Summer 2009 So Far...

The past two weeks have been exciting and busy with a big visit from family overseas. My brothers, sister-in-law, and 14-month old twins, A and Z arrived just as the second (or is it the third?) heat wave hit Vancouver, so there were lots of outings that involved playing with water to cool down. We became tourists within our own city, visiting Stanley Park on more than one occasion--once to the water park and another to Second Beach Pool--one of the best places for family-friendly fun! Our local haunts, Trout Lake and Robson Park, were also well visited.

Stanley Park Water Park
cooling down in Trout Lake
cousins at play
nothing like sand to spark imagination
some r & r at Robson Park Pool

However, that's not to say that playing with fiber was forgotten.... I was actually forced to dig out and dust off the Ashford Traditional to be able to spin my July fiber, Summer Twilight from sweetgeorgia. My bobbin-lead Louet S10 kept breaking my spun singles with its overly aggressive "takeup" onto the bobbin, so I had to switch wheels. It was getting frustrating trying to spin thin on the Louet, and there was no way I was going to waste any more of my new yummy panda fiber (a blend of superwash merino, bamboo, and nylon) that I was aiming to spin in fingering weight.

So after a visit to Birkeland Brothers to purchase some extra bobbins, I'm now enjoying spinning on a wheel with Scotch tension, one with a lot gentler "takeup". I can spin a lot thinner and easier without the stress of breaking the single when joining fiber. Sometimes I wonder why I waited so long to use this wheel. It's a great wheel for a fairly new spinner, like me! Some photos will be posted as soon as I fill up a bobbin or two....

K is now 5 months!

In other exciting news, K is now well into her fifth month in this world! See how our sweet-natured, easy-going baby girl has grown! She's almost rolling over on her own and has the most deadly strong grip! K's exercising her legs as well, and goes into the Jolly Jumper at least once a day. It's never too early to start training when there are two competitive brothers to keep up with!

The Spinning Mojo is Back!

Lately, I've been really intent on spinning up and plying the Banana Pancakes from sweetgeorgia, carrying the wheel from room to room, so that I could maximize on all possible spare time. It's been a real treat to spin beautifully dyed fibre in such vibrant colours--a great motivation to practise and aim for greater spinning consistency in yarn weight, my "joins", drafting, etc... Here's my Banana Pancakes all spun up and twist set in 2-ply. Even my seven-year-old couldn't resist hugging the new skein of superwash merino handspun right after being wound up on the niddy noddy.

Picked Up Banana Pancakes

In between party planning for D's 7th birthday last week, I managed to go pick up my June fibre from sweetgeorgia. I was pleasantly surprised to find some primarily bright, happy yellow superwash merino in the bag, aptly named Banana Pancakes. I'm not normally drawn to yellows since I don't usually wear this hard-to-wear colour for asians, but I'm curious to find out how this spins up colour-wise. I've spun merino before and just love it! It's super soft and easy to spin. I'll aim to spin it in a 2-ply worsted weight..... if I ever get to it, that is......Presently, I'm recovering from D's successful 7th birthday party which took place at a U-pick strawberry field and at a busy spray park with a group of little people and moms. A good time was had by all. It's hard to believe my first, whom we used to call "our little man" as a baby, has now been a part of our family for seven years! A gigantic happy birthday to our handsome, fun-loving D!

Foundation All Spun Up and Plied

The 4 ounces of sweetgeorgia BFL is now all spun up and Navajo plied. The yield: approximately 150 yards or 133 metres of squishy softness for... maybe.... fingerless mitts? Purty, isn't it? I think the colourway would have been even better with more deeper browns in it, but it's pleasing and calming to the eye nevertheless. It's also been so long since I've Navajo plied that I actually had to look up a tutorial to refresh myself! I think what that really means is that I have to keep up the spinning and plying.

There's Some Spinning Going On.....

I finally dove in and started spinning my BFL. It's soft and easy to spin, I'm happy to find, as it's my first time spinning blue faced leicester. I'm a bit rusty in my spinning, but the feel of it all comes back to you. I have no idea what drafting method I really use, but I know it's not Paula Simmons' one-handed draw for "softness and speed". I bought Paula Simmons' book, Spinning for Softness and Speed, but I just can't seem to get the hang of her method as useful and practical as it sounds with three kiddies around me. I'm way more comfortable drafting with two hands and do my best to limit the work done by the left hand-- the one that holds the bulk of the fiber mass. I also predraft in preparation for spinning to get the most even results.

