Ann i Am

California Variegated Mutant . . . Sheep

2012-01-26T22:51:00.000-05:00

Or, CVM for short. Who wouldn't love sheep with that name?

Just today I got a packet of fiber samples from Marushka Farms. You probably can't tell by looking at the not-so-swell photo, but the fiber is absolutely luscious. I'm hesitant to share because I know EVERYONE will want this fiber before I get a chance to order. But, I'll take the chance--here goes:

The first photo shows SIX colors of lamb fleece roving taken from the first shearing of these babes and each roving is from a single fleece--a CVM fleece!

This photo shows five colors of combed top. Multiple fleeces are blended together in this preparation.

The colors are so gorgeous, I won't even be tempted to spoil them by having more dying disasters (see earlier post). And, May is just around the corner so I'll need some especially fine fiber to spin during the RennFaire. Plus, I'm just really convinced God is gonna stop making sheep, in which case the wool I have on hand probably won't be enough. (I haven't decided enough for what exactly, since the winter weather in Oklahoma can't seem to get much colder than 50. I'm guessing the really awful weather is waiting until May while I'm outdoors trying to spin at the RennFaire).

There, now that I've completely justified the purchase of YET MORE WOOL, all I have to do is decide how much of which colors I want. It might take me a day or two to decide, so since I've been nice enough to share don't run out and buy the stuff I want.

Notice how mature and restrained and non-cliche I was in not noting how long it's been since I've blogged and wondering where all the time went? Yeah, I'm mature and restrained like that.

I'm Dyeing

2011-07-24T21:14:00.000-04:00

It is no exaggeration to say I've got pounds and pounds of undyed wool:

         1 1/2 pounds of corriedale locks from Tina's Ewephoria farm in Lawrence
          1 pound of corriedale roving from WCMercantile.com
          2 pounds of finn sheep wool from coppermoose.com
2 pounds of brown sheep punta

I've got some silk too, but haven't cataloged that. Soooooo, I'm thinking it's time to dye.

I checked umpteen books out from the library, dug notes out from past workshops, and googled and googled and googled every dye topic I can think of and visited countless forums. I've purchased gallons of vinegar and I've weighed and measured the subject fiber. I'd say I'm ready.

I moved a table to the garage from ~~the cavern of crap~~ my workshop and mixed dye stock solutions.

After watching Cadel Evans kill the Tour time trial, I spent ALL DAY Saturday making color wheels and samples of all the dyes I have on hand.

The color wheel samples are a bit anemic, I suppose I didn't use a concentrated enough stock. I remedied that when it came time to dye.

First I vat dyed the corriedale locks

On my monitor the colors are really washed out--in real life they are not--I used LOTS of dye. And, I thought I'd spend the rest of my life rinsing out the extra dye.

Next I hand painted the 2 pounds of finn sheep roving. 2 pounds is a LOT of wool. My color plan didn't work out like I envisioned. I wanted something unlike anything I already have. That goal was accomplished but the roving turned out kinda yucky. I hope to like it better tomorrow, or the next day -- 2 pounds of barf-dyed wool is a WHOLE LOT of wool. Maybe it will spin up ok--we'll see. It looks way worse in person than in the photo.

I got the hang of hand painting by the time I got to the corriedale roving and did a better job of choosing colors. I really like how the sunshine colors turned out.

These are packets of wool cooling and waiting to be washed.

I'd have liked to get some color on the rest of the naked wool, but the weekend has come to an end, as has the family's patience with scent of vinegar and wool.

The NEW & IMPROVED Plan

2011-07-20T09:25:00.000-04:00

Day 20 of 30 days of Getting Art On

AND

Stage 17 of the Tour de Fleece (and France)

I'm implementing a new and improved plan for spinning consistency. My goal is to spin sock yarn for a fair entry from two similarly colored batts. My previous attempts have yielded lovely yarn, but not sock weight and not very consistent. So, now I have employed my two wheels and am alternating between the two of them.

The wheels seem to be happy with this arrangement and the yarn isn't too bad either.

Owning My Crazy

2011-07-18T22:51:00.000-04:00

I've fallen off the blog-every-day wagon, although I have been spinning during most of my Tour and Womens' World Cup watching. So that part of my plan has been a success.

While rumbling around in my stash to find more fiber to spin, I opened a big bin which, to my complete surprise, was FULL of handspun yarn-- some I had no memory of spinning. Since none of the yarn was labeled with yardage it is practically impossible to plan projects to use it up--that might me a wee bit nutty. So, I spent practically the ENTIRE day Sunday measuring yardage and labeling skeins. Looks like I've got a bit of knitting to do now, 'cause that's just about 9,500 yards of yarn.

What Day is This Anyway?

2011-07-12T17:45:00.000-04:00

Watching the Tour de France, participating in the Tour de Fleece, and participating in Traci's 30 days of Art has gotten me all confused about what day it is. I know it's the 12th, but it's the 11th day of the Tour de France, but since yesterday was a rest day, stage 10 was raced today. See, I'm NOT crazy for being confused.

I do know that I'm pretty happy with the results of having (months ago) drumcarded together some unidentified grey wool and some white alpaca. The wool was clean, but still a little greasy. So, I won't really know what I've got until I've plied and washed the yarn. I think I'm gonna like it and wish I had more. But, as my Grandma Marie always said . . . If wishes were fishes, we'd have fish to fry--If dog turds were donuts we'd eat 'til we die. Grandma always had a way with words!

Anyway, here's what's-what with the grey fiber.

Bye Bye Black Sheep

2011-07-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

Today -- day 10 of getting your art on -- day 9 of the Tour de Fleece --and day 3 of fighting tick fever -- saw the end of spinning the rambouillet I processed and have been working on for over a year.

So, it's bye-bye black sheep.

Days 8 & 9 -- Off My Game

2011-07-09T14:07:00.000-04:00

No post of progress for the 30 days challenge for yesterday. Instead, since I feel like hammered [insert something disgusting] I spent my time at the doctor whose best guess as to the cause of my malaise is a tick-borne disease--oh, lets just say Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Won't know for sure for about a week when the blood screen comes back, anyway I'm being treated for that.

I think in fairness I should at least be able to see the Rocky Mountains. Since I'm marooned in relatively flat, excessively hot, and consequently miserable Oklahoma, I'm saying I have "Trail of Tears Misery Fever."

Anyway despite being resigned to the couch for the next few days, I've not found it too taxing to wash the skeined yarn I've spun over the last week, so that is my art for today and yesterday. And, in a nod to my LOVE of the Tour de France, I'm hanging the skeins from my bike handlebars. Actually that's where I always hang wet yarn.

Baaa Baaa Black Sheep . . .

2011-07-07T22:01:00.000-04:00

. . . have you any wool?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do--thanks for asking. I have a great deal of very dark rambouillet wool, the first I ever processed from raw fleece. I spun a bunch of it last summer but put it away because I was tired of it and convinced myself I didn't really like it. In this case absence did make the heart grow fonder because I'm loving it.

Day 6 of Getting My Art On

2011-07-06T22:08:00.000-04:00

I missed posting yesterday, but not because I didn't do anything, but because I did perhaps too much--I opted to sleep instead of post. Keeping up with the Tour de France and the Womens World Cup gives me a LOT of time for spinning, but not much time for anything else.

Anyway . . today my task was to ply-o-la the remainder of the Bonkers Limeola bamboo and merino fiber.

No fireworks for me

2011-07-04T22:50:00.000-04:00

On this July 4th, the only fireworks came from my temper at having to schlep baskets of washed clothes to the laundromat for drying.

Stupid dryer stopped working.

I did, however, temper my temper by taking my wheel with me. It wasn't much of a spectacle. Anyway, the time went fast, and between that little jaunt and the time I spent watching the steller win by Tyler Farrar on stage 3 of the Tour, I managed to get a whole bobbin filled.

First a photo of Tyler Farrar taken several years ago at Nationals in Park City, Utah.

And then, my spinning/art for the day. This is day 4 of the 30 days of artful stuff.

ART on Day 3

2011-07-03T19:48:00.000-04:00

Again on the menu--spinning. I skeined up the yarn I plied yesterday, washed it, and hung it to dry. And then I spun this, called Limeola, which made me thirsty for limeade which was great with ginger syrup in it.

Today's Progress

2011-07-03T00:13:00.000-04:00

Seems like I spun FOREVER today. I spun while I watched the US Women's Soccer Team beat Columbia and while I watched the tour. I finished the singles that became this 3-ply sock yarn. The fiber is Bonkers superwash merino in the Deep Sea colorway.

Team Time Trial tomorrow--WATCH IT

Getting the Art On

2011-07-01T10:25:00.000-04:00

TWO big things are happening in my creative world.

And

TWO big things are happening in my sports-watching world.

ART-I-NESS

THING ONE--Traci Bunkers, a fiber dyer and creator of some note has invited folks of similar mindedness to join her in July for "30 Days of Get Your Art On." The idea is to spend at least 30 minutes a day for the next 30 days on art of some kind and to blog, or not, about what you've done. I'm including spinning and weaving in my definition of art (you should too) and playing along. Actually, my spinning will involve working with Traci -dyed fibers.

THING TWO--Tour de Fleece is an event on Ravelry that runs coincident with the Tour de France. The idea is that spinners of yarn actually spin on every day during the Tour de France. Folks join ridiculously-named teams and post photos of what they've done. There are contests and prizes--fun for all!!!

And, that brings me to . . .

SPORT-I-NESS

THING ONE -- Tour de France, Tour de France, Tour de France, Tour de France, Tour de France. Need I say more? This year includes my FAVORITE event: the Team Time Trial which is essentially ballet on bicycles--beautiful!! You can (and should) watch it on Sunday 7-3 at 7:30 am.

THING TWO-- Womens World Cup is being played during the month of July. If you know me you know that the choice of watching a World Cup match live or watching a Tour stage live is not one I'll easily make. Kelly says this places me firmly on the sports lunatic fringe.

a new DO

2011-04-18T08:33:00.001-04:00

I'm caught up in the annual makeover occurring in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet.

I have a fever

DO SOMETHING

Some years the DO SOMETHING I do is buying a bunch of fabric for clothes I won't get around to making; or buying plants I'll plant, but not water regularly; or drawing plans for raised garden beds I won't ever build (and wouldn't water the plants I'd plant anyway); . . . or . . . . or . . . . or. . .

But, this year just maybe the DO would be DONE ! ( or ?)

What should it be?

There, in the middle of the family room I found this year's Spring DO. My spinning wheel is my go-to gal when I need (need?) something to do. I recently acquired some new parts whose wood needed to be stained. (A sliding hook flyer & 3 bobbins if you must know). And, she has some disturbing rain spots on her that need to be treated.

So, last Sunday night I took the old gal apart and fine-sanded her multiple curvy surfaces, wiped off the dust, and massaged in some stain. Monday before work she got more stain ,and Tuesday after work (and after beer-knitting) she got a healthy dose of polyurethane coating, then a good sand before a second dose on Wednesday before work.

By Wednesday night . . .

THE DO WAS DONE

That is, my friends, some kind of personal record from conception to execution and completion. I can now rest on my laurels. Or . . . maybe something else needs to be stained . . . Or, maybe I could find some plans and build a really cool little stool to use whilst spinning . . . or . . . or . . . or.

I'm a Little Sheepish

2011-04-03T12:40:00.000-04:00

And, of course that means I've acquired some raw fleece and have been up to my elbows in wet wool.

The raw fleece is not just any ol' wool. It is corriedale from the friendly frisky fence-climbing yearling ram--Bruiser from Ewephoria Farm in Lawrence, Kansas. I didn't get a photo of Bruiser, so you don't get that treat here. But ohhhhhh, I did get a little over 2 pounds of his gorgeous wool.

Here's a closer shot of the fiber--see how crimpy and fine it is? He was coated most of the year, so there is very little nasty in it, but corriedales have LOTS of grease (lanolin) in their wool, so it has to be washed in very hot water with lots of soap. The advantage is that by the time I'm done working with the wool, my hands will be baby-butt soft.

It's great to buy fleece from a spinner's flock because in addition to getting wool from clean well-cared for and loved sheep. You get advice about how to clean the fleece to the best advantage. Tina, the artistic shepherdess of the flock explained her method, which is basically what I found here and what I am doing in the kitchen sink.

For those so inclined to wash fleece in the kitchen sink, I've found the way clear after fixing the man of the house a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, and 5-grain pancakes. There's almost nothing considered unacceptable after that.

Unhappy State of Camera(s)

2010-11-11T09:33:00.000-05:00

My camera life has gone to hell.

Since my beloved Pentax DSLR broke by means of pitching itself off a picnic table and since I HATE the dumb look-like-a-dork and hold-it-at-arms-length one (which is fine for phone cameras but not for REAL photos), I decided I'd just shoot B&W film. As a result, I have a number of rolls I intended to develop this morning.

Unfortunately, while unloading my 1979 vintage SLR, the crank broke leaving me no way to get at the film without breaking the camera. I consider that to be a tragedy even though I bought it at auction about 7 years ago for $16, including the lens. To be fair I should add that I have at least 5 other film SLR cameras, most of which have at least 2 lenses and most of which are of far better quality than the broken one, and I have another identical version of the one I just broke. (People who have gone digital tend to give me their old film equipment for which I am grateful). So, I'm not actually camera-less but I really LOVE the one that just broke.

Come to think of it, the only reason I can express for loving the clunky camera is that it was so inexpensive I don't have to baby it along and because it would be no big deal if someone were dumb enough to steal it or if it got broken. As it turns out that wasn't true at all. Right now the broken camera seems to be a big deal . . . but really not THAT big of deal.

Ok, so try this . . . many men and women sacrificed much for this country, as a result of their unselfishness, I can safely obsess about my stupid little camera. That IS a big deal.

Thanks Veterans.

Take THAT Ponce de Leon

2010-10-09T17:28:00.001-04:00

Ole Ponce de Leon (early Spanish explorer of the New World) did not find the fountain of youth primarily because he was casting around Florida looking for it around the early 1500s when, in fact, said fountain of youth did not come into being until around 1839. Undoubtedly, you have one in your garage. The fountain of youth of which I speak is, of course (of course!), the bicycle.

