Memes, Yoinked

First, something Txanne has been doing for a while now: today's farmers' market haul! Adam and I hit the U District Farmers' Market on a whim, which meant I had neither cash nor bags, but I did have a three-year-old. This not an ideal combination, but everyone was very nice and took my checks, and many of them offered me big paper bags. Adam doesn't quite get that "samples" are not the same as "snacks," but I think we kept our rudeness to a minimum.

Port Madison Farm: a lump of plain chevre and a wedge of spring cheese. (Attention Annie: I think this is the same stuff we got from the meat-and-cheese-lady in Rome - remember, the stuff that looks like Havarti, but with a milder flavor? This was their last one for the year, what with spring being a long while back, and I grabbed it like a crazy person, but keep an eye out.)

Billy's: four peaches (unknown variety; Adam picked them), two wee artichokes, a bunch of basil, a basket of heirloom cherry tomatoes, and a basket of very late, super-sweet strawberries

Toboton Creek Farm: goat meat for stew - I've never tried goat before; I'm very excited.

Appel Farms: squeaky cheese curds (because Adam kept coming back for samples-onna-stick) and quark

Foraged & Found: chanterelles! We loves them, precious!

La Pasta: sage gnocchi, smoked salmon pasta, and a red sauce with cream

Sea Breeze Farm: Pesto, eggs, ricotta saltata, and a pound of Coopworth wool (very dirty)

A lot of people are selling peaches and tomatoes as seconds right now; I may go back next week and try to score some for sauce and jam. I didn't have a free set of hands this time. Plus, they seem to come in the cute wooden fruit crates!

---

And, on a totally different note, a quiz from Arguchik:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Apparently I'm in ur quiz, skewing ur statistics.

---

And, because it's neat: The Ampersand

Looming Deadlines

The GRE is breathing down my neck, and I ought to have finished my writing sample by now, so of course I spent the weekend playing with fiber!

I finished the quilt top I started at Jessica's sewing bee last weekend:

This is from a kit I got at The Quilting Loft a while back (no way could I match up colors and patterns that well - I'm a bit of a disaster that way). The pattern says it's 52" square, but I haven't measured to see how close I got. I can tell I'm getting better, since the corners aren't off by nearly as much as they were on my earlier quilts, but I still have a ways to go. I need to decide on a backing fabric and figure out how on earth to quilt this.

A few weekends back, I managed to stop in at the Kingston Quilt Shop during Shop Hop weekend (purely by accident - we were on our way back from camping on the peninsula), and picked up their block kit:

The corners are really good on this one; I'm very proud. I'm going to make it into a hot pad, since it's only one lonely block. I've got to remember to get the shop hop on my calendar for next year.

I also finally cut the last square for the Beatrix Potter quilt for Adam - can you believe I let it languish for months because I was too lazy to cut a 5" square?

It's fairly tiny, so I'm going to add a border in the dark green. I think if I make it ~4", that should bring it up to a respectable toddler size. I need to pick up some peach-y flannel for the back.

Yes, these are all tops; I'm still terrified of ruining them with the quilting phase. I'll get there.

The Tour de Fleece started this weekend as well - I have several skeins that I spun leading up to it, and a full bobbin to show for the first two days:

This is a terrible photo of my progress from Saturday and Sunday. It's a superwash merino from Funky Carolina that I'm going to make into a two-ply sock yarn.

Finished skeins (pre-tour training):

Wine-Dark Sea - a bunch of stuff I carded together, mostly wool


Abyssinian Maid - a merino/silk single


Each to Each - a merino/tencel single


Eat a Peach - Spinderella mixed batt plied with New Zealand wool


Do I Dare? - Spinderella mixed batt two-ply


And Do I Dare? - Spinderella mixed batt navajo-plied

I also read Wuthering Heights for the umpteenth time. Sigh. (Although I agree with Leila: Heathcliff is a prat.)

A Few Finished Projects

I haven't really been feeling the blog for a while; I've had an attack of unbloggables. It all started with the Supreme Court Virginia Tech Jerry Falwell Mother's Day my mom's yarzheit. Maybe some day I'll be able to write about all those things in the manner they deserve, but for now, I'll just show you some knitting:


The February Baby Sweater from Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann

This is for my friend Holly's daughter, Bronwyn. I just barely finished it in time for the baby shower (back in March!), where it was suitably admired.



