Our Knitting Heritage Perpetuated by Franklin Habit

I went to the lecture about knitting history last night at the Knitter’s Connection. The introductory powerpoint slide said, “Our Knitting Heritage Perpetuated by Franklin Habit.” The talk was very interesting and I learned lots about the first knitting patterns (boy, am I glad I live now!), knitting needle gauges, proprietary needle technology, the Martha Stewart of the Victorian age, and terminology. I’ll give you a quick rundown and recommend that, if you ever have a chance, listen to Franklin talk about this subject (well, any subject really!).

First, did you know knitting patterns are relatively late to the game? Before the first patterns were published in the Victorian age, patterns passed directly from knitter to knitter. Or, if you wanted to remember how a lace stitch went, you created a lace sampler. You would cast on however many stitches would make a nice pattern repeat, knit your lace pattern, knit a couple of rows of garter stitch, maybe increase some or decrease some, do another lace pattern, knit a couple of rows of garter, do another, etc, etc. Nancy Bush showed us a similar strip of knitting when I went to her Estonian lace class. It was an easy way for knitters to share their designs with other knitters.

Franklin compared modern lace patterns to the original lace patterns by showing us a picture from Nancy Bush’s book and one of the first pattern books. Now, you all know what lace charts look like.


Lace Edging of Mlle. R de B, Franklin Habit, http://knitty.com/ISSUEss10/FEATss10SIT.php

Makes sense, right? The original lace pattern he showed us, however, was a solid page of text with two columns and minuscule font. Can you imagine?! And he told us that, at the very bottom of the page, was a horrendous mistake. UGH.

Not only are our knitting patterns formatted differently, but our terminology is different, too! As Franklin wrote in his “Stitches in Time” article in Knitty ‘08:

At first glance, these early books appear to the modern knitter as an invitation to headache and madness. The vocabulary is archaic; what we call a “purl” may be called a “pearl,” a “turn” or a “seam,” even within the same pattern. The “recipes” are often written in a stream-of-consciousness style that anticipates James Joyce. The errors – even in works that promise on the title page to be scrupulously accurate – are legion.
Franklin Habit, Knitty ‘08 http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall08/FEATfall08SIT.html 

He said sometimes pattern writers wouldn’t even use the same terminology in the same sentence much less the same pattern!

Along with not using the same terms, needles sizes were not standardized. They were the proprietary software of their day. One woman put out the first needle gauge (and was the first to talk about knitting gauge) but of course the only needles that worked were ones that she sold. Can you even imagine how that could drive you crazy? The early knitters were made of much stronger stuff than I am!

The Martha Stewart of her generation was a woman who published something like 19 books in 3 years (I didn’t write down the exact numbers but it was a crazy amount in a very short period of time). She claimed to have invented crochet. Whether or not that is true is something crochet historians will have to duke out!

It was a very interesting lecture though I only gave it a brief mention here. Next time, I swear, I’m going to bring a working camera and/or a cell phone that actually has its memory card in it. I always find it so interesting to listen to famous bloggers talk. It’s fun to put an actual voice to the words rather than the voice you picture in your mind!

Maryland recap

I had a fantastic time at Maryland Sheep and Wool this year.  I drove out and stayed with a friend in Baltimore which isn't too far away from West Friendship, MD.  I wasn't able to convince anyone to go with me to the festival (in fact, I got weird looks) but it turned out pretty nice because that meant I could take my time everywhere.   Oh, by the way, this blog post is going to be liberally sprinkled with sheep pictures. 



My goals for the festival were:

• a sweater's worth of worsted weight wool in black
• a spindle
• something from Jennie the Potter
• a fleece from the wool auction

I met all of my goals and actually ended up coming home with more than that (big surprise, right?). 

As you've probably heard already, it was HOT.  Temperatures were in the upper 80s and the sun was out in full force.  I had plenty of sunscreen, a hat and water so I was prepared for the long haul.  After waiting in line for a while, I got to the festival and parked at the far ends of the earth.  Later in the day, after many people left, I moved the car much closer! 



My fiber festival strategy is to first walk through every building, looking but not buying.  It helps you get a feel of where everything is and to which vendors you want to come back.  On the MDSW Ravelry board, I already knew a couple of vendors should be on my radar because they had products I wanted to see in person.  Additionally, wandering around everywhere gives you an opportunity to see where the shady spots are and really good food vendors! 



Really all of this wandering around was a way for me to wind over to the wool sale, not going to lie.  I had a fantastic time digging through all of the different bags of fleece.  One goal was to buy a fleece but I hadn't decided what kind yet.  In the past, I've tended to like dark fleeces in blacks, browns, and dark grays.  This time I thought I would get either a white or light gray fleece but hadn't decided which breed.  OK, that might be a slight lie.  I really wanted a fine wool and the cormo just called my name.  I spent lots of time choosing between a small white cormo and a light gray cormo blend.  In the end, I went with the 100% cormo.  Now I know why people have been raving over cormo.   I washed up a little last week and started combing it.  Love at first lock! 



