Through The Yarny Curtain

TKGA 2015: Arriving in San Diego

I was in San Diego for The TKGA Conference from Tuesday, July 21 through Sunday, July 26. I intended to blog while I was there, but I was so busy enjoying myself that I didn’t have time. I had a truly spectacular time, and was sorry to see it end. This week, I’ll write a series of blog posts about the event. I hope you decide to come next year; the Conference will be held in Charleston, SC, a mere 5 hour drive from my house. I’ve already put it in my calendar!

The main part of the Conference ran Thursday to Saturday. Wednesday was a one-day pre-conference Master’s Day, with different tracks for each TKGA Master Hand Knitter Levels and a track for Level 3 graduates. Tuesday and Sunday were travel days. On Tuesday, my flight left Orlando at 10:40 am and arrived in San Diego at 12:10 pm local time. The flight was uneventful. I read the whole way — The Age of Homespun, which is fascinating and which I will review on this blog once I finish it.

I took Super Shuttle to the airport and checked into the hotel. There was a long line to check in, and most of the people in the line appeared to be fiber crafters:

The Town and Country Resort is a large property with multiple buildings, two high-rises and several two-story buildings. My first room was on the second floor of one of the two-story buildings, on the far opposite corner of the property from the conference center.

It smelled musty. I wasn’t going to complain; I knew this resort and all the nearby hotels were sold out. But when I was getting for bed and walked barefoot into the bathroom, I discovered that the carpet in the entryway was wet. I didn’t see anything leaking anywhere in the room, but obviously there was a problem somewhere and, judging by the musty smell, there’d been a problem for a while. I was exhausted and it was late, so I stayed in the room on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, I went to the front desk and asked to be moved to a new room. My new room was downstairs in the same building and obviously had a facelift. I had no problems with the new room — I was hardly ever in my room, except to sleep!

The English-garden-meets-California landscaping was beautiful!

I spent Tuesday afternoon and evening in my room, even ordering room service for dinner. I took a nap for a while, finished knitting the last 3 Level 1 swatches that I wanted to finish before Master’s Day, and then blocked all 15 of the finished swatches. (The swatch on the bottom right isn’t one of the Level 1 swatches; it was homework for one of the Masters Day sessions.) I brought my blocking mats with me, just for this purpose!

Tomorrow I will write a post about Master’s Day. I learned a lot about my knitting and about the Master’s program. I’m particularly glad that I went to San Diego early so I could attend Master’s Day.

A Year of Projects 2015: Week 29

Despite my modest list of goals for the week, I got little done. I published my YOP goals of the week on Sunday. Early in the evening on Tuesday, Chris’s mother told us her brother passed away and the funeral was on Friday. We flew up to New Jersey late Thursday night and came home late Sunday night. This morning (Tuesday), I’m flying to San Diego to attend The Knitting Guild Association Annual Conference and I won’t be home until Sunday night. When I found out about the funeral, I immediately developed a long list of things to do in the two days before we left. I knew that most of what I needed to do before TKGA had to be done before we left for NJ!

Chris’s Uncle Angelo was 85 years old. His birthday was September 4, one day after Chris’s, so when Chris was growing up, the family often celebrated the two birthdays in one party. One of the pictures on display at the funeral home showed Chris and Angelo cutting a birthday cake together. More than 20 years ago, Angelo suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on his right side. Despite that, he lived on his own, mostly taking care of himself. His sisters did his grocery shopping, but he prepared his own meals. Around the time Chris and I first met 15 years ago, Angelo started doing 3D puzzles. He completed more than 20 of these puzzles, using only his left hand. Some of the puzzles were on display at the funeral home:

Angelo served in the Army (I believe during World War II, but I’m not sure), so he had military honors at the funeral. I always find this ceremony — taps, folding the flag, and presentation of the flag to the family — touching.

Now that I’ve lowered your expectations re: my completed goals, here’s a reminder of the goals I set last week:

Goals for July 13 to 19, 2015

Finish the Miranda Shawl
Knit all the homework swatches for TKGA classes
Finish knitting the MHK1 swatches
Spin 1 color of the BFL / day (there’s 10 colors / 8 ounces total in Three Feet of Sheep)

On Deck:

Mittens for MHK1
Liquid Silver Shawl
Bubble Baby Blanket
Weaving with VCR tape
Color and Weave Study scarves
Begonia Swirl Shawl

I did not finish the Miranda Shawl. I did knit several rows after Sunday, but I didn’t take a picture of it to include here. The body of the shawl is all stockinette, but it is short rows. While it’s not difficult and there is a regular pattern to the number of stitches in each row, I’m finding that I do have to focus to keep track of which row is next. Once I learned about the funeral, I put this project on hold. I did put it in my bag to bring to TKGA.

