Quilt Odyssey

It's that time of year again, time for the annual Quilt Odyssey quilt show at Hershey. I was afraid I might not be able to go this year since I'm still trying to resolve my foot pain issue. But the doctor seemed to think if I was sensible and took plenty of breaks and did my stretches I should be alright. So off we went. The show was great this year. A wonderful display of antique quilts. I snapped only a few pictures of my favorite quilts.I hadn't planned on buying much at the vendor mall since I'm not really sewing much as knitting and spinning seem to have taken over most of my free time. But I succumbed to two purchases. A Christmas panel of Santa and some animals and a quilt kit.The kit is 5 one yard cuts of coordinating fabric and 3 patterns with cutting instructions to get a twin size quilt from the kit. For only $30! It came from a shop called Bolines. They sell the kits on their website so be sure to go check it out. I think I'm going to make the Off Center Four Patch design, when I get around to sewing again (which might even be this weekend since I still can't spin).

Since I'm not spinning, I've had plenty of time to knit. I've finished Jen's Flat Feet socks.The pattern is Twilight from 2 at a Time Socks. I wasn't too bad to work with, but I don't think I'll be rushing to knit more sock blank type socks anytime soon. It was worth a try, for sure. But I still prefer the smooth nature of regular yarn. Now I'm working to finish the 2 other pair of socks I have going.

Sniffy goodness

As I mentioned last post, I have fallen under the spell of indie perfume oil. My collection of Possets and BPAL imps has grown just a little this week. I've sampled The Midsummer Muse more thoroughly and will definitely be getting a bottle of Guinevere. It is the perfect blend of flowers and sweetness. Her shop is worth a look just for the enchanting descriptions she provides for all her scents.

I also took the plunge and purchased a bunch of fragrance oils, base oil and bottles to try my hand at blending. There is precious little information available on the subject and I've received no response to my inquiries on boards I thought might have folks willing to talk. It appears that people are afraid to give up any secret that might take away from their piece of the pie. Ok fine, how hard can it be? Apparently not very. My first creation is a blend of pumpkin, peach, and other sweet smelling goodies. I've dubbed it Fuzzy Pumpkin and it is, if I don't say so myself, really good! I'm wearing it now and can't stop sniffing my wrist. I've blended up a few others and can see now I should have ordered way more bottles. This is going to be fun!

Lest you think I've forgotten about knitting, here's my next big project...Savannah from Dolce Handknits and 17 balls of Elann Superwash Bamboo. The yarn feels wonderful, so soft and just a bit of shine. I think this sweater will be beautiful in this yarn. I am going to be stern with myself and finish at least one of the 3 pair of socks I've got going and finish Milan before starting this one.

And spinning, I know I haven't had any spinning news in ages. That's because the yarn I'm spinning now (from a Hanks in the Hood Cozy Stripes batt) is being spun really fine. I hope to end up with a 3 ply sock yarn so I'm trying to spin as fine as I can. I even moved up to an 8.5 to 1 ratio, which is about as fast as I can handle at my level of experience. Cozy is the bobbin on the left.The other bobbin is a luscious merino/silk blend Jen did for me. It is a dream to spin. I told her I hope she kept the recipe because it's pretty much all I want to spin. Ever. Unfortunately I'm currently not allowed to spin do to problems with my right foot (tendonitis/plantar facsiitis). Doctor says no spinning till it's all cleared up. I have practiced spinning with just one foot from time to time in the past and might give it a try now that I HAVE to spin one footed. But the temps are in the 90s so spinning isn't really high on my list of things I want to do. And there is no way I can treadle fast enough to spin Cozy with just one foot. For now I'll concentrate on knitting. And perfuming!

Lots of catching up to do!

Ok, so what have I been doing with myself this last month?

I finished the Darvoset socks.
Plain vanilla, toe up, short row heel. I think they have a bit of a animal print look to them.

I'm knitting a pair of socks with the Conjoined Creation's Flat Feet sock yarn.The yarn came from Jen, so I'm knitting the socks for her. I'm using the Twilight pattern from 2 at A Time Socks, although I'm knitting them one at a time. The yarn is different to work with. As you can see it comes knitted flat and you unravel it as you knit. The kinkiness of the yarn doesn't pose much of a problem. I had to learn to adjust my tension a bit and kitchenering the toe shut was very difficult, but otherwise it's pretty much like knitting with any other yarn.

