Yarns N Threads

Summer Fun!

2011-06-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

I know in some places it doesn't really seem like its summer but here in Boise school is out, so I am on summer vacation. Although there are no plans to take any trips. So I will have to find some fun things to do around here. Its kind of funny when you only work a few hours a day you would think you would have all the time in the world to get things done. Not so. Now that I have the month of June, July and bits of August to fun things to do. I have made a long list of TO Do's

*Dye and knit a natural dyed tam
*Natural dye Saxon green hat
*Knit mariners socks
*Knit Tamarack socks
*Knit blue hand spun socks
*Spin and weave natural colored shawl
*Weave organic cotton towels
*Weave Huck lace shawl
*Make bobbin lace for Civil War dress
*Spin BFL scarf
*Spin Angora samples
*Write up three patterns that have already been designed.
*Spin for sweater ( Tour de Fleece)
*Knit socks with self striping yarn
*Spin for sweater from Tour de Fleece roving
* Knit cable shawl collar sweater
* Tat some snowflakes for Christmas gifts
*Crochet a doily
*Weave coaster sets for Christmas

Yes, Yes I know its a long list. You will have to keep checking back to see how much I can get done before I go back to work. I will let you know that I have a few of these things either almost done for at least half done.

I did I just see a UFO?

2011-04-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

Call me crazy but I have a plan. OK more like a goal!
I am now working on finishing all my UFO's ( unfinished objects).
For the past month or so I have been diligently working on getting everything off my needles, wheels, hooks, and looms.
What I want to do is get everything all done before school gets out so that I can start with new projects for the summer.
So far I have finished
a crocheted afghan, mini pillows to match.
My February ladies sweater
placing a zipper in hubby's sweater

Things to be finished
Lent scarf KAL
needlepoint seat cover
towels on the loom
gold knee high socks
cream alpaca/silk sweater
green lace weight yarn on spindle
multi color socks

I am really hoping to get this all done by May 20. That day I am leaving to teach at a fiber fair and I would like to go shopping for a new project to start.
So yes I have and will be busy for the next month or so.
Stay posted for progress and pictures.

Spring Break?

2011-04-03T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well as I write this blog update its Sunday evening of my spring break. I have been off along with all the kids this past week. There are some really cool reasons to have a job at a public school. Spring break being one of them. So you might be asking your self what did she do or where did she go for spring break? Well sad to say I didn't go anywhere. With hubby being unemployed for 8 months there just wasn't money to travel to the other side of the valley let a lone some where warm. Happily hubby is now employed with a really good company. So while the kids and I stayed home he went off to work. So now you are asking what did I do for the week. Well I busted out as many UFO's ( unfinished objects) as I could. I am happy to say I was able to clean out my knitting, spinning and weaving bags. I am now down to just three things to finish up. My plan is to get them finished up in April so that I can start on something new. I have no idea what the new things will be. I'm not looking at pattern and I am also trying to not think about it until they are done.

This past week I was able to finish:

a sweater for my hubby ( put the zipper in)

my February Ladies sweater

My spinning for my stash down ( see above)

get caught up on my Lent scarf KAL

weave some towels

make 2 bobbin lace books marks

Spin a skein of cashmere to replace a cowl I knit last year

So now I am down to finishing up an afghan and pillow that was start two years ago for Christmas. A needlepoint pillow and a second knee high sock.

So I guess you could say I really didn't have a break this week, but the good news is its spring anyway.

I need a new hobby like....

2011-03-02T16:25:00.000-08:00

Really I barley have time to do all the things I want to when it comes to spinning and knitting and crochet. So what is a girl to do. Learn to Weave! I recently took a class on double weave with my local weaving guild, and totally fell in love. So I was fortunate able to purchase a baby wolf loom from Schacht. I decided that I would go ahead and get the 8 harness. Other then its a be heavy I am so glad Idid. My weaving guild is hosting a weaving workshop in a week with Robyn Spady. The workshop is called Extreme Warp makeover. The real reason I want to take the class is to learn to make corduroy. Not to say I won't enjoy all the other things I will learn over the three days. As a matter of fact my husband and I just checked to see if the loom would fit in the car. It did. Yea!

Because a Baby wolf is a bit pricey, when it got here I decided that I would wait until my workshop. I thought I should see how it works. So here is my first project. The yarn is hand spun, I'm not sure what it is. I know the red is wool and I think it comes from Ashland bay. The grey I think is angora and wool. Because its grey I'm sure the grey angora is from on of my bunnies. I'm not sure if its from my current rabbit or the last one. The pattern or draft comes from Handwoven May/June 09. The pattern called for alpaca but I found something from my stash.

My next project that I just finished was face cloths. I used pearl cotton and some thick and thin cotton. As I am writing I washing them to see how they hold up. The pattern came from issue 3 of Weaver's Craft.

I know its seems like all I have been doing of late is weaving but I have also been spinning and knitting. For my February stash down was what might look like a bit of under achievement. But really it wasn't. I chose for this month to spin pagora. I have never spun this fiber and I have to say I love it. I don't really like mohair so I wasn't sure how I would like it. The grey is 100% pagora and the blue and pink is a mix of pagora,glitz and alpaca. I plan to knit cowls with each of the. They are lace weight and only an ounce. I ended up with about 200 yards each.

I am also doing so knitting. I have finally started my February sweater. I have had some shoulder pain for the pas few months and haven't really done all that much knitting. I did finish a basic sweater for my hubby and its now waiting for a zipper. My February sweater is being knit with red nearly sold handspun. As a matter of fact its the yarn I spun for my stash down in Jan. I am hoping to get this finished in the next week or so.

My plan for the March Stash down is to spin some of my current bunnies wool. He is about to get another hair cut so I'm thinking its time to spin some for myself. I also want to get started on a sweater I have been wanting to spin for.

Stash Down and a bit of the other

2011-01-30T18:46:00.000-08:00

Yea I met my first goal! Spindlicity stash down for January!

I know I know this picture of my finished yarn its horrible. But I have a reason. My camera is on its way back to the maker to get fixed so I have to use hubby's cell phone to send a picture to my computer. For some reason I can't send pictures on my phone, which by the way has a much better camera. Anyway the finish yarn looks more like what's on the bobbin. I ended up with 1100 or so yard of a 2ply. My plan is to us it to knit the February sweater. Yes this is my first stash down fiber, and it was complete with time to spare. I have been having all kinds of trouble with my hand so I am just glad I was able to finish it before the month was over. I bought this fiber at SOAR 09 form a vendor that I don't remember who it was nor do I know the breed of wool it is.

I can't wait to get to the knitting part of it, but I first have to finish a sweater that I have been working on like forever. OK its just form November but it seems like it anyway. I am really hoping to get it all finished before my new toy comes in a couple of weeks. I will tell you that its a loom but I'm not saying anything more until it gets here.

The whole weaving thing started when I was having lunch with Sarah Lamb at SOAR 09. We were talking about weaving and I was stating the case that one I don't have room for a loom nor do I have the time. Well needless to say I have been thinking about it ever sense. I took a class a couple of weeks ago. Really it was an intensive with my local weaving guild and I woven on the loom of my dreams. So I now plan to order it in a week or so. I have also signed up to take a extreme warp class from Robyn Spady in March. Well I figure if I'm going to buy a loom I might as well learn how to use it. So stay tuned to find out which loom I bought and how its going with the whole weaving thing.

On another note I found out this week that I will be teaching a couple of Knitting classes at the Snake River Fiber Fair in Idaho Falls. So if you are in the area of Idaho falls round them please sign up or stop by and say hello.

By the way I am still working on what my goal for February will be I am thinking something exotic keep a look out in the next day or so to find out what it will be.

My 3 day weekend

2011-01-24T13:48:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it pays to be a lunch lady. Case in point, three day weekend. Yes no school today so I decided to be totally lazy and spend the weekend knitting, spinning, weaving and watching DVD's. Not all in that order. I did with the help of daughter number 1 and 2 clean out my studio in hopes that I could make room for a new toy to come. Well after hours of cleaning moving and putting away. Still no room for new toy. So I must now come up with plan B. Not sure what that will be, but something will come up.

I also found out that I sent my working copy of my class list to the Sock Summit committee. So now they know I can't spell or use proper grammar. But hey you all already know that. Anyway I did make the proper corrections and submitted a list to Snake River Fiber fair. If you have been a long time reader of this blog you know I have attending for several years. So I think it would be fun to teach there. So we will see how that turns out.

On a other note I have been trying to get my fiber spun up for the Stash down challenge that Janel Laidman of Spindlicity.com put to all of us. The idea of The Spindlicity Stash down 2011 is to pick some fiber from your stash and make it into 12 kits and spin each kit during each month of the year. I am about 2/3 done for the month of January.

While I am spinning I have been watching some new DVD's that I have picked up from Interweave. They are How to warp your loom, Spinning for lace and In praise of simple cloth. Look for reviews later this week.

Well as you can see I have lots to get done on my 3 day break so I am off to spin.

Stash down 2011

2011-01-13T20:56:00.000-08:00

So I just found out about the big stash down at http://beebonnet.typepad.com/spindlicity/. The whole idea is to pick fiber from your stash and put them in baggies. Then pick one and spin it during a month. If you are able to reach you goal for the month you then post or success and you are entered into a drawing. If you reach all 12 goals then you are entered in to a super duper prize drawing. I have January's pick out. Its a 1 pound bag of really neat fiber I bought at SOAR 09. I have no idea what the wool its but I'm thinking it will be perfect for the February sweater. So as then say I'm off and running, or spinning as the case may be.

Inspiritation!

2011-01-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

There is nothing better then taking a hour or so to clean up one's studio. Not only do you find things your forgot you had but now you can look over all the cool things you bought a while back. Now I can sit and listen to TV while I weave, or look at patterns. Now if only I had more hours in the day to get more done.

Now to get work, spinning, knitting, crocheting and weaving oh my!

New sock yarn

2010-12-30T12:57:00.000-08:00

I know I have talked about how great Spunky Eclectic fiber of the month club is. http://www.spunkyeclectic.com/

I think I have been a member from the start. So for quite some time I have gotten some really cool fibers. December 2010 was no exception. This month was called David's gift and it was 4 oz. of super wash Corriedale. The color progression was really neat. They were very long and very earthy. David for those who don't know lives in Australia so these colors really speak of the area. When I first saw it I knew it was destine to be socks. So what I did was split the roving down the middle and spin two separate bobbins of yarn. I then chain plied each bobbin to come up with about 300 yards of 3 ply which is great for long wearing socks.

I haven't decided on a pattern yet for the socks, but I am thinking about something lacey. I would love any ideas.

A little bit of knitting and a little bit of spinning well sort of

2010-12-28T17:09:00.000-08:00

Even though its the busy season I have been able to get a few things done.

First up a Hemlock tam. This was the Oct. 2010 Fondle this spinning kit. The yarn is 100% Cormo. Which is one of my favorite breeds of fleece. The good news it does fit.
Love it.

Then I did some spinning type of things. OK so I got my Abby on. At my spinning group's Christmas party we have a fibery white elephant gift exchange and I usually end up with something fun. This year was no different. I came home with a basket full of assorted fibers, in all kinds of jewel tone colors. There really wasn't enough of one thing to make a project with, so I ran it all through the drum carder and this is what came out. It was mostly wool but there was some nylon, and I added some angora and glitz for good measure.

The year of Fiber

2010-12-28T13:31:00.000-08:00

I know its been a really long time I stopped to post what's been going on in Idaho. To say a few things have been going on is an understatement. So here it goes in a nut shell-

In July hubby was laid off with a whole bunch of other Americans and he is still looking for a job. So to say the fiber buying has slowed is another understatement.

I found a job as a part time lunch lady. I really like it and the pay isn't all that bad. I work 3 hours a day at a really fun school and work with some really fun people.

I haven't been teaching knitting or spinning classes for the months of Nov. and Dec. I am not sure if I will be going back to the yarn store in the new year.

Of course we have been busy with kids and all their events, parties and games.

Now that Christmas is over its now time to start to think about goals for next year. I am taking a page from the Knitmoregirls and came up with a theme for the year . 2011 is going to be the year of fiber. I have been teaching crocheting, knitting, and spinning for over 18 years, which means I have spent most of the time working on samples or thinking about each project I have worked on as possible class. Well this next year I want to work on whatever I feel like. Design some, make things for the fun of it not just for a purpose. In other words have fun again.

So here are my goals for 2011 in no particular order.

1.Keep a journal on what I make and finish so that at the end of the year I can look back and see how productive I have been.

2.Get back to my fleece study. I started it last year and had to stop to work on other things.

3.Do a much better job of keeping up with my blog , facebook and twitter. As I have sent it up I will have family stuff on facebook, so that the family will see I'm not dead but just busy. Twitter will be where I talk about my daily fibery things and this blog will be were I post pic's and other information about projects and events I attend this year.
( by the way I am yarnsnthreads on twitter)
4. Read through the Bible in the year.

5. Do some type of giving back each month. Over the past few month we have been so blessed by all the giving we have received that I really want to give back to others.

6. Get healthy again. The stress of having hubby out of work has caused me to stress eat so I have not felt as well as I should and can so I want to eat better, exercise and generally feel batter. Loosing a few pounds would be a bonus.

7. Learn to weave.

As you can see I have all kinds of things planned for the new year. So please stop back by and see what happening.

My Black Sheep odyssey- part 1

2010-07-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

On June 17th I left Boise for the Black sheep gathering in Eugene Oregon. This was my first trip to the gathering after years of hearing how wonderful an event it was I decided that this was the year. I was not disappointed. Over the next few posts I will talk about what I saw, learned and bought. Then I will talk about the next two week that I spent in Oregon.
On the 17th the plan was to have everyone that was in our group meet at my house at 8 AM. because I live so close to the freeway. The trip normally takes about 8 hours. Ours took much longer and for half the group it really was an odyssey. There were 4 in our little group, two in each car. Well my ride arrived on the dot of 8, the other two not so much. So we waited and waited and waited. Thankfully we live in an age of cell phones, so a call was made. The hold up? a bad zipper on a suitcase. We will be there in a minute. So we waited and waited. they must have gone on with out us, so lets go and catch up to them on the freeway.
The trip began.
Now I have been to many fiber fairs and events with my car partner so we got into the rhythm of the drive. Surely we will meet up with them in Burns. Not so much. After another cell phone call with no answer, we figured we would meet up with them in Bend, so off we went again.
On the drive finally a call from car number 2. We are a bit behind you we will meet in Sisters at the Stitching post. We must be ahead so why not stop at Trader Joe's and eat lunch. By the way the Cesar chicken wrap was wonderful.
At the stitching post another cell call. We are a bit lost we will meet up with you in Eugene.
A small note about the Stitching post. If you ever get the chance to visit do stop. If you are a quilter you will love it, if you are a knitter you will love it, if you are a gardener you will love it. I did happen to see the newer book The Alchemy of color by Gina Wilde, and low and behold I am in the credits as part of the knitting team. Way cool. So if you have the thought to give it a look over there are some great patterns.
So after many many miles several stops and a few phone calls car one arrives at the fair grounds at about 5PM one hour later then planned, but after all we did spend an hour at the Stitching post waiting for car number 2.
Well lets go find the hotel I will be staying in with those in car number 2. When we arrive a call comes in from car number 2. We just got to Sisters, go ahead and check in. We will be there soon. Yea right. So off to diner car number 1 goes. The good food was great had a bit of trouble with figuring out where and what to recycle. Back to room to rest and wait for car 2 to arrive.

10:30 Car two arrives. Oh what a day they had seen way more of Oregon then first planned Baker City was not in the original plan, but still nice to see. Pooped! So off to sleep and wait for the gathering to begin.

Cryptic post card arrives at my house days later, family confused. It seems Lewis and Clark have gotten a bit off track and will see me in Eugene. Thank goodness The real Lewis and Clark didn't get so lost and we can all see the humor in having to wait for the gas truck to stop and gas up car number 2. And the Black sheep gathering hadn't even begun. More to follow.

Just a Civil War weekend

2010-05-05T09:50:00.001-07:00

So this last weekend, well Thursday through Saturday the Idaho Civil War Volunteers went to Eagle Island State park for an encampment. On Thursday and Friday we invited area 5th grade classes to come out and see what it was like to live and fight during the Civil war. We had what I would guess some where in the neighborhood of 4200 people come through. On both Thursday and Friday it was very cold so cold that I could barely get my fingers to work. My part in the encampment is to teach people what it was like to make their own cloths and fabrics with the spinning wheel. On Thursday and Friday because we had about 3000 kids we had 10 minutes with each group so I would hold a tin cup of hot water to warm my fingers so that I could show them how my spinning wheel works. It was great fun but I have to say I am still a bit tired from the weekend. By the way I really like how this picture came out of me standing on a hill in the park. I edited out most of the modern parts, as you can see it was windy but I do look skinny don't I.

March in with spring yarns

2010-03-30T11:23:00.001-07:00

Well for most of the US spring is here. In Boise its raining but I'm not surprised as long as I have had kids going to school we have had a rainy spring break,which is this week. One good thing about it being rainy outside I have more time to spin and knit. I have been working on socks , socks and more socks of late. I am also working on basic fingerless mitts. The reason, I'm getting great for our annual Civil war reenactment, that is coming at the end of April. Each year we set up a camp in a state park just out side Boise and invite 5th grade classes from the area to come and see what life was like during the Civil war. My husband is the Blacksmith and I am the resident spinner and knitter. Last year we had 2700 5th graders come and visit us on the last Thursday and Friday of April. This year I think there will be something like 3500 5th graders. We also encamp on Saturday where we invite the public to come and see what it was like to live during the war. This year I plan to sell socks, mitts and shawls that might have been used during the war. So I am knitting like crazy to get some stock ready.

I have been taking a bit of a break here and there from knitting to do some spinning and this is some of the fruits of my labor. The roving is this month's fiber from Crown Mountain Fibers. Its Shetland and I love the colorway, Bannockburn. I can't tell you how wonderful the fibers have been from Crown Mountain and I highly recommend all their fibers.