I finished all the homework swatches for TKGA swatches. I knit a dozen of them before we left for NJ, and brought the rest with me to NJ. Since each swatch is small, they made for excellent travel knitting. I blocked them yesterday.

All but one of those swatches is for the two-day Finishing class with Arenda Holladay!

As of last Sunday, I had completed 4 of the 17 swatches for the Master Hand Knitting Level 1. I knit the 5th swatch and blocked the 5 finished swatches before we left for NJ. After blocking, I found an error in one of them so had to reknit that one. I also didn’t like the fabric I created on any of the swatches. I knit them all with Cascade 220 on US size 8 needles. I decided to reknit all of them with US size 7 needles. Before we left for NJ, I did research and wrote answers to several questions related to swatches I hadn’t previously knit. I brought the yarn and needles to NJ with me, and I’ve finished knitting 12 of the 17 swatches on size 7. I don’t have a picture for you because they aren’t blocked. I actually packed blocking mats and plan to block them in my hotel room tonight so I can bring the swatches for review during Masters Day tomorrow! I also plan to knit three more swatches on the plane

Before we left for NJ, I finished spinning 4 of the 10 colors in Three Feet of Sheep. Obviously I won’t get any more spinning done during the Tour de Fleece, since I’ll be away for the rest of the Tour. I do hope to finish spinning the Three Feet of Sheep by the end of the month, however, so I’ll be working on it after I get back.

As you’ve probably guessed, I didn’t even look at any of the projects I had on deck.

Goals for July 20 to 26, 2015

Sew the lining into my Quinn Bag
Finish the first 17 swatches for MHK1
Finish the Miranda Shawl
Knit at least 1/2 of the Bubbles Baby Blanket
Cast on the Begonia Swirl Shawl

I am bringing my iPad with me and I hope to blog from TKGA. My next YOP post will probably be on Monday, as I won’t be home until late Sunday night.

Updated List of Goals for 2015

Knitting

Knit myself a sweater
Improve my finishing techniques
Finish MHK Level 1
- First 3 swatches finished by June 24, 2015
- Swatch #14 finished July 11, 2015
- Swatches 1-12 knit on size 7 needles, finished by July 19, 2015
Dishcloth Advent Calendar
- Tribbles, finished January 18, 2015
- Leaves, finished March 30, 2015 but never blogged
- Heart Illusion Dishcloths (in progress)
Charity Knits
- Mock Rib Scarf, finished January 18, 2015
- Emergency Scarf, finished June 1, 2015
Do some test knits
- Sand Tracks Scarf, finished June 16, 2015
- Grisou Scarf, finished June 24, 2015
- Raindrops on Roses Shawlette, finished June 27, 2015
- Miranda Shawl (in progress)
Finish or frog all UFOs
- Traveling Scarf
- Bigger on the Inside Hat
- Evenstar
- Quinn Bag
- Baby Blue Monster
Socks
- Wearing o’ the Green(e) Socks, finished February 14, 2015
Other Projects
- Clapotis, finished June 1, 2015
- Liquid Silver (remaking from scratch, since I frogged it!)
- Fountain Pen Shawl
- Begonia Swirl Shawl (remaking from scratch, since a friend accidentally felted the first one)
- Felted Cat Bed, finished May 16, 2015
- Tiger’s New Bed, finished June 30, 2015
- Swatches for TKGA Classes, finished July 20, 2015
Design at least one project from scratch
- Super Secret Shawl, finished June 1, 2015

Crochet

Learn to read crochet patterns
Learn all the basic crochet stitches.
Make at least one non-granny square crochet project
Dishcloth Advent Calendar
- Diagonal Crochet Dishcloths (in progress)

Spinning

Breed Specific Spinning
- Cormo (in progress)
- BFL (in progress)
Learn to spin on a drop spindle

Weaving

Continue playing with color and weave drafts
- Ravenclaw Houndstooth Scarf, finished January 19, 2015
- Solid Warp, alternating picks, one of which matches warp, in progress
Learn pick up stick drafts
Learn Inkle Weaving
Learn Kumihimo braiding
Explore Twill weaves on the floor loom
Make items for the Guild Sale
- Slytherin Houndstooth Scarf, finished May 1, 2015
Other
- Woven Doctor Who Scarf, finished May 7, 2015

