Washing Day

Taking advantage of being all alone on a semi-sunny Saturday morning, I dug all my unwashed fleece out of the shed. I only have a smallish bag of Jacob and a giant bag of Gulf Coast left with a few very small bags of dark Romney. I felt a small wave of panic as I really thought I had more.




Then I remembered the 9 pounds of Cormo tucked away in the living room.



I decided to tackle a small bit of the precious Cormo first so I pulled a few layers apart and loosely stuffed it into 3 net bags. I stuffed it into my former crab pot for a good soak on the stove in soapy hot water.



After one washing it still looks pretty yucky, but I think most of that dirt is going to fall out after a good combing. At least I hope so.



Who would think that spending a Saturday picking poo out of wool would be the best day ever?

Arghhhhh....

I love my swift and ball winder. I really do. But I am NOT happy when the center explodes into a tangled mess right in the middle of my perfectly nice project. This has been happening more and more lately so I am suspecting some type of user error. Thank goodness there is another end I can get my hands on. I would be very unhappy if I had to rewind all that into a ball. And for the record, I am still pouting about having to cut my work and rejoin it to the outside strand.

Some Fuzzy Sunshine

During last week's drizzle and gloom, I couldn't resist jump starting summer by ordering this brilliant lemony-orange merino from Freckle Face Fiber. Although I have already bought the yarn for my Citron, I have recently had the urge to spin the yarn for one as well. I say this with all good intentions but this is so pretty, it just may become one of my fiber "pets" instead.

Lunchtime!

Taking a break from a room full of first graders for 30 lovely minutes is my reward each day for the 2 and 1/2 hours I spend each morning trying to convince 6-year-olds that learning to read and write is really in their best interest. The Prodigy and I have been putting those few minutes to very good use.



This is a batt The Prodigy dyed and then overdyed resulting in some really lovely mulberry colored singles she is spinning. And I mean really spinning. She passed the "park and draft" stage in only a couple of weeks and is now letting the spindle actually drop. I am so impressed. That took me almost a year to master.



This is her first ball of newly plied yarn from her first attempt at spinning EVER. Jeesh. My first ball of yarn looked like...well...you know. If you spin, you know that for most people that first tiny sample defies a single description. It is a cross between overspun rope and the stuff you find in the top of medicine bottles. This, on the other hand, is perfectly wonderful for someone's first attempt EVER. Now she wants to learn to chain ply. For real.

Labor of Love

Just a few months shy of their 50th wedding anniversary, my parents were parted by the death of my mother from a particularly evil type of leukemia. Eight awful years have passed since those terrible days and life has rarely been worth living for my dear old dad.



Always the crafty kind of guy, he has recently turned his attention to some scraps he found in my mom's sewing box. They are the remnants of maternity tops my mom had made almost 30 years ago for her 3 daughters in anticipation of a soon-to-be house full of grandchildren. In his too quiet house, he spends his lonely days paper piecing them into a Grandma's Garden quilt.
Doesn't it just break your heart?

Getting a Little Closer

My adventures in dyeing took a slight turn for the better this week, when I managed to produce something that is not too bad. I took my time and made some samples before I just dumped dye all over the unsuspecting 4 ounces of Polwarth.



I tried to leave a little room for the dye to mix and mingle, as I know it does once it hits the steam pot but I misjudged how much room I needed so I ended up with too much white.



The day was hot and sunny so after only an hour or two I had lots of dry fiber to take photos of.



I am not hating how it turned out, but I am not completely loving it either. The olive green, pink and gold are certainly more subtle than the neon colorways I usually churn out, but it is still lacking the intensity that I see in the fiber I buy from the professional dyers.



I still have 4 more ounces of this left so next time may just be the charm. In the meantime, this will make a pair of perfectly fine old socks.

Crest of the WHAT?

I intended to dedicate my summer knitting time to the Crest of the Wave tank top.



The Memorial Day holiday gave me an excuse to climb into bed in broad daylight with my new project. Happy as I was to find a few minutes to myself, trying to wrap my brains around casting on the tank top gave me a MAJOR headache.





I just don't understand why some patterns are written more like brain teasers than directions. I can't read the designer's mind when big chunks of information are missing or implied. Thank goodness for Ravelry. I have had to go to the project pages several times to try to figure out how to increase for the V-neck shaping but I still haven't got it figured out quite yet. I am quickly losing interest in this thing. It may just be headed for the frog pond. And while I am complaining, I am thinking that color is pretty darn yucky too.