Fiberlicious!

Aside from finishing Feather and Fan (yey!), starting Mystery Stole 4 (YEY!), joining the local Spinning and Weaving Guild and taking off to go to A Wool Gathering (double and triple yey's!), I am now finally sitting down to put up a post.

First off ...

Feather and Fan Shawl, by Eugen Beugler: A Gathering of Lace
start: 07.01.08
fin: 09.14.08
4.3 skeins of Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud: Sunset colorway
Size 3 Skakel Addi lace
more on Ravelry

The pattern offers a variation of a cabled panel, every-third panel. I chose to do the cable panels, and I am really happy I did! The different panel stirred things up a bit, because the pattern routine became quite mind-numbing on the longer rows. I am also happy in the visual spice it added to what would have been a sea of Feather and Fan. I was going to try to "cheap it out" and force it all into my 32" needles ... as soon as I did that, I will be damned if I did not drop a bunch of stitches TWO ROWS AFTER I HAD PLACED A LIFE LINE! PHEW, thank goodness for that life line! I bought the 60 inch circulars, and had no more problems.

In my version of this f&f, I placed beads at the visually interesting parts of the pattern. I used approximately 30 grams (~5000) 11/0 Delica Japanese seed beads. I just wanted a shimmer effect of a design ... I did not want the beauty of the lace to be over shadowed by the beads ... I wanted the beads to enhance the lace patterning. In addition to the other beading, I also added a tiny seed bead in the center of each little cable.

(subtle beading is hard to see)

The final 20, or so, rows were taking SO LONG. I must admit, I started getting a little bored. The final rows were taking and Hour-and-a-half to get around! I actually left out a beaded row because I really did not feel like taking 3 hours on a row!

For the life of me, I do not know why I decided to do this on size 3 needles. The pattern called for size 5. The thing is, during blocking (took over 370 pins), this shawl reached 60 to 65 inches (152 - 165 cm) in diameter! So had I used the larger needles, it would have been HUMONGOUS!

As for the Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud. I love the color! The yarn was a little stiffer, or harder (?), than what I am used to (I usually use Zephyr silk/wool). Even after blocking, it still has a slightly stiff feel to it. I am not unhappy with the yarn, I just think that I am unfamiliar with it's feel. Side by side though, I prefer the fluffy feel, and sheen of the Zephyr.

Mystery Stole 4

Not a lot to say about it yet other than I am enjoying myself, and I just finished the first row of Clue #2. I really love the color and feel of the yarn, though it is splitty (looslely plied maybe?). I dunno the terminology. All I know is that I really have to watch because it is easy to knit one strand of the ply, rather than both strands.

(pic to come)

Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk, from WEBS
eggplant colorway.
size 4 needles

A Wool Gathering!

My husband, sensing that I needed a little break, shooed me out of the house when he got home from work. I jumped in the car and headed to Dayton, where I got to spend the night by my self in a niiiiice fluffy hotel. Holy crap, I got to sleep in AND there was a hot breakfast waiting for me downstairs! I arrived at the Gathering, and immediately, the fiber fumes went to my head. I was instantly drunk. Seriously, my brain left me when I walked into the first tent. I walked around for at least an hour before I was able to clear my head enough to remember why I was there -- I was on a mission. I was there to try out wheels, and to buy copious amounts of fiber! Because of this, there are no pics from the Gathering -- sorry.

Odd to say, but it was not all that easy trying out the wheels. I know that not every wheel there was for public use (people had their own person wheels and were spinning on the sidelines), but when you are a vendor who can sell wheels, and you have them setting out with prices on them, then please have them set up for people to try out! A few vendors had wheels to sell, but no chair for a person to sit at ... or no "beginner fiber" for a person to spin on. Sorry to say, but I just passed them by. I did meet a LOT of niceladies though, who did allow me to sit and spin, and my, oh my, am I hooked now. I would spin on a wheel, go buy some fiber, go find a wheel , spin, go buy fiber. My bag got so full, I had to unload the goodies into my car twice!

two balls of fun wool.
I wish I could remember who I bouth this from!
The orangy ball is 3 oz of an angora wool mix.

The greenish one is 4 oz of plain wooly delight.


a BEAUTIFUL hand dyed from
Dianne, at Creatively Dyed Yarn
8oz of 70% wool, 30% Seacell


4 oz. of 100% Alpaca roving from
Tina at Winding Creek Alpacas and Llamas
I am seriously thinking of buying more of this colorway...


Two huge 8 oz. balls of Romney Roving from
Per Ardua Farm, Paris, Ohio.
I am thinking of spinning these together.

A lot of my family is in the YS area, so I went to my cousins and hung out on their front porch for a few hours before making the long drive back to Flatlandia. Full of chips, dip, and root beer, they loaded me into my car, which was reeking of yarn fumes. The wooly essence wafted around my car in the warm late summer breeze as I drove home into the setting sun; my head still swimming with color and fluff. I had beautiful dreams of spinning that night.

The next post will be of The Pending Purchase....

Back in the saddle ...

It seems as though as soon as the number of stitches on my needles increase, my time to knit them, decreases.

I am still trying to finish up feather and fan.

Now that I am now up to 1168 sts on the the circs, (and I still have 60 rounds to go), I decided to add one more thing to my plate ... I started going to the gym again. Not that I don't like exercise, in fact, I love it. It is just, after having two kids, and nursing ... I needed more time to get back into the swing of things before I started up again. I did try going to the gym back when I was still nursing and OMG ... there was not a sports bra strong enough to hold all of that milkshake. I was actually afraid that with all that churning going on while running, all my milk would turn to butter. Imagine going to the doctor for that. Talk about plugged ducts. Sorry for the visual, but those of you who have been there, you are laughing. For those of you who have not, you are now mortified. That was a little glimpse of reality for ya - sorry you had to find out about it this way :).

SO, anyway, our University gym just re-opened after 3 years of renovation. This was the very pool where my water broke with Big Boy and the renovation started weeks later. I like to joke and say they did the renovation because of me. ANYHOOOO, I started up there again on Monday. I got my ass kicked. So far, I am the oldest person in the aerobics classes. I think a lot of the older faculty and staff were scared off to the older gyms with in the university during the renovation because the major pool and sauna were closed. Okay, so now that this one is open again ...OMG this gym has been turned into a workout-spa MECCA!


It is totally awesome! Each piece of workout machinery has a port for your earphones, and you can either listen to the radio, OR the built in TV. The TV's are built into the computer display that controls the machine. Oh so here I am, beep beep beep increasing the speed of the treadmill, and beep, pushing the little up-down arrows to also change the tv channel to Food Network. I WATCHED FOOD NETWORK on my very own TV, WHILE I RAN 2 MILES! Talk about DREAMY! AND they have a sauna again! OMG. Now I spend 2-3 hours at the gym every time I go!!

The only thing I don't like is now the sauna is co-ed. So now I have to sit there and listen to the stupid sounding Frat Guys talk about their weekend escapades. I NEED to start writing down some of the crap I hear them say, because it is so freaking stupid/hilarious.

So I have decided that I need to be wearing flip plops with my entire wardrobe. Apparently those OR slut Vegas shoes (got those too) are the "in" things this year.

Something funny about the workout classes I am in ... the Workout leader girl thinks it is funny to pick someone out at random from the class, and she goes "hi! Whats YOUR name? (hop hop hop cute little pony tail bobbing around) HI Lindsay! How are you? Okay, how old are you? 19? Okay every body let's do 19 more of those moves!" she did it twice, and so one time it was 19 ... the other time is was 20.

I am just DYING for her to pick on me one time ...

"Hi sweetie! How are you? What's your name (boing-boing goes her cute little pony tail, bing-bing go her cute, perfect little breasts) ... Hi Miss 11tyBillion! How old are you? (the boing-boing slows for a second ...) well yes, yes I do really want to know, silly! How old are you? C'mon! What? What did you say? Um okay ... um ... okaaaaaaay ... really? Really? Uh, well, okay everyone, lets do 38 more of those crunches...."
Observe little cute instructor making a mental note not to call on her again, and who the hell needs to wear industrial sports bras like that?

Catching up

I have been a bit disappointed in myself lately, as I have not posted anything about knitting. here is why. It is going very very s.l.o.w.l.y. Don't get me wrong, I love what I am doing, it is just that I am also toying with getting a wheel, starting my Etsy shop, AND finishing up Feather and Fan.
A couple of weekends ago, I joined a local Weavers and Spinners Guild. The ladies were SO NICE! Being part of the Guild, I can rent a couple of different wheels and try them out! I think I might be able to get one this weekend! They have an Ashford Traditional and an Ashford Joy. I got to try both of these wheels last weekend, when I went to a spinning class at a local yarn shop. It was wonderful to sit outside in the cool August breeze (what the hell is going on with the weather?) and learn how to spin. the little tufts of roving tumbled around like little fuzzy critters! I hate to say it, the Ashford Traditional and I did not get along. I don't know if it was the day, the roving, or perhaps I just did not spend enough time getting to know it. What I do know is that the Joy and I really hit it off.

Here is the problem ... when I finally do get a wheel, i want to be sure that the wheel will grow with me. I want to be able to eventually spin lace, and a lot of the wheels that are good for beginners do not spin that fast. The Traditional allows you to ADD lace weight flyers at a later time ... the Joy does not. Hmmmm, what to do? I am also interested in the Ashford Traveler Something about it's looks really calls to me. but finding one in a 200 mile radius is proving to be difficult.

I think the only way to remedy this problem is to go to A Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs!