How The West Was Spun

Tour De Fleece 2013: Days 1 and 2

I actually did pretty well for days 1 and 2 of the Tour this year.  I decided to start out with a braid of Polwarth, dyed in one of the shop colorways: Provence (which is one of 4 I did up for the Tour this year).

I wanted to do this as two skeins - one mostly greens and one mostly purples from the braid - in a fingering weight for some kind of colorwork project.  I pulled the color groups apart and then spun each of those separately, winding up with 212 yards of green and 134 yards of purple.  I still need to give the purple skein a bath, but I think these will work great together, and it was fun to try something a little different with a "regular" hand-dyed braid. 

I'm planning on spinning the other 3 colorways too, but I actually have to dye the next one for myself, which will be Lyon, for next week.  So in the meantime, I hauled out an anciently marinated stash braid of Funky Carolina BFL/silk to spin next!

All for now....

 

Friday Garden Notes

Almost at the end of June and a somewhat mixed-bag success/failure scenario happening in the garden department here. 

We really don't see much in the way of squirrels or chipmunks around here.  A little higher up - yes, or a little lower - yes,  but not here.  However, we did have one little guy skulking around the back courtyard and I'm fairly sure he was the culprit who took down all my onion tops, ate most of the dill, all but one head of lettuce, and lopped off my pea plants (all but one) at the ground.  Sigh.

I also think he may have gnawed on the jalapeno pepper, but that sucker bit back and there are just a few teeth marks at the lowest tip of the fruit, but it survived.

However, what I CAN grow is pumpkin!  After the loss of all but the one plant, it has become Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors and is growing visibly daily with tons of pretty blossoms on it. 

(Note to self: Add to pumpkin recipe list.)

The tomatoes are coming along.  Lots of the little cherry tomatoes which should be ripe in another 10 days or so.  And my plum tomatoes are starting to produce as well.  We did cut some of the remaining lettuce last night to have with dinner, which was really good.  I do have one lone green bean plant trying to make its way in the world as well. 

My porch railing plantings and the new potted plants have also been doing really nicely.  We have been watering them daily (it's been really hot this week here), but they seem to be staying moist and doing okay despite the heat.  I am really happy with this striped coleus and striped petunia combo by the front walk.

And on the back porch, these cheerful boxes are a nice little lift whenever I look out the kitchen window.

All for now......

Rappaccini's Garden Shawl

If you follow my shop blog, you have seen these photos already, so I apologize for the cross-post, but I am so happy to finally get to show off some of the hand-knits I've been working on this year, you get to see the pics again!

This is the Rappaccini's Garden shawl, which is the first in a set of 8 patterns I'm going to be releasing between now and September 1st.  If you aren't familiar with the story, it's a Gothic tale by Nathaniel Hawthorne, you can read a version of it here.  I suppose I have a bit of a dark and gloomy nature, since this has been one of my favorite reads since I was a teenager.  

It's knit with 1 skein of Dream in Color Baby, which is 700 yards/100 grams of SW merino (colorway is Gothic Rose).  It would work just fine with any heavier laceweight or even a light fingering-weight; Baby is somewhere in between those two yarn weights.  The original took about 650 yards.

The construction on it makes it a fairly quick knit.  You cast on at the neckline and work down to the hem.  There are 5 sections - the left and right front and back are a fairly simple leaf lace, and then there are two narrow panels that run off the shoulders and down the arms with a pretty floral lace, which extends down onto the hem and forms the border. 

I have to have a big shout-out to my photographer, Kristen (of Kristen Brooks Photography) and my gorgeous model, Tori (who also happens to be a knitter!) for these photos.  It was in the 90s when we shot these, but you'd never guess it - Tori is such a natural behind the camera, and Kristen really "got" the vision inside my head for staging and was able to snag some fantastic shots of all the pieces in this group.

I'll mention there is a KAL happening for this shawl starting July 1st, if you have interest in knitting it - runs through September 1st, so plenty of time to knit it!

