Fancy

It's been a busy week and I kept neglecting my camera duties. I also have had a bad case of the Februaries and now that we're halfway through March I'm mostly trying to get rid of the disease by deciding that winter is over. I'm wearing my spring clothes and trying my best to avoid the coat. I'm sick of the ice and snow and cold and gray sky and leafless trees.

Now don;t get me wrong, in July I WILL be complaining about the heat. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I don't like summer more than I don't like winter. I prefer spring and fall.

A big pick-me-up arrived at the shop on Saturday, though.
My darling Jillian. The girl makes me smile just by being in the room. She can make me snort liquids out my nose and makes me feel very good about myself. I stole this picture from her blog cause I didn't get the camera out. Do you all have her books in your collections? You know, Big Girl Knits and More Big Girl Knits? She wrote them with Amy Singer. She also has the cover pattern in the new Classic Elite book called Curvy Knits

In addition to all of this, she loves me. look at that hug. Full of love.

So, because I have forgotten to take photos of goings on I'll share a few of my favorite photos from today. Lisa was taking pictures of fibers for the shop website. (She doesn't have a blog but is Acadia1 on Ravelry.)
This is Forest Fur. A blend of New Zealand Possum and Merino Wool. Three colors but the lightest color is pretty low so I should place an order:-)
Aren't these cocoons beautiful? Makes me want to start reeling...as soon as I finish that scarf and finish spinning for the sweater and finish the feather and fan shawl and and and...
These are the dyed bamboo tops I have. Aren't they beautiful? Lisa really has a talent for the photography. There are other lovely pictures but these were the ones for tonight.
Also, I got a few new things in the mail this week. Two Fancy kitty Carders and a Fancy Kitty Picker. The above carder is Walnut and has a rose design.
I love that Ron Anderson has found a way to make a quality pieces of equipment with beautiful wood that you love to look at.
The picker - it's cherry.
Lovely.
This is the top of the swingy part of the picker. Just beautiful.
And a Cherry carder to match with the same carved design.

Ron Anderson is the guy that makes these Fancy Kitty carders and he's also the guy who makes the carders for Howard Brush so you know he knows what he's doing. I love them.

Off to figure out this website stuff:-) Not my strong area.

Swatch

So o.k.
(I seem to start a lot of thoughts with "so")
I've been thinking a lot about swatching lately. You know about some of it because of the Faina design sweater swatches. Well the swatching hasn't ended.

When I began knitting I had a teacher who never swatched and when I asked her about what the books were talking about with the gauge swatches she told me that she never did it. So I began my knitting career as a non-swatcher. Thing about it is, I got a few sweaters and knitted items that I didn't like, didn't fit or the yarn wasn't the right yarn for the project. This was all due to lack of swatching. Now I'm not going to tell you that I've grown into a huge swatcher with mill spun yarns. I do make a swatch. It isn't necessarily as big as it should be all of the time and I don;t always take it all the way through the washing and blocking stages like I should but I still think it's important to make an informed decision about the yarn you are using for a project as well as a needle size.

Now I have to say that with handspun yarn the iffiness of the rules gets a little less iffy if you are spinning for a project you've never done before. If (lots of if's huh?) you have made 20 hundred pairs of socks from your handspun then it's a pretty sure bet that the swatching is the last thing you need to do. If, however you are making your first pair or second pair of socks from your handspun yarn then get out your swatching needles for crying out loud! Is the yarn springy enough? what size needles does it want? How does it hold up in the washing? You need this information. Making some mittens from that freshly spun fleece? You have to swatch! A sweater? Then swatching is even more crucial. You want the stuff to fit and last right? A swatch takes a tiny bit of time in the grand scheme of a sweater from sheep to seam and we don't want it to be sleeping in the pond.

You can do teeny tiny swatches to know if you are on the right track. Jenny advises postage stamp size swatches right at your wheel to make sure you are on the right track. Just spin a few yards, do a plyback and get those needles working. If you like what you see then continue on. This does not, however, get you off the hook from the larger swatch. It just gives you an idea of what you're doing.

