Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Itteh Bitteh Kitteh Committeh
The kittehs! The top center kitty and the one to the right are red tabby & white (both male). The calico & white just below that and the calico & white dead center are both female. The all red tabby is a male and the dark tabby is a female. Did I mention that they are a-dor-able?And really, who could resist this face?
In other news, I have been playing with the collection of spinning wheels this week. Here is some merino that I dyed many moons ago and am spinning quite fine on my Ashford Traditional. I had forgotten what a lovely wheel this is. I think I am keeping it for a student wheel. I tried spinning this fiber thick and fluffy but I think it is better suited to laceweight.Friday, March 27, 2009
Weekly Wrap-Up
Knitting progress is still slim. Washcloths are due soon and I had fewer than I thought, so there has been a lot of work on those. The lace stole is still in limbo and there is no lace mojo on the horizon. Even my socks have been stalled since I switched knitting bags. Fortunately it is too warm now for socks and I have plenty in the sock drawer already in case we have an early spring blizzard. I did stop by Knit N Stitch for an quick visit this afternoon and was reminded how much I love yarn and the people who work with it. We even got to burn someone’s yarn! The burn test is one way to determine the fiber of a yarn – wool turns to ash, acrylic melts, et cetera.
Saturday is the GLASG meeting so I will be there with fiber, a smile and some soap. It is always nice to visit with spinners, and I anticipate I can get a lot of progress made on the box of brown Romney roving. It seems that the more I spin, the less the level of wool in the box goes down! The black Romney fleece is nearly all scoured and dried now, so I can work on that soon. It will be fun to break out the drum carder! I think after that I will be ready for some white or anything with color. The theme of the meeting is trying out different kinds of wheels and spindles, so I will pack a couple interesting ones and maybe one will find a new home.
Denise and I started the weaving class in Covina this week. The facility is amazing – they have been in that room since the ‘70s and that class has been running since ’37. They must have 50 floor looms and a couple dozen table looms, plus a dyeing room, a small spinning area, a triangle loom and bunches and bunches of free / donation yarn for projects. I don't know what I was expecting, but that was not it. The folks are all very nice and it turns out most of us recognize each other from various fiber events - sometimes it is good to be known as "the soap lady"!
I am planning on learning the doublewide – doubleweave technique, where one weaves a cloth that you can unfold it when it comes off the loom and is twice as wide as it seemed. Double weave can also be used to make cloth that is a tube, has pockets, has a front and a back that are entirely different or to make two pieces of cloth at the same time (one sits above the other). It is all very clever.
I am also fascinated by the idea of woven lace (huck, atwater-bronson, etc) and might make some curtains later in the semester. I have to get Martha’s blanket done at some point in my life. She would prefer if it were soon! I am still such a new weaver that I am not sure what all the weaving ‘options’ are. So many things in our environment are made from woven fabric but how often do we stop and evaluate them? Do I want to make curtains? Rugs? Upholstery fabric? Towels? Yardage for clothing? That is why I want to be in a class – not just for instruction and guidance but also for inspiration and variation.
I brought the guinea pig to gardening day at Martha's this week and he was well admired. They commented how well the red pig looked in the green grass against the purple flowers; maybe we should make a calendar!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Kittehs
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Random Tuesday (is it Tuesday?)
Next, a pic of the stray cat that needs a home. Here she is reclining on the neighbor's a/c unit. Anybody need a cat? The inn is full at my house.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
What Ho!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Rising Signs
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Fleecy Dreams and Stranger Things
Merino/ Tencel "Twisted Spinster"BFL "Twisted Spinster"Merino/Tencel "Rainbow Trout"
BFL "Rainbow Trout" (not pictured)
Merino / Silk "Blueberry Squishy"
Merino/Tencel "Primrose"Merino/Tencel "Autumn"
BFL "Autumn" (not pictured)
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Idles of March
The finished 2 ply yarn! From about 25 gr of raw fiber I was able to make a 17 gr skein of about 48 yards. It is amazingly soft and fluffy, and bright white. I hope the client is as pleased as I am.
Destashing
The destashing project is still on. I have made a flickr folder of the available items. Please email me at sleepingfox16 at yahoo dot com for more information on individual items. The featherweight spindle above is $35.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Fiber, Fiber Everywhere
Monday, March 02, 2009
Wolf? What Wolf? Door? What Door?
Come Smell Soap!
For your soap perusing pleasure, I keep a list of our upcoming events / shows / craft fairs running in the sidebar under "Come Smell Soap!" and I certainly invite one and all to come by and sniff around. The soap. Of course. I will do a little twiddling this evening to make sure everything is up to date. As we add them, I will also start listing our soap and fiber "outlets" in case you can't see us in person. The more, the merrier! Coming up in the near future are: the Riverside Arts Walk this Thursday, the ASCH conference this weekend (although exact details of my participation are still under construction), and KnitNight at Knit N Stitch on Friday. Need a special delivery? Send me an email or a comment and we can chat.
Honest to goodness knitting progress was made on an actual sock last night. I really needed some plain ol' stockinette in-the-round knitting last night, and this particular pair of socks has been on the needles (OTN) for .... a while now. I would like to have them done in time for A/C season here in the southland. However, I had to do some stash tossing in order to find said socks, and was impressed by the amount of yarn that I forgot I had. And knitting needles. And fiber. And a cross stitch pattern, just to mix it up. Which is a segue to.....
Destashing Alert!
I will be having a "stash liquidation" sale in the coming days. I expect there will be books, yarn, patterns, cross stitch kits, drop spindles, fleece, prepared wool and the odd spinning wheel in the offerings. All items will be in new (yarn, fiber) or gently used (spindles, tools) condition.
Well, duckies, I think that is all the knews that is fit to knit. Toodles!