Once per week...

Apparently, I post once per week on Wednesdays. I had no idea I was so consistent, at least for the last three weeks. But we all know that can change, so don't expect a post next Wednesday!

I have spent some time with my wheel this week. I have spun up about half of the gray Teasdale from Estes. It is so fun, I can't even describe it. Anybody that wants to can come on over and play. No picture of the results, because if I got up to take a picture now, I would surely get sidetracked by this....

which is, to the ones of you sharp enough to catch it, not one bit further along than it was before. Don't even bother trying to find the differences in the photo. There aren't any!

No other news right now, but if you know anyone who needs a 1989 Mustang hatchback with a missing right front fender, I know where you can get one.

What have I been up to, you ask?

Before Thursday this is what's been keeping me busy. I am getting to the point of being really sick of my mess of a room. This will be cleaned up pretty soon, I hope.

The last week has been lots of fun, starting with a trip to the fiber processing mill and shop in Victor , CO with Lisa. We heard about this place through a person we met at WWKIP day. So up we drove with 25 pounds of merlino fleece in the back of Lisa's car. We will keep you all posted on how we like the fleece when we get it back. The price for merino was slightly higher than we thought it would be, but compared to the prices we saw at Estes, it was very reasonable. And we didn't have to skirt it. That is a major plus, if you ask me.

After we dropped off the fleece, we stopped here and met a nice lady with a shop cat that was very happy to greet us. We saw this funny little store, but did not have enough time to stop. After a quick lunch in Cripple Creek, we did a little recon at the big shop at Academy and Constitution that has a ton, and I'm not kidding, a TON of vendor booths inside. We had heard that they had a knitting booth, and we were curious to see what they had. It turns out they have quite a large selection of yarn and notions. They had Lamb's Pride, Dale, and several other nice brands. I got a new pair of Addi's. The prices were not a bargin but, and here's the good part.....they are open on Sunday!

On Friday, I drove up to a cabin I rented in Estes Park. Ellen got there before me and we had a nice evening sitting around and knitting. It turns out I can't knit lace when talking to somebody else. Only about one half of a round got done on my Pi shawl. We went to bed reasonably early so that we could leave the cabin at 8am, go to Starbucks, and then head out to the Wool Festival. We thought there might be a line. There wasn't. So we got into the vendor barn before the crowds. It was so overwhelming! There were so many colors and textures all around, it was very difficult to focus. But you've got to love a place that has a sign like this:We wandered around and met a lot of friends. I saw a woman I used to have Girls Night Out with back when my twenty year old was a baby. It was so much fun catching up with her and the goings on of her family. We also saw some alpacas, goats, sheep,and llamas.I do not know why the "llama wash" fascinated me so much. It just tickled my funny bone.
I did spend time testing out a bunch of wheels, and absolutely fell in love with this one.I tried about 6-8 wheels, but this one just felt right. How else can I explain it? It spins like a dream. Here's a picture of the first yarn off of the wheel. It's the blue varigated Romney I got at the Ruxton Ave shop.
I did get more roving at the Festival, no big shock to any of you about that. I also picked up two skeins of yarn that I know I'll never be able to come close to. A beautiful skein of kid mohair from Brooks Farm, and a 100% silk from Manos. Ellen ended up with a drum carder. It's pretty bad when the vendors are so happy that they lend you a hand cart to haul away your goodies....I spent Saturday evening playing with my new wheel and went to bed early.
Sunday, it was back to the fairgrounds for more wandering around. I met up with Lisa and her husband, then headed home.
I took the longer, more scenic route along the St Vrain River. The sock and I took a little hike along here. We stopped for lunch when we found this perfect spot to sit and knit. The water was icy cold. It felt wonderful.There were some people a little ways downstream panning for gold. They were having a great time, and did manage to get some gold. There will be more pictures posted on the picture place. But not tonight.

Happy Flag Day

Yes, it's Flag Day here in America. Here is some background info for you.

Please ignore no knitting was done today, yet. I hope to do some before bedtime.
Here's another picture to distract you. I am hoping this works...

