Hello there!

Well, it’s been a while since I posted, but I have good excuses – really!

Memorial Day weekend I went to the Great Lakes Fiber Festival with my friend Becky, who just relocated to Wooster from Chicago. Fiber and Yarn galore! I wisely hit the ATM in the morning and withdrew the maximum I was willing to part with, and left the credit cards home. In the end, I didn’t spend all my money, but I got plenty of fiber to practice spinning with, and some new yarn too. I also convinced Becky to buy a spindle and some fiber. Not that I’m trying to enable her or anything…

Showing off the goodies (all fiber was purchased in 4 oz. lots):

First, a mixed wool, mostly merino blend in natural shades. Primarily a creamy white with thin shots of dark brown throughout. I’m picturing a loosely spun worsted-bulky weight two ply. Warm puffy hat for winter?

Next, a gorgeous Ashland Bay merino/Tussah silk blend. Smooth and shiny, this is drafting like a dream, producing smooth, glossy singles which ply easily into a next-to-skin soft yarn which looks like it will have good drape. My original plan was “no commercially prepped fibers”, but I’ve wanted to try this for a while, and it was nice to see it in person before purchasing. Plus, the price was better than online.

Third, a mix of llama and alpaca from Winding Creek Alpacas. This is cloud soft in the bag. As I tried to spin it though, lots of scratchy hairs are sticking out of the yarn, and the colors are very muddied. The sample skein at the booth seemed much nicer than this. If I try spinning from the fold, I get slightly better results, but I still don’t understand how something so soft can have so many hairs in it.

Lastly, a big 8 oz hank of handpainted pima cotton yarn. I hadn’t planned on buying any cotton. It always seems that the summer is too short for handknit tanks and things, and they get faded so quickly, but at $24 for 595 yds, who can resist? I loved the colors at this vendor’s booth – I will definitely seek her out at future festivals. The yarn is Alpine Petite II, in Twilight. The seller is The Weavers Loft, the product name is Yarns of Distinction. It’s on its way to becoming a simple tank top, with a vine lace border at the bottom and simple wide ribbing in the body. Check out their website – they offer very generous yardage for the price, and I love the colors.

June has been super busy for me with Audrey’s graduation (preschool? Seriously?), three anniversaries, Father’s Day, and Audrey’s dance recital. Now it’s all over and I can relax. Phew… I whipped up “Ellie” for Audrey as a companion to her Webkins elephant. He’s lonely, and Audrey won’t play with him because she a) doesn’t like his “hair” and b) he’s kind of insecure and clingy. Bit of a doofus too, if you ask me. I think he is very sweet though, and could really thrive with a bit of attention.

So that’s my excuse – what’s yours?

It's Mine! All Mine!!

No, really, it was all mine today! Every piece of mail that came today was addressed to me. Real Simple, Chemistry and Engineering News, the Carleton Voice, a statement from my financial advisor, and some junk mail, and best of all....

A big box from Portland. Portland, home of the wonderful homemade toffee mentioned a few weeks ago. Portland, home of ... cement? Is there some connection between Portland cement and Portland, OR? Not sure. And best of all, my SP.

She (and I think I've figured out her real identity, but not quite positive - is it hellahelen?) sent me a box of Mother's Day joy. Gifts for me - yarn, a spa kit, truffles and Sour Patch swedish fish, and Audrey (without whom I would not be celebrating Mother's Day) - a pack of 350 assorted stickers and a bag of Jelly Bellys (her fav). See the pretty yarn and bath gifts? Thank you SP!



Candy is not photographed, as opened bags of candy really aren't very photogenic, are they? After an afternoon of shopping, we fell on the candy like famished vultures. Is there really a recession? 'Cause I swear everybody in the greater Cleveland area was rocketing through the shopping center parking lots like they had just won the lottery today. SLOW DOWN!!!! Especially if you are driving a big invincible SUV. Because when you are trying to back a Honda Civic out from between two monster vehicles, and a third nearly clips you in the rear, it makes you want to mount a rocket launcher on the back of said Civic. Just to give warning that you are backing up, you know?

The yarn was not labeled, but looks like a great sock yarn with which to try out one of the designs in Cookie A's new book, Sock Innovations. I bought it in Rochester a couple of weeks ago, and was trying to decide if any of them would work with the self-striping yarn in my stash, or if I needed to go shopping. Now I don't have to!

I got back from four days in Houston on Thursday, with only 1.5 skeins of my Eastlake yarn consumed (I packed 4, plus a skein of sock yarn). Not sure why I thought I could knit 800 yards in 4 days, but I'm sure the TSA was amused at my suitcase full of yarn and dirty laundry. I'm almost done with the back of Eastlake now - photo next time.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there! Call your Mom!

FO!

