Knittin' to blog about

2011: A Fibery year

2012-01-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Without a doubt, in 2011 I knit more, spun more and attended more fiber and knitting events than ever before. There were the normal Sheep and Wool events, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Southern Adirondack and Fiber Festival of New England. Then Big Deal events, Squam Art Workshops, SOAR and Stitches East, and last but not least classes with the likes of Ann Hanson and Jared Flood. And I might also point out that I knit 7 shawls, 5 of them for the wedding of my daughter and her four bridesmaids. No wonder I was tired at the end of the year.

First, the wedding, which occurred on 9-10-11, and was a lovely affair. I started the shawl process in March when I started spinning the yarn for Natalie's shawl, which was a cashmere silk blend. For her shawl I used the Swallowtail pattern, but used opalescent beads rather than nupps as I found the yarn a tad bit difficult when making the nupps.The bridesmaid's shawls were two different patterns, Icarus, which I knit in pastel pink and sky blue, and Eliina, which I knit in lavender and coral. Since the girls' dresses were champagne, the shawls added a bit of color, though it was quite warm to actually wear them. I loved knitting them , adn the variety of patterns and yarns kept the whole thing interesting. I knit all 5 shawls with the same Dyakcraft size 4/3.5mm interchangeable needle, and it got a true workout and came out unscathed!

Knitting History

2011-08-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

     Over the past few weeks a couple of the podcasts I listen to have featured stories about how the pod-caster's started knitting. Honestly, most of them are fairly new to knitting, and really new to spinning. On the other hand, I have been knitting for many, many years, probably at least 55 years, maybe longer. I don't quite remember ever not knitting. I came from a family of knitters. My mother was an exquisite knitter, knitting beautiful, all-over cabled sweaters, lovely socks and really nice earflap hats. Obviously she knit during the decades that knitting was not particularly fashionable, the 40s and 50s. There were yarn shops around, and a few magazines and books, but several of her patterns were hand written, and others, I believe improvised.
      I am not sure where my mother learned to knit. I don't believe that her mother knit, but possibly another relative taught her as both her grandmother and great grandmother lived in her house when she grew up. Every summer my grandmother and my mother and her siblings traveled back to Brantford, Ontario to visit my Grandfather's family. It is also possible that she learned to knit during the years she lived in remote parts of Canada with her first husband, or when she lived in Gotenburg, Sweden during the Second World War. I am pretty sure that knitting was a bit more prevalent in both Canada and Sweden than in Lynn, Massachusetts, where she spent her first 13 years, and as the wife of a Royal Canadian Air Force Officer she may have belonged to a knitting group in some of the places that she lived.
     But, my mother did not teach me to knit. She was an absolute perfectionist, and would have never tolerated the inadequacies of a small child learning to knit. My Aunt Irene, one of my father's sisters, taught me to knit when I was about 5. I clearly remember sitting on the couch in our living room , with Irene beside me, and knitting first a garter stitch strip, then a little hat, and eventually small sweaters for dolls. They were all knit in the same grey yarn, which as I recall was a Shetland type wool, probably sport or fingering weight. I remember knitting mittens with Fair Isle-ish snowflakes, but I think Aunt I knit the thumbs for me. I continued to knit, and believe me, knitting was totally NOT cool in the 60s, but I think it may have become a bit cool in the Hippie days, when I was in college during the late 60s and early 70's. As a cross-country skier in college I had plenty of opportunity to knit and wear Scandinavian type hats and gloves for myself and for friends.
When my children were born I started knitting pretty obsessively, in fact I have two big plastic bins of small knitted items that I made for them, and I can think of a number of items that I made as gifts or items that I knit for my own kids and gave away. In the early 70s I started quilting as well, but quilting is not as portable as knitting, so I usually had a hat or mittens for travel somewhere handy.
     I got my first drop spindle in 1974 as a gift from an old boyfriend. We had a small yarn shop in Canton NY that had some spinning items, and had really lovely yarn as well. I never learned to spin very well, though I would get the spindle out every so often and give it a try. When we moved to Vermont in 2002, I met a few spinners, signed up for a class at Fletcher Farm Craft School in Ludlow, VT and bought my first and second wheels, possibly the same week. Wheel One is a tiny upright "cottage" wheel, probably locally made, that I got in a little, kinda junky Antique mall. It was certainly not a good beginner wheel, though I enjoy spinning on it now. Later the same week I saw an ad in the paper for a spinning wheel in a yard sale not too far away. I went up to check it out, but it was a very large, ornate Kromsky Saxony wheel. Not something I could sneak in the house easily. It was obvious by the amount of yarn and looms, etc in the yard sale that the woman was an obsessive knitter and spinner, so I asked if he had, perhaps, a smaller wheel for sale. She took me downstairs into her cellar bathroom, which held three very large, very furry, and very energetic Australian Shepherds, and one Majacraft Rose Spinning wheel. She quoted a price that I though was exorbitant until I went home to look up Majacraft wheels on the internet. I called her right back and drove back up to her house and bought the wheel. The Rose is still my workhorse wheel, the wheel that I use every single day. Of course I now have more wheels, and enough drop spindles of every sort to sink a ship, but honestly, I am not a drug addict or and alcoholic, so what harm is there in having too many wheels?

Spindling

2011-08-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

Tour de Fleece spinning

This year I decided to join the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry. Generally speaking, I am not much of a joiner. I like to do my own thing at my own pace and I don't particularly like rules. TdF is pretty straight forward. During the Tour de France, this year from July 2 until July 24 one makes a spinning goal and tries to attain that goal. There can be rules, lots of them, and there are also prizes for following those rules and reporting to Ravelry about one's progress; but I decided to just set a goal and try to reach it. There are also teams, lots and lots of teams. Although I seriously considered the HelloYarn/ Spunk Eclectic/Southern Cross Fibers Team, because I belong to both the HY and Spunky fiber clubs, instead I joined Team Trindle. I have a couple of Trindles, a rather innovative top whorl spindle, and I really enjoy spinning on them. Also I planned to be on vacation in Rhode Island during a good portion of the TdF, so wheel spinning was out of the question.

Trindle spinning, merino silk

Jenkins Kuchulu spinning, cormo...for a sweater!

Navajo Churro

Spunky Eclectic Periwinkle , organic Merino

Hatchtown low whorl, not sure what fiber

My goal was pretty straight forward. I wanted to finish a couple of projects that were currently on spindles; to finish the current wheel project, a Spunky Club project, and to learn to spin silk caps and hankies, using my trindles. Did i meet those goals? Well, in a word, no. But I did spin A LOT, and I did spindle spin, A LOT. Did I learn to spin silk caps and hankies? Not a bit. Much of the time I concentrated on knitting the wedding shawl, particularly the technical difficulties that I had with the bride's shawl. But I enjoyed my TdF spinning, and I accomplished quite a bit.

Canadian Production Wheel

2011-08-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

Last week a Canadian Production Wheel came to live at my house. She is a beauty and she spins like the wind. I have been fascinated by these lovely wheels for over a year; they are relatively available, reasonably priced and spin well. Finding a wheel is not a problem, I see them at The Merlin Tree booth at fiber festivals, on Craig's List and on Ebay. This particular wheel came from the long time owner of the wheel who happens to own a small Antique shop in a nearby town. The wheel was not actually for sale, it was just in the shop so that the owner could spin while the shop was quiet. And she had spun on it for may many years, I am guessing since the 30's. Over a year ago I was in the shop, which is rarely open, and I asked about the wheel, she let me spin on it, and honestly I was not impressed. I asked if she would sell it anyway, though I was not seriously interested, and the price was, honestly, unbelievably low.

Tilt tension

Annette

Wheel hub

Mother of All

Treadle

Over a year went by, every time I went through the small town the shop was closed, and I thought perhaps that the woman had passed away. Then, early last week the shop was open so I went in. The wheel was still there, still not really for sale, and was a lot dustier; in fact, part of a plaster wall had collapsed in it, so we had to dig it out. I asked if it was for sale ( and I knew it would probably be the only sale that week, if not that month) and the owner quoted the same low price. I bought her, brought her home, bathed her in Murphy's Oil Soap and made a new drive band. Then I sat down to spin and I am in heaven. She's fast and smooth and spins fine, smooth yarn in a flash. I posted her picture on Ravelry and within minutes found out that she was built by Fred Bodura in St Hyacinthe, Quebec, probably in the early 20th century. She is an unmarked wheel and a tuplet ( past a quintuplet and sextuplet...) there are many just like her attributed to the same family of wheel makers. Since many CPWs have names, hers is Annette.

The finish line

2011-08-01T16:54:00.000-07:00


Three of the bridesmaid's shawls

THE WEDDING is fast approaching, and lest anyone doubt my ability to knit 5 shawls in about 5 months, including the spinning of the yarn for one of them; as well as the total destruction and reconstruction of one, I am on the home stretch. They are gonna happen. The wedding is gonna happen ( I hope) and the bride as well as 4 bridesmaids will be wearing hand knit shawls. I will not bore you with the harrowing events leading up to the completion of the shawls; the two emergency, last minute trips to Webs, the washing and rewashing the silk/cashmere shawl to get out that silk cocoon smell, the total change of patterns, twice, and the current conundrum of two of the bridesmaids shawls being considerably larger than the other two ( never fear, they will be ripped back to the 10th pattern repeat and the lace edging reapplied.) Traumatic, yes, appreciated, I damn well hope so. Will I ever knit another shawl? Actually, I took a break from wedding shawl knitting while I was on vacation and knit a small shawl for myself as well as a baby sweater for one of the bridesmaids. Will I do this again? Yep, and I will most likely have that opportunity sometime in the next few years. Pictures, you betcha'

Blocking bridesmaid shawl # 3

Blocking the edge

Beads instead of nupps on the lily-of-the-valley pattern

After blocking

Squam Art Workshops

2011-06-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

I spent June 2 through 6 at Squam Art Workshops at Rockywold/Deep Haven Camps in Holderness, New Hampshire. What an amazing few days! Between the splendid natural beauty, the creative and stimulating people, the great classes, three meals a day served in a dining hall and free beer each evening it was just an outstanding experience.
SAW happens twice a year, Spring and Fall, and the Spring workshops are mostly fiber related. Along with the full gamut of knitting classes there was printmaking, embroidery, pattern-making, sewing, a bit of carpentry, Yoga , spinning and crochet. The teachers were all rockstars in their fields and everyone I spoke with thoroughly enjoyed the classes. I loved mine! I took two days of Printmaking classes, a day of linoleum printing with Lizzie House and a day of botanical prints using freezer paper stencils with Maya Donenfeld. The third day was an all day class with Ysolda Teague on The Perfect Sweater. It was a class about fitting and adapting sweater patterns so that they will both fit and flatter. It was a long and uncomfortably cold class, much of it spent huddled around the fireplace in the Playhouse, but it was totally awe inspiring.{Interestingly, my class the following day was in the same building, and we discovered there is a HUGE electric space heater there, and we were toasty warm!} I was able to purchase Ysolda's brand new book Little Red in the City, which we used as a text for our future sweater endeavors.

