Where Have I Been??

Oh dear. Here I am again, apologizing for an unintended blog vacation. Wait, I have an excuse! The last bit of summer got a bit busy around here. We did a week’s vacation with John’s kids and the grandkids and all the dogs, to the Washington coast (that would be the Left Coast for any of you from the Atlantic-side Washington). It was a grand time. I actually took the week as an “education” week, meaning that I had to spend part of each day reading medical stuff, but that worked OK, surprisingly. We’d rented a huge house just up the sand from the beach, and each of the 3 families had their own floor for bedroom space. The little ones are getting old enough that they aren’t up at the crack of dawn, and they tended to spend the whole day outside, so I did actually get some reading done. Here’s the link to all the photos, if you really want to see all the “good big fun” that we had.

Part 2 of the excuse is a bit of a slog at work. We’ve had several docs out off and on during the summer for a variety of reasons, so it’s gotten a bit busy and hectic at work. That plus the belated arrival of summer around here meant that I haven’t spent much time knitting or playing around on the computer. We get such a seemingly short summer here that we tend to spend most of it outside.

To start off the fall season, John and I took a couple days this week and went up to Mt. Rainier National Park. We’ve been up there to drive around and to hike a bit in the past, but I’ve never stayed overnight in the lodge at Paradise before. Tuesday I got off work, got home and finished packing, and we made the drive up the mountain to the lodge. We had a beautiful day for hiking yesterday. It rained most of the day today, but it was still beautiful for the drive back home, and I get to go to work tomorrow. I’m sure John will get a photoshow done at some point, but here are a few:

That’s Paradise Inn. It’s one of the original National Park lodges, built in 1916 and renovated completely a few years ago. The main lodge accommodations have rooms with shared bathrooms and showers down the hall, which is funky but adds to the historic feel. The great lobby of the lodge is spectacular, including an ancient piano which has been restored. They have a pianist who plays during the dinner hour, adding to the charm of the place.

Here’s John as we set out on our hike up the mountain yesterday. We live in the shadow of Mt. Rainier, and it’s one of those landscape features that sometimes you take for granted. I had to be reminded on this trip that “the mountain” is actually in the same county I live in. Cool!

We saw a surprising number of wildflowers still in bloom. There were lupine, paintbrush, and an awful lot of something that I thought was valerian, but another hiker told me was lovage.

We saw this little fellow early on in the hike. He (or she, I didn’t get close enough to look!) meandered along the path, but after a bit, gave a huff at us and lumbered away. That’s a black bear, by the way, and if you keep your distance and don’t get between them and their children, or corner them, they mostly leave people alone. There are no grizzly bears in the park.

More flowers.

More fauna. These are marmots, or whistle pigs. These are all over the park, and are completely unafraid of humans. They will whistle loudly if alarmed, thereby getting the nickname. This one was clearly a girl with hot flashes. After we took a few photos, she got up and ambled over to a nearby snow patch.

She just flattened out on the snow and stayed there. I wonder if that would work for me?

There’s the famous mountain that we hiked toward. At the lower half of that photo is the Nisqually Glacier.

And there’s the Nisqually River, which of course starts from that glacier. The river ends up in Puget Sound, right in our back yard. If that mountain blows a la Helen, this is one of the major lahar paths, so we’d be in some serious trouble.

There was of course the requisite sock photo. This proves that I indeed still knit. In fact, I sat down at the Glacier Vista point and knit a round, to the amusement of all of the other hikers passing by.

We met two young women with 2 toddlers, climbing up the hill, while we were on our way back down the mountain. Part of this trail is paved at the lower end, but as you climb up, it gets gravelly, then rocky, then with a bunch of very steep rock steps on the upper third. They had ditched the baby carriage about a third of the way up the trail and just went on, lugging the toddlers by hand. About twenty minutes after we saw them, we ran across the carriage down the hill.

More flowers!

More whistle pigs! Click to embiggen!

That’s it. There are lots more photos, but that pretty much does it. Oh, John did get a photo of me spinning away on my spindle in the grand lobby of the Inn last night, but it’s on his camera. When I get my hands on it, I might remember to post it as well.

I’m still knitting the same damn things. Maybe now that the weather’s cooler, I’ll make some progress and show photos!

What Are Your Reading Habits?

I got this from Lisa’s blog. I don’t do these quizzes much, but this one somehow struck a chord.

1. Favorite childhood book?
A Wrinkle In Time, by Madeleine L’Engle. This is one of those terrific books that is just as good to read for adults as for children. Maybe better even.

