Summer is over (if you're a teacher, anyway!)

What a sad way to begin a post! But it's true. So we started the day with fresh veggies, flowers, and a Molly muffin and home fries from Foxxy Roxy's!

Book group will meet tonight where we will discuss our reading of The Letters by Luanne Rice and Joseph Monninger. It was a light, predictable, summer read.

I'm off to the grocery store. This is not a job I usually relish, but today the heat will make the air conditioning seem exotic and wonderful! It's strange to have such heat at this time of year, but we will be back to seasonably cool on Friday and Saturday in time for the weekend. Kayaking, perhaps?

Great American Irish Festival

On a bit of a whim, we decided to attend the abovementioned event. The music was loud and wonderful. We ate some chicken riggies and deep fried Oreos. Wow! And the food was reasonably priced. All in all, a nice way to spend a midsummer's day.



On the way home, we stopped in the town park in Harrisville. For years we have been driving by there and exclaiming how beautiful it is, all nestled there in an island in the midst of the Oswegatchie river. Today was just the day for exploring it. Tiny but lovely, we walked the path, gazed at all angles of the river and enjoyed the cool breeze. All along the path was posted the pages of a children's book called Trout, Trout, Trout. They were fastened to small wooden stakes right at a child's height. Indicators of a literate community always tickle me.

Yesterday we went to the Civil War Reenactment in Massena. Tom always enjoys the battle. Thomas and I wait it out, then head to the river. Noise, smoke, weapons? Nope! There were sailboats on the St. Lawrence and a party boat drove by before we headed home. The day was ended at home with gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Heirloom tomatoes make everything better!

Currently knitting: Twisted Float Shrug with online class by Annie Modesitt, boring brown sock for a gift. I started spinning corespun from a batt I bought from Marilla in coral and peach and glitter. Trouble is, the silk thread I'm spinning around has been known to bleed orange on all it touches! I need to check that out before spinning much more.

New Phone Finally!

My poor Blackberry died. Not recently...it died sometime during the New York State sheep and wool festival at the end of October. And I haven't missed it terribly, but recent bad weather made me a bit more aware of my vulnerability as I travel the back roads from St. Lawrence County into the Adirondacks. So I had to have an iPhone. Of course. Yikes. It is fun.

But not really as fun as finishing knitted projects. Here is a fun pair of socks I finished for my dad this summer.



I've also been looking at the Holiday Yarns sock knitting club.. Crazy, I know, but it looks like fun and what's better than socks this time of year. Now that I think of it, I need a pair of them on right now! And I would dearly love a snow day. Hmmmm.

Alaska Socks

I've finished the first installment of my sock club from Alaska. We stopped at a shop called Mission St. Yarn Shop in Ketchikan and they had some of the wonderful sock yarn with cashmere in it, hand dyed, of course. Then I noticed they were offering a fall sock club. Just 3 installments and it would bring back Alaska to us, right? Who could resist? Not me, and my sometimes enabling husband agreed.

When I was at this point, I noticed that I would not have enough yarn to finish the second sock. So I contacted the shop owner, Sheri, who very quickly sent me another half skein which was plenty to finish. I've worn then once and they are heavenly - soft, cushy and warm. I can't wait til the next shipment! Now why can't I finish a few sweaters this quickly?

Here they are finished:




In other fiber news, I did a bit of local shopping with the kids this afternoon. Our St. Lawrence Arts Council has a lovely display of fiber art that will be available for viewing until Jan 23. I really enjoyed looking as well as shopping for gifts from the bounty our local artists offer at this shop. I even bought a show piece for a Christmas gift for my husband. It's a wall hanging that merges traditional rug hooking with metal working. The artist is a person Tom has bought jewelry from for me several times, so I can't wait until he sees that I could get something for him from her collection as well. I'll post a photo as soon as we are able to bring it home.

