Judith, Judith, Judith

That’s “Judith MacKenzie McCuin” for those of you who still need to update your scorecards.

I’m blogging from my hotel room, after a long and somewhat frustrating day full of Learning Experiences. One thing I learned at the very end of the day was that my wheel needs some fixing and updating. Pending the availability of the right parts (odds are good), Maggie should receive a new flyer (with extra whorl — I will have two ratios from which to choose), a new brake band, and a new drive band early tomorrow morning before the last day’s session.

However. Considering all of that, I think we did all right with worsted, woolen, wet spinning, plying, bouclé, and slubs. It was a bit of a liability to have missed everything that took place in the Friday sessions, but I caught up as best I could. (It’s hard to concentrate on your draw technique when your flyer keeps falling off.) I did some spinning and plying and skeining-up in the hotel, too.

Tomorrow we’re going to work on tweeds and encased yarns. Woo hoo! But tonight I’m missing an informal dyeing session (boo hoo) because I had to leave that hotel in Columbus and check into this hotel in Watertown. Oh well. I’m not going to worry about it.

I have a lovely quiet evening to myself after driving through the fog to get here — dinner for one, a room with a TV I haven’t turned on yet (and might not at all), and Firefly DVDs I can watch on my computer if I wish. But maybe I will just knit, or spin, or read the Judith book I already have.

P.S. I tried to upload my pictures of Flickr, but the hotel’s wifi doesn’t seem robust enough to handle it. I’ll put them up tomorrow — wait till you see my “clown barf bouclé cabled yarn”!

I can’t believe I’m going….

So, like, there’s like, this spinning retreat, like, starting tomorrow — and I get to go!

Well, not to the whole thing, but something like two-thirds of it plus a little slice of Friday. It’s the Judith MacKenzie McCuin-led retreat held through Susan’s Fiber Shop. Getting there has been an interesting journey, what with date changes and roommate arrangements and hotel reservations — but it starts tomorrow.

On the one hand, the original plan was going to be *awesome* with all the things that a friend and I had schemed up. Nothing can replace the weekend that I had, briefly, in my imagination. But this one should be pretty good too, even though I’ll miss everything that happens in the daytime Friday session.

The best part of getting ready for it (have I packed a single thing? NO) has been clearing the spinning equipment so I can start fresh this weekend with spinning every freaking thing in my stash, with intelligence and intention. This week I made two new Wookie skeins totaling almost 200 yards of 2-ply, I updated my spinning records as much as I could without Actual Research, and I made little labels for the jars I keep my handspun in.

(No, I haven’t knitted a single stitch on any of my handspun. There are many reasons for this. But I do have a project in mind for my Wookie-wool once it’s all spun up. Right now I have about 25 percent of what I need. Wait and see….maybe by 2011.)

So. I emptied my bobbins, I reglued most of my bobbins, I printed out directions to the “field trip” portion of Friday…. 

Yup. Going to yarn camp, and I couldn’t be happier.

Wait till the kids find out.

Knitwise I’ve been a bit of a slug. I started working on the second Retro Rib Sock again, figuring if I did one pattern repeat a day I would eventually finish the sock and could get on with my life. That plan worked about as well as most of my plans do, but this time I’m going to climb right back on the wagon and keep trying to work it.

I got caught up on Logan’s Blanket tonight, too. It’s pretty easy to work twelve rows on that blanket — you just have to turn your back on teh drama of Ravelry and actually sit down to knit.

So. Let me know if you’d like me to blog from mid-retreat on Saturday night, and I’ll take the computer along with my collection of two-hundred year-old technology. Hey, maybe I’ll even take the camera!

Fiberrific

I wasn’t planning to write a post tonight, but I’m overdue, and besides, everyone is asleep. I might as well strike while the kids are sleeping. Who knows when one of them will have a nightmare and come running down the stairs? (I never know; without my glasses I can’t read the bedside clock. My daughter swears I lift the covers for her without even waking up.)

