an ent knits

i don't know what to call this post

As I said, I spent last week (Tuesday through early this morning) visiting my parents at their home in Burlington, VT.  Most of the week went more or less as planned--lounging around, running errands with my mom, picking raspberries and grapes and such, jamming (and chutneying) with my dad, generally hanging out with my parents and grandmother...  And then, on Saturday morning, we wound up taking my grandmother to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing.  As I understand it, she's doing okay, considering, and should be out of the hospital soon (probably with some sort of home hospice arrangement), but that's not exactly going to stop me from worrying.

I did still go to the Vermont Sheep & Wool for an hour or so--my mom chased my dad and me out of the hospital for a while--and I was very glad to run into a bunch of friends, even if I wasn't exactly in the best of moods for socializing.  (I know I was trying to act more chipper than I felt, but if I seemed upset or unfriendly, or just spacey, well, now you know why.)

This is the fiber I bought while I was there:

One ounce (more or less) each of Icelandic lamb/angora bunny, Icelandic lamb, and Icelandic lamb/tussah, all from Frelsi Farm.  I'm finding the greys to be soothing (not to mention the soothing properties of all that softness), and I think these'll go nicely with the grey shetland that I bought last spring.  (I also picked up a couple of colors of dye, but the other yarns & fibers that really caught my eye were either way out of my price range or small enough lots that I wasn't sure they'd be useful.)

*Sigh*.  Well, I'm home again now, which means I'm back with a snuggly cat (my parents' cat is not unfriendly, but she doesn't like contact beyond head-scritching), but also means I don't have live-in help assembling dinner.  (Mel will only eat dry cat food, which I'm not interested in sharing.)  Time to go work on some real food.

fiber & knitting from colorado

Because I hadn't flown in over three years, I was a little paranoid about airport security, specifically their potential response to pointy metal 3s.  So I spent a while trying to come up with a reasonably interesting, highly portable project that could be worked on bamboo.  After longer than I'd've liked, I remembered that I had one on my to-knit list: a green version of the lace headband I knit last winter.

It's some green koigu I've had for a couple of years, knit into an arrowhead lace pattern.  It's wider than the red one, 'cause the red one stretched more lengthwise than I'd anticipated, but I'm a little worried that the knot is going to be huge.  Maybe I'll come up with an alternate closure... 

There wasn't, after all, any trouble with my knitting needles at the airport (in either direction), but I wound up knitting on this anyway.

The afternoon I arrived in Boulder, Anne had a meeting at her local yarn store.  I decided to tag along to the yarn store, where I spent a lovely hour admiring the spinning fiber and all of the other things that my local stores don't carry.  (So much space!  So many colors of octopus buttons!  Wheels!  Looms and weaving equipment whose names I don't know!*)  All things considered, then, I probably got off lightly:

Okay, the spindle was already mine, but the silk latte on it is new.  It was just irresistable.  And I'm not quite as protective of it as I am of the other fiber there, which is cashmere-tussah.  Both cakes of yarn are Zephyr; the red will become Mim's Mountain Peaks shawl, and the grey/blue will probably end up as one of the scarves from Victorian Lace Today.

*I'm not learning to weave until after I graduate.  I don't want to start learning terminology until I'll allow myself to do something with it.

random wednesday (again)

This week: knitting progress, fiber prep, and some food talk.

Knitting-wise, I've mostly been working on the hand-dyed, handspun Dulaan scarf in Not My Colors.  I've just about finished that skein of random bits that I overdyed, and now I need more semi-coordinating yarn. 

Would it be too awful to use Mardi Gras colors with this?  Oh, probably.  Yellowy green, perhaps?  This is the battle between the desire to have this scarf done, soon, with the thought that it should maybe stay pink/purple/blue-y...

***

I've seen a bunch of posts lately that talk about predrafting lots of fiber at once and then having it sit by the wheel, predrafted, until one actually spins it.  So I tried predrafting half of the yellow/green/blue [on white] roving I dyed at dye-day.  (The other longitudinal half will go on the other bobbin and isn't drafted at all yet.)

It's all fluffy and pretty, and I definitely see the appeal.  I think it'd work better, though, if I had a catproofable room for my wheel--I usually like to draft only a couple of yards ahead, so I can balance my unspun fiber on top of my wheel when I stop spinning.  This looks like it'd be way too tempting for Mel...so it's on top of a high bookcase. 