Again my plan for each month's fiber is to spin a light weight 3 ply so that I can knit socks with each hank. I want to see which breed of sheep will wear better for socks. I'm tyring to spin about the same yarn for each. They are all chained plied and this month I got 288 yards. So far I have been able to keep up with the spinning but I have yet to knit any into socks. I'm hoping I can get started in a month or so, but we will see.

I have also signed up for a couple of classes at the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugine Oregon in June. I am really looking forward to learning some new things. I am taking a class on dyeing with mushrooms and spinning angora. There are 4 of us going together this year. One is a teacher and has been to a few herself. Us other three have never been and we can't wait. So now you know why I'm knitting a ton of basic socks so that I can hopefully save some pennies and add to the stash at Black sheep.

How to knit a love song.....

2010-03-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

OK so I am a real nut sometimes. Today is a perfect example. I herd that Rachael Herron of the blog yarnagogo.com fame was coming to Boise to do a book signing for her first book How to knit a love Song. So I went as fast as I could to amazon and ordered the book so that I could read it in plenty of time before she was going to be here, so that I could maybe sound a bit smart as I met her. Well She came to Boise today at a local yarn store called Fuzz. But like most things the timing was terrible. She was at the store at 2PM when I am stuck in my car picking up kids from school. So I wasn't able to go meet her. So now you are asking how the heck did I get her picture. Well I hurried up and read the books so my friend Lynn could take it to the store and get it signed for me. What's even better she did. Oh yea! So I'm not sure who was more nuts me or my friend. Oh well. I really did want to meet her but I figured it was better to go pick up the kids instead.
I do want to tell you all that I did read the book and really did enjoy it. I'm not much for reading romance novels, OK so I really would rather read a good mystery, but once in awhile I do need to branch out. Most romance books have the same old form and there really isn't much of a story to it but I did find that Rachael has a story with romance in it instead of romance with a bit of story,
As a long time mystery reader I did see some of the events coming in the story, but that's OK. I don't want to ruin the story for you but I can spend hours thinking about what it would be like to find I am now a owner of a house full of wool and spinning wheels. If only I knew someone who would leave all that to me. Oh well, I guess I will have do my own collecting.
If you get a chance to ready How to Knit a love song by Rachael Herron please do I think you will enjoy it as much as I did. She will have two more books coming in this series and I can't wait to read them. By the way Racheal has a pattern at the end of the book that is a huge part of the story which I think I will have to knit. I love a good gansey, now I have to figure out if I will make it for me or the DH.

With spring come thought of fiber

2010-03-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe that spring is just around the corner, well at least in some places around the US it is. I can't really complain a whole lot as Boise has had a very mild winter. We did get about an inch and half of snow last Saturday but on the whole not much. I think we are in for a long hot dry summer. But lets think of the coming spring. I really enjoy spring time for several reasons. First its the season that my birthday fall in. I do also enjoy all the new growth, as plants break through the grown with promise of beauty to come. Its also the time when sheep get sheered and fleece come available to all us spinners. So my thoughts are beginning to go to what fiber fair to attend what fleece to look for. I am planning on attending the Black sheep gathering in Eugene Oregon this year for the first time. I have always wanted to go even as a teen living in Oregon but for some reason or other I never went. I will be attending with two other friends who have never been either. We can hardly wait. Sign up for classes is coming soon so I will update on what classes I get into.

Spring is also a time for me to start thinking about what plants do I want to try to grow. This year my focus is more on to dye plants. One of my things to try this summer is to dye with natural dyes. So I am planning to grow goldenrod, weld, and maybe a few others. Of course I have all kinds of grand idea until it get to be around 100 degrees and then I totally forget about it. Maybe this year will be different.

What are your plans for spring and planting?

Do people really think?

2010-03-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

I sometimes wonder if people really think, or has greed just taken over. I have been watching ebay as people have been bidding on vintage weave-it looms. On a normal day you should be able to pay anywhere from 5 to 10 dollars. But because Interweave press magazine Piecework has an article on the weavette looms. Everyone seems to be going crazy. They are now selling for over $200. Yes I did say dollars. Are you all crazy or do you think you can get your money back.This really isn't the way to save for retirement you know. I have been told that if I wait for a few months I will once again be able to pay near the 5 and 10 dollar range. So I will wait. Its like the Beanie babies all over again. In the mean time I visited a local antique store and found this today. Now its not a Donnor Weave-it loom but the idea is the same.

Along with the loom it came with the box, a pattern book, some squares already woven, 41 to be exact, extra yarn to sew them together. A letter letting the owner know that a certain color of wool was not longer available. The letter was dated March 31 1954

The bag of goodies were for sale for 8 dollars and it was even on sale so the final price was $6.29. yes six dollars and 29 cents. That's what everyone should be paying not $200. I'm just saying.

I am Golden! I almost feel Canadian

2010-03-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

The Ravelympics are now over and I am GOLDEN, and yes I almost feel Canadian. Wasn't that the best Olympics in a long time. It was so great to spin and knit and watch all the great competition. I do feel a bit sorry for the Russians they really didn't do all the well did they.

As for me at this Olympic competition I was able to win or I would more say earn three Gold medals.

The first medal I won was the Flying Camel Spin and I have to say I really feel like I was flying there for a bit. I spun 1700 yards of a 3 ply in Shetland roving that I got from a friend of mine. It took me 6 days to spin and ply all the yarn and then set the twist. I bought a bulky flyier for my Sonata thinking it would help me ply faster. The flyier arrived on Wed. right when I had finished up the last bobbin of singles. There was a bit of a mishap. I received the bulky bobbin, the piece to hold the flyier in place but by some odd reason ( Maybe it was from an opposing team) I received a regular flyier. But never fear I decided to forge ahead and use the regular flyer to continue to ply. By the way the Bulky flyier arrived on the day I cast off the sweater. ( definitely a plot to slow me down from an a opposing team)

The second medal was for the not only spinning but knitting a sweater. My Fleece to FO ( Finished Object) was this cardigan. Even though it was a fairly easy knit it was all garter stitch. I have to say it got a bit boring on the light color parts. Once I was at the color changing and the shaping it got more interesting.

I have to add a close up of the sheep buttons. I think they make the sweater. I finished the sweater and had it on the dining room table drying on Thurs. the 25. About a hour before the bulky flyier came. Oh well. I think I know how Apollo Ono might feel. Did he nor did he not get cheated out of the 500m race. He didn't make that guy fall. Not to say the South Koreans pushed China out of the way for the silver in the relay. OK I get off that soap box.

For my last event I entered the Hat half pipe. The reason My husband has a friend who is battling most likely for the last time cancer. Her name is Beth so I'm sure she would love all the prayers she can get. The pattern comes from the Spin Off web site and is turning into one of my favorite hat patterns. The yarn is I love this cotton from Hobby Lobby. Which is a new store to the Boise area. I have herd so much about how great Hobby Lobby is for years. I am so pleased that they just opened a store in past few weeks here in the Boise area. As far as I can see the yarns that they have seem pretty nice for basic low cost yarns. I plan to try their wool yarn on a hat to see how it holds up. Not to worry I don't plan to start knitting and crocheting with acrylic any time soon. I still am a yarn snob but it is still OK to find new basic yarns. The more options the better I say. My family says I have yet to find a yarn I don't like. Well I can only think of one. I really hate Lion Brand Homespun. To expensive for crappy yarn that falls apart while you knit or crochet with it. I will get off my soap box for now.

I hope if you entered the Ravelympics you were able to gain GOLD if not the summer Olympics are just 2 years away, so start planning now.

1 Back 1 Gold and next 2 sleeves

2010-02-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

Well I have received my first GOLD in the Ravelympics for spinning this!

So I am on to the knitting. As of Saturday night I have finished the back. I really love how the color progression is working out.

Next I plan to do the sleeves. When I knit a sweater that has to be sewn up I usually really hate the sleeves. Not sure why I just do. So this time I'm thinking if I do them next I will knit them faster and then when I get to the two fronts I will be excited for the finish.

So far I am a bit ahead of where I want to be so as long as there isn't any energies I should be able to finish in time. So far I have had some serious shoulder pain while I was spinning. Its better now but I am being more careful to take breaks in the knitting.

Stay tuned.

Let the knitting begin!

2010-02-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

OK so I have been spinning like a mad woman. As you know I am working on a sweater for my Ravelympic's project. During the opening ceremonies I started to spin a huge mount of Shetland roving. I ended up with 13 skeins of 3 ply yarn at 11 wpi which is exactly what the pattern calls for. So last knight I cast on and cast on and cast on. Well it really took 4 tries to get the right gauge and size that I wanted. I am at gauge but it way to big so now I am knitting at the same gauge but making a much smaller size, which in turn is turning out to be the size I need. Stay tuned.

Monthly fiber clubs part two

2010-02-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

So today I thought I would post pictures of some of the fibers that I have been spinning. This first one is a new fiber for me to try. Falkland. Until this came in the mail I had never even herd of this. basically its fiber from sheep that are on the Falkland islands. Its a very soft fiber and it was a real joy to spin. I would say its very similar to Merino. Crown Mountain Farms sent this back in January. They send what they call pencil roving. Which means its thinner they average roving which of course makes it easier to spin. The color way is called Awakenings. I started spinning on Jan. 1 and a spin in at a friends house. I am trying to use each of the Crown Mountain fibers to make socks this year as its time for some new socks. I chained plied it or you might no it as Navajo plied. Which by the way is not how the Navajo ply their yarns, so I think there is an effort to change the name to chain plied which it what it is anyway. It came out to 264 yards and its about a sport weight.

This one is the February Crown Mountain Fiber of the month. This is again a new fiber to me called Finn although I have herd of it before I haven't had a chance to spin any. This is a nice fiber and its not as soft as the Falkland but its still soft. I think it would work great for sweaters.

The colorway is called Shiva/shake. I again chained ply it and it came out to 348 yards and its a thicker fingering weight. Just perfect for socks. Now I just have to get to knitting. Maybe after the Ravelympics are over.

Crown Mountain Fibers oh my!

2010-02-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

So this year I was able to subscribe to a couple of fiber clubs and I thought I would talk a bit about them the first one is Spunky fiber club. Although its not really new to me as I have been getting the fiber for years and years. I do really love this one as I never know what I am going to get and I don't know what the colors will be. You can still sign up for it by googling spunk fiber club.

Again this year I was able to sign up and pay for the Fondle this fiber club. I really like this one because not only do you get the fiber but also a pattern for each month. So you get enough fiber to knit whatever the project is. I really love Susan's colorways. I think you can still also sign up for this one too. Google Fondle this fiber club and you can go from there.

The last one is Crown Mountain Fiber club. I met the owner of Crown Mountain at SOAR and just love now only their colorways but their attitude. So far I have loved everyone I have gotten. This one you will get 4 ounce of a different breed of sheep which is fun because some of the ones that are coming up are new to me.

As I complete the month's fibers I will post pic of them. So far I have spun but haven't knit the Fondle this for Jan. its a great pattern but I just haven't had the time to get all the knitting done. I am hopeful I can finish it this next week.

I have been able to spin both Jan. and Feb. Crown Mountain fibers. My plan is to knit socks with the yarn. Because the colorways are so cool I am thinking they will be basic vanilla socks, but we will see. I will post about them later.

I also am working on a fleece study. I have over 50 different wool and other fibers that I plan to work on throughout the year. So be on the lookout for both the fiber clubs and the fleece study.

Get Ready for some Spinning!!!!!

2010-02-10T10:34:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been blogging much of late. There are a couple of reasons why. First my computer was beginning to slowly die. So it was really hard to get a whole lot done on it. Second my camera died right after I got back from SOAR, so I couldn't add any pictures. Well I am happy to say I have both a new computer and a new camera. Now the hard part learning how to use them. I don't have much time as its about time for the Ravelympics to start.
For those who don't know what that is. Its a group of people who plan to either knit, spin , crochet or weave during the Winter Olympics. As you know they start this Friday night.Yikes. My local knitting guild is also holding a contest and party. This Friday we as a group will meet at one of our local Knit shops and watch the opening ceremonies and cast on whatever project we choose. There will be some great prizes for those who are able to complete the project that they chose to knit. There are also tons of prizes that will be given away on the ravelympics forum pages on Ravelry.

So what project have you chosen do you ask?
Well I plan to spin and knit a cardigan. Yea I know I'm crazy, but if you have been reading this blog for a while you already know that. I was able to barder some wonderful shetland roving from a girl friend. She has her own shetlands and I have been wanting to spin some of it for a while now. I love the natural colors.

I think the dark, medium and light shades are just wonderful. I have been wanting to knit this cardigan for a long time. As a matter of fact the pattern comes from Ashford's yearly magazine called Wheel. This pattern in in the 2006 issue. Its a simple garter stitch pattern and I think the knitting will go fast.

I also have some really cool sheep buttons that I plan to use for the cardigan. You will have to wait to see what they look like.
This past week I started on sampling. I spun a 3 ply light worsted weight yarn and was able to get perfect gauge.

I can hardly wait to get started. I haven't been knitting all that much because I don't want to get into something big because starting on Friday 6 PM Mountain time I will get started on this project. I figure I will have one week to do all the spinning and then a week to get all the knitting done so that I can sew up the cardigan during the closing ceremonies on the 28th. I will keep you all posted on how I do.

What to do when you don't have enough

2010-01-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

I'm sure at some point in planning for a project you have come across this problem. Where you have the perfect color yarn or some handspun that you think will make a great sweater but you don't have the amount of yarn that the pattern calls for. Case in point. I have been working on the Oatmeal cardigan from Spin Off winter 09. Well I bought 2 pounds of Romeny wool, spun it into a wonderful 3 ply. By the way I spun it by using the on the fold method. Which is were you take a lock of fiber and fold it over your fiber finger and spin from that. It is a great way to spin as it adds softness and loft to your yarn. Anyway when I had finished spinning I ended up with 1200 yards. Which was great however, the pattern called for 1550 on a size 6 needle.

By the way there are two reason I didn't have enough yarn for the project, both being my stupidity and not the pattern. First I bought 2 pounds of RAW wool. I forgot to take into account that there would be loss in the processing. You can expect to lose up to 1/3 in cleaning and preparing the fleece to spin. Also I didn't read through the pattern all the way. The directions called for a pound and half for the small and 2 pounds for a XL. So I really should have bought 2 and half pounds to insure I had enough. I would like to think I don't do this again but I can promise I won't do it in the near future, anyway.

So the question is what can I do. I really like the yarn and its the color I wanted, can I make it work? The answer is YES you can. So here is what I did. I moved up 2 needles sizes to an 8 and knit and smaller size. I wanted to end up with a size 40-42 which was the XL ( By the way I don't think a 42 is an XL but that is here nor there. But by using a larger needle and making the 38 I ended up with a sweater that fits and I even had an extra ball of yarn left over. There are a couple of things that you will need to know when you give this a try.

First off you still need to make a gauge swatch as a matter of fact make sure you make at least a 4 inch square one. Don't cheat and make an inch or two. The reason is you really want to know how the fabric feels. Is it too loose? Can you see through the fabric or do you like how it feels.

Also when you are knitting a pattern that you have changed the needles size be sure to knit the length for the size you are shooting for. For example. In this pattern the XL called for me to knit the body 14 inches long and the sleeves 18 inches. The size small called for a couple of inches shorter. I knit my sweater 14 inches long and the sleeves as for the longer size too.

Another thing you need to think about it if your pattern has a cable or color work in it be sure to knit a sample to make sure the cable isn't to loose to show up like you want and also in the case of color work the stranding from behind doesn't show through.

Now for a bit more info on the sweater. I was really worried through out that I wouldn't have enough yarn but like I said I ended up with about 150 yards left over. I did change things a bit. I didn't want to do buttons because I usually don't button a cardigan anyway so I added a metal frog. Now when looking at the picture its not the best as a matter of fact its terrible. I had to use my camera from my phone to take the picture and the true color doesn't show up. The Romeny fleece was a medium grey and I over dyed it dark blue. So in real life the frog doesn't stand out as much in this picture. I had to lighten so that you could see it. My regular camera crapped out a couple of months ago and I haven't had the funds to buy a new one yet. I am really happy with how this cardigan turned out. Its the size I wanted, you can see the cable really nicely and the sleeves are long enough.

New Year Goals

2010-01-12T12:50:00.000-08:00

I really didn't wait until now to make up my 2010 goals. I made my list on Jan. 1 and I am happy to say I am still working on all of them. Now not all my goals are fiber related nor are they all self improvement either. So with out more a due here's the list in no particular order.

1. loose 40 pounds by summer. ( the real goal is to where a pair of capris I bought 5 years ago and have never been able to fit into, This is the year.)

2. Read through the Bible in a year. Daughters number 1 and 2 are also reading along with me and several ladies on Pacific NW Christian Needle Crafters which is an email group on Yahoo groups.

3. List a blessing each day.

4. Buy NO yarn. ( Yea I know that one sounds crazy but I really have so much that has been waiting for me to get to , so this is the year)

5. Attend at least one Fiber fair.

6. Open a Etsy store. ( I have some ideas in the works already so look for more on that )

7. Learn to use natural dyes

8. Try to grown cotton and flax. ( this one will be hard as I have no green thumb)

9. Create a sweater. ( more about this one is coming)

10. Knit a Christmas afghan and new ornaments for this years tree.

11. Spin a fleece study. More about this one later this week.

I usually try to stick to 10 goals for the year but this year is a bit different. I have some other things I want to do this year and will be coming in late weeks and months. One thing I want to do is make this blog more educational instead of like so many that drone on about what new yarn was bought or see what I have. So look for a bit of a different tone to this blog in the coming weeks and months. So that's about it for the goals of 2010. Can you believe its already mid Jan 2010.