My porch

Greenwood Lodge

My room, very monastic, but cozy

Greenwood living room

Happy Hour and Knitting do mix!

My cabin was called Greenwood. I was there because I requested a single room, and what a room it was; a room with a balcony overlooking Squam Lake. The cabin slept 20 people and we had an amazingly diverse group, first timers, mothers and daughters, friend, total strangers. We also had two people staying off campus, Judy and Gretchen, who adopted our cabin as a place to hang out. Most everyone knit and our cabin was used for classes by Gudrun Johnston during the day, and also one afternoon for a discussion of writing and knitting by Barbara Delinsky, who was a Squam attendee

Shawl Pictures

2011-04-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

And the beat goes on, and on and on.

2011-04-03T16:21:00.000-07:00

I am on the very last row of shawl number 2. Next I have to crochet about 9,000 edge stitches and block this baby. It has been a fun knit, and though it is close, I don't think I am going to run out of yarn. The brides shawl yarn is spun, skeined and washed. It is really lovely, and I think I will knit that shawl next, partly to get it over with, and partly because I need a challenge in my life right now.
The real problem with knitting 5 of one thing is that I miss the variety of knitting a bunch of small projects; socks, hats, mittens. I started 3 little things in my Nancy Bush Estonian knitting classes, but I haven't allowed myself to finish any of those items. When I see the finished projects of my classmates on Ravelry I get really jealous. But I suppose some of them would like to be knitting wedding shawls. This is just a quick post to let some of you know I am still alive. Pictures of Shawl 2 tomorrow!

Monoganomous Knitting

2011-03-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

     I am a pretty big fan of monogamy. I have been married for many, many years, and find it hard to imagine my life otherwise. I have been married long enough to have a 29 year old daughter who is getting married on 9-10-11. I almost always drive a Subaru (though not at the moment); Pink Ladies are my favorite apples, Newcastle my favorite beer, and I love Vermont Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cheese, though it no longer likes me very well. It is rare for me to deviate from my favorite things. But knitting monogamy has not really entered my life until recently. I am knitting wedding shawls. Six of them. One for the bride out of cashmere/silk handspun which has been be spun by the bride's mother- who would be me; and five others for the bridesmaids. There are only 4 actual bridesmaids at the moment, but I am making 5 shawls, in case of some unforeseen emergency.
     The way I usually handle my knitting projects is pretty simple . I have stay-at-home projects and on-the-go projects. Stay-at-home projects are those that are either too large and unwieldy or to complicated to knit when I am away from home. Right now the stay-at-home project is Girasole which is a lovely circular shawl designed by Jared Flood based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi shawl. It is knit in Green Mountain Spinnery Alpaca Elegance in the color Cappuccino. It is a wonderful yarn and a great pattern. But the damn thing is going to be about 70 inches in diameter and it is very heavy. Not only that, one must count every stitch and every row. Currently there are about 600 stitches on each row and I am about half way done. Not a traveling project. In fact it is upstairs in my sewing room (where I rarely sew), resting. Then I usually have a travel project. This is something pretty small, preferably that fits in my purse, requiring no mental acrobatics and not on size 000 needles. It is usually a sock, a plain vanilla sock, knit on size 2.25 needles, in some self patterning sock yarn. Recently I knit 5 Koolhaas hats as holiday gifts, and after the first hat, they became travel items.   It is rare for me to have more than 2 projects on the needles at a time. It happens, usually only after taking a class, when I start a couple of projects and am anxious to finish them before I forget what I learned. I recently took 3 day classes from both Ann Hanson and Nancy Bush. I started 3 projects with each teacher, and haven't touched any of them since I took the classes. That is just how devoted I am to these wedding shawls. My current on-the-go project is a 6th Koolhaas hat.

   The first problem , of course was choosing both the yarn and the patterns for the shawls. After several false starts on both accounts I settled on the Icarus shawl in the Aracaunia Rialto solid yarn . I bought 2 skeins of each of five colors at Webs in Northampton, MA and I was pretty sure that I would have enough yarn for each shawl. But no, I ran out of yarn on the first shawl 14 rows from the end, so ordered another skein of 3 of the 5 colors. Two colors where out of stock, so those shawls will be slightly smaller. The first shawl is complete and blocked and I'll show you a picture of the colors as well:

The bridesmaid's dresses are champagne, so I wanted to add a bit of color, but not too much. Because theses colors are tonal as well as hand dyed they look fairly similar. Though each color says that all 3 skeins come from the same dye lot, they do vary a bit. We are calling that a design feature. The lavender one has about 20 rows of each skein alternated, and that makes a nice transition. I completed the first shawl in 10 days, but the second is taking longer because I went off to Burlington, Vermont to take a 3 day class from Nancy Bush on Estonian knitting. And ski season is wrapping up as well, so I have to get in all the hours that I can on the slopes. The yarn for the bride's shawl is complete. It is Antique white, as is her dress, so the combination should be lovely. Natalie's shawl is in the Swallowtail pattern by Evelyn Clark. I had originally planned to make Nancy Bush's Summer shawl, but Nancy thought the silk/cashmere was too heavy for her pattern. It is a heavier yarn than the Rialto, but Natalie's dress is strapless and she is always cold, so we are going with a more substantial shawl for her. Knitting these shawls is not just a labor of Love, but a real lesson in perseverance. At this point I am still enjoying the process. I just hope the bride appreciates the results.

Knitting Podcasts

2011-01-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

    I think that over the past two years I have listened to almost every knitting podcast out there. And I really like very few of them. Not sure why. Maybe I was lucky to discover Brenda Dayne's Cast On early in the game, and that set the bar really high, so consequently much that followed has been disappointing. Maybe I just don't really like the genre, and I keep trying to find the perfect podcast, but in actuality I just don't like listening to short dis-jointed productions about other folks knitting frustrations.
    There are several things I do know about the podcasts that I enjoy. I like single person podcasts. I have tried some that have two participants and I never like them, even though according to iTunes they are extremely popular. I like good music. Not all podcasts have music, but many have music that really sucks.   Sticks and Strings, about a bloke who knits from Australia, has great music, as does Cast On, and it has good variety as well.
      If I am listening to a knitting podcast I want it to be about knitting. Both Cast on and Sticks and Strings have a lot of knitting content and just enough personal content to make the podcaster human without divulging every deep dark secret about their personal life. I know that David Reidy teaches at a secondary school and has two cats named Tigger and Tiger and I know Brenda Dayne lives in Wales with her partner Tania. Do I need to know more? No, not really. Coincidentally both podcasts often have book recommendations along with knitting content, and I am usually not a fan of their book choices.
     I like a podcast that is easy to listen to. It needs good quality sound and a podcaster who can pronounce all the words they are saying. I once, and only once, listened to a podcast by a youngish woman somewhere in the mid-west. It was obvious she never even attempted to find the proper pronunciation of anything. Not only that, she didn't really have a good grasp of the English language. It might have been funny if it had not been so very sad. Though it was excruciatingly awful to listen to, I got as far as the fifth time she used the word "tutoral" for the word "tutorial". This particular episode was about on-line tutorials of knitting processes. It had the potential to be pretty interesting as there are many on-line tutorials and youtube videos, and their quality varies considerably. But I just could not listen to all of it, and I would not have trusted her judgement.
    Perhaps my current favorite podcast is Fiber Beat. It is by a guy from California called WonderMike.    This guy has it all. Great sound quality, fiber smarts, good connections and knitting videos. He usually interviews some knitting/fiber rockstar and, though the interviews are obviously a bit staged, they are always interesting and fun. And the music is to die for. I do not know how this guy digs up the sound bites that he has on the show, but they are always great.
    I need to mention two other podcasts that I listen to regularly; Spin Doctor and The Electric Sheep. Spin Doctor has improved over the past year. The first time I listened I almost said never again... but I persevered and the show quality, sound quality and content has improved. I even joined the Ravelry group and plan to participate in a spinning exploration of rare breeds over the next year. The Electric Sheep is pretty silly. It has some knitting content that is interesting, but it is the voice that I like. This woman was in one of my classes at Knit Camp in Scotland and she just has the voice of an angel; a very refined British accent, crisp and clear and you can bet she never mispronounces anything.
   I am not here to tell you about the podcasts that I do not like. Quite honestly one of the things that I dislike about some podcasts is the "reviews" of fiber related items. I think the knitting world is just too small to do that.   The person whose fiber or equipment you are reviewing is apt to be listening, and to be really offended if you give it a bad review. I'm not here to "review" podcast, just to tell you about the ones I like. Some of the most popular knitting podcasts are among the ones I like the least. After all "one man's trash is another man's treasure".

