Heat, hot, humid, ... horrible...

I remember last summer there were a few knitting bloggers out there and a few knitters on various lists who talked about it being too hot to knit.

I was unsympathetic. I could not understand why they didn't just turn on their air conditioning and find comfort. We were using window units. Surely, we didn't make that much money; surely everyone could afford air conditioning. I didn't understand.

This year, while not among the poor, we made a conscious decisiion not to use air conditioning in the downstairs part of the house. We had, after all, just installed new windows that allowed us to have full cross ventilation. The house was built about 100 years ago. They had no air conditioning and survived just fine. Besides, with global warming, it was important for my family to become very, very conscious of the footprint we were leaving upon Mother Earth.

We did decide to air condition the two bedrooms in use upstairs because Ken works nights and it would be nigh impossible for him to sleep well in daytime hours while roasting. We put air conditioning in Matt's room just because I didn't want to listen to him whining about me having air while he didn't.

Fans were strategically placed downstairs with one pulling air in from the front door and pushing to through the music room (parlor) into the family room and one in the family room, pushing across the length of the room (just keeping things moving, and finally one in the kitchen pushing the hot air out.

I cut back drastically on the type of cooking that I normally do. Right now I only turn the oven on about twice a week. I use the crock pot more and we eat more cold food (sandwiches, chips with bean dip, salads) on nights when Ken is working.

The immediate pay back from this is an electric bill that hovers around $110. This is down $100 from the summer before when fuel prices were somewhat lower. I suspect we are actually saving $150 to $200 a month by not cooling the downstairs.

It has helped that this summer has been cooler and much drier than normal. The drought did horrible things to my gardens and I actually lost trees to dryness. But the low humidity levels made 100 degree days bearable. It was not unlike when I lived in Texas.

But with August came some rain and the humidity. I can hold wool and alpaca fibers in my hand when we have very low humidity even when the temps are high. But when it's so damp and hot, I swear the stuff just felts in my hands!

I understand why someone would choose not to knit in this weather. I am doing it anyway... here and there (especially in the evenings when it cools down some) and am making progress on some small projects. I got a good bit (about 2 inches) done on a sock yesterday while Ken drove us on a errand that involved being in the car about 2 hours.

But I have been unable to spin at all. It really is felting as I work. So I'm waiting for a break in the misery to get back to my wheel. I'm hoping for a mid-September cool down.

Does this make me look fat?

Of course it does! But I don't care. This shrug is the first garment I've made that is not a hat or pair of socks or scarf. I'm wearing it now as the temps here are in the 70s and that feels chilly to me.

I decided not to make the sleeves 6 inches longer but did put an extra inch on with size 12 double pointed needles. It did help to "finish" the sleeves.

This is my friend Taryn's homespun. I think this is the first yarn she made on her wheel. I'm sure she'll correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, it still needs it's final wash and block but I'm pleased.

My son, Matt, took the pictures.

John, the Army boy, is expected home sometime in the next three weeks. As expected, the Army did discharge him. He says he plans to be home about a week then pack off to Wisconsin where he and a friend will rent an apartment and work at the Harley Davidson Factory. We'll know more later.

And this week...

I was just very amuzed at the several commenters who seemed to believe a couple of posts back that I'm terribly prolific. Dear friends, you are very kind but deluded... my fault entirely.

All that stuff I listed was worked on slowly over several months. You see I have Startitis. Terrible disease. Wish I could develop a nice case of Finishit that would drive me to complete all unfinished projects before losing my mind and starting another. BUT alas, on any given day I have at least four or five projects going.

This week I have finished nothing:

1. The doll I pictured in the last posting. He now has a little sweater vest, a hat with a feather, flesh colored arms, and a bottom lip. He is, however, lacking clothing from the waist down and I still need to figure out how to give the poor fellow some eyelashes. I've noticed he also appears to have suffered from a terrible case of acne at some point so I need to give him a little facial surgery to smooth that out.

2. I am still working on the purple socks. I have turned the heel and am working my way up the ankle on one. The other is resting in the knitting bag waiting for me to remember it is there so it can keep up with it's sister.

3. I have messed around with a little of the white alpaca fiber. It wants to spin really thin but I've only messed around with it on a couple of different spindles and haven't tried it out on the wheel because...

4. The teal tussah/merino is still on the wheel. And just the first part of the first bobbin, I have not gotten appreciably closer to finishing it. And I noticed yesterday when I sat down at the wheel for about 5 minutes, there was actually some dust on the wheel. I have obviously been neglecting it.

5. BUT I've been working on the blue baby blanket. I've finished the second skein and have decided it's now time to try and ruin it by making a border from a third skein that I am knitting AROUND the outside of the entire blankie. The corners are YO, k, yo and I hope this works to keep it reasonably flat. IF not, there will be some serious frogging. I had to put it on a giant circular to make this work. I may end up switching it off to two long circulars.

