GrammaKnits

Bluebonnet Tartan Dishtowels - Finished!!

2012-01-16T19:55:00.003-06:00

I know I should have been posting on this all along, but what can I say? 2011 was a crazy year! So in order to start 2012 off on a better footing, I'll catch you up on the infamous Texas Bluebonnet Tartan Dishtowels. After spending about 40 hours just getting the warp on the loom, I let it sit a little while to gather up the courage to start weaving. I was terrified to think that the actual weaving might be just as torturous as the warping had been! I knew that there would be tension problems, just not how bad they might be. So finally one weekend I started weaving and it actually went along fairly smoothly. After the first towel I started to get loose spots in the warp, so I used some soft pieces of foam to take up the slack.

That went along ok but by the time I had finished the third towel, I knew that they would have to be cut off and the warp re-tentioned. Since I needed at least 3 for Christmas gifts, that worked out ok. At some point in my quest for weaving books, I had bought "Warping All By Yourself" by Cay Garrett. So I cut the finished towels off ala Peggy Osterkamp, unwound the warp off the back beam, and my grandson Riley put the warp spacers in as I wound it back on. My last three towels have been fairly uneventful, except for the fact that the warp is still just a little loose just inside the selveges. Nothing that my little foam wedges can't take care of.

And here's a photo of one of the finished towels:

Overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, except for the fact that the tartan pattern isn't square/balanced. In retrospect, I should have just changed the number of picks in the big squares. I think if I had been doing this in wool that I would have been able to beat it in a little more evenly. But that is just one of the MANY lessons I've learned on this project. And if you happen to be one of the lucky people who receive one of the five I'm giving away, there are not going to be any more down the line! This is a one-time project!

The warp from h*ll

2011-10-01T22:46:00.003-06:00

I was oh so excited to finally have the thread to start weaving the dishtowels for our Bluebonnet Tartan project. Stephanie from WC Mercantile ordered it for us from Halcyon Yarns. The thread is a beautiful 10/2 mercerized cotton. After 5 hours winding it on the warping mill and here's the mound of chained warp.

Unfortunately, I had to finish weaving the towels for the exchange before I could get started. But last Saturday, I met Loretta at the shop and got started. OMG! Who would have thought that anything so beautiful could be such a trial! I spent 4 hours getting the threads separated in the raddle and we started trying to wind on. It was a huge tangled mess!! In despair, I finally just left my loom at the shop with about 2 yards wound on so I could finish this week. Initially we thought that it was just that the thread was really sticky, so I came armed with a can of Static Guard ready to do battle. Alas, that was not the problem and I was once again crushed in defeat. After another 5 hours, I probably had 3 yards on the loom. Apparently when winding the thread onto the warping mill, we were letting it come off the top of a cone on the floor which was adding twist to the thread. Once the warp was no longer under tension on the mill, it began to twist on itself and that was what was causing all the problems. You can see it pretty clearly here.

So now, I'm having to go inch by inch and separate all the threads individually to let some of the active twist run out. What a pain! The worst part of it all is that I know better than to pull yarn off the top of a cone. After spending about 10 hours today, I've got it pretty much under control and only have a little more than 2 yards left to wind on.

I thought hobbies were supposed to be relaxing!

Warped Weavers Dishtowel Exchange 2011

2011-10-01T22:40:00.003-06:00

While waiting to get started on the Bluebonnet Tartan project, I joined a dishtowel exchange on Ravelry. Since I had just finished a set, it was a simple matter to adapt the pattern to get the right size for the exchange. I used the same colors in 8/2 unmercerized cotton, but arranged them in a different order. I'm sending in four towels, one plaid (photo), one with white weft, one with yellow weft, one with blue weft. I still need to get them hemmed and will post final pictures soon.

01/16/12 ETA photo of the finished towels.

This was definitely something I would do again sometime. I got four very nice towels back. And contrary to popular belief, I actually use my handwoven towels. They are super absorbent and really wear well.

Catch Up Time!

2011-10-01T22:31:00.002-06:00

Holy cow it's been a long time since I added anything here! Looks like I was last getting ready to weave my first dishtowels. Needless to say, they've been finished for a while, and the project was relatively successful. They came out nice, but I under estimated the amount of shrinkage, so they're a little on the small side. I've signed up for a dishtowel exchange on Ravelry in the Warped Weavers group and will be able to save myself a little work and just tweek this pattern a bit to get them the right size.

One of the things I learned was that a straight twill (towels middle and right) tends to bias once it's off the loom. In this photo, it's pretty noticable in the plaid towel. The herringbone pattern (towel on left) alternates the direction of the twill and comes out straight. However, a gentle tug as they come out of the dryer makes everything better.

Princess has Arrived!

2011-06-17T15:06:00.002-06:00

My first Romney fleece, Princess, has arrived from SkyLines Farm in Idaho. It is 9lb of beautiful sheepy goodness! This is a huge fleece and should keep me busy for a LONG time! I'm not even going to bother spreading it out yet, since I'll be busy with the Tour de Fleece in a couple of weeks and am already hopelessly overcommitted (again). Plus we have the Knit at Night Guild's 15th anniversary luncheon on July 9, and I'm coordinating a workshop with Kenny Chua on July 16th at Park Avenue Yarns. That said, I do have a handful in the sink, soaking, so I can see how wonderful this fleece is going to be when it's ready to spin. It is amazingly clean! There was hardly any dirt after the first rinse. If the bottom of the bag is as perfect at the top, I'm in for a real treat!

Meanwhile...

2011-06-16T19:18:00.004-06:00

In the midst of all the fleece prep, our little informal weaving group is meeting on Sunday at WC Mercantile. Loretta is going to help me put a warp on the loom for some plaid dishtowels. They'll be woven in 8/2 cotton and I really like the colors. I don't know why I always put off warping. I think it's going to take me forever, then it surprises me and goes pretty fast. At least it's fast for the small projects that I do. I don't like putting a really long warp on my Ashford table loom. It's always been hard for me to get it wound on evenly. Hopefully it will help having an extra set of hands, and I'm hoping Loretta will have some tips to make my life easier next time. This is going to be my tune-up for the Bluebonnet Tartan project.

On the warping board

Closeup

Warp wound onto sticks for transport

Tour de Fleece 2011 - Prologue, Day 7

2011-06-12T09:06:00.002-06:00

Friday night, Day 5, I washed my Jacob fleece, Blossom, in the washing machine using Power Scour. I was not impressed with the cleaning job. Especially considering how expensive Power Scour is! Most of the locks are clean, but they have a hard, dirty tip that I'm going to trim prior to carding. From now on, I'll be sticking to good old blue Dawn dishwashing liquid which has served me so well in the past. I can buy gallons of Dawn for what the Power Scour cost. Oh well, now I know.

Saturday, Day 6, was fleece day. After much trial and error, I finally am able to card the alpaca on my Louet Jr. and get it off the drum in one nice piece suitable for spinning. It is a dream to touch; so soft and luxurious.

With that problem solved, I moved on to sorting Blossom. I now have six piles of fiber ranging in color from black, dark brown, dark gray, medium gray, light gray, and white. Once I decide on a knitting pattern, I'll be able to start the carding process.

2011 Tour de Fleece - Prologue, Day 6

2011-06-09T17:58:00.004-06:00

I'm still trying to figure out how I want to process the alpaca fiber. It is so incredibly fine and slippery, that it's almost impossible to take off the drum carder or English combs in one piece. So I'm taking a break while I solicit advice on how to proceed. In the meantime, I took one of the balls of fluff and spun a little sample on the Country Craftsman. I spun it semi-worsted and made a 3-ply yarn. It came out at 14 wpi (wraps per inch) and looks about like sock yarn, but VERY fuzzy which will probably make it knit up to a bit larger gauge. I'll have to spin some more and wash it before I try knitting with it. Feels heavenly though!

____________________________________________

I did wash a little handful of Blossom's fleece to see what colors it would be. Very lovely light cream, grey, and dark brown. After someone tipped me off that The Yarn Harlot had done a similar Jacob project recently, I read her blog and the pictures confirmed what I wanted to do. Blossom will get a good washing, then the colors will be sorted, then spun into a laceweight gradient yarn that goes from the darkest brown to white. It should make a beautiful shawl. Now I just need to find the perfect pattern. I was thinking something with flowers (for Blossom) or maybe Fiber Trend's Sheep Shawl.

Tour de Fleece 2011 - Prologue, Day 4

2011-06-07T14:05:00.002-06:00

Nothing much to report yesterday. Just trying to finish spinning the merino/tencel to free up Lendrum bobbins by July. But I did get a new tool in the mail - an electric bobbin winder! No more carpal tunnel trying to wind bobbins. And I can use it to wind singles off my spinning bobbins onto storage bobbins. It will save what I paid for it in just not having to have so many extra bobbins for each wheel.

Got home a bit early today and a surprise was waiting on the front porch. Blossom's fleece has arrived! You can see a photo of her on my June 4 posting. I've never processed or spun a Jacob fleece before, so this should be fun. It's a beautiful cream/brown/black. The plan is to sort it to spin into a worsted weight 3-ply yarn with a barberpole effect of all the colors together. But first I've got to get her washed! It's a dirty job, but interesting to see how the colors brighten and the wool softens and fluffs up.

Straight out of the bag and spread on a sheet

Closeup of dark brown section (tips are bleached out)

Another closeup

One last closeup

2011 Tour de Fleece - Prologue, Day 2

2011-06-05T08:12:00.003-06:00

What a productive day yesterday! The alpaca is now cleaned and on the drying racks. I wish there was some way to photograph texture. This fleece is so soft and NO veggie matter to worry about. Now that it's clean, it is so lustrous that it is even more difficult to photograph. But I've tried. Now I just have to be patient enough to let it get good and dry before I start carding. So today's project will be to finish winding off all the Kenny Chua workshop kits for the Knit at Night Guild.

Into the sink for washing...

Onto the drying rack...

Almost dry...

Almost dry closeup...

Tour de Fleece 2011 - Prologue

2011-06-04T17:10:00.003-06:00

It's almost time for the 2011 Tour de Fleece to begin on July 2. This is an annual event on one of the spinning groups I belong to. We join teams and spin on the same days as the Tour de France. Last year was so much fun, I decided to do it again. This year I'm on four teams (you can join as many as you want) - Team Lendrum, Team Jacob Junkies, Team A Spinner's Study, and Team Bestlittlewoolshop. For "A Spinner's Study" I'm working on our June study fleece - huacaya alpaca. I'm using the dark chocolate brown fleece from my friend Jane. I spent this afternoon skirting the fleece, and am in the process of getting it all washed and ready to spin. Thankfully, it is just dusty and easy to wash! Here are a couple of "before" photos.

For the Jacob Junkies I have a fleece enroute, so I'll just have to get it sorted and washed by 7/2. Blossom's fleece is arriving from Honeysuckle Farm in California. Jacob sheep are just so cute in their black and white coats! Here's Blossom at the farm. I chose her because she has some brown spots as well.

I'm sort of combining project for Team Lendrum and Team Bestlittlewoolshop. Since I'm spinning the alpaca exclusively on my Country Craftsman, I'm using the Lendrum for the Jacob fiber and for an assortment of stuff from WC Mercantile (The Best Little Wool Shop). Hopefully, I'll get a lot done over the month of July, but I'm pretty sure that this will be an ongoing project for awhile.

Texas Hill Country Spinning Retreat

2011-05-26T19:36:00.011-06:00

I'm back from the Hill Country Spinning Retreat at Mo Ranch. When I first heard about it on Ravelry, I took a big leap of faith and signed up immediately. There's no way I was going to pass on a week of spinning and dyeing instruction with the inspirational Judith MacKenzie McCuin, and in the Texas hill country! I could drive and take everything I could pack in the car. Was I really sending a big check to someone I didn't know, to attend a retreat with a group of strangers I was meeting on the internet? You betcha! Thankfully Roddie decided to go too, so I knew I wouldn't totally be alone. Turned out that I would know two other people, and made 20 new friends. Be prepared, this is going to be a REALLY long post with LOTS of photos! Here are Roddie and I arriving and meeting our hostess and workshop organizer, Karen.

Mo Ranch is a beautiful, Presbyterian retreat facility near Hunt, Texas. We had the entire Guest Lodge to ourselved for the week. In addition to the guest rooms, we had access to a full kitchen, dining room, sitting area with a gorgeous fireplace, and huge meeting room. It was the perfect location for a workshop where each participant had a LOT of "stuff" besides their spinning wheel.

Our view of the river from the patio

There was even an area off to the side of the meeting room where fiber vendors set up tables so that we could get a shopping fix any time we pleased. We spent quite a bit of time fondling the wares by Alecia Goes Around, Hill Country Weavers, Yarnorama, and Kai Ranch Mohair.

Cecil and Darlene from Buffalo Gold came out and brought samples for us to spin, as well as a great selection of their luxury yarns and fibers for purchase.

Judith even brought some of her hand-dyed Buffalo Gals yarn. I snagged some beautiful deep turquoise/green!

_____________________________________________________________
We began the week with a study of color. Judith made a big circle of Coopworth roving dyed in various colorways.

We drew numbers, then each person picked one. Then we divided that into quarters and traded two of them with other people. Since I was toward the end of the choices, I started with a sort of seafoam green roving (which was atrocious!) and added burgundy and dark blue to try and improve it.

After spinning all the roving, it was finished into a 2-ply yarn. Still totally disliking the colors, I nicknamed my colorway "butt ugly". It's really funny how certain colors speak to you, and others are so repulsive. In this case, the green and blue worked pretty well together, but the burgundy was so disharmonious that it just screamed at you. Next I knitted a small swatch in garter stitch, which improved it a little. But since it was a 2-ply worsted spun yarn it felt very coarse, with the stitches pulling away from each other rather than melding together.

Since 2-ply works very well as a weaving yarn, we warped Cora's rigid heddle loom with turquoise perle cotton to see what happened to the colors. This was the most successful option, but the burgundy was still not quite working.

Thursday was dye day, so I decided to try overdying the finished yarn with blue. This gave all three colors a common tone which balanced things out much better. Here's the overdyed ball with the original fiber, yarn, knitted and woven.

_____________________________________________________________

Our next color adventure began on Wednesday. Judith circled the floor with big bumps of Ashland Bay merino top in a huge rainbow of colors. This is wonderfully yummy stuff to work with!

Our task was to choose five colors and spin a cabled sock weight yarn. It takes about 3oz of fiber for a pair of socks, so this was going to start at the ranch and end up being homework.

This was going to be a marled yarn, which meant that we had to alternate the colors throughout the singles. Judith made it look so easy to hold onto three colors at a time and just spin back and forth, but for many of the rest of us we ended up doing a lot of starting and stopping to change colors. Maybe after I've been spinning 60 years, I'll be adept at it too!

To create a cabled yarn, you have to spin your singles, over ply them so that they have a lot of energy, then ply those together again in the opposite direction. That's a lot of spinning! So here are the singles...

2-ply...

and the finished cabled yarn with a knitted swatch...

All that's left to do is to knit it into a pair of socks for next year's workshop!

_____________________________________________________________

On Thursday, we began learning about dyeing. Judith has her own set of colors she uses (and sells in a kit!) which consist of the primes: cyan, magenta, yellow, plus the modifier colors: worker blue, worker red, violet, orange, brown, and black. From these she can create just about anything.

We started out by spinning singles of undyed merino top using a semi-worsted technique. These balls were then loaded into the roaster, ready for Judith to demonstrate how the colors react with each other.

Next comes a big glug of vinegar...

and she's ready to start adding the dye.

OCD me has always thought that dyeing was something so precise. So it was amazing to watch Judith dip a wet stick into the dye, then dab it onto the fiber. First the primes...

then she started to add the modifiers.

We watched, fascinated with the way each color morphed into another. When the first batch of balls emerged from the dye pot they were each uniquely beautiful.

Here are my three.

Roddie's and my skeins hanging in the tree to dry...

We used these balls to make "art yarn" with slubs, coils, and turkish knots. This was really fun to spin, but I have no idea what to do with the yarn other than a scarf or maybe the base for a necklace. It is pretty though.

I saved one ball back for the indigo pot on Saturday.

__________________________________________________________

In the midst of everything we had going on, Judith showed us how to make art batts on the big drum carder. We were all mesmerized watching the colors of merino being layered with bits of silk, mohair, and other materials.

Over the next two days, the basket by the carder would be stocked with lots of fun bits to play with.

Once we got comfortable using the drum carders, we started a little color study. We each chose one color, then blended it with white, gray, brown, and black. Next we were supposed to spin little samples showing the effects of combining them. That's still on my to-do list, but here's a shot of my yellow, and Roddie's blue.

However our overachiever, and amazingly fast spinner, Alecia, not only got hers done, but labled them for the rest of us to use as an example.

________________________________________________________

Seems like an indigo vat just makes everyone crazy, or maybe it was the margaritas. But on Saturday afternoon, we were dyeing everything we could get our hands on. As fast as Judith could add indigo to the pot, new items appeared to be dyed. People were even dyeing their hair!

Soon, day turned to night and there were into clothes spread across the lawn and skeins of indigo yarn draped in the trees.

Sunday would arrive too soon, and it was time to say goodbye to new friends.

Judging by all the activity on our Ravelry group, everyone came away with a mind full of possibilities and the skills to make them happen. We're already looking forward to next year! Thanks so much Karen for all your hard work putting this together. And a special thank you to Judith for being the open and sharing person that you are. It was an amazing week!

Blogging by Phone

2011-05-01T20:19:00.001-06:00

About to leave for a week of spinning with Judith Mackenzie. So I'm testing an app to let me blog a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to upload a few photos. Looking forward to soaking up some of Judith's vast knowledge.

Retreat 2011

2011-04-03T21:53:00.002-06:00

It's time for our 2nd annual retreat in memory of our friend and fiber mentor, Jane. The prayer shawl we wove last year turned out so beautiful, that I've warped the loom to do another. This year I used some handspun wensleydale yarn in shades of purple for the warp, and a soft worsted weight black single. The black yarn I won at the Knit at Night Guild 10th anniversary judged event, and is "Serendipity" by Dancing Fibers. There's no way I was going to knit anything in black, so this is the perfect project. The wensleydale was part of an early spinning project. It was spun worsted which made it a bit too harsh for knitting, so it had been languising in my knitting basket for years. But it is making great warp! The combination of the firmly spun warp, and the soft weft is making a very nice fabric. I spent last weekend getting everything started, and will save the rest of the weaving for friends to help with next weekend at our retreat. We'll be doing a 2x2 twill, which will be something new for the knitting weavers.

First Outfit for Granddaughter!

2011-03-25T17:35:00.004-06:00

Our first granddaughter is due May 21st and the baby shower was last weekend. Since I was under orders not to knit a bunch of pink stuff (this is not going to be a frilly girl), I made the most of the opportunity and knitted the cutest little outfit in a pastel rose colored cashmere yarn. Just adorable, even if I do say so myself! So for those of you who didn't get to see if before it was gifted, here are a few photos. They were taken before I found ribbon that matched perfectly, but you get the idea.

Here's the beautiful mom-to-be opening gifts...

And this is me with my favorite daughter-in-law, mom, and our daughter.

It was a lovely baby shower and she was innundated with frilly pink things, so I think maybe we're in the clear now to buy whatever we want! Yea!

Texas Bluebonnet Tartan Project

2011-03-21T16:59:00.003-06:00

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day for a drive to Navasota to meet with my weaving study group. The bluebonnets and indian paintbrush are just starting to appear along the sides of the road, which reminded me of a project I've been wanting to start. Ever since I learned that Texas has an official tartan pattern, it's been on my weaving to-do list. It was designed by June P McRoberts and recognized by the Texas state legislature in 1989. You can read more background information here. It is a beautiful pattern and captures all the colors in a field of bluebonnets. While I was crawling around amid the flowers, I was reminded how fragrant bluebonnets are! Years ago when we went down to Eagle Lake to visit the fields of Wildseed Farms, you could actually smell the bluebonnets before you could see the fields. If I ever get my little place in the country, I'll have a big section planted with bluebonnets to enjoy each spring.

I guess since it was such a pretty day, only Loretta and I showed up for our meeting so we had a couple of uninterrupted hours for talking weaving. We're new friends and still getting to know each other, and it was a nice surprise to find out that she's been wanting to weave the bluebonnet tartan too. And that's how simply we get started on a new path. Since we're still going to be teaching the new weavers in our regular group, this will be a long-term project for us both. Hopefully by next spring, I'll have some beautiful yardage.

Odd things we remember

2011-03-12T08:20:00.003-06:00

I was talking to a doctor friend last night and as conversations often do these days, it wound it's way to the topic of obesity. We observed that when we were kids, we were skinny and all our friends were skinny. And actually, there were only one or two obese children in the entire school. The weird thing is that we both remembered the full name of the only fat kid in our elementary schools. I recently ran across my class pictures from elementary and couldn't remember even all the first names, and these were my friends. It's odd, and in this case sad, what factoids stick in your head over the years. I remember a girl from about 4th grade that had the most horrible bad breath. So bad that you didn't even want to stand anywhere near her. In retrospect she probably had dental problems that her parents weren't able to get taken care of, but I can't remember her name. Just goes to show how society influences us from even a very young age. Was being overweight more gross than having bad teeth? Now that so many children are obese, is it still the stigma that it was when we were kids?

Don't Drink and Drive (or Weave)

2011-03-03T22:10:00.003-06:00

Recently I bought a placemat kit from Lotsaknots on etsy.com. I had already put the warp on by my sick weekend, the bobbins were wound, and all I had to do was sit down and weave a bit. They were just plain weave. That should be an easy, mindless activity when you've got a cold. So once I was feeling a little better, I put on some nice music, sat down with some Limoncello that James had surprised me with, and wove all the way through the first placemat before I decided to finally go to bed. I got up the next morning so proud of how productive I had been in spite of being sick. Until I actually looked at what I had done! OMG! I have never in my life seen such ugly selvages! Are they even salvageable? I wouldn't have even thought that you could make that big of a mess of something so simple. But thanks to the miracle of a hot water wash and the dryer, they are presentable and the second sober one actually looks pretty good.

First dishtowel on the loom. It actually looks ok under tension, and I didn't get the edges in the photo.

The finished towel. I can't really say that I like the way they look in such a heavy cotton, but they are definitely thirsty!

Ahh Springtime!

2011-03-03T21:50:00.003-06:00

Nothing like a bad springtime cold to make you more productive. I spent the first perfect spring weekend stuck inside with an awful cold, so I started working on my Level III swatches. They turned out to be a perfect project for when you're not feeling up to par. I got the first four completed with references and questions answered. They'll more than likely be reknit since I always do a trial swatch first to decide on an appropriate cast-on, cast-off, and proofing instructions. I do have to say, they aren't too bad, but I really don't like the Central Double Increase. Don't know if it did it wrong or if it's just an ugly type of increase, so it will definitely get a re-knit. If I did it correctly, it's definitely not something I'll ever use!

Level III Reports

2011-02-12T09:25:00.002-06:00

Reports are now finished and marinating for a while before I reread them and do the final edits. Sometimes it's hard to proofread objectively when you're already tired of looking at it. The most difficult thing about writing a report on such a broad subject such as Scandinavian knitting is to keep it from just sounding like bullet points. There are whole books just on Scandinavian knitting and I only need a few pages, so I focused mainly on Selbu style mittens and Shetland lace. The most interesting thing about the Selbuvotter is that the design can actually be traced back to one person, and that the Selbu star pattern is what most of us think of when we think of Norwegian motifs. Just goes to show that you never know the ultimate influence of one person's work. I chose Shetland lace as my second focus just because I LOVE knitting lace. It's pretty rare that I don't have at least one or two lace projects on the needles!

When I was perusing the message boards on the Ravelry TKGA group the other day, I ran across a post about revised instructions for Level III. Thankfully, the report section was unchanged. But I am requesting a new copy before I start my swatches. I can't believe that it's already been two years since I started this level! I must be getting old because time is just flying by and I can hardly keep up!

While I wait for the new instructions to arrive, I haven't been sitting around idle. I've warped the loom for a set of dishtowels just to get back in the groove. To save a little time, I ordered a kit from Lotsaknots through their Etsy shop. The warp looks great, but I would have rather the weft not be prewound on paper bobbins. I'm having to rewind them because they don't fit in my shuttle. When these are finished, I need to get the loom set up for a prayer shawl for our April retreat, then I want to warp for more dishtowels. These are planned to be Christmas gifts this year. We'll see. I'm already seeing my typical pattern of overcommitment.

On My Way to the Masters

2011-02-05T07:49:00.003-06:00

I started the process of getting my certification in 1999 and am down to the final level of TKGA's Master Knitting Program. Thankfully, it's a self-guided program without a time limit. The caveat to that is that if you take more than a year, you have to send for a new set of instructions that may have changes. That one bit me in the butt on Level II. I had everything done except for the reports when I set it aside and went back to school. When I pulled it all out again, The Knitting Guild of America had become The Knitting Guild Association and the instructions had gone through major revisions! I ended up throwing out quite a bit of work and adding in some new requirements. But the real kicker was that the report requirements stayed the same, and it only took me a couple of evenings to do that part! I've learned my lesson about procrastination!

So now I'm working on Level III, and I'm doing the reports first! These are more involved and I can't just knock them out in a couple of evenings. I'm going to take advantage of this COLD weekend with no committments and get all the writing out of the way. My reward is that I then get to work on swatches. Still work, but at least it's knitting work. To help me keep my focus, I started a local support group within the Knit at Night Guild. There are about 10 of us and we plan to meet every other month to lend support, guidance, and motivation to finish. My goal is to have reports and swatches finished by the end of summer, and the designs completed and ready to begin knitting by the end of the year. It's kind of a long time table, but I have a lot of other things going on in my life and I just can't push them all aside. Spring is already full of knitting and spinning workshops, two weaving groups, and knitting for our new granddaughter who is due in May! Her first gift is going to be a beautiful little winter outfit in pink cashmere. The cap and booties are finished, just have to finish the dress. After two grandsons who absolutely will not wear anything but tshirts and polar fleece, I'm looking forward to being able to make some cute girly things.

I'm an Official Knitting Judge!

2011-02-05T07:29:00.003-06:00

As usual, it's been some time (months) since my last post. During that time, I've received my Knitting Judge Certification from TKGA. Now, instead of entering fairs, I can judge. The plan is to start small at our local county fairs and move up from there. One of the last things I had to do for the certification process was to plan, execute, and film an event. Everything went pretty smoothly, except for the fact that I didn't realize there are two speeds to the video camera - long play, and super long play. So it ended up running out of tape at 1 hr, instead of 2. Thankfully, I at least got in the required number of items to be judged, but I really wish Janet could have see the knitted shawls. Our guild really has some extraordinary knitters! Then I was so caught up in the video aspect, that I gave back all the critique sheets without saving a copy for my portfolio! More drama! I managed to retrieve all but 4 and was able to recreate those from the video. So now I'm thinking, yea! All I have left to do is get the video from cassette to cd. How hard can that be? I do have to thank my darling spouse for converting the tape to data on the computer, but it took us both to finally get it into dvd format. Who knew that there are cd's for music, and cd's for video. Live and learn.

I did finally get everything boxed up and mailed, and it's back with my official certificate. If you're a TKGA member, watch for my name in the summer issue of Cast On magazine!

Now it's time to get back to work and finish Level III (the final level) of TKGA's Master Knitting Program.

Felted Soap Class

2010-10-31T16:29:00.002-06:00

Yesterday the guild sponsored a class on making felted soaps with Lynn Williams of Lynn's Texas Fibers. We had a great time, and actually came up with some cute soaps to take home. This is a great gift idea with the holidays coming up and my aunt has already commissioned me to make some party favors for her! You just take a bar of soap, pat wet fiber around it, and decorate as desired. But there is a LOT of patting involved. Most of us had planned to hang around for the afternoon class, but were "patted out" by lunchtime! Below are the three soaps that I finished, and you can see more photos here.

After fortifying ourselves at BJ's Brewhouse, Roddie and I headed over to Sugarland Yarn Company since I hadn't been there before. Plus, they were having a big halloween "boo bag" sale. Not that that influenced us in any way! We were actually pretty good and resisted most of the impulse buys. I found some nice grey alpaca for a new cardigan to replace one that was unintentionally knitted in superwash yarn, which I hate. And I bought some really pretty yarn for a baby gift. All in all, a very fun and fibery day.

