Three Baas Full

NC Visit

2011-07-22T18:29:00.000-04:00

Had a great trip to NC. I was ready to go back the day after I got back!

Nanny Bosco is so lonely without Madeline to give him loves!

Survival Day

2011-02-02T19:52:00.005-05:00

Snow days should be fun, but today was blistering cold, windy, icy and I had no electricity for 12 or 13 hours. It was getting mighty cold in here. But I tried to keep warm with some wooly fun. This is a roving that we had dyed a long time ago with Wilton dyes. I split and pre-drafted it, so it's like spinning a cotton candy cloud.

Plus, I found a happy little surprise, too! My first little daffodil bloomed.

The only one to stay warm all day. Kitty in the cube:

Before 10:00AM

2010-06-10T17:25:00.002-04:00

I still got it! Power over poorly behaved bushes!

Baby Beach

2010-06-08T15:21:00.002-04:00

We three girls went to the beach today and all is right with the world. :-)

Madeline

2010-03-30T15:47:00.002-04:00

It was a struggle, but our little baby girl arrived today. Here is her first filming:

Beach Fun

2009-07-03T21:57:00.002-04:00

Baking Fun

2009-07-01T18:43:00.002-04:00

Here's my little strawberry rhubarb pie:
And here's Grace and Matt's new toy with Grace's strawberry rhubarb blueberry pie!

Bread Lessons

2009-06-12T07:50:00.003-04:00

After spending a weekend making bread with Erin (sourdough ciabatta and dark chocolate), I tried some new techniques for the masterpiece pizza:

Looking forward to July

2009-05-23T18:59:00.003-04:00

Serious student, serious dresser...the hair? Seriously? We love you Doodle Loo!

Christmas 2007

2008-12-01T07:55:00.009-05:00

Last Christmas was special. Grace and Matt came up from Georgia, Erin and Eric from Columbus, and GB home from Kent. The best day of the year (probably best day of many years) was our great tree hunt with Ike. We headed off to a place where we had seen a sign: $15 for any tree...you cut.

When we pulled in, nobody was around, but there was a phone to call the owner. He showed up, a little old guy, and it was debatable who was having the harder time getting around, the little old man or his little old truck. He seemed very proud of his trees, armed us with saws and off we headed over the hill where he said the best trees could be found.

On our way up the hill, we were mostly trying to keep our footing in the ice, slush and mud. When I did look around, it seemed to me that the trees weren't what we were looking for. Grace, Erin and GB tried to find the right tree. They looked like Goldilocks' three bears.

Finally, after quite a hike, we decided to try somewhere else. The boys rushed ahead so they could ambush us with snowballs.

We piled back into the cars and ended up at the shop on the corner 1/2 mile from the house. The girls each picked something different, we debated, and finally settled on a beautiful tree! Just a side note: the first year we lived here, we got our tree from this same place. It was about the last one left, down to $5, and had about a branch for each dollar. We loved that silly tree!

We got back to the house and everyone pitched in to set up the tree. It was a great tree, but even better are the memories of that fantastic day.

On the Beach

2008-06-28T13:22:00.003-04:00

We are having a great time in Hampstead, NC and loving Topsail Beach.

To Russia with Love

2008-06-24T09:44:00.005-04:00

This is a long overdue update on the FINALLY finished lace shawl. I not only finished it, but it got sent to Russia as a gift for Valeria's mom. GB stayed with them in St. Petersburg last summer.

Teaching

2008-06-07T07:20:00.002-04:00

I have never tried embedding a video before, but this one definitely seems to be worth the try. Teaching is incredibly demanding, frustrating, and rewarding. The two teachers featured in these clips voice both the hopes and difficulties of the job. I particularly relate to the woman, since she teaches middle school English, like me. Having 140 to 150 students for English class and then another 25 - 28 for a reading class is totally overwhelming, and yet -- those class sizes are actually better than many teachers have.

This is the accompanying news story. I hope the documentary does get produced and that it does represent the realities of teaching.

Hand Warmers Are Hot

2008-03-02T19:37:00.008-05:00

Definitely a fun project and these handwarmers are, well, handy to have around on chilly days. The gray pair is from some of my earliest spinnings and the other pair is made of "Royal Llama Silk" from Plymouth Yarns. Luckily, I found a couple of sunbeams today for taking pictures.

I Still Knit

2008-02-29T06:20:00.005-05:00

Once school gets started and yearbook deadlines need met, there's barely time to do more than think about knitting. A while back, I did finish my first ever lace shawl and a pair of socks that went to Russia. This week I finished and actually wore my new socks. The yarn was my Christmas present from E. The pattern is Tidal Wave Socks, which is a totally fun pattern, and the yarn is Trekking Pro Natura, color 1604. Ok, you can tell from the desk that I'm a little overwhelmed at school just now. ;-)

Finished Garage

2007-09-03T21:13:00.000-04:00

Finally, the garage is done. I am just waiting for the cement to harden and then it's mine all mine! If I'm supposed to wait 10 days before I drive on it, does that mean I can drive on it the 10th day, or do I have to leave it car-free for 10 days? I just want to park in my garage!

Here's the Russo mobile in all it's glory:

Tim is hard at work directing traffic without spilling any coffee:

Inside:

Outside:

I guess I have a lot of landscaping to do!

Tennessee Vacation

2007-08-05T07:38:00.001-04:00

We actually had a real vacation. All together. We figured the last time we had a vacation was when we went to Alive about 8 to 10 years ago. The older girls met in Pigeon Forge and tent camped through the rain. Needless to say, they were happy to be at the beautiful, 3 bedroom cabin with washer, dryer, dishwasher, hot tub.... (Here is the link. Once you go there, click on "3 bedroom cabins" and go to "Mountain Spirit" http://www.vrbo.com/global/siteFrame.asp?mainurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.rockytopridge.com&returnurl=/21685 ) It was a great place. The porch was gated so dog could roam freely, which he really needed to do in order to keep track of all his favorite people.

Here are E and GB playing the Wii. It was much fun for all. Notice Ec on the couch trying to read. Everyone had something to read, including 3 people sharing 2 copies of The Deathly Hallows. Good thing I had already finished mine. :-)

The view from the hot tub on the porch. I loved how the cabin was off the beaten track. Not too far. Just far enough to feel like we had a home in the woods instead of in the middle of tourists.

Playing Apples to Apples.
We even made a strawberry rhubarb pie to go with G & M's grilled salmon dinner.

Garage building

2007-08-05T07:09:00.000-04:00

I finally decided to add a garage this summer. The first step was to clear out the old hedges. Notice the low budget tools of the trade. There was a lot of sweat equity here:

Then the site was marked, posts were added, and the building took shape. I have a more up to date picture, but it's still in the camera.

Porch Disguises

2007-06-26T16:32:00.000-04:00

Since the porch turned out to be such a lively/vibrant/shocking/ridiculous blue, I bought some more flowers to try to disguise it. The containers on the left are flowers I repotted, so they will take a little time to fill out.

To replace the evil barberry bush that I dug out, I have a new rose, Tuscan rose, and a few yellow daisies to keep it company. For those of you who were concerned, the 3 bare root roses are starting to liven up. Yay!

GB...your little rose is moved and has a couple of new friends.

This is the back door pot. I added the pink daisies where I stole some alyssum for one of the front porch pots. :-)

Great Zot

2007-06-09T13:57:00.000-04:00

We heard on the news that the middle school was on fire, so I decided to go take a look. The fire trucks were clustered near the entrance closest to my room. The action was obviously on the back side of the building -- my side. And as I turned the corner, I had the sneaking suspicion that the spectators were looking towards my room. Yep. Lightning hit MY ROOM. The fire had been put out, but the firefighters were cutting open and digging out more roof and debris to make sure nothing more was smoldering. Here are some pics:

There was surprisingly little water damage. The firefighters got tarps down and moved furniture out of the way.

My poor door!

Progress

2007-05-30T21:29:00.000-04:00

See? It looks much better.

Free Time

2007-05-30T12:25:00.000-04:00

So, school's out...no grading...no planning...no papers to run...woohoo! On the very first day of summer vacation, GB made the mistake of leaving me alone too long and here's what happened:

I swear this was not even java induced. Perhaps I should stick to the knitting. With any luck, GB can put it back together. Nothing like a little concrete jigsaw puzzle. :-)

Finishing Touches and Goodbye Bush

2007-05-05T18:13:00.000-04:00

The bathroom is nearly done. The pink "lips" shower curtain has a nifty new replacement and towels to match. All we have to do now is the floor, but that will wait awhile.

