Bag it

I must admit to procrastinating about my Spinning Study Group project. It's been so long, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd forgotten that I was in a spinning study group. I haven't forgotten, I just was avoiding it. I had to rewash my merino wool as I hadn't gotten all the grease out of it and I didn't want to do it. Well, we had a meeting last Saturday and I had to come with something done - some sort of progress.

So, at the beginning of last week, I started washing a batch at a time in a bowl in my kitchen sink. I boiled water for 2 soapy washes and 3 rinses (okay, sometimes 4 rinses because I got a little carried away with the soap). Anyway, I got the wool clean and took it to the meeting to use my friend's motorized carder. The batts come off the carder and look like little loaves of wool:



I fell in love with this wool all over again. The batt on the left came off Nancy's carder and the one on the right came off my hand cranked one. Aren't they lovely? They're fluffy and soft and I can't wait to get spinning. Maybe I can spend some time with the wheel this weekend.


Here's my other project right now:



That is one side of my Tour de France beaded knitting bag (second side is up to the pattern area at the top). I have some silk fabric on order from Aurora Silk - okay I ordered some weld too. I have in my mind exactly what I want for the lining of this bag and I can't find it in any of the fabric stores around here. Sooo, I ordered the weld and I'm going to try my hand at fabric dyeing.

However, do you see my problem illustrated in the photo? I ordered a frame from Bag Lady and mis-calculated. When I looked at the measurements on the website, I was thinking that the measurement was taken across the top of the frame only. It's not. It's a measurement from one end to the other (which makes perfect sense, I just didn't think of it that way). Since I don't want to make the bag fit into this frame (I think it would be a little scrunched), I need to order a bigger size. I hate when that happens.

Incidentally, I had a dream that Sheryl Crow saw this bag and wanted it. I told her no. She begged and pleaded with me. She may even have shed a tear. I told her to go away. Delusions of grandeur? Ummmm, yeah.

Yarn Photos and a Contest!

Here is the lovely Koigu I picked up from Threadbear on Friday. Does it remind you of anything??



If not, you haven't been reading carefully.

Here's the other yarn I picked up on Friday:



That's Cascade 220 on the left. The photo doesn't show it well, but this yarn has a lot of color in it (yellow, teal, deep green). I love Cascade in the first place, but when Matt showed me a felted bag made with the purple version of this yarn, I knew I had to have some. The depth of color is amazing - go have a look.

The other yarn is Misti Alpaca from Peru - it's 100% baby alpaca and it's soooooo soft. I can't remember who brought it over for us to fondle, but I knew I had to have some right away. This company also makes a bulky alpaca that is just as gorgeous. I never know what to do with bulky yarn, so I passed on that, but I'm expecting something gorgeous from Jillian made from it!

Okay, here's the contest. The Koigu above (go look again, I'll wait) wants to be Tour de Lance socks. Come up with a stitch pattern for me to use that incorporates those colors and you will win this:



That's a yellow wrist band (maybe you saw all those cyclists wearing them in the Tour?). I bought them from the Lance Armstrong Foundation website during the race. They're now all on backorder, so you can wait to get one from them - or get creative with Barbara Walker and get your very own right now. I'll also throw in a copy of The Race: A Novel of Grit, Tactics, and the Tour de France, by Dave Shields.

So here's the pithy version: show me a stitch pattern that looks good for socks incorporating the Koigu organized in attractive stripes and you walk away with a great book and a yellow "Live Strong" wristband. The contest will run for 2 weeks - so have your suggestions to me by August 17 and have fun!

Fiber Fun

I took the day off on Friday and went to Threadbear with Jillian. Originally, we were going to shop, but the store isn't actually open yet. We went to help sort and count. I must say that Rob and Matt are really nice people. Not that I'm surprised, but I liked them both very much. I even liked the dogs - in spite of Tate's persistance in trying to kiss me.

The space is absolutely huge!! If you go look on Sarah's blog, you can see some pictures of how it's all coming together. Sarah has been helping set things up by spending lots of time with balls of yarn and price tags. Go Sarah!

So J and I spent several hours there, but I don't feel like I helped much. It was really more social than work. Besides, we were counting in Koigu land - that's not work at all. I did leave with some Koigu to make a pair of socks. I'll post the picture of the yarn and you can guess what I'll be calling the socks when they're done.

Let's Sing a Song of Six

How many is six????

Taken from Graham Watson's website. Go have a look, he's got some amazing stuff over there!

What's This?

Why, that's my boy winning Stage 15 yesterday. He pulled on the yellow jersey (his 61st!) at the end of this stage. Today, it's the uphill time trial. I'm listening right now.

I do have to say how sorry I am for Thomas Voeckler. The guy has worn the maillot jaune for the last 10 days. He's been a lot of fun to watch. I'm going out on a limb here to say that we'll be seeing a lot of him in the years to come. He's made his mark this year, but he has a lot of years left. Allez Thomas!!




Also, I want to extend sympathy to everyone who was hoping Tyler Hamilton would win the Tour this year. It was a sad moment on Saturday when OLN showed him riding up the row of team cars and waving to each one. I couldn't believe he was abandoning. He finished the Tour fourth last year (one place off the podium) with a broken collarbone. Now, that's worth repeating - he finished fourth with a broken bone!! Here's a picture of his back after the race on Saturday:



Now, it may look like just a couple of bruises, but read his entry on his website to find out what was really going on. He took a big fall in Stage 6 and landed on his lower back. Basically, he had no power in those muscles and with no power in your lower back, you can't climb the mountains. I have no doubt that he'll be back next year. Heal well Ty, we'll see you next year!

Ya think?!??

You are the Hermit card. The Hermit has chosen a
solitary spiritual path. He shines light on his
inner self and, by this means, gains wisdom.
The Hermit's home is the natural world and it
is by being in tune with that world that he
learns the laws of nature and learn how they
operate within himself. His path is a lonely
one as he lives in silence and has for
companionship only his own internal rhythms.
But those crossing his path are touched by his
light and wisdom. Though often alone, he
manages nevertheless to instruct those who meet
him and guides those who chose to follow him on
a path towards enlightenment. Image from The Aleister Crowley tarot deck.


Which Tarot Card Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

What? This is a knitting blog???

So, yes, I've been knitting. Here's the most recently completed project.



This is the scarf made from Fonty Velourine (54% cotton/46% viscose). I picked up a ball of this yarn just because I loved the color. I knew it would worm, doesn't all chenille worm? Nope, not this. It's lovely and cushy and feels great next to my neck. I went back and bought 2 more balls (lucky girl - they were 10% off!) to get a decent sized scarf. My sister claimed it. I think it's a Pavlovian response that when she sees me knitting something, she automatically asks, "Who's it for?" Since I just wanted to knit this, I didn't care who got it. She asked first, she gets it. My mother was not amused - she needs to be a little quicker on the draw.

Here's what else I've been playing with:



It's pretty much a swatch. I want to make a bag with this:



but I'm not sure what sort of pattern to do. I want a bag that's approximately 4" wide and I want one of those big silver handle thingies that the Bag Lady sells, but beyond that I'm lost. So I started a swatch with some left over perl cotton that was already strung with beads. The bottom section is 5 beads with 3 stitches in between the bead sections. The middle section is 5 beads with 5 stitches between the bead sections. The top is 1 bead, 3 stitches staggered to the left every other row. I'm actually having fun just swatching for this. However, these yellow beads were purchased for Tour de France knitting and I don't even have them strung yet.


What? What's the update on the Tour? How kind of you to ask. My boy is 9' 35" behind the leader (who is the way cute Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, see?...)



There's been pretty much no change in the overall standings of the race for about 5 days now. They rode their first mountain stage today in the Massif Central region of France. Tomorrow they head down toward the Pyrenees. All the main contenders (Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton, Levi Leipheimer, and of course, Lance) are within a couple of minutes of each other. This should begin shaking out very soon.

Knitting and TdF updates on the same day...will wonders never cease?

Let me hear you say it...

*

Maillot jaune...maillot jaune...maillot jaune (for the uninitiated, that means yellow jersey). The Posties pulled it off yesterday and beat all the other teams to finish the team time trial on top. Yeah, Lance will be giving the jersey to someone else within the next couple of days, but the mountains are coming.

(*Graham Watson photo from LAF - Lance's official website)

PS - Sheryl? Your 15 minutes of TdF fame are OVER. Please crawl back under your off-key singing, bad music writing rock now.

I hope you're watching...

