We’ve got just a few spots left, so if you want in, put a wiggle in it. Right  now, we have only triples & group rooms available, but send a note with your registration if you’d like to be wait-listed for a double–we might have one opening up.

I’ve been working on all the fiber & goodies and I’m so excited I could pee! Or maybe those are two entirely separate things…

Registration

Lacy merino heirloom blankets are lovely, but this practical hooded cotton baby blanket is cute, cool, and machine-washable, making it a welcome gift for hot and sticky summer newborns. It’s a cute and cushy poolside wrap for baby, but it’s equally handy at bathtime, when the hood holds the wrap steady to help dry a wiggly baby. And toddlers love it as a play-time cape.

As for customizing, the pattern gives you plenty of room for leaving your own imprint with trim, pattern, and color. Trim with broken rib (shown), seed stitch, garter, picot edging, or multi-colored stripes. Use a single color, contrast trim, a million skinny stripes, or mom or dad’s team or school colors. And if all that stockinette makes your eyes cross, whip out your stitch dictionary and make the sampler version instead.

I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease, but any worsted machine washable cotton blend will work. (All-cotton will work, too, but the blend brings a little more bounce to the fabric).

Knitting for a winter baby? Make a cool-weather version in superwash merino like Karabella Aurora 8. For a winter version, when the added bulk will be appreciated, you could even work in your favorite Fair Isle pattern.

YARN
3 balls Lion Brand Cotton Ease (3.50 oz./100 g, 207 yd/188 m, 50% Cotton/50% Acrylic), all 3 the same, or 1 ball in contrasting color for trim, if you wish

NEEDLES
US 8 (5mm) 32″ or longer circular needle
Sharp yarn needle for finishing

SIZE
26 x 26 in (66 x 66 cm) with 8 in (20 cm) deep hood

GAUGE
16 st = 10cm (4 inches) in stockinette st

PATTERN
Blanket
Plain (shown): CO 100 st. Work 24″/61 cm in stockinette st. BO loosely.

Sampler variation: Use your favorite stitch reference to select 2 – 16 different pattern stitches for your sampler. Select patterns suitable for 22 st (you can always flank the main pattern with a few columns of knit stitches if the number isn’t exact).

You can simply alternate checkerboard-fashion, between a patterned square and a stockinette square, or work every square with a different pattern. If you’re using several patterns, you might want photocopy the swatches from your reference book and arrange them in a 4×4 grid to make sure you’re pleased with your overall pattern.

C0 100.
Row 1 (WS): Knit.
Row 2 (RS): Purl.
Row 3 (WS), set up sampler grid: K3, PM, K 22, PM, K2, PM, K 22, PM, K2, PM K22, PM, K2, PM, K22, PM, K3. The markers designate your sampler squares, plus their dividing grid.
On Row 4 (RS), begin your sampler squares, purling all stitches outside of the 22-st blocks. Work each set of 4 squares until the square itself is 4″ (10 cm) tall, then work 3 rows in reverse stockinette (purls showing). Begin next set of 4 sampler squares, and repeat until you have a 4 x 4 grid, complete with final 3 rows of reverse stockinette. BO.

Hood Front
CO 39 st.
Work in stockinette throughout, decreasing as follows:
Every RS (knit) row: K1, ssk, k to 3 st from end, k2tog, K1
Every WS row: purl
When you have 5 st remaining, work WS (purl) row as usual, then this RS row: k1, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k1—3st.
BO.
With WS facing, seam hood to blanket corner with mattress st.
Sampler variation: substitute a patterned stitch of your choosing for the stockinette, maintaining the plain decreases and knit stitch at either edge.

Edging
With WS facing, and starting in the corner opposite the hood, PU st all the way around the blanket. PU one st for every st along top and bottom of blanket and open edge of hood, and 3 st for every 4 rows along sides of blanket. As you go, place a stitch marker in each of the 3 blanket corners.
As you work, you’ll place an increase of your choice before and after each marker every other rnd.
Work edging of choice (broken rib shown) for 1 inch, then bind off.
Edging Suggestions: Broken rib, seed stitch, garter stitch, moss stich, picot edging, simple eyelet, etc.

Broken Rib:
Row 1: *K1 P1, repeat from *
Row 2: Knit.

Finishing
Weave in all ends. I prefer to use a sharp needle and split the yarn as I weave in the ends, as the cotton doesn’t have the nice fiber grab of wool. I work in one direction about an inch, then double back, working through the woven-in portion of my yarn end on my way back, to make it extra secure. If possible, hide the very end of the tail in a seam or picked up edge.

Last year, several students said they’d like to include hand-dyed yarn or fiber from their own stores in future Yarn School goodie bags. If you’re a fiber producer and would like to promote your fibery goodness at Spring Yarn School, here are the guidelines:

- Qty: 36
- Delivered by 4/23/08
- Spinning fiber or yarn should be be at least an ounce; more is better!
- Items like dyed locks, sparkle, etc, should be at least 10g
- Each should be labeled with your company name/info/url
- You can include additional trinkets, promo info, etc.

Let me know asap if you’d like to participate & what you plan to send. Feel free to spread the word if you have fiber friends. Thanks, y’all.

Goodie bag stuff to:

Nikol Lohr
13149 Harveyville Rd
Harveyville KS 66431

Tina has a fiber/yarn garage sale on Saturday. Marilyn & I went and gorged ourselves. I was a bit naughtier, but I had Yarn School fleece to buy. I got 2 enormous Romney fleeces, a ton of yarn, mostly singles, which I’m trying to swear off because they pill like hell in sweaters, and sweaters are all I want to knit anymore, some dyed locks, a little raw alpaca, a little raw moorit merino, and a good chunk of dyed commercial top for my personal use. And, TONS OF BABY LAMBS! Mostly Shetlands, but a few Romneys and one late Merino they didn’t even realize was pregnant.

Look!

This one was the only Shetland who didn’t twin, and she was particularly vigilant over her lamb. I think she’s the cutest of the Shetland ewes. You know how some animals just look like people in animal suits? She totally looks like people.

Mama kept going from stall to stall, with the lambs following her. Here she’s changed her mind and now they’re all running back into this stall. The darker lamb is the only ram lamb of all the Shetlands this year, and he’ll be moving to Cupcake Ranch after he’s weaned.

This nice lady was more than a month after all the other Merinos. She just had the one little lamb. They didn’t even realize she was pregnant. He’s only about a day old, and all tuckered out. Eventually, he’ll be raised with goats at Laura’s place. They’re pygoras, which means he’ll be bigger than them, which is good because goats are more assertive than sheep. Like the Shetland with one lamb, she was very watchful. Not nervous or anything, but in both cases, they were quite still and Secret Service-like, never taking their eyes off the people.

And how about this! Bertha, this Romney ewe, is mama to both of these little lambs! One black and one white! Could you ask for a cuter family?

Mama’s fleece will be for sale at Yarn School. We’ll be washing some raw fleece in class, but I bought extra so students can buy a pound or two if they want to take some home and get some experience working on it without committing to a whole fleece.

Speaking of fleece, I sent off Ninny’s (the chocolate merino) fleece to Zeilinger’s, along with 2 stray random mystery fleeces I bought off a list a while back, to get in under the wire of their prepay sale. Those were all smaller lots, so they’ll all be roving instead of combed top. It’s always so fun to see how raw fleece will turn out. If I were clever, I would have kept samples of all the fiber I’ve sent off. Too bad I’m not.

And I still haven’t figured out exactly how I want to wrap up the spin kits I made for CRAFT. I have to sort it out tomorrow one way or the other, because I want to pack them up Tuesday and get them on their way so I can concentrate on Yarn School. I’ll try to post a few shots tomorrow if I can make a freaking decision. They’ll be for sale at Maker Fair.

If you’re near Lawrence, take a look at this show this week. It runs through Friday. The gallery’s in Marvin Hall (the building’s aren’t numbered, so the address won’t help you at all). It’s a small show, maybe 10 or a dozen pieces, lovely & compelling and smartly made. Exciting art made with excellent craftsmanship, and particularly resonant if you’re a female losing a battle with domesticity. Charming and clever and tender. I was well pleased, but wished it was a much bigger show.

Gorgeous fiber from Zeilinger, just listed on artclub.etsy.com. 3 Local mixes, 2 hand dyed, and one sturdy, trusty mystery wool:

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade artclub.etsy.com

Club members & would-be club members, please come to spin! We do have student wheels and spindles if you can’t bring your own. Bring some fiber to spin and a snack to share. (We also have Art Club fiber for sale if you’re in the mood to blow some cash.)

Please RSVP if you’re coming. See you here!

Directions

On Monday, Jennifer (Whirled Yarn–and a Yarn School teacher) let me come snoop around her place to see her animal set-up. The sheep and goats were all freshly shorn and naked and adorable. And her animals are so tame, and completely unbothered by her dogs. One of the big concerns with sheep out in the country is dogs–not wild dogs, just regular pet dogs, who tend to run loose, and who can chase the sheep for fun until the poor sheep just drop dead of exhaustion. But when your sheep are indifferent to barking dogs, they don’t panic and run like mad and die of exploding hearts (okay, not literally exploding, but you know what I mean). So if you take out the domestic dog element, then you’re just worrying about coyotes, which it seems are a little more predictable and probably a little easier to defend against with good fencing and practices. Another good argument for keeping doggies!

Anyway, her sheep are total teddy bears, and I couldn’t believe how gorgeous and black Daisy was sheared! And you should see her fleece! Long and dark and wavy, with a pretty sheen. I’m very excited to get her sister’s fleece pretty soon. Jennifer said she’s not as dark, but even the ballpark will be dandy. (Daisy & her sister, Chocolate Drop aka Fatty Pants, are from Ewephoria Farm.)

I got to check out her sheep barn and the big old barnyard they use in the winter, and the pastures they use in the summer. I got to ask all manner of stupid questions (my specialty). Aside from her friendly sheep and greedy goats, they also have a horse, a pony, several gorgeous adult chickens, 2 fabulous dogs, 3 energetic human children, and a bin of homely, awkward teenage chicks that are in that mangy quail phase (blogged here). It was very helpful to see how a smaller operation works. Tina’s setup is big and professional, and the Howes’ is downright ritzy, so getting a taste of a family hobby arrangement on acreage on par with ours was very heartening.

As we drove away, I realized I had my camera in the car (for a Slice of Kansas) and I hadn’t taken a single picture! Hopefully Jennifer will post fleece and more naked sheep pictures pretty soon. In the meantime, I’m cribbing one of her nekked sheep:

The Cuckoo for Cuckoobatts club batts are going out late again. I’m resolving to nip this habit in the bud and make April’s batt plenty early. It needs to be plenty early, or it will butt into Yarn School, which I definitely don’t want.

Speaking of Yarn School, I’m getting my house in order. Last week, assisted by hours and hours of entertainment of back episodes of the geek.farm.life podcast (my iPod boom box is the only think keeping my organizing on track), I finally tackled the Home Ec Room. And while it’s not Martha Stewart organized, it is Nikol organized and more or less ready to go. Here’s hoping I don’t fuck it up in the meantime.

I’m also working on January from One Year to an Organized Life (people who know me well are laughing and laughing right now). I’m 2 months behind, not because I’m sooooo slow, but because I didn’t get the book until this month. January is about the kitchen, and last week I moved my pantry into a lateral file with slide-out shelf-drawers, which makes for a rocking pantry, relatively mouse-proof and crammable, since you can see everything on the shelf from above. I’m about to start Week 4, the first really nuts-and-bolts assignment, the firm organization of the kitchen. I need to pain my cupboards before I can really reorganize everything, so I’ll probably tackle the cupboards this week and the main assignment at the end of the weekend. Wish me luck.

Pattern: Improvised. Started as an EZ seamless yoke backwards (top-down). But it was way too bunchy. Afterwards, I unravelled it from the collar down to the pits and reknit with more even shaping–basically decreased every 9th stitch every 4 rows, then did a couple rows of short-row shaping in the back under the collar to raise the back collar up a bit.

