What I spun during Tour De Fleece

Well Tour De Fleece is over, and I must say I did pretty well. I spun a total of 600 yards of yarn, give or take a few yards. One of the projects that make it hard to say exactly how much I spun if part of a felted bag. At the beginning of the Tour I had been knitting a market bag and I ran out of the yarn I had spun for it. So I started off my Tour spinning the yarn to make the handles and finish the market bag. I spun, plied and set the twist and started knitting without measuring the yarn.

The bag is made of Shetland wool, I also spun Wensleydale and Polworth breeds this time. Wensleydale and Polworth are both new breeds for me. I liked spinning them and they both turned out pretty soft. I was skeptical of the Wensleydale as it felt wiry to my hands as I was spinning it. I was not sure I would want that around my neck, but once I had set the twist it became softer. I think it will become a small shawl so I have the option of having it near my neck but most of the time it would be on my shoulders, there is 215 yards of worsted weight so could be fingerless mitts. The Polworth has 162 yards so it could be a narrow shawl, I would really like this one around my neck to maybe a cowl.

Here is a picture of my Tour De Fleece works.

A new awakening

A lot of things have happened to me in the last year that took me away from this blog. I think it is high time to give it one more try.

To start off the blog again since it is supposed to be about my knitting, spinning and grand kids, we shall begin with the start of Tour De Fleece. What is Tour De Fleece or TDF you might ask? While the Tour De France is running people of the knitting community are following the cyclists and encouraging them by spinning along with them, we, however, are spinning yarn.

Here you will see what I accomplished on the first day of the tour. The small skein is Shetland wool and really it is a golden yellow in good light. The lavender on the spool is a breed called Wensleydale a new breed for me to spin. That is a breed I have not spun before not a new breed to the world. I have 8 oz of the lavender and intend to make a shawl or cowl with it. The golden skein will become the handles on a felted bag I am knitting. 

My second day of the tour left me with this much yarn on my Jenkins Turkish spindle.

I have been working with the spindle again today, the third day of the tour. I wonder how the bicyclists are doing?

My grand kids are still living out of state, fortunately less than 2 hours away by car. I only get to see them once a month, most months when they come to our monthly family gatherings. Some months I get to drive up to their house to visit. They will be moving in a few weeks, I had hoped they would be very near me again. But their father was lucky enough to get a fine job in the Beaverton area, so they will be perhaps half an hour closer to me. But in the spirit of combining knitting, spinning and grand kids they will be surrounded by interesting yarn stores and my daughter is planning to entice me into visiting often with the promise of finding Portlands hidden yarn treasures. 

Life has many challenges, I have come to find. Getting through them can be quite time consuming. Knitting, Spinning and family have wonderful healing properties and I am using them to my best abilities. Till next week then, take care.

Christmas is upon us

Wow, a lot has been happening in my life this year.
I have been knitting a lot off and on. I have some projects on the needles for Christmas gifts, hoping to have them done in time. My knitting has slowed a lot since my Dad died in August. I am trying to get back to a daily habit of knitting but it just isn't happening some days. When I was staying with my Dad and taking him to appointments and such I took my knitting with me all the time and made great progress. It amazed him how much I could get done in a day. It was fun knowing he was keeping track of what I was doing. Then in August he was gone and my knitting stopped entirely. I didn't knit for weeks, I was just too busy and distracted to pick it up again. But eventually I did pick it up and started new projects. I am still really busy on weekends taking care of his estate and winding things up. It has been hard.

I love spinning as much as I do knitting. Maybe I should spin a while and it could help settle things down, but I say to myself wait till after Christmas knitting is taken care of. Spin after the first of the year. I thought about taking a spindle with me to Christmas Pageant practices, but they have changed the way we do that, there is not much sitting idle time anymore so I really would not get any spinning done, just for the first few minutes while we are waiting for everyone to show up and get started, so that did not happen this year.

