4/5/2006
I know there have been grumblings out there that these blog contests are fixed. I hope this graphic proves that even though Snow and I are great friends that she won the contest fair and square! I have given her a choice between the fibers I dyed and the sock yarn to go along with the fiber-art journal. I’ll let you wait and see for yourself what she has chosen. I’ll be delivering it to her office tomorrow.
My thought on these contests and who wins them is that if someone is a regular to your blog, which in most cases means they are good friends whether just over the ‘net or in real life, they are going to comment with more regularity and more often than others. So, these game of chance sort of contests have a higher probability of someone who comments more frequently winning because they are playing the game more frequently so to speak.
In knitting news, I’ve completed chart two of Seraphim! That was the largest of the charts I believe. Also, my mom and I may tag team a Seraphim for my grandmother. Mom may also do the lace herself. We’ll see. There is a chance I might also change the lace at the bottom to a lace pattern she already has memorized or can easily memorize. For those people not in the know, my mom is blind, so while she is a good knitter it takes a certain type of lace pattern for her to knit it usually. We ordered some purple Jawoll for it so that it is blockable but still washable if the nursing home would accidently grab it on laundry day. It is going to be a gift to Grandma provided we get it knit fast enough. Mom bought some cheap finering weight yarn yesterday and is planning on practicing on a very mini version (36 sts on either side of the center st plus the edge sts on either side) to see if she can handle the ever changing lace pattern or if she’d like me to substitute feather and fan or something a bit more regular. Then, when she gets here I’ll get her started on the real shawl.
Yep, a week from today Mom is coming!!!!! I’m sooooooo excited!!!!!!! Last summer for her 50th birthday we told her to pick any time and we’d pay her airfare out here. Kind of a selfish gift I know, but she hasn’t been out since our wedding in October of 2002 and that was a quick and busy trip. She’ll be here to help me celebrate the big 3-0!!!! About 20 people are going to Dushanbe, a tea house in Boulder that was gifted to them by thier sister city in Tajikistan. We’ll be having high tea there. I think some of us fibery people will go a little early and also visit Shuttles before hand. Mom will also get to visit SnB that Monday as well!
4/4/2006
Lolly has chosen some wonderfully appropriately springy colors for April’s Project Spectrum - Yellow and Orange! And really, even those in the southern hemisphere should do okay with the orange in autumn as well.
In honor of Project Spectrum yesterday I made myself a Project Spectrum lunch and also captured a few other foods in the kitchen that were Orange and Yellow…
1. April PS Lunch in the Making, 2. April PS Lunch, 3. April PS Peppers, 4. April PS in the Pantry
This weekend I also did some dyeing. Again with Wilton’s and a touch of Kool Aid as well.
This is what our fireplace/hearth looked like on Saturday morning, LOL! It looks kind of like Christmas, but with whacked out colors!
I did some Project Spectrum sock yarn dyeing using a similar method of dyeing as I used in the Bayou yarn, but this time I double dyed it - once in rose (tweaked a touch with some green to tone it down every so slightly) and then the balls rewound the other direction and dyed again in lemon yellow in a *very* strong solution.
I also did some fiber dyeing for the first time. I’ve been so paranoid that I would felt it that I hadn’t tried it. But after being afraid of felting fleece when washing it and being successful in that I decided I could dye fiber without felting it. Both sets of colorways are dyed with the same four dyes that I mixed based on the colors of my Not-So Squatty Sidekick. The differences in them are just in the percentages used of the different colors. Isn’t that amazing?
1. Snow Cone Roving Pre Drafted and Not, 2. Snow Cone Roving, 3. A Comparison of Northern Lights Roving Pre Drafted and Not, 4. Northern Lights Roving
I also took the opportunity to put together a few Project Spectrum Desktop Wallpapers for the month of April seeing as how the March one went over so well and Scout informed me I should do so for each month of Project Spectrum… So, if you click on these just hit “All Sizes” right above it and choose the size appropriate to your computer desktop and right click to set as wallpaper in most browsers. I hope you enjoy!
4/3/2006
For Margene and the other official sky watchers I first distract you with a pretty photo…
One morning last week I happened to notice the brilliant blue sky (which Margene noted she was missing last week) and how the foothills nearly appeared to glowed with the early morning sun hitting them at just the right angle as I was in the dining room feeding Emma. It is hard to capture the glow on film (or flash card as the case may be) but this is close.
Things have begun to green up a bit more than that photo since we got a spot of rain on Saturday evening. But the reality is that our foothills appear quite brown for most of the year.
The big “A” on the hillside often brings questions from people visiting. Colorado State University was founded as the state ag school and they used be called the Aggies. In fact there are many things around town that still use that as part of their business name such as the Aggie Theater and Aggie Travel to name just a couple. So, for a looong time (I haven’t found any official history on this) there have been a formation of rocks on the hill in the shape of an A that gets painted every fall by a group of students and alumni.
Why am I trying to distract you? Despite ecidence to the contrary in Friday’s photo of WIPs, I have been quite monogamous in my knitting since I started Seraphim (you should click on that link and buy it, it is an easy lace project with clear and large charts). That means there isn’t much knitting excitement to blog about.
Sure, the shawl is bunched up a bit more on the needles which each round, but the lace gets more and more obscured. So I’m afraid progress photos are a bit on the dull side. I’m nearly done with the third ball of yarn and am roughly at 60% completion at about 2/3 of the way through Chart 2 (of 3 plus an edging chart)… So, I picked up some more yarn on Saturday when I was at a class at Shuttles (more on that later this week to further distract from the lack of exciting WIP photos). It of course isn’t the same dye lot or seconds for that matter. However, remember how it looked all kettle dyed when I blocked it at the end of the first ball of yarn? Well, balls number 2 and 3 have been solidly the darkest shade of that and there is no telling what ball number 4 will be until I get a few rows completed with it. So, I figure this shawl is destined to be a bumming around the house shawl so dye lot just isn’t really going to matter. What is going to matter is that I bust through this knitting block I have with triangular lace so I have some confidence back and can get back to Leaf Lace!
I hope everyone had a great weekend and that your Monday is at the very least bearable!
3/31/2006
Elspeth encouraged me to stay honest by flashing my WIPs…
From top left clockwise: Skyway Scoop, needs one arm hole and the neckline to be finished; Wear Everywhere Pullover, needs two sleeves and yoke to be completed; Flower of Life Scarf, needs another foot or so to be knit on it; Seraphim Shawl, I’m at about 60% completion and this is the project getting the bulk of my attention right now; Nautical Baby Hat, it’s barely started but goes pretty quickly if I’d just concentrate on it; Siren Socks, needs frogged at least partially and some redesigning done on it; Leaf Lace Shawl, needs some detective work to figure out where exactly I’m at and then lots and lots and lots more knitting on it as I believe I’m only at about 10-12%.
That doesn’t count my unmated Mitten from Halland, but that isn’t cast-on so is it a WIP??? ;-)
———————————
Liz was not only wonderful company, but she brought with her things form Maryland, including that adorable tote bag (which will nicely hold some of those WIP out of sight so they can also be out of mind for a while < evil grin >)!
Inside were many things indicative of Maryland, including lots of crab stuff - a pot holder, some notecards, some soaps, an ink well (I adore using dip pens of all types too), a magnet with a corn chowder recipe on it. There is also a postcard of some of the unique lighthouses though the glare is bad on that as well as some salt water taffy. She also included some great yarn - some Trekking XXL in wonderful colors which I’ll probably knit socks for DH with and some gorgeous and drool worthy Synchronicity (along with a suggested pattern). Thank you so much Liz!
———————————
Speaking of gifties, I’ll be finishing up the prize stuff for the 1000th commenter. There will be a hand bound knitting journal similar to this one, and some hand dyed sock yarn or roving depending on whether the winner is a knitter or a spinner. I’ll probably also throw in a little something “Colorado” since I’ve been in that mode lately. There are less than 25 comments until we reach that magic number!
———————————
Also, I’m kind of late on this one, but I added so many new blogs to my subscriptions after seeing people respond to this that I thought it only fair to contribute my 2 cents worth as well…
~ Your finds must come from knit blogs.
~ You may not use a blog for more than one item-all items must come from different sources.
~ Finds can come from current entries or archives.
~ You must post your answers with the title of the blogs they were found on and a link to the blog/item (permalinks where appropriate) on your blog. If no permalink is available, give us the post date.
~ Do not steal anyone’s bandwidth-which means you should not hotlink pictures.
~ You need to comment [on JenLa's site] and let [them] know when you have completed this meme.
My finds:
1. A blog which you think people have not discovered.
I suspect if you’ve made it to read here you probably know of many more knitting blogs that I don’t know of so I doubt anyone I would mention would be undiscovered…
2. A blog whose author lives close to you physically. Just get as close as you can, it’s all relative.
The pithy newcomer to Ft. Collins, M&C of Milk and Cake is definitely the closest knit blogger that I know of. She moved here from the Pacific Northwest recently and has been attending SnB. She has an alarming number of interests that coincide with my DH.
3. An unusual or weird animal picture.
This may be considered cheating, but it has stuck with me a looong time. It’s a sheep in socks from Dogs Steal Yarn.
4. An entry that made you laugh and got you strange looks from family or co-workers.
Snow *always* makes me laugh. In fact, she can make me laugh until my sides hurt. This entry was one that I had to share with DH and he just didn’t find it funny. But again, it is one that has stuck with me for a while. In general, Snows’ snippets of conversations at her house always entertain me and often make me feel like I’ve gone back home to my parents’ house, LOL!
5. An idea you wish you’d thought of.
Hands down, Project Spectrum! I love the concept, it is like something I would come up with, yet I didn’t…
6. Something you’d like to knit.
Mata Hari, Odessa, Dale’s Gerbera…
7. A picture of something you consider beautiful.
I adore most of Margene’s photos of nature, but I’m always drawn to the juxaposition of running water and snow so the photo leading this post of hers really caught my attention.
8. A blog whose author you’d like to one day meet in person.
I would *adore* meeting Mim. We have so many things in common even beyond knitting that I think it would be wonderful to meet her. I’ve heard rumblings that you may be coming to CO for the Estes Park Wool market, Mim, is that true??? :-) There are of course many others on my blogroll whom I’d love to meet in person as well.
9. A blog of someone you have already met in person.
Of course, who else could I choose for this one but Lizzy B whom I just met this past weekend!
JenLa tagged everyone, so if you’re interested, go for it.
3/30/2006
See the full versions of these photos as a slideshow here.
Monday morning I got up quite early and headed to Snow‘s to pick up Liz for a day of fibery tourism. We arrived at Black Pines Sheep run by the Dows just a bit north and east of Severance, CO and Bruce’s Bar (famous for their Rocky Mountain Oysters which we decided were not on the breakfast menu for Monday morning) around 9:30am. Myrtle was out in the corrals trying to get photos of some of the sheep so she could register them so we headed on down.
Liz and I went a bit crazy with the photographs. I have about 60 total on my hard drive of just the ranch. You’d swear I had never seen sheep before, LOL! I have to say, I adored the Wensleydales with their mutton chops and how thier sounds were lower and kind of gravely and filled with vibrato and just sounded like what something with mutton chops should sound like.
And the lambs… Who can resist those cute little bas and the thier adorable little faces?? Especially when they aren’t afraid of you yet! *sigh*
The Teeswater were fun to look at as well with their almost dreadlock look. I adore the tufts on the tops of their heads! On the right is a CVM/Romeldale of which Liz, Theresa, and Julie are great fans. I have my own reason for adoring them myself which those who know me in real life understand.
Of course the morning would not have been complete without fleece shopping! On the left is one wall of the fleece room at Black Pines Sheep. This is where the skirted and ready for sale fleeces live. That set of shelves held a lot of Karakul, but also some Teesewater and some Wensleydale fleeces if I recall correctly. The large stack in front were some CVM/Romeldale fleeces that Myrtle had set aside especially for Liz to check out. In case you were wondering if we purchased anything, those two big garbage bags in the picture to the right are what will be going to live with Liz. I believe that is 6 fleeces (EDIT: I stand corrected, that is five fleeces). Plus, Liz put her name on a gorgous black CVM/Romeldale that hadn’t yet been skirted but was so big it will take two people to transport it to the skirting table! To save on shipping Myrtle will be delivering them to Maryland Sheep & Wool for her. I too did succumb to the lures of lovely CVM/Romeldale fleece despite my lack of carders of any type or combs or even so much as a flicker. But, there will be more on that later…
After nearly three hours on the ranch we headed back to Loveland for a wonderful lunch of exotic meats at Henry’s Pub (buffalo meatloaf and elk brat followed by a great bread pudding) with Amanda who then took us on a tour of Interweave Press (be sure to click that link so you too can take a bit of a tour yourself).
The day ended with some fleece washing (Myrtle gave us some samples from some unskirted fleeces which I’ll share more about later as well) and then a lovely evening at Catalyst Coffee with all the SnB gals.
All in all it was a busy few days, but I had a blast! Liz, we all enjoyed your company very much and would *love* to have you back to visit if you don’t hold the altitude sickness against us :-) I promise we won’t whisk you to even higher elevations right away next time! And, Emma will get friendlier with each visit, I promise! I suspect the same will be true of VanGogh as well, as he bit me my first visit with him and we are fast friends now…
