by Kat | Mar 18, 2008 | General
Hello everyone!
Last night Sandy and I went to spin with the Woodland Spinners. It was great fun! What an upbeat group of talented spinners! I even met someone who is a new spinner like me! She started spinning in August when she took a class at Allegan Fiber Festival! We laughed about celebrating our one year “spiniversay” together! There was also some great discussion from the group on participating in the “Sheep to Shawl” contest that they have at Allegan! Lots of new thoughts swirling around in my head!
And, tonight the Holland Spinners are meeting! This will be fun as well – I took the Dyeing class with Lisa and Jenna and I am looking forward to seeing their fibers!! I started spinning my Merino/Bamboo roving last night. Yum! I like!! I saw something interesting on Abby’s blog and I am doing that with my roving. We’ll see how it turns out!
One last tidbit to leave you with. In our Thursday night knitting group we have a lovely lady who has 9 children. Yes, you read that correctly – nine! Well, last night I met another lovely lady who has her beat and beat by a mile. She has 13 children ranging in ages from 31 years old to 8 years old. I almost fell out of my spinning chair and, if I still had my uterus, it would have been crying!! Thirteen kids – oh. my. gosh. And, get this gentle reader, they do this with a bath and a half. She was loads of fun, which you would have to be with 13 kids – don’t you think? And, what is the break down – boys to girls, you ask? Seven boys and six girls. Here is what I am thankful for – I am not doing their laundry!!
Have an awesome Tuesday all!
by Kat | Mar 17, 2008 | General
Color Queen! (Okay, so I took a little license with the Beatles song… )
I had a whirlwind weekend – literally. I drove to Glen Arbor to get Sam on Friday – 6 hours round trip. However, I stopped a couple of places along the way. Just a little fiber distraction!
Saturday dawned bright and early – I had a Dyeing Class at City Knitting with Lovely Rita, The Color Queen. Wow. What I learned was truly amazing. Rita is an excellent teacher and my classmates were amazingly creative. Do you find that when you are surrounded with creative people, you are more creative? Well, that certainly was the case on Saturday.
Rita’s wealth of knowledge in Dyeing is amazing – and I have a feeling we just scratched the surface of her wisdom on Saturday.
These are the beauties that I created on Saturday. They are still a bit damp, but the colors are just glorious!
I started with some lovely Alpaca with a Twist Fino – and ended up with 875 yds of this luscious creation.
This is some Henry’s Attic Licorice Twist – a merino with a strand of super wash. I am not certain how much yardage there is, but trust me, it is lots! See how the super wash grabbed more of the color… cool, huh?
Now this is 2 hanks of Peruvian Tweed Superfine Alpaca – 1200 yds of it! Intense, vibrant colors!
And, finally I dyed 4 oz. of Merino/Bamboo roving. See the kind of white sliver running through? That is the bamboo.
I was so happy with my creations! I am itching to try some more overdyeing here at home soon!
Then Sunday I ended up having to drive Sam back to school – another 6 hour round trip. Oh, boy – it feels like I lived in the car this weekend.
On the job front – I have found out my schedule at the hospital and I am going to have to drop the local spinning and knitting nights…. I will have to work on Tuesday and Thursday’s and I won’t get back into Holland until after 7:30PM. That is kind of sad, but I am so thankful for a job that I am not complaining. I also will have to give up choir – as I won’t get there in time either. Small sacrifices in the scheme of things.
On a brighter note, there is a group starting on Monday nights – which will work for me. New beginnings all around!
I need to get moving here, have a great Monday all!
by Kat | Mar 13, 2008 | General
is still kicking my butt.
Okay, I don’t know about you but I am still struggling with the time change. I am waking up at a ridiculous hour and, while I love the lengthened daylight hours, by 8 o’clock at night I am just wiped out! Last night I was going to sit down and read a bit in my new book In Sheep’s Clothing: A Handspinner’s Guide to Wool and I just could not stay awake! This has been my plan all week – to get a little of this book read each evening – but that is not happening! I am hoping that by next week my body has adjusted to this change!
Oh, and have you all seen the new Knitty is up?! Wow, there are some great patterns in there this month! I instantly printed off the Lace Ribbon Scarf and Honeycomb. I have in my stash some Alpaca Sox and some Silky Wool. How perfect, huh? It is a beautiful issue with some great changes – the pattern archive is much more user friendly. So, I need to knit faster on my May Day socks so they are finished so I can start some new projects without a guilty conscience!
Of course that did not impede me too much when I cast on Agatha this week! I knit my swatch and love how it looks! I am using Dream In Color Classy in the Dusky Aurora color way that I got here this weekend! I cast on for the shawl and have completed the set up and one complete of pattern A and B – now I just alternate between A and B until I have a shawl that is the size I want and then I do the edging. It is easy and fun – and I am ignoring my knitting conscience by telling myself that I am so tired – frogging back on my sock will be much more difficult than frogging back on worsted weight yarn. Sounds good, huh?
Okay – next big news…. I have made reservations for Rhinebeck! Sandy and I have plans to head out in October to be part of this event. There was a certain person who encouraged us – so we made reservations here. So, I have my mattress all set to hold all the money I am going to be stuffing into it! I am looking forward to seeing many of you there! I am even going to try and convince this lady to go. She is loads of fun.
And the final bit of information I will leave you with today is this…
The Yarn Harlot is coming back to A2 in April.
April 11th to be exact.
At 7PM.
An evening of fun and laughter. How can you miss?
Have a great day everyone!
by Kat | Mar 11, 2008 | General
Hello everyone. If you are a lover of snow, I am sorry because if you listen outside you will hear the snow calling out like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz after Dorothy dumped a bucket of water on her…
“I’m melting!!!!”
Yes, we are loosing more and more snow each and every day. After receiving about 110 inches of this wintry white stuff since Christmas – it seemed a bit like a permanent resident!
This morning when I let the pups out I heard the birds celebrating the day!
I am excited for the exit of snow and winter!
I am excited for spring! We have rain in the forecast this week – and over 40 degree weather! Even though a friend reminded me that with rain comes mud – bring it on, baby!
As we work our way through the remaining days of Lent and Easter is coming up fast – I am ready for the renewal of life that happens each spring!
Have a great day everyone!
by Kat | Mar 10, 2008 | General
Hello everyone! Well, it has been a whirlwind weekend for me with Lucy, errr – Sandy (who really needs to get a blog!). And, it ended on a high note with a visit to the Ann Arbor Library to hear Amy Singer speak about No Sheep For You or knitting with something other than wool!
She had Tuscany with her and, be still my heart, I think I have a whole new respect for silk shawls. Wow. Oh what a feeling! I have fallen in lust deep like with that shawl. You will see it shortly in my queue on Ravelry. Must. Knit. Silk.
And how perfect with spring knocking gently on our West Michigan Door.
There were lots of fun and fabulous knitters there as well… lots of fun, extremely fabulous, molto delicioso knitters! There was one shop in particular that seemed to be buzzing on the lips of many there… that shop owners ears must of just been on fire!
Sorry that I don’t have and photographic evidence of the mischief, mayhem, and fun that was had by all – you will just have to take my word for it!
Okay – I am off to knit a bit and make up a schedule for my remaining days as a Gainfully Unemployed Michigan Citizen…
Have a nice evening all!
