Knitting and Dancing

I've been knitting, but not blogging lately.  Between the day job and dance calling gigs, I've been on the go.  I'm writing this in a Bruegger's bagel place in Durham, NC.  The wireless in my hotel last night was so poor that I was forced to watch cable TV and knit on my demin blue socks.  I've been blasting through these at nearly record time.  In fact I knit from midway down the cuff & most of the heel flap last evening, after I took the picture on the right.

I really like this yarn - Paton's Kroy Socks in a demin blue colorway that fades lighter & deeper as one ply changes at a time.  The socks don't truly match - and that's okay.

I've also been knitting on my green cardigan.  It's a yoke sweater based loosely on this pattern, but I doubts I'll start with the lace motif.  It's very pretty, but I think the character of the yarn might be better suited to a moss stitch section, then maybe a garter rib, then a seed stitch with a couple of garter ridges in between. I can hide the decrease rounds in the garter rows.  Seems like it might be a good idea to knit a swatch of this pattern combination - what a concept!

The dance schedule has been quite busy.  I attended the English Country Dance SpringFest in Durham last weekend - I had a wonderful time dancing to Helene Cornelious & the Sun Assembly's house band, Collard Greene (great name!).  I called the TCD contra dance on Friday night, I'll be calling the Asheville Advanced Dance this coming Friday night - that's tomorrow- and I'll be calling the ECD on Sunday afternoon.  I'm usually not this busy, but all of a sudden I have a bunch of calling gigs.  Also, there are dance events all over the place.  I'd love to go to the Nashville Playford Ball, but its kind of a haul - about 5 hours of driving each way, though the band and leader are probably worth it.

In the mean time, I've been dyeing and shipping orders from the shop, but mostly the day job has kept me quite busy.  In a few minutes I'll be on my way to a meeting at UNC-Chapel Hill to work with a collaborator.  We are developing a Summer Institute for teachers using the Library of Congress and the Paideia method. Ah, spring break!

Phat Fiber's Sweet Shop: Caramelo

I have been sitting out the Phat Fiber Sampler box for the last few months.  The day job and dance calling responsibilities have precluded adding anything to my workload, even something as pleasant as being involved in marketing opportunities for my Etsy shop.

I did dye some samples for the February box, whose theme was gems and minerals.  As a rockhound, I could get around that.  I had lots of ideas, just not enough time to make them happen.  March's theme is 'Sweet Shop.'  Of late I have been interested in working in brown-copper-olive families.  So it was a short hop to 'Caramelo,' a caramel-colored merino roving that looks and feels just yummy. 

So over that last week or so, I played with dyes & I just finished making up and packing my samples.  They are all a bit over 1/4 ounce and will be shipped to the queen of the fiber sampler on Monday.  Now the Phat Fiber blog and Facebook page are worth following as the contributors frequently donate full-size rovings, batts or skeins of yarn and they are given away to people who comment on the blog.  I've donated rovings a few times and it does seem to generate a good bit of shop and blog traffic.  I've also won a couple of times - that's kind of nice.  There is a supporting Ravelry group that is quite active.

Now I do this to get my samples of my work into the hands of future buyers; but a fringe benefit is that contributors get a sampler box of their own so that I get to see what other fiber artists are doing.  I am so inspired by the work that I see people doing. Join in the fur and you can be inspired too!

Also on the list this weekend:  Knitting on Mossy Cardi II, finishing the tiny sweater for my tiny nephew and getting it sent off, working on the books for Smoky Mountain Fibers, dyeing & photographing fiber, making bean soup (it's gray and chilly out there) and plenty more. 

Fiber Nights - Back-to-Back

Wednesday evenings are for spinning - at least most Wednesdays.  I find that setting this time aside, spinning with other reasonably serious spinners puts me with like minded people.  Our only connection is fiber.  I like them very much - many of us serve on the SAFF board of directors.  Kim took this picture last night.  She had just resolved an thorny issue with the IRS and had declared it Best Day EVER!  Our expressions say the same thing!

But tonight's fiber group is completely different.  We are a group of women who have dinner together once a month to eat, sometimes have wine and talk about life.  Sometimes work, frequently relationships, occassionally fiber.  One woman is an amazing quilter who crochets. Another is a very talented production weaver who dyes multi-colored warps & teaches lots of workshops.  The third likes about everything fiber and bead related.  She quilts and sews and crochets, maybe knits a little.  I think of myself as a spinner who dyes and knits.  We all have busy lives, work hard and came together through the music and dance scene.

We have lost a couple of members because of work commitments (if you are a special ed teacher who starts at 7:30 am, it's hard to carve out a week night - even if it's only once a month) and family responsibilities.  Anther person just didn't mesh with the group and stopped coming.

Sadly for us & happily for her, one of our group is moving away.  She has been one of our leaders so it is very difficult to lose her. We will be down to 3 and I'm not sure that that is enough to keep the momentum going.  But we are slow to invite new people.  We have invented a good bit of ourselves in this group and talk about our lives and families - the good and the bad.  One woman has gone through a particularly difficult divorce and this has been a safe outlet for her. We can't just bring in anyone.

So I guess that our group will have to figure it out.  With a few months before our amazing quilter (with the cutest dogs and the cleanest house!) leaves us, we will simply continue to share meals and lives and fiber!

Early Spring

Spring has come early to the mountains this year.  Although the nights are chilly, the days have been warm and sunny.  A few of my bulb-like friends have come up early, like these tiny iris.  Yesterday the first daffodil bloomed.  I put in a row of peas and planted some onion sets & the fall planted greens (collards and turnips) are up and happy - tasty too!  But as lovely as it is, I am resisting the temptation to get too carried away this early.  I'm afraid that I'll clean up all the old leaves and other litter only to get some serious cold.  We have had some of our worst snows in March.  Still, I spent a few hours in the garden this weekend.

But I'm spinning and dyeing and knitting, as evidenced by this tiny still life.  The rust colored yarn is the merino silk roving that I have been spinning for a future sweater.  The creamy yarn on the bobbin is part of the everlasting Falklands wool that I spin for both my own knitting and for the local shops.  The dark brown is a sweet lamb's fleece that I purchased at last year's fleece show and am hand processing.  It is also destined to be a sweater, though no time soon. The small skein of purple yarn is a sample for the local fiber shop.  I have nearly finished the tiny baby cardi.  Just a few bits left to do.  The I'd better send it off before he grows out of it.

This week the design work continues and the day job will keep me hopping, but in a good way.  My students have an assignment due and so do I!

Conference Knitting, as Opposed to a Knitting Conference

I am currently at a social studies education conference (this one).  My session yesterday went well, I've attended a number of other sessions and I am currently sitting one out.  I'd leave and go home, but I want to attend the next one.  History education is currently focusing on the US Civil War.  The session I'll be attending is focusing on analyzing the session arguments in North Carolina. 

This photo is from the state archives - this young woman is a weaver at Black Mountain College in the 1940s.

As fascinating as that is, what's really interesting is what people are knitting.  One woman in my session was knitting lovely creamy wool socks.  Another woman was making a baby hat - very tiny!  I'm knitting the Mossy Cardi - again or still -whatever you want to call it. It's all the way up to 5 inches long so it's almost as long as it was when I frogged it last time. 

In the evenings I've been working on a couple of new hat patterns.  No details yet, but there is a bit of a time crunch.  My friend Lisa (of Friends and Fiberworks) will e a vendor at Stitches South in Mid-April and wants some easy one skien patterns that are yarn-specific.  She wants to sell the patterns for yarns that she has a good bit of.  So my task is to develop patterns for these yarns that are reasonably easy to knit and don't exist yet.  Two have come out nicely.  The third is really giving me trouble.  The pattern that she visualized does really work with the pattern.  I kind of knew that, but I sometimes try to give people what they want.  I think I'll leave it where it is and ask her to take a look at it before I go any farther. 

Although I am certainly ready to go home, I kind of like the out-of-time feeling of being at a conference.  Staying in a hotel, eating in restaurants, seeing people that you seldom see in 'real life.'  But the 3 hour trip home should be pleasant.  I am listening to 'The Knitting Circle' by Ann Hood.  Highly emotional and a wee bit melodramatic, it's a good travel 'listen.'

My biggest decision for the drive home, where shall I eat lunch?

mmmmm....Mohair

One of my favorite goat herds called me up the other day.  Seems that it's nearly time to shear and she still has plenty of mohair so it was time to find new homes for the good fleece - nice enough to be processed by hand.  I bought 3 lovely fleeces.  Here's how it starts - a little stinky and dirty.

 








Then I soak it - at least twice - before I wash it.













 After a trip through the dyepot, it looks like this.  This is my fire colorway.  I dyed it together in my big turkey roaster.









Pretty, eh?

Distracted

Seems I can hardly get started on things these days.  I'd have a hard time finishing if I had anything to finish.

About 2 weeks ago, I frogged the Mossy Cardi & immediately cast on for a new cardigan.  And cast on I did - to knit up a sweater that would have been nearly 50 inches around.  That's 78 cm - making it seem even bigger!  Even on my fattest days, I don't think I am that big.  Because I did not measure until I had knit about 4 inches, I happily frogged that sweater and cast on again.  I have now knit about 1 1/2 rows.

About a week or so my niece gave birth to a baby boy.  I cast on for a tiny sweater.  Now in good faith, I will say that she did not tell anyone the gender ahead of time and I'm not a mint green kind of person, nor is my niece.  So a tiny pale blue sweater is now about  two thirds along.  Here is what it looks like today.  The nicest thing about baby things is they knit up quickly.  I'm knitting this pattern [rav link], but I'm already making mods as it is written with gobs of sewing up later.  I kitchenered the shoulder seams.  Now I am knitting the sleeves from the top down.  notice the stitches on holders rather than cast off.  I think it will be quite cute and very tiny!

After a few sessions of leading the fiber unit in Art Education, I've almost completed my fingerless mitts, just a bit of sewing up to do.  It would take about 10 minutes.  I'm meeting tonight with a yarn shop owner to discuss my making a couple of patterns for her store.  Note that I am adding to my list with actually finishing anything.

I'm on several deadlines at the day job, but they seem more doable.  I make a list, break things down into smaller tasks as need be.  Later I cross them off as I finish them.  I have crossed off lots of things today. Somehow my at-home lists are a bit less pressing that my weekday lists. I think I know why - it has something to do with my distractability.  There are just so many interesting things to do!