FO, OTN and a Mile of Targhee

Here's a baby blanket knit for my neighbor's daughter Christie who had a baby girl earlier this month. Christie was only 16 when we moved here, and has grown into a woman, a teacher, and now a mother of 2. Her son is 3 and is the cutest little guy. Anyway, I finished this a few days ago, gave it a wash and dry, and it's sitting here ready to get delivered.

The yarn is Sirdar Spree which is a chunky cotton/acrylic blend and is really soft to the touch. Just right for a baby blankie!

On the needles is a pair of socks I started when I was going to Ann Arbor to see Stephanie (Yarn Harlot) I got as far as the heels and then the socks sat for a bit. Yesterday I decided to turn the heels so I could just go around and around at Kaitlyn's track meet later in the afternoon (which I didn't end up going to after all). I'm glad the heels are done though, because now it's almost mindless knitting to the end, and I'm hoping to make good progress on them tomorrow night. We are gathering at the home of one of the gals from my knitting group instead of at the coffee shop we normally meet at. We can get a little crazy if we want to. I'm making my famous guacamole and we'll have other snacks and drinks. I'm sure a good time will be had by all.

Yarn is Wildfoote from Brown Sheep that I got (REALLY CHEAP!) in February when I visited the factory. I love the soft pink...



I skeined the last of the plied Targhee (from the previous post) for Diane, and it came to about 250 yards. Added to the first skein which was 625 yards, I figured out that is 1750 yards of singles, which equals a mile....
a MILE!!! of singles. Oh my. No wonder it felt like I was never going to finish spinning! So I spun a mile of singles. Then I respun that same mile of singles to put more twist in them. Then I plied it into 1/2 mile of 2 ply yarn.

Diane is looking for just the right shawl pattern to knit the half mile of Targhee. (Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!)

I'm now looking forward to spinning some Merino for my friend Linda who created the logo for my business website Once In A Bloomoon Creations as well as a Bloomin' Knitiot logo (which I have unsuccessfully tried to add to the top of my blog...not being too great with HTML....so if you can help with that I'd be grateful for that too!)

Oh Happy Day!

It seems like I've been spinning this Targhee forever! Last night I finished plying the first bobbin and today I got it skeined and washed. It's just about dry after a stint out on the covered porch this afternoon.

Particulars:

Targhee top from Susan's Spinning Bunny

I somehow was able to spin this really thin. Much thinner than I thought I could, and pretty consistently. It was actually thinner than I was trying for, but decided to just keep going since it was working out ok. More yardage is not bad, it just takes a looooooooooong time to spin each ounce!


Once I was done spinning 2 bobbins, I was worried that I didn't have enough twist in the singles since they were so thin. So, believe it or not, I sent every yard back through the wheel for more twist. Dang! Would I ever get around to plying this stuff?

Finally I started plying and wondered if I was getting the right amount of plying twist. When I skeined it, it twisted back on itself a bit, so I thought maybe I had overplied, but once I gave it a bath, it hangs straight. Yeah! It poofed up a bit in the washing, and I am so anxious to send this to Diane.


I haven't done a WPI yet...I forgot to do that earlier. Curious to see what it comes out to be. I still have some more plying to do, but the first skein turned out to be 625 yards and it is 4 oz.


Eye candy:

Panes Anniversary

It was 2 years ago today that I started selling the pattern for my first design, the Panes Bag, online and in stores. Wow, a lot has happened since then! I have another pattern in the works, and a couple more in the brain. I hope to have them available to you soon.

Thanks
to all of you who have shown your support over the past 2 years!

It

We know in our brains...we know "it" will happen. We get that burst of warm weather in early spring. We get all excited. We bring out the shorts. We put away the woolens.

We spin on the porch in the setting evening sun.

Even though we know "it" will happen. After all, this is Michigan...

In the week that followed 2 days of 81 degree record-breaking temps and in the same week it was 70 degrees ..."it" happened.

This is what is going on outside my window as I type

IT:

Happy Easter!

Oh, and look at these cute little sheepy candies I found at the drugstore!

April Fool's Day with Yarn Harlot

After weeks of anticipation, April 1 was finally here and it was time to go back to the Ann Arbor Library to see Stephanie again. I left the house at 10:40am, picked up Kim and headed out. We wanted to be sure to be there plenty early to make sure we had a seat in the main room. No "overflow" room for us!

After a bit of a detour, we arrived at the library around 12:30 and found many many knitters already in attendance. We grabbed our seats and settled in. Mike had packed me a lunch, so I had a bit to eat, and Kim had a couple of power bars to keep her going. Before too long, Tim from the library made an announcement (which I guess had already been made once before we got there) for any newcomers to let us know that Stephanie was not in Ann Arbor. Stephanie was not even in Michigan. Stephanie was in Chicago. She had been on a flight that was unable to land that morning because of fog. Stephanie was TRYING to get a flight, and they would keep us posted.

So, the couple hundred of us sat. We knit many stitches. We chatted. We knit some more. We snacked (even though Tim told us there was no eating in the library) Sorry Tim, but we were hungry, and we were there for the long haul. Kim is in this photo, on the far left, in lime green, 1/2 way back.



There was no complaining. There was no fidgeting. There was no uprising. We came, and we weren't leaving until we saw Yarn Harlot. There was no need to entertain us...we had all brought our own entertainment and it was in our hands. However, the library people thought it would be fun to give us a parade of kids in their April Foolery hats they had made elsewhere in the library. There were 2 of these parades. We clapped for the kids and they looked at us rather oddly. It helped pass the time.



We got several more (non)updates from Tim, then finally he told us she was on a flight that was supposed to land around 3:30 and that hopefully she would be there by 4:00. She didn't arrive until 4:30. She came running in to cheers from the crowd, walked to the podium, looked at us all for a moment, and said....

CRAP!

Roars of laughter.....

Poor Stephanie had started her day at 3:00 AM and was just walking in to the event 13.5 hours later. She explained some of how things had gone badly all day (I'm sure we'll read more details on her own blog when she wakes up and has a chance to write about it). Then she told us how the car that was to meet her at the airport OH SO MANY HOURS before was no longer there, and wondered how she was going to get to Ann Arbor, because..."it was too far to walk"...when some random dude named Brad said "I can drive you to Ann Arbor". She said she checked Brad's passport, but still.... Anyway, Brad was at this time pointed out at the back of the room and also got a standing ovation. But how crazy is that???? Well, at least she got there. And we were happy.

Unfortunately Steph cut her talk short because the library's closing time was 6pm. Well Tim had already told us that they would let us stay past 6pm due to the circumstances. But maybe they didn't tell Steph that. Or maybe she was just too exhausted to give us more. She was her usual hilarious self, looking lovely in her Bohus and we soaked in every funny word.

Just being surrounded by knitters for all those hours was fun. There was a round of applause for an FO (which I have since found out was completed by Tracey) , Dana was handing out nametags for bloggers and then taking pix of all the nametags. We met Kyle who works at Threadbear (and Kyle's mom) and talked with them quite a bit. Waiting in line to get our books signed we chatted with a few more folks. Fun fun fun. There were many more bloggers there whose names I recognized but I wasn't taking notes (DUH) so I can't list them all here.

Finally it was our turn. I got up to the table, and Stephanie looked up at me, read my shirt (which I had made with my blog logo and URL) and she said to me "Are you really the Bloomin' Knitiot?"....a recognition which thrilled me and made me feel like "someone". I had made Stephanie some personalized pens and a beaded orifice hook, all of which she seemed to love (and will soon be available on my website).




She signed my books, and when Kim was getting her book signed, I went around Stephanie's back with my camera and she laughed when I said I was going to macro her Bohus.



It was just a riot. She is so down to earth and approachable, and I am just thrilled for all her success and for sharing herself with us.....events such as the book tour, but also in letting us into her life by continuing to write her blog, no matter how tired she is, no matter how frazzled or busy...she knows we are there waiting to read more, and she comes through. (Sometimes the natives get restless waiting for updates...myself included....but it's always worth the wait.)

Thanks for a great time, Steph. We love you!