Whoa...

...I may never be inclined to feel bad, guilty or at all self-conscious about the size of MY stash ever again! Check this one out!

Lace? What lace?

It's been a slow progress week on my two lace projects -- the Caracia shawl and the second DIC Shrug. I'm having attention issues. Maybe it has to do with it being the last week of school?* I don't know, but each time I've sat down to work on either lace project, a much higher than usual amount of tinking has been necessary because my mind has been wandering too much. A wandering mind + lace charts? Does not equal anything good.

So! What do you do when your mind won't cooperate? You knit simple shit. LOL In my case, I started putting together my afghan swap squares!

I cropped this picture so weirdly so as to spare you the sight of
my carpet that is in dire need of being swept. Ack. :P

I got the first strip of five squares done pretty quickly last night, which is a happy thing, because instead of simply seaming them, I had the brilliant inspiration to knit garter stitch borders between each square to give it a quilt-ish look. So, I'm starting at the end of one square, picking up stitches in random colors that will (hopefully) coordinate with some other part of the afghan, knitting eight rows of garter stitch and then connecting that to the next block in the strip with what I'm calling my own bastardized mattress stitch/kitchener stitch hybrid seaming method. (Who knows? Maybe it is a legitimate way of seaming something wonky like this, though I can't say I've seen it anywhere before.)

Yes, this is adding more work to the whole project than just seaming and being done with it, but I've had this vision for this afghan since the very beginning, and so this is how I'm going to do it. Once done, I'll put a border around the whole thing, and then I'll block the whole afghan...which I was realizing as I was trying to lay this strip out for a photo will likely require me to move furniture in my living room. LOL But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

At any rate, this garter stitch border knitting is the perfect mindless project. I can do it while I watch TV. My mind can wander all it wants. Just what the doctor ordered. I'm harboring a secret hope that I might actually get to finish this whole project this weekend. We'll see how that goes.

*For the record, we JUST FINISHED this morning! The kids just took their last test of the year, and we are now DONE! WOOHOO! Another successful homeschooling year comes to a close! And it has been a really good year. Color me thrilled! =)

Epiphanies! Breakthroughs! Ah-ha moments!

Whatever you want to call 'em, I've been having 'em lately!

First, drop spindling. Seriously. I've been trying to learn to spin with a drop spindle for a couple of years now, and I have had very limited success. I do more dropping than spinning, and what gets spun isn't pretty. Still, I keep a spindle sitting in plain sight in my bedroom, and a little bump of fiber nearby, and every once in a while, I pick it up and give it a try, usually yielding the same old disappointing results.

Yesterday? I looked at it, and even before I picked it up, I just KNEW I had figured out what I was doing wrong. No idea how I knew that, and I'm not sure I can even put it in words, but I was right. I spun the loveliest, finest (think lace weight!), most consistent singles I've ever spun with a spindle. Incredible!

The only thing I can credit this epiphany to is something Amy said to me about spindling when I got to talk to her at MS&W, and then something Cosy said to me on Saturday when we were walking around the fiber show in Ohio. I can't even remember what their comments were exactly, but the essense of them must have been working on my subconscious, though if I had to categorize what I'm doing differently, I'd have to say it has to do with how I'm drafting the fiber, but I really can't explain it more than that. Whatever it is, I'm happy about it, and I am finally starting to see what makes people so happy about drop spindles even though they've got perfectly good spinning wheels sitting there. It's nice to have options.

My second breakthrough is pretty mundane...it has to do with my clotheslines. Yes. Clotheslines. See, I love hanging my sheets out to dry, and to this end we've always had clothesline poles in the small, flat area of our backyard (as opposed to the rest of our back yard, which is pretty much a hill). One end of the clothesline attaches to the pole, and the other end attaches to the house. The thing is, when my husband has one of the larger tractors here for some sort of destruction home improvement project, he needs to drive the tractors through this narrow, flat area, and he always takes my clotheslines down to do so (which is, admittedly, preferable to him garotting himself on them). But once they're down, they rarely go back up, and thus ends my open-air sheet drying for the summer.

But this year, I had an epiphany! Bungee cords!

See them there at the pole ends? I tied the clotheslines to the bungee cords, and now any time he needs to take them down, it will be easy-peasy, and I can put them back up again with no hassle. (And see the orange foot sticking out from under the yellow tarp to the left of the clotheslines? That would be the current tractor that is residing here, which is responsible for doing this to the lower part of our driveway...

This mess is brought to us by the intention of improving the drainage at the bottom of the driveway so the rain doesn't bring a river of mud down it and onto the back porch.

...because, seriously, it just wouldn't be summertime here at Chez Beamer unless some segment of our property was dug up and muddy. At least it isn't a grassy area this year. Yet. :::sigh:::)

Anyway...bungee corded clotheslines. A huge breakthrough in my, smell-good, energy-saving, sheet-drying efforts.

Lastly, a gardening "ah-ha!" moment. (You knew I'd sneak gardening in here, didn't you?) Upon reflecting about how much more I'm enjoying my gardening efforts this year than I have in years past, it occurred to me that one of the things I like least about gardening is that it usually makes me hot and sweaty. And I have always really, really hated the feeling of sweat trickling down my hot body, making my clothes stick to me, and gluing to my skin anything that is flying around -- dirt, bugs...whatever. Ick.

The whole "hate to sweat" thing is also largely responsible for why I've always hated exercising. However! Now that I've been going to the gym for the past six months, and I do nothing BUT sweat there, I seem to have gotten over my sweat phobia! Sure, sweat still feels icky, but I seem to have learned to transcend the sweat in order to reach other goals...such as learning to kickbox, and now, to be a better gardener! So, in essence, going to the gym has improved my willingness to garden! Isn't that interesting? Ok, never mind, maybe not...just look at the pretty flowers and forget I brought it up! ;)

The front corner of my flower bed...prolific lilies abounding, hostas that even God probably can't kill, the transplanted rhododendron from last year that my husband claims is looking healthier than it ever has (I'm not convinced, but it isn't dead, so we'll go with it)...and on the right, coral bells, which I didn't know actually flower because these didn't last year, but they are this year. And in front of the rhodo I added two dianthus (dianthii?) plants to take the place of the two hibiscus (hibiscii?) that did not survive the winter. (I chose the dianthus not only because they should be the right size for this spot, but also in honor of the quirky, half-demon character in Charlaine Harris's southern vampire novels that is named after them...I know, I'm a dork.) And in front of the dianthus are some annuals I bought just to fill in and have color. I can't wait until all this stuff starts to really flourish! :)

Gardening, knitting and spinning...

