Back From Texas and Sheep are Really Gross!

Well, I haven't posted in sometime because I have been in Texas dealing with my Mom and Stepfather.  My Mom was diagnosed with kidney cancer and she had to have emergency surgery.  She asked that I be there during the surgery because my stepfather is not capable of making decisions due to his dementia.  She signed medical power of attorney over to me.  This was pretty scary stuff.  Anyway, all is well with my mom.  They were able to remove the cancer and found out that it is a really slow growing type so she will not need chemo or radiation only future CT scans.
My stepfather is another story.  Dementia is a terrible thing.  My mother's husband was a great guy but that man is not there anymore.One good thing that came out of all of this is that I got a lot of knitting done and I got to fly first class.  Here is my latest project next to the coffee and brandy plus a nice shot of Mt Hood from my window.

 Coming back home was a bit more tedious.  I had to take three flights to get back home and I almost got into a fight with some jerks over my knitting.  They were smart and backed off.  I have a short fuse and I'm not too proud of it.  However, it worked wonders in this instance.

I had ordered a merino fleece just before I left and I was very excited to play with it when I got home.  Well, it wasn't as clean as I was hoping for.  It has a good amount of vegetable matter in it and it has tar tips, meaning that the tips of the locks have become gumped up with dirty lanolin. 

Sheep are just gross.  If it wasn't for the fact that the produce such wonderful material, we wouldn't bother with them.  Here are a few pictures of the processing of this fleece. 

Here are the cleaned locks (picture on the left) and the locks loaded up on the wool combs.  You can see the bits of vegetable matter and the tar tips that didn't come out in the wash.  Luckily, man was smart enough to figure out a way to process this stuff to get it clean and ready for spinning.

After combing the fiber for several minutes I ended up with this, combs filled with beautiful bits of 

clean fiber.  The combing removes the left over dirt and vegetable matter.















Next, I pulled off the fibers to be spun into yarn.  What you see on the comb is the dirty bits with

with vegetable matter left in it.  I take this and comb it again and pull more usable fiber out of it.  I'm still left with a lot of this stuff and I'm trying to find a good use for it.

Here is a look at the crap that comes out of "clean" wool after it has been carded.  It's a bit hard to

but this towel was covered in dirt, bits of grass and hay and who knows what else.  Anyway, the clean stuff should make FAB yarn.

The Next Chapter in Spinning

Well, the first week of summer has been somewhat relaxing.  I started an art class.  It's the first in the basic design series.  I figured since I teach at an art school, it was about time I learned what the kids were there for.  Anyway, the first two classes were fun.

On the fiber front, I finally spun up the yarn that I processed from one of my fleeces.  Here it is in all of its glory.  I'm a bit disappointed in the finished product.  I feel that the yarn is too inconsistent in its width.  It's not bad but I was hoping for a nice worsted weight all the way through.  It just means more practice on my part.

I also spent today dyeing roving for the first time.  I used Koolaid and I had a blast.  However, my hands smell a bit like grape drink.  I intend to card it into this grey fleece that I have and see how it spins up.


I'm off to New Orleans, city of my birth, for and NEA conference.  I lucked out and got first class going and coming back.  Since it's about a five hour flight, I'll be able to drink and knit to my heart's content.

Current Projects Now That School is Out.

OMG!  Thank the Universe that school is out.  This has been one of the hardest years for me in teaching.  Now begins ten weeks of rest and Fiber Projects.

I started a spinning class this month and that has opened many new doors.  The only problem now choosing between knitting or spinning.

My spinning teacher recommended that I go to Black Sheep Gathering, my first ever fiber festival. Of course, I did and ended up spending way too much money.  My goal is to go from fleece, to yarn, to finished product.  The problem I experienced when I was down there was which fleece and how much.  My instructor told me what to look for in a good fleece and what types were good for beginners.  Anyway, I couldn't make up my mind and several fleeces that I was interested in were nabbed.  I finally cornered a volunteer who knew her stuff and recommended a really nice fleece.  It's ten pounds of Romney Coopworth cross.  It's a fab charcoal grey.  Here it is in all of is stinky greasy glory.

Well, I then thought that I should get two different types of wool just in case.  So, I bought six pounds of Corriedale.  Here's a shot of it.

Well, then there came the issue of how the hell am I going to process all of this wool.  Enter the drum carder.  So, now I'm set.  However, I still have to clean all of this wool.

