Ah Sunday................

I woke up this morning really early. Around 5 or so. Way too early for a Sunday for me. Earlier in the summer that would have suited me just fine because I would have gone on the deck and knit for a while. Big problemo with that is that it is still friggin dark at 5 AM now. Another sign that summer is nearing it's end. So I went back to sleep for a while.

Hubby was going fishing and I had plans to actually go (one day I will get into the whole 'I don't like the boat so much' history - let's just say that for now it has to be a real calm day and all conditions HAVE to be perfect for me to go). The wind started kicking up by 8 AM. That was the end of my fishing. Thank God Nicole was willing to go out with her dad - I would have felt guilty having him go alone.

Gee - the day to myself - what on earth will I do???


Ummm - knit perhaps? Maybe even spin?

I did spin for a bit yesterday

The alpaca/shetland mix that I have about 6 pounds of. Take that big bag below and add 2 more and that is how much I have to spin. That is my long term project. I set it up on my Polonaise and I am not in a hurry. I plan on knitting sweaters for the family from it and that won't happen till the winter anyway. Spinning it is just heavenly though. Sooooo soft! I can't wait to get the first skein plyed to see what it will be like.

Speaking of sweaters I have been working on one for my neighbor who just had a baby girl a couple of weeks ago. I fell in love with the Sweater on Two Needles from Elizabeth Zimmermans Knitting Almanac. It's so dainty. And I think there were about 1500 completed ones to check out on Ravelry. Let me tell ya - this pattern kicked my ass. I had to rip the darn thing out 7 times. I was so tempted to give up. I checked for errata - none. It is such a simple pattern for God's sake. What the heck was I doing wrong? So I dug my heels in and gave it a last try again last night with a little extra help.

Yeah - that'a a Pomegranate Martini I called for aide. And damn it worked! Not really - I think my issue was that I was dropping some of my yarn overs on the purl side. I put lots of markers and keep counting and so far so good. I am hoping to finish the body today and start working on the sleeves later tonight. That is if I can keep going with no further problems. We shall see........

We have some progress here......

Olympics - finished. Ravelympics project - drumroll pleaseeeeeee.....



I am happy with the way they turned out. I will be casting on for another pair soon. I have to finish up the monkey sock that still is half done so that her mate will not be lonely anymore. It's the kind of pattern that you have to pay attention to but once you get going you can go on auto-pilot, so to speak.

As soon as I was done with the Anntrelacs I immediately got to spinning. Remember this?

It turned into this


It is from my Spunky Club stash. I think this one was called Snow Squall. It goes well with the other yarn I am planning to use for my Half Pi Shawl.

I also finished this

Another Spunky stash that I believe was called the Perfect Storm. Forgive me Spunky Junkies for screwing up the names. I got the fiber so long ago I can't remember what it was called! This one is super soft! Again - it will go into the Shawl.

Ah - my shawl. No shot of that getting cast on anytime soon. Right now I am working on some hush-hush Christmas presents, generic socks, my cardi, and I must cast on the baby sweater from Elizabeth Zimmermans Knitting Almanac for that baby that was born across the street.

As far as spinning, I can't wait to get my hands on that alpaca/shetland that was processed. Hopefully that will be on my wheel tomorrow!

More sun and fun

I think I am addicted to solar dyeing. As soon as I get one batch out of the jar I am loooking to start the next one. I took the last batch of roving out yesterday and I am itching to put more in but I am waiting to do some natural dyes. I have to make a trip to the store today to get the alum and cream of tartar for the mordent. And I'm not sure what I am using for the dyeing yet either. I have alot of marigolds. I also have some red flowers (have no idea what they are - a green thumb I am not). I am going to think on that one today.

In the meantime here's what I got last week out of the jar


The colors aren't appearing very well because of the sun but it came out nice with a dark violet and blue and green. I love it.

I took this out yesterday


I am totally in love with this one. I might even start spinning it tonight at my spinning group. And with this chilly autumn weather we are having today those colors make me feel comfy. I even have the urge to bake some more. Funny how the colder weather does that. Thank goodness it goes back to being in the 80's tomorrow. I'm really not ready for summer to end. Speaking of - we have to go school clothes shopping today. I hate it because it really does mean summer is coming to and END. I like having my daughter around and being able to have lazy days ocassionally. There's always next summer.........

Olympics and other fun things

What a great weekend it was. The weather was perfect. Not too hot but the sun was shining and there was a little breeze (Sunday was more than a breeze perhaps - it was darn windy at times!). I went to the Washington County Fair on Saturday and met up with some spinning friends that I hadn't seen in a while. There was Debbie, and Marva and Sandi and Sharon and all the other girls at the RI Spinners Guild. I became an "Official Member" and gave Debbie my dues for the rest of the year. Why not? They have some nice events coming up and I am excited to be able to attend.

While at the fair I finished spinning up my Spunky Club selection from last October which was called Goblin Eyes. I spun it on my drop spindle and plied it on my Louet. I have two more balls to ply but this is the first one

I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet (do I ever really know what I am doing with my yarn??).

I finished plying Rose Garden.


That was originally spun for a small pair of socks but I don't have enough. I might combine it with some other handspun and make the socks. Still deciding on that.

I have more roving sitting in the sun and have pics of the last little experiment. I love the way it came out. I am going to try some natural dyeing next. I read a great article in Hobby Farm Homes.

Progress on THE sock? Look at my last post - it looks about the same despite the fact that I knitted on it for a good portion of Sunday. I messed up somehow and had to frog it back to where I started. It has taken me 2 days to even look at it again. Thank goodness I have till this weekend to finish.

Trip to the Vineyard

Me and my good fiber obsessed friend Lisa got up at 5AM Thursday and set off to Martha's Vineyard. The ferry ride over was nice. Very relaxing which resulted in some quality knitting time. We arrived at Vineyard Haven and walked around for a bit. Our goals for the day were to visit Heath Hen which is the yarn/quilt/embroidery shop on the island. Lisa sells handmade buttons and shawl pins (I wish she had a website so you could see - she is so talented it just amazes me) and had an appointment with the sweet owner, Lynn, to show her some items that might sell in her shop. Next goal was to visit MV Fiber Farm (where I bought my CSA share). We also wanted to visit Island Alpacas. Heathhen was the first stop. Nice shop and VERY busy. Her door didn't stop opening. Nice to see a LYS doing well. Lynn bought quite a few items from Lisa (she is preparing for a knitting cruise that has a stop on Martha's Vineyard sometime in October).

Next stop was Island Alpacas because we couldn't get to see Susan at MV Fiber Farm until 3:30. So off to the alpacas it was. Nice farm - lots of alpaca. She had a nice shop that sold knitted items, yarn, roving, alpaca items like magazine, books and the like. I noticed she had a sign saying that she gives lessons as well - knitting and spinning. I also noticed the alpaca facts that listed what you need to raise them. And that got me thinking. I believe my future farm is going to include alpacas. So much that I may consider making it a business. I am still gathering info. Will keep ya updated!

One thing we did not plan on at the Vineyard was the traffic. I see why people ride their bikes. Long story short - we got stuck in traffic and got to MV Fiber Farm too late for the tour. Boo Hoo! I was disappointed but I know I will go back when it is shearing time so I will meet Susan then. Not a big deal.

And in my haste of rushing around there all day - I did not take a single picture. Nope - not one. Bad blogger - I know. You can all smack me now.

I do have a picture of THE sock. I finished one!


You like? I do - but I am not thrilled with the yarn to tell you the truth. I am in love with the color changes. But the thin/thick thing going on. I swear I am afraid to wear these because I think I will wear a hole through the heel the first time out. Anybody else knitted with Noro Sock before????

I am spending the rest of the day working on second sock, reading Hobby Farm Home (they have a great article on natural dyeing), and listening to the Ipod.



Can you see the empty bowl in the background! I made apple shortcake (WW style) and am enjoying that too. Have a great day everyone!

It's A Good Thing

The dream that hubby and I have is that when we are nearing retirement we will be able to have our own small hobby farm. Not much - a few chickens for eggs, a couple of sheep (can't imagine what I would need them for????), and a couple of Alpaca (I just have to have them after seeing how sweet they can be this weekend).

We are intrigued with other blogs/magazines/news articles about others who are making this their reality. This week I heard about Susan Gibbs of Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm. Not only did I hear about her once - I heard from three different sources within days. What she has done is taken the CSA Model - which for those who are not familiar simply means selling part of your crop (in her case, sheep and goat fleece) at the beginning of the year in shares. This has been done at local farms with their vegetables but never been done on a fiber farm. Carole has spoken about this several times on her blog and has been doing it for I think the last two years. I thought this was amazing. Check out her little 6 minute video on You Tube. It explains what she is doing.

I love to support the local farms here. We have a Farmers Market each Saturday and we try to make it every other weekend. If we don't buy from these little local guys they won't be around much longer. If you have a local farm - go buy a few things. They will really appreciate it.

I am trying to make the trip out to Martha's Vineyard tomorrow to visit her. It may have to wait until next week though. Hubby encouraged me to buy a share of her CSA. I did just that yesterday and can't wait to see my sheep! And that's as close as I can come to owning one of those for a few years. It feels great to support Susan and her farm and I am super excited about the roving I will get next year.

Progress on THE sock


I swear it looks like it could fit the jolly green giant. I tried it on and it does fit well. Very deceiving.

Did I share my latest package from Knit Picks?

Amazing - there is no yarn there. Are you proud of me? I got a couple of books, a calendar for next year (which hubby tells me he already had on hold for me for Christmas - oops), and 2 sets of Harmony DP's. Good thing............

Update on Ravelympics

Otherwise known as THE sock (as I have been referring to it on plurk.

I am down to just knitting the stockinette and that part seems to be going faster. I enjoyed the entrelac - after a few repeats I didn't need to look at the pattern anymore. It seems so huge but I tried it on and it does fit. A little roomy - but good. And what is THE sock laying in? A beautiful bed of cormo. Remember this? I washed a bunch of it and carded it and it sucked rocks. I just couldn't get the lanolin out of it. I tried to knit after I spun it and I hated it! I gave some away to my friend Heidi to have carded with her pygora goats. She sent it out and returned with this oh so soft combo of cormo and pygora that is to die for. She gave me about a pound and a half of it. I have to spin it still. The rest of the fleece (I had about a pound and a half left over) was still sitting in my closet. I sent it to the same people to process on it's own. They told me it was a great fleece. And I was cursing it. It turned out really nice as you can tell from the picture.

And speaking of spinning I also had my grey alpaca fleece processed with a nice shetland I picked up at the last NH Sheep and Wool. I wish you could feel how soft this is.


I have three huge bags this size (as compared to this 100 lb. lab)


That is what I will be spinning next after I am done with the blues for my half pi shawl.

Off to work. Enjoy your day!

Ravelympics

It's one of my favorite times - the Olympic Games. I'm not sure why I get so excited. I'm not much of a competitive person by nature. I have never ever played sports in my life (high school gym was torture for me). I get inspired by all those athletes and their stories - how they have basically given up their lives to get to the Olympics. Not to mention the sacrifices their families have had to make.

Another reason I have been getting excited for the Olympics is that it is time for the Ravelympics. For those who do not belong to Ravelry the object of our "Olympics" is to plan a project that will be started when the opening ceremonies begin and have it complete by the time the ceremonies end. I knew I wanted to make socks with Noro Sock. I love the colors. I checked online at Webs and made a few purchases.

There was this


And this


Then there was this


Oh yeah - and this!


Now I knew I wanted to tackle entrelac knitting. I have never tried it before and I love the way it looks. So what was my final decision?



In case you can't see (picture quality wasn't too good) I picked the last yarn - #188. I decided on the Anntrelac socks.

Check back tomorrow to see my progress and see what I picked up at the Alpaca Farm on the Cape.....

Tour de Fleece

So how did I fare on the Tour de Fleece? Not too bad. I finished spinning all the roving for my Sprout Cardi. I had that darn fiber for over 2 years! I am in love with the yarn and how it is knitting up. There is nothing like handspun yarn. I have no updated photos as it has been just too darn hot to have that wool sweater sitting on me as I knit it.

I did get through a few of the hand dyed fibers I had. They turned out real nice



Then there is this one. While I love the bright colors I think it may be too bright for the other yarns I am using with it



Here is my original inspiration


While it is bright and has some angelina for sparkle it isn't like "Here I Am - Check Out My Bling" sort of bright. There is even some muted blue tones. So that is leading me to spin this next to go with it.


I got 2 oz. done. Another 2 to go.


Maybe I can finish tonight. Unless I keep spinning this


It never ends...........

Oh yeah - and tomorrow the Ravelympics begin. I am SO excited about my project. Tune in tomorrow.

I'm Dyeing for The Sun

I tried my hand at some solar dyeing. I have dyed in the crockpot, on the stove, in the oven - but I never tried solar dyeing. Debbie gave me the idea and I thought I would give it a go. I used some roving I had (and boy do I have lots of that) and my favorite method that I found on Gina's blog.

So I loaded up the pickle jar

and let it cook in the sun. For about 20 minutes. That isn't long enough for solar dyeing to work. But alas, after the 2o minute mark the clouds came over. Then the rain broke out (did I mention that it had been sunny and beautiful all day up until this point?). It rained on and off for the rest of the day.

The next day was sunny, with ocassional clouds. The following day, although it was predicted to be a beautiful beach day, was cloudy. No sun at all. Ya gotta love the weather forecasters up here in New England I tell ya.

I gave up today when it was finally forecast to be raining. I pulled out my roving and rinsed it out. Alot of the green washed out. It definitely needed to cook longer but overall it didn't turn out bad.

I'm kinda liking the autumn color palet going on there.

I will try again - it was so easy! But the weather forecast is for rain for the next 7 days. Oh well.....

Summer and the Beach

One of my favorite things to do during the summer is to go to the beach. We only live 20 minutes from the ocean so I'm not sure why we don't do it more often. Now that Nicole is older I don't have to constantly watch her so I get to have some knitting time while she is swimming.

So last week I did just that. After about an hour or so I decided to go for a walk. And I came back to find this


The problem is that I left my socks in progress INSIDE my bag. The darn seagulls went into my bag and stole my sock! They thought it was food. Darn scavengers. They didn't pull my needles out or do any damage so all was well, but if I did have any food in there it would have been history for sure.

Summer Days

I can't believe it is already August. Where is the summer going?

I have been spending my mornings (at least the ones that I get up early enough for) on the deck listening to podcasts, knitting, and plurking. Do you plurk? If not - you should. We are having a great time over there. What is plurk you ask? It is like a big chatroom where we all converse. Mostly knitters are on my friends list. We just share snippets of our day - what projects we are working on, how the weather is where we live, what we are doing or where we are going. It sounds sort of pointless but let me assure you that it is addicting. It can be a time sucker though.

So what's on the needles? Well, not much progress on the Sprout Cardi. It's just too dang hot. I have finished one pair of the sock blank socks.

They are the softest pair of socks ever. They are being gifted (shhhh - it's a secret!).

Cricket Love Song Socks got done

These might be a gift as well - not too sure if I am willing to part with them.

I have been doing lots of spinning. Working on some stash. I want to make Pi Are Square Shawl with my own handspun. And boy, do I have a ton to choose from. I have a decent amount of hand-dyed roving left over from when I was selling on Etsy that I want to put to good use. So I am mixing and matching similar colors - mostly blues and purples. Speaking of which - I have the latest plied skein soaking in the sink. Must go get it out!!!