Today I will let you in on my plans for all that yarn in the middle of The Big Table…….Minis, yes, lots and lots of mini skeins! This pile of yarn will soon turn into many many Mini Skeins.
Time to make the Minis!
Making handspun yarn can result in a lot of small bits of yarn. There is the testing of dye combinations, then so many options to spin up the fiber. This means there is lots of handspun yarn around my house that never makes it into the Shop. Today I start winding away! I’ve been having a lot of fun with color work lately in my knitting. I whipped up the hat you see in the picture using lots of little bits of left overs. My plan is to have several baskets of minis in my booth at Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival along with a few samples and patterns to inspire others to play with color….while at the same time getting all these pretty bits of yarns out into the world:)
I did get the fingerless mitts finished yesterday, but I stayed up too late watching TV, and fell asleep before I could write a blog post. I got hooked on a show…..there are 44 episodes of it on Netflix….I watched 17 of them yesterday…Yup, I’m hooked. So the rule today was, Post first THEN watch TV!!!!
I’ll leave you today with a picture of the drying mitts
Bunny Patch and Bam Huey Mitts
They never look quite as good all wet, but perhaps in a day or two I will get some prettier pictures outside. Speaking of outside….look how nice and peaceful my view was yesterday!
I left off last night with a picture of the Big Table full of yarn. For those of you who know me or have seen pictures of my dining room table you may have recognized that this is NOT my table. I’m off Llama and puppy dog sitting. Hubby is at home taking care of the Bakery and taking care of shipping orders for New Hue Handspuns while I am relaxing in the peace and quiet. See my Blog header picture up above, that is what I get to see every morning from the big table! I’m here for nine days and I brought along all those projects I’ve been meaning to take care of but never seem to find the time. I decide that in nine days I should be able to get a good amount of work done. Lets break down the Big Table into project groups and a few days of blogging.
First up is Knitting projects that need finishing, and newly finished handspun skeins that need pictures taken and listed in the shop.
Plenty of knitting and listing to keep me busy busy busy!
In this picture you can see 4 shawls that need some knitting! They are all Anne Hanson, Knitspot Designs. I would like to get at least 2 of these done while I am here. Hill Flowers, the greenish one in the in the top right corner, only needs 1/2 of one repeat to finish then it is time to kitchner it. The blue one in the bottom right corner is Sugarfrost. It has lots of bobbles and isn’t even half way done. I would really like to get this one done, but I’m betting a few repeats is all that will be done during the nine days. The purple in the left bottom corner is 100% cashmere and it is for me! Unfortunately being for me puts it at the bottom of the list, the other shawls must be done first so they are ready for display by the time the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival rolls around the 3rd week of April. Top left corner I REALLY want to get finished. The Flaming Swan has been on the needles for over 2 years! For the last year I have been hiding the mango container of 7 balls of yarn that are connected to the shawl behind my display at shows. It sure would be nice to just be able to hang the finished shawl next show. The skeins of yarn to the left are what I spun up during my trunk show at Yarntastic! last week. If the sun comes out during the nine days I hope to get some outdoor pictures of these skeins and get them listed in the shop. If you check out the center of the picture closely you can see the start of a blue fingerless mitt. I’ve been working on the mitts first. They are a custom order that needs to be done by the time I return home, because they ship out the next day! I now have one mitt done, and 2/3rds of the second one. Hopefully tomorrow night I will have pictures of the finished mitts.
It’s time for me to hit the hay, the sun comes up in about 4 hours and the critters will want to be fed, so it is off to bed for me. Tomorrow will be all about the project that takes up the middle section of the Big Table. For now I will leave you with a little more eye candy of my adventures last week…
part of my trunk show at Yarntastic!
If you look closely you can see the yarn for the unfinished Flaming Swan hiding behind the garden fence….I am SOOOOOO looking forward to getting this one done!!!!
No this isn’t about family gatherings and finally being old enough to sit at the Big Table…..It’s about a Big Table full of yarn and stuff…….Take a look for yourself.
