Some things I have noticed while knitting on a plane.
In a nutshell, knitting on a plane generally means plenty of uninterrupted knitting time. Which, when you have no choice but to travel, is a great way to pass the time.
A couple of weeks ago I went on my annual trek to the mountains of Asheville, NC for SAFF and stayed in a rustic cottage of mostly awesomeness with my girls Evil Science Chick, Evil Julie and Nytefalle.
Drinking Is Srs Bizness
Evil Science Chick
Zombie Nytefalle
We learned that if a bear shits in the woods, it definitely stinks. (A bear may or may not have shit outside our cabin. Or possibly the drunk boys 2 cottages down. OR there may have been an issue with a septic tank. We went with bear.) We pretty much blamed that bear for anything remotely stinky. Strangely enough, I think that bear may have followed me home.
Moving along!
We ate lots of tasty, tasty food.
Caramel Sea Salt Mocha Chocolate Cake
Spring Ridge Creamery Ice Cream (Pumpkin Pie & Peppermint)
Acropolis Pizza
Saw lots of cute animals:
Heeey, Baby!
Communing With the Sheepies
Check Out Those Horns
How You Doin'?
This Is My Good Side
I made several purchases. Again.
Corriedale Fleece
It is both awesome and dangerous to be friends with folks who on a fiber mill. I had 2 alpaca fleeces and also wool from Sugar Ray (I hope he’s getting plenty of tail in bunny heaven) that I wanted to blend and Jen picked out this gorgeous Corriedale for me. Then Jared took in my order. I’ll be getting a beautiful DK weight yarn out of the mix. I can’t wait to see what they do with it all!
Supporting My Friends
Sugar Skull Stitch Markers!
Gale-dar in Full Effect
Stash Enhancing
Because Everyone Needs A Ball Sack
You Can Never Have Too Many Project Bags
Oh Yeah. I Went There.
And the coup d’état :
Loom!
I blew my Vegas wad on a loom! [Sidenote: I won a grand in Vegas on the penny slots and my first thought was "OH MY GOD, I WON!!!" and my second thought was, "SAFF MONEY!!!!!"] I got a Kromski Harp 24″ Rigid Heddle Loom. As you can see here, I set it up as soon as I got home and started warping almost immediately. I think this is an excellent starter loom. You have the loom on one side, flip it over and the warp is on the other. Which is what you’re looking at. (The pegs are removable. Also very awesome.) I will be going through my used stash to find the rest of my sock yarn remnants to play with this baby on my first run. I imagine it will become a scarf that only a first-time weaver can love. But I can definitely see how easy it will be to use up a lot of yarn quickly. Maybe even some of my handspun. Also? It has the option of adding a second heddle, which means I can get fancy with the designs. Lots of options.
This was my 6th year of attending SAFF. I can honestly say that it never gets old. Asheville in October is absolutely gorgeous.
Scenic Drive
We usually see interesting things along the way:
You're Not Reading That Wrong
Let's Stop and Ask for Directions!
And I get to spend time with my tribe.
Bunch o' Weirdos
I can’t wait for next year!
This past weekend I went to go hang out with Evil Science Chick. We spent Saturday knitting, drinking wine, eating cupcakes, knitting, snacking on cheese and crackers, knitting…you get the idea. Also, there may have been a pitcher of margaritas in there somewhere… but I digress.
Sunday we went out for Dim Sum for lunch with these hoars.
And then we all went on a field trip to visit Fleury Sheep and Wool.
Where we get to see Jen & Jared in their natural habitat.
And met up with a few more friends.
We got a tour of the mill which was really cool. I’m always so impressed by Jen’s fund of knowledge. And Jared kicks ass, too.
We saw the cutest yarn dog evar, Wyatt.
Sad Panda Puppy Is Sad That You Want to Take His Wool
And then we picked up our award-winning fleece turned yarn.
I declare the weekend a HUGE SUCCESS.
As an avid collector and sometimes knitter of yarn, I have recently noticed that I have a rather unwieldy stash. In fact, I’m at the point where I actually asked that I NOT get yarn for Christmas. I know, I was shocked by it too.
But what I’m coming to find is that I want to knit what I have.
Well, some of what I have.
Also, I have all these lingering projects that I want to finish. I noticed that the bulk of what I have to finish is, well, sweaters and cardigans. One I started a few months ago, one I started 3 years ago and one that is even older than that. What I’ve decided to do this year is a project of the month club. For starters, I will finish the 3 languishing garments. That takes care of January – March. And then I am going to go through my stash and come up with 9 more projects.
Stay tuned as I figure out what they will be. Anyone else want to join me?
I really intended to just work on my shawl this week and finish the edging. Really. I want to finish this shawl so I can wear it (when it gets cooler and less humid) and so I can brag on how it only took me 2 years to finish. OK. So I can just brag that I finished it and we won’t mention that it took me 2 years. But whatever.
Anyway, the point is that I just hit a wall and couldn’t knit on it anymore. I was chomping at the bit to start any other project so long as it didn’t involve lace weight yarn and beads. Lots and lots of shiny beads. Ooh! SHINY!
Digressing!
Awhile back I dyed some mill end roving I got from Sheep Shed Studio.
This was not one of my better attempts as the roving got slightly felted. One very important lesson I learned from this dye attempt is that you CANNOT rush the process. Especially the part where you let the roving cool down on it’s own and don’t “help” it by immersing it in cold water. That’s what causes the felting.
But despite being ever so slightly felted, I really liked the way the colors turned out. I let them dry on their own (to not felt them anymore than they already were), petted them a bit, braided them up and then stuck them in my roving cabinet. And essentially forgot about them for awhile.
But then yesterday, because I was going a little crazy from knitting the same thing over and over and over and over and over, I decided that I needed to do something else completely different. Anything different. But I was feeling a little guilty about abandoning the shawl until my good friend Elizabeth reminded me that if you spin to get away from the knitting, it’s not cheating. Because, hello! It’s spinning, not knitting. I immediately felt better about my need to be sidetracked with a diversion. That’s right! It’s a diversion!
Mmmm....Diversion! Sidetrackery!
It’d been a ridiculously long time since I’d playing with roving and my spinning wheel. Like an embarrassingly long time. So this was an excellent diversion. And while we got off to a little bit of a rough start, it ended up being a lot like riding a bike. Once you get back into the rhythm of it all, piece of cake. Mostly.
I actually dyed two different colorways and then spun them both up together. The blue/green colorway is really easy to see, but the other is roving that I “spot” dyed with blue/green/purple and is so much more subtle when it spins up. The spots sort of bled together a bit, but I really like how it turned out. Here it is in its unspun glory.
I spun my little spinny heart out yesterday and loved every moment of it. I even stopped to take the time to draft my roving before I spun it. Mostly because, you know, I had to. You know, to unfelt the roving. I think I actually might start taking more time to draft my roving before I spin. On the whole, I seem to get more consistent yarn when I do that. Not always, but mostly. Anyway! I had about 7 small braids and did my best to spin it all up on one bobbin. I got all but a very little bit of the last braid on the bobbin. And then I Navajo plied it all.
104 yards of Nummy Yarn
I’m mighty pleased with the way it all turned out. Now I just need to set it and knit it up. I’m thinking cute, short fingerless mitts.
Squee!
And now? Now I feel like I can get back to my shawl without begrudging it. Mostly. Maybe right after I spun up some more of my stash…
After an incredibly long day at work, I am so very very glad to be at home and in my jammies. I’ve got my cat guarding my computer, the dog is relatively calm and my husband is cooking dinner and it smells delicious – teriyaki chicken with fried rice and grilled veggies. Nomnomnom. I’ve got my knitting and a nice cold beverage. Life is pretty damn good.
Oh yeah, and I got some Bugga. Jelus?
Thanks Jessi!
Stitches South was this amazing whirlwind of knitters and yarn and roving and fun. So. Much. Fun. I don’t have pictures of anyone, just loot. I ended up not carrying my camera around because I needed the yarn space. Also, I only have my big camera. (Looks like it’s time for me to invest in a point and shoot.) I finally got to meet and hang with Evil Julie. Turns out? I’m more evil than she is. Mwa ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Julie learned the hard way that it is totally Yarn first, Friends second at a fiber fest.
So, without further ado, let me introduce you to mah loot:
It’s really not as bad as it looks. Honest.
This is my beloved Brooks Farm Acero. Every time I visit their booth, I pet all the yarn and then leave with Acero. I lurves it so much. Julie, unwittingly came between my Acero and me so I politely asked her to step aside and gently guided her away from my intended. She, however, did not take kindly to this. And, in hindsight, I can understand that. This yarn is so luscious and silky smooth. Who wouldn’t want to basque in its glory? I know I do.
It also turns out that Julie and I have similar tastes in color. We were both admiring the Jack in the Pulpit sample shawl and were both admiring this particular kit. As you can see, I ended up with it. But only after we discussed which colors best suited our skin palates. I gently directed Julie to a similar, but lighter colored yarn that was more suited to her fair skin. I know she’ll look great in it. (She’ll also try to tell you that I “stole” this from her, but what are you going to expect from a Yankee? Bless her heart.)
You can see all the rest of my stash below.
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We had such a great time. I even didn’t really mind at Evil Science Chick‘s lame attempt at trying to kill me with margaritas. I caught on and stopped drinking after the first margarita. But you know, if I’m going to go, I think I’d prefer death by margarita.
Julie and ESC introduced me to Dr. Horrible. I really don’t know how I missed seeing it when it all first aired, but I’m DEFINITELY making up for lost time now. I showed Julie the Pepsuber shorts. Next post? You’ll get to see? Julie doing her soon to be famous Pepsi dance.
I got to see so many knitters that I normally only see at SAFF! That made me a little giddy getting to see them more than one time a year. I also got to make some new friends who may or may not have pictures of me with a certain skein of yarn down my shirt. I had a blast and I’m so glad to have the knitting friends I do. You guys rock.
Now I just need a week to recover.
I finally made a light box last night! I tested it out on some recent handspun that I did. Of course, I would pick something red heavy, so the reds are still a little oversaturated, but damn, this is SO MUCH BETTER than what I was able to do before.
So anyway, I took these: (click to make larger)
And turned them into this:
Can I just say that I love how this yarn turned out? I spun the “black” roving on a lower ratio flyer than I did the red and ended up spinning almost a half a bobbin more of the black than the red colorway. I ended up with 402 yards of smooshy yarn, so I am not complaining. I just need to become more familir with spinning with a higher ratio flyer. But I also have 3 7/8 ounces of both rovings to do another hank so I figure I can learn with those. I have a feeling that pre-drafting will be a key element to spinning with the higher ratio flyer.
I’d say this is probably a DK weight yarn. I still need to set the twist, but right now I”m just admiring it and squishing it. A lot. I think with the second set of rovings, I’ll spin the red on the lower ratio flyer and the black on the higher ratio flyer. I’m hoping that I will end up with half a bobbin of red left over to ply with the left black yarn I have and maybe get 3 decent skeins out of it all. If that’s the case, I might even have enough to do a proper garment. Wish me luck!
I?ve been walking around most of the summer with either one or two projects in my purse and mostly not knitting on them. I haven?t really touched my wheel in quite some time either. And while I still peruse the patterns online, especially on Ravelry, I just haven?t been inclined to knit. I think it started with the giant tangle of doom with the FBS and then I had a short bout with carpal tunnel and now I?m more inclined to do other things rather than knit.
I?m sure it?s the heat that is affecting my decision more than anything. But I think my dry spell is about to come to an end as I picked up the FBS yesterday and worked a row during the last few minutes of my lunch break. I love the feel of the Brooks Farm Acero yarn. It is absolutely delicious and sproingy and I would like to roll around naked in a giant pile of it. That feeling certainly encourages one to want to knit.
Also, I need to find some laceweight yarn that is wool free. I?m thinking that a silk lace-friendly yarn would be great for my MIL as she is allergic to wool. At least, I think she is. She told me it makes her itchy. I think the current 100% mohair Kiri shawl will go to someone else is in my family, I just haven?t decided who yet, but definitely someone who isn?t allergic to mohair.
Any suggestions on 100% silk yarn that is excellent for lace knitting?
I may have accidentally forgotten about some other purchases at I made at SAFF. Just a few little itty bitty things that are so small, they practically don’t count. Really.
You know a 1 oz silk hankie is practically nonexistent, right? Well, it is, so this really doesn’t count.
Also, there may or may not have been some Creatively Dyed sock yarn that I may or may not have bought for myself with which ESC totally converted me to the toe up sock method.
This picture is not proof of said alleged purchase.
Also, The Boy needed his own roving to spin, so these two little balls of roving somehow jumped into my bag. Seriously. I don’t know how they got there. It must have been the aliens. Really.
Oh yeah, and some dye. But that’s it! I think.
