An Everyday Fiber Obsession

I've Moved! Come See me on Wordpress!

2008-03-21T17:53:00.001-07:00

I have been having more and more problems with this site. Not loading photos, not saving drafts, etc. etc. In any event, this is a test and if I get absolutely no responses then I will come back to Blogger, but I really hope you all do follow me over here:

An Everyday Fiber Obsession

or if you prefer to cut and paste:

http://junepot.wordpress.com/

Knitting Woes and Crochet Foray Continues

2008-03-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

Last week I mentioned that I ran into a snag with Caryn's gloves, but that I had also started over with the fingers. Yeah, well, I got that pinky all finished and had her try them on and yup, all was well with Annemor and I could start the ring finger. Well, right. I pick up the glove and lo and behold, the stitching came out for the weave in on the tip of the finger! Good Grief! Then the doubt began, maybe I am not able to make these dadgum gloves. I've made a glove before, I say to myself, but I did it using the I-Cord finger start and then picking up the hand. Maybe I needed to start over? Shoot, I hate that thought.

So, I go to work and tell my woes to my friend Karen and well, she has this miracle needle that might help my whole problem. Look:

See, I was having trouble getting that final loop through the last six stitches tied in neatly and finished off on the inside of the finger. This weaving needle, let me pull the finger inside out to accomplish all of that. So, now I am seriously looking for one of these babies to add to my knitting accessories! So, I am on my way again. . .

The join between the fingers is pretty crappy, and the more I do these, the harder they seem to be. I think this pair may be the ultimate test, and I will have to get all the kinks out to try these again. See the back?

See how bad that join is? Gahhh! Ok, so gloves are difficult to say the least, eh!!!? Maybe I'll do this pair and stick to mittens! lol! No, if you know me at all, I won't let this end here.

So, in the meantime I got some of Elann's Peruvian Highland sport wool to go with the sock yarn for Babette. I know I had all that sock yarn, but seriously, I can't put it together and have some squares in flimsy wool and others in nice substantial wool. So, I got this:
One of each with a couple of doubles. This wool is turning into this:

and this:

I am 100% happier with this now. I will probably, end up making it all out of this yarn, and pick up some more STR in the middle, to make a STR Babette. Maybe. It wasn't a total loss, I got all that sock wool rolled into balls! So, I guess I can crochet somewhat, but I don't think I can be classified as a hooker yet!

A Foray into Crochet

2008-03-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

I think I have told you all, in prior posts, that I think at times I have ADD - and you know, sometimes, I'm not sure if I am kidding or not!!

So let me tell ya a story. Here I am drinkin' my coffee and perusing Ravelry, when what do I discover? Well, that I had made my fingers wrong on Caryn's gloves! Dork!! I'm a Dork! I'm a dork, dork, dork!!!! There is no quicker way for me to put a project down than to discover an error. So, I put Annemor aside. (just for the day, don't worry, I will finish them, I already ripped and started over). Dadgummit!

So, now what can I work on??? Hhhmmnn, let's see, what I can come up with now. Oh! I know! Another item I have been actively looking at on Ravelry is afghans. (Due to Goblin Eyes and Purple yarn I just made.) And in my attempts to find the perfect afghan, I found Babette. OMG! All the colors!! I love color! Oh, oh, oh , but gosh. . . can I crochet that???? I'm not really a hooker, I just pretend to do some crochet. But, hey, I can try right?

And off I go . . . Into the stash this time, because Lord knows I have lots of fingering weight yarn, sorry it's blurry:
I was all alone on Friday, due to Chris and Caryn going over to Lexington (in the snow, no less). So I had me a good ole' time pulling everything out and making up color combinations. But this is what I ended up with:

And here are my attempts at this hooking thing:

Nope, I'm not too good at it. It looks to me like your row isn't necessarily at the end of the square, right? And I always seem to end up with stitches that seem to be not worked. Well, I will have to do this with my good friend Karen at my side, as you can see, she can hook:

This is a comparison of yarns,

the darker blues are STR and the White is Lisa Souza Sock Merino! Well, I like LS don't get me wrong, but what the heck? The STR seems so much more dense, and more "afghan" like. The STR is bigger (maybe a quarter of an inch) Now, I don't know what to do. . .

I have two Merino Sock! in the line up, but I think they may have to be replaced. What do you think?

The Spin goes on, Yada, Yada Yeah

2008-03-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

Well, as predicted this was a week from Hades, but I have survived with help from my good friend, and co-worker, Karen. Thanks so much for all your help, girl friend! Three hours in on Saturday finished up the torture and now I hope it is clear sailing for a month. We got a good audit report in the end, so I guess that is all that really matters in the end.

So, in case your wondering about my over dying experience on Monday here is the result, although, I did change my mind at the last second and used turquoise instead of black to darken up that purple skein in the post below, (please scroll down just a bit!) and this is the result:

It's not real striking looking at it by itself, actually, but when I put it with the Goblin, it really looks like I know what I'm doing! lol So, what do you all think?

I am now leaning towards the mitered afghan from the Mason Dixon Knitting fame to work up this yarn. I plan to roll the yarn this afternoon and start on it tonight, probably. I am trying something different with the pictures, although I am not looking entirely successful, but I guess I'll let it go.

One more thing going in the wings right now (well, other than the Kai, which I did get my yarn for, thank you Karen, from Two Swans Yarns!) is the gloves:

One pinky done twice as the first one was kinda tight, even for my bitty pinky, so I ripped it out and started again. Then Monday rolled around and you know the rest from there.

Chris and Caryn go off to UK to sign her up for classes next semester, and to pick up Bryan, he will start his Spring Break on Friday. Next year, they will have a car and can come and go as they please, which will please us to no end. Getting them both up there at the same time will be a problem tho! Well, off to the shower for me, I hope you all have a great week!

Please don't be shy about comments, I really love to hear from people, so I know this is actually worth the effort! :)

Spinning up a Storm!

2008-02-24T06:45:00.000-08:00

You know, this week I finished up the purple Romney! Actually, I finished it up last Sunday, but after my post so, here it is now:
The color goes pretty well with the Goblin Eyes, I think I have decided to start a free form couch throw and what ever I am not too sure about will go into it -I am kinda anal tho, and it will all have to match somewhat. I'm not that creative as you can see from the new quiz in the sidebar. It must be the accountant in me!

Here is the skein itself, I still plan to overdye with some black. I am planning a mental health day on Monday so I will try it then I think. Work has been a bitch lately, and I really need a few hours (days, weeks, months) to myself. I'm sick and tired of working for people who say they don't understand the language, or say they don't understand accounting. WTF? How did you get to be the COO then? Stupid man. I'm still dreaming of that yarn shop, when and if we ever find out about Caryn's scholarships for this upcoming year, then I will know what to do.

I got a deal on Spin Sales this week too, lookey, lookey! Well, maybe it wasn't the deal of the century, but I'm happy with it! As you probably know, Rick Reeves no longer makes any wheels. This frame wheel took me a few nights to get together and then a day to get my treadling down. It's really different from the other wheels I have, because it's a single treadle? I'm not entirely sure if that is the reason, or if RR made it function this way - heel toe, heel toe and a really, really short draw up distance!!

But, I am getting it and this is the result so far:

That picture is kinda dark, the color is a rich red coral by fiber monster on etsy.com. It practically spins itself! It shows up better in the picture above. I think maybe it will go with the goblin and purple I've got going -hmmmn? Have to think about that. . .

Have a good week everyone - I know I won't due to the work factor - auditor's plus month end. Yah, that works doesn't it? Insert Expletive here: "!"

So, What's up this week?

2008-02-17T06:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess lots of stuff! I am still in my finishing mode, and I found out this week that I will most definitely run out of one color for my Kai Cardigan. So, I ordered another skein from Karen, at Two Swans Yarns, but haven't heard anything at all from her site, or her. I think this is a sign that she has been swept away by the Madrona experience going on up there! I know she is a great vendor, so, I will wait. But, you know don't you that patience is not my #1 virtue right?

Here is a shot of the sleeve in progress:

I got six of these from my sweetie for Valentines Day:

They are so perfect, what I mean is that they are opening perfectly and they are so, so fragrant! Oh man! I love 'em, but really, I keep telling Chris, just one! I only need you to send me one!

And Caryn and I went prom dress shopping yesterday, and found the most perfect dress for her. Her date is 6' plus, and she is a bit nervous about that, so we got some sandals with heels for her too! D-A me, I forgot the camera, so I have no pictures to share, but suffice it to say, she is perfect in purple!

Speaking of purple, here are the finished purple romney bobbins:

And still in finishing mode, I am working on these still, slowly, as I was trying to make Kai the #1 project at this house, (until I ran out of yarn that is!) . . .

These are really fun, I am now working on glove #2 and will do all the fingers at the same time. That way, hopefully, everything will be even and the same size!

And you know, we had a little snow this week so Caryn got this great shot of Blazer:

Have a good week, everybody!

It's All about the Eyes. . .

2008-02-10T05:52:00.000-08:00

That would be the eyes of the storms that missed us this past week, but wreaked havoc in the State below us. I personally live two miles north of Tennessee, and the tornadoes that ran though last Tuesday night were not personally devastating, but they were definitely personally memorable, as Caryn and I were alone with the doggies and quite scared to go to bed!

Got my eyes checked on Monday evening and have a new prescription, yeah! Maybe this will help with the constant headaches. Yesterday, I had to have the dilation of the eyes so the Dr. could see the optic nerve. All is well there, but it was finally a bright sunny day, and I ended up with a headache all day that wouldn't go away.

First off, I must apologize for the size of these pictures! I am still not moving at normal speed, I don't think!

I tried to do some Navajo plying, where I normally sit to spin, and nope, that wasn't workin'! So, I moved onto the carpet, and then I couldn't see the yarn coming off the bobbin:

Ok, so try looking at it this way:

But, now you must imagine that your eyes are not entirely seeing this against that carpeting! Ok, well, I managed to move off the carpet and onto the hardwood flooring and then managed to do this:

I really liked the color of that shirt underneath the skein, and thought I would be able to crop it out, but, well, I guess I wasn't seeing things very well yesterday. Here is another shot:

Considering how bad I felt, I don't think I did that bad a job with it, I do think it is over plied, but after I soaked it I whacked it and snapped it pretty good, and it all seems to be ok today.

I plan to do the second bobbin today. This skein above was 4 oz. of Goblin Eyes from Spunky Eclectic's Fiber Club, and I got 149 yards from it. I have another full bobbin to do, so then it will be the uuummmhh, what do I do with 300 yards of this? Hhhhmmn? I will probably do some fingerless gloves or maybe some mittens.

So, Chris took me to the metropolis of Bowling Green last night, and I found some glasses I really like. Have to go back on Monday to get them all worked up as we got there late, and the place needed to call the insurance to even work them up! I plan on two pairs this year, as I need a pair of sunglasses too. Well, that's it from my corner of the world, so I leave you with a Happy Valentine's Day and Big

From Me!

Birthdays, Kai Progress, and Football!

2008-02-03T06:17:00.001-08:00

You know, we all have to have 'um. Yup another birthday for me this past Friday. . . but, it was great! Went to lunch with the work buds, and got presents from a special work bud, thanks Karen! Looky what Karen did just for me:

Please ignore the shopping list, Karen had absolutely nothin' to do with that! Good Grief! Anyway, isn't that bag simply awesome and I plan to make either stitch markers or just add to my key ring with those great charms!

Caryn, my dd, got me a journal and my favorite movie! Yeah, I'm just a kid at heart -

And Chris got me this great work station so I can use my combs and drum carder any darn time I want to! It folds up flat and it will hold up to 450 pounds! Pretty cool huh?

We had Coldstone Creamery cake and we went to The Bistro for dinner last night, so all in all it was really great. I heard from everyone, and that is what really does it for me, it's not the presents and food it's just that the people I love remember me on my special day.

Ok, enough and on to knitting! Here is the progress on Kai, here is a close up of a three needle bind off on one shoulder, I have, of course, done both shoulders!

After doing this you end up with a sack:

Look at that front steek! Holy crap all those ends! But you don't have to weave them in unless you want to! They will just be rolled up in the front edging if you feel lazy, and besides that, I always machine stitch my cut steeks and a lot of them get sewn down to boot. So, after all that it's time to cut, and I only cut what I am working on, so just one at a time, here is an armhole after cutting and sewing an armhole steek:

Looks pretty ugly doesn't it?

Well here it is with stitches:

It calls for 160 stitches, but I am thinkin' that's a lot! I need to look up my sunset cardigan and see what it called for and reconfigure for this pattern.

Ahh, football knitting! I know the Pats will win, but I always root for the underdog, so Go Giants!, just make it a good game!

Two Steps Forward . . .

2008-01-27T06:15:00.000-08:00

And I'm not going backwards, for once . . .

I thought I would show you what that purple roving looked like after I put it through the drum carder. I only gave it one pass as it wasn't horribly felted. I just knew that trying to spin it straight from the roving would have made me a little stressed, and let me tell ya, that is not the point of spinning! So here is one shot, and I just want to say that I know it is not the best shot. As you can see there is an open cupboard door in the background, on the bottom left, well behind that I had three more open. . . and there was all the stuff from bringing in the groceries. . . so, this is the best I have, Gheez!

And a little closer:

Chris said it looks like it multiplied! That was funny, as it did appear to do that, I guess that's what a little bit of air does for you. It's been fun to spin up, but now I have decided to overdye this with just a hint of black and see what that gives me. I will definitely overdye the plied yarn. And after all this work, I have ultimately decided to Navajo ply the Goblin bobbins and use this as an accent to Goblin. So you ask, "what are you making?" Well, Uhhh, I dunno! Do you spin to knit or knit to spin? That is the question . . .

Anyway, here is a spinning progress shot:

I think that one is actually a little closer to the true color, it's really tough to get good shots in the cold gray gloom around here.

On the knitting front, I have made some progress on my Kai Cardigan, I put a pin in from the last point that I think I showed you. Don't you just love that motif? I know I do!

Have you ever noticed that when you are working on size 3 needles, it takes freakin' forever to get 10 inches done? Especially when doing three rows a night is a big deal during the week! Well, it's coming along, and I only lack about an inch and a half now. . . then the neck bind off and I can cut the armhole steeks and start the sleeves. I was hoping to get there this weekend, but I am obviously a slow knitter. Here it is all laid out with the armhole steek right up front and center!

This color shot is pretty good too! It is definitely pretty, I just want to be done!

Forays With the Dye Pot

2008-01-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

So, do you all remember my dilemma with the bobbins of Goblin Eyes?

Do I want to ply the two bobbins together? Do I want to Navajo ply? Do I want to ply from a ball? So what do I decide to do? I always hem and haw, do I want to spin the fiber then dye or dye and spin the fiber?? See all this procrastinating going on? And the bobbins are still not plyed! lol,

All rightly then, I decided to dye up some roving dying yesterday! I think, that a really deep purple would look fabulous with Goblin and, well, I have lots of Romney roving (I love Melissa from Skylines Farms) so I will dye up roving! This roving from a ewe named Peggy Sue in the following experiment.

One messy kitchen counter! Note the note pad so I can recreate this again, although I'm not sure this is exactly what I was going for! Here is one dyepot with 8 oz of roving, at this point I am thrilled and thinking I got exactly what I had planned, well, not quite eggplant color, but a really deep purple anyway!

All right, so lets lift it out of the dyepot, after 30 minutes of simmering:

Well, %$#@^&*! What, what, what is this?? Fuchia and blue-purple?? Apparantly the dyes need to be pureed together or the dye paste needed further mixing or something I don't know what! This is quite a bummer I must say!

Here it is drying on the clothes rack:

I am planning to put it through the carder this morning before spinning to try to homogenize the colors a bit. It wasn't a total failure, I think it will go well with the Goblin Eyes, look here:

Boredom Sets In with the old WIPs

2008-01-13T05:52:00.000-08:00

I have been just having a heck of a time getting excited about what is on the needles. Maybe it is my New Year's Resolution of "Thou must finish one of your WIPs before Thou starts a new Project." I was trying to do this with Spinning fiber and Knitting objects, but apparently that is just too darn hard for this gal.

I did get Colette plied up (276 yards in this skein) and here she sits on the jumbo bobbin and with Georgia and Painted Desert:

So that is looking good for the Mill Pond jacket I want to make by Ron Schweitzer. Remember that I need five colors and it looks like these are going to be three of them, however, I am not 100% sure about the Painted Desert staying in the mix since the last skein I set the twist on still bled, and I don't want all my hard fair isle work to go to waste. . . I will try one more time to set the color and if that doesn't work, I will have to try Plan B. Plan B includes more pinks being spun up from another source!

So since I reasoned that I did finish the two bobbins of Colette, (let's not mention that the basket still holds a lot of her fiber, tho) and I got two new bobbins in the mail this week, I started this fiber called Blackberry by Loop:
I think I have dyed and gone to heaven! This is some amazing stuff, made out of alpaca and bamboo and the smallest bit of glitz! I am aiming for mittens for some recipient for next year's Christmas gift. The stats are that I am getting approximately 28 wpi and all in all I think I'm in love! I personally think she is a bit pricey, ($15 for 3 oz) but the ease of spinning this has made up for it in spades! Caryn took this picture with her new camera, but I have decided that getting a good shot of wpi is just about impossible!

