Overcommitted

Posted on September 4, 2007 by karen

I’ve joined too many KAL’s; I have decided to finish up ‘My journey to a shawl’, using my knobbly homespun. But I will do the Bee-flower shawl and the Hanami on my own time, not in step with the online groups. I will keep up with the Secret of the Stole, though. And I have done my swatch:

swatch

 

This is knit in Knitpicks Shadow in ‘Lost Lake’, on 3.5mm needles. I drove all over the northwest corner of CT today to get lace circulars. Found them, bought them, and when i got home I see they are no pointier than my straights. I can more easily read my knitting on the straight needles; I’ll decide along the way which to use.

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Ravelry

Posted on August 21, 2007 by karen

I’m tired of Ravelry and I haven’t even been invited yet. 4798 to go. Soon, maybe next week, they’ll get their hoity-toity servers up and then I’ll get in, or maybe the next week, or maybe it’ll be just whenever it goes public; I’m sure I’ll love it, but the whole hype about this site turns me off. Just like cabbage patch dolls or game machines, we’ve been seduced by scarcity. Why didn’t they take the plunge — and gamble — and gear up for big numbers from the get-go? Waiting to see if we could all be hooked? —and we have been, line and sinker.

But like I said, I’ll no doubt love it once I’m in!

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Here’s a Folly, and a Fine Folly it is…

Posted on August 16, 2007 by karen

Time for a folly on this blog:

temple of appollo folly
©NTPL / Nick Meers
Images © National Trust Photo Library

(From The National Trust site:

The Temple of Apollo with the Lake beyond. This circular temple is dedicated to Apollo, the sun god without whom no garden can flourish. )

I fell in love with this one as I watched my netflix “Pride and Prejudice”, and fell in love with the movie and the music too. Bought the sound track from iTunes. This folly is where Darcy first proposes to Elizabeth, in the rain. It actually exists in The National Trust Gardens of Stourhead, which seems to have enough garden structures and buildings to warrant a visit. Wish I had the $$$$; wish I liked to fly!

Busy with work and painting landscapes; back to fiber-y things next week.

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Cleaning out

Posted on August 6, 2007 by karen

I’ve been cleaning up. And working. Last week my sisters showed up and we filled a dumpster, 20 cubic yards of trash and who-knows-what. We began in the loft of the barn, which had 10 years of stuff just dumped into it:

 

upstairs of barn --before

One sister thought we could work for two days on the barn; I’m sure we could have but I had high hopes of getting to the worst parts of the house too. We got this much done on the barn:

 

upstairs of barn --after

Then, we, um, they, organized the landing in the house and had time the next day to tackle my bedroom:

surveying the mess

Not yet finished, but wow! I am delighted; I can see where to work on the next step:

bedroom cleaning: half-way

And there it all goes, worth all the money for the roll-off, but I couldn’t have done it without my sisters’ help. One couldn’t pay anyone to work as they did, with caring and thoughtfulness, and toughness and energy!

going and gone!

DS #3 then proceeded to clean and organized the mudroom; he is soooo good at this! I would post a picture but it needs a coat of paint and only looks good to those of us who had lived, too long, with the cluttered version. I can actually envision an uncluttered future, down the road.

One sister reported that pack-ratting/hoarding may not be an OCD stepchild as much as it might be a problem for those folks whose brains fail in one area, the decision making area that relates to things: given objects to evaluate for keep/toss/donate/important/not-needed, the part of the brain that decides these things doesn’t even fire in hoarders and pack-rats! Can’t quote the study, but boy, that is me. Making those decisions just wears me out and I quit, long before the task is done.

Not much knitting/spinning this week, but I am working on the shawl with my homespun. Pictures next time.

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Dyeing my spinning

Posted on July 17, 2007 by karen

I have a split personality: I am trying to spin and knit for ‘A journey to a shawl’, and I am trying to do the mystery stole#3.

I dyed my NZ Romney a week ago Sunday with the butternuts and leaves that had been soaking in the sun for many days. Here are some pictures…

This is the set up in the back yard, camp stove and all:

The lovely blues and greens in the dyepot are reflections; the deep brown is
the butternut dye:

This is the dyed yarn, nearly dry:

 

I had begun a very simple shawl with this homespun home dyed yarn, but want to get larger circulars for using with it as it needs to be knit more loosely. Learning as we go, slowly, slowly!

Posted in backyard, dyeing, knitting, spinning | 1 Comment

Changed my mind

Posted on July 16, 2007 by karen

I have decided against the two ply brown wool, and am knitting ms3 in a black bamboo, Ornaghi from Italy. It may not block out to a large size, but it does drape nicely. The beads are a glass metallic looking bead that is dark, but shines green or blue or red or silver, in a subdued way. I’ll post a picture when I get a good one. Still on the end of clue 1; work load has been ugly.

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yarn and beads

Posted on July 3, 2007 by karen

This is the image for the end of the previous entry; I haven’t figured uploading pictures yet , obviously!
Originally uploaded by kwonset


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Six Days of Sweat

Posted on July 3, 2007 by karen

Got home tonight from sister L’s house; moved some furniture, sorted, tossed, labeled, sorted, tossed, and generally probably made it look nicer but no doubt it will be a source of confusion as no one will know where anything is. We began this ritual last year (does one year make something a ritual event? Why not!) and have done one and a half of our six days. Next Monday at A’s and then my place at the end of the month.

I have some how promised to get rid of 48 boxes by then— or is it 3 a day times about 25 days? –then it would be 75 boxes!! Oh my gosh!!! It would be nice to do that, so let me keep a count. (Today: none)

At dinner last night at a great restaurant (there are great perks to this cleaning) we almost shared a table with a certain girl’s college basketball coach whose name happens to be Geno; he was just a smidgen away at the next table; kind of made the night a memorable event.

Signed up for the mystery stole #3; I’m not spinning the yarn for this but am using a thin two ply from the Bartlett Mill. a rich brown called ‘bark’; but the beads I bought seem too small unless they will thread on a needle threader, but then how will the stitch get off the needle, I don’t think that is going to work—-

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Spin, work, work, and more work

Posted on June 29, 2007 by karen

I am having trouble typing as the shift key on the left is kaput — and it’s the one I use 95% of the time. I hit the return key instead of ‘shift’ and it sends the blog off to be published; on other sites it closes up windows and leaves me frustrated. Only about $30 for a new keyboard; but I can’t believe a drop of water caused me this grief, and I haven’t given up on it’s fixing itself.

I’ve begun to wash the three fleeces (shetland and ? mix) given to me; confronting a sheep’s fleece is a brand new experience…wow! Lots of bits to toss in the compost, tips to flick or trim, and quite smelly, in a barn sort of way.

I can’t tell what the best parts are so I am just saving any of the good looking wool; I’ve washed three handfuls and it cleans up nice, except for those tips.

This first picture is of the grayer wool:


and this is the white with the dirty tips; I don’t have a comb or flicker so before I wash more I may trim the tips.

I’m thinking a boosting the temperature of the hot water heater, or getting a black garbage pail and using the sun. The latter appeals to me as I could do more leisurely washes — and then if need be a final wash with hotter water-heater water. If these do wash up nicely I may look into a carder; I’m thinking of the Louet roving carder. though it seems some don’t like it. I’m spoiled by the length of the roving and top I have purchased, with longer bits to spin. I imagine an experienced spinner doesn’t need to stop in order to join a new piece of fiber— my operation has to come to a halt while I arrange things and match ends and gather my wits.

I worked about three hours tonight in the shop and need to get up by five at least to get more work done; and even so I know I won’t be able to finish. But I am just too old to do all-nighters anymore.

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Romney Roving

Posted on June 23, 2007 by karen

This is the yarn I spun last night from the NZ Romney top I got from RH Lindsay’s, still some overspun squiggles and some underspun fluffs— but it went smoothly and I think I’m getting the tension better, at least I sense when it needs more pull or twist.

I’ll try plying it tonight when I have spun the last bits.


It’s tonight now, and the photo above shows the plied Romney. It still has uneven bits, and even one break, but I feel like I’m maybe a bit more able to pull this spinning thing off.
The last photo is a bobbin of the dyed colonial top I got with my spindle; still hoping it will be a hat someday. This was tonight’s spinning after the plying; would love to do more but the eyes won’t stay open.


Busy in the shop today; better busy than so quiet it gets boring!


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