Maia Spins

Austin in April

We left Denver for the second leg of our trip.  Austin.  After the arid climate of Denver, I really appreciate the moisture in Austin.  Thankfully, the temperature was in the perfect range of 70-80 degrees F.  It was mostly sunny with one day where we had thunderstorms.  Nothing is better than warm rain.  Well, warm rain when you aren't stuck outside.  Some cooler areas had golf ball to soft ball size hail.  I was happy to miss that!

Roger had a conference at the convention center downtown and I had my days to fill.  I discovered two things: cafes with wi-fi and Hill Country Weavers. 

Don't be fooled by the name, Hill Country Weavers (HCW) is mostly a knitter's yarn store.  And, oh what a yarn store it is! 

It is a converted house full to the brim with yarn.  I looked through every room a handful of times and probably still missed half of it.  The best part is the friendly staff.  This much helpfulness and generosity clearly starts at the top with Suzanne, the owner. 

And, Stella!  Stella is doing her part to make customers feel welcome.  It was nice to get a dog fix.  I am missing my Sammie-boy.

On Thursday, I stopped in to look around and found some lovely silk yarn from Habu for a shawl. 

I asked for a recommendation on where I could find a cafe with wireless.  What I got was a comfy sofa in the new hang-out at HCW called Knit Buzz.  It is created to build community among knitters.  Who doesn't love sitting around with other knitters?  Have I mentioned how friendly Texans are?

That evening, Roger and I went to a local bar, Rio Rita, that has been converted from a biker bar to a crafty/scrabble crowd (funny story from the Austin Statesman newspaper).  Thursday night is knitting night at Rio Rita.  We crashed a group of friendly local nighters and had some beer.  Afterward, a bit of research on the interwebs (love the new "experimental" search on Ravelry!) turned up the gorgeous Laminaria, the Estonian inspired shawl by Elizabeth Freeman in the current Knitty.  Gotta love the beer, bar, knitting, and free wi-fi combo! 

With a pattern in hand, I went back to HCW to show my meager progress and get another skein of yarn (I didn't have quite enough yardage).  I ended up in Knit Buzz again visiting with Suzanne, Stella, and a crowd of regulars there for the official opening of Knit Buzz on Saturday.  Wine, cupcakes, knitting, and socializing; I was feeling like family now.  This is the LYS of my dreams.  Too bad it is so far from home.

My Laminaria has had several starts.

The first showed my that the star pattern is asymmetrical. Can you see the vertical lines on the left and horizontal lines on the right?  Click on the picture (as always) to get a larger version.

My inner perfectionist was bugged, so I started over.  The modification for symmetry was to do the 3-into-3 star on the left panel by k3tog-tbl, yo, k3tog-tbl.  It is not perfectly symmetrical because of the twisted stitch, but also not terribly noticeable in this yarn.

The next chart perplexed me because the stitch count once it is completed is smaller than when it is started.  What to do?  Log in to Ravelry and look for a Laminaria group of course!  A reply from the pattern author taught me three things: the stitch count is correct, the pattern looks symmetrical once blocked, and it looks way better when knit at a loose gauge.  Was my gauge loose?  Nope.  I am on hold until I can find a yarn store in Southern Louisiana with Addi Turbos.

I have almost finished clue 2 of Mystic Light.  I'll have a picture of that in the next post. 

Meanwhile, here are some Texas wildflowers seen along the roadsides everywhere.  They are a part of the legacy of the late Lady Bird Johnson.

Bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas.

Traveling

Roger and I are going on vacation to Denver, Austin, an New Orleans!  I know there is fun fibery stuff to do in Boulder.  High on my list is visiting Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins.  I hear so many good things about it.  We understand Austin is in the heart of Texas' BBQ country.  Roger is excited about that.  And, New Orleans!  I am happy to do my part to return tourism to the city.

Got any suggestions for what we should do in any of these cities?

Project Round-up
The spinning and knitting energies have been rather fractured around here lately.  There is progress. 

I am almost done with the North Roë shawl, just a few more rows.

The rectangular stole from the Toots LeBlanc yarn is getting longer. 

I just weighed the remaining yarn to realize that I have knit more than half way.  Good news except that I started at the center back with a provisional cast-on.  I had made a guestimate on how far I could go on half that yarn based on a large swatch.  Must have made an error in my calculations.  It is on hold until I figure out how to deal with this turn of events.

The red and white roving got side-lined by a slipping drive band.  All I need to do is replace it.  Too easy.

I'm spinning some just red, some grey, and some combined.  It will be fun to see how it looks when plied.

What is my solution? 

Start something new.  What?  I need a simple travel project.  The yarn was on sale and intriguing.  A quick and dirty shawl is calling me.

Okay, it is not all stalled. 

My BFL sock yarn is done.  It will be my simple travel sock project.

It isn't my best spinning ever.  I like my handspun sock yarn spun firmly, this may be too firm.  Oh well.

Our fierce guard dog will be staying at home with Kay.

Somebody has to sniff the flowers.  Spring is here with a vengeance.

My apologies to those folks who still have snow.

Dude!

Please forgive the "Dude!", I am feeling my silly streak today. 

Speaking of silly (yes, an oh so clever segue), we are interviewed on the current Stash & Burn podcast!  We recorded the interview Friday night at Stitches West and our Silly-Fu was full strength.  I could make excuses (like we were sleep deprived, overwhelmed by our first time as vendors at Stitches, or overwhelmed by our first podcast interview).  But, I won't do that. 

I was very surprised to hear my voice.  It sounds quite different in my head (insert pithy quip about the voices in my head here).

A I recently confessed, I am new to podcasts.  Truth be told, I hadn't listened to Stash & Burn when Nicole & Jenny interviewed us!  The horror!  I have now and I love them. 

Speaking of podcasts, check out Y Knit by Michael & Stephen.  They are brand-spanking-new podcasters.  And they are fantastic!  The second episode deals with the issue of art vs. craft in a thoughtful and thought provoking way.  I'd give my opinions on the subject here, but it is so not a silly mood topic.

I forgot to post this picture in my earlier post.
That would be Sammie sitting on Roger's bag so he can get a view out the window!  Silly boy!  He loves to G O.  Maybe he needs a booster seat?  Only if it will match the car interior though.

One more picture.
A new project, heretofore unmentioned.  What could it be? 

Bolinas!

A picture crazy happy post!

On Friday afternoon we went to Bolinas.  Bolinas is a quirky, hippy, friendly, mellow, rural Marin County kinda place.  If you go, take a map.  There are no signs to guide you (the locals take them down).  Sometimes there aren't street signs.  The good thing is that if you find your way there, everyone is very nice.  It is the kind of place that plasters a tussahfluffing smile on your face that doesn't go away until you leave. 

Our friends, Rick & Heidi, of 5 Cent Coffee, had a gig (do people still say that?  or have I just horribly dated myself?) at the local bar, Smileys.  Smileys is also a dog friendly hotel (yay!) so we booked a room.

We got into town early enough to take a nice walk on the beach.  This place is freaking gorgeous!  It was late afternoon and the sky was overcast.  I love the light in these conditions.  So I took a few pictures.  Okay, I took a lot of pictures.  Here are a few, more at my Flickr page.

The sky and the water are barely differentiated and everything has a monochromatic groove.

The shadows enhance the textures.

Surfers!  Dude!

Aw,my sweet guys.

I was bewitched by all the fabulous textures.  A very low tide exposed the sand, tidepools, and rocks.  So I took a few pictures.  Okay, I took a lot of pictures (not funny the second time?).  More on ze Flickr.

I love the mixture of sand and polished rocks.

A bit of seaweed art.

The sand.

