A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

So many projects, so little time!

I’m sure there are many of you who can relate to this. I’ve just got too many things on my plate right now, and most of it is my own doing! This is both at home and at work . . . I’m starting to feel overwhelmed, which leads to avoiding things, which makes the whole situation get even worse!

I’m behind on filing and calendar issues at work, both of which are a bit of a mess and will take lots of time to get straightened out. Guess its time to cut back on the “fun” stuff for a while and get some work done . . . . oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

In terms of fiber projects, I’m trying to finish a birthday gift by this Saturday. This was something I really should have planned out more carefully and now I’m kicking myself for not managing it better. I do think I can get it done, but it means other areas may suffer for a few days while I knit frantically!

This past Sunday, M and I went to a lovely fiber gathering in R.I. We all spun and knit and had pot-luck on the lawn. There were visits with some very cute Icelandic sheep, several sweet little angora buns, chickens galore, quail and even 2 furiocious watchdogs ; ) It was a new group for both of us, but they made us feel very welcome and we will likely make the trek again next month, time/weather permitting.

This coming weekend is the holiday weekend and I’ve arranged to take Friday off from work. I really can use a 4-day weekend at this point. So at this point, here is my plan. Thursday a couple of friends are coming over for the evening . . . . there will likely be knitting, spinning and wine involved . . . Friday I plan to work on canning up some of the pears from the tree in our front yard. I haven’t done any pears in years so I’m at bit out of practice, but I don’t expect it to be too difficult. . . . Saturday I plan to make Blueberry perserves to put up for the winter . . . . and then Saturday evening we are going to a Birthday dinner for a friend. Sunday we head to NH for DH’s god-daughter’s send-off to college party, which will likely include a swim in the lake, weather permitting. Then in the evening we are headed to another friends house for a little get together . . . . Monday, once I’ve recovered from the partying, will be about making a batch or 2 of home-made, cold-process soap! So as you can see, nothing relaxing about the weekend I have planned. Lots to do, it should all be fun, but I will be on the go the whole weekend.

Actually, this is becoming typical of what happens with our weekends, this is just even more so because of the extra days . . . At this point, I believe every weekend this fall is spoken for in some way and all will likely become just as crazy. How did life get so busy? When did weekends become filled with just as many appointments as week days? I don’t really remember when the change happened, perhaps it was gradual . . . but I do remember when weekends were about sleeping late, watching Sat. morning cartoons while eating sugary cereals, and just hanging out around the house. . . . Granted, the things that happen on weekends now, are for the most part fun, but somehow there is something different about knowing weeks in advance that all of your weekends have been scheduled . . . taken up with activites that there just isn’t time for during the week, either things we want to do or need to do or both. Perhaps I need to schedule myself a weekend off? I wonder if it is even possible to do such a thing any more? I think, at this point, it would be the end of September, at least, before I even could and more likely after the trip to Italy which would mean early November! Gosh, by then the holidays are upon us and there is no turning back . . . things to bake and wrap and parties to plan and attend . . .

Where has this year gone to? They say time moves faster when you get older . . . well, I get motion sickness and if it moves any faster than this I’ll sure be ill! Of course, I’m one of those crazies who can get motion sick on a “Merry-go-round” . . . .

The weather here is starting to feel like Fall. There is just something in the light or the air or maybe both . . . . even the past few days when it has warmed up there has still been something yelling “Falls here” to my senses. This time of year makes me crave warm socks, soft shawls, home baked bread and it brings out the packrat in me. I must have been a squirrel in a former life; this time of year makes me want to produce large quantities of canned goods to put in the basement and start baking again!

Now if only I had some free time to do it all!

Can you believe I have more fiber?

I had ordered 2 fleeces and some Llama fiber from someone on one of the Yahoo lists and it arrived today!!!

The fleeces are a black (very black) Ramboulett (sp?) and a morrit Merino and they are beautful. Llama is something I have less experience with but it seems like it may have a lot of second cuts to me . . . . Is there a Llama expert in the “house”? I’d love to get another opinion . . . I’ll try to take photos to post on Monday.

I wish I could just stay home and work with fiber today, that is what I’m really in the mood to do, however, we are off to a cookout in a few minutes so at most I’ll get to do a little sock knitting while I’m out . . . .

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, A and I went shopping for the “fixin’s” to do our dye workshop. We got a great deal on dye pots!!!! Kmart currently has on sale for $20 a set of stainless steel stockpots. An 8 qt, a 12 qt. and a 16 qt with a bonus 7 piece untensil set! They aren’t the thickest stainless I’ve seen, but they should work just fine for dyeing and that gives us three pots to work with which should be just right! We also got tongs, veggie steamer baskets ($3 @ Christmas Tree shops) stainless measuring spoons, a small diet scale, and a large plastic tub, because we all know that every project requires its own plastic tub So now we are just missing a few easily obtained odds and ends and we will be ready to dye some fiber!!!!! Only problem is I’m not sure I can wait another 2 whole weeks!!!!!!

