Tour de Fleece 2010: Final output

 

Well, that was certainly a long and interesting ride.

Tour de Fleece, Day 20

 

Whoops. That whole going on vacation, traveling to Calgary, and visiting people really took a chunk out of my ability to post. And spin. But here's what I've been doing! A) Finished up the purple stuff. ~60 metres, nice and thin and even. B) Knitted the Swiss yarn into a bowl to felt. Couldn't find an appropriate pattern for 55 metres, so faked it. Knit from the centre out, with M1Ls and M1Rs at the four corners for four colours, then even for the rest. Discovered I had much less of the orange than any other colour. Felting will be tomorrow morning! C) Spun up two blue singles, and am working on the orange for a three-ply. A spindle blowout means that the blue is stretched across three spindles. Pictures of the plying to come!

Tour de Fleece, Day 13

 

Spinning thin takes a long time! Still working on the random fibre, working on a thin single. Yesterday's photo included for comparison.

Tour de Fleece, Day 12

 

Yoga at lunch and massage before knitting equals not a lot of spinning today. But I'm trying for a thin single, and so far succeeding. I've also discovered that thin single equals slow progress. :)

Tour de Fleece, Day 11

 

What a dreary day. Luckily, this yarn turned out better than I'd hoped! I might even knit something with it! Random fibre, pink and light blue, plied together (and didn't have much of the light blue left!). Finished plying at North Edmonton knit night. :) I have some more of the random fibre in my bag for tomorrow, but this success has inclined me to ply it with another colour rather than onto itself.

Tour de Fleece, Day 9: Team Talespinners Challenge Day

 

Well, that was a long and busy day. Times that you can't see in the mosaic above:

• Start: 7:41 am


• With breaks for talking to Mom, walking Priest, buying cookbooks at Chapters, and groceries, finished spinning one third of the bag by 5:00 pm. Given that I watched one full disc of Faery Tale Theatre, plus spun a little bit more, I'm estimating about 4.5 hours of spinning for this third of the bag


• With doing dishes and making and eating dinner, done chain-plying the single by 8:59 pm


• Wound onto niddy noddy by 9:18 pm. Letting it rest overnight before giving it a bath, because I've got laundry on the drying rack right now

Specifics: ~64.8 metres of Louet Northern Lights Wool Top in 'Burning Bush.' The Talespinners challenge is to spin something inspired by a fairy tale character. I had started this thinking Firebird or Phoenix on its pyre, but I wasn't feeling it as I spun. As luck would have it, I happened across the sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge while I was hunting up cookbooks at Chapters, and I thought this yarn, with its red and brown tones, matched up with the main character of that retelling well. So I will call this yarn (and the two other thirds that have yet to be spun) Punzy.

 

Tour de Fleece, Day 8

 

Not a great amount of spinning today, but there wasn't a great amount of time either, and I did want to rest up a bit for tomorrow (Team Talespinners' challenge day!). I don't have spinning calluses yet, and my fingers are getting sore! Random fibre, pink is complete, blue to ply it with still in progress. I figured I might as well have some fun, since I can't think of anything else to do with pink fibre... I think I'll call the resulting yarn 'Fraternal,' or maybe 'When You Don't Want To Know.' :)

Tour de Fleece, Day 7

 

Left: Random fibre, pink, spindle made by my dad. The spindle is a little light, and the shaft is a little short, but I'll muddle through. Something to keep me occupied until Talespinners Challenge Day (Sunday!).

Right: Fleece Artist BFL Sliver in Moss, Andean plied. Resting on the niddy noddy overnight.

Tour de Fleece, Days 5 and 6

Day 5, top: Swiss wool, chain plied. That was definitely interesting. It rested overnight as a ball, and I wound it onto the niddy noddy tonight to rest again. I'll set the twist tomorrow and count yardage.

Day 6, bottom: Fleece Artist BFL Sliver in Moss. Great to spin, and making good progress. I should be able to ply it tomorrow. I can't decide if I'll chain ply again for a 3-ply, or Andean ply for a 2-ply. We'll see what it tells me to do.

Tour de Fleece, Day Four

 

Left: Fleece Artist BFL in Moss. Really nice to spin.

Right: Swiss wool, unknown fibre. All spun and ready to chain ply. Tomorrow, once I research how. :)

Tour de Fleece 2010: Day Three

 

Top left, centre: Thistle, unknown fibre, plied today (badly), soaking now. 31.2 m. My dad made the niddy noddy.

Bottom left, bottom centre: Swiss wool, unknown fibre, brought by my parents back from Switzerland last summer. Eight different colours, one handful of each. Spinning the single. Did the white (you can see it below the green) and the green today. Yellow and purple to go, then time to chain ply. Spindle is a Snow White top whorl from The Dragonfly Workshop.

Right top, bottom: Next up, Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester Sliver in Moss left over from my thrummed mittens (I had to buy more). My dad made this spindle as well.

Top centre: Also received today, hand carders! Loaned to me by a friend at work. :)

What I did today...

 

Turned the thistle and weed alley behind the garage into a full garbage bag of plant matter and a now-rakeable area, mowed the back yard and broke the electrical outlets on the outside of the house, made a tired puppy, put together a work bench, and spun up a spindle for the first day of the Tour de Fleece. What should I do tomorrow?

Almost June...

...naturally.

Awww...

Seriously adorable. <3 Pixar.


Cloud - The best free videos are right here

A post of shorts

Best things I've ever bought at Ikea, bar none:

Go buy them if you can. Totally awesome.

I'm an aunt! And I get to see my nephew this weekend!

