Thursday, March 19, 2015

All The Fleeces - Warming Weather

Spring has come early to Winterpeg - a welcome relief from our usual.  I will grant, there's still a chance of a rogue snow storm, but I'm considering it to be very unlikely given how little precipitation we had all winter.  So little that, with the exception of some shady areas where snow was piled high from shoveling, there is little evidence that winter was here a short while ago.  Kids were disappointed by how few snow-building days there were, but adults were quite happy with the very minimal shoveling required.  Most of the light snowfalls would melt away in the sun.

Warming weather has me thinking about ALL THE FLEECES awaiting cleaning at my sister's farm.  I started my research, have my notes on my intended methods of cleaning, bought the large wash basins... and maybe, just maybe, I'll have a look at the fleeces this weekend. (Except the weathernetwork says it will be below zero again this weekend, so maybe not.)  I'd like to at least pull out a sample - one fleece - to skirt, wash, and evaluate.

Fingers crossed it's decent...

I fear opening it, however, because I don't want to leave it unsealed and dirty for long.  I should really be considering storage of the washed fleeces too.  Pillowcases perhaps.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Stashdown - February

February was not as 'productive' yardage wise as January was. However, that is understandable given that I finished some large items that had been in the works for a while.

You'd think that, given I spent a week on a beach in Cuba knitting (and reading, while knitting) that I'd have more to show for it, but no.  I'd brought along this Seeds to Flowers shawl in camel-silk lace (for the luxury yarn challenge of February), which was perfect on short cable needles for knitting on the flight, but I found myself working on the stockinette and then the bottom of my leaf lace top instead [below].

What I did knit included this tea pot cozy for a friend's play. It was made to her request for something in "virgin mary blue with stripes of whore red".  I also went to see her perform with it at the end of the month in Mother A La Carte.

And I whipped up this filter for the large mason jar in which I brew the first stage of my kefir water.





For the luxury-yarn challenge, I was delighted to knit this alpaca-silk lace yarn from Waterloo Wools. I'd knit up most of the yoke at home before my vacation in Cuba and it turned out to be my favourite project while there because it was a) knit in the round, b) mostly stockinette and c) something I could work on while reading.
It won't be blocked for a while... it will be some time before the weather is warm enough to wear this beauty. This top I sort of made up, sort of reverse engineered and added my own bits...


Oh, and while it does not count towards the stashdown challenge, I did finish grafting together Lucy's orange squisha cowl that was knit in December.

Also, I was distracted from my stashdown by this cotton that was growing beside me on the beach.
I happened to have my mini spindle with me - just in case (along with a teeny bag of silk hankies to spin, but that didn't work so well on the beach with an ocean breeze)

March's challenge is WIPs. I have a few.