...seems to be all I talk about anymore, doesn't it? Well, there are worse things I could be talking about...war...economic tragedies...kidnappings (pray for these people, please! I don't know them personally, but they are neighbors of someone I know, and even if they weren't, it's freakin' horrifying!)...um, yeah. Gardening, knitting and spinning? Let's stick with these for now, shall we?

First with the gardening. I'm still totally enamored with my surprise irises...

and all of these flowers...

...are now in the flower bed (except for the two lily plants...I ran out of daylight and didn't get them in). And for once, I miraculously did NOT over buy plants! Usually I over-estimate how many flowers I can fit in my beds, especially now that I've got perennials that like to take up more space than the previous annuals used to. But this year? These all fit perfectly! Can't wait until they start to grow and fill things in.

And then there is the salad garden...we have achieved germination! Woohoo!

Lettuce, tomatillo (which were technically already sprouted, obviously, but look at the flowers on the plant already!), and onions (which kind of just looks like dirt in this shot, but honest, there are onions shooting up there...bad lighting!).

Everything in the salad garden has started to sprout, at least a little bit. I'm so excited. This is definitely a good sign for something I've planted. I've got some flower seeds I also planted, which have not done diddly yet, but I'm holding out hope they might come through eventually. We'll see.

Kevin planted the rest of the vegetables in the big garden over the weekend, too...

The tall green things behind him are mostly garlic, which he plants every fall. We always have a bumper crop of it. He's got all kinds off veggie goodness in the garden this year...onions, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant (which we've had iffy luck with in the past), cabbage, peas, broccoli (another iffy crop...hate those little green worms it tends to get...ick), potatoes, zucchini, sweet potatoes (a new experiment for us this year) and corn. And probably other things I'm not remembering right now. 

There is some space left for me to put in the melon and acorn squash seeds I didn't have room for in my little patch up by the house. If it stops raining this week, I'll put those in. And once it is all in, then comes the chore of trying to keep up with it all. I am really, really going to try and be good at this this year. I really am. I really WANT to be a good gardener and enjoy the fruits of all this labor! That has to count for something, right?

The girlie was enlisted to help her dad as he was spreading straw (to help keep moisture in the ground and the weeds at bay)...my daughter on the back of the pick up with the hay turned out to be a great photo opportunity!

I know I'm biased, but...

...she is such a pretty girl -- inside and out. I can't believe I helped create this being. :)

Here she is with her dad, who was less enthused about my picture-taking...he was hot and tired after a long day in the yard and garden, and he wasn't really in the mood for me going, "Stand next to her...no, NEXT to her, not in FRONT of her..." LOL Oh well...it's still a cute picture, even if he looks grumpy. ;)

Ok...now on to the knitting!

This is my May charity hat...a couple of different shades of gray...I'm trying to aim for more manly hats than last year. Not sure why I think there are more homeless men who could use hats than women, but I felt like I had more girly-looking hats last year, so I'm trying to be more balanced this year.

And here is the progress I've made so far on my brown shrug. It's the same DIC pattern I used for the girlie's shrug a while back...very easy, quick knit. If I was only knitting it, I'd be further along by now. (Always the issue, isn't it?) But I've been sharing my lace-knitting time with Caracia, which is now up to eight repeats (woo!), so it isn't getting my full attention. I'm liking how it is turning out, though...the Elsbeth Lavold Summer Tweed is much drapier than the merino/alpaca I made the first one from. 

And then there has been some spinning. I'm still spinning the raspberry BFL, but I took a break to spin up this...

This was one of Cosy's Subtle Striping kits. These kits include 2 oz. of a main color (in this case, pink), and then four 1/2 oz. contrasting colors. You spin the main color on one bobbin, then you spin the four other colors together on a second bobbin (I split mine into 1/4 oz. sections and repeated the series twice), then you ply them together. These came out so cool! It's very soft and the colors are so happy. I ended up with leftover contrast singles, so I plied it with itself and I figure it will make a fun stripe or something. All told, I got just under 300 yards of a worsted weight yarn. This may end up being a baby sweater (but only for someone who would be ok with handwashing) or a pair of mittens. We'll see.

That's it! I've caught you up on all my fun from the long weekend. And can I just say how HAPPY I am to be finishing up our school year this week? I am totally ready for summer break, and so are the kids! Bring it on! :)

Great day at GLFS...

The Great Lakes Fiber Show on Saturday? Awesome! What a nice event that was! Granted, I really only have Maryland to compare it to, and it certainly was nowhere as large as that, but it was big enough to provide a day's enjoyment! Less crowded and decidedly lower prices are just a couple of the good things about smaller shows in general. Cosy went with me -- it was so much fun to have someone along this time! It was a perfectly beautiful, sunny, hot day to walk around and inhale the fresh country air and fiber fumes. (Thank goodness, though, most of the vendors were indoors out of the sun, otherwise we may have melted!)

I managed to lug my good camera around with me all day and not take one picture. I'm pathetic. But I did take pictures of my goodies once I got home, so we'll go with those, 'kay?

After going to Maryland and being overwhelmed pretty quickly, I set two goals for my shopping at this fair: one, to buy fiber that I've not yet spun, and two, to buy fiber I could dye. (Dyeing is my next step into this world of fiber madness.) I met both of those goals. Yeay!

First the fibers I haven't spun yet...

Silk...oooooh! ahhhhh! Look at these colors!

Cashmere! I'm going to spin freakin' cashmere!

Camel!! This is soooo incredibly soft! I just want to pet it.

And then the fibers I'm planning to dye...

