Trek Along With Me

Trek Along With Me

This sounds like FUN! I had a little trouble finding the Trekking XXL yarn, but finally did, and it arrived yesterday. It's on the expensive side compared to Knitpicks, but it's a larger skein (one skein should do two socks) and it's much better quality. I'm going to attempt KNITTING these socks. Still haven't decided on a pattern though. Will be searching the internet today. In case, I have to skeins, so I may crochet one pair as well.

Happy Wednesday!

Sunday

Just to show you what a premium computer time is in this house, I must show you what I discovered on my computer at 8:12 pm tonight. The computer desk was unexpectedly unoccupied, so I grabbed my chance to check my email. Finding AOL minimized on my taskbar, I maximized it to find this message from Eric.



Uh, thanks for sharing, Dude.

As it's 9:38 pm now, I guess I'd best be on the phone....

Socks!

I have now completed three pairs of crocheted socks. The first was really an experiment, made with acrylic baby yarn, which was the only light weight yarn I had at the time. The next two pairs I made with sock yarn.

The first pair (now stretched out because I actually wore them today!) I really like, except the fit is terrible. I have such big feet (size 12) that I was afraid they wouldn't be big enough, so I erred on the large size at every possible opportunity. The result is that when I wear them, I have a mutant second heel over the top of my shoe. But I added the little lacy decoration at the top on my own; it wasn't in the pattern, and I really like it. Live and learn!

The current pair looks stunted, because I over compensated due to the above problem; however, they aren't very much too small, and I think when worn will be fine. They're more comfortable than the other pair, but the thick cuff on them leads toward winter use only. The next pair I make I think I will shorten the cuff by half and possibly only rib the outside fold to make it less bulky. Add a row or two more to the foot length, and they'll be perfect! I really enjoyed the top to toe pattern, much more so than the toe up pattern.

My other WIP is a crocheted scarf, made from a pattern in the Crochet a Day Calendar. It's very interesting how the flowers are made right within the row. Unfortunately, between the bad lighting and needing severe blocking, they aren't very visible in the pictures.
When it's completed and blocked I'll try again. The yarn I'm using makes it very tedious. It's an alpaca yarn I bought on ebay, one of my very rare bad experiences. It took well over a month for it to be delivered, and it's very poorly plied, so it splits constantly. But it is lovely and soft, so the finished product should be ok. I hope.

I have lots of spinning work to do this weekend, and dyeing too, so I'm trying to get my needle work done. But there's a lovely handbag in the One Skein book that just came in the mail today, and it's tempting me....

Plus de changent, plus le meme chose

So my darling, patient husband put our little one to sleep last night, only to have him come awake an hour later, vomiting from one end of the bed to the other. And again, an hour later. And again.... He finally settled about 2 am. I changed sheets three times and was doing laundry til 3 am. Since I have to wake up at 4:30 am, I figured I might as well stay up. So I crocheted socks until it was time to get ready for work.

And it's raining. Buckets. The weather is better in Boston than here. Shocking. Now normally, I like the rain, especially here, when it's not a freezing, chilling rain. But I could have used a nice cheery sunny day today. Though my Asbestos friend Barbara called last night to check on my mental status, which is always a lovely and uplifting thing.

I'll try to get pictures of the socks up later. I took some very valuable advice and crocheted both at the same time (helps keep sizing and pattern consistent, and avoids SSS {Second Sock Syndrome, where one never finishes the second sock}).

Happy Monday to All....

There you go again...

Well, it's been a busy few days. First, Thursday night Murphy's school had their annual "Spring Sing." It was quite lovely, and Murphy did a wonderful job singing. Here's a few pictures:






It was pretty sweet. He looked so grown up in his suit, and he sang with such enthusiasm. We all were very proud of him.

Then Friday night, I took out his stitches. The area looked good, so we band-aided it up and sent him off to sleep. Saturday, his friend Ryan from school had a birthday party. Murphy had talked about this party all week! So we sent him armed with a Spiderman action figure and some kisses and instructions to behave! Mommy did not realize that there would be a Jolly Jumper there. Guess who came home with a bloody chin? He managed to split the area open again. So Mommy weighed the semi healed wound with the trauma of another emergency room visit and possible stitches and made the executive decision to steri strip it and forbid any further jolly jumper rides! The wound edges approximated well, so hopefully he won't have much of a noticeable scar.

While Murphy was busy ripping open his wound, I was busy with my dyeing project. I took four ounces of Merino wool and hand painted it. Murphy had requested green, blue and brown, which rather surprised me as his favorite color has always been red. I did opt for purple rather than brown. Here is the initial picture, with the dye painted but not set.

Here's the roving after the rinse and dry. It's not quite as bright as I would have liked it, since I didn't actually follow directions or anything. I just kind of winged it, and probably should have used more dye, especially of the green. But I kinda like it anyway.


It's very compressed and I'm a little concerned I might have felted it, but it does seem to pull apart, so maybe it will be okay. I'm going to try another batch and try to agitate it less. I'll pick one to try spinning myself before I send it off to my Dyeing for Spring exchange partner.

Finally; My Wheel

Tonight I drummed up my courage and pulled the resident spinning wheel from the corner and scraped the dust off of it. I've been so afraid to touch it; it's so beautiful and so fragile and I had no idea what I was doing. Since I've gotten the Majacraft, I understand the workings a bit better, so I decided to take the plunge.

It's so sad that it's broken in so many places; the wood is beautiful and in very good condition, other than the damaged parts. My husband reports that he and his sisters would play with it, having contests to see who could getting going the fastest, and I imagine that might be where the breakages happened.


It looks like the footman and the flyer need replacing, though with some tenderness and care, maybe we can use it as is. The most worrying thing to me is a crack in the wheel's center; if that breaks, I think it's pretty much done. I'm hoping to take it to Solvang and see if the experts there can help.


There's a maker's mark on the wheel; Alfred Andresen Co., Minneapolis, Minnesota. I googled it and got no hits at all. I sent emails to the Spindler's List and to The Spinning Wheel Sleuth; maybe someone will know something about it. I've decided to christen it Abigail.




If you happen to know anything about this wheel, or who might help me replace/restore the broken pieces, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Mother's Day!

Well, we had an interesting day yesterday. Murphy decided to climb the grecian fountain in our front yard and took a dive off of it. "I'll never do that again, EVER EVER!!!!!!!!" My poor baby has a scraped knee and a very deep gash under his chin. So off we went to the local ER, which boasts a staff of one doctor, two nurses, a receptionist and an EMT. A total of 5 chairs in the waiting room, all of which were full and then some. Three ambulances arrived during our wait, resulting in us waiting three and one half hours before seeing a doctor. Luckily, the bleeding was minimal after the first 10 minutes or so, and the pain wasn't bad. We explained as best we could what was going to happen and got him focused on the game boy that Eric was smart enough to remember, so the wait wasn't too bad. Except for Daddy, who has this problem watching people he loves have to wait for treatment, so we sent him home after a bit. He came back just in time for the actual treatment and was able to be the Rock we all depend on. Here's the before pic:

We lucked out, in a way. The covering ER attending was Dr. Gross, Peru and Eric's regular doctor, so we knew him and he knew us a bit. Poor Murph was confused with people in various uniforms running around, doing various things, and he couldn't figure out who the "real" doctor was. So we told him Dr. Gross was the "real" doctor, to which he promptly asked "Why are you so OLD?" As usual with my children, he had the entire place cracking up with the things he was saying.

Dr. Gross was very patient and explained every step carefully, which both Mom and Murph appreciated. Murphy still didn't get it, really. After all was done and we came back home and fed the poor child his Bunnies (Annie's Mac & Cheese), I showed him with a tissue, thread and needle exactly what was done, and how the stitches would be removed next week. He ended up with five stitches, through which he was very brave. Afterwards, I asked him if it was as bad as he had thought it would be, and he said, "No way, it was much better!"

Here's the sutures:
Today, it's much better, "barely hurts at all!" the swelling is down, and he's excited to have something to share at school on Monday. All in all, we were very lucky that things weren't much worse, and I was reminded yet again of how dear and sweet and wonderful my entire family is, and how amazing it is to be able to depend on them always being there when we need each other.

Today, I was welcomed with a lovely song "Turn Around" and a beautiful handmade hat and ashtray from my sweet baby. He was so excited to remember the song and so happy to give me the presents. Very touching. I cried buckets, of course. Later, my Beloved will take me out to our favorite restaraunt for an early dinner. A perfect day, with all my boys about me. I am a VERY happy Mommy.

Amazing Site

The AntiCraft

Attitude galore. Gotta love em.

