sip

The third Saturday of September is world wide spin in public day (sip) So I took my wheel to the son's baseball game and spun about a half bobbin of yarn :)

So busy with school preparations and running after the kids I don't knit spin or play at all lately. Hoping it settles down soon!

Go out and spin in public today!

it's official

i managed to spin over 2 Kilos of yarn during July... 2020g to be exact. I finished the BFL/BL fleece (the never ending brown fleece) and swatched to see what kind of vest I can make for DH. Using US8 needle I get 16 stitches x 23 rows for a 4x4 square.

Smaller needles gives a fabric that is too dense. (trust me I've knitted 1/4 vest on 5's and 6's... and ripped out both)

I'm almost finished the first recycled cashmere sweater blanket... couple of things to do yet, but it's pretty nice If I do say so myself. Grays, black and a touch of grey, white and red argyle. Needless to say, it's super soft.. trimming it with black blanket binding
Here's a sneak preview:


There's still some work to do, but it's looking pretty good.

OK... gonna grab a banana and be off to bed. I've been a little under the weather lately.

guess what I made?

These

Sliced

Reamed with my new toy from the Moravian Cookshop. A whole pound of these babies.




and baked to perfection

for the hubster for tmrw after the Iron Pigs game. Our neighbor gave us 2 tickets for a late morning game so he's taking the boy who LOVES baseball, while I wait for the window repairman to come.

The recipe for the body of the pie is from Emeril's (the same one I always use) but this time I topped it with meringue from the Joy of Cooking cookbook.

THe mans' birthday is Saturday, so I'm trying to surprise him a little each day this week. Yesterday I brought home the cutest t-shirt from the zoo... 4 beetles crossing a pedestrian crosswalk.. and it says in the correct font The Beetles. Today was a few dark chocolate truffles from the Moravian cookshop. Champagne, cappucino, coffee, raspberry, amaretto, and some pyramid looking one. Sunday was a Phillies towel that you take to the game. Monday was a lost day, I'm afraid. but I have lots more planned for him.

Just a bird's eye shot of what I made during the 2011 Tour de Fleece. There's lots of yarn there... and a few rolags to spin yet. It will be finished before school starts.

if at first you don't succeed......

been cleaning out.... garage attic, basement front.

We have to move everything from the front of the basement out so the guys can convert the furnace. It WILL be finished by Sunday...Temporary inconvenience for permanent improvement.


I started the recycled cashmere patch blanket. It's all laid out and one length is sewn. It would be a cute scarf. If it turns out OK, I may gift it to the SIL who loves black.. THis is all blacks and greys.. that is if she likes it. If not, it will get plenty of use at my house... after the grey/black will come the colored... pinks, burgundies, greens, tans and browns.


My SIL comes Monday. The erupting volcano in Chile is delaying her flight. She WAS to arrive tomorrow.

And of course the spinning continues. Today I plied this. Lesson learned, don't navajo ply when the youngest wants your attention.


I'll never finish the Brown BFL THere is SO much fiber.... Although I did locate my hand carders today. So it will make things go much easier. I wish I could rent a drum carder. It would make my spinning life so very much easier....

spinning wheels

well I've tried twice to post a movie.. to no avail

but I will give you a sneak peek what I've veen working on while the boys in France are pedaling their brains out.

summer, ah!

We're all off from school now. Swim lessons start tmrw. Kids finished Friday. I was done Tuesday. I'm forgetting all about the place. I still have no clue where I'll be come Aug 24 so I really am not going to waste any of my summer planning... phhhhhhhhhhhbbbbbbt!






I've been spinning up a storm... did some sheep and cheingora, reclaiming wool from sweaters, knitting and trying to finish off a project or two. This is the latest accomplishment. All the lizard ridge squares are now blocked and I've begun to sew them into strips.. I hope to have the blanket assembled by next week, so I can work on the border. If it's complete in time, I *may* enter it in the Allentown fair... we'll see.

I've started a clapotis for an unnamed recipient.

