One Skein Pal

My One-Skein Pal revelaed herself-

Fyberduck aka Sara Morris from Eugene, OR

Fyberduck is an alumnus of University of Oregon in Eugene- Go Ducks!

My older sister Eileen is a duck as well!
Here is her, Sara's blog and a photo of the great mittens she sent! They are hand-dyed dk and I have already used them- We went camping this weekend in the Adirondacks and it has been quite chilly lately-

Thank you Sara!

My one-skein pal also recieved her box of goodies- and here is it on her blog
I find it odd that both my upstream and downstream pals were from the same general area-
I was really pleased with the felted bag I made for my pal and I have bought the yarn to make myself one- I got the cutest button to go with them- I chose the button first and bought the yarn to match.

Dyeing Purple

I spent some time alone this weekend- The kids were with Tim, so I spent some time dyeing sock yarn. I really pleased with the color. It came out as a light to dark periwinkle. First I had to reskein it to a longer length- then soaked it in Synthrapol. I drained it and just covered the yarn with cold water. I was afraid hot would encourage the dye to dissipate too much. This is after 10 minutes of the dye being in the water.

The copper curled thing is the water pipes coming into the washing sink in the fiber mill. Tim designed them, and they work really well.

This is after 30 minutes in the water. I expected the yarn on top of the pipes to suck up the color, but it didn't so I stuck it under water for a minute or so- And here it is hanging on the fence- well this is sideways of course, I couldn;'t get the picture to go the right way- but I'm really happy with the yarn

Steeking class

Now that I am all signed and sealed- I can talk about it. I am going to take a steeking class at Web's in November. I began a sweater of my own design well over a year ago. It was to emcompass the eleven natural colors of Shetland wool. (We raise Shetland's, so it seemed appropiate).

So, I need to know how to steek to cut the armholes. As this is all in homespun Shetland, I'm a little nervous about doing so- also because of the way I knit it, I can't reclaim all of the colors if I screw it up- so I thought a class would be in order.

That and I've always wanted to visit Webs. I love the website, I can just imagine what it will be like in real life.

But I have been productive

So, even if the Jaywalkers aren't going well, I have been productive elsewhere in the house-


I picked berries - and made a pie








The pie was really good-

I still hate these socks

I'm still working on these Jaywalkers. I remember being able to knit a pair of socks in a weeks or so, but these are going on a month and I'm now just turning the heel- I can't wait until till these are done.

I made a commitment to myself to not begin a new pair until these are done, so I'm trying really hard to stick to it. So, I'm a little further along than here, but I will do this even if it kills me. I love the yarn but hate the knitting.

and things continue to go downhill

I came into work late today as I had to go to Jake's new school to register him. I got a distressing email that the president of the University had died the day before in a swimming accident. I'm not sure how I feel, the whole place feels like it is in turmoil.

I hate turmoil- I really just feel like going home to hide and knit.

Bad News

It seems like when things appear to be going well- they always have to change. I was just at the Periwinkle Sheep last week and was so impressed with all that Karen has done with the shop in the past three years- the yarn quality and the diverse imventory has all gone way up- it was definately turning into my favorite LYS- and it was reachable on my lunch hour- perfect for clandestine yarn shopping-

Well, Karen has decided to close her business- as we did the same earlier this year, I know how hard it is- making the deicison once made, was the best thing for us, but making that decision was one of the hardest things I've had to do. Karen, we are all there for you, and I'll miss the shop

good news, the sale begins on August 15th, so the yarn diet is officially over and I actually have some money to spend!

Argentine Yarn

And here is all the yarn I bought in Argentina and Uruguay- minus the skein I sent to my one-skein pal



Despite having bought all this plus a trip to the Periwinkle Sheep about two weeks ago, I realized fair season is in two weeks and I only have one finished project to enter- the cabeled socks below- so I made another quick trip today to pick up some yarns for the coronet hat from Knitty, the wavy scarf from Knitty and the Sophie bag from Magknits- I made one of these already and I love how it came out. i bought a really cute button for the closure and bought the yarn to match the button. I add an Icord loop in the middle for a closure.

the one skein photo

Here is the magnificent skein of handspun I recieved- it has beads in it- I've never spun with beads- after seeing this I may have to try it.

