A visit to Finney Creek Farm and BSG 2007

I just returned from my yearly pilgrimage to Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. I drove up with Eileen on Thursday and returned on Sunday, so it was a quick trip. Pulling the little trailer with my little Nissan truck made uphill driving slow (dropping to 35mph), plus there was quite a bit of highway construction delay, so both Thursday and Sunday were pretty much limited to driving. And more driving. There are quite a few uphills between Reno and Eugene.


We camped at Laura's Finney Creek Farm 29 miles west of Eugene. She has sheep, llamas, turkeys, chickens, a dog, a cat, and a full-time job. Busy woman! Four of us Nevadans camped in the front yard and her visiting cousin camped in the livingroom. Friday morning was coastal-Oregon-misty and I was able to get some great shots of the farm. My favorite is of an overly vocal rooster.

Black Sheep Gathering is held yearly at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. It has become a premier western sheep and wool festival. There are sheep, goat and bunny competitions, fiber arts competitions, fleece judging and sale, workshops, demos, and lots and lots of vender booths. And, of course, impromptu spinning circles to join between shopping forays.

I am pleased to report that my painted Kiwi and matching chair generated many oohs and ahhs. The Market consisted of three large rooms full of venders selling everything from fibers, books and patterns to wheels, spindles, dyes, and tools. The most common item this year was probably handpaint blueface roving. Handspindles were also plentiful, with a wide choice from plain to fancy with exotic woods and inlaid stones. Another trend is the explosion of newfangled fibers such as ingeo, soysilk, bamboo, etc. I'm not a fan of silk (except how it takes color) and most of these new fibers are advertised to mimic the spinning properties of silk. Instead I found myself gravitating to exotics such as cashmere, bison, yak and camel down. Friday was mostly about shopping and I came home with quite a nice little collection of treasures to keep me happy for the next year.

I took only one half-day workshop - Orenburg Handspinning with Galina Khmeleva. It was a lot of fun and I bought a set of the hand-carved Russian support spindles to try this at home. She gets 500 yards on a single small handspindle! It will definitely take practice. Imagine a whisper-fine lace shawl spun from champagne colored camel down. Definitely worth the effort!

Saturday evening was the BSG lamb barbeque and potluck, then back to camp to chat, laugh, and compare our purchases. And make a few purchases from each other. I bought some of Becky's Tunis roving. Although tunis are meat sheep, the fiber is strong, smooth and springy (a bit like Dorset?), so I want to try making socks with it.

Now I am home. The trailer is unpacked and safely stowed in the driveway. This weekend I will get out my newly acquired booty and happily plot its eventual metamorphosis into hats, shawls, socks and other fuzzy garments.

Spinning Chair

Last weekend I set out to find a folding chair the right height for spinning. I found a folding wooden chair, adopted it and took it home. It had a dark oil stain. Once it was sitting there next to my Kiwi it looked sorta plain. Wood items that come into my house are always in danger of going under the burning tool. And every wheel needs its own matching chair, don't you think?

Here's the wheel:
Chair before:Chair after much sanding, woodburning and painting:
The undecorated areas will be covered by a small fluffy sheep pelt I use to add cushioning.

I have an unfinished tensioned lazy-kate on order, so the sandpaper and paint are awaiting it's arrival.

Progress

First, I am happy to announce the arrival of the first lavender bloom in my garden for this year. Here it is.

While warm weather has worked its magic on the garden, I have started and finished a knitting project in what is (for me) record time. For the Guild's recent natural dye workshop I could only find a couple of small, lumpy skeins to dye. These were leftovers from my very earliest spinning that I just couldn't bear to throw away. I split the larger one so I had three little skeins at not even an ounce each. In just 2 evenings I have knitted this hat, making up the pattern as I went along. It still needs to be washed and blocked. I think (I really do) that the lumpyness of the yarn gives it a lovely texture. It is a bit brighter in person (the flash washes the colors out a bit). In a totally unscientific manner, I only vaguely remember which of the dye pots and modifiers I used to get these colors. I think the purple was brazilwood modified by ammonia, and the orange was madder plus something else. The dull beigey-pink went in and out of several pots in search of something other than dull beigey-pink. Ah well - looks OK when used with the other two.

