So I’ve been on a quest to acquire something for a decent amount of time.  Far longer than the norm for me, almost a year at this point.  The sore spot in all this time is that I used to own one but due to a self-imposed rule, I sold it.   Didn’t take too terribly long to regret it either.

Well after some shooting in the dark, I managed to get one.  It arrived today.

Whatever could it be?

Any guesses?  Yes, it is bigger than a bread box and sorry, iPhone is not included for scale for a change.

Does this help?  Odd looking protective material.  Reminds me of fleece but in a synthetic.  I wonder if it is spinnable.  I’d try it if it weren’t ass-crylic and terribly squeaky

How about now?

Oooo pretty wood!  I’ll give a hint, its cherry and that’s a leather strap draped across the top.

Oooo, its a box!

A box that opens with gorgeous book-matched cherry at that!

If it weren’t obvious by now, this will be the deal sealer:

Its a Journey Wheel!!!!!!

I know I’ve been pestering a certain blogger to sell her JW back to me, but that wasn’t happening.  I put out several ISO’s on Ravelry and Yahoogroups to no avail.  Finally after Rhinebeck, I was chatting with Dorre, who I knew was checking out various wheels.  She mentioned that the one she really liked was in a box but couldn’t remember what wheel it was, nor which booth she saw it in.  My brain made some weird mental leaps and had me sending an email to Susan’s Fiber Shop with a query as to whether Dorre had seen a JW in her booth at Rhinebeck.  The answer came that that no, she didn’t have any in her booth, but she DID have one in her store for sale.  I immediately jumped on the phone and arranged the purchase.  While I had to wait for Susan to get back from SAFF, the wheel shipped on Thursday and arrived her today.  So big thanks to Dorre and Susan!

I’m off to play…

Craft on!

I started and finished a sweater for the little miss:

Project details are over here.

I started a sweater for me:

Project details are over here.

I started a sweater for the little mister:

Project details for this one are here.

Yesterday, I saw this pattern and just had to make it for my littlest niece.

All this knitting, with the exception of a purchase of a single skein of red yarn for the Monster Butt has been out of stash.  The youngins went shopping in my stash to pick out the colors for the Drive-Thrus.  That sweater remains my absolute favorite pattern for kids.  The yarn I’m using for Eyelet Cardi was added to stash in February to knit another ChicKnits pattern but was redirected to this one.

This morning we got up rather early for a Sunday, got dressed quickly and had some breakfast before heading out to stand in line.  The pediatrician’s office received their requested H1N1 vaccines and scheduled today from 9 to 1 to give the vaccines.  We got there about 9:30 and after an hour wait, wrestled two reluctant kids into holding still and baring their arms, they were inoculated.   This was followed by a trip to the dollar store for a reward for being good.  Ha.  Anyway, the rest of the afternoon has been spent outdoors, enjoying the surprise 66F day.

While the twins did this:

I played with this:

The fiber is BFL from SeeKay in Sunshine Day.  I bought this fiber at the NJ festival in Sept.  As you can see, I’m spinning it on the Kromski Sonata.  She makes a lovely outdoor wheel

When I finished the second bobbin (the first 2oz were spun at Jessica’s house yesterday), I pulled out another project.

Oh yeah, that project was on another wheel  This would be the second half of the 4oz of BFL, also from SeeKay at NJ, but in Rubies.

When that was done, I pulled out yet another spinning project in progress:

Bet you thought it was going to be another wheel  This is the Pumpernickel n Jam batt that I got from Into the Whirled at Rhinebeck on the midi Bosworth spindle also from Rhinebeck.  I’m tired now

Outside the hobbies, I’ve been downright exhausted.  We’ve changed development methodologies at work moving to an Agile system.  Instead of only working on one particular area of the application, I’m now working on things across the entire system regardless of expertise.  It has been like starting a brand new job.  My brain is overloading with all this knowledge!  I come home, have dinner, get the kids in bed and then by 9, I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open.  I’m hoping that as I get experience in the other areas of the app, I’ll be able to stay up like a big girl again.  On top of this, there’s been drama that I just didn’t need.  Oh well.