Today we went to the yarn shop. Edna talked me into this kit.
Yes, it's a kit. Cotton Kisses from Plymouth. It looks like a ball of yarn, but it includes all the yarn, pattern and buttons needed to make a baby sweater. There's actually 2 different patterns included, a cardigan and a pullover. I may skip both, though and make a baby surprise jacket. Since I don't know anyone with babies, this will probably end up being for the library auction next spring.

I also snagged another skein of Araucania Ranco sock yarn.
When I went to put it away, I discovered it was deceptively close in color to the other skein of Ranco I have. This is color 301, the other was 306. Regardless, both beautiful.

I hennaed my hair again.Hopefully this picture isn't too horrific, but it shows the color fabulously. With henna, the color is so gorgeous. It's deep and multi-tonal and my hair is soft and shiny.

And I've discovered a new obsession. Perfume oil. My collection is still quite small compared to some (this picture still makes me drool, oh to hit the lottery!) I've got just 5 full size bottles so far and about 40 sample size. Perfume oils are much stronger smelling than spray perfumes. They seem to last longer (at least on me) and don't seem to annoy my husband (which is a pretty darn good thing!) The fragrance is much purer since it's not diluted down with alcohol. I've actually cleared all my spray perfume's out, I never want to go back! I've only come across 2 scents, so far, that I've absolutely hated. Most I like very well, some I just want to bathe in. High Tea from Possets is one. Tintagel from BPAL is another. Possets seems to be the best place to start if you want to get into this type of thing. Her site is easy to navigate, she has excellent descriptions of all of her fragrances, and she ships lightening fast. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is the ultimate source for scent. It doesn't say how many different scents they offer, but I'm guessing at least 100-200. Their offerings are much more diverse too. If you want to smell like a grave or a flower, they've got you covered. Their biggest drawback for me, other than trying to navigate the huge site, is that their wait time for orders is 2-3 weeks, yikes! All the BPAL I've got I got from individuals on their forum (another great way to get started). The last company I ordered from is Midsummer Muse. Again, I just got samples for now, but think I'll be getting a bottle of Guinevere for sure! I'm also considering getting some fragrance oils from my soap suppliers and trying to blend my own oils. It sounds pretty easy to do and then I could get exactly what I want for WAY cheaper. I'll keep you posted.

How to knit a circular swatch flat

Sounds wrong doesn't it? But yes, you can knit a circular swatch flat. If you've ever knit I-cord, it's the same idea, only you don't pull the carried yarn tight. Knitting flat means you can work the swatch on fewer stitches than you would if you were trying to knit a tube to measure. But because you'll still be knitting every stitch, the result will be the same as if you had knit a tube.

You'll need double pointed needles or a circular needle (the ones you are using for your project, obviously). Cast on roughly 4 inches worth of stitches (look at the ball band and see how many stitches you should get in 4 inches and cast that many on). Now your stitches are all sitting on the right needle (in flat knitting you would turn and work back). I've knitted a few rows to make it easier to photograph, but this is approximately what you'll be looking at. Your last stitch and working yarn are at the tip of the right needle.Slide your knitting back across the cable so that the work is on your left needle. The last stitch worked and working yarn will be at the cable end of your needle.Now bring the yarn LOOSELY behind the work and knit the first stitch. Don't pull the stitch tight, you want a big loop of yarn on the back (this will ensure that your swatch will lay flat when it comes time to measure). Knit across the row as usual. The last stitch or 2 may be very loose because of the slack in the carried yarn. This is fine. Just knit the stitch as best you can. Continue in this manner until the swatch is big enough to measure. The back will look a mess...
And those end stitches will be sloppy, but you'll have a perfectly accurate gauge swatch for your circular project, without having to cast on enough stitches to knit a tube. These swatches are not usefully for anything else, as far as I can tell. Maybe some kind of punk rock bracelet. But I usually rip mine out anyway.

