I get plenty of fiber

 





It's been quite some time since I've written about my fiber projects! I didn't want you to think I'd given up on my self proclaimed title of  "fiber artist" in the blog profile.  Kate likes to help by unzipping my project bags and taking out yarn for me. This is an activity of which she never tires. Sometimes she wraps up Jack's legs in the escape, and sometimes I chase her around and around the dining room table trying to be mad instead of laughing, as the laughing only  prolongs the race. Yippee! In fact, she has "helped" with each project below. Allie seems to like to lie down on the needlepoint sheep.  The stretcher bars create a bit of a hammock effect for her. I don't have the heart to move her, I'm such a softie. As you can see, I have much more on this piece to go. The darker yarn squiggles are from the sheep fiber that I processed and then Bonnie spun it fine enough so that I could use the yarn for the project.

 

I finished the chain of hearts in time for Valentine's Day. I  used kitchen cotton yarn that I had on hand.

 

 

I confess that my spinning wheel has been "resting" while I've been occupied with other endeavors. I need to take a few days off from work and have my own fiber festival. That would be soooo cool!

 

 

As you can see, Kate thought my afghan WIP (work in progress) is really fine as is. I have 36 squares completed and just got the sofa reupholstered in denim to match the project. That makes this project especially expensive. The yarn is actually denim and will shrink and fade just like a pair of jeans. Others that have made this same afghan have warned about the blue leaking into the cream squares. One knitter said she cried when she took it out of the washing machine. I believe it. One square takes me about one month to complete. One knitter said it took her 17 hours to piece the squares and 17 hours to knit the border. This information comes from my fellow knitters on www.ravelry.com The project is called PICNIC and there are currently 35 others working on this 81 square afghan. Paulette thinks I should quit now and call it a lap blanket. But the truth is, I'm addicted to knitting the squares. Some of them have beads in the designs and I love knitting with beads.

 

This is a sock for Ron. I bought the yarn at a fiber event in Wooster, Ohio. Kate ran off with the ball and it took me days and days and hours and hours to untangle it. Those in our knitter's group, Knit One, Library Too, who saw me struggle with the tangled mess urged me to just pitch the yarn, but, I thought it was too pretty and, I know this is odd, but, I actually like to untangle yarn. Don't tell Kate, though.   I've taken so long to work on this sock that Paulie has begged me to stop as she is tired of seeing it! Ha. This is only the first sock of two. Ron has been extremely patient waiting for the pair. He is my biggest fan and wears only socks that I've knitted. I just looked in his dresser and I think this will be his 12th pair, counting the socks in the drawer, the socks on his feet, and the socks air drying. He has short, fat feet and I think these were the first socks that really fit. Lennart's daughter, Sarah, when she saw Ron's bare feet, asked her dad (in Swedish) how Ron could stand up on such small feet. Ha. But, I digress.

Next weekend, I've been asked to teach a beginner's knitting class at Great Lakes Fiber, a local alpaca farm with studio. Will work for fiber (hint, hint, Amy). I've been teaching knitting informally for about 40 years. Starting with Maria, my Colombian sister and my Mom, and branching out to friend Amy, and 10 of the library staff. This launched the knitter's group at the Library and I've taught young and old alike. My friend Molly asked me to teach her nieces and sisters one summer as part of their annual sewing tradition. Speaking of which, the Library is getting an angora rabbit and I have dibs on the fiber for spinning. Rank does have its privileges!

In order to beat the second sock syndrome (when knitters would rather knit something else instead of repeating the same thing with sock number two) I'm going to get started on Ron's next sock this evening. I've alerted Kate, in case she wants to join in on the fun.

Adventures in fiberland

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Paulette and I have spent quite a few weekends at county fairgrounds. That might seem strange for a couple of city girls, but, that is where antique auctions are often held. You can count on fair food being available and sold by eager Boy Scout troops. But, this time, we were heading to the fairgrounds for a Market Day, sponsored by the Black Swamp Spinner's Guild of Bowling Green, Ohio. I'm relieved to tell you we didn't encounter any black swamp. However, we didn't see any fiber animals either. No sheep, alpaca, angora goats, rabbits were there as this was purely a market to purchase fleece, roving and yarn. YARN! Just what we need!

We brought our wheels, safely fastened in seat belts in the back of the car, and we were eager to settle in among  spinners in order to learn more about the craft.  Sigh. There was no spinning going on. Just shopping. SHOPPING! Okay, then. We took our wheels back to the car and got into shopping mode, something we know a thing or two about. We found wheels for sale and even discovered vendors that knew all about our wheels. So, back to the car we went to fetch our wheels for tuneups. Paulette got a new drive wheel band for hers and learned how to pack and unpack the wheel, stop the weird clicking sound on her brand new Kromski Sonata, and how to oil the wheel. I learned how to adjust a few parts on my Majacraft Susie Pro and was told not to worry about the groove with paint coming off on the back side of my wheel. I'm still not too sure about that, tho.

We looked at quite a few raw fleeces and loved the barn smell and the lanolin feel.

After making the full circuit of vendors, we each purchased roving that was dyed and ready to spin. It took some time to figure out how much roving would produce a scarf or two, but the vendors were very willing to share information with two eager newbies. We also discovered that cash or checks were welcome, but not plastic. Oh oh.  

We hope we made good selections, it was pretty hard to figure it out without Bonnie with us. In fact, we didn't think it was fair of her to move to Michigan just when she was in the process of teaching us all about the spinning world.

We have no idea what these are for, but liked the wine corks on the ends. Maybe these are weaving tools? In the far left corner of the photo you can see the niddy noddys. Paulette bought a maple one and the carver was there to explain how to wind yarn on it.

 Since we know all about how to buy processed yarn, we did purchase yet more sock yarn. I loved the sign and yes, yarn does make us happy!