Sex while hubby was away!

Now before all you search engine folks get disappointed, SEX to a fiber and yarn person is a "stash enhancement excursion". I have the great pleasure (sometimes it's not a good thing) of having a LYS right near one of the local post offices. So when I do my shipping, I'm often tempted to wander in and see what they have to offer, since I don't sell each and every type of yarns through the Kendig Cottage business. They carry some really strange and "You knit what?" worthy yarns, but I was looking for something to make a couple of funky scarves to wear with some mostly black and/or white clothing that I'd recently gotten. You know, to add some color to the outfit. I started this scarf from the ribbon yarn, and let me just tell you, the color might be very striking, but I hate this stuff. It's stretchy, it twists terribly while you're working with it, it loves for your needle to get caught in it and poke holes, and it just is generally disagreeable. I will finish the project because I spent waaaaayyyyy too much money on the yarn not to, but I'll never recommend this to anyone that I like.
Upon seeing the beautiful Charlotte's Web shawl that Liz has made (I got to see it in person on Saturday!...ooooooooooo, ahhhhhhhhhh.....it's beautiful!) I ordered some Koigu online and it was delivered the same day as I went to the LYS. Now, I've pretty much been able to keep my stash of yarns in check because I generally prefer to spin my own, but this stuff just makes me want MORE! This little beauty came for me this week too.... I had wanted a very portable wheel to take with me when I travel with hubby. I put it together and spun on it, but the drive wheel was a bit warped. Liz came over Saturday and showed me how warped it was, so there's already another one on it's way from the distributor, I'll be sending back the one with "issues"...no problem! I still have wheels to spin on. *grin*. Back to having sex, I took a Spindling class with Tom at the Mannings on Friday, yes, I know how to spindle but I wanted to see if there was anything else I could learn (a few things, indeed). Well, the Koigu called to me there too, and I came home with a bunch. Now it's back to work, but I WILL find time to knit in between Flying, doing the business work, washing fleece, housework, well you know...

Socks and other wooly things

Ok, I'll admit, I started another project before finishing one of the UFO's. It's a brainless pair of socks. I do love socks, but I wanted to do a lacy pair next. I just didn't have the patience this week to work on my complicated patterned UFO's, and I didn't want to start anything lacy, so a round and round and round pair of simple socks sounded great. This pair is "Herb Garden" BFL wool yarn via the Kendig Cottage ebay store. I just love what the green in the space dyed yarn is doing, I think it's really pretty.In moments of more lucidity, I've been doing a row or two on the alpaca/angora lace scarf. I'm using the pretty new needles that I picked up in Rhinebeck, they're pointier than the ones I used to start the scarf, making my life easier for K2's and such. Besides, they're beautiful and I enjoy using them. Remember the roving I said I didn't really like but it was spinning into beautiful yarn? Well here it is, I'm calling it "Mums" because it reminds me of the color of the beautiful dark green leaves and the deep autumn colors in the flowers. I knit a sample and it's beautiful, and so very soft (maybe it was some of the Mohair I had blended into the rovings?) and I can envision it as a vest or sweater, it could be for a girl or guy. It's Rambouillet wool, and although the pictures turned out a bit darker than I'd expected, it's really a beautiful color.

Maybe I'll knit, maybe I'll just whine

I was all packed and ready for my trip this morning, an easy trip from BWI to Chicago and then Ted (which is fun and I enjoy working those flights) from Chicago to Phoenix for a 19 hour layover. Then about midnight I started feeling horrible, and without going into too many details, having a Crohn's Disease attack. I haven't had a bad one in awhile, so it took me by surprise. Needless to say, after hours of dealing with it, it totally cleared me out and now I'm just nursing the horrible pain that is part of having this auto-immune disorder. Today will be a quiet day as I sit doubled over, I tried to knit earlier and my mind just isn't in it, lace patterns aren't going to work for me today. Tomorrow I'll be seeing my Doctor, and hopefully have some real food in my belly by then. If you'd like more information on this, here's a link: Crohn's DiseaseI hope everyone has a wonderful and fibery day!

Rhinebeck Adventure Report

What a fantastic weekend! After a rainy drive up to NY state with rain continuing into Saturday morning, we arrived at the Dutchess County fairgrounds for the NY State Sheep and Wool Festival in good spirits. We picked up fiber that had been processed by McClellan's Frankenmuth Woolen Mill as well as Zeilinger's Woolen Mill for pick up at this festival and got them squished into the car in the rain. We had a great time talking to John from Frankenmuth while we were there and had more occasions to visit him during the day (wink wink). These hand dyed fibers will be on the business website as soon as I get the chance to weigh, divide, and photograph the rovings. I began spindling the roving that I actually liked the least, and it's drop dead gorgous as yarn! Go figure! The picture you see is the pile of processed hand dyed rovings sitting in my living room after we got home last night. Of course, it's all awaiting my attention. Mark and I enjoyed looking at the various sheep breeds there, the Tunis being this year's featured breed. We visited our favorite vendors as well as some of my suppliers, and met a lovely lady by the name of Claudia that
produces "Heal my Hands" all natural lanolin based hand, lip, and nose creams which will be featured on my business website hopefully within the next couple of months. She is shown here (sorry, I didn't know her eyes would be closed in the picture) holding a purse she made of some of the rovings she purchased from Kendig Cottage. It's a beautiful project! We ran into Risa and her delightful twins while walking around looking at the vendors. She was accompanied by Nancy of Knitting Wench fame who was truly delightful. We were lucky enough to run into Risa and Nancy later during the day, along with Elaine Harvey with her friend Judy. The twins were having fun running around and being 2 year olds, and Mark and I were enjoying them too. Ok, I'll admit, there was a visit to the fleece sale in there somewhere. I looked up to see one of my favorite people, she who helped suck me back into the fleece vortex, Lady Vee, with her beautiful daughter! I'm not sure if she made any purchases or not as she slipped out while I was waiting in line. For personal use, I picked up a beautiful white Merino as well as an Eggshel colored slightly red "Moorit", (which went straight to John of Frankenmuth Woolen Mill to make roving from) and snagged some beautiful fleece for my future dye runs for the business. I purchased a "few" Shetland fleeces from my favorite Farm as well. Mark and I ended a wonderful Saturday by meeting Myrtle Dow and her beautiful lambs, one was a CVM, and one was a Wensleydale cross. We had a delightful conversation and I truly enjoyed meeting her, she's fantastic! Of course, never one to turn down a beautiful CVM fleece from Myrtle, there is a gorgeous Chocolate brown one awaiting washing in my basement now! I have just the pattern for it, along with a light grey lamb fleece I'd gotten from Myrtle earlier and a white one I purchased elsewhere, but it probably came from her and Roy's farm. We also managed to say hello to Jonathan Bosworth, Linda Diak, Tom Golding, and many of our other favorite folks. I purchased a pound of Icelandic Roving from Diane Golding at Meadowsweet Farm Icelandics which I can't wait to spin, it's so soft and wonderful. Sunday, Mark and I came back for awhile on our way back to Maryland. We just happened to run into Cindy from Foxglove Fiberart Supply, who has always been such a wonderful person to talk to via email, I'm so very pleased that we got to meet her at last! She's even nicer in person! It was a chance meeting at a vendor's booth, but I feel very fortunate that I got to enjoy talking to her before she went back to Washington State and us to Maryland. Speaking of going back to Maryland, we rented a car since the Mini-van was in the shop, and here's how it looked. I always enjoy car trips because Mark drives and I get the opportunity to knit, as happened in both directions on this trip. I now have 3 projects going and worked on all three, depending on my level of tiredness and mood. We stopped for lunch at a place in Poukepsie called the River Station, and this was the view of the Hudson River out of their window by our table.

Thank you, Secret pal!

This came in the mail yesterday, a package from my Secret Pal! It's wonderful and I absolutely love everything! It's got a CD with knitting patterns and magazines, Dark Chocolate, Lavender bath fizzies, and that gorgeous lavender and purple hand painted lace weight yarn. Ahh...my mind has been full of possibilities for what that yarn will become, but I haven't decided yet. Thank you so much, Secret Pal! :)

Date night!

Dinner and a movie, what could be a better way to spend Friday night with my sweetie? Maybe going to Trader Joe's afterward, followed by a trip to Starbucks and Barnes and Noble for some book browsing? That's my idea of a fantastic romantic evening. The only disappointing thing about the whole evening is that Sean the Sheep wasn't in the Wallace and Gromit movie, and you know what a wool fiber person I am! I did manage to drop a couple of stitches while knitting in the theatre while waiting for the film to start, that's tomorrow's project. :) Have a good weekend, everyone!

Knitting, Fiber, and Friends

I've been working on my moorit shawl, the boring one that's for reenactment dress in the winter, functional but not particularly lacy in the interest of keeping warm. It is growing, I'm now on my 4th ball of yarn, thinking about what I'm going to do to finish off the long edge. In between washing some of the fleece from NJ and getting it into the dyepots, I did a swatch from the Beginner lace pattern in "A Gathering of Lace" with the Merino/Kid Mohair yarn I finished the other day. This pattern gave me a fit. I didn't know why it wasn't turning out right, but I wanted to see the color in a swatch so I could decide if I liked the yarn. (I do, especially in the sunlight-it's beautiful!) That brings me to the wonderful evening DH and I spent with LizzyB and her DH and their furry children. Liz was able to figure out what I'd done wrong in the pattern and help me come up with a solution. I'm actually probably going to start over or do the Faux Russian shawl from the same book, but I learned a heck of a lot. Liz and I talked fiber while the "guys" talked about guy stuff. Liz shared some of this beautiful light brown Merino fleece with me, and I gave her some CVM (and to share with Lady Vee). I have the Merino soaking in hot water as we speak. It was so much fun to explore the fiber and yarn in Liz's stash and we even got to spin for awhile, all the while enjoying good food, good company, and good fun! Mark and I can't wait to return the favor, with dinner and fiber and fun at our place. :)