what a week it was!!

and a very good week it was, too! took Amtrak to Seattle on tuesday, met by Kate and kids, then spent that evening and Wed. just hangin' out at their house. They've built a raised bed garden, with deer fence near completion, which looks to be filled with super-dirt of some kind! the veggies are huge and lush and look delectable. Alex planted a bed of sugar peas, which are just getting to pickin' size:

Zylie has a pumpkin patch which is trying to take over the pathway and all beds near it.

and here's Kate's salad garden:

Thursday we awoke to steady rain, and being the tried and true Northwesterners that we are, we tossed raincoats in with the other gear and headed out to take the ferry from Anacortes to San Juan Island to visit Pam and Larry, and go whale watching! It was a shock to me to find that the fare was $68 for car, 2 adults and 2 kids, and that was with a really reduced rate for seniors ($6.65 for me). Alex really loved the ferry ride:

When we arrived at Friday Harbor an hour later, there was some sun showing and weather just got better all day. the kids had a rompin' good time with Buster-the-kitten, who loved chasing anything they'd drag around the floor for him. Buster finally wore himself out and snuggled up by my feet for a rest.
(cool socks, huh? didn't make 'em... bought 'em from socklady.com and i love 'em)
we drove to the other side of the island, and stood on a bluff to watch the Orcas... and they really put on a show! they were quite close to the shoreline and it looked like there were several pods of them. the amount of time they are actually out of the water is so brief i knew i'd never be able to catch a photo of them... but what a magnificent sight it was! here's where we were:
you can see that it became a gorgeous clear and sunny day... and made us really glad we stayed with the plan. got up thursday a.m. to pouring rain, hung out with Pam for awhile, then rushed off to catch the ferry... missed it... waited 4 hours for the next one. wandered around in Friday Harbor, had lunch, yadda yadda....

took Amtrak back on saturday. and i gotta say, the party that Jim planned and executed for my
birthday on sunday was far beyond my expectations, and ranked up there with the best ever!! first.... he cleaned the house, including mopping floors... and right there he got highest marks!!! he had invited my twisted sisters so we could twist awhile and eat a lovely meal and admire the fabulous "twisted sister flower tower" he'd given me early as a bd gift (photo on an earlier post). in keeping with the twisted theme... he made a drink he'd heard about when visiting a winery... called (of course) a "twisted sister", made with a white port (tasted like gewurtztraminer) with orange zest, lemon zest and tonic water... and it was excellent!! and for lunch he served Caesar salad, Hungarian mushroom soup (made by special order by Maggie herself at Maggie's Buns, a local cafe), warm garlic bread, and the bd cake was (ta da my most favorite) tiramisu (also made by Maggie) Livin' large on my birthday! Laurie brought me a twinkling lights tiara and sceptor/magic wand which she had decorated with dyed mohair locks (tho guests were instructed to not bring gifts!)
me in my tiara and Rachael

Rachael and Matt came down from Goldendale:

Laurie, Jane and Jan were here

Stephanie showed off her new talent of balancing a vase of flowers on her head... ok, the shot wasn't set up really well, but it sounds better the other way.

Gail arrived after the picture taking and i neglected to get out the camera and document her lovely presence!

I had an outstanding 69th birthday and felt very loved and honored and who could ask for any more than that? so now i'm really and truly "almost 70" and feel like i kind of missed the 67
and 68 because what i kept hearing in my head was "almost 70".

so if you got this far in this very long missive... thanks... and that's all for now!

pooches

it's been quite awhile since our pooches were featured here, so here's Meika wearing a lovely plastic flower that Jim stuck in her collar. i don't think she fully appreciated how utterly adorable she looked. and what we do for one, we also do for the other. here's Tasha...with her usual kind of woebegone expression.

and speaking of "pooch" reminds me of "Project Pooch" ... which i've discussed previously and where we have been boarding the dogs when we are away. We recently received the news that the Oregon Youth Authority has decided that dogs cannot be boarded there any more. we really hope they will change that decision as it seems to be so beneficial to their program... and to those who board their dogs there!