I was very worried about this process.  There is a ton of information out there about the "correct" way to clean fleece.  I decided on separating the locks and putting them into mesh bags and do all of the cleaning in the washing machine.  I was surprised at how easy this was.  Also, everyone was correct about sheep being really dirty.  This is a really clean fleece and the wash water was GROSS!

Anyway, here are the lovely clean locks drying.  Hopefully, they will be ready for the drum carder tomorrow.

Too, Too Long

It has been forever since I have posted anything.  Well, I ton has happened.  The biggest is that Bella, one of our show girls, had nine puppies.

This is when they were just about a week old.  The puppies were a lot of fun but were also a ton of work.  All the puppies found wonderful homes including the black puppy with the blue collar in the picture.  He ended up here with us and is affectionately called Dutch.





Here he is today playing with the Dead Squirrel Toy



[1]: Dutch is such a sweet boy.  He's the first lovey Standard Poodle that we have ever had.  He is such a wonderful addition to the family.

We also have a new member of the family.

This is my new spinning wheel.  I'm really interested in the process of going from fleece to a finished sweater.  I attempted spinning the other night and it was extremely frightening.  However, I'm not going to give up.  I am signed up for a class starting at the beginning of June.

My knitting is progressing well.  Hopefully, I will have time to post some pictures tomorrow.

Current Knitting

Well, it has been awhile since I have given an update.  Work has been SUPER busy.  It's the end of the term and I have had students lined up outside my door until four in the afternoon.  If anyone tells you that teachers don't earn their pay, please tell the to get F*^*^*ed for me.
It's a good thing that I have a friend who runs knitting club.  I haven't had time to sit and teach kids knitting since before Thanksgiving.  She jokingly calls me the loser faculty advisor.

I'm super active in my teacher's union and I have was at meetings Fri-Mon.  It was total torture.  I'm not a meeting person and most of the news was grim.  On the bright side, Oregon passed two ballot initiatives to increase taxes on corporations and the wealthy.  About damn time!  My students can continue to be educated.

On the knitting front, I have finished another Baby Surprise Jacket.  My former teaching partner has just had a baby girl.  I found this really cute yarn.  Of course, cute doesn't mean that it's a good yarn to work with.  This yarn was a total bitch to work with.  I ripped that jacket out at least 6 times.  Anyway, all it needs now are buttons.  I'll get those this weekend.

Next on my list is the Carlito Cardigan.  I've started the pattern which begins with knitting a cable pattern.  I'm about 30+ rows into it.  Can't tell if there will be issues or not.

That's about it.  Time to knit....

Finished at Last!

Well, it's finished and it fits!  I got it off the needles this evening and got it on the woolly board for blocking.  This sweater was a great learning experience.  I have decided that I'm a big fan of doing sweaters in this gansey style.  What I really like is picking up the sleeve stitches around the arm hole and working it to the cuff.  It really allows you to get the length of the sleeve to what is comfortable for you.

Putting it on the woolly board was also interesting.  Maybe I should have read the directions....

The Sweater Continues After the Family Fun

Ahh.... ten days of family holiday fun.  They all left Monday, giving me a week to myself.  Of course, the Universe and it's great sense of humour, has given me a cold.  However, even though I feel like crap, I can still knit.

So, my gansey is coming together nicely; literally coming together.  I finished the front with shaping for the neck.  It wasn't hard at all; however, I got a bit obsessed that my front wasn't looking like the one in the picture and that my decreases were wrong.  I should have just plugged away at it because it all worked out fine and it looks like the picture.

The next part to tackle was attaching the front and back with a horizontal shoulder strap.  This was definitely a learning experience.  The directions from the book were not clear to me; so, I looked in "Knitting in the Old Way."  These directions made more sense.  However, I didn't like the way the join between the body and the strap was turning out.  It wasn't a nice, horizontal stocking stitch.  I decided to play around with it and see if I could get what I wanted.  I eventually did.  I don't know if there is an easier way but I settled on: RS, slip first stitch from right needle to left, K two stitches together.  Knit strap in pattern up to last stitch in strap, SSK.  Slip first stitch from left needle to right, insert left needle in front first two stitches on right needle (like a SSK) and knit together (this is actually the first stitch on the next row).  Turn work to work WS.  Move yarn to front, slip first stitch from left needle to right and knit strap in pattern up to last stitch in strap pattern.  Purl two together, turn work and repeat. 

In all, I think it turned out pretty good.  You can still see my earlier work as I was too lazy to rip it out and start over.

Today I'll start the neck band........