High Fiber--Thoughts of Winter...and other things.

I woke up to this this morning:

I guess Rocky isn't going to be using his wading pool anymore for a while! The resorts are doing a happy dance, though!

DS1 and his DW arrived in Salt Lake City last week for a visit with her son in Idaho. On the way back, we had a nice, but short, visit. She brought some of her quilting fabrics to try to match with fabrics from the quilt shops in Idaho and SLC. Here's what she has now. (Original fabrics were chosen by family members for quilts they wanted.)

Speaking of quilting, my friend Ellen completed her Lone Star quilt for her grandson. He has named it "Ninja Star."

I helped pick the fabrics for this quilt. Ellen doesn't live here full-time, and she doesn't haul her quilting fabrics back and forth, so this quilt has taken a couple of years to make. I have no such excuse! I plan to get back on the Wedding Ring quilt as soon as I get my spinning done for Daphne's new and larger Baby Surprise Jacket. Here's the lucky recipient:

She is now five months old, as of October 14th. Time flies!

Lynda and I visited the quilt show last week. It's a unique display of 33 handcrafted quilts by Isreali artists on display at Temple Har Shalom in Park City. The quilts were previously displayed at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies in Israel. If you are going to be in the area, the exhibit is open to the public, and hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

We had permission to take photos, and these were my favorites:

On Friday, I put in an order at CT. More about what I will be doing with the fabrics will come a little later.

In knitting news, I have been making progress with the Winter Colors Cardi. I worked on it yesterday throughout the performance of La Boheme at the Capitol Theater in SLC, which was outstanding, BTW. Laquita Mitchell was the best Mimi I have ever seen! (It always amazes me that Mimi can find the breath to sing so beautifully while dying of consumption!) Gerard Powers played Rodolfo, and he was wonderful, too. It was so nice to have a project in my hands that just goes around and around, continuous st st! Now I'm about ready to start the sleeves.

In spinning news, I now have two bobbins done for the Baby Surprise Jacket for Daphne, mentioned earlier.

The fiber is KP's Superwash merino and nylon, which I dyed with Koolaid and food coloring. I ordered a fourth bobbin for my WooLee Winder, and it has come, so when I fill the third bobbin, I can ply to the fourth. I still have another sleeve of the fiber I can dye, if needed.

The past couple of days I have been enjoying Netflix on my iPad. Not all movies are available for streaming, but many are, and I have discovered BBC productions I haven't seen for a long time, and some not at all! It comes in handy when DH is watching something on TV that I'm not interested in! I finished reading The Knitter's Book of Wool, so back to The Intentional Spinner, so I can return it to my friend.

Well, the snowplow just went by, and my neighbor is using the snowblower on his long, steep driveway. I guess winter is here! More time for knitting, spinning and quilting!

High Fiber--Celebrations

Remember this fiber I spun awhile back?

I gave it to Joanie for her birthday on October 8th.

Included in the package were these cute little stitch markers I picked up at Three Wishes in West Jordan, UT. That's where I picked up the Louet spinning fiber, wool/mohair/rayon/bamboo in Juniper that I spun for her. Coincidentally, that's where my Kromski Sonata spinning wheel came from.

In other news, we had a visit from a moose mother and her adolescent daughter:

While we were hiking, we looked for some late flowers to dedicate to Eileen, but this was the best we could do. She would have liked them, though.

On Sunday we hiked again and found these:

We had the celebration of her life Wednesday evening, and it was a great party. DH, DS2 and his SO and I put together a photo album with photos of her from as far back as 1964. One of the "kids" (I don't remember which) suggested putting out paper and pens for people to write their thoughts to be included in the extra pages of the photo album. It was a big hit.

We met DS1 and his DW at Denny's Saturday morning. They flew in to SLC to visit her son and his wife in Idaho. We had breakfast, a nice visit, and then they all drove to Idaho. They will be back on Wednesday. Here's my DDIL and her DS:

Saturday night we attended an "engagement" party given by two of our friends. Their kids were all there for the party, and her DD and DS entertained us with a few songs.

We went back to their house for Indian food after the party.

Rocky and Sunny really enjoyed the hike on Sunday.

Besides the flowers for Eileen, we found this:

How many of you thought, "spinning fiber?" I had my drop spindle along, so that could be why that came to mind.

There has been progress this week on my latest knitting project, formerly a spinning project. It's the cardigan I'm making from the natural dark chocolate and white Corriedale, and the blue, burnt orange and taupe Corriedale I dyed with Koolaid, all spun for the same project.

In spinning on my wheel, I've been working on the KP SW merino and nylon I dyed awhile back for another BSJ for Daphne:

It's fun to see the colors change as it spins up! My drop spindles still have the same fiber, but I have been making some progress. Not much reading done this week with company and two parties. Things are quieter now, though, so I expect to be reporting on reading and other matters again soon.

Another sadness came about this past week. One of my knitting and stitching buddies, Norma, passed away suddenly of an aneurysm. She was 82 but quite active. Our Common Threads group will miss her.
Please, dear friends, stay healthy! I need all the friends I have!

High Fiber--Closures

These are the last days of anything like summer around here.

Our Saturday hike brought us to a land of striking shades of yellow. (I have to remember this for my dye pot!) It was a warm day. We had a really nice hike to the Fairy Tree in Toll Canyon, a wonderful hiking spot, not just because of the fall foliage, but also because of the year-round stream, which provides drinking water for the pups.

The Fairy Tree or "the shrine," as it's also called, is a drop-off spot for a variety of trinkets. People leave items, but they don't take them. It would make the fairies angry and bring bad karma! Of course, my little KP Turkish drop spindle accompanied me. I still have the aqua Corriedale on it, about halfway to finishing the second skein. I got a lot done because much of the trail is free of rocks and roots, so I could spin and walk at the same time.
We will be able to hike here off and on for a couple more months. Then it will be time for snowshoes! I will start getting colder, though.

Speaking of closure, my knitting activities had really good karma this week! The big event was the completion of DH's Fair Isle Sleeveless Cardi, just in time for winter weather! (I started this in September 2007!)

After I finished the knitting a few days ago, I basted the front closed with white crochet cotton, which would be easy to take out after blocking.

While DH put together my new Lacis Woolly Board, which I found at Walmart.com,

I put the sweater in a nice warm bath of Kookaburra Wool Wash.

Then we maneuvered it onto the woolly board. (The woolly board actually has a piece that fits below the top piece on each side for sleeves, but this didn't need that, so we left them off.) You have to lift one side of the top piece, slide both shoulders on, slide the body down one side and then replace the top piece. Then you pick up the other side and finish fitting before putting it back in place. The woolly board is adjustable, and we had set it to the right measurements.

It was dry and flat the next morning. I touched up the edges of the neck and armholes with a steam iron, according to the directions in the book. Then we picked out some Austrian buttons DH liked and I sewed them on using Alpaca Cloud, which makes nice sewing thread for this kind of project, and I had it in the right color. It was ready to wear!

Some of you may remember my friend Marianne from a previous post.
Remember the lovely pullover she made? (The photo is in the blog post.) She found it too warm to wear after working on it for two years. We talked about options, and she decided on a steek. She sewed a couple of rows of stitches down each side of the center front and cut. Then she picked up sts on each side and made bands, to which she sewed pewter clasps, her choice of closure. Here's her new cardigan:

This turned out so well, she's working on converting another pullover.

I have been continuing to dye my KP Superwash Merino and Nylon (Stroll) roving for another Baby Surprise Jacket using the sun tea method.

I rolled up the roving in plastic wrap after squirting on the "dye" (Koolaid and food coloring--see how much of each I used here) to try to keep the colors from completely blending. With one, I just put the package of roving and plastic wrap into the jar, added hot water and set it out in the sun. With the second one I put the package into an additional plastic bag and sealed it before putting it into the jar and adding the water. You can see that the water in the jar with the additional plastic bag is totally clear. Actually, it didn't make any difference that I could see. Both sleeves of roving turned out fine!

I have one more batch I can do, but I've kept good notes on my dye mix, so I can wait and see if I need it. A sunny day is all I need. I plan on spinning all the singles first and then plying them. Wish me luck!

I'm working on the last of the dark chocolate Corriedale, the same fiber I was spinning at Alpaca Days last weekend. I want to get it finished so I can start on the roving I just dyed (above). It would be nice to have the Baby Surprise Jacket finished in time for Christmas!

The Spin Along has provided me with some fun. I'm really enjoying learning more about spinning and getting to know other KP spinners. There are a lot of experienced spinners as well as lots of people who just started, so if you haven't checked it out yet, please do! We would love to have you join, or at the very least, read a little.

I apologize for not providing any gratuitous baby photos this week. Maybe I'll have something next week. I also don't have any quilting photos, although I've continued to work on my LeMoyne Star quilt. I'll have to try to take a photo for next week's blog!

What's on my iPod: Podcasts of Yarnspinners Tales, The Spin Doctor and The Padcast Podcast.
What's on my nightstand: The Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin.
What's in my hoop: The LeMoyne Star Quilt
What's on my needles: My Tennis-ball green food coloring socks, etc., etc.
What's on my wheel: Natural dark chocolate Corriedale.
What's on my KP spindle: Aqua Corriedale.
What's on my Golding Tsunami: Ashford merino and silk in Mulberry.
Does that count as multitasking?
This blog post is dedicated to my dear sister-in-law Eileen.