AJ Knits

Sunday, July 31, 2011

"Do Me a Solid" or To Ply or Not Two Ply

Episode 14

I Production Scheduling
1. Events
1. Crooked River Fiber Fling in Peninsula, Oh August 4th-7th. I'll be at this even on August 6th.
2. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
3. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10th, 17th, and 24th. I'll be at this event on September 18th. Be sure to drop by the Algonquin Spinning and Weaving Guild's booth. They'll be doing demonstrations and may have crafts for kids!
2. Production
3. What's in my Tea Pot?
4. Materials Sourcing
5. After 5

II. Production – I've had an incredibly huge case of cast – on it is this week. Nothing has been finished but there a million things on hooks nd needles,
1. The Embassy Scarf by Amy Polcyn found in the Knitscene summer 2011 issue. I’ll be knitting this out of Knitpicks Shadow laceweight in Foxtrot.
1. This one almost bit me this week. It's kind of like a wild animal if you lull yourself into a state of false security it will turn on you. I've been treating this like a social project and I haven't been respectign the pattern and flubbed upom one of the YO rows. The lace is of somewhere by one stitch. Looking for it I can't find it so I'm not sweating it.

2. Kitschy Teacup Pot Holders: {Free Crochet Pattern} from www.tipnut.com. These are being hooked Sugar and Cream Cotton yarn in White, Rose Pink, Hot Green. And yellow.
1. To recall from last week the first attempt at this cup was uber hug and maid on the needle that the cpotton yarn suggested. Soooo searching for the correct gauge needle I went down to what I thought was going to be ridiculously small 3.75 MM and low and behold the resulting cup was just a touch over size. Then becaquse I can never leave anythign well enough alone.... I decided to roughtly cut the pattern size in half. Which is something that should not require a calculator but we're starting to enter a scary pre apocolyptic place... :)

3. Knitting A Basic Toe-Up Sock Using the “Magic Loop” Circular Method One Sock on One Circular which is a free ravelry download and available at http://www.tostetoes.com/onesockoneneedletoeup.htm
1. This is my first foray in to the toe up sock. Which is a bit hard to believe as socks were on of the 1st things I knit.
2. The pattern is written for wedge toe with a magic 8 cast on. I hd to take to You tube to learn the magic eight but as it was pretty straight forward I was off and running in about 20 minutes.
3. I'm doing these socks with the left overs from Melissia's striped socks from back in Episode one.... I was looking at the left over balls thingkign I bet I can get a pair of short top socks outta that and so... here we go. I'm doing these one sock at a time so the first to is on and I'm knitting on the foot.
4. The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief by Orange Flowwer patterns. I saw this pattern ages ago on Mommy Needs Yarn with Erin Walsh. I thought it was sute then and now I've cast on my own.
1. This pattern was cast on out of my hand spun from the tour de fleece. The simple patern shows of the yarn quite well and I'm really happy with it. The only thing I'm not happy with is my color choice but I think one I get farther into the second color I'll like it more. Right now it's looking a bit where's waldo...
2. I'm halfway into the second group of 10 stckinette repeats I may make this a bit bigger by adding another garter stitch eyelete repeat and yet another set of 10 stockinetter repeats.

III What's In my Tea Pot?
1. Tazo Orange Blossom Green availale from starbucks not on the TAZO tea site.
1. Back of the box.
2. I found the Tazo site a bit annpoyign worth the trip is their “tea Leaf reader” Plug in your name, # of tattoos,and secret crush and their “oracle” will read you leaves. Apparently I'll soon become a world champion Bass fisherman.! Can you knit on a bass boat?

IV Materials Sourcing
1. As predicted last week I got over my proximity annoyance with babe and did some spinning this week. I finished a bobbin of the Pot Luck Roving from Paradise Fibers in the Party colorway. I also Plied it this week after 2 days of hemming and hawing over whether or not to chain ply or double ply from a center pull ball. I finally decide to two ply from the center pull and started brushing up on y Nostepinne skills and wound off the entire bobbin. Only to change my mind and decide I wanted to chain ply. So I had to finish the bobbin to avoid the snarled mess. This bobbin did end up as an approximate worsted weight. I haven't wound it off the bobbin yet to figure out yardage.
1. Funny thing about a nostepinne... I had no idea what one was until recently I thought nostepinne was the German name for a darning egg. It wasn't until quite recently I googled it and found a lovely tutorial on how to use one. I also saw that several people had posted pics of using their HUGE Q Crochet hooks as Nostepinne which is what I do now. If you're interested that tutorial complete with pictures and video is at “The Fiber Fool” blog http://blog.designedlykristi.com/?p=335 which will be linked to on the show notes.
2. The Tour de fleece yarn also got a dye job this week. I had some Kool aid packets on hand from my last foray into dying and I Came out with some rose pink (cherry), aqua blue (not sure what flavor that was...) and lavender purple (Grape). The rose pink and the natural are going into my Age of Brass and steam Kerchief.

