Spinning and Knitting Weekend

Last weekend I was off at a - gasp - retreat! It dawned on me that, even though we had called it a "Festival", it was in fact a retreat. So now I can stop being jealous at all the Americans who go to big retreats and pay a months worth of household money for it, come home with glorious yarns and know a lot of big and famous people.

We were far out in the woods in a little scout cabin - and not some fancy lake lodge.
We were 12 - and not 120.
I met Kathe Lewis (And my mom) - and not MissWroteABook
We ate bread, drank milk (And coffee) and had an italian buffet one night - and didnt drink beer nor eat fancy food.
We had a fire in the furnace that made us and the whole cabin smell like smoke - and didnt wear our best clothes, appearing at out best at all times.
We went to bed at 12-3 and got out at 7-10 - and everybody just laughed.
We slept in 12-bed-rooms (but not all in one) and kicked each other in our sleep - and didnt sleep in fancy single beds with sheets that were changed every evening.

But! It was WONDERFULL, really.

We spun, knitted, talked, and learned a lot about how to mix colours with different tools, and just had a nice time socializing. We had two contests, as well as a drawing, and plenty of prizes. Oue group, Spindefarvegruppen, is disbanding sadly, and since it was/is a group you have to pay for to be in, we had a lot of surplus money, having cancelled some activites in fall.
They had bought a wonderfull Kromski travelling wheel (!!). We also got some prizes from Europawools in the UK, and two boxes of wool dyeing starter sets, a big one and a small one.

The big one was first prize for our "Longest Thread" contest.
We had 7 entrants, and the winner was not at all confident she would win!! I think she was very surprised at winning, eben though her yarn ran 4300 m / 100 g, and number two's was around 1900 m / 100 g. That's some of a difference!

We also had a fiber-guessing-contest, where I fared quite well too - not that it mattered, because we had a prize for everybody in that contest! I won 500 g dark brown merino, 24 micron count. A shared 2.nd place - I was proud.

Then came the big thing we had all waited for, anxiously, because the wheel stood by the kitchen door ever since we came, in its green bag. I had written around 40 tickets with the name of each of the people in the group, also those that were absent. Our groups leader took out one ticket and I unfolded it... and a huuuuge smile grew across my face! (No, I didnt win it.) The winner was "Marianne V", a young woman who can not work, has three little children and whose husband recently left her. She could not even afford a wheel, and had spent all her savings for a wheel (120 USD) on the retreat. I thought she would faint when I read her name aloud! Of course, everybody had hoped to win the wheel, but it was so good that this woman won it, because she, if not needed it, then would but it to the best use.
There was another prize left, the "Little starter set for dyeing", and it was commonly agreed upon that it should go to someone present at the retreat. So one name was drawn, but the person was not present. Another name was drawn, but I never got to say it out loud. I only managed to squeak: "But it's me!!". I must have looked like a tomato, but I was so happy because I dont own any dyeing utensils, and now I do, and can dye my own yarn and stuff!

Other than that, one of the women who owns a online yarn shop had a tiny sale - some shetland jumperweight that was too expensive for me, some silk/wool tweed in strong colours and some "Gotland" yarn - and to skeins of BFL yarn for just 4$ /100 g. I held onto those as if my life depended on it, and also 7 skeins of a brown/black colour Gotland yarn. Gooorgeous. That stood me, all in all, in 35$ for two pounds yarn. That was really ok, for Denmark.

Now I am home, tired, and glad.
Sorry I cannot show pictures, but my camera... same old story, you know?

Have a really nice day

/Lene

PS: My guinea pig had piglings (Planned) friday, three living and one dead. They're goooorgeous!

On the Fana Kofte

I have knitted most of it now - yay! After breaking #2 ebony needle, I bit the bullet and knit the rest on a regular grey coated needle. It worked reasonably well, probably because I did not have to knit a complicated pattern and had some weight hanging off the needles already.

The bad thing is, that it seems to be too small for me.

The god thing is that every single female in the household has claimed it for herself (That's 5 claims, including mine, on this one *laughs*)

The good thing is that I have cut all the seams and seamed the shoulders (with the open st.).

The bad thing is that I cannot figure out to pick up stitches evenly spaced around the front and the neck.