The early stages of the Tour de France have been very exciting. At my house, we're all TdF all the time. I've been listening to the live coverage at work and then comparing notes with Hub as we watch later in the evening. OLN's coverage has been superb. Although I will take exception to the ugly American image the Cutters have been giving us. They're doing "color" commentary on the 5:00-7:00 show and they suck out loud. They've been harrassing people and generally giving us all a bad name.

Today is team time trial day so send up good thoughts for the Blue Train.

In other news, I received an advance copy of this:



I read it in one afternoon. I wanted to finish it before the Tour started and it was a very quick read. The story was okay (boy meets girl, confronts personal crisis, realizes how much girl means to him, triumphs over personal crisis). The surrounding story was fabulous! The writer was involved in cycling at some point in his life and gives a real sense of the politics, the comaraderie, and the feel of the peleton. The race scenes are very exciting and even Hub finished it in under 8 hours. If someone happens to have a copy or you can get a used copy or you're a TdF freak (like us) - go ahead and read it.

Can You Stand It??

This is what I've been doing for the last 2 days at my parents' house. This is my niece Stella dressed like Lady Liberty. My nephew is marching in a 4th of July parade on Saturday with his Boy Scout Troop and since my sister is involved with the troop, she's marching and she wanted Stella to march too.

Of course you can't march without a costume...



My sister doesn't do sewing, so she talked me into "helping" her. She's so damn cute, I can't stand it.

It's that time of year again...

Strap yourselves in folks, the Tour starts in less than 8 days. July 3-25 - I'm glued to the live feed from OLN during the day and watching the coverage on OLN at night. Woohoo!! Go Lance!

Will I get Little Big Man's teacher's socks done in time? No. I knew I wouldn't, but I did give it a half-assed attempt. Here's my progress:



It's a lovely colorway of Mountain Colors Bearfoot. I love this yarn. It's yummy to knit with and I can see myself making lots of socks from this stuff.

This is the other thing I've been working on:


It's basically a big swatch that's going to be a scarf when I get more yarn. It's Fonty Velourine (I never heard of it either), but it's 54% cotton and 46% viscose. A cotton chenille with a synthetic binder. Not a worm in site and it's lovely to work with.

What's in this package?



Ask Jillian later. Sassy decorated the package for me (how very Martha Stewart). I had no cute little gift bags and she said, "Mommy, I can make one!" So, there it is. Isn't she talented?

This is my favorite tree in the whole world:



It's a catalpa tree in my back yard. When we first moved into this house (12 years ago) I said to Hub, "We're going to have to take that dead tree out. It's going to fall on the house." He said, "It's not dead, it just takes a long time to leaf out." He was right. It is always the last tree in the yard to get leaves, but then it's gorgeous. I especially love the white flowers.

Lastly, I treated myself yesterday.



Aren't they lovely? Big thanks go out to June for showing me the value of a pedicure!

Reviews

It's Friday, and I don't want to be at work. Technically, I shouldn't be at work. See I work on a research project that's government funded (even though I work for a university). Since all government workers have been given the day off, I should have the day off too. Technically...yeah, it didn't work with my boss either.

So anyway, I thought I'd share my opinion on the 2 movies I've seen this week. The first one was this:



The best part was, we have an IMax screen pretty close to us. We got to see Harry Potter on a 65 foot tall screen! Sassy grabbed my arm several times (and nearly cut off the circulation) to tell me she was afraid. The werewolf scenes bothered her the most. I have to admit, it was a pretty scary werewolf. The three teens who play Harry, Hermione, and Ron are certainly growing up. They get better every film. I will say that Michael Gambon (who played Dumbledore) did an admirable job, but I really miss Richard Harris. He was the quintessential Dumbledore and anyone who comes after him has very big shoes to fill. All in all, we'd give it 2 thumbs up.


Wednesday night, I took the kids to see this:



Okay, I really wanted to see it too. I liked it better than the first one. There was more for adults in this movie and I enjoyed the inside humor. Little Big Man is old enough to "get" most of the jokes (nearly peed himself when the knights pulled the catnip off Puss in Boots). Sassy was just along for the ride - but she laughed as loudly as Little Big Man in some spots. A friend told me, "See it with another adult so you can laugh at the jokes with them." That was good advice, so I'm passing it along. Very enjoyable film, and another 2 thumbs up.


I also recently finished this book:



A couple of months ago I was bored with everything I was reading and asked for suggestions. I think it was Carolyn who suggested this book. It was hysterical. I was laughing so much reading this book that the Hub stole it from me when I put it down for a minute. He chewed through it in 2 days...and then taunted me with the knowledge.