Argentina

I haven't really said anything about Argentina- we had a great time- I don't remember the last time I partied this late at night. It was really liberating to be able to trust the people I was with to take care that we all got home safe and the fact I was in charge, but didn't alway need to be.

I had a great time with my students and they got to see a side of me I'm sure they didn't know existed. It was funny, one of my married male students (when drunk) confessed he and a group of other guys ended up a brothel one night and how scared they were- he thought I would be shocked. Well my husband was in the navy and I have to say this guy's story was rally tame-

here we are
I'm in black in the middle with the drink- part of this picture are some of our Argentine hosts as well- they all left at about 2 to go home as they had to work the next day- the rest of us stayed out till 4:30 am- and I still made it to the ferry the next day. This isn't all of the group- 32 of us travelled- only 6 of of us are in the photo

Jaywalkers

I finally decided to start a pair of Jaywalkers- I had two beautiful skeins of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in this great pink to yellow stripe- Sassy stripes I think- and I wasn't too happy with how the stripes were working out. (All of the airplane knitting got frogged eventually). So, I decided a better pattern that would work with stipes would be great-

I hate this pattern- I'm working top down (already an issue for me), but I got two socks on two circulars, and having to count every other row is killing me- we are about 4 inches into the leg and already I hate them

And the yarn, Lorna's Laces isn't cheap and it feels wonderful, but I'm not so happy with that either-

Maybe the summer is making me cranky- Oh Albany is up to 91 degrees, maybe we should shut down the office and send everyone home becuase it is too hot out! Hello, its summer- its supposed to be hot- like in winter when the snow comes- hello we get snow in the Northeast-

Back from SA

Yes,
I'm back- well I've been back nearly two weeks now. I first want to say think you to my one skein secret pal fpr the beautiful handspun yarn- the colors are great and I am in awe of the softness of this yarn. I knew there was a reason I no longer spun. I can't get my stuff to be half that nice. My yarn is all utility yarn - useful, but not pretty. Anyway- thank you so much- I think I will take your advice and make a scarf- it will look great with my winter coat- not hat I want to think about a warm coat on a day like today!

I will post a photo as soon as I unearth the camera from under the pile of mail that is covering it.

toe up socks

I seem to have lost the ability to make top-down socks. I've made them before, I remember it clearly, turning the heel, the magic of following the pattern and the heel just appearing off of the DPNs. I tried again this weekend, using the Jaywalker pattern and my new trekking xxl yarn and it just wouldn't work-

I frogged it and started over, only to rip again and turn to toe up's on two circulars and and a different stitch pattern. I'll have to try again, when I have some quiet and a little more patience.

Tim painted the end of the house this weekend, so the kids were driving me mad.

One skein swap

I wanted to say think you to my one skein pal- I got my package on Saturday and was really pleased! I think I may save it for myself to make a new winter hat! I made one last year out of some Andean silk I got from KnitPicks, I loved the yarn, but it just didn't have enough wool for memory, the brim got all stretched out and it fell off whenever I tried to shovel the driveway. So I have plans for this ball of yarn.


I shipped my package off to my pal and she did recive it and seemed to like it. Next month's will be sent late, I will be in Buenos Aires for 10 days in the beginning of July, so I hope to hit the yarn stores there and buy a whole new stash for myself. I have an extra suitcase I'm bringing just in case. The exchamge rate is 1USD=3 pesos, so $1=$.33 basically- I can get a lot of yarn- Just need to find it!

Nathan (the youngest son) is knitting Dulann Projects with me. I have two hats and neck warmer done, he is trying to make a scarf. His knitting is really coming along. I have been using all stash yarns for theis knitting, so some of it looks a bit intresting, but it will all be warm.

Jake shows no intrest, but likes to play with the ball winder. We had the fiber arts class visit the farm and the mill for the last fiber arts project of the year. Tim sheared one of the sheep that had been at the school all year, and the kids really enjoyed it.

It was clean...

Well the yarn closet was clean for about 10 minutes- long enough to take the photo anyway. It was intresting to go through all the fiber and identify what was there and where it came from. I travel for business on occassion and I always try to hit a LYS, so each ball I buy is later a reminder of the trip and the time I had. I wished I had been doing this when I travelled 3 weeks a month- but the stash management would be impossible. I see each ball and skein in there as potential- I just need to manage to potential.