And here is the bobbin getting started, I think I got interrupted about a bazillion times, so this was it yesterday. I did use the method that Vicki showed us way back in April 2007 to start the leader on this new bobbin. It works really well and I highly recommend it!

Hope you all are not experiencing the avoidance problems I am with your knitting and you all have a great week!

A disjointed tale follows, be warned!

2008-01-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

It got me! The creepin' crud that was going around the office just before we left for our Holidays got me. Unfortunately, I wasn't worth the words on this page last week. But all my work was due to the Corporate Office, so, I went to work. Finally took half a day on Friday, and yeah I went home and slept. . . and slept.

But ya know. . . .

Caryn's birthday was yesterday!!! She turned the big 18! OH WOW! No more kiddos at this house and that's the truth. So, here's the Birthday girl and her doggy:

Jake is everybody's dog, he's not picky, and we all love him to pieces. Bailey on the other hand is partial to Caryn and Chris. So, there you go.

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, since we can never seem to time it right to get there for dinner without a 2 hour wait. We brought the family, and her best friend, Whittney. She got a fabulous camera (Sony W-55) for her present, and more ice cream cake for dinner - Lord, we were so full! I think sometimes she still feels like it should be more of a party, but how do you do that? Well, in the end, I think she had a good birthday.

Bryan goes back to UK today, and it's been told that Caryn has decided she wants to go to UK next year. So, Mama will need to work for at least a year and a half I think to keep them both there for the next year and a half! Who wants to retire anyway? Naw- I really don't want to retire, I just want to do something a little more fun than spend 9-10 hours a day looking at numbers for people that don't understand numbers! Maybe a fiber shop? With yarn? Well, you know I did get my back room cleaned up which starts all these thoughts -

Ok, enough dreaming! You know, when I'm sick, I spin. . . here is one 4oz bump of Goblin Eyes:
And here is another:

These came out so very differently, that I think I have no choice but to ply from the ball - arrgh! So, you should see that next week. . .

Mama is still feeling funky, so Nitro says Bye till next week! (Oh what a gorgeous cat!)

Sharing Part Two!

2007-12-30T05:59:00.000-08:00

So, what did you do with your Christmas vacation, June? Well, I finished up Caryn's Charm Wrap for one! Yeah! It's done and it has been worn everynight since I gave it to her! Can you believe it?
She wasn't feeling that great, and wouldn't let me take pictures of her face, so please excuse the cut offs! And she did want the sleeves that long too!

Showing Daddy:
I'm glad that one is behind me! It was a relatively easy knit, but stockinette is not really my style! Snoooze ville every time I picked it up! lol! I also made Chris a new hat for Christmas, but never got pictures of it! Gray/Black in Quebecoise wool from Schoolhouse Press, and he likes it!

So, I'm also trying to finish up with the Kai Cardigan too! Please ignore the background! When we have driving rain, we have problems with our back door, therefore the soak up towels go down on the floor, and I didn't see them until I looked at this on the computer!

Anyway, I've only got about three inches left and then I start the sleeves. I am really glad that I will have that star motif in there one more time, plus it will be up in the upper body and will be that much more noticeable, it will be one of the first motifs on the sleeves too. I really am tempted to design my own next time!

The other item I did was to start some Christmas knitting for next year! So here are some glove cuffs from Terri Shea's 'Selbuvotter' book. Now that I have had time to really look at this book, and I thank RoLynn for this as she wants a pair of Norwegian mittens for her PIF gift, I think I want to make them all! But here is the beginnings of Annemore #11 for Caryn:
That shot was taken yesterday when we had some great sunlight streaming in the living room, this next shot was taken this morning in the gray overcast light:

I am obviously not doing these in the traditional black and white, but in Caryn's favorite colors instead. This is Lorna's Laces in Ice House and Knitpicks bare merino. I am also going to make some sort of effort to reduce some of my stash this year too! Both of these come from the back room! You can see, I decided to do both at once, sort of, I'll complete one to the knuckles, then finish the other, then the fingers of one, then the other. We'll see how this works out!

So, this is the end of the vacation, but the Christmas tree is down and put up for another year, and so Yeah! We all made it, and that's saying something too, now isn't it?! Next weekend is Caryn's 18th birthday and once that is behind us it's clear sailing until Spring!

Too Many things to Share!

2007-12-29T08:38:00.001-08:00

You know, when a person doesn't have to take eight hours (well, that's being nice, it's 10 in reality isn't it with the drive to and from) out of every day to work, well a lot can be accomplished! So, this weekend will have two posts, one for spinning and miscellaneous (which is today's post) and tomorrow will update you on the knitting front. M'Kay??

So Santa was cool and did bring my laceweight flyer for the Rose wheel! And look what I can do with it:
Are those colors to dye for or what? This was from Black bunny Fibers - one of my favorite dyers out there! I noticed when you open this picture you can see that I have tried to use a washer to reduce the noise from the bobbin movement clacking against the shaft thingy, it kind of works, but it is no where near where my Tina II is in the quiet department. Anyone have any ideas on this? All of my bobbins for the Rose do this and it makes me crazy!!!

Anyway, another Favorite is dyer of mine is Spunky Eclectic and I'm on her monthly fiber club and I am constantly behind, but, here is Goblin, from October:

These are both a lot of fun to spin, Goblin is Romney and Pinks is Corriedale. I have no idea what they will become. I was originally going to use the pink corriedale for the mittens for RoLynn's PIF but I decided in the end that it was really screaming pink and I don't think that is what she would like, so I looked and looked, but I wasn't happy with anything I found.

So, what's a girl to do? Well, I could dye it myself! So here is that experiment:

Well, that looks pretty unexciting doesn't it? But look! All the dye exhausted and everything! Well, let me tell ya, that what it looks like out of the pot is awesome:

So, as you can see I have been having a blast this week, I only wish I could afford to do this on a full time basis. . . soon, maybe.

On another note, look what happens when you start cleaning up, I started these in 1996 when I was totally into needlework, and all that needed finishing was the top to be sewn closed. Good Lord, what is my problem? Ok, so here is Bryan's:

And now Caryn's:
Guess I will put those away this year. I still think they are pretty cool.

Merry Christmas from Chez Potere

2007-12-23T06:55:00.000-08:00

Not much time left, so here are some more of my Santa Ornaments:

Caryn's Favorite:

I'm not entirely sure what this one is made of, it may be sea shell, but who really
knows?

And from and old, old pop-up book and from our hearts:

This is the beginning of the end -

2007-12-16T06:02:00.000-08:00

For Charmed that is! I have completed all the knitting, and I am now blocking this baby to size and I think Caryn is thrilled with it so far! She calls it the most beautimus sweater there is -

<

I am wet blocking this one as, there is acrylic content in Wool Ease, and I wouldn't want to melt it at this stage of the game! Lord! You would hear the screaming at your house, no matter where you live.
And here is one final shot of the lace:

I am planning on another shot (final) of this with Miss Caryn wearing her "most beautimus" sweater, but that will most definitely be next week. Wet blocking takes a long time to dry, don'tcha know.

My Pay It Forward Roster is now full! Yeah! That makes me so happy! I have RoLynn on the list, and she would like some mittens in the Selbuvotter tradition. Although, we are going to be a little different with the color scheme, and they must have stars on them, and the stars must be gray. I am really excited about starting these, I just have to find the right combination of yarns!

My second recipient is Miss Ashley, RoLynn's daughter - she is so fun! Go check out their blogs - when your done here of course. Miss Ashley wants a Koolhaas Hat a la Jared style. In purple. I have to admit, this is one cool hat, but the circumference seems a tad small if you ask me - 16" ?? Huh? Is this a really tight hat? Or do I make it bigger? Hhhmm - questions that need to be asked I guess.

My third recipient is Miss Erika now, we haven't had a lot of time to talk since she is moving and playing with this guy at the moment:

So, we will catch up when she has a little more breathing room!

Bryan is home from UK and I now have the his Christmas wish list. Now to find the items on it! Well, I have a few days, I just can't do any on line ordering which is my forte! I love to have the whole family here - and I think that is the best part of Christmas.

Ok, one more shot of the Santa's from my tree:

Ok, I lied here's another one:

He is a snowglobe - isn't that cool?

Thoughts about PIF and the Holidays -

2007-12-09T06:42:00.001-08:00

Hi guys! Well, the response to my Pay It Forward was underwhelming to say the least. I have one person, RoLynn, who is going to participate with me, but I still have two openings left!

So, what does that mean? I can't knit or spin worth a flip and no one wants my handmade gifts? In my heart, I don't feel that way, so please say it ain't so - Joe! Or is everyone too busy to respond? Has Ravelry completely taken away all of the fun of blogging? I love Ravelry, but it's sad that this forum seems to be lagging now. I know, I know, there is only so much computer time (or there should be) but, it's still sad.

With all of that being said I will leave those two spots open until they are filled, if and when anyone else wants to participate in making other knitters/spinners/crocheters happy in their own way in the future.

On the knitting spinning front here at Chez Potere, all I can say is this guy:is seriously getting in my way of my leisurely pursuits! We did a lot of shopping yesterday, and then put up the tree. That Santa above is my absolute favorite ornament. I have my tree complete in Santa's and angels now, since we have moved to a smaller tree. Here are a couple more of my favorites:
I got this one in work exchange years, and years ago! And now to see the complete opposite version:
Isn't he fun?! I may have shown you guys this before, but here are Caryn and Bryan's stockings: One Angel:and one Santa:to prove to you that I have been knitting here are Caryn's sleeves:
I do believe the sweater will be finished next week! Yeah!

Paying It Forward

2007-12-02T06:01:00.000-08:00

I found this on Jen's blog, and decided this is a really cool idea for the upcoming new year!

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

I know that there are a lot of you guys that read my blog, that don't have a blog because for some reason or another it is not something you want to do, this would be a great opportunity to go out there on blogger to start a blog. Believe me when I say that this is not all that hard, and if you only want to post one time a month you can do that too!

I know you all know that I love to knit, and spin. Depending on who signs up, I can see lots of great gift ideas in the next year. And let's face it, who doesn't love to receive a random, handmade gift? So leave me a comment if you would like to receive a suprise within the next year, and if you are willing to pay it forward.

Here is a taste of some of my spinning right now, this fiber is from Kid Hollow Farm in Virginia, and she doesn't sell directly from her site, per se, but I think the extra effort to get this fiber is worth it!
I am getting 41 wraps per inch, and let me tell you spinning from the fold is hard for me! I think I need some lessons, RoLynn? Ashley? Help?!

It doesn't look the same here now does it? I'm hoping navajo plying will bring the colors back!

I think that's it from this blogger I hope to be hearing from some of you soon!

Beginnings, Middles, and Ends -

2007-11-25T06:45:00.000-08:00

Yeah, but I am going to start with the ends first - or in other words Finished Objects! Holy Cow! This is June typing here. . . anyway I got a couple of things finished, not big things, but every knitted object counts, right?!

Here we have two pairs of Fetching's - I was mistakenly calling them Knucks, which is another pattern all together -Doh! to me.

I really, really like this pattern, it's a really fast knit (one in an afternoon) but, I think the first pair, the red ones, are quite short. Which is good for typing and working, but for reading or just hanging out as my Mom does I thought they would be too short. So it was a ripping party again at chez June's . I added more rows after the knuckle cable (6 all together) then another cable and four more rows to bring them up to the first knuckle on your (Caryn's) hand. Caryn and Mom have approximately same hand. Here is another shot, using our hands as models. I'm sure you know, but my hands are the short stubby fingers and Caryn has the nice long fingers here!
Now we come to the middle, and everybody scream with me!

Dang it! One inch forward and three inches back is the way this sweater goes:
Can we all say rip?! This is the way I put in lifelines I guess. . . I use a much, much, much smaller needle then rip away:

And now you can see that yes, I did put it in straight on that row. The initial problem was that I was supposed to decrease on the neck edge and increase on the side edge. Well, I decreased on both as we were watching a movie, and I wasn't paying attention! Yah, simple stockinette, no problem. . . ?? You think? Ok, so I am now up to the armhole, but I got bored and wanted to start this before I have to go back to work tomorrow (gag me!):

Starting is the hardest part on these, don'tcha know! So, look at that center - see how big the circle is? It's huge! This one starts with a cast on of 24 stitches. It's crazy, but here it is:
Size 20 Manuella thread on size 2.0mm needles, up to row 9 - this is a Christmas present (or maybe birthday) for next year for my sister! I am debating on going down to 1.75 mm but, haven't decided yet. I'm thinking it looks ok, and I may just continue -

Hope you all had a Happy Turkey Day, can we say no more Turkey left at chez June's!? Yeah, three meals in a row and it's all gone! Well, I make Turkey pie for the last hurrah, and it's a great way to end it!

Blue Man Group Rocks!

2007-11-18T07:02:00.000-08:00

Caryn talked me into buying tickets to see The Blue Man Group at the Sommet Center in Nashville. I have to say that I was skeptical that I would like this, you know, I'm kinda getting older, but in fact it was a blast! We went into downtown Nashville and walked Broadway for twenty minutes looking for a reputable restaurant to have dinner.

We followed a couple of hookers (and not the crocheting kind) for four blocks until we ducked into a Bar & Grill that we walked straight through and out to the alley way back to the street! Ok, so off we go, back on the other side of the street and twenty minutes later, we finally went into Merchants Restaurant (which is the first one we came to out of the parking garage, I might add). The food was fabulous, and the desert even better! (Chocolate chip bread pudding, OMG Yum!) Ok now we are on our way back up the street to the Sommet Center - we had crappy seats, because dear ole' Mom didn't understand the seating chart, and there were some very old people (I mean older than me) sitting next to Caryn that were definitely not into loud rock music, (What the heck were they doing there???) but, we still had a great time! Rock on!! Caryn most definitely gets me out of my box, and I thank God everyday that she is in my life.

So, since I am on a kid roll here look at the pictures both Bryan (on top) and Caryn have done in their senior year in High School Art with charcoal:
They get all their talent from their Daddy-O. The doggy in the picture is our Holley dog, our first dog, and a Golden Retriever in her last months with us.

Tuesday, Chris and Caryn are going to UK for a school tour and to pick up Bryan for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. Yeah! Bryan is coming home! It has been decided that I will stay home with the animals since it is an all day affair, and therefore, we won't be coming home to a mess. They do fine during a normal day away - 10 hours or so, but we haven't ever done more that that, so, since I am cooking for Thursday dinner, I will stay. Look at what I am planning on as one of our deserts:
This is definitely another thing out of my box, usually I only have pumpkin pie -

Ok, since this is a fiber blog, lookey what I am trying to spin into lace weight yarn for the upcoming Spring Shawl Surprice starting in January.

I have been really really trying to spin from the fold, I am not doing that well with it, but I will keep trying! I think I am going to start over and work on the Jensen, since I have the lace flyer for that wheel, it's just that I have this on her right now:
More Colette, but I have the next coming week almost entirely off, and just our immediate family to tend to, so I should be able to get it going I think. I will give it one more try on my Rose and just see. Just so you know, I never end up doing KAL's as they go, I always wait until the entire project is revealed to be sure I really want to do it!

Speaking of which, look at this fingering weight that I bought:
to make these Marvelous Mitts.

I think I have a pink problem! Not to mention a yarn problem. . . and a fiber problem. . .

Anyway, time to help put groceries away, so I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to All the Americans that might be reading this!!! And have a good upcoming week to everyone.

Weekends are Too Short!

2007-11-11T06:41:00.001-08:00

We are pretty sure that this guy:

did a big stomp and cut our electric fence that we use to keep these guys:

In the yard! Our neighbors just got themselves a new little Dachshund puppy to replace the Dachshund Doggy they had for 10 years that passed away two months ago. Poor Ginger has been running for her life and we didn't even know it, until one morning I found Bailey in their yard! What a way to start the morning, let me tell ya.

So, yesterday was spent looking for the break in the wire. . . and roaming Walmart to find radio wire and batteries for collars. Then standing in line at Walmart to buy new batteries. Standing at the customer service desk at Lowes to have someone help me find radio wire. Standing at the customer service desk at Tractor Supply Co. to find radio wire. . . HOW can everyone be out of the same thing at the same time?!!! Drive to Bowling Green to get radio wire. . . Chris finished fence, June takes a nap!

On to better things! I finished up this bobbin of Colette on Friday night:

This stuff is just like Georgia, and almost spins herself! She is a mix I think, and definitely feels different than Georgia did, but she is mindless spinning and I need that by Friday evenings!

And I know you all remember this as I just showed it to you last week, but this was fun to spin up too. It was 3.5 ounces of mixed mediums that an Etsy Seller put together. (I'm an addict, and I haven't given Etsy up yet.)

