Knitting My Way Home

Who needs Disneyland!

2012-02-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

Instead of Disneyland, this weekend, I went to Detta's land! Detta's is a treasure trove of spinning supplies, from wheels (new and antique), roving (plain and dyed), and miscellaneous supplies. It is like my version of a theme park. There really should be some type of fiber theme park. Instead of a corn field maze, there could be a spinning wheel maze, weaving in and out of hundreds of wheels, stopping to try this one before jumping over to that one. Instead of winning stuffed animals at the carnival rides, you would win roving! Boy oh boy, now that would be a fun time!

I happily started digging through the overflowing boxes at Detta's, I was looking for mostly solid colors in light colors. I have plenty of mixed yarns in dark reds, browns, grays. It was time for something bright and light. So check these out! First is a teal blue/green...

Next is a soft violet

now a spring green, like baby lettuce before it matures...

Then a robins egg blue...

These solids are a beautiful merino. Soft and lovely...I've already filled two bobbins of lemon drop yellow and this is how it looks on the wheel as I'm plying...

Tomorrow I'll post the pictures of the mixed color rovings I picked out as well. If you are interested, check out Detta's, I love the on site experience of picking through her over flowing boxes and shelves of roving, but you can also shop online. Either way, if you are craving a fiber fix, this is one way to ease that itch!

half done spinning

2012-01-31T08:34:00.000-08:00

Once again, I have a pile of unwashed and not yet set yarn in my basket. But I still took pictures of my latest spins. This is one strand of Ginny's Harlequin and one strand of natural BFL. The BFL softened the reds and creams. I think it will knit up soft and marled. Some striping, but probably subtle.

Harlequin on its own turned out like this as a two ply. See how the colors are deeper and more saturated, the sliver grey of the natural BLF really muted and softened the colors. I wonder how these two would work together.

I loved spinning up the Farmer Phil singles I did last month as a custom spin. So this time, I did a two ply. I just love how it turned out. This is also fiber from Ginny.

For the upcoming Yarnover event in April, I'm thinking of doing some sale yarns. I need to move out some of my older yarns, so there just may be a big basket of discounted yarns. Might be fun to do that. All of it is so pretty, I think people who haven't knit with handspun are really missing out on something special. Not just my yarn, although I'm are pretty proud of it. Even though I love to spin, I'm really surprised to find myself turning more and more to my own yarn. And buying less and less commercial yarn. I just may have to do a big ol' destash of my commercial yarns in the future. I have some really nice stuff too. But the limited knitting time I actually have is making it easier for me to use just my own yarn. Sounds like I'm making a big sacrifice doesn't it. Not really. But if you haven't tried handpun yet, seek it out. You may be really surprised in the difference you feel.

Weird search

2012-01-30T08:27:00.001-08:00

OK, this is brief. But someone found my blog by searching "people with missing teeth" Really? Wonder what they thought when they found a knitting blog?

Proof of Spinning

2012-01-26T11:42:00.000-08:00

I know I've been quiet this month, but one thing remains true, I've been spinning.

This armload of unwashed/unset yarn shows a few weeks of spinning. About 20 ounces of some Julie Spins "Pastel Jungle", 8 ounces of Fat Cat Knits roving as well as some plain but absolutely lovely BFL from a local place, Della's. They have all been washed and are in neatly organized skeins in my yarn cubbie. I still need to print out new labels for them and get them all set. Because I just applied for a spot at this year's Yarnover. Last year, Yarnover was my first real exposure selling my handspun. I sold the most I had ever sold as well as being approached by Lila's & Cladine to sell my handspun in their store. That has been just a great experience for me. I can't wait to see what happens this year at Yarnover!

Emily is practicing her photo skills so set up this lovely shot. smile...I love my girls!

So just in case you were wondering, I am spinning, every day. It has truly become my source for calming myself. And I'm so grateful I fell into the rabbit hole of spinning.

Sepia filled world

2012-01-24T12:53:00.000-08:00

Winter has truly set in finally in Minnesota. It is gray and gloomy and with the new snow yesterday it all blurs in various shades of gray, white, and black. Hard to tell where the sky stops and the snow blanketed ground starts. So instead I dig through my fiber basket filled with oranges, reds, and golds. Teals sprinkled in with greys and creams. Yarn is a true blending of colors and that is what I do each day. Watch as the fiber slips through my fingers, sometimes soft, sometimes scratchy, yet blending into a soft yet surprisingly strong piece of yarn. That once it is knit up will yet again transform itself, both colorwise and looks. That is the beauty of spinning and knitting, what you start with is transformed into something even better. This is a short post, one to let you know I'm still here, still spinning, still dreaming...

The new year beckons

2012-01-06T10:59:00.001-08:00

The last few weeks have been filled to the brim with life. Holiday get togethers, family gatherings, and the joy of spending time with my girls. It also brought mind numbing tiredness. So I gave. I kept moving, doing the things I needed to, but that was as good as I could get. Toss in a wicked hard cold that I'm still struggling to get on the other side and you can see where I've been for the last 3 weeks.

However, I did manage to carve out slivers of time for myself. I learned to spin singles through some trial and error. First results so so, but now I'm pretty comfortable with how it looks and feels...

I also received my next order from Fat Cat Knits, I "only" ordered 5 pounds of roving this time...see how much fun is coming my way?

So tonight, before the onslaught of our crazy weekend jammed packed days, I'm going to sit, slowly pre-draft some fiber and let the soothing whoosh whoosh of my wheel take me to a calm place.

I'm stressed and tired. Can't think of a better way to calm myself.

Hockey Time

2011-12-12T08:36:00.000-08:00

With Anna officially a Hockey cheerleader, you can imagine where I'm spending two nights a week for the next several months. Yup, an icy finger numbing ice rink. I get to watch this...

and this...

All the while I'm working on various knitting projects. I keep forgetting to wear my own fingerless mitts to keep my hands warm. Crazy! I'm knitting Anna's fingerless mitts. At this rate, I should have the second pair done in before the first of the year. Check out what I bring to the games...

I have Anna's mitts on top. Underneath them you can see my own mittens, I've worn them for two years and they are clearly my favoriets. In the knitting bag on the left, you can just see a second sock that is waiting for the foot to be finished. So once that mitt is done, look out, the sock will be next. And I broke down this weekend and got a pair of sturdy warm boots to wear at the games. I just couldn't keep my feet warm enough, even wearing hand knit socks. So now I will be set, my feet will be warm in my new boots and if i can only remember to bring my own fingerless mitts I'll be fine!

Look who else was having fun at the game...might have been knowing that hot chocolate was near on the horizon!

Shocking Spinning Knitting Content

2011-12-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

I know, this is supposed to be primarily a knitting/spinning blog. Well life happens, and while I'd love to spin and knit full time, unless i win the lottery, that isn't going to happen. And having two girls, a job, and my mom living with us, sometimes my crafting takes more of a back seat than I would like. But onward...I give you proof that I am still spinning....and knitting....

Isn't this basket of fluff just lovely? It is a beautiful tealy blue green with just hints of purple sprinkled throughout. It is Polwarth and spinning up nicely. When I was predrafting I wondered if may have felted just a bit, but once I started spinning it, everything worked out well.

This is the first full bobbin of the blue/green fiber, nestled in a bed of the softest squishiest cream yarn. I think the cream would be a nice base for some stranded work. I'm thinking of coming up with another hat to make up kits for, maybe this would be a good start for it.

I finished these yarns last week, moving from the left, I have two skeins of this, I call it Storm Lake, I can not take a good picture of this, it has much more blue than green in real life. The red is one of three nice size skeins of a Tuscany red colorway. It is Lorna Laces and I bought this roving on vacation in Colorado this summer. Next to it I have 2 skeins of Kodiak. I spun it before and loved how it turned out. And finally I have one skein of a beautiful St. Patrick green wool silk blend that I think is yummy.

I've also been knitting. This is a present for my cousin who is marvelous. She watches my girls when I need some help and is generally the kindest and most loving person I know. So Heidi is going to be the recipient of one of my few knitted Christmas gifts this year. This is the Advent Scarf from 2010. It was done on Ravelry as a KAL last year. A pattern per day was released for the month of December, resulting in a large and beautiful scarf/shawl. I knew I couldn't manage to knit a pattern a day, so started working on the 2010 scarf in November. Even with that, I'm only on the 9th day of the pattern. From the results I read on Ravelry, I know this is a very large scarf/shawl and so I'm planning on knitting about 18 days of the patterns, maybe 20. So I'm hopeful this will be finished before I meet Heidi to celebrate.

And finally, what every photographer needs, is a good assistant or two. Emily decided she could take better pictures than me (probably can). Anna helped stretch out the knitting as needed. And while Emily was taking her pictures, I took one of her. So hopefully this confirms that I'm still spinning and knitting. Let me know what you are working on...or even what you would like to see that I'm doing...always interesting to hear from readers.

Thankful time

2011-11-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

I had the longest break from work since early summer. Amazing how many things you can pack into a 5 day period! Lots of family, food, and even rest. We did some of this...since as a Hockey Cheerleader, one must show they can actually skate! Emily's skates needed to be sharpened so she was content to running around the outside of the rink and having fun taking pictures of Anna and her friend.

This also happened, we got our first snow of the season. Only a couple inches here, my sister got over a foot in the wilds of Wisconsin and were lucky they got plowed out in time for them to attend Steve's family Thanksgiving event. We had to pass on that one as Emily had a wicked cold that morphed into a lovely case of pink eye. Fun times at our house I tell you!

I did plenty of spinning, but have no pictures. I have 3 skeins waiting to soak and dry, then they will be ready for their close ups. But what I am excited about, is this. I'm placing a big order from my favorite fiber dyer, Ginny. I'm down to about 2-3 weeks of roving at the pace I'm spinning right now. So with the holidays coming up and extra time at home, I will need some new stuff to work on. It is a Christmas present to myself! Once I've firmed up on my color choices, I'll share. But I'm leaning towards lots of color, especially with all the winter gray that will soon be here...color is good!

Crazy Pants Crazy

2011-11-18T11:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, I love the Yarn Harlot and lately my world has been crazy pants crazy. My youngest daughter has been sick for the last 3 days. High fever. How do I know she feels terrible? She will take medicine. If she takes any medicine, she feels HORRIBLE. This is the child who did not take any pain killers the day after getting home from the hospital after having bone marrow removed from her hip, inserted into her jaw, stray teeth pulled from way high up in her mouth, and stitches everywhere in her gums. She wouldn't even take kiddie tylenol. So when she willing takes medicine, that is a sure sign she is really really sick. I'm at work where there is more craziness going on with people leaving, new bosses, new rules, lots of uncertainty. We have not one but two Thanksgiving events to go to in the next week. Yup, that is my life in a nutshell.

But the good news? After sleeping 12 hours straight, this child of mine who NEVER EVER takes naps, called me at work and says "momma! this is serious! my temp is 96.82!" Well my love, that is so much better than the 102.76 it was a day ago....and who was upset she wasn't in school because she was going to miss math. I've said it before, clearly there is no genetic material between us since I can not fathom missing math. nope...not for a minute...

and there you have it, a brief interlude into my crazy pants life. stay tuned for the next installment of my spinning world...may there be knitting or spinning included.

ps: I wouldn't change this crazy pants life for anything.

Using my handspun

2011-11-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday the girls and I went to the UMA Fiber Festival. It was a good day as far as exposure and lots of people stopping by to chat. I sold a few things, but frankly I had limited stock since I just sold a bunch of yarn to Lila & Claudines. I had a good time, but clearly I'm going to need to spin like crazy between now and spring to ensure I have plenty of yarn for Yarnover and hopefully even Shepherd's Harvest.

Emily got bored and took a variety of pictures during the day...so here goes a few shots...to the right lower edge of the shot you can see a wire basket that I labeled Hodgepodge - Yarn with Attitude. I put small skeins, old beginner skeins, and my mishmash skeins of yarn at lower prices. People laughed at these but had fun looking through them.

The next shot appears to have caught Anna completely by surprise but made me laugh. Anna finished reading a book during the day which drove Emily bonkers, since she didn't have anyone to talk to. Hence Emily would try various methods to engage Anna away from her book and more to what Emily wanted to do. Nothing like a little sisterly love!

I spent the day spinning some super saturated pinks/greens/yellows. I got quite a bit done however, the chair I sat on most of the day was much lower than what I usually sit on to spin. The next day my back went out. It wasn't awful like it has been in the past, but enough that I will have to take care in the future on what chair I use to spin with.

I've taken a break from spinning for the next couple weeks. I've been almost exclusively spinning which means my knitting has really taken a back seat. I miss the knitting time. And I especially miss knitting with my handspun. I promised a hat and fingerless mitt set to a good friend. We actually went to a local yarn shop and she picked out the yarn she wanted me to use. Once I was done with last weeks festival, I knew I needed to get working on her stuff as it has turned quite cool here, there were snow flurries this week. I started working on the mitts and the yarn we picked just did not work out at all. It was too thick, I adjusted the stitch count etc and still wasn't happy. So I took a chance. I went through my handspun and found yarn that was maybe a shade or two lighter than the colors she picked for the mitts. The hat is a stranded tam, solid color was brown, I had a beautiful merino silk blend in chocolate brown in my handspun as well. So I started again, only this time using my handspun. I think the problem is I love using my handspun and am finding commercial yarn just not the same. Look what I've done...

Aren't they pretty? I should have the hat finished this weekend, I'll block everything and have it ready to give her next week. I need to weave in the ends on the mitts, but I'm really happy and I think she will also be happy to have some of my hand spun. I sure hope so!

Work surprises

2011-11-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

I work for a medical device company. While our offices are in the suburbs, we are directly off a main highway. However, our buildings are surrounded by woods and ponds. We have wild turkeys, deer, fox, and other various critters roaming our grounds. (sometime I need to tell you the story of the turkeys attacking certain cars) The building I'm in is having construction work done on the parking lot. Which means that I have to park at our other building and either walk through that building and then the sky way that links the two buildings or walk through the woods on a path that goes up and down some steep pitches while you are completely surrounded by trees. You can hear squirrels and chipmunks chattering and scolding you as you walk through. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I came around the bend and met him.

It was a young buck. It has antlers and just stood there watching me. I talked to him, trying to convince him that he should keep ambling across the path as I needed to get past him. He didn't budge. I slowly walked forward chattering away and still he stood there. I got about 3 feet away before he turned tail and crashed into the trees. I looked over and there was another young buck watching me from inside the tree line. Funny that even though I'm smack dab in the city, even here I'm surrounded by wild life.

14th Gotcha Day

2011-11-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Gotcha day is celebrated in my family much like a birthday. 14 years ago I was in China being handed my first child. Yi, Zhi Hua became Anna Grace ZhiHua. I became a mom. And together we became a family. So many decisions lead up to this day. When I was a teenager I read books like "The Family Nobody Wanted". I read and saw documentaries about the DeBoldt family in California. They adopted many children for other lands, kids that needed a family. It stuck in my brain and my heart. 20 years later I read an article in a magazine about a single female Pastor who adopted a baby girl in China. And that was it. I started looking and checking and thinking. Four years later I was in China and my life was forever changed. It hasn't always been easy. But it has ALWAYS been right. I'm so grateful that in spite of the many obstacles tossed in along the way, I found my way to Anna. And through her, we found Emily. So to my oldest daughter. Happy Gotcha Day! I will always love you. Thank you for letting me be your mom.

Strength

2011-10-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

It amazes me how strong my yougest daughter is. To see her dealing with multiple doctor appointments in a single day, to see her with metal boxes in her mouth that are holding her jaw in a much wider position while there are wires pulling her upper teeth too and fro is hard. I try and show her how each little improvement is adding up to a big beautiful healthy mouth. Try and explain that to a 9 year old who only wants to have a smile that shows her upper teeth just like every one else and who wants her top lip to have a cupid's bow instead of being straight across. My girl is strong willed and determined. Today we will go have more adjustments made to her braces and to check on her bone grafting surgery. Will we have to redo the surgery to correct one side of the bone grafting? That is the sugery that she said she'd rather eat 9 bowls of peas so she wouldn't have to do it again. Pray for us that she can be spared another round of surgery. But if not, pray that I can explain it to her so she understands that ultimately it will be the best for her.

***UPDATE: I'm happy to report that Emily does NOT have to have the bone grafting surgery again, while there isn't as much bone in her right jaw as he wanted, there is most likely "enough" and that is good. We don't have to go back for about a year and a half. Whoo Hoo!

Pre-Winter preparations

2011-10-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

The winter basket full of mittens and hats from last year has been dug out and items too small or worn out have been discarded. The rest was washed in preparation for the winter soon to come. Note I didn't say carefully washed. Sigh...I took a stranded knitting class a few years ago, I made a beautiful gray, white and black hat that Anna promptly claimed as her own. She wore this hat happily for the last two winters. Nothing makes this knitter happier than to see something she made used by one of her girls. Nothing makes this knitter sadder than to see the carnage resulting in a slip of tossing a stranded hat knit from baby alpaca into the washer AND drier.

Not even Gadget will wear it.

Pictures Galore

2011-10-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

November 5th I will be a vendor at the Upper Midwest Alpaca Fiber Festival, in getting ready for the event, I did a bit of staging for the show at home. So here are a bunch of pictures showing my yarns ready to be made into something fabulous...or just to be admired and petted!

This is about 1/3 of my finished skeins...and on the right is the hat I made that I'm hopefully going to have a few kits made up as a package deal at the event.

I found two really nice baskets that I think work very well as displays. And I love the idea of dreaming of what next I'm going to work on...be it spinning or knitting...right now spinning is pushing knitting out of the way, but I really have several things I need to get done knitting wise in the next couple months. Not all Christmas knitting, but still a few things that can't wait.

