back from a long absence

Hi there everyone. sorry for the long delay between post but life sort of gets in the way sometimes.

I started a new job recently and the hours are a bit earlier than I'm used to but I'm getting used to the 4:00 AM alarm. Sleep is overrated anyway but the weekend has become a most treasured time.

The spinning has been sporadic with some good results lately. I finished the project for the Ravelry group "Ply-by-night". The group is a spin/knit along where we all spin the same roving and then knit the same pattern.

The pictures show the progression of the project. It was spun long draw woolen style about 18 WPI. The pattern is the Morning Surf Scarf but it was knit long ways to show off the color change.

I'm currently spinning some 70/30 merino silk that I purchased from a wonderful lady I met on Plurk. Moonlight Baker has an Etsy shop with some really special fiber that I just couldn't resist.

Next on the queue is some other new fiber I just bought that is not what I would normally buy. Hey, I'm trying to step out of the box a little. Mrs. Twisted loved the colors when I showed her so she will most likely knit something for herself with it.

5.4 ounces of BFL, colorway Eowyn from Dicentra Designs. VERY soft and I think it will be pretty once it's spun.

The doorway should have some more boxes including one from knitpicks in the next week or so. I contacted the farm where my Cormo fleece come from and the shearing is in the next month or so. I'm very happy to have the knowledge that more fiber is coming my way so I can feel free to spin what I have. I know that sounds funny but I didn't want to spin it all if I couldn't get more of the same quality.

So much more to talk about but I'll do it another day.

OK that's enough for now, I'll try to blog a little more often.

Life Is Good

Happy Monday

Hope you are all having a good 2009 so far. I know it's only day five but it seems to be flying by already.

One little picture before I move forward. Last week we had some time after Christmas and spent a day of antiquing in old town Orange. Not like we were going to buy anything but it's fun to look at all the neat stuff and maybe find some purple transferware as a mate to our plate. We had our knitting with us so we took some time to enjoy the afternoon sun and knit in the park located in the circle.


Last Thursday was my Mom's birthday and we go visit her grave with some flowers and do some reflecting. She passed 27 years ago but she lives in my heart everyday. For those of you who are familiar with Southern Ca, it's at Rose Hills. A beautiful serene place sit and think. We've seen a whole herd of deer there in the late evening in past visits and their are signs warning of mountain lions. I guess one attracts the other, I just hope we never see the cats.

We always bring our knitting and a blanket to enjoy the sun and spend some time reminiscing about our Moms. No, we didn't have someone take the picture. I was a little creative with what we had with us.

Behold the size 15 tripod. I guess that would be a bipod.

The grounds are huge and the decorations people leave are incredible. We took a drive past the main entrance and the rose gardens are trimmed back in the main garden but their are still hundred of plants in full bloom on the first day of January.

The time people took to decorate must be cathartic for them. We saw where people brought in six foot trees with glass ornaments and battery operated lights.

I think my mom would have loved it but she would have insisted that it come down promptly on the 26th because that's how it was in our home.

OK on to other news and activities.

The Ply-By-Night group in Ravelry has taken a lot of my attention lately. I won't re-hash too much but we all are starting with this fiber and the same pattern to knit.

From the beginning I wanted to make a few changes and add some creativity. I wasn't thrilled with the colorway but saw it as a challenge to make it work. Some of the other people in the group were talking about pooling or barber poling when they ply and what to do about. I wanted to control the colors as they were being spun and thought I would try two methods of carding to see what happens. I have some Bamboo that was carded in one of the methods and have seen the resultant yarn and it looked pretty good. There is a second method that I think will work as well but since the minimum order was 8oz I split the roving and made two batts of each method. I will spin all 8oz and swatch the pattern in each to make my choice for the final selection. You never know what it will look like until you actually knit it up to see what you got. Here is the end result if you don't want to watch the video ferther down in the post.

The following video is my first try using Microsoft Movie Maker and it was quite fun adding the little transitions and the scrolling disclaimer. This was shot using my Fuji point and shoot digital in movie mode so the quality is not the greatest and the transfer to Youtube doesn't help the quality either. I want to thank Melissa for the use of her drum carder and letting us invade her kitchen to make this video.



You can watch the video in higher quality here if you click the high quality option. Oh there is some sound too.

I can't tell how good it felt to envision something in my head and be able to execute the process so it turned out how I saw it in my mind. I was doing the happy dance for some time after we left. Being too happy to resist we stopped for some Popeye's chicken dinner as a treat. I know we fell of the wagon a little but it sure was good. The Red beans and rice is like nirvana in my mouth.

One last thing before I go. Do you enjoy House MD? The TV show with Hugh Laurie in it. We started watching Jeeves & Wooster recently and were thrilled with the show. This was a four season British show based on the novels by P.G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse. What a great show! If you enjoy British TV I would recommend this for your Netflix queue