Whoopeee! I got a little rolling cart today for my fiber toys (ahem... I mean fiber tools). Here is how it looks.



And just because I love it so much, here is another shot.



You can see the wool, silk, angora blend I am working with.

Mostly spinning stuff... Last night I finished spinning the last of a purple/blue/red/silver mix of colonial wool and decided to start working on some delightful wool/silk/angora blend in blue, red, green and pink. The single that resulted did not look like much, but when I let it ply naturally back on itself, I saw its true potential. It is going to be very soft and the bright colors are going to be not so much of a wild riot, but rather a rich impressionistic blend. Now I wish I had bought more than one pound of the stuff. Whatever I decide to use it for, it is going to be fabulous. I am certainly not saying this to boast of my feeble efforts as a spinner, but rather to comment on the genius of whoever decided to prepare the fiber in the manner it is prepared.

In knitting, I am still working on the afghan panel for the guild. I am really enjoying it. It has a chevron block repeating with a cable block. I am not sure why I put off knitting cables for so long, but now I seem to be in it full force, what with the top down raglan and now this. I am really loving doing them. Also, I found a vest pattern in an old issue of Cast On that someone brought to the guild meeting on Saturday for give away, and you guessed it... it is also cables. Also, interestingly enough, it was designed by the lady who judged my Master Knitter Level 1 work, so now I feel obligated to try her pattern. (Don't ask how Level 2 is coming, as it is not even off the ground - I haven't even ordered it )

I had a very nice mostly non-knitting afternoon. On the way home from church, we stopped in Wild Birds Unlimited and stocked up on all sorts of bird goodies. 12 cakes of suet dough, a big woodpecker "picnic" seed cake, a new hummingbird feeder and a dripper for the bird bath. HP hooked up the dripper while I put together the hummingbird feeder. We also attached a rod from one of our porch posts and hung a smaller bird feeder and found a home for some wind chimes we bought earlier in the week. After all this, I sat out on the screened porch and watched the birds for awhile. Later on, we headed over to Jekyll Island for dinner and a walk on the beach. All in all, a relaxing lazy Sunday afternoon.

I am still impatiently waiting for my issue of Spin Off. I am not sure how long it will take to get here, since it is a new subscription.

Everybody loves pictures and here are some:

First a slice of the glorious spring we are having here on the coast. The landscaping Honey Pie (hence will be referred to as HP) has done is really paying off this year. This is what I call our Bird Garden. Poor little birdies have eaten all their suet, so after finishing this, I am off to Walmart to get some more. We have so many birds here. Right now, the Red Winged Blackbirds are eating us out of house and home. There is a tree they roost in located in our backyard. They give us a very interesting concert. Some make harsh screaming sounds and others make a high pitched musical sound sort of like a "cuckoo." It is definitely pleasing to the ear.



Next is a landscaped area in our front yard. I just love the ruffled varieties of azaleas.



Next are the finished felted slippers. I think these will be sturdy. Brown Sheep Naturspun makes wonderful felt. Yes, they are both the same size. My photography leaves somewhat to be desired!



And last but not least, the cardigan. Notice the green yarn to the right. I am going to make this a two colored cardigan. All is handspun from blended colonial wools by Ashland Bay Fibers.



And here is the back.



I am looking forward to a marvelous knitting guild meetng tomorrow. I hope everyone likewise has pleasant plans for the weekend.

Just to let you know I am still around. I have been out of town all week working with no access to the internet. Funny how we come to rely on it, isn't it?

I am experiencing stupid problems with my cardigan. It makes me so mad, as the pattern is very easy to follow - there are really no surprises, but my hands just don't seem to keep on doing what they are supposed to. Has anyone else ever had this problem? It seems like easy projects stump me, whereas, I plunge neck deep into hard ones, and just keep on going.

And what, you may ask, am I doing on this, my last day of vacation?
I am felting these slipper socks.



I have never felted this yarn when knitted with a single strand, so I will be interested to see how it does. I do know, that double stranded, it makes a really thick felt.

I am also cleaning/bleaching my kitchen sink and have wiped down all my kitchen cabinets.

The top down raglan will have to go through yet another frogging, I am afraid. I really want this sweater to look nice, but I have made one too many boo boos at this point. Well, at least you don't use up your yarn very fast when you frog and re-do.