My cousin took the pictures for me, I emailed her and asked to hire her to take pictures of yarn. Bet she never heard that request before. Heidi is an amazing photographer. Years ago, she took pictures of Anna and me that I used in my adoption dossier for Emily. Maybe it helps that I'm more relaxed around her than other photographers? I'm not sure...but even though it is hard for me to be in pictures, I like this...

Emily was our gopher, helping stuff baskets with yarn, running and grabbing my roving basket for this picture. You can see it behind us on the stair landing. It is filled to the brim, what you see in our laps is the overflow! To say I have some spinning to do is the ultimate understatment. Working full time, doing school things, church things with the girls and all the other life appointments makes spinning/kintting as much as I want more of a challenge. But I'm determined to continue to stock my finished supply. I really would like to have double my current number on hand for the spring fiber festivals I'm planning on vending at. So I need to focus on moving things through. What a chore!

As I spin, I always think what I'm currently working on is my new favorite. The middle skein is Kodiak, one of Ginny's fabulous rovings from Fat Cat Knits. I love the greyish browns and silvers...maybe when things slow down I can work on something using it.

And finally, just in case you think wrangling yarn is easy, check out this shot, we couldn't get a certain skein of yarn to stay in place, so we used a little help.

Hope to see you in Hopkins!

Fabulous Day of Spinning

2011-10-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning was one of those you memorize in your mind. So in January when the wind is howling and the snow is piling up outside, you remember some of the reasons why you live here. It was a gloriously sunny day to be spinning in public. I got to Lilia & Claudine's around 9:30, pulled out my wheel and basket filled with plenty of roving and got set up outside their shop. There were multiple vendors, selling pottery, jewelry, yarn, food treats, vegetables and much more. People were browsing the many tents and I had such fun.

Within a couple seconds I had my wheel up and whizzing away. And the first of many people stopped to watch and ask questions. I forget how many people do not realize there are many of us who have our own spinning wheels and spindles. Seeing the amazement on their faces as they ask what I'm doing and when they finally understand I'm making yarn it is the shock and awe effect. I was surprised by the multiple questions on my "home-made" wheel. When I explained that it was a commercial wheel (I have a Louet) and that there were several different companies that built many different types and styles of wheels, there was much shock. Kids seemed to have an easier understanding, maybe between Rumpelstiltskinn or Sleeping Beauty, they seemed better able to make the leap to a finished yarn from sheeps wool.

I was asked so many questions on where I got the roving, how it came in such different colors, and what I actually did with the finished wool. I did have a big issue, it was quite cold even though it was so sunny and bright. I was mostly in the shade and with a light breeze blowing, my hands quickly got so cold. Now I had some fingerless mitts along, but I had not finished the thumbs. I was sure I would have plenty of time to whip out two thumbs. Well, I was wrong. I had a steady stream of people around the wheel for several hours. I finally had enough time after about 3 hours to finish one thumb and gratefully slid my left hand into the glove and it quickly warmed up that hand so I could once again feel the roving slide through my fingers.

All in all it was a wonderful day. I had the pleasure of seeing one woman buy 3 of my hand spun skeins during the day. I was able to have a full day of doing something I love. Thanks to Kirsten and Polly of Lila & Claudine's for helping set up such a wonderful event and including me! I had a blast.

Spinning in Public

2011-09-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday, from 10-3, I'll be spinning in public at Lila & Claudines. I think it will be a blast. Considering it is MN, I whipped out a pair of fingerless mitts, althought I still need to do the thumbs and weave in the ends. I can even do that tomorrow on site. The weather is supposed to be glorious for the first of October. I'll have my basket of yarn with me in case someone is in desperate NEED of handspun yarn. They are celebrating Art in Triangle park...come and visit and see the many fun and beautiful treasures created by local artists....did I mention there are around 85 days until Christmas?

Friends

2011-09-26T13:04:00.000-07:00

I have a lovely friend who embroiders linens like you wouldn't believe.

Look what she gave me....

I'm in love...the linen is heavy like "old" linen...and her stitching is perfect. It makes my old wooden farm table glow.

Spinning makes the world go round

2011-09-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

Now I've been spinning for about 2 1/2 years. My skills have improved quite a bit from the first bumpy lumpy "art" yarn I first created. I'm pretty consistent in the size and shape of my yarns. They are even and balanced. But one thing that continues to amaze me and leave me totally in the dark? How the yarn will look from roving. I do grasp that the colors will usually not be as intense as they are in the roving. But beyond that? Each spin leaves me marveling at the end result. Even when I have a bobbin full of singles, I'm not always sure exactly how it will turn out. Case in point, I spun up two totally different singles. One is soft lavenders, greens, and blues. The other, appropriately named Peacock, is powerful, electric lime green, pulsating blues. They look like this.

They are both beautiful colors, but really not much alike other than they both have greens of a different mother and blues that glare at each other from across the room. But they are totally different in hue and feel. Until you ply them together. Then the magic of spinning takes hold and creates something so unexpectedly beautiful and unpredictable. Look....

The loud screaming peacock has been subdued but the pale blushing fiber has been elevated to something bold and softly daring. So I spin. And watch for each new mix to create something magical. I love my wheel.

And now on a totally different note....look at my Gadget. He is a well loved pug. He is pampered and hugged and catered to. And for this? He puts up with great indignities most pugs would not.

First day of fall

2011-09-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

I tell time differently than most people who simply use a calendar. Today is my first official day of fall, why you ask? Because today my feet are in handknit wool socks and REAL shoes. sigh...when there is frost on the roof tops and the grass feels crunchy underfoot it means it is time to pull out the big guns. So I kitchnered the toes on a new pair of socks (why do I always balk at doing the toes!) this morning, pulled out my rather dusty shoes and my toes were happily snug and warm on my walk into work today.

I am thrilled we are getting a couple more days of flip flop weather but probably only a couple before the toes are snuggled up for months to come. But really, while I love my flip flops, I love my handknit socks more! Come on fall! My toes are calling you!

Finally a FO!

2011-09-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

May I present my version of Fat Cat Knit's Floppy FairIsle Hat. Emily has claimed it as hers, it still needs to be blocked but at least the ends are woven in!

I used Ginny's fiber as well as her pattern. I did simplify the pattern as I used just two yarns, the neutral is her varigated BFL and a blue/brown mix. It makes it look like I used multiple skeins to achieve the look. But it is just 2 yarns. The handspun is beautiful and soft. I'm thrilled with it. I'm planning on making up some kits with the appropriate amount of yarn to make the hat. I have a couple fiber events coming up so I'll have them there and hopefully at Lila & Claudine's as well.

It felt good to finish some knitting, lately my projects have been big and slow...and I'm talking to you, Atalanta Scarf! This hat I made start to finish in 4 days and those were mostly work days!

I had to convince Emily that wearing a wool hat on a day that will top out at 90 degrees was not the best plan. But just wait until Wed, the high is supposed to be a whopping 60! Hats will sound perfect then.

Fall has arrived

2011-09-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

As in many places in the US, the weather this year has been unpredictable at best. Swinging from one extreme to another. But we here in MN have apparently tipped from the hot end of summer lazy hazy days to the crisp cool evenings of fall. While fall is my favorite season, I'm a bit sad at the quick fading of summer. Both girls are back into school, Anna is now in HIGH SCHOOL. My how did that happen. Emily is charging full steam into 4th grade, happy to move from class to class. I'm just trying to keep up.

I've been spinning a lot as I try to build up my stock for an event in November. This is my latest spin, a lovely soft blue and lavender. It reminds me a a soft watercolor painting. I'm thinking of naming it Water Lillies. The fiber is from the wonderful Ginny of Fat Cat Knits. Her eye for color is just amazing and I'm so happy to use her fiber. If you have any interest in spinning or knitting from great product, than you won't go wrong with buying from Ginny.

On that note, I'm working up a hat, using my handspun that I spun up from Ginny. And to top it off (bad bad pun) I'm using a pattern that Ginny worked up. It is called the Floppy Fairisle Hat. Now I'm simplifying it by only using two colors of yarn, a beautiful neutral and a charming blue/brown mix. I just started it, but here is a quick peek at it.

I'm quite happy with the colors working with each other and it is working up very quickly. I'm hoping to make up some kits for a yarn/fiber festival in November as well as bring them to Lila and Claudines and see what they think of them. But it is off to a good start.

I hope your fall comes in slowly and lingers long before we are thrust into a true winter, but at least it is perfect knitting weather!

Black Hole Knitting

2011-08-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

I love the Stargate tv series, mostly Stargate Atlantis, but either is fine. Perfect knitting/spinning tv watching or should I say listening fodder. There is plenty of techno babble speak throughout the series involving time dilation fields, out of phase episodes, alternate realities, and black holes. I fear my tv world is turning into a reality. I swear I'm in the black hole of knitting. I've been knitting and knitting and knitting and KNITTING on my Atalanta scarf. Now I love this scarf. See? What's not to love. I am much farther than this picture. YES I AM! I love the yarn. I love the pattern. I especially love the criss crossy border. However, I'm still knitting on the first skein of yarn. I actually did start knitting the pattern as if I'm at the half way point. But I'm still on the same flipping skein! I look at it each time I start, convinced that today will be the day that it will run out. The second skein is wound into a cake and ready to go. Each night when I'm putting it away I look and.... sigh...that little ball is still going strong. I keep telling myself to just keep finishing each pattern repeat and before I know it I will be able to start the decreases and then WHOOSH! I will finish it.

Now I will admit I have let spinning take the forefront in my crafting time. I finished two skeins of frolic. I love how it turned out, it is very girlie I think. There is enough roving to have another 2 skeins so I think I will end up with over 900 yards of Frolic.

The BFL variegated spun up beautifully. I have two nice skeins of that although they are still waiting for a soak to finish the twist. But what needs to really happen is knitting some hats out of my handspun. My goal is to have some hats knit out of my handspun along with kits of the pattern and yarn to sell both at Lila and Claudines as well as at the two upcoming fiber/art festivals I'm participating in this fall. So black hole of knitting or not, I must put aside my scarf and whip up some cute hats, I'm leaning towards one baby/kid hat and one hopefully two adult hats. Did I mention the first event is October 1? And looking at the calendar, that is a mere 5 weeks away. Oh ya, can't see why I'm stressed over that at all! Besides what have I got to do other than spinning, devising an oh so clever little pattern or two or three,and knit those clever patterns? Oh just a full time job, two girls starting school in a couple weeks, shopping for final school clothes for my girls, getting girls and/or mom to various Dr. appointments and finding time to sleep. No problem.

If only I could figure out that time dilation field thing where time goes much slower in one reality than the other. My luck? I'd whip myself into the time that is moving exponentially faster than now....hmmmmm....maybe I already did!

Spinning Frolic

2011-08-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

Since I'm sitting on a MOUNTAIN of roving, I've been spinning like crazy. So far I've completed 2 skeins of a yummy chocolate brown that is merino and silk. What should have been a luxurious spin was one of frustration. I just don't like spinning from batts. These batts were really soft but as I spun, I could never find a good rhythm and found little nepps hiding in the fiber. And to top it off, it lent itself to a really FINE FINE spin. Which meant it took a LOOOONNNNNGGGGG time to spin. Now that it is done, I like it, but for now at least I'm going to shy away from batts.

Once I was done with the chocolate puddle of yarn I turned to this...the first of the 9 pounds of fiber I selected from Fat Cat Knits. Let me introduce you to Frolic. Now you may need sunglasses at the almost psychedelic hues but oh my what a treat.

I spun it into a nice 2 ply, which I think would be great for something for a baby maybe. You can see the single and if you squint past the flyer you can see a bit of the 2 ply. Currently the 2 skeins are hanging on the lighting arm of my ceiling fan to dry after a nice soak from last night.

Which brings me to a dream I have. Currently my yarn is in my bedroom. Along with my wheel, a large cubby unit that holds ALL my yarn, a dresser, a queen size bed, two bedside tables and a floor Ott light. This is my present yarn studio. I don't claim any longer to have a bedroom, I have a yarn room with a bed in it. My dream is someday I will have a dedicated yarn room or dare I say a studio. I guess the luxury I have is I can plan and dream and decide what I would have in that studio. Interweave has a new issue of its magazine Studios out and the amazing organized chock full of crafting goodness just made me long and dream about what mine would like like. I think one of the things I'd like is some type of island that would have a top that I could use for blocking out my completed knitting. It would have shelves underneath that I could fill with baskets of roving and yarn. A practical item but at the same time one that would be a feast for my eyes and yet keep me organized. I want a place where I could hang yarn to dry as I set the twist. It would have a wall unit of some type that would be flexible enough to hold skeins of yarn as well as my books and magazines (which would be magically organized so I could find whatever pattern I wanted). Someday I will have this type of space. But right now, I'm happy in my version of a yarn room. It is filled with yarn and fiber. My girls come in and spend time with me all the time on their own (I know!). I'm blessed.

But back to spinning...this is the next batch on the wheel. It is a variegated BFL and it feels like silk....

Lila and Claudines

2011-08-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

This has been a banner week in my spinning/knitting world. I brought a basket of my handspun into a local yarn shop, Lila and Claudines. And I heard such lovely and warm compliments on my yarn. And to my delight and amazement, they bought a chunk of my handspun to have in their store! Yup, bought it from me. And asked me to come back and spin at their store and attend an upcoming festival and sell my yarn. This is one of the most vibrant color exploding yarn shops I've been in. Take a look!

Doesn't that just read fabulous! And full of creative and funny people who encourage and guide customers into really exploring yarn to its fullest. I'm thrilled to be "part of the family."

The aaaahhhh from up north

2011-08-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

We went to Grand Marais this weekend. It is one of my very favorite places in the world to visit. The air is fresh and clean and gazing out over Lake Superior is just awe inspiring. This isn't actually in Grand Marais, but is Goosberry Falls. The best part is the weather, the temps at home have been in the 90's with high humidity. To the point you feel like you have to physically push your way through the air. But in Grand Marais, it is usually 20 degrees cooler. You are on the lake so the breeze is cool and soothing (at least to me).

The girls were going to go swimming until they stuck their toes in the water and gasped at the shock of 45 degree water! But still we played and walked up and down the shore, looking for magical rocks, dragging up driftwood for my mom (which is now safely home nestled among our potted plants). I was content to laugh and watch as the danced in and around the water. Emily was the one who would wade out and grab the rocks from as deep as she could reach. Anna and me? We picked the rocks actually on the shore!

Once we returned home, it was back in the humidity and grateful for air conditioning. Went to work today and what was delivered to me? But a BOX of roving from Ginny at Fat Cat Knits, I mean a BOX people! I got NINE pounds of roving. NINE! Don't even ask me how long it will take me to spin that up. I placed the order 2 wees ago and have spun madly trying to clear the way from my stash so I can nestle these beauties in the basket...

Is that not the MOST fabulous pile of roving ever? There are 8 colorways jumbled together and another pound not pictured of a natural light beigy taupy bfl. So I'm in heaven and it is the most I can do to not dump out the roving from the box on to the floor of my cube and rolling around in it. It is a mix of BFL and Merino. Just can't wait to start it.

Oh and while in Grand Marais, I found a small yarn shop and Emily picked something out there for my upcoming birthday. I picked out a book Knit! Swirl! This is the most beautiful sweater idea I've seen in awhile. And I'm toying with spinning enough yarn to make it for myself. Can't think of a better way of showcasing my own handspun at events than to work up something like that.

Well I better get back at it and NO I don't mean rolling in my roving!

Squinty eye pictures

2011-07-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

I need to take better pictures...case in point...my latest spin, Wizard Island...

This looks like the yarn is moving so fast that it is in motion...wait, you mean yarn doesn't move? So that means my picture taking is well, awful. In real life this is over 400 yards of beautiful two ply wool yarn.

So lets move on to my knitting project. Yes I still knit, really I do. While spinning is taking over more and more of my time, I still knit almost every day. I found this great pattern, the atalanta scarf I fell hard for this one, the edging just about made me swoon. I immediately favorited this on Ravelry but kept knitting away on other, now much less worthy projects. Finally I started it, first in some on hand yarn because I couldn't possibly wait to go look for the perfect yarn. After a few failed attempts to understand the pattern I got it, and worked away for several repeats until I came to the bitter conclusion that the yarn was too puny. The knitting was lackluster at best. So rippppp it went. My girls love to "help" when something needs ripping. In seconds they have undone what took me hours to do.

I went off in pursuit of the perfect yarn to make my Atalanta scarf. I found a couple skeins of Prism Saki yarn in the Copper Penny colorway. Perfect yarn I'm telling you. After another few false starts, clearly I had yet to fully wrap my head around how to execute a six row pattern repeat of the right edging with the eight row pattern repeat on the left edging. What? I confused myself again just typing that. So a slight alteration, ahem, "pattern design" and I was on my way. Last night I took a picture, laid my shining copper penny scarf on a white t-shirt for the BEST possible picture. The result?

I know my tshirt is not new, but it is NOT yellow! So clearly my picture taking is at an all time low. I'm sure all of you are ju

I'm getting feed up, this is my third attempt to finish my oh so witty observations on why my picture taking is crappy. I mentioned melting due to the sun (hence the yellow cast to my white t-shirt). I mentioned future problems may be due to frost bite (it will snow here again someday). Believe me it was funny. Side splitting funny. not lame at all. nope not me. But since neither the blog gods or picture goddesses are with me today, I'm saving and moving on. Watch, this will go up without a hitch!

nope, this is my fifth attempt...maybe the pictures are so embarrassed they are being gremlins and trying to prevent this missive from hitting the world at large. Ya, get over it, few people will see you! Buck up buttercup, let your blurry yellow tinged glory stand proud. POST for crying out loud.