Another good thing is that I still can try to block the living daylights out of it to make it fit me. It is not that is doesent fit, but I didnt imagine a skin-tight fit!! (My gauge was off, so I am alone to blame).

Other News

I have ½ a horse as I've mentioned before, I think.... She is lame right now :-(, but I was offered to ride another horse whose "Daddy" can only come once or twice a week. I tried her yesterday (I thought it was a one-off, but YAY... He didnt!), and even though she was funny to ride, she is a good horse and could teach me a lot, I even had the guts to gallop on her and didnt even get scared when she didnt stop when I asked her. (Ok - I panicked a few seconds and just wanted to flop forward and hold onto her mane, screaming "I AM FALLING OFFFFF", but in the end I sat back, started breathing again and gave her a proper stopping signal.) (Riding her into a wall is a proper stopping signal, right?).
I will go riding her again today when I deliver the daily apple to my Big Red one (Now I've got a Big Red and a Big Black :), oh man, how lucky can one girl be?

Have a really nice day

/Lene

Bunching on the bed.

Anyone guess what this is?
Well, spinning fibre is a quite good guess, but it is much more than that. It is two pounds (a kilo) of natural grey angora! It lies in a standard single bed, and is really an enormous amount.

One of my mothers spinning aquintances asked if anyone wanted some Angora, and well - I have always wanted some. Even though I know that I would need a face mask etc. to spin and wear it! I tried to order a pound though her, but it failed and so my mother and I decided to order two pounds on our own to share. Since I live in Denmark where the lady with the bunnies also lives, it came to my door. SO soft. I could roll around in it and it would stick to me everywhere, making me look like a snowman. I know exactly what I want to do with a little bit of it already today, and that is to start on the thrummed mittens I have procrastinated for a long time, thrummed with ANGORA. How much softer can it be?


Lace

I knitted an entire shawl yesterday, as a matter of fact. Now, that may sound impressing, but it really is not, since it is barely 8 inches wide and 5 inches tall including the edge. It was a swatch that got a little out of hand, when I wanted to see how my handspun Humbug yarn would behave with a US4, 3,5mm in lace. It does quite well, as I am pleased to report, so I proceed to cast on 624 stitches for a Three-cornered shawl (pg. 138) in the Victorian Lace Today book. I hemmed and hawed for a long time if I should make it smaller, start from the neck down or make it square. I dont want it smaller because I am not small, it would look lovely square but I do not have the stamina for it, and from the neck down would surely tire me long before I was finished.
I do not have enough yarn for the shawl, but I can buy some differently coloured shetland roving from my mother, so I will be all set for a very long-sighted project. It looks very enjoyable though, and the lace patterns are anything but difficult.


Have a really nice day here from snowy Denmark


/Lene

I'm brown...

I am still carding along on the brown wool, but there is a quite long way to go. I cannot load those fine cards with a whole lot, so I must make lots of little rolls. I take my sweet time with it. I have no idea of how much wool there is, but if there is enough (and my mother lets me use the yarn), I think I will make a Pi Shawl with it, starting with the lightest end.


This is how it looks while I am working with it. Somehow all the little piles of wool look the same colour, but it is certainly not that way in real life.

It looks glorious in my minds eye, a large, round shawl knit out of a yarn that ever so subtely changes into a mid-dark brown colour, a marled yarn where the middle section is almost one colour (it will be a long section I think), the middle will be light (Intentionally, as the rows in the middle are the shortest and will make the most out of my precious few light rolls). It will be self-edging, so no knitted-on edging. I am pretty good at estimating how much yarn I have left and hope to use up every single yard of yarn, making everything out of my precious few dark rolls, too. Maybe I should find a sheep with a darker brown and make some mixed rolls to create a really dark finished edge - the only natural brown fleece I have is coarse and very dark. Bummer. I must see what I can do with the little fleece I have. But now I cannot get the image of a beautifull round shawl out of my head.

To illustrate what a Pi Shawl is:


Blocking


The beautifull and much envied shawl

It hangs on my wall today and brightens up my living room. It is my most favourite and most loved shawl I think, even though I have knitted not a few ones.


Have a really nice day

/Lene