What Classic Movie Are You?

Thanks for the link to this interesting test, Catherine.

!!!Yes!!!, before Christmas, I met a nice lady at the bookstore. We were both looking at knitting books (you must realize where I live - in a very knitting deprived area), and we got to chatting. I mentioned that I was also a spinner and left her my e-mail and phone number if she decided she wanted to learn to spin. Well, I had sort of forgotten about it, but lo and behold, I got an e-mail from her this week, and she is about ready to start. I cannot wait ! I hope it will hold her interest, as she commented that she is currently taking flying lessons - I don't think I can compete with that excitement!

Ooof, this seems like it has been the longest week. I am glad to be finished traveling for a bit. On Monday, when I went to Augusta, they had an "ice storm." Well, at least that is what they called it. Actually, it was raining and ice formed on the trees, but not on the road. We passed several areas where trees had broken or fallen and taken down electric lines with them. It was kind of funny to watch how silly everyone acted - they closed businesses early, schools, etc., but there wasn't a hint of hazardous roads around to be seen. I can understand if the power was out, which it was in some places, but businesses with power still closed up early. I can only wonder what they would have done had it been a real ice storm or snow storm.

I got a new knitting book - Knit One, Felt Too. It has several interesting projects I want to try: felted slipper socks, the "lunch bag" tote and the slip on slippers.

I started on the Faroese shawl from the icelandic wool last night. The pattern is fairly simple and will work up quickly, I do believe.

Well, this week I have business out of town for a few days. I love to travel - but I definitely do not think traveling and work make a very good mix. I love the flexibility of my job, but the travel part is the price I have to pay for the good parts of the job.

In knitting news, I finished my friend's hat, mittens, scarf ensemble tonight. I still have tons of yarn left - I'm not really sure what to whip up for her next. At least all the main elements are done.

I saw a relatively easy pattern for a Faroese shawl in the fall In Knitters Magazine. It may just be the pattern the wool I bought yesterday is crying for. Tomorrow, while riding in the car, I will get to work some more on my Sakiori vest, since I finished spinning and plying another 150 yards of the yarn over the weekend.

Woo Hoo! I had a lovely time this morning at our monthly Knitting Guild meeting in Jacksonville. This meeting was our annual "feeding frenzy", as one of our members is fond of calling our swap meet - "yarn sale." Pictured here are all the lovely things I brought home - and only out a net of 6 dollars. No since in holding onto things I won't use later. The taupe wool is icelandic wool and I got 10 balls of it for $1.00 a ball. ( I see another nice Folk Vest, maybe.) Also, Elayne and I got invited to the spin in that will be held in St. Augustine next month. We just might do it, after finding out we do not have to actually have authentic costumes, just a long black skirt, white blouse and a shawl. I imagine this event to be loads of fun, and am going to try to arrange going to it.

After the meeting, we had a nice lunch at "O'Charley's"

Awwww, I guess we found out what the weird lights we saw the other night were. Seems there were a bunch of helicopters doing some sort of maneuvers with flares. So, it is sort of a dull ending to my story, but at least it is nice to know we aren't going crazy.

I have been spinning like crazy to get some more yarn for my vest.

Here is a picture of some of the Wensleydale fiber I dyed last week. It is all one solid color. I was trying to see how consistent I could make the color throughout. I dyed a whole pound at once and only had a few places that were a little darker. I am surprised how soft this fiber really is. Somehow, I guess since it has a long staple, I was expecting it to feel coarse.

Pholph's Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 23. What is your score? Get it here.

Above courtesy of Marge's blog.

Weirdo stuff, but not knitting......

This is what happened last night. I am just telling the facts, not doing any speculation over what it was we saw.

My husband and I were upstairs, and I kept hearing this very loud noise, like an airplane was flying too low over our house. It would come, and then go. After about 20 or 30 minutes of this occurring, perhaps 3 or 4 times, I finally said "What is that, anyway?" My husband went downstairs and outside to investigate. He called excitedly to me to come down there. Most of the excitement was over by the time I got there, but I saw the tail end of it. There were some very bright lights in the sky, kind of reminiscent of headlights or floodlights, and appeared to be very big, even at the distance we were from them. They appeared about the same time the noise began again. They formed an arc. We have no clue what we saw, but my husband said that before I got down there, there were several, and they came on in sequence and formed a circular pattern. Any readers have any idea what we saw??
All I know, is that I have never seen anything like it.

