mad-Eye
b. He was teaching him 'constant vigilance'
c. Malfoy attached Harry when Harry's back was turned
d. He hated Malfoy's father

4. Sirius warns Harry to be careful around Karkaroff because he had been a Death Eater. Which one of the professors at Hogwarts, who also used to be a Death Eater, is frequently bothered by Karkaroff?
(Answer is One Word, Last Name Only)
Snape

5. Voldemort could have used the blood from any foe to make the potion that revived him work, but he held out for Harry's blood. Why?
a. To show that Dumbledore could not protect Harry
b. To prove that Harry could not apparate
c. The special protection Harry received from his mother would also pass to Voldemort
d. Simply because he hated Harry that much

6. How old would Frank have been on his next birthday?
a. 76
b. 73
c. 70
d. 77

7. Amos Diggory works for?
a. The Department of Mysteries
b. The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures
c. The Goblin Liaison Office
d. The Committee of Experimental Charms

8. Who shared a carriage with the three friends on the way from the train to Hogwarts?
Answer: Neville

9. What date in October did the delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive?
a. 30th
b. 31st
c. 1st
d. 2nd

10. What color were Percy's dress robes at the Yule Ball?
a. Navy Blue
b. Maroon
c. Emerald Green
d. Claret
Picture Scavenger Hunt
Please either post the pictures to your blog or link to where the pictures can be found.

Mr. Ollivander

Mad-Eye Moody

Cedric

World Cup Tournament

Dark Mark

Here, There, Everywhere!!

2008-01-23T08:14:00.001-04:00

Wow...I feel like my brain is going in 10 different directions!

The Hogwarts Sock Kit swap (see link in sidebar) is heating up...lots of fun activities, quizzes, daily riddles...and a million blogs that I'll admit I'm not reading much of... I've been planning what I want to do for my partner's bag. I'm going to kinda wing it I think...have some design ideas, need to look up a particular "stitch" pattern.
Hoping to make it to Tampa this weekend for some shopping for the same.
The trip to Tampa would/will hopefully be double duty (for a date!)
Fishing is going well, but ooooohhhhhh so exhausting!
It's spring which is time for all sorts of events - Central Florida Fair coming up, looking forward to a new teacher - Judy Pascale is coming in April!
We'll be having a trunk show of Blue Heron Yarns in February.

Hogwarts Happenings

2008-01-15T23:36:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed the recent addition of a Hogwarts Button to my blog... That's right, I'm also participating in the HSK4 Swap!

I got an owl the other day with my swappee - another Ravenclaw! Hooray! The timing of the owl was perfect, since I was headed to Miami on Friday on a roadtrip! I've picked up a couple of skeins of yarn so far...as for the socks, I think I might even try dyeing my own! Not certain just yet. Am hoping to learn a bit more about my swappee that might help me decide what kind of sock yarn would be good for her!

I'm also thinking of talking to one of the girls in my new knitting group about beads - she makes some of the worlds most gorgeous handmade glass beads and buttons....

I am a bit sad that I didn't choose to create a character blog for the HSK4, but as hard a time as I'm having just updating THIS blog regularly, I don't think I could really do it justice.

Renewal and Rejoicing

2008-01-15T23:18:00.000-04:00

Even though you might not realize it from reading this blog, I've gotten myself involved in several new knitting swaps. The first is the Knittyboard SP10 swap. I have great up and downstreams - my first package arrived last week from my upstream. It's a beautiful green package all about renewal, life, and new beginnings!

Look at all of the wonderful loot!!! Stash Green Chai Tea, Amelie, a great Green Notepad, and amazing chocolate (ok, so that's not green, but it's super yummy)! And the best part? Look here:
It's just under 4oz of Corriedale roving, and it's sooooo soft...I almost would have thought it was Merino!! Another spinning friend made the same mistake! It's so luscious, I really want to break it out and start spinning it RIGHT NOW, but I'm afraid that would be a mistake. You see, Patsy Z will be flying in Friday night, and teaching us a class in spinning with color on Saturday!! So, for now I need to keep my bobbins free. After the class is over though, all bets are off.

In amazingly coincidental theming, here's a sneak peak of one of the many things I have planned for my DOWNSTREAM! Oh, and I finished some spinning for her this week too...again, realized on Saturday that I had to empty my bobbins!

I've hatched several plans for my downstream...in fact, I have most everything planned out!! Now I'm just in need of a package of supplies that I'm waiting on.

As to the rejoicing part? That new knitting group we started? Our first "regularly scheduled" meeting had NINE people in attendance!!! Hooray!

New Knitting Group!!!

2008-01-03T23:15:00.000-04:00

It's official!!!

There's a NEW Fiber Group in Town!!

Some of you may know I've been wanting to start a "local" group for a while. Tonight I got a couple of other Ravelers together and we had our first meeting!!

We are the Four Corners Fiber & Craft group!

We already span a wide range of crafts, including Knitting, Crochet, Spinning, Felting, Glass-working, Pottery, Counted Cross Stitch, Swedish Weaving... What else can you add to our resume? We will meet on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month from 6pm-8pm and would LOVE it if you decide to join us!

Christmas Present? I need your Vote!!

2007-12-26T20:16:00.000-04:00

Ok, I need your help! I'm torn between several different items for my Christmas present. I have a check, as well as a GC to Barnes and Noble, so I can combine them if I want something large from a bookstore, like this (item 1). I've been wanting to get that for quite a while, so it has definite appeal, AND I don't own any of them yet.

Then, there is THIS gorgeous item (item 2) that a friend found for me when I mentioned that I was looking for the perfect pair to complement my Pioneer costume (with this dress and these socks, in case you've forgotten):

Finally, there are boring, but necessary things like these... (item 3) Ok, so the sale makes them look more appealing, but eeewwwww.... That's not a CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!

So, what should I get for Christmas? Item 1, Item 2, or Item 3? Please leave a comment with your vote!

Wedding Shower!

2007-12-20T23:52:00.001-04:00

Some of you already know this, but the Founder of the Knit or Knot Guild has found love once again, and in a short week and a half, will be marrying her sweetheart! We're all so thrilled for her, and wanted to do something special. So, as a group, we knit the Great American Aran Afghan as a wedding present for them.

The plan was to give it to them at our December meeting. In order to get them to the meeting, we decided to have a "Holiday Potluck". Ok, well, that's what SHE thought. Here's what the decorations REALLY looked like:

Our decorator also made these cute little shower favors for our guests! Stitch Markers!
T & J arriving for the Holiday Party, only to suddenly find out that they were the Guests of Honor!! We said for our "Holiday Party" that spouses were welcome, in order to get J to come. In a rousing success, 4 of our other long time members brought their own spouses, helping J to feel very comfortable, as well as giving the guys time to socialize too!

There was a lovely garland of "wedding advice" Knitter's style prepared by all attendees... Some of the gems included "K Knaked" and "Handwash Often"! Not holding out the suspense, we presented T & J with their gift:

Of course, T's first question was "Who knit this??" The framed, signed photo provided those answers:

It's wonderful to see T SOOOO happy!!

The lovebirds wrapped in their afghan:

And here's the full view photo!

T's comments today: "Tonight we kept the patio doors open and snuggled under the afghan. It is so warm and soft and fun to examine all the different patterns in the squares."

She also shared, last night, that this is the FIRST shower she's ever had! It's true!! When she married 49 years ago, it was to elope, so no shower. Also there was no baby shower when her son was born! We're so happy we could share this wonderful first with T & J, and we know that they will have a long and beautiful marriage!

Intervention?, INTERVENTION?!?!

2007-12-20T22:30:00.000-04:00

Ok, so after that glowing report I just gave about how much my team is now appreciating my knitting?...

We had a going away brunch this morning for two team members - one was promoted, the other is an intern who's time with us is nearing an end. I figured hey, it's breakfast, we'll be eating, but I'll bring my knitting anyhow, to kill time before, and if necessary, distract myself from eating, nibbling, etc after... After 20 min or so, my boss says "I think you have a knitting problem...this isn't really a going away party, really we all came together to have an intervention for you..."

I did mention something about a T-shirt that M shared with me recently:
Got up to go to the restroom...came back... Knitting bag was GONE! Of course I noticed immediately! Fortunately they had coerced my old boss (the one who learned the word "skein") into "hiding" the bag...but he was really not a willing participant, so one or two words from me and he caved!

They're Not Laughing Now!

2007-12-18T20:26:00.001-04:00

It has been a point of amusement, awe, learning, etc for years around my workplace that I knit. As has been reported previously, one boss is still very proud of learning the word "skein" - and uses it whenever there's an opportunity! Another brought me a skein of mohair from South Africa when he came back from his vacation there! My teams have eagerly followed the design process as I knit and submitted the Cherry Tree Hill jacket. They look on in amusement on the occasions that I bring knitting to a meeting or conference call. Of course, they all dutifully ask whenever I wear a "new" sweater (Hey, this is FL, I don't get to wear them that often, so if I'm on a new team once a year, my old sweaters are always new!) if I made it - and the answer is typically yes as I have only 2 or 3 store bought sweaters in my closet.

So today, we had our team holiday potluck, and the Global team that we report up to was invited to join us. After we ate, they told us that they had been going around to each of the 5 regions (we were last) and doing a fun activity with everyone - making paper plate snowmen! They provided us with paper plates, colored construction paper, google eyes, pompoms, pipe cleaners, scissors, glue, crayons and pencils, and yarn for the construction of these snowmen.

Wait, did she say YARN?? Yep, she did. The idea was to punch a hole in the top plate and a hole in the bottom, pull yarn through them and tie the two plates together. Of course my mind started wandering as soon as I saw the yarn. The leader that was introducing the project knows me a bit, and said "Now Jody, you can't knit with the yarn, you only have a total of 35 min to complete these projects". Yeah, who's she kidding?? So, I glued on my eyes, cut out hands, feet, and a hat from the construction paper and glued those together. Started surveying the items at hand... knitting needles? Nope - didn't bring my purse to the meeting - needles were a mile away at my resort. Pipe cleaners? Hhmmm...probably on the flimsy side and might not provide a large enough needle size. Chop Sticks? Perhaps one of the secretaries might have some leftover from ordering chinese... Ah, but then there's the possibility that someone might cry foul. You see, of the 9 snowmen created in OUR meeting, we were to choose the 2 best to move on to the Global office where all 10 of the best would be judged by an impartial panel (people in their building who don't know us and wouldn't be biased)! The winner of that competition would secure a prize for their entire team! Looking around further, I found two lovely sharp pencils nearby! So, quickly cast on a 5 stitch garter scarf and spent the next 20 minutes or so zipping out a 10-14" garter scarf for Mr. Snowman! There was much amusement and conversation - and a lot of disbelief!

I did finish the scarf, though it was a tad shorter than I might have liked - threw some tassels on the ends, and tied it around his neck! The finished product? Have a look:

My team decided unanimously that he would definitely be one of the two to move on to the next phase of competition. So, he was transported along with Mr. T the snowman to the finals!

The good news about being the very last team to participate, is that they did the judging this afternoon, so we had to wait only a couple of hours to hear who won. And the final verdict? Three way tie with my Snowman with Hand-knit scarf being one of the three!! So, everyone's now wondering and conjecturing what the "prize" for winning will be. One thought was an ice cream social for our team - a likely possibility. Another thought might be a pair of movie tickets for each person... We won't find out until after the new year, but we're all happy that my little bit of knitting paid off!