When, as today, I approach my bike after having been neglectful of her for some time (months) I wonder if it will happen again as it has so many times before. And, I am never disappointed. Every single time on that first stroke I am transported back decades to roughly the care-free age of 10. While the wind no longer whistles through my long blond hair because it is not long nor blond and I wear a helmet, the sense of delight and freedom is the same. Even the bastard in the black SUV who was unsuccessful in his fiendish scheme to kill me couldn't squelch my joy in the ride.

For whatever you think ails the world, I propose a bike ride in October as the solution. Hear this politicians--I'll vote for whomever delivers a bike in every garage.

Where Were You . . .

2010-07-10T07:48:00.000-04:00

on a swelteringly hot Saturday in July 28 years ago today??? I know EXACTLY where I was, what I was wearing and who I was with. (I am pretty sure whom is correct there, but it looked dumb).

Happy Anniversary

nice glasses dude and hold the comments about the goofy hat.

To be . . . .

2010-07-04T14:29:00.002-04:00

The Tours de France and de Fleece are off to an exciting start. Lance is ahead of Contador, Cadel Evans lost teammates in a wreck and Tyler Farrar got caught up in a crash which ruined his chance at a sprint stage win . . . things have been less somewhat less exciting on the spinning front as I haven't fallen off my stool, but have been productive none-the-less.

My spinning from the TdF prologue will eventually become a pair of socks. The more red-ish bit will be the toes and heels.

The spinning from Stage 1 (day 2) will eventually be knit into the Eiffel Tower Shawl you see peeking out from under the other photos.

So, I seem to be getting stuff done without actually accomplishing anything because one project (spinning) begets another (knitting), and so it goes.

Tour de Fleece 2010

2010-07-03T07:54:00.000-04:00

It is July and that means the Tour de Fleece is about to begin. The Tour de Fleece is a yarn spinning event that coincides with everyone's favorite annual sporting event, the Tour de France. The idea is to spin every day the Tour rides and to challenge yourself to accomplish something that you have not done before.

This year I'm spinning with team Fleece Bottom Girls.

And my personal challenge is to spin sock yarn which is quite a bit finer than the thick-ish stuff I usually spin. For that purpose I have three 4-ounce bouts of roving to spin and ply together. I need only a little more than 4 ounces, but . . . anything worth doing . . . . you know the rest . . . ok, I'll help:

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!!

I case I succeed in meeting that goal, I also have a bucket of Mountain Colors Targee in the Peppergrass colorway to spin. I am particularly excited about spinning the Mountain Colors. It is dyed in the small western Montana town of Corvallis, just miles from where I was born and where my parents graduated from high school and where my grandparents lived. I just might be headed there for a reunion sometime soon. Anyway, here is a collage of my Tour de Fleece before supplies.

Just in case I don't have enough to keep me busy during the Tour, or maybe to have something fun to knit in the car on the way to Montana, I'm planning on starting the Eiffel Tower Shawl, which I think is pretty darned spectacular.

AND, since this is my blog and I just feel the need to say so . . . Floyd Landis--SHUT UP, I believed and defended you -- I had my photo taken with you -- you cheated and lied-- and now you just need to take your asterisk-laden life and fade into obscurity, right now.

These socks say it all:

Assault on Lawrence

2010-07-02T07:15:00.002-04:00

This last weekend Lawrence, Kansas experienced the Invasion of the Fiber Snatchers, or something like that. This team of 10 weavers and spinners attacked Lawrence with a vengeance to wreak economic and gastronomic havoc (of the good kind).

The ladies are: Marilyn, Gina, Katherine, Gwen, Donna, Lynn, Karin, Janette, and Margaret--my presence in the photo is implied as I wielded the camera.

Late Friday afternoon three car loads (departed, one each, from OKC, Tulsa, and Owasso) converged on the Halcyon House Bed & Breakfast which was commandeered for our base of operations since we had rented the entire place.

In short order the luggage was hauled, rooms were sorted, spinning wheels were arranged, and pizza was ordered. Whereupon we set about to drink wine, visit, laugh, and spin into the night.

Saturday we were up and breakfasted early to make our date at Traci Bunkers' studio, home of Bonkers Handmade Fibers . The 400 square foot studio was a delight. We were wall to wall in ohhhs and ahhhs with all the fiber, Traci, her dog, and the 10 of us. I exercised no personal restraint and left with a bag of glorious color, which resident color guru Janette has assured me can be plied together for lovely effect. The sample skein I made bears this out.

Then * * * drum roll * * * we were off to . . .

The Yarn Barn

For those unfortunate uninitiated, the Yarn Barn is a knitting, weaving, spinning shop that serves as a Mecca for those interested in these crafts. There are at least 5 floor looms set up and warped, 10 different spinning wheels ready to spin, bins and bins of plain and exotic fibers for spinning and every kind and color of thread you could want for weaving. And, there are knitting and weaving project samples displayed throughout the store. A vest pattern caught our collective eye so we bought all they had, asked them to order more, and we all plan to make of our handspun before next years' trip.

After lunch and more economic havoc (my own) at the the shoe store, and necessary side trips to replenish the wine supply, we found ourselves back at Halcyon House.

I love this photo because we are all pretty much doing our own thing but together. To me, that pretty much represents the essence of these fiber friends. Anyway, Janette sketched

Lynn and Gwen studied something, Margaret, Donna, Karin, Katherine, and Gina spun, Marilyn napped, and I took photos.

Dinner was Italian and delicious, as was our waiter-not pictured anywhere in this post. Jeannine, one of our number, had an ailing husband and couldn't make the trip but she sent money for wine. Jeannine was often toasted throughout the evening.

Sunday morning the cars were loaded with military efficiency and we trooped a few miles out of town to Maggies Farm where we were indeed greeted by Maggie, the namesake dog, and her friends-- the uber friendly sheep.

Garlic had just been harvested and was drying in the barn loft.

Again we ogled the wool--on the hoof and off. Then it was on to Free State Brewery for lunch and samples of tasty ales. One more stop at the yarn barn for last minute gotta-haves and it was time to travel home.

The deposit for next year has been made and the date is set in March for next years invasion--forewarned is forearmed. Me? I'm saving my money already.

SMeLLs liKe ShEeP

2010-05-01T22:03:00.006-04:00

Almost every time I say I have absolutely no interest in doing THAT (fill in the blank with developing film, printing photos, beekeeping, weaving . . .), next thing I know I'm doing that very thing. And the thing that I'm doing now is preparing raw fleece (sheep "fur" to the uninitiated) for spinning into yarn.

I said I would rather spend the precious little free time I have spinning or knitting or cleaning house than washing barnyard stuff out of fleece but somehow during the workshop I attended over the weekend, an overwhelming need to "do" a fleece took root. I walked by the bags of fleece several times and snorted derisively to myself. I bought some of the lovely stuff that was washed and carded and completely ready for spinning pleasure, thinking that I'd have to be some kind of nut soup to haul the barnyard stuff home. I these other people wanted to do that, goody for them--not for me though.

One one of several trips by the bags o' wool, some beautifully prepared (or it may have been just washed and not carded) dark brown, almost black, wool-- a rambouillet/teeswater cross caught my eye. Before I could make up my mind about how much I needed (oh yes, I do mean need), someone else bought all, all, ALL of it.

I then did the thing that I've convinced myself any sane person would do . . . I plunged my hand into the bag of raw fleece and asked, how much? I bought only a pound of it, because I've never washed a fleece and kind of needed to start small. Then, I bought two pounds of a white rambouillet/teeswater, just 'cause. And, here I am, anxious to wash, card, spin, and otherwise fondle my fleece.

Here I'll document the method I used to process the fleece. I regret not photographing the stuff before I started, so no before photos--here goes:

COLD WATER BATH--According to THE Judith (whom spinners will know is Judith MacKenzie) in an article published in the Fall 2008 issue of Spin Off magazine, a cold water soak for a few days will dissolve the suint (sheep sweat) from the fleece.

I bought a 5 gallon "Homer" pail for each pound of fleece. I'm told this is an unpleasantly odoriferous process, so I bought lids too. On Tuesday at about noon, I raced home for lunch to fill each pail with lukewarm-ish water, plunged a pound of fleece in and hammered on the lid.

After dinner on Friday, I opened the lids, lifted out the fiber and poured the yucky water on the flower bed.

Wet fiber, looking for love.

HOT WATER BATH-- According to everything I read, and the instructions provided to me by my friend, Karin, a really hot bath and Dawn dishwashing liquid is needed to remove lanolin from the wool.

Some folks suggest filling a clothes washer, letting the wool soak there without agitation, and using the spin cycle to dry the wool. I have a front-loading washer that is not too cooperative for such uses, so that won't work for me. I could take the wool over to my parents' house, but I personally do not think it is a good idea to run a bunch of dishwashing soap through the washer pump. It may be the suds that are harmful to the pump, but I recall a L o n g lecture for using dishwashing soap in the washer--it was probably the suds--most definitely the suds--LOTS of them.

Anyway, some folks suggest using a bathtub. I do have a bathtub. I also have bad knees and would rather not stoop or kneel more than I have to. So I used the kitchen sink, like Karin suggested.

I got the water as hot as I could from the tap, added about 1/2 cup of Dawn (original, not fancy smelling kind) added some boiling water to raise the temp some, whooshed the Dawn in the water, but not enough to make suds, and added the wool. I put the wool in large-ish lingerie bags bought for the purpose to make the task of getting the wool out of the water easier.

Lanolin is waxy but dissolves in hot water, and will reconstitute and adhere to the wool in a way that I understand is practically impossible to remove. So, although the wool has to soak for a bit, the water cannot cool too much. And, you are not supposed to add water because that will agitate the fibers and may cause them to felt, which is not a goal here.

I let the fleece sit in the soapy water for about 20 minutes, drained the sink, moved the drippy bag of wool, refilled the sink with hot water and Dawn, and let the wool soak for another 20 minutes. Then I repeated the process with just hot water to rinse out the soap.

DRYING THE FLEECE --I can't use my washer to spin the excess water out of the washed fleece because the washer ads water to the tub and I don't want to chance felting the wool. So, I bought a salad spinner to spin the water from the wool. I think salad spinners are an example of ridiculous excess and would not otherwise have one, but it was a fine tool for this task.

After the salad spinner treatment, I placed the wool on a big drying screen to air dry. Oh wait, I don't have a drying screen. Sooooo, while the first batch of wool was soaking, I put my fine carpentry skills to work and built one.

Yes, you do detect sarcasm, and yes that screw went in crooked, and no I did not take it out and start again.

I'm thinking that in addition to drying fleeces, the screen will be handy for lots of other stuff--B&W photo prints, dyed yarn, handwashed sweaters, etc.
I propped the new screen up on some extra laundry baskets and turned on a fan to circulate the air.

WHAT TO DO WITH A CLEAN FLEECE-- Aside from eventually spinning it into yarn, I haven't decided exactly what to do with mine. I could use my handy-dandy drum carder to blend the dark wool with the light wool, or I could dye the light wool, or I could blend the wools with some silk or some other fiber, or I could just card the wools as they are and spin them in their natural color.

That's too much decision-making for right now. So, the clean and dry wool will go into a storage tub with a lavender sachet and I'll think on it a while.

WILL I BUY RAW FLEECE AGAIN? Oh, hell yeah.
WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY? Buy more than 3 pounds, certainly. But NOT process that much at once--or maybe start earlier in the evening.

Dyes-a-lot

2010-04-25T20:44:00.009-04:00

This photo shows the view from the back deck where I spend the weekend. I was at the Stagecoach Ranch outside of Sedan, Kansas with a group of 20 wonderful women at a dye workshop put on by the Wichita Weavers and taught by Linda Burt.

The 18 participants were divided into 8 groups. Each group was given 14 small hanks of undyed yarn. Each group was given different formulas to dye their yarn, using only the primary colors. At the end of the weekend we cut our yarn into pieces, attached them to cards and shared the yarn we dyed with the rest of the group. All of us left with samples of over 100 colors of yarn and the formulas to reproduce them.

The weekend was a visual feast--the food and company was good too.

I took about a dozen pictures of this color pyramid--it makes way more sense to me than the color wheel.

Blue, red, yellow, vinegar, salt, and a little soap were used . . .

. . . with a little bit of mad science--these two particular scientists are also bike riders. Gail and her husband just got a tandem . . . we had lots to talk about.

My partner, Amanda, is a computer support supervisor for Cessna. So the two biggest rule followers found each other . . . there was no nonsense at our station. Our reds and blues were dyed in a very orderly fashion, and the directions were followed to a "T."

Yarn and dye were put in quart canning jars, the jars were put in a water bath in a canner, placed on a burner and simmered for an hour.

Here are the blues Amanda and I dyed.

Here are all the samples attached to cards all ready to be distributed.

On Saturday morning I got up before almost everyone else and went outside to a sheep serenade, which for some reason just cracked me up.

UFO Sightings

2010-04-07T18:54:00.003-04:00

Y’all knitters know that UFO means UnFinished Objects. Try as I might to avert my eyes from the train wreck of a storage problem that my UFOs produce, I can no longer avoid the issue. The reason for this has little to do with household hygiene, but more with needing to reclaim the bags where the UFOs are stored or the knitting needles that are tied up. That, and at this point even I cannot justify taking on any new projects until something gets completed.

So, I have come up with a plan. Simple plans work best. Therefore I plan to:

FINISH STUFF

Ahhhhhhh–having a plan makes me feel much better.

I’d like to bask, but the reality is that this plan will also entail deciding what to finish. To do that I’ll have to define what constitutes a UFO which is problematic because there are so many possible definitions.

That rumbling-- I feel it, don’t you?--is the unmistakable sensation of my simple plan breaking down.

The first, and easiest, possibility is to define a UFO as a knitting project started, that is-- cast on but not completed. That definition might work for some, but not for me because I’m kinda special that way. If I define UFO too narrowly, I won’t deserve the I-worked-the-plan high I expect to experience. On the other hand, if UFO is defined too broadly, I doom myself to certain failure. Acknowledging my track record on grand plans, I know I’ll probably lose steam for this project by the time I finish this post, but still hold out hope that if the plan is realistic, things could work differently – THIS TIME. Well, they could!??!

So, to continue . . . Yarn purchased for a particular project should qualify for UFO status, especially if a completed item has been actually, or even mentally, promised to another individual. The loophole here is that a yarn purchase is not a UFO, even if it was purchased for a particular project, if a specific pattern and recipient was not (mentally) assigned to the yarn. For instance, the lovely blue wool that would make a great hat for my mother, is NOT a UFO because although I’ve found a number of patterns that would be nice, I have not committed to one pattern. (Besides that, I’ve made her one hat already this year). To be clear, a UFO must have 3 elements: specific yarn, specific pattern, and a specific recipient–plus I must be able to recall all three elements.