2. What are you reading right now?
I’m partway through Drums of Autumn, by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander series), and just started a biography of Catherine de Medici by Leonie Frieda.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I think I’m eleventy-billionth in line, so it’s a good thing I have lots of books at home.

4. Bad book habit?
None really, unless you count buying way more books than I can possibly read.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
None. I just returned The Tudors, by G. J. Meyer. It was OK, but not as good as his A World Undone, a history of WWI. That was a great book.

6. Do you have an e-reader?
Nope. I’m a Luddite, I like the feel of a “real” book in my hands.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
I usually have at least one fiction and one non-fiction book going. Sometimes I get carried away and start a bunch of things, but I usually only am actively reading one or two.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
I don’t think so. I don’t read as much since I started knitting, though.

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Hmmm. I can’t really think of one.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
Probably the last Outlander book before this one. They are just thoroughly enjoyable books.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Not all that often. I tend to get bored with stuff that I’m not comfortable with, and it sits on the nightstand till I get tired of looking at it.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
I tend to read a lot of historical fiction recently. I got sucked into a bunch of Philippa Gregory novels earlier this year. Somewhat fluffy, but fun. I like reading the “classics” as well. There are a surprising-to-me number of them that I’ve never read, so I’m trying to correct that. I also tend to buy and read a bunch of books by the same author. I’ll read one, get sucked in, and go out and buy everything they ever wrote.

13. Can you read on the bus?
I don’t ride the bus, but I’d guess that my motion sickness issue would prevent that. I can’t read in the car, either.

14. Favorite place to read?
Big comfortable chair in my kitchen, big comfortable chair in my living room, bed, the deck, you name it.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
I don’t have a policy. If someone wants to read a book out of my collection, they’re welcome to it. I’ve been known to force copies of books on people. I’ve been trying to get rid of books once I’ve read them, so I either give them to someone I know to read, or take them to the library and leave them. I try not to get personally attached to them.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
On occasion. I have some Levenger Page Points that I generally use, but sometimes I dog ear if I don’t have one.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Not usually, but not because I’m opposed to it, I just don’t take the time to write notes, since I tend to get rid of books once I read them.

18.  Not even with text books?
I do sometimes highlight in text books.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?
The only one I read, which would be English.

20. What makes you love a book?
Great characters, first of all. A story that keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next helps, too. I also love writers who have a command of the English language and use just that perfect word that keeps you going back and re-reading the sentence just for the sheer pleasure of it. Wallace Stegner is an example. His Angle of Repose is one of my all-time favorite books.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
See number 20. Probably the two books I’ve pushed on more people are 1) Soldier of the Great War, by Mark Helprin, and 2) Undaunted Courage  (the Lewis & Clark adventure), by Stephen Ambrose. I’ve bought several copies of both and given them away. I should start getting a commission.

22. Favorite genre?
Probably historical fiction, but general literary fiction is also on the top of the list.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
Science fiction. I try to like it, but just don’t get into it much. I like sci-fi TV and movies, so I can’t explain that. I also wish I liked fantasy fiction more than I do. I love multi-book series, which is common in that genre, but I just can’t get into it much.

Favorite biography?
No Ordinary Time, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, about the Roosevelt years in the White House. It’s not technically a bio, but close enough. And Undaunted Courage (see number 21).

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Not if I can help it. Not unless you count knitting books. On the rare occasion that I’ve read them in the past, I usually end up hurling them across the room by page twenty. Silly faux-psychology drives me to drink. Oh wait, I already drink. Never mind.

26. Favorite cookbook?
Oh dear. My cookbook collection is even larger than my knitting book collection. If I had to pick just one it would be Julia Child’s The Way To Cook. Or maybe the Joy of Cooking. We tend to improvise recipes a lot around here, so a general technical cookbook with basic recipes I can use as a framework is quite helpful.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
I don’t know if I have read anything this year that I’d call inspirational. I’ll get back to you on that one. Perhaps my Bible counts, though. Which reminds me of a funny text message from the website Texts From Last Night. This one really cracked me up.

“i got kicked out of Barns and Nobles cuz i put all the bibles in the fiction section”

28. Favorite reading snack?
I tend to not eat and read, but a glass of wine and some cheese wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
Can’t think of one at the moment.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
Usually, though on occasion I think “they” might have a screw loose. John Grisham comes to mind. Why those books hit the best seller list is beyond me.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
Not a problem. If I hate a book, I’ll let you know.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
French. One of those life goals I’ve had is to read Les Miserables in the original. I better get on that.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
Oh Lord. Gravity’s Rainbow. It took me forever to wade through it, and I loved it, but it was a major challenge, as is everything Pynchon writes.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. It’s been sitting here forever, taunting me. I’m pretty sure I won’t understand any of it.

