Missy B

A Clutch of Cowls?

When I saw this article in Spindlicity I knew I wanted to spin some camel and make one of these cowls but tryig to limit myself to just two ounces.  I quickly spun long draw 2ozs of baby camel during one of Joaquin's naps and plied it into a two yarn during another nap.   The knitting wasn't accomplished quite so quickly but not because the pattern is hard but because that's how things are with a baby. 

I only did three repeats of the main patten since I knew I would have yarn to make it longer.  Even still I ended up spinning up a little more when it became apparent that I was going to run out of yarn while I was working on the edging.  I weighed the cowl after I finished and it only weighed 68 grams so i was only 12 grams off.

The fit on this cowl is very loose and floppy on me.  The fact that it is 100% camel gives it beautiful drape but not much body.  I think if I were to make this again I would either take out two repeats of vine lace to make it a closer fitting cowl or make it longer like it in the pattern.  Regardless, I think this pattern is very pretty and was a fun spin & knit project.

  The cowl was knit as a sample for the Tactile booth using one 2 ounce skein of 50/50 Yak/Cormo wool.  The pattern is Crofter's Cowl (Rav Link) but I lengthened it by adding a repeat on either side.  This cowl is a lot closer fit than the camel cowl above and stands up a lot more.  The pattern is quick and easy but if you don't like to Kitchner then I wouldn't pick this pattern since you knit the two halves separately then Kitchner then together.

Okay, maybe two cowls does not a clutch make but I liked the alteration! 
 

A Spot of Spinning

 

For the past few months I've been trying to spin every day even if it is the three minutes it takes Enrique to change Joaquin's diaper in the morning.  It does add up to finished yarns eventually!

These yarns are from Tactile's first two month's of the fiber club shipments.  From left to right: 70/30 Alpaca/Tussah 2-ply, 80/20 Merino/Tussah chain plied, 80/20 Merino/Tussah 3-ply, 50/50 Merino/angora chain plied, 50/50 merino/angora chain plied, Finn wool 3-ply.  My tactic has been to spin the fibers from the comfort club into sock yarn (worsted, multi-ply) and be a bit freer with the luxury club.  The 70/30 alpaca/tussah was spun over the fold layering the solid and the painted top to get more of a blended look to the yarn.  The 50/50 Merino/angora was spun long draw.

It's been a fun challenge to think about all the different ways to spin the two tops (one is semi-solid and the other is painted) to get different effects.  I also try to think a little bit about what I want to make with the yarn before I start spinning.  From the 70/30 Alpaca/Tussah think I am going to make a shawl (perhaps an Aestlight Shawl (Rav link)).  From the 50/50 Merino/Angora I'm going to make a cowl but I'm not sure which on yet.  I was thinking of something where the body would be in the solid and then use the painted as an edging that I would knit on length-wise to show off the color changes.  If you have any ideas or suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Tour de Fleece & a 6 Month Old

   I'm participating in this year's Tour de Fleece.  I've joined Team Suck Less.  The goals of the team is to spin a mile of yarn during one day (24 hours) and to suck less, as defined by each person.  I'm fairly certain that I won't be able to spin a mile in one day because of the baby and work but my goal for sucking less is to spin every day even if it is the five minutes it takes my husband to change the baby. 

Right now I'm spinning merino batts from Sugarbee Studios in the colorway 'Gregory' (her esty store is here).  This is a present for a friend.  I'm going to chain ply this to keep each of the screaming colors separate.  There were 4 batts and I'm about a quarter of the way finished with the last batt.

On the 27th of June Joaquin turned 6 months.  I find this so hard to believe.  He has really woken up to the world around him and no reaches out to try and touch everything.
He is a wonderful, funny baby and we're having a ball.