Latest Doings

Haven't posted for a while as I've been sick, again. Finally, thanks to major antibiotics I'm "Much better now." The only good thing about being sick was I spent mucho time crocheting and knitting and spinning. Here are the fruits of my labors.

This bag is a Mother's Day gift for my Mother in law, who is much missed. The decoration on the bag is a handmade beaded brooch I discovered in a drawer. I thought it was the perfect accent.

This one is for my Mom for Mother's Day. I wish the picture showed the yarn better. It's a thin/thick slub yarn in greens and coral, wrapped in a gold metallic thread. It makes the bag textured and interesting to look at.

This tote may well be one of my favorite creations. The purple yarn at the top was my first foray into the world of dyeing. I like the size of the bag, and I really like how substantial the handles are. My problem now is what do I do with it? Keep it for myself? Or plan something special?

I also created this shawl. It's a mixed media, both knit and crochet. I used a drop stitch pattern and edged it in single and double crochet. I'm pleased with it, as I was trying for a lacy looking wrap, but I have to admit that it's purely ornamental and not useful for warmth at all!
Here's a close up of the stitch.



Aside from these, I've been spinning, spinning, spinning. Still working with the mill end browns on the Majacraft, and the silk on the Bossie. Tomorrow, maybe I'll post pictures of the new silks I ordered...

New Fiber

I just got my new fiber from Copper Moose Fibers on eBay. Ohhh it's so gorgeous. I bought it in white because I wanted to dye it for the Spindler's Dyeing for Spring Exchange but I had to just grab a handful and try it on my wheel. Thank goodness it came with so many bobbins! A blend of Alpaca, Merino and Tussah silk; it sheds SOOOOOOO badly but oh it's so soft and lovely. I hope I don't trash it! I also got some kid mohair blend in white for dyeing. I'm a tad intimidated by dyeing fiber. I've dyed yarn but somehow the fiber just seems so much more vulnerable and unwieldy! I'm going to do a bit more research on the net and then maybe next weekend bite the bullet. This is so much fun!

How to trade your stash for someone elses!

OneSkein.com

Wonderful Wheel

It came! Far faster than I expected. I got home last night to see a large box on my bed, which I immediately tore open; didn't even take off my coat or shoes! It went together easily, partly because the lovely woman I bought it from thoughtfully included the instructions. Wow.

Wow. What a different feeling! I knew from the Spindler's List that practice is needed; so I sat down and just treadled for a while. Feels strange at first, and it's hard to keep it from going backwards every now and again, but it got better as I practiced. So then I added some commercial yarn, just to get the idea. Finally, I tackled some wool. Frustration! It was really really hard to get it started. The strand kept breaking. I finally figured out that there wasn't nearly enough twist, so I figured out how to keep it from winding on until the twist built up. Tada! I spun an ounce of the sample wool that I got with my original spindle from Mielke Farms. It's a tad rough, but not bad! Then I tried some of the mill end I got from The Sheep Shed Studio. That's a little rougher. It's much harder to draft, so theres'a lot of thick/thin areas. It's also overtwisted, I think. I spun until my fingers ached though, and I think I'm getting better. It took me a while with the spindle too, so I suppose I'll get it! I'm already wondering how I'll do with some silk....

Family Updates

I'm totally heartbroken. Murphy lost his first tooth on Monday, sometime. We don't know exactly when, because it appears he must have swallowed it. I so wanted to save it. It brought me to tears, my baby is growing up so fast! I still have most of Eric's teeth in a medicine bottle in my jewelry case, collected by the tooth fairy over the years. Such a milestone! Since he lost the tooth, we didn't have one to put into the "Tooth Fairy Pillow," so we left the tooth fairy a note. "Dear Tooth Fairy, Sorry I swallowed my tooth. I really wanted a penny from you. Love, Murphy." The Tooth Fairy was very understanding and left him a whole dollar!

Eric is making plans to attend Ventura College; he took the entrance exam and received 40/44 out of 40/45. I'm so proud of him, in so many ways. He's so patient with his adoring little brother, and he's so much better a person than I was when I was his age. Oh dear, I'm going to be the mother of a college student! I literally burst into tears when he brought me his cap and gown today.

My DH has been doing some work with the elderly. He's going to be teaching a computer class twice a week. He and I have both started our diets again, and I'm so proud of him. He's working really hard at it, which motivates me so much. The hardest part is changing your thinking, and he's making huge strides.

