One step at a time

There are so many projects I am working on right now that I want to just finish and be done with, but I have little enthusiasm for any of them. I don't have startitis either; it's more like I have no focus. Sometimes I get sidetracked from one project and go off on something else for a while, and only much later return to the first thing, but all the while I at least have energy and creative juices flowing. This seems more like a long slog in the cold rain.

I have the ten-foot triangle loom that I borrowed set up in the living room, and am about a quarter done with the shawl I'm weaving, but am tired of weaving a thick and thin wool with mohair, in dark colors, under bad light. It's going to be absolutely stunning when I'm done, and it's for me, but it's hard to get excited about it. I finally got myself a headlamp to wear when I work on it, so I can see what I'm doing. I took a break from the two pounds of hand dyed Dorset roving to spin up some wool-mohair roving I got at MDSW (what is it with the mo? No mo mo!), which decided it wanted to be laceweight, and so took much longer than I had planned, and so was less of a break from the blue slog than a slog of its own. It's done as of last night, though, and I'm going to wait to ply it until I have another bobbin of blue done so I can ply them at the same time. The LB Homespun shawl finally has a destination, and is almost done -- another three or four rows and I can bind off, thanks be. There are a few more things, but I'm waiting to finish the shawl before I see what to deal with next.

Cold, rainy slog yes, but it's important to focus on the little steps. The shawl is almost done; the weaving is coming along; the orange crush laceweight is done, and the blue has an end in sight. I want to look ahead at all of the ideas that I have for next things, but have to restrain myself -- I have enough energy and time for what I have in front of me. The time and energy for the rest will come. One step at a time. Now if all the junk swirling around the rest of life would settle down and resolve itself the way the fiber projects do, I'd be ecstatic.

One step at a time.

All I need...

Nothing like something really simple to amuse me... this one is courtesy of Mel. I've seen it before, but the answers I got this time are much more amusing than the first time I tried it. Just type in your name on Google, followed by the word "needs" and see what comes up. I just took the first ten things and have included them here. Apparently, I am much worse off than I ever suspected:

Miranda needs:

1) a loving home (check)
2) psychological help (check!)
3) her very own playpen (!!!)
4) to be with family (but there IS such a thing as too much togetherness!)
5) a new walker (now really... )
6) a companion (hmmm...)
7) your help (to go along with #2?)
8) advice (always a good thing)
9) a nickname (too late... pipiens it is)
10) to polish up a bit (ha!)

And on that note, I'm off to watch the Oscars and knit awhile.

Moody blues... and purples, reds, yellows...

I've been chomping at the bit for the weather to get warm enough for me to get outside and do some dyeing. I like to work on the deck, where spills aren't a big deal, and where I can be outside. Anything to get away from the computer! And the sounds and sights on the creek are an inspiration once I get my dyeing groove going.

I had a whole bunch of ideas saved up over the winter, and the Celtic Festival coming up with vending opportunities, so I spent four days cranking out roving and yarn. I ended up dyeing 37 4-oz. bumps of roving, and 8 skeins of yarn...yowza. Not too bad for a one-woman operation, considering that I'm still learning.

I'm still working from the 150 lbs. of Dorset roving that I got last spring from a local farmer. It takes dye well, and spins up into a soft, bouncy yarn. I spun about 1200 yards of my favorite colorway into a DK weight two ply, and last fall at our annual Mannings field trip/retreat/class/fiber binge, I used it to warp the loom and wove a pair of coordinating scarves with it.
The warp for both of these was "Lonely Hearts Club", a mix of reds/pinks/black. The weft for the one on the left (yes, the one on the weft...haha) is Jaggerspun wool, black, I think 2/8, while the one on the right is alsio Jaggerspun, but wool/silk. I love them both, and wore them often this winter. I have enough of another colorway in purples/black/gray to do another, with the weft thread the same Jaggerspun wool/silk but in purple.

I spun another two skeins of the same roving into sportweight, and sold them at a local yarn shop. They'll make some great heavyweight socks. This particular roving likes to spin up at about that weight, it seems, but I haven't pushed it much finer than that, because I really like the way it looks and behaves.

Dyeing is such therapy -- I love to stand back and look at what I've done on a given day, to see where my mood was when I started compared to when I got done. Take a look at the left side of this picture, the first rovings I dyed, and then look at the right side, where I ended up. Dull, dark colors... bright, happy colors. That;s what a day in thesun with dyes and wool will do for a cruddy attitude!

And this weekend is Maryland Sheep and Wool! I'm planning on going both days, and this year will probably be going solo for the first time ever on Saturday, as the family have other plans. I have to admit that though I love going with the guys, I wasn't too upset... Boy 1 has a scout campout, Boy 2 (my spinner) will go up with me on Sunday, and B (spousal unit) announced that he didn't want to go this year.

I'm not looking for anything in particular this year -- but I am looking forward to seeing some vendor friends (hi, Jacey! ). And I have another ten Dorset fleeces to take for processing, and some beautiful border Leicester. Tomorrow is fleece-skirting day -- and perhaps a little gratuitous dye therapy, if Charlotte can make it over to play too.

Tonight I plan to finish some spinning, so I can go to MDS&W with a clean conscience (yeah, right) and fondle fiber. And then I may tackle some carding that needs to get done, and perhaps tidy the Unruly Wool Room. Just as a warm-up, you know... got to get ready for the festivities on Saturday!

Happy Beltane!

blessings abound

Today is Groundhog Day. It's also the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus, Imbolc, and the feast day of St. Brigid, patron of home, hearth, forge, and poetry, and my patron saint. In honor of Brigid, I'm posting this for the 3rd Annual Bloggers Silent Poetry Reading today. While it's not directly a prayer to Brigid, it is an old Celtic household prayer for weavers, for blessing the loom:


Loom Blessing

Bless, O Chief of generous chiefs,
My loom and everything a-near me.
Bless me in every action,
Make Thou me safe while I live.

From every brownie and fairy woman,
From every evil wish and sorrow,
Help me, O Thou helping Being,
As long as I shall be in the land of the living.

In the name of Mary, mild of deeds,
In the name of Columba, just and potent,
Consecrate the four posts of my loom,
Till I begin on Monday.

Her pedals, her sley, and her shuttle,
Her reeds, her warp, and her cogs,
Her cloth-beam, and her thread-beam,
Thrums and the thread of the plies.

Every web, black, white, and fair,
Roan, dun, checked, and red,
Give Thy blessing everywhere,
On every shuttle passing under the thread.

Thus will my loom be unharmed,
Till I shall arise on Monday;
Beauteous Mary will give me of her love,
And there shall be no obstruction I shall not overcome.

(from The Celtic Vision: Prayers and Blessings from the Outer Hebrides, edited by Esther de Waal)

I don't know if Phil saw his shadow or not, but I can already see buds on some of the trees -- tiny ones to be sure, but what I love about winter is that when it seems like it's going to be cold forever, there are subtle signs of life and the coming spring all around, if you slow down and look and listen.

Bright blessings and grace to all.

the whole world in my hands

So with all the gusto of a new year rolling about, I got it into my head that I wanted to make a lace shawl. A really BIG lace shawl.

I've been thinking for years that I'd like to do EZ's Pi shawl, just because it's simple (like me) and a classic, nifty pattern. And also because I have a couple of really beautiful skeins of handpainted laceweight alpaca in the stash, from Lisa Souza.
But then I decided that if I was going to do the taboo of knitting patterned lace with handpainted yarn, I should just do it up right:

Spiderweb shawl from Victorian Lace Today. And I'm not alone -- it seems that there were three of us who had the same idea at the same time! Crazy painted spinster-type women unite!

Doesn't that ball look like the Earth? The color is South Pacific (I think); 2500 yards, without a single knot or break. And so far, it knits up beautifully soft (not that I have anything permanent to show for it or anything...)

The circular start to this is a pain in the butt with laceweight alpaca; after an hour and a lot of swearing, I got it started. After another hour, I decided that my needle size was too big, so I frogged and put it away for the evening. After another dicey start, I got up to row 16 again, and decided that the pattern looked funny... and the needles were still too big.

It's a sad commentary on the status of excitement in your life when you start to solve lace pattern problems in your head while you are lying in bed considering whether or not to get up.

Anyway, after a THIRD start and a pretty good beginning... the needles are still too big. Threes it is. And I figured out my pattern mistake.

Meanwhile, after being frogged and rewound yet again, I was drawn away by the siren song of this:

Secret of the Stole II KAL. I am not much of a joiner, because I don't have the time to get on the message boards and chat all day and because I tend to butt heads with the rules, but this just fit, somehow.

The yarn is a laceweight Shetland in pale, flecky gray that changes colors like some people's eyes do in different lights or with different background colors. I got a cone of it at Webs a few years ago for about $10, and there must be 5000+ yards on the thing. It still has spinning oil on it, which makes for somewhat stinky, sticky knitting, but the swatch bloomed very nicely, and I have an extra-large bottle of XO odor remover that I am not afraid to use.

I haven't knit lace in ages, and it makes a very welcome change from the slog of acrylic that is the Eagle hat project (I'm cranking to finish 3 hats by mid-February).

The first clue came last Friday; I finished the swatch last night and cast on, and got up through row 12. It's a fast, easy knit that should be a good warmup for the spiderweb. Of course, I have now well and thoroughly cursed myself with that flip comment.

Friday sky from last week... too good to pass up. I'd love to put all those colors into a skein. I love that the creek is much like the ocean; never the same twice, and each view is unique. Someday I'll capture that mutability in dye on fiber... put it in the idea queue...

Saturday was a big day around here too, since we had us a spinning clinic with a bona fide celebrity... next time!

no good deed goes unpunished

Surprises are so much fun -- unless they involve comfort for an unfathomable tragedy. Still, when the oppportunity arises to give someone a surprise package of wool to replace they stash they lost, dive in and do it up right. Farm-Witch did just that for her friend Lisa -- and look what she hath wrought in the good deed department. Let's hope that punishment for all involved involves lots and lots of really good chocolate.

awol

It was a really busy summer and fall. I don't know where the time went -- it always seems like I could use another week before the guys go back to school to do all the things we'd like to, and to see all the places we plan to go see. I really like not having a schedule during the summer, and now that things are back in full swing, I find myself wishing for a night off now and then.

But on to the fun stuff... one day in late June I found this on my front porch:

150 pounds of Dorset roving, processed by the fine folks at Frankenmuth Woolen Mills.

Where on Earth does one come by this much fleece? Connections... it's a small county, and everyone here is related to or knows everyone else and their business (makes road rage dicey at best -- especially when you drive an ancient Jeep that people tend to remember).

A's friend J's mom is a realtor. She happened to ask me one day if I'd be interested in some fleece, because she knew of someone who had sheep and was about to have them sheared, but didn't want the fleeces.

(pause for a moment to let that phrase sink in... didn't want the fleeces. evidently this is not that uncommon, sheep need to be sheared to keep them comfortable, etc... but still.)

So I called him up and had a nice conversation, and went by on shearing day. Nine fleeces, still warm, all bagged and ready to go. We deliberated for a while, and after he told me what he wanted for them, I doubled his asking price -- wanted to make sure he got at least what he'd paid to have them sheared.

Total price? $5 a fleece.

(pick up your jaw from the floor.)

So he mentions (now that he can see I am a shameless addict) that he has fleeces from the past 2-3 years in the shed. I arm-wrestle the spiders out of the way, and come up with 8 more bags of wool that are in decent shape.

Then, the coup de grace, he says, "Well, I have last year's up in the barn there, but it looks like your car will be full with these."

I eyeball the pile of bags, sigh heavily, and say, "When can I come back?"

Several days later I return, and cram 16 more bags of fleece into my groaning van. Then the fun started -- skirting and sorting raw Dorset until my back was screaming. Only a couple of the fleeces were unusable; breaks, too gooey or dirty, mice, bugs, etc. I kept back eight to process myself, but the rest went to MDS&W, and arrived on my doorstep in the four enormous boxes above.

And what became of some of the contents of those boxes?

Ahhh, yes.

I realized the other day that when we moved here and I was first learning to spin, four years ago now, that one of the things I most wanted to do was to spin color.

I think I made it.

A bit overplied, but I wanted to use it as sock yarn. It's still got a lot of sproing, and is reasonably soft. I'm very pleased with my first effort. 335 yards, 4 oz., hand dyed with acid dyes, colorway "Lonely Hearts Club". This spins up really nicely, drafts easily, but much of that is due to the fine preparation -- I do like Frankenmuth. I also dyed up some in a light blue/silver/yellow, and did some silk to match that I plan to ply with it, perhaps more as a wrapping around a bulky wool single.

And then there's Serenity:

Another local farm, with a sizable herd of mutt and rescued sheep. They invite us guild folks to their shearing every March, and encourage us to take what we want, because what we don't take goes into the big plastic bag to be made into "wool".

This is from a little guy that no one else wanted. The fleece is a beautiful dark brown with gray flecks, much like the hair of an aging African-American, just lovely. I washed and carded it myself, and it spun up like buttah into almost 700 yards of DK weight, sproingy loveliness. I have enough left, carded and waiting to be spun, to make a sweater, and was lucky enough to get this year's fleece too, which looks to be just as nice.

The whole Dorset affair was rather nerve wracking -- I knew I couldn't pass it up, but I also knew how much it was going to cost to have it processed (and it was a small fortune). But I also think that prayers get answered in the strangest ways. Though it was a scary process, and I did a lot of homework trying to decide if this would even make a decent yarn, I never once felt like I could not do it, more like I had to do it. Maybe we find our paths by not second guessing; when you tune in to that inner voice and listen to it, then no matter what you do, it becomes the right thing. A bit woo-woo, okay, but the old adage about following your heart is true. You gotta do what you love, and I do love me some dyeing and spinning. And weaving too, but that's for a later post.

At least, that's how I'm feeling about all this.

Peace out.