Oh duh

It just struck me that I could put more than one bead on a crochet hook at a time, and therefore speed up the process of inserting them.

I've been knitting the Aeolian, and so far, so good. It requires approximately 2250 beads; the discovery was significant.

The Columbia from AK



Some BFL/Silk that I'm spinning. 4 oz down, 4 to go.

Red garter stitch

I dreamed of it last night... a simple piece of red garter stitch that was so beautiful that I remembered the dream this morning. A piece that you might imagine came from the needles of the marvelous Mr. Flood. That kind of.. simple.

It'll stick in my head until I spin something suitable, until I can come up with the right pattern, until I can turn the dream into reality. Or, until something else catches my attention.

And in that mode, Sherri, Tracy and her blackandredness, AnneK, have been helping me out with another dream; this time some simple, white lace. The longest time ago Sherri have me a partial bag of Columbia fiber from one of Tracy's sheep. I didn't know how to clean fleece, and had no idea how to use raw fiber, so it sat around for the longest time. Eventually I thought.. gosh, what a great piece to start with. Small bag.. nothing to lose.

Pfft.

It washed up sparkling white, and after being carded into the crudest rolag, spun into the most precious little skein of light fingering yarn.

I've been wishing and wishing that I could do some more; thinner, for a shawl.

Initially Tracy let me take all I wanted from a large bag of Columbia, but unfortunately the colour wasn't quite right (tho the yarn will be beautiful one day) I asked AnneK if she had any to spare. Affirmative! She brought a nice big bag of locks to the store on my birthday. Since then I've given it all a good wash and it's dried and ready to go. Tonight I pulled the locks apart and flick carded them.. then spun. I've got a really fine, white single that's looking fantastic on the bobbin. It's going to be perfect.

And simple.

ok.. I've got some stuff for sale

Prices do not include shipping. Heavier items such as the wheel and the fabric cannot be shipped. Email me at spinknit@me.com if you see something you'd like, or you have further questions.



A Rubbermaid container full of soap making materials. Dyes, fragrances, essential oils, molds, a book, etc. $15.00



Here's an interesting story.... A few years ago I had the honour of purchasing the estate of one of the Lethbridge Spinner & Weaver guild founders. One of the things included was this bag of vintage handspun. It's a big bag, the yarn is sound, and some of it is labelled with handwritten notes such as: Carded by Donna. :) $25.00



Anybody still have a VHS machine? Here's an Ashford how to spin instructional tape. Buy something else, and I'll throw it in if you ask for it.



A small bag of Suri and a bit of tinsel. Buy something else and I'll throw it in if you ask.




Kid Merino, hand dyed locks. $5.00 each.



Some Rose Llama from Saskatchewan, hand dyed rose to.. well, rose it up. $7.50 SOLD



A Yak sample. $5.00 SOLD






Miscellaneous bags of hand dyed BFL. $10.00 each.




This is a whole lot of scoured and drum carded Shetland. I bought a small fleece from Linda Wendelboe at Olds (you know she rocks!). You have have this and the balance of the unscoured fleece for $25.00






This fabric is 100% silk, 6 yards, and the colour is golden not taupe



This is a large Rubbermaid container full of yards and yards of fabric. At one time I was doing some costuming, and this fabric is from that period. There are maybe one or two small pieces, and the balance is yards and yards and yards per piece. There are silks, upholstery fabric, cottons, muslins, etc... Spectacular! $200.00 for the works, which is approximately what I paid for the silk alone.





Here's the wheel I mentioned the other day. It's an Indian Princess Style with a massive bobbin; mostly used for spinning art yarn. The wheel is rustic, but spins just fine. Speaking of fine, I put some tension on the bobbin, and I was shocked to find that I could spin quite a fine yarn with it. So.. It's up to you what your final result is. $75.00



Loads of bags of pretty marbles and polished river stones. The very second you buy this, I'll remember what I was going to do with them. $15.00 for all of them.



A mixed bag of fun stuff to spin art yarn (or.. for crafts!). Ribbons, flowers, buttons, crochet thread, giant paperclips, novelty yarn, a cute little bird... too much to mention. Everything for $15.00




A large bag containing many, many balls of handspun singles. Wool is not identified. Also included is a back, two fronts and a part of a sleeve for a partially knitted men's cabled sweater. An intermediate to advanced knitter would easily be able to complete this garment. All for $30

I'm knitting Estonian lace...

with my own handspun bison. I think I might be short, but Opera is going to share her stash so that I get the shawl finished.

