AJ Knits

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Somebody's Watching Me or "It's Raw"

Episode 21

I Production Scheduling
  1. Events
    1. Algonquin Mill fall festival Friday, Saturday, and Sunday October 7,8,9.at the Mill Farm Located 5 miles south of carollton, oh on rt 332. I'll be at this event on Saturday October 8th. This event looks like one for then entire family. This year the organizers have made 11 tons of sour kraut up from the 9 tons made last year Because they sold out! I can't even imagine 9 tons of sauerkraut! The Algonquin Spinning and Weaving guild will me demo'ing the sock machines! If you've never seen one of these check it out on you tube they are amazing and can produce a pair of socks in minutes as opposed to days. These were a hot topic on #Knitchat on Thursday. I'll be at this even on Saturday the 8th.
    2. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo or the Fuzzy Fair as Melissa has taken to calling it...October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds. Fiber, Ford, food and fun who could ask for anything more!? (Oh wait... that's Toyota.)
    3. Camp KIP April 21-24 2012 at the Cedar Creek Conference center in New Haven, Missouri there's 208 days until Camp Kip!
  2. Production
  3. What's In My Tea Pot
  4. Materials Sourcing
  5. After 5

II Production
  1. I had a light knitting week due to a death on my husbands side of the family. This week on the needles.
  2. The Brea Bag by Norah Gaughan I saw this bag last weekend at Stitch, piece and purl and bought the yarn to make it (Berroco Ultra Alpaca in color 6279 which is a reddish brown) Last week I had finished the back of the bag this week I finished the front. I'm currently working on the gusset which is feeling as though I'm knitting a small moss stitch scarf. B and I also went to the goodwill store in streetsboro in search of handles. I did find a set of Pleather handles that will do the trick but I'm not sure that with all the work that I've put into this bag that I want to use pleather handles. B and I did hit the Fabulous finds in streetsboro and didn't find anything. SO the search continues. Etsy may be my next stop.
  3. Nothing else got any love. The cabled mitts are still cooling their jets in the project bag.

III What's In my Tea Pot
    1. Little Melon Seed (Lu An Gua Pian)

    A wonderful, competition-grade yellow tea from Anhui Province. Grown organically, note the very deep green coloration of the leaves.  Once opened, they remind tea drinkers of a melon seed, small and round with a finely serrated edge. The taste is full, sweet, with a lingering finish clean that makes for an exquisite cup of tea. Steep in water between 165 and 185 degrees for two minutes
  1. I don;t see the resemblance of the tea leave to melon seeds, In fact when I opened this tea I thought wow these leaves ore long and thin. The tasted to me is mild and vegetal like most greens but is really nice. This is a good tea for curling up on the couch and watching movies with or for drinking with dessert. :)

IV Materials Sourcing
  1. The 50/50 Merino Silk blend id finished being plied and had been steam finished. Who would have known 3 yrs ago when I was ticked at my husband for buying me a clothes steamer for Christmas that I'd get so much use out of it! Pictures of the finished yarn are up on the Show Notes page and are also on ravelry as my first entry into the Autumn Jumble spin along.
  2. I'm not sure if I had received my batt from Knitty and Color as of last recording but so far I've felt that it's too pretty to spin. It looks like a fluffy fiber flower sitting on the server in the dining room all black, gray, purple, and sparkly. It's even tied up with a black satin bow. <Sigh> I squish it every time I walk by.
  3. Since I can't bring myself to dissect my pretty batt I'm spinning that knubbly slubbly black cherry hand painted from the Great lakes fiber festival. If you recall I had to fight to spin the sample skein on this fiber. It pulled apart when I attempted to predraft and was just not cooperating. I decided to spin this woolen and let it slub as it wants. I think this fiber was just meant to be a skein of art yarn. Who am I to try to force it to be anything else.

V After 5
  1. Even though I;m recording on my own tonight Joe has not put down his needles. He's still practicing his purl stitch. He doesn't feel ready to put it all together for stockinette yet so hopefully next week we'll be able to move on. After that we;ll cast on his transformers cloth by Enid Danforth (Free on Ravelry!) an teach him to read a pattern.
  2. It's been chilly this week in Ohio. We've been having cold and rainy weather all week and that means the return of long pants. I'm mot sure how but B is really hard on pants and shoes. I Chalk this up to him being a rambunctious boy. Pants only last so long before they are either out grown or end up with a whole in the knees. I think Nate went through a phase like this as well. I was driving B home from school and he was looking at the freshly worn hole in the knee of his pants and he declares... “Mommy you need to yarn my pants because there's a hole in them. That's my boy! Yarn is the answer to all of life's ills.
  3. Around here we watch a ton of food tv. Joe an I have pretty different tastes in television and it's the one of the few subjects we come together on. Gordon Ramsay is one of our favorites so we watch Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. What's the one dish that you always hear about on Hell's Kitchen and always has drama associated... No not the risotto... The Beef Wellington! We attempted beef wellington in the house this week we used a recipe from the new basics cookbook by Rosso and Lukins this version does differ from the hell's kitchen recipe as it uses canned mushrooms instead of Duxelles a finely chopped (minced) mixture of mushrooms or mushroom stems, onions, shallots and herbs sautéed in butter, and reduced to a paste (sometimes cream is used as well). It is a basic preparation used in stuffings and sauces (notably, beef Wellington), or as a garnish. Duxelles can also be filled into a pocket of raw pastry and baked as a savory tart (similar to a hand-held pie). We used fresh mushrooms that we sauteed in butter. Joe started his path tho wellington at the local super grocer Giant eagle looking for a Tournedos of beef. Can you believe that the entire meat dept had no idea what a tournedos was? And then has never seen a beef wellington? After some conjecture as Joe just figured the butcher would know what wanted (which was basically filet mignon) he chose a steak about the size that he thought he needed. We then coated them in a mustard seasoning mixture and seared them off, and wrapped them in puff pastry. Our one glaring error was that we used too much puff pasty and left the extra to cook with the meat instead of trimming it off. Much like our favorite contestants the first time out of the over they we're RAW! I guess next season I won't be so critical when the wellie's come out raw time after time. Of course we also didn't heed Elise's advice from last season of :If one is raw they all are “ and cut into a second one before putting them back into the oven for another 5 minutes. Which yielded Beef Wellington perfection. :) Yay for us! See anything is attainable!
  4. This weekend we also attended a end of the summer party out in wine country. The hostess asked that everyone bring a wrapped dollar store item to the party for a gift swap. This gift swap was one were everyone drew a number and then picked a mystery gift, After all the gifts were distributed they were opened and then the numbers were drawn again. And the horse trading started . The best prize was a singing Halloween skull decoration that sing’s Rockwell's somebody's watching me while the eyes shift about and light up. Trading was intense for that item and at one paint I had it. And some teenage girl took it away from me giving me some craft moss. Craft moss? Really I'm pretty crafty but I have no clue what to do with this. B was pretty upset as the skull went away. But luckily he had drawn the last number and claimed the decoration as his own. On our way out the door the hostess asked me did you see who won the skull? I missed it. To which B said “I winned! I Wined it all!” Though by the amount of times I've hear this thing play this after noon I'm beginning to wish maybe he hadn't.
    bv
  5. #knitchat Thursday night at 7:30 PST which is 9:30 EST


Monday, September 19, 2011

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Yankee Peddler or "What's on Joe's Needles?"

Episode 20

Production Scheduling

  1. Events
    1. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
    2. Algonquin Mill fall festival Friday, Saturday, and Sunday October 7,8,9.at the Mill Farm Located 5 miles south of carollton, oh on rt 332.
    3. Newly scheduled and the event that I’m most looking forward to! I will be attending Session one of Camp KIP April 21-24 2012.