A New Year

2011-01-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

     2011 looks to be a good year. Last year was just fine, as years go, and I am hoping that all goes well this year. I have some exciting knitting and spinning plans for 2011; classes to take, projects to complete and events to attend. Maybe I will even keep my blog updated so whoever reads this can come back at me in December and remind me what I had planned!
    Classes to take... At this time the only ones I have on my schedule are a three day Nancy Bush class at Northeast Fiber Arts in Williston VT which is happening in March and Squam Art Workshops in June. I have long been a fan of Nancy Bush. Because I love history, particularly textile history, she is my superstar. I own all her books and have knit many of her patterns. I particularly love her articles in Piecework Magazine. When I was at Knit Camp last summer I got to have breakfast with Nancy a few mornings, and we reminisced about our long phone calls when I was in Alaska and I called her for yarn and patterns, and well... conversation. It was in the days before knitting was popular, and not too many people on the island where I lived actually knit. So I am pretty excited about those classes. And in June I am going to Squam Art Workshops for the first time. I have read about it in the past , but it is a kind of pricey event so I never really investigated too too seriously. This year I decided to just do it. I actually visited the Rockywold/Deephaven Camps where Squam Art Camps is held last Fall when I was investigating locations for my daughter's wedding. Although it was a perfect venue, our date was not available. I am taking three classes, and surprisingly, they are not all knitting classes. I am taking Block Printing, The Perfect Sweater with Ysolda Teague and Botanical Printing. I actually have a college degree in Printmaking, but haven't done anything with it in the past 40 years, so I guess it is time to plunge back into it! In addition to these fun events I am looking into a class with Cookie A and Anne Hanson that will be held in Albany in February. Since we are in the middle of a big blizzard I have not heard whether there is space available in that class.
     Projects to complete... I'm kinda screwed on this one. My daughter is getting married in September (9-10-11) so I am knitting shawls, one for the bride, for which I am spinning 2000 yards of white silk/cashmere roving which is to become Nancy Bush's lily of the valley triangle shawl. Then I am knitting 4 different rectangular lace-weight champagne colored shawls for the bridesmaids. Screwed? Yep, for certain. No other knitting or spinning projects for me this year, at least until September 11! If I do knit anything else it will be from my own handspun. Progress so far: I have spun about half of the silk/cashmere, plied none of it and I have chosen and received approval for all four bridesmaid's shawls, though I have only acquired yarn for one shawl so far. For anyone who has ever knit for a bride, you know that is one serious obstacle overcome.
   Events... Well, I will undoubtedly attend fewer fiber events than last year. Or maybe not. New Hampshire Sheep and Wool is a for sure even though the weather is apt to be miserable, and several of my favorite vendors no longer attend, I'll be there. Maryland Sheep and Wool; that's a thought because my son now attends college in Maryland, but no, I don't think so. Massachusetts Sheep and Wool...for sure. Vermont Sheep and Wool, oh yea... Last year was great, it's on my birthday, and the new location in Tunbridge, Vermont is wonderful. Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival; yep, on the List. Rhinebeck; nope, not again. New England Fiber Festival at the Big E in Springfield Mass. I'll be there.
    2011.. looks like a very good year. Now I better get back to that damn white roving. At least it is a dream to spin.

More 2010

2011-01-01T10:05:00.000-08:00


Koolhaas hat by Brooklyn Tweed, knit in Green Mountain Spinnery	mystery yarn

Cedar Leaf Shawlette Mountain Colors Bearfoot

Detail; Cedar Leaves

Clapotis for the Clap-o-Tea

Citron in Ball and Skein Lace

Tea Leaves Cardigan in Madelinetosh Worsted

Upstairs... in Poems Sock Yarn

End of May Hat; Merino/Cashmere , lined in merino/cotton

Wee Shetland Shawl in Smith and Jamieson Spindrift

Handspun/ Navajo Plyed Three Water farm BFL

Handspun yarn for a sweater 1 lb. mystery roving

Handspun Merino/tencel Spun on Ashford Traditional

Favorite knits, 2010

2010-12-31T14:07:00.000-08:00

Damson by Isolda Teague in Malabrigo sock

Squirrel Sampler mittens by Hello Yarn in Harrisville Shetland

Swirl shawl, Jojoland Melody

Edith the Hat in Louet Gems Merino

In the Land of Oz Shawl by Adrienne Fong knit in grey/blue Ball and Skein Supersock.

Naughty or Nice

2010-12-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

    No knitting content here. If that's what you are looking for, try tomorrow. If you did not read yesterday's blog this will make very little sense, but read away. Nonsense makes good reading.

     We celebrated Christmas yesterday. As a non-Christian I am perfectly comfortable celebrating Christmas any old day. July 4th would be fine with me. But it was December 29. Close enough. My daughter and her boyfriend met my son and I half-way for each of us, in a smallish city in central New Hampshire. We had a lovely lunch then decided to go somewhere to exchange gifts and chat. Starbucks sounded nice. We drove up there. It wasn't particularly crowded, but....there were no free tables. If you have ever been to a Starbucks you know what I mean. Every double table was occupied by a single person with a computer, maybe a cup of coffee. There were 2 tables for 4. Each was occupied by a single person. Well, one of those single people, quite honestly was large. The nice me says he was large, the old Susan would say he was freakin' huge; as big as the 4 of us put together. No s**t. This guy was super-sized. He needed a table for 4. He also had a super-sized triple, caramel, mocha, grande macciato with about 3" of whipped cream. The thing must have been 1200 calories. The second table for 4 was occupied by a kid. A college age boy who undoubtedly had been sitting there the entire winter break. He was there because: a) he didn't want to be home with his family. b) he thinks he might run into some friends from high school or c) he got stood up by someone he met on match.com. He didn't even have a cup of coffee. In fact he had a deck of cards, but he wasn't playing solitaire. His only saving grace.
   The new Susan glowered at both of them with fiercely Mother/Librarian eyes. I can think of a number of un-nice things I might have said, but my daughter, who is NOT a shrinking Violet said, quite loudly, " lets go somewhere else". We went to the food court at the Mall. Kinda like having Christmas dinner in the Junior High Cafeteria. It smelled like food, and not in a good way. There was no lovely coffee. But we had a wonderful time, great gifts, and lots of free tables.
     My conundrum is this. Nice people leave Starbucks, say nothing, and feel like crap because they had their family celebration in the Food Court at Steeplegate Mall. Naughty people tell fat guys they should ditch the 1200 calorie Mocha, get a water bottle and go for a walk, maybe with the lonely kid. And the naughty person feels like crap as well. Rightly so because she has caused the poor chubby guy to drop dead of a heart attack. Who wins? Just askin'

10 Intentions for the New Year

2010-12-28T18:50:00.000-08:00

Many bloggers do a "10 on Tuesday"... following a script of 10 things; beach reads, favorite movies, best knits, etc. I have never bothered with this because I couldn't imagine having 10 of anything; favorite books, about 90, favorite movies, 1 or two and they change pretty often. I am just not too good at lists. New Year's resolutions... I don't bother. Last year I believe I said I would read more books from the library, and I did, too. Had way more overdue fines as a consequence, but I really need to support my local library, so it all worked out. This week's 10 on Tuesday is "10 intentions for the New Year" Well, offhand I can't think of 10, but I may just come up with a few.

Hang my laundry on the line. I hang clothes outside all summer, but not usually in the winter. I have a great clothesline in the cellar, left from my mother's days in this house, and I'm gonna use it, by golly.
Read from my shelves. I could read from my shelves 'til the day I die and never read all the books in this house, so I better get started.
Knit my handspun. I have started collecting patterns that I think are suitable for handspun, and it is time to get hoppin' on this project. I have a handspun sweater half knit. I'm going to frog it and make a different sweater. I found a pattern that I think will be more flattering to the yarn and to me.
Be nicer. I have developed a tendency to just not be bothered with being nice to people who really annoy me. I find it hard to be phony. In fact I think it is particularly unbecoming to humans to fake niceness, but I am going to give it a try. Might be really hard.
Make a bucket list. I am over 60, on the downhill slide of life. My sister died last year; many of my friends are sick or have passed away in recent years. There are a few things that I would really like to do before I die. Better get crackin'. Last year I reconnected with my 3 freshman college roommates. 3 of us, but not the 4th, have had some really good times in the past year. We arrived at college 43 years ago as fairly unlike 17 year olds, but as we have aged we are not so very different after all, though our lives have certainly followed diverse paths. That sounds snarky. Number 4 got married last year. She was just not interested in the rest of us, but that's okay. We wish her the best!
Eat locally. In 2010 we made a concerted effort to eat as much as possible from the local area. We are lucky to live where it is possible to shop at co-ops and farmer's markets. Agriculture is important in Vermont. We have great dairy products, produce much of the year, local meat and poultry and grains are now being grown in Vermont, and of course we have great beer. As a consequence of local, especially local organic food, being more expensive, we eat less, but we eat better.
Enough. This is giving me a headache.

I'm BBAACCKKKK!!

2010-12-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, a bit cheesy, but here I am, at Harrisville Designs for 3 days in November with you-know-who. It was a great 3 days and since then I am a total Brooklyn Tweed convert. Everyone got Koolhaas hats for the holidays and I have a Girasole almost, tediously,nearly completed. Honestly, it is made with Green Mountain Spinnery yarn, but it is still gorgeous. And doesn't my Kauni Cardigan look just fab against the Harrisville wall of color?

My KnitCamp: the good, the bad and the ugly

2010-09-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

About now I think enough has been said about Knit Camp UK. But I will write a summary of what I actually did and the highlights of other camp events. First the good...it was very,very good. Then the bad...it was mostly inconvenience and disorganization. But it went down the tubes quickly and many people had serious problems. I was lucky. The Ugly... what happened after the whole thing was over. Ugly, criminal and unconscionable. Really naughty.

Our home at Stirling University

We arrived at Knit Camp on a Monday afternoon, and found the Stirling Management Center which is a hotel-ish building on the campus of Stirling University. After checking into our room, which was a lovely double room, I headed over to the pub in the Student Union for the Clap-o-Tea. To enter the Clap-o-Tea one had to have knit the Clapotis shawl, and one also needed to wear it to the Tea. I dutifully knit a new Clap, my second in three years, and wore it to the Tea, despite the fact that it was the warmest weather we encountered in Scotland. By the time I got there most folks had met up with friends and had a couple of drinks, so I wandered a bit and sat with a lovely woman and her husband from Texas. It was at this Tea that we heard of the first really bad thing happening; the lack of work visas for the 6 American Tutors as well as the fact that two of the tutors had been deported, one back to the US and another to Holland (I think). This pretty dramatically affected many students as Tuesday class schedule had all 8 tutors classes fully booked . (say about students18 per class). A meeting was called for 7:45 the following morning to see what was going to happen. Since I had a Scottish teacher the following day I was not impacted, but Cindy, the woman I sat with was certainly affected as her tutor was not even in attendance at all. A number of tutors had pulled out due to contract issues, but the Knit Camp Director neglected to contact anyone about this!!!! Since it was out of our hands we went out to dinner in Stirling and had a lovely time.

Signboard outside restaurant in Stirling, we ate elsewhere!