As a side note, the judges did not know who submitted what, and none of them knew me well enough to know that I knit, but one of the other managers that works with the Global team walked by and looked over the finalists. She IMMEDIATELY said "I know who did THAT one!" - then proceeded to call me and tell me about it :) And it's true, no one on the overall team would have a hard time identifying that as mine.

4th Annual Distaff Day Event!!

2007-12-16T09:32:00.000-04:00

The Orlando Area Knitters and Spinners are once again pleased to announce:

“The 4th Annual Distaff Day”

Location:

Presbyterian Church of the Lakes
4700 Lincoln Ave.
Orlando, FL 32819

Saturday, January 5th, 2008h from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Day’s Events

10:00 -12:00 - Meet, Greet, Coffee, Goodies, Spin, and Knit
12:00 - 1:00 - Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 - Fashion Show
2:00 - 3:00 - ‘Yankee Swap’
3:00 - 4:00 - More Spinning, Knitting, Chatting, Sharing

If you have any questions I can help!

Cost: $5.00 – (Monies collected will be given to the church for the use of the room)

What to Bring:

1. Spinning Wheel, Knitting, Weaving, Beading, etc. (whatever you have put away, or not, and want to work on)

2. Bag Lunch – There is a Publix and Albertson’s close by with a deli if any one forgets.

3. Coffee or Tea mug - The Hosting Guilds will provide the beverage and treats. (cookies and veggies)

4. Item for the “Yankee Swap” Put in a plain paper bag and seal so the contents cannot be viewed. This item should have a value of up to $20.00 and should also be something that if you get you will be thrilled!!! (Because you might!!)

5. Items for the “Sale Table” Just like last year. Items that you have decided you might not want and would like to sell. Put a tag on the item with you name and price.

6. FREE TABLE – Some people prefer just to give things away, so get to the “Distaff Day” early “The early bird gets the worm!!”

7. The “Fashion Show” – Bring an item you made this year and share with us your experience and talent!!!!

All activities are voluntary. Feel free to participate in all or none

See you on the 5th!!!!!

To SP or not to SP, That is the question!

2007-12-12T13:56:00.000-04:00

Knittyboard SP10 is about to get started, signups close in two days! I filled out most of my survey weeks ago... But I haven't decided whether to turn it in yet or not...

Yay - It's fun to spoil someone and get spoiled in return. You may be introduced to new yarns, patterns, books, teas...who knows!

Nay - It starts right after the holidays. I'm having a hard time even getting motivated to spoil family for Christmas, much less a downstream. I have a TON of yarn. There are good upstreams, and then there are just so-so upstreams. I don't want to BE or GET a just so-so Upstream...

The dating thing has been taking up a lot of my time lately, though it doesn't appear to be going very far very fast. So, I just don't know. What do YOU think?

Help out a Fiber Person in Need...

2007-11-28T16:14:00.000-04:00

Alyson had to have surgery done on her doggy Bitty, and is trying to raise some funds to help pay for it. Pick up some cool yarn/roving and help out a fellow knitty!

Busy!!!

2007-11-23T21:36:00.000-04:00

Where HAVE I been?!? (I know the Saturday gals have been asking that question for weeks now!) Well, there was the Pioneer Day event - I already showed you the pictures of that... Then there was my trip to Macon to visit my friends and their family. We had a wonderful weekend, went to see an amazing Archeological site, and spent lots of good time with friends. Oh, and I managed to hit 4 knitting stores that weekend...2 in Macon, 2 in Gainesville. I also cast on for those socks I've been talking about...knit both of them up and turned the heels that weekend!

Came home sick (courtesy of the 2yo), but got over that in time to go to Tampa with M this past weekend for my first Native American Powwow!! Had a fabulous time, loved all the dance competitions, the dancers in their native regalia, the drums, and the jewelry and things for sale. It might have convinced me to dig out my inkle loom and learn how to bead! Also can't wait to make it to the Family History Center to do more family research!! Too bad their hours are so limited.

I did get quite a bit of knitting done at the powwow...the beauty of straight knitting is that it didn't take a lot of concentration, so I could focus on the dancers! Oh, and I tried to take pictures, but it was really too dark in the arena, and the flash didn't carry sufficiently to get any good ones. I did have a lovely conversation with another attendee who sat in front of us, mentioned what a good idea I had to bring my knitting, then mentioned that she had been trying to learn continental, but kept twisting her stitches. Conveniently I was on the ribbing of the socks, so I just leaned over and slowed down the stitches for her a bit so she could see how to wrap them properly. I think she got it!

So, started casting off the socks Monday night, can't recall what I did on Tuesday, visited with an old friend Wednesday night, finished up a charity sweater Thursday night, and FINALLY cast off the remainder of the socks today. So, without further ado, here are my new hand-dyed, handspun, handknit socks for my Pioneer costume!!!

And yes, I ADORE the way the roving striped...it's all completely random, but there is definite color variegation!
Socks were knit toe up, short row heels, 1/1 rib at the top with a kitchener bind-off.

Sock Updates

2007-11-08T20:38:00.001-04:00

First, here is one of the pictures that Kelley took of me on Saturday. I like it because you can get a better view of the dress :) Oh, and it's not a bad view of that lovely wheel either! You CAN see the socks I was wearing...handknit and lovely, but not really the best choice for the outfit.

Here's what I spun Saturday. Spun the single, then Andean plyed it back. It's about 130 yards and is just under 2 oz. I'm thinking I'll spin the rest of this 4 oz of fiber on the wheel, then knit it into a pair of socks. Not really to wear, but for demo/display.

Here's the first single of the Merino/Tencel - finished both singles Sunday night and begun plying them.
Oh, and look! Here's the finished yarn! Sorry about the lighting in all of these. The demise of Daylight Savings Time is definitely going to make yarn photography more difficult. You can see the tweediness a bit here, between the two plys.

Oh, and here it is again, all wound up and ready to become socks. Will pack the needles with me for the weekend...should cast on tonight and get the toes done, but I don't think it's going to happen.
In not-so-fibery news, I finally got up the nerve (after spending the past THREE years trying to talk myself into it!) to call my grandmother the other day (it's a long story). Anyhow, called her and talked for an hour about family history, her parents, siblings, etc. I finally have some names to begin with in my search for that side of the family. She also reconfirmed the information my mother had told me years ago - that my great grandmother was a Native American. So, now I'm out researching trying to find her and her family online. Exciting stuff!

Pioneer Day 2007

2007-11-03T23:37:00.000-04:00

Today was another amazing day to spend outside! K, M, and I went to the Pioneer Day festival in Brooksville. This is a great event that takes place annually at Chinsegut Nature Center. The site is the original homestead of the Bishop family. Their chimney and cystern are both still present on the old home site.

This great event brings together artisans from around the area including Rope makers, Cider makers, musicians, chair caners, people making homemade butter and ice cream, growing vegetables, quilting, weaving, natural dyeing, and yes, spinning. This was my third year here, but the difference is that I made a new dress this year, and even better, a "new" wheel! Yes, this beautiful antique is mine!
Each year that I've come out, I've gotten a little better with the costume. This year I felt there was only one or two things still missing. Everything you see in the picture was made by me. Dress, apron, bonnet, shawl (handspun, handknit). My socks were also handknit, but not handspun. Now that I've learned to spin my own sock yarn, I want to spin and knit my own socks to go with the costume. But, what color should they be? Some people have said "oh, they should be grey"... The problem with grey is that it would be 100% natural wool - and probably somewhat coarse. Period correct-ness aside, I don't want coarse wool socks. So, I cheated just a bit - and purchased 50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel roving. But, white? Nope, just not gonna work.

Did I mention that there were natural dyers at this event? So, I divided my 4 oz of roving in half, tied it into hanks, put it into two lingerie bags. I mordanted the fiber in a 10%Alum/5% Tartaric Acid solution last night, drained the extra liquid off, and put the bags of roving into plastic bags and in the refrigerator. This morning I took them down to the natural dyers and explained my request. They took care of the actual dyeing for me, leaving one bag in 30-90 minutes longer than the other.

We let them hang on the line for most of the excess liquid to drain off, then put them back in the bag to take them home. At home (after a LONG nap), I rinsed the rovings in water several times, a vinegar bath (to set the dye), a shampoo bath, and several more water rinses. And after all that? This is what I ended up with:

I LOVE the beautiful honey blonde color!! Can't wait to see how this spins up when it's dry! Stay tuned, I'll have more pictures as these "socks" progress.

Gossamer \GAH-suh-mer\

2007-11-01T10:51:00.000-04:00

The Word of the Day for November 1 is:
gossamer \GAH-suh-mer\ adjective
: extremely light, delicate, or tenuous

Example sentence:
The early morning mists formed gossamer trails through the valley, their frail beauty a stark contrast to the dark, forbidding forest that loomed behind them.

Did you know?
In the days of Middle English, a period of mild weather in late autumn or early winter was sometimes called a "gossomer," literally "goose summer." People may have chosen that name for a late-season warm spell because October and November were the months when people felt that geese were at their best for eating. "Gossomer" was also used in Middle English as a word for filmy cobwebs floating through the air in calm clear weather, apparently because somebody thought the webs looked like the down of a goose. This sense eventually inspired the adjective "gossamer," which means "light, delicate, or tenuous" -- just like cobwebs or goose down.

To change your e-mail address or to subscribe to the html
version of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, featuring audio
pronunciations, please visit:
http://mw.drhinternet.net/sm/wod/changeofaddress.iphtml
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Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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More Pics and an Update

2007-10-28T18:08:00.000-04:00

Wow...I just realized! I never posted pics of the beautiful socks made for me by LkManitou!! So, without further ado, here are the pics of the socks she made me!

Oh, and remember that Knitting To Do list?

~~Finish the CTH Contest jacket and get it mailed by 5/29.~~

~~Knit the Laurel Fibonacci Stripe top for my former boss by 6/24 (it's a gag gift, and I'll have to adapt it a bit for *him*).~~

Finish my Crayon Box Jacket

Make the gorgeous Scotch Thistle Stole that Ann gifted me with in SP8.

~~Knit messenger bag for my HP downstream~~

~~Knit bookmarks for my HP downstream~~

~~Spin sock yarn for my Spinning SP~~

~~Spin sock yarn for my Sock Swap Pals~~

~~Knit the Socks~~

~~Work on a special secret project for a Pal~~

~~Fill in the gaps with Guidepost Charity Sweaters~~

And yes, I AM now back to working on the Crayon Box Jacket...should have more of that to show soon!

Happy Halloweenie!!

2007-10-28T17:43:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween everyone!! I got a great package in the mail yesterday, from the lovely Alarid of the Knittyboards. Take a look!

What's in it? Two GORGEOUS skeins of Silky Wool, yummy Dark Chocolate, evil Candy Corn...

And then there's the little stuff...cool halloween card, beautiful raindrop ornament from her side of the world (British Columbia!), an eagle keyring, purse sized hand lotion, pumpkin soap (with real pumpkin pulp!), BEAUTIFUL homemade stitch markers, and a lavendar sachet pouch for use in the dryer - or in my yarn!

What a great package, thanks!! The yarn color is beautiful...thinking maybe I'll make myself a pretty scarf or something with it!