And we had guests for dinner last night. I made this yummo Rachel Ray recipe with lemon pesto on penne with asparagus, zuchinni and french green beans. Very fresh and summery. Finished the meal with homemade tiramisu. There were other yummies to munch on as well, but you get the drift! I sent the lady of the evening home with my cloth experiment:


Yarn: Elmore Pisgah cotton
Color: Potpourri
Pattern: my own unvention
Needle: US7
Recipient: Boksans

Here's the pattern as I remember:
CO 45
K 1 row
k2, [knit 3 pass first knit stitch over other 2, YO] repeat to last stitch K1
purl
k1 [knit 3 pass first knit stitch over other 2, YO] repeat to last stitch K2
purl
bind off when length desired is reached.
Not terribly exciting
Use it if you'd like for whatever but please don't call it your own. You can link back here although I'm sure I didn't make up the stitch myself... It's unvented

let the games begin

the Olympics that is......

and the knitting olympics as well :-D

This is my challenge. The Every Way Wrap from Interweave Knits Fall 2009 issue. I frogged my endless cable poncho after I discovered there wouldn't be enough yarn.... well honestly, I frogged it last night. My first intention was to knit the wrap with a merino cashmere blend of recycled wool but there wasn't enough of that either. So I'm using the yarn from the endless poncho and pulling out the little country additions (barby things) as I go.

I knit the ribbing tonight during the opening... did the first row of the chart and am now stuck on the cable row.. which way to read the chart... so I want back to the original page and several closer photos and think I have it figured out now.

More sledding today... although I only went down 2 times.. yesterday's tumbles have taken their toll on me. I'm not as young as I once was... Then DH came over with the car so I could run DS2 to gymnastics.. his thought was that he'd bring DD later... until I got there and realized that I had both sets of car keys... so she missed her class... I should have just taken her with me which was my original thought.. but oh well.....

off to knit another row.. i've been spending much of the time during these days spinning..... rambo that is so fluffy I can barely stand it!

stripey socks

for babies are such a quick knit! And yes I did make 2... feet come in pairs after all, s should socks!

Pattern:Pitter Patter socks by Jacqueline ZIegler
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK
Colors: jade and hollyberry
Needle: US5

These go with the gnome baby hat below.... for the same baby...

Next on to teacher gifts!

Tonight I started to ply some samoyed chiengora... it's really soft :D

what season?

the end for baseball
technically fall
feels like winter

Yesterday it snowed all day while I was at work. Here at home it was raining with some snow mixed in. BRRRRRRRRRR
Perfect for knitting.
DD's girl scout troop had a field trip to theLehigh Valley Amateur Astronomer's Society to see their equipment and have a planetarium show. As much as I want to see all those constellations, I just don't get it. I must have NO imagination.
I'm exhausted... don't ask me why cuz I have no clue. But all I want to do is sleep
I've knit 3 cowls this week.


Pattern: Birthday Cowl by Nova Seals
Yarn: Moda Dea Silk 'n Wool Blend
Color: plum
Needle: US 8 / 5.0 mm
I tried to start this 3 times last year and put it away... this time it flew off the needles


Pattern: Holland Cow by Jenny Raymond and Chris Church
Yarn: Paton's Shetland Chunky Tweed
Color: Deep Red
Needle: US 10



Pattern: Cherry Garcia by Adrian Bizilla
Yarn: Paton's Shetland Chunky Tweed
Color: Biscuit
Needle: US11


The above are both free ravelry downloads. If you don't belong to ravelry, you should it's free and AWESOME!

I have another in mind. And I've been working on a reverse log cabin blanket during bus duty from acrylic stash that was donated to the cause this summer. This will go to Linus project. I started it thinking I'd make a blanket from long strips instead of 'squares' but then found a ton of the same yarn as well as coordinating yarns so I used one skein for a side... and then started the large square... kind of making it up as I go. Should be interesting......

I've been spinning chiengora... from a friend's dog... .it's so soft... unbelievable....

oh and GO PHILS!

tour de fleece

here's the latest spinning. I'm calling it oceana. There's more than this spun... but I have almost 2/3 left to spin...


and this is the grape ice that I finished earlier on in the tour.

I've been knitting.. finished fetching for Gail... picture tmrw... and all but finished the plain squares for the way afghan.

