I have some Tour de Fleece spinning to show! I bought a bag of 100% alpaca from Fantom Farm at last year's Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival...
I didn't spin it for a very long time because it's 100% alpaca and quite slippery. Turns out, it was quite easy and fast once I got the right ratio on my wheel...
I also finished 8 oz. of merino from Frabjous Fibers (colorway = redwood forest)...
I made it all into worsted/bulky low-twist singles...
Those two spinning projects were quite fast, only taking a few days each to complete. I've spent more than a week on this stuff:
8 oz of Ashland Bay Merino (colorway = mojave). I'm filling up two bobbins, trying to make a worsted weight two-ply when all is said and done.
Before starting TdF, I set aside all the fiber I wanted to complete. It's all of the above, plus:
Hmmm... Think I can do it all by Sunday, July 26?
(By the way, I'm going to be out of town and unable to spin next week.)
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted, less than one skein
Needles: US 6 (ribbing), US 8 (body)
Mods: I used BrooklynTweed's modifications for continuing the cables up the crown. I did it wrong the first time, of course, and had to rip back, but I got it eventually.
This hat fits Dollar perfectly and while he has decided to keep it, I'm tempted to make another for him in a darker color.
I've been quietly participating in Tour de Fleece for the past couple weeks and to get ready, I had to finish up some spinning that I had been putting off. I had one bobbin of singles and didn't really feel like doing the second because I hated the roving.
This is J. Knits Our Best Roving. And ironic name, I think, because this is one of the worst spinning experiences I've had. I'm sure the roving is a "dream" to spin when it's new/fresh, but this was felted. Tearing apart strips was like tearing apart cloth. And those strips had to be predrafted apart by hand because I couldn't properly draft it at the wheel.
When all was said and done, I ended up with:
It's soft and the merino is bouncy but it's uneven:
I couldn't get a consistant thickness because I would hit felted sections of fiber. Ugh. And I have another 4 oz bump in different colorway. Not really sure what to do about that...
This is the bedroom window. He likes to jump up to this window about an hour before the alarm is set to go off, and knock his head against the blinds until I get up and open the blinds and window for him. Then he settles down to watch the world wake up:
More than a year ago I embroidered some cloths for Dollar. He is still using them and they've held up well to many machine washings. I ordered some more tea towels from the Sublime Stitching website, thinking they would be the same thin, soft towels that came in the kit. The ones I got were VERY large and made of thicker material.
I unfolded one of the towels, showed Dollar and asked what he thought. He said "They're nice... But I think if they were half that size, they would be perfect. I can't really fold up that huge thing and stuff it in my pocket." I eyed my sister's sewing machine, sitting in a cardboard box in a corner of my dining room for more than a year.
I took it out and took it apart. I read through the instruction manual on how to clean out the lint and where to oil it. I somehow managed to put it back together...
I cut the tea towels. Here they are post-cutting. (Yes, they were too huge to begin with)...
I folded and ironed the cut edge:
And sewed it!
I sewed it! OMGWTFBBQFTW! I never sew. It's just a straight line, but seriously... I'm so proud of it.
I even got out the seam ripper to rip out the pink tags (which I'm guessing Dollar doesn't want) and sew the seam closed again.
I showed Dollar all the iron-on transfers I have and had him pick out what he liked best. Drums, of course...
And I started a snake...
The big win here is that I'm no longer terrified of the sewing machine. Wary of it, sure, but not terrified.
Here are the finished Selbu Moderns that people brought to Hat Club last Tuesday:
As you can see, the hat can go from beanie shaped to slouchy beret depending on what yarn you use and your needle size.
Here's my finished hat:
I started another one but it needs to be ripped:
I call it Selboo. The contrasting yarn I'm using against the black is a sock yarn that self-stripes. The picture doesn't accurately show how the lines of color (especially that yellow) distract from the stranded pattern. It's going to be a pain in the butt to rip (from weaving all the floats), but I'll do it some night when I'm exceptionally bored.
Speaking of hats, I've reduced the number of hats I have by at least half. This past weekend we had 4th of July stuff going on with Dollar's family and I brought a brown paper bag full of hats that I've made over the years. I regularly only wear 2 or 3 different hats in the winter, so all my Hat Club hats were simply laying unloved in a drawer.
I brought hats that were too tall for me, too short for me, hats that looked weird on me. I set them out and people took what they liked. I've decided that I'll start making Hat Club hats in masculine colors and let Dollar keep what he likes. Anything he doesn't want will go into the annual Sac o' Hats, so there will be lots for both the women and men folk. (This year's Sac o' Hats was definitely female-centric in shapes and colors.)
MF loves the quilt that Dollar's grandmother made:
This shows you where he likes to sleep on the bed and how much room he takes up. I usually wait for him to start snoring, then I drag his body out of the way to the bottom of the bed. Or over to Dollar's side of the bed :)
Pattern: There is a tag/booklet that comes with the yarn for a knit scarf and hat, and a crocheted scarf and hat. This is the knit hat. It's soft and slouchy- just my style.
Here's a fast (about 15 minutes) and fun game that I'm currently in love with- Incan Gold.
There are 5 rounds, which can last anywhere from 3 seconds to a few minutes (depending on what cards are turned over). The ancient temple (and rumored artifacts) are revealed in ascending order. Here we have already turned over cards 1-3:
Your action choices are simple- either continue exploring or head back to camp with the treasure you've found so far. The "press you luck" mechanic is what makes this little game so intense.
Here's a path of treasures and hazards. You can see a player's tent in the background, with some turquoise sitting outside of it.
If you flee- I mean, head back to camp, you get to tuck your treasure safely away inside your tent, keeping the exact amount secret from other players until the end of the game:
Here are the two actions cards. Everyone secretly chooses one, then reveals them together- you never know who's going to stay or who's going to go. The one on the left is the "back to camp" card, the one on the right is the "continue exploring" card.
Here's something I noticed recently. The guy's bag in the "back to camp" card has a tear in it!
I hope he didn't drop too many treasures on his way out.
But the BEST best part of the game is the NEW gems I got. I went to Gemstar Gemstone in Enfield with my sister to replace the plastic turquoise, obsidian and gold pieces.
Here's the pieces that came with the game:
Here are the pieces that we got:
So much prettier and heavier and nicer. Gemstar did have real turquoise nuggets but buying enough would have put me WAY over budget. As it is, I spent more on the gems than I did on the game itself.
This weekend, Dollar came to get me to point out Murderface:
Passed out, on the messy spare bed in the craft room (I have lots of projects going). What I like about this picture is that it looks like MF made the mess himself and then collapsed in exhaustion.
I've started to update my BoardGameGeek account and found a widget to show random games from my collection. Scroll down and look to the left-side column. You can click on these games to learn more.
BoardGameGeek, the website, can see a little intimidating because there is so. much. information. Lots and lots of info, images, trading, forums, files, stats, etc. It can seem overwhelming but there isn't a better resource for researching a boardgame.
So I've got Ravelry for all my fiber crafts, BGG for all my boardgame needs... Now I need an equivalent for cooking...
Sorry for not posting in a few weeks. We've been chillaxing with lots of game-playing. My current favorite boardgame is Zooloretto. I have all the available expansions (XXL, Exotic) and we play with them all- minus the building sites, which I feel is too... aggressive for some players. (Seriously, Dollar would considering it a combat action).
Anyway, the game is basically you filling up a zoo. That's the basic game. With the XXL expansion, you can have a petting zoo and fill it with baby animals. You have a savings book to make more money. You have a secret job board that gives you bonuses for specific animals. You can buy extra mini enclosures for a few kinds of animals. You can send full enclosures of animals to international zoos. There are pavilions to buy, a souvenir shop to win, a restaurant, and a polar bear and gorilla that help you.
As if that wasn't enough, I got the Exotic expansion that adds a track around your main board, to fill with exotic animals only. This expansion also introduces visitors to your park! Yay for meeples! They move around your zoo when you get new exotic animals or vendors. When an opponent places an exotic animal, a visitor color of his/her choice will move forward and yours will actually move BACK and head for the exit. "Did you hear Dollar's Zoo just got another koala? Let's leave Amy's Zoo and head over there!" I like that aspect of the game- fickle visitors subject to the lure of new animals.
Here are our finished boards from a 4-player game. I made some scoring spreadsheets to help tally things up at the end (because of all the expansions) and I'm always surprised at how close the scores are at the end of gameplay.
Fury of Dracula. This is a co-op game where vampire hunters work together trying to track down Dracula across Europe. His current and previous locations are hidden (unless you have a card that reveals one) so you have to go from city to city, seeing if he's been there. I like that the game has the hunters working together but it was so long. After more than 3 hours of play, we finally had Dracula cornered- until he magically disappeared to another unknown location. Very frustrating and we called it quits after that. Do you know how many fights with Dracula or his minions I got into? None. I was all loaded up with a pistol, rifle, crucifix, etc. And I didn't get into one fight. But it was a good game- this was only the 2nd time I've played and it was a lot more interesting and fun than the 1st time.
