Yarn Rambles

A new blogging toy!

One of the ladies in the office showed me her Flip Mino. It took about 2 seconds for me to see how wonderful this little camcorder would be for blogging. Motion pictures!!

My first experiment is a bit technical but it did suit my intentions. I realized that one of the ways to use the Flip would be to document the little knitting techniques I happen to be using on whatever current project. In this case, it was the Kitchener stitching (or weaving) the toe stitches of my Big Black Socks. Yes, Kim, that means I've finally finished them! I will debride them from Xena hairs, wash and dry them and then print-out a label on Monday. Then they will be on their way!

I like the informality this little camcorder will allow. Just capture the moment!

Party in Canada

I didn't think to get any photos while we were out with our golfing friends. I guess I think of these particular trips as "boring" since most people aren't that interested in golf. But, I do regret not getting a shot of my walking along knitting with Xena in her backpack. Well, I am so in love with her backpack, I know I will be using it a lot this summer. I will be sure to get a photo then.

One of our friends had a birthday on Friday so we decided to have a little party. We had rented a suite in the Ocean Promenade hotel in White Rock, Canada. Two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen. Perfect for a pizza party with other Australian golfers to fill out the guest list.

Luke was the guest of honor. He's the one on the left.

Because they travel extensively, professional golfers are very comfortable with modern communication like text messaging and Skype. Here is Luke receiving a birthday wish from Australia via Skyp.

That's Ben in the background. He is one of Xena's favorite people. She held court in my knitting corner. You can see a little bit of Parker's blanket.

Luke's dad and step-mom were vacationing in Canada. They planned their itinerary to join Luke for three tournaments. Phil caddying for Luke while Bob carried Ben's clubs around the course. Phil is the man in the middle of the photo.

Luke's step-mom, Mary Ann, also became a Xena favorite.

It always amazes me when I see how easily Xena adapts to new situations. She is in an unfamiliar hotel room and we have a party with a lot of strangers. Of course, I've learned that she loves parties. She believes that everyone has gathered to pay homage to her! 

I've got the Coffee Blues

I thought finding a decent cup of tea while traveling was a challenge until I tried to find a good cup of coffee!! Well, now that I know what a good cup of coffee tastes like. :)

Waiting at the public library was a book on roasting coffee beans at home! The progress from complete coffee ignorance to obsession has been fast and furious!

What I must do before we travel again is collect some coffee paraphernalia so I can at least start my day with the good stuff. I know there are travel french press carafes so maybe I can figure out how to coarse grind beans in the hotel room. Truly pathetic!

But, we have several coffee lovers among our friends and I have to admit that I'm looking forward to treating them to fresh roasted coffee beans! I can imagine leaving little bags of fragrant beans by their front doors like some people drop off a warm loaf of bread or excess vegetables from a garden.

I can't report much knitting progress except that I'm decreasing for the toes on my first pair of Big Black Socks for Kim Opperman at Socks for Soldiers. I knit on the baby blanket quite happily on the way up to Canada. But, I used up my Dramamine holding off a migraine as we walked the golf course over four days. So, I purchased some Canadian motion sickness pills for the ride back and slept the entire 5 hours! Good thing Bob was comfortable doing that much driving.

Tonight I'm going to finish my BBS and give them a good wash. Then I can print out the special label that Kim likes to have on the socks and I will send them to her.

My other Canadian knitting companion

Yes, my Aran cardigan! The sleeves are finally coming along after a rocky start involving three froggings!! I won't be able to work on this in the car but the weather report is forecasting rain so I may have lots of time in the clubhouse while Bob doggedly walks the course cheering on Luke and Ben.

I am determined to have this sweater ready to wear when we travel to Ireland on August 1st. Not the traditional cream color but it will certainly come in handy with all the weather changes I anticipate over the two weeks I plan on walking around the Emerald Isle.

Introducing Parker Hunnicutt Stevens

It seems that I misunderstood that Seana, my niece, and Justin already knew the gender of their new baby. They guessed it was going to be a little boy but they waited until delivery to know for sure. Surprise! It's a girl!! Thanks to my sister driving non-stop down to the Napa Valley, I have pictures! Lots of pictures!

My sister and Justin admiring Parker!

Grandma Chris

Seana and Parker

And, then, Parker went home with her mommy and daddy!

Parker's blankie is coming along quite nicely. It will be interesting to see how far I can get by next week. Bob and I are heading up to Canada to watch a couple of friends play in a golf tournament. I remembered to  buy some Dramamine. With a good dosing, I should be able to handle the simple garter stitch rows. I won't have to look at my hands very often so that will help.

Xena in the office

Alison just purchased a Flip Mino. A tiny camcorder that I am going to purchase immediately!! I would like to use it to capture some of my more interesting knitting experiences like having to drop the stitches of an entire cable and re-knit them. The Mino makes fantastic videos and can handle an entire hour's worth of filming. We used Xena as a demonstration. It gives you a good idea of how Xena tends to be the center of attention around here. And, she loves it!!

Red, White and Blue

On May 5th I blogged about using a row marker as an incentive for making progress on my Big Black Socks. With inches and inches of black fabric it is easy to become discouraged. I realized that if I place a row marker at the top of my knitting at the beginning of the day then I could see how much knitting I was able to get done that day. I call it my Affirmation Marker.

   

Kim, from Socks for Soldiers, sent me a care package with a collection of row markers and stitch markers all in red, white and blue!! What fun!! Thanks, Kim and the artists who made these little treasures.

Knitable

Well I've been talking so much about the Knitable software that I've got on my new Palm planner. I bought it at Handango. I realized that I could take a couple of photos of the screens to give you an idea of why I love it so much!

This is the Home Page with the Inventory Page view.

Details of the Moderne Baby Blanket project. I've also added the instructions to the Note section for reference.

You can record people's statistics. You can tell that a knitter was involved with this project because they even have space for foot and hand measurements!

My favorite part is actually the Calcs/Info View. Here is where the math, that is always a challenge for me, is "magically" done for me.

Things like buttonhole placement and increase/decrease calculations.

This is absolutely my favorite knitting gadget!!

Spinning 'Round 'Round 'Round

After having FINALLY gotten my newly purged yarn stash all organized and put back in my closet, I've been able to turn my attention to my collection of spinning fiber. Multi-colored rovings are even more appealing to me than yarns! So, it turns out that I have quite a few collections waiting for attention.

I don't have much left of the lovely blue/green fiber I purchased at The Black Sheep Gathering last summer. It is the first fiber I've spun on my Sonata wheel. I had intended to make socks for Bob with this yarn but it has turned out a bit thick. It's been a long time since I've done any spinning regularly so I had trouble managing a fine strand.

I also bought the beautiful driftwood basket at The Black Sheep Gathering.

For the last couple of years, I've been collecting some drop spindles. I decided to "assign" fibers to some of my favorites in the hopes of encouraging me to make some progress in getting them spun.

This Golding spindle is the very first one I bought . I love it! Well designed and it spins for ages!

I was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. My mother not only enjoyed wearing silver and turqoise native American jewelry but she also appreciated native American baskets, bowls and blankets which were part of our home decor. I also love the style so when I read an article on Gabe Jaramillo's Cascabeles Spindles in the on-line spinning magazine - Spindlicity.

This is a lovely example of Gabe's Basket spindles. The little turqoise beads remind me of my mother's favorite jewelry. The basket is a bit large so I wouldn't think of carrying this spindle around with me but it is light and spins very nicely. I chose a fiber that felt western, native American, to me.

Last year a dear friend sent me a very interesting package. She spun up enough silk yarn to knit unto a pair of sock feet. She has a vintage sock knitting machine that she uses to keep her family in "hand-knit" socks. Having finished off the most challenging part of the socks, she put the stitches onto strands of holding yarns. The package arrived with the two sock feet and two baggies of the rest of the silk roving for me to try for myself. What a brilliant idea! The legs of the socks can be knit in "artistic" yarn and look like it was meant to be the design.

My Spindolyn will be a good choice for the silk spinning. I can move slowly and manage the twist carefully.

I certainly have plenty of spinning in my future!

Sock Blank Knit-A-Longs

As we played around dyeing sock blanks preparing for the grand introduction of our sock blanks it became clear that these little bits of knit fabric are addictive. You just can't stop dripping color on them and then the urge to knit up the socks to see how the colors will express themselves. If you have trouble stopping your knitting when you are knitting a fair isle pattern, you will begin to understand how obsessed you can become with sock blank knitting.

It's even more fun to share your experiments with other knitters. So, we have set up two Knit-A-Longs. One is in Ravelry and is called Sock Blank Artists. The second is in our Knit Picks Community site. It's called Sock Blank Knit-A-Long.

As you can see from yesterday's entry, there are plenty of adventures to be had with these blanks. Tina is a perfect example of someone who absolutely hated one of her blank dyeing experiments but the socks knit up beautifully. I love the surprises offered in both the dyeing and the knitting. It keeps me interested at every step. Be sure to check out Tina's toe-up, magic loop pattern for knitting two socks at the same time. She designed it particularly for the sock blank knitting so that the colors can smoothly continue on up the gussetted heel rather than having to go back with an afterthought heel.