Back to work…

I took a week and a half off work to have some major dental surgery done and to have some time to recover from it.  I’m doing ok – still eating soft foods.  I did finally haz the cheezeburger I have been craving and it only took me 45 minutes to eat it.  At least I should be losing some weight.

The weather was awesome for most of the week but even with all this time off, I did not knit one stitch.  I just couldn’t focus.  Instead I did some major spring cleaning…  I shampooed my carpets, washed my windows,  planted flowers, mowed the lawn (twice), got the house and deck power washed and cleaned out a bunch of stuff but barely made a dent in all the accumulated junk.  I really need to simplify my spaces.  I dyed almost 5 lbs of fiber at the studio and spun about 6 skeins of various yarns.  So I guess you can say I was productive while I was out.

At least I am getting some stuff together for vending at the Squam Lake Art Fair on June 6th from 7:30pm until 9pm at the Rockywold-Deephaven Camps in Holderness, NH (directions here) – the fair will be held in building #67 – DEEPHAVEN DINING ROOM (map of the camp here).  Following this there will be a ravelry party.  So if you are up in NH, near Squam Lake plan to come by and party with Brian, myself and other Ravelers.  It should be loads of fun.

I’m ok

All I will say is that it was brutal, it’s over and I am ok.

I’ll be living on soup, tea, puddings, and anything that requires no chewing for a bit.

Ack!

I have way too much to do and far too little time to do all that needs doing…

The new studio open house went really well.    There was lots of traffic and the studio seemed to be constantly buzzing.  Rachel came down with her wheel to spin with me.  My sister made it over for about 5 minutes – she also has way too much going on and not enough time to get it all done.  Britt and Kali from my knitting groups also came by, as did Jen and her mom.

I even managed to get the ‘hang’ of spindling earlier in the week and had made a couple of the CD spindles to teach a friend of one of the other artists how to spindle.  Which is funny because up until then I was so not a spindler…. but now I ‘get’ it and have actually started carrying a spindle and fiber in my knitting project bag.

Other exciting news

My buddy Brian called one night last week  and wanted to know if I would be interested in vending with him – some fiber retreat…. not sure of the date…  so ya sure what the heck…    The next day I checked out the venue for the Squam Lake Fiber Art Retreat – then I looked at who was teaching there – yikes! Sally Melville and Annie Modesitt!  When? June 6th!  We are only vending for approx.  2 hours on Saturday evening then there is a Ravelry party afterward.  I am freaked yet excited – this will be our first outing as vendors.  Must spend the next several weeks of all my free time (LOL! I know) dyeing and spinning.

So of course I went to the studio Friday afternoon – to check my inventory of dyeable fibers.   I have about 5 lbs of Merino Superwash, about 2 lbs. of Finn and a few bits of Shetland.  Now that I knew what I had, I also knew what new stuff to look for at the NHSW on Saturday.  Specifically stuff that can be felted as well as spun.

Saturday New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival

I was up at the crack of dawn – packed and ready to head over to Donna’s where Lucia met with us so we could all drive up together.  We arrived at the gates around 9:45 only to see Julie and her friend Rose carrying huge bags of fleeces out to the car already! LOL!   Another funny was when we missed the turn to the festival and followed another Sante Fe who also turned around and parked next to us… guess who? Debbi and her sister!  LOL!  They were off to meet Kathy.

The weather was threatening with little spits of rain but eventually the skies cleared and the sun came out.  The crowds seemed a little lighter than normal, and there seemed to be few big vendors missing, but all in all it was a lot of fun.  Brian got there about 10:00ish and we hooked up to walk around to look for stuff to dye.   I came home with a pound of lovely white corriedale (top of photo), a little over a lb. of a corriedale cross in a lovely light tan (lower right corner) and a little under a lb. of a dark Border Leicester X BFL (lower left corner).  I want to try over-dyeing some of the dark fibers.  This is so soft I may need to keep some for myself (or call the vendor to get more.)

Speaking of  personal stash I did fall down a little bit and 4 oz. of lovely cormo/angora blend from Honeybuns along with an oz. of raw grey cashmere for blending did manage to come home with me.

See that little skein of blue,pink and white – that is my first attempt at core spinning.  It’s fun to do, but a totally different rhythm to it.  Don’t you just want to bury your face in that Cashmere?

Lucia gifted me with some beautiful merino from Ball and Skein in greens!  It’s absolutely gorgeous, even though I know Kathy would hate it   I am looking forward to spinning this up.

Since becoming smitten with spindling I was of course drawn into the Golding Spindle booth to drool.   I have very expensive taste so left without purchasing a Golding.  Maybe someday!

I also picked up a copy of Barbara Parry’s new book that she graciously signed for me -  Hand Dyeing from the Teach Me Visually Series. I had read several excellent reviews and have been enamoured of her fiber dyeing skills forever, I knew (and was right) that the book would have lots of great techniques and tips.  This book is an excellent resource if you are new to dyeing or have been doing it for some time.

I did run into lots of fiber friends through out the day -  Annemarie, Britt, Amy, Erica Judy, Ruth and Manise.  I also saw Julia of the Twist Collective and snagged a button from her.    Latter I ran into a few more ladies from the Westford Spinning Group.   Cathy was there working the booth for the American Textile Museum.  It was just so nice to see everyone out and about.  If I forgot to mention you I am sorry, it was a crazy day and so many friends!

And of course when I went to pull my camera out of my bag – it was missing – hmmmm… so all I got was a couple of cellphone pics.

Here was a lovely person demonstrating how to unwind silk strands from cocoons.  Very cool!