Gifts for babies already born are definitely UFOs, regardless of yarn status. Gifts for babies on the way should probably be honorary UFOs, even if the yarn has not been purchased. If I wait those items will go in the oh-shit-I-gotta-get-that-done category, which is a whole ‘nother (and usually unhappy) world.

As I ramble, I’m wondering if I should include sewing and weaving projects? Or would adding them depress me into a chocolate binge? Actually, the idea of a chocolate binge appeals to my hormonal self which is probably what started this nonsense, therefore sewing and weaving projects are invited to the UFO party.

All of which brings me to the point where I must actually identify the UFOs which signifies some level of commitment to completing them, and that scares me a bit.

Ado, Ado, Ado, Ado, Ado, Ado, Ado . . . . .

And, without further ado . . . . I give you

my UFO list
(I was tempted to say the list was in no particular order, but it does have an order)

Knitting UFOs cast on and taking up needles, physical and mental space:
Category 1--projects being actively knitted
– Olympic Reindeer Hat for Alex (20% complete, but just started this week)
– Skew socks for me (38.5% complete)
– socks on 9" circular needles (10% complete)

Category 2–projects cast on in the last 6 months, but . . . resting
– RAGBRAI mittens (35% complete)
– Bohus wrist warmers (50% complete)
– Gray cardigan for Meredith (Sr. Divine Providence) (5% started)
– Green cardigan for Me (15% complete)
–booties for Ellie, who is probably too big for them now anyway
– black wool scarf (20% complete)

Category 3– projects underway but stalled for quite a while
(serious doubts exist about whether I can figure out where I am)
– Linen Stitch Vest (Sally Melville Pattern) (30% complete)
– Cashmerino Wrap (50% complete)

Weaving UFOs, well stuff I need to get off the looms, anyway
– green and white dishtowels (I’ve woven 7 of them and YARDS of warp remains on the loom)
–red sock yarn scarf on rigid heddle loom

Sewing UFOs stuff cut out but not getting sewn
– jacket for niece Emily (fabric purchased about 4 years ago)
– costume skirt for me for spinning demos
– multiple bags cut out and partially sewn
I have fabric recently purchased for specific projects, but it would be too depressing to include those projects here too.

Other Stuff-- stuff I said I’d make, but which does not fit in other categories and which I need to get done
– Woven baby blanket for niece Ellie
–dog sweater for Wally
– Handwoven scarf of handspun for Mom
– Blue dishtowels for Mom
– Placemats for Mom

Disclaimer–Mom is not demanding, its just that stuff for her tends to go on the back burner–sorry Mom.
Further disclaimer– Dad, your handknit sweater hasn’t made the list because I can’t get the yarn until I get some of this other stuff done.
Dis-disclaimer-- stuff for babies not yet born was left off the list because I had to draw the line somewhere.

Did I ever say how I was going to define success??

What color is WoW?

2010-03-20T21:56:00.005-04:00

The order of the day--the whole weekend, really--is color. The Tulsa Handweavers Guild has brought Margaret Roach Wheeler the artist of Mahota Handwovens to town for a workshop. You may have seen Margaret featured on the Chickasaw tribe commercials on television. She is an amazing artist and I count myself among the most fortunate weavers in Tulsa to be attending her workshop.

Aside from the mention of subjects that generally make me shudder--complimentary colors (that shade looks lovely on you); analogous colors (analogous to what, pray tell); split infinitives (to boldly color); and tertiary something or other--it is really a blast. Actually if you look at it right, and I am trying, the color wheel isn't all that scary.

Everyone came to the workshop with looms warped according to Margaret's instructions. One side of the loom is warped with dark colors and the other side with light ones, separated by black.

Here's mine.

Then, we take a variety of colors and manipulate them according to Margaret's plan to produce a sampler of various colors and patterns.

The idea is to see how different colors interact with each other and the light and dark warp.

Some of the most unlikely color combinations produce the most pleasing results.

I can't wait to get back at it tomorrow--hope to post more later.

Olympic Knitting

2010-03-04T07:19:00.005-05:00

There are a couple of knitting events that run simultaneously with the Olympics, just like the Tour de Fleece is a spinning event that runs simultaneously with the Tour de France. (You know about that, right?) The idea is to challenge yourself to accomplish some difficult knitting goal and to knit toward that goal during the Olympics.

I planned to knit a cardigan for daughter Meredith (the nun, Sister Divine Providence), and began said knitting during the Opening Ceremonies. My parents, Beth, Kelly and I were all enjoying the event . . . THEN, the U.S.athletes came in wearing knitted reindeer hats. THEN, the comments began . . . "wonder if anyone we know could knit us hats like that," "no, we don't know anyone that talented," "Annie would never actually get them done," and on, and one, and on.

Well, it so happens that I recognize a challenge when one is issued, I have a big wide foolish streak in me, and I remembered seeing the pattern (free, no less) on Ravelry. So, I found myself at the yarn shop on Saturday, buying red, white, and blue wool yarn and knitting needles. (yes, I have dozens of knitting needles--and yes, I undoubtedly have the right size--but no, I was NOT going to waste valuable time digging around to find them, and possibly take them off another maybe unfinished project). I snap this photo (notice the Olympic-esque placement of yarn?) So, next thing was to cast on--I did, and knit about 40 rows of the first hat. It was waaaaaay too big. ARGHHHHHH back to the yarn store to get smaller needles. (previous yeses regarding my personal store of needles are fully applicable).

My plan to knit 6 of the terminally cute hats was derailed by a trip to Dallas with the beer knitter (yes we bought yarn), the need to work at the J-O-B, the selfish requirement of sleep, and an overwhelming fixation with actually watching the Olympic events.

I completed two hats--just two.

The recipients (my parents) seemed pleased.

(aside to others who were promised hats . . . someday)

I-phone-y

2010-02-19T20:57:00.002-05:00

The advent of the entry of an I-phone to my life has caused me to neglect blogging in favor of posting to facebook and twitter which leads me to apologize for failing to post a blog entry on that most auspicious of holidays--Groundhog Day.

I did celebrate, though. Throughout the day I sent text messages with silly photos. I'm sure no one was an entertained as I was--I just crack myself up.

Anyway, since in my mind Groundhog Day isn't really over until March 1, I'll share the love here:

More Toys For ME

2010-02-19T19:35:00.004-05:00

For almost a year, I've been looking forward to a road trip with a group of spinners and weavers which was to have taken place the last weekend of January. We had an entire bed and breakfast rented, and 11 of us planned to trek to that fiber mecca--Lawrence, Kansas (home of the Yarn Barn). We had plans to eat, drink wine, shop, spin, and visit a farm that raises sheep or alpacas (I forget which). The crappy weather (I think it's called winter?) which has plagued planet earth for the last little bit derailed our plans.

I was, however, able to assuage the pain of the canceled trip. Fortuitously, a local spinner was getting rid of some equipment so just after the trip had been canceled, but right before the bad weather set in, the few dollars I had squirreled away for yarn purchases seared right through my pocket and resulted in the acquisition of these new toys.

Meet the ever-charming Mr. Drum Carder who makes these lovely piles of fluff waiting to be spun into yarn:

AND, the newest wheel in my growing stable:

These guys made being stuck in the house for four days bearable. So bearable, in fact, that I'm cheering for more snow.

Ann-Style New Year Blessings

2009-12-30T11:04:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows that at the end of the year it is customary to wish happiness, good health, and prosperity upon all you meet. This year I’ll dispense with the customary non-specific wishes and instead offer these concrete sentiments which are surely the keys to happiness.

I hope you will have:
– good coffee-great even;
– comfortable shoes and fun socks to wear with them;
– restful sleep;
– a bicycle, perfectly adjusted, with the inclination and time to ride it;
– funny stories to share;
– a helmet to be replaced this time next year because it is stinky, not due to a crash;
– a dog at your feet;
– some tasty new recipes that will become old favorites by the end of 2010;
– a few really great books to read;
– an engaging hobby and the time to enjoy it;
– the time and inclination to enjoy the 2010 World Cup and the Tour de France
(I’ll gladly explain what’s going on in either case);
– someone to love;
– few sorrows and comfort found in prayer;
–cold beer (or lemonade).

Now you know what I’m up to when you say Happy New Year and I respond, "great books," "good coffee," "bicycle," "funny stories," or "no crashes"– I just want good things for you and I’m being specific.

The Investiture Adventure

2009-12-18T07:54:00.010-05:00

We, meaning Kelly, my mother (Emily or Granny), Meredith's friend Whitney, and I traveled to DC for the occasion of Meredith's investiture with a habit as a Sister of the Servants of the Lord (Servadoras). The Order has over 900 sisters with a presence in 31 countries. In this province, which includes the US, Canada, and Guyana there are 13 convents, including two houses of formation (training centers) and a contemplative monastery.

We arrived on Saturday, 12/12, feasted on a great crab dish called the crab-bomb at a place called Jerry's Seafood. Then we found our way to St. James Parish where the police had stopped traffic for the procession of Our Lady of Guadalupe which was in process as we arrived.

We hopped in behind Our Lady and joined the fun, including Mass said by Archbishop Wuerl.

On Sunday we returned to St. James Parish for Mass again. Then we got to take Meredith with us for the day, which consisted mostly of wandering up-and-down & up-and-down the National Mall in the RAIN.

Everyone in sight was wearing either a black or navy coat. We, however, were more colorful. Whitney and Meredith dubbed us: Mango (Kelly), Kiwi (me), and Old School TV (Granny) they made a little chant of it, which was not the least bit annoying.

Anyway, we took in the Botanical Gardens,
and a few important exhibits at the various Smithsonian museums,

but we didn't stay long at any one place, probably
because we couldn't wait to get back outside to
wander about in the rain some more.

When we had enough of the rain and the wandering, we went back to the convent for Adoration, followed by dinner. Father Kastl and Father O'Brien also traveled from Tulsa for the event and were happy to bless the rosaries made for the new sisters by the father of one of the
novices.

The sisters entertained us with song, including Ave Maria.

On Monday Meredith was tied up with her sister-pals all day, so poor Whitney had to endure a day of sightseeing with Kelly, Granny and me. Indicative of our navigational skills, we are probably the only people on earth who could not find JFK's grave. (we eventually did, with the operative term being eventually). Our attempt to return to the hotel was thwarted by poor listening skills (Kelly) and poor navigational skills (Ann), or construction (Kelly's lame excuse) so instead of traveling east toward Annapolis, we somehow ended up on Fairfax, Virginia. In time (lots of it) we did, however, arrive back at the hotel in time (barely) to change our clothes in order to drive to the Investiture.

Mass for the event was held in the Crypt Church at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and was said by Cardinal McCarrick, attended by two bishops and a bazillion priests as well as about 100 sisters, including the newly vested, Meredith,

who is now known as Sister Mary, Our Lady of Divine Providence. The name is a good choice for Meredith because, as some will know, when things improbably work out for her she often says, "See it is Providence."

Before Mass, I lit candles for friends and family. These were just to the left of the altar in the Crypt Church and mine were the only ones lit there at the time. I could see them during the Mass, so it is like all of you were there too.

After the Mass, everyone traveled to a nearby high school for a banquet. It was only about a 6 mile drive, but afforded plenty of opportunities for taking wrong turns. Never one to miss an opportunity, Kelly took what I will charitably call a creative route to get to the banquet. We did arrive, but the ordeal led the new Sister to say, "I don't think I even want to sit with you people." That sentiment aside, we all put on happy faces and did enjoy the banquet.

When we picked Sister up for breakfast the next day, she told us that, alas, our family driving, yelling, and nagging experience was NOT UNIQUE. In fact, a number of sisters had nearly identical stories of driving induced family strife, and one family even had a fender bender caused by an impromptu stop in the middle of an intersection. And so, we spent Tuesday feeling much better about ourselves as we toured Washington on a double-decker bus and tromped around monuments.

Be advised that the clothes and name have changed, but Sister is still full of the same old fun and 'tude we have come to love.

The gals formerly known as Meredith and Angela Kmetz, now Sister Divine Providence, and Sister Servant of the Cross, seen rockin' the Sooner Shades, supplied by brother (note the lower case "b") Alex Schneider.

And, then we flew home.

So, this is Christmas

2009-12-06T06:45:00.002-05:00

and, my first attempt at dish towels is off the loom.

These little numbers were woven with the Christmas tree border at each end. The weaving structure is called summer and winter. The reverse side has a white tree with a mostly green background.

The color varies because although the warp (lengthwise) threads were the same for all of the towels, the warp (crosswise) threads differed.

The more brownish was made with a cotton/linen blend, the brighter one made with cotton.

They are meant to be gifts, but I'm going to have a hard time giving them away.

Dumb Kitchen Tricks

2009-11-26T09:51:00.003-05:00

Whether I am accomplished in the kitchen is debatable, but the fact is (facts are?) that I do cook and bake a lot, enjoy it, the stuff I fix gets eaten, and I am not aware of anyone who has died or gotten grievously ill from eating my food.

Sometimes, though, I perform some real dumb stunts.

Take last night, for instance. It has been my Thanksgiving task, for well over 20 years to make the pies. The number of people sharing Thanksgiving with us seems to grow yearly so last night I made 7 pies. But I made pie crusts for 12 because I misread the pie crust recipe I know by heart and have been making for a couple dozen years. Instead of using the 1/2 cup of butter called for, I unwittingly freestyled it and used 1/2 stick. Through force of will, body heat and cursing I managed to get all 7 crusts rolled out and baked two of them. Then, I decided that some of the crusts were too awful to bake and re-did the recipe--funny how it turned out PERFECTLY when I actually followed the recipe. Soooooo, I re-made the crusts for the rest of the pies. All is now well in pie-world.

Then, there was this morning. Thanksgiving cooking responsibilities performed, I decided to make potato soup to have over the weekend, an easy enough task. The sausage was cooked, cooled and placed in a baggie in the fridge--same with the bacon. Potatoes and onions diced and cooked. I grabbed the baggie when it was time to put the sausage in the pot. The sausage plopped into the pot in a strange way--I didn't remember it being that clumpy. It wasn't. In fact the sausage was still safely in the fridge but a bag of dates had been put into the soup. Fortunately they were whole dates but the little devils dove right to the bottom of the pot. I think I fished them all out. If not we'll have a new tradition, whoever finds the date in their soup will get to make the next pot. Or, something like that.