V After 5
1. With all this knitting and Spinning going on I'm shocked i had time for anything else. Book this week but I did! I read a book this week! I read Soulless Book One of the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. I think we have established in the past that I love a vampire novel A la the Southern Vampire series from Charlaine Harris and of Course Anne Rice's vampires. What we haven't discussed is my love of all things Jane Austen and Victorian... Yes I realize Austen is not Victorian.... Joe cringes whenever he see a period movie is coming out because he know that there is no way for him to see the movie of his choice with me because I'm going to want to see the historical one...:) or the boring one if you ask him. Soulless has everything I love I love about an Austen novel a strong female heroin who isn't the likely girl to get the boy Mixed with vampires, and a touch of steam punk. As if I needed another reason to love this book... they drink tea! And the authors picture on the leaf is her sipping out of a china cup. Love it! Right now on Boarders.com these books are are all 8.00. I'm conflicted as to weather I'll be ordering some yarn this week or books... UGH! What a decision.
2. Knock on wood the car is fixed and running this week. It wasn't just the belt as we had hoped but the alternator that froze up. I seem to be hemorrhaging cash into the car lately. On a brighter note with the car running I finally got the who family up to the Mexican restaurant! Hurray! Only to find out that they are out of Ice Cream. ARGH! So we all went up to the Arctic Squirrel in downtown Kent instead for some Cookie Monster Ice cream.
3. B has become quite the back seat driver lately. He's started to yell for me to lookout when cars are coming toward us (they're in their own lane...), We're driving under a tree. Or there is a biker. I'm not sure if there are any brit comedy fans out there but he reminds me of Hyacinth Bucket of Keeping Up appearances “Mind the cyclist”... “Mind the Pedestrian...” on our way home this week B was peering out the window and said “Is that black stuff on the road oil?” I was confused for a minute until I realized the black stuff in question were the many Black top patches the city put on the back roads to fix the plow damage. But before I could explain to him that it wasn't oil he yells “Watch out for the oil mommy it's dangerous you can slip!” and even after I explained it wasn't oil it was black top he argued with me until I told him that it was to fix the holes in the road. Then suddenly it all made sense...

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Posted for photo Link :P




Pepper Cheese Monkey or "I'm your man"

Episode 13

I Production Scheduling
1. Events
1. Crooked River Fiber Fling in Peninsula, Oh August 4th-7th. I'll be at this even on August 6th. Also of not this weekend is the Twins Day's Festival in Twinsburg, Oh which is an exit away in downtown Twinsburg. Nothing knitting related but tons of fair food! Hurray!
2. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
3. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10th, 17th, and 24th. I'll be at this event on September 18th. Be sure to drop by the Algonquin Spinning and Weaving Guild's booth. They'll be doing demonstrations and may have crafts for kids!
2. Production
3. What's in My Tea Pot?
4. Materials Sourcing
5. After 5
II Production
1. The Embassy Scarf by Amy Polcyn found in the Knitscene summer 2011 issue. I’ll be knitting this out of Knitpicks Shadow laceweight in Foxtrot.
1. Knitting time has been at a premium this week so not much has gotten done. I', about 4 repeats into this and probably 8 inches of length.
2. This is an easy pattern to memorize and is one of very few social lace knitting patterns.
3. If you plan to cast this on please be sure to check Knit Scenes corrections page for the errata on line 8 of the pattern.

2. I pulled out the crochet needles this week. I had two sources of inspiration for this first being...Kitschy Teacup Pot Holders: {Free Crochet Pattern} from www.tipnut.com. I was sent to this pattern by an email from my knitting group. I thought these would be cute little Christmas gifts for my tea loving girlfriends. I picked up Sugar and Cream Cotton yarn in White, Rose Pink, Hot Green. And yellow. The pattern doesn't set a gauge so I worked using the hook that the yarn called for. My finished tea cup is a bit big. I'll make the second cup (for the reverse side of the pot holder.) and keep this one for myself and experiment again with a hook the next size down. If that doesn't work I may actually do some MATH (ACK!). And try to downsize it. Let's hope it doesn't come to that!
3. I also go an email from Michael's this week encouraging me to start my holiday crafting. What?! You mean I don't have to wait until the last possible moment to do that? I'm not supposed to be up every night in December finishing gifts? What a novel idea! So Michael's had a cute pattern of a snow flake that they claimed was easy. I remember looking at the pattern on their website but I forgot the print out on my desk. So after I bought the sparkly acrylic yarn it called for... (I know yarn snobs I said the A word... Deep C lensing breaths..) Low and behold I couldn't find the pattern on their website. I did find something similar on Bernat.com the Handicrafter Holidays - Snowflake Dishcloth. I did swatch for this and found that I needed to move down a hook size. I'm almost done with this. But something looks wonky back in the 1st or second round. So this is likely to be the 1st draft. All in all I like this little snow flake. It may be something fast to whip up for co-workers or people you need to give something to like the music teacher or the mail man. If I'm feeling especially humble I'll post a pic in the show notes.
 III What's in my Tea Pot
1. Fujian Jasmine Pearl from Adagio Teas
1. This is the last pf my adagio tea stash so I'm pulling out one of my favorites for Lucky episode # 13!
2. The back of the box: A rare, hand-rolled green tea from the Fujian province of China, infused with the delicate scent of night-blooming jasmine. An incredibly fresh aroma drew us to these exceptional pearls. Each pearl is made up of just one bud and leaf set. Refined, clear and delicate floral fragrance, pleasantly soft texture and delicately dry finish. While the pearls themselves are not the largest or most evenly rolled we have seen, we could not pass up the complex elegance of this tea and its quietly hypnotic jasmine fragrance. A treat for the jasmine lover and connoisseur alike.
3. The story for this teal also gives some back ground on how they make Jasmine tea... Jasmine tea production is a two-step process. The tea is harvested and finished in the spring, then carefully stored until the summer, when the jasmine starts to bloom at night. Each evening, the tea is carefully layered with fresh blooms, which will open and give their scent to the tea. In the morning, the flowers are removed and the process is repeated again that evening. This happens several nights in a row, until the tea master has the aroma balance just right. At the end, the tea is refired to dry off any flower moisture imparted to the leaf. This is why some jasmines can have a toasty finish.
4. This tea is lovely and everything I love about jasmine. I'll be buying this again in my next re – stash!



