Extravayarnza

We went, We saw, we came home with more than we left with...

We saw super cute sheep...
I was totally charmed by the little Shetlands, but these Icelandic youngsters were quite photogenic~

I found yarn.... 50g 1200yards! 100% fine Wool from Skaska Designs. I've never seen anything quite like these so I got myself one & also brought home one for my lace swap pal.

I also got Buffalo Down (to spin for my brothers birthday... perhaps blended with alpaca?) & CVM roving both from Little Barn. (More on the CVM at the end of the post, why had I never spun this before?)

The last fiber purchase was a pound of Shetland Roving from Sheepy Hollow Shetlands. I've been looking at all those handspun Shetland shawls and just drooling, so I'm going to attempt to do justice to this fiber... It's a lovely Chocolate brown & has a nice bounce!

My big purchase for the day was a bit of a surprise. I realized at some point that a Lundrum was the wheel I wanted in the first place & that it would be better for what I want to do.
So, I went over to Toni over at The Fold's booth & to be honest I just owe her a Huge Thank You!!!
Not only did she have the wheel I wanted in stock, she was practically sitting on one new in the box. I was blown away. I really was expecting to order a wheel at the show & have it shipped. So, Thank You Toni for the great service & a fantastic wheel.
Look I'm using it already~

Yep after a practice run with some mystery wool (not very nice mystery wool...) I broke into the CVM.

This is the best spinning I've ever done. Still not perfectly even, but much better than anything I've done on a spindle. Tonight I spun up 3 oz & made a 3 ply yarn about 150 yards.
Only 5 more oz to go...

Possibly part of the reason for this going so well (besides a fantastic new wheel!) is that CVM just floats off your fingers. So soft, so springy, drafts with little effort. How did I never spin with this before? I don't know what I'm going to make with this yet, but I'm going to finish spinning it up & wait for it to speak for me.

Well after wrestling with 3 automated systems, screaming at computers to let me talk to a human, then screaming at humans to get them to stop trying to sell me shit and fix my phone... my phone did get fixed.
The system asked me what I wanted to do & I made the mistake of saying that I wanted to cancel my service call.... "did I understand you right, you want to cancel your entire SBC service" "NO" "You want to cancel part of your service, please state which part you want to cancel" let me clue you in, at this point you might as well hang up and start over. After 10 minutes of attempting to tell it what I wanted to do I just started swearing at hit and hitting buttons at random... something got me to a person. I do feel sorry for her though because at that point I had a vein throbbing in my forehead & the tic in my eye was acting up.
Well, the upside to all this is that I had lots of excess energy to put to use spinning. I found out just how soothing & hypnotic a spinning wheel can be. I may have fallen asleep! Just that wheel spinning out of the corner of my eye, lounging on a super comfortable couch, just drafting and drafting... so effortless...
I pulled out some fiber from my stash... 10oz of Merino/Tencel dyed by Blue Moon.
I managed to spin around 3oz of it today, I turned out stunning... especially since they were just nice and sent the roving to me, I didn't choose the colors. Do they make a bad colorway? I haven't seen one yet.
Just check these colors out.

Much more brilliant in person.
I'm fairly happy with my spinning. For how hard I have to work to get something this thick it's pretty even. I spin lace to fingering weight usually, DK if I make a 3-ply! I think this made it solidly into the worsted weight range. I will measure WPI once the skein finishing drying.
Merino/Tencel is just so soft & squishy. I think that's my favorite part of handspun, if you get the twist right it's much squishier (is that a word?) than commercial spun.
I had to leave my wheel at the store just so I could knit without temptation. I need to finish the dragon shawl so I can get it to Audra.
I'm managing a 20 row repeat of the edging in about 20 minutes. I have about 60 stitches left to eat up on the first side so that's maybe another 2 hours... Then there's only 2 more sides left & a little over a week left till the end of the month. I need to get my ... in gear.

So, spinning has been high on my list lately. Especially spinning for socks.
I am joining a new knitalong called Twisted Knitters dye/spin/knit & my supplier just came out with a new superwash merino & tencel roving blend... got to order a ton of that!
I dyed all that superwash merino roving last night & got right to work spinning the first of 3 planned hanks of sock yarn.
This is my  first handspun sock yarn & possibly the thing I've spun that's made me the happiest.
Here's bobbin one lounging on a pillow of unspun roving..

