Hot, HOT, Darned HOT!

Oh man, what stinky hot, soupy weather we've been having. I have to walk the dog in the morning or it won't get done. Even so, you can see the humidity in the air and I return just slick with sweat. The dog flops on to the cold floor, six inches of tongue dragging out, not even bothering with the cool water I immediately set out for him.

What's a knitter to knit?  Not much, but silk works:

This is a Baktus scarf, knit in Fleece Artist Sea Silk. It was a fun little knit and about the only pattern that the brightly dyed yarn could handle. I will confess though, it's been on the needles a while. It was just its turn to get finished up.

I love the drape of the fabric, and the colors are much richer in a softer light.

Hot colors for hot weather. I hope it rains tonight.

Bitter Smurf and the Bad Luck Animals

It was a bitter-sweet vacation. This was likely our last vacation for our family.  Luke made it abundantly clear that he wasn't enjoying himself and if possible, he was going to make sure no one else enjoyed themselves either. Seriously, there were words exchanged. Eventually we reached a truce and perhaps even moments when he enjoyed himself, but not before he earned himself the nickname "Bitter Smurf".

The cottage was very sweet, clean and comfortable. The area where we were staying was very quite and rugged.

 
I was fascinated by the little wildflowers growing in the crevices of the pervasive rocks. Not only little flowers and grasses, but bushes and even trees grew in the rocks. Cedar shrubs hugged the ground in miniature looking from a distance like lawn.

The water was so clear! Fresh and blue, it was wonderful. There's a place called the grotto that was on the must see list and it was so worth it. A shade of blue I never expected to see in Canada.

We also did a 7km hike on the Bruce Trail. It was of moderate difficulty and I was very proud of our whole family for sticking it out.



Dexter's eye was better by the end of that first day. It must have been a bug bite. For a while there, he looked like a boxer who'd lost the fight.

The story of the trip though came one night around the campfire. We heard a rustle in the bushes behind us and saw a frog hop out onto a rock. It just sat there like it was enjoying the fire with us. Every time we looked back it was still there. After about 20 minutes, it jumped, toward the fire. We laughed and said "No, don't go to the light." But by golly if it didn't jump again, right into the fire! I thought for sure we were going to hear a hiss and a pop. We were all on our feet, yelling, helpless, when it jumped back out of the fire.  I herded it back into the bushes, but you know, it came back. Twice. We nicknamed it suicide frog.

Then, when we returned from vacation, one of our guinea pigs had died. She was six years old and spry and chipper when we left, so we figure it's just old age. The other pig seems to be fine, but we're keeping an eye on her.

Finally, yesterday, I had the day off work. I cleaned did laundry, got groceries and generally tidied up loose ends. I was eating lunch outside with Dexter running in the yard when he caught a squirrel. He had it pinned and didn't seem to know what to do with it. He wasn't biting it or anything. So I grabbed his collar to pull him off it, but he had it pinned between his paws. It was as if after years of taunting he'd finally caught one and wasn't going to let it go. But after a bit, the squirrel fought back and then there's Dexter shaking his paw as if to say "Ow! Get it off!"  Finally the squirrel let go and lay there in the grass, on its back panting for a bit before it scampered up the tree. It seemed fine and Dexter was none the worse for wear.

And that is the story of Bitter Smurf and the Bad Luck Animals. The end.

Pre-Vacation

The family is packed and about ready to head out for a week at a cottage in the wilds of Ontario. 

We'll be staying near the Bruce Peninsula and have plans to hike, swim, canoe and just plain relax.  Except, we're not off to a good start. We've got the typical pre-vacation stresses such as:

• A heavy work week leading up to vacation in order to tidy up loose ends.
• Husband injuring his pinky finger at work (likely in haste to get things done)
• Cleaning, packing and loading up the vehicles.
• A grumpy eldest son, who is "wasting a week of his life" for us.
• A dog with a mysteriously swollen eye. It appeared just after an early morning walk designed to tire him out before the trip. We're pretty sure it's a bug bite and hoping it responds to Benadryl.
• Vacation knitting that didn't pan out warranting a swift change of plans. No time to cast on - my fingers are crossed that this version of yarn will work with the pattern.

I have a finished knit to show you, and some laceweight yarn that I spun (my first!) but as you can tell not a lot of time or energy to show you properly. Wish us luck that the vacation ends better than it began.

A Puzzlement

Last night, I bought both my boys fedoras and flip flops at their request. My almost 15 year-old son just walked out the door dressed in athletic pants, a t-shirt, flip flops and his fedora. No doubt he's quite pleased with his look but it's a puzzlement to me.

In the interests of teen-aged dignity, there are no photos at this time. Perhaps after they've had a chance to break in the new duds.

Much to Learn

One of the things I'm enjoying so much about spinning is the challenge it presents to me. There's so much to learn. To help with that, I bought a couple of Judith McKenzie videos at Interweave's Hurt Book sale.

I just got them transferred to my iPad today. I had a technology fail when I was trying to figure out how to get them on the iPad. It took a week for it to finally occur to me that I could add the videos to my iTunes video library and then sync the iPad to download them. Duh. Too simple perhaps?

I like what I've seen so far of Judith's videos, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot, but I have one criticism. Like a lot of experts, Judith tends to gloss over the very simple steps that are a bewilderment to the newbie. For example, she's using a Lendrum in the video and she mentions that you can wrap the yarn around the guide to slow down the uptake when spinning lace. Now I knew about the slowdown trick, but I couldn't see in the video where she hooked the yarn and I have the exact same wheel. I would have really liked to have seen that!

Anyway, here's a parade of yarns coming off my wheel these days:

The first two are two-ply and the last, dark one is a three ply. I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture of the fiber. I don't have the technical expertise to supply more details about my spinning than that I'm afraid.  So much to learn!!

Finished in Time

Yes! My father's socks were done well in advance of Father's day (thank you for asking).

I was right and the second yarn was thinner than the first, but I knit the second sock with the same needles and the same stitch count the result being that one sock is lighter than the other. Dad tried them on and they both fit about the same. I bet they'll wear different.

My mom forgot to bring her knitting, so while she was visiting I put her to work on my first pair of handspun socks and she finished up the cuff for me. 

One of these socks was spun too tightly, and the other was spun looser, but knit too tightly. The result: they both are stiff and tough to pull on. Now I've relearned the lesson about the trade off between durability and comfort. You know the one, you can knit a durable sock at a really tight gauge, but will you enjoy knitting it and will the owner enjoy wearing it? Turns out the same thing applies to spinning. Who knew?

Finally, I captured a magical, musical moment in digital space forever (or as near as we can get). Please enjoy the musical stylings of Alex, my trumpet player:

Happy Father's Day

To all the dads: ever notice how on Mother's day, you get to take the kids to the park to "give mom a break" and then on Father's day, you get to take the kids to the park to "spend time enjoying your children". Quite the racket we mom's have going on, eh?

Jim and I chuckle over this every Father's day. We were like this back when the kids were very little. I was a stay at home mom for 5 years and Jim was our sole provider. It must have been a very difficult time for him. I recall that he was always tired and would spend the better part of the weekend sleeping. I think if he had been spending more time with the children, we wouldn't have fallen for the racket.

This Father's day Jim has enjoyed breakfast cooked by his eldest son (we nudged each other under the table, but said not a word of critique out loud) and this afternoon we will be hosting my parents for a BBQ dinner in the lovely June sunshine during which youngest son shall be serenading us with his trumpet. He has a lovely mature tone to his playing even if he only hits the right note 90% of the time.

Jim was explaining to a childless friend what it means to be a father. "It's the contrasts. Within the same hour I've been absolutely furious with them and then so proud my heart hurt."

So here's to the dads who never complain when the have to mow around the swing set and the yard toys, to the dads playing endless rounds of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the dad's who smile as they chew their dry slice of fried ham, and the ones who accept their children with all their flaws. Gosh we love em!

Workin it

So Louise got me worried that I might not have time to spin and knit socks for my dad.  Brenda reassured me, but still, life does happen doesn't it? It wouldn't hurt for me to bump these socks to the top of the queue.  There's already a quadrillion projects on the needles, all lovely things, but abandoned for various good reasons. What's one more?