The following morning there was a big meeting to tell everyone what was happening. I didn't go to the meeting, but I doubt that it was a happy event. Students were told that the Non EU tutors had to leave the country ( fly to Dublin) and re-enter with new visas or some such folderol and that people had the choice of taking the class of their choice of getting a full refund. Well, that created a more than mild pandemonium. Again, I was not effected as I had a Fair Isle Knitting class with Liz Lovick . Many folks took the option to take an existing class, despite the fact that most of the classes were already fully booked. Classrooms were too small to fit extra students. Tutors did not have enough materials or handouts, tempers flared. As a matter of fact NONE of the handouts had been prepared by the administration of camp for any classes, despite the fact that tutors had sent the prepared handouts and patterns weeks earlier and expected them to be copied and ready in their classrooms. So various "classroom assistants" had to run around like mad women trying to xerox class notes, come up with materials and sort out computer glitches. These classroom assistants should all receive medals and lots of praise for all the work they did. And there was not an assistant in every class. Lots of tutors had to just drop back 10 yards and punt. My class was totally wonderful. Liz is extraordinarily knowledgeable and prepared tons of class notes and a CD of the PowerPoint directions she gave in class. Somehow she had enough for everyone even with extra students. However the room was VERY crowded and became unbearably hot in the afternoon. We learned a lot about the history of Fair Isle and Shetland Knitting and started a small hat with yarn supplied by Jameson and Smith. After I got home I decided to rip out the little hat and make a pair of Fair Isle Gloves, someday. Story of my life!
More to come later.

Knit Camp UK

2010-09-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

When I decided to attend Knit Camp UK in Scotland I really scrutinized the class list. There were originally something like 49 instructors (called tutors in the UK) and each had about 4 classes. For some odd reason I printed out that original class list and poured over it for days choosing the perfect classes. There were several American teachers from whom I had taken classes in the past, so I eliminated those folks; there are techniques that I have tried and don't enjoy ( intarsia, modular knitting) , so I eliminated those classes. Although I am a die hard spinner I knew that my wheel, even my lovely Majacraft Little Gem, would not be making the trip. Out with the spinning. And there are a couple of things that I am really good at, like gloves, that I do not need to take a class in. That narrowed it down a bit, but I still found 8 or 10 classes that I knew I would thoroughly enjoy. I HAD to take a class with Liz Lovick. I was lucky enough to do a swap with her a couple of years ago on the Traditional Knitters Yahoo group and we have casually corresponded over the years. I really wanted to take a class from Gudrun Johnston as I admire her work, and though she lives not too far from me, I have not been able to take a class from her. Plus she is a an authentic Shetland Knitter. I really wanted to take a photography class, to improve my blog, because I am, in all honesty, a crap photographer. And a couple of other classes intrigued me. I kind of cast fate to the wind, signed up for four classes, received a receipt and went about my life.
   A couple of months later, maybe March, I checked the Knit CampUK website and noticed that one of my instructors was no longer listed. I got out my original list and found that several other tutors names were missing. My naive thought was that those classes were full, no longer available, these were pretty famous knitters after all. Then, several weeks later, I decided that I just HAD to take a class with Jared Flood. I bought a book by the instructor for my Wednesday class and decided that perhaps we would not be a great match. So I requested a change to Jared's Baby Surprise Jacket class. I received no reply. Tried again, no response, used a different email address, nada. That is when I joined the Knit Camp UK Ravelry group and became aware of rumblings about the administration of the event. I admit, I then sent a pretty surly email, demanding that I at least be notified whether it would be possible to change the class. Canned email that the person was on vacation... Well, I got a bit hot under the collar and eventually, after several exchanges, received an email from a new person, hired to " put out fires". Class changed, all was well.
   {As an aside, I really had no interest in the baby surprise jacket. I have made several. It is not a pattern that I enjoy, and I think it looks kinda dopey on babies. It was Jared Flood I was interested in. Not him, personally, just taking a class from him, and it fit in my schedule. Never did take the class, but I got to sit next to him at breakfast one day}.
     Time went by, I faithfully watched the Rav boards and became curiouser and curiouser about what was to come. Things were hoppin'. People were up in arms, classes were canceled willy-nilly. And communication from the powers-to-be at Knit camp UK ground to a halt. But there was this other person who did put out fires. She seemed lovely. In fact she was lovely. I met her. Weeks passed. Then one day in July I received an email that my photography class instructor would not be attending. Double booked...so sorry, but we have this other person, Mary Jane Mucklestone, well qualified, who can teach you class. I googled her, I already read her blog. I was happy. And well I should be... she was absolutely brilliant. In fact I had considered one of the classes that she was supposed to teach, but now she was switched to do the photography. Photography class settled.
   Just before I went to Scotland I checked the website for Knit Camp UK and noticed far fewer tutors. The numbers changed almost daily from 49 originally down to 29, a low of 24 and up to 29 again. I had to stop looking as I had made a not small investment in this trip, and I was planning on getting the most out of it. At this point I was signed up for 4 classes, three of them neither the original class or the original teacher that I signed up for. But I was still pretty happy, and optimistic that the whole thing would be world class.
Part two to follow... the actual Knit UK Camp. Dum-de-dum-dum-dummmmm

OK, I'm back, maybe

2010-08-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

    I have not really been away for 6 months; well, mentally perhaps, but physically, not really. I have not blogged. I have thought about it, stared blankly at the screen, and just not had much to say. I took a couple of trips, I was sick for a while, I decided that no one read my blog, except perhaps my husband, who thinks it is the only way he can find out what I am up to (I know, you'd think he could figure that one out). 'Nuff said. No one seemed to miss me.
    But I did knit, and I did spin, and did a couple of sheepy/wooly things. In February I attended the NETA Spa in Freeport Maine. This is a rather loosely structured fiber event held in a couple of hotels in Freeport, the East Coast hub of outlet shopping as well as home of LL Bean. I attended SPA a few years ago in Portland Maine and had a really horrible time. Really bad. But I needed an escape and some fiber revival and a weekend outing with my daughter. So, we went. It was awful, worse than I remembered. The organizers of this event have an agenda...to have no agenda. Quite honestly it has grown in scale and attendance enough that it now has the feel of disorganized pandemonium. A few folks have tried to organize classes, etc, but their efforts are thwarted by others who just want to sit around and, well, drink. There was a nice, but very small marketplace and a fashion show and worst knit item show. I put my spiral shawl in the fashion show and got third place in the worst knitted item show for a perfectly ghastly orange sweaterish thing that I got at Goodwill in Concord. Well, I won't go to that again.
   In May I went to New Hampshire Sheep and Wool in Contoocook. This has always been a favorite event of mine, and it was great this year as well, except the weather really and truly sucked. It was cold and rainy and horrible. A few of my favorite vendors were not even there, and I don't blame them. And I had a raincoat failure. In addition, I went with a friend who was having, perhaps, a worse time than me, partly due to the fact that though she is a knitter, she is not a spinner and New Hampshire Sheep and Wool is rather weighted toward the sheep breeder and the spinner. We left early to get hot soup and for me to buy a much needed new, truly waterproof raincoat.

Mass sheep and wool purchases

Later that month I went to Massachusetts Sheep and Wool in Cummington. What a great event! It is smaller than New Hampshire, with many of the same vendors, but it has a different vibe. It is more down home/4-H oriented with perhaps a higher proportion of small indie dyers and fiber producers. Though I did not buy a lot I had a really nice day, and the weather cooperated, at least while I was there. It was raining when I left, though. I came home through Shelburne Falls, Mass which is certainly one of my favorite towns in New England.

Class in the courtyard

Photographed fiber/mittens

Last Fall I read about Knit Camp UK to be held in August in Stirling, Scotland. And after much discussion with my husband, who is not what I would call world traveler material, I decided to sign up for the entire week-long event as a part of a longer trip to Scotland. Over the winter I joined a Ravelry group, planned the remaining 10 days of our trip, and really started looking forward to the whole thing. About March rumblings began on Ravelry about the whole planning-or perhaps non-planning of the event. I remained optimistic, signed up for 4 classes and hoped for the best. A few weeks before we left, the bottom seemed to fall out of Knit UK. Three of my four classes were changed when teachers pulled out due to contract problems. There was a lot of pissing and moaning. But I had the rest of the Scotland trip to look forward to so I remained optimistic. In the last week before I left things went pear shaped. But I was already in Scotland, having the time of my life, and all I could do was continue to hope for the best. Well, to make a long, convoluted story very short, it was great!! Really wonderful. My classes were perfect, though not what I originally planned to take, Stirling University was a perfect setting for this event, and I met many, many inspiring and fun people, all making the best of what could have really been a nightmare of unknown proportions. Unfortunately most of the blame fell fully on one poor person who got in over her head planning an event that really needed a staff of 4 or 5 full time people. Instructors pulled out at the last minute, Ravelry pulled out of their sponsorship if the Weekend part of the thing, Rav Forums went nuts, and yet, when we all got there, it was just hunky-dory. Not without problems, but it ran surprisingly smoothly. I doubt that this particular event will ever happen again, but I think anyone who was actually there would probably go again.
Pictures, well, I actually took a "photographing your fiber" class with Mary Jane Mucklestone at Knit UK. I found out that my cheap crappy camera from Best Buy actually has some great features and that it takes far better pictured than I ever imagined. But I don't have many pictures of actual fiber events. I have over 1000 pictures of Scotland, but only a few from Stirling.
Will I try to do better posting? Well, no, I don't think so. When I started this whole blog thing I thought it would be fun; a good way to keep in touch with friends and family who might be interested in my knitting and spinning. Not so much. I am not an enthusiastic writer, I was about a far from an English major as one can get, though I like the computer I don't like being chained to it. I may to try to blog about knitting and spinning now and again, but expect this blog to go away by the end of the year.