These are one pound bags of roving! One pound! On the left is a Sheltand/Romney cross and on the right, alpaca. (Which I've also never spun, so it meets two goals!) While they are both colored fibers, I've been assured they will overdye nicely. I also bought some smaller bundles of white wool for dyeing...not recalling what they are at the moment, but just imagine white piles of fluff. That's them.

I can't wait to learn how to dye. I have a goal to eventually (maybe?) open an Etsy shop with hand-dyed fiber and possibly my handspun yarn, too. We'll see. It's a distant dream. Must go one step at a time.

Aside from meeting these two goals, I also got to meet Chris from Briar Rose Fibers! That was very exciting...she's such a lovely lady. I've purchased fiber from her online shop several times now, and the fact that she was going to be at this show was one of the reasons I decided to go. So, of course, having all her goodies in front of me, I had to buy some!

These two balls are Cormo...(which I've also not spun yet, so, goal!)...

...and these two are merino. Part of my rationalization for buying these is that Chris doesn't carry either of them in her online shop. She only carries BFL online. So this was a show-only chance to get some other wools in her beautiful colorways. Happiness! :)

Have you noticed how well I did in not buying any yarn at this show? I was sooooo good. No yarn! None! That is...no yarn until I came to the booth that had a little basket of this by the register...

Qiviut!!! I've never found qiviut anywhere before! I should have put something in the picture with it to give you an idea of scale, because baby, this is one small ball of yarn! It's a little over 200 yards, but it is only the size of a small apple. Or a tennis ball. It's a luxury yarn, that's for sure. This isn't pure qiviut, but a blend with merino and silk (45%/45%/10%). It is incredibly soft and cost more than I'd ever spend on 200 yards of yarn on any other day. But I couldn't pass it up because who knows when I might find it again? I see a lovely qiviut cowl in my future for next winter.

Lastly, these...

...I'm a sucker for pewter buttons. Love 'em!

Ok...that's it for the GLFS round up! I have more I was going to post -- some spinning stuff and knitting stuff and gardening stuff -- but I'll save that for tomorrow. I'll just leave you with this...

Nigel hopes everyone had a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend, and he thanks those who gave their lives defending our freedom.

(And he wanted me to add that the dead thing in front of him? It is actually gone now! He's so relieved!)

Things are growing here...

Yesterday I promised you flowers, and today I deliver!

I must first admit that the flowers I'm about to show you? I can't take much credit for. I put them in the ground at some point, and by the grace of God (and no skill or know-how of my own), they've managed to survive and flourish. If you know how much of a gardener I am NOT, you'd understand just how miraculous this is.

Anyhoo...the rhododendron on the east side of our house is just all agog with purply goodness...

...and now that I think about it, I can't even take credit for planting this bush. It was here when we moved in 15+ years ago. But I haven't killed it! And neither has my husband, a.k.a. The Mad Pruner. This is actually two rather large rhododendrons, and as beautiful as they are, it is sad that they are where they are because we are in this area of our yard the least. It is right by the stoop at our kitchen side door, a door we never use because the stoop has no steps coming down from it. I'm hoping Kevin is going to remedy that this summer. He's actually talking about moving the one bush down near the bottom of our driveway to fill in a spot on a bank that is a bugger for him to mow. He successfully moved another large rhodo last summer without killing it (though it hasn't bloomed this year), so I've given my blessing on this project.

And speaking of purple...


...check it out! I have Siberian Irises! And yes, I say that with a bit of surprise because I didn't know I had Siberian Irises! LOL A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a bunch of perennials that she'd thinned out of her gorgeous flower beds, and these were among them. But last year, the first full year they were in my flower bed, they did not flower, so I assumed they were just greenery. This year...purple blooms galore! I am so, so happy! You have no idea how much I love these flowers.

Then there is my lily corner...

...holy lilies, Batman! These suckers really proliferated, and as usual, I've missed my window of opportunity to divide them and move them around, so they're just going to be a big mass of bunched up lilies this year. They'll be pretty, though. I've got little Stella D'Oros that bloom all pretty and yellow all year, and then there are tall orange ones (Asiatic? I have no idea. I just know I love them.) And then there are some shorter orange ones, and one white one that my oldest son gave me for Mother's Day (or maybe Easter?) one year. And I just picked up two more lilies tonight when I was flower shopping...they're a pretty burgundy shade I've not seen before. I totally heart lilies.

Then I've got these things...


I put them in last year, they survived the winter, but I have no idea what they are. My friend Peggy told me what she thought they were, but she said they bloom, and these did not bloom at all last year. Maybe because I just planted them? Not sure. Anyway. I'm happy they're alive, and they seem to be getting bigger, so that works for me!

What doesn't work for me are these #@$! things...

...again, I don't know what they are, but they are a prolific, spiky, nasty, f***ing pain in the arse and they have popped up EVERYWHERE in my flower beds the past few years. They are nigh impossible to kill. Kevin has resorted to all kinds of noxious weed killers (all while trying not to damage the plants I WANT), and it kills of the leaves, but they grow right back. This year, he got out early and sprayed them. Ordinarily, I'd go out and pull them as soon as they'd start to turn brown, but I didn't get out there this year. By the time I got around to the first batch he's sprayed, they were gone. They'd shriveled to nothing. So I'm thinking maybe that is the key? Don't pull them after they're sprayed, but let them be until the roots (hopefully) die off from the poison too? We'll see. I've been waiting to yank these guys to see if it makes a difference. HATE THEM.

Back to the happy things. It was a gorgeous -- GORGEOUS -- day out today, and I got myself out and planted my little salad garden...

...yeah, I know...it just looks like dirt now, but there are SEEDS planted in that dirt! There are two types of lettuce, spinach, onions, radishes, beets, and cucumbers (I'm into planting small amounts of a lot of things in this garden...we've got a bigger veggie garden down in the back yard with larger quantities of fewer things...it all balances out). At the far end are a couple of cherry tomato and tomatillo plants. Around the corner are herbs...

...there were already chives (which I planted years ago and they come up every year without fair...probably my biggest gardening coup ever) and mint (which I'd transplanted a couple of sprigs from my in-laws' house a few years ago, and it took off and kept going, and going, and going...I regularly rip it out because it just takes over). These are my seemingly unkillable crops, so I love them muchly. To them, I added parsley, basil and dill.

