Where I am spinning my designer yarns

I went back at it for another 20 minutes, after the first 20 minutes, and got a respectable amount of yarn on the bobbin. I mean you can see that it's more than there was in the first picture way back when in the blog. This is fun! It's really fun! Fun that is until the twist gets up into the drafting zone and the lumps are travelling down the twist toward the oriface and there is absolutely NOTHING I CAN DO TO STOP THEM!  

Just a little spinning.

I've probably said before that my hands are going south. So much wire bending and all the stuff that goes into making jewelry and doing lapidary work over the years has the little joints of the thumb in open rebellion.

Well, I was able to spin with the beginner's "grip of iron" on both the drafting and the foreword hand for a little over 20 minutes before calling a news conference (posting on the blog) that progress has been made. This is not what you would exactly call good progress but progress just the same. I did manage to make the little birds happy by putting all my failure knots and fluffs out for their nesting days. And, in so doing, I discovered that Poko Ono is out of hibernation and eating the weeds on the hill. Good Tortoise!

I'm going to go knit the socks. They are coming along nicely because my thumbs and wrists have no violent objection to knitting yet. To all of you out there suffering from sore fingers, hands and wrists, Grannie Zippi sends you a cyber kiss to make it better.

Still reading Annie Proulx's The Shipping News and enjoying it no end. I read until 5 am this morning. The book is due back at the library soon! Signing out and hoping for some rain for our quadrant!

This is a link to the French Market bag from Knitty

I want to make sure that I give full credit to the designer, Polly Outhwaite of New York for her beautifully designed bag. I only hope mine will come out looking as great as the one she did for the Knitty.com article.


Polly's French Market Bag

This week I am sitting down at the wheel and putting everything together that I've been visualizing for the past several weeks about spinning on Mz. Lilly Murphy. This is not the twenty meter board I'm doing a back flip off of after all.

Corragio! Lumpy yarn is actually pretty. <---- newest mantra

The skinny on the felting.

I was about ready to go out and flag down some cars in the street but the washer and dryer did the trick. Now I will knit this up on smaller needles - those pink elephantines are size 13- and that will make a nice tight fabric when felted. I have the wrong sort of washer- front loader- for this I've been told but the experiment came out so well that my washer gets an A+. Dryers never fail to felt woolens, it seems, so no kudos there. Rissa, it sure did shrink the most in height!

Also, you may all be interested to know that the horrible smell is gone. The washings did it so I am thinking it really was in the dye that was used. Anything made from this yarn will be a "wash separately only" item.

Success!

This may show up twice. I really am amazed that anyone uses picassa anymore.  

Adventures in Felting

My felting experiment isn't working so far but I've found out that the dye that was used runs like crazy. After agitating my sample in the hottest water I could get out of the tap- and that is mighty hot with a solar hart- I shocked it with cold water agitations. Now the square is in the washing machine going through a cycle, with some red cotton clothes, in hot water and a cold rinse. I've heard tales of women putting the felting project in a bag and running over it, back and forth, with the family van. I think they were joking but now I'm not so sure! Anywho, I have my little socks for solace. And the sweater, too, if it will behave! Yes, Karen, it better learn to behave.

The picture. I love it when Picassa, Blogger and Hello duke it out. *sigh* I like making them all crazy. =o)

The burgundy swatch, and the Wildefoote sock flaunting her gusset.

DH took over my 'photography studio" aka the dining room table, so I used one of his ancient test equipment cases for a prop. The swatch looks like it's ready to go into the washer with the red sweats. We will see what we will see.

Also, I am so tired of fighting the pattern for the aran isle that it's temporarily set aside for the Yukon Leaves socks and a new pair on the needles made of Trekker with DH's favorite (regia Inspirations booklet) pattern. I hope all your days are good ones- days full of adventure that gets the pulse quickened with good stuff, not the unbalanced checkbook and call from the bank, or any bad news involving a vehicle, or a dead ISP.

I'm going to carefully measure that swatch and hope for the best. That will be my adventure today. Karen, the sweater is going to come back to life tonight. I'm just punishing it.

The Burgundy Mystery Yarn

Thank you all for you comments on the color. I agree that it's a gorgeous color, a yarn that I couldn't give up on because of the color. It just has this, er, smell when wet that I'm hoping will wash away. Wheew! I washed a few strands of the it today and they got softer so happily that will make them easier to knit with. The unwashed yarn is very rough.

Since it is such a coarse feeling yarn I'm going to make felted bags from it. There's a pattern called the "French Market Bag, maybe from Knitty.com, that was on the web at one time. It will be made into at least one bag and maybe more depending on how all this goes. First the swatch has to show that the yarn will felt well.

Karen I was sort of joking about the fiber having come from a goat as I've never smelled wool from a sheep that smelled like this. However, I've only been around the 4H barns. This might be rug wool from a Navajo churro sheep.

Indeed, there are goats that produce spinnable fiber that even the 4H calls wool though many others say that a goat produces hair, not fleece. For instance, Angora goats produce Mohair, and there are Cashmere producing Goats. =0) But, fleece or hair aside, goats and sheep are from the same little evolutionary ruminant branch and share a lot of characteristics. One of the best of them, since they have all this lovely fiber on their bodies, is that they are docile and patient little animals that put up with a heck of a lot from humans.

Untangled and ready for a new life.

If this yarn, in a swatch, felts well it will be grand. My funny DH was rolling a ball and dropped it. Looking up quickly he said in a panicy voice, "Where's the Cat?!" We have no cat.

I'm positive the yarn actually is rug yarn but the smell of the burn test was pretty reeky. The soot tested out to be wool, but the smell stayed with us quite awhile. DH commented that we should turn on a fan before we cooked dinner. My guess is the fleece was from some sort of goat from New Mexico. There are lots of little woody grass like fragments spun up in the yarn. They show up as white spots in it.  

True Colors of the Beauty that came yesterday

These are the right colors, after much discussion with Kodak, Epson and Sony, Just kidding! My DH is the resident colorman. He's partially color blind but that doesn't stop him from offering his help, which is greatly appreciated. The promised Beauty of yesterday. I am so pleased with the color, softness and sheen. This yarn will be a lace shawl. I've poked around the web and have a couple of candidates for a pattern. One of them involves the eye of a bird, I believe. Now to find it again!


  

The Vegan Lunch Box

I have found something my kids will adore and I MUST post it


The Vegan Lunch Boxis months of little boxes of different lunches and recipes and running dialog. I knew that you would all love to see it dear ones.

It's far too late and I didn't get through all the Olympic knitting blogs yet. Pookey, now you know where all my knitting, spinning and sewing, particularily of your coats and the project bag goes! I'm working on it!

This is the Beast! And tomorrow, the Beauty that arrived today....

Out of the yarn that a weaving friend gave me came this tangled mass. It's been sitting in the stash for a few years, aging. DH and I untangled it today and I tested it for content. It might be goat hair but I don't think it's wool! P.U.
Anywho, it will, if it felts from the swatch, be a few french market bags for various people. It's really a great burgundy color, but the table glare got it.  















A package has arrived. It's so beautiful I couldn't take my eyes off of the colors. It's going to be a lace shawl. The light wasn't good to take a picture so that comes tomorrow. "Beauty" is from The Fiber Den

This is a lot of fun and plenty crazy to read.

I found this fun thing on a knitter's blog who is from the KR. I hope it works. It does. Good! It also disproves that I have any pcychic abilities at all. That can only be a good thing. I also tried "french poodles", and then "frogs". I'm going to put this crazy thing in the Fun Things to Do section. Lol!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Zippianna!

1. It's bad luck to whistle near zippianna.
2. Only one child in twenty will be born on the day predicted by zippianna!
3. If you put a drop of liquor on zippianna, she will go mad and sting herself to death!
4. Neil Armstrong first stepped on zippianna with his left foot!
5. The Eskimos have over fifty words for zippianna.
6. It takes a lobster approximately 7 years to grow to be zippianna.
7. By tradition, a girl standing under zippianna cannot refuse to be kissed by anyone who claims the privilege.
8. Zippianna has enough fat to produce 32 bars of soap.
9. Zippianna is 984 feet tall!
10. Four-fifths of the surface of zippianna is covered in water!

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Hummingbird story

Several people have been interested in these little fellows and made me recall an event that I'd like to share. Hummingbirds can get quite tame as they get so accustomed to a person they see all the time that they well come down and peer into my sunglasses to see their "rival" in the lenses. They also like to have me set the hose on mist and hold it up for them so that they can get a bath on a hot afternoon. I think of them as pets almost.

My hummingbird story started one day when I caught a baby hummingbird. I was about 12 years old. The poor little bird had been being chased by an older one and was exhausted. I reached up and plucked it from a branch. We gave it several drinks of sugar water from a flower from mother's garden and watched it perched with it's tiny feet on a twig I'd pushed through the plastic slats of one of those strange plastic basket purses that all girls seemed to have in that era.

Being 12years old, I thought I could keep this little wild bird, and was on my way to get a cage for it when I tripped on the lawn - I still think an angel did this- and fell; the purse was pinched open, and away flew the hummingbird by this time totally revived. I was so stunned and disappointed that I just sat on the grass for minutes til my brain started working again and allowed me to come to the conclusion that all was for the best. Such a delicate and sweet wild bird should not be a captive. I will never forget my sweet baby hummingbird who shared life with my brother, sister and me for about an hour that day.

Anna's female. We are making an assumption here but we think it's an Anna's female who had a nest nearby. The plant is a bottle brush.

Another Picture from my brother's photos. This was taken at my mother's house one year.

That little tortoise in the grass is Churchy when he was about 5 years old. My sister and he are about the same age. That's my Sis letting him eat his fill of mother's dicondra.

This is China Cove, on the Central Coast, in a choppy panorama that is rather silly because it's a pretty cloudy day. But this is a cold rough little Cove, and if you come here beware when you swim; the drop-off is ferocious. Yes, those are three of my kids, one of them twice.

Pictures...and well, Ya, Happy Valentine's Day!

When my brother was here for Christmas we went through the picture albums and the extra photos, and I know that I saw the picture of Bully and me. I know we have pictures of the baby tortoises, too. I just can't find them again. Sometimes I feel like bawling with frustration but that sure won't help find them. I suppose that double cappuccino I had at Ceramics Club didn't help much either.

Karen, I did find the Costa's Hummingbird pictures. Yeay!

Here's the Costa's Hummingbird that came and camped our backyard for several years to defend "his" feeder. We finally put up feeders in the front yard, too, so that the migrant hummingbirds, like Allen's and Rufus and Blackchins could get a drink.

This film got striation on it from being wound back into the case; I was going to mend it, but thought it would be better to just put this up for now.

I have NO idea how big this is going to be, but it's a cute sort of Anti Olympic Knitting button made up by the Knottygirls.com friends who share a hilarious knitting blog. I sure hope this works because it 1:30 am and I am tired!

The Knotty Girls Blog

The Year of the Sock

Amie started a Year of the Sock sort of thing on her blog - the link is her name, and I am putting the Yukon Leaves into it. I'm hoping to knit up a pair of TrekkingXXL hiking boot socks in the next couple of months, too.

So, any sock knitter's who haven't heard of this, if you'd like to join in, just hike on over to her blog and sign up!

This should be fun, and that's something that is not that easy to stumble across these days.

Go Amie!

The Inner Child

I just saw this cute little quiz on Catherine's Blog and wanted to try it. Try it, too. You will like just answering the questions they are so cute. You can choose to be a real devil and see what you get in the way of an inner child.

Fun fun fun! Thanks Catherine!

How is that inner child of yours anyway? Huh? Huh?

Time? Where does it go?

How does it go?

The daily dose of Bad News. That's a real thief of time. I was always a believer that you could, if you didn't pay attention to what was going on, wake up someday and discover that there was a war going on. Well, I paid attention for years, and I've seen so many wars started over lies that it's finally struck home that it doesn't matter if I pay attention or not. I have no power to stop what bad people decide to do on that level. But we should know at least what it is taking away from the children, as it is indeed, stealing their houses, and their lives, just as President Eisenhower predicted it would. I've found a counter I lost track of (thanks Catherine) and put it up.

An example of time well spent is to spend time with people. All people, even those who are so emotionally needy that they seem to almost suck you inside out, are worth the time someone spends with them. I've learned that if you spend time with them you actually help them, even in some small way, to become all that they were meant to be from the beginning. The beginning is that time before Life handed them Grief to chew on instead of Sweetness. So you take the time. The tricky part is letting them go at the proper time. This letting go is so that they can go on down the trail of their lives with at least a few nicks and scratches healed from the pain of living and be healthier.

I've learned that it's never a waste of time to contemplate beauty or kindness or gratitude.

I've started listening to some CDs, done by Pema Chodron, that my daughters sent at Christmas time. I've recently read a book of hers, also sent to me by the girls, and liked this calm woman's outlook so much that I'm looking forward to hearing more from her.

The sweater is coming along so nicely. I've kept the 41-32-41 count on each row of the pattern, up to row 8 so far, and it's not turned into a nightmare of typos that it first appeared it would be. I've set up the heels for the socks to be knit tomorrow morning. I've gotten great advice from Rissa about my spinning (thank you Rissa!), and I've got things to try to keep a wad from developing in my hand instead of the smooth pass of twist and draw at the wheel.

One little quotation mark and poof!

Finally tracked down what happened to Rissa's Page and why Trish's and Gypsie's pages wouldn't load. One tiny " was missing in Rissa's.



GREAT BIG MOTHER BEAR SIGH!!*

Now to track down the missing stitch in the third row while I'm still wide awake.

Let me tell you about Picassa

The sweater picture just might pop up twice but here's how to use Picassa.

First you must log into your blog. This sets up the button( the one on Picassa) to send pictures to the blog.

Then, Picassa will have you log in again after you get the picture in Picassa's tray, and caption it, and press THEIR Blog it button.

If it's not done that way, our picture, lovely caption, and efforts all disappear to Heaven only knows where, and then will suddenly appear -- sometimes-- later on the blog.

I hope you have enjoyed this wee tutorial. I love Picassa but it just is very unhappy about being asked to do things any other way than what is above.

About the picture, incase the first one with captions never shows up. The sweater is up to the third row, and it seems fitting that it should have three extra stitches with no home. I've read back on my row and see or count no mistakes or extra stitches so now is the time to frog back and start row three again. I have to say that the yarn, from Knitpicks, is holding up really well to my stitch wrangling.

The scanner is still not installed again in my cpu's brain and DH is off organizing yet another filing cabinet. I dare not disturb him. I'm looking through old zipdrive files in the hopes that some were already scanned and can be slapped in here in the twinkling of an eye. I'm prepared for disappointment.

Three Rows and Frogging...

This just might show up twice. Sigh  

That little MEME virus stikes

Here we go. I am pretty dull, and wouldn't dream of tagging anyone else.. They can do it if they like!

THE FOUR MEME

Four jobs I've had:

Carpenter, 9 years
Local Phone Company as a long distance operator
Elementary School Aid, third and sixth grades
A Local Yarn Shoppe, now closed forever in crash of the 90's

Four movies I can watch over and over again:

Princess Bride
Milagro Bean field War
Enchanted April
Cold Comfort Farm

Four places I've lived:

There are no others besides California.


Four TV shows I love:

Sorry, I don't watch television but I love to watch DVDs and Videos


Four places I've vacationed:

Moab, Utah
Quartzsite and Tucson, Arizona to collect rocks.
Lake Tahoe, California
Arcata, California


Four of my favorite dishes:

Chow Mein
Lo Mein
Ravioli
Chocolate French Silk Pie

Four sites I visit regularly:

Sewingworld
Knitter's Review
The Hunger Site
Webshots

Four places I'd rather be (LIVING) right now:

Santa Cruz
Arcata
Lost Coast
Mendocino

Pugknits raises the bar! Whoot!

This heavy and stunning array(it's all such gorgeous stuff) of handpainted yarns, haintpainted Wensleydale top, three colors of Shetland curlies, and white Targhee curls all arrived yesterday from Pugknits. D, I am awestruck. I can't stop looking at it. And you really fooled little Jazz. He didn't know what to make of the box. He would sniff it, go away and think, "French? Is it from France maybe?" The patchoolie scent was brilliant! Your labels are so well thought out. I love that they are translucent.

I just can't thank you enough. I think you've made my whole year!

  

I'm still in such a happy state of shock...

The postman left a package for MEME, and I hadn't ordered anything, at least I didn't think I had. I hadn't but.....

I've been gifted the most beautiful fiber things by Pugsknits. Del, you are now my Fiber Angel. Thank you so much!


Tomorrow when the light is right in the dining room cum photo "studio", I will take pix. Somehow she remembered that certain colors were my favorite color combo, too. She's amazing.


About that rooster pic, the scanner has to be up and running and that means that a board has to be put in the cpu. Here I was thinking I just looked for a port and plugged the old thing in. Anyway, it's turned into a job for In-House Techness himself, DH.

Einstein Said the Numbers Danced Around his Head.

Well, for him, they landed a lot better on the page.

We don't have an apple here at all, we have an hourglass. The sweater is divided correctly thus: 41-32-41. Not bad! I think it would pass the surbmerged test for body fat if it where human. Now all that is left is to get the rest of the numbers right when tallying each new row. This is getting to be fun. Ladyv, get out your UFO! This can be the year of the Aran sweater for the two of us. Socks happen but Aran sweaters have to be coaxed out of their multi-skeined natures.

Today I went shopping at my yarn store. I couldn't sleep so into the bins I dove and came out with some amazing bulky wools that will become a tam like my Icelandic Lopi one, and nice acrylics that will become quite a few Critter beds for the small animals at the shelters.

Karen, I'm looking through my brother's bird photos for the hummingbirds today. And I promise to post a picture of Bully, my white leghorn rooster, and me. I was about 7 or 8 when we were together. Bully had only one eye because my bantum, Henry, and he got into a fight. You know bantums. To paraphrase The Bard, "Though they be but small, they be fierce"!

Boy did this day end late and start early. I will be dragging my tail feathers around 10 A.M.