After the Marquette scarf got done and the first sock of the pair got done, not much knitting has been taking place. I started plugging away again on the Season 16 Doctor Who Scarf, but I haven’t cast on for the second sock yet. I was going to do that tonight, but then this German wine kind of got in the way of doing a good job of it. (Then I was going to watch two episodes of Torchwood, then one episode of Torchwood, but then it took forever to get caught up on Ravelry, so here I am.)

I did, however, cast on for a new project. That’s not as terrible as it sounds. It’s really something I promised as a Christmas present, so actually it’s about time I cast on for it. It’s a simple scarf, but I considered several stitch patterns before I found something I liked. And once I did, I loved it. I think I may have finally found a scarf that knits itself. I’m using the Baby Cable Ribbing pattern from the first Barbara Walker book. It’s an easily memorized four-row pattern that you could knit in the dark if you had to. I started the scarf two days ago, haven’t put in much time on it really, and it’s fairly galloping along. I don’t think it hurts that the yarn is 100 percent Merino either.

So. I have the Scarf, the Second Sock, and the New Scarf all going right now. (As soon as I get the Second Sock going, that is.) There’s another pair of socks lined up one the Retro Rib pair are done, but I promise that as soon as one of the Scarves is done I will start working on a WIP.

And you can vote on which one it is! Shall it be:

Tyrone, the striped bottom-up sweater stuck at the raglan decreases? Since October 2007?

The Irish Hiking Scarf in cursèd yarn from Mystical Creations? Three skeins (at least) to go!

The Gullwing Lace stole in silk yarn I bought for myself last Mother’s Day?

Or, the Denim Sweater I started in November for NaKnitSweMo and didn’t even finish the crew neck? I might have enough yarn for the whole sweater, but I’m not sure.

Every vote counts. Each commenter can cast as many as ten votes — all for one project, or split them up however you like. Clearly, my own inclinations toward the next project cannot be trusted.

———

In other news, I have registered for a spinning retreat being taught by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. Naturally, I am preparing for this by spinning up fiber that I am dealing with by the seat of my pants. This works fine for the Wookie fiber, which I would love to spin up and ply so I can clear off all my bobbins, but a few nights ago I decided to card and spin up some huacaya alpaca fiber samples. I got the majority of it spun, but then something happened with the take-up and the twist was just not getting into the fiber to make it strong enough to be singles. After a half dozen tries at dragging it back through the orifice to try to draft more fiber on it, I decided to leave it alone and finish when I was calmer. So now, I just hope to finish the huacaya, and prep and spin the suri samples, and possibly do the rest of the current bag of Wookie-wool before it’s time to hoist Maggie into the van and head to Columbus (Wisc.) for the retreat.

Is anything else going on? Well, Leah went home on Top Chef. About time. I am really getting to enjoy Fabio’s screen time, and Stefan’s skills.

Doctor Who is done airing the 4th season for the American audience, and true to form, they absolutely sliced and diced the season finale so they could promote Ashes To Ashes. Which even the Brits didn’t like. So if you watched the finale last weekend and wondered what all the fuss was about, ask me and I’ll give you links to where you can see what aired in the UK.

But Torchwood is coming back on soon, so I’m trying to catching up by watching Season 2 on Netflix. Trying and not succeeding tonight. Maybe tomorrow….

So, this one time, at Sheep and Wool…

…we had this little party, and about 40 people came? And had cheesecake? And won door prizes?

And then we all got massively tired and wished we could sleep for weeks and weeks. But we did take some pictures. They’re not great, but they’re pictures, and they’ve already taken Stage One of their journey and now actually reside on the computer rather than in the camera.

I’ve got a few things to do first (like shower, and run out for diapers and wipes) but I want to take advantage of this being a 3-child school day and put up a very nice blog post with some of those pictures and lots of words.

Here’s our display at the Country Store on Saturday morning. I don’t know why the camera was doing that! (Hi Brandy!)

Here are some sheep (including Shetlands). Check out the horns on that Jacob!

