Furballs

Kerry, is that you???

Yes, it's a blog post!

Sometimes life gets going and before you know it, you have to struggle to remember what your login is for getting to your blog. I have lots of pictures to make up for it, though! And I almost have a couple of FO's, so there will be another post before too long to show you what I've been working on in my absence.

Before the wooly stuff, I want to show you a couple of dog photos.
My two adorables:

Look at these:


Same doggy? Nope. This week I'm babysitting my sister's dog and parrot, so it's quite a houseful! Huck is a mini-Oakley in many ways. They have similar personalities and they're very funny to watch.

This is the weekend for Shepherds Harvest, the sheep and wool extravaganza for these parts. My friend Vicki came up for the event again this year and we had a great time! Despite the rain and cold. Today, of course, is gorgeous, and would have been a perfect day out there.

So this is me, having just picked up my roving from last year's fleeces. Happy, happy happy!

And here are the bags o'dreaminess...
First up is a shetland x lincoln. I bought this same fleece three years in a row now, though I "misplaced" one of them. Still baffles me how I managed to lose an entire fleece. Anyway, here's the photo of the new fleece this year, then the roving from last year's. The fleece is predominantly white but has a bit of taupe in it, making it a lovely soft oatmeal color. A very soft combination, which surprises me because I don't usually think of either one of those breeds as being super soft.

Then a BFL cross. This one will be fun to spin - look how curly the individual fibers are! This sheep was a curly dude. This is not as soft as most bfl, though it's still pretty nice. I'm not sure what it was crossed with. First is the fleece picture from last year. I really thought it would be gray, but I guess there's a lot more brown than I remember. Doesn't take much to make a difference.

Then some North Country Cheviot. Maybe you remember my dyeing experience with this stuff. I had a bunch of fleece in a big pot. In one third of the pot I poured in some dark green, another third some gold, another third some rust. The locks dyed in halves - so one half would be green, the other half rust. Or gold and green. Every combination. The dye didn't stay where it was supposed to at all. I had no idea what it was going to turn into, but this is the result:

I messed around with the colors before posting because the picture had it very green and it's more on the brown side. Yes, I know what this looks like, but when it's spun up it's a nice heathery, earthy color. I keep telling myself it will be okay.

THEN. My Favorite. This was a little shetland fleece I bought clandestinely out of someone's trunk for $5 last year. The poor thing was crusted in scurf and had sunburnt ends and I thought it was hopeless. After soaking it in a strong vinegar and Dawn solution, the scurf melted away and I had a nice little pile of fiber (1 lb, 10 oz). Not as soft as a shetland should be, but usable. I came across some kid mohair (7.5 oz) that was like white satin soaked in tea and blended them on a drum carder. I hate drum carding, so decided to send it out. In the mean time, I also collected some almost black baby alpaca (7 oz). Then some chocolate brown suri (6 oz). And finally some fawn colored baby alpaca (6.5 oz). This stuff is enough to make me weep - sort of a Pygmalion of the fiber world.

Enough chatting - time to spin!

Great projects I love

I just finished these socks:

These are Charade socks knit with Socks That Rock lightweight in Nodding Violets. I loved making them, I love them.

I also loved spinning this:

It's Delphinium, from The Silkworker. One word? Yum.

And now I'm working on this:

It's Gust from Knitspot, knit with merino/silk laceweight from The Plucky Knitter. Easy pattern, lovely yarn.

I'm also working on some more socks that I didn't get a decent picture of. Next time!

Meet Ms Poultry

Ms Poultry went to live with one of my friends yesterday. She was mostly fun to make, though there were a few tense moments when it was debatable if she would get eyeballs. Also, if you're going to fill a belly with beans it will keep expanding. I should have felted it firmer, but I'm not sure if that would have stopped the waistline creep.

The fun stuff is done.

The lace shawl was fun, but now I'm back to stockinette. All stockinette, all the time. I. Can't. Stand. It.

I'm done with the body of my gray sweater, but on initial fittings it looks hideous on me so am not certain of its future. I'll probably finish it just because with the flicking and spinning there's an awful lot of time already invested in it, but it will likely never be seen on me in public. We'll see.

I had a wonderful time at the Madrona festival in Tacoma! Since the first question out of everyone's mouth is "Did you buy a lot of stuff?" I will tell you that yes, I did. No matter what your scale of "a lot" is, I bet I rank right up there. Surprisingly with my recent lace advenrues my focus was all about lace yarn. I bought a bunch of different sock yarns, but mostly it was laceweight. Here's a picture of the lace pile:

Left to right we have:
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Laci in Thraven
Malabrigo laceweight merino
Just Our Yarn cashmere
Prism laceweight
Handmaiden Sea Silk
and the two on top are Plucky Knitter merino/silk laceweight

And more yarn:

Top left are a couple colors of Kauni
Top right are Toots le Blanc's yummy rambo/angora
Left to right: Trekking dyeable sock yarn
2 Socks that Rock
Boo Fly merino/bamboo/nylon
ShiBui sock yarn
Flat socks - knit by a machine then dyed, unravel to make socks.