I’m off to ply the SeeKay singles into some yarn.  The kids picked those rovings for their winter hats for this year.  While it might be 66F today, that will not last much longer!

Craft on!

Anyway, it was the year of the spindle for me. I bought no fewer than 3 of them. The first one was actually on my shopping list, the other two sort of followed me home. In an effort to document these things so I don’t lose their details to fuzzy memories like the rest of the spindles around here, I present them now:

• Golding Ring Spindle
• 3″ Cherry Celtic Ring
• Walnut 9 3/4″ shaft
• 1.9 oz

• Bosworth Midi Spindle
• Silverwattle Whorl
• Bloodwood Shaft
• 28g/1oz

• Hatchtown Kaari
• Purpleheart and Walnut
• @1oz (she lost her tag before I bought her)

I did mention it was the spindle festival for me, didn’t I?  As you can tell I have started spinning on the Kaari.  She’s a wonderful little spinner.

The fibery purchases include two lbs of a BL-Romney in grey to spin for another sweater.

Sara had to check out the wool, and well, invade the one spot of natural light in my room.  Shortly after I took this picture, I had to get her slobbery nose out of the wool.  She has a thing for fiber.

After picking up 3 spindles, I had to buy some nice fiber for each of them.  I returned to one of my favorite nice fiber vendors, ITW.  I had picked up an Etsy order from her earlier in the day, but had to add to it.   Other than the grey BL-Romney, my only other fiber purchases were from Cris.

Front Row

• 56’s Falkland in Moody Neopolitan
• 60/40 Merino/Bamboo in Jonathan
• 80/20 Merino/Silk in Sangria

Back Row

• 56’s Falkland in Pumpernickel n Jam (x2)

Its safe to say that I’m a bit of a ITW groupie.  I have more than a few braids and batts from her.  The fiber that I started spinning on the Kaari is the Merino/Silk Sangria.

Other than a Knit Kit and a glass shawl pin, that’s my purchases for this year.  I think I was pretty restrained.    Oh wait, there was a bit more.  I bought 10 skeins of yarn from Wild Apple Farm, 5 in a denim-y blue and 5 in a dark green.  Still, pretty restrained.  Its not like I’m lacking for hobby materials

Today was the twins’ birthday party.  Yes, I know I scheduled their party for Rhinebeck Sunday.  Yes I was supposed to stay overnight upstate and hit the festival both days.  But thanks to a brain fart and a desire to not move too many weekends from their actual birthday, I jumped on the first Sunday noon party available.  Alas, it coincided with Rhinebeck.  I hope to not make the same mistake next year

We had 12 kids at The Little Gym for an hour of organized activity with the energetic and enthusiastic party directors, followed by 1/2 hour for pizza and cake.

The staff took care of entertaining, setting up, cleaning up and even packing all the gifts into big bags for us.  These types of places are well worth the cost.  We returned with a 1/3 of one cake, a pizza and lots of presents to open.

Now  I think I’ll take a nap.  I’m exhausted!

Craft on!

On Friday, the twins turned six.  I can’t believe it has been six years since these:

became these:

I blinked and they became six year old kindergartners. I’m loving the little people that they’ve grown into (though I could skip the whole “I hate you” when I tell them to do something they’d rather not).

Happy birthday my babies.  I love you.

Today, with everyone off, we made the annual trip to an orchard to pick apples.   Found a new place this year in Morris county that had young trees with fruit low enough for the monkeys to get by themselves.  If my math is right, we came home with 15lbs of apples, mixed between baking and eating kinds  I love apples.  Couldn’t nibble my way through the orchard for a change as the digestive system is still somewhat on the fritz.

Yesterday morning I finished knitting Rhinebeck.  After the awful game was over, I set it to soak in the washing machine and then set it out to dry once it had a good spin.  On the way home from the orchard, we stopped by JoAnn’s and I picked up a couple of button candidates.  I ordered a couple of others online.  Hopefully they’ll all be here before the drop dead button sewing on day, Friday.  Here’s the first two candidates:

and on the sweater…

I’m leaning towards the 4 hole button.  If nothing else arrives before friday that is better, these are the buttons you’ll see on saturday, on this sweater!!!!!

