More specifically, lambs! I usually help my friends at Hatchtown Farm with shearing, and make a trip to see the lambs in the spring. The on-going storm this week has preventing me from making that trek, but a friend of a friend has some wonderful lamb pics up on her blog: Sheepgal. Click over there right now to see all her small furry friends (and one big, furry friend). There’s great info on the life of a shepherd during lambing season as well.

In the last two weeks I’ve almost completed the “China Doll” baby sweater from Minnowknits. I’m using Vermont Organic Fiber Co’s O-Wool and am completely in love with it. The feel of the yarn and the way it knits up are fabulous. I want to make something cabled out of it. This weekend (when it’s complete), I’ll post pictures–I need to pick out buttons and do some finishing.

This particular sweater is now known as my “Friday Night Lights” sweater. I’ll tell you all about that this weekend

The Los Angeles Times has a great story on the cheapening of chocolate today. Since I love my dark chocolate . . . and have been known to find new and innovative ways to eat it while knitting . . . I want my dark chocolate to stay the same chocolate! No vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter, no milk protein instead of milk. This article really lays it all out:

The courage of their confections
Two candy makers are asking chocolate lovers to protest plans to allow cheaper ingredients. Vegetable oil, anyone?
By Jerry Hirsch, Times Staff Writer
April 14, 2007

Calling all chocoholics. Put down the truffles and power up the PC. It’s time to weigh in on a fundamental question: What is chocolate?

Two of California’s oldest confectioners, See’s Candies Inc. and Guittard Chocolate Co., are battling an attempt to loosen government rules that dictate what ingredients go into the sweet stuff.

Legally, the candy that melts hearts and comforts the brokenhearted is made with cocoa butter and, in the case of milk chocolate, whole milk. But the Grocery Manufacturers of America, a trade group, wants to let confectioners substitute cheaper ingredients — vegetable oils and milk protein concentrates.

The rest of the article here.

So, it’s time to head over to the FDA and make your feelings known!

Here are the pictures I said I’d post. They are small, but if you click on them you can see the larger size. Beware, you actually get to see me in these

Worn around the neck . . .

Or, over the head.

Here’s a closeup. This was a fun, easy project that I’d do again. It really shows off the handpainted yarn!

Take a look at the right column! There’s a new completed item (the cowl out of handpainted alpaca). I’ll take some pictures of it at work tomorrow. There are new listings for “Free Patterns”–Ram’s Wool and Southwest Trading. I added a friend to my list: the Schooner Isaac Evans. She sails out of Rockland, Maine and is captained (and blogged) by Brenda Walker. You can see the Evans and her sailing schedule here.

Whew. But, a good whew.

I found a size 17, 29″ circular needle at Reny’s for $4.99. If you aren’t from Maine, you’ve probably never heard of Reny’s. It’s the store that means we don’t miss Target or K-mart; and the prices are better. For those of you local, the large needles are at the Camden store near the Poppycock (nuts only).

My family and I went to see Odiako New England Saturday night. Loud, lovely drumming based on Japanese drumming, taiko. The kids and I really loved the traditional songs; the contemporary ones were less thrilling. The concert was a fundraiser for the Japan exchange program at Camden Rockport Middle School, so it really was a win-win evening. Go see O.N.E. if you get the chance. It was entertaining and educational (but not TOO educational).

Today is Easter, though with over a foot of snow on the ground it’s a bit difficult for me to believe. I was raised in a place where they’ve been mowing their lawns for over a month already. We hunted for (plastic) eggs in the living room and ate the candy around the kitchen table. Because we didn’t make plans for dinner (hey, no family in town means that sometimes you just don’t think like that), we went out for Thai food at Tamarind in Rockland. The food was amazing. Each dish had its own special flavors. It was spicy and tasty. I got to see my kids devour green beans and ask for more (it helps when the green beans crunch and make your mouth tingle). Go eat there when you have the chance. Say hi to Mel, the owner and a woman I just taught to knit. She’s already on her second vest (a man’s small) and she just started knitting the middle of February!

I know this has little to do with knitting, spinning, or dyeing, but life just isn’t worth living without a bit of dark chocolate. I eat it when I’m knitting and spinning (though never when I’m dyeing). I eat it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. I like it dark, very dark–65% or higher. And, I talk about the mouth-feel and “high notes” like a wine connoisseur. I recently was introduced to gourmet chocolates that all come from one field; much like fine wines.

But there’s evil afoot. Some members of the chocolate producing community are trying to get the FDA to change the definition of chocolate. Don’t let it happen! Contact the FDA with the instructions at Guittard. It also explains the plans to use vegetable shortening instead of cocoa butter without notifying the consumer!

I’m participating in the Dye.no.mite swap (see the button in the right sidebar, under the webrings). I’m supposed to send my swapper a few gifts and a card or two. The point is to send things you’ve dyed. My swapper is a quilter (which I’m not), so I’m going to learn some new dyeing techniques. Specifically, I’m going to use fiber reactive dyes (as compared to acid dyes, which work for protein fibers–wool, silk and animal fibers). You need different additives for fiber reactive dyes, so, at this moment, there’s a pound of soda ash fixer being packed up and sent to me.

