Sheep and Wool Swag

What a busy weekend!  We started in earnest on Friday.  In the morning we hit the farmers market for yet another big ol’ box of scratch and dent tomatoes.  We dropped them at home and then headed east to Jefferson to take in some sheep and wool at the (appropriately named) Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.  Since we went on Friday this year instead of Saturday or Sunday, we missed out on the shearing demo and hall of breeds (which were just starting to set up when we were there), but we did get to see some brand-spankin’-new widdle lambies.  The wee lambikins were only hours old and so cute.  Mr. Beeb insisted that he was a baby baa for the rest of the afternoon.

After bribing the small fries with the promise of a shaved ice if they cooperated, Mama got to look around the market.  Oooo…so many pretties.  Due to budget and time constraints, only two got to come home with me.  I had to get a handpainted sock blank since I want to be Molly Bees when I grow up.  She recently finished knitting these socks from this sock blank (scroll down)

Obviously, the picture doesn’t stay intact, but I just love these colors!  The blues!  The greens!  The blue-greens!  And that wild splash of pinks and oranges.  I can’t wait to see how they turn out.  I have a pair of socks on the needles, so I’ll be in a big rush to finish those so I can start these.  I’m about an inch away from done with the first sock, so I hope they go quick.

After a bit of an incident with Gale’s Art last year, I had to stop again this year.  So many pretties that it was hard to choose, but I decided to go with some impossibly soft blue-faced Leicester in natural colors.  I still covet the trindle spindles I saw last year, but I need to get back to spinning more before I can possibly justify more spindles.  I have a feeling that Gale’s Art might become an annual thing…

When we got home from Sheep and Wool, I peeled, cored and chopped tomatoes and now have four and a half gallons of chopped tomatoes ready to be turned into barbecue sauce.  I made one batch and am trying a couple of other recipes to find if we have a favorite.

Yesterday, Mike and I went to downtown Madison to watch our beloved Hawkeyes demolish their cross-state rival Iowa State.  We got to watch on a big screen and we weren’t the only ones screaming at the TV for a change.  The kids had a fabulous afternoon playing with their adopted grandma.

Ms. Bean and I had a quick trip up to Madison this noon to see a doctor.  She has been a bit under the weather the last week or so (snuffley and coughing), but this morning she woke up so congested that she was wheezing.  She got a nebulizer treatment and perked up considerably.  We’ll be doing the nebulizer more at home and following up with our primary care doc this week.  Based on the timing of it, I have strong suspicions that she has the same seasonal allergies and drainage as me.  I have been taking enough antihistamines to keep from getting all congested, but the nice weather that lets us sleep with the windows open might be taking its toll on both of us!

Taking inventory

Fiber-wise, that is. My fiber life has clearly been as chaotic and scrambled as my blogging life. I am up to my armpits in WIPs. We'll consider this post to serve the dual purpose of me getting my act (somewhat) together and updating the world as to my fiber stuff.

Fiber, the first: Knitting.

• Turquoise Leyburn Socks: Done. Too small to get over my big heels. Need to take FO photos and find them a home with a smaller footed person.
  
• Raspberry Charade Socks: Done. Need to take FO photos before I wear them out.
• Beeb Shorties II (Red, Orange, and Yellow): Done. Need to take FO photos before Beeb grows out of 'em.
• Bug's Fish Hat: Almost done. I'll have to dig it out to see what is left. I also need to sew the eyes back on Bean's Fish Hat again.
• Kitty Man Socks: Need to figure out where I left off. I misplaced one of the socks, the non-missing sock's needle broke, and my mojo had left the building before I got everyone reunited.
• Hemlock Shamrock Sweater: Heading into the home stretch. I have been plugging away and am currently working on the sleeves. I may even get to wear it this winter!!
• More Beeb Shorties (greenish and bluish): Wandered away from them. Need to get back to it and finish before Beeb decides to potty train!
• Bright Leyburn Socks: Was coming into the home stretch on the first sock when they got misplaced. Found them a couple of days ago, so hope they will start chugging along.

Fiber, the second: Spinning

• Bunny: I have about an ounce of bunny that I haven't touched for over a year. We won't discuss it any further.
• Mountain Colors Targhee: Over 3/4 of the way through it, but haven't spun since mid-September. Note to self: Locate spinning mojo and finish it up!!

Fiber, the third: Crochet

• Little Crochet on the Prairie Scarf: I took a vintage crochet class at the Ear in October and started a scarf based on a crochet edging that Laura's Ma made as cuffs on a dress. I am now completely intrigued by vintage knitting and crocheting. Yeah, I know. I was just sitting around bored before, but now that I have another hobby to keep me busy, I'm golden. Or something. It is pretty though:
  

I've done about a zillion of the little loopies and came back to the circle to go the other way. Then I have to go around the whole with the edging. I'll have to get a more recent picture soon!