Return of the knitter

2011-07-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

We've returned from vacation. I'm telling you, the last few months have been a bit overloaded and I really enjoyed our time away. Just look at this....

Is that not the most glorious picture? We were at Mount Rushmore, it was a beautiful day, I looked up and it felt like God's hand would reach out to me at any moment.

We were gone for about 10 days, a lot of driving, but I loved the scenery. We started in Vail, CO where my nephew and his wife live. While the mountains were gorgeous, I decided it wasn't a place I'd like to live. Does anyone else do that? Measure places by deciding if you want to live there or not? I do. We had a lot of fun there including the girls slid down a mountain top. Yup, I said SLID. There was still snow up there and combine that with some plastic garbage sacks and they can now claim they slid in July. smile. After a few days in Fail, we headed to Rapid City and had even more fun at Mount Rushmore.

Even though I've been here before, you forget how amazing it is until you are standing below the Presidents. And the story of how they were chiseled out of the mountain is worth the trip alone. Directly from there we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial.

This I had not seen before and even though is is not finished it is stunning. And what I think they do better than the Mount Rushmore site, is there is a great museum and informational center right there. The story of Mount Rushmore is explained in great detail in a museum in Keystone, a nearby little town at the base of Mount Rushmore, but not actually at the site. Crazy Horse had a great informational center right there. Now you may notice a difference in the skies, they were taken about an hour apart. Maybe because in trying to get from Mount Rushmore to Crazy Horse, the driver (ahem, that would be me) somehow ended up going up a road climbing a mountain that was maintained by the Park Rangers. Yup, that was one interesting ride, full of switchbacks, one lane tunnels carved out of the side of the mountain, and even wild critters crossing the road in front of you....like Bison! Just an additional adventure on the way to Crazy Horse. We left the Crazy Horse monument and in 10 minutes were pulled over on the side of the road as torrential rain and HAIL pounded our rental Jeep! Fun times...the girls had plenty to say about that, let me tell you!

I only found one place on our travels that had yarn. In a small town near Vail, there was a yarn shop. I bought roving but was disappointed I couldn't seem to find more wool/sheep filled fun. I did finish knitting a scarf out of my hand spun, but it needs to be blocked before any pictures can be taken.

But I'm back and have been spinning and knitting as much as I can. So many ideas are floating in my head! Just a few more pictures of our time away...

My mom and my girls. Can't ask for much more than this.

Emily Update

2011-06-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

My girl is a fighter. Determined. Willing the world to follow the logic in her brain. Tuesday night she came in crying, I thought she lost a tooth as she was holding a bloody cloth in her mouth. She held out her hand, it had what looked liked crushed rocks or sandy coral in it. Then she told me she had a big hole in her gum. Right where they did her bone grafting 3 months ago. sigh. I called the oral surgeon yesterday morning, we were in his office at noon. At least part of the bone graft on the left side has failed. The only reason I didn't cry was because Emily was in the room. So we are scheduled for another day surgery two days after we get back from vacation to clean out her gum and close the hole. I don't know what we will do next. I'm so sad for my girl. We will get through it and everything will be ok. After all, Emily wouldn't have it any other way.

As promised!

2011-06-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

And without further ado...here is my Sweetgrass scarf in progress...

Isn't she pretty! It is made from my handspun...a mix of wool and silk. The resulting yarn is a bit rustic looking but with a really nice strong yet soft feeling to it. The pattern is the Seattle Bloom scarf which is found in the Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book. I love this book, it is where I also got the pattern for my Lettuce Slide scarf. My handspun is thicker than sock yarn but I don't mind a wider scarf. Not after last winter that is for sure. In any event, I love the subtle striping of the scarf. I'm knitting with my handspun so I can have more samples at my sale tables in the future. Like that is a hardship. smile...I love knitting with my handspun. Although I'm not sure about the yardage, according to the pattern it needed 400 yards. I had about 440 yards and I left out two repeats, one for chart A and then the corresponding repeat in chart B. Hopefully that will be enough, since I do not have more roving. But that is me, always living on the knitting world edge! Stay tuned.

Crazy Jam Packed Life

2011-06-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

Hello, I used to blog here. sigh. Still no camera. I have a new one. It came with no memory card. I can take 3 pictures. Add to list - go buy new memory card.

Work is so crazy busy that last night while watching House Hunter's International they went to Iceland. I thought it sounded lovely. They have sheep there. I may have thought about checking air fare. Already know house prices. Just saying.

Please come back soon. I promise I will have new pictures. Really. And not just made up ones from my mind. Now that would be scary.

Happy Birthday Emily

2011-05-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today my Emily is 9. This child of mine who came to me so angry and scared is 9. Who started life differently than a lot of kids. She is funny and bright and strong willed. Determined to bend all others to her way of thinking. Don't bet against her. This little girl brought such spice into my life. Anna and I were a good team but when Emily joined us she brought such zest into our lives and filled a hole that I didn't even realize was there. I love my girls. I want them to be everything they think they can be. And to reach so far beyond what they think they can do. Happy Birthday Emily. You've done it. You are 9!

No camera but links galore

2011-05-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

My old camera is about dead. It has served me well, I've dragged it all over, sometimes carefully, most times, not so much. Still it took serviceable pictures. Nothing earth shattering but it did the job. Well I got to pick out an award at work recently to celebrate my 5th anniversary here. I picked a camera. I'm getting it next week. So I just haven't bought new batteries etc for the old camera. It is now dead. Rest in peace my friend. Which means even though I had a fiberpalooza weekend, I have no pictures. So what is a girl to do?

I could try to verbally describe the trip out to Detta's Spindle where I happily rummaged around and left with five bags of natural cream fiber, some lovely wine colored wool mohair mix, a silvery gray, and a bump of mill end of a heathery blue roving. I accomplished this in under 10 minutes. If you are in the neighborhood of Detta's, run, do not walk and just fill up your fiber tank.

I could let you know my utter delight of arriving home from Detta's to find a box from Fat Cat Knits where I ordered another, oh um, 4 different sets of handpainted roving, each from 6-8 ounce packages. My mind just exploded into a showery fireworks of fiber goodness. My dining room table was covered in roving! Now that was a good day. Can't you just close your eyes and imagine what these colorways look like? "Child's Play" "Heliotrope" "Millefiori" "Wizard Island" Well just click away and you can see them. Can we say I'm in spinning heaven? Currently, I'm working on Heliotrope. It is absolutely lovely.

And finally, to end my pictureless post, I got an email yesterday from someone who bought some of my hand spun yarn at Yarnover. She already knit it up into a lovely scarf. She wanted me to see how it turned out. I think it is lovely. And I'm thrilled that my yarn is finding it's way out into the world. Thank you!

Injury? While Spinning?

2011-05-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

OK, so I've dealt with the whole missing skin thing on a couple of my fingers for spinning a lot. I've dealt with a very stiff back and not being able to spin for almost a week. But who knew one needed to be careful when soaking and whacking freshly spun yarn. Yup, when I was tiredly whacking yarn against the bathroom counter, I somehow misjudged the location of my hand in relation to the edge of the counter. How does that happen? In addition to whacking the most beautiful soft spring green yarn, I caught my index finger knuckle against the counter edge. Instantly had a blood blister, started to swell to lovely proportions before it turned a dusky shade of purple over the next hour. After 3 days, I can bend it again, but please do NOT shake my hand!

I attended a craft fair last Saturday. It was not a great fair, very VERY few people. But one nice thing included was my table was next to the free chair massage! Previously in the week my back went out. It has happened many times, but this was probably the worst in several years. Standing and sitting were difficult. Walking? Well for those of us of a certain age, I looked like Tim Conway's little old man shuffling along. But Saturday was nearly a week from when it happened and I could sit as long as I stood every 20 minutes or so to stretch out my aching muscles. But after a couple hours, I shuffled over to the massage chair and asked him to work away. He marveled at the "critical" tightness in my right side. But what really blew me away? That he said I should sit on an exercise ball while I spun. A round ball. While I spun. Now I use a Julia, Louet. She is a double treadle. Which meant that I would be sitting on a round ball. Concentrating on my hands, both feet treadling away. Which leaves NO feet on the floor to balance me. NONE. Somehow I see this as a disaster waiting to happen. I can just see me flipping over, roving in one hand, Julia toppling over and crashing to the floor as I go sailing you know what over teakettle! I politely nodded. But thought, no thank you, I will sit my crippled butt firmly in my chair and remain as solidly connected to the floor as possible. Clearly he hasn't seen me operate if he thought I could manage to balance myself on a round object and spin at the same time. Although my girls thought it would be such a GREAT idea! hmmmm, those girls were very excited at the idea. Funny I didn't get an exercise ball for Mother's Day!

Yarnover Aftermath

2011-05-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Yarnover was a blast. While it started out in the cold and rain, it was so invigorating to see that many yarn lovers and knitters in one place. The girls and I arrived in a steady rain at the Hopkins high school just before 7 am on a Saturday morning. Now that is a lot of fun, getting kids up before 6 on a Saturday! But they did great. We were able to get the van unloaded between the three of us in only 2 trips. But we were a bit soggy afterwards. The yarn I protected, my hair? Not so much! smile...but shoppers were there by 7:45 a.m. and it was steady throughout the morning. While it slowed a bit in the afternoon, the attendance was great. I sold yarn which made me happy. To hear so many nice compliments on my yarn was also gratifying. Sometimes when I'm pedaling away in my room, I can loose sight of really how pretty the yarn is. Hearing the nice comments from others was good for me.

In addition to selling yarn, I met some of my favorite bloggers which was great fun as well. I also met and got some promising potential ideas for some future events that may be really exciting. More on that after things are firmed up. But thank you to every one who stopped and looked and stroked the yarn. Y'all made my day.

You know you spin too much when....

2011-04-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

you lose the skin from two of your fingers. The two fingers that the roving whizzes over as it feeds into the bobbin orifice.

You also know you spin too much when even though you've lost the first layer of skin, you keep spinning, after all, you have SEVERAL layers of skin.

See you at Yarnover!

Hellooooo!!!! Spring?

2011-04-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

Are you out there? Really? This is what we woke up to this morning...and it is spring time? Well yes, I guess in Minnesota. Now there is good news here, it is going to be 60 on Sunday for Easter, which means we can have an Easter egg hunt outside...that doesn't always happen up here in these northern woods...

I'm spinning like mad to get everything ready for Yarnover, I'm having fun, but I am getting ready to just GO! A week from Saturday you can find these lovelies at my booth. The first one is a favorite, I'm calling it Apple of My Eye. Poufy squishy Polwarth...just great.

I'm not sure what I'm calling this one yet. More muted than I thought it would be, but still so pretty and soft.

And finally, this pink, it is not quite this bright, but it is one of the prettiest pinks I've got. I think it would make a beautiful hat and mitten set, maybe using it in fair isle with a cream and or brown...wouldn't that be a nice combo?

Yarn Hop aftermath

2011-04-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

Oh my I had fun this weekend. Nine yarn shops in the Twin Cities banded together for a weekend packed with more yarn goodness than should be legal! You start out with a card and you get it stamped at each of the participating 9 shops. Once your card is filled out with all the stamps, you leave it at that last store and it is entered into a drawing for one grand prize and 9 first place prizes. But even though I'd love to win, just traveling around to the different shops was the best.

There was a bit of a stir when they increased the number of shops from 6 to 9. That is would be too hard and too much distance to get to all the shops in a weekend. So they extended the time frame so it was over a 4 day period instead of 3 days. It worked out just fine for me.

I had the best time. I don't go every year which I think just makes it more fun the years I do go. And just look at what I bought.

I laughed when I got home and saw my color ranges, seems I do love me some blues, browns and creams.

I also bought the Spud and Chloe on the farm book. I love how Susan B. Anderson creates her little critters.

For myself, I bought The New Stranded Colorwork book by Mary Scott Huff. In fact I already started the bag in the lower left of the cover. I just happened to have those exact colors in Cascade 220 sitting in my stash. Perfect project for me to work on my two handed knitting. Felting will cover any imperfections as I work to increase my skill level.

I also found a lovely small project bag from Lila and Claudine's, it is made from oil cloth and was very reasonably priced. Lila and Claudine's is one shop I had not been to before, well, maybe once? And I think it is one I will go back to again, especially when it isn't quite as busy as during Yarn Hop.

Another new shop I want to go back to and really visit is StevenBe's. I found this lovely Three Irish Girl sock yarn. That just jumped into my hands and wouldn't leave.

I know all the workers in the yarn shops must be exhausted after the last four days, but this is one happy shopper, who just loved exploring new places and finding new yarns. Thank you!

Spinning in a frenzy

2011-03-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

I'm getting geared up for Yarnover, which will be held the end of April in Hopkins. I've been spinning virtually every night. Knitting has been pushed to the background. Funny how when I spin I eventually long to knit, when I'm on a knitting binge, I long to spin. I'm fickle apparently...who knew? smile...

This is called Tex Mex. I just finished it last night, it was still drying this morning, it is a favorite of mine. Just reminds me of Texas. I'm longing for a Texan spring, now it may have to do with the piles of snow still outside, the cold breeze, heck, wind that hits me everyday, or even the sight of the rotten ice on all the lakes. Can't imagine why I'd be longing to see fields of wild flowers waving in the gentle breeze...sigh...moving on...

The next skein is a combination of wool and silk and reminds me of underwater world. I'm going to have the girls sit down and help me name all the skeins for me. They are so creative and fearless in their naming conventions. I love them! My ideas? Pretty boring, so I defer to them often.

And finally, I'm really torn to put this little baby up for sale. I think it is the most gorgeous finished yarn and some of my best to date. It is a perfect blend of yellows/tans/browns. So many ideas fly through my brain when I see it...I think it would be perfect in color work project, I think something along this line, Gramma K's Fair Isle Tam or the Picot Hem Stranded Snowflake Hat would use this beautifully along with another neutral.

And what is becoming painfully clear? I need to do some work on my photography...but in any regard, my handspun basket is over flowing, I'm approaching 90 skeins...lets hope others will love them and want to take some home with them from Yarnover!

And for further incentive, if you mention you read my blog, I will give you a 10% discount at Yarnover!

9 Bowls of Peas

2011-03-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

The last week was a bit stressful. Emily had another surgery for her cleft issues. This was a big one, we had to stay in the hospital a couple days, finally got permission to leave on the second day but at 9 pm. My girl is a tough cookie, the next day, she asked not to take the pain meds anymore because she didn't like how they made her feel. Swore she had no pain etc. So we stopped and she slowly came back to her normal self. Her face was so swollen, slowly walking with a limp. She can only eat soft foods for the next month. I see lots of KFC mashed potatoes and gravy in our future. But her continued strength and grace is nothing short of miraculous. But she did tell me that she would rather eat 9 bowls of peas instead of having that surgery again. Did I mention she HATES peas. So I herby proclaim, peas are banished from our household from this point forward. There are plenty of other green vegetables that she can ignore on her plate. So no worries my girl, there will be no peas on your plate. You've endured enough. Thank you God for continuing to bless my child with humor and resilience.

The Winter that will not end

2011-03-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

March is a tough month. Intellectually you understand you will have snow yet but when you look out and there are literally mounds 7 feet high surrounding your driveway you think it will never end. And add to that when you wake up there is another 3 inches of fluff to shovel. It could make a person weep. I refuse to listen to the weather anymore, all they talk about is more snow. Wednesday, more snow. March 19th BIG SNOW! Seriously, we are talking about the 19th? sigh...I give. But even I'm to the point of blubbering when the weather comes on. Please make it stop...they are taking bets about how long it will take for some central snow dump sites to fully melt. (baby mountains, 30+ feet high, just as long) Bets are heavy into JUNE. And that is only if we get no more snow. Wonder if I could place a bet for July!

Emily's Gotcha Day Adventures

2011-02-28T12:17:00.000-08:00

Friday was Emily's 7th gotcha day. When I got Emily, she was a strong willed 22 month old little girl, who totally understood that her world was changing and she was not happy about it. It took several days before I even knew she had a dimple just like her big sister. Those big beautiful dark eyes were so somber and sad. Slowly we got to the point of her smiling when I'd bring her a roll with butter. And if I tarried too long at the buffet line getting her things I'd hear a sharp "MA!" ringing through out the hotel restaurant. Her first two English words were puppy and plane. smile...now we are here 7 years later, still a fiesty strong willed girl. And to her utter delight, she got her ears pierced Saturday.

She picked out her birthstone for her earrings.

Do you see how happy she is? that is one happy girl!

A Chinese Leprechaun

2011-02-16T13:08:00.000-08:00

words fail sometimes...

I love my girl...

And further excitment...Emily is in the finals for her schools Spelling Bee this Friday! Stay tuned. (update: She was the runner up! Talk about excitement...it was incredibly stressful (for me! not her...she was so cool and calm throughout the event.) Out of 100 3rd graders, my girl was second. I'm incredibly proud of her.)

and you thought I was kidding

2011-02-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

This is my handspun yarn. It covers my queen size bed. COVERS it. grin...even I was surprised! But it did tell me I need to move away from the green/blue family...I need to add reds and pinks to round out the selection. I admit I thought about rolling around in them....but then figured I'd just mess them up...so safely back into the basket they went. Did I mention it is a big basket? Laundry Basket size. Did I mention it is overflowing? grin...me loves to spin.