So I finished up the first skein of yarn and started in on my sock.  The first incarnation was beautiful, though in this picture the color is washed out.

I loved how the cables popped in my yarn. What a thrill to see my handspun making really nice cables!  But the sock was too big, and I was worried about my yarn supply.  So I ripped it. boo.

So I switched to a toe up, with no cables, and here's the second version of the sock all knit up:

I don't think the pattern does my yarn justice, it's a simple beaded rib, but I now have some yarn to spare.  It just looks like a dad sock, doesn't it? The color, and the simple ribs are classic for dads and granddads.

And on Sunday, I finished the second skein of yarn.

I was freakin out on Sunday morning when I was plying this thinking I'd made a noticeably thinner yarn. I was so upset, but I figured, I'd just knit a sock with the same rib pattern, only more stitches. It bugged me though.  But after washing and drying, no, it's the same weight.  All that self-flagellation for nothing!

I'm very pleased with my spinning progress. The yarn is squooshy, mostly even, and a delight to work with. I don't care if it doesn't wear well, because truth to tell, I think my dad will love these socks so much he'll hardly wear them.

Lots to Learn

The first handspun sock is all knitted up and it is mighty dense! It was not fun to knit.  The second sock is on the needles and is also working up just about as dense, and just about as annoying to knit.  While the yarn was more lightly plied, it came out thicker and fluffier, but I'm working it on the same size needles so the fabric has about the same density.  Here are the socks, posed with their respective yarns, for comparison:

I wish you all could give the fabric a feel and see the yarns for yourself. Another consideration is how much of the density of the fabric is the result of the knitting and is there any performance differences between a sock that is dense due to spinning, vs one that is dense due to plying?

It's interesting, this learning by internet wisdom thing.  While I have lots of theoretical spinning knowledge, I don't have the practical experience that makes it useful. I've read lots of places to put more twist in the singles and the plying when making sock yarn, but the practical question is how much more? More is relative, a fuzzy logic problem if you will. (heh) So this is a grand opportunity for me to learn through trial and error, experimentation and most likely some small disasters.  Hopefully, not too many.

 Next up on the wheel, surprise, more sock yarn! I decided that I should work up some handspun, handknit socks for Father's day for my dad. There's plenty of time yet, right?  Right? Fiber on the wheel is Cupcake Fiber Company's SW BFL with nylon, the only thing that will do for a gift.

In the category Husbands say the cutest things, Jim was watching me plying and I was talking to him about the lazy kate.
He asked "Why is it called a lazy kate?"
I replied, "I don't know. I guess it's because kate was too lazy to tension the bobbins on her own."
Thoughtful man returned "Well, that's silly. It should be called a clever kate, cause it's a smart idea."

Beyond Thrilled

Sometimes you just have to strike while inspiration is hot. This weekend, I spun myself sore but I managed to finish my first skein of sock yarn.  This fluff:

Became about 210 yards of this fingering weight 3-ply yarn:

Which is knitting up into this sock:

I'm so thrilled with this yarn. My patient husband endured many exclamations of happiness and joy.  It was worth sore legs and achy shoulders. I didn't injure myself and today I took it easy and didn't touch my wheel. 

But now have to do it again. Is there such a thing as second sock spinning syndrome? Just as a knitter puts variations into the second sock to mix things up a bit, I'm thinking of spinning the second sock differently. The sock is knitting up super dense, but with a smooth feel. I'm thinking of spinning the second skein of sock yarn with less twist in both the single and the plying. This way I can compare how they wear and learn how much extra twist is really required for durable socks.

Way back, when I first started to seriously knit socks I experimented with heels, toes, toe-up and bind offs, searching for my what I liked, what fit, and what wears well.  Now I feel like I'm on the same journey, only I'm now in search of how to best spin sock yarn.

There's a little voice in the back of my head saying "Gee, that's an awful lot of work for socks." But I'm ignoring it.  The heart knows what it wants and mine is singing for joy over the wonder of this new journey I'm on.

Obssesed Much?

