Trickin' Out My Ride

I can sure tell that winter has been around way to long, so to bring some light heartedness into my day I decided to make this. . . .







That's right, it's a spare tire cozy. My co-workers and husband think that I have to much free time on my hands, and I would have to say that they are right. The pattern is really a knitted doily, but when you use bulky yarn, and size 10 knitting needles you too can make a stunning, eye catching, tire cozy. Some of you might recognize this pattern from Jared Flood. It's the Hemlock Ring Doily Throw. I made it just as the pattern instructed, but then added loops around the outer edge and wove in 1/2 inch elastic.



Also, last Wednesday was the fiber exchange at my spinning guild meeting. This is the eye candy that I brought home. Everyone was really intrigued with my sheepdog fiber and many came back and traded more of their fiber for another ounce or two of it.


I just love the vibrant, blue, jewel tones of the these. I think I will be spinning it up very similar to what I did with last years exchange, but I do have a pattern in mind for this fiber. Hopefully with the full two pounds I will have enough to make it.

New Toys

Here are my two newest toys.

This first little beauty is a box tape loom. I purchased it new, but it was made to replicate ones that would have been made in the 1800's. These were common in households to make narrow bands of woven fiber. If you ever needed something to tie up a bag or use as a strap you would simply go over to the box loom and cut off what you needed.


The body of the box is made from green popular, with maple trim. And the reed, is made from canary wood.
It is a very simple loom to set up, and you can weave when you have time, and then either wind the finished tape on the dowel behind the reed, or let it gather in a basket on the floor. I think it is going to be a fun little loom to have up at work this summer. I think I might even let guests try it out.

The maker of this loom put these cute inlaid hearts into the loom as well. This heart lets me know that this is the back of the reed.

And since it's going with me to work I needed to make sure that it had my mark on it as well.

New toy number 2.

I thought having a small table loom that would be easy to carry around and do demonstrations on would be a good thing to have. So I went on Ebay and found this little beauty. This one is not a replica, but I'm not sure how old it is. When I did some research on similar looms I found that these were made as children's looms to learn how to weave. The size is 12" high, 15 1/2" wide, and 14 1/2" long.

The wood was very dirty and needed to be cleaned and oiled, so that was the first step in the restoration. The string heddles were also in very bad shape, so I threw those away and made new ones. In the above picture you can see that it is missing the dowel to tie your warp to. That also was an easy cheap fix. The reed however was in very good shape. No rust at all. Many of the other little loom like this one had very rusty reeds, and the wood on them looked like cheap balsa wood.

Here is my new loom all clean, oiled, with parts replaced, and all warped up.

I also did some light sanding with a fine sand paper and steel wool. The wood is now smooth so as not to snag the fibers, and it works as good as it looks.

I already have two demonstrations to do this week, so I'm happy that I bought these looms.

2011 Fiber Exchange

It's that time of year when a splash of color gets added to a long grey winter. Next Wednesday is the Wasatch Woolpack fiber exchange, and this is what I did. First off as a reminder of the rules, the president of the guild decides on a color or technique. This year the color is "Hues of Blues." If you choose to participate, you dye 2 pounds of ready to spin fiber, and then divide it up into 1 ounce bundles. The bundles must have your name, type of fiber, and color of dye.


So this was what I started with, 3 colors of blue dye.


Two pounds of some unique fiber. I like to call it my "Sheepdog" fiber because it's 50% Malamute dog undercoat, and 50% Corriedale sheep wool. This has been in my stash for long enough, so I decided to use it for the exchange.

The fiber is soaking in a pot of water with some vinegar.

As the water and fiber begin to heat up, I sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of each dye onto the fiber. I don't stir or move the fiber in anyway at this point.

As the temperature begins to heat up, the dye melts into the fiber. Still I don't stir or move the water in anyway.

After the water starts to steam, I then cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes. After that time I carefully flip the fiber over in the pot to make sure all the fiber gets some dye on it.

After the fiber has cooled, I rinse it out and hang it up to dry. Then comes the long boring part. I then weigh the fiber into one ounce bundles, and put my tag on them.
And here is the finished product. Two pounds of fiber ready to be exchanged.

And since I had a little more than two pounds, I decided to spin up the left-overs to see what the yarn would look like. Not bad, and did I mention that blue is my favorite color.

I can't wait to see what everyone else has done because I already have a project in mind for this years fiber exchange roving.