Like usual, I’ve ordered from Dharma Trading. They sell everything you need to dye anything. And, they sell tons of stuff *to* dye. I had a great person on the phone today and she completely understood that I was buying both acid and fiber reactive dyes. She even gave me some tips for FR when I told her I’ve never done it before. She said that the methods are very similar. Here’s a breakdown:

Acid dyes:
Use on wool, mohair, alpaca, silk, nylon
Use mild acid as fix (I usually use vinegar)
Need heat to set dyes
Fibers must be soaked in water and fix to get even dyeing

Fiber Reactive dyes:
Use on cotton, hemp, tencel, linen
Use soda ash as fix
Need time to fix (time while damp with fix and dyes)
Fibers must be soaked in water and fix to get even dyeing

My swap buddy likes reds and warm earth tones, so I bought two reds, an orange and a brown. Honestly, I chose by color name: Black Cherry, Red Wine, Tangerine and Chocolate brown. ‘Get the theme?

I bought some cotton/tencel yarn (Classic Elite’s Premier) and I need to track down some fabric to dye (or maybe I’ll buy some fat quarters). I’ve got some hand dyed Merino blend hand spun yarns that I’ll send. Oh, and a little, spring canvas bag, a Maine mug (”how to eat a lobster”), a lobster soap, and a bit of dark chocolate. I think that’ll make two nice surprise packages. Any other suggestions?

Box o’ yarn

I was cleaning up my fiber room (and, no, I didn’t finish) and took this lovely picture of my handspun yarn.

It’s one of two boxes of handspun I’ve filled up. This box is about 24 inches deep (too deep to fit on my storage rack). I just love all the colors–most are dyed, but the one big, dark brown skein is natural colored Coopworth from Hatchtown Farm. It’s Bergetta’s hoggett (first) fleece from about five years ago. I’ve got enough spun to make a sweater, but I haven’t actually knit anything yet.

So, what do you do when you’re knitting? If I had more people to hang out with, I could talk with them, but the times I can knit (usually late evening after the kids go to bed) are not condusive to haven’t company over. I could listen to audio books but I find most of them to be . . . slow or not well-read.

For most of my knitting I can both watch tv and knit at the same time, so I choose to watch tv. What’s on my watch list?

–We got Freaks and Geeks on Netflix. It’s a ton of fun, but some of the more painful moments hit too close to home. I got beaten up in HS gym class too many times to count. We’ve watched ep 1 and 2.

–Andy Barker, PI, is available for d/l at NBC.com. It’s laugh out loud funny, even upon a second viewing. The first two eps are a 10 on the funny meter, the third is a 7, but still worth watching.

–Bones is available on Fox.com and is best “watched” while knitting. The gory, gross, or boney parts are easily avoided by paying attention to your knits and purls. I love the characters (Angela and Hodgins are just *so* cute together) and the stories are interesting, even if a bit bizarre.

–Gray’s Anatomy is available at NBC.com. Gray’s is good for knitting, since it occasionally has blood and surgery, but the people are so beautiful, you’ll need to look up often.

–Blood Ties on Lifetime (also available to d/l on iTunes) is dark and a bit weird, but the people are beautiful.

–Friday Night Lights (at NBC.com) is a new find for me. I’m only on ep 4, but it’s good stuff. It’s especially good if you like football, but I’ve been told my my non-football-watching friends that they like it, too. Many, well-written characters and a compelling story.

Here are things in my to-be-watched queue. I don’t know if they’re good for knitting yet or not.

–Oz (HBO), the DVDs are in the queue.

–The Tudors (Showtime), starts this weekend.

–The Riches (F/X), I taped them and will get to them sometime.

–Eureka (SciFi), the first season ended last summer, with a second 13-ep season ordered for this summer. I’ve been told it was excellent, and will tape it when it reruns (which I’m sure will be before they start the second season).

Not much yarn, but a whole lot of tv.

I hope Felix’s parents aren’t reading my blog because here are the booties I made for him.

These little beauties are made out of naturally colored, organic cotton. I boiled them for 30 minutes and when that didn’t bring out the color as I was told it would, I boiled them for 30 minutes with baking soda. That didn’t do anything either. So, with this cotton, boiling did nothing for the color. But they are a light green and are very soft. I hope his little feet enjoy them.

BTW, the I cord is now laced into the booties, but the booties were still damp when I took the picture.

Welcome to the world Felix!

Dyeing for fun

I’m getting ready to teach a rainbow dyeing class, so I’ve been ordering roving, dyes, and supplies. I also wanted to put a display up at the store to entice people to sign up, so I did a little dyeing to share.

I’m NOT putting in dye warnings in this post. Be smart when you dye, so you won’t die or make anyone sick.

