Workin' Wednesdays

Wow, that week went by so fast! 

I finished the red wool pullover and the cotton horse sweater, and they are already shipped, so I can't show you pictures. I am just finishing up a black wool patch pocket cardigan, but I can't show you pictures of that either, because my camera batteries are dead and I don't have any backup batteries here at the store. I will try to get pictures of it before I ship it, though. I finished the punch card for the leaf, and as soon as I finish the black wool cardigan, I will knit some hats with leaves on them, as I try out various color combo's. 

I haven't been working on my hand knitting or my spinning much lately, as I should be, because I have been taking a reading break. I realized I hadn't read a book in about a year, so I have read The Lightning Thief and started the next book in the Percy Jackson series, something about Sea Monsters. Also I finally read the third book in the Tamir fantasy triad by Lynn Flewelling; the book is called Oracle's Queen, and it was a fantastic read. Lynn is such a fabulous writer! I would love reading her books even if she didn't go to college with me. She is amazing, I tell you. I think she's the next Anne McCaffrey. I loved Anne McCaffrey's dragon books, too. 

My "work" handknitting, such as it is, is still the short rows scarf made from Audrey, and I really must start knitting that Hard Alee pullover for the knitting cruise very soon. Yikes. 

Thworkin' Thursday

Wednesday blew right by me, so I am doing "Thworkin" Thursday instead of Workin' Wednesday. 

Today has been a busy knitting machine day. First of all, yesterday I finished a red crewneck sweater. Here is what it looks like at the moment:

When I finish sewing it together it will look like this:

I also started knitting a horse sweater for a customer. Here it is just starting to cast on, on the knitting machine:

In this picture you can see the mylar punchcard that I use to create the horse pattern on the knitting machine. Here is a children's version of what I am making (the adult version is the same, just bigger):

I also am creating a punchcard for a new leaf design. Ha, I guess that's sort of like turning over a new leaf? I will let you know how it turns out. 
 
   

Beautiful Weather We're Having

What a great weekend for Easter Weekend, eh? It was over 80 degrees here in midcoast Maine. Very odd. Very nice, but very odd. My crocuses like it:

      

I am working on another scarf for the knitting cruise:

        
I'm not quite half done. The yarn is Schaefer Yarn's "Audrey", a fingering weight 50/50 merino silk blend. It feels so luscious! 

Over the weekend I finished spinning the blue fluff that's been on my wheel for at least 2 years:

I have two more skeins of this in a bin somewhere. The fluff I spun was full of nubs and puffs, so it is a pretty highly-textured yarn. It is really soft though, I do believe there is a good amount of angora in it. I spun a 3 ply dk weight, although the first two skeins might be a 3 ply worsted weight. I have no idea what I am going to knit with it.  I have 500 yards of it all together.
 

I have two bags of 100% alpaca from Blueberry Farms here in Camden, Maine, which I have 75% spun. I spun all the off-white and I have spun 50% of the dark brown. I plan to ply the two colors together and make a scarf for me. The object of the game is, to see if I can wear 100% alpaca if it is locally farm raised, undyed, and handspun. Currently, I can't wear any alpaca or alpaca blends, because it makes me itch. It could possibly be because of how commercial alpaca is processed, so I am trying this handspun alpaca experiment to see if I can wear it. Either I will be able to wear this pretty alpaca scarf, or someone will get a really nice scarf gift! I will probably have the alpaca spun, plied and the twist set by next week, but I might not knit the scarf til fall. I have a lot of other things that I have to finish before I knit just for fun, and just for me. 

Back to work!

   
 

Mac & Cheese

Note to self: Macaroni and Cheese is much much much tastier if:

1. You use Cabot sundried tomato & basil cheese (thanks Lynne!)

2. You stir a quarter cup of pesto into the cheese sauce.

3. You bake it the whole time with the cover ON, not off. Usually I put buttered crumbs on top and bake it uncovered, and it is good the first time you eat it. The leftovers, however, are kind of dry and .... dry. I made my mac and cheese earlier in the day and I had Joe put it in the oven for me, since he was in the kitchen anyway and I was spinning, but I neglected to tell him to take the cover off first, and it came out so much nicer. Very moist and yummy and not dried out on top. 

I spent the whole day spinning and knitting and reading The Lightning Thief. Not a bad day. I am very happy to have finally finished spinning the last of the 8 ounces of blue fluff I bought at SPA 2008. I have been spinning that stuff for years! And now it is finally all made into yarn. To celebrate, I spun a whole 2 ounces of pure alpaca pencil roving from Blueberry Farm Alpacas, a lovely alpaca farm right in Camden. It was like spinning a dream! I am so hooked on spinning alpaca now....

They're Back :)

I got dressed in the dark the other morning and put on a pair of socks that felt a little tight, but I didn't have time to actually look at them. So I just put them on, and forgot about it. 

Later, I looked down and realized that I was wearing my Bermuda Socks! And they didn't feel tight at all! Remember the unfortunate incident in which they got shrunk (I thought) by going through both the washer and the dryer? Well apparently yarn that is 50% tencel doesn't really felt, it just tightens up a lot. After wearing my socks half the morning, they were right back to their previously unshrunk size, so now I can wear them again! It's amazing. They really are a pretty color. I guess I like them a little more now.

Actually, after their harrowing washer/dryer experience, they feel much softer and way more comfy than before. Almost cushy feeling. I guess everything that happens has a reason. However, I will be far more careful to keep them out of the scary laundering machines from now on.