The Tour continues, and so do I

Lance cannot hope to win, and neither can I, but I can finish, and so can he! I may not have spun the most, or the prettiest, or the artsy-est or the fastest, but I am approaching the end of the Tour de Fleece with my goal met and all the rest being gravy! This is the very end of the original 2 pounds (32 oz) of Ashland Bay Merino in English Garden. This mini skein is still not washed so it appears a bit twisty. Notice, not a blister to be found. I bet Lance can't say that! I must feel pretty secure about myself to show my feet to the world, but it is summertime and living is easy..........

And here is a basket o' yarn with the rest of the English Garden as well as the laceweight Enchanted Seas from Julie Spins.

With a few days to go in the Tour, I went up to my stash box and pulled out the Kai Mohair in the color Caribbean and began to spin so fine........ Even two ply may be too thin for my liking so I think a Navajo 3-ply is in order. This will stripe the finished yarn, so I will have to choose my pattern carefully.

Saturday was field trip day for Stacy and me. In the morning we drove up to Boulder for a tour of the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory tour. We were a bit disappointed that the machinery doesn't run on the weekends, but it was interesting anyway. We dropped a little bit in the Gift Store, and I thought the highlight was seeing the original artwork that was commissioned for the box art. It was incredibly whimsical and the boxes don't do the art justice.

After lunch at an Indian Buffet, a gastronomical flavor which I can say I introduced Stacy to, we went to a class taught by the famous Cookie A. All the sock samples from her new book were there and they may have to go into the queue for later. I have made several pairs of her Monkey Socks and this particular class was on chart reading. She went through the various charting methods and for practice we began a sample of a Celtic braid as shown.

Using her method for cabling without a cable needle was worth the price of admission, as Stacy said. I need practice, but I might just pick up the Slippery Socks again, using this method especially since it uses a one stitch cable repeatedly.

My cleaning break is over (any excuse from housework), and I must vaccuum the downstairs. The kids are coming and I am so excited, that it will be worth the effort, even it they don't notice!

Finished one and Restarted Another

What ended up being knit with the Bright Hibiscus homespun discussed in an earlier post, turned out to be a foliage hat. I should have enough yarn for 3 of these hats, using the bulky weight directions.

I am "training" for the Tour de Fleece which starts on July 4 to coincide with the Tour de France bike race. I have spun up two bobbins of the fiber I will be spinning for the sweater. I am going for medium worsted weight yarn and I am striving for consistancy.

I frogged the Berry Season Socks from the book 2-at-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes because the fabric was just too dense, and it almost felt woven. I began them again, this time using the top as designed in the pattern with Size 2 needles. So much better and more stretchy. The way the yarn shines in the stockinette section of the cuff makes me wonder if I should reconsider again and make a plain sock to show off the fiber. Hmmmmm.

I recall a blogpost by the Yarn Harlot where she knew all along that the socks were coming out too big and she knitted away in denial till the end...when they were indeed too big. It is one of the best lessons she has taught me over the years: Frogging in the early stages of a project is a whole lot less painful than once it is completed.

Today's nature shot:

How nice of him to stay put and pose for me!

Hat from Homespun

This is a really sweet hat I spun and knit! The gray is merino, purchased at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder this fall.

I used the Navajo ply on the fly technique and it sooooooo soft. The white stripes, my own creative addition to the pattern, is Brown Sheep wool combed top which is from my very first spindle spinning. Actually, the original spinning was so bad (thick and thin) that I re-drafted it to achieve some fairly consistantly even yarn.
This hat was a gift for my hairdresser, Lee, who is so atypical of male hairdressers: married, 4 kids and plays ice hockey! He loved the hat and showed it off to all his clients when they came in. My buttons were busting with good feelings at this..... and considering what I have been going through lately, it was so nice to be appreciated for my skills and talents.

Alpaca!

I am starting to get more comfortable with the new computer and I think I will survive. Whew. There are some fun new features like the photo gallery which is taking some time to get used to, but I like it. Having the clock and calendar on the desktop is great, but the stock quotes is so depressing that I may remove it. Trying to hold tight in that area and not sell is a challenge, but since I will be working till I am 80, I guess I can hold out for recovery.

I finished Chun-soon's Odessa hat. Actually, I finished it twice........ The first time it was not nearly long enough, so I frogged back the decrease section at the top, added more length and finished it again. I think she will be happy. I am glad it is over, since I knit the equivalent of 2 hats, with all the errors and frogging. The free pattern is available through Ravelry, but was originally published by the now defunct Magknits. This is the link to the designers website: Grumperina.

Since it is the end of the month and I want to enter the September challenge in the Spindler's Group of Ravelry, I have been frantically working on my Merino fiber. The challenge allows any amount of finished yarn, so I am going to stop today, wash it and then have it ready by Tuesday. I had less than 4 oz to start with, and I don't have much fiber left, but I will end up with a large skein and a mini-skein once I finish it all.

Yesterday, I went to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds for Alpaca on the Rocks, an all alpaca show for breeders and crafts people. It was such a last minute decision to go, that I didn't have my camera with me...RATS! Those alpacas were so photogenic. I haven't been working on my February Lady Sweater lately, because of my fear of running out of yarn, so I took my swatch with me to try to match the color and weight at this show. SUCCESS!!!!

I walked all the aisles with my swatch, and even enlisted unsuspecting fair goers to help me determine the best match. Luckily, the original yarn was natural and not dyed, so I only had to search through the white samples. Even then, there was quite a bit of variation in the samples.

I had not yet tried to spin alpaca fiber and this was the perfect opportunity to pick up some local fiber that was very inexpensive.

The first one is dyed by Yvonne Reimer of Carrot 'N Diamond Alpacas of Colorado Springs. It is only a couple of ounces and will be a nice accent to add to a project. Yvonne doesn't knit or spin (they send the fiber out for that) but she dyes beautiful variegations of yarn and fibers. Her specialty, however, is wet felting of the fiber and her creations of bowls, slippers, hats and especially the wine bottle holders were terrific. Another interesting item was her felted soap. The bar of soap is totally enclosed in felted alpaca and as it is used it continues to felt growing smaller and smaller until you are only left with a small felted ball of alpaca.

This one is 4 ounces of natural alpaca from two different animals from Cheryl Keydel at Ancient Treasures Alpaca Ranch. She has a ranch with about 20 alpacas in Arvada and has lots more of this fiber and if you would like some, contact her.. But save some for me, in case I need more. She told me that the two contributors of their fleece for my fiber are Frostie and Tia Alyst....awwwww.

I so enjoyed talking to the breeders and fiber people. I was able to watch several wheel spinners and talk at length about the craft that I am growing addicted to. This is such a small show that there were no crowds and I got my fill of petting both the animals and the fiber. I wish I could convey the softness through these photographs, but you will have to take my word for it. I will leave the animals to the breeders and enjoy the fiber in my home.

To my Jewish Friends and Family: L'Shana Tovah. A Sweet Year, A Healthy New Year to you all.

New Friends and Projects

For the last week we have been lucky to have Amanda home for the weekend, as well as a couple of her friends, newly returned from their road trip and Alaska adventure. Chun-soon Li is Amanda's friend from NYC and is quite the character. She is fun, sassy, and always makes a personal statement with her presence.

Kate is quieter, intense, warm and a country girl at heart. Amanda met Kate in NYC when she was dating her cousin, but she has resettled in Casper WY temporarily. The two friends stayed for several days longer than Amanda, and they added a cheerful element to our otherwise quiet home. Buried in her computer most of the time, Chun-Soon gave me some incentive to improve my paltry skills and the confidence to know that it is possible. I should have taken a photo of Chun-Soon at the computer, but here is Kate.

Earlier this year I made another Odessa Hat by Grumperina for Amanda, who informed me that Chun-soon was always borrowing her hat. I started one for her while she was here and one would think that on the fourth go round of making the same pattern, I wouldn't have any trouble at all. Of course, I was off a stitch in the first beaded row and had to tink back a couple of rows, fudge a stitch, then continue. Now that the pattern is set, it is going much more smoothly. I am using the same yarn and needle sizes as my last hat.

It should be done soon and I will either mail it or take it to NY when I go in October.

I have been working on Monkey Socks by Cookie A. I have been using one of my "Europe" sock yarns- Regia. I am surprised how fast they are knitting up and it has been a most enjoyable project. I converted the pattern to Magic Loop, so it is not exact, but this pattern was easy to adapt as the pattern repeat is 16 for a 64 stitch total count.

I am on the gusset section of the second sock and should finish this pair pretty soon. I think this pair is going to CT for my friend Marion.

I have slowed down on the February Lady sweater, since I am so afraid of running out of yarn. I think I will definitely e-mail the ranch to see when they might have some more, and if not till next year, I may take the swatch of the yarn to Rhinebeck to see how I can possibly match it up.

I finished the second skein of the Louet Northern Lights, Thunderstorm, and it is not the same gauge as the first skein. This time I got about 200 yards and just over 56 grams. I am approaching sock weight, but I don't think the yarn is dense enough to wear well. Maybe the third skein will be the charm and I will have enough of one gauge for a pair of socks, shawl, or fingerless mitts. Gift giving season is approaching and my mind is churning with ideas.

I began spinning a new project. Last week, Stacy and I went to Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder to survey their spinning supplies, and I bought some merino roving in a soft multi-color grey. I hadn't yet tried merino, but it was so soft and irristable. I spun a small batch and did ok with it.

Then I decided to try Tammy Rizzo's Navajo Plying on the Fly. On this blog site there are written directions as well as a video demonstrating the technique. It seems quite fiddly at first, but then I got the hang of it and did quite well. What I ended up with is a three ply yarn on the spindle. I haven't yet measured it, but it seems at least worsted weight or maybe a little bulkier. My intention is to enter this into the Ravelry spindler challenge, either for the September group which has a theme of "Rock" or maybe if I get enough yardage (I need at least 200) then into the quarterly challenge whose theme is calming and variegated solid colors.

It will make a soft, lovely hat, maybe for Kate. If only Alison liked wool......it would be for her.