A happier post

Well, it's not all bad news in the garden. We've got babies...
Two little mourning dove babies are nesting in my garden.
They are the cutest little things. They just toddle around, nibbling at the clover. We had one last year, but only saw it once or twice. We've seen a lot of these two. They tend to just sit there and watch me work in the garden. If I get too close, the scurry away, or flap their wings and fly a few inches. But mostly they just sit there and stare at me. Too adorable. Some days I find them nestled in the straw around the onion plants, but I think they are nesting under the honeysuckle. I know birds and bunnies are all God's creatures, but it's so much easier to love the cute, non-destructive ones.

Here's a picture of the honeysuckle.It was planted 6 years ago to mark where my first pet, Winston, was buried. We originally had it on a small metal trellis, but had to cut it way back a year or two ago and remove the trellis. It's filling out nicely again and we hope to put up a sturdier wooden trellis. It smells divine. Especially at night when we sit out on the deck and the scent is carried up on a breeze.

We grilled out over the weekend and it reminded me I have another Favorite Thing to talk about. Chimney Starters
If you like to grill with charcoal these contraptions are a godsend. You stuff some newspaper in the bottom and load your charcoal briquettes in the top. Then you light the paper and wait. Within no time, the coals are ignited. I believe I first saw these used by my uncles & male cousins at the Miller family reunions when I was a wee one. When I got my first grill and tried to start my first fire without, I realized it was not an easy task. I remembered these from my childhood and sought one out. I've had it for years and have never once had a problem getting a fire started since then.

And finally, here is the view out of my back door right now.Storms are called for tonight, but so far they are staying west of us. Except just now, we had a brief rain shower and the sun setting in the west cast this rainbow do east. You could actually see the entire rainbow, side to side, if you looked real hard, but only the left arm was photographable. Hopefully this is a sign of cooler temperatures to come!

Ressin, fressin rabbits!

To quote the infamous Yosemite Sam "I hates that rabbit!" I swear the little bugger is reading this blog (maybe it wasn't such a good idea for the library to become a wi-fi hot spot after all). No sooner than I took the cans off the broccoli last night and posted my confidence that they were now big enough to survive then I go out this morning and find the rascilly rabbit had eaten one almost back down to the stem! They are now re-armored.And look who was hopping away on the other side of the wall when I just went out to take the picture...
I'm no longer dealing with the cute, but unfortunate domestic bunnies (we know one was hit by a car, not sure what happened to the other but haven't seen it in a week or so). No, now we've got the ninja wild rabbits to contend with. I've been avoiding fencing. It's unattractive, cumbersome to work around in such a small space as I've got and expensive. But it may soon come to that. For now, old coffee cans will hopefully do the trick.

I received my most recent fiber stash enhancement in the mail today. Two lovely rovings from Keri (UpTheMudCreek on Ravelry). She posted a huge destash list earlier this week and I snapped up these two. First is a merino roving from FatCat Knits. The colorway is Chasm and it is gorgeous autumn looking to me.This one is from Spunky Eclectic. It was the April club fiber called The Perfect Storm in Wensleydale. It does put one in mind of a stormy sky.
I've never spun Wensleydale and I'm excited to see how it goes. I believe it is a long wool breed which I find a bit hard to work with at times. Unfortunately the weatherman was right and it is pushing 95 at the moment so spinning is not in the picture for today (the room with my wheel is not air conditioned.) However, I may bring the wheel into the a/c tomorrow. It's been about 2 weeks since I've been able to get any serious spinning in and I'm in withdrawal!

I was just looking back over my blog posts and realized I completely missed posting a very important announcement. My good friend and fiber pimp, Jen has gone big time! Her fabulous custom blended batts are now carried by Paradise Fibers! You can still find her on her website and on Etsy as well, but be sure to check out Paradise Fibers too.

Gearing up for the heat wave

We have been fairly blessed this year with mild weather. We didn't have a lot of snow this winter, the spring has been relatively cool. We've only had a few days in the 80's all year. But that's about to change. They are calling for temps in the mid to upper 90's the next 4-5 days. Yuck. If it weren't for wanting a garden (which does do better with the warmer temperatures) I could happily live out my days in the upper 60's and not complain. But that's not how nature works and the heat is coming. I plan to spend the weekend in the coolest spot I can find. I hope to spin and knit if it's not to unbearable to handle the wool. I've got a book (The Dark is Rising) and a magazine (the new SpinOff came today) to keep me occupied should fiber crafting prove too warm, not to mention at least 10 other books and magazines waiting in the wings.

The garden is thriving now. We've had some rain lately and the bunnies have stopped visiting so I've removed the cans. The broccoli is doing pretty well.I planted a cherry tomato plant there on the right where we lost one of the broccolis. You can't see it in this picture, but the 3rd broccoli that was just a stem that I didn't protect is starting to come back. Maybe we'll end up with 3 plants after all!
The Table Treat squash seems to have recovered. Although the butternut squash is only just sprouting so I'm not sure if it's going to give us much of a harvest. We've got a few little tomatoes forming. I can't wait for those to start coming in.

I pre-ordered my Harry Potter Opal yarns from The Knitter. The cost is insane, $22.95 a ball, but I don't care. A lot of folks over on Ravelry are bitching the colors don't represent the characters, that Opal just slapped Harry Potter names on the yarns for marketing to sell yarn. Again, I don't care. I think they are gorgeous yarns and the ones I ordered do put me in mind of the characters. I ordered Hedwig, Draco and Dumbledore. The yarns are set to ship in October. I hold no hopes of getting socks knit in time for the movie, but who knows, maybe it will happen.

I also ordered some cotton sock yarn. I adore the lo-rider socks I made last year and want to get a few more pairs made for this summer.This is Catania Color from Schachenmayr nomotta in color 11. It is 100% cotton and has a fabulous sheen to it.This is Fortissima Cotton Colori from Schoeller Esslinger in a retired (I think) colorway 7. This is a 75% cotton/25% nylon blend which will probably make a more durable sock than the plain cotton. Yeah I know, I hate knitting with cotton. But I'm hoping little ankle socks that don't take very long will be doable. I fear I may not finish Milan before fall if the weather turns hot. The acrylic yarn tends to be a bit sticky in hot sweaty fingers. I'm 3/4 done with the second sleeve. Then it's the front band, which isn't such a big piece of knitting to hold in your lap, but the last bit is the collar which is knitted on. There's no way I'm going to hold a whole sweater in my lap when it's 80 degrees out. This is also quite bad news for Flyingdales. But at least I'll have these treasures to look forward to for cooler days.

The biggest news in my knitting world this week??? SOCK BLANKS! KnitPicks has announced they are now carrying sock blanks. A sock blank is a tube of knitted fabric that you hand dye and then unravel to knit the socks. Theirs are double stranded so you end up with matching socks. You can also get slightly more predictable results than with painting yarn in skein. For example if you want a striping yarn, you need to skein your yarn really long, but with the knitted fabric, you can paint the stripes where you want them without needing miles of space. I've restrained myself thus far from ordering, but know my resolve will break any day now. The only thing that is holding me back is the double strand thing. Yeah, it's great that you get matching socks, but the downside is you have to knit them 2 at a time. I'm not sure I really desire to do that. I did get the 2 at a Time Socks book, but I never really intended to knit the socks two at a time. One could unravel the fabric into 2 separate balls, but this requires 2 people to be done effectively and I'm not sure I can sweet talk hubby into winding yarn with me. I'm thinking I'm just going to go for it. Order the sock blanks and a 40" needle and give this 2 at a time thing a try.

Fiber porn!! Just LOOK at these huge balls of fluff...
These are rovings from CJ Kopec. Oh My Goodness! Words can not express the gorgeousness of these delightful orbs. I heard about CJ Kopec on Lime and Violet some time ago but hadn't really checked her out until lately. Her stuff looked really pretty and I signed up for her newsletter. Last week I got my first newsletter and she announced a new limited edition roving. I HAD to have it. That's the top one in the picture. It's called Cottage Rose and is a BFL, merino and silk blend. It has a gentle shine to it that is just fabulous. The second is Cowboy Chic, 100% merino, very similar in color, but without the shine. Both are 4 ounces of fiber. According to her site, she hand cards them and pulls them into roving as they are ordered. The balls are about the size of a bowling ball! No plans for either at the moment, except to admire their beauty.

I thought I had my garden under control. Hadn't seen the bunnies in a while. The broccoli (now protected with huge coffee cans) is starting to come back. Until last weekend when I discovered the critters had struck again. This time my winter squash. The butternut squash was completely gone and the table treat was half eaten. So I cut down some plastic containers (ran out of coffee cans) and planted seeds to try to recoup these plants as well.

