Kiss My Knits!

So after I posted my little “Ack! Creature Comforts is on? Why did nobody tell me!?” comment yesterday, my father called and sheepishly said, “Did I not? I thought I did!” Aww. I didn’t mean you, Dad. It was a joke, honest.

Besides, he taped it. Way to go, Dad. 🙂

In spinning news…

Halfway done … Half to go.


I’m getting kind of sick of this fiber, as pretty as it is.

On the Jayne hat front, I’m plowing through them as much as possible this week, since production will most likely slow down once Emily’s out of school. She has this thing about me paying attention to her instead of sitting in a chair and knitting all morning. Go figure.

I’ve been saying this for the past two weeks, but I may try to head down to Yarns Forever this week, since it’ll probably be my last opportunity ever to do so. They don’t just sell yarn, but spinning and dyeing equipment too.

Okay, more laundry and Jayne hats. Way to use that college education! Woo!

Ha! Get it? Spinning yarns? Because this post will be about storytelling AND spinning?

…fine, never mind.

We had a great time at the storytelling festival. The acts were great, including Emily’s grandparents and her fifth-grade cousin, who was storytelling for a crowd for the first time. He’s acted before, but this was his first monologue-type performance. This boy’s got crazy talent. Remember me when you’re rich and famous, kid!

They had a really nice kids’ area put together as well, for when the young’uns got restless from listening to stories. At left, Emily attempts stilts with a little help from her Dad. At right… I don’t know who’s at right. I thought I was taking a picture of my daughter, but I guess this super-hero stepped into the frame. Oh well.


Emily was super-excited to see her cousins, with hugs all around. They had a good time playing all weekend. If you look at them, you will see yet more proof that my daughter gets most of her genes from her Italian father. All she got from my side was some freckles and a propensity for hiccups. Thanks to her Italian genes, even though she spent a fair amount of time in the sun and I spent all my time in the shade, I was the only one to get sunburned. My nose is peeling, but Emily looks great. Go figure.



All this activity did leave my daughter pretty worn out. She had a good time, but it was also overwhelming, in the way that new activities often are to her. Here she is resting with her dad. Aw.

I spun up more of the red stuff I got from Yarns Etc. I think I want to try to make socks from this, so I’m not sure whether I should ply it (twist it with another strand to make it stronger). I’m open to suggestion from spinners, because I’m still quite inexperienced at this.

I haven’t been keeping good track of how much of the original batch I’ve already spun. I thought I’d bought six ounces, so I didn’t want to spin more than three until I could figure out whether to ply it or not. I don’t have a postal scale (I really should, for the business) so I didn’t have an accurate way to measure what was left unspun.

What I wound up doing was attaching the skeinwinder to the top of my wheel and being sure it was balanced. Then I hung the bag of unspun fiber from the left arm and a bag containing something I thought was approximately equal in weight from the right. In this way, I determined that I have between a small juice box and a vienna sausage can’s worth of unspun fiber left. In other words, about 4.5 ounces. That doesn’t seem right – did I buy eight ounces originally? So now I’m stuck as to what to do.

All my charity Jayne knitting is done. I may actually put out a call and see if anybody else wants one – I’m feeling very inspired by Joss Whedon’s recent Equality Now post on Whedonesque. The man’s a good writer, you gotta give him that.

Emily’s been super-engaged lately, which is fantastic but also means I really have to bring my A-game. So I’m off for now!

Hats up for: NJ, CA, CO.

Had a good time at the Carolina Alpaca Celebration in Concord on Sunday. I went with turtlegirl76 and illiane. The animals were so cute I considered smuggling one out, but decided it probably wouldn’t fit comfortably in illiane’s SUV. Curses, foiled again! The event was geared more towards breeders, but was still fun.

However, we did have a good time at the free spinning seminar, which turned out to be more of a talk about shearing, picking, carding, and very little spinning. We got to see a bit done, though, and I learned that I like a double treadle, more modern machine than the single-treadle antique that I briefly experimented with in the seminar. No, that is not me in the picture, it is Donna Blackmon of Flint Ridge Alpacas.

There were, of course, vendors there, with all manner of alpaca and craft-related stuff. I wound up spending every single cent of the “mad money” my husband left me. (I had paid bills the day before and mentioned that we were officially broke, but oh well, I’d still have a good time. He left a wad o’ cash on the bedside table for me before he and my daughter took off for Laurinburg. Sweet!)



What’d I buy? Well, Creatively Dyed Yarn had a booth, so I had to get that pretty skein of sock yarn to the left, of course. Also, the one to the right, which is a little more tan and less pink than the picture shows. There was also some worsted, and from other vendors, a bar of really minty eucalyptus-y soap, a pair of incredibly soft baby alpaca gloves, some finger puppets for my daughter, and a little treat for my husband which I can’t show yet because apparently he does occasionally read my blog. Who knew?

Then it was back to Charlotte, where I helped turtlegirl rearrange her furniture. I swear, it was more fun than it sounds. Our cat mercifully let me sleep until 7:30 this morning, so I awakened full of pep! I’ve spent the day cleaning the house. It still looks like a sty, but it looks like a sty which could actually someday be clean. At least the piles of crap are smaller. Just gotta keep that momentum going.


Major down side? Today was Presidents’ Day and there was no school. Or so I thought. We had a snow day two weeks ago, and apparently the school system decided that today was a makeup day. I didn’t know this until my mother called at noon and mentioned it. Meanwhile, my daughter’s out of town. I seem to remember that when I was a kid, they just tacked all those days on the end of the year. I figured that’s what they’d do this time. Apparently not.

My daughter’s school has an automated system which they use to call us all the time, once in English and once in Spanish. If there’s a school play, or a “donuts for dads” type thing, we get calls. They couldn’t call and say “hey, there’s school today!”? Gr. So we missed a day, which is frustrating.

Well, it’s back on the alpaca horse tomorrow, but hopefully we’ll all be in high spirits. I know I feel better having a cleaner house and new yarn to play with.

Now when’s my next vacation?

Hats up for: OR, OR, and NY.