Fears and Finishing

2010-02-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

We all have fears, some more terrifying than others, some rational and others totally irrational. I spend a lot of time being afraid, but most of my fears are normal mother, US citizen, unknown type things; stuff over which I have little control. I have a couple of pretty normal, and likely totally unfounded fears. I don't like elevators, airplanes, driving in the city, stuff like that. But the one I have really never understood is that I really am scared to death of those drive through car washes. I have never had a bad experience in one, in fact, in Alaska, Gabe and I used to go to the car wash fairly often as a kind of "event". ( We lived in a small town, not much happening. Gabe was my former corgi). The local car wash was at a gas station which also had a drive thru espresso window. In the morning of any nice sunny day ( in a town where it rained 300 days a year) we would drive to the P.O., pick up the mail, get gas, a mocha at the drive thru and get in line for the car wash. I don't remember the car wash being especially traumatic, but since that time something has happened to my car wash mojo, and now every time I go I get all sweaty palmed and jumpy. I go anyway, a couple of times a month, mainly because they aggressively salt our roads and my car needs to last three more years, at least. So last Thursday I took both corgis to get their nails done, paid a couple of bills and got in line at the car wash. Two or three cars ahead of me went through with no obvious problems. I was calm, or fairly so until I remembered the last time I took Eliot to the car wash he raced around the car chasing the wand that sprayed the car. Not too much fun. I paid and noticed that the attendant was busy flirting with a young girl at the self serve car wash. My anxiety level was pretty high, Eliot was having some sort of flash back and Riva was snoozing in the back seat. I couldn't back out, there were three cars in back of me. I pulled into the bay and the doors closed. Therein lies the problem. The doors didn't used to close, I don't even think there were doors. The car wash started, sprayed 1/3 of my car with thick goopy soap and stopped. Eliot and Riva were plenty interested and planning an attack from inside the car on the wand. The red light went out. The water went off. The doors stayed shut. It became obvious that despite the bright sunny day there was a power outage. And I was stuck inside a car wash, with my car running, with 2 moderately excited corgis. I sat tight for about 2 minutes then tapped the horn a couple of times. Then I played a tune on the horn, tried to call home ( no cell service inside a brick walled car wash). Finally I just lay on the horn, long and hard. I saw the guy in the car behind me get out of his car a couple of times , hopefully to alert the car wash guy that I was totally flipping out inside the car wash. Eventually, probably less than 5 minutes, though it seemed an eternity to me, the front door opened and I drove my car , now 1/3 covered with dry goopy soap out and back around the building. I explained to the guy that I had not gotten my $8.00 car wash and that I needed to drive through the self serve wash and hose my car down. I don't like the self serve wash because it leaks and It was 20 degrees out and I didn't have on boots or a rain coat. They guy looked at me like I was freaking crazy and told me to get back in line again and he would give me a free car wash. Not likely, ever.
So, the Kid's sweater has moved on to greener pastures, in Ohio. Not sure an overdue handknit sweater is a great 20th birthday present, but it really is lovely and I hope it fits. The swirl shawl is finished and blocking and is gorgeous, but I wish I made a different color. And now I officially have no incomplete projects. I have plenty that I haven't started yet, but none that are WIPs!! Well, I do have that sock that my mother started about 1955. One sock is complete and the other is about 1" past the heel. But that is not MY WIP.
Here are some pictures to prove it!

Next time, spinning. And I promise to be quick about it!

Finished, finished, back on the needles, finished

2010-01-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

So, I actually finished a bunch of stuff. A little hat that goes with the sweater I knit my Great Niece Annalise last Christmas ( 2008). All the holiday gifts, including the guy sweater, which nearly got sewn together, but upon a final fitting was dis-membered, again, 2.5" added to the already orangutan length sleeves, reblocked, and is about to be shipped off to Ohio with all the other forgotten stuff. The mittens, scarf, socks for almost everyone, and a couple of odd things plus a lovely Multnomah shawl. Yep, all done. And spinning as well, I am about to Navajo ply 3 full bobbins of Three Waters Farm BFL.

And what else has been happening around Chez Foster?

Well, having the Kid and his girlfriend here for weeks and weeks was wonderful and a real diversion from my daily routine. Amanda learned to knit and is already on her third project. She's a natural, and I am sure once she returns to school in NYC she will find lots of knitting diversions. Snow has been happening and as a result of the snow I have been skiing and snowshoeing. Daily snowshoeing is really fun, challenging and invigorating. We have new trails this year, miles and miles of trails, all cleared and pretty well marked. And of course I can't get lost because I have my two trusty corgis along for the ride and they know the way through the woods perfectly. And Riva does not bushwhack. She always sticks to the marked trails. But even if I got lost they are all carefully plotted on the GPS. Of course I would have to actually bring the GPS and figure out how it works if it is to be of any real help.
As a further diversion I have been working my way through all 7 seasons of "Northern Exposure". I remember when we first started watching the show back when we lived in Colorado. We thought that the whole thing was pretty interesting since we were living in a particularly rural part of Colorado. Little did we know that in a few short years we would be heading to the Last Frontier ourselves where Mike would be doing exactly what Joel was doing on TV. I just started the 4th season and I have to say that I am really enjoying the whole thing. I am not a big fan of commercial TV, and until the last couple of months I have totally avoided watching anything on the Networks. That has changed because I now have a DVR and can tape and watch stuff at my convenience (without commercials!!). I have been watching "Accidentally on Purpose" and "Modern Family" Both have their high and low points and neither can really compete with either "Northern Exposure" or "Dharma and Greg" which are the only two shows I have really watched consistently over the last 20 years. Well, I admit to a slight BBC addiction, Monarch of the Glenn, Father Ted, My Family, Ballykissangel, and of course Trailer Park Boys, yep, I watched that one faithfully and then got it again on Netflix. But now BBC has fallen victim to Gordon Ramsay mania and I don't watch it any more.
So anything new on the needles? One looooong lost project, the Swirl Shawl in Jojoland Melody. I am half way through the 3rd row, meaning I am exactly half way through the shawl. It is infinitely fiddly and tedious, but I am sure it will be gorgeous if I ever get it done. I am not really a huge fan of Modular knitting, but I think I liked the Koigu Log Cabin Vest a bit more that the swirl shawl. I just swatched for the Tea Leaves Cardigan and actually got gauge with the recommended needles. ( and I even washed and blocked the swatch!)

Once in a Blue Moon

2010-01-01T14:59:00.000-08:00

So, that's about all I am managing to write lately. I envisioned the Blue Moon of last night, the first New Year's Blue Moon since 1990 to be really auspicious; to be the harbinger of better times ahead, to be the end of war, global warming, religious intolerance, and narrowmindedness. Sorry, wrong Universe. Well, I am hopeful that better times really are on the way.
Resolutions; why bother. I have never really made resolutions. I guess the closest I got was a couple of years ago I did the "Year of knitting from your stash" Since purchasing sock yarn was exempt , I survived the year, barely. I may actually change the focus of my knitting this year and lean a bit toward larger projects, sweaters, a couple of vests, some felted projects. Part of this is related to my wrist issues, and my desire to knit at a slightly larger gauge. Of course part of it is everyone I know has enough socks, hats, gloves and scarfs to each clothe a small country, so small projects are somewhat undesireable. My second focus has to be to knit more of my handspun. Now that I am learning to purchase, or to dye more fleece or roving, I have enough of each yarn to make things larger than fingerless gloves. I have several bags of more than a pound of each batch of wool, so I guess I need to get on to those spinning/knitting projects. And Weaving. Yikes, I dunno about that one. I am not a good weaver. It is a bit fiddly, mathematical and easy to screw up for my taste. I am going to sell one loom, for sure, and probably keep the Harrisville 36" and make an attempt to actually weave something that is not just, well, awful.
Anything else, personal, social issues? Will I loose 20 pounds, journal every day, cut back on beer and coffee, drive for Meals on Wheels, accept the 100 Mile Challenge and become a locavore. I doubt it. All good ideas, but realistically I seem to be barely able to keep my head above water following what I have done the past few years. Oh, I know I'll read more Library books and spend less money at Borders. There , I feel better. Happy New Year!

Long time no blog

2009-12-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

It would be Politically Correct for me to say that I have been swept up by the Holiday Spirit, and too busy to blog. Well, that could not be further from the truth. I have no Holiday Spirit, other than the one that seems to be giving me subliminal messages to carry something along the lines of an AK 47 every time I need to enter a store during this oh-so-festive season. I am not fond of Holiday music. I don't have a favorite Holiday movie, though I did watch Love Actually the other night, a movie I actually do love, but it didn't do much for my bah- humbugedness. My Holiday shopping involved 6 gift cards from Barnes and Nobel, a bunch of Grafton Cheese and some Lake Champlain Chocolates. I also bought my husband something totally awesome that I just knew he would absolutely love. But he found it.

On a happier note, I have continued some happy spinning projects. But on a pretty sad wheel. My Majacraft Rose has spun miles of yarn with me, and some of her more delicate parts have worn out in recent weeks. In the course of replacing them, a couple of other bits and pieces fell apart, from fatigue or perhaps mis-handling. She is now all put back together and is happily plying some smokey, rosy BFL from Moonlight and Laughter. This fiber was not particularly easy to spin, but it was a challenge I needed and really embraced. Recently I have spun a bunch of merino/silk, some bamboo, and some bombyx silk. Those fibers are all slick and therefore relatively easy to spin. They were all two ply, spun and plied with a wollee winder. Mindless spinning bliss. BFL, for several reasons is my favorite fiber to spin, but it is not always simple. This particular fiber was a bit tuggy, therefore had to be separated into fairly slim sections and pre-drafted vigorously in order to keep the color bands intact. Some of the color bands were shorter than the staple length of the fiber so I had to be particularly vigilant to keep those colors from fanning out unevenly as I drafted. Honestly, had I not paid attention the whole thing could have turned to muddy brown. Instead, I spent a bit of time separating and pre-drafting and ended up with a spectacularly vibrant, but subtle yarn. I love it. This is not a time consuming process at all, and as a result the spinning goes much faster than it would if I had not pre-drafted. I would hazard a guess that it all comes out close to the same time-wise , and the final results are well worth the time spent on fiber prep.

Knitting is coming along nicely, I even have some left over gift type stuff that could possibly be emergency presents, if only I could think of anyone to give them to. I am not saying that my projects are all completed, just that there is a light and 10 days at the end of the tunnel. My husband, who has even less Holiday Spirit than yours truly was moved to make 13 pepper mills. Last year he made rolling pins. He works in a gifty, friendly office. More power to him.
I actually went to Webs last week and bought yarn for a sweater. Now, I need yarn for a sweater far like I need another hole in my head, but every January I knit a sweater, I have enjoyed them all, wear them, and I just wanted to keep up the tradition. I am making the Tea Leaves Cardigan by Melissa LaBarre. I am using Madelinetosh Worsted in Norway Spruce color (variagated deep blue-green).
It is 2 pm and I am going to take a nap. My youngest child gave me about 20,00 new grey hairs yesterday. He returned home from college in Ohio for his 6 weeks winter break. Before he left Ohio he bought 2 new snow tires to replace two of his 4 bald-ish tires. I noticed this morning that they put the tires on the back of the car. He has a front weel drive car. Oh, well, he made it here. He left Columbus at noon ( instead of his planned 7 am start, naturally) and drove to Vermont, straight through, arriving in the middle of the night. He is blissfully still asleep. How do kids do that?

Holey socks, batman

2009-12-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

R.I.P. Favorite Socks
I have been knitting socks for a long time. I may have knit socks when I was a kid, don't remember, but my mother certainly knit socks, and I still have one whole and one partial sock that she left in a drawer when she died. I meant to finish it for my sister and I didn't. Now my sister is gone, as well, and I am sorry that I am the WORLD's worst procrastinator. Anyway, Wednesday I wore my all time very favorite pair of socks. They are made with yarn that I bought at the Dublin Country Store in Dublin, New Hampshire. I love the colors, the yarn, the pattern , but most of all I love wearing the socks. Don't ask why, I don't know. They are just my favorite socks. And now they have a gigundo hole in the heal. Not darnable. Worn out and good only to keep as a memory. I used the rest of the skein to make a baby hat, which I still have, but my daughter has dibs on it, just in case she ever has a baby. At least I have the memories.
So where have I been? Someplace exotic; someplace I needed my passport to visit; someplace they do not speak English. Don't get excited. We went to Montreal for our first ever child free Thanksgiving. We were married on Thanksgiving, may, many moons ago, just so that we would have the day off. But for the past 20 odd years we have just celebrated Thanksgiving. This year we celebrated putting up with each other for all these years by going off on a Romantic Getaway. And it wasn't half bad. Montreal is a lovely city, with a fine metro system, and lots of cool galleries and fine restaurants. We did not go to a hockey game, though I wanted to give it a go, but we did go to the Biodome, Insectarium and Botanical Gardens. It was fun. I was glad to get home.
Stealth and not so stealth knitting. The Herbivore went back on the needles, and is off again. I made it 2" bigger all around, made more mistakes and blocked the heck out of it using blocking wires, thereby accentuating all the mistakes. I like it better. I got buttons for the basketweave scarf, and actually sewed them on!! Miracles cease... I finished half of each stealth project, even took them to Montreal. Forgot the charted pattern for one and ran out of yarn on the other.

And spinning. I have spun up a storm. Just now finished some lovely roving that I got at Brattleboro Fiber Festival a couple of weekends ago. Really yummy and necessary as I need to make a baby sweater for Riva's teacher. Probably before she figures out that Riva, though 8 years old, has never been to school before. Maybe I can blame it on the fact that she comes from Texas. ( Riva is a corgi, in case you are worried. She started school last week.)

A Rant, a confession and some fiber content.

2009-11-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

   The Rant. It is hunting season in Vermont. Not my favorite season. Hunting season, to someone like me, is endless. We have Youth Weekend, Ladies Day, Bow Season, Black Powder Season, Doe Day, Bear Hunting, Moose Lotteries, Regular Deer Season aka Gun Season, Coyote season and twice yearly Turkey season. I am sure there are more, but quite honestly I don't keep up with it all. However I do stay out of the woods and that makes me inordinately crabby. I like the woods, I actually own, me personally, over 100 acres of woods which are criss-crossed with wonderful trails just waiting for me and my lovely corgis to visit. We hike and cross country ski and snowshoe on theses trails. My son mountain bikes these trails. But for most of November the woods are strictly verboten, to say nothing that I would be a freaking idiot to head into the woods in Vermont during any sort of remotely ordained hunting season. Now, to add insult to injury, my land is posted. That means every 50 yards , all around my land ( 2 3/4 miles of perimeter) there are florescent yellow signs, signed and dated by me, that say no hunting, fishing, shooting or trespassing. I then register this land (and pay money to do so) with both the town and the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife. And yet my neighbor stopped by the other day to tell me that as soon as I left for yoga the other morning three guys in full hunting regalia headed off into my woods carrying, you guessed it, guns. Maybe they were lost, my neighbor said. I will not share what I said.
   The confession. I have never shot a gun. I have no desire to do so. I actually believe that a great deal of what is wrong with the world involves guns, and could be solved if all guns vanished right this second. But, if I was given a gun, just for one shot, I would be more apt to shoot a hunter than a deer.
    The fiber. I have been knitting. Stealth projects that I cannot talk about, except to say that they are actually going to be finished before the holiday season. I have been spinning, and even have a whole pile of yarn washed and dried and selected for projects. I actually found the unfinished sweater for my son. One of the reasons that I was unable to finish knitting the darn thing is because I could not find it. It was in a canvas bag in the abyss. That is what my family calls my sewing room. I am a happy knitting fool, and my wrists are happy because I am no longer knitting cotton socks on size 0 addi turbos. Nope, no more, get used to sport weight socks,dear.
   Okay. One final confession. Remember that gorgeous wildflower honey BFL that I spun a few weeks ago? I said I would make a scarf to wear with my grown-up-lady-camel-hair coat. Well, I never wear that coat. Oh, I wore it once last year when I went to a wedding. But usually is sits in the closet, unworn and lonely. It is just too dressy for my rural lifestyle. So I actually bought new a winter coat to go with the yummy golden fiber that I spun.   The coat is chocolate brown. It is a coat my mother would have approved of. I can't describe it except it is hi-tech meets the car coat of the 50's. I'll take a picture. But what does that say about my personality; that I would buy a whole new winter coat to go with 4 oz. fiber that I spun to go with a totally different coat that I never wear? And, I haven't even knit the scarf yet. I haven't even chosen the pattern, but I guess it better be a good one.

Thankful Thursday, again

2009-11-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Maybe this is too easy. But this entry really has some knitting content. I have really enjoyed reading all the Thankful Thursday Blogs from others, even when they have nothing to do with fiber.

1. I am very thankful to have some actual knitting done. Holiday gifts, idle projects completed. Enough done that I can actually start all new projects with virtually no guilty secrets hidden away. Well, maybe one... I finished the Herbivore scarf. It has some horrible mistakes. It is smaller than it is supposed to be, by a lot. But quite honestly I got sick of it. Because of the way I knit I don't do well with k1p1 knitting or with seed stitch, and I learned that K1bp1 just does in my wrists, murders 'em. Won't do it again. It looks great, though.

Finished the basket weave scarf, found buttons at the fourth store I looked in, and actually attached them. Love the scarf, but I can't keep it.

     Finished the endless socks. You know who tried them on and now they have vanished so that there will be at least one thing under the tree. Found needles to start a new pair of travelling socks; Regia sport destined to be boot socks for the Girl who always has cold feet.
     2. What else am I Thankful for? My mother. I know I have spent decades complaining about her. She is undoubtedly the reason I gleefully got on that boat and moved to Alaska; good and far away from Vermont. My mother instilled in me, and in my sister, many good qualities, independence, curiosity, love of the outdoors, and a general skepticism of the status quo. My mother was particularly skeptical about two things, organized religion and politicians. Probably with good reason. It is because of my mother that I am a good cook. My mother DID NOT COOK. Fortunately my father did. I grew up eating grilled cheese, apples and brownies, the only things my mother ever mastered in the culinary realm. She cut the apples into "bird's nests". I still eat them that way.
     But most of all my mother taught me to love books. She was a voracious reader, and an adventurous reader . She read books in French, when she couldn't find what she considered competent translations. And she read to me. I am not even sure that everything she read to me was appropriate, but I loved it anyway. My mother bought me every single Newbery Award book until I was about 35. Honestly. When I became a children's librarian she continued to buy them for me because she figured I needed them for work. I still try to read the Newbery books every year although I agree less and less with the choices as I get older.
   I have to share this verse from Strickland Gillian's poem "The Reading Mother".
   You may have tangible wealth untold;
               Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
               Richer than you I can never be-
   I had a mother who read to me.
   My mother died Feb 11, 1997. She was 90 years old and lived at home alone until a few months before she died. She was a piece of work, that woman.

Thankful Thursday

2009-11-05T16:36:00.000-08:00

This is something new, and I have read a couple of blogs today that practically brought tears to my eyes. These blogs were by knitters, but not necessarily about knitting. Quite honestly I have much to be thankful for. If I had a propensity toward Christian sentimentalism I would say that I am truly blessed. But, as a lapsed Unitarian I guess should say I am one lucky chick. Here goes, what I am Thankful for:

1. First and foremost my dearly beloved husband. He not only supports me ( financially as well as emotionally), he puts up with me. How he manages to do that with relatively few complaints I really don't know. I am not an easy person to live with, but then again, neither is he.

   2. My children. I am particularly lucky in this category. Each child has his/her idiosyncrasies, but none of them has landed them in jail, rehab or the witness protection program, yet. Both of them seem to be doing exactly what my mother expected of me; paddling their own canoe. One is still in college, but he seems to be on the right track so far, though I might encourage him to buy a powerball ticket once in a while. The other is earning more money per year than I ever imagined, and she actually likes what she does. ( The third kid is Bob the Boyfriend, he has been around long enough for me to feel a sense of ownership; he owns a bar, need I say more?)
   3. My pets. I know, that is pretty silly, but I have two corgis and three kitties and I spend a lot of time with them. I enjoy them and they love me, unconditionally. Of course, I feed them, walk them, clean their litter boxes. True love.
   4. Yarn and fiber. I worked at jobs off and on for 36 years that where just that, jobs. Some better than others, but I only had one job that I was really passionate about, and that was also my most problematic and stressful job. But I was good at it, and I was appreciated. Now I spin , knit and weave. Well, maybe not so much weave, but I have good intentions. And I am pretty darn good at it. I am beginning to really understand the spinning process, to experiment with unusual fibers and non-standard spinning methods, and to actually attempt to use the millions of miles of yarn that I have produced. Every day I look forward to spinning and knitting. Maybe not so much weaving, yet.