I’m guessing it will be a high fiber dinner tonight 🙂
I’ve been a bit slow with the blog posts lately, but I promised myself to blog daily for the next 9 days! I didn’t want to miss today, the first day. I did start this post before midnight, but will miss posting it in time by about 20 min. No details tonight but check in later, by Sunday night I will let you in on what the Big Table is all about! Until next time, Happy Knitting and Spinning, Cheryl
This is my first seaming project. I’ve not done a sweater before because I’m not confident in my seaming ability. I googled and watched videos about seaming. Before long I figured out how to do a mattress stitch, did a few practice runs, and dove into seaming up the sweater! The mega pound sweater then hit the bath.
Mr X’s Soaking Sweater
At last the sweater was laid out to dry.
Mr X’s Sweater laid out to dry at last!
I’ve enjoyed knitting Anne Hanson’s Aztec Mazes. I fell in love with the pattern and the ease of knitting it. I did drop the cables because I thought it suited my brother-in-law better with out them. Yes that’s right, my BIL Dan is Mr X. He loves the sweater….the problem…. I made the arms too big. I have been researching my best option to skinny up the arms. I’ve decided to re-seam the arms and cut off the extra materials. I have been working up my courage to start cutting, and this afternoon it is my goal to take the plunge! Wish me luck!!!! One more close up before the scissors attack.
LOVE this Pattern!!!!
OK a REALLY Really close up…..
how’s that for texture!?!
I’ve had some other knitting on the needles. I finished off my hat of old left overs. This is some of my Merino/Angora handspun used with handspun Alpaca. A VERY nice WARM hat!
A Very Warm Merino, Angora, Alpaca Handspun hat.
I’m getting geared up to watch the Olympics on TV and knit along with the Ravelry Games. I’m playing on Team Knitspot. I have 2 WIP’s to knit on and am contemplating a fiber to finished project. starting from dying the fiber, spinning the yarn, then knitting an Anne Hanson Pattern. That starts on Friday, guess I best be making some decisions soon!
We have good news on the needle front. Our Newhouse Custom Carbon Fiber Needles will be offered in two new sizes. We have a small delivery of the new US size 2 – 3.0mm, and US size 6 – 4.0mm raw rods on the way. We have been taking pre orders and have a few spots left for this first batch. The new sizes should be listed in the shop early to mid March, until then if you would like to order a custom pair, please contact me HERE through the shop.
There has been spinning too. I had fun spinning up 1,000 yards of Bam Huey in the Joseph’s Coat colorway. This turned out to be a very heavy fingering weight of about 14/13 wpi. Bobbins full of all the rich colors of Joseph’s Coat always makes me smile.
Bobbins of Bam Huey Joseph’s Coat
I forgot to take pictures before sending this skein off to it’s new home, but I did remember to take one pre bath, all tied up in it’s washing ties.
1,000 Plus yards of Bam Huey Waiting for the bath!
There was also baking going on…..what better to do on a freezing cold afternoon than warm the house by baking an apple pie?!!?!
mmmmm pie:)
I’m going to go grab a cup of coffee and a nice warm piece of pie right now…see ya!
I’m having a hard time believing that it is 2 weeks into the New Year. I remember when a year seemed to take for ever, now I blink and a year has passed! I’m going to have to kick it into high gear if I want to keep up!!!! I haven’t shown my face here for the past few weeks, but I have been busy. Let’s play catch up!
We left off with me doing a 10 pound hand painted fiber restocking over at New Hue Handspuns. My web host gave me a bit of a scare by going off line for several hours, but fortunately it revived itself in time for me to get the listings all done and up just after midnight. There is lots of fiber to choose from and I have been restocking the sold out colors as often as I can. Gneiss Rock has been a big hit and I am trying to find some time to spin one up for myself! I want to do a two ply fractal spin with very short repeats. I’m thinking of knitting it up in a very pebble like pattern.
Bam Huey Spinning Fiber in Gneiss Rock
More of the Gneiss Rock is being dyed this weekend and should be available in the store about Monday:)
After the fiber update and getting the shipping done I headed out to do some more farm sitting for Steve. I started to come down with a cold the morning I left. Sneezing and achy all I could think of was a nice hot bowl of chicken noodle soup. Fortunate for me Steve did an excellent job of food shopping and I had every thing I needed to make up a nice big HOT pot of Chicken Noodle Soup:)
Home made Chicken Noodle Soup at Steve’s
I love spicy hot food especially when my sinuses are clogged. I found a big bottle of hot sauce in the fridge and added a good quarter cup of it to the soup, that and a fresh grind of pepper just before serving…..just what I needed to blow those sinuses right open and chase the cold away…well that and lots of orange juice.