And I've been deconstructing... so far these are deconstructing and in the to be frogged pile
JCrew XL maroon 100 wool










Abercrombie & Fitch Men's XL cable 80 wool/20 nylon










GAP stretch red lambswool crewneck M 97 Lambswool/1 spandex/2 other











JCREW Blue Lambswool Mens' L










Carole Little L beige cable v neck 54 nylon/40 angora rabbit/6 lambswool

technically

for me it's still Sunday since I haven't hit the bed yet. DH and I sang a Vivaldi concert today at a Cathedral in town. There were 5 of us soloists. It was really fun. I enjoyed it. Wish I had had more to sing though. As I was sitting in the concert I was thinking of all the pictures to put on the blog, but sorry none for today. Hopefully I'll get some on tmrw. I was also admiring my new bracelet and it dawned on me that the bracelet part is much akin to a knitted i-cord... and the charms slide over the i-cord. Promise that I'll post pictures tmrw.

A very old dear friend found me on facebook today. I was pleasantly surprised. Haven't talked/seen him in more than 30 years. I'm sure we wouldn't recognize each other.

I frogged a bit more tonight and finished another lizard ridge square. So that means I've only hit about 9 balls of yarn so far this year... I really better get moving if I'm ever going to make 200. I keep harvesting yarn from sweaters and making more stash instead of knitting it and making it disappear.

This week I go to DS's school to demonstrate spinning. Tmrw I must make some rolags and prepare for that lesson... 2 classes of 50 1st graders. What excitement! It makes for a short work week for me though which is always good. Work Tuesday and Wednesday, off Thursday and work Friday.. can't complain at all :-D

OK.. I think I'm going to bed now... DS2 already came looking for me. So I need to put him back in his bed and crawl into my own!

it's nice to know

that I own 7 out of the 10 top ten knitting tools (according to knitpicks)

• ball winder
  
• umbrella swift
  
• view sizer
  
• WPI tool and knit card
  
• sweater wizard - nope and prolly won't need it for quite some time
  
• Chart keeper - may be something that comes in handy once I learn to read charts
  
• circular knitting needle size ID tags
  
• Kookaburra Woolwash - i have woolwash, but not kookaburra, and will most likely make my own next time with Dr. Bronner's lavendar castille soap and some lanolin and maybe a bit more lavendar EO
  
• Knitting Row Counter Plus - I have one but not the PLUS...
  
• Lace BLocking Wires
  

I knocked this out today

4.5 oz of Targhee that spun (on Louise, my Louët S10) into about 252 yards of worsted weight singles. I've been wanting to spin fatter so this was a good go, although it was made a bit tougher by some less than wonderful roving. Still debating about overdying half of it then plying to a really bulky weight 125 yards... have to sleep on it.

How about that Phelps? He needs to find some words though I'm tired of hearing that he's speechless. Mark Spitz was so eloquent last night during the interview. The man looks good for being in his what early 60s.....

And Bolt from Jamaica really lived up to his nickname of lightning.. man I wonder how fast he would have been if he wasn't coasting the last 10 meters or so?

Dana, well she's one amazing woman. And that's all I'm gonna say about the olympics except that it was a good night watching!

Ok.. back to knitting now

oh no

where did it go? summer that is. I feel really sad about the encroaching school year... I can't believe summer is about over. And I'm more than a bit anxious about this school year being split between the 2 buildings. I can't get my mojo to get ready and start.

I wanted to finish painting my room in the old building yesterday, but that wasn't in the cards. So it will have to come on Monday. At least I can stay until 4 that day.

On a knitterly knote (yes that spelling was intentional) yesterday I learned the Turkish cast on and knit baby booties (one at a time) on 2 circulars. I'm on my second pair and the more I do it the easier it is. This will open a whole new window in my sock knitting (once I buy some smaller number circs - like 1s and 2s - I'm thinking options silver and harmony would do nicely!)