I bet you were hoping for a different bush to be gone, but this one will have to do.

Bathroom face lift

2007-04-22T15:32:00.000-04:00

It's just about done. Paint = Sherwin Williams in Whimsical White. Trim = Benjamin Moore in pearl lustre white. Artist = Ike

Fashion News

2007-03-14T06:31:00.000-04:00

My Canadian niece learned the joys of "home shopping" by going through our closet of dresses and the thrill of shopping at Gabe's. The black and gold dress has waited through all three of my girls before finding its true fit.

Surprises for Me!

2007-03-08T20:49:00.000-05:00

I came home from school today to find a little care package:

Latest Projects

2007-02-13T10:04:00.000-05:00

I've been playing with this old gray roving and with the new nice roving which is Kool Aid dyed. The blue on the right is blue raspberry (I think) and I put the gray roving right into the pot and then carded it. It will be interesting to see how it spins. Then I did the green in lime and carded it with the gray.

Here are the two spools ready to ply:

I finger plyed (plied?) a little, but I managed to hit a section where there wasn't much green. I don't know...should I go ahead and ply them?

Finally, here are my silly socks. Don't try to count the mistakes...it will only make you as mad (as in hatter) as me. :-) And by the way, I cannot figure out how to get the spacing right on these posts. I'm trying to put the words over top of each picture, but it just isn't happening.

FO and Experimentation

2007-02-05T10:24:00.000-05:00

Finally! I finished GB's happy dorm feet socks. These were started with the first wool I tried dying with Wilton food dyes. The whole project was much fun, but I did run out of yarn. That put a damper on finishing the second sock. But now they are done and she can have warm tootsies in the dorm. Btw...it's so cold here in Ohio that most of the schools are closed. The wind chills are at 20 to 30 below 0. Anyway, for the socks I used a pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, which is such a wonderful book. It's so easy to follow and gives tons of options.

Now for the experimentation: I decided to try some one-pot Kool Aid dying. I put strawberry kiwi on the bottom, orange beside it, then lemonade and finally lemon lime. Something didn't seem right, though....The lemonade turned out to be white, "Arctic Powder." Not quite the effect I anticipated. So I mixed up some Wilton yellow and poured that in, too. I was not thrilled with the results, but I think the lemon-lime is an awesome color. Too much of it got overrun by the others, though. I expected the strawberry-kiwi to be more pink than red. Anyway, since I didn't like it so much, I decided to try carding the colored wool with some old gray roving I had from Bartlett Yarns. This stuff is really old. I used to think it was so great until I discovered that some roving is soft and silky. This stuff is pretty natty and hasn't improved with age.

The other part of my experimentation is that I've never made rolags or spun from them. I have no idea if I'm doing it right, but it was very easy to spin.

The result:

I call it "Sherbet on a Cloudy Day". Can't say as I like it all that much, but it's ok.

Something done

2007-01-28T14:32:00.000-05:00

Lately, it seems I've been doing more unknitting than knitting, so it was with great pleasure that I actually finished something. GB wanted a hat for tromping around campus, and she wanted me to use the handspun she had made her vest out of. Fun yarn, but not enough of it. So, I added white stripes, which led to the unknitting of the hat to change to navy blue. Sigh. I used the "Ribbed Alpaca Hat" pattern from sweaterbabe.com. It's the 4th hat I've knit with this pattern. I like it because it's so easy, always seems to fit, works great with my bulky handspun, and has a nice shape. Maybe later I'll take some pictures of all the other projects I have started.

Timber

2006-12-17T16:40:00.000-05:00

GB sneaks up on the unsuspecting tree.

Here she reveals the truth. It's timber time. This little guy had been a living Christmas tree about 6? 8? years ago. I've been telling it for years that when it grew up, it would be a Christmas tree again.

There's no turning back now.

Anyone want to count the rings?

GB the lumberjack.

The tree fights back like a riled porcupine.

Now, if it will just fit through the door...