I went to a spinning meeting in northern Florida and had a most marvelous time!! There were only a few of us there, but it was very stimulating. Here is some of what happened:

We listened to a CD of hammered dulcimer music while we were spinning. It gave the gathering a very earthy and warm feeling.

I got to meet Barbara, the other spinner from Georgia, who I was glad to finally get to meet. She gave us a run down on all the awesome things she did while at the John C. Campbell Folk School. She has gone there 3 different times... once she did basket weaving, once she did sheep to shawl, which covered every aspect of spinning and then she did intermediate spinning, which actually turned out to be more of a dyeing workshop. After lunch, which we ate on site, Dot and a friend of hers, Valerie (who is a machine knitter) showed up. Dot had an old spinning wheel - not sure what brand - but it surely was pretty. It was a double drive and we had a hard time trying to get it where it would draw in the fiber, but we tinkered with it for awhile.

John showed us two fleeces (Corriedale) which he had dyed. One he dyed with indigo he had grown himself. The other was dyed with goldenrod. Both were fabulously pretty, and they have not even been carded yet! Let me mention that John is the first person who showed me anything at all about spinning. He has been spinning since he was about 9 years old, I think, and of course has mastered the art. He is also a very talented weaver.

The next meeting is going to be in May in Kingsland (only about 30 minutes from where I live - yeah!!). We are going to do natural dyeing with indigo, cochineal and some sort of orange stuff - I think they said Osage Orange which will make a brilliant yellow.

I am back after a short jaunt up the coast to Charleston. The weather was absolutely wonderful - not too cool, not too hot. We didn't do much of anything but browse a few antique shops, but it was just a time for my husband, son and me to be together without any set agendas, projects, etc. I did get a chance to check out the knitting shop in Mt. Pleasant, Nifty Needleworks. She had an assortment of mostly basic yarns and only one brand of knitting needles. The shop's main focus seemed to be needlepoint. However, it looked like a really new shop, and I am assuming she will add inventory as time goes on. I only bought a couple of sets of DPNS. I didn't see any yarn that I just HAD to have.

In one of the antique stores, I saw an item I had never seen before. It was a geiger counter. I am not sure what I expected it to look like, but it was much smaller than what I would have expected. I am not sure how much they were asking for it, as the tag was blurry, but I think it was $500+. There was also a wooden ladder that was advertised to have been used last year in the movie "Notebook." Has anyone ever heard of this movie? None of us had.

After finally settling on doing the top down, raglan sleeved cardigan, I find that ideas are now returning to my feverish brain. First of all, I decided how to handle the huge batt of pink, green, red, blue layered wool, silk and bunny blend fiber I got last fall. First I peeled the layers apart by color, then pulled off smaller rectangles of each color. I ran some of them through the drum carder to produce some lovely smaller batts to spin. I am combining the green and blue in one batt and the pink and red in the other. Each will be spun as singles, and then I will ply them together. I figure this method will keep the colors from getting muddy. All of the colors are so vibrant in this fiber, I don't want to mess it up. I also finally decided that the lovely easter egg colors skein of wool/mohair 50-50 yarn I won is going to be another pair of felted slipper socks. This time, I will use size 11 needles to knit them up, as I want them to cover a little more ankle than the green ones I made.

I am getting a two year subscription to Spin Off. We were told the issue would be mailed March 11. I surely hope I will be included in the spring mailing. The first thing I am going to do is look for Sarah Elizabeth's skein! I cannot wait to see her lovely work in print.

In knitting news, I have already frogged the cardigan I started. I messed up with the raglan increases. This is new to me, but I will stick with it and figure it out.

Yes, yes, yes! Two things to cheer about tonight! I just made reservations for a room in Frederick, MD. Watch out Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival - here we come!!! I was glad I hadn't waited too long to get a room nearby. For those of you who aren't spinners, this is a wonderful treat for knitters, too. Even though I have never been to this particular festival, from going to the one in Virginia last fall, I found out fiber festivals are heavenly for just shopping for yarn, knitting books, needles, etc! It is just like going to a big mall where all the stores sell nothing but yarn and fiber, etc. And you get to see yarns you would never dream of and that you don't see in yarn stores. Gorgeous hand dyed and hand spun yarns! Yum - I am getting excited just writing about it! This year will be knitting classes given by Anna Zilboorg, if anyone is interested.