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool was...

well, sheepy and wooly. The whole famn damily went up to Jefferson around noonish and we saw sheep dogs and sheep and shearing and lambs and vendors and lunch and shaved ice and all the wooly wonders. Since we had taken two cars, Kitty Daddy and the kids left around 3:00 and I got serious at the vendors. I found buttons for my February Lady Sweater and was viciously attacked by a couple of spinning projects. It turned out that Gale's Art booth was nearly fatal for me. First, this lovely jumped off the shelf, roughed me up, beat me into submission:

It's a merino/bamboo blend and it is as soft and cushy as it looks. While trying to get up and dust myself off, this subtle little lovely on a bottom shelf started flirting with me:

This one is an alpaca/silk blend and quite possibly even cushier than the ruffian above. Her booth also had trindles which captured my eye and my fancy, but they were out of budget after feeding my flock lunch and snacks. Next year, they can starve so I can have more fun at the vendors. Well, probably not, but the trindles did make my fiber encased engineer-type heart go flippety-flop. The etsy pictures hardly do them justice. I haven't tried them, so for now I am trying to convince myself that they couldn't possibly be as wonderful as they look.

Anyway, after the family left and I spent my money, I had some quiet spinning time by myself and did some people watching until it was time for the after-party and Ravelry meetup, organized by our very own Chocolate Sheep. The dinner was yummy and the cheesecake was practically illegal!

Spring Cleaning

Whoa! How did it get so dusty and cobwebby around here? I hope the chirping crickets have kept you company while I was away.

Of course, away is figurative. We have been here doing much of the same-old same-old. I figured I had finally better pop in and get back in the blogging groove (well, if not in, at least near...will being on the same landmass be close enough? same planet?). At least we are finally getting someplace close to being adjusted to daylight savings time. Clearly a flexible, roll-with-the-punches kind of crowd. Anyhoo. What have we been doing?

Knitting, of course. Lots o' stuff happening, but not a lot to show for it. The only finished objects that I haven't blogged about is a wonky little hat for the Beeb (in Peace Fleece that coordinates with his blue longies and mitts) and the February dishcloth from the Sow's Ear Dish-Cloth-Along. Then I missed March's due to a crabby mood and an illuminated engine light on the van (which has since been fixed). The close, but no cigar pile is immense right now. The third market bag is very close...just a couple more rows and then working the handles in and doing the top edge. The first Raspberry Charade sock is getting close...about 10 gram of yarn left on the leg and cuff. Bug's and Bean's hats are also almost done. Bean's is technically done, but they eyes keep falling off and Bug only has the tail, fins, and eyes left.

Spinning. I have finally been spinning again, semi-regularly. Perhaps quasi-regularly would be more accurate. Last August was my last "Spin my Spindle" check in, so I'll update since then.

Spin My Spindle
	September 2008		February 2009
Activity:	Spinning	Plying	Spinning
Fiber:	Targhee	Targhee	Targhee
Spindle:	Schacht 3"	Ashford	Schacht 3"
Amount:	9 grams	25 grams	5 grams

That is actually more spinning than it looks like. I have been spinning the Targhee quite fine and the singles are about 9 yards (27 feet) per gram. So I'm lucky if I can get through a gram or two at a time. Plus, having put it down for a while, I just don't think to pick it up sometimes.

Planting and thinking about planting. Our Fast Plants are going great guns...going to seed already! The gory details are here. The kids and I have been reading about plants and pollination and all that a lot a bedtime. We are also working on planning a small garden in our yard. We're going to grow some beets for pickling, carrots, radishes, onions, and maybe garlic for cooking and eating and freezing, herbs, and lots of tomatoes. We are also planning to put a couple of pumpkin vines in the landscaping rock beside the house so they can spread without taking over the whole garden and lawn! We are also deciding what to do for a CSA this year too. We did JenEhr last summer and loved it, but are thinking about trying something a little bit closer to us. With the kids, I really like the idea of driving to a farm to pick up rather than to someone's garage and I know there are some closer to Stoughton. However, the drive to JenEhr was just stunning, so I wouldn't be completely opposed to sticking with them. The local CSA open house is next weekend, so hopefully we will be deciding soon.

Organizing. Still chipping away at the chaos that has accumulated with three move and three small ones over four years. I have finally made headway with my recipes. I had started a three-ring binder to organize recipes I had typed up, but fell sadly behind and had to dig through folders and files and other piles of crap to find recipes I was looking for. I finally tamed the piles, printed out things that I had on my computer but not in my binder and have started formatting and printing other things that I want in my binder (goes pretty quick with recipes copied from the internet and a scanner with OCR!). I just do a couple at a time out of that folder and eventually will be caught up. I am also planning on sorting the other piles of recipes by type in an expanding folder, so I have a place to go looking when I need inspiration.

We found out that we have guests coming in early May, so there is some additional inspiration to get my studio/the guestroom organized. We also need to get loft beds built for the bigger two so we can move the old futon down to the guest room, so there is an actual place for them to sleep!

Missing out. A certain knitting celebrity was in town for the Madison Knitters' Guild annual knit-in. I did the responsible thing and stuck to the budget rather than dropping everything and signing up. I'm clearly an idiot. Rumor has it that it was even cooler than I imagined. Damn you, recession and fiscal responsibility...

w00t! We have finished objects

First up, a whole mess of hats (and one pair of mittens) knit for charity. There are a bunch, but I have been going to the Sow's Ear Charity Knit for at least three months now, so spread these out over at least that long!



There is one more hat that fits between the mittens and the green hat. It has a tassle that matches the first two hats and the rest is green. I handed it over to the Sow's Ear without taking a picture. Hat number eight is on the needles. These are pretty quick and pleasantly mindless!

Next up spinning, but not mine! Well, okay, partly mine as I had a hand pretty heavily involved at most times! Here's Bugs:



A very high energy single yarn, which is remarkably apropos! And here is Beans:



Not much, as she lost interest more quickly, but I'm sure we'll pick it back up again sometime.

Next up, mine again. Because I simple do not spend enough time at the Sow's Ear, I have added the monthly Dish-cloth-along. September was a fallish squirrel (in the ever so fallish colorway Swimming Pool):



Next up, more of the kids' handiwork. I have been trying to get Bug started with finger knitting as I have heard that it can be fabulous for helping spunky/spirited/crazy kid settle themselves down. We have had limited success with the finger knitting (VERY limited compared to the frustration level!), so when I saw one of these demonstrated by one of the other kids at our homeschool group, I picked one up for Bug to try. And it was a resounding success. He loves it and has declared himself ready to go to Knit Night. Here is his first FO, a snake:



Bean was devastated at Hobby Lobby since Bug was getting something and she wasn't, so when we got home, I dug through my old cross-stitch supplies and got her started with embroidery (or, as she calls it, sewing). She picked out the colors and did all the sewing herself:



She has picked out a second set of colors and is currently working on her second piece.

Finally, one more from me. I finished up the last of the apples we picked last week and now we have:



There are two pints of apple butter and six pints of applesauce. That's in addition to the batch of applesauce we made last week (and ate the same day), the additional pint or so of applesauce I put in the fridge for dinner tonight, the half pint of apple butter that went straight into the fridge from this batch and about five half pints in the freezer from the first batch of apple butter. I'm going to be peeling and coring apples in my sleep!

Hopefully, I will have a few more FOs before long...I have several thing so close, but just need to be tipped over the edge (which I am just FAMOUS for, by the way). Laminaria just needs blocking, the purse I am making with the leftovers from the kids' slippers is so close...I just need to felt the handle and sew it on. When I felt the handle, I can FINALLY finish Bean's princess hat. I just need to find the purse handle. Umm, yeah. One of the hazards of moving.

Busy Weekend!

Okay, a longish post with many pictures coming here...go grab a cup of coffee and settle in (Beth, you'd better go brew a whole pot with dial-up!)...

Birthday Celebrated!

Friday evening we were joined by the kids' local adopted grandma for dinner and birthday cake. I made eggplant parmasan, and Beeb declared it a hit!

The birthday cake was also a hit. The look on his face when everyone started singing "Happy Birthday" was priceless (but not captured by camera). "Hey, dudes! They're all singing! They're all lookin' at me while they're singing! Crazy!"

The obligatory cake-all-over-the-face shot, though he wasn't as thorough with the cake as he was with the tomato sauce!

And one last gratuitous baby picture. Kitty Daddy found this footlocker at a thrift store and got it cleaned up for stowing some toys. This is where we store Beeb when we aren't using him.

Actually, it is his favorite place in the world to be right now. He carefully empties one side of toys, climbs in, and plays with the remaining toys and/or watches the world go by.

Sheep! Wool! Sheep AND Wool!