First Yarn from the Peacock

2010-10-31T16:19:00.002-06:00

Thanks to being able to spend a whole day spinning at WC Mercantile recently, I was able to finish my first yarn spun on my little Peacock wheel. It's a little rustic looking, but by the time I finished all 8oz of fiber, I was getting pretty comfortable. And I was able to treadle with either foot. The left was definitely more clumsy for a while. The fiber is handpainted BFL superwash (blue-faced leicester combed top). I bought it on my first trip to Yarnorama in Paige, TX. The colorway is called "Remembering Bozo". I thought it would make good mittens for the boys, but the red blended a lot with the white so it's kinda girly. So now I don't know what I'll do with it. I forgot to take photos of the fiber before I started, but here's the finished product.

Cotton Sampler Finished!

2010-09-21T18:25:00.002-06:00

Since I had a couple of unplanned days off, I managed to finish up the cotton sampler I started during Ravelry's Tour de Fleece. The main objective was to weave a scarf using singles spun from my home-grown cotton on the Bosworth book charkha. When I started, I was not very encouraged that I would ever get this project off the loom! I was throwing away as much, if not more, cotton than I was spinning. The charkha definitely had a BIG learning curve! I'm normally pretty confident in my spinning, but this was a real challenge. After a lesson from Susan at Yarnorama in Paige, I was finally getting the hang of it with only a little waste. As I neared the end, I could spin and weave an entire bobbin in an afternoon. The singles are pretty "rustic" (ie, thick and thin) but they make for an interesting scarf. At least that's what it is for the moment. I may cut it up and make coasters out of it.

In the photos below, the navy warp really sets off the colored cotton. The white came from seeds that I got when doing a spinning demo at the Burton Cotton Gin Festival. The brown seeds came from my friend Carolyn. And the green seeds I bought online for the exorbitant price of $12.75 for 10 seeds!

Kay's "Yarn Shop"

2010-09-19T18:03:00.003-06:00

Despite the crummy wet weather today, I had a wonderful time with friends Roddie and Kay at her house in the middle of the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. I thought for a moment that I probably should have taken the truck, but the dingy made it just fine. Kay has a great craft room set-up over the garage with loads of room for her yarn and knitting machines. The funny thing about yarn is its ability to multiply. It kind of expands to fill every nook and cranny no matter how large the space. That's why mine is currently contained by a storage unit!

While there, Roddie and I got to take one of the knitting machines for a spin. This would be a real timesaver for those boring stretches of stockinette. Kay is able to make them knit some beautiful fair isle and lace, but I don't think I'm ready to dive into more equipment - yet.

While down there, we had lunch at the Marlin Marina. Great burgers and fantastic homemade potato chips!! It was definitely worth blowing my diet! I don't think any of us left a single crumb.

Debooted

2010-08-10T16:29:00.002-06:00

Woo-hoo! The podiatrist cleared me to ditch the big boot in favor of my running shoes! August is not a good time to have a big chunk of foam and plastic stuck on the bottom of your leg. So I get a two week trial, then x-ray, then hopefully all done. I can hardly wait to get back to my weaving project!

Phat Fiber Workshop

2010-08-08T08:54:00.004-06:00

Spent a great Saturday at WC Mercantile taking a workshop by Phat Fiber on how to set up an online etsy shop. Jessie was so thorough, and really encouraging to all of us fledgling entrepreneurs. I came home with a binder full of suggestions and pitfalls to avoid. So now that our house is getting a little more orderly, it's time to buckle down,get the ball rolling, and start working on baskets!

Tour Update

2010-08-06T17:22:00.004-06:00

I was cruising along in the Tour de Fleece and actually getting a lot of spinning done, despite a sore toe. I also warped the loom with some navy 10/2 cotton and started weaving the cotton I had spun on the charkha. When about 75% of the way through spinning the merino/tence roving, I found out that my sore toe was actually a stress fracture. So I was booted by the dr. and my spinning and weaving came to a sudden halt. Here are the last photos of where I ended up, well short of my original goal.

">
As you can see, I managed to weave one bobbin of white, and was almost through a brown bobbin. That gave me one empty bobbin to refill. And since the charkha is hand-driven, I can spin on that. Guess I need to order more bobbins. There's always something I need...

">
This is about 75% of the orange, and I still have all of the brown left to do. When I get through, I'm going to ply all three colors together.

I did have one nice thing happen though. At the end of the Tour, I won a prize in the Team Lendrum drawing - 4oz. of beautiful hand-dyed BFL roving from Playing With Fiber. Now I just have to wait until the 10th to find out if I've healed well enough to lose the boot.

Tour de Fleece 2010

2010-07-09T21:07:00.003-06:00

Joined a big group of spinners on Ravelry with the goal of getting as much spinning as possible done during the Tour de France. So far it's going pretty well, but I'm kinda having knitting withdrawal. I've really got the bug to start something lacy after a long hiatus. Just going to have to wait. My projects for the TdF are to spin 12oz of merino/tencel on the Lendrum into a 3-ply fingering weight yarn for a yet to be determined project; spin enough white, green, and brown cotton to weave a simple scarf; and to finish dehairing the qiviut. Today is day 7, and I've posted some photos of my progress below.

The honey bobbin is finished, and just getting started on the rust. Sure has a beautiful sheen!

3 bobbins filled on the Bosworth book charkha. I'm going to have to do something nice for Susan at Yarnorama for getting me started.

Bought this beautiful walnut shuttle from Jonathan Bosworth of Journey Wheels that holds the charkha bobbins. Woo-hoo! No winding off! Just pop it in and start weaving!

Photo showing the 3 cottons I grew for this project

Ahhh! Luxury! Can hardly wait to get through cleaning this so I can start spinning!

It's Charkha Time!

2010-07-03T15:06:00.004-06:00

On our way from Austin to Lexington yesterday, I talked James into stopping at Yarnorama in Paige so that I could look at weaving yarns for some dish towels. What a great little shop! Knitting, spinning, weaving, dyeing - Susan has it all. We got to talking a bit about spinning wheels and I mentioned that I had bought a Bosworth charkha, but just couldn't seem to get the hang of spinning on it. And plying had been a total disaster. So she pulled hers out, and in about 5 minutes I was ready to rush home and give it another try. She also showed me a weaving shuttle that holds the charkha bobbins, so I can just use my singles to weave and there's no need to transfer them to another bobbin or ply (unless I just want to - not!). Woo-hoo! So guess what I'm going to be doing this weekend!

Felting Workshop with Pamela MacGregor

2009-10-24T21:10:00.004-06:00

What a reenergizing month this has been. I had been feeling kinda stale and uninspired, but a couple of great workshops have the creative juices flowing again. Today was spent learning to felt with Pamela MacGregor. Be sure to check out her website as she does some really amazing work. Linda Woodward hosted the workshop at Montgomery College in Conroe. Linda is a woman after my own heart and always seems to find some of the most interesting people to come share their knowledge with us. This was my first attempt at actual felting. Many people do not discriminate between fulling and felting. Agitating loosely knitted or woven fabric creates a similar dense fabric, but you can still see the structure of the stitches or threads. Felting is the process of matting, pressing, and condensing fibers to create a dense fabric. You have much more control over the shape, size, and density with felting. Our project today was to create a felted vessel. I had no idea just how much energy is involved in getting the fibers to mat together! We spent the morning laying out, wetting, and pressing the fibers on a form, then embellishing it with yarns, cloth, and pebbles to create a design.

Front of vessel before felting

Back of vessel before felting

After some yummy Chinese food for lunch, we came back fortified and ready to work. You can't imagine how much rubbing, scrubbing, and pounding it takes to get the process going! Mine could still use more work to get it a bit denser, but I'm ok with it as is and just have to add the beads to finish it off tomorrow. Not bad for a beginner! My only disappointment is that the little pebbles disappeared into the white felt.

Front of almost finished vessel

Back of vessel

SEX in Colorado (Stash Enhancement eXcursion)

2009-10-20T18:39:00.006-06:00

No knitting vacation is complete without exploring as many of the local yarn shops as possible. And for only having a couple of free days, we did pretty well! While we were at camp, the group made its way to Table Rock Llamas. This was probably our favorite shop of the week. The had a good assortment of the usual yarns, but also lots of handspun, hand dyed, rovings, books, spinning and weaving accessories. Since I was planning to spread my purchases around, I only came home with some dark brown/black handspun alpaca yarn for a warm hat and scarf, and 4 oz. of merino/possum roving. This is the kind of shop that you would love to have nearby. The staff is friendly and they have great classroom spaces. And yes, I know I could have spun the alpaca myself, but it was asking to come home with me.

We left camp on Thursday morning and after sightseeing and a short hike in Garden of the Gods, we hit the Colorado Springs yarn stores.

Our first stop was Needleworks by Holly Berry. Cute shop, friendly staff, good selection. We came out with needles to try Magic Loop, and a couple of patterns. Down the street, we found Green Valley Weavers. Not a huge selection of yarns, but great books. I found three weaving books that I had been looking at online, but hadn't ordered. They carry a lot of supplies for knitting, spinning, weaving, and dyeing. And once again, very friendly.

On Friday, we took the cog railway up Pikes Peak where it was 22 degrees at the top! Since we booked our trip so early, we had front row seats on the train with a great view all the way up. Once at the summit, we had to pose for the usual tourist shot in front of the sign. That's Roddie and I with our Knitter's Magazine so we could send the shot into the magazine for our 5 seconds of fame.

Since our flight home didn't leave until 7pm Saturday, we had all day to shop our way back to the airport. We started in Boulder at Gypsy Wools. This is a wonderful little shop specializing in their own hand dyed yarns and fiber. The perfect place to find something special. We only had limited space left in our luggage, so I only bought some laceweight yarn for a shawl to do as a reminder of our trip.

And no trip to Boulder is complete without visiting Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins. They are one of the largest shops we visited, but we were kind of disappointed in the selection this time. Maybe we were just on shop overload, but they really didn't stand out except for size. The only thing I got was some merino roving for a workshop this next weekend since I didn't have time to shop at home. We did find a great brew pub next door that had some tasty nachos and interesting beer. The raspberry wheat was something I had never tried - pink and yum!

After fortifications, we were off to Denver. First stop was Knit Knack in Arvada. Cute shop in a quaint little shopping district. We found some unusual accessories, and they had their own coffee bar. Definitely a place to hang out and knit! From there we stopped at Recycled Lamb. This place was the surprise of the trip. Located in a not so pretty strip center, they had a great selection of knitting and weaving yarns. The staff was friendly and showed me a beautiful handpainted warp that I brought home to do a big scarf. There were groups of knitters in two areas and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

The colors are deceiving. In person, they aren't quite so vivid. And the tencel for the weft is not so orange.

By now, we're starting to watch the clock since we still have to turn in our rent car. But we move on to Shower of Flowers. This is a huge shop with a fantastic selection. Something about it seems a bit impersonal, but if you need one of the major brand name yarns, they probably have it in every colorway. And they had the best selection of buttons of any of the shops we visited. Our last stop was The Lamb Shoppe. This shop was in a nice older neighborhood, but it was a zoo inside. When we walked in, no one greeted us, there was a large very noisy group knitting at a large table. There were boxes and messy skeins of yarn everywhere. Don't be deceived by the picture on their website. It really had the potential of being a beautiful shop, but we just turned around and walked back out.

So that's it. Nine yarn shops, and only one dud in the bunch. Can hardly wait for the next trip!

CONK 2009

2009-10-20T16:58:00.005-06:00

Just back from a great week in Colorado Springs for CONK 2009 (Colorado Knitting Camp). We had 3 days at The Hideaway with our instructor Susanna Hansson www.oneofsusannas.com learning all about Rovaniemi mittens.

I had never heard of them, but am always up for a challenge. And challenging it was! We started off doing a sample in worsted weight yarn to get a feel for the patterning, then it was time to dive into our wristlet samples with fingering weight yarn on 000 double points! Susanna provided all the supplies and we were all able to make our own color choices for the wristlets. The big surprise was when virtually everyone disliked their choice after getting the first one started. That led to a 3 hour exercise in choosing colors and designing the color placement.

Roddie's sample is bottom left, mine is bottom middle.

After making my second choice, I spent about an hour coloring in the charts for the final mitten, only to decide that I still had one bad color in my palette. Once that was fixed it didn't take long to color in three more charts and choosing the best one.

Now I just need to make the time to finish designing my mittens. While at camp, I worked on completing the wristlets to see if my tension was going to change as I became more comfortable. So now wristlets are finished. My tension has stabilized. And I'm going to have to go down to 0000 needles! Yikes!

My wristlet samples. (the ends haven't been woven in or blocked yet on the right one)

Our mitten class. That's Susanna between Roddie and me.

Our view of Pikes Peak from the patio.

Shopping with the Girls

2009-09-06T16:04:00.002-06:00

Yesterday a bunch of us met up at Heritage Park in Katy for a small craft sale that they host in one of the historic houses on the first Saturday of the month. Our main reason for being there was to check out the yarn by Mama Llama. Catherine Kerth is a member of our local knitting guild and has come out with a beautiful line of hand dyed yarns. It was a tough decision, but I finally settled on two - Super Ewe in the "Bom Dia" and "Berkley" colorways.

Sharing the porch with Catherine was Marissa Vitolo who specialized in ceramics and fused glass. I picked up a lovely green pitcher and plate.

Inside the house, ARTeach sells items handmade by people participating in their program. ARTeach brings art-related programs and services to the underpriviledged including children at risk, troubled youth, special need children and adults, and the elderly. Lots of great gift ideas at very reasonable prices! Here I bought a really cute string of stuffed calico birds with beads.

After lunch, Roddie and I stopped at Serendipity hap'ez on the way out. If you happen to be out in Katy, they're having a great sale at the moment and we did our part to help them out.

All in all, a great way to spend a Saturday!

