The wall o' wool

I finished carding the four pounds of Jacob wool Jim got me from The Kerry Woolen Mill in Ireland.  Mikey, Jim's colleague from Ireland,  brought it over when he came over on a business trip.  I have two more pounds of wool from him!  The wool came as roving of sorts, but I wanted to loosen the fibers and make it manageable to spin so I sent it through my Wild Carder to make small batts.  Test spinning, plying and knitting swatches from each color will reveal how the wool looks as fabric and the goal is to use some of it for slippers and filled mittens.  

A nice surprise prize from Spinzilla was a $25.00 gift certificate from Akerworks, based out of Tennessee.  I used it for a portable Trillium spindle in neon green.  The spindles can be found under Hand Crafts on their website.

The black piece attached to the tag fits over the hook and protects it from bending.
The shaft is carbon fiber, which is very lightweight.

Between spinning and teaching there has been some knitting of WIPs and UFOs.  I resurrected the Round Dance hat on Halloween night.  The skeletons remind me of the first Disney Silly Symphony, The Skeleton Dance from 1929.

The Lopi cardigan is getting a band makeover.  I was never really happy with the bands and will re-do the bottom, fronts and neckband/collar as I did on the Shwook hat band.  

Next is the first project from the Seven Skeins Club.  I passed on the slippers in favor of Cohal, a slip-stitch cowl.  It was an easy knit, instant gratification!

Cochal (Scottish Gaelic word for hood)

We have enjoyed a beautiful and unseasonably warm Autumn.  The small burning bush in front is pretty.

...and finally, Jim was at the Minnesota Wild (hockey) game last week and got a selfie stick.  I like the photo.

The long and winding yarn

Ben came up over the weekend to ride with Jim.  Good exercise and a fun time together.

I finished the Sinopia shawlette from Curls.  I confess to a bit of whining during the process.  I found the chart difficult to read.  I prefer uncluttered charts for knitting.  Checking through  my books I could see the difference.

This was a great one skein project.  Baah Aspen was lovely yarn to work with and the color is just gorgeous.  

I pulled the points down to give the edge a nice shape.

Comparing the symbolcraft in this chart to the others below, notice the long vertical lines representing the k on rs/p on ws blends in with the grid lines.  

The smaller vertical lines fit into the grid and the horizontal dashes are bold making this easier to read.

The easiest chart for me to read has blank grid squares for the k on rs/p on ws.  

On Sunday I took the sock blank dyeing class at Anoka Fiber Works.  Carole and her son from Rocking Horse Farm in St. Cloud taught the class.  Since I rarely knit socks the stripes did not appeal to me so I chose a free form approach.  It was fun!

Everybody had fun experimenting.  (Photo from Rocking Horse Farm)

Distinctive striping and dragon scales.  

I opted to go freestyle with vertical stripes so the color would be more random.

I did the second one before class ended.  I used leftover colors.  I was happy to have lots of green!

I purposely did not allow the color to saturate the scribbly blank because I wanted more of the white to show.  

The two strands separated easily while winding one on the ball winder and the other by hand.  

I love this one!  Lots of green with white peeking through.

All wound and ready to knit.  I wound the skeins so opposite ends would show.  

Winter is here

Winter is beginning to settle in even though it arrived a little earlier than expected.  We have a blanket of snow on the ground and the temperatures are well below normal.  It surprises me that normal is in the 40s.  I agree that snow can be a pain to drive in, although my car has all wheel drive, which has proven to be a big help. The slop brought in from outside makes the foyer difficult to clean (I brought in the large "slop rug" from the garage.)  Snow boots are lined up and ready to pull on and the baskets of hats, scarves, mittens, and gloves are in a convenient spot in the foyer.  I look at this time of the year as sweater weather.  It is comforting to bundle up in beautiful sweaters, and wooly accessories.

Just in time for the first snow Jim's new bicycle.  He was very proud of the tracks he left in the snow.

Projects on the needles are the continuing Kaffe Fassett KAL squares, Custom Fit Acorn Trail, Top-Down Trapeze Pullover, two shop samples, and a pair of men's felted mittens, a commission from Jim's work colleague.  Yesterday I picked up some cotton yarn to make some small projects for children's gifts.  Needless to say the needles are clicking away.    Tomorrow the Gansey Headband class will wrap up.  On the loom (now named Jemima) is a scarf.  Warped with leftover Malabrigo Finito from the Snow Ghost hat and Berroco yarn from a hat, Fane, I am weaving with a lovely slate blue/gray sock weight yarn I received from Margie.  When I take a break from knitting I can get a few inches done on the scarf.

On the needles--Gansey Legwarmers

Knitting commission--felted mittens

In the Pink

I am using some fingering weight yarns to create a scarf.

The ongoing Kaffe Fassett KAL squares.

Yes, life is good!

Leather closure from JUL designs.

Resin shawl pin from JUL designs.  It looks good with most of my scarves.

An ongoing project is to clean out the old stuff and organize.  Goodwill is reaping the benefits, as is Half Price Books.  As I look around my office/workroom it appears chaotic, but is in fact organized.  It is time to do some paper shredding!

While surfing on Ravelry an ad popped up from JUL designs.  As always, I am on the lookout for unusual and wonderful notions.  I was drawn to the closures made of leather, so I purchased one to see if I would like it.  Yes, I liked it!  There are various styles of closures and even leather buttons with the same metal studs that can be removed for washing.  Also featured on the site were shawl pins in wood and some in resin (there are resin buttons, too).  On the website click on Attach for the closures--buckles, conventional buttons, pedestal buttons, sew-on closures, and screw-on closures.

What's new?

The year, for one.  Welcome 2012!  This is a big year for Ben, as he will graduate in the spring.  We are excited for him and he is ready.  We had a nice holiday when he was home and had another couple over for New Year's eve.  We all stayed up long enough to welcome 2012 complete with champagne and poppers.  The weather turned and we now have some snow, which will probably be gone in a few days due to the unusually warm temperatures predicted later this week.
I took down the tree and decorations yesterday.  Now begins the tedious task of putting everything away for another year.

Gery Grey Wolf was in a festive mood.

Eevee found a spot by the door.  She likes Gery. 

With the warm temperatures, Jim took
the opportunity to take down the lights.

Up on the rooftop a little behind schedule.

We finally got snow on New Year's eve.

Happy New Year 2012!


In the New Year, may your right hand always be 
stretched out in friendship, but never in want.
~Irish Toast

Olympic knitting and finishing

It looks as though I will only medal once this time around.  The Lopi Cardigan is causing me to continually disqualify!!!!  I'm fighting a cold and lost some knitting time for a couple of days.

We went to the college to watch the Div. III championship swimming.  Our guys won!  It was so fun to meet more parents and watch the kids swim.  The gals came in second.  What's even better--the men won by a huge margin without divers!

I've been busy the past week catching up with work around the house.  When Spring's just around the corner, it's time to thin out the junk!  I have four bags of clothing so far (for Mom and me).  Jim and Ben have to go through their closets and drawers, too.

07.03.10  Ben's home!  We went to the District Dinner and it was great, because Jim was one of four to receive the District Award of Merit.  He was very surprised, which we always love.  He's a very humble person and the award is well-deserved!  

I've been working on multiple projects--nothing new there--and now that the Lopi cardi is hibernating, I'm focusing on the pullover and the vest.  Our weather is beginning to warm during the day and we can see the grass.  Rain is expected for this week and will probably wash away most of the icky slop (one can only hope).  I love snow, but not the melting and dirty slop.  The shop got in lots of lovely cotton yarn and some spring-y colors of Cascade 220.  

The Fair Isle Scarf classes have been doing well and it will be fun to watch the progress and the finished projects, soon.  Very colorful!  Speaking of colorful, I finally re-finished the pansy sweater.  I'd made it for my sister when Ben was a toddler and didn't like the way I sewed it together.  It's been in pieces for quite some time, I'd bought new buttons, and this week I've been wearing it.  It's a lovely piece and now I feel like it's mine--I think Tishie would be pleased.