I've also finished a Fake Isle Hat:



This was my first major colorwork project, and I really enjoyed it. I'm definitely going to do more. (Good thing I liked it - I have the yarn for several more colorwork projects already!)

I finished spinning a few things. (Quite a while ago now, but who ever accused me of being prompt?)


Spring Breeze 100% Merino, Navajo-plied

I spun this single when I was first learning, before I knew that beginners shouldn't spin Merino. I didn't make nearly the mess of it I expected, and plying hides a multitude of sins. I'm very happy with this yarn; it's wonderfully soft and squishy. It's hovers around Aran weight.




Seattle Garden, three-ply merino/mystery wool

This is the leftover from the Spring Breeze plied with the last of the grey mystery wool that came with my wheel. It's roughly worsted weight.

Remiss

My latest installment of the Funky Carolina Fiber Club came in the mail today, and I realized that I've been terrible about posting at all photos of my loot. Everything is four ounces except the Merino/Bamboo, which is six.


L-R: Sea Salt 60/40 Merino/Bamboo; Fiore BFL; Mystic Superwash Merino from the Zen String Fiber Club

Angelina also has a sock yarn club and an experimental yarn club; subscriptions are quarterly. I've just renewed my fiber club membership for another three months.


T-B: Delilah BFL; Sunkissed Superwash Merino; April Showers Merino from the Funky Carolina Fiber Club

Carrie is still putting cute little cards in with every shipment, and they come packaged in bright tissue paper - what's not to love? I've just renewed this one for another three months as well.


L-R: Dandy Lion Superwash Merino; Strawberry Fields Corriedale; Nightshade Coopworth Sliver from the Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club

Amy's club is a monthly subscription through p*yp*l, and I have to say, it's nice not to worry about it lapsing. I think she and I have very different color sense; I never would have put some of her combinations together, but I haven't been disappointed by any of them.

I think I join clubs because no one would ever let me into theirs when I was a kid - it's a way of proving to myself that I'm no longer a loser, or at least, that I'm a loser with lots of company.

And, yes, I realize I've now proven that I haven't actually spun any of my club fluff, but that's because I have the never-ending sock yarn on the wheel still. I'm really excited to finish that and get to some of these lovelies.

What Have I Been Doing?

Oy. What haven't I been doing?

I've been dyeing up a heap of Ryan's avalanche yarn for another Dulaan sweater. I've been nursing a sick kid through every common illness the planet has to offer. I've been knitting. I've been spinning. I've taken road trips and played hooky from work, all at the same time (because I'm very talented). I've failed to prepare the house for Pesach. I've taught my son the word "elephant." I've started to prepare my fleece and nearly skewered myself with a flick carder. I've finished one book and watched two movies. I've read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? ad nauseum.

Haven't done a single bit of laundry, though.

It Followed Me Home, Can I Keep It?

I hadn't planned to buy any Shetland wool:



Nor had I planned to buy a box of angora:


But what I really hadn't planned to do was buy an unprocessed Corriedale fleece:



I had so thoroughly not planned for it that I had to ask Jessica whether it was a good one; I'd never even done any research on choosing a fleece. I couldn't help it: I fell in love with the way the locks change from black to tan, and the way it smells sort of sheepy an citrusy at the same time.

I've been slowly washing locks here and there, experimenting with different ways to prepare them. I'll probably pick up a few different options for combing/carding while I'm at Woodland Woolworks this weekend. I suppose I should check out what these things cost before I commit to buying an array of them.

I was explaining to Matt last night the problem of having to lift the locks out of the water every time I need to change it, and how I was worried about felting them with too much handling, and he was able to design a fairly simple lift-out screen insert for the utility sink over dinner. He promised to help me build it; I hope he realizes that by "help,: I actually meant "you go into the garage where the tools live and bring me back an object of great use and beauty."

Fleece, Finally

Two weekends ago, I went with Jessica to a fleece sale on Whidbey Island. She, being a far more conscientious blogger than I, has already written about it, but here, finally, is my version.

The sale was held in a tiny house, which was overflowing with fiber and those who love it. I was afraid to move to fast, for fear of knocking an entire sheep over. (Those of you who know me in person can attest to the fact that I'm pretty justified in this.)

I didn't get too many shots of the sale itself, and I've decided to spare you my study of The Back of Someone's Head.

A mountain of fluff

The blanket that sold me on the angora

My utter lack of will power in the face of all this is the subject of another post, so let us now leave the tiny Room of Fluff and slosh through the rain to the Barn of Cuteness:


The poor sheepies are cold because I have purchased all of their wool

D'awww

More awww


The cute, it burns!

Mermaid

My little mermaid had her photo shoot in the lilac tree over the weekend:


This is a two-ply Colonial wool, dyed by Ruby's Daughter, in her Bluesy Purple colorway. I had the same problem with this yarn that I had with Carnevale; there are sections that barely seem plied at all, where the singles seem to just lay next to one another, but I have to ply it that loose to get them to balance. I assume I'm just not putting enough twist into the singles to start with.

I was also forced to admit that my bobbins are nowhere near four ounces. Mermaid is actually two skeins, because I filled my first bobbin to the point where my wheel refused to turn anymore, and still had about a third again left over. Yet another good reason to pick up a plying bobbin/flyer unit this weekend.

Good Email Day

Today was a very good email day:


My Sock Club package from Blue Moon has been mailed, and the lovely Swedish woman who makes gorgeous Bohus sweater kits replied to my question about prices. That's pretty much knittervana right there.

When I got home, it turned out to have been a good snail mail day as well, My first package from the Spunky Eclectic fiber club was waiting on the front porch: 4 ounces of Merino in teals, greys, and tans, to reflect the muddy ground and the alternating snow clouds and blue sky this time of year.

Stash Blog the Second

My fiber stash is fully blogged and linked in the sidebar. Maybe it's because I set secret knitting goals for myself, but suddenly I want to do nothing but spin.

Contrary, as always.

I Love Etsy

I was recently lured on to Etsy by a cunningly-placed set of links. I'm pretty sure it was Leila's fault originally.

In any case, I had a wee shopping spree.

From Ruby's Daughter:

Colonial wool in beutiful blues, greens, and lavenders.


Tussah silk that looks like a candle flame.

She also sent along a little sample of her merino/silk blend, and since she's local, we talked about meeting up at one of the spinning groups.

I started spinning the Colonial wool the day it arrived:

Doesn't it look like a mermaid? You know, if she'd been separated into fibers and twisted and wound around a bobbin?

From Funky Carolina:

Blue-Faced Leicester


Blue-Faced Leicester


Merino/Tencel Blend


Corriedale

All of hers came with a cute tag, and she included a cute 100% soy jar candle as a "thanks for yor impulsive spending" gift.

Carnevale

I finally got around to plying the forest green roving that came with
my wheel. I have no idea what it is, or how much there is. I had spun
the singles up a month or so ago, and they've been staring at me
balefully ever since.

This is a two-ply yarn. The singles were around sport weight, but it bloomed like crazy when it hit the water, so the final yarn overs between Aran
and bulky weight. it's super soft and squishy; Jessica thinks it might
be Merino, but if it is, it must be a blend, because it held the twist
too well during the weeks that I abandoned it to be pure Merino.

My favorite thing was seeing all the other colors come out when the yam bloomed. It went from being a deep green to a whole cacophony of jewel tones. It reminds me of a scene from a movie (no, I don't remember which one) full of vaguely menacing masked and cloaked people at Carnevale in Venice.

Carnevale, meet the internet:


Internet, Carnevale:

Madrona - The Shopping Spree

Spinning Fiber


Dicentra Designs Blue Faced Leicester in Orodruin. Most of their colorways are named after characters from LotR; how cool is that?


Chasing Rainbows Bombyx Silk/Merino blend in Peacock's Plume

Yarn


Naturally New Zealand wool: a new product that Acorn Street was giving away.


Socks that Rock lightweight in Puck's Mischeif. After I got home, I realized this is nearly the same colorway as the Dicentra silk/merino.

Group Shots


First time through: a ball of potluck roving in lagoon, a huuuge bump of slubby wool in pinky-violet, two ounces of white pygora, two ounces of Tussah silk, 10 ounces (I think) of off-white Corriedale, and a skein of Blue Moon Geisha destined for the third iteration of the Diamond Fantasy Shawl.


Shopping trip the second.