Working my way back from the Most Recent

With such a large gap in my blogging, where do I start to catch up??......with the most recent event, of course---The Estes Park Wool Market.

This now annual event for me and Stacy was expanded to two days for us this year, Saturday and Sunday with a stay overnight at a cute riverside motel.

Unfortunately, the weather gods decided we needed rain, lots of rain, so the sun was barely visible all weekend.   Clouds hovered over the nearby rock peaks,

and it even snowed in Rocky Mtn National Park.   The water flowed swiftly in Fall River, by the motel and downtown.  The second picture is the motel manager checking the river depth gauge, since
Estes was under a flood watch all weekend.

Some wild critters (elk) were roadside, saying hello.

I finished my February Lady Sweater finally, by late nights and sewing on the buttons on Saturday morning.   No time to give it a proper blocking, but a steam pressing an hour before Stacy came.   I ended up wearing it all weekend thanks to the temps in the 40's.

The fairgrounds were rainy and muddy, so we stayed mostly in the vendor barn, and shopped til the budget cried "uncle"!   Here is the haul:

From Creatively Dyed Yarns this is 70%wool, 30% seacell fiber in color, Plankton.

From Kai Ranch: this is overdyed black kid mohair:

This is a raw Jacob fleece, which is very clean since it was coated.   The spots are very distinct and the colors of white, black, and gray are even divided throughout the fleece.  

It is a little over two lbs, raw, and it seems to be very soft for a Jacob.   Of course, I have to finish the Shetland fleece I started earlier this spring first...and to help out with that I bought this:

A used Louet drum carder from Fire Ant Ranch.   This was Suzanne's personal carder that she is parting with since she uses an electric carder now.   She took the time to demo it and with the savings, I couldn't resist.  Even though it is about 15 years old, it is solidly built, finished well, and only a few of the pins are bent.  In case I forget how to operate it, there are etched instructions in 5 languages on the front and the back!

  
On Sunday, we spent  most of the day watching the 4 teams at the sheep to shawl competition.   I must have been so mesmerized by it all, since I failed to take one photograph.   Teams of 5 people: one weaver and 4 spinners started with washed fleece and a warped loom and proceeded to spin yarn and weave a shawl in about 5 hours.   There were 4 teams this year and the finished results were vastly different from each other, but each beautiful in its own way.  It might be fun to be on a team in the future...hmmm something to think about.

Spinning FO

Today I was very productive, fiberwise. Since my birthday, last week, I have been working on spinning singles of the Louet wool top pencil roving in color "Thunderstorms". This yarn is to be entered into the Ravelry Spindlers Group in the August Challenge, whose theme is "rainforest." This is a reminder of what the fiber looks like:

It is my first spinning with multi-color roving and as such, I really didn't know what to expect.
The green seems to be predominant and the colors change at irregular intervals. The finished product will be more tweedy, than striped or pooled, I predicted to myself, and I was correct.

I knit three batches of singles, wound on 3 TP rolls and placed in my super-duper fancy Lazy Kate, made with a shoe box and straight knitting needles.

I used my ball winder to wind a 3 ply ball from the three singles. Then, using my Tracy Eichheim spindle, I plyed from the outside of the ball. I love this shot with the Golding and the Eichheim together.
I have made much progress getting my singles thinner and thinner compared to my beginning spinning and I probably could call the singles, or even a two ply laceweight. This is my early spinning on this fiber: This a shot from today, showing the more recent singles spinning and the plyed yarn still on the spindle.

I soaked the yarn, whacked it, and hung outside to dry quickly.

Here is the final result, 43 grams of sport to worsted, about 106 yards. Pretty, isn't she!

I still have more than 3/4 of the fiber left, so lots more spinning to do.

Then, I started plying on the last of the blue/green CVM fiber into a two ply.

Once I finish that yarn, it will be time to start knitting on it. I have enough to do several hats, mittens, or use it in combination in a felting project. I have seen on Ravelry the Fetching fingerless mitts, and there are hats to match. With gift giving season ahead, it is almost time to get started on that.

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!

Absent, but not forgetting to knit & spin

I just realized that it has been over a week since I last posted to this blog. Working, knitting, spinning, and socializing.....but that is no excuse. Yes, it is, really. In the last week, I attended two knitting groups....one generic and one at my local yarn store.

I sort of fell off the yarn diet wagon...but Stacy so kindly informed me that what I bought was roving and not yarn, so technically, I am still ok. What I bought was Louet pencil roving in the color Thunderstorm. It is Wool Top and very soft and hardly needs any drafting at all. I thought I would participate in the August Spinning Challenge on the Ravelry Spindlers Group where the theme is Rainforest. I definitely think these colors work in the theme.

I have also been plying my third skein from my CVM fiber purchased in Estes Park. It should closely match in weight my second skein posted earlier.

I finished Mom's socks, but since it has been 23 days with the temp over 90 degrees here, I will wait till I gift them to her. I love the way these feel. Should be nice and toasty, whenever the cooler weather hits.

Tonight, at my LYS, I knitted again on the World's Biggest Sock. I was mistaken in my earlier post...... there are 10 circular needles that knit the circumference. We all knitted at once for this photo. In actuality, it really is an ugly combination of colors and textures, but what would YOU do for a posting in the Guinness Book of World Records. If you are in the Denver Area, be sure to stop by A Knitted Peace for your chance to knit on it and get your name recorded as a participant.

After the beast of a sock was removed from the table, a congenial group of knitters pulled out their own projects and continued knitting for a few hours. I had my BSJ with me, but forgott to bring the pattern. I knit a few rows, and put it aside to begin another project which has been calling to me. The BSJ (Baby Surprise Jacket) by Elizabeth Zimmerman, is starting to look pretty weird on the needles with the decreases and increases. I am still guessing where to put the stripes, but I think it is turning out well. I folded it up the way I think it is going, and I can see what the future holds. It will be pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

What I started was the February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne.

I decided to use my alpaca yarn purchased in Estes Park. It is thinner that I thought, once I started swatching, so instead of size 8 needles, I am using size 4, and will knit the extra large size, which should come out just about right for my size with the gauge of 22 stitches to 4 inches instead of the 18 which the pattern calls for. This pattern, like the BSJ, is adapted from an EZ baby sweater and is knit by rows, not inches. Since it is top down and raglan sleeve, I can try it on as I go to see if it is going to work out. I have 1600 yards of the alpaca, so it should be a lightweight lacy version of this sweater instead of the heavier weight of worsted... Glad I had Stacy there tonight to help me with the math!

So see, I haven't been a sloth this last week, but with the heat, there is a limited amount of time to relax at the computer when I have so much else going on. Oh, yeah, I did work a full week, went to Book Club (be sure to read The Double Bind by Chris Bojhalian) , visited Mom, and played in the garden too. No wonder I am tired. Off tomorrow and get to sleep in....zzzzzzzzz