6. And I have been working on my Shrug. I got the pattern at Knitting Addictions in North Carolina in June and have been searching for the right yarn since then. I knew I wanted it out of homespun. I knew it had to be bulky. BUT I did not have 330 yards of bulky in my collection. But my friend Taryn did and so I traded her a couple of skeins of sock yarn for her first wheel spun. Technically, I finished this last night. But I when I tried it on, it had 3/4 length sleeves which I don't like. So I picked up some smaller double-pointed needles and picked up around the end of one sleeve and am now lengthing the arms about 6 inches. The main needles for the project are size 17. It really was a quick knit and easy to do while watching the tube when I was feeling brain dead in the evenings.

7. I also cleared a spindle (so I could play with the alpaca) of some really lovely dark brown Corridale that I've had forever. I like it spun far better than I liked it in roving. I wound off onto one of the wheel bobbins and plan to spin up another spindleful over the next few weeks then ply them together. It should come out a nice worsted weight. No idea at this point how much yardage I will have in the end.

8. I met a real live weaver yesterday. There is a new art studio that opened up in Heathsville (Studio 202) and I went up to see what was up there as the sign said something about jewelry and fiber art. She has two floor looms and is working on warping the larger one. The smaller had the beginning of something lovely and linen. In her back room was an Inkle loom and she showed me straps and sashes and bookmarks she is making and mentioned that she might offer an inkle weaving class this winter. I told her I was most certainly interested if she did. I also offered to participate in or teach a beginner spinning class.

9. The cotton lace shawl was never touched this week.

10. The merino lace shawl was never touched this week.

11. I thought seriously about how to knit some pillow covers for my house out of my stash. Haven't started anything but cabled, knitted covers would look really cool (until covered with dog and cat hair). I also bought and day dreamed over a couple of the sweaters in the Fall Interweave Knit Magazine. I purchased and looked at the Interweave Felt Magazine. Unfortunately, I spent entirely too much time surfing the internet for felted dolls/sculptures and found surprisingly little related to what I'm doing with this elf.

And I keep looking at roving for sale... everywhere... and I am struggling not to break down and buy more. I MUST spin up at least some of what I have before I buy more. And The Fall Fiber Festival is coming around again in October. What is a girl to do?

Elfin magick

My friend Taryn has done a bad thing.

Of course, her husband would say I did a bad thing to her last summer when I got her hooked on spinning and knitting.

But now she has been doing felting. And look what I spent a good part of my weekend doing when I should have been cleaning, cooking, canning, spinning and knitting on a baby blanket, shawl and pair of socks. She should be ashamed.

Now Ihave to dress him.

Beyond Hot

I work in an office all day that requires that I wear either a jacket or sweater because the air conditioning is cranked up so low that there is frosted condensation on the windows.

It was over 100 degrees outside today with a heat index of 110. I left my office and came home to an un-airconditioned house. My son and his friend (who is from Pennsylvania and staying with us until the end of the month) were home all day. The bedrooms have air conditioning. The down stairs where the television, telephone and computer reside is not. Neither boy likes to read for pleasure (or any other reason). Both are active physically -- one is on track team, the other is a skateboarder.

They were suffering. They are still suffering.

We ate tuna salad sandwiches for dinner because I could not bear to turn on the stove.

I got out of my work clothes (a short sleeved shirt and long pants) and put on a sleeveless top that I have rolled up under my boobs to expose my middle and wrapped a sarong around my waist. I'm sweating so badly right now, my fingers are sticking to the keys.

Our campout went well last week and it was actually pretty cool for the first week of August. I'm just glad we didn't have the campout THIS week because we all would have DIED!

I got my new tattoo and will show it to you soon. Too hot just now to fool around with a camera.

It's 8:26 p.m. and hotter than it was when I got home I think. So it's time to go to my bedroom and knit.

It it possible to lose weight just by sweating? And if so, why do my hands and feet swell up so badly when I get hot?

I may not get far

There is a big storm brewing outside. It probably is really just one of those passing thunderstorms but I have my fingers crossed that it will bring us some rain.

I have not missed the humidity this summer and a short rain shower the other day with temperatures in the 80s reminded me of how HOT humidity made things feel. The 90 degree temps earlier in the day before the rain spits did not feel as hot.

Did not do much knitting or spinning this past week. By the time I got home from work I was very tired and went to bed early. This weekend (even though I did spin for about 2 hours yesterday morning and an hour this morning) have been spent on kids stuff and preparing for our campout next week.

