Last week was a tough one. Long and tiring. That’s why I’m so pathetically behind on this update. By the time I hit last Saturday I was ready to chill. Really chill. Chill to the point of not having the oomph to pump the treadle up and down. So, I sat on my bed with two or three big glasses of ice water and enjoyed a great book. At least, that was the idea.
I’d been trying to do some fiber-related something every day so I’d have lots of interesting things to blog about, and that afternoon I wound up pulling out the Aussie Fur. That stuff was incredible.
Continue Reading »
Okay, so that has a double meaning. I’ve made good progress on the fifty gram skein of sport weight. In fact, it’s done. 
And I’ve made really good progress on the tam. Just an inch and a half of ribbing to do. Someone remind me when I get around to trying socks to pick a pattern that’s more interesting than “knit until piece measures six inches.” Call me picky, but when you’re not good enough to knit without looking, it gets rather boring.
Continue Reading »
I did some more dyeing yesterday. Here are the two new colorways, Poppies and Copper Lake. That last practically designed itself. I started mixing colors and there it was!
Continue Reading »
Waterlilies
I’ve railed at myself to stop trying to do multiple dye colors in one day. I’ve threatened, groaned, said I had learned my lesson, and so on. It hasn’t done much good. I did four colorways in one day. However, I did them in two sets of two, so it wasn’t so bad. These are all fibers that will be going up on the Etsy store.
Continue Reading »
I’ve heard the phrase “beginner’s luck” a lot. And I’ve thought I’ve had it several times. But this project is proving something to me. Beginner’s luck should be beginner’s pluck. It’s our drive to try something new and our passion to create that helps things turn out well. Whether on the first try or the hundredth. 
What brought this sudden rumination on was the apparent desire of my tam to inflict me with every single mistake known in the world of knitting. Which is okay. It gets them all out of the way faster. But if I hadn’t have been so excited about knitting my own hat I would have thrown it out the window long ago.
I’ve had to cast on twice, because we thought I’d twisted the stitches on the first round. I’ve done a few rows over three or four times. I dropped a stitch and didn’t notice until I’d knitted another four rows. (Thank you, sister of mine who can rescue lost stitches.)
I have a yarn over in the wrong spot. I’ve popped multiple stitches off the end of the double points. I’ve knitted the stitch marker into the hat. Twice. I used the wrong k3tog method. The only things I haven’t done yet are break a needle and cut through the hat.
Continue Reading »
In my humble opinion, the last minute gifts are best. Not the “Oops, I forgot. What should I get?” kind, but the unexpected, “Oh, by the way, here you go” kind. And I’ve gotten so many “Oh, by the way” these last few days I’m about ready to dance on a rooftop.
In my last post I mentioned that I was way behind schedule, and that I probably wouldn’t get any more spun on Christmas Eve. Well, we got home from the Christmas Eve service around nine, and by nine-thirty Dad decreed a late-night movie! We all trooped down to the TV room and spent two and half hours watching It’s a Wonderful Life. Do you know how much you can spin in that amount of time? In a word, a whole spool full of the black wool silk mix, which left me with a strip of roving a little over a yard long.
Continue Reading »
Well, the carders arrived yesterday and they were a bit more beat up than I thought they would be. (In appearance, at least.) We gave them a good cleaning, and my dad is going to help me straighten some of the hooks out and rehydrate the leather that the hooks are embedded in.
Antique Carders
Continue Reading »