  2. Today was the Yankee Peddler festival I canal Fulton. Somehow I thought this would be a ore fibery event than it was. Of the whole festival I think we saw 2 booths with fiber related items. The first was the Au Gres Sheep Factory they had some comically huge “powder Puffs” and the had a few of those puffs attached to sticks labeled as “computer dusters”. The best thing by far at that booth were the had felted tree ornaments the were by feel alpaca and there was an awesome dragon and a very cute bunny. But they were a bit pricey for my budget an so we passed them up. If you'd like to check out their rage of animals they are at http://www.augressheepfactory.com . The other Fiber stop was the Algonquin Spinning and weaving guild booth. There were a ton of skeins of hand spun, lots of knitted hats and scarves. All that is great but only one skein tempted me and I didn't buy it because I thought it was a bit shy on yardage. What was really cool was the drum carder that was run by what look like a bicycle chain. And the great wheels! I wish I would have spend more time over there we didn't find them until we had been through the entire show and B wasn't going to be too much more patient than he already had been. I did sit down to card a bit and got a really awesome tip for drop spindle before I left. I was chatting with one of the guild members who was spinning on a drop spindle. The conversation wound around to spinning cotton which requires a little extra twist (from what I'm told ...... I don't have first hand experience.) and she showed me that if you have your hands full you can restart the spindle with a kick start! She just stops it between her feet and rolls it along the inside of her right shoe and it spins forever! This is a great tip from a spinner with several blue ribbon skeins.:) Also a thanks to her for talking to me because I know I distracted her a ton and she now has some over spun singles on her spindle. I think Joe and I agree that the high point of the the show was the food! Today was a throw the diet out the window and don't look back day. We had: A turkey leg, an elephant ear, apple cider, Lemonade, Corn on the cob, slice of pumpkin roll, blueberry fizz, Fried veggies, and sweet potato fries, and we brought a piece of pineapple upside down cake home. These were all split three ways and yeah we're feeling a bit ill. The only craft items I bought were from Charis Rex at Country Pottery she is unfortunately not online but the little Witch and turreted castle / house are really cute and her prices are really fair.
  3. Production
  4. What's in my Tea Pot
  5. Materials Sourcing
  6. After 5

II Production
  1. The Brea Bag by Norah Gaughan I saw this bag last weekend at Stitch, piece and purl and bought the yarn to make it (Berroco Ultra Alpaca in color 6279 which is a reddish brown) This bag has been on my mind since I saw it so I put down the cabled mitts to work on it. I finished I one side of the bag and have the second cast on. Side one is sooo pretty and sooo soft! Hopefully I'll find the time to finish the second side and and gusset. The real problem with this bag is finding the perfect handles. When I bought the yarn for this bag the store owner told me that the sample had handles from a purse found at goodwill. So maybe after work B and I will go thrift shopping for purses!
  2. Twisty Sister Cabled Hand Warmers by Kate Gondwana out of the donated acrylic for my friend. I was able to drop down and re twist that cable! Woohoo! Then I didn’t mark what row I left off on and had had to frog back a couple of rows. The mitt is back on the needles and ready to go after I finish my Brea Bag.
III What's in my Tea Pot
    1. Three Cups Fragrance (San Bei Xiang) This green tea is as elegant as its name implies. A soft vegetal taste gives way to a sweetness that lingers. Its leaves are slender, uniform in size and curved shape, all in shades of dark green with silver sheen. It will cup three times as the leaf has body. From Fujian Province, this is an excellent green tea value. Steep for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes in water temperature of 175 – 185 degrees.

  1. This is another keeper but be sure to watch your brew time. The first pot of my three infusions was over steeped and a bit bitter because I over steeped it. The second round was much better and as I'm enjoying the tea tonight and not pounding it down.. I haven't made it to pot # 3. This is a good everyday tea.
IV Materials Sourcing
  1. The Grey 50/50 Romney alpaca is plied. Still on the bobbin.
  2. The Merino Silk Blend all spun and is ½ plied.
  3. I won a prize! I won a prize in the Summer Spin A Long on the I got Ewe Babe board on ravelry. 20.00 to Knitty and Color on Etsy! I spent it on a bat called Cauldron which is Black and Grey with a touch of purple and sparkle which should be very seasonable halloweenish for the autumn spin along.
V After 5
  • What's on Joe's needles? Yes Joe has needles! This week I pulled out my Sz 8 straight needles and a ball of acrylic yarn and sat down to show joe the knit stitch because and I'm not sure who to attribute it to ...”It's all just Knits and Purls”. After about twenty minutes of demo's and letting him try and occasionally guiding his hands (because I can't resist getting my hands in to correct mistakes....) He had a few rows done. He does occasionally split the yarn and increased the swatch by one stitch by knitting into a split loop but he was doing really well! He even sat down and practiced when I wasn't around! (So Proud!) So on Friday I sat down and taught him how to purl. He hasn't practiced that yet but in fairness I picked up all the kitting supplies to make the house “company ready” on Saturday so I don't think he knows what I did with his knitting...:) When he gets his knits purls down he'll be knitting the transformers cloth by Enid Danforth (Free on Ravelry!)
  • Ollie's wife – Ollie is our dog he's a cocka poo and is spoiled rotten. He's also one of B's best friends. A few weeks ago B ad I were hanging out on the couch with the windows open and we heard a cat out side. Our neighbor has a cat that like to escape and it was probably one of theirs so this was normal. What was not normal was that Ollie was outside. Ollie likes to hang out out side and his lead stretches to the neighbors fence so he can play with the neighbor dog and out to the front flower bed where he like to lay down and chill and see what the neighborhood is up to. So when B heard the cat he jumped up to look out the window and yells “I see a Kitty! It's Ollie's wife!” and then proceeds to yell out the window “Ollie go see your wife!” So I was pretty much dying of laughter during this and be was pretty upset that Ollie's wife ran off when Ollie went over to say Hi. (He's pretty low key and wasn't looking like he was going to harm the cat or I would've been out the front door to rescue which ever needed it...) So after the cat left B was concerned that Ollie's wife ran away and has since been wondering where Ollie's wife was and why she wasn't with her family. So with the temperature drop here in Ohio we had the windows open again and B heard another cat and dropped everything he was doing yelling “Ollie’s wife is back!” I never know with him what's just a one day passing fancy and what becomes important like Ollie's Wife.
  • No Such thing as too much yarn. I have a friend who is a crocheter and I don't think she'sa yarn snob. I think she crochet's mainly in acrylic. (something that I'll have to follow up on and ask her...) But she posted on face book today that she had been buying yarn all weekend and that if she bought anymore yarn before January and intervention may be required. To which I posted “There is no such thing as too much yarn.” To which Melissa of Ann Arbor and Striped sock fame replies especially if it's for more socks or perhaps a throw blanket for my couch.” Holy Toledo! I'm pretty vocal about saying that if you receive hand knits from me it means I like you A LOT. I love to knit but these things take time and most people can't afford to pay me for time. So I get paid in love and smiles or free boarding in Ann arbor and trips to Ikea and Zingermann's. Good grief... I hope that wasn't a request for a blanket! And if it was please hope that the crocheter believes that the request was aimed at her and she commits to it! That couch is HUGE!
  • Last week I asked you all to cross your fingers for a envelope from etsy for me! It worked that or my gift list with hyper links for Joe really was effective. I got my package and it was the flexible blocking wires I was hoping for. I blocked the embassy scarf with them this week and they're really pretty snazzy. I'll be doing a formal review of them just a soon as a block something that's curved since that's supposed to be what they do best. I also got another B-day present this time from my Parents since they haven't seen or talked to me in like a month. I know I'm terrible. My mother thinks it pretty sad that the only time she hears my voice is on the podcast... Hi Mom! I got a Worm Binder to store all my needles! I've been wanting one of these for months, It has a ton of heavy duty pockets in it and since it's designed to hold fishing hooks the plastic is extra heavy and I won't have to worry about the tips poking through the pokets unlike my curry ziploc bag system. Best part is that I get back the dresser drawer all the needles are floating around in!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

My Sister's Yarn Shop or "Come to the Dark Side"

Episode 19

Production scheduling

  1. Events
    1. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
    2. 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. There will be crafts for kids I have it on good authority that they will be making yarn and woven bracelets. Not sure if B will be able to pull this off but we'll try. I hear I know the lady helping out with the crafts pretty well. <It's my mom...>
    3. Newly scheduled and the event that I’m most looking forward to! I will be attending Session one of Camp KIP April 21-24 2012.
  2. The Yarn Discovery tour is in full swing. I made y 1st two stops today!
    1. I met a few ladies from my Knitting group at My sister's Yarn Shop in Green Ohio. Very helpful ladies! Very friendly! A good amt of knitted samples of patterns available and the ladies knew where the patterns were. Decent selection including new and trendy items like ruffle ribbon yarn. Which I don't think I would ever use but it was very cool to see and to be show how it's used. This show also has tons of natural light which I think of as a big plus when I'm choosing colors. So what did I buy? I bought a book of Christmas tree ornaments, the samples for these were out in a bowl on a table and they were gorgeous. Picture a glass Christmas ball ornament covered with a fine gauge knitted sleeve with beading. I know that probably isn't the best description but they were very pretty and I'll be making a bunch of these the pattern book is called Beaded Ornaments to Knit by Leisure Arts if you're dying for photos check out www.ornamentalknits.com. Also purchased 2 skeins of Heritage silk in color 5637 Which is a dark peacock blue. I think this is going to become the I Heart Lace shawl, and because I can't resist a funky sock yarn 1 skein of Marks and Kattens Fame Trend Sock in Party... Party seems to be the new purple. This time party is a kaleidoscopic mix of fuscia, teal, brown, purple, and mint green. These are going to be awesome socks! Out of the two shops today this was my favorite.
    2. Second stop of the day was Stitch piece N' purl in Cuyohoga falls Ohio. I was pretty surprised at how close this shop is to my house. I had no I idea where I was until I was following my GPS home. The owner here is very nice (even though I did not catch her name) The store itself is HUGE. But they're nor really using it. When I walked up I was pretty excited to see a Louet wheel in the window. I was hoping for a local supplier for roving but alas all they had were some over priced 2 oz balls in black. <Sigh.> The rest of the room with the wheel and roving was occupied with cross stitch supplies and some comfy couches. (Always a plus.) The next room was the yarn room and they had a large selection of berroco and Heritage yarns. The thing that stuck out the most were the sample projects. I saw a gorgeous alpaca purse (the Brea Bag Pattern) and that made me buy the yarn to make it (2 skeins Berroco Ultra Alpaca in color 6279 which is a reddish brown, something nice and neutral the will go with most everything.) I'm also coveting the Intertwined Shawl that was on a mannequin. That shawl has a basket weave “medallion” for lack of a better word front. It's gorgeous and I may so back and pick up the yarn for that soon. Though I need to decide if I want to do it in wool or cotton as they had both on display. The owner told me she has recently decided to get out of the quilting supply business. I'll definately go back to this shop but I hope she expands her yarn and possibly starts to carry some spinning fibers.
  3. Production
  4. What's in my Tea Pot
  5. QC Inspection
  6. Materials Sourcing
  7. After 5