Incan Gold. Previously knows as Diamant, I just got the 2009 edition. This is a fast and fun game...
"You and your fellow adventurers explore the ruins of an ancient Incan temple, looking for turquoise, obsidian and gold. At every turn, you must decide whether to play it safe by returning to camp with the treasure you've gathered so far; or to be a truly intrepid adventurer and keep on exploring. Going further into the ruins means risking your treasure by falling victim to giant spiders, wandering mummies, fire spouts and venomous snakes! But priceless Incan artifacts are rumored to exist here... and you can be the one to discover them if you conquer your fears and forge ahead!"
It's the press-your-luck element that makes this game fun. And the little pop-up paper tents that you hide your treasure under are very cute. The finishing touch would be replacing the plastic turquoise, obsidian and gold pieces with real little nuggets of turquoise, obsidian and pyrite. Perhaps a trip to Gemstar Gemstone in Enfield?
Shear Panic! As an avid knitter and gamer, I felt obliged to own this game. Plus, I love the tagline: "The best game ewe ever herd!" I haven't played this yet, but the pieces are very nice and I've read many good reviews. The game comes with rules for a two-player variant, so I'd like to try that with Dollar.
Other games we've pulled out recently: Alhambra, Memoir '44, Puerto Rico. I also recently taught Dollar how to play Backgammon. The weather is going to be pretty crappy for the rest of the week, so boardgames sound like just the thing.
I love dishcloths that use two colors. This is a great pattern, very easy and the resulting cloths are very stretchy. I would recommend using either two solid colors or one solid color and a variegated with very few colors or minor color changes. I the above blue/green worked well (there is only slight pooling), but I tried a variegated with 4 or 5 colors and the pattern worked up very muddled.
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette, light gray, light blue, less than 1 ball of each.
Notes: I didn't go about this pattern the right way. The light blue and light gray looked different enough when I held them next to one another, but worked up... You can see there's not enough contrast. And I did this hat in 2 days. Talk about binge knitting. The pattern is clear and easy and fun and I just couldn't stop. I ended up stressing out one of my forearms and I don't even like the finished hat all that much. I think I'll do the pattern again, but I'll take my time. The one nice thing about the hat is that I only used $2 worth of yarn (Palette is so cheap!).
Notes: I added some random *k2tog, yo* rows. I saw some other projects on Ravelry that had some and I think it helps to balance the spine of yarn-overs up the middle.
This yarn is great. It retails at around $30 per skein, but each skein is a whopping 250g and 491 yards. The fiber content is 95% wool and 5% silk. It is so so so so soft. Every time I worked on this, people would want to touch it (or the cat would want to be on it).
I have 90g leftover from the 2nd skein that I'm not quite sure what to do with. The yarn comes with a couple patterns to knit or crochet, so I may do the suggested knit hat.
Yarn: Frog Tree Meriboo (70% merino, 30% bamboo), 1.2 balls.
Needles: US 6
This yarn was very nice to work with. Very shiny from the bamboo and it's so so so soft (perfect for something that will be worn around the neck). The yarn is a loose two-ply, which creates a nubbley texture:
You don't get the smooth stitch definition from a tightly-plied, round yarn. I was worried it wouldn't work for this pattern, but I like it. You can still see the turtle tracks.
This pattern was very easy and would be a good stash-busting project. I had too balls of meriboo and only used a small bit of the 2nd, so I have leftovers, but it's totally do-able with one ball.
I did a regular long-tail cast on and a sewn bind off for stretchiness. I made the larger size but only cast on 98 stitches (99 wouldn't work with the 1x1 ribbing) and increased to 99 when I was ready to start the pattern. I decreased one stitch when I was ready to do the ribbing at the end.
It was another beautiful weekend here. Murderface likes to roll around on a freshly cut lawn:
I had a nice catnip plant outside, up off the ground so MF wouldn't wreck it. I would tear off a leaf or two to give to him. I went outside Saturday morning and it was wrecked. I blame the neighbor's cat. I put the pot on the ground and let MF have the remains. Which I felt bad about because the plant was for him.
When MF is outside, likes to lay in and along the cedar trees we have lining the edge of our yard.
Notes: I cast on 32 and knit a rectangle in garter stitch until I used up all 2 balls. Blocked measurement = 10 inches x 20 inches.
I like the cowl, I just need to figure out how to wear/fold/slouch the thing around my neck to make it look casual-cool and not weirdly-lopsided.