IV Materials Sourcing

1. Sunday was the last day of the Tour. Congrats to Cadell Evans of Australia who won the individual and Team Garmin-Cervelo who took the team title. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about this. I'll miss all my teammates pics daily but I don't think I'll miss spinning under a deadline. It's kind of like traveling with a friend. You love this person but after a week or two of being cooped up with them in the same car or tiny hotel room you really just want to be away from them. I'm kind of feeling that way about my wheel. Not to say that 2 days from now I'll be right back to spinning every night but it's different with out the deadline weighing down.
2. I finished carding and spinning the singles Thursday night. The mystery bag of wool is no more! It's now 12 skeins of unfinished and undyed yarn averaging about 60 yds a piece. Woohoo goal accomplished! I did get a wake up call as to how dirty this wool really was. The “Lazy Kate” system on the Babe wheel is awful. It's a hole with a dowel that you put the bobbin on. More often than not the bobbin flies off and scares the bejeezus out of Ollie (the dog). So lately I've been putting the bobbin in my Yarntainer. Which is a plsatic canister that has a hole in the top to keep multi strand projects from getting tangled. I looked in the bottom of the one I had been plying from today and got a pile of veg matter and broken fiber dust from it . EEEEW!
3. Challenge day for the tour was Friday and I had intended to spin 1 oz of dyed corriedale on my drop spindle. When I chose my goal I thought it was 2 oz but when I checked the package I found that it was only 1. I'm a lot slower on the spindle so I thought this would be a challenge. I only got about 1/8 of the ounce spun before be wanted to sit on my lap and cuddle. Who am I to deny him! Then while watching Go Diego go! The sleepies set in and I never recovered. Racer down! I got B ready for bed and mommy was out for the count as well. I finished the ounce on Friday and plied it today. My last official tour de fleece activity.
4. All In all I'm glad I did this. My singles while still a long way from perfect are much better. I learned how to card, what the difference between a puni and a rolag, long draw and attenuated long draw drafting, a ton about fleece and how not to select one and how to prepare one for spinning, and even more about myself as a spinner and what works for me. I'm sure in a few weeks I'll get over my never agains and be on the lookout for some nice prepared roving for next year. :)

V. After 5
1. I was finally able to get to the library this week with the kids. I had to sadly return Big Girl Knits and the Intentional Spinner. While I was their I thought I could pick up another spinning book maybe something on technique or barring that some Patterns designed for handspun yarn. Every spinning technique book was checked out! Really? So barring that I moved onto patterns I found one book and after some confusion with the reference # I checked it out. I found “A Fine Fleece : Knitting with handspun Yarns” by Lisa Lloyd I'll admit that B was getting cranky and one of the last places you want a cranky 4 yr old is the reference section of a library... So when I found this book I didn't skim it. I booked (forgive the pun) it to the check out. When I got home I was finally able to give it a skim. At first glance I thought I was going to love this book. The forward talked about a handspinner with tons of single skeins and then finding the rare fleece that was a joy to spin that a handspinner would choose to spin into a sweater... From that I took that this book would have patterns for my many single skeins and one or two for that wondrous fleece I'd someday find to spin for a sweater... I even retained that hope as I read the intro by the author explaining how she photographed all the patterns in handspun and mill spun to show the juxtaposition and versatility of the pattern. What I got however was not what I was hoping for. A Fine Fleece has 28 patterns most of which are sweaters. There are a 2 or 3 scarves and a hat and scarf set as well. The sweaters are for the most part heavily cabled. I do like cables and I may consider using some of the cable charts on other projects but I don't think I'll be knitting anything out of this book. If you're looking for a cabled sweater pattern for handspun this is the book for you. IF you're looking for a use for your single skeins of handspun... Keep looking. This one is worth thumbing through at the library. A fine Fleece : Knitting with Handspun yarns By Lisa Lloyd was publi8shed in 2008 by Potter craft and retails for $30.00 in the US.
2. As I mentioned before B and I were watching Go Diego Go this week. He loves this show. He likes to sing the Click the camera song and the rescue pack song. This week Diego Had to rescue a monkey and as usual the kids had to “tell” the camera which animal w\e s in trouble. The choices included a Capuchin monkey. B was dutifully repeating the species as the camera asked them which one they were looking for . I should also mention that the camera has a Spanish accent. So when the camera said “this is a Capuchin monkey.” B repeated it as a “pepper cheese monkey” and asked me, Mommy do we need to help the pepper cheese monkey? I love Monkey's I have quite a collection of them but try as I might I haven't found a pepper cheese one. :)

3. Another week and yet another car meltdown. I heard about a new Mexican restaurant this week and wanted the family to get out of the house so we started the massive process of getting everyone out the door. After everyone was finally showered and dressed and the massive hunt for B's shoes had been resolved we all piled into the car which started and made a horrendous loud squealing noise and then started to smoke. Joe had me pop the hood and pulled out a broken belt. REALLY?! You would think after all I poured into this car over the past 2 weeks I would get it running for at least 1. So needless to say there was no Mexican for us tonight. It also makes me wonder why men even if they have no mechanical knowledge what so ever feel the need to pop the hood whenever something is wrong. This time the car was smoking so Joe was justified in wanting to look at what was on fire. But my husband isn't a car guy, he's not the handy Mr Fix-it type either, he's the guy that you call when you get a new television and you need it set up, he's also they guy you call when you need your VCR programmed. He has no business under the hood of a car. So It baffles me every time he says Pop the hood... I just know he's standing there staring at the engine thinking... “I know I'm supposed to look but I have no idea what I'm looking at... Maybe it will restore her faith in my manliness if I just look at the engine intently and make noises like I suddenly understand the problem.” As it turns out our more mechanically inclined neighbor has pronounced this a broken alternator belt and with some help we should have the care back on the road with minimal investment... We'll see about that!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Time to pull out the yellow Jersey

Well... almost. I'll be sporting my yellow tomorrow as tonight I finsihed carding and spinning the singles from my 16 oz Bag O' Mystery wool. Friday is challenge day and I'll be pulling out my drop spindle to see if I can spin up 2 oz on the drop spindle in one night. Wish me luck!


Finished plyed yarn from yesterday in the center and the last of the singles on the top and bottom.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Day 18 Tour De Fleece

Another day another bobbin. I also have 2 Plied bobbins from this weekend that still need to be wound off and skein-ed

. The most exciting new for today I'm down to one clump o ' wool and then the bag is empty! Wahoo!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

It's all gone to ... or "I'm Bat Man!"

Episode 12


1. Production Scheduling
1. Events
1. Crooked River Fiber Fling in Peninsula, Oh August 4th-7th.
2. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
3. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10th, 17th, and 24th. I'll be at this event on September 18th. Be sure to drop by the Algonquin Spinning and Weaving Guild's booth. They'll be doing demonstrations and may have crafts for kids!
2. Production
3. QC Inspection.
4. What's in My Tea Pot?
5. Materials Sourcing
6. After 5

2. Production
1. The Embassy Scarf by Amy Polcyn found in the Knitscene summer 2011 issue. I’ll be knitting this out of Knitpicks Shadow laceweight in Foxtrot. I finally got this cast on this weekend! I'm about two repeats in and I can tell right off the bat this is going to be a long haul. The worsted weight yarn for the Clapotis really had me spoiled. Oh well back into the fray!
3. Shipping
1. Even with all the spinning this week I had time to finish something! The Ruffled Scarf by Pam MacKenzie is off the needles! If you recall from Last week one of the members of my kitting Group Cuyohoga Falls Knit and Hook is collecting purple scarves for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The DVAM committee chose purple as their color so all the scarves have to be knit or crocheted in easy care yarns in any shade of purple. I made mine in Loops and thread Impeccable (which I think is Micheal’s “House Brand”) in Amethyst. If you're interested in helping out this cause they set up a new website for it at www.comfortscarves.net.

4. What's in my Tea Pot?
1. Chocolate Chip Tea from Adagio Teas this tea was recommended by a listener many thanks to Knittinwolf for the recommendation!
2. The back of the box: Dark chocolate chips melt into the infusion of this Ceylon black tea to create the ultimate coupling of two taste bud tantalizers. Dense and soft chocolate flavor - seriously, for a second you think you're just eating a bag of cookies! Clean, slightly tangy finish brings you back to tea, and the balanced astringency compliments the dark chocolate nicely.
Ingredients: black tea, natural chocolate flavor, dark chocolate chips, cocoa nibs
3. I didn't believe that a tea could taste so much like chocolate. When I got my shipment from adagio I had to tear into this one first and was totally blown back by the chocolate smell coming out of the container. When I brewed this for the 1st time I had to do a double take to make sure I hadn't mad hot chocolate. This one is a keeper. Next order I make I will be stocking up on this. Another testament to the chocolate taste? My husband who I forgot hates dark chocolate just about gagged when he drank this. I wasn't expecting his reaction and I crowed at him “tastes just like Dark Chocolate right?” His reply “ You're right. I hate dark chocolate!” Whoops!