All for now....

 

10 On Tuesday: Things I Want To Do This Summer

Sorry, I had fallen off the blogging train for a bit there; let me try to get back in the saddle, so to speak, with 10 on Tuesday for this week!

1.  Tour de Fleece 2013:  I've got my wheels geared up and I'm ready to do some spinning!  I had sort of half-heartedly spun in prior years, but last year, I got a LOT of spinning done.  While I don't have quite as much undivided time to devote to it this go-round, I do want to participate and my goal is to try to spin up an ounce a day.
2.  Organize my fiber stash: This is kind of a 1b thing for the list.  I have a ton of fiber and while there is a lot of it that I will get to at some point, I feel like I need to take a critical look at what I've got and maybe destash some of it that I don't love for whatever reason.  
3.  Knit.  A lot:  Not that I don't do this anyway, but I've got a ton of other projects I'd like to get on the needles in the next couple of months.
4.  Learn a few new great veggie-based meals:  D and I have been eating a lot lighter than we did when we first got married eons ago. While I think at heart he's still a meat and potatoes guy, we've enjoyed adding some fun veggie kind of things into our weekly recipe trial night.  I have a new one for fresh snap peas and ricotta with lemon and mint that's going into the rotation this week!
5. Do some planning for a Big Trip:  D and I, speaking of being married, have a big anniversary coming up in 2014 and we'd like to go somewhere nifty.  Haven't quite decided where that is, but a little surfing on the net for some vacation destinations is in order.
6.  Revamp storage in my studio:  Having added several new wholesale clients in the last few months, I'm kind of at maximum density in my studio while I'm trying to get kit orders and wholesale orders dyed and out the door.  I have added a couple new shelves, which have helped free up some table space, but I would like to add a few more, plus some see-thru storage bins for the odds and ends of things I take to shows (like small display baskets and extra duct tape, etc.)
7. Do my nails more often:  Don't even get me started.  Several girly-filled hours last weekend with some friends and now I'm addicted to nail polish.  Oi.  At least the warm weather is a good excuse to have pretty nails to show off, right?
8.  Plan the fruit tree garden:  D and I are planning on adding some fruit trees along the area we have the veggies this year.  While he (thank goodness) is doing the heavy clearing of some old overgrown bushes there, I need to figure out what we have space for and what will be happy up here. 
9. Ride my bike: I am kind of in a running rut.  Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but I do think I need to mix up the exercise a bit and haul my bike out on the weekends occasionally.
10.  Relax:  I say this, it's on my list..... I'd like to do it, but I think I'm finding "relaxing" isn't in my nature very easily.  Gonna work on that one.  :)

All for now.... 

Fun Friday

Just a little upbeat video to kick off your weekend!  Enjoy!

 

A Little Quilt Update

While I haven't worked at all on the other quilt top, I have been slowly chipping away at the small repro-fabric quilt blocks.  I love these little minis.  They sew up quickly and are cute and fun to do.

These are blocks 3 and 4 for the quilt.

And these blocks (I have a LOT of these to make) will be set on the diagonal between the main blocks of the quilt.  For each month, I need to make 5 of these (so each month, I've got 2 of the patterned main blocks, like the two above, and then 5 of these little ones to do as well).  They just send random bits of dark and light-colored fabrics and you can mix and match from different months to make the blocks, so I've just got a two piles of the squares and rectangles cut, divided by value, and I grab a handful and piece them together, so each one is different.

I may try for a little sewing time this weekend - It's supposed to be HOT and we are sort of trapped inside with all the smoke from the wildfires during the heat of the day, so working on quilt blocks in between dye studio chores and knitting feverishly on my last 2 deadline pieces, sounds like maybe a smart choice!

All for now....

From the Bookshelf: The Last Runaway

It's been a while since I enjoyed a book as thoroughly as I did Tracy Chevalier's The Last Runaway.