Whirlwind SOAR Review

  I've been a very fortunate and busy girl for the past two weeks.  I was very lucky to be able to attend SOAR this year again for the second time.  This year it was held in the "U.P." otherwise know as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  I flew in on the last flight with Judith MacKenzie McCuin out of Chicago.  When we landed (late!) in Traverse City I discovered they had decided to leave one of my bags in Chicago because the plane was over weight.  Better my one of my bags than one of Judith since she was teaching the next day.  Thankfully the front desk had an extra toothbrush and toothpaste so I would be able to talk with people then next day. 
  My room was down the hill from the Main building and this was the view as I walked back up the hill.  Isn't the fall color beautiful?  When we first got there it was in the 80's and humid by the end of the week it was down in the 50's and 60's.  Much better for all the people wanting to wear their handknits.
  On Monday we started our three day retreat classes.  This year I took a fiber preparation class with Robin Russo.  For the first day and half we focused on combs starting with hand combs ad then we moved on to English and Russian Paddle combs.  For each different tool we used a coarse, medium, and fine wool and then spun a thick, medium, and fine sample.  After that we worked with exotics such as qiviut, mohair, alpaca, angora, and llama.  We then moved on to color and fiber blending.  For the second half of the class we did the same fibers on the drum carders.  We ended the class doing  "designer batts" as Robin calls them where we had free reign with the fibers and she pulled out some silk and silk noil to use as well. 
  On Wednesday each class put together a table full of examples of what we did in our classes.  That is Sara Lamb checking out our class table at left.

  Thursday was a day off.  The vendor area was open and in the afternoon we had to pick which four half-day classes we wanted to take for the next two days. 

  On Friday morning I took entrelac knitting with Kathryn Alexander.  She is a lovely, energetic teacher.  I am still working on turning my sample into a little bag.

  On Friday afternoon I took lace spinning with Margaret Stove.  She started out by talking to us about how to set up our wheel for super fine lace spinning.  She then moved on to showing us her lock by lock washing method.  At one point she scrubs the lock of wool vigorously on a bar of soap all the while never letting go of one end much to the amazement of all her students.  I don't think anybody believed that it wouldn't felt until they did it themselves.  The picture at left is of a handspun and hand knit shawl by Margaret herself. 

  On Saturday morning I took a long draw class with Maggie Casey where we spun both carded wool and cotton.  I think that for a lot of people that was the first time they had spun cotton comfortably.  She uses the carded pima cotton from Cotton Clouds and swears that it is "magic cotton" because it spins so easily.

  My last class was inkle loom weaving with Sara Lamb.  Inkle looms were the one type of loom that I had yet to weave on so I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity for a little exposure. Weaving a simple band was a great way to wrap up the week.

  I'm not quite up to admitting what all I bought at the vendor's area yet but I will show you a picture of the new Forrester Spindle I bought from French Hill Farm.  I love this spindle and spun on it all the rest of the week as well as while I was walking around Rhinebeck this weekend.  It spins like a dream.  Next to it is pictured the singles that I spun from all the samples that came in or SOAR goody bag this year.  The Forrester has a tapered end that allows you to fit a straw over it and slide you singles onto the straw for easy storage and plying.

  All in all SOAR was great again this year.  I love going because it is a wonderful combination of learning from fabulous teaches, meeting new people, and catching up with friends.  Unfortunately I seem to have come away with the same SOAR bug that Stephanie is sick with and boy has it been a humdinger.  My voice, which is low on a good day, has been approaching life time smoker low and gravely off and on for the whole week.  I'm finally beginning to have moments where I feel almost normal so I am hoping that this cold is on its way out. 

  Maia, Rachael, and I are on our way back down to NYC this morning after having a blast at Rhinebeck but that will have to wait for the next update.  Right now I must pack so we can get to the train station!

Fleece Storage Tips from Judith

When I was talking about Judith's class I forgot to mention these few tips that she told that I thought would be of general interest.  Silly me!

-First of all, her book is out.  I don't have my copy yet but I think I am going to go and pick it up from Morgiane on Monday.

