Author: Jen

wife. mother. knitter. unschooler. band geek. fatass. card-carrying socialist. militant breastfeeder. profane. agnostic. ENFP
fiber · Spinning · Tour de Fleece

Tour de Fleece starts today!

Jen2 Comments

Holy crap, you guys! I can’t believe it’s almost July already! Where did the first half of the year go? Well. Moving, I guess. And getting ready to move. Hrm. Well, you know what they say about time flying and having fun and all that. Anyway! Today is the start of the Tour de France, which happens to coincide with the start of the Tour de Fleece! Isn’t that a weird coincidence?

I played along with the TdF back in 2010 and spun up some lovely yarns, plus I had a lot of fun. Not sure why I didn’t do it last year, unless it had something to do w/ my still kind of wonky energy levels. Well, anyway, this year I decided to give it a go again. This time I’m playing with Team Sherlocked (an homage to my new favorite show).

My goals this year:

1. Spin every day

2. Finish the yarn I was working on before we moved. (In this case all it needs is a wash, but I’ve been putting it off because I am lazy.)

3. Finish the alpaca I’ve been working on. This might be a challenge  because I kind of got bored with it. I’ve got a little more than half a bobbin of it and still a huge amount left to go.

4. Try to get finished with (or at least spin some of) the Romney fleece. This will definitely be a challenge because a) there is a crapton of it and b) I don’t really care for it that much (sad, I know).

In spite of having a clear idea of what I’d like to get done over the course of the TdF, I went ahead and started doing something else entirely.

Aren’t the colors pretty? These are the silk caps I got from A Touch of Twist at the CT Sheep & Wool festival a couple of years ago. I’d originally planned to just straight up knit them without spinning the fiber, because Yarn Harlot. But now I’ve moved to Florida and I can’t see that I have a real need for cushy little hand ovens. But I could definitely use a lacy little shawlette to keep the AC chill off my shoulders and so that is the plan.

Also I have this little 4 oz Polwarth braid from Woolgatherings which I really can’t wait to sink my teeth into. Isn’t it pretty?

I am really going to have to remember to buy more than 4 oz the next time I visit her shop. I can tell that I am going to want to spin this stuff forever.

Adventures · life · Snowflake

Box Hell

Jen

can’t blog now stop completely buried in boxes stop will check in next week stop here’s a cat picture instead stop

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Adventures · life · Snowflake

Almost done!

Jen

Well, we made it! We got down here in time to move in on the 31st!

We really love our new place and we are just waiting on the movers to deliver the rest of our stuff. It was supposed to arrive today, but evidently the truck broke down in Georgia. They rescheduled us for tomorrow, which means today I need to clean up and get ready. Here’s my new kitchen:

And here is my new rug:

Also, meet Snowflake, our new cat. He comes to us from old friends who were leaving the Florida sun for Seattle rain and weren’t able to bring him with them. We got down here just in time to keep him out of a shelter, which turned out to be fortuitous for all of us. He is a very sweet boy and makes a wonderful addition to our family. He and Doozer are already buddies after just one short week. Lolly is taking a bit longer to accept all these changes, but she’ll come around eventually. She is able to tolerate being in the same room with him, so that’s something. So many new and exciting things! How has your week been?

Doozer

Boxtropolis

Jen

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And Doozer is the king.

life · Lolly · Spinning

Box City

Jen

Wow, this week has gone by so quickly. I’ve been so crazy busy what with the upcoming move. There was so much to do! Today was packing day! The crew arrived around 9 this morning and, after a flurry of packing, our house looks rather a bit like a Minecraft game. BOXES EVERYWHERE! Of course, poor Lolly is freaked the fuck out. She spent the day cowering under the bed so she is highly suspicious about this sudden appearance of all these boxes.

While they were working, I decided to ply up last week’s singles. First (last night) I wound the single into a center pull ball:

Isn’t it pretty?

And then this morning, I did an Andean ply.

Sadly all my spinning stuff is packed away so finishing it will have to wait until we’re settled in down there, but the spinning work is done. Tuesday the movers are coming to empty our house into a truck and then we head to Florida! I can’t believe moving day is almost here! w00t!

Spinning

Spinning Friday

Jen1 Comment

I brought my wheel to Park Day today and after several false starts, I finally got a good rhythm going with this fiber which Santa brought me a couple of Christmases ago. Isn’t it pretty?

After watching my friend Weaver at her wheel a couple of weeks ago, I was inspired to spin the roving without breaking it into little pieces first so that the colors would be drawn out into long stretches. (I’m sure there’s a name for this, but I don’t know what it is. I might have to track down a copy of this book.) Anyhoo, now I have to figure out what to do next. Navajo ply is one option, although I’m not sure my single is appropriate for that (not consistent throughout, and not teeny tiny). If I had been thinking ahead when I started this, I would have split the roving in half and spun it onto two different bobbins, but sadly, as is my wont, I wasn’t thinking ahead and instead crammed all 8 ounces of it onto a single bobbin. (As you do.) Another option would be to do an Andean ply, but would the inevitable marling break up the long stretches of color and defeat the purpose of spinning it the way I did? Or I could just leave it as a single, although I know there are a couple of super thin bits which would benefit from plying. What to do, what to do… Hmm…

birthday

39

Jen4 Comments

Today marks the start of another year of my life and brings me within spitting distance of the big 4-0, although I don’t feel a day over 28. Generally, I’m feeling pretty good and looking forward to this year. It will be a year of big changes, what with the move to Florida and all, and I can’t wait. Happy birthday to me! :-)

fiber · Spinning · stash

Weaver Is Evil

Jen4 Comments

Seriously, y’all, my friend Weaver is evil. She has been on a bit of a spinning jag lately for a while now and last week posted a link on her Facebook to this etsy shop. And even though I have quite a bit more spinning fiber than I want to move to Florida right now, I went ahead and ordered anyway. Just a little, only 4 oz. But what a gorgeous 4 oz. it is:

4 pretty ounces of Polwarth top. I’ve never spun Polwarth, so it’ll be a fun learning experience too!

Knitting · life

Flee the plague house!

Jen

Over the weekend the Norovirus which has been going around finally caught up with me. Saturday I woke up feeling kind of icky and by 830 pm I asked the Hubs to drive me over to the ER for some IV fluids and some anti-nausea drugs. It was a most unpleasant day, I must say. But now I’m almost back to my normal self, with just a little lingering tiredness. So, yay!

Yesterday I was feeling well enough to work on my shawl and can say now that I am officially into the twee triangles. It took me the entire episode of this week’s Game of Thrones to knit the first two rows. It gets faster and easier once the pattern is established, as I recall, but GAWD I remember why it was such a struggle to get through it the first time.

And so that’s an update I guess! How was your weekend? Hopefully better than mine was. Have you managed to avoid this current Norovirus outbreak or have you been unlucky as well? How is your knitting coming along?

holiday cheer

May the Fourth!

Jen

Happy Star Wars Day, everyone! Here’s a question: what if Episode One was actually good? Like, really good? Well, BelatedMedia has some ideas. Check them out:

May the force be with you!