Oh, and speaking of packages LONG overdue to be blogged about...here are the amazing hand-dyed, hand-knit socks from my sock pal Ms. Pixie Riot! She is starting up her own business hand dying yarns, and there are some great colors on her blog - check it out!

I've been doing some charity knitting lately too...finished a Guidepost sweater a week or so ago, and well on my way to finishing a second one... A friend contacted me because she was in need of some Chemo Caps... So I found this pattern made with Lion Brand Cotton Ease, and whipped them out. I hope they are well loved by their recipient.

Oh, and one last note...many of you are now on Ravelry, and a few are still wondering what it is. To sign up, click on the name above. To find me, I'm FiberFanaticsRUs. Hope to see you there! Oh, and I'm being slow about putting things up....recent projects are there, older projects aren't. Very little stash has been put up...I have yet to decide if I'm going to drag out and photograph all the stash so I can post it all...wow, that'll be a job!

It's Official!!!!

2007-10-01T22:09:00.001-04:00

I'm a published knitting designer!! That's right, the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat pattern is now available for sale! Where can you get your copy? I understand that Hanks Yarn & Fiber, the new incarnation of Chez Casuelle, will have the pattern for sale, but they are still trying to get their retail store up and running, so it might be a little while. If you're really impatient and you can't wait, there are other online sources that have begun carrying it. Search for Cherry Tree Hill Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (the pictures are hideous, but it's definitely the right pattern!)I knew without a doubt that it was official when I got THIS (along with a very nice check) in the mail last Friday! Doesn't it look too cool, all wrapped up official like a kit! Oh, and I know a couple of you have asked me to autograph your pattern (choke!)...but yes, if you would like, email me off blog and we can talk :)

What else is going on?...ok, long overdue: In July and August, I joined a sock swap, where each person made a pair for the other person or persons they were matched with. I ended up with two people to knit for! Both agreed that they would love to have their socks made from handspun yarn, so I found the perfect roving for each, and jumped in. Ms. Pixie Riot’s socks were made from a 50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel blend, lovingly hand-dyed by FatCatKnits of Etsy in the colorway Get Going.
This beautiful colorway included lime green, purple and pink, and a variety of other colors. It was 4 ounces, and spun up to about 340 yards of fingering weight yarn.

Being uncertain of the exact yardage, I decided toe-up was the way to go on the socks. The pattern used was a simple twin rib stitch that I found on a pair of socks (made for me by Somerset last fall!). I figured it would be relatively easy to knit, which it was (because I did spin the yarn after all). I found that I liked the bottoms of the socks, in stockinette, almost as much, if not more, as the patterned section. I felt it showed the colors better.

I should note that both yarns were spun using the Fractal technique described in SpinOff Magazine, Summer 2007. The technique did not come out as striking on Pixie’s socks because of the abundance of color in the original roving, and the lack of long solid stretches. They’re still gorgeous of course!

LkManitou’s socks were spun from a 4 ounce ball of Targhee roving hand dyed by Susan’s Spinning Bunny in the colorway Oriental Poppies. I would highly recommend Susan’s rovings for the Fractal technique!! This came out amazingly! I did find that the Targhee actually came out even finer than the Merino/Tencel, ending up somewhere between a Fingering and Lace Weight in fact. 4 oz yielded nearly 540 yards of yarn! I think because the Targhee was a little sticker than the Merino/Tencel, it made it easier to spin fine without breaking. Sadly, that also meant that I ended up knitting it on size 0’s!! Think I need to stick to the blend if that’s what my sock yarn does in 100% wool!
These socks were knit with the Diagonal Cross-Rib pattern from Favorite socks, but done as a toe-up. I liked the choice of pattern much better, since it had more stockinette surface to better see the yarn. And the striping…ooo, la, la!

I spent this weekend at Land of Green Ginger Alpacas with Jane and Steve and their 25 wonderful Alpaca! Jane found a bag of raw fleece belonging to Brooklyn, one of their Suri females, and I spent the weekend spinning her. It definitely falls into the “novelty yarn” category. I would estimate that this is between a worsted and bulky weight, for the most part. I'll post a picture soon - the color is a lovely dark chocolate color, so there's no way you'll see it in anything but natural light.

In other news, I recently returned from my trip to NY to visit family and attend the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival! I really enjoyed the festival. K came up to join the fun, and we got to do some shopping together Saturday morning before classes began. We found yummy fiber, she picked up a Bosworth spindle, and a few other things…then we wandered by the “used equipment sale”… Well, it just so happened, they had a BEAUTIFUL antique flax wheel sitting there just begging to go home with me… And, since I had only bought a LITTLE bit of fiber, and still had most of my shopping budget intact… I bought it! Shipping was a slight challenge – my father helped me disassemble it enough to put in a reasonable sized box. It fared relatively well in shipping, with just one slight mishap. The wheel itself was broken, but nothing that some wood glue and straps wouldn’t fix. I do need to get a little wood filler, and once I can get the wheel filled and set, and re-assemble the entire thing, there'll be more pictures. In the meantime, here's the one that Wendy took of it:

Classes at the festival were awesome, and I have a number of things that I need to photograph and show you, but that will have to wait for another post.

I also mentioned family - my sister-in-law asked me during the first week, if I would make a scarf for Ava for the winter. I told her I'd been wanting to make matching Mom & Baby scarves actually, but I was uncomfortable picking the color - so we went together and she picked out the yarn! Here's the fashion duo!

If you couldn't tell from the photo, Ava is an absolute DOLL! She's an incredibly happy baby, LOVES all animals, was standing up when I got there, cruising handily by the time I left, and talks CONSTANTLY (she's just waiting for us to start understanding her!). Here's another great shot of her. I'll see about sharing more in future posts.

Anyhow, this is your update for the moment. I'll be back soon with pictures of my projects from NY as well as the Alpaca farm spinning, and the wheel. I'm sure there'll be other things by then too (I have it on good authority that I should have a pair of hand-dyed socks arriving any day now :)).

Still here...or back depending on how you look at it...

2007-09-23T21:45:00.000-04:00

Do I have an readers left out there? I'm so sorry people... There have been a combination of factors working against you... 1) I was working on two secret pair of socks, that I spun...so my spinning AND knitting was a secret! 2) I've been away for the past 16 days, with only intermittent internet access.

What am I gonna do about it?

Well, I owe you a LOT of post...the secret stuff, my trip to see family, the Finger Lakes Fiber Fest, my new Antique Traditional wheel....

...and I'll get to it, but not tonight...soon though, really.

Binding off in the Round

2007-08-18T17:26:00.000-04:00

Here's a great tip that J found for binding off seamlessly in the round! Linked for me and for you!

Too Cute for Words

2007-08-10T10:43:00.000-04:00

Apparently Timothy is rather fond of the soaps Somerset sent too!

Incoming, Outgoing

2007-08-10T07:50:00.000-04:00

The time for the end of the Rut-Busting Sock Swap is here! That's right, you heard me! The point is to send the person a new yarn or pattern to help them break out of their yarn, color, or pattern rut!

I got a package in the mail on Wednesday from none other than Somerset! (She was also my very first swap pal, back in the Spooky Secret Pal swap last fall!)

What was in the package you ask?

Here it is! Included in the package is a great sock pattern for Savannah Socks. In bath stuff, there is a bar of handmade Lilac soap from Euphoric Bath Goodies and two Citrus Burst Bath Bombs! Perfect timing (as always!) - I am taking a "mini-vaca" tonight....two nights resort stays, dinner in an amazing restaurant, a spa massage tomorrow... Tonight's resort has a jacuzzi tub...so I'm going to try out one of those bath bombs!

Oh wait, you want to hear about the yarn? It's a lovely yarn bouquet from Zen Yarn Garden! The hand-dyed colors are GORGEOUS!! And the fiber! 50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel!

Did I say incoming AND outgoing? Yep...off to the PO this morning to send off my first International package! Oh, you want to know what's in it? Ok, here's a picture of the part that I spun...the rest you'll have to see when my lovely downstream receives it.

This too is Superwash Merino and Tencel and is another of the lovely dye creations of FatCatKnits!

Spinning Package - and what a package!!

2007-08-01T20:26:00.000-04:00

I got my Spinning Pal swap package today! Just in time!!

What do I mean? Well, let me show you what was in the package, and I'll explain...

Here's the big picture of all the wonderful things I got from BusyMamaof3! It includes 4 oz of hand dyed superwash pencil roving in a great rut-busting color for me (I know, different swap, but it works here too!). It's red with tones of oranges and browns. Looks like a GREAT pair of socks to me... The other roving is baby alpaca and silk! Yummy!! It too is nearly 4 oz...what to do, what to do...

I got a great mug with my initial on it, potpourri, shea butter hand cream (how did you know that I love to have one of these in my bag!), and magnetic bookmarks! What a great tool for keeping my place as I'm knitting socks out of my NEW SOCK BOOK!!

Below you can see a little closer the two fibers. I think the black is all natural colors...it's nearly black with white streaks from the silk.

So, I mentioned perfect timing and a dilemma.... Well, I'm not sure if I'd really looked through this book before or not, but I have to say, this is the PERFECT book for me!! I'm never one to remain a slave to a particular construction technique...and THIS gives me the freedom to have multiple techniques at my fingertips! The dilemma is...I had just finally (at dinner!) decided on what pattern I would use for LkManitou's socks...and, well...now I'll have to think about that a little more.

Uninspired.

2007-07-27T21:52:00.000-04:00

WOW! I have three downstream pals in various Knitty swaps, and not one of them has made a blog post in the past week! The Knittyboards are very quiet too...

Is everyone on vacation?

Busily knitting or spinning?

Reading Harry Potter?

Me? Well, no vacations, but I did find a great ticket price for my trip to NY in September. Hooray! Non-stop RT flights too! So, that's a bit of good news at least.

Knitting and spinning? Yep. I'm working on a pair of socks that I spun - was knitting during a conference call today and after my boss was looking them over. He said "What would you WEAR those with?" with a skeptical look in his eye... So I gave him the brief description of how Pixie has said she'll wear them, including shoe and hair colors, and he said "Aaaahhhhh...ok." But, since they are a surprise, I can't show you yet. I've been taking pictures along the way though, and will show you when they are delivered.

Am in the process of plying the yarn for LkManitou's socks. Am taking a quick break from that actually...resting my fingers. Have a bandaid on for finger protection as well, which is helping me get farther than I would have otherwise. Yep, can't show you that yet either.

After that? I've decided to spin yarn for my Rut-Busting Sock swap pal too!! I'm so totally gonna spoil her she won't know what hit her! Have found some GREAT sale discounts on things, so have picked up several things... That fiber came from the same dyer that Pixie's socks came from actually, FatCatKnits on Etsy. Will start that roving once I'm done with LkM's.

I did read TWO Harry Potter books this week...finally got my hands on book 6 Saturday morning. Finished it Monday at 9pm. Started 7 immediately. Finished IT Thursday at 9pm! So, one could say I read it in three weeknights. If you want to talk about it, email me. Am thinking I might re-read part of it this weekend before I turn it back in on Monday (only a one week checkout!).

What IS Tencel??

2007-07-13T06:48:00.000-04:00

So, this is a question that's been bugging me for a while. Someone said it was "wood fiber"...but how can it be soooo soft and wonderful??

I read somewhere recently where someone was equating Tencel with Acrylic - that bothered me, since I think there couldn't be two fibers that are MORE different from each other. So, a quick search found me Tencel - The Miracle Fiber.

In summary, it IS wood fiber, and I LOVE it! The socks I'm knitting (which started out REALLY strong - two socks, toe up, started Sunday, turned the heels on Tuesday!) are a wool/tencel blend. I spun the yarn, and it's SOOOO soft and wonderful. Oh, and as for the socks...I haven't knitted a stitch since Wednesday morning :( I plead budget exhaustion :(

Oh, and while I'm passing on short bits of things found online, here's a great post about some AMAZING Cupcakes...what a fabulous themed idea for a party!!

New swaps, Old swaps, Everywhere a Swap, swap...

2007-07-11T21:46:00.000-04:00

Here's the OTHER reason I haven't been blogging much... I've been busy swapping!

Most of my swaps are from the Knitty Boards, but, there is one that is being held in the NYGK group! It's the KnitFlix Swap, where we prepare a package with a movie, yarn, and other treats. So, here's my questionaire:

Since this is a summer blockbuster swap, would you rather receive a summer action/adventure movie, a light romantic comedy, or a suspense/thriller?

Definitely NOT a suspense/thriller. I love Action/Adventure as well as Chick Flix and Romantic comedies!

What is your favorite film genre or type?

See above.

List 3-5 of your favorite films and why you like them

Hhmmmm.... Old fav - The Sound of Music - it's just such a classic!
Action flix - The Die Hard Series - just saw Live Free or Die Hard - Bruce Willis just doesn't dissappoint!
Chick flix - Coyote Ugly - those girls just kick booty! How To Make An American Quilt - sappy but fun. Ten Things I Hate About You - yep, never really outgrew some of those teeny flix either...

Is that all over the place enough for you?

Do you like foreign films? Would it annoy you to watch a film with subtitles if you are knitting/crafting?

I don't actually own any, but yes, I tend to listen MUCH more than I watch to most TV/Movies. I'm usually watching TV, online, AND knitting all at the same time!

Is there a movie that you've always wanted to see but haven't?

Not that comes to mind at the moment...

Do you have any favorite actors?

Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Matthew McConnahae, John Cusack

What kind of movie night treats do you like? Type of Candy? Popcorn?

My sinful treat is Jelly Bellies, my "approved" treats are Popcorn or Dark Chocolate.

Are you a sock knitter, lace knitter, or hat/mitten/scarf knitter?

Socks, lace, baby stuff, sweaters, felted bags... You name it, I've probably knit it.

What are your favorite fibers?

I enjoy wool blends, where you get the feel of the wool, but softened by the blend. Much cooler for Florida!

What fibers do you dislike or are allergic?

Not a big acrylic or novelty yarn fan.

What are your favorite colors?

Blue, green, purple, maroon... jewel tones basically.

What colors do you not like?

Orange, yellow, pastels.

Is there anything else that your partner should know that will help her spoil you?

I'm also a tea fanatic.

In other swap news...the Rut Busting Sock Swap partners were handed out today, and I'm V excited! Can't wait to put together a box for this partner!

The sock swap is going well...I'm making great progress on the first pair!

Some other tidbits I've received lately include this great picture frame and natural dyeing book from Penny, my Harry Potter swap pal:

This GORGEOUS hand-dyed fiber from my Spinning Swap Pal:

Kelley got me THESE for my birthday! That's a Lantern Moon bag, a felted mini-purse, 3 pair of stitch markers, some YUMMY peppermint soap, a fun little quilted bag...

Oh, and then there's the loot... K and I went to Tampa a couple of weeks ago to do some shopping. First stop was Knit -n- Knibble who were having their anniversary sale. Great prices, and I picked up something for a swap and a couple of things for me - That's 9 skeins of Obsession (at 30% off!) and a skein of Mountain Colors.

Here's the Mountain Colors up close...

After that we went to Uncommon Threads. Sadly their roving was buried behind some shelving that they had to move temporarily, so we couldn't buy any of it. I did find this GORGEOUS Alpaca yarn though!! Oh, and a couple of cool patterns too.

The week after, I was at Chez Casuelle and found a couple of things there on GREAT discounts, so I just couldn't resist...

Finishing things...

2007-07-08T20:55:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry for the lack of posts the past few weeks, but really, I've been KNITTING!!

You might recall this list that I posted a couple of months ago:

So, MY summer knitting goals:

~~Finish the CTH Contest jacket and get it mailed by 5/29.~~

~~Knit the Laurel Fibonacci Stripe top for my former boss by 6/24 (it's a gag gift, and I'll have to adapt it a bit for *him*).~~

Finish my Crayon Box Jacket

Make the gorgeous Scotch Thistle Stole that Ann gifted me with in SP8.

Some things that have been added to that:

~~Knit messenger bag for my HP downstream~~

~~Knit bookmarks for my HP downstream~~

~~Spin sock yarn for my Spinning SP~~

Spin sock yarn for my Sock Swap Pals

Knit the Socks

Work on a special secret project for a Pal

Fill in the gaps with Guidepost Charity Sweaters

You've all seen the CTH Jacket. I have it back. Details for publishing the pattern are still in progress, I'll update you when I have the specifics.

Here's the vest for my former boss - he was completely surprised, and totally loved it!

Here's the Messenger bag before it was felted - it measured 18x22".

After felting it was more like 10x12". Sadly, I forgot to take the after pic...you should be able to see it soon on LkManitou's blog however. I also made two HP bookmarks, from #5 perle cotton, one in Ravenclaw, the other in Gryffindor. Again, forgot to take pics, but I expect she'll post those too.

Here's the fiber that I got for my spinning pal, from Funky Carolina on Etsy.

Here's what it spun up to...

While I was waiting to finish spinning Pixieriot's sock yarn, I started on a Guidepost Charity sweater for a charity we are supporting. I did 4 inches in one movie and 4 in another, so it's well under way...

I finally finished Pixie's yarn though, and cast on for her socks today! They're coming along very well, but sorry, no pics unless she asks/authorizes it :) This IS the first time I'm knitting my own handspun sock yarn however! So far I'm LOVING it.

There's LOTS more to say, but I need to break this up or I'll never tackle it, so that's the part that you get for now...more soon. Besides, I REALLY want to get back to those socks...

Good News!!!

2007-06-18T22:45:00.000-04:00

I'll be getting my jacket back!!!

Yep, it's true, I didn't make the final four. Now, now, no crying out there... Yes, it would have been nice to win, but I'm really happy that I'll get my jacket back and won't have to make another one!!

And...since it's all mine, I can (and will) be able to sell the pattern myself! Have to work out the details and how it will be available, but it WILL be made available sometime in the not-so-distant future. I'll let you know.

Thanks again to everyone who was so supportive, encouraging, and excited on my behalf. It was a great experience, and maybe the start of a new opportunity for me!

A Nerd, a Geek, or a Dork?

2007-06-17T22:18:00.000-04:00

Found this on LkManitou's blog...interesting...

Your Score: Joe Normal

47 % Nerd, 47% Geek, 47% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored less than half in all three, earning you the title of: Joe Normal.

This is not to say that you don't have some Nerd, Geek or Dork inside of you--we all do, and you can see the percentages you have right above. This is just to say that none of those qualities stand out so much as to define you. Sure, you enjoy an episode of Star Trek now and again, and yeah, you kinda enjoyed a few classes back in the day. And, once in a while, you stumble while walking down the street even though there was nothing there to cause you to trip. But, for the most part, you look and act fairly typically, and aren't much of an outcast.

I'd say there's a fair chance someone asked you to take this test. In any event, fairly normal.

Congratulations!

If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback!

Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in any of the following:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Professional Wrestling

Love & Sexuality

America/Politics

Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

2007-06-11T14:24:00.000-04:00

I'M A FINALIST!!!!!!

Surfing, a Road Trip, and a Package!

2007-06-09T21:40:00.000-04:00

Wow! I currently find myself with FOUR downstream Secret Pals!! (and 5 upstreams!) For those who are wondering, that would be the Spring Fling (5th upstream - package arrived today - more in a moment), Harry Potter Swap, the Spinning Swap, and the Sock Swap! Wait you say...if the Spring Fling makes 5, who's the fifth? Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that in the Sock Swap I signed up for TWO partners?

So, for Spring Fling, I correctly guessed that my SP was CPurl17! I got my final package from her today, and this is what it looks like:

Oooohhh...look at the pretty paper and purple ribbons! Actually, I loved this paper...it was from the World Wildlife Federation, and on the inside, in light grey watermarks, it had all sorts of great info on endangered species including pandas, tigers, elephants...

Here's the package with all of the contents opened up for the world to see! I'll zoom in and show you the details...

From Blue Moon Fiber, I got Bombyx Silk Roving in LUSCIOUS reds - Ruby Slippers, and STR in Lunasea. Also in here is a great ball of Sockotta in blues and plums! Oh, and my very own copy of Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush.

In other yarny goodness, I got THREE skeins of Classic Elite Premiere - 50/50 Pima Cotton and Tencel!! Oooohhh...this is SOOOO soft...and 324 yards might be enough to get me a stole or something...

There's a GREAT silk bag in here...it actually opens up and sits flat on it's bottom! What a PERFECT bag for sock projects! I got some samples of SOAK - been hearing about it in various places lately, so it'll be nice to try it out for myself. There's also a ball of Cascade Fixation elastic cotton yarn.

And last, but actually first, was the great card - did you make this yourself Chris? It's all scrapbooky and cool!! You know, I think I need to make up a scrapbook of all the amazing cards that I've gotten from people...in fact, that's a pretty cool idea! Hard to see, but there's also a set of 5 Entrelac Stitch Markers (that's Entrelac brand, not "made exclusively for entrelac"...at least I think that's what it is!) and two sets of...point protectors? They're little black caps, connected together by beaded cords. Ooohhh...I just pulled one out and looked at it...they're stretchy! They're for holding DPN's that are in use! I actually have a project ON DPN's at the moment, I'll have to go try these out!!

Thanks CPurl! This was a great package, and TOTALLY worth the wait!!!

Harry Potter Swap: Working hard on several knitting projects for my DS...no pics though, cause she might just be a reader of my blog... I picked up some fun trinkets to go with the knitted stuff too :)

Spinning Swap: Went surfing last night and found some AWESOME roving for my DS pal. Also went to Chez Casuelle this afternoon with K - and found a great deal on some more roving... Need to find some non-roving fun stuff for the person who has everything!

Socks: Being totally unable to make up my own mind, I signed up for the sock swap with one pal, but said "But, if you need an extra person for two? Put me in!!" So I got two GREAT Sock exchange pals, LkManitou (who was my Winter Cheer downstream!) and Pixieriot (who I'm just getting to know). They've both decided that it would be a treat to receive socks from handspun yarn... So, once I finish the knitting for the HP swap, and the vest I'm making for my former boss...long story, but I'll post pics soon, I'll be all set to get down to some serious spinning! I found some lovely fiber in my stash for LkManitou. Didn't really have anything bright enough for Pixie, BUT, my trip to Etsy last night was successful on THAT front as well! Even better, her fiber was actually shipped out today!

Lots to do, but it's all going well...

We Have Liftoff!!

2007-06-08T19:53:00.000-04:00

Taken just moments ago, from the parking lot outside my apartment. Just thought I'd share :)

If I was smart, I would have taken the camera when I first went out, but, oh well...

I Got an Owl!!!