II Production / QC

The beginning of this week the knitting was going really well. Then yesterday It went bad, All Bad. So both of my projects are in QC so we'll just combine QC with Production.
  1. Twisty Sister Cabled Hand Warmers by Kate Gondwana out of the donated acrylic for my friend with the cold hands. I love this cable it looks so much more complicated than it is. I've been trying on this 1st mitt all week and admiring it. SO I came home all excited that I had some new toys to play with and in a mood to knit and I picked this up. I was going along fin until I had a double twist row and somehow I got distracted and I had two many stitches and lost my way in the pattern. So I tried to tink back and it wasn't going well so I slid out the needle and frogged the row. I thought I could get away with this because the acrylic is so stiff that the stitches really don't move when the needle slides out. What I didn't bargain for was me not getting them back on the needle in the right order and with that mistake twisted the cable in wrong direction. SO with the yarn harlot's instructions in hand (and I may even follow the advice of having a lie down and a drink before hand...) I will attempt to isolate those 4 stitches drop down and retwist the cable. Though it will not be tonight because I think I've done enough damage tonight. Because we respect our knitting elders around here and because it's a pretty funny and informative read I've linked to The Yarn Harlots Cable fix Tutorial. If things get any worse... I will go for the full on voodoo fix. It might require some rum, a cigar, and some dancing but I'm not above it to fix 4 stitches on the last repeat of some acrylic mitts. :) http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2006/06/20/all_is_not_lost.html
  2. The Spiral Viscous … Insert the sound effect from Psycho here. I cast this on for the 1 of sever time this week at knit group last Sunday. I had a few false starts on it and I had it PERFECT until last night... I had the waterfall rib done and I was through the 1st repeat. I had to tink back one needle to fix an error but that went well and I was back on my way. I was working with out a net no stitch markers and no life lines. I was feeling good! Flying along... Feeling as if I had this pattern beat! Then I got distracted and the lace repeat jumped out of my head and I started knitting a repeat from another row and found it out when I got to the end of the round. SO I took a look at it and tried to find the mistake as I did in the previous round. And I found one on the third needle. SO I tinked back to fix that and put it back into pattern. And I was still one stitch off. On the second tink back to find the mistake I somehow dropped a stitch and as soon as it was free that sucker ran. It ran so far back that I didn't think I'd be able to manage getting the lace repeats correct so I didn't take anyone's advice which was “put it down take a deep breath and look at it in the morning.” I frogged it in frustration right then and there. So I tried to cast it on again today and ended up tearing out again. I'll make another go at it this week and if it doesn't happen I'll let it go back into the UFO bin for a while. AT this point I know the problem with this pattern is all in my head. This is an easy pattern and I'm so amped up and stressed about it I'm making it 20 times more difficult than it has to be. This may be one of those things I set down and pick up and as long as I don't say anything about it and make it not a big deal. It'll happen because there will be no expectations. Besides my knitting mojo has been off this week.

