On to a New Blogging Year

All through the past several weeks, I have spindling more than knitting and I am getting pretty itchy for a Wheel. A Kromski Sonata wheel to be exact.

This is the exact wheel that my knitting buddy, Stacy, purchased before the holidays and I had a chance to try it out at her home. I am thinking about the same wheel in the Walnut stain for myself to match some woods in my home and after reading many of the review both on the net and in Ravelry. I like this wheel's classic looks without taking up too much room when set up. The best part is that it breaks down and folds into a padded carrying bag so that it can easily travel to spin-ins or nearly anywhere. From what I have read, it can do nearly everything a spinner would want to do: from laceweight to heavy worsted weight. The itch is getting bad, but I am waiting for career enhancement to take place......

So I continue to spindle spin with my three favorite spindles: Golding, Bosworth, and Eichheim. I am almost to the end of the Creatively Dyed Sea Wool fiber from Rhinebeck, and I believe I will have enough for socks after plying the last bits. I am making a regular 3 ply for this yarn, and putting quite a lot of spin into it to make it better wearing socks. Might have to do 2-at-a-time toe up socks, in case I run short. Oh Boy, another technique to learn!

This is all that is left to spin:These are my singles already spun for the second skein:

I don't seem to be making much of a dent in the Briar Rose BFL fiber, also purchased at Rhinebeck in October. One skein is finished of worsted weight, which I used the Navajo ply on the fly technique. For this next skein, I am using the same technique, but spinning finer, so the plyed yarn is much thinner. I should probably be using my wraps per inch tool to determine the actual weight of the yarn, but until I have lots of it finished, I am too lazy. I am winding it onto a TP roll as the spindle gets too heavy and I have about 40 grams in weight done on the TP roll. The skein on the left is the worsted weight which should make a nice hat. Since the roving was over a pound when I purchased it, I better make friends with it. It will be occupying my home for a long time! This is the roving ball still left of 17 oz purchased:

And this is what the scale reads.........

Starting over, again.

After knitting a couple of inches of my February Lady Sweater, using size 4 needles and singles, I realized that even making the xl size would result in a doll size sweater. I frogged it, doubled up the yarn, and started again, using size 8 needles. A much better weight and gauge, but now I am certain that I will run out of yarn. I do have about 1600 yards......... 400 grams but at this new rate of usage, I will certainly run out of yarn. Do I stop? Do I try to locate more yarn? Do I stick my head in the sand and continue on? Do I consider a second yarn (type or color?) to add in strategically? For the time being, I am continuing on as I consider my options. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Since this yarn was from a specific alpaca (Capella was her name!) from Stargazer Ranch Alpacas, I may have to wait till next year to get more of the same.....I may e-mail them to see if they have any just laying around.... fat chance.


Sunday is my Birthday, although at this age, I try not to make a big deal of it. I allowed Gary to buy me a new spindle which I picked out: a Golding Tsunami Purpleheart which is totally beautiful. The whorl is 2 inches and the weight is .8 oz. It arrived and I have been working on my August challenge with it. I don't know if it is just taking time to get used to it, or it is the roving I am using, or I am spinning too thick... but I cannot get it to spin very long, at least in comparison to my Tracy Eichheim. The Golding is .8 oz and the Eichheim is 1.5 oz, so it may be difference in weight and my inexperience, but I will keep working at it. The Golding spins quickly, but not for long, and then begins to unspin just as quickly. It is amazing how the different weights feel in my hands.


Last night I drove up to Broomfield to have dinner with my old college roommate, Candy. We are both old now. As a matter of fact it was 40 years ago this month that we met on our first day at U-CONN in the dorm. We were not assigned to be roommates, but we were next door to each other. We each had other roommates, who were, to be kind, a little more of a studious nature. After 4 days of freshman weekend, hanging around, having fun, and being a bit rowdy, the other roommates came to us on Sunday night and said we should just switch rooms. It was their idea, and we jumped at the chance. We then roomed together for two years and joined the same sorority. Here is a photo from spring of 1969 when Candy and I, as well as Donna and Cathy, who dubbed ourselves the 4 Musketeers, since we did everything together, watched intently the events of Greek Week. To see a more current photo of the four of us look in my archive! I am partially obsured in this photo, Candy is the one with the NATURAL blond streak, then Cathy and Donna.
Candy was in Nursing, so for Jr and Sr years, she was at the hospital and I stayed on campus. We both graduated at the same time, lived together for the summer after graduation, and traveled to Europe together. It was Candy who moved to Denver after this trip, but it took me a year to save up enough $$ to join her here. We lived together for about 6 months in Denver, then she traveled to Michigan with her future ex-husband while he was in his medical residency. We married in the same year, (1975), they moved back to Denver, and had our first daughters in the same year (1980). Raising kids on the opposite side of the metro area, we didn't stay in touch as much and now she has a son and I have another daughter and she divorced, remarried, got her masters and Doctorate in Nursing and runs the Nursing program at Regis U. We reconnected and have been getting together several times a year now.


Visiting with Candy and her folks, who were visiting because of her hand surgery, we shared a lot of the old stories, and laughs. Not to mention the great dinner Joe prepared for us all.

And here we are 40 years later, still friends.... How special is that!

4th of July Weekend.