I felt better after the soup, but didn’t have the energy to do much knitting while I was there. I had Mr X’s sweater with me. I only have 1 inch left to knit on the arms and then it is time to start seaming…… or screaming as the case may be for me. I think I keep stalling on knitting that last inch because I’m not too confident about my ability to seam. Here is the Sweater, waiting……..waiting……..waiting…. Better just bite the bullet and get-er-done!
Mr X’s Sweater parts waiting for seaming
I couldn’t completely give up knitting while I was vegging in front of the TV, watching movie after movie. When the Princess Lap Puppy allowed me, I knit on this….
Handspun Hat ala Left overs
I always have left over bits of handspun yarn rolling around. I rounded up a bag of them and decided that there was a hat some where in there. I’m am knitting with 2 yarns at the same time, something I haven’t done in a project before. One yarn is Alpaca that I spun up 17 years ago that is left over from a pair of socks. The other yarn is a Merino and Angora blend that has been hanging around for over 10 years. This is going to be one WARM hat! I’m making it up as I ago, but I’m liking the results so maybe I had better write it down now, before I forget what I did. Don’t you hate that…. you think “oh I’ll remember that”……yeah right….better go get a pen and paper…
There was plenty of football watching during my stay . The Seahawks manage to hold on to the win….had to start wondering about them at the end of the 4th quarter. There were some knuckle biting tense moments during the game, but I had set up plenty of munchies for my football party for one.
Football snack trayCheese and Crunchy for football day
I’m now back home and ready to play with fiber. My wonderful needle making husband has just returned from picking up 10 pounds of Bam Huey fiber for me…..time to hit the dye tables. I see Frog Ponds, Ancient Roses, Gneiss Rocks, and Carmels in my near future….
I’ve disappeared for 2 weeks and the most important thing I have to say is Keurig Withdrawals????? Yup, that is all I can think about…. Two weeks of long hours and craziness and all I want to talk about is how much l love the Keurig! I promise to put those thoughts a way for now and get you caught up on the adventures over the past 2 weeks.
My adventures began with a trunk show at Yarntastic!
Chatting away with Dave at Yarntastic!
Setting up a show the morning after Thanksgiving was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I tried to start loading the truck after dinner on Turkey day….lol…. that lasted about 10 minutes and I was back in my recliner knitting away, or maybe it was snoozing away:)
I was full of energy the next morning and managed to load the truck in a half hour. Set up went fast, and before I knew it we were greeting the first customers of the day.
My Baa Baa Huey Line had Center Stage. The Baa Baa Huey Handspun Gradient Cowl samples adorned the Lady in White and JR mannequins . Yes, I did have pet names for the store props, seemed proper to call them something while dressing them:)
Baa Baa Huey Handspun modeled by Lady in White and JR
The Baa Baa Huey Handspun Gradient Shawl was worn by Miss Birdcage, I even let her borrow my favorite shawl pin. I enjoyed showing customers the fiber from start to finish. The non-yarny types were truly amazed that a pile of grey fiber could be made into something so pretty and useful. It was nice to introduce people to the wonderful world of wool:)
Miss Birdcage modeling Baa Baa Huey Handspun Gradient Shawl
My Bam Huey line of handspun yarn, and hand dyed fiber took over one of the front windows. Anne Hanson’s Sonnenblume that I knit up in sunflower colors using Bam Huey Lace stopped many people in their tracks. The bright colors lured more than one window shopper inside to take a closer look.
Bam Huey Handspun yarns and fibers on display at Yarntastic!
It was a long, but fun week at Yarntastic! Owners Lesley and Dave were great to hang out with. Someday I will talk the shy Lesley into having her picture taken, but for now she will be a woman of mystery! Dave kept me in coffee, but this isn’t where the Keurig comes in, that’s later. During the trunk show some extra work came up at our bakery, so I was needed to help out more than expected that week. Many days I was up for work at the bakery at 4 am. I would finish up in time to be at Yarntastic at 11am and stayed there until 7pm, or 9pm. LONG day. Let’s just say that coffee was needed!