Time to Kickstart the Spinning Mojo

Here's some beautiful blue faced leicester that I picked up from the talented sweetgeorgia more than a week ago. oh...so.... yummy!!!..... and the colors are just mesmerizing together ...hey, coincidentally, they're almost my blog colors too! The only problem is I can't bring myself to pull apart the braid and spin it!!! What to do!!!!

Maybe I'll have to give myself a bit more time to admire it, and think about what I might like to knit out of it first while re-setting up my spinning space... yep... gotta' think baby steps....!

EZ Best Baby Sweater

I've been a bad blogger the first couple of months this year. More accurately, I've been very short of energy to blog, despite wanting to knit more and spending too much time on Ravelry. Now with one more week of work and expecting a baby any day now, even though the due date is during the first week of March, I am knitting as much as I can to finish up baby projects already started and near completion. I say this just because both D & R were early babies. Anyhow, here's a finished variation of EZ's Best Baby Sweater without the lace that used up some of my hand-dyed, handspun merino wool and handspun "Denim Dreams" (wool and part mohair fiber bought from Paradise Fibers). I quite enjoyed knitting up this little sweater with the exception of the realizations that I may not have had enough hand-dyed handspun to finish the project after knitting the yoke (so I had to start spinning and plying some of my "Denim Dreams" right away in January) and that I had forgotten to knit the buttonholes in the yoke of the sweater since Elizabeth Zimmermann doesn't even mention buttonholes until further into the pattern instructions. I ended up making bobble buttons with chain loop closures to remedy the lack of buttonholes on the yoke. The bobble buttons were made by casting on a stitch on a DPN, leaving a 3" tail and then with another DPN, I kfb in the stitch until there were 5sts on the needle. I knit the next row and purled the following row. On the fourth row, I knit the row, but then passed the second, third, fourth, and fifth sts over the first st. I cut the yarn, leaving a 6" tail to thread into a yarn needle for gathering up the edges of the bobble to make a ball, stuffing the bobble with the cast-on tail. I made only three bobble buttons for the yoke to make a swing-like cardigan and did not do the decreases at the end of the pattern. The little cardigan was finished on February 6.

Progress

As you can see, I've made some progress on the Baby Surprise Jacket. I'm not a super fast knitter, but I've been trying to get it in between all the martial art classes, swimming lessons, and the little one's preschool. And lately, I've been getting the urge to start spinning on the Louet 10 again. I actually dug out the nostepinne today to wind up some experimental singles that I had spun up and left on the wheel months ago. I might just have to dig out some new fibre to spin tomorrow, if I have any time left, that is, before having to leave for work in the afternoon.

First Day of School

Looking a little unsure of what full-time school is going to be like, D will surely enjoy all the social aspects of what academic life has to offer. I'm thankful that he already knows many friends going to the same school, many of whom he already knows through preschool and/or other community activities. We're even trying to incorporate biking to school--at least one way anyways, to avoid using the van so much. I actually push R in the stroller while D rides now, but we'll hopefully all ride together in the future. In the meantime, I can't wait to continue more of this:


with only R hangin' out with me all day. Yes, I finally dusted the wheel off to try some of my Shetland wool. In two more days, gradual entry into Kindy will end and D will be in school all day!!!

2007 Summer Trip

Here's a brand new mosaic of our annual summer trip to Tofino and Saltspring Island. Go ahead and click on the mosaic image to enlarge. This year was special for we had arranged to go on the trip with my dearest childhood friend and her young family. We actually ended up having a family reunion of sorts with my friend's mother and sister's family joining us too! A fun time was had by all with many chances to "catch up" with one another's lives in between chasing all the toddlers and the pre-schooler. We stayed at the Clayoquot Field Station for one night and then moved over to the super kid-friendly Crystal Cove Beach Resort where we camped for three nights. To end our trip, we travelled to Saltspring Island to attend the renowned Saturday morning market and stay at the comfortable Wisteria Guest House.

Sadly, very little knitting or crocheting took place during our trip, (despite having brought more than one project with me) but I did get inspired to spin again after buying a bag of dyed fleece from Willowcrest Farm at artcraft. Too bad I did not have my drop spindle at that time.

The Relaxing Drop Spindle

After an emotional and exhausting month without time or motivation to post, I recently found something new and exciting to practise -- spinning yarn using a drop spindle. I have tried using a drop spindle once before in a beginner's spinning class at Birkeland Brothers, but failed dismally at it. But when the family went on the annual PNE outing this past weekend, I had the privilege of being shown how to use a drop spindle at the country store in the Safeway sponsored exhibit. Every year, I look forward to visiting this exhibit with the spinners, animals, petting zoo, and in particular, the country store where I admire and touch all the yummy sprinkle-dyed wool fibre by Shades of Narnia. Fortunately for me, the owner of Shades of Narnia happened to be working that afternoon and gave me the demo of spinning on a drop spindle. She made it look so easy and relaxing that I just had to buy the drop spindle/wool fibre kit. I got the hang of using the drop spindle fairly quickly at home, but really can't say that I've mastered thin, even singles on it quite yet. Here's what I have so far, and that's with a gazillion interruptions. Look at the pretty colors! Is it a coincidence that the yarn I'm spinning are my blog template colors???!?

First FO of 2007

I never thought I'd enjoy knitting with DPNs until I started and finished Ann Budd's Cowgirl Slipper Socks (with a yarn substitue, of course Using the suggested Buffalo Gold would have cost me $60/skein or $120 for the pair of socks!!!). I initially learned how to knit socks using the Magic Loop method, but now I think I've been converted, since it's a lot easier to move the stitches around using more than one needle. This little project dispelled notions that the stitches would be so slippery on DPN's that a jolt from one of my kids would send stitches flying off the needles, triggering a cardiac arrest and then causing a traumatic incident in front of two kids under the age of five. Using DPNs was quite the contrary despite using aluminium needles and not bamboo.

So how do you like my very own variegated, hand-dyed, handspun yarn? Luverly, isn't it? This is my first project using my own handspun. Totally exciting! As a bonus, I even learned the stretchy Norwegian cast-on method. Can't wait to delve into the next project! Just choosing one is the problem......

Cowgirl Slipper Socks
Started: January 1, 2007
Finished: January 12, 2007
Pattern: Cowgirl Slipper Socks by Ann Budd in IK Winter 2006
Yarn: My own, acid-dyed, handspun merino (fiber bought from Paradise Fibers)
Needles: 3-1/2 mm aluminium DPNs
Notes: Cute simple sock pattern for instant gratification! No modifications other than the yarn substitution.

Amazing Jellyfish!

Happy New Years Everyone!

Look where the boys and I went on Thursday......the Vancouver Aquarium! The Aquarium has recently set up a room to highlight their beautiful collection of moon jellyfish. They're just the coolest looking creatures up close! D is looking at the biggest jellyfish that we found in the room. They're called Lions mane Jellyfish.

After the Aquarium, I couldn't let the opportunity slip to pay a visit to Dressew, since I was passing through the downtown area. Some call me crazy to take two young boys to Dressew where there is such a big potential for the two of them to get into trouble, but I've been thinking of going there for the past three days!. Besides, R was so tired after the Aquarium that he fell asleep in the car and I only had one child to deal with while the other one slept in the stroller. Just look at the great buttons I found for my Flora that's waiting to be finished. And look a little closer at the prices!!! When the selection and prices can't be beat, I'll risk being yelled at by a Dressew salesclerk who might tell me to stop my boys from spinning all the button racks all at once or having other customers give me the dirty looks, because the two of them are running up and down the busiest aisles. (Yes, these aforementioned things have actually happened to me before at Dressew on other occasions.) The only difficulty of this visit to Dressew was carrying the stroller down two sets of stairs with a sleeping R in it to the basement where the buttons are located. C'est dommage! There's no elevator at Dressew.

So, this is what I've been working on lately with my latest hand-dyed, handspun. Care to take a guess? I'll post the FO as soon as I can.