Vtknitboy

Oy!

2012-02-05T09:36:00.001-05:00

I best be blogging! Life finds me on twitter--developing relationships with so many fabulous people. Sales of yarn have been wonderful, thank you to my followers. Yarn listings don't even make it to my etsy site, but I will be listing about 14 handspun, handknit hats in the next day or so. Then I will be working on getting another batch of handspun ready for sale.

Until then keep warm this mild winter!

To Blog.....or not to blog? Or, Adventures in Spindling

2011-08-16T12:57:00.000-04:00

Takli

"You never blog!" "When is your next blog update?" Just two of the comments I've heard regarding my zzzzzzzzz blog. Sigh. It's hard to keep up with so many social networking platforms. What are the best formats to share my passions with people? I've been hiding mostly on Twitter--I follow so many wonderful people--knitters, spinners, fiber dyers, tea lovers, and people with many other similar interests. It's quick. And very easy. Little snippets of what I'm doing. But it's hard to get a lot of details out in 140 characters! I know, there are functions such as Twitlonger, but you get what I mean. Facebook is my second option. But it's more time consuming, and harder to quickly upload pics of what I'm doing. The blog. Updating the blog takes the most time, and it's kinda static. Just a snapshot of what I was doing at a moment in my life.

So, what should I do?

Russian style support spindle

I am leaning toward using the blog for projects. How I approach a project from start to finish. My thoughts, ideas, considerations entailed in how I do "my thing". More of a quasi quarterly newsletter. For example, I'm currently knitting an afghan, the Tree of Life designed by Nicky Epstein blogged about by Tina--AKA arizonaknitter on twitter. (The afghan I'm doing is the third picture down in the linked page.) I started with alpaca fiber generously gifted by AlpacaFarmGirl on twitter. I spun the fiber, then dyed the skeins in pale chestnut and pale green, with a couple transition skeins of chestnut/green. Pics of the process can be found on my Facebook page, Chrisinvermont, picture album Tree of Life afghan. Anywho, it's in-progress, and representative of the types of things that I will blog about in detail; including pics, resources, tips, etc.

Drop Spindling

Tibetan style support spindle

This has been a summer for trying out new fiber skills. For many years I've resisted the urge to spin on a drop spindle. It's too slow, it's hard on the arms, why would anyone bother?

Then it hit me. I decided it would enhance my general fiber skills and round out my repertoire. It's portable. I can carry a small spindle with me just about anywhere. Little bits spindled here and there add up. I'm not always into knitting everywhere I go, and it's fun to have a variety of things to do. Although I'm not certain I can bring a Takli on a plane...

I've been watching dozens of videos of people spindling. In Peru, Ecuador, Chile. I find it so fascinating. (One of my favorites, the one with the Navajo spinner/weaver Clara Sherman, bring tears to my eyes! So much knowledge, passion, experience in her hands!) Watching these videos ignited my interest in finally really applying myself to learning to spindle.

Akha spindle

So, do I buy just one spindle? NO! I now have a collection.

*A Takli--a short, thin spindle with a brass whorl on the bottom (picture at top is of my cotton spinning on Takli). The Takli originated in India, and is primarily used for spinning cotton. Here's a video on Takli spinning--> Takli Spinning Video link.

*A Russian-style support spindle (second picture). I purchased mine on Etsy from SpinDizzyChick. Love it.

*A Tibetan style support spindle (third picture) purchased from NealBrand on Etsy

*An Akha spindle for drop spinning cotton (fourth picture). I realized after watching the Akha woman spinning for like a dozen times, I was doing it different from how she was doing it. I should wind the yarn on the top portion, so I will be able to use the bottom for the twist motion.

Oh, and a Turkish spindle from ThreadsThruTime, also on Etsy. Lol. So many options!

I mastered all of these in about a week. Each one is different in ease, function, and use. More about these in the future!

If you want to keep up-to-date on what I'm doing, follow me on Twitter, or friend me on Facebook! I am carding, spinning and dyeing fiber blended with bunny fiber from my zoo! I will be listing some skeins & hats for sale soon!

And we went to York, Maine...
Ciao

On to Winter...

2010-11-27T14:32:00.000-05:00

Oh my. I've been so bad at updating this blog! My apologies. It's kind of hard keeping up-to-date with my Facebook page, Twitter (vtknitboy), emails, my etsy site, and the blog! Twitter has been fabulous--I've made dozens of contacts and friends. Many have purchased my handspun yarn, so my focus has been to keep posting new yarns, pics, etc., there. Sales on Etsy have been slow, but I've sold many more skeins just listing on my Facebook page!

Little Annabelle-nippy-diva, my REW (red eyed white) German Angora, grows about an inch a day! Here's her updated pic. Check out my last post for the July pic.

Sorry this is short, but I just wanted to update the blog. I hope to become a bit more consistent on doing more posts. I've been asked by friends on twitter to post recipes, so that may become a standard.

Hope you all had a safe and joyous Thanksgiving!

Ciao,
Chris
Vtknitboy

Hoppy 4th!

2010-07-03T08:47:00.002-04:00

I couldn't resist! Ya'll have met Torto & Nuit, now meet Chessie. My new, chestnut French Angora! He's just 4 months old, and he's a sweetie.

There's been a bit of drama, with Torto (another buck) stamping his feet in his cage, and marking my hand all up with his scent glands under his chin! Both "old" rabbits are very excited to smell another bunny in the garage. I got Chessie on Sunday 6/27, and they were a bit agitated. Running back and forth in their cages, climbing up on the inside wall to smell better, and making all sorts of noises! Luckily, things have calmed down quite a bit. I now feed or visit (pet) Torto FIRST, and take care of all of his needs, then Nuit, THEN I visit with Chessie. That way Torto doesn't smell him on my hand. It seems to be working.

I am getting one more rabbit, in about 8 weeks. A white German angora. Hopefully a doe, for breeding later. Here's a pic of a young one.

Off to blend some more batts of fiber for spinning into yarn. I will update later with pics. You can see other pics at my twitpics account at Twitpics. It's a little slow, but you an scroll down for other pics.

On to May...

2010-05-06T16:51:00.011-04:00

Right. Time to update the old blog. It's been languishing the past, oh, 4 months. Now that I am officially selling handspun yarn, handknit items, and soon--carded batts of fiber, I think it's time to dust off the blog.

About three months ago I purchased two adorable French Angora bunnies. A silver-gray doe (Nuit Noire), and a light cream-color buck, Primo Torto. Over the past months I've noticed that they have developed personalities. Nuit (I call her New-ee) is a bit timid, but will alw ays come right up to the door to say hi to me. Torto is very gregarious. He hops right up to the door before I even unlatch it, and insists that I rub his nose/head before anything else occurs. They are about 3/4 through their first fiber shedding, and I've been combing it versus shearing it. As a handspinner, I find sheared bunny fiber tends to have coarse ends where cut. Combing or brushing ensures a better spinning fiber.

French Angora bunnies are smaller than the English/Giant breeds, and therefore have less yearly fiber yield. However, I think I'm going to get at least one, as the fiber yield can be anywhere from 1-3 lbs per year--which is 2-3x more than FA yield.

I finally got new yarns and some knitted hats on my etsy site. Even made 2 sales in the past week! I'm very excited, as I hope this leads to Vtknitboy on Etsy becoming a larger part of my life.

Will try to post more often, as I will be listing yarn, knitwear, and batts (to spin) later!

Cheers!

Vtknitboy is still alive!

2010-01-12T13:14:00.007-05:00

I hope the New Year finds you in good health, and bringing you lots of joy!

I wanted to do a quick blog update. I've been so busy: spinning, knitting, establishing wonderful connections with people: knitters, spinners, eco-friendly people, and many more diverse, talented people....on twitter. Yes. On twitter. It's a super way to meet like-minded people--or those of differing viewpoints; which can lead to learning & growth.

Some big news, for me at least...

I will be starting an angora rabbitry in February! Finally, vtknitboy will have a source for wonderful, soft, warm angora fiber! I will be starting with two French angora babies! I'm pretty excited. They will provide lots of lovely angora bunny fiber--and lots of pics for my blog.

I'm starting with two...or three. Hopefully the middle one in the pic on the right. And perhaps the fawn colored one below it, and maybe the black one above it! Aren't they the cutest things?!

I will use the fiber for spinning for sale as yarn or knit up as garments. This will be available on my etsy site vtknitboy.etsy.com

You can see some of the items at the left of this post.

So, in the meantime, have a great winter--I will be updating this more frequently!

I'm vtknitboy on twitter. Please follow me if you are on twitter. I will be updating spinning, knitting and other things on there.

Cheers!
Vtknitboy
Chris

Alpaca Bunny Smackdown...the results!

2009-08-06T13:09:00.025-04:00

First, I'm on Etsy! (My handspun yarn is finally available for you to purchase!) Etsy is a wonderful site where people can buy or sell items that have some aspect of handmade to the products. I'm mostly interested in spinning fiber (to buy and to sell), and I have a lot of items to list. Right now I have four items listed, with about 100+ to go! Please visit me at Vtknitboy on Etsy! -->click here.

Smackdown '09
I'm not sure how to start this post. I woke up one morning to see a bunch of tweets on my tweetdeck (a free program that makes following lots of people on Twitter easier) mentioning me, @vtknitboy! It seems that two of my tweeps (twitter friends, ala "peeps" = online friends) were kind of having a little online back and forth about which fiber was softer: alpaca or angora bunny (can be confusing--prior name for mohair goat was angora goat).

I'm like, ut oh! They wanted me to be an objective judge and help them decide which one was softer. Yikes! The pressure! The conflict! The tension mounted.

The participants and their owners:
Kathryn in Colorado (@alpacamundo on twitter) raises alpacas. Lynn in Ohio (@sheepmama on twitter) raises angora bunnies. They decided to send each other, and me, 1/4 oz of fiber from one of their animals. The task was to spin it (and perhaps knit a swatch with it) and come to a conclusion as to which was softer. I noted that Kathryn's blog had a post about the smackdown where she used the term "better". To me, this was beyond what the purpose of the smackdown was, because the term could include everything from fiber strength, usage, wearability, etc. In my mind, I am just judging these two fibers based on softness. And, before I hear rumblings from the "losing" side, the results here are just for these fiber samples--they are not blanket statements about the entire breed of angora bunnies or alpacas!

Lynn (bunny sample) sent a lovely 1/4 oz of Nougat, a gorgeous chocolate agouti. Dark brown tips fade to caramel with a steel stripe and silver roots. Nougat is a Satin angora. Lynn's blog is here -->blog.

Kathryn sent a sample of Kocoa Moon. Kocoa is a lovely medium brown alpaca. Info and pics are on this blog: click here. Kathryn's blog is here.

Another involved party is @alpacafarmgirl, also known as Katy. Katy raises alpacas in Alabama and I have been lucky to receive some of the finest fleece from her 'pacas. Very nice. She has been involved in this smackdown by organizing little yarn/fiber giveaways all week! You can read about her and enter the contest for a free skein of alpaca yarn here.

So, we have lovely fiber, lovely people. Based on this test, and softness alone, the winner is...

Before I get to that, here are some pics of the fiber, spinning, skeined and a knit swatch.

Alpaca pre-washing. Washed, air dried & lightly carded. Spinning sample.

Bunny precarding (no washing). Lightly carded on handcarder. Spinning sample.

Alpaca spun sample (top), Bunny sample (bottom). Same. One strand of each.

Knit sample 'paca on bottom, bunny top. Close-up of 'paca. Close-up of 'paca w/ bunny halo.

Close-up of bunny. Closer close-up. Sample wraps per inch, showing bunny halo.

Comments:

Technically, from a micron count perspective, angora bunny wool is softer than alpaca.The alpaca sampled was Huacaya, which runs from 14-27 microns; with Royal alpaca 14-20.9, and Strong being 27.7. Angora bunnies rate a 13. I pulled this info from the Internet, so if you, the reader, has more updated information, please pass it on to me. Now, had the sample been Suri alpaca, things might be different. They rate 10-15.

Micron Count:
Vicuna 6-10, Suri alpaca 10-15, qiviut 11-13, angora bunny 13, Huacaya royal 14-20.9, cashmere 15-19, yak down 15-19, Quanaco 16-18, merino sheep 17-23 (but i saw one reference of 12-20), Baby Huacaya 21-22.9, Strong Huacaya 27.

So, as you see, micron count varies quite a bit in alpaca breeds, but I am under the impression that bunnies are pretty consistent. I am not sure which section of Huacaya this sample was from.

As an aside, I'm not an expert on either of these breeds, so please let me know if any of this information is inaccurate or needs updating.

Notes:
Bunny wool needs LOTS of twist to it! It's so dang slippery, even a slightly over-plied sample can slide right out of the twist! I highly recommend really overplying the singles, then ply with about 20% more twist than you think you need. Really. I plied this sample maybe 10% overplied and it ended up relaxing to about 20-30% less twist in the ply. I ended up adding more twist to the sample later on.

More twist and the spinning technique will affect how much the angora yarn will halo. My sample has a good 1/2" halo already! Now, I did spin both sample supported longdraw, which means that it's lighter and airier than shortdraw spun, which would be tighter and more fiber ends would be caught up in the twist. I prefer longdraw because I feel for the most part that the yarn is bouncier, lighter and has more character--but that's just one perspective.

Angora yarn ended up at 22-24 WPI (wraps per inch=see the photo of the bunny yarn wrapped around the yarn needle.), the alpaca 22 WPI. The beauty of both of these fibers is that they can be spun even thinner than this without losing softness.

Alpaca is much stronger than angora. Possibly 3-4 times more. So from a usage perspective, blending some angora with alpaca would be lovely, and I'd add in 20% merino or other soft wool to give the resulting yarn more elasticity and stretch.

One aspect of this particular alpaca sample was it had a lot of VM (vegetation matter) in it; ie., lots of pieces of hay, etc. I don't have a drum carder, so it took a lot of effort to remove as much of the VM as I could. This affected the softness factor somewhat.

I did learn through the 'paca grapevine, that breeders are now focusing on getting more elasticity in the fiber through breeding. Sometimes garments made from 100% alpaca yarn can "grow" on you. However, this can be reduced by utilizing stitch patterns that break up the vertical lines. For example, a basketweave stitch, or a ribbed stitch would pull the garment back to the original shape better.

So, the result...

Angora "wins" by a hare! However, both fibers could be worn against the skin if needed. One plus is both fibers are incredibly warm, anywhere from 2-6 times warmer than wool. (But seriously, once you get past twice as warm, I couldn't tell the difference.) Both fibers are absolutely divine! A little angora goes a long way. One would need only 10% to feel the softness of the angora, and would easily contribute more warmth. I would love a garment made from 60% alpaca, 20% angora, and 20% merino. That would be ideal for socks. For me, a sweater would only need 20% angora, 80% soft wool to make it incredibly warmer than a wool sweater, and with either fiber, a lightweight sweater made out of sockweight yarn would be far warmer than a heavy wool sweater.

As far as the sample/smackdown, these are just my observations, feelings, and reaction.

I would like to thank Lynn (@sheepmama) and Kathryn (@alpacamundo) for thinking this up, and Katy (@alpacafarmgirl) for promoting it on her blog, and organizing the giveaway contests!

Cheers to all! And a special thanks to Kocoa Moon and Nougat! You guys (gals) rock!

Vtknitboy (Chris)

Summer of...spring and deconstruction

2009-07-21T10:02:00.008-04:00

It's been just ages since my last blog post! I blame it on Twitter. Really. Once the lampooned fad of the month, Twitter is extremely popular and can be quite useful for developing contacts and connections for inspiring entrepreneurs and small business people. (Hint: I will be opening my Esty shop selling handspun yarn very soon!) And, I am vtknitboy on twitter.

Where is summer?
I'll keep this short. It's been a very cool and rainy summer so far. Only a paltry few days higher than 80 degrees. 'Nuf said.

July finds our household, well, literally, the house itself, under deconstruction! After years of complaining about the cold seeping through the thin 2x6" walls, and cool breezes streaming through the now gas-depleted double-pane windows (in winter, no less), we are having some work done on the house. The house was built in 1973 and all its parts are original.