After buying my fleece, I was wandering back towards the car because I didn't want to cart my fleece around all day.  As I was passing the official festival swag building, I noticed that the line wasn't long at all.  The festival doesn't have an entry fee and is almost entirely funded by the sales of the official festival gear (well, that and vendor fees).  At my first MDSW, I decided that I didn't need any more t-shirts and really liked the idea of getting a bag instead.  That year I got a tote bag and this year I got a shoulder bag in a nice blue. 

Another advantage of going to the car was that the Podcaster Meet and Greet was being held near the main entrance.  A whole bunch of my favorite podcasters were going to be hanging out meeting people and I wanted to get in line to say "hi." 



The Meet and Greet started a little late but everyone seemed to have fun chatting in line.  The goodie bag that Jackie of KIPing it Real was fantastic!  It was really nice to put faces to the voices.  Some people looked very different than how I had imagined. 

At the car, I took the opportunity to have a snack, apply even more sunscreen, and move my car to a closer parking spot.  It was so hot by that point that many people had gone home.  It was a really easy way to get a good parking spot.



When I went back to the festival, I decided to wander over to the auction.  I didn't bid on anything but it was a lot of fun to watch. 



By this point, it was very, very hot and I thought that going inside a building with cement floors and shade was a very good idea.  The skein and garment competition is not something to miss.  The amazing projects and skill levels demonstrated was simply amazing.  One of my favorite projects had to be this needle felted sheep. 













After wandering around the skein and garment competition building in awe for a while, I stopped by the boy scout food building and got lunch to go.  Yum, lamb burger and a GIANT ice tea.  Let me tell you, I loved that big glass of ice and tea.  It was just about time for a sheepdog demonstration so I took my lunch and wandered down to the arena.  It's always fun watching the dogs work. 



I think my favorite part of the demonstration was the farmer who has been demonstrating with his dogs for over 15 years.  He was the owner of the sheep, too, and they kept trying to run back to him.  He looked like a very old school type of farmer but I saw him pet one of the sheep on the head when they were all clustered around him. 

Because I was at the very end of the fairgrounds and the day was starting to get late, I made my way back through all of the vendors.  It had cleared out a lot since the morning because so many people had left for the day.  I ended up doing the bulk of my shopping then and then went back to Baltimore for the night. 

The next morning, I hadn't planned on going back to the festival but woke up at an obscene hour of the morning and had nothing to do for a long time.  There was a spindle that was really tempting and the sheep to shawl competition was going on so I went back for a couple of hours.  For those of you who don't know, the sheep to shawl competition is where a team of spinners and a weaver take a freshly shorn fleece (so fresh they shear the sheep right there), spin the yarn and weave a shawl in a couple of hours.  Here are a couple of the different teams. 











Every team has a different theme which makes things very fun.  As you can tell, the team in those first two pictures chose a Harley Davidson theme!  The teams do a mock-up of their shawl beforehand and have their warp already strung before the competition.  I wish I knew who won the competition. 

On Sunday, was able to watch more of the sheep show.  Listening to the judges is always so informative and I feel like I always learn something new.  One of the judges is especially good with explaining the breed standards and how the different sheep in the class come up to that standard. 





The last thing that I did before leaving the show was watching an impromptu shearing demonstration.  A shearer set-up shop between two of the barns and was shearing those sheep that had full fleeces for the show.  Once they are shown, their fleeces can be removed so they don't die of heatstroke in the summer.  The different owners were offering the fleeces for sale there on the spot. 



So you are probably wondering, what did you get already?!  I got:

• 1 Cormo fleece
• 2 trindles (funky looking spindles)
• 6 round clay buttons with sheep on them
• multiple snarky buttons
• 1 MDSW shoulder bag
• 1 4 oz bump of BFL top
• 1 2 oz bump of 100% silk 
• 1 mug from Jennie the Potter with cute sheep dancing all over them
• 2 skeins of Miss Bab's Yowza Whatta Skein in Obsidian (a semi-solid black) 
• 2 tubes of the best hand lotion EVER - Marcha Labs Wool Wax Creme

The silk and BFL are already on the spindles (of course!) and the mug has already gone to work to be my tea mug.  All in all, I had a very good festival! 

SOAR, Sunday and Monday

Sunday, November 1, tasks for the day: pack, attend a short lecture, and begin flying home with fall over to Monday, November 2


Sunday was the final day of SOAR as well as the day of the time change.  Thanks to the time change and the jet lag, I woke up around 4 am and could not get back to sleep at all.  I ended up using the time well by using it to pack and cast on for a new sweater.  November is NaKniSweMo or National Knit a Sweater Month to correspond with NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month.  In my effort for this month, I've started a bohus inspired cardigan which involves a very long steek down the middle.  I'm slightly nervous about that one.  The body is all stockinette but I've kind of stalled out on it due to an issue with the sleeves. 

Many people had already left on an early flight so breakfast was an even smaller affair than normal.  After that, I returned to the room to finish packing.  I had shoved all of my clothes into the small backpack that zips onto the front of the suitcase.  The suitcase was left open for the ~3 pounds of fiber and bags of sample fiber we got in class and in the goodie bag.  My roommate helped me squash all of the air out of the various bags of fiber and we quickly zipped up the suitcase.  I swear, if a TSA agent had to open my bag, someone would have lost an eye.  My bag was under that much pressure. 

