Bumps and Loops

Well, here are the beginnings:

This is the pure version of the Colin's Sock Knit Along:



It takes a fair amount of time because this is a smaller gauge than I've done before. It's an easy sock to do so far, though. I'm using all of Colin's stitch counts and it looks like it's going to fit Jim very well.

This one is a combined version of Colin's Sock (the toe) with the pattern for Leyburn Socks from Pepperknit. I switched yarn for this one from my previous post. The Socks that Rock yarn is more expensive than I wanted to use to try out a pattern. I could always frog it, but I hate the little squiggles ripping makes in such a nice yarn. I'm using a Knitpicks sock yarn, instead. The Yarn Harlot has been making these and remarked at how quickly it knits up. I thought, "Yeah, sure. The Yarn Harlot can knit a pair of socks in two days anyway!" Amazingly, though, they're fairly quick, even for me.


Even with knitting two different new patterns at once, it's going fast. I'm using a size larger needle and I think the yarn is just a bit thicker, too. I'm with the Harlot. I love this pattern.

OK. Two of my heroes have gone and done it, and the whole thing has been complicated by husband.

I started Colin Andersson's Yahoo Group toe up sock with the Andersson heel yesterday. Here's the yarn:

It's KnitPicks Essential Tweed in Inca Gold colorway. They're going to be plain vanilla so I can learn the toe and Colin's heel.

Then, I read the Yarn Harlot's blog and saw this sock (Leyburn) made from some really busy yarn and I thought, "Gee, I have some really busy yarn that'd be great for that pattern. I want to make this sock. Oh, yes, here's the yarn for that:



It's Socks that Rock in Pirate's Booty.

I was sitting there last night, bemoaning the fact I hadn't knit ANY socks in months on end and that there were two, count them TWO, different sock patterns I wanted to do. Jim, unkind jester that he is, suggested I could knit them all at once! That's four, FOUR individual socks.

So, that's exactly what I'm doing. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I used up the little bit of fingering weight yarn I made from the sample of yak/silk previously posted. It took almost exactly the yardage I had. It's a great little pattern from Irene McKisson posted on the designerknits.com site.

The picot hem is especially nice - not too fussy, but it adds just a bit to the design.

This just under 30 gms of 100% Tussah Silk 2-ply spun on the Minstrel.

Name: Gold City after the Gold City Gospel Group. The coin is a dime.

This stuff is soft, soft, soft. I have about 45 yards. Wonder what it'll be?

Yesterday morning, we woke up to this:

At 2:00 p.m., THIS is what we saw:




Amazing, huh?

There's much to be said for the exuberance of youth. Little critters are so cute, whether they're human of animal. There's always the delight of learning and trying new things and the laughs of the less than successful endeavors.

BUT - sometimes little ones can be really, really, reeeeaaaaallllllyyyyyyy hard to live with. How many times have my legs been lacerated by a rambunctious kitten trying to climb them like trees? How many dollars have been spent replacing shredded upholstery? How many hardwood floors have been ruined by the accidents of little pups and kitties? LOTS!

Little Jade has reminded me how it makes sense, sometimes, to forego the joys of kittenhood or puppyhood for the calm and mature companionship of an older animal.

Having Jade move in has been a big reminder to me of that. She's always there for a nice pet or tummy rub. She's like a sedative. Her soft purring and warm and soft little body are just intoxicating.

It may be that she's an especially adaptable cat, she seems absolutely grateful.

Here's another photo for your viewing pleasure. She seems to like that corner of the sofa.

This is Jade:

She's the newest member of our little pet group. She came to us from Promised Land Animal Rescue, a no kill shelter that rescues everything from gerbils to horses.

Jade's about 4 years old and was left behind by her former owner. What a sweet cat! Except for the fact she's exploring every corner of the house, she acts like she's been here forever. She sleeps on the bed, sits on laps, turns over for belly rubs and unbelievably (for a cat), she listens!

We don't know how she came to have the name, Jade, but it could either be that she has gorgeous jade green eyes or that she appears to be partly Siamese. Her eyes have that odd slant and her tail looks like a Siamese cat's tail. She's not very vocal, but she's very graceful and athletic.

She's also very skinny. At Promised Land, she was overwhelmed by the number of dogs and cats and, I suspect, had to fight to get food. I think she'll be a gorgeous girl when she fills out and gets settled.

About 25 years ago, Jim designed and had built a really cool house. Even after 25 years, it still looks like it's new. This is the one he built:

The house below was built by the same builder and was inspired by Jim's house. The roofline is a little different and the number of trees on the lot certainly enhance the design.



Inside these houses, there's a sunken living room, eat in kitchen, laundry, bedroom and bath on the first floor with a covered patio and screened lanai on the first floor and two bedrooms and a bath upstairs. In some places the ceiling goes all the way to the roofline. We've toyed with building one of these houses, with a few improvements.