Many years ago, when the Last Temptation of Christ came out, my mother and I had a huge debate about whether Jesus would have suffered from temptations at all. Her argument was that he was god and therefore above the sins that tempted human beings. My argument was that he was sent down here to be human - not a god. Therefore, he had to be tempted by everything that humans are tempted by; only in that way would he know what it was like.


Lamb had the ring of truth for me. Who knows what Jesus' childhood was like, but I really liked this version of it. He struggled, he made bad choices, in short, he was a human being. The book tells the story of Jesus' life, through the eyes of his childhood friend. Christopher Moore had a piece at the end of the book where he talked about the research he did and I think it shows in the reading. I was raised an Episcopalian and remember some of my Sunday school lessons. I did consider digging up a Bible and reading through it, just to catch some of the things I missed. It was an entertaining read and I highly recommend it whether you're a believer or not. I have a short list of reasons why you should read it.

1. you find out where the Shroud of Turin comes from
2. you find out what the "H" stands for in "Jesus H. Christ."

Go forth and read.

Knitting?

Yes, I have been, thanks. I just haven't been talking about it. Last week was the week from hell - the last week of school. Plus, my sister-in-law (the normal one from Colorado) was in town visiting. What that added up to was something going every night, followed by 2 hours of chit-chat.

Sister-in-law just returned from a trip to Italy. Did you know that limonata is lemon soda? I do, after she told me 15 times in an hour. After the first 2 hour chat I looked at Hub and started bitching. He put his hand up and said, "Would you rather spend time with the normal one or the crazy one?" I couldn't argue, so I put up with it. She only comes once a year, so I guess I can be nice for a week (although it was a stretch).

Here's what I worked on:



That's my new orange sock from Skacel Trekking XXL. It's 75% wool and 25% nylon (I think). This was the sock yarn I bought in DC from Knit Happens. I'm working it on US 2s and it's been a little splitty with my Inox needles. They will be a welcome addition to my knit sock drawer when they're done. I'm at the gusset decrease on the second sock.

My next project is...socks. Little Big Man decided to leave the charter school he's been at for the last 5 years (stealing from me the pleasure of sobbing at the 8th grade graduation next year). Anyway, I've been in denial for the last couple of months, thinking that he would change his mind at the last minute. This left me with nothing to give his primary teacher at the end of the year. LBM picked some nice yarn from my Mountain Colors Bearfoot stash for the gifting socks. The teacher is leaving in 3 weeks to work in the slums of Bankok for 6 weeks. Will he want to take wool socks to Thailand? I don't know, but I plan on having them to him so he can make the choice. There's nothing like crunch knitting to get me going.


One more thing...Reagan - enough. He sucked when he was president and now he's dead. Bury him already.

As promised

Here's the new yarn I bought on Friday with Jillian:



The Interlacements is stretched across the left side of the photo. The pink looks electric in this photo and I guess it is a bit bright, but not quite so shocking.

The new Maggi's Irish Yarn is in the 12 o'clock position. Maggi's Rags followed by Maggi's Linen (cotton/linen blend). I can't wait to get started on this yarn. It's going to be fun to work with. The tag on Rag says to use US 10 and the Linen says to use US 8. I think I'll be combining these in the same project and I'm going to be switching back and forth between the 2 needles - this should keep the gauge similar. Any thoughts?

Last, but certainly not least, is the new Koigu. It's one of the new colors (in the 800s). I'm getting quite a stash of this yarn. This is a good thing.

Had a fabulous weekend! We really did nothing but socialize, eat, and drink all weekend long. Okay, I did knit. I've been working on a gorgeous little Miss Bea's cable sweater and all the pieces are finished. I'll be seaming it up and I'll post a picture when it's finished. The baby's not due until July - I guess I'm early with this!

Also got Hub to help me stain the pieces for my new desk. I bought a 2-drawer file cabinet and a CPU cabinet with 3 drawers from Naked Furniture and they came in last week. My plan is to get rid of the old metal/rusty file cabinet and dining room table I'm currently using as a desk. So, stain is finished, 2 coats of varnish to go.

Lastly, I'm officially the parent of a teenager. Little Big Man turns 13 today. I can't believe what a whirlwind trip it's been so far. Strange times still ahead.