posted at 11:55 PM
I
just love the look of a warp all beamed and taut. I was going to do a random
warp, but I'm just not a random sort of gal, so I counted out what I had and
made a plan. The extra red on the left of the picture will be the two sides.
The fold is on the right. I still have to add the fishing line and weights,
but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
I've got one more day of spring break. I have some little bits of mohair and bright pieces of wool that I want to blend on the carder tomorrow. I'm in a fish exchange - based loosely on the fulled fish from knitter's stash and I want to spin some tropical colors. Check out the fish Carolyn made for a baby shower - they were the inspiration for the exchange.
Thursday is my annual Asian American Club trip to NYC. This trip puts my nerves in an uproar every year, but the kids love it so I keep doing it. We have so many kids in the club that I booked two charter buses, but with world affairs what they are many parents would not allow their children to go to New York this year. I had to cancel one of the buses, but now we have three members on the waiting list. They are predicting chilly, damp weather for Thurday. So what else is new? No matter when we schedule this trip it rains. Sometimes it's a cold, bonechilling rain, sometimes warm, but IT ALWAYS RAINS!
MDS$W - Accuweather is predicting a rainy weekend for Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, but I don't mind that :-) It keeps those daytrippers away and allows the serious fiber folks more space.
posted at 7:30 PM
Not
of whole heck of a lot I can post, but hopefully I'll have pictures tomorrow.
Been spinning up the corriedale, just plied another 8 oz. I'm ready to beam
on another blanket warp. I dyed some of my Bartlett's and then I realized -
or should I say was advised - that I needed to wash the rest of my warp, since
the dyed yarn was much softer and loftier. Did that Friday night, and got the
warp sleyed and threaded last night. I'll probably end up watching some of The
Ten Commandments (wouldn't be Easter without it) and knitting some more on my
Little Dimun.
The kids are all older now, but they insisted on the bunny cake again this year.
posted at 2:10 PM
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I can imagine Mother Nature with this rather maniacal laugh "Ha, they liked 85 degrees, let's throw them for a loop!" We are struggling to stay in the 40's, in fact the high of 49 was in the early hours of the morning. But when I look out my window it still looks like spring. And we could have the ice storms that people to the west and north of us are getting.
I'm dyeing some of my natural Bartlett yarn for another blanket. I know it seems repetitive, but I've been really into my spinning lately, and I can't think of anything else to do (that doesn't require leaving my house to search out more materials). This will be quick and it has the added bonus of getting tons of worsted weight wool out of the stash bins. I threw a small sample of the different colors I had on hand into the dye pot and was pleasantly surprise by how it turned out. Being a beginner dyer I had heard about overdyeing yarn but didn't realize how I could use it.
On the left are four of the colors used in previous blankets. I threw a sample in to a pot with Cushings' Egyptian Red - those are the four on the right (in the same order). This could be a really easy way to use a bunch of leftover yarn. Yes, I know, everyone else knew this already, but it's fun for an old dog like me to learn new tricks.
posted at 10:50 AM
I
can't stop fondling the corrie swatch. I love how soft it knitted up. While
looking through knitter's
stash I was stopped by Melissa Lumley's Celtic Cardigan. I'm going to dye
this four different colors and make a cardigan similar to that. I must have
had this fleece from The Clearing for 4 years. I wish I would have tried it
earlier and realized how much I love it. Now that they are out of business I'll
have to try somewhere else. I did order two fleeces from Whitefish
Bay yesterday. They came so highly recommended that I'm sure they compare
favorable to this one. I ordered Marvelous, a classic white about 6.5 pounds,
and Inca, described as Very Fine - Black to Charcoal Gray Variegated 5.75 pounds.
Woo hoo!
This spring break is getting expensive! Somebody take away my credit card and internet access <g> I bought a small Jacob fleece. I also ordered three pounds of natural 15/3 raw silk from R & M I'm hoping it will be dyeable. I think I read that the same acid dyes I use on wool will work on silk because it's a protein fiber. Then so my computer wouldn't feel left out I bought more memory, a new MMC card for my mp3 player, and another 80g hard drive.