The week finished up at Yantastic! on Thursday night, and I was packed up and back home by 10pm. Now I had to get packed and ready to go farm sit in the morning.
My friend Kathy has Llamas and I get to farm sit for her/vacation at her house, when she needs to leave town. Kathy has had several what I would call “gentleman’s farms” over the years . These are in the 5 acre range, just big enough for a few hobby animals and a nice garden. The new owner of one of her former homes was in need for a house sitter and asked Kathy if she knew anyone who might be interested in the job. Guess who got the job! Steve, the new owner was pretty happy to hear the property comes complete with experienced sitter.
It was fun to get to stay there again. It was funny when I would reach for the spice drawer and it now has silverware in it, or when I kept trying to put garbage where there wasn’t a garbage can anymore. There aren’t any Llamas on the farm now, but there is a lovely home for 14 wild kitties. The Llama barn has been turned into a cattery for these kitties who previously had to fend for themselves. They now have vet care, a warm home, plenty of food, and a great kitty window to lounge in. There are several kitties in the house also to take care of along with 2 elderly dogs and one little Princess that rules the roost. Here is where the sweet little girl spent much of her time during the week.
The Little Princess was never far away.
We had some crazy cold weather during this week, and broke some record cold temperatures. Unfortunately that also resulted in many broken pipes in the area. When the city of Portland is having problems with water mains breaking due to the cold frozen ground, I guess I can’t be too surprised I lost a few battles with freezing pipes in the barn. The kitty barn is kept warm, but the pipes were in another part of the barn. The pvc pipes didn’t have a fighting chance against a week of below freezing weather. Fortunately all the house pipes are fine. I’ve been saying we are due for a cold winter around here and boy are we getting it!
Now comes in the Keurig! Part of the deal to get me to house/farm sit is that you provide me with food and coffee…lots of coffee. I hate shopping, and I love to eat! Steve did excellent in the food providing department. This was just the “dry goods” table. The fridge was full as well:)
Belly up to the food bar!
I like a well balanced plate….ok I admit it I like to play with my food, can’t help it I’m part kitty cat <^..^>
Balanced Food is Fun Food!
I have heard of Kuerig machines, but never got too interested in them , then Steve introduced me to his Kuerig machine,and said use it as much as you want. It was so simple even I didn’t have a problem using it. Oh how I miss it’s blue glow from across the room! Each morning the soft blue light guided me to the kitchen, in just moments I would be rewarded with a purrrrfect cup of rich coffee. Every time I needed you dear Kuerig machine, you were there, ready to make me happy. Oh how I miss you……… Many times a day I stopped by for a quick pick me up, and at the end of the day you lulled me to sleep with hot coco…..oh how I miss you Kuerig…..
I contemplated saving up and purchasing a Kuerig, but I know I could not control myself and those little packets of yummy coffee would take up our entire food budget. So for now I will fondly remember the Kuerig and look forward to the next farm sitting adventure:)
So that is where I have been and what I have been doing for the past two weeks. I just about have things caught up and back to normal here at home and the bakery. This coming week is all about spinning up some custom orders and dyeing fiber. Check back in a few days to see what I am working on and an update on the progress of Mr X’s Sweater!
The Spinzilla group on Ravelry has been buzzing with numbers. Teams are checking in with the group totals. The final tally will be announced on Friday, just a few more hours before we know which team spun the most yards. It is so nice to read about handspun yarns being talked about in the number of MILES spun!
I am on Team Storey Publishing, and have loved every minute of getting to know some of the spinners on the team. Not only was I lucky enough to make some new friends, but I also lucked out on one of the daily drawing for prizes on our team. Henry , Team Captain Bonnie’s sweet little birdy ,who with out a doubt rules the house, pecked my name from the ticket bowl! I found my lovely prize in this morning’s mail. I had to immediately fill this beautiful wood yarn bowl with my latest project on the needles, Anne Hanson’s Sugarfrost from FIFC 2012.
