Well, after $1000, and umpteen hours spent at garages (usually knitting), 19 yo DS's car (1987 Chrysler LeBaron) finally has an inspection sticker! Now we just have to work on helping him get his license. All this due to him not finishing the work he needed to do in driver's ed three years ago! Of course, it wasn't possible to make that point then. I wish I knew as much as most teenagers seem to think they do.
Now, I have to tell you about my favorite class at The Gathering. It was with Sylvia Graham, called Designing Blends. She showed us a bunch of skeins she had made up, all strung together on a stitch holder; there were usually five skeins, all of varying percentages of one conbination (say, Corriedale and Alpaca). The first would be all wool; 2nd, 75% wool, 25% blending fiber; 3rd, 50-50; etc. She did this for a bunch of fibers, and it was really interesting seeing what 25% silk or angora would do to a wool.
She also gave us sample packs (5 or 6 of them) which were made up of 5 baggies each, of her blends. The object here is to take each individual bag in a set (like the one labeled 75% Finn/25% silk), card those fibers together and spin, then move on to the next one in the set and make up a bunch of sample skeins like hers. Then, in the future, if we want to make up a specific yarn, we can go back to the sample skeins and get an idea of which fibers will give us what we want. I still haven't done that "homework," but it will be fun when I get to it (after holiday gifts, at this point.)
I have finally finished a few things, however!
Here's the rug, in place in front of my door. So far, it's a hit with the entire family.
Now, I have to tell you about my favorite class at The Gathering. It was with Sylvia Graham, called Designing Blends. She showed us a bunch of skeins she had made up, all strung together on a stitch holder; there were usually five skeins, all of varying percentages of one conbination (say, Corriedale and Alpaca). The first would be all wool; 2nd, 75% wool, 25% blending fiber; 3rd, 50-50; etc. She did this for a bunch of fibers, and it was really interesting seeing what 25% silk or angora would do to a wool.
She also gave us sample packs (5 or 6 of them) which were made up of 5 baggies each, of her blends. The object here is to take each individual bag in a set (like the one labeled 75% Finn/25% silk), card those fibers together and spin, then move on to the next one in the set and make up a bunch of sample skeins like hers. Then, in the future, if we want to make up a specific yarn, we can go back to the sample skeins and get an idea of which fibers will give us what we want. I still haven't done that "homework," but it will be fun when I get to it (after holiday gifts, at this point.)
I have finally finished a few things, however!
Here's the rug, in place in front of my door. So far, it's a hit with the entire family.
Here's Noah's gansey! It hasn't been washed or blocked yet, but it's done!
And I made a wrist distaff! This one is special - I took all the little bitty fiber samples that came in my goody bag at the Gathering, carded them together, and used them for this:
I have gotten halfway down the foot of the 2nd Lorna's Laces sock, and I just did the 3-needle bind-off on the shoulders of the Textures sweater. I'm going to be starting the sleeves to that today. I also plan to wash a few sweaters, while I can put them outside to dry. Today is supposed to be in the 50's or so; tomorrow we're supposed to be having a Nor'easter, complete with snow and ice...
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