I think I better go out and wash and vac my Outback while the weather is still balmy. I don't think I can figure out a way to spend money out there.
posted at 10:20 AM
After
reading about Catherine
taking advantage of the good weather to block her shawl, I was reminded
of my poor Pi sitting in a ball. So after a good soak, she's sunning on the
back deck. I've been thinking about the Peacock I made years ago, this lemming
thing is nothing new for me! I gave that one to a friend, but I'm thinking of
making it again with some 3/2 perle cotton I have around.
I'm really excited about taking Rita's class. I'm a self-taught spinner for
the most part, with the exception of all the great advice I get from my wonderful
guild, and I really need some hands-on instruction. This workshop is called
the Essence of Spinning and is billed as a beginner and intermediate class,
so I think it's just what I need. I finished plying my first bobbin of corriedale
on my new Schacht and 
have
been pleased. The consistency is not what I want yet, but I was able to get
finer singles and a nice ply with the Schacht. Here's the plied yarn on the
bobbin. I'm planning on using my Louet for plying too, but I thought I'd try
it all on the Schacht first. The clock reel is wonderful for winding off. I
got beautiful, two yd. skeins, and the counter is so convenient. For those of
you who use an adjustable reel like this, do you make marks so that you can
remember where to set the pegs for different size skeins? I can't wait to try
it as a swift. I'm thinking it might be better to measure and use the counter
when I'm winding balls, as the skeins may shrink a bit with washing.
posted at 9:20 AM
Spring
Break Begins! Good and bad - I got to sleep until 9:00 this morning since my
double cloth class was cancelled. Really good news though - I woke up to an
email informing me that I made it into Rita Buchanan's two day Essence of Spinning
workshop at MDSW. Yippee! I'm not sure how many will be in the class. There
were only 11 other names on the email, but I'm sure there are some participants
that don't have email addresses. I need to decide if I go down there Wednesday
night and spend two additional nights in the motel, or do I go down at 5:00
AM and just spend bucks for Thursday night. I already have reservations with
5 others at the Radisson for the weekend.
I'm so looking forward to this week. I have all my school work done and I'm going to try and push all thoughts of school out of my mind. I only have three obligations until Tuesday the 22nd. Baby shower this afternoon, Seder with husband's family Thursday night, and Easter dinner with my family. The rest of the time is FIBER TIME - well, with the weather reports looking positive, maybe a little gardening time
posted at 8:40 PM
Here's
my progress on the Little Dimun and here's my new toy. It's a Howell Skein Winder,
from Woodland Woolworks.
Thanks for the tip, Carolyn.
I got the counter to go with
it too. It came unfinished, but very smooth. I'll probably rub an oil finish
on it next week when I have some time - spring break finally!
posted at 5:00 PM
Got back last night from a whirlwind trip to Cleveland to visit with friends.
We had a great time - eating, laughing, and shopping. I didn't get any knitting
done on the plane as it was a skinny commuter jet and I could barely lift my
arms enough to turn the pages on my book! I made good progress on the Little
Dimun over the weekend though. Karen SAID she made lots of mittens this winter,
but I didn't see any. I did get to see Nancy's beautiful
fair isle cardigan she's making for her granddaughter.
Note to Karen and Nancy: if you had a blog, I could link to your pages ;-)
We had a jolt Friday night when the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the building. We were on the 14th floor, so that meant walking down 12 flights of stairs at an ungodly hour (3:00 AM). For a full hotel, there weren't many people outside. I don't think all the floors even had the alarms go off. It turned out that someone was smoking near the elevator and the detectors there are super sensitive (at least, that was the explanation). After only 10 minutes or so we were allowed back upstairs, but it took awhile to get back to sleep. That coupled with springing our clocks ahead made me a very tired teacher today.
31 days 'til MDS&W....I'm waiting impatiently to see if I got into Patsy Z's spinning workshop.