Spinning Hair of the Moe and Locks

It's been a busy spinning week. This is some awesome 50/50 mohair and wool that I picked up at Maryland Sheep and Wool from Persimmon Tree Farm. I spun it into balanced singles and I plan to knit a small shawl or wrap with it. It's beautiful fall colors so I will save it for later on in the year. The mohair is very soft and bloomed nicely when I washed the finished yarn. I have to say this was one of the easiest rovings that I have spun. Wish I had picked up more of it since it spun so fast I was disappointed to be done with it.

These are some really nice dyed locks that I picked up at a fiber shop while we were in Maine. The locks were a little matted and still had a good amount of lanolin left in them. After fooling around with them and the flick carder, I decided to spin some novelty yarn rather than to fight with tangled locks. I was surprised and happy with the yarn, it's very nubby and has curly locks sticking out here and there. It should make great edging for a hat or mittens or maybe a bag.

A Fiberous Trip to Maine

I gave in to my lobster craving, I couldn't go another day without it! Andy and I drove 800 + miles up to Maine to visit my family and eat some very yummy fresh sea food. Our Honda Civic got 47 mpg on the way up, we only stopped once for gas, hit the liquor store in NH to stock up (no sales tax and cheap liquor) and were in Kittery, Maine eating at the Weathervane in less than 12 hours. I had a lobster BLT and Andy had a fried seafood platter with haddock, scallops, clams and and shrimp.

That's Andy on the left, me in the middle and my brother, Sean, on the right. You might be wondering why we are all waving at the camera. It's just a thing we do. It started on Sean's trip to VA a couple of years ago. Now we all take pictures like that wherever we go. It drives my mom nuts! :)




Here is proof that I will touch nearly anything, sad but true. It's a fish skeleton found at Ferry Beach in Saco.










On the way to North Conway, my mom spotted a church tag sale so we had to stop. I picked up this very cool spinning wheel lamp and the handwoven basket in the picture below for a great deal. The yarn came from a couple different shops: Rosemary's in Cornish and Knit Wit's in Portland. Both shops are great and have totally different yarn's. They both also have great service.


To the left is some mill end Alpaca/Merino that is super, super soft. Purchased at a shop in Portland. Below is the store front for Rosemary's.





No trip anywhere is complete without stopping by at least one sporting goods store. We hit Cabela's in Maine, LL Bean in Freeport and North Conway, Sports Authority in South Portland and (a drum roll please) Bass Pro in PA. I am a good fishing wife. Andy was told once in a parking lot of a fiber festival that he is a "good fiber husband". I have yet to hear the end of that....















To the left is the Portland Waterfront a view from Commercial Street. I used to work in Portland at Key Bank and parked right near where this picture was taken.

Below is the the LL Bean boot:











A couple of baby star fish from Ferry Beach. They were all over the place.

Overall we had a great trip. I was really sorry to come back to Virginia. New England is so wonderful, many different places to visit all within an hour or so of each other. We did notice that the economy is worse up there. With outrageously high gas prices, tourism (one of the main sources of economy) is really low. This is the first time I can ever remember not having to wait in line's anywhere including at the toll booth going into Maine.

Dana had asked for a list of things we did, so here goes:

Kittery: Weathervane (see above), Banana Republic, Van Heusen, Liz Claiborne and Eddie Bauer

Sanford: Mardens which is a must go to discount store. They have clothes, fabric, yarn, fishing goods, shoes, furniture, basically you name it they got it!

Cornish: Rosemarys, two antique shops.

Gorham: Dinner out with mom at the Garden for some awesome seafood, I had twin lobsters, Andy and mom had baked haddock with lobster stuffing - yum!

North Conway: Horsefeathers Restaurant for a lobster roll, the 5 & 10 which is the oldest shop there, Christmas Tree Shop (this is where your goodie came from Dana!), and a couple of outlets.

Portland: Amato's for a real Italian sandwich. There is nothing else like them! And Knit Wit's.

Freeport: LL Bean, the Moose Shop, a very cool bead shop, and the Rockport outlet.

Westbrook/Portland: The Full Belly Deli, this is the most awesome deli. It's New York style and they have been in business for close to 20 years. If you are ever in the area this is a must eat at place. We also ate at Tortilla Flat one night with my friend Robin. It's in the same area and they have some great Mexican food not to mention the Sangria. I have to say neither one of these restaurants has changed for as long as I can remember. They both have great food, and great service. There are not many places you can say this about.

Spare Time Knitting

How much time does it take to knit? Some people say they don't have the time or patience to knit. Most of us are busy with everyday life; work, household chores, grocery shopping, bills and all that "fun" stuff. Lots of knitting can be done in the spare time we may not realize that we have. Yesterday, I headed off to the doctors office with the sock in the picture to the right just cast on and one row of ribbing done. When I left, nearly two hours later, there was 4 1/4" of knitting accomplished. I'm not super happy about having to wait to see the doctor for an hour and forty five minutes, but at least I got something done during that time. Just think of how much you could knit while you wait in line at Walmart, the lines here are sometimes twenty minutes long.

