In which I celebrate a fiber-filled weekend--and it's only half over!

What a great day!  Okay, it was a bit cold--26 this morning when we headed out, but it's a good excuse to wear warm woolies, right?   My friend Lynn and I were on the road by 9am, headed to Woolen Meadows Farm www.woolenmeadowfarm.com for her 2010 sheep shearing.

Seems like it's always cold on this day, and I feel sorry for the sheep for taking their coats when it's cold.  But they didn't seem too unhappy, and I'm glad to bring the fleece home!

I got two fleeces today:  Cindy Lou is a Corriedale sheep with a wonderful white, long-stapled, fine fleece.  I bought her 2009 fleece, and signed up again for 2011.  Yes, I'm hogging her.  But look at it:

 It washes up snowy white and takes dye beautifully.

The other fleece I got was from Carly, who is 3/4 Corrie, 1/8 Romney and 1/8 Lincoln.  Isn't it beautiful?

I also received my new carder yesterday, and I have been playing with it like mad.  It's wonderful!  I will post pics of my batts soon, but right now I am carding a lot of raw washed fleece.  Two passes through the carder with the locks and they are ready for blending.

Tomorrow I'm off to Little Red Oak Farm  to help with the shearing of Gail's Shetlands.  I hope I can resist bringing home more fiber from there.  I don't need any more right now!!

In which I wax philosophic about time and literature (for what it's worth!)

I stopped at the library on my way home to pick up two books I had reserved.  They were added to the pile on my nightstand, along with the book a friend lent me today that I've been wanting to read.  (Thanks, Colleen!)  These are for future discussions in my book club--mostly I just manage to read the books, then end up missing the meeting, but the group is broadening my reading horizons, for which I am extremely grateful.

They landed on top of "An Echo in the Bone," by Diana Gabaldon, a 1000+ page tome that I am more than halfway through, and have trouble putting down.  If you are a Diana Gabaldon fan, you understand this.  These books suck you in.  This is the 7th book in what will be, as I understand it, a series of 8 books.  Each book is over 800 pages, I'm quite sure.  In preparation for getting this book, I went back and re-read the prior 6 books!  Understand, this is a MAJOR commitment.

Beyond that, I have a collection of podcasts I can't find time to listen to, emails to read and respond to, and Audible is having a sale on audiobooks right now.  (I also have 2 credits waiting for me to spend them.)  And I probably have 40 books on my Kindle that I have not yet read, many more in my Wishlist on Amazon.

Why is there not enough time in the day?  Perhaps the more appropriate question, how are you coping with the bombardment of media we receive everyday?  There is so much to read and absorb, so much more I want to read!  I can't believe I'm the only one who feels that way.  What is your solution?

Perhaps we should just be thankful that we have such easy access to media that broadens our experience, opens us to new ideas, and just plain entertains.  I should stop stressing over what I can't get to, and enjoy what I can.  Now back to the adventures of Jamie and Claire--they are in the middle of the American Revolutionary War--can't wait to find out how it turns out (ha, ha!)

In which I receive lots of good news

Today was a good day.  I got to spend time with lots of knitting friends at our weekly Wednesday night knitting group.  We meet at a local French cafe and wine bar to sit and chat and eat and knit.  Couldn't be a better way to break up a week.

We had pooled together to do a Knitpicks order, and my KP yarn kit was there, so I got yarny goodness to take home, too.  I ordered the Clock Tam kit that has been on clearance; I don't even like tams, but I will either make a clock, or use the yarn for something else.  I have been wanting to try Palette, and the clearance price made it such a good deal.  Clock Tam kit at Knitpicks

When I arrived home, I picked up the mail and found a lovely swap package in there from BlushingEwe on Ravelry.  It's a gorgeous, glitzy pink spinning batt.  I almost never do pink, so this will be something new for me. I love it!

Then I sat down at my computer to check my email and discovered the shipping information for my new Fancy Kitty Kitten drumcarder!  It has been shipped and is scheduled for delivery here on Friday.  Yippee!!

All in all, an okay Wednesday.  Can't complain at all, so I won't.

When it becomes clear that I cannot read

Last post I was complaining about the Lastrada pattern, by Hanne Falkenberg.  Six loooooong rows later (each row is 400+ stitches), it occurred to me that the chart contained two colors represented by a dot in the square.  One uses a big dot, and one uses a small dot.  So the pattern is correct, I am an idiot, but I really do think they could have been a little more creative with choice of symbols--an asterisk, a @, something different!

Anyway, I frogged the rows back and fixed the stripe mistake--now there is a two row darker stripe, followed by the lighter ragg yarn.  :-)  Hard to believe that garter stitch stripes could be so hard.

