It was a wonderful first day for the spinning workshop at Lincoln’s New Salem. The teachers, Dona Walzer and Barbara Brown, sure know their stuff and have made it such fun. Here are a few pictures from the day.







I tell you, the dynamics of the group makes all the difference and this group has been so good to be with.

Not having had much instruction, particularly with a spinning wheel, I’ve enjoyed practicing different types of fiber preparation. We’ve worked with merino sheep raised at New Salem (which was a bit more dirty than expected, really) and they’ve got quite a good variety of fleeces and prepared fibers to practice with as well.

We went over the differences between worsted and woolen preparation (cards/combs), worsted and woolen drafting (short/long draw), spinning to the crimp and counting the twists per inch for singles and plies. All the things I’ve heard about over the years but never really understood or practiced. My problem is just that, although I understand that there’s a difference between the two, I can never remember which is woolen and which is worsted!!

Sigh…

Tomorrow’s another day with more to learn and more to spin!

Things to do...

I had a great time with the Prairie Weaver’s Guild on Tuesday night. What a great group. I did a short program on Characteristics of fiber and then broke out the samples of a fairly wide variety of them for people to touch and spin with. Of course, the star of the evening was the Kromski Minstrel spinning wheel that recently graced me with its presence!

I’ve had a couple of days off from my day job to prepare things for my upcoming Lincoln Land classes – Designing a Purse (knit or crochet) which will run over 3 Thursday nights beginning March 26th and Knitting With Jewelry Wire and Beads which will be the first Saturday in April. I’ve been able to get a great deal done with a little more to do later today. This is the first time I’ve done the Designing class in this format and, of course, designing is what I love to do so I’m very excited to get this class underway. I’ve got lots of fun creativity exercises and a design questionnaire that should help people get started with the process.

The next thing to come up in my busy month is a spinning workshop this weekend at Lincoln’s New Salem. We just so rarely have access to spinning classes here so this is such a treat and I can’t wait. Kromski and I will head over tomorrow to learn about the sheep breeds that were common during Lincoln’s New Salem days (around 1830) and the spend two whole days with spinners – what a treat! I’ll take my camera and will hopefully have some pictures to share (if I can remember to take them!).

The gansey is through the plain stockinette and I’ve just started the first garter border. I promise that I will take a picture for the next posting. A blue knitted tube just hasn’t seemed worth breaking out the camera but now it’s soon to get thrilling!

Slightly blocked

Just a quick post to show off the slightly blocked long gloves. I really do think they would look better in a lighter lace yarn but I do think they're awfully elegant!

(Click to see a larger version.)

Just a quick note, too, to brag a little on my wonderfully talented mother, Wanda Odum, who designed this t-shirt logo for her local chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists:

I'm so proud! ahhhh....

One down, a few to go

I wanted to finish at least one of the projects I have outstanding this weekend and was actually able to do it by finishing my long gloves. They’re soaking right now and I’ll try to figure out how to block them so will have to post pictures a little later. I think they are very elegant but I think, before blocking anyway, that they would be prettier in a less ‘fluffy’ yarn – one with less halo. I think it would show up the pattern a little better. But I still like the idea of this one. I also still like the idea of adding beads around the wrist so maybe I’ll make them again with a less fluffy yarn and some beads. Ha! It’ll go on the list, anyway!!

I got tons on knitting done on my gansey, due almost entirely to the 3 hours I spent Saturday morning with my car in the garage. Rather extensive maintenance and checking which was also insanely expensive. But I keep trying to tell myself, at least it’s not a monthly car payment (although this would make up for a couple of month’s payments). I’ve gotten spoiled by not having a car payment for about the last 6 years. Long may it drive, is all I’ve got to say!!

But back to the gansey, I’ve got about 8 inches of stockinette (in the round) knitted. Very exciting, right? I don’t mind it so much, actually, but I am curious to get started on the patterned part. I’ve decided I’m going to use knit/purl textured patterns – I think a small diamond pattern as a divider, then an argyle-type pattern, then a diagonal pattern. I think I’ve decided on saddle shoulders, too. That style seems to best suit my very narrow shoulders. That’s the plan and no pictures until there’s actually something to show.

First Fruits

I love my new spinning wheel – it spins like “butta.” Here’s my first real skein off of it. Kickapoo Creek Alpacas cloud of alpaca/silk/merino. I spun the same fiber in a white combination a couple of years ago using a supported drop spindle. It spun like a dream but the cloud is not the best format to use with drop spindle. But I’ve never been able to spin it with my Louet wheel. I spun this using Scotch tension with a “z” twist which allowed me to spin it very softly. Then I used double drive with an “s” twist to make the 2-ply. It looked really strange to me because I’m used to spinning my singles with “s” twist and ply with the “z” twist. But nevertheless, I think it came out beautifully and 4 oz of fiber came out to 472 yards. Don’t know what I’ll make with it but should be enough for something scrummy.

I had some challenges with the cloud but that’s down to my inexperience, not the quality of the fiber. The fiber is absolutely wizard.

Not sure what I’m going to put on the wheel next but I’ve got some fire red bamboo that I’m wanting to try so maybe I’ll do that.

The gansey is progressing but 2 inches of garter stitch and 2 inches of stockinette don’t really rate pictures! I’ll get a shot of it once I get to the patterned part.

I did get involved in knitting some Christmas stockings for a friend at work who had the foresight to ask in February rather than November. She and her siblings had stockings knitted by her Grandmother. But now there are nieces and nephews who never got a knitted stocking so I’ve agreed to do four of them – each with the name knitted in and a Santa’s face. I’ve almost got two of them done already but I will soon run out of the green. I never realized that you can’t get Christmas green this time of year.

I’m not really too much of a Christmas person so I’ve never knitted Christmas stockings before. Guess this will be my target effort!

EEKS!

How time flies. I kept thinking, I need to post something, but last week was a bit scatty and, obviously, I never got to it.

Part of the problem is that I’ve been at the end of several projects you’ve already heard quite enough about so didn’t want to post about them. I’ve had a sweater that you haven’t seen but I’m thinking about submitting it for publication so can’t show you that (although I am wearing it today and it looks loverly!). I’ve been spinning (a lot) but once you’ve seen one picture of a singles, you’ve seen them all. I’ll post about that when I’ve got the plying done (which I’m close to getting to).

Now I did find some Galway (I think it’s color 164) at a local yarn shop and I love Galway. It was one of the first real wool yarns I ever worked with and I’ve loved it ever since. This is in a royal blue which drew me right in so I broke down and started a Gansey with it. Sometime last year I finally broke down and got Beth Brown-Reinsel’s Gansey book and I’ve wanted to get one made for ages. (By the way, Beth is the teacher from whose class I made the Danish sweater.) Since I’ve only got about 10 rows of garter stitch done, I’ve spared you pictures but I’ll get something posted when I get a little further along.

One of the things I’ve been trying to learn is about knitting sleeves from the top down. The sleeves for the sweater I’ve just finished were done this way and I had to rip out and redo about 4 times before I had the number of stitches right. So along comes Beth, wonderful teacher that she is, and says, “Here’s the easiest way to do it. Measure the circumference of the sleeve, leaving out the bound off edge at the bottom, and use your stitch gauge to determine how many stitches you need for that distance.

I mean, how simple is that? How logical is that? How did I not know that? Everyone should know that. Does every knitter in the universe know that? Is it just me or is that a perfectly simple and logical thing to know and why didn’t I know that? Why did I not know that deep in my knitterly bones? Duh.

Anyway, now I know that. For my Gansey I will know that and will use it, oh my knitting hero.

In the Kitchen

As in other things, I’m apt to experiment a lot in the kitchen. Results vary but I hit on a great combination this weekend.

Here’s what I did:

1 lb of ground meat (I used ground sirloin)
1 medium onion - chopped
1 small green pepper –chopped
1 large clove of garlic
1 cup corn
1 tsp each of allspice, cinnamon, and cloves
1 tsp of steak seasoning
salt
½ cup beef broth or water
2 large potatoes (use the kind with the waxy skin)
1 can cream of broccoli soup
1 cup milk
2 cups grated cheese

Sautee the onion and green pepper until the onions begin to caramelize then add the garlic and sautee a little longer. Put theses in a bowl. Brown the ground meat, adding the spices and salt to taste. When the meat is brown, add the corn, onion, green pepper, onion and broth (or water). Put the meat mixture in a casserole dish.

Peel the potatoes and cut in very thin slices. Arrange the potato slices on top of the meat mixture.

Mix the can of cream of broccoli and the milk and pour over the top of the potatoes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (or until potatoes are done). Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top and bake another few minutes until cheese is melted. Remove from the oven and let sit 5 minutes before serving.

And that’s it. I’ve almost eaten the whole thing. Of course, you can use any kind of cream of whatever soup and any veggies in with the meat mixture to suit your tastes.

That’s about what I got accomplished this weekend although I did get another batch of fleece washed. The problem with it was that I thought it was going to be warmer on Saturday than it actually turned out to be so I put the batch on the porch to dry. Instead I got a fleece-cicle.