Easter in June

I've been making a big mess on the deck again.

I was spinning happily on my Easter Egg dyed socks when I noticed the bag of roving was getting rather light.

I had cranked out 100 grams on the carder and now I had about 50 grams left. That seemed to be enough weight wise for a pair of socks but the bobbin looked mighty empty.

 I only had some odds and ends left to card but I did have another package of egg dye....

...and a small bag of white locks that had already been washed.

 The locks got a soak in vinegar water and a spin.

There were 12 tablets of dye so I had to use all the jars I had.

 It was too bad I didn't have more clean locks because it was a giant waste of all those pretty colors. I will buy more boxes of egg dye next year. Two is not enough.

The jars got a 30 minute steaming. Egg dye is tricky to exhaust. I had to put some back in to steam again. Blues and greens were the worst offenders.

 This batch came out much darker than the original batch so I am going to have to take that into consideration when I spin this. I hate that. I hate thinking about making colors when I spin. I just want to spin. Dammit.

While the dye pot was steaming, I washed my way through a batch of Cormo locks by dunking and soaping them up one at at time. It went quickly and I had this bunch washed and dyed in less than an hour. My last washing of three trays worth netted about 40 grams of extremely lovely, clean uncombed fiber that is a dream to spin. I could easily wash a shawl's worth in a few days so this will be my method of washing all my pretty locks from now on. No giant pots of hot water, no net bags-just a tea kettle of hot water, a jar of detergent and a bar of soap. Sweet. I am just kicking myself for passing up all that lovely Cormo at this year's MDSW.

Lots of Green Things

Daddio and I have a little vegetable garden in his backyard. Neither of us have much of a green thumb but we did manage to get the pumpkins to sprout again this year. There were also a pretty little row of sunflowers growing behind them but you don't want to ask me about what happened to them. The lesson learned is that Daddio is NOT allowed to weed without CLOSE supervision. I owe the neighbors an apology for my language when I discovered they were gone. It was not pretty.

On a happier note, we have had some luck with the tomatoes.

 We have several varieties in pots all over the place.

They are covered in blooms and are looking pretty happy about it.

 The bush beans had a rocky start but seem to have bounced back. This is the first time ever that we have had flowers so just maybe we will see some beans this year.

The peppers are looking pretty healthy for a change also. Last year I only got two or three tiny shriveled up things that I am not sure were even really peppers.

Sadly, the broccoli, cauliflower, collards, chard and brussel sprouts all met the same fate. They were attacked and devoured by hoards of tiny caterpillars. We tried to pick them off but they won. The plants are all in the compost. We don't want to spray chemicals on the plants so we need to come up with a better plan of attack for next year. 

 At least the squash seem to still be doing what they are supposed to. I had them under row covers but now they need pollinating so I am keeping my fingers crossed they can survive the hoards of hungry bugs that have targeted my little garden this year.

 The fig tree is covered with figs so I better be finishing up the last of last year's jam so I can wash out those jelly jars for refilling.

 Mom's hydrangea is looking exceptionally beautiful, however. I have never seen so many blooms on it.

 Her daylilies are also gorgeous. That woman could grow anything.

 

Of course if she could see what we have let happen to her beloved gazebo she would be kicking some serious butt. We just can't keep up with all the green things she left behind. Some have taken on a life of their own and we respect that. Well, anyway...that's our story and we're sticking to it.

Surprise Package

Way back in late winter, I won a prize for participating in the Flight Path KAL over in the Mary Scott Huff Group on Ravelry.

My prize finally showed up.

It's was supposed to be a $30 gift certificate but instead I received a skein of sock yarn. I'm not complaining. While it's not a colorway I would have chosen for myself, it is certainly nice enough for a pair of gift socks. Since I have been asked by several people lately for a new pair, I suppose I am just going to draw a name out of a hat.

Girl's Weekend

It's not very often that me and my sisters get together but when we do it is always a weekend to remember. On Saturday we worked for about seven hours straight putting up a pool in Middle Sister's backyard. On Sunday, we fine tuned Daddio's yard. Little Sister had never used the new riding mower. I've had the all the fun for the past few weeks so I didn't mind sharing. That beautiful blue behind her is the Chesapeake Bay. Daddio has a spectacular view.

After we tucked Daddio in for a nap, we had some time to ourselves. The Sisters love their hooky-me not so much.

I spent the day trying to convert them.

Little Sister swears she is going to finish the garter stitch spa cloth that I started her out on. We'll see.

 She brought along her gorgeous version of the Serendipity quilt. It still needs its sashing and borders.

 My washed out photos are not even close to the real colors but I'll be sure to get a better picture once it is done.

 We finished up the weekend by making some black bean/quinoa burgers.

They were extremely scrummy.

So much so that I didn't even remember to take any pictures of them finished. I just stuffed them in my face and called it a day.

Pretty in Pink

The Cormo locks are finally dry enough to be played with. They are cleanest locks I have ever worked with. Whoever thought of washing them one at a time is a genius.

The resulting fiber is really yummy and for once my dye job is not so terrible.

Carding Cormo is out of the question but combing can work-sometimes. You have to be very gentle and then stop before it starts to ball up on you. The Romney on the left combs out like hair. The Cormo on the right will very quickly become a solid mass if I keep combing it to try and straighten it out.

Twisting it and flicking the ends works best.

You don't get much out of one lock....

... but what you get is perfect for spinning lace weight on a drop spindle.

 I know I am going to be kicking myself because I didn't make more of these pretty pink locks. Cormo is the softest wool I have ever felt and it would have been nice to have had a shawl's worth. It is the only wool that I can wear around my neck. As I have said before, I could wear underwear knit from this stuff.

 For now I am packing this away for hot weather spinning along with the remaining locks that still need flicking and....

this and.......

that and......

oh yeah, this. I should be ashamed.

Still Infected

My Color Affection is dry and all I can think about is what I might have in the stash to make another.

I have no idea why this thing is so addicting. It is certainly not the best looking thing I have ever made. It is, however, light and airy and big enough to do it's job. Perfect for when I have to go inside somewhere that is too air conditioned in the hot summer weather like a restaurant or the movies, where I always freeze.

I also have a confession. I was right when I thought that mine was a bit skinnier than the ones I had seen. I left out one of the stripe repeats at the very end. It seems the word "more" as in "7 more repeats" was overlooked. I should have had 8 repeats and I only have 7. It still works as a nice little shawlette. I wore it to the Doc's yesterday with Daddio and it did a very nice job of keeping my shoulders warm without being too much, so I am considering this mistake a win. Now to go find something that works with bright pink...

Blocked

The Color Affection came off the needles this morning. I was not impressed. It was too skinny. It didn't look like the other ones I had seen. Did I do something wrong?

I dug out all my instruments of yarn torture, thinking it may just need a good blocking.

After a good soak and a ride in the salad spinner, I wove in my blocking wires and pinned it out.

Nope. This wasn't going to work. I wanted a straight edge not a pointy one.

 The answer was a lot simpler than I imagined. I just had to pat it into place with my hands letting the natural curve do its job. Now it's nice and fat and round-like all the rest of them.

The yarnover trick worked very well. The edge was nice and loose-plus it's very pretty, even where I had to twist the colors so extremely to get them to go up the edge You can't see the twists at all. I used Stephen West's stretchy bind off from his Pogona shawl. Someone put a video tutorial up on You Tube and it was just what I was looking for. It is a simple k2tog through the back loops, slip back to left needle and repeat. The only problem is that now I want to make a pink one.