Smatterings

  • there and back again

    It is telling that I finally received my Ravelry invitation on September 15th and my last blog post is dated the 14th.  Everything takes a bite of time.  Lately, the time eating monsters have been ravenous. 

    There’s always more to it.  Last Monday I hit the road and drove south to take care of business stuff.  Nice drive.  Here in the northeast, it is "high season", peak color should be this week and next.  All the way into Massachusetts the leaves were turning red.  In the south, the Swamp Maple shows the most color early, in the north, the Sugar Maples.  Seems early for so much southern color but the summer was dry for a lot of the northeast.  I’ve heard that forces early color.  Not my hill, to the contrary, we were wet.   While I was in the office, I took advantage of the FAST internet and finally finished loading the data, the jpgs (read that yarn), the software patches and all the other stuff that takes forever on dial up, into the new store.  Check it out, Ball and Skein now has a proper online shopping cart and address: ballandskein.com 
    The pictures on the sidebar of the blog link to it.  Hopefully, without any problems.  Most everything is there now, the skein winders, the Spindler’s Kate, yarn… all the stuff.

    Note to Manise: You are amazing.  You should be a detective, you saw it immediately. And yes, that IS what I have been doing.  lol…!

    The apples are "in".  I’m peeling and bagging apples for pies and freezing others already sauced.  It is so nice to be able to pull bags of ‘pie ready’ apples from the freezer all winter.  Takes most of the work out of it.  If I could only get the crust down…

    I’ve been sticking to simple knitting, the monkey socks and the tashi scarf, things I don’t have to think about.  The second sock needs a toe.  The scarf…. half done.  I’m playing with fringe ideas.  Beads, of course. 

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    A present to myself arrived while I was out of town.. These are now my new favorite needles (from Knit Picks).  Wonderful finish, sharp tips and fun!!!

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    The radio dogs are everywhere.  Seems the combine farm operator wants the bear out of the corn.  The hunters know about the mama and the three cubs, and they are all looking for her.  Damn them.

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    16 responses to “there and back again”

    1. So what’s your Ravelry name? Gotta “friend” you!

    2. I bet I can help you with your pie crust issues.

    3. Manise *is* a detective! 🙂
      Love the new scarf. And I’ll have to check out those pretty needles.

    4. oooo..those needles do look like fun! (as do the beads..nice project!)
      Congrats on getting all the work on your store complete!

    5. Manise

      Ha! You crack me up. I’ve gotten to know you pretty well eh? Those new needles are pretty and swirly! Off to check too! Cool scarf- you do have a thing about beads eh? Great placement of them!

    6. I’m intrigued. How do you do your pie apples so that you can just pull them out of the freezer and go bake? It’s prime apple season here and I would love to have a good idea for preserving them.

    7. I so miss New England, and most of all in the fall. Enjoy!

    8. What kind of monsters would want to kill a mother of three… I feel your anger and worry. These needles are quite impressive!

    9. I thought it was illegal to kill a mama, even in hunting season! Sickos. I hope she comes in the night and poops in their hunting boots.

    10. The shop looks good !
      Sure hope mama bear will get away safe with her cubs.
      We also have apple trees in our garden but they are not good enough to eat or make pies out of them.

    11. Wow! You have been busy!! I’m so happy for you that you got your “real” shop set up and rolling. I refuse to think about how utterly gorgeous it is in your neck of the woods right now. Even if we did get snow here last night…..

    12. You’re right about Manise. The stuff that that girl can sleuth out is really amazing. I’ve seen it first hand!

    13. As a big fan of click-to-pay, I’m very excited about your store’s “upgrade”. 🙂
      And the scarf is looking lovely! The beads for your fringe are just perfect.

    14. Glad to hear the weather report. The sock needles (tried them out last night courtesy of Lorrie) are SHARP and good. Tip is quite tapered, and needs getting used to.
      The store looks great, much easier to navigate.

    15. Donna in Ma aka Donnalee

      I like those needles too… but…do you really like them? Is the color distracting? What size are you using?

    16. Pie crust: if you have something along the food processor lines, the steel blade and the butter/lard/whatever/and the flour into breadcrumb-size works really well and very fast.
      I may get me some of those needles but every time I think about putting my stash on Ravelry I know I have been a Bad Girl for a very long time.

  • tashi

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    "tashi"

    65% merino / 20% bamboo / 15% silk

    I’ve been knitting a scarf with it and can tell you that the drape is terrific, it is soft and it is absolutely washable!

    I’ve also posted six new sock yarn colors.  Nothing like a wool festival to get me motivated.

    I spent an hour or so at the mostly ‘local’ library getting these pictures posted.   They have wireless.  My other choice is a slightly more local pizza place but then I end up drinking a wonderfully large glass of stout or something and lose my concentration.  Mrs. Paul just tapped me on the shoulder, time to go get Chinese for dinner.   

    5 responses to “tashi”

    1. Manise

      Tashi looks lovely and soft. Nice new colors too! How was your Chinese dinner?

    2. What gauge does the tashi knit to? Fingering, DK, or Worsted? It is absolutely gorgeous and I am coveting the Atlantic. But is one skein enough for a scarf or something?

    3. It looks fabulous. It sounds fabulous. I really need a job so I can have some!

    4. Inside joke: As long as when Mrs. Paul taps you on the shoulder, she doesn’t say, “Hey, it’s Jesus Goldstein…”
      LOL.

    5. Gorgeous colors. I especially like the “rose’ colored one in the upper left. Can’t wait to see your scarf knit up.

  • the spindler’s kate

    One of the items that C wanted to take to the VT S&W last weekend was the Spindler’s Kate.  He pulled a board of spaulted maple from our wood pile and made six beautiful boxes.  That meant I had to get busy and spindle up a couple sleeves worth of singles to demonstrate.  When it came time to ply, I decided to bring along my Jenkins Turkish spindle.  It holds so much and the little center pull ball is very convenient for handling.  Here’s how it went.  Perfectly.  That little skein? Not quite so little, there are 90 yd in it.  That was all the fiber I had in that little batt I’d carded.  Merino. Silk. Alpaca.  I’ll make more, different, but more.

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    The more I spindle using this method, the more portable I see my spinning becoming.  I find my spindle is traveling with me to the mail box, while waiting for skeins to wind, sitting on the bench across from the barn, wherever.  Perfect.

    ps. I am STILL working on the new website.  The Spindler’s Kate will be on it. As soon as I can figure out the shipping module.  Sheesh!  It’s always something.

    6 responses to “the spindler’s kate”

    1. 90 yards of beautiful spindle spun yarn!
      …amazing how much can be done with “bits” of time spent here and there…lovely!

    2. I packed a spindle for my trip. 🙂

    3. Manise

      Lovely! And for sale too? Perfect! I love plying on my Turkish spindle and the resultant 2 ply “muffin”. Super skein btw.

    4. It was wonderful to see you on Saturday and visit for a bit – I’m saving my pennies for a Kate! ;o)

    5. The yarn looks gorgeous and the Kate is making spindling seems that much more interesting to me.

Our lives are dyed the colors of our imagination.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

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