Mountain Sunset Scarf4

Mountain Sunset Scarf4, a photo by virginiasaccurso@yahoo.com on Flickr.

After many days of not getting around to knitting on this scarf. This morning I was able to sit down and knit on it for a little while. I have now 265 rows knitted on it and today I knitted 4 1/4 inches.

For a scarf that is knitted from single plied yarn, that was spun on a drop spindle, I think its coming a long nicely.

Mountain Sunset Scarf3

Mountain Sunset Scarf3, a photo by virginiasaccurso@yahoo.com on Flickr.

I just stopped knitting for the night and this is what I have to show. I only knit 4 inches total today though. I didn't measure the total length of the scarf.

I have knit a total of 228 rows now on this scarf, it seems a lot but really its not. I don't know just how many rows I will need to knit before I bind off. I just know I have quite a few more rows to go.

Mountain Sunset Scarf2

Mountain Sunset Scarf2, a photo by virginiasaccurso@yahoo.com on Flickr.

I took this picture after I started knitting on the scarf this morning. Then right after the picture I started knitting on it again.

Last night I when I stopped knitting this scarf measured 16 5/8 inches. Tonight when I stopped it measured 20 7/8 inches.

I've come a long ways in 6 days!

Mountain Sunset Scarf2

Well, I was going to take a picture of my scarf tonight, to show how much further along I am. I think its too late to take pictures right now. I did knit 3 1/2 inches on my scarf today though. So if my calculations are correct, I should have 16 1/2 inches. I just measured to be sure and I have 16 5/8 inches;................okay so I was 1/8 of an inch off. LOL Hopefully tomorrow I'll get more knitting done on this scarf. I will take a picture tomorrow of my progress on this scarf.

I also spun more Australian Bond Somemore Batts today, and started plying up another 2 ply lace weight skein. I almost had that skein all plied up, but had to stop to cook dinner. I hope tomorrow to finish plying up this skein, wind it off and then wash it.

Mountain Sunset Scarf1

Mountain Sunset Scarf1, a photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/38484177@N04/ on Flickr.

Last night after I posted, I went back to knitting and continued knitting through the GOP Debate.

Then first thing this morning I started knitting again. I started around 6:30 am and stopped knitting around 8:12 am. When I stopped knitting this morning I was at row 108 after 4 days of knitting.

Then tonight I went back to knitting on this scarf again. Today I've knit another 5 inches, so in 3 days I've knit 13 inches. I'm stopped for the night at row 123.

Mountain Sunset Scarf

Mountain Sunset Scarf, a photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/38484177@N04/ on Flickr.

Since starting this scarf on Tuesday night, I've come along way. The green marker represents what I knit yesterday and Tuesday night when I first started on this scarf. Today I've knit from the marke up to where the needle is and that represents 32 rows, from this morning to now. I only stopped knitting to take this picture and blog a little about it.

When I first started this scarf I wanted something that was a no brainer pattern. One that I'd memorize and wouldn't need a pattern to follow. I remembered knitting a baby blanket years ago for my ex-sister-in-law when she was pregnant with her second daughter, and how easy that pattern was to remember. I no longer had that pattern but I remembered it was similar to the Old Shale, or Feather and Fan stitch.

So without further ado, here's the beginning of my take on both of these patterns.

Mountain Sunset Scarf

Mountain Sunset Colonial Merino Lace Singles, a photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/38484177@N04/ on Flickr.

This yarn was spun up on my top whorl drop spindle back in March of year. I left it as singles for knitting lace scarves or shawls.

Today I decided to use this skein (487 yds 64 grams), to knit up a lace scarf.

So far I have 10 rows knitted on it, which I know is not much. However, I hope to get a few more rows done before bedtime tonight.

I know I will get a lot more knitted on it tomorrow, while my husband Tony is in his Pre-Op Class and Testing. Tony's having neck surgery on August 24th. I want something to work on that's portable and a easy pattern that I can remember without bringing a clipboard, pattern and pen to mark off rows.

Chilli Cook Off 2011

Yesterday was the 27th Annual Massachusetts Chilli Cook Off in Winchendon Ma. The day started off for me at 5:55 am when my alarm went off. Luckily I had packed up the car the night before with all my stuff. This year I was hoping it would be different, because a friend of mine from Ravelry was bringing her Canadian Production Wheel or CPW for short to help with demonstrating spinning.
My husband Tony and I arrived around 8:15 am and began setting up the tent. Once we had the tent up, and the car completely unloaded, Tony went and parked the car. While he was gone I started up packing and setting up. Since I don't have an elaborate display it only took me around 45 minutes to get everything set up. Then I took these 2 pictures, Tony just happened to be looking off at the petting zoo that was being set up off to the left.

Judi arrived later with her CPW (her husband Pierre and daughter Jacklyn came to enjoy the day too),and sat up to begin demonstrating how to spin from the fold. I had never seen a CPW before, but had heard a lot about them. It was really exciting to see it spinning. Judi brought 3 spindles with her, a Bosworth (nicknamed a Bosie), which is a top whorl (I'm fairly familiar with top whorls as that's what my drop spindle is), a Russian support spindle, these have a little bowl that spindle sit it and is spun in you lap while sitting on the couch or floor (which ever is comfortable), and last but not least she had minature Turkish drop spindle (Judi calls this spindle a Kuchulu. It is made by Jenkins Spindles in Oregon), which I thought was really cute. I had to try spinning on that one. What thought was ingenious about the Turkish spindle was, how you wind the spun yarn on, and how when your finished spinning you can take the spindle apart and you have a center pull ball to start knitting from. I didn't get to take any pictures of Judi spinning with these different spindles though.
Later Judi started demonstrating for me how a long draw was done. So I had to snap this picture to add to this blog. It seems from my observation that while the spinning wheel is turning, and one hand is pinching the already spun yarn (near the oriface), the other hand is pulling the fiber back (for drafting), a fairly decent distance, before releasing the hand that is pinching the fiber, for the fiber to be drawn into the oriface and wound onto the bobbin. Judi said that it takes lots of practice to get the yarn looking the way your wanting to look. To me it seems that my arm would get really tired. hehehe

When both Judi and I were siting spinning on our spinning wheels, lots of people stopped by to watch. While I made out customer receipts, Judi continued spinning and it seemed that she was able to get lot of spinning done and that she was having a great time. Judi also brought along a shawl that she's knitting on from some handspun Australian Bond (sheep named Allistar), wool that she washed and spun on her CPW. This shawl is already gorgeous and the yarn is a little thicker then what I normally spun, but the shawl will definitely keep her warm and toasty this winter. The colors in her shawl from Allistar remind me of a hot cup of chocolate with whipped cream on the top. Judi says, that this is what it reminds her of too.

The day started out overcast and Tony and I thought that we'd get rained out. However, the sun came out and turned the day into a pretty day with a nice breeze. Although, at times the breeze was a bit troublesome, by blowing my items around on the table and sometimes onto the ground, all in all it was a great day. The weather held out all day, until we got home and within 30 minutes of getting home it started sprinkling and then later turned into a steady rain.

Tony and I had a great time visiting with Judi, Pierre and Jacklyn. We hope that they had a great time as well, and we look forward to visiting with them again soon. Thank you Judi, Pierre and Jacklyn for coming to the 27th Annual Massachusetts Chilli Cook Off.





Ginny

Busy Week

Tuesday I started packing up all my stuff to get ready to go to the Chilli Cook Off on Saturday. Wednesday, I was making labels for items that didn't have them yet as well as taking pictures of those same items.

They yesterday I recieved my box of White Cormo Fleece (3 lbs). Compared to the Australian Bond Somemore Fleece from Gleason's Fine Woolies, this fleece was/is really dirty and full of VM. I knew it would be though, so I'm taking my time in really getting this fleece clean.

Last night I washed up 11 fleece locks to see how clean it would come. I am using the same technique I used on my Australian Bond Somemore Fleece. I had 2 1/2 buckets of Goop left over from Australian Bond Somemore Fleece. Last night I used up the 1/2 bucket on the 11 fleece locks of Cormo. I rinsed out the Goop twice before putting it in the Suave Clarifying Shampoo for 10 minutes. Then I rinsed out the fleece in clear luke warm water 4 times, squeezed out the excess water and laid them out on a towel, and blotted them with another towel. After that I laid them out on my racks to dry over night.

Today I carded up 9 Fleece locks from last nights washing and now have 3 batts of really nice, soft, white cormo fleece. The other 2 locks I've set aside to card tomorrow. I also washed up 18 fleece locks today and they are now drying.

I have done a little bit of spinning in between all the packing, making labels, and washing of cormo fleece. I managed to get another skein of 2 ply lace weight yarn plied up on Tuesday, then washed and hung it to dry. Yesterday I wound it to measure out the yardage, ounces and grams. I hope to take a picture of it tomorrow and add the yardage, ounces and grams then.