Summer is Over, Time to Blog

We took a twelve-day trip to the East Coast (NH, MA, and ME). It was great fun. K. and I got to meet a bunch of my husband's family. Got the whole picture now. I had a lot of fiber fun, too. I'm going to blog about that at the Purl Jam site in a couple days.

I don't have a lot of photos from the trip because my camera got broken on day three. I'm trying to get some pics from everyone else so I can blog about the trip properly.

The last year of preschool started today. It is a separate program for the five-year-olds who aren't quite ready for Kindergarten. Did you know there is homework in Kindergarten these days. One more year of a little less structure for this guy:


I'm trying to find a part-time job. Still working at the fiber shop, but need something 20-30 hours a week so we can finally buy a house. I have had enough of apartment life. My plan was to get a job when K. entered Kindergarten next year because he will be there from about 9-3, but I started looking a couple months ago, knowing it would take some time. No luck yet. Got to the second interview at one, but didn't get it. Had a phone interview at another, no dice. Then I got a call for an interview on the third day of our vacation and set it up for today. Unfortunately they hired someone else in the meantime. All of them were near home and K.'s school. Very disappointing, especially the first which was a very protracted process.

But I had a plan B. I'm taking art classes which start tomorrow. I'm finally taking Color Theory at City College. Got all my paints and supplies yesterday. I found out CCSF offers a Textile Certificate, so I decided to work towards that. I have quite a few credits toward it already, took Textile Analysis over the summer and am taking Weaving this semester, too.

Now to catch up since my last post in June. Apologies, as many of these photos were taken with my cell phone, and there are probably more typos than usual.

MY SON IS FIVE

I don't have good photos from the party, it was a Star Wars theme. Lots of friends and family came for a nice afternoon at Coyote Point. Don't hold your breath on the thank-you cards. In lieu of birthday pics, here is one of him hamming it up in Bar Harbor, Maine.

IN THE NEWSPAPER

My knitting group was in the local neighborhood paper. There's a shot of me on the inside, too. But I don't like to brag, you know.

ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE

I asked my potter friend for a fruit colander. She asked for a sketch. I received an exact replica. Here it is in action. I hear that she will work for handspun yarn. Good thing, I need a bowl for spinning on a tahkli.

TOUR DE FLEECE HAPPENED

I finally stained my spinning wheel in preparation for the Tour. Love the way it turned out. I washed and washed and washed Jacob fleece from the zoo shearing. I was on Team Raw Power and carded and spun well over a pound. That's a lot of rolags to turn this:


Into this:

Perhaps coincidentally I finally decided on a drum carder.


It is a Strauch "Finest". It comes with a lot of bells and whistles. Here are some of the instructions: do not to lend it to friends, do not let children play with it, do not card dirty fleece. I haven't done any blending yet, but the kid and I have prepped a bunch of zoo alpaca. You know, I think I am going to buy a fleece from a spinners flock at California Wool and Fiber this year. It will be a dream after the zoo stuff.

INSANE DEADLINE KNITTING

My friend organized the second annual San Francisco Ravelry Meet-up. There was a KAL of hats by local designers. At the last minute I cast on for Diamond Head Beret with Peace Fleece. I love the yarn and the pattern. My denial about ribbing, not so much. I knocked it out in two days, including cutting off the first ribbing and re-knitting it. Sadly, I need to do so again, still too slouchy. There was also a fun toy swap. Sadly I don't have a photo of the gnome I made or the cupcake I received.

I CAN'T STOP BUYING YARN

The yarn-buying drought that was broken at Jimmy Beans has caused a river of yarn to come in the house. In particular I got more Madelinetosh and a sweater's worth of Noro Silk Garden. Plus everything on our trip. But that's different.

No photos!!

OR FIBER

Finally got my hands on some Hello Yarn thanks to Starry Knit.

KNITTING: I STILL DO IT

I was busy with my class over the summer but I did get most of a sweater done, made a second pair of Pomatomus, and cast on for a shawl.

NEEDLEFELTING, I STILL LIKE IT

The kid requested a second piece of toast.

GARDENING

The guys spent the past year amending the soil in the tiny backyard that we cannot see from our apartment (did I mention I am sick of it here?). It was mainly a way to get the kid outside and digging. There isn't even room to run. It was so funky and overgrown that I never went out there. A few months ago I got a bunch of free mulch from the people who do the City's garbage, kind of a give back for all the stuff we put out in the compost bin. So I put it in the raised bed and planted there and around the fence. Between the couple things that were growing already, stuff that we dug up from job sites, and things I planted it is kind of nice. There is way more out there now. And there are gnomes, of course.

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To recap, a lot of stuff happened since June. I still need to blog about some of it. Stay tuned.

Stitches West, Birthday, FO's

What a great tradition this is turning into, going to Stitches West on my birthday weekend.

Friday I took a great class on Swedish twined knitting, Tvåänddsstickning, by Beth Brown-Reinsel. It is done by working from both ends of a ball of yarn, twisting the yarn every stitch for a firm fabric. It can be done in one color or two, and is in the round. I found it quite challenging. You twist one way for knit, the other for purl. I kept getting confused. I left class a little early because my hands hurt, so I didn't get one of those cool photos of all the student projects, but here is the progress I made in class.


Once I do a little practice I will switch to a new pair of wristlets. Most commercial yarn is plyed in the S or counter-clockwise direction. If you use it while twined knitting it comes untwisted. Black Water Abbey yarn, from Ireland, is plyed Z, or clock-wise. Handily they were at Stitches.


So, yes, I broke my over year-long spell and bought yarn. Hey, I need it for a Scandinavian technique. It was birthday money. I also bought a book about twined knitting and sock blockers! I didn't go back to the market on Saturday, I felt quite satisfied with my purchases. I would have liked to look at a lot of things again, but it wasn't worth the drive back down. I had the worst commute ever Friday, the just normally just over and hour drive took over two-and-a-half. At a couple points I was sitting still on the freeway in the rain in the dark.


Side note, I got a glass head from Pier One for blocking and photographing hats last month. I love it.


I also received lovely fiber-y gifts for my birthday. A Will Taylor Lazy Kate. A lovely nostepinne.


Yarn and (not pictured) three kinds of wool to spin from my kin.


Time to catch up on knitting. I got my Bohus Nye Azalea hat done!! Here's a close-up.


The photo way up top was taken by Tracey who apparently is a reader of this blog. I also got her to take pictures of my Waving Lace socks, knit in Wollmeise.


I finished another pair of Wollmeise socks, pattern Shur'tugal late last year. I've got a third WM pair almost done.

The very popular One-Sock-A-Month group is doing argyles next. I'm all set to go.

The preschool held it's annual auction and I donated a few handmade things, including the handspun knit hat and mitts up there with the glass head.

I received some Coopworth wool. I've been wanting to try dyeing multicolors and free fiber and a sick day home with the kid seemed like the perfect opportunity for playing. I had him in a mask and safety glasses as we carefully put Jacquard Acid dyes in the hot water/vinegar/wool bath.


I was amazed that the colors actually soaked right in instead of migrating throughout the water. In the past I've been working for the opposite, dye throughout the water to get even color. We got the distinct colors, and then played a bit with blending.

I spun it up for the auction.


Late last year the kid wanted to make his teacher "Iguana yarn" it had to be green and shiny. Okay. So he picked out green dye and Angelina fibers. I dyed the wool, spun it up S and plied it Z because she's a crocheter. I had heard that yarn specifically for crochet is spun like that.


I know a bunch of ladies having babies, so I've been busy knitting little things that I can't post about.

Craftacular

I have been doing all kinds of crafty things the past couple months. I did my first yarn bombing, which you can read about on my knitting group's web site.

Next was a stop at Lambtown in Dixon on the way to Sacramento for the Princess Promenade. I only stayed for an hour, kind of checking things out for next year. I was missing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass here in S.F., so I was thrilled to see a band, "Matt and George and their Pleasant Valley Boys", perform. I grabbed a Miller Lite and sat a spell.

There were a ton of great vendors, both familiar and new. I would like to take a class next year.

I did not visit the alpacas.


Or participate in any eating contests.


I made some gnomes. One for a Ravelry gnome swap and the other for my knitting group's stash exchange extravaganza. We made non-knitted gifts for each other, but more about that on a later, knitting post. The delightful pattern is from Wee Wonderfuls. It is easy to do, but a little fiddly since you have to keep changing thread to match each piece.


I made mushroom drawstring gift bags and they have both gone to new homes. The boy was named Olaf.


Meanwhile we were working away on a Halloween costume for K. He wanted to be an exact replica of his robot, Lilliput. We starting saving parts in September and waited and waited for the right size cardboard box to show up. Some yellow gaffer's tape and a Sharpie's worth of ink later it was almost ready. K decided it needed red glitter glue, so it was.

He was thrilled with the costume.


Click on this to see the boy holding the toy. Please note I even replicated the typefaces.



I finally did some needlefelting. I made the sheep at the top of the post, Miss Merlot, out of Babydoll fleece and mohair.

And there has been knitting. That requires another post.

23 Mosquito Bites...

...and one new hat.

That's what I got during our trip in Mendocino County. The main draw for me is the California Wool & Fiber Festival, but also Navarro Winery, the County Fair, and camping, too.

The hat says "Country Music Kicks Butt". The beautiful wool is from Colors of Nature in Davis.

We brought home an awful lot of dirt. I got 23 mosquito bites, the others got none, go figure. Our handknit sweaters came in handy since I forgot to bring pillows. Many s'mores were eaten. It rained this morning but we were prepared to haul out first thing anyway.

It was a great trip, we had a lot of fun. The weather was cool, but the rain held off until today. The partiers must have been scared off by the rain, we got good sleep this time. My son got a sparkly rose painted on his face:



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In other fiber news, I finished my Rainbow Swedish Fish Socks a week or so ago.

They were the July-Aug KAL of the San Francisco One-Sock-A-Month group. Here is a group shot. Yes, on mine each row of fish was a different yarn so I had over 30 ends per sock to weave.




The current KAL is Shur'tugal which translates to Dragonslayer. I'm doing them in Wollmeise WD Granatapfal, a fire-y color.

On October 1st I'm starting another Ravelry Knit and Read-A-Long, Frankensocks. The group is reading Frankenstein and making socks from our leftovers. Here are mine:


Last Sunday was a crazy day. I got on the road at 6:15 for a 30 mile training ride. Then I rushed to sock group. Finally I caught the streetcar out to our Daughters of Norway meeting. We got a needlefelting lesson. I really want to do more needlefelting. My sister gave me a coordinated kit, and I traded with someone for a box of colors. We made hedgehogs.


Have I mentioned that I'm very occasionally working at Urban Fauna Studio? I have keys to a fiber store, watch out!

Dyeing for Halloween

Here's some spinning content. First, there's a contest at Martha Vineyard Fiber Farm. Go over, commiserate about moving, and enter the drawing for a total of two pounds of their fiber.

I've been getting ready to sell stuff at a craft table at the preschool's Harvest Festival on the 24th. I'm planning on felted bags, yarn, and maybe a few knitted things. I've been dyeing.


I dyed and spun this:


And I guess this is my first art yarn:


I didn't dye this, just spun it:


I also made some costumes for the school to sell. Two pink poodle skirts (easy):


And two Dorothy dresses which were very intricate.

California Wool & Fiber Festival

I started this post on September 24th. I didn't have a camera to take photos of my class objects so the post languished. Then I caught the second bug since preschool started, and then I caught the flu. I am finally feeling like I'm getting better, and I used Photo Booth for my felted items, so here it is:

We spent last weekend in Boonville at the 3-in-1 California Wool and Fiber Festival, Mendocino County Fair, and Apple Festival. Like last year we camped at Hendy Woods.

The highlight for K. was the rides:


(Note this is the exact ride as last year)

He also enjoyed S'mores.

I got to take two classes, I was thrilled. On the un-godly hot day I learned some fancy spinning techniques. On the second day I tried needle-felting for the first time. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to embellish some knitted items.


That's an apple, an art piece, and a leaf. It was a fun trip. I didn't spend too much at the show since I had paid for classes.

Camping was okay except for some awful partiers. Ironically one woman/girl was screaming "sorry, sorry, sorry" at three in the morning. The next night people almost walked into our tent looking for the bathroom because they saw the light on. In the morning the ladies room was covered with vomit. Better there than our tent, I guess.

We had campfires both nights. I actually got to knit by the fire for a couple minutes. But my favorite time camping is drinking perked coffee from the bit blue pot in the cool morning. My least favorite part was having a three-year-old crawl into my sleeping bag in the middle of the night. There is not enough room!

I had to wash K's clothes twice because they had so much dirt ground into them.