I finished the Child's Guernsey and Hat, from the Paton's website, with the intention of reducing the amount of yarn in stash. Except that I bought 2 skeins of Paton's Classic Wool Merino to make the sweater (not pulled it from the stash), thinking if I made a size 3T, I could finish the sweater in 2 skeins, then ran out of yarn just before the end (10 rows left in sleeve 2, and collar), so I had to buy a third skein. So while I did make a nice sweater and hat for charity, the net effect on my stash was 1 mostly full skein ADDED, none subtracted.

It's my first project with Paton's Classic Wool Merino, and probably my last. Just not loving it. And it bled a lot when I washed it.



Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool Merino
Needles: US 5 and 7

I'm cranking along on the child's fair isle sweater, until I got to the sleeves. I discovered I don't own US9 dpn's. Can you believe it? I can't. But, if I own them, I can't find them. Another charity project that ADDS to stash (new needles) instead of reducing. On the other hand, I have enough Lambs Pride to make two of these, so that should do some good towards making more room in my yarn box.

Getting ready to go out of town for a few days, need to pick a good plane project. Hmmm. I just bought Cookie A.'s "Sock Innovation", but I don't think I've got appropriate sock yarn. I could start Eastlake, but I'll need to swatch before I leave, so I bring the right needles. Not sure. I've got til Sunday morning to decide.

Almost done with the Dovetail Sweater! If I can finish the second sleeve before Sunday (and I think I can), that would free up my favorite size 8 needles.
Got to go!

Crafts = crack

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I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that almost all crafts have the potential to addict me like heroin. Or cashmere. Are there any crafts out there with a significant startup fee? One that would prevent the casual user from dipping one’s toes in, then finding themselves sucked into the abyss, never to be seen again? Cause it’s so easy to just pick up one little strand of beads (it’s only $2.99, you know), and a little spool of beading wire (practically free!), okay, and a couple of pliers (cheap ones, but you know you’re going to want to upgrade soon). $36 later, I’m leaving Pat Catan’s crafts and wondering why I thought I could make stitch markers cheaper than I can buy them. Well, okay, if I convert all those beads and all that wire into stitch markers, it will be cheaper/piece than buying them on Etsy. But really, do I need 50 stitch markers? Do I even know 10 people I could give 5 each to? But the beads – so pretty. Must.Buy.More.Pretty.Beads..

And don’t get me started on “making my own greeting cards”. The ones my friend Eva sends look so nice, shouldn’t I try too? Maybe buy a couple of ink stamps to add a little interest? It’s madness I tell you, just madness.

In knitting news, I ran out of yarn just 10 rows before the end of the second sleeve on the Child’s Guersney (also had to do the neckline). Luckily, they still had the dye lot in stock, so I finished the sweater, and made the matching hat. The steeks for the armholes went smoothly, but left a bit thicker ridge of fabric at the armhole seam than I really like. I suppose its because its worsted weight wool. I’ve still got enough wool left over to make another matching hat, and probably mittens too. Hmm. This project was supposed to decrease the yarn in stash, not add to it. I’ve set aside the rest of the skein because I’m tired of the color for now, and picked up the Roasted Coffee Lamb’s Pride to make a basic child’s two-color pullover. Started on US8, frogged and re-made on US9. 5sts/inch is too dense for this yarn.

And a big thank you! to my KnittyMama swap partner for the bag of homemade toffee waiting in my mailbox last night. Yummmm.

Ooooh - black capped chickadee and Carolina Goldfinch at the feeder. Got to go!

I did not eat the green jelly bean

See? I can learn. (scroll down to the May 5, 2007 entry). I actually think there is too much candy in the house right now. I can't believe I am saying that.

I spent last month working on Early Spring socks; my knitting group picked a Spring KAL for "any socks with "spring" in the pattern name.

Pattern: Early Spring
Designer: Janice Kang, for Crystal Palace Yarn
Yarn: Collinette Jitterbug, "Elephant's Daydream"
Needles: US 1
Mods: none

I spun:

and


The brown is some wonderful natural color fine wool top from Nistock Farms in color "Maple Walnut". The second is merino roving from Iheartfelt.com, a gift from highlanddancemom03 (Sarah R), who sent me this lovely pink fluffyness during the Knitty '07 summer SP round. I've been saving it until I felt I could spin a little finer than I have in the past. Not quite laceweight - more like a light fingering weight. A little underplied, but not too bad. I'm pretty happy with it - 147 yds from the ounce!

Spring knitting? I decided to take a serious stab at my stash. I'm going to convert as much of my "charity" stash to actual FO's for charity as possible. This would be all the 400 - 800 yd lots of worsted wool I've picked up over the years. First: the knitted guernsey pullover from Better Homes and Gardens in Paton's Classic Merino Wool (burgundy). I altered the pattern to work completely in the round, to the shoulders (steeked sleeves), and I am cranking! Entire body finished in one week, and sleeves should be finished by week 2. Next up: a fair isle pullover with Lamb's Pride.