Most people had a three day weekend to relax and enjoy, but me....I only had off the 4th and worked both Saturday and Sunday. We are very lucky that we close on some holidays when the rest of the mall is open: New Year's Day and the 4th of July. My "weekend" was last Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Friday the 4th, I went down to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival with a coworker friend. We have been going down each year on a mutual day off and have enjoyed the crowds and the heat. How we really enjoy it.... is going down early, viewing most of the show, and then having a nice sit-down lunch with wine at one of the independent restaurants that dot the Cherry Creek area. I can't understand purchasing a very expensive lunch in small portions from the street booths and then sitting on the lawn or dirt or worse to eat. It is so much nicer splurging in a restaurant where we get served. Is this a sign that I am getting old??

I actually purchased some earrings this year for myself:

from 314 Studio in the Boston area. They were affordable and perfect since I love silver. This year it seemed that there were a lot more new artists represented and they offered a greater variety of arts and crafts than I have seen in past years at more affordable prices.

Lunch was at Soleil and we had a lovely lunch of tapas. The "Bag of Dirty Shrimp" was to die for and we enjoyed the Spanakopita and Bruschetta as well. They have a lovely outdoor dining area under a tree and we were able to watch the crowds wither in the sun as they walked the festival streets.

The rest of the weekend I worked......nuff said about that........

As for knitting, I picked up the Booby Socks again and began trying to avoid the ladders that plagued me the first go round. For the last stitch of the row and the first stitch on the next needle, I have been wrapping the purl stitch the opposite way and it seems to be helping a little. I still see a little laddering....argh....

I have been taking Mom's socks to work to knit during lunch and I have turned the heel and have been working the gussets around. Really love this yarn to knit with and they will make lovely socks. There is no pooling of the colors at all so far and I am glad for that.

I also have been spindle spinning each night as well. I took my first singles spun and have been re-spinning and drafting out the large lumpy unspun portions as best as I can. I have been doing this on the basic spindle which I have learned is a Snipes. On the CD Spindle is the wool/mohair blend, and on the Eichheim is the CVM. I have enough to wind into a center pull ball of it now, and then ply, but lately I have been reading on Ravelry about the nightmare of plying from center pull balls. I didn't have much trouble with my first attempt, because it wasn't so finely spun, but I am a bit worried about this batch because the singles are much thinner.

No. 1 daughter is coming home next weekend for a baby shower and her 10th high school reunion. Hard to believe it has been 10 years and her friends are having babies......It will be quite a while before I have my own babies to knit for......everything in its own time.

Spinning, Spinning, and more Spinning, but not much knitting

What is it about the spinning that makes me pick that up, and not my knitting of several semi-complete projects? I keep spinning on the new Eichheim which is just wonderful, but I discovered the point where the single breaks and needs to be wound onto a toilet paper roll for safekeeping.

The first batch of the CVM in blue-green, has been plyed, washed, and whacked only to find out that what I thought was going to be worsted weight, turned out to be bulky. That is a quarter...not a dime!

What I am spinning now seems much thinner than my first skein, so we will see. It is amazing what happens between spinning and skeining! I used dimes for these photos.

I keep picking up the basic spindle, and still, it is short spinning. So for the white wool/mohair blend, I have been using the cd spindle mostly. I will try the basic spindle again as my skills at very fine spinning improve, since it is pretty lightweight. Any suggestions?

I think I will look through my stitch library to see if I find anything worthy of the alpaca yarn I have. I only have 1600 yards and it is pretty lightweight, so I think I will look for something somewhat airy or easy lace. Once I find a nice stitch, I will swatch and then try another "Knit to fit" sweater I learned with Christy at A Knitted Peace.

Speaking of Alpaca, I looked at the website for the ranch where my alpaca donated her fleece and they have two cameras which are always on. One is in the yard where they gather during the day and the other is in the barn. You can even sign up your e-mail address to be notified when babies will be born and watch. How cool is that! Check out Stargazer Ranch Alpacas in Loveland, CO for yourself and see how cute they are on the hoof and everything you didn't know about the animals. As a city girl, I often forget about the creatures where the great fibers we knit come from. The following photo was from the Estes Park Wool Festival a few weeks ago.

Spinning Practice

I have been spending a bit of time over the last few days with my new spindles. I love love love the Eichheim because it spins long and smooth. I like the notch in it and the fact that he bends the hook ever so little to balance the spin. There is also a small brass tack on the underside to balance the wheel, just as our tires on the car have balancing weights. The end result is wonderful and I will be using this spindle mostly.... so far, until I buy other wonderful spindles.

The basic spindle doesn't spin long or smooth and should have been passed by......live and learn. Just to compare, I used some of the same roving on my original cd spindle from my first class and found that now that I can draft as I spin, even it is better than this new wood spindle.

As for my knitting, I decided that the laddering in my booby socks is unacceptable.

I frogged back to before it became noticable and will continue from there. I had gotten as far as turning the heel and working on the foot, when I said to myself "Who am I kidding...I don't like the way these look....I wouldn't give them as a gift this way and wouldn't want them for myself this way." I have always just plowed on through errors and I feel I came to a major turning point when I came to this decision to frog it back. I guess I am maturing as a knitter and the finished product matters, as well as the process. I posted the inquiry about avoiding ladders with so many purl stitches on the Ravelry Magic Loop forum and got a few suggestions like:

wrap the yarn backwards on the first stitch (which I am trying) and also turn the socks inside out, working from the inside, instead of the outside ( which I also am trying on the multiple rows of purl stitch). I hope this combination of changes will result in no ladders. To be continued.......