There was a point in my life when I thought that Estonia was the end of everything good (don't ask.. it's a long, boring story), and here I am, with a warm, beautiful shawl in my lap and I'm all.. yayyyy Estonia.

Camera battery is dead, but what I've accomplished deserves a good photo. Perhaps the shop will share some good light tomorrow and I'll have something to post.

It's warmed up, and I think I'll be able to ride tomorrow.

And.. here's my Mugwump. Posted because she's so beautiful.

2010, year of the nupp, year of Estonian, year of Orenburg

Year of crazy?

Of late I've been spinning Bison and Qiviut like a crazy woman, getting ready for 2010. I have almost all of the Bison in singles at the moment, and I plan on plying it with silk (which is not yet purchased.. I don't think I'll spin it).



I've spun miles of cobweb singles from the Qiviut, but I've barely touched it, overall. I have about 80 grams left to do.. the plan is to do 10 grams every day or so, but that hardly explains why it took me a year to do the first 30 grams.



After trials on my new Holly Tabachek Tibetan, on the Golding from Marilynn, and on the Cascade Tiger, I've decided to go with the Golding. It's a bit heavier than I'd like for the fiber, but the results are less fuzzy than with the Tabachek, and faster than the Tiger. My plan is to have all of those two fibers done and ready by the end of this year. As well, I washed about 50% of a Shetland fleece, ran it through the Pat Green Triple Picker, and then carded it on the Strauch Finest. The triple picker made a massive difference in the carding, and it ended up to be a joy to do. I might ply the Shetland singles with a Cashmerino cobweb single that I brought in from Colourmart (Haven't shopped there yet? Why the heck not?)

So it goes. At least that's the plan.

I'm not discussing the Cormo. Talk about your fly in the ointment.

Today...

I could write for hours to catch up on the last few weeks... it's been crazy-fun, that's for sure.

But how about we just deal with today? With perhaps a touch of yesterday thrown in for good measure?

I built a contraption with 2x2's and chicken wire (my neighbor came over to ask if I was building a coop) to use for drying or skirting fleece. It's a clam shell configuration that allows airflow if there is damp fleece enclosed, or when opened up, provides a nice open surface for bits and unwanted pieces to fall through. it's a good thing, and I'm super happy with the result. Yesterday I washed Targhee, Shetland, Cormo and Border Leicester. I put it in the contraption and put it in the sun to dry (ha squirrels.. you are powerless against the contraption). It would have worked really well except for the fact that I left, and during my time away there was a fairly massive rain storm.



My goal over the next two weeks is to wash allllll of the raw fiber that I have on hand; with the exception of the new Cormo hogget. I think I'll just wash it handful by handful as I go.. The rest of it is getting scoured, and that's that.

Did I mention I got a new Cormo fleece? #840, to be exact. It is too beautiful to describe. You're surprized, right?

It's Calgary Stampede time just now, and in honour of that I came up with a new (to us) pizza tonight. Most Fridays, when all the kids are here, BFML makes up a big bowl of homemade dough, and everybody makes their own pizza to share. It was just the three of us tonight, but we decided to do pizza anyway.

I loved, loved, loved this one. It was really quite amazing, and super easy.



Cowboy Chicken Pizza

Prep: BBQ one chicken breast, let it rest for 5 minutes or so and then slice it up into largish bite sized pieces. Roast a red pepper on the BBQ while you're there, and put it into a paper bag to sweat. After it's cooled somewhat, remove and discard skin and seeds. Slice. Roast a head of garlic for about an hour at 400 degrees. Thinly slice a tomato (I used a yellow artisan); rinse seeds out, and pat dry.

Spread a thin layer of BBQ sauce on whatever pizza crust that you prefer. We normally have fresh dough, but I've been known to make pizza on pita bread... Layer the chicken slices, gobs of roasted garlic, tomato slices, a little sliced pepperoni, roasted red pepper, and fresh basil leaves. Put on as much grated mozza as you like, and sprinkle liberally with parmesan. Cook until the crust is quite done and crispy.


Besides washing fleece and making pizza, I've been knitting on the pink Lady Eleanor. It's at about 85% I would say. Tomorrow morning we're going to the Stampede grounds to watch fleece judging. I'm going to try to shadow.. we'll see if it's possible or not.

Please Lord, do not let me find a fleece that I like.

I admit it, I'm a stalker

I've been crazy in love with Cormo for more than a year, and had myself the sweetest little hogget fleece (#750 to be exact) that I was sllllllowly (and I cannot stress that enough) flicking and spinning. I'd scoured it imperfectly, so the locks weren't intact, but it was still coming along well. Recently VikingMaid made me some combs, so man.. did the pace pick up. I combed the rest of the fleece, and it is now spun, plied and wet finished. It's dry even.. just hanging on my baker's rack in the kitchen. I have 5 matching skeins, and I have a couple of ideas, but right now all I want to do is squeeze it now and again.