And now a shameless "isn't my cat so cute" picture. Is it just me or should this caption read "the prince and the pea"?
The blankets were all piled up on top of the sofa after we cleaned and he perched himself way up on top. Such a sweetheart.

Where's Anti-Pesto when you need them?!

Ugh, what is it with some people that think it's just ok to let domestic pets go free when they get tired of caring for them? We noticed a few weeks back that our neighbor a few houses up had taken down their bunny pen. Then a week or so ago we thought be saw a black rabbit in another neighbor's yard. Strange. Never seen a black wild rabbit before. Yesterday, I looked at my garden as I walked by to go to my car and noticed that a bunny had eaten up my broccoli plants. When I got home last night and took a better look at the damage I found the bunny had also dug a big hole in my onion bed and another in the yard. I fixed up the hole in the onion bed hoping to not lose those plants, but just look at what they did...There's a leaf left on 2 of the broccoli plants, so I put cans around them in hopes they will survive. Thankfully the rabbits haven't developed a taste for any of our other garden plants. I happened to see the neighbor in question out today and mentioned I thought his rabbits might have gotten loose. He had the nerve to say, and I quote "Oh yeah, we know. We've been trying to catch them, but they're just so darn fast. We've even got a kid trying to help us catch them." These neighbors are not old and feeble. They are in their 20s, 30s at most and have 2 kids and a dog they keep up with. They had the rabbits penned all the years they've lived here and never had a problem. I doubt very highly they "got loose" and just can't be caught. But I'm not the confrontational type and didn't want to accuse the guy of lieing, so I just said I'd let him know if I see the rabbits again. I suppose hubby and I can try to catch them and present them to the neighbor. Think he'll give us a reward for the safe return of his bunnies?

Let's have some knitting to lift our spirits, shall we? Here's the body of Milan blocking on a towel.I decided against steaming since it's acrylic and steam sometimes does weird things to acrylic. I just pinned it out as flat as possible on a towel and gave it a good misting with water. I'm getting a bit nervous about the sleeve, I fear my row gauge may be off (I never check my row gauge by the way). But my sleeve seems to be almost as long as my arm and I've got at least 24 rows to go to finish my increases. I'm going to have to sit down with a tape measure and calculator this afternoon and figure out what I need to do to not end up with sleeves that touch my kneecaps!

The yarn came for Flyingdales this week. Here's just a small sampling of the NaturallyCaron.com Country yarn.I bought 10 balls in all in the colorway Plum Pudding. The color is gorgeous. The yarn itself is quite soft, though not as soft as pure merino wool. But there is only around 20% merino in this yarn. The suggested needle size is US 9 to get 4 st/inch. I had to go up to a US 10.5. Of course, that is the one and only needle size I'm missing from my Knit Picks Options set. But I was thinking about placing an order anyway. I'm quite excited to work on this sweater. It's probably a good thing I don't have the right needles or I'd be casting on already!

I FINALLY got back to dying some yarn this week. And oh baby am I ever pleased! I tried a new technique with these and I think the results are stunning.I've not had much luck with darks in the past, but this time I hit the nail on the head for what I'm after. They are even more beautiful in person. They appear almost iridescent. These should be going up on Etsy in the next few days, if I can bear to part with them.

New on my bookshelf this week is 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oaks. I'm not a huge fan of patterned socks, as we've seen with my failure to complete the last 2 patterned socks I started. But these patterns look pretty appealing. I like the Twilight socks and love Socks for Aidan. The Aidan socks are written for a child's size, but I think I might be able to size them up for me. Spice is another favorite. My only disappointment was that many of the socks are in child sizes. But, again, the patterns should be easy enough to size up, so I'm sure I'll get some use out of this book.

