Bubble Crepe

Caracol by Malbrigo

The past few times I've been into my local yarn shop I've noticed and lusted after a yarn called Caracol by Malabrigo. The last time I was in, I sat down and looked at it closely - it's bubble crepe! I can make that!

I grabbed some Cjkoho BFL  and sewing thread.

I spun a woolen single Z, about worsted weight.

I plied it S with the sewing thread.

I ran my yarn back through my wheel again S, doubling the ply twist.

Then plied it again with the thread Z. And presto chango, bubble crepe!

It's so easy and fun, I made a whole pile of it.

Now to knit something......

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool

This year I taught at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival for the first time. It was marvelous! It'sa smaller show (7,500 people) than the gargantuan shows like Maryland and Rhinebeck, and that's great.

It's one of those shows that people talk about being great, but I've never been quite sure.

This show moves at a slower pace giving everyone time to talk and shop and learn. This show really is what I think about when I think about a state sheep and wool festival.

Andrea Mielke Schroerwrote a great recap of the show itself for the Craft Industry Alliance blog.

I had an excellent time. My friend Erica rode along with me. We stopped at a Tandy leather store on our way from Michigan to Wisconsin.

The fairgrounds are presided over by a giant cow, the Michigan fairground has a huge chicken. There were so many sheep and educational booth here and I had time to actually see them.

There are two barns for shopping, and they are packed with handpicked vendors. I shopped at Snyder Spindles, Fiber Optic, Jennie the Potter, Green Mountain Spinnery. I am regretting a few things. One is not buying a sweater's worth of yarn at Green Mountain! Another involves some incredible Jacob roving, but I may remedy that one.

My classes were fantastic, they were full and the space was a little tight, but everyone was happy to accommodate and move furniture. My students spun like the wind and had the best questions! Everyone was just happy and friendly at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool. The classroom photo up there is from Emily Wohlscheid's Tweed Batt class, I forgot (again) to take pictures in my classes.

There was excellent food too, several food trucks came over from Madison and I would like to eat the Shepherd's Pie (with lamb) dumplings I had, every single day. Ann Krieg took us to a supperclub for dinner - it's a Wisconsin thing and it was retro-cool.

On the way home Erica and I had to stop at the Mars Cheese Castle and I donned the hat.

Now I know what everyone meant when they said the Wisconsin show is great; I'll be applying to teach at Wisconsin again next year!

In case you were wondering, my cart came and it holds a tired teenage boy.

And yes, I gave him a ride in it.

New Knittyspin and I Bought a Cart

Deep Fall Knitty is live and you know what that means, a new Knittyspin!

It's the 15th anniversary issue of Knitty and my 5th year of doing Knittyspin.

This issue I talk about the difference between heather and tweed and make some batts to illustrate my points.

I could make and spin only tweed. I've had a many decades love of tweed yarn. Take a look at my column and let me know if you want and points clarified or any further experiments done.

And yes, after all of the enthusiastic response to my question about collapsible carts, I bought one. Did you doubt that I would?

I got a purple one and it's winging it's way to me now. Dick's Sporting Goods has them on sale right now, if you need one or another one. Thanks to all of you cart lovers for your input!

I Am Curious About These Carts

I'm still unpacking from Wisconsin Sheep and Wool (which was so much fun!) and I can't stop thinking about the carts a lot of the spinners were using to tote their wheels and spinning stuff.

They hold a ton -  a wheel, folding chair, tool bag, shopping, a lunch cooler and collapse into the back of a car. I've never seen so many spinners using them as I did at this show.

They aren't cheap, but could make my shelping life easier. Do spinners use them outside of a fairground setting? They're kind of big to get in an elevator and roll around a hotel retreat. On the other hand, I usually take up half of the elevator with all of my Ikea bags.

If you have one, will you tell me how much you love it, if you use it at hotel and shop based classes and where you got yours. Many thanks!

I'm already thinking of ways to decorate my cart. I'm sunk aren't it?