My over thinking strikes again

2009-12-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

So if you have been reading my blog for any amount of time you can feel my pain of spinning and knitting something and not totally please with the end results. One of my big goals at SOAR this past fall was to learn to spin and knit a sweater that doesn't weight 10 pounds. So I took a class from Maggie Casey on American Long draw which was great. If you ever have a chance to take a class from her DO. I have been spinning only long draw sense. I think I have gotten to the point where I can spin a really nice soft and light weight 3 ply. Which should be perfect for a sweater.
When the Winter issue of Spin Off came in the mail I fell in love with Amy Kings' Oatmeal cardigan. I have a vision of a darkish blue one.
One thing that would like to do this next year is learn more about different breeds of wool.With that in minde I am trying to make things with different breeds. While I was at SOAR I bought some really nice BFL that is cream with streaks of med. brown in it. My plan is to spin and re knit a sweater that I knit earlier this year but weights over 3 pounds. I also have plans for a cardigan the pattern was in an older issue of Ashford's Wheel magazine. By the way if you have never checked out this annual you should its a really good one. I have picked up some really nice Shetland from my girl friend for that one. I will be talking more about that as the Olympics gets closer.
So with wool from BFL and Shetland already for sweaters I wanted to use something different. I totally on faith bought a bit over 2 pounds of Romney from Paradise Fibers. http://www.paradisefibers.net/Raw-New-Zealand-Romney-p/973.htm. Well I am happy to report that is wonderful. I have washed it and I'n thinking it will work out well for this cardigan.
So now here is where the over thinking begins. In an effort to make sure this will work out. I found some Romney in my stash. Now I know that a dyed roving will not be exactly the same as spinning from the locks. What I was looking for was will Romney be OK to wear. Now because its a cardigan it won't be next to skin but close so I want something that not horrible scratchy. So I decided to spin up a ounce on both my Matchless and the Sonata to see how they came out. I then knit up a swatch to see how they feel. Well I have to say I really like the yarn its some what soft and I think it will make a nice 3 ply. When I was knitting it didn't feel all that soft so I was a bit worried but after the swatches were washed and blocked they felt fine under the chin.
With that test done I have decided to get started. So last night I flicked a shoe box of locks so that I could get to spinning today. I really wanted to get started on the first but I just can't wait. Like I said I also am thinking about over dyeing the yarn a med. blue, I don't want to waist any of the locks to make sure I have enough for the sweater. The pattern calls for 1550 for my size which I think it way more then I need. I usually use 1000 for a top down sweater. Anyway I took some of the wool that came out of the dog brush and dyed that with some Gaywool dye in the color of bluegum. Right now its drying but I'm thinking its a little to light. I am thinking I want more dark blue, but I will decide that later.
Yes I know I am way over thinking this whole thing and its even beginning to drive me a bit batty but I really want to spin and knit more of my projects this next year and I want them to turn out so that I will want to wear them and not just in my house. More to come....

Gerring up for the Olympics

2009-12-23T15:46:00.000-08:00

Even though its Dec. 23. I have been thinking about my next big project. In a way its a new thing for me. I am usually knitting or crocheting my fingers to the bone to get all my Christmas gifts done for the 25th. Well this year I didn't do a lot for family and friends. Which means I finished up with plenty of time to spare. So I got to thinking its time for some fun knitting. As you may have read in the past I am a huge fan of the Spunk Fiber club. http://www.spunkyeclectic.com/club/ I have been getting fiber each month for all most as long as it has been going. I think I missed the first month. Anyway any time there has been a sporting event, Tour de France and the Olympics and we have had a spin along or a knit along I have been a member of Team Monkey Fart. Which is a colorway of Spunky Eclectic. So as the Winter Olympics approaches I have been doing a lot of thinking about what my goals are for this year and I haven't totally work them out just yet , so stay tuned for more on that. But in the spirit of the challenge I decided I need a mascot to cheer me on as I spin and knit. So let me introduce Harold! The pattern comes from http://knittedtoybox.blogspot.com/

I used my hand spun. The cream is I think corridale that I bought at a local store. The browns in Monkey Farts from Spunky Eclectic. Have I told you how great the fibers are there? By the way I met Amy at SOAR and just love her. Can you stock someone that live on the other side of the US? Anyway I spun both yarns into a 3ply DK. I wanted the colors to blend well together but still have some texture to them. I ended up with 240 yards of the Monkey farts and about 100 yards of the cream. I was really worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn to complete this monkey. I did look at the ones that others have made on Ravelry but not one person listed how much yarn they used. I really hate when the yardage is not listed. Anyway I think I have enough yarn for another one. If I have time I may try the crocheted version. We will see about that. You do have to admit he does look a lot like my ravatar. Don't you think?

So how well do you Trust your LYS

2009-12-14T10:27:00.000-08:00

So a question came up this morning. How well do you trust your local yarn store or fiber store for that matter?

Example number 1.
Some of you may know that I used to do a lot of designing a few year back. Well the reason I stopped was because of a LYS. When the store first opened I did a few sample pieces for the store and then once the owner found out that I had some designs she was more the willing to buy them and then sell them in her store. So I took in about 20 or so patterns I think it was 5 of each different design. Well fast forward 2 years. One of my students went into the same LYS and while she was there another customer asked for one of my patterns. Well I guess they had ran out so the clerk ran down stairs and made a copy and sold it to her ( for full price). Well of course my student was upset by this and she told me what happened. So when I went in to talk with the owner she made it sound as if she had been trying to get a hold of me to order more patterns. Which of course she wasn't because on all my pattern there is contact info. Anyway I felt pretty burned so I stopped writing up my designs. By the way karma got her and she went out of business a short time after that.

Example number 2.
I was at a fiber store about a week or so ago buying some fiber to dye, on the way out there is a box of free patterns. Well guess what was on the top of the pile. 3 of the patterns that was sold at the store that had been closed for a couple of years. By this time, it didn't upset me but it sure miffed my husband. So I have decided one the new year comes and I have more time I will be putting all those patterns on Ravelry for free.

Example number 3.
While I was at SOAR, I went into the market to buy a couple of spindles. I ended up with 3 but that is another story. If you have never been to SOAR market think of it like the day after Thanksgiving at Walmart. And no the people aren't any nicer, never get between a spinner and fiber unless you are asking to get hurt. Any way I found a spindle I really like and I bought it with out trying it out. I figured they would have to be good to be at SOAR. So later that night I ran into the maker and told them how much I love my new spindle. The remark to me was " Does it spin OK, because I never know if it will work or not". Yikes I think I will try them out before I buy from this time forward.

Example number 4.
I'm sure you have herd me complain that the Boise area really needs a good fiber store. Well there is a nice one about an hour away, so some girl friends and I went about a week or so ago to see what's new. I am in the process of buy some fiber to make a cardigan. Have you seen the really neat one in the current Spin Off? (Winter 09)Yes that's the one I plan to make next. Anyway the gal that owns this store is a spinner and she usually has nice stuff. Well this time there was some in my opinion over price fleece that when I did the lock test. It failed. Well after the first time I thought maybe I'm doing it wrong so I tried again. Well after the 4 try I realized this was a bad fleece. By the way the lock test is where you take hold of each end of a lock of fiber and snap it. It should make a nice musical sound and not break. Well this one broke every time. I course it didn't come home with me.

Example number 5.
Like I said I have been looking for some fleece for a cardigan. Well I found some nice Romney on line for a very good price. So I bought it with out touching it. So for 4 days I was biting my nails in hopes that the fleece would be OK. Well I am happy to report its just beautiful. I am thinking it will be my cardigan. I am now waiting to see how a gauge swatch turns out after the fleece dries so I can get to spinning.

So this morning I was thinking about each of these 5 examples of fiber stores, yes each one is a different store and none of them are the one I teach knitting classes at. But the question does come up. How well do you trust your local yarn or fiber store, or can you trust them? My lesson that I have learned is do lots of research before you buy no matter if you can feel the yarn or fiber or not, and just because the owner may seem nice its your money so buy only the good stuff that you can use.

What is really the important things

2009-11-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

When I started this blog way back I really meant for it to be a reflection of my life, my family, my faith and my fiber. Well it has turned out to be more about my fiber then anything. Fiber is an important part of who I am, after all I do knit and spin just about every day. I also spend a lot of time thinking about what my next projects will be, how can I buy whatever the "new" thing is. But of late I have really been thinking a lot about what really is important. Over the past two years we have had a lot of deaths in our lives. My father in law, my grandmother, my aunt and her sister, a couple of friends, a teen girl that was friends with my oldest daughter, My DH's best friend and this past weekend my DH's boss. It kind of makes you think about what really is important. Does having the most fiber really matter?

Not that I am saying buying fiber it a bad thing, because I have and still plan to add to my stash, But the question should be how can I use my stash for more important things. Like can I use my stash to make things for people, not just the ones I love but how about people I have never met. I bet I can use some really neat fiber to spin and knit mittens for kids who may not have a home. Or I can knit a shawl and give it to someone who is going through a hard time. I bet we can all find some ways to use our stash to bless someone else which in turn blesses us. If you have any great ideas let me know.

Although fiber is a huge part of my life its not the only part and I would even say its not even the biggest part or the most important part so I plan to start sharing more of all the things that are important in my life. I also would like to encourage you to think about what it the important things in life? Is it really who is on Oprah today or what is the latest hair style or even I just saw a new spinning wheel I really have to have it? Now go and hug someone that is important to you, then go dig through your stash and find something to make for someone who needs to be blessed today, or if you are like me in a couple of month because it will take me that long to spin and knit it up.

Inspiration! Where do you get yours

2009-11-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

So for the past week or so I have been doing a lot of thinking about inspiration and where it comes from. As I talk about in previous posts I was so blessed to be able to attend SOAR this past month. I have to say it really was a bucket list type of event for me. I will talk more in future posts, because I gained so much knowledge and inspiration. But now that I am two weeks away from SOAR and I am beginning to think about what projects I want to make either for Christmas gifts or because I just can't stop thinking about it.

At SOAR I took 5 classes those being Secrets of lace ( learning to spin, design and create the lace you want),perfect plying,spinning for next to skin,American long draw,and drumcarding. Never fear I will post about each class later either this week or next. One of the neatest things that we did at SOAR was to do a show and tell. After the three day workshop everyone who took a class was asked to display what they learned so that everyone could see about the classes. Now I totally loved the lace class and I know I will have all kinds of designs to come from it. But I also wish we could have signed up for another class after seeing all the fun things people did. Its kind of funny I went to SOAR not really interested in weaving but after the show and tell I was bitten hard by the bug. So now, after I recover from all the cash out flow I am thinking I need to get a smaller rigid heddle loom. I am glad I wasn't in the class because some of the students were up all night spinning so that they would have the needed yarn for the next day. I really enjoyed the results that they came up with.

I as also inspired by the fall colors that were on display at Sunriver. I can't even count all the really neat knits that I saw and have been inspired to spin and knit in the future.

So my question to you is Where do you get your inspiration? Please leave a comment and let us all know where it comes from with you.

Already to SOAR

2009-10-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Well I am just about all packed and ready to leave to SOAR. I won't be leaving until Sunday morning but tomorrow is going to be crazy to the only time I have to pack was tonight. I have been saving so that I could add to the stash. I am happy to say I have not bought any yarn or fiber for months. May to be exact. Until today. I bought a used folding wheel. I will pick it up on Sunday night when I get to SOAR. I don't plan to use it in class but I will spin on it at night. I can hardly wait to get there and get to spinning. I haven't sat at my wheel for three weeks. I know I know but its been so busy here that I didn't have time. It did get a really nice clean and wax though. She looks like is as ready to leave as I am. I am planning on updating my blog as much as I can. I'm not sure if I can while I am SOAR ( I refuse to take a computer to a retreat) but I will update when I get home.

Just about ready to SOAR

2009-10-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

I know its been like forever sense I posted. Well like usual summer and fall have gotten away from me. It seems like I have been running full speed for months now. Which of course I have. With college student in BSU's marching band to Jr. High student in choir to now a 5th grader learning to play basketball, not to mention teaching knitting classes and spinning up a storm.
One of the big reasons I have been tied up with things is I have been getting ready to SOAR. Also known as Spin Off Autumn Retreat. Now I know the New York Fiber Fair its the biggest fiber fair in the county if not the world, but when it comes to the biggest and best spinning event it has to be SOAR. Which I as so excited to say I will be attending in little more then a week. This year it will be held at SunRiver resort near Bend Oregon. I will be taking a three day class on spinning and designing lace, I will also be taking 4 three hour classes on plying, using a drum carder, American long draw and spinning for softness. Not to mention picking up some neat new fibers and maybe a spindle or two at the Spinners market. I will also be sitting in a booth spinning suri alpaca for a couple of hours.
So for the past few months I have been spinning and knitting to get ready to leave. At SOAR there is a gallery where you can display up to three items. I am planning on taking the scarf that was in the natural fibers contest that was in the current issue of Spin Off. I am also planning on taking the little purse that I knit and used the cast iron handles that my Hubby made for me. I am also taking a hat that I spun and knit up this summer.
One of the big projects that I did over the summer and fall was to knit a whole bunch of socks, my plan it so wear a different pair of hand knit socks each day at SOAR. I'm not sure if I will take a whole lot of hand knits as its not really that cold yet. Today it was in the 70's here in Boise and Bend is a lot like Boise so I'm thinking it will still be a bit warm for heavy wool sweaters, but we will see as the week goes on.
I am planning on leaving Sunday morning on the 25th. The retreat runs until the following Sunday. I plan to post (with pictures) some of the things I see and do. I most likely won't do that until I get back home. So stay tuned for updates to come.

Week 1 of the Tour is now over - here's what I did

2009-07-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

I love doing the Tour de Fleece each year. I am so glad to see its getting bigger and bigger. It looks like its the thing to do for the summer. I know I have enjoyed my first week. I am half way through my goals. I have completed the yarn for my first sweater. For my first sweater I want to take an easy knitting project to SOAR. One that I don't really have to think about as I am working on it. So of course its going to be a Top Down from Knitting Pure and Simple. I'm not sure what pattern I am going to use but I know that I will need some where around 1000 yards of a worsted weight. So that was my goal. A few months back there was a Spin Off magazine that had the coolest yarn on the cover. It was a moorit brown that was over dyed with bright yellow. Instead of the end result being a yellow yarn it turns out to be a really cool green. So that's what I was shooting for. I found about 2 pounds of a Shetland in my stash and on the 4th I got busy.

I spun a bobbin full for the first 6 days. I then plied them together making a two ply.

Once all the plying was done I wanted to make sure I would have enough for a sweater so I ended up with 1100 yards. Into the dye pot it all went.

Dyeing brown yarn green using yellow dye takes a bit of faith. For one it shouldn't work. I'm yellow makes green. No way. So as its sits in the dye pot you have to let it be and do its thing. Once its done it still doesn't look green, not until its dry will you be happy with it. So for me it was really hard to let it alone and do its thing. I was like a cook watching a pot to boil. Then of course I thought I messed up all my hard work, but once it was drying I fell in love with the result.

Now the hard part. Letting it alone until October. I really want to get to knitting on it. The Sheltand was not processed all that well, there was a lot and I mean a lot of VM through out. So I was a bit surprised at how soft the yarn ended up. I'm thinking dyeing it helped burn up some of the VM.

Besides the sweater yarn I also worked on some silk on my newest Greensleeves spindle. I plan to make the Quaint head band that is on the cover of the current Spin Off for daughter number 3.

Lastly for this week, I spun up about 110 yards of Spinning Bunny's High Fiber Dessert club for the month of June. The Color way is Fudgy Chocolate Bundt Cake with Strawberries topped wit Sour Cream Chocolate sauce. The fiber is a Pixie Batt of baby alpaca,and merino. Now only was the recipe really good. I bit hit with the family and my knitting girls, but the fiber was a dream to spin. I am planning on knitting the button up neck warmer that is in the current Spin Off.

Tomorrow is a rest day for the Tour. So I plan to clean my wheel and change the drive band from Scotch tension to Double drive. I haven't decided which one I like better so that is part of what I want to do during the tour. My next big project is to spin some Cooridale that I bought for my birthday. I have been cleaning and carding what I hope is enough for an Einstein Coat. Its a wonderful shade of medium grey.

So stay tuned and see now only how I do on the Tour but if you haven' been watching the Tour de France its been fun to see Lance Armstrong back on the bike. I'm betting he just may be wearing more yellow before its all over. Right now he is in 3rd and looking really good. Yea for the old guys!

The Tour begins

2009-07-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Independents Day to all Americans! Don't eat to much BBQ and stay cool. Enjoy the fireworks but please don't set your house or the one next to you on fire.

Today is also the start of the Tour de France which means the Tour de Fleece also began. I think I am off to a pretty good start. Some what like Lance Armstrong. I'm not the fastest, nor did I spin as much as some, but I'm also not in last place.

I started out the day spinning a batt that I came across last night while I was looking for some yarn in my stash. I have no idea where I got it from but I'm sure it was from an exchange. The batt is one of those kitchen sink ones. Everything but the kitchen sink is in it. I'm not a huge fan of these, because for me its really hard to let the bumpy bits stay in the yarn. But i am please with the out come of the two ply. I ended up with about 80 yards. I think I will make a very loose scarf with it. It kind of looks like a yellow jersey. If you look real close anyway.

After I finished the first skein. I took a bit of a break, as some friends stopped by on their way out of town. So after they left I got down to business. As you may recall one of my Tour goals is to spin for two sweaters. So I started with my moorit brown, which I believe is Shetland. I do plan to over dye the yarn once its all done. I spun about 4 ounce, enough to fill the first bobbin. I think its going to try out to be just what I wanted for my basic top down sweater.

So I figure I am off to a good start. The Tour de Farnce looks like it will also be a fun one to watch. I have no idea who will win in the end but I'm sure it will have all kinds of twists and turns before we are all through, kind of like our yarn.

For the love of it

2009-07-02T06:15:00.000-07:00

As a knitter and spinner no matter how a project turns out, it was still fun to do. But lets face it there are some that end up better then others. Its all good but once in a while there is a WOW project. One that when you are all done you look at it and can't believe you were the one to make it. Well my new hat was just one of those projects.