Fingerless frenzy

2011-02-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a while. But I've been knitting and spinning like crazy. I'm working on a pair of fingerless mitts and my mittens. The mitts are a surprise for my friend at work who sits by the windows and freezes. I know she freezes. I make knitted things to help you not freeze. Did I make her fingerless mitts to keep from freezing and still do her job? Nope, not me....sigh...I started a pair for her over a week ago, used some beautiful sock yarn, in peacock purple, iridescent shiny and lovely. But the yarn was too fine for the pattern and while it was simple and I could have worked out the gauge differences, they would have taken me so long to do at that fine a gauge. So back to the drawing board. I found a pattern I liked on Ravelry and searched through my stash. Pulled out some left over Malibrigo from the lap blanket I made and some left over Rowan white singles from a hat. Together they would make a lovely fingerless mitt. It has just a bit of stranding where you move from one yarn to the other. It is bulky yarn and I was able to knit the first mitt start to finish on Sunday except for the thumb. I came to work on Monday, figuring I could have the second one done maybe by Friday. And find she bought herself a pair from....take a deep breathe...from TARGET. sigh...bad friend I am. These will still be for my friend and I hope she can enjoy having TWO fingerless mitts to choose from.

I did deviate from the pattern, I used the pattern for the bottom half of the glove and the stranding. The white section is all mine. Not that it is innovative or anything, but I wanted a thumb, not just a hole for the thumb. So I put in a gusset for the thumb. That always fits my hand so much better. And instead of ribbing at the top, I let it roll, hoping that won't be too annoying for her to type with. We will see. But I like it and boy is it soft! It needs a good wet blocking to smooth out the stitches but I should finish them this weekend and have them ready for her on Monday.

My own mittens are pushed back waiting for me to return to them, but I'm happy with how they are turning out.

Remember how I didn't like where the thumb placement was? It was so low for me, so I added a pattern repeat in the blue and with before putting in the them, I think it will be fine now. It is just a smidge tight, but once I block them and wear them, I think they will fit just right.

I do love how they look and I'm happy that I'm using up left over stash in both the rust and the white. The blue is new, Irish Girl Knit sock yarn. Very very nice....and from Duluth too so a local yarn. Well as local as Duluth is to Minneapolis!

Yggdrasil is DONE!

2011-02-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

Not that I'm excited or anything, but I finished my blanket on Sunday night. It is just beautiful.

Last night I worked on blocking it. Now that was terrifying, I filled my top loader washing machine, and gently put my blanket in the cold water, pushing it all the way down to ensure it got completely soaked. I warned every person in my house to NOT shut the lid on the washer. Wouldn't you know this would be the time someone in an effort to "help" me, would shut the lid which would engage the agitation and I would end up with a heavily cabled pillow top! I threatened anyone who would even think about walking INTO the laundry room. After 30 minutes I anxiously peered in and then carefully moved the dial to spin. And trembling slightly I shut the lid and listened carefully as the water drained out and in no time it started spinning. I was thrilled when I pulled the damp blanket out of the machine and it was still HUGE! Talk about scary.

Upstairs I laid it out in the loft, pulling gently, tugging and patting it into place. I didn't use pins, just nudged it into place. There are some mistakes in the cable borders, but so be it. It is finished, it is beautiful, and it is mine. I did end up with an extra skein of yarn, but that is ok. I was too chicken to order the 7 skeins when mathematically it worked out nearly to the end of the 7th skein to complete it. I'm happy, I would have been worried for year if I hadn't done that. I'm hoping sometime this weekend there will be daylight and I can take better pictures, but I didn't want to wait. If I wait for the sun, it may be months before I can take a picture!

I love this blanket. I think it is the nicest thing I've made. It is clearly the biggest. It took me about 4 1/2 months of solid knitting, mostly knit from March through early June of 2010 and finished after a long month of knitting in January 2011. I don't think I will make a second one. But I'm pleased enough with it that I hauled it into work today to show it off. Seeing people's reactions are such fun, some have no clue it is handmade until they are told and then their eyes pop! smile..

So to others who are thinking of stretching their knitting comfort zone...go for it. The end results are magical.

Ineffective Sunshine

2011-01-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

When this description creeps into the weather forecast you know it isn't good. "Ineffective Sunshine" Sunshine is good...ineffective bad...bad word used before good word, means one thing...while it is at least pretty outside with the sun shining, there is absolutely no heat, no warmth emanating from it whatsoever. Which means it is bloody cold outside. sigh...negative temp cold. with wind. Which I guess means I should be happy because I can sit knitting with the Yggdrasil blanket on my lap and I'm NOT hot!

I'm in the home stretch of Yggdrasil. I'll finish the 3rd side of the final border tonight. And with it being the only thing I'm working on until it is done, I should finish the final and fourth side and last corner in about 10 days. I haven't taken any new pictures as nothing has really changed yet. But I am trying to figure out how to take a picture of it when it is completed. It is huge. I may be hanging over the loft railing trying to capture it on the foyer floor. That should be interesting...

Hopefully the next installment will not be about an adventure to the emergency room with me having to explain why I was plummeted to the floor from the loft because I was taking a picture of a blanket. smile...

January is galloping along

2011-01-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

Well I did not think I'd be gone this long from the blog. I was thinking that good riddance to 2010, we had so many bumps on the road, that I was happy to have a new year stretching ahead of me. Well we've already had several doctor appointments, some unexpected, but every one is now fine. Also had a family funeral for my great aunt. Truly one of the most caring and loving women I knew. She and my uncle were married 70 years at the time of her death. I can't imagine losing someone you've been married to for over 70 years. I still believe 2011 will be a great year. It just started out a bit rougher than I hoped.

I did accomplish a big goal of mine. I'm now on Etsy, you can find me at Knitting My Way Home on Etsy. I've got some of my handspun listed. It is a new exciting adventure for me. Who knows how it will end up. But it is fun to dream. Come and visit me, let me know what you think!

Here is to a smoother 2011.

Anticipating a New Year

2010-12-28T07:12:00.000-08:00

In my old age, I look forward more and more to New Year's weekend. It is such a nice calm time in my family. No pressure, gifts are done, girls entertained with new gifts, visiting with family and friends is over. The weekend stretches out as a restful peaceful time. I'm hoping to go to movies with the girls and then again just with my mom. Because I'm off Monday, January 3 but the girls have school! Whoo Hoo! So I will take my mom out for lunch and a movie that we will like without having to appease my girls. In between I plan on some naps snuggled under a throw and knitting and spinning as much as I can fit in.

Last night I plied some fine singles of merino and cashmere together. It took over 2 hours of solid fast plying and I quickly transferred it to my niddy noddy to sit on over night. It is some of the finest spinning I've done to date, I had a few spots where I hadn't spun the single tightly enough so it drifted apart in the plying, but I was able to spit splice in place or felt it grab the other single immediately and wound tightly together. I think I will set the twist a bit more aggressively than I normally do, I'll go back and forth between hot and cold soaks to make sure it will hold nicely.

I also started a new project just for me, I'm working on a new pair of mittens, they are from the Vogue Knitting: Mittens and Gloves book, they are the Hugs and Kisses pair. I can see the circle hugs easily, the "X" for kisses is there, but seems to sit in the background more for me. You can't tell from this shot, but the body of the mittens are blue and white, only the cuff has the rusty color. I'm using up some odds and ends in the white and the rust, but the blue is from Three Irish Girls and it is beautiful. Just maybe after the New Years weekend, I will have a new pair of mittens? With how snowy this winter has already proven to be, they will come in handy! (bad pun)

Here is to a new year full of adventures, joys, sorrows that lead to new paths, and much laughter. My eyes are looking ahead, the past is behind and new beginnings are waiting to be explored!

A world away, are hearts wondering?

2010-12-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

My Anna is fourteen today. So many things fly through my mind on the birthdays of my two China girls. Do their birth parents wonder what happened to their tiny babies? How I wish I could let them know their China girls are safe and loved and cherished. That these girls have changed so many peoples lives through their love. Do their China mom's know they changed my life? That I'm beyond grateful to them for giving me the greatest gifts I will ever receive. My girls are the two best decisions I've ever made in my life. They came in and shook my world like a snow globe gone mad. I always felt that adopting my girls was the most selfish thing I've ever done. I'm incredibly blessed to have them in my life. To Anna, who's ready smile and laughing eyes melted my heart the very moment she was placed in my arms in that tiny crowded room in China. Who gleefully waved a cracker around as a toy because she didn't understand she could eat it. Whose eyes widened in shock and surprise when she ate that cracker and discovered how good it tasted. Whose tiny little fingers wrapped around my finger and whose heart squeezed mine tight with love. Have a wonderful new year as you charge into your teen age years. Be fearless and try all sorts of new things. Explore and always keep reaching for new adventures. I love you.

.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

2010-12-14T14:28:00.000-08:00

somewhere else please...well the great snowstorm over the weekend was a stiff one even for home grown Minnesotans. I went out and shoveled our door out enough Saturday so that our dog could get outside. Otherwise inside we stayed. After our road was plowed Sunday, we are left with towering snow piles all along our street. Over five feet tall piles. It is like driving in a canyon! Now it is bitterly cold. And it is still December. This is shaping up to be a winter like those of my child hood.

Check these pictures out. Better than any words I can come up with.

Anna is standing on the huge pile across the street fro us, you can just see her through the branches of the tree, note where her head is relative to the street lamp next to her...yup, she is only a foot or so below the lamp. Crazy...and guess what...they are forecasting more snow for tomorrow...should be interesting, don't you think?

Waiting out the storm

2010-12-10T22:19:00.000-08:00

So we wait. It is late, and the snow is beginning to fall. The projected amount? 16-20 inches. In one storm. In one day. sigh. I love my knitted mittens, hats, and scarves. However, even I whimper at getting 20 inches of snow in one dump. Oh did I mention the wind? Ya, winds of 25 miles an hour. With powdery snow. Means you can't see your hand in front of your face. And the temps? Lets just add that into the mix as well. Temps will drop with windchill to -25. I guess that is the trifecta in winter weather. Lots of snow, lots of wind, lots of cold. It means we will stay home for the next 48 hours. On the bright side, because I really do try to look at the bright side, I can spin and knit while looking outside at the snow globe I'm currently in. So really not THAT bad.

And to add to my delight, my picture of my Lettuce Slide Scarf is now listed on Ravelry on the main pattern page. smile...funny how something that simple can make me so happy.

So my friends, tonight I'm snuggled in my bed, listening to the wind start to blow, knowing when I get up in the morning, we will be in for a winter wonderland on steroids!

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

I've lived in Minnesota for a large portion of my life. I had a long detour the 14 years I lived in Texas, but other than that, it's been Minnesota. It is a wonderful place to live, but can really test you. Today is the 3rd day of December. We are on our second major snow dump of the season, it is going to get cold immediately after this latest round. Cold that makes cars groan and dogs moan. Now as a knitter and spinner, this makes my heart sing. I can actually make things out of sticks and string that will combat the cold temps outside. So while others are wailing and gnashing their teeth over the indignities of winter, I will be sliding my hands into my sturdy wool mittens, wrapping a new fabulous wool/silk scarf around my neck and tugging a simple double thick headband over my ears. Yup, living in Minnesota can be such a trial. smile...

This is the new scarf I made. It is made out of my handspun, a combo of BFL and silk and I just love it. It isn't a long scarf, but perfect to tuck into my jacket to keep the wicked wind out. I've never kept anything made of my handspun, so this is wonderful. And it is so ME.

Christmas is fast approaching, I'm working on one gift so can't talk about it, other than to say it is out of my own handspun as well. But that means I still have a few gifts to get. And Anna's birthday is fast approaching. So I see some shopping hitting me in the next couple weekends. I'll take each girl individually and they can pick out gifts for the other. I'll go myself either after work on on a weekend as well and do a major push to get the remaining presents selected. I'm happily listening to Christmas music most of the time and remembering the true meaning of Christmas. My life is blessed. No matter what, my life is blessed.

Knitting is fun again

2010-11-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

After what seemed like a long time, knitting is fun again. May be because I've finished all my commitments for other people and I could cast on for myself...more on that later.

I finished the fingerless mitts on commission. I had to knit 3 black/gray mitts to get 2 that were acceptable together, then ripped out the odd mitt and used it to knit the thumbs for the 2 fraternal twin mitts. I was going to deliver them to the buyer but the Twin Cities got a huge ice storm Saturday night which turned the streets, sidewalks and freeways into ice rinks. So the van stayed home all day Sunday and I was able to indulge myself.

I spent the day spinning and knitting. I cast on a scarf from a new book I recently got, Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders. I LOVE this book. Now it may be because I have um just a few skeins of sock yarn in my stash. But the patterns in the book are very diverse and fun. I'm making a scarf called the Lettuce Slide Scarf. It is a simple pattern but fun all at the same time. And to add to my delight, I'm using my handspun. I realized I had not made anything from my own handspun for me. I've made things from my handspun, just not for me. So I took a recent spin that is comprised of BFL and 25% silk and created this.

It doesn't look like much, but it feels wonderful and I know I will use and enjoy the scarf during our long winter months. I also decided that I'm not knitting many Christmas gifts this year. What I am knitting cracks me up. I've given my mom Christmas socks for probably 3 years now. She loves her handknit socks. But this year I decided to mix it up a bit, I sent to the UK and got a kit for this. Stop laughing. It is cute. But then I think pugs are cute.

Spinning magic

2010-11-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

See what happens? I write that I'm struggling with knitting, what happens? My knitting takes off like crazy. In the last week or so I've knit 3 1/2 fingerless mitts. That is a story in itself. I'm doing some custom knitting and have an order for 2 pairs of fingerless mitts. One was to be in a brown family, I've got those done, although the yarn is brown, red and black, the brown clearly took a back seat to the red. The next pair she ordered was to be primarily black. Well this turned out harder than expected. I settled on a ball of Zauberball in a black/grey/white combo. It started out well. The first mitt is mainly black with flecks of gray and white scattered throughout. However, as soon as I started the second mitt, it transitioned in color to primarily gray and white....not exactly matching mitts. I finished the gray mitt, it did darken as I got to the top, but it is distinctly different than the first. So I started a THIRD mitt. I have just enough yarn (thanks to my trusty scale) that I should be able to eek out a 3rd mitt. This one is already much darker than the gray mitt. So I'm hoping the 3rd mitt and the 1st mitt while not looking like identical twins, will at least be fraternal!

While I was struggling with the knitting, I've been spinning up a storm. I spun two skeins of the citrusy yellow, the blue skein while not next to skin soft will make solid warm mittens. But the best? That is the HUGE skein of jewel toned BFL/silk combo....need a close up?

How is this? It is over 400 yards, and I love it. This I think may have to be mine...all mine...

And then there is this....we got our first big snowstorm of the season on Saturday. Emily played outside a lot...by herself, happily trudging around building snowmen and snowhammocks. What is a snowhammock?

My girl was pretty cozy and happy...

But after an afternoon of lounging in the snow, this is where she ended up in the evening...with a birthday party balloon and a new hat/helmet on her head, sound asleep while I knit. Perfect ending to a cold snowy Minnesota winter day.

Struggling with knitting

2010-11-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

Well that is a title I never thought I'd type. I think the massive amount of time I spent knitting leading up to the October craft fair did me in. I'm spinning quite a bit, but the knitting is definitely taking a back seat. I have finished the first of two reading mitts that a person ordered. She wanted a brownish pair, I showed her several skeins via pictures and she picked this pair, it was brown, black and red. Clearly the red has taken over the color palette. I'm hoping it will still work for her. You can see in the upper right corner the yarn I'm using for the black pair she also ordered. It is a Zauberball of black, grey, and a bit of cream. I'm up to the thumb gusset for the first mitt and while it is a bit thicker in weight, I think it will work out fine. Just a bit chunkier. I'm finding knitting on commission is more nerve wracking than I thought. It is easier to have a finished product that the person can touch and feel and take. This is harder for me. I hope she will be happy. Then my friend Ellen has ordered a pair of mittens and glittens for her granddaughter and husband. So I have more knitting to whip out in the coming weeks. I'm hoping to finish the fingerless mitts by next week. So I can start on the mittens right away.

I have been spinning quite a bit. I'm finding that is relaxing me more than the knitting at the moment. We have had a lot of doctor appointments in the last month between my mom, youngest daughter, and yes our pug Gadget. spinning has helped take the edge out of monitoring every ones meds and appointments.

I realize the knitting content has been low lately, I will try to kick it into gear, after all the holiday's are fast approaching...soon I'll have my countdown and projects listed...why not know? Pshaw...there is SOOO much time between now and then that there is no challenge....ya that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

OH I did do something exciting! I took a knitting class. This is only my third knitting class period. I was able to get into a Lucy Neatby Ambidextrous Knitting class. She is an amazing teacher. I had a wonderful afternoon and feel like I can now neatly do stranded knitting with a different yarn in each hand. She was encouraging and empowering. If you can take a class from her, don't hesitate, you will enjoy it and learn. And above all? It was FUN!

Trunk or Treat

2010-11-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

This year we participated in our church's Trunk or Treat festival. It was the first time church did anything like this and I must admit, it was more fun than I anticipated. While it was chilly it wasn't as bad as it could have been, no snow! smile...In Minnesota one has to think about if you can get warm clothes under a costume in order to trick or treat. Or you suffer for the sake of costume beauty and are cold. This year Anna was an 80's girl....in all her crazy glory...and Emily invited a friend along for the fun. Emily was a 60's girl ready to step out onto a dance floor while her friend Joelle was a princess, sweet and regal.

I'm working on 2 pairs of commissioned fingerless mitts, one will be finished in the next couple of days and hopefully the second pair will fly off my needles as my friend has also commissioned a pair of mittens and glittens for members of her family. My Yggdrasil afghan still sits in the corner, waiting for me to tackle the final 2 1/2 sides of the final border. Soon. Once I get these fun projects complete I will focus on my own holiday knitting. Do you realize there are 52 days until Christmas? Yup...let the countdown begin. I'm only planning on 2 knitted gifts this year, my mom loves knit socks, so I'll make her a pair to add to her collection. And then just because? I ordered a kit to knit a pug. Yup, I've officially gone around the bend, because while I swore I would not knit a sweater for Gadget, apparently I don't think it odd to actually knit HIM. Lord help me....I'm sure pictures will follow.