5. Materials Sourcing
1. Thomas Voeckler is still holding onto a razor thing lead in the race and I;m still spinning like a mad woman.
2. I'm averaging a bobbin spun and a bobbin plied a night still. I'm still chain plying all my singles and I'm happy to say that my chain ply is looking better and better. I'm no longer petrified of snapping a single and I'm able to get everything settle back down and get back on the road again after a break down. I have been oiling religiously the last few days. After talking about my oil issue last week you would have thought that I had learned my lesson. Oh but no!... I had a replay of last weeks plying issue and now I oil before every spinning session.
3. This is a rough average because I didn't process all the fiber into rolags before the tour started. Next year I doubt I'll be spinning something that needs so much prep. I'll also be spinning something with color! I am soooo sick of natural white.
4. Monday is a day of rest however I took last Monday and Tuesday as days of rest (residuals of AJ's horrible week.) So I will spinning tomorrow.
5. I can see the bottom of my bag of wool. I only have two more clumps of wool to card and then I'm done! I was pretty excited about this until I took a look at my two remaining clumps and realized that these may be the dirtiest of the bag.
6. This Friday is the last trip through the mountains in the race and is supposed to be challenge day. I'm planning on breaking out my drop spindle and spinning up my green and blue striped roving I think it;s only an ounce or two but should be challenging to do in one night on the drop spindle. We'll see how it shakes out.
7. If you're interested in seeing my progress most nights I post that days spinning results on the show notes page. I'm also spinning for Team I got Ewe Babe and Team rookie 2011. The ladies over at I got Ewe babe have been fantastically supportive this whole ride and are putting out some great yarns. There are also some gorgeous things coming out of the rookie side. Especially off of the drop spindles! I've never seen so many beautiful cops and cob web thing singles. Not to mention the spindles themselves. :) One of my faves looks like a model of an atom with balls on spokes.

6. QC Inspection
1. So once again QC has shifted positions because the knitting went well but the spinning has been giving me fits. A few episodes ago you may recall that I lost the end of the single when I had a break and had to take the almost full bobbin to my mom's house to use her lighted magnifier to find it. This has happend to me not once but twice this week! The first worked out OK as I found a spot pretty near the end made a break and ply back from there. I think I only lost about 12 inches of the single. The second time I was not so lucky. It was soon apparent that wasn't working. So I tried another spot and just tangled it more. So I finally found a spot towards the end to ply back from and that plied all the singles closest to the bobbin. So inside out. While I was dealing with this mess that I had brought upon myself … My Mom's Spidey senses were tingling and my phone rang. What a coincidence she was wondering how my spinning was going.... :) Right before I hung up after telling my tale of woe I said “Well, I have to go now... cause everything has gone to hell over here...”

7. After 5
1. My Horrible week from last week had some spillover into this week. The fuel pump for the car came in on Monday as scheduled but late in the day, So no car on Monday. Then Tuesday the mechanic called to say that he damaged the fuel line installing the fuel pump and that it would be another 80 bucks and an extra day. So we finally got the car back on Wednesday.
2. It's summer in Ohio and it's a hot one!. Not to mention the mosquitoes are out enforce the whole family is covered in Mosquito bites!
3. B has decided he wants to be batman when he grows up. He thinks that when he's as big as daddy he'll have the muscles to be batman. His biggest concern is how he'll be able to fly. Thinking fast I told him he;'s just have to get a jet pack. He asked “what's a Jet pack” after I explained it was a rocket that you wore on your back and it made you fly he was pretty blasé about it. “OK, I just have to get one of those then.”
4. B has also adjusted to having a spinning wheel in the house. He knows to give it wide berth but today he was a little annoyed because there was wool on the floor. He brought me what looked to be a second cut and said “Mommy you fluffy stuff is on the floor! How are you going to use it in your spinning machine if the fluffy stuff is on the floor!”

Friday, July 15, 2011

Day 14 Tour De Fleece

Once again I had a single break and I couldn't find the end. I think I found it but i decided to just ply from that point in cast I pulled the single apart. We'll see how it goes tomorrow when I ply. 2nd bobbin is 4/5 of the way complete. The hank is the chain plied bobbin from yesterday.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day 13 Tour De Fleece

Today was mostly carding. I got a large chunk of my mystery wool out of the bag and once it comes out I'm loathe to put it back in. Spun a bit more onto the bobbin I started last night. Too pooped to spin any more tonight!


And this small pile is the rest of the Mystery Wool. By eye I'd say I'm a bit over halfway done.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Day 12 Tour De Fleece

Finally recovered from my awful week(end). Back to spinning! Chain plied skein is 66 yds and one full Bobbin. I may start on my second bobbin... I may look into how to use a paper towel roll as a nostepinne.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

You're my Favorite Swift or "The Swatch from H#!!"

