Three by Hand » weather

There and back again; up to my ears in wool

Lisa — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:33:00 +0000

The news

So the “dude” and I headed off into the wild blue yonder – ambled down the highway at a leisurely pace of 15 km per hour above the speed limit – to the Big City. Actually we hit surburbia and went to Whitby – about 50-odd (give or take 25 km depending on which part of the city you measure from) kilometres from Toronto.

All I can say is a) thank god for air conditioning and b) theme parks and 40+ degrees humidex don’t mix. We lasted at Wonderland a whole 3 1/2 hours before calling it quits and heading back to Wanna-baa’s house for a nap, dinner and ice cream.

More stuff I can say…10 month olds? CUTE! Ava checked out Alex thoroughly our first morning:

We also found that the absolutely best place to be on a hot day is a little tiny beach in Port Hope on Lake Ontario where it was about 10 degrees cooler than anywhere else. And the fish and chips totally rocked. No pictures as I was too busy pushing the swing and watching sandcastle making.

The reason for the trip to Port Hope was to go to The Black Lamb and pick up some fibre as I am preparing a bunch of stuff for St. Distaff’s Day. Laurie had closed the shop for the day to hawk (hauk?) her wares at the Ontario Handspinning Seminar (next year, please remind me to go to this okay?). She was there on Sunday when I drove back through on my way home and was happy to accept my credit card in exchange for a whack-load of BFL and some Shetland.

This year, St. Distaff is on June 21st and if you have never heard of St. Distaff don’t be surprised…she (I think its a she) is the made up saint of spinners and weavers. Every year one of the local guilds hosts a day of spinning, weaving and fibre arts workshops along with a small vendor show. Chriss of Daisy Chains and Buttercups is going to have a table this year and I’m going to put some stuff there to see if anyone wants to help me lighten up my shelves at home. Turns out I have a LOT of fibre.

So…I have been dyeing my heart out over the last two weeks!

Stuff I dyed

So today you get a quick review about dyeing roving. In the last two weeks, I’ve dyed a whole lot of Blue Faced Leicester (BFL), Corriedale, Merino and Merino/Tencel blend. My favourite is BFL with the Merino Tencel a close second.

As much as I love the soft merino it is hard to handle when dyeing. The fibre is so fine it tends to drift apart and requires careful handling to keep the integrity of the roving intact (now there’s a sentence I never thought I would type…integrity of roving…). The worst moment is when I go to pull the bump out of the soaking bowl while trying to avoid the others and keep the merino all in one piece. I seem to finally have my technique down, but I’ve also learned to lower my standards a bit about how perfect the roving will be when I am done with it.

The other thing about merino is that it seems to resist taking up the dye. If anyone wants to jump in with an explanation about how my technique may be faulty please do so, but it seems like the same concentration of dye yields a much more saturated colour on the same amount of BFL as merino. It seems as thought the merino sucks up the dye so quickly it doesn’t have time to spread through the fibre.

The merino/tencel mix seems to solve some of the problems with the merino including the “drifty-ness” – not to mention that the shine on it makes my heart beat a little faster.

Finally Corriedale. Alas, how I want so much to like you! I have to confess however, that I do love my fine wools and while Corriedale has its place in the wool pantheon, it will never be worshipped here. Just too rough for my taste and it seems to suck in light. What can I say…I like me some shiny stuff. I’m surprised I haven’t started with the Angelina yet.

So here’s a quick fibre fix…and if you want to see it all, go check out my flickr.

Stuff I’m Knitting

Little to report – the Susie Hoodie is proceeding well. I am 22 rows away from my off the needles, around the waist size check and then we will know for sure if all is well. Now I just have to commit absolutely to doing the waist size check thing and not pretend that this type of careful consideration is something that is good and right and not something that is only for other lesser knitters than I.

And finally – for all those who asked…

Vesper the Vibe is fantastic. Fun to drive, goes vroom and generally makes itself welcome everywhere except at the gas pump. Also, I really can’t wait to see how many hits I get off a google search for “black vibe”. Because I am really 12 years old.

Next time, I will try to tell you about Kniterary* where I got to touch some Camelspin (please don’t lick the screen – not good for monitors I hear) and after I regained cousciouness I bought a new book.

*A yarn shop where wise yarn store owner has placed Fleece Artist and Handmaiden in a locked glass cabinet. Bizarre but somehow made me want it even more…

Blog makeover, proud mother moment, more fibre confessions

Lisa — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:37:00 +0000

You know how one day you walk into your house and suddenly realize that the fact that your couch has been against the same wall for YEARS is irritating as hell? Or suddenly your books have to be re-organized – maybe by colour this time instead of height? (except fibre books – they still belong in random piles around the bedroom – its a STYLE people, work with me here).

Well, my blog was pissing me off. It NEVER changed – oh stop laughing back there! I DO realize that for blogs to change one should probably post something on them every now and then.