Yarn: Beaverslide Fisherman in Bison, about 2 1/2 skeins, plus 3 or 3 ounces of handspun from one of my first yarns.

What I learned: unravelling backwards with increases SUCKS and I will not do it again. If I could do it again, I’d snip across a row and unravel in the correct direction. Unraveling increases backwards means you have to unknot every increase stitch instead of just zipping along in the usual way. Nightmare. I think the problem was that they were M1 instead of kfbl. I’ve unraveled those backwards & don’t remember this level of misery.

Also, the EZ seamless yoke does not suit me. I don’t know if it’s my lack of breasts, or if I have weird shoulders or what. But yuck. I don’t get why it looks so cute on other people. I think maybe busty real estate re-arranges the fabric to eliminate the bunches.

Here’s the original bunchy yoke:

And here’s the new one:

In other news, I’m trying to get the Home Ec room (aka my craft room) sorted out and it’s a nightmare. But I’ve been devouring old episodes of geek.farm.life podcast on my little ipod boom box, which makes it all a bit more pleasant. In fact, I’m going to get back to work rignt now!

Well, shearing day kind of made up for fiber retreat gaff last weekend.

Marilyn & I went out to Ewephoria Farm in Lawrence yesterday to help skirt, bag & label the fleeces from the sheepies that were being undressed. Ewephoria farm’s just south of Lawrence, about an hour from my place. Tina & George are just delightful, and they let us tag along and see how it all works. It was such fun! I also go to see the llamas Carmelita & Aphrodite running across the field. I can’t believe how gracefully they run! They look feather-light, their little hooves curving daintily under as they glide through the air.

They didn’t shear everyone yesterday, maybe a dozen or so? But one of the sheep in question was the spotted merino ram donor of my beautiful new fleece.

He’s the dainty-nosed charmer I met a couple of weeks ago when the Spinsters Club visited Ewephoria Farm. Here he is with his little wool outfit still intact:

I love how the greasy merino looks like lava on the outside. His little jacket just came off, which is why he’s so clean. He’s a very sweet guy, like a big, goofy dog. Now here he is naked:

What a difference!

And here’s his glorious fleece, still warm:

Tina bags them in clear bags. Look how pretty!

I think this is destined to become a colorwork sweater. And a closeup:

I also a lovely fleece from Ninny (ewe), a spotted Merino ewe with an adorable freckled face.

Not quite as fine as Mr. Fabulous, but an absolutely dreamy dark color I want to eat up with strawberries and whipped cream on top!

The rest of these aren’t the same sheep all the way through (next time, I’m going to take a minute-by-minute shots of the same sheep, so you see what the process looks like beginning to end), but they’re representative, so you can get the idea.

Before Romneys (The Romneys aren’t coated, but there was very little VM in their fleece & Tina skirts pretty fearlessly–Marilyn & I kept asking “Does this go out?” and the answer was always to chuck it. I wish all the fleeces I bought were so nicely skirted. Marilyn had a better instinct for skirting. I think I was a little timid because have the stuff we were chucking was nicer than stuff not skirted out of allegedly skirted fleeces I’d bought in the past.)

So here’s how it went. Tina or George would go into the little side yard next to the barn where all the girls (and a few boys) were waiting, grab one, halter her, and lead them out. Then–Darn it, I forgot his name!–the nice man shearing them would deftly roll them onto their butts, holding them with his whole body and shearing at the same time. Most of them didn’t bat an eye, and lolled docilely throughout the shearing. For all I know, they were resisting, but it looked very natural. I think the sort of wrestlers’ grappling hold hindered any resistance, and they were mostly pretty experienced with being sheared (or could watch while they waited to see it wasn’t a big deal and their flockmates returned unharmed a few minutes later). Once on their butts, they looked like big, fat, woolly teddy bears, and they’d just sort of stare idly around, no fearful rolling eyes or anything.

He started with the belly, and you could tell right away some were pregnant. Others weren’t as obvious, and the 3 of them would conjecture. Then the legs.

Then he’d start at the top and kind of work down and around the body until it was like a lady climbing out a fur coat in slow motion. You know, a goat-lady. Or maybe a snake shedding her skin is a better analogy. Except yuck! Or an orange peeling. You get the idea.

You can see the cut side, which is the lighter, free, crimpy side that is falling off the shoulders. The grease holds it together into more or less on piece on the outer side. At the bottom , you can see the outside of the fleece, which is generally darker on light colors and lighter on dark colors.

And he seems to do the whole thing in a pretty fluid, continuous movement.

Afterwards: Live! Nude! Sheep!

He’s waiting for his shot. He was very patient.

Then they get their shots if they didn’t already, George or Tina examine anything that needs checking, maybe trim a hoof or two, and back in they go. It all went very smoothly, with one exception. I think it may have been that white sheep in front, and it was my fault. I did a pretty fair job of holding them steady before and during shots, but this one got huffy after her shot, and I gave her too much slack on her little lead and she threw a little hissy fit. I got in the way repeately and apologized lamely while Tina and the shearer wrangled her back into the pen. But it was all over in a minute or less, and nobody shamed me about it.

In between each animal, they rake the carpet, and Tina gathers up the fleece, skirting up big hunks of it as she goes. Then it goes up on the skirting table (the top of which is a screen covered with half-inch mesh hardware cloth) and gets skirted some more, and second cuts get shook out and either fall through the holes or get brushed away. Afterwards, there was a wheelbarrow full of waste fleece next to the skirting table and another next to the shearing carpet. The cheapskate in me got a little of the impulse that always made me wrap up everyone’s restaurant leftovers and take them home. But I was taking home two huge, beautiful fleeces that I’d bought, and who needs a Hugo when you’ve got a Rolls Royce? (As sensible as that is, not hoarding ANYTHING is very contrary to my nature. But I’m working on it.)

Not everyone got sheared today.

The handsome lass on the right wants to come home with me.