***

I've noticed over the last week or so that I am no longer okay with pectin in my breakfast yogurt.  (The occasional single-serving flavored yogurt is different.)  I've been eating Seven Stars lowfat plain (or lowfat maple) for months...  It's my favorite yogurt, and it's local, which is extra-great.  And, since I've been using my not-really-jelled blueberry jam from a couple of weeks ago as yogurt-topping, the un-stabilized yogurt is easier to stir things into.  That goes for the granola, too.  (This has really only come up because the Seven Stars lowfat plain has been out of stock the last several times I've looked for it.)   Seriously, though, pectin belongs in jams so they'll stay in PBJ sandwiches, but it doesn't need to be in my yogurt.

blended fiber

Pretty much none of the fiber I showed you last week still looks like it did in those pictures.  I spent a couple of evenings over the course of the week playing with the drumcarder that Sarah left at my house on Sunday, and now I have these:

Somewhat varied blends of the onion-dyed fiber.  There's a bit more than will fit in an 8x6x16 plastic bag.  (The three bits that are at least partly in this picture are more-or-less representative samples.)

One green batt, resting on the carder.  This stuff fits more comfortably in that size bag. 

I had hoped to start spinning the freshly-blended wool this weekend, but my hands have been sticky with aloe gel for most of the time I've been home last night and today.  I went hiking yesterday with some of my labmates, and it was great, but my shoulders are now bright pink.  *sigh*  Back to slathering myself with aloe...

dye day, part 2

As I said yesterday, there's lots more freshly-dyed wool in my apartment than would fit in my last post.  Here's Mel with some of it:

Mel, wool blend, corriedale, white cormo, grey cormo.  Everything but the cat was dyed with red onion skins.

Yarn dyed with red onion skins.

From farther away.

We didn't just do onion-skin dyeing, though:

Wool blend, corriedale, overdyed leftovers of pine corriedale, habu A-93, light grey elann wool.

This, for the record, is what the non-white base wools look like, undyed:

Grey cormo, grey-brown corriedale.

Despite the interestingness of trying to dry all of this wool while retaining access to my bathroom, this was a lot of fun.  I have two reasons for not dyeing too much more, though--I'm running out of dyeables, and it's not like I've been using up the predyed stuff.  (New plan for future purchases: natural colors of wool.)

swap request

So, I'm knitting this freeform blanket out of various shades of green and the occasional bits of grey.  It started with a pile of six or seven skeins of four different colors of manos and malabrigo and my desire to do something other than hats with them.  I've since added bits of a few different batches of my handspun, I'm spinning more small batches for it, and I've reassigned a couple of other stashed yarns. 

The blanket so far contains yarn from three different secret pal swaps, which I really like--this whole object, whenever it's done, will see a lot of use and should, as a whole, last a really long time.  (I can see needing to reknit sections, but the blanket as a blanket should hold up pretty well.  And, hey, it's freeform, so it's not like I'm worried about matching dyelots or fading.)  I've been thinking, therefore, that it'd be awesome if I could include [additional] yarn, handspun or not, from my friends.  I'm looking for small amounts of pretty much any green except the bright yellowy, pistachio-ish greens, in probably anything except acrylic or cotton.  I would be happy to swap something of similar value, whether yarn or baked goods or mix cds or something else.

Pictures of the growing blanket and (hopefully) a finished stealth project on Monday.

fiber spoils of maryland

One of the most fun aspects of the festival this year was that the weather was good for actually wearing shawls.   That meant lots of people asking about my shawls, plus not feeling like I should be wearing something I'd made, because I was.  (It's certainly nice when nonknitters compliment my knitting, but it's even nicer to get positive feedback from people who know what they're talking about.) 

I went to Maryland with a short list of things to look for: small amounts of greenish fiber for the freeform blanket, a niddy-noddy, maybe a heavier spindle, and maybe some incredibly nice yarn or fiber for a sweater.  I think it worked out rather nicely.

Here are pictures of the spinning fiber I bought:

This is merino-mohair from The Fold--three ounces for the blanket.

My only other fiber purchase on Saturday was this (pound of) cormo/kid mohair.  I think it's going to be at least most of a sweater, possibly with the addition of the chocolatey alpaca blend I bought last year.

On Sunday, with the much-reduced crowds, there was room to comfortably stop at Handspun by Stefania, where I bought these:

This is either coopworth or jacob (I thought it was jacob, but the sales slip says coopworth) dyed with indigo and osage orange.  I bought three ounces, and it's going into the blanket.

This is corriedale-silk dyed with madder and I think something else; four ounces for something like a lace scarf.  (I used my flowerbasket as a scarf on Sunday, and it was nice enough that I want more things I can use like that.)

We stopped by the cormo booth again, and I picked up this blend of wool from white and black cormo.  I may use some of it for blending and dyeing experiments, or maybe I'll try to spin sock yarn from it.

Then, on probably our third stop at Spirit Trails, I finally bought something:

This is an ounce of what I think is wool from a merino/shetland/dorset/cheviot cross sheep with 10% angora added in.  (It's also possible that there's wool from two or four different sheep.  Either way, it's really soft and a gorgeous brown.)

The sheep/goat/rabbit/llama/alpaca pictures are still stuck on film, but I'll share them when I've gotten them developed, hopefully later this week.  My purchases other than spinning fiber did not photograph well the other day, so I'll just tell you about them: one kromski niddy-noddy, one louet sheepy spindle  [pics found via google images], one set of felting needles, and some peace fleece sport in sheplova mushroom, for a sweater.

progress, in three parts

Part 1: Run-a-gogo!

I'm not sure I mentioned it here, but I'm participating in the second round of Runagogo! (April 1st-July 1st).  My goal is to have walked/run somewhere between 200 and 250 miles; I'm at 56.9 right now.

Part 2: PELC

I'm on day 5 of the challenge, since I started on Sunday.  So far, I've made quiche, broccoli/mushroom/potato stew (not photographed 'cause it's just not pretty, but it's tasty), and a supposed-to-be-salad-but-turned-into-stirfry of bok choy, kale, tofu, and alfalfa sprouts.  (Lunch yesterday was a giant Cameo apple, and I've been eating breakfasts of cheese or asian pear butter on toast of bread that's locally made and sold at the farmers' market, although probably not from local ingredients.  Dessert has been strawberry yogurt from Pequea Farms.)  What I am missing the most is rice noodles and whole grains (quinoa and millet, mostly), plus things like beans and lentils and peanut butter.  I'd be doing better on the grain front, at least, if I'd managed to bake anything; I knew on Tuesday that I should cook or bake something, but I spent the evening knitting.  Maybe tonight; I want to make something cornbread-like with that cornmeal I bought last Saturday.

Part 3: Festival fiber usage

I set out quite a list of stuff I wanted to have done by Maryland.  I have abandoned all hope of knitting that orange mohair-blend shawl, especially because I haven't finished spinning the yarn for it.  I doubt very much that I'll finish the pair of Tess's Yarn socks, but I should get at least a decent start on the second sock (after I finish the first one).  I also have no chance of finishing the spinning of either the silk cap or the wool/mohair locks, and I'm not going to knit those wristwarmers in the next week, either.  Still, I am happy with my fiber productivity of the last several months.  The one thing I want to make sure I do before I leave for Maryland is sample that ramboullet, so I can add another variety of wool to my repertoire.  (Sort of, at least.)

And here's a picture, just because:

blending

Quick post 'cause things are busy again.  (Why do I ever think there'll be not-busy times?  I need to learn better...)  On the left, the wool I carded yesterday; mostly Boogie red maple bfl with medium-brown corriedale from Carolina Homespun, plus bits of other stuff, but the pink rolags in the back have pink-and-orange merino/llama instead of purple bfl.  On the right, the Dulaan hat that I finished last week.  Most of it is (someone else's) handspun that my parents bought at a fair of some kind, I think in Richmond, VT; the blue/green/purpley bits are my handspun, various leftovers plied together.

I couldn't resist

I wound up spending a good chunk of this afternoon with Rachel and Mac, at the fiber arts demo for the 100-mile suit project.  Aside from all of the joys of knitting while surrounded by spinners and of talking with friends, I got the opportunity to buy this:

Two ounces of beautiful grey Shetland (I think she said it was Shetland, but it's really soft, and I don't care) from a local farm, run by one of the spinners I met this afternoon.  I think it'll be one of the colors in the Anemoi mittens I plan to knit.