Photos 10,000 Knit stitches 0

I am in the midst of a BIG photo project, and zero stitches were knit by me today and yesterday. Big yuck.

I am trying to get my pictures all together in one place in the house, which was way easier said than done. I think I have accomplished that step. The next step is putting them in sort of chronological order, which I am mostly done with, sort of. Then I have to get them into archival safe storage, which means taking them out of the old albums that have turned many of them yellow, and into new, safer albums. Or at least acid free storage boxes.

I was going to do the whole "every page is art" kind of scrapbook, but YEAH RIGHT....

I think I hear my sock calling, and I am going to answer it.

Here is a picture to make you ignore the lack of knitting progress:

Yes, the big dog is walking the little dog around on a leash.

Wonderful weekend, part 2

The great weekend continued on Sunday with a visit to Ellen and Jan's nice little ranch near Castle Rock. We were invited to watch the llama shearing, which was great fun. I got there after Apollo had his new hairdo. He was looking pretty spiffy, but not real happy.Then it was Einstein's turn. I wondered how you got a llama to stand still enough to get shorn, now I know. I love learning new stuff.Lonestar was looking quite concerned while he was waiting his turn, but he decided the treats he got while getting his new summer 'do were worth it.I did get a little of his fleece (or do we say hair?) to play with. The dog and cats at my house didn't even register anything unusual when I brought home sheep fleece last weekend, but boy they were all VERY interested in the llama fiber. It washed up very nicely, not much dirt at all. I don't know what I'll do with it, but it's fun to play with...Thanks Ellen and Jan for the great lunch and tour of the place. Tell your mom it was very nice to meet her. 

Wonderful weekends...

Yes folks, sometimes a wondeful weeekend comes along. This one was going to be fun, but it turned out even better than I expected.

First things first, Knit in Public Day had a small but fun group turn out. I think we had about 16 or 17 people. We all got to meet new friends, which was great. The lessons I learned from this year's event....plan further ahead, and advertise more. Here are some of the new friends I met. Please don't expect that I know all of their names, and forgive me if I have misplaced your name in my brain's storage closet. In the middle are Megan, who is in middle school and her mom, Diane. The reason I remember them so easily, my daughters name is Megan, and we ran into these two ladies later in the day!
There was progress made on my dragonfly socks, and on the trek sock. I can see that I might get both pairs done this month, which would feel great.After we disbanded from the park, we ate lunch at the Pita Pit. I really like their food, it's nice and fresh. The parking is a little crazy on Saturday afternoon, but not too bad. After lunch Lisa and I investigated Ruxton Ave Fibers. I couldn't find a website for them, but loved her purple and blue window display. We met Diane and Megan in there. Imagine that, meeting knitters in a knitting store! She has a nice variety of things, including several colors of trekking. She has a little deck out back that overlooks the creek, and plans on getting that ready for stitchers to sit and relax on.This is what I bought:Yeah, fiber for the non-spinner. OK, I guess I have to stop calling myself that since I am now spinning. I did spin up a little of this wool, and I'm liking it so far. It's getting a little easier, and the end product looks like yarn. Lumpy, bumpy, inconsistant yarn, but still, yarn. 

Slooooow day at work...

It's so slow here, I get to update you guys on what's happening.

Not much.

I did get a little more done on the dragonfly socks, which I can't show you, since I have no camera here. But really, they are coming along nicely.

The Trek sock will be going to Knit in Public Day, and pictures of that event, along with the llama shearing at Ellen's will be posted either Sunday night or Monday, depending on just how tired I am.

An update for you about my sister, who I helped cast on for socks while I was in Chicago in February. She has one sock done, except she had to rip out part of it because she made the foot too long the first time. And she's having some issues re-doing the toe. She had a small mishap and the decreases were formed on the top and bottom of the sock, instead of the sides. but I am very proud that she is so far along. Yay, Karen!

It's a coaster

Just a note...

When you decide you have fleece that needs carding, you need carders, and then a magazine, and who knows where this will lead? OK, some of you know, just don't tell me out loud. I'm still delusional enough to think this is as far as it goes.





So anyway, here is my coaster. Some people might call it a swatch, which is fine by me. I decided to knit the first yarn I've spun on the first needles I ever knit on.