III What's in My Tea Pot
  1. Boston Tea party French Vanilla Tea
  2. The Back Of the box: Like ice cream dripping from a cone, you'll lick your lips with every sip you take of this French Vanilla tea! The creamy, rich essence of vanilla bean gives a full-body aroma that intensely complements our premium blend of Chinese and Indian black tea. Pour a luscious cup and enjoy this tasty tea any time of day! Take this perfect petite box anywhere you go or give it to a friend, just because you love them! Taste a piece of American heritage with Boston Tea!
  3. I didn't have high hopes for this one. I got it in a gift basket. Pleasantly surprised it's yummy. I taste the vanilla and the Lipton – esque black teach with a bit of almond. I got this for free but I would buy it if I saw it. Doing some research it can be order from the Boston Tea Party Website.

IV Materials Sourcing
When the knitting wasn't going so hot I sat down at my wheel to spin. Which was easy to do since I got a new toy!
  1. This past Wednesday was my birthday and Joe was an awesome husband and braved the internet and ordered me some gifts! The first being a skein winder from Babe's Fiber garden. This model attaches to my wheel and the price was right. So now that I had my new skein winder the red alpaca was wound off and Skein-ed with the help of B who really likes spinning the skein winder. I hear I'm expecting one more knitting related gift and I think it's my lace blocking wires. He must have bought them off of ETSY because the shipping is taking too long for him to have ordered the ones from knitpicks. But that's me making wild conjectures. Cross your fingers they're the ones from Etsy and that I can review them next week!
  2. With the Red alpaca hanging up to dry and not being ready to wind all of the gray alpaca singles into a plying bracelet. I pulled out the 4 oz of merino/ silk mix I got at Woolfest. This fiber is Cranberry with a bit of pie crust brown and white silk. It reminds me of one of Joe's favorite fall recipe’s I make him. Cranberry Duff. Which is sort of an upside down cake with cranberry instead of pineapple. I was worried that the silk was going o make the merino overly slippery but it's spinning up very well. This has been one of those that I've found spins better pre drafted. I have no clue what I'm going to do with this fiber but I can't wait to get it done. I'm about 2 thirds through the braid.
  3. I also did some swatching this week and knitted up swatches out of that nubbly Black cherry fiber I got at Woolfest. It's nice spun up it look like a novelty yarn and make a pretty fabric very reminiscent of a sweater I already own. This will be a real PITA to spin, and will make a nice rustic looking cloth. No Idea when I'll get back to it. I'm still a bit put off but how hard it was to get that sample skein. Also swatched was the potluck fiber in the Party Colorway not to be confused with the party colored sock yarn I bought today. I entered this yarn in to the SUM SUM SUMERTIME spin along summer challenge on the I got Ewe babe discussion board on ravelery and I've renamed it Midway because it reminds me of the colors on the Salt water taffy stand at Cedar point. (trust a fat girl to remember what the candy stand looked like...) So I swatched Midway for the slouchy beret and it looks like if I go up to a sz 8 needle I can get it done. SO who knows maybe I'll get that cast on.

V After 5
As I mentioned before Joe is trying to be very supportive of the amount of fiber that's been running through the house. When we met he knew I knit but it wasn't something that I did in front of him all that often. When we moved in together he moved my then meager stash and saw my UFO's bit we were in the midst of planning our wedding and I had other crafts going on. (like the 200 stamped favor bags... or the 150 Jordan almond flowers...) Suffice to say that since B was born and I started sleeping regularly again the fiber crafting has been becoming more and more prevalent. Last night while I was sitting on the couch knitting on the cabled mitts. He said “I think I should support you and try to knit.” Talk about being shocked. I just kinda sat there and looked at him for a moment. Now my dad has been going to guild meetings with my mom and I saw him knitting a pumpkin hat. I don't know that it was ever finished but I know my dad can knit in the round. My dad is also a boat guy and he knows that knitting was one of those things that manly men did on ships Ishmael over there did scrimshaw and Mr, Hornblower knits socks... My husband as we've discussed in the past is not that guy. He's not into the history to know that there's a rich history of knitting men. Or that it can be considered manly. So he went on to say...” I know I saw your dad knitting that hat and if he can do it...” ahhhhh he doesn't know the bit about the sailors... “I don't think I should start on anything large like you do... Maybe something small like that Teddy bear kit I bought you.” That Kit was to make a small stuffed toy with shaping. I told him I didn't think that was the best pattern to start on . Then he suggested something totally off color. Typical... I won't even tell you what it was but there is a pattern for it on ravelry. What we've settled upon is a decepticons wash cloth. So I'll be sitting down to teach Joe the art of Knits and Purls some time in the next few weeks. “Yes, My dear... Come to the dark side....” :)



