A couple of months ago, Kris (aka The Painted Sheep) had a destash, from which I scored a lovely Blue Moon Fiber Arts sheep 2 shoe kit. Of course, I don’t know anything about spinning for a specific project, so I disregarded the instructions completely and made 110 gorgeous yards of fluffy yarn for a hat (or something):
I finished it up last night. Isn’t it purty?
Sometimes you go so long without making a blog post that re-entry is awkward and difficult without an “I’m sorry I haven’t blogged” sort of statement. Generally I try to avoid those because, hey, blogging is a hobby and sometimes I have time for it, and sometimes I don’t. Suffice it to say that not only was July a very busy month, but I have also spread myself rather thin in the social media sphere. I have two blogs, a ravelry, a tumblr, a twitter, and a Facebook and trying to figure out how to integrate them all (or even in part) has been tricky. I mean, I don’t want the tumblr (or the Ravelry) to replace blogging and I don’t want the twitter to replace Facebook. I want them all to sort of support each other. But I haven’t quite managed to solve that puzzle yet. [sigh]
So, what have I been up to, besides not blogging, raveling, tumblring, twittering on occasion, and Facebooking? My last couple of weeks, let me show you them.
1. The Tour de Fleece got finished:
It was seriously fun and I am definitely going to do it again next year.
2. There was a Webs excursion:
I didn’t get much this time. I was mostly along for the ride with a friend who was buying yarn for her holiday knitting.
3. There has been knitting progress:
(click each photo to be taken to the Ravelry project page)
And that’s it, you’re all pretty much caught up now. How has your summer been so far? Keeping busy?
1. The Tour de Fleece is still going and I am still spinning. I made a nice fat hank of Corriedale yarn and started on the Romney fleece.
2. Corriedale is nice to spin, but I still prefer BFL.
(oh how I miss the Kanye Interrupts meme.)
3. There are 6 lbs. of the Romney fleece. I’ve spun exactly 2 ounces and I am already sick of it.
4. You cannot spin at the beach. At least, I haven’t figured out a way to do it. Perhaps w/ a drop spindle, but I don’t fancy sand in my fiber, so no.
5. We’ve been at the beach a lot. But, evidently it’s jellyfish season and since Ezra appears to be allergic to their stings, we might not go back for a while.
6. I’ve started the rewriting process on my NaNo. It’s pretty terrible, but not as terrible as I thought. And I think I know where I’m going to start. I think.
7. I was going to work on it this morning, but I spent too much time making the Kanye Interrupting Sheep image and now I have to do houseworky things. Stoopid never ending houseworky things.
1. My energy levels have been all wonky lately, hence the quietness of The Blog.
2. I am working on it w/ my Doctor, but in the mean time, I’ve been spending a lot of time on tumblr. If you aren’t familiar with tumblr, it’s kind of like a step up from twitter. If twitter is a micro-blog, then tumblr is a mini-blog. I’m still trying to get the hang of it, but ya’ll? I really like it. Check it out. You have to be a tumblr follower of mine to leave a comment (which means you have to have a tumblr account) or you can just subscribe to my tumblr rss feed. Either way is cool, but you know how I love the comments.
3. I was playing around with Plurk for a while, as a possible replacement to Facebook, but not enough none of my FB buddies were similarly motivated to follow me over to Plurk, so I give up. I will focus on Twittering and Tumblring instead.
4. Speaking of Twitter, I gave in. I guess now that it’s not in the news every two seconds, it’s more tolerable. The only problem is I find I get that stupid Fail Whale a lot. Twitter, if you’re going to be the “in” thing, please get some more servers! Which reminds me. I am troubled that it isn’t immediately apparent how Twitter makes money. There aren’t any ads that I can see. So, where are they getting the scratch for that operation? It’s a mystery.
5. PEOPLE!! TOUR DE FLEECE STARTS TODAY!!! Are you participating? I’m on Team Hoar!
My plan, since I am new to Tour De Fleece, is to just spin every day and get through as much of my fiber stash as I can. Granted, I am a new spinner, and my stash is not as enormous as it could be, but I do have a fair amount of fiber. Right now I have some Spunky Eclectic Corriedale on my bobbin. When that’s done I’ll move onto the Romney fleece that I’d had processed a while back. There’s a crapton of that, but if by some miracle I get through it all, I will move onto the alpaca and then the quiviut blend that I picked up at the Sheep and Wool Festival in April. GO TEAM HOAR!
6. I started a new sock:
Hopefully, this sock with this yarn will get finished this time.