meika again wearing her flower. and we did take their flowers off before they could get them off and eat them!

more flowers

and today's flower is this gorgeous yellow daylily:

it usually has 4 or 5 stems per year with 3 or 4 buds on each stem.. and is so outstanding and awesome looking that i really treasure each blossom. the petals are long, curved, graceful... and it's unlike any other daylily i have.

and then there's this lovely red flower... name of which i cannot remember today... maybe tomorrow.

before the heat of the day set in, (102F) i got the garden watered and picked a cucumber and some broccoli, then pretty much stayed inside the rest of the day. got about half way done on the quilting... photo when it's done.

Gerbera Daisy

this is my new favorite flower:

they are available in many lovely and vibrant colors and i'd sure love to have one of each! Costco was selling a 6-pack of 6-inch pots of them and i gave in with hardly a murmur, even tho i already had several in the ground and in pots. I was able to keep 3 alive over the winter by digging 'em up, potting them and keeping them on the kitchen windowsill. they didn't bloom in that time, but they did stay alive and that was all i was asking of them! and now they are all looking glorious. i do hope they can make it thru the current (very) hot spell, with temps for the next 2 day predicted at 103F. believe me, i will be staying inside for the duration and giving thanks to all deities for the person who invented air conditioning. we've only had the heat pump for about 5 years, and i have very clear memories of suffering thru temps like that for several day stretches at least once each summer. so now i will happily stay inside and cool and be a delicate flower. and now i need to put the sprinkler on the flowers and get them well-soaked.

quilting... and stuff

At last, i pulled out the partially sewn quilt i started ... can't remember even exactly how long ago i started it, but it's for Zylie and she's 4.5 now so it can't be a longer time than that. took me awhile to figure out just what i was intending to do to finish it. it's one of those projects that has been altered from the original plan (typical of my projects!), but i got up to speed pretty quickly and now the top/front is finished (bravo!!) and i'm figuring out what to do for the back. there are many small pieces of fabric left over from the front. that happens when one greatly alters the original plan. in fact, i'll probably use lots of the left-overs to put together a pillow to go with the quilt. for the back, tho, i'll need to decide whether to piece together some fabric already in my stash, or make a trip to the fabric store. hmmm, in fact i'll be in portland sometime next week and could probably make time for shopping then, or there's tomorrow morning..... It is really a mystery to me why i like quilting, because i really don't like detail work, and symmetry has no appeal to me. actually, "crazy quilts" are fascinating and i really want to make one of those.... no symmetry there.

it's been sizzling hot here, which has been well-received by some of the plants in the veggie garden.. and especially the tomato plants (2 of them) which are living in the greenhouse. there was actually a ripe cherry tomato, which Jim put in my salad tonight and it was oh so sweet and yummy. to have a ripe home-grown tomato this early in july is truly a treat, especially since we have had so many summers of green tomatoes in August. already i've picked a cucumber, snipped the tops off basil plants to keep them from blossoming, harvested some of the dill and fennel and i think there'll be green beans in a week or so! we do so love that fresh organic produce from the garden! according to the weather predictor folks we'll have mid-80s and into the 90s for the next 10 days, and that will be good for the garden... if we get enough water to the plants when they need it.

Twisted Sister Flower Tower

Installation of this grand piece of lawn art pottery took place this morning, before the mister even had his breakfast. There was a pressing need to grab the neighbor (Dave-the-potter-down-the-hill) before he headed off to town, as it took 2 strong men to move the tower from the back of the pick-up. and here it is in it's place:

and Dave, who knows all about pottery, pronounced it a truly fine piece of pottery (and... how'd they do that???)

photos

On my flickr account are a bunch of photos i took tuesday evening at Northwest Wools when we had the twisted sister book signing/get together/preview of the new book. there are just too many to transfer to the blog, so if you want to see them, click on the link to flickr on the right. The sweaters you see displayed are all from the new book... tho it's hard to really see them in these photos. guess you'll just have to get the book.......

sorry that i don't have the names of the 2 young women who are new spinners and showed us their truly outstanding yarn... so, if you are reading this... email me so i can put your names on the photo!!

