Iz Zen...Iz Superhydrophobic...Iz a hat

Well, it's probably not superhydrophobic. Being lace and all. And wool.

I bring you...

The Lotus Hat


Pattern: Lotus Hat
Designer: Uptown Purl
Yarn: my handspun, worsted weight/worsted style, natural color merino
Fiber purchased at Great Lakes Fiber Festival, 2009
Needles: US8

I overheard Mike discussing my spinning with his sister - "she spins a lot, but I don't think she ever uses the yarn". Um, maybe I should do something about that.

On the needles now, the Ashland Bay merino/silk fingering/sport weight 2-ply for a Bird's Nest Smoke Ring. It's in time out right now, having just discovered that I repeated rows 23 and 24 twice in a row. And this after frogging about 15 rows at knitting group last week.

Mike's in Singapore (again) and I'm taking advantage of his absence to spin up some naturally dark brown BFL into (hopefully) a fingering weight 2-ply to make him a hat for Christmas. You know, I haven't knit him anything since the 3 lb. sweater in grad school? I'm just itching to frog that sucker and make sweaters for the whole family from the yarn. Of course, then we would be immediately transferred to northern Ontario and I would regret frogging his very warmest sweater.

The house is in chaos right now - I'm having everything but the bedrooms and bathrooms painted. My first time hiring a painter for an inside job! Boy, they work a lot faster than I do. Can't wait to get it all put back together and see what it looks like with furniture and pictures on the walls. Right now - chaos surrounding a Nomadic Desert, with a side helping of Latte.

Must go make a cup of tea.
Ta!

It doesn't itch!

I bring you - the Eastlake sweater.

Pattern: Eastlake
Designer: Norah Gaughan
Yarn: Da Vie Zenith
Needles: US 6 & 8

Notes: check Berroco for errata, there are several. I would also recommend working the front first, not the back. The back instructs you to work even to so many inches - in my case, this was about 4 rows fewer than the number required to finish the lace chart on the front. And you sort of want the purl welts on the front and back to match up, you know?

I wore the sweater to work today for the first time. I love it! So soft and squishy, no itchies at all, which is rare for me with wool. The elbow-length sleeves worked very well for the fall weather, and I got several compliments on it.

We're having a cool wet fall here, no crisp sunny days for crunching through the leaves. I'm giving up on the last of the basil, no motivation to harvest the last bush before the probable frost tonight.

Gray ice cream

Hmmm. If you have a blue-green mint ice cream base, and you blend in oreo cookies, the final product is steel gray ice cream. Tastes better than it looks - that's for sure!

After last weekend's trip to Lake Farm Park, we decided to pull out the ice cream maker and plug it in. I mean, what can be easier than an electric ice cream maker? True, it is a two-day process, making the custard base, chilling it and the cooler insert, plus you have to remember to buy cream and/or half-and-half by lunch on Saturday if you are going to get this all done by Sunday dinner. That probably explains why we've made fewer than a dozen quarts of ice cream in the 7 - 8 years we've owned the ice cream maker.

This weekend - more geocaching! Audrey's really gotten into it and it's a great way to get the family outside and walking around, and "justifies" DH's recent purchase of a fancy new GPS unit. The weather's really be perfect the last two weeks though - not too hot, not too cold.

I may have also "saved" $1000 on new window treatments! I tried to order new shades for the great room in natural woven woods. Due to the size of the window, the fact that it has to be broken into 3 sections to accomodate the weight, and the material I chose has a subtle, but noticeable horizontal pattern, it's really hard to find new shades. So much so that the customer service department at the company I tried to order from called me up to ask if I was really, really sure about this. They recommended I think about it some more. Which is incredibly honest of them. They could have taken my money and just let me be unhappy when the shades arrived at my door (custom is non-refundable). So, I cancelled the order. DH asked how long it was going to take to choose something new, and said let's just take the broken one off the window while I decided (a couple of cords had snapped - it's way too heavy) and it has been hanging cock-eyed half-up and down.

I said before we throw them out, I'll try to re-string them.. They are re-strung! $3.80 of drapery cord at Jo-ann's. Now the real test - will the new strings hold. Stay tuned....

Labor Day laziness

I wish....

We're having a peaceful three-day weekend here at home. No pressure to travel anywhere, which is a blessing. Spent Saturday at Lake Farmpark, and Sunday doing a little geocaching after our picnic lunch. Tomorrow we'll head down to Taste of Cleveland to stuff our faces and see Cowboy Mouth perform. DH reminded me what happened last time we went to see a band we last saw 10 years ago. Should be good though, as long as the weather holds.