-Apparently freezing moth eggs makes them 30% more viable but it will kill any that have progressed onto the creepy, crawly stage.  So beware if you have a moth problem and the only thing you do is put it in the freezer. 

-Putting things in the microwave only burst the moth eggs if they have enough moisture in them.

-She recommends plastic bins or pales with snap on lids over cardboard and brown paper bags because the cardboard and bags have been dyed to be uniformly brown and the dye has a smell that attracts moths.

-Her preferred method for storing a fleece (washed or unwashed) is to stuff it into a plastic pale that has a snap on lid.  The idea is to try and get as much air out of it as possible.

-Also, when she combs she spritzes water with a little mint or lavender oil mixed in it on the fleece.  This helps control the static electricity and helps to prevent moth issues.

There were so many more nuggets of wisdom she passed along but these are what I can come up with off the top of my head.  If I think of any more I'll be sure to share them.  Also, if you ever get a chance to take a class with Judith, do so, even if it is on boiling water.  You are sure to learn something.

Spinning with Judith

  Two weeks ago (I'm so behind!) I was lucky enough to take a three day spinning intensive taught by Judith MacKenzie McCuin and hosted by Morgaine of Carolina Homespun.  It was a great class.  Judith is one of my favorite teachers.  Pictured at left is my spinning from the class.  On the bobbins from left to right is worsted spinning from merino top, woolen spinning of down fibers, and worsted spinning of various fibers.  The skein on top is from a plying exercise.  Judith brought cones of lightly spun singles from her rambouillet sheep.  We wound these onto our bobbins and then practiced our hand positions for plying.  The skein in the picture is a 3-ply.

     Can I just say that worsted spinning is slow!  Or maybe I just say that I am a slow worsted spinner.  The woman I learned to spin from is very much a production woolen spinner and so that is the style I became most comfortable with initially.  To go back and re-learn worsted makes me feel like the slowest spinner ever.  The multi-color bobbin on the left will turn into a cabled 4-ply.  I think I am going to make a EZ Baby Surprise Jacket from the yarn, if I ever finish spinning it.  Actually I am trying really hard to work on spinning a little every day so that I can finish this yarn.  Then I think I am going to spin two black worsted singles to ply with the singles on the right bobbin and some woolen singles for the middle bobbin.  My desire to play with this yarn is motivating me to keep going.  I could just Navajo ply off the worsted singles but then I wouldn't really have enough to do anything with and the woolen singles would just be a study in frustration if I tried to chain them.

  On the other hand I did Navajo ply the spinning I did at a recent intermediate spinning class at Deep Color on fiber blending with hand cards.  The reason being that I want to knit a swatch to see how each of the blends feel and I didn't want to change that by plying it with some other fiber.  We used mostly white fibers so no picture but I am taking off for the CNCH conference tomorrow at Asilomar and I may take it along to swatch.  Maybe I will share my impressions when I get back since I did take notes on what each blend is.

  The set up of this conference is a two and a half day class on alternate years it is a vendor hall and short format classes (next year is in Sacramento).  I am taking a class on cut pile weaving with Sara Lamb.  I am really looking forward to the class, as well as getting away to a beautiful place with friends for a few days.  Work and life have been stressful.  My grandmother continues to do poorly and it takes its toll.  But Monday is my birthday, so there are plenty of good things to look forward to.  My husband and I are both taking off work to celebrate because we both have been so busy that we have barely been able to spend much time together.  I think we may spend the day in the city and my dad my come along depending on what is going on with my grandmother.  Should be fun.  Maybe I will just have to figure out a contest or something so we can all celebrate my birthday together.  Plus I totally forgot to celebrate my 2 year blogiversary back in January so we can celebrate everything all together.  Sound good?

Spinning and a Meme

  When I am not test knitting Elfin Goth for Jen I have been spinning, spinning, spinning.  I was inspired by some naturally dyed BFL roving and decided that I wanted to spin enough of it to make a sweater for myself.  Pictured at left are the first 3 skeins.  I am spinning a 3-ply yarn where two of the plies are from solid colored roving (that I split in half and spun on two different bobbins) and the third ply is from a painted roving in the same colors as the solid rovings.  I haven't given these skeins a bath yet because I just finished them up last night.  So far I am pleased with this yarn but the true test will be knitting with it.