Ken's daughter, Michelle was pinned yesterday at a nice graduation ceremony. She is now officially and LPN. She hopes to continue her education and complete the RN program. I can think of nothing better for her. Of the 36 people who started the program only 11 graduated. It's either a very hard program or folks who went into it came to realise that it takes a very special person to be a nurse. In any case, I'm very proud of Michelle. This is a huge accomplishment for her.

My son Wes had his birthday on the 11th and I have yet to mail his gift. Turns out it is just as well that I waited as his fiance's employer was raided by the police and shut down (a financial lending agency for whom she was a loan agent... but just a lackey so she is not in trouble) but they have failed to pay her last paycheck so they are really strapped right now.

Haven't heard a word from my soldier. Worried that he may be kicked out of the Army. Something happened more than he is telling me on that little 5-day escapade when he and another young man went AWOL in downtown Augusta, Georgia. Three weeks ago he said he was going to have to have a hearing with the base commander. Not a good thing,

My youngest is driving me crazy. Normal teenaged nonsense. Went into a house down the street that was under construction and got caught by the homeowners. We had serious discussions about what it means to break and enter even when there are no locks on the doors or in some cases, even doors in the frames. You just don't go nosing around in other people's houses! Fortunately, the home owner was very kind and understanding.

Ken's eldest son is waiting for word on a transfer from Idaho to Virginia and his youngest has recently moved from Idaho to Oregon!

Found out the strange noise in the wall behind the water heater was not an electrical issue at all but a water leak and there is a broken pipe inside the wall. So as of noon today, I have no water in the house at all as we had to turn off the pump. Plumber comes out tomorrow to fix it (I hope).

Good thing I'm on vacation this coming week.

Best get off before we lose power as well with this storm coming in.

And my husband wonders why I feel so tired?

Productive Weekend

Last weekend I got a lot done.

I finished this:
Two skeins of hand painted 100% merino fiber that I bought in December. Sockweight in my mind... may be DK in reality but very nice. Got 384 yards on one and 244 in the other. There is a third skein laying across the top of about 80 yards from the odd bits left over on one bobbin that I Navajo Plyed. Not real thrilled with the ply on the third small skein, but knitted up, it would probably be okay. To be honest, I finished the first skein before we went to the beach, but I finished the roving this weekend.

I started this:

4 ounces of teal colored merino/silk that I bought at The Fall Fiber Festival of Virginia in Montpelier in October. Going for lace weight. The arrow points to the thread. This is the thinnest I've ever gotten consistently on the wheel. I know it is a little overtwisted at this point. I'm hoping that when I spin up the other half (And this is just a little bit of the first half) and ply the two together I will get a nice yarn in lace weight. I started with about 4 oz of fiber. Might be enough once spun out, to make a lace scarf.

I knitted these:

Well, I really just added a couple of more tiny baskets to the collection. I really need to concentrate on this project and get it done before Hoot. If someone is interested in directions (can't really call it a pattern) let me know and I'll post it.

I nearly finished this:

A cigarette/lighter/cellphone bag to go with my friend's horn cozy. I just need to finish another foot or so of I-cord. Might get it done tonight.
And...

The sea blue bamboo baby blanket for the baby due in October. She/he best not come too early or this won't be ready. The color in this is just wonderful and I love the way the fabric feels knitted up. It's actually a bit small at this point. After I finish this skein (the 2nd of 4), I think I will start out around the edges and make a border in garter stitch that will be perpendicular to the garter stitch there now...or maybe a very simple lace.

And...

... while waiting for Matt to finish flirting with girl who is much too young for him, worked on the toe-up purple socks.

I also washed this:

1.5 pounds of white alpaca. It might weigh less now with all/most of the dust washed out. This is gorgeous stuff. It's even nicer than the grey. The alpaca lady who shared this (and about 10 other pounds of various alpaca and llama fiber) has disappeared! I tried to call her to get her address so I could mail her the first sample skein from the grey alpaca and the phone was disconnected. So my friend who hooked us up, walked down to her home only to discover it had been rented out to other folks and she and her family were gone with no forwarding address. How's that for weird? I'm going to put aside her sample skeins just in case she re-appears but I'm sort of perplexed by her disappearance.

She told me their alpaca farm was near Farmville (one of my neices goes to Longwood and she said she was located near there). She has about 20 alpaca and a llama. Her name is Heather. If anyone should know who she is and can let her know I'm looking for her... please help me out here. I owe her a bunch of spun yarn and want to live up to my end of the bargain.

But now I'm having a glass of iced tea.

Tiny Baskets

Ken and I were handfasted (married for regular folks) back in September of 2000. We had a whole flock of guests come and visit at the house and some even camped out. We had so much fun, we opened the invitation list and hosted 35 people camped out in our back yard (rented porto-potties and borrowed a solar shower) for a weekend the following August. Since then, we've expanded and moved our base of operations to a nearby campground and thus the Hoot-n-Any was born.