Three Little Pigs

2009-09-06T15:53:00.002-06:00

Finished the baby gift just in time for the shower this week! I had been wanting to make this for years, but everyone kept having summer babies, or I didn't have enough notice to get it done. I don't do much fair isle knitting because it's such a pain weaving in all the ends, and since this was done in superwash, I had to be extra vigilant that everything was tied down. The pattern was written to be knitted in pieces, but I did it in the round which saved some finishing work, but sure got confusing at times. The other problem was finding one brand of yarn, suitable for baby wear, that also came in all the colors I needed. Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply fit the bill, but I still needed a dark pink. I bought an extra ball of cream, came up with an approximate color formula using a dye mixing program on the computer, mixed up a batch, and it worked the first time. Will wonders never cease! In retrospect I would have preferred it to be slightly lighter, but not enough to do another dye run. So without further adieu, here are the particulars and photos.

Pattern: #24 Fair-isle frog-suit from Pingouin booklet Autumn/Winter 95-96
Yarn: Debbie Bliss "Rialto 4ply"
Needles: US 2 and 3

Advancing Twills Study

2009-08-30T17:40:00.002-06:00

I finally finished the hems on my placemats from the Advancing Twills study. So proud was I, thinking to myself, "these don't look bad for a beginning weaver". Time for pictures. I start laying them out trying to figure out which one was which. Lo and behold, I did the treadling wrong on #3 and it turned out looking just like #2! ARRGGGH!! Don't ask me how I managed that, but I did. Oh well, it was a learning experience after all and I was wanting to make another set that were about 2" wider. Not that it's going to happen anytime soon, but I do have enough supplies to accomplish it. So without further adieu, here are photos of the finished project.

Spinning Flax on a Drop Spindle

2009-08-30T17:38:00.000-06:00

Since we weren't able to start warping the big loom for our next weaving guild project, Clarice gave us a great demo on spinning flax. One of our members had received some free unidentified fiber when she bought her spinning wheel. Just in looking at it, I thought it was probably flax. So we did a burn test to really find out what it was. Clarice grabbed some water, a spindle, and showed us how to load the distaff (the thing that holds the fiber for you). She made it look much simpler than I have heard from others. It's not the nicest feeling stuff in your hands, so I'll probably stick to wool! Below is the slideshow that I couldn't get in this post.

2009-08-30T17:36:00.001-06:00

My little cotton patch

2009-08-29T13:09:00.004-06:00

I'm finally starting to get come cotton from my little backyard plot! And green is coming in first. It got rained on, so it's a little matted looking. I was hoping it would be all green, but the outside is definitely on the brownish side. Which makes me wonder if it's going to be colorfast, or if it's going to fade with time. I guess I'll take some samples and put on a window sill to see what happens. My two plants are covered with bolls, so I should get enough this summer to start spinning. The plan is to make a 3-ply yarn in green, brown, and white. I bought a charkha for cotton spinning, but I'm not proficient enough yet to take a chance on wasting any of the colored cotton. So I'll be doing all the spinning on the Lendrum with the very fast flyer. In my spare time. Ha-ha!!

edited 8/30/2009 to add photo showing white and green cotton for contrast.

Finished Baskets

2009-08-09T21:10:00.002-06:00

After many distractions in July, I'm finally getting around to posting pics of the finished baskets. The wine basket is always a good gift, but I wasn't too sure how the big urn was going to turn out. Overall, I'm happy with it. But it was a pain working with so many pieces of such long pieces of small reed.

Now I'm looking forward to picking Riley up this weekend for a week-long visit. He's bringing his motorcycle, so I'm sure he and James will be spending a lot of time at the track with that and the carts. We don't really have a lot of stuff planned, so we'll just do whatever he wants. Isn't that they way it's supposed to work?

Weaving Weekend!

2009-07-04T07:29:00.002-06:00

A long 3-day weekend, and no chores! Priceless! So yesterday I started the "Double Chief's Daughter Urn" from The Ultimate Basket Book by Lyn Siler. So far it's looking ok, but it sure is hard to work with all this thin reed! This may be gifted if it turns out symmetrical. It's is pretty difficult to control the shape. We'll see.

I've also finished rethreading and resleying the loom, and have started the first placemat again. The weaving definitly shows some beginner weaver errors, but the selvedges are nice and the threading is correct. By the time I get to the end of this 5-yard warp, my weaving should improve tremendously!

This is the first placemat in progress.

The advancing twills saga continues...

2009-07-01T20:25:00.002-06:00

I had the 20/2 linen for the weft in my stash, and ordered navy 10/2 cotton for the warp so that I can do this project on my loom at home. So by last Sunday I have the loom warped and ready to go. I sit down, start weaving, and a glaring threading error appears. In retrospect, I thought it was odd that I didn't have a couple of threads left over as I was warping (I threw in a couple extra in case I miscounted). But I marched blindly along without checking my work. You know the old adage, "measure twice, cut once". Well it applies to weaving too.

So there was nothing to do at this point but cut it off, pull everything out, and rethread and resley the loom. Six miserable hours later, I was back at the point I was at when the weekend started. But hey, I learned another hard lesson. And I've got a three day weekend coming up and plan to spend it weaving. I do really like the hand of the fabric and am looking forward to seeing all the patterns reveal themselves. There should be enough warp for 4 placemats and a table runner. But I may use the table runner yardage for a cushion on Gran's old rocker. Wish me luck, and hopefully it will be a productive weekend!

What doesn't kill me will make me stronger...

2009-06-07T09:34:00.003-06:00

The Bay Area Spinners and Weavers are doing a study in advancing twills. I love twills, so this is the perfect project for me. They are providing all the looms and materials, so this should be a snap. Just follow the instructions. Right? Wrong!

When I arrived, I had to untie and retie the treadles on the small 8-shaft loom. That took about an hour, but I learned something new since my loom only has 4-shafts and you do all the combinations with your feet. Now it's time to start weaving. Yea! The weft is a beautiful slubby linen and I'm using an end feed shuttle. The first throw comes to a screeching halt. The little slubs are catching on the tensioner and making my selveges pull in like crazy. Arrggh! And the skinny treadles are hurting my feet. And since the sides are pulling in, I can't beat the weft in completely. What a mess! Then I notice a broken warp thread. Our instructor comes in to help and decides that the warp was sleyed too wide and is causing part of the problems. So she cuts off what I've struggled to do and I move over to the 4-shaft loom. After I go get something to eat and chill out for a while.

So I come back, fed and happy and ready to start again. This should be a snap. I'm weaving on a loom that's almost exactly like mine. So I'm going along and get almost to the end of the first pattern when I notice 3 broken warp threads on the right side. Our instructor fixes them and I continue. Two more throws then 3 more broken threads. Being the optimist that I am, I take this as my opportunity to learn to tie a weavers knot and repair broken warp threads. So we practice with a small rope until I get it down pat, and I move back to the loom. I tie a knot, and snap! It breaks again when I snug it down. So I try again, and again, and again... Now I'm getting frustrated again. I see the cone of warp thread sitting by the loom. I wind off a piece and pull. It snaps in two with hardly any force at all. Ah-ha! This loom is warped with weak thread. I give. Weaving gods - 2, Theresa - 0.

Although I didn't get any actual project finished, I did learn a lot today.
- Never assume that someone else has set up your work properly.
- Check tension frequently on loom and shuttle
- Always use good quality yarns for your warp since it has to hold up to strong tensioning and frequent abrasion.
- I can now tie up treadles on a 8-shaft loom.
- I tie a mean weaver's knot.
- I finally really understand how to read a pattern draft.

Since I have yarn here at home to do this study, I'm just going to warp my loom and do it here. I need the warping practice anyway...

Tencel Scarf Project

2009-06-07T08:50:00.004-06:00

Just finished the prototype for the shawl I want to weave. When the Lone Star Loom Room closed it's storefront, I bought some 10/2 Tencel in a beautiful lilac. I had knitted with Tencel before and it has a wonderful drape, so I thought it would make a really nice scarf. And I was so right! Here are the specs and pictures:

Project: Scarf
Materials: Warp and Weft - 10/2 Tencel (Lilac)
Pattern: 2/2 horizontal herringbone twill (p.34 of Handweaver's Pattern Directory)
Dimensions on loom: 11 3/8" x 72"
Dimensions after finishing (not including fringe): 10" x 68"

I'm learning a lot with each project, mostly things not to do or things that could be done easier in a different manner. I'll be glad when all those things are burned into my brain and projects will move along faster. This was my first attempt at warping from back to front. I thought for a while that it was going to go in the trash, but thankfully, it straightened itself out. And James was home so I had an extra set of hands for tensioning. Overall, it was slow going because I'd read a little and do a little, check my work, and do some more. But the end product certainly justified the time. I wish you could feel through the screen. This stuff is soooo soft!

Gimme a Little Grin.

2009-02-25T22:09:00.002-06:00

It was a momentous Valentine's Day 2009. Not only did I get candy, flowers, and champagne, but also pics of Riley's first missing tooth. It had been loose for a while, but he wouldn't let anyone mess with it. Then while out running errands that day, he handed it over to mom from the back seat with the comment, "Here, hold this for me." So how he's working on getting a second one out. I can still remember my grandpa pulling all of our teeth. Although we did try the string on a doorknob, we never could get it to work. And I could never pull my own tooth! Thank goodness for grandpas.

Go Fish!

2009-02-25T21:57:00.003-06:00

It's been a while since I posted, but here's one of the things I've finished lately. This was one of the most popular patterns on Ravelry in January, and when I saw it, I just knew that I had to make it for Riley and Tucker. For you non-knitters out there, Ravelry is like Facebook for knitters with 298,877 members! Anyway, the pattern is called "Fish Hat [Dead or Alive?]". I knitted these in acrylic so they'd be washable and stand up to the wear and tear that two boys could dish out. I call my version "Rainbow Trout".

And this is Riley modeling his hat.

Highland Triangle Square

2009-01-05T21:55:00.002-06:00

Finally finished the endless baby blanket for a very good friend who finally got pregnant. I decided on Cheryl Oberle's "Highland Triangle" from the book Folk Shawls, but I wanted to make it into a square. Surprisingly for me, it was a simple task. Just do corners instead of ends. I'm very pleased with the result, but if I were to do it over again, I'd do two more repeats of the last edging on the corners. And it actually went pretty fast (3 months). Here are the stats, along with a couple of pictures.

Highland Triangle
Designer: Cheryl Oberle
Yarn: Snuggly DK
Quantity: 10 balls
Needles: US 6

There Goes the Neighborhood!

2009-01-05T21:43:00.002-06:00

We live in one of those guard gated communities, so imagine my surprise to see this in the driveway three houses down! I'll bet they have a lot of fun driving around town!

We were packing up the car to go to DH's family Christmas celebration when we saw the big chicken. I have to admit that their family thing has turned into a lot of fun now that all the kids are grown, the gift exchange has been abandoned, and we just eat and play games all day. Although, I haven't figured out if it's the "Apples to Apples" game, or the fact that every one brings a sampling of beer and we have a tasting that lasts all afternoon that makes it such a good time. Probably a combination of the two. We really lucked out this year with the weather (all the fun happens outside). It was warm enough for shorts this year, and no rain! We need to do this more often. Below is a photo of all the brothers. Guess which one is mine. (Hint: My mom says he's never going to grow up.)

We say Merry Christmas!

2008-12-21T19:25:00.002-06:00

I've had a wonderful December leading up to Christmas. Instead of exchanging gifts this year, we've adopted a family and bought for them. I've always done the usual small things for people each year, but I have to say that this was so much fun. If your family is like ours, we buy for ourselves everything we want. So when it comes time to buy gifts for each other, it's incredibly challenging to come up with ideas. The only hard part of buying for someone who has nothing, is knowing when to stop. We concentrated mostly on clothing and shoes, and a camera for the mom. The people who are delivering the items are also cooking a meal for them, so it sounds like the family will have a wonderful Christmas.

So if you're feeling like a Scrooge this year, find a way to pay it forward. It seems like the more I give, the more I get back.

wii are rockin' out!

2008-12-21T19:13:00.003-06:00

Along with the wii fit, we bought Rock Band and my formerly unmusical husband is totally obsessed! We play for an hour or two almost every night. Originally, I was going to be the guitar to his drums, but roles were quickly reversed when he realized how challenging the drums would be. It's been a lot of fun and we're actually getting pretty good. I just wish there were other genres of music available. I had to laugh when I saw the wii commercial where the kids are sitting bored on the couch while dad rocks out. I'll bet there are a lot of grammas and grandpas who are playing Rock Band on the sly. After all, we did grow up in the sixties. The wierd thing is that Bailey seems to love rock music. She gets all excited when we get the instruments out, the promptly falls asleep in the middle of everything. Strange dog!

Busy November

2008-12-21T19:04:00.002-06:00

November has come and gone, but not without some big changes. I finally got my transfer to a facility that's only 3.5 miles from home. Woo-hoo! It's brand new and the administrator is very customer service oriented. They run this place like a hotel, and don't tolerate anything that might come off as unprofessional. Which includes a total ban on employee cell phones withing the facility. Several people have already been fired for texting when they were in public areas. And although it's inconvenient, I have to admit that I totally approve. Nothing irritates me more that someone messing with their cell phone when they should be paying attention to the residents! So rude!

The kids were here for Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful time visiting with them. James and I bought ourselves a wii and wii fit for an early Christmas present, and we all played the entire weekend. It took the grownups a couple of days to beat Riley (age 5) in bowling. He is incredibly coordinated! While he was waiting on us to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner, he drew me a picture.

On the left is a turkey. On the right is turkey pie. What an artist!

Ike Update

2008-12-21T19:00:00.002-06:00

Well, it's now been almost 3 months and we're just getting repairs done. The fence was finished on Friday, shingles delivered on Saturday, and the roofers will be here next Monday after Christmas. We've been waiting on getting the roof fixed before we do any of the sheetrock repairs just in case we get more water damage for any reason. And although it's taken a while, I'm just thankful to have a home (and a job). I've met so many people who lost everything. We were very lucky.

Yikes! Ike!

2008-09-24T17:20:00.003-06:00

We made it through the hurricane with only minor damage compared to our neighbors in Galveston and the surrounding areas. We lost part of our fence, some shingles, and will have to repair a piece of sheetrock which got soaked when water came in a loose water heater roof vent. We were pretty well prepared, so we had generator power for the refrigerator, freezer, fans, television, and cell phone chargers. Plus we had gas water heaters and cooktop, and a well-stocked bar. That at least made the power outage a little more tolerable. Our power came back on the evening of day 4, but we just got cable and internet service yesterday (day 12). If I ever have to watch "Two and a Half Men" again, it will be too soon! I'm addicted to cable tv and email!

