The Missing "s" Game. AKA, the post with an anti-lisp and no understanding of plurals.

(The "s" key is no longer working on my keyboard, so I'm pasting it in this intro for your information. I may leave it out a bunch in the post below because it is slowing me down. If a word doesn't make sense, check to see if it is missing an "s." I know you can do it! I've seen how some of you text.)

I learned in Herpetology that if you drop a frog into really hot water, it will realize omething i wrong and jump out, but if you drop it into temperate water which you lowly heat up, you can boil the frog and it won't realize it i dying. Along thee line but in revere, Bill and I often pend many night hivering before we realize it i time to turn on the heat. But, ometimes in Autumn we take a trip and come back to coldness, giving u a clear indication that it i time to make fire. Thi wa one of thoe year. There i a firing burning a I hare the photo with you.

Thi pat weekend we went to Rhinebeck for the NY heep and Wool Fetival. It i the firt year where I've known lot of fetival-goer and had a great time meeting o many lovely, happy knitter.

Of coure, I bought tuff too.

There i ome ock yarn in there and a few kein of heavier-weight longwool for hat. (Now that miing "s" i uddenly noticeable, eh?)

My firt top wa at Into the Whirled for pinning fiber. When I wa holding it all in my hand, thi pound felt like a lot, but now that I'm far away from a purchaing opportunity, it doe't eem like enough.

I alo picked up a fancy pindle. I've been practicing on a "tudent pindle" which i large and brutish. My new one i a Bosworth made of Red Cedar. 17g/.6 ounce. In ampling, I can tell that it i more refined and allow me to pin much finer yarn. I like it. It make me feel more dainty.

It wa a good trip!

Mardi Gras yarn!

Does your winter landscape need some color? Today seems like a good day to celebrate vibrant things. I spun this yarn from little nubbins of unrelated fiber - it was a mix of colors and sheep breeds. So many colors is way outside my comfort zone, but I'm rather in love with the result.

I split the nubbins into a warm pile and a cool pile and then spun each pile as a single, then plied them together.

So bright!!

Crickets....

It's been quiet around here, eh? I hope to post a garden update tomorrow, but in the meantime here's some knitting and spinning I've been working on:

 

 

 

 

 

Podcasts 2 & 3

I made more podcasts. I know you didn't really ask, but I did anyway. I plan to make them weekly.

Even number episodes will be standard editions of me talking about the farm and my knitting and spinning. Odd number episodes will be field trips to see what we're working on in the field or on the house. Episode 3 is a tour of the garden and is about 24 minutes long.

If you are so inclined, please check out the podcast blog.

One Geeky Post to Rule Them All!

Things you probably know about me...
1) I am a nerd
2) I enjoy the fiber arts

Therefore, naturally, I am partaking in Nerd Wars on Ravelry. It's true - I am a Nerd Warrior.

Nerd Wars is a little game where 200ish (I'm guessing) Ravelers are divided into nerdy teams and knit, crochet, spin and weave to earn points and glory. There are teams for Sci-Fi (like Stargate, Firefly, Dr. Who and other stuff...Babylon 5 or something (I'm not that sort of Nerd)), Disney (Club 33), Broadway (Team Jazz Hands) and even Team Equestria - for My Little Ponies.

I am on Team Precious for all things Tolkien and Middle Earth (I'm that sort of Nerd). Here are the projects I've submitted since February 1.

Two spinning projects - a green Finn top from Misty Mountain Farm (you know the Misty Mountains are the largest mountain chain in Middle Earth, yeah? And Bilbo found The One Ring in caves under the mountains?)

This is some Corriedale in colors from Rivendell in autumn.

I also knit some mitts. See the Ents??

These mitts have pillars and cables that look like the Gates of Moria. It's so dark in Moria!! And Gandalf is going to die in there!!! Look how nervous I am just thinking about it:

This is a neck thingie made of seven rings...like the seven rings Sauron gave to the Dwarf-kings.

Finally, this is the start of my dissertation project. Cold Mountain. The project is named Caradhras, of course.


