Washing Cormo

My friend Sherry brought me some raw fleece; Cormo and Alpaca. I've been so excited about cleaning and spinning it, and today was the day. I decided to go with the Yarn Harlot's method. It took most of the day, and seemed to be pretty close to her pictures. At the end of the day, the fleece was a lot cleaner, but still feels greasy to me, and smells quite strongly.. so I think that I'll do it again with a lingerie bag instead of the pillowcase, and more soap. I'm positive that I didn't use enough soap. The end product is a much whiter fleece, but just full of what looks like grains of sand and vegetable matter. It's all a learning process, right?


Here's the first rinse, in clear, cool water:



Wrapped fleece simmering in soapy water. Lots of dirt in this batch too.



I was test dying some silk and some lace weight while I waited for the fleece to simmer.



Damp Cormo... back to the drawing board I think.



A sneak peak of the Mohair shawl I'm working on.



And.. I also did some spinning tonight. Kathleen has named this Merino 'Green Goddess'. I dyed it for myself, and in my haste I felted it slightly. I actually think that I like it that way, and I'm enjoying spinning it. If only the Lendum wasn't wobbling... I think it has to go back.



And now, I rest. It was a busy day.

Here it is friday

And it turned into a pretty good Friday, overall, after a rough start. Seems like a lot of people, including me, needed the day to realign. Anyway, lots of great people came by the shop for TGIF, and there were loads of customers as well; the place was hoppin.

I wore my new Rangoli hat, and it's just too groovy. Later I'll take a pic.. it was an easy knit and turned into a really fun hat. That's what I was hoping. I wore my gum boots too... Started a new fuzzy mohair triangle shawl. It's looking a bit strange to me, but I want it for warmth, so I figure it'll cooperate in the long run.

So... because this is one super boring (read: tired) blog... I'll post a Dida and Nini pic to spice things up. She's loving her Tentoes hand painted sling (it has a mendhi style painting on the back.. beautiful).

Blocking the Swallowtail.

Blocking Gallery

Click on 'Blocking Gallery' to see the Swallowtail in the process of being blocked. This is the first time I've used foam mats, and I think it is one of the most useful blocking tools ever. The wires I'm using are quite sturdy... I don't want flex on this project, so I'm using 1/8" blocking wires as opposed to the standard (1/16"). The finished blocked shawl measures approximately 60" x 32" as is. I think that's a pretty nice size really. I didn't modify the pattern in any way other than using beads instead of nups.

I think that Evelyn Clark shawls are a HUGE bang for your buck. Not massive projects, not too difficult, short pattern repeats, you don't need miles and miles of yarn, great instructions, and they can be blocked into a very nice size. This shawl ran about $40. The last one I did was about $20 of sock yarn. The next will be less than $200 in bison. The range is only limited by your imagination, since her instructions often include options for different weights of yarn.

I love this shawl so much that I am tempted to cast on another. However... I have that bison on the way, and the first Year of Lace kit is scheduled to arrive shortly. I'm gonna be really busy, really soon.

I'm not a stalker, Sandra, I'm a FAN

Have you, amazingly, NOT heard of Denny? My friend Mandie has, and she lives in Australia.

Denny of SOAR fame? (Scroll to October 15th)

Denny who lit up the Knitting Olympics?

Denny who created the knitting rule 'no knitting gray in the winter'?

Denny, who makes everything just a little brighter? Well, you cannot even imagine how thrilled I was to find out that she is a friend of Amy and Sandra's and that she'd be visiting the shop this past Friday. I think I might have jumped up and down when I found out.

Arrive she did, complete with knitting and a Louet Victoria. She joined a big group of us in wine and cupcakes and just a few surprising and unexpected events. Initially, Amy looked out the window and caught the 'tail end' of a bottle picker having a poop in the alley across the street. Believe me when I tell you, this isn't a common occurrence, but buddy did become the 'butt' (sorry, I just had to) of about 50,000 jokes. Later in the afternoon the fire alarm went off and caused Pumper #1 to arrive, complete with a number of super hot (apology #2.. which automatically becomes #3 because of the #2 comment) firemen. I've never had so much fun at a fire alarm in my entire life. It works really, really well, I might add. I'm sure that people downtown knew that our alarm was going off. I hope to be able to hear again one day soon.

And by the way... I was right about Denny. She is fun. She is kind. She is an amazing knitter and spinner as well. She is everything you ever imagined and more.

Here's a picture of Denny and Amy, where Denny is holding some fiber that I dyed. I will grin when I think of that for the rest of my life.

Swallowtail, and half a monkey

Kathleen and I started a little KAL featuring the Swallowtail shawl pattern and one lone skein of Curious Creek Wasonga sock yarn (the KAL is on the Ravelry Make One Yarnies, if you're interested in joining). It's really a fabulous yarn choice; knits up soft with lovely stitch definition. We both chose the Autumn in New England colourway. Kathleen is working on 3.25mm needles, and I'm way up there at 4.5mm.

When I knit the nup section of the pattern I noticed that my needles were too blunt, even with very loose yarn overs. I had to resort to knitting them off with 0's, and using sewing thread, tacked down a few loose loops. Almost instantly, I fell out of love with my Swallowtail, and felt like it wasn't good enough to be a gift.. that I'd keep it for myself.

After a day or so or ruminating on the darned thing, I decided to rip it back to the main chart, and use beads. I actually had the right colour at home; enough to get started anyway. Phew.. what a relief. It was the right decision, and I'm really pleased with the results. I should be finished knitting later this evening.

It's all about blocking baby. I can hardly wait.

Last night I cast off one Cookie A. Monkey sock. It's been hibernating for months, and I'm glad it's done. As soon as I recover from single sock syndrome, I'll knit the other. I'm wearing it anyway.. with whatever the heck strikes my fancy. This is how women with purple glasses and tiaras do things.

Fearless. I steek, therefore I am.

Fearless, that is.

I LOVE this sweater for about a million reasons, and I have been putting off cutting it for I don't know how long. Today everyone has left the house for various reasons, and I thought ... the time is now. So here you go.

Hela, resting on my near vintage Janome. It sews forwards, and that's about it.



Here we go:



And the cutting part. Where's the bartender when you need him?





Almost done; no going back:



There she is... A CARDI.






Now. Anybody out there have the foggiest idea on how I put a zipper in her? As soon as my heart rate returns to normal I'll be trying to figure that one out.

So I was talking to Amy Singer the other day...

I'll bet you think i'm joshing ya... It went like this:

Amy: Is Amy available?
Annie: I'm sorry, she's with a client right now, can I help you?
Amy: No, I'll call her back later.

I know. You're wishing you were me, aren't you?



My whole weekend went upside down in a big way. I've worked 12 days in a row at one thing or another, and my dream was to go to the farmers market to get Grizzly Gouda (if you don't know about this, you ought to be begging me for directions. It will be the best thing you've ever tried).

Instead... I spent all day Saturday doing housework. Today Mug was sick, so I spent the day inside doing laundry, cooking, and dyeing. I also knitted on the Swallowtail and it is complete up to the end of the third chart. I think I'll have it finished by the end of the week, and hopefully I'll take Mr.G out of time out.

A few great things happened lately. One is that Mandie of EGMTK sold me enough 100% Bison to knit the Heartland Lace Shawl again. It's hard to find this yarn.. it sells super fast. I would have liked to spin it, but the fiber is out of reach at the moment. Anyway, I'm super happy to have found such an amazing vendor and I think her prices are great too.

On Friday evening Make One had a leap year/mini-sock exchange party. Dida came, and we had a ball. I 'managed' to get Dida's mini-sock. I REALLY wanted it because she gave me the full size matching socks for Christmas. It was her very first pair and I'm so pleased to have them. Ok.. I might have peeked; I admit it.. but I don't imagine anybody was too annoyed. At least I hope not. It was the first time I've ever knit at Make One! I've spun, I've visited, I've worked; but never knitted until that night. The very best part was Kathleen's shrimp shooters. When I get the recipe I'll share it, because they really are delicious (and healthy too).

BF's sister Donna visited on Saturday night (hence the flurry of housework), so that was really great. She's someone special.

Somewhere in the desk organizing I knocked a very special Willow Tree 'Sisters by Heart' off of my shelf. She lost both hands. I have found one, and I'm sure I'll find the other, and she'll be as good as new, but right now the both of us are feeling broken up over it. Why couldn't it have been Gumby? He'd have bounced.

The yarn? I dyed and spun it.. it's called Ellie Mae. I think it is my single favorite colourway (hence, I kept it!).