I'm a big fan of the author, and I definitely wasn't disappointed reading this book either.  (Most folks probably know her as the author of The Girl With the Pearl Earring, but she has a lot of other books out there well worth checking out.)  The story follows Honor Bright, an English Quaker who heads to Ohio with her sister, who is to be married, in 1850.  Along the way, Honor's sister dies and she's thrown into a strange and new world in 19th century American on the frontier.  The story follows her as she makes her way amongst the strangers in the Quaker community she's landed in, as well as her relationships with some of the non-Quakers in the two neighboring towns. 

Chevalier deftly weaves a story of the Quakers on the frontier in Ohio with the Underground Railroad and runaway slaves, 19th century agriculture and oh yes!  QUILTS!   This is not a book with a lot of action and adventure a la superheros.  Instead, it's the tale of quiet strength of a young woman, who has to decide what things in life are important to her and to make a stand for herself in a new country.   The character of Honor slowly comes to grow on the reader  - which I think is mostly the point.  She is not showy, not outspoken - a plain person trying to make the best of an unsettled and uncertain situation at a turning point in her life.  But you come to admire her for who she is by the end of the book.  While there are a few twists and turns (especially the last chapter with her friend, Belle, a local milliner, and Belle's brother, who happens to be the local slave-catcher, and which I will not ruin for you), there's nothing sensationalistic about this story.  It's just plain old good writing.

The descriptions of Honor's sewing and quilts are an added bonus (for those of us who love such things).  :)

A highly recommended read!

All for now.....

Garden Update: Early June

I'm bypassing 10 on Tuesday today for a quick garden update.  

Peas:  Happy and doing great.  I added some twine for them to climb up - the winds have been fairly high here most days and they really needed a little extra something to keep from spending the day laid over in the gales.

Pumpkin:  I have nursed this one along enough I think it is past being eaten by the birds.  (Although they took every last one of my cucumber plants out.  Sigh.)

And we have one lone jalapeno pepper that's made a showing so far.

I should note these pics were taken just after I watered - we still haven't had any rain and it's kind of nasty here this a.m. with the Thompson Fire smoke settling down the hill for us.  They are saying maybe storms later this week, but then again, they've been promising that for most of the spring off and on and we've yet to see more than a passing stray drop.  I'm ready for an east coast spring with daily rain for a year or so!

All for now....

Quilt Update

I've not exactly been zipping thru sewing projects with my limited time right now, but I allotted myself several hours of undivided sewing time on Saturday as the carrot to trying to gear up to work 2 days of the 3-day holiday weekend.

Out of a total of 12 block of the month packages, I have 8 done and it was time to assemble the center panel of the quilt top.  I still quite a bit of sewing left to do, as the pattern has a hefty set of borders, but here's where I am after a couple hours on Saturday. 

I'll be the first to admit that up close this is not necessarily blue-ribbon-award piecing.  On the other hand, I think it looks pretty darn good from a few feet away and it's been really good for my mental health to do something fun without a deadline that's crafty.

I'm totally groovin' on the soft watercolor shades of these batiks!

Next up, I'll tackle the monthly "block" that's the long pieced borders and chip away at those for a while!

All for now...

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Things I Did This Weekend

1.  I worked at my day job both Sunday and Monday.  Blech. (And grumbled to myself about that a lot.)
2.  D and I went to a nice cookout with some friends on Sunday afternoon.
3.  I got a lot of knitting done.
4.  I spent several hours dyeing, got some custom orders done and I'm in the home stretch on  two wholesale orders as well. 
5.  I blocked out some "me" time on Saturday and went for a run - Monday as well.
6.  Saturday, I finished putting together the center of the quilt I've been working on (more on that tomorrow).
7.  I planted pretty annuals in the windowboxes and ceramic planters out front.
8.  Baked a pie (something I never ever do!).
9.  Started a great new book by a favorite author. 
10.  Found a brand-new iced tea for the summer I'm now addicted to (watermelon/mint!)

All for now......