And, just so you know this is a Real Thing and not something I made up...I get badges. From the Hall of Honor. You've got to be pretty special to earn them.
So for the next few months I'll be knitting for The Precious. And generally being a nerd.

Totally normal stuff.

Where's the knitting?

Round about October I started doing a bunch of holiday gift knitting and stopped posting yarny things. So, here's some catch-up...

A sweater and rattle we gave our niece for Christmas. Bill picked out the lady bug buttons.

A hat for my head:

A light, lacy shawl in progress:

Calorimetry and gloves in handspun yarn.

Also, this video (Sh*t Knitters Say) is darn adorable.

fingers

So, yeah... this:

Two weeks ago was chicken weekend. During chicken weekend, I sustained a plucking injury to my right index finger (a strain? tendinitis? repetitive stress whatever? My muscle - it hurts to move. A lot!). Today, I finally went to the doctor and she gave me a really adorable blue splint to wear for a while. This is awkward for the following reasons:

1) I kinda use my right index finger a lot

2) The blue tape really clashes with my wardrobe

3) For the next 2 weeks I'll have to tell everyone I meet that I injured my finger plucking chickens. It's not the sort of thing I typically lead conversations with.

At least I provided some entertainment for my doctor today. She said she doesn't come across chicken plucking injuries often. I worry that humorous, unique maladies might becoming a habit for us. A few years ago it was Bat in the Bed, and now Chicken Plucking Injury. I don't want to know what's next.

Fortunately, (very fortunately) I have been able to adapt my hands to continue knitting and spinning.

Some lovely Lincoln Longwool, which may someday be a sweater:

Fun fact: I had no trouble typing the word "sweater" just there, as "sweater" is composed of all left handed letters.

Wenselydale - maybe to be a shawl or some such:

The most adorable mittens EVER. I love them, but may reknit them. I used needles that were too big for the yarn and the mittens, despite their extreme cuteness, aren't very warm.

In closing: sweater. Sweaters. sweet sweet sweaters. Stewardess! Sweaters, dear. Sweaters.

November is for long wool

(alternate post title: November is Longwool-ember)

Look how shiny:

The brown is a Wensleydale roving and the gray is my Lincoln Longwool fleece. Longwools are awesome - they have big scales which reflect light and make the wool shiny. They are also a little bit more coarse. They aren't soft enough for baby sweaters, but so far, these seem wearable.

The Lincoln starts out like this:

Then, I flick it with a very specific wool tool - a dog brush:

When it looks like this, I spin it:

November is also for anniversaries. Bill and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last week. This photo is for my mom...she sent these flowers to me at work and I wanted to let her see how pretty they are. They still look lovely 10 days later:

Thanks, Mom! Happy Longwoolember, everyone!

A whole post on a pair of gloves

Oh, but what gloves they are.

Handspun from Ava, Ludu and Bees Merino.

The pattern is Albina Armwarmers. It's wonderful.

They've been done for a while, but they needed the right buttons. These are made from cyprus branches.

I like 'em.

Things which are autumnal.

Our lovely old honey locusts have shed most of their yellow confetti compound leaves and are now dropping the leaf stalks.

It's not quite as magical as a rain of gold.

Bill's oven now has a pretty arch and the start of a chimney.

Wood fires are autumnal, right? We had our first fire-to-heat-the-house-and-not-just-look-pretty last week. Note to self for next year... clean the outer surface of the living room wood stove before Bill makes the fire because burning dust smells awful and it's really, really difficult to wipe off a 350 degree stove.

I've been feeling really guilty over the poor quality of my Rhinebeck purchases photo. I got gorgeous tops and rovings which were loving dyed by brilliant people and I showed them to you illuminated by a CFL. Terrible. Here they are in the sunshine. I clearly had fall colors on the brain when I was buying.

Lastly, nothing says autumn like sweaters! ...also pumpkin ale, but I don't have any of that at the moment. So you get a sweater. An unraveling sweater.

I got this sweater ages ago and it never ever really looked good on me. I think people would describe my fashion preferences with the same sorts of words used to describe potato sacks. This sweater was the definition of that. Brown. Loose-fitting. Unshapely. Garlicy.