The 5 Cent Coffee show was fabulous!  Love them!  They are a self-described "Neo Skiffle Junkyard Blues" band.  Whatever that is.  I'm not smart enough in the ways of music to understand.  What I do understand is that they are awesome and play all sorts of fun and funky junk and music springs forth.  So I took a few pictures.  Okay, I took a lot of pictures (funny now that I am obviously abusing the idea?).  Here are a few, more at my Flickr page.

For the record, we got a complete costume change from Heidi for each of their three sets.

Megaphone AND precussion!  That Rick is multi-talented.

So much earnest cuteness! 

They have a fabulous new CD out called Bourbon & Beans.  Don't be the last kids on the block to get it.

While you are on their website, be sure to check out their show flyers, works of art they be.  If you are in Japan, be sure to check out their Japan tour schedule, including a gig at the Yokohama Jug Band Festival!

Afterwards, we went to their room and partied until 3 am!  I am getting waaaaay to old for this! 

We did come prepared though.  Roger has a great travel cocktail kit that doesn't get out nearly enough.

The following morning we had a late breakfast and another stroll on the beach.  Surely you are expecting me to mention something about all the pictures I took?  I would, only my camera died after just a few shots.  (sad for me, lucky for you!)

High tide and sunshine!

Note to self: when you take a bazillion pictures, you need to charge the camera battery or the camera will not work.  Sigh.  I really wanted to show you a picture of the local filling station, Bo Gas (say it fast). 

Current Projects

Life is returning to normal.  I have come down from the adrenaline rush that was Madrona & Stitches.  It took four or five days for me to get it out of my system and start sleeping more than five or six hours a night.  The pendulum swung to nine or ten hours of sleep.  I think I am back to my regular seven hours a night and beginning to feel like myself. 

At Madrona, I had a small challenge with Michele of Toots LeBlanc.  She dared me to start on my shawl from her yarn before she started on socks from my yarn.  I lost.  I don't know why I thought I would have time to travel 800 miles, dye, fluff, and package more product, AND start a new project of my own design.  I always think I can do more than is realistic.  Is that a blessing or a curse?  Both probably.  Michele showed me a stranded sock with a beaded picot edge no less.

Here is the start of my shawl from their Jacob/Alpaca/Mohair fingering weight yarn.  My design is a simple stole in a geometric pattern. 
I LOVE this yarn!  It has the firmness of the Jacob wool, the softness of the alpaca, and a slight fuzz and luster from the mohair.  It is quite delicious and very unlike any other yarn I have knit with.  All of the fiber comes from farms in Oregon and they have it processed and spun in Oregon.  It definitely has a handspun quality to it (a big plus for me).

There is spinning too.  Not in a state to show you just yet.  Here is the fiber I'm using:
Sincere Sheep* roving.  Half of it was naturally dyed in various shades of red and pink and half was left the natural light gray of the fleece.  The big coil has slumped over exposing the core of the coil.  It looks really cool this way.

It has been a while since i have posted a picture of my Sam.
I love the specks of white fur on his jowls and paws.

* Sincere Sheep is our "think local" line of products.  The most environmentally conscious wool (in my humble opinion) comes from local sheep raised on grass (as much as possible) whose fleeces are naturally dyed (with Fair Trade organic dyes) and locally processed.

ETA:

Dee has started a KAL (involves swapping too!) using my Big Bag pattern.  How fun is that?!?  There is a KAL blog here.  Sign-ups end on March 7th.  There is a Ravelry group full of friendly folks for this KAL/Swap too.

BANG, BANG, BANG!!!

Not always a good sound.  It was our mail carrier trying to break down the door.  Why?  Do I owe 3 cents postage or something?  Before you think that I am suspicious of him, I'll mention that he is the same carrier that swore at me recently when I went out to his truck with a Netflick I wanted to mail.  Brazen of me, I know.  Okay, he didn't see me coming and I startled him.  Maybe he is holding a grudge.

Today it was good news.  Unexpected good news in the form of a package for me (yay!).  It was a copy of Victorian Lace Today from my friend Ronni.  I had mentioned an interest in the book a while back and she offered to give me the extra copy she had.  I had forgotten about it, so it was quite the wonderful surprise.  She also sent a skein of Mama E's C*EYE*BER Fiber merino lace yarn. 

Perfect timing!  I have had a yen for lace lately.  I cruised Ravelry and found a pattern called North Roe from Aux dentelles Dodile (French blog, but the pattern is in English too, and it is free!).  Are you wondering why I didn't start something out of VLT?  Ah, well, that would be too easy wouldn't it?  It made much more sense to search for an obscure French pattern.  I do love a number of patterns in VLT; I'm sure I will make good use of it.

I was too excited to take pictures of the package.  Here is a picture of North Roe so far:

The yarn is brown and green.  I think it is quite appropriate for a leaf pattern.  There are two more charts.  It gets lacier at the bottom.

Thank you Ronni!  What a wonderful gift!  Stop by and give her some love.  She is celebrating her first blogiversary.

Thank you for all the podcast suggestions.  I've downloaded a handful to try out.  While I was downloading iTunes, I had a curious experience.
I have a mac and I'm downloading THE music interface for macs.  Why the distrust mac dudes?  Curious.

The BFL spinning is underway.  I love these colors!
The singles are much further along than this picture.  I am spinning them fine so I can Navajo ply them and still have a sock weight yarn.  I like to put a lot of twist into singles for socks so it is going through the wheel for a second time right now.  More soon.

One more photo for this disjointed and meandering post.  This is Sammie's new spot.

He likes to sit on the arm of the loveseat.  From his perspective it is great.  He can see out the window and watch for Mr. Bushytail.  Plus he knows exactly where I am because he is also sitting on my shoulder.  Have I mentioned that Sam has a bony butt?  Oy!  It might not be my favorite Sammie spot.  It is hard to deny that much cuteness though.

A Bit of Spinning Content

It is true, I do spin.  It has not escaped my notice that I named this blog Maia Spins and I mostly blog about knitting.  But, I digress.

I was rummaging around in the fiber stash and noticed a lot of bits of grey fiber.  I don't normally care for the color grey, but these are dyed with logwood and they are beautiful.  All natural dye colors are beautiful.  I think it is because they are many compounds that together make the color we perceive.  There is more depth and complexity.

This is what I started with:
Starting on the left and sweeping around the outside:  Merino-Tencel (50/50), Tussah Silk, Carbonized Bamboo, Merino (dark), Merino (light).  In the every center is Mohair locks with two shades of Tussah Silk Noil at the bottom.  Not shown is some deliciously soft Alpaca in a pale grey. 

The Carbonized Bamboo is the only fiber that is not dyed.  When the bamboo is heated the cellulose in the bamboo carbonizes to this grey color.  It has an interesting history too.  It was an early filament used in the incandescent light bulb.  I quite like spinning with it; very smooth and easy to draft.

I spun up bits of each fiber and then plied them together as a 3-ply yarn.  I cycled through the light and dark colors going up and then down the shades.  It is hard to see in this picture of the skeins.

Next time I will show you how the yarn looks knit into a scarf (what?  spinning and knitting that isn't sock knitting? are you reading the right blog?).

You may have noticed that I am a big fan of dogs.  I got my first dog, Sophie just eleven years ago.  Now I can't imagine my life without one.  I am so thankful for the good times.  Like the frolic of a 16-year old dog named Harriet.

Unfortunately, their lives are too short.  This is Lulu.  The sweet and wonderful canine companion to our friends and neighbors B, K, and D.  She passed on Friday and she will be sorely missed. 

She was ever vigilant watching out her window and protecting the neighborhood.  Sammie can't go past her house without wanting to stop for a visit.  She was so good with her people and especially her best doggy friend in the world, Molly.  Lulu and Molly met at the local dog park and were instantly best friends.  They got along so well that their people had to become friends as well. 