Blessings to All--Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Bohus Stickning

2009-11-14T18:27:00.005-05:00

I just spent a day learning about the Bohus Stickning knitting technique. That is a style of color work knitting that originated in Sweden during the depression. The hand knitting was performed by women to enable them to make money handknitting for high fashion.

The garments displayed were stunning. The workshop included yarn and instruction to make a set of wrist warmers. I'll photograph them when I get them done.

Kelly (aka Tim-the-Tool man) got a new toy today.
The difference between men and boys is . . .
the price of their toys.

I am a WINNER!!!!!!

2009-11-11T21:11:00.002-05:00

I entered a contest on The Pioneer Woman blog and won this/these.

I think the contest was a drawing, and I was just lucky. To enter you had to identify your favorite TV chef, food blog, or cookbook author. This is what I said:

Winner 1: #40 Annie. “BOBBIE FLAY. He is the only person on planet earth who I would even consider leaving my husband for, and I think my husband would encourage me to go.”

So, it's early Christmas for me. I hope the cookware arrives before Thanksgiving.

He's better than I am

2009-11-01T07:36:00.003-05:00

So, I got up early on Saturday in a cleaning frenzy. You know, the kind where you move all the furniture out and run a wet rag around the bottom of the base boards to get that linty junk that builds up. The kind of frenzy where you take 45 minutes to vacuum the family room, cause you want to get the floor really clean, and where you mop the floor with boiling water, cause . . .

anything worth doing is worth OVERDOING.
Well, since that kind of frenzy can go too far, I limited my efforts, deciding I'd quit at about 11.

When we sat down for lunch, it became apparent that someone -- KELLY (!)-- had tracked dog crap ALL OVER the family room and kitchen floors. DAMN IT!!!!!!!!! I groused a bit about this happenstance (as you can imagine) and Kelly good naturedly cleaned up his mess (although not as thoroughly as I would have, I might even have said that).

Then we decided to work the bees. So it was in-and-out-and-in-and-out of the back yard. Well, there was lots more dog crap to be had on the shoes, especially mine. When we , and me with my dog-shitty shoes, got into Kelly's (always immaculate) car later in the day, you know what he did ????

He laughed.
And offered to take my shoes to a car wash.

I am NEVER that nice.

Here's Tulsa

2009-10-29T18:13:00.007-05:00

I ran across these photos I took of various Tulsa sights at various Tulsa sites. I like 'em, so I thought I'd put them up here.

Gratuitous night shots of the downtown skyline.

Followed by various views of the the iconic Golden Driller.

This one taken with my Holga, which is a boxy plastic toy film camera with a plastic lens.

These were taken last year during the fair.

And, this is a sculpture downtown that I really like. This photo was also taken with my Holga and, if I remember correctly, I think it was cross-processed. Which means the photo was taken with slide film but developed like a print, which causes arty color-shifts which are now more easily and predictably accomplished with the flick of a finger in Photo Shop.

Here's a double exposed shot of downtown, from right in front of the federal building where I toil most of the live-long day-- Also Holga shot.

And, finally a shot of Coney I-Lander. Yep, it's a Holga photo too, notice the charming light leaks --classic Holga stuff.

Pioneering in a Womanly Way

2009-10-28T07:15:00.006-05:00

From the title, the clever reader may have guessed that I went to THE PIONEER WOMAN'S book signing.

Those in the know, which you are about to become, know that The Pioneer Woman is a blog generated by a funny and charming person named Ree Drummond, who just happens to live on a cattle ranch in the Osage, near Pawhuska, which is just north of here.

Anyway, her blog contains beautiful photography, witty stories, and killer recipes, which you have undoubtedly tasted at my house. She committed some of those stories and many of those recipes to a book--

The doors at the Tulsa Historical Society were to open at 6pm. Beth, my partner in crime in this venture, and I arrived just after 5:30. There were fewer than 20 people ahead of us. And by the time everyone else arrived, there were over 450, probably closer to 500 people attending. I'd say there were people hanging from the rafters, but there were not rafters from which to hang, so I'll just say it was SRO.

We got t-shirts and bought the book, Ree did a little question and answer and introduced the Marlboro Man (her husband--read the blog--ahhhhhh), there were cupcakes, cokes in cute little glass bottles, and Ree signed books--patiently and charmingly signed books-- and posed for photos for HOURS.

I didn't take my camera(s), but I do have some observations to share:

-- The signing line moved at a painstakingly slow pace, but the wait was worth it.
-- Ree is as cute and charming and witty as her blog.
-- Marlboro Man is NOT over billed in the blog.
-- They were both refreshingly nervous and excited.

It was almost all good. But here is another observation, sort of a personal post script to someone who will never see this blog and who wouldn't recognize herself anyway:

-- Young mothers (one in particular--YOU blondie) should be attuned enough to their children (and the crowd) to know that it is time to bail out (that means leave and go home) when their 3 or 4 year old child (perhaps a little girl wearing her sunglasses upside down) is having a snot-blowing crying fit (for at least an hour) and when their little boy, a bit older, says he doesn't feel well. Sometimes mothers have to (AND SHOULD) abandon extraneous desires, like an autograph and a photo with an author, in favor of caring for their uncomfortable kids. And no, the older ones among us who were giving you the evil eye are not just cranky older women, we recognize the right thing to do, and did it ourselves when our children were small and we feel sorry for children of selfish mothers (yours in particular -- blondie).

Sometimes ya just gotta vent.

Dying Day

2009-10-25T12:17:00.005-05:00

I have, or rather had, 10 skeins (1100 yards) of Alpaca yarn hand dyed in Chile which I got for a very good price. The yarn was rendered in shades of green, which is usually pleasing to me. However, this particular yarn tended to camouflage-ish tones, which I do not find to be pleasing. I also had 33o yards of hand spun superwash merino which was perfect in every way, except color. That yarn was reminiscent of a drunken leprechaun festival.

Those yarns went into a soapy bath in preparation for re-birth in some new, and hopefully improved, shade.

You can see that I was not exaggerating about their initial colors.

Soooooo, what does one do with an overabundance of yellow and yellow-ish green? Methinks one overdyes with an abundance of blueish tones. So, in the spirit of overdoing, I mixed up an extreme concentration of bright blue and set it to steep with the yarn. After using half an ocean to rinse the excess color . . .

VOILA!

pretty much what I expected

I can live with these colors. The alpaca is still patchy, but I think it will knit up (or weave) nicely and will not look like camo. And now I can at least bide in the same room with the leprechaun hangover yarn.

OU are knitting??

2009-10-17T07:34:00.004-04:00

Today is THE big game. OU-Texas, of course. And, since I live in Oklahoma, pay taxes here, bore my children here, and send tuition dollars to OU, it is probably no surprise that I'll be wearing red (ummm, pardon, crimson) today.

GO OU.

And, I'll be knitting. I'd LOVE to show photos of my knitting and weaving works in progress, but all those tea cozies are destined to be Christmas gifts. Which I think explains my recent (and ongoing) yarn-purchase binge as a generous act, not a condition in need of treatment. Y'all knitters, do not let your husbands watch the A&E show "Hoarders," they will just get ridiculous ideas. And, Kelly if you should happen to read this, setting off a balloon loaded with yarn and alerting the FAA and the media is sheep abuse and beyond ridiculous.

Speaking of yarn and knitting, and I think we were, have you seen the proliferation of EXPENSIVE knitted cowls, hoods, and snoods? Burberry has a knitted tube of these specifications: chunky cable knit cashmere 19" wide, 38" circumference for a mere $325.
This, supposedly is the new scarf. And, here is a link to a free pattern. The yarn used in said pattern costs $16, and I think the pattern design is better proportioned at 11 1/2 inches wide and 24 inches long. Either way, that's a hell of a tea cozy. Wouldn't it look great in crimson?

GO OU

A Tisket a Tasket

2009-09-23T19:37:00.009-04:00

My friend Karin made me a basket.

Isn't it cute? Isn't she clever?

Karin is a weaver of baskets and cloth as well as a spinner of yarn. She went to nursing school with my sister and years ago all 3 of us briefly played on an indoor soccer team together. Anyway, I saw Karin at my first spinning guild meeting, and thought she looked familiar. It took us a while to make the connection, but we eventually did. As it turns out, in addition to being a fiber geek AND a soccer nut, she is also a bike racing fan who knows EXACTLY who I'm talking about when I say I got some killer shot of George Hincapie at the Tour of Missouri.

And, as it turns out I do have some shots of George.

George, as you undoubtedly know, is the current Pro US Road Race National Champion and who, by the way, helped shepard one Lance Armstrong around France on ALL SEVEN of Lance's tour wins.

AND

look here: a photo of Dave Zabriske, known to his friends as DZ Nutz, who happens to be the Pro US Time Trial National Champion AND the winner of the 2009 Tour of Missouri.

I could go on-and-on . . .

Meeting a DEADLY spinner

2009-09-21T21:46:00.008-04:00

Perhaps you recall my post a year ago about another spinnerly gal.

Or perhaps you have a life to live and memorizing the contents of my blog by topic and date don’t even make the top 3704 of your to-do list. Fine, I can live with that. But now that you’ve been reminded, maybe you do remember a certain spider featured on the 9-13-2008 post? NO?? Harummmmph.

Anyway here is a year later and life brought me another spider. Yesterday I saw a web with two spider eggs outside my back door where my dogs go in-&-out-&-in-&-out-& . . . I was also going in-and-out quite a bit, as I was smoking some meat. On one trip I noticed the mama spider tending to the eggs, and looked closer . . . OMG!!!

A BLACK WIDOW

Of course I grabbed my camera and attached a macro filter so I could get a better shot. It is best to use a tripod when using a macro filter because the focus is real finicky. But, there was no getting a tripod that close to the ground.

I snapped a few shots and went inside to find some agent to chemically dispose of the spider, can’t (or won’t) use pesticides because of the bees. I thought 409 would do it and sprayed mama and the eggs. Mama ran off to her hole and I thought she was dead but a few minutes later she was back checking on the eggs. So, I squirted mama and eggs with Dawn dishwashing detergent. She bolted again and I removed the eggs and web to the trash with a stick, a looong stick. About a half hour later . . . she’s BAAAAACK. I snapped a few more photos.

And then, I doused her again with a blob of Dawn. This time she was really curled up, and I supposed she was dead. A few hours later I found her in the middle of the patio on her back, apparently dead.

Whereupon Kelly was summoned. He picked her up (with a tissue) and flushed her. I’m pretty sure she’s truly dead, but I think everyone should watch their backs anyway, if you know what I mean.

09-09-09 or Happy Birthday Kelly

2009-09-09T22:17:00.003-04:00

Yes, indeed. 09-09-09 is a special day

Kelly's birthday, actually. And I can't think of a better person to celebrate than the fella who has pretty cheerfully put up with my enthusiasms for years and has provided loads of funny sleepwalking stories.

We had a lovely lunch today at Gilcrease Museum and then dinner at my parents' house. I took a really crappy photo of Kelly at lunch and since it's his birthday, I'm honoring him by not posting it.

The real celebration was the purchase of the smoker.

Of course using the smoker will probably mean that we both have fewer birthdays, oh well.

Shawl Finnished

2009-08-23T10:07:00.004-04:00

There has been a bit of knitting lately. I found this lovely shawl pattern on Ulla, a Finnish on-line knitting magazine. Although the pattern is in Finnish, and although I know only a dozen or so words in Finnish, I was able to decipher the instructions by taking several steps.

1) I ran the pattern through the mostly unhelpful Google translator which provided insightful tips like these:

Watered scarf, squeeze it dry and pingota. Enter
huivin be pingotukessa until it is completely dry.
Heads Telecommunication Finally the yarn ends.

2) I cross-checked the Finnish instructions and the translated ones with the Ulla site's Finnish/English knitting terms.

3) I luckily mentioned my effort to knitting savant Sue, who happened to be knitting a shawl that appeared to begin in the same manner as this one. So I used her instructions to begin the project.

4) The lace portion is charted and most knitting charts depict the same stitches in any language, so it wasn't all that difficult after all. Anyway, I'm pretty proud of my Lumi Shawl (Lumi means snow).

And, I know my Finnish grandfather (who taught me a few words in Suomi) would be proud too. So, here it is . . . knitted in a Elsabeth Lavold yarn "silky wool," whose obtuse name cleverly disguises the fact that it is a silk and wool blend.
There has been other knitting too--CHRISTMAS KNITTING!!!! or maybe birthday knittting, I haven't decided which. You see, there are two lovely nieces who live in the fantasy world of Laura Engels Wilder and for whom I made prairie dresses last year. Certainly they need shawls to go with those dresses, and so as of this morning I am one shawl to the good in filling that need.

This shawl is made of a 6/2/3 weight pima cotton weaving yarn. It is wonderfully drapey and I think just perfect for the intended purpose. One similar (or identical, I haven't decided--but do not want to start a fight) shawl to go along with the decision whether they will be September birthday gifts or Christmas gifts.

A Few Days in the Ozarks

2009-08-16T08:02:00.006-04:00

Kelly and I left town last week for a little R&R in the Ozark Mountains of Northern Arkansas and Southern Missouri. We camped two nights on Beaver Lake outside of Eureka Springs, Arkansas and then stayed a few nights at Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake in Missouri. (I refuse to say we vacationed in Branson--have you been there????? YUCK)

Anyway, we went to visit a water powered grist mill at War Eagle and bought various milled grains, took a bird watching class, rode bikes, took a tram ride to visit some elk and buffalo, and best of all hired a guide to take us fly-fishing for trout. I took my spinning wheel along and got two bobbins of sari silk done.

On the wildlife tour they stopped the tram and spread grain along the ground to get these guys to come visit:

That was really cool until they got this CLOSE. (I was NOT using a telephoto lens) I was fearful of being the lead story in the Ozark Hillbilly Post--Tourist Gored on Idiot Wildlife Tour.

Fly fishing was great fun. Kelly was all duded up in his outdoorsy stuff: Mountain Hardware camping shirt, Columbia shorts and cool hat, putting on the waders kind of changed the picture.

Ummmm, Kelly dear-- you really are NOT much of a "hat guy".

Ok Karma--I'm listening.

