That was the Romney blankets going on the loom back in January 2008. It is now officially OFF the loom! No it’s not finished yet. Right now it is just a collection of interlocked threads, it needs to be fulled and I’ll be doing that tomorrow. But for today it is cut off the loom and the errors I could find repaired. Pictures will come later, after finishing.
What’s next? Well, a baby blanket in cotton for the 2 year old niece…oh well, I’m not fast that is sure!
What about the socks?
Socks, what socks?
Oh these socks! But I’m getting ahead of myself. I finally decided that The Niagara Falls pattern by Janel Laidman. I had done the pattern before with commercial yarn, but the blue of the Snow Moon batts begged me to knit them again. It took me about a month to knit them in my spare time and on the train. I’m happy to say they are done. I am a very loose knitter and knit these on size zero dpns. The foot looks short, but that’s because my foot is short!
My next handspun project? Well, I have the Patches Memory Shawl I just sampled for. I hope to swatch it and also get the rest of the batts I’ll need carded. So I’ll get a few more details later.
Nothing much happening with the dogs, but last weekend I went to The Fold and took an indigo dyeing class with Toni. I took fiber and yarn and learned to control an indigo dyepot to dye protein fibers. It was facinating, a lot of chemistry happening in a dynamic system. And yes, it does smell like an outhouse…and it lingers. It wasn’t on my clothes, it was stuck in my sinuses! I also helped someone fall down the rabbit hole of spinning I am always happy to enable!
For some reason I didn’t feel like pulling out my camera. I’m not sure why. I think it was partially because I didn’t want to draw any more attention to myself than I already was going to.
It started on Friday, when I packed up wheel, spindles, dog, fiber and knitting and headed north to Columbus Wisconsin for Crazy Susan’s Retreat with Judith McKenzie McCuin. I arrived in time and was able to spend the day working on worsted yarns and worsted sock yarn. Once again, I managed to solidify some things in my mind about the relationships between ratios and drafting zones. Things I knew from experience, but never had put it into words. Greg from Iowa who I met at Beth’s last year was there as well as Jim from Brooklyn, NY. Jim got to meet Luke even though Lukey was playing shy sheltie. Luke did take a couple treats from Jim despite his fears.
Too soon I had to pack up and head to go do flyball!
Lukey, seen here barking at another team racing, loves flyball. He is only 1800 points away from his ONYX title. After this weekend’s racing I’m hoping it is less than that…but then again, for some unknown reason the team captains decided that running 3 teams on Friday night was a GOOD THING. Um, NOT! The next day we only ran two teams.
Mad City Dog Training did not look like this! The snow that had pelted us in December was almost gone and this weekend we were in swampsville from the ever present rain coming down that was melting what snow was left. No flyball team members were hurt despite random acts of stupidity and falling that happens to someone at every tournament. Some one once described if obedience is a formal dinner, and agility is a wine and cheese party, then flyball is a kegger. It isn’t as physically demanding on the human partner as agility, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to run.
Here is a video from the same location we were running at this past weekend. This will give you a sense to the insanity of racing from the handlers point of view.
So, after two days of this my husband, bless his heart, comes up to meet me in Madison to pick up Luke to take him home so I could go back to the retreat. It was a win all around. I got to go back to the retreat and only had to worry about myself, Luke got to go home where he was more comfortable and Jerry got to have dinner with me.
Saturday night was a too short lesson on dyeing with weak acid dyes. Judith showed us two methods, immersion and painting with dyes. Most of which I already was familiar with. However, since I was tired and let my guard down I started asking rather pointed questions about indigo, natural dyes and synthetic dyes.
Sunday was a blur…I had missed the lessons on boucle yarn on Saturday and missed a lot of what she said about novelty yarns. I spent some time spinning woolen and then plying that and then took my singles from Friday and plied and cabled them, ending up missing more of what she said. I think the worsening weather had a lot to do with it. I was trying to calculate when to leave to avoid the worst of the weather, and ended up leaving during the worst part of the snow. But after a short stop at Susan’s shop to pick up a few needed things I found the weather a good bit better and it only improved as I headed south. I did get some advice from her about going to SOAR though. And one of my first choices of a workshop was also one of the two she recommended. And she also confirmed my suspicions that originally Shetland Sheep were double coated, not single coated. Also, that most of the so called Shetland wool yarn sold is actually a down breed.
All in all it was a good weekend, I just wish I could remember more of what Judith said.
It’s almost cliche, those of us who learned during 80’s can often remember being handed a heavy bottom whorl spindle, a set of hand carders, and a bag of greasy, yellowish wool. Often this wool was Romney. Oh how far we have come in all those years.
This lovely lock is a fine Romney, silvery gray in color and has a wonderful springy hand. I believe it was a coated fleece, which I do not often see with Romney. Let’s put it through its paces.
Here is a carded rolag of the Romney. Not much to look at however it was easy to spin into this yarn.
It has a springy hand and a supple but crisp feel. It makes me think of making mittens or a winter hat with.
The combed fiber looks even more uniformly gray.
The combing gives a chance for the sheen of the Romney to come through. This wool could be used for weaving suiting material or a lightweight blanket. If I was knitting it I might be tempted to make a lace scarf that can show off the sheen. This is a fairly fine Romney fleece so some might not mind a scarf made from it. Tender flowers like me would prefer it not to be next to my skin.
Depending upon the fleece, Romney can be used for everything from rugs to lace. So don’t fear, take it for a test spin and maybe you will fall in love with this versatile fiber.
It’s been more than a bit crazy at work, in a good way that is. So that is keeping me busy, but far from out of trouble. Next weekend I’m doing something a bit crazy even for me, I’m combining a spinning retreat and a flyball tournament in Madison, Wisconsin. Why yes, I’m certifiable. Well, I’m going to see Judith McKenzie McCuin. The flyball tournament is smack dab in the middle of the retreat. I have Crazy Susan’s blessing to come and go as I need to.
Oh he is soo worth it. Luke is now 10.5 years old. He is still on course for his ONYX title. If I can get myself out to the tournaments this year we can possibly earn it. Of course then I need to train my other dogs for flyball.
So I first go to the retreat. Hopefully I can leave Luke out in the van where he will be happiest, then Friday afternoon go to the tournament on Friday and Saturday. Lukes knight in shining armor will be my husband coming up to Madison to meet us and take him home Saturday while I spend the rest of the weekend at the retreat.
Yes there will be pictures, I promise. It will be funny to see how much Susan can multi-task for an entire weekend.
I am always happy to enable!