*** and the mystery has been revealed! the new spinners are Helen (on the left) and Lorajean (on the right). thanks, Helen!

sock yarn

here's the sock yarn i got from Lynne. I have 2 skeins of the darker one and plan to do some kind of color patterns with the lighter one. and, as always, they look much much better in person! The handpainted/dyed sock yarn we had in the booth (from Lori and Lynne) were very popular and sold like hotcakes. In fact, Northwest Wools now carries both these sock yarns. (and i am affiliated with all three of these entities, so does that make this a commercial??) (well, since i get nothing from it, i'm just passing along some information for friends... ok?)

new fiber!

here's some of my stash acquisition from BSG. the top one is Merino/silk/angora from Lori and the other is BFL and was dyed by Lynne. I got them to ply together... and here's what i got:

the yarn is soft and heavenly, and will probably become a scarf. I have a couple more of Lori's blends which will show up here another day.

And here's some sock yarn i got from Lynne... it's merino/bamboo and will be the first socks i've
knitted with this blend. and for some reason, the photo won't upload, so will come later!

back home in my queendom...

It's no surprise, it was an awesome 3-day extravaganza at Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR

We were so sad that Lynne was not able to be there and we missed her hugely!! So, Lori and I had the booth with handdyed fibers and yarn done by all 3 of us. we also had an advance copy of the new Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters, and the actual Zylie sweater which Kate brought with her. Too bad Zylie couldn't be there to model it! We were able to russle up some excellent booth help from Linda (NW Wools) with whom i had a booth at BSG for many years, and from Rachael, who has helped us in the booth many times, and from Kate, my very dear DIL, who was there for the first time and caught on really quickly! don't know how i could have survived without them... they made it possible for me to be out of the booth a lot for shopping and catching up with lots of friends! the shopping was actually not terribly expensive this year as i was able to be quite restrained in stash enhancement. i think i spent a lot of that energy on enabling anyone who would stand still long enough. I think Pam took the prize in our group for stash enhancement (3 fleeces, a spinning wheel + a few other items) Kate was the focus of quite a bit of my enabling efforts and seemed to enjoy it. she has enough new stuff to last for awhile. Over the years, it seems the characters change some, but the twisted element goes on in grand style!! the past few years we have stayed in a motel which has way more room for gathering in the evening for spinning, show and tell, lots of laughter and the telling of wild and crazy stories.

and when i got home, Jim had my birthday gift waiting for me (he is quite early this year... it's still a month away). But he really outdid himself this time, with a tribute to twisted sisters! he was at an event at a local plant nursery and they were selling very special "garden art". he says he just could not resist the one named "Twisted Sister"... a tall and twisted ceramic planter with the focal plant being a cotoneaster with kind of twisty branches. it is SO tres cool and i totally love it...

color and beauty abounds

Today i was walking about in my queendom with my little bitty camera in my pocket, just admiring the variety of flowers and color around me. any time i feel icky, this is what turns the tide for me... tho i was feeling fine and dandy and peaceful and happy today... no ickiness! i am so fortunate to live in a (mostly) quiet rural place where i can go outside in the morning and hear only the birds, and sometimes the far-off drone of a tractor... it is very meditative. at this point in my life, i would not do well living in a neighborhood!! so, anyway, i took some flower photos today. here's one that i'm so happy i was able to get:

and this white peony, is still lovely as it is close to expiration:

The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters: A Knit-to-Fit Workshop

