Knitguy

I haven’t blogged lately because my mom has commandeered the digital camera but I have been spinning for the Tour de Fleece :) I got the singles finished yesterday and finished plying them this afternoon.

The darkest ply is the black alpaca that I got from black sheep, the brown just lighter than that is merino, and the lightest ply is fawn colored alpaca top that I got from Woodland Woolworks when I went over there earlier this summer.

Also - Kraftie (as well as the Lime and Violet podcast) informed me that Crown Mountain Farms is having a July sale right now on some of the natural fibers they sell. So I got the 8.5 oz of the superwash merino in the Hotel California colorway and another 8.5 ounces in the Knockin On Heavens Door colorway. I also remembered that I had $8 of “craft cash” from Woodland Woolworks and got 4oz of camel down. I see good mail days in my future.

That is what I spun from the Sheep 2 Shoe kit that I bought at BSG. Its my first ever cabled yarn and i’m really, realy happy with it.

I’m also spinning what will be a worsted weight 3 ply alpaca/merino blend for this year’s Tour de Fleece. 1 ply of the alpaca locks I bought from BSG, one of fawn colored alpaca I got from Woodland Woolworks a bit ago, and then a ply of the dark brown merino I got when I was in Europe.

Also - marionberries are in season! We somehow didn’t get a chance to get any last year so my mom picked up two pints from one of th road side stands near my house yesterday and will be getting more this weekend. They’re a little tart because they’re the first of the season so I made a little pie out of a pint of them this afternoon.

It was, very very tasty. I’m tempted to make another one right now.

I’ve been a bit gung-ho in regards to spinning the stuff that I got from BSG - or really just new stuff in general.  It makes me that much happier that I got four more bobbins for my Lendrum (so now i have 8).

This is from the silk hanky that I got at BSG. It’s the first time I’ve worked with them and I’m finding them a little difficult at times, but over all I’m really enjoying it. I’m also coming across neps from the edges of the hanky every so often but its not bothering me too much. I’m also finding them ridiculously easy to spin it lace weight which is what I’m doing (and what I do best it seems).

This is the pygora that was from Peppermint Pastures. It’s supposivly a lot like mohair but - I have yet to spin mohair (or really work with mohair so I don’t have much of an opinnion on it. That being said its also pretty easy to spin and the colors are amazing.

This is part of the Sheep 2 Shoe kit from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I’m in love with the colorway. I’m planning on making it a cabled sock yarn - which it will be, it’ll just end up being a little heavier than I origionally wanted. The colorway - Puck’s Mischif - is amazing though.

I also am spinning up some fawn colored alpaca (the stuff under it is something else). It, like most everything else, will also be lace weight. What’s funny is that I don’t actually really knit lace. I could always make a make a four ply yarn with it though or add it to something.

I promised Gail that I’d post about black sheep before Sunday and thus I present to you Black Sheep Gathering: Part 1 - Stash Inhancemnt

warning: this will be a image heavy post

Before I got down to Eugene I gave myself a dollar amount that I could spend there on fiber (which actually I stayed under) and then told myself that I wouldn’t buy any yarn because, well, I work at a yarn store - do I really need to buy any yarn at Black Sheep when I can just buy nice yarn at Twisted? (don’t answer that…)

In regards to weight, this is the biggest thing I bought. It is a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep 2 Shoe in the Puck’s Mischif colorway. 8.5 ounces of superwash merino which I will, unsuprisingly, spin up for sock yarn.

So my favorite booth was the Crown Mountan Fibers booth - I went back enough times that the guy who was running it would tease me a little. This is 8 ounces of Blue Face Leicester pencil roving (despite the look of that first bit on the top - it was also originally in a hank) in the As Above So Below colorway. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, I’ve been spinning some of it up with my new drop spindle though.

And because Crown Mountain Farms is really wonderful I also got 4 ounces of 50/50 yak merino blend. I’m pretty sure they get it from Ashland Bay. They also had a 50/50 silk cashmere blend that I almost bought but figured I could buy online later. And then there were silk hankies and lots of bombyx top dyed by Nancy Finn and 100% yak….

Staying on the natural colors route - I got 2 ounces of alpaca Its really, amazingly, soft and this lovely dark brown.

And then I got 4 ounces each of gray shetland and 66.6/33.4 black shetland/tencel from the booth that everyone seemed to be calling “the shetland booth” that I’m going to use for mittens out of the Selbuvotter mitten book. There are 2 2 ounce batts in each bag and they look wonderful

And then there was the booth across the way from Crown Mountan Farms that had buffalo…don’t ask me what I’m going to do with it - I know it’ll be lace weight and that it will be spun woolen….

