Hey! Baby Stuff!!

But not on the blog.  The kids read this from time to time, and I want them to be surprised.

But go to my notebook on Ravelry.  If you don’t know or can’t find my username over there, drop me a line.

3 sweaters and a work in (slow) progress are over there.

It’s Spring!!!

It’s Spring, and it is shaping up to be a delightful one.  This has been one long year and a half.  (Did we even have a spring last year? … with all that has gone on, it is sort of hard to remember.

Good things, great things have been happening lately.

Bill has recovered enough to return to work (2 weeks under his belt now), and is gradually making progress to full recovery.

Great things have been happening on my work front.  I am looking forward to seeing what happens next!!

And, I saved the big tease for last…  Here is what I am getting to buy/ work on lately.

Yes, yes, tis true.  I get to knit for a wee one.  I have been sitting on this news for a week, but did not want to go public with it until after our girl had been to the doctor and gotten the official confirmation and a due date.  (December 1)  So, now we have a baby to look forward to, and I have graduated from just another old knitter to a knitting grandma-to-be!!

Knitting Resumes

I have been through an especially dry season for knitting,  but am happy to say I have emerged from this to the other side at long last.   I had started a laceweight scarf of Misti Alpaca, but lace knitting was not a very good match with what was going on in my life, what with Bill’s surgery and recovery (he’s going back to work this week, so he has made great progress from where he was immediately post op).  My mind finally calmed enough to finish the project:

Blocking was a bit difficult, but it surely ended up pretty, or so I think! The pattern is Seafoam (can be found on Ravelry) by my friend, Ruth, and is really quite easy, if you don’t have eleventy-zillion things running around in your head to distract you.  It’s lighter than a feather and tremendously soft!!  I am glad I made it.

I just finished an awesome shawl made from some of my handspun merino/tencel as well.  I have not blocked it yet nor taken a decent picture, so that will have to wait for another post.

Nostalgia, Sort of and Yarn Progress

Anyone growing up in the 50s and 60s, living in the South and who did any car traveling will likely remember being on the lookout for those rare, but highly sought after, Stuckey’s signs.  A chance to get out of the car, get some candy or something else to eat, a hot dog, maybe even some breakfast, use the restroom, and most important of all to a kiddo under 10…. TOYS!!!  Once in awhile, though, if you were traveling through Georgia or South Carolina, you would be fooled by a pretender to the kid-mecca, Rawl’s.  I would always be so mad every time I saw one of those signs.  The main reason was they used the same color scheme and a similar font to the Stuckey’s signs.  My hopes gotten up sky high only to be dashed.  Rawl’s did NOT have TOYS, or not that I know of.  They most likely had heavenly candy…  Who knows.  Anyhow, for the first time since we have been living here, I notice on US 17 about 8 miles south of our house and about 2 miles north of Woodbine, GA, this hiding in the woods.

How could I have traveled this road numerous times and NOT noticed it?  Beats me.  Some research indicated that the Rawl’s factory was located in Woodbine.  Now, how about that?  The building also still stands, but no vestiges remain of  its former occupation.

Funny thing is, the same week I took this picture, I also passed by Stuckey’s original headquarters in Eastman, GA, now occupied by the Standard Candy Company.  See, that competition is still in place, I guess.

Switching gears, here are my yarn singles from the Fiber Candy.

Here is a skein of it, 3 plied.  Truly now yarn candy.  I spun it semi woolen and fulled it and whacked it around to stabilize the neps in the yarn and to open up its woolen character.

The turquoise/green is more of the same fiber in an alternate colorway.

What Happened to the Dye Candy?

If you are interested in tracking the fiber I dyed, here’s what’s going on with it now. I haven’t used the green, purple or turquoise yet, but I made the warm colors into Crazy Batts – the dyed corriedale, some mohair locks and some silk noil.

I may go play with the cool colors this afternoon!

Also, if you’re on Facebook, check out the new application I made: Send Beach Stuff! I figured we needed some beach fun to cheer up the winter.

Dye Candy

I bought an electric food warmer/buffet server on sale after Christmas.

Setting it on high is the perfect way to dye wool or yarn.

Case in point….

This was part of a white Corriedale fleece.

I think I will have fun carding all of this into crazy batts.

So, I’ve Never Understood This

Maybe it is because I have only been spinning since 2002, but I never got the concept of putting yarn against a penny for reference.

Case in point.  Here is a sample of 3 ply merino sock yarn I am working on spinning:

Yarn looks humongous here.

Bet you think I zoomed in to get this shot.

HA, fooled you.  The first picture was actually taken against a very tiny penny gotten from my nantucket basket charm.  Here’s the yarn against both:

So, what I really want to know is why don’t people put something against the yarn that is more the shape of yarn, such as:

Angel hair pasta with 3 ply yarn side by side.  Now, that’s better!

Glad I got that off my chest. 

AWOL, but not AWOY (absent without yarn)

Seems I have not blogged in a long time. Not only have I been AWOL from blogging, I also went AWOL immediately post Bill’s neck surgery. So, now what would induce me to leave my husband the day after he came home from the hospital (but never fear, my stepmother came down to sit with him for a week) and brave the 1 digit temperatures in North Carolina?

(You can see the cold, can’t you?)

Well, only one thing could have done that. Lest you think I was being mean, let me remind you that I had this event planned for 6 months, and Bill’s surgery only came up for discussion within the last month or so. He definitely did not want me to miss my class at Folk School.

The class was “Spinning Colorful Yarns” and was taught by fiber/spinning/weaving expert extraordinaire, Judith MacKenzie McCuin. If you look closely, you can spot her in the classroom.

I just knew, knew, knew she was the best ever teacher, but I was also delighted to discover just what a wonderful lady she is as well. And, oh, the stories she regaled us with!!

Here are the goodies she brought along for us to play with:

Color wheel of 80s merino for us to experiment with. We learned how to spin the perfect sock yarn.

This is really the first time I have actually enjoyed spinning merino.

Then, she brought all this other wonderful stuff to play with. A lot of it came from our friend Jennifer from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. Yum!!!

She also brought a mixture of Cotswold wool and wolf fur, which I enjoyed experimenting with immensely. Well, who would have thought I would enjoy spinning wolf? Who would have thought you could even spin with wolf? And who was brave enough to gather its fiber?

Another goodie was some of Judith’s hand dyed singles, with which I learned to make boucle yarn.

Those who know me well know I have always been stumped by novelty yarns.

Here are some practice yarns:

Boucles and knot yarns.

Novelty mohair slub yarns.

4 ply cabled yarn.

As well as 6 ply cabled yarn, which I love, love, love.

We carded crazy batts:

And spun crazy batts:

Dyed wool:

We also learned yarn control. Yay!!!

Judith was extremely generous with her time and quite patient with us. What a lovely time we all had.

I also had the very amazing opportunity to watch Lyle Wheeler make a chair, using only hand tools. No glue, no nails, no power tools. This is the man who made my great wheel and my spinning stool. I now have a greater appreciation for these treasures after seeing him work.

I ate well and met some awesome ladies in class!!

It all made up for the cold weather, as I left with a warm heart.

So, that’s my January in a nutshell. I hope you have had an interesting month as well.

Inspiration for the New Year

Thanks to Bess, I found Colour Lovers. What an awesome tool for color design! How could I have seen this on her side bar numerous times and never checked it out? Anyhow, it is great fun and great inspiration. Here is a badge I created:

Color by COLOURlovers

ETA: Also VERY addictive.

Color by COLOURlovers

Random Things I Have Learned the Past 2 Weeks

1. Roasting a turkey in a convection oven makes a royal mess. You see, that fan in the oven just throws that grease from the turkey skin everywhere. From now on, I stick to oven roasting bags.

2. Knitting lace with laceweight alpaca on wooden knitting needles is a BAD idea.

3. When we gave out our new address to people likely to send us something, they all thought it was just a suggestion.

4. Fedex will leave a package at a totally uninhabited duplex that has a FOR RENT sign on it. (See #3).

5. People will help themselves to unattended item in #4.

6. iPod Touches are totally addictive.

7. How to blog from the iPod Touch.
(At least I think so. We’ll find out in a moment.)