We (Bug, Bean, Beeb, and I) spent a good chunk of Saturday exploring the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. Daddy stayed home to get a little work done and straighten up his office after a fairly crazy week just after been away for a week. We saw a little of everything. In one building was a shearing demonstration (no pictures as Beeb was in the sling and we were all in the bleachers and I couldn't reach the stroller to grab my camera). Talk about crazy hard work! The shearer was very personable and would talk about shearing and answer questions between sheep. He had the standard electric stand clippers as well as a hand cranked clipper stand and had volunteers crank while he sheared a couple of sheep! The cranking looked like hard work, but not nearly as hard as wrestling sheep with legs and one arm while shearing with the other hand. The same building there were some baby sheepies. These guys were about three days old:

And this little sweety-pie was one day old:

I invested a fair amount of effort figuring out what would have to be transferred from my backpack to the stroller basket to stow him away. In the end, I left him behind as Kitty Daddy's last words as we drove away was "Don't bring home any live sheep." While I figured this one was too tiny to count, I didn't think Kitty Daddy would see it the same way. *le sigh* We also looked at bunches of different breeds of sheep. Rams with two horns, four horns, no horns, curved horns, curled horns!

We watched the Herding 101 dog school and the kids loved it!

We watched some of the Crook and Whistle trials, but decided that watching dog school was more fun since the enclosed area was smaller so you had a closer view.

We wandered through just about everything and saw a mish-mash of fleeces, sheep, equipment, information, education.

We also checked out the vendors at the General Store. Ummm, let's just say there *may* have been a small accident involving an ATM card and some vendor merchandise. But, really, it wasn't my fault...it was the wool fumes. Yeah, the wool fumes, that was it. This is mine:

Twelve ounces of natural colored wool on clearance, a bag of hand-dyed silk hankies, a bundle of soy silk/merino roving that, I swear, jumped out of the basket and wrapped itself around me, and a 1.1 oz Shacht Hi-Lo spindle. It really could have been a lot worse. Bug fell head over heels in love with this. He got to practice treadling on a Ladybug at two different vendor stands and really thought we needed one, stat. Instead of that, he got an Ashford student drop spindle (just like my first one) and a small ball of roving and had his first spinning lesson last night. It is very much a cooperative effort at this point, but he is just delighted to be spinning. He can do the spindle spinning or help with the drafting, but even with park and draft, he can't quite coordinate doing all the parts himself. It will come. Bean wanted to spin too, so I finished plying the fiber that was on my Ashford and helped her break into her little ball of roving. All she can managed so far is giving the spindle a spin and can get the spin direction right slightly more than half the time. So in less than a day we went from a one spinner household to a three spinner household. I think I need to lock up my roving stash.

A post with spinning stuff (mine and theirs) will be coming soon!

Sith and Jedi and Clones, Oh My!

Today, I have a quiet afternoon with just the Beebster (who, incidentally, is napping!!). Kitty Daddy, Bug, and Bean have gone downtown to see the Clone Wars at the movie theater. If you don't know that there is a distinct tendency towards Star Wars obsession in the family, you haven't been around very long! While moving we ate lunches at McDonald's so many times that I turn green at the idea, because they had Happy Meal toys in conjunction with the release of the Clone Wars. Beeb is easy-going enough that we probably could have all gone, but I decided that I would rather just wait until the video comes out, rather than have to worry whether Beeb was being cute or charming or seriously annoying to other movie-goers. After a big day yesterday, a quiet afternoon is just the ticket. Catch up on some blogging and blog-reading, do a little straightening and catch up with the laundry. Okay, so no so much quiet, but still.

A box for her Jewels

When Kitty Daddy brought home the bat house kit for Bug, he also brought a kit to make a small treasure chest for Bean. Mama did the gluing and nailing, but Bean tackled the painting all by herself. She ended up painting each side a different color, so we needed pictures to show off everything, including Little Miss Ham's many moods:




I suspect that she is destined for The Theatre (said in a haughty British accent). She is definitely our little performer. She is always singing and yesterday, she danced the entire way to the grocery store and back.

We have decided that the box is to be a jewelry box and we are planning to take her dollar from Grandma to the dollar store after Farmers' Market tomorrow to see if we can buy some new jewelry. Once things are more put away, I have some fabric somewhere that would make a perfect jewelry box lining for it. You know, to protect her precious plastic jewelry. ;o)

Since the end of the month sneaked in amongst the moving chaos, I will slip in the August Spin My Spindle update:

Spin My Spindle August 2008
Activity:	Spinning
Fiber:	Targhee
Spindle:	Schacht
Amount:	18 grams

A pretty quiet month by recent standards, but it still represents a fair amount of spinning. The targhee singles are quite thin, so even a gram is a bit of spinning. I did a gram here and there over the first few days of moving, but before long, my arms were so tired from hauling that I put my spindle down.

The upside of the break was that I ended up doing a lot of reading about spinning instead. I am about halfway through Color in Spinning by Deb Menz (a local, no less!) and having wonderful fantasies about setting up a dye studio [Aside: Don't get excited...it is SO FAR down on my to do list, it may never see light of day!] and spent much of the driving time delivering loads between Fitchburg and Stoughton looking at colors in the landscape and thinking how I could translate that into handspun yarn. I also read through Color Works, also by Deb Menz and have put it on my wish list of books to own. It is shorter and more general than the spinning book, but a nice overview of colors in crafts and has some handy tools for describing color in the back. I have also been reading the Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning. I had this one out from the library shortly after buying my first spindle and couldn't make a dent in it. Now I am nearly halfway through and enjoying it immensely. Being a drop spindler, I feel I should confess that I have been skimming through the parts that are wheel-specific and more technical. If I ever decide to tackle a spinning wheel, I will definitely re-read this book!

Makin' Babies

In spite of recent evidence to the contrary, this activity wasn't nearly as "educational" as you might think! Over the summer, our library has a teen "librarian" who does activities with the kids that come into the library. Bug and Bean love doing things with her as she has different and interesting supplies that we don't always have at home. Last Friday, they made "babies" with wooden bead and yarn. The kids were completely taken, so the teen librarian told us we could make more and asked (using the voice teenagers who are working with small children), "Do you have any yarn at home?" Once my riotous laughter died down, she said that we just needed to get some wooden beads, so we used this weeks Jo-Ann coupon to buy a bag of wooden beads and Bug and Bean each made a baby this morning:


Also, before I forget, gotta report my spindle spinning for July:

Spin My Spindle July 2008
Activity:	Spinning	Plying	Spinning	Plying	Spinning
Fiber:	Viscose	Viscose	Targhee	Targhee	Bunny
Spindle:	Turkish	Ashford	Schacht	Ashford	Homemade
Amount:	4 grams	30 grams 78 yards	24 grams	30 grams	9 grams

I haven't been spinning for the last week and a half or so. Ever since I hit the edging charts on the Laminaria, I have been completely taken over by it. I have two rows left and then just binding off and blocking!!! So between Laminaria and trying to get the apartment ready to move, spinning has been suffering. I HAVE to keep at least a little knitting and/or spinning in the agenda to keep myself sane, but I'm afraid progress may be hit and miss for a while!

FO: Arm Distaff Thingy

So, I have still been doing a lot of spinning. As we head through July into August, Wisconsin inevitably gets humid with more regularity. When I started spinning, I just kind of draped the roving over my arm and/or shoulder. However, when the humidity went up last year and the roving started sticking to me, I basically put the spinning away until winter. This spring, I started carrying the roving in a plastic grocery bag. I could loop the handles over my arm while I was spinning and just pull out more length as I needed it. Enter this year's increased humidity and one seriously sweaty forearm and/or elbow. So I scratched my head a little. Then I looked at my ball of viscose handspun a bit. I didn't have a project in mind for it, so I scratched my head a little more and cast on for this:

Here's what it looks like all stretched out:

Specifications
Pattern: Made it up as I went
Yarn: Viscose handspun
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 8

The basic recipe:
Cast on enough stitches to make arm band a nice width (this one has 21)
Knit a few rows (I did 7).
Cast off 3-5 center stitches. Next row cast those stitches back on (leaving a slit between rows).
Knit until it's about wrist sized.
Next two rows: cast off edge stitches to leave a few stitches in the center (this one has 5)
Knit I-cord until it's long enough to fit a slip knot and a big bunch of roving.

The arm band could be anything from garter stitch all the way to as fancy as possible. I did a seed stitch border with a cable down the center:

More posts coming soon...In addition to our typical out and about summer schedule, I have also been doing more work getting the apartment ready to start moving, so blogging time gets preempted. I suspect that until we get quasi-settle in the new apartment, the blogging will look like this: long silence, then several posts in a day or two. I am planning on breaking things up into several short(ish) posts all at once rather than trying to cover everything in one monster post, so I don't wind up with a series of novellas with every label I have ever used attached to each.

Spin, baby, spin!

Still spinning away. I finally got up the gumption and finished the evil viscose. It wasn't much fun to spin, but the yarn turned out better than I expected! I wonder if it would have gone better on a heavier spindle. I spun the single on my Turkish spindle and Navajo plied it on my Ashford spindle. I got 78 yards of three-ply out of slightly more than an ounce of fiber.


If I ever lose my mind and spin viscose again, I think more pre-drafting, a heavier spindle, and a thicker single might help.

I'm still much in love with the Targhee top:

Just like self-striping sock yarn, the color changes keep me much more fascinated than they have any right doing. Plus, they are just stunning colors, very rich and deep. I am hoping that by Navajo plying this, it will stay kind of self-striping. The last few days have been too humid to spin...nothing to do with the physics of spinning, just the fact that the fibers stick to me when I'm sweaty and I just hate it! So I have been doing more knitting and less spinning until the humidity breaks a little. I guess I really can't complain too much about heat and humidity this year as we haven't even turned on our A/C yet and it is already July!

