Sweet

Our weekend - sweet! Two date nights with the Mr. I finally got to see "Star Trek". He indulged me. As a result of Saturday's funky weather, I had plenty of time to . . .

. . . finish up skeining, measuring and petting 125 yards of merino/silk/bamboo. And then I just stared at it, and showed it to Mr. a lot because I really like it . . .

and . . .

. . . I finished this side (Solid Square #149 from 200 Crochet Blocks) . . .


. . . and this side (Fretwork, #197 - same book!) of my potholder I seamed them together for the Tuesday Morning Knitting Group's "Let's Just See If We Can Crochet Potholders and Then Decide What To Do With Them".
Extreme close-up to show the tidiness of my crochet stitches.


And . . I decommissioned something that many of you might have called a "poncho" if you were inclined to get "that look" from me and a stern lecture that it was NOT a poncho but more like a "multi-functional wrap with one hole and no sleeves." This MFWWOHNS, made from Eco-Wool was skeined, washed and left to dry in the room with the world's largest residential dehumidifier. Eventually, this will become Copine.

Everyone needed a break by Sunday and thankfully the weather cooperated enough to spend the afternoon and evening outside, rolling in the catnip plants.

How was your weekend?

Right Round

Summer is such a nice time for spinning. I can be outside, not so many interruptions - like - life. So I've been really enjoying the time I've been able to spend at the wheel. There isn't a lot to show for the time but what I do have, I love.
First up, some beautiful alpaca that was so very easy to work ("the book" said it would be.) I decided I wanted to separate the three colors for a longer stretch of each color and make a three ply yarn.

One more puff of fluff to go.

This is completed but still soaking wet (because I forgot it was soaking in the sink downstairs since Sunday!). It's 1 ounce of silk / merino / bamboo / Tencel in "Grapevine" from the The Fiber Studio. The fiber was in a batt which I've decided I quite like working from. I think it'll look much better once it's dry and fluffed a bit. And modeled appropriately.

"Mom, will you make me something? Does this color look good on me? Is this my good side? Will this make my butt look big?" - Sammy

Inside or Outside

All of a sudden, my day-time calendar is beginning to free up as summer approaches. This allows for longer blocks of time to do things - - requiring longer blocks of time! Since the porch is finally open (and the errant sprinkler head has been repositioned making the porch usable too!) I thought it was time to bring the spinning wheel out of hibernation and get some spinning done.


However, and I'm thinking my fellow Minnesotans will chime in here with some very strong opinions, temperatures yesterday were above 95 degrees and today's are expected to be 92 degrees with very strong breezes. The question, is do I spin outside . . .

. . . or inside? In the basement - where it will be 66 degrees and I'll probably have to turn on the fireplace to take the chill out of the air.

Thing 2

I can't really rank Christmas gifts by favorites because each one means something different to me. This one means that I should be able to spend more time at my spinning wheel. Before receiving this from Jon, I used an old desk chair when spinning and it didn't take too long before my back would start to scream: "HEY: YOU'RE OVER 50 NOW!! YOU CAN'T SIT LIKE THIS ANYMORE!!"

So now with the new matching stool and this . . .

. . . 5 ounces of Lorna's Laces Shepard Wool Top in "Tuscany" . . . another gift from Kathryn (where DOES she get her ideas?), I should have no excuses for not at least searching for my spinning mojo.

Well, there is the little problem of the stealth kitty.

Make Up Spinning

"Pssssst. Hey, over here." "Behind the yoga ball thing. And the stool with the sheep on it. Can you see me?"
"Remember me? Before you got real busy and shoved me in this corner, we used to hang out for about ten minutes every day. I miss you!"
"Yeah - I know. We had some problems with the stuff with the tencil in it. But, that's why we have more bobbins isn't it? Can't we look around in the stash buckets for something that might be easier to work with and try getting back together again?" "Look - look what the sheep found! Some alpaca! We love alpaca! I heard alpaca is really easy. And soft. You love soft!""And look at those colors. You know you love those colors. C'mon. It'll be great! I promise."

10 Minute Tour

It was a dark and stormy morning and all the animals were gathered in the studio for the spinning update.I finished spinning three bobbins of super-wash merino in Chocolate Cherry. And on the excellent advice of Sweetpea16 (Thank you! I think I found you on Ravelry?) I took and ordinary little kitchen thing to aid in plying my first three ply yarn.

It might have helped if it hadn't come off the jar of dill weed, but at least it wasn't cumin.
Ready, set . . .
. . ply! What a great way to make what I only assumed would be a ginormous mess, easy. And in no time at all, I had . . .

. . . which looks like this up close. I LOVE three ply. It feels so - complete.
That complete, I pulled this out of the stash. "Pastel Blissout" in 50% merino 50% tencel from Three By Hand. It's proving a little tricky for me. More slippery than I'm used to and it seems like it doesn't really want to be drafted at all. Does that make sense?

But it sure looks and feels pretty!!

I know that it will want to be chain plied but that's a story for another day!

TDF - 1 2 3

Lucky for me the Tour de Fleece is during my forced solitude. I've found plenty of time to sit and spin and watch all the new summer TV shows like "Burn Notice" (loved it), The Closer"(loved it), Saving Grace" (didn't love it at all), & "The Cleaner" (want to like it 'cuz it has Benjamin Bratt but will have to give it a few episodes). This week, "Psych".

