Frog Party and an EZ kick

I am continuing to indulge the desire for simple, quick-ish projects. Enter the perfect remedy, Elizabeth Zimmerman's Snail Hat (Rav link):



First one is pink shetland/silk handspun. This yarn took several incarnations before I was able to figure out what it really wanted to be. I like the pattern a LOT (easy to memorize), but I was hoping it would turn out a little more pointy. So I did another one:



This one is commercial yarn, leftovers from another project. They're both adorable, and I already have plans for a third from some leftover Tour de Fleece yarn.



On top of all this, two of my local knitting circles got together last Sunday for a Frog Party.



We all brought in store-bought or hand knit sweaters and spent a few hours chatting, picking out seams, eating tasty pastries,



and winding the yarn into skeins. I'm very excited to get double the normal knitting enjoyment from this yarn!



I knit this grey cotton into a cropped bolero a few years ago, but never wore it because it was a size too big. I'm very excited to re-knit it into a better size.



Next up, dark grey Silky Wool that was originally knit into a sweater that was simply a poor design choice on my part. The garment never looked good on me, but I have a fair amount of yarn (it was long-sleeved and the bottom hem went past my hips) and several buttons. Perhaps this one?

Parade of FO's

Here's what happens when you have two and a half weeks off with no blogging:

Fingerless Gloves
Pattern: Toast
Yarn: Handspun Wool/Seawool/Milk Protein from Creatively Dyed


Another Cowl
Pattern: Loose Interpretation of Dolores Park Cowl
Yarn: "Night Sky" Hello Yarn Fiber Club handspun superwash BFL


Yet Another Cowl
Pattern: Same as above
Yarn: "Manka's Thicket" Verb Fiber Club handspun black BFL plied with purple silk hankies


Finish Line #1: Tour de Fleece


I didn't finish my Tour goals, but this is how far I got. I had a plying party when I got back from Vancouver, so the all the balls of singles are now finished skeins waiting for a soak. I did some more spinning over the last two weeks to bring myself up to my goal level. These are both Hello Yarn, the first one is "Five Plum Pie" Falklands and the second one is "Illuminated" Wensleydale.





And finally, Finish Line #2: the Halcyon


It's so close to being done I can almost taste it. The neckline needs a tubular bindoff, ends need weaving in, and then the whole thing gets a good dunk. I can hardly wait for fall so I can wear it!

Eek!

I have two weeks off before the new semester, and I've been taking advantage of the free time by staying at home and relaxing. Two days ago I was enjoying the quietness of my kitchen in the middle of the morning, when all of a sudden I saw a mouse scurry along the front of our kitchen cabinets! I was almost too slow to see him disappear between the wall and the stove. I figured he must have been hanging out behind the fridge, and that perhaps there was a hole in one of the walls leading to the inside of the building or the rest of the world.

My first thought was, "Well, this explains the clicking noises I thought our fridge was making." I didn't see him again that day, and was starting to wonder if he'd realized that his location had been compromised and high-tailed it out of our apartment. Ha. Wishful thinking. By the way, if you don't like seeing pictures of mice, now is the time to go.

He was back yesterday, this time making the trip back from stove to fridge. Time for me to take action. I decided to move the stove and the fridge away from the walls a bit, so I could get a better look. I didn't see a mouse hole, so I figured the chances of catching him were pretty good. Plus, if he's shown himself twice in two days he might be stuck in the apartment with no way out. I put up two "traps," neither of which I expected to work. Here's the first one:



Yup, cheese slices in a paper bag. The Fiance pointed out that mice can chew through paper. Not sure why I thought that one would work. Here's the second one, it's pretty unassuming:



I'd moved the stove about a foot away from the back wall to look for a mouse hole, and in the meantime I decided to push the stove so it would lie flush with the cabinets and block the mouse's normal route. I also put a cardboard tube (leftover from wrapping paper) along the path I'd seen him take. Both times I'd seen the mouse so far had been between 9:30 and 11 AM. I figured maybe, if I was home at the right time, I could trap him in the tube. The idea was that he'd go into the tube rather than run around the outside and expose himself more, and by the time he reached the end and figured out his normal entrance was blocked, I'd have time to to close off the entrance and trap him.