And a miracle; right now, we're all relatively healthy! A few scattered allergy symptoms, but nothing worse, thank goodness. It's been a while! It's been a very long winter.

Another miracle: I finally packed away the Christmas decorations. It's only April, after all! We took them down in February, but I've been so sick and tired I just never had the energy to do the intensive planning necessary to pack so much into so little space. But I finally did it last night. Tonight? The dreaded right corner of the bedroom. I'm motivated for that one though; that's where the Gem is going to go!

I can't believe I did it!

I won. I actually won. It hasn't really sunk in yet. I put a bid on a Majacraft Little Gem spinning wheel on Ebay and I won! I'm horrified that I spent that much at this particular time (yes, I'm broke) and yet I'm so thrilled to have the opportunity to actually own a wheel that I'll be able to use! It even comes with the large flyer and bobbin kit. I must say that my usually incredibly supportive husband isn't wild about it; he thinks I should just get the old wheel fixed. Which believe me, I plan to. But I expect it will cost almost as much as I paid for the Gem, and take ages, and I just couldn't wait. Not when I saw that deal! If it's anywhere near what it's described, it really is a great deal. He also thinks that now that I have a wheel, I can sell my spindles. I mean, after all, if you can use a wheel, why use a spindle? I tried to explain, but I don't think he gets it. Maybe I'll have to use a guitar metaphor to illustrate.

On the actual doing things front, I ripped out the fishtail scarf I had started. The needles were too big and the yarn too small, and I didn't like the result. I still plan to make it but have to regroup and reconsider. I started a vest from the Stitch 'N Bitch Happy Hooker book; have a few rows done. I like that it's done in one piece; I hate joining! I'm still spinning the silk, but last night tried to go back to the Corridale on the Kundert; it was SO hard! The silk drafts so easily, so beautifully, and I felt like I was fighting the wool. It's probably not a great idea to go back and forth between such drastically different fibers and spindles, I decided.

So now I'll sit on pins and needles awaiting the arrival of the wheel. I'll try to focus on cleaning and organizing to have a place to put it

Guild Meeting

Today I attended my second meeting of the Ventura County Handspinners and Weaver's Guild. It was a lot of fun. There are such a variety of people from all ages and backgrounds, and everyone is so nice. I'm so shy, I was afraid I might huddle in a corner, but everyone was so friendly, and my curiosity overcame my shyness. I shared my pink yarn and got very pleasing reviews. The speaker was a little over my head, as I barely know the difference between warp and weft. She spoke about tapestry weaving throughout history and had a wonderful slide show to illustrate. Then she showed some of her own work which was incredibly detailed. The shading from color to color was amazing, truly art.

The most inspiring part however was seeing and learning about two spinning wheels. One was an antique castle style wheel that was just lovely, very elegant and beautiful to look at. The other was a Majacraft Rose which I am totally enamored with. It's so versatile, compact, quiet and pleasing to the eye. I must have one!

After the meeting I detoured on the way home to visit Anacapa Fine Yarns in Ventura. Here's my haul. I finally scored some Noro Silk Garden at 20% off. Picked up some much needed knitting needles. I've been hankering to try a knitted lace shawl of some sort, which is probably going to be way over my head, as my knitting skills are beginner at best. But I'm going to try this:
the Fishtail Lace Scarf. I'm using the alpaca I bought on Ebay, and my brand spanking new size 6 Crystal Palace Bamboo needles. So far it doesn't seem too difficult, but then, I've only done one repeat. We'll see how it progresses.
On the spinning front, I've spun a fair amount of that wonderful silk roving I started Thursday night. I continue to be loving it. I just can't wait to see the finished product. I have no idea what I'll do with it when it's done; maybe just put it in a bowl and gaze at it. I've had to be very strict with myself and threaten punishment in order not to give in to the desire to buy more in all those lovely colors available at Blue Ridge Silk Works. Gorgeous!

I have a few other works in progress but suddenly realized that I can't publish info on them as they're gifts for people who might have occasion to look at the blog. Duh! So I'll have to catalogue those elsewhere.

I'm off to try one more repeat before bed. Good Night!

Two Bossies

In looking at the pictures of my spindles, I realized it was difficult to judge the size. So here are my two bossies, one midi, one featherweight, side by side. The featherweight is loaded with silk roving, spun tonight. I think I'm in love. Silk is the most amazing stuff! It just glides so easily, so soft and wonderful. I've spun it so thin I'm not even sure what I can do with it; I twisted four lengths together to mimic four ply and it was still tiny. I really am so in love with silk! Now I'll need to feed my addiction and find more, in lots of colors... purples, and red, and some bright blues...

I'm SO Excited!

Got home from work today to find my new Featherweight Bossie in Lacewood at my door. It's absolutely beautiful. It was a tad difficult for me to use at first on wool, so I decided to try some silk. Now, this silk top was one of the first fibers I ever purchased. It was horribly disappointing in my first attempts; my spindle was too heavy and the single would break constantly. Admittedly, I'd only been spindling for oh, about two weeks at the time, and hadn't really begun to master the most elemental of fibers. So with much regret, I tucked it away. Tonight, I thought maybe, just maybe, a featherweight and a little experience; maybe I could manage that silk! And look!
A single no bigger than sewing thread; maybe even smaller! And I haven't dropped the spindle once. Ohhhh I am in heaven, absolute heaven. I need to find a way to do my job (Office Manager)and still find more hours in the day to spin and knit and crochet. I'm having so much fun that I'm staying up too late trying to finish "just one more repeat" or "just this piece of roving," and that's not good when you're up at 4:40 am.

Thank you, Sheila; you came through again. Can I be your apprentice?

Spindler's Logo

This is the Logo for the Spindler's Yahoo Group. The spindles pictured are from Sheila & Jonathan Bosworth. Gorgeous, aren't they?

Spinning

Ever since I saw women carding wool at Sturbridge Village when I was very young, I have wanted to learn to spin. Finding a wheel, just waiting for me, here when we moved in was just amazing. But before I touch the wheel, I wanted to learn the basics. So using the internet, I discovered drop spindles, and a whole community of women spinning their threads, and just had to learn.

I wandered over to Mielke's Farm and bought a learn to spin kit. Then I found some roving at my lys and here is the result. The roving is a lovely blue with a fluorescent yellow/green highlight. This spindle is a bottom whorl, which I have discovered is a little harder to use than a top whorl, and that it's also very heavy. My first attempts weren't bad, but spinning is something you need to see and do to learn to figure out how much twist to put in, how thin to make your strand. So through the mailing list I joined, I met a very friendly woman from So. Cal, who was willing to meet up in person and teach me. That was very helpful. Now I needed more spindles!

So I purchased this one. It's a Kundert, and quite lovely. See the gorgous purpleheart wood? The roving being spun on this one I won at my first meeting of the Ventura County Handspinners and Weavers Guild and I just love the colorway. It's a gorgeous blend of rust and copper and gold and blue and I can't wait to see the finished yarn. I'm hoping to make it a 2 ply sport weight or fingering weight, but we'll see!

Well, I love the Kundert, but it's still a very heavy spindle. I needed something really light to help my single become more fine. And then I found The Journey Wheel. And I found Sheila Bosworth, and her husband Jonathan, who create what someone at my guild called the "cadillac of spindles." Sheila's customer service is the best I've ever gotten. I bought this one with her help, a tulipwood midi that is just incredible. It spins forever and is so beautiful to look at and to touch. I already have plans for a collection. The fiber on that spindle was a free bag of mill ends that came with a full box of fiber from The Sheep Shed Studio. I'm really pleased with the fiber I got from them.

I have a few more spindles in my collection already that will have to wait for another day to be displayed. Tomorrow: my WIP's!!!

Fingerless Gloves

I love fingerless gloves. They look so cool, and they're so practical. My cold metal desk at work freezes my forearms in the morning, so I made some to keep warm and still be able to type. Here are a few I've made. This is the first pair I made in a varigated acrylic, crocheted in a ribbing stitch.

These I made for Murphy, my five year old. He's fond of a video game called "Gruntz", in which clay "goo" creatures use gauntlets to smash rocks. He was fairly thrilled about them. Again, an acrylic in a ribbed stitch; I added a couple of popcorns to look like spikes. Which I just noticed you can't see in the picture!


These I made in microspun, in a really pretty shell stitch. I like that they're not bulky, and I made them elbow length to keep my forearms warm on that metal desk! I made a similar pair for my DMIL who has issues with arthritis and skin tears. I hope she likes them as much as I do.

These are my most recent creations, made of bamboo yarn which is so silky and wonderful to the touch. I used a front/back post stitch suggested by my spinner friend Elisa. Thanks, Elisa!

Think that's it for tonight; will work on a few more images tomorrow.