And here's that roving almost completely turned into a second bobbin....

Do you see on the left where the bobbin is so full that it hardly  clears the flyer?
That's where I had my possibly stupid idea.
The idea itself isn't stupid... I have a feeling you all will think it's pretty good.
The fact that it may (hopefully) turn into yet another thing that eats up more time than I have to get it is the part that makes it stupid...

Let me lay it out~
How does a handspun sock yarn exchange sound?

I think it sounds very delicious.
I would have a beginning spinner and an 'expert' group so everyone could give it a go.

Please leave me a comment if you think I should go ahead & flesh out some rules and get a blog going....

Normally I love winter. I look forward to curling up in all my favorite sweater & socks. Sipping hot cocoa while wishing we had a fire place. Waking up and seeing everything all perfect & white. Watching my favorite sport, Hockey. (better yet playing hockey, but that hasn't happened in a few years...) The winter means working a few weeks at the Wharton center meeting all sorts of interesting people & seeing some fantastic plays. I don't even mind the cold that bad. My theory is  that when it's cold I can do something to make myself very warm, but when it's hot I can't exactly go stripping off everything to cool myself off. Hot & humid just makes me miserable.
However, Michigan has a special type of winter day that does just make me depressed. It's called gray. Gray skies, light never  reaching above a dim haze, if we had snow it would all be driven over & gray. Just basically nothing to inspire, nothing to wake you up & get you moving. Today is like that. In fact we're expecting it to snow the next two days. Yes you read that right, snow the first week (okay second week) of October!
So, I'm a bit of a mood... My heel spur is acting up in my left foot so I'm in pain when I walk. My household was hit with a wicked stomach flu & although I may have been spared, my stomach has been upset since yesterday morning & seems to getting worse. Plus add in that weather.
Sigh.
I can't just bitch at all of you though, good things have happened to. The Tigers killed the A's in their first playoff game. I got a swap package from England! I finished spinning up some sock yarn. & sign ups are going well for the swap I'm hostessing~

Thanks Alison (you didn't leave me an email address or a website so I hope you stop by to see that they made it here find) I love the Jo Sharp yarn!

I spun up another hank of my superwash merino roving, this time in the Weber colorway. My last batch was just over 300 yards & I really want a true sock weight, so here's round two.

4oz & 415 yards! That makes me happy. I'll have to measure WPI & get a better pic (no sun what-so-ever at 2 in the afternoon....) after I finishing setting the twist.
Before any of you ask me, no I don't spin a balanced sock yarn. I quite on purpose do not. I'm with Eunny attempting to make something a bit like Koigu. I spin a softer single & then  ply it really tight. Before setting the twist my yarn looks a bit like this~

But it's nice a straight after a soak & some drying with a weight holding the hank tight.

Just a  quick reminder, it's not to late to get in on my Hand spun Sock Yarn Swap!

I found a bit of time for some spinning today. Bev sent me a fun little bit of roving with my KSKS package. It was about 2 ounces of hand dyed wool. The roving had gotten felted a bit when it had been dyed, so I decided to try a fun & funky technique for spinning it up, coils!

I managed to get 63 yards of coil yarn out of 2 ounces (way more than I expected) Now I just need to figure out what to knit with it...

I also took a better picture of the sock yarn I spun up for my mom's birthday. We still haven't seen much sun, but it did peak out a little today~

I also finished up a project that needed so little work, but waited months to get it's attention. I knitted up this Entrelac pillow for the class I was teaching & today we had the last session, so I got to sew on the backing & put in the form!

(the secret to sewing knitting? fabric to the feed dogs/knitting to the presser foot & lots of pins. Went through the machine like butter)

Tonight I made tons of progress on my Sock Candy Dragon Socks. I'll probably finish these tomorrow~

The first sock has been through the washer & dryer so that's why it's so much lighter. I wanted to check on shrinkage before knitting the second sock up (no shrinkage noticed).

So, after I finish these I'm casting on for a new pair of socks... Yeah I said I wouldn't, but I need some of those Baseball Socks from Interweave knits with a big D embroidered on them before next Saturday. Why?

