Meet Me at the Fair . . . .

"Meet me in St. Louis, Louis,
Meet me at the fair,
Don't tell me the lights are shining any place but there;
We will dance the Hoochee Koochee,
I will be your tootsie wootsie,
If you will meet in St. Louis, Louis,
Meet me at the fair."

Ok, so it wasn't St. Louis (although to be that close to home would be nice!), it was Salem, Oregon; but it was the Fair!

ToolMan and I drove down bright and early on Sunday morning so I could spin in the Fiber Arts Tent in Artisan's Village.



The weather wasn't too warm, but it was certainly nice to have the shade of the tent!



That's Audrey Sinner, "The Spinning Sinner", who organized the schedule for spinners, knitters, weavers, and all sorts of fiber artists for the week.



Trish of Tanglewood Fiber Creations was the financial sponsor for the booth. Unfortunately, her elderly mother became very ill just before the Fair opened, so she wasn't able to send her wonderful yarns to fill the booth. So, I took some of my own hand spun and knitted items to display and help fill up an somewhat empty booth.

Thankfully, I had all those fiber samples to take along. It was such fun to show people all the different raw fibers. One little girl, about 6 or 7, was especially interested. I even brought her behind the wheel with me; I treadled and let her draft the fiber. She was a natural! She wanted to touch all the different fibers and know where they came from. I had some 2-yard samples of hand spun to hand out, so she left with a length of purple merino yarn for her hair, and a little bag full of bits of fiber (merino, cotton, alpaca, mohair, flax, and a silk cocoon). She even twisted some of the fibers in her fingers and let them ply back on themselves. Her grandmother, a knitter, was especially encouraging to her. I fully expect that someday in the not too distant future that little one will be treading a wheel of her own.

While I was demonstrating, ToolMan took a little walk around Artisan's Village. There was a potter, a couple doing glass blowing, a moccasin maker, a wood carver, a jewelry maker, and a chain saw sculptor. This is Eric Grip, the blacksmith; ToolMan and I met when we arrived. This picture is deceiving; I stood next to him and the top of my head was only about his elbow height. This guy is huge! He introduced himself as "Eric, The Blacksmith", so I introduced myself as, "Bobbie, The Spinner." When he reached out to shake my hand, I felt I was being introduced to Shrek!



By the time the afternoon warmed up, the sawdust and exhaust fumes from the chainsaw sculptor, who unfortunately was located directly in front of us, was almost too much to tolerate. Fortunately, during his breaks we could listen to the live bands. This was the Celtic group, who were later followed by a bluegrass group and then a Dixieland jazz band.



And now that you've had that song bouncing around in your head for awhile, here's Judy Garland with the original version:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know . . . .

I missed posting last Sunday as I usually do, but there was an enormous ball of fire in the sky and it caused so much heat that I nearly burst into spontaneous combustion. Really!
It was just too darned hot and humid to even think about spending more than 5 seconds next to any heat-producing object like a stove or a computer. ToolMan and I, when we did eat, ate only cold meals for 3 days. It was so hot that ToolMan didn't go work in his garage and I didn't knit or spin.

I know that some of you live in parts of the world where it gets very hot and very humid and therefore you have no sympathy for a bunch of wimpy people in the Pacific Northwest who complain when the temperature is 102 and the humidity is 30%. If you're one of those people who live in a climate that regularly reaches those temperatures, then I salute you because I just don't know how you do it.

I did get that pair of socks done while commuting, but I don't have pictures. They're just plain self-striping yarn, worked toe-up, with 2x2 ribbing so they're not really all that exciting to look at, anyway. I'm still slogging away on The Blob, which is looking more blob-like every day so I haven't bothered to take pictures of that. And I've cranked out 2 plain ole' garter stitch scarves for the Christmas present box, but what's to look at when it's just miles and miles of garter stitch?

I did get one (OK, most of one) bobbin of singles spun on the Country Craftsman last week before somebody left the furnace blaster open. The poor old CC was starting to feel neglected; I hadn't spun on it since the Lendrum came to live with us. But I'm taking the CC to Artisan's Village at the Oregon State Fair for the next two weekends, so ToolMan got her all dusted, cleaned, oiled and greased for me last week. I've gathered up fiber samples to talk about, and I've started gathering up all the tools and gadgets to take along; I've got my combs and diz, roving and sliver, ballwinder and reel, drop spindles, extra string for drive band, oil and rags, and WPI gauge and scissors. I made a list last week and have been adding to it, but I'll probably leave something terribly important at home anyway. I love to spin in public, so I'm really looking forward to spinning at the fair, but I think ToolMan is even more excited than I am. He's even charged up the battery and I've emptied the memory chip for the camera. Now, if we can just remember to take it with us.

Let the Games Begin . . .

Originally, I planned on knitting this hat during the Olympics this year, but ToolMan put the kibosh on that idea. And frankly, after the last couple of stranded work hats, I wasn't all that enthusiastic about it anyway.

I needed something to work on during the Opening Ceremonies on Friday night; something I could pick up and put down, something that wouldn't take a great deal of concentration so I could watch the show; something like traveling socks. I've been working on a pair while MAX riding; I've turned the heels on both of them and have picked up the gusset on one. Perfect! Plain stockinette with only the gusset decreases to distract me.

ToolMan and I got the dog fed and walked, dinner made and eaten, drinks filled, snacks assembled, and settled in for the show. And, man, what a show it was! Both of us were glued to our seats. And the socks never left the basket beside my chair. As much as ToolMan and I love the Olympics, we've never felt compelled to buy videos or DVDs of the opening ceremonies or games. Until now. In fact, I've already been surfing the 'net to see if I can find out when they'll be available. I can hardly wait to see the opening ceremonies again.

We stayed up (mostly awake) until the end of the show on Friday night, so we slept late on Saturday. We actually stayed in bed until almost 8:00, and probably wouldn't have gotten up then if we didn't have to feed Andy Rooney and give him his insulin shot. I can't remember the last time we were up that late, or slept in that late! Then we went out to breakfast at our new favorite breakfast place, did some shopping, and hurried home in time for the Games.

I needed something to work on Saturday afternoon while we watched the first day of games. Thank goodness I had those singles to ply for Michelle! I set up my lazy kate with both bobbins of singles and a couple spools of Sulky opalescent that I picked up at Joann's, and started to work.



The color changes in StitchJones' roving are beautiful! This colorway is her "Midnight Meadow"; the colors are simply beautiful. The little bit of shimmer from the opalescent thread really plays up the blue and green. I finished up the plying on Saturday.



And let it rest until Sunday, when I wound it off onto the reel and tied the leases so I could set the twist and finish the yarn.



Here's a close up of the yarn before processing.



I finished it as I do with all my yarns: It's given a nice soaking in VERY hot water with a mild soap (my current favorite is ECOS All Natural, which I use for everything, now); then when it's cooled down to room temperature, it gets actively swished, the rinsed and wrung out repeatedly until the water is clear. Then I take it outside and whack it against the deck steps, rotating after every 5 or 6 whacks. I also put my arms inside the loop and snap it several times, rotate and repeat. Yes, this does make the yarn full slightly so it's less likely to lose its twist, which I want especially for a thin yarn like this, but it also starts the halo, evens out the twist, and relaxes any over twisted areas. By the time I'm done abusing the yarn, it's almost dry. Then I hang it on a plastic hanger in the guest bathroom. If it's twisting a slight amount, I usually let it go, but more than one twist, or if it start to kink up, and I weight it with just enough empty hangers to get it to straighten out. I don't want to take the elasticity out of the yarn, I just want to remove the active twist so it doesn't kink when dry.