It's a gorgeous Saturday morning at the start of a long weekend.  If I don't sit down and write you a blog post now, chances are it won't happen.

I'm still loving my spinning wheel and in the past week some online fiber purchases made it to my door. I know you want to see them. 

Clockwise from top left: Fleece Artist BFL, Spirit Trail Fiberworks SW BFL, Spirit Trail Fiberworks Targhee, Cupcake Fiber Company SW BFL with nylon and Fat Cat Knits Symphony project bag. There's still two more missing from that lineup and they are a mohair-wool blend from Spinning Moon farm.

My current goal is to spin up some nice sock yarn. Hence the superwash, the nylon and the mohair blend fibers. I finished up my first three-ply, which might make a good sock yarn because it's over-plied:

 Certainly it would make a warm, dense hat which is what I believe it's final incarnation will be.

Anyway, before all this fiber bounty jammed up the front door so that Jim could barely get in the house, I needed something else to spin, so I started in on some Louet Northern Lights. This is the same fiber that I made my mom's chunky yarn from. It spins very easily and I know it's got some bounce.  I divided my fiber into six equalish parts and I'm spinning it fine with lots of twist. This is bobbin two, half done:

I'm excited to ply it to see how the colors come together and what the three ply looks like. 

As for knitting projects, well, there was a pair of socks a while back, worked up in my own hand-dyed yarn:

Love em! It's about time I had some nice long socks.

I also knit my wheel a tool holder:

Isn't it cute?  The yarn is fiber from the Hopeful Shetlands, spindle spun before I got my wheel.  I decided to leave it all fuzzy, fresh from the felting. I think it suits my wheel.

Now the only problem I have is how to reconcile all the spinning I want to do against the desire to knit it up and not increase the stash. Good thing it's a long weekend. I think I'll spend it playing with fiber.

Enjoying my Connections

I've been making connections, enjoying my connections and connecting the concepts.

On Saturday morning my mom and I enjoyed being part of the Forest City Knitters' display at the Canadian Embroiderer's Guild Gathering Threads conference. I met lots of new people and some old friends too. We had a wonderful display of items gathered from the members of our group. Some of the favorites on display were Isa's illusion scarf and felted mittens, and my fiber fish mittens.

Last weekend I had started making a hat from some handspun I been gifted with a year or so ago, from Maia. I was working a simple top-down hat and it was just not doing justice to the yarn. So I went for a pattern I'd seen a few years back, the Bias Ridged Hat, and as I'm downloading the pattern, I made the connection that this was an original pattern, created by my friend and fellow Forest City Knitter, Reina! The two were meant for each other:

Now won't that warm your ears in the grey days of November?

During the knitting, I realized that the yarn was chain plied. My novice spinner's brain started clicking along. It looks really nice!  So I tried some for myself.  It was okay, but I'm sure I can do better. The fiber had been felted during the dying process and it was difficult to draft.

In the mean time, I thought I'd try a regular 3-ply.  I've been plying all day and I've still got another third of the fiber to go. I can hardly wait to see what it looks like washed, but my legs are getting tired. Yep, that's a lot of treadling....

I've enjoyed hearing from you who read this blog. I appreciate your support and input. All my connections are important to me.

A Gift for Me and One for Mom

Happy Mother's day!  My family has been good to me with cards, and chocolates and a wonderful breakfast.  Later today we're going to play games and go for a walk. Yesterday I spent a good part of the day enjoying my new wheel, spinning yarn for my mother as a gift for Mother's day.

So about the wheel, I chose to buy a Lendrum from Jane's Sheepish Things in Delaware. The reviews I've read all touted it as a solid, all purpose wheel that grows with the spinner and lasts for years. It's made in Canada, out of sturdy and stable hard maple. It's a portable wheel that folds for storage or travel and its incredibly easy to set up and adjust.

I already feel completely comfortable with this wheel. Friday night was spent learning to adjust it to make a single. Saturday morning I figured out the adjustments for plying. Here's what I learned:

• A wheel is like a bicycle. When you shift to a smaller ratio the wheel will turn faster for the same speed of treadling, but the treadling will take more effort. Just like pedaling first gear on a bike is so much easier than pedaling tenth gear, but you'll go faster in tenth gear.
• A looser tension on the brake of the bobbin will cause less take up pull on the yarn. Tighter tension will cause a faster take up. At least on my wheel. I've often wondered what was meant when someone would write "adjust your tension" because they would never say which adjustments would give what result.
• When plying with the Lendrum, the mother of all needs to be lowered to loosen the tension on the drive band. I had to search the net to figure out why my wheel just stopped when plying. I was told that the mother of all was adjustable so as to account for the height of your chair. In my experience, this is just not so. 

This wheel spins so quietly. The action is very smooth and the double treadles feel like a kitten making biscuits. In no time at all I was turning out even singles, and could even do so without looking. In the above shot you see the slider yarn guide; a very elegant solution to winding the yarn on evenly. Changing bobbins on this wheel is very easy too. I can do it with one hand.  I know, cause I tried.

By the end of the day Saturday, I'd spun up a half-pound of fiber into this bouncy, chunky weight yarn.

I think my mommy will like it.

Break away, and OMG! I did that!

So yeah, Hi! How have ya been?  I had a nice break.  My first in what, five years? The technology is changing and it might be time for me to change with it.  I'm contemplating Twitter, and I'm thinking about dropping blogging. Life is very full and busy right now.  I'm not sure where the pieces fit.  So my plan is to try blogging again, and see if I enjoy it or if it becomes one more chore.  If a chore, then I'm afraid it must go.

There's still plenty of fiber fun going on.  I've finished some hats, socks and the body of a sweater.  I also made this, from my own spindle-spun yarn:

I still can't believe it! I spun that! The fiber was BFL from Viola that I spun and plied on my Forrester spindles. Here's the original fiber:

The pattern is Multnomah, but I added my own twist to it with a crochet picot bind off and a picot shell ruffle around the neck edge. It adds depth to a piece when a design element is layered; in this case, the element of scallops. I was careful not to block out the ruffles and the frilly picots. I especially love the loopy ends the crochet work added.

I've been admiring this ever since it came off my needles (and hook in this instance). I find it hard to believe that I made this yarn after only a few months of spinning.  And I determined I had to get a wheel, because with more practice, how much better can I get!!

So, tonight I bought one, and it is here in my living room. Talk about your impulse purchases.  Speaking of impulses, I have one right now to stop writing and go back to spinning.

Cute Hat, Sports Hat

Sounds very Seussian, but that's what I've got for you today.

I made myself a very cute spring time hat:

The pattern is Sockhead and I love it so much.  The colors are pretty, the weight of the hat is just right for this time of year and the slouchy style makes me feel trendy and stylish. Never mind that I'm wearing sweatpants and a 10 year-old coat to walk the dog, I just assume that all anyone sees is my cute and trendy hat.  It certainly is the brightest part of my exercise get-up.

The yarn is Fleece Artist BFL.  I bought one skein, knit a shawl and had a lot left over.  So I knit this hat and I still have a lot left over, enough perhaps for a pair of gloves to match.  That's one big skein!

And now for the sport hat:

It's a Thorpe, made of Cascade Ecological wool (also a big skein) and it's for a fan of the Wolverhampton Wanderers.  Merv is doing me a favour and in exchange, I agreed to knit him a hat.  Thorpe was a great pattern. If you've got to knit a large men's hat in black, this pattern works up super quick. Merv's got a team badge to sew on to it and I think it will look very sporty. 

After two weeks of renting a wheel and working on spinning thick, I've got a few skeins of handspun that I'm dreaming of knitting up into more Thorpes. It's a potato chip hat: betcha' can't make just one!

Thank you to everyone who wrote in with their own stories of silly parking accidents. It really does feel better knowing I'm not the only one.

Snap Shot

Grumble, grumble, grump, grump.

I'm in the demoralized zone. It's the weather. We've been walloped with more versions of precipitation than a teen-aged boy has excuses. Though on Friday morning the images coming from Japan were enough to quell my grumbles. It was quite frightening enough to me when we had a wee tremble last summer that left me feeling nauseous. Words fail me for this disaster, but I'm watching..

It's been a full month since I last posted here. There's been plenty going on, perhaps too much.  So here's a quick snapshot of my month:

• The body of Folklore is done and I'm sick of knitting navy sock yarn so that project has stalled.
• I finished a pair of socks and a hat.
• I'm taking some spinning lessons and rented a wheel which resulted in that brown skein of yarn up there. The fiber is from Hopeful Shetlands farm and it's the lamb's fleece of a Shetland/BFL cross.  It spun up beautifully but smells like a barn when wet.
• I bought an iPad and quickly became obsessed with playing Pocket Frogs and now Infinity Blade. I love my iPad and all the things it can do.  
• I started knitting Jim Kilronan from Cascade 220 super-wash sport, purchased from All Strung Out.  The yarn is lovely and soft and not navy. It makes me happy to see those cables pop and all that texture.

Now, I have a story to tell of my idiot moment.  Yesterday I was out and when I came back I always park my car in the garage. I have to get out of the car to open the garage door and then get back into the car to drive it in.  But yesterday, as I started to drive in, I saw a roll of aluminum flat-stock sticking out a bit in the path of my car.  So I quickly hopped out of the car to move it and saw my car slowly rolling towards me! I'd forgotten to put it into park!

I jumped back into my car and my brain failed me. Instead of stepping on the brake like a sane woman, I panicked as I watched my drivers side mirror slowly get crunched by the wall of the garage. What's worse, my leg was sticking out of the door of the car. I'm yelling no! about the mirror when the door started to close on my leg.

It sounds worse than it was. The pressure was quite hard, but my leg kept the door open which stopped the car from rolling forward. I collected my scattered wits, hit the brakes and put her in reverse. Once out of the garage, I turn off the car entirely and went into the house to freak out.

My leg is fine, my door is scratched, my mirror is toast, and my self-respect is on the floor. I was moaning about this incident most of the day yesterday till Jim told me his story. Over twenty years ago, he parked his car outside of a variety store and left it running (you could do that back then). When he came back out he found it at the other end of the parking lot, stuck in a big bush. He still doesn't know if he forgot to put it in park or if he knocked it into reverse as he got out. I gave him a big smooch and thanked him for being as big an idiot as me. And we both agreed, it could have been worse!

Happy Valentine's Day

Dexter's dog lips are really his tongue. It's super long and almost always sticks out. This time it stuck out so far, that when he smushed his face into his blankie it folded back on itself. We are classy, non?

Adrift

Oh February how we love to hate you. The shortest month of the year is witness to the shortest tempers of the year as we struggle to lift just one more shovelful of snow. Our spirits drop with the thermometer as the wind chill cuts through our heavy layers of winter wool.

And yet there is a promise in February that the end is nigh. Last weekend I saw ducks in the creek and Canadian geese flew over my back yard. My heart lifted to hear their cries because I couldn't help think that maybe the geese know something about the turning of the season.

And as my winter world is adrift in snow, I find my knitting universe adrift in projects and color. A tonic for my winter-weary soul, yet I am weighted down by a longing for yet more things to create.  A blessing to have ideas and yarn to carry them out, yet cursed with finite time and energy to fulfill my dreams. 

 

I did it!

Just like a kid riding their first two-wheeler, I want to shout it to the world, "I did it!"  I learned to spin on a wheel.  It turns out that the reason the yarn wouldn't take up on the bobbin was because it was wrapped around the guide on the woolee winder.  Doh!  But you know, learning something like that the hard way means that next time I have a problem with take up, I'll double check that the yarn is flowing freely.

I was so happy, I got Jim to shoot a movie.

Sparkle Fish: last of a rare breed

Hello, it's not Sunday, but I do have a fish to show to you.  This is sparkle fish going for a swim.  She's a winter fish you know.

I pray this be the last fish mitten I ever knit.  I'm quite over the thrill of working this pattern.  I'm delighted that so many people like the pattern. It was a joy to work the first coupla.  But I'm SOOOO done with it now.  It's because the working up is fiddly and perhaps because I've made six fish all told.

Oh, sparkle fish wants her close up now.  Prima donna.