Because after 12 years of losing baseball & only 3 years after being the second to worst team of all time the Tigers have done the impossible~

They won the American League Pennant and are going to the World Series!!!!

(and I need some special socks to cheer them on)
(plus I just heard that my favorite Tiger, Sean Casey, who got injured the first game of the series is planning to be back for the World Series. He's just the nicest guy in baseball)

We had a bit of sun this last few days & I can finally show off the Orchid I gave my mom for her Birthday. I don't do terribly well with houseplants, so I leave that to her, but I sure love looking at the end result!

I had such a hard time choosing. Her request was something unusual looking. It came down to the frilly purple spotted one (above) and a odd green one that reminded me of a pitcher plant w/ spotted leaves. The purple won simply because it had an unopened bud so it would last longer.

I also finished up the first orange handspun sock!

All I can say right now is that there will be many handspun socks in my future...

I also was a bit bad & started a new shawl (because the peacock shawl is really trying my patience right now...).
I want to introduce the Adagio Merging Colors Shawl (kit from Candice Eisner Strick) The shawl uses 8 colors of lace weight, 3 strands at a time, for a total of 24 color combos. This allows you to slowly shift from one color to the next!

I like the extra increases along the neck edge in the beginning of the shawl so it stays on when you wear it. Here's a closeup, I've gotten into the 3rd color combo... can you see the changes?

(it's only slightly more noticeable in person)

Okay, since this is post v.2 (thanks to a power outage) you're getting the short version of the store this time.
I've had basically no voice for 2 days now. Luckily I'm on the mend, with any luck I'll be able to teach my class tomorrow morning. (and do inventory all weekend) Thank goodness that I was finally in a position to take a sick day. Thursday I spend the whole day silently cursing the phone every time it rang and helping customers the best I could with head nods and pointing. The thing I feel really bad about is that Thursday night Trent kept sneaking on the table to get my chicken noodle soup & even going so far as to drink from my water glass. Now he's been sneezing all day. Ever see a cat sneeze? It's pretty funny, but I feel really bad that he's sick too.

So, what does a knitter do when she's sick & her defenses are down? Spin of course.

I spun up an entire 400 yd of sock yarn on Thursday!

This yarn is headed off to my HandSpun Sock Yarn Swap partner on Monday. It's from my new Superwash Merino & Tencel roving. I'm (Gesundheit! Trent) so in love with this yarn, I'm glad I dyed up 8oz so I can spin up a hank for myself. Actually I dyed up 4oz each of 2 different versions of the same colorway, same proportions but the colors were in a different order. Then I spun up random chunks, one bobbin from each version. That way if the colors ever lined up in plying they changed differently so that the final yarn is really random. I really like the final yarn (did I say that already?, old formula Nyquil rocks)

This morning afternoon I turned my attention to finishing up my Crown Mountain (Gesundheit!) Farms Sock Hop roving.

One bobbin down, the other's about 1/3 full.
BTW. I need to say Thank You! to my Secret Pal. She outdid herself again with a fun package of Sock Yarn & one of my favorite albums (one I'm very happy to now have on CD).

Yep, still sick, still spinning. I don't know what it is about being sick. I just can't knit. Knitting requires too much coordinated thought & fine motor skills. Spinning is relaxing. Once I get the wheel moving nice and even & get my hands drafting it's almost hypnotic. The only thought is remembering to move the hook so the bobbin fills evenly.
I finished up the first 4oz of the Crown Mountain Farm roving that I received in the Spinning Roving Swap. I wasn't entirely in love with this colorway until it was plyed. This hank is a gift, but I'm itching to spin up the rest for myself.
The color is Twist & Shout, but to me it has a UFO feel to it (maybe Area 51?).

I do have one more post & group of photos from the trip that I edited on the plane. I'll try to get those posted later on Monday. I've just been too jet lagged to do much more than sit here and spin or yammer on endlessly to my family. As I mentioned earlier this month spinning is my comfort craft. When I'm too sick/tired/or whatever to knit, spinning helps me center, it's almost a meditation.
While at Madrona I picked up a couple of pounds of roving (some of it for gifting...) I really love Crown Mountain Farm Sock Hop Roving. This time I picked up 'Love me Tender'.

