Catch-Up

Hi, there. Been a while, huh? There hasn't been much knitting here at the Lair of Lunacy, but there has been some spinning, some moving, lots of drama, and even a little chopping. Let me give you the photo tour of the last few months.

I went to the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair in Cummington and hung out with Jenny and Debbie. We saw a Llama Bus:



And while I didn't intend to walk away with fiber, I ended up with two braids:



That's some BFL from Spunky Eclectic and some alpaca/superwash merino from Abi's Web. The Spunky BFL almost immediately turned into this:



I also went to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival, and didn't buy any fiber. However, I had an amazing dinner afterwards with Jenny and Matt at a restaurant you need a treasure map to find, but is totally worth the effort. (That's Concord Grille at Eagle Square.)

Then, the drama. Things with Erik got to the point where I couldn't live with him anymore, so I mustered the troops and moved into my own place:



A caboose! On tracks and everything! My greyhound loves it.



I'm getting used to living on my own, discovering the joys and pains of paying bills, doing dishes by hand, and visiting the laundromat every week.



Despite living apart, Erik and I are trying to maintain a relationship, and that means going to events together. We set up Erik's merchant tent at Sommer Draw:



And I made a gambeson (the red jacket) to protect him when he competed in the second annual Traditional Chinese Sword League's full-contact tournament:



And finally, something I've been thinking of doing for months and months: I've been growing my hair out for several years, and have grown tired of the upkeep involved in having yard-long tresses, so...



I'll try to get some good shots of the new 'do soon. I'll also try to make time for more knitting and spinning so y'all have something to look at.

Sunny, Soapy Saturday

Saturday saw more activity around here than there's been in a while. The day before, I'd stopped at the hardware store to pick up an inflatable pool so Erik could soak a bunch of tatami mats for the cutting portion of Saturday's sword seminar. This is what they looked like shortly before we drained the pool and loaded the mats into his truck:



Up close:



Once he was out the door, I took a quick shower and headed out to meet up with my friend Alix so we could go down to Connecticut for its sheep and wool festival. I saw most of my SnB peeps, ate a lamb-burger that didn't quite agree with me, and... bought no fober at all. But I did buy soap. Lots of it. See?



There was actually one more bar, but I gave it to my mother as a thank-you for stopping by. The three on top are from Sleepy Moon Soaps, and the bottom one is from Hampden Hills Alpacas.

On the way home, Alix and I decided to pop into Webs, partly to enjoy the yarn and partly to enjoy the air conditioning. I picked up two balls of super-cheap sock yarn, both by Plymouth.



I'm fighting the urge to rip out something else (like the long-hibernating Clessidra) to cast on with the brown Sockin' Sox. I realized as I was standing in line that this colorway is one I would have turned up my nose at a few years ago. My taste in color has changed quite a bit lately.

Off to enjoy the warm weather. And not get sunburned more than I did yesterday. Owwie.

Spring Spinning

Life hasn't been giving me much crafting time this month, but I haven managed to squeeze in some spinning. Remember that grey alpaca-silk fiber I got at Rhinebeck? I spun that up, forcing myself to go a little thicker with the single than I usually do, and I plied it last week. Here's the result:


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It's delightfully soft, though not as consistent as I'd like in terms of diameter, and I ended up with a little under 100 yards of it (from just under 4 ounces of fiber). I think it's going to be given to a friend at the next SnB.

That's about it, I'm afraid. A few projects are slowly coming along, but nothing is terribly exciting or photogenic. The peepers are making noise in the woods, the salamanders are mating in the pond, and the frogs are laying globs of eggs in the cattails. The last plow pile has just about melted, it's getting into the 60s during the day while dropping to below freezing at night, and the grass is idly considering springing to life in a few select patches.

Oh, and my car's check engine light came on this afternoon. Bugger.

Lambs Are White And Fluffy, Right?

Spring arrived on Friday, and with the temperatures getting up into the 40s and 50s and the snow melting, I actually thought we were done with winter for a while. Then on Sunday, Mother Nature decided to remind us that this is Vermont, and winter isn't over until she says so.


click to embiggen

That's snow. And blue skies. And temperatures above freezing. It was just a 20-minute flurry, but it was enough to improve my day dramatically.

