By Tanya

Fibre friends are wonderful people!

I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with my maritime fibre friends at a Adair cabins in Kingston, NB a few weeks back. What an amazing time we had! How could it not be fun when you are surrounded by like minded people who enjoy knitting, spinning, dying and eating!

When I arrived we found an amazing fibre shop set up right in the Cabin.

It was Janet of the Bobbin Tree who brought all the wonderful goodness. I think it's save to say she left with quite a bit less than she arrived with :)

Zuma was living it up with all the girls and he was lucky to get out without being dyed. In my cabin Jeff and Catherine were dying every piece of white fibre they could get their hands on, and when that ran out they even over-dyed again!

I didn't dye much but I did experiment with our new drum carder. I purchased some BFL and mohair locks from Janet and off I went. It spun up beautifully.

Thanks to Steph for all the arrangements and all the rest of the gang.

Can't wait until next year. Actually we don't have to... see you all at the Maritime Spinners Retreat in October!

Introducing Bugsy

Crazy as I am, I purchased a second wheel just before the postal strike from a posting I saw on Ravelry. I had been thinking that I needed a travel wheel and then I saw the Merlin Tree Roadbug!

He was for sale from Vancouver and it was a deal at $200 so I once again put my request in for it right from the comfort of my bed. For those who know me I have a problem with ordering things at night and I've yet to find a support group, only enablers. This was a big leap of faith for me as I had never tried or seen a Roadbug or Hitchhiker wheel before.

It took a very long time for the wheel to arrive as it got held ransom by the Canada Post strike, but it did arrive safe and almost sound last Thursday, the day before the long weekend.

It was a perfect scene when I got home early from work, still not knowing my wheel had arrived, and doubting I would have the luck of it being here for the weekend. When I walked in the door, there was a box (smaller than expected) on the floor and a bottle of wine opened to breath in a decanter with a pot of flowers in behind. My first thought was "Wow! Troy bought me flowers and opened a bottle of wine to celebrate the wheel arriving!".

Of course he had bought the flowers and opened the wine without knowing the wheel would then arrive, but you can understand my deciphering of the situation. Nonetheless, it was a perfect scene and I quickly poured a glass a wine and set to opening the box. The wheel was perfect except the orifice hook broke in shipping (which I've since glued and all is well). All and all not bad considering it had been held against my will in a post office depot for so long. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening out on the front porch getting to know my new cute but durable little wheel.

It was even smaller than I expected and much cuter. I've named it Bugsy. He spins like a little work horse and I just love him. If wheels can have personality, he is a little spitfire disguised as a cutie pie. I spun and plied over 10 ounces of fibre between Thursday to Sunday on him and I am so happy I made that rash decision of ordering him. Someday I plan to give him a makeover to match his personality but it's going to take a while to get to that point.

Introducing Rosie

It has been a long time since I've blogged and I miss it. Lots of new and exciting things have been happening but I think I'll just start with the present and move forward.

I've acquired two new wheels over the past few months but since they each deserve their own post I'll start with one for now.

The first is a Majacraft Rose that I bought from a lady in California and she came with a woolee winder and a ton of fibre. Well actually about 6lbs, but to a spinner that's a ton.

The fluffy Pom didn't come with the wheel even though he could have fit in the box. That is our newest dog Zuma.

In addition to the fibre, there were two lazy kates, a book and 3 bobbins for the woolee winder.

Rosie is beautiful and spins like a dream. I never thought I'd care to have a woolee winder, but now that I have one, they are worth the price.

She folds down and has a handle for carrying. However she is a bit on the heavy side and the beautiful wood is easy to dent so I also would like to have a second wheel for traveling with.

Since I've got this wheel I've been spinning more than ever before. My previous Ashford Traveler was sold to a friend and is getting more use too than I was giving her, so we are all happy.

More pics of the arrival and set up the wheel can be found here

Update on Project List

Thank you for all the great comments on Troy's sweater. I enjoyed reading them and he's still enjoying his sweater too.

Since I've adopted the practice of only knitting the top 3 items on my combined UFO/WIP list I have been making lots of progress. Some may even say I've been more productive than normal (and make fun of me for it LOL).

Here is an update on the progress and the current ranking based on Importance & Pleasure:

1 month Tally:
Currently 3 WIPs, 9 UFOs
Completed 7 projects, 1 to be frogged
Started 3 New projects

Latest spinning project (not on any list) is this beautiful hand dyed 100% silk gifted to me from Catherine V. Thanks so much Catherine!

Troy's Perfect Sweater

I set out to make Troy a sweater which is not an easy task. He doesn't like things too itchy, he doesn't like them too tight and he doesn't like any pattern work at all. He is very picky in other words. Now of course he's appreciative when he is rewarded with knitted garb, but if it's not just perfect he can't help himself to complaining, albeit he's as polite and diplomatic about as he can be.

Back to the sweater. He asked for a plain brown sweater that could be worn on an everyday basis. I was hoping it would replace those awful hoody sweaters that make him look like he is 17. I choose Lionbrand Fisherman's wool in the natural brown color. It passed the itch test when placed against his skin so we were off to a good start. I choose to use Elizabeth Zimmerman's Percentage Sweater pattern with Saddle Shoulders that went right across the back of the neck. As I read and learned more about her various shoulder options, I actually made the Hybrid shoulders with the Shirt yoke.

Started off by measuring one of Troy's current commercially knit sweaters to get measurements. Chest: 48"; Length: 25"; Length to Armpit: 16"; Sleeve: 19.5"
This was a very important step that I did not do last time I knit a sweater for Troy.

I knit a fairly large swatch of about 6" square and WASHED it. I was determined to make sure this sweater fit. After washing I got a gauge of 4.25 sts/inch and determined I needed to cast on 204sts for the 48" chest. Everything else was based on those 204sts; Arms were started on 40 sts and increased to 67; Saddle shoulder worked on 34sts and Neck worked on 80sts. I also did the short rows for the neck following EZ's instructions and it worked out really well.

A very small pattern was added to the sweater on the sides and then later on the outside of the arms. I added this to keep me from going insane with all the plain stockinette, but it has turned out to be a highlight of the sweater.

I started this sweater Jan 17 and finished it Feb 27 so it was a pretty quick knit. It is an early birthday sweater for Troy and he's been wearing it almost everyday since I gave it to him. Funny (and true) story, he woke up this morning and said to me "I love this sweater so much I slept on it last night".. and he had, by accident of course.

I couldn't have asked for a better fit or for him to wear it more often. If this keeps up I'm going to want to make him another before his birthday in April even arrives. Here are some shots of him wearing it.