I broke out my dyeing supplies and discovered that I had a bunch of dyes already mixed up. I’m lazy and cheap, so I just used those. That also means I don’t know the names of all the colors that got used, but hey, that’s the way it goes.

Superwash merino roving is an excellent choice for a dyeing project. It is bright white, strikes dye clearly, and it won’t felt even if you muck will it during the process. It also makes nice socks. I tore the roving into eight ounce lengths–plenty for a pair of socks after spinning it.

I soaked the roving in water, a bit of Unicorn Fiber wash, and a glug of white vinegar over night. I then drained the fiber and squeezed it out.

My dyes were already mixed up in squeeze bottles, so I put down long sheets of plastic wrap (the commercial brands are MUCH better than the store brands), put out the roving, and started pouring the dyes.

I try different layouts with the roving for the fun of it. The shape makes a difference if you’re dying yarn, but there’s still so much processing with roving (spinning and plying) that it’s just for fun here.

“Don’t dye too much”. To make sure you don’t end up with muddy color, I leave open spaces between the colors the first time I pour on dyes. Then I use my fingers to massage the dye into the white areas. If the white areas are too big, I add more dye. In the end it looks like this

More plastic wrap goes over the top of the roving, then I roll up everything like a big burrito, sealing the edges. If I haven’t dyed too much there won’t be dye dripping out the sides and the roving will be colored all the way through to the bottom. The burritos are put on a steamer basket in a deep stock pot. I put about an inch of water in the bottom, pop the top on, and put it on the stove on high.

When it comes to a boil, I turn down the stove so the water simmers, and check on it in about 10 minutes. When the burritos puff up with steam, I turn the stove off, and leave the pot to cool with the lid on. The next day I rinse the roving out in the sink (another great reason to use superwash roving) and spin out in the washing machine and hang the roving to dry.

After a day you hang it up to display and hope to get a chance to spin it someday.

So, wanna dye? Sign up at the store.

I’m almost back from the dead. And, not the Grateful Dead either.

I haven’t done much over the last two weeks, with the flu and a cold one after another. You know that you’re life is sad when anti-nausea drugs make you joyful. And, when that was done I became enamored of faux-sudafed. I’m better now. It’s tough to attend two town budget meetings and a Planning Board meeting all in one week, while taking drugs, but I survived!

Additionally, I worked a bunch of days (and more in the coming two weeks, but I’ll tell you about that in a minute), found a great new tv show, and did some knitting. I’m behind on dyeing, but, hey, I couldn’t stand the smell while I was sick.

First, here are the Great Adirondak socks I’ve been working on. Please note the way the colors “pooled” or swirled.

Please note that this project is 100% complete in my progress bar. I’m very proud. I love this yarn and have started another pair.

Next, I continue to work on the cowl for the store. I love the way the colors play. No pooling in this yarn, but I think the colors are lovely.

The continuing saga of my very own handpainted socks continues. This is the third sock from the same skein. This is the yarn I’ll be using to teach my rainbow dyeing class next month. Email me for more info (the yarn and roving has already been ordered!)

Because I never have enough to do: I heard through the grapevine (specifically, one of my sisters got a message through her husband, from our cousin that his sister (also our cousin) had a baby boy on Saturday). Given that the message passed through two men, neither of which is the baby’s father, I have no further info. No name, weight or anything else. But, in celebration of the big event, I’m making organic cotton baby booties for said baby. Ecoknit cotton in light green knit in a generic baby bootie pattern.

I’ve been told that boiling the cotton will make the color deeper. Here’s the first bootie, pre-boiling:

To make sure I’m busy enough, Unique One is having two back-to-back knitting weekends here in Camden, ME. Three days each of knitting, knitting classes, shopping in Camden, great food and a discount at the store. Because we’re hosting a bunch of nice people from all over the country, it’s all hands on deck and I’ll be working full days Friday, Sat, Sun and Monday for the next two weeks. In case you want to join us for this fun-filled weekend, give the store a call at 1-888-691-8358 and/or check out the info page here. There are a few spaces still available.

Now that I’ve rambled about knitting, I’ll move on to tv. I watch a lot of tv. Sometimes it’s more than others; lately it hasn’t been much. I tape what I can and download other things. Here are some things you should catch (if you don’t already):

Rome–It’s nearing the end of the second season, so I bet it’ll be out on DVD by summer. It’s a short (12 ep) season and the first season was especially good. The second is ok, but not as spectacular. I’ve heard that in the name of authenticity they considered having all the costumes handspun. They couldn’t afford it, but the production values are spectacular.

Blood Ties–It’s a brand new show, available by the ep on iTunes. The two hour pilot was excellent–great writing, acting and production values. There’s enough depth to the characters to keep them interesting for a long time. Oh, and there are vampires, though that wasn’t why I found it worth watching.

Tonight I will sit and watch the second ep of Blood Ties and knit. The wind is whipping tonight, but I’m snug and happy!