It’s probably about time I post here, since people have been emailing, wondering if I am still alive. I am, but my work/craft life has certainly been taking a backseat lately. (Would someone come over and make me take the time to get a haircut?)

I can’t think straight enough to knit much, but there’s been some spinning.

Wool/Alpaca blend from Spinners Hill
light worsted weight
1572 yards/ 1.5 lbs.

The dye would not exhaust on this. I had to reset it by soaking in water and citric acid, then bringing to 190F on top of the stove and holding there for 30 minutes. Grumble.

Purchased at Rhinebeck 2007. See the batts here. This was a rustic prep and it resulted in a rustic yarn. There were big blobs of Alpaca (the red, orange, and paler green) that didn’t blend well with the wool. This is a nice, fluffy, light yarn. Very soft!

Merino wool, from my hand-dyed top.

sport weight
250 yards and 2.6 oz.

This was spun from scraps left from wool I sold. I think I’m going to crochet a blanket with these small scrap skeins. They’re super fun to spin.

Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club May 2008 selection
"Rosebud" Corriedale wool
2 ply
3.7 oz. (there’s some single left on a bobbin)
250 yards
14 wpi/sport

Spinning up about a pound and a half of "Hive" BFL, the Hello Yarn Fiber Club April ‘08 fiber.

PS: The little stickers on the bobbins tell me how much, in weight, is on each, plus in which order they were spun. I spin in dribs and drabs and don’t trust that my spinning will be perfectly consistent from the beginning to the end of a project. This way, I can ply bobbins 1 and 4 together, and 2 and 3 together, etc. to help even things out. I keep track of the weight because I am a pretty darn consistent spinner (despite my lack of self-trust), so if each bobbin has 250 grams on it, chances are there will only be a few inches of one single left from two-plying. The system works well! Amy Boogie taught me.

Moving:

We haven’t moved yet, but think we’ve finally found a house. It’s been kind of a brutal search, since we have to drive 300 miles every time a house we like the looks of comes onto the market. It’s got a sweet little plumbed room with a big bright window for my dyeing, lots of space for drying, and a barn that we’ll eventually convert to a dye space for me. There’s a garden with blueberry and raspberry bushes and super nice neighbors. It’s in a beautiful quaint village filled with artists and local-eaters and other assorted lovely people. We’re so excited! I’ll keep everyone posted.

Shop Update:

There will be one this week. Buy it all, please! The house needs all new appliances.

PS:

Does Firefox 3.0 hate you as much as it hates me? Nothing works right.

I’ve been making bunches of salads so that we don’t have to keep cooking in this deadly heat. I wrote the recipes for these three delicious yumminesses up. They’re so lovely and tasty and light and you only have to heat up the kitchen once.

Summer Salad Mania (PDF) contains Summer Noodle Salad, Curry Rice Salad, and Mom’s Cucumber Salad.

PS: I’ve corrected a typo, an error, and clarified some things since this was first posted. I need a recipe tech editor, pronto!

PPS: The HBO documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired was so good! I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer’s documentary films are like.

My knitting friends are crocheting like crazy all of a sudden. Let’s blame Maryse, shall we? Not only does she crochet wonderful things, but she takes gorgeous photos of them and is happy to teach the poor knitters to crochet, as well. I’m thoroughly addicted, but maybe need to branch out and crochet a different pattern next time. Oh, well, he’s another Anne scarf, without mistakes this time!

Pattern: Anne, by MK Carroll. Ravel It.
Yarn: My handspun and hand-dyed worsted weight singles yarn. Corriedale, 3.55 oz., 212 yards. It’s the one on the right.
Hook: 5mm
Size: Approx. 3″ x 80″

I spun a singles yarn from the end of an un-split combed top for long color repeats in the finished scarf. I love it!

Check out Cheryl from yarnbee’s awesome example. She Navajo plied her yarn for a long color repeat.

Here’s the other one I made a little while ago, complete with “elbow” where I forgot to turn the scarf. Oops!

Later on today I’m going to add some nostes and handspun from Maisy Day Handspun to the shop and I’ll be back later today or maybe day after tomorrow with some fantastic summer salad recipes I’ve been making like crazy for the past couple of weeks. They’re saving our lives in this heat!