Planned Purlhood

My Tour didn’t go quite as planned due to some minor (as in they didn’t DO anything while they were in there) surgery on Bastille Day.  I spent ~5 days after the laparoscopy mimicking a beached whale, which took the wind out of my sails for the rest of the Tour.

Finished yarns:

“New Day”  Corriedale

“Goblin Eyes” Merino/Bamboo

“Joshua Tree” BFL

Singles (plied after the Tour was over)

“Gunmetal” Merino/Alpaca

I’m skeining the last bit up tonight.  Should come out w/ around 500 yards of light fingering weight 2-ply.  I have ~12 more oz of that blend, so if I need more of the yarn, I can spin some more!  Handy how that works.

This week’s Farmers Market featured a cookbook sale.  I totally scored!  (Only wish they had one of the OLD Betty Crocker cookbooks w/ the spiral binding, but alas I will have to keep hunting)

Jane Brody, Fanny Farmer, James Beard, and “Russian Tea Room Cookbook”.  Johnny was excited to see the last one of that list, being 1/2 Russian and all.  I was happy to find the hardbound copy of the Beard and Fanny Farmer.

I leave you with this morning’s sunrise via my commute home.

It’s that time again. When spinners lose all sense of reality and try and spin every day during the Tour de France.

I’m gearing up. Literally. As soon as said “gears” arrive from the other side of the planet, I’m sure I’ll be breaking my own records.

I’m spinning for Team Monkey Farts. This is the Spunky Eclectic’s club followers “Team”. I haven’t been able to afford the club for some time, but I do have a back log plus extra Spunky Stash. I think I’ll be concentrating on corriedale & bfl. Right now, I’m practicing spinning fat singles. By “fat”, I mean singles that are thicker than 20 wpi (wrap per inch). I’m aiming for 14-16. The goal is to knit “Daybreak” in “New Day” and natural dark brown corriedale singles.

Other fiber queued up for TdF is Lunar & Jupiter in Spunky Eclectic’s “Zodiac” series on grey corriedale.  While I’m not a big fan of dyed white corriedale top, this grey stuff is a marvelous spin.  There is also some BFL and more BFL.  I have a 4oz braid of “Joshua Tree” that told me it wants to be lace.  How can I argue?

Before I was a Knitter, Spinner, or Weaver, I did quite a bit of needlework:  cross stitch, embroidery, needlepoint, etc.

Lately, I’ve been getting a bit burned out on the Big String Thing (i.e. knitting) and turned back to my “roots”, so to speak.

This past couple weeks, I’ve been working on embroidering flour sack towels.  My town’s new “fabric & more” shop got in some nice flour sack towels worthy of embroidery.  Here’s a sample of the set I’m working on for my kitchen:

It’s covering a batch of whole wheat “no knead” bread.  Recipe is here.

There’s been more crocheting happening here than knitting, and mostly in the form of potholders.  Nothing fancy, just worsted weight cotton yarn and the “potholder” stitch (single crochet through back loop and previous row’s unworked front loop) with an I hook.

I did start “Traveling Woman” last week, but since that’s still in the plain stocking stitch section, I’ll spare you the photo.

One skein of yarn for Ravelympics.  100% superwash merino from a etsy seller who’s shop closed.  ”Embers”, my bog-standard 2-ply sportweight spun long draw.  Approximately 300 yards per 4 oz.

I leave you with Bunny Buns.

I bought two Shetland fleeces from Stonehaven Farms in 2008.  One was a steel grey fleece of an adult wether (castrated male) name “Polaris”.  The other was this, a black lamb’s fleece from a ram-lamb called “Baltazar”.

VERY black with sun-kissed tips.  Earlier this month I decided I was settled in enough in the new house to embark on a big project.  I’m going to spin and knit “Irtfa’a“.  Fleece to shawl.  So, I got the fleece out of storage and attempted to roll it out in order to sort things a bit.

Oops…I forgot that Lois said this one was fragmented and picked through, so there’s no using one part of the fleece over another.  No big deal, but I had an “uuh, what the ?!” moment.