2009-07-31T18:50:00.004-04:00

Rabbits frequently cross my yard.

My dogs frequently chase those rabbits.

They've never caught one -- until today.

This morning one silly rabbit hopped onto the back patio. I saw him and, knowing that dog chaos would ensue when he was spotted, banged on the glass door to encourage him to go elsewhere. Such banging alerted monster standard poodle Chai, who began to go crazy as only an 85 pound poodle can.

I opened the door to let Chai chase the errant bunny whom I thought was at a safe distance. The other poodle, Bentley, shot into the room from where ever he was sleeping and bounded out the door. Thereupon a chase ensued with the bunny hopping to and fro and the dogs running into each other and completely overrunning the bunny at every turn. The dumb bunny started through a hole in the fence, which would have assured his safety, but made the fatal mistake of reconsidering that escape to resume his rapid jaunt through the yard.

The Great White Hunter (Chai) who has never even caught a cricket, caught the rabbit who, alas, did not survive. The dogs, truly meaning no harm, ignored our calls and poked at the poor thing as if to encourage him to get up for more fun. FINALLY, son Alex and I coaxed the dogs indoors.

I told Alex he needed to get a shovel and dispose of the dead bunny. He demurred, saying that since I let the dogs out the dead bunny was entirely my fault. He resisted my taunts that he was being unmanly when he rolled himself into a fetal ball on the couch saying he didn't like dead things. (oh YES Alex, this is MY blog, and I get to tell the story how I saw it).

I briefly considered leaving the dead bunny in the yard. My brother was mowing the yard today and he's a hunter. I knew a little dead bunny wouldn't bother him. But, pride forced me to retrieve the shovel to engage in rabbit removal. After that operation was completed, I turned on the hose to rinse the red residue from the shovel. However, my husband has installed a high pressure nozzle on the hose, which was fine until I dropped the hose to turn off the faucet. Then, just like a scene from a cartoon, I got a face full of high pressure water. The hose next proceeded to snake about to completely drench me in what couldn't have been 15 seconds.

Ringing wet, I went inside to be met by Alex who was peaking into the kitchen from the dining room where he was presumably safe from dead things:

"Jeez, what happened to you."

"Well, son--today karma is a bit on the cranky side. I got my payback for letting the dogs chase the bunny a little sooner than I expected."

Keeping Promises

2009-07-12T11:48:00.003-04:00

Last year at the Fiber Christmas in July festival, I bought 55 oz (almost 3 1/2 pounds) of a lovely alpaca blend. This year's Fiber Christmas is coming up, and I promised myself I wouldn't buy any fiber at the festival this year, cause I had all that left from last year to spin.

Well gang, that's a promise kept because I've spun myself dizzy and this is the end of that mess of fiber.
I haven't counted up all the yardage because I still have three of the bobbins you see here to ply. I think this is going to be woven into a ruana to serve as a coat for the winter.

A Two-fer

2009-07-07T14:23:00.003-04:00

Well, it's July and that means watching the Tour de France is occupying most (all) of my spare time. This year I've added a twist (pun intended) to my obsession and have joined an on-line group on Ravelry--the Tour de Fleece.

For the Tour de Fleece, members try to spin each day the Tour de France is racing, photos of newly spun yarns are posted to the site and donated prizes are awarded based on member votes. So, I've spent a little time in the sit and spin mode.

For stage one, I started with a black alpaca and silk blend

In honor of Stage 2, I plied two bobbins full of 2-ply yarn, again of an alpaca blend.

No photos from Stage 3, but I spun more singles of the black alpaca silk, which started to come together in Stage 4 as another day of plying, but my bobbin fell apart. That nasty knot of yarn on the side of the broken bobbin is the equivalent of spinner's road rash-----ARGHHHHHH

I took up spinning the lavender stuff, which was natrual-dyed in logwood and is also an alpaca/silk blend

Last, but not least, Lance and his team, Astana, did an amazing job in the team time trial today, about which I could go on-and-on, but will refrain.

Correction, A-Freaking-MAZING!!!

Tour de France

2009-07-02T21:17:00.001-04:00

I'm just trying this . . . a tour widget

The worst outfit --- EVER

2009-07-01T21:02:00.002-04:00

So, I rode my bike to work today and suffered a clothing disaster.

I keep two extra outfits in my office so I'll have clothes to wear when I ride, so it's not like I was naked but that might have been better. Since I haven't ridden to work in a long time the outfits hadn't been wear-tested in a while. The first outfit I wanted to wear REALLY needed a slip, and I didn't have one at the office so that got scratched. My next choice was a rather longish black skirt and black top, which would have been ok, except I've lost weight since the last time I wore the skirt and the elastic had completely lost its stretch. So, the already long skirt kept slipping down onto my hips which made the skirt actually drag on the floor.

If that wasn't dowdy enough, I forgot shoes. So, I was stuck wearing my shower shoes all day.

A Day of Darkness

2009-06-28T14:39:00.003-04:00

I've had my darkroom enlarger for over a year. And for the entire summer last year (since the kids were gone) I had the darkroom set up in the kids' bathroom, but never mixed up the chemicals--never even plugged in the enlarger to see if the light would come on. So, even though I've been developing film at home for some time, I haven't printed a single negative.

Last night and for several hours this morning, I printed proof sheets for 14 rolls of film. I have more to print, but ran out of paper.

I took pictures of my hillbilly darkroom set-up with my digital camera, but screwed up loading them onto the computer and consequently lost them. Isn't THAT funny?

I LOVE it in the red-light tinged dark, and found that printing was waaaaay less trouble than I thought it would be. AND, it was also a lot less effort to mix up the chemicals and clean up than anticipated. So, I'll be at the store when it opens tomorrow to buy more paper and everyone on my Christmas list who doesn't get hand knit or hand woven stuff will get a B&W print of something I like.

How hot is it??

2009-06-27T12:30:00.003-04:00

It is soooooo hot, I thought I'd get a ride in before it got to be 90 degrees. But, the cycling gods had other plans because the metal part of the valve on my front tube sheered off, which prevented me from pumping up that perfectly good tube and therefore required a tire change---well tube really.

The problem is, that although we have close to a dozen bikes in the garage and several sets of extra wheels, my bike is the only one to have size 650 wheels. So, although we have numerous spare tires for different riding conditions and a box of brand new tubes, there was only one tube of the size I needed. And, that one is the spare I carry on the bike.

Putting the spare on my bike meant, of course that I'd be riding without a spare tube, which is dumb and an affront to my belt and suspenders manner of operating.

I got my ride in, though. I stopped at LEE's my favorite bike shop and bought 4 tubes. The ride was great, even though the temp on my cycle computer showed 104 degrees before I finished the ride at 11 am. That temp is probably not too far off because it is always a LOT hotter on the pavement. In any case, the bank sign said it was 95.

When I got home, Kelly was no where to be found--out running errands. But he'd left his mark. There, stacked in the middle of the garage, were five tubes of a size to fit my bike.

Kelly had gone to the other branch of the bike shop I visited and got them for me.

THAT, my friends, is HOT.

Better Living through . . . chemicals??

2009-06-21T11:07:00.008-04:00

My Saturday started with a romp through the attic to find the propane burner I'd promised to take to the Tulsa Handspinners picnic where it was to be used to support and heat a cauldron of wood bark, seeds or insect parts for use to dye wool. Then I loaded up the spinning wheel and took off to get a full tank of propane.

The picnic was held at Ba rba ra & Dale's home and animal emporium. They have doves, ducks, chickens, geese, a koi pond, rabbits, goats and who knows WHAT ELSE. I know these little ducklings are one and two days old.

While the dye pots were heating up, Jeanine taught
us how to do silk fusion, which is a process kind of like making paper, only using silk fibers. I'm pleased with what I created. The idea is to cut the resulting fiber into bookmarks, but I think I'll use it to mat a photograph. It was super easy to do and the results were gorgeous.

Then, the dying began. I chose to dye some roving (to be later spun into yarn) and some already spun yarn. And, because one can NEVER have enough fiber, or I can't, I bought an alpaca and silk blend from Janice Robinson of JR Alpacas in Oklahoma City. Dyepots with osage orange (yellow), madder root (brown), cochineal (pinkish) were available.
I chose to dye my stuff in indigo (blue jean blue) and logwood (purple).

And, after the fusing of silk, dying of wool, and eating of barbecue, it was time to go home for more chemical fun.

On Friday night I mixed up fresh darkroom chemicals to work down my stash of 13 rolls of
undeveloped film. 10:30 pm all 13 rolls were developed, exhausting myself and a whole gallon of developer (that's a LOT).

And, what's a weekend anymore without bee fun. Kelly got into the hive and here is a frame full of honey. Our bee (mis)adventures are chronicled at beeabout.blogspot.com.

Triple Crown

2009-05-29T10:58:00.002-04:00

Today, a little preview of Annie's world.

FIRST-- Bicycle Races

Tulsa Tough Races are 3 criteriums raced over 3 days, there are bunches of domestic pro teams in town because the races are on the National Racing Calendar, which is a BIG DEAL in the bike race world. Hoards of fit sweaty men in bike shorts (including Floyd Landis). . . what could be better?

SECOND-- Spinning

I'll miss the Saturday races because I'll be spinning at the RennFaire again. A day with no responsibilities except to keep the wheel running. . . . what could be better?

THIRD -- Soccer

The FA Cup (English Football Association) Championship match (Chelsea v. Everton) is Saturday. I've got the DVR set to record it TWICE. That way hopefully no one will mess up my recording. . . . what could be better?

Kelly reminds me that the weird combination of these passions places me firmly in an oddball lunatic fringe.

I LOVE IT HERE!!

Mini-Me (the other loom)

2009-05-24T12:13:00.003-04:00

Jeanine, masterful (and generous) spinner, weaver, grower of silk worms, glass bead maker, and sometime knitter (she probably does more stuff I just don’t know about) loaned me a loom she wasn’t using.

The loom is of the same make (LeClerc) as my loom, but is much smaller and has hence been dubbed mini-me.

The big one, whom I call Bertha, sports 7 yard warp of a rayon boucle in a bright spring green, to be woven variously with coordinating (I hope) rayon knitting yarns into narrow springy/summery twill scarves. Mini-me is attired in a purple (I’d like to say plum, but it is purple) commercial bamboo warp with some bamboo handspun occasionally intermingled therein. Mini-me will be woven with bamboo handspun, also in a twill pattern.

About Mini-me, Alex commented that every time he visits home, I have some new trinket to play with.

And, speaking of Alex. He's my youngest, and he turned 20 yesterday. So, I'm no longer raising teenagers--whew!!! Although to be honest, it (raising teens) really wasn't much of a burden. Here is a pic of the birthday boy trying on a new shirt.

And finally, the bike perched at the top of the stairs is positive evidence that Alex is indeed home for the summer.

WEEKEND RECIPE

2009-05-18T23:32:00.014-04:00

....................................and recipes

Since the kids have left home, weekends are enjoyable, but they don’t usually involve the type of frenetic activity we had with soccer games/tournaments overlapping with bike rides/races, and parties, etc. I miss that–a lot. For me, the recipe for a really great weekend involves doing a gob of unrelated activities. This weekend, for example, was GREAT.

Friday night I made two new recipes (savory cakes) to take to the Tulsa Handspinners meeting to share. One contained ham, emmentaler (swiss) cheese, and olives, the other had onions and emmentaler cheese. New recipes often sound better than they taste. These were delicious spread with cream cheese. AND, I finished warping up both looms. (both?? looms?? yes, more on that in a later post).

Saturday morning I went to the Handspinners meeting, spun yarns of the spoken and wool variety, got to try spinning cotton with a charkha which is the device Ghandi promoted as a means of self-sufficiency in India, and got some seeds for green, brown and plain ol’ white cotton. (to

grow???? we’ll see).

THEN, I rushed home to change into light colored clothes, grab my camera(s) in order to meet Kelly in Turley to visit Carl’s bee yard. Carl seems to be the go-to BEE-guy for equipment, fast advice and common sense concerning bees. Carl invites the bee club (NEOBA) membership on excursions in his apiary (bee yard). We got to see Carl open up five different hives, we saw a number of queens, and other bee stuff which we found interesting and which I’ll share through the mystery of photography.

Kelly & Carl approach the bee yard.

The Bee yard.

Can you find the queen??? Can you see the honey?? Can you you see the pollen??? Can you tell me why the font just randomly changed or why I can't seem to change it back???

AFTERWARD, Kelly and I stopped downtown to take in the Blue Dome Art Festival, the FOAM (fellowship of oklahoma ale makers) booth and the art car exhibit in particular.

My favorite art car was--the camera car, of course.

Not long after we finally found ourselves at home Alex arrived with his stuff to stay for the summer. YEA!!

On Sunday I got up early and got myself to the Castle at Muskogee to enjoy the day by

demonstrating handspinning, people watching and wandering around. Liz, one of my knit night friends, is a regular at the RennFaire. She stopped by to visit, we wandered around together, bought a glass of blackberry/honey mead (yum!), and I got this photo of her. (except for an adorable 3 year old--she was the cutest one there).

At the castle, the spinners share the barracks with these guys who kept clubbing each other with weapons.

and the gypsies had an enormous inkle loom that produced 80 feet of inkle band

SPIN-ergy

2009-05-09T18:22:00.010-04:00

I've been on a pretty serious spinning jag. It all started with the purchase of two relatively innocent looking globs of bamboo roving. Bamboo is soft and silky, has an amazing sheen, and has the general property of being gorgeous. The colors of the two globs didn’t really coordinate like I thought they would, so I got a pound of white bamboo and some dye, thinking I’d dye coordinating colors.

After making these purchases, it occurred to me that since I apparently could not pick out coordinating colors when the already dyed fibers were displayed before me, trying to dye fibers to a particular shade might not be a successful endeavor. So, I had to (had to!) acquire different colors of roving in amounts sufficient to coordinate with each of the globs, which resulted in the addition of 3 more globs which, of itself, is no problem.

However, since I was planning a trip to the Route 66 Fiber Rendezvous and since I would probably succumb to the temptation to acquire more fiber, it seemed prudent to actually spin up some of the bamboo globs. I did. So, the bamboo yarn, formerly known as globs 1 though 5, are all ready to be tasked to the job of serving as weft threads for a yet to be woven something-or-other.

