Alpaca

Yesterday afternoon I returned home to see this.

This loveliness is 2 ounces of a Silver Alpaca/silk blend. I also received a bobette of and a sample of fleece soap.

(Now would anyone mind explaining what a bobette is? ) The person on the other end of this wonderful purchase was Miss Babs. I bought this fiber off of ebay  but if you go to her website you can buy some there too. If you’re interested, ya’know?

Anyway, I wanted to try spinning it as soon as possible. I wound up what I had been spinning (some of that leftover wool I’ve shown you before… It’s not all that great. But it works for practice) and let it soak.  (more on this yarn later)

I immediately tried out the new alpaca, like supper can wait immediately (It was hamburgers but no tomatoes… yet) lol. Spinning this alpaca after only ever spinning scratchy wool was like spinning clouds. It was so easy too.

I dug up a mint plant the other day and transplanted it into a pot. I got the mint from along-side the road so the ground was very rocky. That being said, I was unable to dig up nearly as much of the roots as I had hoped to. It was looking rather wilty so I put a shish-ka-bob skewer down next it (away from the main tap-root; think dandelion root) and loosely twist-tied it to the skewer. It survived our first thunder-storm of the season last night and is looking considerably better. Here it is amongst all of the Mother’s Day flowers.

Ok back to the wool yarn I was spinning. I hung it up last night to let it dry. I ended up with 19 yards (20 grams, about one ounce). The thickness ranges from fingering weight to worsted in some spots. I guess I need more practice. I am planning to dye it with Dandelion leaves and roots that I collected and dried out. Right now the dye is still cooking So I’ll update you on that next time.

Birch Bark: Day 4

I let the birch bark yarn sit all weekend and this is what I got.How anticlimactic. It went from white to off white. I’m not sure if I’ll over dye it (I probably will) and with what. Maybe onion skins if they ever grow. Or fennel, my sprouts are shooting up.

Remember that thing? What was it? Oh yeah. it’s called knitting. It was the whole reason I started this blog. This weekend I actually managed to do some of that. Over the weekend I worked on Podster 2.0.

I am about 1/2 way through the palm. I’m a few rounds away from getting the hood stitches marked. Not much longer now and I’ll be on the fingers!

Today my friend Lissa gave me a souvenir from her trip to boston about two weeks ago. (This is a record for her; she can never remember to give souvenirs to anyone after she gets back from her trips.) She bought me some wonderful 100% wool yarn.

I’m thinking another hat or some gloves. There isn’t a lot to work with. 100 yards.

Birch Bark: Day 1

With my day off I decided to dye my cotton yarn with the birch bark dye I have been letting sit over the past month.

Please ignore the kitty who wouldn’t listen to me and stay out of the frame.

I was surfing around and found a post about another blogger’s experience dying with birch bark. She says: “It is said that if you boil this dyebath, you will hate your life.   Boiling is bad news for bark.” (Grackle & Sun) If you remember back to when I started the dye bath I did boil it. I’m hoping letting it sit for a few days will help. I also shredded my remaining birch bark and ended up with 35 grams. Not a lot, but it’s a start.

The Chamomile seeds I planted last Saturday have started sprouting. Like crazy. Two days ago I noticed four. Now there are about eight to ten.

They’ll definitely need a bigger pot soon.

These Dandelions have appeared, literally, over night. Yesterday afternoon; not a single flower anywhere. This morning; BAM! They’re everywhere. Not that I’m complaining. I spent a good portion of them morning picking Violets and Dandelions.

I’m ready for round two with the Violets. I’ve been picking them all week and letting them dry. I’m going to try it with different fibers and mordants. I want to get that green.

Note: The post I referenced in the first link is almost a year old. If you want to read her current posts click here.

May Flowers

I don’t know about you, but we have had more than our fair share of showers this April. So I thought it would be a good idea to show some of the rewards we’ve received for putting up with all of the sogginess there was this past month.

I’ve started to make some headway into Podsters 2.0, it’s a perfect travel W.I.P. I am not quite off of the cuff yet because I’ve been super busy.

The K1 P1 ribbing is simple, one would think, but apparently it’s still complicated enough to be royally screwed up while I’m watching The Hobbit. I did manage to fix it but, not all that neatly. So if you see small lumps or bumps in the cuff, that’s why.