We have been Blessed by having many friends who enjoy camping in a sauna every year and from this event have evolved even more. And our core group, "Owl's Nest" was hatched. These 30 or so folks pitch in every year without complaint and take care of tons of hot, sweaty, tedious work to make sure the Hoot goes off with a minimum of hitches (gotta have at least one small hitch somewhere or it wouldn't be a campout).

Years ago I started making small gifts for everyone as a thank you. Last year I purchased gifts and it just didn't feel right. So I'm back to creating things.

One year I crocheted washclothes. Another year I potted up herbs from my gardens. Yet another year there was a gift of homemade incense. It varies.

This year I'm knitting things. Small things mind you. I've made about 6 of them so far. Fortunately, they knit up pretty quickly. And inside each one is a small gift from Ken.

They are cute. They are quick. They are very easy and best of all, I'm using up very small bits of stash for each one.

Here's a picture of what we have so far. Aren't they Fey?

Oh wow! I see now!

My mom used to have a spinning wheel years ago. It's long enough ago, that she doesn't even remember what kind she had. She says it was "modern" so it was probably at Louet or something similar.

I don't remember her having a wheel at all so she must have had it during that four or five year period when I lived far enough away I never saw her.

She says she enjoyed spinning but never got very good at it. But she hung in there until she developed a ganglia cyst in her shoulder that grew until it literally strangled the nerves to her right arm. She had surgery and it helped with the pain, but caused nerve damage so she has little or no feeling in her right hand.

She still knits but said that because she cannot FEEL the yarn going through her fingers she simply lost the ability to spin. I thought that if she really enjoyed spinning she would have just switched hands... but she LOVES knitting and I suspect the nerve issues were just a good excuse for her to give up this other distraction (spinning) and focus on what she really enjoyed the most.

Fair enough.

Now, I wear reading glasses. Have three or four pair of them laying about in various places. I still lose them. Then, find them again but only after I have already found another pair. I think I need about four or five more pair so I spend less time looking for glasses and spend more time writing, working and knitting.

I had the corrective vision surgery (PRK) and it made a world of difference for me with long and mid-distance vision. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is not to wear hot, heavy glasses or fight with contact lenses. The surgery did not help with the close-up vision.

My understanding is that as we age, our near vision worsens not because the eyeball changes shape as with Myopia, but because the muscles the focus the eye get weaker.

But I don't mind the reading glasses. They are light weight, I can prop them on the end of nose and look over them. I can take them off and still find my way out of a room.

But I do need them to cook (can't read packages or cookbooks without them). I need them to knit (especially if I'm reading a chart or directions or working with fine or splitty yarn). I don't need them for computer work most of the time unless the print is very small. I definitely need them to read unless it's one of those very large print books. Even with the glasses, I now also need a magifying glass to thread a sewing needle.

I have not normally worn them while spinning. I was relying pretty much on feel to draft fiber. I think that will change now as this morning I sat down to spin and happened that my son brought me something to read. He also brought me my glasses so I could read it. I left them on and started spinning.

I didn't notice at first but as I got into the "groove" I did start to notice how the individual hair fibers were being pulled into the twist from the triangle pinched off. After about a half a bobbin, I also noticed how much more consistent my spinning was this morning.

Eleanor the Wheel may find she has a new pair of reading glasses added to her little work basket.

A well dressed horn

The horn saga is nearing completion. Didn't take too long actually.

I dyed the wool about a month or so ago.

The day before we went to the beach I spun and plyed it.

I took the horn and yarn and crochet hooks to the beach but got distracted by the bamboo baby blanket and booties. I will show pictures soon of progress on that.

I'm very, very pleased with this horn project. Just want you to know that. I tend to complain too much I think.

I have about a foot or so of I-cord to complete and join. Then I'll wrap it up and make it pretty for presentation. This picture is very representative of the actual colors.

Seems I will have a bit of yarn left over. I will re-skein it and measure to see how much is left then I'll make something out of it.

I really like the technique of making a medium weight of single from something kind of fluffy (in this case a blend of alpaca and Navajo-Churro) which I dyed in the wool. Then I plyed it with a single of spindle spun merino and mohair blend which I also dyed (in this case with Koolaid in lavender colors).

The color in this isn't very accurate (lighting too bright I think) but if you enlarge it, it does show the single crochet yarn pattern as it spirals around the horn.

I crocheted the horn cozy itself but rather than crochet a really long cord, am doing a 3-stitch knitted I-cord which is going very fast. I should finish this tonight.

In any case, this yarn would make a really cool looking sweater or vest, I do not, however, have enough left for that. I am considering a neat little bag to go with the horn (a matching set) for cigarettes, lighter and a small metal tin that you could use for a portable ashtray as my friend is also a smoker. Party gear!