Episode 11

1. Production Scheduling
1. Events
1. Crooked River Fiber Fling in Peninsula, Oh August 4th-7th.
2. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
3. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10th, 17th, and 24th.
2. Production
3. QC Inspection.
4. What's in My Tea Pot?
5. Materials Sourcing
6. After 5

2. Production – I've been cleaning up the odds and ends in my UFO pile this week. Nothing got finished but I'm enjoying hopping around a bit and knitting on various things.
1. Ruffled Scarf by Pam MacKenzie one of the members of my kitting Group Cuyohoga Falls Knit and Hook is collecting purple scarves for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The DVAM committee chose purple as their color so all the scarves have to be knit or crocheted in easy care yarns in any shade of purple. I'm knitting mine in Loops and thread Impeccable (which I think is Micheal’s “House Brand”) in Amethyst. I'm on my second ball of yarn for this scarf. The short rows used to create the ruffles really eat through the yarn. The pattern is easily memorizable and remember-able. I started this scarf in November. (Eeek! Pre podcast!) and I still remembered the repeat when I picked it back up this week, (though I did check the pattern for accuracy.)
2. Plarn Lopi Tote - This tote began life as the Fulled Lopi Tote by Adrian Bizilia. I',m knitting this out of plarn. (which is plastic yarn made from plastic shopping bags.) I knit through my plarn stash this week so until I get some time to cut more plarn this one is back in the drawer for a while. I did get to use my new stitch markers I made at wool fest on this project the coiless safety pins were just what I needed. My son Nate watched me knit on this one this week and was particularly blown away that I could knit with plastic. He's ordered a plarn backpack. I have no idea how I'll pull that off. Maybe one of those draw string jobies I see the college students wearing? I think I'll just get through this bag before I make too many plans for another. :)
3. The Embassy Scarf by Amy Polcyn found in the Knitscene summer 2011 issue. I have half the swatch for this on the needles. I’ll be knitting this out of Knitpicks Shadow laceweight in Foxtrot.
3. Quality Inspection
1. With the relative lack of knitting Progress you'd think that there wouldn't be anything in QC. I'm also sure that the last thing anyone would expect to be in QC Would be of all things a SWATCH! This just serves as testament to the type of week I've had this week. I should have known before I even cast on that I was going to have problems. I think a couple of episodes ago we talked about how I don't have a swift or a ball winder. Up until fairly recently this hasn't been a problem. Now more and more of my yarn is coming in skeins and not in commercial balls. Usually I'll have my favorite swift, My husband Joe around to hold the skein while I wind the ball. Things have finally picked up for Joe's company so he wasn't around this weekend. Which left me to wind the lace weight by myself. (I guess I could have waited for him to come home.... but there was knitting to do!) SO when I wind by my self I sit on the couch with my feet straight out in front of me and I loop the skein around my feet to keep it taught so it won;t tangle. Everything went well until I was ¾ of the way through and thought those famous last words. “I'm almost done it won't tangle.” Yeah... right. It tangled. It was a mess for about 45 minutes. Instead of putting it down and stepping away. I pushed onward! This pattern is a drop stitch pattern. I was expecting to drop knit stitches and instead this pattern drops YO's off the needle. The 1st attempt on the swatch I had all these loops sticking out every which way and I was convinced I had done something wrong so I tore it out and took a look at the picture an reread the pattern before casting on again. I figured out that I did have it correct the 1st time but this time I organized my loops a bit better. The stumbling block came in line 8 of the repeat. In the pattern it has has the YO's cast on in the previous lines. Line 8 should have had them dropped of the needle. The pattern as written in Knitscene does not have that. It just has you knit 5 rows of garter. Looking at that I knew something was not right. Knitting all of the YO's left a row of “eyelet” where there should have been another row of drop stitch detail. So I took to ravelry to see if anyone posted the errata. Can you believe no one has mentioned it in any of their finished projects? I finally went to Knitscene.com to look for a corrections page and there I finally found it. “Clarification: Row 8 is to be worked the same as Row 2 (dropping all yo’s off needle). Rows 9-12 Knit.” I'm going to tear out my swatch after I post the podcast tonight, I'm not worried about gauge as it's a wrap and I have 2 skeins of this yarn. I think I'll just take the plunge and cast on. AT least I know the pattern repeat. It's another easy one to remember though it may slog a bit being on sz 7 needles in lace weight.

4. What's in My Teapot
1. Sweet Potato Pie from Adagio teas
2. The back of the box reads:Flavors in tea can serve several purposes. You can literally make the tea taste like something else, you can accent a flavor that's naturally in the tea (like blending peaches with white tea, for example). You can also do it to support the tea in a textural way... and sometimes that can be the most surprising of all! Sweet potato pie is a traditional favorite from the South, but a stranger to the tea world. When paired with brisk and sometimes gently malty Ceylon black tea, the sweet potato flavor really comes through in hints of starchiness and texture. Toasty, sweet and smooth. Pleasant and playful cup of tea. Extra toasted marshmallows, please!
3. This one is OK. Just OK. It's not bad but I'd not great either. I don't think I would have recognized this tea as Sweet Potato Pie. Because I know what it is I can smell the sweet potato in it, I also can detect that the liquor is vaguely starchy. If I didn't have the box I wouldn't know what this was. This tea is also only good for one or 2 infusions the second infusion is tasting a bit watery and I over steeped it.
4. Would I buy it again? No probably not.

