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Dear Ellen,

Max and Ruby were very content to ride out the storm on cushy blankets.  But now it is past.  It was amazing how quickly it went from dark and dreary to sunny and blue.  And it appears we got through pretty well unscathed.    There are some trees down across our path in the woods.     And our farmer may have lost some of his corn crop…not sure.  (These shots taken about an hour earlier than the ones at the beginning of this post…like I said, amazing change.)  If the flattening of the corn isn’t total, it might still dry out and the combine could get in there.  Keep your fingers crossed for him, he’s a nice guy.

I finished spinning the singles of the BFL last night as hoped and have started the plying. Once plied, do I need to whack it?  I presume that would be in a soaked/squeezed condition prior to hanging to dry with a weight?  There is about 310 yards wrapped around the box and another 140 or so (my best guess) either on or headed towards the spindle. That means I should have enough for Saroyan…and I think this would be great yarn for that pattern.

Love, Jan

Dear Jan,

I’m pretty sure this young ‘un came looking for that pretty yarn that was hanging off the deck last night.

Or maybe for one of the squirrels that have been hanging around the bird feeder.

We told the kiddens they were not allowed to play with this guest.

Love,

Ellen

Dear Ellen,

You are quite good at keeping a secret.  I don’t know if you put her up to it, but for weeks Erica of DesigKnit has had a surprise up her sleeve.  Inspired by the picture of Argus and Io that I posted to our blog a while back, she did a special dye of some beautiful Polwarth — it’s called Fair Winds Peacock.  And it was waiting for me when we arrived at the farm last week.  As I told her, you could hear my “SQUEE!” all the way in the next county.  These pictures are taken with some of Argus’ molted tail feathers…amazing how accurately she hit the colors.  In the last picture I did some photo-editing to super-saturate the colors just for fun.  I tell you, no super-saturation needed — it is a stunning braid of fiber and I’m so looking forward to spinning it.  Thank you, Erica!!  XOXOXO!!!

I’ve got to get the BFL finished first though.  I thought I might spin a bit of the Polwarth to try it out this weekend, but I find I’m compulsively monogamous when it comes to this spinning thing.  I’m a little over half way through the braid I bought at Sock Summit, so although it must wait, the Polwarth won’t wait TOO long.  I love the little mongolian yurts that come off of the turkish spindles.  At least that’s what they look like to me.  This one is about 24 grams of single ply.  The picture of the 2-ply is about 250 yards or so.

I don’t think I put up any pictures of the finished Sweater from Down Under, did I?  Here it is and I’m very pleased with it.  Despite the little pook of belly sticking out, the vertical celtic cabling has a pretty nice slimming effect.  And it has a comfortable sweatshirt feel to it so is going to get a lot of wear, of that I’m certain.  I feel “handsome” with it on — very warm too, so the wearing will wait till this fall or winter.

I took the dogs hiking about the property this weekend and as always we found some interesting things.  Here is a delicate little flower growing by it’s lonesome in the corn.  It looked like morning glory to me, but it was mid-afternoon, so must just be a relative.  And here is corn that has been shucked and eaten while still on the stalk.  I’m almost certain it was deer…you can see where there has been some serious tramping in the areas where this corn on a stick buffet has gone.

As we rounded the corner to come back up the driveway I got a full view of the farmhouse.  I had to catch my breath.  There is not doubt that we have many, many good times ahead of us here.  Makes me realize that I’m really about ready to make a transition.  By this time next year I hope I can finish up my work with the Navy and make myself into a full time farmer and designer.  Happy thoughts.

Happy thoughts to you for the coming week!  Love, Jan

Hi, Jan,

Life has been busy.  When I finally stopped to look up the MN state fair entry date, I discovered the deadline was the previous day.   I guess that simplifies things, doesn’t it?

I’ll spend the time I’d normally spend dropping off and picking up entries by continuing to ply the singles I mentioned a couple of posts ago.  There’s still time to enter the contest - I’m barely halfway done.  If you haven’t guessed how many yards I’ll end up with, please comment on the contest post now.

Cheers,

Ellen

Dear Ellen,

Sock Summit is a memory, well a collection of memories…and a pile of loot.  I took the formidable mountain of yarn, fiber and knitting related tools and gadgets that I acquired in Portland up to the farm this weekend.  Once there I had a wonderful time reliving the great times we had up there as I went through it all.  Not a single regret in the pile.  Here it all is — from several angles.

I loved the stitch marker swap you so brilliantly conceived and executed.  Unfortunately one cellie’s marker (the green acorn) is missing from this first picture.  I was quite alarmed.  But I found it when I went through the larger collection — can you spot it?  And don’t you just grin whenever you see the cellie in her tiara??

Classes were so FABU!!! Cat Bordhi, Amy Singer, Kate Atherley, Gayle Roehm,…FRANKLIN HABIT!!  He really helped me up my game in the photo department.  Just take a look at how my Lingonberry Scarf photographed using my “normal” settings…and then look at how rich the chocolate color appears after adopting his advice.  And getting the color right on my Hugs and Kisses Socks previously thwarted me.  Not any more!  Also, he taught us that when photographing socks, you really need to have the camera at an angle that is flattering, the most flattering of which captures a side view of and arched foot like on a mannequin.  Much nicer than the many “self portraits” of socks on the knitters’ foot from above.  A sure recipe for cankles!

And I have to admit that I’ve succumbed to the spinning bug…18 grams of the BFL that I bought at Fiber Optic is now plied into a lovely fingering weight yarn…and about 9 more grams are a single ply.  The photo here is the one you took of my first mini-mini-skein spun from that sample I picked up in the market place.  There will be more photos of my spinning in the future, I’m sure.  The zen quality of the repetitive motion with no patterns or variety of manipulation allow me to empty my mind — something I surely need these days.  (No comments from the peanut gallery regards how easy you might imagine that to be!)

VCC and VCP and I had a great time being treated like royalty at the nail salon.  There are many other great memories too…meeting Carin of The Knit Wits during the podcaster meetup — and Paula from The Knitting Pipeline too.  (Darn!  I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture!)   

You laughed so hard it looked like you would choke (yourself)… the other cellies laughed a lot too!  And we saw sheep, yarn bombing and lots of young knitters…enough to make your heart sing! 

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Of course the very best part was spending a week with you and our cellies.  So very much fun, so very much laughter, so very much love.  It was like we went through a magical portal into another dimension.

Love, Jan