Weaving Weekend VIII

I forgot the digital camera until about halfway to Groton, so I had to wait until I returned home for a picture. Weaving weekend is sponsored by the Prairie Fiber Arts Guild, but weaving isn't the only thing going on. Lots of spinning, knitting and eating of course. This year's course was on tapestry weaving taught by Torrie Hannah.

I kept to my vow to use up some yarn in the stash and was sorely tempted when our instructor brought the Kareoke she was using. Nice single yarn, but was using the variagated colors so that one skein would be many different colors and they all went so nicely together. Not sure how I feel about tapestry weaving on the whole yet. I haven't finished.

The weather was so nice that I wished I had the wheel with me so I could just sit outside and spin. I did get some knitting done on Friday night though. Lots of talking, some folks from Knitter's Magazine were there and they always have interesting stories about the world of knitting and traveling.

P/T Conferences

Spring conferences at the senior high level are usually pretty quiet during the fourth quarter. It was raining and there were other events, I also have mostly juniors and seniors. As usual, it is the parents whose children are doing well that come to conferences, not the parents who have have been sending notes/emails home and asking their kids to come in and get extra help/turn assignments in. Some read during downtime, some gradepapers, some surf the internet. I knit. I can put down knitting right away, I don't get so lost in my own world that I won't notice when someone sits down at my table. This was a summary of my evening:

A cheery bright sock for spring. This Trekking (I think), the band ball has disappeared on my desk at home. I hope to find it again someday.

81% Finished

Well, that's what the news said today as far as lambing goes. I have two gifts to present:

This is Teyani's American Pie. Depending on the light the purple and blue change a little.

Say A Little Prayer is the colorway. Also from Crown Mountain Fibers. These were worked on over Easter when I couldn't take the wheel with me. I have finished And the Beat Goes On and am currently working on Love Me Tender, both in 1 pound batches. Working this large of batch has been interesting. I think I have got it down now. Will share more later. I hurt my wrist--I can knit and spin, but I can't type or wind skeins.

SSS

It's time once again for second-sock-syndrome. I really don't think it will take that long to get the second one done, once I get some time to actually get it started--those darn baby gifts!!

This is American Pie from Crown Mountain Fibers in a modified old-shale pattern. The modification?? I forgot the purl row and knit it instead. Oops. Looks good though. Easy pattern and I think it looks fab with the stripiness in the yarn. Teyani rocks!! These are for me and I can't wait to get the other done.

Post Easter Post

Did get some knitting done over the Easter holiday. But we have another baby gift first. This one is in the Wild Thing colorway from Crown Mountain Farms.

It's Hatching Time

More baby gifts! The hat on the right has been posted before, but the socks weren't finished. I didn't have enough yarn to do socks for the other hat. They are part of the same skein which was a handspun/dyed merino I made for a scarf. The hat on the left is for a boy whose mom my husband doesn't know as much, so they just get a hat. The pink on is for a girl that he knows better.

Introducing...

This is George and Gracie. They just came in the mail on Friday. They are actually for work and not home use. I usually have two in my classroom, but one was stolen earlier in the year. The older model was actually smaller and all black including a black pan which blended in too nicely on black lab counters. Me and my chickens tend to forget to put the balances away at night and they were just small enough to slide into a backpack. The new ones are larger and will stand out a little more on the counters. There are those on the market that have a feature that will allow you to lock the balance to something. The problem is that those ones cost about 4x as much. Let's see, public school.... it's cheaper just to buy a new one every year. So, I was left with one balance and it met an untimely death last week when a student moved the cord to plug in their laptop. Student tripped over cord and there went my balance. Again, cheaper to buy new (and faster) than get the old one fixed.

So why are they named? It is important to use the same balance for the duration of an experiment. If I remember to put the balances away at night during a two-day experiment, I need to know which one is which. Not sure if the act of moving the balances negates this idea or not. George and Gracie sounds much better than A and B. I even had fun making the labels and learned how easy cropping can be with a tablet PC.

George and Gracie came from HBI Technologies, which is wholesale only, but they do have links to authorized sellers online. Both measure to 0.01 g and cost less than $100/each.

Spin-Spin-Spin

So what has been occuping my time? Spinning. This is one pound of The Beat Goes On from Crown Mountain Farms. I am now in the process of plying. I wind my bobbins off into a center pull ball and ply from it. I feel like I have more control over it and it is more comfortable for me. I have problems with the singles getting caught on the bobbins with the built-in lazy kate that my Traveller has.

I have also solved the problem with the digital camera. Crappy batteries! I had put new batteries in before, but this time I put a different brand in (not the dollar store ones) and have results. Below is a Respect from Crown Mountain Farms. I love it!