Infidelity

I cheated on the blue cabled sweater this week. It was for good reason – my mom’s office is very cold and she needed fingerless glove bits so her hands wouldn’t freeze when she typed. Considering that mom spent her vacation sewing for me, it seemed only fair to return the favor by making her a pair.

With flash – a little washed out, but shows some of the colors better.
Without flash – color are a little harder to distinguish, but shows them a little closer to reality.

These were a quick little knit, taking a bit less than a skein of Claudia Handpaint in Argyle 2 on Clover bamboo US2 needles, and about three days worked in bits and pieces between working on the house stuff. They turned out beautifully and fit her perfectly. I washed them with some lovely handmade wool wash that I received in my knitting gnome swap package from Stephanie to get out some excess dye that stained my hands a smidge during knitting.

I’m going to pause a moment to wax rhapsodic about the wool wash: it’s really lovely. It’s a solid bar, like a bar of soap, that you lather under the running water. It’s 20% lanolin (so it softens your hands wonderfully when you lather it!) and smells delightful without being overpowering. I especially like that since it’s a solid bar, once it dries from being lathered, it can just get tucked away again. I’ll definitely be using this a lot, and once this bar is done, I’ll definitely be ordering more from her Etsy shop!

Mom has also requested some wool socks to wear around the house, and she picked out the yarn I won from one of the contests in the Coffee Swap, which I don’t think I ever took a picture of and posted. It’s a beautiful yarn and I’m enjoying knitting it up, but I don’t remember exactly what it is and it wasn’t labeled. I’m pretty sure it was dyed by the person who sent it though and I do wish that I had taken more care to jot down some additional information about it. I love that it has smaller and irregular splotches of the brown because it means that the yarn doesn’t really pool much.

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I’m taking this as an opportunity to finally try one of Cat Bordhi’s sock architectures from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. I’ve wanted to try Coriolis since I got the book (almost a year ago, for Christmas last year!), and I’m just about an inch into the start of the spiral on the foot. So far it’s very neat and a dead simple pattern to memorize. My swatch was 10 stitches to the inch on Harmony US0 needles, but my actual gauge is a bit looser than that – pr’bly 9 stitches to the inch, but I haven’t measured again yet. It may end up a little looser than I’d like, especially in the toes when I wasn’t paying as close attention, but since they’re socks to be worn around the house and not necessarily in shoes, I think that will be okay in the end.

Quick event recap and VSA redux

Wow. Last week both went way to fast and seems like it lasted a lot longer than just a week.

After finishing the tent repair with mom and dad, we came home to prepare for WW which including making a three entirely new outfits in pseudo-Near Eastern style, one for Jack and two for me. Fortunately, the outfits went together very easily (for those who might understand a bit of SCA jargon, the undertunics are basic t-tunics, just a little longer; the pants are essentially harem pants (yes, I know they’re not entirely appropriate for this, but they are quick and easy and comfy); the coats were just basic t-tunics slit up the front). No, I don’t think there are pictures of either of us in them, but if I find someone who snapped a shot or two, I’ll post them.

We were on site from about noon Wednesday until about 10 Sunday morning. It was rather nice to have a long stretch of time camping and an event where my primary responsibility was to co-coordinate the Artisan’s Row. The Row was a bit larger this year, or at least had more arts represented, which was very neat. In addition to the fiber arts (which are usually well represented) – knitting, spinning, sprang, embroidery, tablet weaving, hand sewing, hand braiding, dyeing – we had a couple wood carvers, a few leather workers, at least one calligrapher, a bowyer, a couple bakers (who treated us to some very tasty flat breads), a brewer demonstrating how to make mead, and even for a short time a musician.

The classes we were able to host (period dyeing, bread making, mead making) seemed to go over well, especially since we didn’t get quite as much posted advertising as I’d planned (my fault entirely – time just seemed to get away from me all week and I didn’t get things where they were needed). As usual, I think we learned some things to do differently next time (whenever that might be), including making sure that folks who aren’t necessarily interested in teaching something on the order of a class know they can come to just hang out and work on their projects on the Row. Additionally, a larger (or maybe just more contiguous) shaded space may be necessary as folks tend to want to congregate in the same space and a single shade fly gets crowded quickly which I think discourages folks from just wandering in to ask about what everyone is working on.

Personally, I wrapped up and plied a decent hank of the Clun Forest lamb’s fleece (not all of it, but maybe a couple ounces worth), but didn’t manage to make it up to Baroness Eithni’s dyepot to try my hand at dyeing it. I also started another pair of toe-up socks with the Yarn Pirate yarn I got from my upstream Gnome Swap pal and I really, really, really love how they’re knitting up. Oh, and I worked a smidge on spinning more of the baby camel/tussah silk top from my SP9 pal. I will snap some pictures in the next few days and post them.

On an unrelated topic, but one that I posted on a couple weeks ago, if you are or know someone who is a prospective/current/former college student, or the parent of a prospective/current/former student, please consider taking a few moments to complete a quick survey about what information you think is most important to assist in the college selection process. Feel free to spread the word if you’re so inclined; the more feedback we get, the more useful we can make the finished product!

Travel Knits

Okay, so before I run away again (this time for vacation up to my parents cabin), I thought I’d post some finished objects and progress pictures from the things I was working on while I was traveling the last couple of weeks.

First up are the finished Lorna’s Laces toe up socks in Bucks Bar:

I bound off the second one a little too tight, but since I’d already cut the thread and woven in the ends, I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to try to go back and fix it or not. They come up almost to my knees as they are, though, so I could also just choose to fold them down or something. For some reason I’m really not in love with these socks, though, so I might also just hang onto them for a gift or donation. *shrug*

And there’s the second washcloth I made from the Euroflax Linen. It ended up being a fraternal twin to the first because I wasn’t paying as much attention to the pattern when I started knitting on it and made the first row of squares a couple rows too short and ended up having to improvise a bit to get it to come out the right size.

That’s the toe of my first Sockapalooza sock. I’m actually almost to the heel turn on it now, but forgot to take a new progress picture this morning when I was out taking pictures with Gnorm.

And finally I brought the Foxfire Baby Camel and Tussah Silk with me so I could participate in the Spindler’s Spin-in-Public day (first Friday of every month) at the airport in Minneapolis during my layover. I think I’m doing okay with it, but it isn’t quite as even as I’d like and I think it might be underspun, but it could just be that it needs to be livened again. I still have more than half the original bag to spin and it’s already quite a bit of yarn, so I’m hoping to get enough out of it to do as a two-ply that will end up about fingering weight for a shawl or scarf.

While we were in Kansas City, Cate and Sara invited me along to go to Cottage Fiber with them, which was well, well worth the trip. Cate got some pictures that I’m hoping she’ll get a chance to post soon. It’s a great, great little shop tucked in an out of the way studio space and it has undoubtedly the best selection of spinning fibers of any shop I’ve ever been to (which admittedly is not many, but even Cate and Sara were impressed and they’ve been to that most holy of fiber events – Rhinebeck!) and some really beautiful old wheels. I really can’t recommend this shop enough – if you ever find yourself in Kansas City you really really need to check them out and pet all the gorgeousness yourself!

I managed to escape with only a very small stash enhancement (modeled below with Gnorm):

The ball of roving is about 2.5 ounces of cashgora in a really rich red/orange/copper colorway (Cate got the other half of the ball) and the little packet has 4-5 beautifully dyed silk hankies with some amazing copper accents. I’ve never spun silk from a hankie, but the owner of the shop (who’s name I didn’t get; terribly bad manners, especially since she opened her shop up special just for us!) gave me some quick instruction and I’m looking forward to getting it started. Maybe if I end up with enough of it I can ply some if it up with the Foxfire.. I realized after we left that I forgot to get some of the amazingly soft angora bunny roving she had, though, so I will have to call and see if she’ll mail me some.

Oh, and my fiber swap pal – Elsje – got her package and appears to like it, so that makes me very happy! It was really hard not to hang on to all that fiber, but I’m glad she likes it. The fiber swap packages were all supposed to be sent off by the 5th, so I’m really hopeful that mine will show up today before we hit the road for the cabin!

In one last bit of mailing news, I’m shipping Gnorm off today to his next destination and all the goodies that I’ve picked out for my next pal are neatly tucked into his box awaiting delivery to the post office. If you missed what I got from Stephanie, I posted about it all over on the Knitting Gnome Swap blog a couple days ago. I really really love everything she sent – especially the tea which is really honestly truly my favorite and she had no way of knowing I even knew about Market Spice (I lived in Seattle for three years between college and grad school) – and I’m bringing the Yarn Pirate yarn with me to the cabin just in case I finish my Sockapalooza pal’s socks so I can start right in on some lusciousness for me!

Another quickie..

Gnorm arrived from Kirkland, WA while I was in Kansas City! I was afraid that would happen, but I think things will work out okay. I’ll get a chance to take him around a bit today and tomorrow morning before packing him up and sending him off on his merry way again tomorrow afternoon.

I’ll post pictures of my recently finished items, and a progress shot of my Sockapalooza pal’s socks hopefully sometime this evening. I did some minor stash acquisition with Cate & Sara in Kansas City, though, and there’s a photo of Gnorm checking it out in the post linked above. It’s truly gorgeous and I’m contemplating looking for another lightweight spindle so I won’t have to wind off the Firefox silk & baby camel to start the cashgora! And I also need to contact the shop owner and see if she’ll send me some of the angora bunny fiber that I meant to grab, too.

Gotta run!

Plans for the long weekend.

I’ve been traveling most of this week – Denver Sunday evening through late Tuesday and then Madison Wednesday and Thursday – and while it’s been a productive and useful week, I’m very glad not to be traveling again this weekend (especially because I only get seven days at home before I’m off again to Kansas City for six!).

Sometime today I need to run into town to deliver some games to our Garden Gurus, the male half of which will be chaperoning a class of pre-teens on a trip to our nation’s capital next week. They’re taking the train and, knowing how hard it can be to keep preteens occupied for a long trip, MGG (Male Garden Guru) asked if we could loan them some of our board games. We’ve sort of collected quite a few, thanks in large part to some friends who have come to spend the last three New Year’s Eves with us playing games, and this is just a sampling of what we’re sending along for their trip:

Starting on the top left and going what will end up being more or less counter-clockwise: Phase 10, Peasantry, Queen’s Necklace, Rook, Carcassonne: The Castle, Carcassonne (original with a couple expansions), Ticket to Ride, Tsuro, double 12 dominoes, the 1910 expansion for Ticket to Ride, and Monkeys!. I tried to pull a selection that would allow for some smaller groups (The Castle, Tsuro, and dominoes can be played with two people) as well as larger groups (Tsuro can go to 8, but most of the rest top out around 5 or 6). I’m contemplating sending Mystery of the Abbey, but I’m a bit worried it might just be a bit too complex for the average pre-teen. And while we have Settlers of Catan and two of the larger expansions, as well as the expansion for 5-6 players, I think it just has too many little pieces that could too easily get lost on a train (and technically, so does Ticket to Ride, but I can’t resist sending game about trains along on a train trip!). Similarly, the Catan card game and Jambo (both two player games) are staying home (though I admit that the Catan card game is staying mostly because we just picked up the expansions from Pegasus Games while we were in Madison and haven’t had a chance to play it ourselves yet; we also just got Guillotine, which is also staying here for the same reason.) Yes.. we like good games and our friends know it. *smile*

When I drop off the games, I’ve been invited to peruse the GG’s garden for anything that I’d like to add to my own. I already know that I want to get some balloon flower from them, and hopefully some of the small Japanese irises. And some garlic chives (which I think Jack actually already got and just need to be planted). If the weather clears up tomorrow or Monday, I’ll likely go plant the seeds for the vegetable garden (I don’t want to plant them and then have a thunderstorm roll in right away for fear the seeds will flood out and all clump in one place).

I also plan to round out the packages for the summer swaps I’m doing. I sat down last Saturday before I left and ordered a bunch of stuff for my spoilees and was quite pleased that it all arrived by the time I got home:

I won’t go into detail on what’s all there just in case one of my spoilees happens to drop by and figure things out (and there are some things that were intentionally kept out of this picture because I was worried they’d be too easily identified by their intended recipients!), but I will say that it’s going to be hard to let some of this stuff go! There are just a few finishing touches needed for each of them, and of course, I still need to knit my sockapalooza pal’s socks, but I have a couple months for that still.

In the meantime, I finished the first of the toe up socks:

I didn’t really use a pattern, but the yarn is Lorna’s Laces in Buck’s Bar and I just worked the leg until I ran out of yarn. As I realized how tall these were going to be, I added in some calf shaping, which I think turned out pretty well considering I made it up as I went along!

(Thank goodness for Blogger’s new auto-save feature! I just accidentally clicked on a shortcut in my menu bar and thought I’d lost this entire post.. Whew!)

And as long as the weather stays chilly and storm-threatening, I snuck a skein of Louet Euroflax in Lilac in with the orders for my spoilees so I can snuggle in and watch a movie (we got both Babel and Pan’s Labyrinth from Netflix while I was gone) while making a couple washcloths (modified from the hand towel pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting) for the upstairs bathroom.

I’m admittedly a bit torn because I’d really love to make hand towels for the new bathroom as well, but the Euroflax is a bit spendy. I’ve checked out KnitPicks new CotLin, though, and I think I could make a couple hand towels with the Linen colorway using the Royal Plum for accents that would work well and would come in around $7.50 per towel instead of the $20 it would be if I used Euroflax. And if they turn out well, I might just make some for gifts, too.. I know at least a couple folks who have done bathroom remodels lately!

Oh, and sometime soon I need to do a book post. I finished Eat, Pray, Love a few weeks ago, and since have also finished The Life of Pi and started Middlesex. And I picked up a couple new books while in Madison as well – Tayari Jones’s The Untelling (you knew this one was coming, right?) and Gabriel Garcia Marques’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. The stack on my bedside table doesn’t seem to be getting smaller, but I couldn’t be happier at having so much good literature to read!

Distraction..

I might have mentioned here (or I might not have, I don’t remember) that my knitting mojo lately has been mostly absent. I have a pair of toe-up socks that is sort of languishing, as is the Blue Willow cardigan, and mostly I’m okay with that. I’ve been busy doing other things and I know it will come back sooner or later.

In the meantime, though, last weekend I realized that the answer to my snapping lead lines on my tablet weaving loom was yet-another-fiber-hobby: my lucet. Lucet cord is what I use to lace my bodices, and goodness knows that if the cord can withstand the tension of that, it could certainly put up with my tablet weaving tension.

And it does. Quite nicely, in fact. Which means that I’m once again fiddling about with some tablet weaving. I need to do this more often so that I no more about what I’m doing wrong and how to fix it. For instance, at the moment, the lines in my chevrons are feathered, and I think that’s because some of the cards are a quarter turn off, or because some of them are threaded backward (don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense.. it’s okay), but I don’t know enough yet to know whihttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=16435420ch and I don’t have the patience to fiddle with it until I find the right answer. So I’m putting up with feathered chevrons, and really, I’m okay with that.

In the meantime, I panicked a few weeks ago when I realized I’d signed up for no fewer than 3 summer swaps. Fortunately, I’m a bit less panicked now (but I am still just a tiny bit worried that Gnorm or Gnuman will show up while I’m in Kansas City the first week of June!) and I think I even have the yarn for my Sockapalooza IV pal *and* the pattern picked out. I’m pretty excited about the pattern.. it’ll be my first pair of Cookie A socks, I think, and I love that they’re toe up so I can use all the yarn in each skein without worrying about running out.

Unfortunately, the swap I’m feeling the most out-to-sea about is the one that will happen first. I’ll think I’ll be okay, I just need to either find somewhere online that has a really good selection of dyed roving or a really good shop that has a good selection. I have what I’m looking for in mind, at least in terms of color, but I haven’t managed to track down a supplier for what I’m looking for.