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.
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!
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