Happy Independence Day

It's unseasonably cool today. In fact, we have the windows open. I don't think I can remember when it's been cool enough to have the windows open on the 4th.

Here is the July 2 installment from my CSA:

Corn, peppers, cucumbers, basil, green beans, chives, and broccoli. I had a couple ears of corn for dinner. They were so yummy they didn't need anything on them at all!

Wednesday evening, I met up with PJ instead of meeting with the Renegade Spinners. PJ gave me my June installment of Cottage Fiber's fiber club.

I just love the colors. And there is a whopping 11.7 ounces of fiber! I should be able to make something very cool with it once it has been spun.

I also picked up this:

It's a Drum Carder! Now, I will be able to card all the wool I have washed. PJ was kind enough to allow me to make payments. So, on Thursday, I fiddled with the drum carder and carded and spun up some of the Romney wool I have.

It's kind of blah as it is undyed. I'm thinking of dying this wool red. Because it is gray, it will turn out very muted when dyed, which I think would look good. The picture above is 2.8 ounces of wool. I have 3 pounds of this particular wool. Hoo boy. While Romney is easy to spin, it is not particularly soft, which is disappointing. I'll have to think of some type of outerwear for this wool.

So, most of Wednesday and Thursday was spent spinning. The rest of the Spring Flowers roving is spun. I did, however, work on the Mud Season socks:

Don't blow your fingers off setting off firecrackers!

June Fiber!

I got my first Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club today. 6 oz. of merino with 30% mohair. The colourway is called "Flowering Weeds." I spent most of the evening spinning. I've got about half of it spun up. It was a nice break from knitting.

Plus, the weather was nice enough today to scour some wool. It looks as if the weather will be cooperative enough tomorrow, too. I can't believe June is over. I'm on my last week of my sabbatical.

One Month

It's hard to believe that I've been on vacation for more than a month. It sure doesn't feel like it at all. As usual, I guess I had lofty goals set.

Recently, we made some Limoncello to add to our homemade moonshine. It uses 2 pounds of lemon zest to one quart of liquid. So, I have tons of lemons to use up. We used some of the lemon juice to grill some shrimp on the barbie along with chipotle pineapple. I just love grilled pineapple.

I've finished the Baby Surprise Jacket. I just need to sew it up and add buttons. I'm particularly proud of this because it's the first thing I've made made with my hand spun. The colors look like a sunrise to me. I rented the DVD from the library to help me out. I'd love to make another one, but I don't really have a baby to give it to. I just thought this pattern would work well with hand spun yarn and I wanted to give it a whirl.

While making the jacket, I had to stop and ply some more yarn. So, in a fit of startitis, I cast on for a cowl. Kim says that cowls are all the rage to make instead of scarves. These are great projects for gift giving.

The yarn reminds me of peacock feathers.

Here is the booty from our CSA bag this week.

Check out the wild purple cauliflower! I just love it when Dan gives us wonky veggies. I've made Cauliflower with Panch Phoran for my lunches this week. Later today, I'm going to make some Cabbage Borscht Soup with all the beets I have.

Here is the latest spinning. I love the colors of this one.

Happy Birthday Piddles

Piddles is one year old today. Here's a picture of her right about when we got her. I tried to snap a photo with her birthday hat on today, but I can't seem to get her to sit still long enough for a picture. I'll keep trying.

Piddles is such a silly puppy. We play with her using the laser pointer (her name is Dottie) quite a bit. She still hasn't figured out it's not alive. We wondered what would happen when she saw her first lightening bug. Sure enough, she ran all over the back yard chasing them and eating them until she puked. I also like to put a few ice cubes in her outside water dish. She likes to stick her nose in the bowl and blow bubbles as she bobs for the cubes.

I've been working on the Baby Surprise Jacket out of my hand spun. Fortunately, I rented the DVD with Meg Swansen from the library. Right now, it just looks like a lump to me.

