Etherknitter

Cummington 2007

Cummington represented two hours of driving, copious fiber possibilities,  immersion in the bonhomie of my people, and modest marination at Cate's blegger.    It was as good as you can imagine.

Just Our Yarn tempted with tencel, patterns, and silk top.  Purchases were great good fun, but secondary to what we were looking for in our fiber lives.  There was time to talk, shop together, and swap lies.  My heart was happy.

I did score one unusual coup.  I'm not a weaver, but I did recognize a whole slew of LeClerc storage bobbins resting forlornly on an unkempt bobbin rack.  I nonchalantly ambled over to the rack, and could not believe my luck.  FIFTY bobbins.  (The  retail price has recently increased to $3.50 each.) With storage rack included, the price marked on the top was $30.

Sadly blogless Manise rescued my purchase with her minivan.  Do you know how the lights go on in your brain when you see something that you had not previously imagined?  And you realize instantly that it will solve a problem you had barely begun to articulate?  This rack will be perfect small footprint storage for my unplyed spinning output. 

The bobbins were easy to wash. A bottle brush ($2.49) was the perfect instrument to ream out the center hole of each bobbin.  You don't want to know what came out of some of those holes.  I quickly transitioned from bare hands washing to rubber gloves.  The frame will be TSP'd, then Liquid G0ld rubbed.   

Oh!  The fiber?  Yes.  Just Our Yarn tencel laceweight (Aziza).  Botanical Shades (no link) sold this lovely bump of naturally dyed Coopworth (cochineal, madder, logwood purple, osage).  Manise was completely responsible for enabling this.  I suspect she had not forgiven me for enabling HER into a Cormo fleece from Foxhill Farm (no link).  Wouldn't you have thought she would consider it quid pro quo when I agreed to split the fleece with her?  I clearly have  met my enabling match.

Cate's living room collected a sorority of wheels:  Alden Amos, Norm Hall, Robin, Louet, Reeves Frame, Lendrum, Kromski Victoria, and others.  A roomful of knitters had no idea how to tap a keg.  Cate and I enacted a Three Stooges routine, and did the deed.  Foam. 

I called the 800 number on the side of the keg.  "Hello?  There's a bunch of middle-aged knitters here who rented a keg from you folks.  Can you tell me what the black handle does?  And how do we get rid of the foam?  Oh.  Pressurize less vigorously, and let it settle?  Thanks!  Bye!"

My thanks to all who made it such a wonderful weekend.  Kudos to Mamacate, whose boundless hospitality made it possible.

All this and Cummington, too

I discovered a new way to card fiber.  Many great discoveries were made by happenstance and accident.  This was not one of them.

It involved a Dys0n vacuum cleaner, defeat of the vaunted cyclone sucking system,  and laborious extrication of said fiber from the rotary brushes in the underbelly of the suckbeast.  The experiment was performed inadvertantly on spinning thrums of no particular use, which had been discarded in spinner's usual fashion onto the floor behind the spinning chair. 

That leads me to 7 Random Things About Me meme.  Vanessa tagged me.

1.  I am a slob when I spin.  I used to toss the VM and stray fibers to the left and right of my spinning chair.  When it became apparent that I had to move too many things to get the area vacuumed, I began to throw the discards behind me.  That's how I discovered the Dys0n's Achilles heel.

2.  I am a procrastinator of epic proportions.  The fact that "The Procrastinor's Handbook" was on my Amazon wishlist for over two years was not an ironic coincidence.  Yes, it has helped.  Yes, I am trying to reform.

3.  I have learned many things about people and interpersonal politics in my job.  One of those was how to think (as much as is neuro-hormonally possible) like a man.  Perhaps I would more accurately phrase it as understanding how a man thinks.  It's an amazingly useful skill.

4.  When sufficiently prodded, I have a slew of absolutely horrific stupid human tricks stories.  Many of them make the listener's toes curl.

5.  I am a packrat.  I'm trying to change.

6.  My favorite hobbies involve wool, wine and weeds.  I used to read before fiber. 

7.  I play some modicum of piano.  But you will never hear me, because I have incurable, immobilizing and heart-pounding stage fright.

Since I haven't posted in a bit, I'll throw some fiberpr0n into the mix.  This is selected NHS&W spoils.  I DID say I was a procrastinator.  This is probably the latest blog post featuring NH swag.

Foxfire Farms has a line of wool/nylon sock yarn called FoxSox.  I bought enough for Celtic Braid socks.  I have no self-control when it comes to Barb Parry's stuff.  Ditto Judy Jacobs.  I have to just write the check for the first thing I see, and then WALK AWAY.  It is the only way to not scoop it all into my greedy arms.  Fox Sox on the left, Judy yarn on the right.

The garden symphony has finished rehearsals.  The performance has begun.  Ready?

Aurinia saxitilis 'Sulphureum'

<<This became this:

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Shima-nishiki' in formal gown.
Aronia arbutifolia 'Brilliantissima' and Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'  are competing for even the smallest degree of my attention.  And, of course, Mr. Etherknitter, less supple than preinjury, but gamely motoring on in his role as Gardening Enabler.
 

Stash woes

There are two main subgroups of fiberholics:  those who confront their stash and those who don't.  I've spent the better part of the last week sorting, spreadsheeting, and storing the fiberstash and the yarn stash.  The fact that this is being done just before New Hampshire Sheep and Wool is unfortunate coincidence.

The fiberstash trumps the yarn collection.  Sheer quantity doesn't hurt as much as the purposeless orphans I found.  I see that I fall in love with a color.  Or I lose it over a combination of fibers.  (The spreadsheet shows that 2006 was the year of cormo/silk.)  I'm realistic about how many sweaters I can stockpile (five) so I buy onesies and twosies.  And threesies.

How many scarves/mittlets/hats can a knitter use?  That is the question that is looming before me as I finish the cataloging and sorting.  How many fleeces can be stockpiled before it (what is 'it'?) becomes ridiculous? I don't have ready answers to these musings.  I'm finding it helpful to know what I have so I can sharpen my focus.  I'm not promising restraint on Saturday, just maybe a wee bit more mindfulness. 

The sock has been making some steady progress.   I cannot explain to you why the Fleece Artist pattern on the ball band told me to pick up 13 stitches on a 31 row heelflap.  It looked wrong, so I picked up enough stitches to make it look better.  I'm sure that means I've now answered the next question:  Will I run out of yarn?  That leads to the third perpetual question:  When will I learn toe-up?  I've decided on Louet black toes if necessary.  I think it will be necessary.  Sock yarns were packaged for smaller feet than mine. 

I've started binding off for the armscyes of the Dzined wool/hemp/mohair vest.  I have about nine more inches to knit for the back.  I'll probably start the front (ribbing and set-up for the cables), then put it aside til cooler temperatures return.  While knitterly monogamy gets things finished, I really do need to work on something cooler:  GreenGables in Tess microfiber ribbon yarn.  Both pattern and yarn have marinated long enough.

I'm taking garden pictures from the driveway.  Ticks have overrun Massachusetts.  I'm waiting for the lawn guys to spray death dealing rays so that I can continue garden cleanup and mulch.   These are shots of the crabapple tree, a new plant happily blooming in the driveway garden, and a quaintly confused wisteria.  She lives in the garage in the winter until I find a spot for her in the garden.  She thinks she lives in Maryland or Virginia, where it doesn't get cold, and life warms up in March.  Her blooms are pushed out at least two weeks early. 

NHS&W will be fun.  I'm going to test whether enabling is as much fun as buying.  You've been warned.

I'm in here hiding from the garden

A late spring is always a fast spring.  Each morning as I wake up, I can hear the soft *thopp* of exploding buds, and flowers hastening into bloom.  The sequence is faster.  Plants are as genetically hardwired as we are.  If they don't produce when the prime pollinators and weather exist, they don't have an opportunity to contribute to their particular gene pool. 

The obligatory daffodil picture is a cultivar called 'Marieke'.  The deer and voles don't eat them.  This girl is in the back garden, western sun through the petals.

Two seasons have passed in the Etherknitter garden with neglect as the maintenance theme.  I'm paying for that this year.  Most dirt-dabblers know that mint is invasive.  Wisteria needs firm control, and bamboo is suicide.  I've found horseradish to be equally persistent.  I had to move to be rid of that horticultural mistake.

No one told me about Lamiastrum galeobdolon.  I did not truly understand what the label implied when I read "bright leaves for a problem area in shade".  It has run amok for two seasons.  I'm sure it outweighs me, and I will spend the next five years pulling and tossing. 

While I'm uprooting this weed, I have time to look around as I straighten up, try to unkink my back, and wave the bugs away from my face.   The princesses have put their party dresses on, to gambol in the shade.  Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)blooms next to the emerging shoots of Polygonatum odoratum.  Spring is male and female, yin and yang:

I can finally post a small FO.  It made its way to Toni, just in the nick of time, I think.  Her chemo is kicking in, and her hair is disappearing. 

This chemo cap was infused with as much love and hope and sadness as a knitter can possibly communicate through needles and yarn. 

Two skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, held together, BubbleWrap cap pattern, courtesy of Lark Meadows:

In spinning news, I'm on the third bobbin of Coopworth for the handspun sweater.  While I'm effortlessly drafting and winding on (Coopworth is easy), I'm contemplating my next spinning challenge - a bit of black Rambouillet, courtesy of the irrepressible Marcia.   

I will leave you with a link.  It takes some time, but is vastly entertaining.  When you get to the page, click on the 'zoom' at the lower right of the movie screen.  You should get Jerome Murat's performance.