Mama O (who I met at SOAR) tagged me for the meme where you tell 5 things you haven't yet told on your blog.  I think I am going to combine this with the "6 weird things" meme since I think you all would much rather hear odd things about me rather than the more every day stuff.

1.  I wear my hair long and always have.  I've never really gotten a hair cut only trims.  I last got it trimmed in mid-December.  The time before that was a few months before I got married.  Which means I went over a year and half without cutting it.  When I got it cut in December it was the longest it had ever been reaching past my waist.  I wasn't conscientiously avoiding getting my hair cut it more like I couldn't be bothered.  I'm going to try and remember to get it cut every 6 months from here on out but no promises there.

2.  I dropped out of eighth grade.   We had just moved back to California from Kansas City, Missouri and I made it through to the winter break at the small public school in the small town we moved to but I didn't go back after the break.  I was home schooled for the rest of the year.  I felt like such an outsider because everyone had gone to school together since kindergarten.  Plus I was at least a year or two ahead in the curriculum and once the principal found out I was a girl (my name is unisex) he wouldn't let me take classes at the high school.  I think the final straw was when a boy asked me why voice was so low.  I responded, "I don't know, genetics."  To which he responded, " Do you read the dictionary or something?" 

I ended up going to boarding school in Southern California for high school.

3.  Re: the low voice.  In my head it sounds normal but my voice does tend to generate a lot of comments.  Most often people tell me I have a sexy voice or that I should do voice overs, or radio.  Neither of which I have ever done. 

4.  I speak Spanish almost fluently and speak it almost exclusively at home.  My husband is Mexican and we speak mostly Spanish at home even though it would be beneficial for my husband to practice his English.  When we first started seeing each other his English wasn't great nor was he very comfortable speaking it.  My Spanish was better than his English so that was the language we used.  His English has improved a lot since then but we keep speaking Spanish.

I took Spanish in school but I really learned Spanish when I participated in an exchange program my Junior year of high school to Barcelona.  We lived with host families and had most of our classes in Spanish (only math and English classes were in English).  It was an incredible experience that taught me a lot more than just Spanish.

When I first started dating my husband I had roommates.  One night after I got off the phone from talking with my future husband my roommate came to my room and asked me if had just been speaking in Spanish.  I told her I had and asked how she knew.  She told me that I laughed differently when I was speaking Spanish.  I think that may be true to this day.  I feel like my voice is higher pitched when I speak Spanish.

5.  I still have friends that I have known from the first grade though my closest friends are from high school (some of whom read this blog!).  I think one odd thing that my best friend, Jenni, would point out about me is my ability to remember the phrases she tells me in other languages.  Jenni speaks Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and a smattering of Italian (she and I took Italian in college together and were in the same exchange program to Barcelona).  During college she also took Japanese classes and would randomly tell me words or phrases in Japanese that I would recombine and say to her, to her great amusement, at a later date.  Jenni, Rhea, Erica what weird things can you guys think of?

6.  I don't like overhead lights.  I think I learned this from my parents.  My husband doesn't  understand what the big deal is. 

Okay, I'm not sure that those were truly weird things about me but they were things that I haven't mentioned before on the blog.  If any of you who know me in real life want to chime in with anything weird feel free to do so.

      

SOAR Report: Part 2

Before I go on with images from Mexico I suppose I should wrap up my experience at SOAR.  For those of you who have not been to SOAR the way the second part of the retreat works is that you sign up for four of the multiple 3-hour workshops while you are there.  Each teacher only teaches one workshop but they teach it four times over the two days.  The sign-up system works very well and I think most people are very happy with how it shakes out.  All the classes are great so no matter what you get you will have fun.

  The first class I took was card weaving with Sara Lamb and Nancy Bush was my weaving partner.  We each got a deck of cards and warped them with the help of our partners.  The method Sara used in class to warp the cards was different then the way I had done it before.  I liked it because the method she presented was very straight forward.  Once you get into the weaving part it is harder to keep track of how many rotations forward or backward you have done or even remembering if you were going forward or backwards.  We discussed in class ways you could try and keep track of which was you were rotating.  One idea was to write forward on one side of paper and backward on the other side and flip it over every time you changed directions.  Of course, if you forgot to flip the paper this method wouldn't work very well.

  In the picture you can see the sample strap I wove with some of the different patterns you can achieve with the same threading.  Card woven strap are stronger than inkle or loom woven straps.  They become unwieldy to weave if you try to make them too wide so to make a wider piece of fabric multiple strips are sewn together.  If you check out Sara's website you can see some bags she has made by piecing multiple strips together.  If you are interested in card weaving you might check out the loomy bin, this page, or just google card weaving.

My afternoon class was with Deb Menz on painting yarns with synthetic dyes.  The four 1 oz. skeins pictured at left are what I dyed in this class.  In only 3 hours we didn't have the time go over much in the way of theory.  She showed us some examples of different dyeing techniques and how they knit up and then explained how to mix the dyes to different strengths.  I was not intending to dye such light colors but evidently I didn't use enough dye.  My experience with synthetic dyes is very limited so this mini-class was a fun way to play and come away with some good tips.  Deb was also a vendor so I purchased some dyes and her DVD to experiment with.  Natural dyes are my true love but I think it is good to know how to use synthetics as well.

    The bobbin in the above picture represents my morning class on the second day.  The class was "Spinning New Age Fibers" with Jeannine Bakriges.  We spun bamboo, Ingeo, soy silk, latte silk, ecospun and blends featuring these man made fibers.  For me this class was about getting to know the enemy.  In general I have no interest in any of these fibers except bamboo.  Partially this is because they are proteins that have been polymerized and then extruded.  In other words: plastic.  And frankly I really don't like the way the feel when I spin with them.  Jeannine did an excellent job researching these different fibers and presenting this information to us.  She is a great teacher even if I really didn't like the subject matter.

  My last class was with Stephenie Gaustad on weaving a wool gatherer's basket.  you can see my rendition at left.  Stephenie is a hoot as is Alden, who was teaching in the class next door.  At the end of class he popped over and told us a naughty joke.  This is my first basket making experience but my basket came out alright if a bit wonky.  This style of basket is meant to be worn at the waist attached to your belt by a loop of string and a toggle.  It was for collecting the stray bits of wool that catch on the fence and brush as you go about your daily chores.

All of my workshops were great.  I was very impressed with all of the teachers and felt that they did a really good job of teaching the appropriate amount of information for a three hour class.  As I said before, if you have the chance to attend SOAR you should do so.   