Four-day-old lamb, 2008 WI Sheep & Wool

 

 

Shetland sheep, 2008 WI Sheep & Wool

 

[/Jacob Sheep, horns and all!]  

The feed is sweeter in the other pen!

 

Here is the food at the Afterparty before anybody had some. Chocolate chip cookie pizzas in three flavors, pizzelles in two flavors, chocolate dipped pretzel sticks in four varieties, and two types of cheesecakes with three fruit toppings. Coffee, soda, water, etc. The wine was a door prize ONLY.

 

Chocolate dipped pretzel sticks

 

 

Cheesecake bar — New York style and chocolate mint chip

 

 

Chocolate chip cookie pizzas

 

Here are the door prizes, almost all of them. Some people came to the party and dropped more items on the table.

And here is the TARDIS I made just for the party. You won’t believe how cool my children think this is, and where it is now.

Off to do errands, then I’ll fill it in later.

A tremendous thanks to everyone who attended, everyone who just stopped by the table to say Hi even if they couldn’t come, everyone who helped in any way, and especially to Cheesehead with Sticks, who really made it all possible. I really hope there’s an event like this next year, even if I’m not involved with planning and running it.

September 11: OK, I almost give up. Sorry about the formatting. If I can figure out how to fix it, I’ll do so one picture and caption at a time, saving in between. Meanwhile, I’m on with the rest of my life.

Indiana Jones 4, no spoilers

Can’t tell you anything because I didn’t get to go. The babysitter called to tell us she was getting a late start coming over, so DH changed the prebought tickets to the next showing. Then she called to say her little girl had gotten sick in the car on the way over. End of date night.

DH ended up taking eldest so the ticket money didn’t go to waste, and I stayed home with the other three kids and watched Ratatouille.

Maybe next time.

Knitting on a Debbie Bliss square right now. I have enough to finish this one and then do one more, then it’s time to crank out some more for the Doctor Who afghan.

Oh — and I may go visit Babe’s Fiber Garden this afternoon, if I can get out. I talked with the owner this morning and he also told me about a local spinning guild that meets in Whitewater. I missed the May meeting, but I might be able to hook up with them in June. This is the same group I e-mailed without success last September or so, so I’m trying to keep my expectations low. But I need to find some knitters & spinners & fiberfolk that are closer to me.

Watched the first episode of Torchwood last night and hope to knock off episode two tonight. Bring it on, Netflix!

Oh, and Michelle? I’ll get to that meme soon, I promise. Everyone else: wait to be tagged.

Status report

Okay, everyone, get out your scorecards.

First, mark Big Tom at 50th percentile on everything measurable at the doctor’s office yesterday. One year ago this kid wasn’t *on* the growth chart. He was hospitalized for being underweight, for goodness’ sake. Now he’s smack dab in the middle of the chart. In fact, the doc wants to see him in six months to make sure he isn’t going screaming past the chart to the obese side of it. Hardly likely, but I appreciate the optimism.

For eldest son… tonight is the scout den party. End of the year for Bears/next year’s Webelos. Hmm, what will I take to knit?

My daughter decided yesterday that she didn’t need to go to school any more. She came home from school perfectly fine, no complaints, but in the late afternoon she was sobbing and screaming, “I don’t want to go to school any more! I already know my numbers and my letters and my colors. I ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING!!!!!”

That leaves the other half of the Wonder Twins, about whom there is nothing to report except that he wants to go to school and does not want to use the toilet. Love and Logic, Love and Logic…….

As for me? Welll…….

I messed up my impossibly easy knitting (noticed this during the Turkish GP and set it aside in disgust), but I have tinked back, fixed the problem, and knitted past it.

I am two repeats into my first lace project. I was given a PDF for a lace cotton washcloth. I bought two balls of pale blue Plymouth Yarns Shire Silk, and cast it on to size 15 needles. I have a bright red lifeline in it, which I am moving up for each repeat. I didn’t work another repeat last night because I was too busy watching David Tennant.