Oh, and the other thing that is growing around here?

Caricia! I think I finished repeat #7 today, though now looking at the picture, it looks like there are only six. Hm. Will have to go look at it and count. It's too big to lay out flat on the 24" needle now, so it's hard to get a good shot.

ETA: Just counted. Seven! Whew! Would have been rough to have to have reversed my count on this project! I'm enjoying it, to be sure, but still...you never really want to go backward when you knit! LOL

Lastly, Nigel says...

"Would someone please remove these hideous weeds from my view? They are quite offensive!"

I couldn't agree more, Nigel. Hm...Nigel's been a little cranky lately. Maybe I need to find him a friend?

Sunny, with a chance of yarn...and flowers!

And let's face it, here in my world, there is always a good chance of yarn! ;) Flowers? Not so much, but I seem to be getting lucky right now.

Let's start with yarn, because that is always a very good place to start, no? Yes! There's been some spinning happening. First, this...

This the second half of some Yarn Love top I bought at Spring Fling (this colorway is Jewels of Autumn, but it doesn't seem to be in stock at TLE right now). It was dyed with beautiful, big color segments (I kept meaning to take a picture of the roving before it was spun, but I forgot). After spinning the first half, I tried to Navajo ply it (which is a 3-ply technique using only one strand of singles...I think it is also referred to as "chain plying" because it resembles the chain stitch in crochet).

Because of the big color blocks, I thought it would yield a lovely yarn with gently changing colors. As it turned out, I'd somewhat overspun it (having just come off spinning all that yellow merino/bamboo, which needed way more twist than this wool), and ended up wasting several yards in a big tangled mess trying to N-ply, so I opted for Plan B - my usual 2-ply. I intentionally spun the second half with less twist so I could give the N-plying another try. While this plying technique still didn't come easily to me, I had a better time of it and managed to do it that way. Here is the result...

The two skeins on the right are the original skeins done as a 2-ply. The two on the left are the latest skeins, Navajo-plied. See the difference? The N-plied skeins have larger segments of color, whereas in the 2-ply, the colors are much more mixed up and slightly murky. (Sorry, there is bad lighting in this picture, but you can see the general difference I'm talking about.) And now I'm just not sure which I like better! I thought I'd like the N-plies better than the 2-plies, but they are so different, that I just don't know. Since this turned into a major experiment anyway, I've decided to knit two hats out of these...one of N-ply, one of 2-ply, just to see how different they will look.

Seriously, this is the the fun part (and sometimes the frustrating part) of spinning...you can start with fiber that has colors that look one way -- bright or vibrant or heavy on a certain color -- and end up with yarn that looks completely different. It's an adventure, to be sure. ;)

I've moved on to a new spinning project. I was organizing my roving stash (which is growing...oh my...it is growing) the other day and happened upon a box with about 14 ounces of BFL in a raspberry-ish colorway from Briar Rose Fibers. Since I'm heading to the Great Lakes Fiber Show in OH this weekend, where Chris from BRF will have a booth, I thought I'd spin this in honor of finally getting to meet this wonderfully talented dyer. It started off looking like this...

And the singles on the bobbin is now looking like this...

Pretty, no? But isn't it amazing how much it changes from the original form to the spun form? And then when it is plied, it changes again? Or maybe I'm just easily amused. LOL I don't care...it makes me very happy.

Well, this post is already pretty long, so I think I'll save the flower portion for tomorrow! I'll just leave you with this...

Inward...

I need a break. I don't know if the crazy month+ of hardly being home has finally taken its toll, or if it's been some family drama I've been dealing with, or maybe it's the end-of-school-year anticipation with its associated work...or all of the above?...but I can feel myself shutting down, going inward. Not in a huge, chronic, pathological way. Just in the way that I'm prone to when my body and mind are in desperate need of a time-out to recharge. Right now? I'm there. Oh yeah. 

Whether it is symptom or cure or maybe a bit of both, my turning inward often starts in the kitchen. I crave comfort food. Like cheese bread (bread + sliced cheddar cheese + salt & pepper...into toaster oven until cheese is melty...mmmm), or grits for breakfast. Or macaroni & cheese with tuna and cream of mushroom soup mixed in. Ok, I know it maybe sounds gross, but it actually used to be a recipe on the side of the box, and my dad used to make it for dinner sometimes, and I loved it...warm, squishy goodness. (Come to think of it, my dad used to make me cheese bread and grits, too...must ponder the significance of my favorite comfort foods being dad-oriented! Interesting!) 

Anyway, I rarely eat boxed mac & cheese, but this particular recipe just isn't the same with homemade mac & cheese. No one else in my family likes this version, so on Friday? I made it just for me. And it was good. So good. Mmmmm.

I'm continuing the theme of comfort today. I decided last night that I was skipping church today. That is probably a counterintuitive measure when craving comfort, and I know had I gone, it would have been good. But some Sundays? I just need to be home. I just need the comfort of my house and my family around me, without the need to rush and shower and dress and get out the door. My thought is that God is here as well as at church, and I've always been taught that God meets us where we are (I take that both literally and figuratively). So, here I am, at home, seeking comfort and just being here and still without great expectations on me. And this is good, too.

Since we were staying home, I promised the family that I'd make my special pancakes for them. Breakfasts together as a family are so rare for us, that when it happens, it has it's own comforting effect. Anyway, the pancakes...I've mentioned them before, and they remain noteworthy because they are both healthy and everyone in the house loves them. When I find a recipe like that,* it's a keeper, you know? LOL And weird as it is, I love that this recipe starts out with the toasting of nuts and seeds for a topping (I use sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and slivered almonds). Something about the smell of these things as they heat up in the skillet is just, well, comforting.

So now here I am...it isn't even noon. I was up before nine today, a good hour and a half earlier than most days (it is so odd to me that I'm often up earlier on weekend days than I am during the week...doesn't that seem backwards?), so it feels like it should be much later. But it's nice that it's not. I'm dressed in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, a favorite hoodie and a pair of hand-knit socks for warmth (it's sunny but chilly today!). I'm enjoying my second (or is it my third?) cup of coffee. I have no plans for the day, which is glorious. I'm sure there will be knitting involved, though. Or spinning. ;)

Speaking of knitting...here are some photos of what I've been working on. Made my April charity hat this week (was a little behind!), modeled reluctantly by the boy...

...doesn't he look enthused? LOL But hey...he's 14...he's supposed to look like that, right?

I'm half done with the first of two afghan squares I need to make for myself for the afghan swap afghan...

...being addicted to mitred squares as I am at the moment, it was a no-brainer that I'd make one for myself. 

And of course, there is Caricia...

I am still utterly smitten with both the pattern and the yarn. I'm on my second ball of the handspun now. I love how there is that swath of a deeper golden yellow going through it...that was the start of the new ball, which then faded back to an even lighter yellow than the first section. These color changes make me so happy. I'm through five repeats of the main pattern now. And while it is taking longer to get through each repeat, it is still moving along pretty well. I've only had a couple of small setbacks at this point, and I'm hoping that will be a continuing trend.

As you can see by my progress bars, I've only got six projects in the works right now (amazing!), and two of them are afghans. The Ribbon Lace Scarf and the Cosima sweater are reaching the point of being considered "languishing" projects, but I'm not ready to relegate either to hibernation status just yet. I still need to make the second bamboo sock, but I'm not in a sock mood right now, plus I really want to make that same pattern in a solid colored yarn, which I may do before finishing that particular pair. I am trying to stay focused on the swap afghan and Caricia for right now, because I really want to see both of them finished. Thus, I'm resisting the urge to cast on anything else at the moment. We'll see how that goes.

And with that, I think I'm going to go knit a little. Hope you are having a relaxing, comforting weekend of your own!

*Just a note on the recipe, in case you check it out. I follow the basic pancake recipe as written, but without the apples. Also, I don't use buttermilk, just usually skim or 2%, whatever I have on hand. And I usually add in 1/4 c. of wheat germ to the batter. Total yumminess all around!

Mostly pictures...

...Caricia is coming along...

...this is after the second repeat of Chart B. I've since added one more. Nine more to go! The color and softness of the yarn still make me irrationally happy every time I'm near it. I have to wonder just what Cheryl added to that fiber when she dyed it! ;)

Got my mini-sock swap package from my partner in one of my Ravelry groups...

Is that not the cutest little, tiny sock you've ever seen? I've had the sock blocker key chain for ages but never got around to making the sock...now it isn't naked anymore! Woo! :)

And then there's been family time...our four-year-old grandson (four! how did he get to be four??) has visited a few times in the past month, and we've had lots of fun with him...

~A. with Uncle Christopher~

~Papa with his little buddy~

~Jump!~

~A. with Aunt Emma~

~Playing the piano...he loves playing with the piano!~

~Gratuitous shot of my girlie, just because I think she's preeeetty!~

I'm no one...

...and I'm surprisingly ok with that...

(For the record, I think I actually did sign up for a Twitter account one time, used it for a day and never went back. I did Plurk (a Twitter-esque application) for a while, but I quit because I didn't get it. The main reason to Plurk was to raise your Plurk karma and get rewards for doing so...but if you didn't Plurk in the first place, you really didn't know you were missing the karmic rewards, right? Uh huh. I mean, the dancing bananas were fun, but really? There are so many better ways to spend my time. Twitter? Sorry...I'm just not going back there.)

Happy projects...

I finished Emma's DIC Shrug today...

Dream in Color Shrug. Yarn: Elenya (merino/alpaca blend) from Three Irish Girls; colorway Aiden.

The only changes I made to the pattern were that I did only about 2" of ribbing for the cuffs instead of the folded cuffs the pattern called for, and I only did eight pattern repeats instead of nine, which was a good thing because my daughter just isn't that broad. I probably could have even done only seven and it would have fit, because it stretched lengthwise more than I expected when I blocked it. It's a little roomier than need be under at the armpits in the back, but not so much that she can't wear it. Besides, she's a growing girl, so hopefully it will just fit her a little longer!

Anyway, this was a really nice pattern, very easily memorized and a very quick knit. And as I gushed in my last post, this yarn is wonderful and the colorway is nothing short of amazing.

With the shrug done, I've started another project...here are my pretty BamHuey skeins all wound into balls (I love how I ended up with successively smaller amounts each time I plied. I seriously need to invest in a jumbo flyer for plying.)


The picture does NOT do justice to the color of this yarn. As I was winding the balls last night, I was struck by how the fiber was so soft it felt like the silk on corn-on-the-cob when you're shucking it. And then I realized that the color of the yarn also resembles the color of the kernels on young, tender sweet corn cobs. However, Cheryl's colorway name of "Sun Beams" is much nicer than "Sweet Corn Kernels," don't ya think? LOL There is probably a reason no one has ever hired me to name colorways for their yarn company.

(Funny story...when I worked at the yarn shop, I had a penchant for describing yarn colors in the oddest ways, which people found amusing. One that sticks in my mind was the day a customer came in looking for a specific reddish-orangish color. I looked around and found one I thought was close to what she wanted, handed it to her and said, "Like this spawning-male salmon color?" Yeah. Can't figure out why no one has ever named their yarn "Spawning Male Salmon." Heh.)

Ahem...ok...moving on. After winding those balls, I could not stop myself from casting on for the Caricia shawl that it is to become...


These are the first twelve rows, which make up Chart A of this pattern. So far, so good. Seems like a pretty easy pattern. It is a lace knitting pattern (all of the WS rows are purled, except for the left and right edges), as opposed to a knitted lace pattern (in which there are knits, purls, YOs, etc. on both RS and WS...learned that distinction in Anne's lace class at Spring Fling). This level of lace knitting is comfortable for me right now. Eventually I will move up the difficulty ladder to knitted lace, but for now, semi-mindless lace knitting works for me. (Does it seem wrong to use the words "mindless" and "lace" in the same sentence? Yes. Yes it does. Hope karma doesn't bite me in the butt on that one.)