In other news, I have new knitting needles!



One of the new members of that SnB I started is Linda of Grafton Fibers. We got to talking about knitting and spinning and such, and she invited me over to the workshop where she cards batts and her husband Tom turns wood. While I was there, I drooled over their knitting needles, and Tom pulled a set out of the reject pile and put them in my hands. The reason they didn't pass quality control is that a little chip came out of the side of one of the needles, so when it was sanded smooth the needle was no longer the correct diameter in that spot. It's far enough back that it doesn't affect the gauge, so... free needles! They already have a project on them: a grey acrylic-cotton reversible cabled scarf that's coming out beautifully.

Off to get some work done before SnB tonight.

Listen (Doo Dah Doo)...

I'd love to tell y'all that I got a job.
I'd love to tell you that today was my first day making wooden knitting needles for a small Vermont fiber company.

But I can't tell you that, because if I had such a job, I'd get in trouble with the gubmint, and I seriously need said gubmint to keep sending me checks, because making knitting needles part time for little more than minimum wage does not pay the rent.

So I don't have a new job. *cough*

I'm gonna go wash the sawdust out of my hair now.





(Just so y'all know, I'm working on a way to make it legal. I do not like sneaking around on the gubmint, but it alone isn't making ends meet, either, so I have to do something. I'm already on foodstamps and trying to get state healthcare, and of course sending out my resumé every time I get a lead on a welding job. I even went to an interview yesterday, and discovered that what a little bridge company in New Hampshire calls second shift is what normal people call third shift, not to mention their ad just said "welders," without specifying that they only do two types of welding I've never done before. Grumblefish. So yeah. I'm doing my best to get by. Please don't yell at me.)

Camel Cowl

I'm in love with this yarn. Erik rolls his eyes every time I hold it up to show him how pretty it is, but he obligingly pets it and agrees with me. There's a certain amount of pride in it for him, too, since he was the one who picked up the braid of roving and said, "you should get this."

I flipped through some lace patterns and settled on one from Interweave/Harmony's Lace & Eyelets. Unlike the last stitch pattern I tried from that book, this one actually worked without editing, and the gauge looks beautiful when worked on my US#7 ebony circs, so in no time I was off and running with this cowl.



I even got the opportunity to show it off to someone other than Erik! The closest SnBs are half an hour from me, and both in yarn stores that will tempt my budget to a painful degree, so I decided to start one a little closer and in a less tempting environment. We had our first gathering last night! Granted, it was just me and one other person (salut, Alix!), but we're going to see what we can do to attract more folks. We're thinking of calling ourselves the Dam Knitters, since we meet at the Townshend Dam Diner (Monday evenings from 6:30 to 8). If you're in the area, feel free to stop by.

Chocolate Caramel

Over the weekend I broke out some of the yummiest fiber I had on hand to help cheer myself up. What with me both being unemployed and getting older, the fiber to break me out of this funk needed to be something pretty special: the brown camel-tussah blend I got from Spirit Trail Fiberworks at Rhinebeck. After two and a half days of spinning and plying on Babette, and a quick wash and long dry, I ended up with this.





It's about 400 yards of 3-ply sport or DK weight (which seems to be my standard now), and it is so soft. Soooooo soft. I've decided to name it Chocolate Caramel, because that's what it made me crave while I was spinning it. Now I need to figure out what to do with it. I'm thinking lace armwarmers or a scarf... I'd like it to be lace to show off the halo, but I can't wear it directly on my skin because camels are mammals (say that a few times and see if you're not giggling) and mammal fiber irritates my skin. Any other ideas? (No socks or hats please.)

In knitting news, I'm still plugging away on Erik's scarf (serious black hole action there), I finished the first Trekking sock (which makes three single socks waiting for mates now), and I've been doing a row here and there on the two-at-once clown socks I started a while back. They're getting close to heel-turning time, and I'm a little scared of attempting two short-row heels on one set of DPNs.

Time to go get some non-knitting work done so I can justify plopping myself in front of the DVD player to knit this evening.