on the road.....

the annal adventure that is 'girlsweekend' took us to lovely pennsylvania to stay with my cousin in emmaus. so i tacked on a side trip to the kraemer textile mill in nazareth. since i was driving and my companions were willing.....why not? it was easy to find

and a great day so left my naughty sister in the car with a book and blanket. i love this yarn. i first discovered it while taking a felted bag class. and when i fell, i fell in love hard. mauch chunky has been my 'go-to' yarn for all kinds of felted projects... bags, slippers, totes.....great color, texture and wear-ability. i have tried to get to the mill for years, not just to see it, but to have a the chance to see all the yarns in all the colors in one place.

i was not disappointed. i found the wall of chunky and filled the basket full...

this is the button display in the original safe. how cool is that??? so the stash is contented to be full again and the gals gave me color cards for all their yarn. it was worth the trip.

am i blue?

to say that life here has been chaotic for the past few weeks would be a gross understatement. obligations have been tugging be in all sorts of directions, to all sorts of places and i was starting to feel frayed. (i was going to say unraveled, but it was too obvious a pun:)
spinning saturday arrived and when i got to guild, i looked at my gals and just said that i needed fibery love. i was immediately embraced, with no questions asked.
i was left with a deep sense of gratitude and ultimately contentment. spinning does keep you grounded. the fiber flowing through your fingers, sliding onto the bobbin in a rhythm that leaves peace in its path.
i knew that i needed to spin something that was simple and gentle. i was without capacity to put any effort into the process. and there sat a bump of sandy's wool/alpaca blend. i put five ounces of it on a bobbin, and have another ten to go. i'll end up with a very nice worsted weight that i envision in a sweater.
my other projects are limping along. i have just the sleeves to finish on kauni and i think i must re-knit the vest. again.
we'll see if the contentment lasts.

it's all about the kits

i finished these.....

and this....

and really made some progress on this........

so of course i had to start this.... the wormy apple scarf kit from morehouse farms. i got it last month during their internet sale. i've been needing to do it ever since the first time i laid eyes on it. my niece is an elementary educator that lives in an apple orchard in a community that celebrates the apple blossoms. need i say more?

so i cast on and i've finished four of the eight apples. while working away on it tonight, i was thinking of the next project i need to undertake. i've had the sock fix (youngest spawn LOVES her socks....can't get them off her feet) i finished a wearable garment for the spring weather, and i may finish the kauni before it's one year anniversary.

it dawned on me that i am captivated with the kit. the colors were already chosen, the yarn balled, the pattern complete and legible, minimal swatching to find gauge and i was off.

sadly i've not collected any kits. i've got lots of yarn and binders of patterns, but no kits. amy the fiber goddess and i looked at sweater kits at rhinebeck this year. at the time, i wasn't tempted.

it's now on my must have list!

at a standstill

makes you think of spring doesn't it? bright and cheerful even though it is snowing and cold here today.

i needed a project to keep me from going over the edge at the abrupt stop i encountered. the kauni is so close to the finish, i can taste it! i'm ready to start the collar, then the button band, finish off the cuffs, block and done. okay, that does seem like alot, but really..... i'm almost there. work, life and bad light has slowed me down. since i have to cut the steeks and pick up those wee tiny stitches, i need the watered-down light of day. since i have kids and a job, that's not going to happen until the weekend!

my lovely malabigo vest. i've run out of yarn. i knew this was a possibility when i started so it wasn't a huge disappointment. getting more yarn turned out to be trickier that i thought. the lys where i purchased was so very less than helpful that i will think twice before patronizing them again. my one online option was too dark and the second is somewhere in the united states postal system hopefully heading to my door.

so that is why i've cast on the spring sock. it was also a great reason to try my inaugural dpn from grafton fibers. i will honestly say that they are the nicest needles that i've ever used and i will be adding even more to my collection!

off to check the mail box! oh yes.... the cat still lives here :)

et tu brute..

the cat and i have a hate/hate relationship and coexist only to keep the others in our family happy. my success with storing fiber on the first floor is fraught with danger, the dog, my partner..... one tries to eat it, the other tries to discard it.

so i have an area at the top of our staircase that is now where i store fiber and yarn in it's natural state. today i found this.

parting is such sweet sorrow......

who'd have thunk

that knitting glass beads in to wool would turn out so good?

how cool are these????

so the story goes like this. have to make a hostess gift. bowl of glass beads that eldest child does not want sitting on desk. have moved this bowl a ga-zillion times. they should be thrown out. wait that isn't very green. they should be knit into something. hmmmmm, i could do that (see how my brain just jumps??) hey, need to make that gift. i'll use those beads.

so with really no plan, i start knitting. i had quite a bit of the mauch chunky in redwood, so i just randomly knit in the beads. i dropped the stitch pulled it through the bead with a crochet hook, the hooked back up to the needles. since they all matched color-wise, i just stuck them on.

when i finished, i didn't think that i could part with the bag. so, i cast on another. this is in tide pool and eggplant. here is placed the beads in a line well into the eggplant.

i am an aggressive felter, very hot with very little water. i used more water and let the bags sit for about five minutes before i began the agitation to limit the chances that the beads would shatter. i had to felt for a longer time, but only lost three beads. i drained them as well as i could by squeezing gently and put them on the registers for three days of drying. since it was so chilly here, they got lots of heat.

i need to do more grooming on them, but i'm tickled with the results. now, what one to keep? and how to get more of those *&^*%#^ beads!

easily distracted

later this month, i'm going to have an estrogen weekend. it has become an annual event with the ladies in my family to get together (without kids and men) and just be together. the ritual started in 1994 and we've been doing it ever since. although the venues change, the chatting, eating, chatting, wine drinking, shopping, chatting doesn't'.

this year we'll be in allentown with my cousin as hostess. so, what is the perfect hostess gift? a felted bag. she has one of my larger bags, but not the fun little button-bag. i decided to forgo the buttons and try knitting in glass beads.

it turned out so well, i think that i need to keep it. so i'm knitting another one with beads in a different location, then i'll decide which to gift. being that they are glass beads, and the felting takes place in hot water with lots of agitation, there is always the chance that this could go very wrong. we'll have to see.