Lunch with a rabbit named Elliana

2010-10-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

It is howling outside my window, gray, wet, gloomy, yup, perfect knitting weather! While I don't look forward to slogging my way to and from work each day, I do love curling up at the end of the day with my knitting. Now if I could only knit/spin as fast as my mind keeps planning on "just one more project."

Emily had her ortho appointment yesterday. No more cranking of the device to widen her upper jaw, it is where they want it to be. In order to keep the device locked into place, they thread a wire through it, wrap it around, twist the multi wire strands together...at that point the dentist stopped, and asked her, how she felt. She had long wires sticking out of her mouth. Her reply? Like a fish on a pole! Laughter erupted in the dentist office. My girl, she has a way with words.

I visited the Wild Wool Market Saturday, it was nice to meet Susan and get a sense for the space so when I show up next month I have a better idea of what to expect.

And as promised, we went to Rainforest Cafe where Anna was tortured by having her picture taken in the wild. Her response was not surprising but still made me laugh.

We managed to enjoy our lunch before the great hoards of people also decided to have their lunch and after enjoying our nachos and appetizers (best kinda lunch around) we headed to Build a Bear. Where with only a nominal wait time, my girls each piced out a new friend. (shhhhh don't tell any of Anna's friends she picked out a new bear).

And here to show her delight is Emily who is hugging the lovable and softly squishable, Elliana. A perfect ending to our day.

Friday Fun

2010-10-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how happy I am that it is Friday. This week has been a long one. Emily had another procedure done at Children's on Tuesday. She did great, it was fast and I can't say enough kind things about all the staff at Children's in Minneapolis. They are caring and warm and compassionate. Anyway, Emily did great and one more thing is done.

Between work and doctor stuff, I'm tired. Like bone weary tired. I don't have a break in sight until Thanksgiving, so I'll just keep moving on. Sometimes that is the best you can do, just keep moving.

I did get some happy news, I got a special knitting order from a person who bought something from my last craft fair. So I'm happily knitting away on two pair of fingerless mitts. smile

I've spun up a bobbin full of citrusy yellow singles. I have another 4 ounces to go before I can ply them together. Not sure how fast that will happen, since tomorrow we will head off to MOA to shop at Build A Bear as Emily's reward for being such a good patient and getting past this procedure. Lunch at Rainforest Cafe and then on the way home, we will stop at the Wild Wool Festival, I'm participating next month, so I thought it would be helpful to introduce myself and get a feel for the space etc. If I can remember, I'll try to take pictures of our adventures.

Anna is a bit miffed as I will need to pick her up from a sleep over at the very EARLY hour of 10 am tomorrow so she can go with us. Boy the eye rolls I got with that one. smile....

Aftermath from craft fair

2010-10-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

Well I survived the craft fair last Saturday. The day was beautiful, sunny and warm. Which I think was a bit of a hamper for me. Who wants to try on wool hats or scarves wearing flip flops and shorts in 84 degrees? Not too many it turns out. I can't say enough good things about the fair itself. Very well organized, over a 100 vendors, booths ready for you when you walked in, check-in lasted all of 3 mintues. So the fair itself was well done. There was a steady stream of people, but very few of those people were buying from me or others in my vicinity. Oh well, that is a craft fair, you truly never now how it is going to go. The good things that happened were many. I had so many lovelycomments on my items, they loved the colors and the quality of my work. Take a look at our booth....

the laundry rack really worked out well I thought, my yarns looked very nice and it was an eye catching start of the booth. My wheel tucked in nicely in the corner when I wasn't using it. The brown and white star hat in the bottom left sold. The lady wanted it for skiing and I think it will be wonderful for that.

Here is Ellen, sipping her coffee as we wait for the start of the event. You can see her embroidered linens next to her. She did well and was happy after the fair.

Now for the funnies. I did sit and spin, that was a huge draw, many people stopped, some grinning in deilght, others staring trying to figure out what the heck I was doing. One young kid, just kept muttering "weird, weird" One gentleman was so fascinated, I showed him the roving, explained the process basically from shearing to dying the fleece to creating the roving to my spinning it. The best though was a woman, looking intently at what I'm doing and saying "did you make it?" now I'm thinking, well yes, I am making "it" but I said, yes, I'm making yarn. She got a very puzzled look on her face and said "no, you made that right?" and she pointed to my wheel! I said, no, I bought the wheel from a company and she just was shocked and said she didn't know any companies made such things anymore. I guess she thought I whittled my wheel out of fallen timber from my backyard? I explained there are many companies that make wheels. She just couldn't imagine that.

The other funny thing is that even though I 'm sitting there spinning away, right next to a rack filled with yarn with labels saying "handspun" on them, most people did not realize that I made that yarn. smile...

It was a long day but all in all a good day. I gave out many cards with my info on it, I believe several have checked out the blog so far, maybe they will stick around.

Next up is the Wild Wool Market on November 27 at the Susan Hensel Art Gallery in Minneapolis. Who knows what will happen then!

But the other nice thing of having the craft fair behind me? I can now knit things for the sole reason I want to. Not because I think they may sell. So Yggdrasil is back in the basket next to my bed. The weather has cooled off plenty so I can happily knit again with a huge pile of magnificent wool in my lap. And just because I cast on something new a couple nights ago, in the Norwegian-Handknits-Heirloom-Designs-Vesterheim book there is a lovely work day shawl, it is knit as a large garter stitch center section, then you knit a lace border to it. I think it would be a great shawl, but also a nice baby blanket. I had a 1200 yard skein of Briar Rose yarn, in a deep red/black mix of superwash wool. So I am just mindlessly knitting garter stitch rows and it is delightful....pictures next time.

If you are someone I met at the craft fair, I'd love to hear from you...

MN in the fall

2010-10-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

Fall is my favorite season, it is crispy blue skies, winds rustling leaves, dry leaves crunching under foot and cool mornings with mild afternoons. You pretend that you don't know what is soon coming (sshhh snow I'm talking about you). Instead you marvel that leaves morph from varying shades of green to reds, oranges, yellows and browns. That grass starts to feel crunchy under your feet in the morning. Playing and laughing as you can see your breath in the morning waiting for the bus. Fall is the best.

Knitting has come to a screeching halt as the preparations for the first craft fair is totally consuming me. I did finish the very last item to go into the fair basket last night. This scarf was what I worked on at the bus stop for several months. While it took a looooong time to finish, when you think that all the time would have been lost time, it is a nice thing. I used 4 different sock yarns, all but one are left overs from other projects. I made up a very simple pattern and I'm ultimately very happy with it. I made some fingerless mitts out of one of the yarns, so it can either become a set or be sold separately. I introduce you to my fall scarf. (not a very unique name)

Tomorrow is the big day, I will be at the Maple Grove Community Center from 9-4 selling my hand spun and knitted items. At this point, I just want to get there, get everything set up and see what happens. I'm bringing my wheel, if it is slow, I can happily spin away. I also think it will get people to stop and look at things to. Kinda like a living historical exhibit? Anyway, it will be a potentially very fun day. I'll keep you posted on what the end results are. If you are in the area, please come and see me, I'd love to meet you.

One week and counting

2010-09-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Maple Grove Community craft fair is one week away. I'm ready, on several fronts. I'm tired of knitting things that I "hope" will sell. I want to work on my Yggdrasil again, but can't until after the craft fair. I keep thinking, one more thing, one more skein spun up. I love what I'm making but I'd like to settle down and finish the great gray beast.

I have about 30 skeins of hand spun to bring. There is a variety of sizes and amounts and type of fiber. But when I look at the picture I see a lack of reds, yellows and oranges. I just finished a perfect fall orange so that is covered, but I really need to branch out from my love of moody blues and greens. I love them, but I think I need to change up the color scheme. That being said, I'm very happy with my yarn. And if you look to the left of the picture, that is all my odd bits and bobs of left over singles spun with the last left over singles. I started doing just white with another left over single, but then I just went to town and I didn't worry about what they looked like, I just mashed them together and have been pleasantly surprised with the results. The yardage varies on those, some only 30 yards, but others up in the 60-80 yards. I'm thinking of different ways of marketing those odds and ends. Ideas?

Then I move on to the knitted up stuff. Emily laid everything out. I'm happy with the variety of things, would have liked to have more, but it is what it is. I work full time, take care of my mom and my girls, and knitting and spinning are on the edges right now. I will share a booth with my friend, so between my knitted things and my yarn along with her beautiful linens, I think our booth will be filled. Oh you can see the orange yarn I just finished, still on the bobbin, waiting to be wound off on my niddy noddy. And the plethora of clickers next to my spinning chair and on the edge of my bed. One for the fan/light, and the other two for the tv. I couldn't get the tv to agree to work on just one clicker. I caved and it is just as easy for me to use them as is. At least I got the tv hooked up and ready!

This weekend will be spent labeling all my yarn, making sure the ends of my stuff is woven in and price tags put on. Then a week from Sat. let the fun begin. If any readers are in the metro area, I'd love to have you stop by my booth, there just might be a wee surprise for my readers!

Charlie Brown

2010-09-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

Noah could be pulling up to my house anytime, ready to load us out of our second story windows. Minnesota is having some flooding issues...yesterday it rained hard, stead, virtually all day. The ground is completely saturated already so the water is just running off, major freeways are closed, small towns are virtual islands with the roads shut coming into or out of them. We are fine, just a bit soggy.

And to totally throw a wrench into the system, I'm listening to "A Charlie Brown Christmas' music. I explained to my mom over the phone I was listening to it, long pause, she said "do other people have to hear that?" See I live in a cube world at work, I laughed and said I have my headphones on. She just sighed....I love Christmas music, listen to it all year round...and sometimes there is just nothing better than to hear Schroder pounding away on the piano....

Crazy hard curveball of a week

2010-09-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

Before I get started, let me put in this picture...it soothes me...hopefully it will soothe you.

I'm working on this throw, it shows 2 completed strips and the start of the final row. (I'm now on the last block of that last strip) Life has thrown us a curve ball. My mom had to go to the hospital late Tuesday night, calling 911 is such a scary but wonderful thing. You call 3 simple numbers and they are at your door within minutes. Bringing help. She has a history of heart problems and seemed so very sick. With 2 sleeping children upstairs, I didn't go with her to the emergency room. We've been through this several times, I know the wait is long and uncomfortable in the emergency room. There is nothing I can do. So I waited at home. In the dark. I cleaned upstairs. My girls sleeping soundly. Me, crying silent fearful tears as I picked up the clutter in the family room. Our dog Gadget sitting and following me around as I worked. He usually sleeps with my mom and didn't understand where she went. After running tests and tests, mom came home Friday with a heart monitor she has to wear for the next two weeks to give them more data. In between running to the hospital each day, getting the girls to school, getting Emily to her first round of ortho appointments, I showed up at work. I'm grateful I have an understanding workplace, because the amount of work I got accomplished during the 3 days I was here last week was not on the grand scale. I knit and spun yarn late into the night at home. It helped keep my fears at bay. I'm grateful.

And on a brighter note, I'm now signed up for two craft fairs. The first one is at the Maple Grove Community Center, on October 9 from 9-4. My friend Ellen is doing this with me. She does hand embroidered table linens. I will have my handspun yarn and various knitting I've done. Shawls, hats, scarves, the above lap blanket, another cream ruched afghan, some socks and other delights. I think it will be great fun, if nothing else a day with a good friend surrounded by crafts. Then this morning I signed up for the "Wild Wool Market", it is held at the Susan Hensel gallery in South Minneapolis. I've never been to one before, but how wrong can I be at something called the Wild Wool Market! I'm participating in the November 27 market, from 10-4. And this time it is all about me. I'll have a small space and I'll have my handspun there, possibly some knitted items, but primarily my handspun. After the last week, I'm looking forward to having some wooly goodness surrounding me.

A fresh start

2010-09-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first day of school. My girls are growing so fast it seems. Both had great days and Emily was just so happy and excited. Can you see her smile?

She was listening to the Zac Brown Band singing Sic em on a Chicken. grin...something about seeing such pure unadulterated joy makes my heart sing.

I finished a scarf on Monday night. I started working Cinnamon Grace, but I altered the pattern as I went. The original had the straight section only worked for 17 inches, that would have given me a pretty short scarf, so instead, I knit the straight section for 30 inches, then decreased per the pattern. The next change I made was to the border. I just didn't like the original border, I thought it was pretty, but not what I wanted to end up with, so instead, I added a ruffled border. I love how it looks but holy cow was it tedious to knit that many stitches. I had them crammed way tight on my needle and I'd inch worm my way around. I kept weighing my ball of yarn to be sure I had enough yarn left. I probably could have knit one more row on the ruffle before starting the bind off but just between you and me? I was TIRED of struggling with the knitting and wanted to get it off the needles. So I popped in a Stargate SG-1 movie, The Ark of Truth and two hours later the galaxy is saved from the Ori and I had a scarf off the needles that I'm really pleased with.

And finally here is the next skein of yarn I finished, let me introduce you to Caramel Apples. A perfectly squishy yarn for fall....a hat? mittens? cowl? who knows... for now I'll just enjoy it on the shelf.

What a weird week

2010-08-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this with very little sleep. Not a good combination, but such is life. Emily was so sick this week, started with a toothache on Sunday, Tuesday morning had her in the dentist, they pulled a tooth. Thursday morning I had her in the emergency room because of the pain and swelling which resulted from an infection. She was in such pain it was awful. But one day of antibiotics and she is back to her regular self. I'm a wreck! But I'm at work. Another not good combination, but one that is necessary with the time I had to take this week.

I did complete some spinning. Late nights and all, plus Emily likes to fall asleep watching me spin. So here is 40 below. I should have taken a picture of the roving...so I'm shamelessly borrowing the picture from Caryn Lantz's Etsy site, Fuzzy Noodle Knits. It still amazes me the change from the roving to the finished yarn, the blue really took over the color and the white was muted. But the result is sparkly and pretty and soft. Not bad.

I also finished this - I'm calling it Spring Time Garden. This is one squooshy yarn. Very nice and I'm very happy with it.

I'm participating in a craft fair this October in Maple Grove. I'll sell my yarn and few handknits as well. So I need to keep my head down and spin...and what choices I have... stay tuned.

End of Summer panic

2010-08-20T12:27:00.000-07:00

I suddenly realized that school starts for the girls in a matter of weeks. Short weeks. And even shorter weekends. Which means we are now scheduling the long promised massive sleepover at our house, four neighborhood girls and my two girls add up to way too many girls in my house! And who named these things sleepovers! Very little sleeping will be involved, however, I'm anticipating much laughter and giggles and thumping and eating and movie watching and computer playing will ensue. The only thing I said was it had to be on either a Friday or Saturday night so I wouldn't be heading to work on a short nights sleep.

We are also heading up north on Lake Superior for a long weekend next week. I love Lake Superior. The temps are always cool and pleasant (ok, maybe not so much in the dead of winter, but now? heaven!). Then there is Labor Day Weekend and school starts. So the girls are packing in as much fun as possible in these last few weeks.

Emily had her first real orthodontist appointment preparing her for the jaw expanders. It is so hard to watch her in distress, knowing that everything we are doing will help her in the long run. But it is truly a long hard road we have to navigate first. And she is so little. But so strong. I just hope I can be as strong as I need to for her.

Much knitting has occured, I've completed several hats and headbands for the looming craft fair. Now I'm thinking of how to display things to their best advantage, suggestions for displaying my handspun yarn? I've got a couple different hat stands so that is covered. I've got a wooden quilt rack that I can use for my scarves and shawls. So I'm getting there. I'm spinning nearly everyday. I think it is truly a way for me to calm myself. And that is a very good thing. And getting yarn out of the deal...total bonus.

It's a hat...no a cowl...no a headband?

2010-08-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

Well I was hoping the knitting fairy would smile favorably on me and I do believe she has. I was working on the Mini Mochi hat, loved the colors, but started worrying I would run out of yarn before I could finish the hat. I weighed the remaining yarn and did math. Did I mention I hate doing math? I was pretty sure I could finish and kept on knitting. I finally decided it was going to be too close for comfort so I turned this into that. And I'm quite happy with it. I so love the colors and how they turned out and shine through. The cowl is a sorta stiff cowl, not a droopy one, but the yarn is soft enough for wearing next to my skin so I don't mine. It can also be used as a headband too, really wide so it is literally so close to being a hat. It would be perfect to wear with a high ponytail. I'll see if I can get Anna to model that for me.

Tonight I'll ply my northern lights yarn together. I'm really hoping I was as consistent in size as I strived to be. I'm hoping for yardage in the 300 to even 400 yards. I've never been able to achieve that, so here's hoping.

And just in case you didn't know, even here in the suburbs of Minnesota we have gang activity....meet the summer mafia of the neighborhood.

This was taken Saturday night at dusk, temps were high 80's, humidity as high as it could go without actually having to swim through the air. And my girls and their ~~gang~~ friends were walking around with fur trimmed hoods and long black pants. Yup, that is my life. I love my life.

A spinning weekend looms

2010-08-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to spin everyday. I'd really like to get my consistency well more consitent. And the best way to do that is practice. So this week I've been spinning around an hour a night. I do think it is helping. I'm also working on the thinnest spin I've done yet. I don't know if I'm achieving a true lace weight yet, but I'm hoping for a light fingering. This is all gearing up to do a big spin to make a baby blanket out of the Girasole pattern with roving I have. But in order to get the yardage I need out of the amount of roving I have, I need to be consistently able to spin a fine fingering weight. A good challenge. I love these colors, I'm debating if it is a springtime flower riot or northern lights. I'll wait to see what it looks like after plying. If I put my head down maybe I can finish the second bobbin tomorrow so I can ply on Sunday.