Lambs! These little moorit cuties were tiny last time I was here.

Mama & baby Merinos.

The little boy wants to come home with me, too.

Without grain for bribes, I got a lot of pictures of sheep butts.

And if that’s not enough fibery goodness, I just got 3 of my tops back from Zeillingers! They’re all lovely and I can’t wait to spin them! They’ll be for sale this weekend at artclub.etsy.com.

I’m such an asshole. I can’t believe this. Months ago, I signed up for a fiber retreat for next weekend. I wrote it down on my calendar, and I’ve been looking forward to it with all my heart. I booked a rental car, I made a little list of what to pack and a little folder with my confirmation postcard and my class schedule and required supplies and printouts of the emails with information and driving directions.

Except none of the information in my little folder had the dates on it, just days.

And just now, Ron was complaining about daylight savings time & I said no, no, it’s next weekend, daylight savings starts during the fiber retreat. And of course when I went to look it up, I realized my error. Two days into the retreat, 3 classes missed, all the money paid (it was a bargain, so it’s not too much money, but it ain’t exactly growing on trees around here), and too late to bother going out for the Sunday class (it’s a 4-5 hour drive and the class starts at 9am, so I could either get to the camp at 2am and wake everyone up or leave at 4 in the morning; and even I’m not stupid enough to drive 10 hours round trip for a 3-hour class).

And this whole time, I’ve been looking at the web site, anticipating my classes, seeing who the teachers are, getting totally excited, never realizing my mistake.

Last time I registered for a workshop, I had to cancel for work commitments for a stupid job that I never should have taken, and now I do this. And I love hosting Yarn School, but it’s not like I ever get to just relax and enjoy it for more than 5 minutes before something needs my attention.

Yeah, so I suck. I’m going to try to quit bawling and blow my snotty nose. I feel like throwing up.

Help me destash! (Follow this link for prices, quantities & links to ravelry profiles.)

1. unknown silk with fake pearls 1 hank, 2. Filatura de Crossa Anna 9 100g balls, 3. Jo Sharp Soho Summer 10 balls, 4. annaclose.jpg, 5. Bucilla Tapestry Wool 2 hanks, 6. Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed and Laines du Nord Giunco 1 ball each, 7. Berroco Denim silk 3 hanks, 8. Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud 1 hank, 9. Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud 1 hank and partial, 10. unknown silk with fake pearls, 11. Bucilla tapestry wool 1 hank plus partial, 12. Elsabeth Lavold Angora 2 hanks, 13. Schoeller and Stahl Microcable 8 balls, 14. Schulana Morbido 8 balls, 15. Jaeger Chamonix 2 balls, 16. Jo Sharp Soho Summer 10 balls, 17. Elsabeth Lavod Angora 2 hanks, 18. K1C2 Angora Soft 10 balls, 19. Colorado Yarns Durango 19 balls, 20. Rowanspun Chunky 1 hank, 21. Colorado Yarns Durango 19 balls

Today I’ve been sewing. I’m working on little recycled flannel cinch bags for some batt & spindle kits I’m making for the craft magazine store. They’re made of old flannel sheets. I decided to go with French seams because: 1) I don’t feel like wrestling with my neglected and ancient serger; 2) the pinking shears hurt my hands; and 3) I think French seams are just nicer, don’t you?

I  haven’t quite  figured out the 100% best assembly order for my own little one-woman sweatshop, but I’ll think I’ll have it down a few bags from now.

Kevin has set up a little printing room under the stage, so I’m thinking of getting him to screen print them, or showing me how. I’ve done some very small scale screen printing, but I’m not what you would call expert. Let’s face it: I’m barely adequate. I’d be adequate for maybe a first-time middle school art project. Which really might be kind of what I’d be going for with this print. Or I might try a gocco print, but I’m not sure how gocco will interact with flannel. Only one way to find out. Except that: where’s my gocco? It’s around her somewhere. (Story of my life: it’s around here somewhere.) Or I might monogram them. I have a fancy monogramming embroidery machine, after all. That might be cute. Also the most time in the doing, though less in the set-up.

Anyway,  assembly-line question marks aside, I’m pleased with them. Once you’ve spun up the batts inside, you can use it as an on-the-go spinning bag or a small knitting project bag, or one of those little bags you loop through your belt or over your wrist to manage your yarn when you’re knitting on a stroll. Yay, reuse! I so love packaging (such a weakness of mine) that I’m always pleased when I can minimize the disposableness of it without sacrificing cuteness.

Well, for now anyway.

Duran Duran. Mostly wool, a little mohair, about 2.5 ounces.

What do you do with all those bits of fleece, roving & yarn that end up scattered all over your house? You can vacuum them up, sure, but if you gather them all up, wad them into balls, and tie them off in a stocking or pantyhose leg, and toss them in the washing machine with a load of towels, you’ve got yourself some free and much-appreciated pet toys.

All the clean bits that I catch in time get tossed into a bag or bin for recarding, but I often lose track of the bits while they’re still salvagable. Once they’ve drifted into a cobwebby corner or gotten mushed into the carpet with cat hair or dragged around and shredded by the kitten, I’m not super keen on spinning them up. But all the dirty bits are prime for pet toys, since they’ll get a free scouring in the wash!

Step 1: Gather up your yarn and fiber bits. You can include the odd superwash or non-animal fiber scrap, as long as you’re working with about 70% feltable fiber. Curly locks look especially cool.

Step 2: Wad them into balls. Little balls for cats, big balls for doggies. Densely-felted balls have a lot of bounce, great for fetchers. You can make really big balls (or oblongs or snakes) simply by using more fiber. For the densest large balls, start small and build up with additional layers in additional wash loads..

Step 3: Stuff them into a stocking and tie off sections with cotton yarn. I’d advise against a fishnet like I used (the felt works its way into the holes & isn’t as tidy when you have to work them out afterwards–but it’s all I could find and I had ants in my pants). Use tights or pantyhose.

Step 4: Toss in with a load of laundry using a hot wash with a cold rinse (I like towels or rags). Both the hot and cold are important. The hot encourages felting and the cold shocks the wool & further felts it.