7. I finished a scarf for Ezra.
Yes, it is a fun-fur scarf. Yes, I knitted it against my will. But, before you knock the fun-fur scarf, keep in mind that the whole thing only took up about an hour of knitting time. Maybe less. And, when people see the fun-fur scarf, they think you are a god damned genius.
8. We are dog sitting.
My friend and her family went out to Salt Lake for 3 weeks to visit family. Things are going well on this end. Sandy is a very good dog, but she still finds the cats to be terrifying, stabbity creatures. Doozer is still being kind of a jerk, although Lolly has warmed up to her quite a bit. No pictures of them all together, though. It usually doesn’t end well.
9. I’ve printed my NaNo 2009 for a reread/rewrite. I think this could be a good book, ya’ll. But it needs some work. A lot of work. And when I say “a lot”, I mean a LOT. Interested in being a reader? Leave me a comment. I’d love some feedback on it.
And that is all. The Blog is now updated. How’ve you all been?
Guys, remember this?
My first fleece, purchased from the CT Sheep and Wool festival back in April. I was going to process it myself, but soon realized that I was in way over my head. So, back before Christmas, I shipped the whole shebang to the Still River Mill to be washed and carded. Lookee what came in the mail:
And this is what’s inside:
Each box has 3 bags full of clean, fluffy rovings:
That spin up quickly and easily:
It was a little over 7 lbs when I sent it, and I got back a skosh over 5 lbs. I cannot tell you how glad I am that I didn’t try to wash out the 2 lbs of wool grease and other shit that was in there. But, FWIW, I’m still in way over my head.
Oh my goodness but this spinning thing is addictive. I mean, I knew that from before when I was doing it with my drop spindle, but holy mackerel, spinning on a wheel is like freebasing fiber.
And now I’m out of fiber*. What to do, what to do… Who’s your favorite fiber pusher dealer?
————————
*Yesterday I mailed my fleece to the Still River Mill to be processed, so in a couple of months I’ll have that… I can’t be expected to wait that long for a fix, though…
My 2nd handspun:
I’m still trying to get the hang of it but I’m still pleased with the end result, lumpy-bumpy though it may be. And now, for my next trick, processing a raw fleece for spinning. If we ever get some non-rainy weather. Maybe in September?
I say probably because at no time was I tested for the H1N1 virus. That said, I did come down with influenza. Well, I assume that was the one which got me, and my doctor (with whom I spoke on the phone) agreed. Although it could have been the other, seasonal, flu which is also going around. I can tell you this, though. Having the flu sucks, but as far as flus go, this particular flu wasn’t all that horrific. I felt like I was hit by a truck, yes, but only for a day and a half or so. The rest of the week I felt like I was recovering–slowly getting better. So what did I do? I rested.
Check it out. I made another dishrag for my TAS:
I started a dishrag for myself:
And I finished my first handspun:
So, fear not the Hamthrax (or seasonal flu)! Most people who get it, like me, do not die.
…some singles.
Spun on my Turkish style drop spindle. Technically, this is not my first handspun. My first attempt was with some merino/silk top I’d gotten a couple of years ago at the CTS&W festival. Apparantly merino/silk is not the best choice for a beginning spinner. I was having the darndedst time making it work and nearly gave up on spinning altogether. Luckily, I didn’t and instead picked up this BFL at the NYS&W festival this past October. As you can tell, it’s going much more smoothly. Now, about my plying options… Suggestions welcome.
Hey there! I know I haven’t posted since Saturday and that Wednesday is usually for Whiskers on Wednesday. I just can’t bring myself to post another picture of the cats today. (I know heard some of you cheer. Cut that out.) Frankly, the cats have not been all that interesting lately. They’re officially buddies now, so they spend all night running off their kitty krazies by playing tag and wrestling and discussing the finer points of Quantum mechanics and then they spend all day sleeping. Doozer, being three times (literally!) Lolly’s size, is surprisingly gentle with her and she is surprisingly loud when she feels like she’s not getting the better of him. So, it all works out in the end.
So, here’s some random stuff that’s happened since Saturday:
I finished a pair of socks, just in time for the freakish 90° weather of a Connecticut spring.
[ravelry]
I finished another dishrag for my TAS. I figure I’ll add a pretty soap dispenser or something to go with it. Voila! Housewarming gift completed.
[ravelry]
A friend of mine has learned to spin and this has inspired me to also get my first spinning project out. Well, that and the fact that I picked up a fleece at the CT Sheep & Wool festival. But that particular project is going to require me to fix/renovate/restore my Great Wheel. And then learn how to spin on it.
And now there’s BFL in my coffee.
