little bit of crazy leaking out

(for now I am going to pretend I hadn’t stopped blogging and continue on)

This has been a good week for spinning.  I spun up this roving from Emma.  It still needs to be plyed, but it is all spun up.

But the big news is this . . .

a Kromski Sonata from Woodland Woolworks. 

I had been going back and forth on which wheel to buy, but finally decided on the Sonata because of portability.  We have a small house so having the Ashford in the living room all the time was not the best idea, and with two very inquisitive children, a wheel that can be packed away, well, out of sight is out of (the children’s) minds.  The Sonata has a very nice padded bag and the whole thing can be placed in the closet when I’m not spinning.  The Sonata bobbins are much larger than the ones for my Ashford, a big plus in my mind. The optional plying head and faster flyer add to the range of the Sonata.  I will be getting the plying head, but I think the faster flyer can wait, my spinning isn’t ready for it yet.

With my purchase, Woodland Woolworks sent 2lbs of targhee and 1lb of corridale cross.  No lack of fiber to spin here.

(It looks like I already have a buyer for the Ashford. I am not going to start collecting spinning wheels. Thanks Emma!)

A week or so ago Emma and I decided we would go the the Seattle Knitting Expo so we could buy more roving.  Crown Mountian Farms was going to be there, and I love how the pencil roving I have from them is spinning up.  Must buy more pencil roving.  Then last night Emma e-mails me about a warehouse sale on Craigslist.  A yarn warehouse sale who’s address Googles as the Cascade Yarns warehouse, just over the freeway from the Expo . . . bitch.

This morning I got up before the birds, as my husband, the morning person, pointed out.  I picked up Annie, who’s arm I twisted last night to come with us (right!), and then we cruised over to Emma’s so we could pile into her car to make the pilgrimage to the Seattle Knitting Expo.

We made great time and were there about ten minutes early, and had to stand outside the doors peering in at all the yarn and roving, and drool wait.

The first place we dumped a load of cash purchased a bit of roving was at Reflection Farm Wool Products.    We all had a difficult time choosing which lovely roving(s) to take home with us.  See how much Emma loves her roving.

We also left some money at Crown Mountian Farms and Williams Wools & Weaving (no website yet). We bought a bit of roving between the three of us.

 

We staggering out of Expo with our credit cards smoking.  Since the warehouse sale didn’t start for half an hour we stopped for a bit of refreshment.  Bolstered by hashbrowns and beverages, we made the trek to the Cascade Yarns warehouse . . . where we bought a bit of yarn . . .

The yarn was hard to resist, $20 for a 10 skein bag.  At those prices it’s lucky we walked out with as little as we did.

Ok, here is the final damage:

 
15.9oz of color #78 from Reflection Farms

 
8oz Superwash - Good Vibrations
8oz Pencil Roving - Promise of Spring
from Crown Mountian Farms

 
Gray Merino from Williams Wools & Weaving
(could be 2.5lbs, but I may have to deny it)

2 bags Revolution, green for shrug for Bug, pink/gray/black for felted bag for me; 1 bag of 128 Tweed, natural

At least yesterday was.  I had two full bobbins sitting, waiting, for me to ply them together.  One purple, one gray, the first two full bobbins I had spun on my wheel.  I plied them together and ended up with about 125yds of thick and thin yarn. 

I still had some of the purple and gray roving left over, so I went ahead and spun it up and plied it, too.  About 30yds, much more even than the previous skeins.

I still have a little left to ply, so I will do that later today.

I can see a big difference between the first (gray) bobbin and what I spun up yesterday . . .

How do you get to Carnegie Hall lace sock weight yarn? 
Practice, practice, practice.

* Sorry for the bad picture, it’s very overcast and rainy today.

The weekend started on Friday with Knit Night at Village Yarn & Tea.  Not only was it Knit Night, but it was Pajama Party Knit Night with the Yarn Pirate.  She created a special colorway called Village using the shop’s colors and I got caught up in the hysteria (they were handing out numbers for selecting YP yarn, limit two skeins until everyone had a chance, no kidding) and purchased not only the Village colorway, but also Crocus.

I met up there with several knitting friends; Debi, Emma, Amy, and met a new friend, Sam.  I forgot my camera, so, no pics from that night, sorry.  

Emma was spinning silk hankies that she had hand dyed, it was so cool to watch her . . . poke a hole . . . pull . . . stretch . . . abuse the silk . . . then spin . . . amazing! 

Amy brought her whole polymer clay set up so people could make buttons for the wristbands for the Breast Cancer 3-day Walk, I didn’t get a chance to make one and I wish I had now.  Amy also brought in some pink ribbon stitch markers and all the money from the sale of the markers goes to the same project, I bought one and it has already been put to use on my current knitting project.

Saturday is the regular knitting group at noon-ish, Emma and I decided to bring our wheels and this is what I was able to get spun while there.

 

Kim brought in roving she had hand dyed for the shop, some of it ended up comming home with me.  The picture doesn’t do it justice.

 

That evening and Sunday I spent time working on the Saddle Shoulder Sweater for Bubba, but I took a break and made these for the kids for lunch.

 

No, I didn’t make Twinkies for lunch, they’re corndogs made in a Twinkie pan - Twinkiedogs!  The kids love them.  Make up a batch of your favorite cornbread batter, fill pan about 1/2 way and push 1/2 of a bun length hotdog (I use kosher hotdogs, I like to think they have fewer lips and tails in them) most of the way into the batter, the batter will rise up to cover the hotdog.

Think my husband will notice this sitting in the living room?  Me, either.

I headed out this morning with Anne to go and take a look at the wheel. 

Okay, it wasn’t that smooth.  I headed to the bank to hit the ATM and the armored car was there, 10 minutes the guys with the guns said.  So I parked and went inside with Bubba in tow, got the cash and headed off again.  About half way to Anne’s I realized I had left the instructions to her house sitting on the table at home.  Turned around, got the instructions and we were off again.  When we finally arrived and inspected the wheel Anne gave it her seal of approval.

The wheel does need some love.  It is an older Ashford Traditional and came with a lazy kate and seven bobbins. The wood is quite dry and needs to be oiled as do the works.  It is missing the break band tension knob (see arrow in photo below) so I’ll be heading off to Home Depot to see if a peg can be found to fit.  The flyer only has one ratio, but at this point I think one is more than enough and, in the far distant future, a new flyer with more ratios can always be purchased.

If you don’t hear from me in the next few days it’s because I’m oiling my wheel.

It might be possible that I am dragging a spinning friend with me to go and look at this in the morning, and I might possibly be bringing it home to live at my house if it gets the “Good Anne Seal of Approval”.

At VY&T on Saturday it was pointed out to me, more than once, by more than one person, that it had been a while since I had updated my blog.  Comments about “the green socks still being there” and hints about possibily posting abounded.  So, with out further ado, more green socks!

pattern:  my own, k3p3 rib, K5p1 leg, dutch heel, standard toe
yarn:  Kroy Sox
needles:  Crystal Palace US2.5
cast on:  October 30th (ish)  cast off: Dec 2nd

I’ve been doing some spinning too. Yes, I have fallen to the dark side.  On Thursday I spun up the remaining roving from my class, then on Friday I wacked together a lazy kate so I could do some plying.

I am actually quite pleased with my first finished yarn. 

 

 . . . and another FO!

pattern:  Spinner’s Shawl by Evelyn Clark
yarn:  Silky Wool
needles:  Clover Bamboo US8
cast on:  Dec 2nd  cast off: Dec 10th
notes:  Love this pattern, though it did turn out larger than I had planned.  The border is quite wide, which I chose to have amnesia about while knitting.  The cast off is great, nice and stretchy!

Since I had spun up all the roving I had, I picked up some more on Saturday.  Practice, practice, practice!  What holiday knitting?!