Blog For Free!
Archives
Home
2006 December
2006 July
2006 June
2006 May
2006 April
2006 March
2006 February
2006 January
2005 December
2005 November
2005 October
2005 September
2005 August
2005 July
2005 June
2005 May
2005 April
2005 March
2005 February
2005 January
2004 December
2004 November
2004 October
2004 September
2004 August
My Links
A Sheep in Wools Clothing
Art Gallery
Can We Knit Now?
Denise Knits
ImagiKnit
Jessie's Doodles
Knit One Spin Too
Knitknacks
Knitting a Rat's Nest
Knittnlissa
Woolly Dreams
Like the Queen
My Mountain Home
No Idle Hands
PAH - Designer
Pixie Purls
Rose By Any
Spinnin Skinny
Woolly Dreams
Yarn A Holic
Knitter's Review
My Previous Blog
tBlog
My Profile
Send tMail
My tFriends
My Images
Sponsored
Blog
|
| Now it Can Be Told |
| 03.26.05 (9:05 am) [edit] |
For awhile now, I have been hinting at a special trip I am going to take, which is bumping me out of going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool. Well, here is what it is going to be... This Twisted Sister wannabe is getting a chance to learn how to really be one at the Lynne Vogel Hands on Color Intensive at Shakerag! My dear Bill gifted this to me for Christmas. I am about as excited as can be, and even have had some limited e-mail contact with Lynne. So, now I am officially adding the name to my countdown.
Shifting gears somewhat, here is the cotton I have been spinning. First, the white with speckles:
The above was spun with commericial roving. The yarn below is what was spun from the punis I carded and are my color experiments:
Happy Easter to all!
|
|
|
| |
| Wobbly, but Here |
| 03.24.05 (1:05 pm) [edit] |
As so often happens in blogland, Amie and I seem to be living in a parallel universe. Yesterday, I had a whopper of a headache, and at the worst possible time, while Elayne was here for a visit. Nevertheless, we managed to card some wool/alpaca for Elayne (she did most of that work), and I introduced Elayne to puni making and cotton spinning. She became quite entranced with the puni making - I think it is going to take a little longer to hook her on charkha spinning. She brought me a lovely Easter lily and brought Bill his new favorite cookies, McVittie's Digestives, which are getting harder to find. Don't laugh at the name... he swears they are delicious!
I appreciate all the kind words and encouragement on Phillip's and Jessie's engagement. It looks like we will be having a good (mostly) roller coaster ride for a year of so!!
Well, back downstairs to try to nap off some of the funny, after-headache feeling I always get.
|
|
|
| |
| It's Official! |
| 03.21.05 (7:09 am) [edit] |
I'm getting a new "daughter" sometime next year. (Date is not set yet). I give you... Phillip and Jessie!
Aren't they cute together? She is a very sweet girl (and she knits, too!) In case you are interested, she does wear shoes, but they were hurting her that night and she took them off.
|
|
|
| |
| Wow! |
| 03.18.05 (11:03 am) [edit] |
I appreciate all the nice comments about my cotton punis. Now, I hope I can spin them up to do them justice! Carding and rolling them have kept me happily occupied for 3 nights now. Oh, how I love to play - I think all of you already know that by now.
Last night I tried to hurt myself badly, but just ended up being totally sore today. What did I do? Well, I was going down the stairs (cast metal ones at that) and slipped. I was so afraid I was going to hit my head and/or hips or break a leg or something and managed to catch myself. Boy, was I ever shaken up, but a visit to the chiropractor this morning confirmed that I didn't knock anything out of whack. I was home alone when it happened - it is scary to think I am getting near the "I've fallen and can't get up" stage. :oops:
|
|
|
| |
| More Fun than Crayons! |
| 03.16.05 (6:22 pm) [edit] |
This reminds me of right before each school year, when I would get a fresh new box of Crayons. Sometimes, the box of 48, but if I could really be persuasive with my mom, one of those gigantic boxes of 64 with the built-in crayon sharpener. (One year, I even got a whopping box of 128 from somebody - I think an aunt and uncle - for Christmas!) It was so nice just to handle the box, open the lid and look at the riot of colors and the perfectly formed (as yet unused) crayons, then to take some out and read the names, like midnight blue, sky blue, magenta, spring green, periwinkle... well you get the picture. Now I have found something even better. I got this special order cotton already dyed in an array of colors:
which I am carding and rolling into punis for spinning on the charkha. I am having the best time making all sorts of blends
It can't get much more fun than this!
|
|
|
| |
| Bwaa Haa Haa |
| 03.14.05 (11:30 am) [edit] |
|
I've "hooked" another one. This weekend, I taught Phillip's girlfriend, Jessie, how to knit. She is using up all my colorful scraps in a scarf and getting to experience a whole spectrum of yarns: mohair boucle', wool, synthetic novelty yarns, Kureyon, handspun merino. So far, I think the process is intriguing to her. She's doing a great job!!
|
|
|
| |
| Pictures!! |
| 03.12.05 (9:57 am) [edit] |
The ugly fat/thin coral novelty yarn became this:
Here is the Backyard Leaves Scarf in progress. I have only done 2 repeats. One step at a time...