This is the new twisted sister book by Lynne Vogel and it will be released in August. Lynne just got an advance copy and you can read what she says about it on her blog www.handspuncentral.blogspot.com She let me see the galley, and i've gone through it and looked at every page and will now go back and really read it. I have to say that i do have a bias because Lynne is my dear dear friend and we have been working/playing with fiber together for years. Also, i know how much of her life and energy has gone into the creation of this beautiful
book. Lynne is really gifted in being able to explain and describe knitting in a way that makes me smack my forehead and say.... "ok, now i get it!" This book (like the Sock book) has gorgeous photos, the color is stunning, the layout beautiful, and the content will be so valuable to knitters that they'll wonder how they got along without it!! but you don't have to rely on my word on this... get your hands on a copy as soon as you can. you won't be sorry!! trust me on that.

life is good... and time does fly by

and life has been happening since that last post... May 3. Jim left may 1 for his trans-Siberian rail trip, and came back may 22 having evidently had an excellent adventure! while he was gone my inner cinderella-harriet-housewife appeared from the depths and went to work purging some of the extraneous crap around here. Good Will is a big winner, along with my nieces who are the happy recipients of about 1/2 of my bead stash. Cinderella also tackled a lot of mess and dirt which should have been seen to long ago. it is always so much easier for me to get into a cleaning/purging project when i'm here alone. i'm so easily distracted that i might get a portion of a project finished and leave it for something more interesting (is that ADD?) and it is just lovely to be able to walk away from it mid-battle and come back when i'm ready, having been free to leave the mess in whatever stage it is and not even think about anyone being annoyed by having to trip over "stuff" and negotiate around a project that's only gotten to mid-way. also made several trips to plant nurseries and came home with veggie plants, a bunch of flower plants... and ready to beautify my queendom. and i had decided that Jim's upcoming 70th birthday on the 27th of may deserved some celebrating, so invited family (his and mine) and some special friends to come and party with us ... and somewhere between 35 and 40 of them came, so dome central was rockin' on sunday. Chris, Kate and kids arrived on saturday, though i really hated asking them to travel on this holiday weekend, and were a huge help in getting the rockin' launched. i did feel a little sorry for Jim... he got home tuesday night and i told him he could have wed. off to rest up and get over jet-lag, and then had 3 days to work his way thru the list of what needed to be done... e.g. the grass/weeds had grown almost a foot while he was gone! as always, he was a good sport about it...... and he did seem to enjoy his party!! during the party i was talking to my friend, Sarah, who asked "so.. what have you been doing" and i don't know if this happens to anyone else, but my mind went blank, and i finally mumbled something or other and Sarah said oh yeah she'd read that on my blog... so i invited her to tell me, and that confirmed to me that blogging is definitely a good thing. i can always look back and see just what i've been doing, or even tell friends to check out my blog cause i just can't always remember. that sounds pretty pathetic, but it seems like there is always so much going on that there is no time to dwell on it... just move on to the next adventure! Zylie wore her "gramma sweater" at the party, which received lots of admiration... and Kate said she acted as my "PR person" by showing around my printout of the cover of the new Twisted Sister book, which is the Zylie Sweater, and telling all about it. (the book comes out in august or sept., is The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters by Lynne Vogel and you can read about it on Amazon or the Interweave Press website)! My adrenalin rush over this is indescribable!! like who would have ever thought that i could/would ever knit a sweater that would end up on the cover of a book??? and then seeing it on my granddaughter is a whole 'nother rush! Another event in the last 3 weeks is that my niece Jennifer is close to graduating from UofPortland school of nursing and i went to her pinning ceremony on May 5. She deserves such admiration for starting nursing school when in her mid-30s, and while having 2 children and a partner, doing the whole thing so well and earning awards, too! i'm so very proud of her, as is her mom (also a nurse), and then there's her greatgrandmother, a nurse... my grandmother who i adored. She, Effie Miller, was a true strong pioneer woman who came from rural North Carolina in the early 1900s to Portland, OR to go to nursing school at a hospital which had been established by a doctor she knew from NC.

and that's about enough from this blabber-fingers for tonight!