DH is out of town again this week - what will break now? Anyone want to guess?

Another business trip, another crisis

Well, not quite a crisis, it’s just a headlight bulb on my car burned out. Of course, it’s also been temperatures in the mid-teens here, so just a leeetle too cold to go mucking around in the garage replacing it. DH is in Vermont this week, of course. Has anyone else noticed the correlation between how far away he travels and the size of the challenges on the home front?

Singapore trip #1 – record breaking snowfall
Singapore trip #2 – broken sump pump
Vermont – car headlight down

In happier events, Audrey had her first “Level 1” swim class last night. No parents! She was really nervous about it yesterday morning (after counting down the days to class since January), but once she got there, she was fine. Very well staffed class – 8 students, 3 teachers, and 1 lifeguard dedicated to the class. He sat in a deck chair right behind the students the whole time. There’s the usual collection of lifeguards in the high chairs by each pool area, but this class (the only class of not-yet-swimmers) gets its own guard. Looked like she had a great time. I got to sit on the side and watch. Next week I will remember to put on a lighter shirt before going over – it’s around 84F and humid on the poolside – that cabled sweater was a bit uncomfortable. And that was cotton!

I finished up the Morning Surf scarf with my handspun – looky! Unfortunately, overspun and a bit itchy. It will look good on the outside of my coat though. I’m proud of it anyway.



Those of you who saw it on my Ravelry page see I’ve named it my “Won’t make a monkey out of me” scarf. Why such a long name for such a simple scarf? Well, here’s the story. About two years ago, in the summer of 2007, I participated in a Knitty Secret Pal swap. It was a three-month swap, and as I am typically very busy, I did all my shopping up front as soon as I got my downstream pal’s info sheet. There’s a $20/month suggested minimum for these swaps, but typically I think people send more generously. I know my upstream pals have always been quite generous to me, and I like to pass it forward. Among the things I bought was the CTH merino roving. It came in a 8 oz bag, $25. I also bought a $16 candle in her favorite scent (most expensive candle I’ve ever bought, and went to 3 stores to find it), along with yarn, candies, etc, etc. Enough to more than fill her three boxes. First box goes out (can’t remember what was in it). Weeks go by, I’m nervous it’s lost in the mail. Downstream hasn’t replied to any of my chatty getting-to-know-you emails. Finally I ask point blank if she got the box. Oh yeah, she did, thanks. As month two nears the end, still like pulling teeth to get any communication with this woman. I’m kind of thinking I would rather just cut her a $40 check for the remainder of the swap and be done with it. Isn’t the whole point of the swap not just to get stuff, but to make a new friend? I’m not so enthusiastic about sending that whole bag of roving now. Sure, it would fulfill the minimum for the month, but I can’t send just one item. And by the time I fill up the box, I’ll be way over what I want to send her. So I split the roving in half, and kept 4 oz. for myself.

About 6 months later, my downstream swap partner died of a chronic illness.
About 1.5 years after that, she rose from the dead. With a new username. Turns out she wasn’t so dead after all.

I don’t feel so bad about keeping that roving anymore. And the candle smelled delicious too.

I just want one peaceful night

The last couple days, I have good intentions of a happy, chatty blogpost. But by the time I get on the computer, the evening has gone downhill and I just can't be bothered.

DD seems to be reaching the end of her patience with Daddy's absence - another endless bedtime ending in tears. Need to go shopping, but when? Such a pain to go after work, pushes dinner too late, risk of preschool breakdown. Will do it tomorrow; we'll go out to dinner, then the grocery store. If I'm smart I'll write a list.

Then today, a letter from my credit card - they are raising my rate from 9.9% to 17.9%. Ummm, why? "Due to extraordinary changes in the economic environment, we're reviewing our existing credit card accounts" (makes sense. Dump the bad customers. Okay, I'm with you.) "Having considered these economic conditions, your account's current purchase rate (9.9%), and the length of time you have had this rate and account (over 10 years, if I remember correctly), we will be increasing [all your rates]" Huh? I've never had a late payment, and pay in full always. Maybe once a year, I let a couple hundred slide over to the next month, then pay it all in full, plus extra so I don't have rolling finance fees. So the best I can figure is I'm not creating enough revenue for them, so they better raise my rates. Or maybe I'll just cancel your card, idiots.

What a hassle.

Breathe in breathe out. Think calming thoughts. Fiber

With the spinning I was doing this week, I had a flash of insight. Ravelry! I could use advanced search to find out what other people do small amounts of handspun. I knew I had ~230 yds of the Watercolors merino I spun up in 2007, enough for a nice scarf. Search scarf, handspun.....voila! Morning Surf scarf by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer. Perfect!