And we watched the video that came with my loom last night, I have a much better idea about the whole warping issue now and I may even try it some eveing this week! I’m thinking a scarf for practice and I think I may have just the yarn to do a nice long scarf with! It was suppose to be the vogue knitting on the go Turkish scarf for my brother, but I never did get around to making it and I’m just not that interested in the pattern (color work is currently not my thing . . . ) so perhaps I can weave a scarf out of it instead? I have another yarn that should go well with it that is definately warp yarn . . . .hmm, perhaps that will be my Mondday night while the DH is at work project? . . . .

Funny how typing things here makes me think differently about my projects. I tend to get all kinds of ideas just by “thinking out loud” on this page . . . and lucky you, getting to read my mental ramblings! Isn’t this fun? Just a little peak into how my thought process works . . . jumping randomly from one topic to thenext and then back again . . .

Well, off to get ready for the cookout! Tomorrow I’m out all day for a spinnng gathering in RI so more posts on Monday. Have a great weekend!

TGIF!!

Happy Friday to all! This is promising to be another crazy weekend! Tonight has to be about getting the house in order again, and then if there is time, watching the warping video! I’m really getting geared up to want to use my loom so I’m just going to jump in and try. Odds are I won’t break the loom but I may ruin more than a few yards of yarn in the attempt! Guess that will be just one more reason (excuse) to buy more

we all had a great time at the spinning group last night . . . A is disappointed that it is likely her last outing for a while, but I may try to bring her along once in Late Sept. and then perhaps again in November . . . .We’ll see. Everyone there has been so wonderful and encouraging with her, its so great to see such an enthusiastic budding fiber artist, esp. in someone so young! I think the rest of us are getting a real kick out of watching her talents develop, its like being on an adventure! And the child has no fear, none of the preconceived notions the rest of us have about how things should be. She is now thinking of looking through both the latest round of fashion magazines and knitting magazines to get ideas for her sweater and then possibly even designing it herself! She hasn’t even finished her first whole knitted wearable yet and she is planning to spin, dye, design and knit her own garment!!!!! I’m really not kidding when I say I see fashion design school in her future!

So our little group that meets occassionally at my house is cooking up our own Dyeing Day! It has been officially set for Sept. 7th. We plan to do it out on the patio, with the burner on the gas grill and 2 portable propane burners so there should be room for all. I ordered 10 shades of Washfast dyes earlier this week, along with the fixings, and guess what? The box arrived today!!!! I couldn’t belive how quick that was, I was expecting to wait until next week, at least! Trouble is, now I don’t know if I can resist the temptation to try them before 9/7 on my own, I might just break down and give it a go!!!!

I do still need to buy some other things, like dye pots, veggie steamers, measuring cups & spoons, squirt bottles, brushes, and perhaps some plastic sheeting? I know I won’t have time to try this over the weekend, much as I would like to, but perhaps over Labor Day weekend I might be able to give it a try . . . .

Saturday we (DH & I) are headed to the South Shore for a cookout at a friend house which promises to be interesting . . . Sunday M and I are headed to RI for a small gathering of a local spinning group which looks like it will be a lot of fun! So an action packed weekend is ahead! I’ll have a full report on Monday morning . . .

Have a great weekend and I hope you have a chance to do something fun and summery before Fall really sets in!

What I would like to know is, who is it that decides what we are going to wear each season? And what kind of drugs are they on anyway? I picked up 4 different fashion mags last night (Vogue, Marie Clare, Lucky, and In Style) and while I haven’t finished going through them yet, some of this stuff is just down right strange. I had wanted to look to see if any of what is in the Fall knitting magazines bears any resemblance to what is in the fashion magazines . . . . Surprise! Some of it actually does! The whole wool tweed thing is in right now (Vogue Knitting has a coat made of wool tweed) and there were several other interesting sweaters and a few scarves (Stripes are still in apparently!). I have to finish going through them to get more info, but it seems that Fair Isle (or variations of it) are also in right now (Gap is doing some cute, cropped fair isle sweaters) . . . . I’ll post more on this once I’ve finished my analysis of Knitting Fashion vs. “High” Fashion . . . .stay tuned.

In other news, the CTH socks in Fall Foliage

are ready for me to start the heels. This should be interesting as I have recently learned I had misunderstood the directions for working short rows in the pattern I’m using and had been doing them a bit different than they should be done. My mistake was that when it is time to pick up the stitches again I wasn’t picking up the wraps, I was just knitting the stitches that were on the needles and leaving the wraps where they lay. The heels I’ve done have come out okay, with the exception of those pesky corner holes, but trying them this way should be interesting. I figure I’ll try it the “right” way once, and if I don’t like the results I can go back to the way I was doing it on the next pair.

Speaking of the next pair . . . some Grey Regia flung itself onto my new set of #2 Bryspun DPNs last night. This is both a new yarn and a new needle type for me so it should be interesting. I’m hoping that I can actually knit socks on these plastic needles (they do seem to grab the yarn more than the bamboo) as I would like to take some knitting along on our trip in October.

Headed to Minds Eye Yarn tonight for the spinning group. This will be A’s last chance to go before school starts and she won’t be able to stay out that late any more. I may not even bring my wheel this time, I may just work on one of the pairs of socks or on the shawl as I really need to make some progress on them . . . . we’ll see how I feel when it comes time to pack up to go there . . .

Oh, and I bought dye yesterday for our Dyeing Day! Looks like it will be Sept. 7th as it seems everyone can make it that day. I’m really excited about this, I think it will be a lot of fun! I plan to dye the roving for Mom’s Shawl, my sweater yarn if its done in time (hmm, maybe I should bring the wheel?) and possibly some silk top I have . . . . if there is time. I really have to start by focusing on the roving for Mom’s shawl. The idea is that the dyeing (materials and labor) and spinning the yarn are to be her birthday present this year and the knitting of the shawl is to be her Christmas gift. At the moment I’m thinking of knitting the main section of it in “Old Shale” with a wide repeat so that it has a very oceany/wavy effect and then adding some sort of scallopy knit on lace edging. This may change as I recently ordered a couple of books on knitting lace shawls so I may get some other ideas once I read them. We shall see. I’d like to have the roving dyed and some samples spun before her birthday (the following weekend) so hopefully she can see what the yarn might look like. I also need to weigh the roving since I know we sent 4.5 lbs raw weight out but have no idea what came back. . . . . might help to know

Well, off to work . . . . have a great day!

HELP! I’ve got Startitis again!!!!

I cast on for my new fall purse last night. I’m making it of Noro Kureyon in color #40

Isn’t this a beautiful colorway? I’ve finished to the botton of the bag and have done about 7 rounds toward the sides of it of a total 64 rounds!

I started this in part because I have been working on a pair of socks and on a shawl, both of which use sport weight yarn and it was starting to bother my hands . . . I need to have something thicker to change to from time to time . . . plus both of these projects have been slow going so having something that should go up quick to work on in between helps! I need instant gradification projects!!!

Actually, at the rate I’m going this will be my one and only new thing I’ll have knit for myself for the Fall. Speaking of Fall, where has the summer gone to? I can’t believe there are only 10 days until the Labor Day weekend! It seems like June was just yesterday! And looking at my calendar it seems we have things planned fore every weekend right into mid-September. When did life get so busy? And how and I suppose to knit 20+ more items between now and late December if all my time is taken with other activities? I think perhaps its time to reassess my goals for the Fall? Oh, and in early October we leave for Italy for 2 1/2 weeks . . . . hmm, definately time to reassess my knitting plans for the holidays!

I did get a couple of sets of Bryspun needles (DPNs) for the trip so I should, hopefully, be able to knit on the flight over and the flight back. That gives me almost 18 hours of knitting time . . . plus there are bound to be times where we have to wait for trains or buses while there . . . and times when we just sit in a cafe somewhere . . . . perhaps I can get 2 pairs of socks done on the trip? Does that seem realisitic? And somehow, between now and when we leave, I need to finish 2 shawls for DH’s Aunts who live there. I’m about 1/4 done with the first one, but as I haven’t done this pattern or used this yarn before that is only a guess, I just don’t know how its going to come out or what I’ll have to do to it to get it to look right. . . . perhaps that is another project that should be reconsidered? Nice as it would be to give them shawls, they aren’t expecting it and have no idea that I was planning anything . . . . so they won’t miss them if I don’t have them done. And I could always do some after the holidays and mail them over . . . . Maybe we’ll see how far I get in the next week or so and decide from there?

So I just rearranged my holiday knitting list into 3 categories: Done (4 items) Must do (8 items) and Would be Nice (8 items). In addition to that list, one of the Must Do items starts with dyeing roving and spinning the yarn (as Mom’s B-day gift) to make her shawl. They dyeing will be done when we do our dyeing workshop, early September, which will just leave the spinning . . .

Hmm, in light of all this, the last thing I should be doing is working on a bag for myself! Oh, well, since its started I might as well dabble at it in between the others . . . .

Now that I’ve bored you with all this . . . off to do some filing!