Hats...Ridiculous Things

2006-12-11T16:49:00.000-05:00

Yes, I've been wanting to make a silly hat. In fact, I've made two. The first one was a plain blue and white experiment, but the second, shown here, is clearly a work of art. :-) Oh so much fun!

Big Sigh

2006-11-18T20:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, it's been awhile. Let's do the math. 150 students = 150 narratives to grade = no time for anything but feeling guilty about not having them all graded yet. But there are good things...GO OSU! And most of the leaves are raked. Although, the neighbor's tree is mocking me. It's letting go of its big, old oak leaves verrrrry slowwwly. Verrry slowwwly indeed. It was shimmying said leaves and mocking as I raked what has fallen.

Cool Cats

2006-08-12T10:40:00.000-04:00

Would I look cool driving this purple people eater?

Miscreant:

Before I rip out again...

2006-07-30T16:24:00.000-04:00

This is really fun, but it took me 3 solid tries to follow the pattern. I still make plenty of mistakes, but now I can see them and figure them out sooner. I'm in the 3rd repetition of the pattern now, so I think I'm safe. The yarn is Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud. Very soft and teeny tiny. Up until recently I've been knitting with bulky yarns almost all the time. Socks and lace are a big change. I really like my bamboo needles, too.

Retro fun & Internet Inspiration

2006-07-28T08:41:00.000-04:00

Several occurrences aligned to lead to some crazy quilting experiments. First, GB sorted through many boxes of fabric stashed in the basement. It was a HUGE job, but led to many discoveries, including retro fabrics from 4 generations.

Fellow bloggers have been sharing CQ ideas. Rissa got me started and then I started browsing all the links she posted, and so on. Thanks, Rissa!

Then I got E. a new sewing machine for her birthday and she came home to play. It has fun stitches and even though I like to embroider, the machine is much faster. Erin made a retro scarf from Gr-grandma's fabric.
We tried a few stitches and then played quilting.
The pin cushion was fun. I found the directions while browsing around looking for ideas. It is obviously made of retro fabric and sports a retro button on each side. E. made the star block and I made the CQ squares. It was much fun, but a little more intense than I thought it would be. Perhaps I worry a little too much about which fabric should go where. I think the pin cushion is my favorite.

Mighty Mittens

2006-07-14T08:07:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't been updating well, and there has been knitting...but today's post is a tribute to the royalty in the family. He may look like a docile, peace loving fellow:

But Mittens often stands watch, spending long minutes in his crow's nest perch, ready for action:

This morning, the mighty (worship-your-king) Mittens, smug and quite proud of himself, presented me with A DEAD MOUSE! Ach! Right there in the middle of the house! And ew...ew...ew! The dog just spotted another one and it's alive. brb

Ugh. Ok, this may be problematic later, but I captured the second mouse (although it might actually be a mole or vole) by forcing it to run into an empty can. Then I covered the can with the piece of paper I used to tease him out of his hiding place, and then I threw the whole thing in the garbage can. That means that for the rest of the week, I'll have to shake and pound the can before I open it, and I'll have terrorizing mouse dreams. I sure hope that was the last of them.

Wow, GB is not going to enjoy this story at all.

I do want to add that we have never had any sign of mouseage here since we moved in 8 years ago. This better not be a trend.

2006-06-22T16:55:00.000-04:00

I finished my latest socks :-) They were lots of fun with the self-striping yarn. (Yarn = Yarn Art, Crazy Color) Then in a panic for new socks to knit, I ordered more yarn from Knitpicks. I hope the box hurries.

Still itching to knit socks, GB talked me into using the singles I spun from the dyefest roving. I've never actually used singles to knit with before. Once I tried a sample, I couldn't stop. If you notice in the picture, yes, I'm knitting straight from the bobbin. Probably not the preferred method, but what the heck. I know, I should have set the twist and all that, but who can be bothered with such. It looks good -- no, it looks great, and it's a lot of fun to see the colors emerge.

Beauty and the Beast

2006-06-20T20:17:00.000-04:00

OK, here's the Beauty:

And here's the Beast: I know...it looks tame, but trust me, it's completely feral! It grows and grows and grows! And it's extra thorny. This is what I removed today:

Not to mention, I find its evil spawn here, there and everywhere. And speaking of feral, never turn your back on the Rose of Sharon bush. If you do, you could find yourself surrounded. Lilies of the Valley are not to be trusted either. Enough of this gardening update. I'm going to knit socks.

