TdF Stage 1 & 2

So, yesterday saw the start of the Tour de Fleece.  I had to work, then volunteered for a few hours at Heritage Farm, so ended up doing Stage 1 on one of my drop spindles, spinning some Jacob roving I got a few years ago at MDSW.  I got the spindle mostly full, so am happy with it:

Today, for Stage 2, I started on the main project I have planned for the tour.  I have ~5 lbs of a Leicester Longwool x, also purchased at MDSW, and will be playing with it for the next several, using different preps and drafting to see which I prefer.  Once I decide which I like best, I will be spinning the rest in that style and (hopefully) knitting a sweater out of it.  

So, I split the fleece into 1 ozes and spun them each on a bobbin.  Two ozes were spun long draw and will be plyed tomorrow.  The other bobbin was spun short draw and I still have the other bobbin to spin tomorrow, then it will be plyed with the one from today on Tuesday.

I am really looking forward to seeing the differences that the prep and drafting will have on the fiber and the yarn that I end up with.  I'll be flick carding them on Wednesday and again drafting both LD and SD.   Then I'll card them on my hand cards, then comb with a dog brush.  I don't own wool combs, but hope to be able to buy a pair before the end of the tour.

Tour de Fleece

In less than a week the Tour de France is due to start (next Saturday to be exact) and as I have the past few years, I intend to spin in the Tour de Fleece.  The TdF was started several years ago by a member of Ravelry and has since become something of a spinning sensation.  I plan to spin a fleece I got two years ago at MDSW.  It is a Leicester Longwool cross and it is gorgeous!  I washed and scoured it myself, but I need to rewash the first two batches that I did.  There is still a lot of lanolin in them and they feel sticky.  The second two batches are much nicer.  I keep thinking that I have to finish them before the tour, but then remember that I have three weeks of the tour and about 2 lbs already washed and ready to go.  I don't know how I am going to spin all of it yet; I plan to try several different drafting and plying techniques to see what I prefer.  My goal is to spin thirty minutes each day.  I hope to have enough at the end of the tour to make a sweater during the Ravelry games in August, but how well that will work with my school schedule remains to be seen.  Here is my fleece, the bag on the right is the one that needs rewashed:

Early this year, I began bullet journaling and really like how it (somewhat) keeps me on track of things that need to be done.  If I am still having problems, it is my fault, not the journal.  I belong to a group on Ravelry that is all about planners of all kinds and after reading through the threads for most of last night at work, I decided to liven and invigorate my journal a little bit with some doodles.  I went looking for washi tape with a 4th of July theme at the local craft stores, but none had any.  I'll check again closer to the holiday.  Anyway, after all the reading I did, I got really into journaling and decided to do my July spreads a little early.  I also changed something, in that I did all my July weekly spread at once, though not with out a few mistakes (I should know better to do anything like that at the end of a 12 hour night shift.  Thank Bob for White Out!)

So, here is my July log and tasks list:

and my July habit tracker.

Also, I have been making these cool looking socks for my friend Jane, owner and operator of Loomyladi Handwovens.  She is teaching me to weave and I am making her handknit socks, its a win-win for both of us!  That will be another post, I should be finishing threading the heddles and tying on tomorrow.

Also, in an earlier post I mentioned that I was participating in the the 2016 Book Challenge and wanted to update my list:

A book based on a fairy tale
A National Book Award winner
A YA bestseller-The Hunger Games
A book you haven’t read since high school
A book set in your home state (province)
A book translated to English
A romance set in the future
A book set in Europe
A book that is under 150 pages
A New York Times bestsellers
A book that is becoming a movie this year-Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (haven't read yet)
A book recommended by someone you just met
A self improvement book
A book you can finish in a day-Charlotte's Web
A book written by a celebrity
A political memoir
A book at least 100 years older than you-Jane Eyre
A book that is more than 600 pages (will need to figure out the audiobook equivalent, thinking 45 hours).
A book from Oprah’s Book Club
A science fiction novel
A book recommended by a family member
A graphic novel
A book published in 2016
A book that has a protagonist with your occupation.
A book that takes place during summer
A book and its prequel
A murder mystery
A book written by a comedian
A dystopian novel
A book with a blue cover
A book of peotry
The first book you see in a bookstore
A classic from the 20th century
An autobiography
A book about a road trip
A book about a culture you are unfamiliar with
A satirical book
A book that takes place on an island
A book that is guaranteed to bring you joya book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller-One Thousand White Women
a book you should have read in school
a book that was banned at some point
a book you previously abandoned-Oliver Twist
a book that intimidates you
a book you have already read at least once

Catching Up pt 1

     So, I finally got back to the blog again.  I've decided to play catch up on the things I am working on and see how I am doing so far this year.  I am actually quite happy with my knitting right now.  I have two projects that I am concentrating on at the moment, and hope to have one finished tomorrow.
     That project is my Something Wicked In Green, a sweater that I have been working on, on and off, since September.  It is my first time knitting a raglan sweater and I really like the style (in large part because I don't have to worry about setting in the shoulder seams!)  I had to do quite a bit of redoing on it, because it was a little too short and the collar was too tight.  I frogged the collar and reknit it with more stitches and a looser cast off, but redoing the bottom to make it fit took a bit of work.  I had to put in an afterthought lifeline, which was a first, and add on about an inch and a half of stockinette stitch to improve the length.  I am now almost finished with the ribbing, then just need to weave in the ends.  Here is what it looks like:

     The top picture is the spider on the shoulder, the middle picture is the spiderweb on the front and the last picture is a spider on a purled background that I added for the fun of it.  It is connected by a spiderweb running from the shoulder down the sleeve to just above the cuff.  I will probably finish the ribbing and bind off tomorrow.

     Another project that I am working on is a pair of colorwork socks, called Dark Isle Socks.  I cast these on on Jan 29th, but work on them has been a bit sporadic, due to wanting to finish the sweater above and also having to frog a few times due to size issues (namely that they were too small.)  I am still on the first sock and doubt that I will finish them this month.  The top picture is the yarn used, Cascade Heritage Sock in 5686 China Blue and 9786.  The other two are obviously in progress shots.

     I have also been doing a little spinning (a very little!) on Sumi, my Golding Tsunami laceweight spindle.  I only have about 40 yds, but it is very nice anyway.  I plan to finish spinning at and knit Pretty Thing by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee with it:

     That's all the knitting stuff; I'll post again tomorrow with the non-knitting stuff.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Fri and Sat

Warning: This is a very picture heavy post.

In December of 2010, I decided to attend this year's annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in West Friendship, MD.  The MDSW is one of the largest sheep and wool festivals on the East Coast.  It is always held the first weekend in May.  I ended up having a blast.

I was getting ready for the festival for several weeks before hand, buying food and supplies.  I borrowed my dad's pickup truck and slept in the bed.  The night before I left for Maryland, I spent the night at my grandmother's, because they lived in the direction I was going.  At 7:30, I got on the road.  Almost the entire trip was on various interstates; specifically: I-64, I-79, I-68 and I-70.  It was an eight hour drive, and since I was by myself, I used a variety of different things to keep it from being boring, mostly listening to music and audiobooks on my Ipod. 

Even though I only stopped three times on the way, twice to use the restroom and get a Maryland state map, and once to eat lunch, I didn't reach the campground were I would be staying until 3:30.  The campground I was staying at was called Patapsco Valley State Park. There were several other people from Ravelry staying there, including Lucinda and Joe from New York, and Mike and Ruth from Pennsylvania. 

I spent most of the afternoon fighting to keep my campfire lit.  They sold wood at the campground, but it was green and difficult to keep lit.  I ended up hunting the ground around my site and was able to find several pieces of wood that had been trimmed from the trees around my site.  With them, I was able to get enough heat to roast a few hot dogs and make s'mores.  However, when it came time to roast the hot dogs, I discovered I had forgotten both a can opener and a pot for the sauce, so ended up having my dogs with just ketchup.

After I ate, I wandered around the campground for a while.  Half the people there were for the festival and many of those were on Ravelry.  I met and spoke to the people around me, and found a few more.  While talking to a few ladies who were all there together, we noticed that it was starting to look like it might rain and I headed back to my site.  Because I was sleeping in the bed, I had very limited space in the bed of the truck, so put the remaining wood, and the cooler and plastic bin in the cab.  I climbed in the truck at around 8:30, just as the rain started.  It was soon to dark to read without the flashlight and I didn't want to use up the batteries, so at first I listened to music on my Ipod.  I then decided that the rain was nicer and was soon asleep. 

The next day, I got up at 7:30 in order to get to the festival early and get a good spot in the line for the t-shirts.  That early, the traffic was not that bad, and I was parked and heading for the gate by 8:45.  I got in line and ended up talking to a very nice lady named Patty who asked me about the sock I was knitting.  She was knitting a hat for her mother for Mother's Day, and was unsure of how to use DPNs.  I was able to answer her question easily and chatted with her and her husband as the line moved. 

I was using a food saver bag with Marshall University on the side and was spotted by another knitter from Huntington.  I ended up telling her about the local guild and invited her the next meeting.  There were a few other guild members there, but I didn't see any of them.  After I got my t-shirt, I headed out to check out the rest of the festival.  The weather was perfect, 70 degrees and sunny and the fairgrounds were fairly crowded.  This is the view from the top of the hill:

I started at the far end of the festival.  MDSW has grown so much that this year there was an entirely new section at the bottom of the hill, by the sheep dog demos.  I ended up buying an oz of CVM fiber.  I then decided to concentrate mostly on fiber, to find as many different breeds as possible and play with them to see which I liked best.

After a quick stop for a lambburger from the boy scouts, I headed for the main barn.  I ended buying a BFL grab bag from Bullen's Wullens, totalling 4 oz and was given a free CD spindle kit when I traded them several ones for a ten. 

I then wandered through the barn until I found the booth I was most interested in: Golding Fiber Tools.  I had been coveting a Golding Spindle for several years, but wanted to see and test them before buying one.  I soon selected and purchased a Golding Tsunami in cherry wood, weighting 0.75 oz.  It spins like a dream and is beautiful to boot, see:

I continued through the main barn, including checking out the items in the fleece sale.  I ended up deciding that a raw fleece would have to wait for another year, even though one lady was interested in splitting a lovely gray Romney fleece with me, with about 4 pounds for each of us.  I also spent an educational few minutes listening to one of the volunteers talk about the qualities of a good fleece.  I continued on and bought a 4 oz braid of BFL from Cloverleaf Farms, colorway Spruce Goose:

After Cloverleaf Farms, I headed on through the main barn.  My next purchase was at Shadeyside Farms, were I found about 3-4 oz of a Shetland-Icelandic cross.  It is the fiber in the above pictures of my Golding.  I then left the main barn and headed for the others.  In barn 6 I made two more purchases of 4 oz of Jacob roving from the Jacob Sheep Breeder's Association and over a pound of cleaned, processed Romney for $15.00.  I was told by several people that was a good price.

I then wandered through the other two barns.  I decided to save the outside vendors in the North and East sections for Sunday.  So, I headed to check out the sheep barns.  Some people complain about the smell of the sheep, but to me, it smells of county fairs and I find it a comforting smell.  In the sheep barns I made my last purchase of the day when I got about 3 oz of black Finn sheep.  The lady selling it was very nice and through in a bit extra. 

It was now about 5:30 and I was tired, so I decided to head back to the campsite. 

This was my home away from home for the weekend:

I cooked dinner (more hot-dogs) and had a bit of show and tell with the other festival-goers in the campground.  Some of the Ravelry people had a little get together around a fire-pit, and I didn't go to bed until 10:00.  I ended up waking up at 3 am, from  the cold and could not get back to sleep until I added a couple blankets my mom had insisted I bring.  I texted her in the morning that she was right and got a text back saying I told you so. 

The post for Sun and Mon will be posted later, it is getting too big.

Random Thoughts

I am very happy because I finished this hat Sunday morning while at work. It was my first time knitting cables, and they came out very well. I started using a cable needle but ended up using a 5in dpn for most of it. I wore it this morning while walking to the post office. Cold or not, I was not going to waste the gas to drive a block!

A few days after Christmas I entered into a trade with a knitter on Ravelry. I traded her some roving I decided I would probably never use for the Yarn Harlot's Never Not Knitting page-a-day calender. We were both beginning to to wonder if it got lost, because she mailed it on Jan 2 and it still had not arrived. She got the roving last week. But there it was this morning, in all it's harloty glory!

I am getting a bit peeved at my landlord. I paid the rent on Jan 3 and the check still has not cleared. If he lost it, I am not writing another one. Once it leaves my hands, it is his responsibility.

Once again I am going to sing the praises of my crock-pot. I don't get paid until tomorrow and the cupboards are bare. So what did I do? Simply dug the leftover chili from where I froze it last week, stuck it in the fridge to thaw and there you go, two meals in one Ziploc bag. After I cash my paycheck, I am planing to make beef stew. All I need is beef, a few potatoes, baby carrots and seasoning.

It feels weird not to be starting class today. I was not eligible for financial aid and was unable to pay the tuition. So, I will have to take a class in the summer and reapply for financial aid after I get my tax info from last year.

You will probably (hopefully) be seeing a lot of socks on this blog this year. On Ravelry, on of the new groups I have joined is the Sock Challenge of 2009. The challenge is to knit 1 pair of socks per month in 09. I thought it sounded cool and I have enough sock yarn to last me about 4 months. I am almost finished with the first socks, the YH basic sock recipe, and have queue the next pair, a cable pattern based off of the basic sock recipe. They will be knit in Cestari sock yarn, colorway Green Heather. I have managed to avoid casting them on until I finish the first pair.

I also cast on a scarf for myself. I realized that I have knit about six scarves, and never kept one for my own use. So, I am knitting the same pattern as Kara's Christmas scarf, but in four colors instead of two. I am using remnants of another finished project. It is Oasis Yarn Aussi Wool.