Step 5: Untie and peek inside. If necessary, run them through additional cycles. Toss in the dryer then unwrap, or unwrap and air dry. If you want to re-use the stocking, stretch out the length that’s tied off so it’s easy to snip the yarn without cutting the stocking.

Step 6: Playtime!

So as I got ready to work the sleeves on my current sweater, I spread it out for a picture and discovered:

Munchie’s bunchy.

I thought maybe it would go away in the wearing, but no dice:

But instead of my usual “frog now, ask questions later” tack, I decided to ask on the Zimmermania forum on ravelry, and I just might have saved myself some hearthache. Yarnfloozie said her seamless yoke bunchies have blocked out & suggested wetblocking on the needles, and, while I can’t be certain until it’s dry, it looks promising. Those hideous lumps just might block out!

And I’m spinning regularly again, thanks to Spinsters Club and Fiber Friday. I made the assigned Disco yarn last week, and several other skeins, including the January Spinsters Club batt. And I Navajo plied 3 skeins. I *think* I’m improving. All the yarn’s drying on the radiator, so I’ll shoot it tomorrow.

God, I want to post pictures of the February batt. I just love it! And it’s so BIG AND FAT, yay! That will come later.

In the meantime…

Like, Totally (mostly wool, a little mohair)

Donald Draper (superwash merino)

Moxiemix (random 1# felters/spinners assortment made up of itty bits; this is the one I sent Moxie, but each will be a different but balanced assortment of textures & colors, all feltable fibers)

Easter Egg Sock Sack (mostly wool, plus a pinch of mohair, bamboo, sparkle, silk noil, yarn bits)

Little Brother (wool)

Seriously, does it get any cuter than this?

(Jen’s picture.) This is Jimmi getting loved by Carmelita, the freaking adorable sweetiepie llama at Ewephoria Farm, where the Spinsters Club met last Sunday. It was so very very fun, and lucky Jennifer S. went home with two new sheepies! (I’m coveting Daisy’s sister. I think they’re related…) We toured the pastures, met a bunch of friendly, doggy sheep, got to pet and hold day-old lambs, ate Tina’s yummy crumbcake, went shopping, and set to spinning. Very, very fun meeting!

(All the pictures are Jen’s…)

Here are two of the black Romneys. Jennifer took one home, along with a sweet shetland wether.

This guy’s a real Cassanova, nuzzling all the ladies. His fleece is scrumpy and… all mine! I also reserved another spotted merino, yay! And Laura’s getting a dreamy white merino fleece, from the lady across the barn from her:

(I had dibs on this one, but it turns out her fleece was already spoken for. I’ll probably have my hands full with the other two, anyway!) Look at the little baby, with it’s long, wiggly tail!

Chocolate merino babies! There were some even younger, darker ones I wanted to run off with. Maybe next time! We’re trying to set a time for Ron to go visit as part of a brainwashing plan.

This one I call Piggy. Couldn’t you just eat him up? He’s a little shy, though.

Oh! And I’m going to help out on shearing day both at Ewephoria Farm and Alpacas in Wildcat Hollow! Yay! I expect I’ll learn a ton. Vocation vacation! Vocation vacation!

I spent almost an hour today cleaning out a carder with a 0 knitting needle. At the January Spinsters Club, someone carded some very short raw fleece that seems like it must’ve been just handfuls of second cuts, because I had to pry a million sticky neps out. I dusted it with baby poweder and ran a ton of cheap top through it to clean it out, but I’m still picking out tiny bits of fluff. What a nightmare. I will be putting NO RAW FLEECE signs on all the carders for Yarn school.

I’m also trying to figure out what exactly to order for Yarn School. I ordered all the fiber last week, but I haven’t yet settled on what extra equipment to get.  Definitely more Frickes, and I’m getting Ashford equipment, but I haven’t decided what yet. And maybe some Louet stuff.  This year, I’ll probably sell off all the old and one of a kind wheels for cheap and transition to newer wheels that are easier for upkeep. I don’t know whether to sell them before or during.

I’ve been carding the last couple of days & just added a few new items to etsy, but I’ll hopefully finish a few more batts in progress and post all the fiber porn tonight or tomorrow. Which reminds me: I want a new camera. But I want other things more, so not yet.

On a personal note, I am rocking a really bad Princess Di mullet-in-progress right now. I want to grow my hair out (long again), but this phase is pretty heinous. How do extensions work? Are they totally creepy?

Been so busy, I almost forgot to post!

KC/Lawrence/Topeka spinners who what to join the club: This month’s meeting is at Ewephoria Farm in Lawrence, KS, where we’ll spin and meet the brand-new lambs! Tina (shepherd) has lots of beautiful fiber for sale from the critters on site if you want to take home a wooly souvenir. They have Shetlands, moorit Merinos, Romneys, and Llamas, all with luscious fiber.

Enjoy some fiber camaraderie, or learn about keeping sheep yourself (my plan).

New people are welcome, but please RSVP so I can let Tina know if there are a lot more coming. Bring your current spinning, your spindle or wheel, and a snack or beverage to share!

Here’s the map: http://ewephoria.net/location.html

Here’s the Videnovich Yarn CSA link.

Yay! I pestered Vera (she of the yarn for my Skinny Cat Sweater) about starting a fiber CSA program (she already has a veggie CSA–if you live in Chicago, you can get in on that action this summer), and she obliged with a homegrown handspun CSA. Of course, bought my share, which gives me until April to destash a fuckload of yarn so that I won’t be breaking my destash rules! I’m also going to get a share of the MV fiber CSA. I’ll bet a lot of small fiber producers will start doing this. I certainly hope so. It’s excellent knowing the source of your fiber, and anything that supports micro-agriculture is fine by me!

[Here’s the haul I brought back from YarnCon. The sport stuff went into my Skinny sweater; the light bulky stuff on the left is going into a little cardigan, along with some crazy StoneLeafMoon handspun (crappy picture; I should replace that!).]