Once again I seem to be having issues with the picture uploader thingy (I’m sure it has a name but I don’t know it). It randomly decided to not post the picture of the Blanket. I inserted it back into the last post but I figured I’d post it here to. So here’s my progress on the Blanket (as of Sunday).

I’ve started taking pictures of Kumple, but I have yet to find any I really like. Here’s one.

What do you think? Any suggestions for backgrounds? I am truely at a loss they’re so floppy when they’re not actually being worn.

Catch Up

This past weekend was a busy one.  Jess and Louis brought Rosie up and Gram and Pop came over and we all had a picnic. Jess and Louis have two little dogs; Sadie, a silkie, and Millie, a cocker spaniel, which meant we say neither hide nor hair of Persephone for two days.

   

Rosie has learned to talk quite a bit and was jabbering all the time. Her favorite word is ‘baba’ which means -to her- Grandpa, bathroom and her baby’s bottle. Baba is chinese for ‘father’ and her aunts on her mother’s side use it to refer to their father as Baba, so she now calls both of her grandfathers Baba. She liked playing with her lacing boards.

While we talked she did her string thing while I did mine.

I finally managed  to carve out some time for the Blanket. I got about four squares done. I tried out the yarn I got from China a few weeks ago.

I also bought a skein of Patons Kroy Socks.

It’s 75% wool and 25% nylon. I can’t wait to try it out. I mordanted the cotton/bamboo yarn I’m planning to de with birch bark. I have off Friday so I’m hoping to dye it then.

Yesterday I picked some violets

and tried to make dye out of it. I figured it would make purple. I actually got a dark green.

(Pantyhose is a great strainer for plant material. It’s clean -I promise!)

I loved the color though so I decided to try it anyway. It didn’t absorb any of it, the yarn, a wool I had spun a while ago, wasn’t even tinged green. I’m not sure if I didn’t have enough (Probably) or that it wasn’t mordanted or that violets just don’t make dye. I’ll probably try it again with more and a mordant eventually.

I went to Kmart to pick up some more seeds and ended up with Onion seeds and two easter egg kits that were 90% off (the total for the egg kits was 38 cents). I finally planted the Lavender, Chamomile and Fennel in pots I threw myself.

I’m working on another project but I’m not sure whether I’m going to submit somewhere so for now it’s a secret.

Due to the wonderfully reliable technology I was unable to participate in the end of Blogging week. So I’ll try to catch you up on what I missed.

Here’s one tool I couldn’t live without; my swift. I actually built it out of Tinker Toys. I wound up the yarn for Podster 2.0 last night and it worked great.

 

I one year from now I would like to have ten patterns published. I know that’s quite a lofty goal but, hey I like challenging myself.

Yarn Day

4KCBWDAY5 Something A Bit Different It’s the annual challenge to blog in a way different to how you normally blog. You may choose to create a podcast, or vlog, create a wordless post or write in verse. You’ve already stretched your wings with an infographic, now it’s time to freestyle. You can post on any topic you like, but be sure to post in a style different from your usual blog presentation.

-Eskimimi Makes

Feeling Blue

Today’s assignment is to write about our favorite color for knitted projects. I would have to say my overall favorite color is purple; but when I knit I like to use blues and purple’s equally. People have been telling me that blue brings out my eyes my whole life. I suppose that’s why I’m drawn to blue; it just seems to be a ‘good’ color even if the project isn’t for me. When I use purple it is almost always in a project for me. I just like it. No real reason behind it as far as I can tell. Although purple has blue in it, so maybe that’s why?

Notice all the blues and purples. Also, the two yarns I ordered from China are blue.

Not for me, but blue!

 

Also not for me but it’s blueish

 

These have blue AND purple.

 

Rosie’s elephant is blue.

 

The One Skein Wonder Sweater is also blue.

 

Finally, Tychus is blue, too.

 

 

Wow, some of these projects are from right when I started this blog. But blue really is a color I’ve been working with a lot. As I was adding the pictures I was surprised by the number of project’s I’ve made with blue in them. It was more than I had originally thought. Even the yarn I ordered for Podsters 2.0 is blue. Actually it’s similar to the shade of blue Rosie’s elephant. I guess I’m just a blue gal. What colors do you like to use?