metta through commotion

ilyena_sylph  is keeping a current catalogue of ways to give in Moore, OK (the area most affected by the tornadoes yesterday). There is not, to my knowledge, a current dw hat-pass, so all of the ways listed are currently external (i.e. Red Cross, etc.).

This disaster is a little close to home for me as I lived in the area when I was very young; apparently the house we lived in is still standing. I also used to have family in the area; thankfully most of them have moved on to other areas.

Signal boosts/etc. appreciated.

I be spinning the most gorgeous yarn, I tell you. It is 2-ply. One half is a sort of beige/tan alpaca that I got from the farmers while the alpacas were standing around bleating. It was technically at a "garden show", but I saw alpacas and went, "Roving! There must be some!" And there was.

The other half looks like fire. It is a merino(?)-silk blend from Ms. Babbs that I got from the yarn store sale, and it is a joy to spin something so colorful. It goes from flame red to dark red to golden and it's just...mmm. And the two of them together are soooo soft.

I was a bit hesitant, when it came to plying, to put them together. My initial instincts all said, "Yes, these will go well together!" But then when I saw them, I thought, "Maybe they both need to be with black?" I checked in with my mom, who happens to have a good eye for color, and she was all, "YES. COMBINE THEM." So I did, and now the result of half of the spinning is drying in the bathroom. (Thus no photos right now.)

There is about 51 yards of 2-ply. (I am, in fact, using three different drop spindles to spin this yarn. It's special.)

Is the thought of knitting or crocheting with this yarn making you drool? Stay tuned over the next week or two then. My partner is planning on going for an MS-fundraising-bike-ride-thingamajig (TM), and I am planning on crowdfunding over here on dreamwidth...with crafted incentives that are knitted, spun, and animal-free (i.e. cross stitch or tie-dye). Her minimum fundraising goal in order to participate in the ride is $150; I'm hoping to blow that number through the roof. Anywho, keep your eyes peeled for more info coming soon. ^___^

P.S. Got tips for crowdfunding for this sort of thing? PM's with tips and/or comments are especially appreciated. :D

I apparently I have what I am referring to as nephew-plague. Or possibly niece-plague. Although statistically it is more likely to have come from the nephews.

Talking hurts. Fever. Sore throat. Etc.

Expect comments to be slow.

 For those following the saga of my dog and his suspicious moles, they are benign and he is healthy as a 15 year old dog can be~!

I haven't finished any projects lately, mainly because omg all the dizzies. However, I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of what I have been doing besides playing computer games. Just because, you know, photos! Fun!

So first off, the targhee/art batt that I spun a bit ago is knitting up really nicely. I am making a hat. Usually it would take me an afternoon to knit this (it's on US #10 needles, which are pretty sizeable making the knitting go quickly). However, I've had to pace myself to a round or two at a time.

Anyway, here goes:


The bottom half of a hat knit in a "twist" yarn of cream and a multicolored yarn. The hat is still on the needles, which have purple point protectors on them. The background is a gray table.

( 2 more photos under the cut, if you look closely you can see Glitz! )

So that's what I'm working on right now. That, and I had a story idea while waiting in the lab today ( spoilers about my plotbunny )

What are you up to these days?

A friend came over today when I was spinning*. She, like many people I know, was entranced by the movement of the spindle and the way the yarn got created.

I asked if she wanted to try, and she said yes but she was sure it wasn't as easy as I made it look. I said I'd just had practice, and that 5 year olds can learn. So she gave it a whirl. It went well, and is actually easier to teach than I expected. At least, this time.

I didn't get a photo of her yarn, but she made 10 feet of very gorgeous teal and purple yarn. I think her giddiness at fulling it (that's the part with making it wet and thwacking it to set the spin) was my favorite part of the whole experience. I don't think I made a lifelong spinner out of her, as she doesn't really have the time to knit. However, it did give her a greater appreciation of fiber and fiber things...because her basic reaction was, "This is how yarn gets made?"

And it made me realize (yet again) how separated many people have become from textiles, which used to be an intricate part of daily life for everyone. You /had/ to spin to make enough clothes so you could stay warm, etc. You had one, maybe two, sets of clothes. I don't think I'd choose to go back to then, but it sucks that the reason why clothes are so readily available (in "developed" countries) today is because of sweatshop labor and the devaluation of textiles.

If everyone paid for the real labor value of their clothes, you can better believe we would be a lot more selective about what we buy...and we'd probably be back to one or two outfits.

This was going to be a post about teaching spinning, but clearly it turned into something nearing a rant. Sorry about that. I think I'll leave it, though, because it keeps popping into my head every time someone tells me I should sell my yarn/knitting/etc.

I do it for love. Only the lovelies get it. <3 (And for that I am /incredibly/ privileged.)

*I may or may not have left spindles out on purpose when she came over, and had some roving available in her favorite colors.

Dear Circle,

This is a request from a family member for resources of a technological nature. I said I'd tap the dreamwidth hive mind.

