I had a code in my node . . .

I missed posting weekend before last because ToolMan and I had the plague. OK, not really the plague, but it might as well have been. ToolMan got a nasty cold, complete with head congestion, a croupy-sounding cough, low fever, and chills. He got antibiotics from the doctor, then he shared with me. The cold, that is, not the antibiotics.

So, we spent a long weekend, from Friday until Monday, in bed with our friends: the hot water bottle for me and the Blanket As Big as Texas for him.















Several years ago, when we were planning a driving vacation back to Missouri to visit family, I decided all those hours in the car would be perfect for a big project; namely an Aran sampler blanket. I wanted 8-inch squares, none the same, set 4 across and 5 down with a narrow border; just the thing to drape artfully across the back of the sofa in the family room.

Now, never mind that it was July, we would be driving across miles of desert, and this is wool. I bought 4 pounds of yarn (because I wanted to make sure I had the same dye lot, you know.), packed up the yarn with my size 8 straights (hadn't converted to circulars yet) and a stitch dictionary into big plastic tote; we kennelled Andy Rooney, packed up the minivan, and off we set. We were barely out of Portland when I cast on for the first square, which was to be 8 inches square, and finished it before we were out of the Gorge. Somehow, that square looked awfully small; hardly bigger than a dishcloth. Hmm, 20 dishcloths sounded like a very small afghan. So, I frogged it off and made it 10 inches; still seemed very small. (Hint: This is where I first went off the rails.) Frogged again and made 12 inches, which seemed just the right size; the larger area would show off the patterns so well. So, all the way to Missouri, nearly 2,000 miles, I happily knit 12-inch squares; replacing the diminished skeins with finished squares in the tote.

By the time we reached my parent's home, I was really enjoying knitting these squares! They were just challenging enough to keep me occupied, but a mistake due to too much landscape viewing was easily ripped out and corrected. And so satisfying to finish 2 or sometimes 3 a day while ToolMan drove and we talked! Pretty soon, I had convinced myself (completely forgetting that I was making them more than twice the size originally planned) that a mere 20 squares would not be nearly big enough for an afghan. So I decided to make it 5 squares across and 6 squares long. (Here's where I veered off the path, again.) So, all the to Missouri and back, nearly 5,000 miles in all, Aran squares were knitted, patted, admired, and stowed.

When we arrived back home, two weeks later, I steamed each one, added a border of half-double crochet to each, and set about sewing them together. It required clearing the living room of furniture in order to lay out these things. When it came time to pick up stitches and knit a border, I finally realized how far off track I'd actually gone. By knitting 12-inch squares and adding a crochet border to each, and adding squares, I had sewn together a blanket that was covered more than 30 square feet and was nearly 25 feet around. Without the border, which I had planned to be 4 inches. Retreat being the better part of valor, I laid aside the knitting needles and grabbed a crochet hook. Thus was born the Blanket the Size of Texas. It does reside on the back of the couch in the family room. Because it's too damn big and heavy for anyone to actually use.

Here's the only thing I actually knitted last week. Isn't it pretty? So sunny and spring-like?















It's a variation of Lala's Simple Shawl, knit with StitchJones merino superwash in "Summer of Love." This skein had been marinating in the stash for quite a while; it had a plain gray label which Sharon used when she first began dying.




















It's hard to believe a shawl this size came from one skein; Sharon give good yardage! This one gets wrapped in tissue and gifted tomorrow. Just right for someone who says her favorite color is "all of them"!

I hardly did any spinning, either. I did finish this bobbin, spun from two batts that Barbara left last fall. Can't wait to ply this, the marled colors are so pretty!















Remember the mystery fiber? Roxie was the closest guess, but it's not labradoodle; it's Wheaten Terrier! I did comb a little bit and sample it on the drop spindle. It came out pretty much like the binding twine they used to tie hay bales with!




















And here's a sample skein of the fleece from the Cascade Farmstead sheep. It's really coarse and unattractive. I learned a lot from the fleece, but I'm still glad I only paid $5 for it. And I'm still glad it went in the trash.















Last but not least, Andy Rooney went to the groomer's on Sunday for his spring bath and haircut.















Isn't he a handsome fellow?

Back on track

It's been awhile since I've had anything to talk about with spinning and knitting, so here's a post to get back on track.

Last Saturday was the April meeting of Portland Spinnerati.















We had some familiar faces and some new ones, too.















Melissa (that's her in the middle), gave a lesson on making tweedy, bumpy, lumpy yarns by spinning directly from the locks.















Not only did she bring some examples of the yarn and the start of a shawl knit from these "free form" yarns,















but she also brought materials to play with!















I had a bag of young adult mohair locks that Barbara left with me last year at OFFF, so I brought those to share, too.















Melissa has a one-of-a-kind wheel with only one bobbin, so she plies with a drop spindle with one ply on the bobbin and one wound into a center pull ball.




















But, she wasn't the only spindler there! We usually have at least a couple people working on drop spindles and this week it was Melissa and Jessica, both with lovely Turkish spindles.




















I spun some of those adult mohair locks, then plied it with a silk single in an S-twist, and then re-plied it with the silk single again with a Z-twist to get a lovely soft boucle.