The problem, if it can be called a problem at all, is that now I can’t seem to stop spinning. I spun up a fiberclouds batt in shades of blue wool and silk that I designed at Gwen’s. I’m calling it Emily’s night sky because the yarn will become something for my mother who is named . . .

. . . . EMILY.

Here the finished yarn is shown atop a new bat of coordinating fiber I got today from Donna at the Route 66 fiber thing.

I have 55 ounces (that’s almost 3.5 pounds) of this natural colored wool and alpaca blend of fluffy loveliness, it too is rapidly becoming yarn.

I’ve spun 6 bobbins full since Monday.
Each bobbin holds about 2.7 ounces (about ? ha!! 5 of the 6 bobbins have been exactly 2.7 ounces -- yes I weighed them–that’s what you do) so, I’m looking at just over 20 bobbins of this stuff. Two bobbins plied together make around 163 yards of yarn (yes I counted the yards–again, that’s what you do). Anyway, I’ll have a decent sized mountain of yarn when I’m finished--somewhere close to 2000 yards. Oh! the possibilities . . . .

And, the new kids in town found themselves in my possession after a day at the Route 66 Fiber Rendezvous (which I could not even get close to spelling without spell-check)

It's MY month

2009-05-03T18:26:00.003-04:00

And I'll brag if I want to . . .

Remember the knitty.com calendar contest???

Remember one of my photos got chosen???

It's MAY--My photo Month
I see this every where I look because I bought a bazillion calendars and have them ALL over.
Good Times!

Un bEEievable

2009-04-23T21:31:00.002-04:00

Got Bees??
I do

Kelly and I went last night to get our bees--I don't have much time to share, so all you get are photos for now.

Here is Bob the Bee Guy, getting into the hive to get us our bees.

Here's the first frame he took out to show us.

Chai and Bentley check out their new "friends"

Spring doin's

2009-04-18T08:42:00.009-04:00

I finished a cropped cardigan of some of my handspun. The pattern is a free one on the Berroco website. I wore it on Wednesday, even though it was too warm to do so comfortably.

It looks like even though it is late this year, warmer weather is here to stay and so the usual wardrobe survey has taken place. Which is not actually a survey so much as a frantic scrounge for something suitable to wear with the resultant realization that I must have just gone naked last spring and summer because my clothes are rags. And that startling discovery coincided with the thought that if I'm going to spend a day or two with the spinning guild demonstrating spinning at the Renaissance Faire in May, then I'll need something suitable to wear for that too. I've been told that a broomstick skirt and peasant blouse will suffice, but don't happen to have those to hand either. Soooooooo . . . .

I got to searching and found this cool blog which had recently posted directions for making a broomstick skirt which is gored, NOT tiered and is therefore less likely to make someone smaller than me look like a barn. And that discovery coincided with a sale on rayon which enabled me to make TWO such skirts for $7.50 each. Whoo Hoooo.

And since I'm not particularly a style maven and since I actually think such skirts and birkenstocks look cool, I'll actually wear said skirts--even the neon green one, 'cause --- say it with me ---ANYTHING WORTH DOING IS WORTH OVERDOING.

Note, I probably won't wear the peasant blouse outside of doing demos, but it was fun to make. (and I know it's not really a peasant blouse, but it's close)

And since I can't make an entire wardrobe of two skirts of suspect stylishness, my dire need for clothing caused me to root around in my fabric stash where I found several excellent pieces of linen in greens which, alas, are NOT neon. AND, to my surprise, there is some rayon which I remember was not enough yardage for the project I envisioned and may become another broomstick skirt, which I am willing to admit might be too much of a good thing, but probably won't dissuade me from making another.

YEA!!! I GET TO VISIT

2009-04-18T08:20:00.005-04:00

THE GOOD NEWS!!!!
I'm going next weekend, Friday 24th through Monday, to Maryland to visit Meredith. I 'm extremely excited. And, actually I should say couldn't be more excited, and that's pretty close to the truth, BUT I was looking online for yarn, and spinning and weaving stores to visit and . . .
HERE'S THE BAD NEWS . . .
I just so happens that the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is the VERY NEXT WEEKEND. Dang! That is just awful timing. Oh well, if I went I'd undoubtedly spend more money than I have, which after buying a plane ticket is next to nothing anyway. And, since I'm now on alert about the festival, maybe I'll plan a visit next year to coincide. More likely it will slip my mind and I'll be re-posting the same lament next year.

A few gals from the Tulsa Handweavers Guild and I traveled to Norman last weekend for our own fiber festival of sorts. We visited Gwen the most masterful fiber dyer and got to choose which fibers and colors we wanted her to run through her MONSTER electric drum carder to make our own custom bats. We lunched at the Pink Elephant where I ordered a wacky combination of andoulle (sp?) sausage and shrimp served over grits--yum!. We sipped tea on Gwen's deck and generally had a great time. I'll post photos later.

Right now, I've got to guzzle some more coffee, load up my spinning wheel and related implements, and scoot off to the Tulsa Handspinners meeting.

Nuns having fun

2009-04-09T22:27:00.004-04:00

I heard from Meredith today. She said they got to go to DC last Sunday to enjoy the Cherry Blossom Festival, that they played Ultimate Frisbee near the Jefferson Memorial, and folks took lots of photos of them.

So, I got to thinking . . .and, for once that exercise was productive. I found this on youtube. Meredith is the person in a gray skirt who drops the frisbee near the end of video.

Rabid Nuns

2009-03-29T20:12:00.003-04:00

So, Meredith (my daughter who has recently joined a convent to determine whether she is really really supposed to be a nun and whom I have not heard from for two weeks) telephones on Saturday to say she NEEDS the insurance number because she is on her way to the hospital with a bunch of the sisters to get RABIES shots because the convent beagle dragged in a half-dead raccoon that the health department confirmed was rabid---and could I hurry because she has to go, but don't worry--Love you--Good Bye.

huh???????????????????????

Well she called back today and we had a looong (almost an hour long) talk. As it turns out there was a LOT more to tell, but most of that had to do with the hilarity of a busload of nuns and nun wanna-bees arriving at the Emergency Room at their small town hospital for rabies shots. I'll spare all the details but the police were called to determine that the whole mess was not the result of some wacky domestic abuse or dog fighting--more HUH???? At one point in the rabies conversation with the police, the young man who was sitting next to Meredith got up and found a seat as far away from them as he could.

As it turns out, no one was bitten by anything rabid. The beagle who has the propensity to present the sisters with dead things, will probably have a new home soon. That's a shame because the dog (whose name is NOT Patrick) has rid the basement of snakes--huh, again?? Anyway, the shots are precautionary, it is unlikely anyone was exposed, BUT . . . there is a chance of exposure if one has contact with the saliva of a rabid animal. And, the dog did chew on the raccoon, so the dog slobber may be considered a source of contact. NOT something to mess with, especially since rabies is (are?) ALWAYS fatal.

Meredith, astute as always, figured that I would be a bit miffed if she left home to join a convent and died of rabies before I even got to go visit her--so she opted for the vaccine. SMART GIRL.

US v El Salvador

2009-03-29T09:39:00.004-04:00

I realize no one reading this cares, but later I may want to recall the match and this seems as good a place as any to take note. And, once in a while my inner sports nerd just takes over my consciousness and this is what happens.

WoW--El Salvador, big underdog in terms of fitness, skill, style, and field presence, has not been to a World Cup since the 80's ('82, I think). The stands in San Salvador are PACKED with a sea of El Salvador blue and screaming fans. AND, despite numerous US chances, El Salvador scores first--missed mark upfield started the run. Then the crowd gets even louder and El Salvador packs the middle of the field making attack difficult for the US---(they could have tried playing the ball outside and drawing the defense there, but apparently that didn't occur to them). Anyway at half it is 1-0 El Salvador--the US gave up about a million corner kicks. (maybe a few less than a million, but it was a lot).

After the half, El Salvador scores again. What the . . . . ? Then, the US takes over . . . the man of the match for my money was Frankie Hejduk--right outside back who is about as fit as Lance Armstrong (or Fabian Cancellara--another bike racer, world champion time trialist, Olympic time trial gold, he used to be lead out man for sprinter Alessandro Petacchi, he is Swiss, powerful, gorgeous, and on the cover of VeloNews this week). Frankie assisted on the first goal and came blazing out of nowhere to head a corner kick into the goal for the second goal.

So, it was a 2-2- tie. AND, US plays another World Cup Qualifier on Wednesday v. Trinidad and Tabago.

Winter's last gasp

2009-03-28T18:44:00.006-04:00

Typical Oklahoma weather . . . March comes in like a lion and goes out like a . . . What is the saying??????

We have gotten inches and inches of , well probably 5, snow. Which, of course, has buried the pansies, daffodils, and tulips I lovingly planted last fall. (You know that, except for herbs, I don't really lovingly plant anything--I might lovingly buy the materials, but when it comes to the actually planting--I swear and moan a lot, and sometimes even leave them in the garage to die). In any case, the plants are all crumpled up under the snow. So, I had to take the cliche flowers in
the snow photos.

I'm not complaining about the snow--it should all be gone tomorrow as the temperature is supposed to get to the high 50s. And, it gave me a whole day of no errands or any other things to get in the way of my agenda.

AGENDA???? Well, yes. I have gotten a good way along knitting up this sweater
of some handspun I've been waiting to find just the right pattern for. The yardage is going to be very, very close, but hopefully I'll have enough.

I got the latest scarves off the loom. Naturally, the one I like the most is the one, that was really an afterthought. I spent the least amount of time planning it and just barely had enough yarn to make it, so it is a bit shorter than I would have liked. Isn't that always the way?

In sports news. . . the US men's national team--of COURSE I'm talking about soccer-- is playing El Salvador tonight in a World Cup qualifier match, so be sure to watch.

2009-03-28T18:44:00.001-04:00

HI Lynn and MOM!!!!!

2009-03-26T11:32:00.001-04:00

x x o o

and NOW, I'm doing this . . .

2009-03-24T13:49:00.003-04:00

I can't seem to figure out how many scarves I can get from a 7 yard warp (hint--more than two). So, I've commenced weaving this . . .

Of course, I will run out of yarn I'm using for weft before I run out of warp and that has the distinct possibility of making me somewhat (somewhat??) cranky.

More weaving

2009-03-22T23:19:00.005-04:00

I've completed weaving one scarf on the "suede" colored rayon boucle and have begun weaving the second scarf on that warp. Here are the colors I'm using and the resulting fabric.

I have almost completed the weaving on this scarf too. I should finish tomorrow. I'll have about 30 inches of warp left when I'm done, which is a good amount to have to play around with colors while I decide what to do next.

Flanked by Stars

2009-03-20T10:16:00.006-04:00

There was no knitting, spinning or weaving yesterday, but the day was perfectly wonderful, none-the-less.

BOOK SIGNING: Knitting Rock Star, Sally Melville has a new book out. One of the two stops she's making in the United States is/was at Loops in Tulsa (the other stop is in New York). So, I went to the book signing. AND, here I am flanked by the knitting stars, Sally Melville and her daughter Caddy.

PRAIRIE DRESSES: I got up early and put the buttons on the prairie dress-up dresses I promised my nieces for their birthdays in . . . September, last year. No photos of the dresses, but they were enthusiastically received. AND, the bonus of delivering the dresses to their home was an invitation to dinner with my brother, his family and my parents.

FASHION: Finally, my here-to-fore plain ol' fingernails served as a palette for the artistic ministrations of my sister-in-law, brother, and niece who, as you can see, skillfully decorated my fingernails with smiley faces, bees, peace signs, flowers, and a dragonfly.

MUCH better, thank you.

2009-03-18T20:30:00.006-04:00

My warped angst of the previous post has now completely evaporated in favor of this rayon boucle warp in a rich gold color called suede and a weft of a bumpy multicolored knitting yarn.

I'm weaving the scarf in a hopsack pattern [ 1-2-3-4 threading, and 12-34 tie-up, with R-R-L-L-L treadling for you weavers]. The resulting fabric looks NOTHING like what I think of when someone says hopsack. I don't know what YOU think of, but I think of burlap. Anyway, I'm pleased.

The Cloth Merchants (the only people in town who sell decent garment fabric) are having their semi-annual showing at a local sewing machine store (Bee-Sew Inn at the Farm). I stopped in today after work and saw this pattern made up in a linen stripe:

I think the rendering above is uber-dorky looking and not even something I'd even consider, BUT the model garment was stunning. And, the pattern jacket lists handwoven among the suggested fabrics. That sounds like a challenge to me . . . only problem is (truthfully, probably more than one problem) the pattern calls for a minimum width of 50 inches (the longer vest is cut in one piece). My loom has a weaving width of 60 inches, but that is REALLY wide, and there is always shrinkage. But, the pattern only calls for 1 and 5/8 yards (almost 60 inches) which is a reasonable amount to weave. So. . . . I'm cogitating on the prospect of actually weaving garment fabric. More to follow, or not.

MARCH MADNESS

2009-03-17T00:22:00.003-04:00

If you know me, and I think you do, you’ll know this post is NOT about basketball. Although I am fond of baskets and balls too, I don’t particularly like them together (unless you view a soccer goal as a great BIG basket, that’s a whole ‘nother deal entirely).

No, what I’m talking about is my continuing attempt to warp my loom back to front—while getting the very complicated threading correct. And, by complicated I mean placing the threads in order in shafts 1-2-3-4 (yes, I’m being facetious—it doesn’t get much easier than that). I’ve thought about where I went wrong with my earlier disaster and have determined that it was all because I was listening to the book Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy on tape while I was working.

SPOILER--Maybe I missed something, but I gotta say I pretty much hated that book in the same way I just can't stand Jane Austen stuff—on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on about what one should think about this or that and what others think about this or that and no one really doing anything but worrying about "society" and more THINKING . . . blah, blah, blah until finally Anna throws herself under a train and Levin finds God, but decides not to tell his wife. I hope I didn’t ruin the book for anyone. It was awful in a Great Gatsby kind of way and that’s all I’m going to say. Digression terminated!

I did cut off the offending 356 thread warp featured in my previous post because wasting the $16 I paid for the thread was a good investment in my shaky sanity. Anna Karenina aside, I am pretty sure about where I goofed up, so I wound on 6 yards of some gorgeous gold-ish rayon that may grow up to be a scarf or two.