In the meantime, I discovered a half of a sheep fleece I purchased last year that I never got around to washing.  Ooops!  Usually I try to do that right away.  So I have been busy scouring a beautiful Romney/Corriedale cross sheep in natural chocolate brown from a sheep named Mia.  It is really soft--I can't wait for my carder to arrive so I can begin to process some of this.  Mia lives at www.woolenmeadowfarm.com and I believe her 2010 fleece is still available.  Pics to follow.

Next rinse is due, before the water gets cold.

Keep on knitting!

Fiber Inventory

Whew!  I finished my complete fiber inventory yesterday.  What an eye-opener.  When I finally got the spreadsheet done and clicked "sum" for the fiber weight column, it came to over 51 pounds of fiber!!!

Good thing I have a new carder coming.  Yes, indeed, I ordered myself a new Fancy Kitty Kitten drumcarder this morning, complete with brush attachment and motor!  Here's what it will look like:

I can't wait until it arrives.  I have lots of fiber lined up to send through it for beautiful batts, and those will become available at my Etsy store at http://www.gonebattyfibers.etsy.com/.

I am also going to two, count 'em two, sheep shearing days this weekend.  Saturday I will be at my friend Sue Ross' Woolen Meadow Farm.  Sue raises a handspinners flock consisting of Corriedale, Romney and Lincoln breeding, to which she is now adding some Border Leicester.  Her fleeces are coated and very clean, so much so that you need to order fleece a year in advance most years.  This year she seems to have some fleeces available.  The economy has been affecting even fiber addicts, I guess.  Her farm is on the web at http://www.woolenmeadowfarm.com/ .

On Sunday I go to Gail's Little Red Oak Farm.  Gail raises Shetlands and is now adding Finnsheep to her flock.  I have been spinning a bunch of Gail's roving into a "Tribute to Bohus" sweater for myself, all in natural colors of her Shetland sheep.  I'm finally spinning the oatmeal main color from her sheep Yarrow.  You can read about Gail's adventures in fiber at http://littleredoakfarm.blogspot.com/.

Gotta go.  I'll let you know when my carder arrives!!

Sad and Disappointed today

Well, the guys did their best, but they lost the Championship game, 4-2.  There's no question that they were tired from the semi-final game that went into the wee hours, but the bottom line is, they got outplayed.  Oh well, they had a great season, and #2 in the state is nothing to sneeze at.  The USA hockey teams were #2 this year, too, as I recall.

I had tickets for the game in the company suite--I won them at work, so my son and I got to watch the game in luxury.  I brought my camera so I could try my hand at using my zoom lens.  It's not great glass, but I got some okay shots.  Here's my nephew on the ice at the Xcel Center.  My sister-in-law takes much better pics than I do, but I'm learning.  Now if I could just get better at close-up shots of my fibers.  I need to make a light box.

My project today has been to inventory all my fibers, in order to determine what is going to be devoted to business purposes, and what for myself.  Too bad we lost an hour today, because I need it.  Wow, do I have lots of fiber!

I have been pulling boxes out of my closet, and discovering more goodies everywhere I look.  Like 2+ pounds of snowy white washed Polwarth locks.  Yum!  Or an entire alpaca blanket that I forgot I had, in a lovely rust brown with white spots.  Also found a Romney cross fleece in dark natural grey that needs to be washed--better get to that.

People often ask "how do you wash raw wool?"  I think there are lots of ways that work.  This is the way I do it:

1)  Sort the fleece by color or type of lock.  I'm pretty ruthless at skirting here, too.  My time is valuable, and I don't want to waste it by spending time washing and processing fibers that won't live up to my expectations.  So I get rid of anything too dirty, second cuts, dried tips, and VM patches pretty thoroughly.

2) Put small quantities of locks in mesh lingerie bags.  If the locks are pretty dense, I also try to fluff them out a bit; however, that depends on your final processing method.  Since I am going to be carding the fiber, fluffing them out some (while potentially messing up the lock structure) doesn't bother me much.  If I was going to be combing the fibers, I would be a lot more careful here.  But you do want water to get really penetrate all of the locks, so if you are preserving the lock structure, then less in the bags.

3) Fill your sink or washing machine with extremely hot water and Dawn dishwashing soap.  I have also used Orvus paste for this.  The water should be so hot that you can't touch it with your bare hands.  If your water heater is turned down for safety or energy efficiency, then boil a pot of water and add that in.  Then place your mesh bag in the water.  I usually push it down with the soap bottle, or I wear rubber gloves.  If using the washing machine, leave the top open.  Let the fiber sit in the soapy water for awhile--maybe 30 minutes or so.  You don't want the water to get cool!!  (The lanolin that has melted off will congeal back onto the fiber, and it will be even harder to get off.)  You will be surprised at how dirty the water is!

4)  Drain the sink and gently squeeze the water out of the fiber.  Or if you are using your washing machine, turn your dial straight to spin and spin the water out.  Be SURE you know your washing machine cycles--DO NOT let water run onto the fiber, or let agitation occur.  This will produce felt--(don't ask me how I know.)

5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 at least once more, maybe twice more for a very dirty or greasy fleece.  Then do the same two steps without adding soap for rinse cycles.  I usually wash 2-3 times, rinse 2 times.

6) Lay the fiber out on towels or rack to dry.  I live in an apartment, so I have a huge stash of old towels to use for this.  Remember that wool will FEEL dry quite a lot earlier than it actually IS dry, so leave it out longer than you think you need to.

That's it.  Now you have lovely wool locks to play with.  I sometimes proceed to the dye process after the first rinse.  That way you only have to dry it all once.  You have to be pretty careful not to make sudden temperature changes if you do that.

Okay, now back to my inventory.  If I keep getting distracted, I'll never get done!

More boy's state hockey and some knitting

They won again, after 4, count 'em 4, overtimes!! Minnetonka won their semi-final game against Hill-Murray at about 12:20am today! Now they gotta play Edina in the Championship game tonight.

Here is a pic of the guy who shot the winning goal in sudden-death overtime, Eric Baskin. Okay, he's at the bottom of the pile somewhere. (Pic copyright Sheri Schuldt.)

So I tried to bring my knitting to the games on Thursday, but as I said, not much knitting was accomplished. I did a bit better watching the game on TV last night.

I chose to work on my Hanne Falkenberg kit, the Lastrada. It's straight garter stitch with stripes, so I figured it was "safe" to work on. I had to concentrate on not getting my stitches too tight as the game got more and more exciting, tho!

I'm pretty disappointed in this kit, actually. I don't know if there's something lost in the translation or what. The colors really DON'T match the description of them--the color they call "Mustard" is kind of a greeny-gold, and the color they call "Curry" is a mustardy-yellow. I could only figure them out by the quantity of yarn in the kit. There is a picture, too, but that doesn't even show the same stripe pattern, much less the right colors. The picture shows the main color to be a rust color, but the "Rust" they provide in the kit only comes with less than half a ball of yarn, so I assume that can't be the main color.

Finally, the picture shows the main color large stripe to start, then a two-row short stripe, then a different color. Fine. But the written instructions clearly say to do 17 rows of Color A (easy), then two rows of Color B (fine), then begin the chart, which begins with 6 rows of Color B. See the problem? How does the skinny stripe get in the picture, if the skinny stripe and the next color are the same? That makes--drumroll please--a large stripe of the same color! I have read, and re-read this, and I can't puzzle it out, so I decided to just blindly follow the chart. I will end up with a sweater, one way or another.

Other items actively on my needles include the Heart to Heart scarf by Sivia Harding. I LOVE this pattern. It is just challenging enough, makes a gorgeous project, uses very little yarn, and will make a lovely gift for lots of people on my Christmas list. (See, I can plan ahead!)

I am also making a Multnomah shawl, my second one. That's good work knitting--a simple lace pattern row every four rows.  Here's pic of the first one I finished, in Silk Garden Sock yarn.  I love it!

Off to the Xcel Center to cheer on Tonka! I'm not going to bother bringing knitting today!!

They Won!

They won! The Minnetonka Skippers won their quarterfinal game against Lakeville North yesterday at the Xcel Center. They move on to the semifinal game against Hill-Murray tonight, which should be a really good game.

Here's the guys after winning their sectional tournament, which got them to the State tourney. (Picture by Sheri Schuldt.) My nephew Joe is somewhere at the bottom of the pile.

Didn't get much knitting done at the Xcel. I got a few rows done on my Hanne Falkenberg kit--I brought it because it's straight garter stitch for looooong rows, so I thought it would be good knitting for an event like that, and it was. But the games were just too exciting. :-)

Go Tonka!!

Brand-new Blog

Welcome to my first blog entry. I am embarking on a new adventure with my love of fiber--starting a fiber business. Maybe I'm having a mid-life crisis. In any event, I sold my small Fricke Petite drumcarder in order to finance the purchase of a wonderful new Fancy Kitty Kitten motorized drumcarder to use in my new business. I'm placing the order on Friday!!

My kids and I live in a 3 bedroom apartment with very little storage space, so we are always awash in fiber, spinning wheels, knitting needles, dyepots and other yarny goodness. What can I say? It's the perfect life! (Not that I would object to having my own studio, but...)

Tomorrow I have an entire day of knitting in store. I get to spend the day watching the Minnesota Boy's State Hockey Tournament at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, watching my nephew's team and knitting away! Go Skippers!