The other project I'm currently deep into is a Mini Moochi hat. I started this once before but just didn't like how it was looking so I ripped it out. This time I paired one mini moochi ball of yarn with some left over Julia yarn and this is what has happened. I can't tell you how much I love this hat. The green is a lighter spring green, not so olivey looking and the mini moochi variations just glow like jewels. I'm also trying to finish this over the weekend and if I'm lucky, I'll persuade one of the girls to model it for me. It does look a bit big, but if so I'm going to try felting it just enough to shrink it down. But again, I'll wait to see how it looks when I'm finished.

Yippee!!!! One is Sold

2010-08-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

I was messaged on Ravelry this weekend that one of my skeins of yarn at Darn Knit Anyway is sold! I'm thrilled and she even said it was hard to choose just one. That is an awesome compliment. So I know at least one of my skeins has found a new home. And guess what? She initially was looking for local yarn to participate in a yarn swap with someone in New Zealand. So just maybe my humble skein of Red Sherbet is going to wing its way to New Zealand! I'm giddy...

Emily had her orthodontist appointment Friday to start the work needed before she has her bone grafting surgery this winter. Her upper jaw needs to be expanded before the bone grafting takes place. Lets just say that the dollar amount for the next 12-14 months means I better sell a whole lotta yarn! I do have insurance, but I'm sure there will be issues before it finally gets paid. But it will all work out.

And so you know I've been spinning like mad, here is part of the newest finished product. And look, I actually have PICTURES...we finally had some sun and I was able to get a good picture of the heathery purpley blue with odd random bits and bobs of red chenile thread thrown in. I still have probably 3-4 ounces left to spin, but this is finished. I'm going to try for a bit of a chunkier weight with the rest of the roving. Just to see the contrast between the two.

And on the knitting front, I'm working on Cinnamon Grace, another cross between a scarf and a shawl. I'm using Dream in Color Starry and think it will turn out lovely. I'm going to definetly increase the straight section from 17 inches to probably at least 30 inches, but currently it looks like this. I love the color and the hints of shimmer. I also think the border will add a lot to it. I only have one skein of the yarn, since I'm doubling the length of the straight section, I may have to look for either another skein just for the border or a contrasting yarn to finish it. I'll wait to see how much yarn I have left when I complete the knitting of the body of the scarf.

Now I need to get back to work, darn how that cramps my knittig/spinning style. But I'm doing cartwheels inside because I actually sold some of my very own yarn.

Am I bad?

2010-07-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

I desperately want to have a friend saunter into Darn Knit Anyway and scope out if anyone bought any of my yarn yet. smile. And I'm too chicken to call and inquire. I of course am waiting to get the call saying the yarn flew off the shelves and they would like me to bring more! grin...someday.

In anticipation of such a call I've been spinning this week. I have two bobbins filled and ready to ply tonight. I promise I'll take pictures. And I ordered and received 3 more rovings to add to the que of unspun fiber. Again, I'll take pictures. I've been really bad about not taking pictures lately.

I'm leaving work early today to take Emily to her first orthodontist appointment to start the widening of her jaw to prepare her for bone grafting surgery the first of the year. Today should just be a quick look and decision to actually start the process. So no hurtful procedures today.

And yesterday, I had to really force myself to acknowledge Anna is growing up. For the first time, I let her bike alone to a friend who lives reasonable close, but still farther than I've ever let her go alone before. I think she was thrilled. I was a wreck! I think this growing up is harder on the parent than the kid. But she is trustworthy and has earned this stretching of the boundaries. But I'm still a wreck.

When I went out to check the pumpkin mass I actually found the first sign that amongst all the leaves and flowers and vines, there is at least one pumpkin trying to grow. Hang on, there will be more farm reports later. Along with pictures. Are you noticing a theme here?

And just in case you don't read the Yarn Harlot her description of her adventures in throwing out the first pitch to the Toronto baseball game during its Stitch N Pitch festivities is one of the best things I've read in a long time. And she even has pictures!

New Adventure!

2010-07-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

Last night I brought this lovely basket of my handspun yarns to a local yarn shop darn. knit. (anyway) to sell! I'm very excited! I worked most of Sunday getting all the wrappers on the skeins and naming the yarn. Now that was interesting. I always said I wanted to be the person naming the paint colors, but I realized as I was labeling my yarn that it wasn't as easy as it looked. But I ended up with everything labeled and ready to go. Aimee looked it over and seemed very excited to have my yarn in her shop. So if any of you readers are near Stillwater, MN, and are looking for some handspun yarn please head over to Aimee's shop and ask to look at my yarn, I labeled it Knitting My Way Home too.

I made yarn with wool, alpaca, wool/silk, and wool/mohair blends. The yardage ranges from 50 - 350 yards in a skein. I also made 2 Fair Isle sampler sets out of 3 different skein colors in small yardages that would make a nice stranded baby hat etc. Or just some swatches to practice your stranded knitting.

My handspun cubby is now half empty. Yee Haw! This means I can spin more! Can't beat that.

Ice Cream in Texas and swimming with the Dinasaurs

2010-07-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

One of the things that you forget when you move from Texas to Minnesota, is that no matter how fast you try and eat a Dairy Queen ice cream cone in the heat of a Texan summer, you will get dripped on. You can't lick fast enough without some drips cascading down your hands. smile

We had such a good time in Texas. The temps were moderate (at least for Texas), only in the mid 90's. Several days it rained which rearranged some of our plans but we still saw fireworks on a mosquito infested night. Anna found a unique way of trying to fend off the blood thirsty critters, she put her legs into the arms of her sweater, pulled the hood up and tucked her arms in and lasted oh mere moments before gasping for air. But it made us laugh while we waited for the festivities to begin.

The drive to and from went well, 16 hours can be a chore, but the girls are great for the most part and it is freeway driving for me so easy enough. I loathe to take 2 days as I don't want to lose any time that I could otherwise be spending with our friends.

We drove to Glen Rose and crept through the animal preserve, Anna was brave and had the giraffes feeding off her hands, Emily decided to wait until next year to try that. Emily however, fed the ostrich and that is not an easy feat to do without getting pecked. After trolling through the animal presevere, we went to Dinasaur Valley and the kids played in the river and saw dinasaur tracks. It was fun for all of us.

I promised to knit and while I did, I don't have a picture yet of what I worked on. I worked on the tiger from the Cyd designed balloon animals. I need to knit the ears to sew on and then embroider on the eyes before I will show him on the blog. But it is an amazing feat of engineering I think how you twist and fold the critters together. So watch for that in the next installments.

I have finished an UFO though. Thank heavens. Here is the Inga hat, I like how it turned out, although Anna didn't like that it had a "poufy" top. I think it is fine. I still need to give it a good soak and block it but I'm happy with the end result. I used left overs of yarn used to make Kyle's Anna's mittens last year. Anna's mittens were very cute and since I bought the yarn at the Yarn Harbor in Duluth I wanted to make sure I had enough yarn, so I overbought the amount I'd need. But as you see it did not go to waste!

I also completed a new cowl and have 1 1/2 fingerless mitts done that match it. It is a very simple ruched pattern for the cowl and the mitts are the Fetching pattern in Ravelry.

And finally, we can not have a garden at our house. We live in a twin home with a home association. They are very strict on rules on the outside of the homes. And one of those rules is no gardens (except for the people who have the pond in their backyard, somehow they are exempted and can have gardens? don't get me started). So we have containers of flowers every summer on our patio, but no garden. For Emily's birthday, my sister gave her a round fiber type basket that is made for vegetables to grow on patios. Who knew? So we planted carrots in the middle and ringed it with pumpkin seeds. I was hoping we would get tasty carrots as that is Emily's favorite vegetable and at least 2 pumpkins for fall for the girls. Well look at this.

I fear that we will have slightly more than two pumpkins! In the center of the basket I counted 24 blossoms. TWENTY FOUR. and that does not count the at least equal amount of blossoms coming out on all the various tendrils hanging off the edge of the basket. I see the girls hauling their wagon full of pumpkins up and down the neighborhood streets selling them for a dollar! But it has been fun, say if anyone has any good pumpkin recipes, let me know!

I interrupt our regularly scheduled program

2010-06-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

I broke. The mountain of wool that is Yggdrasil sitting in my lap addled my brain. It was hot people. Too hot to have a ginormous pile of wool in your lap. No amount of fans blowing on me could change the simple fact that it was too hot and sticky to be working on a large wool blanket. So I broke. I randomly pulled some handspun yarn off my shelf (at least I shopped in my stash) and I cast on for a hat. A few hours later, I had this little simple charmer sitting in my lap. The only problem is no matter how many pictures I took, the color is all wrong. Umm what? How with all the blazing sun beaming in on me could I not take a picture that had any resemblence to the true colors of deep dark chocolate (not the namby pamby orange brown showing) mixed with deep blues and even purples of the yarn? Isn't natural light the thing we look forward to in the summer months? Well, you see, I took the pictures late last night, when it was dark outside, and I used indoor lighting. Yup, that is my story.

And one hat was not enough. I had more of the same handspun left over, so I simply cast on again and this time ended up with a smaller baby hat....with ear flaps...that needs something added to it....maybe some embroidery? A tassel on the top? Definitely braids need to be added to the ear flaps, but I'm not sure that will give it some needed umph. And this picture is rotten as well. Maybe instead of a knitting class I should take a camera class!

But the biggest excitement is that I'm heading to Texas EARLY tomorrow morning, like we better be in the van on the road heading south on 35 by 4:30 a.m. And that means that by 8:30 p.m. my van will be pulling up in front of my friends house and I can crawl my way out of the driver's seat and collapse in joy knowing for 9 more days I can eat Tex Mex, drink my share of wicked good margaritas, and laugh and talk until I'm filled to the brim. So while I've been silent on the blog before, this time I will have a good excuse. I'll be in Texas. I promise to take pictures. And I promise to knit and spin for HOURS...well maybe not after the margaritas...

Heading home soon

2010-06-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

Soon, the girls and I will pile into the van and head south to Texas for a vacation. The three of us surrounded by friends we love and in the place I love. It will be the girls first Texan summer. Feeling the asphalt squish under your feet as it radiates heat. Feeling like you have to push your way through the thick hot air. Feeling the hot steering wheel sear your hands because you don't have a windshield sun screen anymore. Anna was too little when we moved back to MN to remember what July in Texas feels like. Emily has never been there in the summer. We usually go there during the girls' spring break in March. I anticipate some stunned looks on their faces when they first step out of a cool air conditioned house into the brick oven like heat of Texas in July. Not even in the night does it cool off. But I can't wait to go.

I know I'm nearly there when I'm climbing up the hills on the border between Oklahoma and Texas and see the Red River below. I know it sounds odd, but I can feel the joy hidden deep down inside that I'm back. As we drop back down into Texas I can't stop the grin. On the flip side, when we leave Texas and this time I'm dropping over the hills into Oklahoma I can't stop the tears. But for now? I'll wait in anticipation of the indescribable joy I feel, even after driving for 12+ hours that I'm finally back in Texas. At least for a while.

Spinning and knitting

2010-06-22T07:21:00.000-07:00

The Yggdrasil is moving along slowly. I finished the first side of the final border and rounded the corner! Ya me! I've basically got the pattern memorized and can fly along. In fact the row that I thought was the hardest the first go around has become the easiest for me. I'm trying to do a side a week, but with all the evening festivities it is more of a challenge than I'd like. I also took a picture of how all the borders look together. I'm hoping when I block it will open up the cable and vine border just a bit. I think that will add to the look of the border.

Yes, I'm standing on my bed taking this shot. With my ceiling fan whizzing mere inches above my head. Who said there isn't danger in knitting!

To take the edge of knitting only on the Yggsdrasil, I'm spinning again. One reason is I'm planning on spinning enough yarn to reknit Girasole as a baby blanket. I bought 20 ounces of roving from JulieSpins on Etsy (also saw she is now selling her stuff through The Loopy Ewe ) but in order to get the 1500 yards of yarn I will need, I need to spin it quite thin. Thinner than I've ever consistently done before. So I need to practice before I break out the beautiful roving I plan to use for the blanket (and what is it with me and knitting blankets all the sudden?) So over the weekend I pulled out some roving Emily gave me for Mother's Day. And after a couple days of spinning I had this

It is pretty, but it isn't nearly as fine as I need. I haven't spun for several months so I clearly need to practice. I love the yarn though, it will be a lovely hat or cowl, very soft and squishy. So I dug through my stash and found some Ashford roving I totally forgot I had. (bad bad when you don't even remember all the roving you have!)

And this most beautiful deep teal roving slowly turned into the thinnest single I've ever spun yet. So I'm cautiously optimistic this will help me get the perfect yarn for the baby blanket. The Ashford roving is the softest smoothest spin I've done in months. The roving slides through my fingers into the neatest tight single but it doesn't break. Hopefully it will hold when I start plying. But one thing with spinning this fine, it takes longer to do. Both a good and a bad thing. Smile...but hopefully spinning an hour a night will help me churn through the final borders of Yggdrasil.

Status of Yggdrasil and news on Emily

2010-06-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'm in the final stages of the might Yggdrasil. I'm closing in on the first corner of the final cable border. It is truly a huge blanket and even in summer, I love knitting on it. But I live in MN, we have had a very cool and rainy June, so it has been quite pleasant to sit with that massive pile of wool in my lap. So I keep slogging on, target completion date is early July. Then look out...I feel a huge staritis coming on, be it spinning or knitting...watch for new projects to start soon. But the last few days I've been grateful to have Yggdrasil to focus on.

My Emily was scheduled to have a surgery done due to her cleft issues yesterday. Problem is the insurance company is balking at approving part of the procedure as they feel it falls into the "cosmetic" arena. It infuriates me that it is even a question. Two years ago after her first lip revision it took me 10 months of appeals and letters and phone calls to get two denials overturned and payment in full made by the same insurance company for her lip revision for the same reason. Even though she had limited cartilage in the structure of her nose, the work the doctor did to try and build her an internal structure with the small amount of cartilage she had was deemed initially as cosmetic so no coverage. Really? On a six year old? With a cleft history? But they finally paid for that surgery and I thought we had established her cleft issues clearly. Last year's revision and further surgery ended with no problem at all. Then smack here we go again. I can fight this fight. But it angers me that my child has to wait because of insurance issues instead of getting all the medical help that is available. When the doctor tells you they haven't had to get pre-approval for this particular procedure in over a year and a half from any other insurance company nor have they had any denials perviously it makes you just so disapointed in the state of how these things are decided. I said it before. I fought for years to adopt Emily. I thought once I got her home, my fighting days were behind me. I was wrong. Well hold on people. I can endure what you throw at me and I will prevail and my child will have the very best treatment out there. Because she is entitled to it. Period.

Continueing with the mesmerizing Yggdrasil

2010-06-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how much I love working on this blanket. Just when I start to feel bogged down with it, I look at it and just am amazed. I finished the leaf cable border and was able to lay it out. And even my older daughter was awed by it. We were both standing on chairs to take pictures of it. It just makes me happy. I almost hated having to put it back on the needles to start the next plain knitted section because I won't see it all laying out flat again until I'm finishe with it! Can you believe that? But I now have all 772 stitches on one ginormous 60 inch circular needle to finish the plain section. Then once again I will work through the cable border and it will be finished.

I can't wait to see how the leaf cable section will look once it is blocked and opened up a bit. I think it is just lovely.

I'm even happy with how the corners are looking. And I'm already looking ahead. I have two things in mind to work on next. Both involve my handspun. One is Sam the Ram, he is so cute and I have enough cream handspun of my own that I can double it up and make a wonderful cable filled sheep of my own, although Emily has already claimed him. And just because I don't think I'm busy enough, once Yggdrasil is compelte, my next big project involves spinning 22 ounces of fiber into 1540 yards of yarn to create a baby blanket from the pattern Girasole, I think this version is just amazing and I can't wait to work on it. But during the spinning I see some smaller projects in my head as well, hats and mittens here I come! well I'll come once Yggdrasil is complete, like in July/August. Now if only someone could explain to me why I'm working on a massive wool blanket during summer? hmmmmm

Knitting my way up north

2010-06-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed up north, for those of you not from this area of the country, up north is used to generally refer to going north and heading to a multitude of lakes and woods in Minnesota and Wisconsin. You don't even say exactly where you are going, but you simply say, we are heading up north and people nod and smile. Well our "up north" was to my sister's place on the lake in northern Wisconsin.

When you are on the deck at MK's, you are surrounded by trees and birds and blue skies. Just a perfect place. I spent a few hours trying to card and clean some roving I bought a year ago when I was a real newbie spinner. I didn't inspect it at all, turns out it was just filled with veggie matter. I tried carding it, didn't get rid of much at all. The best solution I found was to hand pick it out, one little piece of grass at a time. And after a couple hours of work I have a small pile of clean roving. Did I mention that I really splurged and bought 8 ounces of the stuff? It was so inexpensive! sigh...I think this could take me all summer to clean. But it isn't a hard job, just tedious. And when I finally do get to sit and spin it, I will remember the hours spent outside, working through it.

The biggest drawback of working on the Yggdrasil blanket is not the cables, love those, it is not the color, I love that as well, it isn't even sitting with a pile of wool on my lap in summer, I'm managing that thankfully to careful positioning of a fan. Nope the biggest drawback is that it has severly curtailed any pictures of cute knitting. I'm not sure what I can show you that you haven't seen before. I'm really happy working on it. I've gotten to the point where it is relaxing and repetitive and soothing. But there just isn't anything to take pictures of. Short of stopping work on it to knit something else just to have pictures, I'm really going to have to get creative in my blogging. So I'm hoping you will stick with me as I push through the last 2 sections of the blanket.