Dyeing

Finish dyeing the MAPLE LEAF Shawls
pH / water source experiment
Return to dye triangles project

Tour de Fleece 2015, Stage 10

My continuing mission is to ~~seek out new life and new civilizations~~ um, I mean spin one color of 3 Feet of Sheep each day. Today I spun through my one color and about 40% of the next color. Unfortunately, my Tour de Fleece will be cut even shorter than I expected. Chris’s uncle passed away early this morning and we will be going to the funeral. This means I now have at least three more days with no spinning. I do hope to finish 3 Feet of Sheep by the end of the month, even though it will be outside the usual Tour de Fleece time frame.

As usual, the picture on the left is my bobbin at the beginning of the day and the picture on the right is my bobbin at the end of the day.

I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far. This fiber continues to spin up faster and thicker than the cormo. I can’t wait to see it finished!

Tour de Fleece 2015, Rest Day 1

During the Tour de Fleece, spinners rest on the days racers in the Tour de France rest. July 13 was the first rest day for the Tour de France, so most spinners rested today. I am not resting on the official rest days as I won’t be able to spin for the last week of the Tour since I’ll be in San Diego for the TKGA Annual Conference.

Since I finished plying the cormo yesterday, today was the day to start something new! The next fiber in my spinning queue was 3 Feet of Sheep. This is 8 ounces of Blue-faced Leicester hand-dyed by Frabjous Fibers. The colorway I have is “Colors of the Capital.” It is 10 bumps of fiber, each a different color and each weighing 20 to 21 grams. The fiber comes packaged in a long tube:

I toyed with the idea of fractal spinning this fiber, but decided to spin end to end so that when I knit it I’ll have a gradient. I plan to Navajo ply to maintain the color sequence. I didn’t do any pre-drafting, but I am splitting each color into multiple strips and spinning from those. The colors aren’t solid; they are tonal and look like they are probably space-dyed, with concentrated dye applied in certain sections and then wicking out into the rest of the fiber from there. The result is subtle striping within each color. I spun each strip starting from the same end so that this subtle striping happens multiple times throughout that color.

My goal is to spin 1 color per day until I’ve spun all the fiber. I’m spinning this fiber about twice as fast as I spun the cormo, so I had time this evening to spin up two colors. Here’s how my bobbin looked when I stopped for the night.

Looks like I’ll be spinning yellow tomorrow 🙂

A Year of Projects 2015, Weeks 27 & 28

I didn’t write a Year of Projects post last Sunday, so this post covers the last week and a half of progress. Saturday, July 4 was Independence Day in the United States. My husband had Friday and Monday off, and we planned to go to the beach at least one day. We didn’t go because I wasn’t feeling well on Sunday and Monday. On Friday, my family got together for lunch:

Chris and I hung out around the house for the rest of the long weekend. The rest of this week was our usual routine. Today we did some yard work. The aloe plants in our backyard are blooming. I love their flowers!

I’m also happy to report that while Tiger seemed suspicious of his cat bed when I first made it, he’s decided he quite likes it. It is now his favorite place to sleep — if no human lap is available, that is!

Let’s review the goals I set when last I wrote a Year of Projects post:

Goals for July 1 to 5, 2015

Knit at least 1/2 of the Sweet Summer Shawl
Cast on Miranda Shawl
Swatch and Cast on Bubbles Baby Blanket
Swatch and Cast on Liquid Silver Shawl
Finish spinning and plying the Cormo I’ve been working on since February
Start spinning the 3 Feet of Sheep (8 ounces BFL) on July 4 for Tour de Fleece

I finished the Sweet Summer Shawl on July 8.

I cast on the Miranda Shawl, knit 8 rows, discovered that my mistake on the cast on row was going to be a problem, ripped it all the way out, and cast on again. I only cast on again yesterday and I’m now making excellent progress.

Since I’m working on the Cormo as part of Tour de Fleece, I’ve been writing regular updates about it (Stage 1, Stage 3, Stage 6, Stage 7). Today I finally finished plying it! The bobbin on top is the one I finished plying for Stage 7. I finished the other two bobbins today.

I have not started the baby blanket, Liquid Silver Shawl, or spun any of the BFL. I didn’t include anything about the Master Hand Knitting swatches on my goal list, but it is an ever-present goal. I knit one more swatch in the last week: