Sunday, October 21, 2007

embossed leaves finished!

done! my first pair of socks with a "real" pattern. done in cherry tree hill supersock fingering wt yarn, superwash/size 1 addi circ needles.
embossed leaves

embossed leaves

once i switched to the double circ needle method i had much more fun. i have already cast on for another pair of socks using tofutsies sock yarn: sw wool, soysilk, cotton and chitin (shrimp/crab shell fiber) i am not sure what that fiber is all about. i'll be knitting the "merino lace socks" from interweaves favorite socks book.... and using those addi needles.

my peacock wheel arrived. it is so cute, i love it. i can tell why folks really want those double treadles especially on these small portable wheels though. i am treadling like it is nobody's business to ply on it. i still would rather have a single treadle than a double. pictures later!

make peace, spin fleece!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

dreds are coming to a location near you...

i've been growing my hair out for a year and a half, for the sole (or soul if you will) purpose of dredding it. i have always wanted to. being the "good girl" of the family i've never done it. i said to my stylist one day i wanted to do it before i got too old and she said "well you better hurry up." i didn't smack her, but i did start growing it out that day! i am no longer in the mainstream (used to be in healthcare), and i am a full time fiber artist who also teaches handwork (fiber arts) and woodworking to elementary and middle schoolers. i do a lot of felting/fulling... heck why not my hair?!?!?!

i'm gonna do it. my hubby is a little disturbed, not because he hates dreds, but because my hair won't have that silky feeling that it does now. i'm seriously the farthest thing you can get from a bragger, but there are 2 things that even i have to admit. i have great hair, and great boobs. i'll never felt my boobs (cast them maybe, been there done that) but i can felt my hair!

soon!

fibery news...

i have just finished my first patterned sock. i've made tons of plain jane sox, but this is cherry tree hill superwash sock yarn on size 1 & 2 needles. i am doing the embossed leaves socks from interweave's designs.
embossed leavesembossed leaves

i did the first one on size 2 crystal palace dpn. i have been a diehard wooden needle fanatic. downright wood snob actually. maybe even a wood needle nazi. but i have to admit that i really don't like using anything smaller than a size 5 in the dpn and have found myself avoiding patterned sox because of it. so i thought to myself, why not try cat bordhi's sox soar on 2 circs. i bought 2 cheap pair of metal circs just to see. it was aweful, the join between needle and cord was horrid. i can actually think of lots of more words to describe how i really felt about using them, but not here! :-P

anyhow... checked out another shop looking to see if i could find some top of the line wooden circs in size 2 and only found one brand that was not recommended by the staff. they talked me into addi needles. i was dubious. i hemmed and hawed and stuck my nose up in the air and talked all about how much i hate the sound and feel of metal. blah blah blah.

they were very nice and just nodded.

they were so very nice that i thought "maybe i should just give them a try".

because my tension is on the loose side, i sized down to size 1 on the addis and bought 2 of them in different colors (one is addi's "lace" needles, which at this point i can't tell what makes them different other than the color).

*cough cough* i love them *cough cough*

they are so different than grandmas old aluminum needles! wow! i am also sold on sox with patterns now. i can totally see doing many other pairs with these needles!

on my size 5 crystal palace circs i have just cast on mystic wool in blue/turquoise for a tam...for the upcoming dreddies!
blue tam

i personally wouldn't of bought this color, but my 8 year old just crocheted his first hat and wanted to make another and this was the yarn that he picked... but then got sucked into doing something else. you know how sometimes you can just tell that a cause is lost. this is one of those times, so i reclaimed the fiber! the tam is being knit open in a "puffed rib" pattern which is pretty simple. i think that it might be a bit small for me, but no matter, son number 2 will get it if it is.

on another note. tonight was knit night and i met up with a fiber buddy at a local cafe' for chat. my 13 year old came along and while we were all visiting somehow the subject came up of Michael Jackson and how although he is pretty freakish he has had some really awesome works. we were discussing how different things might have gone in his career if he'd of not gone the wayward way that he did when all of the sudden during a longer knitting pattern reading moment my teen said quite calmly and with frankness "how come michael jackson makes his kids wear paper bags on their heads when they go out?"

something about that, not the question exactly, but how she asked it, struck a cord and i laughed until i cried. what a different world she is growing up in than the one i was 13 in. odd isn't it?

spin on!

Friday, October 12, 2007

the countdown!

today my payment for the peacock finally cleared so it should be shipped tomorrow and arrive in about a week! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

the garden has been put away, the goldfish taken out of the pond, and the studio is waiting for mudding on the plasterboard! winter is almost here :0)

make peace, spin fleece... take a nap!

Monday, October 08, 2007

i'm cheating on mecchia...

i have fallen in love with mecchia... not love at first site it is true, but a steady respectful growing kind of love. so much so that i am finding edammertje has not been what i had hoped for. there is nothing fundamentally wrong with eda. but i've discovered that i really love the wood of mecchia, and the fine turnings, not to mention i love scotch tension vs the bobbin lead drive/tension eda has just like a louet.

so i guess i want eda to find a new home. mecchia is much too big to take anywhere, she is a stictly an at home kind of gal. so i purchased a peacock! i expect to meet the peacock in 2 weeks. my dd has taken up spinning on eda, but if things work out with this new wheel... she'll share this one with me and we'll pass eda on to someone that doesn't desire scotch tension and who will love her for the modern lines and clean functionality that she has!

prancing peacock on ebay


i also carded up the rest of my stash enhancement from the retreat. this is batch #2 of the handdyed merino that i carded in bamboo. plans are to spin up more lace to light fingering weight.
waiting for some fondling.

this is me with other ladies of the moon this weekend celebrating what we call "fiesta de la luna" and our daughters moving towards womanhood. fall on the lake was lovely. we found our first snow in town on the drive back in! we walked, cooked, nourished, celebrated, welcomed a new moon daughter, committed, rejoiced, reaffirmed and "walked in beauty"
fiesta de la luna

spin on, knit on!

Monday, October 01, 2007

wow, it is almost like christmas around here...

first... i had a fabulous time at the fall 2007 spinning retreat. this is the culprit who introduced me to spinning! notice her fabulous wheel... she waited 3 1/2 years for her turn to have it made by a gentleman in oregon who is no longer making wheels now.
the guilty party

these are other alaskan spinners and knitters! sure they look harmless, but you should have seen them during the gift exchange!
spinners everywhere

i should have taken pictues, 49 of about 60 women participated. i came away with 4 skeins of lovely fall colored fingering weight yarn! all that fiber, spinning and knitting supplies in one place, whew... slurp slurp slurp!

this is the latest of what mecchia and i have spun up. i still have to set the twist, but overall it looks good to me. i love mecchia.
fibernicealaska.com hand dyed merino sw

and look who arrived today!
edammertje

last but not least...
termination dust 2007

i took this picture last week, there is so much more snow in just the last few days. so we hurried and did fall clean up on the gardens, and now we are almost ready, ready as you can be for the winter to arrive when you haven't yet got enough of summer!

make peace, spin fleece!