No - I’m not done yet. Chameleon Colorworks was selling these little containers of fiber that they called “Fiber Parfits”. They have a half ounce each of angora, camel, tussah silk, 50/50 baby camel tussah silk, merino/silk, alpaca, optim, and yak. Basically a bunch of stuff that I haven’t tried spinning but want to. they will probably all become lace weight samples.

And then there’s this. This is a freezer bag full of raw rambouillet (if I’m remembering correctly) that Judith Mackenzie Mccuin brought into the To Spin a Fine Thread class and told us to take so she woudln’t have to take it home. After the class ended I asked her if she could bring some fleece to Rhinebeck this fall and she told me to email her my address at school for her to send stuff to!!!!! One more reason why I love Judith, just one more reason.

More BFL dyed top, 4.3 ounces from Its a Colorful Life

I’m petering out…hand dyed hankies from someone….I don’t remember but its not from Crown Mountain Farms (suprising I know). that being said I”m really excited to spin with it - I’ve never spun silk hankies before.

Again - another fiber I had never spun before. This is Pygora (as you can tell from the picture) from Peppermint Pastures. I started spinning some of it this evening and I really like how it spins - makes me that much happier that I took Judith’s class on Sunday. Oh and they also come with little 1.5ml vials of pure peppermint oil!

I also bought a batt from Velma Colorbomb Creations. I think I’m going to make some coiled yarn out of it.

And last - but not least, I bought the Triple Play roving in the Edgar Allen colorway. A blend of Corriedale, Romney, Merino, viscose, and silk noil.

And that is the end of the first installment of my Black Sheep Gathering commentary if you will. Up next, classes, supplies, and samples.

So for whatever reason I haven’t posted in a while (I think I’m just tired - not busy, just tired) and I kept telling myself that I would post, but as you can see - that didn’t happen. So then Gail came into Twisted when I was working and scolded me for not posting and thus here I am posting.

First things first - I finished spinning most of the Lornas superwash merino (about 4 oz) that I have and Navajo plied it to a fingering weight:

My mom and I also made a trip out to Carlton to go to Woodland Woolworks. Gail - you were right, I was blown away. Of course my mom almost got us lost (between her lack of being able to read maps and her reluctance to ask people for help) and I was, once again, happy that I’m good with maps and directions, but yeah - it was awesome. They were in their second day of packing for Black Sheep Gathering when I got there, but it was still awesome. I ended up getting a pair of hand carders and all of this:

Everything but the light brown is merino, and the brown is alpaca. I could have done loads more damage but decided to save it for Black Sheep.

And, speaking of Black Sheep - its next weekend! I’ll be three Friday through Sunday and I’m taking four classes (four…how the hell did that happen), originally it was only three, and then I got convinced by the organizer to take the fourth.

I’m also working on the Jeweled Steps from New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

The wraps are the “steps” and the increases on the foot are worked adjacent to the wraps (you can’t see the increases well in his picture). Its knit out of Claudia Hand Painted Yarn: Fingering in the Teal Party colorway knit up on US1 needles.

I also bought three skeins of BMFA’s Woobu this past week, two in the Oregon Red Clover Honey colorway and one in the Malten colorway (which I can’t find on the website actually). They are becoming a cardigan that I’m designing for myself.

I cast on on the 12th and thats where I was yesterday morning. As of right now I’m about six and a half inches of the way through the body (which will be 12.5 inches - I have a short torso). Its going to stripes at non-uniform intervals and thicknesses. I’m wanting to make it saddle shoulder but, at the moment, I don’t totally understand saddle shoulders, but we’ll see, I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

I think between the jetlag (which I seem to be over) and me being able to lounge around in my own bed in front of the TV for the first time in 8 months, I’ve been procrastinating on the blogging front. I have been taking pictures of stuff though….

I got these two last week at NW Wools, the first one is BFL from Dicentra Designs and the other one is some unknown wool from Cappelli Laine Natural Fibers.

I also finished my RPM socks the other day (see Gail they’re done!). They’re knit out of STR mediumweight in an unknown colorway that Gail picked up for me at the BMFA sale when I was in Vienna.

And then the day that I finished the RPMs I started a new sock out of Schaefer Yarn Lola, also a mystery colorway because there isn’t anything in regards to colorway (or dye lot) on the tag. They’re just going to be plain, simple , toe up socks. Every so often I need to take a break from designs that involve me thinking.

I also have been doing a bit of spinning though I’ve been taking a small break this week but thats what’s on my wheel right now.