(1) Android apps that help track medical symptoms. Which are the best ones? There are SO many out there it's kind of overwhelming. I have an iDevice and was hoping for something with functionality similar to Symple, which allows graphical tracking and really easy entry. Sadly, it doesn't seem to exist for Droids. Thoughts?

(2) Online Lupus resources? Not just things like the Lupus Foundation website, per se, more like Lupus forums and listservs and suchlike. If anyone knows of a good one, links would be much appreciated. Even IRC channels, perhaps, though I'm not sure how up for that my family member is at the moment (her hands are realllllly bothering her, so chat might not be so great).

Thanks, Hive Mind!

~lizcommotion

Today I went to a Fiber Farmer's Market. It is my first one of these farmers-bring-their-fiber/fibre-goodness-wares-directly-to-consumers things, and I think I am glad it was a small affair (as opposed to, say, Maryland Sheep and Wool, which includes actual sheep herding demonstrations complete with sheepdog and sheep! zomg!).

There were a lot of vendors, mostly small farmers and some sort of farm cooperatives where farmers sold their wool to a central farm who then dyed/packaged/resold. It was also really good that I brought my copy of the Fleece and Fiber Companion with me so I would know, for instance, that Targhee top roving was something I wanted to investigate further. I tried to focus on undyed fibers, because dyeing = fun. However, there were a couple that were reaalllllllllllllly pretty together that my shopping companion and I agreed to go halvsies on.

The thing I noticed most was that most - if not all - of the farmer's seemed genuinely happy doing what they were doing. I can imagine being fairly overwhelmed dealing with All The Fibre Geeks and All The Shoppers, etc., but the farmers seemed happy and proud of their animals. I even got little pamphlets about some sheep breeds!

Also, my shopping companion got a fleece and hand carders. I...did not go that far, but it was very tempting. It was a very soft Romney, for any who are curious. *drools*

PS How do I not have a sheep icon yet?

It seems like every yarn store I go to wants to sell one BFL (or Blue-Faced Leicester). Maybe everyone is breeding them these days? I dunno. They do make beautiful, lovely yarn. There is also an article about them in one of the Jane Austen Knits magazines, which I have not read yet. It's on my TBR pile, but brains.

Anyway, things to know about BFL:

• It's suuuuuuper soft. Like, Herbal Essences commercial from the early '00s soft.
• It has very long fibers (3-6 inches)
• Having long fibers means, at least for me, lots of pre-drafting and/or spinning from the fold and/or potential gnashing of teeth in the beginner stage when I didn't realize I needed to do those things
• I made these things with it, which are really pretty and suuuper soft even though the yarn is a very "beginner yarn"
• Judging from both the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook (highly recommend the book, btw) and commercially dyed yarns I have seen, it dyes well.
• Overall review: really really nice fiber, possibly available too much at the expense of other fibers, not so great if you're a beginner because it can be kind of frustrating. However, you can still make all the pretty things once you get the hang of it.

Oh, and this is what the sheep itself looks like.


A ewe and her lambs in a garden, white long locks, courtesy of Wikipedia

It originated - you guessed it - from Leicestershire and early Mendellian-inspired breeding programs in the 1720s led in part by Robert Bakewell. The first breed was the Bakewell Dishley Leicester, which died out not long after its breeder at the end of the 1700s. However, all of the Leicester longwool sheep breeds (i.e. BFL, Border Leicester, etc.) trace ancestry back to these early Bakewell Mendellian breeding experiments.

Apparently the secret to finishing a shawlette in one day* is to use big needles, big yarn, and do a pattern that is easy to memorize and that you're already familiar with. It helps if you also really like the yarn. This shawlette did not turn out as I expected, as I was thinking, "I'll just do a basic triangular shawl with the rest of the homespun yarn from the homespun affection I did awhile ago." Nope. Not happening. Instead it ended up being more woodlandsy in colors, with some novelty yarn mixed in, and also other homespun.

And thus I give you...the Pixie Shawlette (I would have made it bigger except it was on a deadline, and really, it's big enough for shoulders):


Triangular shawl with stripes going along the triangular pattern in purple, green, gray, dark green, cream, and purple-brown twist. Laying on a beige carpet in a ray of sunlight with the shadows of a window pane on it.

I also knit up some of the food-dye yarn( One photo below the cut )

I really like the way the yarn knitted up, and even though you can tell that some bits didn't take the dye because of the way I tied it I think that only adds to the effect of the variegation.

I also finished a scarf that I've been knitting off and on for months, but I don't have a photo of it. Sorry. It's blue and fairly simple, so. Maybe later I will photo.

Now there are a few questions I ask myself:

• What to knit next? (I have a couple projects on the needles, but new things call to me!)
• When the heck will I have energy to full (i.e. set the spin so I can knit it) the Wensleydale "Best Tea China" I dyed and spun?
• What am I going to knit with it? (It's 69 yards and about worsted thick-and-thin art yarn, I'd really like to make a scarf, but I think I'd have to have a yarn to pair with it. Unless it was really holey. Hmm...)

* Another part of the secret to All the Finished Objects is to be ordered to rest so you will recover from a flare-up.