I'm still here, slogging away in tax season hell. This was another particularly heinous week and I'm so glad I have the weekend off. Yesterday was bright and sunny, although cold. Dad tilled my garden last week so I was able to get my onions planted. March 29 planting in my garden, that may be some sort of new record for me. It was so nice to get out in the fresh air. I put in 10 rows of onions this year. I planted a variety of sweet onions including Candy Sweets, Texas 1015s and Walla Wallas. Candys have always done pretty good for me, I'm interested to see how the others do. It will be several weeks before I plant anything else out, until it starts warming up some.
I've started a new pair of socks. Another toe up pair, these using the Lime and Violet Sasquatch sock yarn I got last year in a color called Darvoset.
It's knitting up very pretty. I'm also trying to finish the cotton V-neck tank I started last year. Man I hate knitting with cotton. I don't know why I keep talking myself into trying it again. I can stand it for about a day or two, then I just want to chuck it. I'm knitting the neck band now and hope to finish the damn thing this week. Just to be done with it. It actually doesn't look too bad, and the fabric does feel nice. I'm just not happy knitting it.
Which brings me to the new KnitPicks summer yarns. They've got a new yarn called Comfy. It's a cotton acrylic blend that comes in a gorgeous subdued color palette. For a few tremulous moments, my mouse was poised on Add to Cart. Milan would be fabulous in the Blackberry color or maybe Flamingo. But then I made myself remember all my cotton-cursings and stopped myself. The little devil on my shoulder keeps saying, this time will be different. But I'm not letting myself be tempted. At least not until there is some chatter on Ravelry about how this yarn behaves. At the very least, I'm going to restrain myself to one ball the next time I need to order from KP so that I can try it before committing to a sweater's worth. The yarn diet is in the home stretch. Only 17 days to go. Easy-peasy. Although, I must say, it it hadn't been for the wheel and my fiber pimp, opps I mean Jen, keeping me busy, I might have caved a month ago. I'm about 80% leaning towards the Elann Superwash Worsted and 20% towards KP Swish for Milan. It will probably all come down to which color strikes my fancy the day I breakdown and order.
Speaking of my fiber pimp. Check out the new goodness I got:
This is a batt I bought called Cozy Stripes. Jen said it was inspired by a cold rainy day in the mountains and wanting to feel cozy. The colors sure feel warm and cozy to me. Along with the batt, she sent me two test batts of Harry Potter house colors, Gryffindor of course!
I've started on the first batt already. This one had the gold and burgundy somewhat blended together. It's spinning up a bit barber pole, which is really awesome. I'm going to do a whole bobbin and then probably ply it with a black or brown solid single. I'm afraid plying it on itself will just end up looking orange from a distance.
I haven't opened the second batt yet. The gold and burgundy are layered in this one. I'm interested to see how different or similar it ends up compared to the blended batt.
The last few weeks I've been limping around with a sore foot. Being that it's tax season and all and I couldn't take off from work to stay off it, I tried my best to stay off it when I was home. I followed every bit of advice people gave me...ice it, soak it, rub it, prop it up, use heat, wrap it, but the worst was don't spin. The thought was I should keep it elevated and not make it work. My foot was starting to feel better until a week ago we ran into a major computer problem that had me on my feet running from my workstation to the servers (which are located in the basement) for a whole day and then 3 days later another computer issue that had me standing for several hours. Needless to say, all my progress was negated and I was limping as bad as before. So I finally went to see the doctor. Thankfully, there's nothing major wrong. She feels it's either a touch of tendinitis or just an inflammation of the heel. It's just going to take a while to get better. She gave me some anti-inflammatory drugs and gave me stretches to do. I bought some inserts for my shoes that also seem to be helping. But, joy of joys! she told me I should be exercising my foot. Riding a bike is ideal she said since it moves the foot without putting much weight on it. You know what that means, right? SPINNING! Treadling certainly moves the foot very gently without bearing weight. So I'm back to spinning with a vengeance. I finished spinning and plying the rambouillet/columbia roving.
Final statistics: 4 ounces, 271 yds. Even though I spun the singles fairly fine, the nature of the wool resulted in a very springy yarn, lots of loft. No plans for the yarn, as yet. Perhaps mittens or a hat.
I got this bit of excellence from Jen earlier this week.
It's 2 pounds of wool/mohair mill end rovings. I very much desire to spin this into a soft singles yarn (think Malabrigo type). So far, I'm not having much luck. After 2 months of trying to spin as fine as possible, it's really hard to spin thicker. It's like going back to day one of spinning. The thing is, the thinner the yarn, the more twist you need, so it IS actually easier to spin thin. You have more time to draft while the twist is entering the yarn. But thick yarn needs very little twist, so you've got to move much faster before the twist builds up. I seem to be having the best luck using park and draft. This means you treadle until you build up twist in the yarn then stop treadling and draft out the fiber letting the twist run up the yarn. Then you treadle to wind on and start over. But I find the starting and stopping tedious. This was my first attempt, splitting the roving in two strips.
It was EXTREMELY energized when I wound it off. I probably should have left it sit on the bobbin at least overnight, but I'm really impatient. I soaked it in warm water and hung it under tension to dry. It's still very tight and kinky, not the soft fluffiness I'm after. My next step is going to be splitting the roving in 4ths. Maybe if I start out with the roving closer to the finished size, so I don't have to draft as much, I'll have better luck. I've noticed this roving really sheds, I assume that's the mohair in it. I'll have to remember to drape a towel over my lap while I'm working with it.
I finished the handspun socks.
These were knit using Wendy Johnson's toe up sock pattern. The pattern is super easy, although I think they look a little weird laid out flat. They look much better on.
They are a bit on the thick side, but super comfortable. Of course, now the weather is warming up so I probably won't get to wear them much until fall. So I'm left with 3 projects on the needles...the Jaywalker socks, which I seriously don't even want to look at; the chevron scarf, which doesn't thrill me either; and the v-neck shell which has been hibernating for months. I am going to make an effort to get the shell finished so maybe I can actually wear it this spring. I wish I could love cotton more. I love wearing cotton, but knitting with it really just grates with me. I'll probably cast on another pair of socks so I'll have on the go knitting, but I've got to try to finish at least one of these languishing projects.
Back around Christmas, the seed catalogs arrived as usual. I wasn't planning on ordering much since my past experience with starting seeds hasn't been overly successful. Lack of good light and the cool temps we keep the house don't seem conducive to growing seedlings. But while I was looking for the onion plants I wanted to order, I happened upon something that sounded interesting. I mentioned it too hubby and he was more excited than me. So we ordered ourselves a Portabella Mushroom kit.It arrives looking like a big box of dirt (because that's essentially what it is).
You wet one packet of dirt and spread it over the other dirt then close up the box and let it sit for a week.
After a week, we opened the box with great excitement and found this...
Yep, that's moldy dirt. At this point, we moved the box to our basement. Every few days I would mist the moldy dirt and wait for something to happen. After a week, I thought I must have done something wrong because nothing changed. I read the instructions again and discovered I should have covered the box with a plastic bag. This I did. Within a few days, little white bubbles appeared and before long we had mushrooms. (Sorry, missed getting pictures during this period). Now, here we are a month later and we've got mushrooms all ready to harvest.
I'm so blown away. They are awfully crowded in the box and probably won't get as big as the portabellas we get from the grocery store, but still. It's pretty damn awesome to find something you can grow in a cardboard box in your basement in the dead of winter!Oh, and seeds? I did decide to give it one more try after seeing Boogie's post about these nifty little seed starting pots. I planted eggplants and tomatoes. The "greenhouse" is an olive oil jug with the top cut off. I keep it covered with plastic wrap to keep the cats from reaking havoc and keep it in the sunniest window of the house (supplemented by my Ott light on cloudy days). And lo and behold, we have plants!
