A Project is Born

Since I finished the purple cable socks, I needed something to keep my hands busy while sitting all day at the hospital. When I am not at the hospital, I have been helping my sisters get Daddio's house in order. While doing laundry I found his handknit winter socks in the bottom of the laundry basket in pretty rough shape.



I happen to be the proud owner of an enourmous sock yarn stash so it only made sense to start some new socks for Daddio's sad little feet. His falls after surgery, while in his anesthesia demented state, have left him unable to stand but stand again or not, feet need socks-so socks it is.



I did not reach for my sock yarn treasures (him being a man and all) but I did come up with some solid stuff that should keep those old tootsies warm come winter.

I'm Baaaaack!!!!

Blogger gave me a big scare this week when a glitch caused me not to be able to log into my account. I have been too busy running back and forth to the hospital visiting Daddio to take the time to sort it all out, but this morning, thanks to a Blogger forum, I found the answer I was looking for. I had to completely clear out my history to fix the issue. Whew...

It's About Time

I started these cabled socks ages ago. I have been carrying them around putting on a row here and there and they were a total pain. Keeping track of cables on a knit in public project is not a lot of fun and I will never do it again. While Daddio is sleeping off his anesthesia issues, I had time to finally get these D.O.N.E. A pair of plain vanillas are going in the bag next. I need a brain break in more ways than one.

A Stitch in Time

After the ambulance pulled away with Daddio early Saturday morning, I picked up one of his quilt blocks and stuffed it in my bag. When the ER doctor dismissed my dad's delirium to old age, I took it out to show him what he had been working on the morning of his surgery. The doctor quickly changed his opinion and ordered further tests. The next day I packed up more of his projects and turned his hospital room into a workshop.



Whenever a doctor or nurse tried to blame his mental problems on old age, I pointed out what he had been capable of just days before.



Today he is finally showing some signs of cognitive improvement. We counted his paper piecing patterns. The big breakthrough came when he looked up and asked me why I was crying. Tears of joy, daddio, tears of joy.

Look Before You Leap

If you have an elderly parent facing surgery, make sure they understand the risks involved. Daddio was very independent and took care of his medical issues all by himself as he has his whole life. Now we wish he hadn't because his anecdotal history left out a lot of details that the doctors should have known about. Look at this article to see what we are facing and how to protect your parents from an all too common disorder that could be prevented:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2007/02/12/an_ends_beginning/

Have Projects Will Travel

I took Gail and Miss Purple Cable Sock along with some paper piecing work to the hospital while Daddio had what we thought was just routine back surgery.



It was anything but routine. I got a lot of knitting done on this sock while he was in recovery for a very long 5 hours.



The next day Miss Purple Sock and I returned for another long vigil, but this time it was in his hospital room. Right now he is still in the hospital having some kind of weird reaction to the anesthesia (they think) but I am no longer in the mood to knit or to do anything other than worry and fret.

Orea and Rodeo's Mug Shot

I bought some cream colored Merino to wash and spin two years ago. The 4 ounces didn't amount to much so I went looking for some other Merino to wash and spin that would work with it. Two years later, I finally have a project's worth of yarn and a free wheel.



I spun it all from the lock which was quite an adventure. It was slow going, very slow going. The resulting yarn is not too shabby. I chain plied it to give it some bulk so I can use it for... a...um...er...Well, honestly I don't know. You would think that after sitting and thinking while spinning this for TWO YEARS that I would have come up with something to do with it. Nope.

Unweaving

Taking your knitting apart is called "tinking" but what do you call it when you have to take out all the rows you just wove? I used a varigated yarn for the weft that I am just not loving with the plaidish warp.



I am using cheap a** yarn, leftover from all the cheap a** Fake Isle hats that I was obsessed with this winter. I bought tons of this stuff in lots of colors so now need a way to use it up as the hat obsession is over-for now. I am going to try and make a larger throw type-thingy by sewing the woven panels together.



A Ravelry buddy suggested this book and I have found lots of inspiration and some of the answers I have been looking for in it.



I love the spiral bound format. It has many, many great project ideas plus lots of tutorials on techniques that I didn't even know existed. It is all still like reading Greek to me, but everyone has to start somewhere.

Ice, Ice Baby

I love Lopi so much that when I saw the Icelandic booth at this year's Sheep and Wool Festival, I just had to bring some home to try my hand at spinning my own. I bought two 2 ounce bags in different, natural colors. The Yarnspinner's latest spin along is to make thick singles so following her directions I am going to try to see if I can come close to making my own handspun version of my favorite mitten yarn. I just know I am going to regret not buying more.

Scrappy Batt

All the combing leftovers from yesterday made a very nice little batt. I cranked it through the drum carder several times and it is as soft and fluffy as if I had used the combed fiber. Maybe I am working too hard. This Jacob wants to be spun no matter what I do to it.

Spending the Morning with Jacob

That Jacob fleece that I bought at the festival is amazing. I have had to rethink how I am going to wash it.



I usually just throw Jacob in a lingerie bag and hope for the best but I think I want to keep that lock structure and I needed something to hold it together. I have nylon net bags that I pin together but this morning I decided to reinforce all the little pockets with stitches.



It was a bit of a squeeze getting the locks in but they did fit.



These are the Corriedale locks. I made enough bags to be able to wash 2 Jacob and 2 Corriedale batches at one time.



The wool I had washed earlier in my lingerie bags was dry enough to handle so I combed it with my mini combs to see what it would do.



It did very nicely, so I took my big combs and a diz out in the shade to make some nests for spinning. Repeat this by a hundred and I may have it all done one day.

Something Done

Ages ago my sister sent me this box of yarn for a reason I can't remember.



Months and months ago, I started a weaving project with it.



It sat on the loom, as an object d'art forever because I couldn't decide how to finish the ends. I was so inspired by weaving that I saw happening at the festival last week that I decided to try my hand at hemstitching. The verdict is out on how well I did. It all looks a little on the wonky side and the fringe still needs to be evened out but it has me all excited about the possibilities of making something other than the same old scarves and shawls. The yarn, Caron's Eco Soft. turned out to make a lovely soft fabric. I need to get more.

Tweet, Tweet

If I want to get to all that new stuff I bought at the Festival I have to get the old stuff out of the way. Note to self: Don't start new projects in April. As much as I wanted to dive into the pretty new fiber, I had to make myself sit down and prepare that Easter egg dyed fiber for spinning instead.



All that handling during the dyeing process was NOT a good thing. Not at all. The fiber was so compacted, it couldn't be drafted. Polwarth is so fine a wool that it must felt very easily. I was not too far from having nothing but a giant felted snake. Not good.



I had to carefully pull it apart into little sections and pre-draft the heck out of it to open it up enough to spin.



Now I have a box of fluffy little bird nests to spin but any plans for doing interesting things with the colors is now out the window.

More Fun in the Sun

Sunny weather means I have a place to dry wet wool so I got out the bags of new stuff to wash up a bit.



The Corriedale locks are as big as my hand.



The Jacob locks are the longest I have ever seen.



I separated the Jacob by color.



And gave them a bubble bath in the sink with some Kookaburra Wool Wash. Ewwww....the water was nasty.



The Corrie had to soak overnight in cold water because the tips were very dirty and hard.



The Jacob washed very nicely. The white became very bright.



The Corrie turned out nicely as well. The locks lost some of their shape and crimp. I am hoping they will comb out easily once they are dry. After fighting all year with that greasy Cormo, I am looking forward to something that will draft without a struggle.



The Jacob dried quickly and fluffed up into a big mound of fuzz. I would love to spin it but I don't have a wheel open at the moment. That means I really need to get to work and finish what I started months ago. I've got a lot to do.

Fun In the Sun

We have had a run of really good weather so I took my little drum carder outside to play with some of the bazillion bags of fiber I own. Those center pull bumps are stuck in my brain and I thought that maybe I could make a center pull batt.



Right about now I am thinking that I just wasted a morning and a lot of pretty fiber.



After rolling it, it didn't look too bad.



I unrolled it, then folded it in half and rolled it up again then tied it around the middle.



I dug around in the center and pulled out the end until I had enough out to start spinning.



I found I could pull quite a lot out at a time but it was too hard to spin with the length still connected so I broke it off making sure I had some still sticking out of the batt so I could pull out more when needed. So far it has been working fairly well but only time will tell how far I can keep going like this.

Post Fest Knit Night:The Rewrite

Blogger lost my original post and all of my photos in their big crash last week. I was very unhappy about it until my son reminded me that the photos were probably still in the trash. As you can see he was right.
I can't remember what I originally wrote about these photos, but I do recall it being a rather celebratory night with lots of beer.



We had a new knitter show up. It was someone we met at the Festival who happens to live near our cafe. Small world.



The only finished object to show off was this cute little bootie.




Our assignment this week was to bring the loot we had gathered at the Sheep and Wool Fest so we could all ooh and aah over it.



There was a lot to see....



...silk scarf kits to felt...



...new spindles to spin...



...lots and lots of yarn...



...silky yarn...



...sock yarn...



...yarn from Pucker Brush Farms, one of my favorite booths to visit every year.



I also caught the moment where a new spinner discovered why her new toy was called a "drop" spindle.

I had loads of fun as usual but just found out that I will miss out on next week due to dear old Daddio's back surgery. Try not to have too much fun without me ladies. I'll be back as soon as I can, hopefully with some finished objects to share.