35. Favorite Poet?
I don’t actually read a lot of poetry. One that’s currently on my nightstand is Wendell Berry, I dip into it from time to time.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Usually only one. I generally try to read either from the vast stash of books I already have, but if something comes out that I just have to read NOW, I try to get it from the library.

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Not often.

38. Favorite fictional character?
Frances Crawford of Lymond, from the Dorothy Dunnett Lymond Chronicles. Best series of historical fiction books, ever. If you haven’t read them, do.

39. Favorite fictional villain?
Hmmm. I’ll have to get back to you on that one. Can’t think of one right now.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Anything and everything. Usually fiction, though. I’m a sucker for big 800 page novels, which is really a pain for packing.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
Not long. A few days to weeks, maybe.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
For some reason that escapes me, I tried to read the first book in the dismally written Left Behind series. I might have gotten 20-30 pages into it before I wanted to burn it in the backyard.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Noise. I like to have quiet when I read. It didn’t bother me much when I was younger, but it’s gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. I think my ability to multi-task isn’t as good.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
Lord of the Rings, easily. I loved the books, so was skeptical about the movies, but I’ve watched them all several times.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Hmmm. Perhaps the Mists of Avalon. I loved that book so much. The movie wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t live up to the book.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
I refuse to answer that on the grounds that it might incriminate me. Let’s just say that the book spending rivals the yarn spending around here.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Not usually. I’ll glance at the first few paragraphs when I’m buying a book or checking it out at the library, but I generally read from beginning to end.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
If I don’t like it, I don’t get to half way. Silly writing, boring characters, plot that doesn’t seem to go anywhere, all of those things will make me banish a book. I don’t give a book more than 40-50 pages if I don’t like it.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes. All the unread fiction books are alphabetized by author, the non-fiction section by general topic. Of course there’s that pile by the bedside that is totally disorganized, but I like to think of that as the on-deck circle.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I used to save absolutely everything except the total rejects. Now I get rid of them as I read them. The “library” in my house is the loft over the living room, and it’s in danger of collapsing if I don’t purge now and then. I keep a box in my office, finished books go in it, and when it’s full it goes to the library.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
The Twilight books. I bought the first one, and I’ve actually picked it up a few times to read, but never started. I’m pretty sure I will hate it, so I don’t know why I don’t just read 20 pages and make a decision.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
Can’t think of one. Oh yes, maybe that Left Behind crap I mentioned.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
I didn’t really think I’d like Don Quixote for some reason, but it’s a great book. Very funny in a lot of places, really.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
Can’t think of one of these either. I’m usually good at guessing what I’ll like or not. I might give it a try anyway, but my instinct is usually fairly good. Oh I do know one. Confederacy of Dunces. I really hated that, and expected to like it.

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Historical fiction. I read a lot of non-fiction history, so it’s great fun to read a novel set in the same time period as a history book I’m reading.

Why Yes,

I am a bit of an obsessive-compulsive nerd. Why do you ask?? Click on those to get a better close-up idea of the nerdiness.

I’m at the point in the knitting of the True Blood Albatross Faery Ring sweater where I get to stop knitting mindless stockinette and start the cable charts for the bodice. There are four different cable charts, so I got out graph paper and pencil this morning and came up with this to help keep track of which cable goes where. Here’s the knitting so far.

The color’s really all wrong there. It’s not that pink, it’s more of a bloody red. I have two more rows of stockinette stitch, then I can set up the cables and go to town. This should be a lot more fun and less of an Albatross at this point.

I have one last photo from the Great Knitting Doctor Family Reunion & Train Trip of 2010. I mentioned that we found a yarn shop in Fergus Falls, MN. It was actually surprisingly well-stocked for a shop in a town that size.

I’m off to find the cable needle and my little box of stitch markers!

Knitting Doctor Vacation, The Lake Edition

We’re not quite home yet, but I’ve finally found a relatively clear tabletop surface to fire up the computer. The train trip east was a hoot, and if you happen to be either my friend on Facebook or my husband’s, you’ve followed the progress of the Family Party through the week. One of my sisters has a place on a lake, and most of the family made it to the party. We’re now back in town, and get on the plane  tomorrow to head home. Here are just a few highlights;

That would be Larry, my brother-in-law. It’s a family tradition to celebrate the emptying of a bottle by playing taps while everybody stands and salutes. Let’s just say that Larry got the chance to perform this many times over the past week.

As you can see, nearly everybody was wired in some fashion. That’s me in the foreground, being a Luddite and spindling.

That’s a sign in my sister’s kitchen.

The family!

A little expedition out on the lake.