I'm spinning up my first 3-ply sock yarn. I'm hoping that 8oz will be enough for two pairs of socks. One for a very special friend & a matching pair for me. That would rock.

I also picked up a new spinning toy while in Friday Harbor...

It's the Drawstring box from Lantern Moon. It's completely lined & so perfect for holding spinning fiber or yarn. I think I've finally been talked into ordering Lantern Moon products for my store. Trust me, you all need one of these!

So, things are a bit weird here right now. I'm knitting a ton, but I only have a few projects that can be blogged. I think this transition is going to take a bit to get used to.
One thing I do really want to share with you though is a swatch I'm knitting (yes, for the book, but I don't think it gives away anything wink*)

At Cat's retreat I was luckily gifted with a partial ball of Buffalo Gold yarn. I've been swatching all sorts of patterns to see what it wanted to be. I am so impressed with this yarn! At first in the ball it seemed stiff and maybe even a little rough. However as soon as I started knitting with it magic happened. The knitted fabric is silky soft & insanely warm. I pulled my brother over & had him wrap his hand in the swatch. He agreed that this yarn warms you up immediately. It's like an oven. The stitch definition is great, even with the slight halo that's forming the stitches show through easily. I'm just enjoying every stitch. I can't wait to start the book project with the yarn. (plus I saw on their website that they how have a blend with Nylon for socks! Buffalo is naturally non-feltable too!)

Next up, I'm knitting away on my handspun socks. I chose the Friday Harbor pattern from Knitting on the Road to commemorate my recent trip. I'm making a few modifications though. I shifted the top lace pattern so it flows better into the rest of the sock & I switched the heel to a short row heel. I can totally tell the difference in knitting with a 3-ply vs a 2-ply. I think all my sock yarns will be 3-ply from now on. Only, next time I'm splitting the yarn into 3 even parts before I start spinning. I had to finish up with some Navajo plying to use up the singles.

The other knitting project I can mention is my current anywhere socks. I knit the first one on the plane. The second one is riding in my KnowKnits pouch for any unexpected lines or knitting moments. The yarn is Socks That Rock Heavyweight in Mist.

Okay, one last thing to throw out there... I was so inspired by the amazing power of the visionary retreat. I'd really like to share a version of that creative power with all of you. I'm now brewing hosting a knitting retreat. Right now the thought is to find some secluded place in Northern Michigan & bring in a Nationally know knitting instructor to teach two days of classes, probably in October 2008. Today I looked around at conference/retreat centers & I think I found someplace that would suit our needs... Drummond Island Resort. Before I go any further in planning this I'd love to know what you all think (especially those of you here in Michigan). If there is enough interest I will be delighted to plan this event. The power of that many knitters in one place is amazing, you just leave feeling completely energized. I hope you all are willing to give it a try~

It's been darn cold here lately. Nothing like double digit below zero temps to drive you to curling up on the couch with your knitting (and iPod...). I spent the last few days doing pretty much that with the Mid Michigan Knitters Guild (minus the couch & iPod). We all headed off to the Kellogg Biological Station for our annual knitting retreat (wonderful location for a retreat, just be sure to get good directions...ie not Google maps). I was very honored this year by being asked to teach one of the classes.
The class the first afternoon was on Shadow Knitting. It's an interesting technique that by knitting with only 1 color per row & just using knits/purls you can create nifty hidden images. Looking straight on a piece it just looks like lots of stripes...

But when you look at an angle the hidden pattern is revealed!

You can find lots of free patterns for this type of knitting my searching Shadow or Illusion knitting. Plus Vivian Hoxbro wrote an excellent book on the subject.

Then the second morning I taught Mobius knitting. We all started a basic scarf. Someone shoot me next time I agree to teach 25 knitters a new cast-on (just kidding, I think it actually went well). Everyone was smiling by the end of the class, so I count it as successful. I know I love the yarn my mobius is being knit out of. It's Easy Soft from Gedifra (kid mohair & cashmere!)

I used the yarn doubled on size 9 needles. I literally used up every last inch of the white & beige and will come close to using up all the black by the time the attached i-cord is complete. (I'm doing a 3 stitch i-cord, which I figured would use 3 rounds worth of yarn. So, I stopped 4 rounds from what I was able to do with the first 2 balls.) I love this scarf. It reminds me of all the fugley things in my 80's knitting books. Specifically a purl ridge, bat wing (dolmen sleeve), mohair jacket in shades of blue, green, and purple (from the book Wild Knitting). I'm totally going to wear this all the time!

At the retreat I also finished my Rose wristwarmers~

& got most of my second knee high sock knit (STR Heavy weight in Mist).

I also got brave enough to weigh the first one to see if I left enough yarn for #2. The first sock weighed 3.5oz on the nose, luckily that exactly half a skein. *let out deep breath*
I also discovered a project that missed blogging. The first of my Friday Harbor Socks! I finished this at Knit Michigan last weekend. Unfortunately the big push for finishing came when I needed the needle to use for my class sample. So, since that sock is still on the needles I haven't started sock #2 for this pair yet...

So, I hope you all had a nice holiday. I sure enjoy those 'extra' days off I can occasionally sneak in. This day off was quite unusual for me in that I got up earlier than I do on a work day, why?
I was asked to march in the 4th of July parade. Perhaps it's more accurate to say Robin was asked to be in the parade...

Actually I was there supporting Friends of Greater Lansing Dog Parks. Robin & I got all decked out in our Red White & Blue and basically went for a walk in the rain. Robin was just so excited when we first got there & there were all these other dogs, and floats, and belly dancers, and giant purple dinosaurs (no not Barney, the Big Lug!)... He didn't get overwhelmed until close to when the parade started and things got a little crazy, and then cars started back firing. Luckily once we started walking he relaxed again. I love the group of people/dogs that we meet at these events & I'm really looking forward to the dog park opening so Robin can go & play with his new friends!

Later we simply settled in watched a ball game, watched some movies, and attempted to keep Robin calm once the fireworks started going off.

Tour De Fleece(s) is/are starting up this weekend. I'm signed up (twice). The reason this is getting a little confusing is because I found two separate groups running Tour De Fleece.

You can find one here.
And another here.

I just signed up both places & am calling it good.

My main challenge is going to be to spin every day of the Tour. Since I'll be working long hours between the store & also at my second job working on Wicked it will be quite a challenge to find time to spin every day.

My secondary challenge is to spin up this fleece:

This is a Jacob Fleece I purchased in 2005. It's washed (despite what the photo looks like there is no yellow in it), but full of vm & not yet carded.
It took an hour or so to come up with this:

One batt Brown, One batt White
Only a few dozen more to go.

Okay, now the excuse~
I've been getting alot of flack lately about the fact that I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books. There are many reasons why:
1~ When they first were released they were too popular. I hated popular. Anything the majority of America loves I just assume I will hate. That pretty much brings me up to about 2 years ago when I finally accepted that perhaps, on this one fad, they were correct.
2~ I'm impatient. I know once I start reading them I will burn through those books like brush fire & will then be in the same pond as all you guys drooling for the last book to come out. Right now I don't fully understand what I'm missing, so I'm patiently waiting. I've waited all these years, what's a few more weeks...
3~ I perhaps am a little OCD. When I have books that belong in a series I hate having different editions. I sometimes purchase a whole new set just so they can all have the same covers (and they can NEVER be movie covers, I hate movie covers). I even purchased my set of The Hobit & The Lord of The Rings Trilogy in Canada just so I could get the edition I spotted in Belgium & fell in love with.
I hunted down the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books for years to find the ones that had the matching set of cover art that I really like.
My books need to match!
The reason this applies is that if I purchase the first 6 books now I will be purchasing the boxed set of the first 6 books. That's the most economical way for me to do it. My issue is there are 7 books & I'll have a boxed set of 6 (plus one Hard Cover). That will haunt me forever. I suppose I can purchase a second copy of book 7 once it is released in softcover (hopefully with a cover that matches the current books...), but still the box will only hold 6 of them. I'm not sure if I can deal with that.
I have no desire for a set of Hardcovers. I don't like reading from them. Ideally I like trade back editions (which I believe the current set of soft covers are).
Okay perhaps that's further into my mind than I should show all of you.
I hope you guys will lay off me a bit on the HP thing. I will read the books. I really really want to read the books. There is a big chance of me heading over the Schulers tomorrow to perhaps buy a few books...