And, I have been knitting as well. I used up another single skein in my stash for this little shawl. The yarn is "Precious Metals" from The Unique Sheep, and the pattern is The Reading Shawl from Sheep Geek, except I haven't put the the lace edge on it.

And that little square there is the swatch for the driving cap pattern. Now, I have to count the stitches and rows for gauge and rework all the numbers before I can re-start writing the pattern. Again.















I, well actually, a group of us, rented an electric carder from Susan last week. None of us had a week's worth of carding to do, but we each had enough to do a couple hours, at least.

I had nearly the full pound of this alpaca in combed top that I bought two years ago at OFFF. No matter how I tried to spin this, it just didn't work for me. I even tried dying it to give it a little more "tooth", and even that didn't help. But carding it into lovely, fluffy batts should give something to work with. At this point, I've got nothing to lose with this fiber so if it doesn't work, I'll rent the carder again and blend it with something. No way I'm letting this fiber get away with this behavior; I'm going to beat it into submission, if it's the last thing I do!




















I also had that pound of Jacob that I bought at Dublin Bay on the LYS Crawl in February. It is a lovely, tweedy grey, but was in a jumbled mess from being shipped and handled. So, I re-carded it into pretty little batts, too. Eventually, this will become a cardigan for moi.




















And I finished that 50/50 silk/merino in "Mother of Pearl" from Lisa Souza. It spun beautifully; "like silk", as they say! I got 630 yards of 20 WPI laceweight out of this. But, it stunk. Literally. I'm one of those people who can smell silk and this batch was particularly rank. When I mentioned it at my Wednesday Spinning group, Sheila January told me to wash it with washing soda. Well, let me tell you, it worked! I put washing soda into a tub of hot water with a little sweeze of dish detergent and submerged the hank. Within about 15 minutes, the water had turned yellow and felt slimy, which I assumed was the sericin being dissolved. It took about 4 or 5 rinses to get the slime out of the yarn, but at least it no longer smells! It lost some of its softness in the process, but I think that will return when it's knitted up.

But the color is fantastic and the photo does not do it justice.
















I know, I know, it looks white, but it really isn't. See? Sure, there's a lot of off white, but there are subtle blues, greens, pinks, corals, and yellows in there, too.
















I also spun up one of the mystery batts from Fantasy Fibers last weekend into a fluffy, woolen spun bulky weight and started another shawl. This one is to be gifted when it's done. After all those shawls in fingering weight and lace weight, it's nice to crank along on this bulky weight on size 11 needles! Just look how much I got done on Sunday!'

We went to SIL Faye and BIL Jim's house for Easter Sunday dinner (where I cranked on that shawl). One of our neices had given Faye a bag of fiber to be given to me for spinning. I haven't weighed it, but it feels like 3 or 4 ounces. It was a little dirty, so I washed it last night (because Andy Rooney went absolutely wild over the smell). It looks cotted in the picture, but it isn't. I'll be hand carding this later in the week and will try spinning it.

Any guesses as to what it is?

So, here's the deal, Dawg.

I really don't like reality shows; I don't like the back-stabbing, alliance making, breaking of promises, avarice and greed of most of them. "Winning" a reality show usually means winning at any cost: being better at lying, tearing down other players, and reneging on agreements. Not my cuppa Darjeeling.

But there are two exceptions: American Idol and Dancing With The Stars. I love these shows because they are about each contestant building up themselves to something better that what we saw last week, improving their skills, and enlarging their confidence, not defeating someone else.

At the start of American Idol this season, I really wasn't enthused about any one contestant, but I really don't really get into the show until it's down to the final 12 anyway. Sure, there were some that showed some talent, and some I knew would never make it into the final 10 let alone the final eight.

Now that it is down to the final eight, almost all of them could be groomed, dressed, trained, electronically vocalized, and put out on the concert circuit and would do very, very well. I'm not sure which one will win, but I'm pretty sure the final decision will be between these two:



Danny Gokey has a personality and honesty that comes through in his singing. Danny's wife died just a few weeks before this year's auditions. In the clips of him during auditions and the first few cuts, you could tell how raw his pain was. When Danny sings, it's as plain as the nose on your face that he's singing to his wife.

But he's going to have to work very hard and very long to beat Adam Lambert.

He could sing the phone book and win over the audience. He doesn't need to be polished and trained and engineered. He could record a CD today and hit the road on tour tomorrow. Adam has a rare combination of talent, stage presence, and confidence which is seldom seen. Mix those with his Elvis Presley good looks and Michael Jackson showmanship and he's unbeatable. It think we'll be listening to and watching Adam in 10, 20, 30 years from now. And I think he'll still be surprising us with every performance.

And in my other favorite, Dancing With The Stars, I think it will come down to these two:


Melissa definitely has talent. She was on The Bachelor and got dumped in front of America, and got brought on to Dancing With The Stars as a last minute replacement. But she's a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, so she's had some dance training which put her way ahead of the curve.

Gilles was the "sexy, naked neighbor" in Sex and the City. I'd welcome Gilles to my neighborhood any day. As long as he dances with his shirt off!

Who will win Dancing With The Stars? Who knows. I'm just glad Steve Wozniak got voted off!