Odds and Ends

It's almost that time of year again. That time when the fiber exchange at my spinning guild comes around. Knowing that I had to make some room for this years exchange, I looked at what was left from last years exchange. I had been spinning some of the fiber for smaller projects, but I still had quite a bit left unspun. This is it, a basket of odds and ends. So what I did was divide up the the one ounce strips into smaller sections, and placed them all in a basket.

Then I turned on Netflix to watch movies, and randomly pulled out the small strips of roving and spun them up. It took me only a couple of nights of this to complete.

I then plied the bobbins together not trying to match anything, I just let the randomness of the threads come together. This is what I ended up with. About 1300 yards of beautiful yarn.

I really like how this come out. I was going to knit a sweater out of it, but I'm afraid that I might come up just a tad bit short. So, the yarn is waiting for just the right project, or maybe I will make many small items out of it.

It does feel good to have that basket emptied, and next month it will be full of different hues of blue. I think I'll do the same thing this year, only this time I will have enough for that sweater.

Ready For Spring

I have a bad case of cabin fever. I'm tired of the snow and cold. I am so looking forward to warm days, and green grass. So as I was looking through some of my pictures, I found some green grass along with my favorite sheep grazing.

This handsome fellow is Sam. He is the most sociable sheep of my flock. He is very gentle, and took to halter training very quickly.

This ewe is Bella. I love her wool. When all the sheep where sheared last year I sent their wool to be processed into yarn, and when it all came back hers was the softest.

This is Lottie. She doesn't like to be handled much. In fact when the vet came to give everyone some shots, she was the only one that had to be lassoed. I still like her though, and she is an important part of the flock.

The last of the group is Annie. She is the mischief maker of the group . . . well next to Bella. She is a clown and has the cutest wiggle in her tail when a fly lands on her back. I don't use her wool because she really doesn't have wool. But she is a sweetie and she also likes to come with me on the halter, though she is a little more skittish.

All in all the flock loves to be with me. To the point that they will come into the house if I'm out of their site. One day I let them out to graze in the yard and went into the house through the back door to get to the front of the house, and the next thing I knew here came the whole flock running through the house, out the front door, and onto the front porch. Those that saw it about fell over laughing.

Well, spring is only a couple of months away, and it won't be long before me and the flock are out playing in the sun and the grass again. Hope I can hang on.

Here We Go Again

Just as I said, as soon as I wore my sweater again Gary was reminded of the sweater that he wanted. He changed his mind about the previous sweater because two other people in our neighborhood had the same sweater, so he chose another one.

We placed the order and in just a view days this box arrived with all the goodies to make his new sweater.

This is a close up of the sweater. The color in real life is a navy blue and silvery cream. It is a much easier design pattern than the last one so, I don't for see any problems with this one. Another big difference is this one doesn't have a zipper. I simply need to sew two clasps at the neck. I think the most difficult thing about this sweater is the name. It's called "Eivindsplass". I can't even begin to sound it out. I will be starting it today.

Stay tuned for updates and progress.

Yes, These Can Be Used For Knitting

I've been looking for a way to organize my circular knitting needles for quite some time, and I finally found the perfect organizer. I didn't find it in my local yarn shop, but in a sporting goods store in the fishing department. Can you guess what it is? Yep, its a worm binder. You know the kind that fishermen use to store those plastic worms and lures.
It has 12 plastic zip lock pages that are attached by 3 rings. They are strong, see through, and are easy to open and close. I printed labels with the size of needles that are in each page so it makes it very easy to find the needles that I need.

It has two mesh pockets. One in the front and one in the back so I can store all my other small accessories like cable needles, crochet hooks, measuring tapes, stitch holder etc... Did I say how much I love this new tool. It is small and I can keep it with my knitting. No more having to run upstairs for different size needles or other tools. Yep, this is my new favorite knitting tool and it came from a sporting goods store.

Next new tool that I just love. This is a laundry spinner, but what it really comes in handy for is, after I wash fleeces or other fibers I simply put the newly washed fiber in a small pillow case and spin out all the water. The fiber comes out mostly dry and it take almost no time for it to finish drying. No more rolling fiber up in a towel to squeeze out the water.

The drain just goes into the sink and all the water that is spun out of the fiber goes right down the drain. Now, I don't only spin out fiber I also use it to spin out water from my hand knits and other delicate fiber article. Because there is no agitation there is no felting and everything comes out just wonderfully.

These two tools have really made things much quicker and easier, and that leaves me more time to do what I really enjoy doing with fiber.