So far, I'd say 2008 is starting out to be a pretty good gardening year!And now for something completely different...As mentioned in my last post, the prior week was pretty bad. So bad, in fact, I almost caved on the yarn diet. The Milan brainworm is still nudging around and then Elann's newsletter came to my Inbox shortly after I got some money for some yarn and bags I sold. The combination was nearly my downfall. Elann has new superwash worsted wool for $2.38/50 grams! I could get enough yarn for the Milan cardi for like $35. And Merlot or Cape Cod would be just perfect, don't you think? But I resisted. And I'm resisting now, even though I had to click over there to get the link. I'm closing the window now. If it's meant to be, the yarn will still be there April 16th.
A few knitting projects to report on. Here's a cute little bag I made to keep my oil bottle handy on my spinning wheel.
I used some scrap hand dyed sock yarn I had lying around and just made the pattern up as I went along. I also made one of Mason Dixon's felted boxes for my library auction donation. I missed the errata for the pattern and knit nearly a third of the box before finding out they had the wrong needle size listed (they had US10 and it should have been 10MM, US15). So I had to rip the whole thing and start over. 
Turned out great though and it was a fast easy knit. The box is going to be a tea lovers gift basket. I knitted a little mug cozy from some of my handspun.
The pattern couldn't be easier. Cast on enough stitches to equal a little less than the height of the mug. Work a few rows of garter stitch, then work in stockinette (always knitting the first and last 2 stitches) until the piece is almost long enough to fit around your mug. Work a few more rows of garter stitch, bind off, and sew together the first and last two stitches from both ends to make the hole for the handle. I'm not much of a cozy fan, but i do think this is cute and should help keep ones tea warm.
Currently I'm knitting socks. I finished the first handspun sock and love it. I'm well into the second sock. The slightly thicker yarn is making them a fast knit. I cast on another pair of plain jane top down socks, just so I'd have some variety.
It's been a week from hell. I try not to let life get me down, but this was just one of those weeks where it feels like someone is walking behind you, beating you with a stick all day long.
But now, the weekend is here. We had a bit of a snow so I'm gonna say I'm snowed in. I've finished all my chores (well, the laundry needs to be folded, but otherwise, I'm done). And this just came in the mail
I used some of the birthday money from my family to treat myself to The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning. It's gotten largely positive reviews. The most common negative remark is that the author is very opinionated in a "my way or the highway" type attitude. I'm hoping this won't deter too much from the supposed wealth of knowledge contained in the tome. I'm off to a cozy corner to read with a nice cup of tea, my fleece blanket, and with any luck a nice warm cat on my lap.
Thursday brought a lovely gift in the mail. Jen, from Hanks in the Hood, custom dyed some superwash roving for me. Isn't it gorgeous?!
The color is called Peacecat and I love it. There's pink and purple, blue and grey on a creamy white background. I couldn't wait to try spinning it. So I put on a fresh bobbin and pulled just a bit of roving off the end to give it a try.
I'm able to spin it quite thin and consistent. There's a hint of sheen to the spun yarn. I finished my first 2 oz bobbin of the rambouillet/columbia cross this afternoon and went back to spinning the superwash. Actually, I think it would be good practice for me to switch back and forth between the 2 fibers since both are being spun a bit differently.
The colonial yarn is working up nicely as socks. I'm using Wendy Johnson's Toe Up sock pattern, which I'm absolutely loving. My only concern is when I get to the bind off. I'll have to do some reading to find a nice stretchy bind off.
This picture was taken a few days ago and I'm now past the heel. I had decided to go toe up since I wasn't sure how far the yarn would go. It looks like I'll have plenty of yarn to do my normal length sock.
I frogged the Katsara Tube Socks that have been on my needles since last summer. I finally got to the point where I just had to admit they were never going to get done and I was tired of having them suck the life out of me. I've come to the conclusion I'm not really cut out for patterned socks. I do much better with plain vanilla socks. And with all the funky hand dyed yarns I've got, there's plenty enough interest in the yarn I don't need to worry with adding fancy patterning. I stopped short of ripping the Jaywalkers, although they too are sole-suckers. But I do have one sock finished and the 2nd sock underway, so I think I will finish them someday. I'll have to find someone with smaller feet to give them too, though, since when I tried sock 1 on, it was a bit too tight.