I also cast on for a bias square to use up my Debbie Bliss Denim Cotton Aran yarn. I have two skeins of it in black and white, and while I was thrilled to buy it when I did (Debbie Bliss! Wow!), I didn’t have any plans for it that worked out. So I’m going to buy it when I find it on sale, knit six-inch squares out of it, and make an afghan someday-eventually.

A couple of days ago I decided to make a scarf out of some leftover acrylic yarn, using a pattern I found in a book. If I can get pictures to load, it might make for a fun guessing game to see if anyone can Name That Pattern.

Haven’t touched Tyrone. Haven’t cast on for the second Panda Cotton sock. Haven’t picked up the Irish Hiking Scarf. Haven’t done anything with the Hufflepuff-colored leftovers from the beret projects — should I make a scarf or a pair of mittens?

Oh yes, and last night I think I became one of the new editors of knitcircus, a new knitting ‘zine that is produced and distributed in Madison, Wisconsin. (Thanks Jaala!) No pay, but it should be a fun and creative enterprise. Right now it’s an all-color, handbound print publication, but the future may hold an online version that everyone can access.

And today I fixed the DVD/VCR combo! Thanks, Tom, for clogging the works with a Ritz mini cracker sandwich. Because we already replaced it with a DVD player, now we can pitch the old VCR which works fine but whose remote control has gone to the Great Beyond.

I never got to the spindling I wanted to do on Mother’s Day, but as soon as I can find my wool leader, I’ll put it in a good place and I’ll be ready next time. Who knows, maybe I’ll start running that llama fiber through the hackle again. Or start washing fleeces.

Fleeced

Bwahaha, the fiber acquisition program has begun. Some would say it began a while ago, starting with “practice fiber” from Chief Enabler Lauren, and was augmented with raw llama fiber from a local farm last fall… and they would be right. But now I am starting to put them into Proper Storage, so it’s official.

I have a white Romney fleece, raw and somewhat skirted, from a sheep named Betty. And I have a black/brown Romney fleece, raw and not skirted, from “Pebbles.” I am almost completely ignorant of the processes I’ll have to follow, but I’m guessing my first step is making a skirting table so I can get rid of all the VM by hand. Then, figuring out what parts is what, separating them, and starting the cleaning and carding process. Hoo baby.

(If you know more about this than I do, which is quite likely, feel free to chime in.)

Knitting projects: all the same as last time, except I am into the plain knitting for the Salt & Pepper sock. I don’t remember what size needles I used for Sock One, and whether I changed them after the cuff ribbing, but it’s starting to look like I did. As in, the first sock’s cuff pulls in and the second one’s doesn’t. But I am perfectly willing to leave it be and treat it as a Learning Experience. (Those of you who have known me for a Very Long Time will realize this is small potatoes compared to some Previous Learning Experiences.) After all, these socks are for me myself, and only I should notice it.

Doctor Who update: looking forward to re-viewing “Army of Ghosts” and completely viewing “Doomsday” tonight. DH seems all for it as long as we can watch “Hot Rod” next. What can I say, he’s been on a lot of planes lately.

It’s stopped raining here long enough for the wind to blow everyone’s trash bins into the next county (for two days). Rain is forecast for five days out of the next seven, though, which might lead to more road closures around here. The Rock River in Jefferson is up almost to the tops of the pilings of the railroad bridge — can’t imagine that’s good for it. Any engineers out there want to calculate the stress-loading of that when a freight train rolls across the top of a bridge just poking through a fast, flooded river? Need pictures to work from?

Knit Night tomorrow, time for making elaborate Harlot-meetup plans with Dale-Harriet. Oh, and yeah, there’s a little Mountain Colors trunk show and sale going on. Someone please save me something, anything!

Stranger in a strange land

So….I spent the weekend in Michigan. On the surface it may not sound like much fun to anyone else. Get up before dawn, ride (and never drive) across parts of three states to go to a tool show, pass within a stone’s throw of the University of Michigan (for a Columbus, Ohio, native this is somewhat creepy), watch a Will Ferrell movie, and eat takeout in the hotel room. But I think if you had met us, and all our children, and understood exactly how long it’s been since Velcro Boy (Jack, dear, I’m talking about you) was pried from my leg, you’d know how special we could make this.

Here’s what we rode in. Every time people were staring at us and I thought it was because I was knitting in public, I had to stop and think, oh wait, it’s probably just the truck. It even had California plates, so we were utterly conspicuous wherever we went. When the engine got revved it sounded like a chainsaw convention. However, the amenities were terrific. Dual climate controls, heated seats, a GPS navigation system, neon interior lighting…. once I got over thinking I had to haul myself into the cab via a knotted rope, it was quite comfortable.

I got a TON of knitting done riding in the truck. I took only two projects: Kelp Forest, and the supplies for my second salt and pepper sock. And all I worked on was Kelp Forest. As we cruised towards Ann Arbor the first time, I was doing a felted join in the car. As by the time we were cruising past it headed west on Sunday, I realized I really had memorized the pattern. I got 20 repeats out of the first skein, and probably won’t need more than two skeins. It feels great to know I’m more than halfway done.

I also had a secret — not one but two pairs of socks for Mr. Beth, to be given as anniversary presents. To skip ahead, he loves them, and has declared them The Best Socks In The World, even if they don’t fit exactly (or, in the case of the Patons Kroy jacquard, don’t match exactly).

The tool show was…a tool show. It was kind of like going to a quilt vendor expo in a fabric mill’s warehouse, without a show of finished quilts. So at least I had something to compare it to, as DH worked the booths and found sales guys to talk to about their latest boxes, tools, and hardware.

That didn’t take long, and when we were done it was off to Howell to visit Beth at The Spinning Loft.

A spinning class had just finished when I let myself in, so I just wandered around and talked to her friends while she took care of business. I wanted to touch everything, but managed to restrain myself.

There was fiber:

And there were many bags of woolen locks:

There were skeins of locally spun yarn:

There were spindles:

And there was Beth, who didn’t want her picture taken again:

And the very first thing she asked me, when we got to sit down, was: “Have you seen what’s been happening on the Mystical Creations Yarn thread on Ravelry?”

We had a good meetup (even though I discovered I had to get to know my spinning goddesses better), and then it was time to buy a souvenir. I finally decided on the winter issue of Wild Fibers (always wanted to check it out, and it seemed like time) and a big fluffy cloud of BFL to spin up…someday. I knew it was the right one to buy when Beth rubbed it against her face before ringing it up.

Then, at the last second, she grabbed a baggie and put it in the bag too. “You just have to have this.” A little baggie stuffed with Merino top.

Oh yeah…I gave her some chocolate, too. We’re good buddies now, Beth-her and Beth-me.

The rest of the evening included, but was not limited to, going out to see Semi-Pro without children, going to Meijer without children, and picking up carry-out from Outback to eat while we watched the Australian Grand Prix without children.

Sunday morning included going out to breakfast without children, driving within a stone’s throw of the University of Michigan stadium without children, and stopping at a winery for a tasting without children. And we bought wine too! I felt like such a grown up.

We got to talk, and plan, and just do stuff together. Maybe next year we can do it again.

ETA: I have been trying to post this all day. !@#$%!!

F double I double B double E double RRRRR

Here are the goods! In retrospect I don’t really have that much fiber. It just seems like a lot because I don’t know how to do anything with it yet.

First fibers first… practice fiber sent to me by cyberfriend Lauren, along with her Louet handcards. Sheesh woman you are too generous! As you can see, it is in a state of Pre-Yarnbarf. I left it just the way it was when I ripped it from the spinning wheel bobbin.

Next, I went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last fall.

I had money.

Bad idea.

First, I bought my literal “three bags full” of fiber from a Border Leicester named Wookie. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because my knitting and spinning enabling friend Brandy bought the rest of the lot and learned spindle spinning on it practically on the way home from the festival. Here’s a little bit of it. Couldn’t turn it into anything last fall either.

Then, of course, I just had to buy Jacob Sheep fiber. If you put “heritage” or “heirloom” in front of anything, I want it. I just do. Sentimental Cancerian or First Class Sucker? I’m not sure yet. But I love the way it looks right now, and can’t imagine how beautiful it will be when it’s spun. Yeah right, as if I’m going to touch this before I know what I’m doing.

Finally, I bought this at Susan’s Fiber Shop. I wanted something colorful so that when I did start to learn how to spin, there would be some color changes to keep me interested and attentive to my work. I’m not crazy about the caramel color that crept in, but the rest of it reminds me of Easter Eggs.

I also bought this at Susan’s Fiber Shop — and a fat lot of good it’s done me so far. Maybe this Friday I’ll learn how to do something productive with it. Sorry about the blurriness — I think I’ll have to clamp it in something, then back up and zoom in to get a clearer picture. But you can get the gist of it.

And since you’ve made it this far, here’s a bonus picture. Over the last few days, the snow has melted to reveal all kinds of things, from dead grass to tree limbs to slabs of ice cast aside months ago by the snowplow.

Here I’m standing between the house and garage, literally atop the garden, looking down into a swampy lowland. At sunset tonight, before I loaded up the van to drag everyone to a scout meeting, it looked for all the world like a frozen ocean.

Heaven and Hell

It was the best of trips, it was the worst of trips…. and as the cartoon caption says, “Come now, Mr. Dickens, it could hardly have been both.”

Yesterday “we” (he was driving, I was knitting on Red Scarf) got Mr. Beth to the airport in the nick of time to catch a westward flight, then I took off (with three little ones) in search of the elusive but talked-up Susan’s Fiber Shop. The short version is that I found it. The slightly longer version was that this shop is one of those that is so packed with every kind of fiber goodness that as soon as you step inside and see some of it, you’re attacked by wool-induced amnesia and you have no idea what you came in for. (I have had this happen in bead, scrapbooking, rubber stamp, and quilt shops, too…. as well as the grocery store and the thrift store…. hmm, maybe I should look into that fish oil thing. Maybe it’s just me.)

Anyway, it was wonderful. Wheels, books, yarn, sock yarn, needles, beads, videos, bags of fiber, braids of roving, back issues of magazines, kits, niddy noddies, dyes…. There were whole yarn sections I didn’t even get a chance to look at. I got my hackle, some colorful BFL to spin up, a new spindle, and a pair of knitting needles with little brown sheep on the ends. Susan herself wasn’t there (she had to pick up a ram) but she’s been e-mailing me since the visit. (Thanks Donna for all your help!)

After I got home, James the Eldest helped me make chocolate chip cookies so we could take snack to the Scout meeting. I dropped him off and bought backing fabric from the local quilt store, for a T-shirt quilt I really super super need to finish (i.e. for someone else). Then I went back to the meeting and took the other kids in with me, at which point I started having a killer migraine. The medicine was at home, of course. Somehow I made it home and got my meds in, but it was about an hour before they even seemed to start to kick in. I felt really sick to my stomach, so I took my nausea med too (warning: may cause upset stomach WTF???).

The kids helped by putting themselves to bed. The pain was horrible. I couldn’t even bear to think about knitting even though it usually calms me down. So I took out the new hackle and a gallon-bag of llama fiber and started dehairing. I got almost the whole bag done before Tom woke up and needed a goodnight snack.

It turned out to be the perfect thing to do during a migraine. I wasn’t sure I was doing it right, but this is very simple technology — basically, pulling chunks of fur through two rows of nails — so there weren’t very many ways I could botch it up. Eventually two piles started forming: soft fiber I could pull through over and over, and shorter, coarser fiber that didn’t want to do it.

The next step will be carding, after I’ve dehaired all that I have. And I’m thinking that that I will probably card the coarser fibers too, after I’m done with the fine ones. Practice is practice, and we can’t all be Mohair. (It’s especially hard when you’re a llama.)

Anyway, today I’m feeling a little better. My mouth feels like I chewed on cotton all night, and I could use some more sleep, but couldn’t we all. Maybe I’ll be able to knit today.