Ash wood yarn bowl by Carl Tubbs
This yarn bowl is made by Carl Tubbs. The wood is Ash and has such a warm smooth feel to it. I love the swirls of grain and the glow that emanates from them. Hand made tools always make my work so much more enjoyable, and I am looking forward to spending hours knitting with this bowl holding my yarn:)
I am still trying to find where Carl and Christine Tubbs sell their bowls, and I will add a link just as soon as I get that info! UPDATE…I now have the Info!!! Carl also has a full time job so not a lot of bowl listed right now but go check out the beauties he has listed HERE The only complaint I have is that Carl has not signed his work of art. If I am ever lucky enough to meet them in real life, I will be begging Carl to sign my bowl!
I have to toot my own horn a little, sorry, but I just can’t help myself. This post was made by the Spinzilla moderators in the Yardage total discussion thread for Spinzilla…..
We’ll be posting updates as our count begins here:
We have over 300 spinners accounted for and more coming in every minute. Deadline for Team Captain’s is 8pm EST tonight (Wednesday Oct 16th). We have just begun the happy task of recording all the entries. So far the highest yardage from an individual team member we have recorded is Cheryl Newhouse of TeamStorey with 16,852 monster yards!
EEEEEEK, That’s ME! It’s quite possible that someone will be checking in with more, but for now I am tickled PINK!! well, more like Purple, because after all I am a Purple Girl at heart:)
It’s a weird mix of emotions reading posts of people commenting on the amount I have spun. My ego has gotten quite a boost, but I know I didn’t do any where near my personal best of 24,000 yards spun and plied in a week’s time. Some of you may remember seeing these pictures…
550, 400 yard skeins of handspun yarn for Knitspot’s FIFC 2011 club
This was a 8.5 months of spinning for Anne Hanson’s Knitspot’s 2011 Fall in Full Color Club…..but that is a story for another day.
For now I will reply to all the lovely compliments “thank you…..but just wait until next year!!!!!!”
Now I do believe it is time for a little prize! As a reward for all the new and old readers of the blog along with celebrating a successful Spinzilla! Leave a comment on this posting before Midnight October 31st Pacific Mountain Time, and enter for your chance to win one of the skeins of yarn I spun for Spinzilla. This is a 435 yard skein of two ply Bam Huey in a lace weight of about 18-19 wpi, in the High Tides colorway. The yarn is hanging to dry right now, so I don’t have a good picture, but I will post one soon. If you look close you can see the teal skein in the basket before it was washed. Winner will be chosen by using a random number generator.
The multi shades of Teal skein in the upper right corner is the prize skein pre washing.
Now all that remains is to wait for the Spinzilla results………..
Until next time, Happy Spinning and Knitting!
Cheryl <^..^>
UPDATE! My 16,852 yards held up as most yards spun by and individual! The skein of Bam Huey being given away is dry and here is an updated picture!
Spinzilla spinning is officially over! The teams have just a few more moments to tally up their yardage and the team captains are collecting and organizing the entries.
The week long spinning event was not without it’s pitfalls. Team members reported in with flu, headaches, arm pain, leg pain and just plain old life getting in the way of spinning. Me, I had my own problems……..
Burns from boiling dye
I’ve been dyeing fiber for 16+ years……never once have I spilled boiling dye on myself…..until this time. OUCH! I had to keep my hands covered with ice packs for over a day. I slept with hands wrapped in blue ice packs. About 36 hours later I was able to get back to spinning. My goal was 20,000 yards of handspun singles, but with more than a day of spinning lost there was no way I could make it. That didn’t discourage me I reset my goal for 17,000 yards…………Then Mom and Dad came for a visit Friday afternoon until Monday morning! I only see my parents for a few days 2-3 times year. It was difficult to spin and entertain the troops, but I think we had a nice visit chatting while I spun. 9 pm Sunday night arrived right on schedule, and at last it was fiber down and spinners stopped! Monday was all about plying, plying, and PLYING! I did ply a few thousand yards during the week, but there were thousands left to ply on Monday. Plying up the fine lace weight Cashmere and Tussah Silk seemed to never end, but finally the pound + of fiber was done, almost 3,000 yards of 2 ply lace. I have some secret plans for this:) Here is my final picture I sent off as my entry.
16,852 yards of singles!