Lastly, I have now received all 18 squares for my afghan swap afghan!


I started this swap last July with a Rav group I'm in. It was originally for 12 squares (11 from other people, one for yourself). Then some of us wanted to do an extended swap so we'd have a total of 20 squares, which meant doing 7 more for other people and one more for ourselves. Got my last one in the mail yesterday. I waited to do my own squares until I had all other 18 so I'd know what colors I might need to add to bring it together.

Some people had very narrow color schemes for their afghans. Me? Not so much, as you can you tell. LOL I really wanted this to be a free form kind of project, and it definitely is that! I need to make myself one solid square (which I think will be orange, to play off the orange in the entrelac square) and one multi-colored (which I think will need to have some pink in it, also to pick up the pink in the entrelac square).

My plan for putting it together is to pick up and knit garter border strips between each square row-wise, and then put the rows together with garter borders (these border strips should help even out some of the sizes, as they didn't all end up exactly 12" x 12"...it can be kind of a challenge to knit an exact-sized square, though blocking is helpful), then finish it with a wide border all around. The process is much like how I understand piecing a lap quilt (not that I've ever finished a lap quilt...started, yes. Finished? :::sigh:::). I plan to do each of the individual border strips in different colors (which should be a great stash-busting exercise!), thus I should end up with a very cool, crazy afghan! Cannot wait to see how it comes out.

But before I work on my last pieces and putting it together, I need to finish my last square to send out. Should have that done in a day or two. In fact, I think I'll go work on it now!

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! :)

Stash enhancement run-down...

So, between the Spring Fling a couple weekends ago, Maryland Sheep & Wool last weekend, and some other fiber procurement opportunities (that makes it sound so much better than "buying more stuff"), my yarn and fiber stashes have been appreciably enhanced. 

Wanna see? 

Of course you do! 

So, sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful -- oh, wait...never mind. You won't really hear anything. This is an audio-free blog. But I've got pictures! Oh yes I do! I've got pictures, how 'bout YOU?! (I'm sorry...truly I am...it's late, and I'm a little punchy.) I've also included all of the specifics of each item, but feel free to just peruse the pictures if you aren't interested in that! 

Here we go...first, the yarn...

Top left: Yarn from Spring Fling -- Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 (colorway was Moss, I think...it's not marked on the tag); Araucania Itata, superwash wool, silk and bamboo (color 1003); Sockittome yarn from Ancient Threads Farm, superwash merino/nylon (colors cochineal, lac, black walnut); Shaefer Nichole, superwash/nylon (this was in our goodie bags, and I don't see a colorway listed on the tag...it's a pretty blue/gray, though). 

Top right: some handspun of mine from some YarnLove roving, more of which is pictured below. 

Bottom left: Yarn from a Loopy Ewe order I placed the freakin' day after I got home from Spring Fling...I KNOW! Insane, right? Three skeins of Enchanted Knoll Farm yarn, all superwash merino, two sport weight (colorways Red Dirt Girl and Cleopatra) and one fingering weight (colorway Tia Dalma...this one is also nylon reinforced). But see, there was a good reason for this order. I got to meet Josette, the dyer behind EKF, at the Fling...in fact I had breakfast with her Sunday before we left, and she was lovely! Sweet woman, great sense of humor, really enjoyed getting to meet her, and I really wanted to add some of her yarn to my stash! So there! Good reason, right? 

Bottom right: From MS&W,  Foot Prints sport weight, superwash merino, from The Unique Sheep (colorway Zombie...how could I pass that up??).

And now for the fiber...

Top Row: From Spring Fling -- Scarlett Fleece Roving (Mexican Sunflower and Raisin Berry colorways...I actually have some of their sock yarn in the Mexican Sunflower colorway, so it will be interesting to see how closely my handspun looks to their yarn...my guess is that it won't look anything alike, LOL); YarnLove roving (Jewels of Autumn and Blue Plate Special colorways -- it is the Jewels of Autumn that made the handspun in the yarn pic above, and I still have the second half of it to go); Alpaca with a Twist Handspinner's Dream Baby Alpaca combed top (moorit colorway...and OH MY GOSH, this stuff is sooooofffftttttt!); From MS&W-- Dragonfly Fibers merino/silk roving (Starry Night...and I just realized I bought a skein of her yarn back at the Homespun Yarn Party in March!).

Bottom Row: Cloverleaf Farms Merino (sunflower); also Cloverleaf Farms, wool/silk (Surf -- my word, but this colorway is AMAZING...I cannot wait to spin it and see what happens!); three bags with two ounces each of Icelandic Wool Roving, two from Aboundingful Farm and one from Cedarland Farm. I love that they put the names and pictures of the sheep the wool came from on the tags; an assortment of hand-dyed curly locks...can't remember who I bought them from, but they're kind of fun, and I also bought a set of hand cards at MS&W, so I figure I can comb them and add them to other rovings, just to play. 

As you can see (I think), I really wanted to concentrate on roving moreso than yarn, though it is hard to resist the call of a rogue skein here and there, you know?

A couple of other goodies I picked up at MS&W...

Pewter cape clasp from The Rams Horn Studio. They have some crazy amazingly beautiful things in their shop, especially if you love Celtic designs. I could have gone nuts here, but it was early enough in the day that I was still able to exercise restraint. 

 

One of the famous sheepy knitting mugs from Jennie the Potter! I first saw one of these on Amy Singer's Knitty blog (I think?) a while back, so I was really excited to get one of my very own! There is a white sheep on the other side, and the red yarn winds around to a ball with two needles in between the two sheep. Totally cute. She's got all kinds of very cool ceramics. I wish I could have bought more, but again...restraint. :::sigh:::

Oh, and while this is not related to either Fling or the festival, there is also this yarn residing in my stash...

This was my inaugural shipment from the Pick of the Knitter club from Three Irish Girls. Ok, yes, the fact that I've joined a yarn club (my first ever, I will point out) means even MORE yarn will be coming to me, at least for two more months, but honestly, I LOVE 3IG's yarns...Sharon's colorways are indescribably gorgeous. She has a true gift for dying, um, dyeing. Sharon is also the queen of customer service, going above and beyond. I can't say enough nice things about her and her yarn.