And how to make silk hankies.  Apparently they use the waste cocoons for this since once the critter chews their way of  the cocoon it is no longer useful to the silk textile industry.  Those dark blobs floating in the water are the dead worms – ick!

There were sweet little baby goats

And of course lots of sheepies.

Sunday Mother’s Day

I hope all the Mom’s had a great day!

For Mother’s Day I got a cuppa coffee in bed and a toasted bagel…  no card, no present – nada – but Darling Daughter did come to my sister’s house for dinner with Grandma and the rest of the family, which I guess I can be thankful for.   Sister Cindy made salmon with Boursin and Spinach wrapped in a flaky pastry then served with Bearnaise Sauce, she also made dessert – a lovely bread pudding with fresh mango, cantaloupe and dried cranberries.  I made potato salad and brought corn.  And my mom came up so we spent the afternoon chatting, me spinning, Cindy cooking and it was just a nice afternoon with lots of yummy food and wine.

In progress, otherwise know as “on the needles”

I’ve got several knitting projects going.  The Kimono Shawl is still about 1/2 done.  I also started a small stole in the old shale lace pattern using my handspun.  I’m alternating 2 rows each of a merino superwash (fingering weight) in pretty pinks, yellow and beige and the naturally beige Alpaca Fawn Silk blend (70/20) that I got SPA weekend up at Halcyon.  This is really nice stuff to spin and it’s knitting up nicely.  I probably have about 12 inches done so far.  Apparently I’ve been bitten by startitis and found a shawl pattern that I got at a Webs sale awhile ago.  St. Seraphina Knits Easy Elegant Shawl, you start each row with a knit picot edge.  It’s not really a picot so much but more of a little tab and kind of cute.  I like it better than fringe.  I’m knitting it with stuff from stash.  I still have half a sock from months ago, and of course the super secret kimono project (not related tot he Kimono Shawl).  I need to finish some of these projects while I am off of work these next several days.

Coming up…

Speaking of the next several days…  I am having major dental surgery this coming Wednesday and so not looking forward to it, but the time has come and who knows how much longer I will have dental insurance.    Because this is a biggie for me I am taking the rest of this week off and all of the following week.   I am hoping planning on getting a lot of stuff done around the house and a lot of stuff done at the studio.

Is it Friday yet?

I know we just had a weekend but I was so busy it went by way too fast.

Saturday was the big “Grand Opening” for the new second floor studios at Western Avenue.  It was really busy and really fun.

Of course I didn’t get a chance to take any photos – bad blogger, I know.

One of the other artists had stopped by last week to see if I could teach a friend of hers to spin.  Only caveat was that she was in a wheel chair and was a double amputee.  So the wheel was out….   I was wishing I hadn’t sold my electric spinner too.    So that left spindling.   I am not a spindler.   I have tried and tried and have even continued to purchase beautiful spindles, but I have yet to really ‘take” to spindling.   So in anticipation of trying to teach someone something I am not very comfortable with I went on line to view all the videos I could find.  I  even decided to make a few of the cheap CD spindles to play with at the studio.    By Saturday I actually sort of had the hang of it as was able to at least show her how to do it and we both sat there and ‘practiced’.  It was lots of fun.   Now I am tempted once again by those lovely Bosworth and Golding spindles.  oh oh

I also met some lovely knitters and hopefully they will be getting in touch to set up a dyeing day.   (Email me – lynne at tangledandwarped dot com).

I also met a lovely dutch woman who’s mother had spun and she had her mothers ancient spinning wheel but wasn’t sure if it worked but she thinks she has all the parts.  She is going to bring it in so I can look at it, clean it up, oil it, get a new drive band on it and see if we can get it going.  Let’s hope that works out too, if she’s missing parts or we cannot get it going then I will definitely send her to someone who can fix/repair whatever to get it going.

So let’s hope some of these pan out.

I am currently knitting some of the alpaca from Peru into a Kimono Shawl.  <rav link>  I am almost 1/2 way done.  It’s a very lovely lace pattern that is fun to knit, but you do need the chart in front of you as you go.   So I started an even easier (Old Shale) lace stole using my hand spun.  I’m doing 2 rows of each color and so far I like it a lot.  And of course the old shale pattern is easy peasy to remember so no charts necessary.
I also carded up a couple of batts of the Border Leicester that I got in Connecticut and spun that up – yummy.  I’m thinking sweater/coat for this.

Sunday was kind of crudy weather-wise and I was pretty beat from Saturday and the all the work leading up to Saturday, so I spent most of the day doing much needed chores around the house (laundry, etc.) and watching Sci-Fi channels marathon of Stephen King’s Rose Red.  Just scary enough for me without being too scary.

And now it’s Monday again.   So once again I ask “Is it Friday yet?”

Coming up

Saturday, May 9th I am planning on going to the NH Sheep and Wool Festival but it all depends on the weather – because it really sucks up there if it’s raining a lot.

I am also ‘thinking’ of going the following weekend (May 16th) to the Web’s Annual Tent and Fleece Sale.   That is if there is anything left in the fiber budget.

Then it’s Memorial Day the following weekend… Summer YIKES!

Merry Beltane!

Tra la! It’s May!

The lusty month of May!

That lovely month when ev’ryone goes Blissfully astray.

Tra la! It’s here! That shocking time of year

When tons of wicked little thoughts Merrily appear!

It’s May! It’s May!

That gorgeous holiday

When ev’ry maiden prays that her lad

Will be a cad!

It’s mad!

It’s gay!

A libelous display!

Those dreary vows that ev’ryone takes,

Ev’ryone breaks.

Ev’ryone makes divine mistakes

The lusty month of May!