Busy spinning month!

During June, knitting has taken a bit of a backseat to spinning. Apparently, spinning is another good way to help *unwind* (snerk). Corny jokes aside, I have been feeling more "in control" of things when I'm spinning, except for still occasionally sending the spindle flying through the air, so things are going a bit faster, too.

Spin My Spindle June 2008
Activity:	Spinning	Plying	Spinning	Plying	Spinning	Spinning
Fiber:	Corriedale	Corriedale	Alpaca	Alpaca	Viscose	Targhee
Spindle:	Homemade/ Ashford	Ashford	Ashford	Ashford	Turkish	Schacht
Amount:	75 grams	109 grams 288 yards	23 grams	62 grams 188 yards	5 grams	10 grams

The viscose fiber continues to be the bane of my existence, but fortunately, there are only a few grams left, so I am hoping to use the Mountain Colors Targhee top to bribe myself to get it finished up. The Targhee is spinning up like a dream. The colors are just gorgeous and I am easily amused watching the color transitions.

With a couple more finished skeins, I have been thinking more about knitting up handspun. I am planning a shawl with the two shades of alpaca. I am thinking a fairly simple garter stitch kind of thing to show off the yarn. I have been thinking about a hairband kind of thingy for the Merino-Rayon blend (something along these lines). For the colorful Targhee, I think I will finally cave and give in to a viral knit: Clapotis (yeah, maybe THE viral knit...6514 projects on Ravelry!).

More yarny goodness

I have just been spinning like crazy lately and finished up my 3.5 ounces of Corriedale wool. The roving was kind of rough, but, while the yarn isn't the softest I've felt by any stretch, I am pleasantly surprised how much nicer feeling the yarn is than either the roving or the singles!

The 3.5 ounces ended up as 288 yards of two ply. The consistency wasn't great, but plying covered up a lot of sins. At the beginning of the singles I was falling into the trap of getting thinner and thinner, which resulted in overspinning and snapping off the single with my heavy Ashford spindle. The spindle goes flying and I continue to teach my kids how to swear creatively. Therefore, I made a conscious effort to thicken it up a bit as I kept going. I plied the first bobbin to the last bobbin, to make it quasi-end-to-end and that averaged out most of the thickness differences.

I was absolutely taken by the color of this yarn. The individual fibers range from bright white to almost black and together make such a nice heathery gray. The singles even had a kind of barber pole striping with all the shades of colors. Plying blended it and made the gray more uniform, though there is still a lot of subtlety if you embiggen.

In other news, I am apparently a complete menace to society when I enter the kitchen. First, the good news. The toaster is once again fully functional. For future reference and other complete klutzes, I let it dry, then plugged it in to see how bad it was (pretty bad smoke and smell), unplugged it, let it cool, and then went after it with a toothbrush and a cup of water. The test fry was actually useful as it darkened up the soup spots and made them easier to find. I let it dry over night and then repeated the process for the spots I missed. KittyDaddy made toast for breakfast before I could repeat again. He reported a little smoke, but not too bad.

Anyhoo, last night made the great soup debacle seem pretty tame. Since I had a fridge full of phyllo dough getting ready to dry up and crumble on my, I decided to try my hand a baklava. I found time late afternoon prior to preparing supper to put it all together. It was a bit futzy and picky, but not as painful as I thought it would be and once I put it in the over, the most obscenely marvelous smells started coming out. It came out looking just fabulous...just like the real thing and it sizzled and bubbled and smelled even better when I poured the honey mixture over the top. I set it on a cooling rack on the stovetop to let it cool while I worked on supper, which was a puffed pancake made in the oven. When I took the preheating skillet out of the oven, I didn't get the potholder straight and managed to burn my hand on the uncovered part of the skillet handle. I put the skillet down quickly to run water on my hand and the oven door slammed the rest of the way shut. Usually not a big deal at all, but apparently someone (who shall remain nameless, but is the only other member of the household who is tall enough) had put the *full* teapot on the top edge of the stove (above where the dial thingies are). It came crashing down right on top of the baklava, dumping most of the water in. I think the kids learned some new words. Actually, I think the whole neighborhood might have. Then for the grand finale, while dishing up the dinner, I managed to burn myself yet again (apparently, the handle of a skillet that has been in a 400°F oven for a half an hour manages to warm up a bit), twice (obviously, I am not a quick study).