Swatching handspun requires a washed a finished yarn and then a washed and finished square or rectangle so that you can be sure that you are doing the right thing.

Then there was today at the shop. This week I got a new Schacht Wolf Pup and there are words that Abby said to me not so long ago that keep resonating. I was telling her that I'm not a weaver. I'd like to be because I love the finished products but I'm not. And she said in her wise way,"Then be a weaver." Hmmm. There's a project I've been wanting to do. I bought some coned silk some time ago just for it. Have never gotten the courage up.

Now you may be thinking - Girl, what does this have to do with swatching? Well, I'll tell you. A weaver came into the shop today. She's good. It's the first time I've met her and she signed up for beginning spinning and showed me some of her projects she had in her car. She even speaks at guilds and stuff. So I say to her that I have this project in mind. A single color silk shawl with some textured weaving and what did she think of the pattern I was considering. Know what she said?

She told me that I should wind a warp of like 2 or three yards in cotton and do a sample before I try it in the expensive silk. She basically told me to make a swatch to see if what I wanted to do was going to work.

Knitting, spinning, weaving....make a swatch.

Amazing.

I will probably follow her advice.

Swimming in Chocolate....And Yarn

It's been a busy couple of days but I neglected the camera for most of it. So I'll just tell you about most of it with some pictures of chocolate thrown in for fun.

Yesterday there was a road trip to Frankenmuth. I've had 3 FILTHY Columbia fleeces for months in the shop. I actually wanted to take them out and skirt them but the weather wasn't cooperating. I did take them out on the driveway on Wednesday but they were so dirty we just took the worst parts off and decided to try them the way they were.

Columbia is a fine wool breed and the fiber in these fleeces was not disappointing if you could get beyond the filth. I did save a pound and a half of the best one to wash myself but it's going to take some terribly hot water and 4-5 soaks with detergent to even make a dent.

Frankenmuth is about an hour and a half from here and the drive was very entertaining with both kids and Michelle in the car. Michelle is an instigator and a spoiler - good grandmother material.

I also dropped off some two Romney Fleeces - one will be blended with some blue wool I had laying around the shop. It's always exciting to see what will come back from the mill.

After Zeilinger's we went to Zehnder's for lunch. MMMMM chicken. then for a little shopping in the gift shop and bakery downstairs where we got some chocolate.
This is what Michelle bought. Well, it's not all she bought. There was also bread and dressing and other stuff but this is what she bought to share. Yum.
I bought these chocolate covered pretzels but now I can't find them. Hmmm. Not in the car and not in the shop and not at my house. Not like I needed any more chocolate.

After the chocolate spree we went to Rapunzel's. It's a cute little shop with gifts and yarn. Right now she's got a working antique flax wheel for sale at a really good price and I'm still wondering if I should have bought it. I did buy a skein of yarn. Sock yarn. It's at the shop and I can't remember what kind it is but it is 100% merino and so bouncy I really thought there was elastic in it. I'm leaving it at the shop so Abby can tell me how to make it myself - but better - when she gets here.

O.K. so there was the eating and the shopping and then we had to stop at Bronner's. Michelle had never been there and so we Had to stop. Crazy huge Christmas store. We went on a sheep hunt and the sheep are surprisingly under represented in the store. We complained to several employees. Seriously. They had bison ornaments and hair dresser ornaments and tigers and even Elvis. We only found one sheep ornament in the clearance section and it had a broken leg:-(

When we got back to the shop we talked about how to move things to make more room int he shop....and then we started moving things. It's not done but it's gonna be great! The desk area is already better and the clean natural wools are much better organized. Next comes the adult section of the shop. (You know, the cashmere, silk, angora ooh ahh section.) I went to Lowe's tonight and bought some additional shelving and hope to make a little progress tomorrow and huge progress on Monday.

All of this moving began because I wanted more room in a room I haven't even touched yet...

So today there was a lesson in the morning and I drove out to Woven Art in East Lansing. I met Nancy at Knit Michigan and immediately knew I liked her. I hadn't ever been to her shop and so today was the day. It's lovely. It's got a nice yarn selection including a lot of yarn that Nancy dyes herself. Lovely, lovely colors and textures. Her weaving room has 6 floor looms for classes and she's got some roving and a few wheels. It's a very nice place. Welcoming and also a place where you can feel inspired and sometimes in awe. If you are in the East Lansing area you really should check out Woven Art.

I got there at about 1PM and didn't leave until almost 5. I hope I didn't overstay my welcome but the afternoon just flew by. And while I was there I did a drop spindle demonstration and and a quick spinning lesson to let a new spinner understand that merino wasn't above her ability.
I never took a picture of Nancy but I did buy a couple of things. These little Sox Sticks in ebony. I did get to knit with a set for a row and I kind of like them. We'll see.
I also bought a sweater kit. It's a Habu kit. I've been dying to try one of their sweaters for ages and Nancy has a great selection of kits as well as Habu yarns in her shop. This is the kit I've been eying for years and now it's mine in black and red.
Promised sock progress. Heal is turned and I am getting on with the decreases.
And for Denny and also apparently Kate who is looking for the chocolate photos. Today's chocolate was milk chocolate caramel embrace. Delicious. And I'm almost to the dark chocolates.

Start Spinning

I got a new book at the shop this week. I love it! Well, I love Maggie Casey anyway. She's smiley and pleasant and makes everyone feel at ease and that's what this book does. It is simple, has lovely photos and is well organized. Maggie takes you through everything you need to know to spin wool. There's a chapter on wheel maintenance, tools and even a chapter which takes the reader through all of the steps of processing a raw fleece. Another thing I love is that she talks about actually using your handspun yarns. She emphasizes spinning for a project and talks about knitting and weaving from patterns and designing your own. Lovely.
This is for Denny. She evidently misses the chocolate posts. Macadamia Mosaic. MMMMMM

I spun this up over the last couple of days. Can;t really talk about it but I'm worried I won't find the picture again. It's thick and thin on purpose because of the fibers and that's all I have to say about that!
There was a contest during February. All entrants got 1 ounce of Cherry Tree Hill roving. Their assignment was to spin the longest thread that they could. Here are all of the entrants. From Left to right is Peggy with 686 yards (The winner)
Beth Northrup would have won but she only did 1/2 ounce and she got 372 yards - that’s fantastic!
Lisa Jacobs got 616yds
Michelle Murdock - 428yds
Becky Cook - 258 yds
Cindy Decker - 189yds
Mary Piontek 217 yds.
Michelle from Enchanted Wheel donated consolation prizes. Each contestant got one ounce of 125s merino. It's lovely. Above is Michelle with her skein and merino prize.
On the left is Cindy with her naughty friend Mary.
And the winner is Peggy who spun her skein on her Majacraft Rose. She won a pound of Shetland in 3 colors, a Spinning Loft Bag and two spools for her wheel. Congratulations Peggy.
The other runners up will get their little fabulous wool when I see them.
Also this week i got lots of stuff. Maggie buried herself in the many colors of merino/tencel that came. I love the stuff and found out that it is being discontinued so I ordered 5 pounds of every color they had left. As of this afternoon, and with the help of Michelle and Lisa, all of that wool is now on the shelf.
Also I got 20 pounds of white BFL. Fab! I kept selling out so I thought I'd better get enough. And, 20 pounds of Masham ....I think it's top. Here's a link with a photo of the breed and a little information. This wool is lovely with a very nice drape. Give you the long wool luster as well as a little halo. I think this might be my choice to spin for the Leaf Lace Cardigan.

O.K. I'm off to read more of Maggie Casey. Next time will be an update on the sock knitting.

On Ice Even

I'm so tired but I have these few pictures and I know you are all waiting with baited breath for the High School Musical ON ICE documentation. It was last night and we took Maggie and her best friend and also, of course, Ryan.

It was at the Palace in Auburn Hills where the Pistons play. When we got there the first thin g I noticed among the retired jersey numbers was this banner. Can't read it?How about now? Bon Jovi had 10 sellouts. Crazy. I never even went to see him once -not even in Philadelphia. Yo.

So then the show started and it mostly looked like this. Sometimes there were more skaters and sometimes less. The kids all sang the songs and we bought popcorn for $7 each box and we did not buy the cotton candy for $12. Seriously. $12 for 30cents worth of sugar. Plenty of people got it though so...

And here are the BFFs. Cute aren't they?

So the next thing is this. I was talking to plenty of people this past week bemoaning the fact that I have become a sample spinner. So I got an assignment from Abby to spin about 12 ounces of merino/silk and make a lacey cardigan. I immediately started to argue with her because of that beautiful Polworth I got at SOAR. Then I remembered the wool I need to spin and knit for a swap and then I was looking at A Gathering of Lace and remembered that I wanted to make the Vine Lace Cardigan by Sally Melville. And this rambling is really about how I am a sample spinner because I have spinner ADD and can't focus.

So, here is the goal. this week I will spin the yarn for the swap. It's only like 8 ounces. I will spin it and find a pattern. Next week I will spin and swatch for the Vine Lace Cardigan.

Problem is I also need to be blending some dog hair with merino and spinning that....

I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Doctor Worm, and some pigtails.

I couldn't even get a picture of Maggie's cake before she and her BFF had a piece. Hannah Montana of course. It was a snowy day and we were afraid that nobody would come but there were so many people and Maggie was quite wound up. There were gifts galore and she's still on cloud nine about them all. But there's a sleepover on Saturday night with her BFF after we go to - now don't be jealous - High School Musical ON ICE! No I couldn't afford tickets for all of you. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures. Anyhoo, she got some Hannah Montana pajamas from Michelle Who Spins and she's saving them for the sleepover. There were also lots of balls of wool from Michelle With the Rabbits and 7 chocolate bars from Chelsea's BFF Katy.
This is the beautiful Chelsea. And you can see in this picture how wound up Maggie was all night. She's trying on her new jammies.
Well, I was doing a bit of spinning. This is a medium wool dyed by Michelle and called "Beth's Aura". It's a little chunky at 7WPI and Navajo plyed. Please ignore the pigtails on the bobbin. I'm working on that. I love this yarn but don't usually knit with something this thick so I'm in the process of looking for a project. I'm not sure a fluffy girl like me should be completely encased in this fluffy yarn. Maybe a vest?
Today I set Maggie loose with the Ashford carder and here is her art work. She was using the floor sweepings from classes and spinning get togethers. She already sold 2 of them today.
Here's the happy carding girl at work being 7 years and one day old!

Alright I have to go choose my chocolate and knit a couple of rows on the sock!
In the meantime here's a happy song.

MMMMMMM

So there was no chocolate yesterday. I was exhausted after the shop and not feeling well and running to my local favorite sheep guy's farm. Before I get into that I'll tell you about today's chocolate of choice.
Almond Praline Raindrop. Yummy.
Even pretty inside. Seriously it takes me like 15 minutes to choose which chocolate to have and there's a whole process of elimination. I generally eat the milk chocolates first and there are still plenty of those to go.
Remember this beautiful guy from Rhinebeck? Well, he was a champion and I had reserved his fleece and we were finally able to get together so I could pick it up. Also, I am a sucker for the Wensleydale so I not only bought this beauty I also got two whites. One was a yearling and one is a first clip. While I was there I also may have gotten a jacob with the most beautiful Jacob crimp i've ever seen as well as the BFL that....well, let's just say it will be hard not to hide it in the closet for my own use. (Don;t ask when that will be:-)

Anyway, none of these fleeces will be on display immediately because there will be a last year's fleeces sale in March so there can be room for the new clips this spring. Details on the sale will be coming this week.
O.K. here's the sock progress. Two socks on one circular. Not going to happen. Too tangly and too much scooting things out of the way. Big thumbs down for me.
I had cast on two socks on two circulars but I was doing it from both ends of this ball and that was not going to be pretty so I'm down to one sock on 2 circulars and you kow, I may like this. As youc an see I'm using one Holz and Stein and one Addi Turbo so I could tell the needles apart until I get used to this but it ain't bad. So I will continue and this may be the secret for me. yay!!!!

K. Lou's home. Gotta go.

Lovely Gifts

So this is the chocolate for today. it was just a plain milk chocolate wrapped in gold foil. Course it's not very plain if it's Godiva, right? I know that my pictures have been a little yellow looking lately but I feel crappy and I'm in bed and it's dark outside soooo....yellow lamp light.
Here's a really bad picture of my really lovely birthday presents. I felt very special on Tuesday night. I was beginning to feel sick and Lou had gone to Delaware and then come these darling girls with presents for me. I don;t know why they think of me but I feel so lucky and special that they do. There are earrings and handmade soaps and soft yarn and lotions and love - and a red velvet cake that is all gone.
Even a lovely plant that I plan on trying to keep alive for as long as possible. It's not my specialty but I plan to try.

Thank you so much Michelle and Rita and Mary and Michelle and Tricia and Michelle and Sarah and Spence and Cindy and Chelsea and Abby and Abby's sister-who-I-can't-remember-her-name-right-now. You all made my 30-13th birthday feel very special.

Brain Cramps

Today I've got nothing but chocolate. Whole Almond Praline covered in milk chocolate. Pretty good.
I usually eat all of the milk chocolate and white chocolate ones first and leave the darks for last - they're the favorites.

Well, I do have one thing. I've been sitting in my bed most of the day. I feel like crap. Sore throat. Stuffy nose. So I was thinking to myself the other day - and also out loud to others - why is it that other people can whip out the socks and it takes me MONTHS to knit one sock for crying out loud. I like socks. I wear socks. Socks are good and warm and especially the hand knit ones. I think it comes down to one thing. Needles. I've tried dozens of needles. All kinds of wood. I've bought the fabulous rosewood double points from Lantern Moon that I paid a ton of money for - in comparison to other DP needles. They broke in my bag after t days. So I went to the ebony's. They broke in my hands. Several brands of Bamboo which I used until they were bent into a boomerang shape. And birch...fagetaboutit. Currently I've got nickel plated addis. I kind of like them but they are heavy and too long.

In addition to all of this there's the second sock syndrome. After 3 or more months of working on one sock I am loath to start the next one.

So I think my solution is 2 socks on 2 circulars (cause I've tried the Magic loop and it made me crazy). I went to knitty for help and found these Straight Laced Socks by Jannane Hassler. I like the design of the socks and the techniques is described from casting on all the way through but....I am sick and can't concentrate on a new thing so I have them cast on and one row on one needle done and I can't seem to make myself understand the next step. I might be better off trying to figure out the mobius cast on by myself.

Ha! Maybe tomorrow. Where's my spindle?

Another

The chocolate of the day is Cinnamon Blush. Milk Chocolate Ganache infused with cinnamon.

Covered in Milk Chocolate. MMMMMMMMM........

So you're upset I'm not sharing? Well, I don't even share with Lou and he's the one who buys these for me. But here's some yarn to take your mind off of it. Four ounces of 2 ply Louet Northern Lights. Spun by Maggie. Did I mention she'll be 7 next week? She'll be bypassing me any day now in her spinning skill.
Here's an up close. This is probably a very fine sock weight to a nice laceweight. In this 4 ounces there are approximately 300 yards. Very nice.

Chocolate of the Day

Smooth Coconut Truffle in a milk chocolate shell.

I have a way of going through my Godiva box every year. I start with the ones I think I will like least. Coconut has never been my favorite and I enjoy dark chocolate most so first go the fillings I like least and then I choose by dark or light. This will explain my choice for tonight.

It was still very yummy.