Hipstrings Striped Top Part Two

Remember this top from Hipstrings? I was going to spin it into a fine cable yarn. But several people suggested things that had to do with color, so of course I had to go down that road instead.

I wasn't making the connection between this striped top and a striped batt. It's the same thing just on a smaller scale. If I spin in the direction of the fiber's grain the colors combine into a sexy heathery yarn. If I spin against the direction of the grain in the fiber the color plays out in brighter chunks of color, less blended.

You can see it in these bobbins, one is blended and one is chunkier. I plied them on themselves, fraternal not identical yarns.

Left, yarn spun with the grain of the fiber, blending all of the colors. Right, yarn spun against the grain, one color at a time.

Here are the yarns with a chunk of top indicating the direction that the yarn were spun.

Why didn't I buy more of this fiber? I have so many ideas now!

She's Landed; I Still Need Tissues

Before and after dorm room photos prove Isobel is comfortably settled at Buffalo.

There was a lot of crying, mostly me. And there's been lots of texting, both of us.

She's already made new friends and is getting ready to start training for D1 level diving.

The house is a little quiet. Her stuff was still everywhere when we got home.  I will admit to raiding her art supplies as I put them away in her room.

It's a big change for everyone. I'm still carrying tissues with me.

I already have her first care package started - it's mostly stuff she forgot, and we're all planning to visit during family weekend in October.

It's going to take a bit for everyone to find our feet, but in a few weeks I suspect I won't need my tissues anymore.

Here She Goes, Pass the Tissues

This is loaded up in the car and we are on our way to take Isobel to Buffalo for college.

I think I've had a bit of a cry every day for almost two weeks. I am sad she's going, but also so proud of her and excited for her. It's hard to explain the torrent of emotions in words, so I cry.

She's ready, really ready, and we are mostly ready. I'm excited to watch and hear everything as she goes thorough in this next part of growing up. I just don't want to say goodbye.

I'm hoping it will be like kindergarten where the girl you leave sad at the door, is laughing by the time you walk around the corner and peek in the window, and full of stories to tell you the next time you see each other.

Nashville Part 2: Super Summer Knitogether

Teaching at SSK 2017 was so much fun! Leslie and Laura (and Sara and Gwen) put on a great retreat.

I had superb students that were game for anything. Look at them draped in wool when it's 100 degrees outside and we had wobbly air conditioning in our classroom! They even took their free time to knit swatches of our class spun yarns.

One of the great things that Laura and Leslie do is to have many, many things available to try. One night it's knitted things, one room of sweaters, one room of accessories - all to try on and fondle.

One night it's tools - two rooms full of knitting needles, fiber processing tools and other goodies and a ginormous circle of spinning wheels to try. I helped sell a couple of wheels that night.

We were in Nashville and we ate well! Our dining hall looked like the Hogwarts great hall and it had a soft serve ice cream machine. I ate barbecue with Ross Farms and wish I had ordered the same sandwich as Lee Meredith (mac and cheese with pimento cheese) at a grilled cheese restaurant. I drank a lot of sweet tea.

And of course my loot! This is a decidedly unsexy picture of my haul from the mighty SSK marketplace, but I will talk about most of it separately in other blog posts.

Ready? Clockwise from top left: Hipstrings Corriedale top, Two bags from the Fat Squirrel (I could have bought them all), battlings and top from Hobbeldehoy, my SSK goodie bag, Hipstrings WPI and twist angle tools, two bags of dyed locks from Hopkins Fiber Studio, two Akerworks bobbins for my Hansen, a Wonder Woman bag from Whimzee Stitches (this has already been stolen by my daughter), and this year's tour shirt from Ross Farm.  Not shown a Turkish spindle from Jeri Brock and some yummy smellies from Tuft Woolens.

I wrote about the Hobbeldehoy battlings and Jeri Brock's Flying Pig spindle on the the KnittyBlog yesterday.

SSK is one of those rare retreats where everyone helps each other, questions just get thrown out and everyone contributes an answer or demonstration without bickering and everyone laughs. There were so many jokes and songs and so much laughing. I hope I get to go back!