No new loom... yet

My loom that I ordered on March 23 (not that I'm keeping track) is backordered. Sigh. It was a good thing I went ahead and loaded up the loom for another project. See how even the selvedges are? Yep, this is the END of the scarf. For the previous two-thirds of the scarf, it didn't look good at all.



To illustrate very clearly, here is a photo of both ends.



The final measurements end up being 3 1/4" x 79". I was very careful when I had to reload my shuttle, but somehow the stripes were altered. It is a hand painted yarn, so that could account for the variation, but I spent quite a while trying to figure it out and fix it to no avail. Still working that learning curve!

It has rained here so much I'm beginning to grow webs between my toes. Things are blooming and it is a nice contrast between the blooms and the dark gray sky but I'm desperate for some sunshine. Cloudy days are fine for photography, so the dog and I went for a walk at Ayr Mount last weekend. No one else was there (I like that) but it is hard trying to take pictures while holding the dog's leash somewhere out of the way or having the dog lurch at some good smell while I'm mashing the shutter button. Despite the technical difficulties, I had fun.



Saw beaver handiwork at the edge of the trail.



New growth in the cemetary.



And a relatively new tree scar.



The baby cape is almost finished - I'm on the hood! I'm making myself finish it before I cast on for the Whisper Cardigan. I bought the yarn almost immediately after I got the magazine. It's not often I buy the exact yarn in the pattern, but it looks so scrumptious and lightweight, I knew I had to do it. Can't wait to wind those skeins!

New fiber addiction

One day a very long time ago, a co-worker was cleaning out the storage room at work and pulled out a box that contained a table loom destined for the curb. I claimed it and it has sat in whatever houses I've inhabited for almost twenty years. I've gotten it out a couple of times and tried to decipher the directions, but they are very sparse. Goggleing the model and loom didn't turn up any help either. Lately, the weaving bug has been buzzing in my ear and I've been looking at rigid heddle looms. I wold love a floor loom, but my house is small (and so is my budget).

In the midst of this I bought Chicky a loom for her birthday. It came with very clear directions and an impressive project book.She loves it and has made her first scarf. She wants to make a hoodie next.



Reading her instruction manual made me think that perhaps I could get that old loom out of the attic and manage to figure it out. I did! Here it is without the 10 dent heddle attached yet.



My first project didn't turn out so well. My selvedges SUCK and the weave is too open. I used linen for the warp and some of my early handspun (romney) for the weft. I only handwashed it and I've since read a good go through the washing machine might tighten things up a bit.



Since warping the loom is a two person job, I went ahead and decided on my next project while the peeps were here to help. It's going to be a scarf with Opal sock yarn as the warp and Fiesta Boomerang as the weft. My left selvedges look good, the right have not been so great, but now that I'm over halfway through look much better. I hate the learning curve sometimes.
I did order a 32" Kromski Harp and the book Hands On Rigid Heddle Weaving by Betty Linn Davenport. The loom is backordered and I'm trying to be calm and patient until it gets here. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about placemats...

Back from the edge of the planet

Nope, I didn't fall off the planet. I was worried for a while, right before Christmas when I thought I might, but it didn't happen.

I woke up to about four inches of snow this morning. Eowyn woke me up at 5:30 am absolutely determined to go outside. I made her wait about half an hour because she has this evil habit of barking - sometimes it's a cat or a squirrel, but most of the time I have no idea why and it bugs the shit out of me. I had a hard time finding her lead under the snow and she made herself all heavy when she thought I was trying to take her back inside (I just needed to scrape my boots in another direction a bit to look for the tie-out, but she didn't understand my explanation). Since I was already up, I had my coffee and made my grocery list for Tres Leches cake. My co-workers have put up with listening to me whine about my desire to make this cake for a few weeks now. I try not to bake if I don't have a reason to do so, it's an expensive habit in money and calories! My excuse today: my birthday was Friday, but my children were (and still are, thanks to the snow) at their dad's house and we didn't get a chance to celebrate.