I've also been spinning up some roving I bought at the community organic farmer's market in Victoria. I forget the breed of the sheep. It's a natural brownish gray. I plied it with black crochet cotton. It's kind of boring looking, but I think it will make a nice pair of fingerless gloves. Spinning and knitting with black (or almost black) is monotonous, but everyone loves to wear those colors. I think it will be someone's Christmas gift.

The walnut tree in our back yard has been the bane of Sam's existence for years. Recently, I found a recipe for Nocino, so we made some today. I'll have to have a nocino party around Christmas to try it out. I'm also thinking of making pickled green walnuts. Later on, I can use the ripened hulls to dye wool. It makes a lovely brown.

The weather was clear enough over the past couple of days that I could process a small amount of wool. It seems to be raining about every other day here, so it's slow going. I'm not worried about it all that much, as it stays quite hot here until October.

Here's some more photos of Buchart Gardens.

Sunny Sunday

The Great Purge has begun! I decided to start cleaning up the laundry room, where crap has piled for a LONG time. I took five grocery bags and one large moving box FULL of clothes and bedding to a Planet Aid drop off box. I also took out two bags of trash. And that’s only about half of the room. The jury’s still out on whether I have enough stuff to make a garage sale worthwhile.

I got my hair cut and colored. He colored it a little darker than I’ve had it. And the top is light. Of course, I will never be able to make it look the way he does. We made beer can chicken, mashed cauliflower and sauteed mushrooms for dinner last night.

I saw that Kim was tagged for some sort of blog thing. I wasn’t tagged, but I’m going to play along anyway. Kind of like an annoying little sister.


What was I doing 10 years ago?

Things weren’t all that happy for me ten years ago. I was in the middle of my awful, long, expensive divorce. My husband was in arrears, so I was totally broke. The man I was seeing decided to call it quits because my soon-to-be-ex-husband vandalized his car outside my house one night. I think this was about the time that I picked up knitting (again).

What are five things on my to-do list for today?
(1) Post on my blog. (as we speak!) (2) Start washing the mountain of fleece I’ve purchased.(started) (3) Make a game plan for my sabbatical (4) relax and knit. (5) Get Piddles’ nails trimmed. (done)

Snacks I enjoy:

Chips & salsa. And not your standard chips or salsa. I like the designer kind. Chips & guacamole. 365 brand organic cheddar popcorn. I guess I’m not much of a snacker.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Pay off the house. Get ALL of the remodeling/home improvements done Sam & I have been talking about for years. Buy each of my kids a new hybrid car. Buy a second home. The jury is out where. I’d like to investigate the Pacific Northwest. Pay off Dustin’s school loans. Make a ginormous donation to John T.’s business. Pay for Tate’s college education at the school of her choice. Buy a drum carder.

Places I’ve lived:

Montclair, NJ, Overland Park, KS, Parkville, MO, Kansas City, MO, Prairie Village, KS. Man, I’m boring!

Five people I’d like to know more about:

Barbara, Kim, PJ, Marilyn, Jamie (the Shepherd)

I got Intertwined from the library the other day. What a cool book. Here I've been trying to make my yarn thin and consistent. This book show you how to create thick and thin yarn with blobs of this and that. So, I tried to make a skein or two of art yarn. I think I'll try to make a hat with it. I love the crazy bats.

It's been a LONG time

It’s just been too cold and cloudy to post. I wasn’t able to take any pics due to the natural light situation. Crappers.

I’ve taken the first two wet felting classes, and the third is this weekend. We’re supposed to make a purse. It should be a blast. Here are some of the things I have made:

It's hard to get a good shot of the scarf. Dang.

I’m about done with the Snow Squall socks. I’ve recently been validated regarding my preference to make SIMPLE socks. Knitting has been going slow for me; perhaps it is this icky weather that has got me down. I dunno.

The mitts are too large for me. I have one completed and the other almost done. Though I will give them to my son, Dustin, it’s always harder to knit for someone else. Especially for one that loses the things you make. So, these are at a stand-still.

And, I’ve been spinning.

Less like barf and more like yarn, eh?

I found out that the space that the renegade spinners meet might start to charge. This means that they will either break up or find a new place. Boy, I hope it’s the latter. Meeting with the renegade spinners has been a great help to me. I will be sad if my Glorious Night will no longer be.

I posted a response to Dave Daniels' Cabin Cove. I’ve pretty much been a wiener when posting comments on blogs. But, he actually responded to me and had some fabulous suggestions on becoming a better spinner. His work is phenomenal. I was quite honored to have a blog STAR respond to me. Thank you, David.

I have really been loving the Kylie Kwong cook book. Everything we have made has been spot on. We went to the Asian Grocer and got some more supplies. And, I finally found the Indian grocer nearby. Curries are next.

My sabbatical is less than three weeks away. Oh--Caitlin got a job! So, that is good. She has to have a job in her field to stay in BC.

Here Comes the Rain Again

It's raining cats and dogs right now.

Unfortunately, I have a puppy that doesn't have sense enough to come in from the rain. It even hailed for a few short minutes, and she ran all over the yard trying to catch the hail pieces like they were popcorn falling from the sky. I'll probably be washing and drying dog towels all weekend long. Now when any hail falls, she runs to the door and can't wait to get out. Silly puppy.

I had a wonderful Glorious Night. I started out with a nice long bath, stopped off at the library to pick up some reserved books, and then had soup and salad at Whole Foods. I got my first bundle of fiber from PJ. It's hand-dyed merino. I'm a little worried about starting up with nicer fiber. I just don't want to waste it. But, I'm so sick and tired of spinning with undyed wool.

One of the gals brought me a beginning spinning video to watch. And there was a new woman that brought llama fiber to sell. I bought two sandwich size bags for 75 cents each. Another woman had made these adorable felted cows using sticks from her yard as the legs and then felted wool bodies and head. Then, she added all of this great needle felting. Another woman had completed a Baby Surprise Jacket, but she used the waist band, button band and collar of a toddler's jeans jacket. She had made oddball yarn to use for it. It was really cute. I guess the majority of the women are gearing up for a guild sale of some sort.

Strangely enough, Sam went to the doctor two weeks ago for a complete physical. This is just not like him. He explained that he hadn't had one since he was in high school. Considering he will be 40 next year, I think it's about time. The company I work for sponsors a free all-inclusive blood screening every other year, and his last one was horrible. So, maybe he just wanted to know what was going on. On his follow-up visit this week, he was prescribed high blood pressure medication and advised to get his cholesterol down or he would have to be put on medication for that as well. All of this means lighter cooking. We've been having a lot of Asian foods, fish and tofu. And, that's fine with me, I could easily be a vegetarian.

I've finished the Landscape socks. I fiddled around trying to use a new method for grafting this morning. I have never been quite satisfied with my results. But, this new method was a PITA , and I went back to using my tried-and-true instructions from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd.

I've got about 6 inches done on the second Snow Squall sock. I've been feeling kind of "meh" about my knitting lately. Perhaps it's having to finish up things and there is none of that initial excitement like when you are working on a new project. To remedy this, I cast on for the fingerless garter mitts from Weekend Knitting. They go really quick. I am using Visions Artisan Yarn that I bought at Cottage Fiber. It's a celery green color. If I get to be better at spinning, I would like to make these out of my hand spun someday.

Tomorrow, we will pull this gawd awful carpeting up out of the family room. Then, the painting begins!

Tate on Tuesday

Tate came over after work last night and we made Eggplant Parmigiana, Asparagus with Citrus, Parsley and Garlic, and a simple green salad with a vinaigrette. The recipes are from Molto Italiano. It's one of my greatest joys to cook and eat dinner with my kids. She's gotten quite good at cooking too. (She works in a hip restaurant kitchen here in Midtown.) It was fun gabbing and cooking. She indicated that she is now thinking of taking some fashion design classes.
I was wiped out afterward. Probably from staying up way past my bedtime Monday night to watch the NCAA basketball game. (I still can't believe the Jayhawks won.) Plus, Piddles barfed all night long Monday night. I spent most of Tuesday washing towels. Poor thing. She's all better now.
Tonight is Spinning Group. There is an actual Fiber Guild meeting tonight. But, there are always a few renegade spinners who skip the meeting and hang out in the kitchen. That's where I'll be.
Time to pad down the hallway to work.

Twisted

I've been trying to spend a little more time practicing spinning. While I'm still producing yarn barf, it seems to be going a bit better. I'm getting a tad more comfortable with my wheel. Best of all, the wheel isn't as interesting to the pets, so I'm interrupted less. The only problem is that this takes away from knitting time. Oh well. My goal is to get good enough to be able to attend Yarn School next year. And then, someday, I really, REALLY want to go to Rhinebeck.

I'm still plugging away on the second Landscape sock. I have really wanted to cast on using the Manos Tate gave me. I just can't come up with a good idea for two skeins of Manos. I've already made one "My So-Called Scarf," so I don't want to do another one. I really love this colourway. Any ideas?

Friday, I went mental on Amazon. I bought Jerk: Barbecue from Jamaica, Simple Chinese Cooking, and 660 Curries. Barbara recommended the first two; I can't remember how I heard about the third. It was probably Barbara. Oh, I can't wait to start cooking with the CSA produce!

Kim recently posted pictures using different color settings on her camera. What a FINtastic idea. I had to try it. Unfortunately, I don't think I have as nice a camera as Kim does.

I found out today that we are getting a substantial tax refund. Hoo Boy.

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.

Fibergasm

Today I went to Cottage Fiber for a spinning lesson. I was under the impression that the cost was $10 for about an hour and a half. But, because I have a techno-spindle, which she makes and sells, the lesson was free! FREE! Although it is rudimentary at best, I am spinning on the techno-spindle. I think this is one of those things that you have to practice and practice to get right. Don't laugh!

I was in absolute heaven there. Tons of cool fiber, yarns, looms, spinning wheels--you name it. She shares the space with a weaver. He had one ginormous loom that was about 14 feet wide. And another smaller loom that he had warped with colors that correspond with the stars. The warp was from his astrological reading. How interesting. The place was totally inspiring. And the woman who runs it is so very cool.

She showed me how to card my own fiber so I can create my own colourways and roving. So, I bought some fiber and carders. I'm so jazzed.

During our conversation, I learned that she intends to close her shop. She's been in business for three years now and has not received the support from fiber artists she thought she would. Now, that's a bummer. I finally find a place I LOVE and it's going to go out of business. I know that the owner belongs to the KC Fiber Guild, so I'll just have to join that next.

When I came home from my lesson, I had a package from Spunky Eclectic waiting for me. Here is the new color.

It is called Snow Squall. The inscription reads: If you've ever lived in snow country when a really big storm is coming in there is a weird mix of grey and blue in the sky. One minute you have this crystal clear turquoise and the next it's deep blue and then all of a sudden it's grey and about to snow.

I also got my spinning wheel earlier this week. I talked to the woman that owns Cottage Fiber and she can give me lessons. I can't wait. But, I'm going to spend time with my hand spindle so I can get the hang of it.

I was hoping to have my socks done from last month's Spunky Eclectic sock yarn. I was busy knitting away when there was a pet fiasco. Piddles chased the cat sown the hallway and he hauled ass into the office and jumped up on the desk, tipping over a FULL glass of water all over my lap, keyboard, and my knitting, which was on my lap. The whole ball of yarn was soaking. So, It's currently drying out.

I've put that muddy puppy down for a nap. I'm going to spin, spin, spin.