Twists of Fate

Occasionally, I have more charitable feelings for my family than may otherwise come across on my blogs. We honestly do best when we stay far, far away from one another, but now and again someone gets the bright idea to try to come together in perfect harmony (probably a coca-cola overload), and we do a holiday together.

Some day, I’m going to bring magnets with me and show them all what happens when you try to force two of them together. *blows raspberry*

Anyway, Thanksgiving Day was spent with my sister for a few hours. She’s vegan, and very health conscious, and makes Paris Hilton look fat. So when she suggested we try a local vegan restaurant that was doing take-away (I wonder how many people think I’m a non-US writer by using that phrase?) for the holiday.

Did I mention this is also a raw foods restaurant? From what I gather, the “raw foods” phenomenon is based on not heating anything about something like 165 degrees.

Yeah, you can see where this is going.

Some of it was very good, though. I did like the main course (some kind of nut loaf…thing), though the “gravy” that came with it was awful. The brussel sprouts were, you guess it, raw! Though the vinagrette they were tossed in was pretty good, and the apple-raisin-something chutney served with it was tasty as well. The mixed greens salad with pine nuts and something else had a lovely dressing, and I really enjoyed the parsnip something or other that was the “mashed potato” equivalent. There was an apple crisp for dessert, which was way too heavy on the cinnamon, but otherwise ok.

However, it was also $35 per person. We split the meal, and there really wasn’t enough food there. I would’ve been pissed if I’d spent $70 on this, as Sister Mine was disappointed in the experience. She says their sammitches for lunch are about the same size as pretty much everything on our plates, only for $7.95 and they’re way tastier.

I never thought I’d miss the leftovers, but you learn something new every holiday season. This time I learned that it is not the Holiday of the Giving Thanks without pumpkin pie. Who knew?

Next time I update, I’ll fill you in on how I got in over my head with a breed swap thing. *sigh* For now, I work.

Hope y’all had a great holiday, or for those who aren’t in the US, a fantastic Thursday! :D

I stopped by Cultured Purls yesterday to pick up a small bottle of Eucalan wool wash to send along with Ze Mohair Sweater. I mentioned that was why I was in the store, and the folks behind the counter insisted on seeing the sweater. So I ran back out to the car, and brought it inside, and maybe I’m all PMSing or whatever, but man.

I cried.

Most of the folks I know around me in RL don’t knit. They don’t spin either, and frankly my family thinks I’m insane. I’ve apparently gone mad and my stash is an indicator of my looniness. I know we all giggle at the Yarn Harlot’s tips on dealing with people like that, and they were funny. Until they happened to me, and now it’s not really that funny, and is mostly a source of sadness, because they don’t get it and make no effort to.

Anyway, these ladies know their knitting, and they were so kind. She pointed out how lovely the tension was throughout the entire sweater, and exclaimed over it being my first. She ran a finger over the decreasing at the yoke, and said it looked fabulous. She asked what kind of needles I used, and did I move from oh, a 15 to something smaller (which it does), and then beamed and said that must be how the sweater gets its shaping (she was right on). We giggled over the one sleeve where I didn’t join it to the body correctly (there’s a row of purl bumps on the outside), and how the recipient will always know which way to wear the sweater if she keeps that sleeve on the same side.

For all the keeping in touch we do online, I have very few people in my real life (or “meat space”, which is such a gross way to describe it) who know or appreciate knitting. I was totally taken off guard by this reaction yesterday. I didn’t even buy the yarn for this sweater in the store, though I have spent a goodly amount there and think their new space is absolutely gorgeous and I will be going back more often. But there she was, enthusing over a completed project, and I was so gratified that once I paid for my teeny bottle of wool wash, I went back out to my car and burst into tears.

The acknowledgement of the time, and effort, and, frankly, love that goes into making something by hand, by people who KNOW, and who do it themselves? Took me out at the knees. But in a really nice way.

Today, I need to finish brushing up my resume, and returning some calls, and then it’s time to scour the SSP yarn, and possibly put another fleece in to wash. Oh! The last one was actually a Cormo/Targhee cross fleece, and this one that’s about to get wet is the Polwarth. My bad. Same supplier, which is Nancy Ortmann (mtwool AT nemontel DOT net), and it’s fabulous. She’s out of fleeces for 2006, but just got some roving in, and will take reservations for 2007! [/pimping]

I can’t believe how long it took for my first scoured skein to dry. Days and days! I should get a skein blocker to help that along next time, I think. Regardless, it IS finally dry and I wound up a smidge last night and set to work swatching.

Man this yarn is fabulous. Soft, flowing…a total pleasure to work with. I haven’t really worked with silk all that much, but I love it so far! I did two small swatches last night while watching MacGyver (so much love for The Adorkable One). The one on US 3s felt a bit dense, so I went up a needle size. The US 4s swatch is much more drapey, but still fairly cohesive. That may be the winner. I might do one on 5s, just to see how it looks, but I’m pretty happy with the swatch on 4s.

I was so tired last night that I didn’t measure the sts/in and the row gauge, but I’ll do that today. I’m also trying to figure out how big I want the final object to be. The bigger it is, the more room I have to work with the design elements. Decisions, decisions.

Oh! I also figured out last night how I may end up dyeing the thing to get the effect I’m looking for. It’ll involve a fairly MacGyvered setup, now that I think about it, so who says you can’t learn anything from television? I’m a bit nervous though, because if I do it the way I imagined, there’s like zero room for f-ing it up. I see a lot of test dyeing in my future, which means I finally found a perfect justification for having bought all that KnitPicks Bare yarn. Huzzah!

I really have no idea what I’m doing here. I’m just making it up as I go along. :D

In other news, Nadine has finished her bath. I need to remember to pick up a few more pillowcases from the thrift store, or some other container-like thing for storage. If I had the money, I’d buy these zippered 100% cotton cases I found online somewhere once, but IIRC, their ordering process was non-secured and faintly suspicious.

I’m rambling. Didn’t really get any good sleep last night, and should now head out to run errands and other fun things. Hope y’all are enjoying the day!

Happy Mabon! I wish I felt like preparing a big old feast to celebrate the holiday, but I’m going to have to settle for leftover Pagliacci’s pizza and a coke. We’re halfway through Fall in the way I think of time, and the world reflects those changes. It’s getting cooler, and it’s downright nippy at times. The harvest is proceeding apace, and it’s a bountiful time with a bittersweet twist.

I know I’m not quite ready for the light to dwindle and leave us with months of darkness. Or, here in the PNW, days and days and days of unrelenting, soggy grey skies. It’s been overcast and raining here for quite a few days now, and I feel this sense of panic that’s proving a bit hard to shake. I’m sure it’s a result of still being off-kilter from being ambushed by family, but it’s a very disconcerting feeling.

To combat this, I’ve been working steadily on a few knitting projects. I needed a break from size US 0 & 1 DPNs, so I’ve been working on the Portland Pullover from Fall IK ‘06. I’ve just placed all the stitches for the body and the sleeves on the circ, and will work on the yoke tonight. I don’t think I’m going to finish it tonight, but perhaps by the end of the weekend.

Question on finishing, as this is my very first sweater. Do you wash/block the sweater before or after sewing up the sleeves and weaving in the ends? There really won’t be many loose ends here on this project, but I’ve not actually done this before, and feel a bit dumb about asking. However, I’d also really like to avoid frogging Colinette Mohair, so better dumb than bedraggled. Anyone?

I just put in another batch of fleece to soak. Nadine from Skylines Farm. Again. I just love her fleeces. She’s also listed in the sidebar if y’all want to go look. I think she’s about sold out for the year, and considering how many fleeces she had this year (over 70? I think?), that’s quite a testament to the quality and popularity. Of course, me pushing it like a dealer on a playground probably doesn’t hurt. I really should’ve spent more time washing in the past couple of weeks, but I’m way behind schedule.

And can’t quite bring myself to care. “My Give a Damn’s Busted” by JoDee Messina seems to be my anthem lately. I’m not really a country music fan, but she’s naturally in my range and I enjoy singing along with her. Plus, it blocks out the sounds of my neighbor having truly enthusiastic sex up against the wall between our apartments. Last night was especially…operatic. I have to wonder if the person he’s with is a professional (singer! geez! brains! gutter!), or if she’s just naturally got big…lungs.

Er, yes. There is just no way up from where this is heading.

To address a comment my beloved KnitterPatter left - I have no idea how to address the RSS feed issue with the giant question mark. I do know that if you go to bloglines and type in the URL for the blog, you can sub that way. I just haven’t had the energy to dig into learning .php from the ground level, so it’ll be a while before I can truly customize the format here. If you have any suggestions about that, please do leave a comment.

How y’all doing?

OK, it’s been a little while since I posted. Time gets away from me sometimes, especially when unemployed.

I’ve been busy though. Made another batch of raspberry jam with a friend. Have plans for many more canning things, though I took a break from it for the past week or so. I’ve been reading and knitting along on socks for a while. Started with another astrology group. And am nearly at the end of the DVD run of SG-1, though *koffkoff* S9 awaits viewing.

Anyway, I continue to work on the fleeces piling up here in my home. This one is an East Friesian fleece from True Ewe Farm in Flint Hill, VA. The jury is still out on just how smart it is to belong to yahoogroups like FiberBuyandTrade, FleeceforSale, etc. I’ve run into so much trouble since I joined those lists…. You can see the raw fiber here in this picture. I gather from the original ad that True Ewe Farm is a fairly new farm, and that the wool is a secondary crop after the milk & meat from this breed. I’ve been working off that assumption in evaluating the fiber.

Considering these sheep live outside, and aren’t specifically a handspinners flock, I think the fleece was in great condition. I like the fact the farm uses homeopathic treatments on the sheep, and were I closer I’d love to buy some of their cheeses. Anything not riddled with anti-biotics = happy me. There was some colored wool included in the box, and I’m not sure what that was from. Flock markings? Accidental dye from something? Regardless, it went into the trash when I rolled out and skirted the fleece to my own tastes. Loss from my skirting was probably about seven percent of the total, though that’s just a rough estimate. Since I handwash all the fiber, I probably skirt more aggressively than some would. It takes forever to do a batch by hand, so I try to only get the primo stuff.

I did test a few locks from different areas, and two had noticeable tender spots. As long as I’m not using this for rope though, I’m sure it’ll be fine. :-D There were a number of second cuts - less than in some fleeces I’ve gotten, a few more than I’d like. They all shook out very easily though, or are fell out when I spun the wool dry in ze salad spinner. It’s one of those things a skirting table would probably take care of, but it’s not a huge deal. VM was pleasantly low (what little there was shook out/came out in the spinning), crimp was variable throughout the fleece, and while there was a faint hint of “milk” odor to the wool, it definitely smelled better than other fleeces I’ve received. Sheepy, homey and fabulous!

And while I was sorta dubious about how the wool would wash up (me and white wools sometimes have an adversarial relationship, though I think it was the Merino that really scarred me), I was very pleasantly surprised after my usual routine of two cool soaks, one hot wash and two hot rinses. While some of the tips are still faintly brown, the main body of the fiber washed up into a nice mellow off-white. I suspect it’ll be even clearer once spun and the yarn re-washed. The grease content was what I’d consider in the “medium” range, but washed out easily. You can see in this pic the washed and dried fiber in the corner, along with a couple of small buns of combed top from my mini-combs.

I actually took the time to sample the fiber I combed. I’m not the best spindler, but I do love my Moosie from Journey Wheel, seen here. I think this fiber is probably not quite soft enough for me to wear as a sweater, but I do plan a hat, mitten and scarves from it. It’s very bouncy, light and lofty, and has a ton of spring to it. I know you can’t get a really good idea from the picture, but it has been a pleasure to spin so far.

Until I get bigger combs, a lot of my fiber is destined to be processed on the drum carder. I think it’ll work well for East Friesian, as long as I take it slow and don’t force/tug it so much that it stretches/bounces and snaps.

All in all, I think I’m really going to enjoy spinning up this fiber. It’s a nice, bouncy and springy medium wool, and I look forward to working with it! If you’re looking for something a little different, and a fiber not really readily available here in the US, I’d definitely recommend True Ewe’s East Friesian!

Nine jars, most of them out of the bath just 10 minutes, and most of them have already gone snnnnnk!

All pretty and shiny and stuff.

The color looks better here, I think, than the other batch of jam. But I could be prejudiced towards rasPberries.

I need to get a bigger pot for making jam. This batch totally overflowed the sides and let me tell you, raspberries cooking right on the gas burner is really kinda stinky. I felt like I was trapped inside a jolly rancher. Or a big wad of cotton candy.

I’m really looking forward to sampling some of this! :D [/dork]

Fiber content? Well, I’m still working on socks. When I get home from dinner tonight, fleece washing will start up again. I should say, I’ll put a batch in to pre-soak, to wash tomorrow. The back room is clear enough to set up drying racks now that my bro has moved on to stay with friends of his in the area. Woo!

OK, I’m being selfless here. Sorta. See, Melissa Lines of Skylines Farm has posted her remaining 2006 handspinning fleeces for sale. I love her fleeces, and she’s a wonderful person too. Her farm uses organic practices, and you can see what a fabulous life the sheep have in the super cute photos page.

These Romney and RomneyX fleeces are the most wonderful I’ve worked with so far. Silky, soft, lustrous…just a joy to experience.

I, uh, went shopping again and now that I’m done (and reserved for 2007), I thought I’d pass along the good news to you. So go check out the page - I’m pretty sure you won’t be sorry!

I can’t wait to end my current contract here at my former place of employment. It shoudl be the end of next week. After a short period of doing absolutely nothing at all (OK, probably watching yet more Stargate: SG-1, and maybe finishing off Veronica Mars S1), I’m diving into learning more about dyeing, blending and spinning. I can’t wait to work on one of my Skylines Farm fleeces!

This gushing, fangirlish (woolgirlish?) post brought to you by lack of coffee + the thrill of new wool!