Sock on the lake!

Sisters! And an honorary sister!

Sunset over the lake!

This is the primary mode of transportation at the lake. Because God knows, we wouldn’t want to have to walk 100 feet to the bar.

Lake food!

More lake food! And a bonfire!

I even found a yarn shop. The closest little town to the lake is only about 14,000 people, but by God, they have a yarn shop, and a nice one at that. The photographic proof is on my camera however, not John’s, and I quite inexplicably forgot to bring the camera cord.

That’s enough for today, since John is threatening to revoke my laptop privileges. We head home tomorrow!

Here We Go Again

The Tour is winding down, I’ve been spinning like a madwoman, but not much knitting going on. That pretty much sums up the days since my last post. Though I’ve enjoyed the challenge of trying to spin every day, it will be good to get needles back in my hands.

I also need to report back on the allergy thing. I haven’t taken the camel out of the bag since I decided that it was what was making me sneeze and wheeze. I’m not sure if this is good news or not, but my theory of camel allergy was blown all to hell. It’s not nearly anything that exotic, but just good old-fashioned seasonal grass allergies. It’s a bit surprising, since I haven’t had much trouble with it in years past, but I’d have to admit that this has been one of the wettest, weirdest summers we’ve had since moving here. The symptoms are now under control with prescription junk, but still there despite quarantining the camel. Good, in that I can still have my camel fiber, bad, in that I can’t quarantine the grasses nearly as easily. Oh well.

I tried a new spinning technique yesterday. Here’s a photo.

We went to the dog park with the mutts, and I took my spindle bag with me. I need a little more practice at spindling and walking, but it worked OK. John was a bit horrified, but I’m already considered certifiably weird by most people anyway, so what the hell. It worked OK, that is, until I stepped in dog poop because I wasn’t watching what was under foot. That is a little problem I’ll have to work on.

In other news, we’re off on an adventure again. We’re meeting my sisters and their families in Minnesota for a week for vacation. My older sister lives in North Dakota, and they have a summer place on one of the lakes nearby in MN. We’re all headed there for a little family reunion, complete with all the usual fun lake things: eating, swimming, drinking, Mexican Train competitions, etc. The other fun part is that we’re taking the train there. We get on the train early this afternoon here, and spend Saturday and Sunday riding the Empire Builder across Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. We get in early Monday morning. I think this should be a blast. We have a sleeper car, and John has the martini shaker and vodka packed, so I think I’m set. Of course I don’t have anything else packed, so I probably ought to wind this up. We will have internet access while there, so I’ll try to post while gone.

By the way, if you happen to be trolling the internets looking for an empty house to rob, go away now. We have someone who moves into our house when we go away. It works out well, since the dogs can stay here, and there’s someone to get the mail and water the plants. The pups are OK in a kennel, since we’ve found a good one, but they far prefer being here and getting to go to that dog park every day as usual. So if you’re thinking that the yarn and fiber stash are fair game while we’re gone, forget about it. It’s well guarded. I’m off to pack!

A Little Bit of Everything

First up, spinning!

Here are all the spindles in Spindle Jail. I finally came up with a way to store my spindles that keeps them safe from nosy cats. I actually had asked John to build me something to hang them, and he came home from Target with this.

It’s simply a wire mesh basket. I cut the price tag off, turned it upside down, and voilá, a Spindle Jail. Low tech, but it works. Smart man, that one. He came home with two of these, figuring I’d add to the collection at some point. Very smart man.

There’s been a lot of spinning going on for the Tour de Fleece.

And I’m still working on the never ending pile of Corriedale. In a moment of insanity, I bought 3 pounds of this stuff with the plan to make sweater yarn. I’m almost through the first pound. Since I plan to spin all the singles before I ply it, I needed to figure out some way to store the singles so I could reuse bobbins. I have a bunch of bobbins for my wheel, but not enough to keep spinning 3 pounds of wool. Bobbins are expensive, so I found these. Here they are in action.

Click on that last one to see how pretty my singles are!

Next up, knitting! Yes, I’m still knitting around here, though there’s been damn little of it since the Tour started. I actually finished something.

Project Details:

Started: Oh good grief. I’m pretty sure I didn’t record the date. I finished the last pair of socks in December of last year, for pete’s sake, so I probably started these right away. ETA: not true, apparently. According to Ravelry, I started these in September of 2009. Yup, here we are. I started a second pair, since the pair on the needles was on very sharp Signature dpns that I didn’t think would get through airport security. Incidentally, those were the only pair I knit on those needles. Unlike every other human being who has knit with the Signatures, I didn’t like them, and sold them to Major Knitter.

