Yosemite

Many thanks to those who expressed concern about my absence from cyberspace. I am not ailing. Instead I have been hiding from all-things-computer by spending a fabulous few days in Yosemite National Park. I took over 1300 photos, and will be posting the best of them soon. Meanwhile, there is back-dated email to read and many phone messages to return. Here is a picture to tide you over:

Warm toes for winter

Much as I love making and wearing handspun wool socks, there is something to be said for socks that can go in the regular wash. The best superwash sock yarn I have ever knit with is Shepherd Sock from Lorna's Laces. It washes up super soft, yet wears like iron. (But it will shrink if put through the dryer.) In preparation for the winter I have purchased enough for 4 pairs in "South Shore", "Gone Fishin'", "Ravenswood", and "Purple Club" colorways. And I will probably have enough left from each to match them up to make a really wild extra pair! Now I just need to find the time to knit.... I am starting with "South Shore" in a pattern called "Hourglass Eyelet Socks".

2008 CSSW Retreat

The weather was perfect, the company was fine, and the food was yummy. It was the eighth annual retreat of the Carson Sierra Spinners and Weavers. I took my little trailer and camped under the pine trees at Davis Creek County Park in beautiful Washoe Valley, NV. Saturday we had a guild meeting, potluck, swap'n'sale, and general get together. We ate yummy Tunis lamb chops donated by Becky (who sadly couldn't be there). I bought hand painted BFL roving and even (imagine that) silk roving from Mim, Dyer Extraordinaire. Then on Sunday I towed the little trailer home and stowed it in the driveway. There it will probably sit until next spring. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

The Gathering at Sage Creek Farm and a couple of finished objects

Last weekend was The Gathering at Sage Creek Farm. Sharon and Ian hold a yearly gathering of their large circle of family and friends. Some folks come for a day while others camp out in tents or trailers.

I took my little 1953 travel trailer up on Friday and stayed until Monday. I only checked my email a couple of times. OK, once per day.

The weekend started hot, then shifted to windy and cool as a cold front swept in. There was lots of visiting, knitting, eating, and just general hanging out.

I took about 550 photos with my new camera and zoom lens. If you are incredibly dedicated you can look at 368 of them here.


Getting away for the holiday weekend gave me the chance to make some knitting progress. I finished my current carry-along project - a scarf made from a skein Raven Frog superwash wool that Eileen brought me from Alaska. The colorway is listed as "Kelp Bed". By a little experimentation I came up with a simple reversible lace pattern that is as follows: (over a multiple of 5ss plus 1) K3, YO, bring yarn to front between needles, P2TOG, repeat. That's it. It makes a lovely stretchy fabric that naturally accordion pleats around the neck. I worked on this for a few months while walking between buildings to meetings and finished it off at the Gathering. Note about Raven Frog Wool: It is superwash, so I washed it, and it went a bit limp. It is very soft, but no longer springs back into accordion pleats. I suggest handwashing if you want to keep the stitch definition and springyness.

Knowing the end was near on the Kelp Bed scarf, I resurrected a stalled project that I found stuffed between shelves in my living room. The project had been sitting stagnant since 2006, when I spun and dyed rather hairy suri alpaca and cast on for fingerless mitts. I had made it as far as the cuffs before burying the project. Making up the pattern as I knitted, I put chunky purl rings around the palms. The finished mitts are a bit funky looking, but they are comfy and warm and the Michelin-Man-like purl rings give great padding for carrying around my new heavier camera.
Now I can start another carry-along project. Maybe a scarf could be knit from the leftover log cabin afghan yarn. It is mostly blue yarn left, but I could over-dye. Blue plus red makes purple....