Update

Been up to quite a lot lately, so finally here’s an overall update. Besides the craziness that has been work, I’ve been getting a lot done in the knitting/spinning/dyeing arena. On my shiny new wheel, I spun the below as a worsted, with the brown a NZ merino wool and the blue a self-dyed brown sheep wool top, both singles overspun then plied to give approx 14 wpi and approx 180 yards. My spinning seems to be pretty dense still on the wheel, as I only got 180 yards of a heavy fingering to dk weight out of 2oz of each fiber, which doesn’t seem like a lot. Seems like I can get a lot more yardage out of my drop spindles for now, but mostly because I’m still learning the ins and out of my wheel. Any way, for the first wheel spun, whee, pretty yarn from my wheel!

Also for dyeing, I’ve tried my hand at both food coloring dyes and acid dyes from Cushings, both with good results. Also, I’ve been using the KnitPicks Bare yarns, which I love! Made some very pretty sock yarn this weekend, all blues and purples, with the Cushings dyes. Then with essentially the rinse, squeezing of the dye, and a few select drops of green food coloring, dyed this wool (ensconced in pantyhose leg, to prevent any felting) to give a much softer effect.

I can’t wait to play with both! Also, I’ve been wanting to start some judicious naming of my dyeing and spinning projects, any suggestions? Was thinking “Starry Night” for the sock yarn, and something else for the roving? Maybe try theme names, like paintings or weather terms or something? Who knows maybe I just like naming stuff too. Is that a hobby as well? ;)


Regardless, I’m looking forward to making some socks for people (both in fingering and in heavier weights), as well as some gifts for fall/winter/Christmas times as well. If people are really good (and also tell me what style/color/size/how heavy) they may want it, they may find stockings in their stocking! (okay, so lots of caveats there, but people! It’s not just a scarf, which will fit any ol’ person either, but an honest-to-goodness garment to fit your individual foot!

Vacation for the Nation

Since Kyle's work gave him the 3rd of July off, as well as the 4th, I decided to take it off as well. Being my mom's birthday and a long weekend, we took the opportunity to drive up and hang out with my parents at Carter Lake. Of course, since we were near (sort of?) Fort Collins, I finally got my spinning wheel from Lambspun! I loves it so much! Then we headed to the lake and hung out with my Aunt Connie and cousin Laura and their families. It was a lot of fun, as my Dad busted out the jet skies and Barley got to romp around in the water some. Turns out he only really likes to splash around in it and not actually swim, unless we're in the water, then he'll swim to Kyle and I just to hang out.


Also started and finished a golf club cover for Kyle with a skull design
with a crooked mouth. Mostly designed for fun and also to sort of go with the mythic brewery name we have of Crooked Mouth Brewing, from the name Campbell. It was my first Fair isle, and it was pretty fun, as long as I had my chart to go from. Also, finished Gracie's top by trying steeking for the first time. Not as scary as I though, but I need to work on picking up the stitches after steeking to give a more delicate edge. Hmm, what else? Also tried navajo plying on my drop spindle for the first time, and I love how it turned out! Turned out to be a very fibery weekend, as I started spinning some chocolate brown merino, and decided I should ply it with another color. Had some undyed wool roving around and so I decided to dye it a slightly varigated sky blue for later spinning and plying. And while I was dyeing, I dyed up some KnitPicks sock yarn with a range of plummy colors, for knitting into Kristi's wonderful Froot Loops socks. Overall, it was a very, very relaxing weekend, with lots of fun time with family, sun, water, pup antics, and of course, beer.

Sprains, Pains, and Rot

So lots has been happening lately. Our big plan for last weekend was to travel up to the Colorado BrewFest on St in Ft. Collins, stopping to get me a spinning wheel (yay!) on the way. Instead, due to an unfortunate meeting in the dog park, our Barley managed to hurt his leg, which prompted a very stressful night and morning in the vet's office on Sat morning. Turns out it's just a bad sprain, no bones broken, and the vet wrapped him up and sent him home. he's been doing really well and actually got the wrap off this morning, so he should be back to his active self in no time. Of course, after we were leaving the vet, I noticed a large bolt/nail in the tread surface of my car's passenger tire. We thought "oh, crap, but at least it can be patched!" Nope, instead we needed all 4 tires replaced. Why you ask? Well, turns out that tires can rot! Did you know this, cause I had no idea. Guess after a few years, especially in dry climes or coastal climes (hmm, like San Diego or Colorado, ...yeah) the tires can rot and be unstable. So while we dropped a cool grand before noon on Sat on nothing fun, at least we're assured that my tires won't explode (I hope!) on my commute and that our pup is happy and healthy. Needless to say, I didn't get a spinning wheel that weekend though.

But as Barley was feeling better, we did decide to make the trek up to Fort Collins with a few (somewhat new) friends Andy and Kristi. Even though quite toasty out, it was fun to go somewhere and chat about beer and stuff with new people. Of course, Kristi isn't quite new to me, as I met her as part of the wonderful knitting group I joined in winter, and then she got be started on drop spindling too. And of course, she let me try out her lovely Lendrum DT, prompting my growing need for a wheel of my very own. But it was nice for Kyle to finally meet some of my new friends, especially when it involves beer.

WoW and knitting

Finally finished drop spindling the lovely blue merino roving I bought from Shuttles, which I turned into a 2-ply. My beginning efforts were the standard thick and various thins of a first-time handspinning try, but by the end I was making a lovely, even sockweight, once plied (about laceweight before ply). Since I had already started this shrug with the thicker yarn, I decided to finish with my thinner yarn doubled up, and it’s turning out nicer than expected.

