spinning progress

Spinning takes a lot of concentration for me right now. But I'm having fun playing with my Ashford Traveller. And I'm hopeful that I'll be making knitable yarn soon.

Here's an action shot of me spinning, courtesy of a friend and her new camera.



I'm not 100% there yet with regard to making consistent yarn. But, I'm giving myself points for progress. Here's what I have to share: from left to right my first, second, and third handspuns. The first two are "practice wool" that I bought at MD S&W and the third is practice merino courtesy of another friend.

I took a few detailed shots of the merino before plying and then after plying (in the skein). The skein had not been wash yet in this picture, so I think it will even out a little more.

Thanks, ladies!

My prize (a WEBS giftcard) for winning the Enablers Anonymous KDAL arrived in the mail yesterday. Thanks, ladies! I'm looking forward to replenishing my stash.

I met Ysolda!

Two weeks ago I went to a business conference in Charlottesville, VA. I didn't expect to report anything exciting, but I was pleasantly surprised.

On Wednesday of the trip, I stopped by The Needle Lady, a LYS less than 2 blocks from the conference location. Mimi, the owner, was very friendly and has a fantastically stocked store! I told her I was in town for a conference, and she invited me to join the store's knitting meet-up the following evening. They were hosting a special guest: Ysolda Teague, designer extraordinaire!

Knitting with Ysolda was lots of fun, as was dinner afterwards. She is a treasure trove of knowledge on knitting and design. I hope I can retain some of her pearls of wisdom!



Check out the "Enable Me" button! It was given to her by one of my fellow Enablers and Ysolda still had it in her knitting bag.

Read more about Ysolda's visit to Charlottesville on The Needle Lady's blog, Ysolda's blog, and Vilde's blog.

A surprise Sheep and Wool purchase

What did I buy at Sheep and Wool? Yarn, yes -- lots of goodies: Tilli Thomas (10 skeins of superwash merino for $20!) and Tess (a sweater's quantity of superwash merino, black superwash lace weight for a sweater, and green superwash laceweight for a shawl) got most of my business... that was before lunch.

But before I about the purchases, check out the pre-gaming Sheep and Wool celebrations. The first annual Enabler's Tailgate!

A little bubbly to kick things off!



Some of the ladies enjoying a cold beverage.



Elijah was a big fan of the coffee cake and his mimosa...



By far the best (only?) S&W tailgate!

A few stars from the festival.

Check out the teeth on this guy! He was very social and let me pet him while he was munching.

So, what was the big purchase? After lunch, I decided to take the plunge and buy a spinning wheel! Here's the picture of the Ashford Traveller that I tried. I have her twin in my living room now! More on how spinning is going (hint: not well yet! ;) ) soon...

why the hiatus?

Oh, yes, and I should explain my posting hiatus. I've been busy... knitting! I know, no excuse not to post. Why didn't I share? Well, in an effort to knit down my stash over the past few months, and with the encouragement of a little friendly competition, I have kept my "nose to the needles," if you will.

The result? 10,914 yards knit into FOs from December 1 - April 30. As Sarah pointed out at Wednesday's meet-up, 6.2 miles of yarn. Wow. Needless to say, I have lots of FOs to share and will try to catch up in some upcoming posts.

With Sheep and Wool coming up tomorrow and my stash pretty much decimated, the timing could not be better. I'm looking forward to some lovely sheep goodies to replenish my knitting basket!

Oh, and before I forget, I dabbled in dyeing and spinning in the month of April, thanks to the generosity of some of my favorite "enablers." To be clear, I understand the general principles of these activities now, but am far from being proficient at either of them. Nonetheless, I have a some souvenirs from my non-knitting fiber adventures.

Here is my first attempt at dyeing. The base is a wool/nylon blend. There was a bit of a mix up with the colors and I used "teal" where I wanted to use "moss." No matter. A little over-dyeing resulted in a brilliant, rich green. The grayish-green color in the skein is called herb green. Although it looks more plain-ole-gray than green next to the rich moss over teal. And the white spots? That's just my error and inexperience, i.e., not knowing how to fully saturate a skein of yarn. The combination reminds me of something industrial... don't know why. Anyway, I dubbed my first colorway "green machine."



Despite my blunders, it's knitting up nicely into a pair of Jaywalkers.



My second dyeing attempt was on a fancier base (Fingering / 4 ply Nylon, Metallic, Silk, Merino). The first round of dyeing this skein was using various concentrations of the color "wedge wood." It was pretty, but in the end looked like a blue version of "green machine." I was going for more of a semi-solid look. So, under Shelby's great advice, I over-dyed the skein with a medium concentration of the color "gunmetal." I named this colorway "gunmetal over wedge wood." Clever, huh? I'm hoping to knit this into a pretty, sparkly shawl.



Finally, my first attempt at spinning. The result is a ridiculous mess, really. Thick and thin and totally un-knitable. But how fun to watch yarn appear before your eyes! I couldn't quite get the hang of a drop spindle, but the spinning wheel was lots of fun. And thank goodness for Elizabeth's patience in teaching me. Boy, were my hands uncoordinated!! At least I got a good laugh out of my clumsiness. I'll have to get some more practice and do some serious research before I invest in a wheel... one day though!

little herb garden

Pictures of the the little herb garden from last summer.

This little crew of pots was transferred into the kitchen for the winter and back to the deck last weekend. We had a few fatalities over the winter: the hot pepper plants, the dill, and the basil. But the sage, mint, rosemary, oregano, parsley, and chives are still going strong.

One note on the parsley is that it grew increasingly covered with aphids in the kitchen. I tried to get rid of them by spraying the plant with vinegar (which burned the leaves!) and then some diluted castile soap. No luck. The aphids came right back. Interestingly, they didn't infect any of the other plants. A friend of mine suggested buying some ladybugs, but the smallest quantities available for purchase would give me something like 20,000 ladybugs. Probably not the best thing to introduce to my little potted eco-system. Well, oddly enough, as soon as I put the parsley outside, the aphid problem went away. So many thanks to all the little buggies, whoever you are, that have help clean up my little friend!

Oh, and one side note on the herb garden from last year: A tomato surprise! I fertilized my pots with compost that was not quite finished composting. And the result was a tomato plant that sprouted up! I was so excited. Too bad it only yeilded one yucky, mealy, flavorless tomato. Booo. But at least it was pretty, right?

What inspired this post? It's almost CSA time again! Red Wiggler has been busy planting goodies for this year. Goodies are just around the corner...

Little senses of accomplishment

I've been doing a little of this and that today. The nice thing is that I finished several projects today, which makes me happy!

First, I put the buttons on the BSJ that I finished for a baby shower I will be attending next weekend. I think the buttons are two mice in a boat fishing. But it could be some other animal too. In any case, they are very cute! I used Shalimar Sock Yarn and size 4 needles. I still have about 85 yards of this yarn left, which means the sweater took about 320 yards. For a more polished look, I picked up and knit stitches around neckline. After the pick up and knit row, I knit one row additional and then bound off in knit.

I blocked my first Clapotis. For this project, I used size 3 needles with a Peruvian tweed alpaca yarn. It's dark grey and brown , and I simply love the warmth of the color combined with the actual warmth and softness of the yarn. This was a MD Sheep and Wool purchase from last year. I have now officially used all of the yarn I bought last year!! Since I only had 600 yards of this yarn, I knit one fewer set of increases. This means that I had about 80ish stitches on the needles instead of 100ish for the straight rows. (I don't have the pattern in front of me right now for the exact number of stitches... and I'm too lazy to go look on knitty and do the math right now.)





I played in the kitchen today too. I had a craving for quiche, so I improvised this recipe from one of my cookbooks. The key ingredients are milk, broccoli, eggs, cornmeal, Dijon mustard, and onions. I made them in individual serving sizes so they are easier to take for lunches. Also, I skipped the crust, since I didn't have any and didn't feel like making any. Some cooking spray kept the mixture from sticking to the dishes.




Finally, I baked some oatmeal apple cinnamon muffins. I love this recipe! The only adjustments: added cardamom for some zing and didn't put in flaxmeal (didn't have any). And in the time it took me to write this blog, I have already eaten two of them!