(There will be no discussions relating to unmatched skeins, and I would appreciate that mathematically ept readers do not try to estimate the weight of discarded fiber. fyi: I have just invented 'ept', but there should be such a word to counter 'inept', don't you agree?)

Never in my life have I felt yarn so soft and bouncy. It defies description; honest.

The stalking thing started so innocently. I decided that I truly have too much fleece at the moment, and I need to deal with what I have on hand. That seems logical. Then I got the combs (speeding things up), and I got a Pat Green triple picker (hmmm.. so many ideas!), and, OK I admit it, my Visa card kindly bought me a Strauch Finest drumcarder (it's so thoughtful that way. I went into some kind of trance in the store, and before I knew it, the drumcarder was in the trunk. That would be the drumcarder that I cannot afford in any conceivable way, the drumcarder that I am actually quiet embarrassed about. THAT ONE)... phew.... where was I?

Yes,.. Eventually I thought.. gosh, wouldn't it be a nice thing to go look at the 2009 Cormo fleeces and see what all the lucky people are going to buy? And since I'm a 2008 customer, I'll have first dibs. Even tho.. you know.. I'm not going to buy one.

Strangely, no 2009's on the website. Not even one. I knew that everybody was shorn (you know these things when you read every word of someone's website 10 times, and have memorized the 'news' page), so maybe I just need to try another browser? Or.. you know, refresh 20 times a day? Just to look, you understand.

Seems natural that a person would just email Sue and see how things are, and you know, pass along all best wishes. While I'm writing, might as well ask about those fleeces, right?

Even though I'm not going to buy one. No way am I going to. For sure.

Medievel Reproduction Spindle

Recently Bess (proprietress of Make One Yarn Studio, spinner, SCA participant, and owner of the worlds' most impressive yarn/fiber stash) gifted me with a bottom whorl spindle that she's carrying in her store. I have not been a great big fan of the bottom whorl, but I was happy to give this one a spin. Bess describes it as follows:

"Mark Shier of Gaukler Medievalwares makes the spindle whorl of lead-free pewter in a hand-carved stone mold. It is based on a spindle whorl in his collection. He is a registered antiquities dealer.

The whorl comes with a hand-finished wooden spindle shaft."


When I received the spindle, it had just arrived from Vancouver Island, so in a day or so the shaft had shrunk enough that I could move the whorl up by approximately 1/4". Since then it's been stable and I'm not worried about it coming off. It's a small enough spindle that I was able to successfully spin in the car as we ferried to and from soccer today. That's big talk for somebody who is spinning silk, has dry hands, the windows are open and it's a bottom whorl. As you can see, all went well, and the cop is on it's way to being full (OK.. that might be stretching it somewhat!).

Some of the reasons I love this spindle are that it's unique and not mass produced; it spins solid, straight, and it doesn't take much room.

I'm spinning silk hankies that Aunty Tink gave me, and that I dyed. I am not really a blue person, but I totally love these.

So there you have it! My first intentional product review.

Look who came home for dinner

Today Opera, Aunty Tink and I took a drive out to Olds College to have a look at the vendor area of the 'Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta' annual conference. The vendor area in particular. (though we did take a tour of conference entries, and found some amazing - totally amazing - pieces of functional and non-functional fiber art)

We took a quick tour, and although there were some really awesome booths, noted that only 60% of who we might have expected to be there had actually made the trek. Jane Stafford? Treenway? Not present.

I didn't get too far before I found a purveyor of bison fiber. $12.00 an ounce, I kid you not. There was a great deal of Fleeceartist fiber and yarn there, and I am amazed to announce that only two hanks of merino/silk came home with me.

And then I saw it.

A secondhand Pat Green Triple Picker. Besides being dirty and having a couple of scratches on the upper deck, it's in perfect condition. It came with a grabbing tool of some sort, a leather bib, and the original padlock. However.. no instructions. I asked the lady for her best price, and after and hour of thought, she decided it was $450.00 cdn. I figured that was pretty good, overall, and so the triple picker became mine. I'm so excited.

I spent this afternoon cleaning it up and giving it a whirl and learned that the teeth were too close together. That turned out to be a really simple adjustment, and all is now well. The fiber I chose to test on it was wayyyyy too long, and although it was eventually picked, I would stick to teasing anything similar. I had an undyed lb. of kid mohair that I was absolutely tempted to pick, but decided that patience is a virtue after all. I'll wait.