I did shove some of the fiber in my spinning wheel carry-on to act as padding for my wheel.  I also put my pashmina wrap and pajama bottoms in there for my red-eye flight from San Fransisco to Philadelphia.  I was not going to be stuck on the airplane all night without having PJs! :) 

There was an interesting talk about taking spinning wheels to Africa and how people are using knitting to raise money.  The lady who was giving the talk had some very nice pictures and lovely stories.  I wish I hadn't missed half of it, though.  I, for some reason, thought that the talk began at 9:30 and not 9.  Oh, well! 

After the talk, I finished packing everything and checking out.  My roommate and I (the other left on the early morning flight) went back over to the Great Hall for lunch and general hanging out.  There were only a handful of us at lunch, I think less than 12.  We all took our time over the meal because all of us were leaving on the 4:30 or 5:30 shuttles that evening.  Some of us stayed in the Great Hall for a couple of hours, knitting and spinning away.  Thankfully knitters and spinners are always occupied!  We were able to watch some of the Columbia people set-up for their conference which is how we figured out there was going to be a fashion show in the silk room.  From there we moved on to the main lodge to find more seating area which we could colonize.  We ended up hanging out with some other spinners who had taken over the lobby.  It was a lot of fun to talk about what we learned and who we met at SOAR. 

Four of us were on the flight to San Fransisco that evening so we were able to continue the experience a little longer.  This might be funny to you but it was really nice to be able to have someone else watch your bags while you ran into the restroom or got food.  That is definitely a hassle of traveling alone! 

spot the wheels!

At San Fransisco, we parted ways and I ran (ish) to catch my plane in another terminal. Did you know that, once you leave one terminal to go to another, you have to go back through security?  I have to say that I hate that with a passion?  Of course my spinning wheel caught the screener's attention so my bag got flagged for a more thorough search.  I believe that is when tragedy (ish) struck.  The security guard checked through everything and my spindles got moved around.  I didn't have time to repack and shift everything back because I wanted to grab dinner before getting on the plane.  (Sidenote: Best portabello mushroom sandwich EVER!  It was some of the best airport food I've had.  Though, it could be because I was just so hungry.)  I changed into my PJs and was ready for my red-eye flight.  The only problem was that I had to gate-check my bag. 

Now, I wasn't too worried about gate-checking because your bag normally meets you at the next gate and you can carry it with you for the next part of your flight.  My wheel was so well packed with fiber, yarn and PJs that not that much would shift around with normal gate-checking.  This time, however, they were checking the bags through to your final destination.  That means picking it up at baggage claim which means they aren't as careful with your bags.  Are you starting to get the idea?  (Don't worry, it wasn't my wheel that got damaged!) The red-eye was actually nice because there wasn't a person in the middle seat so the guy on the aisle and I could kind of stretch out.  My red-eye flew into Philadelphia and then I hopped on a plane to Columbus.  After picking my car up in the long-term parking lot, I was headed home! 

I ended up going to the barn before heading home because my horse had missed me over the weekend.  Apparently, the people at the barn thought he was sick because he was acting so depressed.  It took one of them telling Java that I hadn't left for good to get him to start eating again.  I told him that I was going out of town but I should have told him when I was coming back.  Poor guy thought I had deserted him! 

Once home, I started showing Mom all of my purchases and telling her all about SOAR.  I showed her my turkish spindle and she asked, "Is the shaft supposed to be bent like that?"  Noooooo!  I am willing to bet that my spindle got pinched between parts of my wheel in the suitcase and then got broken in the baggage handling.  I didn't even have a chance to spin on it!  I'm going to have to contact Carolina Homespun to see if they have replacement shafts or if they can contact the maker and have him make me one.  Le sigh! 

OK, now that I'm finally caught up with SOAR (only a month late) I can update you on everything else in another post!

SOAR, Friday

I can't believe I'm a week behind already!  Enjoy this recap! 


Friday, October 30, task for the day: 2 retreat sessions and marketplace (again)

On Friday, I once again woke up bright and early (damn you, jetlag!) and was ready to go to my first retreat session, Spinning for Next to the Skin taught by Sarah Swett. One of my roommates was in my class and she was able to tell me about Sarah's tapestries. Previously, I hadn't seen any of her tapestries which was a real shame. They are like paintings from wool. Sarah brought a series of them to show us and it was almost like a comic strip.

Sarah also brought a number of different handspun sweaters, dresses, and coats which she has spun and knit. I loved the green dress that she made and it was sooooo soft.

Sarah explained wool structure to us and why some wool is better than others for garments meant to be worn next to the skin. For some people, the direction of the scale in wool fibers can make it feel pricky to them. Of course, some of us can't tell the difference at all. Sometimes it is the difference in preparation. She had some washed locks of Rambouillet, Polwarth and what we thought was Cormo for us to prep and spin.

The reason I said what we thought was Cormo is because Sarah had it labeled that way until the man who provided the fleeces said it was actually Polwarth. He happened to be in our class because his wife was attending SOAR and he came along, too. It was very valuable to have him there because he was able to tell us so much information about the history of the breed (as well as cormos), raising sheep in a large herd situation, and much more. Of course, right now I wish I hadn't lost the paper where I wrote down all of his information. Anyway, ready for a brief history of the Polwarth breed? (Sidenote: turns out the breed is called PolwArth not PolwOrth. Who knew?)

Picture from the New Zealand Sheep Breeders Association

According to the Polwarth Sheepbreeders Association, the breed was established in 1880. It's origin is in Australia/New Zealand from crosses of Saxon Merino rams and Lincoln ewes (3/4 Merino and 1/4 Lincoln). It is a very vestile breed that can thrive in very diverse climates, produce fine fleeces, are a good meat sheep, are good mothers and can lamb all year. An average fleece has a micron count of 23-25 and a Bradford count of 58-60's. Fleeces can range in weight from 13-15 pounds (which blows my mind) and the staple length is 4-6 inches. The farmer in our class estimated that there is about a 75% yield rate for the fleeces. Because there aren't many Polwarth breeders in America (or Australia for that matter)and supply and demand being what it is, there is a high demand for fleeces.

Sarah handed out pieces of heavy cardstock/matting board so we could record what prep method we used, the wool type and spinning style for each sample. Because I love a 3-ply yarn, I did 3 ply samples for each type.

(picture of sample card)

I loved the gray locks to death. I kept petting my samples because it was just so soft. My combed fiber was MUCH finer than the carded fiber even when I did the same spinning methods. If I wanted to have something soft but with a lot of air in it, I would definitely card the Polwarth. Sarah was nice enough to give us a large enough sample to be able to make a small project like a cowl.

A random tip/trick I learned during the class came from a fellow student. You know those weaving bobbins that people use to ply or to wind their singles off of a drop spindle? Well, they are a pain to wind by hand and the bobbin winders that you can buy range from $95-120 (or more). She had a drink stirrer from which she cut the ends off which fits in the bobbin. You can find the electronic stirrer wherever there are those powder drink sport mixes. They are around 5 bucks, are handheld and take AA batteries. Talk about genius! On the way home from the airport, I stopped by a grocery store and picked one up.

After class, everyone headed to lunch and then on to the second session of the day. My second session was one about which I was very excited. I took Making the Most of Your Hand-held Combs by Robin Russo. I didn't realize it but Robin and her husband are the force behind the St. Blaise wool combs. If I didn't already have my set of Alvin Ramer super mini combs, I would be sorely tempted by their mini combs.

Robin brought a couple of different kinds of mini combs for us to use.  She had a few sets with their tines set far apart which would be appropriate for certain kinds of wool (not fine fibers).  The St. Blaise sets have their tines set closer and are appropriate for the widest range of fibers from wool to alpaca, etc.  Finally, she had two sets of very fine combs for combing the angora.  Those combs were much smaller than the others.  The tines were very fine, set very close together and were shorter than the other sets. 

 I love combed fiber. The way it spins is just lovely to me. I can always get combed fiber to be a much thinner yarn without bumps and burbles (why, yes, that is a word). But I felt like I wasn't using my hand-held combs to their full advantage. I was hoping that this class would help me over come that concern and it definitely did. Also, the class gave me ideas for things I could do with the mohair fleece I bought last year. Yay!

Really, if you want a great photo tutorial from one of my classmates, go to this post.  She took much better notes and did a much better job taking pictures than I did!

First, we samples of three different wools: fine, medium, and coarse.  The fine breed was Polwarth (apparently for me, Polwarth was the wool type of SOAR), the medium was Romney and the coarse was Coopworth.  Of course, the Coopworth wasn't really as coarse as some other fibers out there but it was the coarsest in our wool sample. 

After getting used to working with wools, we moved on to fibers which need to be dehaired before you spin them.  If you don't dehair llama, for instance, it would feel extremely itchy because the guard hairs are thicker and more coarse than the rest of the hair.  Our two fibers were llama and Navajo Churro, a sheep breed known for its dual coats.  Rugs and other hard wearing items are woven from this wool because it is so hardy.  We separated the coarse top coat from the downy undercoat.  I spun up a sample from both coats just to see the difference.  The top coat was almost like spinning with fine wire, it was that coarse!  The undercoat was still coarser than some breeds but was much better than the top coat.   It was also a much darker brown than the top coat. 

We moved on to exotic fibers next which were mohair, angora and alpaca.  I've knit with all of these fibers before but had never spun much less combed them.  I was really excited to do the mohair because last year I bought a fleece off of a local woman.  I've wanted to use it but have been worried about messing it up.  Robin advised us to tease the locks open as much as possible so you almost have a cloud of mohair before combing.  That way you will won't have as much loss while combing.  Combing the angora was just like combing a cloud, difficult and whispy!  I think I need a lot more practice before I do a lot of angora prepping.  The alpaca was similar (of course) to llama but with much finer guard hairs. 

The final thing we did, if we had time, was playing with blending fibers on the combs.  I ended up spending my remaining time practicing blending mohair and wool because that is what I want to do with my mohair fleece.  I took some mohair that was dyed golden and blended it with some green wool then red and then white.  It gave the blend a hint of gold and I really liked the way things turned out. 