This time I precisely followed the directions in the book Warping Your Loom and Tying on New Warps by Peggy Osterkamp. Even though Kelly said the contraption (consisting of a broom handle and yarn) looked like some Rube Goldberg project, I soldiered on. However, in removing the warp from the warping board onto kite sticks ( a procedure that is supposed to avoid the nasty mess of the previous warp) I twisted the warp into a rope. It seemed to me that the book said some twisting is OK-- or maybe it didn’t. After I got everything threaded and wove a few inches it became obvious that although the threading was PERFECT, the rope thing was not perfect. So, I untied and unthreaded, re-hung my broomstick contraption, and untwisted the ropey warp.

Now I’ve got to re-thread the heddles and re-sley the reed and re-tie the whole mess to the front apron rod and THEN—ta da – madness (hopefully) abated , I’ll (hopefully) be ready to weave . . . please—PLEASE may I be ready to weave.

BUT tomorrow I’ll detour to a pub for a bit of blarney, beer, and a bagpipe band, ‘cause it seems like the right thing to do.

Don't EVEN ask . . .

2009-03-13T20:55:00.005-04:00

Warping my loom back-to-front is an unmitigated failure.

First, I read/skimmed a book on the subject about 3 weeks ago and plowed ahead without re-reading the book--DUMB.

Second, instead of tackling a project of a reasonable size, I decided to do one which required 356 threads--also DUMB.

Third, well hell . . . see for yourself:

Does this look right to you?

That’s How We Roll . . . .

2009-03-11T21:04:00.007-04:00

As I’ve previously posted, since yesterday (March 10), daughter Meredith is off to perhaps become Sister Maria (fill in the blank) with the Servants of the Lord missionary order.

We had a party for her on Sunday, which involved 37 people and two 6 week-old lab puppies. (The puppies belong to my brother Matt, who did NOT think ahead to bring his baby goats or his pregnant llama along too. I don’t think he loves me at all).

I took a few photos at the party, but neglected to get any of my parents, nieces and nephews, or the puppies, and the photos I took were yucky because the light was bad. I don’t know why I even bothered to get the camera out.

As a last hurrah, Meredith decided to enter a bike race on Saturday. She did not decide to loose skin along the road by crashing, but that happened anyway. Most of the women in the field had not raced before and, in fact, had not ever even watched a bicycle race. Despite the fact she was wearing a Bert and Ernie jersey and had to remove a bell from her handlebars to pass muster before the race officials, having raced before (some) and having seen races before (lots), she was the one of the more experienced racers in the field of sketchy riders (being a sketchy rider is very insulting, much worse than having wonky seams in your knitting). So of course it was Meredith who wrecked.

warming up on a trainer but not really pulling off a tough look with the Bert & Ernie get-up

It’s all good though because, in spite of entering the convent looking like she had just been dragged behind a moving vehicle, the bike was not damaged.

At the end of the day Meredith was glad she raced, glad she wasn’t hurt worse, and glad to leave the bike racing to her brother whose advice to her was “don’t crash.”

Sorry to say I didn't get any photos of the gory wounds. Although I think bike wreck photos are arty and dramatic, my kids think they are just plain gross and won’t let me take any–Brats!

In fibery news, I cut the two cotton scarves I was weaving off the loom but was not very happy with them. I made a few threading errors that don’t look to me much like “design elements” and the color repeats in the yarn I used for weft in one of the scarves ended up being unattractively striped-y. So, the striped-y scarf now adorns my dresser where there is so much junk that it can’t really be seen, and Meredith took the scarf I made in blue tones with her to the ‘vent. Tonight I’m either going to measure off a warp of rayon for a scarf/wrap or do a warp in cotton/linen for tea towels in a Finnish weaving pattern. In either case, it will be my first attempt at dressing the loom from back-to-front, so I should have an entertaining evening.

A DATE IS SET

2009-02-28T23:52:00.000-05:00

My lovely daughter, Meredith, has decided to join The Servants of the Lord or Servidoras, a religious order, as a nun. To that end, we moved her home from college at Christmas and she has been hanging out at home since then awaiting the results of some psychological testing.
Well, apparently she is not completely crazy or is at least crazy in an acceptable way because she got a call to tell her she could pick a date to go live at the convent. So she has.
March 10th she will leave here, fly to Washington, D.C., and thence travel to Upper Marlboro, Maryland where she’ll begin living life as a postulate. Meanwhile, there are long gray skirts to be made, white blouses to be bought, prayers to be said, and a party to be planned . . . I’ll be busy.

CABLE ME THIS

2009-02-20T18:00:00.000-05:00

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I love this shawl. It has cables.

I’ve done small cables in hats, socks and a scarf and I’ve thought they were nice, but– so what. I am now revising my opinion from a lukewarm “so what,” to an adamant “WOW!!” So much so that I am almost dreading the end of winter because in Oklahoma there won’t be any cold weather left by the time I get this completed.

NOTE– I did say . . . almost.

ROAD TRIPPIN'

2009-02-19T22:57:00.013-05:00

This post recounts a planned trip and an unexpected one–both delightful.

Unexpectedly, on Sunday Kelly suggested that we drive to the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve which, taking the route we did, is about 85 miles from here. We traveled by way of Bartlesville where we stopped for lunch at the greasy spoon landmark of Murphy’s Steak House. The Prairie Preserve is reached by way of 7-10 miles of gravel road through ranch land and fields of nodding oil well pump jacks. We drove all through the Preserve and enjoyed the day but did not see a single buffalo. On the way out, however, we found the entire heard lumbering along the road and stopping our progress as one or the other of the animals determined that the grass on the other side of the road looked more tasty–this time of year not much at all is green, least of all the native tall grasses. Since the animals were so close, I could not safely get out of the car to take photos. So, the photos I did take are pretty boring and of poor quality since they are blurred from the car vibration and were mostly taken facing the sun. I’ll share these, though.

On the way back through Bartlesville, we stopped to look at the art exhibit at the Price Tower,

a Frank Lloyd Wright building. Lucky us–it was a free admission Sunday. Along the way, we took a detour to the Osage State Park, an area we had not previously visited. It has a great campground we plan to visit later this year.

On Monday was the planned trip. Why little ol’ Lawrence, Kansas should hold such delights is a mystery. As such, I do not have to understand it know it is true and revel in it. The trip started out as a trek of knitters to the Yarn Barn, that mecca of weaving, spinning and knitting wonders. Since I dabble in all three of those vices the Yarn Barn is, for me, a place of grave temptation. I succumbed, but avoided purchasing with reckless abandon by preparing sample cards with various yarns I have on hand. So, I was able (I hope) only to buy what I can (will?) really use.

I got several colors of dye to use on some bamboo I already have. And since the yarn I thought would be great for placemats for my mother was not, I got this cotton that will surely work.

My new inkle loom is pitifully bare, but soon to be dressed with some combination of these threads which happen to be the colors of my alma mater, The University of Tulsa.

I’m thinking these bamboos will work with some I have already spun and will spin with the yet-to-be-dyed bit.

Were the Yarn Barn the only attraction, the trip would have been a howling success, but wait . . . there’s more . . .

Just across the street is a fabric shop–Sarah’s Fabrics. I had noticed it on previous trips but had not gone in because although I do sew, I do not quilt and I thought the shop a typical quilt shop. Such shops are nice, but not very interesting to me. My companions, Kathy and Sue, are quilters so we ventured in. Well, my vocabulary of superlatives and similes fails me. Sarah’s must have bolts of absolutely every gorgeous cotton fabric ever made. In addition, she has nice wools and linens to interest the garment sewer in me.

Were Sarah’s Fabrics the only attraction, the day would have been a howling success, but wait . . . there’s more . . .

Next on the agenda was Footprints, a shoe store of some note that carries closeouts of Birkenstocks, Chacos, and Dansko clogs, the three brands that comprise the entirety of my shoe wardrobe. We three limited ourselves to a total of six pair between us.

Were Footprints the only attraction–you know the rest . . .

In fact, we had lunch at the Mad Greek, dinner at Jason’s Deli, stopped at a liquor store to buy beer not available in Tulsa, and shopped at the World Market too. After being held up by a train parked on the tracks in Coffeyville, Kansas for half an hour, we arrived home just before midnight.

The sole disappointment of the trip was that Old World Pottery, a shop that sells Polish Pottery and which was having a 30% off sale, was not open on Monday, thus proving that you can’t have it all–I think I’ve come close lately.

Whoo Hoooo Bamboo

2009-02-15T19:15:00.000-05:00

My new spinning love is . . . BAMBOO. I bought some of the most luscious bamboo fiber artfully dyed by Gwen of FiberCloud which turned into this

and this.Unfortunately, there is not enough to use as weft for weaving a shawl or scarf. Soooooo, I've ordered a POUND of bamboo top with the idea I'll dye it a color suitable to coordinate. That kind of thinking usually leads to a big mess and inevitably to the purchase of even more crafty stuff. At the very least I'll have to purchase different dyes, 'cause the dyes I have for wool won't work on plant fibers.

In January the Tulsa HandSpinners held a ROC DAY celebration, which I'm told many spinning groups do. The day grew out of the tradition whereby spinners put away their work during the 12 days of Christmas. After the Feast of the Epiphany the women resumed work. The men, however, laid about for a few more days and, in the days before television and football bowl games, amused themselves by setting the flax on fire. Apparently this substituted for flirting in some circles. So, the women dumped water on the men, or something like that. Anyway, now days men are busy with television sports so the women spinners get together, have lunch and play spinning games, which fortunately did not involve either fire or water. It was great fun--we spun tinsel icicles and Easter grass among other things. All of that to say, I won an Inkle Loom during the festivities, which I haven't had a chance to play with because I don't have any suitable thread to use.

And that leads to the next topic. . . . ROAD TRIP

Some of the beer knitters have Presidents' Day off work, so it's off to Lawrence, Kansas we go to the weaving, spinning, knitting mecca of the Yarn Barn. Word is, one of the shoe stores there is a Birkenstock Outlet chock-a-block with good Birk deals. AND, there is a World Market store in Lawrence, so maybe I'll also get the chance to satiate my endless desire for Dutch Licorice.

My newest most favorite-est knitting project is this shawl.

Probably my least-est favorite project right now is this pair of socks. The yarn is Tempted hand painted sock yarn in the Koi in a blender colorway. I loved the way the colors pooled in the first sock,
but the color repeats changed and the second sock is just horrible.

I have actually completed something . . . . my first ever toe-up socks.

LOVE the yarn--an Opal self-patterning affair and LOVE the technique so much that when I get finished with my socks-in-progress, I'll knit them all that way.

Now I'm off to collect little snippets of some of my spinning yarn so I can actually get something I will use at the Yarn Barn.

Crafty bits

2009-02-14T20:10:00.000-05:00

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh was the theme of a swap on Back-Tack. The idea was to make/give something sparkly (gold), sensory (frankincense), and gifty (myrrh). I was paired with a clever gal in Western Australia. she sent me a straw wreath she made of wheat she cut from her own fields, pounded/coaxed into a circle and decorated. It is still hanging inside my front door. She also sent an apron decorated with appliqued birds, some quilted birds, a felt-it-yourself hat, and some hand-made lavender soap and knitted cotton face cloth.

Here are photos of the apron, birds and pre-felted hat. The soap was used before it got photographed, I haven't gotten a good shot of the wreath, and no one here (the brats!) will model the hat for me--I wore it a LOT on our ski trip.

The gifts I sent strayed from the fiber arts into an old hobby--beading. I was going to make just one bracelet, but got carried away and made two, and earrings to match.

I made several batches of biscotti to send. But, I was using a new pan I was overly excited about and every batch turned out so pitiful looking I had to eat them all myself. I noticed my partner had mentioned in her blog that she was not able to find the orange oil she needed to make homemade granola (which I highly recommend). So, I bought some oil and threw in a pair of save-the-tatas socks for good measure.

Christmas knitting this year consisted of a pair of slippers for my mother-in-law and what was supposed to be two hats. These are the same hats I knitted for the knitty.com calendar contest. I remembered them to be a fast knit. I did NOT remember that even knit to PERFECT gauge, the hats turn out to be smallish and therefore require even a loose knitter like me to go up 2 needle sizes and add 5 rows to the pattern. Nor did I remember that I recorded those changes on my Ravelry project page. So, one hat was knit waaaaay too small, one was knit waaaaaay too big and felted to a near approximation of the correct size and two were actually knit to size. Note to self: LOOK AT YOUR NOTES.

Anyway, here's my nephew graciously wearing the too small version.

As long as I had the pattern and sizing down, after Christmas I knit Alex a hat too. Then, I began a scarf for Meredith out of a great Mountain Colors worsted, but she probably can't take that to the convent with her, so I made her Grumperina's Shifting Sands scarf out of some great Debbie Bliss Cashmerino SuperChunky. (It is black, not gray)
and finally, here is the chemo cap I made of alpaca and silk

I've been also spinning and weaving, those delights await another post.

Where does the time go??

2009-02-08T12:36:00.027-05:00

Looking through the stuff in the bowels of my purse that used to consist of candy/gum wrappers, grocery receipts, and stolen pens but now mainly consists of yarn labels, fiber scraps/tufts, crumpled knitting patterns, and paper scraps bearing blog notes, I realized that I haven't written a blog entry about any of the clever stuff I've jotted down.

So, I guess you'll never see my essay about why Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE day of the year--any year--EVERY year because it involves Mom's gravy, Matt's smoked turkey, the usual pies, and the people I love the most--but especially this year when the celebration also involved a pile of 12 puppies, 3 llamas, several goats, and sheep.

It was pretty much a dead heat as to who was cutest--Harper, the flirty male llama, Alex and Meredith, or the pile of puppies

My tirade about how much I HATE to decorate for Christmas, but love it when it's done and so (aside from laziness) do not take the stuff down until almost February will have to wait until next year. Musings about the chaos of Christmas Eve and the thirst brought on by the ton of deer jerky and summer sausage I ate are lost to the ages. I'm sorry to have deprived the world of all that, but I do have photos.
Anyway, this would be the chaos.

And, this would be thrift store and as-seen-on-TV silliness

Kelly thinks we are laughing WITH him in his new beekeeper duds

Grandma Schneider bought the kids these great blankets with their own photos on them. Meredith's was a photo taken in Yellowstone Park and Alex's was taken on his climb up Longs' Peak in Colorado.

For the record, the ski trip to Red River we took after Christmas was everything we hoped it would be.