Another favorite thing to report this week. And this one is a direct result of listening to Miss Favorite Thing, Meghan's podcast. It is Henna. I am a woman, reaching "a certain age", and have begun the vane pursuit of keeping the grey hairs at bay. Now, I love dyeing yarn. Dyeing my hair on the other hand, not so much. Chemicals are smelly and leave my hair dry and heaven knows what they do to the environment. So when Meghan mentioned she uses henna to color her hair, I thought I'd give it a try. She recommended the Henna for Hair website. There is a metric ton of information on this site. If you are at all interested in hennaing your hair, go hear and read up on it. I used henna from Rainbow Research. Their's is pure henna, but the henna's are preblended so you can achieve the level of red you want without having to blend your own henna. I chose Mahogany. The process is messy, but there is no bad smell. It's very herbal. The stuff was very hard to rinse out, it's kind of like packing your hair with mud and trying to rinse it out. However, it was really worth it. The color is absolutely even. I've never had that result with chemical dye. It's a lovely old penny color, not too bright coppery but not brown either. My hair is soft and manageable. No pictures, sorry, I'm not so good with the self portraits of the back of my head. But take my word for it, it's definitely worth a try if you are looking for a natural alternative to coloring your hair.

PS...title comes from the fantabulous film "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit".

Smacking singles

No, I'm not going around taking potshots at the romantically unattached. I am, however, showing my yarn who's boss. There has been a lot of talk lately on Ravelry, in Spin Off, on Yahoo groups, etc about setting twist in your handspun by whacking your wet yarn against a table or some such to help distribute the twist and energy more evenly throughout the yarn. Jen finally convinced me to give it a try. I'm still on my quest to learn to spin a decent singles yarn. Here is my latest attempt with some corriedale roving I hand dyed. As you can see, the yarn is quite energized. There are kinks and coils and the yarn doesn't even begin to hang straight. Into a sink of very warm water with a bit of shampoo for a half hour soak. By then the water had cooled so I drained the sink and gently rinsed in cool water. I squeezed as much water from the yarn as possible (this helps to minimize mess in the next step). Then I held the skein by one end and smacked it against the shower wall. I did this a few times, then turned the skein and did it again. I believe I did about 8 or 9 whacks in all. Just be sure to get as much water out as possible or you'll get a face full of water! I've heard of people twirling their skein of yarn airplane-style over their head (outside of course) to use centrifugal force to help remove water. I'm going to have to try this one day (when the neighbors aren't out of course!) I hung the skein to dry and here's the end result. Oh yeah, BIG difference! I am quite surprised and impressed. The twist definitely redistributed itself and the yarn is much more balanced. I still have a ways to go at achieving the lofty soft twist single I'm aiming for. But this technique transformed a pretty rough looking skein into a lovely bit of quite usable yarn. Thanks Jen for pushing me to try this!!

Since my last post, I have finished the Spa Slippers.They have been sent on to the one who requested them and thankfully they fit her well. One of
these days I must make myself a pair of these.

I finished spinning and plying the Gryffindor yarn.I loves it! The picture doesn't do it justice. The burgundy and gold subtly change throughout and the dark brown/black really sets it off. This yarn is destined to be fingerless mitts.

One stash acquisition to show:This is Pigeonroof Studios superwash BFL roving in Nightshade purchased from a fellow Raveler who is destashing. I adore the colors in this and can't wait to see how it spins up.

On my needles: Jack socks, I'm almost to the heel of sock #1; Darvoset socks, finished sock #1 and just past the toe on sock #2; Milan cardigan, finished both fronts and back, seamed the shoulders and half way up the first sleeve.

Although I've got at least a few weeks of knitting left on Milan, I broke down and ordered yarn for Flyingdales. I was going to go with Valley Yarns Sugarloaf, but ended up ordering a new yarn called Country by NaturallyCaron. This yarn looks and sounds very interesting, a microfiber/merino blend. I ordered it from a place with a good return policy, just in case, but I've been happy with most everything I've tried from Caron so I'm confident this will be a worthwhile purchase.

A new podcast to check out...The Knitmore Girls. This is a mother and daughter team who podcast about their knitting. They are delightful.

I've gotten the garden all planted for the year. I changed the layout this year and we removed some ornamental grasses from one bed that we can now use for vegetables, so we are trying some new stuff this year. Here we have onions, peppers, cucumbers and (eventually) acorn squash with a cherry tomato plant in the pot. This long bed has eggplant, basil, tomatoes and zucchini.
And this little bed has butternut squash and broccoli. There's still some work to be done on the beds, the little bed needs edging and more grass patch around the perimeter and I want to get straw down on everything, but for the most part it's done and we need only wait for mother nature to do her thing.