Roving in earth tones:

Crown Mountain Sock Hop "Under the Boardwalk"
Butternut Farm angora roving
Handmaiden merino/seasilk
Crown Mountain camel/merino
Artful Ewe's merino/silk

Roving in green tones (all Blue Moon):
Sheep to Shoe in Bruiser
Merino/Bamboo in Lunasea
Merino/silk in Thraven

And other fun stuff:

Spindles are Grafton mini-swan in laminated Hazelnut and an Ebony & Holly Spindlewood (a wonderful gift from Mr. Steve himself, OMG!)
The shawl pins were purchased at Just Our Yarn but I can't remember the guy who made them - I've bought stuff from him on eBay, darnit. Wish I could give him credit! And the glass orifice hook is from none other than the glass goddess herself, Sheila Ernst. This is a welcome home present for my Betty Roberts wheel, that should be here in SIX MONTHS. (I'm being tested by a cruel Fate.)

The Grafton spindle had me worried at first because it completely freaked out on me. When I bought it, I spun some of that camel/merino on it and it spun so smooth and fast you couldn't tell it was even spinning - those circles just stayed perfect circles. So then I bought that merino/silk from the Artful Ewe and had to spin it right away. The spindle wobbled and danced and after about 12" would flip itself upside down! I was extremely frustrated. So I got it home, figuring I must have whacked it somewhere and it needed some tweaking. I tried some straight wool and it was significantly better. Hmmm. I took the cop off that had the merino/silk and spun some more wool. Steady and perfect. The spindle is allergic to silk. I'm very glad I didn't return it, which was my first thought.

Of course, the BEST part was getting to see a bunch of friends I rarely get to see, and making some new friends who I look forward to seeing on an annual basis! Wish it was more...

Deja Vu all over again

Anybody remember this from last year?

I was getting ready for Madrona and had a Lace Incident.

Meet the 2008 version.

As Renee said when I told her about it, "Well, you've got blog fodder." Yes, indeed I do. Always with the silver lining, that girl.

But looky here!

Already fixed! Not perfect, but hey, I'm MUCH happier than I was last night. To say the least.

Details:
Design: Wing o' the Moth by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Zephyr in sage green
Needles: Addi Turbos size 6
Finished Measurements: 90" x 45"
Started: Dec. 17, 2007
Finished: Feb. 11, 2008
Comments: Aside from the meltdown last night, I loved everything about this.

So here is the gallery of shots I get to post because I have a floaty lace FO!!

A sweater predicament.

This sweater will never show any of Owen's cat hair. BREEEEEELIANT.

What's not so darned brilliant is that I was so focused on knitting for a deadline that I just kept knitting and knitting and knitting and forgot to divide for armholes. Doh! I didn't realize this till, I kid you not, it's time to shape the neck. Good news is that I may actually get this thing done in time for Madrona. Bad news is that I have to learn how to make steeks under pressure. I also wanted set in sleeves, which will not happen. Ohhhhh weeelllll.

Other than this little wake-up, I really like how this sweater is turning out. I'm using coopworth yarn that not only did I spin it, but I processed it by hand myself! Kind of exciting. I'm getting pewter sheep face buttons for it, sort of like Girl Scout badges.

There Are No Words

unless they're preceded by F*.

It's really F*cold. And that just makes it seem like another winter day, but no, right now the F*windchill is F* -41'F and it just knocks the F* breath right outa you. Yesterday the temp in Minneapolis was +41'. F*Ironic, don't you think?

Good night for knitting. And it's not snowing. My house is making loud boom-type noises as it does its own version of freaking out, but it's not buried in the avalanche they're getting out west. I don't have to shovel and that makes me really F*happy.

I was googling to see how cold it is in Antarctica, thinking we may have them beat. (I really am a drama queen, aren't I?) And truthfully, we ARE colder than many areas. I found out many things about vacationing in the antarctic that made me think some people are just pretty whacky. Like the fact that people have meltdowns after SPENDING A YEAR THERE when they finally see plants and go into grocery stores after EATING A DIET OF DOG FOOD. Then I found this on the page of Antarctic Slang Terms:

"Three-hundred-club - To belong, you need to go through 300 degrees Fahrenheit, this is achieved by rolling naked outside in a chilly Antarctic temperature and then going inside to hit the sauna."

F*nuts.

It's SOO cold.. how cold is it?

It's so cold that my feet have not been even room temperature in a week.
It's so cold that I've taken to whining almost non-stop.
It's so cold that when they say it's going to be above 0' I think "woohoo! WARM!"

Only a couple days left of this nonsense.

I've knit one of the Bird in Hand mittens, almost.

I just have the thumb left and grafting the tip.