That's exactly what happened, but I wasn't expecting it to work! I know, I know. I'm surprised to discover that I'm smarter than a mouse. I came home from running an errand this morning (around 9:30) and saw him go into the tube. I quickly grabbed a plate to close off the other end, then picked up the tube and folded the other end over. I managed to fold both ends over and keep them closed with clothespins:



Once he was secured in the tube, I realized I needed an easier way to carry him around. My plan is to walk into the park this afternoon and release him there, and I wanted something better than a cardboard tube and clothespins. So I prepared a little holding cell for him to stay in using a tupperware container with holes punched in the lid. This may be far more sympathy than the mouse deserves, but I gave him a toilet paper tube to hide in, some fleece bits, and a piece of bread to munch on.



The scary part was opening the lid, sticking the end of the tube in there, and then shaking it gently until the mouse popped out. He didn't come out right away, and I was a little worried that he'd died of a little mousie heart attack in the tube and my efforts to get him out of my apartment humanely would be wasted. But then he did fall out, and I got a nervous adrenaline rush. He was freaking out too, running around and around, crawling over the fleece and trying to find a way out. I got the lid on, and put a rubber band around the whole thing just in case he turned out to be strong enough to push the lid up.



He's a very small mouse, compared to the pet mice I'm used to seeing.



I'm glad he is not free to run around my kitchen anymore, and I'm even more glad that my trap worked as well as it did. I can't have guys like him poking around, acting like they own the place. Besides, he could get into my fleece stash and then there'd be a really huge problem.

ETA: While I was composing this post, another mouse appeared from under the fridge! I set the cardboard tube trap again, and this time baited it using an almond with nutella spread on it. Worked like a charm, and now I have two passengers to take with me to the park this afternoon. On the other hand, I will have to have a serious talk with our building manager when I get back.

Canada Trip, Long Version

As mentioned in the previous post, I took my first trip to Canada last weekend for a wedding. It was a trip I'll never forget. First of all, I get a little irrationally nervous in security checkpoint situations. We drove across the border, and this had the major benefit of allowing me to knit while going through customs. The border guard noticed and asked me what I was knitting, and I showed her my new scarf-in-progress:



This is one skein of Berocco Ultra Alpaca in a lovely dark brown with reddish tints, and my skein of handspun Hello Yarn falklands wool in the Buckland colorway. I used the same pattern for my Apollo scarf, knitting one strip from the Olive's Afghan pattern in Knitalong. The scarf got finished yesterday evening, and I'm not sure if I love it too much for it to go in the gift box...

Back the the trip: I was traveling with the significant other and his sister to see their cousin get married. It was a very sweet, small gathering full of love, fun, dancing, playing camera, and a gorgeous view.



We had four days after the wedding to tool around Vancouver, and I was extremely lucky that my traveling companions both understand the yarn obsession and were willing to make side-trips to see yarn and fibery places. We spent an afternoon at the Granville Island area in Vancouver, where I found two fiber shops. I say fiber shops because neither really matches with what I'd call a local yarn store... these were more like artist's studios with a shop attached. One was closed (we were there on a Sunday), and appeared to sell hand-dyed yarn, spinning fiber, and weaving supplies. The other, called Silk Weaving Studio, sold exclusively silk products: everything from spinning fiber to jaw-droppingly gorgeous woven scarves and jackets. I bought two skeins of silk singles, about 170 meters each. The yarn feels very similar to Alchemy Silk Purse. Delicious.



The newlyweds also organized a two-day excursion to Victoria on Vancouver Island on Monday and Tuesday. I took my first ride on a ferry that can carry cars. Loading the cars is a surprisingly simple setup: you get assigned a lane when you go through the gates, then 15 minutes before departure everyone drives on, one lane at a time. The ferries were huge boats, holding about 150 cars each, and we were able to park the car and roam around the other decks during the 90-minute trip.



The scarf and I enjoyed the views and the fresh air. We saw some beautiful flowers and fabulous topiary in the Butchart Gardens:



and then had dinner and a stroll in Victoria. I find it endlessly pleasing to find little bits of brittania peppered throughout Canada:



I visited another great yarn shop near downtown Victoria, Beehive Wool Shop. I got some awesomely plump and squishy Canadian yarn from Tanis Fiber Arts (blog and Etsy shop).