The second thing I have to cheer about is that I finally thought up what my next knitting project is going to be. I am going to do a top down, cabled front raglan cardigan. This should be fun - I have never done a top down garment, have never done raglan sleeves, and the only cables I have ever done, were the ones required for the swatches in the Level 1 Master Knitter Course. I am going to use dark heathered purple and green handspun yarns for this project. I have already started on the neckband. I'm glad to be out of my slump, you see.

Here's a picture of the little woven bag I struggled with so much. I think the colors are wonderful. I'm not sure about anything else. It is only about 4 inches high by 5 inches wide. I guess it will just be a little notions bag or something. It is just the right size for a little girl to carry as a pocketbook, but I don't have any little girl friends or relatives to give it to. Anyway, I want to keep it to remind me that I don't want to take up weaving! Ha!

Yesterday, I heard from my spinning student. After another class with me last week, she was spinning some rather thick singles, but I could tell she was getting the technique down and just needed some time to refine her skills. Anyway, she e-mailed me to tell me she has ordered an Ashford Traveller, and that it should arrive in about a week. I am really excited for her. I think she made a good choice.

At the risk of sounding like I am repeating an urban legend, which is not the case, I am relaying this story. A fellow pharmacist that we know went to a nail place and got a pedicure. He let them cut the callouses off his feet. Seems he got a horrible infection from this and ended up having to have most of one leg amputated. He does not have diabetes or any other condition which would have caused this problem. Let me tell you - I think this is really scary stuff. I have had a pedicure before, and all they did was take one of those little cube things like an emory board and do a little bit of scraping. So whatever you do, dear readers, do not let anyone cut on your feet!! This is a tragedy that didn't have to happen.

This is really starting to get ridiculous. I am still floundering over my next knitting project. After knitting non-stop (well practically, anyway) for 2 1/2 years, I have finally come up for air, but still cannot make up my mind what to do next. This is a totally new problem for me. I do have one project I really want to do, but I do not have the yarn spun for it yet. After spending the cold day in St. Augustine, I have decided I need a pair of fingerless mitts. But I want them to be out of fingering weight yarn and to be very dainty and elegant. What to knit while I am getting the yarn ready?? I honestly don't know. I suppose I should be making some spring/summer knits. What kind of nice cotton blends are out there? I do not want pure cotton, since it stretches out of shape so badly.

I starting weaving a little bag, using a book as a loom while I was at Elayne's. I finished it last night. It is sort of cute, but reinforces my attitude that I do NOT want to take up weaving. Even that small project seemed like work to me.

Seems I am getting behind in blogging, but here's what is going on. I can go 2 or 3 months without this happening, then it just arrives like a bolt out of the blue. Around 9pm or so, I am just out for the count. I get so sleepy, I can hardly stand it. Usually, I am up until about midnight. I go through this particular cycle for about a week, then it disappears as mysteriously as it appears. I know they say you can never really "catch up" on sleep, but I really think that is what is having to happen with me.

And here is another picture or so:



This is part of the Menendez parade.

And here are some more spinners. The lady in the very front is Nancy, who talked me into coming to the Spin In. I am so glad she did!



My knitting has suddenly become very aimless. What I need is an inspiring project to tackle. I am test knitting a translated pattern for Civil War Socks, but it is going slowly at this point. I am currently spinning some very nice Falkland Wool. It is white, so I have to decide how I want to dye it.

Here is Elayne, "societizing" with the Hon. and Mrs. George Gardner, Mayor and First Lady of St. Augustine.

You ought to be in pictures! (But not me....) Seriously, though, here are some pictures in no particular order.

The first is of our spinner's line


Then, here is that monster float I was telling you about. I would not like to run into him on a dark night!



And here is darling Peggy spinning some Lyacil (I am not sure how to spell this particular fiber, but I do know it is kin to Rayon and can actually be dyed with acid dyes, just like wool or silk)



Here is Jan demonstrating spinning on a Great Wheel...



And last, but not least, here is "Mrs. Menendez." Not really, but she was playing the role. Isn't her costume fabulous?



There are more to come later.

No sooner than I had gotten home yesterday, I had to leave again for a meeting we had today in Macon. That is the reason I haven't posted any pictures yet, but I could not resist putting this one up that Elayne sent me. It is my favorite picture from the weekend, so here's a teaser:



Elayne's on the left, I'm on the right. The lady at the far right is Peggy, the lady with the purple tinted hair I was mentioning in my last post.