AJ Knits Episode 5
I Production Scheduling
a) New Mic!
b) Memorial Day and Memorial Weekend Travel
c)Production
d)What's in My Tea Pot
e) Materials Sourcing
f) Boneroom
g) After 5
II Production
A) The Day Break Shawl By Stephen West. Knitted out of Bamboo and Ewe in Bamboo and '
ewe Purple and Berroco comfort in color way #1812. I am loving this pattern. The yarn I'm knitting this in is so soft and Pettable. I know I kvetched last week about the lack of concise directions for the beginning of this pattern but when I finally got to the striped section and got it
memorized this pattern clicks along really well. The one aside is that the second row after the
increase row does not state to slip the markers and the slipped stitches. They need to be slipped
I learned this the hard way. As of now I have 10 of the color B stripes done. The rows are
getting very long. But that's what shawls do! On a side not my skein of Berroco seems to be a
second as it has a lot of breaks in it.
B) Nothing else got any love this week. I've forsaken all others for my daybreak.
III What's in my Tea Pot
A) This has been a banner weekend for Tea, and I have lot of fun things for the tea pot for
future weeks. Apparently my non knitting but tea drinking friends stash tea like I stash
yarn. So I've been Stash diving in Melissa's tea pantry. (Yeah, I said pantry...)
B) Interesting fact learned this weekend the Mr. Clean Magic eraser removed tea stains from
mugs.
C) Ahmad Tea Cardamom Tea. A blended Black tea (I was told it was Black Assam by the store clerk.) with a hint of cardamom. This tea can go bitter quickly so be sure to watch the steeping time.
IV Materials Sourcing
A)I finished spinning the ball of mohair kid my mother gave me. It's very think and thin. I kept having to fight myself to spin it thicker. It just did not feel natural to draft it out in quantites that would yield a thicker single. Now that this bobbin spun. I have to find something to ply it with.
B) In search of something to ply the mohair too... I went into my Party Colored Potluck fiber
from Paradise fibers. In the description of this fiber it says it's a potluck mix of wools. When I
went through and pre drafted ( Sorry Abbey Franquemont... Who never predafts unless she does...) the fiber was VERY springy. Almost as if there was something synthetic in it. There's fuscia pink, a dark cobalt blue, acid green, and orange in this roving the colors are not blended in and can be separated out. The color saturation in this roving is really nice the blue and fuscia are really deep and gorgeous. I've been spinning this out in long stripes and may ply it to the
mohair. I think it may barber pole nicely.
C) I took the time this week to over dye the tequila sunrise yarn. I wasn't happy with the color saturation. I used the dip dye method again. This time using a large pickle jar instead of the cake pans. I diluted my strawberry Kool-aid in a half cup of vinegar and filled with water. I let this sit over night so that the dye solution con exhaust. I did not get to heat set this one. So I'll be rinsing this one out again and hopefully the dye is set.
V Boneroom
A) I Ordered my other 3 skeins of Malabrigo in the Archangel colorway. Luckily they sent me the same dyelot as last time! I can't wait to get something off the needles to cast on the Clapotis!
After 5:
A) You may have noticed that this episode was uploaded late. I took a long awaited road trip
to Ann Arbor with my friend Nichol, her daughter G and B to see our Friend Melissa.
(Melissa of the socks finished in episode 1) Nate got dropped off with his dad for the weekend and poor Joe had the house to himself.
B) Stop number one of our Road Trip was Greenfield Village which is adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum. This was my first time to Greenfield village and I was pretty excited to see how fiber friendly it is. Greenfield Village has a flock of Merino sheep on the premises. I found this out after I saw the carding mill! How cool! The carding mill was water driven and was built in 1851 in Plymouth Michigan. I was lucky enough to catch the demonstration and see the mill run. The machine is surprisingly quiet and incredibly SLOW! The roving that comes off is pencil thin. Try as I might the interpreter would not sell me or give me one of those bats of roving. I did get it into my hot little hands to give a squish! I did not see a spinning wheel but there is also a water driven silk mill (which is of course adjacent to a mulberry tree grove.) and 100% merino yarn sold at the gift shop. (I checked it out it was only in natural white and was 35 for 2 skeins.) Also in the gift shop were drop spindles! (Huzzah!) This weekend Greenfield was commemorating the 150th anniversary of the civil war with reenactments and other special programs. I took the time to wonder through the period clothing tents and found a period pattern for Baby booties, a diaper cover, and long knitted stockings, and a separate pattern for a shaped pair of leg warmers. While leaving the shop I happened to find a garbage bag of washed wool that just needed to be carded. I have no idea if how this was shorn. It may very well be full of second cuts and the shop owner didn't know anything about the breed of sheep but knew that it came from the farm across the street from their shop. They said that if I sent them an email they would run across the street to ask what the breed was. The whole bag was 14.00 and I was feeling adventurous. I'll be looking for a friend with a drum carder or investing in a set of cards. If you're interested in the period patterns or you're own bag of wool you can find Kimbery Lynch at www.thedressmakersshop.com The physical address for the shop is in Leslie, Mi.
C) The Zingerman's Experience YUMMY!
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