I Said I Wouldn't

When I was going through my stash this week I just couldn't figure out what to do about this old aran yarn that was just sitting there. It was bought on Ebay and had been getting dirty and stretched out from being caked. So, at the very least, to just use it I would have to put it in hanks and wash it. Heck, if I'm gonna do that I may as well do, that thing I said I wouldn't do. Dye it.

And, then I found two skeins of Knitpicks sock yarn in Bare and some handspun yarn of unknown origin (a whole 200 grams worth.)

There is still one place I have said that I will not go and I'll be darned if I will: Processing wool. You can keep me true to that one.

Anniversary

Somehow I missed the Oct 23rd 2004 anniversary of this blog!
I suppose that means that the time just goes by effortlessly and somehow I'm managed to make so many years into words and pictures just blend together.
Never once did I think of giving up or quitting this process. It's been like a child I birthed and now it's here and I need to feed it. It doesn't cry out too often, must mostly nudges me from time to time. I don't keep a journal regularly, and although this blog often lacks a certain personal confessional quality, it does keep me connected to the process of connecting the dots.
In thinking about these years of knitting I have a couple of thoughts. Mainly that it amazes me that I find the art and craft of knitting to be inexhaustable in its richness and expanse for me. The next is that I remember going to a fiber arts show before I had this blog and I thought, "Hmm....cashmere lace. Now, that's something that I'll do sometime after 60 rolls around!" Truth be told, I haven't knit cashmere lace yet but it's way closer than 11 years away. It's more like 6 months away at this point. I mean, heck I'm spinning cashmere now! I didn't even think I'd go the way of spinning.
Yes, there are days when the simplest knitting project is just riddled with the errors from my lack of attention. And then there are those days, those wonderous days when I do something miraculous with the piles of yarn here, and I just feel stunned (and probably tired) but satisfied that I made something beautiful.

For all of you who are on this journey with me, of self discovery and self expression:
Hello and hello again, my friends.

First Meeting

We had a great time this past Saturday at Portland's Central Library. Great room. I was worried about turnout even though 30 people had RSVP'd yes. We had close to 20 people and we laughed at the fact that there was no duplication of spinning wheel. We also had a fair amount of drop spindles. Long live the drop spindle!

Our next meeting is Dec 7th and we're hoping to get the folks who couldn't make it on a Saturday. One of our treats was to get fiber samples from Susan of Abstract Fiber.

We like presents! And chocolate. Yeah, I made brownies and there was some suger high in addition to fiber fumes...

Stuff's Getting Done

The Swallowtail shawl is finished but because of too tight bind off and lack of yarn, I have no points. No points, but little beads where the points should be. This is in Sea Silk.

These make me happy. Knitted in one weekend from half a ball of BMFA Medium sock yarn in a Rare Gems colorway (one of a kind). The pattern is Spirogyra.

This is 80/20 merino/tussah silk from RedRish dyeworks and I'm still workin on it.

This is something I started oh...a few years ago? Yeah, it's the Many Buttoned Vest from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Vests. One of my favorite books. This is the third pattern I'm making from it and that's probably a record for knitting pattern books.

Yeah, just a post to prove I'm not really slacking. Just looks that way.

Transition

NOT a political message:
Today there are no leaves on the trees. These are pictures from two days ago when I last walked up my street to see the last of them piling up on the ground. The picture above is so perfectly Oregon. Moss and rain and fallen leaves...

This reminds me of the snow back in New England, but with leaves.

Done

We f-king did it.
Every morning and during the day I breathed deeply and said out loud and to myself "President Barack Obama."
For everyone else who did this and voted for this man, thank you.

Curls

As you may have remembered, I started picking these kid mohair locks into clouds at OFFF this year. (The picture above is a different color batch but the same stuff). Last night I started spinning them and then plied them with a silk thread.
Because the silk thread had no twist to counteract the twist in the mohair single, it created a boucle yarn. I tried to just keep the colors blended, bit by bit and not try and control the texture too much because it would have turned to wire...

So, from one ounce I have 109 yds here.

It takes a fair amount of time to play with these techniques. It doesn't really work for me to just do little sample skeins. I need to spend time spinning the fiber to see what it's going to do. The part that was an exciting suprise for me this time was the lovely shine here and the way the color mixed up.

String Theory or Just Spaghetti?

Just a cute title. Yeah, I know string theory isn't really about string...um...mostly.
Actually, this is some merino/cashmere that I finally finished spinning. Four ounces and I have to count the yardage and WPI now. I love working with soft luxury fiber, but I'm so drawn to color that I find is hard to get through several ounces of off white fiber. Let's see what this wants to be. Probaly a large lace scarf (as if I need more lace projects right now!)

I went to the thrift shop and got two little tea cups for 50 cents each. This one is nothing spectacular, but this second one is interesting just for the markings.

Perhaps for folks out there who actually collect china, this might not be anything special, but I've never seen this mark and thought it was sad/interesting. History in a teacup. Storm in a teacup. Tempest in a teacup. Taking tea by the fire. Taking tea with your demons...

It's a transformational time of year for me. It's a transformational time for all of us and I feel it in my gut and heart and I wonder what state of mind we're all in these days. Are we waiting? I'm doing a lot of visual manifestation. Anything seems possible, and I don't mean that in a kind of Cinderella way. I love the musical version of Cinderella by Rogers and Hammerstein. Particularly the song, "In my own little corner, in my own little chair, I can be whatever I want to be..."