denim vest/jacket

for Angi - here's the vest i turned into a jacket

Robin's sleeve

Several years ago I made myself a jacket by knitting sleeves and attaching them to a denim vest, and my sister, Robin, asked me to do one for her using blues, greens, purples. The first sleeve is finished and the 2nd one is started... as of tonight. Since she lives in TN and i can't try it on her for sleeve length, i've just put the live stitches at the cuff on a piece of yarn and will knit the 2nd to that length and sew them into the vest. when we get together again she can try the vest/jacket on, we'll adjust the cuffs as needed and i'll finish 'em off!!


and this is the stash o'yarn i'm using... mostly handspun, but includes some yarn i got in Crete last fall.

this is not an original idea... i saw one several years ago, then scored a denim vest at good will, looked at a sweater sleeve pattern which looked roomy enough, made 2 sleeves and sewed 'em in! i've worn the jacket so much that it's starting to look kind of ratty, so will probably be knitting new sleeves one of these days! goddess knows i've got enough stray yarn stashed around here for many projects! have been trying lately to reduce the stash and am failing miserably. i do have it better organized and uncovered several unfinished items which are now where they can be seen, and may inspire in me some incentive (or guilt) to get on with finishing.

another finished item.... a pair of socks for Jim. these are not as wild as my usual socks and are more "fraternal" than most, because that's what he wanted. i fiddled with the color in the editing program and just couldn't get the true red... which is really scarlet and doesn't look at all pink as the photo here indicates! also dyed some solid red and brown so i could make stripes and that was as wild as he wanted to go. the socks are specifically for his upcoming adventure!

he leaves next week for a trans-Siberian railroad trip.... and is really looking forward to it. He will fly into Beijing then take a train up thru part of Mongolia, across Siberia and spend a couple of days at the end of the adventure in Moscow and in St. Petersburg. Somehow, 3 weeks on a train just isn't the kind of adventure for me, so he found a small tour group to go with and i'll stay home with the dawgs.

answers and etc

for Carolyn... my "non" traveling most often used spinning wheel is my VanEaton oak double treadle wheel, 24", double drive (does also have scotch tension).

The other wheel i use a lot is my Ernest Mason chair wheel. After Mr. Mason died, his daughter took over making the wheels for a few years, but i don't think anyone is making them now. both of these spinning wheels are much-loved treasures.


and for Terry... although dhJim has come over to the dark side as far as tolerating the pink flamingo decor (he can't really get away from them), "Flamingo Jim's" is a not-to-be-missed shop in Rockaway Beach... has everything from the tacky to the sublime!!

thanks, Lori! yep... these bright rovings "with attitude" do seem to do well at Black Sheep Gathering!! hope that's true again this year......

newest photos

my new flamingo sweatshirt purchased in Rockaway Beach, OR at one of the tackiest, touristy, and crowdedest shops in my universe!

well, actually, it's just the pic on the front of the shirt... we all know what a sweatshirt looks like!
yesterday i got my new travel wheel... Louet Victoria, and tho i haven't spent a lot of time spinning on it yet... i like it a lot. it came with a carrying case, weighs about 7 pounds, sets up very easily.... and no, i have no affiliation with Louet other than liking their wheels! when it is folded up and in its case, it takes up about the same amount of space as my Journey Wheel, which i love and have no intention of selling!!

and because i've spent so much time lately with fibers and dyes, i took a photo of my latest most favorite color combo. it's Blue Face Leicester... the bundle sitting on top of a bunch of merino/tencel.

lovely weekend

got back this afternoon from a weekend in Rockaway Beach, OR with some twisted sisters. Jane, Linda and I went friday, got there just in time for lunch, then went to the rental office where we'd made reservations, and were able to get in early (gave them very pitiful, homeless type looks). we were able to rent a condo on the top (4th) floor overlooking the beach. it has big picture windows in the living room... and we watched a big rain/wind storm roll in, and went to bed with the wind howling and rain blowing hard against the windows. couldn't ever hear the surf. then by morning it was over and the sun came out and gave us 2 gorgeous days! we managed to work in a shopping trip, but spent most of the time spinning, knitting, grazing and catching up on each others' lives. then Sue, Alina and Alyse (Alina's niece) got there about noon, we made room for them to set up wheels, etc, and carried on as before. Had a delicious fresh crab salad for dinner!! while out shopping we went to Flamingo Jim's and i found the totally perfect for me sweat shirt. will take a pic tomorrow. i thought i was really finished with collecting things flamingo, but could not resist this... and got lots of enabling encouragement from the sisters!

