Mine, all mine!

I brought home a new toy yesterday.



Isn't it pretty? It's a Schacht Matchless and I had the opportunity to bring one home from my class to play with for the last week and I had to take it back yesterday. It just so happened that the shop had some that were just waiting to be taken to their new homes. This one wanted to come home with me.

I've been spinning all day today. This is the roving I chose for my first spin on the wheel.



It's some superwash merino from The Dyeing Arts that I picked up at The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling. It has two ounces of two different colorways that go well together. One is a rainbow, the other is blues, greens and purples. I'm trying to get sock yarn. So far, I think I'm close.

Yesterday was a big day. I also rode my bike up a mountain and I lived to tell about it. As far as mountains go, it wasn't a really steep one, but since I have never ridden my bike up a mountain before and my training this winter has consisted mainly of knitting, it was a good one to start with. We rode from north Boulder to Jamestown.


View Larger Map

Summer has finally made it to Colorado. I turned off the heat yesterday and opened up the window. The kitties were very happy, or crazy, it's hard to tell. Fresh air does strange things to the kitties.

Yarn!

I have been trying to take full advantage of having the Schacht Matchless live with me this week. I finally (it seemed to take forever) finished spinning 4 oz of Merino that was dyed by the Yarn Wench in her Flaming Pie colorway. I was trying for fingering weight to make a pair of socks, but I think I ended up with about 500 yards of lace weight. I'm still really proud of it and I think it will make a gorgeous lace scarf. I think the yarn is better suited for a scarf anyway. It wouldn't have made a very sturdy pair of socks.

I had to take the photos without the flash because it washed out the color, so it's a bit dark, but it's close.



See the scary kitty shadow? No yarn is safe in my house.





Talk to the paw

Surf Divas

Last weekend was my annual trip with my girlfriends from Kansas City. This year, we took advantage of the fact that one of us moved to San Diego. Christy was a great host! She arranged for us to take surfing lessons. I tried to block out the fact that there had been a deadly great white shark attack off of one of the beaches in San Diego the week before and got in the water. We had so much fun. Our instructors from Surf Diva were fantastic (and incredibly patient), and all of us were able to get up on the boards. The two hours we were in the water just flew by.

The surf divas: Deva, Me, Allison, Sheryl and Christy





It would be very tempting to move to the beach. Look at the blue skies!

This week was my last week of spinning class. I got to bring this home.



It's a Schacht Matchless. I get to keep it until Saturday, so I need to somehow find time to spin. It is a very cool wheel and there is a possibility that one of its brothers or sisters might need to come home with me from the shop when I take it back.

The last day of the spinning class is a natural dyeing workshop. We each were supposed to bring 12 small skeins of yarn, and we used four different dyes: onion, rosewood, cochineal (a bug), and cutch (a resin). We used three different mordants which help the dye bond to the yarn. We used, alum, copper and iron. Each mordant has a different affect on the dye.

Onion (alum, copper, iron)



Rosewood


Cutch


Cochineal (the alum skein was plied with one strand spun worsted and one wollen, that's why it's two different shades)


We also dyed some Lincoln fleece using synthetic dyes. Each of us had a different color of powdered dye and we sprinkled a small amount of each dye on the white fleece. I love how it came out with the different shades of purple.



It is very hard to photograph. The first photo is more true to color, but you can see the variations better in this one.



Xena would prefer that I not spin so much so she can sleep on my lap.

Let there be light!

When I moved into the townhouse I loved everything about it...except the light fixture in the dining room. I'm assuming that the woman who picked everything out had a chandelier she planned on installing because I couldn't believe a person with such good taste would like such a horribly ugly light fixture.



It was so ugly I must have tried not to take photos of it. This is the best one I could find.

Now I have a fabulous light fixture. It looks great over my dining room table.



I'm very happy with the way it looks with the pendant lamps and the rest of my kitchen. (Just ignore the artwork that is leaning against the island. I'm hoping it will eventually decide to hand itself on the wall.)



Next week I get to take down the temporary blinds I hung and get the real blinds installed on my bedroom balcony door.

I've also been doing quite a bit of spinning. This is the wheel i got to bring home from class last week.



I'm hoping I'm making sock yarn.



This is merino wool from The Yarn Wench. Love the wool, and the colors are gorgeous.

I also went out and bought felt pads for the bottom of the kitty bunk bed because it gets moved around so much its starting to scratch my pretty hardwood floors. The upside down bunk bed is much more fun!

What a Week!

Last week, I attended my first Colorado Rockies game with my friend Tracy from Bartlesville. It was a beautiful night to sit outside and watch the game. The Rockies were playing the Cubs, and apparently I witnessed history. The Rockies lost in an exciting extra innings game, but the Cubs won their 10,000th game in franchise history.



The next 12 hours were a bit tense. I managed to get stuck in a parking garage after the game. Long story short, I had no cash with me so I parked in a garage that took credit cards. The machine where you pay malfunctioned and wouldn't take credit cards or cash (I know that because a perfect stranger gave me $5 to help me out after my credit cards didn't work. It didn't work either). Someone finally showed up from the facility and raised the gate, but I was really concerned I was going to be sleeping in my car. I got home much later than I had hoped, had some things to do for work, and I still hadn't packed for my trip to St. Louis the next morning. I cut it close, but I made it to the airport just in time for my trip to St. Louis to attend The Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling. It's a weekend I had been looking forward to for a long time.



65 women from around the world made the pilgrimage to one of our favorite knitting shops It's amazing how you can take so many people, most with very little in common, add knitting needles and yarn and create instant friendships. I really enjoyed getting to meet everyone.

I got to meet Sheri, the woman behind The Loopy Ewe. I was surprised to find out that she's as tall as I am!



Stacy was my roommate. It was so good to see my friend from Oklahoma.



I finally got to meet my Loopy swap partner, Julie in person.



And I got to go shopping in person at my favorite online store. It was so much fun and there was so much to choose from! This is not my shopping bag, but I don't have a photo yet of what I bought, and honestly, this is a much more impressive bag of yarn than what I brought home. My new friend Megann has some mad yarn shopping skills.



I also took classes from Wendy and Cookie A. I've been a fan of Wendy's blog for a while, and I absolutely love Cookie's patterns so it was exciting to learn from them. They're both very talented ladies.

The weekend flew by and even though I had big plans, I didn't manage to finish a single project. I think I made more progress on my sock on the plane coming home than I did while I was sitting in the knitting lounge. There were just too many people to chat with. It was a wonderful weekend and I can't wait until next year.

I'll end the post with the cutest photo ever. Ashford apparently has overcome her camera shyness, and Purl has no issue with showing off her chubby belly. I have the cutest kittens ever.

Spinning

For the last three weeks, I've been driving to Boulder to take a spinning class and I have loved every minute of it. It's inspired me to spend more time working on my technique.

One of the bonuses of taking the class is that every week you get to bring home a different wheel to play with. Last week I brought home a Louet S10.



This week I brought home a Lendrum folding wheel. My camera battery died before I had a chance to take a photo. I worked on my assignment for class over the weekend, and I also finished spinning some fiber I had started several months ago. This photo doesn't do it justice.



I can't believe it took me so long to finish this gorgeous stuff. It's superwash Corriedale from Hello Yarn in the Toxic colorway. The fiber was a bit slippery to spin and got frustrating at times, but I love the colors and the finished skein is amazing. I have about 220 yards. Now I need to find the perfect pattern to show it off. Any suggestions?



I also finally finished my Rainbow Socks (on Ravelry). I don't have proof of the 2nd sock because of the silly camera battery, but I swear they're done. I've only been working on this pair of socks since October. They're really cute, but I think they're just a little too small for me.



To top off my week of fibery geekiness, I am leaving on Thursday to head to St. Louis for the The Spring Fling at The Loopy Ewe. I'm so excited to see my friend Stacy from Oklahoma and it will be a fun weekend of nothing but knitting. I think I'm going to need to pack my big suitcase. I have a lot of projects I want to take to work on, and there might be a bit of shopping at The Loopy Ewe to do while I'm there.

My coworkers are funny

I had a meeting this morning, which gave my coworkers plenty of time to desecrate my Jayhawk bobblehead doll.



I'll admit that it's pretty funny and that I'm impressed with their bobblehead doll clothes making skills, but it's just very very wrong.

Since my last post, lots has been going on in my crazy world of fiber. I got my Loopy Ewe Spring Fling Swap package from my awesome swap partner, Julie. She definitely spoiled me with a gorgeous skein of Tempted sock yarn, a couple of Interweave Knits magazines, a cute sock bag and a ladybug tape measure that the kittens immediately decided to hijack.



The yarn will make a very fun pair of spring socks. I'm looking for the perfect pattern.

I also started my spinning class at Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder Thursday night. It is a bit of a drive for a weekly class, but I think it's going to be worth it. In our first class we learned how to pick out a fleece, wash it, prepare it for spinning and how to use a drop spindle. It was so much fun! I came home from the class with an eighth of a fleece to wash before our next class. As soon as I walked in the door with the fleece, the kitties noses went into overdrive. The fleece had to be hidden away for safety.

Look at the crazy eyes on that kitten.



Then, Friday night, the Yarn Harlot came to Denver for a book signing. I convinced my knitting coworker to go with me, and we had a wonderful time. I've enjoyed reading her blog for a long time, and she's just as funny in person. I think the bookstore was a bit overwhelmed by the 200+ knitters who came out for the event.

And finally, I finished the Koolhaas hat last night. Just in time for spring. I used the softest yarn in the world, Malabrigo, in the Paris Nights colorway. I love this pattern. I guess I'll have something to look forward to wearing next winter.



Tonight, I'll be watching the Jayhawks win (hopefully) the NCAA basketball tournament. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!