Robin stressed to us that, with fibers other than wool, you should only use water to dampen down the static.  Oil of any sort gunks up non-wool fibers.  She gave us a recipe for what she calls combing milk for combing wool.  I liked the way it smelled and the oil kept my hands nice and moisturized. 

After class was over, I went over to the marketplace again to browse around.  I bought some weaving bobbins to use for plying once I got home.  That idea of using a drink stirrer was just so perfect that I had to pick up some bobbins (and not have to pay shipping!)

After dinner, they were having the fastest spinner contest.  There were two categories: wheel spun and spindle spun.  The 10 contestants in each category had a pit crew and cheering sections.  They all spun their hearts out for 15 minutes.  It was hysterical!  I bet the resort staff never knew spinners could be so loud!  My favorite person of the night was the lady standing on her chair with her spindle so she could get a longer single before winding it on.  She would yell, "Liquor! Liquor!" and one of her pit crew would hold up a wine glass with a straw in it so she could stay "hydrated." 

Once spinning was halted, the measuring began.  They used one hallway to measure distances.  The wheels of course had the most distance but the spindles produced the finer singles with some being upwards of 80 WPI!  I can't remember how long the winning spindler's single was but the wheeler's was 2 hallways and a bit.  The distances will be listed in the next Spin Off magazine. 

SOAR, the first couple of days

I had a fantastic time at SOAR and really didn't want it to end.  You can't even imagine how many interesting people were there and how many interesting ideas and stories everyone had.  My retreat sessions were so educational, filled with tips and tricks from the teachers as well as the other attendees.  In order to keep things in a little bit of order, I'll go day by day. 

Wednesday, Oct 28, task for the day: flying for eternity
Luckily, my flight out to Oregon on Wednesday wasn't at 6:00 am like I thought but was at 10:30 am.  I was able to wake up at a normal hour without having to rush around.  I had already packed everything the night before and only had to put things in the car and make sure the car was cleaned out.  I didn't want to have much in it because it would be parked in long-term parking for a few days.  The thing that took me the most time in the morning was figuring out which project to work on in the airport and which spindle I wanted with me in my purse.

When I got to the airport, I had a short wait at the counter and then breezed through security.  You could tell that they were really puzzled by the spinning wheel in my carry-on but they didn't pull me out of line for extra security.  My first plane of the day was a little puddle jumper plane so I had to do a plane-side check-in with my wheeled carry-on.  Luckily, I had already shoved my down jacket in there and my wheel was so well packed that I didn't worry too much about it.  The plane took off right on time and I was off to Chicago.

In Chicago, I was lucky to have my next flight departing from only a couple of gates down from where we arrived.  In O'Hare it always seems like you have to hike to the ends of the earth for your connection.  I grabbed a quick snack and waited for my plane to Seattle.  That flight also left on time and I had LOTS of knitting time on the way.  Oh, I suppose you would like to hear about my knitting project for the trip?

Months ago, I bought a raw shetland fleece to home process.  I cleaned and combed most of the fiber and spun it into a fine laceweight. 

I hadn't done anything with that yarn because the perfect pattern hadn't come along yet.  Then I came across a pattern for a beaded stole in knotions called Rising Fog.  The pattern has a big geometric diamond pattern and, in the center of the diamonds, it has beads.  A few days before leaving, I went into Columbus to the bead store and found some beads to match my handspun.   So on my first plane of day, I cast on and started knitting.

I hit a snag in the Seattle airport on my project.  I was in line for food, put my wallet back into my messenger bag and heard a snapping sound.  Sometimes you just know what happened without having to look.  One of my needles had snapped (oh, I was working this shawl on a pair of straights because all of my circular tips in that size were in other projects or I couldn't find them) and of course it was the one with all of the live stitches on it.  Luckily, like all other knitters out there, I had more than one project with me.  In this case, I had my drop spindles and plenty of fiber.  For a while I would use one with one type of fiber and spinning technique and then would switch when I got bored with that. 

The flight from Seattle to Redmond, Oregon was super fast because we had a strong tailwind and our plane arrived almost 40 minutes early.  By this point, my body thought it was 10 pm but all of the clocks thought it was 7 pm.  Guess who won.  I was met by my shuttle and, after a 45 minute drive, I was at Sunriver Resort in Bend Oregon.  

The Great Hall where we ate dinner and had some classes

Let's just say that the resort was spectacular.  If you like golf, they have 3 different world-ranked golf courses.  If you like skiing, they are known for it.  The resort is in the middle of this housing development/community but you could hardly tell it.  It has its own grocery, school, police and fire departments, post office, etc.  The resort has a number of different buildings including the main lodge, the Great Hall (where we ate and had classes), the Homestead (where there were more classes and the marketplace), and different clusters of rooms.  Our room has spoiled me for hotel stays anywhere.  We had a 3 person suite that had 2 queen sized beds upstairs, a queen sized pull-out sofa, a kitchenette, a fireplace, and a porch outside. 

