TdF - Day One

I love watching the Tour de France, and the Tour de Fleece is a wonderful excuse for me to actually get through some of my stash while watching it. I have lofty goals this year - 2 sweaters' worth of wool, a 3-ply sock project, a 5-ply (my first), and a few lace projects. I'm hoping to be able to accomplish all of this, though I remain apprehensive. I plan on spinning every day that the tour is happening (including rest days!) through (at least) the duration of the live coverage. We'll see what it gets me.

Today's bounty:


These are my first 2 bobbins of what will soon be a 2-ply. This is mystery wool from Rhinebeck (in researching the seller, I am lead to believe that it is mohair and the rather vague "wool") that I am LOVING to spin. It's wonderfully soft. I plan on spinning all of it up as singles first, followed by some mixed plying action (bobbins 1 & 6, 2 & 5, 3 &4 or somesuch) in order to account for any inconsistencies in my spinning through the Tour. It's more than likely this will happen because things in the race can get TENSE!

For those of you who cannot comprehend the idea of watching 180 men (to start) bicycle 2100+ km around France:
The Tour de France is really lovely to watch as not only a sport, but as a travelogue - it's a wonderful, er, tour, of France, and it varies every year. Due to the duration of the race, one is able to really get an idea of the nuances of the actual race (which also vary by year) and understand the technical aspects involved. Of course, the entire idea of the race is fairly mindblowing. In early races, the riders did the whole thing on fixed-gear bikes! They also had to do any repairs along the way by themselves. Things have improved significantly since then!

Say Hello To My Little Friend

So much to report, and many pictures!

First off, the new loom!



This is the 24" LeClerc Compact loom. It's a 4-heddle/6-treadle loom with the ability to go to 8-heddles. I have a 10- and a 12-dent reed for it. I had to replace the side knobs and the crank, but other than that, it's all ready to go! Sadly, I am a participant in this year's Tour de Fleece, which I am focusing most of my energy on, and I don't think I will get to any weaving until the end of July......



These are my outrageous goals for the TdF - I know, it's a LOT! I'm hoping to make sweaters out of the top bundles, a 5-ply (!!!!!!) with those center batts, and break it all up with some lace and what-nottery with the rest. I AM a huge fan of the Tour de France, and plan on watching it every day, so why not spin through it all as well? Please, no betting on how far through this pile I'll get.

As "training" I cleared off all the bobbins, finally getting around to finishing this:



That's about 200 yards of New Zealand Polwarth from Southern Cross Fibers in the "Budgie" colorway. It's absolutely delicious and squishy. It was wonderful to spin and maintained a TON of springiness when it came time to ply.

Anyway - I'll be doing fairly frequent TdF updates, and I have a book review for the rest day. See you soon!

Juneary Knit & Spin

Just as the Juneary weather seems to be coming to an end, I've managed to complete a couple of handknits. The first lovely is something I've wanted to knit for quite some time now, but just now got around to (with a little bit of help from the Webs sale) - the "Shocking!" skirt by Veronik Avery:



This is a very fast, very easy knit. There was some confusion in the tuck row as to which color yarn to use, along with ending up having to do 2 WS rows in a row. This was all worked out by the time I got to the same point the second time around - the pattern is knit in 6 continuous panels - and I was able to breeze through the remainder. The final grafting row, however, was a bit of a nightmare. In completing the Kitchener stitch as written, you would end up with an extra row of Color A. I opted to remove the waste yarn from the provisional cast-on and grafted to my first wrap-row. This proved to be less than ideal; it took a bit to figure out the count using the wraps, and I had to fudge things a little bit to fit things together properly (I was also too lazy to go back and resolve all of what I had already done).

This skirt was knit in Cascade 220 on US 7s. I expect it will get a lot of wear during the cooler months, I'm just hoping that it doesn't pill.

In other feats of completion, here are some socks:



I started these a while ago, and actually completed the first sock - of course, it was the second one that I got hung up on. The solid yarn is Reynolds Soft Sea Wool, and the awesome brown/grey/white is my own handspun 3-ply, from the delicious "Peat" colorway of HelloYarn fiber club. These socks are so freakin' squishy.

There has also been spinning:



200 yards of Romney in the "Pansy" colorway, from the Spunky Eclectic May 2009 Club.



~520 yards of Super Sproingtastic Merino in the "Spring Loaded" colorway (and boy howdy is it spring loaded) from HelloYarn.

I also picked up a Floor Loom! I'm waiting for some parts, so no pictures right now, but soon soon soon. It's the LeClerc Compact model, with a 24" weaving width. It's an X-frame, 4-harness/6-treadle folding loom that I can't wait to get to.

I Finished Something

I finished this the night I got back from Minneapolis, but I just got around to blocking it out this week:



That's my "Future George Washington" Textured Shawlette. The yarn is my own handspun - a 3-ply from batts from Enchanted Knoll Farms. The yarn is so freakin' sparkly! The pictures really don't capture how much glitz and glam are in there! These are a combination of Superwash Merino, Silk, Recycled Sari Silk, and SPARKLE. I was unsure of just what to knit with it. I decided to pack it up for travel knitting, and needing somethign mindless for the plane, ended up with the Textured Shawl recipe. The whole thing took no time at all, it's about 24" down the back, and it's quite soft. Fast, easy, mindless knitting. :)

I also received these today:



These are from the hot pads! and potholders! swap organized by the lovely Adrian and Maritza! I had a blast crocheting mine (and even learned to crochet) and it was wonderful to receive these and see everyone else's handiwork. These were made by (clockwise from left) Susan, Kate, deadkat, Donna, and Wendy G. They are all so wonderful - I love the variety of patterns, the colors, the yarns. I'm thrilled!

There has also been a bit of forcing summer to appear:



For those of you NOT in the Boston area, it's been rainy and grey and cold for....well, most of June so far. And about 60 degrees or so. I made this salad last night - crisp, cool, refreshing, and delicious - perfect for summer! It's prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, some capers, sea salt, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Delicious and easy.

Minnesota, Meet-Up, More!

So much to talk about!



I dashed off to Minnesota for a long weekend, where I met up with the most lovely and awesome nuttnbunny! It was great to finally meet her face to face, and our Buckland Cowls met up as well. Luckily, it was 53 degrees in Minnesota in June so we were able to UTITLIZE our cowls as we meandered about the stellar Franconia Sculpture Park:



This was all followed up with some CUH-razy Bloody Marys, ice cream with nuttnbuddy, and a delicious dinner by mr. nuttnhubby. And of course, there were treats:





That's some fabulous Falkland Top dyed by nutt and some of her wonderful handspun. Yum! AND a shibori dyed scarf! AND! There's also some alpaca from a friend's farm - destined to be the linings for my handspun Fiddleheads (Rav link, kiddos) :)

My return to the east was heralded with more craziness: I've been teaching for the past 2 weeks and they've been installing baseboard heating in my apartment (which means I've had to move.....well, everything. Twice.) The brisk Minnesota followed me home! It's been rainy and cold since I've returned with no end in sight. My windmill army will protect me:

Maybe Now I Can Get Some Things Done

Ambling through deadline projects:



These are my 5 - count 'em, FIVE - potholders for the hot pads! and potholders! swap 2009. These puppies are made out of leftover/repurposed Debbie Bliss Cotton DK and Handknit Cotton, from a project started long ago, before I knew that I hated knitting with cotton. Glad to have a use for it now!

I joined this swap not really knowing how to crochet. I mean, I knew how to crochet, but really just enough to do 1. granny squares, and 2. finishing on any knitting. That's about all. But NOW! I probably went through about 22 different patterns before settling on this one - it's the Old-Fashioned Potholder pattern (Rav link), and it was fast! And easy to memorize.

These guys are hearty - the double-thick with DK yarn makes them pretty hard-core.

I took a jaunt out to the Massachusetts Sheep & Wool Festival over Memorial Day weekend, where I visited briefly with Amy and Adrian. There were antics, of course:



...and I managed to not purchase everything. Picked up some spices, a bundle or two from Fantom Fibers, and 2 very lovely soft blue batts. The real damage was on the way home - it was the last day of the WEBS sale, and boy howdy do they know how to have a sale. I picked up the Cascade 220 (color 2409!) that I have been drooling over for about 2 years:



I have no idea what it is going to be.....

In other news:
- just finished up a secret project, pictures soon.
- I'll be heading out to Minneapolis in 2 weeks!
- I need to get back to spinning!
- My plants are looking good!
- I'm teaching for 2 weeks in June - Non-Adhesive Bookbinding & Cloth Case Bookbinding.

Burt Reynolds, Bookbinding, and a Couple of FOs.

Yikes! I didn't mean to fall so disparately behind, but here it is, a bit over a month later! What can I say? I've been busy:



I finished the Aeolian Shawl (with beads!) in record time. The majority of the body took me about 4 days to get through, but the last rows seemed to draaaaaaggggg on. Isn't that always the way? The completed shawl blocked out to about 72 inches across the top, and 36 inches down the center of the back. The beading, while tedious, was well worth the effort. They wound up being pretty subtle, but the glint when they catch the light? Delicious.

I did not use all of my original handspun for this - there's a bit leftover. Ironically, there are leftovers because I was afraid of running out of yarn! I had read in a few places that this thing gobbles up yarn at the edging and cut back on my earlier rows. Oh well.

This HAS inspired me to spin more laceweight! And more beading, too, believe it or not.

I was also on the road a bit:



I drove down to Florida to see my mom and teach a mini-workshop for her and a couple of her friends! It was a blast. We completed 2 books during the one-day workshop, a Crossed-Structure Binding and the Secret Belgian Binding. I had a really great time! While down there I also visited the Jaffe Center, which has a most amazing incredible collection of rare and artists books. The space they are in is incredible!

And, of course, I had to go here:



That's a shot of just one little corner of the Burt Reynolds Museum in Jupiter, Florida. The place is OUTTA CONTROL. It's chock full of belt buckles and badges, with pictures, posters, and magazine covers of B.R. covering nearly every surface.

Oh, and socks:



These are actually a slightly older (Easter) project, made as a thank you to Anne for watching the cat while I was away. They look like Fruit Stripe Gum, no?