More Leavenworth photos

Here are some more Leavenworth photos.  Or you can view those same photos in slide show format on YouTube (make sure to watch in HD).

Over the Mountains and through the Woods…

Sorry I missed ya’ll last weekend.

Been a bit distracted here by non-wool-related issues.

But I’m back on track now, and we’re taking enjoying a couple days in Leavenworth WA.

Just hanging out and enjoying a little down time.

Leavenworth is a self-made little Bavarian style village just east of the Cascades. Here are some highlights-

Giant Pretzels

Hearty German food.

Gnomes. I just love gnomes

And a Local Yarn Shop (yea!) It’s just a bit of a place, but good for a fiber fix in a pinch!

Had to do yet a bit more reknitting of The Man’s sweater to adjust the fit, but have almost got that done while we’ve been hanging out.

No new pictures of that, though.

Next pictures I post of the sweater will hopefully be modeled by the happy recipient when it is finally and officially a finished object!

Diving in the Bargain Bin

There’s this guy who lives a ways north of me who shears sheep. And trains herding dogs.

And he always has a bunch of wool hanging out in the loft of his barn.

It’s a mixed bag (feed sack), of course. And none of it has been handled with great care.

But sometimes you can find some interesting things.

This time, I went in search of samples of a variety of fleece types and conditions, in preparation for a class I’m going to be doing on selecting a fleece for handspinning.

Wanted to be able to to a little show-and tell with the folks, and talk about the good, the bad and the ugly.

Here is some of what I found.

Little bit of Suffolk, Scottish Blackface, Jacob, Romney?, and miscellaneous undocumented crossbreed.

Here they area little closer for comparison of length and texture-

Then there was this veg-infested bundle-

Almost as much straw as wool,, but I needed an example of how much veg is too much veg, and actually, the wool itself is really nice and soft. So maybe I’ll end up sorting through some of it,,,

And then, just as I was thinking I’d seen enough, out pops this little number.

Pretty sure this is CVM.

In nice shape, too.

I haven’t done much with finewool breeds, and don’t know if my carders will be able to handle it,, but I’m going to give it a go. Was too pretty to pass up. ( I only took half, though)

In other news, I’ve suffered a minor setback in sweater progress.

My circular needle just gave up and popped out of it’s end thingee!

Once I get it Gorilla Glued I should be back in business.

Hang in there needle- we’re in the home stretch!

Just the Beginning

So, Thanksgiving has passed, and we are enjoying the leftovers from the traditional spread.

It’s always about this time that I start to feel a little bit overwhelmed by the thought of Christmas being less than a month away.

There are cards to prepare, cookies to bake, presents to plan.

I don’t know how much baking I’m going to get done this go-round, but I am bound and determined to get the man’s sweater done. (Syd is providing moral support)

I ordered the zipper last week, and am slowly but surely working my way down the sleeves. I’m not quite as far as I hoped to get over the long weekend, but there have been many distractions,

and it’s hard to get much knitting done while Boo Kitty is intent on inspecting and snuggling the project.

One thing is certain. Whenever The Man wears this sweater, he will be a cat magnet.
I just can’t keep her away from it!

And I finally washed up some of the new fleece from the sale a couple of weekends ago.

It’s washing up really nice- very silky, and finer than it seemed initially. Much different than some of my previous Romney experience. Should be a fun spin!

Beautiful Bobbins!

Guess what I got in the mail yesterday.

(Suppose I kind of gave it away with the post title, eh?)

Yep. I got Sophie’s new bobbins from Ron Antoine!

(that’s the old one in the middle)

We are both so very pleased.

Here she is all reassembled with the small Kromski whorl and new bobbin.

She’s so much smoother and quieter now.
And also faster- I’ve got her on the 13:1 whorl, and things are going just spinningly.

In other news, I finally cooked up one of our Cinderella pumpkins from the garden-

and turned it into pie!

and sampled shortly thereafter.

This was a trial run on the “from-scratch” pie for Thanksgiving. (I’ve always used canned pumpkin before). And a mighty successful one at that!

I’ve also finally gotten back on track with The Man’s sweater. Sleeve #1 is about half done, and I think that I’ve finally got it right.

The knitting goal for this week is to finish both sleeves and develop a plan for the finishing….

Have a great Thanksgiving!

The Take

Isn’t she lovely?

Here she is again:

A soft and silky pile pf taupey, woolly goodness.

There were a lot of really nice dark fleeces there-

And beautiful mohair-

All kinds of good stuff. And coffee and cider to boot!

It’s always a nice sale.

In other news, I am a few short rows away from closure on the Zauberball socks!

And am still waiting to get Sophie’ flyer and bobbins back from Ron.
It hasn’t been that long- I’m just anxious to have her back together. She looks kinda forlorn with her parts missing-

(But maybe that’s just because she’s hanging out by the cello, who hasn’t seen much use in recent years.)

Fall Fleece Sale

Not much knitting news this week. I’ve taken a time out on The Man’s sweater. Will rally the troops and make another charge maybe sometime soon. Hate to put the handspun through too much rippage, though.

I’m in anticipation this week. I expect to be receiving my new bobbins for Sophie back from Mr. Antoine sometime soon, and also looking forward to a really good fiber sale next weekend-

Here are the details-

Skagit Producers’ Fleece Sale

Saturday November 14^th, 2009.

It starts at 9 a.m. and goes until 3 p.m.

“Quality, soft fleeces consigned by local producers will be available and will include white and natural colored fine, medium and long wool sheep as well as white and natural colored mohair from Angora Goats.  Also available will be dyed and processed fiber.”

Everyone is invited to stop by for a fun day at the farm and bring a friend!  If you are looking for a “special” fleece, call (360) 757-6281 to see if they can assist you.  The sale is located at:   17543 Peterson Road,  Burlington, Washington

Directions:  Traveling South on I-5, take Exit 230.  Traveling North on I-5, take Exit 230.  Turn left onto Highway 20, turn right onto Garrett Road, turn left onto Peterson Road and follow directional signs.

Every year I go and get a really nice, clean natural colored Border Leicester fleece for the stash.

Here are some recent results from last year’s find-

Border Leicester

A lot of last year’s BL went into the Experimental Sweater–but I still have some left, so I’ll have to be careful not to overindulge. But it’s hard to keep one’s head once the wool fumes hit.

Perhaps I should take a chaperone?

Knitting and Unknitting

The Man’s sweater looks much like it did last week.

This is not because I have not been knitting.

It is just that I’m having conceptual difficulties with the sleeve.

I have knit (and ripped) the right shoulder of this sweater 3 times now.

And I’m starting to wonder if part of the problem is the depth of the armhole.

Or perhaps I did not design-in enough ease through the chest.

I’m going to have to sleep on it before I make another attempt.

 

In other news, I took a field trip to Pullman, WA this weekend to visit WSU Animal Science facilities- Swine, Cattle, Sheep ,etc etc…

Photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/44275451@N08/sets/72157622585553769/

Oh Yeah!

That’s what the Kool Aid guy (the big pitcher) used to say, right?

I was thinking that I needed to plan ahead for this Kool Aid dyeing class that I’ll be teaching at the end of January. Get samples ready and all -
So, yesterday I make up a bunch of little mini skeins, selected a variety of flavors, and had at it.

Here are the results:

I think they turned out pretty cool. Best Kool Aid dying I’ve done in a while.

I think the key really is using enough of the stuff to get really saturated colors.

I used some Lambs Pride that I had in the stash- both white (Cream) and Taupe.
Here are some photos to show the differences between cream and taupe in the same flavor-

Pink Lemonade:

Mango:

Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade:

(This one actually had three samples- the one on the left is some light gray handspun)

I really like the colors on Taupe.
Might knit up the little samples into swatches for the class. Not sure yet.

It was just so easy. Took me maybe a half hour to do the whole thing.

And while I was busy making the kitchen smell like fruit punch, The Man was out in the shop re-threading the flyer shaft on the new little wheel (Sophie).

It worked out great, and now I’m able to use my Kromski whorls with her!

I did some measurements, and am pleased to announce that now Sophie has the following ratios (approximately): 5.7:1, 7:1 (on the kromski slower whorl) and 10:1, 13:1 (on the faster whorl, shown above)

For comparison, here is a photo of the whorl that she came with-

(I think the ratio on that one came out to 4:1)

She’s really coming along! Getting more versatile all the time.

And thanks to Michelle, I have found a woodworker that will make me some new bobbins for her. I’ll be shipping her flyer assembly out tomorrow for him for work from.

What a good wool day!

Less Talk, More Knit

Finding I don’t have a lot to say right at the moment.

But I have been doing quite a bit of knitting.

See?

Boo Kitty really likes it

And I do too. It’s coming along very nicely.

I’m almost at the point where I join the shoulders together and get to try it on The Man to see how it fits.

I hoped to have some dyeing to show off in this post, but my results yesterday were rather disappointing. Still trying to figure out what went wrong.
Has anyone else used this product?

I was all excited about the neat colors. Tried the “Olive” yesterday, and it was total bust. Turned my creamy white alpaca a yellowy gray. Ick. Sure I can salvage it by overdying with something else,, but what a waste.

And I swear that I followed the directions.

Now I’m almost afraid to try the other colors.

Dag.