Seating area in a typical suite which also has 2 queen sized beds and a bathroom upstairs 

Thursday, Oct 29, tasks for the day: registration, figuring out where things were, and marketplace
On Thursday, I woke up extremely early thanks to my body having the firm conviction we were still in Eastern Standard Time.  I used the time to spin a bit, listen to my audiobook and gradually wake up.  Thursday was kind of an "in-between" day.  The workshop sessions were finished and all of the retreat people were coming in.  The retreat sessions were going to begin the next day.  It gave all of us retreat people a chance to figure out where things were and which buildings were which.  The great thing about Thursday, though, was the marketplace opening! 

Everyone stood in line waiting for the doors to open and there was a cheer when they finally did.  Things were a little cramped in there with people going to the most popular booths first.  I like going around everywhere to see everything before going back to purchase.  Well, after that first perusal, let's just say, lots of things in the marketplace ended up coming home with me.  First things first was finding a pair of needles to replace the one that broke.  After that, I had a couple of things to pick up. 

I wanted to buy a drop spindle for a friend so I payed special attention to the spindle offerings.  There were a lot there but nothing that looked like it would be right.  Finally, at the Verb for Keeping Warm booth, I saw the spindle that would work.  The display they used didn't hurt because it really caught your eye.  They had the spindles hanging from a tree branch like a whole bunch of spinning ornaments.  The spindle is a little bit more substantial than the ones I tend to use but will be perfect for someone just learning to drop spindle.  She already knows how to spin on a wheel but wants to be able to spin as she goes.  That's a little harder with a wheel. 

While I was in that booth, a delicious braid/skein/bump/what do you call a bunch of pre-yarn fuzz? called my name and whispered decadent things to me.  It's a beautiful dark grey alpaca silk blend that is going to be a dream to spin.

While I'm talking about fiber, I have a confession.  Approximately, *cough* 3 pounds of assorted fiber came home with me.  I blame waiting in the line for the Rovings booth (that is the name of the store) to see why everyone else was in line (I'm nothing if not a lemming).  By this time, I had met up with my friend Kim from my town and we both waited in line.  Kim had come for the full week so the long line was a nice chance to catch up.  We were standing near a 1.5 pound bag of brown Polworth that was a really good price and soooooooo soft.  I swear, it was love at first sight.  Sigh

The other large purchase was a pound of white Rambouillet from the booth next to Rovings.  It was really funny to see the multi-tasking from the people in line.  You might be in line but there was another booth right there!  People would look into the other booth and say "ooo! I want that.  Here is my money!"  All while not leaving the line. 

Of course, I didn't exactly plan to buy that much fiber.  The suitcase I brought is the size of a carry on.  Actually, my wheel suitcase is bigger than the one I used for my clothing.  What does that say about my priorities?  Anywho, my clothes suitcase has a neat backpack that you can tuck the straps in and zip on to the front of the bag.  That bag was empty and I thought it would be sufficient.  Ha!  But I'll tell you more about packing later. 

After dumping all of my goodies from the marketplace back in my room, my roommates, Kim and I went to lunch.  After lunch was registration for us and an excursion trip to the nearby volcanoes for Kim.  Once we finished registrations, my roommates and I went back to the room and napped for a while.  Later, I found out that we missed the introduction ceremony where all of the teachers were introduced which was a real disappointment.  Dinner was after than and then we went to an impromptu spin-in in the main lodge.   There wasn't really one good place to have groups meet-up like a lobby so we ended up taking over the spot where registration was. 

For me as a newcomer, one downside to this SOAR was how de-centralized everything was.  While I really liked the rooms (lap of luxury!) and the resort, the suites made it somewhat isolated and there wasn't a main lobby.  True, the lodge had one but it wasn't big enough for lots of spinners to take it over.  Classes happened in 3 different buildings (which I totally understand because it would be hard to have that many rooms available in one building) which were usually a far distance from the various suites.  It was hard to get groups of people together because you weren't really sure in which building the most people would gather.  Well, it will just encourage me to go to another!  SOAR 2010, here I come!

SOAR, brief overview

If you guys don't mind, I'm going to give you a short overview about my time at SOAR and then go back to do more detailed posts.  I figured, if I waited until I had everything written in detail about each of the days, you would never get any recap about SOAR!

Let me just say, it was soooooo much fun.  I'm definitely planning on going next year.  It is in Wisconsin in 2010 so much closer for those of us in the midwest!  I had a great time meeting all of the people, sharing tips and tricks, and taking classes.  I didn't expect to know as many people there as I did.  It was funny that I had already met everyone there who was from Ohio (OK, fine, there were only a couple of people there from Ohio but still!).  I mean, out of all of the spinners in Ohio and all of the spinners at SOAR?  That's really good odds.  It was a lot of fun to sit down at random tables at meals and start to get to know people. 

I had some fantastic classes.  The first session I had was that spinning for next to the skin.  If you ever have the chance to spin Polworth, TAKE IT!  Gorgeous stuff.  Sarah, the teacher, had some already cleaned fleece and had us try different preparation methods.  One bit we combed, another we carded.  She also had us try different kinds of fleece to see how differently fine wools could be.  The man who raised the sheep whose fleece we were using was there in class.  His wife was attending classes and he decided to sit in ours.  He was able to tell us a lot about the science of breeding, the history of the breed, information about breeding on a large scale (think 200 head) and much more. 