Progress on the Sakiori vest is slowing, as I have to spin up some more yarn before continuing.

Well PHOOEY What's worse than breaking a fingernail? Well, breaking a favorite pair of knitting needles, of course. Not only did I break one needle, somehow, I managed to break both. I think sitting in a cold car weakened them. They are Swallow Casein needles, and I hope I can get a pair to replace them.

In knitting/spinning news, here is a swatch of the Sakiori Vest I have started. The first back panel is completed, and I have started the second one. I tried to spin this Kureyon style and am pleased with the outcome.

Yesterday, I dyed a pound of Wensleydale. It is a dark pink. There is no telling how long it will take to dry, since it has been cool and overcast.

I also started on a Sakiori Vest and joined Sarah's Knitalong

Elayne and I had such a marvelous time - mostly doing show and tell with our latests finished and unfinished projects, browsing in knitting magazines, having a wonderful buffet lunch and sitting outside in the sun until the wind whipping in from the ocean got to be too much for us. (We met in Jacksonville and drove out to near the beach) I bought a copy of Interweave Knits, as I am thinking of finally trying to make a "real" pair of gloves, and they seem to have a rather complete section on gloves in the curent issue. I also really, really, really like the merino T-shirt pattern.

Okay, this yarn has been sitting around looking prissy long enough! Since I have the yellow spun to go with it, it is shortly going to become a pair of mittens. I had to take a good picture of it though, before winding it for use.

Yipee!! Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day spent in Jacksonville with my "honorary" big sis and knitting wizardess Elayne! It's fun to pick your own relatives sometimes.



And I came across this when surfing the web. How funny is this? Does anyone know someone who would actually wear one?

Nothing much new going on today. This week, I have tried to get back into the swing of working. Yes, I was working last week, too, but it didn't seem quite the same.

I finished spinning and plying some of my first fiber carded with the drum carder. I can see a radical difference in the yarn and that which I made from the fiber I hand carded. Apparently I haven't gotten the handcarding down to a science. This new yarn is much softer and also much more evenly blended both colorwise and fiberwise.

Well Glory Be! I have been away from a computer so long, I am way behind. When we got to my dad's, the first thing (almost) DH had to do was check his e-mail. The computer locked up, DH hit reset and the computer shut down for the remainder of our stay. My stepmother did not have a re-boot disk and will have to get it from her son. At the same time, for some unexplicable reason, my Palm Handheld decided to lose all of its information, so since arriving home a short time ago, I have tried to catch up on mail, synch my Palm up, etc. I have only gotten to spend a little time in "blogdom", so I have a lot to read!!

It was very sad to see how much my dad is going down. Our son was not able to make this trip with us, and Dad did not even ask about him, what he was doing, why he wasn't there, etc. He commented to me that he was glad we were eating supper with him - that we hadn't ever done that before. I have seen him confused, but never to this extent. And there is no help for this. My stepmother does a great job of caring for him, but I know she must be absolutely exhausted. I honestly do not see how she carries the load that she does. She has a nurses' aide in 3 times a week for a few hours and that is all. It is frustrating to be living almost 5 hours from them.

On a lighter note, my stepsister has bought a new bird, a sun conure. That is the funniest bird and very good natured. My stepsister will sing to her and she will bob her head to the music and make a noise like a metronome!

Today we stopped in and worked at one of our nursing facilities, and the director of nursing was showing around some pictures of her sheep. I was rubbing my hands together, thinking - oh boy - fiber! Then she told me she had no clue what type of sheep, that the fibers are very short and straight and they fall off in big clumps. I have heard of some sheep in Florida with the same characteristics, and apparently their fiber isn't spinnable. Rats!

I finished my friend's scarf, except for edging and fringe (did not have my crochet hooks with me) and also did her a hat and got one mitten finished and the second one started.

We are going to Atlanta for the weekend to visit my dad, so posting will be sketchy, maybe even non-existent for the next couple of days. They have a computer, but it is very slow, and I may not have much opportunity to use it.

I finished spinning my yellow merino. It will be paired with my space dyed pink and yellow merino to make mittens - preferably a slip stitch mosaic pattern. Does anyone know of any good s.s. mosaic patterns for mittens? Most likely, I will have to just wing it. But, back to the subject. After finishing the merino, I decided to play with some brown alpaca I got at the Montpelier Fall Fiber Festival. First, I thought it needed to be carded, and I ran it through the drum carder. Big mistake! The fiber stuck to everything, including the lickerin(sp???) - intake - drum. It made a fairly decent batt, so I spun some of it using my largest ratio and very little intake tension. It spun up like a dream, and so soft.

I will take my socks (below) and the scarf I am working on for my friend on the road. I hope to finish the scarf and start on her hat.

Catch all of you later!

Here is the picture of my latest sock venture!



And, no, the red bit of yarn in the lower right on the toe isn't a boo boo - just a photo boo boo - I thought I had hidden all of my waste yarn marker under the sock, but I guess not.

The Opal Socks are now finished and on my feet. My next sock project is the Sock Challenge 2004 and is already on the needles. I am doing the Chequerboard Socks from Lucy Neatby's book. This pattern has several new techniques for me to try. I have never done a toe up sock before. Also, this particular type of short rowed toe is a new technique also (and I might add, it is a very nifty one - no grafting needed!) Also, even though I have done some fairisle (or dabbled in it), I have never tried to do it on size one needles. That is an experience! I am using grey Regia sock yarn and pinkorangegoldmaroon Regia Ringel. When I first started out, it was only gold and maroon, and it looked like I was making some Harry Potter socks. But, now that the brighter colors have kicked in, the sock has a whole different flavor.

Here are some of the batts I have carded. They are a mixture of border leicester wool and merino. I have been playing with the carder some more today and experimented with making short stripes and long stripes. I think the long stripes turned out okay, but I have a lot of practice ahead to make the short stripes. Neither one are fit to take a picture of, so I am just posting my previous attempts to blend 2 colors at once. I must dye some more fiber soon. I am getting tired of the blue, salmon and green. Next, I am thinking of doing some reds and purples.

Yeee Hahhhhh Success at last!

Phooey, phooey, phooey - the computer is still not letting me upload any photos. I had a picture of the drum carder, some carded fiber and the Opal socks to share. This is starting to get ridiculous.
The Opal Yarn is green, blue, purple, orange, white and black and was bought over a year ago in Cambridge, Mass. I cannot believe I waited this long to knit with it.

Also, coming down the pike is a project with my handspun pink and yellow and will be a pair of mittens. I am still spinning some of the yellow, and when it is finished, I will start on the mittens.

Just a short snippet this morning, but I will update later in the day.
Life is rapidly returning from festive to mundane here. All decorations and tree have been removed and put up, DS is all packed up to return to school and will leave today.

Yesterday, I cast off (figuratively, not literally) the scarf project to work on sock #2 of a pair I had started the first of December. It is from a fairisle patterned yarn by Opal. I love the designs this yarn makes, but I have a hard time with it making a baggy sock so the majority of this sock is just 2x2 rib. I am anxious to get finished with it so I can start some of the new Lucy Neatby patterns. I want to do the Mermaid Socks and also the Checkerboard Ones (in yellows, hot pinks and gray.)

Well finally! Last night blogger would not let me post.

Catherine has already written about this on her blog, and much better than I could, so I will mention this in passing. Catherine and I were shopping in the same yarn shop at the same time on Tuesday and didn't know it. If it weren't so hilariously funny, it would be sad. I would have loved to have gotten to chat with a blogger friend face to face. I am seriously thinking of getting a Knitting Lady Pin from KR to identify myself as a forumite (is that a word!?!?!?) at least when in yarn shops.

No interesting knitting news at this time, as I am knitting a scarf and hat for a friend I have known since I was in Junior High. She sent me Potluck Yarn (my word for yarn selected by someone besides myself.) I am trying to make the project interesting by making the scarf (knitted in the round) be reversible. I am going to put a crocheted edging and fringe on it, but leave the tube open. It may be a harebrained idea, but I am going to try it, nevertheless.

I finally got some hardware needed for my camera, so pictures will be coming again soon.