On the knitting front, I got a LOT done! Finished a pair of socks and started a baby shawl. It usually takes me months to do two socks since I only get to work on them in my spare time. Didn't do any spinning due to the sweat factor. It is incredibly difficult to spin wool with damp hands. No fun at all! And having all those little fibery bits falling on you. Yuk!

I took a few hurricane pictures on my phone, but the usb cable isn't working and I can't download them at the moment. Here is a picture of the finished socks though. This was a fun pattern to knit (if you don't mind short rows), and I like the finished look. They gave me some good ideas for dyeing yarn, so I'll probably do a couple more pair eventually. BTW, I love the Tofutsies yarn. It comes in great colorways and there is enough in one ball for even large feet.

Rainbow Socks
Designer: Susanne Kitzmann
Free Pattern: from Strickanleitungen
Yarn: Tofutsies (1 ball)
Needles: US 1

The summer of finishing is finished

2008-09-05T16:05:00.002-06:00

September has begun and my summer dedicated to finishing projects is done. It's been a fairly productive couple of months and I am SO ready to get started on some new things. And I don't even have to feel guilty about it! So here's the run down on what I got done...

VICTORIA SHAWL
Designer: Jane Sowerby in Victorian Lace Today
US 3 / 3.25 mm
Yarn: Jojoland Harmony
How much? 2 skeins = 1760.0 yards (1609.3m)

BRANCHING OUT SCARF
Designer: Susan Lawrence for knitty.com
Needle: US 4 / 3.5 mm
Yarn: Jojoland Cashmere (2 ply)
How much? 1 skeins = 400.0 yards (365.8m)

AMBROSIA SOCKS
Designer: Ann Budd for Knitting Daily
Needle: US 1 / 2.25 mm & US 2 / 2.75 mm
Yarn: Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino (I think)
How much? approx. 350.0 yards (320.0m)

BABY BERET
Designer: Debby Ware
Needle: US 3 / 3.25 mm
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic

So now I have a very manageable list of unfinished objects (UFO's), I started a new pair of socks while watching the Republican Convention (sock it to 'em Sarah!), and found out today that a friend who has been trying to get pregnant for years finally did it. Sunday I'm off to Yarns 2 Ewe to look for baby yarn. I already have a project picked out - an adorable romper from an old Pengouin pattern booklet. I started it once before, but my fair isle skills have improved significantly since then and I want to change the colors up a bit.

Riley's 1st week away from home

2008-08-24T16:07:00.003-06:00

All of us survived Riley's first whole week away from mom and dad. And in spite of the rain, we managed to get a lot done! We started the week at Moody Gardens in Galveston. The aquarium pyramid and rainforest pyramid got rave reviews from everyone. Riley's favorite animals were the sharks and the blue parrots. He even managed to get the parrot to talk a little bit.

After wandering through all the pyrimids and seeing the IMAX show on sea animals, we headed back to the hotel for a swim before dinner and the last shark Imax show. After pestering us all day to go to the pool, it took some coaxing from grandpa to actually get Riley in the water. But after a bit, he was splashing around with the rest of the kids. Maybe next year we'll get him swimming.

At one point during the day, Riley took this photo of gramma and grandpa. I had to laugh when I finally saw it because it looks the way the day actually felt - like a whirlwind!

On Wednesday and Thursday, the guys headed to MSR Houston to test out the carts. This was more up Riley's alley and he had a great time! Is his own cart in the future? We'll see...

On Friday, we found some pint-sized golf clubs, climbed in the golf cart, and headed out to see how they played. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera and Riley was not about to let me waste any time to go back and get it. Maybe next time. He was able to hit the ball about 30 yards with the driver and 7-iron. We're still working on etiquette on the green. Trying to get this kid to slow down long enough to aim was a challenge! He took the clubs home with him so dad can help him before our next outing. Unfortunately, we had to head home on Saturday so he could settle in a little bit before kindergarten and soccer practice start on Monday. Next summer, we'll have to plan for more time. As always, there's just too much to do.

Ravelympics comes to a close

2008-08-24T15:30:00.002-06:00

It's been a grueling couple of weeks, but I've managed to finish up quite a few projects that had been sitting around for a while. I always look forward to the Olympics because it's a good excuse to sit and knit for hours at a stretch. This year, Ravelry sponsored their own "Ravelympics" and I joined the "WIP Wrestling" team. Here are pics of the projects I managed to finish...

Victoria Shawl
from "Victorian Lace Today"
Yarn: Jojoland Harmony
Yardage: about 1760 yds.
Needles: US 3

Baby Beret
by Debby Ware
Yarn: Tahki Cotton
Yardage: unknown
Needles: US 3

Branching Out Scarf
by Susan Lawrence on knitty.com
Yarn: Jojoland Cashmere
Yardage: less than 1 ball
Needles: US 3

Ambrosia Socks
by Ann Budd
Yarn: Koigu merino
Yardage: about 350 yards
Needles: US 1 for foot, US 2 for leg

Forest Path Stole

2008-07-29T19:18:00.003-06:00

My "summer of finishing" just keeps rolling along. This week I've finished the Forest Path Stole from the Summer 2003 issue of Interweave Knits. When I started this pattern back in 2004, it was a big struggle. It is a lace, entrelac pattern which was exceedingly hard to keep up with as a fairly new lace knitter. So it often languished in my knitting basket as other less challenging projects intervened. But suddenly, when I decided to dive in and finish it this summer, it was amazingly simple. It's like a light bulb went on. Just goes to show what experience will do for you. I am so thrilled to have this to wear this winter! Nothing like cashmere to make a girl feel good. Here are the specs:

Pattern: Forest Path Stole
Designer: Faina M. Letoutchaia
Published: Summer 2003 Interweave Knits
Finished size: 32" x 88"
Yarn: Cashmere America 2 ply 100% Cashmere
Yardage: ~2200 yds.

All this negative energy!

2008-07-29T19:00:00.002-06:00

Have you ever noticed how miserable, negative people are able to just suck the life out of everything around them? They seem to drag you in when you least expect it, and as much as you try and fight it, they just seem to drag you down deeper and deeper. While I was on the Nordic Track today and mulling over the events of the last few weeks, I suddenly realized that it's MY choice whether I get down in the muck, or just blow them off and go back to my happy existence. I have no idea why that is so hard to see sometimes, but it sure is nice when you break free of all that negativism and mean-spiritedness. What goes around, comes around. So let's spread a little caring.

The Bucket List

2008-07-13T08:08:00.001-06:00

I rejoined Netflix so I'll have some movies to watch as I finish knitting and spinning projects this summer. Can't start anything new until Sept. 1. So last week we watched "The Bucket List", which was much better than I had heard from reviews. But maybe it was because we're in their demographic. Ouch! Anyway, it got me thinking about my own bucket list and I'm going to start an official one. Mind you, this is going to be a fluid project with additions and deletions as my interests change. As I've been thinking about it though, I have learned that I don't really have any desire to do the usual cliche things, like skydive, and it centers heavily on travel. And I also learned that I've actually done a lot of things that would have been on the list. So here goes with what's left (in no particular order for now).

Have my own craft studio and maybe teach some classes
Take grandkids on a summer tour of the U.S.
Watch the July 4th fireworks in Washington D.C.
Take a raft trip through the Grand Canyon
See the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors, and the Forbidden City in China
Do a bike tour of New England in the fall
Take the train rides across Canada, and in Alaska to Denali
Volunteer at an elementary school
Do more spinning demo days

Check This Out!

2008-07-09T15:35:00.002-06:00

James' profile in the Continental Airlines inflight magazine came out this month. You can read the full article here. Sounds like a pretty fun retirement job! I hope I'm having that much fun when I finally get to retire...

Independence Day

2008-07-03T19:08:00.002-06:00

For anyone who doesn't know me, I am a therapist in a nursing home. On most Fridays (or whatever is the last day of the week), we do fun activities, skip exercise, etc. At the end of our sessions, we pick a different topic to discuss each week (usually pertaining to current events or holidays). Today we shared our experiences of Independence Day traditions. Oh sure, we got a lot of picnics, parades, hot dogs, apple pie, etc. But I want to share the most unusual story I've ever heard.

"All year long, Uncle Dub saved all the bits of string that he came across and wound them into a ball. By July 3rd, this ball was about the size of a basketball. On the day before the Independence Day celebrations, he soaked this big ball of string in kerosene. Then as night approached on July 4th, family and friends gathered in the pasture, the ball was set on fire, and everyone (kids included) played hot potato until it went out." According to our storyteller, kerosene doesn't burn very hot. So if you catch and throw quick enough, you don't get burned.

Can you imagine what would happen if you tried something like this today? First off, poor old Uncle Dub and all the children's parents would be arrested for endangering their kids. If you are over 50, I'm sure that you can think of plenty of things that were commonplace when you were a child, that you'd get in major trouble for today. But somehow we lived through it. I'm not advocating taking your kids out to a pasture to play with a fire ball, but it just illustrates how times have changed.

Hope you all have a safe and fun July 4th with plenty of hot dogs, fireworks, watermelon, or whatever.

Lyra Finished!!!

2008-07-02T09:28:00.004-06:00

Last night I managed to finish binding off all but one repeat before I had to leave for a guild meeting. Then when I got home, we had had a lightning storm which knocked out power to the neighborhood! I stayed up as long as I could hoping that the power would come back on so I could finish, but finally had to give up. So this morning I got up and crocheted off the end, washed it, and Lyra is now on the floor blocking in my living room. I think it looks better than I expected. My plan was to use it as a topper over a white tablecloth, but the colors bled so bad during washing that I'm afraid to do that now. So I guess it will just be another shawl, even though I am not a big fan of round shawls - too bulky on my football shoulders. Here are the statistics for those of you who care:

Pattern: Lyra, by Herbert Niebling
Yarn: Heritage Yarns 8/2 Tencel in "Tallahatchee Bridge" colorway
Amount: Started with 8oz skein of approx. 1680 yds. Had 2oz left. Used approx. 1470 yds.
Needles: US 2 and 3
Blocked dimension: 60" diameter

Before pinning

After pinning (this is what makes lace knitting worth it)

My project for this summer is to finish some things that have been sitting for a while, so now it's on to the Forest Path Stole. I want to be able to wear that yummy cashmere this winter!

Merino Finished (finally!)

2008-06-18T16:43:00.002-06:00

This is the first yarn spun from fresh fleece that I actually finished spinning all of it. Does that make sense? I've bought several fleeces, but haven't managed to get all of any single one completely spun up. Until now! This fleece is a merino/romeldale cross that I bought from a lady in Montana. Unfortunately, all the contact info is on my old dead computer. Here is approx. 1800 yds of soft, springy, fingering wt. yarn. There was actually more, but I gifted some of it. Originally, I had carded the cleaned fiber, but it ended up full of neps. Those are tiny balls of fiber dispersed all through the batts of fiber, which if left in will eventually turn into pills onto finished knitwear. So about halfway through spinning, I bought some Indigo Hound 5-pitch combs and combed all the remaining batts to get the neps out. This created a lot of waste fiber, but it sure was easier to spin! So I learned a valuable lesson about merino - check carefully for second cuts, then comb, don't card. I have really been working hard to finish this because I'm dying to start on some beautiful alpaca that is calling my name. Now I don't have to feel guilty!

merino x romeldale handspun yarn

WWKIP Day - Houston, TX

2008-06-14T15:55:00.005-06:00

We had a good showing for World-Wide Knit in Public Day. The group of 80+ gathered at Northwest Mall to enjoy an afternoon of knitting with others who understand our addiction. There were lots of old friends from the Knit at Night Guild, as well as many from Ravelry. It was fun to put faces to some of the screen names that you see all the time. Hopefully this event will keep growing every year.

Here's our favorite shop baby, Abby, with mom, Wendy, owner of Yarns 2 Ewe.

Random shots of the crowd...

World-wide Knit in Public Day

2008-06-12T18:04:00.002-06:00

This Saturday, June 14th, is World-wide Knit in Public Day. The Houston event is being held at Northwest Mall from 1-4pm. Click the link to register and get more information. Looks like there is going to be a good turnout, especially among Ravelry members. You can register online until 11.59pm tonight (Thursday), or at the center of the mall on Saturday. So load up the knitting bag and we'll see you there!

Bye, Gran.

2008-06-08T07:41:00.003-06:00

Today marks the passing of a wonderful and amazing woman – my grandmother, Sophie Setliff. She was always the strongest and most resilient person I knew, and it’s hard to believe that she’s gone. I always felt like she would be here forever, or at least as long as I was. My grandmother was the person who passed on her creativity to me, and inspired me in all the fiberarts. She was a wonderful seamstress, making most of the dresses for me, my sister, my cousins, and all the Barbies when we were growing up. She also crocheted and quilted many beautiful pieces for our family and others. She loved her church and her friends. But most remarkable was that each of us felt like we were her “favorite” grandchild. You could ask any one of us who was the favorite, and we would have responded, “I am.” When you got to spend the week at granny’s house, you ruled the world. She made all your favorite foods, let you do whatever you liked, played all your favorite games, and made you feel like the center of her universe. If you wanted 9 potato pancakes, that’s just what you got. At holidays, we all got to have our favorite foods. I just hope that I can be such a wonderful grandmother to my grandchildren.

At 97, Sophie was ready to be with her husband again and to put this world behind her. She had had a whole and fulfilling life. We’ll miss you Gran, but are glad you are finally where you longed to be. Give Grandpa a kiss from me.

Love, Theresa

Honey Bees

2008-06-01T09:47:00.002-06:00

Not much to add today, and too busy trying to cram in a weeks worth of work into a weekend. But don't we all! I was just outside weeding one of my flowerbeds and noticed the bees swarming this magnolia blossom. They were rolling around in that bloom like nickel beer night at the Astrodome. Those of you under 50 probably won't remember that. Anyway, thought it was interesting and wanted to share.

Look ma, I'm weaving!