#3...A travel sweater

This was my Chicago sweater. Most of what you see in the photo was completed on a crazy weekend school trip I took with my son and the Spanish club at his school. We drove to Chicago in a bus which left lots of knitting time. Before we left I happened to stop by my LYS and noticed a new line of yarns they were carrying - The Earth Collection, an organic line of yarns made from different fibers by Plymouth. I chose an alpaca yarn called Ranch. And I never do this, but looked at the accompanying book from Plymouth and loved the sweater on the back called Pandia. I bought the whole lot on a whim at 10% off as I had filled my frequent buyer card. I think it will be a great throw on in all weathers sweater due to the 3/4 sleeves and lace knitting at the top. Someday I'll finish it!

Red ripple blanket

Now this is a lovely thing. Fun to knit, I'm using those wonderful nylon needles, size 7 as most of the yarn is worsted weight. It's a wonderful collection of yarns, some remnants and some added simply because they have a bit of red in them. Brown sheep plain colors create sedate narrow stripes between wilder and wider stripes of handspun. Often the colors are variegated or tweedy and textured. I should try to remember to bring this along to knit when I must focus on other things. I'm not sure why it got set aside the last time. Probably, I started a new sweater or something. Oh, look, a butterfly. A short attention span is an embarrassing thing. Maybe I'll dig it out and bring it to knitting group night in Massena this Wednesday. I feel better already. Project #2, documented.

An accounting begins

I wonder just how many projects I have on the needles. Here I plan to start a brutal accounting of these projects, with photos of each. I do need to finish a few. But starting is my second favorite part of the process, and so much easier to achieve than my first favorite which is finishing, of course!

This first is a sock knit of handspun. I purchased the hand dyed roving from Ginny Tullock, aka FatCatKnits, and spun it fractally. This was my first attempt and I am pleased. Having achieved 300 yards of double ply yarn, I thought I'd have enough to finish the pair. Sadly, this seems to be not the case. But no fears as Ginny is a sweetheart who dyed me up another batch of roving. I'm finished with one sock, minus kitchener ending, and have enough from ball #1 to start the second sock. I have started spinning ball #2 and should be good to go for my late August deadline. Project #1, stay tuned for more!

Let go, Winter!

In the North Country winter, nature provides us
With only a soothing palette
Which by April has become monotonous,
A tapestry of threads of
Brown dirt,
White snow,
Gray sky,
Darker gray branches
Weaving upward with interlocking fingers,
Neutral dark green fir trees, spruce and pine
Spearing the sky.

Look closely
Before complaining bitterly:
This tapestry is shot through with
The bright blue flash of a pair of jays,
Iridescent green of a wood duck's neck,
(Sitting in our uncovered pool)
Drunken fruit cocktail in the sky
Mornings before rain,
And the tiniest shoots of spring green -
Of crocus
And snowdrops
Promising purple and orange and pink.

And that promise
Will have to suffice
As winter's snow quilt melts away
And spring's light counterpane of green
Grows to cover the landscape.

April is Poetry Month!

One last gasp - winter
Eternal lace blankets all
Both blessing and curse.

Another sad Sunday evening

I'll never know how vacations slip by so quickly. And then it's Sunday evening again! I'm scrambling trying to get the laundry caught up, fiber pursuits put away where I can find them when I have a few stolen moments.

And another thing I'll never understand is why my mind registers no fiber progress, when evidence says otherwise. I have photos that show a few things I worked on over Thanksgiving in addition to cooking a gargantuan meal and a few other time eaters. These are good things. Maybe the only things that count are those that are finished. These do tend to be few, but I need to start considering work done progress. Look at these:



Socks from a sock blank that are past the heel area, even if they aren't finished by the end of the month as I had hoped.



A hat/cowl (Gryla's Howl from Berroco - a free pattern!) I'm making for a secret Santa gift. This is handspun from this wonderful bond fleece:



Here it is on the wheel, single ply:













Another few spinning projects:





A white cross fleece I'm handpicking and spinning from the cloud on my antique Canadian production wheel.








A Spunky Eclectic hand dyed roving in the Lame Duck colorway. This is destined to become a pair of socks for my dad.









Another Spunky roving in Rosebud. Luscious and my mom is lusting after it. We'll see!




It's nice to see things lined up here...some progress made. Finishing is nice, but working toward is necessary to get to the finished stage. Must learn this in my heart!

Springside Farms Shearing Festival

We got in a fiber event after all for my birthday! Earlier plans to attend the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool were thwarted, but I saw a small listing for an event much closer to home and one that seemed to cater to kids. Although not as much fiber as at the more mainstream events, we totally enjoyed our day at Springside Farms.

For the children, there were slingshots where you could loft apples across pastures or try to hit targets, a 150' zipline, a slide, hay jump, a hay ride, petting zoo, and reasonably priced snacks. They also enjoyed the chainsaw carver and small children had pools full of corn kernels to play in. The larger fleece festivals could learn from this event: if you keep children occupied and happy, moms and dads have more time to look and shop. Although on the outside edge of the targeted audience, my 11 year old son, his 15 year old sister and her boyfriend seemed to enjoy themselves for the morning.



So did we. I talked to a fellow about llamas, a nice lady about Icelandic sheep, and bought 1# of black heavenly alpaca roving as well as a 100 gram skein of alpaca sock yarn. Hand dyed in blue and brown. There were handspinners there and the animals were a pleasure to see. A very pleasant birthday for me!



As a bonus of the riding time, I finished As Simple As Snow and my first pretty petals sock.



And here's the added stash. Gotta go spin!

A study in sock knitting

Past:

I thought I had only knit a couple pairs of socks. My first pair was shorties knit in an acrylic I had remaining from a vest I knit 25 years ago. Lovely color, but it was acrylic. I tried it out to help a friend with the pattern and loved the power of shaping those heels and toes.



Next I came across a group on Yahoo devoted to knitting the socks of Jeanie Townsend. What great patterns she has. So I started Maple Leaf socks. I had just the yarn from KnitPicks in a wonderful fall colorway. My spinning obsession provided the leaf yarn, a bit bulkier than the rest, but that only made the leaves stand out. I loved making those little leaves appear as if by magic. The red/yellow color was perfect! I've worn these many times and the yarn has developed this wonderful haze after delicate machine washing in cold and line drying.



Then there was the love affair with Fleece Artist. I bought a skein in my favorite red range of colors and tried to follow the terse pattern presented on the back of the label. Not so successful, but soft and lovely socks. I should give them to someone with much bigger feet than I have, but they make great bedsocks.



I made a pair of socks for my dad. A spotted affair in bulkier yarn. His taste in socks is less than sedate! And I tried to entice daughter #2 to fall in love with my knitting by making her a pair of fraternal twin socks from Fixation (no wool) in lime green and tropical blue. It didn't work, but the socks are darling. She keeps them balled up in a special place in the back of her sock drawer.



And then, I decided to go crazy and knit a pair of socks from the book Fair Isling on Blue Moon. I picked 2 wild multicolor yarns, because of course I've been madly stashing since I discovered sock knitting, and put them together with bobbles and patterns and stripes. I wear these on days I anticipate I will need mad cheering up! Can you see why? Yarn by KnitPicks and Koigu. Yes, I know, strange bedfellows!



Present:

And now, I'm working on 4 pairs. One is a simple pair for my son. Almost done with sock #1 (far left). KnitPicks yarn. I don't really believe he will wear them, he's 11, so I can't make myself finish! Plus, I don't care for the ribbing. But finish I will.

Next from left is another Jeanie Townsend pattern called Pretty Petals knit in some lovely Brown Sheep sock yarn. I'm nearly done with sock #1 and am intrigued by the pattern. Jeanie makes me challenge myself a bit and I wind up knitting faster that way. Challenge may be the ticket for me.

I had an accident in our LYS when they were having a sale on Fleece Artist Thrum Sock Kits. Ooops. I bought 5 and am sure they will make fine Christmas gifts for those who live here with me in the frozen North. Hell, it snowed yesterday where I work - on May 19!

And on the far right side is a beginning only. My first attempt at handspun socks. The yarn is spindle spun, wheel plied (2), Oatmeal colored with a black design at the cuff. I think I'm designing as I go on this pair that is to be a thank you gift for a lady who gifted me with several fleeces. Note to self...don't get fleeces this way again! The fleeces were not designated for handspinners' baskets. They are chuck full of dirt, hay and other questionable items. And I have so much! I washed the single black fleece and combed a bit to make some fine yarn. But the white -Yikes! I have several of those, have washed one and must comb the yuck out. I like to comb, luckily, but the payoff may not be with finishing these fleeces. I'm near the end of the ball I made and must decide if I should frog the whole thing, or go back to the dirty fleece.



Future:

Here is the stash as it stands, sock yarn only. Normal is a hard concept to define...especially when it comes to stash. I only know that I will feel better if I get some of the 20 pairs I have yarn to knit finished to give as gifts by Christmas. Any takers? Some of this is not yet spoken for!



I guess that makes more than a couple!

No, I swear I'm not weaving...

...well, maybe just a little. How could I resist the class at the St. Lawrence County Arts Council taught by a local weaver who had a project we could finish between the hours of 10:00 and 5:00 on a Saturday? And how could I resist cutting my handspun into 89" lengths or buying the triloom I worked at all day? And the scarves? Well, see for yourself:

Knitting for Project Spectrum

I've thought about this one long and hard. How I don't want to add to my burgeoning stash, how I want to finish projects before starting new ones this year and how I really should start knitting up all of my lovely handspun. So here is what I came up with and started last week.

I will finish WIPs for each cycle of Project Spectrum. It turns out that for February and March I'm in great shape. Several of my languishing projects are in the colors selected to represent fire: pink, red and orange. Many others are waiting in the wings as well, but FOCUS. (See how I'm always trying to start something new?)

I'll work on each one for one week, having chosen 8 for the 2 months. I actually finished the scarf below in my first week.



For week #2, I've returned to this ruana I've been working on for awhile. I don't think I'll finish in one week - lots of garter stitch - but progress will be shown.



Week #3 is vacation from school week, so I'll be picking one that needs more attention and knitting as I'll have a bit more time to work on it - probably one of the sweaters.




I love the way just lining up these projects and setting a time limit provides a focus I didn't have before. I abandon projects from boredom or interest in something else, but never really intend to let them go. The spark is always there and this online spectrum is the fan that will fuel the motivation to complete each one. I won't have as many WIPs in other colorways for future months, instead will divide the 2 months into larger segments of time. This surely will make a large dent in my WIPs pile!

My first spindle-plied yarn!

Here is my spindle work for today! I followed the instructions and photos in the Summer '07 issue of Spin-Off for Andean plying and plied my first yarn on a spindle. I'm such a geek to be so excited about it. I mean, after all, I'm embarrassed to admit I've amassed over 100 skeins of homespun yarn over the last few years...and it's not a business for me! But it's a new skill that was previously a mystery to me and there's something about unlocking a mystery, opening a door, whatever. I never thought I'd like those tiny skeins,preferring the large skeins you can get plying on a wheel, but it's so portable that I may become accustomed to it.






These are some Christmas gifts I knitted for friends. Small, pressure free little items. I love the instant gratification this sized project. The neck warmer and the tiny sweater only took 2 evenings apiece. But on other fronts, I've nearly finished my pink Notre Dame de Grace pullover and hope to finish that this evening.

Selecting the spinning for Tour de Fleece

...and it's a big decision!

I have been trying to organize my projects and make lists of what I hope to accomplish this summer. I'm about to make a startling disclosure: I have 12 quilt tops, 20 knitting projects and uncounted spinning projects in the works! Several of these are near completion, but my restlessness with the middle stages of a creative effort can not be appeased. About the time I get one third to one half way finished with something, I become disinterested and find either a new obsession or resort to another partially completed effort. I figure if I can channel my energies to the latter, I will be fine eventually. But this constant obsession with brand new projects must stop...yeah.