So today turned out to be more exciting than I had ever anticipated, and I love my new tool.

A couple of poorly executed videos to give you a giggle:





Hey, know what else? I saw puppies. 3 days old. Too cute to register on the cute-o-meter.

The boy is in a bucket

Well.. only to his shoulders. Poor guy has the flu.

I haven't heard from Mug yet, she's too busy 'chillin' I understand, but Dida said that besides West Jet losing her luggage, all is well in the Dominican.

Me? I spent the long weekend knitting and carding, and knitting and knitting and spinning and knitting. You can't beat that.

Mary told me that she had Qivuit...

And that she would like to give it to me. I couldn't imagine anybody giving Qivuit away, so I assumed that she had some raw and although I would be so grateful to have it, that it would be a good deal of effort to clean it up.

Today she came into the shop and gave me a little bag with 3 - 10 gram packages of clean, wonderful, beautiful Qivuit fiber. I'm so thrilled. I now have enough to spin for a shawl. I doubt I'll finish it on a spindle, since I how have so much that it would take me at least another year to finish. Maybe I'll see if I can slow my wheel spinning down enough to do right by the fiber.

Thank you Mary, that was a thoughtful and kind gift. I really appreciate it.

More spinning tonight.. I haven't finished plying the last of the Cormo, but snuck 20 or 30 grams of Columbia into the lineup. I scoured and combed it, so I was really anxious to see how it spun. Much softer than I had anticipated, and also, as white as the driven snow. I think I'll Navajo ply it and make a nice pair of white socks.

I did one tier on the Targello deux. I am loving the Noro Silk Garden 205 colourway; it's really bright and beautiful. Very mojo restorative...

It was a dark and stormy night.

Well, actually it wasn't, but it seems like everyone should get to type that sentence once in their life.

This weekend turned out to be especially productive; I can barely remember all the things that I accomplished. Roxy (the pup) kept me up most of Friday night; I was totally and completely exhausted by her whining and crying. She would have liked to sleep on the bed, and I would have liked her to sleep in another city. Neither of us got our way. Eventually I got a few hours sleep, and was about to get up to take Mug to soccer, when BFML offered to do the deed for me AND take both dogs as well. I slept from 9 to 12.. it was like absolute heaven.

Once they returned home I packed up Mug and headed for Make One to talk to Bess about dyeing and to spin for a while. The store was pretty darned busy. AnneK brought in a warm coffee cake, studded with chunks of apple. Did I say heaven?

I don't know what possessed me, but afterwards I started bringing all of my yarn and allll of my fiber downstairs to organize and.. well, spring clean. I've been thinking it needed to be done, but dreading it. Man, what a job. I got to a point with the yarn that I'd think I was done, and sure as crap yet another bag of it would be hiding behind something. In the end my entire upstairs area was sorted out and organized, and all of my yarn/fiber is contained, labelled and, shockingly, findable. It was kind of fun being reminded of frogged projects, successes, failures, plans... I got rid of very little, and realized that I'm missing one skein of yarn.

Silk. Koigu. From our New York Trip. DAMN.

Anyway, we won't discuss mileage, or Rubbermaid totes, or green garbage bags. None of that.

I knitted, I spun... the Cormo basket is completely and absolutely empty. To be honest I never thought I'd see the day, but now that I have combs, the fiber is under my control. The Cormo is about 50% plied.... I wish now that I'd Navajo plied it, because it's thinner than I would have liked, but still soft, still gorgeous. (Yesterday the 2009 hoggetts were sheared. I so want one).

I dyed and dyed and dyed; the kitchen is absolutely resplendent in a rainbow of fiber. Tonight I'll bag that up and get it off to it's new home. I felt inspired, for the first time in an age.

Ahhhh and it was Mother's day. Dida and Ike (and Nini, in a stroller) ran the 5k, so BFML and I walked downtown to cheer them over the finish line. It was such a great thing for Dida.. her first race ever. Later we went to their car and Dida gave me a framed picture of Nini in a red raincoat. It's the best ever.. honestly.

BFML treated me like a queen all day on Sunday, and gave me a reconditioned mailbox that he and the kids had worked on. We so needed it! I can hardly wait for it to be installed.

Seems like this is about enough information.. but honestly there's more! Mug and I watched The Colour Purple together, we had poached eggs, drank Lambic Framboise - not Mug; BFML, I did washing/carding experiments, BFML freecycled and I landed up with a copy of Eat, Pray, Love... the only book I've wanted to review by the time I was reading page 9. It's that good.

etc. It was an etc. kind of weekend.

All spinning, all the time

Since I got combs from Vikingmaid I haven't knit one single stitch. Not one. I keep spying perfect little Cormo locks in the big cloud of washed fleece that I have by my chair.. and I think how nicely a particular lock will slide onto the comb, and I wonder how much it'll fluff up. The first pass is easy, and it seems to get tougher each pass.. yet the more passes, the cleaner and more oriented the wool becomes.

As I work, residual lanolin softens my hands. Piles of fluffy clouds grow.

Initially it was all about spinning, because the combing was awkward (get enough done to spin for a little while and hope for the best). Now, I'm at another place, where the combing is as enticing as the spinning.. and gosh, the spinning is great.

I have a sense of urgency about it because I have 6 lbs. of Cotswold calling my name. 3 lbs. of Border Leicester, 3 lbs. of 17 micron (no, you did not misread that) Merino. I have Targee. I have.. well, more. It calls my name (you might know the voice of wool in the form of yarn, but in truth it begins speaking as soon as the fiber has been sheared); and frankly there are a lot of voices in this house at the moment.

And, best of all? 40 grams of Qivuit is coming my way. I can spin it as thin as a thread, so 40 grams represents a long, long, long spin.

Somehow I need to win a lottery, because the real world is cramping my style. There aren't enough hours in the day.



ps: If you have been interested in Kiva and found that of late it has been next to impossible to find lending opportunities, it seems to have resolved itself. Yesterday I was able to do 6 loans in areas that are meaningful to me (a seamstress, a craftswoman, a weaver, a woman selling timbers, a woman in construction and a blacksmith). Kiva is truly the most sustained fun you can have for $25.00.

Picture? Mug and Banana playing together at the park; the day's last sunlight streaming though golden hair.

Water and more water

Aside from a small bowl of ice cream this evening, I've done pretty well today. My primary lemon loaf supplier was at the shop today, and she was most cooperative! I think I'm going to save her a great deal of Starbucks dollars which can be turned into yarn with the blink of an eye.

I bought a water purifier the other day, and I've been trying to drink a rather large quantity of ounces each day. I made it to the 50% mark yesterday, and was a complete and utter water-fail today. Tomorrow's another day.

So.. if you're a knitter, you might love Qivuit, adore Cashmere. As a spinner? Phew, it has to be Cormo. I continue to comb the hogget fleece and tonight I have enough to spin for a few hours. It's the most yummy, elastic, milky fleece I've ever touched, and I'm having to stop myself from stalking the Cormo farm website looking for a new lamb to call my own.

2010, look out.

Tomorrow two important things happen. Most critical, BFML's step-father is having a triple bypass and a valve replacement. Larry is the best non-blogger you ever haven't read. Maybe when he recovers we can talk him into joining the fray.

(Know what? Grampa is still hanging on. Apparently on the 'miserable grouchy grampa scale' he is measuring 12 on a scale of 1 to 5. Phew.)

And my Mug turns 14. I can hardly believe it.

This and that

Let's start with eggs.

I'm in a three way tie for being the world's biggest poached egg fan; IK and Darts are the other two contenders.



This Thursday at TKR one of the knitters offered up two dozen local farm eggs. I jumped at the opportunity, and this weekend I have had the pleasure of turning several of them into poached eggs. BFML had previously created a berry jam that I had on a second piece of toast. Problem with those eggs? Some of them are just too big and the poaching is a bit tricky. Now that's a sad, sad story, isn't it?

BFML went on a motorcycle ride to the island. He is very particular about how the dishwasher is loaded, and it drives him into a flap if dishes are sitting around.. I'm a 'fill the sink, and then load the dishwasher' person.



Yay. My way this week.



This is a very special little silk hankie. I was dyeing a stack of them blue, and this lone hankie (ok.. maybe 5) somehow attached itself to another fiber. I have left it on the baker's rack, because I like looking at it, and imagining what it might like to be when it's spun.



I've been dyeing some sock yarn; doing experiments. This particular batch has been quite successful. The colours in the picture are not representative in any way; the yarn is actually an almost black-brown, with reds and oranges. Wayyyyy nice.



Last weekend, Vikingmaid made me these combs. They are lethal, and useful, and some kind of wonderful. I've had part of Cormo hogget fleece #750 washed and partially spun since last spring. Now that I have combs I'm going to work through the balance of the fleece. It's kind of fun to comb a bit now and then, and watch the little clouds pile up.

I've been knitting too.. but we'll save that for later.