I first bought the wool at Snake River Fiber Fair with the plan to make socks. Then the summer issue of Spin Off came out and I saw the CVM hat. I just fell in love with the pattern. So I divided up the 4 ounce into 1 ounce chunks. I left one the natural color and dyed the blue, gold and orange. I didn't have a wool that was the medium brown so I used some alpaca. The original pattern colors were blue, cream, yellow, red and medium brown. Because my daughter is attending Boise State this next year I want to make the red more of an orange instead of red. Now I really don't like the color orange so its more of a tomato red.

The pattern called for a bulky weight yarn and to use a size 5 needle. The total pattern called for 180 yards. So after I got all the spinning done each 1 ounce ball ended up with something like 36- 40 yards. Which I was hopeful would be enough. As it turned out it was. I did have about 4 yards of the cream left which is a bit close for me. The pattern called for tassels but I like braids better. The over all hat ended up maybe a bit on the smaller size but it does fit just perfectly so all is good. I can hardly wait to wear it this next fall and winter.

As I say I enjoy doing just about all the different projects that I work on but this one was such a total joy all the way from the first thought to the end.

Summertime fun?

2009-06-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I have ever talked about my feelings when it comes to summer. I hate it! OK so I don't totally hate it there are a lot of fun things that go on during summer, but I really do hate the heat. So the month of July is usually never really fun for me. I don't mind when it gets in the 80's and even the lower 90's but I really hate it when it get 95 or higher. Which in Idaho it can be over 100 for a couple of weeks.

A couple of years ago I found something to help me get through the month. The Tour de Fleece. If you have not herd of the Tour de Fleece its, for me, a fun way to not think about how hot it really is. As you may know for most of the month of July the Tour de France is going. So the Tour de Fleece is where spinners ( not the cyclists) set some type of goal to work at during the Tour. A bonus for me is I love to watch cycling anyway. Each year I have tried something that I would normally not do in the 22 days of the race. This year my goals are to:

1. Spin for the Einstein coat ( a totally garder stitch coat that can be found in the The Knitting experience - the Knit stitch book by Sally Melville- about 1200 yards of a bulky weight

2. Spin for a top down sweater - about 1100 yards of a worsted weight yarn I also want to dye the yarn once its complete- (I will talk more about that later)

3. I want to spin and knit a scarf in one day.- my version of a sheep to shawl.

Now that is a lot of spinning so I have been in "training" I have been working on carding the wool for the Einstein coat.

This picture isn't all that great. The wool is really a darker grey.

For my top down sweater I will be using a moorit brown that I plan to dye bright yellow once I am done with the spinning. Now you may think I will end up with a weird yellow yarn but really it will end up a very cool green.

There is also a two fold plan for both of these projects. I want to wear the coat at the fashion show at SOAR later this year. I want to take the top down sweater to work on while I am at SOAR.

While I am doing all of this spinning I don't plan to neglect my knitting. July is usually sock month. I usually teach knitting socks and this year is no exception. I will be knit three pair this month. A plan vanilla pair which I use for beginner sock knitters. I also plan to knit a pair of sock from the new Knitty. The mermaid, which I have gotten started tonight which is my advanced sock knitter pattern. For my intermediate pair I will be knitting a cable sock. My plan is to have one of each of these done by the 11th so that I will have samples when class starts. That will give me three weeks so get all three second socks done, we will see if that happens.

In the mean time I am also knitting the fair isle hat that is in the current Spin Off. But its take a bit of time because the pattern calls for a size 5 needles and the yarn is bulky, so my hands are a bit soar knit it, but I do love the pattern. I did change one of the colors a bit. My oldest daughter will be attending BSU and I want to make the hat more to her school colors. So the red is now orange. Not the bright hunter orange that BSU is but its as orange as I can stand.

Finally I do need to share with you one more thing. When you join the Tour de Fleece you can join via a wild card group. I was in Team Moneky Fart last year so I decided to stay with it. Now I know you are asking where the heck did that name come from. As you all know I am a member of the Spunky Fiber club. Monkey farts is a colorway of Amy King. (yes Spunkeletic is the same Amy King of the new book Spin Control).
Now on Ravery we all have whats called a ravatar so there is mine for Team Monkey farts

Summer Time goals and plans

2009-06-08T13:08:00.001-07:00

Well I have really wanted to keep up with the blog but it just seems like there is one thing after the other going on around here. Last week my oldest graduated from High School which means we have all kinds of family here. It was a great week and all was fun but I am glad to have everything all quiet again. Our middle daughter is starting summer school tomorrow so we will be busy with all of that for the next couple of months.
Knowing that I would be having a busy summer I decided a few weeks ago to get all UFO's completed. So that pretty much what I have been up to. I have to say its a great feeling to have everything done. I think for about 8 hours I had nothing on needles, wheel, or spindle. Then I did cast on for the Back home in Vermont sweater that can be found in the book, the Natural Knitter. I have also start to spin some lace weight yarn on my Matchless ST, I am using the High whorl. I have 6 ounces and I want to see how much I can get from it. Its a really nice superwash merino. At the same time I am working on getting some fleece carded for Tour de Fleece. I plan to spin again this year. I had so much fun last year that I think this will be a annual thing. This years goal is to spin for two sweaters. One is for a simple top down that I plan to knit while I am at SOAR this next fall. I want to take something that will be easy to knit as the drive to Bend takes about 6 hours and then I know there will be down time to knit. The other is from a fleece I bought for my birthday. My plan for that is to Knit it into an Einstein coat. I will be teaching a class on it in Sept. so I really need to get it all done before that. I will, I promise, pictures as soon as I get some batteries for my camera on all my progress.

Its been like forever!

2009-04-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

It has been like forever sense I posted. What can I say I have been so busy with life I just haven't had the time, and when I did it seemed like one of the girls needed the computer for homework.
So what's been going on? You name it. I am still teaching knitting classes. I am taking time to spin just about every day. My oldest daughter is graduating next month. My other daughters are busy at school.
On a bad note We have a dear friend who has a brain tumor and is not expected to live much longer so we are spending as much time as we can with him. I plan to design a seaman's scarf in his honor, so be on the look out for that.
On a couple of good notes. My oldest daughter will be attending BSU ( Boise State University, yes the one that won the Fiesta Bowl a couple of years ago) She is also going to be in the marching band. She has earned enough grants and scholarships to just about pay for school.
For me I was awarded a scholarship to SOAR this next fall. I am so excited to go its not even funny. I am driving my family nuts with all the plans to be made, which classes to take, what projects I should work on, figuring out how I can save some money up to have at the market, etc. I am planning on doing some things for the fashion show and the gallery.
As far as summer goes we will once again be busy. My middle daughter will be taking summer school so I will have to drive her to have from school every day for the month's of June and July. So I won't be able to attend any fiber shows or retreats which is cool because I'm going to SOAR did I tell you how excited I am about that?
I am planning on attending Snake River Fiber Fair in May, but after that I will be saving all my pennies so that I can take as much as I can to SOAR.

On the knitting front I have been working on this and that. Same with spinning. But I have decided that I need to get myself more together about things. So my plan is to finish spinning up the yarn for a mock cable sweater I have been wanting to knit. For my birthday I ordered a fleece my plan for that is to spin and knit a coat. So look for more to come on that. I plan to spin this during the Tour de Fleece this year. I also have a cardigan that I plan to spin during the tour.
As I said before I will be designing a seaman's scarf to honor a friend of ours. I am also knitting up a scarf that I hope will be in Spin Off. If not its going to my mother for Mother's day. I also plan to knit some socks this summer I'm not sure which ones yet. I was given Cookie A.'s new book for my birthday so I may do one from there. Not sure.
Now that I am going to SOAR, did I tell you how excited I am to be going? I plan to knit, crochet , spin for our state fair. After winning the two big awards last year I wasn't planning on doing anything this year but I could use the prize monies for SOAR. I bet you thought I would tell you how excited I am to be going, well I wasn't I kind of thought it was to much.
So there in a nut shell is whats' been going on around here. I really do plan to try better at updating things. but who know, you will have to check back and see.

Its a regular Zoo around here

2009-02-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

Its been a real zoo around here this past week. We adopted two pets. First Mazy a 5 month old Cocker Spaniel and Hoss the rabbit. Now we did have plans to adopt a dog but the rabbit was an add on. Our much loved dog Tiny died last spring and over the holidays it really came apparent that we needed a new dog. So for the past few weeks I have been visiting the local humane society looking for a new dog. We wanted a smaller sized one that was about a year old. When we saw Mazy we just fell in love.

While we were looking at her an older woman took her info card and was really looking over the information. My husband and I just stood there waiting for her to hang up the card so we could have her. The lady asked me were the age was listed. I showed her and she said she was looking for a dog closer to her age. Well the second she hung up the card we snatched it. By the time we were all done filling out the paper work there were a couple of other families looking at her too. We were told she was crate trained but they weren't sure about house broke. Well she isn't crate trained and she is getting the idea about going potty outside pretty well.

Now for Hoss. Over the Christmas break we baby sat a angora rabbit for a friend of mine. We had so much fun that we thought it might be something to think about for the near future. Well about a week ago a girl friend of mine herd about a breeder that was interested in selling one of her bunnies to a 4H family for a discount. We she called me and then I made the needed calls and we picked up Hoss on Friday.

His original name was Peter as in Peter cotton tale but I have to say he is one big bunny. So much so we are now calling him Hoss. He is 50% German and 50% Satin angora. He is not at full coat yet but I would bet I could get a pound of wool from him right now. Yes he is bigger then Mazy.

So as you can tell we are getting used to our new zoo. The great thing is both have great personalities and have so far fit nicely into our family

Some of my finished UFO's

2009-02-06T16:59:00.001-08:00

Here are a few of my finished UFO's that I did before the New year. These mittens are wool and lined with angora. Yes I did say lined. The pattern can be found in an older Spin off magazine. The hat comes from Mountain colors. I want to make a hat and mitten set that went with my coat.

The cowl pattern comes from the Winter issue of Knitty. The yarn is handspun soysilk

This baby afghan is one of my all time favorites. The pattern comes from a Leisure Arts book called Quick afghan. It takes only 14 ounces of worsted weight yarn. Usually when I make an afghan before I know if its going to be a boy or girl I pick the wrong color. Not this time. They are having a girl.

These are the jaywalker socks made from Noro sock. I have to say I'm not a huge fan of Noro sock yarns. I'm not sure the single ply will hold up to wear. Plus there was some real thin spots and some really thick spots. I am wearing them so we will see how long they hold up.

Where the heck I have been!

2009-02-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

The holidays were a great time here in Idaho. We have a good visit with my mother in law. One the great things this year was the snow. Boy did we have snow. For about 2 weeks it seemed like it snowed everyday. I think we had about 8 inches on the ground on Christmas day. Which I know for some that was nothing but for the Boise area that's a lot of snow. As the year was winding down I decided to finish up all my UFO's. So on Jan 1 I had nothing on needles, hooks or wheel or spindle. I have to say it was a great feeling to have everything all finished up but as the same time I didn't know what to do next.
So what I did was set some goals for the New year. Which I have been working on.
These are my fiber goals
1. Learn to use all the whorls that my Matchless comes with. For those who don't know the Schacht Matchless has 6 different whorls. So far I have 5 . What I want is to be able to spin any size yarn that I want for any given pattern I chose to do. I will talk more about how this goal is going.
2. I want to keep on top of my projects. I don't necessarily want to work on one thing at a time but I do want to keep it under control.
3. I want to do a fleece study.
4. As a Christmas gift I received a subscription to Fondle this Fiber club. Each month I will get in the mail a pattern and the amount of fiber needed to make the project. I want to complete each project before the next one comes.
5. I want to try to make projects from my stash instead of buy either new yarn or fiber when possible.
My life goals are:
1. read through the Bible in 09
2. loose 28 pounds by my birthday, then another 20 by fall. ( so far I have lost 8)
3. become more active.

I have been working on all of these goals and will be reporting on my progress over the next few blog posts and through out the year.

My spinner's challenge

2008-12-19T22:50:00.000-08:00

OK so my spinning group that I have been going to for a couple years decided to do something a bit different. Our usual is to meet once a month and spin. Well in June we had a dye day. Several of us met on a Sunday and dyed 10 pounds of wool. Our goal was to match four different colorways that was featured in a Weaving magazine. I have no idea what issue or when it came out. Then we were to spin it up and make something. Well I am happy to say I am finally finished with of of the 3 colorways that I brought home that day. It took me so long because I had to have a trial separation because when it came to the knitting it got so boring.
The spinning was quite fun. What I did was lay out the color in order and spin a lace weight single. Then I plied it with a mocha brown to dull the colors a bit. Which it did as the light green was a lime color and the orange was really bright. I ended up with some where in the neighborhood of 950 yards.

While I was spinning the yarn an issue of Spin Off came out that had an article about dropped stitch scarfs. Well I really like the pattern and decided to use it for my shawl. I did add more stitches to the cast on (72) and knit until I ran out of yarn. Even though the colors are in order. From dark brown to gold to bright orange, to light orange to lime green to light green. then it repeated and then ended with dark brown. The color changes don't match. One color may have 5 repeats and the match has 3. It does look uniform.

The final size is 16 inches wide and 102 inches long. I think I had about 2 yards of yarn left when all was said and done.

Even though it took me over 6 months to finish this project I am really happy with how it turned out and I can't wait to wear it.

A candy of and Idea

2008-12-18T16:08:00.000-08:00

So I was in a swap for 4 ounces of fiber. I wanted to make it somewhat of a holiday theme, but not quite sure what my partner celebrated I didn't want to make it to Christmasy. So I thought for a few days and one day while shopping I came up with a candy of and idea. I love winter mints, you know the green and white spiral mints. I'm not a huge fan of peppermint I definitely like the green ones better. So after looking at the candies I got to thinking I wonder what would happen if I dyed roving in this pattern.

My first step was to soak the roving in white vinegar and warm water. While that was soaking I mixed up the green dye. It was a mix of kelly green and a bit of lime green to brightness.

Step 2 was to lay out the roving to be painted. Instead of the usual way I coiled it.

Step 3 was to dye. I used a old squirt bottle from when I dyed my hair. Yes I admit it I was away the grey any chance I get. I followed the pattern of the candy.

I then set the dye in the microwave in the usual manner. I don't have a pic of the roving in the final state. What it ended up was a nice mix of green and white. My partner just love the result. So next time you are trying to come up with something new why not look to candy for inspiration.

Christmas is in the air!

2008-12-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

I am to say I am all done with my Christmas knitting and spinning. I must confess I have been done for a few days. Right now I am working on finishing up all my UFO's My plan is to have everything finished up by the end of the year so I can start 09 with fresh projects. I do have some idea of what the project will be but I will save that for later.

What I have been working on are 2 pair of socks, 3 pairs of fingerless mitts, two shawls, and some handspun yarn. My UFO's are a hooded cardigan for my youngest daughter, a shawl that has been in the works sense June and a pair of socks. I will be sewing in the zipper for the cardigan tonight so she can wear it to school tomorrow. The shawl should be done maybe tomorrow if not Saturday, the socks should be done by the end of next week.

One of my Christmas projects this year was a mohair shawl that I knit for my MIL. She is coming for Christmas this year and she doesn't like wool so I thought I would use some bright yellow mohair that I have had in my stash for years and years. As a matter of fact I bought it at a thrift store. Its so old the label says its from Sears!. My MIL love the color lime green so after the shawl was complete with fringe I put it in the dye pot and turned it into a gorgeous lime green. I think she will really love it. My husband is making her a shawl pin to go with it. He is a blacksmith and has been making shawl pin from some antique steel he was given. It came from a Victorian homes fence that was taken down.

Some of the other projects that I did this year was from reclaimed wool. What I did was go to one of my local thrift shops and bought three 100% wool sweaters. I then took them apart and re-knit the yarn. My BIL and his family all like to ski so they asked for ear flap hats. I asked them what their favorite colors were and they all said black. How boring. So I ended up using the same heather black from a reclaimed sweater and added some colors to make them more interesting. I have to say by the time I got to the last hat I was really tired of knitting them. The one with the white stripes is actually glow in the dark yarn. My nephew is a bit of a joker so I thought he would love the glow in the dark stuff.

Another reclaimed yarn project were hunting socks for my father and brother. They both love to go hunting and were asking about warm socks. These were from a free pattern that I found online. If you google Civil War socks you will find the pattern. They worked up really fast as I used size 5 needles.

Out of all the Christmas projects that I did this year This shawl was my favorite. I have a dear friend that is the nicest person I have ever met. She is always so helpful and generous to anyone in need. Every year for our birthdays and Christmas we exchange gifts. I usually give her some fiber or yarn or a spindle. this year I wanted to do some a bit different. Instead of giving her something that she can use to make for someone else I decided to make her a shawl . I love this pattern its called Pi with sleeves. Its from a old issue of Knitters and I have made this a couple of times ans just love the pattern. I used Cascade 220 heather in a sage green. My hubby is also making her a shawl pin to go with it.

natural dyes

2008-11-17T21:42:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share with you my first real try at natural dyeing. At my husband work there are several walnut trees. For the past few years I have collected the nuts and tried to make a dye bath. The first year I forgot to tell one of my daughters that it would not be a good idea to leave the collected nuts in a Walmart bag on the front steps. The next morning the squirrels even took the bag with them. The next year I forgot all about the dye bath that I left in a jug on the back steps. It froze. Well this year I had a plan. First of all I collected about two Walmart bags of nuts still in the hulls. When I brought them home I placed them in a wire cage that we use to carry cavies in. It is like a small rabbit cage that locks, so I was able to let the nuts dry out with out letting the squirrels get to them. Once they were dry. I placed the nuts in a pot of water and boiled them for about a hour. I then let the pot cool for about 24 hours. I had placed the nuts in a stainer so I lifted it out and then put the nuts on the front steps for the squirrels could have them. Which they did.

My next step was to prepare the roving. My plan was to start with dyed roving and then mute the colors with the walnuts. So my starting point was lime green,yellow, orange and bright pink. I used jacquard acid dyes and then wrapped the roving in plastic wrap and then cooked it in the microwave for about 10 minutes.

I was happy with the result. After I let the roving cool I then washed it to get any left over dye out of the roving. I was hoping the walnut dye would tone down the bright colors.

After the roving was dry I then placed it in the dye pot with the cold walnut dye. I then slowly turned up the heat to a steady simmer. I simmered the roving for about a hour to a hour and half. I then let this completely cool, about 24 hours. I then rinsed it and let it dry. This is just about what I had pictured in my head. The one thing I would have liked to see was more of a difference in the pink and orange and the green and yellow.

The Wonders of Fall

2008-10-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the fact that I live in an area that has all four season, although I'm not totally on board with the hot summers. I just love the changing colors, but there is one big draw back with fall. Marching band. My oldest daughter is a senior in her marching band and she just loves it, so as good parents we have volunteered to help out. So for the past few months we have been going crazy with all the football games and competitions. I am happy to say that my daughters band won second place in their division. Which is a huge thing as they didn't have a colorgaurd this year. So at the competition they started out with minus 50 points. They only lost to first place by 10 points so they are really happy with the results.

Because I have been so busy with marching band I just haven't had the time to blog. Now that band is over I have a bit more time on my hands. So I thought I would update you on some of the things I have been working on. I have been knitting and spinning, even at games and while I wait for the band to play at a competition. I am usually seen with some type of project with me.

To start off I have been slowly working on my spindle yarn. In the last post I talked about how I am working on some lace weight for a shawl from some fiber from Wooly Wonka. Its a merino,silk angora blend. Its spinning up really nicely and I do love the way its going even if its slow. I do plan to start on some red wool that I bought on a shopping day last week. A few of my girl friends and I went to see some of the fiber and yarn stores in the area. I have been looking for the perfect red fiber to spin and knit a scarf for a friend of mine. She is one to always stop and admire my knitting. So I thought it would be fun to spin and knit her something for Christmas. At first I didn't think it would be so hard to find the right read. I wanted a real rich blue red. So I was finally able to get just what I wanted and I can't wait to get started. I haven't totally found the perfect pattern yet but I do have a few in mind. I will keep you updated on my progress.

There have been a few things come off the needles in the past few weeks. I have made some socks from the Greensleeves pattern called Foggy Mountain socks. If you ever get the chance to take the spinning for socks class from Elizabeth Dailey then do. I love the pattern and it works up really fast as its a 3 ply sport weight yarn.

I have also knit a baby surprise sweater for a class I taught on it. This next weekend I will show how to add a collar on it but I am really happy with how the hand spun work up. When I was spinning this 2ply I didn't pay attention to color placement so I think its really cool how the colors worked out.

I have also been working on one of my favorite shawl patterns. Its from Knitter fall 2000 its called Pi with sleeves. I have knit this before and just love the looks of it and it wears really nicely too.

I am at the point of the bind off lace edging, then I will add the sleeves. This is also going to be a gift this year. As matter of fact this is the first year I have started on Christmas so early. So here's hoping I will get everything done in time.

Another really fun little project that I made for my youngest daughter what a Amigurumi cheese burger. If you have not try to make one of these little toys I say you should. It was so much fun. I decided to use Sugar and Cream cotton yarn as I had all the colors that where needed. I didn't have a solid yellow so my daughter chose a yellow with little specks of color in it so its pepper jack cheese. Don't you just love the lettuce and the tomatoes?

Well I will stop for now and be looking for more updates to come. I have done some really fun dying that I will share with you.

A new project A new challenge

2008-09-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile its nice to knit something easy and to spin something easy, but every once in a while its really cool to challenge yourself. So here starts one of those challenges.I am entering a contest that runs Sept 1 - Nov 30. Yes that means I am already a month behind. The contest is to spin on a spindle at least 200 yards. If you ply the yarn they is also has to be done on a spindle. The theme of the contest is Calm, soft, variegated but monochrome. I thought this sounded like it would be fun so I went to look through my stash, as I don't have the funds right now to buy some fiber. I was able to find 6 ounces of a angora,merino and silk blend from Wooly Wonka. I belief I picked up last spring at a fiber fair. Anyway I thought this would work our great for soft. The color way is a light lemon yellow with a hint of peach and pink, so I think it will work for calm and monochrome variegated. Because this is such a soft and luxurious fiber I decided that I needed to use a bit classier spindle then my Greensleeves bare bones. So I am using my Jacob Ethan that I also picked up at the same fiber fair. I can't remember what the woods are but it is one of my favorite spindles. Its a very light weight one so it really can only spin lace weight, which of coarse what I am doing. Thus the challenge. I need now get at least 200 yards done by the end of November. My thought it I will have enough to most likely knit a shawl with it. So I looked through my One Skein Wonders books and I figure I will need at least 1000 yards to make a nice sized shawl or wrap. I do know that the latest One skein Wonder book will be out in a couple of weeks so I may find something in there that I like better so we will see. I still plan to try to reach the 1000 yard mark. So far I am really happy with how the single is turning out, because I am spinning it so find I do plan on making it into a 2ply. I will let you know how my progress goes.

Remembering

2008-09-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

I want to take a minute today to stop all the love of all things fiber and Remember today. As I remember that morning, I can't help but think about all those feelings. The feelings of shock, the feelings of sadness, the feelings of fear,the feelings of anger, and the feelings of strength.
The feelings of shock, can this really be happening!
The feelings of sadness, how can all these people be suffering so much.
the feelings of fear, that day, just as it was all happening I had to take my daughters to school. They were so afraid that we in Boise would be next.
The feelings of anger. Anger towards all the people in the middle east cheering the destruction and death in America.
The feelings of strength. Even though this was a terrible event in American history it will not be its end. Even though the people who planed this attack expected us to be destroyed in only made us stronger.
I know no one who either died on Sept. 11 or was hurt that day. Boise is a long way from the events that day, but I am a proud American and when one suffers we all suffer. So today I ask that at some point in your busy day take a moment to remember that even though tough things happen We are American and we are proud.

Now that all it quiet around here HA HA HA

2008-09-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Well school is back in session and the kids are gone during the day, so you would think its quiet around here. Well I'm sure it is as I don't seem to be home to find out. Because of changes at my daughters schools I have to drive them all. It usually takes be about a hour and half in the morning and then anywhere between 1 to 2 hours in the afternoon. The good news is I do have lots of time in the car to knit. As a matter of fact I have a top down sweater going that just stays in the car for me to work on as I wait for someone to get out of school or while I am stopped at a stop light. Which seems to be all of them. So far in the two weeks that I have been driving I have used up two balls of yarn and am on the third. I will post pictures when the sweater is complete. We are all guessing it will be before September is over. As a matter of fact the girls have started a list of sweaters they want me to work on for them.

My car sweater is not the only thing I am working on. I did start the gansey KAL on Sept. 1. So far I am having so much fun with the pattern. Which by the way is Meg Swansen's guernsey pullover from the Wool gathering #76. I am not using a traditional yarn, as a matter of fact its Berocco Ultra Alpaca in a heathery purple. I'm not totally sure if I will have enough yarn so I plan to make it a bit shorter then the 28 inches that Meg did. I also decided not to put my initials as I really don't want to advertise that fact that I am MES. I have also been working on some hand spun hunters mittens for my hubby. I bought some alpaca roving while I was attending a spinning retreat this summer, that is dyed in camo. He just loves the colors and is impatiently waiting for me to get to the knitting.

I haven't been spinning much as I have found a new to me thing. Weaving. I have a couple of friends that have been trying to get me to give spinning a go for about two years now. So I finally gave in. One friend loaned me a Schacht Rigid Heddle loom and the other friend came over last Friday and showed me out to warp it. Well my first try was a bust. I had chosen a alpaca that was not spun real well and it kept braking. So I cut it off the loom and started again. What I did was use Galway as the warp and some of my handspun as the weft. Well it was a learning project. I did learn that I really need to watch the tension when advancing the fabric. I also added floats that I think worked out well.

I have a project in mind for later. I'm not sure I am totally hook with weaving as I am with spinning and knitting but I thought it was fun.

I have been invited to attend a spinning and weaving retreat later this fall. We will be making a vest from swatches and other bits of handspun and fabric. So as I have been gathering goodies for the retreat. One of things on the list of supplies is a Weave -it. For those of you who don't know what that is its a mini loom. I went on ebay to see if I could buy one. Well I could buy an old one for about $30 or I could buy a new one from Hazel Rose for the same price and I got the choice of woods. Mine came yesterday and I have to say I love it. I think I like the mini loom over the rigid heddle. I was able to make a 4 inch square in about 20 minutes. So have added some of the other loom to my Christmas list.

Where has summer gone?

2008-08-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

Where has summer gone? I guess I have been so busy with stuff that I think I just missed it all. I can't believe summer is almost over. My kids start school next week, which is a good thing, and a sad thing. This summer I made a point to spend more time doing things with them instead of the usual. We went to the YMCA a lot to swim and cool off. We went to the Zoo a lot too. Over all I would say we all had a lot fun throughout the summer but its now time to get back to the usual. My oldest daughter starts her senior year. She is really excited about all she has going this year. My middle daughter starts her 8th grade year in the same school but with a new building. My youngest starts the 4th grade in a new school. So this fall brings lots of changes for all of us. For me I have been working for month on fair projects. I have always been pretty successful at the fair but I have never been able to win the top Sweepstakes awards. Last year I won the Needle arts sweepstakes, but not the Grand Sweepstakes. So that has been my goal for the year. Well I am happy to say I did win both the Needle arts and the Grands Sweepstakes.

I have to say it was lots of work and I am not sure I will ever do that again. Towards the end I was beginning to really hate knitting. I know its hard to believe. I think what happened is I just got really tired of working on a deadline. So I think I will change my approach to knitting and all my needlework. I want to slow down and enjoy the projects more. I have a couple that I am planning for the fall that I am really excited about, I will talk about them in a late post.

One of the projects that I did this past year was a shrug that I hand spun for. I have never been able to spin a soft and light 3ply yarn so The was a real treat for me to be successful. I have also never won the best of division in handspun. So it was really nice to be awarded the ribbons for my effort.

One bummer of the fair is that I made a little needlepoint pin cushion that was made with hand spun yarns and it lost to a braid that in my opinion was not worthy of any ribbon. As a matter of fact its falling apart as its displayed. Oh well, you can't have everything.

At the fair I did see a couple of things that have intrigued me to try. Both of them are crochet which is nice as I have not been inspired by crochet for a long time. So I am on the hunt for these patterns so that I can give them a try. I think my mother inlaw would love the lighthouse so I think I will try to make it for her for either Christmas or her birthday. I think I will make the afghan from hand spun.

It seems like forever ago

2008-08-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well it does seem like its been forever ago that I have updated my blog. I do have an excuse. I have been really busy getting ready for the State fair. I have been knitting, spinning, crocheting, needlepointing, and even candlewicking. Last year I won the NeedleArts sweepstakes but not the grand sweepstakes so that has been my goal this year. Well now that I have everything all done. I am at the point where I just don't care anymore. I'm not sure I will even try for it again. By the end of July I really hated knitting. Which is a first for me. I decided that I needed to take a break and just make something for the heck of it. So now I am looking to the future. What will be my future projects, etc.

Also this summer I have been busy doing the mom thing. Taking the kids to the YMCA, helping them with their 4H projects. My oldest daughter went to Mexico on a mission trip. So as you can see I have been busy. One thing that I also did this summer that was totally fun was attending a spinning retreat. I am not a big camper. OK I really hate to camp. I just hate being dirty. Well last week I attended this retreat and boy was it worth all the dirt and cold nights. I had so much fun. I will update you all later on that.

I will also update you on what I plan to enter at the fair next week along with how I did.

But for right now I want to tell you about the Ravelympics. I did spin for the Tour de Fleece, which was a lot of fun, so I decided to join in on the Ravelympics. I have entered two categories. the Handspun heptathlon and the shawl relay. My local knitting guild is hosting a party tomorrow night at the local yarn store. We are calling it a cast on party. We plan to have a dessert pot luck and watch the opening ceremonies and cast on for a shawl. The original idea was to cast on a shawl from the book Folk Shawls. Which was what I was planning on doing, until. Until I couldn't decided what yarn to use for what shawl. So I am doing something different. My spinning group had a dye day back in June. We dyed roving from 4 different colorways that were shown in the fall issue of Handwoven. I fell in love with the fall colorway, which are not my usually colors. I really like jeweltones normally. Well we ended up with about 1 to 2 ounces of 6 different colors in the colorway. So what I did was spin them in order. Starting with dark brown, gold, orange, and green, then repeated until all the samples were spun up. I then plied the single with a chocolate brown single to tone down the colors a bit. My plan is to make the scarf on the cover of the current Spin Off. I plan to cast on more for a shawl. I ended up with 942 yards of a sport/ fingering weight yarn. So I think I will have plenty to make a wrap/shawl.

For my spinning project I have 3 pounds of a dark chocolate wool that I believe is Cooridale but I'm not totally sure. I bought it a few years back at a fiber fair and the receipt says top so I'm not 100% sure. Anyway its looks wonderful and is soft enough for a sweater, which is the ultimate plan. I want to use the yarn to knit the Back to Vermont Sweater that is in the book Nature Knitter.

So as you can see I will be once again a busy little beaver for the next couple of weeks. I am also working on some yarn on the spindle for some mits and I do have a pair of monkey socks going using yarn that I dyed as sock blanks. I will show you more as I get them going.

Hush-Hush Handspun Hootenanny Questionnaire

2008-06-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

1. How long have you been spinning? What skill level do you consider yourself? I have been spining for about 7 years. I would say I am intermediate with leanings to advanced
2. What kinds of yarn do you create (singles/2-ply/3-ply/art yarn)? Well I would have to say all of the above. I usually do 2 plys but I also do 3plys and art yarn often.
3. What do you spin with (spindle/wheel/both)? both
4. What are your favorite fibers to spin with? Anything you don't like? wool is my favorite but I also like exotics. I really hate cotton even though I can spin it.
5. Who are your favorite fiber sources (etsy or otherwise)? Spunky Fibers
6. What kind of fiber do you want to try? boy I don't know I have tried quite a few. I always love to try new rare breeds of wool.
7. Is there any techniques you would like to learn? not that I can think of at the moment
8. Do you dye fiber? If not, would you like to learn? yes
9. Do you have fiber prep tools (and like to use them) or would you prefer ready to spin fiber?I do have the tools but I would much rather have ready to go fibers, so that I can get to spinning as fast as possible.
10. What do you do with your handspun? What projects have you completed? Knitting and crochet. I don't know how to weave yet. I have finished quite a few as you can see on my blog
11. Are you in need of any spinning gadgets (WPI Gauge, threading hook, etc)?I love a good new gadget
12. What colors "fall into your shopping basket"? Greens and purples or jeweltones and naturals are neat too. Any colors you just can't stand? pastels
13. What is on your wheel/spindle right now? Last month's Spunky fiber club.
14. What other crafts/hobbies do you have?Knitting, crochet, tatting, needlepoint
15. Other than crafts, what are you passionate about? My day job is a Needlearts teacher so I will say I am passionate about all the needlearts
16. Do you have an online wishlist? no
17. Is there anything that you collect?Sheep
18. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What magazine subscriptions do you have? I can't think of any books that I don't already have. I subscribe to Spin Off
19. When is your birthday? April 26
20. What book or movie character do you most resemble in personality? I would have to say Abbott and Costello
21. What is the climate like where you live around this time (need to know for careful shipments of anything meltable)? Right now its realllllllly hot. Boise is actually in a high desert so we will have hotter temps through Sept and maybe Oct.
22. Tell us one weird fact about yourself! I am a huge Seattle Mariners fan. Yea I know but to be a Mariners fan you have be dedicated
Favorites
favorite painting/picture(link): can't think of one
Candy: Sugar free Dark Chocolate
Food: this time of year Fruit
Drink: Decaf sugar free moca
Movie(s): I love a good old musical comedy from the 30's and 40's
TV Show(s): Chuck, Heros
Book(s): mysteries
Guilty Pleasure(s): Dark Chocolate

I'm DEAD!

2008-06-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

I'm dead! Yes I died today. What the heck am I talking about? Sock wars 3. I received a really nice pair of sock today that signed my death warrant. I must confess that I am not sad at all. I have been so busy with school getting out, dyeing days, knitting for the fair that I just have not been able to really sit and knit as much as I would like on the socks for the war. So I will be heading to the post office tomorrow and send my started socks to the knitter who killed me so she can set her sights on her next victim. Thanks Taija for the a wonderful pair of socks. By the way the yarn is Tofutsies and the colors are pinks and purples.

From this to this

2008-05-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

I was able to sit down and finish up some spinning today. So I went from this to this. I really love how the colors blended. I don't as a rule try to keep the colors together. I like the barber pole effect. Because some of the dye areas are quite large so there is some areas that the colors blend with the same which is OK. I ended up with about 490 yards from the 8 ounces of roving and its about a DK to sport weight yarn. I wish you could feel how soft this yarn is. Over the past few months my spinning has really gotten soft and much better plied. I have no idea what I am going to knit with this but it sure is pretty.

Every now and again a deal comes your way

2008-05-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

So I had a few minutes this morning, so I stopped at a local antique mall. I have been looking for a couple of things. 1. a really cool jar to hold my spindles. I was able to find an old mason jar with no lid for a 3 dollars. I am also looking for wine bottle holders. You know the ones that look like a tall skinny hat box. I plan to use them for when I give spindles as gifts. No such luck on that front so far. I have looked everywhere. But while I was looking around at all the neat stuff I found these two knitting books. I have been wanting a WWII knitting book for a long time but am to cheap to pay ebay prices. I was in luck I found this one for again 3 bucks. I also picked up a sock book too again for 3 bucks. So its true every now and again a deal dones come your way.