2007-06-07T19:56:00.000-04:00

Yes, I said an Owl...(That's Harry Potter for "a package"!). In true Knitty swap fashion, I've joined the Harry Potter swap for people who are eager to prepare and get excited for the arrival of the Order of the Phoenix movie and Deathly Hallows book. In addition to sharing the excitement with others and knitting for my swap pal (shhhhh!), I'm also re-reading. Finished #2, The Chamber of Secrets, last night. Picked up Prisoner of Azkaban tonight and started it over dinner!

Penny sent me this great package. It contains a handmade needle caddy in GORGEOUS purple and green flowered prints, with a matching notions bag. In the notions bag were two YUMMY lemon lavender candles!

Here's a closeup so you can see the prints. There are three different fabrics, and they compliment each other beautifully!

I have to say though, I think THE BEST part of this package was my letter!! Look at the amazing envelope that it came in! It's beautiful hand made paper with great texture and leaves and everything! The calligraphied note was a nice touch :) Thanks Penny!!

Well, several of you have asked me, and the answer is, I know nothing. Well, ok, not QUITE nothing, but pretty close. As I said in my last post, it was received at noon on Thursday. Unfortunately, while that WAS in time for the contest, it was NOT in time to be taken for display at TNNA. I did get a few more pictures of the jacket before I sent it off however. Here's one of the front. Not as clean as the ones in my photoshoot, but at least my eyes are open and there aren't really any shadows!

Here's a full shot of the back, laid out on the floor.

And one of the front.

And yes, of course you'll be the first (well, maybe second) to know if I hear anything.

Arrived!

2007-05-31T21:25:00.000-04:00

Tracking tells me that the jacket arrived in Vt at noon today!

Finally started knitting again last night. Am working on the surprise sweater that I offered to make...no, no, nothing so grand as the one I finished. This is more of a surprise/gag gift...and it's a vest/shell made from worsted yarn. Oh, but yes, it too has a deadline... June 24th!

Picked out / went stash diving for a couple of projects for my newest secret pal - in the Harry Potter swap. Will probably cast on some of that too, since it has to also be done by the early part of July, and some of it is very small and will knit up quickly.

In other news, I FINALLY got my last Spring Fling package together - will go in the mail tomorrow. And if you were my SF upstream, I'd love to know who you were...

The PICTURES!!!

2007-05-27T06:03:00.000-04:00

Ok, you've all waited SOOO long, I won't drag it out. Because I've posted virtually NO pictures lately, this post will be almost ALL pictures.

Don't forget to keep an eye on Cherry Tree Hill's Website for contest updates - I know I will be!!

I declare....

2007-05-26T17:52:00.000-04:00

that Jody's Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat is now COMPLETE!!

Several lucky people saw it today...have made a minor adjustment since then, and it is now complete.

K and I will be having a photo session tomorrow I hope, and I will post pictures after that. Don't worry, the wait is almost over, but I promise, it'll be worth it...

Home stretch....almost!

2007-05-23T07:20:00.000-04:00

I got an email for an update this morning, so here it is...

Bottom Band - Done. Looks good.

Front Band - Done. Pulls up too much, not enough stitches. Blocked it, still pulling too much. Will pull it out, and redo.

Left Sleeve - Done. Blocked it last night and I think it'll be good.

Right Sleeve - will pick up and do tonight. Hope to make it through that AND some of the re-work on the front band.

Ends - Most of the ones internal to the jacket are gone. Will still need to do the ones that have to be sewn into the band seam.

Closure - Need to work on my frog...still trying to determine the color, but should do so really soon, since I'll need to make a couple of feet of I-cord.

I do think I can still get this done by Saturday. Have been steam blocking parts of it as I go, so the final block shouldn't be too hard.

And as you've all heard, Kelley is standing by to do a photo shoot this weekend.

Then, the question is, do I take a weekend off, or do I immediately cast on for my NEXT deadline project? (A surprise/gag shell/vest for my boss that is due by 6/24).

Still going...

2007-05-20T21:41:00.000-04:00

Kappy111 said...
I am ready to go with the photo shoot when you are.... :-)

I just cast off the bottom band...

We should still be on for next weekend!

Off to pick up the front band...

How Adventurous of a Knitter are You?

2007-05-19T21:09:00.000-04:00

Hhmmm...saw this Meme on Ann's blog, and it looked like fun, so here goes...

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing. I'm going to add purple italics for things that I hadn't really thought about, but would and probably will eventually do...

Afghan/Blanket
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: cuff-up
Mittens: tip down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn (Wow...Never heard of this, but it sounds cool!)
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street) (??)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting (Not actually sure what this is...)
Dyeing with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dyeing yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair (I've spun the yarn, but haven't knitted with it just yet...)
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

I'm so Excited!!

2007-05-19T17:51:00.001-04:00

Yep, that's right, I finished the body knitting for the CTH Jacket!!! It's all sewn together, and I got to try it on this morning for the group! I've since picked up for the bottom edge and begun that portion. Hope to finish up the bottom tomorrow, then move on to the fronts! It's TOTALLY coming together!

Goal is to finish all knitting by mid-week so I can block and then photograph next weekend!

Challenge is that I start a new job in a new location on Monday...so it's going to be a busy week all on it's own, without having a major knitting deadline looming. Don't worry though, I'll make it. I did two sleeves in a week, so a little bit of edging will be just fine.

Am off to read for a bit (2/3 through HP1 - gotta re-read before the movie and book come out!) I might have a HP Movie marathon tonight or tomorrow though, since that's also good background...but not as good as the books!

Summer Knitting Goals

2007-05-19T17:29:00.000-04:00

Ok, here's an interesting contest I saw on Curlytop's blog...

Ali from Skeins Her Way has recently had a pattern published, and will be drawing winners for copies of her pattern (and one will get the yarn to go with it!).

All you have to do is:

1.) Leave a comment on Ali's post letting her know what color you want and mention that you heard about the contest on my blog (http://fiber-fanatics.blogspot.com)

2.) Then head to your blog and post a list of your summer knitting goals and mention the contest.

3.) Lastly e-mail Ali with the link to your post! Be sure to mention me in your post so she knows how you heard about the contest!!

So, MY summer knitting goals:

Finish the CTH Contest jacket and get it mailed by 5/29.
Knit the Laurel Fibonacci Stripe top for my former boss by 6/24 (it's a gag gift, and I'll have to adapt it a bit for *him*).
Finish my Crayon Box Jacket
Make the gorgeous Scotch Thistle Stole that Ann gifted me with in SP8.

I have little doubt that I will do a few other things too, perhaps some charity knitting, and who knows what else, but in terms of specific plans, I think that's enough for now :) I'm going to need a bit of decompression time after CTH is done, though the deadline on my bosses b'day present won't really allow for much of that...

Update on the Jacket

2007-05-14T08:21:00.000-04:00

Wow...I need to slow down on the knitting before my wrists give up and fall off!!

The body is done and seamed together. The first sleeve MAY be done. For those of you who saw me start it on Saturday, yes, that's a little scary. Will measure and assess at tonight's meeting and determine if I need to do two more blocks on it, but I think it might be finished.

The other sleeve has been started, but just barely.

Bought a toggle for it on Saturday...have to look at some models to see how toggles are usually attached...

Have a plan for the border, just not sure if I have enough yarn to go all the way around it. Will have to jump in and see.

Other news this weekend?...well, Saturday morning was knitting (seaming actually), Saturday mid-day was a Knitting Potluck and stash reduction at a friend's house (knitted through most of the afternoon), Sunday I spent at Chez Casuelle with Carla, knitting, browsing her fabulous sale items, and visiting with friends, since TWO people from one of my groups showed up with their respective DH's.

Plan is to attach the first sleeve tonight, finish and attach the second by this weekend. That will give me a week to do the borders, tuck in a few ends, cut off a lot of other ends that are already handled, put on the toggle, and block it. Will do a photo shoot with K over Memorial Day weekend so I have full documentation. Plan to post here around the same time that I Express mail it to Vermont.

Another Busy Weekend

2007-05-06T23:01:00.000-04:00

We had a GREAT time yesterday at the Knit and Spin Because We Can Day! About 25 knitters and spinners joined us, and we had five glorious hours of fiberly fun! I took my camera, but took NO photos...was too busy socializing, organizing, and KNITTING!

The CTH Jacket is coming along VERY well....It's about half completed at this point. The back is done, the right front is done and attached. I started the left front this evening, and it is well under way.

The good news is that the sleeves will not need to be nearly as long as the rest of it, so those should go pretty quickly. Then I'll need to do a border around the entire garment.

I have three weeks to finish it up and get it blocked and photographed. That means that it currently has priority over EVERYTHING. I CAN do this (as long as I can fend off a full scale Carpal Tunnel attack!).

Golden Compass

2007-05-02T07:18:00.000-04:00

Something interesting I found on Spindiva's blog...

SP's, SP's, everywhere!!

2007-04-29T19:50:00.000-04:00

Another GREAT knitting weekend! K and I had planned to go to Jacksonville on Saturday for the Fiber History Social. Due to the long drive, she invited me to spend the night Friday. Friday afternoon she reminded me that it was the last meeting of the Altamonte knitting group, which is sadly being disbanded. So, I was very happy that we got to go to that meeting! Kind of ironic really - their last meeting was also their best attended, with 5 people dropping by!

Saturday morning K and I were up bright and early. With only minor GPS issues, we arrived at the event location at 9:45ish. The location was Camp Milton, which has a lovely building that somewhat resembles an old farm house. Inside is a beautiful presentation room, but outside is a wide, deep, shaded porch. Since we all brought chairs, sitting out on the porch was convenient. The shade and breeze kept the temperature just right.

Many of the people that we met are involved in Historical Re-enactments from the Civil War era. We shared some techniques and knowledge, learning and teaching throughout the day. We also met Carol and Liz - and remarkably, Carol lives about 10 minutes down the road from me! She taught us the basics of needle tatting. I made a tiny little sample - enough to prove that I had a clue...I think that will be another skill like crochet - that I'll pull out once in a blue moon for a specific SMALL project, but not to become a regular part of my fiber endeavors.

After we left the event, K and I just couldn't resist dropping by one of the LYS's, KnitWitz. They had a nice selection of Fleece Artist rovings in LOVELY colors. Here's the one I picked up for me...I got one for my Spring Fling pal too, but I'm not going to show you that picture just yet.

After KnitWitz, I was still intrigued by the other LYS, A Stitch in Time. We met one of their employees at the event. She recommended the store highly (of course!), and had shown us some of the Aloe/Jojoba sock yarn - well, she showed us the sock. So, we ran over there and looked around. They had a nice selection of items in their sale bin, and after a little deliberation, I had to go to the car and bring in the Crayon Box box. As it turned out, one of the yarns that was put in the sale bin THAT DAY was just perfect! I also picked out another that was full price, and three balls of a lovely soft blend that I can see making a scarf or stole or something with...

Overall, some great purchases! K also found some yarns and rovings at both locations that she was happy to pick up.

While we at the event earlier in the day, one of the ladies did mention that Joann's had all of their Simplicity patterns on sale - for $1.99 each! So, on the way home last night, after we finished dinner, K and I ran in (at 8:45pm!) to raid their patterns. Here are the ones I picked out.

Three are gown/dress possibilities, and the fourth has several quilted bags. I've often ogled the Vera Bradley bags and other similar quilted bags...ok, I'll admit it, I'm an absolute sucker for anything resembling a knitting bag. So, if I can find some appropriate fabric, maybe I'll try making one myself...

