Yarn, and other goodies

I'm still in spindle spinning mode...

I spun up another little bump of the dyed Alpaca, and plied it with metallic filament (which is a PITB, even moreso than usual spindle plying)(but it's oh so pretty, so it's worth the effort, except when I'm actually doing it), and the rest of the Merino/Bamboo from Girl on the Rocks.

Total so far: about 1.5 ozs of Alpaca lace weight yarn and 200 yds, and 3.8 ozs of heavy fingering/sport weight Merino/Bamboo, 268 yards. The Merino/Bamboo is so soft and cushy, I want to take a nap on it.

I'm further along on these socks (knit with the previously spindle spun and plied wool/mohair) but don't have a new pic. I'm also worried that I won't have enough yarn to finish them. We'll see how that goes (and I am resisting the irrational urge to knit faster, so I can outrun the yarn). I'm all about the simple texture, and this one is about as simple as they come: K 5 rnds, Next Rnd: K2 P2* around, K 5 rnds, Next Rnd: P2 K2* around. Easy peasy.

Now that I can wear different post earrings (though the newly-pierced-ear-instructions say no wires for 6 months), I've had the urge to make more earrings. I can't wear these for awhile, but they're made with sterling hooks and sterling wire. On a related note- I have 38' of 20 gauge sterling wire on hand. I think I paid maybe $35 for it, four or five years ago. I idly wondered what it would cost to buy more so I checked around... hoo boy... I had no idea that silver had gone up so much. The same amount of wire now would cost over $100. I guess I'll use what I have on hand carefully.

After stirring, and adding, and watching, and waiting for 10 days as the starter percolated, it's Amish Friendship Bread Baking Day. I'm pretty sure the Road to Hell is paved with this stuff.

And on a different subject altogether- I use RunKeeper to log my route/time/distance/speed on my morning jog, and on our long Sunday walks. This is what it logged for us on Sunday- 47 miles in under 2 hours... Funny, I don't feel like I walked any more than, say, 4.7 miles...

Weaving Weekend Part 3- Yarn!

Though the retreat was officially a *weaving weekend*, as Connie points out, on her blog, there were lots of spinners along for the ride. There were also crocheters, and I'm sorry that I didn't get a shot of Melissa's crocheted Gnome, but if you go to Connie's link above, and look at the slideshow, you'll spot it.

In addition to weavers, spinners, knitters, crocheters, eaters, and laughers, there were also dyers. Kelly announced in advance that she was going to be doing some organic dyeing, and that anyone who brought 4 ozs of mordanted yarn, or unspun fiber, could join in the fun.

A mordant is an organic chemical treatment that prepares the yarn for dyeing. Different mordants produce different colors with the same dye. Some are benign and easily obtained (such as alum and cream of tartar, which I would have used), suitable for indoor dyeing. Some are less so (natural and organic do not automatically equal safe or non-toxic), like chrome and tin. By noon on Saturday, Kelly decided that it was just too windy to dye outside, and it was unsafe to use her preferred mordant/dye inside, so she went with a milder dye to simmer on the stove.

I didn't have time to pre-mordant my yarn last week, but ever hopeful, I brought some handspun along, just in case.

This is Romney- natural white, and natural gray.

Kelly let me soak my skeins in her mordant solution (yay Kelly!) while the first batches of yarn were in the dyepots.

On the left is cochineal. Cochineal is a teeny little desert-dwelling bug that makes a lovely red color. You need about a bazillion bugs to get any usable dye (technically: 70,000 per pound). On the right is Osage Orange, which produces a yellow-to-orange dye, depending on the fiber, mordant, and the strength of the dye itself, which is made from wood chips and sawdust.

The first yarns out of the dyepots were vivid red and yellow. Oh so beautiful!

Since my yarns were part of the second batch, some of the color had been exhausted already (soaked up by the first yarns- subsequent dye batches are always lighter than the first ones. It's an excellent way to get coordinating shades with your yarn). Personally, I'm thrilled with my watermelon colors (you don't have to look very far in most of my books to see that watermelon colorways have always appealed to me). And I'm fascinated that the Osage Orange dye came out a beautiful green over the silver gray Romney yarn. I have plenty of undyed white Romney handspun, and I do believe that I'll be knitting myself a pair of watermelon socks from these yarns.

I did some spinning too- I finished up two bits of roving that I had on hand, and emptied out all of  my bobbins, which is an unusual state for them. On the left, is some merino from Twisted Fiber Arts, in the Valkyrie colorway. I haven't measured it out, but there is plenty enough for gloves and a hat. On the right is just a bit of something, that I Navajo 3-plied. I don't remember where it came from, but it's pretty.

In fact, my output for the entire weekend came out well. On the far right is some natural cotton. On top of all of them is the mitten I knit for the mitered square class.

I didn't take nearly enough pictures last weekend- you can multiply my yarns by about 20, in all different colors and fibers, and imagine the beauty. It was a wonderful weekend, and I'll be going back next year.

Tonight, I'll see if I can figure out how to tell the Legless Chicken story without naming names...

Very Busy Tuesday- SoCal Day 5

 We started out the day here, at Element Coffee, for the best coffee I've had in my entire life. Granted, I know almost nothing about coffee, but even I could tell that this was good stuff.

 From there, we went to the train depot. These are the 5 Camarillo Stallions, which decorate the interior of the loading docks. We took the Amtrack Surfliner, from Camarillo to Santa Barbara.

 The train was quiet and comfy, and the seats had a lot more room than your average airline seats.

 I tried to take pictures of the surf on the way to Santa Barbara, but none turned out. We rode right along the shorline for about half of the hour-long trip, and the scenery was gorgeous!

 We got to Santa Barbara with plenty of time for a walking tour of Stearns Wharf.

 Note the hair- it was extremely humid (that's definitely my Summer Frizzies).

 It was gorgeous anyway.

 You can check out any time you like, yadda yadda. We ate lunch at the Santa Barbara Brewing Company, which was excellent (I had fish and chips).

 Then it was time to wander to Loop & Leaf  for my signing/ workshopettes.

Loop & Leaf is a lovely, small shop. I arrived about 15 minutes before the books did, but I would have enjoyed my 3 hours there, even with no books. Celeste and her staff are wonderful, and the knitters there are even moreso. I had a fantastic time, and I intend to take them up on their offer to come back and teach a full class!

 Oh yeah- yarn. I bought yarn (the moratorium is off for appearances). This is Araucania Miloden, and it's going to be heavy socks with a waffle pattern.

While I'm showing yarns off, I bought this Rowan Colourscape Chunky at Athena Fibers in Sioux Falls. It'll eventually be a mitered square hat. Lovely stuff, both yarns.

After the classes were over, we had several hours to kill before the return train, so we wandered some more, and did a beer tasting at Union Ale Brewing. I was especially taken with the Honey Blonde (that might not be exactly the right name- but it did have honey in the title).

After that we wandered a bit more, than hopped on the train for the hour-long trip back to Camarillo. It was a wonderful, exhausting day.

Today? It's raining. We're planning a quiet day, which suits me just fine.

Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book for just $4.84!

OMG! Today (11/04/10) the price is $2.82!)


Through the magic of Ravelry, I just learned that B&N online is offerring the new Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book for just $4.84 (with free shipping for orders over $25)! This is an amazing deal! It's cheaper than I can buy them with my contributor's discount (which does not have free shipping). I don't know how long the sale will last, so if you're thinking of buying this book, now's your chance (and I believe that Canadian buyers can get it for something like $11, with shipping). And even better, this is a special B&N edition with 5 extra patterns (which means you might want one even if you have already purchased the other version).

However, if you are a knitter, and you're on my Christmas list... ignore this post...

Look what came while I was in North Carolina

My copy of 101 Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders!

Like all of the books in the series, this edition is chock full of wonderful patterns and designs, all using a single skein of yarn- in this case, sock yarn. Of course, I jumped at the chance to contribute these:

I used Twisted Fiber Arts yarn, in Playful (the wonderful heavy fingering weight superwash), dyed in the Scorched colorway. I don't think Scorched is on the roster at the moment, but any of the wonderful Twisted self-striping colorways would knit up to the same effect.

I have recently been reminded that winter is on the way- so I'm glad these gloves are back with me, because they're mine! All mine!