I also (finally!) finished Kyle’s WoW (World of Warcraft) guild socks. As a WoW widow, I am quite used to some of the terms, one being that he belongs to a Guild called “Death From Above” who have a tabard design that each person in the guild can wear, so I did a bit of my own sketch designing for a duplicate stitch version of the tabard for his socks. They turned out pretty well, and I think Kyle is pretty happy with them. Granted, now that it’s hot out, he has no cause to wear these comfy around the house socks, but in fall he will soon enough.

Estes Park Wool Market

On Sat June 14th I went with Kristi and Alyson (who I had just met but is really cool!) to the Estes Park Wool Market. It was a great day, even though it was pretty hot, but I picked up all sorts of fun new types of fibers to try my hand at spinning. I got llama, alpaca, bamboo, merino/silk, and superwash merino, all fun things I've never tried before.

Right now I still have my blue merino on my drop spindle, and once that's done, I can start playing with new fibers. I have severe wheel lust for the Lendrum DT thanks to Kristi's bad influence, and after checking with Shuttles, they said it will take 2-3 months to get a new one in! I'm so impatient, I don't wanna wait 3 months! Anyway, the wool market was awesome, filled with so many fibers and yarns and animals. I used my spending allotment almost immediately. Saw some cute llamas and alpacas though, and adorable baby sheep. Afterwards we all went to Estes Park proper and did a little winetasting.

On Father's day my hubby and I went my my dad, mom, and brother to lunch and to see the movie "The Happening", which is a horrible, pointless movie without any real suspense. Was going to see Indiana Jones, but they had shut off half of the theater building due to a fire alarm joke, so we need to go back next weekend and actually see Indy Jones.

Long time, no see

Yeah, yeah, I'm a horrible blogger with 18 months between posts. But instead of the long version, here's a quick recap: working as chemist at Catalent Pharma (formerly Cardinal Health); visiting families over 2007; went to see Keith and Abigail in Seattle and went to the yummy Cheese festival and had lots of beer there; some cooking but not as much as Kyle would like; Comic-Con again but sadly this time no pics of me with my personal heroes; many friends had babies (so cute!); big fires hit San Diego in the fall and lots of people were evacuated and the city pretty much shut down for a week; got back into crocheting and then learned to knit; knitting quickly became a large passion (just look at the pics in my Flickr if you don't believe me); visited Jimmy and Mirka for Thanksgiving and had a blast; Kyle defended and got his doctorate in Physics, yay!; he accepted a job in Colorado, and we moved in the winter; I'm working as QA Manager in Denver at company called Eurofins; I joined an awesome knitting group and made lots of great friends (see blog lists); we met some awesome beer people from Great Divide and are enjoying lots of yummy local beer; my brother has also started homebrewing, and Kyle's started back up again and got a fancy new brewpot, and he's updating his blog; spending lots of time with my family, and also Kyle's by visits; started using a drop spindle and am now spinning my own yarn!; considering purchasing a lovely Lendrum double-treadle spinning wheel; looking at buying a house in the fall/winter; adopted a wonderful 1 year Corgi mix dog from the Boulder Humane Society and named him Barley......

And of course, with the addition of a new dog, life is a little more crazy but way, way more fun. Hmm, don't think I forgot anything major, but feel free to remind me :)

Bread and Onions

Recently I have been attempting bread again, and I have a nice, bubbly starter going in a crock in the fridge. However, it seems that I do not have the best of luck with bread. True, I have a good bubbly starter, good flour to work from, using a scale to consistently measure, long rises, the steam method for baking, and using an instant-read thermometer. But no matter what, no matter how great it smells, how pretty it looks, it just...isn't bread. I'm hoping if I keep plugging away, eventually I master a decent bread, but until then, maybe I'll have to stick with other talents.

To that effect, I decided to make some pickled pearl onions today. I used a variety of onions grabbed from Trader Joe's, so they make a pretty contrast as you can see. Hopefully I can make myself wait at least a month or so before trying them so they'll develop more flavor. Also, I really want to try them served along some nice cheese and some homemade sausage.

Yup, I hope to try my hand at grinding and making my own sausage someday soon. I have asked Santa to bring me a food grinder attachment for my lovely KitchenAid, and I hope to enter the realm of charcuterie soon.

Of course, on a related note, this is due in part to a local fabulous restaurant called The Linkery which is not only dedicated to local producers and knowing where your food comes from, but they also make their own sausage in house! And wonderful sausage and food it is! In fact, to celebrate my new job, Kyle and I went to The Linkery about 10 days ago, and we had such a delicious meal. First, we started with a simple picnic plate with two links (Thai green curry chicken sausage and Romanian beef sausage), yummy cheese, and red wine onions. Kyle had a cask-conditioned Pizza Port Good Grief brown, and I had the San Pasqual Meritage, a local red wine, to drink.

We then had a mixed herb salad and the "grilled filet of wild kangaroo (Australia) with vegetable curry, multi-grain saffron pilaf, and organic kiwi". And I have to say, the kangaroo was cooked to perfection! Cooked like a medium rare filet mignon, it had a delicious pure beef taste with just a final hint that echoed vast spaces of land, sun, and wild grasses. Of course, the multi-grain pilaf and kiwi paired very well with it, two things I wouldn't have thought would work so well together. And to finish we had a Mexican Chocolate Mousse Cake which was beautifully light and fluffy in texture, but sinfully rich and spiced on the tongue. Obviously, we will be going back and enjoying many, many more meals there!