A Quickie

2006-06-14T08:13:00.000-04:00

Even though I haven't posted, there has been much busy-ness in the past month. After the prom dress, there was the "practice" graduation dress and then the actual graduation dress. The practice dress was worn for the scholarship reception. Silly us. I don't think I have a picture of GB in either of the dresses, but this is the fabric and pattern for the "actual" graduation dress. I also include a picture of GB's response to the "We highly suggest girls wear white shoes" direction.

Here and Gone

2006-05-05T19:32:00.000-04:00

Remember the Express sweater that I unknit? It started out like this:

Then I unraveled, overdyed it with Wilton dyes, and it turned into a fabulous yarn. I loved knitting with it, and I love the new colors.The pattern I tried is by Berrocco called "Wilshire". I like it, but the shaping (armholes, neck) are all wrong.

Even the cat didn't seem thrilled with the result. So, I have unraveled once again. The good news is that I still have this wonderful, fun yarn. I just don't have a clue as to what I should do with it.

The Prom Affair

2006-04-29T17:51:00.000-04:00

It started with GB's design:

Then she picked the fabrics. Holy corsages, it's the bat signal under lace:

Luckily, I had a little helper:

Before I knew it, I was adding the final touches (at the last minute:

Ta da...ready for hair and make-up:

Stunning. Notice the exotic jewelry!

Knitting Updates

2006-04-08T09:49:00.000-04:00

In spite of my lack of updates, there has been action on the spinning wheel and with the knitting needles. Here are some knitting updates. The Jaywalker socks did indeed get finished in time to wear on St. Patrick's Day. I thought knitting on the little tiny needles would hurt my hands, but it was great. As soon as I finished these, I wanted to start a new pair. I just don't have any yarn.

GB started knitting with the Cotswold blues yarn I spun. I never know what to make with the yarn I spin. I'll have to get over that, because the stash keeps growing. Here's GB modeling her very first ever sweater. Pretty cool, huh?

I'm currently working on my recycled yarn vest. The last part is knitting and attaching the shawl collar. I'm concerned that the collar won't fit when I try to attach it, and I won't know until I get it done. It's hard to knit with your fingers crossed. ;-)

Side Trip

2006-03-22T16:51:00.000-05:00

I've spun a little, knit a little...but mostly we took a little sewing jaunt. Last year, my 8th grade students dyed fabric squares in art class to use this year in their Work & Family class. Every year they make patchwork pillows in W & F. A lot of the students chose other fabrics, so there were plenty of leftover squares. I volunteered to make a quilt for our annual AR auction (students use points gained from independent reading to bid on items). Erin wanted to learn how to quilt, so this weekend we very carefully laid out the squares, making sure each one was right where we wanted it. Then we proceeded to thoroughly mix them up as we sewed. Much fun indeed. I think it turned out pretty well, all things considered.

The King

2006-03-04T10:46:00.000-05:00

I'm almost done with sock #2. My second sock syndrome was out of the norm. Mine was: "Oh boy...I know what I'm doing this time." :-) Since I have no new pictures, I thought you would enjoy King Mittens.

Last Weekend's Dye-fest

2006-02-27T16:53:00.000-05:00

GB and I got busy with the Wilton's again. Here are the goodies. This is my roving that I tried to match with what I did the first time. Maybe there are some new colors in there? I thought I was doing the same thing. I now have one spool spun up, but I can't decide whether to ply it or use it as a single.

This is GB's first ever spinning on a spindle. She hand-painted the yarn after spinning and then turned it into a scarf. I think she's going to finish it off with a big, old-fashioned button.

GB painted these singles. The one on the left is GB's first ever spinning on the wheel and the one on the right is Erin's super fine, super great wheel spinning. I can never get it that thin without way too much twist. (The big show-off!)

Finally, this is GB's roving. She managed to get the colors pretty consistent.

I Made a Sock

2006-02-24T22:54:00.000-05:00

Tee-hee!

What's on the Needles?

2006-02-22T21:46:00.000-05:00

For those who NEED to know RIGHT now...here's what we're knittin'. Both are Cotswold blues from Homestead Wools, but two different dye lots and spun differently. GB is knitting a V-neck vest out and I'm working on a V-neck cardigan vest (if I have enough to finish, that is). Keep your fingers crossed.

Something Old...Something New

2006-02-18T09:49:00.000-05:00

This is the old: Express sweater, 40% Merino, 20% viscose (I still don't know exactly what viscose is), 20% angora and 10% cashmere (oo la la).

Then it became the unsweater:

Attacking with Wilton dyes is both fun and festive:

Here's a little old with a little new. Much jazzier! More is in the pot right this minute.

To Top It All Off

2006-02-13T17:50:00.000-05:00

After the wool from the dying party dried, Erin sat down and knit herself the coolest little hat. Here is the "less silly" picture of her modeling it. For the "more silly" picture, see the dreemskaype blog. The yarn has the greatest colors. Three cheers for Wilton!

Funeral Party -- i.e. We Dyed Yesterday

2006-02-12T08:57:00.000-05:00

Here we go sports fans. Inspiration abounded, experience lacked, but we went ahead and tried dying. Here are the history-making (Margaret Bourke-White inspired) photos:
First, we have Erin painting the roving.

We had already painted her handspun yarn using blues, purple, and brown.
Now we're using blues, teal, golden yellow, and leaf green. (Wilton dyes, I should add) Here's the roving ready to roll up in the plastic wrap.

Next we used the good-old crockpot to steam the packages:

Here's Erin's yarn in the process of rinsing. Great colors!

Ooooo....ahhh...look at that roving!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...Erin got GB started on the spindle. Addictive?

About this time, we decided to try an in-the-pot, rainbow dye experiment with the leftover dye stock. Erin mixed some more brown and some red, and we had golden yellow, purple and leaf green leftover. Here it is rinsing. Oh my...we created a monster!

And the big finale...Deep Greens & Blues (ala James Taylor) roving, and Someone Killed My Hobbit or Bloody Gnome roving. There's also a small skein of thick and thin yarn, too. Actually, those are a little more brown than they look, but more red than desired.

I didn't get a good picture of Erin's finished yarn, but it's fabulous. She's working on a hat right now, so I'm sure she'll have pictures soon on her Dreemskaype blog.

Picture experiment

2006-02-08T16:16:00.000-05:00

I'm just trying to upload this picture so you can click on it and see it bigger and more clearly. I just love this wool and playing with my new cards, and wishing I had more, and wondering what to make out of it...

Happy Snow Day

2006-02-06T12:17:00.000-05:00

Yes, there's dancing in the street today. No school! I just finished spinning the last of the Cotswold blues. Now I just have to ply it with the rayon thread. Here's a picture of the wool from start to finish.

I'm also working on my Jaywalker socks - the ones that are knitted on toothpick-sized needles.

And I finished my instant gratification project. I was sitting around with cold feet, literally, and I had this batch of some of my first ever handspun. It's natural gray with bits of purple and blue, which may be angora, but I'm not sure. Definitely bulky weight. I've been saving it for something special and I decided my cold feet were pretty darn special. I remembered making these slippers when I was little. They might even have been the first real project I ever made. The book, of course, is ancient. (sorry for the glare) The copyright is MCML; 1950, I believe. Interestingly, the price is $3.50. I thought that seemed high for a book in the '50's. At any rate, the slippers are a wee big, so I get to have fun with felting -- another something new.

Designer Dress

2006-02-05T10:01:00.000-05:00

Happily, I got the dress alterations done in pretty good shape. The original dress was a $12 special. My daughter redesigned it to match the red shoes, so all the red trim is added. It used to be floor length, but now it is tea length. The bodice used to come to a point in the front, but now it is straight. The dance was last night, and a good time was had by all. Fun indeed. GB painted red stars on her face by her right eye. The Russian exchange student wanted to know why she had communist symbols. Luckily, she thought it was funny rather than offensive.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I finished my slipper socks after trying a different pattern for a vest to make out of the handspun I was using for the slippers. I want to make this... http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/wilshire/wilshire.html but it just wasn't working with the yarn. I do like the pattern, though.

Today's Project: Dance Class

2006-02-04T09:20:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the high school Heart's Dance. It's all about these shoes:

So my job today is to take this dress and make it tea length. The last time, it was cleverly tied to reveal the shoes. Just my luck, the dress that needs hemming is the one with the three layers to hem. I'm not really in a sewing mood, but rejoice! I have no papers to grade this weekend. There is that nagging, must-do-taxes thing, but I'll get around to it.

I just wish my Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 4 would arrive. Sheesh, it's been weeks since I ordered it.

Dancing in the Streets!

2006-02-01T19:04:00.000-05:00

Hooray! I've finally graded ALL the papers, including all the not-so-short stories. Some were quite professional and fun to read. Always a plus.
Anyway, I thought I'd share the latest to come off the spinning wheel. This is Cotswold wool from Homestead Farms http://homesteadwoolandgiftfarm.com/ dyed in evergreen. I used my little flick brush and 2-plyed it.

Here it is finished with 2 skeins of more Cotswold, this time "blues." I played with my new hand cards for this batch. I plyed the blues with a purple, variegated rayon thread. I've learned a lot about spinning, just by looking at the different yarns other people have created. I never would

have thought to ply with thread. Plus, I actually managed to not overspin this time. At least, for the most part. Sometimes I think being a self-taught spinner means never having learned much about spinning. Which of course, is entirely true. :-)

On another note, the socks are history. I'm working on Jaywalkers now since those seem to be quite popular. So far, so good.

Sock Adventure

2006-01-29T08:02:00.000-05:00

Cruising the web and looking at other people's knitting and spinning projects has had a curious effect. I began to feel in the mood to make socks. I've done this once before using worsted weight yarn, but this time, I wanted real sock yarn. The adventure began yesterday. Daughter #2 went to the "Art Yarn" shop with me for an hour of dreaming and ooooing and ahhhing. This place is fabulous. I finally decided on GGH Marathon, "Sport- und Strumpfgarn". Heheheh. I take it this is German for sport and sock yarn. ;-) Glad to see my German isn't too rusty. It's 72% superwash, 25% polyamide, and 3% viscose. It's also "maschinenwaschbar". I got a variegated green and Erin got the same yarn in browns/reds/etc.

Next it was home to find a pattern. As I was in the dreaming stage, it seemed like everyone had a free sock pattern to share. Not so much when I was actually looking for one. I finally found some at Wise Needle and chose the pine tree pattern to go with the green theme. http://www.wiseneedle.com/knitpatterns.asp#socks The pattern starts with this very weird, who--could-ever-think-this-one-up cast on. It lets you avoid sewing the toe, and it was much fun. However, the newness made it difficult and the microscopic needles weren't helping. I'm used to bulky weight yarn and I've been knitting scarves on size 15. Now I'm knitting socks on size 1. But, so far, so good. The toe is shaped and I'm happy to be knitting the rounds for the foot (no counting or paying attention needed). The yarn knits up in weird little non-distinct stripes, which adds to the fun.

Erin is crocheting gloves out of hers. We were both stitching and ripping out last night. Much fun. Here's our progress:

I really should be grading papers.

Old, but fun stuff

2006-01-26T17:27:00.000-05:00

Last spring, I found some unwashed, batted wool in my basement. I don't remember having unwashed, batted wool, but it was definitely there. I decided to play fun with Easter egg dyes. This was my first attempt at dying anything, and I think it was much fun.

Well, I'm having trouble putting the pictures in the order that I wanted, but I think you can tell the chronology of the event. All wool events seem to end the same way -- with the cat coveting the results. I have no idea what I will do with the yarn, but it was a big hit at the Medieval Fair the library held this summer. The kids tried to guess what I used to get the colors while I gave them hints. Anyway, I'll have to get out the camera to get pics of the new stuff.

Post #1, Attempt #2

2006-01-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

I've created my first post, added a picture, crashed and burned. Here goes another try.
I'm afraid to keep typing after the last attempt, but I've got my fingers crossed. The yarn in the picture is a mohair/acrylic blend that was going to be a lovely white sweater with a little bit of open lacework. I started it in the '80's. We decided to rip it out and try something different. My daughter crocheted a beautiful shawl out of some and we decided to dye some purple for a second shawl. So you see, the purple skein has been dyed in Kool Aid. I have to dye about 4 more skeins and then it's off to the crochet aficionado for its new life. Well, I'm going to try to publish this post now, so we'll see what happens.