LOLsquirrel?

I was knitting knitting knitting on the couch yesterday and I heard a ruckus coming from the front yard. Went out and saw this squirrel scolding my cat at length. He posed for about 10 photos, some better than others.

ETA for Emily:

Busy as a Bee!

So, the picture doesn't have anything to do with today's post. I think. Maybe that'll change as I type. It's just a spare picture I haven't used yet and it's ready to go, already up on Photobucket, and I don't have anything knitterly to photograph for you right now. (Yeah, yeah, the new loot from Wisconsin Sheep and Wool, but I'm busy.)

Busy as a bee! the title and the tie-in, in one AHA! moment.

The kids are back at school and I'm finding my creative self. And got a fun idea for something that might work for Winter Knitty. Only, I really only started knitting yesterday and the deadline is Sept. 15. So, yeah, I'm busy.

The weather is delightful: crisp, bright, sunny. Hard to believe that last week was AC weather and this week feels like heating season.

The kids are settling into their school years just fine. Owen will be transferring to a magnet school soon, so perhaps more adjustments ahead. It's wonderful news that he can go there. A much smaller school and I doubt they have anywhere near the discipline issues that his current one has.

Now, I'm must go knit knit knit like a crazed woman. I've started the pattern writing and done most of the schematic. (I wonder if I can get an extension?) Back to the lair.

All The News That Fits in One Post?

The kids went back to their respective schools this week. The Little Emperor went on Tuesday and Owen on Wednesday. While I enjoyed the time that this gave me, I am definitely looking forward to the coming week, which will be a full week of normal length school days.

Yesterday I spent a little time planning my fall projects. I definitely want to finish up some patterns I started last year (including the Kelebek Vest and Morgan Cardigan) and make them available. To that end, I really need to follow through on this website stuff. Then I have knitting ideas to work on and of course, WIPs to finish.

Oh yeah, and I need to spend some time purging our house of stuff we no longer need so that we can live like quasi-normal folks again. I think I can even get the kids in on the plan, because they like the idea of making money at a yard sale and they are both tired of the stress that living in chaos brings to our lives.

Last night I plied some more of the singles from the merino-romney cross.

I'd been noticing that my plied yarns didn't look as nice as others I see on the internet, and decided to ply a bit more aggressively. I'm pleased with the difference this makes and I got a nice balanced skein out of it.


I'm planning to turn most of what's left from that batch (a very large bag full) into three ply yarn, but I have enough done as two-ply to use in a smaller project or two.

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool
I took Owen along and we met up with Kathy and Sue.

I think I'm trying to express some maternal admonition through a gritted-teeth smile here. What do you think?

Kathy and Sue presented me with a wooden swift as a thank you from my fellow campers for organizing the Alternative Knitting Camp last month. What sweeties! My other swift is a metal and plastic one I've had since about 1992. It doesn't hold the larger skeins I'd like to wind on my niddy noddy, and it's a little temperamental. This was so kind of them! Going camping with adults is such a treat for me in and of itself! (But I'll keep the swift and use it with great joy.)
(edited to include Kathy's correction.)


Sue, sorry this one isn't great. But I think it's pretty good.


Kathy, I had a choice between this one or the Dueling Cameras shot. Even though your eyes are closed, you have such a serene smile on your face. Like you're meditating on the perfect piece of pie.

I haven't photographed my loot yet, but I did not come away empty-handed. Owen is a great enabler, even with fiber stuff, and I did buy several items I would not have, had he not been in tow.
I bought:

two bobbins for my wheel, an important purchase.

1 pound bag of 80% natural black Shetland and 20% dark brown alpaca roving. MMMM. I dove right into that once I got home.

Some merino roving to blend with some yak down I bought in NH last summer.

Some other merino roving because Owen liked the color.

Four other balls of generic wool roving, because Owen liked the colors.

That's all folks!

End of Summer

click it for a bigger view






click for a bigger view


Mr SABLE building a model sailboat. He's putting itty-bitty planking on the deck.

More Spinning?!?

I decided to work on this merino romney cross that I got in the big lot of fiber earlier this summer because I already had a bobbin partially filled with singles and it has been out of circulation for other spinning for several weeks. I plan to buy another bobbin or two at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool next weekend, but meanwhile, freeing up all three of the ones I own would be nice.