Mmm...maybe "garlicy" describes mashed potatoes more than potato sacks...but if a sweater can be garlicy, this one was.

So, I'm ripping it apart and getting yards and yards of cotton which I'll dye into less potato-sack-like colors and reknit into something a grownup might wear. Unraveling this $20 sweater is way fun and the amount of yarn I'm getting would certainly cost more than $20. I have grand plans to do this with $5 sweaters from Goodwill too, but the people who donate to Goodwill 'round these parts really like acrylic. Ick. I might have to seek out a fancy Goodwill for sweater unraveling adventures.

Happy Fall, y'all
(it says that on the big window of our grocery store. I couldn't resist.)

Ooooovvvveeeennnn (and Rhinebeck)

I feel as if I am running out of clever post titles for the oven construction. If you've got any suggestions for future titles that say "Oven progress" in a more interesting way than "oven progress" lemme know.

This is roughly where Bill is at:

He added the two additional arches of bricks and a slanty thing up front. To the very right of the photo is the red brick arch that will be visible in the final product. In between the slanty thing and that arch is where the chimney goes.

An interior view:

That's where the fires will be built and the pizza and bread and cakes will be cooked. Bill is a little further along than these photos show, but not much. This is because we drove hundreds of miles to go to Rhinebeck this past weekend...and visit family. Very important the family visiting (Hi Krista! I know you are reading this in bed...and now all the internet knows too!!).

However, as we didn't bring any of the family back with us, I only have photos of wool to share with you.

Aside from one lovely skein of alpaca, I focused mostly on all sorts of food for my wheel. On the right is a Border Leicester fleece. And then all the rest is tops and roving of various wools...some merino, corridale, finn, cheviot, rambouillet...and a sheep I've never heard of - masham. There is also a silk cap which I'm planning to knit right into mittens (ala the Harlot).

I am clearly in some sort of red and green phase.

These purchases represent only about half of my Rhinebeck budget. Though my plans were big when I started saving money, I don't think I could have actually spent it all - even a wool freak like me can get overwhelmed at the wonder of Rhinebeck. Fortunately (?) I brought a man with me who likes food. Within 20 seconds of seeing the Italian guys from Brooklyn with their tables full of bread and salami, we had a bag bursting with pepperoni, salami and cheese.

It was a good trip!

Staycation Souvenirs!

All vacations require souvenirs, even if you don't go anywhere.

For our vacation, Bill got:

Fire brick.


5/8 inch rebar. This was a super fun souvenir because it only comes in 20 foot lengths, which is too long for our little truck. So, Bill had to cut three pieces with a hacksaw at the lumber/rebar yard. It was like going to a carnival and watching my man complete the feats of strength game...but instead of getting a dumb stuffed animal as a prize, I got rusty rebar!!!

Bill also got some scotch - which is sort of the his only instant payoff souvenir. The rebar and firebrick represent work for now, but will be awesome in a few weeks.

I got...

Two bags of stinky wool! We went to sunny Ohio for a fiber festival yesterday and I bought two fleeces. On the left is 7 pounds of Lincoln Longwool. It is such a lovely gray. Lincoln is typically used for outerwear, and isn't really considered next-to-skin soft. Everything I've read says this will be harsh when I spin it up (though some people make it into socks). Right now, it feels super soft though, so I'm excited to try and see what happens. Plus, the sheep it came from was named Sunshine. That sounds sounds happy and lovely, doesn't it?

I also have 3.5 pounds of Icelandic fleece. Bill is lobbying hard for our sheep to be Icelandics. I like that they are really hardy and seem low-maintenance. I'm not sure about their fleeces, though. I have a sweater from Iceland (which is presumably made with Icelandic wool) and it's pretty scratchy. Bill has a blanket from the same trip...which he named Scratchy.

I've heard that Icelandics in America are bred for their fleeces, though, while Icelanders focus more on meat and conformation. The fleece looks downright odd:

It's dual coated, which means it has two different types of fleece. The long stuff is called Tog and the fluffier short stuff on top is Thel. They can be separated and spun individually, or spun all together. This fleece came from a lamb named Pig.

Finally, our last souvenir is my favorite. Our first delivery of wood: