Road Trip and Stash Enhancement

My husband and I took a road trip from southern California up to Vancouver, BC, Canada and back. That means driving time for him and knitting time for me. In Abbotsford, BC, I made a detour in the first of many yarn stores, Birkeland Bros. That is where I saw this 100 year old beauty. They'd just finished carding some fleeces and were in the process of some clean up.

This sweetie was one of the hand-raised sheep in the front yard at Imperial Yarn and Stock Ranch. The entire enterprise is run with an emphasis on sustainability, check their website.

Jeanne Carver, the owner with her husband, Dan, was gracious enough to give us a tour of some of the historic buildings. This old house is now the headquarters for the wonderful yarns and fibers. I spent some time lightening their inventory.  

In Salem, OR we found an old woolen mill.

I'd never been up close and personal to the industrialized production of fabric. We were given a key and sent to open doors and wander through.

I wish I could have seen this in motion. I can't imagine how it works.

Thanks to Imperial Yarn, my stash has been enhanced. I don't know what the wool fiber is going to be, but I already have patterns for the yarns.

And to round that out, a few other fibers, too. This should keep me busy for a while, don't you think?!

There was one other historic mill we stopped at in Eagle Point, OR. I came home with 10 lbs of bread flour, 5 lbs whole oats, and a few other dry goods. I just made this buttermilk, whole wheat bread. What a difference freshly milled flour makes!

Fighting Inertia

As beautiful as the wildflowers in the back yard are, I've been trying to make myself go into the front yard to get some weeding done.

I've finished another pair of socks. My youngest son has claimed these. I think this is going to have to be it for a while. I only have two sock yarns left in my stash, but I just can't face them right now.

Instead, I've been making time for other things. A couple of months ago there was a yarn crawl here in L.A. I insisted I wasn't going to go. Does going to only four stores count as not going?              Anyway, in the last store, I met Donna Nelson . She's been working on making chinchilla fur into a spinnable fiber. Oh, my! or Yum! While we chatted I petted and squeezed and rubbed the luscious stuff. It's a combed blend of 70% cormo, 20% chinchilla and 10% bombyx. She sells it on ETSY. Buy some for yourself for a special treat! 

I used the stylus on my Majacraft to spin up lace weight singles. And here, I was plying it from both ends. I'll post a finished picture as soon as I can get back to it.

And the main reason I haven't touched my looms is this lovely stuff from my stash. It's from Ironstone Warehouse (does that company even still exist?) 78% mohair, 13% wool, 9% nylon and 100% pain in the butt. It's been on Sophie for Months. Just dressing her was WWIII. I couldn't wind the warp onto the warp beam with the lease sticks in, because it got so snarled. The plan was to make a few scarves out of it. Then, the plan was to give it One More Try. If I couldn't get it to unstick, I gave myself permission to toss it. And I NEVER toss anything! I finally got her dressed. Then, I was afraid to even try weaving. What if I couldn't get a clear shed? We've finally made our peace with each other, but next time I weave with a mohair, it'd better be either the  short hair or bald variety! 

Getting stuff done...and started.

So, until I finish my stash of sock yarn, you'll keep seeing more of socks. These are made from Schachenmayr, Catania Fine Color. 100% cotton. Now, I'm seriously Not a fan of self striping, but I really like these colors. And since each skein is 50g, about 165m, I figured I'd knit them both toe up. That way, I could make them as long as they allowed or as short as I wanted. Easy, peasy. ...NOT.                                 I started the first sock by finding the end in the center of the skein. Then, having two sets of double pointed size 2's, I prepared to start the second sock at the same time. I looked and hunted and dug for the center of the other skein. No go. So, I set up my ball winder and wound a skein from the outside, twice. That way both socks would have the same color progression just like the factory makes them, right? Sigh. Nope. Guess what I did? Yep. I tore it out and wound the skein. Again.                                          When I was part way up the second foot, I realized that the stripes didn't match. But if I ripped out and re-knit the toes starting an inch along the yarn, "top" down, they would be perfect. You guessed it! I ripped them out backwards. In case you wondered, it comes out easily on the stocking stitch, but the ribbing needs to be picked out. Good times. I do like the resulting socks, though.

These place mats have been on Sophie for Ever. I couldn't figure out the pattern I wanted and finally realized that I didn't know how to make the yarns move the way I wanted without finding another pattern and altering it. Besides, this yarn is another example of using what's in the stash instead of what I'd like to see. The thick weft is eight strands of the 5/2 and the thin is one. Anyway, 5/2 cotton. Warp rep. Eh. They'll do.

And while I was busy hemming placemats, I figured I might as well hem this, too. It's a plaited twill from 8 Shaft Patterns, p. 104, #374, 12 epi. You can see the front and back of this pretty 3/2 cotton (from my stash) baby blanket  I wove it on my Gilly (Gilmore). Anyone having a girl?

And finally (well not really---there's always something more), my hubby and I made another trip to Solvang where I got this canvas on sale. The colors the company chose do Not make me happy, so you can see that I've started playing with color. The water no longer looks like a swamp. I love to see the picture come to life as I work/play.                                         And just so you don't worry that that "finally" was real, I'll admit that I have another pair of socks over half done in my purse. Sophie's getting dressed in a mohair scarf. Suzie, my Majacraft spinning wheel, is in the midst of repairs on her drive belt, but she's wearing some pretty cotton. And there are the early signs of more napkins on Julia. Poor Gilly is naked, though. Okay. Go ahead and worry.

More socks

Well, more socks. Big surprise. I can't remember where this yarn was from. All I know is that it was in my stash and I'd used my ballwinder for it. What I've been doing with all of the socks up until now, is changing up my "vanilla" pattern. For whatever reason, I've been always using 64 stitches for the socks, all of them. What did you say? Knit a gauge first? And socks wear better if they have negative ease? So, I've been experimenting. That's what you see here. Not bad, hmm.

 

I, of course, already have another pair of socks in my purse. I took them with me when I went for some oral surgery. There I was with my meditation music on over my earphones, still needing to distract myself. What the hey! I don't really watch what I'm doing while I'm knitting, anyway. So, guess what I did?!

Spinning, Socks and Garden

Playtime.

Ready for the Majacraft stylus.

Lace weight, two ply. I'm thinking a wool/silk, knitted shawl. Hmmm...

And another pair of socks, toe up.

Roses and wisteria gone wild in the front yard.

The new backyard garden in bloom.

I'm loving this!

This is only a year's growth!

A little of this, a little of that.

I've been busy with a little of this and a little of that. I finished plying the merino/silk.

The color's more true here.

And these socks were my purse project. The pattern's a mock cable from page 104 of "Socks from the Toe Up" by Wendy D. Johnson. The bind off is done double knit. This is the first time I'd ever seen that. I love the way it looks and feels! I've been trying to decide how I can integrate that into sweaters...

A little intermission here. This is one of the two Western Redbuds I planted last March. Obviously, this one's thriving. The other one didn't make it. Go figure.

And here's more of the first planting from last year. Almost everything is thriving! And we haven't had a moment without at least something blooming.

Once I bought my Glimakra, I said I'd sell my Gilmore. Well, that hasn't happened. I decided if she was sitting there, she might as well be busy. This is the underside. It'll be a baby blanket.

I don't have any time to dress the loom for the next project, and it's so pretty, I'm leaving this on for a bit.

Knitting and Spinning

Now that I've finished the two sweaters, I have more time for myself. That means spinning and weaving with knitting as more of an in between project. I bought this fiber at a show a couple years ago, because the colors appealed to me. That, and because my husband and I will buy most fibers and preparations, once. It was labeled as "Pin Drafted Roving, Black suri alpaca blended w/BLx wool and Bamboo silk". The picture looks dark, but that's the true color. What am I going to do with it? No idea.

Meanwhile, my younger son made another request. His hair has grown enough that his hat doesn't fit. I texted him from the store to ask if that was it. Well, he added, a scarf and socks, too. I'm glad my kids appreciate my "stuff".

This is Manos del Uruguay, Maxima. So Soft! The grey is darker than it looks and in some light it appears purple.

Now I'm playing with this merino/silk blend from Red Fish DyeWorks. What can I say? The Color!

I couldn't sleep last night, so instead of just thinking about spinning...yep. The singles are all spun up and I've started plying. Oh, and Yes. I have a toe-up sock in process in my purse.