So, this is truly local yarn. The woman who sold Fern and me the mountain o' fiber had bought the fleece from a farm in Illinois. She had it processed at Blackberry Ridge, which is about 16 miles west of where I live. It still has some lanolin in it, which is making my hands feel nice, even if they smell a bit sheepy. I feel like I've finally got the hang of the long draw, as I saw it being done on a help video. This fiber is perfect for that: kind of springy and it just wants to pull out into a nice thin, even strand with only the slightest coaxing.

I made this 2 ply because I wanted to see how that would work out from my singles; because I had so much yardage, I didn't want to wind it all on a cone, and because I was impatient to make yarn with it. Also, I think it'll make a nice lace project, like another Mead Scarf, only chocolate. I'll make some three ply from more of the same fiber after I get more bobbins, because I think it will make a delicious hat or mittens, or maybe a vest or sweater, if I persevere.

p.s. I tried to take some artsy-fartsy photos, in the style of Brooklyn Tweed, using a very narrow depth of field and shooting obliquely at the yarn. There was a very small sweet spot in focus and a whole lot of blur. I guess it's just not my style. But I did realize things weren't as bad as I thought when I put on my glasses. The woes of aging eyes.

Another WIP!?!

When in doubt, cast on!

No, it isn't a headdress for Queen Amidala. It's the beginning of a scarf/shawl hybrid using Wendy Wonnacott's Gioia pattern, but with finer yarn and making it bigger. At least that's the plan right now.

Here's a detail of the stitch:


In the spring, I bought a bunch of Tahki New Tweed from the half-price bin at The Sow's Ear. It's 60% Merino, 14% silk, and 26% viscose. I didn't get enough for a garment for me. And it has a drapey quality to it that I think one can't fight too hard. I like the way this stitch pattern has a substantial three-dimensionality to it, while being lacy at the same time. The only thing I'm not sure I'm liking so far is that the growing selvedge is rather inelastic compared to the rest of the work. I'm tempted to undo and reuse the stitch pattern in a different way. BUT, I really like shape of Wendy's Gioia. It's kind of horseshoe shaped, which allows it to stay put on the shoulders without being tied or pinned. Hmmm.

I think for now, I'll soldier on and see if the inelastic edge bothers me too much once I split for the two long extensions.

Fair Isle progress

The cardigan body is done. I worked out the numbers for the sleeves earlier today. I'm planning to put a collar on as shown in this schematic:


The collar will have corrugated ribbing to match the band at the bottom of the body and the button bands will have narrower corrugated ribbing. The sleeves will have a deeper cap than shown in this schematic. I'll have to work on that drawing separately.

More Spinning and other stuff

Here's a little pile of the 3 ply black and white marled yarn from the Brown Sheep mill ends. Click it to get an interesting closer look. I haven't quantified anything about this yarn yet, but so far, it's one fairly big skein and 3 mini-skeins and looks to me like a DK worsted weight. (edited to add: I made a little sample from one of the mini skeins and it looks good on US #7 needles, getting 17 st/4 inches/10 cm.) I hope to make a bunch more of it.

I'm very nearly done the body on the Fair Isle cardigan: about 8 more rounds. Then I get to figure out how to make my sleeves with a steeked sleeve cap and matching pattern bands from the sleeve to the body. That's one big advantage to drop sleeves. I didn't take another picture because it hasn't changed that much since the last one.

I thought I'd reply to a few comments from the last post.

Peri and others who commented on the school registration: Every year we need to go to each kid's school and stand in long lines to fill out paperwork and pay fees. They used to send home a stack of forms for correction and signature the first day, but I think they had a hard time getting them all back. So, they set up stations around the gymnasium and one must file around handing in the health form, the emergency contact form, the money, etc, and set up a lunch money account (if desired) and check on the bus routes (if applicable). The elementary fees are only $35 a year, but the middle school ones are a shock. A large part of it is rental of the band instrument, which we could avoid if we were willing to buy a bassoon. ;-).

Becky, I think PMS is a big part of my moods, too. I definitely have one or two days a month when I just want to be left alone. My kids seem to sense that this is what I need, so they get in my face even more. Unfortunately, my cycles are so short that I spend two-thirds of my time either having PMS or having a period. No fun.

For all who expressed concern, thank you. If I feel like things are not right once the school year starts and my stress level drops, I'll talk to my doctor. I seldom get depressed in the winter, although I do have an urge to hibernate. But this summer has been difficult weather-wise. I enjoy a nice rainy day, but three weeks of dark dismal rain and being cooped up with my kids, who prevent me from pursuing any creative thing of my own that might buoy me up... well, that's too much. And they fight all the time.

Magatha, I'm glad you could see the humor in my quandary, too. I had a chuckle about it as I realized what was going on.

So, just this week to get through. Then the three day weekend. And then it's my time!

August and Everything After

Ah, lets see. I've been doing a bit of spinning...




This is from the Brown Sheep mill ends. It's a three ply yarn using two strands of the dark and one of the light. Before I go all out on this, I wanted to make a small batch to see if I'm happy with the result. And I am. These photos were taken while it was still wet, hanging on the clothesline. Tomorrow I'll get a few more of the dry skein. The mohair in this yarn definitely wants to fuzz out, which is ok with me.

I hadn't done much spinning in the last week because my left hand and wrist were acting up and I've been working on the Fair Isle cardigan some and also in the throes of the late summer miseries.

As you probably know, if you read the newspaper or catch the news, it's been a rainy time here in Wisconsin. I haven't personally been affected by flooding, since my house sits on a little high spot in my neighborhood. But I have been affected by the unrelenting rain, grey skies, mud, humidity, and being cooped up with my kids while counting down until the school year starts. Today, thankfully, the weather finally shifted and The Big Blue H*, as I call it, came sailing in from Canada bringing nice cool, dry, high pressure system air. We've opened the windows and we're airing out.

During the monsoon, I managed to get school supplies for the boys, handle both of their school registrations, and buy them each a new pair of shoes. The school registration was a royal pain, especially the middle school one. The parents were required to wait in a line which (not exaggerating here) took about 50 minutes just to pay the fees for the coming year ($222), so they could claim their receipts and move through the rest of the process. No receipt, no schedule. When I am in charge of the universe, there will be a better way to handle this. I would put the info online in a password protected account, and let each parent look up the number they owe before appearing for registration. Then, motivated parents could mail the payment ahead of time, have a receipt and a schedule mailed back and skip the whole waiting in line part. Middle school registration took me about 1.5 hours (again, not an exaggeration) for the sole purpose of correcting one phone number, paying my $222, and signing a few forms. There's got to be a better way.

So, Thursday afternoon I was feeling down and I've been wondering if I'm hovering around the edge of depression this summer. I have a history of depression, though not recently. But I'm always aware of that potential: that I could again lose 5 months of my life because I have my head under a pillow, wishing I didn't have to get up and face life. So, Thursday afternoon, I found a depression screening quiz online. I took it and came up with the recommendation that I seek psychiatric help for my depressive symptoms. Today, the sun is shining, the air is not so heavy, and I feel fine.

But, in regards to that screening test, I found this amusing:

7. Do you feel that it takes you longer than before to make decisions or unable to concentrate?

A. Never
B. Rarely
C. Sometimes
D. Very Often
E. Most of the time

I sat staring at question #7 for about 10 minutes, trying to decide if I was finding it harder to make decisions than before. I just couldn't decide which answer seemed accurate. Finally, I saw the irony in my predicament and went with C. Sometimes. But, as I say, today with a shift in the weather, I feel miraculously better. Go figure. If the pharmaceutical companies of the world could figure out how to bottle and sell nice weather, maybe no one would need Prozac again.

Last Saturday Knitting met this afternoon. It was absolutely delightful company. Molly Bee, Baxter Knits, Mousey Blog, and Molly Bee's friend Ann were there. We missed having Laura/Yarn Thrower with us, but we hope she'll make it in September.

*The Big Blue H refers to the standard weather map way of denoting a high pressure system, otherwise known as the Canadian High.

Knitting News, in brief

Seen in our back yard.

Edited to add: About 7 years ago my husband and older son built the bat box and painted the design on it. They followed plans they picked up at a state park. It sat empty for the first season or two it was up. Several years ago we saw the squirrel tails hanging out and realized that flying squirrels had moved in. For a while my husband had a little black and white video surveillance camera mounted in the tree and pointed at the box. We ran the cable in through a window to a tv and every night we watched Squirrel Cam. (It had infra-red, too, so we could watch at night.) We put up a suet feeder near the house so we could watch them feed. Our cat kills a lot of flying squirrels (very sad; we find the tails) but we seem to always have a resident family living in our bat box. It's a big surprise to everyone that they live around here and right in the city.

I am counting down the days until Sept 4. It cannot come soon enough.

I've done very little interesting knitting this summer. Or so it feels to me.

Here's the progress picture of the Fair Isle cardigan. I'm most of the way through the body. With a bit of dedicated knitting time, I'll be on the sleeves soon enough.

The colors are more muted than they appear in this picture. It's very grey here and I had to use the flash, even out on the porch.

I made a sock for Scott a couple weeks ago, but I need to start that pair again. Sock 1 was too small. He needs a really deep heel flap in addition to a ridiculously long foot. I hope the one I finished will fit Owen, so I can finish that pair and it'll fit someone. Better than having to start all over.

I'm ready for a month-long nap.

Separated at Birth?

Prince Charming from the Shrek movies


A male model from Knitter's magazine


The new Knitter's arrived in my mailbox yesterday. I have to say, I think that maybe someone at XRX has a finger on the pulse of real-world knitters. Finally. They have dropped the gawd-awful poetry (using the term loosely) that used to appear on each section-header page. The percentage of downright fugly designs has dropped way off, and there are several really attractive patterns. I like Judy Anderson's Frosting, Lois Young's Etched Copper, Norah Gaughan's Urban Vest, and several others.

Knitter's has been such a whipping boy for the snarkerati set for so long, it's kind of disappointing to see it morphing into something (gasp) good.

But I think I'll adjust.

Home from camping, with everyone tired and cranky. The weather was hot and steamy, and it stormed some, too. No one slept well. I hope to have some knitterly content sometime, but I'm beginning to think it might have to wait until school starts.

Summer

Knitting Camp (the other one)

It was a great time at the Other Knitting Camp in Wisconsin. Participants came from three states. There was no structured workshop, no class, no market, and no high-priced tuition. We came and sat and knitted away and stopped for meals. It was like a 45 hour S'n'B.

I wasn't very thorough about getting pictures of all the individuals and I try not to publicize bad pictures of people. But here we all are:

Click to make it bigger.

A few other random pictures:





The weather was tending toward hot and humid most of the time, with substantial rain from about midnight last night until 6 this morning. But our spirits were not dampened!

We all agree we need to do it again next year.

Fall 07 Interweave Knits

I got the new IK today. On the whole, I think it's a good solid issue, with the usual range of offerings: a few original interesting patterns, a bunch that are rehashes of stuff we've seen before (but quite serviceable), and a few real clunkers. I have a bias against super bulky yarns in general, so Teva Durham and Wenlan Chia don't impress me too much. I was quite taken with the Minimalist Cardigan, the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, the Mirepoix Bodice, and a few others. Most of the patterns would never suit my body type, but if I didn't have the permanently six-months-pregnant-looking belly, maybe I'd consider a few.

One thing I did notice, in a bad way, was this:

Who can argue with another Kathy Zimmerman cabled sweater? It's not the design I noticed but the sloppy execution.

Here's the detail:

I think those two cable lines that bend outward on either side of the center should have just gone into the neckline and stopped. And the pickup for the collar looks kind amateur to me.

I know that magazines demand incredibly tight turn-around times from designers, so I shouldn't be surprised to see the occasional rush-job on finishing. I wish it could be different.

The other thing I noticed (and chuckled about) was the garment in this ad:

Talk about finishing gone awry! It kind of looks like a straightjacket that missed the mark. Do you think that dangling flap will stay artfully placed just so after she moves?

Me neither.

The Little Emperor Turns 6!

Here we are, probably around July 31 or August 1, 2001.

