Socks – Fiberjoy

Fiber Thursday

A young mom brought her two homeschooled daughters to Yarn & Yak this morning. This was the third time they’ve come; each girl bringing some type of project. Today they were stringing popcorn and cranberries in preparation of decorating.

After awhile the older daughter showed me the spinning she’s been doing with the spindle she’d bought at Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival. She wasn’t sure what to do with the singles.

I showed her how to make a plying ball with the two ends, which took her no time to wrap.

Soon she had her various singles plyed.

About the boots: They still have almost a foot of snow at their place. Younger sister excitedly told me about sledding and making a snow fort.

I enjoy their enthusiasm and wide ranging curiosity. I’ve started thinking that perhaps I need to have kids’ yarn time during the week, perhaps right after school. My dilemma is having the time and energy to commit to such a venture.

A beautiful quilt for a cat rescue auction was being hemmed, stitching was happening on an appliqué block, there was a gorgeous needlepoint picture in progress.

I got a small start on a pair of sock socks using handspun yarn.

I’m thankful for the gathering of fiber friends and the chance to socialize and relax.

A Most Pleasant Weekend

A soft breeze gently herded fluffy clouds easing the brilliance of the blue sky and heat of the sun. Over an hour was spent on my knees early Saturday morning, pulling small weeds from around the vegetable plants. Ed’s been keeping the space between the rows nicely hoed making my task easy.

Taking a hiatus from wholesale orders this summer has relieved Ed of the relentless pressure of working long hours pushing day after day. These days he heads out to the shop around 7:30 to work until around 3:30 then works awhile in the yard and garden. It’s been great to tackle some projects that’ve been on the back burner like conquering the blackberry brambles that were threatening to overtake our home, dig out the space between the grassy bank and his shop, shoveling out the dirt, weeds and brambles accumulating for 24 years since we had the shop built.

After giving the plants a good long drink I headed inside to spend the next couple hours weighing, writing on and recording the spindles that Ed had made last week. Normally this is a daily morning task but last week wasn’t normal.

Finally it was play time for me: weaving and knitting.

The rug is actually a bit more blue than grey. The thing I love about weaving rugs is the speed they’re finished once the warp is on. I started weaving Saturday afternoon. Washed and dried it yesterday, now it’s wrapped in tissue traveling the mail system in a box to be a birthday gift. But for a movie Ed decided to watch this evening, the second rug would be done too. It lacks only 4 inches and the tying of the fringe.

The lovely weather pulled me back outside for another hour late Saturday afternoon where I finished one sock before before fixing supper. Sunday, after services and tying the fringe on the first rug then tossing it in the washing machine, I headed back out to sit under the Montmorency cherry tree and enjoy the afternoon whilst finishing the second sock. The cherries have about another week to ripen before picking and putting in the food dryer. We had such a cool wet Spring that everything is still a couple weeks behind normal schedule.

Bird chirps and chatter and the darting of swooping birds caught my attention. Babies! Three nests full with three sets of parents darting to and fro, the pairs taking turns keeping watch or feeding very hungry little babies.

Action at the Swallow house

Why yes, the socks were completed!
Pattern: Everyone outta the Pool by Artsgal
Yarn: Abstract Fiber Mighty Sock 50/50 Merino/Tencel Sweet Pea Colorway. 382 yds per 100g skein I used 53 grams for the pair. (I wanted this pair short & summery) Still plenty of yarn to make a small pair for a small grandchild. 🙂
Started May 29 Finished July 10
The toe up pattern uses a double-knit cuff which was a new method for me. I like the looks and it’s comfortable although the grafting together is twice as many stitches. I’ve wanted to tackle a 2-in-1 sock where both socks are knit simultaneously one inside the other for the length of the leg separating them before turning the heel. Doing this cuff has helped me to conceptualize the process.T

This was only the second time that I’ve knit a wrap and turn heel. My technique needs improvement for it’s not the neatest job but with practice and better understanding it will come.
Overall I’m pleased with them.

09.09.09

Supper dishes were washed, the floor swept, and a few spindles were weighed and written on to get a head start on a busy day tomorrow. The chair with knitting projects to one side and laptop on the other beckoned as the perfect place to spend a quiet evening. There was one must-write email to discharge and then! the luxury of finally slipping into blog posting mode.

Of course the phone rang. It had to do with the pending email. Plans went into a tailspin and right out the window as much of the evening was chewed away by working out elusive details until the point was reached where I can do no more until I hear back from a key person. And now here it is, past my bedtime.

It’s been one of those days from the very beginning.
a cluster headache lurked,
a long list of must-dos, but a body/mind out of sync
a message that didn’t set right and I don’t know how to respond.
Or even if I should.

It’s good to sit here sipping tea, looking through pictures to post since I’m too lazy/tired to upload the more recent ones.