This meant I needed another project.  I broke out the box of lace yarns I bought from Knit Picks in January and cast on for Bohus Inspired Pullover from Knit So Fine.

At 7 st/in on US4 needles, this isn’t going to be the quick project that Rhinebeck was!

Craft on

Anyway… Sunday I did spent with the Sox and Rhinebeck.  I got much further than I expected to during the game.  Before the end of the third inning, I’d finished the back.  Before the end of the 7th, the left front was done and the 3 needle bind off of that shoulder was done.  I took a break for dinner and the ritualistic washing of the children.  Another hour or so before bed and I had the right front completed as well.

Progress slowed to a crawl from there though.  Being home sick isn’t good for my knitting production.  Well it is good for knitting, depending on the illness at hand, but this tummy bug didn’t preclude actually working.  I pulled out the laptop and telecommuted.  Yay!

Boo for knitting though.  No commuting = reduced knitting time.  I did pick up the stitches for the first sleeve on Sunday, but hadn’t progressed much further until last night when I returned to it in earnest.  Between that and the commute in this morning, I’m a goodly way into the sleeve.

(Click for big) .  I should have the sleeve done this evening with the outside chance of getting the stitches picked up for the second sleeve as well.

I don’t think I’m going out on a particularly rickety limb by saying that I should have this done for the big festival.  But I know better than to piss off the fickle knitting goddess

Craft on!

This work of lace is stretched between the house and one of the tomato plant stakes.  Beautiful work that this lace knitter appreciates.  Talk about cobweb  Without having searched the ‘net, I’m pretty sure this is one of the billionty types of orb spiders.  Pretty huh?

Further playing with the new lens, I spotted these two cuddled up on the bed when I came back in..

Duchess has stopped losing weight and has even gained back the weight she lost.  The thyroid medication has been working nicely for her.  We reduced her initial dosage and she’s stabilized.  She gets half a pill, twice a day.  We initially ground it up and mixed it with sour cream, but I guess she got bored of that and stopped eating it.  Now we mix with baby food meats, either turkey or chicken.  Totally scarfs it down.  The others get a dab of it in the morning as well.  Speaking of the other…

Yup, no lion cut for her this year!  Yay.  Trying to go for a second year now  I have to get her over to the groomer for a much needed bath though.  Don’t you just love that underbite?

The folks took the twins to the boat today for the last visit of the year.  I opted to stay home.  There’s a bit of a tummy bug traveling through the house.  My turn came up last night.  Yay  So I’m spending the day with the last regular game of the season and Rhinebeck.  Here’s how the sweater stands now:

and a loving close up:

Yup.  Love this sweater.  As you can see, I’m finished with the textured bottom of the sweater.  I’m halfway through the plain knitting of the back.  I should be able to finish that up while watching the Sox.

Well, I’m going to do a few things before the 1:35 game so that I can knit and watch guilt free.

Craft on!

]]> http://crazyfiberlady.com/blog/2009/10/13_days_left.html/feed http://crazyfiberlady.com/blog/2009/09/mixing_it_up.html http://crazyfiberlady.com/blog/2009/09/mixing_it_up.html#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:21:27 +0000 Risa http://crazyfiberlady.com/blog/?p=1368 This is going to be one of those “little bit of this, little bit of that” posts.

Here are the monkeys heading off for their first day of kindergarten..

Aren’t they cute?  Okay, so this picture is almost a month old at this point.  They’ve been doing very well, getting homework every night except Friday and are generally enjoying it.  Last week they had a class field trip to the Museum of Natural History in NYC.  Mom went as a chaperon/helper type.

They are still at the center where they spent the last two years in Pre-K.  My town does not have full day KG so this offered the best option for us.  The program is fully accredited and children usually come out of it way ahead of their public school future classmates.  It also offered the advantage of being able to transition into the KG class for summer camp.  They joined this group right after graduation in June so they were more than ready for a day without a nap.  Sort of.   Once school started, Kat was wiped out and on more than a few nights, she’s punked out way early.  Its all good though.