We've also considered a timber frame house, a log cabin, renovating a farmhouse, a condo, and nothing. Who knows what we'll end up doing.

This fiber is some beautiful soft 100% silk from the silk sampler. I'm going to start this stuff tonight and see how it spins up. For anyone who's just starting out spinning, I highly recommend doing this - not too great an investment for a lot of learning.

Jim got me a couple of samplers to try spinning. One of them is a luxury sampler pack and it contained the fiber from which the yarn below was spun. It's a blend of silk and yak. I've named it "Boots Randolph" (you know - Yakety Sax).

This stuff started out really hard to spin. It's so soft and fine and the fibers are pretty darned short. It took me quite awhile to get used to it, but it really is a nice fiber. It's incredibly soft yarn, about fingering weight and a nice soft grayish tan. I'd make more of this, if I had the fiber. I had one ounce and it made about 33 yards. That's enough to trim something. Or, I could make an iPod cozy out of it. You couldn't ask for anything softer.

Between the spinning and the weaving, it's been ages since I've finished any knit item. Here's one, at last:

This is a neck warmer made with the leftover ball of yarn from a scarf I made for Jim. I bought the button at a local fabric shop in Wytheville called Sew What Fabrics.

When my son was a little boy, he received a Dakin squirrel from his Aunt for Christmas. He was, probably three or four years old. When he was just a bit older, he became enamored with the Miss Suzy books. They're about a lady squirrel who is very wise. When he was old enough to make the connection, he named his squirrel, of course, Miss Suzy.

I made Miss Suzy a green apron with acorns along the hem. Miss Suzy HAD to have an apron!

Later, we found another similar squirrel from Dakin and bought it for John so he could also have a Ginger. There's a Miss Suzy book called "Miss Suzy and Ginger."

He loved those squirrels more than anything else he owned.

When he was around six, or so, he and his dad went on a train ride and rode in a compartment. Evidently, when the porter made the beds up at night, he covered up the two squirrels with the beds. John even has a photo of the two squirrels under one of the beds in a picture he took just before he left the train.

He came home and told me, heartbroken, that he'd lost Miss Suzy and Giner. I felt terrible for him. I began that year to look and look for similar squirrels to help replace them. I've looked for about 25 years for a new Miss Suzy, with no success.

This year, Jim decided to try once more. We'd looked on eBay before and nothing turned up, but this year, lo and behold, he found a squirrel! He found it about 2 weeks before Christmas and we hoped beyond hope it would arrive in time for Christmas. It did! I even had time to weave a little apron for her. I'd bought a pair of tiny knitting needles at a local yarn shop, with no idea what I'd ever do with them. I took the scraps from a pair of socks I'd knitted and put it in one pocket and started a tiny scarf with the little knitting needles.

I didn't know if John would think this was totally crazy, or what. I covered a box with brown paper, made a squirrel bed inside with blankets and punched three air holes in the box. The pictures below show what the whole mess looked like:

To top the package off, I wrote a letter to John from Miss Suzy, telling him she'd missed him and telling him the story of her return.



Now, something you should know, in case you didn't do the math, is that John is 33 years old. I wasn't sure what his reaction would be. I expected him to roll his eyes and think his mother is crazy (which, of course, he does know).

His response was just what I'd have wanted from him.

If it hadn't been for Jim, I'd have never found such a squirrel. It's his caring that made me able to do this. It shows Jim's level of caring for John that he continued to look, too. I really appreciate that help.

John also liked the scarf I wove for him, but there's just not the cool story attached to a scarf, is there?

That's me - semi-automated loom. I've made so many scarves in the past couple of months, I feel semi-automated. It's very much fun, though!

Here are the two most recent:

This is made from Trendsetter Stripe yarn in the Fall Leaves colorway. I tried knitting this yarn in several different patterns but never liked any of them. I decided to warp it up and see what happened. It's one of my favorite scarves, so far.

The one below is also one of my favorite scarves so far. I don't know if it's because I'm getting better at selecting yarns for weaving, or what, but the last few scarves have come out better than I expected. This one is made of Dream in Color's Classy in Happy Forest. I have enough of this for another scarf and I enjoyed making that one so much, I'm sure I'll do another. One day, I'm going to buy some other colorways of it, too. This is an incredibly satisfying yarn to weave. Anyway, here's the scarf below:

It was 8 degrees when I got up this morning! Brrrrrrr. For the first time in weeks, it's completely clear. It's too blasted cold for the clouds to come in here!

Jasper the Cat looked at me like I was crazy when I went out to feed him this morning. I think he was saying, "I'm not THAT hungry you crazy Distributor of the Catfood! Just leave it. I'll be out when the sun comes up. Somehow, he's arranged the blankets in his box so there's just a Jasper sized area totally surrounded by squares of old blanket. He even arranges it so there's a windblock OUTSIDE the box on the side of the prevailing wind. It has to be on purpose, because twice I've "rearranged" it for him and he's made it exactly the way it is now. He probably wishes I'd leave his house alone!

Every now and then, a person of some celebrity surprises the heck out of me. This happened yesterday.

Jim and I are both fans of Joseph Finder. We've read all of his books to date (although, I found out a couple of days ago that Jim's been hiding [not really - I just didn't see it] one of his books). Jim joined his Internet fan club - something he never does.

Yesterday, there came in the mail, a (politically correct) New Years card from him. That, in itself, is pretty good. I've received a few flyers from authors to whose sites I belong, but they were just newsy news with the usual numbers of publicity ops and self aggrandizement. This is different, in my opinion, simply because it's signed. Really signed. With a felt tip pen. Joe. Just Joe. BUT - that takes effort.

This is a class act. Good for you Mr. Joseph Finder. You keep cranking them out and we'll keep reading and buying them.

Oh, Christmas is a'come,
Mind ye Robin's ruddy tum,
And ye winde it's a blowin' mighty ruff.
Oh, masters, if ye please,
Give us a moldy cheese
To eat with our figgy figgy duff!

-Singing loudly and with glee!-

I'm hoping that, at least, my English friends will understand this little ditty - my favorite of the more obscure carols.


more animals

Here's the most recent completed home spun yarn: 1910 Fruitgum Company. This is from heathered wool fiber from The Woolery - 8 oz., which made 230 yards of a slightly bulky 2 ply.

Jim bought me the first fiber he's bought for me by himself. He asked to be pointed in the direction of some places to buy fiber and I gave him several.

From Paradise Fibers, he bought me some gorgeous Conjoined Creations Happy Hippie 100% stretched merino wool in the Yasgur's Farm colorway. This is it:

It's kind of compressed in the roving. I spun up a little sample of it with a lot of twist and plied it back on itself. It behaved a great deal like bamboo in that it softened right up and puffed. Here's a short piece of it:




It's really a worsted/light worsted weight. I didn't worry about keeping it really even. I just wanted to see how soft, or not, it was. I'm going to absolutely love spinning this.

From The Woolery, he bought me some more of their kind of generic wool heather in the amethyst colorway. I had some of this and had spun it up in a kind of heavy worsted. I'd wished I had more of it, and now I will.

He also bought me two sampler spinner's packs. One is several kinds of silk fibers, from the whole cocoons to some nice top. The other is six different luxury fibers, like silk/merino, silk/cotton, silk/camel, etc. This'll be fun, too. I'll figure out which of the expensive fibers I really like to spin and won't waste a lot of money on several ounces of it. Both of these came in really pretty little boxes that look like they're covered in handmade paper with windows in the tops. So, when the fiber has been spun, I can use the boxes. A gift in a gift.

Thanks, Jim, for the neat fibers. Now, you'll have to watch that wheel go round and round and round and round and ...

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn is yummy to touch. It's incredibly soft and the colors are quite lovely. However, it tends to pill when knitted. I entered the December Challenge on the Ashford Knitters Loom group on Ravelry and decided to try my hand at my first real colorwork. As regular readers know, I made my first scarf out of a variety of Noro Silk Garden in a kind of freeform style, but this is the first attempt at a regular pattern.

I decided to do a greige and pink plaid - 5 each way of the greige and 4 each way of the pink. After realizing it's quite interesting to warp odd numbers of warps, I proceeded. It's really hard to keep the edges neat when you're carrying a yarn up the side, especially when it's an odd number, which makes the "bumps" on both sides, but not all the way up.

It did turn out nicely. It was kind of stiff when I took it off the loom, but after a nice hot wash with a cold rinse and about 20 minutes in the dryer on the gentle timed setting, it softened up beautifully. There was no pilling, either.

Everyone loves them, don't they?

Here's my newest:

Peanut Buttercup. Buttercup is the name of my adoptive sheep, from whom I got this lovely fleece. This is the sample swatch of the first of her fleece I've washed, carded, spun and knitted. I knitted with size 6 needles. The yarn is about sport weight. It's taking me forever to get this fleece processed, but it's so much fun to take it from the sheep to the knitted object that I think it might well be worth it.

Here's a photo that shows the color better. It's classified as "black," but is actually more of a very deep mahogany because there's black hair, brown hair, grey hair and the occasional white hair.

moar funny pictures

This is another 100% cashmere scarf. It's plain weave, but made of the nicest turquoise cashmere from Colourmart. It's several plies of cobweb plied together before it was shipped to me. This scarf was woven on the Kromski Harp.

I'm also working on spinning some 100% wool from The Woolery. I don't know what the blend is, but for inexpensive wool, it's lovely. After spending hours and hours trying to learn how to spin thin, thin singles, I'm wanting this to be a textured (bumps and thin spots) of very lightly spun 2-ply. Let's see how it goes. It's a pretty heather blue. I'll post photos after it's finished. We hard to get "better," then want what we used to spin naturally. Go figure!