If the shearing and skirting team know what they’re doing (and the fleece isn’t fragment like Baltazar’s), they’ll roll up the fleece into one piece and place it in to a leaf bag for storage.  When you take it out of the bag and unroll it, it’ll look somewhat sheep-skin shaped, like this one (one of my Jacob ewe fleeces from this summer).

Anyway, I grabbed a big hand full and put the rest of the fleece away until I’m ready to process the rest.

I’ve taken to washing my locks in rolls of bridal tulle to keep lock formation.  This works well when working with prime fleeces that you want to spin from the lock or comb.  If you’re not too concerned about keeping lock structure intact, you can wash in mesh sweater bags.  The latter method is good for when you want to pick & card the fleece.

I sorted out a few locks, then line’m up in a bit of tulle, and soak in cold water for up to 12 hours.  I was very surprised to see the first cold soak water was VERY clean off of Baltazar’s fleece.  Seems he didn’t roll in the NE Oregon dust as much as his buddy Polaris.  One hot scour and two rinses later, I have very clean fluffy lock.  I seemed to have forgotten to take a pick of the wool-tulle packets, but you can read about the whole process on this KnittySpin article.  The author feature finewools in the article, but works just fine for other wool types, too.

There is noticeable grease in the rise, but it flicks out easily enough.  I got my tiny little Greensleeves Ethan Jacob for spinning the first lock.  Quick & dirty spinning, but I can tell right away this is going to be a very pleasant project.

I’m aiming for a heavy-ish laceweight (similar to Knit Picks Shadow in weight).  I think this will work well.

Next step it to prep the rest of the washed locks and spin up a test skein on the Rose.

There could have been so many witty post titles I could have used, such as “How I Shacked Up with a Nearly Complete Stranger for Three Nights”, or “OMG Fangirl”, or “Fiberholic Exhibits Restraint in the Presence of Too Much Fiber”.

Rabbitch and I had decided we were going to go to Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival this year.  Originally we had planned to have a vendor’s booth, but when those plans fell through (no room at the Inn), we decided to just go and Have Fun.  Of course, having a pre-paid hotel room booked helped in the decision process.

So, after working a 60-hour week (actually, it came out to 70 hours if one counts my commute), I staggered out of bed Friday afternoon, “packed” my bag and stumbled out the door.  Portland is normally a 3.5 hour drive, 4 with potty breaks.  It took me no less than six hours to get to Wilsonville due to Portland Rush Hour traffic.  Honestly, I think if I had the money, I would have flown.  $150 round-trip airfare would have been a small price to pay for not having my bladder trying to explode on me while stuck on the I-5 interchange.  Even then, I managed to beat Rabbitch to the hotel (she was slammed with Seattle traffic).  The kindly folks took pity on me after Rabbitch called to ask them to let me in the room.  I was able to get some Decent Coffee and a wee kip before meeting her.  I was rumpled and exhausted and a bit unstead on my pins, but I wil never forget her crossing the parking lot laden with wine, fruit, cheese, and about 3lbs of roving (she calls it a bribe) for me.  We settled in to the evening with aforementioned repast.  I think we got to bed about 1am (we’re both night owls, so getting up “early” can be interesting at best).

Morning came, breakfast was had.  I discovered that I packed rather poorly.  The only shirt I had was the one I was wearing when I got there.  The jeans I chose were on their way to being too big; by the end of Saturday I was desperately trying NOT to have a wardrobe malfunction.  We went to Target hoping for some inexpensive basic clothing.  Wow, total fail.  Never shopping at Target again.  Not a single pair of trousers or jeans to fit me (they were either too short, way too short, too small, or too large), and the tops were sleazy at best.  I picked up a basic t-shirt in the men’s department and called it good.

We finally made it to the Clackamas County Fairgrounds at around 1pm. We went into the animal barn first.  Not five minutes and we found some lovely alpaca 2nds (neck wool) for $5 a bag.  Score!  I haven’t worked with alpaca much, and since I’m finding commercially processed top a bit of a disappointment (there are exceptions to this), working from raw product has been the way to go lately.

We wander some more amongst the sheep & goats & alpacas.  Oohing and aahing over the longwool breeds.  They had Lincolns, Wensleydales, Leicesters of all sorts, and Gotlands.  OMG, the Gotlands.  Massive silver curled rams.  Simply gorgeous.  There were Ouessant sheep which were pixie like compared to the 300lb Ram in the neighboring pen.  Spirited & sweet shetlands; a few even from the flock where my Shetland fleeces were obtained.  One of the shetland ewes REALLY loved having her jaw scratched.  I think I stood there for five minutes giving her lots of  love while she chewed her cud.   Navajo Churro and Jacob were well represented as well.  I was able to meet the Shepherdess from Kenleigh Acres from whose “Chevelle” produced my beloved lilac Jacob fleece.  It was really wonderful to meet the other people on the end of splendid transactions.

Typical alpaca pose:   food hanging out of mouth.

Big Romney Ram

Wee little Ouessant sheep

Another big Ram – this one’s a Gotland Cross (IIRC)

Then, my phone rang.  It was Franklin Habit.

I’m totally NOT joking.  See, Rabbitch & Franklin are friends.   I squeaked and handed the phone to Rabbitch.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around with Franklin and Kristin Spurkland.  Kristin is a lovely knitwear designer from the Portland area.  Her most recent book is “The Knitting Man(ual)”  I think I may have to get a copy, since I live with a Man who likes handknits.  Seems appropriate!

We sat and knat and spun and had a wonderful time.  I met up with one of my local knitting group friends (Hi Linda!) and I was sucessfull in locating a Kundert Spindle for her.  They are my hands-down favorite affordable spinning tool, and I wanted her to start out right, and for less than a tank of gas.

I didn’t do a whole lot of shopping.  There were only a few things on my list:  Lisa Souza, a full sized Jenkin’s Turkish Spindle, some brown corriedale top, and a fringe twister.  The last on the list can wait, as it’s pretty low-priority.  I’m probably going to pick one up in advance of the Holiday Weaving I have in mind.

I got meet Lisa Souza AND pick up two bumps of some gorgeous SW BFL in “Chaparrel”

Sunday was pretty low-key.  My breakfast made a hasty exit about 30 minutes after ingesting, and the last two days was catching up with me.  Sciatica’s a bitch, let me tell you.  I found the brown corriedale at Crown Mountain Fibers.  It’ll be blended with some handpainted corrie.  Think of it as “cutting” the good stuff with filler.  The filler is just as nice, but just not flaming orange.

I seemed to take many pictures of goats.  This fellow has had his picture splattered all over the internet by OFFF attendees.  It’s kind of funny seeing all his pics around.

This fellow was so beautiful, I would love to have fiber goats some day (it would be another life, as I bought property inside city limits…)  Or perhaps just some goats I can visit often.

I leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the weekend:  Franklin testing out some glass knitting needles w/ handspun.  Probably doesn’t get much better than that!

I just spent the better part of ten hours driving.  To Portland and back.  For those who don’t know me, I’m just shy of 6′ tall and drive a 2007 Ford Focus.  I’m all legs, and thusly, the drivers seating is a bit cramped.  Combine wearing the wrong shoes (i.e. the professional clogs with 2″ heels) and not being able to extend my right foot for hours on end…we be sore.

Anywho, John is off to Charlotte to visit his family for the Holiday That Occurs Next Week.  My family?  Eh, no official invite as of yet for local feasting.

So, for the next ten nights, I have the place to myself and I can cook Whatever I Darn Well Please.  Hee!  Oh, and there will be knitting, spinning, and weaving done.  ‘Nuff said.  At least I got him to pick out the yarn for his next pair of socks.  I guess the Spud King socks have been worn enough times to warrant needing “more socks” knit by his Witch.