5. My home. I am in the unique and unusual position of being the 7th generation of my family to live in this house. Yep, my 6 times great grand-father homesteaded this Vermont hillside in 1783, the house I live in was built in 1791, and has been added onto in 1835, 1938 ( by my father) and 2002( by my husband). That is pretty darn special.

And for all these things I am eternally grateful!

My knitting mojo

2009-11-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

   So, my knitting mojo seems to have got up and went. I have made more mistakes in the past week than almost any other time in my 50 plus years of knitting. Worse yet, I haven't ripped, tossed, or given up. That is pretty unlike me. Do I care, well, yea I do, but in the case of the stuff I am knitting I guess it doesn't really matter. I am over the hump on the endless socks; turned the heel on the second sock. At that point in a pair of socks I am at the finish line. I fit the first sock to the recipient, in this case my dearly beloved, who has a whole friggin' drawer full of handknit socks. He is now a yarn snob. He wants cotton, with a bit of nylon, very firmly knit. Both the men in my family have these gigundo feet which means I need to find a skein of sock yarn that has at least 450 yards for me to get a sock with a nice long leg and a long enough foot. Or else I have to buy 2 skeins, or make the toes some strange color.
   Next time I am going to try out some Regia sport weight sock yarn on size 2 .5 or 3mm needles. They will be good winter socks, nice and cushy and very pretty colors. I got the yarn at Sakonnet Purls when I was on vacation last summer in Rhode Island. The day we go to Tiverton is always the highlight of our week in Rhode Island.
   My other projects are pure crap. The Herbivore scarf for the kid has a big mistake in the middle. He's 19, he won't notice. Only I will see it immediately and I don't go to college in Ohio. To give him credit, last year I knit him both flip mitten/gloves and the Jarred Flood striped Noro silk scarf and he actually wore them and DID NOT LOOSE THEM. Wonder of wonders. I am not even talking about the sweater, the maroon Alpaca lite catastrophe. Maybe tomorrow. Quite honestly I do not know where it is, in some bag upstairs, probably the bag the cat is sleeping in.
   My phone mojo has also been on the fritz. We don't get a lot of calls now that we have no kids at home. But on Thursday afternoon we got about 20 calls. We have one phone, a stationary phone in the kitchen. So if I am anwhere else I have to sprint to get the phone. It was a busy afternoon and I was batting about .300 in the phone answering department. So Friday we went to Best Buy to buy a new "phone/ answering machine system". Now my dearly beloved is not one to read consumer reports, on-line forums and consult with friends. He goes in, picks the first item that looks likely to do approximately what he wants it to do and off we go. This is diametrically opposed the the hours we used to spend at the video store reading every word on the outside of every box. It was a whole evening experience, and I would always fall asleep before the previews where over. ( Now we have Netflix and he can take as long as he wants) So, we get the phones (four of em) and set them to charge, overnight. Then we take the manual out of the box. I am guessing that it would be easier to program the Space Shuttle than to figure out how to get the damn answer machine to work. However, we now have 4 phones spread around the house and barn, so when I actually decide to answer the phone I don't need to sound like I have just completed the Boston Marathon.

I'll end with some kitty cuteness. I lost the picture of Soot in the dog bed on the dining room table that was supposed to be in my last post( no, we don't eat in the dining room, only Christmas and Thanksgiving) so here it is. But now the whole kitty herd is sleeping in the dog bed, sometimes all together. Cute, but maybe I should reinforce the leg of the table.The two snuggle kitties are Tiddles and Nosey. These are our bi-coastal cats who moved with us from Colorado( 1996) to Alaska and to Vermont in 2002. They are 16 and 20 and they just keep on chuggin'!!

Patience can pay off

2009-10-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

I tend not to be a very patient person. I hate to stand in line, wait in traffic, be put on hold or to be told to call back tomorrow. I especially hate when the Maytag guy can't come for two weeks or when I can only get one month of a prescription because that is all my insurance allows ( maybe that's not patience, just frustration) But in other areas I am almost infinitely patient. I love to spin, have two wheels going at all times so I can vary what I am spinning and I usually have at least three knitting projects at a time. Last week I mentioned four working projects and showed you the two that I finished. Still no buttons for the basket weave scarf, but it is blocked. The endless socks aren't done, but I have decided they are my last pair of cotton socks on size 0 needles. Too hard on my hands. So I am working on the lovely Herbivore scarf, which is a joy to work on, even though it is getting to be about a zillion stitches in every row, and I need to finish that damn sweater for the Kid. It is easy, really a snap to finish, and I like knitting on Alpaca Light. It is the color that I don't like; Maroon. I have never liked that color, even though this is a really lovely grey/maroon blend. There is a lot of sweater to hold on my lap, but if I just finish it I can start something else. Maybe reward myself somehow?

So what else is finished? Lovely spinning. The Wildflower honey BFL from the painted sheep is done and I have about 450 yards of lovely sport weight yarn. I am not sure that it photographs very well, but it is a lustrous, creamy color, and exactly what I wanted. I am now thinking that I will make gloves and another cowl to wear with my grown up lady coat. The spinning experience on my Louet S90 was 100% positive, but perhaps a bit less so for the plying. I tried the first skein from the built in Kate, but that didn't work too well, so I used my Katie-a-go-go, or whatever it is called, and that worked better. I am thinking about a Woolee Winder for the Louet. Just thinking at this point. I have 3.5 oz of the blue merino-silk to finish spinning. The first 8 oz have produced about 800 yards of lace-weight . It is just gorgeous yarn. I am not used to spinning quite this fine, but I love it. This has been an absolute joy to spin, and I hope to spin some more merino silk, maybe in a deep purple .
And what about corgi cuteness? Last week Eliot had his teeth cleaned, and had to lay on the couch all day Saturday with his head on a pillow. He is as bad as the kids were when they had their braces adjusted. At least he didn't make me go to the bowling alley to get him a milk shake. And Kitty cuteness, Soot has discovered a new bed that I bought for Riva. I decided it is too small for her corgi rotundity so left it on the table til I could return it to the pet store. Not happening, Soot is in love with this bed!

Needles, wheels and Yoga

2009-10-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

Yoga first. When I retired, after being a librarian for 36 years, I had back problems. They came from way too many years of moving books, moving libraries, sitting at computer desks that were ergonomically incorrect, sitting too long , standing to long, wearing the wrong shoes, yada, yada, yada. I had tried yoga before, but my friend Susan, also a librarian with back problems, suggested Svaroopa Yoga. I was skeptical, but tried it. I'm hooked and have been taking classes for a couple of years at Hartland Yoga Center which is about 30 minutes north of me. Because this type of yoga is aimed at one's back, lower back in particular, it seems to help. While knitting, spinning and weaving do not really challenge my back in the same way that moving books did, all three provide some challenges to my posture that I believe can be improved by practicing yoga. Last year I got a little book for my birthday called "Yoga for Knitters". I keep it in my knitting basket mainly to remind myself to take a break every so often and do some poses and relaxation breathing. I don't pretend to know anything about any of the many other types of yoga other than Svaroopa, but I imagine there are other styles that work as well. Give it a try!
I got a new wheel, and I am having serious wheel love. It is a Louet S90, a much coveted, no longer produced folding wheel from Holland. The wheel came to me from Alaska and brought with it the salty memory of my years there. Now a S90 is not a wimpy travel wheel. I could not throw it in an overhead bin on any airline. It is a sturdy girl, 20" x30" ( tall) by 61/2" deep when folded. It is also pretty heavy, but it spins like a dream and has a nice high orifice. It has one wide treadle, so it can be treadled with one foot, either one, or by both at the same time. Because my Majacrafts are both double treadle I thought that I was a double kind of girl until this summer when I started spinning on my single treadle Canadian Wheel. I must be ambidexfooturist, or some such thing. I am just finishing up 8oz of golden colored BFL from The Painted Sheep which is intended to be a small scarf or a cowl to wear with my grown up lady winter camel hair coat.

Now for the needle. I was buying a new needle to knit a Herbivore scarf for the Kid for Christmas so I thought I would try a Kollage square needle. I bought a size 5/3.75 mm 24" circ and started knitting. Although the knitting looked fine I found I was ignoring the scarf in favor of the endless cotton sock. Then when I knit on the scarf I noticed that my wrists hurt. Now I am VERY careful of my wrists. A few years ago I knit a Koigu cardigan closely followed by a Koigu mitered square vest. In between I knit a brioche stitch scarf, all were on size 21/2 or 3mm needles. I acquired a serious case of carple tunnel requiring the use of really unattractive wrist splints, and cessation of all knitting for a couple of months. I was one unhappy camper. Anyway, this scarf is dead simple, but very attractive, and I really wanted to finish it. So, yesterday I went to the Elegant Ewe and bought a size 5/ 3.75mm Crystal Palace Bamboo 26" circ. Happy knitting. Happy wrists. I had a chance to try the needle out today as I had appointment with my financial planner. He was late. What do these guys do anyway that would make them late for a meeting? He had the audacity to ask me if I watched the early morning trading on the NY Stock Exchange? And miss coffee with Harry Smith, I don't think so. Do people watch that stuff on TV? Yowzer... So the Kollage Square Needle... not for me, but other folks love 'em.

What about Rhinebeck? Yep, I went. Will I go again? Nope. Been there, done that. I got some cool stuff, met up with some friends, refused to wait in line for an hour for lunch, had no choice when I got stuck in traffic for nearly 45 minutes both coming and going. I'll stick to NH Sheep and Wool . The best part of the trip was the 7 hours in the car listening to the book on tape of The Secret Life of Bees.

Less Stress

2009-10-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

NO disasters today. I retrieved the lawn mower from the back 40 and tucked it behind the Kubota in the cellar of the barn. It no longer actually mows. I believe the belt that drove the mower blade melted and became one with the metal housing. Looks like someone needs a new lawn mower. Oh, dear. Didn't do laundry, but chances are that someone will also need a new washing machine in the near future. Though I was observant enough to have learned how to get the top and front off the washer, and perhaps remove the pump and shake out the quarters. Maybe not.
I took some pictures and uploaded them to Flickr. That presented a major learning curve, though I have done it before, it was in the presence of a teenager, and now that he is in Ohio I am on my own. Here we go:
Most recent knitting, a yellow lacy cowl, Poinsettia, by Anne Hanson, Knit in a pale yellow silk/merino:

Basketweave scarf knitted in Manos Silk Blend, pattern from And the Beadz go on... in Wickford Rhode Island. This is a short scarf that needs buttons. It is not blocked yet.