We just watched Mr. Brooks - oh what a good movie! While we watched Kevin Costner killing people, I made this:

I am up to the thumb on the left hand, it is a really quick knit, and I have to say I love how these are turning out. What do you think I heard after Caryn saw what I was working on? MoM! What are you doing? What about my sweater? Well, her sweater is up to 20" on the left front, and I am off to finish that now - Have a good week everyone!

It's a Plying Party -who's got the Beer?

2007-11-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

The beer might help me out here! I got my singles of the "In the Pink" batt all wound up in preparation for a battle with plying from a center pull single ball. I was a knuckle head and didn't undo the woolee winder to wind this off, and let me tell ya, it started the war off and the yarn was winning in this round, but here is the end result:

You may have noticed that my tone was not all that hopeful for a successful campaign! I have had major bad luck with doing this successfully in the past, and whole chunk of singles normally ended up in the trash. I had mentioned my dilemma of a:) knitting with singles I knew would bias, or b:) plying from a center pull ball to RoLynn on Tuesday night (we go to a stitch and b*tch at Barnes and Nobel on Tuesday night) and she had a lot of suggestions. One of which was to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n my treadling which was in fact what I did, but gosh it was hard to do! And besides that, I only have so much time to do this!!

See, I noticed that what happens is that I have a twist going in front of me making the yarn going into the oriface and a twist going on behind my fingers coming from the ball itself. That is my major problem, controlling the ball twist too:

Now, Caryn took four pictures and this is the only one that you can see what I mean, although this shot only has one twist behind. We need to practice our close up shots, I think! Anyhoo, this is my major complaint in plying this way, and if there are any suggestions about how to control that second ball twist, I may find I can do this a little better next time! I think I was the victorious one, though as I did go s-l-o-w and ended up with this:
I have a few spots that aren't that great, but hey, when the war was over I guess I didn't need that beer after all. Here it is in the skein form, with a total of 142 yards of approximate dk/light worsted weight:

It's drying now from a soak in soapy water and maybe next week I can show you the start on the knucks!

It's all in the numbers. . .

2007-10-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

This week the magic number was 24:

I understand that may not mean a lot to you right now, but let me clarify for you! See, as we have established in some of my previous posts, I really like knitting the challenge, like doilies and fair isle and arans! So, it feels like I have knit a mile on Caryn's Charm Wrap, when in actuality I have only knit 24 inches. . . that's, 1,182 feet, not even a quarter mile, but it's 1,182 feet of yarn, or 24 inches of almost exclusive stockinette!!

Lord! Help me! She wants this wrap to go just a little bit past her arse, so, it has felt like I have been knitting a long time just to reach her armpits! lol! I have two fronts and two arms to go! Well, who am I to complain? I normally only knit for myself as no one in my family wants a hand knit as they are all too warm blooded, so I will stop now. It has been rainy and gloomy here lately ( I am not complaining, just stating facts). So the pictures are hard to get the right colors, and here is Nitrous helping me measure, just to be sure I do it right. . .

Um, well, maybe he just wants to eat the tape measure! I literally had to beat him away from the board to measure this back, and I don't usually pin out to measure, however, since this is for someone other than myself, I want it to be right, so I am taking all precautions!

Ok, on to other items: I took Friday off with all kinds of plans to spin and knit all weekend, well, we all know what happens to plans, but I did try to spin up this roving I bought from a vendor on Etsy:

But what, what, what? Is this?

Well, it is full of that - you can put your own choice of words in here. So, it makes for slow spinning and a lot of this:

I am working to get enough yarn to make Knucks from Knitty. Here is the bobbin almost finished, I hope to complete the spinning today, and ply next weekend after it rests for a while.

The sun has finally come out and these are pretty close on the correct color - so I hope to so you some yarn next weekend!

More Campus Tours -

2007-10-21T06:34:00.001-07:00

You know, I am getting anxious for the time to change. It's so hard getting up when it's dark out isn't it? So normally on the weekend I sleep in a little (yeah, like to 7:00 instead of 6:00, but hey, it's not dark out at 7:00!). So as usual, we did that yesterday, then took off around 9:00 am to venture to places we had never been in Kentucky. We were headed to the campus of Murray State University, out in no man's land! It was only 120 miles from our house but it took 2 hours and 40 minutes to get there. We saw some gorgeous scenery on the way, the tree colors are really coming out now! We passed through the land between the lakes, and saw Barkley Lake and Kentucky Lake, oh it was so sad to see how low the water levels were. So, in any event when it was all said and done, and we finished getting a little turned around on the way home this is the final verdict from Caryn:
This camera shot was actually not intended for public use, so let's keep this one to ourselves. She was mugging up for the camera in a totally different content, but hey it works for me!

So lots of driving time results in some knitting time for Me, I had started the Charm sweater for Caryn, and it was a bit too small, meaning it fit exactly right, and we wanted it to have more ease, so here is that result, with Nitro supervising my camera shot:

It's kind of hard to see but, the top garment is actually wider and has more give to the fabric and I think this one is right where she wants it to be. All of #2 was done in the car yesterday, except the cast on and a few rows of the lace pattern! I am almost to where I measured the first one (on bottom) again, and decided it was too small.

I have been spinning too, this is Colette:

She is spinning up so much differently than the Painted Desert or Georgia! But, she is fun, and actually half of her fleece from this year's fleece is still available on Skylines Farms website. She is spinning up like this:
I don't have any stats yet, I will try to get that together the next time I post about her.

So, there is not much left to say this week, except I am tired! Whew! It's been a whirl wind at home and at work. So, I will leave you with this shot of Bailey in the paddock, where she doesn't belong, and look at Jake in the background! This is just so typical for our two doggies. Bailey runs the show and Jake is say "huh? what's going on?"

I love that big dumb doggie! I love Bailey too, but she is too smart and cunning for me sometimes! Have a good week everybody!

Disappointing Knitting. . .

2007-10-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

So, can someone tell me why I have been turning out trash as far as finished objects go? I mean look at this:
It looks great doesn't it? And it starts to stretch out:
But man, I have tried to super steam it with the iron and this is as far as it would go:
But isn't the edging so very pretty?

And it's really funny to turn around and see this:
I am thinking it is the best use of this blanket right now! Crazy cat, he's sitting on pins! BTW let this be a warning: if you try this at home, let me tell ya that the dogs could scare the cat,who in turn throws the whole mess on it's side, the pins end up down the heating vents and you could almost have a broken iron and window screen to the your fireplace. The ironing board was promptly put in it's place after that, and I have given up on this one! OK Enough Helmlock!! God, gag me already - huh?

So, we will move along to the contest winner. Karen! Come on down and choose the color you want for stitch markers! Yeah, she knows me best, I guess! I mean after all she's my bosom buddy! :) It may have seemed she had an unfair advantage since she works with me and all, but hey, there are a few more of you that knew and didn't guess LACE and all it's glory is my favorite! So, just to show you that yes, I can knit without it looking horrible here is my evidence:

This was given to Mom for Christmas one year, and it was a German pattern done on size 0 needles and size 10 thread. This one was my first doily ever!
This one was given to my Mother in Law: Another German pattern, size 0000 needles and size #20 thread.
This one is mine: Mommes Lysedug - size 20 thread and size 0 needles:

I'm off to knit plain stockinette, maybe I can do that. . .

My 100th Post! Let's Celebrate -

2007-10-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, guys I noticed as I was logging in today that this is post #100! Can you believe that? Well, I guess it's not all that momentous or anything, but let's do something to celebrate! I will give away six stitch markers that will look something like this:

These are sterling silver rings and there will be two of each color, unless the winner wants all one color - now here's the question: What is my #1 favorite knitted object, or what is the one thing I like to knit above all others? And here's a hint: I love to knit these but I have given all of them away except for one. I will show it to you (again) next week.

I worked all day yesterday finishing this:

Sorry about the messy photo shot, but I'm kinda perturbed with it right now. You wouldn't believe how lonnnng this took me! from 10 am to 6pm with small breaks for my neck and lunch! Lookey at the pretty knitted lace edging:

I am hopeful it will block out correctly, and not be too small. This took five skeins of Malabrigo all together, so I am sure hoping it wasn't a wasted effort.

Next on the needles is this:
This is a freebie from Knittingdaily , called Charmed Wrap, that I am making for Caryn. Yes, I did type that right, it's for Caryn. She asked me originally for a heavily cabled knit out of an AS book for a bathrobe.

Well, I don't think she wants a full fledged bathrobe, as we looked at them in Dillards and not one was "right". So I presented her with this sweater and the answer was a resounding yes! The AS sweater would have taken me all winter plus as you will read below, I had misgivings about knitting it for her.

Now, on to the yarn choice. Well, let me tell ya, I have made her several things in the past and they never are worn more than once. Therefore, I was not shelling out the $ for another possible sit in the closet sweater, so I had her choose from Lion Brand yarns. This color (which I had a skein shot of that blogger will not let me upload. . .) is Delft Blue which I think will look fabulous on her! Well, that is if she wears it. . .

Houston, we have a FO in site. . .

2007-09-30T06:26:00.000-07:00

Hi to everyone out there in blog land - it has finally turned into normal weather around here, although if we ever make up the water tables you will hear a little grumbling about muddy paws again! The other morning it was so cool looking outside that I tried to catch the beauty of the beginning of the day with Blazer as the model:

If you click on that you can see how badly the pasture has deteriorated this past summer. We are working on seeding and praying for rain now! Don't worry about the pony tho, we feed him hay we purchase from our neighbors, with sweet feed and mineral block each night. Have any of you noticed that we have spoiled pampered pets?

Anyway, as the title above states, I have actually finished one of my wips! Lordy bee! Can you even believe it? Well, it's true, check out the Yogo Socks below:

I'm a little disgruntled that I didn't notice they didn't match insides, but what the hay - who is really going to notice that? I got really good color on these shots! So, these are pretty true, at least on my monitor. That's an Eye of the Partridge Heel, which is a little wide on my feet, but I hope to get some Birkenstock's to show these off with -

Here's another perspective with the cables really showing off:

I have one really good shot that makes my legs look like a mannequins legs, but I chose to keep that one to myself. :)

After getting up super early for a Saturday, and running into work for a few hours, Caryn met me at the plant and we went to the International Festival they had in downtown Bowling Green. It was a lot of fun seeing all the different ethnicities of our little town. I was totally exhausted, partly due to stress from work, and from my shot the night before, so we didn't make it to the Bon Dance that my co-worker's were in, but I did manage to find this African Grass basket:
See, now I have a place to put this:
And is that not too pretty! I finally, finally, finally got the colors to look right! Of course you can't tell what the heck it is unless I tell you it's the Helmlock Ring Blankie that I am making for Caryn. I am twelve rows short of being done, but right now I have 536 stitches on the needle and it increases to 608, only two more increase rows to go! I'm hoping for another FO next week, I don't know though as work is killing me right now. I can't wait to retire, and Chris says that can be as soon as we only have one child in college - whoo hoo! That would be two years!

Well, that's it for today, so, I leave you with this shot of: Here's lookin' at you kid!

Bailey has abandonment issues and has to be sure we are still here. She checks on us every 10 minutes or so. . . silly doggie. Nitro is more interested in the backyard, but don't tell Bailey. She thinks he's checking out her legs. . .

My Cup Runneth Over . . .

2007-09-23T05:49:00.000-07:00

It is so cool to have friends that will drop everything on a Saturday afternoon, just to come over and visit. I had some sock yarn that I offered to trade/or give to Ashley, a friend from my knitting group. Somehow, RoLynn, (Ashley's Mom) met Peggy on the internet, who is another friend of mine, and she knew about our group of knitters from meeting me on the internet and now we are all great friends. Isn't that cool? I mean what did we all do before this technology was available, anyway?

Anyway, I digress. . . as usual, I know. So, Ashley and RoLynn came to visit yesterday and it was really so fun to sit around and talk knitting and spinning with other people that "get it" and well, it was just cool. So, RoLynn traded me some wool for some sock yarn, Lookey what she gave me:

Silk and Cotton:
And straight Silk:

And Mohair:
So tell me, how does a person who has only known you for approximately two or three months get every color you love in one fell swoop?! I love them all, but I am a bit worried about the silk and the silk and cotton, as those are fibers I have not spun before! Well, they will just have to come back over to help teach me! :)

The Helmlock is almost a finished object:

The rows are definitely long now, and I only have so much free time don'tcha know! I hope to finish this week- I am getting kind of anxious to see it blocked out - plus I am trying to finish that sock and my Kai Cardigan is now being worked on again since I figured out the V-Neck shaping on it and I am on my way - I hope to post about that soon. How many of you guys really know the procedure of creating your neckline in the round? Yeah, there isn't much published on it is there? So, maybe my findings will help.

Chris has continued to finish up the barn now that it is not 100 degrees plus outside, he was playing with Bailey and Caryn got this really good shot of him at lunch yesterday:

I was so proud of my daughter, Caryn this past week. She joined the National Honor Society at school, this year. (I think she finally understands that it helps with scholarships and such when applying to colleges.) The team took a trip to Bowling Green on Thursday for team debates and exams competing with the other schools in our district. Well, she got second place with her testing for spelling. We thought it was pretty cool!

A Little Progress on Helmlock

2007-09-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

I've seen this lap robe done in several different weights of yarn and in a huge arrangement of colors, they are all just lovely! I have made a little progress on mine, I have finished ball two of the throw, and today I plan to wind up the third and final color.

This is the best color representation that I could get, it's crazy what a little bit of shadow will do to your color!! Look:

That is not acurate at all! I mean - yuck! I have a little better color sense than that! I actually found all the Malabrigo tags and the colors being use are: Amoroso, (Reds) Rhodesian (the golds) and Autumn Forest for the greens. I have purchased another skein of the Autumn Forest, as I am sure I don't have enough with just one skein. Here it is in progress:

I have also been working on stitch markers and the color yellow was requested. Did I have any yellow? Well, no. So, I bought a few beads and drops and jump rings. Tell me what you honestly think about these, I personally am not too sure.

I like a maker to simply mark the next repeat, one jump ring and one bead,

others like to make jewelry out of them, so just let me know your thoughts on this. And I made this row marker quite a while ago, but while I am asking opinons, tell me your thoughts on this too!!Knit Picks wooden needles arrived too, I am hoping to try them out with the Icelandic Lace Shawl. I ordered some laceweight mohair from Japan, and it took so long to get here, (pictures of that next week) that I ordered the yarn pack from Sarah at Sarah's Yarn's (only $25 including postage, how can I refuse?) Even if I do have a mountain of fingering weight yarn:

I guess there are a few worsted weights in there too. Our local knitting group will be working on EZ's Totem Jacket as a group this Fall and Winter, and those patterns came in as well. So, we should all be learning some new things very soon!

Something Old, Something New -

2007-09-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

We took our first college tour yesterday with Caryn at the University of Louisville, which means we got up, on a Saturday at 5:00 am to drive 2 hours to UofL and sit and listen to all these professors going on and on about how wonderful their school is. And actually, I really like the academics and all that UofL has to offer in their programs for Caryn. I just hate the campus and how totally industrialized it is. So, we went away a bit disenchanted (again) but, like we said before she has to make this decision, not us and whatever she decides is fine.

Ok, so the picture content is going to be what I could take on the fly this morning to try and put this together while the dh is away doing the grocery shopping (yeah, I know, it's weird but he likes to go do it, and he spends way less money than I do, so it works for us!). I have started the Hemlock Ring doily/blanket that Jared has made so infamous. See his blog here: Brooklyn Tweed

Is that gorgeous or what? There is also a KAL for this on Yahoogroups, and if you need that link let me know, as I am being lazy here. So, anyway, I didn't want to buy more yarn (as I have closets full of it) and so I am using up the leftover Malabrigio from the B4 Bag, which of course I don't have enough of so this I am using three colors for this and I hope it will look ok in the end - Here it is in progress:

Center Flower:

And this is where you start the feather and fan portion of the blanket, and so, I started my second color here - this is a burnt gold, and after the burnt gold I plan to use a forest green of sorts, the gold and green really really go well together, but do you all like this?

Well, you know, if it's truly ugly in the end, I will just keep it for ourselves and not really let it out of the house. Who doesn't have some "fugly" at their house somewhere right?

I also got my heel turned on the Yogo Socks yesterday:

and I'm on my way to the toe - maybe during football this afternoon I will get there!

And here as a final note is painted desert after washing:

Definitely looks dull after all this brightness, but I still think it will work in the fairisle I have planned. Oh, and are you noticing that I finally have the pixal thing worked out, so the photo doesn't overwhelm you when you click on it??!! Hmmmn? Ok, so hope you all have a good week!

Dyeing Can be Quite Trying!

2007-09-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!! Well, here it is a week later and can you believe that we finally got a couple of rain showers here! Wow, who knew that the weather was such an event in Franklin, KY? The temperatures have come down (yeah, to the 80's and 90's) and we are enjoying huge reductions in humidity so all is well again. We are still in drought conditions, but we have a little hope now!

Caryn has made her choice in the naming of this dyed wool and yarn. She chose Peggy's entry of Painted Desert. So, Peggy, the next time you come to knitting night at B&N I will have the yarn waiting for you! On this same vein, I have to show you all what a cool thing my sister in law, Carol sent to me:I was so darned impressed with this that I am going to send Carol the other skein of the Denim sock yarn! As you all know, I am a bit impaired when it comes to my photos and this combination just knocked my socks off!

Ok, so I got a lot of Painted Desert spun up and then I started to ply:

I think I am partial to these colors - what do you think? lol! Here is some on the Jumbo Bobbin:
After completion, I wound it up on the yarn skeiner, and this showed me that I got 346.5 yards out of this run,
but it also showed me that I had extra dye in the skein - Damn it!
I sort of tension the yarn coming off the bobbin as it goes onto the skeiner, which is how the extra came off like this. But, this skein is the most perfectly balanced skein I have ever made (doesn't that just figure).

so, I was in quite a quandary, what do I do now? Well, I don't want to go to all the work and have it run in a sweater, so I am washing the wool again. . . and again until it doesn't run any longer. Here is the skein pre-washed and a bit fuzzy with Georgia:

If I get to it, I will try to put up the skein after the wash later! What a drag! I have ordered some citric acid powder and some retayne to try to avoid this issue in the future. I just hope enough of the dye will remain to make this a fight worth fighting!

The Weather Outside is Still Frightful! 100+ Degrees Everyday and No Rain In Sight!

2007-08-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

But inside it's so delightful! Got my dh to finally put the air conditioning up a bit (one whole degree) but it has made a huge difference in my life! I normally freeze and I know it is due to my sedentary nature, I work as an accountant and my hobbies are knitting and spinning! Not a whole lot a dancing being done there! But dancing was being done when I finally uploaded the Office 2004 for Mac's on this baby. Now I have a good e-mail program and I may possibly be able to find Money for it too. . . oh, I will dance on the roof top!

Got a few things done this week, I finished the B4 Bag, and since it came out like poo, I have decided not to add the buttons and to do this one more time - my first row of bobbles didn't really bobble out and it really looks crappy. I just can't give this to someone as a gift, it would embarrass the heck out of me:

See the dark holes where there should be nice big bobbles like up top? Darn it! Well, I am sure I have more yarn to do this again. And speaking of more yarn, look at the swatch I made for Beadwork, by Jade Starmore:

And this is another view:
I am getting approximately 8.5" to the inch on 3.25 mm needles using Merino Bamboo sock yarn no less. I love the shine and the stitch definition, I wanted to dye this light blue, but the yarn came out a very definite denim color which is not at all what I was looking for, so, I decided to stay put with the cream.

Mr. Fix It got my wheel to run without the chatter, although all possibilities were not tested, as we ended up changing the whorl, and all lubricants were wiped off the bobbin and shaft. The chatter stopped, so, I was happy and finished up spinning bobbin #1 of BloodyGuts - It really needs a prettier name though! Here is the bobbin:

So, I've decided to give one of the denim skeins away to the person that comes up with the best name for this color! I will let my very literary daughter, Caryn make all final decisions so that the judging will be totally neutral!

Here is a picture of two of the denim skeins (only one will be given away, though) this is superwash merino bamboo (60% Merino, 30% Bamboo and 10% Nylon), 400 yards in a skein.

PS: Do you like the change in template? I was thinking it was getting hard to read on the other one - See ya! June

As The Wheel Spins - More Romney!

2007-08-19T05:41:00.000-07:00

I've been spinning this weekend. Any time it's a little stressful the wheels can always be counted on! Bryan is moving back to Lexington this weekend, and it's always a little sad to see him go. We are a very close family, and I hate to see the children leave the nest, I guess.

So, I finished up spinning the last of Georgia and man did I ever have to stuff this bobbin to get it all on! Look:

Ok it's a bit fuzzy, I tried to get too close I guess. Then I changed out the bobbin and started spinning up the Romney Corriedale that I have been combing, when it isn't over 75 degrees outside that is!
This is the stuff that my sister in law, Carol, just couldn't stand the sight of in the roaster pan dyeing up. She says it looked like blood and guts to her! My friend, Karen, said basically the same thing! So, it must be true and I decided not to put that photo back up for your viewing pleasure. . . lol. So anyway this is the nests getting spun up:

I am working with the Mabel Ross Essentials of Handspinning guide to try to make sure I am getting the same sized yarn as I was getting spinning up Georgia:

I personally couldn't be more pleased with the way this is turning out so far!

The only problem I am having right now is the fact that the bobbin and flyer mechanism is making a chattering noise and I can't figure it out! I have oiled it and oiled it. I keep fussing with the tensioning screw . . . I can't seem to get it to stop and it's driving me crazy! Any suggestions are welcome as I am at the end of my knowledge on this one! I'm going to try to take it apart one more time and see what I can see. . .

The Power of the Internet -

2007-08-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

I "met" the most amazing lace knitter this week over here on Susan's blog - I've been interested in the Icelandic Lace Shawl that the Daily Knitter is/was supporting and I have been perusing the internet to find the "right" yarn. Well, procrastination is sometimes a good thing, look at the original and then take a look at Fleegle's blog. You have to keep in mind that the average temperature this past week has been hovering at the 100 degree Fahrenheit mark - so, I ordered some of the lace weight Susan is working with - in color 106 though . . . Susan's is color 103. I ordered 6 200 meter balls, so I actually I don't think I ordered enough, but the whole thing was a bit intimiating, so the yarn can always be used for a Sivia Harding design!

The next cool thing that happened via the internet was this morning I listened all five parts of working with a drum carder by "rexenne" this morning, and granted the very first one was a bit over the top, but it got my "ADD" in gear and I worked with my carder this afternoon and this was the results: PS: Don't forget that I am now a iMac person and still can't figure out how to make these pictures smaller!! So just a note of warning!

Do you remember Lady Blue Jeans: (Is that the right name? Hhmm, getting old, don't remember right now.) This is one of the batts I made last time I was attempting to use the drum carder:

Now this is how it looked today:

Then I thought I would try some blending: these colors are in my placemats in the kitchen, how's that for figuring out color combinations? I never would have put olive with aqua, but it works -

Blending in progress:

Isn't it pretty? I took this off and messed up the rolag, had to card it one more time (damn it) and so this is my end result:

So how many of you guys have a burnishing tool for your carder and if you don't have one what do you use? Well, I used one of my ashford handcards, and with results like this, I will probably continue to use them this way!!

No news is good news?

2007-08-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Well guys - I have nothing, nadda, niltch to report on the knitting or spinning front that you haven't all seen or heard before.

I am have washed up the end of the Snowberry fleece and it is currently drying on the drying rack. I am almost to the end of the B4 Bag.

I am still working on my BeadWork swatch in Merino Bamboo, boy, you should of seen the flack I got about using a bamboo yarn on the BW yahoo group. I still think this will work since it has 60% Merino 10% Nylon and 30% Bamboo in it. They all seem to think it will stretch out unbelievably. I don't think they saw the word "blend" in my post and just ran with it.

I am sitting here playing with my new iMac and until the credit card is paid off, there won't be any new yarn or fiber purchases in my near future! I like it so far, but my e-mail is different and I am still searching for a good checkbook utility to use - so any suggestions are welcome.

As a side note, I am struggling with iMac and Blogger, so the pictures are probably huge. The doggies were playing with Caryn and a stick . . . just look at those faces! What's not to love?

My WIPS are Miscontrued!

2007-07-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

Ahh, you all thought I only had the five items I listed as WIPS - Ha! These were simply the closest to me at the moment I was writing! Remember Hyrna? and I have Rosebud on the needles. . . and let's not forget Elektra,

and so many one socks it's not funny, and plans and plans and plans for other items. . .

How many of you do this? Oh! I must make that sweater, so I go off and buy the yarn and (sometimes) the needles and then I get the whole package home and it goes in the closet. Do you really want to know what's in the closet? Well, I say let's take a vote on that - one thing in there is the Mitered Mozart remember that sweater? Do you all really want more? And what is one to do with all these plans? I think perhaps it is time to stop buying and start knitting some of these up!

Do any of you out there still cross stitch? I have gads of stuff for that as well. And again this is counted cross stitch or counted needlepoint. Lots of silks and linens and canvases - if there is something specific you are looking for and have patience with me, I may have it. It would just take me some time to locate it in the bins and "the closet".

And spinning fiber - I have gobs of that too. . . and beads. . . so see? Lots of "stuff" in progress!!

Anyhoo - here is the B4 bag, I am up to my 3rd B- Beads! (Bumps, Bobbles, Beads and Buttons!) Now, many of you may already know this, but 6/0 beads just don't cut it on worsted weight yarn. So, all the lovely colors I showed you last week, didn't work with the size yarn I was knitting. So, Ellen, at EarthFaire was so patient with me and I acquired these 5/0 beads: ( and OMG did you see what she has on her front page?? See? This is what I mean, don'tcha just want that shawl????? "Love is a Many Mitered Thing")

So I made it to here on the B4 bag:

Do you like the beads? They really blend in, which isn't exactly what I was originally going for, but hey, at this point it will do. Below is it in total so far, now I am on the hunt for buttons! I guess this bag is a bit more work than I bargained for!

and a traffic jam to Franklin, TN means I made it to here on my Yogo Socks, (four more rows to the heel flap):

After a lovely meal at the Bonefish Grille, Chris and I stayed in Franklin for the night, on the way back we stopped by the Apple store (again) and I have finally ordered by iMac. Chris is confident that the smaller 17" model will fit on my restricted desk space. I do realize I could have gotten a Mac mini, or a laptop, but those options just didn't appeal to me, as I know I am not good with laptops and the mini just didn't cut it for me! Yes, I am spoiled.

I do know we will be purchasing another computer in one more year for Caryn as this is the "big" graduation present we give them. Bryan got a decked out PC too, however, now I think Miss Caryn wants an iMac too. Ok enough blabbing - hope you all have a good week! :)

Trials and Tribulations . . .

2007-07-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

Well, the weekend started off on a good note. . . I was armed and dangerous. I had the dimensions of our built into the wall desk.Yes. I was ready, I was on my way I was going to get rid of this old Dell Dimension 4300S computer, I was buying an iMac! Even the teenagers were excited about this, I mean enough so, that they got up at 7:30 am to get to the Apple Store by 10:00 am, so we didn't waste the whole day on Nashville Roads. Wow. So, off we go, and we get there in plenty of time (of course, after drinking coffee and coke the first mission was to find a bathroom, and remarkably that was very difficult in Green Hills Mall). After twenty minutes of discussion, it turns out the iMac will not fit in the space we have on this stupid, stupid built in wall desk. I am up-set. I haven't given up totally yet, though. We may just have to clean out the back room (cough, cough, wool storage room) to make a new "office space". I guess when push comes to shove this is the way I might go. Chris talks about putting a hole in the desk in the kitchen, but that does not appeal to me at all. . .

After the Apple fiasco I drove directly to The Haus of Yarn and bought four skeins of Wool in the Woods:
To make another B4 Bag, this is the current B4 in progress: What do you think of those bobbles??

This is being done in Malibrigo Merino Worsted in Amoroso on size 10.5 US Needles - or 6.5 mm, and will be a smallish bag, that I hope to give my niece for Christmas, filled with fun girly things. I have a problem with the beads tho. Size 6/0 just don't seem big enough and I am really at a loss on what the next size up is! What Color do you like?? These are from the Beadwrangler and these colors are Grey Diamonds, Wicked Red, and Mambo Mauve -

This is what we have all picked out - and the picture above shows the truest color.

I have so many things on the needles right now, I need to get a hold of myself! And shake myself up!! Here is my List:

Antique Lace
Yogo Socks
Kai Cardigan
Elektra Vest

This is just what I have next to me in my knitting basket! I hope I will be posting my progess on finishing items next!

Three Skeins of Georgia -

2007-07-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

So, I have been spinning. . . bet you didn't know. . . I got a shipment from Wooly Wonka Fiber's as I am in Anne's Exotic Fiber Club. This shipment was for 4 oz. of the most white Cormo roving I have ever seen!! Since my wheel was in a prime spot for moving out bobbins, I started spinning some of it up:

I know, that's not a bobbin, but look at how white that roving is!! Ok, I have to admit, it's not my favorite to spin. It is very soft, yes, and it is very well prepared, but I still end up with itty bitty nups that do pick out, but drive me nutty. I don't think that soft fine wools can be prepared without these bugger's, which is why I sold a whole prepared fleece of Cormo from OVF. I just couldn't stand the nupps, and it feels like I have to practically watch every second or the fiber pulls away from me! I don't remember either of these problems with some hand dyed merino I started with on Tina, so maybe this is indicative of Cormo. I don't know, but here is my spinning so far:

So, the reason I was ready to start this is I had another full bobbin of Georgia ready to ply with it's mate on the Lazy Kate. So, this afternoon, I plied, and plied, and plied:

It's major hot here in KY which is the reason for the half gallon drink sitting next to me! But anyway, I took a shot of my lazy kate after plying the two bobbins and, Ashley, just look how close I came to being perfect! Well, I don't usually get this close, this is pretty dad-gum close, I have to say myself!

So, this resulted in 291 wraps on a 1.5 yard skein winder:

Which equates to 432 yards approximately:

And this is all the roving I have left to do of Georga:

Which I am now trying to decide to either spin the whole thing on a bobbin and center ball ply or try to even it out on two bobbins and ply 'em up like I did today. . . my luck is not so great with the center pull ball, but I hate to waste any of these singles either! Decisions, decisions!

Two Skeins and One and a Half Socks Later -

2007-07-08T06:13:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! Did you miss me? I did get a couple of notes from folks so I know some of you are reading (hi Carol and Peggy)!

Caryn and I made it back from the Northeast without a single problem, going out was fine too. I have to say though, that I will never, ever, ever fly through JFK again unless my life depends on it! What a freakin' zoo that place was: the intercoms were paging over each other, and it was packed full of people. We landed at 4:00 and I figured getting something to eat would be a good idea. Well, two cheese and tomato sandwiches and two cokes ran me $21.95! Good Grief!

So the trip was fine, and the weather was great too, almost cold to us the first night we stayed at the lake. The second two days they hit record high temps (90's in Fahrenheit scale) so, we were right at home! Here's a shot of the lake, it was shallow and hard to swim in, and don't ask about our canoe adventure!

We spent a great deal of time "chasing" the loons to try to get pictures. I think that the Loons make the whole experience of staying on a lake that much more special. They have a haunting call that at night seems to almost be eerie! They are unbelievable swimmers and can swim under water for ages, I am not good with distances, but believe me, they swim at least half a football field under water. This was the best shot I could get, they are fast buggers too!

Of course, we went to the beach too, Caryn even went underwater! We can't call it swimming because let me tell ya people it was cold water. I walked in, my feet immediately became numb, and then they simply hurt! In about as much time as it has taken me to write that sentence, so let me tell ya, Caryn is a brave, brave girl! This is a shot of Perkins Cove at one of the inlets at Ogunquit Beach:

What? You didn't think Caryn would let me take her picture did you?

Ok, on to knitting! Here is my progress on my Yogo Socks. Ms. Vicki, I know you were expecting to see two pairs of socks here, but with all the driving (almost 550 miles in six days) and all the family get together's, I didn't have a lot of free time! I tried what another designer called a "Semi" Partidge Heel on this, although I think in retrospect it is a bit too wide for me. These are really thick socks, so I am thinking they may become slipper socks, we'll see. . . bad shot, but great with the color! (Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Wild Raspberry.)
And here is the heel:

Once we got back home, I've been finishing up some spinning:
Georgia is almost finished! This represents 692 yards and I have almost two full bobbins more to ply up! Yeah! This is coming out exactly the way I need it to, I love this stuff! I can not recommend Melissa at Skylines Farms enough! She's got her fleeces (what's left of them) up for sale right now. Talk to you all next week!

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again?

2007-06-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

You know, it's sock knitting. Not rocket science, not brain surgery, nothing all that earth shattering, but it has gotten under my skin and turned into quite the chigger! (A very nasty itchy bug in these parts.) I tried and tried to make my Jaywalkers look nice. I like a shortrow heel, and thought to myself that a toe up try was in order, since I had never made a sock that way before. Well! Never again! Here are my socks on:

Do you perhaps see anything odd? They do indeed look mighty funny off the foot, kinda all folded in on themselves, but on they looked ok I think. But, that is not the only thing about these that just didn't go right. Look at my left leg above, do you see it? Well, maybe that is too far to see, look here:

Can you see it now? These two balls of yarn were the same color and dyelot. But, oh baby, they are not the same at all and it is very, very noticeable when you have them in your hands. I was so disgusted, I didn't even measure all that accurately and now this one is slightly shorter than the other one. Oh good. What a great job I did with these!

So, what do I do? Start another pair of socks, of course!:

These are coming out great! I have a small error in my set up row, I was working from written instructions rather than the chart, I didn't see the chart until I got home and had five rows of the pattern done, but I declare that small error to be on the back side, and no one else would probably see it. Do you see it? So, now I am on my way. These are Yogo Socks from Woolen Collectibles, an old pattern I got a long time ago. They are a lot of fun, and now that I have the pattern down, they are moving right along. See? I can sort of knit socks! Yeah!

This color is Mountain Colors Bearfoot Wild Raspberry and it is gorgeous. It took about 45 pictures to get this right. I finally went outside, as you can see to get the color right! Sorry about the errant white cat hair, you know who is always with me, dontcha know!

Caryn and I are on our way to Maine next weekend (Yeah!) so no post next weekend or the weekend after as we will be on our way back to Kentucky. Drought ridden, Kentucky. We are losing our pasture that we have worked so hard to get in. It just hurts, and I can't imagine how the farmer's around here feel. We have lost 80% of the wheat crops and 100% of the fruit crops. We have been declared a natural disaster zone, and they will be able to get some compensation. I have no idea what we will do . . .

Anyway, I will talk to you all again in two weeks! Oh the joys of packing - what to bring for projects? I have four or five lined up, maybe I'll just bring more socks. :) Take Care everyone!

How Boring am I?

2007-06-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

This week has been full of the SSDD syndrome! (Thank you, Stephen King for this acronym) and who knows if I spelled that right! There just hasn't been a lot going on around here. Unless, of course, you count cleaning and laundry and all that fun stuff - so, the fiber world has had to take a back seat this week, and actually it didn't become a back seat driver either.

I've been spinning the Romney, and if I show you anymore pictures of it, I'm sure you will puke. So, I thought I would show the basket of corriedale-romney filling up:

You know, I think I was getting some sort of injured elbow from all that wool pulling. Maybe I need to comb twice, I don't really know. In any event, I gave it a rest this week to make sure I didn't do any serious injury.

I've been doing a little bit of spindling, although, I think I stink at it.

What do you do with the yarn on the spindle when the spindle is full? Do you wind onto a toilet paper tube? If you do that how do you add more yarn to it for a continuous thread?

The second Jaywalkers is still in progress:

The color on this is right on for a change - I wanted to show you the heel, as I did a PGR Shortrow heel and it came out really good. But that camera shot came out too close, and a bit blurry.

Farmer Chris went for a short ride yesterday:

Blazer seems to be pretty happy here, but then again, how can you really tell?

And that's about all from this neck of the woods!

We Interrupt this Program. . .

2007-06-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my honey brought me to Louisville (Lew-ville, for all you non-southerner's) yesterday to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. Isn't that cool? Being romantic does not come naturally to this man, but all his other attributes tend to make up for this fact. Our wedding anniversary, is most often the time of year he will show signs of being romantic, and this year was no exception. We had chocolate covered strawberries with champagne, in a suite made for honeymooners. . .

We went to a glass blowing museum and he actually was going to get me a $40 key chain, but I just couldn't do it. I know me, and I would have broken that lovely piece in a month!

We walked along the Ohio river and noticed the skyline and all the bridges going over the water. We reminisced about all the places we have lived, (mostly Holland, Mi and Buffalo, Ny) and how far we have come from there to here. About how much we miss the water and walking along shorelines. I had brought my camera but, unfortunately, the batteries were dead. I got one shot of the Old Spaghetti Factory (we had dinner there last night) and some of the architecture of the city.
It was totally cool; there were all these really old buildings but right next to one there would be a new parking garage. It all blended though, it was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to what he plans for next year!

Up to my Eyeballs in Wool!

2007-05-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

Does this happen to you too? Every Spring, I just can't resist all those lovely fleeces that are for sale out there. This year I have discovered how much more I like processing the medium wools compared to the fine wools. So, at the present time I am working on the corriedale/romney cross:

And a Lincoln and Mohair Top Blend, I've never blended before, so this is an experiment. I am blending on combs, which makes me want a hackle, but man! are they ever expensive!
And yesterday I started washing a Border Leicester fleece from a ewe named Snowberry:

Don't you just want to stick your fingers in that??? I asked this same question to my son, Bryan, as I was walking past his room with an arm full of this washed fleece, and I just simply can't believe his answer. "Umm, No." OMG ! Is it just me?

I tried a different method of washing this time, I used Shakley BasicH and mesh bags, actually I just tried the one bag to see how this would go. Two good soaks and one rinse and this is the result. Then every time I passed the fleece drying on the rack I flicked out a couple of locks, it's much easier when the fleece is still damp. I think I need to invest in one sheep of each breed, one Romney and one Border Leicester and then I would be set for life.

I would put them here:

So all this fencing was done by Mr. Fix It, but I helped with all the tencel wire on the back and one side. 'Course then I got bit by a spider or something and ended up at the Dr's office. But, it's all done now, and next week I can show you this same picture with Caryn's horse Blazer in it!

Jay Walkers are not in second sock syndrome:

And the Foot shot:

I tried something different with my pictures this week, so please let me know if you like the new way (smaller sizes) or the old way of my shots. So that's about it around here, I hope you are all having a safe and memorable Memorial Day Weekend. No matter what your views, say a prayer for the troops out there!

Fibery Pursuits - in Kentucky and Tennesse!

2007-05-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Peggy and her granddaughter Emma Belle picked Caryn and myself up to go to Tennessee on a bunny hunt!

It was quite and adventure, as the woman who was selling the French Angora Rabbits was completely clueless when it came to giving directions! On top of that, dear Peggy doesn't have a map in the car. . . ok, well, not my usual way of doing things and hopefully, I didn't spoil Peggy's day, but I honestly hate to not know where I am going! All's well that ends well, though and Peggy got 2 of the little critter's and I am thinking about the offspring of those two. . . Go see the cuties on her blog!! Oh, I want one!

Ok in other persuits, when you take two of these:

And ply them together:

You could get one of these (with leftover's on one bobbin):

This is 4.5 ounces of a Romney Sheep named Georgia (from Skyline Farms) that spun into 305 yards of two ply yarn at 14 wpi.

I have been using the Yarn Scale that is supplied in The Essentials of Yarn Design by Mabel Ross to try and stay consistent with this yarn. I think that so far it is working! This is the darkest of my Romney and I plan to have three darks and two lights for a fairisle design by Ron Schwitzer.

Birthdays, Mother's Day, and Knitting

2007-05-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Bryan, my first born, had the unfortunate luck to be born really close to Mother's Day. Therefore, he has to share this day with me every once in a while. He is a very tolerant boy and never seems to mind. Though, at this point in his life, I am now reluctant to call him a boy any longer, as he has turned 20 years old this 13th day of May 2007. How did this happen? How could he be this old, so quickly? Well, my darling daughter says it is because I didn't let him play in traffic! lol - She is always there to help put things in perspective!

So, on this Mother's Day, I would like to wish all my fellow sisters out there that have children, of one sort or another (be it furry babies, husband babies, or actual child babies), a very Happy Mother's Day! I also want to thank all of the people who took the time to comment last week for their comments, it's really a thrill to know that someone is actually reading this blog!

Yesterday was spent shopping for Bryan's gifts for today, not that I am a slacker or anything, but this young man never seems to need or want anything and it causes a ruckus every year. Can you imagine having nothing on your wish list and having to be poked and prodded along to get two items that you might want?

Yeah, not in my lifetime, I must be a real material girl! So, speaking of which here are a few things that have been updated since the last time we saw them:

Kai - June Style: I replaced the motif on top with one that I thought looked better, it has the same amount of rows and the repeat worked really well. I hope that those of you that have Shetland 2 can comment on what you think about this:
Then, there is Antique Lace: The colors in these pictures are dead on for a change. I had some really nice sun streaming in the windows yesterday afternoon. So, this show the true color of Lady Godiva in Ivory. I am thinking that this vest will go with anything and everything, but not the wedding outfit, that I have finally decided on, which is why this one is not on the front burner right now.

And an almost finished Jaywalker in LL Motherlode: I love this color! I think I am going to make a picot top edge on these as they just look so feminine to me, now to make the other sock too! I am usually very bad at the second sock getting on the needles!

And I must show you the fencing, we have purchased the gates and all the wire, cables, nuts and bolts that are needed to complete it now. Since Chris is dedicated to finishing just this right now, I'm sure I will have more pictures soon!

Favorite Wool Prep - Do you have one?

2007-05-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

My favorite way to prep a fleece for spinning is hands down, combing. I bought a pair of Alvin Ramer wool combs second hand from someone selling theirs on the Spin List.

I have loved working with them, and they do everything I could possibly want. Except actually fit on my counter top, table or any other horizontal surface I have in this house! They do actually fit on this bar stool that I used for one of my plants, but The Combs have take over now! The biggest problem I have found in combing is all the dirt that I try to get out in the washing of the fleece finally does come out in the combing. I don't know if I am not getting my water hot enough, or what, but I have an amazing amount of clumped sand/dirt in this Romney-Corriedale fleece I washed and dyed:

So, if I can't comb in the kitchen (the only place in my house with tile floors that is basically a free for all since the dogs live in there - I do vacuum and wash the floor weekly, if not more when it rains! I don't want anyone thinking we are pigs!) then, I am stuck. I was recently complaining to Mr. Fix It and he comes out of the garage with these:

Oh my Lord! I have died and gone to heaven! These babies fit around anything! Look!

I am highly, highly recommending these clamps to anyone who can get their hands on them! They were purchased from Sears, and Mr. Fix It thinks they were around $20. They they are fabulous for outdoors (then, I don't even have to sweep or vacuum again!) and they also work around my table that has a long edge:

No, we have no control over Nitro, as you can plainly see. He is his own boss, except when the dogs get in on the Act!

So, this is what the Romney-Corridale is working up to:

How can you resist combing when you get results like this?

Falling Fast but Having Fun Doing it!

2007-04-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well, you know, I am a sucker for gorgeous wood products. I like the way they look, I like the way they feel, and maybe someday, I'll buy a lathe of my own and learn how to do something like this:This is a Goncalo Alves Spindle, which I purchased from Janet at The Wheel Thing. Her on line service is the best out there, in my opinion. The spindle is ordered early Friday morning and wham, bam it's on the doorstep on Saturday! I've been having fun spinning some Black Bunny roving, that you can see it sitting on. Yeah, I still have the turkish spindle going, and the two wheels. . . I think I have a problem!

My mermaid socks, suck! They don't fit so this is the state they are in at the moment. This is just my son's comforter that they are laying on, the sun was streaming in his room, so I thought it was the best place for a camera shot. I kinda love the way the red is just so RED!

Anyway, I digress, as usual, since I was pretty UPset about the mermaid socks, I went ahead and cast on for the Jaywalker socks:

Toe up Version in Lorna's Laces color Motherload. I am doing these with 2.5mm two circular needles. That ensures that they will actually fit when I am done! And, yeah, I still have the Antique Lace going, and the Kai - June version, going and the Elektra Vest going. . . I think I have another problem!

Can't end without showing off all the hard work we (and that's a loose we, as it is mainly being done by Chris and Caryn!) have been doing with the barn and pasture:

This shot is trying to show how far back the pasture goes and the fact that all the poles are now set: (This is the western neighbor's side of the land, and the people we board Blazer at right now.)

This is a shot from the side of the barn looking down the row of planked poles on our eastern neighbor's side.

Just a better shot??

Isn't it looking wonderful?

Beautiful Weather and My Sister is Here!!

2007-04-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah! My sister is here from MD, and yes, she lives right on the Montgomery County line where the annual MSWF is held every year! I used to go out every year and basically go crazy on fiber and or yarn. I'm green with envy that she gets to stroll on up there anytime she wants, and I can't get up to her house anymore due to my job. (I'm the only accountant at Kiriu that prepares all the financial reporting for the company. I guess the job does have to come first.)

Anyway, we went to the Haus of Yarn in Nashville. I really like this yarn shop and prefer it over the other big shop in Nashville. I found lots of cool stuff, but restrained myself as much as possible. I found this at the shop, and I ask you, is this not a cool way to advertise? Yeah, that's an emery board and it's got all sorts of yarn on one side and this on the other! I just think it's too damn cool!

And I found this really cool new to me yarn: Jitterbug by Colinette in Charcoal - this stuff is to die for and I can't wait to start my next pair of socks

- speaking of current socks, here are my Mermaid sock(s) in progress: I took them off the magic loop to do the heel and now I just kept going - I think I am liking ML less and less and the two circulars more and more. What do you all do?

And we are a knitting family, here are my sister's in progress: These are an elongated rib with Opal yarn - an older color I gave her at Christmas time.

Don't you just love a sister that knits?!

Another Week Gone By -

2007-04-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

Well, ya'll another week has flown by! We had some fabulous company this week from Chris's brother Jeff and his wife Carol and their youngest son, Erik! It was Spring Break in MI and they came south to the North Carolina area - Ashville, specifically to do the touristy stuff. Biltmore Estate and the winery and all the gorgeous site seeing over there. So, it was wonderful to see them as we don't make it up north as much as we probably should!

Here's the birthday boy in a very, very rare shot of sitting down! This man never sits still, never.

I've been major busy as you all know, with month end closing and yearly budgets, and auditors and now finally year end! It's all finished and I'm surprised to still be alive, but there it is! Yeah! Done! Tout Fini! So, to celebrate, I have done nothing but spin and ply up some yarn yesterday - well, that's not entirely true, I baked a Cherry Pie for Chris for his birthday too, but here is the yarn so far:

Remember Blue Jean Lady?

That's the jumbo plying bobbin for Majacraft and it's very cool to get your 2 full single bobbins plied off to one bobbin! It has an odd scraping sound to it that makes me nuts, but the end result is worth the noise. I may need to oil it or try to see if there is something in the bobbin itself. I don't know -

Anyway here is the two ply yarn:

I think it's really pretty, and I have to say this is forcing me to go into different areas as I am not combing this but carding, and the result is a bit more lumpy than I normally go -

And I have gotten to the heel on the Mermaid Socks:

The instructions in this book are kind of funky, so I am waiting to sit down and get it together before proceeding with these. That means no tv, or ipod and no wine for anyone who may be wondering!

I have decided to sell my Majacraft 3-Bobbin Lazy Kate. It is practically brand new, so I am not going to simply give it away. $75 with the three boilable bobbins or $50 without, this does not include shipping. So, if you want it let me know!

57 Holes and Counting -

2007-04-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not talking about lace here either. I'm talking about post holes to fence in the pasture we are growing for the horse. . . we have 83 posts, and this is some of the progress:

It's been a real challenge to get through some of these, Chris keeps talking about "the pan" we keep hitting the pan. Well, whatever the heck it is, one thing is for sure: it's like rock! We have been working on this since about 4:00 pm on Friday. This shows about 30 along the front side of the pasture, can you see that speck of blue in the upper left corner? That's the barn, that we are working on too. We now have gone up the side to the barn on both sides to make a paddock area, and we are working our way backwards to the back property line. All the posts are set and level too! How 'bout that?

It's been freakin' cold here this weekend, too. I am pretty sure I lost the buds I would have gotten on my azalea's and one of the trees is looking pretty lame too. I think I was looking pretty lame yesterday myself. That darn "pan" was killing me too! But here are a couple of flower shots I got before the weather turned on us all:

Crabapple:

And Dogwood:

Ok so for the fiber front this weekend, there has been very little action. I have gotten this far on my Antique Lace:

And here is a close up with a different pillow for contrast:

Mel told me there were revisions to the pattern, so like a good knitter I went out and got those. In actuality though, my pattern was up to date. So, I lucked out! When I can actually sit down with it and knit it's been really fun and the Lady Godiva is definitely some good fiber crack, let me tell ya! Ok, so I'm off to make Easter dinner now - I hope you all are having a good holiday!

April Fool's Day -

2007-04-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, and I am one of the fools that had to work this morning for inventory! So, this is going to be short as I am now a little behind at home -

I got it in my head to do some dyeing last weekend, and here are some of those results. The roving in the roaster with pink, blue and green dye:

Here is the BFL drying on the drying rack in my room- I am so very pleased with the way this turned out!

And here is the Romney-Corriedale cross fleece in the remaining dye bath.

I've already started combing this fleece and it's looking like it will be really pretty when it's spun up! It was a lot of fun to dye, and I am thinking about my next project, however, I really need to get a handle on the amount of works in progress I have going!

I bought this for the Anitque Lace wrap I showed you all last time. It is Lady Godivia in Ivory and it is gorgeous, and apparently the picture is huge, I keep trying to scale these down, but not having much success this morning! This is not a great shot, but my kitchen is a bit dark, as I missed the morning sun, since I was at WORK.

Don'tcha just love Springtime!?

2007-03-25T05:41:00.000-07:00

This is just my favorite, favorite time of the year! The grass is greening up (actually, Chris has mowed the front and back yards already) the bradford pears, redbud trees are in bloom and our crabapple tree is almost in bloom, but here is a picture from last year and I will take one as soon as they pop for next week.

I bought the three bobbin tensioned lazy kate to go with my Jensen wheel, and I have to say that most of the time, I really don't mind spending more money to get a piece made from an artisian's hands as I feel they are trying to make a living too. But, this piece kind of takes that to my outer limits. I spent $129 on this:

I do believe I could have made this one myself, take three size seven needles, and one screw with a string on it, one box from the wood pile and there you go. I do realize this was made by Mr. Jensen, and I do realize this is made of cherry, but do you honestly think this is worth $129? The one and only reason I purchased this was because the Tina's bobbins would not fit on my Majacraft Lazy Kate. The Rose bobbins will fit on this one, so I will more than likely sell the Majacraft Lazy Kate now. I am not one of those that has to have all matching items - who's going to see? And who cares? I guess I am being a bit bitchy about this, but gee whiz, huh? That's a lot of fiber or yarn that could have been purchased instead.

Ok anyway, on to other things: I am going to Maine this summer with my daughter for our summer pilgrimage back home. My brother's only son is getting married at the end of June, so we will probably freeze, as we normally only go back towards the end of the summer vacation to allow the lake water to warm up to a comfortable swimming degree. And to allow the general air to warm up too! I mean it's usually around 80 degrees at home at the end of June, but not in Maine, and that's for sure! Ok, so all that to say, I am going to try to make this:

This is Antique Lace by Ilga Leja, it is made with Fleece Artist's Handmaiden Lady Godiva, and you need two skeins for the smallest size. It really captured my heart, so I decided to ask Lisa if she had anything in taupe or light brown in color, like dockers tan, you know?

And Lisa made me this:

Now, this color was supposed to be more brown, like "tea stained", so I went ahead and ordered it. The actual skein itself is light gold, and it is truly gold, no brown tones whatsoever in it. I don't think this color will match my dress, the dress is a deep bright coral - so, I dunno. I plan to make the antique lace with this anyway, but I probably won't use it for the wedding. So, it's been that kind of week for me.

Kai is one more motif further and next I start the replacement motif. It appears I can get one done a week, so I will so this to you all next week. On that note, I hope you all have a great week and see you next time!

What makes June a Dull Girl?

2007-03-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

One financial month end, one yearly budget, and one monthly forecast, completed in 8 days equals one tired, worn out June!

So, needless to say, I have not gotten any further with Kai except to say that I have come up with a new motif for the one I really didn't like. Now, let's hope the yarn is the same, although I usually don't use all yardage given for a pattern, so I think I'm ok with this.

I did take Friday afternoon off from work, since I had to be there Wednesday from 8am to 9pm which included a 3.5 hour phone call to Japan and the whole conversation with the teleconference group was in Japanese. Ok, why did I have to be there??? I don't read or speak Japanese, although I am thinking it's high time I learn!

I did wash a fleece that Peggy and I split up on Tuesday night. This is a Romney - Corriedale cross, and it feels really nice! There appears to be a lot of discoloration to the tips from mud and dirt and dust, though, and I am a bit disappointed with that fact.

Is it possible to get this out? Here is some of it flicked out:

Peggy and I had split the fleece up into colors, and I thought I had taken the lightest color, after washing it appears I have three colors! So, this should be a lot of fun.

Another project on my wheel is some Romney that is spinning like a dream! I have completely filled my bobbins up and I have placed an order for the tensioned lazy kate that goes with my Jensen Tina II - have I told you guys how much I love, love, love this wheel??? This is the dark Romney I purchased from SkylineFarms, I also have a lighter color brown/black and white is coming. In my stash I have pinks to go with this, can anyone see where I'm going with this? Fairisle? Mill Pond by Schweitzer? I think so!!

Springing Forward and Making New Friends

2007-03-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Well, people, did we all "Spring Forward" an hour today? My clock says it, but my head is still asleep I think. I really detest this messing around with the time. I always have, I always will. Why can't we just stay on one time?

Anyway, yesterday I went to Peggy's house for a gathering of her knit group and my knit group. Peggy and I found each other by way of a Spinning Group! How cool is that? It was major fun, I brought some spindles to show how to spindle spin, even though, that is not my best method of spinning. I really am liking my Turkish spindle so far though. . .

Since we have been having beautiful weather lately I actually have pictures of updates to the barn: (Chris has been really busy on this, did you know garage doors come in pieces?? Heck, I didn't know that! Duh.)

I know that it looks more like a garage than a barn, but that was the intention of the builder. Someday when the horsey goes to live with Caryn, Chris intends to make the barn a workshop for his car hobby. That is a little down the road though, but he tends to be far sighted. Which is normally a very good thing!

Update to Kai is below:

See that marker? That marker is sitting exactly in front of the center of the sweater's back. See the diamond below it? I know that these pictures blow up really big, and if you wanted to you could see that the center of the diamond is exactly in the center of the back! Oh, I know, whoop de do, but I think it's a pretty cool deal!!!!! Now, tell me why my pictures are so dang huge when you guys click on them? Is it the resolution I am using? I always cut them in half (image size) before posting here, so what gives?

Now, tell me why my pictures are so dang huge when you guys click on them? Is it the resolution I am using? I always cut them in half (image size) before posting here, so what gives? Also, I have decided I am not thrilled with the fourth pattern on this:

so, I think I may have to change it. . . I mean, what the heck is that? I am looking through fairisle patterns now and hopefully, by next week I will have an update to that pattern. So, do I still call it Kai if I change the motifs or does it become June-Kai? Hhhmm. Things to think about I guess.

Oh the Anticipation!

2007-03-04T05:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, you guys, thanks for posting your guesses on my gallon jug of silver, the winner is Caroline! I had counted $303.30 in change, so see? Throwing your loose change at the end of a week can be worth it! Although, I am glad I didn't wait to buy my wheels! Miss Caroline if you will contact me privately, I can get your mailing address (yet, again) and send this yarn off to you!

It helped me make a pretty nice purchase in the end:

Now if I can figure out how to use it! I am trying to learn how to add audio books to this little baby, but I'm not being very successful so far. I'm usually pretty computer literate, but sometimes these things just get me. Anyone out there know how to help me with this??

I bought an Edward Tabachek Cherry Turkish spindle this week, in an effort to learn how to spindle spin successfully, and I think I may actually be liking this:

I also think that I am one of those weirdos that love a heavier spindle and a bottom whorl to boot. I am getting a fingering weight so far with this. Look at the bottom, I actually had to buy a book to figure out how to wind on correctly. It was definately a duh moment!

Here is my Kai in progress: I am just beginning the central diamond, and I can't believe how hard this color is to photograph! Can you see the wave in this?? It's been pretty fun to do so far!

We're back to Mud Season - Wahooo!

2007-02-25T07:01:00.000-08:00

Gosh the dogs get so dang dirty after a rain, you would think we had no grass at all in the backyard! This is the primary reason we haven't finished with the overhaul of the kitchen area. I guess we'll live but it surely looks crappy! I had a friend tell me of some sort of wall board that we could put up, but I've forgotten the name. . . guess I'll have to ask her again!

Ok so here's some knitting content: update on Kai - a little progress and I thank all of you who suggested keeping the diamond central. I did do that, and I know you probably can't see it (well, I know you can't 'cause I'm not a speed knitter like Vanessa, and I'm not there yet!) but this is totally even on the back, which translates to even on the fronts too! Here's the most current picture:

It looks a little puckery, but I think it will be ok in the end, it may just be the way I have it all squished on the needles:

And I've been working on these: Remember these?? These are the Mermaid Socks from Lucy Neatby that I started quite some time ago! Ok, well the BBS came first for a while!

I picked this up at the LYS for a notion bag: it's pretty cool don'tcha think?

And now I have a contest for ya'll, the person who comes closest to the correct number wins two skeins of Claudia Handpaints that are languishing in my stash: This color is called Chilie Peppers:

I had a gallon jug that I had originally purchased to partake of the yummy JW Dundee's Honey Brown Lager that it held. Well, over the years I have added all of my silver from the week into the jug, thinking I would try to buy a spinning wheel with the cash. Well, you all know I am not patient, and that was a silly goal, but in any event the gallon jug continued to be filled week after week. So, this past week the jug broke, too much pressure I suppose. . . so Caryn and I rolled the silver and now here is my question: How much money did I end up with?? Closest guess wins next Sunday!

And one more shot of my dearest love:

Have a good week!

Snow in KY Equals a Little Progress on Kai

2007-02-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

Looky, looky we had snow in the yard Saturday morning! I got out on the front porch to try and get all the male cardinals we had at the bird feeder and in the pine trees, but as soon as I got out there - whooosh off they all went. We must have had at least fifteen pairs of cardinals in the front yard, at the feeder and in the trees. They're just so pretty. Oh well. Here is my Magnolia Tree covered in snow:

On to knitting: The only reason I got as far as I have is the snow, not that I can't drive in it, I just decided to camp out inside and knit and watch old movies. (You guys remember I am a slowww knitter right? I haven't figured out the two handed stranding method, but I hope to get there with this design.) I have gotten through the corrugated ribbing, and it is quite pretty. I am not thrilled with the Osprey color, it is so close to Moorland, that you almost can't see the difference. I asked my hubby last night if these colors were too masculine for me to wear, and you should have seen his face! What?? There are masculine colors in your sweater? Oh, well. I hope I haven't made a boo-boo with this leap of faith in the colors being used in this design. Let me know what you think, will you please? This first shot is without flash or direct sunlight:

This shot has direct sunlight coming in from the back patio windows:

I am now on the set up row for the design itself, and I am still struggling on whether to center on the diamond part of the design or to just go with the design as is. Any thoughts on this is appreciated too. (Remember this design is in Simply Shetland 2.) Hope you all have a good week - I am now off to figure out how the %&$% I lost all my bookmarks! Oh boy. I'm going to a Mac next time!

Miracles Never Cease -

2007-02-11T10:29:00.000-08:00

I actually finished the Big Black Socks! Holy cow these are some big honking socks!

I tried to make them look pretty, somewhat, and the Heart pillow is just a bonus for Valentines Day coming up. I gave that to my daughter a couple of years ago, somehow she has taken over the whole couch, pillows, blankets (I almost posted these with Capt'n Jack Sparrow's eyes looking at you), stuffed animals - books, you name it! We fuss at her occasionally to get it together, but it always slides back. So, now that I've finished these I feel like I can actually start something else!

So, I'm trying to make the Kai Sweater out of Simply Shetland 2:
I don't think I've seen a good picture of this sweater anywhere yet! But, you know the motifs are the exact duplicates of the Gerda sweater in the same book. Personally, I think that's cheating, but hey, who am I? Here are the yarns, perhaps the photo gives the picture some clarity.

But you know, I can't ever do things as they are, I am going to cardiganize the sweater - I hope! The one item I am trying to come to terms with is the one extra stitch that is added to the back in order to make the pattern "exactly symmetrical at each side of the button bands." Huh? Ok, so I get the part about dividing your back stitches by the repeat of the motif, and then counting back by the remainder to line up the center back motif, but what about that stinking extra stitch? Does it just fall into place at the end of the row? That's what I am assuming for the moment, but if any of you have any other thoughts, please let me know!

I had the pleasure of showing a fellow knitter and want-to-be spinner how to spin this weekend. That is not really fair, as I think she (hi Peggy!) knows how to spin, she just unfortunately has a very old antiquated wheel, that was sold as refurbished on E-bay but really was not. Considering that she has done fabulously with the materials she had to work with!!

Oh! And one more thing: this guy showed up for lunch at our bird feeder last Sunday! Good grief that was more than I could handle! I hope you can see him (and the blood on the tree branch?) There have been no repeat visits, Thank God.

The Sun Is Shinning - Oh Happy Day!

2007-02-04T06:45:00.000-08:00

So, ok, I guess we don't have to go nearly as long as some folks to see the sun around here! It surely makes me a happy camper. Look I even took pictures as evidence:

I have been busy with working on the fiber I got on E-bay from FraydKnot, and now that the sun is shining I can show a good picture of the bobbin, actually this is bobbin number two, bobbin number one is patiently waiting to be plied with this one:

I think it is a fabulous color and I can't wait to get a full skein made up! I have also been working on my Elektra Vest:

See how sometimes it looks like the stitches are biasing to the right?? I am so hoping this is not going to be the case when I take it off the needles. I am planning on five inches in this ribbing then my cables (haven't decided if they will encompass the whole diameter or just the middle back yet, I guess I better decide pretty darn quick!) I am loving the color on this too, and although I am working haphazardly from two balls of yarn, the colors seem to be striping somewhat. It still looks pretty good though:
Then of course, I had this fabulous shot of Caryn yesterday, although, it royally makes me mad that all my really good pictures have some sort of garbage in the background, like the vacume's cleaner cord on the floor - Anyway, there is Caryn and Jake! We so love this dog!

Snow is Forcasted this Sunday -

2007-01-28T06:39:00.000-08:00

Gray again. Blah. So, does that make three or four Sunday's in a row?? I've lost count -

Finished up that Stupid Hat! I think this is about the ugliest thing I have ever made. I would be embarrassed for dh to wear this in public! He's a keeper though, because he insists on wearing it due to the fact that I think I have permanently damaged my left hand making this stupid, stupid hat! I know now that I can knit on size 0000 needles, but give me size 11's and I just can't do it! So, no more bulky knitting for me. I should have probably known better, somehow?!

Here is the Blue Jean Lady that I purchased from Frayd Knot on E-bay. She does give a price break if purchasing in bigger quantities. I think this batt looks about as good as some others I have seen on Etsy or E-bay that sell for lots of money per ounce. The yarn is in no way coming out to a smooth yarn, but it is definitely pretty. I am seriously hoping that two pounds will yield enough yarn for a 42" sweater!

Ok, so I guess I have wasted enough time this morning, and it's off to the bicycle for me - how's everyone doing with their New Year's Resolutions?? I'm still working on mine, I might not be going strong, but I'm still going! I've been losing a few pounds and maybe an inch or so - Wahoo for me! Although, I have to say that last night's birthday party for a friend seriously did some damage!

See ya'll next week!

It's Sunday, that means it's raining again!

2007-01-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

I wonder how many Sunday's in a row we can go with it raining outside. This is definitely not good for my mood. I think I am one of those people, who have one of those disorders with all the initials, in that I get really depressed when the sun doesn't shine. I think Jimmy Buffet wrote about "Cabin Fever and shooting six holes in his freezer", I used to understand this when I lived in Maine and then Michigan and the snow was shutting us in. Now, it's the rain. . .

Anyway, this all leads to the fact that a lot of knitting was not done this week, due to 16" needles are most definitely not my friend. My hand was killing me!! I am trying to make a hat for Chris, but haven't gotten very far, as I just can not use that small of a circumference to knit on. So, I go out and buy 32" needles to use the magic loop method, and look at this:

Well, that big chunky yarn ate up all the room on the cable! So, it's been a challenge, making this silly hat! Maybe I'll get through it and have one finished object to show next week!

I've been pondering which doily to make next and to tell the truth I really, really want to make this one:
But do you think it's included in the publication of this leaflet?? Not as far as I can tell, anyway. It says it is on page eight and gives the item numbers of the chart, but the photo on page eight is not this doily. Anyone out there have any ideas? This is the full publication:

So, if any of you out there have this and can read German I would be so appreciative!

Then on the other side of the coin, I have been spinning:

I am not doing a fabulous job at keeping the bobbin nice and even, but the spinning has been fun. I am still learning this wheel, and I have decided she is my best wheel! The Rose has so much take up that I almost have zero tension on the brake band. . . I just don't really know what to do about it. I am almost ready to sell her and all her accessories because of it!

Hope you all have a good week, please be assured that I read all your posts, I am just too dang busy to always have time to write you individually! Keep on talking to me though!

It's Another Gray Sunday. . .

2007-01-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

Gosh, how can I get you guys good pictures if the Sun never shines on the weekends? It's making me crazy that it rains all weekend lately. The dogs give us new meaning to the name "mud room"! Which is actually our back door entry into the house and kitchen, but it's becoming more and more difficult to keep the floors and walls clean in there!

Anyway, I digress as usual. I have been spinning and dyeing lately and I wanted to take pictures to show how nice some of this is coming out. I will give it my best shot!

This was a pound of roving that was super cheap on e-bay, a blend of a variety of different wools that is not really soft or harsh, so I guess just a medium wool (at $5 it was a steal). Now, I was going for a super light blue, but this is what the dye pot yielded:

Then I used the remaining dye to put in some merino wool I am going to make a sweater from, but the end result was one skein looked green and two looked blue, so, I over dyed that result with a more brilliant blue and this is that result: (please ignore the clean laundry drying with the wool!)

I think this will be ok, I hope so anyway, since this is slated for the FLAK by Janet Szabo. I was going to purchase some Araucania Nature's Wool, which would have been mottled too, so perhaps this will work too. I will be doing a swatch soon to check it out, but of course that would mean I have to give up spinning to knit! And look what finally came from Ohio Valley Fibers:

I sent this in to the mill in September (first week of) and got it back just last week. Just a bit slow, but I had them wash and pin draft it for me. This is a cormo fleece, and the sheep's name is/was Keiki, the fleece was 5.2 pounds and came back to me at 3.9 pounds.It is lovely, and I have no clue what will become of it yet! Then, I found this lovely fiber on e-bay:

Oh man! The Seller's E-bay name is "FrayedKnot" and I just can't say enough kind words about her. You just have to touch this stuff, but, now all my bobbins have something on them! So, I am carding this by hand to fulfill my tactile needs! (lol) Plus April from WoolyVines sent me this (I was asking for more Berry Lush to go with the Merino I spun up last time.) You guys have to get some of her stuff it is fabulous!

Where'd the weekend go??

2007-01-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

Geez, I look up and bam! The weekend is over, and now I can officially say that the "fat lady" was singing at the Potere's officially on Saturday night at 7:00 PM CST. The party is now officially over for us!

We brought Caryn to Romano's Macaroni Grill for her birthday dinner, last night, although it officially was no longer her birthday. She had her girlfriends over Friday evening and they pulled an all nighter. Unfortunately for us, we did too!

Anyway, it's late, I need to wrap this up, here is my bobbin of merino two plied, of course it is the one on top:

And here it is Navajo plied:

Well, that answers that question now doesn't it? But the yardage only came out to 143 yards! See how much that method of plying takes up your singles? Wow. But look how nicely rounded the yarn is too. (Well, don't look too closely, this was my first official attempt at plying this way.)

Ok, well, gotta get to dinner now.

Bryan went back to school today, and I was quite sad about it. I wonder if this ever really gets any easier?

The Party is Not Over!

2006-12-30T06:53:00.000-08:00

Well, this wasn't a Christmas present, but I am so in love with her that I have to show you how wonderful this wheel is! Please ignore the background football game, it was actually very dark in the living room when I took this shot, and didn't even notice the game on TV (and that was a Christmas present to Chris and myself). So, here she is all put together and oiled twice, by moi!

This is a shot of merino that I was spinning, and it spun like a hot knife going through "butta". I have never set up or seen a wheel set up for double drive, and I had a few questions for the Spinning List over on Yahoo Groups, but as you can see, I got it!

More merino, aren't these colors gorgeous? I am trying to decide if I should try to Navajo ply to try to maintain color runs, or to simply wind off and ply from two toilet paper rolls:

The party continues here, as we gear up for Caryn's 17th birthday next Friday! Can't tell you what she's getting as that would ruin her surprise! In the meantime, Chris is continuing to work on the barn, (we had 7 tons of rock delivered and the kids and Chris spread out while I was at work) I am trying to pull down all the Christmas ornaments and get my house back in order before Tuesday, when it's back to the real workday (inventory) for me.

Where are you Christmas?

2006-12-17T06:18:00.000-08:00

That song happens to be on the radio at the moment, and truthfully it feels very apropos, it has been very warm here in Kentucky, the grass is still green, the neighbors were actually mowing yesterday! And we were painting:

The girls were out riding and next thing you know, here comes Caryn riding at full tilt with a runaway horse in front of her. . . good gosh, you know my heart went up into my throat, the husband threw down the paint roller, and I ran into the fields to find her friend. Well all is well, Whit is ok, (probably major sore today, though) and was only thrown from the horse. My daughter saved the horse from running into the road and got her corralled back into the pen.

Inside the house the stockings were hung:

but not at the fireplace as we normally use the fireplace! They have their own place of honor at the front door - these were made the first years we moved to Kentucky, in counted cross stitch, before my love of knitting and spinning overtook my love of the framed needle works - (counted cross stitch, needle points, and counted needlepoint, etc.)

And can you believe this:

I have been trying for at least 10 years to get my Christmas cactus to bloom!! Yeah!! (Yeah, I have plant issues, if you are remembering my Jade Plant, which is still alive, btw!)

On the spinning front, I think I temporarily lost my mind! Well, sort of. I sold my Ashford Joy and the Woolee Winder that I bought to go with her. She was a fabulous wheel, but I never truly "loved" her. Does that make any sense? I have coveted the Jensen's Tina II for years. . . then, wham bam, I found Betty Robert's wheels -

OMG how, how, how can you not love them? Oh, man the dilemmas I have! So, I'm going to order one of those. . . oh but Angela says "June, you really need to check out the Tina II" and she describes her in just the way I have been thinking about her. . .Oh what to do??

Well, I ended up ordering the Tina II - the man on the phone says it's a four month wait, Darn it all day! Ok, next day: I remember there is a website that states they keep one or two in stock! But, do they still have one? Gosh, it's Christmas time after all! Well, they did! So, I sucked it up and bought it even though they made you pay shipping. What's $55 compared to four months?!

Now, I am feeling incredibly selfish for doing this at this time of year, but I am justifying it in the way of the husband, and kiddos are all done, and I am not entirely sure my Joy would have sold so quickly if it wasn't Christmas time. . .

A little progress was made this week. . .

2006-12-10T06:01:00.000-08:00

Yeah! I got all of one mitten completed and almost 3/4 of the way on the second mitten. Almost done, then to the thumbs. That shouldn't take any time at all. This yarn has been a little hard on the hands since I am making the mittens in Noro on size 7 needles, it is probably just me, as I am not really used to working with double points anymore. I don't know what possessed me to buy them, but they are nice: CP bamboo in 6 inch lengths.

Have I told you guys how hard it is to get a picture without my cat in it?? He is a hound when it comes to yarn, so as soon as I take out my knitting - wham! There he is. . .
Think he's going to walk away with that ball of yarn?? Did I tell you I had to re-wind the ball that was purchased to make the color go the right way in this ball? What a darn pain.

Nope, Mommy said NO! Ok, then I'll just sit here on the hearth, hey, why isn't it warm right now?

Chris went to Colorado and back for work this week, he was disappointed in the surrounding views. We thought it would be a little more picturesque, but it turns out all he could see was flat ground. He described it like being on a ship (he used to be in the Coast Guard, 16 years before his knee gave out and we had to retire, we where going for the 20 don'tcha know.) and all you can see is water, but in this case flat ground.

He did a little work on the barn, he got the rake trim up and it's really is looking good. I think it's been really cold here, and I am amazed that he can get anything done! (We had lows of 17 degrees the past couple of days, thank the Lord for fire places!)

I've been spinning up the red lace and trying not to start anything new. I currently have at least five things in the basket next to my couch: BBS, Hyrna, Rosebud Shawl, Mermaid Socks, and Mary Ella from Knitty! Good Grief! So, my plan at the moment is to finish three out of five before I am allowed to make one more purchase!

I am thinking it's going to get really busy around here until the holidays are over. Bryan comes home next week (yeah!) and the holiday hustle and bustle. . . you know I went and bought one item at the mall yesterday. It took 45 minutes to get in and out of the parking lot and 5 minutes to make my purchase. Oh yeah, I love this time of year. . . bah humbug! All that to say, that if I think I am going to take a mini vacation from blogging until the new year. (Maybe.) So, don't worry if I'm not out here the next couple of weeks!

Happiest of Holidays to all my cyber friends!

The Continuous Christmas Present Search . . .

2006-12-03T06:48:00.001-08:00

You know, every year it's the same thing. . . what do you want for Christmas? Well, darlin's I have to say that I have everything a sane person could want or need. So, what do you say to that question? Then there are the kids, that are not really kids anymore, but young adults. One lives away from us nine months out of the year now, and is not the world's great communicator, besides those strikes against him, he is male. So, what might he want?? I have no clue. Oh, he will eventually make me a list with all of three things on it, 10 days before the holiday, then I will run like a banshee to fullfill his wishes. . . something wrong with this picture, I think.

Then there is my daughter, to whom I could buy the world, as she is still here in the house and always makes her wishes known! (A bit more like me I think!) So, we went off in search of her Christmas gift yesterday, this is not a surprise, as she had to pick it out, as it had to fit her. Here is her new saddle for trail riding on her red roan pony, otherwise known as Blazer.

I've been working on my Mom's Christmas presents, the scarf is done (she likes very short scarves, so don't think this is a mistake!) And, I apologize for my lousy pictures, I don't have the same talent that my sister does!

and I am up to the thumb on mitten #one. I brought this with me to work on in the car on the way to the tack shop, and lo and behold, the fourth needle was at home at my seat. Ok then, I had my Elektra vest with me and worked on that. But, no new pics of that, as I am out of time! No new pics of the barn, as it's too darn cold and we need warmth to paint!

Good luck with the shopping be it for Christmas or Hanukkah.

Survived the Turkey Day!

2006-11-26T09:29:00.000-08:00

Well, sort of anyway. We had wonderful company, thanks for coming out to see us, Mom! And we had the traditional turkey for dinner. I have to say that this was my best one yet! We went to the Ice! Show in Nashville, it was really cool, and really cold! It had 1.5 million pounds of ice to make the sculptures:

Chris and Caryn worked on the barn/outbuilding:

Doesn't it look great?

I started a scarf for a Christmas gift:

That's Noro Kureyon and the pattern is from an old, old Knitter's Magazine. I didn't get nearly enough knitting or spinning time in during this vacation, but after all, it's not often that we get company from Maine! Took Mom back to the airport, and promptly caught some kind of virus - just in time to go back to work on Monday. It just figures doesn't it?

My scarf is from Knitter's: Winter 2002 K69, this one is full of scarves and hats. I am doing the Wavy Scarf Ver.3 on page 40.

Won't You Let Me Stay with You? It's Cold Outside!

2006-11-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

My daughter goes on a horseback ride once a week, and this past Sunday, the girls came home in her best friend's truck with this:

The last time they did this, Caryn came home with a box filled with tissue paper and this little guy:

I looked and looked for pictures of him as a baby, but couldn't find them! Harmmph!

OK, so, her Dad and I are big pushover's and we now have one cat , two dogs, and a horse. I seriously think that is enough! We have made all the efforts we knew to find his rightful owner, but after the vets, the animal hospital, and the local newspaper, with no one calling us, we've decided his name is Jake. He is now getting his shots and next week we plan on having him spayed. He is most definately house broken, and he is a calming influence on Bailey, Nitro tolerates both dogs very well, for a cat, but he took to Jake very quickly.Bailey and Jake are pretty well adjusted, although Bailey thinks she is top dog.
We have alot of this going on outside:

Ok, on to knitting: this is the progress of my Elektra handspun vest:

This is my mindless knitting right now. And here is progress on the barn:
The white part is the sun roof - pretty cool huh?

Daylight Savings Time Ends -

2006-10-29T09:07:00.000-08:00

In an effort to understand why the heck we do this "spring forward and fall back" thingy every spring and fall season, I looked it up. Apparently it was conceived to conserve energy and obtain one extra hour of daylight during the summer months. While I concur wholeheartedly that getting that extra hour during the summer months is cool, I really, really hate the winter months where you are getting up in the dark, driving to work in the dark, and then turning around and driving home in the dark too! Oh well, I guess I can't change it so I might as well stop fussing about it.

I was kind of at a loss at what to show this week for fiber related activity, as I have put myself on a yarn diet and I am trying not to buy any yarn until after Christmas - WELL, I've made it a week, but as I said I don't have much going on 'cept those Big Black Socks: Turned the heel and look at that tension! Is that good or what? The slight ridge will correct itself in the wash, that is the move between needles -

I can show some past acquisitions tho, so here is LL's in Motherlode: Don't you love this color? I am planning on the famous Jaywalker socks for this:

And this is an artist on Etsy: Twisted This color is "Stone" which is a self striping denim - I have no actual plans for this yet, although I am not a big fan of plain vanilla, round and round you go, which is why I am struggling with the BBS's I think.

No update on the barn, as silly, silly Chris tried to catch a 16 foot 2"x 4" with one hand while standing on a ladder! Well, Good Grief! One jammed thumb leads to much pain and swelling, can we all collectively say "ouch" ? So, the week has been a bust for barn building, but it was raining most of the time too, so I guess he picked a good week to be silly. They are putting up the roofing shingles now, so next week it will really be looking good!

Have a good week everybody!

Autumn is in Full Swing -

2006-10-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

A picture to show the gray skies, rain in the air, and the falling leaves, falling temperatures and general falling spirits it seems.

I genuinely like the Autumn colors that the trees show in abundance, but I generally start getting quite depressed this time of year as I know that the cold and snow will be upon us soon. Although, since we have moved to the south the snow is not really such a problem any longer. But, ice can wreak havoc with the roads and trees and power lines - so a backup generator is a great thing!

Anyway, on a fiber note I have nothing to show that wouldn't be a repeat of last week, although I did turn the heels on the BBS! As I mentioned last week I have gathered quite a lot of yarn that I know I will never use.

So go here: Almost Free Yarn: All I want for this yarn is for you to pick up the shipping, I plan to use US priority mail so that I don't have to pay for boxes or bags. If you want it just e-mail me and I'll get it in the mail for you! I'm giving this a week and after that all remaining yarn will be dropped off at Goodwill - If you can't see the photos, then sign up for Flickr and look under my user name of: junepot then you should be able to see them all. While your over there you should check out my sister's gorgeous photos too! Her user name is daj_klinedinst That girl can take a picture I tell ya!

Oh, but I can't go before I show you how far Chris has gotten with the barn:

What do you think?? It looks like a building now doesn't it?

I think I'm Out of Control!

2006-10-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

You know how it is when you are perusing the internet and you see that lovely yarn that you just can't resist? Yeah, well, I am now in the process of cleaning up my stash, and, ahem, I think I have a problem. You know, like "Hi, my name is June and I can't stop buying yarn and any fiber related object." Now, don't get me wrong, I have never had to rob Peter to pay for my purchases, but I'm starting to feel pretty guilty about it! So, next week I will have pictures of yarn for sale for the price of postage, just to get some of this in hands that will knit it!!

First off the barn: Look at all those toys!! And he is upset with my two spinning wheels??? Nawh, he really is the best - Look how far we've gotten!

So, anyway, on to other things, I have been trying to grow jade plants ever since I can remember (and that's a long time) and this is the best I have ever, ever done. I wanted to transplant it and give it some nutrients, but of course we have about one tablespoon of dirt left in the dirt bag in the garage. . . so, next week I hope.

And on the needles is: Hyrna -

I am not fast especially when I have three things going right now! But look at this, I just love, love, love this color from Ms. Lisa:

Graphite:

And of course, two pairs of socks: Mermaid (for me in size women's size 6)

OK: This pair should count as two pairs!!! BBS for Socks for Soldiers men's size large 10 - 11, Good Grief they are huge! Men have enormously big feet!

The Best Laid Plans . . .

2006-10-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I had planned to show you all progress on the pole barn, but instead took a trip with my darling, Chris and brought Bryan back to Lexington today. A six hour trip and one clean bathroom, a load of laundry, put up of groceries and making dinner put short work of this day - so I will proceed to take pictures and show all of you (what is the number now. . . 6 in total?) our progress next week -

Have a good one everyone -

Gearing up for Fall -

2006-10-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well, as we speak dh, Chris and dd, Caryn are outside working on the beginnings of our pole barn for one said daughter's horse, Blazer:

The past couple of years we've been paying our neighbors to feed and board him, and recently our town is growing by leaps and bounds (we are even getting a Lowes, who hoo!) they are building homes on acreage the size of a postage stamp. With this in mind we purchased another acre from our farming neighbor and we are pulling the horse back to our care. I really wanted more room, to do a couple of sheep too, but Chris flatly refuses to deal with sheep. . . so, I have to be content with the horse I guess!

On the fiber note: I am spinning up some lovely wool and mohair which I have been showing you in the past, just trying to finish it up:

When it gets really stressful at work I tend to spin more than knit at night, as that is about all my addled brain can handle, so here's a picture of some wool I bought from an e-bay vendor: It looks rather orange in the shot, however it is really red with just hints of yellow and orange -

I am really finally getting lace! Oh boy! I am excited about that!

And of course I am still working on the big black socks:

Two and a half inches to go and I turn the heels! This is both socks at once, but they are so very boring - so, just showing the one!

The Great Adventure -

2006-09-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

Ohhh, we made it! You just wouldn't believe the trip to Atlanta, it rained and it rained and it rained. Once we made it to Chattanooga I called my darling Chris and whined over the phone about the rain and ohmyGod we are going to have to sit outside in the rain. . . well, he proceeded to calm me down and Caryn and I continued on. . . at one point I was sure we were going to die as a FedEx truck flew through the standing water on the roads and completed obliterated my field of vision. Going 60 mph and not having a clue of the road or where the other cars went kinda makes Mom (me) nervous. Caryn says I looked like we had just flown over the mountain top! Kinda white and pasty you know. . . I don't do heights very well. All of this to say, that the concert was rockin' and Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers, too) are just awesome. His voice was amazingly the same as when I was my daughter's age. . . man, I wish I were aging so well! The rain stopped it warmed up and all was well with the world again. I only got turned around once, and beeped at once, so I guess it was all worth it!

My sister (hi, Donna!) went to the Dakota's and the Badlands this past summer, and bought me this great gift:

Isn't it just beautiful? I think she said it's made of mammoth tusk? I don't really remember, maybe she will post in the comments for me (hint, hint)!

And here is the entire wall:Sorry about the light's pull chain in the picture, I just couldn't get it cropped out!

I also got a swatch done in the Elektra: One dark:One light: But both the same swatch - Using size seven needles - and I am writing the pattern for the vest as I go -

So, it's been busy and now I am collapsing. Took my MS meds last night and they tend to make me kinda sick (which is why I waited till we got back from the Great Adventure to take it) so, I'm back to the couch -

Tout Fini!

2006-09-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

I did it, I did it! I finished up the Elektra this weekend!
I love the way this yarn has come out, however it is unbelievably hard to photograph! I ended up with approximately 1,000 yards, which is about what I was aiming for, I have a specific pattern in mind for a vest, and I wanted enough yarn to be able to swatch, swatch, swatch! So, now the basket is empty and I thought this was a cool picture:

I have been spinning for just about three years, and I am completely self taught, but I think this yarn came out really well. However, if you don't please don't burst my bubble! I hope the amount of photos in this post isn't too much, I just love my pictures though:
I have never two plied and got my bobbin so close before, this is another accomplishment on my part as I usually don't bother to andean ply up the end of the bobbin (ok, this is about the thousandth time I have written boobin instead of bobbin - what the heck?) I just normally pull it all off and into the waste basket it goes -

Caryn and I are going to see Tom Petty this coming weekend, he is playing at the HiFi Buys Amphitheater, in Atlanta, GA. I have been constantly hounded by Caryn to go see him in Atlanta, since we had to miss his performance in Nashville last year, due to a vacation in Maine at the same time. I finally gave in last week, therefore, our seats are on the lawn, (we may not be able to see the man without binoculars!) but I hope the music is still good! I just hope no druggie throws up on us or anything! It's a six hour drive, so I don't think there will be an update to the blog next week.

New Toy. . .8 oz of Elektra

2006-09-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Got a new to me toy, and I tried valiantly to get a good picture of this, but it's cloudy outside and therefore, dark in the house.

I love this new skein winder, I hated the niddy noddy, although when I wanted to stretch my yarn slightly I would wind it on there and leave it over night. The Niddy always seemed to take forever, and my hand would actually cramp sometimes. . . maybe that was the MS talkin' who knows? In any event, the skein worked brillantly! Since it takes time off the process, I love it! Although, I did a stupid thing yesterday in my excitement over this and took one of my skeins off the winder without the ties - big, ginormous mistake! (Took me at least an hour to fix that boo,boo!) But, I learned my lesson, and got the second half done this morning in about another hour (plying and skeining approximately four ounces, yes, I am slow. . . I have very curious animals at my house that tend to slow me down!)

Ok, only 4 oz. left and now to figure out what I have and about what I will end up with to start swatching!

Hyrna is now in full swing, and I did take it apart one more time, since my straight lines were not straight in the beginning. Thank you Angela for all your support in this effort! I am now reading the pattern without hesitation on every stitch, I think for me it was a matter of placing my stitch markers, now I seem to be zooming!

BBS are still in progress but a little bigger, so no fun pictures of that. We are off to see "Hollywood Land" so had to get this together quickly today -

See ya!

Another Long Weekend! Yeah!

2006-09-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who commented last weekend about the finished doily. It was fun to make, but I am glad that one is over with now. . .

Ok, so on to other topics: I have to say that I truly like my job, but I think I like having time off more! Now if there were some way to put a paycheck with the permanent time off, I guess we would all be there in a heartbeat, huh buddy? Yeah, I love the long weekends, finally get to try to catch up on the sleep that your body needs, and get the house somewhat in order again, and even get to do some playing in the middle!

I’m still working on my BBS for the Socks for Soldiers, I’m getting there:

And, I have made valiant efforts to get this Hyrna going, but I am obviously chart impaired on this one. I have started and ripped no less than eight times, I thought I had it going and now I am trying markers to see if that helps! I sure hope so, as I really want to do this one! My hat is definitely off to you,Miss Angela! I don’t have any idea how you whip through this! And three times, at that!!

I am working with Lisa Souza’s Merino Sock! in the color graphite, and I am just loving it! Here’s a close up!

So, that’s it from me, hope you all are having a fabulous extended weekend if you are celebrating!

All's Well that Ends Well!

2006-08-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

I want to say thanks to all of you that posted with regard to my dropped stitch! I laddered that sucker up the way it was supposed to be and then used the same thread and weaved it in on each end. Now, I can show you the blocked doily! (Thank God!)

It came out rather well, if I do say so myself! It certainly is not perfect, but it sure looks nice off the needles!

Caryn got her license this past Friday, so now, both of us are happy! I don't have to do the bring to school route on my way to work, and she doesn't have to get to school extra early. Caryn got a really good shot of our Bailey Blue last night. Bailey loves to "herd" the barn swallows that swoop in our back yard. We have an underground fence for her (that's what that big collar is on her neck) and she runs back and forth along the fence trying to catch them! It's really fun to watch, plus as an added bonus you don't have to throw the ball for her for 20 minutes!

Bryan got all settled into his dorm and he sounds like he's very happy. I guess it's true, they all have to grow up sometime!

Ok, so, I'm back to knitting socks, and trying to knit Hyrna from Three Cornered and Long Shawls from Schoolhouse Press. Look under Lace in the books section! In progress photos to be seen next week.

How Utterly Disappointing!!

2006-08-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

Our son, Bryan is on his way back to school today, so it is pretty quiet around here, I guess it was meant to be a crappy weekend, dh, Chris didn't get the job he was going for and dd, Caryn didn't get her license. Hopefully, next weekend will be brighter! It raining and gloomy here and it fits my mood!

I finished my doily last night, then I was checking it over because deep down in my heart I just knew there was going to be at least one problem, and of course, there was. . .

A wayward stitch that came apart and now I really am quite clueless on how to fix it. It was part of one of those blasted knit three together stitches that was almost more than I could do with crappy addi size zeros! I finally learned the best way to do them for my hands, but as you can see, it was difficult to determine if all the stitches were actually caught, and I did try to be sure they were, but crap! One got away from me.

I know how to pull this back into the stitches to make it look right, but how do I secure the final stitch!?? This might end up in the UFO never to be resurrected pile.

So, here is a final shot of the doily unblocked, cause I'm not gonna go to all the trouble of blocking if a stitch is going to run right down to the middle - does anyone out there have any suggestions??

Socks for Soldiers

2006-08-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Absolutely nothing to talk about -

2006-08-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, it is quiet here, Bryan is working his last day at work, and going back to school next Sunday. Chris is mowing the yard, as we speak and he leaves for Massachusetts tomorrow. Caryn is studying and going for her driver's liscense on Friday. I am simply trying to keep up with everyone. Knitting dishcloths and finishing that darn doily. 560 stitches is a lot to get through and I have around 10 more rounds - all squished on a 20" needle. I need to check and see if I can manage a 24" as it is starting to hurt the hands. (Old age could be part of it!) Anyway, off to get the laundry finished, and maybe I'll actually have something to share next weekend. Oh, by the way, go sign up for Socks for Soldiers - all you fabulous sock knitter's out there! I can't get that dang link to work though, so for anyone who is interested please go to SOCKFORSOLDIERS yahoo groups! Sorry!

What to show when you have nothing to show?

2006-08-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, I've been busy, busy, busy at work, which translates to: OK I have nothing to show on my blog this weekend! Well, I have actually made progress with my doily! I have finally reached row 95 with all of 480 stitches, but again, how do I show progress? Well, I can't so here is a recap: Center star:

And this is the section that was giving me fits (double yo's and then decreasing into those stitches on the next lace round, with addi's crappy point)!

The color being used is from Manuela in a 50gm ball, size 20 thread, color 103, and I chose size zero needles. I am almost done, and I have over half the ball left. I am just terrible at guaging how much thread to purchase, and I worry that I will run out! So, I have another whole ball with 400m on it, anyone out there want to give this doily a whirl?

MOMMES

Crazy Weekend for Us

2006-07-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

It was back to school shopping time for us this weekend, since school begins again on Tuesday, August 1st. I can hear all of you up there above the Mason Dixon Line saying “OMG” that’s way too early! Well, you know, it is, but then again they get out of school on May 27th or some crazy date like that, so they still get their full two months off. It does really make us crazy in that we can never take a vacation in the warmest months in the North. We did take them out of school for the first few years, but when they got into Middle School we gave up because it was way too much hassle!

Anyway, that was all a big preamble to say I haven’t made much progess on my Mermaid socks, and as you can see any progress made on my doily doesn’t show:

But I did get some stitch markers made today for my sister (Hi ya, Donna!). These are made with Argentium 20 guage headpins, and the longest length I can find are 1.5” in this guage, which makes it very, very difficult to make a maker bigger than a 5.5mm needle (US 9). But, the tarnish free is worth it I think.

So, that’s all from here, but want to show you all how big Bailey is getting 26.3 pounds at 7 months. We were trying really hard to get a good picture of her, but she is so, well, memememememe, pet me! I love you, love you, love you that we did manage to get one of her looking like quite the wild dog (right) but she's really not, as you can see from the left photo!

Oh, and I just can’t ignore my baby, Nitro:

His leg is in the Ott Light reflection, right behind my head if I had been sitting there! – Yeah, I guess he loves me, or it could be the light. . .

Slots anyone?? . .

2006-07-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

Chris and I took a ride over the KY state to try our hand at the slot machines at Caesar's Palace in Elizabeth, Indiana. Well, we had no clue on what to do, and the slots were jammed packed, so we tried a few and lost around $40. Not too bad, we went expecting to lose. This morning we went back to try our hand today. . . well, first I won about $30 and so we used just that ticket. Now, in hindsite, I think we should have stayed at one machine, but we would use $5 then move to another machine. . . all in all we lost $60 and decided we are just too cheap to really play these games right!

On the way up there and back, I worked on Lucy Neatby's Mermaid socks:

They are coming out pretty well, except I wish the wavy cuff, was a little more wavy!

The only other thing that happened this weekend is we got a rug delivered that finally finishes off the living room:

This rug is 90% wool, so I am hoping it will last a lifetime, it has taken me a long time to decide on this, and actually I had finally decided on another color. Chris on a leap of faith chose this one. Please excuse my messy room, I was trying to show off how well the rug goes with the hardwood floor! I think it looks really good, now we have to replace that furniture!

We also got our land plot delivered to us, so we now will own 2.85 acres! We are very excited and making plans for the horse barn now.

Took a Boat Ride and Finished a Sock

2006-07-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

My beloved sister came to visit us this weekend, and I believe a great time was had by all. First we had to abate the fierceness of our crazy dog, Bailey. We don’t really know why, but she is deathly afraid of strangers, and I’m sure you all know, that a scared dog is a scary dog. But Daddy –O (that would be dh, Chris) got the upper hand and got all under control, so Bailey is not afraid of Donna any more, and I think that Donna is not afraid of Bailey either.

We took a ride on The General Jackson, a river paddleboat, that had a show (Tim Watson) that was really funny, I have to give the man his due, he can fiddle like nobody’s business! It was blistering hot, 90 degrees + and humidity in the 90’s too, but we had a good time and we didn’t melt, and to prove it here is a picture of Donna, my daughter Caryn (Queen) and me in the middle.

So, after that excursion, instead of going south to TN, we went north and headed to The Shaker Village in South Union, KY. It was another blasting hot day, and there was no air conditioning of course, at the main house. It’s a pretty amazing life style, but certainly not for me! Just imagine doing everything separate from the men including going upstairs! They had some gorgeous wood-work and furnishings, but I am only showing a picture of the spinning wheels and this loom, which keep in mind was probably built somewhere around 1858 or so. . . I don’t weave, but this looks like a bear to work on. . . what do you think?

And, last but not least, I taught my sister how to do two socks on one magic loop, and although these are not her socks, I finished mine! Yeah! Now, tell me the truth, are these ugly or what??!! Good grief!

What I did on my summer vacation!

2006-07-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I can't hardly believe that it has already been a week since I last posted. You know I really kind of like this staying at home thing. The problem with that is the fact that you then have a reduction of funds to use for all the hobbies I seem to have acquired! I really don't like asking dh for money as he is a major Mr. Thrifty and can't stand to spend a dime unless it is vitally necessary. Of course, I tend to then lean the other way and spend too much, but never more than we can afford. . . he has tried to explain to our son, Bryan, who is working this summer full time in a a copper tubing plant, that he needs to find a happy medium between his type of spending and mine! I thought that was pretty funny, but actually Bryan is almost a bigger tight-wad than his Dad! HOW is that even possible? Well, he always has Mom to fall back on, now doesn't he?

So, Mom, that would be me - spent some money on this kit which took a freaking month to get to me, so I don't really recommend this vendor unless she has gotten better with her communication. She was teaching a class, and then didn't let me know the item was in the mail. . . gheesh - Anyway, I loved this bracelet and made it up this week:

The biggest problem with this bracelet is the swarvorski crystals are attached with fire line, well the jump rings do not all close exactly (I guess due to operator error, and the fact that closing and opening jump rings hurts my fingers after a while!) so the blue stones, had to come out. I tried figuring out how to link them with wire, but didn't get anywhere with that either. So, darn it, right now it is being worn avec sans blue stones!

Then I spun up 8 oz of the Elektra and now have only four oz to go to finish! I only have the three bobbins, though, so I will have to get this plied up and then I am undecided on whether or not to spin the full four oz on one bobbin and then ply from a center pull cake - I always mess this up, or just spin two oz on each bobbin and then ply -

I also read a book this week and saw Pirates yesterday! All in all a good time was definately had by me! So, when can I retire??? Take care, everyone see ya next week!

Spinning Lesson for the Day . . .

2006-07-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, I’ve decided, finally, that I can not stand working with carded fiber. Well, maybe that is a bit harsh. I should qualify that statement by saying I can’t stand working with my carded fiber. I bought a cvm lamb’s fleece that I had my heart set on making lace weight yarn with – well here is the inside of one of my batts:

The spinning was not fun, and I was constantly stopping to try and pick out the neps in this mess. So, being anal and also, trying to remember how much money I spent on this fleece (a lot) I decided to comb the rolag. Well, it is a big rolag, so part of it:

It is making a really nice soft nest and I am loving spinning up this stuff. It is just flowing out of my fingers. I am still trying for lace weight, but there is still a lot of lanolin in there (yes, I did wash before carding, but I can never manage to get it really, really clean) but, you know I really prefer spinning it this way versus a dried up commerical processed top!

This is the end result and I am now a very happy camper! Anyone want to buy a Louet Carder?

I also plied up the fiber I had on my bobbins for this wool/mohair you’ve all heard me talking about. Pretty huh? I now have 648 yards of this – with a little more than 4 ounces left to spin. It’s been a very productive weekend so far!

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get. . .

2006-06-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

Too much going on this weekend, trying to do laundry and housework, and beading and knitting. . . so, this will be short and sweet. (Just like me!)

Made up some stitch markers for a friend, Cindy, in FL who was once living here in Ky, but decided to move South when her husband did. Wise choice, I think. Ok, so tell me which ones you like in this bunch! Come ON! Comment!

We had Bailey spaded this weekend, as we decided we could hardly handle her, never mind getting a litter of these Australian Shepards!! So, I've also been trying to keep her calm and relaxed. Well, hell, it just ain't workin' so, I've cooped her up in the laundry room area to make her lay down. Good God, you would think she would have a bit of pain, wouldn't you?

OK, off to get some knitting done, the doily I am working on is a definately slow going. On one row you have a double yarn over, the next row you have to knit, purl into that double yarn over, then the next row you K2Tog for those two stitches! I am really having a time of it, the needles are size 0's and addi's with the crappy point. But, I say, find me a size zero from anyone else with a good lace working join! Anyone have any suggestions??

Have a good week!

UFO'S turn into WIP'S (Sometimes!)

2006-06-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

This week, I have been learning new things and this for some reason always makes me go out there and try to find every scrap of information about the new “thing”. So, for one I learned how to make two socks on one circular needle using the magic loop method and a few websites in between. Here is the evidence:

Not sure I like the striping pattern this yarn is taking, but I’ve gotten way too far to rip out now!

I’ve also been playing with my beads and wire this weekend, and I have finally gotten pretty good at the “P” loop and the “S” chain, but I didn’t take pictures of that.

I’ve also decided that since I have “startitis” that if I start something new, then something old must come out of the UFO basket. So, this doily was chosen, and now I am having so much fun with it my socks are languishing! I tried to show you two photos, but Blogger and I are not getting along today! This photo is a pretty good representation of the true color:

And the final photo of the day is to show that the DFS really is a finished object! I think it's just the right size for me too!

Finished DFS Yeah!

2006-06-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished my DFS Shawl, and here is proof!

You know, I can't do anything without this guy -
This was made with Lisa’s Original Sock! Yarn in Sky Drama. I worked with 3.75mm needles and I got 7.5 repeats, I was hoping for 8 but I think I would have run short. So, I quit.

I haven’t decided if it is blocked “too severely” or not, but I do hope it will hold it’s shape.

Went to Joe’s Crab Shack in Nashville for dinner with Chris for our belated anniversary celebration, and ran into a bunch of country music fans celebrating Fan Fare – forgot all about that, but it was fun and the food and drink was good, even got a humongous desert, chocolate cake in like, seven layers. Yum!