Rickreall Christmas Pageant had it's 72nd run this year. It is over for this year, last night was the final show. When I moved back to this area I looked them up and joined the group again. I have been in this off and on over the years doing different parts and jobs. It is a community project and I got started in grade school, the 6 grade girls of Rickreall Elementary get to be the little angels in the Shepard scene. When I hit 6th grade I did not get to be one of the angels because I had pneumonia and the doctor did not want me exposed to the cold night air and possible wet feet, so I sat out. Then as the girls become seniors in high school they get to play the part of the water girl in the neighbor scene. Well my senior year came and there were more girls than nights of the pageant so my best friend and I sat out but in the Choir. Two years later my sister was a high school senior and there was just her and one other girl to play the water girl, trouble is the girls were also on the basketball team and there was one night that they could not be the water girl. I was volunteered for the part and got to do it two years late.  Then I was away from it for a few years, I got married and moved away. When we moved back my Mom, the pageant director, asked if I would be interested in helping put makeup on people, I said yes that sounds like fun, so I did that for a couple of years. Then more children came along and I was not free in the evenings to run out there and do makeup anymore, now 20 years later I live in Rickreall again and have joined the cast. It is fun and I recommend it to anyone, if there is a community Christmas activity in your area look into it I bet they need volunteers of some kind. It is a good way to connect or re-connect with your neighbors, friends and community. Enjoy yourself.

I like Ravelry.com

http://badges.ravelry.com/rectangle_32.png I am a member of an online group called Ravelry. It is all about knitting and spinning and crochet a little. There are thousands of people in the group that all love fiber related projects. I find it a great resource and compliment to my addiction to knitting and spinning. You will find patters galore and lots of them are free, my favorite kind. when you pick a pattern you will find pictures of other people's project made from that pattern and yarn suggestions and technique help and so many people to answer your questions. It is a wonderful place and.... the best thing is it is free. Go check it out and join.

OK, I may have some new people coming in to see my blog; so I thought I would share some photos of what I do. Such as spinning fiber into yarn with a spinning wheel. I also use drop spindles to make yarn.

I then knit the yarn I make or purchase into items for myself or family.

I have been known to crochet, but haven't done any lately. In this blog I also talk about fiber festivals and State and County fairs, and I also talk about my family. I am married for 37 years, I have 3 Kids and 4 Grand Kids. We currently have 2 roosters, some cats and a dog. We used to have sheep and chickens. I was raised on a Dairy Farm so having animals around is normal for me. Animals need care but they make great companions and are good listeners. 

Well if some one new does show up, Welcome, if not, that is a short summary of me.

Wow! I did not realize how long it has been since my last post. So many things have happened. The biggest change in my life is the death of my Dad on Aug 22nd. I have been caring for him since January, staying with him for a few weeks after he had heart surgery and then once he was able to live by himself again, I was his wheels and we had lots of Dr appts and trips to the pharmacy. My sisters took care of his grocery shopping and visiting him on Sundays, helping him with things around the house on weekends. So he has been having health problems but he was getting better. Then that Wednesday night one of the firemen called us to say Dad did not show up for the fire meeting and they wanted us to come to his house with a key so we could check on him. Well, he had fallen asleep in his chair watching his favorite western channel on the tv and never woke up. He is with Mom again and I am sure they are very happy to be back together. I miss them so much.

I did a lot of knitting while staying with my Dad both in and out of the hospital. I haven't been doing much knitting since Dad died but I am getting back into it. I need to finish my Bigger on the inside shawl, I only have 6 rows at most to finish the tardis bank and then will do the ribbing band and it will be done. I have started some of my Christmas knitting. An infinity scarf for an Aunt and I have plans to make new mittens for the Grand Babies, older grandson some fingerless gloves and older grand daughter maybe a new hat or fingerless gloves just so all the Grand kids get similar things.

The last time I did any spinning was in July for the Tour de Fleece. I made at least 3 different kinds of yarn. A merino/silk blend, one that is 100% silk and another that is romney and BFL blend. I entered the romney blend or a skein of it in the Polk County fair and got a blue ribbon on it.  I also entered a poncho for Lucy and a shawl for me in the fair and got red ribbons on them. I got a white ribbon on a pair of fingerless mitts I had knitted. If I had looked at them really well before I entered them I would not have entered them as the thumb gusset was kind of messed up a little. It still got third place though.

Things are still kind of weighting on me, but it is getting better. My sisters and I will get Dad's estate settled soon and then I will be moving into Dad's house. Moving is never fun, but this should be the last time ever or for a long time at least. So some time next year I may find my new normal. In the mean time knitting, spinning and family will keep me going.