I don't recommend this yarn. Color rubbed off onto my fingers as I was knitting (I had blue fingertips for a couple days) and it slightly colored my bamboo knitting needles. I had to wash and rinse the cowl three times and color still bled onto towels when I rolled the water out. Thankfully, my blocking board didn't get stained.
For the summer, I wanted to knit Dollar some ankle socks. I finished the first pair:
Pattern: Basic Sock Pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns
Needles: US 7
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease, 1 ball, color hazelnut.
I like that I was able to make the pair from one ball. I've used this yarn in the past and know that it machines washes/dries fine. So that's one pair for me, one pair for him, next pair will be for me...
Pattern: No pattern per se. These were toe-up (following these instructions) and rather than a short-row heel, I went for a heel flap (following these instructions) this time.
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock
Needles: US 2
Notes: Hate the yarn. Hate the socks. Hate the way they feel on. Hate the fact that there was a knot that broke the color progression. You can see they matched until I got to the heel flap, then I had to start over at pink.
He usually spends the weekends napping on the spare bed in the craft room while I sit next to him and knit. If the weather's really nice, I make him go outside, where he spends the day napping under the trees. I told Dollar I want to change his name to Lazyface.
I made chocolate chip cookies this weekend. I went to eat one and saw this face half-smiling at me:
I can't eat you when you're giving me that wry expression! I had to put the cookie away and choose one that had no physiognomy.
I have my chocolate-chip cookie making down to a precise science. I follow this recipe (omitting the grated chocolate and nuts). For hardware, I use 2 half sheet pans from King Arthur Flour, 2 Silpat mats and 1 Oxo Good Grips medium cookie scoop. I love the scoop because all the cookies are uniformly shaped and the recipe makes enough for 24 scoops. Exactly. Each baking sheet gets 12 scoops. Exactly. There is never a wimpy half scoop at the end or extra left over. The ingredients and scoop come together like magic.
I went to the Jamaica Fiber Festival this past Saturday. I met some alpacas, bought some yarn, knit on a cafe porch, weaved on a large loom and saw the best sheep shearing demonstration I've ever seen. The shearer was a great public speaker. See the set I made here:
I returned home and took a nap with Murderface. Later that evening, Dollar and I headed up to Higher Ground in Burlington to see a Henry Rollins spoken word show. It was very good. There was a crack or two about Ben & Jerry's (is this seriously all people know about or associate with Vermont?) but it was a very funny show. He has got to be one of the most well-traveled people in the world.
The weather was pretty rainy during the drive up and back. It was still daylight when we went up but the drive back was quite intense. It was dark (I honestly don't see too well at night), it was raining, it was the interstate, it was midnight and my gas light came on when we were still 40 minutes away from home. All of these things helped fuel my insane fear of a lone tailgater behind me. I was driving about 55 miles an hour and the car was right behind me. I hit the brakes in an attempt to get the car to go around but they slowed down as well. I sped back up and they did too.
Fearfully, randomly, I took an exit... And they did too! I start hyperventilating and Dollar kind of tenses up. At the end of the ramp, I turned on my blinker to go right... And they did too! Dollar's all, "Go left! Just go left!" Heart thumping, I cranked the wheel to the left and took off... And the other car still went right. We laugh nervous, relieved laughter. "Paranoid much? Hahahah." Then Dollar and I realize that were on some random route, futilely looking for open gas stations. There were none.
I have no idea how we made it home and didn't run out of gas. I've never driven my car on empty for so long before. I am just grateful.
Mods: I accidentally used a US 10 for the body of the hat (the pattern calls for a US 9). Which might explain why the hat was coming out so large. I ended up having to cut the pattern short so that I didn't make a ridiculously long hat.
Patons SWS was a good yarn for this project- the stripes are just the right length.
Here's the other 8oz bundle of Corriedale pencil roving I had from Crown Mountain Farms:
I thought about doing a 3-ply, but after Black Sun took so. fricking. long. I just went for a 2-ply:
I'm having "morning after" regret. I like this 2-ply, but I don't love it. I think I might have loved a 3-ply. I'm kicking myself in the butt for being too lazy to do a 3-ply. Ugh. I can't help thinking that I ruined perfectly good fiber, you know? Like, you buy all these nice foods and groceries, then dump them all in a pot together and quickly boil it. It's done but... You could have done better.
I like pencil roving but I'm not sure I'll order more dyed fiber from Crown Mountain Farms. The color application is not even and as I'm spinning, I've noticed that some colors present earlier will be missing for a good long while (this happened with both Ishkur and Black Sun). So far, I think the best pencil roving is Louet Northern Lights- consistent color and it drafts like butter.