The next session I went to was about using hand combs.  I can't even tell you how glad I am that I took that class.  I have a set of combs but haven't felt that I've used them to their full advantage.  The woman who taught the class makes the St. Blaise wool combs so she definitely knows her stuff.  She had many different samples of fiber for us to use.  She started with wools: fine, medium and long.  We then moved on to llama and Churro, breeds that definitely need dehairing.  Then on to exotics like alpaca, mohair, angora and one other that I can't recall.  Then we played with blending fibers using combs.  It was a lot to pack in one 3 hour session!

The third class I was in was spinning for socks.  I don't think I've spun anything so fast in my life.  We had to spin enough singles for a small amount of 3 ply and a 4 ply cabled yarn.  That is a lot of spinning!  The teacher talked a lot about different fibers and which things were good for socks.  She had us spin a normal BFL then a superwash BFL.  The superwash definitely felt slick and seemed to spin faster than the normal BFL. 

My final class was about working with silk.  Let's just say that, after a week of stewing silk cocoons, that room was pungent.  We did a lot of hands on things and was really fun.  He had us reel silk and make silk hankies.  I have some of the silk we reeled before it was degummed and after it was and the difference is amazing.

The only bad part of SOAR was that probably a third of the people there got sick.  Everyone thought that it had started at Rhinebeck.  People got sick there then the illness had enough time to really get going before they came to Oregon.  From there, the people who were there all week got sick.  From there it passed on to all of the people who came in for the second half of the week.  One of my roommates was one of the unlucky and came down with what was going around.  I hope she feels much better soon!  The other roommate and I had both gotten flu shots prior to traveling so, as of right now, neither of us came down with anything.  All of the travel and time in airplanes is definitely an assault on your immune system!  

OK, my next post is going to have a more detailed breakdown of the trip and pictures.  I think that you will get only a few days in each post just so you don't have to read forever.  

Bad blogger

I went to Seattle last week but did I take pictures? No. Did I tell you about it before hand? No. Did I have a fun whirlwind trip? Yes. Was there yarn? Yarn crawl, yes, but buying of yarn, no. Buying of fiber and spindles *cough* yes. I'll let you guys know more about my whirlwind trip later this week.

Recap-ish

Sorry I've been awol for so long. Things have been very stressful at work and I haven't felt like being in front of the computer to blog or even update Ravelry much (gasp!). I guess I'll start with a brief recap of what has been happening at work and then move on to the knitting and spinning.

I work at a public library. We have been cutting back for a long time: not filling open positions, not ordering office supplies, not ordering new books, taking one of the lightbulbs out of the staff area lights, etc. etc. In the middle of November, there was a library board meeting. We all thought that board meeting wouldn't bring anything good. That weekend, I took Friday off to visit a friend in Pittsburgh. While I was driving there, the assistant director called my cell phone (ominous, huh?) and said that I should check my work email and that there were many changes afoot but I wasn't being fired. I decided that I would have a good weekend with my friend and the only way to do that was to not check my email until Sunday evening when I got home. When I finally did check it, things were definitely disrupted.

That Friday, 8 people were laid off immediately with more layoffs in the future. Those included ALL of the part-timers by the middle of December. My library system has 5 branches, the main library, and a bookmobile. All of those places had part-timers. Main had the most. If that didn't balance the budget/lessen the deficit, 5 more people who had been hired after July 07 would be laid off, too, by the end of December. Needless to say, things are now like a tomb in the library. I also can't see how the branches can function with only 3 people at each branch.

One of the first 8 people to be laid off was my absolutely fabulous boss. I can't tell you how much I miss working for her. My other coworker in my department has been transferred out to a branch (ironically my former one) and I've been transferred into the reference department. I like the people there but I hardly get a chance to do what I love. Reader's advisory is my first love and reference definitely comes in second.

All of this made me not want to knit for a very long time. Everything made me sick at heart and so very depressed when I got home. For the first week, I didn't even do anything except discuss the situation with my parents. For the weeks after, I finally started knitting simple projects because that was all that I could concentrate on. Even though the situation still sucks, I've finally started knitting more complicated projects.

NaKniSweMo back in November went well for me. I probably could have gotten more done if the work news wasn't so devastating. I finished my feminized Cobblestone and absolutely love it. I finished it in plenty of time even without knitting for a week. Apparently I thought my arms were extremely long, though, because they ended up being 4 inches too long. I ended up snipping one stitch 4 inches up from the cuff, unraveling, and reknitting the garter stitch cuff again. I think I might need to do this on the neck opening because the opening is very wide. But I'll do that later.

I still am knitting on my Hey, Teach! in a natural O-Wool Balance. This sweater, however, has been pushed to the side thanks to Christmas knitting. I've finished the front and the back pieces and just started on the sleeves. I'm modifying mine to have 3/4 length sleeves (my favorite length) rather than having cap sleeves. My arms are always cold so cap sleeves just don't make sense for me. Hmmm, this makes me want to start working on this sweater again and get it finished.