We are having the roof replaced, all the windows replaced with energy-efficient double-hung windows, insulation and new siding, and insulation placed in the garage. We are also having the screened-in porch converted into a year-around sun/tv room. The room will have windows taking up the majority of the wall space on the north and east sides. And, the old walkway (ick) and decks have been removed, and will be replaced with a smaller deck on the east side, and there are dreams of a stone patio and sitting area on the south side, in the faraway future...

Etsy!
Yes, I am finally doing something about getting my handspun on my etsy site. I have weighed, measured, and reskeined several skeins of handspun. I just have to take pics, and get the info on the site! I have dozens of skeins to list on the site. Just trying to get in gear, while completing tasks needed for the house remodel. My site will be vtknitboy.etsy.com I will do another blog post when it's active!

Not much for pics this post. I'll see if the pics I took on my Blackberry work out on Blogger.

Hope you are all having a nice summer! Enjoy the pics of the raspberry color astilbe and the beebalm.

Chris

First: A Bit on Twitter....then, about spinning!

2009-05-01T09:42:00.018-04:00

J kind of laughs when I go on about Twitter, and tweets from so and so. But, with my updates protected, I am able to accept or decline those who wish to follow me. There are some silly people out there, whose goal, it seems, is to get as many followers as they can get! Some people have hundreds, thousands. Even hundreds of thousands! Then you have celebs with a million plus. Lol. I'm pretty happy with my <200.

On to the crafty stuff!

I haven't been to sleep yet--from last night! I was knitting a clapotis (a French scarf)--click the word clapotis for a link to the first site I found when I googled clapotis. Hmmm. Kind of interesting that this link came up. Kimberly, the author of the blog Knit Whimsies, seems to have disappeared. Last entry was May 2008. This could be a mystery...

I went to bed at 2:30am and couldn't fall asleep, so I just got up and started sorting through all of the fiber (roving and batts to be spun into yarn), and yarn stashed in the closet in the den. I seriously have a lot of yarn and fiber. My goal is to put a lot of the handspun up for sale on my etsy site: vtknitboy at etsy.com. Now, don't go searchin' for stuff now! Nothing's up yet. I'll post to this blog after I get it set up.

I've been playing around with various fibers: mostly alpaca from Maple at Northstaralpacas.com in Michigan. She has fabulous fiber available--check out the stuff she has for sale at her etsy site. You can link to her etsy site right from her blog. Other fibers I've been into lately are soy silk, bamboo, and tencel. I'm really concerned about the use of oil for man-made fibers when there are so many natural plant and a nimal options in the world.

I'm interested in how these fibers can be sustainable and eco-friendly. I'm pretty sure the yarn made from corn is not a good example of this, as it takes lots of energy to convert it into yarn, and also removes it from the food supply. Soy silk is made from the soy by-product/remains of making tofu. There is also milk yarn! I'm not quite sure how it's made--if anyone has info on the yarn making process for these, please leave a comment or e-mail me!

Here are some of the yarn combos I did last week.

Top pics: attenuated bamboo roving (left); spinning the bamboo (right).

Pics directly at right: checking the twist on the single (left pic); bamboo spun onto the bobbin (right).

The bamboo is very shiny, almost like silk. But way cheaper and eco-friendly! It is very nice to spin. The fiber is attenuated by splitting it up lengthwise, then pulling it out about every 4-5 inches (the length of the fiber). This helps start the drafting process by sliding the fibers along each other. This also helps if the fiber is slightly matted, stuck, sticky, or just compacted a bit. ETA: here's a link to bamboo info: bamboo.

The next set of pics is the baby camel. This is very soft! Almost as soft as cashmere, but about 1/3 the price.

In the pics at right, spinning, on the bobbin, and checking the twist. Because the fiber is so short, it requires a lot more twist to keep it together.

In the next group of pics, the one at the left is the Lazy Kate. The three bobbins, left to right are camel, merino, bamboo. The middle pic is plying, an d the pic at the right is checking the twist on the two ply yarn.

The final pic is the skeins of yarn, drying on the clothes rack, after being soaked in hot soapy water (I use an eco-friendly dish soap), then soaked in clear water, then drained and rolled in a clean towel. I give it a good whack, then put it on top of the rack.

New Twitter Friend!

I have become friends with a woman in Alabama, Katy, who goes by Alpacafarmgirl on Twitter. She sent me a sample of fiber from two of her alpacas. She asked me to post about it NEXT week, as she is willing to send out samples of fiber to those interested. In the meantime, I just want to say that it's superbly fah.buh.luss! Her blog is here. She's having a

Fiber Arts Friday & Giveaway!

More on knitting in a couple of days!

-Vtknitboy (Chris)

A Visit to DC. Finally an update...

2009-04-28T16:16:00.008-04:00

Just a quick update here, as I will be posting a new entry tomorrow or Thursday with fiber stuff!

April 8-13 J and I were in Washington, DC! The last time either of us visited DC was sometime in the 1980s. We were planning on making our trip this summer, but the University of Vermont (UVM) hockey team made it to the college hockey Frozen Four, and our plans were made a bit earlier than we originally wanted.

It's always fun going south (of Vermont) anytime between March and May. All the plants and flowers and trees are several weeks ahead of us. The farther south you venture, the further ahead the plants. We were hoping to see the cherry blossoms, and we literally got there on the last 2 days of the blossoms, due to a heavy rainstorm on Friday and Saturday.

(click on pics above and at right. The flowers were gorgeous! There was heavy rain on Friday and Saturday, and most of the cherry blossoms fell off--but J managed to get some pics early Thursday.)

Unfortunately, UVM lost a heartbreaker 5-4, after leading with about 8 minutes left in the game. But, the rest of the trip was pretty good!

One benefit to being on Facebook and Twitter (I'm vtknitboy on Twitter) is being able to meet some of the people I've only known online. Another thing is being reconnected with people from college and other ventures in the past. I've been friended on FB by Donna S., a woman I knew at UVM in the early 1980s. She now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and we met up one morning for breakfast, along with Elizabeth, a friend and knitter I know from FB.

We also were fortunate to meet Brian G. (@Urbanbohemian on Twitter) in person! I met him for dinner Wednesday, and he met up with us for trekking around DC on Friday and Sunday. It was really nice to have a local take us around! This made the trip. Props out to Brian for the time and efforts he put in with us, and put up with me! (pic of Brian and J at right.)

The monuments.
I have wanted to see the Vietnam War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and The Mall for years. I was really surprised at how beautiful they are up close.

And yes, I did get quite teary-eyed reading the Gettysburg Address in the Lincoln Memorial, and also while slowly walking along the Vietnam Memorial. What really choked me up was that we were there on Easter Sunday, and someone left an Easter Basket and a small basket of flowers. (pic at right.) Very heart wrenching!

The World War II War Memorial was breathtaking! Large, spacious, very well done. The Washington Monument is, well, very tall. It was difficult to get a closeup picture as it wouldn't fit in my viewfinder. It was a very windy day. The flags encircling the monument were being whipped out to the right from our perspective.

I'm not always proud of things our government do, but I felt a bit patriotic trotting around being a tourist. We ate at some fabulous restaurants, including a Burmese one in Chinatown. The Chinatown in DC is really small. Kind of disappointing when compared even to Victoria, BC or Seattle's.

The picture of the statue of the Native American with the bow and arrow was inside the new (and fabulously beautiful AND expensive) Visitors' Center!

We visited the Textile Museum, but we weren't able to take any pictures.

Cheers!

Meet Lyra!...a two month project

2009-03-31T16:23:00.009-04:00

My knitting friend from Houston, Kenny, called me up one day and said, "Let's knit Lyra!" And that's how this started.

I had no idea what Lyra was (I believe it is pronounced "Lie-rah"), so after we talked about knitting this pattern, I tried to find out about Lyra, and the designer, Herbert Niebling. I have been unable to find much about him, but from what I gather, he was German, and designed doilies and tablecloths and the like sometime during the 1920s and 1930s. I am not quite sure of the time period, so if anyone has more information, please let me know.

Click on pics for larger view.

First pic is Lyra right after blocking. Top right pic is on the dining room table. Other pics are closeups of the corner and mid points.

With the advent of the knitters online group Ravelry.com, patterns, ideas, and feedback and information about yarn, along with social and political fun, have flourished worldwide, and is shared at the fastest pace ever!

So, I got the pattern, and during January and February spent about 200 hours knitting this lace. While the original patterns are mostly done with size 00, 0 and 1 US size needles (quite small in diameter) and knit with thin cotton thread, I decided to knit Lyra with Grignascu merino/silk (75/25 blend in a pewter gray color) that Kenny bought for me on his visit to Vermont last October (thanks Kenny!). I used size 5 US needles.

The knit piece has been washed and blocked--two hours of stretching it out and pinning it with lots of pins over a blanket topped with a sheet on the living room floor. It was not the most fun I've had in old age, and my butt and calves were very sore for 3 days afterward from squatting and sitting on my heels!

This Lyra is 60x60 inches.

Enjoy! Also, click HERE for pics of Niebling's design mastery!

Tonight's Dinner....gilded potato/leek soup!

2009-03-23T00:56:00.006-04:00

My friend Derek in "the LV" suggested that I send him some of the recipes for the dishes I whip up, so he can post on one of the many work/play sites he is always talking about. I don't measure anything but will try to re-create what I made tonight!

1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, ends trimmed, sliced 1/4" thick
2 leeks, just the white part, root end cut off, then sliced 1/4" thick
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
3 medium thin-skinned red or gold/yellow potatoes, diced
1/2 sweet red pepper, diced
1 large boxed container veggie or chicken broth
small handful fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dry
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

To save time, start sweet potatoes 10 minutes before other items. Put sweet potatoes in a small pan, cover with water and bring to boil. Parboil 3 minutes. Turn off heat. Do not drain! Heat up broth separately.

Put the sliced leeks in a bowl, fill with water, swish around with your hands to ensure any dirt between pieces is washed away. Lift out of water with a large slotted spoon or wire basket. Set aside.

Using a heavy bottomed soup pan (Dutch oven, etc.) turn heat to medium high. Add olive oil, wait a couple of minutes for oil to heat. Add diced onions and celery. Saute 3 mins. Add leeks, saute 2 minutes. Add parboiled sweet potatoes along with water from pan, the potatoes and sweet red pepper. Add basil, thyme, salt and pepper. Add heated broth and enough hot water to cover all vegetables.

Bring to boil, then reduce heat to a low boil/heavy simmer for 15 minutes.

Turn heat off, and using a potato masher, carefully mash soup to desired consistency. Soup will be very hot so be very careful! Return to heat, taste, and adjust seasonings. Add 2-4 tablespoons of butter, Smart Balance (vegetarian), or Earth Balance (vegan). Stir, let sit 5 minutes.

Serve with warm crusty bread topped with fresh mozzarella cheese, ripe tomatoes and basil leaves, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Enjoy!

This Side of March...sun and socks...and hats!

2009-03-15T15:57:00.014-04:00

It's been three days of bright sun here in northwest Vermont. Good for ya'll--not so good for me. Just about all of you know that I struggle on a daily basis with migraines. While I have not had a full-blown-send-me-to-the-hospital-migraine in over two years, I've had lots of ones that I've managed to halt with my meds. However, every day is a chore for me. There are so many triggers for me: sun (the brightness, reflecting off of snow, metal, etc.), sugar, chocolate, aged cheeses (although soft and goat cheeses seem to not affect me as much), low pressure systems, and a horde of other food and environmental factors (noise, chaos, etc.).

A couple of things have helped me reduce the bad migraines and daily lesser headaches. Chiropractic work, which I get done every 4-6 weeks, and headache free vitamins; a combination of daily vitamins and herbal supplements that I was taking anyway.

I get chiro done at Busby Chiropractic, in Essex, Vermont. As it turns out, Dr. Busby and his wife, who is a staff member there, are our neighbors! They live further up our street, but we tend to call people who live on our street our neighbors. They are at 159 River Rd, Essex Junction, and can be reached at 802.879.1144 if you are interested in this.

The vitamins can be purchased at Headachefreevitamins.com. Really! They seem to be a combination of what I was taking, but only two pills a day, versus 10-15 pills I was taking, trying to get the calcium, magnesium, feverfew, B vitamins, and all of the other trace minerals and other things my body needs. Who knows how this works in total, but my body was definitely missing something. My daily tension headaches have been drastically reduced--to about 10%. That is the greatest impact anything has had on me. That, and the chiropractic work.

So, where does this leave me? Unfortunately, I am unable to work a scheduled job. I am no longer at Sweet Clover Market (the owner, Heather, picked up the first two bottles of the headachefreevitamins for me at a food show!). I do pick up a shift now and then to help them out.

I am now going to focus on my handspun yarn, and foray into the handknit world--mostly baby socks, hats, and other fun items! I've been working on some swatches (test knit squares) of handspun that I am sending to my friend Derek, in "the LV"--what the rest of us call Las Vegas. My niche (other than handspun/handknit) will be U.S. raised and processed (into roving) alpaca, eco-friendly and local fibers as much as possible.

I've been playing around with merino/tencel blends and merino/bamboo blends. I also found some U.S. grown gunmetal black bamboo, which I think will be lots of fun to use in creating items. Bamboo is renewable and eco-friendly, I just need to learn more about energy used to process this, along with how fibers are made from tencel and soy.

The alpaca I've used so far has been from Maple, at N orthstar Alpacas in Michigan. Maple is a truly wonderful person, and I've grown quite fond of her in the past year, especially since the loss of her husband. It's been fun reading her blog about the trials and joys she's had learning to run the farm on her own. Please visit her blog, and her Etsy shop for some of her handknit alpaca goods! You may have to become an Etsy member, but it's free...I will be selling items at my shop (vtknitboy) after I set it up!

Sock picture: (l to r) The purple is corriedale wool and is plied with merino/bamboo fiber. The top edging is 100% alpaca from Maple.

The middle sock is alpaca plied with merino/tencel. It is softer than the first sock, but very strong.

The other purple sock is corriedale wool plied with merino/tencel. The two purple socks have a row of eyelets (holes) near the top where I am going to thread a silk ribbon through so parents can adjust the tension of the sock (ie., keep it from falling off).

In the picture of the hats, the top right one is corriedale wool plied with alpaca. The alpaca is not as soft as the alpaca in the socks, but is still pretty nice to the hand!

The bottom left hat is alpaca plied with merino/bamboo. It is lovely.

In the third picture, the skein on top of the socks and hats is 100% alpaca. Very, very soft!

The smaller three pictures are from my phone, and I don't think they will expand when y ou click them on. I will retake the pics with my digital camera and substitute them later.

Left to right: Spinning the lovely black alpaca from Maple! This stuff is a dream to spin. Very, very nice. Middle picture is a closeup of the mini ball I wound up. At right is a picture of a hat I made with three different natural colors of alpaca--all from Maple's farm!

Oh, and way up at the top is a picture of a scarf I made from alpaca/silk roving from Maple. It's sweet!

I have a couple more pictures of projects I need to transfer from my camera. In the meantime, have a fabulous week!

Cheers!
--Vtknitboy

A Peaceful Cold...belated happy new year's!

2009-02-09T18:01:00.012-05:00

I'm finally taking some time to sit down and get a blog post written! So sorry for the two month delay--I meant to, I meant to! Lol.

In December, J and I visited his family in Orlando, which was delightful, and we also took a couple of days off to visit some friends who recently moved from Chicago to Ft. Myers. It was a lovely, but short, trip. I managed to do okay with the migraines--kept them at bay by taking a pill 4 out of 5 days.

In Orlando, we stayed at Ben (J's nephew) and Emily's (Ben's wife) beautiful house! This is the second time we were lucky and blessed to be able to stay with them.

They are a lovely couple and we both enjoy spending time with them. Here they are opening up the socks I made for them. Their dog, Kaylee May (or Kayleigh?) is a Wheaton Terrier, and THE sweetest dog you will ever meet! That is the dog Barack should get for Sasha and Malia! ; )

I will do a longer post in the next couple of days, with more Holiday pics and pics of the coast.