Pembrokeshire Pathways Complete

Despite all the seemingly endless little cable twists, I have completed the Pembrokeshire Pathways socks. The pictures don't really do them justice.

Partway:








Done (click on image to see stitch detail):

I'm still checking each day for the first lavender blossoms. None yet, but the salvia is overcoming its frost damage with a minor showing.

Back to the Garden

After a week of work, work, work, it was great to get outside and do a little gardening. The lavender blooms are about ready to pop open. I check every day, hoping to celebrate the first sign of purple. Despite having pulled out most of the rock soapwort last year, it has reappeared and is blooming away cheerfully. More importantly, the potentilla that Linda gave me has once again overcome my abuse and rebounded back to life.
On Saturday I visited Dry Creek Nursery in search of more Lena's broom. They were all out for now, so after reserving 3 from the next shipment, I browsed around and adopted 3 "Blue Cushion" lavenders (one can never have too many lavender) and 3 lemon thyme. I bought them small - small plants mean small holes to dig with my newly back-to-business elbow. And they are awfully cute, too, like a little kitten or puppy, but with no housebreaking required.

In a fit of ambition I even turned my mind toward beginning The Wall. First step is to dig a foundation ditch to lay the first rank of stones. Since my yard slopes, hosing down the area to soften the dirt doesn't really work. So I evicted a nest of ants from under the soaker hose in the back yard and spread the hose along the future wall site. At that point my ambition wore out. I'll soak the area a bunch this week and start the digging next weekend.
Meanwhile I'll keep checking for the first lavender blooms.

Moving along

Sorry to be slow to post - I have been sidetracked playing with Flickr. Within a week or 2 I have uploaded about 2400 images - can you tell that photography is my other hobby?

I am happy to report that my elbow has been cleared for all tasks, even building the rock wall in my front yard. I can also report, if not a finished object, at least a benchmark: I have finished spinning the neppy purple merino/mohair from which I will knit purple fuzzy mittens. Despite my earlier concerns about the neppiness, it came out great. Here is a picture of the finished skeins. (The color is a bit bluer than the picture shows - very medium purple.) After washing and whomping it is even softer. (Washing and whomping, for the uninitiated, is purposefully fulling the yarn in hot and cold soapy water, then wacking the skein against a railing to make the fiber ends pop out. You end up with a fuzzy, but durable yarn.) Initially I intended to pair the yarn up with a contrasting yarn to knit a Fair Isle pattern, but instead I think I'll use a textured stitch pattern. For extra warmth I might add a carried stitch to the inner layer of the mittens, but I don't want another color to interfere with the glorious purple-ness of the outside. This picture is a closer color match.

I am returning to my stash-busting with an intention to spin through some of the many fleece in my stash. Although I have several projects on bobbins, right now, they are all being spun on the Ashford Traditional. I am off to a spin-in at the park tomorrow and I needed something to spin on the Kiwi. So I have pulled a dark coffee colored corriedale-cross fleece from the closet and started in. There is a lot of it, so I don't have to worry about running out mid-spin-in anytime soon.


As for the rock wall, I'll get to that eventually.

Another busy weekend

I am spinning again at last! Friday evening I gave it a try and now I don't want to stop. I am celebrating by working on a new project. At last weekend's Dye Day I bought 4 oz of purple roving from Wayne. It is 70% Merino and 30% mohair and should become nicely fuzzy with wear. This should be just the ticket to finally make my own pair of purple fuzzy mittens. I have spun up the first bobbin's worth and am set to start another. At first its neppiness was a bit frustrating. Then I relaxed, shifted to a looser, longer draw and just let it pull out the fiber as it twisted. A little unevenness will just add to the texture and not be a liability in mittens.
I am spinning fairly fine, with a plan to knit double-layered mittens on approximately size 3 needles. Small stitches means small holes for minimal snow perforation and double-layered means warm. Even warmer when I add a color-stranded pattern to the outer layer. What color? Don't know yet.
Saturday I went out to Sharon's to spin, chat, eat and particularly, to plan the workshop we taught at the Spanish Springs Library on Sunday. Ian made us his fabulous burritos and we sat with our wheels on the porch. The weather was perfect, the garden was full of birds, and a small herd of 3 dogs napped and milled about our feet. In the late afternoon I took a brief tromp through the sagebrush to get some photos of the desert in bloom. In addition to pretty spring greens and a blue nevada sky, I saw lots of cool lichens.