I recently started my first project from some of the other yarn I've bought from her. This is the DIC Shrug (Rav link) that I'm making for the girlie out of 3IG Elenya (a merino/alpaca blend) in the Aiden colorway...

I mean...look at these colors! Sometimes I just sit with it on my lap and stare at them. They are so amazing.

And see? Isn't it nice to know that I'm not just stashing yarn, but I'm knitting with it too? Yes. This is key. Otherwise some day I'm going to die and my children are going to inherit a roomful of yarn, which they'll probably box up and give to Goodwill, and then I would seriously have to come back and haunt them. It's just better that I knit my stash whilst I'm still among the living, dontcha think?

More knitting...

This is a Jaywalker sock being knit from some Wollmeise in Miss May. Only it is not really being knit now, because I am stoopid. Gauge, people. Sometimes gauge really does matter. OK, most of the time, gauge really does matter, but I haven't been bitten in the ass by bad gauge karma enough to worry about it all that much. I've been lucky. And I mean, it's a SOCK. I've knit a bunch of socks, and size has rarely been an issue. I use my fingering weight and my US2s and I usually get a nice, wearable sock. In this case, though, I heeded the cry of those who came before me saying how less-than-stretchy the Jaywalker is due to the chevron design, so I measured my foot (in the St. Louis airport, to be exact) and chose to knit the next size up, as I was between sizes, totally disregarding the fact that the pattern called for using US1s, not 2s. Thus, I have the beginning of a sock that would fit an elephant. Yeah. :::sigh::: I am going to frog it and start over with the smaller pattern size and the same needles...I like my 2s. I'm stubborn. (But it looks pretty, doesn't it? That Claudia...she does color well!)

And then we have spinning! All that roving is not just sitting there either!

This is seriously the pride and joy of my spinning experience so far. It is just under 900 yards of (almost consistently) fingering weight yarn! I am so psyched about this! It was spun from New Hue Handspun's new BamHuey fiber, a merino/bamboo blend. Cheryl is another amazing dyer, and this colorway just makes me feel warm and happy every time I look at it. The yarn is so incredibly soft, too! I bought the fiber with the intention of spinning yarn to make a pair of Wendy's Sunflower socks, but I had no idea I'd be able to get such yardage from 6 oz. of fiber (I'm still learning about how certain amounts of fiber yeild certain amounts of yarn when spun at various weights), so I've decided instead it is going to become a Caricia shawl instead, since I'm anxious to knit an Anne Hanson shawl now that I've taken her lace class at Fling. 

And lastly, a fun little something...

this little stuffed heart took no time at all to make, including the stitching and embroidery. Cute, no? The pattern is from MochiMochi Land. This blog has some of the cutest knitting patterns...cute and quirky, like a knitted resistor for the electronics geek in your life, and the knitted toilet paper, which I think would be too funny as a gag with someone who is really drunk, LOL, and knitted grass! You don't have to mow it! It makes me want to just knit nothing but stuffed silliness for no other reason than the cuteness factor! :}

Maryland Sheep & Wool

The Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is taking place this weekend at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, MD. One of my fiber-related goals has been to go to a fiber festival. Rhinebeck is my big fiber festival dream, but Maryland is much closer (three and a half hour drive versus seven hours...day trip versus weekend committment). Having traveled so much lately, I was on the fence about whether or not to go. I set my alarm Friday night and figured I'd just see how the spirit moved me on Saturday morning when it woke me up at too-early-o'clock. As it happened, I was totally in the mood to go, and I'm so glad I did. It was a wonderfully fun day!

Almost exactly three and a half hours after I left the house, I pulled off I-70 and into the big parking field for the fairgrounds...welcome to my first ever fiber festival! Yeay! The forecast had been calling for rain off and on all day, but thankfully it never came (though it had clearly rained before I got there, things were a little muddy in spots), and the temperature was perfect for walking around at this kind of event, not too hot, not too cold.

Some of the many sheep at the festival...check out the dude in the middle. He's got four horns! At first I thought he must be some freaky anomaly of a sheep, then I found out that he is a Jacob sheep, and they can actually have as many as six horns! That's pretty neat! My sheep pictures are a little dim because I turned the flash off...figured it wasn't necessary to blind the poor critters!

I've been going to county fairs and tractor shows for much of my life and I found that, for the most part, a fiber festival is quite similar, just sheep and fiber specific. There were buildings full of sheep in pens, there were sheep judging events and demos for sheep herding and shearing. Just sheep, sheep, sheep! Then on the wool end, there were buildings full of yarn and roving and spinning wheels and looms and myriad other sheep/knitting/weaving/spinning/etc. related items. That included food -- lamb kababs, lamb burgers, lamb cream cones (ok, I made that one up!). I personally enjoyed the best lamb gyro I've ever had. And a funnel cake, which had no lamb in it as far as I could tell.

In addition to sheep, there were a couple of small pens of other fiber-bearing animals, such as...


...goats! Don't they just look like little toys? The kind that you'd see on a wheeled platform that a child could pull by a string? They were adorable! And there were...

...bunnies! Seriously, these three were up for sale, and I was so dang tempted to bring them home. They are Lionhead rabbits and they were just too cute. But I resisted and left them there and brought home some tomato plants instead. LOL (The farm that had the rabbits there, though, is only an hour from my house, so I figure if I really want to pursue the rabbit business, it wouldn't be that hard.)

And then there were these little guys...

...alpacas! Alpaci? Hm...anyway...they just looked soft enough to squeeze, though I did not. I'm not sure if they were for sale, but I'm certain one would not have fit well in my car, so...moot point, eh? LOL

Between looking at the animals and going through the vendor booths, I also got to watch some demonstrations including a sheep dog demo...

...I love watching sheep dogs work. It amazes me how they can be trained to do such a variety of things to get the sheep to do what the shepherd wants. And the dogs don't bark at the sheep, nor did I see them nip at them. It's all in their movement. Pretty amazing. (Have you seen the LED sheep video? That's a pretty cool example of just what a sheep dog can do...and what shepherds with crazy amounts of creativity can accomplish.)