The dark brown and greens are for another secret project. The chocolate Cashmere on the rolls will be shipped off to Tanglewood Fiber Creations. The BFL gradients and other odds and ends will be up for sale in the Shop before long. The Navajo 3 ply will be use on the secret brown/green project. The pale blue/green/white Merino and Cashmere will be turned into some toasty warm leg warmers and slippers for me!
Spinzilla week was long, and full of road blocks, but it was fun! It was great to get some spinning done for myself and get some odds and ends finished up that have been waiting too long. I’ve been a production spinner for many years so producing thousands of yard of yarn in a week wasn’t unusual for me, but it was fun to read about spinners who were experiencing production spinning for the first time. I can’t help but wonder how many of them will now be bitten by the production spinning bug!
If you are a Raveler you may want to go check out the Spinzilla Group Threads and read the adventures of hundreds of spinners for yourself. If you are not a member of Ravelry do yourself a favor and go sign up..it’s free, fun and a wealth of information. I have made some wonderful friends there!
Now that Spinzilla is coming to a close, It is time to do some celebrating, the winning team will be announced on Friday. Other things to celebrate along with completing Spinzilla are my 27th wedding anniversary, and my 18th year of spinning!!! Next posting will announce my plans of some competitions and some prizes to spread the love of spinning and my anniversaries!
until next time, Happy Spinning!
Cheryl <^..^>
p.s. get those needles warmed up, because there will be some knitting prizes too.
It is now 7 pm Pacific Time as I start to write this post, and that means just 2 hours to SpinZilla !!! SpinZilla is a friendly week long team spinning competition to see which team can spin the most yardage from 12:01 am Monday October 7th to Midnight Sunday October 13th.
I am spinning for Team Storey Publishing, and have set myself a goal of spinning 20,000 yards. I’m still working on getting enough fiber to spin. So far I have 2 pounds of black BFL wool that needs to be spun into a 2 ply DK weight, 1- 1/2 pounds of Merino Cashmere that I will be spinning into a 2 ply fingering weight, 1/2 pound of Cashmere/Tussah Silk that should make some very nice lace weight yarn.
Spinning Fiber for SpinZilla
This week you can expect to see daily posts of my progress, but right now it is time for me to hang up the fiber I dyed today, eat the lovely dinner Will made for me, then it will be time to get settled in to spin.
Wish me luck to meet my goal of 20,000 yards spun!
Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, OFFF was quite eventful this year. Set up on Friday went smoothly. I share a booth with the Duncan Drum Carders. After a few hours the booth was ready.
New Hue Handspuns and Duncan Carders
Lucky for me I live only 20 miles from the Canby Fairgrounds where OFFF is held, but the trip home that night wasn’t so lucky for me. North bound I-205 was stop and go traffic the whole way.
I was looking forward to getting home to celebrate my 27th wedding anniversary with my husband. Little did I know that we would be spending most of the evening in the emergency room……. A distracted driver plowed into the back of my truck! I ended up strapped to a back board and had a lovely ride to ER in the ambulance. My dear Hubby met us at the hospital. After a few hours and what seemed like hundreds of x-rays they determined nothing was broken. I was finally turned loose with prescriptions for pain meds and muscle relaxants.
My truck wasn’t hurt, and lucky for me I just have to deal with sore muscles for a few weeks. I was pretty loopy on the pain meds, and unable to drive, so Will drove me down and picked me up from OFFF both days. I wasn’t able to spin at all on Saturday. Sitting upright in my chair and selling fiber was challenging enough!
The weather during OFFF was pretty nasty with the wind and rain. Several outside vendor’s tents were blown over and some decided it was best to head home. Lucky for me, we have an inside booth.
Despite the rain, wind, and the trip to the ER, it was a good show. I got to see some old friends and make some new ones…..even if I was a bit out of it, and can’t remember names:)
I’m now back at home resting up and working on my “Just Add Knitter Kits” The last label has been made.
New Hue & Newhouse Just Add Knitter Kit tag
hopefully by the next posting the first Neck Warmer Kit will be available!
I’m getting ready for Spinzilla ! I am on Team Storey Publishing. Now to line up enough fiber to spin during the week long event. The goal I’ve set for myself is to spin 20,000 yards in 7 days! now I just have to find enough fiber to spin……
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