Maybe next month

Many years ago, before I had children, I was an active member of a local spinning guild. It was a lot of fun and enjoyed interacting with other spinners. The guild meets at a local history museum and as long as the weather is nice (which is true about 9 months of the year) the meetings are outside in a little meadow.

I haven't been in a long time, since before the kids were born. With my recent resumption of spinning activities I've been wanting to go, but it hasn't happened yet.

The chances are good I'll need to take both kids, so I've been waiting until the weather warmed up so the kids could run around outside.

Last month was a possibility, except I had to work that day.

This month's meeting is today, but we've spent the morning getting ready for my 9 year old's slumber party, whose guests are due to start arriving in 15 minutes. So it's not going to happen this month.

Maybe next month! In the meantime I'll keep spinning. I finishes the Lisa Souza BFL 3 ply for socks and it is fabulous, I think I'll make some socks for myself. I've been sampling some hand-dyed merino, trying to make a lace weight singles, and I'm having fun. I haven't come up with a yarn I'm satisfied with yet, but I'm learning while I figure it out.

Another conversation with my son

Yet another installment in my ongoing series "Conversations with my son" (my children talk a lot, so there's plenty of source material for this).

My 5 year old son is very verbal, although not always easy to understand. He is missing his two front teeth, and his grammar is peculiar (though his vocabulary is large).

One tricky thing is that he tends to omit query words and rely on intonation to convey that he's asking a question. I usually know what he means, but I'm aware that he's starting kindergarten in the not too distant future so I've been working on getting him to be more clear.

Last week, when my mother in law was visiting, we were all in the kitchen. Buddy and Punkin were doing something at the kitchen table, I was at the sink.

Buddy: Momma, I have something to drink?

Me: Sure, Buddy, but you have to ask properly first.

Buddy: Mother dear, I have something to drink?

I thought my MIL was going to snort coffee out of her nose.

When I was a kid my father spent a fair amount of effort trying to get my brother and me to say "mother dear" and "father dear". I never knew quite how much he was kidding and how much he was serious; my father is from the South, and Southerners of his generation are serious about manners.

I called him in the hospital (he had a total knee replacement this week) and told him this story and he got a good laugh out of it.

Here's a fairly recent picture of my boy. He turned 5 last week - I love him so!

Spin, Span, Spun

There has been a lot of spinning, and spinning-related activities going on around here lately, and I've been having a blast!

First, actual spinning content:
Back when I first learned to spin I acquired several fleeces at the Monterey County Fair fleece auction over the course of several years. One of them, a tan 1/4 blood merino, I sent out to be carded.

For some reason I decided to spindle spin this fleece into lace weight yarn. I worked at it off and on for years, not making much progress (it was about 3 lbs of fiber). Plus, the spindle was probably too heavy for the yarn I wanted to make, and my results were a bit wiry at times.

Fast forward to last fall when I took a spinning class with Stephenie Gaustad. I came home full of excitement over the soft and fluffy yarns I now knew how to spin. I finished up the project that was on my wheel at the time and looked around for what to spin next. I thought of the carded tan fleece, and decided to experiment. I spun different weights with different amounts of twist, plied doubled and tripled, and paid attention to what the fleece seemed suited to.

In the end I decided to spin a lofty three ply. I spun and spun, not worrying about the occasional slub or thin spot. This was a real change for me - I have tended to be a very controlled spinner in the past, but I liked this style. I filled bobbin after bobbin, understanding for the first time why a Woolee Winder would be an appealing accessory. I spun for months, borrowing storage bobbins from my friend Sylvia, keeping track of what I was doing so I could ply with a plan.

Finally, about a month ago I finished the singles, all 3 lbs. or so. Then I began plying, which took about a week, and now it is all done.







I wish you could feel this yarn - it is soft and light, and I just want to cuddle it. It's not next to the skin soft, but it is the opposite of wiry and I am thrilled.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it, but that's a question for another day. It's washed and stored and in my mind I'm contemplating options!

In other spinning news, I spent an hour last Friday afternoon with my daughter's third grade class, demoing carding, spindle spinning, and wheel spinning. I opened by reading the book "Woolbur" which was a great way to introduce the subject, then talked about all the steps in the process, showing them the tools and how they worked as I talked. I gave each kid samples of different kinds of wool prepared different ways, and then when I was done with the demo I gave each kid a straw loom I'd prepared, so everybody got a chance to weave and something to take home.

It was so much fun. The kids were really interested and asked lots of great questions. A couple of boys got antsy at one point, but I was amazed at how much they followed, and stayed on track. One boy told the teacher that it was the best Fun Friday ever!

And my last bit of spinning news for the day is that I have applied for a scholarship to attend SOAR, the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat. I don't know how many scholarships they award and how many people apply, but I am really hoping for the best! I think about how much I could learn in a week at SOAR and my fingers get all tingly - wish me luck!

Stealth Deadline Knitting

A while back I agreed to be part of a project that Kathy had cooked up.

Of course it promptly slipped my mind for some time, until I checked in and discovered that the deadline was approaching, and fast.

So last Saturday I sat down with several Barbara Walker books and looked for a stitch pattern that was interesting and not too challenging, and then I got to work.

I have been working on no other projects for the past 8 days, and I'm happy to report that I have finished my part of the project with several days to spare.





Project: Stealth Orange Strip
Yarn: Red Heart Soft
5 oz/140g 256 yds/ball

Amt yarn used: 7.125 oz (can you tell I got a new kitchen scale for the Italian for Christmas?!)

Needles: size 8 Boye interchangeable

Dimensions: approx 6" wide (it was supposed to be 7" but I didn't allow enough extra for the intake of the rib" by 50" long

Stitch: Crenellated Pattern, pg 184 of one of Barbara Walker's books (I think volume 3)

Of course, when Punkin saw it she asked if I would make her a scarf in this stitch! I can't blame her - the fabric is amazing - it's so squishy, and it moves so much!

I have been knitting one orange project or another since August of 2009 and I'm not done yet - it's back to the Italian's orange sweater now, trying to get it done this winter!

Knitting for my Guys

Pattern: River Forest Gansey (Ravelry link) by JoLene Treace







I have a confession to make - I love knitting books. I own a lot of them, but as a librarian I look at even more of them. (I don't actually order the materials for that part of my library's collection, but the librarian who does welcomes my suggestions, so I consider it my professional responsibility to take a look at any new knitting books I come across!)

I have a mental knitting queue that is four times as long as my expected life span, but it doesn't stop me from looking. I can tell when I'm really stuck on a pattern based on how many times I check the book out of the library.

River Forest Gansey is one of those that stuck in my brain for a long time. The photo in the book is of a little boy wearing the sweater held in the air by a grown man, also wearing the sweater. I knew when I looked at that photo that my boy would look adorable in that sweater.

So earlier this year when my favorite LYS had a sale I took my 4 year old and we picked out a rich pumpkin orange shade of Cascade 220 to make a sweater for him. Little kid's sweaters don't use a lot of yarn and the yarn was on sale so I didn't feel too extravagant.

I took the project with me when we went away this summer but got off to a slow start. The cast-on described in the instructions baffled me, and I can figure out most knitting instructions. I tried several different times to figure it out, even went through a bunch of knitting books in my mother-in-law's house for clues, with no luck. Finally I chose a different cast on from June Hiatt's book and moved on. (I did finally decipher the original cast-on instructions with the help of Beth Brown-Reinsel's excellent book Knitting Ganseys and used that on the sleeves).

I am normally a very careful knitter - I swatch, I think, I move forward only when I know what I want to do. This time I decided to just wing it on needle size - I started the sleeve on size 8 needles and knit about five inches before stopping to check gauge. Completely off. I normally knit fairly tight so I had gone with a larger needle size, but this is a gansey and the fabric needs to be firm. So I ripped and started over.

Overall it was a pretty easy knit. There were some technical mistakes in the pattern which were annoying but not insurmountable. I made a few changes - making a cardigan with a zipper instead of a pullover being the main change. (Funny story - I struggled for days figuring out how to put a button placket on the front without completely screwing up the motif placement. I took it to Friday knitting to pick Sylvia's brain, and she and I both brainstormed trying to come up with a solution - button loops, asymmetrical closure, henley, none of them made sense. After ten minutes of this with no satisfactory solution, she suddenly looked at me and said "or you could put a zipper in". Of course!)

My boy is still a pretty small guy, all things considered, so there wasn't a lot of square footage to churn out. I was able to knit the pieces for this in a couple of months. Then of course I stalled out while I contemplated putting in the zipper, but the weather turned colder and I wanted him to be able to wear it, so I buckled down and finished it.

I am pleased with the results. He loves wearing it and tells people that his mama made it - way to make a mama proud!

However, there is a postscript to this story.

My husband and I have known each other for a long time. We have been a couple for a long time - approximately 18 years. In that time I have knit him one sweater, which he never wore because it was too small for him (don't get me started on this - I made it the size he asked for!)

In any case, every couple of years I offer to make him a sweater and he declines. He loves the hand-knit socks I have made for him and accepts any and all socks I offer to make, but not sweaters.

Until now. As I was making this sweater for the boy I was mentally making a queue of what to make next. My list was heavily influenced by what yarn I already owned, since I own a bunch and wasn't in the mood to spend more money on yarn right now. So I'm happily knitting along one day when the Italian stops and looks over my shoulder and admires the knitting and how much progress I have made. I said thank you and went back to my own thoughts. At which point he said to me "you know, I'd wear a sweater like that."

I almost dropped my knitting, at the same time that I didn't really take him seriously. I said something non-descript and didn't think of it again. Until I was ordering the custom length zipper for the boy's sweater when the Italian said "make sure to make note of the color in case you need to order another one".

This time I looked at him and said "you really want a sweater just like this one? In the same color?"

Yup. That's what he wants. Not only that, but he said it would be really cute if he and Buddy could wear their sweaters at the same time. And Buddy's sweater is only going to fit him this winter, not next, so I have a deadline.

So once again I went to the yarn shop who special ordered more of the same yarn (same color, different dye lot) and now I am flying my way through the Italian's sweater. The back is done, I'm six inches up the fronts, and I can't believe I'm making this sweater again!

A Lovely Weekend

We have had a busy last week and a half (busier than normal).

Last week my delightful friend and her charming husband came to stay for a few days. He had a work conference on the West Coast and she joined him at the end for a little R&R. They were with us from Thursday morning to Saturday morning and it was a lot of fun.

Jill has been a good friend since sophomore year of high school, and has been a friend of The Italian's since almost as long as I've known him. Her man is a good guy and they complement each other well. They are a child-free couple but they like kids, so they are fun to have around the children. (They have the patience of people who don't have to be patient with children all day, every day!) Plus they didn't have any agenda other than just hanging out with us.

So we did fun things like going to both kids' Halloween parades, we took them to our local German Butcher (they like meat!) and we ate some good food. It was a good time. The Italian took this picture of them at one of the kids' parades:


It is always a relief and a treat when a good friend marries someone that you like very much, it makes spending time together that much more enjoyable.

After they left we spent the day getting ready for the evening's trick or treating, at which point we were joined by another couple, also child-free, who came for the evening. It was so much fun to have extra grownups around - it meant that we could take turns taking the kids out trick or treating and still have company to enjoy the evening with. Lara is a friend from college and her man is a great guy, I feel lucky to have good friends like all of these.

Halloween

This year's Halloween was a smashing success.




As I have in past years I sewed their costumes. Punkin was very concerned that I wouldn't finish in time because I started with her brother's costume, but I had everything finished by the time I went to bed on Thursday.

They had parades at school and we took them trick or treating on Saturday night. They enjoyed their costumes and going out in the neighborhood. I got my mama yayas hearing lots of people exclaim over their costumes - I don't normally pay much attention to what my kids are wearing but I like making their costumes every year.

My costume appears to be that of a graying middle-aged woman - I knew my hair was getting gray but for pete's sake it looks like it's been highlighted! Wow!



Now I need to start thinking about making Christmas presents. I'm on the hook to make stockings for my niece and my son this year, and having never done it I'm not sure how big a project I'm in for. The stockings are velvet with appliqued embroidered felt characters all over them. The originals came from a little old lady in the town where my parents grew up. When more stockings were needed my mother started making them, but she can't do it anymore so the task has fallen to me.

I'd much rather be spinning!