Hello from the Jamboree

Hello from the Scout Jamboree. Or I should say, home for a few hours to take care of things with Kendig Cottage. The scuba program is officially open for business today, so we're going to be on the road by 0430 to get back in time. The boys arrived Sunday and yesterday and our program is completely ready to go. The 4 scuba pools have already seen about 1000 kids and adults for our program.

Nope, I haven't done much spinning, just a little bit of the Peruvian cotton. I haven't done much knitting either. It's been so very hot down there in Virginia, heat index yesterday was 115 and it's expected to be even hotter today and tomorrow. It's been too hot and we've been way to busy to be able to do anything. I'm "facilitating" or instructing in the pools pretty much full time, but with the schedule changing today for the full contingent of boys to come in, I should have some time, but I can't stand to touch the wool or cotton if it's this hot and humid.

Scuba staff made a grand entrance to the staff Arena show the other night in full pirate field uniform. DH and I got into the act too. We had pirate flags and all of us were saying "ARRRRRRGH" and it was quite fun. Well, off to finish packing orders and get back in the non-air conditioned car to drive down to Ft. AP Hill in Virginia.

Now, what did I forget?

This is my dh, shipping manager, and favorite teddybear in the world. So off we go (dh and yours truly) in the wee hours to the National Scout Jamboree to teach scuba diving to the kids that will be there. It's going to be fun, but I'll admit that I'm kind of disappointed because my buffalo fiber won't be going with me. Ruth Called me today in response to my "where, oh where can it be?" email to say that she would send me some extra due to the mix up. What a nice lady, and although I did pay for 2nd day air back on Thursday, she was really attentive to my angst, and I do recommend her for Buffalo rovings (sight unseen, you know). If you're off a mind, I've added her link. Hopefully I'll have something to show from my wheel in soft buffalo by mid-August, she's going to hold the rovings until I get home. (I will, however, be home at least every several days to do shipping and deal with arrivals, so if you're thinking of ordering something from the store, it will be shipped in a timely manner, at least within a few days of the order. And yes, there will be a new sale item for August. I am still deciding on what it'll be. )

So what's going with me to spin? White yak, Diablo Merino Mohair blend, Red Colonial Multi-colored roving, and some 80/20 Merino Silk. Of course, I might change my mind on what I'm going to spin when I see what conditions are going to be while I'm spinning and how much time I have. I doubt that I'll touch everything, but I'm just not sure what I'm going to want to work on. I also brought some more brown shetland roving in case the shawl gets knitted faster than I think it will. It's very heavy and dense, just a simple garter stitch but perfect for my living history outfits. I doubt I'll get too much knitting done while Mark drives, the a/c is broken in the car. I am praying to the humidity powers that be to go gently upon Maryland and Virginia. We just had a bunch of work done on the camper, so timing wasn't good for fixing the air.

And yes, I've been effectively sucked into the vortex of exotic fibers. I can't wait to finish and ply the yak, the buffalo is going to drive me crazy waiting for it, and I really want to start working on knitting with the camel I've already made and plied. Thank you Liz and Lady Vee! :)

First yarn for a new project

I spent the evening making yarn from some baby camel from the Kendig Cottage store. It is so very soft, I'd not spun it before. The yarn just spun itself! I plied it this morning while the lightening and thunder played in the background, and it came out really nice. It kind of reminds me of being briefly in "Camel land". That's our crew at the Airport in Kuwait after shopping in duty free. I hoped to find some camel items there to bring back, but most of them were made in the states or the UK so I got a small camel hair keychain for my DD and a camel statue for my DS and was quickly on my way back to the airplane and then bound for home.

Now, what to spin next. I'm thinking in terms of my headband project, the camel will go into it, as well as the Buffalo that I'm eagerly awaiting, but I need a third yarn and I haven't quite decided yet...yak probably, but which color?

Camel yarn about 12/13 wpi// 

Spinning Lace weight

Between the last couple of days of spinning, at Lady Vee's house and at the museum, I've managed to finish up a bunch of brown shetland for a future shawl (I have to finish the one that's on that set of needles first, and I'm not quite sure where I put it!), and worked on the 100% silk a little bit with Liz's help...plan to ply that with Alpaca. What you see here is green Merino and Silk on the left and "Diablo" Merino and Mohair on the right. The Diablo looked kind of muddy to me when spun up about sport weight, but I've been working on spinning it up for a lace weight project and I'll tell you that I really think it's coming out beautifully, all blue and mauve and pastel. To me at this weight it doesn't look muddy at all. I went to Kinkos last night and copied the charts (so I can carry them around without ruining my book) for the First Lace Shawl and the Faux Russian shawl from "A Gathering of Lace" with the thought that the Diablo would want to become one of those. I'm doing shawls because I can wear them with period dress for the museum and just because I like them.

Ok. Time to admit to you that I'm not a great knitter. In fact, I'm less of a knitter even than that. The leaf shawl has a huge glaring error in it that I didn't find until a few rows later, and by then it was too far for me to take it out (I would never have gone back to it). I definitely have ADHD with many projects going at once and a lack of patience to rip out anything that is wrong. The best I can hope for is to do something simple and get it right. Doing another lace shawl scares me to death. Doing an entire sweater seems rather unattainable unless it's so very simple that even I can do it, and I have nothing else on any needles going at the same time. I try to finish one project and then start another but that never seems to work out.

AND, I'll also admit that, in Liz's words: "I've been sucked into the Buffalo vortex" by her and Vee. Yup. I ordered 2 ounces of Buffy fur last night. It's been suggested to me that I do an andean style headband from Spin-off online with that lovely fiber, and I've printed the pattern and am ready to do battle with the charted design. Now, what to add to the buffy (mind you, I haven't even received it, much less spun, and plied it yet) for the lighter yarn. There's white yak, grey yak, light brown baby camel down, alpaca, hmmmmm....the possibilities are endless. I'll have to see what's in the budget after the Buffy is spun.

The last few days' output 

What a Fantastic Day!

Yesterday was fantastic! I had the absolute pleasure to be invited to the lovely home of Lady Vee (with whom I have been emailing and talking fiber for awhile now) and her beautiful and fantastic spinning E2 for a day of spinning, great company, laughs and fiber! I also had the pleasure of meeing Vee's friend Liz (and her Majacraft that spins like a dream) who is a connsumate fiber addict like myself and Vee, as well as Brenda who is a new and learning spinner and knitter, and Linda who is a knitter, and a fairly new but accomplished spindler and now new spinner. Linda and Brenda were introduced to all of the wheels in attendance (I brought my world worn Ashford Traveler as well as my Beloved Louet S75) and we all had the opportunity to spin on eachother's wheels. Talk about getting to "pet" some yummy fiber! Vee and Liz had some buffalo that was absolutely TDF! (To die for!) and there were many kinds of fleece and varieties of roving as well to share and experience. I was able to get some green Merino / Silk spun while I was there (as well as working on my 2 ounces of pure silk that I started last October-it's sticky and I don't enjoy spinning it). I hope that the group will next come up here to the north country for spinning, chatting, and perhaps "Sex" which is a Stash Enhancement eXcursion...probably to the Mannings.

Some recent dyepot output 

Volunteering and Spinning

I've always done some volunteer work, mostly with Scouts or the kids' schools, but thank you to Pat Lawrence, I've begun to volunteer at the Carroll County Farm Museum as a "spinster" in their living history area. I really enjoy it, I've been introducing lots of kids to spinning and fiber while actually getting a little bit of my own spinning done. I really enjoy touching the kids with this link to the poast and interesting them in fiber arts. The spinning Room is right next to the weaving room, and the children that attend the farm's summer camp program get to learn to weave a mug rug on looms, and spin a little bit on a hand spindle that they made in the camp. They also have tinsmithing, quilting, caning, blacksmithing (which hubby Mark is getting into), hearth cooking, and a wonderful house full of antiques and history to visit. This is the middle of a very historic area just south of Gettysburg. The Farm Museum has also begun a fiber guild which I'm very excited about. I would like to encourage everyone to find even a few moments per month to give in volunteer work of any kind. It's rewarding for you and good for the organization for which you work. DH and I are also on staff for the National Scout Jamboree starting next week touching the lives of kids (boys AND girls) with Scuba and Snorkeling.

In period dress on the way to the Museum