Time for a spring cleaning. I wanted some of my own fibre in the picture at the top…new colours! A fresh spring feeling. Let me know what you think…I’m not sold on the light green yet but its growing on me.

The other thing I think I need to do is find a direction for the blog and it occurred to me that, given the…um…strong support I have been showing to my local LYSes, bookstore and pretty much any place willing to sell me something to do with sticks and string, the least I could do would be to turn my financial loss into blog gain. So I am going to start subjecting you to my opinion – little reviews – patterns, books (knitting and not), cat breeds, coffee, podcasts, yarn…whatever strikes my fancy.

Knit that: pattern review

Today I give you: the Burridge Lake Aran Afghan by Anna Dalvi.

This pattern originally appeared on the sadly defunct Magknits but has been put up for free download through Ravelry or Anna’s site. Anna Dalvi who lives here in Ottawa and was the mind behind the Mystic Waters Shawl (which I started and frogged – beautiful pattern but I was having fidelity issues because I still hadn’t finished the Swan Lake stole).

I think this is going to be my grand opus. If I can finish this, I can do ANYTHING – climb Everest, do the side splits again, eat only sugar and fat and never gain weight, become patient, perfect and loved by all. I may be a bit optimistic, but its good to have goals. (OOH! lightening outside!)

The picture is less than a 1/4 of the first of three panels that will make up the afghan. It is absolutely to fascinating to knit. For one thing, the Trinity Stitch (the columns on either side of the big Saxon Braid) is made on the wrong side so purling rows are as interesting as cabling rows on the right side. Also, every one of the three patterns has a different number of rows – remind me to take a picture of my chart where I keep track of all this for you.

The pattern is absolutely perfect. Its fun to knit. If you like BIG projects, cabling (learn to cable without a needle for this one – there is a LOT of cabling going on) and knowing that you are making a family heirloom that you may be knitting for years to come (if you are like me), I recommend it.

The yarn is Patons Classic Merino – I couldn’t afford the full 20 balls but I think a basic grey should be safe. (more lightening!)

Pictures from my stash

In the newly purchased department – Cascade 220 Wool Heathers and purse handles for a medium Noni Carpet Bag. Wool purchased at Yarn Forward in Kanata.

Spinning and spun

Right now I have some copper superwash merino I purchased at The Black Lamb when I got my wheel last year. I had spun up the first 50 g right away and it has been sitting on the bobbin for over a year. I am finally spinning up the rest – I am not a fan of spinning superwash because I find it way too slippery but I admit that the singles are really pretty and shiny and will be lovely when I ply it up.

Off the bobbin is an absolutely gorgeous 2-ply silk/merino blend from Fleece Artist. A larger skein has gone to its forever home - and this smaller skein is going to follow it there whenever I see Leanne next (Yes, hon…there’s more…I’ll trade you for a gallstone!)

Non-knitting news

Alex competed in his very first baseball tournament on Saturday and his team (the Yankees) came in second place in a very close final playoff game! This is his first year doing any kind of organized sport and he got off to a bit of a rocky start. But on Saturday one of the parents did some one-on-one with him to help him get his batting technique down and in the final game he got a run batted in, a triple and eventually got to home plate for his first point! I am so proud of him and really glad he had some success – he was getting very discouraged and nothing we could say was going to be as good as just hitting the ball.

Here he is at bat – just before his very first hit. Sorry for the fuzzies but it was really sunny – I couldn’t actually see what I was photographing so I just shot the picture on faith.

Alex is super strong – and built like a 1920’s slugger – if he can connect I think he’s going to hit them out of the park.

Stuff I’m looking forward to

I have a 1 pm meeting tomorrow with our Director General to “talk about my future”. This could be anything from a fun project to a minor career change and no one wants to tell me what its about but everyone seems to think I’m the one for it (whatever it is). Curious huh?

Test drives – my lease is up in mid-July so its time for dreaded car shopping. I’m going to pretend I am looking forward to this the way I look forward to checking out a new yarn shop. I am hoping the power of positive thinking will find me a decent price on a lovely heathered 4-door with cashmere-alpaca-quiviut seat covers and plenty of room for my wheel and knitting friends. Oh and an Ipod docking thingie would be nice too so I can listen to podcasts while driving to yarn shops. Oh, and it should probably have an engine and other car stuff in it. And somewhere to park kids and groceries. Are you thinking that maybe my car salesperson is going to be as confused by me as I am by him/her?

Have a great week – kids are back from dad’s for the next three days and I’ll line up my next review for the weekend. Let me know what you think of the new look and format!

View from my window – 6 a.m.

Lisa — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:20:00 +0000

Its a nor’easter! Another reason not to live in the nor’east…

Notice my deck chairs…which I put out on the deck on a warm day 3 weeks ago. I haven’t actually sat in them yet. I keep reminding myself that in July I’m gonna be complaining about how hot it is.

Happy Monday! There are five people signed up for the fantabulous blogiversary prize draw. Odds are still good so sign up by Wednesday for a chance to win.