But that April deadline means look for a destash sale coming up soon!

In other semi-destashing news, I’ve been busting my hump getting all the fiber together for these combed tops I’m getting made with all my odds and ends. I sent of the fiber for the Local Color mix last week, which is all Kansas fiber grown within an hour of my home. I’d guesstimate it’s about 2/3 alpaca, with the remainder llama and shetland. I am VERY excited about what should be a beautiful heathered natural brown.

I’ve also got a Kansas Snow (local whites) mix and a local light colored mix I’m tentatively calling Oh How I Love My Oatmeal, but that might change depending on how it turns out. Like the Local Color, it’s from within an hour of here. The white mix is about 45/45/10 alpaca/MerinoX/llama, and the light mix is actually in about that same proportion, but with the sheep contributor a very soft RomneyX instead of MerinoX.

I’ve been washing and dyeing all the stuff, because the washed minimums are much lower than the raw minimums. I am so very happy to be done now. I would vow against any new raw fiber for the rest of the year, but I know myself. But I can vow against anything new until I meet my destash goals. So there’s that.

Now, in the non-local category, I’ve got 2 dyed lots: a violet-blue blend and a vibrant green blend (I hope–it’s hard to know how all the colors will combine).

The blue-violet blend hopes to be both soft and sturdy. It includes a wool contribution from Suffolk, Cheviot (originally in my Moody roving, but I wasn’t ever fully satisfied with the color, so I overdyed dark and threw it into the kitty), overdyed soft Romney and colored Lincoln, plus dyed alpaca and kid mohair. I’d put it at about 50% wool, 35% alpaca, 15% kid mohair.

Then we’ve got a very soft, bouncy green mix (again, fingers crossed–there’s a fair amount of blue in there, but I’ve tried to balance it with a lot of yellower green) that will work out to about 1/3 each Rambouillet, Merino, and alpaca.

Here’s the roving that started me on the whole combed tops mission. It’s hand-dyed Rambouillet with a tiny bit of hand-dyed nylon icicle sparkle. I love the color, but the roving is really neppy and rife with VM. Every time I’d get to spinning it, I’d be cursing it within a few minute and move on to something else. But I’m conceptually in love with the stuff, so I couldn’t just write it off. And after the miracle Zeilinger worked on my other neppy, VMy rovings, it was really just a matter of time. But there wasn’t nearly enough to meet the tops minimum. At first, I dyed up and planned to blend it with some medium wool & nylon roving I had made for socks, but I decided that throwing 1/3 cush into 2/3 tough wasn’t giving the deserved love to my cush. (But I’m going to make some fabulous sock batts with the stuff I held back, maybe blended with a little bamboo…)

So instead I dyed up some white alpaca fleece I had, and made up the minimum in hand dyed commercial merino. I feel a little dopey paying to re-process a bunch of commercial merino, but what can you do? I expect a dreamy bounce and softy softness, but I’m less secure about the color. I’m worried I don’t have enough yellowy green to neutralize the blues (which you can really see below). I already have a teal blue roving (Blue Lagoon), so I want it to be very distinct and hopefully, complex and a little on the retina-burning side.

I’ve also been reusing the unexhausted dye to dye lots of other random fiber for batts. And aside from washing and washing and dyeing and dyeing, I’ve also been spinning and spinning!

I’ve finished up a bunch of YIP (just one more to do and I’ll have everything off the bobbin!):

The light one was spun from a random batt that was used to pack a spinning wheel I bought from Holland. It’s sturdy! The little skein is a test of some hand-pulled alpaca roving I’m working on. And the other 3 are for my Stockholm souvenir sweater, made of batts I bought on my vacation last summer. I plied each of the colorful batts with Beaverslide natural black to tone and unify them a bit.

Here’s all the yarn for the sweater, which is looking like my April sweater, unless I finish a second February sweater, very unlikely. I’m planning a cardigan that goes from blue to green to yellow, trimmed with brown. But I haven’t picked a pattern. The default of course is top-down raglan, my favorite snoozer sweater; but maybe I’ll try something new.

This is just brilliant. I hope more small farms start doing this!

I love my February sweater.

Pattern: Generic top-down raglan with my custom chart. 1×1 ribbing on collar, cuffs, and hem.

Yarn: 8 skeins Vera Videnovich 2-ply sport natural dark brown corriedale and 1 skein silver corriedale; 3/4 ounce handspun made from about 2/5 Skinny fur (the sweater’s namesake) blended with 3/5 Art Club Malt Balls combed top (RambouilletXCormoXCorriedale).

Notes: I thought this was going to be a tight sweater, but it grew a bit in the wash (and also on the needles–the colorwork was so tight that I found myself with way more fabric than expected once I worked down the torso). Now it’s a really comfy, roomy sweater, but thanks to the waist and hip shaping, it’s not all clunky and baggy, just nice and roomy and cush. I’m even into the overlong sleeves. The hip shaping was done with raglan-type increases, which are an elegant way to increase quickly for big hips. The stitching at the wrist and hem used the Skinny fur yarn.

What I learned: Next time I do stranded colorwork, I’ll definitely use longer needles. The stitching on the sleeve, spread out on 16″ circulars, is worlds better than the main work, bunched up on 24″ circulars. If I made an other sweater where the pattern started a little way down from the neck like this, I’d probably use a provisional cast-on and work my way up from the design after the fact, to better match the overall tension. Using longer needles may make that a non-issue, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. This worked out okay because of the irregular nature of handspun, but in a smoother yarn, the looser tension about the yoke would probably annoy me enough that I would have had to tear it back. Also: start with more yarn.

3 more superwash batts at artclub.etsy.com. Anything in the red range is so hard to photograph. It may just be my camera. Does anyone have a digital camera that’s true to color on reds?

Made a bunch of batts today, all really saturated color. Light was kind of weird when I took the pictures, but here they are. They’re for sale at artclub.etsy.com

And this was the January Cuckoo for Cuckoobatts club batt. Mostly merino, a little hand-dyed medium wool, and glossy black mohair.

As I was finishing up my Skinny Cat sweater, I found a little glassine bag of some old slicker-brushed fur of Skinny’s that I had saved from back before I started using the Furminator (which gets too much of the coarse top coat). I only had around a third of an ounce, so I blended it with a bit more than half Malt Balls, which to my delight was almost the exact color.Wish I had plied a little tighter for a slightly thicker yarn–this was a little thinner than the Vera Videnovich 2-ply sport I’m using–but the cat down gave it a halo that kind of filled in the gaps & the knitted yarn gave a pretty consistent gauge. The color was also incredibly close to the original silver corriedale I used for the sweater’s pattern, but much more soft & bouncy (Malt Balls was a RamouilletX). I got a tiny ball, just enough to knit “Beloved Friend” just above the cuff and to add a little pattern just above the hem. Kind of corny, but he was my beloved friend, so there. I have some undercoat fur from Kiki (my now-gone canine companion of 15 years) that I think will find its way into a memorial sweater, too. Herman’s (other past cherished doggie) fur was too scratchy for yarn (more like quills, really), but I can work her into it, maybe, by making it black (Herman) and coppery red (Kiki).

The finished Skinny Cat sweater is drying now. I’m afraid the sleeves might’ve grown a bit too much in the wash. I’d made them a little long in the cozy sweater way, but I hope I didn’t make orangutan sleeves for my tyrannosaurus arms. We’ll see in the morning.

Last week, I decided to search out all my neglected fiber and get it all made into combed tops at Zeilinger.

It’s kinda hard to let go of a lot of it. There’s a lot of special colors and fibers I’m going to have to blend together, because their tops minimums are kinda high. It’s also an expensive process, more than just buying new commercial fiber, but I’m just in love with the combed tops Zeilinger makes. They’re just so much nicer to spin than mass-produced commercial tops, and you get exciting blends.

(A lot of what I’m getting combed is fiber I’ve already paid to have processed, but just wasn’t happy with. If I were one of those brave, honest people, I could calculate the madly high rate I’m paying all told, what with the original cost of the fiber, shipping to me, shipping to and from the original processor, their processing fees, shipping to and from Zeilinger, their processing, and the fiber loss… Yikes. But last time I sent unhappy rovings to Zeilinger for tops, I learned a wonderful secret: that you can, in fact, polish a turd. That makes it a lot harder to just cut my losses. Plus the combing eliminates every speck of VM & neps, which means that even if I get way more than I need, I can always use the fiber as a luscious base for fine batts. How deft is my rationalization?)

Here’s what I’ve got in mind right now…

2 luxury local blends:

Local natural darks blend: mostly Alpacas in Wildcat Hollow goodness, with some Ewephoria llama. This one’s because the Wildcat colors are so beautiful separately, but I did a test carding in roughly the proportions I’ll be blending, and it’s pretty amazingly beautiful, a medium-dark heathered brown. This will have everything from black and dark brown to some coppery stuff and dark charcoal/brown llama. And I won’t miss monkey-grooming hay out of that cottony alpaca fiber.

Local natural white blend: tons of  Wildcat Hollow alpaca, plus Ewephoria llama and merino X.

1 mostly-local natural gray blend:

Mostly in the gray family and more subdued natural browns, ranging from medium wools to softer Romney, softer still llama, and a little moorit merino. Lots of soft local yum, and a lot of lighter colored odds and ends I just haven’t gotten around to using. I’m hoping for sturdy, bouncy, and fairly soft.

2 dyed blends:

Greenies: dyed greens and some blues. This will be a soft bouncy mix of rambouillet, cormo & merino X, with maybe some medium wool for strength, and maybe some alpaca, too.

Violet blues: A stronger, lustrous mix, medium wools, kid mohair, Romney & some odds & ends. This will have dyed white for vibrancy and dyed nautral colored fiber for deep color.

And if I have enough fiber to pull off one last batch, a mostly-local creamy white blend with alpaca, mohair, and wool, for dreamy dyeing.

In knitting news, Vera sent the last of the Skinny Cat yarn! Yay! I’ve finished one sleeve will will probably have my February sweater done and done by the end of the week. Hurrah!

I’m well pleased with this one. It’s warm and comfy and fits just like a cosy sweater should, neither tight nor baggy, and plenty long to avoid ass cleavage. Here I demonstrate it’s comfort by doing the twist.

Pattern: Just a generic top-down raglan, my favorite mindless sweater

Yarn: Nashua Wooly Stripes, Rolling Thunder, 8 balls

What I Learned: If you’re not sure what collar you want because you’re not sure if you have enough yarn for the style you want (hoodie, in this case, and no, I didn’t), then use a provisional cast-on, so you don’t have to hand-pick out 70 stitches from a yarn that already tends to deteriorate with unnecessary wear.

It turns out I can’t rip back my mermaid sweater to reshape it. The hairy single is just too sticky now that it’s been washed and I can’t unravel it without utterly destroying the yarn. So I must learn to live with the pooch. Pooches.  I can’t figure out a way to take it in that won’t look just as lumpy in another way. So there it is. I’m a calling it.

January Sweater: Mermaid.

Pattern: Modified Faux Fair Isle from Spin to Knit by Shannon Okey. Imperfect waist shaping added.

Yarn: 1 hank Spincycle Yarns Mermaid Hair (merino/kid mohair novelty) + 4 balls Diamond Carioca

Notes: The hips are exactly where they should be and fit perfectly (I used raglan-style increases), but I started the waist decreases way too late, resulting in an annoying pooch above the waist on either side. If I could rip it back, I’d start the waist a 3 inches sooner and taper it more gradually.

What I learned: Don’t wash a hairy single until you’re sure it’s how you want it, because you won’t be able to frog it later. I guess I knew that in theory; I’d just never actually needed to try it. But I’ve already benefited from this mistake. I went ahead and frogged the hip shaping in my Wooly Stripes raglan, instead of trying to see how the shaping fared after a wash, my instinct.

I’ve ripped it back to before the shaping and I’m just going to knit it straight down. The overall fit is relaxed enough that the increases aren’t necessary.

