Mixing it up

Finishing up a four ounce bump of Merino from Chameleon Colorworks.  She used to have a fiber of the month club, and I still have a pretty good-sized stash of fiber remaining. 

I never could keep up to a monthly delivery, but it sure looked pretty sitting around the house in baskets!

Fail (and a success)

I picked up a long abandoned spindle today and spun for an hour while we listened to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on the radio.  The spindle had quite a bit of fiber already on it, but I thought I could add a bit more before winding off.

I was wrong.

The spindle was too heavy for the size of the thread.  It fell to the wood floor, bounced, and repositioned all the fiber.  I tried to make repairs, but finally gave up.  I took it to the ball winder to try to wind it off, but gave up.  I pulled the yarn off the spindle, admired it, frowned a bit, and gave it a toss in the trash.  

It was pretty, though, wasn't it?

Paul and I were able to go out for some snowshoeing.  
(Girl of the House, who spent the past two days at ski meets, declined the opportunity for more outdoor time.)

We found a den in the pasture.  

Coyote?  Fox?  Anyone know the distinguishing characteristics?

I love the indentation in the snow where the critter lay and soaked up the sun.

We'll keep an eye on it and see what we can determine.

And a success!

Hedgehog mittens from a kit by Morehouse Merino.  

Very putzy knitting, but definitely the way to a 15 year old's heart.

Bad Dog part two, or was it three? Or maybe even four...

It's always nice to come home to a package in the mailbox.

A new Emily spindle from Adam's Workshop (Mielke's Farm). Love the quick service, love the spindle!

With your sharp eyes, I bet you can detect why there was a spindle in the mail. The new Emily is to replace the most recent no-no-bad-dog disaster.


We thought we had dog proofed the house, at least enough to leave the younger dog out of his crate during the day. The big dog has never been a chewer.

My spindle bag was left on a side table. When we came home, he had taken the bag down, ripped it open and scattered the contents through the house. He chewed up my favorite spindle. He chewed up my lovely little niddy-noddy. I just can't believe he ate right through the bag!






Paul sent a photo of the ski team up on Beartooth pass.

They're having a blast.

Doesn't look much like June, does it?

Back to the routine

Happy New Year!

We made it home on Sunday. We drove straight through, 1225 miles.

Beyond the beginning in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, the roads were fine. We'd had 59 inches of snow while we were there, so we expected some difficulty escaping.

It's always good to have the difficult part of the driving at the start!















Kids are out of school this week. Paul and I are getting back into the working pattern. (Ya, it kinda stinks. Isn't vacation much nicer?)



Ben's working his way into the fiber tradition.

He started with a spindle.












He worked his way to the wheel.

The Majacraft Suzie is such a forgiving wheel - a great way to begin.

He's a natural. He's spinning great yarn.




Of course, it makes me unreasonably happy to see him do this.

Tuition? Huh? How much? Where do I send the check?

Colorado knitting

I had lots of road knitting time as we drove to Colorado.

Hats are great road knitting.

Around and around and around.

I finished two hats and started a third.

This is the purple from sundyeing earlier this summer.

Girl of the House was having fun being a silly model.





Hat number two has already been stolen by Ben. It was knit from some of the finn fleece I washed and carded this summer. I can't find it in his mess of a room. I'll have to catch him when he's home.

Hat number three, also from the sundyeing earlier this summer.











I worked on Rogue. The back is complete, and I'm coming up the fronts. I knitted up the yarn I brought. (See, you CAN'T ever bring enough yarn! It IS possible to run out!)

I love the cabling on this sweater.






I spindled up the four ounces of the last batch of sundyed fiber. Remember the stuff that sat on the deck forever?

I didn't get it plied, though.








I'll have to post actual trip pictures soon. I'm going through them all, slowly.

We drove through Friday night, stopping to nap in the camper for a few hours, just east of Grand Island, NE. When the sun came up, we cut off the highway at Kearney, NE, and took local highways to Denver. It's always more fun to take the backroads.

There's so much to see.

But it was HOT! 104 degrees. See, I took a picture to prove it!

Ooh, I forgot these signs cycle temp and time. And I didn't check my photo til I got home...

Well, you'll have to take my word for it. It was hot!






At last: a cooling view of the Rockies!

Alpaca is plied

I sat out on the deck last evening, in the beautiful weather, plying the spindled alpaca. Finally, summer is here.

I ended up with 144 yards in 1 and 7/8 ounces. Roughly 1200 yards/pound. It's soft and fluffy, and it goes into the yarn basket. Once again, I have no project in mind for the yarn...






