Michigan- Gilmore Car Museum Part 1

I had an extra day off from teaching (not enough students signed up for the class that day, so it was canceled) (I knew that well in advance- it wasn't a surprise move, MFF is too classy for that). Brother in law Rick suggested we visit the Gilmore Car Museum, which was about a half hour from Hastings.

I'm not a big car enthusiast (I didn't get my drivers licence until I was 34), but The Hub is, and I'm always up for visiting a museum, so we went. And man, am I glad we did. This place is amazing- building after building after building of amazing (and incredibly expensive) restored and unrestored vintage cars. We wandered for 3 hours, and could have spent more time. The displays were beautifully staged, the cars sparkled and shone, and each car had an info plaque with the sort of stats that made The Hub's heart go pitty-pat.

I'm not going to try to explain anything (I don't know a Rolls from a Bently anyway), I'll just post pics (half today, half tomorrow)- let yourself bask in the glory of chrome.

 Okay- one comment: I want fingernail polish in that pumpkin color

FO

Knitters know that I'm not flipping anyone off with the post header- in Knitting Parlance, FO stands for Finished Object, something I don't seem to manage much these days. At least with my needles.

Oh sure, I've been making yarn like a spindle fiend, and I did revise a novel to my agent's satisfaction (a short novel, but still), and I'm nearly done proofing the Kindle file for The Hotel South Dakota (speaking of eBooks- I got my first royalty transfer from eBook sales. It's small, but there is a certain satisfaction to earning money on a book that was first published almost twenty years ago), and I'm deep into getting ready for my two upcoming teaching gigs (NCFF and SAFF), and I've been playing with jewelry making, and of course, there's that whole *new computer* distraction. But I simply have not been doing much knitting.

So, a couple of nights ago, I put the spindles down and decided to get these off the needles. I knew that I was skating on the Not Enough Yardage Edge with the yarn that I spun and plied on the way to and from Michigan last month. It was a one-of-a-kind short-run fiber, and there is no more to be had, for any amount of money. On the other hand, the socks are destined for someone with tiny little fairy feet, so I hoped to squeak by. 

No such luck. See above? I needed one yard- one measly yard- more. No, not even a full yard. 20" would have been enough. And I ran out.

But did I panic? Well, maybe just a little bit. And I cursed the fact that I used that yarn to tie my little hanks-  I'd thoughtlessly wasted at least a full yard. And then I calmed down and hand-plied a yard of the sproingy yarn (shown yesterday) directly from the spindle, and spit-spliced* it to the the remainder of the proper yarn, and finished them off. The wool/mohair is a very pale, mottled yellow. The off-white wool picked up the yellow tone, and it blends in so well that I'm not even going to tell you which sock has the replacement yarn. Well, actually, I don't remember which one has a sproingy tip, but that just goes to show how matchy it is.

I lucked out. And so did the recipient- she avoided something that my Knitting OCD abhors- wildly unmatching tootsies.

*for the remaining non-knitting people who've read this far, spit-splicing is exactly what it sounds like. Gross, but efficient

Catching Up- Road Spinning

We left Hastings early Saturday morning. Instead of heading north past Gary, IN, we stayed on I-80 through Illinios and Iowa, swinging up to Albert Lea, MN to catch I-90.

We drove through a storm in Illinois- heavy rain, hail, and lightning drilling not 50' from the car (the thunder was loud enough to rattle the windows). We spotted these funnels trying to form about a mile off. I took the picture with my phone, so it's fuzzy, but take my word for it, both of those things were rotating. We were very glad to get past that little bit of nastiness.

We pulled over in Wallcot, IA for a bathroom break, and to fill the gas tank. We lucked into Iowa 80, the World Largest Truck Stop. The name may be hype, but it surely is a very large truckstop- with a food court (multiple big-name vendors), many shops, a museum, and an on-site dentist, not to mention all of the other things that truck stops are known for: showers, beds, and down-home cooking. It was a fun stop.

We spent the night in Sioux Falls, which was wonderful for the final day of travel, but it played hell on my reserves. We were in the car about 2 hours longer than my sanity could absorb.

On Sunday, we got up early, ate breakfast, and headed home. We went through Mitchell, which has The World's Only Corn Palace, something you're not apt to forget or ignore if you're anywhere near Mitchell. In case you don't know this already, the murals on the outside of the building are made from corn, and only corn- natural colored corn at that- no dyes or artificial coloring. It is actully a pretty cool building, and they change the murals every year, so it's fun to see what new notions they come up with.

I didn't feel like knitting on the way home (write that one down- it may never happen again), so I tried spinning in the car. Amazingly enough, one can spin just fine in a moving vehicle.

Well enough to fill my two larger spindles.

Even more amazing, one can spindle ply in a moving vehicle. Plying on a spindle has always been one of my least favorite chores, but I sort of found a rhythm doing it, and as long as I remembered to go slow, it all went very well. These two hanks were spun and plied between Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday, I worked on the little alpaca roving balls that I bought at the festival. Since I only had one laceweight spindle with me (the new Greensleeves), I wound the first singles on a pencil, and then continued on with the next color.

They all came out very well (amazing: practice really does make perfect... or at least a lot better than I had been doing). That's 269 yards of wool/mohair 2-ply yarn, 3.8 ozs, probably a sportweight. I think I'll knit a hat and mittens with it (it's not quite enough for socks).

This is 68 yds, and .4ozs of alpaca. I plied the singles with a metallic strand for some sparkle. The kinks will pull out after the yarn is knit and blocked, though it does look rather pretty all boucle-y (I'm going to make a lace scarf with this and one or more of the other alpaca roving balls).

I just like this picture, and wanted to share it.

I'll leave you with this last picture of Michigan roadside beauty. It was a wonderful trip. I hope I can go back next year.

Checking in

Yesterday's classes were fantastic, the Fiber Festival was wonderful, I bought a gorgeous little Greensleeves spindle, and we celebrated my niece's 30th birthday. Today we drove 750 miles, saw funnel clouds forming in Illinois, and I learned how to spindle ply yarn in a moving vehicle. But you'll have to wait until tomorrow for details and pictures because it turns out that riding 750 miles in a single day is about 200 more than my mind and body can absorb. I'm in Sioux Falls and I plan to collapse very soon. But I'll be home fairly early tomorrow, and I promise to give you the whole scoop soon.

In the meantime- where's the vodka and Kahlua?

Wordless Lake Michigan

Thursday Michigan Morning

You might think that since I talk all of the time, in all situations, spending a day talking to students would be like every other day. It's not- that Kathleen Taylor person is a lot peppier than I am, and after a full day with her onstage, I am pooped out. But the Fair Isle Design class, which is a really work-intensive class, went very very well. All nine of the students came up with wonderful original designs, and I think they all had the lightbulb moment, which is what I aim for as a teacher. I will try to finish knitting my hat tonight so I can show it off tomorrow.

Yesterday's classes were a sort of pre-festival thing- the actual Fiber Festival doesn't start until Saturday. There were no vendors open yesterday, and only one food booth. But there were classes everywhere in the big, airy barns. It was warm, but not unbearably so, and my *classroom* was near the large open doors so we frequently got cooling breezes. The venue is pretty amazing, with multiple barns all interconnected- all overseen by the Big Metal Chicken (and if you don't know why that's amusing all by itself, go here .)
There weren't enough signups for the class I proposed for today, so it was cancelled. I would be sad about that, except that this gives us a day to do some sightseeing. We're staying at my sister-in-law's house in Hastings, out in the country. It's lovely here- much like the Pacific Northwest, only without mountains in the distance. Lots of rolling hills and green farmland, old silos, and trees trees trees. The mist rolls in every morning (so far the dewpoints have been low, so the temps have been tolerable, though the mosquitoes are not), and the countryside looks like every fantasy you might have about 1800's farms (if you ignore the pickup trucks and power lines).

Today, we're driving to Holland to see Lake Michigan. On my only other visit to the state, we crossed Lake Michigan on the ferry (from Manitowoc to Luddington). It was a rough-water crossing, so I spent most of it inside and did not see much of the lake. Today, I'll take lots of pictures.

Tomorrow, I teach Little Tips and Knitting Tricks in the morning, and Writing Patterns for Publication in the afternoon. I believe some of the vendors will be open then (I hope so- I want to buy a spindle). But even if no one sells anything, we'll all have a wonderful time.

In the meantime, these Sandhill Cranes landed in Jayne's yard.

Michigan Mornings

Well, we managed to miss Chicago by going south and around to Gary, IN, but the traffic was still pretty hairy for twenty minutes or so (white knuckle for this rider anyway- 70 mph, bumper to bumper, 6 lanes). But once we got past that, it was back to rural and pretty. Wisconsin has rolling farmland, Illinois has amazing rest stops, Michigan has a lot of trees. It's all beautiful.

I know how big the windmills are, and yet I'm still surprised at how big they are. These were in the farmland before the Chicago suburbs. I guess they don't call it the Windy City for nothing.

We got in to Hastings at about supper time. This is my sister in law's back yard. Not a bad view, eh? 

Jayne is known for her sauerkraut- here's some future cabbage.

Jayne and Terry- they don't get to spend much time together, so it's wonderful to have this excuse to visit. We have today to play and do touristy things. This morning I ran, and the lovely misty rural Michigan rolling hills killed my sorry, out-of-shape flatlander ass. But it was gorgeous.

Tomorrow, I go to work. I can't wait!

LaCrosse

We headed out this morning, much later than Taylors usually hit the road (about 8:30am). We ate lunch at Granite City in Sioux Falls (where they were playing the Lawrence Welk Theme Song... no, I could not make that up... a little champagne music with your Sunday brunch, which was excellent by the way). I picked up where I left off with the Road Socks.

 

Not too far from Albert Lea, MN, we stopped at a roadside park which had a little bridge over a creek with lots of little fishies.

It was a pretty place, especially considering it was just a rest stop.

Many, many, many motorcycles (and their owners) were headed home from Sturgis.

I finished the socks  well before the Wisconsin border.

We see windmills at home, and we see them on the way to the west coast, but I've never seen the kind of windmill concentration as I did this morning along I-90 in Minnesota. There were more windmills than there were motorcycles (I'm talking hundreds and hundreds). Even if you know how big these suckers are, you still don't KNOW how big they are until you drive next to them (and we see the blades being trucked past on our highway all the time). It was amazing,.

We made it to LaCrosse, WI (over the Mississippi River) in good time. We found an amazing little restaurant- Edwardo's Pizza Wagon, which served not only fantastic wood-fired pizza, but also a large selection of national microbrews, and international beers. After consulting with Curt, I had a Spotted Cow Pale Ale with my supper. It was yummy.

Tomorrow morning, we head south, and if we are lucky, we will avoid Chicago almost entirely, and make it to our portion of Michigan by supper time. Cross your fingers for us.

Packing Up

I have my workshop handouts all printed, collated and stapled, and the supplies gathered. The suitcases are as packed as they can be (until tomorrow morning and we can put the last minute things in: hair dryer, makeup... not that I plan to put makeup on in the morning). We head out tomorrow and will stay in LaCrosse, WI. We'll get to Hastings, MI on Monday, to stay with my sister in law.

I'll be teaching at the Michigan Fiber Festival on Wednesday and Friday. I'm excited to be a part of this gathering, and I'll take lots of pictures.

In the meantime, I spindle-plied the wool/mohair singles that I had spun already.

I did the plying with this spindle- the whorl is Bird's eye maple, and the shaft is lathe-carved (it's painted black). It's not a good spindle for spinning- it doesn't hold a spin (it's neither rim, nor center weighted), and the shaft is thick and a little hard to get twirling. But it works fine for plying, especially the slow plying that is my SOP. And it's absolutely gorgeous (which is the usual reason that I buy a spindle). I don't know who made this one- I bought it at the North Country Fiber Fair a couple of years ago.

My spindle-plying leaves very much to be desired. I am always much happier with yarn I spin and ply on the wheel, which is a really good reason for me to practice a whole lot more with a spindle.

The yarn is underplied here and there- it has a bit more kink than I like. But otherwise, it's soft and pretty. This is 1oz, and a shade over 53 yards. It will probably knit up nicely on 3.25 or 3.5 mm needles. I have 3 more ozs of the fiber, so I should have enough yarn for a hat and mittens when I get done. I'm taking the fiber and spindles with  me to Michigan, but I have no idea if I'll have any time for spinning.

At any rate, I'll check in from the road, and post lots of pics of the Festival. You all be good while I'm gone.