2 Days off feels like a Vacation

Because the store is closed on July 4th and I am working both Saturday and Sunday, I actually had two days off in a row. To make that even better, tomorrow I don't have to be in until 1pm so I have the whole morning off too. That means 3 days of sleeping in (and staying up late the night before!!), getting some excercise and craft time in. A real vacation, which doesn't cost anything, if only I could stay out of the stores......

;-0

I finished up my "Prague Socks", blocked and dried them, and neatly folded them away for when the fall days are next upon us.

I cast-on a new pair right away which I will give to MOM, not a surprise, but a promise made during our trip to Europe. I am using the Lana Grosse varigated yarn bought in Volkach, Germany and the basic pattern I use for plain socks by Diane Soucy from Knitting Pure and Simple. They are actually a bit heavier than fingering weight and making a nice firm fabric. I am loving how the colors are coming up. No pooling so far and keeping the plain knitting interesting. They should be nice and warm and toasty for this winter.

Last night was knit-night at my local yarn store and Stacy met me there. We caught up after the wool fest and discussed our Alpaca yarn. She has actually knitted up a swatch and it is very light and delicate.... and oh so soft. Thinking that I might not have enough for a full size sweater at a small enough gauge, I may either double up the yarn and make hats and mittens (oooooooh) or use a lacy pattern and make a 3/4 sleeve light weight sweater. .......to be continued....... I also purchased some arcrylic to make a Baby Surprise Jacket. No babies in my family, but I have until January to make this for Candy's first grandchild. She is having surgery on her hand, so knitting for her is out of the question for the immediate future.

_

I bought Maggie Casey's new book " Start Spinning" and read through it while sipping an iced latte on Starbucks patio (see....vacation activity!) I am amazed how much I have already figured out using the internet and Ravelry resources about drop spindling. The photos are fabulous--and a terrific resource for any new spinner. At this point I have no desire for a wheel, and Alison if you are reading this, there will NOT be any sheep grazing in the backyard the next time you come home, but be careful before you jump into your bathtub here, as there just might be a fleece soaking.........

There are flowers in the garden. Not a real surprise, but since I was traveling during the last two weeks of May, during prime gardening season, I was happily surprised to see the perennials go on without me. I only planted a few annuals to fill some holes and from a distance it is not so dramatic at this time.

Close up, each flower and plant has its own drama. The rose bush is prolific but I don't know its name. The flowers are so heavy, they often break the stem after a watering day. I tend to pinch off some buds to make each rose a single on the stem and lighter weight and more dramatic.

I have grown to love african daisys. The colors are vivid, and when fully in bloom, I cannot help but smile.

Can't remember what they are called (what kind of gardener am I??) but the bees love my purple things.

In the other garden there was a late and last poppy, that is so shockingly orange.

I have dahlias in two colors: fuschia and this deep rich maroon. I positioned the maroon one so I can see it from my bedroom window.

Fortunately I cannot see the holes in the leaves from my window. I may have to drown a few slugs in beer. :-)

Colorado's state flower is the blue columbine, but the color didn't photograph very well for some reason.

This is a nice long post with knitting accomplishments, future projects, and gardening. If only I could afford to be on "vacation" permanently. Unfortunately, my stash would run out eventually, and I would be restless to travel again.......So back to work tomorrow.

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.

Catching up

I realized now that I never revealed my yarn purchases from my recent trip to Europe. You all have seen my sock yarn that I bought with the needles in Prague, but here are the rest, purchased in a small shop in Volkach, Germany. I was a little disappointed that the shop had only commercial type yarn and no handspun/hand dyed or really unique yarns to fondle. I was glad to see, however, that most of the towns we stopped in for touring at least had a yarn store at all. A big thing in all the shops was yarn for knitting the colors of the favorite soccer teams of the area into scarves. Not being that type of fan, I concentrated on sock yarn! I also wish I had more time to try to chat with the owner, but I had only about 10 minutes between the Wine Tasting and getting back to the bus. Maybe, if I had more wine (or less) things would have gone differently.



On a different note: Last Friday, I entered cell phone HELL when I lost my cell somewhere between the Food Court at the mall and driving home from work. I cleaned out my car, purse, locker, pockets and looked throughout my workplace, to no avail. "Why don't you call your number and see if anyone picks it up??," everyone said. Well, of course, when I had checked my phone for messages, the battery was very low..... so I turned it off while I was at lunch!!!!! It still has not turned up, so I called my provider and transferred my service to Alison's old phone. I had to reenter all my contacts, as well as erase 2 years of hers. But the worst part was the 162 photos she had on her phone, most of which had been taken in the dark at every bar in Kansas City. This had to be done one at a time, which was a real pain.... but mission accomplished. Alison, if you are listening, I did save several of the people I recognized......

To make the cell phone cozy in my possession I made a cover for it which is nearly done. Do you think it looks like a knitted sausage?

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.......

WWKIP Day/ Estes Park Wool Festival

Saturday was WWKIP Day (world-wide knit in public) and it also was the Estes Park Wool Festival. What a happy coincidence to have them both at the same time and finally I found someone to go up with me this year to Estes. Stacy and I have taken a few classes together at A Knitted Peace and have gotten together to knit a few times outside of class. It was a gorgeous Colorado Day with blue skies and crisp air. We arrived early in the morning, just as the shopping was opening. We tried to stay organized and visit each booth, but of course the distractions were everywhere: wool, colors, equipment, ideas! Stacy bought some Rick Rack II from Interlacements to make a shawl like mine....she chose beautiful pastel shades. My goal was to get a new drop spindle or two and roving to practice my hand spinning.

What I bought was a basic spindle, about 1 oz. and another more decorative spindle from Tracy Eichheim (1.5 oz) with hummingbirds. Tracy spent a long time chatting with me about the physics and mechanics of his spindles and it was a great choice. It spins long and steady.

I bought some natural wool/mohair blend roving and then some naturally dyed blue/green roving from a sheep variety that was recommended for beginners: CVM which I think stands for California Variant Mutant! There is a lot of crimp in this fiber and it is pretty easy so far to spin. The basic spindle was probably a mistake as it doesn't spin very long and doesn't seem very well balanced. It might be user error, but I will keep spinning with it to practice..

Lunch was delicious lamb kabob in a tortilla. We had to keep telling ourselves that the wool was really a byproduct of the industry and the primary usage is meat... it was very delicious and a good choice.

I tried on so really cool felted hats by Ruth Walker. This one is called Toque de Ville. Felting seemed to be a big thing at the market. Needle felting and molded felting. That is all I need: another hobby!

Then we went to the Alpaca tent and fell in love.......we were petting both yarn and creatures here and I broke down and bought 4 skeins of natural alpaca wool about 1600 yards. It is soooooooo soft and cloud like. It is somewhere between fingering and sport so I will have to swatch like crazy to see what gauge it is before I pick a pattern. The best part is that we met the Rancher from Stargazer Ranch Alpacas who raised the particular animal who "donated" the fleece for my yarn. How special is that????? My alpaca is named Capella and she did a great job growing her fleece. Stacy also bought some alpaca to make a sweater for her husband in pretty shade of tan.

These are llamas in the above photo. Alpacas are a lot smaller like this:

After we spent to the limit, we walked through the animal tents and visited with sheep, llamas, angora rabbits. It was great visiting with the owners of the animals, because they were so passionate about what they do and their animals.

We drove into Estes for some ice cream and we sat by the stream, eating, knitting and spinning in public.

All in all, a perfect day.