I took the monkeys to the Garden State Sheep Breeders show a couple of weeks back.  The car is amazing still covered in mud from the field.  The recent rain hasn’t cleaned it.  I’m going to have to suck it up and wash it  Anyway, we had a good time at the festival.  Its the perfect size for bringing the monkeys to before their heads explode.  I forgot to take pictures.  Again.  Yes.  But I did get this one:

Again, how cute are they?  There was some stash enhancement, but needless to say no pictures of it.

In other news, I need to update the herd status.  There have been some transactions with regards to the spinning wheels.

This wheel?

SOLD.

This wheel?

SOLD.

This wheel?

BOUGHT

It was requested that I provide a closer up view of Fair Isle.  You asked for it:

Taken this morning in the car (duh) while waiting for the train

Finally, with 17 days left until Rhinebeck, here is how Rhinebeck started off this morning:

It is approx 6.5″ at this point.  The plain knitting starts at the 13″ mark.  I’m getting there.  I’ve found it is perfect knitting for playing Sims to while watching the ballgame.  Yes I am a multitasker

Craft on!

Thursday night at SnB, I finished the socks from the Into the Whirled that I apparently bought from Cris at the Clermont festival during the spring.  As a reminder, I spun it on the Victoria over the July 4th holiday.  I just loved working with it!

Full project details are here (Ravelry).  This means I can buy more fiber from her

Saturday, I spent the day with an old hobby that has gotten the short straw.  Every now and again I really get the weaving bug.  Well, I got it again.  Nope, didn’t get the big floor loom out of storage, nor did I use the table top loom I bought last fall.  I did get my Kromski Harp Rigid Heddle out of storage and used that.  As a matter of full disclosure, I’ve placed an order for a 20″ Schacht Flip RH loop with stand that should be delivered tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait.  We’ll also ignore the 16″ Ashford RH that I have still in the box.  I have since sold the Kromski and am debating selling the Ashford.  But I might keep it for the kids to use.  We’ll see.

Anyway, I had picked up at MY from the 50% off shelf a couple of skeins of Rowan Handknit Cotton.  I know, Risa bought cotton.   I still won’t knit with it, but weaving is a different story   I warped up the Kromski using the 10 dent heddle with 160 ends approx 62″ each.  That direct warping method is amazing.  I had it fully dressed and ready to weave in an hour and a half.  AMAZING!  Even more amazing, I finished weaving by dinner time.  I had a miscalculation somewhere and while I was aiming for two kitchen towels, I wound up with one 14.5″ x 25″ (plus fringe) and one that was quite a bit shorter at washcloth length.  I ran it through the sewing machine on Sunday to zigzag the ends in place.

I’m pleased.  Looking forward to the new loom to arrive so I can eat up some more yarn.  I’m thinking this year’s teacher gifts will be woven scarf/shawls.  I saw examples on Ravelry of gorgeous scarves woven from one skein of Noro Sock.  I have a few of them skeins!  Though I figure for teacher gifts that I was thinking a sock yarn that is soft and squooshy and kettle dyed.  Tina, you have anything like that?

While I had the sewing machine out, I remembered the fair isle cardigan that has been moldering waiting for me to sew the steek.  So I pulled it out and finally did it.  After cleaning up the sewing area of lots of cut yarn (think fringe), I grabbed the button tin and picked out some lovelies for the sweater.  By dinner the bands had been knitted and the buttons sewed on.

I said I had been busy.  Full project details are here.

While I was busy finishing things, there was something else that needed finishing.  Ballerina.  Over the last couple of weeks I’d finished the last short row triangle for the front, picked up and knitted the front band.  The only thing remaining was the white bands at the ends of the sleeves, sewing the arm and weaving in ends.  By 1opm last night, I was done.

Now I have my choice of Rhinebeck sweater  Project details are here.

This meant I had no active knitting projects.  That just isn’t acceptable!  So today while trying to keep my mind off food, I pulled out the border leicester yarn.  I spun this yarn on the Van Eaton wheel and plied a couple of weekends ago on the Womack.  That was ALOT of plying.  Two bumps of roving purchased last year at NYSW translated into 1500 yards of worsted weight yarn.

I pulled out my favorite book, A Fine Fleece,  and cast on for Rhinebeck.   It tickles me no end to be knitting a sweater named that with fiber I bought there.  There’s an outside chance I could finish it FOR Rhinebeck.  Now wouldn’t that be something!

Craft on!

I gave the kids off as well because they haven’t had a vacation since last summer either.  What with starting kindergarten {shudder} tomorrow, I figured they were due.  We took a bunch of day trips including a visit to the Liberty Science Center and the New York Aquarium in Coney Island.  I even got some bonus time to myself to sort through some of the clutter that is my space when the folks took the twins off to the boat Saturday morning returning for dinner on Sunday.

I have some pictures of the day trips but need to get them off the small camera.  In the meantime, I’d like to catch up on the important stuff, the crafts!  What with WOOL being a warm and fuzzy recent memory, I’ve been spurned to do some serious spinning, though these skeins aren’t necessarily limited to WOOL activity.  This first skein is what I was spinning on the boat over July 4th weekend.

This is 8o’s merino wool top in colourway 9c09 that I bought from Cris.  It is 40z spun up to 502 yards.   If memory serves, I spun this on the Victoria and will be the last skein I get off her, but that’s a story for later.

This is superwash that I bought from Carolyn on Thursday at WOOL in the Moonflower colourway.  I spun this on the Schacht.  If I didn’t finish it at Lake George, I got most of it done there.  If memory serves, and it kind of fuzzy at the moment, I finished it up Sunday night after getting home.  It is navajo plied. I might have had a bit of a brain fart as the first half of the bobbin was done very fine while the second half wasn’t so much.  I think I planned on plying from both ends of center pull to come out with an even yarn.  As it stands now, almost half of the 316 yds is sock weight while the rest is a DK or so.  I think I’ll fold in half and knit the boy a new hat from it.

This is 58’s Domestic Wool in colorway 9B16 that I bought from Cris at the Claremont festival back in April.  I spun it on the Kromski Sonata after WOOL was over.  It is 374 yards at just shy of 4 oz.

The last bit of spinning to show has also been knitted up.  I know a miracle has happened!  This is also superwash from Carolyn that I spun at WOOL.  It is the Superhero colorway.  This roving practically spun itself.  I still have a bit left (that little skein is about 100yds)  and will probably make the girl a pair of socks.

I have to admit, for all the spinning I do, I rarely knit with the stuff. Boy what a goof I’ve been for that.  I loved knitting those socks and am now debating which skein sitting around here is next.  I think that merino I showed above is next

I finished another pair of socks.  These are the socks in my apology post from a couple of weeks ago.  They are also from handspun.  I haven’t a clue where the fiber is from nor what it is.  It could be merino, but it could also be BFL.  I think it is Spunky but won’t swear to it.  I do remember spinning it over the course of several months on the Majacraft Rose after the move to the house so the timeframe is um, within the last 3 years.  That’s about as far as I can narrow it down.  Love em though.  54st on US1 needles.

That’s it for now.  Must go off an entertain the troops during our last day off.  Happy Labor Day to those that are celebrating.

Craft on!

Naturally our dentist is on vacation in Bermuda.  So I let my fingers do the walking and hit upon a pediatric dental practice in the next town over.   They were able to squeeze us in yesterday afternoon for emergency treatment.  X-Ray’s showed just the roots and a tiny bit of tooth above the gumline.  The dentist recommended removing it and have a space maintainer made.  She did say I could wait until my regular doc was back, but I opted to have her do the removal.  Timing works out fine as my doc is back next week which would be when they start the maintainer process.  All good.

Kat was a serious trooper.  Not a peep or even a cringe as she got a novocaine shot and the tooth bits were extracted.  As a note, pediatric dentists are the way to go.  They hid that nasty looking novocaine needle from Kat’s view.  She never saw it so never had a chance to get freaked by it.  Bravo to them!  Anyway, she was quite the trooper and the tooth (a pre-molar - second one in from the 6yr molar which she is yet to cut btw) is gone.

Unfortunately, the removal resulted in many tooth pieces so there was nothing to stick under her pillow.  I suggested she write a note.  (click for bigger)

I dictated the letters as she wrote.  I’m definitely saving this one.

Craft on!