And now must get busy with some marathon dyeing. Even tho i thought i was retired from vending at fiber shows, i decided to have a booth at Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR one more time... this time sharing space with Lynne Vogel and Lori Lawson. With 3 of us, I'll still be able to have "time off" to take a class (signed up for a Joan Schrouder class on finishing techniques)... and shop and watch demos and judgings.. and all that fun stuff. The dates for BSG are June 21, 22 and 23. If you've never seen Lynne's and Lori's work, you're in for a real treat!! both of them have an incredible eye for color!! and will have the booth packed with beautiful spinning fibers and yarns!

quince

i absolutely adore this little shrub, and hope the neverending rain won't ruin all the blossoms!

finished it

here's the little entrelac camera bag for my new little Olympus camera! i replaced the photo i had here that i got from my scanner... this one is many times truer in color!! i think i'm loving this new camera!!!

I love entrelac!!!

well, i felt confident enough after the sample entrelac (last post) that i decided i could take off my training wheels and use some of my dye-along yarn and start an entrelac piece without knowing just what it will become. It could possibly become a hat... or maybe a small bag. And so, there i was knitting along and hardly needing to look at the directions any more, feeling just so confident... and then as i was admiring what i'd done, along came my humility lesson and whomped me. can you see my mistake? wish i'd seen it sooner. there is a selvage triangle missing on the right side, and nothin' to do but rip it back to where that triangle should be and put the damn thing in.

yay!! I did it!..

for many knitters, i know this wouldn't seem like something to crow about, but i've had such a hard time wrapping my mind and yarn around the entrelac thing that it seems quite appropriate to me. i even made it harder for myself by trying to get a sample started while i was visiting my son's family where the grandkids keep the noise and activity level at high... making it pretty challenging to concentrate on knitting anything but the most basic knit one row, purl one row thing. but the real break-thru came during my 3 1/2 hour train ride back home, when i put on my headphones, listened to Cowboy Junkies and just look what i did!

dye-along yarns

here's the array of yarns i spun from our dye-along superwash corrie roving. gotta confess i spun more than 6 ounces as i dyed 3 different batches and probably kept more than 2 ounces
of each. anyway, here they are and i absolutely love every bit of 'em! am thinking maybe i'll knit something entrelac and see if i can remember the lessons from Lynne last June at our twisted friends reunion in Alabama. that was fun to do and i ended up with a cute little bag that Lynne bailed me out on at the finish, when i got bogged down and frustrated with just how to finish it! maybe i can remember to take a photo of it and put it up here! what i love about these yarns is that we all 3 started with the same 3 colors, each added a fourth.... and there is such variety! we did, of course, each add our touch in how we combined all these rovings, and separated some sections of color out to get various effects.




these are some of Pam's that i spun and plied by themselves. what is so frustrating to me is that the camera just doesn't show the subtleties of what i am seeing. these are deep and glowing colors with a lot of life in them!!














and these are 3 of Lynne's. top and bottom yarns were spun straight from the roving, and the middle one i separated out some of the colors and spun them by themselves. I love how that bright orange gives such attitude to the skeins.