Two projects are on the needles these days. One should have been finished by the 4th, mornings and evenings have been rather consumed in the making of them. I’m well down the foot now but with #1 / 2.25 mm needles it’s slow going. This picture was taken the end of August. DSCN0459

The other is a sweater for Ed, started just before his birthday. I can hardly wait until it’s done, it’ll be so cozy for him to wear in the house. It too is a bit further along than in the picture. Knitting with #8/5 mm is a good change of pace for my hands. DSCN0462

We had a wonderful time watching the grandkids a few days while our son and wife moved their household to start his new job in Idaho. Such a precious time knowing they’d be moving too far away to watch them growing as we have for these first year(s) of their lives.

Here’s a few pictures from one day’s excursion to the creek.

DSCN0441

DSCN0444
DSCN0449

The days are full of filling orders; finishing, writing on and packing all the individual items that Ed is continually turning out one at a time. We took a break from regular duties on Monday to can green beans with our daughter. We all enjoyed the change of pace, and especially watching the row of filled jars growing. The green beans in the garden have finally rippened and are growing at an alarming rate. I need to do another canner full tomorrow. With the rain we had last weekend it won’t be long before the yard will need mowing. Soon that’ll be a regular, almost weekly chore.

Friday morning my friend Grace and I plan to take her canoe out on the nearby resevoir. I’m so looking forward to being out on the water in the early morning calm.

Socks, a scarf, and some spinning

Two finished projects!

Finally the Brigid Socks where kitchenered, finished and given to the recipient. They had been tossed in both the washer, cold water, and in the dryer before modeling for the picture.

Pattern: Brigid
Yarn: Ball and Skein sock yarn, Mountain Spring Colorway. Handdyed, 80% Merino, 20% Nylon 4 ply – 400 yds.This was great sock yarn with nary a knot and plenty of yarn left over. A person adept with cabling could easily add a couple more pattern repeats without fear of running out of yarn. This was my first attempt at cabling and proved a good pattern to get my toes wet. 🙂

During last week’s morning business sessions a scarf was born. It came off the needles this afternoon.

This scarf was knit straight from silk hankies using US10/6mm Jenkins needles. A woman had demo’d this technique at the spinning conference in June.

It was the perfect project for business sessions where I needed to pay attention yet wanted to accomplish some knitting. Each hankie is carefully peeled away from the stack then pulled into a long thin roving and knit. The trickiest part was pulling each hankie to a consistent thickness. Then again, that’s part of the scarf’s charm. When the packet of silk hankies was gone, the scarf was done.

I also did some color spinning on my Turkish spindle last week.

80%Merino, 20%Mohair a combination for long lasting socks. The spindle currently have two split lengths of a yard. I’ll spin one more onto the spindle with the same color sequence, then try to spin three matching splits on another spindle and ply them together with the goal of the colors matching. This is harder for me than I’d first thought it’d be. Some sections get drafted just a bit thinner than others and over the long haul the colors don’t neatly match up.

Plying the corriedale/camel should be finished by tomorrow evening. I’m in a bit of a quandary: the bobbin is almost stuffed and I don’t think that all the singles will fit, yet the singles are getting to the surface of their individual bobbins. I’ve never spun this much yardage in one batch and I’m very reluctant to break the singles and start another bobbin. Any advice is welcome. I’m grateful to Freestyle Jo (you must take a look at the cute booties she’s made!) for letting me know that spinning around 8oz would most likely take me over 10 hours. It helped to know that I could expect to spin for that many hours and that I wasn’t plying excruciatingly slow.

Minding my P’s & Q’s

I was moving steadily forward in an orderly fashion, minding my p’s and q’s. I can’t dwaddle right now for there’s a deadline to meet in two weeks.

You know how it is when an acquaintance pops up who demands your time. KT one of those friends with whom I don’t mind spending small bits of time. When she’s around my path is sure to diverge a bit and wander in new tracks. The problem is that she’s almost always accompanied by her shadow, S, whom I’d prefer to keep as a brief nodding acquaintance. When first saw KT yesterday I waved in happy recognition. But I was quickly stopped in my tracks when I realized her friend was following close on KT’s heel, demanding attention from me.

While KT is straightforward, simple and quick, I get slightly frustrated with S’s awkward ways and at times downright orneriness, to say nothing of her slippery nature. I try to be calm and patient with S for I know that KT needs her for balance. I just wish that I could learn how to get S to move quicker, at the least somewhat gracefully, and not to be such a bother when I encounter her.

I’m thankful they only come around every other row or so and then I reach the place where I gladly bid these nodding acquaintances, K2T and SSK, adieu for three blissful rounds.

P for purl, Q for queue… You know, as in a line. Neat orderly lines formed by Knit stitches.
Don’t you think that’s really where that expression came from? Someone diligently tending to her stockings.

Who wants to say Ps & Ks when Q says it so much better. :-0

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

Category: Socks