Today I started spinning some targhee I won on ebay for a song. 4.5 ounces of kettle dyed for $3.10 plus shipping. There's a reason it was so inexpensive. There is quite a bit of VM in it and it's a bit felted IMO... so I'm spinning it low twist and kind of thick (and sometimes thinner) I was going to leave it as singles but I think I may 2 ply it (after I overdye one of the plies a darker blue) Right now it's bright berry blue (you know the Kool Aid shade) so some darkness thrown in could be good. Then it could be really nice mittens for DS2 :-)

Speaking of mittens, the ones on the cover of the Fall Vogue are simply stunning and not surprisingly designed by Jared Flood. He is amazing, his knitting, spinning, photography and design... and to think it's not his livelihood. That man has talent! First time I passed the mag by because of all the charts for the patterns I liked, but had second thoughts that maybe I should learn to read charts so in the end I coughed over the bucks to buy it.

DH took the kids to BounceU for open bounce this AM cuz we had free passes left from DS1's birthday party there. Then we went to Perkins for breakfast. Kind of a lazy day here at home. Trying to eek out the last few relaxing moments of the season.

Off to check out the moon scope. I thought about it early yesterday, but it was so cloudy. Turned out to be a beautiful night with a full moon. Should have gotten it out for the kids to see. Tonight I'll be better prepared and also ready to watch Phelps take his possible 8th gold... what excitement!

tour mosaic

or trying this


1. BFL finished by 7/23, 2. Finn and BFL, 3. BFL singles, 4. Ashland Bay, 5. Lincoln Longwool, 6. alpaca

brown sheep, brown sheep

here's what I have spun of the BFL so far:

It's about 1200 yards. I still have a bit more to go. But DH chose a vest that he likes. I need to spin/ply up some contrasting yarn (about 150 yards)

We bought a new camera today, the Olympus E510. Just in time for vacation. DH has been playing with it since we've come home. He says it's for the family. He's the one that talked into a DSLR. I hope that I get to use it sometime. It could make fro great pictures on my blog.

I'm too tired to post more. I want to sleep.

where does the time go?

I realized that I didn't post pictures of the skeins I've made.
This is Finn that was navajo plied (my first) and then dyed with McCormick Food (black and neon blue) coloring and kool aid(tropical fruit punch mixed with lemonade - a little red goes a looooooooong way) Not exactly what I was going for but....I think it will become socks. Still have to measure the wpi on it and this next picture which is the BFL for DH's Christmas (crossing my fingers) vest. I ordered a book from amazon mentioned here but I'm still waiting on it. Anyway, these three skeins are a smidge over 450 yards. I have 2 more bobbins of single ply finished and I'm working on the third so I can triple ply more this week and hopefully finish before the Champs-Élysées. I'm so enjoying watchin the boys race. DH doesn't get my sudden interest in bicycling, but it's good company while I'm spinning in my own race!



We have a new bunny chomping on the clover in the yard. I wonder if it's a relative to the ones we had in the beginning of the summer and our wild 'pet' from last summer. This guy is definitely not used to us though. The one from last summer would stay in his/her spot no matter how close we got.

And I've finished another square of the Lizard Ridge. Color 147A


My ravelry dishcloth partner got her package today so I can post some pictures :-)

Pattern: wave pool by Carol Bristol
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream Stripes
Color: Tie Dye Stripes
Needle: US6

The exchange is for a dishcloth and a ball of yarn and the theme was summer so this is what I sent. My partner seemed very happy with her package and for that I'm very glad.

Opening day for the other exchange I participated in is August 1, so those pictures will have to wait!

DH proved himself the repairman on Saturday. We bought a used radio/CD/tape player from a junkyard in TX for our van to replace the one that DS2 used as a piggybank and the man did all the work himself. I was impressed!

Sunday we had a family get together for all the July birthdays (there are 4 in the family) Food aplenty. The theme being the birthday peoples favorites. There was hamburgers (my brothers) twice baked potatoes(nephew) potato salad (DH) asparagus salad (DH) pea salad (SIL) deviled eggs (EVERYONE) fruit salad for the kids and my mom who shouldn't eat all the tempting desserts: Penn State Cheesecake (nephew), chocolate cake (DH), cherry cobbler (SIL) chocolate chip cookies (brother) not to mention ice cream and an ice cream cake that I don't think we got to! Good food... and we got to see the 5th Harry Potter movie (which we don't own) I'm getting hooked on Hogwarts!

DH was convinced that I was going to have to head out to get a copy of my birth certificate so that we can go Canuk for a bit. (our passports have expired) but I sent him back to the bank to check the safety deposit box again because he wasn't too convincing that it wasn't there (after I spent over an hour looking for it here at home) and sure enough, there it was with some other important papers like our marriage certificate... well at least we can go now without wasting a day to get the paperwork!

well I really should card some wool and finish Ghandi so I can send it back to Netflix. I sent for it and DH has no interest in seeing it (again)

butterflying

2 emerged from their pupas. We decided to release those 2 today... I think one has a problem though. It's chrysalis had fallen to the bottom of the tent. Until I saw it emerged one of the back wings was folded over.. I think it dried that way... so we coaxed it out with a sugar stick and put it on the neighbors butterfly bush (it's still there). I hope it makes it. The first to emerge went to the bush, sucked up some nectar, flew around a bit and then took off.....now the waiting game for the other 2 to come out.

of course I was spinning yesterday... I spin and spin and it seems that I make no progress.

The sleeve of that cashmere sweater yielded 526 yards of 40 wpi yarn. I'm hoping to rescue the other yarn in decent shape... don't ask me to do what with... maybe socks, maybe ply with something else... hmmmmmmm.

After sorting all that Polly Pocket stuff, DD decided she wants to keep it...I was afraid of that.

oh well, I need some coffee......happy crafting!

la tour de France fleece

silly me... what do I know about bike riding, except that I used to do it all the time in my youth. Well I've actually spent quite a bit of time watching the tour while spinning myself... not on 2 wheels though only on one and only using 1 foot. And here's what I have to show for it so far:

2 bobbins(started the third) of single ply BFL. I admit to cheating a bit on this, as it had been started before the race, but it's mostly what I'll be spinning this month.






and 408 yard of navajo plied Finn. This was taking up a bobbin and seeing that I only had one bobbin, I decided to practice navajo plying. (took me forever to do all 400 yards) It's my first attempt at this type of ply so it's not too bad. I'll probably dye this and make socks for myself :-)

I did a bit of spindle spinning early (as in 2 AM) Monday to try to finish off the Licoln fleece that I have. There's only about a pound left and I'd like to get it all spun. Have no clue what it will become... and also return P's Ashford spindle. I prefer the top whorl to the bottom whorl, but want to finish all this yarn the same.


Monday, we went to the DaVinci Science Center DD has been bugging me to go for months. Finally I found a place where I wasn't the only dalfujensia in the family :-) (I'm not sure I spelled that correctly.. I'll ask DH in the morning). It's like a please touch museum of all things science. DS2 wasn't impressed but found some things that he was attracted to. I'm sure we'll be back to visit again, especially since it's only about 15 minutes from home! Afterwards we went to the nearby Perkins for a late lunch (we were all starving). As we were almost ready to leave an older woman came up to me to remark how beautiful our children were. And how patient we were as parents (you talkin' 'bout me?????) Actually the kids were having a good day. And were in a particulary snuggly mimos mood. Anyway, that really warmed the cockles of my heart, so thanks ma'am!

Guess I need to think of something for Tuesday! The in-laws leave for home Wednesday evening. I don't know if we're all going to the airport or just DH... probably the latter. It's such a long trip to drag the kids on, plus the van is still in the shop.

Speaking of..... the shop called today. Apparently it's all related to the alternator. When the alternator goes wacky, so does the computer and all the misbehavior is related. I had DH mention to the mechanic about DS2 thinking that the cassette player was piggybank last summer. (Oddly enough a woman called in to car talk about this very thing last week) Carlos, the mechanic, said "oh.... that's not good" meaning that it could also be related. So we may be shopping in the junk yards for a new radio/tape/CD component to install (click and clack's suggestion as well) Maybe it's unrelated, but for a while the radio would turn itself on and off depending on how the coins were in the tape deck. I retrieved quite a number of them, but some are impossible to reach and I'm sure have worked their way in even farther. He was an equal opportunity depositor... any denomination worked as long as it was a coin! Even pesos, bridge and chucky cheese tokens. That's my boy... an investor!