Christmas knitting: Wow, there was a lot though there wasn't really a lot. I didn't blog about any of those projects a) because I wasn't blogging for a while and b) because some of the recipients read this blog. I'll post pictures in the next post. (I was going to be all picture efficient and have everything in one place but then I forgot the camera cable. Oops.) I really tried to stay with the homemade pledge this year. Most of the gifts were either made by me or made by someone else, not bought at big stores. I didn't finish one present for mom because the pattern for it sucks and I have to rewrite it all . She doesn't know about that one, though.

In non-Christmas knitting, I made up a cowl using some laceweight alpaca from Earthly Hues. I've been borrowing a cowl from mom for riding for the last year or so and it was more than past time for me to make one myself. This cowl is fantastically soft but I really thought I was going to scream every time I picked it up on the last 4 inches. Don't get me wrong, the pattern is well written. It was just the same thing over and over and over. I was really ready for something else by the time I was almost finished. I refused to let myself stop early because I wouldn't have been happy with the finished product.

I'm also working on a pair of plain vanilla socks in Austermann Step. The color of the yarn is Gras (grass in German). Amazingly, even though green is my favorite color, I don't have any purely green socks. This pair will fix that problem. They are my go-to simple project for when I'm not in the mood to work on any thing complicated. That means it will probably take a while to finish them because there isn't a push to finish them.

Well, that's all for right now! Hope everyone has been well.

Quick update

I only have a short while because I'm borrowing power, internet and computer. On Sunday, we got hit by Ike's winds and had a 4 hour wind storm which knocked out the power in most of my county (as well as IN and the rest of the state). Lots of trees and branches came down (along with electric, phone and cable lines) but, from what I've seen around, not too much damage to cars and houses. One tree was ripped out of the ground after being twisted around 360 degrees. We only had a couple of large branches come down, none of which hit the house. One tree in the front yard is going to have to be torn down because most of its limbs fell off including one which might block the road if it falls. At least it won't hit the house. Dad told me to pull out of the driveway really, really fast. Hmmm. . . .

We haven't had power since Sunday and probably won't have it for another couple of days. My house it at the end of a power line and, because most of the houses on the line have gotten electric back, we will probably be put far down on the priority list. At least our power company didn't send most of their people down to TX to work on hurricane damage like AEP did.

The library has been closed 3 days so far. I didn't hear that the library was closed on the radio this morning so I went into work. (It was closed.) The normal way I go in had 2 huge trees blocking the road. My little town is doing much better on the clean-up than the town where I work. I was hoping the library would be open today so I could charge my phone and iPod but that was not to be. We'll have to see about tomorrow.

I've been knitting a little (once the sun goes down I go to bed and it gets hard to see to knit) and will have to tell you about it later!

Birthday, FOs, and TNNA. Oh, my!

My work is nice because it gives you your birthday off. So Wednesday I basically did nothing except knit and spin. I'm not big on birthday celebrations but I think Mom felt guilty because she didn't have anything planned. So she threw together a small thing after riding last night.

We had been having heavy, heavy rain all morning but, miraculously, it cleared up in the afternoon and I was able to go riding. The horse was so thrilled about that :) Because the arena didn't have much time to drain, there were huge puddles that I made him go through. It was a little too hot for the full Grand Prix-style trot (knees up to his chin and very collected) but Java did a huge extended canter through the puddles. I love making him work through puddles even though he really hates it. But he loves going through the "pond" (oversized puddle) in the back and loves going through creeks. Go figure.

I finished spinning up a tencel blend that I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool and started up on some llama a friend gave me. It is really interesting to spin llama. I think I might make a hat from it.

I was also knitting up some more baby bibs. My reserves of baby gifts were getting a little low and I wanted to get rid of some more yarn from the stash.
I've now finished up 2 bibs and am on the strap section of another one right now. I still have enough yarn to make up another bib so I might do that in the next couple of days. They only take about 2 hours (at most) to make so it is a really simple and fast knit.

In other FO news, I made some more cat toys but these ones weren't knit. Instead they were needle felted balls with blended roving. The right one I blended some darker wool with lighter to get nice dark brown streaks. The left one I blended some dyed roving with the light colored wool. These are going to be gifts along with 5 catnip mousies in exchange for a couple of raw Jacob sheep fleeces (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Did you see the Little Acorn Project Bag pattern? It is a crochet pattern. I saw it the other day and pulled some yarn out of my stash to get a start on it. This acorn bottom doesn't look like much until it is paired with the top and then it looks much more like an acorn. I need to tweak the top because my crocheting abilities kind of make it look rippled and I want to make it look more acorn-y.

Today (Thursday), I was able to go to a sock class taught by Cat Bordhi (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) at TNNA. Kim wasn't able to use her ticket so she generously gave it to me. The class was soooo interesting. You can definitely tell that Cat is thinking all of the time and her brain is definitely working differently than everyone else's. It was fascinating to hear her explaining how to design your own socks. She was really funny, very helpful and a really good teacher.
Here are the baby socks that I made yesterday during class. They are made from a Panda Silk something or other, doubled because even though it says it is DK weight, it is really fingering. The class was 6 hours long but it felt like it just flew right by. Such a fun late birthday gift!