Today I packed up the little car with fibers and fiber tools, put the painted Kiwi in the passenger seat, put the top down and zoomed out to the Spanish Springs Library. Sharon and I gave a 90 minute (or so) overview of fibers, fiber-preparation, spinning, dyeing etc. to a smallish audience of 9 knitters.
Now I am home and rethinking the Pembrokeshire Pathways Socks. The pattern has an obvious error at the beginning of the heel flap. I checked online for a fix, but only found someone else complaining about it. Guessing might mean a later massive frog (ripping back, for you non-knitting types) so I have decided to substitute my usual short-row heel and toe, while continuing the cable and eyelet pattern down the instep. Pictures later as I progress.

Dye Day, Blooming Broom, and More Socks

Yesterday was a Guild meeting, followed by a natural dye workshop. It was SO much fun! Being still unable to spin, I only had three ancient, beginner spun skeins that I had dug out of the bottom of a bin. I'm glad I brought them because I now have the makings for a very cute hat! Linda was both hostess and instructor, and she did a great job. Her back yard has a great view of the mountains and a lush lawn to sit on. Lots of folks had lent dye pots, crock pots and burners so there were all kinds of dyes to try. I can't remember them all, but they included cochineal, walnut hulls, moss, brazilwood, madder, onion skins, tulips, and a bunch of others. And after dyeing, we could try using modifiers to shift the color. Those included ammonia, iron, tin and copper. My favorite bit of magic was when I dipped my dull-salmon brazilwood-dyed skein in ammonia and it instantly turned deep purple. Sharon, being more methodical than some of the rest of us, ended up with this fabulous set of colors. I am now enthusiastic to fill up my freezer with all kinds of potential dyestuffs in preperation for the next natural dye day.

Along with the great spring weather has come the flowering of Scotch broom. Uck! Yes, they are beautiful to behold while blooming, but they stink. And since they have planted them all over Reno, including along the Interstate, it is impossible to get away from the thick, cloying stench. The one in my front yard is no exception. I have tried several times to eliminate it, yet it just comes right back up.
I'm afraid to dig too agressively, since its roots are mingled with one of my favorite plants, my Lena's broom. Both are explosions of color right now. I had intended to plant several more Lena's broom this year, but alas, no digging holes until my elbow fully recovers. The white patches on the Lena's blossoms are frost damage.

On the knitting front, I have started a new pair of socks. The lace pattern I had planned to use will have to wait, since the gauge could not be met with the yarn I had. So I am knitting Pembrokeshire Pathways Socks using the yarn Sharon returned to me. This is the first time I have done cables in anything other than a swatch. They are coming along, but the cabling is slow and I think I would like to make a pair of socks using just the eyelet columns. Still, I press on and with each row my elbow gets a little stronger. Tonight I may try spinning a little.

Stash-Buster Socks Complete (and then some)

Knitting only a few rounds at a time was slow, but I finally finished knitting the ugly (thanks for the tactful comments, but yes, ugly) Stash-Buster Socks. Here they are in their full glory. I left them on the coffee table for a few days, just to see if they would suddenly exhibit previously hidden charm. They didn't. So to the dyepot they went. My dyepot and dye-crockpot are over at Linda's awaiting Saturday's Dye Workshop, so I prowled the house and garage in search of a container for dyeing. (Waiting until after the weekend did not occur to me.) The best I could come up with was a galvanized pail that once held a short-lived rosemary bush. I rinsed it out and tested it for leaks. Happily unleaky, I put it on the stove with a goodly amount of Landscape Mountain Blue. I threw the socks in and left them to simmer, anticipating the lovely colors that would be achieved with the delicate application of a small amount of blue. Sure, the galvanized pail might affect the color, but I didn't intend to leave them in very long.

Then I got distracted and completely forgot about the socks. Half an hour later I pulled out DARK blue socks. Only a little of the dye rinsed out. Nothing delicate about the colors now, but still more attractive than they started.

And the decorative pail works better as a dyepot than it ever did as a planter.