The yarn from the sock was gifted to me by Dianne. It came from Rock Creek Yarn and is really nice to knit with.

My friend Linda knits in the car whenever we take a road trip. No matter what happens, she calmly knits away. One road trip we were on a divided highway and a car came racing towards us in the wrong direction, Linda never missed a stitch. It turned out to be a high speed chase and we saw a line of police cars following on the other side of the highway.

It's been a productive week, I finished the rotating rib socks, which are a gift for my mom. They are knitted out of AC Moore yarn (gasp!) Marble and the color is lavender. Mom lives in Maine and thick socks are a must for the winter.


















This is the Vogue Sideways Cardigan, finally off the needles.

Crochet Mainia

I've been bitten by the crochet bug, or should I say frog:

I collect pin cushions and couldn't resist making the little frog, and the tomato:

The tomato body is hand spun mohair and the green top is hand spun colonial wool. The frog is Vanna's Choice. I can't believe I bought something that Vanna would endorse, it was on sale, what can I say?

This acorn came from a pattern on Ravelery. It was super easy to do and only took about two hours to complete. It's supposed to be a small project holder, but I think my gauge may have been a wee bit off (Im not much of a crocheter and didn't bother to check my guage.....). It's rather small and could better be used to put a gift in. It could possibly hold a center pull ball of gossamer lace yarn. It's way too small for a sock yarn holder.

It seems like I've been working on the Low Tide Cross Over Vee for ages, and with much relief and happy knitting/spinning satisfaction, it's finally done! I really enjoyed starting with raw fleece and ending with a completed sweater.

I'm waiting for special order moose antler buttons to arrive for the sweater to be really completed. They are being made in Maine, which is where I grew up. The pattern for this sweater was designed by a lady from Maine as well, I thought that was pretty cool.

The whole sweater is knitted in stocking knit, so the knitting went really quickly. The finishing took some time as there is a hand spun lace crochet edge:

The lace edge is 50/50 llama and hand dyed alpaca. The picture doesn't show the color well on the lace, but it's gray, blue and brown. It reminds of the rocky coast in Maine. Can you tell Ive been a little homesick lately? I'm dying for some LOBSTER. Mostly for a a lobster roll, that's cold (cooked) lobster mixed with little bit of mayo, possibly a small amount of lettuce served on a grilled hot dog bun. I had one at a Red Sox game one time that was served on croissant and the lobster meat had dill mixed with it. Now that was wicked good :)

The Sedalia Fiber Festival this past weekend was great! Dana did a great job with the organization and promotion. There were a large number of vendors and many, many more shoppers than in previous years. I hear rumors that next year it could possibly be a two day event which would draw even more vendors and shoppers.

I came home with a new wheel, she's a Kromski Symphony and I just love her! She's smooth as glass and fast as a NASCAR driver heading towards the checkered flag! I purchased her from Mary Ellen of I See Spots Farm.

This is some kid mohair that Ive spun on her so far. Its the softest kid mohair Ive ever felt and feels a lot like cashmere.

This is the brightest lime green Jacob yarn I have ever seen! Had to get, but am undecided as to what to knit out of it. Am thinking of maybe mittens or a hat.

A quick update on the Low Tide Crossover Vee sweater. I finished the two fronts and back and kitchnered them together. It looked a little small when I was knitting it, and it turned out it was a lot small when I pinned it together. So small, I thought I would have to tear it out. All that scouring of fleece, picking and carding, spinning, dying and knitting and it was too small! Thankfully I remembered what Suzanne of Suzanne's Knitting Shoppe in Lynchburg had taught me: wool can be blocked and stretched. I broke out the iron and a wet tea towel and went to work. So far, so good, the body fits now. Phew..... Now onto the sleeves and crochet trim. Im hoping that I dont run out of yarn......no kidding, I think I have just enough to do the sleeves....

Low Tide Crossover Vee

This spring I purchased a beautiful Jacob fleece from Little House Rugs. The fleece came from "Sweet Pea" and I loved her fleece so much, that Judy was nice enough to reserve the next shearing for me too. Below is the yarn that I spun from Sweet Pea's fleece. Before scouring, I separated the white from gray. When it was dry, I carded it three times on my drum carder and then spun and plied it on my Kromski Sonata. The yarn on the right, was originally white, I dyed it using the black hollyhocks that grow in our garden. They gave a lovely lavender color.

A close up of the hand spun dyed in black hollyhocks.

It's taken me a little over a month to separate, scour, pick, card, spin and dye the fleece. I was so excited to start knitting with it! This is the Low Tide Crossover Vee sweater that is in the newly released book Shear Spirit. The pattern designer lives in Maine, which I thought was very cool since that's where I grew up. Here is the completed left front (waiting on stitch holders to be attached to the back).

The beginning of the back:

A close up of the stitches. I love the yarn that came from Sweet Pea! It's so soft, you could wear it against your skin!