My heart goes out to our friends and to Molly.  I know how hard it is to lose a dog.  The become so much a part of warp and weft of our lives.  Goodnight sweet girl.

 

Is It Spinning?

It has been crazy since I got back from New York.  I have managed to do a bit with some of my Rhinebeck loot.

Here is the pile of lace weight yarn from Morehouse Merino.  All 19 skeins!  I bought it without a plan, just an impulse.

At dinner that night Brooke made a comment that sparked an idea.  She suggested adding more twist to the yarn (all singles yarn) and plying it together.  Great idea!  Two things came to my mind.  If you guessed socks, you are partly right (and I am that predictable). 

The first task was adding twist to all 19 skeins and winding them into little mini center-pull balls (pause a moment here because that was a big and boring task).  Then I set them out in oder by color and started making a 3-ply sock yarn.  Self-striping yarn capitalized on the large number of colors and the fact that I already had a lot of bits and pieces.  The colors seemed to have a beginning and an end so I started at one end and plied AAA, AAB, ABB, BBB, BBC, BCC, CCC, and so on.  When I got to the last color, I reversed and went back down the colors.  I scientifically determined that a full bobbin was the perfect amount for socks. The result?  4.6 oz of self-striping sock yarn in a worsted weight.

Wanna see the socks?

One is knit (toe-up of course!) from the center of the ball and one from the outside.  When I ran out of yarn the socks were done.  The remaining yarn (1 yard, maybe) is in the upper left corner.

They are knit tight at 5.75 sts/in.  I want thick cushy house socks for the cold weather.  The leg is knit in a 6x2 rib after the heel turn which shifts into a 2x2 rib.

The ends aren't woven in yet.  I was trying to get a picture taken before the light faded completely.  That darn sun goes down so early these days.

But that can't be all of the Morehouse Merino?  The pile was large.  True. 

There was enough for three large hanks of 2-ply for a total of 1300 yards of sport weight yarn.  There is also an annoyingly small hank (not shown) that just wouldn't fit onto the bobbing no matter how hard I tried.  Ironically, the harder I tried the more I was able to fit onto the bobbin and therefore the more annoying it was that it didn't all fit.  I don't really mind joining and weaving in the ends; it just vexed me that it was so small.  It is like having a small bit of leftover food at a restaurant.  Not enough to take home, but too much to leave on your plate.

The question is: what kind of shawl do I make?  A triangle?  Rectangle?  Parallelogram?  A triangle could be problematic since the stripe widths will vary depending on the length of the row.  Each stripe will be fairly short as I didn't make them really long.  Maybe a rectangle or parallelogram is more logical?  I can't decide.  What does one do when one can't decide?  A poll!

It hasn't all been about the Morehouse Merino around here.  My father-in-law's dog, Pancho was visiting.  He is a sweet boy and Sammie loves having a canine companion.  The boyz get along quite well.

Most of the time.

Roger had to break up one fight.  Both of them were squabbling over something, but we couldn't tell what it was.  We thought it was a toy as they had been playing with something a moment before.  After prying them apart, Sammie ran after the coveted object and snatched it up with a snarl and an "I dare you" look at Pancho.  Obviously, this toy could not remain "in play" and Roger removed it from Sammie's clenched teeth.

What was it?  This highly coveted object worthy of a fight with your best friend?

A cheap plastic spoon from Thai take-out food.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

I leave in the morning for New York.  I can't wait!  I have been dreaming of this day for six months!  I will meet up with my fiber partners in crime, Brooke and Rachael, for a few days in NYC and then we head up to Rhinebeck!  Are you sick of hearing about it yet?

Today we had our spinning group (without Brooke who is at SOAR, I am so jealous!)  I found a foot that is perfectly sized for the cable socks.  Thank you Marlowe for modeling.  The lighting wasn't right so the sock looks much bluer than in real life. 

I've started the next one in my quest for avoiding knitting my sweater.  You know, the one I intend to wear at Rhinebeck.  Sigh.  I will take it with me and try to force myself to knit it.

My friend Linda brought her Mystery Sock!  I didn't even know she was knitting it.  She is knitting it in yarn I dyed too.  You may recognize it as the same colorway I'm using for my Charlie Socks.  She got it at the last Sunday Spin & Knit group.  It was very cool to see my dyeing on my sock design, knit by someone else.

There are other Mystery Sock sitings.  I will post them soon.

Speaking of hand-dyed sock yarn, our friend Kristine, of A Verb For Keeping Warm, came with her beautiful yarns and spinning fibers.  She has Bluefaced Leicester sock yarn.  You know I couldn't pass that up!

Yummy, soft, and smooshy!  I took this picture in the fading light, but the colors are pretty close.  I've already wound it to pack for my trip to Rhinebeck.  What to make?

On a doggie note, we discovered something new about our little Sam.  I don't want to disparage my sweet boy, but he isn't exactly bright.  I was doing laundry the other day.  We have a front loader and I usually sit on a small plastic stool to load the machine.  The washing machine is in the kitchen next to the back door which has a doggie door.  Apparently, I left the stool and laundry basket so they blocked access to the door.   Roger had let Sam out of a different door.  Sam came around to the doggie door and came into the kitchen trapping himself.  An hour passed before we realized that Sam was not just hanging out in the kitchen.  He had remained in the "trap". 

Yes, he could have gone back out the doggie door and come to the other door.  Yes, he could have stepped onto the stool or jumped over it.  Did he?  Nope.  Sweet, cute boy.

Makes it a lot easier to keep him and his dirty paw prints off of a wet kitchen floor!

Drum Roll Please

Prizes!  We love prizes!

The winners (using a random number generator) of the Blogiversary contest are: Frank the Reindeer, Spiralling, Jason, Lia, and Charlene!  All but one are first time commenters.  How cool is that? 

The prize will be selected from these hand crafted (by me of course) possibilites:
A handspun yarn from the handspun stash.  I will send a photo and let you pick.  OR
A custom made spinning (or felting) batt.  OR
A custom dyed sock yarn in fingering or sport weight.

The puzzle was three clues to the date of my first post.  Each clue gives a different part of the date.

Clue 1: Goodbye to Coretta Scott King, Wilson Pickett, Betty Friedan, Buck Owens, Ann Richards, Buck O'Neil, and James Brown.
All died in 2006.

Clue 2: Part of the date is related to Sphenic numbers (math IS cool!).
A Sphenic number is the product of three distinct prime numbers (as in 2x3x5=30).  All Sphenic numbers have eight divisors (30's divisors: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, & 30).  I love when math is this cool!  Eight is the key here; the eighth month is August.

Clue 3: Janis Ian or Winger or Frank Sinatra. 
All had songs with seventeen in the title or prominently featured in the lyrics.

The date of my Blogiversary is August 17th of 2006.  Just as that smart Judy said.

Fibery Doings
This Thursday evening we are having another Spin-In at my house.  If you'd like to come, drop me a line and I'll send along the particulars.

I hope I don't stay up too late on Thursday because at the crack of insanely early, Roger and I are hopping on a plane.  We are spending a long weekend in Portland, the City of Roses.  There is a walking tour of the city on Friday, but Saturday is when the fun happens. 

Yarn Crawl! 

A group of Portland Ravelers is going to crawl the city in search of yarn.  Beware!  We are a dozen strong.  If you are in the area and want to come along, let me know.  There will be carpools and such, maybe even a pint of microbrew (they certainly have enough of it there!).

Can't have a post without a picture.

Awww!  Such a cute doggie! 

Sammie looks so content and peaceful when he is snuggled up.  I love seeing my little guy looking so happy.