OK... now for some knitting news. I've started Lizard Ridge square 12 with my new LM needles. I think that they are cursed. I've had to rip back 3 times now and each time I was on the last wave repeat..... it's ok, I'm method with this one. no rush to finish!

But these are finished:

Pattern: Charade by Sandra Park
Yarn: ColorMe
Color: Regal
Needle: KnitPicks Harmony dpns US2 (3 mm)
For: ME!!

Love the stitch pattern. Wish that this yarn didn't flash but oh well.... this is a great stitch pattern for a guys sock as well and super easy to memorize. I'll probably make DH a pair in a solid (black, blue, brown, or tan... you know a boring color) But they will definitely be on my feet as soon as the weather cools a bit. (I wore them to spin last night hehehe) I'm really loving the sock thing right now. It's become my new obsession (pushed dishcloths right out of the running... but they'll be back) I have a few skeins of sock yarn to use... then I have an excuse to buy more :-D


In nature news, we have 4 painted lady chrysalis now. One fell off the little paper that it was suppose to attach to and is laying at the bottom of the butterfly garden. Hope that doesn't damage the metamorphosis process. I tried to take pictures but they don't do them justice. They're kind of a brown with these shiny gold dots on them. and only about an inch long, much smaller than the black swallowtail that we did last summer. I think about 10 days we'll have butterflies. I learned when we were at the butterfly house that black swallowtails will not voluntarily feed when in captivity. You need to uncurl the proboscis onto the nectar.... which explains why our guy was not interested at all in the watermelon pieces we gave him. Had I known... at any rate he was released in plently of time to eat and mate (which after all is what they're supposed to do) I'm excited for the kids to see the process again. DD will be studying about growth this year as one of the units of inquiry and they concentrate on butterflies.


Well I'm off to spin some more before retiring...

happy crafting

Happy Turkey Day

hope they all were able to hide! (being a vegetarian...)

We're off to my Brother and SIL's house who has graciously taken over hosting this year since our dad just got out of the hospital yesterday from his surgery. We were afraid he might still be in and they live about 15 minutes from the hospital as opposed to us (who usually host Thanksgiving) who live about 100 minutes away...at any rate, it will be good to all be together again as I don't know how many more holidays we'll have with the rents.

Just wanted to post a picture of the balaclava that I made for DS2. Of course he refuses to wear it as such (which was the whole point of making it) but DS1 loves it so he is modeling for me. Actually it fits him a bit better than it does his younger brother and he wants it so it shall be his! I'll put more details in later with a better picture.

Here's another DW cloth I finished for the Christmas stack. Won't say who this is for in case they read this blog (doubtful but you never know) If you want the specifics on the DW cloth go to the sidebar and click on the Infamous Darrell Waltrip cloth link under 2007 FOs all the info will be under that picture. I can say that the one in today's photowas knit with Early American Ombre colorway of Sugar and Cream. I love the colors!

I have been spinning VERY sporadically.. perhaps I'll take some along with my knitting today.

have a blessed holiday and happy crafting

Balaclava

just thought I'd post an in-progress photo of DS2's balaclava. It's based on the Jackyll and Hyde from Knitty.com so there's full face coverage with just 2 openings for the eyes. I don't think I'll add the embroidered skeleton face details. Hope it fits his little head. It's from 100purewool merino so it's really soft.
The color reminds me of denim. Wish I had enough to make a pullover for myself, but there are only 3 skeins... enough for this and a pair of mittens with long cuffs for the boy...

Dad gets his carotid fixed tmrw so it's in better shape for his bladder surgery next Tuesday... My heart goes out to that guy.... this isn't a fun part of his life.

I just realized that I didn't post pictures of the targhee cross that was plied... about 1300 yard in these 2 skeins
the dark in the yarn is grease that got on the yarn. Hoping that it washes out when I soak the yarn before I dye it. It's about 17 wpi so that puts it at a thin fingering weight or thick lace weight... I'm thinking socks.