Upcoming events and they are coming at me fast. This Sunday is my Family's Gathering. I am excited as I have not seen my Grand Children for a month. We will be making plans for the older two to come spend some time with me, I am thinking over a long weekend. I want to take them exploring and I hope the weather is dry the days they are here. I want to show them the Riverfront Park in Independence and the wildlife refuge just up the road from my house. Later in the summer I want to take them to the marine park in Salem and see if there are tadpoles, like I found with my kids a few years ago. We can raise them here and then I can share posts with the kids and they will see how much they have changed when they come back to see me.
The next weekend after the family gathering is Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR. I love this wool festival. It is the first one I ever attended and it is big and awesome. There is wool and fiber from everything and everywhere. I won't have much to spend so I will look for something very special to buy. I love to spin and am always on the look out for very soft roving. I like to try new and unusual fibers as well. Last year I got a blend of silk and angora that I have not spun yet. I also got yak and silk to spin and ply with it. I don't know what I want to make from it so am not sure how to spin it. It is not enough to make a shawl, but I could make a scarf or fingerless mitts or wrist warmers. It is pastel colors and white; colors will be one strand and white will be the other strand and I will ply them so it will have a barber pole effect making the pastels softer and the knitted beauty will have a heathered look. If I make wrist warmers or fingerless mitts I will see them while I wear them, if it is around my neck I won't see most of it. Hmmm. Will be fun to see what I find this year.
In other news, three fates yarns, my local independent dyer is having a giveaway to celebrate 1000 people liking her Facebook page. By tweeting and blogging about it you get an entry for each in the drawing. So here is my entry, she is giving away yarn. Stephania has wonderful yarn and she gives them really great colors. I am currently knitting a mystery shawl (pattern from Wendy Johnson) with three fates yarns BFL Platinum yarn. The colorway is Aqua Vite and I love how the semi solid is working with the lace in this shawl. There is something about BFL that makes me happy as it slides through my hands whether I am knitting it or spinning it. BFL is Blue Faced Leister, a sheep breed with nice long wool that is very soft.
Since I have started spinning I have been learning a lot about sheep and other fiber bearing animals. I had no idea there were so many breeds of sheep and the wool from each is not necessarily good for spinning. Some wools are better suited for wall hangings or rugs, some for outerwear and soft ones are for against the skin items.
I will keep you updated on other festivals that are coming up this summer as well as the family outings.
Till next time.
LaVelle
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Start of a new blog, introduction
Well, I am trying a new start at this blogging thing. I had a blog, but did not keep up with it and changed browsers, so the first one is no longer convient. So here I am, I am going to use this space to discuss my knitting, spinning and family. Losing my job in 2009 leaves me with more time to pursue knitting and spinning. I will talk about what is on my needles, what I am spinning and on what and my family and grandkids especially will show up every once in a while.
I belong to a knitting group called Salem Area Ravelers and they will show up in the blog. The members of Salem Area Ravelers are starting to learn spinning and have started a new group that will have an official name at some point, but for now I will refer to them as SAR Spinners. We host events that will show up in the blog, at the moment we knit on Wednesday evenings around 6pm and Saturday afternoons from 1 - 5 ish and we have started spinning Sundays 1 - 5ish at The Ike Box in Salem. We may move around a little, sometimes we have pot lucks at someones home or we meet at an event like the Saturday Market in Salem for World Wide Knit (or spin) in Public day. Salem Area Ravelers online group can be found at the online knitting community; Ravelry.com.
On my needles this week is the Swirl Shawl. A modular knit along that was supposed to start in March and end in May. Well...today is June 1st and I am close to being finished with the shawl, but alas it is not finished on time. I love this shawl and should have it done by the end of the weekend. I will admit I got a late start on this project as I was working on something else that I wanted to finish and then I did not find the yarn I wanted untill April. The shawl is 5 rows of 16 or 17 modules and I am currently in the middle of the 5th row. It was a new technic to learn, you knit one module and then pick up stitches to knit the next one. The modules are cast on at the outer edge and knit to the middle. It is coming along nicely and I can't wait to wear it. Next on the needles is another KAL hosted by Wendy Johnson, it is a mystery shawl and she is releasing clues periodically and we have all summer to work on this one. I am using yarn I purchased from three fates yarns in a sock weight, same brand and weight as the swirl shawl, different colorway. I cast on this mystery shawl and knit the first row while on an Urban Yarn Crawl last Saturday. The yarn crawl was called Knittin the Rails and we took Amtrak from Salem to Portland and then used buses, light rail and our feet to visit 4 yarn stores and a tea house. It was a lot of fun.
