A Vacation Garden

In my quest to go through my vacation list, I was able to check off another item: Plant a flower bed. I have a flower bed that has been neglected for the past 6 month growing wild asylum and marigolds. I was determine this week to condition the flower bed and plant some nice summer flowers. I haven’t had much of a “green thumb” in the past, especially since I’ve been working full time. Yet, I want to try again to celebrate the color in my life.

I made a trip to Home Depot and picked out some very colorful Gerber daisies. Without knowing much about the care of such plant I purchased about 8 pots of them in a variety of colors. These flowers seem to have a life and personality of their own. I’m not kidding! Since planting them I have found that they don’t like much direct sun and they are very thirsty. After a few hours in the intense sun they start to droop and wilt. If I notice this in time, I give them a drink and once the 12:00 noon shade hits them they perk up, straightening their flower stems and opening their flowers like a “happy smile” that daisies are known for. Luckily, they only have direct sun for about 6 hours and the rest of the day they are in shade. They are aptly named “Gerber daisy” because they are so cute and beautiful like a cute Gerber baby and need attentive care. They are going to be my “babies”.

Ravelolympics progress

I’m almost done with the main body knitting of the cotton Sampler Vest. I have a few more rows of the right front shoulder and will be starting the Button hole band. I have found, however, that this project has not been the greatest to watch the Olympics with. I have made repeated stupid mistakes that were easily fixable. However, the Olympics has been getting more exciting and often distracts me when I need to concentrate on my project. I really enjoyed the Swimming Freestyle Relay Final last night! It was so exciting! Go USA!!!!

Spinning

I mentioned before that I have all of this mohair fiber and was feeling, as I washed it, that I really needed to do something with it. The staple length was about 6-7 inches and I knew it would be impossible to card with my drum carder. So I decide to flick it open with a flicker brush and spin from the open locks. I wanted a very soft yarn so I set my spinning wheel to a low ratio about 5:1 on my Joy Spinning Wheel. I treddled very slow to make a very fuzzy low twist type of yarn. One of the disadvantages of this is that it tends to fall apart easily. I wondered if I could set the twist in singles, but thought that with the low twist it would not keep the yarn together. I decided to 2-ply it to make it a stronger yarn. After setting the twist, it ended up into a lovely soft yarn with lots of luster. WOW! I still trying to figure out what I will make out of this. Any suggestions? :) Yes, it feels as soft as it looks!

Let the RavelOlympics Begin!!!!

The Bejing Olympics have started and the Opening Ceremonies were absolutely glorious. So, therefore the RavelOlympics are officially started.

Fifteen minutes before midnight last night I was reading the Forums and noticed that the RavelOlympics group added WIP Wrestling, allowing for works in progress projects as an event. I had already joined the UFO Olympics, whose sign ups had closed a week ago. So I caved and joined both adding a few more UFOs to my proposed projects. So now I am part of both groups.

I am making good progress. These are my list of UFOs to complete within 17 days, until the Olympic flame goes out in Bejing.
1) Cotton Sampler Vest
2) Pomotamus Socks
3) Baby Kimono
4) Pinwheel Baby Blanket

It seems that some Ravelers have already completed their projects and received their medals. The daily update noted a very entertaining Youtube video from one of the contestants.
I hope you will enjoy it as much and I did.

Soy Fiasco!

I feel like I’m in a race to reduce my fiber stash. If I wanted to be in a race, I probably should have joined the Tour de Fleece last month. I am trying to spin as much as I can before the start of the Olympics tomorrow at 8:00 pm PST. When the Olympics start I will be working on my knitted Sampler Vest, trying to be dedicated to the craft of knitting until I finish. I really need to finish it. It has been sitting in my closet for years unfinished.

The dyed merino I spun up yesterday came out beautifully. I can’t wait to make some socks out of it.

I ran across a small 2 oz. bag of Dyed Soy Silk I had purchased about a year ago. I cannot remember which festival. I thought, well, here’s my chance to spin this up. Sooo… how to I spin it? It’s too small an amount to do much of anything. I decided to spin it fine for a small knitted purse or something like that.
Spinning with Soy is much easier than real silk as it doesn’t snag on every little skin imperfection or jagged nail of your fingers. It seemed strong enough although I did break the thread once. I ended up with a 97 yd skein that was about 18 wraps per inch, which is about lace weight yarn. Since I was unfamiliar with this fiber, I decided to set the twist in luke warm water and OMG!!! It started to BLEED!!!! This was no minor bleeding. A lot of color came out, almost as much as if I were dying it, and this was the first rinse. I emptied the sink and this time I used cold water. Still bled. The next rinse I decided to put some vinegar into the water hoping to fix the dye better on the fiber. This seemed to work a little….there was less dye bleeding.

The last rinse was somewhat less bleeding but there was still some turquoise in the water. I will need to remember not to make any clothing or combine it with a white color in my knitting. So what happened?……I do know that not all wool dyes are effective on cellulose or plant fibers. Perhaps the Dyer didn’t know this? I didn’t take the time to ask what kind of dye this fiber was dyed with.

Lessons learned: (1) Ask vendor what kind of dye was used to dye the skein, if home made. (2) Beware of soy silk in very vibrant colors. (3) I’m glad I didn’t invest in a pound of this stuff. 4) I wonder if all soy yarn behaves like this....if so, how dreadful! I won't be buying soy much any more.

The Vacation List

I’m on vacation! I have two whole weeks all to myself. Yea! Being the anal retentive person I am, I made a list of the things I want to accomplish: one for work (yes, I brought home work to do. Deadlines never go on vacation), one for projects for home and one for fun.

While on vacation, I took the opportunity to AGAIN, go through all my animal fibers in storage. Fiber consisted of wool, alpaca, mohair, dog and any other fiber not spun yet into yarn. I made piles of white, greys, dark to black and a small pile of browns. I put dyed colored fibers into a separate pile. I should do this at least every six months in order to examine it for bug infestation, but most of all to keep my addiction to buying more fiber on ebay to a controllable level. This activity has cured my desire to buy another fleece this time around. Conclusion: No more buying fleeces. I have enough fiber to keep me busy processing for at least 5 more years. While going through my fiber stash I noticed a lonely unwashed fleece needing some attention and decided to wash it. At first I couldn’t remember what kind of fleece it was. It was long and shiny with wavy locks. There was a note in it saying it was sheared in 2006 and the animal’s name was Kate.

I separated it into locks, put it into netted laundry bags and soaked it in the washer with hot water mixed with Ovus Paste for about 1 hour and put it through the spin cycle to get most of the water out of it. Some parts were very dirty and it took about 3 washes and rinses to get it somewhat clean. Some parts, I will need to comb out to loosen the dirt, especially those on the tips. As the fleece was drying, I realized what kind of fiber it was…….Mohair. I have so much mohair, I don’t know what to do with. Soon, it will overtake the wool. Perhaps it’s time for a swap or a give-away?

I have been spinning some of the merino roving I dyed a few months back. I am trying to spin it fine to make some sock yarn. I really liked the colors. I hope it will spin up into something I can make socks out of, at least some anklets.

I have been perusing through my knitting books again. This is a very dangerous thing to do because it inspires me to start something new. I was leafing through my Elizabeth Zimmerman books. I caught site of “The Bog Jacket” in Knitting Around and thought perhaps my son Scott might like this style. It looks like a square piece of fabric cut at the halfway point for underarms and folded over to make kimono style arms and sewn together. Looks easy enough but it is all in garter stitch. Thought I’d try to make a miniature version before committing to an adult size. I found some Knit Picks Swish, a superwash merino in my stash and cast on for a child’s size jacket. The garter stitch which is straight knitting is so boring. I wish there was someway to jazz it up as I go. This has become my traveling knitting as I don’t need any concentration to knit this. The other night as I was having trouble falling asleep, I turned out the light, turned my Ipod on and knitted away until I drifted off to dreamland.

I’m counting down the days for the Olympics. I’ve joined the UFO Olympics to finish a Sampler knitted vest. I can’t start it until the Olympics start and must finish when it finishes. I really need to knuckle down and finish my projects. They are getting a little numerous and tying up my needles. I just don’t have the heart to frog them. Perhaps this Olympics will help me learn to be project monogamous…….not!

Summer Birthdays

We had a lovely family gathering to celebrate my son Robby and granddaughter's birthday. They are 25 years apart born on the same day! Grandaughter is two and so you can guess how old Robby is.

Can you tell she likes SpongeBob?!

We barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs. While to old folk chatted and caught up with each other's lives, the youngins played games and we all took turns chasing after granddaughter C.

Here is Robby with cousin K.

C. was lovely in her red dress.

This was also a impromptu Baby shower for new grandson to be born on August 14. Everyone had a great time. Here's some family pictures.

Lambtown USA 2008

Lambtown Weekend

Walter and I made our yearly trek from So. California to Lambtown USA in Dixon, CA near Sacramento. Lambtown is a Country Fair festival that celebrates everything having to do with sheep. I really wanted this to be a great trip but we had a few set-backs. The car rental I had reserved two weeks prior online was not in the lot. Neither was any other car and we had to wait ½ hour to get a car we weren’t crazy about. The GPS navigation system we requested was not available, but they did give us the autoclub discount which helped a little. That GPS system would have been handy when we were coming home from the movies in the dark and somehow got turned around trying to find the freeway on a dark rural highway. After about 30 minutes of wrong turns, we retraced our steps and found the onramp, which was quite hidden. Our trip was very bumpy. By this I mean we felt every little road bump in our compact Hyundai Accent. I couldn’t even drink my canned soda without spilling some on me when we came to the next bump in the road.

We did get to our hotel without any other incident. It was a nice drive and we listened to an audiobook on the way. I started on the 2nd sock of the pink stripes Knit Picks Felici yarn on Size 1 needles. It was nice to be able to knit non-stop, except for rest and stretch. Unfortunately, on the way home I lost the 1st sock somewhere at a rest stop or restaurant. Having my knitting in my handbag, it must have fallen out when I got out of the car. I am heartbroken, because it took me about two weeks to finish that sock and now I don’t think I have enough yarn to make another. I’ve been thinking perhaps I should just make some footlets or short socks. Or should I just rip it out and give up?

On the positive side, Lambtown was marvelous. Even though there were less food booths, there were more of a Variety of Fiber vendors. New this year were Angora Rabbits. These lovely puffs of fur with eyes and noses peeking out were so adorable. I had a hard time not bringing one home. I did, however, buy some 4 oz of Angora fiber to play with. I had to force myself to stay away from the Fiber Fair building, because everytime I went in, I came out with less money. I purchased some nifty dpn tubes that hold your project and needles together in a tube. Yea! No more dropped stitches from dpns pulling out in my purse. I could not resist a small Bosworth spindle and 8 oz of some lovely handpainted roving in blue colors: Ocean colors and 4oz of baby blue superwash merino in honor of my grandson, soon to be born. I had intended to buy some sock yarn and there was Opal yarn in abundance, but I changed my mind and decided to use up my stash first, which is still plentiful. Actually, when I think about it, I don’t think I spent that much. My focus was taking it easy and enjoying the day without rushing to see everything. We even had some time to sit and listen to the Bluegrass and Dixeland Band at the stage.

I was able to take a Needlefelting class and made a very cute needle felted sheep in 2 hrs. This class taught by Allen Messick, who was also judging the Angora bunnies and selling mohair fiber from his mohair farm was a wonderful teacher. He was friendly and helpful and gave, all two of us, his undivided attention. I would love to take another class from him in the future.

Although we missed the Sheep Shearing and Sheep dog herding competitions, we did catch the Sheep to Shawl and National Spinning Competition which was fun to watch. At the end there was a small fashion show and announcements of the winners of the Fiber competitions. I am so glad the events are back at the Mayfair grounds. The weather was so perfect this year, about the high 80’s, which made the day very busy and enjoyable for us.

To see more pictures of Lambtown, go to here

Summer Knitting

What’s on My Needles……

My camera’s battery has died and I can’t find my battery charger so I afraid this is going to have to be narrative……until I get my battery charged.

I’ve been on a learning quest: one new knitting skill this summer. That skill was to attempt toe-up socks. I used Judy Becker’s cast on which seemed to work well. I am using Knit Picks Felici Self Striping yarn in Mixed Berries, which is a pink shades yarn. I am using Size 1 needles. For the pattern I am using, the sock is going to be a little snug but it fits. If doing them again, I would use Size 2 needles.

My stalled Flag sweater project will be progressing as I just received the yarn I order to finish it.

I’ve been reading several blogs about the Tour de Fleece spinning project. I’ve been spinning but it is from some yarn I won on ebay recently. I won three pounds of combed superwash merino dark grey color. I want to make some sock yarn, so I am spinning it as fine as I can get with high twist so that it stays strong. The first skein came out very nice. After plying it, it came out a little over twisted but it retained its softness and I think it will work out well as sock yarn.

Lambtown USA

My husband and I will be going to Dixon, CA this year for the Lambtown festival. It is back at the Mayfair Fairgrounds with all the usual events: Sheep to Shawl, Mutton Bustin, National Spinning Competition, Sheep shearing and Sheep Dog Competitions. The only thing is I’m not sure they will have any vendors as they have not been posted online this year. We are looking forward to a wonderful weekend.