Tada!!! A post!

Aside from the knitting that I did yesterday, I spent the week not knitting. I did not touch a single fiber of anything from the Friday post to Thursday night during spinning class. I just had a hard week emotionally. All the dreary weather finally got to me and put me in a funk. I almost didn't go to spinning class on Thursday! But I'm much better now. And for future reference I'm really trying to keep this blog positive so that it will keep me excited with my fiber related activities. Now, on to the news.

I have known pure bliss. And it comes in the form of a functioning spinning wheel. When I got to class Thursday night I didn't know if I still wanted a wheel anymore. It was bad, I needed a very quick rescue. And I got it. Maggie plopped a Lendrum in front of me so that I could actually spin during class. As soon as the fibers started flowing through my hands and producing that gorgeous yarn, all the stress of the last week just started to melt away. I actually said to Val, "I feel as if I've just had a glass of wine." It was amazing. And I don't even like Lendrums. Maggie allowed me to take her floor model of the double treadle Schacht home for one last try, as long as I brought it back on Saturday.


When I got home I plied up all the yarn that I had left and spun a little more. I felt whole again. I'm not going to lie, I was schocked at how much of a difference having a wheel in my life made. I put in an order for the double treadle Schacht yesterday. The VERY sad thing is that it won't be in for another 5 weeks!

Yesterday was Dye Day and the last day of class. I returned the Schacht and brought home a Lendrum. Throughout the day we dyed 12 1/2 oz. skeins of our yarn using various natural dyes and mordants. I won't pretend to be knowledgable about the subject but I'll post the information for those who might want to know. We used a mix of red and white onion skins, osage orange, cochineal, and cutch as our dyes and iron, copper and alum as mordants. When I saw the finished products, I determined that I liked all of the alum yarns the most because they seemed the most different.


I don't think that I could really become interested in dyeing because I didn't really care to witness the VERY subtle variations between the different dyes.

Here is the rest of the yarn drying in my strainer. I wouldn't say that the colors in these pictures are entirely accurate but they can demonstrate the palate that we were working with.

We also dyed a fleece with blues and greens so that we would have something colorful to spin up for the last week. Here it is drying on my table. (It's very hard to take a good picture of fleece)


There is quite a lot of variance in the darkness and color of the fleece. I'm excited to get spinning with it! I also have my red/orange topthat I bought a couple weeks ago that I haven't started spinning with yet. I might actually wait until I get my own wheel to work with that. We'll see how much spinning happens before I have to return the wheel.

On the knitting front, yesterday I finished up the first sleeve of the sweater, finally!


I also put in some time on my shawl. I had forgotten how much I enjoy knitting up the lace and watching the pattern unfold as I move through the repeats.


Val and I also agreed to a yarn trade. She gave me two skeins of her Redwood Forest from KnitPicks in exchange for my one skein of Koigu. I couldn't really see myself knitting anything worthwhile out of only one skein of yarn and I needed more yarn for the Jay Walkers that I want to do. I can see myself getting started on the Jay Walkers this week or next week because I feel I could use a new, smallish project.


However, I have realized that I prefer to knit sweaters in pieces (so far) because I feel like I get finished products faster. There are definite feelings of accomplishment when I finish the front panel or a sleeve. We'll see how I feel when I have to do the first seaming that I've ever done in my life.

NEW BOOK!


Yesterday after class Val and Stacy and I went to Borders and Barnes and Noble looking for the newly released Fitted Knits book by Stefanie Japel. I LOVE IT! The book has both classic styles as well as modern, more fashion forward knits as well as some unique ideas. I won't be taking picture of the pictures of the patterns that I like because there just too many. Perhaps I could do a one a day or a one a post type thing.

Also, I had an interview with Kforce on Friday (they are a scientific staffing firm). At the end of the interview the recruiter actually had a position in mind for me!! Its with a growing company in Golden called LUCA Technologies. They are working with methane producing organisms in an attempt to find alternative sources for energy. The recruiter said that they have 30 people right now and want to have 90 by the end of September. SO, if they hire me they would be training me and most likely creating a position for me! I'm really excited and hope that they contact me soon for an interview!

Well, I think that covers everything. I will be looking for a simple cardigan pattern to knit up for the spring. I'm thinking of a pale pink cardi with elbow length sleeves with the possibility for some embroidered flowers. Or I might just do some cute buttons or a pin. We'll see what I can find!