On my spinning wheel I just finished a fingerng weight yarn for my Daughter Alicia who wants to make a small blanket or shawl for herself. It was a colorway called Periwinkle and the fiber is merino, I like spinning it, the color is beautiful and very soft. I next spun up 8oz of merino silk in a colorway called Aquarius. I think you would call it fingering weight yarn and I want to make a shawlette called Multnomah.
It has been a couple of weeks since I saw my grandkids. They had to move to Vancouver, Wa so their Dad could attend college and they are saving money by living with his parents. I have 4 grandkids, Matthew in turning 15 this month, Serra is 12 and Lucy and Frankie are twin babies. I will see them again in a couple more weeks.
Two of my children live with me, Jennifer is 21 and Sean is 19. They are both looking for work or trying to get into college. Finding a job is hard, we have all been trying. Jennifer and I have started a garden and I hope that will help some with groceries this summer and fall. Home grown veggies really help the diet so hopfully we can keep some things growing into winter. More on that later.
That's all for now. Stay healthy and see you later.
I belong to a knitting group called Salem Area Ravelers and they will show up in the blog. The members of Salem Area Ravelers are starting to learn spinning and have started a new group that will have an official name at some point, but for now I will refer to them as SAR Spinners. We host events that will show up in the blog, at the moment we knit on Wednesday evenings around 6pm and Saturday afternoons from 1 - 5 ish and we have started spinning Sundays 1 - 5ish at The Ike Box in Salem. We may move around a little, sometimes we have pot lucks at someones home or we meet at an event like the Saturday Market in Salem for World Wide Knit (or spin) in Public day. Salem Area Ravelers online group can be found at the online knitting community; Ravelry.com.
On my needles this week is the Swirl Shawl. A modular knit along that was supposed to start in March and end in May. Well...today is June 1st and I am close to being finished with the shawl, but alas it is not finished on time. I love this shawl and should have it done by the end of the weekend. I will admit I got a late start on this project as I was working on something else that I wanted to finish and then I did not find the yarn I wanted untill April. The shawl is 5 rows of 16 or 17 modules and I am currently in the middle of the 5th row. It was a new technic to learn, you knit one module and then pick up stitches to knit the next one. The modules are cast on at the outer edge and knit to the middle. It is coming along nicely and I can't wait to wear it. Next on the needles is another KAL hosted by Wendy Johnson, it is a mystery shawl and she is releasing clues periodically and we have all summer to work on this one. I am using yarn I purchased from three fates yarns in a sock weight, same brand and weight as the swirl shawl, different colorway. I cast on this mystery shawl and knit the first row while on an Urban Yarn Crawl last Saturday. The yarn crawl was called Knittin the Rails and we took Amtrak from Salem to Portland and then used buses, light rail and our feet to visit 4 yarn stores and a tea house. It was a lot of fun.
On my spinning wheel I just finished a fingerng weight yarn for my Daughter Alicia who wants to make a small blanket or shawl for herself. It was a colorway called Periwinkle and the fiber is merino, I like spinning it, the color is beautiful and very soft. I next spun up 8oz of merino silk in a colorway called Aquarius. I think you would call it fingering weight yarn and I want to make a shawlette called Multnomah.
It has been a couple of weeks since I saw my grandkids. They had to move to Vancouver, Wa so their Dad could attend college and they are saving money by living with his parents. I have 4 grandkids, Matthew in turning 15 this month, Serra is 12 and Lucy and Frankie are twin babies. I will see them again in a couple more weeks.
Two of my children live with me, Jennifer is 21 and Sean is 19. They are both looking for work or trying to get into college. Finding a job is hard, we have all been trying. Jennifer and I have started a garden and I hope that will help some with groceries this summer and fall. Home grown veggies really help the diet so hopfully we can keep some things growing into winter. More on that later.
That's all for now. Stay healthy and see you later.
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