TRELLIS

Now that ladder I posted yesterday is a trellis!  Each upright is just over 6" and it is 53" wide. We even planted the two wisteria even though it was so hot out I almost melted!  

After lunch, I finished the last few batts that make up half of the fleece I washed.  I'm going to spin these in their natural color and perhaps dye them after they are skeins and the other half of the fleece I will be dyeing before spinning.

 

Avocado Anyone?!

This is a Florida avocado;  it has a smooth, thin skin and is much larger than the 

California avocado most people buy.  

We love to eat these in slices in salads, of course, 

but also as is in a snack! 

What else looks very much like the color of the avocado fruit?  My wool!

When I carded it up-by random handfuls;  I didn't feel like separating it or sorting it not even a little!

I grabbed handfuls and teased them open (dyeing condenses the fibers)

 and ran them through the carder. 

 I was pleased the color didn't look like brown mud which I was afraid it would.

And spinning it up-which is lovely doing the supported long draw in a woolen preparation this time instead of the short forward worsted spinning I did for the Masham wool for the last pound of wool!

This will be a much lighter and bouncier skein of yarn! 

 So far, so good!

From the agony of defeat to the thrill of victory--

nothing like a good spin!

Oh, and for some outdoor entertainment-pulling my husband out of a ditch!
He decided to do a bit of mowing with the tractor-one handed, says he!
And look where it got him!

He hooks up the chain and I roll down the truck window and listen to his commands!

I had him out of trouble in no time.

I have been pulling him out of 'tricky' situations for more than 46 years!

Did I mention he has been going stir crazy after this fourth surgery?!

Ahhh, Color Again!

 

 I played with a pile of Merino mini-rovings sampler pack I have had for years;

I carded them to make some colorful batts that will be spun over the next few months.

I dug out this charm pack and put them up on the design wall-

this is not the final arrangement;  I just put them up in a quick dark and light pattern.

I will keep arranging this for the next few days before I sew it together for a top.

I laughed at myself when I made this dishcloth on the knitting machine;

when I teach others to quilt or knit, 

I always say start easy and build your skills with one success after another as you progress.

I should've taken my own advice and made this first!

  I knit the center and then picked up stitches around the center 

and worked the garter stitches outwardly.  

I will play more tomorrow;  I think I will make a towel to match with this yarn,

 Cotlin from KnitPicks.

Ideas and Hugs

Completed!  I had such fun with this quilt every step of the way.  I learned a lot when piecing the curves and points, and how to make the quilt float.  I am usually more subtle with the quilting thread but I went with the purple this time and just had fun! 

Speaking of fun, I  was reading an article about over-dyeing black and white fabric which made me think of this black and white t-shirt I had but rarely wore.

I dug it out and soaked it then rung it out and hung it in the bathtub.

Out with the t-shirt dyes and just let the colors drip down.  I squirted the top first, then the middle and the bottom last so the colors could drip and blend.  It will be worn a lot more now! 

I needed to card up some more wool for today's spin.

It is such a relaxing job to tease open the washed wool and feed it through the carder.

I always card my batts three times-each time peeling the batt into three sections to run it through the carder again and again.  The third time you really see a difference and it removes more debris and shorter pieces from the final batt.

I have a two ounce batt to spin today and one for tomorrow. 

But I interrupt this puttering to play with these weekend visitors!

Ella and I enjoyed making some brownies-this girl loves her chocolate!

TDF Day 11-REST!?

 Since I didn't have to 'race' today, I used the time to card the rest of the Alpaca!  I have 12 more ounces to spin!  I might stop when I have another bobbin full at the 8 ounce marker...  I then took the time to clean out the carder, oil it and discard all the SAND that fell out from the fleece!  Wow, can this fiber hold dirt!  I then cleaned and oiled my Espinner so all is ready for tomorrow's schedule!

 I cut out a denim straight skirt.   I didn't have a lot of oomph left after this activity so I moved on to a sitting job.

 I finished the Mystery shawl clue one.  I was supposed to have at least 2/3 of my starting weight of yarn left after this clue and I have that and a bit more!  Nice to know I am on the mark.  (Remember this is no blocked;  lace knitting doesn't look as impressive on the needles!)

 This afternoon when a mighty thunderstorm moved in, I did some knitting on this project!  I did quite a bit of it in the dark as we lost the power several times over two hours!  We did get almost an inch of rain which is a lot for us!  This doesn't look too exciting laying down like this but when you put it on your foot, an amazing stripe is evidenced:

See the pretty stripe of zig zags up the outside of the foot and leg!  Very easy to knit and fun to just do 'one more zig...' !  (Zigzagular Socks is a free Ravelry download!)  I did add my own heel to this and make it toe up instead of following the directions but it is the same idea;  I have been a knitter too long to knit any way but my favorite way!

A Little Georgia Trip

 We packed pretty lightly for us and took a trip to Georgia for the week.  I got some knitting done on the way.

We savored a few days and then celebrated David's 10th birthday!

 He asked for a birthday brownie instead of a cake for now.......Bruce makes a killer brownie from scratch!

 After several days of enjoying each others company, Marsel left for a ladies retreat and I got some undivided kid time!  They had been given some wool at the sheep to shawl event they attended last week and saved it for our own event.  We washed the wool-dried it, picked it and then carded it.......

 They thought it was fun to see the piles of wool become clouds!

 We then did some dyeing with Easter egg dyes!

 After drying and another run through the carder, we had our spinnable fiber!

 Abigail took to it like she has been watching me her whole life.......oh, she has!  The recent therapy with her left hand has given her considerable improvement in fine motor skills!  She was a natural.

David had little trouble coordinating the many motions of treadling, drafting and braking to make yarn!

We had a wonderful visit as always and enjoyed an added bonus of eating Bruce's Chicago-style pizza, also from scratch!  We were spoiled!

A Wool Day

This morning we had a visit from a couple (the Morans) who used to live next door to us in NY-I used to babysit for their kids (who are all grown and with college bound kids of their own!). They are here to see my parents but they wanted to see where we live and the building project, too!

After they left, I did some spinning in the backyard-the wind was chilly but in the nook by the back door it was very nice. I caught up on my knitting podcasts and spun a bobbin full of the new fiber.

I got a bit sunkissed so went in to do some carding. I have had this idea to make the superwash sock fiber even more durable by adding some nylon fiber. So, I carded up my superwash wool roving with some of the nylon roving after a little bit of math and some weighing-I wanted an 80/20 mix found in most sock yarns. It carded up well and I have some beautiful batts to show for my work-just one batt to go!

I did finish Abigail's vest-even sewed the zipper in! I lengthened the vest by an inch and therefore didn't have enough yarn left to sew it together but I know the extra length was needed and now it will fit again next year, too! (One nice part of having a yarn stash is that I only had to paw through 2 bins to find a 'close enough' match to finish sewing it up!)