Whatcha working on now

2008-05-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been working on samples for either a yarn company that I do some things for or for the shop I work at. I can't show you the things for the yarn company because they want them for a coming show and I don't want to spoil the surprise. I will show you some roving that I am spinning for the shop I work at. This is called Neapolitan as if you couldn't tell. The fiber is Blue face and yes its spinning up like a dream. I hope to have it all spun and in the shop by Thursday.

The next thing I am working on is an afghan. The pattern is such a simple one and its from am old Red Heart booklet. The pattern calls for a size 13 needle and two strands of worsted weight yarn held together. I chose Cascade Ecco wool in a deep purple and am using a size 10 1/2. I love how this is turning out , I can't wait to use it this fall on my couch as I read a good book.

I know its just spring and summer is just around the corner, but it gets really hot here in Idaho and I really hate the heat so I am already looking forward to cooler temps.

The other knitting project that I am working on is a pair of Monkey socks from the famous Cookie A. pattern. I am using some 50/50 merino angora sock yarn that I was given on my birthday. I was given the yarn in a kit and I really like the pattern in the kit but I started the sock on my trip to Idaho falls and I wanted an easy pattern to work up. One that I didn't need to refer to my pattern all the time. I have the monkey memorized so its has become my travel project.

Spindling for socks -class?

2008-05-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

OK so you all know I love spinning on my Matchless wheel. So why in the world would I want to take a class on spindle spinning? Well I'm not totally sure but I really did enjoy it. For a while now I have been thinking that I really need to improve my spindling skills. So I signed up for the class. Now I know from experience that if you want to buy a spindle you have to get there early for best selection. That is exactly what I did. So before classes even started I was at the Greensleeves booth. As I was looking all the spindles over I did see one that I thought was really cool but I wasn't quick enough and another collector grabbed it first. As a matter of fact she got about 5 or 6 before I even had a chance to look at them all. Now that she had her selections made she helped me pick one for myself. I ended up with an Ethan Jacob. I am in no way disappointed I really love the look of this spindle. I love the cup shape and the dark woods. I forgot to ask what they were so next time I see her I will ask. The spindling for sock class was not until the next morning so I had to wait until I had more time to test my new spindle. Yes that was the first thing I did in my motel room that night. I am in love.

So the next morning in the class we were given a kit, of roving ( color of our choice) three spindles ( her bare bones) and a pattern. We were given the option to buy the spindles at a discount after class. Like one of the other students I had to buy them because I became attached. I chose a dark grey for my roving. During the class time ( about four hours) I was able to spin and then ply a 3 ply sport. I think I ended up spinning about 20 yards in class.

When I got home from my trip I divided up the remaining roving into three equal balls and then got to the fun part. I spun it all up. I did cheat a bit. After all three spindles where full I then used my ball winder and took the single off the spindles and then using my wheel plied them together. I ended up with about 230 yards. I am real hopeful that I will have enough yarn to complete the socks. Elizabeth said her socks weighted only 3 ounces and her foot looked a bit larger then mine so I am hopeful. I have to finish up a couple of other knitting projects before I can get started on the socks. I plan to have them done by the end of July. I will be attending a retreat that Elizabeth with be at and I want to have the socks with me.

Back from Snake River Fiber Festival

2008-05-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

May 16-18 what the date for this years Snake River Fiber Festival. I was again able to go with a girl friend and her brother. As you may have read in previous posts we have been having a bit of a rough time of it lately. The Monday before I was scheduled to leave my father in law passed away. So my husband was with his family during this time. He was able to get there before he passed and he stayed about a week after helping his mother make plans. So by the time it was time to leave for Idaho falls I was a bit shell shocked with all that had been going on. I just about didn't go but my three daughters talked me into going. I have to say I am really glad I did. One of my daughters said it was good because I left looking worn out and came home with a smile.

I took three classes while I was there. The first was on spinning for self striping yarns. I really enjoyed this class as I learn a lot about using a color wheel, which is an area that I am a bit weak in. My second class was on spindling for socks, this class was taught by Elizabeth Daily the maker of Greensleeves spindles. All I can say is I am totally hooked. I will talk a bit more about that class in a later post. My last class was a bit of a disappointment. It was on spinning bamboo and other plant fibers. Well I was disappointed because we weren't really taught anything. the teacher talked about what the fibers where made from and then told us to spin them. no helpful hints or anything were given. It was a fun afternoon just spinning and chatting but I didn't think I really learned anything.

Between classes I was able to pick up a few things to add to my stash. When I go to a fair I usually have a list of things that I want to pick up for future projects. I usually do that on the first day and then on the second I go back and pick up whatever stuck in my mind that evening. Well when I was showing my husband what all I picked up the first thing he said was "Wow we have been on a downer". Just about everything I bought in the way of roving was glittery.

I also picked up some wonderful fiber from Wooly Wonka. This is merino,silk and angora, its not my usually colors but I just fell in love with them.

Lastly I picked up some Ashland Bay roving in a colorway called Northern lights. I plan to crochet a shawl from this. I may even add some glittery threads as I spin we will see.

I did pick up a few spindles too but I will talk about them in a later post. All in all it was a very fun weekend and it was really nice to get out of town and not have to think about all the stuff that has been going on with our family.

sock a manic swap

2008-05-15T07:12:00.000-07:00

Thank you Jean. I lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve the sock yarn. I have been hearing about how wonderful Dream in color smooshy is, but I have never toughed it.So this was a real treat. I can't wait to knit with it. I love the colorway too. I would have been thrilled if in the box was just the yarn but no there was so much more. The chocolate was a great hit with my girls and I. Hubby is out of town with a family matter,so he didn't get any. I love the teas and the knitting goodies rubber stamps and note pad and pencil. I have had a pretty crummy month or so and I have say this was such a nice pick me up. Again thanks so much.

I'm not lost - just been a lot going on

2008-05-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

I'm not lost, we have had a lot going on around here. We have had several deaths in the family and a couple of our friends. So I have been tied up with all of that. I have been knitting and spinning so. As a matter of fact I have just about all of all of my UFOs finished up. The must have cardigan fits just perfectly. I have also been working on some little things. First was a pair of wool socks for my hubby. They are thick ones that he will use for hunting. The pattern is a Civil war pattern that you can google to get the pattern. I used some wool that I had in my stash and I think it was size 5 needles which means they knit up really fast.

Our family are Civil war volunteers. We had a big event on May 1-3. We have an encampment and on Thursday and Friday we have about 2700 5th graders come through and there are 18 stations that they can learn something about the Civil War. My hubby is a blacksmith and I talk about spinning and knitting during the war. This year on Saturday the ladies of the group were able to fire the Napoleon cannon. I have to say its was a total blast. Yes pun intended. I was able to ram rod it twice, which means to push the charge down the barrel. I was able to set the charge, which means to put the charge in the barrel. I was also able to pull the pin which means I got to fire it. It was a tiring time but it was also so much fun. I can't wait for next year to add more information to my display,and maybe fire the cannon again.

On the spinning front I am getting ready to attend the Snake River Fiver Festival again. Its this weekend and I am planning on taking three classes. The first is called Spin your own stripes. I will be making self striping yarn with colored rovings not dyes. I can't wait to see how this it done. The second class in spindling for socks. This class it taught by the maker of Greensleeves spindles and I'm looking forward to improving my skills on the spindle. The last class I am taking is from the author of Spin to Knit. I will be learning to spin cellulose fibers. Which are bamboo, nettle, soy silk, etc. I am also looking forward to adding to the stash a bit. It seems like I have not added to it for a while. I will let you know how it goes.

The last thing I wan to talk about it a chemo hat that I just finished. My husband has a co-worker that is beginning to under go some cancer treatments. So I was asked to knit a hat. Well after some thought I came up with some Lion Brand organic cotton that was in my stash and knit a simple hat. I really like the feel of this cotton,which I have to say I don't usually like to work with, but I think it turned out nicely.

March socks

2008-03-27T23:41:00.000-07:00

I have been sick for the last week or so with what was just a little cold. But I just couldn't seem to get out of bed all last week. I have never had a cold that made me so tired. Needless to say I really didn't get a whole lot of knitting done. I have been working on a pair of sock all month, which for me is really rare that it takes that long to get a pair done. I wanted to make a pair of green socks for spring. I spun this merino a few months back. I got the roving from Spunky fibers. It was one of the roving of the month ones. I'm not sure when I got it but I really loved the way it spun up. I found the perfect spring pattern. Its comes from the current issue of Piecework (March/April 2008). This Nancy Bush pattern was inspired by Leili Reimann's Pitsilised Koekirjad ( knitted Lace) book. The pattern is called Wishbone and it was so much fun to knit up and I think it works just great with my handspun

Must have cardigan

2008-03-17T14:59:00.000-07:00

I have also been knitting as I have been working through the spinning for the gansey. I have been working on the Must have cardigan that the Yarn Harlot talked about a couple of weeks ago. I have the fronts and the back done. I did change the pattern a bit by three needles binding off instead of just binding them off and then sewing them together. So now I on to the sleeves. I always knit them at that same time that way if there is a mistake on the increasing it will be at the same place on each of the sleeves. I am hoping to have it all done by the end of this week, but we will see. I am also working on the sock pattern by Nancy Bush that is in the current issue of Pieceworks. If you have not seen these socks then its worth checking out. I am using some of my hand spun from Spunky fibers. Speaking of Spunky fibers I also spun up 2 ounces of a merino tencil roving that she calls Aspen. I ended up with 128 yards of a fingering 2ply. I have no idea what I am going to knit with it but if has such a wonderful feel to it. I'm thinking a narrow scarf with a lace leaf pattern would work up just wonderfully.

My big spinning project for 2008

2008-03-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

My husband and I were talking earlier today about my spinning and knitting. I think I am becoming a spinner who knits instead of a knitter who spins. In other words I am now more likely to buy roving instead of yarn. I still like knitting and am always working on something. But I do think about spinning projects more. For the past few years I pick a big project to work on. It has been something that I would spin for then knit. Last year I dyed some roving and made a top down sweater. A couple of years ago I washed, carded then spun for a sweater. Well this year I wanted to kick it up a bit. This year I am working on spinning for a gansey. I bought 3 pounds of roving from a friend of mine. Its from Kramer yarns and the colorway is spice. I plan to knit the White gansey from Beth Brown-Reinsel's book Knitting Ganseys. Well for my size I need 2100 yards of a sport weight yarn. Which seems like a huge amount, but I was confident that I could spin that much with the three pounds. So I looked up what I needed for WPI. I found a web site online that said I needed 14 wpi. So I started out on my first three balls of roving. Well once I got all of it spun and then plied I ended up with only 388 yards. Oh boy was I way off. It was 14 wpi but there was no way I would have enought roving to spin the sweater. So after lots and lots of thought. I decided to do some more research and found that I really needed to get 18 wpi for a sport. I really wanted to spin a 3 ply as I really like the look of the yarn better. So I went and got a 4 ounce ball of the same type of roving. I really need to at some point buy a spinners control card. So I looked around the web and found one for 15 with shipping. Well I am a bit of a cheap skate so I decided to find a 3 ply sport yarn and use that as a guide. I found a ball of Bernat sport at the local Micheals. while I was there I was caught buying crappy yarn by a student of mine so I had to explain why I was buying the yarn.
Oh well. When I got home I got to work. I divided my roving into thirds and got to spinning. When I got the spinning and plying all done I ended up with a 18 wpi sport weight with the feel that I like but it only came out with 197 yards. So I am still about 40 yards short of what I should have for 4 ounces. So with what I have left of the spice roving (9 4 oz. balls) I will be about 327 yards short. So what I think I will do now is get started again on the spice roving and try to make the singles a bit thinner and see what I end up with. If I have to add in some of the stuff I first spun I will. Think I will add the thicker stuff at the cuffs and the bottom ribbing and the neck edge. So my question for you all is, have you knit the white gansey? Did it take as much yarn as the pattern calls for and how did it turn out for you? Have you spun a 3 ply sport and what was the yardage that you came up with?

I must be totally crazy!

2008-02-28T17:41:00.000-08:00

OK so mark it down. I have totally gone crazy! Last week while I was reading the Yarn Harlots blog, I saw the Must have Cardigan. Well I just fell in love with the pattern. So I thought I really need to make it . Now here is where the crazy part comes in. I decided to knit this cardigan in black. I have ten balls of Galway in black that I had planned another sweater that I am using. I have so far completed one and half repeats on the back. The pattern comes from the Plymouth book called Street Smart and it really is called the Must Have Cardigan. The pattern is only sized to a 41 on a size 7 needle so what I did was go up a needle size to an 8 and now its going to be a 44 chest, which is what I will need. I also plan to make it a bit longer too. Even though I'm working with black so far I'm not having to much trouble seeing the stitches. I have to say it is so much fun to knit.

Big Bag Swap info

2008-02-25T14:02:00.000-08:00

Below are my answers to the Big Bag Swap. If you are looking for a neat little swap then check out http://bigbagkalswap.blogspot.com I know that they are still taking sign ups. The idea of this swap is to knit the big bag ( a free pattern that knits up really fast) then fill it with goodies for your partner.

Do you knit, crochet, or do both? For how long? I have been crocheting for 20 years, Knitting for 10
What other crafts do you do, if any? Hand spinning is my favorite "other craft" but I also tat and do some needlepoint
What are your favorite colors? greens and purples Colors you loathe? Pastels and orange, yellow
Favorite yarn brands? for felting Lopi and Lopi light Fiber types? wool Yarn you can't stand? acrylics
What is your favorite type of item to knit/crochet? socks, sweaters really all kinds of stuff
What kind of needles do you like? (i.e. circular, straight, metal, bamboo, etc.) I only use Dps for socks and circular for everything else. I have an allergy to metal so my favorites are the old Susan bates nylon but they aren't made anymore. I really like the feel of Knit Picks harmony needles but so far I only have size 1 dps
Any knitting tools you lack but crave? Knit Picks harmony needles
Patterns you've been dying to get but haven't yet? not really
Do you drink coffee, tea, cocoa? Flavors you love/hate? I love sugar free decaf coffee
Favorite sweets & snacks? Dark Chocolate
Any pets, kids, spouses? Spouses that act like pets or kids? (j/k) One spouse, three daughters ages 17,13 and 9
Favorite things to knit/crochet for the above, if applicable?
What kinds of books do you like to read? Favorite authors or genres? mysteries
Do you collect anything? (besides yarn! LOL!) sheep stuff
What, if any, are your non-craft related hobbies? I love to watch an old cheezy western, Roy Rogers, etc.
Scents you adore?Lavender Scents that make you gag? vanilla or fruity
What is your idea of a relaxing time? quiet afternoon either knitting or spinning
Oh yeah, are you on Ravelry and if so, care to share your Ravelry ID? yarnsnthreads

Can you spin a bulky yarn?

2008-02-20T09:08:00.000-08:00

When you first become a spinner its really easy to spin a think and thin yarn. Once you get more practice in then you can spin a bulky. Well once you have spun for awhile it become easy to spin a sock yarn or as some would call it frog hair. The real hard part is to spin a bulky yarn once you get to the frog hair stage. So this past weekend I attended a Spin In. My goal for the day, besides adding to the stash, I wanted to spin a bulky. Now that may sound like it would be easy. Well it was and it wasn't. I really had to think about what I was doing. But I am happy with the result. This is a hand painted roving that I got from Spunky fiber club about a year ago. Its called Down under. I ended up with about 140 yards in this 4 ounce ball of roving its also very soft which I'm real happy about. Next I want to spin a worsted weight yarn. I have a project planned that I will need 800 yards for a pound of roving.

Color work...What fun

2008-02-20T08:57:00.000-08:00

Ok so I recently joined a group on ravelry,called New Project Knit Swap group. Well this was my first kit. What the idea of this swap is to send your partner eveything that they would need to knit a project. Yarn, needles and the pattern. Well I loved this kit. I have seen the Knit Picks harmony needles but have never held them in my hands or knit with them. Well I'm in love. They are so smooth plus they are really pretty to look at . The yarn is knit picks palette in purple and mint. Now when I saw the colors in the balls I wasn't so sure they would look all the great together but as you can see the mitts look just great. I had so much fun knitting these that I think Iwill make some for Christmas gifts this next year. By the way you can find this free pattern by doing a search for endpapers mitts.

Well you know how the best laid plans can go

2008-02-15T18:50:00.000-08:00

When it comes to knitting sometimes things can go so wrong is so many ways and so quickly too. I have been working on a top down cable sweater for a while now. I have had to put it down to finish up some Christmas gifts, store samples and other goodies. Well today I was finally able to get back to it. As I was looking it over to find out where I am in the pattern. I got to looking at it and thought humm the collar really looks tall. So I did what any smart person would do. Which is something I don't always do, heck I rarely do. I put the whole thing on a life line and slipped it over my neck. Well if I was a giraffe I was in good shape. Now I wouldn't say I'm neckless either but there was no way I could wear this sweater and not feel like I was recovering from wiplash. So out it will come. I'm not sure what I plan to do with the yarn. I would still like to knit a very classic looking black sweater. That way in about 10 to 15 years when I want a black sweater I will have one already, because I know by then I won't be able to see well enought to knit with black. Oh the pains of getting older. I have been looking at the must have cardigan in the Patons book booklet called Street Smart. I first saw this pattern on the Yarn Harlot's blog earlier this week and am leaning towards knitting it with the black yarn. Yea I know I'm crazy but what else is new.

Favorite yarns and spring knitting

2008-02-14T15:45:00.001-08:00

Even though its still the middle of February this week it as being acting a lot like spring around here, so its got me to thinking about what I would like to knit for spring. Now I know Idaho weather can change on a dime. We could have a foot of snow next week, but I am hopeful just the same. As you may remember this year I have been working on things that I can show at the state fair later this year, so with that in mind I have been thinking of my big spinning and knitting project. What I would like to do this year is spin the yarn to knit a gansey. I have 3 pounds of roving in a spice color and I think I have a pattern picked that will work with the roving. So next week I plan to get started on the spinning while I finish up a top down cabled sweater that I have been working on. I think I will have the cabled sweater finished when the yarn is ready for the gansey. I plan on making a three ply that is about a Dk weight. So look for pic to come.