I can tell you I'm starting to plan what I'm going to work on next. I feel a hat and mitten binge coming on. So I'm off to peruse Ravelry for patterns that I find interesting. Living in MN you can never have too many hats or mittens! Winter is just around the corner....oh and just to end on a corny joke. MN is 9 months winter and 3 months road repair. Trust me, the road repair is going full force...

Happy Birthday to Emily

2010-05-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my baby turned 8. EIGHT! We had her birthday supper at Benihana's, now that is an event as well as a fabulous dinner. Watching her eyes get big and her grin as the shrimp tails went flying into hat and pocket of Sanchez our personal chef was priceless. Seeing her delight in gift cards to Michaels since this child can never have enough crafty things to do made me grin. I'm blessed to be her mamma as well as Anna's. Adopting my girls has and will always be the two best decisions I've ever made in my life. Being a mom seemed out of reach for many years. To have these two beautiful girls as my children still causes me to pause with wonder.

On the knitting front the blanket continues to grow. I'm on the 3rd side, which meant I finished another corner. And it is the first one I'm happy with. Not sure what I did differently but it looks smooth and continuous. Hopefully the remaining corners will continue to get better as well. The only problem with the blanket is the outside temps. Yesterday it was 95 farenheit (HOT by anyone's standards) throw in the high humidity and it was a tough day. In fact as I drove home my van's thermostat of outside temps ranged from 96 - 101. Now that is crazy for MN. So knitting with a HUGE pile of wool in ones lap even in air conditioned homes at that temp does make you think twice. We are heading up north to my sister's for the Memorial Holiday, I'm planning to bring the blanket, but if the heat wave continues, I may think twice as they don't usually use their air conditioner. So we will see...no worries, it isn't as if I don't have plenty of other WIP's to choose from. Check this post which in Jan of 09 I showed my UFOs. Sadly I've only finished two things from that post. Two of the three pairs of socks are finished. Sooooo surely I can pick from there and bring something much better to work on in the wild woods of the up north! And to get to cross it off my list? I'm looking at you last remaining sock...down to the foot and decreases and you mock me? I feel a finishing spurt coming on!

Running on empty

2010-05-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been a marathon. Now if it were a marathon of knitting or spinning, I'd be squealing in delight. Nothing so fun. Instead it is the end of school events, this week alone had 2 concerts and a track and field day. Last week was the fun night at school. There have been doctor appointments for a few of us. There was trips to our family home town to visit graves which is always emotionally charged and meetings to resolve issues with my mom's duplex that is now back in her possession after a failed Contract for Deed to puchase fell through. Just a hard draining couple of weeks.

Tomorrow is Emily's birthday party, she and some friends will head to a nearby salon for manicure's, hair dos and makeup before returning to our house for pizza, cake and presents. Then I plan on going to my room and curling up for a long nap! Knitting has been slow and sporadic, but the blanket is moving along. I'm around the first corner and heading along the second side of the leaf/cable border. It is becoming very familar and easy which means I have to really watch what I'm doing on the cables or I will make a mistake not to be discovered until I'm around the corner flying along. I may pull out some roving to spin, maybe this,

It is a merino silk combo I picked up at Shepherd's Harvest earlier this month.

The Annual Shop Hop event is this weekend here in the Twin Cities. I've had great fun the last few years attending, there are 6 shops in the area that promote this event. You head to each of the shops over a Friday through Sunday and receive little gifties with a purchase or donation for the food shelf. You get a card stamped at all the stores, at the last store you leave it and next week the owners get together for a drawing. Six store prizes, one grand prize. The first year I went I was lucky enought to win a store prize and it was AWESOME. I won a large quantity of yarn, a beautiful knitting bag, patterns, gift card for the yarn shop and many other beautiful items as my booty. Talk about fun when I went to pick it up and got to spend the gift card to get even MORE yarn. smile

But I've decided that I'm not going this year. I have so much yarn and roving right now that I've reach a level of stash I'm not comfortable with. Even though purchases are not required to participate in the stamping of the card, I always purchase something at each store (I say that like it is a hardship) so I decided this year to let it go and I will look forward to next year and shop with a vengence! So to all the yarn hoppers out there, enjoy and good luck!

Fun at Shepherd's Harvest

2010-05-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

The sheep festival held yearly at the Lake Elmo fairgrounds was wonderful as usual. Again it was cold, damp, and drizzly out but that only helped in the knit ware fashion being modeled by all the attendees and vendors. I had a great time. And I only went through 2 of the 4 buildings filled with vendors. I had a set budget and I went through that in the first two barns, the girls and mom were done so we left. Some year I would like to go alone and not worry about everyone else and really just wander to my hearts content. But no complaints. I had a great time. I already spun up this roving. It is called Atlantis, and the yarn looks and feels wonderful.

I also bought some great Briar Rose yarn, it is in deep reds to black. I'm not sure what it will be, probably a luscious shawl, but I'm open to suggestions. One of the things my girls like best is knowing there will be food there, the kettle corn is the big draw for them. I also am happy to give them money as we arrive if they need mother's day ideas. Anna already had her gift for me (which was a lovely wooden heart that she made herself at school, with power tools and everything!) Emily made me a beautiful card filled with all the reasons she loves me. Can't go wrong with that. But she asked for some money and this is what she gave me on Sunday. It is a lovely poweder blue with pink. Very soft and lovely.

I took stock of my yarn this weekend and realized how blessed I am. My handspun is filling the cubbie to the brim. I have two wheels of roving tucked next to the shelf as well as a LARGE basket overflowing with camel, merino, silk, and wonderful wool ready for spinning. I have the completed handspun ready for hats and gloves. I have oodles of sock yarn waiting to be socks or scarves. And in two weeks, the local yarn hop is looming. I made a big girl decision. I'm going to skip it this year. I have loved going the last two years. I even won a huge prize the very first year I went. But I think I'm going to pass. I don't NEED anything. And I'm thinking right now that I don't want anything either. I've bought the books and magazines I want. I have more than enough yarn and roving to hold me for (lets face it) months. So instead of going to the shops, I will work on enjoying my stash when it is at its best. Filled with endless possibilites. Sounds like a good plan.

And finally, lest you think I've been slacking. Here is the blanket in all it's glory. I'm on the cable leaft border. This will be a masterpiece I think. I love it.

The silence is broken

2010-05-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

The last couple weeks have been a blur. I traveled to Chicago on business. While the seminar was intersting, the biggest event was being away by myself. I got Emily over 6 years ago. In that time, she has gone on some sleepovers, but I have never left her before. She had serious sleep issues for years. Each night was a huge challenge so me leaving her was not an option. So here I was flying off for 2 1/2 days away. In a fancy hotel. Alone. No one else from my company was there, I knew no one at the seminar. I sat absorbing knowledge for 2 days. And had room service meals. Quiet room. No decisions to make for any one other than me. There were some highlights. Like figuring out how the toilet works. Now this should not have been a hard thing to figure out. That is until you look in the bathroom and see this.

Now it looks like a normal toilet in all regards except the flushing part. (who would have thougtht I'd write about this and have illustrations to boot!). After some thought (and I'm not saying how much thought) I pressed on one side of the flat metal panel. Presto chango the toilet flushed. So curious as to what the other side of the panel did, I pressed that as well. Even more resounding flushing occured! I just laughed, water savings at its best. But all in all the Chicago trip went well. I knit in my room in the evening, I took phone calls from Emily as she struggled to sleep without me. But we all managed and I had a nice break from my normal life for a few days. It may be years before it happens again, but it was just a real nice break for me.

Now you might be wondering to yourself, while the toilet thing is interesting and all, isn't this a knitting blog? Why yes it is. And I even spun a bit too. This is some yarn I keep thinking of carmeled apples when I see it. I really didn't enjoy spinning it that much however, it was a bit scratchy and coarse feeling. And it wasn't very smooth at all. I'm not sure what I will make from it, but I figure you can always learn something from spinning and who knows. I may come up with just that perfect thing to make from it.

The blanket is coming along nicely. I finished the cabled section which is when I should have taken another picture of it, laying all nice and flat. But no, I couldn't WAIT to get started on picking up all those stitches to start knitting to oblivion. So that is what I'm doing, knitting round and round and round. On one VERRRRYYYYY long needle. But it is lovely, soft, and just amazing. Mistakes and all. Because I have mistakes there. And there they will stay. But I just love this blanket.

Pictureless Post

2010-04-22T14:25:00.000-07:00

I'm swamped at work. Dragging home to tend children and taxi them to and fro. I took a week break from knitting on the blanket, am back at it, turned the 3rd corner of the cabled section and am flying down the 4th side to the final corner and then grafting. You know how much I LOVE grafting...but I am looking forward to knitting miles of stockinette shortly.

I went to Yarnover last Saturday and enjoyed the market place. It was very busy since I got there during the lunch break. I found some roving, a natural reddish brown and then really splurged on 3 skeins of 3 Irish Girls yarn. Can't wait to see what I end up doing with that.

Spring is in full force here in MN. Much earlier than normal, so I really need to push on the blanket so I can try and finish it before I can't stand to knit with that much wool in my lap. Considering I am in MN I still probably have a good six weeks before it gets really sticky here.

Sorry for the boring post. But I hope to post at least weekly...so right now, this is as good as it gets.

Spring = startitis

2010-04-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

As much as I love the blanket, I'm ready for a bit of a break. So I worked on this, the Inga hat. I'm nearly to the decreases and think it looks great. I'm happy that my fair isle is looking smoother and smoother and the floats appear just right. A good soak when I'm done and it should be just right!

So after working on that, I realized I was going someplace smashing on Wednesday. Someplace outside of work, even though I attended with my fellow workers, and someplace I could bring my knitting along for the ride.

I went to see....yup....a Twins game in their new ball park. And not just in any seat, nope we got treated to a suite! Talk about a great way to watch a ball game. And even though it rained off and on, sitting outside the suite means you are protected by an overhang, so I could sit and knit and watch people scramble back and forth from their seats as the rain came and left. Although we did not win this game, it was a nice afternoon. And this is where the startitis came in. I couldn't drag the blanket to the game, just too big and bulky. I have a sock nearly to the toe decreases, but I knew I would finish it during the game and I wasn't about to kitchner the toe sitting there, while I could have brought something to hold the live stitches and just cast on the second sock, that was WAYYYYY to easy. Instead, I picked 4 somewhat compatible sock yarns, lonely single skeins or almost full single skeins that were longing to be something. I wasn't exactly sure what, but I cast on with the vague notion of making a skinny scarf, in striped sections, maybe changing up the texture of each row. And started knitting. I started with an inch of garter stitch and then moved on to stockinette. I did one inch of each yarn. So a solid rust in garter, then a painted stockinette. Got to the next solid section, a hot lipstick red, and I switched to seed stitch. Then back to stockinette in a painted yarn. Decided I would just go back and forth switching from stockinette to seed stitch. Now I'm thinking just maybe this will be a pillow cover.

I would do probably 4-5 strips, seam them together and create a pillow top, sew that to a backing of somesort and it will be a pillow! I'm thinking of alternating where the seed stitch falls so it will be staggered when seamed together. Yup, just what I need, another WIP. sigh...I'm hopeless....

Falling down the Yggsdrasil hole

2010-04-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

I've been working steadily on the Yggsdrasil blanket. Still loving it. Slightly tormented by it. I love how the cabled border is turning out. The yarn is great, showing good definition, not scratchy, will be a good blanket to curl up under. Now I realize it is April and if I don't finish this in the next month or so I'll be sweltering under it while I work on it. So in a way good incentive to keep churning along. Two nights ago I reached a fearful section. The corner. The first part of the corner after a false start worked out just fine. Then I had to basically turn the corner, that is where the problems crept in. Let me say the pattern and charts are good. Clear, simple and clean. Nothing out of the ordinary. However, I was at a loss when I got to the turning the corner bit. I could see from the directions that I would need to increase back to the needed stitches to continue up the next side of the border. But there were NO instructions on how to get there. I stared at the charts. I reread the written directions. Nothing beyond work rows 1-42 for braid corner. Sigh...now I do not consider myself a knitting newbie anymore. I've been knitting seriously for almost 4 years. Not a tremendous amount of time, but I've done so many things during that time, my skills are solid. Yet to not have a single statement on how to add the increases just baffled me. I checked all the Ravlery projects and no one said anything about the corner. So it must be me. There must be some reason I am thrown for a loop on this section. But last night I hunkered down, staring down the chart. And just started to knit. I ripped it back 3 times and then just seemed to go with the flow. The end result is this.

It isn't as smooth as I'd like it to be, but it isn't bad either. So I will keep whipping along. I'm hoping to finish the second side by the end of the weekend. One person's Yggsdrasil on Ravelry was COMPLETED in five weeks. Five weeks. Lord she must have knit in her sleep! I'm hoping to have it finished possibly by the end of May, but I'm not swearing to it.

And just as a foot note, spring arrived in Minnesota way early this year, leaves are all ready budding on trees, the lawns are perking up. I'm afraid to hope we are really done with winter, although the temp was 35 degrees farenheit this morning, I'm still sticking to my sandals. My toes are free and loving it!

The tree grows

2010-03-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

I love working on this blanket. I think it will be quite large. And for once I think this will be for me. Or depending on how Christmas knitting turns out, maybe for my mother. I'm nearly done with the center panel, only 4 rows to go...however with each round over 300 stitches, that takes a wee bit longer than I expect it to. When I'm working round the cable rows, I'll probably be longing for the mindless knitting of stockinette...but until then, I'm ready for some cables!

Although doing the tree branches and roots in all the little 1X1 cables was a bit daunting, I'm ready for a cable border.

I haven't been spinning much lately, too consumed in this blanket. But I started working on my camel fiber. Not sure I like the camel...but will reserve judgment until I've completed it. I spun some baby alpaca and struggled during the spinning, but was totally surprised with the end result. So who knows how the camel will turn out.

Yggdrasil.....what?

2010-03-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

Call me crazy, but I'm starting something that is decadently wonderful. It is a pattern created by Lisa Jacobs, Yggdrasil Afghan (Ravelry link). It is a sumptious blend of knitting and cable stitches. Yggdrasil is an immense tree that is central to Norse mythology. I fell in love with the pictures and all the cables, so I decided it was next on my to do list in the "huge" category. Do others have different levels of knitting? I have my "take along" projects, usually socks, sometimes mittens. These fill in the gaps of doctor's waiting rooms, school functions, and piano lessons. Nothing too hard, fills the time (and my mind) quite pleasantly, but not challenging since they are stolen moments found here and there throughout the day. Then I have my home projects, either they are too large to drag around during my day or they are complicated and involve counting higher than 10, ok, five. Sometimes these are the same projects, sometimes not. My Yggdrasil is not a complicated project at the moment, although it clearly will fall into the too large cateogry soon.

What you see here is the center medallion. That is the actual tree, there are four sections, currently you are looking at the tree branches reach out into the sky. I view them as winter branches, no leaves, and they are gnarly branches. That is because they are 1X1 cables, going back and forth against the background. Crazy, itty bitty cable turned me into a big crabby mess. But I got through them and as I'm a ways farther than what you see in the picture, I'm in purl land heaven filled with endless stretches of purling amid 6 stitches of knit to form the tree trunk. And I love it.

I bought the yarn at the Double Ewe. I ended up using Cascade Eco Wool, the color is pretty accurate in the picture, it is a light gray color. It is showing up the cable work nicely. And the cost made it a good choice as well. Since I needed 3,800 yards of yarn. Holy smokes! I did the math and with the generous yardage in Eco Wool, I would need 7.96 skeins. Now in the past, I would have thrown caution to the wind and believed I could get the afghan done with 8 skeins, after all I'd have a cushion of .04 yards of yarn left over. But I couldn't do it. The fear of getting to the last 3 inches of the final cabled border and running out of yarn was too much for me to chance. So I ordered the extra 9th skein. No use stressing during the knitting of this afghan over whether or not I'd make it with 8 skeins of yarn.

And last weekend I had to grow up and let go. My Anna, went on a sleep over with a couple friends. They went to the movies (without a parent along) and shopping (with a parent but not me). She did great, as I knew she would, but oh it was hard for me to see her world growing larger and expanding. She bought a couple really cute outfits, including this.

My baby is growing up. She is bright and funny and kind. And she is confident in herself and her friends. And she is beautiful. Now I'm going to excuse myself as I wander through memory lane and watch my mind's pictures of our years together, from a strong willed fiesty laughing baby to a mature teen ager...not sure I'm ready for it, but I'm confident she is.

Ninja Wins

2010-03-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

Well if you've read anything of mine from the last 6 months, you know I pitched a fierce battle with a pair of socks I named the Ninjas. I fought so many things on the way to completing a pair of socks, if you added up the actual stitches I worked, I'd most likely have TWO pairs of socks. But in the end I declared myself victorious. Laughing in the face of those ninja socks. Proudly, err loudly proclaiming that I overcame ALL obstacles and wrestled those socks into submission. I finished the socks shortly before Christmas. It is now 2 and a half months after Christmas.

I present you with the Ninja socks.

I'm not repairing them. I'm bowing to the Ninja gods in defeet (ooooh bad pun, bad spelling). I'm tossing the cursed socks in the trash.

May they rest in peace.

One Saroyan scarf done

2010-03-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

I'm in the winter doldrums I think. Everything seems gloomy and gray. Work is work. Nothing exciting there, which at times can be a good thing. Children are children with all the resulting drama. Permanent teeth are trying to come in on top of baby teeth who seem really happy to remain tightly in place. Not a good thing, dentist appointment for older daughter is now scheduled.