I wanted some of the yarn to be soft and pastel and be a contrast to the others, and here's what i got from some of my rovings.

life

well, i've got the dyed rovings from Pam and Lynne and spun up a wee bit... but lovely warm and sunny days came around, and i gave in to the pull to be outside. so spent a couple of days having quality time with my clippers and some bushes (pardon the expression) and massive overgrowth in my queendom. and clouds have now returned, so am happy to be inside... however, am trying to banish some of the dirt and dog hair that messes with the innards of dome central! Pam and Larry fly in tomorrow from Malaysia and will stay with us for awhile til they get ready to move on in their adventure. and it's always a good thing to have someone visiting as it does motivate me to do my cinderella chores. i'm getting pretty annoyed with the maid service around here!!... there isn't any!!!

so, will do some spinning tonight and work on getting some photos of yarn from the dye-along posted here and prob. also at http://www.twistedfriends.blogspot.com

yarn from dye along

I spun a sample from each of my 3 batches:

-at the top I spun random lengths from each, then

put in center pull ball and plied from both ends.

-next is from the full strength dye, poured in color bands on the roving, 2 ply

-and the dilute in color bands, 2 ply

-bottom.... dilute random pour,2 ply

and for the next installment, i'll spin up yarns from Pam's and Lynne's dyed roving samples which came in the mail today!! yippeee. can't wait to see what combinations of all the combinations look like!!

dry dyed fiber

dilute color bands


more intense color bands


dilute random pour

Long Distance Dye-Along

Well, Pam already has blogged about her gorgeously dyed superwash corriedale at the Twisted Friends blog www.twistedfriends.blogspot.com, so here's mine! I used the same 3 main colors as Lynne (www.handspuncentral.blogspot.com) and Pam (www.snugsblog.blogspot.com), and for my 4th i chose Lanaset yellow. For both i used cold pour on wet fiber, then steamed it.




(left) i layed the wet fiber out on plastic wrap, poured on bands of colors, some of which i had
mixed together before pouring (the ivy and scarlet to get the aubergine, for instance) The fiber was quite wet, so the dyes ran together more than i would have liked.... but, oh well... Then wrapped and steamed for about 30 t0 40 mins. For pouring on of dye, the fiber was actually layed out straight, but i kind of pulled one end around so i could get it all in the photo.




(right) I pulled the fiber around into an oval and then started ramdomly pouring diluted dyes on it, wrapped and steamed.




all the fiber is on the drying rack now, and maybe will be dry enough to spin by tomorrow.

stay tuned....

Zylie in the snow

They got a lot of snow in Duvall, WA recently, and Kate took a photo or 2 of Zylie posing in the newest sweater i knitted for her. It's a wee bit big for her this year, which means it will be good for at least 1 more year, maybe 2. And the left sleeve is really not longer than the right, tho it looks that way.... i think she's just keeping her hand warm.

And now... here's a Zylie story that really makes me smile. I want to write it down so i won't ever forget it! At the time, she was about 3 and 1/2. Background information: she adores Dora the Explorer and i think she has all the videos of Dora's adventures... and the videos teach kids things, besides entertaining them. So, on one occasion that Kate and the kids were here visiting, we also invited some of the relatives to come over to eat/play/visit, etc. When we told Zylie that "Big Papa" (her great granddad, my father) would be coming over, she got all excited.... and finally she saw him getting out of the car and went running out to meet him, grabbed him by the hand, and beaming up at him started leading him to the house. She looked up and saw her mom standing on the porch. She stopped, turned to him and said proudly: "Big Papa, I want you to meet my new friend... Mommy". So, thanks to Dora, Zylie very often will graciously and politely introduce people to each other... including at times introducing her daddy to her mom when he comes home from work! i suppose it's good practice!

seems i've done a lot of writing the past few days. i blame it on the sinus infection which keeps me from wanting to be any more active than applying fingers to keyboard. after the meds finally took away the headache from hell, i'm just tired and snotty (TMI??)

long distance dye-along

last week as i was out here in my queendom in NW Oregon, my friends Lynne and Pam in TN were in Lynne's studio having a dye day and emailing me about what they were doing. i got all "poor-me-out-here-and-you're-having-all-that-dyeing-fun-together" whiny... and decided we should have a long distance dye-along. Here's what we're going to do: each of us will dye 6 oz of superwash corriedale (because that's what we all have some of and won't have to order it and then wait). We will use stock colors of Lanaset and/or Pro Washfast acid dyes... orange, scarlet and teal, plus each of us will pick our own fourth color to use with the other three. We will use stock colors so that we start on an even playing field, rather than doing our own mixing to get those first 3 colors. We can use any method(s) to apply the dye and "fix" the colors, using any dilution of strength we choose. After the fiber is ready, we'll each send 2 oz to the others, then spin it however we want.... mixing them together, separately, or any combination, and at least knit a swatch... or better yet, socks? mitts? hat? or whatever. And, of course, pictures must be taken of every step along the way and posted to our blogs! So... stay tuned and see how our long distance dye-along works out.

LV Ltd handspun yarns

Today, on her blog, Lynne Vogel is talking about her newly launched line of handspun yarns!! Yay, Lynne!

Also... mentions her newest book The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters, A Knit To Fit Workshop which is due out Sept. 1, 2007.

And... also.. later today there will be a free pattern for my multicolor fingerless mitts on her blog.

wow! lots going on there... see it at:

http://handspuncentral.blogspot.com/

merino/bamboo fiber

this is the merino/bamboo top i recently dyed. if you look closely, you'll see the shiny streaky places where the bamboo doesn't take the acid dyes. i think it will look more blended in after it is spun.

the end

I finished the third pair of mitts (except for the dreaded weaving in of the ends!) and now i'm thru doing mitts, i think! they make a nice small take-along project, but are kinda boring. unless maybe i'll do a pair and try out something nifty from my new Barbara Walker book. next on the agenda is a pair of fulled slippers. I haven't been at all drawn to doing any of the knit-it-then-felt-it patterns of any kind, then i saw the Fireside Footies at Pippikneesocks (www.pippikneesocks.com/blog) and printed out the pattern. they are really cute and look warm and toasty. i might even have some wool yarn in the stash that would work!

and while i'm putting in links, check out Lori Lawson's new blog (www.paintspinknit.blogspot.com) the dyeing and knitting that she (and also Lynne) do is truly inspirational.

on the dyeing and spinning in my life... i recently bought a couple of pounds of merino/bamboo fiber to see how i like it. so far, i've spun and then dyed some yarn. haven't knitted it up yet, but it's a very soft and drapey yarn, took the dye and seems washfast with acid dyes. the colors seem to be a bit muted, even using some of the WF turquoise which i love for it's in-your-face color. the dyed top is hanging on the rack drying, and those colors seems a bit muted also. another thing i noticed is that where the bamboo is not well-blended into the merino, it has only a bare hint of color. i think it's like the tencel and rayon, doesn't really take the dye, but when it's well-blended with the wool, adds sheen and doesn't have an undyed appearance. as soon as the top is dry enough (tho i have been known to spin damp fiber when i just can't wait), i'll spin some up and maybe even get around to knitting a swatch and taking some photos.

Son Chris is leaving Sat. for a Microsoft trip to India. i've been trying to think of how i can prepare him for the experience of landing in New Delhi. it's been 8 years since i was there and the memories are still clear of the extreme culture shock of that city and being driven around there!!

more mitts

I finished the second pair, which looks a lot like the pair I gave my dad, and sent them to Lynne. and then discovered in the pile of UFOs one that i'd done, ummmm can't remember how long ago. There's lots of angora in it, and it's really fluffy and sweet. and now the kicker!!.. in my extensive stash, i actually found the main yarn i'd used, plus some that will work well with it. so, this time it paid off to be a packrat. i think i'd kept it because it has lots of angora in it and i don't spin yarn like that very often, making it more of a "treasure". I had used a pattern, but have no idea where it is or where i got it, so am improvising on the second one. it has a thumb in it and i think i can figure it out!! well, it's actually half a thumb and covers the joint at the beginning of the thumb (clear??)


the color in these photos is crappy. the main yarn is soft turquoise/offwhite-ish. maybe in the daylight i can do better. but for now.... here it is.