We drove around the island that afternoon, and stopped at a shop selling First Nations art. I found a hidden treasure, a spinner and knitter:



The craftsperson was kind enough to allow me to take pictures of her work. You can see a hand-carved drop spindle in the corner of the shelf, behind a pair of handcards. It's huge; the whorl is about 8 inches across. Here's her workspace, where she was probably knitting away before we all walked in to the shop:



This photo shows about one quarter of the sweaters on display. It was probably about 100ºF outside, and just looking at them made me start panting, but I was infinitely impressed with her output. Despite the heat, I came very close to buying some of her handspun yarn. We got back on the ferry, and were treated to more cool breezes and an amazing sunset.



It was a really great trip, one I would heartily recommend to anyone looking for a four- or five-day vacation. It has all the fun parts of traveling to another country without the hassle of a 12-hour flight or a foreign language. On the other hand, I was exhausted when the trip began. It's going to be nice to stay in one place for a week or so. After I've unpacked and had a few days to wind down from the whirlwind of the past 6 weeks, I am definitely looking forward to finding patterns for my new yarn, washing some fleece, and sewing up a sweater.

Postcard

Dear Canada,

We had a fabulous trip this week. Thanks for being so welcoming, and allowing two wonderful people to join their lives together. My home country is still coming around to the idea, and I am so very grateful that you are wise enough to recognize their marriage. Thank you also for providing the world with such amazing natural beauty, I found it truly breathtaking. Your contributions to the fiber arts world are many and impressive: it was easier to find yarn and spinning fiber here than anywhere else I've traveled to. Also, I really appreciate that you have such an amazing spokespersonfor your country and fiber arts in general. Reading her blog made me feel like I had insider information, and I think I appeared really smart about things Canadian in front of my other American friends (if a little obsessed with her blog in particular). You showed us a good time, and I'm sure I'll be visiting again. I'm proud that my country is next door to you, and I'll try my best to be a good neighbor, in whatever limited capacity I can manage on my own.

Sincerely,

Starryknit

I'm starting to miss knittting...

But I don't think I can stop spinning yet. I'm pretty sure I won't hit my goal of spinning half the stash, but I'll get close to spinning all the fiber I set aside a month ago. The problem is that I didn't take into account that at the end of the tour, I would simultaneously be inundated with grading (it's the last week of summer session) and getting ready to attend a wedding in another country that takes place on the second-to-last day of the tour. I did get quite a bit accomplished last weekend, though. I finally got sewing thread to ply the Sanguine Gryphon wool/silk yarn, and I've got all six bumps of Pigeonroof Studios fiber spun into singles. I'm inspired by this yarn, so the singles are rather fat and low twist.

I'd planned on having a marathon plying session last night for the challenge day, but it was all I could do to not fall asleep in my dinner plate after class. I managed to stay awake long enough to get the singles off the bobbins and into center-pull balls, but not long enough to take photos. The spindle project will be coming with me on the weekend, but even if I finish the plying tomorrow (our flight leaves in the afternoon, and I still have final exams to grade! See how my brain loves to torture me?) and the spindling in transit, I'll still be falling about 8 ounces short of my goal. Once we get back, I'm off for two weeks until the fall semester begins so I'll have time to baste up my sweater and gasp wash some more fleece!

Tour in Tahoe

We spent the weekend up at a friend's cabin near South Lake Tahoe, and although I didn't have a very large amount of time to spin, I did get a few things off the bobbins before we left and squeezed in some more spindle time while we were up there.

These got wound off and washed last night:



Here we have two singles yarns: the Ripe Olives Merino/Mohair from Hello Yarn, and 2 ounces of Dew BFL from Tactile Fiber Arts. They're both going to remain singles, so we've got 6 ounces of fiber to cross off the list! Since I've finished one spindle project, this got started up in the woods:



It's the 3.4 ounce batt from Aunt Janet's fiber mill, and I'm doing an airy, low-twist lumpy bumpy singles that will probably get navajo-plied for some bulk. No project in mind yet, it will depend on how rough the finished and washed yarn is. It was lots of fun to spin this out on the deck in the warm sunshine, and compare the greeny-blue of the fiber to the green of the pines and the blue of the sky. We had a great time hanging out with friends surrounded by nature. Some highlights:









Today I have lots of chores and unpacking to take care of, and it's officially a rest day for the Tour. However, I'm hoping to get at least one bobbin of Pigeonroof singles done so I can stay on target. I may need to convert one of my spinning projects from wheel to spindle so that I have enough to keep me spinning every day of the tour even when I'm not at home.