Holding up his head at a couple months old:


The brothers getting along:

(The Little Emperor is wearing the very same t-shirt today that Owen was wearing in that picture. Cue the Twilight Zone music...)

One of my favorite images of him, taken just shy of one year old:


Swinging with his favorite squirrel, around age 2:


Happy Birthday Little Emperor! You keep life exciting for us.

Beret!

I spun the 3 ply yarn from some of the Brown Sheep mill ends, dyed with grape Kool-Aid. The roving was a mix of wool and mohair, mostly white with a streak of black, before the weak Kool-Aid bath. I'll try to get an image of it on my head when it finishes drying.

Back!

Back at home, doing the laundry and so on. We had a very fruitful time there. I took a lot of pictures of stuff and my folks had meetings with people who know about settling large, complicated estates.

Personal note to DeMorgan, who left a comment this morning:
I can't help you without your email address! Please click on my profile to get my email address and I'll send you an answer. The hat instructions look complete to me, but please send an email if you are still confused.

Going Out of Town

But just for a couple of days. But, since my blog posts seem to have been happening on weekends lately, I thought I better tell you all that I'll be back late on Monday and not to expect much until Tuesday.

My parents will be working on the stuff in my grandmother's house and I'm taking Owen down with me to be an extra set of hands and also take pictures of stuff we might try to sell in a more up-market venue.

In fiber news, I've just been spinning and carding mostly.

I did start knitting a beret from the grape Kool-Aid 3 ply, which I think will be very cozy for winter. And I nearly finished a long-dormant second sock this evening. (I was inspired by Terby.) I managed to get right up to the toe shaping before I lost the will to see it through to the end.

But the spinning and carding, well that's been fun. I've made a mountain of batts from the mixed-browns Brown Sheep mill ends, minus the brown I peeled off to spin solid. I finished spinning all the brown I peeled off and have one more bobbin to ply, which will have to be plied on itself. The remaining mixed browns are mostly black and the white stuff you can see in the photo in the last post is mohair. Boris is going to stay with Fern for the coming week, so I guess I'll be concentrating on spinning or maybe knitting. I've also been spinning singles from some brown merino-romney cross that came in the large fiber lot. This is turning out very nice. It has a lot of lanolin left in it still: not completely unscoured, just a nice bit of lanolin to coat my hands while I spin. I got a length of that off the bobbin and folded it in half twice to get a sense of how it will perform as a four-ply. It's nice. Looks like about 10 w.p.i. with a great springiness. It should be a very resilient yarn.

Other news
My order from the Interweave Press hurt book sale arrived today. I really lucked out. I was on the computer at the moment the email announcement went out and I ordered right away. I got Alden Amos, Lee Raven's Hands On Spinning, In Sheep's Clothing, Starmore and daughter's Children's Collection, Feitelson's Fair Isle Knitting, and a couple others.

And now, I really have to go to sleep. Owen and Mr. SABLE are out getting the new Harry Potter, which means I'll be on duty with The Little Emperor in the morning.

Pictures next week. I promise.

Meet Boris!

MY! What big teeth you have!

What's black and white and flies all over?

Fiber before meeting Boris



Fiber after meeting Boris

Did I tell you yet how much I love Boris? This is the most fun fiber thing ever!

More Spinning

Yes, I swear, I will get some knitting done soon! Really!

It's just that it's so easy for me to spin and not so easy for me to knit when my family is driving me nuts. And I really really really wanted to make some 3 ply yarn.

Why don't more knitting spinners and spinning knitters make 3 ply? (Maybe they do and I just don't realize it.) But it seems like most of the ones I run across are talking about 2 ply for knitting. And I have to say, there's something so much better about 3 ply!

With that said, here's my first skein:


And here's the second one:


These were both made from the same singles, but I had a more satisfactory arrangement of the singles for plying without tangles on the second skein. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.

The-Brown-Sheep-mill-ends-turned-into-a-batt made wonderful thin strong singles and I am getting pretty darn consistent with them. Some of the inconsistencies in the yarn are from the first bobbin's worth of singles, before I carded it.

My next plan is to bring the drum carder over to my house soon and tackle the mixed browns! I think they will make great batts!

Here's a bright orange flower growing in the yard: