Devil in a blue dress

Not an actual post (coming soon I swear!) but had to share this awesome picture of WannaBaa's little miss Ava in her Miss Muffett. Pattern was on Magknits and now available on Ravelry...

The yarn is Cascade 220 superwash that I kettle dyed to get a colour I liked...

Quick update on me:

French language training is done and I passed! No more worries on that front for another five years. Christmas was okay if a bit blah - as always Santa was good to me and brought me exactly what I wanted...including an Ashford Knitter's Loom, knitting books and the fast whorl and lace flyer for my wheel...

Hope everyone's new year has been good so far. I am so far behind on blogging I'm not sure I'll ever catch up!

Low fibre content...pretty pictures!

I am...well...ridiculously wrecked. See the date? That is the day I uploaded the photos to blogger...as opposed to TODAY which is the 18th of August.

The new job is kicking me in the rear. I can't explain why. It isn't far off what I was doing before...just...more.

Anyway - here is the loveliest of merino I received as part of a fibre swap. This is from woolydaisy. Isn't it pretty! The top on top (heh heh...aren't I the funny one) is garnet and the bottom is topaz (coincidentally my birthstone) - I' m having stripped mitten thoughts...

Thanks woolydaisy!!!



Next...tranquil Canadian summer pictures....

Sigh...I just wanna go back. There was chipmunk (named Chippie...what else!) that would eat from your hand if you were still enough. There was knitting and spinning on the screened in porch. And best of all? There was a guest cabin where the kids hung out. Kind of like the kids table at family dinners but EVEN BETTER.

At some point the knitting/spinning adventures will get updated included, but not limited to:

- a finished Swallowtail shawl out of handspun

- self-striping yarn in four colours - hand dyed and handspun

- the fleece I bought with Chriss - I have learned that when it comes to processing your own fleece, clean is a relative term.

Happyish Monday!

There and back again; up to my ears in wool

The news

So the "dude" and I headed off into the wild blue yonder - ambled down the highway at a leisurely pace of 15 km per hour above the speed limit - to the Big City. Actually we hit surburbia and went to Whitby - about 50-odd (give or take 25 km depending on which part of the city you measure from) kilometres from Toronto.

All I can say is a) thank god for air conditioning and b) theme parks and 40+ degrees humidex don't mix. We lasted at Wonderland a whole 3 1/2 hours before calling it quits and heading back to Wanna-baa's house for a nap, dinner and ice cream.

More stuff I can say...10 month olds? CUTE! Ava checked out Alex thoroughly our first morning:

We also found that the absolutely best place to be on a hot day is a little tiny beach in Port Hope on Lake Ontario where it was about 10 degrees cooler than anywhere else. And the fish and chips totally rocked. No pictures as I was too busy pushing the swing and watching sandcastle making.

The reason for the trip to Port Hope was to go to The Black Lamb and pick up some fibre as I am preparing a bunch of stuff for St. Distaff's Day. Laurie had closed the shop for the day to hawk (hauk?) her wares at the Ontario Handspinning Seminar (next year, please remind me to go to this okay?). She was there on Sunday when I drove back through on my way home and was happy to accept my credit card in exchange for a whack-load of BFL and some Shetland.

This year, St. Distaff is on June 21st and if you have never heard of St. Distaff don't be surprised...she (I think its a she) is the made up saint of spinners and weavers. Every year one of the local guilds hosts a day of spinning, weaving and fibre arts workshops along with a small vendor show. Chriss of Daisy Chains and Buttercups is going to have a table this year and I'm going to put some stuff there to see if anyone wants to help me lighten up my shelves at home. Turns out I have a LOT of fibre.

So...I have been dyeing my heart out over the last two weeks!

Stuff I dyed

So today you get a quick review about dyeing roving. In the last two weeks, I've dyed a whole lot of Blue Faced Leicester (BFL), Corriedale, Merino and Merino/Tencel blend. My favourite is BFL with the Merino Tencel a close second.

As much as I love the soft merino it is hard to handle when dyeing. The fibre is so fine it tends to drift apart and requires careful handling to keep the integrity of the roving intact (now there's a sentence I never thought I would type...integrity of roving...). The worst moment is when I go to pull the bump out of the soaking bowl while trying to avoid the others and keep the merino all in one piece. I seem to finally have my technique down, but I've also learned to lower my standards a bit about how perfect the roving will be when I am done with it.

The other thing about merino is that it seems to resist taking up the dye. If anyone wants to jump in with an explanation about how my technique may be faulty please do so, but it seems like the same concentration of dye yields a much more saturated colour on the same amount of BFL as merino. It seems as thought the merino sucks up the dye so quickly it doesn't have time to spread through the fibre.

The merino/tencel mix seems to solve some of the problems with the merino including the "drifty-ness" - not to mention that the shine on it makes my heart beat a little faster.

Finally Corriedale. Alas, how I want so much to like you! I have to confess however, that I do love my fine wools and while Corriedale has its place in the wool pantheon, it will never be worshipped here. Just too rough for my taste and it seems to suck in light. What can I say...I like me some shiny stuff. I'm surprised I haven't started with the Angelina yet.

So here's a quick fibre fix...and if you want to see it all, go check out my flickr.

Stuff I'm Knitting

Little to report - the Susie Hoodie is proceeding well. I am 22 rows away from my off the needles, around the waist size check and then we will know for sure if all is well. Now I just have to commit absolutely to doing the waist size check thing and not pretend that this type of careful consideration is something that is good and right and not something that is only for other lesser knitters than I.

And finally - for all those who asked...

Vesper the Vibe is fantastic. Fun to drive, goes vroom and generally makes itself welcome everywhere except at the gas pump. Also, I really can't wait to see how many hits I get off a google search for "black vibe". Because I am really 12 years old.

Next time, I will try to tell you about Kniterary* where I got to touch some Camelspin (please don't lick the screen - not good for monitors I hear) and after I regained cousciouness I bought a new book.

*A yarn shop where wise yarn store owner has placed Fleece Artist and Handmaiden in a locked glass cabinet. Bizarre but somehow made me want it even more...

I dare you to call me middle aged!!!

I went to Canada's Wonderland with the dear son and proved that 37 isn't too old to go on a ride that made me think I was going to die. Actually - this is more accurate. Except that in addition to the screaming I heard Alex say, "THIS IS AWESOME!!!!" That's when I knew I was in big trouble.

We had a great time. I conquered my fear (over and over and over and over). We ate crap. We spent a lot of time in line and upside down. I got soaked on the water ride. It was all good.

Our first day Alex and Luke connected over foam building blocks. Alex built and Luke destroyed. All was well in the world. Luke had a new hero. Although Alex later admitted to Luke's mom that Luke had more energy than he had.

The day before was far more sedate. Day one was a trip to the Toronto Zoo. I love the zoo. Alex loved the zoo but Alex did not like all that walking. What he did like was taking pictures. He took photos of everything. I had to step in and take pictures though because his intentions are great but his execution is not so wonderful. We wandered for about 5 hours and I had to agree that my legs were getting pretty tired too.

I can't help but think that this polar bear is thinking "These people look delicious!"

This was a yarn-free trip because Alex is not a kid who likes a yarn store. In fact, unless it is a video rental place or carries video games, Alex is distinctly unhappy about shopping of any kind. So we did kid stuff. It was really nice to connect with him on stuff we both like. As he gets older and becomes more boyish - and I get more fibre-y in my choice of pastimes - we are connecting less and less. Although he is a lot more interested in spinning than Madeline is. He wants to know how the wheel works, what plying is etc. He asks interesting questions!

This week I have the kids in camp for three days while I paint -- its slow going -- mostly because I lack the resolve to work at it for more than an hour or two at a time.

There has been knitting going on - but not much to actually show.

I did manage to turn this:

Into this:

That's the Couleurs de Provence colours. It is gorgeous and will be off, shortly, to Jeanne who was brave enough to admit to a love of self-patterning sock yarn. I am very pleased with it - particularly since I don't generally like the colours of commercial sock yarns.

I can tell you that skeining self-patterning sock yarn is the most agonizing and irritating of jobs. Having to do it twice because the skeinwinder umbrella thingy collapsed causing all kinds of knots and generally ickiness may have cause a temper tantrum that is, in retrospect, somewhat embarrassing.

Christmas and beyond....

So Santa came and went and it was all good.

Xmas morning the sprogs were at their dads so I got up around 9:30 and went over to my neighbours for some coffee and conversation which was a very humane way to begin Christmas!

I picked up Madeline and Alex at 1:00 and came home and opened gifts. Because there weren't a lot of presents under the tree we took our time and enjoyed opening one each and getting to admire each other's presents. I gave Madeline a Real Meal Easy Bake Oven which she liked enough to try the macaroni and cheese (it is a stretch to call it that). Alex got a Robo-pet which is BEYOND COOL. Seriously. Even if you don't have kids this thing is fun! And if you or your significant adult is a bit of a tech geek - you'll be enthralled by the mechanical genius.

I think I've mentioned before that because I don't have a partner and we celebrate Xmas with my family separately, I normally buy myself some stocking stuffers and a few gifts to give myself from Santa to keep the belief in Santa Clause alive. I did this the first time last year and discovered it is a lot funner than I thought it would be. I think this is because I am an instant gratification type of person. So packing up the gifts and not playing with them is hard for me. So I am truly excited Christmas morning to finally get my hand on my presents! This year Santa gave me a lovely earring and necklace set - bronze with nice red stones in it (how did he know I needed some red jewellry!), Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers, the most recent Knit.1 magazine and the new Koigu book.

More books arrived from my parents: Odd-ball Knitting (which I'm not in love with) and Sally Melville's Knitting Experience Book 3: Colour which I have glanced through and seems to have some interesting ideas and techniques.

Right now I am knitting up a few washclothes to "adorn" my last gift to give to my good friend Sandra, a beginner knitter who made the mistake of saying to me, "I wish I knew how to knit dishclothes." Did you know that you can fit four "cakes" of wound Bernat Handicrafter cotton in one of those cylindrical wine gift boxes? Well, you can! I finished one ball-band cloth from Mason Dixon and am working on a modular one I really hope will work out based on the Koigu book instructions for diagonal squares - I am determined to make this without having to sew a seam!

Sorry for the lack o pictures but my camera batteries are recharging...and frankly? I'm at work (shhhhh!)