ROADTRIP!!!!!

We went everywhere - and here you have it mostly in pictures:


This is bullshit on the Interstate in Cleveland. A 90 degree turn? REALLY?

We stayed with the wonderful melseyknits and her husband. It was fantastic, they were wonderful host/esses and lovely, fabulous people. Until we had to leave......


...After defeating Melinda, I revisited my Robot Army:

I am SO fascinated by the windfarms that are cropping up in Iowa, and - having not grown up there - it is wonderful to see them on the horizon and integrated in the landscape. I think they're beautiful.

We visited Inga on her farm to see these Baby Burgers:

...and all the pigs and sheeps and goats and chickens too. In fact, there was some chicken farming involved.

I can't even talk about Milwaukee - we did too much! It's such an awesome city! That will have to be a later post.

BUT! Then we went to Ann Arbor, and went to Zingerman's:


Ohmigod I can't even. It's all too much.

But then we saw Stacey in her latest handknit:


And all was awesome again! Really, this lady is spot-on. If you are in Ann Arbor, I highly recommend getting coffee or scotch with her!

We had our portraits done in Canadia:

I knit these socks on the road:

And we picked up this awesome toolbox:


And so much more! Milwaukee will have to be it's own post - it was all too much.

A lot of people have expressed interest/concern for our tolerance of one another through these road trips. Honestly, we travel REALLY well together. Dale does most of the driving because I can knit and talk (if he is a passenger, he is usually reading, which precluded conversation). We rock out a lot. We listen to a LOT of NPR, when we can get it (we have the NPR map, but there are a bunch of dead zones/shared channels/&c...) We get a little bit crazy, but it is usually mutual. We pack a lot of healthy-ish snacks, we take frequent breaks. We've done this a few times, but every time, I manage to find more awesome roadside attractions - I'm already planning where we can (potentially) stop next year.

Topflappen Swappen!

The end of April means potholder swap! This past Saturday was swap day - which included a drive out to snowy western MA - and many many potholders:



Maryse, Cheryl, and I were hosted by Adrian to sort and divvy ~500 potholders. And eat delicious food and laugh, of course.



I managed to come home with lots of great potholders, but also a vicious sinus infection/cold, which left me pretty useless and crabby for a few days. I only had enough energy and concentration to work on mindless things, which was perfect for getting a few more (loooong) rows in on this giant granny square afghan:



This is all sorts of odds and ends of handspun yarn and assorted worsted weight bundles. There's a lot of Cascade 220 leftovers, ends of handspun projects (some are fingering-weight or so, I've been using them doubled up), and things that I've picked up and collected along the way. It's slow going, but I figure it's a great way to deal with some of the ends and miscellany that accumulates around here.

I also finally - FINALLY! - cleared off all of the bobbins. My final bobbin was about 1/4 full of a sweater lot of SCF "Alexandria" in Cheviot wool:



I filled up 4 bobbins and managed to get about 1100 yards of 2-ply out of it. It's quite plump, and has a great drape. I'm debating sweater patterns currently, but I hope to have something completed with this by this next autumn. We'll see. I still need to finish this:



...my "Coventry" sweater. I'm on the second sleeve, but not very far into it. I'm hoping to finish up the sleeve in the next week or two and join up for the yoke portion. This sweater also features a keyhole scarf neck, which is REALLY going to be the pits. My tolerance for scarf knitting is very very very low!!!

I'm trying to stay focused and not wildly cast-on for 264362 projects (which is what I really want to do) - MUST. FINISH. SWEATER! And work on giant granny afghan a bit, too.

Spring Cleaning

Well, some bobbin spring cleaning. I've had a bunch of bobbins with little bits of projects on them and they've been haunting me. For various reasons I hadn't finished the yarn and cleared them off (not in the mood for lace, wasn't spinning up as planned, etc.) but I figured it best just to sit down and tackle them and clear them off. As of this post, I've only got 1 bobbin left with anything on it, and it's the first of a sweater lot! Here's what we've got so far:



"Botanical Extracts" from FatCatKnits, Merino/Mohair/Nylon, about 520 yards (gift from Weetsie!)



"Speckled" (split up and carded) from HelloYarn, Merino.


"Uluru" from SCF, in Superwash BFL. Also a gift from weetsie!

There's a bit more of the fiber, but that isn't all that I've been doing! There has been a TON of sewing going on.



I finally got around to making up one of these origami quilts I had been thinking about AGES ago - this is the Maine Lobster. The reverse side is red with white stitching. This went fairly smoothly, and I definitely think I'll be making more of these in the future.



I made this skirt! Every year I buy one or two lengths of fabric with the intention of making skirts, and every year I DO NOT MAKE SKIRTS. I finally got around to making some skirts and really got on a roll - I made 4 so far. All o the skirts are reverse-engineered from favorite (store-bought) skirts that I wear constantly through the warmer months. I put pockets in all of them as well (REAL pockets, not dinky girl-clothes "pockets"), and I've been wearing them all a ton/ Geez, why did this take me so long?!?!?



There's been a little bit of knitting......


.......and even some weaving. I'm obsessed with Houndstooth these days :)

Ooh, AND I finished my Topflappen!

Catching Up

I've been quilting up a storm recently - I decided to make YET ANOTHER Color Wheel quilt, from "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts". I believe this is the FOURTH one of these that I have made, but I just can't help it! They are really fast, and very satisfying.



I also cut out the arc pieces for 3 more of these while I was in fabric-cutting mode, and those are being distributed to some lucky quilters. One of the sets is heading out to Chawne, who is a gigantic quilting inspiration with all of her lovely, incredible, adventurous, tiny, meticulous sewing. I'm doing a trade with her for a mini-quilt - my end of the bargain was simple: fingerless gloves.



I opted for Eunny Jang's "Endpaper Mitts" (again, knitting these for the FOURTH time) because I ADORE mine and wear them constantly. I love the length of them - there is no chilly exposed wrist when wearing them with a jacket. I knit them to be fairly snug, knowing they may stretch out a bit. The yarn is SCF Club from forever ago, in the "Hades" colorway. It's Polwarth/Tencel, and has a most delightful sheen to it. I spun it up as a 3-ply last year during the Tour de Fleece. I hope she enjoys wearing them as much as I enjoyed making them!

I've been teaching a bit:



Limp Vellum, my favorite binding structure to teach, and such a satisfying book when done.



I've been converting people to "Settlers of Catan", it's such a great game, and has been perfect for kicking the winter doldrums.

Chop Chop

I've been teaching a bunch lately, mostly the same basic courses as usual (Non-Adhesive Bookbinding, Cloth Case Bookbinding, &c.) and I recently had a student contact me about a paper cutter that had come his way. He was looking for a long-arm style paper cutter, like this Kutrimmer, but his neighbor ended up giving him a guillotine paper cutter. It really wasn't going to work for him, so he asked if I'd like it and of course I would! Here it is (blade off):

This puppy weighs about 50 pounds. It could use a little bit of oil to make the cranks turn a bit smoother, and the blade is tip-top shape. I was able to trade him a disused Ingento-style paper cutter that I have been moving for about 12 years. Everyone wins! I'm excited to cut some stuff.

In other news, I've been spinning and knitting (surprised?) - I'm back up to speed on my Coventry cardigan, which I'm knitting in Quince&Co yarn (Chickadee) in the "Snap Pea" colorway. Boy Howdy, this yarn is delightful. It really has great stitch definition and holds it's shape well. I'm about 8" in after a horrid mis-reading of the decreases and a ripping-back incident (5" worth) and it's proceeding smoothly and quickly.


And I finally got around to spinning up all of my "Alpine" Romney (Hello Yarn Fiber Club, July 2009) into this lovely, drapey 2-ply, for about 1500 yards. I don't have a specific sweater planned for it yet.


Also, The Pork. For Christmas, we gave most of my family the gift of pork, specifically pork from our friend Inga, who is Farm Girl At Large. It turns out that it costs more to ship 60 pounds of pork halfway across the country than it does to fly someone out here with it, so Inga came to stay with us for a few days, and we took a quick jaunt down to Jersey for pork distribution. Here's what 60 pounds of pork looks like:


And here's a little glimpse of the Paterson Falls in the snow:


We visited the Falls, discussed the late Alexander Hamilton (a LOT), and ate lots of pork with family a friends. Delicious, and delightful.

Some Things, Completed!

I've actually managed to FINISH some things these past couple of weeks. This may or may not be snow related:



First, this gigantic bundle of handwoven Wensleydale came off the loom. This is handspun Hello Yarn Club Fiber from August 2010 in the "Heirloom" colorway - I spun it into a 2-ply and wove it up on my rigid heddle loom. I currently have one looooong piece of cloth, at about 10 feet x 22 inches (or so). I'll be starting the process all over again in order to get enough cloth to cut up and make a cute swingy jacket. Eventually. Hey, I'm halfway there, right?



Second, I finished this Golden Wheat cardigan, using handspun made from leftover test bundles when I co-dyed with David at Southern Cross Fibres. Mods? Of course. I knit this on US 7 & 9 needles, made it a little bit longer, and I'll be adding a buttonband backing of grosgrain ribbon this afternoon. This sweater is so comfortable and soft! The yarn is delightful - I had some concerns about the skeins not blending well enough, but I'm pleased as punch with how it looks. The fiber that I started out with had no business plying together into something this awesome.



Third, these divine mittens! Okay, I made these a few months ago but they were a test-knit so I couldn't talk about them. BUT HERE THEY ARE NOW. "Flocked Mittens" from Adrian Bizilia, knit in Quince&Co. "Lark" in Split Pea and Glacier. The lining is some brown alpaca that I had hanging around. These are super comfy cozy warm. These have become my go-to shoveling mittens around here.

All of this spinning and weaving and knitting (and teaching!) has been fantastic, and completing things is a good feeling. But I've also got one project looming, this quilt project:



A few weeks ago I made the mistake of fabric shopping with Kelly & Maritza. Kelly had this luscious bundle of solids out, and we each decided to get a half yard of each color to make one big quilt with. So all these rich colors, and white. Those are the only rules. I've been thinking maybe a double wedding ring quilt? Any ideas, suggestions, thoughts on this or OTHER quilts would be great!

It's That Time Again!

POTHOLDERS!!!!!

Get your crochet hooks out! Adrian, Maryse and I will be hosting the THIRD Annual Potholder Swap!

Here's what I got last year:


Here's what I made:


I'm excited to expand on my crochet skills, and maybe come up with a new design.

Interested in joining us? It's easy! There's some extra time to get things in to us this time around (April 16th). This swap is so great because you don't even have to sign up to be a part of it - just send your stuff in! All of the information can be found in the Ravelry Group, or, if you are not on Rav, in our Flickr Group. Please join us! We can't wait to see what you make!