Wheel fail

Why is it that as soon as you get a serious motivation to do some catch-up spinning, start cranking on a long-idle project, something (literally, unlike Flayrob) goes askew on the treadle?
My poor Lendrum's footman-to treadle connector gave up the ghost tonight in the middle of a plying party.  Thank goodness for the Woolery.  Found what I needed immediately, and ordered a spare drive band just to be safe.  Twenty bucks plus shipping and I'm good to go.
Now... I stalk the mail lady.  And I guess I could do some knitting...

meme noob

01. Can you cook?

Yes, I am a pretty good cook, I think. I never had a class or anything, but like most things in life from knitting to car repair, give me a set of instructions and a basic concept and I'm off. I like doing casseroles best, especially vegetarian, because I really like the concept of having everything in one dish, and done all at once. Multiple-dish meals, with the exception of holidays, are a pain.  For the same reason, I love making soups out of things I find in the fridge/freezer/pantry. I love to bake, too, and am a cookie connoisseur.

02. What was your dream growing up?

To play football for the Miami Dolphins. Then, to be a vet. Then, to escape my hometown. I got pretty close on most of them; played rugby for 10+ years, got my PhD in biology, and lived in 8 different states in the span of 20 years -- none of them my home state. Not too displeased, in retrospect.

03. What talent do you wish you had?

Musical talent.  I always asked for music lessons as a child, but my mom always replied that I would be bored.  Translated, that means that as the third child, she was done with chauffeuring to lessons.  Someday I hope to learn to play the guitar and the drums.

04. If I bought you a drink what would it be?

Non-alcoholic = iced tea, Coke or coffee.  Alcoholic = Margarona/Coronarita

05. Favorite vegetable?

Red peppers, squash, cauliflower, sweet potatoes.

06. What was the last book you read?

Zeroes by Chuck Wendig (in print), Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton (audiobook).

07. What zodiac sign are you ?

Leo.

08. Any tattoos and/or piercings?

Yes, a tattoo of an owl on my right hip (30th birthday present), which is now covered by an empty tomb with morning glories.  A semicolon with dye splashes around it on the inside of my left ankle.  Two normal ear piercings, one in each ear, a cartilage piercing in my right helix, and a #6 grommet in my left earlobe. I used to have a south-of-the-border piercing too, but it became... uncomfortable... when it came time to give birth. It grew back faster than I could get something back in it, so I figured it best left alone.

09. Worst habit?

Procrastination.

10. If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?

I'd like to think so.

11. What is your favorite sport?

Rugby, always.  I am too old to play now, but my sons do so I participate vicariously.  Used to be running -- I have done 3 1/2 marathons, and my knees remember.  So now it's mostly walking with some running worked in.

12. Negative or optimistic attitude?

Optimistic. A far cry from the not-too-distant past.  But I do have my downer days too.

13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

Strike up a conversation.

14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?

Too many to choose from, and too hard to decide if it was really that bad or just a learning experience in disguise.

15. Tell me one weird fact about you.

I grew up in a haunted house, and can sense/identify spirits.

16. Do you have any pets?

Yes. 1 dog, 2 cats, 2 turtles, 1 snake. We have visiting critters in the summer depending on what wanders through the yard.

17. What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?

I'd invite you in for a visit and ply you with fiber (ply... fiber... ha!)

18. What was your first impression of me?

Since I don't remember who sent this, I can't say... and probably wouldn't, as I'm trying to become less judgemental!

19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

Clowns are just... wrong.

20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

Thinner.

21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

A little of both!

22. What color eyes do you have?

Brown with a touch of green.

23. Ever been arrested?

Almost, but not quite.

24. Bottle or draft?

Bottle.

25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

Pay off some bills, put some in savings, and go buy a bunch of gift cards to hand out to the local homeless folks.

26. Would you date me?

Maybe.

27. Where's your favorite place to hang out?

Home.

28. Do you believe in ghosts?

See #15.

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

Spin, knit, read, hang out with my kids, walk, run, kayak, play softball if in season.

30. Do you swear a lot?

Used to, but not so much anymore.

31. Biggest pet peeve?

Hypocrisy and superiority.

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

Okay.

33. Do you believe in/appreciate romance?

Yes -- I'd love some, please.

34. If you could spend 12 hours with me and ask/do anything you like, what would it be?

That depends!

35. Do you believe in God?

Yes.

Renaissance

Autumn brings the beginning of the end of the year.  The trees lose their brilliant summer green, leaves fade through yellows and oranges and reds to dull brown, and finally surrender to gravity with a sigh and a whisper.  Days grow short, the light becoming more precious as the wheel of the year turns toward the winter solstice.  But even as the end draws near, the first inkling of what follows peeks through the veil to draw us forward.

Renaissance.
Rebirth.
Renewal.

The doldrums of summer give way to the fresh breezes of fall, and cool evenings beg for the warmth and coziness of wool to banish the chill.  My hands sigh with pleasure as I pick up the needles and create loop after loop, beautifully colored fabric growing by inches from the work of my fingers.  Excitement returns in a groundswell of renewed enthusiasm for all things fiber.  Spinning again occupies my evenings, projects set aside come back out for much-needed attention, and Christmas knitting awaits sorting out.  The potential, the anticipation feeds the activity, and ideas flow fast and thick through my daydreams.
I am glad to be back.

Animal behavior, human version

I have made some interesting behavioral observations recently.

1) The giant leaf blower is FUN.

2) It's almost as Zen as raking leaves, more so if your brand of Zen involves having a roaring two-cycle engine strapped to your back, jetpack style.

3) There is a sense of omnipotent power in moving leaves around without actually touching them

4) Those who usually operate this piece of equipment make it seem like a mighty and difficult chore, which requires several weeks of steeling oneself to face, is always accompanied by much groaning and weeping and gnashing of teeth, and results in extended recuperation time involving the TV or better yet, napping.

5) Perhaps point 4 is designed to steer us away from the fact of points 1-3, in the hopes that we will not catch on.

Raveling, raveling

I have finally gotten around to really using Ravelry. I decided it was time to do a stash purge, since I am way beyond SABLE and would like to have a little more breathing space around here. So I pulled out the sock yarn bins (yes, plural, my name is fuzzyfrog and I am a yarn ho), grabbed the camera, and went to town photographing yarn. I discovered that I totally lack any stylistic capabilities, and that once you get started, it's hard to stop...






"just one more skein, please, and then I'll stop, really." (mmm, Schaefer Lola, sadly discontinued...)


But the socks is done and I'm in the process of adding it all into my stash area. Next I'll do the laceweight, then the Noro (a category all its own!), then the sweater amounts, and finally, the WIPS. Maybe I'll get a wild hair and actually rip some of the poor devils out of their misery. I have somehow lost my enthusiasm for the slip-stitch cat blanket knitted out of acrylic mohair-y stuff. I think it last saw action in 2003?

One thing Rav does is really rev up my enthusiasm for all things fiber, especially knitting. I spent a whole lotta time at the wheel during the fall and not so much knitting, and have another big spinning project to get done, but I am rediscovering the joy and meditation of the needles rather than the wheel. Funny how that goes round; gotta jump on it when it does.

fat tuesday

Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent -- a time for reflection and quiet, and of pondering deeper things. I am not sure what I plan to do for this year, not sure where the journey will take me. Last year, I had some incredible experiences during Lent, very private journeys that really rocked me to the core, while at the same time giving me hope and direction in a very difficult time. Things are better and worse this year, and while the only constant in life is change, I'd love to have stability and a measure of security. Maybe in the middle of this state of change and growth and flux, this Lent will lead me to the anchor line, to the firm path ahead. Maybe I should try to emulate these holly trees -- bend without breaking under the load of snow, remain green even in the deep of winter, and when cut down, give rise to four more saplings in the place of one tree. And as nothing remains the same, the instability cannot stay forever. I have faith that something better will come.

Meanwhile, tonight we are going to eat pancakes. Laissez les bon temps roulez.

snow event(s)

Wow... that's about all that can be said about the past couple of weeks around here. Snow and more snow -- more than I've seen since we moved here from Mass. in '03. Beautiful drifts, piles of snow everywhere. But we don't seem to do the snow thing very well here in the DC metro, as the rest of the world now knows from the endless news reports about "Snowmageddon". And in a two week span, the guys only went to school for a day and a half! At least none of us had to go anywhere, so we just holed up and did a lot of sledding and igloo-building. Sometimes I really do love working from home. And I have to give it up for Comcast, who kept the internets humming during the whole thing, at least for me.

Below is the back yard in the beginning stages of Snowpocalypse #2; the light was eerie and gorgeous at about 7 am, before the blizzard really started.

But there has been a flurry (ha!) of activity around here indoors, too. I used two whole weekends at home to clean out boxes of junk from the storage closet (biochem notes from grad school, anyone?) and to help the guys find the floors in their rooms again. The fiber room is next, and then the bedroom. Clutter makes me nuts, but I seem to be my own worst enemy in that department. I leave things out because I plan to get to them next, and then n life happens, and they remain out as a constant reminder. This is fine if it's one or two small projects, but it's easy to let stuff pile up, and then it starts to nag like an old codger. And some days it seems like I'm running a nursing home of whiners around here, with all the unfinished business lying around... but that's a post in and of itself.

Spinning has continued apace, as well. The huge blue basket of loveliness that I posted about a little while back has become this:

I spun the singles on a Woollee Winder, and they were full... but neglected to remember that even the mighty Lendrum plying head might have a problem with all that yarn...(hark back to the 70's -- can you say "rollin' a fatty"?) It just barely fit, and ended up being just over 1000 yards of something between laceweight and fine DK. Absolutely gorgeous! I am inordinately pleased with myself, since this is one of those projects than turned out even better than I'd imagined it would. The wool is Targhee or Dorset, and the mohair is local from a now-departed goat named Jasmine. I dyed all of it in batches in the crock pot, then carded it so that the colors graded from light aqua to purplish-blue. It looks like the sea in the Bahamas, and the angelina sparkles look like sunlight flashing on the waves. Here are a couple of shots for scale:
Hangin' loose on the coat rack... it was perfectly balanced, too!! And on the laptop, for further scale.

But not to hog all the glory and fun. The animals were fun to watch as they all dealt with the weather in their own ways. The dogs were ecstatic with the snow, and many icicles were eaten;

Happy mastiffs! And the boys spent most of their days off outside doing things like this:

Yes, there is a six-foot-tall fourteen-year-old in there somewhere.

Jake, the boss cat, still likes snow at age 16, but preferred to spend his time in front of the wood stove, or hanging with his buds on the sofa. Buncha couch potatoes. Good thing the sofa is long.

Jake actually sharing the beanbag with Willie, who is really stressed out by all the snow, as you can tell from his posture here to the right.... and below...

And the mysterious Ellie found an elusive patch of sunlight on the kitchen counter and deigned to pose.

Willie says, "Me, too!"

Cruciferous goodness

Mmmm... I made the BEST dish the other day... a friend gave me a seasoning packet a while back for gobi, a spicy Indian dish made with cauliflower. I finally decided to make it, got everything assembled and was at the point where the spices needed to be added to the skillet, and opened the cardboard outer wrapper to find taht there was no spice pack inside! So I checked the list of ingredients, and went to the spice cabinet to sort of wing it with what I had on hand. I added curry powder too, which wasn't on the list, but sounded tasty. It turned out fabulous! The curry may have nullified the intended flavors of the dish, but it tasted so good that it didn't matter.

Here's the recipe:

1 large head cauliflower, cut into small flowerets

1/2 c. olive oil

1/4 c. fresh sliced ginger (about one large chunk, peeled)

1/4 c. chopped green chilies (one small can)

2 plum tomatoes, chopped (i used about half a pint of cherry tomatoes)

salt

pepper

1/2 - 1 t. cumin

1/2 - 1 t. turmeric

1/4 - 1/2 t. red chili powder

1 T. minced onion

2 t. curry powder

(these are estimates -- I'd say do them to taste)

Heat the oil in large skillet over medium heat for 1 minute. Add ginger, green chilies, tomatoes and stir for 1 minute. Add spices and stir for 2 minutes more. Add cauliflower and cook approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Can add 1/2 c. water at end for extra sauce, but I didn't.

Delicious! And it's one of those meals where you can hear your body going "Ahhh" when you're done, from the goodness and curry heat. I had it all week for lunch over mixed brown and white rice, and found myself looking forward to lunch every day. It would be really good with a little farmer's cheese or some other mild white cheese on the side.

A spinning world

It's been quiet around here during the holidays and since, and I've finally made time to get into the wool room and try to impose some order. I came to the conclusion that I did indeed have a boatload of fiber, and that it was really fun to use the carder to make more. This leads to a dilemma, however -- fluffy fiber takes up more room than fleece, and the ramifications of this on the already-tight storage situation was becoming dire. What to do? Well, it means more spinning is in order.


