Stoneview » Fiber

Ready to roll

Julie — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:45:22 +0000

Over the weekend I finished up my homework for my upcoming classes in Wisconsin. I have a swatch for the knit to fit class and plenty of singles for the plying class. Now it’s time to pack. I’ll be heading out in the morning but don’t worry, I’ve left some posts for while I’m away.

Homework

Julie — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:27:00 +0000

Week after next I’ll be heading out to visit Madame Purl with the highlight of our visit being the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival. We are signed up for (extremely reasonably priced) classes all day every day and I’m starting to work on my homework assignments for them. This is some unidentified roving that’s been in my stash since the year I bought my wheel. I’ve split it in half and will fill two bobbins with it though I only need partials for class. I don’t expect to ply all this during class but having extra spun will give me a chance to practice soon after class. This is the first of two bobbins, not quite full. I also realized I still have only 4 bobbins for this week, eek! Bobbins have shot to the top of my shopping list for the festival. I’m sure we’ll squeeze in a little shopping at some point.

Please don’t squeeze the Charmin

Julie — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:32:43 +0000

Of course the main reason for MmePurls visit was the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival. Saturday was cold and rainy. We made our usual beeline for the shepherd’s booth where we picked up our reserved fleeces and a few others. I had two cormos and one cormo cross on reserve and I also snagged a black cormo cross and a wee BFL fleece. MmeP and I again opted to split Beau’s (cormo cross) fleece and have him blended with interesting things at Spinderella’s Fiber Mill. We finally settled on half of it with alpaca and half of it with angora so we should each end up with a bit less than 2 pounds of each blend. We stayed a couple hours and then headed home for an afternoon of spinning with plans to return the next morning.

You can find close-ups and details on the fleeces I bought in the big set of photos here.

Sneak preview

Julie — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:29:03 +0000

I spent yesterday afternoon giving the inside of the car it’s spring cleaning in preparation for riding all over New England creation with Madame Purl this coming week. Today I hope to go run it through the car wash so the outside is a bit cleaner. I suspect it’ll be dirty again pretty darn quick with all the driving we have planned but the big pollen dump is coming soon anyway and it’ll turn that lovely shade of yellow. I was really excited to find my fleece samples waiting for me at the post office. I bought the fleece from these two gals last spring when they were wee lambs and I’m really excited that I’ll be getting full size fleeces this year. I’m also planning to split a third which we will have blended (as we did last year only we’re blending in different stuff this time). But before all that, it’s our anniversary today so we are off to visit the arboretum and have a lovely dinner at Hamersley’s Bistro as we did the day we were wed in 1999.

Supervised

Julie — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:05:08 +0000

Gwen’s just “helping” me spin this lovely Targhee roving from Spunky Eclectic (colorway Tahiti).

SPA part II

Julie — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:04:45 +0000

We usually bring plenty of knitting and spinning to do over SPA weekend. This year I worked on some BFL roving from Spunky Eclectic in the Aquarius colorway. I’m halfway through that roving now and hope to get enough yardage for a pair of socks. These ladies also really know how to shop and although I got off to a slow start on Friday I did manage to find some great bargains and lovely fiber by the end of our trip. There’s a full set of pictures on Flickr here.

NETA SPA Knit and Spin

Julie — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:50:27 +0000

I spent the weekend in Freeport, Maine with some of my local knitting buds. We started our trip with visits to Purl Diva and Halcyon as is our tradition. We always at the Harraseeket and we always do a potluck dinner Saturday night. This is our third year making the trip and I have been saving for this one for months. You couldn’t have a more hilarious wonderful group of ladies to spend the weekend with. We laughed and we shopped and we ate and had a generally lovely weekend.

Twisted

Julie — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:16:47 +0000

I didn’t get very far with the plying on Wednesday after having bad news at the vet but I did finish it up yesterday. I ended up with about 500 yards of a heavy laceweight. Some of the green color bled out when I washed it to set the twist so I added a bit of vinegar to help set the color. I’m not sure I’d buy Foxfire roving again. It’s awfully expensive to have nepps, felty spots and so much vegetable matter in the roving. Perhaps I’ve just been spoiled by purchasing super clean fleeces and then having them so wonderfully processed by Spinderella’s? Next I’m going to start on the silk/cormo blend we had her make for us last spring so I’ll soon have a direct comparison.

Getting around to it

Julie — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:06:11 +0000

Somewhere I have an old Mardi Gras throw that’s a round wooden disk with “round tuit” printed on one side and some company logo on the other. Yesterday I finished spinning the Foxfire silk/cormo roving. I may try to ply it today before I take Gabby to the vet and embark on the rest of my errands or I may have to let them sit awhile.

For dinner we had another lovely dish from Stir. Mine looks nothing like the picture but it really tastes wonderful. There’s celery root puree on the bottom, then seared scallops topped with celery puree, apples and chives.

Sashiko

Julie — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:43:39 +0000

Last summer when I took my niece and a friend's daughter to the Lowell Quilt Museum I picked up a sashiko potholder kit. I'd been interested in learning sashiko for awhile and had even gone so far as to purchase a few instructive books but I hadn't gotten around to buying materials for making anything. When I saw the kit I thought it would make the perfect introduction to the technique. The kit comes with the design preprinted in water soluble ink and seems simple enough to execute. Last week when I was looking for non-knitting things to occupy my time I remember this kit and pulled it out. I don't think it's going to keep me busy for very long but that's okay since there's currently no knitting moratorium.