Wishing everyone a nice weekend. My son and his girlfriend are here this weekend, so I am staying busy.
|
|
|
| |
| Using Up the Experiments |
| 03.09.05 (6:12 pm) [edit] |
The fat/thin Manos coral yarn has transformed into a seed stitch scarf. Turns out that this is quite the fashionable color these days. No picture yet, but I will get one soon. The hand dyed Falkland is also turning into a scarf with a capital S! It is Annie Modesitt's Backyard Leaves scarf from Scarf Style. Oops - I forgot - it is lace - for those of you who know me, I am lace challenged. But this pattern is very well written, and so far, so good. A picture will come of it later when I am a little farther along.
Thanks to my dear friends who commiserated with me over my stupid sock toe boo boo. It has been put right, but I wasn't anxious to cast on sock #2 immediately!
|
|
|
| |
| 254&%@(@)h83g |
| 03.08.05 (7:56 pm) [edit] |
Rats!! I just finished an almost perfect sock, wove in the ends, cut the tail. Too bad I also cut a stitch in the toe :(
Sorry, just had to vent a little.
|
|
|
| |
| Experiments |
| 03.04.05 (12:12 pm) [edit] |
I finally used up this merino roving I had dyed a long time ago, experimenting with a low twist single, Manos-type yarn:
The yarn I dyed this morning is now hanging up to dry, and it looks something like this:
That's 400 yd. of approximately sport weight yarn. Any suggestions how to use it?
And for the first time, instead of trying to use up all my dye, I put it in stock bottles. Next time will be easy with pre-mixed dye.
|
|
|
| |
| It's Friday... |
| 03.04.05 (8:04 am) [edit] |
And I am going to do some dyeing, I think. Lest you are worried, I know what I am dyeing is wool, as I spun this myself. The yarn is of Falkland, and it dyes very well.
Thanks to Roxgirl and Donna for the compliments on our attire. We had great fun spinning while wearing the dresses, but a little less fun leaving in the rain, and on the drive back (of about an hour). We were ready to get into "real people clothes" by the time we were finished. Elayne, seems your yarn shop closet is a real hit, as I knew it would be. Seems Bess, Amie and I would love to camp out there! I promise I did NOT nab any yarn, as Amie has suggested!!! (But not to say I wasn't sorely, sorely tempted with all that yarn calling to me day and night :twisted: )
Lissa, we would both love to see you, too. I know that I am not going to be able to get to the MD Sheep and Wool :cry: this year, because I have a nice thing coming up in June that will take a whole week, but Montpelier, hmm... maybe... I think I enjoyed Montpelier the best, maybe because it wasn't quite as overwhelming, definitely wasn't as hot!!
Still no questions for Dear Wooly, Sandra, but I did post a table of yardage for anyone who has an Ashford (15 inch) niddy noddy. It's under "Essays". I know most of my readers are great at spinning, but if you know someone with questions, or you just think something should be answered online, or you want to try to stump me (not too hard at this point!) send them along.
|
|
|
| |
| Spinning Weekend Recap |
| 03.02.05 (1:15 pm) [edit] |
First, a glimpse of the closet in the room where Elayne put me up for the weekend. This is what she refers to as her Ewesful Room. Open the closet, and there you have an instant yarn shop. This is only a picture of her handspun - all of the shelves are covered with boxes of commercial yarns.
Wow, what a temptation!
I played around posing in my 16 century attire:
Elayne took plenty of pictures - this is one of my less goofy looking poses.
Unfortunately, since it was raining and cold, I did not get any good outside shots of the museum where we went to spin. It is called The Old St. Augustine Village and is in need of a lot of restoration. Here is a shot of Elayne and I spinning inside, though:
I have some more shots I will post later. We really did a good job in having variety - there were several different styles of spinning wheels, and several techniques being demonstrated. We had:
Win, who was demonstrating support spindling
Nancy, who was spinning flax
Paula, who was spinning multicolor roving
Barbara, who was spinning cotton on an Ashford Wheel
Leslie, who was spinning cotton on a drop spindle, then later spinning Border Leicester on her wheel
Another Nancy, who was spinning wool
Elayne, who was spinning silk
And I was spinning the llama/ wool blend
In other news, congratulations to Sandra who is the brand new owner of an Ashford Traveller. Sandra, are you sending out birth announcements? Looking forward to seeing some of her work, which is sure to be marvelous.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