In yarn-related news, there has been one skein finished since the last post.  Completely spindle spun & plied.  I got the entire ~4oz on to the plying spindle.  This made for a very heavy spindle and my palm is still a bit tender from rolling that sucker.

"Chinook"

The fiber is 100% Targhee from Mountain Colors in their “Chinook” colorway.  Standard 3-ply, 220 yards, 103 grams, DK weight.  Singles were spun on a 0.9 oz Greensleeves Maureen’s Mjolinor and plied on a 3 oz Schacht Hi-Lo spindle.  I doubt I’ll ever buy Targhee again.  Spinning this just confirmed my abiding love for medium & long wool breeds.  Targhee is a fine wool and extremely sproingy and has a hand unlike most I’ve spun.  It’ll probably be on my list of “don’t want to spin, but like to knit or weave with”.  Alpaca, angora, and mohair are already there.

This post brought to you by Codeine Cough Syrup.  Or, rather, lack there of.  I nursed that 240 ml like there was no tomorrow.  Then tomorrow came.  Bleh.  Folks, I do not recommend asthmatic bronchitis.  Give me a ripper case of sinusitis any day.

This is my latest stash acquisition.  Inspired by a couple of Abby‘s merino/tencel laceweight skeins over on Flickr.

That’s a 0.4 oz Ethan Jacob spindle from Greensleeves with Superwash Merino & Tencel dyed by Fiber Optic Yarns on Etsy.  The spindle is so light that I have to check to see if its still there, sometimes.  It came a bit dehydrated and had a horrid wobble right out of the shipping package.  A treatment of Howard’s Feed & Wax fixed 90% of the problem.  Elizabeth at Greensleeves was very helpful in troubleshooting the problem.  With delicate, finely turned wood tools like this, wonky moisture levels in the wood can really cause issues!

In other news, I’ve finally managed to get a copy of eeeBuntu on my Asus EEE PC.  It took some doing, as the EEE refused to see any of my SD cards or USB Drives.  I finally gave up and did the ISO mounting on the desktop Ubuntu and viola (well, almost viola), Ubuntu!  I <3 me some command line.

I can recommend upgrading your EEE PC to Ubuntu if you’re a) adventurous, b) have a clue, and c) stubborn.  I only had half a clue, so the extra stubbornness came in handy.  It’s so much better than the krap distro of Xandros that’s shipped with it.  Sheesh.  The only real issue I have with the EEE, is the keyboard.  Not that it’s small (which it is), but that the keys are fussy.  Most of the time, I really have to pound on them to get them to type.  Makes for some interesting typos in chat sometimes.

If anyone is wondering where I “went” from Twitter and/or Plurk…I’m taking a hiatus from the social networking scene.  Too many cretins out there.

I leave you with today’s view from the balcony.

The addition of a lightly-used Babe Electric Spinner (NW Flyer type) has enabled me to spin for hours on end and not be limping for days.  Some may think it’s cheating, but I like being able to walk.   Plus, this goes faster than I could ever treadle, so it widens the range of yarns I can create!  Oh, and plying?  A complete godsend.

Ok, first up – Spunky Club Fibers!

April 2008.  Wensleydale, “Perfect Storm”.  Singles, fingering weight (mostly), 284 yards, 3 oz.  I have another 4 oz that will join this at the same grist.

May 2008.  Corriedale singles, “Rosebud”.  Worsted weight.  155 yards.  3.9 oz.

Spunky’s “Time of the Month:  Chocolate, Rage and Tears”  (Brown, Red, and Blue).  Romney 2-ply.  Sport weight. 227 yards, 3.1 oz.

I spent an evening combing up some Rambouillet x Finn fleece – it had originally been dyed with Kool Aid during a  "Dyer’s Blonde Moment".  We all have them, but fortunately overdyeing does marvels.

This is an example of what the overdyed locks look like from the "russet over mango".

Combed up, it turns into this!

The rest:

Brown over cherry

Black & Vermilion over Mango

It seems I can spin plant floof, too.