Unlike knitting, I'm also finding it remarkably easy to stay dedicated to one project at a time. I realize this could be easily remedied with the purchase of another wheel, or more economically with the simple purchase of a few more bobbins. So far I've resisted. With the wonderful things hiding in the stash studio, how long will that last I'm wondering?

So the latest, almost completed project is a super wash merino in "Chocolate Cherry". I started this on the opening day of the TDF at Open Spinning at the Fiber Studio and have worked on it every day since. With a little bit of time on the pink fluff too!! It's lovely and once I realized that I had been drafting it incorrectly and holding WAY too much fiber in my left hand, everything got much better. It seemed to spin up as easy as . . .

. . . one . . .

. . . two . . .

. . . three.

I'm planning to make a three-ply - my first attempt! How hard can that be? It's just one more than a two ply - right?? RIGHT??

Although this is my first problem, I can't find the end on this bobbin - anywhere!

"NO WAY! I can't even find the basket of
fluff any more so don't blame me. Maybe the dog did it, but I DID NOT do
it Mom. I'm truthing!!"

Ten Minute and Tour Spinning

Since I'm already participating in the 10-minute A Day Spinning Challenge, joining the Tour-de-Fleece wasn't much of a stretch. I've had plenty of time this summer so far to both knit and spin and I'm finding the balance of both to be quite enjoyable. Saturday I finished spinning, plying and washing and Merlot Sparkle super wash merino for 525 yards of YARN!Sunday afternoon I spent time at Open Spinning at the Fiber Studio. Lovely shop, lovelier people! While there I began to worry that I might run out of fiber to spin during the Tour. When I got home, I worried that I might run out of space to store the stuff I bought to overcome the above listed fear.Solution to Fear 2: re-purpose a storage unit tossed from Kathryn's room during a recent "I want to make my room look more like a teenager's room" event. Solution to Fear 1:


Buy stuff and put it in the drawers. Full details on the "stuff" in another post. Right now, I'm still just in awe of it.

But this, this I can show because I'm giddy in love with it. It's an Opalescence Fiber Cloud of hand-dyed mohair, wool, alpaca, silk and glitz and blended on a 100 yr. old carding machine! The colorway is Pretty In Pink. You grab a puff ball of the fluff and spin it - it's cheesy and sweet and I just love it madly. I'm more than half way through a 4 ounce bag of fluff in two nights of spinning. It's the first spinning project I've started where I actually have a knitting project in mind!How long is the Tour?

Today

• . . . will be much cooler than yesterday; however, I will, for the first time in married life, win the battle of the air conditioner. I have always set a goal to not turn it on until after the 4th of July. I hate to jinx myself, but I've looked at the forecast for the next five days and am CONFIDENT that we will not be required to turn on the beast until - Labor Day!


• . . . Kathryn has her first babysitting job. I hope the two girls aren't very loud or they are apt to wake her up as this is her current state as of 9:30 AM CDT. She is scheduled to be at dance in 2 hours and then at the "gig" at 12:30. It's very hard to be 11 years old I guess.

• . . . Since I want to be home and available during the babysitting time, I get to sit quietly on the porch working on

Hand-spun "Double Vine" (from Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, Barbara G. Walker) scarf. Oh, how come no one told me how wonderful knitting with your own, hand-spun yarn would feel. Seriously, I wept!

. . . or . . .

This which started out as a swatch and just kept going because it looked like it would be cute and oh.so.fast. and maybe make my boobs look like hers.

. . .or . .

And then my 10 minutes which usually works out to be about an hour or so - Man I love summer!

What's going on in your life today?

10 Minute Tuesday

I'm really loving Carole's 10-Minute a Day Spinning Challenge. I had a lot of catching up to do after being gone for 10 days but I had pre-spun before leaving and then managed to find a bunch of time over this past weekend too. This is one of the small projects I finally finished up. It's a lovely merino/silk blend that sat on a bobbin for a few weeks while I decided what to do, what to do.
Since it broke it many places as I plied it, that was obviously the right choice. It would never have held up as a single. It's soft and lovely and definitely not this orange-y. . .
While only about 210 yards, I'm thinking I should be able to eek out a nice little lace scarf for a new sister-in-law. Don't ya think?

Up to the Challenge

The slower pace of summer and Kathryn's busy social and camp calendar have left me with enough time to join in on Carole's 10 Minutes A Day spinning group. I decided to spend my ten minutes early this morning, even before posting, and this is what I accomplished. See what even a few minutes a day can bring forth.


See how the mind's eye can fool you if you haven't had your caffeine yet. Truth be told, this small morsel had to be wound off and skeined as it was left unattended. Again, I foolishly left it to go grab some breakfast and tea. Someone else needed a little free running exercise and took off with the free end. I was lucky to be able to salvage this as the last batch was not so lucky.

I have plenty more to go; with just 10 minutes a day - in a Sammy free environment - I'll be done in no time.
This fiber is a super-wash,100% merino (Merlot Sparkle from The Ranches Angoras with a tiny bit of glitz. I'm having a bit of trouble that I believe you could attribute to beginner-ness. I could use a good reference book on understanding different fibers (long hairs, short hairs etc) and how they will spin or how I should draft / spin them. Any ideas for me? This particular fiber has what I would call, clots, in the darkest color; bits of fluff that have all gathered up together, nub-like, and don't lay flat. Not knowing what to do about these, I simply let them flow onto the spun fiber. It looks kind of dorky in parts and kind of fun in other parts. Definitely homespun. But I guess that's what it is, isn't it.