Till next time, you all need to stay well.

Genealogy, TDF and knitting

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/6a13a38a955e01499f3215f48/images/TrophyBadgeNEW_en.png" width="200px" alt=""/ I am one of the volunteers who are indexing the 1940 census records into a database at www.FamilySearch.org. We reached the half way point last week and they set a goal to see if we could do 5000 records in 24 hours. Well when you challenge a group of volunteers ...the game is on. We entered and verified over 10,000 records in 24 hours. So above is my trophy for participating in this event. I only did 100 records in the 24 hours, but I did help. There are lots of other records to enter into the databases, so if anyone has any desire to help it's never too late to join. In case you don't know what the databases are for, it is so people can research on their family history. I use the site myself for family research and need to get on there and search again, new information is being added daily so if you don't find someone today, try again in a month or so. Tour De Fleece is started, so far I have finished spinning some merino/silk roving I bought a year or two ago so I will soon be able to knit a shawl with it. It is on my to do list of knitting. :) Next I have started spinning silk hankies on my wheel. It is an adventure, fun and interesting I am getting it thicker in most places than what I spun on my spindle. I have another hankie to spin when this one is finished and then I want to ply the three of them together. I will still end up with lace to light fingering weight yarn and the yardage of the finished product will determine what I knit with it. If the TDF is still going when I finish that I have some natural grey roving to work on, I have about 9 oz of that so should be a shawls worth out of it. On my needles, I finished Lucy's poncho and need to get back to Bigger on the Inside shawl. It is my KAL for July with Salem Area Ravelers as a Dr Who project. I am over half done with the knitting of it but this stage is slower as it rows are over 300 stitches long. Well thats all the news here, take care and enjoy this picture of Lucy's poncho on my stuffed penguin.

Well, this is the weekend of Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. I have been attending this wool festival for 5 or 6 years, I think. It was the first wool festival I ever attended. I did not get to go this year, I was planning to and even signed up to play "Black Sheep Bingo". Black Sheep Bingo is a bingo game you sign up for ahead of time and let the organizers know if you want to be a player, a square or both. The last two years I signed up to be both. You are emailed a button and a square to print your self and take with you to play the game. The button is customizable in that you can add your "Ravatar" and Ravelry name to the button and then wear it to help people find you if you are a square or just to identify you to other Ravelry members. The game is played by keeping your eyes open while strolling around BSG for the people or booths on your playing card. When you find someone on your card they will either initial it or put a sticker on their square. It is not important to make bingo, the point is to meet other Ravelry members and if they have a booth check out the booth of a Ravelry member. Any prizes are donated by members of Black Sheep Bingo or people who just want to sponsor the event and get their product out there. The prizes are given out at a meet up the afternoon of Saturday by random drawing. This year I found out I would not be going to BSG and I wondered if I was supposed to let them know that I would not be participating in bingo after all. But they had already sent out the cards so it was too late to make changes. I just sat back and let it happen, as my son would say. I was actually at a family picnic with out of town family members while the bingo meet up and drawing was going on. After I got home from the picnic my cell phone rang and it was my friend Helen who was calling from BSG. Seems I had won a prize at the bingo drawing and she had it in hand to bring to me. I am so grateful, to Helen for transporting the prize so I can receive it quickly and for winning a prize of spinning fiber even though I could not go in person.

On my needles, I have had start-itis. I have a coffee mug cozy about half done with leftover worsted weight yarn, I made a swatch for a mystery shawl KAL, don't know if this yarn will work for the shawl, well it would work not confidant I have enough yarn. I have the second sock on the needle for flip flop socks, which sound funny but I will like them if I can make one that fits well. I have let my Bigger on the inside Shawl KAL sit for a while, it is a Dr Who themed shawl that has a border of Tardis along the bottom. I am letting it sit because the KAL lasts all summer and in July my knitting group KAL is Dr Who themed, so I am far enough along that I think I can finish the BOTIS during July, killing two KALs with one bind off. :) One more project I have going is a poncho for my little grand daughter. I made a poncho in the spring for her twin brother and started the poncho for Lucy then let it sit. I looked at it the other day and the majority of it is done so I picked it up and got going on it again. It is made with bulky yarn in shades of pink and has a pocket on the front and a hood. This week I finished knitting the front piece and then sewed it to the back at the shoulders. I made the pocket and sewed it to the front panel. I then picked up stitches around the neck for the hood and knitted a few rows of the hood. I think I will take the poncho and mystery shawl project with me to a knitting meet up in Salem this afternoon. I want opinions about the yarn I have that might work for the mystery shawl. The mystery shawl is a pattern by Wendy D Johnson, a favorite blogger and pattern designer of mine. I used one of her patterns to make my first pair of socks. I have made two of her shawls and some day I want to own pattern books she has written. She is a member of Ravelry and has some free patterns that you can download from Ravelry.

