Monday, October 8, 2007

SOARing

The first day of the workshop is coming to a close. I am taking a class with Judith MacKenzie-McCuin called Primative Breeds. It is similar to the Retreat Class I took last year in that it is all about sampling various fibers. The real meat of this workshop is gleaning all of the spinning and fiber tips from Judith. She has a wealth of knowledge as she has spent her life with her hands in fiber. The history of sheep breeds is very interesting though, but I doubt I will seek out fleeces from these primative breeds.
I am now relaxing in my room with a glass of wine. I will head to dinner and the after-dinner talk in the next few minutes. I am still frustrated by my inability to post pictures while I am here!

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Yesterday--Driving home from Breezy Point, the light is golden and the trees are amazing. Tomorrow I leave for Michigan, for SOAR. In the meantime, I have been trying to finish up a few projects, in part to free up some bobbins to take to SOAR with my spinning wheel! I just finished spinning some roving I bought at Shepherd's Harvest in 2006. It is navajo plied and I am very happy with the resulting yarn. It is a 50/50 Merino/Tencel blend, and it feels very much like silk. I may take some with me to swatch on the plane, if it dries in time! I am curious to see what kind of drape the fabric will have. I just bought a pattern for a sleeveless sweater in silk, and this may work for that pattern.
I have finished all of the pieces of the Central Park hoodie and have only the button bands to do. I can't decide whether I want to do buttons, or want to stick with my original plan to put in a zipper. I may need to completely assemble the sweater to decide. That will have to wait until after SOAR, it is too bulky to take with me. I am half way through a pair of socks for Wendy for Christmas. I unfortunately misplaced the first sock and cannot proceed with the second until I find it. I just rearranged my yarn room and it's in there somewhere! So much for getting organized!
I am still ploughing through the variegated Merino and I love the resulting three-ply, sock-weight yarn. I dont know how the stripes will look though because the length of each color block varies quite a bit. I dont know if I want to use this yarn knitting socks, it seems too fragile. Perhaps a triangular shawl.
Finally, I am working on the second sleeve of Elizabeth's Starmore cardigan. Yippee! The sleeves are torture because the transition point between yarns has no steek, any uneveness in the stitches surrounding the transition shows up quite well. I am knitting on two circular needles so that I have fewer transitions. We'll see. I am going to have to do a lot of adjusting of stitches during the finishing and weaving in of the ends. I'm just glad to be close to completing the sweater. I have been thinking about what I want to do with the Autumn Rose Cardigan. I think I will stick with the idea of a turned hem instead of ribbing, but I still can't decide whether I should change the shape and make a cardigan instead.

Today--A day of travel to get to Shanty Creek Resort for SOAR. I am tired and cranky. I cannot locate a picture card port on this @@!! computer. Nor can I get my Sprint broadband to work. Fortunately, there is a LAN here. But no pictures to go with the post. I am looking forward to the workshop tomorrow, but I think I will skip the dinner tonight and just go to the opening presentation this evening.