Spent the night at K's again last night, since it was rather late by the time we got home. This morning we all slept in a bit. When I finally got out of bed, I worked on the CTH jacket some more. It was the focus of the weekend, and I have some news... THE BACK OF THE JACKET IS DONE!!

We all went out for breakfast, then to Target for a bit of retail therapy. I did pick up a couple of things for me, but MOST of what I got was for my two downstream SP's. Also stopped by the autoparts store to pick up some replacement bulbs for my brake lights. Came home, dropped by the neighbor's house, who let me borrow his star screwdriver. I was very proud of myself for changing out my bulb ALMOST all by myself. Yes, A insisted on helping by looking at the lit lights to see whether the one to replace was top or bottom. But, all of the physical "labor" of the swap was all me! Ok, so it took about 5 minutes INCLUDING researching which bulb was which. Glad to do it myself for a total cost of less than $5 than to pay someone else two or three times that much for their "labor" to change it out.

So, made it home today finally, only to find a BOX in my mailbox!! And a pretty good sized box at that! So, here's the contents:

It started with the YUMMY dark chocolate. From there it moved to a ball of TOFUtsies! Yum! I still can't wait to try knitting with some of this! There are so many things on my knitting agenda, and right now CTH is still dominating the list. If I have any prayer of finishing on time, there IS no time for anything else. Anyhow, back to the package. Lots more lovely yarns, kitty treats & toys, yummy tea. There's a great knitting book...where do you guys keep finding these great knitting journals?? This is number two, and just as wonderful as the first one! Oh, and the CARD! Did you make it SP? The dragonfly on the front is BEAUTIFUL! What a great package! So, CPURL, did you forget that I know your address? And I know you're at least reading my blog....which leads me to wonder why A) You would send me a package with your own return address, or B) You would agree to send a package for my SP, knowing that I DO know your address... It's a bit perplexing, but I'm putting you on notice, you're my #1 suspect at the moment :)

After perusing my lovely package, munching a couple of chocolates, as well as some of those Butterscotch Crisps from Ann the other day, I hauled out all of the stuff that *I* have for SP packages... It was pretty scary to see my entire counter FULL of various package stuffers! Some for SP8, some for Spring Fling for now, some for Spring Fling for later...and some for future unknown SP's! Put together two packages that will go out tomorrow. The Spring Fling one will remain a mystery, but the other, for SP8, will be mailed to Zimmie tomorrow. Ok, so here's where I need your help...if you are NOT Zimmie, don't tell her you read this...and if you ARE? Well, you found me!

Holy Themed Packages Batman!!!

2007-04-26T18:33:00.000-04:00

ANN!! OMG! I've been transported! (But then of course the irony of that is not lost - been reading synopses).

If you're not Ann, some background... I got home today to find this GIANT HEAVY box waiting for me... I put it down for a moment, turned around, and find a very interested kitty sitting on top of it. Hhmmm...cute, but a little strange. Timothy is such a sweet baby I just had to take a picture of him.

Fast forward 30 seconds. I've shooed Timothy away and shut off the camera. Picking up box to take to the livingroom for unveiling... But wait...there's Smokey, and HE seems awfully interested in this box too! Does it contain catnip toys??

Finally the furballs back off a bit, and I got it into the livingroom. Opened it up, and... Holy Cow that's a lot of tartan! Each item was wrapped in tartan cloth, and even the ribbon was cloth tartan ribbon! To take it a step further, Ann even used the extra pieces of fabric as additional packing material. It's a viscious plot you see...she knows that if she dangles a little fiber in front of my face, I'll be compelled to do something with it... This huge pile of lovely tartan is fairly screaming for me to make a quilt with it... We'll see... no promises.

But why tartan I asked? Oh my...the ENTIRE package is Scottish themed. Yes, I REALLY mean the WHOLE thing.

Here you can see the Anne yarn along with the lovely pattern for the Scotch Thistle Lace Stole. Next to that is a skein of STR - in the Scottish Highlands colorway.

There are several tasty morsels included...and all are MADE IN SCOTLAND!! Ok, this part really does perplex me...is there a strong Scottish presence in your part of the world, such that there are Scottish only stores?? There are Butterscotch Crisps...oohhh...a little bit sinful I think, a small package of shortbreads, Scottish Breakfast tea - smells like a lovely strong breakfast tea, and Pinhead Oatmeal! I haven't opened the oatmeal package yet, but I'm guessing this is a type of Steel Cut oats? I LOVE SC Oatmeal!!

And finally, the inspiration for this amazing themed transportation to Scotland: Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, and Voyager, by Diana Gabaldon. This series is about a 20th Century woman who is magically transported back to 18th Century Scotland! It looks fascinating, and I'm told it's excellent. These are also HUGE books with relatively small typeface...so combining these three books with the 5 previous books that Ann has sent me (I've read about 1 1/2 at this point! - and those are the small size novels...) I think I have enough reading material to keep me busy for the next year!

Thank you SOOOOO much Ann, this package was totally over the top!

Still knitting...

2007-04-18T07:15:00.000-04:00

...on the Cherry Tree Hill project. I am trying to do at least 2-3 color blocks per day...which was easy when they were 30 stitches long...but now they are 130 stitches long!! The back is coming along well...then to do the fronts and sleeves...ARGH!

So, busy knitting on that... Saturday is the Central Florida Fair - we'll be there from 12-6 demo-ing. Still have to decide if I'll be knitting or spinning. Am thinking I might knit in the morning at B&N, then spin for a while at the Fair, then maybe knit a little more...

Flat Stanley should be winging his way here very soon...which will mean a bit of traveling to show him around....

Next weekend there is a Fiber History Social in Jacksonville (Apr 28th). K and I will be going up to hang out, visit, meet some new people, and knit and spin some more :)

May 5th is our Knit & Spin Because We Can day. (See below).

By mid May? MAYBE I'll have a weekend or two to myself!! Of course, Cherry Tree Hill will continue to be #1 on my agenda until it's complete. Due in NE by June 1st!

Sorry no pics... I WILL post a pic of CTH when it's complete...which should be right around when it's due...

Knit / Spin In Announcement

2007-04-05T22:01:00.000-04:00

You may have already seen this, but if not...

The Knit or Knot Guild of Orlando invites you to
Our Second Annual
Knit and Spin Because We Can Day

Saturday, May 5, 2007
10am to 4pm
First Baptist Church of Oviedo
45 West Broadway Street
Oviedo, FL 32765

Come join us for a great day of fun, knitting, spinning, sharing and learning! Bring a sack lunch and a reusable mug, snacks and drinks will be provided!

Agenda for the day:

Show ‘n Share
Knitting/Spinning Instruction
(Drop spindle kits available for a nominal fee – learn to spin TODAY!)
Trade Table
(Yarn or other supplies that you don’t want but want to find a good home? Bring them along!)
For Sale Table
(Label items with your name and sale price)
Yankee Swap
(A few balls of a special yarn, a pattern book or two, some roving… Think something YOU would love to receive – Wrap it up (a paper bag works just fine – nothing see through) and we’ll do an exchange! Tons of fun, go home with something new to inspire you!)

For Questions, Additional Information, or to RSVP, contact Jody

*************************************

I had a seed of an idea planted yesterday... My apt complex is in the process of building a "town center" area. It's actually very nice, and there will be quite a few shops there. Walked over last night to have dinner at Quizno's, our very first tenant to open. While I was there, I walked around the remaining area to see the "Coming Soon" signs that had been put up in many of the windows. There will be a bakery, a wedding planning store, a shoe store, three sit down restaurants (Indian, Ricky Rito's Latin, and Gator's Dockside Sports bar), a 24 hour Gym, a Tea Room, and a Library!!

The last two are the most exciting to me, because they open up a possibility. As many of you know, I am an active member of at least 5 different knitting groups. The closest groups are 30 minutes away, some of the others 45. The "stretch" meetings that I could attend would be up to an hour or hour and a half away! I've had conversations with various people over the years about how I should start a group closer to my area. The problem is finding a location - compounded by the fact that the majority of my area is predominantly tourist. So, I'm thinking that the Tea Shop might be a nice place to meet once in a while...and if we outgrow that, there is a BEAUTIFUL two story, GIANT library that will be opening up 1500 feet from there.

So, right now it's just a seed of an idea...neither establishment is open yet...the tea room is an empty shell and the library isn't even finished being built.

I'll keep you in the loop!

Classes and Demos

2007-04-02T06:39:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a week!

As I mentioned last, I attended Chris Bylsma's Crayon Box Jacket class on Sunday last week. It was an AWESOME class! It was held at Sip and Knit and we had a great time. It definitely is a class where you need to have the entire yarn store at your disposal while you plan out your sweater! I actually did pretty well and didn't completely break the bank, so was happy with that. After 8 hours in class, this is what I came away with:

Another week's worth of knitting, and I'm at this point:

Yep, that's one sleeve complete and the other one only one square short!! With that said, I really need to put this down now! Am taking it to knitting with me tonight - will finish the last square, then work on some ends. Cherry Tree Hill is calling however, and time is short.

Did I work on CTH this weekend? No, of course not. Actually, the Textile Arts Guild of St. Augustine was holding their annual Spin/Hook-In on Saturday, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to go out and spin for the day! The venue was beautiful - we were in the St. Augustine Visitor Information Center, which looks like it's been recently rehabbed. I do think that because it was a free venue, and closer to the Spanish Quarter, as well as the first stop for information when hitting St. Augustine, that it had an AWESOME turnout! I LOVE any time I can talk about spinning and there are SOO many people that you can barely see through them. Even better, there were many times throughout the day that people were having to be dragged away - they were so interested they just didn't want to walk away!

I was very bad about pictures for the day, but I did get someone to take this one. The fiber I was spinning was from an Etsy purchase - the Artichoke colorway of Superwash Merino from Yarn Hollow. It did give us the opportunity to talk about dyeing, and what types of dyes would have been used in earlier times. Anyhow, this fiber has become a lightweight two ply yarn for SOCKS! It's actually going to be for my SP8 downstream...(Hope she's not reading...)

I got a special treat on Saturday as well... The operator of the lovely traditional wheel to my left above was the very fortunate recipient of an amazing find. She recently found a BEAUTIFUL Great Wheel at a great price. She was kind enough to bring it with her on Saturday, both to get some assistance in learning to spin it, and to show. Once the expert (one of the other spinners) got it running, I got to take a lesson!! I wish I'd gotten pictures of that, but sadly did not. It was a very spiritual cosmic experience for me...

Three and a half years ago, when several of us took a field trip to Asheville, NC, we went to Bovidae Farms outside of Mars Hill as part of our explorations. While others were shopping, I started examining all of the beautiful wheels. Began talking to the owner, and soon he brought an Ashford Traditional down and plopped it in front of me, showed me how to draft while he spun the wheel for me. That was my first ever attempt at Spinning. Once I finished, he took me upstairs and demonstrated his great wheel for me! So now, three and a half years later, I've gotten to spin on one myself!

I truly wanted to spend the evening in St. Augustine, but had another commitment, so I had to head out.

