Hand Dyeing!

I successfully (well, it appears successful so far) dyed some Polwarth roving this weekend! I initially planned to take lots of photos during the process, but the rubber gloves and fear of getting dye on my camera sure didn't help the taking of photos. 

My rubber gloves were pretty sexy:

Here's my fiber in it's vinegar bath before dyeing:

And, here are my base dyes (although I only used the blue...):

I used three shades of blue to dye the roving and then wrapped it in a plastic bag and steamed it. 

This is what it looked like when it was finished:

I haven't spun it up yet, but I'll be sure to share when I do! 

I knit up a cute hat from the Polwarth yarn from the last post, but I don't have any pictures yet. It was dark by the time I finished it today, but hopefully tomorrow I'll get a shot. 

In other news, something is chowing down on my garden again. UGH.

Notice how lovely my zucchini plant looks as well as the cauliflower plant to the left:

The cauliflower now has 1/2 of a leaf left. That's it. And the pest that keeps eating the garden also ate one of the huge zucchini leaves and left a wee bit of stem. There are no noticeable holes in the fence. I'm baffled. And frustrated. 

I think that's all the new stuff I have to show off, but I should have more soon!

Love,

liz

Yarn and Sheep and Fiber, OH MY!

Oh boy, I have lots to share.

But first...100 degrees?! Yuck. Good thing you work at a camp that can just hook you up to a saline drip, huh? It's finally hit the mid 70s here and it's actually been really beautiful the last couple of days.

Great that F is going to road trip with you!! Makes me think of the great time we had on our road trip from VJGC to upstate NY. And awesome that you are going to be there for baby C's first birthday party! I can't wait to see that cute little dress all knitted up. Knitting baby things is so fun. Speaking of which, the new issue of Petite Purls is up. Gotta love fun, free patterns!

This weekend was the Black Sheep Gathering, a local fiber festival, down in Eugene. I took a drive down on Saturday with the goal of buying some natural colored fiber to blend with all the alpaca I have. Alpaca doesn't hold it's shape very well, so I'm planning on blending a good portion of it with other fibers.

Here's what I ended up with:

I bought some superfine merino, BFL, silk, and a little bit of llama. I also bought a camel/merino blend just to spin up on its own.

I did buy a wee bit of yarn too...

...a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in a color called "A Little Dab'll Do Ya" and a 500 yard skein of a yarn called "Peru" also from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I don't have a picture of that skein because I wound it up and started knitting with it immediately. Keep reading, that skein will be featured in a bit.

I also bought a basket to keep yarn/fiber in:

In addition to all of the vendors at the fiber festival, there were also about 3 barns full of sheep and goats.

This guy was my absolute favorite...he was really friendly and was watching everything (despite the fact that you can't see his eyes!!):

I also have a couple of new projects to show you!

Here's a shawlette I made from Three Irish Girls Springvale DK:

Pattern: Dandy Neckerchief by Ariane Caron-Lacoste

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Springvale DK - 1 skein

Three Irish Girls do a thing called "Carpe Yarnem" on their blog every so often. Sharon (the leading lady of TIG), puts up one-of-a-kind skeins for sale. Sometimes there are a few skeins of one colorway but most of the time they are single skeins of each color. You can see what was for sale during the last one here. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. 

Here's what I made with the other yarn I bought this weekend:

This is the Cayuga Set designed by the talented Connie Chang Chinchio (she also designed the Alexandria Cardigan). The yarn I used is an alpaca/merino/silk blend...yum. The hat was really fun to knit. The band is knit first and then you pick up along the side and knit the rest of the hat. There are short rows in the front so that it slouches to the back. I'm really, really pleased with the way this came out. I haven't started the mittens yet, but I'm guessing I'm going to love those too! 

On Sunday I went up to Portland and took a stranded colorwork class with Jared Flood. He taught a total of 5 classes at Knit-Purl last weekend. I'm kicking myself for not taking more than the one class. The class covered the basics of stranded colorwork and we worked on the Beaumont Tam (or beanie version). Jared was a fantastic teacher and I learned a TON. I finished my hat, but it is still drying and not yet ready for a photoshoot. It certainly isn't my best knitting, but I'm pleased with the way it turned out and I learned a lot while doing it. 

Phew. Are you sick of my ramblings yet? :)

My garden is looking much better, thankfully. The fence seems to be keeping the bunnies out although there are some other critters nibbling at the plants. I bought some organic spray that seems to be working for those, though. 

Well, I think I've gone on long enough! Plus, it's time to make pizza.

Love,

liz 

Yet Another Baby Gift

One of the preschool teachers where I used to work is expecting a baby girl, Aubrey, at the end of June. The original plan was to make a baby blanket of some sort. However, I decided this weekend I wanted to make a cute, girly baby sweater instead:

Pattern: Manda Ruth by Jane Richmond

Yarn: Spud & Chloe Sweater Yarn 

(50% wool, 50% organic cotton)

2 skeins made the sweater and a pair of booties (320 yds)

Isn't it adorable?? I'm particularly fond of the buttons:

I had about a half a skein (maybe a bit less) leftover after the sweater and so I decided to make a pair of adorable booties to go along with the adorable sweater:

On a very disappointing note, I have very hungry rabbits in my garden. Remember the picture of my radishes from a couple of days ago? Let me remind you what they looked like:

Here's what they look like now:

Don't let that rogue weed fool you. All Gone. All. Of. Them. There were about a dozen of them!! Apparently the rabbits are hungry. They devoured them in two days. I went out yesterday and half of them were gone. I went out today and they are completely gone. It looks like I never even planted anything down there. Tomorrow I'm going to install chicken wire around the raised beds. I will have a garden! A garden with actual vegetables. 

Love,

liz 

At least the rain helps grow things..

We are having a very, very rainy spring. I've been told by the "locals" that it has been unusually rainy for this time of year. The mountains have been getting pounded with snow all spring! But I do have several rose bushes as well as other kinds of flowers hanging around the yard that make it more bearable!

Our little garden is starting to come along. Our radishes are well on their way and the green beans are looking pretty good. The carrots have just started to sprout, too. All the tomatoes are dead, as is the basil. Ugh. But I'm going to get some tomato plants this weekend and rectify that situation.

Radishes

I also discovered strawberries living in the raised bed with the grape vines:

Unfortunately, something has been nibbling at them. But there are lots of them left to ripen up, so now that we're home I can pick them before they get eaten. 

The weather this weekend is going to be nice (hopefully, fingers crossed!), so I'll hopefully be able to restore the garden a little bit and spend some time outside! 

Love,

liz

How long am I going to be gone?

This is the pile of yarn I'm bringing with me on my trip. Think I have enough? Obviously I need to have yarn for several projects for my 10 day trip. And this is just the yarn. Not the 2 sets of interchangeable needles, double pointed needles, notions, or patterns (need to be prepared for any knitting emergency!). I have a problem. :) 

In all seriousness though, sweater knitting can not take place in all situations, so I do need another smaller, less complicated project to keep me occupied. 

I've made some nice progress on my Alexandria Cardigan as part of the newest Purl Diva KAL.

I'm using Fleece Artist Woolie Silk 3-ply for this, and it is amazing to knit with. This will be a great summer cardigan to throw on in the air-conditioning and on cooler nights. 

In other news, my garden is becoming an epic failure. I'm too sad about it to even take pictures of the dead tomato and basil plants. All the seedlings that I transplanted have died. Okay, that's not quite true. The jalapenos are still alive. And so are the tomato plants I put in a big pot because I ran out of room in the garden. The good news is I still have some seedlings that I ran out of room for. They seem to be doing just fine, and I think I'll try transplanting them when we get back. Ah well. Good thing there is a farmer's market in town every weekend!

I dropped Sailor off at the kennel (Country Livin' Kennel!) this morning with a raging ear infection. He was at the vet earlier this week for shots and they said his ears were really waxy and needed to be plucked (Ah, the joys of owning a standard poodle). I brought him to the groomer to have his ears plucked and he cried every time they touched his right ear. Yesterday he was leaning his head to the side and whining when his ear was touched. So, back to the vet we went this morning. And lo and behold he has an ear infection. I had to flush his ear out with cleaner, put ointment in it and give him Antibiotics. He cried when I cleaned his ear out and then ran from me when I tried to put the ointment in. It was quite the ordeal. Thankfully, the kennel is willing to dispense all his meds. Poor Sailor! 

Well, I wanted to post before I left (we take a red-eye tonight that is already delayed about 20 minutes) since I may not be able to while I'm gone! Hope everything is going well!

Love,

liz 

Lean, Mean, Rototilling Machine

The weather was gorgeous here today, so Seth and I decided we'd better take advantage of the sunshine and rototill the garden. Sailor was pretty antsy this morning and chewed the strap on a pair of my shoes, so we took him for a nice walk in the woods to wear him out a bit. Seth wanted to find some "hidden" trailhead, so we drove around for quite a while and ended up in a neighborhood on this huge hill where there were at least a half dozen deer just hanging out in people's yards! And one of them was a baby deer...so cute! We were unsuccessful in finding this "hidden" trailhead so ended up at one of Seth's regular running spots. On the way back to the house we stopped at the garden store and ended up with 4 huge bags of fertilizer, a hummingbird feeder, suet for the birds, organic fertilizer to sprinkle, potting soil for the blueberry bush (who grows a blueberry bush in a pot? We do!), and a few garden tools. Cha-Ching. 

Then we came home, ate lunch, and I headed out to the garden to pull weeds. While weeding, I figured out what the heck Sailor keeps obsessing over in the garden area every night (he jumped the fence into the garden the other night). It's gotta be either squirrels or chipmunks. There were empty nut shells all throughout the garden beds. And I'm positive they weren't there last time I weeded. I can only assume that they are also living under the deck, or at least hang out there from time to time. 


While I was weeding, Seth went and rented a rototiller. 

Notice how it looks as though I'm being pulled by the rototiller. Well, that my friend, is because I was. It literally just pulled me up and down the garden. Sailor wasn't sure what to think of the rototiller. He kept running in and out of the garden like a crazy dog.

Now, notice how Seth is actually able to handle the rototiller:

When all was said and done, the garden beds looked mighty fine:

I was too tired after weeding and being dragged behind the rototiller to actually plant anything. The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow though, so hopefully it will get done tomorrow.


Our raspberry bush is growing like crazy and I'm pretty sure it's going take over the whole yard by summer's end.

And I found these pretty flowers hiding among the mutant raspberry bush:

Nothing new to share on the knitting front. Still working on the sock monkey, and I haven't started the newest KAL yet because I've been having some swatching issues.


I was making some good progress on your needle case until the sewing machine and I had a little argument the other day. We're taking a break from one another until tomorrow. :) 


Seth is running his 50K race here in Corvallis on Saturday, so we've been carb-loading. Perogies and potatoes tonight (yes, potatoes in addition to the potato filled pasta) and a heaping plate of spaghetti tomorrow (with garlic bread, of course). Sunday we're meeting Keith and Kristine (from HH!) up in Portland for lunch!! I'm so excited to see them, it's been way too long.


I'm glad your driveway is all fixed and you aren't stranded in your house anymore! Although it looks like you got quite a bit of knitting accomplished! I love that scarf you made from the leftover malabrigo. 


I suppose I should head to bed and rest up for a day full of planting tomorrow! 


Love,
liz 

Crazy Pup!

Sounds like you had a fun weekend! The relay sounded like it was a good time....the car accident, not so much. Glad you are all okay after that fiasco.

My weekend was pretty uneventful, Sailor and I just hung out here. Sailor found some sort of scent that he went crazy over in the backyard. I can only assume that it was a mouse, or something very small. He was barking scratching the deck and acting like a crazy dog.

This went on for a quite a while! Scratching, digging, barking....sniffing and basically acting like a nut!

Seth's trip went well. No helicopter rescues, thankfully! Seth's Dad attempted to eat a 6 lb. hamburger, which could have been dangerous. Yes, SIX POUNDS! He only made it through 1/3 of it, though.

Are you headed to VT this weekend? I'm headed to NY in a week and a half for M's bridal shower and bachelorette party (should be a fun time!). My mom and I are going to take a trip to Maine for a few days so I can visit some friends and we can go yarn shopping! Purl Diva, here we come! I would really love to have my Wood Hollow Vest done by then, but I'm not sure that's a realistic goal unless that is the only thing I do for the next week and a half! A is coming to visit the day I come back (we ended up on the same flight out of Chicago) from NY, which I'm really excited about!

My seedlings are growing like CRAZY! I'll try and take some pictures tomorrow.

Well, I want to get a little more knitting done before bed!

Love,
liz

I have seedlings! And tulips!

My tomato and basil seedlings have sprouted!

We have tons of yellow daffodils and a few tulips have just started blooming too!

The weather has taken a nasty turn to rain and wind. Blech.

I think I will keep plugging along with the sweater. It is on size 6 needles, but with fingering weight yarn, which makes for slow progress. Not to mention the 3 other projects on the needles (okay, if I'm being honest, there are probably more like 4 or 5)! I'm not really in a rush to finish it though, since I probably won't be able to wear it until the fall. It's quickly passing turtleneck sweater weather....thankfully!

I better run, the cable just started going in and out which means I may lose internet if the cable goes out!

Love,
Liz

Spring Challenge 2010: Grow a Garden

Meet my seedlings (well, not seedlings quite yet...but they will be...hopefully):

Seth and I stopped at the garden store yesterday on our quest for Chia Seeds (yes, seeds that grow Chia Pets...more on that later) and picked up seeds and a seedling tray for our garden! I spent today planting cherry tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, and basil. The rest will be planted directly into the garden in May (pumpkins, green beans, radishes, carrots, and probably garlic and onions). I also cleaned out the raised garden beds of all the old plants and weeds. Sailor decided to help:

                

He was sitting in the raised bed...what a strange dog.

                                    

The weather has been so beautiful here this week! The nice weather looks like it's going to last until Sunday, and then the rain will be back. Hopefully I'll have lots of pictures to share after our weekend trip to Bend. 

So the Chia seeds....

There is a running book, I think it's called "Born to Run", that talks about using Chia seeds when running. Apparently, they are all the rage right now. Weirdo and Seth decided that they wanted to try them, so yesterday we went on a search for Chia seeds. We tried Trader Joe's, the Co-Op, and the garden store (more to get garden supplies, but thought we'd check anyways). The Co-Op carries them, but they were out of stock. We were told that their distributer is backordered because there was an Oprah segment about them and now everyone wants them. I've also seen them talked about on the Today Show. Since we couldn't find them anywhere, we ordered them online. A 2 lb bag. Hopefully they're everything they're cracked up to be...and hopefully they don't make Seth turn into a Chia pet :)

Well, I've had a super productive day and now I need to eat dinner before I make a batch of cookies (to ensure that I don't eat all the pre-cooked dough!)! 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Love,

Liz