Fitting, no?

OK, back to some socks....

No progress

Very sad, no progress to report on anything. After being all excited to card and try to spin some of the fleece on Sunday...when nothing was open...I went to Green Valley Weavers on my way to work Monday. I picked up some carding combs, planning to try carding at lunch. How hard could it be, right?

Wrong.

I thought that carding would remove the rest of the little pieces of grass and stuff from the fleece, leaving me clean, puffy, yummy wool to spin. I thought wrong. It still has stuff in it. I gave up and decided to eat my sandwich instead. I'll wait until Knit Group Saturday for help from the experts. Boy, is it nice to have friends!

No knitting is getting done either. The trek with me sock is sulking in my desk drawer because we have been so busy at work, I can't even do plain stocking stitch. The dragonskin ones, which I am calling my dragonfly socks, since the colors remind me of the little dragonflies that live by the creek at our families house in Wisconsin, have gotten a total of two rounds done in two days.

So now I am off to knit a "coaster" from my first ever yarn. There's not much, so maybe I can finish it tonight...

But let's not bet on it.

Red yarn and other news...

The red yarn I was playing with the other day has turned out pretty good. It is still a little more orangey red than I was picturing, but over-dyeing with the wine made it a little darker and richer. I like it a lot now, and will most likely be making it into a felted bag later. I wound it and the green laceweight from an earlier post into balls and they are waiting for me to cast on.

Yesterday I went to Rock Ledge Ranch with three other women from our knit group.

We went to see the sheep shearing, which was very interesting. They had about 8 Merino sheep there, plus three others out in the meadow that they were using for sheepdog demonstrations.

The Trek along sock rested on a wall while we were watching that.

Ellen, who Lisa calls the Enabler, found out that there were some fleeces that were not spoken for, so we decided to get two. It's about 25 pounds altogether. So now we each have a half of a fleece. We each took a couple of handfuls to play with, but as to the rest, we will meet up at Ellen's next Sunday for the llama shearing she had planned, and will skirt it. I think we are leaning towards having the rest processed into roving by somebody else.

Now I know you are wondering why on earth someone who doesn't spin needs a half of a fleece. Neither Phoebe nor I had ever learned to spin. I know I've been trying to resist this particular addiction, but...

Yep, that's me learning to spin on a drop spindle and some roving that jumped into my hand at the small shop on the property. Sorry, Bob.

I made yarn. Then I plyed it together. Bob helped hold it while that was happening, thanks Honey. It's lumpy and uneven but it's mine! I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it next. Thank goodness there's Google!

Then I washed my fleece and dried it, but it still looks dirty. I hope that carding helps. I have no carding combs, I have no roving to play with, and it's Sunday so no place that would have those things is open. I'm more than a little bummed out about that but it gives me time to learn a little more about what I have gotten myself into.

I have added a link on mysidebar for extra pictures. Have a look...

Days of Wine and Roses..or Wine and Yarn, whatever

First, my trekking sock took a walk at work. It's happy the ribbing is done. The sock has decided it wants to be plain stocking stitch, because it doesn't trust me to execute any kind of pattern while in motion. Yes, even though it is a young sock, it is very wise. I am going to fix the button on my sidebar to link to that site, really I am.

The other fun thing I am doing tonight is re-dyeing that red skein of worsted weight. It came out OK, but more tomato-y (it is too a word!) than I wanted. So, I looked around to see what else I had in the house that might help, and found a bottle of wine in the back of my fridge.

The picture shows a lovely Torres Gran Corona Reserva 1977. I know I haven't had it that long, but I'd bet I've had it a good 15 to 18 years. And, yes I did try a sip to make sure it wasn't drinkable. It wasn't. We did not get a picture of the face I made while doing that part of the testing, because I like my camera. The cats are a little confused and at this point they are hoping I know what I'm doing. I don't. I'm trying to heat it up in the microwave, like I did the KoolAid yarn, to see if that will set the color. The color is not a real true red, otherwise I could probably have drank it. It's more of a brownish red. Pictures of the finished product tomorrow...