I have a new appreciation and awe for people who work two jobs, or go to school and work. You are amazing people. I don't know how you do it.

I am feeling so comfortable with the needleless cable now that I'm coming to the end (hopefully) of Sheila's nursing shawl that I'm tempted to attempt the Shifting Sands Scarf and its 2500+ cables. After I finish some other projects first, of course...

Crap. I can't get the awesome picture off of my phone right now. I'll have to post that later.

One-Line Book Review #3

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer: I dunno, seems like a no brainer to me: warm loving furry wolf guy v. cold guy who has to keep himself from killing her... Book was good until Edward came back into it.

Will post about the new job later. So far it's good, except for remembering to use the option key on the Mac!

One-Line Book Review #2

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough: Diverting, but too many errors in technique and far too many "WTF?", "You've got to be kidding...", and "Did you even read Pride and Prejudice?" moments to be truly enjoyable or worth recommending.

As my life implodes...

Sorry for the silence. My life literally imploded, which made finding time to post, let alone inclination to expound bloggerly upon the happenings, nigh impossible.

As most of my few remaining readers know, almost immediately from returning from the US, I interviewed for and was offered a new position. It is still in Edmonton, still in the pseudo-public sector, but has less all-encompassing responsibility, and I'll be working as part of a team devoted to communications for pretty much the first time since I graduated university. It is a good move, and I'm looking forward to it. But the five weeks notice I gave the AFA have proven a bit of a test to my nerves. I want to leave the AFA well prepared to weather my absence as the season starts, but as far as I know, a new ED has not been hired. It's a situation not designed to make me feel relaxed.

But I can't let it get to me (easier said than done, I know), so instead, I'm going to present those of you who've hung in there with some knitting pictures, and a new feature: The One-Line Book Review. First, knitting!

As I'm going to be an aunt soon, here is my first Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann (Rav link):


The Garter Stitch Blob shot. Yes, it really is a jacket... Just wait... Click to embiggen so it doesn't look so blurry.


Half-folded! EZ really was a genius!


Surprise! One Baby Surprise Jacket!

The shoulder seams are sewed, and now I'm just waiting for my new niecphew to tell me which side to sew the lovely pewter Viking ship buttons on, and we're golden!

Now for a project with the undescriptive name of Lobster, but is a circular needle holder (Rav link):


My first felted object. Now that was interesting... But I won't bore you with felting shenanigans. Here it is in its place of honour behind the library door. I used my Lee Valley Victorian Spring Clip, which I've had forever, to hang it on the wall. Extra spiffy stitch markers are held on the bottom portion with an extra stitch holder.


I straightened all my circular needle cords with boiling water, then strung them through the (thankfully not completely felted together) needle loops. And voila! A strange-looking but totally useful storage for circular needles!

This was a quick knit, and in the end satisfying despite felting almost-disaster, and I think I'd like to make a few more, one for straights and at least one for DPNs (more if I have more than 11 sets of DPNs. I'll have to check). But I have many works in progress to get through before I'm ready to cast another on. The circs were the important ones, and they are now stored happily, hanging behind the library door.

My first One-Line Book Review will be for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith: Fine satire, rarely over the top; well worth the read even if you don't like zombies (or if you like zombies but don't like Jane Austen).

And now an obligatory cute dog shot before I sign off for the day. There is more knitting photos to come (as soon as I, you know, take them...), and as I count down to my last day as the Queen of Swords (professionally, at least), I hope to update you a little more frequently.


Nom nom nom...

East Coast Trip

NH/MA/PA Trip

Some photos from my trip to the Eastern seaboard of the US last week. It was an awesome time, and I wish I was still there (though I hear it's raining again, so maybe not, though it's raining here too... :) ), and I miss everyone! Come see us soon!

Mike's pictures will be up as soon as he sends me the list of what he wants uploaded.

I'm alive... barely

Hello! Do you remember me? My name is Vanessa, and you used to know me. I used to post here relatively frequently, and most of you have met me in real life too. I'm tall, with glasses and long curly hair. Am I ringing any bells?

I am not without things to post about, but first work was sucking the creativity right out of me, and then I got sick (ugh for summer colds). Being in bed for five days, then a walking zombie for an additional five didn't help.

Now we're T-12 days from our trip to the States. Karen and I have all these plans for the few days we have, and I'm really looking forward to it (even if, as she suggested, we're so worn out from this crazy month that we just sit on the couch with a cold drink and talk). There are crepes, Main Street, butterflies, U-picks, Boston, Stonehenge, a beach, July 4, and meeting my dear, dear friend Karen in person for the first time in my future, and it's going to be wonderful.

I spent World Wide Knit in Public Day (June 13) knitting at the CFF AGM in Winnipeg, and completed my first hat with my first seam (and my first mattress stitch) as a donation for the Alzheimer's Society. I have no pictures, because it was during my zombie phase, and it was enough that I actually a) knit and b) knit correctly, but the ladies at River City gushed over it and promised to take a picture and post it on their website, so I'll borrow it from there when it goes up. Then they plied me with more yarn and some ideas on how to do the hat in the round, and said that if I made another and donated it, they'd give me another coupon for $5 off yarn. Darn them. Now I just have to do it.

Priest also has not been posting, though he has a lot to report too. He's quite annoyed with me that I have not been logging in for him. If I haven't said it before, I adore our dog, and I hope he'll forgive us for going away for a week. I'm sure he will, as long as we bring him back a nice gift.

I just wanted to let you all know that I'm alive, and I should be back to posting again soon. As long as I can curb my appetite for... brains...