Sunday, March 22, 2009

My first heel!

Pictured here is my first heel, attached to my first cast-on bonnet using ravel-cord.




It's also my first toe! You can see the ravel-cord a little better here.





Why the ravel-cord? Because w/o it I'd need to snip the sock from the cast-on bonnet being careful not to snip the cast-on bonnet. Well...I'm not that careful. But look how easy it is to take off the ravel cord. First find and pick out the knot:





Then, pull one end of the ravel-cord:





And voila, no snipping!





Credits: K for taking the picture when both my hands were busy.
Laura Schickli who's booklet contains the recipes I followed for both the cast-on bonnet as well as heels/toes.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Plans to Spin



I just got home from an Estate Sale. Hosted by Glenna Harris Weavers, they would share part of the income with 2 other guilds, Fiber Artisans and Serendipity Spinners. The spinner/weaver was a guild member. She stocked up fibers, and stored them well to spin up when she retired. But she became ill and died. Among the treasures there was an Ashford Spinning Wheel that had never been put together. One of the guild members finished assembling it at the sale. There were some books. But mostly there was fiber. Wool, wool/silk blends, merino, hand painted colonial (70s) wool, pencil roving, alpaca, pin drafted blends, several fleeces and other fibers weighing approximately 55 140* lbs in all. All had been carefully packed away for later. I came with hopes of getting a good deal as everything was priced to move. I left with one of several sample pillows, a guild project. The brown stuff -- some of the most gorgeous alpaca I'd ever seen. Some merino, dyed and undyed, some handpaint, a couple of bags of silk/wool blend. I also picked up a book on twills (weaving). As spinners, knitters and weavers we always laughed at achieving SABLE, Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy. It's not all that funny now. *added later, the first number was an estimate after about 1/3 of the fiber was weighed. Note: It takes about 2 lbs of wool to make a sweater. Sale ends Sunday. Location: Peninsula Crane, San Jose, CA.