And that's why I'm planning to spin one pound of California red fleece this month for the Tour de Fleece. Here are the reasons for my choice:
1. It is washed so I can almost consider it an ongoing project
2. I have never spun this variety of fleece before and new is fun
3. It looks like it will process nicely and spin even more nicely into a springy yarn
4. It is manageable in the amount of time I have remaining as I am starting a couple of days late


So that's it, then. I have an appointment with my roving carder first thing tomorrow morning.

I am noticing something interesting about all of the organizing and listmaking I've been doing. Spinning seems to be exempt from it all. I wonder why that is? There seems to be no need to prioritize and itemize tasks remaining. I seem to always get back to spinning projects even without an end product in sight. My inclination is to say that my obsession is still running high with spinning; so high that nothing seems like a chore (slight exaggeration only - I don't love picking VM from some fleeces) from washing to fluffing to carding to spinning singles, dying, plying, washing again and skeining. The rewards inherent in adding lovely finished skeins to the already overflowing basket are enough to keep me creating. I wonder when I will be ready to part with any of it. Currently, I'm very attached to all of it!

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the range of the coopworth yarns from the fleece I finished, the entire- if tiny -Jacob fleece I spun, and the first completed quilt top of the summer.

Thomas' new hat

Luckily, being sick on vacation had its benefits. I brought along a whole bunch of partially done knitting projects and actually managed to finish up a few. Here is an example. The boy is a work in progress, and what a work he is, but the hat is done! I used Paton's Classic Wool yarn, bamboo double points and only had to redo the decreases up the side once. I think the pattern is a mock rib - all knit on one side and knit one, purl one rib on the other. This late season storm has given Thomas an opportunity to wear it and the fit is great. What a boy!

Our new Siberian husky - Hunter

Isn't he beautiful? He's 4 1/2 years old and a very nice boy. We're all getting to know each other.

A whole "Turtle" fleece

This is the entire Jacob lamb fleece I bought at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival last fall. The sheep's name is Turtle. I plan to spin the colors separately and knit a round yoke sweater with sheep all around it. (Fiber Trends pattern) So far, I have one skein of the brightest, (I carded this with some angora, right), and one skein of medium colored, left. The remainder is the darkest colored and it is all carded and ready to be spun. It's a wonderful, soft fleece and I'm anxious to start knitting with it!

Currently, we're on vacation and I brought tons of knitting projects IP to finish during travel and downtime. What does it mean to spend more time selecting and packing knitting projects for vacation than clothing? And then blog about that rather than vacation? Hmmm...!

I love my secret spin to knit pal!

My most wonderful spin to knit pal send me a fabulous package from California which I received today. Hooray! And just in time for another portion of the ongoing reorganization of my stash.

Maia sent me an absolutely wonderful skein of chunky yarn, handspun and dyed from multi-colored rovings in just my favorite colors of mainly red and purple. And as if that wasn't enough, she also sent some wonderful hand dyed sock yarn. I bet it will be perfect for a pair of socks from the Fair Isling on Blue Moon book that I just bought. And roving - scrumptious merino and silk in the warm shades of a summer sunset, (rather hard to imagine right now as the snow falls yet again,) but this roving is sure helping. I think I will spindle spin it fine and knit a pair of socks with it.

And then there are non fiber treats! Soap, (handmade,) and chocolate. I hadn't had any Black and Green Organic chocolate before. I'm trying to savor it, but both kids and my husband are savoring it with me and you can probably guess what that means! How did Maia know I love almonds? At least there will be no competition for the soap. Ahh, how I love shea butter. We're still on high maintenance skin programs here in the frozen northern sections of New York state, in an effort to retain some moisture before the furnace dries it out totally. But I have a thing about wrapping. And this soap is so beautifully packaged, I'll have to enjoy it for a bit in its wrapped state before I can actually use it out of its tissue paper coating.

Thanks, Maia! I'm off to go play!