The hibiscus is blooming like crazy. There are 5 flowers on it this morning. I thought the hibiscus flowers only lasted a day, but a few of these have been open for three days. Girl of the House will be happy to see them when she returns from camp. (She chose the hibiscus for the deck.)

a childless week

We spent Saturday with extended family at the lake home of Paul's brother, in early celebration of Father's Day.

There was plenty of good food, fun games, and visiting.

I even got some spinning done.

One of his brothers was pretty funny, holding up his hand and announcing the number of times I dropped the spindle. (And there were plenty!)

I finished the logwood dyed alpaca - the last two ounces are on this spindle. Now, just to ply it. It felt good to get some spinning done. There hasn't been enough fiber time this summer.




Girl of the House went off to Camp Pepin on Sunday. This will be her fifth year. She's excited to see her brother, the waterfront director at camp, too!

We had a sunny drive along Lake Pepin. After dropping her, Paul and I did five geocaches.






Then home to sit on the deck for the remainder of the evening.

Poof, before you know it, the moon is coming up.

An everpresent problem - too little weekend...





The hibiscus is getting ready to bloom.

It's a beautiful cool morning, and I'm off to work.

SOAR - Spin Off Autumn Retreat

I'm home! Today (my day off) I'm finally catching up on everything.

I left early Sunday morning, Oct 7. It took me slightly more than eleven hours to get there. I stopped to do a geocache at a wayside rest along Lake Michigan. It was a beautiful day, mid 80s and sunny. (I had to stop and buy a belt, too. It's amazing the things you forget to pack - and how you remember while you're driving!)



I had a lovely little condo at Shanty Creek, MI all to myself.
The view from my room. I was right on the ski hill. Sure, ski in/ski out when there's NO snow. Doesn't seem right...








The view of Lake Bellaire from the parking lot.


The first few days were hot and sunny, then the rain and cool came in.





The first three days I took a class with Robin Russo on fiber preparation. Here she is, demonstrating the use of English combs.

We spun short draw, long draw; fine (including qiviut and pygora), medium, and coarse fleece ; made fine, medium, and bulky yarns from all of these. We made a really nifty demonstration book to take home.

Robin is an excellent teacher - calm, friendly, knowledgeable, and fun. We carded fleece, combed fleece, and made "designer bats" with lots of fun, yummy fibers.

There were so many fun people in my class - 14 more crazy spinners of all ages.

We had such a variety of fibers to handle. There was a table of BFL, Romney, and Coopworth. The colors were incredible!










And a whole table of angora, alpaca, silk, angelina flash.











Some of the yarns from the batts and rovings we made in the class, drying on my own personal drying rack (the shower curtain pole).




Thursday was market day - vendors galore, with anything you could possible imagine you might need or want. The day was devoted to shopping, then signing up for the retreat sessions that were to follow the next two days.


Friday and Saturday I took half day classes with Margaret Stove (the merino lace queen!), Sara Lamb (Inkle looms), and Kathryn Alexander (Entrelac knitting). Everyone had such high energy and enthusiasm for their craft - it was infectious.

I had been signed up for one more class on Saturday morning, but I played hooky. The day dawned cool and bright, so I went for a run, then did a geocache on one of the ski hills. My brain was on overload with all the my new knowledge. It felt good to do some purely physical things.

Saturday evening was the big Spin In. There was a bluegrass band, refreshments and a giant room full of spinners doing what they love. Spinners everywhere!!

I'm kicking myself - I didn't get pictures of the friends I made. Some I've met before at SOAR, some were new this year. Nina, Eve, Jenni, Nancy, Kandy, Cherie and so many more...

It's wonderful to have so many people who understand the fiber compulsion, all in one place!

Sunday morning, I headed home. It was foggy and drizzly most of the way. I stopped twice and did two more geocaches. It's a good way to stop and stretch on a long trip! One of the stops was on an overlook of the Mackinac Bridge.

(Note to self: DON'T drive 11 hours the day after your first long run in two weeks! Stiffness WILL set in - SEVERELY!)





Girl of the House and Paul were glad to see me when I finally made it home around 7 pm.

I took a slightly different route home, which took me a few extra miles. I'm usually a pretty good navigator, but I made a critical error on my "bright idea" shortcut. Let's just say that driving on gravel roads along the Michigan/Wisconsin border is not a great idea when you just WANT TO BE HOME!!!




A photo of my swag from Market day.

I tried to resist buying much prepared fiber - after my fiber prep class, I really want to try doing more myself. So, I concentrated primarily on equipment.