Family stuff this time covers the picnic I went to yesterday so I could see my sister in law who now lives in England. It is always fun to visit with SIL and her DH, who is English. They always have good stories to tell, this year they are excited that the Olympics are in London and they will go to Olympic village to explore and take pictures when they get home. I am hoping they share a lot of the pictures, I have never seen anything Olympic other than what is on TV. We had our regular family gathering last weekend and I got to see all the grand kids. We were celebrating my oldest grand sons birthday, he is turning 16. I pooled $ with my Dad and we got Grandson a remote control airplane. He was excited to get it and put it together and took it outside to make it work. It took a few tries to get it to fly and I would not say there was much control. The first "good" flight took it to the house roof and the next "good" flight took it over the house around the back yard and into the cedar tree. Part of the problem was the wind was really blowing harder than it should have been for  the little plane. So we tried all we could from the ground, mostly we just looked at it and tried to use our Jedi force to bring it down. The wind would blow and we would all cheer for it to fall. After about the second hard gusts went through the plane finally fell to the ground and it was not damaged. It has been a week now and I have not heard any news about any more flights. I hope if he tried it again that he was successful.

No spinning to speak of this time, next weekend starts the Olympics and Ravelry's games that go with watching the Olympics. Then also in July, I think is Tour De France and Ravelry's Tour De Fleece. I will be spinning for the Tour De Fleece, I have a project on my wheel to finish and a couple of spindles have projects that need to finish. I hope to get as much done as I can as long as my arm holds out. I seem to be having tendon problems in my left arm, knitting bothers some, spinning can bother a lot, so I have to be careful and not overdo.

Well I think that is enough chatting for now. Till next time, take care and enjoy your summer.

What have I been up to?

<img src="http://fch.ldschurch.org/fsinformation/images/50percent.jpg" alt="I helped index the first half of the 1940 US census">
I don't remember if I have mentioned this, but I have been volunteering as an Indexer for www.familysearch.com. What the heck does that mean? Well Family Search is a genealogy site hosted by the LDS Church for people to do research on family trees. Indexing means you download images of historical documents, such as census records, military draft cards, marriage, death or birth records and then you type what you see into an online form. What you type is verified by another volunteer and then the data is posted in searchable databases where people can research their families. I have been working on my own genealogy off and on for years and to be a volunteer putting more information out there so everyone can use it is a real honor to me. I know that I have been frustrated that my ancestors have been hard to find, come to find out not everything is online as yet. So I can't wait to do more research and see if the info I need is out there yet. I mean out there as online, I could go to an LDS church that has a family research library and look up info on micro film, which is fun to do as well. But it saves gas and is easier if I can do the research here at home. Genealogy, it's fun and you can share it with family, try it.


Well onto knitting and spinning. I have been working on spinning some merino that I purchased as a braid at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, one of my favorite wool festivals around. I purchased the wool probably 3 years ago and started spinning this on my Jenkins Turkish spindle last year some time. It is a great shade of blue and will make something soft and wonderful. It has been a little of a challenge to spin as sometimes it wants to fall apart instead of spin and so my drop spindle drops. So far no damage to the spindle. I am down to the last bit of spinning singles and then plan to ply it on my wheel. The plying will go much faster on the wheel than a spindle. I know this from experience, as I spun 8 ounces of wool and plied it with spindles and it took years. I finally have that yarn done and am currently knitting it into a shawl which I will talk about in a minute. To enhance my spinning pleasure; Tour De Fleece is coming up, I think it is in July. Tour de Fleece takes place during the Tour de France, it is supported on www.Ravelry.com where people form teams and goals and you spin on days the cyclists are "spinning" and you rest when they are resting. Its a fun thing to do and a good way to get some spinning done that you have been putting off. I need to finish making the yarn for my Multnomah shawl and I have a bag of natural colored light grey wool to spin as well. If I am really ambitious I will tackle the rest of the alpaca wool I have as well. Will have to see what the "old" tendons will allow. 


Wait I should look up Tour De Fleece and see for sure when it starts, because it dawns on me that July is when the Olympics start and Ravelympics runs with that. Ravelympics is Ravelry's fiber related version of the Olympics, once again Ravelrs form teams and compete in "competitions" or personal or group goals and there are events to enter that have names similar to Olympic events. You set a goal of a project that you want to complete within the time constraints of the Olympics, some people actually work their project while watching the Olympics. I did this last the Olympics were going and it was fun.


On my needles is still the "Bigger on the Inside" shawl, I got distracted by some small and fast projects, which I believe I spoke about last time. Knitted rose and rose pen. I am working on another rose pen and have started working on hats for Preemie babies and chemo patients. This is a project our Knitting group takes up periodically. I am also working on a knitted hand grenade as I think it would be funny to see my cats running around the house with a grenade in their mouths or batting it around and throwing it up into the air. I plan to put catnip in the handle to make sure they pick it up. :)


I am back to only seeing my Grand Kids once a month. This really sucks as I miss them terribly. The older two used to play Facebook games with me on the computer but seem to have lost interest in the games and they rarely post. I wonder if this is because they are too busy doing something else or if their grades are not good and they are banned from the computer/internet so they can do homework. Sigh, I miss them and look forward to their moving back to this area. The people who regulate the price of fuel should be made to live like the majority of people who have to buy the gas and then maybe they would have a heart instead of super greed.


Well, till next time, you all take care and stay safe.

The beginning of Summer and Festival Season

Well what do you know; it's Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial beginning of summer. My weekend has been uneventful, I am happy to say. We are at home, not fighting traffic or trying to find a leftover camping spot. I love camping and this used to be our first campout of  every year. Gas is just too expensive to use on fun anymore. If I  could have gone camping this weekend or any weekend this summer I would take my knitting with me and possibly a spindle and some wool to go with it. Sitting near a body of water surrounded by trees in the fresh air with my knitting and spinning and my family really sounds like fun to me.

What is on my needles these days? I am involved in a knit along, a bunch of us are making the "Bigger on the Inside" shawl. It is based on the PBS show "Dr Who". It's a nice little shawl with lace at the neck edge and half way down starts a border that includes a row of "Tardis". This is a blue phone booth looking building from Dr Who. Since I have never seen the Tardis on the show, I can only tell you that I have heard this Tardis looks like a phone box on the outside, but inside is Dr Who's time and space travel vehicle and laboratory. Thus even though it is small on the outside it is bigger on the inside. Needless to say it looks like a cute shawl and is a size and shape that I like. I have the lace section done and am slowly working on the Tardis border. The transition from lace to border on mine will be different than anyone else's as I did not notice right away that it should be purled on the right side, so mine has a few rows of stockinette stitch and switches to purls near the peak of the Tardis roof. I will also be able to tell mine from anyone else's because I spun this yarn myself and it is Teal instead of Tardis Blue.

Also on my needles is a hooded poncho for my Grand Daughter Lucy. I made one for my Grand Son Frankie last month so I just had to make one for his twin. I have it over half done but have stalled on it for a while as I have been distracted by the KAL and some small fast projects that sneaked in as well. I found a cool pattern on Ravelry.com for a rose bud that I think turned out nice, so much so that I took the idea and using I-cord I knitted a stem that fit over a Bic pen and constructed a rose on the end of it. I now have a rose pen. The I-cord cover on the pen makes it just a little fatter and squishy making it more comfortable to write with. I would make more of these, I really like the way it turned out. It still needs some leaves but I have used it a little and like it.

My spinning wheel has been parked for a few months, my excuse is that our cat had kittens and I did not want to injure a kitten that might try to climb into the spinning wheel, then my Dad had heart Surgery in January and I have been spending a lot of time at his house. Dad is on his own most of the time once again and the kittens are 9 months old now, so I suppose it could be safe to get the wheel out again, I do miss it. What little spinning I needed to do so that certain projects could progress I did on a spindle. On another spindle I have silk that needs to be worked on again. One silk hankie is almost spun up and I have two more that I want to spin and then ply all three together. They are shades of teal, yellow and green and since it is silk they are shinny. I suppose I will make some type of scarf from the silk as I don't think there will be enough for a small shawl. I was told on the day we dyed the silk that there should be enough to make mittens, so maybe I will make mittens or finger-less mitts which I dearly love.

I have been to a couple of wool festivals in the last few weeks, the first was at Willamette Heritage Center in Salem, Or and it is called Sheep to Shawl. I love this little festival in down town Salem for it's uncrowded outdoor atmosphere. At this annual festival you will see all kinds of fiber animals in person and you will see some of them sheared. For the first time this year I witnessed two alpacas being sheared, to this date I had only seen sheep being sheared. You will also see people spinning, knitting and weaving with natural fibers. There are always a few fiber vendors and jewelry vendors as well as the usual shops in the Mission Mill Museum building. There is a nice cafe on the grounds and live music. A wonderful festival.

The next week I attended the Linn County Lamb and Wool festival in Scio,OR. The little town has a big parade and sets up a fairgrounds with games and vendors all over town. There is a quilt show and lamb and goat show and a hall that was full of yarn and fibery goodness. There was a spinners circle outside the hall with several ladies with spinning wheels and spindles showing how it is done. The town is small so it is nice exercise to walk from one end to the other in order to see everything. One of the highlights was the book sale at the library. We got in on the last hour of the sale, where they sell you a paper bag for $2 and you can put as many books as you can fit into the bag. I bought a bag and Sean's girlfriend, Megan, each purchased a bag and between the 3 of us we filled both bags. A few of the books I found were for my Grand kids, even 3 books for the babies. A good time was had by all. Look for this festival every year.

Well that's all I have to say for now, I will attach pictures of the flowers I have knitted. Until next time....

Irregular blog

Google+:Well, it's been a while again since I was on the blog. My life is full and not always in a happy way. My Dad had heart surgery the end of January and has been having a hard time getting well. He has been in and out of the hospital a LOT. My sister stayed with him 24/7 the first two weeks he was home then she had to go back to work. I took over the 24/7 spot for 2 or three weeks and now I am there 24/7 half the week and my daughter is there the other half. Dad is finally showing improvement and I can now see that he will be strong enough to be on his own again...someday.

Despite the scary moments I have had at Dad's a good thing that has come from me spending so much time over there (away from internet) is the amount of knitting I am doing. I started out taking unfinished objects with me and have finished a few old projects that have been laying around. I started and finished toddler size socks, two pair for the grand twins. I have finished a couple of shawls and started another one. I finished a pair of anklets for myself and started another pair. This is helping me keep up with a KAL with my main group on Ravelry.com.  Bouncing back and forth from Dad's, to hospital and home has kept me from relaxing with my knitting group at The Ike Box in Salem. I miss the group, but just don't have the energy to go visit, even though I know it would do me some good to get out and do something different.

Things will settle down one of these days and then I will find a new normal and a new routine. There is always hope, there has to be hope.

Till next time, stay well.

Some of the projects I have finished while knitting at my Dad's.

LaVelle

'via Blog this'

Let's Try this again

Well I have been remiss in my blogging. Life takes a turn and next thing you know...
In my life my Dad has become the center. He had heart surgery in January and that has been the main focus of my time. We have been back and forth to the hospital so many times. After 5 weeks they finally figured out that his breathing problem was inflammation of the lungs caused by the heart surgery. They treated the inflammation and now he is on the road to recovery. He is still weak and someone needs to be there 24/7 but he is coming back to himself. My sister took time off work and spent the first two weeks he was home with him and she spent the week before that with him in the hospital, she has gone back to work so I spent the next 3 weeks with him. A lot of my first two weeks he was in the hospital so that is where I was. Now my daughter and I are taking turns staying at his house and it is nice to have help with that.

On one hand, I am taking UFOs with me to Dad's house and I am finishing a lot of knitting projects that have been on the back burner. I started a couple new projects as well, like a pair of toddler size socks and toddler size poncho. Currently I am knitting a cell phone scarf and will start a new pair of socks for me. When I see my oldest daughter this weekend I will have yarn to make another toddler poncho and possibly another pair of toddler socks. As my grand babies are twins, I make things in twos. :)

Because Dad has been recovering we have not had our usual family gatherings, so it has been TWO WHOLE months since I have seen any of my grand kids in person. My daughter keeps me up to date with pictures which I really appreciate, but seeing them in person is so much better.

I leave you with pictures of recent finished objects.

Sock Summit and Polk County Fair

No two things could be more different than Sock Summit 2011 and the Polk County Fair. But both are part of my life now.

The last weekend in July was Sock Summit 2011. The second one ever held, the first being in 2009. There will be a next on and it will be in 2013. What is sock summit you may ask? It is the celebration of sock yarn and handmade socks. Not all sock yarn is turned into socks, it is a good yarn for all kinds of projects. Personally I have used it for socks, shawlettes and baby items. It comes in all kinds of fiber blends and colors. I had a lot of fun at Sock Summit. I spent 4 hours helping at a booth there. It was fun talking to the people, I did not personally sell anything but the booth owner did make sales. The booth I was in was number 1025 there were only 2 other booths beyond us and I think the booth numbers started at 1. Some booths were big enough to take up two or more spaces. They all had something in them that either was yarn or something that you would use with yarn. My favorite was the display models of projects. I saw some wonderful shawls on display in booths and on people. Alicia, Serra and the babies went with me and they got to look around more than I did. By the time we left Sock Summit Alicia had decided she wanted to learn to spin. So Sunday we spent looking for items to make her a spindle. Looking for spindle parts is kind of like going on a scavenger hunt. We went to a craft store to  find a stone doughnut for the whorl and found one and we went to hardware stores to see if they had a wood molding or faucet handle that would work for a whorl, didn't find anything suitable. We went to World Market to find chopsticks to use as the shaft and found them. Went back to her house, put them together and I had Alicia and Serra spinning by the time I left for home.

On the other spectrum of crafting, yesterday I went down to the Polk County Fairgrounds and entered a skein of yarn and a shawlette I made. The Polk County Fair is smaller than the Marion County fair it looked like to me. I have not attended Polk Co Fair since I was a senior in high school. I hear they will have a carnival and a rodeo. Of course there will be 4H and FFA projects of all kinds. I am looking forward to seeing all the people and animals. There is a category in textiles that I want to learn and enter next year. It is called Chicken Scratch. It is a type of embroidery, like cross stitch only with more stitches. Instead of making crosses you make asterisks. Instead of cross stitch fabric you do it on gingham. It looks interesting, I saw a pillow at the fair turn in, I only saw a little of it from a distance, so will look for it when I go to the fair. I heard there will be a Chicken Scratch demo on Thursday so want to go and see that.

I am still working on my Summer flies shawl and will have to frog part of it and redo the last few rows as I ran out of yarn. I really need to get this shawl off the needles so I can use the same needles for the next shawl.

 I started a sock project, 2 socks on one circular needle. They are footie type socks and cuff down, I feel like I make good progress everyday once I got them cast on properly. The cast on was really hard for me as I had a video to teach me not a person. I think these socks will be really pretty as they have lace on them.

I have done little spinning, just working on some Yarnia yarn. Plying the yarn to make it easier to knit and then will pick a couple of shawls one to keep and one to donate to Blessed Arts. More about Blessed Arts in the next blog.

