Memories A photo album of the interesting places we went, fun things we did, and weird places I spun or knitted. April 30 https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i/osbornfiber/IMG_7812.jpg Plane to Winnipeg https://hosting.photobucket.com/i…
Spinning: at Maryland Sheep & Wool, with samples of my fleece purchases
Meeting Wool n' Spinning buddies: Crystal, Jen, and Ellen
Meeting many sheep (these are "Natural Coloreds")
Spin-In: Crystal, me, Ellen, Ashleigh
May 5
More rain
Brought Minimighty and Dooner; Stringbean was on a trip with her granddad
Alpacas! (meeeeh)
The World's Friendliest Merino Sheep
May 11
Rides at the DC Trolley Museum
Spinning: on an open-topped trolley
In a Canadian-made streetcar
Many cute kid-friendly train displays
May 13
Spinning with koi fish
Geese and ducks at Hagerstown City Park
May 15
Spinning: at an Orioles game
Lots of sports at Mimi & Granddad's house
Spinning: while supervising kickball
May 15
At Hershey Park in Hershey, PA. Redesigned factory tour ride, but this lady's still there.
Minimighty's first coaster
Knitted a ton in line but no pics of it, just this silliness.
Pretty good day but very long lines.
May 16
Visiting cousins: fishing at their bridge
Epic Monopoly game
New barn kittens
Spinning: on the porch and in the car
May 17
Church with cousins
Spinning: back on Mimi & Granddad's porch
May 20
Celebrating my grandma's birthday
Making a marble run in the back yard
May 24
National Children's Museum
Spinning at National Children's Museum
Game night for big kids with auntie Leah and uncle Hunter
Customizing train cars
May 25
Taking said cars for a run on Papa Bear's garden railroad track
May 26
North Central Railway historic train ride, diesel engine
Howard Tunnel, possibly oldest operating train tunnel in the US
Rita's for the full central/eastern PA experience, after a hot but special day
Fleece Washing
I've already shown you all my spinning, pretty much. I've made a total of 4 finished skeins, out of the 10 skeins-worth of prepped qiviut/wool blends that I brought. I have singles finished for one and a half more. That sounds like a lot, except that most of that was the batts I prepped for my CPW. Of the six skeins' worth I brought to do on my spindles, I've completed one skein, and one has singles spun. That's pretty well on track.
The three skeins that have actually been washed and measured.
The other big thing I've done is prep fleece. Thanks to my mom's big pot (named Bob), it's all finished now. At the fleece sale, I bought a Wensleydale fleece and a Clun Forest fleece. I split the former with my mom and the latter with Dionne, and washed both my halves. Mom also pulled out an old Tunis fleece and let me cherry pick the best bits; the rest will become dryer balls. Here's some before and after:
Wensleydale raw
Wensleydale clean
Clun Forest raw
Clun Forest clean
Tunis raw
Tunis clean
Knitting
Vacation knitting! I planned and planned, and I've gotten plenty of knitting time in planes, cars, queues, and while watching TV. It has helped me not buy any yarn so far, though clearly I've acquired a little bit of fiber. (In addition to the three half-fleeces above, there are five new braids for me. Ahem.) I did start out by knitting a bunch of hats for cousins that I gave away before remembering to photograph properly. Oops. Maybe Emily will do it for me. But here is where I'm at with the big projects I brought.
If you are part of Kate Davies' mystery knit-along, and you don't want spoilers, avert your eyes. Here is my finished clue 1:
There were a few false starts. I misread the pattern at first, and changed colours every ridge. Then I knit through one whole colour repeat - one quarter of the total clue - and decided I didn't like my arrangement of colours. I swapped two, knit the rest of this, and I'm quite happy with it now. It reminds me of many lanes of traffic all turning a corner. I'm very interested to see where the next clue takes us!
The other main knitting project I've had on the go is my Wervel sweater. I swatched very properly, chose a size moderately, and started out. But I started getting an inkling that all was not well right at the beginning.
After short rows and the first dozen rounds of colourwork, I started thinking it looked a little bit.
After going back and adding the ribbed collar, I convinced myself that all was well. However it was not, and I did not address this fact. Not one little bit. The yoke continued to grow.
In my swatches, I wasn't *quite* happy with how light the blue was compared. I wanted something a bit deeper blue, that could compete with the magenta. I found a sweet little skein of handspun from my mom's earliest spindle spinning efforts that she let me used. It wasn't quite enough, but I tried using it.
I didn't think about my size problem again until the yoke was completely finished. Then I put it on spare needles and realized it was about the size of a poncho already. Oh dear.
This was deeply concerning. I had put a lot of thought and work into designing my colours for this yoke, and I was not about to let some small thing like reknitting the whole thing get in the way of me having an actual useful garment at the end. I blocked it before ripping, because I realized that this yarn is superwash, and as such might well grow even more in the wash.
This is what it looked like after blocking. Swancho indeed.
It has been reduced to its component parts. Ripping out all this work was a wrench, but there are a number of silver linings. (1) As you might be able to tell in the blurry selfie above, there were some big issues with tension in my fair isle. Especially when there was only one stitch in one of the colours, I learned that needs to always be held in the left hand for me. That should help with those big gaps. (2) I now know exactly how much of the dark blue yarn I have, and I can design the diamonds to look better. (3) I will go down both a needle size and two pattern sizes, and going down a needle size will help with fabric integrity and long-term wear. (4) When I ripped, I made layered balls as you see below. The project was no good for traveling when I was carrying 10 contrast colours around. I could do it in the car, but it would have been no good as a plane project. With all the colours I need in the amounts I need all balled up and ready for me, the project is much more compact. This was the main reason I wanted to finish the colourwork before Europe anyway, so that downside is avoided.
Just for kicks, I decided to do the top of the yoke in a different, more green-blue. I'm optimistic that this second knit will be much faster, and I'll enjoy putting everything I learned from the first draft into good use.
Special Awards
Finally, here are some random awards for things I liked a lot.
Best Flower: This peony by a mailbox in my in-laws' neighborhood
Best Flower on a Tree: These pink dogwoods at my mom's neighbor's house
Best Foraged Food: Cattail shoot stems, for being kinda edible - think a cross between okra and cucumber.
Best New Game: Buildzi. I haven't even played it yet and it seems awesome, though it does seem to always end in tears.
Best Porch Cat: Ivy I think is her name? She was schmaa and let me hold her.
There have been so many special moments with family. I've particularly enjoyed spending time with my siblings, and the Sheep and Wool experience was everything I hoped it would be. Being here in May, where the heat isn't too bad and the flowers are in bloom, has been particularly special. I introduced the girls to mulberries and honeysuckles, and I saw azaleas and rhododendrons in person for the first time in umpteen years. It was just... yeah. Just good.
In two days, we will be all packed up and fly to Europe. This will be a quite different phase of our journey - in Maryland we were dealing with known quantities! Going to Europe, there's a lot of not knowing what to expect, and I find I'm holding it in a very open hand. I have few expectations, not a lot of specific plans, and whatever happens, I think we'll have fun. We're ready.
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