Author Archives: zardra

Cleaning out the cobwebs

Posted on by
3

Time flies when life is crazy.  International travel followed by the introduction of a new family member (see right) along with the stress of an archival collection move to prepare for at work has kept the days rolling by without note here.  But, mostly, the addition of a puppy has taken up most of my time.  There hasn’t even been a lot of knitting, and there’s been no spinning since we got her in October.

Her name is Lily, and we got her from a rescue that takes dogs out of kill shelters in SoCal and brings them north for adoption.  Lily’s mom was the one actually rescued and then discovered to be pregnant.  Mom was a white cockapoo, and there have been many guesses as to what dad may have been.  The general consensus is either wire-haired dachshund or some sort of terrier.  Lily’s nickname is Troublebutt — she’s 7 months old as of last week and has been having loads of fun finding news things to make a mess of.

With the Winter Olympics (and thus Ravelympics and the Knitting Olympics) about to commence tonight, I thought it was time to do some spring cleaning in the old blog.  I’ve done away with the large gathering of dust bunnies Russian spam and installed a shiny new post.  Of course, I have no idea if there’s anyone out there still bothering to read.

Now to decide on projects.  For the Ravelympics, I’m on Team Suck Less, and my project is going to be to spin for a complete project.  I just haven’t decided yet if I will be spinning for socks or a lace shawl.  Decisions, decisions. I have some superwash corriedale from Spunky Eclectic in a pretty colorway called Soul Windows that would make nice socks.  But, I also have some Dark BFL also from Spunky Eclectic in a colorway called Myrtle that would make a pretty Bitterroot.

For the Knitting Olympics, I’ve put my name in and said I’d be knitting an Ishbel shawl with some of my handspun shetland romney laceweight yarn.  (Oops, signed up saying it was shetland, oh well.)  I haven’t really done a lot with my handspun yarn because I sometimes upset myself by only seeing the imperfections in the yarn as I’m knitting it rather than the loveliness of the project.  So, my challenge is to knit a project with my handspun… and actually finish it.

Monterey Wool Auction

Posted on by

Please imagine wonderful pictures of the fun time that was had at the Monterey Wool Auction throughout this post.  Someone… *cough*… okay, I forgot the camera at home inthe rush to get out the door.

Got down to Monterey, picked up my mom, and the 2 of us were dropped off at the fairgrounds by The Husband, who then went off to do non-fiber activities.  Got signed in and got my auction number.  Had to wait a little bit ot get a listing sheet as they had run out.  Unfortunately, there were also some problems with the sheet in that several weights and prices listed were incorrect.  Thankfully, they announced them as each fleece came up and I made sure to double check on those fleeces I was interested in.

I decided this year’s strategy was going to be pick out a couple of really nice fleeces and concentrate on them.  One of the fleeces I picked out was also wanted by 2 of my friends, so we decided to split it because it was 10.5 lbs.  Sadly, we were outbid.

The next fleece I was super interested in was one of the champion fleeces.  I figured that I would be willing to pay up to $25/lb for it.  It came up and turned into a bidding war between me and someone sitting up front.  $25/lb came very quickly and I made a quick assessment — we hadn’t won the earlier, larger fleece for spliting, so I hadn’t spent any money yet, and I could go higher, but this would be it.  I kept bidding.  The price hit $30/lb, which I determined to be too rich for my blood.  The audience actually seemed to collectively let out their breath when the auctioneer said, “Sold!”

There was really only one more fleece I really wanted.  Thankfully, my friends who had also been interested in it, said it was okay for me to go after on my own.  It was only a 6.25 lb fleece, which is a little hard to split 3 ways if you lose a lot to processing.  I decided on my maximum bid and was quite happy when I won the fleece at a much lower price.  It’s a very pretty variegated grey fleece from Hobbit Hollow Farm.  I think it was a 1/4 blood.  It’s been turned over to Shari at Morro Fleece Works for processing, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.  I think it’ll be a very nice sweater for me.

Sock Museum

Posted on by
Reply

Kathy in San Jose graciously sent me photos of my Rivendell socks that she took at Sock Summit.  If you click on the photo it will take you to the larger photo at Flickr so you can see the sock information (if you can’t please let me know and I will see what I have to do to make that happen).  I will clarify here that the yarn information was listed incorrectly.  It should be Dream in Color Starry in the Grey Tabby colorway.

I’m really hoping they’ll find some way to get all the socks from the Sock Museum photographed and the information logged so that those of us who were unable to get to Sock Summit can get a good view of it, too.

Another Thursday

Posted on by
2

Did anyone who went to Sock Summit 2009 go to the Sock Museum?  Did you see my Rivendell socks?  Did they look like they were having a good time?  I thought it was pretty cool to find my Rivendells amongst the photos The Oregonian took of the event (the slideshow is halfway through the article).

I’m liking the Monkey socks I’m knitting for my sister.  The pattern was super easy to memorize, and the colors are working really well with the simple lace.  It’s also knitting up very quickly.  The Laminaria shawl is slightly on-hold, meaning I just haven’t felt up to knitting it while watching TV the last few nights.

My 30 days of exercise project is almost over — tomorrow is day 30!  The Monterey Wool Auction is on Sunday and I’m looking forward to see what fleeces are there this year.  I think I will probably be continuing the exercise going forward.  I have finally gotten to a point that while I still feel hot and sweaty afterwards, I also feel refreshed.  And let me tell you, the biggest bonus is my clothes are fitting looser.

In preparation

Posted on by
Reply

We’re taking a trip to Japan in a couple of months and my sister is graciously letting us stay with her.  She’s also been great with suggestions of things to do.  The best part is we’ll get to partake of her sushi equity and the sushi chef has even offered to take us with him to his fish market.

So, because she liked the other 2 pairs of socks I’ve knit for her, I thought another pair would serve as a good thank you gift.  The last 2 pairs were just plain vanilla socks.  This time I wanted to do something a little more exciting, and I settled on Cookie A.’s Monkey pattern.  The yarn I’m using is ShubuiKnits Sock in the Rappongi colorway.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity when I found out they had a colorway called Rappongi as both my sister and the Husband have told me of drinking trips to the Rappongi district.  I remember something about heading home on the trains as business people are heading into work.  The colors are eye-searing pink and orange, and my sister told me she loves it.

I’m just glad that I’ve started well enough in advance that I shouldn’t be rushing to finish them before our trip.

End of the week

Posted on by
1

After I finished the Rivendell socks, I was a bit listless over what to knit next.  I had bought some Mountain Lace in a nice navy blue that I want to make Aeolian out of, but the idea just wasn’t getting me excited.  I kept thinking I wanted to knit something out of some of my handspun.  I hadn’t done that in some time.  There’s something really nice about knitting with yarn that you’ve spun yourself.

I had managed to get my hands of some Spunky Ecelectic Corripaca before Amy ran out of it several months ago.  The colorway I chose was Estuary, which was a pretty mix of green, brown, and natural.  I spun it up as a 2-ply lacewight getting approximately 509 yds out of the 4 oz.

I thought with the brown and greens the perfect pattern would be Laminaria.  So, I cast it on last Thursday.  I’ve gotten through the star chart and have completed the first repeat of the blossom chart.  So far, I love the way the colors are stripping up.  I think with the edging it will really look seaweedy.

I should also say thanks to BigAlice and Sandy for their comments on my last post.  Since they’ve given me permission to whinge, here it is, in all its silly glory….

First off, I’m an introvert; being around people can be tiring, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to be social.  Things in my life got a lot better when I accepted the fact that I am an introvert, that I’ll never be an extrovert, and I learned what I needed to do for myself.  However, knowing and accepting don’t always help when I go through periods of profound loneliness.  I lament that I don’t have many close friends; I pity myself for not being invited out to do things.  It leaves me feeling like there’s a hole in my gut for a few days, then it passes.  I have to remember that I probably don’t present myself as someone who is interested in going out and doing things, and frankly, I’m not sure how to even give that impression.  I don’t know how to make instant friends with people, and I have only a slim number of lasting friendships.

I’m not looking for a pity party, but just explaining where my head was earlier this week.  I’m hoping maybe by putting some of it into words I’ll get a better grasp on what it is that bothers me.

Now, on a lighter note… YARN!

Fiber Fun

Posted on by
1

Sadly, I’ve owned a drumcarder for about 3 years, but it’s just sat in my fiber room collecting dust.  Since the advent of Ravelry and my participation in the Friends of Abby’s Yarns (Rav link), I’ve come to have a renewed love for batts.

Almost as long ago, I participated in the Secret Pal 4 swap.  The swap partner who was supposed to be sending me things sent me one package before I never heard from her again (not even to tell me she was my partner when the swap was done).  Unfortunately, based on the package she had sent me, I don’t think she had bothered to read my filled out survey as the colors were all the opposite of what I had listed as my favorites.  One of the items in the package was a 4 oz. bump of dark, dark green merino with slight red and yellow streaks in it from Deep Color (who, sadly, no longer does any dyeing).

I spun up a little more than half of the merino to discover that it seemed to get even darker as I spun it, leaving me a bit disappointed.  So, I used the singles to practice chain plying.  Since it’s very nice merino, but too dark to overdye, I had thought I could pull out the drumcarder and blend it with something to lighten it up.  I found some tussah silk at Spunky Eclectic in a warm yellow color called Walking on the Sun and bought 1 oz.

Sunday night I finally got a chance to set up the drumcarder and play with it for the first time.  Here are the results:

The batts weight 2.75 oz. total, with 1 oz. being the tussah silk and the rest being the merino.

I had a lot of fun blending the fibers, although I was a little surprised to find out that it can be hard work.  I think I need to see about picking up a kitchen scrub brush for burnishing since my Ashford carder did not come with one.  I also need to find out the easiest way to clean up the drum and the licker as there are bits of merino and silk deeply inbedded in the carding cloth now.

Drumroll, please

Posted on by

The Rivendell socks were finished Friday night.  I washed and blocked them overnight and put them in the mail to the Sock Museum Saturday afternoon.  The USPS says they were delivered yesterday morning.

Basic stats
Yarn: Dream in Color Starry in Grey Tabby, used about 250 yds
Needles: 2 Hiyahiya circs, size US 2.5, 20″ long
Gauge: 7.5 sts/in in stockinette stitch, 9.5 sts/in in Ktbl, P2 ribbing

These were a pretty fast knit, and I probably would have been done with them way sooner if I had worked on them consistantly.  The clustered stitches at the top were a new technique for me, but really interesting to do.  I find the horizontal effect they make a nice addition to the pattern.  However, it should be noted that they do make the cuff of the sock a little less stretchy than the rest of the ribbing.  Some people might find this slight restriction annoying; it doesn’t bother me very much, although if I were to knit these again, I may try to find a way to combat it.

Unfortunately, neither of my photos picks up the silver thread in the yarn very well.  When you can see it, it adds a nice little sparkle, which I thought would be a nice effect for socks named after Rivendell.  The subtle shading of the colorway didn’t detract from the pattern at all.  I did love how the yarn became nice and soft after washing it.

I hope my socks have tons of fun at the Sock Summit in my stead.  And I hope that everyone who’s going get a chance to see my socks.