Had drama involving my prayer shawl for a friend over the weekend. Now I'm the one needing prayers. I attmepted my first grafting of anything more than toes of a sock. One extra exuberant pull of the needle and lace yarn prompted the needles to fly out of my hands and stitches to come tumbling off of them all helter skelter. I sat in disbelief at what just took place in a mere second. I'm pretty good at fixing mistakes. this? not so much. I sat and cried. Looked at the mess and cried again. Got my tiny steel crochet hook out and slowly worked through the tangled mess and got the approrpirate stitches back on the knitting needles, but in a poor imitation of the actual pattern. I took a deep breathe and starting from the other end tried a different grafting technique. Success! Until I realized in complete mind numbing paralizying horror that this particular form of grafting does not move or give. Nope, not moving one tiny inch, it is completely solid. So my shawl which will block out to at least twice its width, is now trapped by this one imovable row of firmly bound off stitches. More crying. I put the shawl into a basket and promptly took a 3 hour nap. Talk about exhaustion! Did I mention I cried? Later that night, I painstakingly worked and slid my knitting needles into the stitches in the row below and above the now horribly in flexible row. Where once I've sufficiently recovered my wits, I will undo that row and end up once again with 2 separate pieces of knitting. So oh yes, I can go through this torture all over again! Lord help me, why do I love knitting? sigh....and no pictures. I couldn't do that.

I did finish this. My Saroyan scarf is complete. It is getting rave reviews at work. (Please avert your eyes from the papers piled under it and next to it.....that was the biggest "open" space I could find at my desk.) You can't really appreciate the silver threads that run through this Dream in Color yarn. I especially like how it looks in the evening, with the silver glinting off the waning daylight. Ok, so we have no "waning daylight", it just gets dark. But I do like how it looks at night in the soft glow of my Ott light!

and just so I can really try and remove the horror of tangled white lace weight yarn from my mind, a close up of the pretty leaves...that is the ticket...focus on the leaves....

Spring is in the air

2010-03-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

OK, so that might be just a bit of a stretch, but the air feels softer and less biting...the sun is out longer and actually has some warmth to her. While we still have mounds of dirty black encrusted snow, much has melted, leaving edges of the lawns showing. No green grass yet, but you can at least see the grass. Much to my dog's delight. Have I ever mentioned that Gadget was a rescue dog? We drove to St. Louis to pick him up, so he is most likely a southern boy and when he first experienced a true Minnesotan winter, I'm sure he thought we lost our mind, expecting him to do the most private of things OUTSIDE, when it is -30, with a foot of snow around. So to make both of our lives easier and to accomplish the shortest amount of time outside in such unbearable weather, I've taken to shoveling the grass, yes you read that correctly. I shovel the grass, just so he has a "place" where he can do his business without having to actually walk in the snow. What I do for my dog.

But since this is a blog primarily about knitting, here is what I worked on this week. pardon the blurry pictures, I'm not sure what happened...surely it couldn't be due to me trying to photograph my own hand and while that alone would have been hard, I made the decision to put the glove on my right hand and try to photo it with my left hand....sigh....this is a fast and easy knit. I don't have the ends woven in, the top hem done which would revel the cute picot edge or even the thumb. So there is just a couple hours at best left to do on mitt number one. But the color. Oh man do I love these colors. And it is Casbah yarn which gives it a feeling of decadant softness due to the 10% cashmere. I loves them...here is the Rav link to find the pattern.

I still haven't grafted Liz's shawl. I don't know what my problem is, I can graft, but the thought of grafting over 90 lace stitches is way more daunting than grafting 9 toe stitches on my socks. But this is it, she will be in office next week and I am going to give it to her. And since I don't see the practicality of giving her two separate pieces of rumpled knitting and saying here you go, I will get this done. Pictures....probably....fear? most definitely.....completion? Absolutely.

Gotcha Day, Urgent Care and a Missing Pug

2010-03-01T08:59:00.000-08:00

The last week has been intersting, filled with a celebration of Emily's sixth Gotcha Day, Anna's participating in the 30 hour Famine, my visit to Urgent Care, and the disapperance of a pug. And in between all this, knitting was done!

Six years ago, I was in China where I was blessed to receive a fiesty strong willed 22 month old little girl. A scared sad little girl with eyes that seemed to swallow me. Fast forward to today, my nearly eight year old fiesty strong willed child runs through life. Determined. Fiercely loyal. We met her "fairy god mother" and the three of us wandered through a book store, Justice, and Claires after eating delicious Chinese food for lunch. It was a wonderful time filled with memories both hard and wonderful.

Anna participated in our church's 30 hour famine program, she and her friends made over 10,000 meals at Feed Our Starving Children and maybe, just maybe, got a glimpse of how so many others in our world today feel, hungry and wondering where their next meal will come from. A good reminder for all of us.

My excitement involved a trip to urgent care. That blurry picture on the left is my finger. It was/is infected. Very swollen and red yesterday, didn't want to bend. I've done this before and knew I'd need a dr.'s help. So off we went. I do not mind waiting in the waiting room at urgent care, with it's first come first serve. No problem. But really, when you put me in the back in a tiny exam room, painted in a pea green color, with no magazines etc (and couldn't knit do to sore finger), please do not leave me in there, for any longer than 10 minutes. I waited in that tiny claustrophobic nauseatingly green room for 35 minutes before the dr. finally came in, looked at my finger and agreed it needed to be drained. I knew that it would be more painful to numb my finger than to simply make the small incision and drain it. (remember, this has happened to me before) So a fem minutes later, I'm walking out the door with a less throbbing finger, more medicine to try and get rid of any remaining infection, and wondering if I could knit later in the day.

After taking a nap during the afternoon, I finished this. Which was just started on Friday night. It looks somewhat like a hot water bottle holder but it is actually a baby cozy. and those are cute little owl cables at the top of the snuggle sack. I think I will add emboridered french knots for the eyes. And the color is so much prettier, it looks like a peacock feather when the sunlight hits it just right. It is a blueish green with hints of purple. Winter nights make for bad pictures.

And the last bit of news is Gadget disappered this morning. He was snuggled in with Emily sleeping, I got up to take my shower, usually, as long as he has someone to snuggle with, he will stay in bed and wait for me to get out of the shower. Not so much today. I got up, Emily sound asleep, but no pug. I call him, look everywhere upstairs, no pug. Go downstairs, calling searching, no pug. Race back upstairs, calling more urgently. Still no pug. Drag sleeping teenager out of bed to start looking for wayward pug, when I see the dust ruffle move on my bed. And shortly after see my pug come out from under my bed. I now have proof he lost weight while my mom has been in Alabama. Because he couldn't FIT under my bed before. But happily after much loving and squeezing, our morning continued with no further drama. Here is how Gadget normally sleeps, on a pillow, curled up tight, with hair extensions on his back. What? Your dog dosn't have extensions? Or a pillow? Yup, that is how it rolls at our house....

Rustic Roving

2010-02-18T08:23:00.000-08:00

I finished plying the grass/hay filled brown roving I was inching my way through spinning. I've never treadled once, stopped, plucked out hay, treadled twice, stopped, plucked out grass, over and over and over and did I say pull out grass? Yup, I did that forever, but I'm amazingly happy with the end result. A bulky, soft and lofty, wonderful deep dark chocoloate (not milk chocolate) brown yarn. I still have a good ounce - ounce and a half left to spin up but I got two good sized skeins of this wonderful rustic yarn. I still get such a surpise over what my end result yarn will look like, I thought this was going to be much thinner yarn, but instead it turned out to a nice heavy weight yarn.

The girls and I have about 2 weeks left before mom returns from her month vacation in Alabama. While the weather hasn't been as warm as she hoped, she seems to be having a great time. She has seen my niece and her family two times already and will go see them one more time before heading home. The girls and I are playing some fun marathon Monopoly games each week. We leave the game set up on the dining room table, eat our simple meals while we play. Fun to see my 13 and 7 year old having fun, together, at the same time. Wait, I must get picutres of it next time! Just as proof we can all have a good time not only doing the same thing, but, gasp, actually doing it at the SAME TIME! Will wonders never cease....

Tonight I will spin a bit, I need to continue with this deep blue, Neptune, I call it. A nice change from the brown roving and the white of the prayer shawl. Maybe I better start praying for me, so I will actually FINISH the prayer shawl....I'm close, I'm on the last border section...just taking a lot longer than I expected. Why, when I'm not knitting on it much, I think it is taking too long, is just another knitting conundrum in my oh so logical world...

Roving Blizzard

2010-02-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

February is fast slipping through my fingers. My mom is gone for the month in not so warm Alabama and it is just the girls and me. I relish this time, it rarely happens and for a month? Heaven! So I took last Friday off, the girls had school which gave me a ME day. I got my hair cut at a "spa" salon. I'm the type to go to Great Clips a couple times a year! So going to the spa for a cut was sheer decadence. I loved the parafin hand treatment and just felt very pampered. Once home, again, just in case you missed it, ALONE...no children around! I sat on the couch, with a happy dog in my lap and knit away. I did work on laundry all day, Emily has more clothes than a local dress shop! The handme downs have taken over and much culling is needed. Which I planned doing Friday. But instead, I just knit. And I'm good with that. smile...

I did get new roving in. This is Aspen Gold from Spinderella. Very pretty, reminds me of carmel apples.

I also got Oran Ja Glad. I love the name, the color is a bit washed out so it is prettier in person. Hate taking pictures in the winter!

And finally this is Peace o Fleece, again it looks washed out, but it is so very pretty. I got 8 ounces of each, that my friends is a LOT of spinning. And don't forget I have 2 pounds of mill ends in Pepi Lu Pue and a bronzey colorway as well. Oh and a couple blue rovings. oh my, I better get spinning....but I'm also knitting up a storm. I'm nearly done with the prayer shawl for Liz. I'm on the final border. And since knitting white in the winter is a bit taxing I pulled out some lavendar Dream in Starry and started the Saroyan scarf, it is turning out quite nice I think.

Parking in the winter

2010-02-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

This morning at work great laughter erupted when someone looked out the window at this.

Click on the picture if need be...but look closely at the 3 middle rows of cars....that is a big clue...should only be two rows! Poor people in the middle. Now I totally understand the difficulty in parking in lots here in the winter, no lines to guide you, it is guess your best. But really? They couldn't figure it out? sigh...after a company wide announcement went out, the four people went out and moved their cars. (and if it had been me, I would have borrowed someone else's jacket before running out there to move my car in an effort to hide my true identity!)

Yesterday I left work early and somehow my car drove to not one by two yarn shops. I did take pictures of one of the items that leapt into my hands. It is a really pretty blue/black with hits of a brown rusty color in it. This should help me spin faster as I'm currently working on some dark grayish brown roving. It has more veggie matter in it than I like as it really slows me down to keep plucking it out as I spin. I tried looking ahead and getting it out first, but you can't see most of it until you are actually spinning...so I treadle, stop, pluck out, treadle, stop and repeat..

If you look closely here, you can see a big hunk of straw waiting for me to pick out. But with the encouragement of the blue Neptune roving, I may spin faster....and then there is also the knowledge that I just may have ordered more roving from a new Etsy store...but that is a post for another day. Must spin faster!

And finally, here is the first couple of skeins I made from my Pepi Lu Pue roving. I must KNIT faster!

356 pairs of socks

2010-02-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

What a busy last week...my mom left for a month on the Alabama coast, she will escape the February winter and enjoy the view of the ocean from her condo window and walks on the beach. I on the other hand will be enjoying views like this and shoveling the driveway!

I took this picture of the morning skies as I walked into work today at 9:30. The school bus was late by 15 minutes this morning, my commute wasn't horrible even though we got over 3 inches of snow over night instead of the 1 inch or less that was forecasted. Such is life in the north. We deal with it while shoveling, trudging through slop filled parking lots, and yet looking happily at the sparkling snow that has covered up the dirty gray piles of the past. So in that respect I enjoy the new snow.

Knitting is moving along, I'm about 3/4 done with Liz's prayer shawl. The one big problem with lace knitting is there really isn't anything to show, it looks the same as before, just more of it. A rumpled swath of fabric falling off my needles. I won't predict when I will finish it as I'm so far behind where I thought I would be. I'll just keep knitting it and eventually it will be done.

I've spun up some Pepi Lu Pue. It is good, I think slightly under plied, but still nice. Pictures of black and white yarn in a dark gray world do not make for good pictures. I also started spinning some of the local charcoal colored wool I found at a local farm just north of here. It is a bit wiry and has more veggie matter in it that I'd like, but it still is looking decent. And there is nothing wrong with slowing down as I spin to pull out the bits of grass here and there.

I did make one decisison though, I need more socks. (ok, so maybe reading about the one guy who has 356 socks, yup, a new pair for each day of the year and he washes them all in one shot made me feel like I needed MORE socks!) I realized that out of the last 5 pair I've knit, only one has been for me. And going through my sock drawer I just threw out 3 of my worn out hand knit pairs. So new socks are needed. And SOON. I can't imagine having a different pair every day though, not even if I knit 3 times as fast as I do. Plus given the added benefit of being my take a long project, it wasn't hard last night to look through my stash and pull out some Sockkata and cast on some basic vanilla socks. The cuff is done and I'm just starting on the plain leg section. Perfect knitting at lunch or waiting somewhere...while at home, the shawl or spinning will call me. Life is good....

Spinning Pepi La Pue

2010-01-25T09:48:00.000-08:00

I finished my Citron Shawl late Friday night. Emily is clamoring for it, we will see how that works out. But I do love the colors, and the pattern was nicely done. No complaints here. I'm back working on the white prayer shawl. Note to self: think twice, maybe three zillion times before knitting a white item in the dead of winter. Also, after knitting on something else for a week, don't be surprised when you stumble bumble your way through a few rows before you fall back into a comfortable rhythm knitting again. But I'm half way done on the white shawl, so there is hope if I can power through that I can finish over the weekend.

I finished spinning the lime green roving as well. I will give it a nice long soak and some serious thwacking tonight and complete it. The color is pretty spot on in the picture, maybe just a bit brighter, but that is what you get trying to take pictures at night in winter. I'm happy with it, I had less than four ounces and have almost 200 yards. So that will do and it is not spun too thinly or tightly, it is nice and squoishy. I think it would be great in a fair isle hat or mittens. I'll think on it and see what is calling me.

And finally here is the next spinning quest....one pound of Pepi Le Pue!

Due to the grayness outside...

2010-01-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

knitting on the white shawl has been temporarily suspended for this.

This lovely riot of colors that reminde me of rhubarb, is the Citron shawl, which I found on Ravelry. It is a fast and prety shawlette. And I love the pinky/purpley colors that meld with the spring green. Perfect to banish the winter grayness away. I'm on the last repeat and will start the 11 rows of 550 stitches each for the ruffle. Fun times people! But it is simple stockinete and I will glady take it. It will cover the shoulders in just a barely there type style or will be very cozy wrapped around a throat for comfort as well as color in these winter doldrums.

I should be nominated for the bad mommy award today. The two neighbor kids I drive to the bus stop with Emily were at our house this morning, all dressed in their usual snow pants/jackets/hats/boots/mittens. Emily hops into the laundry room to get her gear when we both gasp. We totally forgot that last night I threw her jacket/snowpants into the washer. And there they were, STILL in the washer. And still very wet. Not damp, but WET. So not dry. Not good. I pull another pair of pink snowpants off the hooks and they fit Emily perfectly. Grabbed her last year jacket (also pink) and with her pink mittens and another hat we were set. Now her jacket is a light weight winter jacket but I think we are ok today. She will have it on for recess for about 20 minutes and with her running around she should be warm enough. How can I forget my childs winter outerwear in the washer! In January!

We are down to the final week before my mom heads south for the month of Feb. She is so excited and I too am looking forward to having time alone and alone with the girls. I'm planning on taking at least one day off for me. No kids. Just me. And I see some yarn hopping in that day. Lord help me. I will be loose, alone, in yarn shops. No promises on what will come home with me.

Trolling for roving

2010-01-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

When I'm knitting lace and it is the same pattern repeat that I had in the last update, there really isn't much to photograph to show. Just more of the same. It is pretty, but just more of the same. But I'm on the 7th repeat of 14, so whoo hoo! I still love it and it actually moves along quickly but just not much to show. I did break out the electric lime green roving from my stash basket and started spinning it last night to combat the blahness of knitting with cream yarn in a dreary stretch of winter days/nights in Minnesota. It is spinning up nicely, I'm trying to get a bit of a thicker yarn, with more bounce and squishness quota than I've been getting lately. So I'm slowing down on my treadling spead and trying to take my time instead of chanting faster and faster and faster as I spin.

I went on a roving search this week. While there are a few yarn shops in the area that also sell roving, it isn't as easy for me to get as yarn. So I started trolling the net to find some possible new shopping places that include purchasing directly from a sheep or alpaca farm in the area. What fun. I found Becky at the River Oaks Farm I emailed her and after a series of exchanges ordered some beautiful charcoal gray/black roving. It is soft and feels great. Her service was extraordinaryly quick. I confirmed my order in the afternoon of Tuesday and Wed had a box of roving waiting for me at my house. Talk about wonderful service. I can't wait to spin it up. (or take a picture of it, sorry!)

I'm also exchanging emails with a yarn shop in Wisconsin near my sister's home in Barnes. She is calling some local sheep farmers and finding out what wool they may have for sale and will get back with me. Again, that is going above and beyond customer service. Can't wait to find out what wool the wilds of Wisconsin may have.

So this weekend I will kint and spin and I will try to take pictures of the results. The lime green roving reminds me of a slushy and in this weather seems appropriate to spin.