I'm starting to hear the siren song of a sweater calling me. I've only been working on small projects since I finished Mr Greenjeans and I'm starting to itch for something big. Milan is the current front runner vying for my attention. But since I'm still on the yarn diet and don't have enough yarn for a sweater, I must resist. I did wander over to Knit Picks the other day since they're having a clearance sale, but I was good. I've made it this far, I can make it 2 more months, right?
The newly spun yarn has been wound off, washed and (almost) dried.
It's gorgeous, even if I do say so myself. I absolutely love the way the colors blended together. The photos really don't do it justice.
The final statistics: spun at 8.5 ratio, 4 oz colonial wool (roving from Hanks in the Hood), 2 ply, 216 yds, 12 WPI (about dk weight).
I did not achieve my desired thinness, nor did the yarn end up as even as I thought I was spinning. But it's a huge improvement over my last handspun and I'm feeling a great sense of accomplishment. With more practice, I'm sure I'll eventually make my goal of spinning beautiful sock yarn. I read you need to use a higher ratio for thinner yarns, so maybe I'll try stepping up to the next ratio next time.
So what's the plan for this yarn? I've got to swatch it and see how the fabric looks, but I'm still leaning towards socks. I don't mind heavy socks this time of year. Especially since I live in clogs that can accommodate the thicker socks. They'll have to be toe up since the yardage is pretty small.
I managed to finish spinning the singles for my sock yarn. I decided to fashion myself a tensioned lazy kate before I started plying. I would love a fancy shmancy Kromski lazy kate, but think the $50 they run is a bit much when a perfectly functional kate can be made pretty much for free. Here's how. You'll need a sturdy shoe box will accommodate the size and number of bobbins you want to ply from, 2 knitting needles that will fit through your bobbins, a third needle of any size, 2 binder clips, a rubber band and some twine or string. Estimate where you want the bobbins to sit in the box and punch holes to feed the knitting needles through (be sure you punch them straight across from each other and about an inch down from the top of the box). Punch another set of holes in the center of the box and slightly lower for the spare needle (this provides tension on the bobbins).
Put the box lid on the bottom of the box and attach binder clips on each end where you want the tension band to be. Tie a rubber band to one binder clip. Tie the twine to the rubber band. Pass the twine over the first bobbin, under the spare needle, over the 2nd bobbin and over the side of the box to the other binder clip.
Cut the twine to length and tie to the 2nd binder clip. Now you are ready to ply with a nicely controlled stream of yarn. I cut notches at both ends of the box to increase the tension slightly. This sad looking kate worked very well. Maybe someday I'll splurge on the wooden one, but this will certainly do the job in the meantime.
After finishing the lazy kate I put it to the test and plied my sock yarn. Quinn parked herself beside me for the duration.
I think she finds spinning as soothing as I do. You can see my completely full bobbin there in the foreground. I need to wind off the yarn yet and figure my WPI and yardage. Pictures soon.
Speaking of pictures, here's a picture of the first project from my own handspun yarn.
This is the Favorite Hat from One Skein Wonders using my corriedale handspun in Brambleberry. I really wasn't digging the thick thin yarn and didn't think I would like it knit up. Boy was I ever wrong. The hat is GORGEOUS. The yarn knit up beautifully. It's soft and cozy, perfect for the cold weather we've had this week.
Looky what came in the mail today! The fantastic rovings from Hanks in the Hood.
First up is the Lavender Cream. It's a rambouillet/columbia cross. It's really fluffy and springy. It puts me in mind of fiberfill it's so lofty. I envision trying to spin this as a soft single and making a hat.
This is Denim. It's merino and, ooo mama, is it soft. The color is quite a bit darker than what I expected from the picture on Etsy, but still very beautiful and definitely denim like. I almost didn't get it because I've heard merino is a difficult fiber for beginners to spin. But, the whole "start like you mean it" spirit said, what the heck. I don't have to spin it now while I'm still learning. I'm sure it will age just fine in stash. At the moment, no plans for what this might become.
I'm still spinning along on the colonial wool. So far, I'm very pleased with the singles I'm producing. The thickness is fairly even and quite thin. I'm afraid it's actually going to be a bit too thin for the 2 ply I had hoped to make. I like a slightly heavier sock yarn, so I'm thinking I'm going to end up doing a 3 ply. As to whether I navajo ply or do a straight 3 ply, I'm not sure yet. I had divided the roving in 2 when I started, so dividing now to get 3 equal bobbins would be a bit difficult, not impossible, but difficult. And I only have 3 bobbins at the moment, so I'd have to off-load the singles some how before plying. There's lots of info on how do to all these things on Ravelry so I'll be able to research it as I decide what I want to do. I'll try to get some pictures this weekend of my progress.
My husband and I love to watch the birds in the yard. And so do the cats! So we put birdseed out around our deck every day. The other morning, I noticed Quinn staring out the window, much more intently than usual. As I got closer I could see why. There was a hawk sitting on the rail. I tried to get a picture, but by the time I got back with the camera, it had moved to the wash pole so the picture is pretty fuzzy.
We're pretty sure it's a Cooper's hawk. It was in the yard last week, as well, but not close enough that we could identify it. It's a truly beautiful bird, but not a good thing to have around when you are trying to attract little birds to your yard.
I took yesterday off from spinning. I did try my hand at dyeing another 4 ounces of the corriedale roving. This time I followed a suggestion I saw on Ravelry to braid the roving first, before dyeing. This seemed to work much better.
I soaked the roving and laid it out on plastic wrap. I used an old baster to apply the dyes.
Then I wrapped it all up and steamed it for an hour. Let it cool, rinsed very gently and hung it to dry. This morning it was still damp so I put it in front of the heater to dry.
Quinn immediately took up a post of guard cat (actually, I think she just liked having the wool as a pillow in front of the heater! I unbraided the roving and it's finishing drying now. It's still a little compacted, but not as bad as my first attempt at dyeing roving. However, I think I much prefer dyeing yarn and will leave the roving to the professionals.
Speaking of which. I caved and ordered some more roving from Hanks in the Hood. Lavender Cream and Denim this time. I sold a book on Half.com this week and decided to do my part for the economy and spend the profit. That's right. I sold one book and had enough money to buy 2 hanks of roving. AWESOME. Jen is so delightful to shop with. I just can't recommend her highly enough. This is why I love shopping on Etsy. You get to meet the best people. And, Jen, if you're reading this, I'm not just sucking up. :)
Anyway, back to spinning. Saint Brenda's most recent podcast was titled Start as you mean to go on. She spoke about making your dreams come true. Doing what it takes. Not being afraid. Then yesterday, Miss Violet posted about getting past a particular art project that had her stymied. She "put on the big girl panties" and faced the challenge and succeeded. So with all this just do it karma floating around, I decided to pull out the lovely HITH roving and get to spinning this sock yarn I'm dreaming of. It's slow going. I'm really paying close attention to everything, the tension, the treadling (painfully slow), the drafting and movement of my hands. I spun for about half an hour and didn't even get one row across the bobbin. But, what's there is super even and very fine. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, right? Thanks Brenda & Miss V for the encouragement to take the first step, the risk and to succeed.
It's knitting up very pretty. I'm also trying to finish the cotton V-neck tank I started last year. Man I hate knitting with cotton. I don't know why I keep talking myself into trying it again. I can stand it for about a day or two, then I just want to chuck it. I'm knitting the neck band now and hope to finish the damn thing this week. Just to be done with it. It actually doesn't look too bad, and the fabric does feel nice. I'm just not happy knitting it.
This is a batt I bought called Cozy Stripes. Jen said it was inspired by a cold rainy day in the mountains and wanting to feel cozy. The colors sure feel warm and cozy to me. Along with the batt, she sent me two test batts of Harry Potter house colors, Gryffindor of course!
I've started on the first batt already. This one had the gold and burgundy somewhat blended together. It's spinning up a bit barber pole, which is really awesome. I'm going to do a whole bobbin and then probably ply it with a black or brown solid single. I'm afraid plying it on itself will just end up looking orange from a distance.
I haven't opened the second batt yet. The gold and burgundy are layered in this one. I'm interested to see how different or similar it ends up compared to the blended batt.