And I also caught part of a sheep shearing demo...

I ran into a friend, Pat, and her husband who live near me, and they have a small flock of sheep. Pat was telling me that this shearer, Kevin Ford, is like THE major sheep shearing guy in the business. (Maybe like Tiger Woods to golf, or Dale Earnhardt to racing, this guy is to sheep-shearing.) He hand shears, using hand blades instead of electric equipment (which makes me wonder if that is how we got the word "shears" when referring to certain scissors?). He sure moved smoothly and had control of that sheep. It was pretty interesting to watch.

Another fun aspect of the day was the people. Honestly, for going to something alone, I was surprised by how many people I ran into that I knew. In addition to my friend Pat, I ran into Deb (who I've known for years through an online writer's group we were both part of, and we recently reconnected on Facebook), and I ran into a few people who'd been at the Spring Fling last weekend -- Lou, Carrie and Lyn. Also from Spring Fling, I ran into Anne Hanson, who not only remembered me but gave me a hug and introduced me to her husband David. I believe David is kind of a celebrity in his own right due to being featured in a lot of Anne's knitting photos on her blog, so it was fun to get meet him.

I also got to say hi to Sharon from Three Irish Girls...Cloverhill Yarn Shop had some of her yarn at their booth and she was there when I first got there. Her yarn was going fast, but I managed to scoop up a skein of superwash merino in her Maureen colorway, which will be perfect for my last afghan swap square I need to make.

Ravelry had a meet-up at noon at the Rabbit Building, and while I hoped to run into a couple other people who I knew were going to be there, I instead ran into Lolly. She looks exactly like her pictures on her blog, and I had one of those weird moments when you see someone whose face you've seen a lot but then you realize you don't actually know them nor they you. It's good to remember that before you have the impulse to run up to them and give them a hug. LOL As it was, I just introduced myself and told her how much I enjoy her blog and then I let her return to her group of friends that I'd kind of butted into. :}

I also was excited to get to see Laura Chau (cosmicpluto) and Ysolda, and was the total groupie with them and asked to take their picture...

...aren't they just the cutest? And just when I thought I wasn't going to get to meet her, I finally found Amy Singer -- yes, THE Amy Singer of Knitty! -- at Jennie the Potter's booth...


...she was just so nice! She gave me one of her new little Knitty shwag buttons and we chatted a bit about the drop spindle I bought from one of her destashes one time, and how I might have more success with it since I still feel woefully inadequate as a drop spindler.

There was also music to enjoy throughout the day. This group, at the actual music tent, was wonderful...

...I assume they are a family, as the kids looked very much alike. They played wonderful bluegrass music, and of the three seated kids, the girl on the left with the guitar and the boy on the right with the fiddle sang, and they had the most wonderful harmony. I am also so in awe (and just a little jealous! LOL) of people with this kind of talent.

Then, not at the designated music tent but hanging out by a big propane tank between two buildings, there was this group of guys...

...I have no idea if they are an actual group of if they are just a bunch of guys who are friends and like to play music (I kind of think they were the latter), but oh my, they could play! More bluegrass, which was fun (I don't so much like much country music, but I do enjoy bluegrass, especially the instrumental variety). One of them would suggest a song and start playing it and then the rest would start joining in. What was especially fun was watching the little kids who would come by with their parents...I love watching children react to music. They usually do either one of two things: they stand and watch with very serious expressions on their faces, intent on watching what the fingers of the musicians are doing to the instruments to make them play, or else they dance...they just let themselves feel the music and move their legs and bodies and heads in time to the tune, totally oblivious to anyone else around. I saw both reactions yesterday, and it was just joyful to watch.

Lastly, of all the people I saw yesterday, this guy was one of the most interesting, for a variety of reasons...

...this is the Kilt Guy. (I have his business card somewhere with his real name...will have to add that later.) He was standing outside one of the vendor buildings, and I saw him at a distance and noticed the kilt (hard to miss, as this was not really a kilt-wearing crowd, unlike some Celtic music events I've been to where kilts are de rigeur). Then I noticed the fabric of the kilt, so I went up to him and asked, "Is that leather??" (and my brain was also saying, "Yowza!") and he said it was. And I said, "That is just so cool! I've never seen a leather kilt!" (and my brain was saying, "Dude, you are totally hot!") And he then went on to explain that he makes these kilts and unlike some other leather kilts that are on the market and are of a heavier, biker-type leather, his are made from a lighter, softer leather...and he was fingering the flap of the kilt to demonstrate the softness. I did not ask if I could feel his flap (my brain was alert enough to know that a) that might be an invasion of personal space and b) I might give in to the temptation to pull that flap back and see what men REALLY wear under their kilts! AHAHAHahaha...ahem...sorry...I'm 12, ok?), though I imagine he may well have been fine with that. He did turn around to show me the kilt's lace-up feature in the back, which made it adjustable for a comfortable fit (and my brain just kind of melted at that point...besides looking good in the kilt, the guy has amazingly beautiful butt-long hair...oh my...). Managing not to make an ass out of myself, I did ask if I could take his picture (though I did not ask if I could have my picture taken WITH him, which just seemed like it might be a tad inappropriate, LOL). He was quite kind and seemed happy for me to take his picture. I hope he has good luck with his leather kilt-making business, because he was so hot very nice.*

Ok...so, um...what was I talking about? Oh yeah...sheep, and fiber...um...and yes, yarny things. I did make several purchases, but I think I'll save that part of the recap for another day since this post is so long already. And I need to go fan myself for a bit. Leather is so...hot... ;)

*Ok...really apropos of nothing else in this post, my kilt guy thoughts are totally reminding me of The Pink Panter movie, where Steve Martin is Inspector Clouseau and he and his sidekick Ponton are supposed to be interviewing the singer, Xanya, about the murder of her boyfriend and seemingly simultaneous disappearance of the Pink Panther diamond. Ponton keeps asking Xania these normal, police-like questions when Martin's character finally says (in his crazy French accent), "Zstop brow-beating ere! Can't you zee zshe'z SEXY??" Just cracks me up. :}