5. Materials sourcing
1. Week one of Tour De Fleece is over!
2. This week I've produced 4 Navajo Plyd skeins of yarn and 1 and ¾ bobbins of singles. So all together 5 and ¾ bobbins of singles.
3. I've carded every day this week and by my eye I'm about halfway through the bag O' mystery wool. I've been tweaking the way I make the rolags as I go along. I think when I started my rolags were more Puni's being more compact. I've since adjusted how much fiber I'm using and making them more light and airy. They seem to be spinning better than the overly compacted ones.
4. The fiber is still filled with veg matter tons of hay and seeds and still a ton of second cuts.\
5. I'm still loving the long draw and the fiber is taking well to woolen spinning. I'm still pulling off a ton of slubs.
6. I'm spinning for the Rookie 2011 team and Team I got Ewe Babe. I've been spending most of my time with the ladies of I've got Ewe babe. They've been very welcoming and very supportive! And are turning out some great yarn! Especially of note is some wool plied with a cassette tape! Who woulda thunk it! Check out the thread on ravelry for their pics. If you keep an eye on the show notes page I've been posting my Uber boring updates nightly. I'm beginning to wish I made my goal something with color. :P
7. Lesson for this week. Oil is important! (for cars and spinning wheels) I had some wheel troubles this week. While plying I couldn't get the plied yarn to take up onto the bobbin. So I went through the check list. Drive band is on the bobbin.... check. Yarn is not wrapped around the hook.... check! Tension is on.... check! Nothing looked wrong I was still getting twist so as a lat ditch effort I oiled the wheel. Tadaa! Everything was back to normal.
8. I have been navajo Plying my singles I had mentioned the you tube video I saw for this a few episodes ago and this week I was pointed to a better one. This one is by Sarah Andersen and is posted by Interweave videos. This video is very clear and gives a good look at hand position and good description of what your hands should be doing. This video improved my technique by about a million percent. If you're having problems check this one out.
9. So what's going on with the race? Yeah I haven't even caught the highlights! I've been too busy spinning.
6. After Five
1. When I was in school we were read a book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. I'm sure you can tell what it was about by the title. Well, it's been one of those weeks!
1. The car broke down … Twice.
2. My absence from the office to take care of the car caused drama there.
3. Joe is working mandatory weekends and I'm stuck in the house! Which usually isn't a problem but he's also been working OT and hasn't gone grocery shopping either.
4. It can only go up from here! Right?
2. She forgot he purse!
3. While B was napping I turned on The Tourist which is a movie starring Angelina Jolie and the oh so yummy Johnny Depp. I usually don't let B watch grown up movies but he walked out while Angelina was dropping Johnny Depps character off at the Venice airport. She asks him to tie up the boat and hands off his luggage which is placed on the dock. She then unties her end of the docking line and drives off in the boat leaving Johnny and his luggage on the dock. B watches this and comments a little loudly and a little panicked. “She left her purse!” and then “Why is she leaving that guy?”. My thoughts? Yes B... why is she leaving Johnny Depp indeed.” But more to the point how does a four year old become concerned over some woman leaving her purse?

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Day 8 Tour De Fleece

Today I carded like a mad woman. Totally filled the plastic bag I store the rolags in. It's only 11:00 and I'm out. 1 and 3/4 bobbins to show for it. Some of the singles today were very thick... Not my best day.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Day 6 Tour De Fleece

Spun through all the rolags I carded last night and another 3 I carded today to fill the bobbin. Finished yesterday's bobbin, spun a bobbin, and chain plied the rested bobbin from yesterday.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Day Three Tour De Fleece

Second Bobbin complete. More rolags made. Not even a dent in the 16 ozs.

Monday, July 4, 2011

My Daybreak Shaw

Just realized I never posted this!

Whack it with a Hammer or "The Peleton"

bEpisode 10

I Production Scheduling
1. Happy 4th of July
2. Events
1. Sunday Brunch with the Cuyahoga Falls Knitter and Hookers.
2. Crooked River Fiber Fling in Peninsula, Oh August 4th-7th.
3. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds. This one is still tentative as of now.
4. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10th, 17th, and 24th.
3. Production
4. What's in my Tea Pot?
5. Shipping
6. Materials Sourcing
7. After 5

II Events
1. Sunday Brunch with the Cuyohoga Falls Knitters and Hookers.
1. Everyone pretty much owns being a hooker. How cool is that!
2. I love getting together with this knit group I wish I could do it more often. The conversation at my end of the table was lively and I can't wait for next month.
3. I brought my Clapotis to knit on and nothing went awry . (Huzzah!)
4. Panera had their ovens set to “inferno” I'm usually a fan of all things Panera but the wafting smell of burnt bagel is not very appetizing. The coffee wasn't getting a reprieve either and was being served just this side of boiling. .
2. Crooked River Fiber Fling in Peninsula, Oh August 4th-7th.
3. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds. This one is still tentative as of now.
4. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10th, 17th, and 24th.
1. I know I can get Joe to go to this one. Anything he can wander around with a turkey leg in hand is his kind of event.
III Production / Shipping


1. The Clapotis by Kate Gilbert from Knitty.com is on the needles I'm doing this out of Malabrigo in the Archangel colorway, I've been a knitting fiend this week. After soooo many long weeks of light weight sock yarn while I slogged through the Daybreak I rocketed through the Clapotis. All the knitting is done and all the stitches are dropped. All that's left is weave in the ends and to block. I may totally cheat though and weave in the ends and wear it out to the fireworks tonight.
2. What's next? Well I think It looks like I'll be headed back to the land of lace weigh yarn. I think I'll be casting on the EMBASSY SCARF by Amy Polcyn. I'll be knitting this in the Knitpicks Shadow lace weight in Foxtrot.
IV What's in my Tea Pot

