Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom

Hi, Anna-Liza here, of course. I call myself a “restrained yarn whore” because I had $6 left over when I was done shopping, but I decided to just eat the muffin I brought with me (Morning Glory from Java Stop, yum) rather than getting a full meal for lunch, so I could spend my lunch money on fiber. (The meal would have cost $7, so it turned out to be a good idea.) Lyda would like to be a yarn whore, too, but she’s too busy at the moment preparing to be a yarn whore creating room in her house and collecting weird links for you. Speaking of yarn whores, have you read this post of Franklin’s? Probably, because if you read here you very likely read there, but if you missed it go read that first. Really. I’ll wait. You can even come back here tomorrow if his thoughtful musings put you out of the mood for fiber shopping reports.

The fiber photo was, of course, a still life of all my purchases at Wool Market. We’ll work our way through them. In fact, I may have to do a couple of posts, both for reasons of very little writing time and of not wanting to hypnotize my readers. Not very much, anyway. Falling forward into your monitor or keyboard can be a very painful thing indeed.

Knitting Sprite had wanted to come with me to the Wool Market, but she couldn’t get anyone to trade her shift at work. Driving up by myself was actually very pleasant. You saw the scenery I was driving through, and I had Kirsty MacColl’s Tropical Brainstorm on the stereo all the way up. (Another bonus to being the only one in the car–I sang with it all the way up there and back. Loudly.) Estes Park is only about 30 miles from my house, but it’s mostly windy mountain roads, so it takes about 45 minutes if the traffic cooperates.

My first order of business was to deliver some books to Laura at Textiles a Mano. (Who’s a good little CSR?) Then I started my first scouting circuit around the vendor barn. I kept running into people I know, not surprisingly. First I saw Terri Lynn of Larkspur Studio, then I ran into a very good old friend I hadn’t been in touch with for a while. (She’s not a fiber person, but she was there with a friend who is, which makes it even odder and more serendipitous. And I guess I’ll have to call her Not-Fiber-Jean, as my knitting friend Jean–hereafter known as Fiber-Jean–has the same last initial and both of them are redheads.) And then I saw Laura and Connie from work and inapproprately hugged them both, but they said they didn’t mind. This is Connie and me–Laura took the photo. It reminds me that there’s a reason I don’t wear crew-neck t-shirts very often, but it was the first time I’d worn my white Ravelry t-shirt–the one with “where my stitches at?” on the front.

That was during my first scout through the Plain and Fancy booth, and that place always makes me a little high. Such beautiful colors, such soft yarn! Oddly enough, with my love of strong colors, everything I bought before lunch was natural-color wool. The very first thing was a sample pack of Navajo Churro wool, very suitable for a beginning spinner. Churro has a long staple and isn’t too slippery, so it’s really good for learning to spin. It’s also a bit rough, not used for next-to-the-skin items like scarves. It felts well, and is used a lot in weaving. I don’t know yet what I’ll make with it–I’m just hoping not a mess. Aren’t these great colors? Black and two shades of beige …

     I got this from Woolly Designs, run by Tracy and Jean Eichheim from Crawford, Colorado. Jean and Tracy were both there at the booth, and they gave me a lot of really excellent advice on hand-spindle spinning. I also got my hand spindle from them, after I’d gotten some encouragement from Ana Carranza of Entrelac Stitch Markers, who let me play with her hand spindle at Wool Market last year and is therefore the earliest known source of my new addiction. Tracy makes beautiful hand spindles, and I really love buying handcrafted items from the crafters themselves! Here’s the spindle I bought:

         I’ve had just a little bit of time to play with it, and it’s beautifully balanced. I don’t have the question in my mind anymore whether any problems I am having are due to me or the spindle–it’s pretty much all me, all the time at this point. Tracy even bends the hook just slightly, so the yarn is at the absolute center of the whorl–if the hook were straight, the yarn would be very slightly off-center. Is that not an elegant thing? And even his most detailed, fanciest spindles are cut by hand on a scroll saw, not using a laser or a computer program. Even the Dragons! Which are my new objects of lustful fiber desire. Haven’t you always wanted a dragon spindle?

Three ounces of Churro will last me for a while, but I’ll eventually use it up. While Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins has a very nice selection of rovings (and everything else), I decided to get a little more to feed my new spindle. At the Mañanica Farm booth, I bought an ounce of roving from Teeswater/Cotswold crossbreeds.

    That’s going to be fun to spin, I think.

The last thing I bought before lunch was this:

   Pure Colorado Cormo wool from Elsa Sheep and Wool Company. It’s 700 yards of laceweight woolen-spun, which cost all of $17.00. Such a deal! I might actually make a small shawl with this. It’s lightlightlight and just lovely. I suppose the grey is pale enough for dyeing, but I love it the way it is.

And you know what? It’s already Friday, and I’ve been working on this post in bits and pieces since last Sunday. So I’ll tell you about what happened after lunch later, and get this thing up where you can see it. Knitblog! 

Hi, Anna-Liza again. I’m really sorry, y’all. I have so much more to tell you about Wool Market and the cool stuff I got there, but I’m in a serious time crunch. I’m taking a series of four workshops every evening this week, and then Darlin’ K and I are going to be at SolFest this weekend. I’m going to keep working on the fiber post(s) in the bits of time I find. I’ll also try to break it up into smaller bites, so I can at least post some of it between now and … next week? Maybe Saturday morning, before we leave. So much to blog about, so little time to blog!

I finally did get to play with my new drop spindle yesterday, with some of the black Churro wool. I know you’ve seen this a couple of times, but here’s a very quick description:

New drop spindle in the middle; directly above that and then clockwise is some Navajo Churro wool in three colors; on top of the Churro is some Plain and Fancy sportweight singles in “Purple Mountains”; the eye-searing pink/purple/turquoise is merino/mohair; the pale grey wool is laceweight cormo from Elsa Wool Company; the stripey grey/black roving is wool from a Teesedale/Cotswold crossbreed.

I sound like I actually know what I’m doing! I do not.

Hi, Anna-Liza here. Lyda’s getting rid of stuff and I’m acquiring stuff–what a balanced pair we are, are we not? Yin and yang got nothin’ on us. Oh, that picture up there? It’s one I took on my way back home from Estes Park. Pretty nice, eh, Lyda? Might could even make up for the snow.

I find I’m still rather addled by the whole Wool Market experience (plus it’s Father’s Day, and I have a few other things to do than write. Especially considering I had such a grand holiday yesterday.)

So I’m afraid that photo I posted will have to tease you just a bit longer, but I’ll give you Part One of the Estes Park Wool Market report, as told by Pollyanna of the Rockies.

Since I don’t raise fiber animals, the animal part is of purely academic interest to me. I spend far less time in that part of the show than in the vendor’s barn. However, there are a lot of breeders and fiber animal raisers in this area, so those parts are very busy indeed. Add to that the people who bring their kids to see the animals, and curious folk like me! I did overhear one woman say to her friend, “My husband just asked me to not bring home any livestock!”

There are rabbits,

llamas, alpacas,

sheep,

goats, and paco-vicuñas, which are so shy they used their hypnotic powers to defeat my flash. The fellow silhouetted on the left here had a sign on his pen saying he was for sale, for a mere $48,000.

I didn’t spot any bison or yaks or water buffalo, but that’s not to say they might not show up one day. Other attractions include the kids’ tent (where kids can try weaving and spinning), and the wool fleece judging, which is way over my head just yet:

And of course, there are the people and the other scenery.

Note the matching Hawaiian shirts and black jeans …

And of course, this …

Oh, and we mustn’t forget this:

I told you I’d blog about the drop spindle class, so here goes! (Oh, Anna-Liza blogging.)

Maggie Casey is generally considered one of the best spinning teachers in the country, and very possibly the best beginner’s spinning teacher. And I am lucky enough to live within easy reach of her store, Shuttles Spindles & Skeins. My experience with her is limited to this one, one-session class, but I’m going to have to agree. She got me to the point that I feel like all I need to do is practice to get good at this drop spindle business, which is a pretty good accomplishment for one two hour class!

I did better in the earlier part of the class, when I was taking more time and not rushing. But I wanted to get some practice plying while I was still in the class, so I rushed through the second bit of roving and got much poofier results. The plied yarn was, well, “designer”. And then, I just couldn’t resist playing with the leftover Easter egg dye … well, here’s how it turned out:

    <—My first handspun, hand-dyed yarn.                   <—-my second handspun, hand-dyed yarn

Since the class, I’ve practiced a bit, but I have to admit it isn’t quite as easy for me to get time for spinning as it is for knitting (which isn’t easy at all). The kids and the cat are just a bit too fascinated with the spindle at this point. I’m working with a simple CD spindle (the kind for spinning fiber, not the kind for storing CDs, sillies), but I am going to be borrowing a couple of more traditional spindles to try out, and I will be spindle-browsing at Estes Park. Spindle spindle spindle. Spindle. (”Stop talking about the spindle!!”)

In all the excitement of learning a new skill and dying Easter eggs and yarn, somehow I finished Mr. B’s sweater. I’m still a n00b at the photo-uploading thing, and I can’t seem to get this one to make a thumbnail, so click on this link for the picture:  mr-bs-camo-sweater.jpg. Top-down raglan, and I knit the sleeves in the round on DPNs, so the only seams were the underarm ones.

So that’s one project off the needles! (One! One WIP FO’d! Ah ha ha ha ha … [thunder]) Hooray! Progress! Oh, but wait! What’s that in Anna-Liza’s knitting bag?

      <—the first of what will be four socks for the kidlets

     <— a Butterfly Moebius out of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock

That would be two! Two new projects started! Ah ha ha ha ha ha … (thunder)

Oh. Oops.

Seriously. Oh, Anna-Liza here.

We’re having two of the kids’ friends over for a slumber party–so now there are two 6-year-olds and two 4-year-olds, all boys, eating breakfast in the living room, watching the first DVD in the Avatar series (I actually really like that show myself). Oh, and Darlin’ K is in there, too. I’m taking a little break out here in the office to get a little peace write this post.

The cat and I are the only females in this house to begin with, and since I got my tubes tied we have more in common than ever! But she doesn’t knit. She does like all the stuff I use in knitting, but she’d rather deconstruct than construct. I guess the lack of opposable thumbs has something to do with it.

Our guests weren’t due to arrive until 5:30 yesterday, but don’t go thinking I got anything practical done. We went to Asia Day at the University of Colorado, where we watched a Taiko demonstration/performance. The demonstration included audience participation, so I got up on stage and got to drum on one of the big drums. They taught us a really basic pattern, which involved a simple “right/left” beat and chant (basically “one-two” in Japanese). The beat gradually got faster and faster and culminated in a really fast drum roll, while shouting. No words, just a long shout until I was out of breath, then more shouting until the drum roll was done. Then we went back to the original beat for the end. It was a lot of fun! Then Mr. B wanted to try it, so I knelt behind him at the smallest drum and helped him do it. He really liked it too. Unfortunately, both Darlin’ K and I forgot the camera!

Bonus: they gave out door prizes at the performance, and Mr. R. won a pretty little Japanese rice paper doll on a little stand, and Darlin’ K won a gift certificate to a well-known Boulder sushi restaurant. Date night, here we come!

After that, we spent an hour at a friend’s 50th birthday party. I ended up spending most of the time talking to a weaver and a quilter there! And then we got home with about ten minutes to spare before Q and J got here.

Bedtime wasn’t too bad. We let them stay up until about 10:30, then told them they could talk and giggle all they wanted, but the lights had to be out and they had to be lying down. They were up by about 7 this morning … except, with the Daylight Savings Time change, it was 8.

I’m really not a big fan of Daylight Savings Time. I’m especially not a fan of it starting before Easter.

I made bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast, while Darlin’ K sliced up cantaloupe and got the drinks and plates ready. I usually drink tea in the mornings, but today I made a pot of coffee. By the time I’d finished cooking (and sampling the bacon and drinking my coffee) I wasn’t hungry anymore! I did have some cantaloupe, too–it wasn’t completely a bacon-and-coffee breakfast.

We’ll probably take them to The Evil McEmpire® for lunch and an extended playtime. I’ll take knitting with me–I’ve only got about two more inches to go on Mr. B’s sweater body before doing the ribbing (maybe less than that), and I got the size 3 DPNs to do the sleeves yesterday when we were in Boulder. I plan on a good hour and a half to two hours of knitting while the kids play, so I’m hoping to get the body finished and maybe get the first sleeve going. It’s a top-down raglan, so I just have to pick up the stitches and start knitting. There’s not really much shaping–I might decrease a bit, but his arms are still plump and I don’t want the sleeves to be too tight. I also want to allow enough ease for him to wear something under the sweater.

When I bought the needles, I also signed up for the drop spindle class I mentioned–so maybe I’ll finally be able to get past the “park and draft” spinning method by the end of this month!! 

I expect I’ll have even more knitting time this Saturday, when I attend the Democratic County Convention & Assembly. I’m a delegate to the Assembly and an alternate to the Convention. Maybe I’ll even finish the sweater! (Obviously, I have my priorities straight).

Our guests will be with us until after dinner. They’re siblings, and their parents and older siblings are going skiing today. Our families do a lot of reciprocal childcare–it’s a pretty nice arrangement.

Now, back into the fray.