The Sinister Scribe

Thought I’d show off the latest spinnings with a really bad photo. Did the blue one today. They are all bulky weight. I still have about 6 ounces each left to spin.

My wheel has developed the most annoying squeak. I think it is time to oil it. Need to get one of those little bottles of Neetsfoot oil… and a WPI gauge. Right now I am wrapping a ruler.

Went out to the nearby Amish community today with friends. OMG! I will definitely be going out there on a regular basis. At least monthly if not bi-weekly. Fresh-from-the-cow milk that we can afford! Same with eggs!

Isn’t it gorgeous? 46+ yards (3.9 ounces) of bulky merino goodness. Can’t you just smell the fiber fumes?!?

I can’t sell it. Beeeccaaaaauuuuzzzzeee, I can’t figure out how much to charge for it!?! Anyone have a formula handy? ‘Coz I am dain bramaged!

Time seems to have sped up since Thanksgiving so briefly, before I run and jump into bed, here’s what I’ve been up to:

1. julienned my thumb with the new mandolin slicer thingy
2. cat nearly died (foam-rubber addiction)
3. fiber order arrived from Spinning Bunny
4. decided to finally knit the bald dog a sweater
5. put Sam on the hook for his electronic time (meet the min daily educational hours or no doing)
6. Saf yeast arrived… can’t wait to bake with it
7. finally got my Ravelry invite

The last one would explain the time warp. Holey moley I could get lost in there! Organizing stash, projects, queue those in the wings, find groups of similar knitters, find more patterns to put in the queue. Oy vey! This is a very bad thing. Very bad.

I would show you some pictures of doggies sweater and fibery bits… but I can’t find the camera cable. It was just here earlier today. So you just get a pic of some gorgeous red fall foliage. (the yarn I’m spinning now is kinda that color, maybe darker)

So I leave you with this great article at Utah’s Daily Herald on homeschooling kids in college. The girl mentioned in the opening is 14. Sam is 10. Ohhhhhh, I need to go lay down now.

G’Nite!

PS. Baroness Boo, I WILL call you! No, really!

I wrote a quick note to Susan at the Spinning Bunny about the yarn I had spun from her fiber. Well, she said it looked great put it on her Customer Creations page. I’m the second from the bottom on the left)

Squeeeeee! I feel famous!

Friday was Sam’s 10th birthday party. This is him with the coveted DS game “Shadow the Hedgehog.” Can you tell he was excited?

Instead of cake, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies and impaled the top cookie with 10 candles. This was served with icecream. Everyone seemed content with this deviation from tradition. Sam doesn’t really like cake so why should he have a birthday cake?

(Baroness Boo: Thank you so much for your call! We miss you and will try to call tomorrow evening)

Friday I also received in the mail 8 glorious ounces of merino top, pictured here with some of it spun into a 2-ply yarn. The Spinning Bunny calls this colorway “Sandstone.” By Saturday I had it nearly all spun up.  I plied the last bit with brown crochet cotton. The cotton disappears into the colors and the wool looks like boucle yarn. Kina neat. The two skeins pictured remind me of indian corn. I think I’ve talked myself into starting an Etsy shop to sell hand spun yarn. I’ve looked at several hand spun yarns out there now and I don’t think mine look too bad really. Whaddaya think? Would you buy these skeins?

Today I ventured into the local Asian market. Oh man! I’m glad I didn’t go there sooner. LOL! So many things I’ve been looking at online were there. Including a great mandolin slicer. Wowie! Zowie! I sliced many, many things very, very thin tonight. Don’t know how I’ve done with out one for so long. Best thing is that it was $7 cheaper there than online. Woot!

On a closing note: Today I challenged Sam to run one mile each day (on the dreadmill) for the next 6 days. Wish me luck! I gotta do something to start training for a 5K next year. :O

In an effort to preserve what semblance of sanity I have, I took a fiber break. I not only bought (at the CWSG Exhibition and Sale), but spun (and am now knitting with) some lucious, grey alpaca fiber. Woot! Here’s a close up shot of the yarn. It is soooo soft!  I’m going to attempt to knit my WDH a simple cap knit top-down like this pattern but with a twisted rib like this pattern. I hope I have enough yarn! I estimated that I spun up 67 yards (4 ounces)  and I’m using #11 needles.

Also in this picture are the never-ending-socks-of-blue. The leg portion is almost as long as the foot now. I so wanna just rib ‘em off and be done. But knee-high, hand-knitted socks would be just oh-so decadent.