I'd been neglecting my poor wheel for ages, since it was hidden behind the loom, but before Christmas I moved it out of the living room, uncovering the wheel. I've been trying to make a point of spinning a little bit each evening, with the goal of spinning a pound a month this year. But choices, choices -- what to spin first?


This basket o'heavenly blue had been sitting around for some time, winking and fluttering at me, so it was the first to come down for a little Lendrum lovin':
Dorset (or could be Suffolk, I am not positive) dyed in the wool in the crock pot, then blended with mohair dyed the same way. Both fibers (if it is Dorset) are from local animals. A little angelina in different blues/purples makes it sparkle like the ocean on a late, sunny afternoon. This picture is washed out a bit, but the batts grade from aquamarine through blue to purple. I'm splitting them in half and spinning them in order, and plan to ply the two halves to keep the colors together for the most part, but to allow some barberpoling where they meet. It's just lovely to spin, and I'm spinning it long draw to keep it woolly and lofty. There's nothing like spining from your own batts -- they are so soft and draft like a dream.

This was spun between Thanksgiving and Christmas to try and meet a Christmas deadline... the spinning got done, but not the knitting. It's fur from my good friend's dog, and she asked if I could knit her son something from it. Miss Heidi (the dog) is and Akita mix, and this is both undercoat and guard hairs. I'd never spun dog hair before, and decided to just grab handfuls and spin it up on the chunky side. It turned out much better than I expected, and I'm going to knit Thorpe, an earflap hat. It should be perfect for keeping his ears warm though the Maine winter.

Nice and even, although very fuzzy, but soft and not scratchy. I am pleased.

This is superwash merino in my own colorway that has undergone a number of name changes... but thanks to my lovely guild friends, it is now called "Clown Barf". I was SOO tempted to order myself a Threadless tee shirt for Christmas that had a clown barfing a rainbow on it...

This is an experiment that I've been wanting to do for a long time. I took about 8 ounces of Suffolk fleece and dyed it in a roaster pan in the oven with a bunch of different colors of dye squirted on. Then I separated the colors as best I could, hand carded them, and spun them all into one long single that I Navajo plied. It's my Noro-esque yarn, and it really turned out well. I've wanted to spin COLOR ever since I started spinning (see clown barf above), and this is how I wanted to do it. It is a bit lumpy in spots (because my hand carding sucks, I am impatient), but it turned out exactly as I planned, and that makes me happy.

It's a worsted weight, and I haven't measured yardage yet. I am reaaly looking forward to playing with this techniques some more, especially with thinking of each batch of fiber as an individual unit of colors and how they will blend together. I have a bunch more of this fiber (this Suffolk is from a local farmer... and it was all free!) that I dyed in different colors to play with like this too. Now all I need is time.

This is the mohair/wool laceweight I whined about in an earlier post, but I am very happy with after all. 660 yards of creamsicle bliss. I am waiting for the right pattern to jump out and holler for this stuff.

And finally, the end of the fiber parade... this is the last of more than two pounds of Dorset I dyed and spun for a lady who was making a blanket out of it. She's a good friend of the farmer I got this from, and she didn't bat an eye when I told her what it would cost. The blanket was for the farmer, and it is stunning. I'm glad I got to see it while I was still spinning, because it gave me the incentive to finish! The only things that kept me going here are the fact that the farmer is a great fellow, and I love the colors. The money was nice too, and I appreciate it, but I am not sure I am going to spin on consignment again, at least for a while or for a project this big.

My next big project after the blue heavenly batts is a Suffolk fleece I got at MDS&W that I dyed with black walnuts and am carding through a second time to mix the colors better. I am thinking of knitting a sweater for myself out of it -- plan to browse through "A Fine Fleece" later tonight and look for inspiration. If I had to pick only one book of patterns, that would be it. I could knit every single item from it, and I've never found another pattern book that I could say that about.

Golden slumbers

One of the highlights of the year around here is the county fair. It's a small county, so the fair is small too. The midway is, of course, my boys' favorite part, especially the ping-pong ball toss game. You know it -- a table full of glass bowls, and you toss the ball to try and get it into the bowl. The prize is a goldfish, or sometimes a lizard, and you see kids and parents carrying little plastic bags around the fairgrounds with the hapless goldfish bouncing around inside. It's not a surprise that we've never had one survive longer than a day or two, even if we were very careful and had the game guy "hold" our fish for us until we were ready to go home. This has never been a bad thing, because I've never been a fan of plain old goldfish. I've had lots of fish, but always more exotic stuff, and every time we won a goldfish it was not exactly a great prize in my book -- just something else to feed and take care of. But because my younger son is a midway barker's dream and is a pretty crack hand at the ping-pong ball toss, we've had more than our share of fair goldfish. Finally, this summer, Nick won a goldfish at the midway, who we named Chaz, and who miraculously is still alive. Then at the fair this fall, we added two more, Rocket and Bob and they are also thriving. To be fair, he also won Patch, but he only lasted about a week. Still, a seventy-five percent survival rate is phenomenal when you've been zero-for-howevermany. We even went out and splurged for a real aquarium with a filter, since the fishbowl got too nasty too fast.

I live with lot of animals. I've learned to understand what they want most of the time -- when they need to go out, when they arere hungry, or want attention. The dogs and cats know when it's dinner time, and at bedtime they follow me to the bedroom and jockey for position. But the point is, they know; whether because it's dark outside, or from my actions, they have a cue that lets them know we're headed for the barn. But I have never had a non-mammal that did this, that knew when it was time for bed. Until I watched Chaz, Bob and Rocket last night.

I turned off most of the lights, except for their aquarium light, and worked at my desk for a while. When I went to turn off their light, this is where they were:

They were just sitting there, on the bottom. The two little catfish that share their tank were nearby, also just hanging out on the bottom (which is what they do most of the time, since they're catfish, but hey, they weren't moving around either). From left to right: Chaz, Bob (bright orange), and Rocket (white). Aren't they handsome? And then it occurred to me what they were doing.

They'd put themselves to bed.

They weren't moving, and didn't budge when I got up in their faces with the camera. I'd noticed that in the morning when I come out to turn on the lights and feed them, they're ususally in that corner near the bottom, but I'd never seen this before. And as I sit here typing this, I've been watching them swim around, but now it's 9:30 and getting near bedtime (we are an early-to-bed bunch for the most part), and they are in their corner again.

This just makes me smile. I'll never badmouth plain old goldfish again.

In the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone.

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

long and long ago.

Tonight is the longest night of the year. It has been a very long year, very dark in many places but full of light in others, the light of friends and of family, and perhaps of hope. Cocooned in a blanket of snow and shadows, I will leave a vigil candle burning through the night, a tiny flame of hope through the long darkness, foreshadowing the greater light that is to come.

One step at a time

There are so many projects I am working on right now that I want to just finish and be done with, but I have little enthusiasm for any of them. I don't have startitis either; it's more like I have no focus. Sometimes I get sidetracked from one project and go off on something else for a while, and only much later return to the first thing, but all the while I at least have energy and creative juices flowing. This seems more like a long slog in the cold rain.

I have the ten-foot triangle loom that I borrowed set up in the living room, and am about a quarter done with the shawl I'm weaving, but am tired of weaving a thick and thin wool with mohair, in dark colors, under bad light. It's going to be absolutely stunning when I'm done, and it's for me, but it's hard to get excited about it. I finally got myself a headlamp to wear when I work on it, so I can see what I'm doing. I took a break from the two pounds of hand dyed Dorset roving to spin up some wool-mohair roving I got at MDSW (what is it with the mo? No mo mo!), which decided it wanted to be laceweight, and so took much longer than I had planned, and so was less of a break from the blue slog than a slog of its own. It's done as of last night, though, and I'm going to wait to ply it until I have another bobbin of blue done so I can ply them at the same time. The LB Homespun shawl finally has a destination, and is almost done -- another three or four rows and I can bind off, thanks be. There are a few more things, but I'm waiting to finish the shawl before I see what to deal with next.

Cold, rainy slog yes, but it's important to focus on the little steps. The shawl is almost done; the weaving is coming along; the orange crush laceweight is done, and the blue has an end in sight. I want to look ahead at all of the ideas that I have for next things, but have to restrain myself -- I have enough energy and time for what I have in front of me. The time and energy for the rest will come. One step at a time. Now if all the junk swirling around the rest of life would settle down and resolve itself the way the fiber projects do, I'd be ecstatic.

One step at a time.

All I need...

Nothing like something really simple to amuse me... this one is courtesy of Mel. I've seen it before, but the answers I got this time are much more amusing than the first time I tried it. Just type in your name on Google, followed by the word "needs" and see what comes up. I just took the first ten things and have included them here. Apparently, I am much worse off than I ever suspected:

Miranda needs:

1) a loving home (check)
2) psychological help (check!)
3) her very own playpen (!!!)
4) to be with family (but there IS such a thing as too much togetherness!)
5) a new walker (now really... )
6) a companion (hmmm...)
7) your help (to go along with #2?)
8) advice (always a good thing)
9) a nickname (too late... pipiens it is)
10) to polish up a bit (ha!)

And on that note, I'm off to watch the Oscars and knit awhile.

Moody blues... and purples, reds, yellows...

I've been chomping at the bit for the weather to get warm enough for me to get outside and do some dyeing. I like to work on the deck, where spills aren't a big deal, and where I can be outside. Anything to get away from the computer! And the sounds and sights on the creek are an inspiration once I get my dyeing groove going.

I had a whole bunch of ideas saved up over the winter, and the Celtic Festival coming up with vending opportunities, so I spent four days cranking out roving and yarn. I ended up dyeing 37 4-oz. bumps of roving, and 8 skeins of yarn...yowza. Not too bad for a one-woman operation, considering that I'm still learning.

I'm still working from the 150 lbs. of Dorset roving that I got last spring from a local farmer. It takes dye well, and spins up into a soft, bouncy yarn. I spun about 1200 yards of my favorite colorway into a DK weight two ply, and last fall at our annual Mannings field trip/retreat/class/fiber binge, I used it to warp the loom and wove a pair of coordinating scarves with it.
The warp for both of these was "Lonely Hearts Club", a mix of reds/pinks/black. The weft for the one on the left (yes, the one on the weft...haha) is Jaggerspun wool, black, I think 2/8, while the one on the right is alsio Jaggerspun, but wool/silk. I love them both, and wore them often this winter. I have enough of another colorway in purples/black/gray to do another, with the weft thread the same Jaggerspun wool/silk but in purple.

I spun another two skeins of the same roving into sportweight, and sold them at a local yarn shop. They'll make some great heavyweight socks. This particular roving likes to spin up at about that weight, it seems, but I haven't pushed it much finer than that, because I really like the way it looks and behaves.

Dyeing is such therapy -- I love to stand back and look at what I've done on a given day, to see where my mood was when I started compared to when I got done. Take a look at the left side of this picture, the first rovings I dyed, and then look at the right side, where I ended up. Dull, dark colors... bright, happy colors. That;s what a day in thesun with dyes and wool will do for a cruddy attitude!

And this weekend is Maryland Sheep and Wool! I'm planning on going both days, and this year will probably be going solo for the first time ever on Saturday, as the family have other plans. I have to admit that though I love going with the guys, I wasn't too upset... Boy 1 has a scout campout, Boy 2 (my spinner) will go up with me on Sunday, and B (spousal unit) announced that he didn't want to go this year.

I'm not looking for anything in particular this year -- but I am looking forward to seeing some vendor friends (hi, Jacey! ). And I have another ten Dorset fleeces to take for processing, and some beautiful border Leicester. Tomorrow is fleece-skirting day -- and perhaps a little gratuitous dye therapy, if Charlotte can make it over to play too.

Tonight I plan to finish some spinning, so I can go to MDS&W with a clean conscience (yeah, right) and fondle fiber. And then I may tackle some carding that needs to get done, and perhaps tidy the Unruly Wool Room. Just as a warm-up, you know... got to get ready for the festivities on Saturday!

Happy Beltane!

blessings abound

Today is Groundhog Day. It's also the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus, Imbolc, and the feast day of St. Brigid, patron of home, hearth, forge, and poetry, and my patron saint. In honor of Brigid, I'm posting this for the 3rd Annual Bloggers Silent Poetry Reading today. While it's not directly a prayer to Brigid, it is an old Celtic household prayer for weavers, for blessing the loom:


Loom Blessing

Bless, O Chief of generous chiefs,
My loom and everything a-near me.
Bless me in every action,
Make Thou me safe while I live.

From every brownie and fairy woman,
From every evil wish and sorrow,
Help me, O Thou helping Being,
As long as I shall be in the land of the living.

In the name of Mary, mild of deeds,
In the name of Columba, just and potent,
Consecrate the four posts of my loom,
Till I begin on Monday.

Her pedals, her sley, and her shuttle,
Her reeds, her warp, and her cogs,
Her cloth-beam, and her thread-beam,
Thrums and the thread of the plies.

Every web, black, white, and fair,
Roan, dun, checked, and red,
Give Thy blessing everywhere,
On every shuttle passing under the thread.

Thus will my loom be unharmed,
Till I shall arise on Monday;
Beauteous Mary will give me of her love,
And there shall be no obstruction I shall not overcome.

(from The Celtic Vision: Prayers and Blessings from the Outer Hebrides, edited by Esther de Waal)

I don't know if Phil saw his shadow or not, but I can already see buds on some of the trees -- tiny ones to be sure, but what I love about winter is that when it seems like it's going to be cold forever, there are subtle signs of life and the coming spring all around, if you slow down and look and listen.

Bright blessings and grace to all.

the whole world in my hands

So with all the gusto of a new year rolling about, I got it into my head that I wanted to make a lace shawl. A really BIG lace shawl.

I've been thinking for years that I'd like to do EZ's Pi shawl, just because it's simple (like me) and a classic, nifty pattern. And also because I have a couple of really beautiful skeins of handpainted laceweight alpaca in the stash, from Lisa Souza.
But then I decided that if I was going to do the taboo of knitting patterned lace with handpainted yarn, I should just do it up right:

Spiderweb shawl from Victorian Lace Today. And I'm not alone -- it seems that there were three of us who had the same idea at the same time! Crazy painted spinster-type women unite!

Doesn't that ball look like the Earth? The color is South Pacific (I think); 2500 yards, without a single knot or break. And so far, it knits up beautifully soft (not that I have anything permanent to show for it or anything...)

The circular start to this is a pain in the butt with laceweight alpaca; after an hour and a lot of swearing, I got it started. After another hour, I decided that my needle size was too big, so I frogged and put it away for the evening. After another dicey start, I got up to row 16 again, and decided that the pattern looked funny... and the needles were still too big.

It's a sad commentary on the status of excitement in your life when you start to solve lace pattern problems in your head while you are lying in bed considering whether or not to get up.

Anyway, after a THIRD start and a pretty good beginning... the needles are still too big. Threes it is. And I figured out my pattern mistake.

Meanwhile, after being frogged and rewound yet again, I was drawn away by the siren song of this:

Secret of the Stole II KAL. I am not much of a joiner, because I don't have the time to get on the message boards and chat all day and because I tend to butt heads with the rules, but this just fit, somehow.

The yarn is a laceweight Shetland in pale, flecky gray that changes colors like some people's eyes do in different lights or with different background colors. I got a cone of it at Webs a few years ago for about $10, and there must be 5000+ yards on the thing. It still has spinning oil on it, which makes for somewhat stinky, sticky knitting, but the swatch bloomed very nicely, and I have an extra-large bottle of XO odor remover that I am not afraid to use.

I haven't knit lace in ages, and it makes a very welcome change from the slog of acrylic that is the Eagle hat project (I'm cranking to finish 3 hats by mid-February).

The first clue came last Friday; I finished the swatch last night and cast on, and got up through row 12. It's a fast, easy knit that should be a good warmup for the spiderweb. Of course, I have now well and thoroughly cursed myself with that flip comment.

Friday sky from last week... too good to pass up. I'd love to put all those colors into a skein. I love that the creek is much like the ocean; never the same twice, and each view is unique. Someday I'll capture that mutability in dye on fiber... put it in the idea queue...

Saturday was a big day around here too, since we had us a spinning clinic with a bona fide celebrity... next time!

no good deed goes unpunished

Surprises are so much fun -- unless they involve comfort for an unfathomable tragedy. Still, when the oppportunity arises to give someone a surprise package of wool to replace they stash they lost, dive in and do it up right. Farm-Witch did just that for her friend Lisa -- and look what she hath wrought in the good deed department. Let's hope that punishment for all involved involves lots and lots of really good chocolate.

awol

It was a really busy summer and fall. I don't know where the time went -- it always seems like I could use another week before the guys go back to school to do all the things we'd like to, and to see all the places we plan to go see. I really like not having a schedule during the summer, and now that things are back in full swing, I find myself wishing for a night off now and then.

But on to the fun stuff... one day in late June I found this on my front porch:

150 pounds of Dorset roving, processed by the fine folks at Frankenmuth Woolen Mills.

Where on Earth does one come by this much fleece? Connections... it's a small county, and everyone here is related to or knows everyone else and their business (makes road rage dicey at best -- especially when you drive an ancient Jeep that people tend to remember).

A's friend J's mom is a realtor. She happened to ask me one day if I'd be interested in some fleece, because she knew of someone who had sheep and was about to have them sheared, but didn't want the fleeces.

(pause for a moment to let that phrase sink in... didn't want the fleeces. evidently this is not that uncommon, sheep need to be sheared to keep them comfortable, etc... but still.)

So I called him up and had a nice conversation, and went by on shearing day. Nine fleeces, still warm, all bagged and ready to go. We deliberated for a while, and after he told me what he wanted for them, I doubled his asking price -- wanted to make sure he got at least what he'd paid to have them sheared.

Total price? $5 a fleece.

(pick up your jaw from the floor.)

So he mentions (now that he can see I am a shameless addict) that he has fleeces from the past 2-3 years in the shed. I arm-wrestle the spiders out of the way, and come up with 8 more bags of wool that are in decent shape.

Then, the coup de grace, he says, "Well, I have last year's up in the barn there, but it looks like your car will be full with these."

I eyeball the pile of bags, sigh heavily, and say, "When can I come back?"

Several days later I return, and cram 16 more bags of fleece into my groaning van. Then the fun started -- skirting and sorting raw Dorset until my back was screaming. Only a couple of the fleeces were unusable; breaks, too gooey or dirty, mice, bugs, etc. I kept back eight to process myself, but the rest went to MDS&W, and arrived on my doorstep in the four enormous boxes above.

And what became of some of the contents of those boxes?

Ahhh, yes.

I realized the other day that when we moved here and I was first learning to spin, four years ago now, that one of the things I most wanted to do was to spin color.

I think I made it.

A bit overplied, but I wanted to use it as sock yarn. It's still got a lot of sproing, and is reasonably soft. I'm very pleased with my first effort. 335 yards, 4 oz., hand dyed with acid dyes, colorway "Lonely Hearts Club". This spins up really nicely, drafts easily, but much of that is due to the fine preparation -- I do like Frankenmuth. I also dyed up some in a light blue/silver/yellow, and did some silk to match that I plan to ply with it, perhaps more as a wrapping around a bulky wool single.

And then there's Serenity:

Another local farm, with a sizable herd of mutt and rescued sheep. They invite us guild folks to their shearing every March, and encourage us to take what we want, because what we don't take goes into the big plastic bag to be made into "wool".

This is from a little guy that no one else wanted. The fleece is a beautiful dark brown with gray flecks, much like the hair of an aging African-American, just lovely. I washed and carded it myself, and it spun up like buttah into almost 700 yards of DK weight, sproingy loveliness. I have enough left, carded and waiting to be spun, to make a sweater, and was lucky enough to get this year's fleece too, which looks to be just as nice.

The whole Dorset affair was rather nerve wracking -- I knew I couldn't pass it up, but I also knew how much it was going to cost to have it processed (and it was a small fortune). But I also think that prayers get answered in the strangest ways. Though it was a scary process, and I did a lot of homework trying to decide if this would even make a decent yarn, I never once felt like I could not do it, more like I had to do it. Maybe we find our paths by not second guessing; when you tune in to that inner voice and listen to it, then no matter what you do, it becomes the right thing. A bit woo-woo, okay, but the old adage about following your heart is true. You gotta do what you love, and I do love me some dyeing and spinning. And weaving too, but that's for a later post.

At least, that's how I'm feeling about all this.

Peace out.

@#$!&*^! life gets in the way of fiber

Oh, for the yearbook to be done... this is, I swear, the last year I am doing the yearbook, elementary or otherwise. It's been fun, but all good things must come to an end. Between that, work, and other stuff, I have had precious little time to think, much less blog, spin, knit... But at least spring is in the offing (even though we were sorely teased with warmth on Saturday, and it's now freezing and windy again... sigh...)

More later, once I catch my breath.

Can spring be far behind?

It's cold and icy here, and most of us are holed up where it's warm. The muskrats are in their lodge in the creek marsh, just below our deck... they'll be out to eat the green cattail shoots when the weather gets warm.

No matter how often it snows, it's still magical. As a native Floridian, I didn't see snow until I was 21 and went to Connecticut for grad school. I've made up for lost sledding and skiing time since then!


Some of us prefer the company of a good friend on a cold day, and a warm spot (and hey, if you match the sheets, so much the better!)