This is the second time I’ve ripped increases. The first time, I made it even wider, 8 increase rows (the top one only has 3–it just looks wider from the angle), which, when I actually  took it off the needles, looked like I was expecting to wear a bustle with it. So I ripped that back to just 3 increases, but those aren’t even necessary, even though they only add about 3″ overall. I’m going to knit it almost straight down, adding 3 increase rows very gradually–but each row will only increase one stitch at either side instead of 2, so it will add just a little over an inch.

Yesterday, we had a big Spinsters’ Club group, 15 people altogether! We all brought fiber and divvied it up into 15 little  piles and everyone made pot luck batts. We’re all going to spin them up and see what kinds of different yarn we get.

Here’s mine:

And here’s the carding in progress:

Jennifer’s batt turned out really cool, very muted and subtle on one side & super bright on the other.

And Marilyn brought cupcakes from Daddy Cakes:

And Jennifer brought homemade marshmallows dipped in chocolate, which were amazing, but I was so hopped up on sugar and coffee, I forgot to get a picture.

I’ve got a dozen crock-pots simmering away up in the home ec room, cooking up 10 pounds of colored wool top for the carding station at Yarn School! Wheeeeee!

I’m already totally excited about Yarn School. I got some bag samples in the mail today. I’m trying to pick one for this year’s sessions. Ron talked me into doing a new bag each year. I was going to use the extra bags from last year (the minimum order was pretty high), but I think instead I’ll just sell them cheap & get new ones so last year’s students get a new bag. The ‘07 ones were undated, awfully cute, and they’re the perfect size for a project bag, so I’m sure they’ll get snapped up if I price them right.

I think I’m going with a green bag this year. Eco-green, not color green–although the sample I got is a retina-searing fluorescent green. I did request it, but I was hoping for a warmer acid green (it was called “Toxic Green,” which could go either way, and swatches online are all but meaningless), so cfolor-wise, I’ll probably go with black again (black & yellow are the school colors). Generally speaking, I really want to try to pick the green option whenever I can, so I’m looking at some totes made out of woven recycled plastic. They have the look and feel of canvas–some like a lightweight ripstop nylon canvas, some more like a heavy duck canvas. Of course, the ones that are 100% post-consumer are very spendy, so those are probably out of the running for goodie bags, though I am considering getting some fancier Yarn School bags to sell this year.

I just had a delicious brie & apple sandwich for dinner, and I’m sipping on a beer and contemplating what the rest of the evening has in store for me.  Definitely some knitting, as the end of January is fast approaching and I still haven’t officially finished a sweater. I did, technically, finish one, but I’m unhappy with the waist shaping, so to call it January, I have to rip back most of the torso and reknit it so it doesn’t pooch at the sides.

See? The shaping was kind of an afterthought.

Here’s what it causes:

I have enough naturally occurring lumps and bumps. I don’t need to add any through poor knitting. I had this fantasy that it would cure itself after I washed it, but that was, in fact, only a fantasy. On the bright side, washing it did make the sleeves a bit longer, which is happy.

Bored of my endless stack of raglans, I started to tackle my big box of ancient UFOs this week, starting with an old tank from knit.1. I had finished the whole back (it’s only 2 pieces) and then lost interest. But I’ve taken up the cause again, which is good, because it should go nicely with my ugly denim/strawberry Y’all suck skirt.

I’m off to go be productive and avoid mirrors (I’m dressed like a bag lady and I look about a hundred today, so whenever I catch a glimpse, it takes the wind out of my sails).

Whee! Spring 2008 Registration is officially open! Yee Haw!

(Whew! I had a little Wordpress meltdown, but it looks like we’re all sorted now, hurrah!)

I’ve realized my fiber stash is just too crazy to tally. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s not in discrete, compact, easily weighed and tallied parcels like yarn. There are a million sundry bags, balls, batts, containers, bumps, locks, odds and ends–and all too bulky to easily weight on my little food scale. So instead I’m going to just make up a random number to commit to destashing and just track my progress that way. So what’s the number?

How about 100# eliminated outright, and another 10# spun into yarn. Considering Yarn School, that should be an easy goal. Not that the bulk of my stash is suited to the main Yarn School supply closet (we do a ton of dyeing, so the lion’s share of what we need is undyed top), but anything white I haven’t dyed yet can go into that kitty, and I can put plenty more in the goodie bags & of course the bins for blending into batts.

Speaking of Yarn School, Spring 2008 registration opens Monday! Yay!

I’m taking a class on Business Math. I’m not exactly a natural at math, so my compulsion to procrastinate has really been fueled. I’ve also got ants in my pants to finish a sweater a la my uberlist, and with my 2 in progress being question marks, I started a third. But afterwards, I realized that was imprudent. I have too much on the needles to be starting new stuff, and we’ve still got 10 more January days to receive either my needles for the striped sweater or the yarn for my Skinny Cat Sweater. But my common sense didn’t kick in until I was fairly far along.

It’s 1 ball of Mermaid Hair from Spincycle Yarns, my favorite hand-spinnery (and which will be my very first purchase when I’ve destashed my quota), which is a divine merino/kid mohair conconction, very soft, & 4 balls Carioca, a light single aplaca/wool/acrylic blend. It’s another Faux Fair Isle from Spin to Knit, this one made fairly small, but not tailored, and with garter edging. The sleeve took a little less than one ball, and torso so far took a ball, so I’m hoping that with the extra ball and the little leftovers from both sleeves, I’ll get a suitable length. If not, I’ll steek it and make a cardigan, which I might do anyway. I prefer the look of cardigans, but practically, I’m more of a pullover gal.

It’s working up FAST on 9s. I added one extra stitch for every 7 when I switched back to the Carioca, to compensate for the fatter gauge from the thick parts of the thick and thin. Hm. I think I should try it on and make sure it fits before I continue. Usually I try it on before splitting the sleeves, but for some reason, I only held it up. (Some reason? Like it’s a mystery. Laziness is the reason.)

After this, seriously, nothing new until I finish 3 WIP.