1. We had a huge download week this week and smashed 1100 downloads. Episode 9 was the first episode that had over 100 downloads in the week of release So in honor of that I've pulled something special out of the stash.
2. A legendary oolong tea from the Fujian province of China. Ti Kuan Yin is one of China's most beloved oolongs and is extremely time-consuming to produce (well over a dozen distinct steps in the processing are observed). This loosely rolled, lightly oxidized or 'green' Ti Kuan Yin yields a pale golden cup with a soft, buttery texture and orchid notes that linger and reveal a subtle complexity that will delight a fine palate. As the liquor cools, a sweet finish becomes apparent and offers faint hints of honeydew melon. We highly recommend multiple steepings to fully open the hand-rolled leaves, whose character will seemingly evolve through three or more infusions.
3. I'm on the 3rd infusion in my pot and it's holding up well. This tea has the same perfumey quality that I like in Jasmine. It's really nice. I wouldn't mind having this in the house but I'm not as ecstatic about it as I would have to be to pay the 49.00. This is one that will go on my Christmas list...:) I got this as part of my care package from Adagio Teas. My recommendation is to get the sample! It's worth the 9 bucks!
4. Oh and check out the story on the web site Ti Kuan Yin it tells about how the bodhisattva Kuan Yin gave the tea to a farmer. I love reading little tid bitty things like that...;)
V Materials Sourcing
1. It's Tour De Fleece ! Cadel Evans is narrowly avoiding Crashes, Thor Hushovd is defending his yellow jersey, Philippe Gilbert is sprinting! Me I've got on my rookie white jersey and I'm looking to join the peleton and get my spin on. Yeah I know that's awful...
1. My goal is to card and spin the 16 oz of mystery fiber I got from Green Field village.
2. I'm not happy with my fiber. It's full of veg matter. Tons of seeds, and bits of hay and it's full of second cuts.
3. I had intended to use wool combs on this and spin from sliver. As with all things time and money have changed my plans. I'm carding this with my new cards and rolling my own rolags.
1. I've never carded before.
1. I've already missed and taken the skin off my knuckles. Ow.!
2. Transferring the fiber from one card to an other is definitley an art form.
2. I've never spun from a rolag
3. I've never spun long draw.
4. Why don't we teach long draw woolen spinning before we teach the inch worm worsted form of drafting?
1. The fiber is drafting from the rolag “like Butta”
2. The single seems to be more even. Hurray!
3. Even though the single is more even the fiber is very slubby,
1. I'm trying to fix the slubs as I go along but it seems to be a losing battle.
2. I have one bobbin complete and one bobbin a quarter of the way full I'll be experimenting with plying methods later on today.
5. Looking at my pile of fiber I may be really over omitted!
6. I've been eyeballing my new rovings from woolfest last week. I can't wait to play with those. They'll be a great post tour reward!
VI After Five
1. B has gotten married.
1. B has little girl friend in day care
2. They've both been at the center since they were 6 weeks old.
3. This week on the way home B says I'm going to marry J.
1. you can come, and Dadda can come, ...Ollie too...
2. You need to get me another one suit. The black one was too tough.
3. J and I will have a huge wedding cake.
2. So the next day on the way home B says I kissed J!
1. What the what?
2. Apparently they got married at play time
3. the cake was large and of play dough
4. I have no idea what my new inlaws think of all this. J is a very vocal 4 yr old and I can only guess that they've heard the story
3. Ernest takes over my living room.
1. Joe found a 3 movie DVD of old Ernest movies, Of course the boys love them They’re funny the 1st few times but after the 3rd viewing in a week they get a bit old. I was sooo happy to escape to knitting group this week!
4. Joe goes coco nutty
5. This march we were able to take the kids on a cruise to that Bahama’s for spring break. Not something we can usually afford to do. So this was special. Joe and I had gone to the Bahama’s on our honeymoon so we had some things in mind that we wanted to revisit. One was a tropical drink stand in the Port Lucaya straw market. In our honeymoon video we have the perfect pina colada being drank out of the freshest yummiest coconuts we ever had, My husband up to that point had claimed to not liking coconut I think he ate two a day while we were there, Fast forward 6 years... we're back at the drink stand that we've been dreaming of and the coconuts are AWFUL! Green and unripe. So since then Joe has been on the look out for coconuts. He brought two home last night, He doesn't know the 1st thing about opening them. Years ago I went to a 6 week bar tending course and one of the things they covered was how to open a coconut. They did theirs with a hammer and a ice pick. We used a screw driver. Puncture the coconut through two of the “eyes” one is to let the mile out and one is to let the air in. Most coconuts are sold scored around the middle now. After the water is drained some well placed whacks the the blunt back of a heavy knife blade around the score lime should crack it in half. Wee just beat ours with the hammer until it shattered. Ours was for eating not for making cute cups.
6. My DAR app was approved this week and it’s the 4th we're feeling especially patriotic. We'll be off watching the fireworks with friends tonight. Have a happy and safe 4th everyone!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Episode 10

Sorry folks episode 10 has been delayed a day... I've been knitting and spinning and things just got in the way. See you Monday!