Every time I get asked about what is your favorite yarn, I first say it all depends on what I'm working on. I have say first and for most I really do love to knit with my handspun. With each new skein my spinning gets better and better. But when it comes to store yarn I do have a list.
For discloths I really think there is nothing better then Sugar and Cream http://www.sugarncream.com/ it has a great feel and the colors are just great.
Now when it come to socks I can't pick just one. I really like plymouth Happy feet
http://www.plymouthyarn.com/index.php?nav=cYarn.yarnDetail&yarnid=000284&searchcollection=000005&pattern_id=001887#pattern-tab

I also really like Araucania multi sock yarn, for that matter I really like the worsted and the chunky too.
www.araucaniayarns.com
I also like Mountain colors bearfoot
http://www.mountaincolors.com
and Jitter bug
www.colinette.com
Each one of these sock yarns have a great feel and I just love the colors. I also have in my stash some socks that rock and some of the new sock yarn from Berroco. I haven't knit with either of them yet so I'm not sure how they will work out, I'm sure they will be great.
When it comes to a DK weight in my opinion there is nothing better then Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool. http://www.yarnbarn.com/yarn/colorcard.asp?partNo=KY-ELV-SILKY. I love the colors and its feel. Its just a wonderful yarn.

When it comes to a worsted weight yarn I really love Plymouth's Galway. This yarn is soft enought to knit a sweater with and not feel scatchy. I can feel the tags on a Tshirt so I know about scatchy. It also felts wonderfully,even the white. http://www.plymouthyarn.com/index.php?nav=cYarn.yarnDetail&yarnid=000110&searchcollection=000005

When it comes to a bulky I really love Cascade's Eco wool. The yardage is huge 487 for about 15 bucks. Its really soft and knit up wonderfully.http://www.cascadeyarns.com/cascade-eco.asp

Now every once in awhile a person needs a special yarn so I would have to say my fav in that area is Silk purse from Alchemy yarns. www.alchemyyarns.com . Really anything from Alchemy is totally cool. I have worked with just about all her yarns and I just love them. I have no idea how she comes up with such great colors but I really glad she does.

Lastly a new one that I have really like has been plymouth's Suri Merino. I have been looking at this yarn for almost a year at my LYS and I finally pick up some and I just love the feel. I chose a dark plum and I think it will work up just great. http://www.plymouthyarn.com/index.php?nav=cYarn.yarnDetail&yarnid=000183&searchcollection=000012

SO for now these are my favorite yarns but I do have to confess I may not stay true to them as it seem that there is always a new yarn to try out that has just arrived at the LYS.

Valentie's Day

2008-02-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

OK so I really couldn't let Valentine's Day go by with out a little comment. First of all I really can't think of a favorite Valentine's day from my past. What I do remember is the neat thing my Dad did for all the years I can remember before I was married. He would always buy me a box of chocolate and give me a card. Which might not seem like a big deal but when you are 15 and have no boyfriends or even a hopes for one it was nice to know you are loved. Well I am happy to say that my husband has conitued this tradition. Each year he buys some candy and usually a stuff animal for each of my daughters. This year was no execption. It was really special, because out 17 and 13 years were so trilled that they took their stuff animals to school to show them off. There are not to many teenage girls that are that proud of their Dad's that they would tell their friends about it.

Can these socks be yours?

2008-02-14T14:58:00.000-08:00

Finally! I have my socks for my sock it to me twice partner finished. It seem that every time I sat down to knit on these sock it seem that something would come up. The pattern is one of my all time favorites. Its called little arrowhead lace socks by Nancy Bush. It can be found at her web site. www.woolywest.com. The yarn is plymouth happy feet, the color way is #12.

Gotta love a great swap partner

2008-02-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

You know there is nothing better then coming home from a long day at work to find a box waiting for you. Its even better if you get a box from a swap partner. The reason its so great is; one, I didn't pay for the contents and second I have no idea what could be inside. A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a knitting kit swap on Ravelry. The Idea is to send your partner everything they will need to knit up a project. The needles, yarn and pattern. The box I got today was totally cool. Andrea Higdon sent me a knitting kit that included two balls of Knit Pick's Palette in purple and mint, a set of Knit Picks' new wooden DPS and a pattern for color work mitts. Now I'm not totally sure how she knew but I have been wanting to try these needles. I have to be really careful what needles I use as I have an allergy to metal so I have been using wood ones or nylon when I can find them. As you can see on my blog I really love the color green and for the past 6 months or so I have really been getting into purple so this was just great. I need to finish up a couple of other projects so I can get started on these. Thanks Andrea!

Its been a spinning winter here in Idaho

2008-02-08T13:13:00.000-08:00

I have lived in the Boise area for about 22 years now and this winter is one for the records. We have had more snow that I can ever remember. Of course I grew up in southern Oregon were snow was a rarity. One year, as a matter of fact I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, it was 20 below for a week or so, but we still didn't have the snow like this year. Sense Oct 1 we have gotten about 30 inches our normal is about 14. So its been awesome spinning weather. There is nothing better then sitting in a warm home spinning and watching the snow fall. Needless to say I have been doing a lot of spinning.

**** Comercial Alert***********
This first skein of yarn is a great Romney batt that was processed by Pat Anderson, She sells a 1 ounce batt for just $3.00. I'm not sure what all she carries but I can tell you I have some Lincoln in waiting. I don't usually like to spin from a batt but I have to tell you that its the cleanest I have ever seen. There was no VM in it. This Skein is a three ply that I spun from three different batts I think I have close to 200 yarnds. If you would like to give a batt or two a try you can email Pat at patseylanderson@SBCglobal.net. I really like to support small home grown businesses. By the way she is in the San Diego area of CA where lots and lots of small farmers have lost so much this past year with fires and now heavy rains.

This skein of yarn is three colors of Gotland. If you have never felt this fiber then you are in for a real treat. I purchased this roving from ebay to just try it out. This was before the latest issue of Spin Off came out. (there is a really informative article about the Gotland sheep and its history). Because I had three differnt colors of grey,Gotland only comes in shades of grays, I decided to spin something a bit different. What I did was to divide each of the rovings in half and then spin the light, then the medium and finally the dark. I did this on two bobbins. I then plyed them together so that for the most part the dark stayed with the dark, the medium with the medium and the light with the light. I spun this in a light weight. My thought is to knit a scarf that starts our light and moves to the dark. I haven't looked for a pattern yet so I'm not sure if it will turn out or not.

Now this was I spun just because. With all the snow and the gloom of this winter I wanted to spin something cheery. I have no idea what the fiber content is. I do know that there is some wool, and glitter and maybe some mohair too. Its kind of hard to see but there is one strand of lavender with glitter and one strand of blue/green with glitter.

Two weekends ago I took a class on wool combing. I have never tried to use wool combs and I found them to be much easier then I thought they would be. As a matter of fact I am thinking of buying a set. One of the neat things about the class was I got to try out all kinds of different combs. So when I do decided to buy a set I have a better idea of what I want. Durning the class the teacher also showed us a couple of different ways to wash fleece.( which I will demonstrate in a later blog)So I had to give both methods a try. Instead of washing a hand full of fleece we washed them by the locks. Well when the class was over there was quite a bit of washed lock waiting for a good home. Which of course I had to make sure they got one. The fiber is Polworth ( love it) I wish I had some of the fleece before it was washed. It was really yellow from the lanolin. Polworth is known for its bright whiteness. The lenght of the fiber is around 3 1/2 to 4 inches. So when I got home I don't have any combs so what I did with each lock was to use one of my cotton cards and flick card it. I would nomally use a really good dog comb that I have but it was not were to be found, so the cotton card worked great. I wanted to spin this into a lace weight yarn so that I could knit a pair of lacey fingerless gloves. I plan to use a pattern out of the New Once skein Designer book. I need to have about 225 yards to for the gloves. Well I ended up with about 300 yards.

Lastly, Its angora month. As I have talked about one of my goals for the year is to spin a different fiber each month. I chose angora for the month of February. Yes I know this skein is really small, well spinning angora was a bit harder then I remembered it. I did finish it like Judith Mackenzie McCuin talks about in her book Teach yourself Visiually Hand Spinning. Its where you lightly felt the yarn to even it all out and set the twist. It did work out well but I do have to say my spinning does need to improve. So my question to you is... What is your best way to spin angora? I plan to do a bit of reading and rethinking the angora and giving it a try either later this winter or next fall when the temps cool down. I don't really want to spin angora when its really hot outside.

So you might be asking your self does she ever sleep? Or what is she going to do next? Yes I do sleep, and I am planning to spin some burgundy roving that I picked up last summer in Salt Lake to make a pair of Cookie A socks. I'm not sure wich pattern I will knit, I'm going to wait and see how many yards I spin up first. I would like to knit some knee highs so I will defently need more than the usual amount for socks.

a little crochet too

2008-02-06T17:19:00.000-08:00

This is my all time favorite baby afghan to crochet. I can't even tell you how many I have made over the years, but I can tell you that the book it comes out of it beginning to look a bit worn. One of the reasons I like this afghan so much is it only takes 14 ounces of worsted weight yarn and you use a size K hooks. So it works up really fast. Over the past couple of years I have been buying the Caron 1 pounders for it. This ones is mint green. I do know that its for a boy but the mother hates the color blue so green was the request. By the way the pattern comes from the book Quick and Cozy Afghans.

Racing Russets first stop

2008-02-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

Here is the loot from the first stop of the racing russets group. One of the Yahoo groups that I am on (love2knitdishcloths) is doing a contest were groups of knitters each get a box with two balls of cotton yart a knitted dishcloth and then some other small goodies. Well I in the Idaho group called the racing russets. I was the first stop. The gal (Tami) sent me a beautifully knit green dishcloth some great stitch markers and some chocolate that my daughters have already eatend. She also sent me two balls of cotton yarn. I am to knit a cloth from the yarn and sent it to the next gal in our group. I'm not sure how many groups are playing along but the first group to get through the group and then back to the starting point wins a prize so I think we are off to a great start. I plan to have mine part done tonight and in the mail in the morning. So I better get to knitting.

Hemlock afghan

2008-01-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

OK so when I saw this pattern on Ravelry a few month's back I just fell in love with it. The pattern comes from a 1942 knitted doily. Well someone, OK a lot of someones knit this using Cascade Ecological wool and size 10 needles. I think there is even a yahoo group working on this. I used the same yarn and size needles. It ends up being about 49 inches across so its more of a lap afghan then anything. The pattern does tell you how to make it larger, but I decided to knit it the size I first saw so that I could tell how big it was. I am planning on teaching a class on this afghan in March so I wanted my students to see what size it would come out as. I do think the next time I make this I will make it larger.

Angora Mits

2008-01-21T22:14:00.000-08:00

OK so I don't usually do a commercials on my blog, but today I am. I have a dear friend that is like a sister to me and we exchange gifts on Christmas and our birthdays. I have to confess that I look forward to her gifts the most. She has a way of out doing herself each year. This year was no exception. One of the wonderful gifts is what I'm going to talk about. These fingerless gloves are a kit. The yarn is 85 % German angora and 15% merino wool. The pattern and the yarn come from http://www.bungalowfarm.com . The kit cost is just $20. You can't buy a ball of angora yarn for $20 and you get the wonderful pattern too. Which by the way was very easy to knit and they fit my hands just perfectly which is great as its going to get down to the single digits tonight . So if you are one of those people who are already starting to think about next years Christmas gifts or you know someone who needs a great Valentine's gift or if you want just treat yourself. Check out the web site and order a kit or two. She also has other kits that I'm sure are just as wonderful. I know I have my eye on the sock kit.

I must be crazy! or is it just old age

2008-01-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

I must be crazy! or it might be old age or both. This year I have decided to knit a black sweater. I know I know I'm totally nuts. But I figure I better knit it now while I can still kind of see the yarn before I can't see it anymore. The only problem is I think I might need bifocals. So I can only knit on it during the day light hours. I chose a some what easy pattern from the book 100 knit projects. The yarn is Galway in black on size 7 needles. One of the reasons I chose this pattern is the cable I really like the way its turning out. The other reason is its a top down. you got to love the no sew patterns. The body it totally 2 X 2 ribbing so its keeping my interest. I know the picture of what I have so far looks grey but it really is black. My hope it to have if completed by the end of the month but we will see.

Sense I can only knit on this sweater during the day light hours I have also started another sweater. Well its really a cardigan but who's counting. I found the pattern for this cardigan in the latest issue of Knit Scene. If you haven't seen this issue you might want to check it out. As a rule I really don't like this magazine but this issue has several things that I think I will make. The yarn I'm using is Lorna's Laces Revelation in a green and purple colorway. Now I have had this yarn for years. As a matter of fact Lorna herself dyed it. So that's how long I have had it. Its a nice change from the black sweater as I'm using size 10 1/2 needles. I'm really happy with how its turning out so far.

Finally finished

2008-01-16T14:53:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a project that you just couldn't seem to get done. Well these socks are close to that for me. I started them back in November and I really do love the pattern but I just seem to not be able to knit on them. If it wasn't Christmas knitting for someone or some other thing that needed to get done I just couldn't work on them. Well I finally finished them today. They fit just perfect so I can't wait to wear them. So what's next? Not sure I think I will look through my sock patterns and see which one to do next. I do want to try to have a pair of sock on needles at all times. I have been thinking of making the Jaywalkers and I have notices that I really don't have any blue socks... So I think I will go take a look for some yarn and get knitting.

January fiber

2008-01-08T12:48:00.001-08:00

Well as I have talked about I want to try to spin new fiber each month. So for my first fiber I have chosen pagora. I purchase this roving at a fiber festival in Salt Lake City from Wooly Wonka fibers. Now this isn't 100% pagora there is some wool in it but I can't remember which one. It is very fine, I don't think its merino but its something close. My plan for this roving is make a lace scarf, although I don't have a pattern picked out yet. I have to say it has been spinning up like a dream. I think it will end up somewhere between a lace weight to a fine weight 2 ply. I think for next month I will spin angora, which is a great fiber to spin in the winter when its not so warm. I plan to in later months spin hemp, silk, alpaca,flax, yak, camel,and many others so keep a look out

I have been knitting too

2008-01-08T12:36:00.000-08:00

I at the same time as I was getting my yarn room all set up I have been taking time to knit. The first project I have worked on and finished is the Oregon vest. I found some Encore chunky in my stash. I chose to knit this vest using the bulky pattern. So I held two strands together and knit with a size 13 needle. It knit up really fast. I think it took me about 2 days to get all the knitting done. I haven't added the zipper yet. I want to find a zipper that has rindstones on the teeth. I know I have seen them here in town but I'm not sure where so I'm still looking.
I love to knit socks and I think one if not the favorite pattern is Cookie A. pattern called Monkey socks. Well I started these socks in November, but I have had to put them down as I finished up Christmas knitting. So my goal is to get them done this week. I just about have the cuff of the second sock done So I should have it done soon.

My other project that I have been working on is Crystal Palaces' Taos diagonal Jacket. I have to say I just love this yarn. Its so soft and the color changes are just great. This jacket is knit in 6 pieces and sewn together, which is not my favorite thing to do but so far its not been to bad. I just have to finish the sleeves and then it will all be done. By the way the color is 04 mirage.

New year new look

2008-01-08T11:42:00.000-08:00

So for a while I have been thinking of reorganizing my yarn room. If you are a fiber nut like me you have quite a stash. The big problem with a good sized stash, is as you get older you forget what all you have. So I have been thinking of ways to make it more user friendly. As I talk about this I really thought about if I should share my yarn room with you all. Then when all the changes were made it turned out so much better then I thought I decided to share so if its something you might want to try. First of all in my house I have a bedroom that is really small. My youngest daughter used the room until she out grew her toddler bed. This room is so small that if you put a twin bed in it you would have no more room for anything else. So for the past few years I have been using this room for storage. I have for years had all my yarn and spinning fiber in plastic binds. Needless to say this room is always a mess. I never really knew what I had and where it was. Well in the current issue of Knitters there is an article about how this gal over a weekend bought wire crates and set them up to hold her yarn. Well when I read that I knew this is what I wanted to do. I looked all over town for these wire crates and could only find them at Fred Meyer. With some luck the day after Christmas the crates went on sale. So I went and bought a few and set them up. Now I have to tell you that it took a lot longer then I thought it would. About 3 hours. I then put my yarn and rovings in somewhat by colors. I wanted to have the yarn mixed with the rovings to give some visual interest. I also set my books up so that they can be seen and easily accessible. The next thing I did as I was cleaning everything up I hung on the wall all my unfinished needlework projects. Not only does it decorate the walls but it also helps remind me to finish them at some point. I then added a comfy chair so that I can sit and knit or spin in what my daughter calls Mom's yarn store. Because all my girls knit I have a bin that is full of my leftover bits of yarn. They know that they can grab anything out of it and make something with out fear they took something I had saved for some project.
One great thing I have found by doing all of this is it has helped my remember what I already have. so when I'm at a yarn store looking at yarn or fiber I know how much green yarn or maybe I have nothing in red. So it has helped my on adding to my stash. It as also make this store room into a little den. My middle daughter likes to go in there and play her violin or just read. And yes it does have a look of a yarn store. The great part of that is I have already bought everything in there so I don't have to figure out how to sneak in the house.

New year New things happening

2008-01-08T11:24:00.001-08:00

Well Its already 2008. Yikes! Where did 2007 go? I was talking with a friend of mine this weekend and we were lamenting on how busy we both are and yet getting nothing done. Well I do have to admit I have been very busy these past few weeks. Not only do we have tons of things going on around the holidays but my oldest daughter's birthday is on 4. So Now with all the parties over and everyone is back to school, I can get back to normal. I really wish I knew what normal was. Anyway, every year I don't make resolutions I set goals. So 2008 its so exception. So here are my goal for the year,in no particular order;
1. Loose 50 pounds by 8/8/08 - the first day of the Olympics
2. Read through the Bible
3. Get more fit - which goes with number 1.
4. fiber a new exotic fiber each month
5. knit a pair of socks every month
6. read a really good book every month
7. Take a few minutes to just stop and be still
8. design my own sweater
9. Enter knit, crochet,tat and needlepoint items in the State fair
10. Stop and list my blessings every week.