Dyeing to experiment

OK all you indy dyers out there do not be alarmed, I don't see me ever becoming a pro at this. But; I do occasionally get the urge to play with color and wool. So yesterday I got out 3 old canning jars, you know the kind, the ones with the glass domed lids and wires on the jars? I have some old wool batts and I tore one apart. In one jar I mixed 2 packets of grape Kool aide and 1 packet of fruit punch. The vinegar water turned a deep burgundy like color and then I stuffed in soaked wool and put the lid on. That one I set outside on a black plastic base to a kick punching bag.
The next jar I used Wilton icing colors of Peach and skyblue, the mixing guide said it would make Mulberry. I used vinegar water again and stuffed the jar with wool, then set it outside on the porch rail in the sun.
The last jar I was trying to make teal. The color guide said use yellow and royal blue, well I only have sky blue but i mixed it anyway. The color of the vinegar water was a nice dark teal like blue, so I stuffed in the soaked wool and set it on the porch rail in the sun with the other jar.
The water was almost boiling when I added the color and set it out and I ended up leaving them outside all afternoon and overnight until about 2:00 today. I opened the Teal jar first and poured out the water, hmmm blue water. The wool is a nice shade of green, the blue did not soak in very well.
The next jar was the Mulberry wool, again I took off the lid and poured out....blue water. Hmmm! The wool is a very pretty blend of peach and yellow, like pale flames? It is a pastel almost not very dark like I was expecting.
The last jar; the Kool Aide jar. It too shed blue water and the wool is a dark red violet sort of color.

I took a picture of them drying in the bathtub, I would put them outside to dry but know I will forget them and later tonight I am going to a lavender weaving class, so chances are they would end up outside over night and I am afraid an animal would run off with them or the wind would send them to Timbuktu.

Before I went to Sock Summit last weekend I dyed a small amount of wool with sky blue and yellow and got a really nice variegated green. When they are all dry I will spin them and knit something small with either stripes or try stranded knitting designs. I will have to see how much yarn I get. I used a whole batt so it is an ounce or two of wool. I will weight it before I spin it.

Mulberry on the left Teal on the right

Green wool dyed last week

 2 grapes and a fruit punch Kool Aide

I was liking the blue at the bottom and white at the top on this one but by the time I took it in it was all blue.

You can see that the yellow is at the top and peach is in the wool.

This is the wool out of the dye and drying.

4th of July, Three Fates Yarns and Tour De Fleece

My Daughter and Son-in-law invited me to come for a BBQ at their home on July 3rd. Sean went with me and we spent a great day with family and friends. We did a walking tour of their new neighborhood (a lovely place), the food was wonderful and we crafted the evening away. Alicia and I made sheep shaped stitch markers for the swap at Sock Summit at the end of the month. It was amazing to be in a large city as darkness fell during 4th of July weekend. It sounded like a war zone, bangs and pops and flashes of color in the sky, fireworks of all kinds everywhere.

My shawl knitting is on a slow down as Tour De Fleece has started. It is a month of spinning daily. So far I have spun and plyed 4 oz of BFL roving that I purchased from Three Fates Yarns. I LOVE BFL, it is so soft and feels so good as it slides through my fingers while I am spinning and I know that it will feel just as nice when I am knitting it later. I can't wait to get more roving from Three Fates Yarns, on the Three Fates site today I saw a roving called hedgerows that I would like to have. I was looking at some of her rovings at a potluck on the 2nd, I did not make a note of the colorway unfortunately but I will know it again when I see it.It was light blue and had black or navy or charcoal in it as well.  I liked the contrast of light and dark. One of my favorite colorways for the yarn is Horizon, I wonder if she ever does that colorway in roving???? hint hint,

Tour De Fleece Starts today

Today I attended a kick off potluck for TDF. My first project for this event is a 4oz braid of browns and greens I purchased a few months ago from three fates yarns. As I unbraided this roving today I discovered there are more than just browns and greens. It was an interesting spin and I can not wait to see how it looks when I turn it into a 2 ply. So far it has been a joy to spin, since it is BFL it is very soft and makes me smile as I spin. I hope to have enough to make a small shawl or scarf, perhaps the shawl like scarf Wendy Johnson just released yesterday and is as yet un-named. I like the pattern a lot and if this yarn is not too colorful might look well made up that way. I will keep my eyes open for just the right pattern.

I am over half through my newest Summer Flies shawl pattern. I think I will really like the pattern in this yarn. I have also discovered the fun of knitting baby socks. I found a pattern on Ravelry called "Leftovers" baby socks. they are baby socks you make from the leftover sock yarn from other projects. The yarn I picked to try the pattern was not quiet long enough and one sock has a different toe than the first one. That is OK because I made they to see if they are the right size. If they will fit or I can change the number of rows to make it fit then I will start the next pair using this pattern. If it just won't work for either of the babies then I will keep looking for just the right pattern.

Black Sheep Gathering, three fates yarns and family

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

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.