By the time I had all the ingredients at room temperature it was time for a spot of tea. According to my web research, Tres Leches is best if it has at least the night to set in the fridge. Basically it's a sponge cake soaked in three milks: heavy cream, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk, and then frosted with a vanilla cream frosting. YUM!



Saturday I used my new birthday present and made some of Jamie Oliver's English Onion Soup from the Jamie at Home cookbook. LOVE. THE. DUTCH. OVEN. It and I are going to be best friends, I can tell already.



Then, because I made some last weekend (and the peeps liked it for breakfast) I made another batch of Aunt Melissa's Granola from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I add all kinds of dried fruit to it and I like it because it's not overly sweet. One batch fills my old blue Ball Perfect Mason jar and seems to be just enough for a week.



Other than cooking, which really has been happening a lot, I'm working on Daphne's Baby Cape (rav link) and the comments posted about the yarn requirements being waaaaaay off are quite correct. I'm on the third skein (pattern calls for three) and I'm less than halfway done. The baby I'm making it for was born this past Wednesday and the rows are over 200 stitches; it's kind of a garter stitch slog at this point. I haven't been watching much TV and I haven't figured out Elizabeth Zimmerman's trick of reading and knitting (other than patterns) at the same time so the knitting has suffered.

I did give in and read the Twilight series. My interest waned, however, when it got weighed down in a lack of character development. There were several loopholes that really pissed me off, but I digress. Since I was all in a dither when I was done I had to go back and re-read my favorite vampire book Sunshine. Much more how vampires are supposed to behave, thankyouverymuch. I have a PILE of books next to my bed and I decided to go light and funny next. Dennis Leary fits the bill. After that the old bedside reading gets heavier.

Plans for the rest of the day? Watch some DVR'd shows and knit - the cape awaits!

Noro... YUM!

As soon as I saw b r o o k l y n t w e e d 's (I know it's not really his) Noro Stripe Scarf I was smitten, but kind of forgot about it because of all the other projects I had going on. Then The Harlot got on board, and I went, "Oh yea, I wanted to do that!" So I did, and am still doing it. The scarf is almost half done.



The mittens are a mitered variation on the theme (EZ's pattern in The Knitter's Almanac). This mitten is the second mitten I've knitted. Where is the first, you ask? Good question. I hated the color line up so much I frogged it. I rewound one ball the opposite direction in hopes of making it more pleasing... time will tell.



The hat hasn't been started, but it will soon. I have the yarn already.

My felted clogs are done. After three trips though the wash they're perfect! I lurve them and will only be taking them off to leave the house! Before felting they're rather unattractive.



But after felting all their floppy hideousness is GONE and they are transformed into warm, sturdy, beautiful clogs.



This is the first time I have had my children for more than five days in many months. They all came with me to the Annual Thanksgiving Feast at work (I made Lynne Rosetto Casper's Fast and Crisp Roast Turkey for the third year and it is a huge hit. I am a believer in brining a turkey, this one has quite a few extras in the brine, but the juicy flavorful bird after the roasting is worth it. If you do look at the recipe, it really does roast at 450 degrees for a fraction of the time it usually takes to roast a turkey.

On actual Thanksgiving I made another smaller bird for the four of us, and tired to duplicate my friend Becca's amazing sweet and savory dressing. After two more turkey based meals I made a huge vat of soup (with veggies roasted under the bird for that very purpose) and put it in the freezer. Maybe we'll be able to eat it in a week or two.

We went for a walk at Ayr Mount it's only about a mile from our house and the poet's walk is a nice path through the woods and by a pond and ends up at the house. The Kirkland house was built in 1815 and was the first in the federal style in the area. There are 265 acres and we've only seen a small portion of that so far, but since it's close and the Eno River flows through it I'm sure we'll go often.









One more day of knitting and leisure and then it's back to the regular grind!

Ring of Fire

Still churning out the knitting - I think the drop in temperature has been helpful - and am over three-quarters done on the Through the Loops Mystery Socks! It's a beautiful pattern, but the shapely cables make my ankles look disappointingly thick. Hence the photograph on the sock blocker! I have yet to get a picture that accurately shows the many shades of brown in the yarn.



I'm also working on the Noro Scarf (it's a Ravelry link) that will have matching mitered mittens and a hat. I have never made a "set" of matching anything other than socks and scarves and I figured why the hell not?

Morgan's Opal socks are finished - finally. I "finished" the first one when he wasn't here and when he got back from his dad's I had him try it on and it was definitely too short. I undid the end and lengthened it and now they are perfect. Bowen has outgrown last year's pair and has asked for another, with my production rate I asked him not to hold his breath!



I'm working on another fambly calendar to send to the Grandfolk and we decided to have some fun with light trails. Once we got the dog out of the room it went much better and with less danger of anyone catching on fire in the process. We're going to try again tomorrow night, it's pretty hard for the kids to hold still with the shutter open for any length of time, but they did pretty well. The fambly portrait known as The Ring of Fire:



Maybe by Saturday I'll have some new felted clogs finished! I had high hopes of making each of us a pair, but the large needle size wreaks havoc on my fingers and wrists. They are a pretty quick knit, though.

Ummm.... bread

I haven't been dyeing at all lately, but I've been knitting so much I'm going to have to back off because my hands are pretty sore. In addition to the knitting I've been baking quite a bit. Pumpkins are in season and my family loves pumpkin bread and pies. We've had four loaves of bread in the past couple weeks (and given two away) and there's still some pumpkin in the fridge. I also bought Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which came highly recommended by Susan Gibbs. She's right - it rocks! I've been baking bread since high school and have always loved it, but with all the other things I have to do in a day hasn't been possible to fit bread making into the schedule. WRONG! My new routine is to mix up a batch of wet dough on the weekends and then take a hunk out of the fridge when I get home from work and while supper is cooking, put that lovely loaf in the oven and presto - dinner and good bread are ready! I've made the basic broule and the bagels - both are delicious. The bagels are for the kids' lunches, although we did celebrate with them the morning after the election since they were shaped like an "O". If I end up roasting another pumpkin today I'm going to try the Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread. A mediocre shot of the yummy bagels is below (CFB's in the kitchen fixture with no natural light is my least favorite lighting situation).



I finally finished Foliage. I tried back in January and after frogging a couple of times figured my mind was not in the right place. It was this time! I decided to do a rolled brim since (thanks to the beauty of top down knitting) I could see after the three pattern repeats a rib pattern would have been down over my eyes!



Another FO, The Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf knit in the lovely Broken Yolks dyed by Sarah spun and cabled by me. I like the color shifts throughout. Morgan has his eye on this one.



It looks like it's going to be another lovely fall day, maybe perfect for more baking.

Hat day

I have a thing for hats; I buy some and make a hell of a lot more. This year all the kids liked the Noro hat by Saartje de Bruijn and asked me to make them each one. I finally finished Morgan's last week and asked our friend Mel to take some pictures of them. Her partner Angela is in the background making sure we're all "even".





Then I got Morgan to model MY finished Nehalem (pattern by Oat Couture). I used the worsted weight Beaverslide Dry Goods yarn I got a few weeks ago. It has a fabulous octagon in the back in addition to the lovely cable on the band. Unfortunately my dear son has the hat on backwards and some of the lovely cable band isn't so lovely in the back. I used a provisional cast on to eliminate the seam, but the pattern isn't quite right and it bugs me. Wouldn't bother me at all if it were in the back.





After the photo shoot we went to two local cemeteries for fun. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, William Hooper is buried here in Hillsborough. Some of the gravestones are almost worn completely smooth and they have plaques asking people not to do rubbings. I think the earliest gravestone we found was 1806. Several markers for men that were in the Civil War too. Here's a tribute I was surprised by -



I didn't think he would have been allowed to serve on the Supreme Court of NC after being a Colonel in the Confederate Army. May have to google him to find out "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say.