I got 12 oz of Carolina Homespuns fiber blend that is exclusive to SOAR, hand held Indigo Hound combs, a Kingswood diz and threader from Woodchuck products, a darning egg, a new doffer for my carder, a souvenir SOAR spindle, a new Driftwood spindle (made of Corian, yet only an ounce!), four oz of Karaoke fiber (merino/soy silk) from Mielke Farms (this is half spun up already), three 8 oz/625 yd skeins of prime alpaca yarn from Misty Mountain Farms (couldn't resist - trust me, I tried!), and two more Woolie Winder bobbins (not shown) for my Lendrum.


After jumping back in to the home routine, it's taken me a few days to catch up. Today I made the grocery run, did this update, and there's a pot of yummy smelling homemade soup on the stove. Paul came home for lunch, and it was lovely. It's good to be back...

Definitely a sock for an 11 year old...

Did you freeze last night? It went down to 28 degrees at our little country house. I managed to cover up my flowers, hopefully they will stay alive for the warm-up they promise us will come.

I finished one sock for the Girl of the House. I used one half of the small ball of yellow/orange yarn, and then picked up with the blue/green/purple yarn. I knitted til I reached the end of the ball.

Yes, it's definitely a sock only an eleven year old could love.

I find the transition between the two colors too harsh, but she likes it quite a bit.



I managed to ply up the camping spindled yarn. Approx. 175 yards of coppery goodness. I hope I'll finish up the last of the fiber this year on more camping trips. We have two, possibly three more trips planned this fall.

In other news, it was my birthday this week.

GotH baked me cookies - macadamia nut/chocolate chip. Much better than a cake, if you ask me! She's a great baker.

I'm on call this weekend. So far I've been in to work for a postpartum tubal ligation, and to repair the finger that a young man caught in his garage door. (Must be quite the surprise when you know you squashed your finger, go to get it out of the door, and there is only bone sticking out of the squashed end...)

Crocheted Potholder, etc

jesslm asked where she could find the potholder (pics here) pattern. I got it out of an old Spin-Off magazine, but I'm pretty sure it's just a standard easy pattern, found in lots of places. I found the same thing, well described, at the Mielke's Farm site, right here - Diagonal Hotpad.

They're easy to do, and if you don't make it too big, they make up pretty quick.

Before the weekend, I managed to spin up a sample skein from the Shanghai Nights fiber I bought at Shepherd's Harvest in May. It's Coopworth and silk threads. I spun it long draw, and then double plied it. I really like the bits of the silk in the fiber. This is about a worsted weight. I think I'll spin up the rest at this weight. The long draw makes it a really light yarn. I'll have to carry the skein (or maybe I'll knit a little swatch - gasp!) and carry it around to check on the pilling potential.


This past weekend we managed a quick camping trip to Frontenac State Park. I did a bit more spindling on the Canyon Shadows fiber. I used my nostepinne, and made another ball, so this week I'll probably try to ply the two balls together. The first ball was 26 grams, this weekends ball is 42 grams. I guess that means I've got about 44 grams left to spin? I did start another spindleful.

This was our morning coffee spot. Overlooking the Mississippi River on a deck-like platform. You could see forever..


We did a few geocaches, did some hiking, even rode our bicycles. It was lovely cool weather, mostly in the mid 70s during the day.


The hike down to the river (the campground
is up on the bluff) is a bit
over 400 feet down. It's a great walk down, but they should give you a merit badge for walking back up!!






Girl of the House had great fun digging in the sand.

Vacation projects

I ran across an article in an old Spin-Off magazine. It described making crocheted potholders from smaller skeins of handspun. I brought a few skeins along on vacation and gave it a try.

I haven't crocheted since Ben was a baby. But it sure comes back quickly, doesn't it? Especially basic single crochet...

This is probably the fanciest potholder I've ever had. Wool, alpaca and silk. I had a few small sample skeins. I ended up joining two colors, purple and yellow. A bit homely, perhaps, but it is just a sample. I have alot of small multicolored skeins, and I think I'll try a few more potholders.

Side one:Side two:

I did some more camping spindling. Managed to make enough to ball it on the nostepinne, just waiting to ply it with the next spindlefull.
Lots of driving time meant lots of sock knitting time. I'm getting closer on these socks for Paul!
Ben returned from his summer gig at Camp Pepin the same day we came home. You know, looking at the pictures I've posted of him, it appears he never wears shirts. But you can see the tan lines, so I guess he does...
Here's how you can tell he's home. A pile of stuff, dropped by the door. I expect the majority of this stuff will stay right where it is til he goes back to college next week. I know I'M not going to pick it up!