2008-05-26T20:01:00.006-06:00

Since I had a holiday from work, I took advantage of it and spent the day weaving my first project - a sampler. I was surprised at how fast it went! I had a 10' warp on the loom (see pics below), and started weaving about 9am. With breaks for lunch, occasional resting, and to cook dinner, I finished the weaving about 5pm. It took me several more hours to tie off all the fringe, weave in ends, and clean up my work area. I did the sample project in Deborah Chandler's book Learning to Weave. This is a great reference for anyone just starting out. I was able to figure out everything I needed, plus it has a lot of options that I'll try out in the future. I took lots of pics as I went and have added them to my photo album instead of taking up space here. But I do want to share one of the finished products. I had enough warp to do generous samples of the patterns, and some left over to make a placemat. After washing, I did learn that this yarn needs to have hemmed edges in the future. The fringe disintegrates in the washer. There was one mistake that the book said would probably correct itself with washing, but it didn't. I had threaded the reed with 2 threads/dent, but missed one. I didn't want to take everything apart and move everything over, so I just moved one thread making 2 dents with 1 thread each. It shows up as a loose space throughout the sampler. Oddly enough, it did fix itself on the 2x2 twill section. Probably because of the looseness of the pattern. Oh well, now I know to go ahead, bite the bullet, and fix any threading errors before starting. Here's a pic of the final product.

Placemat and Sampler

My 1st Placemat

Sample of rib weave for placemat

My First Warp

2008-05-25T19:26:00.002-06:00

Will add more description later, but here are pics of my first warp on the Ashford Table Loom. And it only took me one whole day!!

Warp chains hanging on front of loom

Halfway through sleying the reed

Threading the heddles

Finished warp - front view

Finished warp - rear view

Finished warp - side view

Take me out to the ball game

2008-05-24T19:54:00.004-06:00

Riley is playing tee ball, but they only have games on Monday's and Thursday's. Since I really have been needing some time off anyway, I decided to go up for one of the last games of the season. The Braves were playing the undefeated Phillys. Riley's team actually has some very good hitters, but no one can catch a ball or has any idea what to do with it once they do, and the coaching is almost non-existent. The Phillys, on the other hand, have a good pitcher and first baseman; and their coaching staff actually coaches. Needless to say, the Braves lost. But at 5 years old, none of them really care as long as they get some gum and a snack at the end. I love watching them though. Everybody kind of doing their own thing, looking around, waving to the crowd. Just having a good time. Actually that's what it's all about.

Riley did get a couple of good hits and made one run, so it was a successful game.

Tucker has the best seat in the house!

However, he doesn't stay there very long...

A musical interlude

2008-05-24T19:28:00.002-06:00

The last couple of weeks have been a blur, with hardly any knitting done at all. We've been swamped at work, plus I had my cello recital on the 17th. I was actually able to learn enough in 4 months to have a few pieces to play. Practice was going along pretty well and things were sounding ok a couple of weeks before the big day. Then I woke up with a sore back two days after the Mother's Day adventure, and got virtually no practice in that last week before recital. At one point my back hurt so bad, I could hardly get up and down, roll over in bed, or sit in a chair for very long. Thankfully I had a scheduled day off on Wednesday, and was able to get a massage which helped quite a bit. Then I was able to make it through Thursday and Friday at work. Then on Friday, as I went out to leave, the dog car broke down. So it's 95 degrees and humid, and I'm feeling pretty cranky at this point. Luckily, James was at the track and was able to come down and try to start it. He surmised that the engine wasn't getting any fuel, so we went back to the track to get a trailer to tow the car. Ended up getting home about 6pm. That took care of the good practice session I had planned, but I did run through things just to keep them in my head.

Saturday arrives, and the car that the cello rides in is DOA at the track so off I go with it riding in the passenger seat of the convertible. What a sight! All this time I've been telling myself that I'm not nervous, no one knows me anyway, they're only there to hear their kids, etc. But when the program starts, those knees start to knocking! I did manage to get on stage without incident, which was a blessing in itself. When we planned the order of my pieces, I decided to do the hardest one first. Originally it was because I didn't want to be tired when I got to that one. But it worked out well in other ways. It took that whole first piece for my nerves to settle down so I could breathe and steady my bow. Then the second piece and my duet with my teacher actually sounded pretty good. Ending on a good note kind of pushed the rocky start into the background. I thought I did pretty well for a beginner! Hopefully next year won't be so stressful! Sorry, no pics.

Mother's Day 2008

2008-05-24T19:01:00.003-06:00

Since the grandson's birthdays bracket Mother's Day, I decided to go up for the big party and take my own mom with me since she doesn't get to see them very often and it was a nice break for the two of us anyway. Seems like we just don't get much time to visit like we used to when we played golf all the time. So it was nice to have a 4 hour drive to catch up.

On the big day, our job was to entertain Riley while his mom and dad got things ready for the party at the park. So we started with a little basketball. How many kids can say that they shot hoops with their great-grandmother?!

After that, it was off to McDonald's for a quick lunch and a few minutes on the playground there. Riley is slowly expanding his diet to include a few more items besides chicken nuggets and macaroni & cheese, but not much. It's no wonder he's such a string bean.

Once we hit the park, from then on everything is a blur! They've got loads of cousins, plus Riley's class was invited too, so there were kids everywhere. Tucker was a little overwhelmed by all the chaos and was happiest just hanging out on the swings with mom.

After the pinata was broken and things were starting to wind down, someone snapped this shot of us, not too worse for wear. Unfortunately, I didn't get time to find mom. I never seem to be able to get everyone in a picture at the same time!

Finally we made it home and I managed to get one picture with the boys, but had to give them food to sit still for a few seconds. And once bath time was over we all crashed. It's exhausting just being around that many kids under 6!

After a mother's day breakfast near our hotel, mom and I headed for home on Sunday. Shelly deserved to have at least a little time for herself and to see her own mom without having to entertain us. Plus, as always, I've got work the next day. Since we made it back in the afternoon, we had time to stop by to wish Gran a Happy Mother's Day too. She's looking pretty good for 97!

Hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful weekend that involved no cooking or cleaning!

Thank goodness for muscle memory!

2008-04-26T15:10:00.002-06:00

Played in a golf tournament today for the first time in about 2 years. I knew it was coming up, but have been so busy that I didn't even get time to pick up a club to see if I could still hit the ball. We planned on getting to the course early to hit some range balls, but the weather wasn't exactly cooperative. It started raining about 2am and was still drizzly when we got there, then our team was running late, yada, yada. I hit 3 range balls before we teed off and almost broke my thumb I took such a divot with my 7 iron! Once we got on the course, that good old muscle memory kicked in and we managed to get around in 2 under par. Not bad! It's really funny how you can go for months (or years) without playing and the first time you go out, things just sort of fall into place. You don't play great, but you usually don't embarrass yourself either. But watch out the next time! All of a sudden your brain starts trying to think for itself and you aren't nearly as talented as you thought you were! In the end, the sun came out and we had a great time. And the only par 3 I hit was for "closest to the pin" (my ball was 3' from the cup), so I got a nice trophy (see pic below). The funny one next to it (the "Shirly Temple" award) was for shortest drive. I hit a long ball, but it was almost sideways and out of bounds.

Danger, danger, Will Robinson!

2008-04-25T17:10:00.002-06:00

Seedless Grape, don't let Martin see this!

The fiber tools are threatening to take over our den! Came home last Saturday with a new-to-me loom! It's a 24" Ashford 4-shaft table loom with stand. And she threw in lots of accessories! The perfect beginner loom, and it is portable enough that I'll be able to use it for future workshops and classes. Right now, all it's doing it sitting there waiting for me to get up the courage to try warping it. I've got 3 good books that explain multiple ways to accomplish this, but how does one decide which method to use? So I think the plan will be to try them all! I’ll start out with the most understandable one, then work my way through. By the time I get to the last one, maybe it will make sense. I’ve got three big cones of cotton, so I should be able to get quite a bit done. Maybe everyone will be receiving placemats for Christmas this year.

This is my side of the room. My chair is directly across so that I can see all my stuff when I'm knitting or watching tv. The more I accumulate, the more vivid my dream of my own studio after I retire.

The new loom!

Monica & Art's Wedding

2008-04-14T20:56:00.002-06:00

Saturday we drove down to Victoria for Monica and Art's wedding. Monica is my mom's husband's daughter, and so my step-sister. We've only known each other for a couple of years, and mostly just at holidays, but we just love her and Art both. They are a wonderful couple and just seem to belong together. The ceremony was held at the gazebo in the town square. As 2pm approached, the bride and her dad were driven up in a buckboard, waving at passersby on the street. She looked so wonderfully relaxed and happy, not the usual stressed out bride. I love going to weddings! They are always (well, most always) so romantic, and it's a nice reminder of your own vows. Always makes me happy to be married. I'm so sentimental. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the happy couple, and the few people we knew there. I even got a pretty decent shot of James and me. The polka dot dress was purchased for another wedding last year, but I ended up wearing something else. So I was thrilled to finally get a chance to wear it this year. Mom and I were the only ones wearing hats (as usual), so we really stood out from the crowd!

Neil and Monica coming up the walk to the gazebo.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Henry

Mom and Neil in their finery

Theresa and James

Upstairs Studio expanded

2008-04-06T08:55:00.002-06:00

This is probably not news to a lot of you in the area, but I'm so overscheduled that I don't get to visit our local yarn or weaving shops very often. Yesterday I drove down to Upstairs Studio in La Porte, Texas to take a template to Earl so he could make me some new leather bearings for Rapunzel. Wow! US has always been a good source for weaving equipment and materials, but now they are carrying a lot of nice knitting yarn too. Silky Tweed was on sale, so I bought enough for a nice summer sweater; and I also got some silk hankies to dye for a spinning project I have in mind. Don't hold your breath for details. Who knows when it will actually happen. Especially now!

I was catching up on all my list mail last night since I was woefully behind. And what should I find but an Ashford loom for sale in Austin. I swear it must be fate! I was just telling Clarice yesterday that I have really had the weaving bug lately, but have so far managed to keep it in check. Well, no more. I'm going to pick it up on the 19th! Thank God it's small and portable. It will be the perfect thing for me to get my feet wet to see if I really want to invest in something more (i.e. a floor loom) later on when I get my retirement studio. That's the dream anyway. Here's a picture of my new-to-me loom.

What's your name's hidden meaning?

2008-04-05T20:48:00.003-06:00

Just ran across the coolest thing! You have to try this out. Type your name it and it will give you a description of your personality. Sounds pretty good - at least it sounds the way I would like to see myself.

What Theresa Means

You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life.
You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home.
You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.
Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.
Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.
You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.
You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic "Type A" personality.

Photo Documentation - whew!

2008-04-05T20:26:00.002-06:00

I was having kind of a goof off kinda day and decided to get down my bins of finished knitted items and take pictures of the stuff that I did before I had a digital camera. Wow, did I ever take off a big bite! I spent the whole afternoon and evening taking pictures and uploading them to my photo site. It's going to take me a long time to go back and dig up all the pattern names, yarns, etc. to be able to add the captions. There was a lot of stuff that I had totally forgotten about. If you could add in all the things I've made and given away it would be pretty impressive (if I do say so myself). I started my knitting lessons in late 1996, so it's been 11 years. I would never have guessed that I had finished so much.

I still have most everything I've spun, so I guess that will be next in line. Thankfully, it shouldn't take nearly so much time!

Occupational Therapy Month

2008-04-02T16:38:00.003-06:00

April is Occupational Therapy Month! For those of you who know me, I’m a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA). Usually the only people who are familiar with OT are doctors, nurses, and people who have been on therapy. So since this is OT month, I thought I’d take a moment for a little public education.

Most commonly, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants work with people with disabilities to enable them to maximize their skills and abilities. Occupational therapy gives people the "skills for the job of living" necessary for living meaningful and satisfying lives. In the US, OT began as a profession in 1917 with the belief in the curative properties of human occupation (or everyday purposeful activity). It was found that when people were able to actively participate in a meaningful activity, they were more likely to improve not only their mental health, but their physical health as well. OT had a prominent role in the moral treatment movement within the large state supported institutions for mental illness that were found across the country in the early 1900's; and was also commonly found in rehabilitation facilities for wounded veterans. If you look at what is most important in our lives, it is the ability to care for ourselves independently and to interact with our world. When you read about OT, you’ll always find references to “activities of daily living” or ADL’s. These are the things that give meaning and purpose to our lives. The basic ADL’s include dressing, bathing, feeding ourselves, going to the bathroom, transferring (such as getting out of bed). Beyond that, our instrumental ADL’s are activities related to independent living and include preparing meals, managing money, shopping for groceries or personal items, performing light or heavy housework, using a telephone, participating in hobbies or other activities, etc.

Today occupational therapy is found in a wide variety of settings including, but not limited to, education, nursing homes, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, mental institutions, and home health care. I work in a long term care/skilled nursing facility in the rehabilitation department. Our residents generally range in age from 65-95, but we are starting to see more that are my age (mid-50’s). This is always disturbing to me because it shows how very important it is that we take good care of ourselves. If you weigh over 300 pounds, get sick, and wind up in a nursing home for rehab, the odds on you being able to go back home are pretty slim. Think about how difficult it is for a “healthy” obese person to get around, then imagine what happens after they’ve been flat on their back in the hospital for a few weeks with a medical problem. It takes a huge amount of strength and endurance to be able to move that much weight. In the 3+ years that I’ve been doing this, I’ve never seen a morbidly obese person over 65 return home independently. Even the people who are highly motivated and able reach a point of being able to get from bed to chair after months of work, just aren’t able to take care of themselves alone at home. This is the really sad part of our job. Nobody wants to live in a nursing home, and especially someone who potentially has many years left to live. The cost is so astronomical, that most people have to share a room with someone that they don’t know and may not necessarily get along with. What are the most precious things in your house that you can fit into a dresser, a small closet, or put up on one wall? And everything is regimented to be able to provide and care for everyone. Everybody that requires assistance gets up early to go to breakfast at a scheduled time, you get a bath on schedule, you attend scheduled activities, you go to bed at a certain time. It’s no wonder that there is so much depression in the elderly!

But then there are the days when you can see the effect that you have on people’s lives, the hugs from the ones that love you, the smiles and reminiscences. When a blind lady tells you she remembers you because you’re the one with the kind hands. When a person is able to feed themselves independently. When someone actually gets to go home, whether it’s alone or with family. The first time someone gets dressed and goes to the bathroom safely by themselves. When that head injured patient that couldn’t speak tells you, “see you later alligator”. Those fleeting moments are what keep us going to work day after day, despite the long hours and the never-ending medicare paperwork, having to beg and plead with the ones who need us the most to give us the opportunity to help, and the ridiculous productivity goals we are expected to meet.

So celebrate OT Month by taking care of yourself and doing something that is meaningful and fun for you! I'll be knitting, spinning, learning the cello, doing yoga, working out, and making more time for friends.

If you'd like to learn more about Occupational Therapy, here are some links:
The American Occupational Therapy Association
Wikipedia
United States Department of Labor
National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT)

Support Fiber Arts+

2008-03-29T07:05:00.003-06:00

Marni Harang, a member of Tall Pines, our local spinning and weaving guild, is participating in a 1825 mile bicycle ride north from Mobile, Alabama to Niagara, Ontario along the historic Underground Railroad on behalf of Heifer International. The goal of Heifer International is to work with communities around the world to end hunger and poverty, and care for the earth through animal husbandry. Your donations will be used to purchase breeding pairs of sheep, llamas, goats and angora rabbits, animals famous for their warm, income producing fiber. From shearing to spinning, weaving and finally to selling fiber goods at market. These animals will help struggling families earn extra income to break free from the grip of poverty and hopelessness. Over time, as that gift multiplies and more animals are passed on to help others in need, entire communities will be warmed and fed by the precious fiber.

You can read more about Marni and her cycling and fiber escapades on her blog. If you'd like to make a pledge, go here; and here's a link to read more about Heifer International.

Ok, I'm pathetic!

2008-03-26T15:42:00.002-06:00

Went to Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday after work for a new squeegie (sp?) for the shower. Came out out that AND a new Dyson Animal vacuum! It was on sale for $150 off PLUS I had a coupon for another 20% off! Woo-hoo! How pathetic is my life that I'm so excited over a vacuum cleaner? I guess you just have to have a big black shedding dog and white tile floors/carpet to understand. I could vacuum every day and still have dog hair everywhere. At least now maybe I can finally get rid of the other 3 vacuums I have and just use this one. I've been cleaning out stuff to make a run to Goodwill this weekend, so I'll just add them to that pile. Spring cleaning fever has struck!

What happened to March?

2008-03-23T13:22:00.003-06:00

Ok, I admit it. I'm woefully behind in keeping my blog even somewhat up to date. But I have been accomplishing a lot in the meantime. I'm finishing up the last two bobbins of spinning for the moorit merino. This afternoon I need to weigh them and split up the remaining fiber so that hopefully they'll come out pretty even when I ply them together. Plus, last night I got another hank finished of my dark brown/white bulky weight yarn that I've been plugging away on for a couple of years. I need to pull all of it out of storage and see how much is there. After dyeing, it's going to be an Einstein Coat. Kind of a boring knit in miles of garter stitch, but definitely functional and warm.

The cello lessons are going well. I'm still having fun and am actually able to play a little bit. It's going to be a long haul before I'm ready for anyone to hear it though. And I've been surprised by how much strength it takes to practice for an hour! I was sick last week and couldn't even make it 15 minutes. So this is another good reason to get my exercise in. I really want to be back down to 145 by the summer, but it's not going to happen unless I kick the activity up a notch. Actually, before I came down with last week's cold, I was running 1-1/2 miles twice a week, in addition to my usual Nordic Track or pilate's workout. There are just not enough hours in the day! I'm up at 5:30am, work until 4pm, come home and work out, practice the cello, get dinner on, and hopefully a little knitting or spinning time, and it's past my bedtime before I know it! Throw in a meeting or two, and some housecleaning and I'm totally overextended. But there's nothing I'm willing to give up yet, so I'll keep on plugging along.

I spent the first weekend this month with the boys. DIL's mom is in the hospital so I tried to help keep them a little distracted since all the grownups are under so much stress. Sure wish we lived closer! It's always hard to drive up and back just for the weekend, but they grow up so fast that I don't want to miss a minute. Riley has finished his first session of soccer and now tee-ball is about to start. He'll be 5 in May, and is so coordinated! Wore me out chasing him around the back yarn with the soccer ball. I don't think I could have run AND kept the ball moving forward without killing myself at that age.

Sunday morning was spent at the park to run off all that excess energy. The weather was just beautiful, and the sun felt wonderful. Spring is finally peeking out! It was still a little cool and you can see all the static built up on the slide in Tucker's hair.

Then here's Riley posing on the jungle gym.

And one last one of dad and the boys. How is it that Shelly always manages to be missing when the camera is out? One of these days I'll catch her off guard.

Debby Ware Workshop

2008-02-25T17:25:00.003-06:00

KANG hosted a great workshop this weekend with designer Debby Ware of Debby Ware Knitwares. She's the talented lady that designs so many of the cute hat and bootie kits that you find in many of the yarn shops. On Satuday, we spent the day trying out different techniques to design our own caps. She brought lots of her own for us to see, so there was no shortage of inspiration! She also brought cotton yarn in LOTS of colors so we had plenty to choose from. Below you can see my finished Birthday Cake Hat. It's not blocked yet, but I still think it came out pretty cute! The candles are 6-stitch i-cord that is scrunched down on itself, then the flame is a 5-stitch finger. I was going to use a glitzy fuzzy yarn for the flame, but I think I like this better. Sunday, we did baby booties. I'm still not through with those yet, but will post pics later. Everyone had a great time, and I think went away inspired to come up with some interesting designs on their own. Baby things are a great way to try out ideas and colors since they are small and don't take a lot of time. And everything looks good on babies. Right?

Theresa's Birthday Cake Hat

View from the top

Back from Vegas

2008-02-17T09:06:00.004-06:00

Vacation is almost over. Bummer! It's been a great 2 weeks and I wish it could last longer. I've hardly even thought about work at all! The first week, I goofed off. I'd do maybe one chore each day then play the rest (or start getting ready for our trip). We drove up to see the boys during James' birthday weekend, then off to Michele's to meet the new beau. He seems very nice and we all had a good time going to dinner at the Mandola Winery in Austin. Dinner was wonderful and the wine wasn't bad either. Needless to say, I brought home a few bottles to add to the stock.

We were home just long enough to do laundry and pack for Las Vegas and Tina's wedding (3 bags for 2 days). Since we were staying at the Bellagio I didn't want to look like a slouch, and hardly ever get a chance to dress up anyway. The hotel is even more beautiful in person, but you could hardly tell with the afternoon crowd checking in! You get a much better look around breakfast time. There was a convention going on at the hotel, so they upgraded our room to a http://www.bellagio.com/hotel/tower-suite.aspx! I swear it was at least 2000 sq. ft. with a living room, wet bar, dining room, office area, bedroom, and a huge bathroom with jacuzzi tub and steam shower; and flat screen tv's in the living area, bedroom, and bath. I could have just stayed in our room the whole time and been perfectly happy. Wouldn't you just love to live this way all the time! Once we settled in, we went down to the buffet. Since we flew Southwest, we hadn't had anything to eat except a bag of Wheat Thins. The buffet looked really good, but the sushi bar part was actually the best. I'm not sure what all I ate, but it was delicious! The desserts, on the other hand, were beautiful but disappointing.

Wednesday night we went over to the Venetian to see Blue Man Group since that is what James wanted to do for his birthday. They are a bit on the strange side, but great fun. There is a lot of audience participation so is geared a little more toward the younger (adult) group. If you don't like loud rock music, this show is not for you. For those of you who know me, and how early I'm usually in bed, you'll be amazed to hear that I was actually up until 2:30 PST! Didn't really do a lot of gambling, but managed to lose enough to pay for drinks.

Valentine's Day we slept in then went downstairs for breakfast at La Patisserie (apple pecan crepes) with a BIG coffee. We sat at the windows overlooking the pool full of lawn furniture that had been blown in overnight. The weather was clear and beautiful while we were there, but definitely cold and windy! After breakfast, we wandered back up to the room, sacked out on the couch, and watched tv until time to get ready for the wedding. We had to be dressed and downstairs for the limo at 2pm so there was plenty of time to be lazy. The wedding was held at the Little Chapel of Flowers. They did a very nice service which was videocast on the web. Hopefully they'll have the final version out soon so we can see it again. Tina and Steve were both teary and happy, although Steve was looking a little tired by the time they finished with an hour of picture taking. Once we got back to the hotel, the ladies changed and we met in the Fontana Bar to drink martinis and watch the fountains until time for dinner. Tina had made reservations at Prime Steakhouse which was fabulous. Believe it or not, but I ate pretty healthy while we were there (except for all the alcohol). And since we were keeping such odd hours, we only ate one big meal each day. After dinner we hit the casino. James pooped out early and went back upstairs while mom, my aunt, and I cruised the slot and poker machines. Somehow I ended up on a nickle slot machine and accidently maxed out my bet when it hit for two $400 jackpots! I didn't think it was ever going to quit dinging! You'll be happy to know that I immediately cashed them out and only blew another $100 playing. In reality, that didn't even cover what we spent for the two days on food and entertainment, but it was way fun! I don't think I'll ever be a big gambler though. Unless I start winning something immediately, it gets too boring and I wander off.

When I made our travel reservations, I had us booked for a 5:45pm flight out. In retrospect, I should have made it earlier. We were exhaused by Friday, and we had to check out by noon, so after wandering over to Caesar's Palace and getting a gellato we took an earlier shuttle and just hung out at the airport with mom and my aunt. It was a good thing we did, too. The line for security wound around and around and felt like it took forever. You know, I used to love to fly anywhere. But now it is such a pain to have to get there early, fight the crowds through security, you have to be careful what you take in your bags, and on and on. I'll stick to road trips until the gas prices make that unreasonable too.

Saturday, I slept in until 9:30 and probably would have slept later but I had to go do my monthly Weight Watchers weigh-in. I was only up 1.6# from January, so I guess that's not too bad, all things considered. Next weekend we have a retirement party to attend, so I went looking for a pair of cowboy boots since it's being held at a country western place. Can you believe I've grown up in Texas and never owned a pair of boots? Well I do now! They are so cute and pretty comfortable too. Got a couple of shirts to go with them, so I should fit in with the rest of the party next week.

Well, this is getting long so I'm going to quit for now. It's nice to be home, but I'm sure not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow!

An unfinished project

2008-02-02T09:19:00.000-06:00

There's been lots of discussion on the Spin List of late on Bluefaced Leicester fleece and how wonderful it is to spin. Actually, it was the first roving that I bought when I was learning and it really got me hooked on spinning. I bought my roving from Copper Moose and can recommend them highly. Their fibers are wonderful, the prices are good, and the service is excellent.

BFL is a long and lustrous fiber that spins like butter, and it feels good against the skin. A while back I bought two lamb fleeces from Robina Koenig of Tumble Creek Farm. I washed them when they arrived, but thought that I had felted the butt ends so I hadn't done much with them since. All the discussion made me go get them out of storage and I sat down to really take a closer look. These fleeces have so much crimp, that when I would try to pull some locks out, it would make the cut ends tangle together in a knot. This morning, I very carefully began at one edge and pulled out individual locks, combing the tip and butt ends with Bailey's grooming comb. It's a slow process, but looks like I'm going to be able to use just about everything with very little waste. The fleeces were beautiful, clean, and well skirted, so it wasn't a problem with that. The problem was my impatience and inexperience in washing them. I really should have taken the time to do smaller batches. You could probably equate it with washing an afro. I'm just going to to have to chalk it up to a learning experience and look forward to spinning the final product some time in the future (this is going to take a LONG time). In the meantime, here are some pictures of "Mab" and "Piper". Sorry but I've forgotten which is which.

Fleece 1 - Notice that the locks on this one are longer, thicker, and with a little less crimp than the other fleece. This one will be easier to card so I'm saving it for last when my resolve may be running low.

Fleece 2 - This was actually the first one I washed and is the more matted of the two. Add that to the fact that the locks are a little shorter, finer, and with more crimp, and I'll be working on this for a long time. This shot really shows how fiber practically glows.

This is my original sample showing some washed locks and carded fiber.

This is a batt that I carded on my Louet Jr. drumcarder. I'm having a hard time not jumping in and spinning it!

Thought for the Day - 1/31/2008

2008-01-31T21:03:00.000-06:00

This was found in my February spinning guild newsletter. Usually I just glance over these things, but this one struck a chord and I decided to share it with the rest of you. Take a minute to really think about it.

Who is blind? He who can see no other world.
Who is dumb? He who can say nothing pleasant about his lot.
Who is poor? He who is troubled with too many desires.
Who is rich? He who is happy with his lot.
- Indian Proverb

Knitting FO

2008-01-22T19:28:00.000-06:00

Yea! I finished the baby gift for one of James' friends. One of those last minute things that was not going smoothly. The cap was done using the edging from a baby bonnet in a little Vogue Knitting on the Go book, then finished in stockinette by evenly decreasing down to about 8 sts. The booties are from a Debbie Bliss baby book and done in her Cashmerino, but the first one came out so huge that I had to completely redesign it to cut the size by about half. The test knitter for that pattern must be a REALLY tight knitter! Oh well, they came out really cute so I need to write the pattern changes down in case I want to do another pair. Now it's time to go get my cello practice in.

Another Spinning Day!

2008-01-19T22:17:00.001-06:00

January isn't even over yet and I've already got in another full day of spinning! 2008 is going to be a good year. Today Roddie and Paula came over to try out my drum carder (Louet Jr.). BTW, for those interested, Louet has a good little carding tutorial on their website. Roddie had brought a bag of red llama that we got from Jane's stash. The fiber hadn't been washed or skirted yet, so there were some second cuts and grass but she and Paula were able to get a lot of that out as they carded it. The final batts were soooo soft! Made me want to make a trip to storage to dig out some of mine!

After everyone left, I cleaned all the fiber off the small drum of the carder and ran it through my Indigo Hound combs and was able to salvage a nice little handful of fiber. Is that not the most fabulous color?

While Paula was carding, Roddie worked on spinning another batch of llama fiber that is more brown. It looks like it's going to be a wonderful laceweight yarn. The only bad thing about spinning for lace is the fact that it takes so long to fill up the bobbins! I'm still working on my moorit merino, but am on my last bobbin. Hopefully I'll have enough to do something good. Here are some pictures of Roddie at her Ashford Traditional. That's Bailey snoozing in the background. She had a great time having a houseful of people to pet her.

I spent the rest of the day (and evening) spinning up a couple of bobbins for a plying demo tomorrow. Early in my spinning days I bought a white fleece, that I have since lost the name of, and some Black Welsh Mountain roving. I did quite a bit of bulky weight "barberpole" yarn that is currently in storage. Then recently I found more white uncarded fleece. So now I'm trying to use it up and have enough yarn to make either the Einstein Coat or the Asymmetrical Jacket (pictured on the cover) from Sally Melville's book, The Knit Stitch. The two contrasting bobbins will make a good demo because the singles are heavy enough to really see the fiber direction while plying. I learned early to make sure the fibers lay parallel in the final yarn to be sure that it will be balanced after you wash it. That really helped since I normally am plying from bobbins that have taken weeks, if not months, to fill (I do mostly laceweight yarn). Below are pics of the singles and the final yarn. It is deliberately a bit "thick & thin" so there is approximately 30 yards in 100g of finished yarn, and it varies from 5-7 wpi. I'm planning on dyeing it a dark plum before knitting.

Originally I had started this yarn with another project in mind and knit this hat to test my sample yarn. The hat yarn was the same "barberpole", but I added locks of mohair every 4" as I plyed the singles together. It was a pain in the neck and that project was scrapped immediately. But I do love the hat and may make two more for my grandsons! Before knitting, the finished yarn was dyed with koolaid. I didn't keep any kind of records, but I think I used cherry, lemon, and lime. Don't hold me to it though. I do remember that the colors didn't come out the way I expected.

This does get some looks when worn!

Unfortunately, tomorrow I will be back to real life again and catching up on all the things I didn't do today. Unless of course, that my Lotto numbers come in! One can only hope! After all, somebody has to win it and it may as well be me.

Knitting Books

2008-01-16T13:54:00.000-06:00

Recently I've had several people ask what my favorite knitting books were. That really depends on what kind of knitting you're doing, or what purpose you want the book to serve. Considering the fact that I have a bookcase full of various fiber craft books, I thought I'd go through and make a list of the ones that I use the most. I'll break them down by category, and they are in alphabetical order so no one gets their feelings hurt. You'll notice that I put Latvian Dreams in twice. That's because it is not only a fabulous book on Scandanavian knitting, but it is full of good, well-explained knitting technique. Joyce is a fabulous knitter. I only wish I could have taken a class with her sometime. We met her knitting away on a beautiful fairisle sweater in a dark bar at Stitches West. I couldn't knit that well, that fast, under the best of conditions. Amazing!

I know I have left out many great books, many of which are in my own library. These are just the ones that use, or refer to, the most.

Basic Patterns, Designing, How-To:
Knitter's Handbook, Montse Stanley
Latvian Dreams, Joyce Williams
The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques, Nancie Wiseman
The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, Ann Budd

New Knitters:
Sally Melville's series

Lace, Lace, and more Lace:
A Gathering of Lace, Meg Swansen
Folk Shawls, Cheryl Oberle
Heirloom Knitting, Sharon Miller
Stahman's Shawls and Scarves, Myrna Stahman
Victorian Lace Today, Jane Sowerby

Patterns:
Folk Socks, Nancy Bush
Debbie Bliss' children's pattern books
Handspun Handknit, Linda Ligon
Latvian Dreams, Joyce Williams
MinnowKnits, Too, Jil Eaton
Vogue Knitting on the Go books

One more resolution begun!

2008-01-08T21:50:00.000-06:00

For many years I've wanted to learn to play the cello. I know, I'm odd. When I was in my 40's I always said that I was going to start lessons when I turned 50; then it was 51, and 52. Well, at 54 I'm finally taking cello lessons! Thankfully I can already read music (thank mom, for giving me piano lessons in elementary school), and I played flute in junion high school. When I was in my 20's, I took piano for a few more years so I know the challenges that the adult student faces. The only one I didn't think about was how much I need some calluses on my left hand fingers. I'm really having to do a lot of short practices rather than one long one each day, at least until I can build up the required hand strength. But it is exciting when I actually make some nice sounds come out of it. I'm hoping to be able to play a little for my patients by next Christmas. They are a wonderful, non-critical audience. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. Maybe I'll figure out how to post a short video.

Frosted Fern Finished

2008-01-06T18:59:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm feeling a little better about it today now that I've got all the ends finished and it's on the table. I still don't care so much for the solid border and if I did it again, I think I'd figure out how to replace that. Here are a couple of photos of the finished doily.

And I finally got started on Lyra today. I thought my arm was going to fall off before I got that skein of Tencel wound into balls! 2200 yards is a lot of winding! At first I was kind of worried about the long color changes pooling, but now that I'm going, it doesn't look like that is going to be so much of a problem. What I am worried about is being able to see the pattern with is multi-colored yarn. It's still too early to make the call, but I wouldn't be surprised if I had to start over with a solid color. Maybe by next weekend I'll have enough to solicit some opinions.

This was a pretty productive weekend considering I spent all of Saturday spinning. Tall Pines had a spin-in instead of our usual January meeting since it would have fallen on New Year's Day. We had a good turn out with 4 or 5 new spinners. Esther's new wheel got here just in time, so we put it together there and she was able to finish the bobbin she started at my house, and almost finish another one! All were impressed with how nice it was. Looks like she's just a natural spinner. Sure made me look like a good teacher!

Happy New Year 2008! (a little late...)

2008-01-04T22:17:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I didn't quite finish up my 2007 projects, but December was a blur and I had a bad cold during the last week. But now I've finished spinning the green merino/silk that I've had on the bobbins for quite a while. I think I lost some of the fiber somewhere and ended up with 500+ yarns of fingering weight yarn. I was very pleased with how even it turned out. When I plyed the two bobbins together, they actually came out pretty even with only a few yards left on one. I think I'm going to make a present for someone out of it. Here's a picture of the finished skein. It is kind of a heathery bluish green.

I also finished the "Frosted Ferns" doily by Herbert Neibling. It is a free pattern, but is not charted. I knit it using a couple of OLD odd balls of J&P coats six cord mercerized no. 20 cotton thread on size 1 needles. It was ecru, but when I finished up there was a definite line at the spot where I changed balls. Since it wouldn't wash out, I bleached it white then treated it with "bleach stop". Don't cringe! This is not an heirloom in any sense of the word, so I'm not worried about it degrading the thread. I had some problems with this doily in several places (stitches slipped of the Addi Turbo needle), I don't like the hand of the thread, and I don't really like the edge. Mostly I just knit it to get of feel for Neibling's work before I start "Lyra". Frosted Fern will make a nice table topper, which is ok. Everything has it's place. It's funny how you just kind of know while you're knitting, when the project is going to totally exceed your expectations or when it's just going to be a learning experience. And materials play a big part.

Natural Dyeing workshop with Liesel Orend

2007-12-02T18:22:00.000-06:00

Wow! What a great weekend! I went to a workshop by Liesel Orend at Montgomery College. I had always heard that you couldn't really get good colors with natural dyes and that the mordants were dangerous to handle. Boy did Liesel dispel those myths. The colors of her yarns are beautiful. And although there are some mordants that need special handling and disposal, we did all our dyeing using alum which is pretty innocuous. We did 3 sets of samples in seven colors, shifted one set with iron, then dipped the 3rd set in indigo. Plus we each got to dye 8oz of wool in whatever colors we chose. Mine were osage orange, cochineal, logwood, and indigo. I think everyone came away from the workshop “dying” to do more “dyeing”. You can see photos HERE. I haven't labeled them all yet, but you can see what we did. It was so much fun and I met a whole new group of interesting people. We're already talking about setting up more fiber days in 2008. A special thanks to Linda W for setting this up, and for letting me stay in her beautiful guest cottage so I wouldn't have to drive the 100 mi. round trip on Saturday night!

These are my finished skeins after washing.

New Year's 2008 Project

2007-11-29T21:10:00.000-06:00

Although I still have more unfinished knitting than I care to admit, I just can't let the new year begin without starting something spectacular. This year it's going to be "Lyra" by Herbert Neibling. It is the pattern that really got me interested in knitting lace. I ran across it on Michael Kaprelian's website some years ago. I'm going to knit it in some handpainted yarn by Margaret Pittman that I bought when attending a workshop with Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer. It is 100% Tencel, and the colors are very vibrant - much like silk. And with a beautiful drape. I think it's going to be a good match! Now I just need to finish as much other stuff as possible before the end of the year so I won't feel quite so guilty biting off another meaty project.

"Lyra" - knitted by Michael Kaprelian

100% Tencel, handpainted in the "Tallahatchee Bridge" colorway by Margaret Pittman

Thanksgiving 2007

2007-11-29T20:59:00.000-06:00

I actually cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in probably 20+ years! We always went to my grandmother's house when we were kids. Then it was to mom's house. Now it's my turn. The turkey torch has been passed! ;-) After a balmy 80 degree week before, Thanksgiving was wonderfully cold. It's not that I really like winter, but I do like it to be cold for the holiday season. I just can't get into the mood to shop and decorate when I'm in shorts and the a/c is on.

So anyway, I had a wonderful 4 days with kids and grandkids. We did Autorama on Friday, then I babysat while C&S did some shopping on Saturday. Riley helped put up the Christmas tree, and hung all the unbreakable ornaments on the bottom third, while Tucker had a nap. Bailey has been steadily knocking them off with her tail this week, then chewing them up. There may not be much left by the time Santa gets here!

Here are a couple of cute pics from the weekend...

2007 Kid 'n' Ewe & Llamas, too

2007-11-12T20:25:00.000-06:00

I think Bailey missed me! Here's the view as I try and get this onto the blog.

We're back from our annual girl's weekend to the Kid 'n' Ewe fiber festival. And once again, it was a rousing success. The festival is growing each year with more and more vendors and demonstrators. This year the cashmere goat association was represented too. I was having too much fun to take very many pictures, but here's a link to the ones I have - festival pics.

Our first stop was Jojoland Yarns. We discovered them last year and couldn't wait to pick up more. The colors are beautiful and I love the laceweight yarns for shawls. They've made the big time by being featured in the current issue of Knitter's Magazine.

On the way in to get to Jojoland, we passed CJ, of Donlee Acres, with her Angora rabbits for sale. Since Roddie and I each have a big bag of angora from our friend Jane's bunnies, we were curious about how to spin it. CJ graciously gave us a great lesson in spinning Angora straight from the bun! (You can see photos in my photo gallery) If you'd like to see more of CJ's bunnies (and other animals), click here.

Since Roddie and I both have a rather extensive yarn/fiber stash, we weren't really doing a lot of impulse buying. Her sister, Debbie, picked out some yarn so Roddie could knit her a gift; and we all bought some alpaca sweaters from Bolivia that were adorable and an absolute steal at $35. I found a few Christmas gifts, too, that I can't mention in case the recipients are reading this. And I bought a smattering of yak and buffalo fibers to spin (that was my big splurge purchase this year) from Buffalo Gold. I think I got enough to do a few luxurious scarves if I spin it laceweight.

We also made a stop at The Old Oaks Ranch booth where I got a guick lesson in weaving. As you can see, it was a lot of fun but I don't have room for another hobby at the moment. But later?

After making the rounds at the festival, we headed to lunch at Boerne Vistro to meet friends for lunch. The food was wonderful and I don't think there was a crumb left on anyone's plate! Now we just needed to walk it off at a craft fair in the Boerne town square (where we found more gifts). I definitely got a good start on my Christmas shopping this year!

The rest of Saturday and Sunday were spent in a whirlwind of shopping in Boerne and Fredericksburg, and eating German food (with the appropriate beer, of course). We were all exhausted by the time we got home, but were already talking about what we are going to do next year!

Fiber Fest Weekend!!

2007-11-08T17:28:00.001-06:00

We're off on the annual "girls only weekend" to Boerne, TX for the Kid 'n' Ewe fiber festival! There is so much going on this weekend that it's going to be hard to fit it all in. But we're going to give it our best! Story and pics to follow...

On a gramma note, I was online looking to see if there were any new pictures of the grandkids since Riley has been playing soccer. They sure do start young these days! Anyway, I found the cutest picture of Tucker napping with dad so I had to share. They both look like it's been a LONG day! Note: He's only 11mos old there!

A new member enters the fold

2007-10-30T15:57:00.000-06:00

I've sucked another one into the "craft cult" as James calls it. I forgot to add to my post on the 21st about my friend Esther coming over for a spinning lesson. We had a very productive afternoon and she was able to leave with her first little skein of handspun yarn. So I loaned her all my beginning spinning books and spindles, and pulled out samples of various fibers out of my stash for her to try. As you can see from her blog, she's been hard at work and skein #4 is looking really good. I'm so proud! Teaching people crafts from the beginning has not really been my forte. I'm much better teaching techniques to someone who already has the basics. Some years ago I foolishly agreed to teach a basket class at our neighborhood clubhouse. There were 10 people in the class, and thankfully my friend Julie and my mom came along to help out. If they hadn't been there I totally would have lost my mind. Everyone said that they had a good time and really liked their baskets, but I wouldn't try that again. I've done quite a few workshops and programs for the knitting guild and am pretty comfortable with that. I guess because I still feel like an advanced beginner spinner myself, I'm not that comfortable teaching others.

So thank you Esther for being such an exemplary student and making me look good!

New Job (sort of)

2007-10-30T15:41:00.000-06:00

I just moved to another facility to work on Monday. It was REALLY hard to leave all my "old people", and many tears were shed last Friday. I'd been there for 3 years, so it was almost like leaving family. It's kind of sad to think that being on therapy would be the high spot of someone's day. So now I'm working a little closer to home (cut my 45 minute drive by 15 minutes), I get every other Wednesday off, I'll be learning to apply all the modality training we did last year, and the building is better staffed which lets me better utilize my time for therapy. And as an added bonus, I'm still working with people that I like as well as respect professionally. Woo-hoo! Now if someone could just manage to figure out a way that we could do paperwork online my work world would be good. I'd even spring for my own laptop to get out of writing notes by hand!