And last but not least, my two latest yarn purchases:  Claudia hand Painted Yarns - Fingering Weight in the Teal Party colorway and Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Mr. Green Jeans colorway.

So I ripped out the socks that I had cast on for my aunt because I wasn’t happy with them and am now designing socks for her - except they are still amazingly boring for me. I think the problem is that she picked this plain goldenrod color that isn’t really interesting to look at or knit with. It is Koigu so it feels good, but its KPM and a solid color. It does absolutely nothing for me.

These clearly aren’t my aunt’s socks I started the RPM socks from Knitty two days ago out of the STR that I got for Christmas (thank you Gail). I started them on the 19th and thats how far they were this earlier this morning - I just finished the heel about an hour ago before making breakfast.

I also went to Twisted yesterday which was really nice. I stayed for their Tuesday night kraft night and bought goodies.

The top is Claudia Hand Paints fingering weight in the Teal Party colorway (and wow did I have trouble finding two skeins of that) and the other is Socks That Rock in the Mr. reen Jeans colorway. I looked for it in the midweight weight because of how much I’m enjoying knitting the RPMs but I couldn’t find any in stock. I also really like the heavyweight STR among other things that I saw and wanted and then decided that maybe I should let my wallet rest a little.

Coming up in the next few days - I have some stuff on the wheel that I really really like and I may make Thursdays (or Fridays) “Food Thursday (Friday)”.

Hi everyone - I just want to let you all know that I got home last night at around 7:25 safely with everything including my spinning wheel intact (actually I haven’t tried spinning on it yet but its in my room set up right now and it looks fine).

All of my flights went well (well ok the Copenhagen-Seattle flight was interesting but I made it through unscathed), I got through customs somewhat quickly (once I found my bags and such - three suitcases = slow going), and apparently my grandma and my uncle got to the airport right before I touched down so good timing on their side.

I just cast on the Synesthesia Socks this morning - I’m knitting them out of Koigu for my aunt who will be here next month visiting. But they may be a little slow going as my internal clock (which is very very strong, to the point that I can think about what time I need to wake up the next day and I’ll wake up at that time) is all out of whack but I’ll get unjetlaged at some point…

And with all that said - here’s to a good Portland summer!

The Fiddlehead mittens are finally done! I finished them last night while taking a break from my packing adventure of sorts. They need to be blocked but that’ll wait till this weekend.

Packing is going - well as smoothly as it could. The new Samsonite is currently packed the same way you would a bike in a hard case except instead of foam its insulated with almost all of my winter clothes, and instead of a case designed for it, its in a large Samsonite hard sided suitcase. Oh and I’m hoping that it won’t be overweight. The second suitcase has all of my yarn and roving along with some books, two pairs of shoes, and some clothes (and will be repacked because right now its a little ridiculous). Then my hiking backpack, which is just small enough to carry on (I carried it on when I flew out here) has most of my non winter clothes.

My day tomorrow looks like this:

• 8am - leave my house for the airport
• 11:25 - fly from Vienna to Copenhagen (land at 1:05pm)
• 3:50pm - fly from Copenhagen to Seattle (land at 4:50pm PST)
• 6:30pm - fly from Seattle to Portland (land at 7:25p

My grandma and one of my uncles are picking me up, then hopefully we’ll swing by Cha Cha Cha (this Mexican restaurant in Portland that’s pretty good and really cheap) because I’ll probably be famished and then I’ll eat…and sleep. My mom is in NYC right now at a conference (and my aunt came along from Texas and is staying in the same room as my mom) - her plane will get in at around 4:30pm so I’ll have all of Saturday to myself which will be nice.

And now I get to go back to packing and cleaning (the cleaning bit is almost done) and later I have a farewell dinner of sorts with all of the full year students in my program (there are 13 of us) and then put some recycling out and go to bed.

No pictures today and no knitting either, but I come to you with a new lovely development: I’m done with my junior year!!!! I just finished my take home final and emailed it off to my professor tonight - about 15 min ago. Now, from the looks of it, my schedule for the next few days is as follows:

5/14/08: Pack a bit and clean, drop off paper (my prof wants us to email it to him and to drop it off in his box - he’s in Russia currently) go to Zentralfriedhof, do laundry, pack more.

5/15/08: Pack, maybe go out to coffee with a friend, go out to dinner with the other full year students in my study abroad program, pack some more

5/16/08: Do last min cleaning if need be, leave for the airport, fly to Portland (via Copenhagen and Seattle) - I get in at 7:25pm, eat, watch tv, sleep