I always have to remember that the basement is also full of fiber, both raw wool and clean roving when I think about buying more-

an old post I wrote and never posted from late May

I have been so busy with the end of the school year here at the University. We all love graduation and seeing the students achieve great things and how happy their families are, but it also exhausting. The worst part in my program is….it isn’t over yet! I still have my students until the end of June.

But, then in the second week of July we are taking a group of 35 of them to Buenos Aires, Argentina! Until I did some research I was unaware that Argentina was the third largest producer of Merino wool in the world. I’m hoping to find some great yarn when I am there!

The other great thing is one of my students, Jonathon is traveling to Chile with his family the week before we meet up in Argentina, so he has promised to buy me some alpaca when he is there. I also have a personal invite to visit Chile in the future, and his wife Carmen’s family.

After graduation was over on Saturday, I stopped at Wool and Word for their fire sale. I bought out all of the BaBa Joes in two different colors to make two cable knit sweaters this winter. I also got more sock yarn (like that was needed!) When I made it home my box from knit picks was waiting and again more sock yarn, and the yarn for Jake’s new needle felted sweater. So, on my day off on Monday I reorganized the wool cabinet,

BEFORE

AFTER

Part of the end of Spring fun was the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Fair. This is the only fair we made it to this year as vendors. It is usually our best and we know so many people, it make the fair more fun. Saturday began with the truck breaking down in a mountain road- I was following in the car, so we were stuck for about 40 minutes, until Tim got the truck patched up.

We made it to the fairgrounds and set up in record time, only 40 minutes past when the fair opened, and both sweating profusely (it was a very hot day in the Northeast).

Sales of the colored roving was great on Saturday- we made more than Sat/Sun of the previous year and we picked up quite a bit of processing. Sunday was awful for sales (only 2 customers bought) but picked up loads for processing. I think Sunday was just too hot, no one was buying anything.

I did buy something however, I bought myself a new swift to match my new ballwinder.

Cabled Socks

I finally remembered to take photos of my cabeled socks and then remembered to bring the camera in. These are cabeled socks from the Spin Off Socks books. I used our shades roving, split it in half lengthwise and spun each half separetly. I then knit the socks as singles toe-up. I'm really pleased with how they came out.


I'll have them with me in out tent at all of our Spring shows, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massacusetts.

I'm really looking forward to show season this year.

Tim roo'ed the Soay sheep this past week and it is incredibly fine- I'm looking forward to spinning some of that soon! The weather has been so beautiful lately, I've been trying to get out of the house more. The boys and I have begun geocaching and have been pretty sucessful at getting the cache. Here they are with their first find.

Kids crafts class

I should have mentioned it earlier-  the fiber arts thing with the kids has been going really well.  I like going in each week-  I just wish I had more than an hour with them.  It has taken some time, but some of the kids have gravitated to spinning, other to weaving, some knitting and some crocheting.  I have opted several weeks not to assign them anything and they get to choose what to work on.  I love to see them all excited and want to take their work home.  
Now once there I doubt they work on it, but at least I gave them a start, and they may remember later some of the steps to create it again.  

Well I finally broke

Well, I finally broke down and bought myself an Ipod, (or a cheaper variation of an Ipod) so that led to me now listening to Podcasts of all of these knitting shows.  So, of course I again had the idea of trying to keep up with a blog.  I want to be part of a community, I just lack time.  

I loved going to knitting guild on the third Monday of every month, until I realized that the hour drive was cutting into knitting time.  That and I was too lazy to leave the house once I was in it.  So, I will try the blog thing again.  I’ actually joining the one-skein secret pal list, so I will attempt to let people know what is happening in my life.  

Fiber Arts

I started the Fiber Arts things at the kids school last week-  we did tie-dyeing.  It was a good time, but I was amazed at how fast things went.  I brought extra just in case and we needed all of it to keep the kids busy.  

The tie-dyeing was a bit of a mess, one kids kept trying to squirt everyone with the dye, but I caught him in time.  I wonder how all of their shirts came out.  

This week is Kool-Aid dyeing and making ghosts from that Lion Brand pattern they have on their website.  I made one yesterday and it come out pretty cute.  

I think next week we will try crocheting, well maybe?