Monday, September 5, 2011

2 Mustaches and a Beard of "Flaming Marshmallows"

bEpisode 18

Production scheduling

  1. Events
    1. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
    2. The yarn discover tour is running September 9-24. This is pretty much a 2 week yarn crawl. I can't wait an excuse to go to yarn stores I normally don't get to Hurray! More info can be found at www.yarndiscoverytour.com
    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. There will be crafts for kids I have it on good authority that they will be making yarn and woven bracelets. Not sure if B will be able to pull this off but we'll try. I hear I know the lady helping out with the crafts pretty well. <It's my mom...>
    4. Newly scheduled and the event that I’m most looking forward to! I will be attending Session one of Camp KIP April 21-24 2012.
  2. Production
  3. What's in my Tea Pot
  4. QC Inspection
  5. Shipping
  6. Materials Sourcing
  7. After 5

II Production

Knitting has been my primary focus this week and it's been moving along in starts and fits.
  1. Twisty Sister Cabled Hand Warmers by Kate Gondwana. It's been a while since I did anything cabled! These are for a friend who asked for some fingerless gloves. The deal was that I get to pick the pattern and she get's to supply the yarn. Big mistake... I should have let he pick the pattern and pay for the yarn... Because she presented me with a pound of red heart acrylic. <Sigh> I just cast this on tonight I'm through the set up rows and I just started twisting cables. So far so good!

III What's in My tea Pot
  1. Choice Organic Teas Lemon Lavender Mint
    1. I found this one while Nate and I were out killing some time in downtown Kent. We stopped by a local coffee shop called Scribbles and I picked this up with my Latte.
    2. Refresh yourself with this calming, caffeine-free cup featuring accents of sun-blessed lavender. Our sophisticated blend combines these blossoms with layers of mellow lemon and crisp mint for a fresh, yet soft-tasting tea that will elevate your sense of well-being. (Caffeine Free)
    1. Ingredients Organic Spearmint*, Organic Lemongrass, Organic Peppermint, Organic Lemon Peel, Organic Lavender, and Organic Lemon Oil  *Fair Trade Certified
    2. I like this one. But I can;t say that I taste the Lavender. I taste mostly mint with a bit of lemon that hits in the back of the throat. This box will get drunk but it's not a must stock in the house at all times tea.


IV QC Inspection
  1. It's baaaack... Spiral viscous is back on the needles. This Sunday was brunch with the knitting group and I had nothing on my needles. I'd been intending on getting the spiral viscous back on the needles soon and as I had nothing better to work on I pullout the spiral viscous This pattern is really called Spiraluscious by Anne Hanson. I've been attempting to knit this in Bamboo and Ewe sock yarn I had in Bamboo and Ewe Purple. I know it's purple but it's a UFO! The last time I decided to frog this it was because I notices a jog in the spiral and I couldn't let it go. Usually I'm not a perfectionist knitter. I will fix mistakes but I take the view of if it isn't noticeable and no one besides myself and the designer will be able to find it I may leave it alone. As long as knowing the error is there won't drive me nuts. The jog in the spiral was driving me INSANE. SO when I pulled out the project with my not cards. ( I like to write out my repeats on note cards and flip through them as I finish rows. It helps to remind me of what row I'm on and saves on ink) I checked the pattern repeats for the body and everything matched up. Since I was traveling with the project I noted how the two moved stitches were to be accomplished. I thought I was set for every eventuality. Only when I sat down at Panera and pulled out my yarn to cast on did I realize the only thing I didn't write down was THE NUMNER OF STITCHES TO CAST ON! Joe has really been earning his stripes as a fiber husband this week. I had to run outside and call him on my cell phone and gave him a quick crash course in how to find what I was looking for on the pattern. Even though he was ale to give me that magic #. (96) I still couldn't get the first 2 rows to come out right. This is not a hard pattern. I should be able to sail through this. But for some reason it's just not happening. I'm making this one a goal and I'll be casting it on yet again sometime this wee.
  2. I never go out to Knit group without a back up project. My back up project for this week was the Drop Stitch Scarf by Christine Vogel (another freebie from ravelry) This scarf is very much on the line of my Embassy scarf but I was searching through ravelery looking for something to do with 2 skeins of Lion Brand Moonlight Mohair in Rain Forest. I got these as a gift. I would never have bought this for myself but sometimes things that I would never buy or myself turn out to be really great. SO I was surfing projects made with this yarn and I saw the drop stitch scarf and it was one of the best idea I saw. I hat this yarn. It's hard to work with the mohair fuzz gets matted up and tangled and it hurts my hands. I'm going to frog this wind the ball back up and offer it up at the next stash swap.

V Shipping
  1. The Summerflies Shawl by Holly and Ella Knits done in my Indian Rose Zauberball. This pattern is gorgeous and blocked out like a dream. The knotted open work is GORGEOUS I'd like to use that stitch as the body a sweater and the namesake butterflies are ingenious. This shawlette knit up super fast and I love the colors in the yarn. I wore it out and about this weekend and got plenty of compliments. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the picot edge. I think it's a bit busy but I have a lot of color going on so it could just be my interpretation. I would knit this one up again in a heart beat but I think the stitch patterns used would lend themselves really well into a baby / toddler sweater.
  2. Pin It

    Okay so here's where the knitting got a bit crazy thins week... Nate wants one of those hats with the beard and mustache attached. I looked around and couldn't find and free patterns I liked and the one I did find was 17.00! But I did find a beard pattern and a few mustache patterns and all the hat patterns I wanted. SO Nate decided the base hat he like best was the Ribbed Hat Pattern By Judy Gibson http://tiajudy.com/ribcaps.htm he wanted the beanie style and chose some Lion brand wool-ease in variegated denim out of my stash. The pattern is super easy and super fast I finished the base hat in one night. I really like this pattern and the hat looks good on me too! So I may have one of these in black for this winter. So now that I had a hat I needed a beard we used Chelsea Slater's Short Beard pattern and again dove into the stash for some brown acrylic to match his hair. The pattern is pretty straight forward it's just garter stitch and shaping. The hard part was the mustache. Chelsea slater doesn't provide a link to the mustache in her picture but recommends a crochet mustache. The est one I found as an amigurumi pattern by Tara Murray http://easymakesmehappy.blogspot.com/2011/02/crochet-mustache-pattern.html. This was my first Amigurumi project who knew it would have been a mustache!. Since I was attaching the mustache to the hat I didn't stuff it. But as I looked at it I thought it was a bit to large and hard to breathe through so I went back to the net and found The Knitted Mustache by Holly2 on http://www.instructables.com/id/Knitted-Moustache this one turned out to be little less thick and easy to breathe through but I curls and I didn’t want to knit a second one to “line” it for fear I'd be back at square 1. So Here I am with three completed may patterns and nothing connected together yet. It'll come together sometime this week and I'll post pics. Nate seems to be pretty happy with all his design choices. I think he may be even a little impressed at the speed that things are running at. My only issue? What to do with the left over mustache!

VI Material's Sourcing

With all the knitting this week the spinning has taken a bit of a back seat. I did decide to ply to 50/50 romney alpaca blend against itself into a 2 ply. I started plying the “red” ball. My last foray into the realm of the center pull ball wasn't all the successful so I took a page from Abbe Franquemont and did the Andean Bracelet plying method. Which is a bit rough on the skin if you wind your bracelet too tight, but plies like a dream. Definitely wot having the “Claw Hand: while winding.

VII After 5

The beginning of this week was a bit crazy... Daycare called me on Monday to say that B's eye had swollen up. Joe is allergic to absolutely everything and it looks like he's passed that on to B. So after figuring out that it was most likely hay fever I gave him some benadryl before bed and expected everything to be good in the morning. That wasn't the case. B's eye swelled up Golf Ball size during the night. SO we had to take him in to the doctor. At that point I was pretty sure it was a bug bite but the doc couldn't fin any evidence of it and thinks it's just another allergy and out him on a steroid and an antibiotic to be safe.

Ever since the cook out last week B has been obsessed with grilling out add in that he saw a TV show where the kids camped out with smores and B has been in full “I wanna go camping mode.” Unfortunately I had promised my tent to my friend the bride for the long weekend. I would have just set it up n the back yard and had a camp out back there. we cooked burger and hotdogs on the frill and afterward cooked marshmallows on sticks. B has been talking about making S'nore's all week. And no that the time is here where's he at? Running like a madman with a raw marshmallow in each hand while the dog chases him. I was prepared to dodge flaming marshmallows and sticky fingers the running and the yelling... not so much. :) Though Joe did almost fling a flaming marshmallow of his stick at me...