As is our way, we left Tulsa early in the morning at a time everyone else would say was the middle of the night and arrived in Amarillo for a early lunch at the BIG TEXAN--

It was as corny and kitchy as you would expect for an iconic Texas tourist trap.

After a detour to WalMart we were equipped with spray paint for our visit to the Cadillac ranch.

In Red River we stayed at the Deer Lodge in a dinky, but charming built-in-the-late-30s cabin where the space between the door and the frame was almost big enough to stick a finger through, and the kitchen sink leaked in what was pretty much a steady stream that required a mixing bowl catching the drips to be emptied on a regular basis. It had a microwave and coffepot, but no electrical outlets in the kitchen area to plug them in to. . . and the foolish act of using the hair dryer with the lights on caused the breaker to blow.

We spent a day at the Enchanted Forest Cross Country ski area. I've been cross-country skiing before and really loved it. However, it's been 20-some years. So, after the cursing occasioned by my stepping into the skis on flat ground subsided, I promptly traded in my rented skis for snowshoes. Snowshoeing was fun and something I'd really like to try again, perhaps at an elevation just a bit lower than 8-9000 feet.

Kelly graciously waited a LOT while I fumbled for camera equipment and air to breathe.The kids managed to get around on cross-country skis without the benefit of lessons. Meredith LOVED it, Alex a little less so. (I think Meredith was probably better at it, and that explains that).

The kids snow boarded one day at Angel Fire and two days at Red River. They liked Red River better. They could walk to the lifts from our cabin and didn't have to wait in long lines.

The latest any of us stayed up was 9:30. I think the evenings were my favorite part of the week -- having the four of us all together in one room, each with a book, must be a little bit like heaven.

There has been knitting, AND spinning, AND weaving, all subjects for a separate post.

There's more

2008-11-18T08:36:00.004-05:00

Same ol' warp . . . this time I'm using sock yarn in the weft. I tried to make socks of this, my first attempt, actually, but there are very dark patches in the yarn and I just could not see to knit it. One strand is too fine for the thick warp, so I plied two balls together with the spinning wheel and it is just right.

I now see light at the end of the warp tunnel for this batch of blue and purple, so I'm off to scheme about what's next.

Weave Worthy??

2008-11-17T19:27:00.014-05:00

In no time at all, I completed the scarf shown in my last post. I can't show a photo of it because it is hidden on the front beam (weaving lingo, don't 'cha know) beneath my newest production.

The star of the show is some of my hand-dyed handspun yarn.

The supporting cast is found resting on the bench, namely the same blue and purple wool warp as in my last post along with a tiny bit of left-over ribbon yarn of uncertain parentage, some rayon fancy stuff, and a soy-wool blend that is really chunky and really soft but impossible to knit with.

I am finding it nearly impossible to get anything else done, ie. prairie dresses for my nieces that still need to even be cut out, and niece Emily's jacket I promised TWO birthdays ago. (have I already blogged about this? I do feel guilty, which could be assuaged by actually DOING the sewing)

Anyway, I'm mighty proud of the result:

I told Kelly he could have this scarf for a gift exchange at work, but am seriously reconsidering that offer. I foresee having trouble letting someone else who might not REALLY, really, really appreciate handwoven have it. Actually, I think weaving will foment in me a judgmental tendency which may (ok, will) cause me to categorize people by whether they are weave-worthy, or not. I kind of (kind of????) already do that with knitting. I haven't worked out the exact calculus between knitting and weaving. It is possible one could be weave-worthy but not knit-worthy or vice versa, it takes a lot of work to be judgmental so I've got some details yet to work out. I have tentatively named this latest character flaw the craft caste.

I have not neglected knitting in favor of weaving. I've completed my bono kimono sweater (Loops Pattern) knit of stash yarn. It is washed, blocked and ready to be seamed up.

I participated in a pincushion swap on Ravelry and made these two to send to a gal in England. The dress-form one was a lot of fun, but the felted teacup was a pain in the rear to make and I slopped glue all over so it was a better idea than result. I haven't heard from the recipient, so maybe the glue was still wet--oops!

So long -- UGLY

2008-11-03T18:31:00.010-05:00

As previously reported, I wound some wildly bright red and yellow yarn (called warp) on my loom and began to weave. I flipped through a book and followed different weaving patterns pretty much wily-nily, just to see what would happen. This did.

After about 5 feet of this experiment, I realized that I had wound on waaaaaay more warp than was prudent and, even worse, I had exhausted my ability to tolerate the colors.

Since I had seen a thread on Ravelry about weaving with chenille, I thought I might try that. I used up the left over bit from my mother’s birthday gift and got really jazzed about how the bright blue muted the warp colors and how luscious (yes-luscious) the fabric felt.

Then, I started picking around the stash looking for something else to use. I spied my very first lumpy-bumpy over twisted handspun. I was going to save it for posterity but it also happened to be my very first dye experiment (spelled m-i-s-t-a-k-e). Criminally ugly, it was never going to be used for anything because it looked like clown barf.
Something amazing happened when the Ronald McDonald colored warp met clown barf yarn. The ugly completely disappeared.

Watching that happen was exciting. Kind of like watching your kid win a race, score (or prevent) a goal, OR watch a photo develop in the darkroom, but not as stinky (that goes for all 3 examples–kid athletes smell bad).

The possibilities!!!!! Ugly can be obliterated through weaving!?! Who knew?

We gotta get the word out.

Uh-Oh . . . I feel an(other) obsession coming on.

So, of course (of course!) I stayed up half the night warping the loom again with the idea of using more of my hand-dyed handspun. And here I go again . . .

To confess: I may have screwed up a bit on my calculation of the warp measurement. I thought I’d warp enough for two scarves and figured a little more than 7 feet each would be generous, considering waste. In the light of day, I realize that in my enthusiasm I probably warped on too much. It was late and I can’t quite remember what I did but I HOPE I didn’t measure 7 yards for each of the two scarves. Surely NOT--That would be 42 feet. It’s entirely possible –it was a whole LOT of yarn.

Bye-Bye-B-Day

2008-10-26T15:15:00.011-05:00

Just ask my kids, I am not one to make a BIG DEAL out of birthdays, much less my own, BUT I'm making an exception for myself this year because I'm 50 and I got such an interesting array of gifts.

There is, of course, the loom--Kelly said I could get it so he wouldn't have to shop--that worked out well for both of us. Since I've been weaving, or trying anyway, Kelly has gotten full control of the remote.

Then, there was THE card from gal-pal, Beth (sorry about the photo fuzziness):

Followed by THE plaque, also from Beth:

Honestly, they are funny but I just can't figure out why she gave them to me. HA!

There was THIS t-shirt from daugther Meredith:

Son Alex came to visit--No Photo

This pitcher and honey dispense is from my parents:

The Sock Monkey from my brother --as the label says: For ALL Ages.

The last photo is the stuff I got from my swap buddy in the Ravelry "Sew Obsessed" group pincushion swap. My buddy is from New Zealand and in addition to two beautiful pin cushions, she sent a bunch of cool stuff representative of New Zealand, including the most tasty strange confections called Pineapple Lumps.

for loom the bell tolls

2008-10-23T19:58:00.012-04:00

{{Insert groan here}}}

That really IS the best title I could come up with for this post. My extraordinary lack of linguistic creativity is a direct result of having acquired the loom of my life last Wednesday. So, of course I’ve been up late and up early to get acquainted and spend some quality time with her, which has left me a little dull witted.

Here she is

Isn’t she a beaut??? Here are her specs. She is an elegant older gal, a LeClerc NilArt loom with a 60 inch weaving width and 8 harnesses. All that means she can do a whole lot of weaving, but I gotta figure out how to make her do it. I bought her from from Sue of knit night. Fortunately, through the efforts of Sue, her hub--Victor, and my brother Matt (who, by the grace of high school marching band, even happened to know Victor) she made the trip to her new home safely and was correctly assembled here in an orderly fashion.

Sue gave me this bunch of yarn for practice.

Since these shades do not appear elsewhere in my stash (or perhaps in nature), I am suffering no anxiety about wasting the yarn on the mess I’m making trying to learn to weave. Actually, in the photograph the colors aren't really so bad--it usually works the other way for me.

AND, in other news:

I attended the K.N.I.T. (Knitting Needles In Tulsa) Guild workshop on Saturday which was taught by Sally Melville. Although I’ve attended a number of knitting programs, I had not taken a workshop. I’ll definitely take more. I’m told that others don’t quite compare to Sally’s. I don’t know if that is so, but I do know that the entire day passed quickly. I was entertained and inspired.

The workshop subject was creative use of your yarn collection or some such title. So far the creative use of the two lovely stash yarns I chose to begin this journey required the expenditure of over $75 at Loops for . . . more yarn. It's all good though because after I knit this project my stash will be down a net 3 1/2 balls. Lets see, I had to buy 7 balls of yarn to reduce the stash by nearly 4 balls of yarn. Now THAT'S stash busting. I bet, given enough yarn, I could get the country out of the financial mess it's in . . . Tell Obama I should be appointed Secretary of Treasury.

And, that brings us to my favorite part of the program . . . the "what now" story . . .

I was to bring a dish to a luncheon at work. I made a BIG deal of the fact that since I am now (since Sunday, at least) 50 years old, I can, entirely without embarrassment or apology, bring a jello dish to share. So, I mixed up a BIG bunch o'jello and stuff . . . AND, you guessed it--

LEFT IT IN THE FRIDGE. So not only was I completely empty-handed at the luncheon, but I now have a fridge full of fairly useless jello.

AND the winner is . . .

2008-10-23T19:48:00.009-04:00

The news is finally out. The photo chosen for the Knitty.com calendar is this one:

This was selection “c” in my blog contest.

Between the blog comments and the ones posted on Ravelry, there were 13 votes. The overwhelming majority (10 ) correctly picked “c” as the calendar photo. 3 people picked “a” – no one picked “b” – and 3 said they liked “d” the best. (The numbers don’t quite add up because although some said they liked “d” best, they cleverly figured out that it was not actually a contest submission).

AND so, the names of the “c” pickers were placed into a hat (a knitted hat at that)

AND the winning name was very ceremoniously plucked from the hat after MUCH ado and other stuff

(Isn't Kelly cute? The scarf, which is NOT handknitted, was his own touch)

~~~~~~~~~~~DRUMROLL~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE WINNER IS

KAT

Congratulations ! Please either send me a private message on Ravelry (I’m anniam there too) or email me (schmom8889@gmail.com) with your address and this lovely yarn will be mailed to you----post haste.

Thanks to all who played.

A thought or two–maybe three

2008-10-09T10:27:00.002-04:00

First, rocks do NOT belong in yarn. There I said it, and I mean it.

Ya see, I’m involved in this knitting thing called Hat-Attack which is is a friendly kill or be killed competition where each contestant is assigned a target to assassinate by means of knitting and mailing a hat knitted of a particular pattern before receiving one. If you are killed before your hat is completed you mail your incomplete hat to your assassin who completes the hat and mails it to the intended target.

So?? What about the rocks??

Well, the suggested yarn for the hat pattern is called Therapi, which is said to contain jade–the rocks jade, not the color jade. The colors of this yarn are really pretty and it seems all soft and lovely . . . UNTIL YOU TRY TO KNIT THE DAMNED STUFF. I guess the way they get the jade in the yarn is to somehow spin it into fiberglassy strands. They combine the jade-fiberglassy strands with wool and silk. But, the normal yummy soft properties of wool and silk are completely destroyed by the rocks which cause itching and burning of the hands. To make matters worse, the yarn is expensive–$10 for a 50gr/110 yd ball. To make matters even worse-er . . . My target didn’t complete her hat so I’m knitting that one and the next target has contacted me begging for the hat so she doesn’t have to finish hers. So, unless I get a hat in the mail soon, I will have knit at least three hats with the wretched Therapi yarn. I’m knitting especially slowly with the idea that I’ll get my death hat soon, but that strategy isn’t working very well as the game is almost a month old and I haven't received a hat.

Anyway, current politics and economic meltdowns aside, this just goes to show that every notion that comes into your head is NOT necessarily a good idea, and you do NOT need to run with every fool idea that pops into your head . . . rocks in yarn???? What is the world coming to?

Second thought, Addi Turbo Needles ROCK.

So, while I’m knitting the second death hat of a pattern I like but out of yarn I despise, the cable on my knitpiks circular needles comes un-cabled. The cable didn’t come unscrewed, but unplugged itself from the fitting. Owing to the lateness of the hour and perhaps a little to the weekly episode of beer-knitting, I did not notice until the mess was beyond repair. ARGHHHHHHH.

Addi Turbo needles do not unplug themselves, and therefore are deserving of high praise and a more prominent place on the scale of necessities.

AND, the third thought, Beer Knitting is a hoot.

The reasons for that thought are probably obvious, but there is this too. So, I show up to beer-knitting a little early and get my beer and choose a table and commence to knit. The sideways glances from the other patrons are comical. A nearby male patron emitted an expletive and turned to say "sorry maam." Now that’s funny!

Can you say CALENDAR?

2008-10-05T09:00:00.010-04:00

I can--I can !!!!

Although it will not be on the cover of the Knitty.com calendar, one of the three photos I submitted to the calendar photo contest did get selected to be on a calendar page. I'm sworn to secrecy about which photo for another week or so until the 2009 calendar shows up in the knitty store. I'm just guessing, but I think that will also be the same time the Fall Knitty Surprise is posted.

You could try to guess. And, Ms. Commentous Anonymous--no fair telling, or giving hints. I have a lovely skein of 480 yards of yarnpirate hand dyed (I think it's hand dyed) fingering weight I'll give to the best guesser, winning name to be drawn out of a knitted hat in case of a tie. Guessing will officially end when knitty.com says the calendar is in its store.

A) BATHING BEAUTIES

B) WOOLNYMPHS

C) BACK TO THE MOUNTAINS

D) NONE OF THE ABOVE

AND, no post is complete without a "what now?" story.

So, Saturday morning Mr anniam (oh, you KNOW his name is Kelly) is running a bath for himself and comes literally streaking out yelling about a spider and directing me to get a broom. There was a smallish tarantula in the bathroom, which I'm sorry to say did not survive that dangerous triumvirate of Kelly, a broom, and the toilet. For the record, Kelly does feel bad about not being a more gracious host, but I'm giving him a pass on his behavior because after all he was naked. As for me, I'm giving myself props for not insisting on photographs, owing also to the nakedness.