So, all of my new friends in St. Augustine agreed that they wanted to see what that lovely artichoke looked like once finished! It was 4.4 ounces, and I spun the first bobbin full on Saturday, and made a good dent in the second bobbin. Yesterday at KnitWits, I continued on the second bobbin, completing all but one small piece of roving (about another 30-45 minutes worth). Came home and finished up the 4.4 ounces, then promptly switched it out for a plying bobbin. Plyed while watching TV, then finished that and wrapped it up on the Niddy Noddy! The verdict? At 11:15 last night, I finally had THIS:

The 4.4 ounces translated into about 320 yards of yarn! My goal all along has been that this would be a ball of sock yarn...I think they'll be shorter socks, but I do think that socks are still a possibility for this yarn.

Poll Question: My original plan was that I would spin AND knit this into socks for my SP8 DS. Time is tight, and I'm debating whether I should knit it up for her, or just send it and let HER knit it... So, what do you think? Knit or send as is? Comments appreciated!

Yarny Saturday!

2007-03-24T20:28:00.000-04:00

WOW! What an awesome Yarny Day!! Today was our class with Chris Bylsma! We had 14 people attend, and all learned some great techniques and tips. The first class was her Finishing class. It was great to hear how many LONG time knitters learned new techniques in this session. Here's my "finished" project from this workshop. Techniques included Shoulder seams, side seams, armhole seams, picking up, and buttonholes. We really loved one of the buttonholes in particular, one that had a beautiful finished look with no additional sewing or tacking.

The second workshop of the day was the Knit Weaving workshop. We dropped stitches and let them run down all the way to the bottom, the cast off the top edge and wove a variety of yarns into the 'gaps'. This technique offers tons of creative flexibility, as well as offering some techniques for "resizing" finished garments...for sleeves that are super-tight, kids sweaters in danger of being outgrown, expanding the size of a garment without requiring additional yarn...

It was a great group of people, and we all did AWESOME work! In the middle of the afternoon there was some talk of needing a chocolate fix... so when I got home and found THIS:

in my mailbox...well, it was just too funny! (More on the mysterious chocolate arrival in a moment...)

After a few minutes in class, I just knew I would be very upset with myself if I let another opportunity pass....that would be the opportunity to take Chris' Crayon Box Jacket class! It's being offered at one of the LYS's tomorrow, and I had thought about signing up, but for a couple of reasons had not. When I brought it up in class today, one of the other women offered me her spot, since she was having some scheduling conflicts anyhow. So, I'm spending ANOTHER day with Chris tomorrow!!

Ok, back to the Chocolate... I got home today to another lovely package from Ann (aka ChickaChickaKnitChick), my SP8 (who inadvertently outted herself *giggle). Anyhow, there are two main classes of things in the package... 1) Pressies for me to make for Ava Rose ;) There's a cute little bunny pattern and yarn for now, and a great Fiber Trends pattern for slippers in all sizes! Will either have to figure this one out and shrink it down EVEN MORE, or wait a year or two for this one...there's nothing that says I can't make a pair for ME in the meantime however!

You may also notice a Knitting Car Magnet in there... It's since been installed on my car, though I had to be a bit creative about it... You see, being a Saturn, known for it's Vinyl panels, there's not really all that much METAL on my car to stick it to! The gas cap was already claimed by Kelley and her DH (for my yellow smiley mag). So, that leaves hood, roof, and top of trunk... Found top of trunk last, and somewhat by accident, but decided it was the best spot (wasn't really too fond of the center of my hood, and *I* for one would never see it on the top of my roof). So, it now has a place of honor on the center of the top of my trunk!

The remainder of the package was lots of good reads! I got the (entire?) series of Maggie Sefton Knitting Mysteries, and another interesting novel about a woman who finds herself in a position of having to do Family Tree research to answer some very interesting questions about her newly born baby by learning more about her unknown father. What a great fit with my genealogy research!
So, while I'm still reading Color: A Natural History - my LAST gift from Ann, I have four more books now! On top of that, the KnitWits group had their NameTag contest last weekend! Sadly I did not got to attend (Dale's Memorial Service was beautiful and I feel like I learned a lot more about what an amazing person, mother, and grandmother she was!), but I did drop off my nametag in absentia. Here's the tag:

And good news! It won 2nd place! The prize was a YUMMY canister of Ghirardelli Hot Cocoa mix, a Borders coffee mug, and a book! Knitting under the Influence. It's a novel about knitters...also looks great! So, I'm happy to say that I have reading material to keep me busy for quite a while to come!

Loss

2007-03-16T19:40:00.000-04:00

It is with heavy heart that I wanted to let you know that Dale Jarrett, an original member of the Orlando Area Knitters guild, passed away this afternoon.

Memorial service will be this Sunday, March 18th -- 4pm.

Presbyterian Church of the Lakes
4700 Lincoln Ave
Orlando, FL 32819

For more information, please see Dale's blog in the blog links section to the left.

Central Fl Fair Deadline Looms!

2007-03-15T20:22:00.000-04:00

Have you entered your submissions for the Central Florida Fair yet? The online Submission deadline date is March 20th! Go to their website now to get signed in!

Can't remember your password? The site will email it to your address on record based on the name you give.

Do I have to register my submissions in advance? Last year people were able to register items when they walked in, however category grouping was not as reliable.

One of the groups was talking about requesting changes to the category structure - what ever happened with that? Because of changes in Creative Arts management, our requests got lost in the shuffle and did not get implemented.

Why should I put things in the fair? The Creative Arts competition includes a large number of categories with First, Second, and Third prizes - including CASH prizes! There's no fee to enter, but you might pick up a little stash cash!

What about Spinning? We had hoped to get them to add categories including handspun yarns, but as mentioned above, that didn't happen. I'm planning to use the Knitting Other category and make it clear that the yarn is handspun. Perhaps if others do the same, they'll add a new category on the fly (they reserve the right to do that if the number of submissions warrant it).

Other questions? Many are answered in the official rules on the fair's web site, but I'd be happy to answer any that I know the answers to.

GOOD LUCK to All!!

In other news, I had a lovely visit with DM and DsF this past week - well, other than the viral infection that she was so kind as to bring with her... :) We got to spend a day at Tarpon Springs, FL - the Sponge Fishing capital of the World! I got a really cool natural sponge and a couple of little plants to put in it. We also explored Mt Dora a bit (dropped by Knit and Needle Nook, but didn't spend any more money), Leesburg (dropped by Chez Casuelle to give a progress report on the CTH project), The Villages (dropped by the yarn shop up there too! A few nice things...nothing I desperately had to have), Yalaha (Bavarian Bakery - WOW!), Eustis (Flea Market)...hhmmm...lots of time in Lake County!

At last, a tiny bit of progress...

2007-03-02T23:29:00.000-04:00

No, not on the CTH project...will work on that tomorrow. Tonight I was feeling very restless, unable to do Sudoku to save my life (I even screwed up the easy level puzzle!!), so decided to find something a little more physical to work on.

I've wanted for a LONG time to learn how to Navajo ply, but, well, I think I learn best in person with a demo/hands on. There IS a pretty good site with video online. It helped. Then there was the fact that since I want to do this to be able to spin striping sock yarn, the singles I have already spun are VERY thin...and kept breaking. Looked around for a bobbin with a heavier single...and found someone elses "first singles"...they were pretty wretched. But, I tried to ply them anyhow, with pretty disastrous results. Once that didn't work, I found another single I'd done a while back of a sample fiber someone had given me. That was a single that was destined to be more of a worsted yarn, so it worked MUCH better than the original one I tried. I did end up with a passable skein of yarn from it. It had a TON of twist in it, but that may just be because it was a totally dead single. So, I've washed it and it's hanging to dry. I don't think it'll be perfectly balanced, but it's not too bad as a first try. May try to ply a few more larger singles, then try to go back to the lightweight singles that I had started and see if I can work my way into them. May put up pics soon, but just wanted to share! I'll bring the skein with me to tomorrow's meeting.

What a COLORFUL life!

2007-03-01T22:47:00.000-04:00

Yes, I said COLORFUL!! I got a new package in the mail yesterday from Chicka (pretty impressive, only two days in transit from Vermont!)... She tells me that since I'm "swimming in yarn", she's not sending me any more :( Ok, I'm just kidding...well, not about her not sending yarn, but about the frowny face. She's right, I've got yarn coming out of my ears right now!!

(Did I mention that I won the last "Teaching Fund Raffle" at K or K? I did! The raffle was a Simply NORO pattern book by Jane Ellison - are they numbered or something? This one has a lovely multicolored pseudo-basketweave shawl on the front. AND, two skeins of Noro Nadeshiko - 39% Angora / 38% Silk / 23% Wool in colorway 3 - a lovely grey tweed with white, green, pink, and rust in it...GORGEOUS!)

Back to Chicka...she sent me a box all about COLOR!! Take a peek:

The first thing I noticed when I opened it was the box of notecards...all with pretty colors on them! Looking further, I found a book entitled COLOR: A Natural History of the Palette. What a cool book! I'm very excited to read it, as it has a lot of great info on the development of early pigments and dyes. There's also a Wraps Per Inch tool for my spinning, a tiny little notepad of sticky notes with a beautiful cover (which I just found out Chicka and her DH MADE all by themselves!!! How crafty are THEY?!), a bag of assorted dyes in a "Beginner's Dye Set", a copy of the Twisted Sisters Sock book, and a GORGEOUS set of stitch markers...for my little needles that I seem to be using every time I turn around!

Here's a closer look at the stitch markers... Each has a single bead at the end, but the beads are amazing, with multiple colors and metallic filigree...WOW!

Thanks Chicka, it's a GREAT package!! I may be consulting with the Twisted Sisters on a project I'm working on myself soon...

Last weekend was a knitting retreat weekend! Even better, that retreat took us to Daytona Beach! A few of us got together, cooked in the condo...well, ok, I cooked...knitted a lot, visited a couple of stores...Threads of Time and AC Moore, and spent lots of time on the beach!

Speaking of Threads of Time - it was a surprising visit. I had sort of heard that there was a yarn store in Ormond Beach, but didn't really know any details, and it sounded pretty small... Well, it WAS small, but had a nice selection, including a number of yarns I'd never seen before. One in particular caught my eye...it was aptly named Obsession - a member of the Plymouth Yarn Italian Collection. This lovely species was 65% Nylon and 35% Rayon - 114 yds at 5.5 st/inch on 7's. They had it in 4 lovely colors. It was a pretty smooth yarn, probably a DK or Sport weight, but with places where the fiber sorta broke free of it's smooth strand...it's hard to explain really. I can totally see this yarn making an AWESOME Florida shell T-shirt. Sadly, after recent expenditures, I just COULDN'T justify purchasing enough of this lovely yarn to make a shell with :( I did use my new Knitting Journal from Chicka to take notes on it however, so I could remember what it was that I loved so much. It's an entry near the back of the journal entitled "Yarn Lust".

I didn't leave completely empty handed though...on the sale rack were a number of balls of Crystal Palace Waikiki...a lovely Florida friendly Viscose/Cotton boucle yarn. I picked up three balls of Chocolate Almond colorway - at 50% off! We did notice that should I choose to run two strands in some way, this would go GREAT with the leftover Burgundy Gloss that I have from the vest below. It's interesting...Michelle commented a week or so ago that my colors are changing...perhaps she's right...

I was inspired enough to drag myself out before sunrise on Saturday...some birds enjoying the surf before the sun came up, scrounging for some food...

Then the sun started to come out...wow...I could so live there and see this every morning...but then I guess it wouldn't be quite as special, would it?

Love the sun shining across the foam in the surf...

And if that wasn't enough, a kind gentleman and his wife were walking on the beach and commented that it was sad that I had all those pictures, but none with me in them! So here I am!

Overall, it was an awesome weekend, and I'd love to do it again sometime!

This weekend has other events in store...namely, I'm the captain of a Junior Achievement Helping Kids Shine Bowl - A - Thon team! So, on that subject, if you're still in need of a charity tax deduction, you're welcome to sponsor me in the bowl-a-thon! Just drop me an email if you'd like to sponsor me!

I GOT VD!! (And a whole lotta other things!)

2007-02-18T09:20:00.000-04:00

Look! I got VD! Of course you knew I meant Valentine's Day, what else were YOU thinking?? Ali from Knitty got us started, and the infection spread quickly! Here's what Silly Rabbit sent me! Piles of candy! A Handmade(?) Card that's lovely, and BEAUTIFL LaceWeight Merino from KnitPicks! The yarn is Gossamer and the color is Sweet Pea! How perfect for VD!

Here's a close-up of this scrumptious yarn! I'll have to see if I can find a nice stole that I can make from this...

It's been a month of packages around here (does that mean I'm involved in too many swaps??) This package is from my WONDERFUL SP8 Pal, ChickaChickaKnitChick07! (Love the name!) Anyhow, she's been diligently studying my original survey, stalking me here (sorry it's been so long since I've updated - a friend got on me about it yesterday, and I knew I had a lot to say, so here I am...), and sending me additional surveys!! She's definitely done her homework! Here's my first package (well, most of it...I didn't take pics at the time, sorry). This yarn is REALLY cool! It's the new TOFUtsies from Southwest Trading Company (makers of SWS Soy/Wool yarn). Pretty cool stuff, it's 50% Merino, 25% Soy, 22.5% Cotton, and 2.5% Chitin (pronounced kIte-in so I'm told). Chitin is fiber from the shells of shrimp and crabs and is naturally antibacterial - how cool is that? The colors are perfect and I can't wait to make a pair of socks with it!

The other item pictured is a Knitter's Journal! It's got lots of little inspirational things, but also has lined paper on one side of the pages and graphed on the other! Just perfect for 1) Recording all of the stuff I knit this year - I think it'll be interesting to keep a list. 2) Making design notes for my Original Design garment!

What's this she says? Original Design Garment? Yep, it's now official (the money's been spent!), Cherry Tree Hill is having a design competition for a large sized garment from their Sock yarn, and I'm entering! I spent nearly 5 hours yesterday at Chez Casuelle, my LYS and supplier of this yarn nirvana. I have a design idea in mind, but had to pick colors...wow, that's tough with so MANY amazing colors in stock! Once I found a set that I thought I liked, I did some swatching, testing colors next to each other, etc... Did knock out one of my original colors from the running and picked up another color...one very similar to the Sweet Pea above actually! So, I have my yarn! Am finishing up a pair of socks today, then I can start some more swatching, look at the interactions, get the gauges, and figure out stitch details... Sorry, I'm not posting any specifics here, but if you knit with me on a regular basis you'll be seeing a lot of this project over the next few months.

After I left Chez Casuelle, I headed home (it was nearly 7 when I left!), but decided to stop for dinner on the way. Stopped by an Outback Steakhouse (at 7:30pm on a Saturday night! - oops!) It was mobbed. The woman at the front said 65-80 minutes, but I might find something first come - first served in the bar. Was stalking a couple of spots waiting for people to leave when a woman at the table behind me said "Excuse me, but are you by yourself?" Then, "Well, I am too, and I have this whole big table, you're welcome to share with me!" She had managed to snag a 4-top and was feeling kinda silly all by herself with the restaurant so full. So, I sat down and had a lovely dinner with a complete stranger! It was a nice conversation, we talked about knitting (I was working on the sock), life, family, dating... Was kinda funny actually, since she lives in Leesburg but had been in Orlando all day. I had started my morning in Orlando then spent the afternoon in Leesburg! So, we were headed in nearly opposite directions and both stopped at the same place in the middle :)

Upon my arrival home, I found a pretty flowery package in the mail!! Yep, this was from the Knitty Sock Exchange that I did with Mokolua! Here's what she sent me:

The socks are beautiful! They're made from Cool Wool Merino 2000 from Lana Grossa. She was afraid to send candy lest it melt...ok, probably not a serious concern right now (glances at the Temp stamp on the computer - Ooohhh 48'F!), but it works anyhow since I'm not really big on candy. So she sent me yarn instead!! Perfect! While there's definitely such a thing as too much candy, there can NEVER be too much yarn! The yarn is Louet Gems in Grape. It actually looks darker in the photo because of the shadows, but it is a lovely purple color. And it's superwash for socks too! Also enclosed is an AMAZING box of tea! It's from the Hawaiian Tea Company, and is a Passion Fruit tea. Had a cup last night and it was WONDERFUL! I love fruity and unusual teas, and this one is a GREAT one! Thanks SOOOO much Beth!

Here's the closer detail of the socks - they fit great and are very comfy!

I sent a pair of socks her way last week, which I haven't posted here, since we agreed that they would be a surprise... So here are the socks that I made for Beth:

These are a colorway called Crazy Woman from Mountain Colors. I loved the way they striped. The pattern was from Knitting on the Road. Beth reports that they fit perfectly, which is great! I figured they would, as they were just a touch on the tight side for me, and her feet are slightly smaller than mine. Here's an attempt to show you the stitch detail:

So, that's most of the NEW news...there is of course a lot of old news that I haven't exactly covered. One Item I've been meaning to put up is the photos of my "Judy Pascale Vertical Vest" from the class that we took in November. I loved this vest, as it was my first "whole design" project. Ok, well, not whole design, since Judy gave us the basic structure, but it was completely sized for me, based on my measurements and gauge. It is knit in KnitPicks Gloss - Burgundy, with beads from AC Moore. The beads are a variegated Rose Quartz mix. It's interesting, but somewhat disconcerting, to see how the various beads fall and interact. So, here's the up close pic.
Since the vest came out SOOO well (and so quickly - I completed it within 1 month!), and I had extra yarn, I kinda got a little crazy... So I decided what I needed to go with the vest was a pair of matching socks! These were done with Wendy's generic toe-up sock pattern, then I invert the cuffs, went up a needle size, and beaded the outsides of the cuffs. Here's the full effect:

On another mostly undocumented front, I had a great time in NY when I went in January. My niece is gorgeous and it was so great to meet her! Here's a pic of my mom with Ava from just before I left (so she was a day short of 3 weeks old).

New Knit Night in Altamonte!

2007-01-31T00:20:00.000-04:00

Friday night is the new Knit Night Out! Check out the Blog Site for more info, or sign up to join the Discussion Group! Links in the sidebar as well.

Happy Knitting!

A day of Yarn Excess!

2007-01-27T20:37:00.000-04:00

HO-LY COW!

Today was a day of utter excess when it comes to yarn!

Stop #1: Since I was headed to Mt Dora (see Stop #2 below), and I was in need of a bit of #8 pearl cotton, I dropped by Dream Stitchers on 5th Ave and picked up two yummy skeins of hand-painted pearl cotton. I have a pattern for a really cute little beaded purse, and these yarns will make an absolutely lovely one. Tried to photo, but it didn't really come out, sorry.

Stop #2: Amanda from the NYGK group happened to be in Mt Dora earlier this week and dropped by Knit N Needle Nook to see if they were open. Surprisingly, they were!

Ok, so let me back up 30 years and give you a little background. This store resides in a small storefront in the historic village district of Mt Dora, FL. The entire building lacks air conditioning. As a result, the store has been open only seasonally for years. Barbara, the owner, did not believe in sales, therefore they never had them. Which means that there is some REALLY old yarn in this store. In addition, she received automatic shipments for years, which means there was also a TON of yarn in the store. Years ago, one of our guilds went in on a field trip, and the classic story from that event was: "I accidentally knocked over a bag of yarn while I was there, and Barbara said 'oh, don't worry about that, I'll get it when I vacuum'" The funny part? There was barely room for a walking path, much less to get a vacuum through!!

Fast forward to this spring, we took another field trip, with planned stops at #1 above and #3 below, and a hoped for stop at #2. Upon arrival, we found a note on the door that said "Closed due to illness". We have heard nothing more about the store being open until we heard from Amanda on Tuesday.

It seems that the store has been sold. Sadly, Barbara seems to be battling a terminal illness at this time. The new owners, Lora and her husband have been working hard to clear out the piles and piles of yarn in the store. They are open this weekend, offering yarns at up to 90% off their list prices. Basically what this means is that many yarns are marked at $1 a ball, some at $2 a ball, and a few of the more current ones are a smaller % off. If you go up, be sure to take a look in the back room! Lots of old yarns ranging from cottons, linens, wools, mohairs, and acrylics. Much of the yarn is an acrylic blend, some higher percentages than others.

If you are doing charity knitting, this is a great opportunity both for acrylic blends and 100% acrylics. There was also a significant amount of yarn that could be used for baby knitting, including a variety of Sirdars, as well as DK and fingering weight yarns.

Be aware that one person has attempted to swatch some "bulky" weight yarn that she purchased, and it swatched at more of a Sport or Worsted weight. Due to the amount of time some of these yarns have been in storage, there has definitely been some compression.

That said, I bought over 100 balls of yarn - and paid less than $100 including tax.

Here are 40 balls of Filatura di Crosa cotton - looks like some great baby clothes to me!

13 balls of Pinguin PingoFrance II - 75% acrylic, 25% wool. Once again, more baby clothes! Oh, and all of that "black" looking yarn? Nope, not really...it's actually a lovely deep purple color, and one ball of nearly navy. Sorry, by the time I got home it was too late to go outside for natural light photos!

Here are two shells for me - the turquoise is Katia Papiro, the peach I forget. The baby weight cotton could be socks, or baby clothes...we'll have to see...

Oh, and found a bit of SP8 yarn there too...

This sale will be going on for the next few weeks, and they will be bringing in additional yarns. They said the yarn in the store today represented only about 1/4 of the yarn that was in the store when they purchased it. I would call before making the drive, to ensure that they will be open. The new phone number is 407-830-5421. Lora's email is linked above. The storefront is located on 5th Ave in Mt Dora. Here is a link to the 5th Avenue Cafe. It is located one or two blocks farther West from Knit N Needle Nook. Basically it's a small town, and parking is tight, so just find a spot to park, then walk up to 5th Ave (It's pretty much the "Main Street" through town). Also be aware that the Mt Dora Arts Festival will be February 3rd and 4th. This means parking will be remote with transport to the town, and the town will be mobbed.

I hope you enjoy your trip! There are some great gems in there, and it's an awesome opportunity!

Ok, so at that stop, I also met up with ladies from at least three of the Orlando Guilds. Two of them helped me narrow my selections after they had finished their own shopping. After shopping, we all headed to The Gables for lunch.

Stop #3: After lunch, the rest of the group headed back to Orlando, but, since I was already most of the way there, AND since it made my drive home simpler and more direct... Well, I just had to drop by Chez Casuelle and visit with Carla for a while! Picked up this luscious skein of CTH, and two more skeins of sock yarn for my SP8 downstream :)

Overall? Good day. Spent a little, saved a TON...hhhmmm...common theme recently...