On the Verge of Lots of Things

Just as spring should be, it is the beginning of lots of things. My elbow is slowly healing and I will soon be able to finish the stash-buster socks and consider my next sock project. I like to have something like socks or mittens continually on the needles for carrying about. There are some lace socks in the book "Lace Style" that I would like to try, but lace sort of defeats the purpose of carry-about knitting, which needs to be done in social spaces. For a month or two I have had the leftover yarn Sharon gave back to me sitting by my computer. It wants to be my next pair of socks, and might even look good in lace. I still have not tried spinning since I tend to spin in a modified long-draw with the fiber held off to the right. This technique would be extra hard on the left elbow. I need to not over-stress it if I want it fully working in time for Black Sheep Gathering.

On the concept that there is nothing wrong with my right hand, I will soon be launching into renovation of the outside of the little trailer. For that project I have purchased a variety of wire brushes and a stock of 120 grit sandpaper for the electric sander. The plan (for the moment) is to use the brushes to remove loose paint, sand over these areas to soften the edges, wash all surfaces with something like TSP, fill dents, replace loose nails with screws, tape, cover with Zinzer123 metal primer, then paint with elastomeric masonry paint. Why masonry paint, you ask? Because this special paint not only waterproofs, but it remains elastic enough to not crack when the metal surface expands and contracts with the temperature.
This is, of course, a theory. And the recommendation of my favorite paint guy at Home Depot. I have placed a query on a vintage trailer message board to see if anyone has experience to confirm or refute. The masonry paint is tintable and comes in 63 colors, a far better choice than the basic white offered in standard RV roof paint. Once I have painted the entire trailer blue, I can then go to town painting fluffy clouds and lush lavender plants. I figure the whole process may go over into next spring, but I would like to get the base color on by the end of the summer so I can feel confident about remaining waterproof. Tarping is always an option, but it is windy enough where I live that the flapping of the tarp can damage the trailer sides.

Freedom at last to work on Stash-Buster Socks

The splint is off and I can now drive. I celebrated my return to the world by going to Bartley Ranch Park's Planting Day where some of the Guild were busy demonstrating spinning and dyeing. It was fabulous to get out after a couple of weeks confined to the house. No spinning yet for me. The doctor said to push my limits and keep the elbow moving, so I have tried a little knitting. I can only manage a few sock rows at a time, but it is gradually improving. It is ever so satisfying seeing progress on my stash-buster socks.

What are stash-buster socks? They are a great way to use up those little balls of early uneven handspun that are cluttering up your fiber stash. There is not enough of any color for a project on their own, and they are neither terribly attractive nor terribly evenly spun, yet you can't bring yourself to throw them away. So they sit forever in a corner of your stash. With stashbuster socks, you pair them up to have enough for a pair of socks, then knit them in stripes to make it look like you didn't just run out of the first color. If the dye job is, well, not too attractive, or if the colors don't really go together, you can either wear them with jeans, or drop the finished socks in a dyebath that will pull the varying colors together. I am debating whether to overdye these with yellow or blue.

Lack of Progress Report - or One-Handed Reflections

Here I am, complete with mummy-wrappings and an alpaca mitten. The splints inside the bandage keep the arm up, so the mitten is necessary to keep my elevated hand warm. My enforced one-handedness has made it very clear to me just how much of a fiber craft addiction one can have. I am longing to knit and spin and weave and dye and felt. I had planned to do a bit of dyeing, but have been stymied by the need to lift and empty the full dyepot. There is always Koolade dyeing by wrapping it in plastic wrap and microwaving, but I quickly discovered that manipulating plastic wrap with one hand is an exercise in extreme frustration.

So I wait. I surf the internet looking for new patterns. I make one-handed lists of future projects. I read fiber-themed mystery novels, knitting blogs, and old issues of Spin-Off. And I gaze longingly at my inactive wheels, spindles, needles, and fiber. I had no idea how hard this would be.

On the plus side, I can do some woodburning. As I say this, all the exposed wood surfaces in my house are cringing. Hmmm... perhaps a pattern of entwined snakes on the heater closet door... Or stars and planets on the door to my office... They are safe until the splint comes off and I can stop elevating the arm on stacks of pillows. After that, we'll see.

Earth Day 2007

"Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax
and all of his friends
may come back."
-- Dr. Seuss

Raccoon print on boardwalk, Big Thicket Swamp, Texas

Happy Earth Day!

Rocks