Finished: This past Thursday, the 15th.

Pattern: Same old pattern, same old plain socks.

Yarn: Wollmeise, purchased before the Wollmeise became really really famous. The color name is Löwenzahn, though John renamed this Squashed Frog. I like Squashed Frog better, since every time I type Löwenzahn, I have to do a Google search for how to do diacritical marks on a Mac.

Needles: 2.25mm Pony Pearl dpns

For: Me

What I Learned: Buy yarn when you see it. This stuff has gotten impossible to get. It is good sock yarn, but not worth stalking shop updates like a madwoman. I still have 3 skeins of this left, so I’m good for awhile. Maybe the furor will have died down by the time I’ve used all of it. It’s superwash wool, but has no nylon, so I added Wooly Nylon to the heels and toes for a little better wear.

For the record, that makes one more project done from the UFO pile. I was very transiently down to 4 projects. It’s back up to 5, since I have to have a sock going. Here’s the new one, started yesterday:

The yarn is from Sanguine Gryphon, her Little Traveller sock yarn. The color name is Penny Pot, NJ. This is really, really nice stuff. I (ahem) might have a few other skeins in the stash. The needles are new also. I caved and bought a set of the Blackthorn needles, size 2.oomm. So far I like them. They are wickedly sharp. That photo is a bit fuzzy, click on it to make it bigger (but just as fuzzy), or go to their website to look at them.

That’s enough for one day. I’m off to hang out with the spinning wheel.

Better

Finally. Read the last post if you’re not keeping up. I bagged up the camel blend fiber and put it safely away. I think my immune system is finally deciding that it’s OK to stand down at this point. To complicate the diagnostic dilemma, our pollen counts have been sky-high here, so I won’t get rid of the camel until my symptoms are completely gone, then do a challenge to make sure. It’s such pretty fiber that I hate to dump it if I don’t have to.

Here’s a better picture of the True Blood fiber:

That’s still a little pinker than what it really is, but closer. Why is it that red is so difficult to photograph accurately? It’s almost enough to make me want to buy a light box. And look at that cute little pin-weight on the underside of the whorl. Jonathan, the maker, carves these whorls out of naturally shed moose antlers, then adds a pin to balance the spin if needed. I think it looks like a beauty mark. I don’t think I mentioned it before, but the new spindle’s name is Bullwinkle, of course.

And I finished the Wensleydale from prior posts.

Project Details:

Fiber: Wensleydale top, from Damselfly Yarns, color Storm Clouds

Wheel or Spindle: Wheel

Yardage/Weight/WPI: 182 yards/16-17 wraps per inch/3.76 ounces

What I Plan To Make With It: Socks. The yardage is a little short, but I’ll look for a coordinating blue or possibly a black yarn the same weight and do ribbing, heels and toes with it to make it work.

What I Learned: This was my first attempt at a 3-ply yarn. I was aiming at a true sock weight, but figured I’d be happy if I got something that was consistently spun and sport weight or under. I actually did some sample spinning and plying before I waded in, which makes a huge difference in the consistency of the finished project. Basically I spun a sample single until I got something that made a 3-ply close to what I wanted, then wrapped the single around a card so I could compare as I went along. The Wensleydale is not the softest stuff in the world, but should make decent sock yarn. With commercial yarn for the heels and toes, I’ll be less worried about how this wears as well. Next time I’ll try to go finer and twistier!

Dromedary Drama

I hit another little speed bump on the Tour de Fleece. As I’ve been telling anybody who would listen, I’ve been sick all week. I’m not one to suffer silently; rather, I whine loudly to anyone who will listen. I was pretty sure I had some modern version of the plague since last Tuesday: cough, runny nose, runny eyes, itchy, sneezy, wheezy, drowsy (sounds a little like the seven dwarves, doesn’t it?). I’ve been taking every version of cold remedy on the market, with little or no relief. Even the whiskey didn’t help, it just made me Dopey.

Today it dawned on me. This is the fiber I’ve been spinning on my new Moosie spindle for the Tour.

Here it is again being wound off the spindle onto a tennis ball.

The fiber is from Corgi Hill Farm. It is just lovely stuff, and spins up like nobody’s business. It’s a merino-silk-camel-firestar blend.

Damn. It’s the camel. The only other camel stuff I have in my stash is two things; one is a very small amount of pure camel fiber. It made me sneeze when I stuck my nose in the bag. The other is a bit larger bag of tussah-camel. It also made me sneeze when I stuck my nose in the bag. Fortunately I didn’t go nuts and buy boxes of this stuff.

The camel fiber has all been quarantined. When I’m feeling better, I’ll do a semi-controlled study and play with it a bit and see if the same thing happens. It just won’t take me a week next time to figure it out. If I start sneezing again the next time that bag is opened, the camel fiber will all be on the auction block for sale.

Here’s what’s replacing that fiber for the rest of the Tour:

The color on that is just all wrong. This is also from Corgi Hill Farm, it’s a merino-silk-firestar blend (no stinking camel!), color name True Blood. I’ll work on getting a better photo if our sun ever shows its face. The photo on my monitor looks pink-red. In real life, this has no pink, just deep blood red with shots of darker red and sparkle.

I’m off to find the allergy pills.

Flat Tire!

I was treadling like a madwoman this morning, trying to finish the sock yarn plying. We have an annual boat parade on our lake every July 4th, and it’s become a tradition that a bunch of neighbors and friends show up at 10AM to have Bloody Marys by the gallon and food by the ton. I wanted to get this finished before then. Then this happened.

I’m off to find the kitchen cotton to make a new drive band. Then it will be back on the road for the Tour!

Tour de Fleece

Well, yeah. I’ve disappeared from the blog again for 2 weeks. I have no excuse. It’s not even nice outside so I could blame it on summer. I think it got all the way up to the mid-60’s today, though at least there’s been sunshine this afternoon and evening. I think everybody in this neck of the woods is just sick to death of grey and rain. It normally doesn’t hang on this long, but there you go. And I have a nasty sinus infection and/or cold, so it makes it even worse. I guess if it was gorgeous outside and I was sick, I’d be even more pissed off, so there’s that.

I have been doing a little knitting, but mostly on my plain old sock. Sinus medicine doesn’t go well with complex lace knitting, so that’s pretty much out. If you think I do stupid knitting tricks on whiskey, you should see my knitting on antihistamines and decongestants (and cough medicine, and ibuprofen, and pretty much anything else in the medicine cabinet offering even a remote possibility of relief).

I do appear to be able to spin on drugs, however. The Tour de France started today, and the Ravelry Tour de Fleece started as well. I’ve signed up, of course. It won’t be too hard, since I spin almost every day already. The only rules are that you try to spin every day that the Tour rides, and to spin something challenging on the 22nd, the toughest cycling day.

Here’s what I’m doing. Though I have 7 spindles, all with something in progress on them, I’ve chosen one to be the primary Tour spindle. Hey, you don’t see Lance changing bikes every hour, do you?*

This is the spindle entry:

Pretty, eh? Click on the picture to see. That’s a Bosworth Moosie, made out of real moose antler. Of course he’s named Bullwinkle. What else would you name a moose antler spindle? I’ve had my name on the waiting list for this since last year, and got it this week just in time for the tour. The fiber is from Anna at Corgi Hill Farm. It’s a blend of merino, camel, silk, and firestar for sparkle. Sparkle is always good. And isn’t that a lovely color? You could get a lot of Corgi hair in that and never know it. The color name is really something like Sea Salt Caramel, but I think it looks a lot like Corgi.

And this is what I’m doing on my wheel.

Yeah, I’m mixing drugs and alcohol. What can I say, I live on the edge.

The fiber is Wensleydale, from Damselfly Yarns. I finished the spinning today, and can now wade into the plying part. The goal for this is a 3 ply sock yarn. I think it will be a little heavier than fingering weight, but I’m still pleased with how it’s turning out. Here’s what Wensleydales look like, if you’re interested.

And just because I learned how to do this today, one last photo:

Hope your 4th of July is full of great picnic food and fireworks tomorrow!

*I’m making that up, I have no idea about that. He might change bikes every hour for all I know. Humor me, I’m sick.

UFO-WIP Progress

I’ve done a little more work on that UFO/WIP pile.

The whole pile, for your reference:

And The List:

1) True Blood Faery sweater

2) Crazy King Cole Mohair thing, um, stole RIP

3) Wollmeise Squashed Frog Socks

4) Grey Ribbed Peace Fleece Socks with red accents RIP

5) Frootloops Morning Glory Stole

6) Puppy Mittens

7) Evenstar Shawl

8 ) Baktus Shawlette Finished

9) Euroflax Linen Facecloth Finished

10) Spirit In The Sky Beret Finished

First up, #2 on the list.

This is really pretty stuff, but it just wasn’t working. The yarn is King Cole Luxury Mohair, color Biaritz, which is gorgeous. I started this a really loooooonggggg time ago, and just picked up needles and cast on for a garter stitch stole thing. This yarn deserves better, I just don’t know what. I do know that I have no plans to rip mohair anytime again in the near future. If it hadn’t have been 7AM, I’d have considered whiskey. I’m thinking that a feather and fan stole might show this yarn off to better advantage, but for now it’s back in the stash. RIP!

Next is some lovely Peace Fleece.

This was a misguided attempt to use leftovers. I had the Ukrainian Red leftover from a hat that I made a friend, and a couple of skeins of Negotiation Grey from John’s sweater. I decided I would make some heavy weight socks, with the red for cuffs, heels, and toes. I started the ribbing, and hated how it was working out, and it has been in the UFO pile for over two years. I pulled it out of the box yesterday and knit a row and gave up. It needs to be on smaller needles, and wasn’t working with a 2 by 2 rib. Then I tried to find the rest of the grey, and it’s disappeared into the stash somewhere. If you’ve seen my stash, you well know that this is a serious problem. There is no way I will ever find it.  The only way I ever find anything in my stash is if I put it into numbered boxes and record the item in my Mac Bento database. If I just jam something into a box to get it off the floor, thinking I’ll remember where it is, I am totally screwed.  So this one bit the dust as well. The red yarn is in a numbered box, and it’s recorded, so if I ever find the grey yarn, I might resurrect this. For now, it’s gone. RIP!

That leaves me with 5 active projects, which is a lot more manageable. I’d like to get one of those shawls off the list, and then I’ll be at the perfect WIP number: 1 sweater-like project, 1 sock project, 1 lace project, and 1 other small interesting project.

Have a happy Summer Solstice! It’s 51 degrees here, overcast and grey, and forecast to be drizzly all day. Ick. We might break out the gin and tonics tonight anyway, even if the weather’s not cooperating.

And one last item. I have been getting a ton of spam comments lately. My spam filter picks them up and puts them in a holding cell, and usually I scan through them to make sure a real comment wasn’t tagged by mistake. There were so many of them when I signed in this morning that I just deleted them. If you have left a real comment, and it’s not showing up, try again, or email me at loretteireneatcomcastdotnet to let me know.

More Finished Stuff

Boy, with a title that enticing, I should get loads of visitors flocking to the blog. Anyway, this time it’s spinning stuff that’s finished. First up is some pretty pretty Carolina Blue yarn.

Project Details

Fiber: This is a merino tencel 50/50 blend, purchased from Yarn Chef.  The color name was “Whisp of Clouds” but it is most certainly a Carolina blue. I live with a good Carolina boy, and he knows his blue.

Wheel or Spindle? Spun on the Schacht Matchless wheel. I used the high speed whorl and high speed bobbins. I think the ratio setting was 19.5:1. I set the wheel up in double drive.

Style of Spinning: Again, I’d point out that my style is still a little inconsistent. This is mostly an attempt at a short forward draw. It’s a 2-ply.

Yardage/Weight/WPI: I started with 12 oz of fiber, and ended up with 11.88 oz of yarn, or 337 g. It’s about 14-16 WPI (wraps per inch), depending on where I measure, which makes this somewhere between a heavy fingering and a light sport weight. There are about 684 yards.

What I Plan To Make With It: There should be enough of this for a shawl/stole of some sort. It will need to marinate in the stash for a bit first (see last post regarding numerous WIPs/UFOs).

What I Learned: Well. I feel like I’ve finally spun up enough fiber that I can start working more on being consistent. I sat down this past week and started to re-read The Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin (reviewed here). When I started to learn to spin, every time I talked to more experienced spinners (meaning pretty much everybody but me) I kept hearing “well, Judith says this about that subject”. I read through the book last year, but there is just so much information in it that a brand new spinner can’t really absorb it all at once. I don’t want to just spin and see what I end up with, my goal is to say “I want to spin x type of yarn for a specific project, then figure out how to get there.

I learned with this project that it’s not entirely about the size whorl I use that gets the yarn I want. Typically the extra fast and extra extra fast whorls should get you to thinner and thinner yarn. I need to work more on tweaking the settings of the wheel, and also on my drafting technique to get to that thin yarn. I’m also beginning to discover that I like the Scotch tension set-up a little better than double drive. I set the wheel back up in Scotch drive after I finished this yarn, and I’m finding it much easier to control what I’m making. I also have learned that I need to change the drive band now and then. This should seem obvious, but I changed it out after I finished this, and the wheel is working much better.

The next project (yes, you get a two-for-one!) is spindle spun.

Project Details

Fiber: This is some unknown wool-sparkle blend that I got from one of the vendors at the Whidbey spin-in earlier this year. The sparkle stuff is Firestar or something similar. This color combo of red and vivid purple reminds me of a children’s book, but I can’t remember which one. It had illustrations of fireworks over a city, with big flashes of red and purple. It was one of my favorite kid books when I was a kid. Anybody remember which one I’m talking about? I don’t remember the story either, so I’m really not much help here. I’m in my early 50’s, if that helps anybody place this. I think it had dragons, but I might be making that up.

Wheel or Spindle? Spun and plied on my Bosworth midi spindle.

Style of Spinning: This is a worsted type of spinning, again pretty much like I do on the wheel, just with a drop spindle. This is also a 2-ply.

Yardage/Weight/WPI: I started with about 3 oz of fiber, ended up with 2.66 oz of yarn, or 75.5 g. There are 264 yards here. This is about 18 WPI, so more like a light fingering or heavy lace weight.

What I Plan To Make With It: I think this will make a pretty scarf or neck warmer, something with a lacy pattern.

What I Learned: I can spin a lot more evenly and finely on a spindle than my wheel. I’ve finished yarn on the spindle before, but with the other yarn I’ve done, I’ve chickened out when it came to plying and did it on the wheel. I decided to ply this on the spindle, so it’s the first fully spindle-ized yarn I’ve done (that should be a word!). Here’s how I managed my singles and the plying. I’ve tried a number of ways of getting the singles off the spindle when it’s full, but the easiest I’ve found is to wind it off around a clean tennis ball (no dog drool here!). After I finish spinning all the fiber, I have a bunch of tennis balls with singles wound around them. I made one giant plying ball onto an empty tennis ball, wrapping from two singles-balls at a time, and wrapping neatly and fairly snuggly as I went. Then I just plied from the 2 ply ball back onto the spindle. I tried plying from two separate balls directly back onto the spindle and ended up with a mess.

Reading through that last bit, even I think it doesn’t make much sense the way I’ve described it. The next time I’m ready to ply with the spindle, I’ll take photos and show you what I mean.

Last but not least is another photo that I took yesterday. We’ve had so much rain here in the last few months that I’m getting ready to start shooting holes in my refrigerator from cabin fever. Yesterday we had an almost day-long sunbreak. It was all the way up to the 60’s here, and we had a glorious trip to the farmers’ market to celebrate. Here’s a flower that I snapped.

Of course it rained again all day today.

My sweetie just handed me a martini, so I’m off to help in the kitchen. Until next time…

And Another UFO Becomes an FO!

For those of you keeping track, I’m trying to whittle down the UFO pile into something more manageable this summer. Here’s a list of what I started with, and a photo or two of the whole pile.

1) True Blood Faery sweater

2) Crazy King Cole Mohair thing, um, stole

3) Wollmeise Squashed Frog Socks

4) Grey Ribbed Peace Fleece Socks with red accents

5) Frootloops Morning Glory Stole

6) Puppy Mittens

7) Evenstar Shawl

8 ) Baktus Shawlette

9) Euroflax Linen Facecloth

10) Spirit In The Sky Beret

I think that’s it. The crossed through stuff is finished finished finished. There are a couple of things in that mess that will eventually get frogged and repurposed, but I think eventually most of it will be finished finished finished as well.

And here’s the last finished finished finished thing:

Spirit In The Sky Beret

Project Details:

Started: Hmmm. This is the second go-around for this yarn. It started as a pair of socks way back when in 2007. I took it with me to a knitting retreat in Idaho, and left the second skein of yarn under the bed or something when I left. It hung around as a half-knit single sock for awhile, since I was pretty sure that as soon as I ripped it out that I’d find the other skein. I finally ripped and started this in April 2008.

Finished: Last week.

Pattern: Here.

Yarn: Sock Hop sock yarn, color Spirit In The Sky. One of my favorite oldies songs, by Norman Greenbaum. Of course you can’t get this anymore. If you could, I’d have finished the socks, now wouldn’t have I?

Needles: Size 3.0 double points

For: ?? It doesn’t quite fit me, and I’m just not a beret person, really. It’s a little small for me, and will probably fit a kid in the family. It depends on who gets here first to claim it.

What I learned: Keep track of your yarn while on vacation. I’d have knit this to fit me if I hadn’t been worrying about running out of yarn. The pattern is pretty easy, but I’d be a little nervous knitting it with just one skein of Koigu, which is what the pattern calls for. If you want a slouchier beret, you might need a little more yarn. I thought about doing stripes, but I like what the orange yarn does all by itself, so a kid hat it will be.

And just because I want to, here’s a pretty flower photo I snapped today.

And I can’t for the life of me figure out why that smiley thing is in front of the Baktus shawl instead of a number 8, but I can’t get rid of it, so I guess it stays.

ETA: I fixed the smiley face, thanks to Chris!  8)