A Great Day

Yesterday was a fabulous fiber day. I got my March Spunky Eclectic sock yarn in the mail. This yarn is called "Mud Season." The inscription reads:

Every year around this time her in New England we begin what is fondly called "Mud Season" or Spring. The blue skies herald Spring and the melting of snow. The melting of snow means mud, which slowly gives way to new growth.

I like this colourway. I also got the new Spin Off magazine in the mail. Someday, I hope to understand everything they are talking about.

Unfortunately, I got the dreaded email that PJ is closing down Fiber Cottage in April.

Then, I finally got the nerdlies to go to the Wednesday Spinning Group, which is held at an old Indian Mission nearby. Boy, am I glad I went. There were about 8 women there. All working on various fiber crafts. One woman was spinning on a hand spindle she had made from a CD and a crochet hook. She was using raw fleece that was given to her by another member of the KC Fiber Guild. Her spinning was amazing. It was as thin as sewing thread. Another woman was making random skeins of yarn from odds and ends, which is funny because Knitty has an article about it this month. There was another woman that I recognized because she used to work at the same place I do. I had no idea she was a wonderful knitter and a fiber-head. I brought my wheel and sucked it up to spin my rudimentary yarn. But, they were all encouraging. Near the end of the evening another woman showed up. She happens to be a Shepard for a living! There was an article about her in our local newspaper recently. An army base pays her to let her sheep graze for weed control. When she walked in, a teeny little lamb was following her. The lamb was a week old. Apparently, the lamb is a twin and got confused about who her mommy was. So, she started following the woman around instead of her Sheep mommy. I had never held a baby lamb before. The lamb was smaller than the Piddler. I was having such a good time, I lost track of time and got home past my usual bed time. And then I was all excited and couldn't get to sleep right away.

The Shepard Woman will be teaching the wet felting classes I'm taking in April. Maybe I can buy some raw fleece from her. Who knows. I'm definitely going back to the Wednesday Spinning Group.

Another coincidence is that I received a comment on Ravelry on one of my knitting projects from Prudence Mapstone. She is the author of the Freeform knitting and crochet book! I thought that was quite an honor. She also invited me to join a group called the Pink Group. She is asking for people to make pink scrumbles, which she will assemble into garments to sell at an art show in Australia to benefit breast cancer. So, I rounded up all my pink odds ends and started a scrumble for her.

I have tomorrow off. Yippee. I might actually finish the Lady Eleanor wrap. I think I bought way too much yarn for this project. When I finish, I'll have a give away for the rest of the Soy Wool Stripes. It felts nicely. One of you can have some fun with it.

Tonight we are making fish tacos. The weather just sucks here. I think I can talk Sam into making a fire to curl up by.

Scrumbling Toward Ecstasy

A few years ago, I purchased Prudence Mapstone's book on freeform knitting and crochet. The plan, at that time, was to use yarn I bought on Ebay that had been hand spun and hand dyed with natural dyes. I haven't been able to bear using the yarn as it still has the wrappers that the woman made for the yarn that lists the organic items used to dye the yarn in her handwriting. Things like marigolds and such. The bundles of yarn just too pretty to look at.

The other day, while exploring Ravery, I found that there is a scrumbling group. So, I thought it would be fun to at least attempt it, even though I'm not all that good at crochet. It seems to suit me as I'm a random person. And this way, I can use up all the jillions of smidgens of glorious yarn I have tucked away. It's also a way to take a wee break from long-term projects. I also just love the word scrumble.

This is a quiet week at Chez TorKnitoh. Hopefully, I can focus on getting closer to finishing something. One of my co-workers recently admitted to me that it takes her about a week to finish a pair of knitted socks. Boy, did that make me jealous. I think that's the advantage of only knitting one thing at a time. Even though there is a lesson to be learned here, I can't bear to be that monogamous. I'm too scrumbly, I guess.

I think part of the problem I'm having with finishing my current projects is that I'm not happy with the yarn I chose. I opted to use a more affordable yarn for the Lady Eleanor wrap. While it's not all that bad, I don't love it. And even though I spent an arm and a leg on the Noro sock yarn, I hate it. If I hadn't spend so much money on the yarn, I'd set fire to these socks.

Last night, we made sear-roasted cod with horseradish aioli & lemon zest breadcrumbs with a pea salad. It was yummy. Tonight, it's some sort of baked pasta. We'll just make it up as we go along.

I had quite a scare this past week. Dustin has been sick with a sore throat for a bit. Then, his mouth broke out in all kinds of canker sores that he couldn't seem to get rid of. He opted to visit the emergency room on Good Friday. The nurse said that it was more than likely stress that was causing the canker sores. However, he was concerned about HIV and opted to test for that. The test results came back negative. That was a huge relief.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 2nd Anniversary.

We are going to Bluestem. We're going to do the seven course meal. I hope it's fantastic.

I started a vertical stripe crochet blanket. The directions are here. I especially like Brainylady's version.

I learned to crochet before I learned to knit from my mother. I was probably about 11 or 12. I remember my mother making tons of crochet things. Her hands moving swiftly while we were on one of those awful driving vacations or late at night when she was watching Johnny Carson. I was not allowed to stay up that late, but I remember hiding on the stairs and listening to it.

When I started the blanket, I felt as if i had two left hands. Nothing was going right. I could not remember how to do it. I certainly didn't remember it as being a hard thing to do. But, my hands were all tense, shaking and sweating. And each stitch took several minutes. Finally, I looked up some video tutorials on it and now it's going much better.

I'm going to use leftover balls of yarn. Here are some of the colors.

If it turns out crappy the dog can sleep on it.