And I've started some socks, the Charade pattern. I love this pattern more than I can say. Most of my socks are a 3x1 rib, I love that they stay up and have become mindless knitting for me. These don't require much thought after the first couple of rows, either. They may take a little longer but I'm silly happy with them. For this pair I'm using Socks That Rock lightweight Nodding Violets on #1's.

These make me so happppeeeee!

Wing o' the Moth progressed a whole 16 rows over the weekend. I am now on the fourth set of the twin leaf border. This is a fun lace project that is not nearly as hard as it looks. If you've knit a little lace and know how to do a yarn over and knit some stitches together, I encourage you to give it a try.

I'm home today with a sick doggy. She's much better already, but I came home to a much barfed-in Oakley kennel last night. She usually likes to hide when she's sick, but she stuck her face right in my face to show me that she had a creepy eye. The white tissue between her eyeball and lower eyelid looked like a big blister and she couldn't close her eye. Eww. We were up all night and sort of thank God for the internet because I pretty much figured out she just needed antibiotics, but I also got to see all sorts of other horrible pictures that wouldn't let me sleep. By the time we got to the vet this morning it was already almost completely better, so aside from needing some sleep we're all okay once more.

A little of this and that...

I am headed for the Madrona Festival in Seattle next month, so I'm feeling the urge to hurry and get some things done so I won't feel so guilty shopping the market. What that means is I'm frantically putting little bits of time into lots of things and not really accomplishing much of anything.

Wing o' the Moth has progressed into the twin leaf border. Unfortunately for picture-taking purposes it doesn't look much different than the last picture.

The red sweater is still very red. I am very close to having the second sleeve at the point where I join the whole thing together, which both excites and overwhelms me. It's a great milestone, but the rows will be endless for a while. I don't ever remember complaining so much about a sweater that I really like.

I have decided the lumpy things on the Noro Blossom sweater are not to my taste and it has been thrown on the floor in the corner. Bad Sweater!

I have been spinning lots of this:

I think it's my favorite fleece ever. I can't remember what kind of sheep it was, though. Doh!

I came across these mittens and I'm just nutty over them, so I will be using a wonderful cashmere gift to make them:

Also, I've been having a great time seeing all the color combinations people have been using for Matrix Mittens, so will probably be making some more of those soon... I think I have some variegated handspun that will be a good main color, I just have to figure out what will be a good match.

YO's and stuff!

There is only so much stockinette a person can take before cracking. I made some socks, I made some mittens. Stockinette, stockinette. Sweaters are both in stockinette. I was so bored I could barely make myself knit anymore.

Add to this boredom, a real need to knit. I have been struck down with the crud that is sweeping the country and have been suffering from a monumental cold for the last week. I don't even know if it can be classified as a cold. That's where you still go to work, look like they really should appreciate your sacrifice, and take some Comtrex. No. I've missed most of the week at work and I have been totally useless to the universe for days. As long as I sit in my recliner and watch a good 16 hours of tv a day, I figured I'd survive it.

It's getting close. I think the demon is thinking about leaving my body. Not soon enough, though. My family is celebrating Christmas without me today. I'm feeling sorry for myself.

HOWEVER, if I can't be opening presents and stuffing myself with cookies, what do you think I'd rather be doing? That's right, I've been knitting something spectacular for the last few days. A year ago at my knitting group's Christmas party we all bought Zephyr for a lace shawl KAL. Well, we all bought yarn, anyway. Renee actually finished hers, Judy's been plugging along and is almost at the half way point. Out of six of us who jumped into this plan, that's pretty much the extent of the KAL participation. I think for a while Judy thought KAL had come to stand for Knit ALone. I've wanted to join in all along and have actually started a few shawls but none were anything I wanted to commit to. I even bought more Zephyr, thinking I just had the wrong color. But no. I wasn't getting anywhere. Then a friend gave me the Wing o' the Moth pattern as a gift and the original sage Zephyr was perfect and I took to it like a germ to a petrie dish.

Lest you think I have turned into a knitting blur like some popular bloggers, understand that this is all I've done. Sometimes I get up to make another cup of tea, but I get right back to business. And don't think the lace hasn't kicked me in the butt a couple of times, either. I had a dropped stitch in the very row BEFORE I decided to put in a lifeline, so that sucked and I lost 4 rows. Then, two pattern repeats later, I realized that on one side in every row I'd suddenly decided to skip the psso. But just on that one little fir cone. Still, there go 16 rows. Good thing I had that lifeline that time! I'm still trying to figure out how that error could be so organized. If my calculations are correct I only have two more repeats of the fir cone pattern.

Well, I've been away from the tv for a while now, I hope I haven't missed anything. As long as I'm trapped, I hope I am sucking up all the negative energy for y'all and you're all healthy, happy, and surrounded by those you love! (Please eat a bunch of those peanut butter cookies with the chocolate kisses for me!!) Merry Christmas!