While the kittens get free run of most of the house, my knitting has been banished to my room upstairs. I keep the door shut so there won’t be any curious paws and claws tearing up my stuff, but as a result it’s very stuffy in there… so I think I’ll be knitting in the living room again, and trying to train them to leave my yarn alone. Aubrey is putting on a good posture of innocence here, but I’m not fooled for an instant. She noses her way into everything you want to do.
(I’m not complaining about this too much as it’s totally adorable, but every once in a while I’d like to write an email without an insistant mewing at my feet. Mama, I can’t reach you! Mama, pay attention to me! Mama, I want petting!)
Unlike his sister, Floyd is not nearly as good at looking innocent. Most of the time I just see a little black silhouette of a kitten trotting around the house intent on mischief. If something moves, it belongs to Floyd. If something isn’t moving, it can be poked until it does. If it can be upended, knocked over or spilled, Floyd’s there to take care of it. I’m betting he’s the one who will cause the most trouble with knitting.
Fortunately, kittens sleep about 18 hours a day, so I should be able to find some time to knit when they’re passed out in a corner somewhere.
While my friends and neighbors at Pennsic said that I’d made amazing progress on Mom’s sock, I’m actually a little disappointed. I made it past the heel and through the gusset decreases, but I’d hoped to get the entire first sock finished while I was there. It was really just too hot to knit much of the time, and there were other things going on, too. That said, it’s coming out beautifully. There’s a little bit of pooling around the gusset, but I expected that. I love this yarn just as much as the first time I used it. I’m using almost exactly the same pattern; the only change I made was to take out four stitches, because Mom’s feet are just a little bit smaller.
My Pennsic-friend Alaric makes wood and stone drop spindles, although he himself doesn’t spin. Last year I bought one from him to give to Gaerwen, another SCA friend, who was receiving an award for her skills in spinning and natural dyeing. This year I came home with a twelve inch long, 25 gram, cherry spindle of my own. He had some which were all wood, and some with stone whorls, and some with double stone whorls that could be swapped in and out to get different weights. Every time I see him, I tell him to get an Etsy shop set up and then to advertise on Ravelry!
I really liked this particular spindle of the ones he had, and it fits well into my collection – now I have a 14g (from the Spanish Peacock) for really fine stuff, this 25g for medium, and a 34g spindle (the Cascade Little Si) for slightly heavier yarn. I generally like spinning at the wheel a lot better than using a drop spindle, but there are times when spindles are convenient. They’re certainly lighter to carry and take up less space, but also I’ve found that it’s easier to teach new spinners on a spindle.
This is the stuff that was mostly done before I went on vacation…
The three skeins of Jacob yarn had been plied during the Tour de Fleece, but I didn’t get to washing it until after vacation. The yarn came out so unexpectedly soft – the darkest one is the softest. I’ve been told that the different colours of wool on a Jacob sheep will actually have different staple lengths, but as I got this fibre already prepped into roving, I didn’t notice. I’m still looking for the perfect colourwork earflap hat pattern for this yarn. The two darker colours are closer in value than I’d like, but I think that can be worked around. I have 104 yards of the darkest colour, and 92 yards each of the medium and white – plenty for a hat!
This is the corriedale from EthnicityGoddess on Etsy. I’d spun and plied this just before the Tour de Fleece began, but again, was lazy about the washing. Now it’s 218 yards of a bouncy three-ply yarn with subtle colours. Pirate-Husband suggested that it would be great for making thick flip-top mittens, and I think I agree with him. But that will be a far-off future project, since I already have so much planned for the near future.
I was incredibly surprised when I found out that I’d won a prize in the Tour de Fleece. Sure, it was a random number generator that chose me, but that doesn’t make it any less cool to have won something! I had my choice of prizes and went for a four ounce blend of fibre I’ve never spun before – BFL/tussah – in a colourway that is about the farthest thing from ‘my colours’ as I could get. It’s called ‘Sherbert and Ernie’ and it’s from Susan’s Spinning Bunny. Thank you so much for donating a prize and making the Tour de Fleece that much more exciting!
Pirate-Husband, the sock, and I are going on vacation; I don’t have any posts queued for while I’m gone, so there’ll be nothing from me for a little while. Be good, knit lots, and I’ll see you in a week and a half!
I decided on Friday afternoon that even though I have unfinished socks on the needles, I really do like starting a new sock project on the first day of vacation. So I got to winding up the yarn for Mom’s socks. The first winding attempt came out too tightly, which always happens to me when I’m unwinding directly from the swift. I rewound it in the opposite direction, but then it came out too loosely. The third time was the charm. Maybe it’s a little tight, but since I’m going to knit with it right away, it doesn’t matter that much. The yarn-cake will lose a lot of tension after the first dozen yards are out of the centre of the ball.
“What is that noise?” Pirate-Husband called up the stairs on Friday night.. “Are you packing? We’re running late!”
I looked at the whirring swift and ball-winder. “Um… I’m… sort of packing! I’m winding yarn. Talk louder, I can’t hear you!”
“You’re winding yarn that’s coming with you, right?”
I yelled back, “It sure is! It’s the blue yarn for Mom’s socks! I just have to wind it up!”
“Well,” he shouted, “if it’s yarn that’s coming with you, that definitely counts as packing!”
Brownie points for Pirate-Husband!
I was winding this Cascade Heritage Paints in the “Isle of Skye” colourway. It’s going to become a pair of ribbed socks that’ll be both birthday and Chanukah presents for Mom (one sock for each gift!) I started knitting on Saturday morning while we were waiting for our campsite boundaries to be finalized, but helping to set up camp meant that I was only able to get about fifteen rounds of the cuff finished before we came home on Sunday afternoon. Besides, it was very hot and I was knitting very slowly.
I didn’t want to forget about the Time Traveler socks, which are about 65% done now, so I brought those with me too. I can switch off socks if I get tired of working with one. There will be plenty of down time in which I can knit, if the weather isn’t too brutal.
Every year, Pirate-Husband and I go to Pennsic War, the biggest annual event in the SCA‘s calendar. We will join over 10,000 people for two weeks of food, fun, fighting, classes on every imaginable subject (link to pdf), shopping – and my favourite, sitting in the shade knitting socks and drinking beer.
This year, we’re actually making two separate trips up to the campsite. We’re leaving for War tonight, will set up our tent tomorrow, and unfortunately have to come home on Sunday so that we can work for three more days before our vacation actually begins. But then, we’re off for a long relaxing trip into the Middle Ages!
I haven’t even decided what knitting I’m bringing yet. On one hand, I could crank out baby knits for my friends who are expecting. On the other, I could finish my Time Traveler socks, which is sort of fitting for a time-traveling vacation. Maybe I’ll bring both and alternate? Maybe I’ll begin a new project?
Not only are we excited about going on vacation, but we’re excited about a new addition to our family. No, we’re not going to have a baby – at least, not a human baby. We’re adopting two little kittens! Here is a video I got of them playing at their foster-mom’s house the other day. She is going to keep them for us until we get back.
We are going to adopt the first two kittens in the video, the small black one and the first gray-and-white one. They will be about three months old when we bring them home. We have potential names picked out for them already, but I want to make sure the kittens and their names go together. Once we’re sure of their names, I’ll let you all know!
Please forgive me if there’s less knitting and spinning in the next few months than usual. I’m going to have to confine my yarn to quarters to keep it from investigative paws and claws.
But, in spinning news, I won a prize in the Tour de Fleece in the Natural Yarns category for the Jacob roving! Granted, it was a prize picked by random number generator, but still – I won a prize! I never win anything and so this came as a massive surprise. I had a choice of prizes, so I picked a BFL/silk blend from Susan’s Spinning Bunny, in the “Sherbert and Ernie” colourway. Of all the available options, this seemed most unlike what I’d buy for myself, so I chose it under the theory that if I never expand my colour preferences then I’ll never know what I might like.
Three weeks of spinning nearly every day for the Tour de Fleece has been great, for so many reasons. First, because doing something every day (or nearly every day) is bound to make you better at it, and I feel like my spinning skills have subtly increased. No great big leaps of skill or whooshing breakthroughs, but I’m definitely better than when I started.
Second, because I do love a good challenge. And I love having a challenge that, if I don’t quite meet it, it’s all right. I’d set a goal to spin every day that my ankles were up to it, and I met that. Well, with the exception of the rest days, and the weekend I spent in New York. I’m okay with that. I’d also set a goal to spin and ply a pound of yarn… which I didn’t meet. But you know what? That’s still a heck of a lot of spinning, and quite a bit more yarn than I had when I began this adventure. It’s been freeing to take on a challenge with the foreknowledge that a) I might not make it but b) that’s totally okay. I’m not down on myself for not getting there, I’m feeling great because I got as far as I did! If I do this crazy thing again next year, I’ll set a one-pound goal again, and with (kenahora*) healthy ankles, I should be able to make it.
Thirdly, because I really do like spinning.
Fourthly, because Pirate-Husband has been nothing but supportive of me and my yarnish hobby, especially during the Tour. Some evenings I felt guilty saying “No, I don’t want to watch a movie with you, I want to go upstairs and spin.” But he’s been awesome about it, cheering me on and admiring the yarn that is slowly but surely taking over all the available shelf-space in my room.
So, a wrapup: What did I accomplish in the past three weeks? I spun and plied six ounces of natural Jacob roving that will become a hat, spun four ounces of Rambouillet combed top that’s meant to be chain-plied and then to become socks, and spun three of four remaining ounces of wool/mohair/angelina roving, which is coming out to be a worsted/chunky-weight soft sparkly deliciousness, and which Pirate-Husband thinks I should knit into a scarf for Grandma. The fourth ounce of that roving is hanging from the wheel; I may get to it tonight and then I can ply it later in the week. I spun the first four ounces of it last fall, and it came out to be 138 yards. If the second skein is the same, then I should have enough for a medium-sized scarf.
And now what? Now I go back to knitting. Vacation begins in just over a week and I have to decide which projects to bring with me! The baby knits? The gift-socks? My own socks? A whole new project? So many options!
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* Kenahora isn’t quite Yiddish and it isn’t quite Hebrew, and it isn’t quite one word, either! It’s actually three words slurred together: kein, the Yiddish word for no or negating, ayin, which is Hebrew for eye, and hara, Hebrew for Evil. It’s what you say when you want to ward off the evil eye – in other words, when you don’t want to jinx yourself. So, kenahora, I will have healthy ankles next July and I will be able to spin and ply a full pound of fibre.
Although I didn’t begin the Tour de Fleece with a specific goal, one gradually coalesced in my mind as I sat down at the wheel each night: to spin and ply one pound of fibre. If I could do that, I promised myself, then I could buy a new four-ounce braid. For every sixteen ounces out, four in. At that rate I will spin down my stash nicely. (And if I don’t make the goal by the end of the Tour, then I still won’t let myself buy anything new until I’ve spun and plied at least a pound!)
Wednesday was a Tour “Rest Day” but Thursday was the “Challenge Day”. I challenged myself to finish the Rambouillet that I’ve been working on for two weeks already. It took more than two hours of spinning to get through what was left, but now it’s all finished and resting on the bobbin, waiting for my first real attempt at chain-plying. I’ve been watching tutorial videos and I hope I can coordinate my hands well enough to come up with a nicely plied sock-weight (possibly heavy sock-weight, in places) striping yarn. The oranges and golds of this yarn will go wonderfully with dark jeans. Once this is plied, I’ll be more than halfway to my one-pound goal, but with only three spinning days left in the Tour, I’d better hurry it up. Six more ounces to spin and ply – can I do it? Will my ankles hold up to the workout? The physiotherapy is definitely helping; I have my fourth appointment this afternoon. Hopefully they’ll say I’m all cured before too long!
On my way home yesterday, I saw these three butterflies crowding each other for space on a thistle-blossom. They were so captivating that I stopped the car in the middle of the road to watch them, and then got out to take a picture. Unfortunately I only had my phone instead of a real camera, but I think it’s worth sharing anyway. The dark butterfly is a Black Swallowtail, and the two orange butterflies are Eastern Tiger Swallowtails. I am lucky to live in such a gorgeous place; every day I make a point of admiring the view as I drive up the mountain. I never want to become jaded to the beauty of the semi-wilderness.
Next up, I’m going to spin something thick, quick and woolen. It will be a nice break after the thin, slow worsted spinning I’ve been doing for what seems like forever… and it will give me half a chance of being able to reach the one pound goal by Sunday night.
While the kittens get free run of most of the house, my knitting has been banished to my room upstairs. I keep the door shut so there won’t be any curious paws and claws tearing up my stuff, but as a result it’s very stuffy in there… so I think I’ll be knitting in the living room again, and trying to train them to leave my yarn alone. Aubrey is putting on a good posture of innocence here, but I’m not fooled for an instant. She noses her way into everything you want to do. 
Unlike his sister, Floyd is not nearly as good at looking innocent. Most of the time I just see a little black silhouette of a kitten trotting around the house intent on mischief. If something moves, it belongs to Floyd. If something isn’t moving, it can be poked until it does. If it can be upended, knocked over or spilled, Floyd’s there to take care of it. I’m betting he’s the one who will cause the most trouble with knitting. 
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