Important Decision...

I recently (ish) got a part time job in the education department at a local science museum...with a planetarium (10 points to anyone who can guess where I'm going with this...).

The other day I was at work, and it has been crazy rainy here lately. Just about everyday we have been getting some kind of rain. Usually it has been overnight which works out great because the plants get watered, but then the day is cooler and sunny. However this day was cold. Seriously, it was 57 degrees outside.

Now I'm not sure how it happened, since the gallery floor doesn't have any windows, but the lack of sun made it incredibly cold inside (probably something to do with the lack of heat absorption through the brick walls...). Everyone else had sweaters, and there were even a few with shawls, but not me. (If you've guessed it this is where you get to 10 points)

It's been in my cart on Ravelry for a while, and I've even speculated about spinning some alpaca for it in the past, but that never happened. Well now it's time (after I finish my current sweater, a going away present, and my Christmas knitting list that is).

Celestarium, I have to. I think I might get fired if I don't (well not really, but I have to tell my DH something right?).

It is so pretty, and very applicable! So now the question is, do I buy yarn or spin my own? It calls for about 1200 yards of fingering weight yarn. My default yarn is about a DK 2 ply, though I don't mind the shawl being a bit bigger than suggested. I have been having some great luck with blending on my combs, which is a post for another day- I'll try to get it in before the TDF. Which is coming up so quickly, and I do need to spin for it...though I would need to prep a whole different batch of fiber, but that can be done.

Well, the TDF is coming up quickly, but as you can see, I have plenty of knitting to do before I'm ready to get started on this, so let me know what you think. I'm seen some gorgeous yarns that are just asking for a few stars!

Reorganized

I've been a bit busy this week. My husband went out of town for work, so of course the rational thing to do while I have the 5 year old to myself for 4 days would be to rearrange the basement... right, who needs logic?

So, as I am not rational, I did decide to rearrange the basement, and I consolidated all my crafting stuff. I realize this is more applicable to the quilting/sewing world, but I moved my stash and wheel down here so it counts too.

I still have some final cleaning to do... and painting, but that is another story, but here is the general layout of the crafting space.

The whole project started because I wanted to condense the space our homeschooling was taking place in, so that is on one side of the basement, and my crafts and Tiny's toys are on the other. Of course the maps still need to be moved, but that's for another day as well.

It is a bit tight, but as my lovely wheel only weighs 9 labs, it is very easy to move to some of the more open space when I want to spin, which I did a bit of down here last night.

Just as a funny aside, you see those three storage totes under the table... that's my fiber/yarn stash, well about 95% of it. My husband thinks I have too much. Of course I do still have four bags of fleeces...

Knitting for the Birds: Charity Project

My weekly knitting group is starting up a charity project that is just so cute and fast that everybody should hear about it. It's called "Knitting is for the (baby) Birds" and involves knitting very quick and easy little bird nests. It is hosted, I guess that is the term, by The Bird Rescue Center of Sonoma County, CA.

Here is a shot of one that was done last year.

Senor Birdnest

 This, I would imagine, is a large size. I haven't knit the pattern before, but apparently, they are super quick and very easy. The pattern only requires knitting, purling, knitting to together, and working on double pointed needles. It isn't a brand new beginning project, but it could be good for anyone who has a few projects under their belt and a desire to help some orphaned birds.

Here are two different patterns:

The original from the Bird Rescue Center, it's a pdf just so you know.

Another version with crochet patterns as well.

It's a good cause that I had to share with you. Hopefully, next week I'll have the time and energy to fill you all in on my Kaleidoscope sweater, my new skein of hand-spun (spoiler- it was chain plied!), and my new commission/request from my brother-in-law, and possibly a few more shots of the bird nests. I hope your projects are going just as well for you!

A Fiber Themed Thanksgiving

Despite what may or may not have happened back in Plymouth at the "First Thanksgiving," it's always good to take some time to be thankful for the good things in your life, because chances are very high that if you are reading this, things could be a whole lot worse for you right now.
In keeping with the theme of this blog, I'm going to focus on the fiber related things I am thankful for, but know this real list is much longer.

1. My family, whether my husband and daughter who give me time to spin, knit, shop, or stalk projects on Ravelry, they are great enablers and supports of my hobby. Maybe someday soon my daughter's fine motor control and attention span will develop to the point where I can actually teach her some fiber crafts. I can't forget my parents and In-Laws who are certainly enablers as they give gifts of fiber, yarn, notions, or money ear-marked for other items (like my wheel- Thanks Mom!), and then just as happily receive my gifts of (sometimes clumsily) handmade items.
2. Books, in a time when they are cheap, readily available and cover topics that would filled a passport if you had to research yourself.
3. The Internet, again taking vast quantities of information from all over the world, and making it available to you in your pajamas. There is hardly a topic that you can't find a blog post, article, or video about. It has certainly helped the learning curve. It also gives you access to just about any item you could think to want, fiber, yarn, notions, or patterns (Ravelry).
4. LYS, despite the easy and comfort of the Internet, there is something to right about going to a shop and seeing all that fiber in person. The wonderful ladies (usually, though I've been in a few shops where men take charge) are always so friendly to everyone who walks in the door. They are so eager to help you find the right item for your next project, or just let you browse and be calmed by the visual and textile stimulation around you.
5. Knitting groups, it's always good to have a close group of friends, but there is just something about knitting friends. You always have something safe to discuss in the beginning, and then form tungsten level attachments as you watch and comfort each other after ripping out those 10 rows for the umpteenth time.
6. Sheep, and all fiber producing animals, we couldn't do what we do without you. Well, we could, but who wants to spend a life working with acrylics when there is alpaca in the world?

I know there is a whole host of other things to be thankful for, but these are the biggies, and all lists have to end eventually.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and no matter where you are, or what your situation, take some time to think about the things in your life you are thankful for.

New House= New Craft Space

So we moved back to New York after a year in Virginia and moved back into our three bedroom raised ranch house, so it's not exactly new, but it has double the square footage that our apartment in VA had, so that means I get my own crafting space.

I'm going to be moving into the third bedroom with a cutting table, sewing desk, and my spinning wheel. This does leave room for our current futon (and hopefully a sleeper sofa eventually).

It's going to be a while until I can get fully moved into it because my husband's computer is in there currently and has to get moved downstairs first, and that's a whole different conversation.

BUT we are moving in the right direction. My husband put up a shelf with all my crafting books and some of my handspun yarn. :)

The fiber will not be staying there, but I got caught up in the moment and had to put it somewhere. I've got knitting/spinning on the left, quilting on the right, and a mix of magazines in the black holder in the middle.

There will be another shelf on the other side of the room, with a peg board in the middle to hang yarn cakes on, as seen on Pinterest.

It's going to be a process, a long one, but we're on the way. :)

Withdrawls

We got into our new house last Tuesday. The movers emptied the boxes wherever  there was space. I have been spending the bulk of my time sorting through all of our things to see what we do and don't need, putting things away, and reorganizing the things we are keeping (for the record, the DH has sold a spare mattress box springs set, a spare set of snow tires from a car we traded in two years ago, various baby things, various kitchen things, replaced a broken toilet seat, put up some curtains, attempted to hang a shelf - he would be done with that, but one of the bracket screws overlapped with a screw in the stud so he has so fiddling to do there, and went back to work on Monday). Not to mention taking care of the little one. Needless to say that there has not been much time or energy for knitting, and (tear) my wheel is still in its box from the move.

I have been able to start a new pair of socks. These are for me this time, imagine that. I had gotten some Patons Stretch Sock a long time ago, but it was packed in Virginia and came out in New York, so now that I have it, and know how to knit socks, I'm working on a pair.

And I did make it to one of the two LYS's here in the Capital Area, Trumpet Hill. Wow! It's a tiny, but it has some great things and GREAT prices. I got 4 ounces of locally grown and dyed fiber for $9, can you believe that! And it wasn't even the least expensive fiber there, though the other fiber was much courser and I still have plenty of Cotswald and Jacob left to knit.

I did make it through the beautifully dyed wool/tencel blend from the fiber festival before we moved, so those updates will be coming soon. And I do intend to check out the other LYS soon. Hopefully I will have more to say next week, and more time to say it...

Fiber Festival

 It's taken a while, but I am finally getting up photos from the fiber festival I went to at the beginning of the month. The whole family came along, which meant that while we saw everything, it all went pretty fast. For some crazy reason it was 85 that day, and my wonderful trying-to-be-indepedent 4 year old decided that she was going to wear sweats before we left home and didn't want to change, so we tried to make the day as quick as possible for her sake.

Now on to the photos. Above are some adorable Angora rabbits, I didn't catch what kind, but I was able to get some Angora/Wool roving and it is so soft. I love rabbits of any kind. I love that surreal sense when you know your touching their fur but you can't actually feel anything because they are so soft! I am waiting for the day that the husband lets me get one, but he insists that won't happen until our cats are gone, which will be a while.

 Here are the alpacas they had. I was surprised at how small they were. I had read they were about 100-150 pounds smaller than llamas, but I guess the llamas I had known were really big. These guys were only about three and a half feet or so at the shoulders.
Now technically, we do have enough of a yard for one alpaca, but as they are herd animals, and we live within city limits, I don't think that will happen anytime soon.

There were also sheep dog trials going on throughout the day. We watched two dogs do their stuff. it was amusing enough. The little one liked it enough, but by this time the husband had had enough of the heat, trying to keep our daughter entertained while I looked around, and probably just being outside, so we didn't hang around too long.

There were all sorts of sheep breeds there. It was nice to see some up close and interesting to see the different sizes and varieties. The Merinos they had there were huge compared to these little guys.

Unfortunately, the tent where the sheep were was pretty packed and we walked through pretty quickly, so while I got a few shots, I wasn't able to make notes of the breeds.

I love the sheep with speckled faces!

 This amazing spinner was doing a live demonstration, and no that's not a ball of wool in her lap, it's a rabbit. She was pulling tufts of fur directly off the rabbit, spinning them, and talking to the other people around her all at the same time...I want a rabbit.

Here are the big guys. We managed to get a peek at them before we headed out, and they were pretty neat. One of them, I thing the brownish one on the far right, was "humming." It was fun to hear what noise llamas make, although it's not a happy noise and one of them kicked the fence while we were there. I think the heat and people where getting to them.

Not this guy though. He just ate and did his thing.
I just love his color too.







All in all, I would love to go to another festival. There were so many great vendors with great fibers and yarns. There were several demonstrations going on about knitting, crochet, spinning, and weaving. There were classes, and kids activities. It's too bad it was so warm, hopefully next time will be a more laid back experience.

Grr...

It's October 1st. I figure that means I get to wear my knitwear, right. Just a couple problems with that.

1. All of my wearable knit items are accessories, hats, gloves, scarves, but no sweaters,
2. It's currently 80 degrees outside,
3. Apparently I have the worst skin a knitter can have.

Here's the story. Before I knew what the temperature was, I threw a commercial cardi over my tank top (I knew it was pretty warm and shouldn't layer too much) and since the cardi was grey, I figured I could throw on my grey and white mobius scarf made from Cascade Eco Duo. This yarn is 70% alpaca and 30% merino. By all accounts it should be amazingly soft right? Well I had it on for about 60 seconds before it started itching.

I always figured that my issues with sweaters were just due to the awful acrylics being made in the early 90's. But since I always found sweaters itchy as a kid, I didn't really wear any until I started working. Even though I knew how to knit at this time, I was spending my time and energy on classes, subbing, and eventually working, so I still didn't knit anything myself, and I was no where near using natural fibers at this point, so all my sweaters were commercial acrylics, but over the 20 years I spent not wearing sweaters, manufactures had solved many problems and I didn't have any problems anymore. Every now and then my mom would get me a nice merino sweater, and I think she even got me cashmere once or twice, but they always felt itchy, so I wore them infrequently and only with a camisole or tank top underneath...

It seems that my wool issues are fairly confined to my torso as I can wear wool gloves, socks, and hats with no problems. This makes me think that chances of a local allergy are very slight.

I have always had very dry skin, and have noticed fewer problems with natural fibers when I use lotion for several days, but this is not a strong suit of mine.

Maybe this has contributed to my lack of sweater knitting. I have knit a long sleeved shrug out of commercial yarn from Michaels, and the fibers started pulling apart and feathering while I was blocking it. This experience has left me resistant to knitting an entire sweater out of acrylic yarn.

So I'm a bit frustrated by my skin's lack of cooperation today. I'd love to hear about anything that has helped any of you with sensitive skin issues, or with acrylic blocking tips.

Until next time, I'm going to ignore the thermometer and bundle up with my knits and maybe some ice cream. 

Prelude and other Goings on

My wheel arrived on Friday afternoon, and now I am in the process of finishing it. I am using tung oil to finish it. Last night I spent about 2 hours doing the first coat, but this morning it only about 45 minutes to do the second coat. Maybe tomorrow I can put it together.

I was a bit amused by the packing methods of Kromski. There was absolutely nothing wrong with how they packed it, but I was amused that sheets from a Polish grocery add were used as filler.

Paradise Fibers, the company I ordered the wheel from, has a great policy that buyers get $40 of free fiber when they purchase a wheel (other companies have similar policies that include How-To books or DVDs or assembly if you can get to the store and pick up the wheel). Anyway, I got 8 ounces of White Norwegian Top, Grey Jacob Top, and Light Grey Alpaca. Alpaca...wow. I had never felt unspun alpaca. The Norwegian and Jacob had an end available in the bag, but the alpaca end is hidden somewhere, and frankly, I'm a bit scared to try to find it. I have the feeling that if I try to apply any force to it, it will just fall apart. I'm a bit intimidated by the thought of spinning it, but if I can manage it, it should turn out great!

In other news, I was working on a shapeless mess of a sweater that was intended to be worn while I read, knit, work on the computer, or do some other sedentary task that keeps my arms mostly in front of my body. Frankly, other than the fact that the body it about 5 sizes too big, it worked out fine. Not something I would share with people, but it'll certainly keep my warm. Well, I am mostly done with it, all I have to do are the sleeves, and after all that time of watching me work on it, now my daughter wants a sweater out of the same yarn. I have plenty of it left, but I need to be more careful with my gauge and sizing, so there will be a children's sweater with buttons coming sometime before Christmas.

I've been doing quite a bit of knitting lately and will update you on the things I have finished/am working on sometime next week. Hopefully that will help me get back on schedule, though I imagine one my wheel is up and spinning, I'll have plenty to talk about. Until then...get crafty, and have some fun!

I assume it's Polish anyway...

Motivation Issues

I am the type of person who goes through intense and cyclical phases. When I was a kid it was food. I didn't have weight issues, either too high or too low, but there would be weeks when the only thing I wanted to eat would be Spaghetti-O's. I would eat other things because I was about 10 or so and knew about nutrition and mostly didn't want to cause a problem for my parents...Anyway, this would continue for about two or three months and then I would move on to other food. I never ate so much that I got sick or anything like that, and I still really like Spaghetti-O's and actually would often prefer them to chocolate most of the time.

I really do have a point. Like my food phases, I have hobby phases. When I first quit my job and moved 600 miles while my husband was on a temporary assignment, I spent a great deal of time quilting. I made two quilts for a charity group called Quilts for Kids, an organization that collects crib sized quilts for children in the hospital for extended periods or other needy children and families, a twin sized quilt for my daughter, a psuedo queen sized quilt for myself and my husband's bed, and a lap quilt for my mom, as well as various sewing crafty things, like a pencil roll for my niece and a car holder for my nephew.

I watched, and still do watch, a lot of Leah Day's video's to work on free motion quilting. I was working on getting through her designs, but then I got into my spinning. I found the other day that I got my first, low whorl spindle in December of 2012. Things went slowly for a while, but I would always get excited again when I would get some new fiber, like my first Cotswold- which I'm still not through, I got a pound- four ounces of Merino, eight ounces of BFL, and then the Cotswold/Border Leicester mix fleece- we won't go there.


As I've said with my knitting, I like the beginnings and ends of projects. All projects, or even stages of projects. I will very eagerly spend a few extra hours quilting to finish a top, spinning to finish the wool, or knitting through a piece of a project, even if there are more steps to come after.

The problem I am currently in is that despite having only about half an ounce left of the Cotswold left, I predrafted it, making it look much longer, and failing to excite my "almost done" enthusiasm. I know that kind of smacks in the face of what I just said, but I think the issue is that spindle spinning just takes so long. I enjoy it, but after talking to a wheel spinner, spindle spinning takes four to six times longer. I spend an hour or so spinning and don't seem to be any nearer the end.

I also still have the vast majority of my fleece left with no end in sight, although I have great plans for all of it, but I have to get through what is currently on my high whorl.

It also doesn't help that there have been many, let's call them disruptions lately. I finished grad school, traveled 800 miles to visit family, and when we returned our cat got out and is now missing. All within a week. Nothing too monumental or utterly devastating, but together, they have shaken things up and I just can't settle into a crafting mode again. We also have friends coming over tomorrow night for dinner because apparently the only way I can make sure my house stays clean it so invite people over (Sorry to any friends who are repeatedly invited over, but yes, you are used as motivation to clean).

So despite having several projects going, and being very close to the end of my Cotswold, I have little motivation to spend intense time crafting. Another issue may be that I have been spending my time reading. Since we returned home on Tuesday, I have read Uglies and Pretties by Scott Westerfeld and have begun Specials and am about halfway through that. If you don't know, there are more than 400 page books, and I read slowly.

Hopefully, I can push through and spin a few hours a day until I get into the groove again. Hopefully, I will finish Specials soon and can find a book about spinning or knitting to get me back in the mood to craft.

What about you? Do you go through crafting cycles? Do you have projects sitting off to the side waiting for inspiration to strike again? What do you do to make sure you finish your projects? I'd love to here your ideas! Hopefully, this will get us all a bit more active and start working again, even if only out of a feeling of obligation (though I only expect that to work for me, if even then).

Good luck and I hope you finish something soon!

I guess this is how a sheep feels...

On July 27th, I got my hair cut. I got all of it cut. After all was said and done, my cut hair measured 15 inches.

My wet, pony-tailed cut off hair on my cutting mat to measure its length. Turns out the long ones are 15 inches and the short ones are 13.

Here is the picture of my hair before I left.

When I was in fourth grade, I got a hair cut I didn't like, so after it grew out and got trimmed up, my solution was just to never get a hair cut again. The result was hair that I sat on in college. So my second semester of college I got 10 inches cut off for Locks of Love. My hair was still well past my shoulders.

Over the years I have continued my lassiez-faire approach to hair care, but it has resulted in beautiful hair that makes great wigs for cancer patients. In the past 8 or so years since I donated my hair the first time, I have donated my hair again, and we are now at donation number 4.

I am not the type of person who is highly concerned with the exact lay of my hair on a day to day basis, though there is nothing wrong with that type of person, it's just not who I am. Generally I just let it hang long, and when it gets really long, I throw it up in a bun (that's 12 years of ballet that I will never lose :)). Eventually it gets long enough that it starts being in the way. My family pulls it as we sit on the couch, it starts to get stuck to high chair brackets, I plan my showers around how long it takes to dry, etc. So at this point, and it seems to be when my hair is 15 inches past my chin, it's time to cut it off and start over.

15 inches shorter. My head looks so small.

Knowing myself and how proactive I am about hair care, I have decided to dedicate my hair to Locks of Love for the next 10 years. This means I will continue to live as I do, but I won't get layers, length altering cuts, or inflict massive damage onto my hair. It takes about 2 to 2 and a half years for my hair to grow to the desired length, at this point, I will cut it off and send it away. So I figure that over the next 10 years or so, I might be able to donate it 4 or 5 times. We'll see. And hey, by then I should be one heck of a spinner too (check out my first post if your confused)!

Before I go, I want to emphasize that my decision, like giving to any charity, is a highly personal decision. Any group that you may choose to support will be glad to have your help, this is one that works for me, though I would love to hear about any groups that you help!