Summer weekends

Oh man, they go fast, don't they? Actually the weekdays go pretty fast, too, this time of year! Friday was knit night and I made a fair bit of progress on Laminaria. I am still completely taken by the pattern (well, except for the occasional row that makes me swear creatively, but it looks so pretty knit up that I immediately forgive it) and the Malabrigo laceweight! I had a gift card from Mother's Day and our anniversary from Kitty Daddy and the kids that I hadn't spent yet. Previous trips, I either left it laying at home or was hopelessly indecisive. Friday night, I finally had both the card and decisiveness! Since I have been spinning like crazy lately, I got some handpainted roving and a new spindle. The roving is from Mountain Colors in "Meadow":

It's even prettier in real life! I also got a Schacht Hi-Lo spindle, a medium weight (2.2 oz). As my yarn gets finer, I have been having more problems with breakage with my Ashford, so I thought I would try a little lighter and see if that helps.

On Saturday, we went to the annual Boy Scout pancake breakfast at Eugster's Farm. Yummy pancakes, eggs with ham, and ice cream sundaes, plus we wandered around after and visited with baby animals and played. Yeah, I forgot my camera.

Sunday was a relatively quiet day, since rain and thunderstorms were in the forecast. The rain delivered, but with the warm weather we have been having, the kids didn't mind at all. They ran around the back yard in the rain. Good times!

FO: Chocolate Alpaca

I finished up my chocolate alpaca yesterday! It is 60 grams (about 2 ounces) and I ended up with 188 yards...my thinnest yet! Like the white alpaca, it is a two ply. The two skeins of alpaca together will definitely be a shawl of some sort. For now, they will continue to be pets to cuddle and love.

We've been busy with summer fun. This week, we have spent an afternoon at the park playing in the sand, a trip to the local botanical garden, a quick trip to close park, and LOTS of running around in the back yard. This afternoon is farmers' market and maybe a couple other errands!

Busy, busy, busy!

At last a quick moment to sit down! Last week was rainy and overcast, so instead of a hike or other outdoor adventure, we took a trip on the city bus and went downtown to see the Wisconsin Historical Museum. It was a fairly short trip as some of the exhibits tended to be a bit dry for a three-year-old and five-year-old, but I foresee many more trips as they get bigger. I thought it was fascinating (or at least as much of it as I could read without getting TOO far behind the kids!). As a bonus, we ran into Dale-Harriet, who is a volunteer there, leading a group of school kids around. While the school kids had a few minutes of free exploration, we got to chat for a bit.

Most of Thursday and Friday (except for our requisite library trip) was spent doing laundry and packing for our trip to Iowa. If you aren't a local, or are one of the three residents of Wisconsin that Bug didn't tell about our trip plans, we went to visit Grandma and go to KittyDaddy's 20-year high school reunion. Iowa is currently giving Minnesota a run for its money on the 10,000 lakes thing, and if they get anymore rain, they may join Hawaii and become the second state comprised completely of islands! The kids had a great time with Grandma (except Beeb, who was not amused by being left behind without Mama) and we also got to see one of Mike's sisters while we were there. As for the reunion, I think KittyDaddy had a good time. As for me, let's just say I was the spouse at a high-school reunion and leave it at that.

The highlight of the trip for me was the knitting time in the car! I worked on my Laminaria and got a couple of blossom chart repeats finished and since my homemade spindle is so dinky, I even got about 10 grams of Corriedale spun. I also got the next hank of Malabrigo wound for the Laminaria. We also brought home a dresser from Grandma's basement. I am in the process of repainting a bench with storage under the seat that we brought home on our last trip, so I will have more refinishing to do when I get done with that! We'll have to wait for everything to dry out first...on Sunday as we were coming home, Madison was having record rainfall. From the NWS today: "A record rainfall of 4.11 inches was set at Madison yesterday. This breaks the old record of 1.4 set in 1874."

The other big excitement from last week was Beeb's nine-month well-baby checkup. He weighs in at 20 pounds and stands 29 inches tall! Beyond that, he was proclaimed both very healthy and adorable, neither a big surprise.

We are also looking pretty seriously at relocating in August. KittyDaddy has been commuting nearly 20 miles each way from our current location. Add to that a growing dissatisfaction with a few of our neighbors and the management (or lack thereof) of the apartment complex. We found a place just two blocks from his office. Like here, we will be within walking distance of a grocery store (if the weather is nice and the kids are feeling perky) and I think we could probably even make the library on foot (with the books in our trusty red wagon). There is even a wonderful bakery just a block or two away from the library that could be used as bribery in a pinch. As much as I dread the idea of packing up and moving again, I think it will be a good thing if everything falls into place.

FO: Baby Stuff!

I finally get to reveal the mystery knits! I made some baby stuff for the little girl that will be joining these two in about six weeks.

This is my baby brother and his lovely wife. Can you just imagine how stinkin' cute this little gal is going to be?? The knits are the Mason-Dixon one-piece baby kimono, Bunny Blanket Buddy, and my old stand-by knit from the top down hat.

Specifications
Pattern: Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting.
Yarn: Blue Sky Organic Cotton, Bernat CottonTots for Trim
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 7
Mods: Used stockinette instead of the ubiquitous M-D garter stitch, used yo instead of m1 for increases, also added a crochet edging and made crocheted ties instead of using ribbons.

Pattern: Bunny Blanket Buddy from Lion Brand Yarn.
Yarn: Bernat CottonTots
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 7

Pattern: Easy Knit-from-the-Top-Down Hat from Knitting for Dummies
Yarn: Blue Sky Organic Cotton, Bernat CottonTots for Trim
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 7
Mods: Stockinette with ribbed contrast brim

It was also a busy spinning month. I have definitely found a better spinning groove! It's going faster, though there is still a bit of a trade off between speed and consistency of the single. Since things keep wanting to go thinner and thinner, my next goal is to try and work on getting thicker again, but obviously not until I get something new on the spindle!

Spin My Spindle May 2008
Fiber:	Corriedale	Chocolate Alpaca	Viscose
Spindle:	Homemade	Ashford	Turkish
Amount:	24 grams	39 grams	4 grams

In addition, I wound off 29 g of Corriedale and 30 g of Chocolate Alpaca on to toilet paper roll bobbins.

You gotta read this book!

I found this book at the library last week, and, while I usually reserve our reading adventures for the other blog, I HAD to share this one with my fibery friends! The book is The Surprise by Sylvia Van Ommen. It is beautifully illustrated and has sheep, fleece, spinning, knitting, and other good stuff! It doesn't have any actual text, so Bean (who has been a little jealous of Bug's fledgling reading skills) has been "reading" (describing the pictures of) this one to me every night.

In my last post, I completely forgot our other big Memorial Day event! On Friday night, we made our second annual trip to the World's Largest Brat Fest. We did our part in helping to set a new record of 191,712 brats consumed. Okay, technically brats, hot dogs, and Boca brats (you veggie-sauruses can breathe easy. It wasn't all animal parts). Bug and Kitty Daddy also took a ride on the huge ferris wheel. Dismally overpriced, but Bug thought it was like flying and thought it was very cool to be able to see practically the whole state of Wisconsin (well, technically just a chunk of the Madison area, but do you want to be the one to burst his bubble?).

Oh, and my grand trauma from the holiday weekend. I was on my way to a hang-out-in-the-backyard-with-[ADULT!!!!]-friends-and-cook-out and noticed that there weren't any cars parked in the lot by our neighborhood Caribou Coffee. While most businesses are closed for Memorial Day, it seemed a bit odd that a coffee shop or restaurant would be closed. So I swung through the parking lot out of curiosity and there was a sign proclaiming that it was "Permanently Closed." My 'Bou! Gone forever! I was just there knitting and sipping coffee a week ago on Mother's Day. Very sad day!

Mmmmm....chocolate!

I have been spinning like crazy! I have been mostly working on the Corriedale fiber on my homemade spindle, but the chocolate alpaca has been calling my name in a manner most unbecoming a ball of fluff! Since my Ashford spindle had been sitting idle, I pulled it out and answered the alpaca's siren call. The picture barely does it justice, but it is just the color of cocoa or a really creamy chocolate bar. I have to resist the urge to lick it when I'm spinning.

After seeing someone using a top whorl spindle, I decided to give it a whirl (tee-hee, whirl...get it??? *snerk*) and something just clicked with it. I finally figured out how to spin it off my leg so it goes really fast and I don't have to keep stopping to get it spinning again. I still occasionally have trouble coordinating spin speed with drafting speed, which results in the drop spindle being very aptly named, but I am spinning about twice as fast as I had been and working through the fiber a lot faster. It also transferred to the bottom whorl homemade spindle, so that is moving along quite nicely, too! I still haven't felt brave enough to go back to the dreaded viscose, but eventually...

We have had a relatively quiet Memorial Day weekend, but on Saturday, we went to Blue Mounds State Park. We had a nice hike on one of the trails and then spent some time hanging out. The kids (Bug, Bean, and Kitty Daddy) tried to fly their kites, with not a whole lot of success, but they had fun trying. The day was beautiful, the scenery was breathtaking:

the wildflowers were amazing (by all means, embiggen them all!):



and the hikers were intrepid (though some had trouble keeping her pants up):

The trail we hiked was Indian Marker Trail. This is the marker:

It is a white oak that, as a young sapling, was bent into place with leather straps to point toward a significant site. The one points to the place on the horizon where the sun rises on the first day of summer. When it died in 2003, it was about 150-170 years old.