And some recent spinning, BFL, the blue was was dyed by Lynne Vogel, and spun in her class last August and I believe that I dyed the pastel yarn in Lynne's class in the summer of 2008. Lots more spinning to show you another day.

I've been kind of a spinning fool lately, I have rediscovered my Woolee Winder on my Majacraft Rose and it has made my spinning a bit less tedious. Also, some wheel changes are in the air. Little Gem is on a vacation at the moment in New Hampshire and a lovely package is heading my way from Alaska. More on that next week. I am not sure I will blog again before I head off to Rhinebeck on Saturday. I haven't been for about 6 years and I am looking forward to it. I had planned to look at wheels, but that ain't happening, so I think I will check out more silk, and cashmere roving and see if I can find a 15 dent reed for my Harrisville Loom. Oh, and meet up with the Harrisville crew, of course. See you there?

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so close to home

2009-10-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

   Yesterday was not a good day. It involves a repairman, a fire, a trip to the laundromat and many, many bad words on the part of my dearly beloved, who can fix almost anything that I break. And it was a busy night.   He had to go back to work in the lab after work, and he was NOT A HAPPY HUSBAND. Well, the repairman was not there to fix the washing machine, and I actually went to the laundromat before I broke the washing machine. The Dish Network guy came to install a DVR, which also included climbing on the roof to put a new whatsit on the dish, and about 3 phone calls to make it all work. But it works, I assume. Haven't tried it yet. Then I had to go to the laundromat because I had a comforter, dog beds and bathroom rugs to wash. It was a sunny, but cold day and I knew I could put them on the line to dry. But I forgot them and it snowed and rained all night. They are still there, wet. None of that heavy, bulky stuff can go in my apartment size front loader, as it makes the machine agitate itself off the platform it is on and across the cellar floor. It sounds like NASCAR in the cellar, and I don't imagine is very good for the machine. Which broke anyway while washing a load of skivvies. It sounded like a cup of nuts and bolts in a blender and was flashing codes at me, dinging and full of water and dirty unmentionables. I called the M**T*G guy, who said he could maybe come in a couple of weeks, but I could bring it in and he could fix it quicker. Yea, okay, load her up sweetie we're taking a road trip. So I said my husband is pretty handy and then he said "takeoffthetop, thenthefronttheresacouplascrewsandthepumpisinthelowerright
takeitoutandbringitinoremptyitout,maybe." That made no sense, but I took notes and you-know-who found 3 quarters in the water pump. Fixed. We put it back together and only had one extra screw.
   But the lawnmower is still parked down over the hill behind the apple trees. I mowed the front lawn wearing a down jacket, hat and mittens. In addition to 6" of grass there were several 200 year old maple trees worth of leaves on the ground, and I assumed that I could just mow them up into rows and save a step in raking them up. Wrong, no, very wrong. Even at about 31 degrees they got chewed up under the lawn mower deck and sort of spontaneously combusted. I was sitting on the lawn mower and it was a tad bit disconcerting to see all the smoke. So I drove it far enough away from the house that it was not really visible, hopped off and left it. Did I mentioned it rained all night? We won't need it til spring and then I will be in way more trouble than I am for leaving quarters in my bras.
   On the knitting front I finished both my silk/cashmere cowl and the basketweave scarf. I spent the day doing safe things like paying the taxes, which may just be a tad late, and watching " The Proposal" which came out on video today. As a former resident of Sitka, Alaska I have to make a statement here. That film was not filmed in Sitka. I believe it was mostly filmed in Massachusetts. The downtown was not even closely related to Sitka and Sitka's scenic woodsy trails do not pass through deciduous forests. Although the movie was not totally horrible, it was very close. And to any of my Alaskan friends reading this Happy Alaska Day!
Tomorrow I promise pictures. The cowl should be dry, the scarf blocking and the silk/merino plyed! Yay!!!

Where's the wool?

2009-10-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

So, I am not very good at this blogging thing. I promised I'd talk about yarn, knitting, spinning, weaving and all that jazz. Well, I have about 16 WIP's ( works in progress) and I'll mention a few. I have 3 1/2 active knitting projects. The semi-inactive project is almost finished, but hit a snag when the Boy was home. He is what we cowgirls call a long drink o' water. I'm not really much of a cowgirl, but I once lived in Colorado and simultaneously owned both a horse and cowboy boots. That's enough to qualify in my mind. Anyhooo, I am knitting an Alpaca light, maroon, V neck pullover for The Kid. He chose the pattern and the yarn. He is 6'3" and weighs 143, and therein lies the problem. This is NOT a standard size. I am using a very basic V neck pattern, 38" chest,with orangutan arms. I got it almost all done and he came home, tried it on, and it became obvious I had to add almost 3" to the armpit- shoulder length, and therefore alter the sleeve cap accordingly. He won't be home again til Christmas so I shoved it in a bag and forgot about it. I have three active projects, all kind of fun but nothing to brag about. One is socks, I always have a pair of socks going. This pair is for my Dearly Beloved. They are cotton, Opal, I think in a drab grey- blue stripe, 68 stitches on a size zero. They are endless and are taking for friggin' ever. But I only knit on them when I am away from home. They are travel, waiting room knittin' socks. Then I have a wonderful silk merino scarf in a basketweave pattern, Luscious colors, totally untaxing knitting. I only knit on that when I need total relaxation, de-stress knitting. I need another scarf like a hole in the head and The Girl needs one even less. Don't even think of my mother-in -law. This is seriously lovely yarn. Maybe I will send it to the Queen with a picture of my new corgi. Last active project. It is a beautiful yellow, silk cashmere cowl in a fairly simple lace pattern, Poinsettia by Anne Hanson. The gauge is a bit funky, but I know it fits as I took it apart at one time when I screwed up the lace, and tried it on. I got the yarn at School Products in NYC when we went to visit Pratt last spring. I think it will be a luxurious little thing to wear this winter. It also shows some prospect of being completed fairly soon.
I need to weave. As I only have two looms I only have two projects. One is a friggin' Scottish Tartan scarf. It is a dismal yellow/brown/green thing that I hauled back from John C. Campbell in September. I took the left over warp from a loom we refused to weave on because the treadles were funky. I only need to finish it because I need to sell that loom. The other project, on my 36" Harrisville, is dish cloths, 6 of them in 2 patterns using the same warp. One set of three is plaid, the other 3 are striped. They should be fun but moderately tedious, but then I wouldn't know because I haven't even put my warping board together yet, so , like so many projects I haven't actually started this one yet. Next week, really.
The only really successful thing I have going is spinning. I am spinning 11 3/4 oz. of merino silk, mosly light blue roving that I got at NH Sheep and Wool. It is luscious, a joy to spin and is really a quick spin. Of course it helps that my wheel is in front of the TV, and I am actually apt to sit and spin, like in a few minutes when Project Runway starts. Gotta run.
Pictures, you say, maybe tomorrow.

Ten on Tuesday

2009-10-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

       I am new to this blog thing. It is my second day, and though I could think of a million things to say, I believe focus is important. Something I lack, totally. So I am following the formula of several blogs I read and using their structure. Today's theme, girls, is Ten on Tuesday; things I want that I can't afford.
    1. To fund Health care. Who said I need to be realistic. I really truly would sleep better at night knowing that every man, woman and child in America has affordable access to good health care.
   2. For The Kid to be able to finish his education, including endless graduate school, debt free. We are talking about a boy who is brilliant, just a bit unfocused, and may need to do a bit of experimenting before he finds his niche in the world. Have at it , kiddo. ( in your dreams, anyway)
   3. For The Girl to have her college debt go away. And now she can focus on graduate school as well, full time, without all those night shifts in the ICU.
   4. Good Health. We are getting older, as I so often obsess about , and there is not enough money in the universe to keep us healthy. But a girl can dream.
   5. To visit most of the National Parks. Yep, take a year off, buy a nice little RV and visit the real beauties of America. I've been to a few, the Grand Canyon, Arches, well, very few, and after spending last week with Ken Burns I feel that it is my civic duty to see more National Parks.
   6. I'd like a cleaning person. Every week, faithfully. Someone non-judgmental enough that I don't have to spend 10 solid hours the day before she comes just picking up. Realistically I could afford this, but I don't work, and that New England Protestant guilt thing kicks in and it ain't gonna happen.
   7. Okay, some Koigu Cashmere. It's on sale this week, and another Martha cardigan would take 9 skeins. I'd wear it, til the end of my life, promise.
   8. Since we are so far over the top, I'll take a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. My 7 year old Chevy Trailblazer is a wonderful, reliable, inefficient mode of transportation, and I'd like to do something besides composting to make The Earth happy.
   9. A new wheel, a Jensen Ashley, already finished. As much as I love my Majacraft Rose, I think the Ashley is my dream machine.
   10. World Peace, why not...

To blog or not to blog?

2009-10-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

I read blogs, I enjoy them, I'm talkative, but I totally lack the ability to sit down at the computer and do anything that involves spell-check, capitalization, or considering whether I really want just anyone out there in computer la-la land to read what I have to say. Since I had a milestone birthday a few days ago, and no matter how you view it I am more than half way through my life, I decided to muster up enough self-discipline to do something- any one thing- on a moderately regular basis. So, I will blog, I will do it somewhat regularly, like probably not daily, but maybe weekly, more or less, and if I get really irregular most likely I will just stop and chalk up my lack of success to, well... inertia.

So, what do I have to say for myself? Why read this blog? I have grown children, adorable corgis, a still tolerable husband, I am retired from a 36 year career as a librarian, but then, probably may of you out there in computerland are in the same boat and the last thing you want to hear about is my perfect kids. I guess the overwhelming focus in my life is yarn in one form or another. I knit, spin, dabble in dyeing and am a beginner weaver. I have a stash that I will never use up if I live to be one hundred, in addition to boxes of hand spun yarn, fiber galore, fleeces to be processed, dyed, spun and then DEALT WITH. So I am hoping that if I introduce you to this aspect of my life, that you, my bleaders ( yep, I am reading Julie and Julia), will take an interest and perhaps hold me accountable, in my mind anyway, to getting on with this whole thing and to help me to change from a maniacal fiber acquirer to a real, live fiber artist, or something along those lines.