Now as the year progress I will let you all know what how I am doing on each of these goals.

OK Christmas can come

2007-12-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

OK so Christmas can come. The reason? I'm done with my all my Christmas knitting. With five days to spear. The last two projects where for daughters number two and three. Daughter number two is in love with the color blue so I made her the top down bolero. I'm not totally sure she will like it as its a bit more girly then she is but her sisters picked the pattern so there is hope. I used some yarn that I had in my stash so I'm not sure what it is.
The sweater for daughter number three is also a top down one. She asked me a couple of months ago for a sweater like mine so that is just what I did. Of course its done in the colors of pinks and purples. She pick the yarn her self. It I think ended up being bigger then she needs, so she will be able to wear it for a couple of years.

Now that I have all my Christmas knitting done, I also have two weeks off from teaching classes, you would think I would take a brake. Of course not. I'm on to projects that are planned classes in 08. First up is the Oregon Vest from Oat Couture. I will be making my model in bright Red, so be on the look out for the coming vest.

My Daughter's Grinchy socks

2007-12-19T09:39:00.000-08:00

When you are a knitter you are also a collector, so if you are new or have yet to become a knitter be pre-warned. You will collect yarn, tools and patterns. Also if you have family members that live with you they will begin to expect knitting done for them. Which is part of the fun of knitting. So because I am a collector I have lots of magazines and I add to that collection often. This holiday season I picked up a couple magazines that are just full of holiday projects. Well one afternoon my youngest daughter (also a knitter)was looking one and found the add from socks that rock for the grinchy socks. She is a huge fan of the Grinch who stole Christmas. As a matter of fact she watches it all year long. So of course she just had to have them. Well I have to confess I really didn't want to fork over the money for the sock kit for a 9 year old. So what I did instead was look through my stash of yarn and found funky reds and greens. Then I went to my favorite sock book. Sensational socks and found a pattern that I liked and went from there. I'm not sure what the red is I think its wool. The green at the toe and the stripe is silk left over from some project and the glittery stuff is left over too. The green from the heel I have no idea what it is.
The big test however is does she like them? The answer Yes as matter of fact she plan to wear them today, tomorrow and Friday to school. Of course when you are 9 clean socks isn't as important then looking cool. So I guess I will wash them each night.

Number one daughter's sweater and a trip

2007-12-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

Well I was able to finish my number one daughter' s sweater that I was making for Christmas. Unfortunately I had lots of knitting time this last week. We had to make a road trip to the Tri Cities in Washington state. My father in law was very ill. As a matter of fact we just about lost him. He flat lined 4 times on Monday night and was not expected to make it. So we left Boise after the kids got out of school and drove up. I am happy to say that when we left on Friday he was sitting up and eating. We just found out that he is going to be leaving the hospital for basically what amounts to a half way house to continue his recovery. He isn't quite ready to be home yet but he also doesn't need total monitoring care either.
So while I was in the waiting room all last week I worked on my daughters sweater. I have to say I think I like this yarn better then Noro. Even though it has the same type of color ways as Noro I think its a bit softer. Of course my daughter knows I was working on it as I couldn't really hide it from her while we were all in the same room. But I think she will like it. So now I'm on to the Number 2 daughters sweater. Hers will be a bit smaller so I think I can get hers finished this week.
While I was in Richland WA. My husband and I stopped at a shopping center and looked around an antique store. They had two spinning wheels that they were really proud of. They were old but not that old and they both were in terrible shape. One was $485 and the other was $185. The one that was $185 was workable, but the other wasn't it didn't even have a bobbin and the flyer wasn't workable. But on a good note my husband did find a blacksmithing hammer for $6 so he picked that up. On the way to the car we found a yarn store called Knitty Gritty. It was a very nice shop. The owners have a great variety of yarns and prices. I picked up only tow skeins of yarns. Both are ones that I have never see before. So I just had to have them The pick one is 100 % alpaca, I plan to make a pair of fingerless mitts for myself with them. The other is called Aslan and it 50% angora 25% merino and 25% polyamide. Each skein has 295 yards and is about a sport weight. So I think I can get a pair of socks out of it.

A little me knitting

2007-11-30T15:23:00.000-08:00

Even though my daughters picked the yarn for the sweaters that they want for Christmas, they all think I won't have time so I only work on them while they are at school or not home. They know me so well that if I'm not knitting on something there is a problem. So I am doing a little bit of me knitting at the same time. So what's better then a pair of Monkey socks. I think this is my 4 pair and I have to say I just love this pattern which you can find a copy at Knitty.com. I am using Araucania Ranco multy. The color ways is number 303 or better known as pinks and purples. Not my normal colors that I would pick but I do like them just the same. I also bought some yarn the day after Thanksgiving to make a sweater to match. So be on the look out for that. By the way I am trying new needles. Clover sock needles. They are 4 .5 inches long and I have to say they are just great. Not quite as neat as my rosewoods but nice just the same.

Its begining to look like Christmas knitting

2007-11-30T15:10:00.000-08:00

Now that I have the Christmas stockings all done and the customer is happy. I have been working on my Christmas knitting. Now each one of these sweaters are not a huge surprise to the members of my family. The reason.... they picked the yarn they wanted and the color. I did make one rule NO ACRYLIC. The first one finished is a vest for my husband. He already knows its done and has tried it on. He wanted it for Christmas Eve. He will be singing at our church's three Christmas Eve services. So I had to do that one first. Its hard to see by the picture but its hunter green and it was made from Lopi Lite. Not the softest of yarns but it was the color he wanted. Not to mention he will be wearing it over a shirt anyway. Now that its done I'm on to the next sweater. Next up is the V neck for my oldest daughter. I decided I would go from oldest to youngest. Or largest to smallest. My daughter is a jeans and Tshirt type gal so I was a bit surprised by her yarn choice. The yarn is Plymouth Boku. If you have never seen or felt this yarn its a lot like Noro. Its a wool silk blend and I think its softer then Noro. The colorway she chose was orange, greens and purples. So far its looks wonderful.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T14:58:00.001-08:00

So I have been asked to talk a bit about what I am thankful for. Well this could be long, because there are so many things that I am thankful for. Let me start with the usually stuff even they are extremely important to me. I will also add some pictures of things but I have a policy not to post pictures of my family on my blog so I will have to get a bit creative. First I am so thankful for my Husband, we have been married for over 20 years and it been great fun most of the time. He even understand about the yarn collecting. Then there are my three daughters. Ages 16,13 and 9. They are all very wonderful caring girls which is rare sometimes for teens this day and age. My 16 year old plays in the marching band at school. They took 1st place in a local marching band competition this year.

I am so thankful for my job. I have so much fun teaching others to knit and to improve their skills in knitting.

I am also thankful for the Internet. Because of the web I have met some really nice ladies that share my same interests and obsession with fiber.

I am so thankful for God providing my spinning wheel for me. As you all may know Matchless spinning wheels are not cheap but I was able to get mine at a price I could afford.

I am also thankful that this past year I was able to attend a couple of fiber shows. Its so fun to see what other fiber artist are up to and of course its always nice to add to the stash.

I am also thankful for the different class that I have taken in the past year or so. Its so fun to be able to learn something new.

I am thankful for my different groups that I am a member of from The Treasure valley knitting guild the spinning group and the Idaho Civil War renactors. I love to spend time with other people with the same interest that I have.

OK so this is a bit of a crazy one. I am thankful for baseball. I am a huge fan of base ball. I know when friends of mine find this out they are just surprised as all get out. But I really love to sit and watch a great base ball game.
As you can see I am thankful for a wide range of things. Life has been tough for us this year but as I look back there are some many things to be thankful for. My home, my family , my friends,but when I think of being thankful the first thing that come to my mind is God. With out him I would have nothing and be nothing. He has blessed me in millions of ways so many that I don't have space to list them all. He has given me the talent to knit and the talent to share my skills with others. He has given me the heart to love others in maybe a way that some don't. God bless you and take a minute today to thank God for all you are bless with in your life.

Christmas Knitting- boy have I been busy

2007-11-19T14:37:00.000-08:00

OK so I have been busy doing some Christmas knitting. In the past couple of weeks I have knit 5 Santa Christmas stockings. However they were not for me or anyone in my family. When you work at a yarn shop once in a while you get asked to knit an item for a customer. Well at Christmas time we all at the shop end up knitting a stocking or two. So this year I was asked to knit 5 all the same, except for the names. As you can see in the picture I have them all done, well OK you can only see three of the five and one of the originals believe me they are all on my table drying, they just couldn't fit in the picture. The one on the far left is the original. It seems Grandma knit the same stocking for everyone in the family, kids, and grand kids. Well she passed away this last year so I was asked to knit the great grand kids stockings. I have to say I was happy to do it. Now that they are all done I can now start on my own Christmas knitting. My husband wants a buttoned down vest and all three daughters have asked for sweaters so no rest for the weary.

Sock it to me twice questions

2007-11-17T22:48:00.000-08:00

The Questions
How long have you been knitting? 10 years
Do you consider yourself beginner, intermediate, advanced? Advanced. I am a knitting teacher by profession
How long have you been knitting socks?10 years off and on but I have really gotten back to socks this last summer.
What are your favorite fibers to work with? wool, alpaca, mainly natural fibers
What is your favorite color? purples and greens
What are your current WIPs (works in progress)? Sweaters for my family for Christmas
Name your favorite yarns, (brand, fibers, colors, etc.). Socks that rock, Koigu,Galway,Cascade Ecco wool
What are some yarns/fibers that you stay away from. Acrylic I'm sorry I just hate it.
What is your family situation? (Married, kids, pets?) Married for 20 years, three girls ages 16, 13 and 9 ( all knitters) and a dog named Tiny who isn't
Name some of your hobbies. In order of love Knitting, Hand spinning, reading, crocheting, tatting, needlepoint
Name some of your favorite movies? Austin Powers, the Thin man series, Quiet man, and Hop a long Cassidy movie. yes I know its a bit all over the place
Do you like to read? yes I love to read a good mystery and Debbie Macomber
Do you collect anything? sheep
Do you own an iPod or mp3 player? not yet waiting for a good sale this holiday season
What are your favorite type of knitting needles? nylon, I have an allergy to metal so I don't use them at all. I also only use circulars for most of my knitting but I use only dps for socks. I love rose wood for socks. My all time favorite are the old Susan Bates grey nylon circulars, but they are hard to find these days. Although I would like to try the new wood ones from Knit Picks.
What knitting notion could you not live without? stitch markers and good needles
Who are some of your favorite designers? Cooke A, the gal that designs the Knitting pure and simple patterns.
Do you subscribe to any magazines? (Knitting or otherwise.) Spin off, Knitters, Interweave Knits, Wool gathering
When is your birthday? 4-26
Do you have a "wishlist", (on Ravelry, Froogle, or Amazon)? Amazon I haven't gotten my wish list going on Ravelry yet.
Do you have a Ravelry ID? yarnsnthreads
If you had a sheep, what would you name it? Winston

Child's French socks

2007-11-06T20:52:00.000-08:00

Have I told you all how much I love Nancy Bush sock patterns? Well I do, and I really love her book Knitting Vintage socks. The pattern for these socks comes from that book. They are called Child's French socks. Although they are really sized for and adult. I love this lace pattern. I used a merino nylon blend called cocoon. This is normally a baby yarn but I think it works just great for socks. I think I will try other patterns with this yarn in the future.

What I have been up to

2007-10-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well the past week I have been so busy. So busy that I just can't seem to get things done. I just hate that. Well this week I have gotten myself a bit more organized and now I am able to get some things done. First thing I am working on are a pair of socks. I will talk about them later, so stay tuned. Tonight I was able to finish clue 1 in the mystic waters shawl KAL. I am using a light sage green yarn called Alpaca pure from Alchemy. I have started a couple of the shawl or stole KAL's that have been all over the web. I haven't been all that thrilled with them. Not that they were bad but just not my style. Well so far I have totally fallen in love with this pattern. I think the alpaca with drape really well, so I'm looking forward to getting this one done. I can't wait until tomorrow to see what clue brings. By the way you can see some of my finished and in progress things on Ravelry. My screen name is of course Yarnsnthreads.

Finished!

2007-10-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well I was able to finish my entrelac sock last night and even wear them to work today. I have to say they were a lot of fun to knit but I did cop out a bit on the pattern. By the time I finished the entrelac part of the pattern I was ready for easy knitting. So I just stuck with the blue and kept knitting until I ran out of the blue. So not to make it a total cop out I did add color to the toe. I have had several people ask where the pattern came from. Its from the book Socks! a special Spin off publication. I know you can still get a copy from Interweave.com. The book has great sock patterns. Its mostly for handspun but you can easily figure out what yarn will work. So what's my next project? Another pair but these are from the Knitting Vintage socks by Nancy Bush.

Baby its cold outside

2007-10-19T00:12:00.000-07:00

Well the weather here in Idaho has change, in what seems like over night. As a matter of fact my husband and all his hunting buddy's came home a day early because it was so cold. He said it was snowing every day they were up in the mountains. Well its not quite that cold here in Boise but it is cold enough for my fingerless mitts. So I went to look for them in a basket that I keep all the gloves, mittens and hats for winter. But of course they weren't there. So what is a gal to do? Knit another pair. Yesterday I was looking through my stash for some yarn for projects that my daughters want to make and came across this yarn. I have no idea where it came from or what it is. I do have a strong feeling that its alpaca and maybe some wool. It appears to be hand dyed but not hand spun. I don't remember dyeing it but of course that means nothing. Anyway I used a pattern from the book One Skein Wonders ( don't you just love that book) and knit them up in about an evening. And yes they are warm and fit me like a glove. Sorry

Clue 2 complete

2007-10-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well I had a bit of a slow start but I have been able to get a lot of knitting done over the past few days as my hubby is been busy hunting, or like we like to call it hiking with rifles. He never gets anything. Anyway I have been able to spend a lot of time knitting so the first thing I want to get done was to catch up with the secret of the stole KAL. I am using Knit Picks bare lace weight wool and what I would call antique white beads. I wasn't so sure I would like this stole when I saw the first clue but when clue two came out I fell in love with the design. I can't wait for Friday and clue 3.

What color next?

2007-10-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Well so far these are the funnest socks I have knit. Of course so far I have loved the entire process. From shopping for the roving at a fiber fair to the spinning and now the knitting. Because I have 8 colors that I'm working with I do have to take a minute to think about colors. I really don't want all the greens together or all the purples and pinks. I wasn't so sure about the orange ( not my favorite color) but I think its working out really well. I have a deep purple that will be the next color, after that I'm not sure what I will use. The Pattern calls for the entrelac only on the cuff. I plan to continue with color work on the heels and foot. After all I have lots of colors to work with. I think I may have enough left over to fingerless mits too

Can you...

2007-10-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

As a knitting teacher I am asked all the time if I can change a pattern to fit the yarn I want to use. Or in this case I only had 648 yards of yarn and I wanted to make something out of it besides a hat or two. So here is what I did. First let me tell you about the yarn. I was given this yarn a year or so ago from a secret swap or something. Well I had never seen this yarn so I knew was I not going to be able to get more if I needed. So I have been looking for something that would take 648 yards. Well I wasn't able to find anything I liked. By the way the yarn is called Goddess Yarns Ellen. Its a deep purple and each ball has 81 yards and it suggest I use a size 8 needle.

Well after looking and looking I found a really neat vest pattern from Plymouth. The pattern called for Turino Silk, which by the way is a discontinued yarn. The pattern called for a size 5 and 7 needle with a gauge of 18 stitches for 4 inches. It also called for about 900 yards. So what to do. Well I did a swatch with size 9 needles and it turned out to be a gauge of 14 stitches to 4 inches. The fabric was a bit looser but not bad. The yarn is a55% cotton, and 45% wool so its very soft so a soft fabric is just fine with me. Now that I had my gauge I needed to adjust the pattern to get the fit I was looking for. I usually wear a 44 because I am a 42 1/2 well I knew that if I made the vest with my gauge my regular size would of course end up way to big, so what I did was knit the small instead of the large. What was the result. I had plenty of yarn for the vest, I was even able to make it 3 inches longer then the pattern called for. The best part was its fits great and I have about 1 1/2 balls left over to make that hat some day.

I have learned over the years that for me its easier for me to change the gauge to either larger or smaller then the original pattern called for then make either the size smaller or larger to get the end result I want. The beauty of doing it this way is I don't have to change any of the numbers of stitches and I usually have some yarn left over. One thing I do when using this method , when the pattern tells you to knit for say 10 inches for a small I will knit for the length of the larger or even the extra large. I want it to be sure its long enough.

And the socks keep spinning

2007-10-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

I am still working on the yarns I need for my big enterlac sock project. In reality I have all eight skeins done and am taking them to work so that I can wind them into balls so that I can get started on the socks next week. But first I have to finish up a couple of projects. I'm working on a purple vest that I should have finished today and then I need to finish up the I love gansey socks. I need to get them done so that I can have the needles for the enterlac ones. I really love how the yarns came out on for these socks. I would compare it to Jitterbug or Loute's little gem yarns. Soft but still spun tightly. Which I think works best for socks. Well I'm off to get a few things done so that I can get started on the new socks.

And the winner is...........................

2007-10-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well after read all the names that were entered in the spinning wheel contest, and after everyone thought about we have decided on Amy's idea of CLEMENTINE! We must confess we all love a good western here so Clementine just seems to fit with our family. Thanks so much for all the wonderful ideas. I will try to think up another contest before the year comes to an end. Amy please leave me your email address so that I can contact you for your address so that I can get the skein of handspun out to you.