The SOAR Report Part 1

  There is so much to cover from SOAR that I figured the best thing to do was to split it up into two parts.  I'm going to start with the 3-day workshop and then next time write about the four 3-hour classes.  Sound good?
  Judith and Nancy had us start out with the glove pictured at left.  The yarn is 'Khroma' that you can get at Nancy's store The Wooly West.  This is a really nice 50/50 blend of alpaca and wool.  This pattern will appear in a future issue of Piecework (I think!).  We learned the decorative cast on and talked about general issues when knitting gloves.
  Then we spun silk to use for embroidery thread to decorate the back of the mittens.  Judith brought in her copy of Handplagg so that we could trace designs onto trace paper so that we could then transfer the designs onto our gloves.  If you have never seen this book in person you are missing out!  It is a beautiful book chock full of images, projects, and inspiration.  The only catch is that it is only in Norwegian.  Frankly the photos and drawings are good enough that you don't need to be able to read the text. 
  Anyway, you can see that I haven't finished the gloves nor have I finished spinning the silk to do the embroidery.  The knitting shouldn't take long.  I just put this project on the back burner so that I could be sure to finish all my gift knitting. 
   The next project we started in the class was a twined mitten.  This pattern is featured in the next issue of Piecework.  The white yarn is a Swedish yarn called Mora Yarn that you can also purchase at Wooly West.  It is a Z-plied yarn that is great for doing twined knitting.  Before we started knitting with the Mora Judith had us spin some Z-plied yarn to do the contrast two color cast on.  Twined knitting is not as hard as I thought it would be but it does take a little while to get used to the hand motions.  Even though I got used to the hand motions need to do twined knitting it still takes me longer than standard knitting.  Regardless I am looking forward to getting back to knitting on this mitten.
  The last major project we worked on was spining down fibers to knit into a pair of garter stitch mitts.  The dark brown on the right is buffalo.  The grey is a yak and merino blend from Peace of Yarn.  The white is cashmere.  These are some seriously soft mitts!  Down fibers, because of their short fiber length, are a bit tricky to spin unless they are mixed with a longer fiber.  The fun thing is that after you spin and ply your down fiber yarn you get to beat it up.  First you put it through a series of hot and cold baths all the while pounding on the yarn with your bottle of Dawn (or equivalent).  After that, roll it in a towel to get rid of the extra moisture.  Then smack the yarn on the counter.  It is a great way to get out any extra stress you might have.  I am farther along than what is in the picture now and am just about ready to graft the two ends together.  I can't wait to be done with these so that I can wear them.
  Judith also showed us how to make separate detachable mohair cuffs.  These are traditional cuffs worn in Scandinavia to keep the snow out of your gloves.  Larger ones are made and worn around the tops of your boots to keep the snow out.  The concept is very easy.  There is a base yarn and then the mohair locks.  Cast on a small amount of stitches with the base yarn and knit a couple of rows without the mohair to get started.  The cuffs are knit in stockinette stitch and the locks are incorporated into every knit row.  After wrapping the yarn around the needle then fold the lock over the needle and knit like normal.  Omit the mohair lock on the first and the last stitch.  Then purl back locking down the mohair.  These are very fun cuffs that can be made with any long staple length wool.

  That concludes the projects from the 3-day class.  Both Judith and Nancy were very generous and knowledgeable teachers.  Because we had so much to do in such a short time they made themselves available to us by staying in the classroom until 9pm each night.  I recommend them highly as teachers.  Also, Judith has a new book on spinning coming out in March.  If the book is only half as good as Judith herself then this book will be worth its weight in gold.  Put it on your list of books to buy.

  Just a quick note by way of explination as to why I haven't been posting.  Right before Thanksgiving the other "workerbee" in my office gave his two week notice.  When I got back from Chicago we had one day of overlap and then I was the only workerbee.  Needless to say this means a lot more work and stress for me because now all the projects have to go through me in order to get out of the office.  On top of this my grandmother is not doing well and we expect that she won't be with us for much longer.  Add to this all the travel I have been doing and the move that we made a few months ago it has been a stressful fall and winter.  I am ready for the new year!

  On Thursday I take off again for another trip.  This time to Mexico with family to visit the area where my husband is from and meet his other siblings that I haven't met yet.  I am really looking forward to this trip and plan on taking lots of photos.  I am also planning on trying to get a few more posts together before I go but if I don't happy holidays and a very happy new year to everyone!

**The above picture I took a couple of weekends ago while my husband slept in and the dogs cuddled with him.  I thought it was just too cute not to share.**

Hello from SOAR

The connection here is VERY slow so I will keep this short.  Tomorrow we start with the workshops.  I'm taking "From Our Hands to Yours: The Art and History of Hand Coverings" with Nancy Bush and Judith MacKenzie McCuin.  In reality I wish I could take just about all the classes being offered.

I am borrowing my mom's laptop so I'm not sure if I can upload pictures.  I'll keep you posted!