As always, click on the pics to enlarge them!

Then, it was back to a nice cold and snowy Vermont! My, we've had so much snow this winter, and I am quite sure that it's been colder this winter than last. Many, many nights with sub-zero temperatures. Down to -15 to -25 F on several nights! Luckily, we have a nice soapstone woodstove that helped keep the cold from seeping in.

I've been working on handspun, handknit swatches of alpaca and alpaca blends with wool, and some merino wool with tencel. Pics later about that! In the meantime, I've been working on Herbert Niebling's 'Lyra' using Grignasco merino/silk lace, and finished a couple pairs of socks. Here's a link to a site with lots of beautiful finished Lyras!

Mr. Niebling designed amazing doilies for German knitters I think in the '20s and '30s. They are now being translated into English and Italian. He has quite a following among Ravelry'ers. They are very addictive to do! Here is a pic of my almost finished one. My version has not been stretched and blocked yet.

Socks: I made a pair in dark blue angora, and one in a lovely blood-red yarn Kenny gifted me. Pics follow. For you knitters out there, the red cabled socks have: Judy's magic cast-on, I used the Magic Loop Method, a ribbed sole, expansion stitch triangular gusset in seed stitch, short-row heel, reinforced heel flap, and split cable at the ankle. It (I have just one done right now) fits wonderfully!

Congrats to Kenny, my knitter friend from Houston! He designed a scarf pattern, and it was published in Interweave Knits! Visit his blog for the same pics in the magazine. Click here --> Boiknitblog.

So go out and buy a copy if you don't subscribe, and/or visit his blog and send your warm wishes!

More later, keep in touch! I'm on Twitter, as Vtknitboy, and Facebook as Chris French from Jericho, Vermont. Friend and Follow me! Mwah!

Chris

Knit Updates

2008-12-09T14:02:00.006-05:00

Happy Winter to All!

I hope mid-December finds you all healthy and happy! It was about -4 f. this morning, here in NW Vermont. But now it's in the 30's and blustery. The joy of living in New England!

Here's an update on my knitting adventures. Please click on the pics for a better and larger view...

I've been working on and completing some Holiday gifts. I can't say much about them, as the recipients may read this blog!

The first pair of socks are made with Esprit yarn by Elann.com. Cotton with some nylon for support. This pair (for a female) has a lace pattern on the top, and I used size 3 needles.

The second pair (for a male) is plain knitting on size 5 needles. Same yarn, different colorway. It's a fun yarn to knit with. Stretchy but soft.

Both pairs were done with Judy's Magic cast-on (super easy and better than the figure-8 cast-on), toe-up, short row heel.

Third pair of socks (for me!) in Noro sock yarn. This was the yarn my BFF Kenny from Houston bought me on his visit to Vermont this fall. The yarn comes in long stretches of color. It was fun starting the yarn on the second sock to match the first one! Luckily the yarn is designed so that, if one wants to, you can knit matching socks. You can also knit the second sock from the end of the skein (instead of continuing in order), and you'll get the same color but reversed order. I added red cotton yarn on the heels to give them some strength. I'm not sure how well these socks will wear. I wear my socks pretty hard. Most socks don't last me two years--at least in the heels.

Two nights ago I started knitting wrist warmers for me. I used Atacama 100% alpaca yarn by Araucania in Chile. It's hand-dyed and very nice. I picked up a bunch of this yarn from Littleknits.com in a super bag sale (for about $2.50 a skein), but I purchased this colorway at A Stitch in Time yarn shop in Jericho (where I am teaching learn to knit worskhops!). Note: you can pick up some really good deals at Littleknits! They have tons of stuff on sale. And, Atacama alpaca yarn is being sold for $3-4 a skein in lots of places. Just google it.

Anywho, back to the wrist warmers. There are dozens of free patterns online--I just did a simple 2x1 ribbing, and an added thumb gusset separated by a stitch I alternated in knit, then purl. Knitted the thumb plain (stockingknit) and topped with 5 rows of the ribbing. Very nice, warm and very soft! I love the colorway. Earthy tones.

I am also playing around with handspun and swatches. I did a diagonal Madeira lace with 8 stitches of stockingknit panel in between. Top to bottom handspun: purple corriedale with white merino/bamboo; alpaca with the mer/bamboo, and another alpaca with mer/bamboo. Kind of fun imagining this as a woman's top--possibly for cool fall nights over a white t-shirt. Semi-open separated by the knit panels. I am planning on designing some pieces. This would have some decreasing on the sides, for more form fitting, and possibly some lacey picot edging flaring out on the bottom portion. Tank-top type shoulder straps. Knit panels on the side (to compensate for the decreasing) and over the, you know, female parts for more support. Or not. But that's an x-rated version! Lol.

I have some gorgeous merino/bamboo from the U.S. in a steel gray-black. I think it's called gunmetal or something like that. I'm planning on spinning it sockweight and using this pattern for a similar top. It's machine washable, while the alpaca isn't.

So, there you go! I have some other projects going on: a silk scarf for my mom, about 3/4 of it done in ribbing. And, 3 pairs of socks for me in various stages of completion: Imagination in Wicked Witch colorway from Knitpicks.com (superwash merino, alpaca, nylon: perfect for socks!), some handspun alpaca, and some other stuff. Using the magic loop method--progressed from the 2 circs method to the ML.

Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, whatever you celebrate!

Cheers,
Vtknitboy

Handspun Shetland Sweater...for ME!

2008-11-11T11:08:00.010-05:00

It's finally done! And I can now update my blog. I've been getting nudges from people e-mailing me, asking me to update my blog. The last time I blogged was around my birthday in October, and I've been kind of busy since then.

I meant to blog a couple of weeks ago, but we got a new computer, and I've been getting it up and running and transferring files. Then, there was that little thing--you know--the election, that kind of got in the way! I'm really excited my guy got elected. I just hope the pile of crap the current prez left for him doesn't sidetrack the new administration too much.

And, I'm teaching a couple "learn to knit" workshops at A Sti tch in Time Yarn near the Jericho/Underhill townline on Route 15 and River Road. I'm really excited that the owner Kelly has given me this opportunity to teach workshops there. I just taught three women how to knit last week. It was super fab to see them "get it" and the glow on their faces when they were "stitching" as one put it!

So, what's finally done? My handspun Shetland sweater. My extremely talented friend Joanne of Pine Ledge Studio and I visited the Maple Ridge Sheep Farm in Randolph, Vermont, oh, about ten years ago. I believe this was one of the first, if not THE first, Shetland sheep farm in the United States. I picked out three fleeces: a black with a hint of white, a lovely creamy color, and a light grayish brown--either a Musket or Mioget. You can see the wide range of Shetland colors here: Shetland Color Range.

Joanne meticulously washed and carded the fleeces for me, and even divided the carded batts into over a dozen paper grocery bags, labeled "best black", "best grey", "mixed", etc. These bags have been sitting around in "the fiber room" for years, along with pounds of roving, and other forms of fiber, waiting for me to get around to spin them. It's only been recently that I have fallen into the "use up what I have mode"--everything from a back-stock of shampoo and soap, to spinning what I have, and knitting what I have already purchased--before buying more. It's been a combination of my not working very much lately and the economy souring that has put me in this use up mentality.

Months ago I posted pics of spinning this yarn, so I'll skip that for this post. Plus, all of the pics are on the old computer and I haven't transferred them to the new one.

The Knit Game
Okay, how many times can one re-knit sleeves on a sweater? Depends on how anal you are. I re-did the sleeves three times. Really. I used a basic top-down raglan sweater pattern, but made several changes to it. I wasn't happy with the looseness/baggyness of the sleeves, and kept ripping them back to the shoulder or to the elbow until I was happy with the size and the amount of decreasing.

I did a 3x1 ribbed pattern between the shoulder sections on the top. I wanted to give the sweater more strength on the top, just in case it sagged/grew a little while wearing.

Another change I made was adding a split welt to the bottom. I wanted this sweater the drape freely, and I also am not found of the bulkiness created by having ribbing on the bottom (it also makes one look, well, heavier). I haven't blocked this yet, so the bottom rolls up a bit. This should end up flat after washing and blocking.

The other big change was the collar. I made a stand-up, fold-over collar, by knitting about 2.5 inches of shetland, doing a K2, yo, row, then a knit row, then 2.5 inches of handspun cashmere I had hanging around. I then folded it over inward, and tacked it down.

I knit this in a 1x1 rib, which made it nice and stretchy. For the V-neck section of the collar, I just crocheted one row in black, evening out the edging, which made it nice and uniform to pick up stitches for the collar. I then knit a couple rounds in black, then 4 in the grey, then single crocheted 1 row of white cashmere. I followed this up to the standup collar, creating a nice and even white edging. It might flatten out with blocking, but I don't mind the outward curl. It makes it more relaxed looking.

It fits pretty well! The only thing I'd change would be to have about 1.5 inches less in the underarm. The pattern called for 4 more inches than what I had, and it was too baggy. The spinning is light and lofty, and will be a very warm sweater! I tried it on with just a t-shirt to take the pics, and it was not very itchy at all! The cool thing about it is each one of the different fleeces yielded a different hand (feel) to it! The white is the softest, the greyish is closer to the white in softness, and the black is the "roughest" but I use that term loosely.

I'm pretty psyched that I finally have a handspun sweater for ME! J has 2, plus a vest, so I thought it was my turn to get one!

Thanks for visiting my blog!
Chris

It's My Birthday!

2008-10-17T01:29:00.006-04:00

Today is my birthday! Wow. And I have a blog! First birthday with a blog. I won't bore you with details, but just wanted to do a quick birthday post about how grateful I am.

I took this picture on Sunday when J and I went on a leaf peeping expedition. There's so much symbolism in this pic!

The last verse/stanza (I'm not a Literary Critic) in Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' sums it up ...

"Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

I just hope that I'm getting wiser as I get older. Oftentimes I wish I could relive portions of my life--those years of making mistakes and hurting people with my words and actions. But, then I wouldn't be the person I am now.

I am grateful for...
...being alive today.
...being sober today. Each day is a gift and a blessing. The days now add up to six years, and almost nine months!
...a loving and wonderful partner who has been very supportive during these tough times for me. My migraines have kept me from working full-time, but things are looking brighter.
...a family that lives close enough to stay in touch.
...a beautiful, gentle, loving kitty who found us and adopted us. Each day is sweet.

...all the friends I have from my various interests: tea drinkers, knitters, spinners, hockey, and all my new friends I've made from Ravelry, Plurk, Brightkite and other social networks! You all enrich my life!

Fall Foliage in Vermont...Enjoy!

2008-10-14T10:31:00.007-04:00

The first were taken on a drive on Poker Hill Road in Underhill--the next town north of Jericho. The last three pics J took on a hike on a hike up Hunger Mountain near Montpelier! Nice. Enjoy!

Catching Up on Stash Posting...

2008-10-06T11:13:00.021-04:00

Okay, I'm guilty. I've been neglecting my blog lately! About a month ago I went to the Vt. Sheep and Wool Festival. I got some great stash (in the form of roving), and I meant to post the pics here before I forgot the sources of ones without id tags/business cards. But, then I was caught up in a cleaning frenzy for Kenny's visit--my knit friend from Houston, and another week passed by.

Then he was here--and we spent a week leaf peeping, visiting yarn shops (three) and now I have a ton more of yarn and roving stash--thanks to Kenny's generosity. I'll post some of it here and try to get caught up.

Click on pics to enlarge...

From the Sheep and Wool Festival:
The trio in the top picture: top left--Merino/Bamboo, 8 oz. To spin and dye (and sell as handspun). Top right--Corriedale (to spin and sell some); bottom--Merino/Tussah silk. To spin and maybe sell some.

Colorful balls of "Walk in the Woods" by my friends at Mountain Fiber Folk Co-op in Montgomery Center. It's a blend of mohair, alpaca and fine wool. I've spun up a couple samples of lace and sock weight. Yummy. I've also spun up 3 oz of heavier worsted weight. Pics later.

Shetland/Alpaca blend. Can't remember the farm. I'll update later. Very silky, super soft. Spun up a little sample--will make wonderful lace garment.

Fourth picture: top is some mystery thing I can't identify. Bottom of the pic is Llama down from West Mountain Farm in Stamford, Vermont.

Very soft. Silky. Divine. Most llama is sold with the down and rough, longer hair mixed in; in this format it's just okay. But, Gayle from West Mountain told me that this new process is capable of separating the two, and the result is incredible. Like cashmere, but stronger. Ohh Laa Laa!

Fifth picture, 8 oz of BFL (acronym for Blue-faced Leicester, a soft, but strong sheep wool, suitable for sock yarn and wonderful for dyeing). I plan on spinning and dyeing some of this and maybe keeping a bit for myself.

Bottom pic: top two balls are of angora bunny, kid mohair and lambswool--this is from the Mt. Fiber Folk Co-op.

It's really soft. But, when I spun it up, the angora (which is 50% of the total), was too dominant and clumped up--possibly because the three fibers are different and carded differently. I e-mailed Carol (it's her roving) and suggested lowering the percentage of angora to about 24-30%.

Angora rabbit is about 8-10 times warmer than wool. Like alpaca and llama, a good percentage is about 30% in the blend, which lends greater warmth to the yarn, but won't add so much weight to it. (I picked up 4oz of a 33/29/37 blend of angora/kid mohair/lambswool on our leaf peeping trip. This spun up perfectly.)

The two darker balls on the bottom of the pic are Jacob's Wool. This is a natural 3-color fleece, and if you can get it carded with all three colors in parallel stripes in the roving it's really cool! This roving had dark and light grey, which is pretty, and it has great strength but a lot of natural loft/air in-between the fibers, kind of elastic. Will make nice socks.

So, there you go! Fiber stash from the Vt. Sheep and Wool 2008. Next post will update you on the roving and mostly yarn stash I picked up during Kenny's visit to Vermont.

Take care, and happy knitting and spinning!

Chris

September Update...

2008-09-29T10:27:00.006-04:00

Wow! I haven't blogged in ages! Kenny, my knitting friend from Houston, is here in Vermont for a week's vacation from the hurricane after-effects in Houston. He was without power and water for 9 days, and just had the power restored the day before he flew to Vermont. Luckily, he has a kind friend in Houston (with power) who let him stay with him for a number of days.

So, we've been off leaf peeping, visiting yarn shops, seeing the sights, eating great food and just hanging and relaxing. We visited the Mountain Fiber Folk Coop in Montgomery Center, Vermont. (First three pics at right.) I met Sabra (pictured with me), and Carol at the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival about 3 weeks ago and told them we'd make the trek up to MC to see them. We had a blast! Nice stuff, nice people.

We had a lovely trip to Craftsbury Common, which is one of the most beautiful towns in Vermont, and saw lots of wonderful foliage, and some sheep right next to the road (dirt road)! I think it was the Bonnie View Farm. I'll have to goggle it and update here.

Other pics of foliage I think were on the way to Montgomery Center.

I just wanted to get a quick post off to update ya'll. I had lots to blog about after: visit to the Vermont Sheep & Wool, the stash I got there, spinning updates, and knitting updates. But, that's all for now!

Thanks for visiting my blog.

-Vtknitboy (chris)

Stash for sale!

2008-08-29T13:56:00.014-04:00

Hello my friends all over the U.S. and elsewhere! I will be selling handspun yarn soon, but am going to start off by getting rid of some of my huge stash of purchased yarn! I will be adding other things to my Esty site (vtknitboy), which is not up quite yet, and am opening up a Paypal account, which should be operating in 3-5 days. If you want to purchase any of this-at this point I'd take a check (and send out the yarn once the check clears).

Note to Vermont knitters on Ravelry's Vermont Knitters group: you have first dibs! If you want any and are going to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival on Saturday, September 6th, I'll bring it and you'll save on shipping! Shipping is $4.50 for up to a pound. I'll let you know what it is for a skein or two, although I'd prefer to sell each color as a group. I'll sell the entire lot for $85! That's 2,165+ yards!

First batch up is Vermont wool, and Vermont wool/mohair blend. This yarn was spun by Green Mountain Spinnery about 8 years ago, but has been stored safely with no moths or yarn deterioration. I just washed all the skeins, and have re-skeined them. The yarn is a singles yarn. Some of it is slightly thick and thin, but the majority of it (90%+) is worsted weight to maybe slightly heavier worsted weight.

All this wool is from a woman who lives in Morrisville, Vermont, from her sheep and mohair goats.

White Vermont wool: 12 oz approx 660 yards $30This yarn is very soft, light and lofty, some thick and thin. Will dye easily, and probably felt well too! Great for socks, hats, mittens.

Grey Vermont wool with about 15% mohair: 16 oz. approx 890 yards $40 (PLUS 170+ yards skein that is slightly bulkier)
I made a sweater out of some of this yarn 8 years ago, and it's warm, soft, and a little fuzzy from the mohair. One of my "comfy" sweaters!

Red: Grey Vermont wool with 15% mohair, overdyed with red: 6.65 oz approx 365 yards $16.
Enough for a pair of socks, or maybe a hat and small mittens? Or buy it and add as an accent yarn with the grey.

Green: the same white yarn dyed in a pale, lovely green. 4.6 oz approx 250 yards, $10. Soft and light! Nice for socks.

Thanks for checking out this stuff. I'll have more up later. Email me or comment here with any questions.

Have a great day!

Spinning for Socks

2008-08-22T23:31:00.016-04:00

In the past week I've been spinning a number of samples for socks. My goal is to get the sock yarn in the range of 6-8 stitches per inch. Following are some of the samples and some notes on the various fibers plied together in the yarn. I will be knitting them up over the next couple of days.

I spun up a couple ounces of white Shetland top I got at Paradise Fibers. This is fabulous top! It glides super, and drafts wonderfully--soft yet strong. Not hairy like some Shetlands, but also not downy. I then spun up smaller samples of various fiber.

Click on all pics to enlarge them...Sorry that some of them are a bit blurry!

Sample number one: The first is the blue-turquoise-green-purple roving of fine Merino. I got this at the Mens' Spring Knitting Retreat in Easton that I went to in May.

This roving was a bit compacted and I spent a lot of time attenuating the fiber so that it would draft easier. I first broke the roving into strips lengthwise, then attenuated them. I really love the colors, although they don't show up very well against the white Shetland. (I did another sample with this and dark wool with mohair, where the colors stand out much better.)

Sample number two was plied with some of the light gray alpaca I also got at the Spring Retreat, this was from the Alpacas of Easton I blogged about it May. This alpaca is super silky, and yields a thin yarn that is easy to draft. This plied up into a nice soft yarn.

Sample three I plied with some dark brown llama I got from our friends Chris & Leigh at Mountainshadow Farm. It has a different texture than alpaca--I describe it as more like hair--but it is as warm as alpaca; about 8 times warmer than wool. It makes nice sock yarn!

I did another sock yarn out of some black Shetland I bought years ago from Maple Ridge Shetland Farm in Randolph, Vermont years ago. My friend Joanne at Pine Ledge Studio in Fairfax, Vermont hand carded it for me, along with some gray, off white, and fawnish color. I plied this with some of the dark brown llama from Mountainshadow Farm. This is a bit more rugged than alpaca yarn--I overplied it on purpose to yield a nicely balanced, but firm sock yarn. This is the heaviest weight of all the yarns I did for this study.

I have another batch of samples drying, but I just did little bits. I'll post later about them.

Oh! I did have some fun with cashmere! Here are pics of the 100% cashm ere yarn, and one small ball of cashmere plied with the Shetland. It's the small white ball of yarn in the bottom left of the picture--below the dark alpaca/llama yarn. Note that I overplied the cashmere on purpose. Down fibers like this and others tend to relax drastically after washing. In this case it was overplied, but relaxed into a just barely balanced yarn!

Some of the things to think about when spinning fibers that you are going to ply together are: fiber length, twist, and compatibility. The various fibers should be similar in length as possible. The longer the fiber, the less twist to get the yarn you want. I mean this in general. There are always variants and different ways to achieve different results. So, one example of not too compatible fibers would be cashmere and Lincoln wool. Cashmere is very short, about .5-1.75" and Lincoln wool averages about 7 inches! The problem that arises when plying these together is that there needs to be an incredible amount of twist in the Lincoln to come close to the twist in the cashmere. Thus, the Lincoln would be almost entirely unspun when plied with the cashmere. Okay, so these are kind of at both ends of the spectrum. But hopefully you see the point.

So, for the samples:
In sample number one, I could create a better yarn by spinning the Shetland thinner and with more twist. The colorful merino is a much finer fiber, and spun up thinner naturally. It had more twist in my sample, so the Shetland in between the twist bumps is looser.

In sample two: it worked out well. The alpaca and the Shetland were similar.

In sample three: it worked out well. The alpaca and the llama are similar.

It didn't work out so well having the cashmere plied with the Shetland. The Shetland is very loose--and in between the bumps in the twist of cashmere, it's pretty loose. I could overcompensate for this by spinning the Shetland very thin and tight, because the cashmere must be spun thin and with lots of twist to yield a nice yarn. I could spin it with less twist, but I think that it would shed and or pill a lot due to the ends being loose. Although, the yarn is super soft, it's not the best fit.

As far as compatibility, plying cashmere with any of the above isn't the best use of the fiber. It's expensive, and has a short length, so would best be matched up with another short fiber. In this case it would be better to blend cashmere with another base fiber, therefore lending softness to the final product.

Alpaca and most wools are pretty compatible in fiber length, so I think any of these will be good sock yarns. Plus, alpaca lends a great warmth factor to the yarn.

So, I try to match fiber as closely as possible in similar lengths and twist required for a good yarn, and that's why sampling is so much fun! I get to see what goes well with what.

Someone asked me if it was possible to ply from a single. Yes! I use this technique frequently when I want to spin up small amounts fiber. It's really easy. Just spin whatever you want onto one bobbin. Then, using a ballwinder, wind up into a ball. Have your wheel all ready to ply, and carefully take the ball of yarn off the ballwinder. Keep a couple of fingers inside the hole of the ball! Now, gather up the inner and outer ends of the ball, and keep two or three fingers inside the ball of yarn--creating enough tension between your fingers to keep the ball stable, but not so tight that you can't get the single yarn to unwind.

Tie the two ends up to the leader from your bobbin, and ply! There you go. When the ball starts getting loose and starts to collapse, insert another finger into the ball. Keep tension even on the yarn between the ball and the bobbin.

That's all for now!

Spinning Updates...the quest for lace continues!

2008-08-14T23:45:00.016-04:00

So, I've been spinning up a storm lately! Lots of alpaca, Merino, Cormo, Shetland, and alpaca/Merino blends, and today I started on some cashmere. My next post will be about the joy of spinning cashmere!

According to standard WPI (wra ps per inch) charts, I'm spinning lace and fingering weight yarn, with some sport weight. One of my goals is to get about 800 yards of lace for some future project (I joined a shawl KAL), so part of this spinning has been to play around with getting lace yarn and also sock yarn (which in some cases is interchangeable). I sampled a standard purchased sockweight yarn and I got 21 WPI with it, so I'm pretty close to it in my spinning.

One of the interesting things to note is the various characteristics of different fibers. Mainly, how much the yarn fluffs up after washing in the skein. I always wash my yarn after I've plied it--I skein it up and soak it in hot, soapy water, then a moderately hot rinse (soak), then spin it in the washing machine, then let it air dry. In almost all cases, the yarn fluffed up after washing and drying. Some fibers, like Cormo, for instance fluff up really well. Others, like Lincoln, not so much.

One of my projects was from my friend Maple at North Star Alpacas in Michigan. This was 4 oz of a blend from Indy, which is 74% alpaca, 1% mohair, and 25% Merino, I think. I have two skeins total of 475 yards/4.9 oz/1550 ypp (yards per pound) at 24 WPI. I see this as fabulous sock yarn! With alpaca being roughly 8 times warmer than wool, this blend will make nice, lightweight socks. All in white! I spin the singles with a modified supported longdraw, which incorporates a lot of air into them, and get the firmness and strength via plying. (Aside: I think it's funny when people refer to a single as a "one-ply". Doesn't it take two to ply?!) Yes, those are Tigger's feet in the picture! He likes to "help" spinning, knitting, and picturing.

Another white project! lol. I have bags of white alpaca and brown llama from our friends Chris and Leigh from a couple of years ago, and since I did a major reorganizing of the contents of the fiber room this week, I decided it was time to start using up what I have. I ended up with 233 yards/2.8 oz/1330 ypp at 20 WPI. Really great for more socks!

On to the fiber with some color! lol. I have a couple of Shetland fleeces I bought years ago, and my friend Joanne carded it all for me. I have 4 different colors: a very creamy off-white, a light grey, this one (light grayish brown), and a dark brown. Click here for Shetland color chart.

I have 11 oz of this color, and spun up a small sample of it. I think it would fall under light grayish brown. The fiber has a long staple, is hairy, like mohair, and stretches easily, gliding for a good long draw. Unfortunately, because it's so springy and hairy, I was getting lots of neps in it-- the hair curls up and snags, kind of like a pill on a sweater but it's tangled up in what I'm spinning. Also, little bits of more downy stuff would just come off, so I needed to be fastidious and pick them out. The sample came out about 19 WPI.

The black in picture on the left is a lambs wool I was also sampling to see how it would make as lace yarn. It's soft and springy, and a little hairy. I might have problems knitting with it, especially at night, as I won't see the stitches very well. But it would make a nice lace shawl. The knit swatch was made from the first Shetland lace attempt (19 WPI), which is at the bottom of the swatch, and the black lambswool (18 WPI) at the top of the swatch.

I wasn't happy with the diameter of the first Shetlan d lace attempt, so i did another couple of 1/2 bobbins, and really tried to go for a super thin single. I plied it and washed it, and the lace is pretty nice. This skein (both pics are the same one) weighs 1.5 oz, there are 210 yards, and came out to 23 WPI, so this was my best attempt at lace! It comes out to about 2240 ypp, so much closer to the 2600 ypp standard lace weight.

One note about preparing fibers for lace spinning: It is really important to have very well prepared fiber. The thinner the roving, the better chance of achieving thinner singles. In all cases I attenuated the roving by splitting it into thinner strips lengthwise, then attenuated each strip before spinning it. In the case of the Shetland, it was carded into shorter batts (a square, versus a roving, which is a continuous "rope") and I broke it into short sections then attenuated them. The Shetland also had a habit of nepping, so I had to very lightly attenuate it, but ended up leaving it thicker than other fiber. This reduced the neps and yielded a better single.

There are a couple things here: spinning fiber finely, and spinning fine fiber (also finely). It is possible to spin average wool and other fibers thinly, but the thinner the fiber diameter (Merino being the finest wool), technically one should be able to achieve a much thinner yarn the finer the fiber...

There are other ways to spin fiber fine. One way is to spin from the individual lock, which has been washed, dried, and is then flicked with a little brush which opens up the fiber into a fan-shaped lock. One spins off the corner, and it is easy to spin a super thin single. Best info on this is Margaret Stove's book: "Handspinning, Dyeing & Working with Merino & Superfine Wools". She signed my book in a workshop I took with her in February 1999!

Enjoy!

Tea for two...or two hundred!

2008-08-06T16:51:00.011-04:00

Many, many of you have asked if I really have over 30 pounds of tea. Well, at one time I did have over 40+, but that was over a year ago. I used to compile it all on an Excel spreadsheet, but that just got too time-consuming. So now I just guesstimate.

To give you all some idea of some of the tea I really do have, I took the liberty to start cleaning out my stash and reorganizing the cupboards. Note that the tea has been "spilling" out onto the shelves, in the extra sink, on the....you get the picture!

Almost all of the tea packets have 4 oz of tea in them. Maybe 20 or so have less than 2 oz; and the larger jars have anywhere from 2-8 oz, depending on how much tea is left in each container.

I emptied most of the tea out of the huge cupboard over the refrigerator. (top picture)
The shelves are about 30" deep, so I have been able to stash lots of tea up there!

In the next two pictures are most of the bagged tea and medicinal teas (echinacea, colds, sore throat tea, etc.) in the left picture, a smaller side cupboard; and in the right picture, the cupboard is devoted mostly to sencha and shincha (first sencha of the year, from Japan).

Next four pics:

First pic: Group picture of most of the rest of my tea.
Second picture: green teas, white teas, needle teas.

Third picture: oolongs, special china blacks, yunnans and gold teas; Assam, Ceylon, and Darjeeling teas.

Last pic: Flavored black teas, decafs, and in the back: chai teas.

I also have a number of pu-er teas, and samples from tea companies that I will be sampling and reviewing shortly!

Just thought I'd share!

And the Wheel Keeps on Turning, Turning...Summer Stash Bustin'!

2008-08-05T19:08:00.009-04:00

No knitting. No swatching. No tea reviews. In the last week I've just been spinning. Spinning up a storm! I wrote a couple posts ago about this being the Summer of Stash Busting--knitting with yarns that I have stock-piled, and spinning yarn out of the stash of rovings and batts (rectangular sections of carded fiber).

Over the last week I spun up 600 yards (4.75 oz) of Lincoln/silk blend roving from something I bought way back at SOAR at Smuggler's Notch, Vermont in 1996; 475 yards (3.1 oz) of Cormo almost-lace my friend Joann e at Pine Ledge Studio carded with perfection for me over 8 years ago; 380 yards (4.1 oz) of alpaca/merino/silk roving from the Men's Spr ing Knitting Retreat in Easton, New York in May; and 255 yards (3 oz) of dark brown alpaca from my friend Maple at North Star Alpacas in Michigan.

First four pics are of the Lincoln/silk blend...
click on for larger view...

top pic is of the attenuated fiber
next pic is of the first attempt balled up
third pic is a close up of the second attempt of lace, next to the control lace yarn
last pic of this project is of the finished skein

The Lincoln/silk blend was fun at times to spin. I have oodles of it, about 12 oz, and spun up the best of it in this skein. I had to pre-draft it (attenuate it to make it easier to spin), as it was sitting around in a bag in our fiber room for years, which compacted the fiber in places. Lincoln is a long, shiny, hairy sheep fiber, very durable and strong, but not too soft. The silk blended in with it adds more sheen and shine, and some softness. My pile of this was a mixture of part rovings, which were kind of snarly (from the Lincoln), and some larger sections that I think were "clouds" which is kind of like a batt, but thinner.

I spun up about an ounce of the stuff, trying to achieve lace-weight yarn, but it was late at night and my spinning got worse as the night went on. I plied it from a single that I balled up on my ball winder, using the end from the center of the ball and the end from the outside of the ball to yield a two-ply. I washed it up, let it dry overnight. See the pic of it at the right. It's about twice as thick as my true lace sample I had hanging from my wheel, so I spent the second night spinning up another 4.75 oz onto two bobbins.

My second attempt (the third pic) was closer to the true lace, but I'm pretty happy with it, as the fiber just got more wiry the thinner I spun it. I could have spun it a bit thinner, but I think it would have been termed "iron yarn" at that point!

****************************************************************
The second spinning project was the Cormo, a supersoft sheepwool, that I think is 3/4 Merino, which is the softest sheep fiber. Cormo is typically white, and yields a brilliantly white yarn, although I believe there are now black and possibly gray Cormo sheep. I think that it is spongier than Merino, is extremely soft and is great for against-the-skin garments, but like Merino, it also felts easily.

Pics at right: first one is of the white Cormo batt
Second one is a shot of the attenuated fiber

Third pic is a shot of the spinning
Fourth pic in this group is of the two skeins of Cormo yarn

*******************************************************************************

The third spinning project was the alpaca/merino/silk roving I got at the Knitter's Retreat, and was really fun and easy to spin. It is a luscious yarn, and I can't wait to knit it up! Maybe socks...

The dark alpaca from Maple in Michigan was fun, easy, and quick to spin up. I spun it all up last night, plied it today, and washed/soaked it and it's drying right now. The true weight of the skein may be a little lighter, as it is still slightly damp. I absolutely love the dark color of it, I believe it is from an alpaca named Polaris--I'll have to check!

More later! Have fun...

An Ode to Old Friends (longterm, that is!)

2008-08-01T13:51:00.007-04:00

I mentioned on Plurk last week that I was off on a pilgrimage to my childhood village--Huntington, Vermont. Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures of the town: it's a little village in a valley in the mid-mountain area between the foothills and the higher peaks of the Green Mountains. It's south of Richmond, kind of north and east of Hinesburg, and west of Duxbury. Camel's Hump, the 3rd highest mountain in Vermont is mostly situated in Huntington. The "wrong view" of the Hump, as seen on the Vermont quarter in the U.S. State Quarter Series, is in Duxbury (the view you would get on Interstate 89 coming north from southern and central Vermont). Don't ask--it's a touchy subject!

Anywho, when I lived there from age 4 to 18 (I turned 18 in October 1981), the population was roughly 800-1,100. Now it is over 1,800! Phew--population boom! My father worked for IBM way back then, and my mom and dad saved a clipping from the Burlington Free Press--an article stating that Huntington was bound to become a 'bedroom community for IBM'. Lol. I didn't enjoy it much as a kid--I wanted to be from a big city like the ones we saw on tv. I also didn't want to be taken as an uneducated redneck--and times when we would go "into town" (which meant Burlington) were painful, especially in the winter, as we'd be wearing those big ol' Sorels (heavy Canadian-made winter boots with felted liners) or 'Pacs' (as the green rubber/plastic boots were called back then) as Huntington had tons of snow, and people in Burlington would be wearing sneakers! lol. This was before the Interstate System was built in Vermont. I think we got the Interstate in 1973 or 1974.

Pics in this post: click on for larger view

--top: pic of huntington
--Joyce modeling my merino/alpaca/cashmere lace shawl.
--Kim, who is laid up with a knee operation. HER kitty loves
to sit in her lap! (note: our kitty will only do this if we have paper on our lap).
--The mosaic vase picture Joyce made for my 40th

Back to our story. I do, however, have very fond memories of my neighbor Kim, and her mother, Joyce. Our houses were about 20' apart in the front, but we had about an acre of land in the back. I spent a lot of time hanging out over at their house. Joyce was like another mom to me, but also more of a friend. She was into plants, tea (Woohoo! And you wonder where I got it from?!), all kinds of crafts: knitting, crocheting, etc. And these days she's into folk-art painting, needle felting, mosaics, and way more wicked cool stuff. Oh, she's over, well--let's say she's over 60 something--spry as a hen, and way more energy than most people I know!

Kim was like another sister to me. We still have a deep friendship, and try to keep in touch with each other. Joyce and Kim have been to our house in Jericho, and J and me make a visit usually once a year, around the fall, to see them.

For my 40th birthday (5 years ago), Joyce made me a mosaic of a vase with roses! It's really fabulous. See pic at right.

I'm just blessed that we have stayed in touch with each other, and can share old times, and continue with newness in our lives.

ETA: I wanted to add that I neglected to put a paragraph in this post along the lines of "It took driving 'cross country in 1987 and spending a short time in LA for me to appreciate Vermont and many aspects of living in Vermont. While J and me do travel around a bit, we always enjoy coming back to Vermont. It has changed a lot in the past 20 years, and I'm also a bit older, but at this point in my life I have learned to appreciate many things that I didn't before."

Of Blueberries and of Lace...

2008-07-25T00:05:00.009-04:00

Well, it sounds like a good title! Kind of Victorian or something.

Click on pics for a larger view...

Of Blueberries: we have 4 or 5 blueberry bushes in our fenced-in garden. Basically every other year we have a bumper crop. I've read that honey bees are the number one pollinators of blueberries, and with the tremendous loss of honey bees in New England and the U.S., J and me were really worried about getting many berries--and big ones at that. Well, take a look at this bowl of berries! They are huge! (Note: that's a quarter in the bowl.) J's been picking them (and blackberries) for a couple of weeks now (he's the #1 berry picker in this house), and I've been reaping the benefits of his hard work and time amidst the prickly bushes. Don't worry--I do a fair share of the work! I do all the canning and preserving (including occasional blueberry jam!). The really talented hard work.

Of Lace: Sigh. I lost the 'Sunray Shawl' I started in May. Somewhere between here and Easton (NY) it disappeared. I've also ditched the 'Rose of England' for a spell, as it was too frustrating to accomplish with dull needles. So, I found 'Springtime' from the same book by Marianne Kinzel: First Book of Modern Lace Knitting.

This pattern is a square one (the 'ROE' was round) and a lot more fun--but maybe I will bore of it too soon? I'm using the dusty rose alpaca/merino lace from Elann.com.

The second picture is a shot of the pic in the book. The last picture is a closeup of the center square, which is the part I have finished, chart A.

So, as you can see, there is lots more to do! But it's fun...

Note to self: less Plurking and more Etsying (putting my stuff on my Etsy site)

RU Plurking?

2008-07-23T14:35:00.003-04:00

Blame Jason on this one, really. Seems I'm having a midlife crisis or something. Like I really need yet another techno thingy in my life! I mean, i just starting blogging about three months ago. I was talking to Jason (of Jason Knits) in Cali last night, and he asked me if I had heard about Plurk yet. Well, I had just heard about Twitter about a month ago--now I gotta plurk?

After seeing a news story last night about using Twitter for feedback on customer service, I decided that now everyone will be using it so I'll pass up on that. Like, I had bypassed both Facebook and Myspace (too adolescent for me I guess), and Twitter is going to be Uber popular now (probably be bought up by Coke or Uni or some huge mega global conglomerate thing), that I should jump in on the Plurk bandwagon. So, I'm Vtknitboy on plurk. There you go!

What's a Stash?

2008-07-17T15:50:00.006-04:00

Lol. In the '70s and '80s, a "stash" meant something far different from what we knitters and spinners call a stash these days! I'll let your imagination wander. My purchased yarn stash is on a spreadsheet--over 85,000 yards of it! I woke up at 2 am and thought, what's the conversion to miles? So I grabbed my handy-dandy cell phone and punched in the numbers into my unit converter and came up with, gulp, 48.28 miles! Phew! Now that's a stash!

So, someone asked me how much fiber (unspun) stash do I have? Here's what I found around the house in terms of roving (in ounces):

7 white alpaca, 2 superfine brown alpaca, .5 superfine camel down, 3 dk brown alpaca, 3 quanaco, 16 super soft fawn Icelandic wool, 16 super soft silver gray wool/merino blend, 3.25 gray and color silk/merino, 23 superfine white something—alpaca?, 1 white angora, 10 black lamb’s wool, 12 silver grey silk/wool, 6 white alpaca, 20 silver/grey wool, 12 jet black lamb’s wool, 32 dk brown lamb’s wool, 48 dk brown lamb’s wool (different shade), 16 black gray wool, 32 white friesian sheep wool, 32 white sheep wool (low grade), 8 lt brown camel top, 4 gray alpaca (northstaralpacas), 4white huacaya alpaca/merino (northstaralpacas), 4 black blend (luke: northstaralpacas), 7 green/purple merino top, 4 teal/purple soysilk/merino, 4 white Shetland.

That's roughly 330 ounces, or about 20 pounds of fiber. I think I can get a couple of sweaters out of this... ; )

And then, there are over 5 fleeces in the garage not washed yet, and some other roving, but nothing fabulous--that's all in the house. Oh yeah, then I have about 2 pounds of cotton, in various blends...

J says "sell, sell, sell!"

Cheers!

Knit Witch Contest!

2008-07-17T00:33:00.004-04:00

I found this on one of the blogs I visit, and heck, it looks easy and won't cost you a cent!

Check it out: Knit Witch Contest for a new yarn store opening up. Contest ends July 31st! Act quick! Amia Yarn Company.

They are concerned about American and local products. I share in those concerns!

Surprises and Gifts...

2008-07-16T23:23:00.009-04:00

My partner thinks I have an over-abundance of yarn, rovings, and fleeces. (I do, and he would prefer that I start using up some of my stash before buying more.) But there's something about surrounding myself with these wonderful things that can be transformed into objects of beauty, function, and fashion--well, maybe not the fashion, this is Vermont, after all! I'm quite positive I lived during the 1880's through the 1930's. I have the "Depression Mentality" where I need to have dry and canned goods stocked up to take us through times of trouble, and I also am horribly drawn to the Victorian England time period (as a "Born to the Manor" type, of course.).

Click on pics for a larger view...

J and I try to do as much as we can to reduce our carbon footprint on the planet. We hang laundry outside in the summer, have a small drying rack to dry hand towels, dish towels, etc., and have changed most of our light bulbs to the energy saving kind. (Although, we are both concerned about how to dispose of these when they die--they have mercury in them.)

So, (there was a point to this) I was out in the garage, fumbling through the stacks of boxes of yarn, rovings, and fleeces (sorry--no pic; it's way too messy) looking for this large wooden drying rack we had when we moved from Burlington to Jericho a bunch of years ago. Alas, I never found it, but I found that I had all this fiber I had totally forgotten about.

In the stacks I found (among tons of other great stuff): 2 pounds of dark brownish-gray wool roving (enough for a sweater, plus), 1 pound of Icelandic roving (unfortunately, it's the rough, long and itchy stuff), the Russian cashmere spindles I bought at SOAR '97 at Smugglers' Notch, a Judy's Kick 'n Spin spindle, a Takli and bowl (for spinning cotton), and 1 pound of mohair dyed pinkish red, and sky blue. What finds!

In today's mail, I received another box from Kenny in Houston--fabulous yarn for socks! Fibranatura Yummy 100% superwash wool, in turquoise blue, salmon-orange, browns and greens (I'm color blind--what do I know.), and a skein of Acquerello superwash wool/nylon hand-dyed in a deep, dark reddish brown. A color he promptly described as, well, blood-clot red. Tigger is in the above pic modeling the yarns. There are two pics of tigger, as he's so darn cute. Thanks to Kenny for the care package. You are a great friend!

And, you ask, why does Tigger look so grumpy in the pic with the yarn? Because I moved the newspaper he was sitting on so that I could take the pic! He will not sit on our laps, but the second a piece of newspaper is put down, he jumps right on it and curls up and takes a snooze! I was reading the paper and he decided to plop his royal butt right on the paper! He's really quite a character!

Knitting projects: I finished the second of the Jewelled Steps socks. Love. Them. Although I have to redo the bind-off. And, I started a pair of Monkey-Socks by Cookie A., but the toe-up version. Although, now that I've done 2 reps of the pattern, I kind of like the idea of the purled base under the "V" in the pattern. What do you think? Leave a comment!

I'm using the Audacity yarn by Black Bunny. She's a member of the Knitters for Obama group I'm in on Ravelry.com. And, she's fabulously talented. I'm doing the linen stitch on the bottom (see second sock pic) for more durability.

Oh, I almost forgot! In the Knitters for Obama group, we are doing a second fundraiser--an afghan of the U.S. flag. The red and white stripes consist of squares with raised reliefs of the states. J and I were on vacation in Seattle and Victoria, and they were so sweet to save Vermont for me to do! Woo hoo! Here's a pic of my square before I sent it, and a pic of all the squares before being sewn together by one of the group members.

A couple of my friends are experiencing some rough medical problems with family members, so I ask all my friends out there if you could take just a minute or two out of your hectic life and say a little prayer, meditate, or just send some positive, healing, and loving vibes out to the Universe.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated!

Peace and Love to you all!
Chris

Government House Gardens, Victoria, BC

2008-07-10T13:59:00.006-04:00

Oops! Forgot to add the write-up of the Government House Gardens!

The Government House Gardens, were just minutes from where we were staying in Victoria. While we thoroughly enjoyed the Butchart Gardens, we were amazed at the GHG! There were only about 15-20 people milling about the gardens, so we were able to enjoy the gardens at a leisurely, relaxed pace.

Enjoy!

Gardens of Victoria and Vancouver Island

2008-07-10T13:27:00.011-04:00

Two major highlights of our trip out west were to the famous Butchart Gardens, a short drive from Victoria, and the Government House Gardens, just minutes from where we were staying in Victoria. The gardens offered a wide variety of views and perspectives for differing tastes and interests; from rock and cliff gardens, shade and wet gardens, to Japanese, Italian, and other formal designs.

Top three pics are in the Japanese Garden at BG

ETA: I just received an e-mail from Graham Bell, the Advertising & Promotions coordinator at BG, who pointed out a couple of errors pertaining to driving distance and costs, along with some suggestions for enjoying the gardens at less visited times (such as first thing in the morning, or early afternoon).

Wow, I had just barely posted this entry! The miracles of modern technology. I thank him for his astuteness, as I certainly wouldn't want to post inaccurate information. The paragraph above has been edited to delete the inaccurate information...

Pics at right are in the formal garden and Italian Garden

I'm going to have to cull about 400 pics to 8 or 9, so if you would like more, just e-mail me and I'll send you a batch!

Next four pics are in the sunken garden.

There were also lots of annuals just planted--geraniums and many other flowers. They are probably just blooming now! I can just imagine beds of color, streaming around the bottom of groups of trees, bushes, and perennials.

Sigh, only about 1/2 of the stuff we saw are able to safely grow in our planting zone...but, hey, with global warming, in perhaps another ten years I can plant some of them! lol. (not really lol.)

This was just stunning. The flowers were gorgeous, and one thing I really appreciated are the layers of color and texture of the evergreens, interspersed with deciduous trees and bushes. Seriously, I have oddles and oddles of fabulous pics. If you want more...

And, the trip continues...plus sock update

2008-07-10T01:02:00.006-04:00

I decided to continue my quest to finish unfinished objects/projects, and instead of starting the Rose of England again (which I shredded last night), I picked up the second Jewelled Steps sock. I started the expansion arch last night, and finished it plus started the heel. I love, love, love knitting socks with the two circs! No more DPNs! (double pointed needles for non knitters...)

Note: click on pics for larger view...

If you remember, our trip left us in Port Angeles, Washington. It's now Friday morning (June 20th) and we have ferry reservations to Victoria, BC. Above is a pic of the mountains as we are leaving the port. That's Washington, US.

We were eagerly anticipating the Victoria harbour, which had been much ballyhooed. However, neither one of us were thrilled. It was overbuilt with hotels and condos, and took away from the dramatic presence of the Empress Hotel and other old buildings. But, it was still kind of cool to ferry on in, waving at people in smaller boats and such. Not being a sailor, I guess that's the sea-farin' protocol!

Jeff successfully negotiated driving our rental car out of the ship's hull, and we took off for our B&B, Trutch Manor.

I was pretty tired, and my general rule of thumb is to find the hotel/B&B, make a pot of tea and put my feet up. We were only blocks away from the B&B, and I called them to let them know we had arrived.

Here's some pics of the B&B, with the welcome committee of the neighbor's cat and a stray! Cute. We stayed in The Parlour. For better pics and a panoramic view, click on the link...

One thing we both enjoyed about Victoria was the flowers and gardens. So many of the homes were surrounded by flowers: plantings, on the lawn, in buckets, arbors, arches, etc. And lots of flowers were in bloom. We are in zone 3b in Jericho, Vermont, and it fluctuates from 3a-4a depending on the year. I think Victoria is like zone 7! It's not how hot it gets, rather the minimum average low. Sigh.

Many, many pics of the flowers, building, and gardens to appear shortly! Stay tuned...

Jewelled Steps Socks Update...

2008-07-03T16:20:00.004-04:00

Here are some pics of the Jewelled Steps socks I'm working on, from Cat Bordhi's "Pathways" sock book. For some reason, my brain just can't figure out the instructions for readjusting the stitches prior to working the heel.

I have the hardest time doing it! Maybe because I'm left handed and right-brained. For the Coriolis socks it was an agonizing 1.5 hours. For this sock last night was an hour. I think I am doing the reverse in my head. The pics of the needles is backwards for me. I have to look at the knitting from the view as I am knitting them, so moving the markers to the left would be to the right for me. I basically just gave up and put the marker 10 sts to the left of the steps, then added 15 for the wings.

Click on pics for larger view...

In the top pic you can see the expansion stitches nicely fan out on the inside (left side) of the right foot sock. Nice.

In the middle pic (I just updated this post with the new pics), you can see the steps, and the expansion section clearly. I like how this runs on the inside left flank of the right sock. Hopefully this will be mirrored in the left foot sock!

I decided to add a 3x2 rib on the cuff, but only in the back of the sock. The steps continue on the front half.

Some other thoughts, the wraps for the steps are pretty small at sock weight yarn. I'd do 4 stitches and maybe wrap 3 times. And, it's way easier to do the wraps by putting the stitches on to a short cable needle, quickly wrapping the yarn around twice, and then knitting the stitches.

Just Pics...

2008-07-03T15:28:00.004-04:00

Oympic Peninsula Drive Pics...

Top: drive out to Lake Crescent

Middle Row Left: drive to Lake Crescent

Middle Row Right: view through the pass

Bottom Row Left: the lake

Bottom Row Right: snow on the peaks

Oympic National Park and Beyond...

2008-07-03T14:17:00.009-04:00

To recap: we landed in Seattle on Tuesday, spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Seattle, hopped on the ferry from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island on Thursday, and drove up to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, where our journey continues...

Pics at the right are from the Lake Crescent drive. No captions needed! Click on for really great enlargements.

Port Angeles was kind of a dive (sorry to offend anyone from there!), but we took Rt. 101 out to Lake Crescent, which was one of the most beautiful drives we have ever been one--bar none. The mountains loomed, the valleys were gorgeous, and Lake Crescent was stunning! The road hugged the south shore of the lake, and there were ample opportunities for vistas and snapshots. We stopped at just about every turnout, as the angles changed dramatically, and the views were truly breathtaking.

We stopped somewhere to take a, you know, rest stop--I think at Granny's Diner or something. It was a cute little place, full of antiques--really homey.

We made it about 1/2 way up the length of the lake, and made a little excursion to see some waterfalls, but the map detailing the hike said it was about 2 hours, which we didn't have. Check out the pic of the deer outside the warden's hut!

We headed back to Port A, and decided to go out to Ediz Hook to check out the rocks. Remember, Wendy of the S'Klallam tribe told us we should go out there to look for jade, agates, jasper, etc.

The drive out to the spit took us past the Nippon Paper plant. It was kind of weird. The road goes right smack through the middle of the buildings! Then, it's a cool drive way out into the bay, and ends up at the Coast Guard station. The views from out there were dramatic. I took more pics...some of the pics are the same as I took on the ferry from Port A to Victoria, but being on the spit, you're literally standing on this thin strip of dirt and rocks in the middle of the bay!

I decided on this trip I'd try to take some unusual pics. So I took closeups, pics from ground level, closeups of rocks, trigs, grass, trees, etc. Note that I did not rearrange anything. All objects were just as I saw them.

It was very windy out on the spit, and getting a little cold. Luckily I had an LL Bean Gore-Tex jacket with me! The view looking back at the mountains was just simply amazing! The mountains are, I believe, looking south at the Olympic Range.

We were both eagerly searching for rocks: I'm a rock-hound--I collect them from every beach, park, mountain, lake, city, etc., that we visit! I have them from Brighton, England; London, the gravel beneath the Eiffel Tower (really), the Cliffs of Dover, Chartres; outside the Taj Mahal, all the palaces in Jaipur, Rajasthan (in India), and tons of other places.

I believe in the spirituality of Nature. I love the Earth! And I enjoy collecting all the varieties of rocks I can find.

Oh! On this day it was Jeff's birthday! We headed back to the hotel and were trying to decide on a place to eat where Jeff could have his Pacific Northwest Salmon, or something dramatic like that. I was just about on my last leg of energy, and getting a bit bitchy. I just wanted to make a pot of tea and rest. We scoped out the restaurants on the route back to the hotel, and couldn't really find a place where we wanted to eat.

My mom had secretly given me some cash and a card for Jeff's birthday, which I stashed away in my carry-on. We both were kind of beat, and we ended up just getting carry away (take-out) from an Italian restaurant within walking distance. We thought we'd save the "birthday dinner" money for someplace more romantic or rememberable.

We sacked out, as we had to be at the docks really early the next morning for the ferry to Victoria....

Knitting Project Update

2008-06-30T17:27:00.007-04:00

Okay! I finished my first pair of Coriolis socks! Just a quick post with some pics.... the yarn is from Kenny (the boi who knits, blog link below left), the Crystal Palace bamboo merino blend.

And, I started another pair of socks. I decided this will be Chris's Official Stashbusting Summer of Socks! Yeah, I know--not so original. Tons of people doing various versions of it. But, with over 84,000 yards of purchased yarn, I gotta use it up!

I think I'm going to do the Jewelled Steps socks from the "Pathways" sock book. I did the whirlpool toe, which I love, and this toe is rotatable (is that a word?). So, hopefully I won't screw these up like I did on the spiraling band on the Coriolis socks. I'm using Lorna's Lace 80/20 superwash merino and nylon, in Purple Iris colorway.

Pics of our baby:
Just had to add a couple little things. Here's a pic of our darlin' kitty, Tigger, as he was sackin' out on the screened in porch yesterday! We love him.

And, I just heard a bit of a noise outside, looked out the window, and here's what I saw!

Click on for a larger view... Enjoy.

Knitting in Seattle/Victoria

2008-06-29T09:02:00.013-04:00

My plan was to entertain you all with our voyages and exploration in chronological order, but I have to divert from that plan to insert a blog about knitting on the trip, and the people I met up with.

As always, click on the pics to enlarge them...

I have some anxiety about knitting in public. A lot of it is my own insecurity about being obviously gay in public. Just my own thing. I sometimes knit on the plane, but usually if I'm in a window seat, and I feel safe with the people around me--non-threatening people. I totally surprised myself on this trip, and knit most of the Chicago to Seattle flight! I am doing my first Coriolis toe-up socks using the "New Pathways For Sock Knitters, Book One" by Cat Bordhi. The yarn is from Kenny (part of my "pound of love" box), the Crystal Palace bamboo/merino/silk yarn in browns and golds. Yummy.

Pics: Above right--Jeanne models my first Coriolis sock (sorry, I can't claim the 'legs')
Second from top--my foot in the sock.
At right--Allie and Max

I started the sock with the garter diamond. New technique for me. Really cool. My goal was to do the master spiral, where the band spirals over the instep, over the TOP of the heel, and continues to spiral up the ankle and leg. I screwed up somewhere, and my spiral ran smack into the top edge of the heel! Instead of trying to fudge it and restarting it on the other side of the heel (which would have been an okay fix), i just dropped the band increase, and made up a top: modified 2X1 basketweave, some garter ridges, and ribbing on top, ending with an i-cord bind-off. This was another new technique for me, and I enjoyed doing it.

More Pics: At right--Nigel, Me, Hayley, and Allie at QV's Cafe
Below: Nigel shows off his shawl, below that: closeup of the shawl

I finished the first sock while in Victoria, and started the second sock before leaving Victoria. I even knitted on the ferry back to Port Angeles! I finished knitting the foot on the plane to Chicago, and just finished the heel and ankle since getting back to Vermont. I'm on the ribbing at the top right now, so I'll be done the second sock today.

While in Victoria I met up with Allie (from Victoria) and Nigel (from Vancouver, BC)--both people I met on the GLBT knit list. Allie met up with us, and brought her darling son Max with her on our first night in Victoria! We had a great time hanging out with them, and met the next day with Nigel, and Allie's partner Haylie, for some food and crafting.

Both J and I had a great time, even though J doesn't knit. Nigel showed off one of his shawls, which I also modeled (pics on his blog), and we walked up to the LYS, the Beehive. I bought 3 skeins of yarn.

Pics of yarn: (top skein) Arequipa (65% superwash wool, 20% alpaca, 15% nylon in moss earth colorway;

middle skein: Fleece Artist merino in browns, golds, and salmons;

bottom skein: (suggested by Nigel) Hand Maiden 'Casbah' (80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon), in a purple/moss greens/merlot.

I normally don't fall for anything with "cash" in it, as I think it's usually a ripoff with 5-10% cashmere in it, but the hand on this is buttery soft! And it was $5 off....

I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with Nigel, Allie, and the gang. Super people, with fabulous personalities. Hope we all meet again! (Nigel even spent the afternoon with us touring Butchart Gardens, that's another blog in itself!)

I had several contacts for a knitting meetup on our last day in Seattle at the end of the trip. But, unfortunately things fell through (hope all is well with you Z!), but I did manage to get together with Jeanne--that was a blast!

I met Jeanne through Ravelry.com. She metup with J and I at Uwajimaya, the famous Japanese/Asian store in Seattle. This was a scream for me, as it had tea, chocolate, Asian food, and was connected to an Asian food court and a Japanese bookstore! Phew! Way too fun!

Pics at right: Jeanne with her Forest Path shawl, a close up of the shawl, Jeanne pouring tea (all over the table, mind you!) at a wicked cool teahouse near her neighborhood.

Great tea, great conversations, wonderful knitting, and nice uh, accessories to look at...

I'm looking forward to continuing these friendships. Thanks for meeting us, spending time with us, and sharing your love of knitting with me.

Open invitations for all to come visit us in Vermont!

Ciao!

Part II: The Odyssey Continues...the Olympic Peninsula

2008-06-29T07:41:00.011-04:00

Note: This is part of a series of our travels to the Pacific northwest. Posts are in reverse chronological order. To start at the beginning go to the first post, Chris and Jeff hit the...

As our intrepid travelers continue their journey in the Pacific northwest... Okay! I thought I'd turn this into a novel, but then I'd get all confused with first and third person narratives. Lol. Anywho, to recap: we flew into Seattle on a Tuesday. Dinner at Bahn Thai was that evening, and J took a walkabout to the Space Needle.

Wednesday was the SAAM and the Japanese gardens, and we both walked over to the Space Needle together. We were at the top for the sunset, and got tons of great shots of Seattle neighborhoods and night shots of the Needle on the way back to the hotel.

Thursday we had to rise early for the ferry to Bainbridge Island, and our day trip to the Olympic Peninsula. The ferry was a fun trip, but the drive was pretty uneventful until we got to the visitor center for the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe! This was THE highlight of our trip! We had both heard so much about Pacific Northwest tribal culture--both U.S. and First Nation--totem poles, potlatch, weaving, knitting; that we envisioned being smack in the middle of a rich source of cultural information and heritage. We weren't disappointed.

The visitor center was pretty new, and there seemed to be an organized effort to have this as the "gateway" to the tribal area. The highway ran right through it, with the visitor center on the right going north, and a short distance away was a large store with food, meals, groceries, gas, etc., and a casino a bit further on. (We ate at the store on the way in, and later on the way back to Seattle. All the food was homemade and fabulous!)

In the souvenir store, which had carvings, CDs, jewelry, paintings, and various garments with tribal symbols, we met Wendy, a tribal member, who was full of information about the tribe, and eager to answer our many questions about life as a S'Klallam member. (I apologize if I am not phrasing things in the correct way, I have no intention of insulting anyone by referring to things in an incorrect manner.)

I told Wendy about my interest and habit of picking up rocks and crystals from every place we visit. She gave us a tip for finding some jade, jasper and other stones on a secret beach in Port Angeles. Okay, I'll pass on the info: it is at Ediz Hook, just west of the ferry landing in Port Angeles. Follow the main oceanfront drive, and go through the Nippon Paper plant (which we heard is closing soon), and drive way out on the spit, to the beaches near the end. J was the hero in rock searching! I didn't find one green stone--he found tons! Although I found lots of red ones and some that looked like flint or agates.

Note: on the way back to Seattle, we stopped by the shop again, and lo and behold, there was Wendy! I proudly showed her our bag of "prospecting" and she helped sort out the rocks into what she thought were jade and agates. Now we just have to get our hands on one of those Ronco Gem Tumblers! (remember those?!)

The Peninsula
After a great chat with Wendy, we stopped at the tribal store and had a nice lunch. Then we set our sights on getting to Port Angeles and out to the mountains. Port A was....well, let's just say that it was not too interesting. We drove through it and headed out to Lake Crescent... (more on this later)

The Japanese Gardens and SAAM--Seattle Asian Art Museum

2008-06-29T01:27:00.008-04:00

Two highlights of the trip were visits to the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM), and to the Japanese Gardens in Washington Park.

The Asian Art Museum was simply stunning. They had a collection of fabulous artifacts that rivaled more famous contemporaries. No pics from the Museum, as they weren't allowed. Some of the exhibits that were of great interest to both J and I were: "Chinese Art: A Seattle Perspective", "Pattern Richness in Modern Japanese Textiles", and "Discovering Buddhist Are--Seeking the Sublime".

As always, click on the pics to enlarge them...

These pics are all from the Japanese Gardens in the Washington Park Arboretum. The gardens are a beautiful 3.5 acres park designed in 1960. It was much larger than the city-block sized one in Portland, Oregon, and we had a great time touring them. The gardens gave me a lot of ideas for retro-fitting my much-in-need-of-work gardens!

The greenhouse/conservatory was remarkable, and there were many, many beautiful orchids! I took way too many pics...these are a few of our favorites.

And yes, there were fish! Lots of them. I took about 30 pics of them, there were so many different colors. There was a feeding frenzy, as there were a couple of home-schooled kids and their moms there feeding something to the fish. I had a good laugh.

The pic with J under the flower was to show the scale of that huge blossom! It was amazing.

Chris & Jeff Hit the Pacific Northwest!

2008-06-29T00:54:00.006-04:00

So, J & I have been back safely in little ol' Vermont for 3 days now--and I'm already being pestered for blogging and pics! I took over 1,020 e-pics, and culled them down to a manageable 950+. I won't bore you with all of them, but I'll try to give you a time line of the trip with some highlighted pics.

Organizing the pics was the clog in the process of getting something online. We usually cull whilst enroute, but I wasn't confident with the detail quality with such a small viewing screen on the digital camera, and preferred to wait until we returned home. Surprisingly, the trusty old Sony Cyber-shot 3.2 mp still takes great pics, although I'm itchin' for a new one....

Now the pics are all categorized into folders with the days and places we went--let the blogging begin!

Part I: Seattle
Neither J nor I had been to Seattle or Victoria before this trip, and our trip to Portland, Oregon last November got us excited to venture farther north. A couple of travel shows highlighting Seattle, and Victoria and Vancouver (the city in British Columbia, not the island off the mainland of Washington state, nor the city in Washington state) got us eager to fly off to the PacNW.

Numerous contacts on Ravelry.com in Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver (city) offered dozens of tips regarding places to visit, things to do, and of course, LYS (that's Local Yarn Shops to non-knitters) and teashops to spend money at!

Most of you know that I suffer from migraines--and Seattle area contacts assured me that there would be some rain and clouds. Unfortunately for me, it was sunny almost everyday on the trip, and only one or two cloudy days. Boo hoo.

The weather was mostly cool though--mid-60's to low 70s. We brought shorts, but didn't wear them once. We rented a car (J drove), and the trip from the Sea-Tac airport into and through downtown Seattle was pretty cool, I must say! Safeco Field (where the Seattle Mariners play baseball) and Qwest Field (where the Seahawks play football) where very close to the main highway we were on. As a sports fan, it was pretty cool to see two major stadiums right in the heart of the city--easily accessible for fans.

We were pretty tired when by the time we got to our hotel on the northern side of town--the Comfort Suites--really close to the Space Needle. The guys at the front desk gave us a great tip for a Thai restaurant-Bahn Thai, which was about 3 blocks from the hotel. It was THE BEST meal I had had in a very long time, and the best Thai food I've ever had. We usually try Thai restaurants just about everywhere we travel, and this was the bomb!

These pics are from the top of the Space Needle. Stay tuned for a recap of our trip out to the Olympic Peninsula, a spiritual encounter with Wendy, of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, and onward to Victoria and Vancouver Island! Oh, and meet-ups with Nigel, Allie, and Jeanne! ; )

Cheers!

June Flowers: Clematis, Columbine, and Peonies

2008-06-15T19:42:00.004-04:00

Okay, this is the last post before we're off to Seattle! I promise...

Just took some pics of the gardens because these will all be gone-by when we return from the trip. I had more varieties of columbine this year than ever before! I would see other plants along the roadside and remember to come back when the seed heads were ready to scatter their seeds. Then I'd snip a couple of the heads. I have a double pink, double white, single white, a crimson red, and a couple different shades of purples.

I have a purplely clematis on a white light post, and a crimson red against one of our decks. The purple one always starts opening up about 2 weeks prior to the red one. Oh, I do have another huge single white--but it's just budding now. I think it is a II. Clematis are categorized into I, II, and III, according to their blooming time. Mine are all I and II's as I don't think we have a long enough summer in this part of Vermont for the III's.

Our peonies were really slow this year.

They'll be on the last leg of blooming in a week or so. One is just starting now!

And we have the Japanese Irises. I just transplanted the white one 3 years ago and already it's as large as the purple ones! I'm going to mix them up the next time I transplant.

They tend to die-out in the middle, and should be separated every 5 or 6 years or so.

Trip to Southern Vermont

2008-06-15T14:41:00.006-04:00

As a follow-up to the Vermont Knit Camp II, I wanted to post a couple pics from my drive down and back.

As always, clickety to embiggen (the pics) --->

Vermont is a beautiful state, and I love southern Vermont too, although I don't get down to the Bennington area more than every 10 years or so!

For my many out of state friends, Jeff and I live in northwest Vermont (Jericho, 12 miles northeast of Burlington), Bennington is on the southern Vermont border with Massachusetts.

I took an alternate road down, parallel with Route 7, which is a N/S main highway.

There was less traffic and stress, and went by some beautiful lakes and lovely farm area, and through the historic area of Southern Vermont, namely Manchester, Hubbardton, and then Bennington.

The pics of the houses are in Manchester.

Enjoy the pics!

Vt. Knit Camp II

2008-06-15T14:11:00.005-04:00

Last weekend, June 6-8, I traveled down to southern Vermont-Bennington, to be precise--for the second Vt. Knit Camp gathering for members and friends of the GLBT-Knit listserve (e-mail) group I've been a member of since January.

I have many fond memories: the wonderful, talented, and lively group of women and men (mostly women); the fabulous handknit garments/articles that they brought for show-and-tell, or were working on; and the un-for-get-able food! I'd have to say that, hands-down, Charlton's "chocolate cream pie" was THE hit of the weekend! (Sorry to all the other entries, which were fabulous too!)

Sidebar: Charlton said he was bringing a "chocolate cream pie." And, as he's in the greater Boston area (Somerville), I just assumed it would be similar to a Boston Cream Pie. But, nope. It was a chocolate cream pie. Literally. No, it was really like semi-hard chocolate fudge--with a hint of cream, and in a crunchy crust. And, did he bring just one, little, itty-bitty pie? NO! He brought TWO HUGE PIES and one small pie! (I'm getting a migraine just writing about it!) I had to take 3 migraine pills: one each day, in order to consume some each day. I even brought a piece home for Jeff, which I ate most of...

The runners-up were Melissa's Mac 'n Cheese, Carol Ann's brownies and quiche, and Ann's Granola. Sorry if I misspelled any names here, new friends for me. Also sorry if I omitted other foods, seriously, it was all wonderful!

I'm posting a couple pics of the people and the garments. Jeff and I are leaving for Seattle and Victoria on Tuesday so I have to make some quick and dirty posts now. I have lots of cleaning and packing to do! A lot of my pics came out blurry: it was in the low 90s for weather, and I don't know if my camera was miffed.

Pics: As always, clickety to embiggen (the pics)-->

Top right: Charlton, ala chocolate pie fame.
Second from top: group shot on the last day.
Third from top; Gigi from Montreal models her fabulous cabled sweater. The details were fantastic!
Middle at right: Sadia from Bennington displays her spindle-spun yarn. Very nice!
At right: Melissa S. Shows off her very nice top/shrug. Beautiful!
Next: Fudge from Ithaca warms up with MY cashmere/alpaca/merino triangle in triangle lace shawl. Soft.

I will be posting more pics after the Seattle trip. Just wanted to share some of these with ya'll.

Props to all from the knit camp! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of you and hope we meet again!

It's Our Moment...It's Our Time...Happy June!

2008-06-04T09:47:00.010-04:00

Uh....a bit late here, but happy June! A friend of mine once said (long ago), "you have to say 'Rabbit, Rabbit' the first morning of the month, right when you wake up. It'll bring you good luck!" Okay, so, belated "rabbit, rabbit" everyone!

Clickety to Embiggen (the pics)--->

I try to keep this blog politically neutral, but I am just bursting with pride and joy right now! I am huge supporter of Barack Obama. It's the first time I've ever donated to a political candidate. Last night's speech gave me hope again for this country. I won't blather on much, but I really, really hope that Americans will find it in their hearts the courage and strength to give him a chance come November. My friends come from all political stripes, so I'll just get off the political soapbox and off to fiber stuff! (Feel free to carry on any political conversation with me off blog at my comcast e-mail!) Hugs.
Back to other stuff...

The pics of the flowers are: columbine, lupines, and wiegelia--just starting. All the plants are soaking wet, and it's drizzling out! Today is rainy and cool. Temperature in the mid 60s. This weekend it's supposed to be 86-90!

I'm off to Bennington (southern Vermont) on Friday for a GLBT knit camp! Yay! I'm on a listserve with dozens of fabulous people from all over the world, and about 20 something of us are meeting Friday-Sunday for a knit camp. I've been on the list group for about six months now, and the talented and extremely funny group has enriched my life. (Remind me to post later about "JIC Melissa", and the Melissa names...) I'm not teaching a workshop this time, so I'm really psyched to just hang, and knit with folks. That was one of the drawbacks of teaching the spinning cotton workshop at Easton--I didn't get as much time to just hang with people. Although the workshop for me was extremely rewarding--both sharing, and feedback from the attendees.

BFF news! One of my new BFFs from Easton is Kenny from Houston, "The Boy Who Knits". He's a wonderful guy, and I'm honored to know him, and getting to know him online and via phone since the retreat. Kenny sent me a "pound of love" in the mail. A box of yarn! Fabulous sock yarn: a gorgeous Flat Feet blank, with browns and greens; two skeins of Panda Silk (bamboo, superwash merino, and some silk) that has the most amazing hand (feel), in browns and gold; two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock yarn in purple iris (green and purple); two skeins of Shibuiknits superwash merino in jade green; a skein of dark blue, and a skein of grey Trekking XXL sockyarn; two skeins of Plymouth Royal 100% bamboo; and the "unmentionable" Red Heart iron acrylic yarn--a joke, not in the pic--my hands are wayyyyyy too soft to deal with a petroleum based yarn.

So, a HUGE thanks to Kenny! Luv ya!

That's all folks! For now. More later if I have time. If not, after the knit camp weekend!

Hugs, Chris

Mark Your Spot!

2008-05-30T01:44:00.005-04:00

map has been relocated to bottom of blog page...

Etc...

2008-05-29T17:36:00.011-04:00

The weather in Vermont is finicky. Last night we had a fire in our soapstone woodstove, and there were frost/freeze warnings; today it's 76 and I have some fans on and the windows open! Ice Age and Global Warming?!

Here are some pics for Barb in Clearwater, Florida. I've known her for many years, as she was a member of the spinning guild I (uh hum...) sometimes attend (I've been a member for over 15 years), and summered here in Vermont and wintered in Clearwater. Maybe 3 or 4 years ago she and her husband Fred moved down there permanently.

They do have children who live in Vermont, so I hope to run into them sometime. She said that she is homesick for Vermont, so I thought I'd put up some pics from today...I hope she doesn't get more homesick! As always, clickety to embiggen!
(the pics)

Project Updates:
The Dr. G's vest is going along slowly. I keep getting sidetracked with other projects. I just need to sit down and finish one thing at a time, instead of having 7 or 8 projects going on! The pattern is really easy, and the handspun (mine) corriedale has lovely jewel tones in it. The sunlight really highlights it.

The silk lace yarn: It was my mom's birthday yesterday, and as I had not figured out exactly what I was going to get for her, it all came out well, as in our phone conversation she said she'd love a scarf! The colors will look great on her, and I started the feather and fan pattern as a swatch. I'm going to show it to her on Saturday and see if she likes it.

I haven't touched the sun ray shawl since Easton.

New Stuff:
I got four lovely fleece samples of Huacaya Alpacas from Maple who with her husband Howes owns North Star Alpacas in Michigan. I met her on Rav, and got into a conversation about crimp versus elasticity/memory (my mis-speak). I asked her to send me some samples, and she did! Most of the alpaca that I have spun had little crimp--none that I could see, and I wonder if the roving process removes it. She stated that Alpaca breeders have been trying to breed more crimp and elasticity (my take on it) into the breeds--that's great, especially from a handspinner's perspective.

I fell in love with the samples! Two white, a brown, and a fawn color. Each one is just a lock, but I was amazed to see how much yarn I got out of one lock! The first sample was Orion, a two year old male, with a really nice silky, dark brown fleece. I flicked the lock, and it fluffed up about threefold. I separated it in half. The first section I pulled into an 18" roving. While alpaca is not "greasy", it still has a slightly greasy feel to it. This was not washed, and was very clean, without any grass or vegetation in it. The "greasiness" (I use the term lightly--it's not greasy like wool), kept the fiber together as I was drafting it, and the long fiber length (about 4-5 inches) made it quite easy to draw into a thread thread.

The second part of the lock I spun right from the lock. To do this, angle the side of the lock toward the leader from your wheel while treadling, and let the end of the fibers catch onto the twist in the leader. Once it's connected, start pulling out from the lock.

One tip: it's better to pull the fibers out from the lock versus pulling back with the hand holding the lock because the fiber will end up bunching in your hand. This is true when spinning short-draw too.

The second alpaca sample I spun was Pollux, a two year old boy, with a lovely white fleece. This lock was beautiful too. Not quite as silky as Orion, but still delightful. Pollux was easier to spin a bit thicker, but as you can see in the sample swatch, both plied yarns came out to 7 sts per inch using #3 needles. Note, I got 9 yards of 2-ply yarn out of each lock!

More later...

Colorways, Navajo plying, and projects

2008-05-24T14:18:00.007-04:00

Just a quick update on the yarn from the alpaca roving I wrote about in my last post. I have around 1,000 yards, with 6 oz left to spin. Here's a picture of one of the skeins that has been wound on my ball winder. I usually don't ball my yarn up until I'm really ready to use it, but I am dying to knit a sample from it! The skeins came out really light and airy, and have a WPI of 21 (wraps per inch for you non-spinners). I think it will make fabulous socks! I have enough to also do a scarf. With the extra left on one bobbin, I plied it with some extra wool I had on another bobbin from the Dr. G's Vest I spun the yarn for (mentioned in a previous blog...)

Upcoming projects (as always, click on the pics for a larger view)
Silk Lace: At the knitting retreat we had a schwag* event where you pick numbers and the lowest numbers get to pick first, etc. I was number 12 out of 20 something because I was a "Chatty-Cathy", so I missed out on some really great stuff, although what I got was wonderful too.

I picked out a skein of Cherry Tree Hill cascade lace (1,000 yards of 100% silk) in a beautiful Martha's Vineyard colorway with purples, blues, and greens. (Funny how all three things I got at the Retreat have the same colors! Just different shades and blends.) The silk makes the colors shimmer. I have no idea exactly what I'm going to do with it.

Soysilk: This was a lovely gift for being a workshop presenter. It's 50/50 soysilk and merino. It's called Karaoke, in the Mermaid colorway, with plum, seaweed green and some light olive greens (others may say teals, purples and blues, but I'm blue/green colorblind, so what do I know!). I pulled the roving into 2 long strips, then broke just one into 4 more. I spent some time attenuating just one strip--the "silk" feels just like real silk, has the same shimmer, and has the same "tacky" feeling from being dyed, ie., it clumps some. This made attenuating a bit of fun. Not! But, the time I spent attenuating (also called predrafting) was well worth the effort. The fiber drafted well when I spun it, and I spun enough to make a sample swatch.

I really wanted to maintain the colors in the plying, so I spun up a bit on just one bobbin, then I Navajo plied the single, with my wheel set at moderate uptake, I treadled verrrryyyyyyy sllllooooowwwwly.... Navajo plying turns a single ply into a 3-ply. It's like finger crocheting. You pull out a loop from the main "line" about 10-20", or shorter (when pulled out, the loop now has two "sides"), the leader then wraps around the two "sides", thus making a 3-ply. This takes a LOT of practice! If you treadle too fast, it's just a harsh, tight and overplied yarn. I really wanted this to be soft, and to maintain the color changes at the same time. One hard part is to ensure that where the loop meets the next loop that there is not an overlap, because you can see this. Navajo plying (in my opinion) works better on thinner yarn because the "join" is less obvious. For a lesson and video clip go here: navajo plying.

I knitted up a 4" x 8" swatch, using a modified basket weave. Mine was 3 sts edging, then *(k2, p3)* repeat between * * to last 3 sts, then 3 st edging; next row: maintaining 3 st edgings, *(p3,k2)* repeat to last 3 sts, do 3 st edging. Repeat rows 1 & 2, then do row 1 again. On the next row (row 6), do a purl row (this is the back side). Then repeat the first 5 rows, but switch the k2, p3 to p2, k3, thus offsetting the sts. On the 12th row do a purl row. Anywho, you probably get it by now!

The purl row creates a pull on the front, so that the knit blocks on the right side pop out, and almost have a convex curve. It's cool!

I plan on doing at least a scarf with this. I think it's 8 oz.

Superfine Merino Top: The last stash I got at the retreat was 7 oz of superfine dyed merino top in a green/blue colorway. This one has more greens and blues in it than the other two stashes, with some purple. I haven't spun up any of this yet, but have attenuated a couple of strips. More later!

*for a history of "schwag" go here: schwag

A Lesson in Washing Handspun (or garments)

2008-05-22T15:14:00.010-04:00

Many people have asked how I wash my fiber and yarn. I basically use the same process for washing either small amounts of fleece, or washing my skeins. Let's use the alpaca yarn I just spun from the beautiful roving I bought at Alpacas of Easton (AOE) on the alpaca farm field trip mentioned below (during the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat).

As always, click on the pics for a larger view!

Here's a shot of the roving before spinning. It feels like a silky, soft, light cloud! Kate (of AOE) had white and grey alpaca blended to yield this very beautiful white with silver/grey. The second shot is two of the skeins right after winding on my skein winder. I usually wind the plied yarn from the bobbin onto a niddy-noddy, but this time I wound it right on the skein winder. I set the winder at about 58" circumference, wound it, then multiplied the number of strands times 60 (inches), then divided by 36 for yards. The two skeins came out to be roughly 800 yards. I was going to do a 3-ply, as I was spinning it almost laceweight, but I was spinning pretty fast, using a long-draw which morphed into a quick back draw. When I started plying the 3-ply I realized it was going to be heavier than I wanted (I picture socks and a scarf out of this), so I switched to a 2-ply.

Washing
I fill up a sink with warm to hot water. I use natural, environmentally-friendly dishwashing soap. There are a variety of efficient and effective soaps out there, including Dawn, and other things that cut some of the grease. I tend to buy more natural dishsoaps, but buy whatever meets your financial and personal needs. With wool, I use a hotter water temp to cut some of the grease, but with alpaca and llama I use moderately warm to hot, right out of the tap. Alpaca has no lanolin, and is relatively cleaner than wool, and the roving I purchased had very little vegetable matter in it (grass/hay).

Add the soap to the water, I only use about 1/8th of a cup. I don't even measure it. The dirtier the fiber, more I'd use. I just squirt some in, let it foam a bit, then shut off the water. I then add the skeins to the sink, submerging it a couple times to ensure that it gets fully wet. Alpaca (and angora bunny) don't absorb it as quickly as wool, so I just gently push it down a couple of times.

Then, just let it soak for about 20 minutes.

To drain and rinse:
I push the fiber to the side of the sink, and pull the plug in the drain slowly. I usually don't lift the skeins out of the water, as the heavy weight can drag/pull on the fiber. I use this same method for washing fiber, skeins, and garments.

After the water drains out, still holding the fiber to the side, I gently squeeze the fiber trying to get as much water out as possible. You can either lift it out of the sink, supported by both hands, and put it into a bowl/container, or keep it to the side of the sink, refill the sink with warm water. Try to keep the water temp roughly the same as the last soak water. The only caveat of this is you hope the water coming right out of the tap is about the same as the soak water--not really cold or really hot. So, for a newbie, I'd recommend taking the fiber out of the sink to refill.

Refill the sink, add the skeins again, and gently submerge. Let it soak for about 10 minutes or so. This alpaca was really clean. If your fiber is dirtier or dyed, lengthen the soak and rinse cycles.

Remove, using same method above in the soak phase (gently squeeze out as much water as you can). For garments, I roll in a towel, absorbing more moisture. For skeins, I put in the washing machine (yes!) but ONLY ON SPIN!! Tres importante! If your machine has only spin-with-spray feature, do not use this. No spray/spritzing. I let it spin for only about 10-15 seconds.

Remove the skeins from the washing machine, then gently "snap" the skein between my hands (no pic, as I couldn't do this and take the pic). Rotate the skein 1/4 around in your hand, therefore snapping (gently) at another section of the skein.

Drying: Weighting the skein. One note, a lot of people were taught to do this in the '70s and '80s by "hanging a can of soup" (or another weight) on the skein. I do not recommend this! There are specific uses for this, mainly for setting the twist for singles, and for weaving.

The purpose for weighting the skein was to set the twist and to achieve a more balanced ply. Many of us, in early spinning, were not the best plyers. The main problem with this is that the weight can stretch and break the fibers. Another problem is that I think it leads us to not learn how to achieve a balanced ply. If you are must do this, I would recommend that you take the weight off from the skein after a couple of hours, and check the skein's twist. Okay, enough of this soapbox!

I believe that roughly 10% of the twist comes out in the wash, so to speak. The twist relaxes and is distributed over a longer length of the plied yarn. When I teach someone how to spin, I try to emphasize that a skein (before washing) can have about a 1 1/2 extra twist (in the skein), and that will most likely end up pretty balanced. You can use this as a guide to figure out if you are overplying or not. Of course, different fiber reacts differently.

After gently snapping the skein, I hang over a clothes rack, or doorknob. Because of the trip to the washing machine, there is very little moisture in the skein. I will readjust the skein a couple times over the next 8 hours, so that the weight is redistributed during the drying process. Most of my skeins dry overnight.

Tip: I do not ball up the yarn until I am ready to use it. I find that the twist stays in better. One off-topic note, but kind of related, I do not use a steam iron over a towel to block my garments. This works well for showing/displaying, however I find that a thorough wash of the garment, then flat blocking works better.

These are just my thoughts, no right or wrong (except for stretching the fiber with the soup can!).

I hope this helps some of you out there!

Men's Spring Knitting Retreat

2008-05-20T14:59:00.008-04:00

Wow. Although I could try, there aren't enough accurate, descriptive words to encompass the feelings and emotions I have from attending the retreat this past weekend. Others may try, but they will fail! Seriously, check out a couple of these blogs Sean's Soapbox (boston sean), Kenny from Houston, for other recaps and some feelings about the weekend. I'll add more links and pics later on as they appear.

Condensed short path: Kyle from CA led me to Ravelry, which led me to line A: the Vt. Knitters Group, which led me to meeting 4 other Vermont gay guys who knit, which led to a Vermont Men's Knit Group (no real group name exists at this time); at the same time, line B (from rav) led to the Men Who Knit group, and the development of the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat which was held at Easton Mountain Resort in Easton, New York. Please check out their website and learn more about them. Let me say, it was a great location, the staff was great, the food was good-to-great, and, as their website states, it was a "haven where people can explore the integration of body, mind, heart and spirit." That is an understatement.

Special thanks to Joe and Ted for all their hard work, time and energy, and love and sharing! Monday was like an e-mail lovefest! Between the dozens of e-mails just on my end, and all the posts on Rav, I think many of us were suffering from knitting and male knitting/spinning camaraderie withdrawal! I agree.

I'll post more later. I just wanted to get something up, with some pics. Note: as always, click on the pics to go to the larger view.

Top pic: One of the lovely green mountains surrounding the retreat.
Second from top: day old baby alpaca! So soft and warm. I.love.pacas!
Third from top: Kate from Alpacas of Easton, baby paca and mommy paca.
Fourth from top: Kate, mommy, and baby, again...
Fifth from top: Two of my many new BFF's: Left, Kenny from Houston, me in the center, and right is Jim from Hudson, New York. Both soooo sweet and lovable! (Yes, my partner was there too.)

I wanted to make sure I included enough pics of the Alpaca trip, because Ted did not get to go and missed out on seeing these cuties! (the pacas....)

Pics of the retreat:
(Below at right) These pics are from the night of the "fashion" show. Note, lower case F in fashion, and light use of the concept of show! Seriously, just kidding. There were lots of super nice designs and great work by many of the guys. It was our attempt at mocking such lovelies as Miss Banks and such.

Sorry the pics are so dark. It was a kind of dark location. Some of the pics I took across the room and in the center and they turned out dark, others I took from right in front of me and they came out much better.

The pic at right is a partial group shot of the circle. I can't tell who all of them are from this shot, but I think they are Bob from Tampa, I know Joe and Sean are in there, can't quite make out the others.

I'll have to add more tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed this recap. I, as most of the other guys, am looking forward to continuing to develop these wonderful relationships formed at the retreat. As I said earlier, I am blessed, humbled and enriched by meeting these fabulous guys!

Happy knitting!

A Worthy Cause

2008-05-12T16:33:00.009-04:00

Now, I'm not traditionally big on writing about causes, only because there are just way too many out there to consider. Plus, my funds are pretty tight at this point in my life! What better time to start using up all the yarn and roving stash I have eating up space in the house! Anywho, a friend of mine told me about Kirsten, a knitting woman who's father passed away. He had Alzheimer's Disease.

Now that I'm well past 40 I have started thinking about these types of diseases, ie., Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. They are both terrible things, and place such a burden on family and friends, especially the spouse, who must alter their lives to provide total physical and medical attention.

I've been deriving much pleasure from the interconnectiveness of this small world we are in; through my GLBT knit list, and especially through Ravelry.com. I've met many wonderful and talented people, including finding other gay men who knit, right here in Vermont! (A post about our little group will appear magically here tomorrow!) I've been blessed with many new friends, not only in Vermont, but in the US and Canada. In my hope to share some of my talents and interests (and a bit of money), I donated to the Dr. G's Alzheimer's Disease Fund. Just $10 is enough, but I'm sure they'd accept more if you can spare it!

This is her blogsite, Through the Loops, and the link to the donation area is on the right. Here are some pics of what i spun up, and the beginning of the vest! Click on for a larger view...

Thanks for caring!

Tea Review: Japanese Shincha, Hibiki-An

2008-05-12T15:37:00.006-04:00

Similar to Beaujolais nouveau, shincha is the first japanese sencha of the season. Typically only the first week or two of picking the new, bright green shoots, shincha is a must have for tea connoisseurs! In my journey through teas, I have gone from first flush Darjeelings of the season, which are light, fruity, and slightly acidic, to various first picks of Assam, Ceylon, and China greens. However, to cup a shincha is to embark on a blissful journey of fresh, green delight!

My two selections are from hibiki-an from Japan. The first (I haven't tried yet) is Farmer's Shincha. Available at $26 for 5.64oz. They shipped it in two small, sealed bags. This is great, as it will only last for a month or so before degrading after opening. Once opened, it needs to be stored in a tightly sealed jar, out of light and heat sources. When shincha is processed, it goes through five stages: steaming, drying, shaping, sorting leaves and stems, and drying. The tea leaves that don't go through the final two finishing processes, sorting and drying, are called "Aracha", which means unaffected or minimally processed. Japanese tea farmers have been enjoying "Aracha" for many years - it is the traditional drink for farmers. "Aracha" contains stems, known as "Karigane" and therefore has a natural unprocessed taste. "Karigane" tea stems also make the tea more sweet in flavor.

The second tea, which I tried, is Shincha Fukamushi. It was available at 2.82 oz for $21. I've seen shincha prices vary from $18 to $38+ per oz, so this is on the low side, but still very high quality. When I cut the bag open, I immediately could smell the green, fresh, smell. This tea had almost a minty hint to it! The leaves were a very nice, dark emerald green.

I steeped it in my cute Littlemountaintea.com steeper, which holds an amazing 18oz, which is 3 tea cups worth. I usually use 1.5 teaspoons of tea, and do two infusions per batch. I steeped each infusion for 30 seconds, which were combined in the beaker. The infusion was a medium-light green. Very typical of shincha. The fragrance was very grassy and fresh. I was salivating over this one!

The liquor was amazing. A nice contrast of grassy, mellow, with a nice blend of bitterness. I used 180 degree water, but I think it was a bit too hot. It was more bitter than mellow. Shincha, and most senchas, typically are more mellow with slightly cooler water. 170-176 should be fine. The second batch I steeped, which was the 3rd and 4th infusions, I used 170 degrees. Again, I steeped each infusion for just 30 seconds. This round was much smoother! Very nice and crisp. The sweetness was more pronounced, yet still crisp. Unfortunately, by this time the fragrance was gone. But very enjoyable. I highly recommend this tea! You can find it at Hibiki-An.com.

Why I Heart Vermont!

2008-05-08T15:41:00.005-04:00

The pics say it all!

Spinning Notes

2008-05-08T14:49:00.010-04:00

Okay, so here are some pics of me spinning. (note: click on the pics for larger viewing.) Don't laugh! It's in our TV room, which is kind of getting cluttered with all my STUFF. It's not in our cleaner living room, so most of the mess is in here. You'll see lots of knitting and spinning stuff around me. It's like my throne room! Lol. And, it's about 11:30 or midnight, and I think i was watching Indiana returns or something political. Note our beloved rescue kitty Tigger, who is perched on the table next to the wheel--the flyer is spinning--hence the blurred shot. He'll sit there for hours, occasionally swiping at the moving parts of the wheel, or he'll try to bit the knot of the drive band whipping by...

The fiber is something I bought probably 7 or 8 years ago. Now that I'm fundless I'm trying to use up what I have. I bought 1 pound of the corriedale wool with the pretty colors. The single is coming out mostly blueish, with some nice reds and other colors here and there. I also have 8 oz of light grey merino with silk noils.

I have the damnest time with blogger, trying to get the pics to go where i want them! The pics have a mind of their own. It doesn't matter if i choose no format, or even a format. Anyone with blogger have an idea how to place these wherever you want? Maybe I have to have more text than pics so that the text flows around the pics. I'll just have to type more. Oh, I see, if there is enough text to go around all the pics I can place them on the right...duh...

Anyway, the fiber is really long, which is great for doing a wicked long draw. It will probably fluff up a bit after plying and washing (I always wash my skeins after plying and letting them rest). So, I'm spinning for sockweight yarn. I was getting kind of tired last night when I started the second bobbin, which i got 1/2 filled, but my spinning started to suck. It was getting down to laceweight and thinner. One thing I've noted, since I've been spinning so much thinner yarn lately, it's very hard to get back to spinning the way I did in the first couple years of spinning. I've been spinning for over 15 years now. When I attended SOAR '96 or '97 in Smugglers' Notch, Vermont, I took a workshop with the fabulous and talented Rita Buchanan. It was "spinning bulky yarns". What a hoot!

ETA: pic of the two skeins I plied last night. At the right, you can see how the color of the plied yarn is mostly blueish green now. It's wet, but I am hoping it is less blue than green. I have a really cool vest I want to make with it. Vermont Gay Men's Knit Group tomorrow! More on that later...

Have a great day and enjoy the pics!

Spring's Eternal Bliss...or something like that!

2008-05-06T13:32:00.008-04:00

It's a lovely day in NW Vermont. Almost 70 degrees f. Here's a little snapshot off of one of our need-to-be-replaced decks... In the background are some birch trees I let grow about 4 years ago. They create a nice light backdrop for the flowering crab tree. The leaves are burgundy red on one side and a coppery tone on the other. They pale to a greenish color in the summer. The blossoms are a light pink. We have another one that stays red/bronze all year, and the blossoms are a darker red. Picture in a couple days when it flowers.

Two or three years ago we had a heavy March snowstorm that broke off the center right leading branch. You can see about 40% up from the bottom the tree now kind of goes to the left. some branches are filling out in the middle and there is one leader that may strengthen....

Spinning: here is a pic of the last three things I spun. Left: is the shetland I got from Carolina Homespun. Really nice. Long fibers, spun up really stretchy, and fluffed up after the wash. In this case, I found that I could spin it thinner than the desired end result. In the middle is the merino/alpaca blend. I got that at Paradise Fibers. It is 70/30 merino/alpaca. I have enough for socks....yum! The skein on the right is the romney wool/angora bunny blend. Maybe only 20% bunny, but it's REALLY soft! I have about 8 oz of each of the fibers.

Blogging: Oh! What to do?! I emailed Zhenya about all the wonderful things in life I want to blog about: knitting, spinning, cooking, Zen, being gay and alcoholic in Vermont, etc. Each one in itself is time consuming. Oh wait! I also have to spend the time DOING the things! Lol. I'll try to do a short blurb about each one, if there's anything going on about it.

Have a great day!

May in Vermont

2008-05-04T23:40:00.018-04:00

Two weeks ago it was 82 degrees here in northwest Vermont. Today it was 60. Kind of springlike, but it's damp and cold. Like our trip to Portland, Oregon in November '07. The trees are budding, the daffodils are gone by, and it's just about time for J. to do the first lawn mowing. I cook. He mows. And takes care of the compost for our organic garden! (He does eat well, I must say.)

Tonight I made a Thai/Indian dish. Curried broccoli and Quorn (vegetarian fake chicken breast-type food...yum) with organic golden rose short grain rice and red quinoa. I used Indian curry from our trip to India in '06, Thai green curry paste, and some of my homemade yogurt. It was yummy.

Knitting updates:

Audacity yarn from blackbunny (rav): it's part of a fund raiser for my guy Barack. It's 100% superwash merino, yummy feel and yummy colors! I was planning on making socks from it, but i have several pairs of socks planned/done and maybe I'll do a scarf. Was goggling scarf patterns last night. Just need to find the coolest one!

Sun ray shawl (1950's dinner cloth/tea table garment in shawl disguise). I'm only on row 98 of 7 billion! Seriously, there are about 260 rows. But, the stitches are increased by 1/3 for each section. I just went from about 213 sts to 640! So each row will now take 3 times longer to do.

Other things:

The Men's Spring Knitting Retreat in Easton, NY is only a couple weeks away! I can't wait! Gay male knitters! Whoo hoo! Joe and Ted have done a lot of work for this. I'm teaching a short workshop on spinning cotton. Joe, Ted, Dan O. and Mr. DV are attending. Such esteemed people with loads of talent! I'm honored and humbled--to share my knowledge and to learn from them.

Off for now, gotta load up pics. more later...

knitting update

2008-04-20T23:39:00.008-04:00

Here's an update on my UFO's now FO's:

Finished my "yes we can" socks, yarn from Mama E's C*eye*ber fiber on etsy. Really nice colors! these were my first toe-up socks. Once I got used to knitting with the two circs, it went quite smoothly. I actually like starting the socks at the toe much better, as I can try them on for size while I'm knitting them. I like learning new techniques. I hate getting stuck in old ways, just doing them because that was the way I was taught. Like going from the inchworm method of spinning most people do--not even a short draw, as they let the twist go into the drafting triangle--to the long draw, and then various modified versions of that.
The second pair of socks I used Trekking XXL color 165. I LOVE the color scheme! I made the sock pattern up, combining the toe-up technique, ribbed instep, short row heel, then an OXO pattern from a sock book for the top. Adding the ribbing gave more arch support. The OXO pattern in the book wasn't technically accurate--it was missing one part and was more like an X morphing into an O. The O is supposed to be nestled into the arms of the X, so the pattern needed a repeat. Top of the O, then bottom of X, then top of X, then bottom of O.