Sunday was all Olympics, all day. ToolMan, Andy Rooney, and I spent the whole day in the recliners in front of the telly with the Games on. However, ToolMan and Andy Rooney did get in one rousing round of "The Biscuit Game"; however, I don't think it will ever be an Olympic sport.

Some knitting, some spinning, and a sheep shearer named Nick . . . .

I finally finished the Big Black Scarf and managed to get a picture that shows the stitch pattern.



The pattern is the Graphic Designer Scarf I, from Karin in Ontario, Canada. She's got some great patterns over there; some free and some for sale. And be sure to check out her "Knitting Funnies"; the KISS musician cracked me up!

Anyway, here's a close up of the pattern, although Karin's in green shows up much better:



I picked this to go with the the Lillehammer hat; I think the angular stitch pattern reflects the geometric colorwork. And, that makes another Christmas present done and dusted and put in the box.

I'm still slogging away on "The Blob", but it's now getting big enough that it's not really a portable project anymore.



Yes, I did purposely wadded it up like that so the recipient can't tell what it is; and yes, I did purposely screw up the coloring for the same reason. While I wasn't all that enthused to be working with this yarn, I do have to admit that it looks a lot better in real life than it does here; enough so that I think I might make one for myself in another colorway.

Last week in the "Jonesin' for StitchJones" forum on Ravelry, Michelle, was lusting over a StitchJones roving called "Midnight Meadow", but she's not a spinner (yet) and didn't know what she'd do with it. I love spinning Sharon's fiber and volunteered to spin it for her if she'd pay for the fiber and tell me what she wanted. She agreed to pay for the fiber, Sharon would bring it to me on Westside Wednesday, and I'd start right away. My evil plan to convert all knitters into spinners was working!

When Michelle said she didn't know what she wanted because she's never knit with hand spun, and couldn't grasp getting to "design" her own yarn, I walked her through the process. I usually start backwards: What do I want to make with this? What weight yarn do I want? Do I want a tweed, a color shift, a solid color? Do I want to add some sparkle, glitz, or beads to the yarn before it's knit?

Michelle decided she wanted a scarf out of this so we decided on a 2-ply, sock weight yarn; and since it was the colors that attracted her in the first place, we want to preserve the color shift. I posted a picture of the first bobbin in my Ravelry stash, along with a picture from a skein with plied with strand of pearlescent Mylar. Michelle, smart girl that she is, liked the little shine from the Mylar so I'll add that in when I ply. I finished up the second bobbin and now they'll rest and let the twist relax until next weekend when I'll get them plied up and the twist set.



Speaking of Westside Wednesday, here are some shots of our little group 'o knitters and spinners and PDX Knit Bloggers:



Just over a year ago, this group didn't even exist; and we've already outgrown two venues in the past year!



We started out at a local coffee shop in a shopping area, but the lighting was too low for winters, and then when they started giving the evil eye to this raucous, rowdy bunch, we moved to a Starbucks for several months.



Pretty soon, we had attracted some avid spinners and we were using every single chair in the Starbucks. And, the employees kept raising the volume of background music to try and drown out our conversation, so we had to find a new place. A place with lots of chairs, readily available food and drink, good lighting, room for the spinners and their wheels, and empty tables for the indie dyers to spread out their wares:



Fortunately, in the same shopping area is a Haggen Grocery Store, which has a large seating area near their takeout food section. And it's mostly glass, so we have good light, there's no "background" music to shout over, there's plenty of space for us to spread out, and no one (at least so far) has seemed put out by our presence; in fact, some people have wandered in to see what all the laughter is about! I think we may be the only knitting group that meets in a grocery store! I mean, really, how many can there be?

Oh yeah, one of those PDX Knit Bloggers went on vacation in New Zealand, where she took some beautiful photos, went to the Ashford Craft Shop, the Cadbury Chocolate factory, and sorts of other wonderful places. And she brought me this:




My very own Australian sheep-shearer named "Nick"!