I'm plugging away on the front of Eastlake - I picked it up again last week after its summer hiatus. It's the only thing on the needles now - I finished the childs yoke pullover and the Rick socks.



Pattern: Bernat free pattern (Child's Pullover and Toque)
Needles: US9
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Roasted Coffee and Raspberry



Pattern: Rick
Designer: Cookie A. in Sock Innovation
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino, colorway unknown
Needles: US2

The pooling on these isn't as noticeable as in the photos - something about the way reds and blues get filtered in the camera.

It's been a nice weekend - I hope we have more weather like this!

Almost home...

Yay! DH is coming home tomorrow!

I've been concentrating on spinning for the last two weeks, hoping to make some progress on the stash and learn a new technique - woolen long draw spinning on the spindle. It can be done! Carol Huebscher Rhoades wrote an article for Spin-Off (download it here) showing how. So, I set out to try using the natural color merino I picked up at the Great Lakes Fiber Show.

I did a search on making rolags, since I haven't had much luck with from-the-fold. Look what I found! Psuedo-rolags - the art of making rolags without carding brushes. A million thanks, Rosemary! Here's a few I made



I divided the 4 ounces of merino in half, with the intention of spinning half woolen from rolags, the other have worsted with a short forward draw, 2-plying both sets, and comparing.

The woolen:


The worsten:


The woolen is quite thick and thin, but after a week of trial and error, and a helpful email conversation with Ms. Rhoades, I got it! Not expert spinning be any means, but I think the technical aspects of it are correct. I can't really tell any difference in softness or fluffiness - they both came out squishibly soft and fluffy.

Next up: color. I've never bought handpainted roving before but that doesn't mean I haven't drooled over the options. First up: Big Bang from FLUFFfibers, a 4+ ounce braid of superwash BFL.



And that's not all - it came with a little sibling, a 1 ounce sampler of 80%merino/20%silk:



These fibers are so yummy! I tore off a little of the BFL to do a little sampling and OMG it is so easy to draft. Just tear off a chunk and draft from the fold. I've never been able to do that! I want to make a fluffy yarn to make a hat and mittens or something for Audrey. (You didn't think I bought those colors for myself, did you?)

Fiber heaven!

A little spinning break

Twilight Tank is finished (but no photos yet - maybe this weekend?) and I've decided to spend the rest of the month working on my fiber stash. So, you know, I can buy some more.

I finished up the "September Glow" Lambswool/Silk blend from Nistock Farms. This is 7/8 ounce, in my attempt to spin from the fold and/or from a "rolag". I didn't really know what a rolag was, so I ripped off a hunk of batt, then rolled it up like a cigar. Well, it's a start I guess. 56 yds of 3 ply (Navaho plied).



I love the colors, and I'm pretty happy with the yarn! It spun up much better than my first attempts to spin it worsted from thin strips off the batt.

Now I'm trying to do a true long-draw with the merino mix I bought at the Fiber Fest over Memorial Day weekend. And solo-parenting for two weeks (Singapore again). Anyone want to take a guess what will break this month?

Introducing Ellie

Here she is! Unfortunately, she thinks the other elephant is a bit of a doofus too. He's still lonely.

Pattern: Elijah
Designer: Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Universal Yarns Bella DK, color 08
Needles: US3
Began/Finished: June 8, 20th 2009

DH is getting ready for another trip to Singapore - my plan is to finish off July with spinning only, recharge my knitting batteries. I finished my Twilight Tank yesterday - it's blocking now upstairs.

The last day of our "vacation" is tomorrow - boy this one didn't go as planned. DH and I spent last Sunday and Monday down in the Finger Lakes doing the Cayuga Wine Trail Sunday and hiking the Taughanock gorge and Watkin's Glen gorge trail Monday. We returned before dinner to my parents house Monday to find Audrey on the couch with at 103+ degree fever. After 3 hours at the Urgent Care, we left with a prescription for Tamiflu and instructions to keep her isolated for 7 days. So we cancelled the Canada and Michigan portions of the week, and returned to Cleveland. Primarily so that if DH or I got sick, we wouldn't be hostage to the way-out-of-network urgent care in Rochester. So far, neither of us has fallen sick, and Audrey has been symptom free since mid-Wednesday. She had a very mild bout of the flu. We've spent a quiet week at home, doing assorted crafts and reading lots of books. On the plus side, I got lots of daytime knitting time in.